Yoo Hoo, Paul!
(This is from Carol:)
On May 17th '97 you wrote to All:
 PP> I have a newborn son, and cannot WAIT to take him to Disney(world/land).
 PP> I remember being awed as a child to see all the wonderous things there.
 PP> My question is what is the best age to first take a child? If they are
 PP> too young, they maybe cannot enjoy it for the wonderful place it is --
 PP> if they are too old, then maybe some of the 'magic' of it would be
 PP> tarnished. I know it really depends on the child, but what would a good
 PP> range be?
We took our son when he was just 8 months old and he had a good time.
I would suggest a couple of ideas for you to think about:
If you want the child to have memories of the trip and enjoy it on his/
her own terms, I've heard that 3-4 years old is when they can really start
remembering things.
I've seen people take very young babies to WDW and not have a problem.
However, there is that notion of newborns having their days and nights
mixed up, requiring night feedings and near constant diaper changes and
the parents being exhausted getting accustomed to the new lifestyle.
It's up to you if you want to go through this sort of thing or not in
your eagerness to rush the baby to WDW.  Again, for some parents/families
this is not a problem.  (For me in those first few months of lacking
sleep and the baby with colic, I really wouldn't have.)
When we took our son at 8 months old it happened to be a perfect time
in his growing up.  He did not yet have stranger anxiety or awareness
yet he was very aware that the walk-around characters were friendly and
treating him as his own little person, and he _really_ opened up to them
in a sweet way.  I was still breastfeeding him, but he was also on
solid foods (jarred baby food) and you could take his food anywhere.
The downside is that we lowered our expectations on what and how much we
could see of the attractions.  Long lines and long shows were out.  We
spent a lot of time at the Carnation Baby Care Center at the MK nursing
and cooling off from the heat.  The most thrilling ride we went on was
Tea Cups.  But we did do the "parental rite of passages" type rides
such as Small World, Carroussel, Peter Pan, and especially Dumbo, also
rode the Sky Buckets (but beware of long lines because this is difficult
to exit from if you need or want to turn back and there happens to be
a technical problem delaying it, as happened with us).  We tried to see
the Tiki Room, and our son was OK in the line up/waiting area, but
when we sat down inside and the show began our son began to fuss so
we removed him and ourselves from the show rather than disturb the
audience and the ambiance for the show.  We did go to Toon Town and
had our pictures taken with Mickey there and that was a lot of fun.
A man on Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.disney.parks named Brian Bennett
created a WWW site for WDW trip planning, Brian goes by the name
DVClubber at AOL.  Search out his WWW site.  You'll find my trip
report specifically about taking my then 8 month old son to WDW and
what we learned and tips offered.
One VERY nice thing to do at WDW with a baby is try to time the trip
to coincide with the baby's first haircut.  The Harmony Barber Shop
on Main Street USA does children's haircuts for $12.  But for a
first haircut they throw in a Mouse-Eared hat with the stitching
"First Haircut" and a signed and dated certificate documenting your
child's first haircut was there at WDW (you fill in the child's name
yourself, the rest the barber fills out on a nice form that you can
have framed).  The trick to having a pleasant time of it is to have the
baby fed and just up from a good nap.  And make sure you know what the
operating hours are for the barber shop:  They will close _earlier_
than MK does, so find this out and ask the barber any specific
questions ahead of time.  Bring your camera!!!!  It's all very cute!
And the barber _will_ save locks of hair for you to keep as a memento.
You might want to read the chapter about taking kids to WDW in the
guidebook "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" by Bob Sehlinger.  It's not
anything specifically about babies, but it does offer a very realistic
approach about what to consider when taking children to WDW, such as
"Whose dream is it, anyway?"
Hope these thoughts help.  :-)  Preserve the memories:  Bring your
camera!!!  Your child will never be this little and be at WDW ever
again so it is doable with planning and careful consideration for the
care and comfort of your baby and what you and your spouse will get
out of it as well.  Feel free to discuss here or e-mail me if you
need more information or tips and be sure to check out DVClubber's
web site for my trip report.
--Carol Koster: CKoster@neosoft.com or Fido c/o Rich Koster 1:3828/1.3
  FidoNet Disney Echo Moderator
--- April V1.0+
(1:3828/1.3)
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