What a difference

One thing that really struck me as different traveling to Disney World this time was the amount of luggage we took. The last time we went, we only had one child and she was two and a half years old. Since we were staying at a hotel in the park and relying on Disney shuttle buses for transportation, we had to bring everything we needed with us from home. This included diapers (one whole suitcase full!), snacks, and drinking water.

This time, even though we have four people in the family now, we had less luggage than last time. Most of this is due to the fact that both children are potty trained and out of the "baby gear and supplies" stage that makes traveling with infants such a challenge. My in-laws also rented a van during this trip, so we were able to shop for snack foods and drinking water at local grocery stores. Of course, we still bought way too much food in the parks, but that was to be expected. That's the one nice thing about traveling with babies - you can carry lots of stuff in the bottom of the stroller, like picnic lunches, extra drinks, and extra jackets. Without the stroller, we didn't want to carry a backpack around with us on the rides, so we just opted to eat park food much of the time.

Oh well, now that our kids are older, we plan to start traveling more like we used to. We've missed it a lot and it is something that the whole family enjoys.