I would say minimum 6 months old for a week long trip (local would be different). By then they have somewhat of a routine, they don’t eat and poop quite so often, and they have some head control which is nice. But my caveat would be not in summer. I saw so many sweaty, miserable tiny babies last July.
I generally try to keep baby home for at least the first 2 months. Before 2 months: fever = spinal tap
With measles outbreaks though, I would definitely have baby get a dose of MMR before going (must be at least 6 months old). My preemie is getting a dose of MMR before our December trip (she will be 11 months when we go).
Traveling anywhere with young kids is the exact opposite of relaxing. So I just try to enjoy it and not completely lose my sanity
By reading through these posts it seems it is so individual regarding parents’ perceptions of traveling with children. Kids (and parents) all have different temperaments. And my skills with child number one were much different than my skills with child number 6. My budget was also different. It’s not a static formula to figure out who should or should not vacation with children at X age.
Not Disney but when DD10 was born if was unseasonably warm for October, like mid 70s-80s. DDs doc said there was no reason I couldn’t take her to the yearly Oktoberfest because she had quite a few of her first shots at birth. She was a 3 weeks old then and managed long enough to eat and walk the booths. I was okay walking for awhile but Csection was still tender up to 3 months later so I was only up and moving a few hours at a time. Considering we fly though, if we would have had the savings then, Disney I would have waited until a year old and hope the flight wasn’t horrible. She could at least sit up in a stroller, see things and walk sometimes then. Honestly though we didn’t go many places up till age 4 because strollers are a nightmare to me lol
I live in fear of life without a stroller.
My youngest is six and I still take it with me to our local amusement park to hold snacks, towels, clothes, sunscreen.
I tell you, this is the truth… we’ve always got water bottles hanging from the handle, extra snacks, sunscreen etc in a bag under the seat. So much nicer than having to carry a huge, heavy park bag. I mean, we still carry the park bag with diapers or other things we might need on hand in line while the stroller is parked, but still better than hauling it all!
Strollers were a nightmare to me too, but the ergo carrier made travel pretty painless as long as wherever we were wasn’t too hot. I can see the gear transport advantage of a stroller, for the parks, but DS7 is definitely too tall now and I don’t think he’d consider it even if he weren’t.
I’m torn on strollers in general. At WDW they are a pain to park but what would I do with all that stuff. Even when we go other places I wonder. I even asked my husband what we did before kids - because we often still lug stuff around Ike water and sunscreen. We still often carried a backpack even without kids.
I used to think I wouldn’t go with a young child. But in the last two years we took our youngest at 10 months and again at 20 months. Had an amazing trip both times. On the first trip, DS was fascinated by all the sights and sounds, and DW wore him in a carrier for most of the trip. For our second trip, seeing his pure joy with meeting Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy was so rewarding (and we’ve never generally been character people up to this point ).
Personally I’d wait until the first set of vaccinations (6 months). After that, I feel like we could handle everything at this point.
Yesterday I took my just turned 4 year old to see Secret Life of Pets 2 and then out to dinner. As I’m walking out the door (without anything in hand), my wife says “Aren’t you taking a bag for all the stuff?” I told her I put hand wipes and a couple potty seat covers in my jean’s pockets and that I didn’t think I’d need anything else. My wife brings a huge bag whenever she leaves the house with one of kids and she couldn’t understand how I could go out without one.
I was just over 7 weeks old on my first trip. I went again right before my 1st birthday and my sons’ first trip he was just over 1 year old. We would have gone sooner but we scheduled an entire family vacation (aunt, uncles, cousins) and they voted for the end of November/early December to see the Christmas décor.
I can’t wait until we don’t need strollers. Most of the stuff won’t be needed once the youngest kid is old enough to walk all day. I am a fan of cargo shorts, so I can carry whatever I need. I figure wallet, phone and power bank should be all I need, plus maybe a small tube of sunscreen to re-apply on hot days where you sweat it off.
My kids haven’t complained about the drinking fountain water so far, so I think I’ll be able to leave the bottled water behind. If anyone complains, they can carry their own filtration bottle.
Before we had kids, DH & I felt the same as OP, why bring a baby to WDW/DL? We took one trip to Orlando in 2012 when our oldest was 10 months old, mainly to see WWoHP and our baby stayed home with grandma & grandpa. We had 4 days in Orlando but only 3 day tickets for USO so with our last day we decided to do MK. On our day in MK, I missed him every second seeing all the babies that everyone else had brought, but was glad overall I didn’t subject him to the crankiness that every single baby I saw midday was suffering.
Then in 2013, DH’s two oldest siblings planned a trip to the much closer to home DL with their grade-school & pre-school aged kids and invited the younger two siblings (DH & one other sister) all of which had babies. The trip dates were set to be right as I was coming back from maternity leave with our 2nd & if I chose to try to re-arrange that with my boss, it would’ve meant taking a 3 month old & 23 month old to DL. It still didn’t sound fun, so we initially told them, we’ll have to pass.
Then while I was home on maternity leave, my oldest became Disney obsessed rotating between watching Wreck-it-Ralph, Tangled & Finding Nemo. ALL.DAY.LONG. And it re-awoke a huge Disney fan in me. So we decided, what the heck? How bad can it be? Let’s take them to Disneyland. And it was the most fun I’d ever had in a Disney theme park ever. Even our 3 month old daughter was alert enough to enjoy the sights & absolutely fell in love with fireworks and Minnie Mouse. Our nearly 2 yr old son danced to the parades & on our last day we got in line to meet Mickey & Minnie together and as we got to the front of the line & he realized that he would be seeing them together the look of pure delight in that one second made the trip worth it a thousand times over.
We’ve since had a 3rd and his first trip was at 2 months old (and the Facebook memories popped up yesterday saying it was 2 years ago this week) and he went many times that summer while both DH & I were on parental leave with him.
Now I will admit that with DL being a drive-able distance and now a very familiar place to us, I wouldn’t blink over taking a 2 month old (and maybe even a 1 month old but it would depend on how well I am recovering from birth too), but I would have a lot more hesitation about the flight & much bigger destination of WDW. I would absolutely avoid taking a less than 2 year old in the heat/humidity of the summer and for the flight I would probably prefer that the baby be closer to 6-12 months, but depending on the circumstances of the trip, I may be flexible to try with a younger baby. After all, I didn’t think I’d want to take my kids to Disneyland so young, but we did & it forever changed our lives. So maybe flying with a kid that young wouldn’t be so bad either?
We were about to spring for a Keenz as our older kids are getting at the edge of stroller size & then Disney went & changed the rules on wagons. We still have a 2 yr old that absolutely requires one so we’re still a ways out, but even watching the older 2 phase out of being in a stroller, there’s a lot I’m stressed out about for the future.
I’m with you there… Disney World is just a different animal. We always try to be prepared given the heat, humidity and long days and having that stroller to pack away the things that we may need to help us through the day is awesome.
In the real world though, I’m usually going lean. The older kids are old enough to know they need to plan ahead if we’re just going to be gone a couple of hours. The little one, I might grab a couple of diapers, wipes and a sippy cup and roll. I don’t want to haul around a big huge diaper bag if I don’t have to!
This is a good point. I live within driving distance of Disneyland (about 5-6 hours) so we didn’t have to get on a plane or visit an airport (which is a hotbed for disease) to make our trip to DLR with our 3-month-old. The weather was nice (cool, relatively dry) and there weren’t a lot of sick people (not flu season) so I felt much more comfortable having my baby at DLR in May/June than I would have felt flying 6 hours to WDW in August.
Each parent will have to weigh the risks, consider the benefits, take necessary precautions, make a judgment, and carry out a plan that works for them.
I found flying with DD5 sooo easy when she was a baby - she slept through most of the flights (even the transatlantic ones). Another big plus is that because she grew up flying regularly (she averages 6-7 return flights a year, 2-3 of them transatlantic) it’s never been a big deal to her. Zero issues with getting her to sit still with her seat belt on, or keeping her entertained.
Some of my love for the stroller is budget (& convenience) related as well. I’d much rather pack water and soda bottles and some small snacks than have to go wait in line for food every time one of us gets hungry or thirsty.
