Traveling with a 1 year old

Walt Disney World
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Couple of questions for the ‘baby.’

  1. Can he literally ride on my lap on certain rides like IASM or PotC? What about the safari at AK? How do rides work with a little one? Can I wear him in a baby carrier on the ride ( we will have a stroller but I didn’t know if I should bring the carrier too)?
  2. Can I take him to a mothering station and let him nap with me in a rocking chair there for half an hour or is it only for nursing?
    3 Will characters interact with or hold the baby? No, right? That would be dangerous, right? ( You can see parts of me think it would be adorable for Cinderella to hold the little man… But goofy not so much?)
    4 I assume any food place that has hot water will fill a bottle for us, yes? How about heat infant food?

Any other tips for traveling to the world with baby boy? TIA

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I can’t answer all your questions, but your baby can for sure ride on your lap for any ride that does not have a height requirement. We loved having the baby carrier for waiting in line. Usually we unstrapped the carrier right before getting on the ride so he could face forward and see, but he feel asleep before Buzz and my husband wore him throughout the whole ride while he slept.

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He can ride on your lap for most rides. We had an Ergo baby carrier and my then-7-month-old stayed in the carrier for some rides (magic carpets, IASW). There are a few where they want children seated NEXT to, not on a parent (e.g. Safari), but not sure that holds for a 1 year old who can’t actually sit by himself in a high bench seat.
Characters will interact++ with baby. If sitting, some face characters (e.g. Ariel) may hold him on their lap.
By health regulations they won’t be able to take food away and heat in their own microwave, etc, but they should (I don’t know this first hand) be able to bring you a dish of warm water to heat food in I expect. We didn’t bring anything that needed to be warmed with us - our guy ate what we ate, plus pouches of assorted room-temperature fruit and vegetable stuff.
Good luck! :slight_smile:

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Watch out for Goofy and Pluto! Those whiskers are pointy, and they can’t see them. Pluto accidentally poked my then-2-yr-old in the face (eye maybe? Can’t remember exactly, was 5 years ago) at Chef Mickey’s during the character interaction and after that he wanted nothing to do with either.

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We took both our kids when they were very young. Just chill - it will be ok. Yes there are several rides that you can go on with them on your laps and others you will want to skip with them. You can also child swap on many rides. Although this is new to you - it is old hat for cast members so they will help you.

You can go to a station - although we never did - there are plenty of places where you can just sit and relax. The little one will be able to sleep no problem.

We did have a sturdy umbrella stroller (not a huge monster) that reclined that was perfect for the trip.

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I literally just returned from DW with my 13 month old boy and can answer many of these questions!!
Couple of questions for the ‘baby.’

  1. Can he literally ride on my lap on certain rides like IASM or PotC? IASW definitely yes, my little guy was obsessed with this ride. It is so mellow, he was in the front row standing and holding on to the front of the boat and having a ball. The carrier is fine too, it depended on his mood whether I had him in the carrier or just sittign on the lap. He also went on dumbo, haunted mansion, carousel (sat on a horse and my husband stood to the side - also a favorite), Anna and Elsa, peter pan, toy story (I worried this was too jerky but he was with my husband and wasn’t crying so I guess not). Of course he also LOVED anything remotely splash pad. sometimes the safety bar comes down and I had to shift to the side a little when he was in the carrier and I was also wearing my backpack. We didn’t go on POTC this time, I did think there was a slight drop that he wouldn’t have liked but he didn’t mind the drops on A&E at all.

What about the safari at AK? We didn’t go to AK, I would not have taken him on this only because I remember it being very uncomfortable and jerky.

How do rides work with a little one? Can I wear him in a baby carrier on the ride ( we will have a stroller but I didn’t know if I should bring the carrier too)? see above, definitely bring the carrier if he likes it. My guy napped in it a couple of times and it was good to keep him contained in lines, rides, etc.
2. Can I take him to a mothering station and let him nap with me in a rocking chair there for half an hour or is it only for nursing? Don’t know, I thought about this too. I also thought about taking him to the contemporary and finding some comfy chairs to nap in, as I read online this was an option. But, it turned out we never needed it - he was either wide away and stimulated or he napped in the carrier. Once he napped in the stroller, but he is not a big stroller napper. We were only there 2 days.

3 Will characters interact with or hold the baby? No, right? That would be dangerous, right? ( You can see parts of me think it would be adorable for Cinderella to hold the little man… But goofy not so much?)
Definitely interact, I didn’t ask anyone to hold him as I thought they probably wouldn’t want to or weren’t allowed, but pretty much every character my daughter met also spoke to him and interacted with him. I am sure they would have been happy to have him in the photos too, we just didn’t want to mess with it. But they were very good with him. I’m sure there are ways you can have him in the photos without them holding him.

4 I assume any food place that has hot water will fill a bottle for us, yes? How about heat infant food?
I would assume they would do this, but my son was eating table food so I didn’t try it out.

Any other tips for traveling to the world with baby boy? TIA
I used garden grocer and had milk, baby food pouches, baby snacks, diapers and wipes delivered to the hotel (they were there waiting for us when we arrived), so that I didn’t have to lug all that stuff along. My guy is very active and he was restricted all day so we looked for opportunities to let him have a “walk-a-bout” - the splash pad at MK, the dumbo play area, fountains at epcot, splash pad at the hotel (it was hot), the baby play area under the bridge near splash mountain, and the open area in front of Hollywood and vine at HS. He was otherwise trapped in the stroller and the carrier for so much of the day. He loved the rides! He would literally cry when they stopped. Use ride share - that is such a great benefit and my daughter got to ride snow white and splash mountain twice!

We considered going back to the hotel for a nap like we did when my daughter was 3, but we ended up letting him nap on the go and were back to the hotel for a fairly early bedtime (8-ish). We brought a decent sized stroller that would lay flat and had good shade and I was glad we did that because it was so sunny and an umbrella stroller would not have cut it for this trip. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head but please feel free to ask any questions! Disney is the perfect family friendly place for a 1 year old so do not be nervous, you will be amazed at the accommodations.

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Thank you all so much!!

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We also just got back with our our 11 month old and the entire trip exceeded my expectations. It was fantastic!

We took him on the AK safari and he sat on my lap and at points actually just sat/stood on the floor of the ride. I never had any issues with how/where he sat on any of the rides. Poor thing slept through FEA on my shoulder. The picture is adorable. I really, really recommend the Boneyard at AK to let them play. They had low dinosaur bones that my son loved crawling over and the whole place is the spongy, playground floor that is great for little walkers. There is even some water play as well. It was fantastic.

The baby centers have a water bubbler where you can get cold or hot spring water. They also had some bottle warmers. I personally wouldn’t plan to have the baby nap there but we fed our son there multiple times because they had AC and high chairs! For naps, I’m sure it varies by baby, but our son mostly slept in the stroller. I wandered some of the quieter stores or shady areas while he slept and also went to the Poly and Contemporary lobby as well. At AK we did the animal trails and at Epcot we hung out in quiet WS locations as well as the Craft Beer building. He was very kind and timed his afternoon naps to the rain storms so we lucked out there.

We also brought pouches but if it is hot out your son might be willing to eat them at room temp without needing to get them heated. I don’t heat too much food at home, but we didn’t heat anything for him. I brought yogurt, cheese and peas/carrots mix in baggies in a small cooler with us. It is nice having a stroller for storage!

He loved the characters and I mostly held him up to them so he could touch their noses and so that they could see him better. They are very well trained for babies and all of them started the interaction by holding out their hand so that he could touch it and they went from there. Some of the smaller ones like Minnie and Pluto crouched down for pictures, but Buzz couldn’t really do that. We didn’t actually meet any face characters, but I definitely would think they would get down to the little one’s level. This is my favorite picture ever! I was so happy he liked the characters and wasn’t afraid!

PhotoPass_Visiting_EPCOT_7814864245.jpeg6000×4000 1.99 MB

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This makes me wish I had done some character photos with my son!! What was I thinking.

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I liked the baby carrier for rides that went up in the air, like Dumbo. made me feel more secure. Longer rides like safari and the train were excellent for breastfeeding.

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LOL, I was just trying to imaging nursing my guys while on the safari, bouncing around. I am way too un-coordinated to try something like that, I am SO impressed!

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Just a general suggestion if you have the time…try to train your child not take a bottle warm. Maybe room temp water (like from a water bottle) or cold if they will be drinking cow milk by then. When you travel, there isn’t always a place to make a warm bottle (say airport, car, etc) and dealing with a screaming, angry, hungry child whose bottle isn’t perfect isn’t fun. Same for food…don’t heat anything. Keep it simple.

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