When we take our young kids into the parks during the summer, I like to be prepared! I tend to bring a lot of items into the parks with us (unfortunately, but maybe fortunately for us!), especially when it is hotter than the surface of the sun!

We do use strollers, so that helps.

Below I have up to 45 suggestions that I recommend you pack if you are like me!

*** I am NOT a doctor! The things I suggest below are my opinions and you should definitely ask your children’s doctors any questions before going on your vacation. They will tell you what you should be doing when planning to be in extreme heat for extended periods of time.***

You have to remember, that babies cannot sweat and keep their bodies cool in the same ways that adults can. This means that they can become easily dehydrated or sick from the extreme heat temperatures that you get in Florida. We like to pack park bags (yep, I said bags with an ‘S’!) with many things that could aid us in keeping our babies safe and healthy while outdoors.

The first one is easy. Yes, you can get free cups of water anywhere in Disney World, but I just cannot get over the taste of it. One of our bags is a cooler for this reason.

We have a nice backpack cooler that can be worn and still have 2 hands free. We load up the backpack each morning with 8-10 water bottles and put some ice in a double-bagged gallon ziplock to keep it cold. This is not only nice to have bottles right on hand during the day, but it can also be very handy for anyone who will be bottle-feeding their babies, to have a cooler to store all of their feeding necessities.

(*TIP* keep the water bottles in the fridge overnight before loading them in the cooler)

We do use strollers in the parks, and I make sure to have one with storage underneath. I really like the 3D lite stroller with an under basket and carry strap. We will often park the stroller in designated areas and leave the cooler bag with it. (This is always up to you to leave your items unattended, but there is no guarantee that your things will be safe from theft. We do this because it is not considered a ‘valuable item’ to us if something DID happen.)

The other bag, also a backpack, we take with us is what I consider our “Park Bag.” We have this with us at all times, as we often do have things of value inside.

The things we pack are listed below, but I keep certain items grouped together in ziplock bags to make it easy for finding.

Diaper changing gallon bag:

•   Changing pad

•    2-3 Disposable changing pads

•    6-8 diapers

•    Disposable diaper bags for dirty diapers

•    small pack of wipes (25 count?)

•    small tube of diaper cream

•    extra pair of clothes

Toddler potty bag:

• Extra pair of undies and shorts (or pants)

•    4-5 Disposable seat covers

•    Small pack of flushable wipes

• (optional) pull-ups if child is newly potty-trained or could possibly have accidents

While we’re on the topic of extra clothes; If it is so hot and humid, or could rain – you may want to take an extra shirt or pair of clothes for anyone in the family who would appreciate a change. (you could choose to leave that with your cooler bag)

Baby eating bag:

• 2-3 Disposable bibs

• 2-3 Disposable table covers

• A spoon you can wash or throw away, if eating baby purees.

•    Baby food pouches

•    Puffs or Yogurt melts in baggies

             If you are formula feeding, you may be able to fit pre-measured baggies in this large bag. If you are bottle feeding breastmilk, you would need to keep that in a cooler.

I was breastfeeding an 8 month old the last time we were at Disney and she was both nursing and starting solids. Nursing or Formula is still the PRIMARY source of a baby’s nutrition and hydration at this age, so it is very important to make sure they are fed. If you are nursing, you will not have to bring as much into the park. And if the baby is not on solids yet – then you will not have to bring any of the feeding supplies above except for the items if needed for bottles!

Mamas should expect to take many breaks with an infant, and not worry so much about what you need to see next. Take in the experiences of people watching or resting a bit between the hustle and bustle!

Foot care bag/first aid items

• Pack of moleskin padding

•    Little scissors to cut moleskin

•    Neosporin To Go

•    A few sizes of Band-Aids

•    Lip balm

•    Small bottles of Tylenol or Ibuprophen

•    A small bag of Tums

For small children, if they are old enough to have children’s or Infant’s Tylenol, you may want to bring it for them if you think you could need it. None of these items are musts if you don’t want to bring them – and each park does have a first aid building if you were to need something.

I just like to be prepared and have something immediately on hand, especially since our time is important since we all know that anything with babies and toddlers is not done quickly or easily!

The rest of the things we pack in our bag can be useful, but is ultimately up to you depending on how much you want to carry around. I DO suggest at least having the child cups so that they can drink when they need to and not have any problems in the heat.

All other supplies:

• Sippy cups or Thermos cups, 1 for each child who can drink water (young babies should not – please ask your Primary Care Pysician for recommendations on keeping hydrated for all of your children)

•    Mister fans

•    Stroller fans (clip on)

•    Cooling towels

•    Sunscreen

• Sunglasses

• Hats

•    Extra portable phone chargers and cords

•    A few extra batteries for fans

•    Disposable ($1) ponchos

•    Small umbrellas

•    Various snacks you can grab quickly (fruit snacks, granola bars, – yogurt melts, trail mix, etc.

•    Nursing cover if you use one

•    Compact brush, extra hair tie, makeup blotters

•    Folder with Itinerary if you have a printed one.

•    Autograph book with pen or markers

•    A couple glow sticks

•    Or small (age appropriate) toys/activities if your child gets antsy in lines or while eating

•    Gum – Disney does not sell any on property

•    Antibacterial hand wipes

•    Small hand sanitizer

•    Don’t forget your Minnie/Mickey Ears!

*In the past we even had a THIRD bag! (I know! What the heck for?!?) It was a separate diaper bag. I wanted to keep our main backpack lighter so we did that, but it was NOT ideal! Since then, I have switched to using the ziplock bags method, which helped a TON. And having a cooler backpack with a couple zipers, we are also able to keep some things in there to lighten the load. Examples would be: any extra clothes, maybe umbrellas, extra snacks or baby food. This is left with the stroller when it’s parked and hoped that it stays safe. USUALLY it is, but you never know when someone might feel a little entitled to your things….

Is there anything I am forgetting??? What is something that you MUST have or need while in the parks? Comment below and I can always add to my list!

Thank you for reading!

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The snack mix below could actually work for anywhere and anytime; not just for Disney. But because we are here at Main Street Mrs., we’ll put it in Disney context!

We’ve really only taken family trips to Disney World when the heat is pretty intense – which in Orlando, FL, is much of the year anyway! Being out in the crazy heat all day every day, you are going to need to stay hydrated and to make sure you keep your energy up in order to avoid heat exhaustion or anything worse. Of course we love to grab all the Disney snacks when we’re able to, but sometimes you get yourself caught waiting in lines, taking a break, maybe watching a show or something, or even just wanting to save a few bucks and you really need something to munch on – and we’ve got a great alternative right here for you!

Put these into little Ziploc snack bags and throw a few in your bag each day going into the parks.

BONUS: When you make these at home and bring them in your luggage, you’ll have extra empty space for that Disney merch when going home!

*** You know your family’s allergies – obviously, if you have any, just omit or find an alternative ingredient for the snack mix!

Home Made Snack Mix!

 The following things I would put a small handful (maybe 10 pieces, more or less) of each one into each bag. You can adjust the amount as you wish, but I feel it’s easier to make them in individual bags because the heavy items would sink to the bottom of a large bowl if you try mixing together first.

• Ziploc snack size bags

• Goldfish
• Mini pretzels
• Popcorn
• Granola bites
• Yogurt covered raisins
• Chocolate covered blueberries
• Reece’s pieces

Those are the ingredients I usually throw into the bags, but sometimes I add or switch out 1 or 2 things as well, like teddy grahams, raisins, marshmallows or nuts. I try to keep a lot of chocolate out of it as possible, but you can put in chocolate chips or m&m’s also. The chocolate covered blueberries are enough for us! The Reese’s pieces are also a nice sweet added and the kids like it better than peanuts!

You want to make sure that the whole mix is not going to get all melty or sticky! The ingredients listed held up extremely well in our park bag, in the heat.

One of the main goals besides having a good snack on hand, is that my children will actually eat them too! And I am always conscious of deciding what is a choking hazard for them, or if they can eat it. I will only make them what I believe is safe for them to eat.

They absolutely love chowing these down while in the parks. We’ve had them while sitting in Magic Kingdom’s Carousel of Progress, the shows in Epcot World Showcase and Hollywood Studios, and The Festival of The Lion King in Animal Kingdom. We also have handed them a bag as we just push them in their strollers.

The sweet and salty combination is a perfect filler to give you and the kids that boost of energy along with a cold cup of water. Sometimes you can tire out easily while in the Disney parks, and you need to be aware if the little ones just aren’t eating or drinking enough. This is hands down, our perfect solution when those times occur because they definitely eat these goodies. I also don’t feel as bad giving it to them because it is not the ice creams or candies that are completely full of sugar either.

I look forward to hearing back – Let me know if this helped or worked for you! Or if you have a trail mix or snack mix that you love or make yourself as well! What would you substitute?

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In recent years, Walt Disney World has become a very plan-oriented vacation. Don’t get me wrong – you can still definitely visit and just go wherever the wind takes you; but if this is a once in a lifetime trip, or you just have to make sure you do as much as you can on your next vacation, a thought-out plan will come in handy and can save you a heck of a lot of time if you already put some thought into it.

This is the method we use to plan out our trips, and I have explained everything below on how you should be mapping out your week with these worksheets. They will be very helpful to stay visually organized before you go.

Park-Hours-WorksheetDownload

FastPass-Dining-WorksheetDownload

Before you can plan anything in advance, you need to know all of the different operating hours of the parks to decide which one would be best to visit on which day. Use the park hours worksheet to fill in each of your dates and find the hours of each park listed on the Disney website. The site will list the hours of their parks 180 days in advance. These hours CAN change after they have been posted, so I would encourage you to check back closer to your trip to make sure nothing needs to be rearranged at that time.

The one problem you may come across is trying to get the hours for the parks for your entire trip when only each day is posted at a time. This is especially important when you are able to book dining reservations, for all of the days you are there, 180 days from the FIRST day you arrive.

**No Worries!! If you call Disney, you will be able to find an automated system that will tell you the hours of each park further out than the 180 days listed on their site. Again, these can always change later on, but you will at least be able to go off of a good draft to book your dining reservations!

Make sure to write in if any of the parks have Extra Magic Hours each day. These would be available for guests staying on site (in a Disney hotel) to arrive an hour earlier than the posted park opening, or 2-3 hours later than park closing. These will change by each day and by each park. It will be listed along with the park hours.

Early Morning Magic (EMM) is something totally different! Guests will sometimes get this confused with EMH (extra magic hours). EMM is a PAID event that takes place in the early morning before the park opens to all other guests. It is only offered on select dates, and you will have to look them up separately on the Disney site. Two of the parks offer this under the DINING category (because it includes breakfast along with a list of attractions). You can find this event for Magic Kingdom – Fantasyland, and for Hollywood Studios – Toy Story Land.

• *Reserving this event requires payment ahead of time.*
• To reserve EMM, you will have to be attending THAT certain park on that same day in order to be admitted. If you have a park hopper ticket, this should not be a problem. But if you are using single-park per day tickets, take that into consideration when planning your schedule.
  
  

Some of the parks also offer a PAID “After Hours” event, when the parks close to the rest of the guests. You do not need to have been in that park during the day, as the after-hours event is your admission to that park for the evening.

The last thing to consider when choosing your park days, is whether Magic Kingdom has a Party Night or not. Right now, this is only during the Halloween and Christmas seasons. The parties are also a PAID event which occurs in the evenings after the park closes to the rest of the guests. What this means, though, is that those days at Magic Kingdom, the park will close at 6:00pm! If you would like to maximize your park time, you may want to have a park hopper ticket, or choose a different park to visit on these nights in August – December.

Fill out this worksheet. Highlight the box for each day that will give you the best amount of time in the parks for your family. This should give you a really great outline to decide which days you should make your dining and FastPass reservations for on the next worksheet.

Use the FastPass+ and Dining worksheet to plan out any reservations you are going to book for your trip.

Write in all of the days/dates and then write in which park you chose for each day of your trip. (from park hours worksheet)

You will be able to make dining reservations 180 days in advance by either using your My Disney Experience APP, or on the My Disney Experience website, and also by phone if you choose to do so.

For most guests, Fast Passes can be booked 30-60 days in advance. You can book 60 days in advance if you are staying ON Disney property, and 30 days in advance if you are staying OFF property (in a non-Disney location).

• You will get to book 3 FastPasses (FPs) per day for everyone in your party.

• All of the FPs will need to be made in the same park ahead of time.

• FPs are FREE to book – they do not cost anything and you can book them right on your APP or on the website!

You will be able to make more FPs, one at a time, after you use the initial 3 each day in the parks. And at that time, it can be in a different park if you choose to hop.

You can add in any other reservations you choose to each day if you need to. There are so many things that you can book at Disney World, but a few of those would include things like: The Early Morning Magic, or After Hours events, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, or a haircut at Harmony Barbershop.

Download and use the worksheets – and you should have a very organized and easy plan for your upcoming trip to Walt Disney World. These are the first things we use when making our itinerary and we hope that they will be valuable for you as well!

Are you a die-hard planner also? Like organization? Or did these help you to get organized if you are not?? Let us know in the comments below! Thank you for reading!

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My name is Ali Rey. I am huge fan of Disney and I love taking my family to Walt Disney World!
I felt that it was time I start a blog talking about WDW because I often have a lot of tips and tricks for others who are planning to visit, or I see many people asking the same questions often, that I have loads of advice for!
I hope that you are able to find valuable information here and if you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask within our comments, or email and Facebook group pages located in the top menu.
Thank you for visiting!

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