This is a slightly revised excerpt from my book, Twice Blessed: A Parent's Guide to Twins. It is part of an entire chapter on planning for a trip to Disney World. My wife Lisa told me a story about the last time she had been to Disney World as a young adult in the early nineties. She told her father at the time, “The next time I come back here, I’m coming here with my kids.” Little did she know, it would be with nearly four year old twins. As for me, I had not been to Orlando’s Disney World since I was a teenager in 1982. Epcot had just opened, and there were was no Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios at the time.
But both my wife and I wanted to take our twins,about to turn four at the time, at a young age but not too young as to not remember anything or appreciate it.
It is one thing to plan to take young children, but as multiple parents know, twins or other multiples always provide their unique challenges that don’t always apply with different aged siblings, so planning for Disney World had its own series of questions to be answered. Hopefully, my research, discussions, decisions, and experiences will help answer some of your questions and assist you in better planning your trip, should you decide to go. One thing is for certain, you do need to plan for Disney World. Just showing up and hoping to enjoy one’s self fully doesn’t really work, with so many options, and limited time and resources.
Guidebooks and Websites
There are many invaluable guidebooks and much of the information was garnered from the ones that I read. I started by checking out a few from the library to see which ones were the most helpful. You won’t usually find one for the current year, but try to find one as recent as possible. Most of the information will not change, and you can choose to purchase any that you find will be useful, both in your planning, and to take to the parks. The guidebooks explain all the attractions in detail, including what rides might scare young ones; suggestions for renting or bringing strollers; hotel information and recommendations for both inside and outside Disneyworld; and restaurant information, including character meals.
In my opinion, the one guide that is the best for pre-planning is The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa. It has over 800 pages of information on everything related to Disney World (and even a chapter on Universal Studios as well). The best thing about this book is that they include quotes from actual families so you get an idea of what people like yourself experienced. There is also a version entitled The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids, by Bob Slinger and Liliane J. Opsomer, which I will be reviewing in a future post. In my opinion, one of the best book for the parks is The Passporter’s Guide to Walt Disney World by Jennifer, Dave, and Allison C. Marx . It includes fold out maps, planning sheets, and pockets to hold information, tickets, etc. Birnbaum's Walt Disney World: The Official Guide is also very good, and includes valuable coupons in the back for such things as restaurants in WDW and stroller rentals.
There are many great websites with information including Allears.net. Websites such as these give important information such as restaurant menus so you know whether or not there is a kids menu, and what the choices are. My son does not like pizza with sauce on it, and usually wants a cheese or peanut butter sandwich. Allears.net gave us great information including the prices. The last website I want to mention is tripadvisor.com. This website provides user’s reviews on hotels, restaurants and attractions, and ranks them based on how people rated them. We chose the Holiday Inn in Walt Disney World in large part due to the reviews on tripadvisor.com. Everything they said in the reviews was correct including how nice the rooms and pool were, the high level of service, and the frequency and punctuality of the shuttle to the parks. This hotel is located on Hotel Plaza Boulevard, a five to ten minute walk to Downtown Disney.
For more on planning for Disney World or twins parenting please check out the rest of my blog at http://atwinsdad.blogspot.ca.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Taking Twins to Disney World: The Stroller Question
The question on whether to use a stroller for multiples in Disney World is really based on a number of factors. But for us, it came down to the fact that our nearly four year old twins did not like being in a stroller anymore. We had an amazing double stroller, the Mountain Buggy Urban, and we put it to great use until they were about three. We also had a couple of umbrella strollers for convenience sake. However, our kids liked (and still do) to walk everywhere, including a mile long hike in Ontario’s Algonquin Park the previous summer. We knew they wouldn’t get in the umbrella strollers and we weren’t planning on schlepping the Mountain Buggy on the plane.
We also knew that the shuttle bus came right to the front door of our hotel and it is hard to get strollers on these buses. In some very large Disney resorts, they recommend a stroller just to get to and from the bus stop. We decided that we would take our chances on day one and rent a double stroller from WDW if we needed it. We didn’t. The kids did just fine! Double strollers rent for about $33 US a day (slightly less if you buy multiple days) and they all look the same. Also, some areas can’t be accessed with them and Disney cast members move them all the time. You have to mark your stroller with something easily identifiable such as a handkerchief or risk losing it.
Other options include renting a stroller from some Orlando companies that deliver and pick them up from non-Disney hotels. But you may not know exactly how good the quality of the stroller you are getting is. One suggestion in a guidebook from a parent was to buy umbrella strollers from a store in Orlando and throw them away when you are done with them. I actually don’t think this is an environmentally friendly option and may not be convenient unless you have a car, but it could be considered.
We also knew that the shuttle bus came right to the front door of our hotel and it is hard to get strollers on these buses. In some very large Disney resorts, they recommend a stroller just to get to and from the bus stop. We decided that we would take our chances on day one and rent a double stroller from WDW if we needed it. We didn’t. The kids did just fine! Double strollers rent for about $33 US a day (slightly less if you buy multiple days) and they all look the same. Also, some areas can’t be accessed with them and Disney cast members move them all the time. You have to mark your stroller with something easily identifiable such as a handkerchief or risk losing it.
Other options include renting a stroller from some Orlando companies that deliver and pick them up from non-Disney hotels. But you may not know exactly how good the quality of the stroller you are getting is. One suggestion in a guidebook from a parent was to buy umbrella strollers from a store in Orlando and throw them away when you are done with them. I actually don’t think this is an environmentally friendly option and may not be convenient unless you have a car, but it could be considered.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Twins and the NICU
With twins often being born prematurely, a visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a hospital is not unusual. So here is some information from my book that might be helpful. If you go on a hospital tour, ask if you can see the department just to familiarize yourself with it. Twins and multiples are far more likely to be admitted than singletons, largely because they are more likely to either be underweight, premature, or both.
My daughter was sent there a few hours after her birth for a relatively minor sucking and swallowing issue, and more than half the newborns in the ward were twins or triplets. The difficulty for us, was that our son was discharged within the normal 48 hour period and so we had to decide how to care for both of them. Our hospital had a few rooms connected to the NICU that parents could utilize to stay overnight if they chose to, and since we were expecting our daughter’s stay to be short, we moved into one of the rooms with Joshua in tow. If your stay is long, or if both twins have been admitted to the NICU you might not opt to stay in the hospital.
The difficulty comes from the fact that the hospital treats the patient’s twin sibling as a visitor. The hospital staff has no responsibility for the second baby anymore, and sometimes the nurses in the NICU seem oblivious to the fact that there is another baby to be fed and cared for. One nurse, who I doubt had children and certainly not twins, told my wife after twelve hours straight of switching between our two newborns that she had “a time management problem.” I credit Lisa, who is a highly organized person, to this day for not losing it then and there.
Three days after Lisa gave birth, our daughter was supposed to be released. But about an hour before the scheduled release time, a nurse said “an incident” had occurred and so the doctor decided to keep her in the NICU. A few days later, the doctor again decided to release our daughter and so she had to take the car seat breathing test for an hour, before we could take her home. It seemed like the longest hour of my life as I waited and watched to see that her breathing was normal in the bucket car seat we had purchased for her. The test went fine, and so we happily headed for home!
My daughter was sent there a few hours after her birth for a relatively minor sucking and swallowing issue, and more than half the newborns in the ward were twins or triplets. The difficulty for us, was that our son was discharged within the normal 48 hour period and so we had to decide how to care for both of them. Our hospital had a few rooms connected to the NICU that parents could utilize to stay overnight if they chose to, and since we were expecting our daughter’s stay to be short, we moved into one of the rooms with Joshua in tow. If your stay is long, or if both twins have been admitted to the NICU you might not opt to stay in the hospital.
The difficulty comes from the fact that the hospital treats the patient’s twin sibling as a visitor. The hospital staff has no responsibility for the second baby anymore, and sometimes the nurses in the NICU seem oblivious to the fact that there is another baby to be fed and cared for. One nurse, who I doubt had children and certainly not twins, told my wife after twelve hours straight of switching between our two newborns that she had “a time management problem.” I credit Lisa, who is a highly organized person, to this day for not losing it then and there.
Three days after Lisa gave birth, our daughter was supposed to be released. But about an hour before the scheduled release time, a nurse said “an incident” had occurred and so the doctor decided to keep her in the NICU. A few days later, the doctor again decided to release our daughter and so she had to take the car seat breathing test for an hour, before we could take her home. It seemed like the longest hour of my life as I waited and watched to see that her breathing was normal in the bucket car seat we had purchased for her. The test went fine, and so we happily headed for home!
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