Tips about Epcot, Keep The Magic Alive and Mousecellaneous

EPCOT - Take a look at the beautiful fountain outside the Imagination pavilion, it's slightly out of the ordinary. It's actually a *reverse* waterfall, with the water flowing up! Just watch it!

As great as zipper-top bags are for holding snacks, you might want to think about hard plastic storage containers for them or something equally sturdy. I've witnessed a squirrel literally rip a hole in a reusable supermarket bag to get at the chips inside, no matter how many times we shooed him away. Anytime you're in a show or a ride with a long line the squirrels and birds have PLENTY of time to mess with your stuff that you've left in your stroller or scooter. - Aren

We have been searching for Hidden Mickeys at WDW, so to 'train' my husband for our last trip, I hid one Hidden Mickey a day for him to find before work. I only hid them in the bathroom because if he had to look all over the house before work, it wouldn't be fun! We both enjoyed this pre-trip practice, and I really think it paid off! He did 100 times better at spotting Hidden Mickeys once we got to WDW. A few words of advice for anyone who might want to try this: limit it to two weeks or less before your trip! Also, certain scrapbook stores sell Mickey punches; those were small and I could stick them anywhere! Other good ideas for Hidden Mickeys are placing anything in the three-circle shape, such as dots of cream connected to look like Mickey. There are many Hidden Mickeys like that at the World, so be creative! - Alea Laughery

What my girlfriend and I do is take two scrapbooks -- one for me and one for her. Each night, before going to bed, we take a minute to write down our best moments for that day. When we get back home we trade the books. It's fun to see the trip through the eyes of your loved one. It brings back memories that you may have skipped, and it helps you understand each other even more. Planning the next trip is then easier, because you have a better idea of what the other one would rather do. This could easily be done with a whole family. - Sylvain, Montreal

I wanted to add to the suggestion about sending postcards signed by Disney characters. On the first morning of our trip in November, I excused myself from breakfast with my family at the All Star Sports food court to pick up two postcards from the shop in the lobby. I wrote notes to each of my sons with specific details from the night before at Epcot and signed a favorite character's name on each. It was fun to write in a style that I thought Dumbo or Stitch might use. I popped them in the mailbox and returned to breakfast. After we got home, my sons received their postcards and were amazed to not only get mail from Disney World, but to have the character know just what they did. It worked like a charm and made the magic continue even after we were home. - Julie Morgan

This is particularly popular with our kids (ranging in age from 9 to 14) during the return trip when we drive. We do a "game show" style quiz on our trip and at our location (either at WDW or on the Disney Cruise). For example, if we are doing a Jeopardy-style quiz, and we just returned from a WDW vacation, we will use categories such as Epcot or Magic Kingdom or resorts. Questions (or rather "answers") could be destination-related ("This is a ride at Epcot that takes place in a boat.") or specific to our trip ("This was the first ride we rode on Tuesday."). The way we play it, we rotate through each child and let them pick the "value " of the question. The higher the value, the tougher the question. We give a better pin to the winner and other pins to each of the "players!" - Sonney from Maryland

Although it hasn't even been a year since our last trip, reading through the ALL EARS(tm) newsletter makes me yearn for the day when we will take another. So, as I read through the newsletter itself, especially the tips section, I find lots of great ideas that I know I'll want to use for our next trip. I cut and paste them into a 'note' in Outlook that I entitled "WDW tips," to look at and sort through before we go to see the Mouse again. It makes me feel better -- almost as if I were already planning a trip. - Maria Mounsey

We were in Disney World last month and noticed that there are new ways that the MagicBands interact with various attractions. At Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, there is an electronic poster in the queue that displays the name and home city of guests. At Mission: Space, there are video screens in the post-attraction room that will display the names of the guests who finished the ride, along with their hometown and their mission projection. At Space Mountain there are video screens along the moving walkway that display the names of the guests who finished the ride. At the end of "it's a small world," look for the video screen to display the names of the guests on the boat. There may be more attractions that may also implement this technology, so keep your eyes open in the queues and in the post-attraction areas. - Brian Kehoe

We were in Disney World last month and noticed that there are new ways that the MagicBands interact with various attractions. At Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, there is an electronic poster in the queue that displays the name and home city of guests. At Mission: Space, there are video screens in the post-attraction room that will display the names of the guests who finished the ride, along with their hometown and their mission projection. At Space Mountain there are video screens along the moving walkway that display the names of the guests who finished the ride. At the end of "it's a small world," look for the video screen to display the names of the guests on the boat. There may be more attractions that may also implement this technology, so keep your eyes open in the queues and in the post-attraction areas. - Brian Kehoe

Regarding two-way communication with other members of your party, we have found that texting works the best. It's too hard to hear my cell phone ring with all the noise of the parks, and it's also too hard to talk on the phone. So we just send each other text messages to set up meeting places, or to let the other person know if we're running late. - Kirsten Searle

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.

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.

ALL PARKS - In regards to having bags and whatnots inspected at the parks, the best thing is to have all pockets and pouches opened. Also, if you have a dayplanner or something similar, have that unzipped, too. When we went to Disneyland recently (to see the new Haunted Mansion Holiday), my husband was asked to open his dayplanner for them to inspect. When we park-hopped over to DCA, he was ready for the inspection process and dutifully had everything unzipped and ready to be looked at. - Milady

Don't forget to mention that a trip to the Kennedy Space Center is worth it. It's only an hour's drive and the backlot bus tour for the $20 was well worth it. Wow, unbelievable what this day trip offered. Not a lot of walking (so go after a day of hard walking around WDW. - David

ALL PARKS - I found that if you get tired of waiting in long lines, and you don't mind splitting up your party ( maybe to 1, 2,or even 3) some attractions offer singles lines. These lines help fill up unused space. I tried this at Test Track and the normal wait time was 70 minutes. It took me 5 minutes on the singles line and I still got a seat with my parents. - Matthew