Help planning first trip with a baby

[FSU Girl]

I’m super excited we got a spot in the annual passholder preview for Remy in September and will be taking my 9 month old for the first time. This will be my first trip with a baby so I’d love so help planning! Also with covid I haven’t really gone anywhere since March 2020 so I’m really excited about getting out of my house.

what rides in Epcot can we do with the baby? I saw there’s no height restriction for Remy so she gets to do that with us. Since it’s her first time I don’t want to overwhelm her and was thinking maybe we’d do one other ride with her.

What are character meet and greets like right now? Are they at a distance you get in line to take a picture or they just wander?

I think we are just doing the one day at Epcot for now and will go back later in the year for a longer trip. Should we try park hopping to Hollywood Studios or not worth it with a baby?

Also any moms in the group who’ve pumped in the park, where do I go to do this? And what did you do with your pump when you went on a ride? It’s expensive and my only one so I don’t want it being stolen out of the stroller do I bring it on with me?

Any tips on how to make a stroller easy to find in a sea of strollers? Ours is a graco that’s all black so we need to do something to easily find it again lol

thank you!

 

[nancipants]

Congrats on the baby!

Rides without a height restriction include Living with the Land, the Seas, Spaceship Earth, Frozen, Journey Into Imagination, and The Three Caballeros. My son has done the first four. Spaceship Earth was his first ever Disney ride when he was 3.5 weeks old. At nine months, he loved Frozen. He didn't really "get" rides until he was older.

Character meets are still at a distance. They usually come out in a specific location, usually near their typical meet and greets.

I did an entire day at DHS with my son when he was less than two months, but at that age he was pretty much a potato and it was a lot easier. At 9 months old he was crawling and didn't like being in the stroller all day.

I used formula and only pumped at home, but I would recommend keeping your pump in the diaper bag and keeping that with you whenever you have to park the stroller. I always bring the diaper bag just in case a ride breaks down. I never want to be stuck without snacks or toys.

Put a balloon or popcorn bucket on your stroller. We keep the popcorn bucket on a large carabiner and it's usually easy to find.

(source for all this info - my son is almost 20 months and we are locals. We started taking him when he was 3 weeks old.)

 

[FSU Girl]

Congrats on the baby!

Rides without a height restriction include Living with the Land, the Seas, Spaceship Earth, Frozen, Journey Into Imagination, and The Three Caballeros. My son has done the first four. Spaceship Earth was his first ever Disney ride when he was 3.5 weeks old. At nine months, he loved Frozen. He didn't really "get" rides until he was older.

Character meets are still at a distance. They usually come out in a specific location, usually near their typical meet and greets.

I did an entire day at DHS with my son when he was less than two months, but at that age he was pretty much a potato and it was a lot easier. At 9 months old he was crawling and didn't like being in the stroller all day.

I used formula and only pumped at home, but I would recommend keeping your pump in the diaper bag and keeping that with you whenever you have to park the stroller. I always bring the diaper bag just in case a ride breaks down. I never want to be stuck without snacks or toys.

Put a balloon or popcorn bucket on your stroller. We keep the popcorn bucket on a large carabiner and it's usually easy to find.

(source for all this info - my son is almost 20 months and we are locals. We started taking him when he was 3 weeks old.)

Thank you this is so helpful! My daughter is already crawling so in a month she might be walking should be interesting. She’s a really good baby though only cries when hungry and is always super happy and doesn’t mind sleeping in her stroller. Great idea about bringing the diaper bag onto the ride!

 

[nancipants]

Thank you this is so helpful! My daughter is already crawling so in a month she might be walking should be interesting. She’s a really good baby though only cries when hungry and is always super happy and doesn’t mind sleeping in her stroller. Great idea about bringing the diaper bag onto the ride!

Stroller naps are the best. Get a portable fan if you don't already have one!

My son was crawling at 6 months and standing at 7, but didn't start walking until 11. We would let him out of the stroller to crawl around non-crowded areas. At Epcot, there's a playground near Test Track and a grassy area with tables near the walkway from Imagination Pavilion to World Showcase.

 

[sponica]

My kids at that age were pretty much content to sleep in the stroller if they were moving...my older daughter was (and to some degree still is) basically a piece of furniture. She was calm and collected everywhere. My younger daughter is some sort of cross breed between Jack Jack and Stitch when she's not in the stroller. I have also found that when we're out and about for the day, my almost year old daughter does not really ask for her bottles. So I would keep an eye out for that.

There's a baby care center at all the parks, so you should be able to pump in there.

 

[martikus]

Living the land and the ride in Mexico would be great with a baby. And a walk through aquarium a must at that age.

biggest thing is be flexible. And you will go slower than you expect. So just take it all in. At that age with a stroller makes it pretty easy to walk around.

a couple change of clothes for sure and we liked disposable placemats so we could dump Cheerios etc put on table as we ate.

I do not enjoy park hopping with a child. To exhausting.

 

[julie-o]

Garden Grill was one of our favorite things in June. The characters spent A LOT of time with each table. Our kids loved it. And great food too.

 

[Specter]

We took DD when she was 10 months old in March 2020, right at the start of all of this craziness.

She napped well in her stroller but, and this is just our experience, she still needed a proper midday break. The one day that we tried to push through at HS, she was an absolute miserable wreck by the time a very early dinner was done and we had to scrap evening plans to take her back to the room. We had taken a break every other day before and after and she was fine in the evening, but that day...well, we have pictures but she looks pretty unhappy in them.

We were also in the process of transitioning to formula at the time so DW didn't pump in the parks but did nurse in the room in the morning and evening. We were able to get the formula we were giving DD in single serving packets and we threw a few of those in the diaper bag and pre-filled the bottle with clean water in the room prior to heading into the park in the morning and evening. Some people will say, correctly, that it's cheaper if you are using formula to scoop it from the can into a divided container and we had tried that previously but the one we had popped open and we decided it was worth the added expense to have the single servings. They also take up less space in the diaper bag and don't need to be cleaned of any residue.

We never left anything particularly valuable in the stroller but we did leave things in it all the same and it was never an issue. As far as making the stroller visible in the sea of others, we used a brightly colored tape wrap around part of the frame so that the color jumped out.

 

[Rory607]

I love Disney with babies! I know many people don’t feel that way, but I loved making those memories with my kids. My son loved Nemo at that age, so that is another ride you might consider.

You can pump at the baby centers. I sometimes even just used a manual pump, which I found easier than the electric one in some ways. But I know that’s not for everyone. If you are comfortable with leaving the pump in the stroller you could store it in a separate bag so you don’t have to carry it in the diaper bag all day.

I always used a backpack and took it on rides, but only kept a few diapers, wipes and puffs in it so it wasn’t too heavy (definitely found myself picking up puffs from the floor of Carousel of Progress when he dumped out the entire canister one time). I kept a different bag in the bottom of the stroller with more diapers, change of clothes, pump, etc. We never had trouble with theft, but I know that is a risk.

ETA: We usually bought a balloon to tie to the stroller handle to help it stand out.