Visiting Disney end of March with 6 month old

[ngrier13]

This will be my first trip with my child. I am very nervous about the plane ride and would like some suggestions regarding food, diapers, formula, etc? My doctor did say that I could give my baby some benadryl to make her sleep. We are staying at the Caribbean beach. Do you now if they have cribs or pack-n-plays. My child loves her crib. Should we pack formula, diapers, baby food, etc. or should we go to a local grocery store and buy everything. We are not renting a car so we would have to take a taxi. Thanks for your input.

 

[timandlesley]

This will be my first trip with my child. I am very nervous about the plane ride and would like some suggestions regarding food, diapers, formula, etc? My doctor did say that I could give my baby some benadryl to make her sleep. We are staying at the Caribbean beach. Do you now if they have cribs or pack-n-plays. My child loves her crib. Should we pack formula, diapers, baby food, etc. or should we go to a local grocery store and buy everything. We are not renting a car so we would have to take a taxi. Thanks for your input.

We did this trip with our six month old last year. She actually slept peacefully on the plane in my arms, AMAZING. I had her drink her bottle on the way up and again on the way down, had pacifier in her mouth while she slept. Be aware that there is NO WHERE to change a diaper on a plane which stinks. We had to have my husband get up and go to the back of the plane so I could use his seat. I packed a ton of formula and bought bottle water in the POP food court to make the bottles daily. We packed enough diapers for the whole trip, cereal, and baby food. I carried everything in a backpack daily to the parks (enough formula, food, disposable bibs, diapers, wipes) in the backpack. I lathered her up with sunscreen daily before we left. I wouldn't go to the grocery, just pack one suitcase full of everything you need, it will save you cab fair. We used the pack -n-play and asked for extra blankets to make it comfy for her, she slept just fine it it. She also slept great in the stroller during the day. We used the carrier in her stroller which I highly recommend because at night on the crowded buses instead of having to balance her and hold onto a bar and stand, I put the carrier on the floor between my legs covered with a blanket, she slept the whole time and I balanced the whole time, but without having to try to keep a hold on her which would have been impossible. We strolled her back to the room every night and were able to transfer her to the crib still asleep each night, pretty easy actually. I think it is a great age to travel. She loved the Playhouse Disney show at MGM, the safari at AK, and the parades, Pooh's honey pots, and Buzz rides at MK. The baby swap is agreat option too, don't forget about that. Good luck, it'll be great.
Lesley

 

[justhat]

We have flown with our daughter 10 times between the ages of 3 and 10 months and have never had a problem, and 5 of those flights I was by myself with her. We buy her her own seat and bring her carseat and she sits in it fine for most of the flight (I do sometimes take her out midflight if it's smooth and she's getting annoyed on a long flight), but she's definitely in it for takeoff and landing. She is breastfed, but I have pumped milk to give her a bottle for takeoff and landing, but without it she is fine and has no ear trouble anyway, even when she had an ear infection. (I found out because she would refuse to take the bottle and I was so afraid her ears would hurt, but she was fine, she does have a pacifier, but didn't use it much on the plane.) I'm not one to give medications unless they're absolutely necessary so we never gave Benedryl on a plane-we have used it though when my daughter had a cold and it did not make her sleepy at all, so beware.

I brought a stroller that fully reclined and could face me or outward until she was 9 months, and on that trip we brought our Maclaren Techno Classic, which was much easier to carry around and fully reclines. We brought the infant carseat for the plane, but never used it in WDW as it was just one more thing to carry onto the buses. When you're carrying the diaper bag, stroller, and the baby, there was no way I wanted to add a carseat to that list, and carrying the baby in it was much harder since it was so heavy (we don't use it anymore, but she's less than 19 pounds at 11 months so she was never a heavy baby and it was still hard to carry her around in it). We took a Baby Bjorn, which I love!, and I would carry her in that on the buses. On our last trip when she was 9 months, I was by myself for 2 days and could carry her in the Bjorn, the diaper bag, stroller, and any souvenir bags onto the bus myself.

We stop at a grocery store now that she's on baby food, but before that we just packed the diapers and wipes in our luggage, which left room for souvenirs on the way home. Instead of taking a taxi, get a towncar and they'll stop at a grocery store for you for free, plus they'll carry your bags to the car, which is nice with a baby and a taxi won't do that. We aren't too picky with what kind of baby food she eats (though we buy Earth's Best and Healthy Times at home) so we were satisfied with the selection they had at Publix (Gerber, BeechNut, and Tender Harvest), but we did bring a few favorites from home just in case. We didn't use formula so I can't say if I'd buy it or bring it, but probably buy it down there so I didn't have to worry about carrying it, and if you use liquid you have to worry about it breaking. Also, depending on where you live, all the baby stuff was cheaper for us to buy in Florida than home in DC, so on our next trip in April we might get diapers down there too. We also like stopping at the grocery store to pick up some bottled water. We buy 1 or 2 cases and take a few bottles into the park with us each day, which is a huge savings over buying water at Disney. If you're going to use bottled water for formula, then I'd definitely do a grocery stop. I think all towncar services provide this free, but we've used Tiffany and Cartier towncar services and they both did it. Cartier gives a discount if you book them online too.

We have gotten both pack n plays and cribs, but I think it depends on the resort. At Pop, AKL, and ASMu we had PnPs, but at the GF they offered us either a crib or PnP. My daughter doesn't sleep in either so I never asked about a crib in the other resorts, but they may have them too. They definitely have PnPs though.

Hope you have a fun trip-my daughter had a great time and really started to enjoy the attractions around 6 months old. Be sure and see Spectromagic, that was a huge hit with her.

 

[lclark0621]

We have flown with our DS who is now 18 months a number of times already.

First if you are going to use something like benidryl (spelling is awful I know!), to knock them out & help them sleep, TRY IT BEFORE THE FLIGHT! Some kids have the opposite reaction to medication & it just makes them wired (like my DS, which we found out on our 8 hour flight to London!).

If you are flying with someone, have them take all your carry ons & board the plane when it is your section. You and baby wait. Go change that last diaper, let them relax. You will have them cooped up long enough. Get on the plane as late as you can.

If your flight is only a few hours, and a diaper is only wet, wait until you land to change it. Our gage is 3 hours. If the flight is less then 3 hours, and our DS is only wet, we wait. This also helps by changing them right before we board the plane.

Try & get baby to nurse or drink a bottle during take off & landing. It will help with the ears.

Bring a couple of baby's favorite toys & a few baby has never seen before for each flight.

Dont stress if baby cries. Babies all cry. It is part of life. If you stress, baby will stress more. Sure you may get some nasty looks, but ignore them. Just concetrate on baby. If people get nasty get a flight attendant to help.

If you can afford it, but a seat (most airlines offer reduced rates for infants) for baby. Not for a car seat or anything (we dont bring a car seat on the plane), but for the extra room with baby. It will help a lot!

 

[lclark0621]

Oh I almost forgot on formula & diapers. DO NOT GO TO GOODINGS for them! They are SO overpriceds!

I found Walgreens has much better prices in FL. I am sure other stores are even better, but we did not want to spend a lot of time looking.

For formula if you get the nursettes or the 8 oz pop cans, they are the BEST for in the parks during the day. You dont need to keep them cold, just use them as you need them. We used them the whole time we were there. They were such a lifesaver!

We were foolish, and packed a lot of formula. Boy was that heavy! Had I thought about it, I would have packed it up & shipped it to myself at the hotel.

My DS was very picky about his formula & would not take powder so I was concerned about finding the nursettes & 8oz ready to feed pop cans in FL. I did find Walgreens in FL had the 8oz ready to feed cans, but one store did not have enough for my entire stay. I did not want to carry a bag with cold packs all day to keep my son's formula cold & worry about it going bad. The nursettes & 8 oz ready to feed cans were a God send in WDW!

Request a crib before you leave. Disney has free pack n play type cribs for their guests. We co-sleep, so did not need one but they are available.

If your child is on baby food yet, you can get a small amount at the hotels, but not a big selection. You can buy that at the grocery stores though. My DS ate mostly homemade baby food, so I was able to find something at all the resturants I could give him.

 

[MCK588]

I agree with all these posts.

Benadryl can make a baby wired!
Make sure baby nurses or drinks from bottle while taking off and landing.
I read somewhere to wrap tiny presents so that on the plane baby can unwrap something and it'll be a surprise and keep them occupied.
I agree about not trying to change diapers unless it's absolutely necessary on the plane.
If you use the kind of formula that makes single packs, that's the best. Either bring bottles into the park with water in them or fill them as needed and plop in the formula. There are plenty of baby care stations in Disney parks and they are very helpful and perfect for washing things out, microwaving, changing, nursing, you name it.
Remember that unless you get it in a grocery store off-site, anything sold on-site at Disney will costs a fortune. So bring as many diapers, etc as you can in your luggage if you don't have a rental car.
And buy the extra plane seat if possible!

 

[justhat]

I just want to add something about buying the baby a seat on the plane. We initially did it because of posts on this board about how it's much safer and all that, plus infants in seats are usually 50% the price of the adult ticket, so we figured for that minimal price we'd get it. Well on our way home from Disney (my daughter's 2nd flight, a day before she turned 3 months) we had really severe turbulance and had to circle a long time and almost had to land at another airport. It was so rough that if I didn't have my daughter in a carseat I honestly cannot say that I could have kept her safe. I'm not saying she would have flown out of my arms around the cabin, but she may have hit her head on the seat in front of us. She stayed strapped in her carseat sleeping and didn't move the whole time. Our 3rd trip had a similar experience, but this time we were landing and it was so bad the pilot had to abort, pull up, and fly to another airport. Again, I was so glad we got her a seat as I didn't have to worry about her safety. We took a train ride from DC to NJ when she was 10 months and we had to hold her and it was hard to keep a good grip on her when the train jerked or moved suddenly, which reinforced my decision to always get our daughter a seat. And we are by no means rich, as we're both in graduate school, unemployed, and living on loans, but we feel it's worth any price to keep our daughter safe. So if you do get a seat (which I hope you do!), please use the carseat too.