In February 2025 we took our little guy to Florida for a couple of days. Here’s some toddler oriented tips on navigating plane rides and Animal Kingdom based on our experiences, as well as a re-cap of our trip overall.
Jump to What You Need!
✈️Tips for Planes
🌊Kissimmee & Space Coast
🦁Tips for Animal Kingdom
Tips For Plane Rides
We were able to land a direct flight from Syracuse to Orlando, so that was a blessing. Honestly the sense of adventure and curiosity carried us a long way with kiddo–he was just shy of 3 years old at this point. But when watching airplanes and looking out the window lost its wonder, we had a couple of backup options on hand. He was a big fan of this reusable dinosaur sticker book, these squishy axolotls (he’s SUPER in to fidget toys), and this toddler friendly I Spy book. Heads up: TSA did want to check the axolotls but were fine with them after confirming it’s a sealed toy. Other things I was super glad we had in our personal bag for easy access:
- Corded headphones to connect to the TV for a brief cartoon break (wireless/blue tooth not supported with the plane’s entertainment system)
- His comfort item (a blankey)
- Gummy bears as a toddler friendly alternative to chewing gum–make sure it’s a factory sealed mini-pack. He was able to chew on those to help with his ears at takeoff and landing.
- Layers! Zip up hoodie over a short sleeved t-shirt gave us versatility in making sure he stayed comfy
All in all I have to say it went so much smoother than I expected. He was even told that he’s “a great little traveler,” which he proceeded to remind us of for the rest of the day.
Florida Itinerary and Stops!
Here’s a run down of what we did and when we did it, with the exception of our Animal Kingdom day. That gets its own spot further down or feel free to hop ahead if that’s what you need to know!
Kissimmee, Old Town, and Getting Outside
After picking up our rental car we stepped outside to a gorgeous day, then grabbed a quick lunch nearby. Kiddo was amazed at how bright the sun was after starting the day very dark, cold, and overwhelmingly gray back home. After eating we headed over to Icon Park for Sea Life Orlando Aquarium. It was not the most impressive aquarium in the world if we’re being super honest, but for a fresh off the plane toddler it was the perfect place to decompress. The surrounding Icon Park area looked cute, but we were basically toast and ready for the hotel.
We stayed at Holiday Inn & Suites Orlando SW in Kissimmee. It was a very functional home base–good location, clean, easy parking. Breakfast was not included, but it was pretty nice as far as hotel food goes for the days we did choose to eat there. They had a great pool and playground area that we totally utilized, and right across the street was a local attraction, Old Town.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that Old Town gets swamped on the weekends, but we were there during the week so it was pretty quiet. We loved heading over in the evenings, and ended up here three separate times. Some of our favorites were the A&W, Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Cafe, and Kissimmee Popcorn (pickle popcorn, folks!🥒). This is also where we learned my son LOVES going on rides. Pro tip: You do not have to pay to enter the area, but you’ll need to get a Fun Spot ticket card from a ticket booth machine for the rides. They aren’t cheap, so we had a set limit with no ticket refills–when you’re out, you’re out.
Obviously we needed an outdoor adventure day, which we split between an airboat ride and some nature trails. For the airboat we did the 90-minute tour with Marsh Landing Adventures, and they were just lovely. Very kind to kiddo, had noise canceling headphones available (those boats are super loud), and made sure we saw our share of wildlife. There’s also a cute playground accessible from the same parking area–Partin Triangle Playground–that was fabulous for getting out some wiggles after sitting still so long. That afternoon we did some nature trails at Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve, which was beautiful and very toddler friendly. Just bring plenty of water!
Ocean Time!
Of course you can’t very well go to Florida and not have some ocean time. We didn’t think the Kennedy Space Center would be worth it for kiddo, so we kept closer to the beach. We were on the space coast, though! It was a drive from Kissimmee, but honestly not that bad and quite scenic once we got out of the city. We popped in to Cocoa Beach, walked the boardwalk, and had lunch at Fish Camp Grill. Fish Camp was way more kid friendly than I expected, to the point of giving him a free frisbee. Most importantly, the food was great and we were happy with the stop.
What was not great is when it became apparent that we forgot some things and ended up having to buy them for way too much money at the Cocoa Beach tourist shops or lose time on beach day traveling to a regular store. 🫠 Don’t be like me. Make sure you pack some beach sandals (for both parents and kids!) and a sunhat. After that we spent the rest of the day at nearby Tables Beach, which is 100% recommended. This is where all of our real splashing and playing took place. We were able to actually enjoy the ocean because it was nearly empty. Lots of room to run, splash, chase waves, find shells, and bask in the ocean magic feeling.
Disney Animal Kingdom
Given the intensity of planning any amount of time in Disney I think it’s best to give Animal Kingdom its own full rundown. In real time we went after nature day, with ocean day being a very welcome wind-down before heading home. Disney is a whole separate beast though, so here’s what I learned while planning!
The website is great, the app is a bit clunky but has everything you need in it. Everyone who works there that I’ve interacted with has been a gem, so definitely reach out to them if you run in to issues.
Planning Ahead
Here’s what I set up ahead of time, and whether it was worth it or not. For reference I booked the Disney leg of our trip in November, we went in February.
Tickets
I love booking ahead of time and not having to stress it later. Go team booking, zero regrets on that front
Memory Maker Photo Pass
You can pay extra for a photo pass, which gives you access to any of the pictures staff photographers take including the portraits with characters, and ride photos (if applicable). They did get a couple of cute ones and I’m not mad we added this to our ticket, but if your budget is already strained you can skip this. For reference and transparency the picture I’m including of my son and Pluto was one of their pictures, but the rest are ones I took.
Lunch Reservations
We booked to have lunch at Tusker Restaurant, which is the safari themed character restaurant. It offers a buffet serving a variety of African inspired options with some kid friendly choices. I can say with absolute certainty this booking was the correct decision. First off, the wait would have been terrible if we didn’t make reservations. Bigger priority is that the food was delicious and kiddo was ecstatic to have so many character interactions without waiting in a line.
Magic Bands
They’re fun! They’re convenient! They were kind of an unnecessary expense. Especially because kids under 3 don’t need tickets at all, but we got him one anyway because we knew he’d want to be included in the whole scanning your wrist business. I’d probably just use my phone next time. Big caveat is if you know you’ll have your hands full or if everyone wants to be doing different things, it might be more helpful then.
Lightning Lane
We couldn’t book our Lightning Lane spots until 3 days ahead of time, but you can do 7 days ahead of the trip if you’re staying at a resort. Essentially Lightning Lane gives you the choice to pay a fee to reserve a spot on a ride within a specific time window. At Animal Kingdom this included the shows, Avatar ride, and the safari. Now, this would probably be gold in the other, more ride-heavy parks (like Magic Kingdom). But I will argue that not having to wait in a line with a toddler is worth basically whatever you want to charge me. 10/10.
One Day in Animal Kingdom
Okay! So what did we even do there? FIRST. Two hot tips. Thing One: If your purse or bag has magnetic closures make sure you hold it away from your body when going through the metal detector upon entering the park or it’ll trigger a false reading and you have to wait in a whole new line for a manual security check. Ask me how I know. Thing Two: If there’s even a remote possibility that you’ll want a stroller, just rent a stroller. It’s $15/day for a single or $31/day for a double, so pretty darn reasonable as far as anything at Disney is concerned. And I promise you that you will be so incredibly grateful to have it. Kiddo was able to power nap in little bursts by the time we hit the afternoon, and we were able to avoid the sore leg meltdown.
Right, moving on! We were at Animal Kingdom from open to close with a 2.5 year old, and were able to very comfortably make it to the following (not necessarily in this exact order):
- Breakfast at Yak & Yeti
- Kilimanjaro Safari
- Walked the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
- Lunch at Tusker
- Festival of the Lion King show
- Walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek–be sure to check out the aviary!
- Na’vi River Journey Ride
- Take the train up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We mostly just did a character visit and popped in to the petting zoo (Affection Section)
- Hung out in The Boneyard playground, although please note that playground is now closed.
- Did 4 official, wait-in-line character meetings
Our Impressions & Takeaways
First and foremost let me say that my husband and I were hard sells on this. Neither truly intended to do the whole Disney World thing, but we were going to be in Florida with a little boy that loves Lion King, so we gave it a go. I was more enthusiastic than my husband–he was very close to active opposition. Point being by the end of the day we were both full converts and are actively looking in to going back for Magic Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom does veer close to incredibly fancy zoo at times, but it is so well done it’s hard to feel mad about it. The settings, plants, architecture, vibe were all impeccable. I’d say that Na’vi River Journey was the only actual ride we went on, and while I found it visually stunning, toddler was not overly impressed. What stuck in his mind was the Festival of the Lion King show. To this day he will tell you about how he saw “the Lion King Show!” and I will forever be able to tell you exactly what his face looked like watching it. That was probably our defining magical moment of the day.
As far as food goes, Yak & Yeti was tasty and budget friendly for breakfast. Seating for that was outside with a variety of very curious birds, which was fun. As I mentioned, Tusker was our splurge meal, but we’d call it worth it both for quality as well as kiddo’s joy in Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy wandering about the entire time.
All things being equal, if this is on your bucket list and you have the ability to pull it off, I’d encourage you to go. I truly believe it will be a core memory for him, both Disney as well as this Florida trip overall.
Final note: when we landed back in New York his first assessment was: “This home? Wow it’s cold and dark.”
So there you have it! This trip took us 5 days total, with 3 full days and 2 travel days. I know this was a lot of information, so feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments below. Or feel free to share your own tips and tricks, especially for Magic Kingdom 👀
Happy trails! 🥾💚