Tips about Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Planning

Heidi Wolff and her husband have developed customized Housekeeping Envelopes to use during your stay at a WDW resort. "We really wanted to let the "mousekeeping" know that we care. The pictures are easy to download and print on a standard printer." http://arwolff.com/heidi/

Wal-Mart has in its camping department an "emergency poncho" for 87 cents each, with hood. These ponchos are so small and compact (size of a postcard) that they were easy to pack and carry in the parks. Rain gear in the parks is $6 for adults and $5 for children. Ours did not come with Mickey Mouse on the back! - David & Sonya Wurm

Our small kids don't care for sudden or loud noises. Take along a couple pairs of kid-sized ear plugs. They don't take up much room, but they make all the difference in the "world" to jumpy little ones! - Vicki Knuckles

Before going [to WDW], I purchased several small Disney related items at discount stores and put them in my backpack in the morning. During different times I would bring them out for the kids, such as Monsters candy dispensers while waiting to meet Mike and Sulley. They were a huge hit, and the kids weren't always asking for something. I also made the kids canvas pouches that went around their necks, I painted mouse ears and their names on them. They held their Disney Dollars, pennies and quarters for pressing, and pen and cards for autographs. Their hands were free and they got a lot of compliments on them. - The Zolman family

Just a helpful hint to those planning future trips (we're already planning our next year's visit!) -- Ziploc bags are your friends! We put snacks, cameras, and even aspirin in them and carried them in our backpack. Even when we went on the Kali River Rapids or Splash Mountain we didn't have to worry about anything getting ruined. - Sue Harshbarger

As I sit at my computer researching my vacation, I keep a small notebook next to the keyboard. When I find some valuable information I jot it down. This way I don't have to remember links or specifics and can go back later to get more info. I then periodically file the information in a larger notebook -- restaurants, transportation, hotel info, etc. This helps keep me organized and that is hard to do! LOL! - Lisa

I am the family travel agent, so to speak, and I am very organized in my planning. One thing that I found helpful was to buy a cheap marble copybook from our local discount store. Then I covered it in Disney Princess wrapping paper, along with other cut-outs and stickers of other characters I could find. I use this book to keep track of all of our reservation and flight information, priority seating, as well as a "scratch pad" of sorts to plan our journey through the parks. Since it has at least a hundred pages, I plan on using it as a journal as well, having the kids write down certain experiences, and draw pictures of what they have seen. I plan on using it over and over again, as both a memory piece and a trip planner for the next time we plan on visiting WDW! - T. Porretta who is planning her family's first trip to WDW

EPCOT - On every trip to Epcot we try to collect different things from each country, but I'm beginning to run out of space. So this year we decided to collect candy from each country. We usually picked up two different candies at each country. The only country that did not have candy was Morocco, so we bought a pastry. It's a tasty treat that you can enjoy at the park and later at home. I took some to my family and we had a contest to see what country they thought the candy came from. So, in essence it's a treat, collection, and later a game, but only needing short-term storage space. What a fun, tasty thing to do -- my family enjoyed it! - Kelly Adkins

EPCOT - On every trip to Epcot we try to collect different things from each country, but I'm beginning to run out of space. So this year we decided to collect candy from each country. We usually picked up two different candies at each country. The only country that did not have candy was Morocco, so we bought a pastry. It's a tasty treat that you can enjoy at the park and later at home. I took some to my family and we had a contest to see what country they thought the candy came from. So, in essence it's a treat, collection, and later a game, but only needing short-term storage space. What a fun, tasty thing to do -- my family enjoyed it! - Kelly Adkins

ANIMAL KINGDOM - I'd like to warn readers that they should check the train waits before heading up to Rafiki's Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom. We were there recently when only one train was running. What was supposed to be a 15-minute wait to return turned into a 45-minute wait. We nearly missed the parade and were lucky to catch the second pass through at Harambe just as we disembarked the train.