Working on building my touring plan and fast pass list and seeking opinions from the group. We are taking our 2 year old twins (they will turn 3 during our trip) in Sept for their first visit. I expect most of the trip will be character meet and greets, some rides (right now they are hot/cold with the carousel at the local zoo), and a few shows. My wife and I visited a few years ago before the kids were born, so we have experienced most, but not all of the rides. This is our 1st “family vacation” so want to stay together as much as possible. Ride-swap is an awesome feature, but we may only use it a few times at best.
Challenge #1: Best use of Fast Passes: The kids likely will not meet height requirements for most of the rides that have one. And obviously, most of these rides are the “hot” fast passes. Is it still worth getting fast passes for some of the less popular things? I feel the things my kids may be interested in are all of the FP options that TP advises NOT to use a FP on.
Challenge #2: Planning the day: Our current plan is to utilize the EEMH and get to the parks early (this maybe one of the only time we are considered “lucky” to have 6AM risers!). I have a hunch we will spend the AM at the park and head back to hotel (YC) for an afternoon nap/rest time. The odds of us going back out to the parks for a full late afternoon/evening may be a little sporadic. I envision we may be hanging out at the pool, possibly just walking around EP or HS since they are nearby. I’m not sure the kids will handle 2 jam packed half days. Does this approach seem reasonable? Other suggestions?
Challenge #3: Potty Training: Please don’t judge, this is a legitimate debate around here. The kids are close to being ready to potty train. For those that may have been posed with this challenge or experienced going to WDW with 1 or ideally those with 2 new potty trained toddlers, how difficult was it? I have these envisions of having to stop every 20 min to go potty (or more frequent if their bladders are not in sync, LOL!) Obviously we will not hold them back if they are totally ready (they aren’t yet), but we are still over 2 months out. I feel foolish even asking, but dying to know other people’s experiences right around this stage.
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
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My advice is don’t make plans that do more than 3 hours of attractions in a row, don’t try to do a sit down meal after 3 hours of attractions, bring a stroller, and my kids liked interactive things quite a bit at that age. Turtle talk with crush, innovations east, kidcot, enchanted tales with Belle, conservation station, & TSMM were all big hits.
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A few months ago I went to Disney with my friend and her almost 3 year old daughter (it had been a long time since I went with a little one). It was a fabulous trip–it was so much fun watching her reaction. She was not tall enough for any of the “hot” FPs, but we did make FPs for character M&Gs and rides that aren’t necessarily recommended by TP and felt it was worth it. So my answer to #1–yes.
Challenge #2–we intended to take a break but it only happened on one of our four days because on the others she fell asleep in her stroller and was fine when she woke up. I think though with EEMH an afternoon break makes sense. When my kids were younger, we often didn’t make it back to the parks in the evening and that was still fine.
Challenge #3–We were in the exact same situation with my friend and her DD. She decided to have her wear a pull up just in case and we took her to the bathroom often (not every 20 minutes:rofl:) and it worked out well.
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Recently got back with almost 3 and 5 yo. We did successfully stroller nap but still went back by 7pm. Some days we were back by 3:30.
I would FP ETWB. Skip Barnstormer. Maybe Tinkerbelle or Mickey and the princesses. Dumbo, WTP and PP were big hits. We didn’t do any RS because it wastes time and I wanted to do tho as as a family. Do character lunches, not dinner.
Regarding PT, my son wasn’t quite ready and I didn’t even bother to start trying. I’d rather do diapers than run to the potty every 30 minutes. Definitely bring a change of clothes with you.
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When we went this past September with DS2 and DD6months. We got fast passes for all the rides and shows that you totally don’t need fast passes for. But saving even 20 minutes in line is a big win with the little ones! And those are the rides we wanted to do, so it was worth it to us!
As far as potty training, our son was trained right before the trip. We used pull ups on plane rides and all naps “just in case”. We stopped periodically for the bathroom whether he asked or not. Really wasn’t terrible. Just don’t forget to stop before a bus ride 
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We went in February with my 2 y/o (she turned three a couple months later in May) and I felt like she was ready to be potty trained around Christmas break but decided not to for a couple of reasons. Mostly I figured it’d be to stressful to be in the middle of a FP line, or M&G line or whatever and have her exclaim “I have to go to the potty!!” and then feel like I had to drop everything and make a bee line for the nearest restroom. But I also remembered how much my oldest had hated automatic flushers and loud bathrooms at that age. She would freak if the toilet flushed when she was on it and she hated how loud it was in there with all the toilets flushing and the super loud dryers going. I just decided I didn’t want to deal with it. And here we are, still standing 5 months later and I am happy to say she is now fully potty trained! 
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As someone who survived potty training triplets, I think it will put a huge damper on your trip if you are also dealing with potty training. I saw every bathroom in every place we visited for at least a year. We quit almost entirely quit dining out (we don’t often anyway) because DH and I would spend the whole meal in the bathroom.
Kids surprise you tho and I’m sure you could manage it if you do potty train first, but I wouldn’t wait any longer to start. Mine had a lot of accidents the first month or two.
I appreciate the recommendations on interactive shows Will dive a little deeper into those. Thank you!!
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@Dreamer Thanks for the feedback!
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@Flutegarden appreciate the recommendations!
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@Madisney great stuff! Thank you!
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@DeepInTheHeartofTexas yes! This is exactly my twins! Hate the auto flush (or even just a manual flush)! Very helpful, thanks for sharing!!!
@ehsanchez wow! Potty training triplets?!? I bow down to you!!! Appreciate you sharing your experience. I don’t know two months will bring, but not sure they will be rock star potty sitters! Really leaning towards pull-up (lovin Minnie and jessie). Thank you!
P.S. please send any tips for potty training multiples (Disney or not!).
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Following for advice on our next trip (DS2 will turn 3 on our trip) in May 2020.
Will share insights from August 2018 trip with DD4 (went right after her 4th bday) and DS then 15mons. DD4 sounds like your twins, very cautious and had to wrangle her to stay on the carousel because it was too scary, ended up sitting on the single bench. Sigh. (Now she insists she wants to ride BTMRR… let’s try something in between first 
). DS1 is a wild man but a shortie and I wanted us to ride things all together.
FPP for character meets is a great idea. Same with ETWB. Navi or other boat rides. KS definitely. HS shows (although we went at the beginning of the FPP window for the next Ariel show in HS and the wait inside that holding room felt like pure torture, people sitting on the floor, DS1 trying to escape - I would sneak closer to showtime if you have a FPP). Disney Junior show (my kids LOVE Dis Jr. and I am miffed that HS is kind of the only place those characters exist because it forces us to go during what will probably be spring 2020 SWGE madness just to see the new dance party show and do H&V breakfast with Vampirina… but I digress). Shows in AK. Basically echo @Flutegarden. Even if the meets/rides/shows are normally lower wait things, even knocking 10-15 mins per thing is totally worth it.
I thought we would need midday breaks, but we didn’t. AK we stroller napped and stayed for ROL but left halfway through to beat the masses (maybe easier as a nighttime show because it is earlier, we had a dining package but my kids were wiggly and crabby after the wait in the bleachers and could have cared less once ROL started… would either skip or show up closer to show time). The rest 1/2 or 3/4 days, no nighttime shows but we could see fireworks from our room. Kids would not have been in the mood to go back to the park after a break.
Next time my plan is to do lazy RD of 1-2 lesser attractions, later character breakfast, 3 FPP with shopping or low wait rides in between, and snacks or QS for a late lunch so we can call an audible if needed. Same day FPP if up for it or pool afterwards. Only in park dinners at AK Rainforest (planning Landry’s card so we don’t have to drop an ADR if we want to leave instead) and maybe festival snacks/QS at Epcot so again flexible to leave. No nighttime shows. Bath time etc. just makes bedtime too late to be successful start to the next day.
I put in the notes in my touring plan steps what things are near bathrooms so I won’t have to always look at a map.
I figure even accomplishing 3 FPP is a win. And if we need to experience more then we can always go back!
Ok wow that was way longer than I thought but anyway have fun!!!
We didn’t do any night shows either. That’s late for them normally and wouldn’t have been worth it. Plus it’s a lot waiting and heavy crowds. Not worth it IMO.
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@WildernessLodger BTMRR! Of course that’s what she wanted to do!
Great insights and feedback on the scheduling of rides and shows.
Were the kids scared of the Navi boat ride? We watched some videos on You tube and they seemed mixed with the environment and some of the creatures. I’d hate to get on it and they freak out the whole time.
Thank you!
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Navi was fine until the end. My DD4 still talks about “that creepy guy” (the shaman), not a big fan 
but it is just for a little bit. The rest of it is so cool. The only thing I can think of that might be scary are the cat creatures, but they just pretend walk by and overall the glow in the dark and floating soul things are awesome.
I agree. After travel time and bath/shower (mandatory after a day in the parks for everyone - are some people waiting until next day? I just couldn’t) no way my kids would wake up “on time” the next day and we don’t even do early EMH. More reason to go back when they get older!
Completely agree with this!
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I potty trained twins (it was a long time ago) and I think the big lesson I learned was to remember they are individuals and to treat them as such. They both don’t need to do everything at the same time and that includes potty training. Mine were ready at ridiculously different times. Although I do have Disney to thank for the second one finally potty training.
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