My extended backpack opinion, all the news that's fit to print
Alright, now for my two cents.
I take a backpack to the parks every trip (though I probably will do without for Grad Nite). Here are some of my best tricks:
My backpack was on clearance at Target and it cost me less than 8 bucks. It's one of those clear plastic ones that they make kids have at overly safety conscious schools, but it has a lot of pockets and compartments. It's very lightweight. The back and shoulder straps are padded and covered with a rosey-maroon colored nylon. I love this bag, because a) it makes things infinitely faster in baggage check. Sometimes they don't even open it, they just spin it around and look inside. And b) it is completely waterproof, so it doesn't matter if it rains or if we go on rides like Splash Mountain.
Mind you, I wouldn't put anything valuable in there aside from the camera, because obviously everyone can see it. If you absolutely must, though, just pack it closer to the middle and put the trivial things on the outside. Visible through the outside of my backpack are things like stray confetti I collected, a toothbrush and travel toothpaste, napkins, hand sanitizer, and my jacket. If I put the digital camera in there, I make sure it is in a pocket that has other things in it, or wrap it in my jacket, and sometimes in a small baby blanket just to pad it from harm. That's another thing, I do not put anything overly fragile or high tech in it because it does take a small amount of abuse, going in and out of rides.
But I always take it, with the things mentioned above and sometimes a pair of flipflops and some sunscreen, and occasionally a bag of trail mix so we can snack in line and not buy so many french fries and Mickey ice cream bars.
If we are park hopping, I'll sometimes leave it in the car if we're switching over at the end of the day and I know I won't need the things, or in some cases pop it in a locker, if my back gets tired or I get too hot. I have never had a problem getting it on any ride, and I too do the "legs through the straps" trick on SM and RnRC. The first time I ever had any issue with it was on Soarin', as it would not quite wedge into the bag underneath (nor would Ryland's camera bag), but it was solved simply enough. . . a CM directed us to lean the bags up against a pole in between two sections of seats, and there they sat just fine while we went up up up and were there just as well when we came down, no problems!
All that being said, I still keep a constant tab on the bag, and sometimes switch it to my front if I have to squeeze through somewhere tight or am worried about people touching it. I never leave it unattended and it even goes into the little Princess's room with me and hangs on the hook inside the stall door. It also has TWO luggage tags, just in case. For night time special events such as MNSSHP and MVMCP, I have a keychain on there that is actually intended for walking dogs at night, that hangs on doggy collars like an I.D. tag (you can find ones like it in the pet sections of merchandise but mine came from Petsmart). When it is turned on it blinks as you move. It makes me feel a little more secure about not running into people and such. I even have one with a haunted house for Halloween and one with a Christmas tree for Christmas.
Isn't that WAY more backpack yak than you ever wanted to hear?
Speaking of which, what do you backpack carriers do at the waterparks? Do you just rent a locker and go with that? Surely you can't take backpacks down slides, so what do you do? We may be visiting one of the waterparks for the first time this summer, and I'm a little clingy (obviously) to my pack, so I was wondering what to do. . . ?:hammer:
