Tips for taking your toddler to Walt Disney World from a Disney-Adult turned Disney-Mom

In this post, you'll find my top tips for bringing your baby or toddler to Walt Disney World. For a little background information, we have visited the parks with our daughter three different times at ages 6 months, 12 months, and 16 months old. We do not live near WDW so this perspective is from someone that has to travel to the WDW resort. Now, lets get into some tips!

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Tip 1: Stay on Walt Disney World property

Staying on property has SO many benefits. All of the Walt Disney World resorts have pools, playgrounds, and eateries. The resorts also provide bus transportation to all of the WDW theme parks as well as Disney Springs. If you're able to stay at a resort that has the Monorail or Skyliner I would absolutely recommend to do that, as it breaks up the bus rides and provides another experience for all! If staying on property, you're also able to enter the parks early and snag your Genie+/Lightning Lane selections before entering the park.

Tip 2: Dining Reservations

You can make dining reservations for restaurants located in the Walt Disney World theme parks as well as at any WDW resort 60 days before your check-in date. I HIGHLY recommend at least one reservation per day to insure that you have a break from the hustle and bustle of the parks and have a nice climate controlled spot to enjoy a meal with your family. Character dining is always such a fun experience too!

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Tip 3: Plan a resort day

When you visit Disney with a little one, you will not be able to be on the go constantly or you will all wear out very quickly. To help with this, I always recommend a resort day. Whether you spend your resort day by lounging by the pool, playing in the arcade, or just lying in bed and watching a Disney movie with your little, all of the Disney resorts offer plenty of fun activities for everyone. With over 20 resorts to choose from, you're sure to find the best fit for you and your family!

Tip 4: Choose your stroller wisely

If you're planning on taking the buses to the parks you'll want a travel stroller of some sort. On our first trip we brought our UPPAbaby Vista 2 and it was very difficult to collapse the stroller before getting on the buses. This experience prompted us to purchase a travel stroller that is light and folds easily. I will link the exact one below! You'll also want to make sure that your stroller provides shade so that your toddler can nap. I also would encourage you to bring along a portable fan for your stroller as well as a stroller sign. There are many times in your park day where you'll have to leave your stroller in a "stroller parking" area. It is really nice to have something to identify your stroller with! Our exact travel stroller, fan, and stroller sign will be linked at the end!

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Tip 5: Become familiar with the Baby Care Centers

The Baby Care centers are one of the top amenities at Walt Disney World (in my opinion). I have an entire blog post on them here: https://www.laurenloeb.com/post/baby-care-centers-at-walt-disney-worlddisney

Tip 6: Gear for park days

The days of having your own park bag are now over, you'll need a back pack that holds many essential items for both you and your child. I actually use a Disney Stoney Clover bag with a backpack organizer from Amazon and it works great! Here is my list of park bag essentials:

-Spill proof water cup

-Spill proof milk cup (you can wash in the Baby Care Center ;)

-Bento box for snacks and leftovers

-Cooling towels

-Pacifiers

-Snacks on snacks

-Diapers

-Wipes

-Extra clothes

-Random little toys (wait times can get long)

-Medicine

-Sun screen

-Extra shoes

-Portable Charger

My favorites are linked at the end!

Tip 7: Use Genie+ & Lightning Lane

I know using Genie + and Lightning Lane seem very confusing but I promise they are so worth it if you commit to learning how to use them. Wait times can get very long without it and your day may suffer from that. There are tons of resources online to help you learn how to use these services as well as cast members all over WDW!

Final Tip, 8: Bring help

We have visited WDW three times with our daughter and had grandparents with us on one of those trips. We enjoyed ourselves significantly more on the trip that we had them! Toddlers are not made for spending long hours in parks and having someone to bring her back to enjoy toddler things like playing and swimming made the trip much better all around! From now on, if there is help available, we're bringing it!

To wrap up:

You can have a really amazing time at Walt Disney World with a baby or toddler and the nice perk is that if they are under 3, they're free! However, you will need to spend more time planning ahead and preparing for the trip. Bringing our daughter at a young age has already given us so many memories that we'll never forget! Below, I am leaving links to all of my park essentials! If you have questions or comments leave them below and I'd love to chat!

Links: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/laurenelic/collections/11ee710ad814abf7931d0242ac110004