Disneyland Step 5: What to Pack
Amazon Shopping List with some items, but read below for more!
If you’re staying on property in a Disneyland Resort Hotel for your entire visit and not renting a car, you really must pack and bring everything you need. There isn’t a drugstore in downtown Disney – I forgot baby swim diapers… the baby didn’t get to swim. (It was like 65 when we were there, so he didn’t mind). I’ve since heard that they might hand them out poolside, which actually makes a lot of sense. So if you find yourself in this particular predicament check on that. But for the most part, other than the typical stuff you’d find in a hotel gift store, you really need to be prepared. There are a couple drugstores outside the parks at Harbor and Katella but my tired legs weren’t walking me there…
I know my kids, you know your kids – you’ve probably even traveled with them before! So I’m sure you have a general idea of the kinds of things to bring on a trip. But here are some oddities that we brought that you might not think of and a list where most of these can be found:
The biggest stroller you own. But one that’s less than 31″ wide, and shorter than 52″ long – and no wagons. We brought our Double BOB – it fits within these limits. Unless you’ve got a 12-year-old who runs cross country, your kid probably won’t mind riding around in a stroller. And a stroller does double duty as a place to haul all your stuff. Our kids napped in the stroller, ate breakfast in the stroller – plus we were able to quickly get around the park, as opposed to tired tiny legs dragging around. Another note on the stroller – when my kids were loose, and walking, I was more worried about losing them. In the stroller I knew exactly where they were. In 2022 we went when our kids were older (9, 6, 4) – my 9-year-old walked the entire time and the younger 2 shared the single stroller. The youngest fell asleep in the stroller each night around 8:30 allowing the rest of us to keep going another hour and a half! Disneyland does rent strollers but they aren’t very comfortable and have almost zero storage. If you don’t want to bring one from home I’d recommend renting from City Stroller Rentals – most strollers are less than $100 for 3 days and they’ll deliver for free to your hotel.
Ribbon or some other unique item to tie to your stroller so you can find it amongst the masses. When we arrived in a specific land (like Fantasyland), we would park our stroller (unlocked – can’t lock them up in the parks!) in the designated stroller parking area and leave it there while we explored. Sometimes when we returned to our stroller it had been moved (by a Cast Member, which they do) or would have given birth to 100 baby strollers and now be buried. It was really nice to be able to find it at a quick glance – you’re not necessarily going to be able to identify yours by checking the contents of the basket…
Large loose bag for gear in your stroller. Let me explain: Every time you enter the parks you’ll need to show all your gear to the security agents. The first day we went, I had everything loose in the basket of our stroller, which was a complete nightmare at the security checks. I quickly adjusted, and the next day had everything inside a loose bag in the basket, that way I could just pull out the entire bag show it to the agent and plop it back into the stroller. With that said, make sure all secondary bags (like ones with diapers or snacks) that are inside this larger bag, are clear – otherwise you’ll have to open them at security as well.
360 Ergo Baby Carrier. Most of the time I carried my 8-month-old in the Ergo and the big boys used the stroller. We had an old Ergo, but I sprung for the 360. When he wasn’t sleeping, it was so nice to give him the ability to face out, and experience what we were doing. He was too heavy to carry all day in my Baby Bjorn.
Disney Autograph books and Retractable Permanent Markers (I think the characters appreciated the ease of these pens and I didn’t have to worry about losing a permanent pen cap. Yikes!) We also used the pen to write my phone number on the boy’s arms in the mornings, just in case…
A baggie full of pennies and quarters to do the Penny Presses – easy (and cheap!) souvenir. Usually cost $0.50 to use the press. Quarters are also useful at the Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition!
Dum-dum lollipops for quick handouts while waiting in a long line.
Fanny pack for mom. Yes. I said it. One word on this – you can actually find cool fanny packs now. Like even Chanel is making one. Mine was of course not that cool, but it wasn’t horrifying. Nordstrom calls them “belt bags“, which I think makes them sound cooler. We did not carry a backpack around Disneyland – and this was really fantastic. We used the bottom of our stroller for snacks, diapers, extra clothes, etc. – all things that I really didn’t think someone was going to steal. Then I kept all the important stuff: tickets, room keys, money, my phone in my fanny pack. Mine wasn’t terribly small, so it also held wipes and a few snacks. I could hop on and off the rides without having to adjust a thing. If you’re lugging 3 kids onto a moving ride, it’s really nice to not have to worry about a backpack as well. If you can’t stomach the fanny pack idea, a cross body bag works just as well… I have this one:
If you want to go the backpack route (which I did on a recent trip with just my 7-year-old) I like this one from Designer Park Company. If you don’t already have a good mid-sized backpack to use this one is designed just for park-going and has some really clever pockets that were very useful during our trip.
Refillable water bottles. It wasn’t super hot when we were there, so this wasn’t as big a deal for us. But water bottles at Disneyland are very expensive. And everywhere you go will give you free glasses of ice water, if you ask. Just dump them into your bottles, and voila! There are also water fill stations throughout the parks.
Disney clothes. I ordered all the clothes we were going to wear before we went and I’m sure I saved a ton of money versus buying things there. And maybe since we weren’t shopping for those kinds of things, we really didn’t venture into that many stores. We bought a couple of souvenirs the last day and that was it. I’ve heard of people who really have to stifle their kid’s shopping expectations, but this just wasn’t an issue for us. Now if you’re thinking Disneyland clothes?!?! That is so not me! You have to change your thinking on this. I was SHOCKED how people get decked out in tee-shirts, mouse ears, people carry lightsabers around for goodness sake! Recently, I realized that it’s like going to a sporting event. If you’d go to your college’s football game wearing their logo’d gear then you should do the same thing at Disneyland!
Layers. It can get cool in the parks at night and in the morning. We throw sweatshirts or long-sleeves into the bottom of the stroller. If you’re going the backpack route you can rent lockers in the Esplanade or just inside the park entrances for $7-10 per day.
Portable Cell Phone charger. By 2pm every day my phone was dead. Usually we were going back to the hotel at this point, but not always. The Disneyland App is amazing, but totally drains your batteries. Disneyland has a relationship with FuelRod and there are stations around the parks. I prefer the one linked before over the FuelRods as I’ve heard they don’t fully recharge your phone.
Heads Up Kids! App for your phone. We didn’t have to wait in too many crazy lines, and usually the line ques are a bit of an attraction themselves, but it was nice to have this App, and a few other ideas in my back pocket: rounds of “Mommy Says”, “Eye Spy”, etc. The Play Disney App also has some games and in-park interactive experiences.
Matador Blanket. If you end up staking out a spot to watch a parade this is a great way to mark your area and nice to have something to sit down on. I also used it once for the baby to have a place to sit/crawl and get a break from the Ergo. Honestly, it’s so dang small you might as well just bring it.
First aid kit stocked with more than just band aids. Add Benadryl, kid’s Motrin, mommy Motrin, Tums, Chapstick, anything else specific to your family.
Wet wipes, wet wipes, wet wipes, wet wipes
Zip Loc bags – Messy clothes after a potty accident, for your phone on a wet ride, for a $12 cookie that someone didn’t finish but you just can’t bring yourself to throw away.
If it’s calling for rain before you go, ponchos and the rain cover for your stroller.
These disposable Bento Boxes for breakfast on the move. See my Dining in Disneyland guide for more on this.
Extra sets of clothes for any kid recently potty trained. And I use recently really broadly. If you have a 3.5-year-old who potty trained a year ago but very occasionally has accidents, you’ll want to bring 1-2 extra sets of clothes for them into the park with you each day. It can be a hike to get to the closest bathroom in the parks and you don’t want to go all the way back to the hotel for something like this. I even brought 1 extra set for kids that didn’t have this problem – splash mountain or a messy ice cream cone can be just as detrimental!
Things we usually bring on a trip but definitely did not need to for this one:
Toys to play with in the hotel – we weren’t there to play in the hotel room!
Floaties for the pool – the Disneyland Resort Hotels have life jackets poolside
Your Selfie Stick – I actually don’t normally travel with one… but it’s a sometimes unknow Disneyland fact that they aren’t allowed in the parks
Stroller Lock – you cannot lock your strollers up in the parks, nor do you need to
