Tiny Twourists - Theme Park Play Areas

One of my daughter's favorite activities at the parks are the play areas. There are several of these scattered through the parks. Some are water play areas, some are more like playgrounds. Since it is cooler weather, I will focus on the dry play areas.

The Magic Kingdom has Pooh's Playful Spot in Fantasyland. Pooh's Playful Spot has a miniature tree house, logs to crawl through, and a slide area. For warmer days there is a water area. She loved ringing the bell on the house (as seen in the picture), running through the house, and using the slide. There is one entrance to the play area which is a nice safety feature. There are benches right outside of the play area if you (or part of your party) wants to sit and wait while the children play. We visited this play area at least twice on our trip.

In February of this year, we also found a play area in ToonTown but I cannot find it on the map. I don't know if it is still there. We did not get a lot of time to play there so I do not remember many details. I do seem to recall that it was covered. I think it may have been called Chip and Dale's Park and was near the ToonTown train station.

Animal Kingdom has a huge playground with bridges, slides, ramps, and a large sandy area to dig for dinosaur bones. When we were there, my daughter was still in a phase of hating sand so we did not venture into the actual dig area. She absolutely loved this play area. I liked that I could stand on a ramp and survey the entire play area to keep an eye on her. There are several large slides including one that is about 2 stories tall that my 3 year old went down on her own two or three times. There is also a smaller slide, a jeep, some rocks, and dinosaur fossils that the kids can climb around on. Now that she likes sand, I cannot wait to take her back to the dig area. When we were at Animal Kingdom in June of 2007, there was a waterfall area over a cave entrance that she loved running through (at 1.5 yrs old). In February of 2009, there was no water running. Like Pooh's Playful Spot, there is a single entrance and exit to this play area.

Disney's Hollywood Studios has a Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. It was one of the reasons that she selected to return to Hollywood Studios on our final half day instead of going to the Nemo ride in Epcot. While the concept is dated, my daughter had a ton of fun. Ironically, one of our daughter's favorite areas of this playground was the film slide, yet she has never seen an actual roll of film. This play area is highly themed and is not very open. It is very easy to lose track of your child in it. At different times both my husband and I were alone with her in the playground and lost track of her and had to search her out. For instance, there is an area where they go up the stairs and there is one of 4 tube slides that they can select to come down. There was no place for one adult to stand where you could see all 4 slide exits. Fortunately, there is only one exit and entrance to the play area and there was generally a cast member posted to prevent a child from leaving alone. The tops of the slides are shielded so you cannot see what is going on when your child is at the top. So, I have no idea whether she was getting pushed aside, or was doing the pushing.

Unfortunately, we did not find any play areas in Epcot (although she did love running around the paths following the train in the German train exhibit). There are a few areas of Epcot with water play areas available.

On our trip we spent several hours in these play areas. As a parent, I had to fight my feelings that we were wasting time on a playground when we could be on rides. The play areas were one of my daughters favorite activities in each park. She loved the break to run around in less crowded areas and interact with other young children much like she does on the playgrounds at home. I think it provided the opportunity both to burn off energy before waiting in line and also a break from some of the rides which can be overwhelming for a preschooler especially on a first trip.

The next time that you are at Walt Disney World with your young child, do not forget to spend some time at the play areas.