Tips about Epcot, Kids, Mousecellaneous, Photography, Resorts and Souvenirs

I put Velcro on the bottom of the antenna toppers, so I can attach them to places in my cubicle at work. I can now decorate for every season. My fellow workers think it is a great idea. It helps them remember their Disney trips. - Jack

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

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

Before you leave for vacation, keep your eyes open for sales at the stores (Disney Store, Wal-Mart, Target) or online for Disney stuff. Discreetly purchase Disney trinkets, and take them with you to the resort. Each day, you can give your children a new "souvenir" that will remind them of their trip, but you won't have to pay theme park prices for them. Also, keep your eyes open for bargains before you go, and you might be surprised to see "must-have" items available outside of WDW. This might prevent you from buying something for $12 at the parks and then seeing it sold at home for $5. Christie

My wife and I, on our last trip, collected photos of specific things at Walt Disney World. We took pictures of all the trash cans in each "land" (or area) of each park since each are themed to a particular area. We also were there for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, so we attempted to get photos of every topiary. When we go in stores, if they sell hats, we always take pictures of each other wearing funny hats. Some other ideas are: signs for rides, Hidden Mickeys, food, Cast Members from each attraction or area, birds and other wildlife, and fountains. Pick your own theme. If you like a particular character, take pictures not only of live characters, but of merchandise, signs, statues, and/or shops that show that character. There is so much detail in the parks and resorts, that you can choose what you are interested in and find plenty of photos. Children would enjoy this, too. You could discuss ahead of time what kinds of pictures they would like to shoot and then give them a disposable camera for them to "hunt" for their item. After you get home and get film developed, you can see WDW from your children's perspective. Often they'll catch things adults overlook. John Daniell

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

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

I enjoyed Deb's recent article on things that go wrong on WDW trips and I have a tidbit to add, something that happened to me more than once. We bought tea at Epcot's British shop and had it delivered to our resort. I threw it in the closet when it was delivered to our room and three days later, when packing to go home, discovered that it wasn't my tea, but a very expensive china teapot. I was feeling very sorry for the person who bought it and would discover my tea instead! Luckily we were staying on the Polynesian Concierge level and they were able to switch packages in a matter of hours, before my plane left.On another WDW trip, our package from the Epcot France store (gargoyle snowglobes) arrived broken and wet... I would tell people to be very careful using the package delivery service, and to always check what they deliver right away. - Cammie Sawyer

Don't plan on mailing your vacation postcards from your gate at the Orlando airport -- there wasn't a mailbox anywhere near our gate. We had written a stack of postcards while we waited for our flight home, but we were subsequently informed that the only mailboxes were back near the check-in areas... meaning that they were on the other side of the airport monorail route and on the other side of the security checkpoint! We didn't have enough time before our flight to make this special trip, so we had to mail these postcards from our hometown. - Louis Rios

Before leaving home I taped a Barney and Wiggles video on a small cassette for my video camera so my 18-month-old could watch it on the plane (using the small screen on my video camera). When we got to the All Star Movies, I noticed that the Sony TV in the room had the jacks in the front to plug in video cameras. When my son was cranky in the room I used the video camera as a VCR and played the previously taped Barney video. It was great and we didn't have to pay extra to rent a VCR. We also watched the day's videos to remember what we did that day! - Laura Gallant of Toronto, Ontario, Canada