Tips For Visiting Walt Disney World with a 1 Year Old

Disclosure: I was given 2 complimentary Walt Disney World one-day park hopper tickets, but all thoughts and opinions are my own! Affiliate links are also used in this post. Read full disclosure here.

You Are Never Too Old For Disney

When we told family and friends we were taking a family vacation to Disney World with our 1-year-old, I got a lot of:  "Why? She's not going to remember it," and "Why not wait till she's older?"

Well, news flash: Disney is not just for kids! I LOVE Disney! This trip was not for her, but for us, well mostly me. I had signed up to run the Disney Princess 10k! It just so happened the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend fell on my Birthday weekend, so this was basically my birthday present, the best one so far!

In my opinion, one is never too old for Disney and I find it a shame when people think that you are only going for the sake of the child. We definitely plan to go again when she is older so she can fully enjoy the experience and remember it, but even if we didn't have our daughter, I would still want to go! I would go every year if we could afford it!


Walt Disney World Is Very Baby Friendly

All the Disney World parks have Baby Care centers, which are places that allow you to nurse, change your baby, and buy supplies if needed. We actually never had to go to one because all the women's restrooms had changing tables and I never ran out of supplies.

We never had issues finding or getting a high chair when it was time to eat. A lot of the outdoor areas will have high chairs available, though you may have to search for them. These often aren't clean, so bring Clorox or Lysol wipes! In the restaurants, they always asked us if we wanted one and these ones were always clean.

There are also a lot of rides that babies are allowed on. Plus they can attend all the shows and meet the characters! Here is just some of the stuff we did in each park:

Hollywood Studios

  • For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
  • March of The First Order
  • Voyage of The Little Mermaid

Epcot

  • Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Sommerhus
  • Meet Mulan in China
  • Frozen Ever After
  • Living With the Land
  • SeaBase
  • Spaceship Earth
  • IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth

Magic Kingdom

  • Cinderella's Royal Table
  • Haunted Mansion
  • It's a Small World
  • Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
  • Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
  • Meet Merida at Fairytale Garden
  • Meet Rapunzel and Tiana at Princess Fairytale Hall

My husband and I are not thrill seekers so we didn't miss out on any rides we wanted to go on, well except the Avatar boat ride in Animal Kingdom, as the wait time for that was over 100 minutes and we weren't going to wait that long, but that ride is also baby friendly. 

However, if you are a thrill seeker, Disney World does offer Rider Switch on many rides, which allows parents to take turns riding a ride while the other one watches the child not old enough to go on the ride. 

You can go to the Walt Disney World website to find information on all the rides. The ones that say "all ages" are baby friendly!


Babywear If You Can!

We went without a stroller thinking if we really needed to we would rent one. We never had to rent a stroller. My husband carried our daughter in our Ergo with no issues. Occasionally she would get hot, so we would take her out and just carry her normally. We also took her out during shows and parades so she could watch and dance, so cute!  

The nice thing was we never had to worry about stroller parking. Stroller parking can get so bad they actually have overflow areas! We also didn't have to worry about lugging the stroller on and off the shuttles. Although since we planned on renting, that wouldn't have been an issue for us either way, however, if you plan on bringing your own stroller, just be prepared. 

Another thing we didn't have to worry about was pushing a stroller through crowds. Having a stroller would have definitely slowed us down in getting around the parks, so I'm glad we were able to manage without one!

You can also babywear on all the rides! They have to be facing you, so tummy to tummy. I highly recommend babywearing on the rides as kids can get wiggly and some of the rides would have made me nervous if she wasn't strapped to daddy. The Frozen ride actually has a drop, where water will splash onto the seat! 

We love our Ergo and I highly recommend it! If you don't already own a baby carrier, you can currently get 25% off a Newborn Baby Bundle at Ergobaby


Be Flexible!

The important thing to remember when you go to Walt Disney World unless you live close enough or plan on spending a month there, you are not going to be able to see and do everything. Be mindful of your child's nap times and head back to the hotel if needed during the day. Also, accept the fact now that you may not be able to see any of the nighttime shows or fireworks due to your child's bedtime. 

If those things are important to you, then I would suggest not traveling until your child is older. We knew that with a baby, we would be on her schedule, and we already have future plans to go again, so missing out on stuff this time around was not an issue for us. 

Also, get the My Disney Experience app on your phone! It allows you to select fast passes in advance and modify them if needed. We actually had to change times on a few as we got to the parks late on some days due to our daughter sleeping in. We aren't ones to wake a sleeping baby. If there is a ride you just have to get on, make sure to plan it in the middle the day when you know your child will be awake just in case they run out of fast passes.


Have Fun!

If you are going to Disney World with a baby, you are most likely going because you want to go, not for the child, so don't worry about what anyone says and just have fun! You are never too old or too young for Disney!