Bus or rental car with 9 month old

[noahsmom16]

My husband and I are taking our baby on his first trip to disney in November when he's going to be 9 months. We're staying at pop century and doing two days at the magic kingdom and one at Epcot, and the rest of the days we're swimming and maybe doing some resort hopping (mostly MK resorts and also DTD). My original plan was to rent a car because I figured waiting for a bus with a tired baby would be a pain and it would be quicker to use the car when visiting resorts and if and when we head back for a nap in the afternoon. Now I'm starting to second guess myself. We're flying with him as a lap baby (no debates on that please ) and I would rather not check his car seat and risk damage to it, and lugging it to gate check it would be a pain too. Saving the money by not renting would be great as well, we just had some unexpected car trouble so our budget is a bit tighter now.

If I wear him in a carrier and my husband deals with the stroller do you think it will really be that difficult? I figure the bus goes straight to MK as opposed to waiting for and taking a parking lot tram and monorail so the car won't really save so much time and effort. We can have diapers delivered to the resort (a trip to target was another plus of a car) and he also sleeps great in the stroller so we may not need to leave the park for naps anyways and we won't be staying late for fireworks or anything.

What do you think... Are using the buses with a baby doable? Are we crazy? Lol TIA!

 

[OfTheWind]

My husband and I are taking our baby on his first trip to disney in November when he's going to be 9 months. We're staying at pop century and doing two days at the magic kingdom and one at Epcot, and the rest of the days we're swimming and maybe doing some resort hopping (mostly MK resorts and also DTD). My original plan was to rent a car because I figured waiting for a bus with a tired baby would be a pain and it would be quicker to use the car when visiting resorts and if and when we head back for a nap in the afternoon. Now I'm starting to second guess myself. We're flying with him as a lap baby (no debates on that please ) and I would rather not check his car seat and risk damage to it, and lugging it to gate check it would be a pain too. Saving the money by not renting would be great as well, we just had some unexpected car trouble so our budget is a bit tighter now.

If I wear him in a carrier and my husband deals with the stroller do you think it will really be that difficult? I figure the bus goes straight to MK as opposed to waiting for and taking a parking lot tram and monorail so the car won't really save so much time and effort. We can have diapers delivered to the resort (a trip to target was another plus of a car) and he also sleeps great in the stroller so we may not need to leave the park for naps anyways and we won't be staying late for fireworks or anything.

What do you think... Are using the buses with a baby doable? Are we crazy? Lol TIA!

I've done Disney with a 1 year old (his birthday was the day before) and I wish we'd had the busses ( we weren't staying onsite). Going from the car, to the tram, holding on to the stroller and baby, then unfolding the stroller.... it was so much, especially when you're talking about MK and the monorail or ferry. I think the buses are great. They also tend to lull babies to sleep.

 

[tourguide81]

We never rent a car for Disney and have few to zero issues. We baby wear and bring a stroller. Waaaay easier to just hop on a bus.

 

[noahsmom16]

Ya the more I think of it the more it seems more convenient with the buses. I guess with a car we still need to wait for trams and monorails, unload him from the stroller for the tram and car, load him into his car seat (which he HATES)l etc. The only thing is mid day I remember we waited quite a bit for buses to get back to the parks from Pop but I guess the whole trip is going to take longer with a baby haha

 

[noahsmom16]

Plus one less thing to lug around at the airport yay!

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

I think its completely do-able. And people do it ALL the time with great success . For some reason people on the boards seem to love having car rentals and you will get a lot of pro-rental car responses.

Personally, I prefer the buss. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about where we parked or walking to our car... I love having someone else drive us around. Sure the waiting can be annoying, but you can make the most of your time by spending it with your family, chat, coo the baby, look at the photos you took, etc.

I think with your situation, and your comment about trying to be budget conscience, the WDW transportation will be the simplest for you. No hassle, just ride

 

[noahsmom16]

. I love having someone else drive us around.

Extra bonus because it's the food and wine festival hehe. Not that I'll be doing a lot of drinking with a baby but my husband is the driver and he'll want a beer or two I'm sure!

 

[MSSANDRA]

I think you will be fine with the buses. MK is the one park that most people want to take a bus even if they have a car, so really the only question would be Epcot. On your off days, if you choose activities on the monorail route it will still be easy to take the bus to MK and then grab the mono-rail. There is a direct bus to DTD if that is in your plans. To get to other resorts, you do have to use a park or DTD for a hub to transfer. That can be a pain and take quite a while.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Extra bonus because it's the food and wine festival hehe. Not that I'll be doing a lot of drinking with a baby but my husband is the driver and he'll want a beer or two I'm sure!

 

[noahsmom16]

I think you will be fine with the buses. MK is the one park that most people want to take a bus even if they have a car, so really the only question would be Epcot. On your off days, if you choose activities on the monorail route it will still be easy to take the bus to MK and then grab the mono-rail. There is a direct bus to DTD if that is in your plans. To get to other resorts, you do have to use a park or DTD for a hub to transfer. That can be a pain and take quite a while.

Ya, I think we will be visiting AKL so that one will be a bit of a pain I guess. But other than that we were just going to be hanging out at our resort and swimming that day so we have lots of time! Also we had breakfast reservations at whispering canyon... I guess we can take the boat from the MK to there or we can look for something a bit easier. We're eating at Kona already one morning but I wouldn't be opposed to doing it twice so I can have tonga toast and macadamia pancakes lol

 

[BlueHippo]

We've been with 2 kiddos when our 2nd was 9 months- the busses worked great! We love not having to deal with car seats and the buses have always been one of the kids favorite parts of our trips! We'll be there in October with the 2 older kids and our new 8 month old and we are definitely using the busses again!

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I'm going to chime in for the rental car. My husband always insists on a rental car. And I always try to talk him into the bus (and Magical Express) but he wants nothing to do with it. Once there, I'm glad we got the car. Not a fan of waiting in the long lines for ME or buses. The car comes in especially handy when getting to dining reservations. My daughter is not in a stroller any more but I hated lugging that thing around. Never had a problem parking at our resort or any of the parks.

 

[noahsmom16]

I'm going to chime in for the rental car. My husband always insists on a rental car. And I always try to talk him into the bus (and Magical Express) but he wants nothing to do with it. Once there, I'm glad we got the car. Not a fan of waiting in the long lines for ME or buses. The car comes in especially handy when getting to dining reservations. My daughter is not in a stroller any more but I hated lugging that thing around. Never had a problem parking at our resort or any of the parks.

Hmm but wouldn't we still be lugging the stroller with a car? Load into and out of the car, load onto and off the parking lot trams... Plus waiting for our own luggage and having to go get and return the rental car and carrying the stroller, three carry ons and the baby through the airport plus a big convertible car seat...

We only have two dining reservations because we have the quick service dining plan for free and both are at the poly, one on one of the mornings on our way to the MK. I think if we were doing more dining reservations I would 100% be getting a car, I agree with you there! We used the buses with the deluxe dining plan on our honeymoon and it was fine but it would be a lot with a baby!

 

[crayon3448]

We've always used the buses no problem with a baby. I usually wear her on the bus, and DH is in charge of holding the stroller. Instead of a traditional diaper bag, we use a backpack that one of us can wear while standing on the bus (if there are no seats). It's always been a breeze (and we usually stay at Pop, too)

Save the money from the rental car and splurge on a nice dessert or drink!!

 

[noahsmom16]

We've always used the buses no problem with a baby. I usually wear her on the bus, and DH is in charge of holding the stroller. Instead of a traditional diaper bag, we use a backpack that one of us can wear while standing on the bus (if there are no seats). It's always been a breeze (and we usually stay at Pop, too) Save the money from the rental car and splurge on a nice dessert or drink!!

Good idea about he backpack diaper bag thanks! Oh and I certainly don't need convincing to splurge on a dresser and drink hehe

 

[dsneygirl]

I wore my DS is the Ergo a lot and the buses were much easier. If he was asleep no need to transfer to a car seat. Fold stroller on the tram etc.

 

[noahsmom16]

I wore my DS is the Ergo a lot and the buses were much easier. If he was asleep no need to transfer to a car seat. Fold stroller on the tram etc.

Yes I think we'll use the carrier. We wanted it for lines and stuff anyways

 

[Mainemama]

At that age, baby will nap wherever, likely in the park before you even leave for a break. We had no problem using buses at that age, BUT found we were not motivated to get back on one in the evening. You might just consider that when you plan your day.