As a Floridan that somehow ended up in Texas; I don’t worry too much about forgetting most things. I know I can always either pick it up at the resort shop, a shop at a park/Disney Springs and worst case I could DoorDash it to the resort through Instacart. However on my last Disney trip the entire Disney property sold out of sunblock and as much as I don’t care to put any on; I had a toddler with me and it was blazing hot. When it wasn’t raining. Florida never has cold rain, but apparently this week it did? And I lived there for 5 years. I was totally confused. Between that and trying to fit everything we wanted to do in our Disney days, Instacart wasn’t an option by the time we got back to the resort.
Did I learn my lesson? Maybe. Who knows. I probably didn’t. But I’m hoping that writing this blog post will remind me to do better next time.
My 5 must haves before my next Disney trip (I can’t believe I’m writing this lol);
| Sunblock & Hat’s
I’m forever going to feel stupid for this, for sure. I figured we could just grab sunblock at the resort or somewhere at Disney Springs and if it came down to it, I could just DoorDash/Instacart it. And sure, I could had but we didn’t get back to the resort until super late all the days we were there and all I wanted was to just pass out in bed. And ironically the weekend we were there, sunblock was sold out property-wide. So yeah, I ended up sunburned. My BFF was smart enough to bring a sun hat. And in that moment I was really salty I didn’t bring one. Or buy that cute Minnie Mouse one (despite it being $40+).
| External Chargers
Maybe it’s just me but I find that if it’s hot outside my phone also gets hot and the battery drains for absolutely no reason. I use to just bring a charger cable with me and charge my phone by It’s a Small World in the Tangle rest area. But busy days mean more people are using it than usual and it’s not a very fast charge. Meanwhile I can just charge my phone in my purse with my external charger while I’m on a ride or two and be good.
| Umbrella/Raincoat
2021 has everyone’s weather all kinds of messed up — it’s raining here in TX in JUNE which never happens. And with that said it COLD RAINED during my trip to Disney in April which also, never happens. It’s not freezing cold in Florida in April. Figured it’s just Florida rain, it’ll be fine. It wasn’t fine. My BFF and I got down poured on and it was so bad and we were so cold we had to head back to the resort and spent about an hour sticking the hair dryers in our pants and shoes. It wasn’t just a little rain or a lot of rain you could just deal with. It was more like nonstop rain and a very angry cold breeze. I had never been so miserable at Magic Kingdom in my life.
I don’t believe in raincoats at Disney or even ponchos but that experience was enough to change my mind!
| Swimsuit
I was told the pool was going to be closed during my trip because of COVID, only to find out that the pool was indeed very open. For a fire sign, Tums LOVES playing in water. We stayed at Art of Animation and I’m sad she wasn’t able to experience the pool while we were there! Maybe when she’s older. But I’m def going to make it a habit to pack a swimsuit with us every trip just in case. We thought to just buy one but the prices of swimsuits at resorts are in-fuckin-sane. So that was a hard pass.
| Medicines
This might sound like a duh but seriously; if you know a certain medication works with you in terms of headaches or pain control BRING THAT. Allergy medicine. Any other other type of medicine you’d need to ease any kind of discomfort you’re capable of feeling! It’s just better to be prepared than screwed and potentially ruining your own vacation ( I have a weird habit of getting migraines every time I would reserve at Blue Bayou and I never brought my hard hitting pain meds. You’d think I would had learned after the first 2 times, but nope).
I miss the days of being a Floridian and easily saying “oh it’s cool, I can grab it from home”. My experience this time at Disney was def different knowing that I wasn’t able to just run home for something. It also made me realize how spoiled I was living in Florida and having unlimited time on property and in the parks. This time it felt like I couldn’t even fit everything I wanted to do — not to mention Hollywood Studios was all booked and we weren’t able to get to that park.
I’ll absolutely be more prepared next time — but I’m also hoping next time I’ll be a Florida resident again.