Good age to bring new baby to Disney parks

[ocalla]

We brought our first daughter at 8mos, the second daughter at 5mos. 5 mos was the easiest.....they nap more in stroller, don't want to crawl around, can be carried in front carrier, didn't require more than bottles or nursing. both trips were wonderful!! I'd do it again in a heartbeat......except maybe with grandkids
I know people say they wont remember anything, but the trips were for US, not for her. We are huge Disney fans!!!

 

[Mrsjvb]

Are you wanting the child to get something out of a trip..or you?

infants won’t get anything out of a trip to Disney other than overstimUlta Ed, disrupted schedules and maybe sunburn. They may smile and point, but they aren’t gonna form solid memories until toddler age.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Our little guy was just over a year. We ALL loved it. Many happy memories! With Covid... I’d personally wait but only you know what risk is to you/r family. Did u know southwest now doing the non stops from rsw to Mco if on west coast, I believe same on east coast and many of those non stop 50 minute flights are $49. So worth it imho... no driving.
Whenever you choose to go OP, enjoy, take lots of pix and Be Safe. CONGRATS on ur little one.

 

[jenmsmith]

Congratulations on your new baby!

We brought our youngest at 6 months, then 10 months, 20 months, and 29 months. She was pretty chill at 6 months. Id say anytime before baby is walking is going to be fine as long as your baby is good with chilling in the carrier or stroller. At 6 months, our baby just wanted the baby carrier. At 10 months she only wanted the stroller. We would have taken her even younger than six months, but I wasn’t comfortable in having her strapped to me in the heat of summer.

We took the parks completely at her pace, didn’t focus too much on rides, and just enjoyed being in our happy place.

 

[nancipants]

It could be that the parents are expecting too much of their kids and aren’t keeping to their kids regulars routine. I always say keep your kids rested and fed and for the most part they will behave well. But leave one of those unmet and you will be in trouble.

I think this is exactly the case. Parents go from park open to park close because they want their money's worth, and expect the kids, especially the small ones, not to have meltdowns. I know by the end of a long park day I'm ready to pass out, so I can only imagine a kid who hasn't napped or isn't sleeping according to their normal schedules. Not to mention if they're hungry or dehydrated.

 

[buzznina]

I have a different view on parents with strollers At the end of the day, the parents that look miserable, to us, were the ones without a stroller and are having to carry their sleeping/exhausted child to transportation and waiting in line. For us the stroller saved us from our children having any melt downs from infant through their toddler years. I really think that most of the issues are the parents who try to cram everything into a day and do not take a slower pace or take time to rest. On our very 1st trip with our 3 month old, we did try going back to the resort for naps, but after the 3rd day of failures and it actually making all of us grumpy, we decided to just stay at the park and our DD fell asleep in the stroller and we everyone was much happier When we stayed out late we would sleep in later the next day, so our DD's (and us) got enough sleep.

 

[tjmw2727]

This year - no way would I take a baby to Disney, in fact I would probably be very limited as to where we would go other than the doctor.

In a normal year, it depends..... my first was colic so there was no going anywhere for any of us until she outgrew that, my 2nd was a very easy baby so had she been the first, maybe.

Honestly I wouldn't take a baby for the "baby's sake" but if the family is going and there is a baby or toddler in the family I see no harm in bringing them during a normal "non pandemic" year. We did this when my youngest was 16months and I also had a 3yo. Two of my dh's brothers family and us but we stayed onsite to manage breaks and transportation as their kids were older.

In short I wouldn't stay home from a planned family trip because I had a baby but I definitely wouldn't plan one because I had a baby lol.

 

[CastAStone]

We took our son from the East Coast all the way to Disneyland at 11 months. It’s really hard for me to imagine bringing a kid under 6 months, ESPECIALLY to Walt Disney World. Disneyland is just so much better set up for children under 5: the hotels are all a short walk, there’s no parking, no buses, no folding strollers, the parks are physically smaller (pushing a stroller is a lot!), the weather is more appropriate to keep a child outside for long periods of time, and the parks are open longer giving you more flexibility in going when it works for your kid. You can also leave more stuff in your hotel because it’s close enough.

Leaving the park for a 90 minute nap at WDW takes about 4 hours including walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, taking the bus, walking through a massive hotel property, nap, walking back, waiting for the bus, taking the bus, waiting for security, and on and on. Disneyland a 90 minute nap takes 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Obviously DL is not an option right now; with WDW I’d really suggest under 6 months will be a struggle to have a good time.

They won’t really enjoy it until 15-18 months so before that I’d suggest you try to maximize parent fun while you still can.

 

[bakerworld]

2018 I asked 4 different women in different areas/parks with small children (various ages under a year) if they had a choice would they enjoy Disney with or without their infants. Every one said without. So February 2020 we sent our eldest with their 8 yo and babysat the 9 month old at home.

This is really a personal decision. Personally, I couldn't handle taking the kids to WDW until my youngest was 4 years, which meant the oldest was 10 years and she'd been asking to go to Disney since she was six. I've always felt badly about making her wait but I could barely handle taking an infant anywhere.

 

[Rory607]

Congratulations on your new baby! It’s all personal preference. I didn’t mind taking my kids anywhere as babies, including Disney. You just have to adapt and change the way you do things. It will not be the same kind of trip as adults-only, but that’s okay.

With that said, I probably wouldn’t risk it during a pandemic. I don’t know the statistics on babies and covid, but it would not be a risk I would be comfortable taking. I know Disney has taken lots of precautions, but it would not be worth it to me, personally

 

[mom2rtk]

We didn't take any of our kids as babies. I sort of wish I had pictures of them with Mickey as babies, but you can't even do that right now. No chance would I take a young baby during a pandemic. I'd want to give their immune system time to mature.

I would personally wait until later next year since I doubt they'll be vaccinating babies for Covid for quite some time. You'll need more people around your baby to be vaccinated to protect them.

 

[mjkacmom]

Are you wanting the child to get something out of a trip..or you?

infants won’t get anything out of a trip to Disney other than overstimUlta Ed, disrupted schedules and maybe sunburn. They may smile and point, but they aren’t gonna form solid memories until toddler age.

My youngest were almost 5 on their trip, they are almost 18 and really don’t remember it at all. If you want them to have memories one should plan a trip when they are older (granted it’s not like we look at photos or reminisce about the tri).

 

[FSU Girl]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I think I’ll wait and see when she starts sleeping through the night so mama won’t be so tired when we go. She’s a really good baby hardly ever cries and I think would handle the trip well. Hopefully a vaccine comes out soon so covid won’t be as much of an issue.

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I think I’ll wait and see when she starts sleeping through the night so mama won’t be so tired when we go. She’s a really good baby hardly ever cries and I think would handle the trip well. Hopefully a vaccine comes out soon so covid won’t be as much of an issue.

Whoever would be in the room next to yours thanks you.

 

[Best Aunt]

Whoever would be in the room next to yours thanks you.

This.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

As others have said, I would wait for a bit. Not only is it COVId season, but it is also RSV season which spreads from kid to kid easily. My own baby was hospitalized for it.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Really this decision is based on what you and your traveling party can tolerate. We traveled and did long road trips with our kids when they were newborns but I avoided crowded places the first few months, we just traveled to see family and convenient places where nursing and napping were easy. I love Disney but never took my kids as newborns. Wasn’t on my radar for me or my husband IMO and especially not during the summer months. I think you’ll have lots of varying opinions on this but for us the best vacations when our kids were babies were the beach and vacation rentals, slow pace and easy. Disney has been great for us since kids hit school age as far as total family enjoyment. Prior to that it was more work, still fun, but just not as enjoyable as it’s been more so as our girls have gotten older.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Without FP+ you'll be standing in lines if you intend to go on the attractions. You can't usually bring a stroller in the line, but must park it. Will the baby be okay with you not moving much for 30-60 minutes? Will you?

 

[gharter]

We brought our kids when they were 18 months old and they had a great time. Be sure to plan time to go back to the room for naps. while they might sleep in a stroller, at least for our kids, it wasn't the same. We just traded off who went back to the room each day and where you would meet up later.

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I think I’ll wait and see when she starts sleeping through the night so mama won’t be so tired when we go. She’s a really good baby hardly ever cries and I think would handle the trip well. Hopefully a vaccine comes out soon so covid won’t be as much of an issue.

Exactly. I was just thinking back to waking up every two hours for feedings and how dead tired I felt--I started to feel a bit more human around the 4 month mark but before then is so exhausting. I don't think I'd want to plan on any type of vacation until 4-6 months even in a normal year.

Also, make sure you keep an eye on the weather to avoid cold snaps where you wouldn't want to be outdoors with a baby all day. Especially since with social distancing, most of queues that were formerly mostly indoor queues are now stretched far outdoors, and there are often outdoor waits even for indoor shows. And as for health concerns, it's not just Covid--winter months are bad any type of standard cold/flu season bug that can get scary with an infant, and if you get sick that is not easy either, especially if you are breastfeeding or pumping (your milk tends to dry up if you get sick because you get dehydrated). So both good reasons to maybe wait a bit for the springtime.

And congratulations!!!!