An essential part of making your Disney World trip as great as possible will revolve around making sure you bring the right gear. In this article, we are going to give you our views on the best Disney World tech gadgets and gear. Whether you’re technically inclined or not, these gadgets can help give your Disney World vacation an extra boost. Some of our best Disney World tech gadgets and gear are nice to have items, while others are essential in our opinion. These aren’t in order of importance.
1. Your Smartphone
You are probably saying “duh”, especially considering that we did a whole article on the top apps to get for said smartphone. However, we also know that there can be a strong urge by some to unplug while they are on vacation and leave their phone behind. Don’t be that person. Having your phone to run all those apps and to take quick pictures and videos is required in our view. Use it to capture the experience for you to remember forever.
2. Your Fitbit, iWatch or other wearable device
Okay, we’ll admit it. Every time we go to Disney World, we get to the end of the day and we have to see whose is bigger. Step counts that is. I feel like I get the short end of the deal because I’ve got longer legs, which means I takes longer strides. That means less steps. It’s a bit like a car wreck, somewhat gruesome, but yet we can’t take our eyes away from it. But I digress. For this reason, it makes our list of best Disney World tech gadgets and gear.
There is something to be said for tracking how many steps you take and how many calories you burn. It makes one of us feel better about all the calories we consume dining around Disney World. Seeing the activity is fun.
If you are part of the apple ecosystem, you may want or have an iWatch. Carla prefers the Fitbit product line as she wants something a little slimmer.
You can even get the whole family in on it if you have kids. We’ve found less expensive activity trackers for them and they work great. They love tracking their activity. The girls like the FitBit Flex and the Misfit Wearables. These also come at a lower price point, in case they get lost or broken. The girls enjoy the larger color assortment of these, especially the Misfit Wearables.
3. Your DSLR or Point and Shoot Camera
Can you use PhotoPass and Memory Maker to get your Disney World vacation pictures? Sure, but everyone wants to have some of their own photos. Plus, while it may seem like Disney photographers are all over the park, there are lots of great photo opportunities where one is nowhere to be found.
As you can tell by our site, we think there are tons of great pictures to be taken of the parks. The Disney photographers won’t be doing that for you, so you need to be prepared to take you own park photos.
Your smart phone is certainly capable of taking some great photos and will get the job done for 80% of the people reading this article. However, for 20% of you, bringing an upgrade at the camera position will be desired. Bring your favorite point and shoot or DSLR camera to capture great photos of your time at Disney World. Both Canon and Nikon have some really good entry level DSLR cameras out on the market today if you need to get one. Buying these will keep the cost reasonable, compared to the more expensive professional grade versions. We certainly won’t call them cheap though.
4. Tablets
While you will likely have your phone with you on your trip, you should bring your tablet with you too. We wouldn’t bring a tablet to the park but having it in the room at night is helpful. When you are lying in bed winding down, having the bigger screen to look at is a plus in our mind.
You may want to use your phone at night. However, you will likely have your phone on a charger at night so it is ready for the next day. That may have it out of reach from the bed, so having an extra device on hand could be helpful.
If you are sharing a bed with one of your kids, this can be a distraction for them. They enjoy looking over our shoulder to see what mom and dad are looking at. “Go to bed” is an often-uttered phrase with Anna and Elsa.
You’ll probably want a tablet compatible with whatever ecosystem you are technologically a part of. For our list of best Disney World tech gear and gadgets, you can pick out an Amazon, Apple or Samsung products that will fit this need. They should cover most ecosystems.
5. Portable Chargers
You and your family will most likely burn through a lot of power on your various mobile devices while in the parks. Especially if your kids have their own devices. Because of that, a portable charger (or three) is a must. Disney has started putting in plugs for people to charge their devices around the park, however you waste lots of valuable park time if you are stuck waiting for your phone to charge. Because of this, there was no way to leave a charger off our list of best Disney World tech gadgets and gear.
I’m a big fan of the Anker chargers, like the one to the right. They hold lots of power in reserve and the Anker PowerCore 20100 can charge two devices at the same time. If you want something a bit lighter, you can pick up the Anker PowerCore II Slim 10000 charger, however it only will charge one device at a time.
6. Smartphone Camera Lens
If you are going to use your smartphone to take pictures instead of a DSLR, you may want to consider a camera lens adapter. These lenses allow you to extend the functionality of your camera phone. Full disclosure, I only use our DSLR for important pictures, but this is one of the highly rated ones on Amazon right now.
7. Chargers
While probably not another item you directly think of when you are pondering the best Disney World tech gadgets and gear, chargers will make sure your gear can operate. Do not forget your chargers! And if you do, get on Amazon and have one shipped to your hotel.
In addition to the large quantity of cords, you may want to bring a USB wall charger adapter. While Disney is getting better about it, plugs are always at a premium, especially if you have 10 devices you want to charge at night. Two devices per person in a room isn’t out of the realm of possibility if you have older kids with their own tablets and phones. If so, you may want to bring a wall charger like the one we linked to. This will give you more plugs to charge devices through by splitting a single plug into four USB plugs.
8. Portable Speaker
A speaker may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you start thinking of the best Disney World tech gadgets and gear, we know. Hear me out though.
Bringing a speaker along with you to introduce some music into your room in the morning can be a fun way to start the day. You could even use it to play some Disney music to help your family get ready for the coming day in the park. Have a big character meet and greet with Jasmine and Aladdin, throw on the Aladdin sound track to get your kids in the mood. Maybe you would like to listen to your favorite podcast in the morning.
Bring a solid portable speaker, just make sure the sound quality is good and battery life is better. The last thing you want is to be charging your speaker every night. We’re fans of Ultimate Ears Boom 3, plus its kind of ironic to bring a speaker with ears in the name to Disney World. There are cheaper speakers out there and there are more expensive ones. This is a good middle ground of moderate cost and high-end performance. Check out TechRadar’s review for more information on the speaker
8. Wireless Earphones
If you are out and about on an early morning run or maybe just taking on a solo day in the parks, you may want to bring some wireless earphones with you. The technology has advanced so far in the last few years, we can’t honestly imagine bringing wired headphones into the park.
Given the activity level associated with going around the parks and exercising, I like earphones that wrap around the ear, like the PowerBeats. They feel more secure to me and I’m not always worried they are going to fall out whenever I exercise.
A bonus nugget here for you, we also use our Bose Noise Cancelling headphone for fireworks shows. One of our daughters (Anna) is very sensitive about fireworks and the noise they make. She used to have a fit and cry and scream throughout any fireworks show we would take her to. We started bringing our Bose headphones along with us to anywhere there would be fireworks and it has made a huge difference in our (and her) enjoyment of the show. If you have a kid who freaks out about the noise of the fireworks, this may be a solution for you.
10. Wireless Travel Router
You may have a need to set up a wireless network for your family to use and share content with each other. If so, look into a wireless travel router. You can also use this router to free up space on your camera SD card or your mobile device each day by connecting it to this network and saving files off to another storage device.
The HooToo is a top-rated travel router, but sometimes hard to find. If you can’t find that one, then check out the RAVPower FileHub. It’s another well rated router.
11. Kindle
For some uses, a tablet may not be right for you. Maybe you don’t need to stream videos. Or perhaps you plan on getting some quality pool-side relaxing in with your favorite book but reading off a tablet with its harsh glare doesn’t work. There can be several reasons to opt to bring your Kindle instead. I say Kindle, but it could be any e-reader that you have. Think about how you might use your tablet and make sure it’s the best item to bring.
Laptops?
One item you will notice doesn’t make the list is a laptop. If you need one for work, then sure bring it along. However, outside of that we don’t recommend bringing one. They are heavy and take up a lot of space. Using a tablet can do most of what you may want a laptop for, which we assume is browsing the internet. At least it is for us!
Wrapping Up
There are the 11 best Disney World tech gadgets and gear, in our opinion. Several of these items are essential in our mind, while a few of them are nice to have items. Make sure you think through what you want to bring. You don’t want to realize you need to buy something only to be leaving in three hours. If that does happen though, remember Amazon can ship it to you at your resort!
Did we miss anything on our list of best Disney World tech gadgets and gear? Are there things you consider essential to for your Disney World trip you want to share with our community? Drop down in the comments section below and let everyone know.