Tips about Air Travel, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Mousecellaneous and Resorts

ALL PARKS - As you are waiting in line, a great way to spend the time is to play what we call the Disney Alphabet Game. Start with the letter "A" and the first person has to name a Disney character that starts with the letter "A," like Ariel. The next person has to name a character whose name starts with the letter "B," such as Br'er Rabbit, and so on. Once you reach "Z" start over back at "A" but you can't use the same character twice. If you need a hint for "X", there is a Buzz Lightyear character named XR. It's fun for kids and adults. We played while waiting for Fantasmic! and had everyone around us shouting out suggestions within a few minutes. - Chris in Iowa

ALL PARKS - As you are waiting in line, a great way to spend the time is to play what we call the Disney Alphabet Game. Start with the letter "A" and the first person has to name a Disney character that starts with the letter "A," like Ariel. The next person has to name a character whose name starts with the letter "B," such as Br'er Rabbit, and so on. Once you reach "Z" start over back at "A" but you can't use the same character twice. If you need a hint for "X", there is a Buzz Lightyear character named XR. It's fun for kids and adults. We played while waiting for Fantasmic! and had everyone around us shouting out suggestions within a few minutes. - Chris in Iowa

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

I recently bought something that made me say, "This will be perfect for Disney World." It is a cell phone charger that uses two AA lithium batteries to charge your phone. It is just a little bigger then a cigarette lighter and fits nicely in my digital camera bag. I already carry extra AA batteries for the camera, so the power is available everywhere I go. They are packaged with the connectors hanging out, so you can make sure they fit your phone before you buy. It takes about a hour to charge my phone, just about right for the Fantasmic show experience. - Toohill

ALL EARS® recently mentioned some new packages/baskets from the Disney Florist -- including a "Proclaim Her a Princess" basket. The information indicated the basket is intended for girls 5-12. I wanted to make sure folks know that either the Disney Florist or most hotel concierge cast members can help personalize any basket, making it more age appropriate and unique to the recipient. I worked with our concierge (kudos to Stephanie!) at the Grand Floridian to personalize that basket and delivery for my niece's 8th grade graduation this past June. It included items appropriate to her, including a unique tiara we didn't see anywhere at WDW and a personalized beach towel and wallet. It's hard to impress a 14-year-old... but between the delivery (complete with rose petals lining the room to the basket that was waiting for her) and the basket itself, she was speechless! We all know the "if you can dream it, they can do it" Disney motto, but I could never have come up with these ideas! These folks are fabulous! - Lori Degliantoni

Every couple of years we take an "adults" only vacation at Disney, and we also wanted to try something different for our scrapbook. We tried beers in every county at Epcot (not all in one day!). Most of the beers were very good and we had our picture taken in that country, next to the stand, with the server. Some of the countries actually peeled the label off the beer bottle for us to keep and we added that to our pictures as well. The last country was Germany and we bought the stein to take home. I've heard of someone else who did wines around the world. It is a lot of fun for adults and lets you enjoy many different tastes. - Dawn Hewitt

When you are leaving Disney and you have airline check-in at your hotel, make sure your flight information is accurate. We were leaving Disney, checked in at the resort airline check-in area, and were given boarding passes and a gate number at 10 a.m. At 9:53 a.m., we received a message on our home phone (in New Jersey) that our 2:35 flight had been canceled, but the airlines didn't notify anyone in the Disney resort check-in areas. Needless to say, we weren't checking messages (because we thought we would be home soon) and after sitting at the gate for an hour, they finally posted on the board that the flight was canceled. We were literally stranded at the airport until we managed to find a flight in Ft. Lauderdale, rented a car, drove down, and took the flight home the next day. - Dawn Schwartz

Magic Kingdom - I found out last year that the Magic Kingdom does a practice run of the July 4 fireworks on July 3. It was spectacular, and this gave us the oppurtunity to watch the fireworks from Epcot on the 4th. We got the best of both worlds, and the finale at Epcot is worth seeing. - Thomas Chambers

Though we pack a suitcase within a suitcase for souvenirs, I'm always nervous of going over the 50-pound weight limit for checking a suitcase onto an airline. Suitcases weighing over 50 pounds are typically charged an additional fee. This trip, we purchased a 50-pound fish scale for $5.00 at a local department store prior to packing. The scale has a small hook that can connect to the handle of a suitcase and it has another handle for you to lift the suitcase and scale. We were able to pack and redistribute items where needed to insure that we did not exceed the 50-pound limit. - Denny Shealer

Fort Wilderness - When I took my son over to Fort Wilderness for an afternoon pony ride, we were so disappointed when he couldn't ride because he was wearing open-toed sandals. It is required that kids wear closed-toe shoes to ride the ponies at Fort Wilderness. - Robin Jones

EDITOR'S NOTE: Parents should also wear closed-toe shoes.

Magic Kingdom and Epcot - My family and I just got back from Disney on June 8. We had a great time, but something I found very useful was that when we got to the park (around 11 a.m. -- we let the kids sleep in since we were at the park late the night before) the line for the monorail and ferryboat to Magic Kingdom was backed up to the ticket booths! So instead of wasting 30-45 minutes waiting to get on the monorail, we hopped over to Epcot since there was no line at all. We had 1:00 p.m. reservations at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, but we had enough time to see Turtle Talk with Crush (kids loved it!) and take a family shot in front of Spaceship Earth. This is definitely worth doing instead of standing on line. - Pamela Matzner

Magic Kingdom and Epcot - My family and I just got back from Disney on June 8. We had a great time, but something I found very useful was that when we got to the park (around 11 a.m. -- we let the kids sleep in since we were at the park late the night before) the line for the monorail and ferryboat to Magic Kingdom was backed up to the ticket booths! So instead of wasting 30-45 minutes waiting to get on the monorail, we hopped over to Epcot since there was no line at all. We had 1:00 p.m. reservations at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, but we had enough time to see Turtle Talk with Crush (kids loved it!) and take a family shot in front of Spaceship Earth. This is definitely worth doing instead of standing on line. - Pamela Matzner