It’s a great, big beautiful tomorrow!
We live in such an amazing time to be theme park tourists. The bulky cameras and brick mobiles of yesteryear have been largely replaced by sleek smartphones– and other favorite traveler tools have been streamlined to match!
We’ve talked about building your own Walt Disney World (or Universal Studios) survival kit before, but if you really want to take things up a notch, you will love these 6 amazing travel gadgets for your next theme park trip. Some are like having an Innoventions showcase in your pocket!
1. This uber-versatile travel pillow
Video: TRTL Pillow, YouTube
Let’s get one thing out of the way: most horseshoe-style travel pillows suck. They’re bulky, they don’t support your neck correctly, and they generally don’t make it any easier for the average mortal to sleep on an airplane or in a car. While innovators have come up with a number of creative (and downright wacky) travel pillows, for us one has risen above all as the best travel pillow ever.
The TRTL pillow doesn’t really look like a pillow at all. At first glance, it sort of looks like a weird scarf. The hidden magic of the TRTL pillow is a lightweight, flexible frame hidden in the pillow side. You place this frame against your neck and shoulders, then wrap the scarf end around your head and secure it with Velcro. The result is that the pillow uses the combination of the frame and the tension from the scarf to produce a very supportive and comfortable pillow.
While it is designed to be used on one side of your neck, I have also used mine in front of me to keep my head from bobbing forward, or unsecured behind my neck as a comfy neckrest. It also makes a pretty decent phone, book, or tablet holder if you tilt it on its side. The pillow folds up respectably small and can be easily attached to the outside of a bag if needed. For parents visiting Walt Disney World with little ones, the TRTL could serve as an awesome impromptu pillow for naps (skip the scarf part if your kid is fidgety). All in all, this has become one of our favorite travel accessories!
2. This pair of noise-cancelling earbuds
Image: Audio Technica
A good pair of headphones can prove a lifesaver on any trip but even more so on a Walt Disney World vacation. First off, a solid pair of noise-canceling earbuds like the Audio Technica ATH-ANC23’s might mean the difference between a peaceful flight and a stressful one—particularly if you want to catch any sleep on the way. The same applies for road trips. If you’re an iPhone user or prefer wireless headphones, you could splurge on ultra-crisp Bose Quietcontrol 30 Wireless earbuds or save some money with either the Phiaton BT 100 NC or these Meidong HE8F Noise Cancelling earbuds.
The uses for a solid, lightweight pair of earbuds on a Walt Disney World trip aren’t limited to catching naps. As long as your headphones don’t bleed noise (which would annoy other guests), instead of twiddling your thumbs for hours waiting in long theme park lines, you could grab your headphones and listen to some music, an unabridged audiobook, or even catch up on your favorite Disney movies if you have enough battery. Want to listen with others in your party? Use a headphone splitter like this one from LP. You can also use noise cancelling headphones to soothe a stressed child, particularly if they don’t like loud noises like the scream of the train engine (if even small earbuds covers hurt their ears, you could do the same hack with a foldable pair of over-ear headphones). Same goes for if you struggle from panic attacks or anxiety—sometimes all you need is to quiet the noise!
Want to really take things to the next level? Try our recent hack for Disney superfans and use headphones to add your own soundtrack to dark rides!
3. This crazy travel jacket that does EVERYTHING
Video: BauBax, YouTube
There’s nothing worse than having to slog a giant bag all over Walt Disney World. Huge backpacks and purses make bag check longer, crowds more difficult to navigate, and your feet tired. While we’ve talked about selecting the perfect bag for your Disney survival kit before, what if you could forego the bag entirely?
Baubax produces the Swiss Army Knife of travel jackets. Each of their jackets and vests comes with 15 features for the astute traveler including a self-inflating neck pillow, built-in fingerless gloves and eye-mask, and pockets for your passport, phone, tablet, power bank, sunglasses, blanket, and even your drink. The zipper includes a pen that also doubles as a stylus, and all those features are just from version one. The new version (currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter) includes a whopping 25 features! The additions include a bottle opener, earplugs, microfiber cloth, a retractable keychain, inflatable footrest (seriously!), whistle, and a collapsible water bottle. WOW.
The possibilities for using one of these on a Walt Disney World vacation are endless. Passholders will never have to fumble through a purse looking for their passholder card and ID. Pin traders could keep an easily accessible stash of trader pins in one of the pockets. Easy storage for the water bottle alone makes these jackets worth it. If you’ll be visiting Walt Disney World, you’ll probably be served best by the vest or windbreaker styles due to the Florida climate.
4. This collapsible water bottle (or this filtered one)
Image: Vapur
Speaking of water bottles, maybe you’re not ready to commit to the purchase of a Tony Stark-worthy travel jacket, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to stay hydrated. You can save big by skipping sodas and bottled water on your next Walt Disney World trip, and the best way to do this is by carrying your own water bottle. Yes, all Disney quick service locations with a soda fountain can give you small cups of free water, but lately Disney’s cup allotment for these free drinks has shrunk down to a lamentable kiddy size.
Instead of having to ask for a dozen baby-cups of water, bring your own collapsible water bottle like this one. It’s crazy easy to store inside or outside a bag (the carabiner is a nice feature), and whenever you want to hydrate, you can use any of the water fountains located throughout Walt Disney World or the self-service soda fountains at many quick service dining locations.
Hate the taste of Florida’s sometimes-swampy water? For the most part, Disney does a good job filtering this nastiness out, but if you don’t want to risk getting that weird Jungle Cruise flavor in your H20, opt for a filtered water bottle like the Bobble or Brita’s version. They’re slightly bulkier (and you’ll want to make sure they don’t eak before your vacation starts), but the tradeoff for free crisp, tasty water is worth it!
5. This pro-quality smartphone camera lens
Image: Alan Levine, Flickr (license)
You don’t have to haul a massive camera to Walt Disney World just to get pro-quality photos. Want to up your smartphone photography game? Photojojo offers a wide range of magnetic smartphone lenses compatible with most phones. All you have to do is attach a magnetic ring around your smartphone’s camera lens and you can pop any one of Photojojo’s lenses on. Finally, you can have the freedom to get that macro shot of a tiny dart frog at Disney’s Animal Kingdom or that telephoto of the top of Cinderella Castle. There’s even a super-fisheye for you avant garde Disneygrammers.
Want a non-magnetic alternative? Try these clip on lenses or even this awesome 3-in-1 kit from DOFLY.
6. This ultra-light cell phone recharger
Image: Tronsmart
Walt Disney World is one draining place for cell phone batteries. The My Disney Experience app alone drains enough battery on a normal Disney day to trigger alerts on many phones. Even worse is the strain from constantly hopping between WiFi hubs. Even with a robust smartphone battery, it is easy to lose all your juice well before you’re done with a Disney visit. To make things trickier, electrical outlets are uniquely difficult to find in Walt Disney World parks. Disney offers portable charging systems that you can swap out throughout the day for $30 but for that cost, you can just purchase your own powerbank.
Enter the appropriately named TRONSmart Presto (okay, we added that little Disney emphasis there).
No one wants to haul a giant battery pack around Walt Disney World. The Tronsmart Presto is only 6.5 X 3.4 inches with a weight of only 10.4 ounces, a pleasantly portable size for even less than the cost of one of Disney’s chargers.Take that, Disney overlords!
What’s your favorite must-have travel gadget for theme park visits—besides MagicBands of course?
