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Author Archives: Tricia
Disney World Planning 101: Know the Height Requirements
Riders must be 54 inches tall to ride Tomorrowland Speedway solo. Riders over 32 inches can ride with an adult.
Nothing kills a great day at Disney faster than the disappointment when your child realizes he’s not quite tall enough for the one ride he’s been looking forward to. A little planning and some expectations management can prevent ride queue meltdowns. Before you leave home, measure your child. If he is between 38 and 54 inches, prepare him for the fact that he may be too short to ride some attractions, and offer him an equally interesting alternative. Many attractions at Walt Disney World offer a Rider Swap pass that allows one adult to wait with children too small to ride, then swap with another adult in the party without waiting in line twice.
The best way to find out height requirements for a specific ride is to check the Disney website, but here are a few of the most popular attractions and their height requirements:
Magic Kingdom and Disneyland:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 40 inches (102 cm)
Space Mountain – 44 inches (112 cm)
Splash Mountain – 40 inches (102 cm)
Tomorrowland Speedway (Magic Kingdom) – 54 inches (137 cm) to ride alone, 32 inches (80 cm) to ride with an adult
EPCOT:
Mission: SPACE – 44 inches (112 cm)
Soarin – 40 inches (102 cm)
Test Track – 40 inches (102 cm)
Disney’s Hollywood Studios:
Tower of Terror – 40 inches (102 cm)
Star Tours – 40 inches (102 cm)
Rock n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 48 inches (122 cm)
Animal Kingdom:
DINOSAUR – 40 inches (102 cm)
Expedition Everest – 44 inches (112 cm)
Kali River Rapids – 38 inches (97 cm)
Primeval Whirl – 48 inches (122 cm)
Related articles
- Please Refurbish This Ride – Tomorrowland Speedway! (chipandco.com)
- Disney World Planning 101 – Using Childcare Services (chipandco.com)
Disney World Quick Tips – Packing Checklists
Whether you travel solo, with a friend or significant other, or with a pack of kids like I do, forgetting something seems inevitable. A packing checklist can help minimize frantic runs to the drugstore or department store for forgotten essentials.
For a week before you travel, jot down what toiletries you use (as well as those you’ll need on vacation, like sunblock and aloe). Make a note of the electronics you plan on taking and be sure to include power cords and chargers on your list. Here’s a general master packing list to get you started:
Clothes per person per day:
- One complete outfit (don’t forget socks and underwear!) per day, including travel days.
- One extra outfit per adult – you never know when you’ll get caught in a sudden downpour!
- Two extra outfits per child, especially during the diaper and potty training years. For a baby, I would even go to three extras. Baby clothes – especially onsies – don’t take up much suitcase space.
- Two pairs of comfortable shoes – here’s why: How Many Pairs of Shoes Do You Need?
Toiletries:
- Toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash – travel sizes only if you are flying!
- Hair brush.
- Accessories – if you have long hair, putting it up is a must during the summer.
- Personal grooming items you use on a regular basis.
Medications:
- Tylenol or Motrin.
- Sunblock.
- Aloe – in case you forget to use the sunblock.
- Any prescription or over the counter medications you take regularly – be sure to get them filled before you leave.
- Band-aids. Yes, you could go to a first aid station, but for a minor scrape in the parks it’s easier to just take care of it on the spot.
Electronics and Entertainment:
- Cell phone and charger.
- Camera and charger. Consider bringing an extra memory card, especially if you won’t be able to download your photos until you get home.
- iPod with music and audiobooks.
- Coloring book, crayons.
- Portable video player and power cord.
Other:
- Cash for incidentals while you are traveling
- Diapers, wipes, bottles, and other baby necessities
If you travel frequently, consider saving your checklist as a Word document or laminating it. If you have older kids, give them each a copy of the packing checklist and let them pack their own bags. Not only will it be one less thing for you to do, but it will give them the chance to practice valuable life skills. Post a copy of the packing list on your front door so you can double-check it as you pack up the car!
Related articles
- Disney World Quick Tips – Staying Charged (chipandco.com)
- Disney World Quick Tips – Adults, don’t leave home without these items (chipandco.com)
- The Drive Down: What to Pack, What to Bring (chipandco.com)
Disney Princess: A Royal Christmas iPad App Review
Unlike most Disney Digital Storybook apps, Disney Princess: A Royal Christmas is an anthology containing three Christmas stories, in which Cinderella, Ariel, and Tiana celebrate the holiday in their own special way. Cinderella throws a party for her woodland friends and the household staff, Ariel gets flustered when her carefully chosen gifts go missing, and Tiana invites the bayou folks down for a Christmas Eve feast.
There is a common thread to each story that rang especially true right now as I’m in the midst of planning and preparing for Christmas celebrations: the princesses are doing the shopping, the cooking, and the planning for their celebrations. The princes make an appearance in a supporting role, but the girls are really in the thick of it all. Of course, this app is aimed at young girls, who want to see their princesses front and center, but – at least in my experience – that tends to be how the holidays unfold. Moms, aunts, and sisters spend November and December planning, shopping, cooking and decorating while the guys hang out around the edges of all this activity. I like that this story shows girls the princesses doing the same things they see their real-life role models doing. It brings these characters to life, and shows what “happily ever after” really looks like.
Story Modes
Girls can enjoy these stories in two ways: younger girls who aren’t reading independently yet can follow along as the story is read to them. Independent readers can turn the pages themselves and turn the narration on or off. Pages with corresponding coloring pages or puzzles have a small icon in the corner that allows the reader to pause the story, enjoy the game, then return to the story.
Coloring Pages
Every Disney Deluxe Storybook contains coloring pages. This one features two pictures of each princess, and saves your coloring progress when you close the app.
Puzzles
Puzzles are another old standby of the Disney Deluxe Storybook app. Some editions allow you to choose your level of difficulty. The puzzles in this app are all easy with only 9 pieces. Perfect for a 3 or 4 year old.
Game
Each story has a search and find game embedded in it. As you read the story (or listen to the narration), look for moving ornaments. Collect them all and use them to decorate the princesses’ shared Christmas tree! This was one feature my daughter especially liked, since she’s definitely in the “it needs to me done my way” phase. She gets to decorate her very own Christmas tree any way she likes!
Overall, this is worth the $4.99 price. My daughter has enjoyed the stories several times, and likes to decorate (and re-decorate) the Christmas tree at the end.
Related articles
- New iPad App: Disney Princess – A Royal Christmas (chipandco.com)
- Disney Publishing Unveils Disney Princess Magazine (chipandco.com)
Beauty and the Beast Deluxe Storybook iPad App
Beauty and the Beast is a Disney classic, so it makes sense that this story has joined the ranks of Disney’s Digital Storybook apps. I’ve always loved Belle’s story, and this is a faithful retelling of the movie – even including cut scenes of several songs from the film.
My three-year-old daughter enjoyed this app. It was about the right length for her preschool attention span. Like other Deluxe Storybook apps, this one has two settings – one for younger kids that enables the app to play automatically, and one for kids who are learning to read. In automatic mode the story stops after each cut scene. I had to go to the pages screen to load the next page of the story. Once she saw me do this a couple of times she could do it herself, but it’s not what you’d expect from a digital book.
There are coloring pages from the story included the app, as well as maze and puzzle games.
This app also introduces a sense of interactivity to the story. Throughout the story, readers can search for enchanted roses that bloom in the Beast’s rose garden at the end of the story.
Overall, this is a nice app, although I hope that future updates will fix the cut scene glitch. I’m not sure that I’d pay $8.99 for it. That seems high for what this app delivers.
Club Penguin: Puffle Launch on iPad
Puffles – furry pets on Disney’s Club Penguin online game – have invaded the iPad! Puffle Launch is Disney’s answer to the wildly popular Angry Birds and Cut the Rope iPad games. Load your Puffle into a cannon, aim and fire it through a series of rings. If your physics and spatial reasoning skills are sharp, you’ll eventually launch the Puffle through a flaming ring and win virtual coins. If your skills are lacking, your Puffle will crash land in the ocean. These types of games aren’t new, but Disney has put their own spin on the genre. If you play on the Club Penguin website, the virtual coins you earn in Puffle Launch transfer to the larger online game.
Our kids don’t play Club Penguin – we need another online game like we need a hole in the head – so I wasn’t sure this app would go over well. It’s enough of a standalone game that they had fun with it for a few days before moving on to something else. With 24 levels to unlock, there’s definitely enough there to call it a full-fledged game. It’s not just a lead-in to Club Penguin. Even so, my kids got bored with it after a few days. They’d seen it before, and the levels got too challenging for them pretty quickly. I got to level 3 and couldn’t get past it (although I didn’t spend hours trying either).
I would recommend this game for kids who already enjoy Club Penguin, and for older kids who have the patience and spatial reasoning to beat the higher levels. It’s going to be frustrating for younger kids.