If you bring small children to the Disney parks, you’re going need the poop on the diaper situation. (Sorry, I had to. )

On the plus side, finding a place to change junior is no problem at all. Disney knows its clientele well and has outfitted nearly every public restroom in the parks and resorts with a changing table. Even most of the men’s rooms are equipped with changing facilities. All the restroom locations are noted on the park maps, or just ask a cast member to point you in the right direction.

Buying Diapers

While finding a convenient spot to change the baby is easy, finding fresh diapers to change your baby into can be more of a challenge. Diapers and wipes are sold in all of the resort gift shops, in vending machines in select restrooms, and at the in-park baby care centers (locations are noted on the park maps). However, the brand and size selections available here are extremely limited. Generally, you will only find Huggies brand size 3 or 4 sold in the parks and resorts, generally at a premium price. If you’ve got a newborn or an older toddler, or are price sensitive (and aren’t we all), you’re out of luck. Similarly, pull-ups and other specialty diapers are in short supply.

Typical WDW resort gift shop baby care supply section.

This means that you’ll need to acquire your diaper supply in one of the following ways:

• Bring a box from home. Easy if you’re traveling by car, somewhat more difficult if you’re flying.
• Stop at a local Orlando-area supermarket, drugstore, or discount store. Works if you are using a towncar service or rental car.
• Arrange for a delivery to your hotel from a local grocery service such as gardengrocer.com. A good choice if you also need baby food, snacks, water, and other items delivered.
• Arrange for a delivery to your hotel from a local drugstore such as turnerdrug.com. A good choice if you also need prescription or non-prescription medications.
• Mail a box of supplies to yourself at your hotel. You can do this directly or through a mail order retailer such as Amazon.com. A good choice if your have mulitiple children in diapers or will be subject to substantial airline baggage fees. Call the hotel to get the exact mailing address.

Before deciding which route to take, it pays to do a bit of math. There may be delivery fees with any of the services noted above. Be sure to factor those costs in when making your budget projections.

While each family will develop their own strategy about how to manage diaper supplies, because of the possible lack of availability of the right size/style while touring, you’ll want to bring several more diapers that you think you’ll need into the park each day. What worked for us was stocking a large diaper bag with two full days worth of supplies. We left the bag in the stroller while we enjoyed the rides and attractions. However, each time we left the stroller, we were sure to bring at least two diapers (as well as our valuables) with us in a small purse or backpack. This way we were not weighed down in lines, but felt safe that we had enough baby care supplies on hand for emergencies.

Potty Training Strategies

Once you have your supply situation sorted out, changing diapers at the parks is a breeze. A more difficult problem is taking a child to the Disney parks (or to any new place) while he or she potty training or newly potty trained. The hyper-stimulating theme park environment can make even the most skilled preschooler forget firmly established bathroom habits. With many guests booking vacation travel months or even years in advance, it can be difficult to predict exactly where your child will be on the potty training spectrum at the time of your trip. With one of my children, I actually delayed fully training one of my daughters, keeping her in pull-ups until after a WDW trip, because I wanted to avoid potentially messy accidents.

Look for restroom and baby care center locations on the park maps.

If you are going to bring a training or newly trained youngster to the parks, you should be aware of the following:

• Each theme park has a baby care center with a toddler-sized flush toilet. However, there is only one per park. Planning to use this as your main toilet is not a realistic option.
• Your child may be too distracted to tell you when he needs to go. Try taking him to the restroom before every ride or two. Be sure to factor in wait times as well as the length of the actual ride when estimating how long you’ll be away from toilet facilities.
• Use tools like touringplans.com and Lines to minimize time in lines. However, if you do find yourself in a lengthy queue and a bathroom emergency arises, you might be able to return to your spot in line without additional wait time. For attractions with Fastpasses, cast member attendants have the discretion to issue you a special pass to use the Fastpass line. While this is not guaranteed, speak to the cast member at the queue entrance if you find yourself in this situation.
• Most of the in-park restrooms have automatic flush toilets. These are motion sensitive and are prone to mid-business activation by squirmy toddlers, thus terrifying them. A common solution is to bring a roll of painter’s tape or a pad of Post-Its into the restroom to cover and temporarily disable the motion sensor. Just remember to throw out the tape or paper when you’re done.
• There are no mini porta-potties for sale at Walt Disney World. If that’s the only way your child can go, you’ll need to bring one from home.
• Our personal lifesaver was a portable folding toddler toilet seat. This item compacts to about the size of a hardcover novel (not tiny, but easy enough to fit in a backpack), costs less than $20, and can be found at retailers like Babys-R-Us and Amazon.com. This converts any regular toilet seat into just the right size for a training tush, eliminating fears of “falling in.”

Swimming

Disney posts signs near each of its many pools which state: “For your safety, diaper-age children must wear plastic pants or swim diapers…” The lifeguards do not police this policy and leaves the use of swim diapers to the discretion of the parents. If you feel that your child is not “diaper-age” any more, then you can skip the swim diaper.

Pool rules for diaper-age children.

While Disney leaves a lot up to individual families, you may want to consider that WDW is a new and challenging environment for some toddlers. They’re tired, or they’re preoccupied with having fun in a place they’ve never been, or spending all day in the water is a new experience, etc. And the child might forget some recently learned skills. When in doubt err on the side of caution. There are swim diapers for sale in the gift shops at the water parks and most of the resorts. Again, sizes are limited and prices are high, so bringing some from home can make things easier.

Have you brought a diaper-aged child to Walt Disney World? What were your challenges? What solutions did you devise? Let us know in the comments.

Disney and the Diaper: Managing Diaper and Potty-Training Issues at Walt Disney World is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

Welcome to the first installment of my three-part series: Teens n’ Tots Touring! Nowadays, there are a lot of families with kids over age 10 and kids under age 5. Planning a Disney itinerary is hard enough without negotiating between these vastly-different ages, so I’m here to help. In this first installment, I’ll focus on families that have multiple teenagers.

Five years ago, I became a big sister. My little brother took his first Disney trip (not counting in-utero) when he was 11-weeks-old. Ever since then, my beloved parents have been coordinating the desires of two teens with a Buzz-Lightyear-loving-somewhat-bold-heat-hating tot. But until my big brother went to college, my parents had one thing on their side: there were two teens. How could this possibly be helpful? Simple: safety in numbers. It meant we could leave our parents without being alone. It’s hard to find danger in Disney, but it can happen. And in case of a medical emergency, having a brother or sister there is parentally reassuring. While my big brother and I were gallivanting through Tomorrowland or screaming on our fourth ride of Test Track, our parents could ride It’s a Small World with my little brother sixteen times in a row. In addition, separating the teens and tot meant that the youngster could go take a nap at the resort while the adolescents stayed in the parks. Mealtime is a great excuse to rendezvous. Just don’t forget to give teens their tickets so that they can FastPass attractions, and make sure they have a cell-phone or walkie-talkie.

However, it may be that you have younger teens or you can’t trust them to run off without you in an unfamiliar place. The answer to this dilemma is splitting up the parents. (This post assumes that there are at least two adults in the group; I’ll give advice to single parents next week.) Whichever adult – the mom, godfather, or grandpa – is most daring and, it should be said, has the best health, can accompany the teens through the parks. But let the kids lead itinerary-wise. If at all possible, send a willing non-parent with the teens; they’re far less likely to be accused of acting “embarrassing.”

The astute (or just those with primate-level brain function) may notice that I haven’t suggested anything involving teens and tots sticking together. But even in a family with plenty of adults and teens to go around, it’s nice to have everybody together at some point. After all, one of the greatest parts of any Disney World vacation is bonding. Also, you may find that your teens like experiencing the magic through their little sibling’s eyes. Below is a list of attractions at each major theme park that teens and tots will probably enjoy. (I will be posting this list in all of my Teens n’ Tots blogging, as well as any suggested additions from readers.) Please note that I assume that your tot is fairly brave. Some are tougher or more timid than others. Do not force a small child to do something that they don’t want to do; it will ruin the vacation for them and possibly the whole group. I’ve made notes if an attraction features something that might scare tots – or for that matter, grown-ups.

Magic Kingdom

Jungle Cruise (there is a scene in the dark with fake snakes)
Pirates of the Caribbean (there are scenes in the dark, fake fire, and lots of skeletons)
Haunted Mansion (there are ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, and dead bodies)
Peter Pan’s Flight

Mickey’s PhillharMagic (if your tots get scared, they can take off their 3-D glasses)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (don’t laugh; teens like the optical effects)
Mad Tea Party (make sure wild teens ride in a different teacup than tiny tots)
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor (teens can text in jokes for the CGI characters to perform)
Tommorrowland Speedway (52in. height requirement to drive alone)

Epcot (many kids will not like much of Epcot until their about 8-years-old)
Spaceship Earth
Innoventions (teens and tots will like different areas)
Universe of Energy (tots will not know who Bill Nye the Science Guy is and there are dinos)
Maelstrom (this almost didn’t make the list; there’s a 20-foot plunge, dark, and monsters)

Hollywood Studios (hardest park to keep teens and tots together)
Beauty and Beast ~ Live on Stage
MuppetVision 3-D (if your tots get scared, they can take off their 3-D glasses)
Toy Story Mania
Voyage of the Little Mermaid (once teens are in the theatre, they usually enjoy the show)

Animal Kingdom
Festival of the Lion King (there’s one scene with fire and it can get loud)
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Pagani Forest Trail
Flights of Wonder
Kali River Rapids (there’s a 38in. height requirement; you will definitely get soaked)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Finding Nemo ~ The Musical (make sure your kids have seen the film or it won’t make sense)

It’s no easy task to ensure that all your kids are happy in Disney, but with planning, flexibility, and a positive attitude, I promise you that it can be done. Even better, you can do it without ending up in a state of psychosis! Come back next week for my second installment and more tips. If you have any questions about Disney World for teens, ask them in the Comments and I’ll answer them as best I can. Have a magical day!

Teens n’ Tots Touring Tips: Part 1 is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.