1 Year Old - Too Young?

[DisneyFans4Life]

1 year old is not too young. We had our daughter at WDW when she was around 4 months old...which was right in the middle of summer. Disney has a great baby care center for your wife to nurse (if applicable) and there are plenty of places to get out of the heat. You're really just going for yourself, but the characters will love seeing a small baby; we actually have a picture of the Fairy Godmother holding her while she was sleeping.

Just pack a fan, diapers, etc. and be on your way. Oh...don't forget to dress her up in one of those small Disney outfits and get her a 1st visit button.

 

[Weather_Lady]

If you want to take your daughter to WDW, by all means do so -- as long as it's going to still be a fun vacation for you! Obviously, you'll have to make a lot of adjustments, but after a year with a new baby, I'm sure you're used to that by now. My best advice is to try and preserve her usual eating/napping schedule as much as possible while you're there, and to take a daily siesta in the afternoon, back in your air-conditioned hotel room, during the worst heat of the day.

At the same time, if you wanted to go by yourselves and leave your baby with a trusted family member, that wouldn't be a terrible thing, either. (We went on a 5-day vacation when our son was 10 months old and my sister/BIL cared for him. We were wracked with guilt and imagined him mourning our absence the entire time -- instead, he had an absolute ball, didn't appear to miss us for a second, and merely waved a cheery, "hello" at us when he saw us again, as though we'd been gone for 5 minutes instead of 5 days.)

 

[unkadug]

One year olds eat, poop, and sleep. I would say it's useless to bring a 1 year old to Disney. Actually anywhere you bring a 1 year old will be the same, eating, pooping, burping, sleeping and most likely crying if you don't get any of those right. You also have to worry about heat and sun burn. Babies don't do well in the southern sun.

I totally missed the comma between eat and poop when I read that.

 

[KordovaJD]

We took our 11 month old in May of 2015, he had a great time.

 

[KordovaJD]

MY One year old eats, poops, and sleeps. I would say it's useless to bring MY 1 year old to Disney. Actually anywhere you bring MY 1 year old will be the same, eating, pooping, burping, sleeping and most likely crying if you don't get any of those right. You also have to worry about heat and sun burn. MY Babies don't do well in the southern sun.

FIFY. My kids were completely different. At 11 months my son was excited, engaged, squealed with glee upon seeing costumes characters, slept well, and did fine in the mid-May weather (We're from south Texas, so mid-May in Orlando is a walk in the park)

The point is, all kids are different. You're (the parent) the only one who knows your child and how they will react.

But remember, at 1 year, you're not going for them, necessarily. So if you're going for you, prepare to be disappointed with your own experience because it will never be the way it was without kids.

 

[unkadug]

FIFY. My kids were completely different. At 11 months my son was excited, engaged, squealed with glee upon seeing costumes characters, slept well, and did fine in the mid-May weather (We're from south Texas, so mid-May in Orlando is a walk in the park)

The point is, all kids are different. You're (the parent) the only one who knows your child and how they will react.

But remember, at 1 year, you're not going for them, necessarily. So if you're going for you, prepare to be disappointed with your own experience because it will never be the way it was without kids.

Ba Dum Tisss

 

[KordovaJD]

Ba Dum Tisss

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Just LOL to some of these comments.

 

[disneygirl76]

Hello all. My wife and I have a daughter, and we have been thinking about taking her to WDW a week after her first birthday in July. However we are in a bit of a pickle trying to figure out whether or not we should make the trip to WDW. First of all, we are both huge WDW fanatics, and our daughter - though she is not even a year old yet - seems to be a HUGE fan of Mickey and Minnie and just about everything Disney. We know that she would be beside herself in a place like WDW.

Our only concern is that we feel she may be too young yet to get the full experience out of WDW. Well, that along with the fact that it can get so hot during the summer months in Orlando and we don't know if that will make her too uncomfortable, (We are from up north.) But my wife and I really feel like we need a vacation this summer, and what better place to take our daughter than to WDW?

Do you think she is too young for WDW? Please help! Thank you! :wave:

In June of 2015, we took our son for his 1st birthday. It was by far the most magical and amazing trip! Here is a link to our trip report: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/our-dumbo-flew-mickey-sang-1st-birthday-trip-report.900831/

We took a fan and lots of changes of clothes. The baby care centers are wonderful if you forget anything. He was still on bottles and we used glass bottles for him so that was a bit of a hassle. We made sure to have lots of breaks and cool off often. Luckily, he falls asleep where ever he is when he is tired so he kept up with naps while in the parks. We took advantage of the parent swap system so we didn't miss any of our must do's. It is truly some of my happiest memories!

 

[DisneyDaver]

In June of 2015, we took our son for his 1st birthday. It was by far the most magical and amazing trip! Here is a link to our trip report: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/our-dumbo-flew-mickey-sang-1st-birthday-trip-report.900831/

We took a fan and lots of changes of clothes. The baby care centers are wonderful if you forget anything. He was still on bottles and we used glass bottles for him so that was a bit of a hassle. We made sure to have lots of breaks and cool off often. Luckily, he falls asleep where ever he is when he is tired so he kept up with naps while in the parks. We took advantage of the parent swap system so we didn't miss any of our must do's. It is truly some of my happiest memories!

Can't believe your son is over 2 already. I remember your gender reveal pics at MK! ... seems like yesterday. I am taking my little one for her first WDW trip in November. She will be 18 months. I can't wait!

 

[disneygirl76]

Can't believe your son is over 2 already. I remember your gender reveal pics at MK! ... seems like yesterday. I am taking my little one for her first WDW trip in November. She will be 18 months. I can't wait!

How fun!!!! That is going to be such a magical trip! Where are you staying?

 

[DisneyDaver]

How fun!!!! That is going to be such a magical trip! Where are you staying?

We are staying at the Hard Rock at Universal with my parents and my brother's family. My brother's kids are older (7, 9 and 12) and really wanted to stay on-site at Universal this time around. My wife and I are getting 2 day WDW tix and renting a car so we can take our daughter to MK and AK. My daughter is not much of a napper (at 14 months she is down to one 1.5 hour nap a day) so we are planning to leave the parks mid-day, drive back to the Hard Rock for a short nap, and then head back to the parks late afternoon. I wish she would nap in the stoller, but that has never happened ...

Our next Orlando trip will be just my wife, my daughter and me so then we will stay on-site at WDW.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We are staying at the Hard Rock at Universal with my parents and my brother's family. My brother's kids are older (7, 9 and 12) and really wanted to stay on-site at Universal this time around. My wife and I are getting 2 day WDW tix and renting a car so we can take our daughter to MK and AK. My daughter is not much of a napper (at 14 months she is down to one 1.5 hour nap a day) so we are planning to leave the parks mid-day, drive back to the Hard Rock for a short nap, and then head back to the parks late afternoon. I wish she would nap in the stoller, but that has never happened ...

Our next Orlando trip will be just my wife, my daughter and me so then we will stay on-site at WDW.

I DO NOT recommend this strategy. You're going to waste a huge amount of time driving back and forth from WDW to the Hard Rock. You're going to spend your entire trip driving and walking through parking lots. We've taken our daughter three times (6 months, 15 months, and 19 months) and we wouldn't dream of taking a kid that needs a mid-day nap and staying anywhere other than a WDW resort.

 

[DisneyDaver]

I DO NOT recommend this strategy. You're going to waste a huge amount of time driving back and forth from WDW to the Hard Rock. You're going to spend your entire trip driving and walking through parking lots. We've taken our daughter three times (6 months, 15 months, and 19 months) and we wouldn't dream of taking a kid that needs a mid-day nap and staying anywhere other than a WDW resort.

Appreciate your input and I agree that it will be challenging, but for family peace my wife and I can't decide to stay on-site at WDW while my parents and brother's family stay together at Universal. Our only other alternative is to skip WDW this trip and just go to Universal (which we considered for the reasons you stated). There is very little for our daughter to do at the Universal parks so it would likely just turn into hanging out at the Hard Rock pool each day. A pool vacation would be fun, but we want to her to be able to go on some rides as long as we are in Orlando.

Worse case scenario, we go to WDW parks from rope drop to nap time (she usually naps around 1:30) and just don't head back after her nap so she can experience a handful of rides. Our plan for MK/AK is only to do rides that my daughter can experience so we won't be doing the long wait rides like the Mountains, Everest and 7DMT so if we can get her on a handful of rides each morning like Dumbo, Small World, Peter Pan, etc it will be worth it for us. The goal her is for her to enjoy an intro to WDW and then we will stay on-site at WDW for our next trip (probably next year).

 

[disneygirl76]

We are staying at the Hard Rock at Universal with my parents and my brother's family. My brother's kids are older (7, 9 and 12) and really wanted to stay on-site at Universal this time around. My wife and I are getting 2 day WDW tix and renting a car so we can take our daughter to MK and AK. My daughter is not much of a napper (at 14 months she is down to one 1.5 hour nap a day) so we are planning to leave the parks mid-day, drive back to the Hard Rock for a short nap, and then head back to the parks late afternoon. I wish she would nap in the stoller, but that has never happened ...

Our next Orlando trip will be just my wife, my daughter and me so then we will stay on-site at WDW.

It will be so wonderful to have some time at WDW for the first time with her! She is going to love the classics at MK and Colin loved the Safari and Nemo at AK. Lion King was okay because we sat in the back.He wasn't sure what to make of it! There is a lot more to do at Universal for your brother's kids ages so it will be nice to get to WDW. And it will be even more fun planning the next big trip!! Have a great time!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Appreciate your input and I agree that it will be challenging, but for family peace my wife and I can't decide to stay on-site at WDW while my parents and brother's family stay together at Universal. Our only other alternative is to skip WDW this trip and just go to Universal (which we considered for the reasons you stated). There is very little for our daughter to do at the Universal parks so it would likely just turn into hanging out at the Hard Rock pool each day. A pool vacation would be fun, but we want to her to be able to go on some rides as long as we are in Orlando.

Worse case scenario, we go to WDW parks from rope drop to nap time (she usually naps around 1:30) and just don't head back after her nap so she can experience a handful of rides. Our plan for MK/AK is only to do rides that my daughter can experience so we won't be doing the long wait rides like the Mountains, Everest and 7DMT so if we can get her on a handful of rides each morning like Dumbo, Small World, Peter Pan, etc it will be worth it for us. The goal her is for her to enjoy an intro to WDW and then we will stay on-site at WDW for our next trip (probably next year).

You might be pleasantly surprised and she may fall asleep in the stroller... My daughter usually takes a nap for about 2-3 hours every afternoon... One day we decided to not go back and see what happens... And guess what?!?!?! She napped for an hour in the stroller. It was while we were planning to walk around the countries in Epcot so it was perfect for us to enjoy the scenery without her wanting to do something else. Anyway... Although she didn't sleep for her usual 2-3 hours, 1 hour did the trick and she was rested and ready to go after that. It can't hurt to give it a try one day... What's the worst that could happen??? Hah! Good luck.

 

[DisneyDaver]

You might be pleasantly surprised and she may fall asleep in the stroller... My daughter usually takes a nap for about 2-3 hours every afternoon... One day we decided to not go back and see what happens... And guess what?!?!?! She napped for an hour in the stroller. It was while we were planning to walk around the countries in Epcot so it was perfect for us to enjoy the scenery without her wanting to do something else. Anyway... Although she didn't sleep for her usual 2-3 hours, 1 hour did the trick and she was rested and ready to go after that. It can't hurt to give it a try one day... What's the worst that could happen??? Hah! Good luck.

Yes, it makes sense to give that plan a try. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised! It's also possible that she is so excited that she powers through most of the day and doesn't get tired until later in the afternoon ... I have seen her do this at my Mom's house when she is so excited to hang out with Grandma.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Yes, it makes sense to give that plan a try. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised! It's also possible that she is so excited that she powers through most of the day and doesn't get tired until later in the afternoon ... I have seen her do this at my Mom's house when she is so excited to hang out with Grandma.

Either way she's bound to fall asleep in the stroller..... And no matter what, she'll be sure to sleep great at night too!!!

 

[jloucks]

Too young. Depends on how you look at it.

Too young to remember? - Yes
Too young to fully appreciate? - Yes
Too young to be worth the hassle? - Maybe
Too young to be worth the money? - Yes (ulterior motives ok)
Too young to have fun? - No (but don't overdue it)

It all boils down to motivation and money.

For the money, your 1 year old could have just as good a time a chuck-e-cheese or something similar. Locally.

So, the motivation is really about YOU wanting to go and it is not primarily about money or your kid (since they won't remember it anyway). Which is totally cool. Your 1 year old is getting drug on a very expensive trip that they will enjoy ok, but it is for you. Take lots of pictures because those will become extremely cherished in about 30 years.

All that said, you need to minimize the negatives for the 1 year old. Stay on property. Take regular breaks. don't stay out silly late. etc.

We took our one year old (14 years ago) on a fancy cruise. She remembers nothing, and people looked at us funny (and judged us). But it was that or stay home or leave her with a sitter for over a week and that was a no-go.