Disney with a 1 year old - Jude's first trip to Magic Kingdom

Holding hands while floating on the happiest cruise that ever sailed while watching the wonder in my baby’s eyes, flying off to Neverland side by side while pointing out all of my favorite parts and feeling so big over tiny little London, sharing a Dole Whip and seeing their reaction to how good it is, seeing their eyes light up as they gaze upon the castle…

Anyone that knows me knows that one of my dreams in life was to take my child to Disney so that they could experience all of the magic firsthand that I had the absolute joy of living and loving my whole life. We would walk into Town Square eagerly anticipating our first glimpse of the castle, finally turn the corner onto Main Street and see it in all of its glory as we strolled along as a family together in our favorite place. We would be home as a whole family.

WELL IT FREAKIN’ HAPPENED YOU GUYS.

Like it actually happened. I had a baby, he’s the coolest kid I know, and I got to take him to the most magical place on Earth and experience it all through his eyes as he took it all in for the first time. I HAVE SELF-ACTUALIZED YA’LL!!!

But seriously though, God is so so good and his blessings are bountiful. We took Jude to Disney World for the first time and it was one of the highlights of my life so far (beside having him and marrying Brian, I’m not a psycho). It was one of the most beautiful days that I won’t soon forget. We made so many wonderful memories and we also learned so many things about taking a not quite walking yet one year old to Disney. So! If you want to hear the story or are thinking about taking your little one to see the mouse and are looking for some helpful tips, here’s how it went!

The lead up

We had our annual family vacation planned in Myrtle Beach with Brian’s family in June. Back when we were booking flights, our wheels started turning as they typically do (more so Brian’s, his wheels are constantly whirring away up there). We had this little dream in our back pocket that Jude would get his first haircut at the barber shop on Main Street. If you aren’t aware, they make it a big event, give you a certificate, a pair of Mickey ears that say, “My first haircut” and they save a little lock of hair to document the occasion. It’s pretty darn cute. Well, we loved the idea but weren’t sure if it would ever actually play out in a practical way to be able to make it work. After doing some research we found out that the barber shop was temporarily closed due to covid with no foreseeable date set as to when they would reopen. We decided to take the risk thinking that worse case scenario we would just enjoy the day there even if they wasn’t open and changed our flights so that we would fly into Orlando a couple of days before our vacation in Myrtle Beach. We had just booked our ONE DAY in Magic Kingdom and we were SO PUMPED.

Well, the barber shop never did reopen which was kind of a bummer 🤷🏼‍♀️ but we moved on from it pretty darn quickly. We arrived in Orlando and made our way to our rental car. Every time we rent a car and don’t take the Magical Express my younger self’s heart breaks just a little (it’s just so nostalgic and magical! 😭). We loaded up Jude and all of our things and made our way to our hotel. This trip we decided to stay off property and take advantage of Brian’s parents’ time share and stay at one of their resorts, The Fountains, that’s fairly close to the parks. Of course, what were we welcomed with as soon as we arrived in Orlando?? You guessed it!! Buckets and buckets of rain and violent shakes of thunder! We had plans to put Jude down for a nap and head to Disney Springs that night so we prayed and prayed that the rain would let up for us.

Disney Springs

Well the rain did let up the smallest little bit and we made our way down to Disney Springs to check everything out, grab some dinner and gently dip Jude’s toes into the magical Disney waters.

We had to be pretty quick and efficient since more rain was inevitably coming and we were already well past Jude’s bedtime (no rules in Disney!!) so we parked and then beelined for World of Disney since we knew we wanted to definitely check that out. They are still gatekeeping how many people are allowed inside so there is a pretty considerable line which is kind of overwhelming when you first see it but moves really quickly. We probably waited less than 10 minutes and we were walking the whole time.

We had so much fun browsing around and it took everything in me not to purchase every single stuffy for Jude boy (it required much restraint). I did find a couple of fun things to purchase however, one of them being a fun Walt Disney World silicone bib since I can definitely always use another one of those in our rotation. I’m sure it will show up in one of my pics down the road as we go 😉 One thing I will say, even though I LOVE Disney merch so very much, is that the toddler boys section was severely LACKING. I’m talking like maybe 2 or 3 onsies? And their onesies run so ridiculously small that Jude has never really been able to fit in them right. I scoured the store looking for a fun trendy shirt for Jude to wear to the park but could literally find nothing. However, if you have a daughter, there was an enormous display for little girls full of dresses and rompers and the most adorable things. Just a little tip in case you are like me and have a boy you want to dress up! It’s better to look somewhere else before your trip for something for the little guy to wear!

When we left World of Disney it was pouring once again so we darted from the store and started searching for somewhere to stop and get food to take back to the room to eat. There are so many restaurants that I still haven’t tried but we were specifically looking for something quick service because of the chaotic circumstances. I had seen so many reviews of Disney Springs food that I wanted to try out, one of them being the YeSake kiosk. You can check out my full review of YeSake right here!

We got back to the room and put Jude down for one last sleep before the big day! He was so fun, silly and giggly that night as we were trying to put him down. He was crawling back and forth from side to side on the couch, egging on Brian to chase him. Brian and I laid in bed together that night reflecting on it, and Brian made the sweet observation that that moment of Jude staying up late past his bedtime, being all goofy on the couch with his dad and getting to do things out of the ordinary because we are somewhere special reminded him that this truly felt like our first vacation together as a family making new memories just the three of us. To me that was such a beautiful moment in time to capture in my memory.

Magic kingdom

The day had finally arrived. The day that we would tell Jude that he walked down Main Street for the first time. There's nothing quite as magical as waking up the morning of your first day in Disney tingling with anticipation about what unknown treasures the day holds ahead of you. So obviously, we awoke sweet Jude bug from his peaceful slumber jumping up and down and telling him about the most magical day he was going to have! He was happy about it but had no clue as to why. We made our way to the Transportation and Ticketing Center and got lined up for the Monorail. Jude’s first time on the monorail!!! What a moment!! 😭 He was so cute sitting there in his Mickey ears on the edge of his stroller seat watching down the track and pointing at (well he didn’t know what yet, he just points at anything and everything right now) the most magical transportation system and his first ride on it!! If you’re a true Disney fan you know the Monorail is a big freakin’ deal.

In all of the scuffle of packing ourselves and trying to remember all of Jude’s things for our trip, we ended up leaving our Magic Bands at home this trip. If this ever happens to you, it’s definitely not a huge deal. You can pull up your park tickets/confirmation in your email, have a cast member scan the barcode from the email at the gate and they will assign you a card to use in place of your band.

And then…it happened. We passed under the tunnel, we walked into Town Square, my heart was beating out of my chest in anticipation, it all started crashing down on me at once. My eyes filled with tears as we turned the corner onto Main Street and the castle came into view on the horizon. I wasn’t even looking at the castle like I normally do this time around, I was looking down at my baby boy, watching the magic and wonder filling his eyes as he looked all around him taking it all in. I was beside myself with joy. I just started uncontrollably sobbing as it all came full circle. I thought that going to Disney myself was the best there was but it turns out that seeing it through your child’s eyes gives is totally new meaning.

After our full fledge photo shoot in front of the castle we checked our app and saw that the lines in Fantasyland were freakishly short (I’m talking 10 minutes for Peter Pan) so we headed straight back there to start off our day. I decided that Jude’s first ride ever should be Peter Pan’s Flight since that story and that ride are so close to my heart. They aren’t social distancing the lines anymore so we missed the whole getting in line for an attraction in a completely different land thing - thank goodness. But we were there on the very last day of masks being required inside all buildings and while waiting in all ride queues which wasn’t that big of a deal for us. The posted wait time for Peter Pan was I think 30 minutes once we got there but we ended up waiting about 20. Unbelievably, ALL of the rides we went on that day were the same way. They were already fairly short due to reduced capacity and on top of that, we waited significantly less in line than each posted wait time. Which was absolutely awesome when you have a 1 year old in tow.

Watching Jude’s bewilderment and wonder as we went through the queue and then got close and closer to the row of Jolly Rodger’s taking flight was enough to make me an emotional wreck AGAIN.

This ended up being such a blurry photo but I told Brian that we needed a before and after photo because after Jude’s first ride, he would be a changed man 🤣

Right after Peter Pan we ran across the way to hop in line for Small World because if your first ride is Peter Pan then your subsequent ride is OBVIOUSLY Small World.

At this point we were nearing about 10:15am and his nap time was drawing near. He sleepily drifted through Small World on a cloud of contentment on our laps cutely pointing and making note of every single animatronic and thing he saw that was interesting. His eyes huge as saucers like he was trying to open them as wide as he could to take in as much as possible at once. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in his little brain as he stared around in amazement at what I imagine seems like a completely different universe that he had just been dropped into that consisted of campy song and bright primary colors and shapes. He was being such a trooper that we decided to press our luck and jump in line for one last ride before nap time: Haunted Mansion. Nothing gets you more in the mood for sleeping than happy haunts and hitchhiking ghosts!

Because the fastpass system is currently suspended, we were FLYING through the standby lines. Seriously, I’ve never been to Disney before this trip where we simply continually walked (slowly albeit, let’s say shuffled) throughout the entire queue. I would genuinely love to see the fastpass system go extinct and never return because it just makes everything way less complicated and helps everything to run so much more smoothly. But I have a hard tine believing that it’s gone for good and I imagine some other variation of the former system will take its place eventually. We had so much fun practicing Jude’s walking skills while shuffling through all of the lines, particularly Haunted Mansion. He would hold onto Brian’s hands and take little steps forward to close the gaps between us and the family in front of us. He was so proud of himself and we had some onlookers give him lots of praise which was super fun!

We wrapped up Haunted Mansion and Jude was quickly fading. We started to hunt for a nice shady, quiet spot to park the stroller and have some breakfast while Jude took a nap. I mobile ordered us a bacon, egg and cheddar breakfast sandwich on a multigrain croissant that was served with tots. It was pretty darn good for breakfast in MK (breakfast options in MK have always been pretty limited). And if you haven’t ever tried mobile ordering food in the parks, DO IT. A lot of the food places won’t even allow you to order regularly right now but why would you want to??? It requires very little planning ahead and you can place the order and in the time it takes you to make the trek, your food is ready to go!

There are lots of little nooks and crannies throughout the park that work great as a shady resting spot for both kids and adults. We ended up parking ourselves at some deserted outdoor seating at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (one of our favorite spots to eat every time we come). There wasn’t anyone around so we had a whole little area to ourselves and it was nice and shady and quiet. We also had an awesome view to just sit and take in the sights and sounds of Tomorrowland (my favorite land). I could have sat there all day gazing at Space Mountain and listening to the background symphony of futuristic beeps an boops 😭. I ended up mobile ordering a Cheshire Cafe Cat Tail (a puff pastry twisted with chocolate and drizzled with pink and purple icing) and a frozen lemonade from Cosmic Ray’s while we were sitting outside. The cat tails are typically served next door at the Cheshire Cafe right next to the spinning tea cups but it’s currently temporarily closed. (They also have those awesome Wonderland Slushies with the candy coated straws but I’ll have to get one next time!)

It was during this little siesta that our overheated and tired brains started kicking in and we realized that amid all of the frantic packing of Jude’s things he would need over the course of the very long day, we had forgotten to pack any sort of formula or milk for him! Yikes! We panicked a little bit but then figured that we could find some sort of solution.

And that brings me to my list of things that I googled/helpful online resources I used while visiting Disney World with a 1 year old for the first time!

At the top of the list?

Where to buy whole milk in Magic Kingdom.

The answer? Starbucks! If you ever get stuck in the same pickle that we did they sell whole milk in little individual size cartons that you can easily dump into a sippy cup.

Can a one year old go on space mountain? (Yes, this is something that I most definitely actually googled)

The answer? Children must be at least 44 inches to ride….Jude is 33 lol. So close!! 🤣

Weather.com

This is an app you will be checking constantly when visiting Disney World. It rains at least once a day in Florida, if not multiple times. If you are wanting to avoid trekking around from land to land in soggy, squishy shoes, this app is your best friend to anticipate when you’ll need to find cover.

Are fast passes going on right now?

They are still temporarily suspended so the standby line is the only option. However because it’s the only option it’s constantly moving and super efficient.

Another one that’s not a google search but still ridiculously helpful when you’re planning your next upcoming trip is mousedining.com! Brian found out about this one when we were neurotically checking the Disney website daily trying to get a reservation for character dining in the months leading up to our trip. All you do is find the restaurant you’re looking for, it will show you what’s currently available and then you can set at alert that will email you when availability opens up for the time of day you requested (breakfast, lunch, dinner). You've gotta be pretty quick though. We both received multiple alerts leading up to our trip that we both missed out on because we were busy or didn’t get there fast enough. I will touch on the best way to score a res to your favorite restaurant later on.

Next thing we hit was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This was another one that was an obvious one to do with a one year old. We think that it ended up being one of Jude’s favorite rides! Unlike the other attractions geared toward little ones this one has a dynamic track that changes and corresponds with what is happening in the ride’s story. For example, during the scene when it’s raining and the room “floods” your honey pot wobbles and sways as if you’re bobbing in the water. And when you encounter Tigger your honey pot bounces up and down as if “your bottom is made out of springs”. I know I know, so clever. I’m pretty proud of myself for that one. We each took turns holding Jude and showing him this and that. It definitely ended up being the best ride we did with him. So so sweet and special.

Next stop was back over toward the castle for Prince Charming’s Royal Carousel. Brian and I had been on this one on our last trip together…when Jude was in my belly. So it was super fun and surreal doing it with him there riding his own horse! Here’s a little before kids/after kids…I don't know, I personally think we look happier 😊

After the carousel we headed back up to Town Square for our Capture Your Moment photo session that I had booked a couple of months prior. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s essentially a $50 20 minute private photoshoot for you and your family. A PhotoPass castmember takes you and your family to different photo spots around Magic Kingdom and gets some good quality shots that you can purchase for an additional cost afterward as the $50 does not include the photo files. I was excited when I heard that they were doing this because we were only in MK for one day so we decided purchasing a Memory Maker wasn’t worth it this time around so it allowed us to still get some good pics of our family and document the day. Plus, it was Jude’s first trip so I wanted something special to look back on 🥰. I thought it ended up being totally worth it and they did a great job (especially considering that we had to wake Jude up out of a dead sleep for the photos and so he was pretty….out of it for a lot of them 🤣 #disneyhangover). They asked me if we were celebrating anything and when I told them about Jude’s first time there they made a little sign for him to sit next to which totally sent me over the edge emotionally, I mean how cute. Please enjoy the results, I’m a wreck 😭

I had heard a ton of really good things about Skipper Canteen and that the food was different and delicious. It can be hard to snag a reservation which is why our lunch reservation was at 3. If you don’t know what it is, Skipper Canteen is a Jungle Cruise themed restaurant with African, Asian and Latin based dishes and it was a HOOT. Lemme tell ya. In my humble opinion best place to eat in Magic Kingdom, hand’s down. If you want to check out my full review of Skipper Canteen click here! As I mentioned earlier, cuisine in the Magic Kingdom is pretty…on par with theme park food. While Disney itself is known to have some awesome restaurants and quality food around property, MK has always been a little lackluster when it comes to quality food that is authentic and diverse. Casey’s does have those mini corn dogs nuggies though with the liquid dipping cheese soooooo….maybe I’ll withdraw what said about lackluster lol 😆 THEY’RE GOOD. Also, cream cheese pretzels and cheeseburger spring rolls. Okay that is all, moving on.

We killed the extra time while waiting for our lunch reservation by taking a slow scenic walk from the carousel to Adventureland. It’s so easy while on these fast paced Disney trips to get stressed out and caught up in trying to run from one thing to the next. I think my biggest advice when telling other people about planning out Disney is to carve out time just to take some time and take it all in. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the magic. I’ve done this so often that I can close my eyes and transport myself to Main Street or right into Pirates. Or right outside the Karamell-Küche in the Germany pavilion at Epcot (if you’ve been there and have smelled the ecstasy that is the caramel popcorn being made from scratch then you know how it gets burned into your memory 🤤). Walt and all of the Imagineers have put so much of their soul and creativity into the intricate details and to me that is what sets Disney apart. So please please please do yourself a favor and take some time to look for and appreciate all of the fine details instead of rushing right past them to get in line for Big Thunder.

On the way over to Adventureland we had to take our obligatory photos behind the castle. The front of the castle is gorgeous but the back is just…chef’s kiss.

After our adventure of a late lunch we headed back to Tomorrowland for a “spin” on Brian’s favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Anyone who has been on a Disney trip with us knows that this is Brian’s jam and that he is pretty competitive when it comes to his score. Brian has mastered the craft of knowing exactly which targets to hit in order to max out the score and garner himself enough points to earn the coveted title of Galactic Hero. He was so excited to share in the joy of Galactic Hero-dom with Jude. It did not disappoint!

After our rendezvous with Buzz and showing Jude bug how awesome his dad is (lol 😁) we headed right across the way to one of mom’s favorite rides, The People Mover! This ended up being the perfect way to wrap up our day in Magic Kingdom. Jude was so sleepy, our feet were so sore and the beautiful views of the castle and Tomorrowland swept past us as we soaked them all in and stored them in our memory banks. Jude was so so excited to get his own seat when we first stepped into the car but was quickly disappointed to learn that he would have to ride on one of our laps (check out that pouty, tired look in these photos 😆).

We did a final lap around Tomorrowland and then made our way out of MK. We said our final goodbyes (we walked down Main Street slowly and made Jude say goodbye to the castle and Mickey and everything else. This was mostly for me. I was sad.)

We hopped on the monorail and decided to check out some of the monorail connected resorts. We skipped the Polynesian since we had dinner there on one of our last trips but headed over to check out the Grand Floridian and then just rode through the Contemporary to check out what all was being renovated.

We knew rain was coming in the forecast but decided to push our luck anyway with resort hopping. We did the whole, “Oh, we won’t be that long!”. Welp, we were. On the monorail ride back to the TTC the skies started looking dark and foreboding. As we started down the ramp from the station it started absolutely DUMPING down rain on us. I don’t know how else to explain it other than it was like a monsoon was coming over the parking lot. We ran as fast as we could with Jude in the stroller and ended up finding a tiny bit of shelter underneath a tiny umbrella. The rain was blowing in sideways. I threw on a rain poncho, put Jude inside of it and ran as fast as I could carrying almost 30 extra pounds. It did absolutely no good lol. By the time we got back to our car it was as if I had jumped into a swimming pool. And that’s on making sure you pay closer attention to the forecast! We were laughing to ourselves on the way back to the hotel because we had prayed together the night before after we saw that there was rain in the forecast right during our photoshoot in the afternoon. We asked God to please hold off the rain so that we could get some good pictures and have a fun day. God heard us and granted us a beautiful rain free day but was like, “Well guys, I held it off as long as I could!” Haha, makes for a great story though!

Rain or shine, we had the most magical, memorable day with Jude bug in Magic Kingdom that I will treasure for a lifetime. To be able to take Jude to our favorite place and share with him all of the wonderfully magical things that bring us so much happiness and be able to watch him as he experiences it for the first time was beyond words. As far as advice for taking a one year old, it’s completely doable and not as difficult as you might expect. Just be sure to think through the day and plan ahead for what you might need that you can’t find in the parks, plan in some resting/nap time for yourself and for your babe and just plan on taking it slow and understand that you probably won't be able to knock out quite as much as you used to before you had your kiddo in tow. Just roll with the punches, take it as it comes and soak in every beautiful moment because before you know it, all children grow up…except one.

The next morning we had breakfast reservations at Topolino’s Terrace and then resort hopped around the Boardwalk. You can read all about it in my post here!