Tips about Disney Dining Plan, Food & Beverage, Kids and Mousecellaneous

The small Disney shopping bag is perfect for holding a raincoat. It packs easily into backpacks and can also even be threaded through a belt. Like others, I always save every shopping bag until we go home just in case we need it for something, but when we have to purchase a new raincoat, I'm always glad there is a little one stored in our room. - Lori Wedeking

I use the Disney shopping bags as gift wrap. If the item does not fit in the bag I cut the bag at the seam. I have even taped several bags together for a large box. Teamed with curly ribbon, kids love the Mickeys all over a package. - Patricia Towsley

If you travel with any individual, especially children, who is afraid of or does not like loud noise, purchase disposable foam ear plugs from a hardware store before leaving home. These are easy to take in and out, cheap (less than a $1.00 a pair) and can be kept in a pocket or fanny pack. Don't forget to purchase several pairs, just in case one pair is lost. - The DeHoff Family

EDITOR'S NOTE: We've mentioned this tip before, but it bears repeating

I also have another idea for the Disney bags that you get when you buy something in the "world." I bring home all the bags and when I put my photo album together I use one of the bags for the cover of the album. That way I know exactly which album I'm looking for. - CapeGoofy5

Recently on a vacation to Walt Disney World, we noticed several refillable mugs left unattended and presumably left behind by mistake. Oftentimes cast members just tossed them in the trash. We brought address labels and added our cell phone numbers to the labels. We attached the labels not only to our refillable mugs, but also our camera and other valuable items just in case something got left behind. - Becky from Oshkosh

I am an 11-year-old girl who has visited WDW at least 35 times, and I found the best Disney World product for us Disney nuts. It is the Walt Disney World Resort Scavenger Hunt. It is only $4.00 in the Magic Kingdom Emporium on Main Street. It has questions like: What is the name of the mill on Tom Sawyer Island? What are they auctioning in Frontierland? If you WANT to know everything about Disney, or think you DO know everything, then this is for you. My family and I thought that we knew Disney, but we were so wrong! I thought you would like to know about this awesome product. - Chris B.

Did you ever go for breakfast or dinner and find out your Priority Seating cannot be found, and you don't have the PS number with you? Well, this happened to me a couple of times. The cast members were very nice, but also sorry because the wait for dinner at Cinderella Castle would be at least one hour and Chef Mickey had no openings at all. So this past May I made a printout of our restaurants, times and Priority Seatings, shrank it to the size of a credit card, had it laminated and put it in my wallet next to my credit card. It worked wonders because for dinner at San Angel in Mexico they could not find our seating -- I gave them my PS card and within seconds it came up on the computer. By the way, dinner at San Angel was just too delicious, you must give it a try! - Fran Giambalvo

By all means make sure you have that house key when you head out from home! We DID lock ourselves out of the house on one WDW vacation. We, like a lot of folks, have an automatic garage door opener and use that as our main means of entry into the house. We don't normally lock the inner garage door leading into the house. Well, because we were going to be gone, we decided to lock things up extra securely, so we locked the inner door and hard locked the garage door. As soon as that lock went "clunk" I realized that I don't even carry a house key! I asked my hubby and he had paired down his keys to the bare minimum, and guess what? He took the house key off! We growled at each other for a couple of minutes, then decided there was nothing we could do about it at themoment and went on our trip. When we got back, we broke a window in our back door, and had it replaced the next day. That was an extra $50 we sure didn't need to spend! - Carol Kelley

Greetings from Alaska! I just read a tip from another reader about bringing snack size bags of Gatorade powder to add to water. Recently, I bought a round plastic container that has three compartments to hold servings of powdered baby formula to use in our upcoming trip to WDW. It has a top that twists to allow an opening to pour the contents of one compartment at a time. I think the container is made by Munchkin, and I found it in the baby products section of one of our local stores. Next time I'm out shopping, I'll pick up another container to use for Gatorade powder. - Anne-Lise Hagevig

Have disposable cameras for your children to get their 'view' on their vacation experiences! - Madison

We just returned from our first trip to Disney World since having kids. I was a little anxious about how I would be able to make bottles for our 10 month old daughter at the parks--I didn't want to rely on trekking to the baby care stations every time. I found that at any counter service/quick service location in the parks I could ask for a cup of hot water to make a bottle--they must get this request a lot because everyone was ready and willing to hand over a hot cup of water (and for free of course). I just mixed in some of my own ice water with the hot and made the perfect bottle every time. It was a great time saver for us and kept our daughter happy. - Matt & Ellen Evans

If you are going to be in the park all day with small children, invest in a small collapsible cooler that can fill inside your luggage. These cooler are inexpensive to purchase. Walmart has them for $6.00. After you arrive in Disney fill it each morning with a six pack of water and some ice from the hotel. Bottle water is about $3-4 dollars for a six pack, verses the $3.00+ per bottle you will pay inside the park. These coolers have arm straps, and can easily be hung from your stroller. Many cast members were gracious enough to throw a couple of scoops of fresh ice into the cooler. The security guards at the front gate overlook the no food brought into the park. My husband and I did this last year and we literally save over 20 dollars a day by not buying the water in the park. - Peggy, Point Pleasant, NJ

When at WDW, no matter the time of year, there always seem to be a "wait" for something! We help pass the time with our 3 yr old by packing a deck of cards. While waiting for meals, Mickey's Philharmagic, parades, and even the boat back to the hotel, we'll play quick games of "Go Fish" or "Crazy Eights." She'll even make up her own games to help pass the time. It's truly been a lifesaver for an ansy little pre-schooler! - Alison Boeckman

We took in small snack-sized bags of Gatorade to put in our water bottles for the really hot days. The park charges a lot for Gatorade -- almost as much as the canister itself costs -- and you can just tear a tiny bit of the bag off and pour it right in. We also carried our water bottles with our own water bottle holders. Family Fun Magazine shows you how to make your own. We made some for our Girl Scout troop that were similar: Use two to three feet of webbing, which you can get at a fabric store, or get those cheaper dog leashes from a dollar store. Cut to your desired length, fold each end around a rubber O-ring (found in plumbing areas of hardware stores) and sew the ends to form your water bottle holder. You simply slip the O-ring over the mouth of the bottle and you have a hands-free bottle of water that you can refill and use to keep yourself hydrated. - Clemley

We have just returned from a week in Disney World with our almost 4-year-old granddaughter. With the help of PassPorter and AllEars® we were able to do it up right. Our own saving grace was purchasing a pair of "earmuffs" (sound protection earmuffs) for our princess. We kept them easily accessible on the top of our knapsack. The excitement, loud noises, fireworks and scary rides were a piece of cake. We saw and heard lots of little ones crying from the noise. Our granddaughter has always been scared of fireworks and we wanted to make the whole experience positive. She enjoyed everything and was so proud of herself that she wasn't afraid of anything, because nothing in Disney World would hurt her! - Diane Russell