Favorite cooling towel and other tricks to beat the heat

[PartyOfSe7en]

We are Texans so pretty used to the heat but we are taking a longer trip with 5 kids including a 4 month old and a 1 yr old. What cooling towels are best? Any other tricks? Leaving in 23 days!!!! So ready

 

[Antaniasmom]

Can bring small soft side cooler with ice packs which we have put in our backpack in the past to have cold bottled water on demand (money saver as well!) Go into rides that have cues with a/c to beat the heat. Dont hesitate to go back to hotel for few hours to rest/cool down. Heat stroke is no joke and not very fun while visiting the parks.

 

[SJSloan]

I took my 9 month old last July and it was hot! I ran into a lady in the Baby Care Center at MK and we were just talking and she mentioned that she had a stroller cooling mat for her baby and she swore by it. I just purchased mine on Amazon for our trip next week, I haven't used it yet but it might be something to look into. It's by Meeno. We also have 2 stroller fans attached, and just FYI the Disney stroller fans are awful!

For the rest of us, we are there for rope drop and then leave anywhere between noon and 2pm when it's the hottest for a mid-day break and then return in the evening. That way you are avoiding the largest crowds and the hottest times of the day.

Oh, misting fans with ice water in them are good too.

 

[Klayfish]

My best tip is to drink plenty of fluids, especially the little ones. Shade for the little ones (stroller). Use lots of attractions that are a/c during the mid-day heat. That does great.

I find the cooling towels and misting fans only make things worse. You're already sweaty, adding something wet to you just compounds the problem. It feels good for a moment, until that spray mixes with the hot sweat. If we do anything like that, we'll take the free cups of ice water and hold them against our heads for a minute and then immediately wipe our heads off.

 

[OpieDoodle]

I loved the cooling towels on our last trip. It was miserably hot, we used them and fans. For the kids we had personal fans you could clip on the stroller and we also had mister fans for the older kids which was great because they were spraying all over the place which means the adults got a good mist as well!

We had a couple cooling towels and we would rinse them regularly to keep them clean. It REALLY helped.

As others have mentioned stay super hydrated!

 

[Anthony Vito]

I personally prefer the Frog Toggs cooling towels. My wife prefers the ones with a little more of a dry feel to them (I find the Frog Toggs feel cooler, but that just may be me). We had some of those Mission brand ones that you snap, then my wife also bought this one and liked it: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y1FD6PR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Frog Toggs also have ones that are shaped a little better for draping over your neck.

We just bought some insulated Camelbak bottles for this trip to keep water colder and also not have the bottles sweating and getting everything wet. When we had the regular Camelbak bottles before we'd fill them up with ice and water but they'd warm up pretty quickly still. We also used Freaker brand bottle cozies that fit almost any bottle (I love these things: https://www.freakerusa.com/).

Last, I've always liked Emergen-C vitamin packets to put in some of the free cups of water you can get. You can get them almost anywhere nowadays, and they are marketed more as a vitamin packet now, but they have been around for about 40 years and were originally made and marketed as a sports electrolyte drink. When my wife was feeling nauseous from the heat one day, sitting inside the pizza quick service place in Animal Kingdom and drinking one of these helped her bounce back pretty quickly.

 

[cj.scribbles]

If you do plan on taking drinks or anything just make sure you're putting them in a container that's inline with Disney's policy. They recently started cracking down on the size of wagons/coolers that people bring into the parks so make sure it's not crazy big and no loose ice; only ice packs.

For me, personally, I take a water bottle with me and just refill it throughout the day.

 

[brownjars]

Frogg Toggs or Cool Core Cooling Towels
Contigo Insulated Water Bottle
USB fan / Portable Battery
Tourit Insulated Backpack w/ Reusable Ice Packs

 

[dreamit]

We have used Frogg Toggs for a number of trips, and I find they work well. Two tips: 1) Wash ahead of time. I've heard comments a long time ago about some colors bleeding. (We have yellow and blue. I washed before first use and have not had issues.) 2) Cut the towels in half lengthwise. This saves money. Plus, wearing the towel is more comfortable not having so much bulk around your neck.

 

[Smrtalec33]

We bought a 32 ounce stainless steel water bottle (simple modern brand) and filled it with ice before leaving our hotel in the morning. I had a 24 pack of water delivered to the hotel when I arrived, so every day before leaving the hotel, I would fill the steel bottle with ice and then pour in a plastic bottle of water, and I would also bring a couple of full plasticbottles to the park, so when the steel water bottle was empty, I had more water ready to pour in. It tasted good and was extremely cold, which was huge.

We did the frog togg towels and portable fans as well. I found the towels to be helpful.

 

[Bjkandma]

We use the cooling towels. Also we take a few wash clothes and during bathroom breaks, we've actually used soap and water to clean up\cool down. Especially with little ones. We've taken change of clothes and allowed (adults, too) go to Casey Jr's water area, epcot has splash pads, to cool down.

 

[Pamela M]

I personally prefer the Frog Toggs cooling towels. My wife prefers the ones with a little more of a dry feel to them (I find the Frog Toggs feel cooler, but that just may be me). We had some of those Mission brand ones that you snap, then my wife also bought this one and liked it: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y1FD6PR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Frog Toggs also have ones that are shaped a little better for draping over your neck.

We just bought some insulated Camelbak bottles for this trip to keep water colder and also not have the bottles sweating and getting everything wet. When we had the regular Camelbak bottles before we'd fill them up with ice and water but they'd warm up pretty quickly still. We also used Freaker brand bottle cozies that fit almost any bottle (I love these things: https://www.freakerusa.com/).

Last, I've always liked Emergen-C vitamin packets to put in some of the free cups of water you can get. You can get them almost anywhere nowadays, and they are marketed more as a vitamin packet now, but they have been around for about 40 years and were originally made and marketed as a sports electrolyte drink. When my wife was feeling nauseous from the heat one day, sitting inside the pizza quick service place in Animal Kingdom and drinking one of these helped her bounce back pretty quickly.

I use emergen-C all the time. I usually try and drink one every morning before I even leave for the park. I also am a huge fan of Nuun tablets. I find that when it's hot I need more electrolytes than I do water. I usually try to do 1-2 32 oz of water then add an electrolyte to the 3rd cup.

 

[Twitterpaited]

Haven’t used the at the parks yet, but I bought O2Cool necklace fans for the family.

 

[Napria]

The Contigo steel travel coffee mug is amazing at keeping ice. We were recently shopping for a new camper and on a whim I filled mine with ice before we headed out to the RV dealers. The temperature that day was in the high 90’s. I left the Contigo ice-filled mug in the truck while we looked at campers. At the end of the day I took the mug out of the truck and left it on my kitchen counter. I was shocked the next morning when I opened it to dump it out and it was mostly still full of ice! I’d say that there was at most a tablespoon of water, the rest was still frozen cubes. I’ve since filled it full of ice and used it to dispense ice into other water bottles when we travel on hot days.

 

[Kamy04]

We just got back and it’s HOT. Like HOT HOT. Melting by 10am HOT.

The only thing that even remotely helped for us were misting fans. We took midday breaks. Swam. The evenings were much more tolerable.

We could have done so much more without the heat.

 

[goofygurly]

Just went to the dollar store, they had cooling towels not sure how great they work. However I picked up a few for our July trip, these will be used in combination with constant hydration, hats, and fans!

 

[shocker]

The best heat beating tip...LEAVE THE PARK from 1-5pm. Go back to the room for airconditioning, a nap, and a shower and change of clothes.

I like to use individual handheld fans (not water sprayers since you don't need more humidity in FL).

I like to drink water in morning and at night but at mid-day break drink 1-16oz bottle of water with a Propel mix in stirred in for electrolytes.

I like to spray body powder all over before heading into the parks.

I carry an umbrella and use it rain or shine.

 

[mom2rtk]

Occasional use of an umbrella for shade was the only thing that got me through on our visit this week.

I also saw some people with fold up paper fans. I think I'd bring one of those next time.

 

[Best Aunt]

If you're going to use the misting fans, please be careful where you spray them. The person standing in line behind you might not want their phone misted.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

In addition to many of the comments above about drinking fluids, specially water, try to make one snack break (maybe morning) with some fresh fruit. Fruit like melon and grapes and berries have high water concentration. You can add more water to your body by doing so.