Packing for Disney

We are going to Disney!

Can it be?  Less than a week before we leave for Disney! Normally my packing is done before we get to the month out… but this trip is different!  This is the first trip in years that I have not made shirts or outfits for us to wear.  When you make new clothes for a trip it is easy to pack ahead!  You make it then pack it. 

But, when you need to actually wear the clothes before you leave (pesky school!), it becomes harder and harder to pack things ahead of time!

Then, add in the unpredictable weather and it becomes a real guessing game.  The 10 or so days after Thanksgiving is my favorite time to visit Disney.  All the Christmas decorations are up and the whole trip takes on a particular Christmas Festivity that is hard to explain.  It also makes for some really unpredictable weather. 

We’ve been that time when we could swim every day…and we have been that time when we froze our selves a bit too much!  One particularly cold November trip we were without hot water for the whole trip!

I have been looking at the long range weather forecast for over a month!  I am still no closer to a final decision on what to take than I was before, but I am pretty sure it will be warmer than it is here in Georgia. 

In my ‘Disney’ traveling career, I have used a ton of different packing lists.  Some have an overload of ‘stuff’ for every conceivable situation; almost an overload of ‘stuff’; and others have a minimalistic approach to packing.  I have managed to pare it down a bit on what our ‘needs’ are for each trip, but on one hand we always take too much stuff; while on the other hand we always find at least one essential item we forgot!

When the kids were younger, I would pack all items for each day in a plastic zip top bag and label it with name and date.  That way those cute socks would be there when the cute outfit was to be worn.  Unpacking at the resort was easy…you only had to throw the bags into the drawers and you were all set!  Packing a bag the next morning was easy…just grab an extra bag of clothes.

Then they got older.

Then they got opinionated.

This is when it got harder to pack!

Since the kids are 14 and 15, we are trying something different this year.  They are packing themselves.  I cannot begin to tell you how nervous this is making me.  Neither child has made any effort to even consider that they might need clothes for the trip.  Did I mention we leave in less than a week?  I can truthfully see both kids ending up wearing the same outfit each and every day!

So, if you see us in the parks and get a whiff of dirty clothes, please know it was not MY doing!