Disney World Vacation Planning || What to Bring With You to the Park!

Candace

6 years ago

We’ve chatted about the hotel, but now let’s talk about the passes and what to bring to the Disney World parks!

Being at Disney World for 3 days, we brought less and less with us each day.

Here is what we tailored it down to, as well as, a few suggestions from other Disney frequenters.

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IN PARK!

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- Stroller: I honestly tried to talk Jeff out of this one. Several times. Everyone can start calling me crazy, but my parents didn’t really bring strollers with us. To be completely honest, the girls rarely sat in the stroller. We could have 100% done without it. This one is up to you and your family. If you do bring a stroller, make sure to tag it. A big ribbon or bandana will do.

- Snacks: One of my neighbors packs the most Pinterest worthy snack bento boxes in tackle boxes for her kids. Her girls are around 4 and 2, so I feel like they have a better handle on things. We decided to pack a bunch of mini snack bags to keep spillage to a minimum. Stop at a grocery store on the way in. It will be a million dollars cheaper. Remember that Florida is the face of the sun hot there majority of the year, so gummies and chocolates are a no go.
- Water Bottles: You can also bring in your own water to the parks. I brought a water cup (these are the best) for Reegan, and then a large bottle for my husband and I. You can grab water at most restaurants or food counters for FREE. Do not spend $4 per water bottle. We would grab several at a time, drink one each, and then pour the others into our bottles. There is also filtered water in the Baby Care Centers.

- Stroller Rain Cover: Florida’s sky can hold water until around 3pm and then it’s usually a 70%+ chances of downpour for at least a half hour. The cloud just get too heavy in the humidity. While it actually nice to experience a drizzle in the heat, your stroller needs a raincoat. We had bought our friend’s stroller and the rain cover was pricey, but worth it. When it started raining at Epcot, we covered the stroller up with the stuffed animals protected from the rain, and headed into Mexico’s Gran Fiesta ride.
- Baby Carrier: We have an original mesh Baby Bjorn and we love it. We use it more than any other wrap or sling. I was careful with it because of the heat, but in lines it was really helpful.

- Backpack/Belt Bag: We opted for a backpack and a belt bag. I wore this belt bag all three days carrying our phones, credit card, ID, a pacifiers, and a hair tie. Sometimes I threw my sunscreen in there too for random attacks on the family. Easy access to things I would need often. Everything else was in the backpack, which my husband carried or was thrown under the stroller. This made it easy to carry the two babies if we parked the stroller for a while.

- Change of Clothing: The littles may need a change of clothing. Rain, poop explosions, ice cream mishaps… there are multiple reasons to swap clothing during the day. On the last day at Epcot, Reegan changed clothes purely because it was so hot. She just wanted a fresh dress. I couldn’t blame her. By that point the baby was down to her diaper.

- Sunscreen, Hats, Sunglasses: I will mention this in every post because you need sunscreen, hats and sunglasses.

- Diapers & Wipes: We kept a few diapers in the backpack and then a few under the stroller in a water resistant zippered bag. This way if we were in a line or a restaurant, we had even for a diaper change, but the backpack wasn’t overwhelmed. We brought 6 per child. If we went past 6 diapers, it was time to GO. Don’t forget your wipes too.

- Cooling Towel: These are amazing. You wet them in the sink or with a water bottle and they instantly cool. I used them on the baby, especially while nursing to fight body heat, and to cool Reegan down in lines. Jeff brought a hand towel from the hotel as well to wipe off sweat.
- Hand Sanitizer. No explanation necessary. We have the ones that hang off the bag or stroller.

- This was extra, but we brought Reegan’s Jelly shoes. We had her in sneakers, but with the heat, we would switch her to her sandals at high heat to let her little toes breathe.

- Back-Up Phone Charger: Just incase. You’ll be taking a lot of photos and videos, which kills your battery. I was turning my phone to airplane mode a decent amount of time. We brought two back up batteries.

Stroller Fan: I love this fan we purchased, that is USB chargable. You can charge it in your car and it even works as a portable phone charger in desperate times. There are battery options available too, but I never have batteries when I need them. And who wants to bring extra batteries to a hotel? No one. This was easy to charge at night.
Magic Bands. We were staying at The Dolphin Hotel so we debated these since they were extra and not room keys or credit cards, but they are worth it. The less you have to go in and out of bags the better.

SHOP THE LIST:

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Other Park Tips!

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The App!

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Get the App. Get it now. I downloaded it a few months before and randomly checked the ride wait times throughout the day to see what to get Fast Passes for.

It will be the home to your Fast Passes (which you can edit!), photos, reservations and more.

Note on Fast Passes… You can schedule them 1-3 months before your trip (depending if you are staying on or off property), but you can also edit them as you go. We went in September when no one was at the park, so I ended up cancelling Fast Passes for things like The Barn Stormer, which I thought would have wait times, but didn’t and swapped them for Pirates of The Caribbean. Etc.

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Meal Plan

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A lot of people suggested the Meal Plan to us, but I don’t. At least not for kiddos #FreeUnder3. We ate breakfast at the hotel, split lunch (maybe two meals between the 3 of us eating food – Dad, Mom, and a Toddler), and were barely hungry by dinner.

The first day, Magic Kingdom, we split 2 orders chicken fingers at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. That night we ordered Pizza to the hotel.

The second day at Disney Hollywood Studios we ate at the ABC commissary. I had Chicken Fingers, Jeff got Fish & Chips with Shrimp, Reegan had the Chicken Fingers kid meal. Jeff and I split a Watermelon Margarita because it was hot and Reegan was heading to crazy town.

That night we went back to Magic Kingdom for fireworks and ate at Pinocchio Village Haus, same thing – I had Chicken Fingers, Jeff had a Chicken Parm Sandwich, and Reegan had a kid’s meal.

The third day at Epcot, we blew it out of the water. It was Food & Wine Fest and those $4 plates got the best us.

All in all. I just feel like apart from Food & Wine fest we weren’t in the mood for huge meals.

Every family is different, that just wasn’t our priority.

I would say however, the character dinner we did at The Swan Hotel was worth every penny. And I think it covered us for the amount of sit down meals we were up for.

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Photo Pass

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I was really torn on this one. I still am. We have a few more weeks to decide if I want to go all in and grab the $170 photo pass. But honestly, what in the world am I going to do with all of those photos.

The photographers are every locations are fantastic and willing to take photos with your phone or camera as well. I have about 1,000 iPhone pictures of the same moments and haven’t done a thing other than post them on here and Facebook.

The cool thing is all of the photos upload into your app as the day goes on. Another with for the App and the Magic Band.

I would say it’s worth it if you want photos. But it’s an all or nothing deal. You can buy the day, the trip, or nada. I really wish there was the option to buy just a hand full of the pictures. If that was the case I would definitely grab some, but $170 for 5 pictures – meh.

Another Idea…

There are wonderful photographers in Orlando, FL. Check Orlando Bloggers for tagged photos and see who takes their pictures and reach out! You can meet a photographer in park (most Orlando peeps have annual passes) or on a boardwalk, and get fresh family photos where you aren’t sweating to death.

I would much rather spend $170 of a shoot like that.

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Chase Credit Card

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This is worth it. We are NOT a sign up for all the cards couple. Jeff is very anti-all the cards. But the Chase credit card gives you a $200 credit to a first large purchase (aka your tickets), points towards gift cards, discounts, and access to character meet and greets at Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

We used the card for our hotel as well, collected points, paid that baby off, and put them away for round two another time.

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ETC

Tips from my Friends!

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Quarters & Pennies!

I loved this suggestion. There are Pushed Penny collectible machines all over the parks. This is a fun and inexpensive souvenir for the kiddos. You can find a map of all the Pressed Penny locations in the parks HERE!

Ponchos!

I told you about the stroller rain cover, but you might want them for yourself too. You can grab ponchos at a dollar store or on Amazon and they won’t take up a ton of space in your bag.

Autograph Book & Pen

This is another thing we skipped because we just felt weird about it for some reason. Maybe because I just went through all my own autograph books from childhood. Who knows. I do love this one which is a photo album as well!

Minnie & Mickey Presents!

Our wonderful neighbor gave me the tip that “Mickey & Minnie bring surprises like Santa”. She let me know how this lowered costs for her. H&M, Target, Amazon, The Dollar Store and more have great Disney goodies. Surprises in the morning curbed their budget throughout the day.

I’ve also had several people recommend stopping in at The Dollar Store to pick up glow wands and bracelets. I did a few themed items like coloring books and a little book set for bedtime, but kept it at a minimum because Reegan is 2.5. If she’s going to want a Princess wand at the park, she’s going to want it. There’s not a ton of explaining how surprises work. She doesn’t tend to desire big ticket items.

In all 3 days at the park we bought 3 stuffed Frozen characters, a Frozen dollhouse, a mickey bracelet, and a Mickey bubble wand. **Hot Tip** If you buy a bubble wand, they will refill the bubbles through the park.

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