What To Pack For a Perfect Day at Wonderland | Beauty Edition

Growing up in Toronto, I always looked forward to my annual trip to Wonderland every summer with my dad. I would always want to bolt out the door, but my dad would always make sure we double checked that we had packed everything. Sun screen, towels, bathing suits, phone charger, everything you could think of was packed neatly into his Roots backpack. I can’t help but think back to waking up at 6:30 AM so we could get there before the park even opened! This weekend I took my teenage cousin to Wonderland and we had a great time on the rides and in the water park!  Keep reading to see what we packed, and to hear about why it worked!


Before you even start packing for your trip, you need to consider two important factors: what do you want to get out of the day, and how are you getting there?  In other words, are you going to the water park?  I always try to keep packing to a minimum, as the smallest locker costs $15 for the day, and the larger ones are $20 and $25.  To make things easier, we just took the GO Bus from York Mills GO Bus Station (it also leaves from Yorkdale).  Of course, if you opt to drive you can always toss more things than you really need in the trunk.

The only things that we packed not pictured are our bathing suits and our towels, sunglasses, bronzer, and wallets/purses.

We (of course) wanted to hit up the water park, so that necessitated basically everything in this photo.

I'm a dark blonde, and my cousin has colour treated hair, meaning that after our afternoon in the water park we both needed to wash the chlorine out of our hair before we hit up the rest of the rides.  

For use in the (communal) shower I packed: Lush Seanik Solid Shampoo Bar and Lush Big Solid Conditioner in a little plastic baggie.  To save space I sliced off two single use tiny bars of conditioner.  This was great to use to clean up because it took up minimal space.  I also packed The Body Shop's Mini Strawberry Body Wash, while it is far from my favourite scent, it was the only mini I had with me!  Suki Foaming Lemon Drop Scrub and GlamGlow Thirsty Mud Cleanser rounded out my shower products helping me scrub off the chlorine and keep my skin clean and fresh.  My only complaint was that the cold shower water did not do a good job at rinsing out my solid conditioner.  I had a few little bits left in my hair after that I ended up picking out. 

For use after the my shower I packed: deodorant, my Cetaphil Cleansing Cloths*, to tidy up my makeup, Alterna CC Cream to use as a leave in product in my hair and my Tangle Teaser* to comb it into a side braid.  I also packed a spare hair tie, and a sample of a foundation and primer.

I learned that Wonderland now allows you to pack bottles of water, so I packed us one each to save some money at the park.  We ended up going through a whole bottle of Neutrogena Sun Screen because we were constantly applying it through the day.  I also applied Neutrogena's Face Sunscreen about four times (and am pleased to report no face burns!).  As a back up I brought Dermalogica's After Sun Repair* and let me say this was one of the best ideas I had all day.  The sooner you can apply this to a burn the better.  I love how cooling it is, and how much it helps sun burns.  See, despite my constant application, my sunscreen washed off in the water park between getting in and out of the water and left me with two very red, kind of painful shoulders.  Ditto for my cousin-- we both found this to be super helpful and applied it a few times in the evening and on our way home.  One day later and my burn is turning to a tan nicely, and my skin feels much better.  

I also decided to take advantage of all of my time outside to help lighten up my hair.  I made a mix with the juice of half a lemon, half a cup of water, a dollop of conditioner and a dollop of honey. Mixed together it lightened my hair with out drying it out!

We packed all of this in a reusable shopping bag that was light to carry and easy to store!

A few other tips: see if your workplace has a corporate discount rate before purchasing your ticket, or try to buy your ticket online at least three days before.  Wear comfortable walking shoes, time your use of the water roller coasters so you don't get your valuables wet, and leave your jewellery at home!

Here are a few photos from our day:

The gates!

Sunset!

Windseeker at dusk!  Loved the view of the city in the evening.

Are you planning on going to Wonderland?  What will you pack?

Products marked with * were provided for my review.