10 Tips for enjoying Disneyland when pregnant {Travel Tuesday}

Since it’s “Baby Week” on the blog and “Travel Tues­day” it’s the per­fect time to share my top 10 tips for enjoy­ing Dis­ney­land when pregnant!

Back in June, I was 34 weeks preg­nant when we spent 3.5 days at the Dis­ney­land Resort (for the open­ing of Cars Land), plus a 6 hour car ride each way. Were there times I was uncom­fort­able? Actu­ally in pain? Exhausted? Yes, yes, and YES! But, it was also awe­some and so worth it! So, hav­ing expe­ri­enced the parks in my uber preg­nant state for mul­ti­ple days, I thought I’d share my tips for enjoy­ing a Dis­ney trip while preg­nant (Aside from #1, tips are in no par­tic­u­lar order! )!

1. Talk to your Dr. When I got the invi­ta­tion to come, the first thing I did was fig­ure out how far along I’d be and if we’d be able to swing it. Then, of course, I talked to my Dr. about it. Even with the cord issue & every­thing, she thought it was no big deal at all and told me to go. I did have her num­ber pro­grammed into my phone though, just in case. So, def­i­nitely, make sure you con­sult your Dr. regard­ing your par­tic­u­lar preg­nancy, trip tim­ing, and concerns.
2. Stay on-site. If you can swing it, I highly rec­om­mend stay­ing on-site. Aside from all the other ameni­ties the Dis­ney Resort Hotels offer, their prox­im­ity to the parks makes them extra desir­able when preg­nant. The Grand Cal­i­forn­ian is clos­est to the parks, so that cer­tainly would be best in terms of walk­ing com­fort. But, the Dis­ney­land Hotel isn’t too far a walk form the mono­rail stop either. Their prox­im­ity makes it a lit­tle eas­ier to get back to for naps or a lit­tle rest period dur­ing the day– maybe a time to put up those tired, swollen feet!
3. Water, water, water! Drink­ing plenty of water is always impor­tant dur­ing preg­nancy, but espe­cially so when you’re trav­el­ing. Remem­ber, stay­ing well-hydrated can help with the swelling too. So, drink­ing lots of water can help keep you feel­ing a bit more com­fort­able (though of course there is the down­side of need­ing more fre­quent potty breaks!).
4. Wear good shoes. A com­fort­able shoe with good sup­port is for sure a MUST. This is not the trip for cute shoes! Even just unsup­port­ive shoes can really have a neg­a­tive impact. For the Cars Land Red Car­pet Pre­miere event, I made the mis­take of wear­ing some­thing “cute”. They were just flats–no heels, noth­ing crazy. But, they were ter­ri­bly unsup­port­ive. After stand­ing for about 3 hours, by the end of the night, I seri­ously could barely walk. My hips and feet hurt so bad! From then on out, ten­nis shoes it was!
5. Wear a preg­nancy belt. This really only applies for those already sport­ing a good size baby bump (like I most def­i­nitely was at 34+ weeks). My sweet mom was so wor­ried about my com­fort level on the trip, that she bought me this Ulti­mate Mater­nity Belt. It was com­fort­able, easy to put on & off, and really helped my lower back on the trip! At less than $20, it’s def­i­nitely worth considering!
6. Pack healthy snacks. There are def­i­nitely healthy snacks that you can buy at the parks, but in real­ity, not every cart ven­dor in the park is sell­ing apples & bananas! You are allowed to take food into the park (check the Dis­ney­land web­site for com­plete rules), so go ahead and throw some fruit, nuts, gra­nola bars, etc. into your park bag for some healthy options through­out the day. Oh–and if chew­ing gum helps keep the preg­nancy nau­sea at bay, make sure to pack some of that too as it’s not sold at any of the Dis­ney Resort properties.
7. Take breaks! Stop & take a lit­tle rest when­ever you need it (or even before you do)! Take oppor­tu­ni­ties to sit down on benches, take in a show, head back to the hotel for a rest, seek out some slow-paced long rides– just breaks to get off of your feet!
8. Famil­iar­ize your­self with the park map. Every preg­nant lady will inevitably need bath­rooms and food! So, it’s nice to know the near­est stops for those. Plus, you’ll want to famil­iar­ize your­self with the rides. Rides that are marked with an excla­ma­tion point sur­rounded by a red tri­an­gle will indi­cate to you that “expec­tant moth­ers should not ride.” Some of those rides are the obvi­ous thrill rides (like Indi­ana Jones, Splash Moun­tain, Big Thun­der Moun­tain Rail­road, Mat­ter­horn, Space Moun­tain, Star Tours, Cal­i­for­nia Screamin’, etc.), but some that are fine even for some of the youngest vis­i­tors (like Luigi’s Fly­ing Tires, Radi­a­tor Springs Rac­ers, Autopia, etc.) still carry that warn­ing. Note though, that the warn­ing is merely that–a warn­ing. It’s still your deci­sion on whether or not you’d like to ride–the cast mem­bers won’t kick you off (use your judge­ment & see tip #1). Here are some of my favorites for preg­nant mamas: It’s A Small World, Jun­gle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Haunted Man­sion, The Many Adven­tures of Win­nie the Pooh, and Find­ing Nemo Sub­ma­rine Voy­age. These are by NO means all of the “ok” rides. I just hap­pen to think these are among the best as some of them are among the longest ride times in the park–perfect for a nice rest!
9. Plan ahead & give your­self extra time. Need­less to say, you might not be quite as quick on your feet as usual. In fact, if you’re like me, you might be doing the preg­nancy wad­dle every­where. So, just know that you might not be able to do quite as much as usual or at the same pace. Plan­ning for that is helpful! 
10. Take a pic­ture! Be sure to snag a Dis­ney baby bump shot. You can show your kiddo that they’ve been to Dis­ney­land and didn’t even know it!

Have any of you been to a Dis­ney park while preg­nant? Any tips I’ve missed?

Dis­clo­sure: This post con­tains an affil­i­ate link.