Taking Your Infant/Toddler to Disney World

 Taking Your Infant or Toddler to the Walt Disney World Resort

Should you take an infant or toddler to Disney World? Although chances are he/she probably will not remember this trip, if you can afford to go, it is well worth it! There are attractions at every park for little ones. These will often make for your best memories as parents and grandparents seeing your child experience the magic of it all for the first time.

For your little ones, Disney’s Animal Kingdom has Affection Section, a shaded petting zoo; the Boneyard play area; Conservation Station which allows children to see animals up close; shaded walkways such as Cretaceous Trail, Discovery Island Trails, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, Maharajah Jungle Trek, the Oasis exhibits, and Habitat Habit; Finding Nemo- The Musical; Fossil Fun Games, a circus- themed area of full of games; It’s Tough to be a Bug, a 3-D show based on the movie It’s A Bug’s Life; Kids Discovery Clubs throughout the park; Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade; the Tree of Life; TriceraTop Spin; and the Wildlife Express Train.

Epcot has family-friendly attractions such as eleven pavilions representing countries all over the world; the Circle of Life film starring Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa; Ellen’s Energy Adventure; the Gran Fiesta tour starring the Three Caballeros boat ride; IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, nightly show; the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride; ImageWorks; Innoventions; Living with the Land boat ride; Spaceship Earth; the Seas with Nemo and Friends; and Turtle Talk with Crush.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios, formerly MGM, also has plenty of attractions for young children such as Beauty and the Beast- Live on Stage; Disney Junior- Live on Stage; the Fantasmic! nightly show; the Muppet Vision 3-D show; Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun parade; Toy Story Mania; and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.

In my opinion, the best park for children and adults of all ages is Magic Kingdom. For small children, Magic Kingdom offers Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin; the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade; Cinderella Castle; Country Bear Jamboree; Dumbo the Flying Elephant; “it’s a small world”; Mad Tea Party; the Magic Carpets of Aladdin; the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh; Mickey’s PhilharMagic; Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor comedy show; Peter Pan’s Flight; Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel; Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover; Town Square Theater; and Wishes Nighttime Spectacular. Also, with the addition of New Fantasyland, there are brand new attractions from Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid.

One piece of advice though is to go on your child’s schedule as much as possible to make it an enjoyable trip for everyone. For example, if your child usually naps from 2-4 pm, head back to your room for these couple hours to let your child nap or if you don’t want to leave the park, spend some time in the baby care center which is found in every park. The baby care centers are a great area for parents to go to purchase things they may have forgotten, feed their children, for mothers to privately nurse their babies, or just cool off from the heat. There is one located in each of the four parks.

Lastly, don’t forget there’s more to Disney World than just the four parks- there’s also two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, and Downtown Disney, an area full of shopping and restaurants.