Tips about Countdown, Kids and Planning
EPCOT - Get a Kids' Guide to Epcot. It's a small, square, blue booklet, found near the turnstiles or at Guest Relations. There's a place for the child to write his/her name, date of trip, and a list of the people they traveled with. For each ride/attraction, the booklet describes in a sentence or two what to expect at the attraction. There's a small box next to each attraction listing, so that kids can put a checkmark when they visited an attraction. Or, they could use these boxes to check off what they wish to see.
My kids are always begging me to buy them those giant hats at WDW. You know which ones I mean -- the Goofy, Dwarf, Donald Duck, Sorcerer Mickey, etc. hats. Well, whenever we go, we only budget $10 per park/per child for a souvenir. Not to mention, I just can't see buying that hat just so it can sit and collect dust at home or wait for "Silly Hat Day" at school to be worn again. So, I came up with a definite $$-less solution to the problem. I take a picture of my kids in their "silly" hats. They have the memory of the hat for always and the hat doesn't come home with us. Problem solved. - Jen
We are leaving on our 6th trip to WDW and are taking 13 others with us! Something new we are doing this year....we have made 1 reservation a day for everyone (Hoop De Doo, Crystal Palace, Fantasmic, Cinderella's Breakfast......) so to make it easy for everyone we made a spread sheet of sorts with the whole week (calendar look to it) and put all of our confirmation numbers for each day at each location with times included (hotels also). Then we reduced it to a credit card size (still readable) and laminated it. That way everyone in the party has a copy and it is easily accessible!!!! - Gaylia Laird
Costco has an amazing backpack by Baby Innovations for around $25 that was fabulous. It has a zippered thermal side pocket that accommodated 4 juice boxes and a removable lunch container (thermal) that held a few more juice boxes, sandwiches and fruit snacks. It was well worth it, especially if you have kids who are young and/or picky eaters. - Lisa Cappabianca
When planning my vacation, I got a calendar that you can write on, and put on the calendar when to call for dining reservations, reminders to buy things for vacations, phone numbers, anything related to the vacation. Anytime I thought of something related to the vacation I wrote it on. I even wrote confirmation numbers on it so they would all be in the same place. This is a great way to keep reminders for vacation planning. - Donna Rebholz
I was reading in your toddler section about explaining to kids about "big" Mickey and wanted to share our trick. My husband and I are taking our children ages 4 and 1, and our niece age 3 to Disney World in January. To make sure they know what to expect when they see a "big" Mickey we've been attending our local bookstores monthly character story time where a "big" sized character is present each month. This has allowed the kids to see first hand what to expect. We are also planning a visit a regional amusement park for a day as a dry run of sorts to prepare for our week at Disney. - Laura Hulse
I went on a Disney Trip with many people and I suggest this for anyone who is traveling in a larger group from one location. Each of us made a little gift for each person. We made notes, bags of candy, tapes with our favorite Disney songs, coloring pages, games, and pictures. Then before the flight each person put their gifts in everyone else's bags. It added a lot of excitement to have a plane packet. My gift was a little more complex, but it was great. It was a journal that had quotes, pictures, photos, maps, and brochure clippings pasted inside. Everyone on the trip wrote in them. Another tip is to have a pre-party a week or two before the trip. We did this before our cruise. We played games, had dinner, read through books and researched little things and just discussed everything. Then we had a post party to look at pictures and videos. - Lindsay
Our family loves WDW and between trips we really miss it. One way to bring back the fun is to play the Disney game during mealtime or car rides. Each person takes a turn giving one or two clues and the others must guess what the ride, hotel, place, character meal or activity for which the clues are related. For instance, I might say, "This place has a big dinosaur." The others might guess the dinosaur ride at Epcot or the dinosaur ride at AK. But the answer I was thinking about is the toy dinosaur at the All Star Movies. It's a great game that all can play and have fun. I've been stumped a few times by my 9 and 6 year old girls. - Kenna Washington
We love to visit WDW over the Christmas holidays. In fact, I've already booked our 2 week December Wilderness Lodge trip. As you know, the holiday season rates at the resorts are out of this world. A few years ago we just happened to stumble on the fact that the rate you receive for your entire stay is based upon what "season" it is when you check in. Thanks to this little known fact, we are checking in on December 20th (the last day of value season) and receiving the value season rate for our entire 13 night stay! By arriving on the 20th (instead of the 21st) we are saving hundreds of dollars. - DZNYNUT35
I was recently unable to book a room for the nights of 2/9 -2/10 to no avail. Then I started asking for the whole week and many things became available. When it became time to pay for the entire trip, I just had them cancel the other days and I kept the nights that I wanted. - Roxanne Stritt
To save yourself some money, and avoid the grocery trip on the way in, send yourself a package via UPS to your hotel. Mark on the package: hold until guest arrival xx/xx/xx (the date). Package up whatever you like to eat: cereals, Parmalat milk, crackers, juice boxes, etc! - Dorothy Kurz
At WDW, it is difficult to save both time and money. Usually you have to spend one to save the other. Figure out which is more important to you, and plan accordingly. For instance, buses will take longer than driving, but will save you the cost of a rental car and parking fees. - Jen Kitchen
When we went to WDW last fall, my wife made a calendar out of posterboard and taped small treats to each day. Our two children we able to take one treat off the calendar each day after dinner during the last month. It really made for a quite an event each day after dinner. - Robert Hopson
