Last week we took our little Moon baby to Disney World for the first time!! After visiting Disneyland a couple of months, we had high hopes that she'd enjoy it just as much, but also more nerves. Disney World is wayyy more spread out than Disneyland and now that she's over the 9 month milestone she's definitely more alert and it's harder for her to sleep on the go. Today, I'm sharing our annual Disney World schedule with some tips and hacks in there if you're traveling with a baby!
What our Day In The Life video around Disney World with a 9 Month Old Baby
Day 1: Arriving to Disney World (area)
We like to get up to Disney the day before our actual park tickets happen. I've done it both ways (where we drive up at like 6 am and get to the park for rope drop) and have just found this to be overall easier on everyone.
As we get close to our hotel, we usually call ahead and see if they can take us for an early check-in. If the answer is yes, we head straight to the hotel to get settled before heading to Disney Springs. If the answer is no, we head straight to Disney Springs to stretch our legs and get some food.
Disney Springs
At Disney Springs we like to park in the Orange Garage and make a beeline for Chef Art Smith's restaurant. We have only been able to get a reservation here once (even though we go every year, it's always last minute). So we order take-out from the bar. We either bring the food back to our hotel or find a spot to have a little picnic at Disney Springs. We like to order enough food to last us for 2 meals since it's so delicious. This makes it easier as you'll see on Disney day.
We usually walk around for a bit, stop in the Christmas store and Ghiradelli, and then head back to our hotel.
The night before Disney
If we are staying at a Disney resort they usually have some fun stuff going on, so we just explore. If we are staying off property, we usually just stay-in and watch some Netflix.
Hour-by-hour schedule arriving to the Disney World Area with our 9 Month Old baby:
7:30 – wake up nurse
8:30 – solid breakfast of oatmeal (earlier than usual
9:00 – we left hoping we'd be on the highway and it'd be an easy fall asleep for her usual nap time at 9:30
9:30 – she struggled to nap and was very frustrated about it. So I gave her some more oatmeal and tried soothing her in the seat.
10:15 – I decide to sit up front in the car. I decided she was plenty full and tired and it seemed like I was a distraction.
10:20 – She cried for about 2 minutes and fell asleep
12:00 – Get to Disney Springs. Nurse baby. See above for the rest. Baby also ate some of our lunch.
2:30 – Head to hotel. Check in. Nurse baby. Nap time in pack n' play.
5:00 – Baby wakes up. Nurse her. Walk to nearby restaurant for dinner
7:00 – Nurse baby. Bed time
Disney World Day!
Hollywood Studios:
For the last couple of years we have started our morning at Hollywood Studios. We do this Disney trip every year to see Hanson who plays at Epcot. We've done it before where we headed to Magic Kingdom and it was just too much given how long it takes to get to Magic Kingdom.
At Hollywood Studios we head to Toy Story Mania first, while I book fast passes for Tower of Terror and see if I can get any more for Toy Story Mania later. From Toy Story Mania, we head to Tower of Terror. From Tower of Terror we either head back to Toy Story Mania or this time we headed to Galaxy's Edge (Star Wars Land). The wait time for the only ride currently open was really long so we just took pictures. I went on Tower of Terror twice, while E wore her and tried to get her to nap. She only napped for like 20 minutes. We decided to head back to the hotel since it was 90 degrees and the wait times were getting long.
Back to the hotel:
Whether we have baby or not, we've been heading back to the hotel midday. Last year I was pregnant and needed to rest for a bit. We put her down for a nap in her pack n' play while we ate lunch and watched TV.
Epcot:
Once baby got up from a nap, we headed to Epcot. We had fast passes for Test Track. So E went first, but it honestly took SO long and we had just been to Disneyland and ridden the Cars version of the ride that I decided to skip my fast pass since it was getting late. We headed over to Mexico and did the boat ride instead since I knew baby girl would love that. After that we headed to get seats for Hanson. While we waited for the show to start I had a Mickey ice cream, R made some friends, and E took it all in.
We only had R stay for the first few songs of the set. I was nervous about her ears even with the ear muffling headphones. So she and E left and got in line for the second show, while I went closer to the stage to meet up with friends. If you aren't familiar: Epcot does an Eat to the Beat concert series where artists play three shows: 5:30, 6:45, and 8:00. After the first show let out (you have to leave and reenter for every show), we met up with E in line, he and R left and went back to the hotel where he fed her and put her down for the night. And I stayed with friends for the rest of the concert.
Our hour by hour schedule for Disney World with a 9 month old baby:
7:30 – wake up & nurse
8:15 – Breakfast of solids
8:30 – Head to park
9:00 – Get into Hollywood Studios
9:15 – Rides and walking around. Try to get baby to nap while wearing her
11:30 – Leave park
12:00 – Back to hotel. Nursed baby and she napped in pack n' play and we ate lunch
3:00 – Baby woke up. Nursed her.
3:30 – Get to Epcot road some rides
4:30 – Get to concert area
5:30 – Concert
6:30 – Baby and dad leave for hotel, where he fed her and put her to bed while mama stayed at Epcot the rest of the night
