The Munchkin in Future World at Epcot Part I - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Now we are getting to the meat and potatoes of Kid-dom at Disney World.

Epcot....

What???? I know that this post is going to send my esteemed colleague Epcot82 over at Epcot Central through the roof. While I am not a park purist, I do miss the old attractions and I always enjoy reading his posts about the EPCOT that was and how it could be better. We disagree on Epcot not being for kids. The Munchkin...loved Epcot.

When we were planning our trip, as we always do, we started with what is most important to us...Fireworks. So we had planned several evenings at Epcot but we hadn’t really planned on spending as much time during the day here, as on past trips. It is my husband’s favorite park and typically in the past there was one night of Fantasmic and then as many Spectromagics as we could fit in and then the remainder of evenings were reserved for Illuminations. When we were planning this trip we thought most days would be spent at the Magic Kingdom as that was for kids, right? Yeah, its definitely for kids but the Munchkin fell in love with Epcot. So much so that I had only planned two days of posts here for Epcot...once I started writing about it I decided that each of the Future World’s attractions needed some love.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends is Disney World to the Munchkin. While there were several things that she could have done over and over again at The World, "Meemo-Nemo" as she calls him, was where it was at this trip. We spent more time here than any other attraction or activity, much to my Haunted Mansion loving disappointment. I lost track after we went on the ride 7 times.

The Munchkin was mesmerized by the Christmas Ornament like Nemo and Friends sculptures welcoming guests to the area. We had her picture taken here and will on each subsequent trip to mark her growth. She was psyched here and could have played around the sculptures for a while then she heard the sea gulls. A small side note, the Munchkin does not like water at all. She doesn’t like to get wet and hates taking a bath, just one of those weird toddler quirks. She loved the spray that emulated waves hitting the building and the seagulls that shout “Mine, Mine, Mine...” The building is decorated with plain fish, turtle, shark, and ray shaped cut outs, they are not decorated and do not look like the characters but she thought that these were way cool. I would have taken a quick note and kept walking but we spent five minutes talking about the simple fish cutouts.

Once inside, the queue area was lovely and calming. The lights dim as you make the transition from the beach setting to being “under the water”. The Munchkin also really liked the lights that were shaped like fish and darted around the room. There were almost no lines here, so we felt like we could tarry a bit. The Munchkin loved the clam mobiles and called out to “Nemo” throughout the ride. Turtle Talk with Crush was also a hit. Although she didn’t quite get that there was something special about Crush talking to the people, she just liked that there were other kids on the floor with her and that they were interacting with her and the big turtle on the screen.

The aquarium areas were also a source of enjoyment. The display with the clown and tang live fish was really nicely lit and she could see “Nemo” well. The carpeted areas with the large sections of glass looking into the big tank were also a lot of fun. First, they weren’t crowded and she could run around without us worrying about other guests. Second, the glass came down low enough to the ground that she could stand unassisted and look in at the fish. It was somewhat difficult for her to follow the fish, she couldn’t grasp the concept that the windows looked into one large aquarium instead of individual aquariums but this did not diminish her enjoyment. If there was a low point to this attraction it was the manatee exhibit. She just didn’t get much out of it. The manatees were big and not moving much so I think that they just didn’t hold her attention.

It is worth noting that the Munchkin had relativly little exposure to the characters prior to the trip. We have a some board books with a few of the characters but she didn’t watch TV or DVDs so she had no idea who Nemo was. She discovered Nemo, and others, at the parks. There is a down side to all of this...all of the new friends that came home with us from the gift shops. More on souvenirs later.

I have read, understand and respect what others have expressed as concerns about the dumbing down of Epcot to aim it at a younger audience. While we were "adults only" guests we shared some of these concerns but now that we have seen how much our own child really enjoyed this attraction, we could only come to one conclusion - it is pure magic.

The Munchkin at Animal Kingdom

The Animal Kingdom was the park that we get to didn’t spend enough time in this last trip, so we don’t have a top ten, more like a few tips to guide your steps. Even though we ended up only spending half a day here, the munchkin still had a lot to see and enjoy. Our main objectives for our time at Animal Kingdom were for Mamma and Papa to ride Everest and to see Nemo the Musical. We only achieved half of this goal. Even if you are there in the low crowds season, we were there the week before Christmas week, you have to budget your must sees if you are under a time constraint but better yet I would just plan this as your day at AK and not have a plan. It was impossible to do Everest, even though the lines were short, without really budgeting the time to wait for Nemo. They recommend that you queue up an hour before hand and while I’m not sure you need an hour, you definitely needed more than the 30 minutes we planned for. For those of you wondering about our time constraint...the dining plan. I will devote a whole post to this but at this juncture, I will point out the obvious, that it really required that we plan every minute of the day.

The grandparents were with us and we all took advantage of switching off on Everest. Munchkin liked some of the cool stuff that is in the area but I had the second shift of watching her and she was done (there isn’t a play area for this ride and I do hope that they eventually put one in the area (like the one at Splash Mountain) as there isn’t much else to do in the area. We walked up and looked at the building where the Nemo Musical is and looked at the water. She really liked the ducks again (we traveled 1800 miles to see ducks!). Chester and Hester’s Dinorama was also a favorite place. The gaudy and loud atmosphere was really enjoyable for her. She really liked watching the Triceratops Spin but did not want to go on the ride.

Stopping for a snack was very important. Toddlers by nature are grazers and snacking in the world can put you in the poor house. We did carry crackers and some cereal and other small snacks. Eating healthfully was not hard just managing the temptations took some negotiating at times. The Munchkin really liked having a pretzel washed down with some milk. She shared with the rest of us and enjoyed giving the left overs to the ducks (are we detecting a pattern here?). We then spent a lot of time at the Maharajah Jungle trek. I highly recommend this attraction. We weren’t able to get on the Safari or see Nemo so this was our next best option and it turned out to be a really great alternative. The munchkin did not enjoy the bats but otherwise she really had a lot of fun. The tigers were a huge hit. We spent a lot of time looking at the “Kitties”. The path itself is really interesting and she liked checking out the patterns in the concrete. The bird room was also particularly fun for her. While we saw only a few birds, she liked the chains that you walked through to get to the room and the castmember in there spent some time pointing out a purple bird to her (I can’t remember the name) that was big enough for her to see. This is a great point to say that small kids can’t always see the things that you are pointing at or describing where the thing is. I think that this might be a drawback to the safari ride as the truck is moving relatively quickly. She really enjoyed the animals here and was able to relatively close to them.

We ended our all too short time at this park at the Yak and Yeti, counter service. The food was great and the outdoor eating area was very nice. My only complaint was that there were no changing tables in the restrooms adjacent to this eating area. I hope that Disney adds these soon as it is extremely difficult to change a diaper in this rest room.

The Munchkin really liked this park but not in the way that most grownups, or certainly I, have. Touring was discovery after discovery with her. She was thrilled by the footprints in the concrete, flowers and the prayer flags in Asia. This is the way that the park was originally designed to be seen. If you are taking your small ones here I would choose this as a slower day. Skip the minute by minute touring plan. You will see more, not necessarily attraction but the really cool stuff. Just spend the day hanging out here. See whatever strikes you, definitely take the time to see Everest, it is spectacular and fun. Then just let your kids guide you, I guarantee you won’t regret it. The munchkin showed us things that we never would have see otherwise.

What are your favorites for Animal Kingdom?

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.