1 Year Old in Disney

allymouse

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Hi there,

New Mom here! My husband and I recently had an adorable baby and we will be taking him to Orlando next October when he will be about 12 months old.

We are WDW vets, me having gone once a year with my family throughout my childhood and now my husband and I frequent the Food and Wine festival each fall.

We will be taking a family vacation with my parents and my sister and her family, staying at my dad’s timeshare at the Marriott World Center. I’m so excited to get back down to Disney and experience it through my son’s
eyes.

I realize I have zero idea how to tackle the parks with a one-year-old. I know it’s not an ideal age to bring a child, this trip is definitely more for mom and dad. Will probably only end up doing a couple of days in the parks since we will be staying off property this time.

Can anybody point me in the direction of some resources? Tips for traveling with a kid that age? Tips for the park? What rides can we do? I’d love to get a conversation going here as I will have way more questions between now and then.

Thank you so much!
 
We took our DD for her first birthday and DS shortly after his.

Both trips were amazing (except DS trip got cut short due to hurricane Irma!)

Here are my thoughts:
-Stroller naps are great at this age. At least for both of mine. On our first trip, We realized that traveling back to the hotel was a huge time waster for us and we were better off having DD nap in the park and rest there. If not, she would fall asleep on the way back to the hotel then want to run around there! Not very restful. So, stroller naps are great. DS also did stroller naps on his first trip at this age.

-I did not anticipate that my kids would react so enthusiastically to everything there at that age. The characters, the castle, etc. Their reactions were priceless. Would bring kids at this age again and again.

-Diapers. I love taking kids in diapers to Disney! So easy. My oldest will be potty trained before our next trip and I am dreading having to deal with public toilets. Diapers are soooo easy to change frequently!

Have so much fun!!!
 
Thank you so much! How nice that you were able to take each of your kids. They are so lucky!

What rides were they able to do at that age? I’m afraid to take baby on a dark ride and have him have a melt down and ruin it for everyone else. Of course I won’t know his temperament until we get closer to the trip.

Any tips for the stroller? Assume I should bring a lightweight one that folds easily. Did baby just sit in your lap on the buses?

How did they do with the fireworks at that age? I’m wondering if I should get some of those little headphones black noises.

Thank you again!
 
I have 3 kids (now 18, 16, & 11) and they've all been to Disney parks at 1 yr old (or even younger). Bring a good but lightweight stroller. It's been a while since I've been in the stroller market, so I don't know what's good these days, but we had one that reclined fully for napping. It had a snack tray and cupholder, folded easily, and was fairly light to carry.

Bring a blanket sleeper or pjs with feet. The air conditioning can be really cold in hotel rooms and our kids didn't use blankets until they were a bit older. We used the hotel's pack n play but brought our own sheets that smelled like home - seemed to help them fall asleep easier.

Bring a lightweight blanket. You can use it to drape over stroller canopy for extra shade from sun and you can also use it to keep baby warm indoors - we found many restaurants to be chilly from air conditioning.

You can ride anything without a height requirement. Some people have recommended bringing a small flashlight or something if kids are afraid in dark rides, but you could probably use your phone if you need to. Bring lots of snacks, Cheerios, Puffs, etc and just be prepared to let baby be your guide.
 
We took our DD for her first birthday and DS shortly after his.

Both trips were amazing (except DS trip got cut short due to hurricane Irma!)

Here are my thoughts:
-Stroller naps are great at this age. At least for both of mine. On our first trip, We realized that traveling back to the hotel was a huge time waster for us and we were better off having DD nap in the park and rest there. If not, she would fall asleep on the way back to the hotel then want to run around there! Not very restful. So, stroller naps are great. DS also did stroller naps on his first trip at this age.

-I did not anticipate that my kids would react so enthusiastically to everything there at that age. The characters, the castle, etc. Their reactions were priceless. Would bring kids at this age again and again.

-Diapers. I love taking kids in diapers to Disney! So easy. My oldest will be potty trained before our next trip and I am dreading having to deal with public toilets. Diapers are soooo easy to change frequently!

Have so much fun!!!

Yes, this. All of this. We took our son on his first trip at 18 months and it was so much fun. He had the best time!

We took him on lots of rides. We chose to skip PoTC and HM for now. He was a little scared of the drop in FEA, but got over it quickly.

I’d say his favorite attractions were Festival of the Lion King at AK, Turtle Talk at Epcot, and Dumbo and the Enchanted Tiki Room at MK.
 
Thank you so much! How nice that you were able to take each of your kids. They are so lucky!

What rides were they able to do at that age? I’m afraid to take baby on a dark ride and have him have a melt down and ruin it for everyone else. Of course I won’t know his temperament until we get closer to the trip.

Any tips for the stroller? Assume I should bring a lightweight one that folds easily. Did baby just sit in your lap on the buses?

How did they do with the fireworks at that age? I’m wondering if I should get some of those little headphones black noises.

Thank you again!

We did any ride without a height requirement! Both my kids did great on the dark rides. I did take DD on HM and PotC but we skipped them with DS. DD did fine on them though, we just ran out of time and they were low on the priority list for DS since that trip got cut short.

We used a city mini for the first trip and now have a city select double. The city mini works great for one! DD was very comfy. Highly recommend.

We just held them on the buses.

Both my kids did great with the fireworks and we didn’t use any headphones or anything at that age. They were MESMERIZED. We did play the Wishes/HEA songs for them before we went though so they would be familiar with them before seeing the shows. Any other questions let me know!
 
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On our first family trip son #3 was 13 months. It was a blast. Luckily, he loved meeting characters. Lots of good advice above....a couple of things I don't think were mentioned - I brought a front carrier just to be an option for when he wanted to be out of the stroller. Obviously can't carry a one year old all day, but worked great at times to make him feel part of the action. We spent lots of time in the playgrounds .... especially the Pooh themed play area that was in MK and the area under splash mountain. (Not sure what's changed since then)
 


...Will probably only end up doing a couple of days in the parks since we will be staying off property this time.

Can anybody point me in the direction of some resources? Tips for traveling with a kid that age? Tips for the park? What rides can we do? I’d love to get a conversation going here as I will have way more questions between now and then.

Thank you so much!

Sounds similar to my DS's first trip. We were in Florida to visit his great-grandparents when he was 18 mths. old, and just did a day trip to MK. He had a blast!

On our first family trip son #3 was 13 months. It was a blast. Luckily, he loved meeting characters. Lots of good advice above....a couple of things I don't think were mentioned - I brought a front carrier just to be an option for when he wanted to be out of the stroller. Obviously can't carry a one year old all day, but worked great at times to make him feel part of the action. We spent lots of time in the playgrounds .... especially the Pooh themed play area that was in MK and the area under splash mountain. (Not sure what's changed since then)

I definitely second this! I had a hip carrier from One Step Ahead, and it was perfect. We could park the stroller, and I could still have my hands free in line.

He loved watching everything, having balloon tied to his stroller, and playing in the little playground. (The one I have pictures of was in the old "Mickey's Toontown Fair.") We rode classic things like It's a Small World, and even climbed up the Swiss Family Tree House (thanks to the above-mentioned baby carrier.) And if you judge by the pictures, his favorite thing of all was the boat ride back to the TTC at the end of the day. :rotfl:
 
We have taken my daughter at 10 months 17 and just over 2 (this one to Disneyland) we are going back to DW in March she will be 3 almost 4. Some of my tips, but remember each family and child is different you’ll know your son best.

- baby care centers! Not sure I saw this mentioned, know where they are, you can feed him, change him, get out of the heat/cold/rain. They also have a small selection of items for purchase, expensive but in a pinch it’s a great option. I would not track across a whole park to use one but if your heading towards one a great option for a diaper change, an outfit change etc.
- since your staying off site I recommend using whatever stroller he uses at home, he will be most comfortable with this and since you will most likely be driving to the parks I don’t think you should worry to much about being able to fold it up (except for maybe the trams).
- agree with all the other posters we loved stroller naps! At 10 and 18 months she napped all the time it was amazing!
- trip may be for you but go at his speed, my dd loved the dumbo play area, the pooh play area we let her play there for a while, we didn’t let it go forever but if she was having fun whatever! We budgeted in time for her to enjoy those things, hard for me, I love to go go go
- he can go on any ride with out a height restriction, we only skipped rides with her if she was sleeping or if we really felt it would freak her out.
- we tried to sit by the exit in shows if we could, in laugh factory something freaked her out so we were able to just send one of us out with her quickly (this only happened in one show but we were happy to be able to exit quickly)
- SNACKS! We take tons of snacks with us, we buy her stuff to but having healthy quick snacks helped the meltdowns and the time in the stroller. We could give her a snack in the stroller and she would eat and snack and be content, with out the snacks sometimes at that age she didn’t want to be in the stroller, she wanted to be up and trying to walk her self!
- baby carrier if he still likes it, at 10 months it was a life saver, at 17 months it worked a bit but not much. She slept in it at 10 months, and on some rides she could stay in it.

Read trip reports of people with young kids, I found lots of tips that way.

Have a fabulous trip!
 
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We took our son at 15 months. He would fall asleep in the dark rides! Lol. Made for great naps.

I agree with stroller naps, but also paying attention to your little one and knowing when they've had enough for the day. Too many times I pushed our son so that we could see the fireworks and paid for the consequences the next day.

I would recommend renting a stroller from kingdom strollers. This way you can avoid a bulky stroller in the airport and just use a baby carrier, which come in handy in the parks. Also, any messes or spit up don't ruin your stroller. I was also paranoid about my $700 stroller being taken from stroller parking, so this way I didn't need to be worried because you are covered for theft. The great part is they drop off the stroller and pick it up from your hotel. We rented the City Mini GT and it was awesome.
 
We went when my son was 13 months old.

Great advice above, a couple other things -

Your kiddo may or may not be walking at that point. We were surprised that my son was a pretty good walker by the time we had our trip. So we did not bring a carrier.

He looooooooved any of the music/dance parties. I very distinctly recall our first morning we had Tusker House breakfast and then we were supposed to be on Safari at rope drop. Well, enter the drummers. He was a dancing machine and had a ton of fun. While we all watched the crowds stream past us. :) It was a very quick lesson for this touring plan commando mommy that this was going to be a different kind of trip.

Food! Remember he'll be eating food at that point, so plan meals accordingly. Meatloaf at Be Our Guest was a hit. He ate a lot of chicken nuggets and hot dogs, sad to say. So, we had healthy snacks to help balance things out. I blithely assumed every restaurant would have kiddo basics, but we were surprised at a couple so be prepared. And you simply cannot have enough snacks and sippy cups.

We planned to stop pacifier at a year like we did with his sister, but we kept it an extra month. It sure was handy to have for both the plane and in shows.

You're never going to know what will freak them out. The Nemo show at animal kingdom freaked out my son. Never would have guessed.

His favorite rides were probably Small World and the Tiki Room. And the dance parties...all of them.
 
I'm so thankful I found this thread! My son will be turning 1 on March 19. We are taking him March 30-April 4 and will be staying at BWV in a studio. We can't wait! As we are approaching this trip, I'm beginning to wonder about packing, etc.

Thanks to everyone for the advice so far!
 
I took my son at 6m and 1yo and we had a great time. Each park has a baby care center if needed. He was a great stroller napper so we didn't go back to the room during the day, that was a good time to sit and eat or rider swap and go on something he couldn't go on. There's actually a lot of attractions a 1yo can go on, anything without a height restriction is fine.
 
Thank you so much! How nice that you were able to take each of your kids. They are so lucky!

What rides were they able to do at that age? I’m afraid to take baby on a dark ride and have him have a melt down and ruin it for everyone else. Of course I won’t know his temperament until we get closer to the trip.

Any tips for the stroller? Assume I should bring a lightweight one that folds easily. Did baby just sit in your lap on the buses?

How did they do with the fireworks at that age? I’m wondering if I should get some of those little headphones black noises.

Thank you again!
my young grandkids at that age have loved the dark rides more than 3/4 year olds. no carseats on buses no belts to hold in place plus where would you store seat at park? as far as stroller we rented a double as we also needed for an older child who doesn't use at home. make sure the stroller you use has large sunshade and reclines alomost or fully. one thing I would plan to do for the trip make a photo book for your baby. I have one grandson who can tell you all about the trip he took as a baby. of course his memories are from his book but he knows who that baby was. as far as fireworks that will depend on your baby. most of my grandkids have loved fireworks but a couple have hated.
 
I'm so thankful I found this thread! My son will be turning 1 on March 19. We are taking him March 30-April 4 and will be staying at BWV in a studio. We can't wait! As we are approaching this trip, I'm beginning to wonder about packing, etc.

Thanks to everyone for the advice so far!
with that age we have found having an extra outfit or 2 with us at all times saves buying new at Disney prices. best buy of trip was stroller rain cover. nothing worse than coming back to a wet stroller plus ours was clear and grandson could ride in stroller and still see out in rainstorm
 
We have taken my DD at least once a year (if not more) since she was 12 months. I also was nervous when she was 1 b/c I had no experience doing WDW with kids.

But I must say, I purchased a MacLaren Volo for that first trip and have used it many times since.... awesome, awesome stroller for the parks! I really recommend it. Also, using a diaper bag that is a backpack was super useful for us.

I think the best thing that we did was stick to my daughters normal schedule at that age... which meant routine naps and sticking to her regular bedtime. The other thing is that we kind of played things by ear so she seemed to like characters a lot so we did a lot of meet n' greets - which I totally hadn't expected! Its a lot of fun doing WDW with that age.
 
We have taken our daughter to Disney World at ages 1 and 2. The trip with her as a 1 year old was MUCH easier! At the time it didn’t seem like it, but after we went back with her at 2, my husband and I both agreed the first trip had been so easy :p. She wasn’t yet walking, so that made it easy since she didn’t want to get out of the stroller. That was our main issue at 2, she just wanted to be out walking all the time! Waiting for the bus was a non issue with a 1 year old. When she was 2, we had burned out by the last 2 days of the trip waiting for the bus and basically had to wing it and spend more time at the resort.

Some of the things she enjoyed most: riding it’s a small world, and really most rides that are for everyone. We had the dining plan so we had 1 table service pretty much every day. She did really well considering the time you can spend at a table service restaurant. We did split up the day by going back to our room for naps and back to the parks later. She didn’t really nap in the stroller like some people say their kids would! We didn’t go out of our way to meet characters. Be flexible and try to enjoy all the little moments. One of my favorite memories is sharing a carrot cake cookie at Hollywood Studios with my daughter. Seeing her watch the fireworks and watching it light up her little face. So priceless! Also, I would say don’t over plan on making the trip all about your 1 year old, because they really are kind of along for the ride being so young.

I have wonderful memories from both trips. She will be 3 soon and now we have a 3 month old as well! I reaaaally want to go back around the time he will be one, which would be around sept/oct this year, but we shall see.
 
Also, using a diaper bag that is a backpack was super useful for us.

I think the best thing that we did was stick to my daughters normal schedule at that age... which meant routine naps and sticking to her regular bedtime.

Yes to both of these.

Regular bedtime meant missing nighttime entertainment, but preserving our sanity. Nighttime entertainment will always be there...the same cannot be said about my sanity!
 
Yes to both of these.

Regular bedtime meant missing nighttime entertainment, but preserving our sanity. Nighttime entertainment will always be there...the same cannot be said about my sanity!

You know we also stayed at the Contemporary that time.... and we took turns sneaking out to watch the fireworks show lol. But agreed that missing evening shows is far preferable to a cranky baby!
 
You know we also stayed at the Contemporary that time.... and we took turns sneaking out to watch the fireworks show lol. But agreed that missing evening shows is far preferable to a cranky baby!

Haha we stayed at WL and could see the fireworks from our balcony! And my ever-so-kind DH let me actually go to the park one night to see them. It was the last ever showing of Wishes!
 

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