Tips about ChildId, Epcot and Mousecellaneous

Ever wonder how much walking you do at the different parks, or on different days? So did we. A couple of years ago I bought an inexpensive pedometer basically for this purpose. You may want to consider this, as it gives you a little more to talk about after your vacation. We keep a daily log of the miles we walk and share it with our friends back home. Also you will either confirm what you already think about how far you walk, or you may be quite surprised that you walked as far as you did. Just a note -- we always rack up the most miles on our days at Epcot. - Bob Rogers

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

Epcot - Here's a tip for getting on Test Track with little or no wait: show up right before Future World closes, then get in the Singles Line. We waited less than 10 minutes on a Saturday night. - Jen

Epcot - Here's a tip for getting on Test Track with little or no wait: show up right before Future World closes, then get in the Singles Line. We waited less than 10 minutes on a Saturday night. - Jen

ALL PARKS - My husband and I just returned from our honeymoon at WDW and had a MAGICAL time! One thing that I would like to share concerns the "Magical Wishes" pins that you can pick up from Guest Relations at the theme parks. My advice is that everyone celebrating a special event -- honeymoon, anniversary, birthday -- pick up one of these buttons. Everywhere we went in WDW we were warmly congratulated by Cast Members! We had an incredible time! I would recommend WDW to any couple who wants a truly special honeymoon! - Christina Church

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are many styles of buttons available at Guest Relations. Among the more popular: "Best Wishes,""Congratulations," "1st Visit", "Happy Anniversary" and "Today is My Birthday."

I noticed in some of the online forums that many people will use their vacation as a reason or inspiration to get in shape. After all, you will need your "walkin' shoes" in the World! I, too, have begun walking in the mornings for exercise... inspired by our pending trip to that Magical Place! My tip is: there are many new sources for podcasts about Disney World. Listening to these podcasts really makes your walk go quickly! You don't need an iPod to listen; any MP3 player will do, or even burn them to disc for your old-fashioned CD Walkman! - Tom in Connecticut

EDITOR'S NOTE: We're aware of several Disney podcasts that have started up in recent months -- there's MouseTunes found at: http://mousetunes.com/ There are also the podcasts at WDWToday.com -- be sure to check out Episodes #19 and #22, which feature ALL EARS® editors Deb Wills and Deb Koma, discussing their book (PassPorter's Walt Disney World for Your Special Needs). We're sure there are other podcasts out there, too -- do a quick internet search if you're interested in finding more.

While preparing for our trip and reading all the tips I could find, I came across the tip about getting the dish wipes for washing out the refillable cups or anything else you might need to wash. I thought that it was an excellent tip and set out to try to find them. I looked in every store in my area trying to find them, but could not. Finally I decided to try to make my own. I got some thick baby wipes and laid them flat on the kitchen counter. I squeezed on some dish soap and left them to dry until the next day. When they were dry, I put them in a zipper top bag. It worked perfectly and I was able to use things I already had around the house! - Angela B.

Epcot - I have a tip for keeping children occupied while waiting for the fireworks at Epcot. On our last trip to Disney, we wandered into the Toy Soldier at the United Kingdom before we went to get a place to sit for the fireworks. While we were in the store our 3 1/2-year-old son saw a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle he wanted. We bought it for him and let him put it together while we waited for the fireworks to begin. It completely occupied his time and by the time he was finished, it was almost time for the fireworks. We are planning another trip in November 2005 and this time I am going to pack some of his puzzles into Ziplock bags to take with us. He will have something to do while we wait and we won't have the box to take up a lot of room in our bag. - Tiffany Lueck

Epcot - I have a tip for keeping children occupied while waiting for the fireworks at Epcot. On our last trip to Disney, we wandered into the Toy Soldier at the United Kingdom before we went to get a place to sit for the fireworks. While we were in the store our 3 1/2-year-old son saw a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle he wanted. We bought it for him and let him put it together while we waited for the fireworks to begin. It completely occupied his time and by the time he was finished, it was almost time for the fireworks. We are planning another trip in November 2005 and this time I am going to pack some of his puzzles into Ziplock bags to take with us. He will have something to do while we wait and we won't have the box to take up a lot of room in our bag. - Tiffany Lueck

On the same idea as the kid ID tags, when we took our last trip we had five children under 8 years old in our family, and there were 20 of us in total. In the past I had witnessed parents frantically searching for lost children, so I wanted to put something on the kids without giving out too much information. My kids love the popular rubber-band type bracelets, so I picked out plain-colored ones (not multi-colored). We actually used the Mickey icon ones from Disney World, and with a permanent marker wrote "parents' cell #" on them. We then instructed the kids to, if lost, alert the nearest Cast Member and show them the bracelet. It worked well, but luckily we did not have to put them to use! - Lisa Legere-Fraser

A recent tip of the week reminded me of something I used with my son years ago. We used a luggage tag with a closed flap so that the information wasn't "exposed" unless needed. We placed the tag with mom's and dad's names, the name of our hotel, and telephone numbers -- not home information or room numbers (that information would be very valuable to thieves!) -- on a belt pack that our son wore all the time. In addition, we picked a secret password. He knew to only go to people with a Disney tag or if they used the password. Don't use Mickey as a password at WDW -- way too obvious. Our son picked Bugs Bunny. He said nobody at WDW would say, "Bugs sent me!" We also taught him that if he ever got lost at WDW to stay in one place and just yell, "Help!" Cast Members are everywhere and trained to zoom to emergencies. I felt he was safer and the belt pack was the perfect carrier for his autograph book and pen. - Malinda Orrico

The last time our family went to Disney World, our granddaughter was 2 years old. She could communicate pretty well, but if a child is scared, it can be difficult. What my daughter did was write her cell phone number on the inside front of her daughter's T-shirts with a permanent marker. You couldn't see it unless you looked on the inside hem. All my granddaughter needed to do was to show a Cast Member the hem of her T-shirt and they could call her mother's cell phone in the park. I thought it was a great idea. - Marie Kuhn

Having once been lost for a terrifying five minutes in Disney World when I was a child, I have tried various tips mentioned in your newsletter to spare my children this experience. The hand holder at Wal-Mart didn't work, especially by the buses! I am not a seamstress, so putting their names in every shirt just isn't an option. Someone said to try these name tags that fasten to their shoes, except I thought the price was a little steep. Before we left on our last trip, I was in a store's luggage department. I purchased two waterproof luggage tags. I attached them to my kids' belt loops and stuck the tag in their pockets. It had all the important information on it, including our cell phone numbers. The kids knew if they were lost to go to a Cast Member and show them the tag. The best part about it is that the tags cost only $3 for both of them. - Laura Littner

I wanted to expand on a tip given this week from Alea Laughery in regard to taking pictures of your kids in each country in Epcot. We do this every year and some other ideas we have done: playing an instrument, waving a flag, eating a candy or treat not from a restaurant and taking a picture with a cast member from that country. My son gets excited every time and is always coming up with what he wants to do. (He came up with the instrument idea!) Next trip... Toys! - Lisa H.