Moleskin--your new best friend.

It's no secret that you walk a lot at Disney World. A LOT. Some people have worn pedometer's for the whole week and found that they walk 10-12 miles PER DAY!

Your feet are going to hurt! You are probably going to get blisters if you aren't careful.

The best possible way to keep your feet blister-free is to pay attention. Before you actually get a blister, your foot will feel a bit hot in the spot where one is about to form. THIS is when you need to stop and take care of the problem.

Bandaids aren't great for blisters because they rub around and can actually make things worse.

Moleskin is what you want! It comes in sheets and you cut it to size. You PROBABLY don't want to carry scissors around Magic Kingdom, so it's best to cut it into strips ahead of time. When you feel a blister coming on, stick some moleskin on it and get on with your day!

You can buy moleskin at the parks and in the resort gift shops but it's at least twice the price that it would be at your local pharmacy at home. Stock up before your trip to save yourself a bundle.

Bring a power strip--or two!

Often times, the outlets in a hotel room are all used up with the alarm clock, the lamps, the TV, etc. Where do you plug in all the things you need to charge???

You really need to bring a power strip. Or maybe two, depending on how many electronics you need to charge each night.

For us, we will be a group of seven bringing an iPad, four smart phones, a laptop (to backup pictures each night), two kindles, a cell phone back up battery, and a DSLR camera. We will need lots of space to charge all of that! Power strips won't take up much space in the suitcase but they will definitely save you a lot of frustration when you get there.

A Cool Trick for Refillable Mugs!

Disney offers refillable mugs. You pay one price for the mug and you can refill it all you want--at your hotel. You can't refill it in the parks, although that would be AWESOME! The mug costs around $17 or it comes as part of your dining plan package.

There are "washing stations" in the food court for rinsing your mug out but that can be a pain. You fill your cup, take it back to your room, drink it and then maybe want to fill it with ice water to take into the park. But you can't because it's got a sticky Coca-cola residue.

Taking dish soap on an airplane is a huge chore. You can't bring it in a carryon and if you pack it in your checked bags, it could leak. What a mess!

I learned a neat little travel trick for cleaning those refillable mugs! We've done it on every trip.

Here's what you need:

• A cheap sponge. Dollar Tree is your friend on this one.
• Scissors
• Dish Soap
• Plastic Sandwich bag

Cut your sponge up into eight pieces. Cut it in fourths and then cut each of those pieces in half.

Lay each sponge out on the counter and squirt a good amount of dish soap into each piece.

Allow the sponges to sit and dry for a few days.

Put the pieces in a sandwich bag, seal it up, and toss it in your suitcase.

When you need to wash out your refillable mug, just wet one of the sponge pieces--it will get nice and sudsy for you and you will be able to wash your mug--and probably the entire family's mugs. At the end of the day, toss your sponge. Use a new one the next day! At the end of the week, you will have used up all or most of the sponges and have nothing to take home but your shiny clean refillable mugs!

Carryon: Thoughts on Liquids

I've pretty much figured out which bags I can and can't use as carryons. So the next step is figuring out all those rules TSA has for carryons. What a headache.

I tell you what, the ONLY reason we are flying is that when traveling with three kids, it sure will be nice to arrive in two hours as opposed to two days. All the rules with flying hurt my head and make me crazy.

But then again, it's like a puzzle, and I like puzzles.

OK, so here we go.

I can pack the baby's "pouches"--those portable fruit and veggie puree pouches that some genius invented after I had the first two kids. It doesn't get any better than those things. Seriously. I was concerned that since they are bigger than 3.4 ounces, I may have trouble packing them but according to the TSA, these are baby food and the regular rules don't apply:

Declare larger liquids. Medications, baby formula and food, and breast milk are allowed in reasonable quantities exceeding three ounces and are not required to be in the zip-top bag. Declare these items for inspection at the checkpoint. Officers may need to open these items to conduct additional screening.

I have read that "reasonable quantities" indicates the amount needed for the flight. However, Disney picks up our checked bags and delivers them to our hotel room so we will need more than that. I think I will give him one pouch right before we go past security, and carry two on with me. Typically he would eat more regular food and not so many pouches but those things are so darn convenient when it comes to travel. 

Most of our liquids will, of course, be in our checked baggage. But I do like to have an "emergency back up" set of liquids available for travel. This would include a small shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, and sunscreen. The sunscreen is a must--we won't have our checked bags for several hours and we are the palest pale people to ever visit Florida. I'll be on the hunt for 3.4 ounce sized bottles all summer.

I do have some questions on food that I can't figure out. For example, we love to make homemade "pizza bites". YUM! They are excellent for travel, and considering the time frame of our trip (we arrive in Florida at 9am but it will be a long time before we can grab lunch) these would be perfect. But what's the deal? Obviously a jar of tomato sauce would be considered a liquid but what about when it's baked onto pizza crust? Is it OK then? It seems like it from things I've read but hopefully it's really OK.

Airline Baggage: Thoughts and Planning

So one of the things I've been thinking a lot about right now is which luggage and bags to take with us. I know that's not something most people even give a second thought to until about three days before a trip but I believe a good job packing makes a huge difference in the end and that starts with knowing what bags to pack!

I have an obsession with Thirty-One. We have so many Thirty-One products, I could have my own store! And my first item to look up today is whether or not my two newer Thirty-One proudcts qualify as carron bags. They aren't appropriate to be checked bags so whether or not I take them depends fully on the airlines size limits.

I went on the Southwest website and got this information:
Southwest Airlines limits carryon bag dimensions to 10 x 16 x 24 inches.

So then it's off to the Thirty-One website to find the dimensions of the products I want to use as carryon bags.

The first one on my list is the City Weekender bag. According to the website it is 12"H x 19"W x 9"D, so it is definitely within the size limits.

Next is the Pro Duffle that was a special item for the month of April. According to the website it is 12”H x 12”W x 22”L. It's a really large duffle bag but it's still well within the limits of a carryon bag.

We can have four carryons plus four back packs or purses plus the baby's stroller and car seat.

Strollers and Child Restraint Systems (CRSs) or Car Seats

• Customers traveling with children will be allowed to check one stroller and one Child Restraint System (CRS) or car seat per child without charge. This is in addition to the regular free baggage allowance.
• The stroller and CRS or car seat allowance applies to any type of stroller (umbrella, full size, jogging stroller, etc.) and CRS or car seat.
• The Customer may check the stroller and CRS or car seat at the curb, ticket counter, or gate.
• Southwest Airlines will not assume liability for damage to strollers, CRSs or car seats. (An optional Southwest-branded reusable car seat/stroller bag is available for purchase at any Southwest Airlines ticket counter for a $15 one time fee.)

These seems like a lot of carryon baggage to me so we will see. Everyone will be using a personal item.vHubby will be carrying the electronics bag with our laptop, ipad, charging cords, camera, etc.
I will be carrying all the paperwork, tickets, boarding passes, magic bands, the baby carrier/sling and probably the snacks. Each kid will wear a backpack. I haven't decided which bag I will carry as my personal item.

And this is interesting information: Southwest sells stroller bags for $15. We will definitely be buying one. That's a bargain anyway, stroller bags can be pricey. We have a car seat bag. I am bringing the car seat just in case. We plan to use Disney transportation at all times, which doesn't require a car seat. But should we have to take a cab, or have some kind of emergency that requires renting a car, we will definitely want to have a car seat on hand. Oh, the things you don't think about when you are used to traveling with older kids! And when they were babies, we couldn't afford to travel much so this stuff didn't matter!

Welcome

This blog is really just for me, so I can keep everything organized but if you should happen to stumble upon it, feel free to join me and watch how I plan and organize to make sure our WDW trips are as smooth as possible. People tease me for being so obsessive before a trip, but I refuse to spend that much money and not be prepared!

This will be our third family trip and my fifth trip to WDW and sixth time to Orlando. I've also been to Disneyland once.

So let's get started!