Tips/advice for taking a 9 month old baby…for 6 weeks!?

[Softy]

Originally Posted by Ohana2020

We have just travelled with a 17 month old and he was put into a little bouncer-type thing by BA. Not sure what age they switch from cot to this but worked for us for the 10 minutes he slept for

It was all going swimmingly on the return. He fell asleep during take-off, put him into the seat when seatbelt light went off and we thought we'd get a few hours. Then... the seatbelt light came on due to turbulence so we had to get him out... big mistake

See more...

It all depends on what they have onboard and what’s left. You can choose which to have if both are available. My son was an inch from touching the top and bottom of the cot at 4 months. He lasted 10 minutes and he was out!

[Wonder]

Ah how entirely exciting! You all must be just beside yourself waiting for the trip to come round... total dream come true!

Car seat- I would definitely advise buying one out there over renting it... it will probably work out less expensive and you at least know it's clean and will have full instructions on how to use it.
Or, as someone else suggested, bring your own car seat and pack the storage bag with nappies/wipes!

Nappies and wipes are significantly more expensive out there so I would pack as many as your luggage allowance allows and highly advise swapping to reusable wipes for mucky hands and faces, and maybe even for cleaning up wee bums. I'm assuming you'll have washing facilities in the villa, you can just use inexpensive microfibre cloths cut into 4 pieces!

Ticket wise, the 14 day tickets can be used over 18 days now, and the cost of APs means you have to buy at least 3 tickets to make it worthwhile (I believe... it's been a while since I did the maths and obviously APs aren't currently an option).

But if you're there for 6 weeks that's 42 days... give yourself a couple days to settle in and then you'll probably only need to buy 2 14 day tickets as that'll cover you for 28 visits across 36 days.
If you're avoiding weekends or want to maybe do SeaWorld I think you'll be fine ticket wise.

Child swap is still very much in action, so you'll be able to ride the bigger rides without issue.

Don't forget that each Disney park has a baby care centre which is a much nicer area to change baby's bum, sit and chill out while you breast feed and also spend some time waiting for the other parent in a FoP or RotR queue before you child swap.

If your villa has any glass doors, and if Teddy is crawling by then I highly advise getting some window clings that you can put on the glass door at his height, just so he doesn't try and crawl through a closed door and bang his head.

One other bit of advice, you'll bring a change of clothes (or 2 or 10) on the flight for your son but don't forget to bring a change of clothes for you too. The likelihood of a poonami, or vomit incident, is way too high!

[Ariel85]

How exciting! This sounds like a amazing trip.
We had an Occaro for our almost 3 year old and I’d suggest getting something more lightweight. I found the Occaro pretty heavy to be lugging about. We got a Silver cross Zest which I really like, lies almost flat and has a big sunshade. Not a massive basket at the bottom though. New it was £120ish I think and definitely worth it.
Hope you have a fantastic time!

[emmsy]

Originally Posted by KristyA

Sounds like a dream trip! I would definitely recommend looking into the Baby Jogger City Mini GT for your pushchair. It folds down really easily, is great to push, lies flat for naps and has a massive sunshade. You can usually pick up second hand ones pretty reasonably.

See more...

I second this. We took our 8 month old baby over in January and this buggy was perfect:-). I also bought a bugaboo stardust travelcot as we had just transitioned baby out off SNOO and found this travel cot to be amazing! Other things that were fab for us were microwave steriliser pouches, nursery water we bought from walmart, and a blow up cushion for high chair as our little one is small for her age and neeeded padding for the high chairs in restaurants xx

[NewtoOrlando]

I have no practical advice….however, 6 weeks?! Do you want a 40 year old woman to help you? I mean, I’m willing to take one for the team and leave my teenagers at home for this situation 😉

In all honesty though, it sounds amazing! What a wonderful experience for you all and memories with Teddy you will cherish forever! See, told you no practical advice!x

[mintybadger]

My youngest was 4 when we went so can’t help much but with regards to nappies/wipes etc maybe Aldi might be a good option? Maybe someone on the dibb who lives in florida will know what their baby supplies are like. I got all my nappies and wipes from Aldi when mine were babies. (well i used reusable ls too but think that would be a faff for florida)
So jealous. 6 weeks would be amazing.
If you can’t get annual passes, what about seaworld ones? Then you could have an outing to busch gardens too and an extra water park. free parking as well.

[SleepingUgly]

Heading to FL in 8 weeks or so with my 14 month old little boy.

Just back from a “trial run” to Madeira at Easter. Here are the things I have learned/found:

I had big plans to bring my small lightweight collapsible buggy. In the end at the last second when we were leaving the house I told my husband to bring our proper silver cross pacific travel system - and I am SO glad I did! My little man was so much more comfortable in his proper pram, it reclines back further, he’s more used to it, proper sun shade, better storage underneath for me to put all his stuff and it’s sturdier so I was able to hang a load of stuff on it (I bought these great buggy clips on Amazon so you can hang your changing bag on the back)

I debated whether to bring his travel cot. I worried whether he would settle in a different cot. In the end I didn’t bring it and he was absolutely fine in the one the hotel provided.

Nappies - I packed the suitcase full of all the nappies I needed. I will probably do the same for Florida as they cost an arm and a leg over there!

Food - I packed my hand luggage FULL of all kinds of food for him. Jars, pouches, snacks - you name it! I packed what I needed and more incase we got delayed - which we did! I ended up using most of it which I was pretty surprised at, so don’t underestimate - babies snack a lot! I also packed a lot of stuff in my suitcase which he ended up pretty much exclusively eating the entire time (he didn’t take to Portuguese food). I probably won’t bother as much for Florida as I’m in a villa and can make him whatever he wants!

Formula - my little guy doesn’t take that many bottles anymore - only nighttime. However I did bring 2 bottles made with me in a little cooler bag incase of sore ears. Gatwick however did take my ice packs off me as they were over 100ml. Most airports are fine with you bringing ice packs for baby food (Belfast and Funchal said it was fine) but security at Gatwick thought different!

Car seat - won’t be bringing my own! Too much of a faff and not sure about the insurance implications if we were in an accident. Will probably go buy one when I get there!

Theme parks - child swap does exist! Just speak to the cast member at the entrance to the attraction.

Other little general tips:
- I bought the little Milton soother steriliser and mini tablets from Boots. It was a life saver out and about when the dodos kept landing on the ground and you can’t wash them!
- Make sure you gate check your pram/buggy. Don’t let anyone try to take it off you at the check in desk.
- Preload your phone/tablet with ALL the cocomelon! It was a lifesaver for us. (We also set up guided access on the iPad so it locked the screen so he could poke at it without turning it off)

Last tip - most importantly enjoy yourself and relax. It’ll honestly be fine. I was up the walls about the travelling/plane etc and I was pleasantly surprised by how well he did!

[Softy]

Originally Posted by emmsy

I second this. We took our 8 month old baby over in January and this buggy was perfect:-). I also bought a bugaboo stardust travelcot as we had just transitioned baby out off SNOO and found this travel cot to be amazing! Other things that were fab for us were microwave steriliser pouches, nursery water we bought from walmart, and a blow up cushion for high chair as our little one is small for her age and neeeded padding for the high chairs in restaurants xx

See more...

The stardust is the one we went for given how often we’re travelling. Totally agree on how good it is and has been very useful on our backs given the different heights you can set it to.

We bought a seperate bag for it to help keep it clean on the journeys. We went for a massage table bag, which has been very handy being able to fill it with loads of stuff on the way out and back. Extra useful to be able to take things like a proper wipeable changing mat, pool floats and play mats that we probably would take it otherwise. I think the cot weighs around 8kg but in March it went through at 23kg 😬😂.

[minnie moomoo]

Libby I'm so excited for you. I loved yours and Bens vlogs back in the old days of Ariel hair 😀
I have no advice but 6 weeks sounds amazing.

[Rocking Ewok]

How exciting and sounds like a fantastic trip. What a great employer to give that perk as well.

Can’t give advice on things to take as we are not at that stage yet.

We spoke to CM about the annual passes and two separate CMs at different guest services, just mentioned only Florida residents atm and no plans to expand.

How true this is I don’t know but at least with the 14 day tickets could get a couple of them can book 14 days over an 18 day period (so 36 day window out of your maximum 42 days).