by Cruisin’ Diva
As many of you fellow moms out there know, going anywhere with an infant can be somewhat of a chore. You must remember the diaper bag (and everything in it), the stroller, the car seat, the pacifier…the list goes on and on. When you take and infant to Disney, the list gets even longer. I took my twins, 7 years ago, on their first Disney vacation on the Disney Cruise Line when they were just 5 1/2 months old. Fast forward seven years later, and we have not one, but two Disney vacations planned for our family and we’ve added a new addition. He would be 7 months old on his first trip on a Disney Cruise and 11 months old on his first trip to Walt Disney World.
You can read my full review of our Disney cruise from December 2014 here, but I didn’t go into details of how easy it is to take an infant. Honestly, we drive, and it can be a little stressful, especially when an infant is added into the equation, but our drive down in December wasn’t bad at all. We did however, have to stop many times, such as the picture below, to feed, change and just get out and stretch his legs.
When you make it to the port, don’t miss out on the first character meeting!! Mickey and Minnie are there and we were lucky enough to be 2nd in line!! This was his first time to meet Mickey and it was well worth the wait!!
Once we made it through check-ins and actually stepped foot on the ship, we were able to breathe a little easier. We don’t plan many things, excursions and such, while on the cruise because we enjoy the relaxation factor a little more than being too structured. Don’t get me wrong, we always make reservations at Palo for dinner and register the kids for the clubs, but mainly, we are there to have fun. My older boys (twin 7 year olds) tend to spend most of their time in the Oceaneer’s Club/Lab, which is perfectly fine. We want them to have as much fun as we do, and if that’s where they want to be, then so be it. We take them out every now and then to go eat, go see characters, or try a fun activity that they might enjoy. This time around though, while we took our baby, Matthew, just about everywhere with us, we were more prepared with him that I was with the twins. We took our own stroller, which is a must in my opinion. You want your baby to be very comfortable when going everywhere on the ship, especially if he/she falls asleep.
All in all, the cruise was great. We got plenty of pictures of Matthew and all of the characters and his first trip to Disney was complete.
Now, fast forward a few months later, and we are heading to Walt Disney World. The drive down was much easier, even though he was only a few months older. He had his own personal movie while big brothers were able to watch theirs.
We knew this was going to be a completely different experience for him from the cruise. When you go to the parks, heading back to the room is not an option, so you have to make sure you carry everything, and I mean everything with you! I highly recommend a stroller that is quite comfortable for your little one for many reasons, especially when visiting the parks. The first reason is for comfort. The stroller that you can rent at the parks are not meant for infants and they are hard plastic. Not very comfortable in my opinion. The second reason is for the naps. I always take the stroller that can lay back the farthest, so he can lay back while he naps. The more comfortable your baby, the happier you will be! The third reason is for storage! The park strollers have zero storage, so most likely your personal stroller will usually have more storage for his/her essentials that you need to get through the day. And my final reason is easier spotability. There is always a sea of strollers, but it’s easier to find yours if it’s your personal one compared to trying to navigate through a sea of identical park strollers.
I would have to say, overall, that he did spectacular on his first trip to Walt Disney World. He was able to ride a few rides, his first being Peter Pan. He enjoyed every ride and show that we took him too. He loved meeting the characters and they all just adored him!
For my preference though, I prefer the cruises. It’s more laid back, it’s more convenient, and the characters are more interactive. They aren’t as rushed on the cruise as they are in the parks. The lines are much shorter, and no fast passes are needed (except for grabbing a ticket for the princesses and Anna and Elsa, but those are not hard to come by at all). Don’t worry, we’ll be back to Disney World too. There’s no way we could stay away!!
