Any concerns about riding DW transportation with a baby?

[camdensmom]

When I lived in Orlando my roommates fiance worked for WDW transportation. I remember him telling me that there were a lot of minor injuries reported (mainly people standing on the bus/monorail). We are renting a car on Disney property for most of the week, but planned to take the Magic Express to the park from the airport.

I'm now starting to get concerned about the safety and am wondering if we should just suck up the much higher cost and rent one at the airport and travel the parks strictly by car. Our son will be 8 months and always travels in a car seat. I know people live in cities and take buses/subways all the time.

Am I being neurotic or should I be concerned.

 

[lclark0621]

I understand your concerns. I had the same when I took my DS (then 9 months old) on his first visit.

We did use a town car with a car seat to & from the airport (and have & will continue to).

But on Disney Property, we used the bus. 90% of the time I was able to get a seat with my DS & held him without an issue. 10% of the time there wer no seats & none were offered. Those times, I held him in his sling & used one arm to hold on tight to the bus & the other held onto him, to block in case anyone fell on us.

Never had an incident, though I am always a bit nervous about it. But like you said, millions of people live in cities where they take the bus & subway systems with their babies all the time.

Heck, when we are in England, the Taxi drivers always look at us like we have 3 heads, when DH or I pull out & install DS's travel carseat. Most of the times we have been asked why we dont just push the "push cart" into the taxi with him in it (the taxis there have enough room between the 2 seats for a stroller to just roll on in & sit). And even though, I feel like those are my safest taxi rides ever, I still could not imagine just having him in the stroller in a car.

 

[LauraAnn630]

We are driving this year to avoid disney buses. We went in June and it was soooo HOT. Some of the drivers wouldnt turn the a/c on. They would take off fast and stop sudden. I was standing with my 2 yr old son! I thought it was terrible.

 

[stahshee]

It is hard with babys . The bus jerks all around and there is really no car seat place plus you have to hold on to the stroller!

 

[mjmcca]

The few times I take Disney transportation with the kids I wait until I can get a seat even if that means I have to let other people go in front of me.

 

[mickeymousemom]

We've been 4 times since my youngest was born, but we've stayed onsite only 2 of those times...once when she was 17 months and last year when she was 2. We rode the busses everywhere and as safety conscious as we are with her I guess we just didn't think about it. We had no problems. Yes, there were the occasional fast drivers, quick turners and sudden stoppers, but we made it thru fine. I would hold Brennyn and DH would hold the stroller or vice versa..my two older ones hold the other stuff. Its just never been an issue with us, though I can see why it would be with some. You just have to do what makes you comfortable.

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

Yes, it is very difficult to hold a baby on a moving bus. MOST people are nice enough to give up their seat for those of us with a little one. But, last summer when we went it was very crowded and I did not get a seat one night. For the life of me I could not stand still and hold my son, I was so afraid I was going to fall with him. DH had all the packages, backpack and stroller, so he could not help me much. With all the stopping and starting it made me so nervous, that I just sat down on the floor, we were near the front so DH stood behind me so no one would step on us! It sucked. I agree with the pp that said to wait for the next bus...which I will do in the future if I can't get a seat. I don't know if it would stop me from riding the Disney bus though, they are SO convenient!

 

[KristinU]

I'm kinda neurotic about this too - especially for DS's first trip when he was 9 months old. We usually rent a car anyways, but take the bus when it is more convenient. For his first couple of trips, though, we did only use the car (with carseat of course) and not the busses...it was also just easier to have that option to change the schedule at a moments notice. One caution about taking a car everywhere, especially if you don't live in a hot climate: the interiors of cars can get super hot and we learned to drape a towel or something over the carseat (actually we bought a car seat sun cover before our last trip and it worked great and folds really compactly). You southern parents are probably laughing at this northerner mommy - like "duh, of course it gets really hot inside a parked car!"

We did start taking the busses more as DS has gotten older - especially since he's really into busses and trucks and anything big on wheels...the bus rides were more fun than the attractions for him at around 20 months (at 9 months his big "attraction" was the a/c unit in our room, one of these days he's bound to like the "real" attractions better than the utilitarian stuff, right?)

 

[momto2girls]

You have to do what is comfortable for you. We always rent a car on our trips. I feel much more comfortable having my kids in their car seats. The only exception I make is for the monorail.

 

[rt2dz]

We avoid the buses as much as possible because some of the driving has made dh and I wonder and since no car seats... I may be neurotic, but I've been in a bad accident and it just scares me. My children don't have a choice and it just makes me more comfortable. Do whatever makes you feel more comfortable.

 

[GEM]

I'm totally comfortable taking my little guy on the Disney busses. He's two years old and how been on four trips to Disney so far, starting at under a year old. We've relied totally on Disney transportation and it's been great. Personally, for us, Disney transporation is one of the best perks of staying on stie. We love not having to worry about getting in a hot car, driving, parking, taking the tram to the entrance, finding our car again, fighting the traffice at park closing, etc. We've never had a bad experience with the busses in 15 Disney visits! I feel totally safe riding them with my young child. Of course, he's also been on busses in New York City, etc.

 

[LauraAnn630]

For us it was just awful! People pushed past our children to get on the bus. One young man was mad that my 2 yr old accidently bumped into his leg a few times when the bus stopped suddenly. We waited an hour when the parks closed to get on the bus and had to stand most of the time.

 

[CleveRocks]

We waited an hour when the parks closed to get on the bus and had to stand most of the time.

Greetings from a former Cleveland Heights resident.

The strategy I've always used for MK after Wishes is either to view Wishes somewhere as near as practical to the main entrance, or to hang out for a while after Wishes concludes. The last time we were in MK for Wishes I opted for the latter. We were in no rush, and decided in advance we'd just let the world pass us by as we relaxed, sat around, got a late night (9:30) snack for us and the kids, watched a sea of maybe 20,000 people hurry on by, etc. After a nice rest and snack, we walked down a fairly empty Main Street and waited in a pretty small bus queue. It's just another one of those planning issues.

As someone who's never driven anywhere in the general vicinity of WDW, I'm curious about how long the waits are for the monorial/ferry, and then the wait to get out of the parking lot, etc. For those who've done both, how do the TIMES compare?