Our First Family Trip to Disneyland Recap

Oh my goodness!!! Can I just say we had a BLAST on our first family trip to Disneyland!!! Eddy is planning on going again next year or talking about Disney World. In a dream world… My kids randomly say how much fun they had. Miss L asked today when we get to go back. It is safe to say it was a huge success. 

After the holidays I will do some more in depth posts about Disneyland. I learned a ton about what to do and what not to do. Today you get my quick recap on 4 things to pack. Hold on to your hats folks, it’s going to be fast. 🙂 Get it? Like the rides at Disneyland…. I know, kind of dumb. 🙂

First of all over budget! We spent more then we were thinking. Welp, let me back up… We never made a formal budget for this trip. We paid for the hotel and tickets through Get Away Today. Eddy picked up an extra shift for spending money. We (okay, mostly I) thought that would cover everything else (food and gas). 

I was WRONG!!! So just plan to spend more money then you think and you’ll be good. Haha! Or just keep better track of how much you are spending then we did. 

Snacks

My snack bag was so darn helpful. We were getting a little sick of some of the same things but it was a life saver for when we were in line or on a ride where we could eat. Pretty much anytime my kids asked for a snack we gave them one. 

There were also times when the cousins were with us and it was nice to be able to pull out a bunch of stuff and let everyone munch on something. 

Every night I would get everything ready for the next day, this included repacking our snacks. I would see what snacks were left in the backpack and refill as necessary. I always tried to have some of everything. 

I put any produce back in the fridge. First I made sure the sandwich bags  of carrots and snack peas were refilled and put into the big gallon plastic bag. Any apples and cuties were also added to the gallon bag to replenish it. The water bottles got refilled and put in the fridge to get cold.  

Eddy carried the snack  backpack the whole time. What a good man! we put our hand sanitizer spray and a package of wipes in the backpack. Both of these helped to keep little fingers and hands clean. 

Line Entertainment

I thought FOR SURE this was going to be a huge help. But, guess what?! I only pulled one thing out one time. That’s it! Can you believe it? I was shocked. I was certain after a few days of standing in line my kids would lose their marbles. 

They did awesome! Most of the lines were not too long (or we had fast passes for them) which was super helpful. It was also great to have grammy and grandpa there to help with the kids. The best was when we were in line with cousins. They had so much fun playing with them.

So my biggest suggestion is to go with family. 🙂 And to go at a time when the park is not as crowded. That is a winning recipe.

But in case those two things do not happen plan to have a few small boredom busters to help pass the time they will be standing in ling. I packed a small book, a few small toys, a write on/wipe off letter practice and addition practice cards, and crayons with paper. 

Emergency Kit

So after I mentioned how I like to be prepared guess what I forgot to pack? Ponchos! We really could have used them. We all had rain jackets and the kids had rain boots, they were helpful and saved us. 

Here was the list of things I said I was going to pack:

• ponchos
• sunblock
• sun hats
• sunglasses
• jackets
• band aids
• medicine
• wipes
• extra clothes
• diapers
• portable phone charger

We used most of those things. We only needed band aids a few times and no one needed medicine while we were in the pack, thank goodness. You bet I took some medicine on the last few days, my feet were killing me! 

The sun was not as bad as I was expecting so only Miss N wore her sun hat. And the portable phone charger wasn’t needed. We had enough battery life until we got back to the hotel room each night. 

I really can’t think of anything else that we needed while in the park each day. Maybe a few dumb dumb suckers to help with a few tantrums that we had. No judgement here, sometimes they are the only thing that work. 

Little Purse

I am SOOOOO glad I bought my little purse, $15 well spent. I had it on me pretty much the whole time. It was so nice to know that my phone, sun glasses, some cash, shuttle passes, Disney passes and my Disney gift cards were safe and within reach at all times. 

I did my best to try to keep everything else out of there. I didn’t want it to become a dumping ground. That is one reason why I picked the smaller purse. 

If we didn’t have a stroller and a diaper bag I would have also carried a backpack to help hold things we needed throughout the day. I’m sure glad we have many more years before we are stroller free. 

Having the backpack and my little purse we didn’t have or leave anything valuable in the stroller when we parked it. It was great to not have to worry about the stroller. And amazingly I didn’t! 

I know there are many more things that can be helpful to have while you are at Disneyland. But, these 4 things helped to make our trip a huge success on our first family trip to Disneyland.

What are some things you have brought with you to Disneyland that have made a difference? What have your hauled around with you that was a waste? 

Xoxo, Steph