Tips Tips and More Tips BEFORE YOU GO….

Disney Countdowns
Saving Money
Early Pixie Dust
Getting Prepared
Lastly…

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DISNEY COUNTDOWNS!

My family and I have vacationed in WDW more than a dozen times in the last 8 years. A month or 2 before we leave, I create a Disney Countdown that we mark off each morning so the children can see how many days are left before we go. Then as we wake up the children on the day we leave we have a big presentation while marking off the last day. The children love it and it helps stop the questions about how many days until we leave. KKWash

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I just wanted to echo the tip on the Disney Countdown. We count down to our trip to WDW, too. The family gets together and my husband prints out pages that say Days to Go and a large number on each page. Then we sit around the table clipping out pictures from our saved Disney catalogs and magazines and decorate each page. Once the calendar is up the girls take turns tearing off each day and the excitement builds as we get closer to the "Time to go to Disney World" page. It's not only a lot of fun to do, but is a great family activity that brings us closer each time we do it! Bonnie Bailey Wintersville, Ohio

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Our countdown ritual consists of placing 45 Disney toys and WDW souvenirs on top of a wall that separates our living room from our kitchen. Each night before we go to bed one of the kids gets to remove one of the toys. Because we fly to Orlando, the last item is always a small metal airplane with Mickey as its pilot. Rich Boling

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We take Pictures off the net and write letters from all of our girls favorite Disney characters. As the weeks go buy they get a letter daily telling them to hurry down and visit, it is a joy to see there faces light up when the mail arrives. Shane Curtis

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When we went to WDW last fall, my wife made a calendar out of posterboard and taped small treats to each day. Our two children we able to take one treat off the calendar each day after dinner during the last month. It really made for a quite an event each day after dinner. Robert Hopson

SAVING MONEY

Before we leave for Disney, we save up those photo-developing mailers that come in the mail–you know, the ones that develop film for much cheaper than in stores. We keep one in a fanny pack, all filled out and ready to mail. When a roll of film is done, we pop it in the envelope (most now don't require stamps) and drop it in a mailbox. When we get home, some of our pictures are waiting for us when we pick up the mail. (And it's a lot cheaper–especially when you take as many pictures as we do!!) (Sue)

It is helpful to use http://expedia.com and http://travelocity.com to get low fares, but you can get lower prices without going to Priceline. Simply remember the airline and time of departure/arrival that you find from expedia or travelocity and then go to the actual airline's homepage. If you book that exact flight that you saw elsewhere, it will sometimes be $10 – $20 cheaper per flight!!! I used this philosophy to help plan my next trip to WDW and actually saved a total of $60. Mike Faas

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If you are a Florida resident we have a great deal for you. My family and I are annual passholders and frequently visit WDW. We have the Disney's Dinning Experience and it save's us 20% at most sit down restaurants. This card is $55.00 for the year. We saved that in one weekend. The Hill's

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My family, like most others, books it's trip more than a year ahead of time. We begin stashing away $10 a week in Disney Dollars as soon as we make our vaction ressies. This in additon to whatever other money we budget or save. The Disney Dollars go in an envelope and remain there until trip time. Based on a 52 week calender year that gives you $520, enough to cover most of your meals budget and it's money you hardly even missed from your weekly budget!! (Barry Richard, Massachusetts)

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Walmart has in their camping department "Emergency Poncho" for $.87 each with hoods. These are so small and compact (size of a postcard) that they were easy to pack and carry in the parks. Raingear in the parks is $6.00 for adults and $5.00 for children. Ours did not come with Mickey Mouse on the back! (David & Sonya Wurm)

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At WDW, it is difficult to save both time and money. Usually you have to spend one to save the other. Figure out which is more important to you, and plan accordingly. For instance, buses will take longer than driving, but will save you the cost of a rental car and parking fees. (Jen Kitchen)

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Here is our tip for saving money on trips to Walt Disney World and any other hotel for that matter, first of all we bought a Coleman, about the size of a six-pack it cost about $7 at Wal-Mart, next we bought a small coffee maker ,big enough to make two cups, I think this cost about $12. We buy a pint of milk a day and keep it in the Coleman with ice, to keep it cool. We take coffee with us, and sugar for that matter, and not forgetting some plastic cupsand are able to make coffee in the hotel room and use fresh milk, what to treat. And guess what? The coffee maker fits inside the Coleman for transportation, couldn't be better! With coffee at about a dollar a cup at least, you can see how much can be saved on a vacation of a week or two if people have 4 /6cups a day in your room, the cost savings will easily pay for the Coleman and the coffee maker just on your first trip. Needless to say we take plastic bowls and breakfast cereal with us, to have our breakfast before setting out to the parks. We'll be looking for to our next trip in August 2001. Dave and Jane Young

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My wife and I took our nephews to WDW in September for seven days. We stayed at the All Star Movies. To save money on food we brought down individual boxes of cereal from Michigan to eat for breakfast and then just bought milk every morning. That was like saving almost an entire meal a day. We also brought a backpack that was insulated like a cooler. We filled it every day with combos and fruit snacks. That way during the day if they weren't starving, but just needed a quick snack they would eat combos or a fruit snack instead of spending two to three dollars per person every couple hours for a snack. This also cut down on the number of meals we had to eat because they weren't as hungry. Typically we would end up eating breakfast in the morning with our already paid for cereal, eat a couple of snacks, have a late lunch between 2-3PM, have some more snacks, and then eat a late dinner at our hotel when we would return from the parks. We also bought the all you can drink cups at the hotel which made dinner about $2.00 cheaper per person every night. That adds up over seven days. With the savings it afforded us to be able to do a couple of extra things like a character breakfast and eating at the sci-fi drive-in restaurant. (Rocky Barra II)

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When we returned from our February 2000 trip to WDW we immediately decided to return in February 2001. So we were back to saving for another trip, in addition to our regular vacation savings we decided to start a "Mickey Jar". We took a big plastic container, the type that held pretzels, decorated it with different Mickey characters and put all of our spare change in the jar. Every time we go to a store, instead of parting with our change we give them a bill and throw all the change in the jar. So far in 8 months we have accumulated $175.00. I know it isn't much, but it will be put towards our souvenier money, and it is money we do not even miss. (Debbi Morasch, Connecticut)

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If you go to Disney every year. Buy an Annual Passport for this year, and next year go a couple of weeks earlier.This makes hugh savings!!!! (Bruce Haynes)

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To save yourself some money, and avoid the grocery trip on the way in, send yourself a package via UPS to your hotel. Mark on the package: hold until guest arrival xx/xx/xx (the date). Package up whatever you like to eat: cereals, Parmalat milk, crackers, juice boxes, etc! (Dorothy Kurz)

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I shopped for months before the trip and purchased little items that were from Disney. At tag sales I found little Disney items that were from Happy Meals, buy saving Kodak UPC codes I got 4 puppets for the kids, I found Disney coloring books at a discount store. Before the trip, I wrapped up a package for the children to open each day. That way we did not have to buy gifts each day. We allowed them to buy one gift at the end of the trip. (Sally O'Brien)

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I was recently unable to book a room for the nights of 2/9 -2/10 to no avail. Then I started asking for the whole week and many things became available. When it became time to pay for the entire trip, I just had them cancel the other days and I kept the nights that I wanted. (Roxanne Stritt)

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We all save the coins from our pockets and roll them when we have enough. In April 1999 I started collecting $1.00 bills as well as the coins. I pay for everything with $5's, 10's, 20's, etc. I don't touch my piles of 1's, which I bundle in $100 increments. By the end of 1999, I had saved in excess of $2000 which paid for all expenses at Disney for a week in Feb. This year I have been doing the same thing and have over $2000 saved so far. Make it a game and have fun with it – try to buy things that you will get back $4. at a time. Once at a pizza place, our bill was $21 and I gave the cashier a $100 bill. She gave me $79 in change. Cool huh? — Joe Marcus

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We love to visit WDW over the Christmas holidays. In fact, I've already booked our 2 week December Wilderness Lodge trip. As you know, the holiday season rates at the resorts are out of this world. A few years ago we just happened to stumble on the fact that the rate you receive for your entire stay is based upon what "season" it is when you check in. Thanks to this little known fact, we are checking in on December 20th (the last day of value season) and receiving the value season rate for our entire 13 night stay! By arriving on the 20th (instead of the 21st) we are saving hundreds of dollars. DZNYNUT35

MORE Minnie-mizing the Mouse Tips Here!

Early Pixie Dust

Our family loves WDW and between trips we really miss it. One way to bring back the fun is to play the Disney game during mealtime or car rides. Each person takes a turn giving one or two clues and the others must guess what the ride, hotel, place, character meal or activity for which the clues are related. For instance, I might say, "This place has a big dinosaur." The others might guess the dinosaur ride at Epcot or the dinosaur ride at AK. But the answer I was thinking about is the toy dinosaur at the All Star Movies. It's a great game that all can play and have fun. I've been stumped a few times by my 9 and 6 year old girls. (Kenna Washington)

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I went on a Disney Trip with many people, and I suggest this for anyone who is traveling in a larger group from one location. Each of us made a little gift for each person. wse mad notes, bags of candy, tapes with our favorite Disney songs, coloring pages, games, and pictures. Then before the flight each person put their gifts in everyone else's bags. It added a lot of excitement to have a plane packet. My gift was a little more complex, but it was great. It was a journal that had quotes, pictures, photos, maps, and brochure cliping pasted inside. Everyone on the trip wrote in them. Another tip is to have a pre-party a week or two before the trip. We did this before our cruise. We played games, had dinner, read through books and researched little things and just discussed everything. Then we had a post party to look at pictures and videos. (Lindsay)

GETTING PREPARED

My daughter loves to take pictures and inevitably we end up fighting because she's always trying to take the camera and take TONS of pictures (she's 8) so we buy disposable cameras at Sam's ($9.99 for two) all year long and give her a stack at the beginning of our vacation and tell her that when she takes all the pictures there will be no more picture taking for her and we all are happy. She feels in control of the situation and we don't have to deal with the whining. (Chrisie)

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I was reading in your toddler section about explaining to kids about "big" Mickey and wanted to share our trick. My husband and I are taking our children ages 4 and 1, and our niece age 3 to Disney World in January. To make sure they know what to expect when they see a "big" Mickey we've been attending our local bookstores monthly character story time where a "big" sized character is present each month. This has allowed the kids to see first hand what to expect. We are also planning a visit a regional amusement park for a day as a dry run of sorts to prepare for our week at Disney. (Laura Hulse)

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Print out adhesive address labels of everyone you will be sending postcards to on your trip. You will wind up carrying one sheet of paper with you instead of an address book, and won't forget anyone in your vacation frenzy! (Victoria L. Moynihan)

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When planning my vacation, I got a calendar that you can write on, and put on the calendar when to call for dining reservations, reminders to buy things for vacations, phone numbers, anything related to the vacation. Anytime I thought of something related to the vacation I wrote it on. I even wrote confirmation numbers on it so they would all be in the same place. This is a great way to keep reminders for vacation planning. (Donna Rebholz)

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Costco has an amazing backpack by Baby Innovations for around $25 that was fabulous. It has a zippered thermal side pocket that accommodated 4 juice boxes and a removable lunch container (thermal) that held a few more juice boxes, sandwiches and fruit snacks. It was well worth it, especially if you have kids who are young and/or picky eaters. (Lisa Cappabianca)

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We are leaving on our 6th trip to WDW and are taking 13 others with us! Something new we are doing this year….we have made 1 reservation a day for everyone (Hoop De Doo, Crystal Palace, Fantasmic, Cinderella's Breakfast……) so to make it easy for everyone we made a spread sheet of sorts with the whole week (calendar look to it) and put all of our confirmation numbers for each day at each location with times included (hotels also). Then we reduced it to a credit card size (still readable) and laminated it. That way everyone in the party has a copy and it is easily accessable!!!! Gaylia Laird