Tips about Epcot, Food & Beverage, Mousecellaneous, PhotoPass and Souvenirs

Animal Kingdom - If you're looking for a cheap, healthy snack in the Animal Kingdom, check out the fruit cart in the Harambe Village of Africa. There's lots of fresh, ice cold fruit that's cheap and much healthier than ice cream or popcorn. Our family got apple slices with caramel, fresh oranges and bananas, and it was delicious. The cart also sells chips, water and drinks. - Katherine

Animal Kingdom - If you're looking for a cheap, healthy snack in the Animal Kingdom, check out the fruit cart in the Harambe Village of Africa. There's lots of fresh, ice cold fruit that's cheap and much healthier than ice cream or popcorn. Our family got apple slices with caramel, fresh oranges and bananas, and it was delicious. The cart also sells chips, water and drinks. - Katherine

Before we went on our Disney trip for Christmas this year, we got an email in November where we could pre-purchase the Photo CD with all of our PhotoPass.photos on it for $100 (instead of the normal $150). I had started following Disney PhotoPass on Twitter (http://twitter.com/DisneyPhotoPass), and they advertised a 13% off coupon. I was able to use this coupon to pre-purchase my Photo CD so I got it for $87 instead of the normal $150. So it is worth it for folks to keep an eye on out for tweets to save even more money. We got over 200 pictures on the CD, it was worth every penny. Thanks and keep up the great site and newsletter. - Brian

The BoardWalk often offers jugglers and magicians in the evening. My son loves just sitting and watching all of the performers. But we just returned from our rainiest Disney trip ever. We certainly thought that the performers would not be on the BoardWalk on those nights. We were right, they weren't -- but, to my son's delight, we found that they perform indoors on those nights. We found the performers near the bar area and also in the lobby. - Kelly

Epcot - Just wanted to add to the reason to pick up a Passport kit from Epcot. I got one on our last trip and secretly had each country stamp and write Happy Birthday to my husband on the Passport. A month after we got home it was my husband's birthday. I put the Passport in a Mickey birthday card and he was very pleased and surprised with his multi-language greetings. - Sue S.

Epcot - Just wanted to add to the reason to pick up a Passport kit from Epcot. I got one on our last trip and secretly had each country stamp and write Happy Birthday to my husband on the Passport. A month after we got home it was my husband's birthday. I put the Passport in a Mickey birthday card and he was very pleased and surprised with his multi-language greetings. - Sue S.

When my family and I were vacationing at WDW in September of last year, I lost my Photopass card with lots of our family pictures on it. We looked for it everywhere and I was devastated. When I went to the Camera Center at Spaceship Earth, they told me that if I could tell them when and where I last recalled having the card, they could look it up for me. It worked! They went to the location and approximate time that I last remembered, and were able to pull up all photos so I could look until I found my family! What a lifesaver! - Angie Flynn

Epcot - To save money, instead of buying the Epcot passport in the parks, create your own passport! You can make your own by cutting regular 8x11 paper into fours and stapling the pages together. You can have your children personalize the cover with their names, so Kidcot cast members don't have to ask them. And for each country, you can have children draw out the flag of that country. This can help prepare your children for the experience of World Showcase! Remember to leave the adjacent page empty for the special messages the cast members will be writing. - Ban-Hing Ng

Epcot - To save money, instead of buying the Epcot passport in the parks, create your own passport! You can make your own by cutting regular 8x11 paper into fours and stapling the pages together. You can have your children personalize the cover with their names, so Kidcot cast members don't have to ask them. And for each country, you can have children draw out the flag of that country. This can help prepare your children for the experience of World Showcase! Remember to leave the adjacent page empty for the special messages the cast members will be writing. - Ban-Hing Ng

Epcot - Just wanted to add to the reason to pick up a Passport kit from Epcot. I got one on our last trip and secretly had each country stamp and write Happy Birthday to my husband on the Passport. A month after we got home it was my husband's birthday, so I put the Passport in a Mickey birthday card. He was very pleased and surprised with his multi-language greetings. - Sue Schultz

Epcot - Just wanted to add to the reason to pick up a Passport kit from Epcot. I got one on our last trip and secretly had each country stamp and write Happy Birthday to my husband on the Passport. A month after we got home it was my husband's birthday, so I put the Passport in a Mickey birthday card. He was very pleased and surprised with his multi-language greetings. - Sue Schultz

I save the black, plastic Mickey-shaped "dishes" you get food on at some of the quickie eateries (like the eat-on-the-street Rosie's All-American Cafe in Hollywood Studios) and take them home. Every night I put out fresh veggies for our girls with ranch dressing in the ears for dipping. They get a kick out of it and we've been using them literally for years! We think it's neat that we recycled them all the way from Disney. I wash them on the top rack in the dishwasher with no issues. - Shanlee Ginchereau

Here's a tip that I learned about the hard way. Use PHOTOPASS every chance you get. Even if you think you are the family's photographer, still use it. My camera dumped a whole day's worth of pics (I'm sure it wasn't anything I did). I was sick over this, until I remembered we had used PHOTOPASS. All of our character interactions were captured by the photographer that day. You don't have to purchase once you get home, but you may be very glad you used this service. - Genie in New Orleans

Epcot - On our last trip to Epcot, we purchased the passport set that allows children (or adults who are children at heart) to visit the Kidcot stations in each country and get a passport stamp. On that day, my daughter happened to be wearing a Minnie Mouse shirt that was personalized with her name, Isabelle, on the front. That turned out to be wonderful, since every time she went to get her stamp, the Disney cast member would write her name in their native language. I think they normally do this, but they never had to ask her name since it was on her shirt and every cast member seemed to notice it right away. Now, she has a wonderful keepsake with her name written in several languages. - Teresa Frangakis

Epcot - On our last trip to Epcot, we purchased the passport set that allows children (or adults who are children at heart) to visit the Kidcot stations in each country and get a passport stamp. On that day, my daughter happened to be wearing a Minnie Mouse shirt that was personalized with her name, Isabelle, on the front. That turned out to be wonderful, since every time she went to get her stamp, the Disney cast member would write her name in their native language. I think they normally do this, but they never had to ask her name since it was on her shirt and every cast member seemed to notice it right away. Now, she has a wonderful keepsake with her name written in several languages. - Teresa Frangakis