Hello and welcome to All Things Travel!
This week we have our March 2024 live episode where Julie and Ryan share their favorite travel items for:
Packing
Plane Travel
Theme Parks
Cruises
Resort Vacations
~~~~~~~
Grab Ryan's free download for planning the ultimate family all-inclusive vacation: https://bit.ly/allinclusivevacationtoptips
Grab Julie's free download for a baby and toddler vacation packing list:
https://bit.ly/babytoddlerpackinglist
Ready to plan your vacation? Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your family. Saving you time, money, and stress!
Join the travel conversations and the fun in the All Things Travel Show Facebook group!
Hello and welcome to All Things Travel!
This week we have our March 2024 live episode where Julie and Ryan share their favorite travel items for:
Packing
Plane Travel
Theme Parks
Cruises
Resort Vacations
~~~~~~~
Grab Ryan's free download for planning the ultimate family all-inclusive vacation: https://bit.ly/allinclusivevacationtoptips
Grab Julie's free download for a baby and toddler vacation packing list:
https://bit.ly/babytoddlerpackinglist
Ready to plan your vacation? Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your family. Saving you time, money, and stress!
Join the travel conversations and the fun in the All Things Travel Show Facebook group!
Welcome to all things travel. This week's episode is our March wive episode where Julia and I shared some of our favorite travel gear. We will have links to some of these in the show notes, but if you're really interested, I would recommend going back and checking out the stream that is on our Facebook page. For the beginning of March, I will say this recording was live. So you will hear items in the background but Hey, anything can happen alive. So let's join in and listen to our discussion from a few weeks ago, as we share some of our favorite travel gear. Hey, julie. Hi ryan How are you doing? Good. Happy sunday the end of the week Well in beginning, I don't know is sunday the end of the week for you or the beginning of the week Sunday is the end of the week to me. Yeah, it kind of feels that way start over tomorrow Yeah, and you kind of get that like halfway through sunday You kind of flip the switch right like it's no longer the weekend now. It's like the prep for the next week. That's like the worst time of day, yeah. The worst time of the week. Well, hey folks, as you know the first Sunday of every month, we go live, and that oftentimes becomes an episode for us. If you would like to be part of the conversation, we'd love to have you sharing your ideas or making comments. This is going to be a show and tell right? So if you're listening to the podcast after this live stream We will try to be as descriptive as possible. But if you're really interested in item, you may want to go back and find the The streaming that will be on the Facebook page and you can check it out So we're going to talk about some of our favorite travel gear that we use time and time again, Julie and I, we travel a lot. We travel by ourselves. We travel with family members. We make suggestions for people. So we have some things to share. The first area that we're going to talk about is packing gear. So we're getting ready for the trip. What's one thing that you use to get packed the right way? Well, let me just back up for one second, because before we even start packing, we pull out our travel bin, right? I know you have a travel bin. I have a travel bin. Yep. You've inspired me to get travel bins. So now everything is just, you pull it out. It's all right there. You don't have to look for it. You know, everything's in that bin. Well, I kind of did have to look through the bins because I have five people that are traveling with me, so there are multiple bins. Oh, okay. All right. All right. The most important item in that. My packing cubes. So I have these are gonex brand packing cubes. They usually come in like packs of five They're or three it's five or three depending what you want their mesh. They can Expand or compress either way you want to do it So if you unzip it and expand it and then pack it you can Zip the second zipper to compress it down. Yes. I like that. I was gonna ask if they were compressible ones Yeah, yeah So not like compressing as far as like you vacuum seal them because I don't really love that idea I feel like things kind of get a little smelly when you do that. I do use the vacuum bags and I really I like them Yes, I like them smell. Okay good to know So whatever brand you're using, they don't smell. Get that brand. So I love these. I've had these for a couple of years. They're super durable. As my family has grown, I keep having to buy more of them. But I love the different sizes because the big size is always, you know, my husband's got one color, I've got one color and the kids share between two colors. That's a good hack. I like that idea of having different colors. It takes it to a next level. Yeah. And it helps a lot because you'll see, as I kind of keep showing here that I use. Different sizes for different things throughout my trip. And so it's easy to know, Oh, can you grab the teal bag? Oh, can you grab the pink bag? And then I know exactly what's in that bag. I use these to compartmentalize clothes, snacks, kids stuff, like literally everything. I also use. These other smaller bags, which these are not packing cubes, these are from Bumpkins, which is like a brand moms will know and they come in Disney styles, which I love. This is like a small size and they have like a medium size. They're super cute patterns, but I use these a lot because I like that they're clear so I can see what's in them. I put like the kids I'll put, like, their hair stuff in it, like my daughter's hair stuff. All the little things, yeah. Little things. I put pacifiers in here, you know, because we still have those things. Or I'll put, like, their medicine, which is probably what this one is stained from. Stuff like that, that, like, I can easily see what it is and where I need it. And I also always bring extras of those with me that I Don't have anything in'em, and I pack snacks in them. I'm gonna go the opposite direction of having kids and I'm gonna show the jet bag, and I have, I love it. Used this thing for years. This is basically a plastic bag that has a, a padding and a filler on the inside. And it's made for a wine bottle. So a wine bottle fits in there. And then basically what you do is you zip it up, and then if the bottle breaks, you won't have any leakage. It's basically diaper material is inside the bag. And so it will So if the bottle breaks, you can just like get a straw and start drinking out of it? You can. But it won't ruin things in your, in your in your bag. They sell these in packs. I use these for like I said wine wine bottles I'm going somewhere where I'm getting a bottle of whiskey I've even used these when I've gone to Europe to bring home like olive oil or honey or you know Anything like that that I that I don't want to have a mess with these are really good and obviously they pack flat So, you know they can just go in in the suitcase there in the little pocket and it's all good to go. That's awesome I have actually never seen that before but I love them. Cool. All right. Do you have another one you want to share? I do So one of the things that I always have in my bag is I have a duffel bag that zips flat So you see how it's all zipped up, and if I unzip it, it pulls out and it's a full duffel bag. And why do I have this in my bag? Well, souvenirs, right? So, oftentimes you come home with a few more things, or your bag is not packed quite as well, and so this becomes an extra carry on, or this becomes an extra check box. bag if you need to. And I know I always have, I always have extra space and I don't have to buy a bag. During a trip I've had to buy a bag to carry home I don't want to deal with that. I know I've got that with me. And I have extra duffel bags, but like I don't have a collapsible one like that. That's really cool. That's awesome. That's so like nifty and, and yeah, I love that. Okay. So I'm going to show one. This is actually from my recent trip. It's just a plastic folder. This one has our logo on it for Creating Magic Vacations. And if I open it up, this is literally from my last Disney trip. It's got all my itineraries in it. An overview of the itinerary that has, all the confirmation numbers. Let's call that at a glance. Itinerary. I like to keep all my confirmations in print, and we've talked about that before, how you and I both like to, and I do this for my clients too, this is literally the same type of folder my clients get in their packets that has their day by day Disney itinerary in it personalized to them. So this is just the one I Boy, I really hope none of my Disney clients are watching this because they'll be like wait, what? Do you have Julie's email? No, it's great. Obviously I know what I am doing, but I still like to have it on paper when we go, just because there's a lot going on. I also make my husband look at it because I don't want to be the only one responsible for where we're going and what we're doing. I want everyone to be on board. And then the last thing I'm going to show, and I use this a lot, I use this for every trip now, but I specifically had purchased it for a cruise, so this is a hanging toiletry bag that we have. And I love it because there's so many compartments. It's by a brand called BagSmart and it's the large version of BagSmart. I've used like the medium ones and it just doesn't hold as much, but I initially got that by the cruise because it's really awesome to be able to hang things on your door. The next thing we're going to talk about is when we're on the plane. And some specific things that we're bringing for the plane. And this is where Ryan and my stuff is really going to differ. Because I am entertaining little children on a plane and Ryan is not. that's kind of where I'm going to focus on. What I'm bringing for my kids on the plane. I always bring all their stuff in one book bag. I say they know that it's their bag because it's a princess bag. It's a Pottery Barn Kids princess bag. That way they know that this is theirs. It doesn't get mixed up in any of my stuff. It's pretty obvious it's a kid's bag. They each have their own pair of headphones. These are my son's and I just like the ones that collapse down. And then I always have a ton of activities for my kids. So I love reusable stickers because they're not messy. I love anything you can. Cling to a window because again, it occupies them. And sometimes you can also cling it to the tray. So a lot of times that's like little fidget spinners, things like that. If you look on Amazon for like toddler playing activities, they're everywhere. And then I also love, this is just a bag of like mess free markers. And if you're a parent nowadays, you definitely have these because kids can write with markers and it only writes on that paper and nowhere else. I love it. It's the best thing ever because it's nice and clean. The only other thing that's usually in there is, like, a stuffy for them and snacks. Lots of yeah snacks. Yeah, good. Great. Tell us about some stuff you're bringing on So I am gonna bring and i've talked about this on the show before this is my passport holder it's a good size as far as just like the passport But what I like about it is it's got space for cards here. So I may have my drink tickets. I've got my Id I've got my tsa global card here and it also comes with a little pin. When i'm filling out forms and stuff. I've got it My boarding pass will go in here too. Once I have it so that I just know everything it's got a, no, it doesn't zipper shut, but it has a, it's got, it has a like a little elastic piece piece to going a little, yeah, a little elastic piece to it. So, yeah. Okay. So I like this. I like this a lot. This has become it two mom fashion. I could not find my passport holder right now. it would've been a good comparison because mine does zipper shut, so it's a little easier to keep extra stuff like your boarding paths in there. But, and I also keep the kids. The younger ones, their birth certificates in there just in case or like a certified copy of it. But mine actually holds up to six passports, which is why I got it so that I could keep all of our passports in one spot. So Julie, I've talked on the podcast before that I don't like having things at my feet. When I fly so I try to kind of have everything that I'm going to need just with me so I'm not having to get up and grab it and all that kind of stuff. So what I have found and has worked great is this is called in attack. So this is actually one of those tech bags for cords and things, but it's a little bigger and it opens kind of clamshell And so I can fit a lot of things in here. So in here I will carry a charger I'll carry my airpods. I'll carry some snacks. My kindle even fits in here my passport will fit in here. So basically, I know, hey, in this bag, and it gets a little bigger. It gets about the size of a brick once it's full. But I know that everything's there, right? And so all I have to do is grab this out of my big backpack, put my backpack up top, and I've got everything in here. And one of the things that has to go in my bag that I absolutely love, this is called the Paralogistics and this has become my new best friend and I am seeing these on flights everywhere and basically what it is, is my phone attaches and I can now attach this because of springs to the drop down tray or the seat in front of me depending on how it is, or I can use this as a tripod stand for my phone if I need to, or I can use this when I'm traveling, I can use this as an impromptu phone holder for taking pictures. This is really, really cool. I love it because I like to download stuff. I don't want to rely on what the airline necessarily has. I want to download the stuff I'm watching. And look, it folds up. You know that that size and you know, which is pretty small if you're not watching it live. It's pretty small. Yeah fits in my hand And so that's something that goes in my little plane bag and makes life a heck of a lot easier to me I like that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And hey folks. I I know it's a little Either watching live or listening to the replay. We are happy to share any of these items with you share the link. Maybe that's what we'll do next week on the facebook page We'll go through and share some of the links for things because we've been through a couple of them to find the right ones, right? Theme parks are kind of an animal unto themselves when it comes to what do we need to pack? What do we need to think about? What are a couple items? Cause I know you have a few that you use specifically with little or travelers. What are a few things that you're using in the parks? Oh boy. All right. You ready for this? Here we go. Yes. Yes. Well, this is for anyone. Whenever you need to, you go to Disney, you absolutely, this is like the first thing you pack, right? Your Mickey ears, your Mickey ears, they're crooked, but it's fine. So you have to pack your Mickey ears I don't have like a specific Mickey ear holder, but they do exist. But those do exist. Absolutely I just put mine in like the mesh portion of my luggage. Disney is super hot. So Disney, Mr. Fans, I always, always bring mine. I don't always need it, but I know that the one time I don't bring it is the one time I'm going to have to buy another one and they're like 25. So I'm not willing to do that. Yeah. That's not what you want to do. I also have smaller handheld fans that I bring I I think my parents one time had the fans that go around your neck the the point is you have to have a fan depending on the time you're going it gets so hot you need that and that goes along with the next thing I have is a stroller fan So I have a couple stroller accessories, of course Because I at this point i'm bringing two strollers with me a double and a single. So this one has like I know, right? This one has, like, little bendy legs to it. Which is really awesome. There's so many brands, it truly does not matter which kind you get, but I love the bendy legs because you can just kind of like wrap it around wherever it's gonna fit on the stroller and then angle it towards the kids. Obviously, with three children, I'm usually bringing at least two stroller fans, so that's just one of them. Also for the kiddos, let's see, oh, to go along with my stroller, I have my stroller hook. This is nothing fancy. They have really cute Disney ones, but obviously it's great to be able to clip bags on to, but usually what's clipped on to it for my kids is this, which is the holder for their headphones, which they use headphones at the theme park. They use them a lot. My kids are so loud. But somehow When there's a loud noise around them, they dislike it fireworks anytime they see any They want their headphones on some rides are super loud and i've learned over the past couple years My kids are going to enjoy that ride So much more if they have their headphones on. One of those is Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. I swear they have a speaker in every single row on that ride vehicle. And it is just. So loud. Remy's Ratatouille Adventure is pretty loud cause it's a similar thing. There's like a speaker in each row. And actually last time we went, it was the first time my daughter, who was four at the time, went on Rise of the Resistance and she wore these because she was just like really unsure of what was going on. And she did absolutely fine. She was not scared once granted. She probably had no idea what was going on. She had no idea we were running from the first order. So I usually have. Three sets of headphone holders hanging off of my stroller hook And the reason we put them on the stroller hook is because they set off the security when you go through the security lines When you have to go to the metal detector, you want to be able to show them quickly Yeah, if these are in my book bag, they will set them off Which means i've got to pull them out of my book bag every time if they're sitting on my stroller hook The strollers don't go through security they just kind of hang there and then they can See that these are just headphone cases. It just obviously is a hack that we've learned over time. Okay. So I'm going to show one more thing that is vital for every vacation. When you have kids who sleep in play pens or cribs and that's, it's called a snooze shade. This is this is it packed up, which it just packs up pretty, pretty small. I wish it was smaller. And a snooze shade is a cover that goes over top of a crib. Pack and play really fits best over pack and place. The function of it is to create a, a blackout space for the child to sleep in. And it's mesh, it's breathable, it's safe. It just kind of Velcros over the crib and attaches to the legs of the crib at the pack and play. But it allows us to still watch TV, still have lights on, still talk, still kind of be normal human beings while a kid is sleeping in a pack and play in the same room as us. And I put that in our like Disney pile because usually people are sharing rooms with their kids at Disney and they're, they're taking their little kids to Disney and they're the most worried about, well, we don't share a room at home. What are we going to do at Disney? And I always tell them, you have to get this. The other big thing is a slumber pod. It's like a very similar idea. Just another brand name So this one's a snooze shade. The other one is a slumber pod, but yeah I hope I didn't scare anyone. I like sent all my clients packing list and there's a whole section on the packing list like For kids and all these items are on there because I know that you need them. Yeah So for me you talk about fans. I don't like the fans, but what I do like are the cooling towels they sell these at any park you go to but you do not need to spend that much money You can get a multi pack on amazon relatively inexpensively. And basically what you do is you get these wet and you wring them out and then they go anywhere you want to cool off. Oftentimes for me, that means I'm putting them around my neck, maybe putting them over my head a little bit. to kind of cool down, and I like these better than the fans. Yeah, and they really don't drip, which I feel like people get the impression that they're gonna like drip and like get your shirt soaked, and I mean, they get it wet, but it's not soaking wet. Yeah. And you're sweating and you're in the humidity anyway, so it really doesn't matter. Everything's wet already. Yeah, so cooling towels are are a must in in my bag and then if you know obviously if you're at a resort in A tropical area we're gonna talk about that a little later or on a hot weather cruise We're gonna talk about that in a second These are good too because anytime you need to cool down a cooling towel helps Also for me a vital thing and to be honest Julie Sometimes I've gone into the park and just had this, because this is something I have to have, and that is an external battery for my phone. This is an Anker, A N K E R, I have several Anker products, both batteries and headphones, and I absolutely love them. This is about half the size of a deck of cards. And then I have a much bigger one. And then between my kids and I, we will share them. And then at night, I just make sure that they are. Plugged in because depending on the size of your charger, it could take overnight to charge the whole thing. Right. And, and why is that so necessary at Disney, Ryan? Well, any theme park now uses an app. You're going to be using an app to help plan your day. You're going to be taking tons of pictures. You're on your phone. Just, just like you are at home, if not more so. So, you need to have that battery. I will. Sit down for lunch or sit down for a snack and I just automatically pull this out and I get my phone a little charge These are vital and if i'm on a plane is going to go into this Because once I stream for a while and my batteries go down. I want to make sure that I can keep watching what I want and I think like especially with the ages of your kids they're old enough that if They wanted to go do something and not everyone wanted to do that and you split up Like you definitely want to make sure somebody's phone has yeah do it so that you can get back in touch easily not everybody has one but amongst us we have several so we can pass them back and forth You know either on the plane or during the day so now we're headed, we've done Disney. What's left? No, we haven't done cruises. Have you done cruises? Did you talk about that while I was gone? Okay. Right. So next is cruise and there's a couple of handy things that are specific to cruising, right? So you have something similar and you're going to show your version, but mine is a magnetic clip. So this is basically like one of those potato chip clips, but it has a magnet on it. And magnets are great because the walls and the doors on a stateroom are metal. So, you can put this up there, I use this as like a hat hook, or I'll hook up the item that I'm going to show here in a second, maybe I'm hanging up my swimsuit because it needs to air dry a little bit. I will tell you this one specifically that I'm showing, this is just the one that I grabbed today, is not very strong, but you can get some really strong ones, Julie's got one right there. Mine are a little stronger, and these you just order in like, I don't know, like a 10 pack and they come taken apart. So these are just little metal ones. They come taken apart. You just screw them together. And we had these hanging all over our state room on our cruise in December. And it was, it was so awesome. It just helps those little things be tidy. Be tidy. Everything is off the floor because those state rooms are small. We use these kind of on the door on the way out. We hung our lanyards there which you're going to show an example of that, right? Yeah, so this is my second item that I love to have when I cruise my kids and I are kind of split on this. Sometimes they want to wear a lanyard Sometimes they don't I love to have a lanyard because This is your key to your vacation. Literally. It's your room key. It's your charging key It's what you use to get on and off the ship. This is what you use to, when you, when you get a drink so I want to have access to this at all times. When I was on the icon of the seas, I bought a special icon one. It could be kind of a souvenir. Like we've talked about at Universal, maybe get a lanyard for that specific trip, but this is a must for me. And this goes on my clip that I just showed you inside my door, rather. Right by my door. So you just need to grab it. And I also know, now again, you know, I'm like a novice cruiser here, but, and it took us a minute to figure this out, on Disney, one of the key cards had to be in for the lights to come on. Yes. Is it like that on all the cruises? On the Icon specifically it was not. I haven't seen that a while. Okay. I'm thinking back to Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. I'm not sure but, but, here's a hack. What's this? This is an old keycard from a hotel. Yeah. I can use this to put it in there and now I can access the lights whenever I want. Yeah, so we used, like, one of the kids ones because they weren't using them. So we just left it in there. Sure. But it did take us a second to figure out why the lights would not come on. No, I will say that the stateroom attendant will often, if they have that, they will often take that out. When they come in because they're conserving energy, other things for, for cruising I don't have with me at the moment, but things like a pop up hamper or I've used that before. Sure. Yep. Over the door shoe organizer. A lot of people bring that and hang those a ton of little pockets because you could put toiletries in if you don't have the hanging toiletries. Yeah, sunscreen can go in there. Another thing that's really popular on cruises is like the potpourri spray. That's a good one for cruising. I do. I do have that for cruises as well, but that goes in my travel toiletry bag. Yep. Yes. Those are necessities for cruises. Cause again, those rooms are, they're small. They're just. They're not as spacious. They're not as well ventilated. If you fit on one, you know, it takes forever for your swimsuit to dry yeah again another reason to have hooks. So our last area today has to do with specifically resorts. We thought about all inclusives, but this kind of goes along Anyway I have I have a really easy one. Now i'm drinking out of an insulated cup So I don't know why I brought one to show I'll just yeah why do I take an insulated cup with me and i've done this on cruises as well because When I get a drink from the bar, or I get a soft drink from the machine, now this keeps it a lot colder, okay? Yes. And, and, I think The ice melts so fast in the Caribbean. The ice melts, yes, absolutely. If you're in Cancun, you're in the Caribbean, boy, that drink becomes a sloppy mess very quickly. Right. And For a lot of times two drinks fit in this right so I can just order two at one time Especially if i've got that unlimited drink package or i've got it all inclusive just order a couple drinks put them in here I'm good to go. They stay nice and cold now what I will say is They will not fill up these cups necessarily. You'll have to get the cups and the same with the soda machine. They're not going to necessarily let you come up and fill this. You just get the cup and, and pour it in there., so I go get my coffee in the morning. I get this much coffee and that's how much I drink on a normal morning Anyway, I'm not having to worry about finding in other places and then I'm gonna call back For my for my final one. I'm gonna call back again this external battery for my phone because You're sitting by the pool And you're listening to music or you're watching something You want to get on the resort app and look at the menu for tonight? You want to look at the map all that kind of stuff. You're going to be taking pictures You need to keep your phone charged and the last thing you want to do is get up from the pool And walk all the way back to your room. I mean my goodness, but by two Yeah, you lose your chair by 2 p. m You're like I don't want to move anywhere for the next couple hours. I don't want to so And again, you've got a small little thing like this You've got a small little I carry a little backpack or a little reusable shopping bag type thing That has everything I need for the day and you're good to go Awesome. I love that. Okay. So my tips for what you need to pack for your all inclusive or for a resort stay. Again, this is going to go with kids. This is a like Disney baby bumpkins brand again, cause I love that brand. This is a, like a wet dry type. It's pretty big actually and it just has a cute pattern on it, which is why I like the bumpkins brand But you could get any type of wet dry bag And this is just like for on that checkout day or that check in day Where you don't really have access to your room all day and you've gone to the pool Yeah, you can put your wet swimsuit in here so that the rest of your clothes are not getting wet That's a huge one for me and my kids I'm also going to show some water shoes and these are actually from Explore which is a Adventure park in Mexico I've had these for years because a lot of times when you go to a resort and you want to do an excursion You're going to want to have water shoes because you're going to be walking on various terrains And I like them at water parks too because of concrete Yeah, it gets hot. Like, you know, my kids are always in water shoes. I don't always wear mine, but there are some excursions where water shoes are required, which is how I ended up with these water shoes. The other thing that's typically required on excursions is reef safe sunscreen. They literally will not allow you to use regular sunscreen because Hawaii Is the same with that the state of hawaii is the same exactly. Yeah, so reef safe Sunscreen is another big one and if you wait to buy it until you're on site It is not cheap So a really good thing to pack if you are checking your bags because you don't want to Just have to get a little tiny one, right? Right, I want to call back one thing that that this is kind of for packing anywhere you go, but Definitely, definitely, definitely Disney. Not so much cruising. But, and this looks massive. I'm not going to unfold the whole thing. Oh look, my passport folder is back there. You finally found it. Now you can travel. Okay, so anyways. This is really, really, really big. I'm not going to unfold it, but this is a stroller rain cover. And this is so big because it's for my double stroller. But for adults, you want to make sure you're bringing ponchos. I would rather have a poncho than a raincoat sometimes because, you know, they take up less room in your bag, for one, and the raincoats get hot when you're there, you know, right? So I always have to have raincovers for the strollers, a lot of times, especially at Disney. You are parking your stroller and then off and doing stuff. So your shoulders so it could it could sit there Yeah for quite a while. Yeah, and you need to you you want to have it covered so yeah that that I just forgot to show but conveniently also found my passports at the same time Great. Well, very good. We have shared a lot of gear. You know, people are thinking about their next trip I hope that we we spark some ideas maybe as you think about gifts for the travel in your life I bet there's something here that would fit like I said earlier We will not everything because some of these are kind of generic items, but if there's more specific items, we will put links to those we're not an affiliate with that or anything. We just want to share the items Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, hey, thank you. I know we've had people kind of come in and out tonight Thank you. Everybody that watched live and yeah, this will be an upcoming episode and Reach out with any questions having to do with travel gear and when the episode comes out We would love to hear what are the items that you love to travel with.