"No Diapers in Disney"

I wouldn't want to live by that rule because we might be living by it for multiple children.

As of right now I choose to not go while pregnant or before the baby is a year old. My OBGYN is still very concerned about Zika and after the measles outbreak at Disneyland I want him to have his MMR vaccine before we go.

I don't really see the need to wait based on diaper changes. You will have to pack more, but even that depends on the child. Some babies spit up all of the time, some have frequent blowouts, some need formula, etc. Those issues create a heavier diaper bag, but some babies don't have any of those issues and you can pack pretty light. On the go diaper changes are not pleasant experiences (my son has started gator rolling), but you'll probably be pretty experienced with them by the time you would go. Like some others have said, potty training in Disney sounds a lot harder than changing diapers.

As far as the him remembering point...I'm an adult who likes Disney World. I don't understand why I have to wait until my child can remember it. It's like if someone told me they can't go to Hawaii until their child can remember it. When people have a financial reason, I understand waiting. When they're only going for their kids, I understand waiting. Not going when the adults would enjoy it simply because the baby won't remember is lost on me.

Congratulations on your son! I hope you enjoy your trip whenever you decide to go.
 
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Congrats on your new baby! I would definitely not take a super young baby (pre-vaccination) but other than that, I wouldn't put off a trip for diapers. Maybe a better rule might be no Disney until sleeping through the night, if only for your sanity and those in the hotel rooms next to yours. Diapers really aren't a big deal. They aren't heavy and as others have mentioned, young kids with diapers are far easier to manage than newly trained kids. We took my DD for the first time at age 2.5 and we actually specifically put off potty training until we got back from our trip. It was really easy with diapers. We are going again next week and this time we will have a 9 month old. I am more worried about him sleeping in the hotel room than I am about his diapers.
 
Congratulations on the arrival of your son. I agree with what many others said before in terms of there is no such thing as "perfect timing." Truthfully, your perspective change over time. Before we had DS, DH said "we won't go to Disney with a stroller." Then DS arrived, and we took DS to Disney World at 15 months and to Disneyland at 25 months! Yes he was in diaper for both trips, but by then he didn't need as many diapers a day as a newborn. And yes we took our stroller with us! Baby care centres are great and they are a nice place to get away from the hustle and bustle - also for nice big change tables and small potty for the little guys. Ultimately you have to decide what is right for your family and don't let others tell you what you should do.
 
I've seen babies from all ages - newborn on up. There are also a TON of babies inside all the pregnant women at Disney too! LOL so no age is TOO young or TOO old!

HAVE FUN!!!
 
CONGRATS to the new dad!

We strategically planned out our Disney vacation with our little one. In the spring of this year we took our two year old, who was just one month away from turning three, to experience the magic of Walt Disney World for the first time. Our purpose for this timing was twofold:

1. We wanted to take advantage of all of the freebies that children under the age of 3 get at Walt Disney World, including free admission to the park and free dining at a number of premium diningng locations including character meals. It was worth it just for this and for the experience of something new and setting expectations for what will come as I'm sure we'll be visiting many, many more times in the future.
2. We've started using Disney as an incentive. For example, our next trip that we have planned, just 23 days away :goofy:, is a reward for potty training. We scheduled out our trip well in advance knowing that we would hit potty training pretty hard, so Mickey's not-so-scary Halloween Party and a 4-day trip staying on property is the reward that we get for using the potty. So literally we now have "No diapers and Disney."
 
Congrats to you and your wife!

I didn't catch the Disney bug until my kids were not wearing diapers anynmore, but I wouldn't have hesitated bringing them when they were.
I think the perfect age is around 10 months, before they start walking and not being content sitting in their stroller anymore ;)
You are going to be dealing with diapers no matter where you are, might as well be at WDW :thumbsup2
 


Congrats!

We've taken our son at 12 months, 3 years and then from there on yearly or semi-annually up to 9.

My daughter has been to Disney at 3m, 9m, 18m and 2 (28m). We purposely put off potty training until we got home from Disney on our last trip and I am SO thankful we did. Diaper changes are a million times easier than having to take a small child to the potty every hour-2 hours plus accidents.

We've loved every trip with our kids and haven't found diapers to be a hindrance at all. The trips where she was 3m and 9m were super easy as she was content to hang out in her carrier and feeding was easy.

We've been doing day trips to Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion since our DD started potty training last month and it's a LOT harder than having her in diapers.

While having an infant/toddler in Disney may change your touring a little bit, it is still an incredibly amazing experience.
 
I have 3 kids and I think 2 were in diapers, the 3rd I believe was not.

The oldest was 15 months old. I counted diapers a month prior with each change during the day so I knew what to bring. I brought 2 extra days and I still brought too many since I wasn't changing her as frequently as I was at home. I mean if we were in a line and she peed I'd wait until we got off, where as at home she would get changed immediately. There were no issues. I either used the baby station if I was near it or the nearby bathroom and the changing table (I brought a receiving blanket and used that on the changing tables). It was a fabulous trip! She LOVED the characters, well all but the face characters (Cinderella). I have some great pictures with her and multiple characters.

The 2nd kid was 22 months. He was still in diapers too but I do believe we put him on the toilet too. Again no issues and he was changed as above.

The 3rd and final kid was 2 1/2. I am quite sure she was PT'd since she was the youngest of my 3 that was willing to get out of diapers! I do believe I still put her in a pull up at night because who wants to wake up in the middle of the night with peed on sheets? But I also think she was night time trained with in a month of day time.

I wanted a trip where each kid was free because when in Disney is anything free? I would do diapers again without any issues. And even for the newly PT'd child there were no accidents. We take time to pee because we know better...plus I have a bladder the size of a pea!
 
From my experience with my son, diapers were soooooo much easier to deal with than a potty training kid or newly potty trained kid who has to pee every hour or you have to keep bringing him to the bathroom every hour or two to try and go to prevent wetting his pants! I think I stressed more about taking him to the bathroom all the time to make sure he didn't have an accident than carrying diapers to change him. And you'll have a stroller anyway so that will hold the diapers - you don't need to carry the diapers on the rides just leave in the stroller in stroller parking. We've gone every year and every age is a different experience - they see things different. It doesn't matter if they won't remember everything - you will remember their experience.
 
**STROLLER TIP**

If your child is old and "sturdy" enough, bring a collapsible, umbrella type stroller for the parks. It's becomes almost comical to watch dads sifting through the strollers in the stroller corrals because they will never be where you left them thanks to the stroller sheriff CMs that are around.

If you fold/collapse the stroller and lean it up against a fence or post, or place in designate folded stroller areas, you can cut down on the frustrating search times.
 
Do what is right for your family. For our family we've taken a 13 month old, 2.5 year old still in diapers, and are going to take a 10 month old. For us, diapers are easier than a potty trained kid because as long as you keep an eye out for leaks, you don't have the sudden "I have to go potty NOW" moments. Most of the men's rooms have changing tables, so it was easy for my husband to quickly change our kid.
 
Husband and I went many times without kids. We saw the mess of strollers and decided we would wait to do the theme parks until any future kids were out of the stroller. We just didn't want to deal with it. Then the inlaws planned a 50th anniversary gathering in Orlando. (They didn't know I was pregnant with my second at the time). We decided to do Disney with young kids since we wanted to go along with their plans. It's not often someone has a 50th anniversary! We went with a two month old and a barely 3 year old. The 3 year old was far more work than the 2 month old. Our trip wasn't perfect, but it was okay considering it was our first time with kids. We learned quite a bit. So much, that we wanted to do Disney/Universal "right" the next time. We went back 6 months later with our new knowledge and it went great! We continued taking our kids over the years. Looking back, I'm so glad we didn't wait. We enjoyed Disney/Universal without the kids and would have had to miss out for many years if we hadn't done it with kids. Our eldest and youngest have 6 years between them so that's a lot of years of waiting. (Middle child is right in the middle so didn't help to wait until two out of diapers since I didn't want to be pregnant in Disney).

As for no diapers in Disney, we've had barely potty trained kids wear a pull-up over their underwear while at Disney/Universal. We worried about them backsliding while on vacation and didn't want to risk a child peeing while on a ride. None had a single accident while on a ride, but it was peace of mind and made it a lot less stressful. Diapers in Disney can be easier in some ways. I have had to leave a line because a child suddenly had to use the bathroom. We've always been good at stopping at the restrooms often enough but that didn't stop having to leave a line for the restroom completely, though it wasn't very often we had to leave the line.

The only way I'd recommend someone waits is if their child will only have one or two Disney trips in their childhood. In that case, I'd do one at a minimum 40" and another at a minimum 48" if possible. (If doing Universal too, then I'd push that 48" up to 52" or 54" minimum for the second trip).

*Also, 4 adults and only 1 kid should be super easy! We've never had more than 2 adults on our trips and had 2-3 kids each time.
 
Our first trip the kids were 4.5 and 8 months and the 8 month old was easier then the 4 year old. We often joke that that trip was the easiest of them all. Only one child to have an opinion. Our other trips were 7 and 3, 8 and 4, 9 and 5 and 12 and 8. Don't worry about diapers and strollers, go when you'd like.
 
I'm sure this has been covered before here or elsewhere, but I'm too impatient to search...
New dad as of yesterday, to a beautiful son. I definitely can't wait to take him on a trip to WDW, but my wife and I agreed on a "no diapers in Disney rule." We figure that by the time he is out of diapers he'll be old enough to really experience everything, plus we won't have to lug around diapers and stop and change him throughout the day.

Grandma and grandpa are bonafide Disney fiends and can't wait to take us all on a trip as a family. Of course I'd like this to happen at somepoint, but not as soon as they may want. What's the earliest some of you have taken kids down? There some credence to the guideline my wife and I came up with? Anyone else have similar plans? Or should we just go along with grandma and grandpa?

My daughter was 16 months on her first trip. My son was 4 months on his. I personally found taking children that young to be very easy.
 
I agree with everyone else. We've done Disney 3 times with 6 month olds (and one of those times was twins!) We definitely don't mind going with kids in diapers since as previous commenters pointed out, you may not be out of diapers for a while if you have more than one! And I also agree that diapers are much easier than a newly trained little one. If you do bring the babe, I'd suggest one of the cooler months and baby wearing as much as you can/need to (especially if you are just walking around resorts) because that makes life a lot easier!
 
I'd rather have diapers at Disney then deal with a recently potty trained toddler who has to be taken out of line to pee every hour or two!
This! We went when DS was 9 months and he was great. Obviously he needed diaper and feeding breaks but we wore him in a carrier a lot and he was probably better behaved than all of us (me, DH, 5 yo DD). So much for a baby to look at in the parks! We're going again in October and he will be 2.5 yo. While I'm looking forward to him being able to experience things more, having to take potty breaks every time he has to pee and chasing a two year old through the parks...let's just say we are taking nana and papa on this trip :rolleyes1
 
Congrats on your new baby! I thought I'd throw out a couple more aspects I haven't seen mentioned yet. First, think about whether you plan to have more kids. If you have 3 kids, 2-3 years apart... and you wait for them all to be out of diapers, you won't be in the parks for another 8-9 years. Maybe that's fine with you (or maybe you plan for your son to be an only, or to space them 4+ years, or whatever). But 8-9 years is a long time to put off a trip if it is important to you to have the grandparents with you.

Plus, 2 and under don't need tickets and eat free at many table service restaurants, so trips only get more expensive as they get older!
 
We have 2 kids and we waited until our oldest was 5 and youngest was just under 3 for our first Disney trip. That way the oldest was what we felt was the perfect age to experience and believe in the magic and the youngest was potty trained and able to enjoy a lot but we knew she wouldn't remember much (also being under 3 she was free!). We went again 2 years after that and that trip was more for the younger one to experience the magic. The older one had fun but didn't believe in all the characters and stuff. (she said the princesses were real but the animals were suits with people in them :stitch2:)

One other thought... Not to be a downer, but just keep in mind that health can change at any moment. My dad was perfectly healthy 5 years ago, then he found a lump behind his ear, got diagnosed with Lymphoma, and we lost him 6 months later. If it's important to have a family trip, you may want to go sooner just to be safe. Hopefully you'll be able to do another trip that your son will remember a few years later, too. Just my $.2
 
Whether you want to take your children before they will remember it or not is entirely up to you.
I will say, however, if YOU like to go somewhere (including, but not limited to Disney) Babies are very portable (especially with slings) and, they sleep, and they don't tend to have opinions that cannot be dealt with by cleaning them / feeding them / winding them / letting them sleep / warming them / cooling them. It is WAY easier to do things YOU want to do with a baby than it is with a toddler, who can run in whatever direction they want to do, scream and voice all manner of opinions VERY loudly, and require age appropriate entertainment, and squllions of toilet breaks. Of course, Disney provides fun holidays for any of these stages, but, think about what YOU want to get out of a trip too!
 

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