Travelling with an infant

Kiwi14

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 6, 2017
Hi All

Apologies if this is repeating any post that has been made previously.

We are visiting Orlando and the Walt Disney World area next year and are considering either April or September. What we are after are any tips for travelling with, what will then be, either a 5 month old or a 10 month old. Any tips for flying? Car seats etc for car hire as well as whether to take a pram etc. Would love to hear from people who have done this before because, although we are experienced travellers to Orlando, flying with an infant is going to be very different :)

Some may think we are mad, but we have reasons for visiting every year and next year will be no exception, even with a little one.

Thanks in advance
 
If you are going to be staying at a family owned Villa then you will be fine.

If you are going to be staying at a Disney Hotel & visiting the Parks everyday

then I would think again about this trip. ........... None of you will enjoy it.
 
I disagree with the above. We took my DD to LA and Disneyland when she was 10m old along with her then 3 year old brother. We had a brilliant time, stayed in a hotel, went to to the parks and did other things ever hiking and beach trips it was lots of fun. Yes there's work involved like washing etc.

Personally I wanted to wait until my daughter was established on solid foods, I know others feel it's easier with a milk fed baby, but for me that depends on how they are fed - whether you want to lug around multiple bottles or how comfortable you are with breast feeding. We have always taken our own pram, car seat etc. Flights have never been a problem for either of mine, at 10m she slept on the way there and on way back (all the way, my arms were tired!)

My DS is now just turned 5 and is about to embark on his 4th trip to Orlando and my 2.5 DD is on her 2nd so it can't be that bad
 
I enjoyed our trip with a 13 month old so I don't see a 10 month old being much different.

I froze bottles to keep her cool and had a fan clipped to her pushchair, but she never got too hot. She was surprisingly good on the 9 hour flight too!
 


I have friends who took their 6 Month old and said it was much easier than when he was 2 or 3 later.

When we have one we plan to do the same, but just keep it really chilled out. We've been WDW a few times now, so not in a huge rush to do all the rides!
 
All our girls took their first trip at 12 months old so I'd say that taking a 10 month old would be absolutely fine! I loved seeing their reactions to it all! We stayed on property and close to MK so we could pop back for naps and to cool off but there are plenty of opportunities to take rests/naps during the day - riding on the monorail or boat and visiting hotel lobbies is one idea. Babycare centres are useful and there is one in each park. I'd say definitely bring your own pram (we bought an extra lightweight one at this point and left our larger pushchair at home) - it will be handy for airport, etc as well as around Disney. Having an older baby who could eat from our plates and drink regular cow's milk did make it simpler when travelling.
 
We took our 10 month old with a three year old and had a great time! Took a few days for sleeping to settle down but other than that great and to be honest as they sleep they are easier than toddlers!!

He mainly enjoyed characters but obviously not fussed by rides. We had a great time and have some amazing pictures

For the flight I recommend requesting a sky cot if the do them as if nothing else it gives you extra space.

We stayed on site and visited parks everyday

We took a buggy and have a yo yo which you can take on the plane, we also took car seats but packed.light on everything else and just did washing.

The only pain was security with two tired children and lots of stuff we took on the plane!


Enjoy!
 


we are taking our nearly 2yo this year and cant wait, not sure how the flight will go but been recommened by others, to have lots of 'presents' through the flight.

we got alot of stick from family for booking as it was deemed 'a waste of money as they wont remember it', but we will remember it, and when they are older they will see the pictures etc.
 
we got alot of stick from family for booking as it was deemed 'a waste of money as they wont remember it', but we will remember it, and when they are older they will see the pictures etc.

We are already getting those responses and we don't even have a little one, but they know we'll take them when we do!
 
We have taken all of our children pre their one year birthday and stayed at both a private villa and on Disney property. We go every year too :)
This year we took ds when he was just 4 months old and we are going again next week (excited) when he will be 10 months old. Flying with a baby is a lot easier than with a toddler imho as they are more than happy to sit/be entertained where as a toddler wants to be move!!

Easier to go pre food - weaning stage too as giving milk feeds (either bottle or breast) is again easier as less to fuss with and by 5 months milk feeding is usually established. Depending on how your little one feeds (for example our middle dd had a bad gag reflex so every meal she would throw up which was not fun on a plane ) but we still took her and had a fun time.

Flying virgin gives you the sky cot option-Thomas cook do not have them so virgin would be better if you want/need the extra space for baby and you. Both means you can check suitcases, pram and car seat for baby... again Thomas cook have less luggage ability than virgin for baby (23 kg versus 10kg hold luggage-baby allowed hand luggage seperate on virgin where as Thomas cook baby has to share with you)

In the parks-take it at baby's pace- try and get them to sleep in the pram (much easier than leaving the park every 2 hours!) use baby swap passes and have fun! It's super special taking a baby and we've not regretted one trip!!

Happy travels
 
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If you are going to be staying at a family owned Villa then you will be fine.

If you are going to be staying at a Disney Hotel & visiting the Parks everyday

then I would think again about this trip. ........... None of you will enjoy it.
This isn't true. We visited with twins when they were 4 months, 6 months, ten months, 12 months and 18 months. Countless trips since then. They also traveled to Russia and Scandinavia from Canada at 8 months. I can assure you that the whole family (myself, dh and dd, now 13) all had a great time.

We stay in dvc Villas, which I recommend for kitchen and laundry facilities as well as the extra space. We always do groceries. I would pack enough diapers, wipes, formula for a 24h period in case of flight delays. When they were on formula, I shipped a box ahead so they would not have tummy upset. If you are breast feeding this will not be an issue.

We always rented car seats at the airport. Too much trouble to bring them. We travelled with a city select double stroller.

Never needed checked luggage. Just did carry on for me and dh. Dd, 13 carried a backpack, twins had no bags. I always joked that they were luggage. I used a backpack so my hands were free.

I always stuck to the twins' home routine. No late nights.

Travelling with babies is fun. My husband always says that we parent at home or away. I'm happy to see the world with my babies in tow.
 
Hi All

Apologies if this is repeating any post that has been made previously.

We are visiting Orlando and the Walt Disney World area next year and are considering either April or September. What we are after are any tips for travelling with, what will then be, either a 5 month old or a 10 month old. Any tips for flying? Car seats etc for car hire as well as whether to take a pram etc. Would love to hear from people who have done this before because, although we are experienced travellers to Orlando, flying with an infant is going to be very different :)

Some may think we are mad, but we have reasons for visiting every year and next year will be no exception, even with a little one.

Thanks in advance

I'd say wait until 10 months. They will be better able to engage and show their enjoyment etc so you will get more out of it with them. That said, we went in October and it was unseasonably hot. There is a huge difference between your capacity to deal with the heat as an adult bouncing from ride to ride. It is quite another thing dealing with it with a young family in tow... September therefore might not be as easy weather wise as April?

We took our son at 18 months (so he was walking and starting to talk) and he loved it. There is so much for them to see and do. Amazing! However, we stayed at CSR (lovely resort) and having only travelled as an adult with other adults in recent years I had really not registered how important (or complex) the travel time between park and hotel is. Little ones love Magic Kingdom. If you hire a car (as we did) and drive from resort to TTC and then take the boat (monorail service was hit and miss when we were there due to routine maintenance) and then stand in bag check line it can be upwards of an hour and half from resort to first attraction! By that time the small person is already running out of patience before you have even started. Then you have to do it all in reverse at the point that they decide they've really had enough or you want to go and cool off in the pool... Net result, minimal park time, loads of time spent travelling.

Don't underestimate the tiring nature of lugging all the stuff (pushchair, bags etc) that you wouldn't normally bring, and the impact of nap, feeding etc on your touring strategy.

Other things to bear in mind - it takes me usually 2 days to adjust to the time difference. Our little one didn't adjust until about day 9 of the holiday, so it wasn't until we had been there over a week that we finally managed to see some fireworks! This might actually be easier with a younger infant, as their sleep wake cycles are a lot less rigid. On the plus side, he loved the fireworks when he did see them, so that was a bonus.

Regarding flights, go with a decent carrier, go direct, ring and ask for details of the bassinet/seats that they use and check the length. When we flew to New York when our son was 6 months old and he was already almost too long for the British Airways bassinet. Also, every time the seatbelt sign went on we had to lift him out and put the infant lap belt on which was an absolute pain on both legs of the journey, but particularly upsetting on the red eye flight home as it woke him up every time!! On our flight to Orlando I booked him a separate seat to avoid this issue and bought a CARES harness so that he was allowed to stay in it (although he still had to sit on my lap for take off and landing) - much less stressful.

The car seats that they give you at the car hire are basic, but safe. If it is leather/hard plastic make sure you cover with a towel when not in use as they can get roasting hot in the sun!

Take a pushchair that is lightweight and folds down small, you will be putting it up and down A LOT! Make sure that it is easy to spot in a crowd and don't leave anything valuable in it when you go inside. WDW staff move them around to make space whilst you are away, so don't panic if you go back to find it and it appears to be missing. It's probably just around been moved up a bit, but sometimes they do go missing so keep your stuff safe.

Make sure that you pack plenty of nappies etc unless you plan to do garden grocer/Walmart or similar as the baby centres are great but don't always have all the sizes and only stock certain brands.

US formula milk sold in the baby centres is not always to be relied upon - our son ran out in MK so we went and got one and put it in his bottle - he looked like we had betrayed him when he tasted it so I tried some, really really bitter!! Nasty. Not at all like his usual milk. Once they are able to have cow's milk instead that becomes less of an issue.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely think WDW is a great place with infants. It is set up to be helpful, people are so understanding when your little one is tired/crying/wants to get up and leave the theatre half way through a show etc other families are friendly and people offer to help you/like to talk to your little one and so on. It's just about planning for all eventualities.

We are going again in Feb this year and splitting the stay between BC and GF to significantly reduce transfer times. We are also going in the winter so it won't be so hot! These are the two take home lessons that we learnt from our first trip. Also we are staying in GF villas so that we will have a little kitchen for our second week - that is worth a consideration as it makes early mornings, bottles etc much easier. Sterilising stuff in a hotel sink is a pain when you only have the one in the bathroom.
 

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