Planning for our 1st family trip in late May- very excited but hearing from an experienced family member that I simply MUST bring the following into the parks each day: bottled water, snacks (in a soft cooler); sunscreen, cell phone, antibacterial hand gel, hats, sunglasses, towel, change of clothes for each child (ages 8, 8 and 5) rain ponchos, wipes for sticky hands, and some more stuff I"m forgetting. I said, are you kidding, the pack will weigh 25 lbs and I'll be carrying it everywhere and cursing? Then she said, then you must rent or bring a stroller to tote all this stuff daily (not for child: for STUFF). HELP! I don't want to be Mom The Dumping Ground, plus my philosophy always is travel light. (FYI we are staying at Poly, and not renting a car) What do I absolutely positively need....or is she right???? Thanks for the help everyone!
8 and 5 year old kids can certainly carry their own little fanny pack with a few snacks if they are in the habit of being hungry between meals (we tend to carry very little snacks, as our first trips they stayed uneaten...now we carry a snack size baggie with some beef jerky to ward off intense hunger but by the time someone wants that we know it's time to find a meal). That same fanny pack and carry their hats and sunglasses if needed. Now, my kids and I are rather dark skinned and don't burn, so a bit of sunblock is fine for us....my DH is fair skinned and burns through the sunroof, lol. So he wears a hat everywhere, and it's always on his head. My daughter likes to wear a ballcap as a fashion statement and when it's not on her head, she threads it through a belt loop and it lives there. Sunblock comes in towelettes which are more expensive but less bulky to carry around, so if your family needs to touch up during the day carry those.
Water...nope, we don't bother carrying that, and we're a big water drinking family (don't drink much soda even at home). But EVERY counter service restaurant will give you a FREE cup of ice water. When we decide we're thirsty we keep going to our next stop and watch for short/no line CS places along the way. (Oh, and as an aside, I've been reading more and more about the "dangers" of those plastic bottles that water comes in and so we got a non-plastic alternative, so consider that if you actually are going to carry water). If you're going in the summer you may want to carry water because you'll require more of it of course.....but you can get a thermos on a string for each of the kids to carry their own around their neck...and refill as needed at the CS.
For all the years I've gone to Disney and other parks, I've never wished I had brought a change of clothes. Yea, that ice cream on the shirt is pretty ugly, but we just position that kid with someone in front of him for pictures (or an arm wrapped around him in a hug covering it, lol)....or we just let it be and realize they are VACATION pictures, not posed Christmas greeting card, above the mantle, type pictures. Now....if you're one of those that can't handle that, then carry something I guess. And a towel? Ummm...then you'd have to lug around a wet, and therefore HEAVY towel. no thanks. If it's the cool months and being wet is unacceptable, stay off the ride....if it's summer, wet will feel good and evaporate to dry way too quickly anyway.
Cell phone....well, that kinda depends on why you need it. Your kids are definitely too young to go off on their own with a second cell phone. It's nearly impossible to have much more of a conversation than "what, where are you? Can't understand you, but meet me at Dumbo". Of course that's assuming you actually hear it ring! I don't find it necessary, though now that I have a smart phone I did carry it this last time...and it was pretty cool to surf the Internet while we waited in line...and equally as cool to check the menus at Allears while trying to decide where to eat. I also had a file showing trivia and hidden mickeys to watch for, sorted by ride. But truly, you don't NEED it. Occasionally we'll split up as a family, and then I suppose a cell phone would come in handy for times you can't make your meeting place, but we've not had too much trouble with that....waiting 10-15 minutes isn't fun, but it's Disney...people watch, or choose a store so the first to arrive can shop and have something to do while waiting for the rest of the family.
Hand gel....ummm, I doubt you could kill all the germs your little hands will be exposed to....you'd have to apply this stuff each and every time you took your hands out of a pocket. Stop at a restroom before a meal.....tell your kids to not run their hands along the railing (because worse than the invisible germs is the ick you CAN see...gross!). If you feel you need it, then a tiny bottle of it will probably fit easily in a fanny pack anyway. Or better yet, get some of those individually wrapped Wash n Wipes....or just stop at water fountains along the way for sticky hands.
So...here's my short list:
Annual Pass/ticket, credit card, driver's license....these all go in the lanyard around my neck. I put a tiny piece of stick on velcro so it stays closed. 10 years or so and never lost anything out of one. (Velcro is sold by the inch at fabric stores).
Fanny Pack:
Camera, extra battery
Sometimes a snack size bag of beef jerky
Cell phone (now that I have the smart phone, but wouldn't bother with a regular phone).
The door key or alarm to the car (the rest stays in the glove box).
Flavor packets for our free cups of ice for lunch time.
The kids' fanny pack carries their flavor packs, autograph book and pen, and trader pins. Sometimes beef jerky. Their pre-paid credit cards are in their lanyard (again with velcro shut).
If I could figure out how to do photos without the camera I'd be a happy camper as it's the heaviest thing I carry. But the phone camera only takes stills and not so great quality (next upgrade hopefully better...already have a 2gb storage card for phone). I know some people don't carry cameras if they aren't going to a specific event, but I love having hundreds of photos when we get home, characters, the kids just doing things, etc. so I know I'd be disappointed to miss a picture of something if I left the camera home. My camera does video and photos....maybe I need to just live with a photo only one as those tend to be light and small.
You are absolutely right that you will not enjoy, and possibly even resent, being a pack mule on your vacation.
I look at it this way- either I can personally lug around a backpack of crap all day long and deal with schlepping it onto rides and stopping to dig stuff out all day, or we can divide it nicely between four of us and only have fannies.
Yes, being the pack mule stinks.
