Day pack for little ones

[ILoveMK2008]

DH and I will be bringing DS 18 mos to Disney in January for his first trip ever, and we are pumped! On previous trips I had always carried a mini backpack with wallet, sunscreen, phone, and camera with me. I would just put it in the little bags on the rides, no problem at all. Now I'm wondering not only what I should pack for the park for a little one (besides the usual diapers, wipes, extra outfits, snacks, which I always have) and how people handle leaving their belongings in the stroller while they are on rides (we will have our own stroller with a storage compartment at the bottom). Right now my plan is to just put my phone in my pocket every time we go on a ride and leave the rest of the stuff in the stroller, but if anyone has any better ideas I'd love to hear them. Thanks in advance!

 

[Accident]

My daughter (she is 20) carries a normal sized backpack onto every ride. The bags to put things in are nice for small things but every ride including rnr that goes upside down, your bag under your legs will stay there. It might be disney but your still leaving your stuff unattended in public. People will steal things...

Something to consider is making use of the lockers that disney has for personal belongings. They are at the start of the park but it's a great way to store things you want nearby but don't need instant access too. Change of clothes, sweatshirt if at disney when evenings are colder, etc are all good things that are nice to have nearby but you don't need with you.

 

[ErinInCT]

We have a waterproof backpack (Hikpro) where we keep everything. No longer have stroller aged kids. We keep sunscreen, wipes, bandaids, O2Cool mister, frogg togg cooling towels, hand sanitizer, rain ponchos, autograph books, pins/lanyards, water bottles, snacks and money for pressed pennies. There would have still been plenty of room for diapers and wipes and a change of clothing. Not super light but it didn't make our backs sweat which was nice!

 

[DisMom456]

Such a fun age for a Disney trip (and free!). We took our daughter a few times between 18 mos and 3. I always carried a small crossbody purse with phone, money, camera, etc.; that stayed with me at all times. We always left the rest with the stroller: one of those all-in-one changing pads with pockets for wipes/diapers and a small tote with a ziplock of extra clothes, a ziplock for snacks, and ponchos. I always left the tote on the handles, so it doubled as an easy way to spot our stroller. We've never had any trouble with stolen items, but I know someone who had their whole stroller stolen, so it's always a gamble. I'm just not ready to commit to a backpack until we're stroller-free!