Not all the tech you need to bring with you to Disney is for the parks.  Often having extra gear for when you get back to the Hotel is as important as what you bring with you to the parks.  And then there’s also those items you probably shouldn’t bring at all.

Your Hotel room is your little slice of home while on vacation.  Sometimes it’s nice to have  a little extra to help you relax while resting up between your park visits.  Here is a number of useful tech items to bring with you to the hotel room.

For your Home away from Home

A computer is something that you need to decide if it’s worth it.  Half the time I bring it and never use it.  The other half of the time I’m constantly using it at night to offload video and pictures to my computer and uploading them to the web.  Or writing articles.  or putting together videos.

For me it’s a no brainer bringing a computer on a trip.  Especially with all the content I’m now making, but your milage will vary.  Does your devices have enough space to hold all your pictures and videos?  If so then you probably don’t need to bring it to constantly offload you images.  Do all your posting to social media on your phone?  Again if so, probably don’t need it, if you’ve already done that while in the parks.

It is useful thought to have something with a bigger screen.  If not bringing down a computer (or even if you are) think about bringing down a tablet.  Many of the Disney applications work on there as well and the larger screen means more to work with.  Much easier to change your fast passes on a 9″ screen vs a tiny 5″ one.

Stepping further down in screen sizes to your phone,  your phone comes in useful in the hotel as well.  I tend to use it for 2 things.  First is for an alarm clock.  There is one in the rooms usually, but I prefer the familiarity of my own device.  Second is to play media in the room.  While getting ready, I’ll often play the srsounds.com’s app Sorcerer Radio (Cost: FREE Available on iOS Android).

I also like bringing with me a small portable mini speaker.  The one I have is Spracht Aura BluNote.  It has both bluetooth and an audio cable input, along with being able to run on batteries and plugged in.  For it’s size it gives a really good sound.  Very useful for getting some extra tunes or you favorite Netflix show play in the background.

Speaking of TV, another item I bring is a HDMI cable.  Most of the rooms have a HDMI port available to connect to the TV.  I’ve used this to hook up my  computer, iPad, and iPhone to the television to watch tv shows, movies, and use as a second monitor for my compeer.  For devices that don’t have HDMI out, make sure you bring an adapter to connect.

You might also want to bring other items to keep any kids entertained.  While I’m not a fan of having younger kids bring tech into the parks themselves, the hotel is a different story.  An old iPad, or Kindle, is nice to have on hand for them to keep from saying “I’m Bored”.  This should be along side other things like books, and activities, but still nice to have on hand.

Bit’s and bots

There a couple other smaller things I make sure to have with me in the Hotel room.
First up is a 3 outlet adapter or extension cords.  There are never enough power outlets when you need them and being able to add more ports is a wonderful things.  I carry both as I find they server different purposes.  I tend to leave the 3 outlet adapter at the night stand so everyone’s phones (and battery packs) can be plugged in at the same time over night.  The extension cord I use for the outside ports, as there’s only so much room at the night stands and bring the outlet to you.  I try to get ones that have the 3 prong, as you never know when you will need that style vs the 2 prong versions.  And the multi outlets I prefer having them on different size as chargers will often over lap if right next to each other.

Speaking of plugins everything in… do you have all the cables for all your devices.  Yes sometimes you can bring just 1 cable to cut down on what you are brining, but remember that you will need to plug things in usually overnight to charge.  This means thinking about all the devices you are bringing and have a separate charing cord for each of them.  For me that means having 2 lighting cables, 2 micro USB cable, and a USB C cable (2 iPhones, 2 battery packs, and my GoPro).  Yes I could reduce, but that would mean trying to stagger charging which is more work than just having the extra cable.

Hotel rooms can be dry places.  I have a small travel humidifier that we take with us.  It’s the Homedics Personal Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier.  It’s a small 4″ sphere that easily fits into your luggage.  It does run out each night (gets about 5-6 hours of use per fill) but that is enough to keep the room from drying out.  It’s also pretty quiet, and only cost about $15.  Just remember to empty it before packing it up.

There is also the  HoMedics Personal/Portable Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier.  It is twice the height (same general footprint), twice the price ($30), but also last twice as long (roughly 10 hours).  I’ll be picking this up for this trip but I expect to get the same result from my smaller one, and see that the only difference is it lasts the entire night.

The last thing you might want to bring, depends on how you are as a sleeper.  A white noise machine is great when at home, but is usually too bulky to travel.  And those that are good for traveling often are too weak to be of use.  I have on my iPhone the myNoise app (Cost: FREE).  It has a ton of customization and is fairly good and drowning out any noise that are coming from the surrounding area.  Pair that with the BlueNote from above and you have a great white noise machine.  Granted while Disney the Disney Resort channel does a good job at that too, but depends on your own sleep habits.

Ok that’s great… What shouldn’t I bring?

You might think it odd to include things to leave at home, But there are somethings that just aren’t useful to have regulars what you might think.  There’s a complete list over int the official Disney Park Rules page, but here are the items that pertain to tech stuff.

Selfie-Sticks are not allowed in the parks.  Now, the trouble is, there’s no definition of what a selfie stick actually is.  My own personal definition is something extends over 2′ that can remotely trigger a camera action.  But your milage will vary, as it’s up to the persona at security.  Large Tripods are also prohibited, but they don’t mention small tripods like my GoPro.  I supposed we will see how my little 1.5″ GoPro fares on this trip.

Remote controlled drones:  This is another item that you’d think might be good to bring with, but are indeed prohibited by Disney.  When you think about it, the safety and enjoyment of everyone outweighs being able to have something following you to make pictures.  Drones are in the category of “recreational devices”.  And while some of the item on that list might make sense at your hotel (skateboards, scooters, shows with wheels…) this one is a definite no for the parks.  And unless you are filming a documentary probably best they don’t make it to the hotel either.

In addition to what Disney doesn’t want you to have in the park, I strongly suggest not bringing large cameras with you.  Yes all those big beautiful cameras, that you spent tons of money on to make amazing shots.  They do take truly amazing pictures that even the best cell phones still aren’t at the same level at.  We’e brought down SLR cameras in the past, and while we have used them, you just don’t really.  The only thing that beats a great shot, is having something you’ll carry with you and actually use to take those shots.  Carry them around the parks, isn’t something you’re likely to do. Those large cameras will just be left collecting dust in your hotel room, in lieu of smaller more portable options.  So unless you are going down specifically to take pictures on the safari, leave the large SLR cameras at home.

Did I miss your favorite Hotel items you bring on your Disney Trips?  Or things that you tell everyone to not bring with you?  Or maybe even disagree with what I listed? Leave a comment below!  

And Check out the other articles from this week’s series:

• Prepping for Disney overview
  • Pre-gaming Disney Planning
  • Tech In the Parks
  • Things to leave at the Hotel (or at home)
  • Odds ‘n Ends of Disney vacation tech

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