Any advice for DL trip with 8 Month old?

[Veegarcia]

We have an 8 month old daughter....any advice for taking her? Everyone is telling me to get a sitter until she is older, however we are premium AP holders and plan on going often. With her being young, I hate to leave her (yes, I am that obsessed new mom, lol). Any advice from parents that have taken them that young?

TIA!

 

[MinMou]

You won't know what your child will do until you get there. We took our son to the zoo when he was a year old, and he was more interested in the people than in the animals. Even at the petting zoo, he wanted to play with the other kids, instead of petting the animals. At first I was disappointed, but then I realized that he had a good time, and everyone had a good time watching him, so that made it a successful day.

As long as you decide that your trips to DL may end up being a little different than when you went without a child, and that it will be fun to have a new adventure, you should have a good time. You do need to look into rider switch passes, if you want to go on rides where your child doesn't reach the height minimum, and you probably should find places that people like to use for nap time. And if you try it one time, and decide it isn't the best place to take your baby, at least you tried! You have a AP's so you won't be out any money, so I would go for it!

 

[agamble]

We have an 8 month old daughter....any advice for taking her? Everyone is telling me to get a sitter until she is older, however we are premium AP holders and plan on going often. With her being young, I hate to leave her (yes, I am that obsessed new mom, lol). Any advice from parents that have taken them that young?

TIA!

We took our DD the day after her first birthday. We bought DAPs that year and took her back through her second birthday. It was so much fun watching her park experience change. We wanted to go again for a few days before she turned three. We bought 4-day non-hoppers and took her and her 3-week old brother. It was interesting to take one so young, but not difficult. Last summer he had just turned 1 and we bought DAPs again. It was again so much fun watching them change over the year. At first he couldn't ride Maters, then he was finally tall enough and loved it. He's not the dare devil that his sister is, but he enjoyed riding Gadget's coaster on our last trip too since had reached the 35" mark. We're having one more little one and plan to go back again shortly after she turns one. Again we plan to buy DAPs and I know it will be fun to watch the three of them as they grow and explore the park throughout the year.

As far as advice goes...At 8 months she can't walk, but can likely sit up and will enjoy staring at everything. People, characters, lights, etc. will all entertain her. She will enjoy being there with you. One thing I L-O-V-E about Disneyland is that more rides do not have height requirements than do. This is very different than other theme parks. You can take her on everything in Fantasyland, both my kids loved the teacups at one. Toon Town will be fun to explore, but you'll have to decide if you are ready to take her on RogRab as they don't allow lap sitting. Since you have APs you can always skip things one trip and try them on another as she gets bigger. Use FP, single-rider, and child swap to your advantage. You don't each need your own FP for a ride, use one to get a FP for one ride and the other to get one for a different ride. Then use the single-rider passes so that you both get a turn. There is no reason you should have to wait long for any ride that offers FP if you use strategies to your advantage. Make sure you take time to do things all together. It gets lonely when you spend too much time splitting up. When DD was little we would have her nap in the stroller and that is when we would swap on FP rides. When she was awake we generally did one of the many rides we could all do together. One last tip, take pictures, lots and lots of pictures.

 

[Lauren in NC]

Figure out where the baby centers are - the one in DL is by the camera shop, and the one in DCA is by the Ghiradelli's - and use them! They have changing tables, places to warm up baby food, a nursing room, etc. If she's overwhelmed, it can be a nice place to just sit for a few minutes.

Does she nap well in a stroller? Or do you intend to baby wear her? We went for my son's first birthday, and we did stuff that was on his level while he was awake (Toontown, any rides he could do, meeting characters) and then used child swap to ride the big rides once he was napping (like agamble described).

She may like characters or may be scared of them - and she may like them from a distance but not want to get close up! My son loves the furry characters but still isn't sure about the face ones, go figure.

 

[Imdboss]

We took DS when he was 6 months old and we had a great time. I used the baby care center when we needed a little quiet time, it was very relaxing in there and has a great nostalgic feel to it. Otherwise he was just in his stroller looking around at all the sites or sleeping. We took him on all the rides with us that we could and used child swap otherwise.