Continuing on with the lessons learned now that I'm on the ground in DC 
- Photopass is great... It's nice that they're everywhere characters are, and at the biggest 'photo ops'.. I would be nice to see them elsewhere in the park.. or to get pics such as 'down Main St USA AWAY from the castle...' especially when it's lit up at night... But still, we got a couple hundred pictures over 1 week... and the photo studio at Castle Couture was fun.
- Don't be a slave to ADRs. If you're there during peak times, maybe.. if you're there during Food & Wine... well.. I would never go during Food & Wine.. that was ridiculous just for the 2 days we were exposed to it!! Crazyness... The rest of the time, we got in to anywhere we tried. And we didn't see anyone getting turned away... Maybe for a key event like MBYBBQ etc.. but not for even the regular character meals.
- If you're going with young kids... focus on THEM.. If you need to do your own thing, go by yourself.
- If you're coming from Canada, think of medications that you may possibly need. Eye drops, good pain killers for the headaches, etc -- that you may not be able to get in the US...
- The Walmart Supercenter on Vineland Road, 5 mins outside of the park has a HUGE selection of Disney merchandise.. go figure
Some of it is a good deal, some of it's really not much better than in the park oddly enough... But worth a look before forking out huge in the park.
- Backpacks... We saw one mother of 3 with a backpack that had all of their stuff in it. We wish we did that.... Seems like a really simple tip, but it would have made our live a million times easier! We ended up storing things in the bottom of the strollers (we brought a stroller for each kid, in case we wanted to split up -- and we did). The problem with that is that every time you get on a tram, or the train at MK, etc, you need to fold down the stroller.. and take all the stuff out to make that happen... yikes! A backpack would have been much better...
- Do not go to MK planning to have breakfast! We were not impressed with the breakfast at the food court at POR, so we thought "lets eat at the park, that way we're already there!".. riiiiigggghhhht. Either skip breakfast or go to another resort to enjoy their breakfast.. (That said, the bakery on Mainstreet is fantastic.. the best snack credits we spent were on the apple turnovers and the cinnamon buns!! Yumm!!!)
- If you meet a photopass person that says "Hurry up, just move around and I'll take pictures", they know that the fireworks are about to happen right behind you!! Make it intersting! We have pics of my dad while the fireworks from the stage show they do at the castle were going off... Very cool.
- Photopass tip-- If you have a transparent card holder on a lanyard to hold your KTTW and photopass -- put the photopass to the outside with the number facing out. The photopass people can scan it right through the plastic, so you don't have to take it out all the time...
- As mentioned before.. if you have Deluxe Dining, be sure to ask *nicely* for the CM to try ringing in a sidedish/appetizer at the CS locations. They won't all do it, but we found that most would if you asked nicely, and most were surprised that it worked
- Don't forget things like the wakeup call...
we forgot and kicked ourselves afterwards as it would have been great for DD to answer the phone and have a disney character on the other end in the morning! We *DID* have a CM call Goofy for DD and Goofy wished her a happy birthday.. (I may have already mentioned that in the TR).. That was a nice touch!
- Ohhh! We did the Mr Potato Head fill-the-box deal at the toy store in DTD... The CMs are excellent there and will help you repack the box until you get everything you want. Also good to know going in -- only 1 side has to close... so if you happen to have a foot sticking out the other side, no worries! And as the CM said "if it doesn't close completely, tape will help".. haha!
I'm sure I'll think of more and will definitely monitor for feedback and comments Thanks everyone for the kind comments so far -- You've definitely encouraged me to do this again next time we go!!
- Photopass is great... It's nice that they're everywhere characters are, and at the biggest 'photo ops'.. I would be nice to see them elsewhere in the park.. or to get pics such as 'down Main St USA AWAY from the castle...' especially when it's lit up at night... But still, we got a couple hundred pictures over 1 week... and the photo studio at Castle Couture was fun.
- Don't be a slave to ADRs. If you're there during peak times, maybe.. if you're there during Food & Wine... well.. I would never go during Food & Wine.. that was ridiculous just for the 2 days we were exposed to it!! Crazyness... The rest of the time, we got in to anywhere we tried. And we didn't see anyone getting turned away... Maybe for a key event like MBYBBQ etc.. but not for even the regular character meals.
- If you're going with young kids... focus on THEM.. If you need to do your own thing, go by yourself.
- If you're coming from Canada, think of medications that you may possibly need. Eye drops, good pain killers for the headaches, etc -- that you may not be able to get in the US...
- The Walmart Supercenter on Vineland Road, 5 mins outside of the park has a HUGE selection of Disney merchandise.. go figure
Some of it is a good deal, some of it's really not much better than in the park oddly enough... But worth a look before forking out huge in the park.- Backpacks... We saw one mother of 3 with a backpack that had all of their stuff in it. We wish we did that.... Seems like a really simple tip, but it would have made our live a million times easier! We ended up storing things in the bottom of the strollers (we brought a stroller for each kid, in case we wanted to split up -- and we did). The problem with that is that every time you get on a tram, or the train at MK, etc, you need to fold down the stroller.. and take all the stuff out to make that happen... yikes! A backpack would have been much better...
- Do not go to MK planning to have breakfast! We were not impressed with the breakfast at the food court at POR, so we thought "lets eat at the park, that way we're already there!".. riiiiigggghhhht. Either skip breakfast or go to another resort to enjoy their breakfast.. (That said, the bakery on Mainstreet is fantastic.. the best snack credits we spent were on the apple turnovers and the cinnamon buns!! Yumm!!!)
- If you meet a photopass person that says "Hurry up, just move around and I'll take pictures", they know that the fireworks are about to happen right behind you!! Make it intersting! We have pics of my dad while the fireworks from the stage show they do at the castle were going off... Very cool.
- Photopass tip-- If you have a transparent card holder on a lanyard to hold your KTTW and photopass -- put the photopass to the outside with the number facing out. The photopass people can scan it right through the plastic, so you don't have to take it out all the time...
- As mentioned before.. if you have Deluxe Dining, be sure to ask *nicely* for the CM to try ringing in a sidedish/appetizer at the CS locations. They won't all do it, but we found that most would if you asked nicely, and most were surprised that it worked
- Don't forget things like the wakeup call...
we forgot and kicked ourselves afterwards as it would have been great for DD to answer the phone and have a disney character on the other end in the morning! We *DID* have a CM call Goofy for DD and Goofy wished her a happy birthday.. (I may have already mentioned that in the TR).. That was a nice touch!- Ohhh! We did the Mr Potato Head fill-the-box deal at the toy store in DTD... The CMs are excellent there and will help you repack the box until you get everything you want. Also good to know going in -- only 1 side has to close... so if you happen to have a foot sticking out the other side, no worries! And as the CM said "if it doesn't close completely, tape will help".. haha!
I'm sure I'll think of more and will definitely monitor for feedback and comments
Thanks everyone for the kind comments so far -- You've definitely encouraged me to do this again next time we go!!
