Hello
we have: 10 boy, 9 girl, 6 girl,4 boy and 9 month boy. They do not carry thier own stuff, I even chuckled when I typed this. There woul be stuff left all over WDW if they carried it! We have almost always have the Dining Plan so not much snacks and drinks. We drive to parks, one 55 minuute bus wait with 3 zonked out kids and unloading re loading of stroller put us firmly in the "we will drive to the park column." We do rope drop so parking isn't an issue and if you ask the parking attendant you can check the front of the lot for spaces after returning to the park after a break.
We bring a LL Bean full size back pack that my DH used in college and bottom portion unzips flip top style. We store ponchos that bottom portion. A ziplock bag with a few make up supplies/extra hair tires and barretts/ibprophen kids and adult/Pepto Bismal/ safty pins/ moleskin/sunblock stick and lotion/body glid and a comb. This all fits in a gallon size bag with room to spare and the bag fits in the laptop skinny type pocket on front of backpack. In the main area of backpack goes diapering needs case, very light weight jackets or the button down fishing style oxfords with SPF fabiric, extra socks (kids wear crocs an somes times get a raw spot socks help with) light up spinners, a few snacks and video camera. In the very front small pocket goes a soft pack of baby wipes, sanitizer and phones. I like to keep baby wipes in two places so I always have them for a diaper change and a different set for sticky hands, faces, etc. There are side pockets on the back pack that water bottle can fit in. I know ths sounds packed but really it isn't.
We have a Britax B Ready Stroller with the 2nd seat, it is the style that one child sits under the regular seat. Our 4 year old could walk most of the time and will but I like the security in parking lots and large crowds to have my littles safely buckled. For example when we depart, espically Magic Kingdom, my 4 and 6 year old will be in the stroller and one of will wear baby boy in the ergo carrier.
The stroller gets the rain cover on as soon as we get it out of the truck. We then roll it back and out of the way. We roll back the cover while stroller is in parking we have come back to a soaking wet stroller before and is sucks. We have a soft sided 31 cooler bag with water bottles/sliced apples/bottles/baby food if needed and empty sandwich bages for left overs. I have a daughter who won't finish a meal and the be hungry later. (baby boy will be almost a year and I still plan on nursing hopefully by then he will be able to eat nmore table food. He gets a bottle right before his nap now rest of the time he is nursed.) The soft sided cooler goes under the stroller, we can't put much under there as the feet of the child in the bottom seat are in there as well. I also have two mesh bags on either side that can hold hats, sun glasses etc and the ergo baby carrier. The are called side riders and don't add any bulk to the side. On each seat of the stroller I place a hotel towel that the kids sit on in the stroller and are nice to have to sit on for parades, dry off after a rain/Splash/Kail. We have a stroller fan that clips on and 2 muslin blankets as baby like to snuggle and one to block out the world durning naps. Because our 4year old will walk a lot we will store the back pack in the empty seat.
I also have a Mommy Hook and the parent cup holder consol on the stroller. I hate double strollers and have owned tandems and side by sides. Our Britax B Ready is our favorite and the in line seating is perfect for a child who doesn't need to sit all the time. So far at the Zoo it has worked perfect to have the baby sleep in the bottom seat with a blanket tenting him and let our 4year old hope on and out of top seat or drop our backpack there. I like haveing one backpack and one small bag cooler to deal with and not 10 little bags that we have had in the past. The side bage are attached to the stroller and other than the Ergo the are for the kids to put loose items like hats and glasses. Hats are great for under ponchos as the keep the rain off your face.
One more thing, our kids freeze in restaurants and some dark rides and shows so we pack the jackets/long sleeve button ups. You could skip haveing them and save space. I used to carry more and have pared down based on what was actually used. We now don't take umbrellas, large amounts of snacks, granola bars, blanket to sit on, way more medicines/1st aide needs, autograph book, toys, Capri suns, drinks other than water, crayons and xtra clothes for bigger kids. I wanted to be able to fit most everything in a back pack and getting pretty close to doing so. On our next zoo trip we are going to try the foldable water bottles and see how they go, our kids have thermos brand 12 ounce straw bottles but the are heavy and large would love to pare thoose down as well. last trip when I was pregnant we fit everything in the back pack and it was on the heavy side with water bottles but nice to only have one bag to worry about.
Anyway hope this novella I wrote helps
Out first few trips I would ask others the same questions!
