2.5 year old too young for Disneyland?

We're starting to think about a bit of a holiday in September when Izzy will be two and a half. I love EuroDisney (not been for years though) and I'm sure Izzy would too at some stage. I'm just wondering if she'd be a bit too young for it this year? Has anyone any experience of taking a 2.5 year old? What did they think of it? And how many days did you stay? Would obviously want to stay long enough to do it justice but at the same time wouldn't want to over do it.

TIA

Well we are going in October for my mums birthday and Imogen will be 14 months. She wont have a clue but we will love it!! 

Hi,

Don't want to put a dampener on your plans but I wish I had waited until my LO was older and she was a few days short of her 3rd birthday when we went.  We actually travelled back on her 3rd birthday. 

I hadn't actually ever been myself before and loved it but LO was a different matter. It started when we were getting on the plane. She hated the plane and screamed for practically the whole journey. Not helped by the fact that she had to sit in her own seat as she was over 2.  So not a great start.  She is a timid little girl anyway and I think she found it hugely overwhelming. It is extremely noisy, even for an adult so all that noise to a 3 year old was magnified.  She was scared of alot of it and even the life size characters scared her.  

I really really wish we had waited until she was old enough to appreciate it properly. She is now nearly 5 and I can say that she would absolutely love it if we were to go now. 

I think it really depends on the individual child.  

We stayed for 3 nights and I was 4.5 months pregnant. I found it exhausting but looking back I don't think it would have been wise to stay longer, especially considering how A took to the whole experience.

Sorry, I'm sure others will have more positive experiences to tell of.  As I say I think it largely depends on the individual child.

Bubbles05

I spent my 7th birthday at Disneyland in LA and still have amazing memories of it.  My sister was 3 at the time and doesn't remember it at all.  So ifif you want it to be a life long memory then she is a bit young judging by that.

We have taken Mollie and Emily to EuroDisney and Disney, Orlando several times.

Mollie 1st went to Orlando at 7.5mths - too young but she enjoyed the fuss, the swimming and it was as much for us as her.

Then EuroDisney at 18mths old plus me 6mths pregnant - she LOVED it, the junior rides, the characters and as it was early December - CHRISTMAS!

Then both the girls to Disney, orlando Mollie 23mths - LOVED IT and Emily 11wks - she couldn't care less obviously.

EuroDisney again when Mollie was 26mths - went crazy she enjoyed it so much, Emily was 6mths - enjoyed being with us all together but again not that fussed.

Disney Olando when Mollie was 3.25yrs and Emily was 18mths - both of them were full of it, they loved the characters and junior rides, the swimming, the food! In fact, Emily was so into the characters that we had to drag her away from them kicking and screaming most times!

Here they are meeitng Tinkerbel

And Emily with Daisy Duck

And High 5-ing Handy Manny

Sorry for the HUGE photos but thought they might show example of how much a little one can enjoy Disney (nearly as much as Mummy does LOL)

We are booked Orlando again for Nov this yr, girls will be 4.25yrs and 2.5yrs

We went to Paris (did Monday to Friday) when Tom was 4, Joe 2.5 and i was 22 weeks pregnant with Izzy. It was fab, both boys loved every minute of it. Tom remembers it, Joe doesn't.

We're going to Florida in May and i (and them!) cannot wait

Hiya

We went when my LO was 2yrs7mths and I was nearly 7mths pregnant and although my daughter was scared of meeting the characters up close she loved the rides and the Cinderella castle...in fact we couldn't have been treated better by Disney.

I was sitting perched on the edge of the pavement waiting for the parade to start when a member of satff asked if I was uncomfortable sitting on the curb which of course I was and they invited me to sit on a bench in the disabled area. the disney rep then told us to go to guest services after the parade to get a blue pass - the pass in theory was a disabled pass (but they crossed out the disabled element on it if that makes any sense) and meant that because I couldn't actually go on some of the rides due to being pregnant we didn't have to queue for the rides and I was able to sit at the entrance or exit of the ride and watch as my husband took our LO straight onto the ride.

It meant that I didn't have to queue with them for an hour and then just walk straight out or wander about on my own while I waited for them. It also meant that we didn't have to queue to meet charachers either - we were taken to the front and were allowed to meet the Mickey for example next... To be honest I found it a bit embarrassing using the pass but it really was a lifesaver for me as it was early June and not boiling hot but quite humid so I really would have struggled to stand in the queues for a long time and if we didn't have the pass I would have ended up having a separate hol to my husband and LO as I waited on my own all the tiem for them.... in our defence the park wasn't overly busy as it was term time and we didn't use the pass unless the queues were huge. We had gone to Eurodisney for a last holiday as a 3some as we drove and got the eurotunnel as I was too pregnant to fly anywhere that summer...

Hope all that pregnancy blue card rambling makes sense!!

My other advice would be to try and go midweek for 2 or 3 days, we found that the Park got very busy on Friday (we went home Sat morning) with local French people and the queues got significantly longer at that time, I think it would be best to go Tues - Thurs as park was busy but not packed mid - week....

It really depends what your child is like, if they are very timid it might be a bit overwhelming for them but if you feel your child likes rides and perhaps meeting the odd charachter too I would recommend a trip to Eurodisney - my daughter still talks about her trip now and even says how her little brother was there having fun with us too, eventhough he was still in my tummy :-)

Have a funtastic holiday and the new Toy Story rides etc that open at start of April look amazing for little ones.

J xx

Many thanks for the replies. Some really useful experiences and information and some gorgeous photos! It's great to hear both the positive and negative sides (really glad you posted your experiences Bubbles), I think H and I really need to sit down and talk this through and look at costs etc. I guess it's easy to look back and remember how much you enjoyed it yourself and just assume your LO would enjoy it too.

I took Harry last year and he was 13 months.  We're taking him this year and hell be nearly 2 and a half.  I think she'll love it.  Harry certainly enjoyed it last year and I know he'll love the characters a lot more this year.

I'd try her out on some small local rides at home first. I only say this because last year on holiday - not Disneyland - my daughter was very keen on the idea of going on a little train ride at a farm place we were visitng but having queued for a little while then said she didn't want to go on it. Which was fine there, but wouldn't be so good at a theme park!