Tips about Epcot, Kids, Magic Kingdom, Mousecellaneous, Rain and Resorts
ALL RESORTS - Some of the resorts have life vests (child size) that you can use for free at the resort pools during your entire stay. One year we stayed at Beach Club (prior to my daughter learning how to swim), and were told she couldn't go down the slide with the vest on. So she worked really hard and learned how to swim that summer. I just wanted to let you know that there may be some things your child won't be able to do if they are unable to swim "unassisted." Mary W
If you have young children and are going to a late parade or fireworks, bring a pair of pajamas with you. Or, if you are going back to your hotel beforehand, you can change there. Have the kids put on their pajamas before the parade. Most kids (mine anyway) fall asleep before we return to the hotel. This way, you can just put the kids into bed and not have to worry about waking them up to change into sleepwear. It has saved me from many nights of "I've had my 'nap', now I want to play!" -Michele
My husband and I are big postcard senders. Not only do we send them to family and friends, but love to have them sent to us! We have a postcard collection up on the wall in our TV room like a border. They wrap around almost three times! We started sending our almost 3-year-old daughter a postcard about our trips even if she is with us. During my last little bit of shopping I found an Alice, Mad Hatter, and White Rabbit in a Tea Cup ride postcard to send to our daughter. I wrote on it what a wonderful time we had with her, that this was her favorite ride, and a few other trip memories. I sent it out on our last day and when she received it, she went bananas! It was like reliving the whole trip! - Jane
I have an important tip for all of you taking a trip during the fall rainy season. My husband and I went last fall and found that one pair of tennis shoes is not enough. If you get caught in a rainstorm, you might be fine in wet shoes the rest of the day, but when you put them back on later that night, it makes for uncomfortable dancing! Buy and break in that second pair of shoes so you have something to wear around while your wet shoes dry.Christie
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.
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.
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
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
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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
1 User found this helpful.
FORT WILDERNESS - If you're staying at Fort Wilderness or any of the resorts on Bay Lake and plan on staying to the Magic Kingdom until closing, take the ferry back to the buses, rather than trying to take the resort launches or monorail. We found this to be a much faster and less crowded method. - Jennifer Smith
I wanted to thank you for a tip I read about on your website. We chose to go to Disney during the hurricane season and although the hurricane never came on land, we did feel its effects. It rained every day at 4 p.m. (more than the usual daily Orlando shower). We have a 4 year old who required a stroller and was extremely afraid of getting his clothes wet. Luckily I had read about the stroller cover you can purchase at Babies R' Us which protects the stroller from rain. It was a lifesaver. Alex and our items that were stored under the stroller, remained dry everyday. It folds away like those playhut tents into a small, flat circle. It was the best ten dollars we spent! Alex was happy and so were we. - Angie and Bill
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
