Tips about Epcot, Kids, Photography, Planning and Resorts

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

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

If you have a videocamera with both an LCD display screen and a viewfinder, turn the LCD screen toward the performers and floats. The Cast Members always enjoy this because they can see themselves in costume. This works best during nighttime parades: SpectroMagic, Tapestry of Nations, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade, etc. - Silipigni

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

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

We have been to Disney World several times and each time we go we always take a ton of pictures. I noticed I have quite a collection of the same shots -- the castle, Main Street, the "big ball," the "big hat"... For our last trip in February I decided that I would experiment with black and white photos to mix it up a little. The pictures turned out so beautiful! Especially nice were shots of anything with dark colors such as Tigger with his black stripes or a black horse leading the trolley down Main Street. I used Kodak black and white 35mm film bought at a grocery store. I did not do all my photos in black and white, but I am happy I experimented with a couple of rolls. The variety makes a great addition to the scrapbook! - Paulette Kusmierz

EDITOR'S NOTE:: Some digital cameras have a black and white photo setting you can experiment with, too.

Before you go, program 407.WDW.INFO and 407.WDW.DINE into your cell phone(s). It's SO easy to call these from wherever you are -- hotel room, in the park, etc. -- and find instant answers to your questions. Shari

We are leaving on our 6th trip to WDW and are taking 13 others with us! Something new we are doing this year....we have made 1 reservation a day for everyone (Hoop De Doo, Crystal Palace, Fantasmic, Cinderella's Breakfast......) so to make it easy for everyone we made a spread sheet of sorts with the whole week (calendar look to it) and put all of our confirmation numbers for each day at each location with times included (hotels also). Then we reduced it to a credit card size (still readable) and laminated it. That way everyone in the party has a copy and it is easily accessible!!!! - Gaylia Laird

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

When planning my vacation, I got a calendar that you can write on, and put on the calendar when to call for dining reservations, reminders to buy things for vacations, phone numbers, anything related to the vacation. Anytime I thought of something related to the vacation I wrote it on. I even wrote confirmation numbers on it so they would all be in the same place. This is a great way to keep reminders for vacation planning. - Donna Rebholz

Print out adhesive address labels of everyone you will be sending postcards to on your trip. You will wind up carrying one sheet of paper with you instead of an address book, and won't forget anyone in your vacation frenzy! - Victoria L. Moynihan

I was reading in your toddler section about explaining to kids about "big" Mickey and wanted to share our trick. My husband and I are taking our children ages 4 and 1, and our niece age 3 to Disney World in January. To make sure they know what to expect when they see a "big" Mickey we've been attending our local bookstores monthly character story time where a "big" sized character is present each month. This has allowed the kids to see first hand what to expect. We are also planning a visit a regional amusement park for a day as a dry run of sorts to prepare for our week at Disney. - Laura Hulse

My daughter loves to take pictures and inevitably we end up fighting because she's always trying to take the camera and take TONS of pictures (she's 8) so we buy disposable cameras at Sam's ($9.99 for two) all year long and give her a stack at the beginning of our vacation and tell her that when she takes all the pictures there will be no more picture taking for her and we all are happy. She feels in control of the situation and we don't have to deal with the whining. - Chrisie

I went on a Disney Trip with many people and I suggest this for anyone who is traveling in a larger group from one location. Each of us made a little gift for each person. We made notes, bags of candy, tapes with our favorite Disney songs, coloring pages, games, and pictures. Then before the flight each person put their gifts in everyone else's bags. It added a lot of excitement to have a plane packet. My gift was a little more complex, but it was great. It was a journal that had quotes, pictures, photos, maps, and brochure clippings pasted inside. Everyone on the trip wrote in them. Another tip is to have a pre-party a week or two before the trip. We did this before our cruise. We played games, had dinner, read through books and researched little things and just discussed everything. Then we had a post party to look at pictures and videos. - Lindsay

Our family loves WDW and between trips we really miss it. One way to bring back the fun is to play the Disney game during mealtime or car rides. Each person takes a turn giving one or two clues and the others must guess what the ride, hotel, place, character meal or activity for which the clues are related. For instance, I might say, "This place has a big dinosaur." The others might guess the dinosaur ride at Epcot or the dinosaur ride at AK. But the answer I was thinking about is the toy dinosaur at the All Star Movies. It's a great game that all can play and have fun. I've been stumped a few times by my 9 and 6 year old girls. - Kenna Washington