Disney with an infant

[Hakunamatata]

Well, duh, I thought that went without saying.

Just call me

 

[EOD K9]

Hi all. My wife and I are looking to book our next Disney trip. I've talked her into doing the BC for 6 days 5 nights in early May of 2016. We are currently trying for our 1st child. So odds are we will have a child no older then 6 months by then. Is it still ok to do Disney with that young of a child? All and any input I appreciate.

Within the next few months I will be taking my (by then) ten month old girls. I will let you know how it goes when I get back.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I think taking a young baby is actually easier in some ways than an older one. When my kids were that small, I could easily strap them on in a wearable carrier (we had a Snugli carrier, the poor man's Baby Bjorn!). If we were touring somewhere (we didn't go to WDW in those days, but we did plenty of day-long festivals and museums in our local area), I had my hands free. DH would carry a backpack with our diapering and feeding equipment. (Sometimes, he'd even wear the baby in the front AND the backpack!) Also, when they were that small, our babies slept more, cried less often and were less overwhelmed by sights and sounds. If something got to be too much, they'd just keel over and sleep. If they got hungry, I could breastfeed them discreetly, virtually anywhere. (Public breastfeeding is legal in Florida, BTW.)

Obviously your touring will be affected in some way by your family planning. If your wife is pregnant, you'll have to slow down and adjust. If you have a baby, you'll have to slow down and adjust. If you've had issues conceiving and don't yet have a pregnancy or a baby in your life, the sight of all those happy families might require you to adjust emotionally. (I've been there -- it took me 3 years and a battery of fertility testing before we figured out the problem and got me on the right medication to work a miracle.) I wouldn't worry about it at this point.

The other big recommendation I'd give is: buy vacation insurance! (Do it immediately after making your first trip deposit, and companies like TravelGuard will offer a "cancel for any reason" clause.) I wouldn't recommend traveling with your wife over 6 months pregnant (she may be too tired/bloated/uncomfortable, or could end up on bed rest for a host of reasons), or a baby under 10 weeks old (because you and your wife will be very sleep-deprived in those first few weeks), which means that if your due date falls within a certain range, you may wish to reschedule your Disney trip for optimum enjoyment.

Best of luck!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

First post... I'm a WDW veteran with dozens of trips under my belt; on property, off property, camping, dining plan, no dining plan, tight budget, no-expenses-spared, etc. I've done it all except travel with a little one. I know "go with the flow" is the general advice but one area that will need at least some advance planning will be dining reservations. My wife and I have our favorite restaurants so we're somewhat at the mercy of what's available, but given the choice would it be best to plan on sit-down meals at lunch, late lunch, or dinner time? Our daughter is three months now and will be six months at the time of our trip. She sleeps about 10-12 hours at night with cat naps through the day, so we're trying to decide whether to plan on doing the parks in the mornings and evenings with a nap or pool time in between, or if it would be better to tour mornings into the afternoon and then call it quits around dinner time.

ETA: We're staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and at least two of our meals will be at Boma and Sanaa. We'll probably do four to six table service meals total.

 

[KordovaJD]

We're taking our 3 y.o. and 10 month old in May. Flying from San Antonio to Orlando for 6 days. I'll let you know how it goes.

We've done several vacations with infants and it's almost never as bad as it seems. Don't ask me about North Caroline last November.

 

[boilerpicc]

My daughter has been three times: at 3 months, 15 months, and 27 months. The first trip was by far the easiest. My tips for you:
1. Make sure you take a baby carrier. Even little babies can get heavy while waiting in line.
2. Get a stroller that folds easily, but can still accommodate a little one. We went with a Chicco Liteway. It folds like an umbrella stroller, but could recline almost to horizontal.
3. Stay in a resort within walking distance of parks or on a monorail if possible. You have to fold up your stroller for the busses, but not for the monorail. We did the BC when she was 15 months. We would walk to Epcot and DHS, and walk through Epcot to take the monorail to the MK. Our daughter did lots of quality napping during those times. It was nice to not have to worry about waking her up to get her out of the stroller.
4. Use the baby care centers! They are awesome. I still like to go in there to let the toddler eat. They also have lots of items for sale, in case you forget anything.
5. Use the rider swap option to go on the big rides during naps.

Good luck!

 

[boilerpicc]

First post... I'm a WDW veteran with dozens of trips under my belt; on property, off property, camping, dining plan, no dining plan, tight budget, no-expenses-spared, etc. I've done it all except travel with a little one. I know "go with the flow" is the general advice but one area that will need at least some advance planning will be dining reservations. My wife and I have our favorite restaurants so we're somewhat at the mercy of what's available, but given the choice would it be best to plan on sit-down meals at lunch, late lunch, or dinner time? Our daughter is three months now and will be six months at the time of our trip. She sleeps about 10-12 hours at night with cat naps through the day, so we're trying to decide whether to plan on doing the parks in the mornings and evenings with a nap or pool time in between, or if it would be better to tour mornings into the afternoon and then call it quits around dinner time.

ETA: We're staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and at least two of our meals will be at Boma and Sanaa. We'll probably do four to six table service meals total.

I have a couple of tips for doing sit down dinners with a baby. First, include your daughter in the reservation count, even if she isn't going to sit at the table. I know that seems obvious, but I didn't do that for my daughter's first trip and had to explain it at every restaurant. Second, most of the restaurants will let you take a stroller in to the table. We did most of our sit down meals during lunch time, and she would nap during them. That worked really well for us. The only places we ran into that wouldn't let us take the stroller in were the Coral Reef and the Crystal Palace. Sometimes you have to carry it up stairs, but it was worth it to have her sleep.

We generally ended up getting to the parks at opening and staying through the late afternoon. We would generally call it quits around dinner time, as our daughter went to bed then around 7. It was a different experience for my family. I've been going with my family since I was my daughter's age, and we have always been night owls. Now we get our best park time in the morning.