This is all about how we prep for a 5-day or longer vacay. The following blogs will show what we packed.
No matter how prepared I am to pack, it never goes as intended. Like. Ever! I think if you go into it with this mindset and with several plans in place to be able to readjust, it will make the process a lot smoother and help you eliminate the things that may have been put aside early in or as late admissions.
Whenever I have a plan in mind for theme days at Disney, holiday events (Thanksgiving or meeting Santa and Mrs. Clause at Epcot), or for long vacations, such as the Disney Cruise I start by putting outfits or new clothes in the back of EV or Danny’s closet so when it is within the timeframe that I want to start packing I can pull everything out and then add or omit as necessary. This works really well if I buy cute themed outfits on Etsy or at Target as I can immediately save them and put them away for the special occasion.
Sometimes this works against me since lo and behold there has been a heat wave in Europe and I had put aside a lot of cute colder weather clothes that I purchased last season and I ended up going through them several times over to decide if it really made sense to bring them and did I want to give up the space for other things I needed. Luckily I had put aside so many things that it did not require me to have to pull anything extra, I was just putting away.
I am working right up until the day we are leaving so having an idea of what we are bringing and for what days needed to be established early so that I could make sure everything that I felt was ‘necessary’, would fit in the suitcase. This is why we pack so early. I started putting outfits together months before, dare I say when we planned the trip almost a year ago. But the real packing began about a week and a half ago. Keep in mind, there are a lot of moving pieces and activities on the Disney Cruise; meeting characters, Days at Sea, excursions, dinner and shows, and formal night. Plus, we are going to be walking around the ports and having several days in London including the WB Harry Potter tour. Not being able to account for weather or the kids comfort can be difficult as it is not like I can drive to a Target if I need an extra something or an additional outfit.
When you plan to actually start packing, I suggest having a designated area in your house/apartment that the kids do not frequent (or are strongly told not to go near lol) so that you can comfortably lay out everything that you plan to take. The best way to begin is to lay out all the intended clothes by person and put together the outfits that may be for theme or special days like the Royal Gathering, formal night or even family pictures. I started with the kids since they were going to be in one suitcase and then brought out my clothes. I did put all of our clothes together in the Commodore’s closet, so I had an idea of what we were taking pretty early on and I just kept adding to it as needed.
Clothes on top of the suitcase are what I plan to wear on the plane and a scarf and baseball hat if it is chilly when we get to Denmark. Since we are leaving at night, the kids will be in jammies, I have shoes they can easily take off and on and an extra set of clothes in my carry on.
I know it doesn’t look like it, but I swear there is a rhyme to my reason for this and all the clothes are actually separated by outfits, pants, shorts, shirts, pajamas, etc. EV’s were on the right and the Commodore’s were on the left and I even had a section of ‘potentials’ if once I began to pack I felt I was missing or needed more of something (Fun Fact: great to have, but it was unnecessart for this particular trip).
By laying everyone’s clothes out, you will also get a better idea of how everything looks together. With my kids still being so young, I do still like to coordinate them a little and this helps. In addition, by having an idea of how everything looks together, it will also give you a preview of how it will potentially look in photos if that is something important to you. Especially if you are using services like Flytographer, have a photo session planned on the ship or are using one of their many photo packages. The Disney Cruise packages may seem pricey, but we always buy the full photo package regardless (on just the three-day to five day alone that we have taken we walk away with more than 200 of the professional onboard pictures). We have NEVER regretted it and it has always been a 100% worth it.
Anything new I bought for the trip I tried on the kids prior to packing it to make sure that it was actually going to fit them correctly and that it made sense to bring. I have returned a few things that I felt I over bought, such as tights and additional sweaters as we never wear them here and it just seemed like a waste for a two week trip.
In preparation for a trip and by preparation I mean from the second the trip is planned, I begin to write a list on my phone of essentials. I actually have several lists in my phone for packing so I didn’t really have to recreate a new one for this trip, I just added to the one I had already for Disney Cruises (see below).
I also include things I need to do, such as look into International calling for my mama, make sure my credit cards know I am going international, double check passports, make sure we have our luggage tags since the Disney Cruise has their own and anyother tickets, downloads that we need to do prior. Even though our WB Harry Potter Tickets have a QR code in my email, I printed them out for all of us just in case as well as our Port Terminal Arrival code as they do request that you have it printed out when you board and since all you go on the ship with is basically your purse and a day bag (check out what that is HERE) it is good to have it on you and not in your suitcase…since you will soon be separated for an undisclosed amount of time ;).
We have one list for the cruise, another for Disney holiday getaways (birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, etc.) and another is just weekend jaunts. I find that if there is a lot of things on my plate prior to traveling and creating lists just makes sure that I have everything in order. I fully understand those that are unable to make them or feel overwhelmed by them. Many of the lists have repeat items on it, but obviously is just depends on the trip itself and what I know I will need.
More often than not, the list consists of clothes (big surprise):
- potential outfit ideas
- definitive outfits I want packed (this is the kids more than anything)
- pajamas
A laundry list of things that I need, but know I will forget to pack as it becomes closer as well as items that I use right up until the day we travel, but will still need to be packed, such as:
- bras and underwear
- makeup
- hair (brushes, conditioner spray, hair oil, etc.)
- potential hair tools (hot air brush and mini flat iron for my bangs)
- hair accessories hair ties, clips, headbands, etc.
- Mickey/Minnie ears for certain outfits or celebrations
- Magicbands (I normall have a case for the ears and the bands, but having it on the list means that I can doublecheck and check off and goodness knows I love that feeling)
- sunscreen (hair protectant, basball hats, sun hat, etc.
- vitamins, etc.
Having a section of the list that includes everything I need to pack the night before has lessened my anxiety. I do not have to worry as much about forgetting something essential as well as it assures me that it will get packed before we leave and I will know that we will have it.
Both Disney Plus and Netflix have expiration dates when you download any shows or movies to your electronic devices, so I set a reminder in my phone about a week out to remind myself to download any books and movies/shows (or reinstate the license of what is already there which takes seconds) just in case something happens with the wi-fi and we can still access things for ourselves and the kids. I turn on airplane mode right before the Cruise so that I one, remember and two, so that my Disney Cruise app goes into affect. A lot of cool Disney Cruise information like shows, characters, menus, does not get released until you are on the ship and your airplane mode is on.
When it comes to luggage, I tend to buy ones that have the half and half. Meaning that half of the suitcase can be opened up and utilized instead of just having one side to put things in and a front pocket or some jazz. This is also probably why I steer more towards hard shelled suitcases. I use the side with the strap for obviously clothes and the zippered enclosure I use for all the accessory type stuff (seen below).
Although it is probably how my ADHD works, I tend to separate my ‘accessory’ items into other large cosmetic type bags (see above to see how my brain organizes), so bras and underwear go into one, I use a case for all of my hair accessories (bowbands, my mini hair straightner, clips to do my hair with, shampoo, conditioner, other hair stuff, a small bag in this bag also has laundry pods and dry cleaning sheets). Bougie Dana has a travel bag for clutches, small crossbodies, and lanyards for IDs, a credit card, room key, etc. Even my swimwear is in a separate large cosmetic bag as it has a rolled sunhat, sunscreen, my swimsuits with the kids (Sean packs his own) and two water cases for our phones so that we can take pictures in the water. I keep all this stuff separated as I can find it easily as I need it and I will remember where everything is so that I can take it with us or use it as needed and not forget that we have it. Having all swimwear essentials has probably proved the most useful especially in regards to the water cases as we have used them in the water in Cancun, Mexico, Castaway Cay and the pools/Nemo’s Water Pad on the cruise. Plus, we are doing the Nature Baths in Iceland and are going to want to be able to use our phones for pictures. I cannot imagine remembering the water cases if they were not already with all of our swimwear stuff and just throwing the swimwear bag into a tote ready to go.
Also in the designated area of where we lay out our outfits, I would also put all the bags you plan to bring, such as carry-ons, intended purse/backpack, suitcases, etc. This is why having a good enough space to see everything is important. We actually had to buy a fourth suitcase at TJMaxx since we totally did not account for diapers, pediasure, emergency kit, etc. (we only had three suitcases). This is something we noticed fairly quickly once everything was out for us to see. I also changed my carry-on twice as I bought a gorgeous travel backpack from the Vera Bradley Outlet online (again almost a year ago), but once I put the kids suprise trip treats in it, not only was it maxxed out, it was incrediby heavy and I am not looking to throw out my back with two kids.
The backpack is on far left.
I changed it out for a rolling Vera carry-on that fit everything perfectly with a little room to spare (see below). The organizer in me also loved that I had a whole bunch of travel items including an extra small duffle that matched so I now feel super put together going to the airport (#firstworldadhdproblems). I also changed my crossbody to a slingback to hold all my personal items (credit cards, ID, etc) close to me and to give me more freedom to manage the important things…like the kids.
I know Vera Bradley is not everyone’s cup of tea especially with the prints, but I absolutely love them and I love this print as it reminds me of something mod from the 60’s/
By having an idea how everything may fit can keep you from being anxiety ridden if it doesn’t fit they way you thought it was going too and trust me even with as much as I pack, I run into this a lot. Both Sean and I thought we were going to have a lot more room in our suitcases then we did, so this stage was really important and I cannot even begin to think of stressful this would have been to start packing a weekend and some odd days before.
Having everything separated for easy access also gives ease of mind once on the ship. NO matter how big your room is on the cruise, or how big it feels with your port window, with four people it can get real small real quick. Having a system to get to your stuff will alleviate with that. As you can see, I am a sucker for separating everything into a case or a container. Hence my love of Vera Bradley.
I recently bought THIS shoe container that I love as it separates my shoes, keeps them altogether and looking nice and you can actually fit more than intended because of how it is structured. In fact, it gives me so much space that I had to make sure that I didn’t over pack shoes just because I had the space for them now. I also love that it has the piece on the back that can slide over your suitcases handle. I feel that if I was traveling with just a carry-on this would be perfect to give me extra space in my suitcase since my shoes are on the outside.
I have THESE storage containers and for those that saw my garage organization HERE will know how much I love them as they easily stack in cube bookshelves. I took two empty ones that I had and used one for ‘trip treats’ and the other for miscellaneous such as; a neck pillow, two pill containers (one for actual pills and the other for jewelry), selfie/travel tripod, our Disney cruise magnets from HERE (we always buy ours here), my new passtport cover, airtags, travel luggage weight, etc.
Kids storage container (above) and my travel essentials for my carry-on (below)
We are obviously packing their Kindles, but I read a lot of mama travel blogs that said it was important to have a good selection of new/fresh things that can occupy kiddos (I am sure they didnt mean for ten hours), so I got them new kitty headphones that lightup and pulse (I have seen THESE on Amazon, but I got ours at Five Below) and I bought two of everythingto put in a goodie bag. I purchased large Mickey cosmetic basg from Primark for them each once on the plane, as well as another Baby Yoda case that has things we can do together like look and find card games, flashcards, etc. We got a really good selection of a little bit of everything (don’t judge the toddler video cameras), but hold on to your bat tails (what the heck is that from) as I am going to show this in the next blog.
Sean has his own travel backpack that I got him from Christmas HERE. I ended up using a compression bag for just the kids fun Disney/Harry Potter outfits and actually compressed it (with Sean’s help and a lot of swearing) and threw the kids Disney costumes for dinners, meeting the Princesses, etc. in his bag with a lot of apologies. I have read a thousand horror stories online of people losing their luggage and even with our airtags in our luggage, the fact that we have four bags makes us a really high potential statistic. Only I would be furious about missing our luggage, I would be the most mad over the kids costumes that are special so I took out the compression bag that has them and they are now in Sean’s travel backpack. If you are traveling anytime soon with kids and there are special outfits that are in your bag, I highly suggest following this suit as I cannot imagine a trip being ruined more than having something special lost and ot being able to find it because you are getting on an extension flight or traveling a different route and may not have the time to locate it yet.
You can see the double component that gets ‘compressed’ or you can keep it as is as a storage cube.
Once our luggage that has our clothes in it is packed, I move onto carry-ons. Since this is our first flight and moreso than that, it is our first International flight with kids, The carry on portion is what I was worried about the most as I wanted to have enough for them. I had to think of snacks, and entertainment and our own stuff, and I had to make sure to not have so much that we would be focused on our carryons and not the kids. Keeping those moving pieces in mind while packing these items was crucial. The Commodore loves to ‘help’ and push luggage, so I got him a toddler Spiderman backpack/rolling suitcase this last Christman and we are using it for lovies, toddler pillows for the plane (we are leaving during their bedtime), blankets, headphones, etc. It will be his bag, but have all the things we need, but do not have the room for currently in our own carry-ons. Huzzah for teaching ‘sponsitility, but the fun of rolling luggage in one fell swoop. Hopefully this is a mama win and not a mama fail.
Once our clothes are packed, I move onto carry-ons. Since this is our first flight and moreso than that, it is our first International flight with kids, The carry on portion is what I was worried about the most as I wanted to have enough for them. I had to think of snacks, and entertainment and our own stuff, and I had to make sure to not have so much that we would be focused on our carryons and not the kids. Keeping those moving pieces in mind while packing these items was crucial. The Commodore loves to ‘help’ and push luggage, so I got him a toddler Spiderman backpack/rolling suitcase this last Christman and we are using it for lovies, toddler pillows for the plane (we are leaving during their bedtime), blankets, headphones, etc. It will be his bag, but have all the things we need, but do not have the room for currently in our own carry-ons. Huzzah for teaching ‘sponsitility, but the fun of wrolling luggage in one fell swoop. Hopefully this is a mama win and not a mama fail.
So to summarize, if you are a checklist kind of person, here you go:
_____ Create a Packing List (see above for an example).
_____ Use a storage container or space in the closet to begin putting away planned
items.
_____ Set notifications of when you want to do things (when to pack, charge
electronics, download shows/movies/books, make family hair appts, pick
up needed items from Target, Walmart, etc.).
_____ Set a designated space of where to put everything once you begin packing.
_____ Pack by suitcase (double check the list for that suitcase) and lay out all the
clothes. Review Itinerary of trip while packing to make sure that all necessary
clothes are accounted for and all special events have what you would want.
_____ Maximize space by using cosmetic and travel cases to separate items by usage.
Keep double checking the list to make sure that everything is being packed
with the right sections.
_____ Even after the suitcases are packed, leave them open and next to each other
so that you can continue to review and add and omit as needed.
If you are the pack the day before kind of person and go, I am insanely jealous. If you are the I need all the help in the world kind of person, I have no idea how to maximize my space, then I am your girl!
I feel pretty confident with our upcoming trip and am a lot more relaxed about leaving now that everything is done, including repacking Sean’s bag after he packed it. I literally got him another weeks’ worth of clothes in his suitcase by the time I was done. Thank you, I will take my gold star now.
Hopefully if you are going on the Disney Cruise or taking an extended trip and are not used to packing for such an event/excursion, these tips will help you. Stay tuned though because the next blog is all about the carry on…well….at least mine because the husbands’ is mega boring with the exception of the kindles and the kids fun clothes that I am sure he is thrilled that he is lugging around. Thank goodness for that compression case…mr. minimalist is literally second guessing the travel stroller we just bought…can you imagine hours in that WB Harry Potter tour without a stroller?! Ummmm you are in charge of two kids then my friends as this is my bucketlist…I am already trying to figure out how I can ‘get lost’.
