I don't understand why parents find it necessary to take young children and babies to Disney. I guess we take them because we want to share our excitement or because we wanted to go when we were young but our parents didn't take us. Our adult children's memories of Disney vacations starts when they were 8 years of age, not their earlier vacations. We witnessed an overheated tired melt down of a very small child in a stroller. The Mother had finally had enough and yelled, "stop crying, you are in the happiest place in the world, damn it".
Bill
Speaking just for myself, I had a baby after our family started the tradition of going to WDW every year. Before baby, I took my 2 sons to Disney while DH stayed home and worked to help pay the trip. The year I was pregnant, I was in bed vomiting for 9 months and couldn't go anywhere, not even Walmart. (I wanted to go to Walmart so much, it was like Walmart had turned into Disney World!) Once the baby came, I wanted to go back to Disney World badly, but I didn't want to leave the baby. So after months of thinking, I figured out how to make it happen:
1. I scheduled our meal times at odd hours (11am, 3p.m, 7p.m.) in accordance with the baby's breastfeeding schedule.
2. I bought a super light weight stroller so that my then DS9 can carry it onto the bus while I carry the baby.
3. I bought a sling to carry the baby should I not be able to find a seat on the bus.
4. I gave up my favorite rides such as Splash Mountain and Soaring so that I could stay with the baby.
5. I told the kids that they will have to give up some stuff in order to be at Disney with a baby, and they were OK with it -- it was better than no Disney World!
So we went and had a wonderful time! Granted, I had to give up almost all of my favorite rides, but it was still worth it because just being at WDW is magical. The baby slept well in the stroller and always passed out when we got to Splash Mountain. (Don't know why.) When he was awake, he adored the rides and watched them with wide open eyes. But he did that at the mall too, so I think he just liked the color.
To clarify, you ask why bother going when the baby won't remember. But we don't go to make memories. We go for the experience, not so that we can remember it later. I myself don't remember much of our trips because we've gone so many times and they all blend together. We go because it is such a wonderful place, we consider it our second home. In fact, not remembering is a plus: it's like reading a good book and then afterwards you don't remember it. Why, you can then read it again and enjoy it like the first time!