Our daughter’s second Christmas-time trip to Walt Disney World was an excellent experience for our entire family. This covers the lessons learned along the way, and good & bad of our toddler travels via a mix of anecdotes and actionable advice for other parents.
Our intention was/is to do photo reports following every family trip we make to Walt Disney World, similar to our ‘parent fails’ from Baby Bricker’s first WDW trip – part 1 and part 2. We also shared ‘what went right’ during our family trip – part 1 and part 2. Those posts were well-received by readers, both as recaps of our trip and teachable moments for other new parents.
But it’s been a busy month-plus for us and Christmas is fast-approaching, so I wanted to share this in a single post. Many of the “lessons” we “learned” were really more like nice reminders, anyway. Nevertheless, I wanted to share since readers have asked for this type of post and, honestly, because we love looking back at these down the road. Here goes with the list of little lessons/reminders so you can learn from our experiences, or simply hear about some aspects of our WDW Christmas trip, as the case may be.
Disneyland Has Spoiled Us
There are two ways this is true, in my view. The first is that Walt Disney’s original magical kingdom is still the best example of “some kind of amusement enterprise…where the parents and the children could have fun together.”
In just Fantasyland and Toontown at Disneyland, there’s a higher concentration of attractions that our daughter (Megatron) loves than any other Disney Park on the planet. We can have a very productive and fun morning or evening without ever leaving that area of just Disneyland. And, in fact, we have on several occasions!
Fantasyland and Storybook Circus at Magic Kingdom are good, but not that good–or that easy. Then there are the other parks. Disney California Adventure may seem more adult (and is), but it’s also shockingly good for toddlers. EPCOT and Animal Kingdom actually rival DCA in their own ways; the lack of an expansive play area like Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is a big miss for us, as our daughter favors free play and exploration over passive experiences.
The second way this is true is more unique to us, and it’s that we’ve gotten in a groove doing Disneyland as locals. This largely involves working around naptime, meaning we arrive early and knock out everything we want to do before naptime hits, or leave home and have naptime happen on the commute.
I’m not going to fixate on this point as it’s an “us thing,” but it was nevertheless jarring to go from strategic partial days once per week to all-day, (almost) everyday for a week. That’s really the local AP vs. tourist point of view in a nutshell, just exaggerated when you have kids.
I’d add that this may not be just an us thing, as there’s a good chance that, whatever you do at home with a toddler, you do it in bite-sized chunks to navigate naptime, manage meltdowns, etc. That type of daily scheduling and segmentation is more difficult at Walt Disney World, but on the plus side, it can be easier to do midday breaks depending upon where you stay. (Highly recommend somewhere with non-bus transportation to 1-2 parks!)
Starlight’s Ground Game is Worse Than I Thought
Our Disney Starlight Night Parade Review is largely positive. However, it is also my review from seeing the parade with other adults, and not Sarah and Megatron. I was really excited to see it with them. We are an entertainment family, and Sarah and I have so many formative memories from SpectroMagic.
Even my positive review notes that Starlight’s most glaring weakness is its ground game: “There are not enough dancers between the floats. The choreography isn’t great. The ground-level movers that are present have incredibly lackluster costumes across the board, with minimal lighting.” I wrote then that Starlight has the worst ground game of any Disney parade I’ve ever seen.
It’s not possible to be worse than worst, but it is possible to be even weaker than I thought. Starlight’s ground-level performers are so lacking that large sections of the parade failed to connect with our daughter. Sure, she enjoyed waving at Elsa and other favorite characters, but there weren’t nearly enough of them.
And unlike other parades she enjoys, the ground-level characters don’t really engage with kids in the crowd. The (literal) only exception to that is Tinker Bell. She still enjoyed parts of Starlight, but unlike her parents, she seems to prefer Paint the Night (by a lot).
WDW Does Characters Better Than I Thought
Long before having children, this blog extolled the virtues of Disneyland’s more free-roaming approach to characters. I still maintain that there’s a certain magic in seeing Maleficent wandering around Sleeping Beauty Castle or Mary and Bert leading the band or Peter Pan playing with guests. And the performers at Disneyland are particularly talented.
With that said, Walt Disney World has made tremendous strides with characters. You can find free roaming characters in the parks for quiet surprise and delight moments. There are also a number of traditional meet & greets, both in purpose-built venues and outdoors at dedicated locations. And many of these don’t have particularly long lines. Even on busier days, we knocked out several characters at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (a particular bright spot) with actual waits of 10 minutes or less.
This is going to buck conventional wisdom, but I might go as far as to say that Walt Disney World does characters better (more easily accessible, balanced, and least stressful) than any other Disney Parks. At least, for parents with small children. For adults who want to see rare characters, seasonal costumes, or have a certain type of interaction, there are arguably better options. But as it turns out, family and tourist-centric Walt Disney World might just be catering to its bread and butter better.
DHS Doesn’t Have Enough
The Walt Disney Studios Lot cannot open fast enough for parents of toddlers. Because currently at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the only land aimed at kids is Toy Story Land–and the ‘target’ there isn’t perfectly calibrated. The only attraction in that land that works for us is Alien Swirling Saucers, because Toy Story Mania isn’t quite age appropriate for our family yet.
Perhaps this is an “us problem,” but I was actually surprised by how little time we spent at DHS. Our daughter probably would’ve loved looping Alien Swirling Saucers, but the wait times made that prohibitive. With a toddler, there are only so many lengthy shows you can sit through, which didn’t leave us with much.
I’ve long felt that Toy Story Land is a story of squandered potential, and that’s even more pronounced now that we have a toddler. At minimum, there should be a play area with oversized props. (You know, exactly like was previously in this park with the ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids: Movie Set Adventure.’)
At best, Toy Story Land should be like the defunct “a bug’s land” at DCA or Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea. A more play-centric land with a few more flat rides would’ve been a huge win, addressing some of Toy Story Land’s shortcomings.
On paper, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom may not seem any better or worse for small children than Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In practice, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much our daughter enjoyed both parks–especially DAK in its current construction-forward form.
The sense of discovery at DAK really works well with toddler curiosity, to the point that the low ride count didn’t really impact us. She’s always liked Dinoland, but this was the first time that we spent a lot of time in the animal attractions and exhibits. She loved those, and never got tired of them. DAK was a full-day park for us; DHS was not.
WDW Needs More Frozen
Another “us problem” is that we don’t really care about the franchises that Walt Disney World has leveraged in new attractions and lands in the last decade. Don’t get me wrong–we enjoy several of the end results, but this is despite having no emotional attachment to the underlying characters and movies. Honestly, I feel like we’re not alone in this among fans.
This lack of emotional resonance was easier to overlook before we had kids, especially when the attractions were good. But there’s a zero percent chance that we’re going to rewatch the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any Star Wars except the first few films with our daughter, unless she independently becomes a fan of these franchises. We didn’t grow up on the MCU, and could take or leave Star Wars.
She’s already loves Toy Story, Cars, Frozen, Monsters, Winnie the Pooh, Aristocats, Stitch, Zootopia, Mickey & Minnie, and other animated characters. We can’t wait to introduce those movies to her (all of her current knowledge of characters comes from the parks), along with other animated films from our childhoods during the Disney Renaissance.
So even though we love Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and think it’s the pinnacle of Imagineering, the more meaningful attractions to us are Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey and Frozen Ever After. Or for that matter, even Slinky Dog Dash or Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin!
The attention-grabbing part of this is that Walt Disney World needs more Frozen, because it’s ostensibly controversial among those who somehow still have Frozen Fatigue. But the truth is that Frozen is underutilized as compared to the World(s) of Frozen or Fantasy Springs, and is a fantastic property that–like Cars Land–lends itself to a single IP land really well.
With the exception of the Aristocats, there’d probably be little argument from longtime Walt Disney World fans about more of those franchises and other animated movies from the 1990s. Suffice to say, I really hope Walt Disney World continues to focus on animated films (new classics and old) during the 10-year plan, as opposed to more Star Wars (aside from fixing what’s there), Marvel, and other live action stuff. Additions based on Cars, Monsters, Encanto, and Villains are a good start!
Strollers Are Love-Hate
We already discussed this one at length in We Hate Strollers, But Here’s Why We Love Our Stroller for Walt Disney World Travel. That’s more of a product review, and the concise version is that our specific stroller (YoYo) is the best possible version of a tool that we don’t like needing.
The “love” part of the stroller relationship is that it extends our days when we might otherwise need to take a midday break or call it an early night. Strollers also have their moments as free lockers, although that’s not all upside. The “hate” part is pretty much everything else–from navigating the parks to bus transportation and more. Strollers are basically glorified anchors, but on wheels and capable of transporting a child (so not at all, really).
As a general matter, we far preferred the babywearing days. It’s so much easier and more flexible than a stroller. Honestly, I don’t get quite why so many people love strollers. At best, I view them as a necessary evil. I am counting down the days until we no longer need ours and already have tried “ditching” it whenever possible. Just ask Sarah–one of my most common recent refrains has been “can we get away with not bringing the stroller?” (The answer is usually “no.”)
As another general matter, we would strongly recommend traveling with your first baby as much as possible from 6-12 months (give or take). Other parents offered this advice to us, and we took it to heart. Traveling extensively during that ‘sweet spot’ was one of the best decisions we made as new parents. I would take that a step further and recommend non-Disney destinations and even (especially) international travel if within your budget (and if Walt Disney World is within your budget, so too are the best international parks).
Strollers are easier in the Disney Parks than any other tourist destinations, Walt Disney World is incredibly toddler-friendly, and the parks just get better and better with each passing day/month/year of childhood.
Losing Dinosaurs is Rough
I touched upon this one last year when the Boneyard became one of Megatron’s favorite places in the parks. That’s now gone, but she still managed to enjoy Dinoland (despite not riding its headline attraction) a lot–more than we expected.
In the year since, she’s become a big fan of dinosaurs thanks to library toy rentals (side note: did you know that you can rent pretty much anything from the library?! I’m not even sure why we buy stuff…they’re just giving away everything from books to building blocks). Consequently, we spent even more time in what was left of the land.
I’m on record being in favor of Dino-Rama going extinct for Tropical Americas, but disappointed that Disney is giving up on dinosaurs completely as a concept. The need for a land at DAK based on mythical creatures that are not connected to IP has been further reinforced by watching the play habits of children.
I’ve seen countless kids playing with dragons, unicorns, dinosaurs (not mythical, I realize). I’ve never seen a single child playing with Jake Sully or Na’vi action figures–and I say this as someone who loves Pandora. It simply does not suitably fill the role that Beastly Kingdom would’ve, and Tropical Americas isn’t the same as a land based on dinosaurs.
Split Stays Are Tough
When traveling solo for research trips, I can pack up a hotel room in under 10 minutes. When it was just the two of us, the time was a tad higher than that. Let’s just say it was 20 minutes. So a non-parent might think that you add another person, and the total increases to 30 minutes.
To quote a popular insurance commercial: “that’s not how it works–that’s not how any of this works!” As it turns out, trying to unpack and–especially–pack back up is a much more involved process that’s basically two steps forward, one step backwards–on repeat. Toddlers love to help out, but they are also agents of chaos. They might decide, for example, that you should pack-up the hotel phone and every single towel left in the bathtub, and make space for those essentials by removing all clothing from the suitcase.
We did split stays due to a combination of costs and locations, and while that was nice, I honestly think I would’ve favored forgoing the nicer hotels for a single stay at Pop Century. Even though it’s not walking distance to any parks, the Skyliner is a breeze (and one of Megatron’s favorite “rides”) and the rooms are really conducive to our needs.
WDW is Loud
This is not something we just learned, but I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while because it bugs me. I can’t be the only one who gets alerts from their watch about ‘loud noise environments’ at Walt Disney World (and not just the restroom hand dryers).
It’s actually a little alarming just how frequently it happens during entertainment, including dance parties aimed at small children. To some extent, I understand this; entertainment needs to be heard over crowd noise, and guests seem to enjoy talking over whatever they’re allegedly there to watch. But the decibel level of pretty much everything is excessive at Walt Disney World.
We have headphones to protect our daughter’s ears, which we purchased for fireworks. We now use them for more–dance parties, parades, daytime stage shows, and more. She likes wearing the headphones…for now. Sooner or later, I fear that she’ll see she’s one of the only kids wearing them, and not want to be the odd duck.
Higher Crowds + Lower Temps > Off-Season
This is ground we’ve previously covered, but I just want to reiterate it because it’s really important. Higher crowds and lower temperatures will beat lower crowds and triple-digit heat any day.
The weather was delightful during our Christmas-time trip, and that more than made up for the slightly elevated crowds. But then again, I’m somewhat of a contrarian when it comes to Walt Disney World crowds.
Most fans will argue that there’s no such thing as an off-season. I’m much more inclined to argue that there’s no such thing as a peak-season (minus ~5 weeks per year).
Even weeks like Veterans Day/Jersey Week and Thanksgiving aren’t as bad as they used to be, and are totally “beatable” with a bit of savvy strategy. That’s doubly true when traveling with a toddler, who cannot ride TRON Lightcycle Run or most thrill rides with long lines (unless, I guess, they’re in like the 99.9th percentile for height).
Admittedly, frame of reference matters here. We’re accustomed to Disneyland crowds, which are generally worse than Walt Disney World. We’ve also spent time at Tokyo Disney Resort, where almost every day is like the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve at the domestic parks. If you’re not “battle hardened” to heavy crowds, your perception might be different.
With that said, we’re also “accustomed” to summer weather in Central Florida. After enduring several miserable summers, Florida can never be too cold. (See also, the Biggest Lesson We Learned from Baby Bricker’s Summer Trip to Disney World.) You can always put on more layers, but there are only so many you can remove before security gets involved.
Christmas is Great, Not Perfect
Christmas is far and away our favorite time of year at Walt Disney World, and nothing about this trip changed that assessment. At the same time, the gap between Christmas and the rest of winter feels closer than it’s ever been.
It seems like Walt Disney World knows that Christmas is the best time of year. That the gradual erosion of the holiday season have been a reflection of that. Not just since post-COVID, either; over the course of the last decade-plus. The resorts, restaurants, and parks do less for Christmas than they did a decade ago.
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has been stagnant for a while; even Jollywood Nights didn’t change much this year. I won’t delve deeper into these hard events here because this is already long and we covered them in our Photo Report & Review: Baby Bricker’s First Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Jollywood Nights Review: Is Disney World’s Second Christmas Party Worth It?
To be sure, it hasn’t all been cutbacks at Christmas. Merry Menagerie and Animal Kingdom’s big holiday season push are fairly recent, and are superlative–true instances of the Disney plus Christmas magic. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t draw attention to the new for Christmas 2025 decorations package in Fantasyland and Storybook Circus, which I somehow have neglected to cover elsewhere. It’s exceptional!
As Annual Passholders, there’s still tremendous strategic advantage to us in visiting at Christmas versus a month or two later for the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. The aforementioned hard ticket events make strategizing around Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios so much easier, and we didn’t buy Lightning Lanes a single day as a result, but still got a ton done. So for us, Christmas is in zero danger of being dethroned.
Family trips nevertheless serve as a good reminder of how the average family does Walt Disney World, and not everyone is like us. For the non-AP looking to do a trip on a tighter budget (with no Park Hopper tickets), Christmas is becoming a tougher sell. This is something I’ll be keeping in mind when creating and updating our planning content for the coming year. But I’m curious as to whether anyone else feels similarly, or if I’m being a Grinch and the holiday season is still far and away the #1 time to do WDW.
Nowhere is Like Walt Disney World
Bringing things full circle, our frequent visits to Disneyland also brought the differences between those local’s parks and the vacation destination behemoth that is Walt Disney World into stark relief. Quite simply, nowhere is like Walt Disney World for us.
Walt Disney World might be the best city that America has to offer, and as someone who loves the urban experience, it makes me feel like I’m back in a Disneyfied version of Paris, Tokyo, or Hong Kong. There’s really something to be said for taking the many forms of transportation, Park Hopping from Magic Kingdom to EPCOT; from EPCOT to Disney’s Hollywood Studios; from resort to resort. Walt Disney World really is the Vacation Kingdom of the World, or Walt’s vision for a city of the future vaguely realized.
There’s similarly really something to be said for the Disney Bubble, and although we know it’s not for everyone, it absolutely is for us. Being able to roll and stroll back to our hotel at the end of a long night sure beats driving home, or even dealing with the logistics of a nearby off-site hotel. I know it’s cheesy to talk up being “immersed in the magic” 24/7 from arrival to departure, but that really is the quintessential Disney Parks experience for us.
We love Disneyland for what it is, but Walt Disney World will always be “home” to us. This was a good reminder of that, and I can only seeing our affinity for the WDW experience growing stronger as our daughter continues “aging into” Disney.
We don’t pretend that Walt Disney World is perfect (because it isn’t!), and this was a perfect trip (far from a flawless one–see our Two Holiday Hotel Horror Stories at WDW). But we felt that magic almost every step of the way–from our arrival afternoon to the final morning breakfast at Cape May Cafe and departure dance with Daisy.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on these little lessons learned (or ‘reminders’ of things we already knew) during Baby Bricker’s Christmas 2025 trip to Walt Disney World? Anything else you’re interested in reading about with regard to Megatron, our holiday-time experience at WDW, or other topics touched upon here? Anecdotes of your own vacations with toddlers to the Disney parks? Any other questions? Hearing your feedback is always appreciated, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
