Here's one I had saved:
If you have a rental car, you should consider going to Belz Outlet Mall. Character Warehouse and Character Premier have some GREAT deals on authentic Disney theme park merchandise, IMHO. It is relatively quick and painless to get to Belz from WDW. Take I-30 North to Exit 30-A (International Drive). Go right, and then take the first left by the Sheraton Universal. Go down about two miles, and you are there!
Bring dishwashing detergent along to hand-wash your refillable mugs in your resort room.
Bring PLENTY of spare batteries, and more film than you think you will need. While both are readily available around WDW, you will pay a premium price.
Prior to going to WDW, make up envelopes for each day of your trip to hold the tip for housekeeping each day. This keeps you from having to scramble for dollar bills each day. We labeled ours Mousekeeping, and they were a hit with the housekeeping staff at Boardwalk Villas.
Bring a roll of duct tape along. You can make all sorts of quick repairs with duct tape (including cameras and luggage).
I overheard this from a CM
if you require medical attention while at WDW, consider going directly to the emergency room at Celebration Hospital. While the Centra-Care facilities are great, they do not accept insurance of any kind
you have to pay for your visit up front. The emergency room at the Celebration Hospital does accept insurance. And, remember to bring your medical insurance card with you.
Long distance phone calls from your room are exorbitantly expensive! Bring a pre-paid phone card with you, and use a pay-phone in your resort or at the parks.
Guest services at the theme parks will recharge your camcorder batteries for you, provided you give them your charger to use. They can do this for you while you are touring the parks.
This is my favorite tip
the BEST way to avoid blisters at WDW is to spray your (clean) feet with antiperspirant spray each morning before putting on your socks (and at mid-day, if you come back to your resort to rest). Both my husband, my children and myself did this each day, and we didnt get a single blister
not even a HINT of a blister. It sounds crazy, but it works!
If you are renting a car, sign up for the preferred renter program (most of the major chains offer them free of charge). This can save you anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more (depending on the time of day you fly in), as it allows you to go directly to the garage to pick up your rental vehicle. There is no standing in line at the rental counter, and no paperwork to fill out.
If you decide not to use the preferred renter program, you can still save time by having the adults split up when you get to baggage claim. Have one adult go for the bags, and the second adult head straight to the car rental counter.
Practice random acts of kindness at Walt Disney World. My favorite way to do this is to offer to take group pictures for another family. Chances are, theyll offer to do the same for you (and you wont be like me, with 10 rolls of film and only a few pictures of yourself on them!). I also keep a good supply of lollipops in my backpack (Dum-Dums), and will offer them to children who are getting restless and cranky while waiting in line (with their parents permission
heck, its usually with their parents BLESSING, LOL).
Give your children a disposable camera to take their own vacation pictures. You might be surprised at how WDW is seen through their eyes.
At the Magic Kingdom, be sure to stop by City Hall to pick up a birthday badge. You are guaranteed to get lots of birthday greetings from the CMs.
At the Magic Kingdom, you can generally count on Toontown being uncrowded about an hour before closing.
At the Magic Kingdom, the area next to City Hall is a great place to find characters. And, its usually not very crowded.
If you are a Buzz Lightyear fan, did you know that you can score more points by holding the button down for the duration of the ride?
World Showcase at Epcot is a GREAT place to find characters. You can use this as a bargaining chip if your children arent thrilled about taking the time to walk around World Showcase!
On nights when there are multiple performances of Fantasmic, consider going to the second showing (unless you have small children). You can ride quite a few of the popular rides with minimal waits during the first showing, and find good seats more easily at the second showing, which is ALWAYS less crowded.
DO NOT MISS Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom. It is, IMHO, the best live show at Walt Disney World.
Dont let rain stop you! Most of the attractions will still be operating, and the lines will typically be shorter. And at Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom, you will probably find the animals more active when its raining.
Ive found that my children have difficulty with sit-down dinners in nice restaurants at the end of the day while at WDW (because of being tired). By making a sit-down lunch your big meal of the day, youll save money, and have a more enjoyable experience, and the break will be good for everyone.
Have your children sit on the outside of the table at character meals
this makes it easier for the characters to interact with them.
Make sure to have a fat pen for your autograph book, but more importantly, make sure you have one that WORKS. I purchase a new one for each trip, but on this trip, I neglected to give it a test run before we left. I have some great video of poor Dale shaking my pen and jumping up and down trying to get it to work (which it finally did!).
Ive found that it makes for a much more enjoyable trip if we stick to our childrens schedules for eating and sleeping during the majority of our trip. Yes, you will miss some things, but that gives you a reason to come back again when they are older, right? In my book, happy, well-rested children = happy parents.
If you have a baby, toddler or even a preschooler, the Baby Care Centers in the parks are a great place to take a break. They are cool and quiet, and have nice roomy restrooms and changing areas.
Bring a nightlight for the hotel room, if your children are used to sleeping with one.
Diapers and baby wipes are VERY expensive on property. As with batteries and film, bring more than you think you will possibly need.
Consider attaching some type of discreet identification tag on toddlers and preschoolers. If they get lost, they will be scared, and probably wont be able to tell a CM what their name is. Likewise, make sure your older children know your hotel name, room number and phone number.
If you are renting a car, keep checking the car rental rates on a regular basis before your trip. I saved over $100 by doing this
rates typically drop the closer you get to your travel date.
Also, keep checking your airfare prices on a regular basis before your trip. If the fare drops, most airlines will give you a credit voucher for the difference in price. These vouchers can be used like cash for future travel, although most do expire within a year of issuance. We saved over $600 by doing this on this trip. This practically paid for our tickets for our 10/2000 trip.
Snacks are a great way to keep younger children occupied on airplanes! So are air-sickness bags (provided they have a box of crayons to decorate it with) and the emergency information cards!
Gate-check your stroller. This will allow you to use the stroller in the airport before you board your flight. Right before you board the plane, just fold it up and leave it outside the doors. They will put it in cargo for you, and have it waiting at the door of the plane when you arrive in Orlando.
Some people may disagree with me, but there is nothing wrong with letting a 5 or 6 year old use a stroller while at WDW. We all know how much walking there is, and children can tire out so quickly. Happy children=happy parents. Trust me, its no fun carrying a 50 lb. child around for more than 1 minute at a time! And, the stroller basket comes in SO handy for backpacks, ponchos, collapsible coolers, and shopping bags!
The MK strollers do not have canopies, so make sure your child has a hat!
Fail to plan
plan to fail. A plan is essential, even if its just a loose-knit one. I made a very detailed itinerary for our trip, and while it was altered quite regularly, it still served to guide us in a general sense.
Use Fastpass!
Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party --- again, many may disagree, but I would have to recommend that anyone going with younger children think long and hard before spending the $$$ to do this. If your children are night owls, you will probably get your moneys worth. But, if you have children like ours who regularly go to bed at 8-8:30 p.m., it can potentially be a waste of money.
You may put naps for your preschoolers into your itinerary, but dont expect them to read that itinerary, LOL.
Talk to the Cast Members! We enjoyed talking with Cast Members, especially those who come from countries outside the United States. We asked two of them to sign our autograph book, and they told me that they considered that a real treat! They wrote very nice notes to my daughter, and gave her some cultural trivia to take back to school with her.
If you exchange vouchers for Annual Passes, check the expiration dates of the pass BEFORE you leave the ticket window. This could very well save you from a heart attack!
Refillable resort mugs are one of the best values at WDW, even if you are only at a resort for 3-4 days, you will, more than likely, get your moneys worth.
Life jackets can be borrowed free of charge from all the resorts. Some resorts will let you check them out for the duration of your stay, while others require you to check them out and return them each day.
We found that that the turnstiles to the right side of the MK gates are MUCH more crowded than those on the left side (near the monorail).
TAKE YOUR CAMCORDER to WDW. My 8-mm camcorder fit inside my backpack in its carrying case, and we had it with us at all times. I took over 8 hours of video on this trip (as opposed to one hour of video on the last trip, with a clunky full-sized camcorder), and we enjoy watching them often. It brings back memories in a way that still pictures just cant.
Guest of Honor badges are a great souvenir (especially for kids). My children wore theirs every day, and were thrilled with the extra attention they would often get from the CMs, who always called them by name.
If you are traveling to WDW with younger children, definitely DO NOT MISS Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom. You can ride to your hearts content (do Dumbo and Winnie the Pooh first thing though), and even slip in a turn or two on Buzz Lightyear before the park even STARTS to look crowded.
Take time to savor the little moments, especially with younger children. While it might seem like a waste of time, doing something as simple as feeding character cookies to the birds in Tomorrowland will create some powerful memories for your children.
An excellent spot to view the afternoon MK parade is just to the right of the entrance to the Liberty Tree Tavern Restaurant in Liberty Square.
Minnies Menehuene character breakfast at the Polynesian Resort is wonderful! Its a quiet atmosphere, and the food is served family style. Since we were traveling with younger children, we found this more relaxing than getting up and down to go to a buffet table. And, the food and character interaction were excellent.
Dont feel self-conscious about bringing coolers or grocery sacks into the deluxe hotels. I was apologizing to the bellman at Boardwalk Villas about our numerous bags of groceries from Wal-Mart, and he reassured me that hes hauled many a Wal-Mart bag to guests rooms (along with quite a few STRANGE things, LOL).
While the
Walmart Supercenter on Hwy. 192 is probably the least expensive place to stock up on groceries/snacks/supplies, keep in mind that the store is HUGE, and usually packed with people. We spent close to 1.5 hours getting our groceries and checking out. In retrospect, I should have went to Publix, which is closer to WDW, and not as crowded, even if it meant paying slightly higher prices. I dont like spending my quality vacation time in a Walmart. I do that regularly enough at home!
If you have a problem with any aspect of your stay at your WDW resort, SPEAK UP
and speak up quickly. Go straight to the top! WDW wants you to enjoy your vacation, but if theres a problem, they want to know about it. If you dont tell them, they cant fix it.
If you try to videotape Carousel of Progress, they will yell at you:! But, they wont confiscate your tape.
If you videotape the parades, you stand a good chance of getting some direct waves, nods and winks from the characters.
If you purchase fragile or bulky items while at WDW, consider having them shipped directly from the store/shop to your home. You do not pay sales tax on the item in this case, which offsets the cost of shipping. And, its nice to have something to look forward to when you get home.
Prepare 3-4 days worth of meals ahead of time that you can freeze before you go to WDW. If you are like me, youll have major post-WDW depression when you get back, not to mention major exhaustion. By having these meals pre-made, youll have one less thing to do! You can also write a grocery list before you leave and keep it attached to your refrigerator, so when you get home, youll know exactly what you need to get during that first run to the grocery store.
While many of the resort pools have killer slides, keep in mind that these slides might not be suitable for younger children. WDW lifeguards dont allow children to ride on their parents laps.
If you enter Epcot through the International Gateway before 11 a.m., you can take a leisurely stroll through the UK and Canada with no crowds. While the shops arent open, you can get some great pictures!
Beavertails in Canada are just about the best snack at WDW, IMHO. If you cant decide between the various flavors, ask the CM to make you a half-and-half one. I had a beavertail that was half strawberries-n-cream, and half chocolate, and it was WONDERFUL!
The cheddar cheese soup at LeCellier has 36 grams of fat per serving
so, it really IS to die for
but WHAT a way to go
yum!
If you want to see characters, rope drop at Toontown is the place to be! They were very accessible, and there were virtually no lines! And at rope drop, each character chose one child to personally escort into Toontown!
When I was planning this trip, eating in the room (while we were at BWV) seemed like a good idea, and quite a money-saver. BUT, Ive discovered that my idea of a vacation is not fixing meals, even if they are things like canned foods, sandwiches and continental breakfasts. It was added work and stress that I just dont need on vacation. Live and learn!
And last, but certainly not least
PLAN ACCORDINGLY, AND ALLOW YOURSELF ENOUGH TIME TO GET TO THE AIRPORT: I did not remember how LONG it takes you to get to the terminal once you return your rental car. You have to go through several different sets of elevators (which all had long lines to use), and I wouldnt be exaggerating to say it is quite a trek.
