These are the Disney World packing hacks that have earned our official stamp of approval!
Cinderella Castle
From trying to fit oneeee more thing into our already overstuffed suitcase to keeping all of our (obviously) must-have park accessories organized, we’ve tested countless packing hacks for our Disney World trips over the years. But which hacks rise to the top of the pack? Let’s take a look!
These are the packing hacks we share with our friends and family when they’re prepping for their Disney World trips!
Pack a Bathing Suit in Your Carry-On Bag
This popular cruise packing tip can come in handy at Disney World too! As frequent cruisers may know, it’s often suggested to pack a bathing suit in your carry-on so you can head to the pool as soon as you board, since your luggage may take a while to arrive. And you can use the same logic when visiting Disney World!
Big Blue Pool at Art of Animation
Your room might not be ready right when you arrive at Disney World, especially if you have an early flight. But if you keep a bathing suit in your carry-on bag, you can have easy access to it so you can head to the pool while you wait and still get a start on your vacation fun. You can even find a Disney-themed carry-on bag to help build the excitement!
©Amazon
Plus, if you plan to head to one of the Disney World water parks on your arrival day, this tip will be even more helpful so you don’t have to dig through your luggage to find what you need!
Use Your Shoes for Extra Packing Space
One thing we’ve learned the hard way from countless packing experiences — no matter how hard we try, we can never get our shoes to squish down and give us more space. Instead of fighting against physics, we use all that space inside our shoes for good and fill our shoes with socks, deodorant, or whatever other small items we can fit inside!
Fill Your Shoes with Small Items for Extra Packing Space!
Our go-to shoes for Disney World are the Hoka Clifton 10s, which give us plenty of support while still feeling lightweight and comfortable for all-day wear. And you can bet that when they make their way into our suitcase, they’re stuffed with socks and other odds and ends!
HOKA shoes in Disney World
This is also a helpful tip to keep in mind if you need a bit more space coming back, thanks to all the souvenirs you collected! Shoes are prime real estate for slipping things like magnets, keychains, pins, and other small items.
Packing Cubes Can Help Organize AND Save Space
When we’re headed for a longer trip, we use Compression Packing Cubes to help us get the most out of every inch of space in our suitcase! Some compression cubes need a vacuum to suck out the air, but since we definitely aren’t packing a vacuum with us, we prefer this set, which works with just a zipper, so we can repack them throughout our trip as needed.
©Amazon
And here’s a little bonus tip for packing cubes — if you get a transparent set like this, you can also put a Post-it Note INSIDE each cube with a list of what items are in each one so you don’t have to unpack everything to find what you’re looking for! We’ve tried putting notes on the outside of cubes before, but found that they usually came unstuck and got mixed up, so this hack solved that dilemma perfectly.
Buy a (Sturdy) Disposable Water Bottle at the Airport
Whether you’re trying hard to pack extra light, you don’t want to risk losing your favorite water bottle from home, or you just forgot to pack one, we know a refillable water bottle sometimes doesn’t make the cut on the packing list. Since a refillable water bottle is still a must for us in the parks, when there’s a time that we either intentionally or accidentally didn’t pack one, we pick up a disposable water bottle at the airport (AFTER security) from a brand with sturdy bottles like PATH, Fiji, or Evian.
Evian Water
Instead of buying new bottles throughout the trip, we hang on to the same bottle from the airport and refill it throughout our vacation. Then, when we’re on our way back home, we can recycle the bottle and have one less thing to carry on the return trip!
From staying organized to getting the most out of alllll of the space in our luggage, these are the packing hacks we use when prepping for our Disney World vacations. We’ll report back with more of our favorite Disney tips, so stay tuned to DFB for the latest updates!
