Our family just returned from our first trip to Disney World and we had a wonderful time! We learned a ton and I researched for hours before we left. Over the next few posts, I want to share what I learned for any other newbie families out there. The Disney experts in my life are Kathy and Debra, so check in with them if you're looking for info that I don't have here.
Our family's general policy is to travel as light as possible. From the moment I was able to forever set down a diaper bag, I try not to carry extra bags around with me. So I was very resistant to the idea of carrying a backpack around Disney. But the more people I talked with, the more times I heard "make sure you carry this in your backpack." So I gave in and I'm so glad I did.
We decided to invest in a decent backpack for this type of thing, and I found ours at the Eddie Bauer outlet for just $20. It is very lightweight, water-resistant, has padded shoulder straps, and a breathable back lining. And I picked the blue one so Matt didn't mind wearing it some. It worked out perfectly. Here's a shot of me wearing the backpack, and meeting Woody & Jessie!
What did we carry in our backpack? Well, I'll tell you that Kathy taught me everything I know about packing a Disney backpack, but I chose not to follow all her advice and lived to regret it, so go to her blog for her list. But here's my list:
in the front pocket:
Our family's general policy is to travel as light as possible. From the moment I was able to forever set down a diaper bag, I try not to carry extra bags around with me. So I was very resistant to the idea of carrying a backpack around Disney. But the more people I talked with, the more times I heard "make sure you carry this in your backpack." So I gave in and I'm so glad I did.
We decided to invest in a decent backpack for this type of thing, and I found ours at the Eddie Bauer outlet for just $20. It is very lightweight, water-resistant, has padded shoulder straps, and a breathable back lining. And I picked the blue one so Matt didn't mind wearing it some. It worked out perfectly. Here's a shot of me wearing the backpack, and meeting Woody & Jessie!
What did we carry in our backpack? Well, I'll tell you that Kathy taught me everything I know about packing a Disney backpack, but I chose not to follow all her advice and lived to regret it, so go to her blog for her list. But here's my list:
in the front pocket:
- park map & schedule
- Photopass cards
- my phone
- my lip balm
- couple of extra sandwich-sized baggies
- our lanyards when we got tired of wearing them
- autograph books and pens
- package of extra pin backs (more about that later)
- ponchos for the family (should have had them in gallon-sized baggies, didn't know what to do with them when they got wet)
- water misters
- first aid kit (wipes, hand sanitizer, band aids, wound cleaner, anti-itch spray, Tums, aloe gel, sunscreen)
- hats when the boys got tired of wearing them (or we rode a fast ride)
- snacks in a gallon-sized baggie (frozen grapes, goldfish, portable apple sauce, fruit snacks, granola bars)
- refillable water bottles and individual drink mixes (more about that later)
- lunch in a gallon-sized baggie (more about that later)
- pirate swords and light sabers as needed :-)
Just realized I forgot to write more about the pin backs, so here goes: If you decide to get into pin trading, each pin comes with an adorable, Mickey-shaped pin back. They are very cute, but don't seem to work super-well. We seriously dropped at least a pin an hour — and it wasn't just the kids. Sometimes we were able to recover the back to the dropped pin, but the black back on the blacktop walk wasn't usually easy to spot. So you can buy a little bag of extra backs. Came in very handy.