evilqueenmindy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
Was it a little crazy of us? Kind of. A little backstory- we do a 5-day/4 night sister trip every year in early Feb. (always super bowl weekend, 4 women and my 10 year old nephew) This year our trip was from 1/30-2/3. My niece was born on December 30th.
We had a 2BR villa at OKW, and we only live about an hour from the parks, so my sister was not committed with airline tickets or anything, and actually was not totally committed to going for the whole trip until just a couple days out. We weren’t sure she would stay for the whole thing, but she made it!
So just because I haven’t seen a ton out there about bringing such a little baby on a Disney trip, here was our experience-
- villa was a lifesaver- my niece currently weighs less than a men’s bowling ball, but ooooohmygod did she come with a lot of accessories. Even leaving a bassinet at home, my sisters Honda Pilot was pretty much stuffed with all the everything Baby was going to need for 5 days. The villa gave us the space to hold all of this paraphernalia, and there was always a room to take the baby to if she needed quiet.
-Stroller is a way bigger hassle for a tiny baby- my sister had 2 wearable carriers, and those were way more convenient for carrying the baby around than the stroller, which we mostly used as a cart for the diaper bag. (Carrier really helped keep the baby calm too.)
-you can take a newborn on way more rides than you think. And they will sleep through much louder stuff than you would think.
-if you can con more adults into doing this crazy thing with you, do it- it takes a village to bring a newborn to the parks, especially if you have another kid (we had my 10 year old nephew) we would often split up, take turns holding the little princess during meals etc. I feel like if it was just two parents, you’d get tired out pretty quickly.
-manage your expectations- this is an obvious one, but you cannot do a commando touring style with a baby. We would generally go to the parks around 11, do a couple FP, have lunch, and my sister and baby would return to the villa. My niece was also getting better at sleeping longer at night, but it’s still a sleep drain (and she liked to cry for no reason from 9-11pm, or “the witching hour” as my sister called it) so a slow, “check out the 3 things you are interested in and split” is th way to go.
-don’t fear the restaurants- Disney restaurants are pretty loud, and unless you’ve got a shrieky crier (nephew could not do Disney dining until he was 2, hahaha) the baby is probably not going to disturb anyone. I wouldn’t bring the baby to a signature dining experience (she stayed home on CA grill night) but our baby went to via Napoli, The Plaza, T-Rex, Olivia’s, Yak & Yeti and Homecoming. She slept through some, had bottles at others, cried a little but not much (was beyond fascinated with the lights at Via Napoli) never had to be taken out. Of course, every infant is different, ours was fairly chill.
-be prepared for a LOT of comments- you’re going to get a lot of attention from other people. Most people were nice, some people gave us some disapproving looks, there was a couple people that felt the need to tell us they disagreed with our choice to bring her. Way more people talked to us than we were used to.
Bottom line, you know your baby best, pack your sense of humor and patience, and if you want to take your baby to the parks when they are tiny, I say go for it, we had no regrets.
We had a 2BR villa at OKW, and we only live about an hour from the parks, so my sister was not committed with airline tickets or anything, and actually was not totally committed to going for the whole trip until just a couple days out. We weren’t sure she would stay for the whole thing, but she made it!
So just because I haven’t seen a ton out there about bringing such a little baby on a Disney trip, here was our experience-
- villa was a lifesaver- my niece currently weighs less than a men’s bowling ball, but ooooohmygod did she come with a lot of accessories. Even leaving a bassinet at home, my sisters Honda Pilot was pretty much stuffed with all the everything Baby was going to need for 5 days. The villa gave us the space to hold all of this paraphernalia, and there was always a room to take the baby to if she needed quiet.
-Stroller is a way bigger hassle for a tiny baby- my sister had 2 wearable carriers, and those were way more convenient for carrying the baby around than the stroller, which we mostly used as a cart for the diaper bag. (Carrier really helped keep the baby calm too.)
-you can take a newborn on way more rides than you think. And they will sleep through much louder stuff than you would think.
-if you can con more adults into doing this crazy thing with you, do it- it takes a village to bring a newborn to the parks, especially if you have another kid (we had my 10 year old nephew) we would often split up, take turns holding the little princess during meals etc. I feel like if it was just two parents, you’d get tired out pretty quickly.
-manage your expectations- this is an obvious one, but you cannot do a commando touring style with a baby. We would generally go to the parks around 11, do a couple FP, have lunch, and my sister and baby would return to the villa. My niece was also getting better at sleeping longer at night, but it’s still a sleep drain (and she liked to cry for no reason from 9-11pm, or “the witching hour” as my sister called it) so a slow, “check out the 3 things you are interested in and split” is th way to go.
-don’t fear the restaurants- Disney restaurants are pretty loud, and unless you’ve got a shrieky crier (nephew could not do Disney dining until he was 2, hahaha) the baby is probably not going to disturb anyone. I wouldn’t bring the baby to a signature dining experience (she stayed home on CA grill night) but our baby went to via Napoli, The Plaza, T-Rex, Olivia’s, Yak & Yeti and Homecoming. She slept through some, had bottles at others, cried a little but not much (was beyond fascinated with the lights at Via Napoli) never had to be taken out. Of course, every infant is different, ours was fairly chill.
-be prepared for a LOT of comments- you’re going to get a lot of attention from other people. Most people were nice, some people gave us some disapproving looks, there was a couple people that felt the need to tell us they disagreed with our choice to bring her. Way more people talked to us than we were used to.
Bottom line, you know your baby best, pack your sense of humor and patience, and if you want to take your baby to the parks when they are tiny, I say go for it, we had no regrets.