Since we visit from far away, when the kids were little it always seemed like a big investment to risk everyone not having a good time because someone might be having a bad day.
We solved this problem by bringing someone else to help share the load. I would highly recommend that if you can afford it. If you don’t have your own nanny or babysitter to bring, a friend’s teenager (or even a friend!) is usually pretty easy to come by once they know you’re going to WDW.
Since we were, at that time, trading for DVC stays, the extra person didn’t cost that much more than the five of us did to start with. But it made a huge impact on how enjoyable the trip was, at least for us parents!
WDW was designed for families / Walt’s vision led to low height limits. When our kiddos reach 6, we want to take them, and since our kiddos are 6 years apart, that means our first family visit over Thanksgiving, 2015 was with our 6 year old and 9 month old. (And the grandparents). It was lovely! Not yet walking, used a baby Bjorn for rides (There are soo many non Rudd restricted rides) and used rider swap for the rest (plus being my 6 year old got to rider qbq twice).
I’d love to hear what kind of ‘rules’ or structure you had set up for the babysitter. How much time did they get by themselves and how much were they going along with the family plan/kiddie rides?
My friend always does this. (She has nine kids.) The teen sisters she “hires” would never get to go to WDW with their families, so it’s a plus for them, too. They get “paid” by having a ticket, getting meals/lodging covered, and having one full day to themselves.
I only have one DS, but we started this when he was 5. He’s now 10. My niece started coming with us when she was 15. Now, 5 years later, she is still coming along with us! She’ll be in Disney with us tomorrow wand Universal in November. I like having the extra hand (especially when DH isn’t with me - it’s tough for me to get around, especially at the pool) and she’s nice company for me too. I actually left DH and DS home for my 40th last year and took her to Disney. And this year for my 41st (and more so for her 20th) we went to Toronto with my mom. It started so she could watch DS while DH and I had a few nights alone, but it’s turned into me pretty much having another kid and I love it.
(She never wanted time to go off on her own before…but this time, she’s told me that if we bail early on the Villians After Hours, she’s saying until the end - more power to her! We’re staying at BLT so it will be easy…and she is 20 after all!).
Well, for us it was a little different, it was her job as a full-time nanny. We tried to give her a lot of time off so as not to exceed 40hrs a week, and would have paid her overtime if we did. We took her everywhere- she was absolutely terrific. Practically perfect in every way!