Traveling with baby

[MsNewsradio]

Planning our first family vacation to WDW since I had my son, and now I find myself in an entire realm of WDW planning that I have zero clue about. Have a few questions and hope folks can clarify for me (he’ll be 14 months old at the time of the trip, and his grandmother, uncle, and two aunts will be traveling with us):

1) for Child swap on rides, if my son is asleep in his stroller, can the CM at the start of the ride line simply see that and the person waiting with him hang out outside the attraction until it is time to swap riders? Or is it a situation where the whole family has to go through the line up to the second checkpoint (or similar) and then split off from each other? Just trying to think ahead to if he’s napping during a ride return,etc.

2) are there any attractions (namely the shows, since I know it’s not the case for rides), where strollers are permitted in the back? I don’t think this is the case, but want to confirm.

3) is there any list/idea of where designated stroller drop off areas are for rides? I know CMs often have to move strollers for crowd control, etc., but for example - if we are rope dropping for Remy at Epcot, would there be a way to find out where I have to drop the stroller before catching up to my party in line? Or is it simply a “figure it out day of” situation?

4) does anyone have any preferred spots for baby’s napping (be it an attraction or just a tucked away area of the parks)?

5) any specific stroller rental company down there folks are fans of? I’ll have my travel stroller with me from the airport, but would love to rent a full size stroller with a good underneath canopy without risking my main stroller with TSA.

 

[ArielDreams]

Can’t comment on all of them but here’s what I know/found!

1) Right outside the official ride entrance (like where the first LL return tap is) there is usually a little podium with a CM to set you up with rider swap. No need to go through the line with the stroller! It’s kind of like having a LL return set up on your magic band.

2) none that I can think of!

3) I stressed about this before we went but it’s def a day of thing and honestly not a struggle to find stroller parking! I think I never noticed it because we never needed it. I do suggest in MK though just picking one location in the land to park it until you’re ready to move on to the next land. Makes things a bit easier!

4) My kid was not a stroller mapper but the last time we went I was pregnant and couldn’t go on bigger rides so I found a couple spots. Particularly in Future World the play areas at the end of Mission Space, Test Track etc were nice quiet places to rest in AC. The QS area across from the Beauty and the Beast show was a good shaded waiting place while everyone was on ToT / RnRC.

5) We bring our own!

 

[Anna131517]

You might want to consider bringing a structured baby carrier, like an ergo, to carry your child while waiting or walking around after parking the stroller.

We always rented citi mini strollers from Kingdom Strollers. I think Orlando Strollers is another popular rental company. And I think Scooterbug drops off at bellhop in the resorts. I love the citi mini strollers because they’re super easy and lightweight to collapse for buses, have good shade cover and near flat recline, and are easy to push one handed.

We only ever did child swap once, at Flight of passage, and that was at the entrance of the ride.

I wouldn’t say there are any super “quiet” places in the park but it never stopped my kids from stroller napping. I would just walk around while they slept.

 

[sponica]

My answers are in bold:

1) for Child swap on rides, if my son is asleep in his stroller, can the CM at the start of the ride line simply see that and the person waiting with him hang out outside the attraction until it is time to swap riders? Or is it a situation where the whole family has to go through the line up to the second checkpoint (or similar) and then split off from each other? Just trying to think ahead to if he’s napping during a ride return,etc. Whenever we've done rider swap, we've just had to check in with the CM near the lightning lane tap point and add it in.

2) are there any attractions (namely the shows, since I know it’s not the case for rides), where strollers are permitted in the back? I don’t think this is the case, but want to confirm. I can't think of any

3) is there any list/idea of where designated stroller drop off areas are for rides? I know CMs often have to move strollers for crowd control, etc., but for example - if we are rope dropping for Remy at Epcot, would there be a way to find out where I have to drop the stroller before catching up to my party in line? Or is it simply a “figure it out day of” situation? I can't remember where it is for Remy, but pre-COVID there were CMs who would valet park the strollers if you were rope dropping Soarin (the stroller parking is very inconvenient to an efficient rope drop there). And the stroller parking for the safari (at least in the lightning lane line) is partway through the queue and I think a CM will grab it and park it for you.

4) does anyone have any preferred spots for baby’s napping (be it an attraction or just a tucked away area of the parks)? Mine just napped in the stroller, make sure you recline it all the way so FOMO doesn't sit in

5) any specific stroller rental company down there folks are fans of? I’ll have my travel stroller with me from the airport, but would love to rent a full size stroller with a good underneath canopy without risking my main stroller with TSA. We did Scooterbug so it could be dropped off and left with bell services. The others just didn't work out with our flight times.

 

[blue oranda]

I would recommend a tush baby. It’s easy to put on and take off yourself and you can stand in line with the baby. My baby fell asleep on it too. I’m sad the little one is too big for it now.

 

[lanejudy]

for Child swap on rides

At WDW Child Swap (aka Rider Switch) is only officially available at attractions where the child is too short to ride. In that situation, the child is not allowed to enter the queue, so the adult waiting with the little one is given a return time.

There may be times that a CM will allow you to "swap" if the child is napping, but I wouldn't necessarily count on it.