Tips about Characters, Kids, Magic Kingdom, Mousecellaneous and Resorts

Last year I bought my husband the "Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs" cookbook. This year when we went, my husband brought the book and requested (at each dining establishment) that the chef sign the page in our book that had the recipe from their kitchen. It was a treat for both the chefs as well as my family when, on occasion, the chef came out to our table. Now we have started a family tradition that we can continue as adults while our kids work on the autographs of the characters. - dollydawne

For our recent trip to Disney World, I purchased an inexpensive 11 x 14 picture frame. The photo opening was for a 5 x 7, so the white mat around the edges was quite large. We had a great time collecting character autographs on the white mat! They had no trouble at all writing with our black Sharpie. Several cast members thought that the idea was really cool. Carrying it around was a breeze, too -- I just wrapped the top and bottom in two plastic grocery bags (so the entire mat would be covered in case of rain) and tied one of the bags to the edge of our stroller. Now we have a family photo with Mickey displayed in it, and a great keepsake of all the characters we love! - Whitney Pruitt

I love having Disney reminders everywhere. I think it is wonderful that even pets can get into the action. But what if you are like us and have a feathered pet? Well, we bought our parakeet, Mr. Freeze, a Mickey-shaped pet tag and hung it in his cage! He really enjoyed looking at it and playing with it. It was shiny, reflective and noisy. We then purchased a pet tag in the shape of a star with Tinker Bell, and he is in LOVE! Each time I clean his cage, he guards it with his... beak. So even if you don't have a furry pet, check out some of the pet items and see if they will work to share the magic with everyone in your family! - Kimberly K. Lawton

Fort Wilderness - I recently returned from Fort Wilderness and discovered that the "petting farm" is now called the "pony pond." There are a few Shetland ponies and miniature ponies but no other animals and there is no more feeding. We really enjoyed seeing "Qes," one of the horses in the stable we had seen the day before pulling the trolley down Main Street, USA. - Josh Steiner

We have received many compliments on our idea for character autographs and thought we would share our idea with your readers. My daughters are 9 and 14 years old, a little too old for autograph books (their idea), so we purchased canvas backpacks at our local arts and crafts store for a few dollars. We brought along several permanent markers and a stiff piece of cardboard to insert into the backpack so the characters have a nice surface to write on. Paperclips to hold the fabric and cardboard are helpful. We have been told they appreciate this, as it makes signing easier. The girls can carry their packs with them to the parks and add signatures whenever they see a new character. It makes a nice fashion statement to be seen walking around with designer signatures on their backs. - Rubykorner10

We've said this before, but it should be mentioned again: put your name and address on your items when you're touring the parks! On the first day in the parks I bought autograph books for my daughters. When we purchased them, the cast member told me to make sure I put our name and address inside each book, because if it ever got lost, they would mail it back to us. Lo and behold, one of my daughters "misplaced" her book within that first hour. We retraced our steps, but the book was nowhere to be found. Imagine my surprise when we received a package from WDW addressed to my daughter when we got home -- it was the missing book! - Pam Etheridge

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 - 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

I read about having characters sign the Disney Encyclopedia of Characters in your newsletter. It sounded like a fun idea! We added a twist to it. We printed pictures of our kids with the characters they saw in Disney World onto sticker/label paper and then we stuck each picture to the appropriate character page. If the character didn't have a page (such as Mary Poppins) we stuck her sticker to the back blank pages. Now the girls are staring in their own Disney book and I imagine it will be even more fun for cast members who may (if they're lucky) see themselves in our photos the next time we visit Disney World and use this book as an autograph book. The sticker idea could work with any Disney story book, of course, and I think it would be great combined with the personalized story books from Disney too! Thanks for the great tips! - Laura in Iowa

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