Tips about Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Transportation

MAGIC KINGDOM - When two showings of a parade are offered at the Magic Kingdom in an evening, the second is almost always much less crowded and just as nice! - Timeless Tip o' the Week brought to you by www.themouseforless.com and Mike Boyer

Buy a Disney antenna topper in a bright color (basic black may not work) to help distinguish your rental car from the other 5,000 similar rental cars in the WDW lots. - Timeless Tip o' the Week brought to you by www.themouseforless.com and Catherine Lamey

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

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

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

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

EPCOT & DISNEY'S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS - It is possible to see Fantasmic at the Hollywood Studios and IllumiNations at Epcot in the same night! The way to accomplish this is to watch Fantasmic sitting near an exit (or semi-close to one), go straight out of the park and when you get to the bus stops outside the park take the bus to the TTC (usually not very crowded at this time). When you get to the TTC take the monorail to Epcot. The night we did this we even wasted time waiting at the boat dock at the Studios and then decided to then try the TTC/Monorail approach. We made it to Epcot by 8:45 PM, in plenty of time to catch IllumiNations. - Christine

EPCOT & DISNEY'S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS - It is possible to see Fantasmic at the Hollywood Studios and IllumiNations at Epcot in the same night! The way to accomplish this is to watch Fantasmic sitting near an exit (or semi-close to one), go straight out of the park and when you get to the bus stops outside the park take the bus to the TTC (usually not very crowded at this time). When you get to the TTC take the monorail to Epcot. The night we did this we even wasted time waiting at the boat dock at the Studios and then decided to then try the TTC/Monorail approach. We made it to Epcot by 8:45 PM, in plenty of time to catch IllumiNations. - Christine

ALL PARKS - While wandering around Walt Disney World, I like to carry a small plastic tube for paper souvenirs. I use a plastic tennis ball container that has a lid -- other similar tubes will work well. This allows me to store maps, menus, napkins and any other paper items without them being crushed, wrinkled or soaked. I just put them under a few heavy books when I get home. - Brian Brennan

ALL PARKS - While wandering around Walt Disney World, I like to carry a small plastic tube for paper souvenirs. I use a plastic tennis ball container that has a lid -- other similar tubes will work well. This allows me to store maps, menus, napkins and any other paper items without them being crushed, wrinkled or soaked. I just put them under a few heavy books when I get home. - Brian Brennan

When renting a car you never know if you should prepay for gas, or try to refill it on your own. If you rent an electric vehicle, this won't be an issue. You can return it with a nearly depleted battery. Some electric vehicles can travel about 40 miles on battery power and then an engine comes on to take you another 300+ miles. With more than 150 public charging stations in Orlando, including several within Disney, you'll likely not use much gas, if any. You also won't have to worry about returning the car with a full tank of gas. Enterprise Rent-A-Car at the Orlando International Airport has a number of electric vehicles in its fleet, which rent for the same price as a standard class vehicle. - Sara

ALL PARKS - Be sure to have a group destination while walking around the park -- for example, once everyone in your party has ridden Buzz, decide where your group is headed, just in case someone gets separated. Then the rest of the group will continue on to that spot and wait until you regroup. This happened to us recently at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party -- while heading toward the Haunted Mansion, the first parade ended and it was crazy in front of the castle. Our group of 11 broke up into 8 and 3 and luckily we all headed on to Haunted Mansion and waited until everyone met up again. It took only about 20 minutes to regroup, instead of everyone heading off to a "central meeting place" like in front of the castle! It is also always good to have a specific spot for emergencies, like at the Sword in the Stone, for example. Just stay together! That 20 minutes separated was scary. - Suzanne from Patchogue, NY

ALL PARKS - Be sure to have a group destination while walking around the park -- for example, once everyone in your party has ridden Buzz, decide where your group is headed, just in case someone gets separated. Then the rest of the group will continue on to that spot and wait until you regroup. This happened to us recently at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party -- while heading toward the Haunted Mansion, the first parade ended and it was crazy in front of the castle. Our group of 11 broke up into 8 and 3 and luckily we all headed on to Haunted Mansion and waited until everyone met up again. It took only about 20 minutes to regroup, instead of everyone heading off to a "central meeting place" like in front of the castle! It is also always good to have a specific spot for emergencies, like at the Sword in the Stone, for example. Just stay together! That 20 minutes separated was scary. - Suzanne from Patchogue, NY