My wife and I are planning to take a trip from CT to WDW in October. We'll probably spend most of the time just hanging around the Wilderness Lodge where we belong to the DVC.
Can anyone point me in the right direction for logistics on regulations for flying and taking a car service from the airport? Do I need a carseat for the drive to WDW? How about the plane? I would plan on bringing our existing carseat and base but am unsure as to whether I can...

Thanks!

Can't tell you much about going from the airport to the hotel, but on the plane you sould bring your carseat if you have purchased a seperate ticket for the baby. They don't have carseats for you to use and you should have the baby in one any time the seat belt sign is on.

I don't think most bucket type baby car seats (the kind that have the base) are approved for use on airplanes (by the FAA). You may want to check with the airline before you lug the thing to the gate. I would think you would definitely need a car seat for the trip to the hotel, unless it is the type of bus or van that doesn't have seatbelts at all.

The paperwork that comes with your carseat will say if it is FAA approved. Most infant seats are.

I made the trip with my 5 month old back in Feb. You should be able to take your existing bucket seat on the plane if there is room, or if you have purchased a ticket for your child. We didn't purchase a seat for our son but on the flight from boston to orlando we were able to use our car seat, on the way back there was a storm the previous day so there was not enough room. For a direct flight if you have everything prepared you really don't need the car seat, even when we had it available we held him most of the time. Big thing to remember is to either have a bottle ready for take off, or if your wife breastfeeds to have her wait till they're about to take off as it will help your child cope with the air pressure change.

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Alex
Going back for 9 days in October

My wife and I are really excited about going but we do have some reservation; never having traveled with an infant before- many have said that it's easier than with a two year old.. anyway being DVC members, we've always been waiting to go with our child.
Since you went with a 5 month old, I was hoping you could give me some insight as to what to expect with regard to level of interest the baby had at that stage... while I don't expect him to understand Mickey or Disney, are the sights and sounds interesting? Parades? Were you able to go out to dinner?

Also- on the car seat- did you bring the base as well and strap it into the plane? what about the car ride to the hotel?

Thanks!

Well I'll start off by saying that our son Gabriel was a very alert 5 month old compared to a majority of his cousins. He was awake for most of the day and usually only took 2 30 minute naps during the day. But he was very interested in everything that was going on at the parks. He enjoyed the parades which he typically watched in our convertable backpack stroller so he could see everything.

He enjoyed most rides, especially Journey into Imagination after which he fell in love with Figment. This is one of the reasons we're using to go back, he needs another Figment doll. Of course we could just call and order one but what would be the fun in that. He did not care so much for PotC or HM but did not scream during them. He also loved Peter Pan's Flight but I would recommend using a front pack for a wiggly infant since its up so high.

As far as character interaction, Gabriel loved the characters. One of his favorites was Suzie Mouse from Cinderella. In fact, he wouldn't come back to his mom when Suzie was holding him. I found the face characters to be less forth coming mainly because he kept trying to grab their hair but we did get a few good pictures with Mary Poppins since he couldn't reach her hair. The best place to see the characters for kids is in Mickey's Toon Town at MK. They take you back to a room with the characters and we got some great pictures with Minnie, Chip, and Dale. Cinderella even crashed our little party.

We went out to dinner every night, most of the time with Gabriel. We did bring our 17 year old next door neighbor to baby sit for 1 night on my wife's birthday. But, every other night except for one we spent at Disney Quest, he was with us. That included 9:00pm dinner at Fultons Crab House and Wolfgangs and any numbers of the restaurants in the World Showcase. Trick was to just plan to have him asleep for when we arrived to be allowed to take his stroller with us. Also, if you have not introduced solids yet, you might want to think about starting a little before the trip. It took us so long to eat anything, even counter service, that we broke down a gave Gabriel crushed bananas which he loved just to give him something to do while we ate.

We did not bring the base for our car seat, just used it as a stand alone. It took a little while to get used to and Gabriel did not like us having to reach over him to strap him in but I still think it was safer than using one from the car rental agency.

For our trip this coming October we're not bringing a baby sitter, and we're stating at AKL instead of the WLV. Decided to try not having to go to the Campgrounds everytime we wanted to take Disney transportation to a place other then MK. We'll be there from the 19th to the 27th, look for the dad with a son that looks just like him using a purple backpack/stroller.

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Alex