Need baby at disney advice...leave Sun morn

[clairabell29]

Hi I have a few ?'s about Disneyland with a baby. I am going to DL on Sunday for 5 days. We are doing MTOT and have park hoppers. I am traveling with DH, DM, DS(turns 3 on Monday while we're there) and DS 10weeks. We are staying at the camelot inn. Would it be worth while to bring my double stroller? Can I lock the wheels so no one can steal it, as I just bought it and it was pricey. Is a baby bjorn carrier a good idea? Are there any rides that my baby can go on, but you wouldn't recomend because it jossles a lot? Also I know about the buttons at City Hall, can I get one on Sunday for my DS3 for his first visit and another on Monday when he turns 3? Would you recomend anything special for his b-day? He's also a little ride and charactor shy, any ideas on how to help with that? We had to move our trip up due to my DH's work or we would have waited a little longer. Any other advice or hints you could give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

[bumbershoot]

If a Bjorn is what you have and it's comfy, use it. But think for the future and get a more comfy sling or mei tai or Ergo! Better for your back, better for baby's pelvis.

Sure, bring the stroller too. Camelot isn't that far away, but at the end of your day carrying two heavy children will wear you guys down.

For a kid skittish of characters, don't push. Even if a kid isn't skittish, they can develop skittishness in an instant, so still don't push.

You could pick up both buttons at once, or separately, of course!

You want to make sure the stroller can be moved by CMs, as they have to be able to move it for crowd control purposes.

I like Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, especially if he has seen a bug's life, over in DCA for a nice little ride. No jolts, the line is open, the ride is cute, and you get to hear burps (always a treat).

Don't start off with any "inside" rides, not even in Fantasyland. IMO some of the rides in fantasyland are the scariest! Snow White's SCARY Adventures, Pinocchio, Alice...all scary. Alice's line is outside but the ride is mainly inside and dark. So just stay outside until he's really used to things.

 

[skoocher]

We went to both DL and DCA when our son was 9 months. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. We had some other family with us, so we took advantage of the baby pass (or whatever it is called) so that was nice for the rides he could not go on. Surprisingly, he did very well on all the rides he could go on, which was quite a bit more than I had thought. Not much at DCA, he loved the Monsters Inc ride, but many at DL. He even liked all the "dark" rides.

We brought our own stroller and we were glad. For one, it had a storage space under the carrier for all our stuff. Furthermore, he was more comfortable in his familiar stroller. We marked our stroller with large colorful tags so that it was easy to find and so others did not mistake it. CM's will move the strollers if they need to make space, so when you come off a ride don't freak out right away when you don't see the stroller where you left it.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

The Winnie the Pooh or Alice in Wonderland rides might be a good test to see if your 3 yr old will like the dark rides. Part of each of those rides are outside. I also showed my 3 yr old some of the videos of the DL rides to get him prepared. You can find a lot of the rides on youtube.com. My 3 (almost 4 yr old) surprised us by liking all of the dark rides and even the roller coasters that he was tall enough for and Haunted Mansion Holiday. Just start slowly and work your way up. When my 2 yr old seemed scared as he was boarding Pinnochio, the CM handed him a flashlight. (He was actually just complaining about something else.) But the flashlight made him happy. You could bring a flashlight for the dark rides to make it less likely he would be scared--and probably even a little pre-occupied.

I would definately bring your double stroller! (and your carrier.)

Make sure you have an autograph book and pen for the characters. Even though my boys were a little character shy--they couldn't resist getting there autographs.

Have fun!

 

[bronko78]

I would bring the double and the bjorn and alternate between them. We lock the rear wheels of our stroller with a bike lock, and NOT to any fixture so that the CMs can still move it if they need to.

I would avoid Snow White, Pinocchio, and Mr. Toad until he gets comfortable.

 

[todzwife]

If a Bjorn is what you have and it's comfy, use it. But think for the future and get a more comfy sling or mei tai or Ergo! Better for your back, better for baby's pelvis.

Sure, bring the stroller too. Camelot isn't that far away, but at the end of your day carrying two heavy children will wear you guys down.

For a kid skittish of characters, don't push. Even if a kid isn't skittish, they can develop skittishness in an instant, so still don't push.

You could pick up both buttons at once, or separately, of course!

You want to make sure the stroller can be moved by CMs, as they have to be able to move it for crowd control purposes.

I like Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, especially if he has seen a bug's life, over in DCA for a nice little ride. No jolts, the line is open, the ride is cute, and you get to hear burps (always a treat).

Don't start off with any "inside" rides, not even in Fantasyland. IMO some of the rides in fantasyland are the scariest! Snow White's SCARY Adventures, Pinocchio, Alice...all scary. Alice's line is outside but the ride is mainly inside and dark. So just stay outside until he's really used to things.

She said all I was going to say. I wish you had a more comfortable carrier than the bjorn but if you have a local target that carries Moby wraps, K'tan carriers or hotslings those would be a better bet than the bjorn.

Have fun!!

 

[KayDox]

We visited DL 3yrs ago, when our daughter was 2 1/2 and son was 4mo.

Before the trip, I printed out pictures of all the characters she might meet (I found the web site of a little girl who met almost every single character there is).
I asked DS, "who's this? who's this?" everyday.
I think it helped - she was not afraid of them.
And when you see other kids all excited and hugging characters, your son just might think "OH! I want to do that too!"

I say a stroller is a must.
Even when you are holding the baby and your toddler is walking, you want to use your stroller to store your diaper bag, water bottles, toys and such.

My then-4mo old son did not go to the park with us.
I pre-arranged an in-room babysitter for him.
I am glad we did, because he developed fever the very first morning.
The babysitter happened to be a nurse too, and she told us not to worry.
And even though it was December, it was pretty hot, so even if he was not sick, he would have liked to stay at hotel (DLH).
Of course we called the babysitter from park, like every hour, to check how he was doing.
She even watched our then-2 1/2 old daughter while DH and I hit the parks in the evening for about 2hrs.
DD took a nap, enjoyed coloring (babysitter provided), watched chiors singing christmas songs downstairs, etc.
I don't remember what the name of the babysitting company was - it was something like Babysitter unlimited... but I can be wrong.

Some people might not like the idea of leaving a baby at hotel when others are having fun at park, but it worked well for us.

We are going to visit DL again next month.
DD is now 5, and DS is now 3!
They are very excited.

Kay