Meet the Munchkin and A Toddler’s Top Ten at the Hollywood Studios

One of the three reasons that I started this blog was to write a bit about traveling to the Disney Parks with a small person. While there is a ton of vacation information out there for families, the particular needs of a small one are not necessarily catered to beyond the number of diapers you need and the baby care centers (if I’m missing something please let me know about the site). While I think that many people believe that trips for children this young are for the parents (they are to some extent) I’ve noticed in my own child a dramatic language leap after both trips. There is so much to stimulate, and overstimulate, a child at Disney that it is worth exploring ways of making a trip with a toddler fun. Traveling to Disneyland or “The World” with a miniature person ought to be an Olympic endurance event and I hope to help people start their training here. We have been to both Disneyland (for her first birthday) and Disney World (18 months) with our now two year old. I hope in the coming weeks and months write about our travels and travails. I welcome everyone sharing their experiences and feedback.

Meet “The Munchkin” - she’s two, she’s fierce and she loves Darby, Mickey, “firewurks” and “DisneyWld”. We spent a good hour this evening interviewing her about her trips to Disney and she had some interesting things to say. At two, she’s pretty verbal and with a little prompting and some pictures, she was able to reflect on her last trip and share a little bit about it with us.

Here are The Munchkin’s Top Five attractions at the Hollywood Studios

5. Dinosaur Gertie - “Dook Mamma!” She was fascinated by Gertie, particularly the fact that there was a dinosaur and there was ice cream in the dinosaur. She also particularly enjoyed this area of the park as there were ducks on the lake and she was “psyched” about that. Our trip was 9 months ago and she is still “psyched” about the ducks.

4. Muppet Vision 3D - This would have been higher on the list if she had actually enjoyed the show itself. The wonderful, and sometimes frustrating, thing about traveling to Disney with little kids is that they enjoy the funniest things (sometimes those details that those of us rushing to get to “that attraction” miss). The wee one loved the pre-show and would have been just as happy to wander around the pre-show room and look at the details and the Muppets on the screens. The Munchkin is a future member of the Crate Appreciation Society.

3. Osborne Family Lights - We were there during the holidays so I know that this one isn’t available to everyone but she loved this. The lights, which she called fireworks, were less overwhelming than actual fireworks. The music was a great addition. We found one of the side streets and she really liked dancing around to the Christmas music and the crowds weren’t so bad that we didn’t feel like we couldn’t let her walk around a bit and stretch her legs.

2. Fantasmic - Our little one had some trouble with the fireworks this trip. While she liked the shows and the music, I think that the light changes, from dark to very bright, was a bit much on such a young nervous system. However, there were fewer fireworks and more characters and bright colors and music in this show. She also liked Mickey and was not scared by the scary parts. This is a reflection of her age, there is no reference point for any of the scary things so on this trip loud noises and overstimulation were our weak spots.

1. Playhouse Disney - On our last trio we saw the older version prior to it’s recent refurbishment. Munchkin saw this show in Disneyland about 7 months prior to our trip to the World. She loved it then and she really, really loved it this time. She’s a little bigger and was ready to dance to the music! She didn’t know the characters this trip but she knows them now. This, while not her favorite, is arguably the best attraction on property for small children. Kids sit on the floor, there is music and there is room, and encouragement to dance. Here is a simple formula - Playhouse Disney = Toddler Crack.