What Disney Tip Are you really glad you listened to?

[tl_swift]

The best tips we used were:

1) Arriving before rope drop!!

2) Take a break mid day

3) Bring snacks- We brought ours in a backpack cooler worked great!!

4) Take a picture of the area that you are parked in if you are driving. We did that and it worked great. Especially the one time when DH & I remembered differently. Of course I had the picture to back me up.

 

[robin-mcj]

I Love this thread. I have been reading for a while now and I think I have read it all.

I have to agree with many Ziplocks are awesome! Had them in every size.

My tips:

Learn the bus system. My DH was great at this. I’d just follow (I’m the trip planner…after I get there, the Magic takes over). We would catch a bus to some resort that would take us to another park and before I knew it, we were back at Pop. Sometimes we would catch a boat that would take us to a resort or a different park then we would board a bus to our resort. This was nice because it was cold when we were there. It beat waiting in long lines in freezing temp and wind. We always beat our friends back to the resort. Before the end of the trip they were following my DH.

Rubbermaid - and I don’t mean the ones you put in your fridge.

We drive (from TX – I had Rubbermaid that I let the kids decorate with Disney stickers. We had
one Rubbermaid for Disney toys/shoes/jackets (Dec trip)
one Rubbermaid for food and
one for medicine/diapers/wipes
Here is the best part; after we unloaded them (except for the shoes jackets) they Stacked up, totally out of the way (well not totally but only one Rubbermaid instead of 3). If I needed an extra laundry basket…no problem…extra tabletop for the kids…flip it over. One warning, you need to get a baggage carry thing from your resort to get this to your room and this idea doesn’t work for my flying friends (ha ha, flying friends, Peter Pan) Sorry…back to the post

I also made laminated tags for the kids (I’m a teacher, easy to get to a laminator). It gave our cell phone numbers, our names, a Note that said to “Check our I.D.” and one other thing that several CM’s made comments on. I hand-wrote a note on the bottom that said, “If I am injured, my parents give permission for me to have medical treatment” and then my husband and I both signed it. (you Never know)
I made tons of these. Everyday my kids had a new one on there lanyard and one in there pocket. And yes, I used sharpie to write our phone number on both of the kid’s arms. I am paranoid I guess…

A stroller, it is free if you have a Disney Credit Card (Disneyland only). It was so nice to put all our “junk” in and around the stroller. Saved the back. Never thought DD6 would ride but she had no problem and there was plenty of room for both. (I wish I fit)

MVMCP, Well worth the extra money. We rode EVERYTHING in MK the night we were there and once you see those fireworks, there’s no reason to stay for Wishes. They are spectacular! And there was something so magical about Christmas, cookies, parades, fireworks and Disney *happy sigh*

One last thing, we had a friend that told us to avoid EMH. WOW! That was great advice.
We did and we are so glad. It was so obvious to us. We would go to the bus stop in front of the resort and there would be a HUGE line for the park with EMH. We’d get in the line with 5-10 people. Why did these people not see this?

One thing I wish we could change. I over packed…even for the park. By the 3rd day I had ½ the original “stuff” in the bag.
Oh, that reminded me; my DD brought a messenger bag (her bag for school work…she had school stuff because we pulled her out to go) pretty big for the park normally. We ended up using this instead of the fanny pack. Why??? Well, we rented a double stroller (DD6, DS2) and the messenger bag strap was long enough to fit perfectly around the handles. A smaller bag wouldn’t have had a chance. We left everything in there, even our camera…no one touched a thing. Plus it helped us identify our stroller. We did bring in the bag to long shows and sit down meals. And our Credit Cards/passes were on our lanyards.


Keep the good ideas coming!! As my husband says, I'm obsessed, I love to plan! Planning is half the fun to me!

 

[baketank]

I dont know if this has been mentioned yet, but it is for those renting a car. When you get to the parks, take out your digital camera and take a photo of the sign for whatever section you are parking in. You would be amazed how many people lose their cars and spend hours wandering the huge parking lots looking for their rental car. The last time I went to Disney, we did this at all the parks and we never had to worry about where we parked. Just knowing that we didnt even have to bother remembering it was one less stress for us to deal with.

Also, does anyone know the DIS promo code for Tour Guide Mike?? Thanks.

 

[scrappin]

We just got back Dec 24. The tips we were glad we followed were:

I loved using Ziplock bags - had them in all sizes. Worked great for packing too.

We had a great time with the penny smooshing. This is something I think the kids will continue to do as a reasonable souvenior

Getting the double cheeseburger meal and asking for an extra bun - that really saved!

Buying $0.89 ponchos at Walmart at home prior to trip. They came in handy 1 day when it turned cool and the kids wanted to do a bunch of water rides!

 

[Echo queen]

Do not let rain stop you. Our last trip was Sept/Oct 07, 1 night it was raining buckets and the skys looked really bad. We were having dinner off site, and chatting with others about how the night was over at the parks due to the rain. As we were heading back on site, I said lets go to the MK my family thought I was crazy . So we get there the rain stops and we spent the evening walking on to all of the rides. They thought that was awsome. I told them I got that tip on the Dis

 

[Karmel96]

A stroller, it is free if you have a Disney Credit Card. It was so nice to put all our “junk” in and around the stroller. Saved the back. Never thought DD6 would ride but she had no problem and there was plenty of room for both. (I wish I fit)

I never knew this! I was thinking about it for our upcoming trip (my kids are 7 and 4), but wasn't looking forward to paying the money each day. I will be looking in to this! Thanks!!

 

[teacherme]

I love all these tips. I will be going in Nov. 08 so I have already started to copy down a lot of these wonderful tips. You all are so wonderful.

 

[Jenniww]

I can't think of anything to add... but I learned a lot!
Thanks

 

[thaisa47]

Take a mid-day break. We took our (then) 15 month old to Disney, along with my parent's who hadn't visited since 1992, this past October. We were all overwhelmed and tired. Heading back to our hotel for a 2-3 hour nap (or swimming, if you didn't nap) every day was heavenly. And it left us all recharged and ready to spend the evening without meltdowns and exhaustion.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

slow down and don't try to do everything all in one trip

 

[cdrn1]

One thing I'm going to do this year is pack about 10 clothes hangers as there just aren't enough, I will then just leave them there so more room for souvenirs

You can call housekeeping and request more and they will bring them. Just tell them how many you would like to have. You don't have to be in the room when they come.

 

[notes4theheart]

Posting in a sec

 

[notes4theheart]

1.) Tip mousekeeping daily, even if it's a dollar. Most of the time they'll leave you a really cute towel animal on the bed as a thank-you.

2.) If you need extra anything, leave a note with your tip. Mousekeeping will leave if for you with no trouble. (I asked for extra shampoo and got 3 bottles)

3.) After illuminations, when everyone runs for the exit, take a stroll around the lagoon. It is breath-taking in the moonlight.

4.) If you're at MK and need a break, walk over to the grand floridian and grab a hamock (sp?) on the beach. It's very relaxing.

5.) If you didn't make an ADR, always ask at the resturant anyway. Chances are they had a cancelation. Since no one ever asks, they normally can seat you.


6.) Buy the refillable mug at DAK, it's only 2 dollars a refill and they'll give you two refills at a time.

7.) If you do EMH evening at Epcot, get on the soaring line about 15 minutes before closing. You'll have a short wait and sometimes they let you ride twice

8.) speaking of riding twice, If you wait till the last 20 minutes or so at Kali river rapids to ride, the CMs will let you just keep circling until the park closes. I once rode 8 times in a row!

 

[Brazoo]

Thanks theparsons for the congrats. I am excited and no better time for planning then the present. Now if I could only save each day then this would be golden. Has anyone run into an issue trying to use their frequent flyer miles during the xmas season to Disney. I have about 150,000 we can use so should be able to take the kids and grandparents for free if I can use them.

 

[tmonferdini]

subscribing

 

[southernqueen]

Great tips! This will be my families first time going to WDW and we are super excited. I am subscribing to this thread so I can come back and write down more tips. Thanks so much!

 

[markwake]

These tips are terrific. Thanks!

 

[toledo13]

I posted a couple of tips a loooong ways back, but here's another one for the ladies, and guys too, I guess--

Get a park bag that can go crosswise across your chest, rather than a fanny, backpack, or over the shoulder bag (regular purse). There are a couple of reasons for this--

When you have a bag that can go crosswise across your chest (think small size messanger bag), you don't have to take it off to go on rides like Soarin, EE, or Test Track. If it's small enough, you can leave it on, and it won't get in the way of putting on your seatbelt/lap bar (like a fanny can) Since you don't have to take it off, you also then don't risk leaving it behind . I didn't feel comfortable taking my backpack off for Test Track because there wasn't one of those mesh bag holder things-- but if I had a crosswise shoulder bag, I wouldn't have worried! Having one of these bags also helps with getting things in and out of it. If you have on a backpack, you have to take it off to get into it or have someone get into it for you. You can also get out of the way of impatient park goers that want to get on the ride as soon as it pulls up, whether you're out of the way or not!!!

 

[redoschi]

Dole Whip is certainly one of the tips I took and gladly so!

Another one was the Beaches n' Cream soda fountain at Beach Club which really has an amazing cheeseburger!!!

To start the day doing Fantasyland first to avoid the crowds of kids which do not arrive at rope drop.

These were some of the tips that we took, there were several others surely, but I can't remember them right now.

 

[jessicad12]

Packing in zip lock bags has been a huge space saver for me.