When is Disney age appropriate?

Mousesavers.com is a good website they do travel arrangements. Kids are free up to age 3 so I agree with the other post about going then. The meal plan is good if you eat all your meals at the park. Although if you are only able to make the trip once, I think ideal age is whenever they break the 50" mark then they can ride every ride at all the parks. There are a ton of more affordable places to stay just off property rather than on site. Although if your kids are still napping when you go any of the hotels on the monorail is invaluable for quick returns for nap time. Also if money isn't an issue there are suites in the animal kingdom lodge where giraffes and elephants will come right up to the window. I am a huge Disney fan and nerd and have been way too many times. If you have any questions feel free to message me or send me an email at Eric.dennis.rush@gmail.com

8-10 would be my guess, so he'll still be old enough to remember it but still young enough to have fun.

We just took my son to Disney one of the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We avoided having to pay for an actual Disney ticket for him and most of his meals by going right before he turned 3. He had a blast! We stayed at the Disney All-Star resort. It's not physically at Disney but its just a short "Mickey Bus" (that what my son called them) ride to any of the parks (including the non-Disney affiliated parks). We stayed 9 days and did the parks 7 days. It worked out great we got to see everything we wanted. There are lots of places to have a beer, no place to gamble though. All in our trip (plane tickets, park tickets w/park hopper & fast passes, meal plan, park trinkets) cost us ~$5,500 going from Houston to Disney. My advice is to go during what they consider "off season" as it will be cheaper. Take your son right before his third birthday if it works out for you. Defiantly get a meal plan for you and your significant other you will save in the long run. Go through a travel agent they will help you get the best deals. Be prepared to be overwhelmed, all of you. Nap time is still a must so you don't have a super cranky child. Make sure to bring a stroller. Don't rent a car if you don't plan on going any where other than the parks its a waste of money, use their provided transportation. Don't over plan your park day's and be prepared to wait from some of the rides (fastpass really comes in handy). Fly into Orlando and take their bus. Bring a computer to upload pictures onto if you are using your phones or multiple memory cards. Remember to bring a few toys & the ipad or whatever to entertain the boy on the flight and in the room. Utilize the Disney Park app on your phone or tablet as the parks do have free wifi and some hidden phone charge stations. And apparently now make sure your son is vaccinated after hearing about what happened over in Disney Land recently. Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. Lastly have fun and relax.

My wife is a Disney nut. My daughter is about to turn 8 in a month, and she's been to Disney World five times. I don't have any experience with Disney Land in California, but here's what I've learned in our trips to Disney World in Florida... 1. 5 to 7 days is a good trip. You can do everything you want, and keep it to a relaxed pace. 10 days is too much. 2. If you're going to stay on Disney property, use a Disney travel agent. It doesn't cost you anything, and they take care of booking everything for you...hotel, dining reservations, etc. In order to get some dining reservations, you have to be on the phone at 5am six or eight months out from the first day of your trip. The Disney travel agent takes care of all of that for you, at no cost. 3. They almost always offer some kind of discount, whether it's a percentage off the hotel room, or free dining plan. But, you won't know if there's a discount for the time you're planning your trip, or what it is, until something like two months before you plan to go. Again, with a Disney travel agent, they will adjust your package price after the discount is announced, so you won't be locked in to a price until you know what the best deal is going to be. 4. The premium dining plan is too much food. It's an appetizer, main course, and dessert for every person in your family. Too much food. The regular dining plan can be good, and is a good deal, of course, when they offer it free. But remember, the dining plan doesn't cover tips, and some of the Disney meals can be pricey. So, you can still plan on spending two to three hundred dollars on the tips for a week trip, if you're dining out every meal. 5. Definitely go during the slower times of the year. December, but not the week of Christmas, January, February, and October are good times to go. The wait times for most rides will be 15 minutes or less those times of year. 6. Staying on Disney property is nice, in that you can take a shuttle bus to all of the parks. If you fly in to Orlando, you can even take the Disney "Magic" Bus from the airport to the hotel, and you don't have to wait for your luggage at the airport; they will deliver it to your room. 7. Paying extra for the Park-Hopper addition to your park tickets can be nice, so that you don't ever have to worry about what park you're going to. If your plans for one park change for some reason, you can go to one of the other parks. Some of the parks close early some days, at like 5pm, so you could still go have an evening at another park if you wanted to. 8. Don't be afraid to take, or rent a stroller for young kids. They have designated stroller parking areas near all of the major attractions, and no one will bother your stuff there. And you will need a stroller, unless you're up to carrying your kid for several hours every day. There's lots of walking, and the kids get tired out. 9. I don't know about gambling, but, if you go in October Epoc has the Food and Wine Festival going on, where there are kiosks all around the park with good food, and drinks. Even not during the Festival, Epoc has alcohol at various places...beer in the Germany section, a good Grey Goose Vodka slushy in France, Japanese beer, etc. There's beer and some other drinks in the Animal Kingdom park too. But no alcohol in the Magic Kingdom. 10. I think you could end up saving a good bit of money renting a place off property, and cooking and eating most of your meals there. I haven't tried that yet, as the convenience of being close to everything, and not having to cook or clean, has won out over saving money when we've gone.

Any age is magical for kids. Disclaimer: We have been to Disneyworld over 20 times now... Once per year until our kids went to university. Our 24 year old still wants to go! If you kids are under 3 years old, I would suggest staying at a disney resort. Also if your kids are still young, try to go to disney at off peak season and let them miss a week of school. At off peak (just after thanksgiving), the lines are incredibly short and you get to enjoy the place. One week is a nice length. Don't try to stay less than 4 days if you've never been there before. There is just too many things to do.

I went this past summer to CA, two boys 11 and 6 and the wife and I spent close to 3000. Stayed in the resort 3 days, 2 nights, and all that junk too, though. Flew out from PA as well.

We went a year ago between Thanksgiving and Xmas. My son was almost 10 at the time. He was not into the little kid stuff but old enough to ride the Screamer and all the big rides. Also being it wasn't peak season we rode a lot of rides more than once. We stayed at a hotel several blocks from park. There are several and are cheaper than Disney hotels with free shuttle buses. But we walked like a lot of people the few blocks to the park each morning. We spent 3 days. One day at Disneyland, one at California Adventures and the third at both riding rides again that we loved and ones that were closed the day we were there. Peak season might take 3 or more days to ride everything. We also spent a day at Legoland in Carlsbad. It is more for younger kids, I suggest 8 and under.

I would say for the amount of money you will drop its worth it to wait until the kids can ride what they want and walk a ways without getting grumpy. I recommend a meal pass (if you look at the price on the menus you may never eat). We stayed in the park, but even that is 30 minutes or more from where you will want to be depending on where you stay. Expect a lot of 'down' time, travel, waiting in lines, etc. I think you can figure a day per park you'd like to do and assume $500-600 per person per day minimum. You can definitely go over that though. I'd look into packaging room, flight, and food into one. I think we went through Southwest airlines and it may have cost a few hundred more in the long run but took a ton of stress out of the trip.