Tips about Epcot, Kids, Mousecellaneous, PhotoPass and Planning

This is for brides-to-be who are interested in planning their wedding at Walt Disney World, but who are not into the traditional Disney Wedding Pavilion: be aware that there are unique sites available for your ceremony and reception. When we mentioned to our Disney wedding planner that Animal Kingdom was our favorite theme park, she told us about a wonderful site in Harambe. Our daughter and son-in-law had a truly magical outdoor wedding ceremony in the candlelit Tamu Tamu courtyard with a fabulous dessert reception to follow at Tusker House. - Debbie Gneshin

We happened upon a wonderful mid-day break for our Chicago area family during our Christmas break trip to Walt Disney World. We stayed off property. The kids (8 and 6) were more excited about the monorail than they were about anything else at Epcot. To kill time until our FASTPASS+ time on Soarin', and to satisfy their curiosity, we took a ride on the monorail after lunch. It was a fun, air-conditioned trip that gave them a sensory break from the heat and intense sounds of touring, they got to see other parts of WDW and we were all totally refreshed when we came back to Epcot about half an hour later. It didn't cost us anything extra and it was just their speed! - Ruth Gauss

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please be careful of your timing. Monorails can be in holding periods or be delayed leaving you in a situation where you will not be able to make your FastPass+ time window.

Please do not feed the birds. We all know this is wrong, but many an enjoyable Disney lunch is ruined by this. Birds are not supposed to eat popcorn and turkey legs! - Bonnie C.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Disney does post signs to this effect and prints a gentle reminder on its paper napkins, but it bears repeating. It's very unhealthy to feed "people food" to the birds, squirrels and other animals around the parks.

Just returned from a trip to Walt Disney World with our five grandkids, ages 6/6, 5, 3 and 1 (and their parents!). I brought some small paper cups in a sandwich bag inside my tote into the parks to see if I'd use them. They came in handy a few times for sharing a water bottle, etc. amongst the kids. - Karen Jacobi

Best Friends Pet Care is now taking online boarding reservations for repeat customers. To read more, go to: http://wdw.bestfriendspetcare.com/news/online-reservations-now-available-repeat-guests - Sheamus Hunt

There is a new PhotoPass "magic" shot available. When you get in line to see Princess Tiana, the photographer (time permitting) will go through the line and take pictures of you with your hand out and the frog will magically appear in your hands. If there is no time before the princess arrives, just ask the park photographer closest to the princess area and they should be able to do the picture for you. - Sandi Lamborne

Epcot - We found that the Electric Umbrella restaurant at Epcot has free drink refills... not only for soft drinks but for apple juice as well, which worked out great for our little one. This is the only "quick service" restaurant we visited that didn't give us a juice box when we ordered her a kid's meal with juice. - Michelle P.

Epcot - We found that the Electric Umbrella restaurant at Epcot has free drink refills... not only for soft drinks but for apple juice as well, which worked out great for our little one. This is the only "quick service" restaurant we visited that didn't give us a juice box when we ordered her a kid's meal with juice. - Michelle P.

Going to a sit-down, outdoor presentation on a cold winter's night? Here's a simple, easy-to-carry way to keep your rump from freezing: bring one of those bubble-wrap filled envelopes of an appropriate size to sit on. The bubble-wrap insulates your nether regions from that cold, cold seat, is light as a feather and is easily carried in one of those many Disney World plastic bags you've acquired. It makes quite a difference! - Mamayama

Space Mountain now allows you to put your ride photo on a special Space Mountain Photopass card to download at home, for $14.95. It can not go on your regular Photopass card for free like at Test Track. - Jamie Hogan

Disney's PhotoPass now has the option to pull any photos from your Facebook account so you may add characters and special borders, etc., so you can have them on calendars, prints, cards, etc. This Facebook option is completely under the control of the guest, so it's not mandatory. Simply log into Disney's PhotoPass to see the Facebook link. - Erin B.

We visited Disney's Hollywood Studios last week with our daughters, 16 and 2. While my 16-year-old loved the park, my 2-year-old found it very scary. If you have a little one who is timid, you may want to prepare them for this park or skip it all together. The Star Wars theme and characters are everywhere here. We were standing in line to meet Disney Junior characters when Star Wars music started playing and the characters marched right by us. She was terrified. We had to get out of line. Then we were stopped by a few stormtroopers while leaving Toy Story Mania. She started crying saying she wanted to go home... I saw several children crying when they had to walk by Darth Vader or a stormtrooper... I like Star Wars. But the constant shows that you can hear throughout the park with ominous-sounding music, the sound of scary voices (Kylo Ren and Darth Vader), and intimidating (to a small child) characters were just too much. Hopefully they will keep it localized to just the Star Wars area once it opens. - Jennifer D.

To survive large crowds, I suggest that you go out early, at the time the parks open. Bring just a snack for breakfast if you can't manage to get up early enough to eat breakfast at your resort. You then will have 3-4 hours of park time before lunch. Since lunch is when the crowd volume really picks up, this is when you should go back to your resort to refresh and relax by the pool, or you could go shopping. Then go back to a park after you eat dinner. Leave the park before any fireworks shows to avoid long waits at the bus stops. Of course, if you want to experience more, then you will have to get out in the crowds. I've been so many years (at all times of year) and I've learned my lesson. The one thing that will drain your energy and make you more ill and fussy, is fighting a crowd daily. That's no vacation. Find time to rest and relax. - Melody Moore

As adults we all know what to expect on our trips to Disney. But for young first-timers it's going to be a lot of firsts: plane ride, bus trip, rides, characters, hotel stay, etc. To prepare my 2-year-old for our upcoming trip, I've had him start watching YouTube videos of other family vacations to the world. Many show the plane ride, buses, different rides and character meet-ups. Now he's starting to get excited to go see Mickey Mouse. - Rachel

On our most recent trip I received in my welcome packet a PhotoPass card for the trip. Every year we take advantage of this service, but this is the first time we had our card in advance. To make it easier to keep up with I took one of the Disney luggage tags we had received and slipped the card in there and attached the strap. This helped make it easier to handle since it was a little bit more substantial, with the strap I was able to loop it through our backpack, my belt loop or even wear it on my wrist for convenience. The PhotoPass photographers even commented on this being a smart idea, because we were easily able to identify our card from others and they could scan it just fine. - Kaycee from Atlanta