What to bring for stroller/carseat for traveling and buses?

[megan973]

I am a seasoned WDW traveler, but have never been with kids. We are thinking of going when DS will be about 8 or 9 months old. This is a whole new level of planning!

Can someone help me out and identify what we need for the plane... (can we check an umbrella stroller at the gate so we have it at the airport? do we need any sort of carseat for the Magical Express bus or other buses?)

Also, any suggestions you have would be much appreciated. Once we get to the parks, I'm very familiar with all of that, just adding the addition of the stroller and some of the barriers that come along with that are new to us.

Thanks in advance!

[Staraglimmer]

If you don't buy your DS a seat on the airplane, then you don't "need" his car seat. When we took DD at 9 months, both Magical Express drivers made us take DD out of her car seat. I took her infant seat "just in case" there was an emergency of some kind and we needed to ride in a car. Also, if there are extra seats on the plane, you can install your seat. When there were not enough seats (DD flew as a lap baby-no seat) I gate checked her Graco infant seat.

On the buses that bring you to the parks from the hotels, it seems as if you could do anything you want because they don't pay attention. However, I would not have wanted a carseat because the seats are hard plastic. You could not install it. I used a baby carrier. DD was very squirmy on the bus and it was nice to have.

So I would bring a baby carrier and your infant seat and leave the base at home.

HTH

[Dr C]

If you can afford it, I'd strongly recommend buying your baby a seat on the plane, especially if it's a long flight. This is more for your sanity than it is for safety--your DS will know his carseat and if you're lucky he'll fall asleep. Even if you're unlucky, he won't be under any illusion that he can get out. If you have an infant style seat, you don't need a base, you can always just install with the seatbelt if you need to go in a car.
If you're bringing the carseat anyway, I'd consider just bringing a stroller frame (snap N go or similar) to ride in, and a baby carrier and leave it at that. I know that you want to minimize carseat time in general, but for a trip like this the snap n go may be the best way to go to minimize baggage. We just did a trip to Seattle with our snugride (12 month old DD still fits) and the stroller frame and it worked impressively well. A good alternative would be any other stroller that is relatively lightweight and that fits your carseat so you can wheel through the airport with ease.