WDW with an Infant

Our dd 13 has been a regular guest at WDW since she was 3 weeks old. The small baby (1 and under) were the easiest times I think. She was a good baby and learned early on to go with the flow and be flexible. I had the individual packets of formula and would take bottles of water and when she was hungry I'd make her a bottle. Later I took baby food and fed her wherever. She slept in the stroller and I remember it not being a big deal at all, even with a 5 yr old brother and 3 yr old sister with us. We had a front facing baby-bjorn thingie and Mike would walk around with her in it all day. We spent LOTS of time at Disney when the kids were small and I don't remember being stressed or overwhelmed at all. If they got crabby (or WE got crabby) we just went home - beauty of annual passes.
Not sure I could do it now, I see young families now and wonder how I did it, but I did and we have really really good memories. It takes a combination of planning and organization and flexibility, but can be done.

I agree with your parents, I traveled to Disney with all my babies and it was easy. Tori's first trip was at 12 days old, Kirk was about a month or two, I don't think Katie got to go until she was 3. I never let the kids slow me down when it came to travel, and when they're that small they really do sleep a lot in the stroller.

I think that the key to traveling with infants is pre-planning, and being prepared for any circumstance. I would pack an extra large diaper bag with twice as many diapers as normal, extra formula, and two changes of clothing minimum. We always took our own stroller so that the kids would be comfortable in a seat that they knew. Lots of sunscreen, shade, and a little battery operated fan if it's hot. As far as attractions go, you can do the kid swap in line with your partner - but I chose just to ride the more tame rides & shows that I could hold the baby on.

The biggest downside to taking an infant to Disney is that strangers tend to offer unsolicited advice and tell you how crazy you are for having a baby at Disney. If you can get over that, it's a great time!

It's been a long time since my kids were that age - but I have pictures of them in restaurants sleeping in the stroller. A sleeping baby is a good baby, which makes for happy relaxed parents. We've always eaten around 5pm, so I'm not sure there was much of a change in time for me. We went out to eat all the time anyway, so I can't imagine it made much of a difference in how I ate at Disney. One of my favorite Disney memories is from when Kirk went to Hoop-Dee-Doo at 18 months, a little older than you're asking about.

The cool thing is they get in for FREE!

One of my absolute favorite memories of WDW occurred when we went with my precious girl who was about nine months old at the time. We went to the Crystal Palace character breakfast because we were also there with my four year old son. At one point my son and wife left the table to get some food while I sat with my daughter. A certain character ambled over and came right smack dab up to my daughter's tiny little face. Her eyes opened as wide as they could as she focussed on this strange giant. She put her hands out and delicately touched his soft adorable face and petted and hugged him. My guess is this continued for nearly a minute as he slowly rocked his head back and forth a bit. It was so innocent, sweet and amazing! Kudos to the character for simply standing there and letting her (and me!) have an incredible moment. The character? Eeyore!

A funny thing about that is that, strangely enough, when we returned several years later, the only souvenir she ever asked for was a loveable little Eeyore. Well, that or the super huge Eeyore.

We're planning on taking a trip when our daughter is a little over 1 yrs old, but we will be leaving her at home with her grandparents as it's really a surprise trip for my sisters' high school graduation and we don't want baby to limit the rides we're able to do with them or slow down their park touring. The current plan is to take her on her first trip at 2 1/2 years so she's just old enough to really experience everything but young enough she's still free

It is easy, and hard. It takes a lot of gear if you are bottle feeding. But I found these really cool disposable bottles that had their own nipples, awesome. You always start heavy in the Morning and by the end of the day, you have quite a bit less.

I made our ADR's just like I always would. I just had snacks for the infant.

With my first Daughter, she was 9 Months her first trip, and we also had a great experience at Hollywood & Vine. June came up to her and she couldn't stop screaming. We watched Little Einsteins a lot at that age. She was screaming happy and kept touching her face and nose. She was sooooo happy and had no idea how to communicate that happiness. It was hilarious and brought tears to my eyes. I would not have known that she would have that reaction if we had not taken her at that age.

My youngest daughter went for the first time at 8 Months. She would have been 3 Months old, but my transmission went out and I had to cancel my trip to replace that instead. She would just stare in awe at all of the characters. It was precious.

I am sooo glad that we have taken the girls (now 2 & 4) since they were babies. Each age brings different happy moments and different levels of understanding of the surroundings. I get to look back at pictures and relive the progression of each trip.

I am thrilled to get to watch them grow up, through pictures, at WDW. They are so into so many things each trip, but each trip is so different because they grow up just a little bit between trips. One thing is for sure, they both LOVE their characters and have since they were infants.

My 4 year old (will be 5 in Aug) has been to WDW 5 times and DL twice.
My 2 year old has been to WDW 3 times and DL once.

I have a friend who waited until her youngest was 4, so that she would remember the trip. She said she wished she would not have waited so that she could have watched the difference between trips. They don't go very often, but she saw the reaction of the the infants around her and wished that she had pics of those character interactions.

So Eeyore, is there something we should know?

Absolutely!! I think that for all my kids, my favorite age to have them there when they were small was age three. They were potty trained and feed themselves, so no stress there, but they were still tiny enough that absolutely everything was magic to them. Every prince and princess was real, and every ride was exciting!

we also started taking our son at a young, age I think around 3mos.. It was actually quite enjoyable, he was a quiet baby so restaurants were no issue, he slept most of the time in the carriage so we did not worry about taking him back for naps or early bed, so we did not lose out on any of the night time fun like fireworks ect. I would say go for it and have a great time.

My friend's took their 5 week old last year. We had a large group with their paternal great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and then my mom and sisters. At the parks, we all went and rode the rides while mom hung out with the baby. She nursed frequently, but would go to the baby care center, which I guess is air conditioned, so she actually said it was kind of relaxing sitting in there with the baby while the rest of us were sweltering outside in the lines!! We did regular meal times (we even went to the late Spirit of Aloha show) and the baby either slept in her car seat or was passed around to one of the "grandmas" who gladly snuggled her while mom and dad ate. The character interaction was awesome. At the 'Ohana breakfast, Pluto came over and stuck his nose in the carrier. She was too little to know what was going on, but the pictures are super precious.

I was surprised at how nosy people were. Someone came up to her and yelled at her for not having sunglasses on the baby. They kept the baby covered most of the time (with a fan blowing on her) to keep the sun and dirt off of her, yet people would just come and open the basket/stroller to look at the baby without asking.

We will be watching for the next Disney prince or princess.

This is absolutely adorable. This is why I love Disney. It sounds like a beautiful moment.

I do not have any infants on the horizon yet, so I don't know how I would feel about taking one with me. If others can do it, that's great for them! I am afraid I might be stressed out, but it would probably depend on the temperament of the baby. The only thing my husband commented on was saying that the body carriers are a great idea--but he about passed out on this last trip thinking about carrying one of those suckers on his body in the July heat! So, I guess it would also depend on the time of year you went and the weather. Heat typically makes me more anxious/stressed-therefore, if I brought an infant, it would probably be in the spring or fall for cooler weather.

Oh and don't bring any glass baby products in your bag to the park... on this last trip, one mom was BEYOND pissed when she tried to go through the bags line at Epcot and the security guard told her she couldn't bring her glass storage container into the park. It had some frozen fruit in it or something. The product looked super cool and useful, BUT she had to turn around and take it back to the car/hotel/wherever. She was not happy.

I had a travel system that I had only used as a travel system ONCE. Drove me nuts to have this cramped carrier sitting on top of this spacious stroller. What a complete waste of my (parents) money. BUT, the stroller was soooo roomy when reclined completely. My kids had room to move around inside while napping. It was a Graco Quattro Tour and was a Cadillac compared to every other stroller that I have used. Easy to push and maneuver. I gave it away. Wish I had kept it for when my oldest daughter outgrows the sit/stand stroller.

We had absolutely NO desire to "wear" either infant, they generate so much HEAT! I do have a friend who never used a stroller, only used carriers. She preferred this wrap thing that I tried but I could not figure out. And the stroller really gives you some great storage. You do have to take a lot with you to the parks. I found a diaper changing pad that holds the diapers, disposal bags and wipes and hangs from the stroller handle. I didn't have to get into a diaper bad in the basket to do any diaper changes. Just detach it and off we went. When you open it, you have the changing table covered already. No need to hunt down paper towels or take another pad with you. This is one of the coolest things I found for making WDW easier with an infant. The other was those disposable bottles that I mentioned above. They store very small and take up hardly any room. So cool!

I didn't like those either. We preferred big cushy strollers for the kids. With my son we had a double, which may have been the most wonderful creation on earth. Sure it had a bigger learning curve to push, but there was *so* much room and extra shade. I loved that double stroller.

I'll be honest, sometimes I miss having a stroller just to carry extra "stuff"

We have left merchandise in the stroller, but not in the bags. Only stuffed animals that the girls get to pick out to entertain themselves with during the day. And only on our last full day, when we can't send it back to the room. I only leave things in the stroller that are not valuable. Water bottles, diapers, sippy cup, snacks. No personal info, like ADR confirmation numbers or anything. I carry all my valuables in my very cool cross body bag. I have a new one to try out this trip though. Yes, I am really excited about my new bag! I am a freak. A little wider strap, so even more comfy on my shoulder.

I was following a thread on another forum where a family had only parked the stroller long enough to get their pic taken with the photopass photographer. 2 minutes, tops. And it was gone, the whole thing. And since they were going to be right there, all of their valuables were in it, purse, camera, you name it, they didn't want it in the picture, it was on the stroller. It sounded like it was a very popular stroller with a pretty common print. There are a lot of strollers that look alike at WDW. Maybe the more unique the stroller the less attractive it is to a thief?

I have also read a couple of instances where an identical stroller was left, someone took the wrong stroller on accident. In one instance, they never got their stroller back. It had been borrowed from a friend, oops. The other instance, the mistake was realized and they made the swap.

But, in most cases, I think the stuff remains untouched. There are thieves at WDW, and you can't ever be sure. We haven't had a problem with our 5 trips to WDW and 2 trips to DL with a stroller.

We watched a squirrel steal someone's lunch out of a stroller in May. Sometimes the thieves have 4 legs, not 2.

I used to leave some things in the stroller - but nothing that I really considered valuable. I.e. I might leave the diaper bag, but I would grab my wallet out of it first. I'd leave extra sweaters, raincoats and what-nots in the stroller too. Nothing new in merchandise bags, never my camera or money.

On the rare occasion I would rent a Disney stroller it would sometimes disappear while we were on a ride, but never with anything in them. I never had a problem with that when using my own stroller, but like I said I didn't leave anything that I would be heartbroken if it disappeared.

I actually still have the "what can I leave behind" problem when renting an ECV. There are a couple of rides (Pirates of the Caribbean comes to mind) where you have to park the scooter pretty far away from the line. I'm always re-arranging my bag to figure out what I'm ok leaving sit there.

I'm a fan of taking them between 1 and 3, because:
*they're free
*they understand characters
*they can ride most rides
*they still nap in a stroller
*they still want to ride in a stroller (less darting around to worry about)
*they are easier to feed
*they still sleep through loud noises

I have a Peg Perego stroller and it is AWESOME. I will never EVER understand people touching other people's babies, or giving them lectures about babies, or even thinking it's okay to comment on a baby, other than to compliment. Annoying.

DD3 was 27 months when we went and it was perfect. She was so good and had so much fun...never bored because she "got" it, ya know?