“You’re Brave.”

“You’re Crazy.”

“She won’t even remember it.”

“You’re never too young for Disney.”

“You can see the magic in her sweet little face.”

These are just some of the comments my husband and I got after returning from a 16 hour road trip to Disney World with our 5 month old baby. Yes, you read that right. We voluntarily took a 16 hour road trip with a 5 month old baby. And. It. Was. A. Blast.

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I’m not kidding. We had so much fun, and so did she. We honestly thought she would just kind of be along for the ride, but I’m telling you, she loved it. From squealing with delight on her first ride—The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh—to being captivated by Festival of the Lion King, she truly took it all in and had a blast.

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That’s not to say we didn’t have our moments. The road trip was trying at times (we did stop overnight and made it a 2 day trip each way). She ended up getting a cold at the end of the trip so we spent our last day freaking out (me more so than my husband—FTM, baby’s first cold… you get the picture) and at an urgent care clinic.

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This was our first trip with her in tow, and we learned some things along the way.

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1. Don’t set your expectations too high. I don’t mean this to sound negative because we really did have a blast, but I think part of the reason we had so much fun was because we didn’t have too many expectations. We knew that things would take longer and we would have to work around the baby’s schedule. We didn’t go in expecting to hit the parks open to close and get on every single ride. If we had planned to do too much or imagined this perfect vacation, we probably would have been disappointed.

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2. Use a baby carrier. Even if your baby doesn’t love the baby carrier, it might be a good idea to bring one. For us, it’s one of the best ways to get the baby to fall asleep so it allowed us to have naps on the go and continue about our day. It also came in handy when my husband waited 2 hours in the standby line for Avatar Flight of Passage and I was on my own with the baby in the park. When he was done, we parent swapped and I didn’t have to wait in line at all. (Even if you’re not a fan of Avatar, this ride was totally worth it, by the way)

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3. Bring your own stroller and make it stand out. My mother in law thought it was hilarious that there were attendants for the strollers, and honestly it really was a sight to see... especially after we got done with It’s a Small World and it was dark outside. The attendants had moved a lot of the strollers and people were searching for theirs with their phone flashlights. By hanging a bright sign or somehow making your stroller stand out, you can avoid searching like this. On that note, a buggy lock is also a really good idea. You’re not allowed to lock your stroller to a fence or anything, but you can lock it to itself so that it can’t be pushed away. So many of the strollers look the same; it wouldn’t be hard to accidentally grab the wrong one. A buggy lock keeps your stroller safe but also lets the attendants pick it up and move it if they need to.

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4. Use the baby care centers. I’ll be honest I didn’t use these that often because they weren’t always convenient to where I was when the baby was hungry, but when I did use them it was so relaxing. The rooms were nice and quiet; the perfect place to let myself and my baby take a break. I never once had an issue nursing in the parks anywhere I needed to, but it was really nice to be able to sit in a calm, quiet room to nurse. You could even take this opportunity to let your baby get a nap in while the rest of your family goes on a ride. (Maybe there’s one you don’t really care to go on)

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5. Take the ferry. We were told that the ferry gets you to Magic Kingdom much quicker than the monorail and that did seem to be true. The nicest thing about the ferry in my opinion though is that you don’t have to unpack and fold up the stroller.

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6. This one’s for the road trip- learn how to change a diaper in the car. Normally if we need to change a diaper in the car we do it in the tailgate, but we had our car packed to the max. There were quite a few stops we made that were… a little sketchy, and some bathrooms didn’t have a changing table. Changing a baby who has just decided that she can roll anywhere she wants can be a sight… especially on your lap in a packed car. You gotta do what you gotta do.

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7. Another one for the road trip- take breaks. It can be tempting to just power through and get there as fast as possible when you’re driving with the baby in the car. By all means, if the baby falls asleep, get as far as you can. There were a couple times though where we needed a break and so did the baby. We would find a Starbucks or some other stop where we could just chill out for a while and the baby could stretch out. This made the trip go much more smoothly once we did get back in the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Even with the baby and me catching a cold, I’d say the trip was a success. The biggest thing I attribute that success to was being flexible. We didn’t try to pack too much in because we knew it would be a lot for a 5 month old baby. We even got her off her sleeping schedule (gasp!) and the world kept turning.

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For those that question why we would ever do this when she won’t remember anything- we will remember it and she’ll love the pictures and videos when she gets older. We had so much fun and even though she won’t remember it, she saw so many new things and this trip was great for her development. Plus, we like to travel and she’s part of our life now. We’re not going to stop living our lives or not do anything exciting until she has memories. Disney is magical no matter what age you are.