Tips about Animal Kingdom Lodge, Mousecellaneous, Planning and Souvenirs
One of our favorite souvenir items from Walt Disney World is picture frames. We have gotten quite a collection over the years. It is a wonderful way to remember your trip and you can fill them with pictures of your trip and look at them every day. We also have a collection of magnets, license plates and beach towels. - Deb Curl
This summer, my family decided to give back a little to the Cast Members who make each stay even more magical. Before leaving home, we printed (using print programs that are out there on the Web) character thank you cards. Each card had a different princess or Tinker Bell on it, and said something nice like, "We put your service to the test, and you're the best!" or "Thank you for making our vacation magical!" We added our family name, hometown, and "Summer 2004." We printed them out, and each member of our family got a sheet of their own to color. After coloring, we laminated them. Once in the park, we handed them out to Cast Members who we felt had gone above and beyond the call of "normal magic." Most of the Cast Members we handed them out to were so surprised and thanked *us*! We really enjoyed doing this, and I feel sure that it will be a new tradition for our family. - Ashlee Farris
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If you plan on visiting WDW during the winter months, buy several pairs of those "magic" stretch gloves before you leave for your trip. If a cold front comes through during your visit and you need gloves, you'll be happy you bought them before you left home. The parks sells them for $6.00 a pair. Quite a difference in price than what your local Wal-Mart sells them for. - Noreen Rachuba
During the course of our Disney vacation, we accumulated a huge number of plastic Disney bags. Instead of throwing them away after we removed our purchases, we kept them in a drawer in our room and used them to wrap and cushion breakable items that we were carrying on the plane on the wayhome. - Erin
From time to time people want to know the location of the closest church to WDW. Now you can search: http://masstimes.org. You can search for services in any state and town. They even have city maps, too. I thought this might be helpful to anyone wanting to go to services while on vacation. Tina
We have been going to WDW since our children were toddlers. Now they are all teenagers (and beyond), but this tip is still good. We have them bring plastic beverage holders that can clip onto a fanny belt. They start out with water, but if we ate a meal in the park, frequently there would still be some beverage left from the meal. The kids would fill the bottle with the leftover drink and take it with them. This has worked well over the years. - Anne Cioffi
I agree whole hearty about getting one "nice" gift / souvenir. My DW and I for years always got the "usual" stuff to bring home. T-Shirts, hats, etc. Nice stuff to remember our trip but would always seem to get put away and never really used. On our last trip we decided to try something a little different. We had always wanted a coo-coo clock so when we were in EPCOT we bought a very nice clock in Germany. It was expensive but they shipped it home for us (it arrived the day after we got home) and it now proudly hangs in our kitchen. It is a constant reminder of our trip. - Jim B
Disney has such a large selection of coin banks. We bought one toward the end of our trip but next time we will buy it on the first day. THEN as we get back to our room or camper each night, all change will go into the bank to begin our savings fund for our next trip. I found that halfway thru this trip I was lugging around a huge change purse of coins that added a heavy load to my backpack. Buying a bank the first day will not only give us a fun sense of "when we come back again" but i won't be lugging all those nickels & dimes around trying to pawn them off on kiosk vendors paying for my stuff. - Amy Miles
We just returned from our trip to Disney World. The night we went to Fantasmic I knew we would be sitting for a while waiting for the show to begin. The best investment I made was buying one of those soft folding stadium seats. I carried it with me like a purse. Even used the side mesh pocket to carry drinks to our seats. We waited for over an hour and a half for the show to begin but I didn't mind - I was very comfortable with my seat padding and back support! - Marilyn Lewis
Be flexible with making your ADR dining arrangements. If the table you want is unavailable try different combinations -- 2 tables of 2 instead of one table of four; a 3-2 split rather than a table of 5, etc. Splitting up your group for just an hour or so may be the way to go, given that you're spending all day and all night together for several days on end. Splitting up may also allow you to gain more flexibility in changing ADR reservations without penalty if, after several days in the parks, someone in your party says "I don't need to see any more characters, I'll stay at the hotel, sleep late and meet you later, go and enjoy!" - Phylis
I've often asked the cast members at the cash registers to remove tags so someone in my party could wear a hat, put on a shirt or slip on new shoes. There has never been an occasion where a cashier did not have a pair of scissors handy to comply with the request - Phyllis Wirick
We love collecting pressed pennies and quarters. We always bring many rolls of quarters and pennies. Since they are heavy and jingle a lot, we found this great idea. The quarters and pennies fit nicely in empty mini M&M plastic containers with snap tops. They are the exact size of a quarter and can fit well over a whole roll of quarters. They work for pennies also. So, before going to Disney we go to the bank and load up on rolls of quarters and pennies, so we don't have to scramble for them at the park and storage them in mini M&M containers. - Mary Smith
On a recent Disney trip I decided to forgo bringing my purse and just buy a cheap, small man's wallet. I just popped my ID, credit cards, ticket and a few dollars in, and off I would go. I could skip the bag line and not worry about where my money and information was. It made airport check-in a breeze also. I still use it today and leave all my other seldom-used cards in my larger wallet in my purse. How often do you really use all that other stuff you drag around with you? - Donna
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Just to touch on those wonderful pressed pennies: Don't forget to leave them out of your luggage when going through airport security. We lost some precious time and almost missed a connecting flight because our coin rolls had to be pulled out of our carry-on luggage for further inspection. Having them out of the luggage and accessible prior to going through the scanners makes it quicker and easier to get through the security check points. - Julie Wagner
