Vacation Planning with 1 year old.

[mashley]

We are thinking about a Disneyland vacation in October with our son. He will be 16 months in October. A few questions we have are the following:

1) What is your experience taking a 1 year old?
2) Best hotels that are within walking distance. Looking for clean, affordable and a continental breakfast.
3) What have you found that your child enjoyed doing most? Rides? Parades? Character greetings etc.?
4) What are early October crowd levels like? We are looking at going from October 3-7.

Any other advice would be great. We will be flying in from Canada.

 

[Misskitty3]

1. Both of my kids went to DL when they were 12 or 13 months old. We had a great experience both times.

2. Best Western Park Place Inn is affordable and as close as you can get without actually being on Disney property.

3. Mine loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and I imagine, The little Mermaid would have been a big hit too. There is so much for young kids to see and hear and experience at DL! Mine were pretty good with characters! DS was a little hesitant our 1st morning at Goofy's Kitchen but the characters were great with him and he soon got over any uneasy feelings for the rest of our stay. DD never had any issues with characters at all.

 

[taffy]

We took ours when he was around one.

Hotels.

We haven't stayed at one with breakfast but both the Anabella and the Castle Inn and Suites were good and were walkable.

As for rides it depends on your child but ours loved everything he was able to ride with the exception of Mr Toad.

A favourite is the show with Crush.

 

[YukonMommy]

The first time we took our kids our youngest was 17 months.

The thing is you are not going to know until you get there how he reacts!

Our son loved the parades, all rides he could go on, the shows (including bugs life and Aladdin).

He hated and I mean freak out, hysterical cry when ever characters got around him! He liked to wave at them from a distance while his 3 older siblings got pics with them, but if they got to close....look out!

All I can say is just be prepared for anything. Take a stroller, snacks, drinks, patience and a good sense of humor!

Have a magical time!

 

[lovebug33]

It just depends on the kid. We have take. Our dd at 9, 12, and 18 mknths. At 9 and 12 mknths it was all about characters. At 18 months she hated the characters and was in love with all the outside rides like dumbo and tea cups and carousel. Her favorite was dumbo and the tiki room. She freaked on pirates an dark rides were only so so. She really liked the cupcakes

 

[lovebug33]

Forgot to add at 18 months she loved the baby care center. We went in there for a snack and diaper change and she wouldn't leave because there were books! lol!

 

[Misskitty3]

Gay Days are Oct 3-5 so you may want to check into how crowded the parks usually get on those weekends. That could be a pretty busy weekend.

 

[Carolynleanne]

We are thinking about a Disneyland vacation in October with our son. He will be 16 months in October. A few questions we have are the following:

1) What is your experience taking a 1 year old?
2) Best hotels that are within walking distance. Looking for clean, affordable and a continental breakfast.
3) What have you found that your child enjoyed doing most? Rides? Parades? Character greetings etc.?
4) What are early October crowd levels like? We are looking at going from October 3-7.

Any other advice would be great. We will be flying in from Canada.

We are from Vancouver Canada and we've taken a 7 month old and an 11 month old to Disney in the past 3 years. Both were WONDERFUL MAGICAL experiences and I'd do it again in a heartbeat

We rent a VRBO property called Walts Place. It's within walking distance to the park and we love love love it.

Our kids tend to enjoy meeting characters and parades the most. We watched each parade twice during the trip and spent a lot of time greeting and taking photos with characters.

 

[KLK622]

We were at WDW with our son at 13 months so I don't have any Disneyland specific advice, but he LOVED any ride he could do one. The great thing is at that age they don't really know that they should be scared of the dark/pirates or ghosts. But he was really scarred of the fully costumed characters (like Mickey), but didn't mind the Princesses. At that point he didn't have the attention span to sit through a show.

He also napped in his stroller which was fantastic...we just threw a lightweight blanket over the top and walked around.