Check out this organizer for your car. There’s a cooler bag for the snacks like drinks, cheese sticks, etc. And a compartment for Tissues. Looks like it would be something really useful for a car ride.
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We did a lot of traveling during Passover with the kids. We had the opportunity to see wonderful sites, hang out with friends, and explore.
A couple years ago when we went to Disney World with our oldest three, I created phone number bracelets for the kids to wear. I have also bought the paper bracelets to write on. These are great for younger kids who might not be able to remember your phone number. Another tip I recently heard to tell your kids to find a mom or a police officer. Then have them ask the mom or police office to call you. The thought behind this was the mom with kids is most likely a safe adult.
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For many years I have numerous Google Docs that I have put together for keeping an idea of what we need to pack. I haven’t included quantities as those always change depending on where we are going and how many days, but this is a starting point. I am sure there are things that I have left off the list.No matter how many times I look at the weather, I am always off on what I pack. I think it’s because 50 degrees in Cleveland feels much warmer than 50 degrees in Los Angeles or New Jersey. Perhaps because it gets so cold outside. Or I always forget to pack an appropriate jacket for the weather and we need to end up borrowing.
Traveling with three kids on a plane can be overwhelming with luggage and since I don’t rent car seats and bring my own it just adds a layer of complexity while traveling through the airport. But we have been pretty efficient on our last three trips with the kids and have minimized to 2 Large Suitcases, 2 Bags for (Three Car Seats), 1 Stroller, 3 Carry On Bags, 1 Diaper Bag, 1 Purse.
Another thing we have done the last couple trips is flying out of a smaller airport, we always use the sky cap. My husband parks the car and the sky cap helps me check all the luggage in. By the time my husband gets back from dropping off the car we are all checked in. When we flew to LA, we used the Curbside Checkin and they were even able to deal with the infant boarding pass and saved us tons of time in the check-in process.
Here are a few things that I have found useful when traveling:
They are great for helping contain the mess of a baby who loves eating, but gets food all over the place. They easily stick to the table and I can peel up the mess.
I find that often when we are staying in a hotel, the outlets are often hard to get to and there aren’t enough places to charge all the electronics. The mini shelf for the phone has been great when we couldn’t get to any of the outlets next to nightstand in the hotel room.
I saw on Pinterest a couple months ago to make bracelets with your phone number on it and have the kids where them in case they get loss. The only problem is when I went to Michael’s or any of our general arts and crafts stores the number beads were nowhere to be found. So my older two and I made bracelets before we went away last summer for them to keep on them at all times. I keep the Tavel ID Bands on me, just in case we are somewhere and I didn’t think about the bracelets so I can quickly put them on.
We decided last minute (1 month before) to take our kids to Disney World for a week during the month of July. Yes it’s the hottest month of the year and it does rain every day. Even though we were sort of a last minute plan, we did a great job with planning the trip and making it a great experience for everyone.
Hotel
I used points to pay for our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton that gets the Magic Hours and it was nice and free so I have no complaints. Great room and it was across the street from Downtown Disney. If you are not using points for hotel, I would suggest you look into a Disney Travel Guide to help out. I would highly recommend Simply Magic Travel as she has a lot of insight and can give you a good idea of what works.
Meals
We are Hilton Diamond members so we also got free breakfast with the hotel and I was able to pack bagels and cream cheese and fruit for lunch every day which helped minimize the amount that we needed to eat at the park. I brought cooler bags and ice to bring in with me ahead of time. I didn’t feel so bad paying too much for ice cream at the park because we weren’t buying too many meals there.
We eat vegetarian out so we opted in for a Character Meals at Hollywood Studios and because I put in a list of allergies (meat, shell fish, etc) the chef came out and he explained exactly how they cooked everything so I was confident in what we could and could not eat.
We also ate almost all of our dinners outside of Disney, so this was a big cost savings.
Hopper/Magic Hours
Because we were staying at the Hilton in Downtown, we were able to get the Magic Hours. I opted for the Hopper Tickets, but we really didn’t take full advantage of them. We tried using the bus from Downtown to the Parks, but the wait is rather long and tedious with a stroller and all the stuff. Since we had a car, we found even with paying for parking it was much easier to travel with the car. The only day we used the hopper was we had a short day at one of the other parks and went back to the hotel to change, eat dinner, and some naps. We went to Magic Kingdom and the kids saw the Main Street Electric Parade. We stayed close to the front of the park and I brought glow in the dark necklaces with me to give to them. They loved it and the break in between made it easier. If we had been at Disney longer, we probably would have gone back to Epcot. We all really loved it and didn’t get to even explore half of what is there.
Deals on Tickets & Car Rental
Because we weren’t doing the meal plan or staying at one of the resorts, we ended up buying our tickets through Undercover Tourist. I also added a Car Rental because renting a mini-van was pretty reasonable and gave us the ability to do a bunch of traveling around. I would definitely have looked at Simply Magic Travel had I decided to stay at one of the Disney Properties. I also signed up for Mousesavers that helped give me tips on deals.
