Park Backpack Must Haves
Over our two trips to Disney World together we have come to realize how important it is to be properly packed for a day at the park. During the times of year we went, late May and early June, it was important that we were prepared for the heat and the periods of rain that comes with that time of year!
Before we even thought about what we would pack in our bag for the day, the first question we had to answer was what type of bag would we would want to use while walking around the parks. We wanted something that allowed us to carry our items, but it was also important that it was something that wasn't too bulky so that we could easily open it to be searched at the bag check before entering a Disney park and so that would could fit it in the storage compartments that are found on many of the larger rides.
This camel-pack style bag turned out to be the perfect choice for our needs and was very easy to carry, while still being able to hold what we needed it to. It also fit comfortably into the rides storage compartments!
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| Camel-Style Bag |
Now of course a bag this small may not be realistic for larger groups or families because you would need more space designated for snacks or drinks for the little ones that the two of us didn't need to worry about.
After choosing the bag, here is a list of "Day at the Parks" must pack items that we took with us everywhere at Disney...
1. Sunscreen - Don't want to get burnt!
2. I-Pad - Great for bringing up our Disney App to check out park maps and up to date wait times.
3. Digital Camera - To capture all the moments
4. Park Map (Paper Copy) - Quick and easy resource to find your way around the parks without the need of Wi-Fi.
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| Quick and Easy Park Maps |
5. Sunglasses - The sun is nice and bright in late May and June!
6. Ponchos - Can be folded up very small and brought out during down pours (life savers at times)
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| Ponchos! |
7. Bag of Quarters and Pennies - For the souvenir Penny Machines :)
8. Medication - Safety First
9. Water Bottle - Can be filled with water at any Quick Service Station (Even if it is not a refillable Disney mug!)
10. Wallet - Keeping those valuables safe
Taking the time to be packed properly for a full day at the parks meant that we were able to enjoy everything that Disney had to offer and be prepared for any conditions that came our way!
**Important Note: We did NOT take a bag with us when we went to Universal Studios the second time we went. Unlike rides at Disney, Universal Studios will not allow you to take a bag on the majority of rides at their two theme parks. You are required to store them in lockers that are located outside the ride itself.
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| Universal's Islands of Adventure |
Now this is okay at first because they are free to use while you are on the ride so it says, but if it is a slow moving line and takes over a certain period of time it begins to charge you for storing your items in them. So much money for each minute stored. This became problematic for us the first time we went in 2012 because I had my wallet stored in the locker and had no way of paying to get it out. Luckily Ellen was able to track down an employee who opened it up for free and we were able to retrieve our items.
Overall, we found the lockers slowed us down and were a hassle. The lines to get to the lockers were crowded after the ride was over and you often had wait for people to move out of the way before you could even get to your stuff. It's bad enough waiting in a line for a ride, but waiting in a line just to get to a locker was no fun at all.
To get around the locker issue during our second trip, Ryan stored our items in a pair of cargo-style shorts with closing pockets. Since we only really needed our passes, a camera and our wallet we just left everything else at the hotel and were able to enjoy the day without a bag. This allowed us to jump on and off rides without the added locker delays!
Eating Around EPCOT
EPCOT offers a great opportunity to experience different parts of the world all in the comfort of one great Disney park! One way visitors can get a taste (pun intended) of what each pavilion has to offer is through the delicious cuisine.Here are some of the great food and snacks we sampled during our 2014 trip at Disney's EPCOT...
1. Napoleon - Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie: France
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| Yummy! |
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| Delicious! |
2. Frozen Beer and Sushi - Kabuki Cafe: Japan
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| Frozen Beer! |
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| California Roll |
4. Bratwurst - Sommerfest: Germany
5. Funnel Cake - Refreshment Port: America
It was the last snack of the night and being on the tired side, we forgot to take a picture of this sweet treat!
These are just a sampling of all the great eats and treats offered at Disney's EPCOT that allow you to experience a different taste of each culture. There is no doubt that there is something to meet everyone's taste and appetite size somewhere in the park!
Affordable Souvenirs at Walt Disney World
There is no doubt that a Walt Disney World can cost a pretty penny, especially those travelling as families or out of country so saving even more for souvenirs can be worrisome. For many people however, like ourselves, souvenirs are an important part of preserving the memories that are made during a great trip.The great thing about Disney World is that they offer an amazing range of souvenirs that fit everyone's budget! We've come up with this list of a few of our favorite souvenirs that we've picked up over our trips to WDW. These items are both affordable and fun, and allow you to bring a piece of Disney back with you without the guilt of feeling you overspent or broke the bank.
6. Walt Disney World Mugs: Cost - on average $10.00 - $20.00 each
5. Walt Disney World Snow Globes: Cost - $8.00 each
As we mentioned in a previous post about our Disney Collection, Ryan decided to collect a snow globe for each time we visit Disney World. Our snow globes contain the year that we went so that we can mark the occasion, but there are a variety of designs to choose from.
4. Disney World Magnet: Cost - $7.00 each (prices vary depending on magnet)
Like the snow globes we decided to buy this for our fridge because it marked the year that we went on our trip. Plus we get to remember our trip every time we go to the fridge!
2. Walt Disney World Pressed Pennies: Cost - $0.51 a piece
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| The more clean and shinny the penny is, the better the result! |
** Pressed quarters also exist and cost $1.25 a piece.
** The pressed penny binder is great for holding your coins and cost roughly $10.00
1. Magic of Disney Drawing Art: Cost - FREE!
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| Ellen's Alien |
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| Ryan's Mike Wazowski |
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| Ellen's Buzz Lightyear |
This was something that we found out about prior to our 2014 trip and had so much fun doing it that we decided to do it three times over the trip. The Imagineer chooses, or allows the audience to vote on, what character is drawn that session & you get to keep your drawing at the end of the class. We are definitely not artists in any way but the instructions were clear and easy to follow which helped us to draw our pictures to the best of our abilities. This is great way to sit down and get out of the heat & excellent for all ages. You really can't beat a homemade (FREE) souvenir!
We hope you enjoyed the list! It is definitely only a sampling of the great souvenir ideas that can be found at Walt Disney World. These are just the souvenirs we have purchased so far. We love that they're affordable but still a great keep-sake that we can enjoy at home for years to come!
DIY Disney
The excitement and anticipation of waiting for a Walt Disney World vacation to arrive can often be unbearable! Sitting around and praying that time will go by faster so you can just be there is often the mindset that many people get into and that was definitely the case for us once we officially booked our 2014 trip!
Rather than just sitting around and hoping our trip was here, we decided to get into the Disney spirit before the trip and do some DIY (Do it Yourself) Disney inspired crafts and activities. By doing these things it helped pass the time leading up to the trip, added to the excitement we were already feeling about going, and gave us an outlet to show off our Disney side.
The first craft that we made was a Disney inspired "countdown" board. Ellen bought a small chalkboard from a local thrift shop for $1.00 and we hung it up in our foyer right by our door so we walked by it everyday. Ellen painted the wooden frame white and then designed a Mickey inspired image in chalk on it. In the head portion we put "days until Disney" number and in the ear sections we placed the number of weeks until we got to go. Since we booked our 2014 trip in February and didn't go until early June, we had plenty of countdown time on it. This was fun because we started with over 100 days originally and we were able to see it drop over time to 0 day-by-day!
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| Countdown Board |
We got the idea for our next craft after seeing a number of people who decorated their resort window with Disney themes during our 2012 trip. We decided when we went back in 2014 that we wanted to decorate our window as well. We knew we were going to take some of the Disney figurines we owned to place along the windowsill, but we wanted something to span the entire length of the window and that is where the next craft idea comes in...Disney Streamers!
We found this great Disney inspired scrapbook paper at a Michael's Craft Store which had multiple character's heads on it including Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and Daisy with a variety of expressions and colours. Ellen came up with the great idea of cutting out each individual square and making a single hole punch in each corner of the square. We then took two blue and two yellow coloured string and cut it to roughly 5 foot lengths and fed it through 12 squares spaced equally apart and taped the images in place. When we got to our hotel room we taped them from the top of the window and ran it to the bottom and spaced them out from one another. It spanned the entire window perfectly. We then put up our Disney figures running along the bottom of the window. For good measure we added a Canadian pennant to show off our nationality.
The window display turned out great and we saw a lot of families stopping to look at it and take pictures of it :) It was well worth the little bit of time it took to design and it only took five minutes to set up once there!
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| Close Up of Window Display |
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| Full Window Display |
When we were finished making the window streamers, we realized we still had some paper left over. We decided that we would take the left over paper and design customized Disney envelopes to leave tip money in for housekeepers, which many Disney enthusiasts call "Mousekeepers". We got this idea through other Disney craft sites prior to going and thought we would try it out ourselves. We wrote the word "Mousekeeper Tips" on the front of the envelope and then glued the Disney craft paper onto the corners of it. You can easily add Disney stickers or stamps to this to put your own twist on it! This was another fun craft project that made the wait for our trip feel like it was going by a little bit faster.
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| Example of Envelope |
*Note - Just before we left for our trip we were reading other Disney discussion boards and found out that the term "Mousekeeper"is not an official term used at Disney. Some housekeepers didn't take the tip money found inside designer envelopes that said "mousekeeper" on it because they didn't recognize the term. In order to ensure they took our tip money from the envelope we simply made sure to leave them on the pillow of the bed we slept in and attached a sticky note to it that said "housekeeping tip inside." They took the tip inside each time.
Finally, everyone knows the worst part of any Disney vacation is when it's all over, but you can always relive your trip by going through the photos you've taken! Of course you can purchase some great Walt Disney World frames to put some of your favorite photos into, but you can also display them in your own unique way...
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| Disney World Frames |
By simply taking a piece of string, along with a variety of clothes pins of different colours or finishes, you can create a wall piece that allows you to show off more of your vacation photos, rather than throwing them into a photo album. The other great thing about this type of display is that you can quickly swap out a photo and put another one in if you want to put pictures up based on some sort of theme or just want a change!
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| Wall Display over our T.V. |
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| Variety of Clothes Pins |
We are not the most artistic people in the world, but with a little imagination and some time you can easily do these craft projects or come up with your very own Disney DIY's! Taking the time to do these can help pass the time before you trip, get you in the Disney spirit, and keep you in the Disney state of mind long after the trip is over. Have fun!
Some of our Disney Collection
Our Disney obsession isn't just limited to vacationing. We've gathered and collected a lot of Disney toys and memorabilia over the past few years. While this post won't show our entire collection, we've included some of our most favourite and nostalgic pieces.
Thanks to our parents, we had some great items to get our collection started.
These Disney Muppet Babies are from Ryan's childhood and were some of the first items that started our collection.
While we picked up the Disney Bedtime Favorites book at a local thrift store, the Disney's Wonderful World of Reading books on the right are a great childhood memory that we love having in our collection.
We've added quite a bit to our collection over the past few years (and we aren't finished yet!) including the following:
We picked all three of these items up at a local thrift store for a great bargain! We actually found the matching Minnie & Mickey figurines on separate occasions almost a month apart (stoked!)
We also picked up these cute Mike and Sulley plastic figurines.
Woody and Buzz were added to our collection before we went on our trip in June 2014. We had been looking around for a pair this size and were super happy when we eventually found them at Walmart!
These sets (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney Princesses) were also purchased at Walmart. Although small at roughly 3 inches tall, we love that they include all the main characters from the movies.
These TY Beanie Ballz come in a variety of sizes. We got the largest Minnie and Mickey first and kept running into smaller sizes that we couldn't pass up!
So far the only Donald Duck and Daisey Duck items in our collection are these super cute mini plush toys from Hallmark.
We received these unique Minnie and Mickey plush toys as gifts. They're part of the Disney Rockin' Collection from Hallmark.
The newest addition to our collection are these Woody and Buzz Lightyear plush toys in the style of Cars characters. Although we found them at a local thrift store, they are in great shape and originally from the Disney Store - Gotta love a good bargain!
Our collection has even made it into our home decor. We love having a little piece of Disney in every room!
This pink & white Beauty and the Beast alarm clock was a surprise find at our local thrift store. We love the vintage design & look of the clock.
Mugs have been a reoccurring item in our collection over the years.
These cute Minnie and Mickie mugs came from Disney World and were the first Disney mugs that made it into our collection.
We received these mugs as birthday gifts. These Disney by Britto mugs were designed by pop artist Romerio Britto & are so eye catching that we use them as decorations on our bookshelf rather than using them for everyday use.
These mugs however, are great for everyday use! We picked these up on our most recent trip in June 2014 from Disney's All Star Sports Resort gift shop. Ryan chose the Mickey Coffee mug because he looooves his coffee & Ellen chose the giant Disney mug that has dozens of characters and Disney themes.
Even our Salt & Pepper shakers are Minnie and Mickey!
We have these Minnie & Mickey decorative panels displayed in our bedroom.
Ellen received this cute Minnie Mouse figurine dressed as a princess for her birthday. It's part of the Disney Traditions Collection designed by Jim Shore. We can't wait to add more Jim Shore pieces to our collection! You can find this collection at Carlton Cards.
On our most recent Disney trip, we bought a few more items for our collection.
Ryan has decided to collect Disney snow globes from every trip we take. The black and red globe is from our 2012 trip and the retro blue from our 2014 trip.
We were excited to pick these up at Mouse Gears in Epcot & we can't wait to put them on our next car!
We collected pressed pennies, which are a great budget-friendly souvenir, both in 2012 and 2014. It was only in our most recent trip however, that we found this great pressed pennies and quarters storage and display book.
As you can see, our collection is made up of a little bit of everything. We really don't limit ourselves to a particular character or style. Our current collection is affordable, fun and made up of items that we enjoy looking at everyday. Our collection will continue to grow as we find new pieces around town and take more Disney trips!
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