Tips about Epcot, Mousecellaneous and Other

ALL PARKS - When visiting the Disney parks, I usually like to pick up an extra guide map or two. I use them to decorate my cube walls at work and will also give extra copies to friends and family who may be planning their own trip in the near future. This helps them get a better idea of the park layout and make plans. - Kerry Kollasch

Epcot - Since we're passholders, the kids have been so many times it can get boring for them. They've done the masks and passports at Epcot over and over. What I do before each trip is make up a new passport. I include a picture on the page and certain facts about the country that they need to find. It's interactive with the Cast Members in that country and they enjoy teaching the kids! For instance, in China, learn how to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese. In Germany, have a Cast Member tell you about the wall that used to separate their country. In America, what does the Liberty Bell stand for? As I said, the Cast Members love the interaction with the kids. They are proud to talk about their countries. As a prior homeschooling mom, I am always trying to sneak in a learning experience when I can and Epcot is the perfect place to do so without the kids realizing it! - Julie Turbide

Epcot - Since we're passholders, the kids have been so many times it can get boring for them. They've done the masks and passports at Epcot over and over. What I do before each trip is make up a new passport. I include a picture on the page and certain facts about the country that they need to find. It's interactive with the Cast Members in that country and they enjoy teaching the kids! For instance, in China, learn how to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese. In Germany, have a Cast Member tell you about the wall that used to separate their country. In America, what does the Liberty Bell stand for? As I said, the Cast Members love the interaction with the kids. They are proud to talk about their countries. As a prior homeschooling mom, I am always trying to sneak in a learning experience when I can and Epcot is the perfect place to do so without the kids realizing it! - Julie Turbide

ALL PARKS - My tip is for keeping track of your hats while on rides or shows at the World... I bought some carabiners that we put on the strap of our fanny packs. I learned the hard way to put it through a part of the strap so that the carabiner is trapped and can't fall off when you take the fanny pack off. When we step inside at WDW, we both take off our hats, and snap them to the carabiner on our fanny packs -- it's easy to keep track of, and we don't worry about losing our hats or leaving them behind. We even do this on the rides, and find we can ride most things with our fanny packs (and hats) left on our waist. For wet rides, we put the hat over our fanny pack, and it helps keep splashes off. - Jill Neill

ALL PARKS - My tip is for keeping track of your hats while on rides or shows at the World... I bought some carabiners that we put on the strap of our fanny packs. I learned the hard way to put it through a part of the strap so that the carabiner is trapped and can't fall off when you take the fanny pack off. When we step inside at WDW, we both take off our hats, and snap them to the carabiner on our fanny packs -- it's easy to keep track of, and we don't worry about losing our hats or leaving them behind. We even do this on the rides, and find we can ride most things with our fanny packs (and hats) left on our waist. For wet rides, we put the hat over our fanny pack, and it helps keep splashes off. - Jill Neill

Epcot - I just returned from a day at Epcot and wanted to give you a tip about Test Track. When I (5'3", 315 lbs.) asked the Cast Member at the end of the queue if I would fit, he told me that there was a mock car I could sit in. He called another Cast Member who escorted me to a private area. The car wasn't an exact copy of the cars in use, but was close. I found that I did not fit enough to be comfortable. The Cast Member showed me the side exit and I went on about my day. It was handled with care and privacy and I was never made to feel embarrassed. - L.

Epcot - I just returned from a day at Epcot and wanted to give you a tip about Test Track. When I (5'3", 315 lbs.) asked the Cast Member at the end of the queue if I would fit, he told me that there was a mock car I could sit in. He called another Cast Member who escorted me to a private area. The car wasn't an exact copy of the cars in use, but was close. I found that I did not fit enough to be comfortable. The Cast Member showed me the side exit and I went on about my day. It was handled with care and privacy and I was never made to feel embarrassed. - L.

When we wanted to make a trip to WDW but finances were really tight, my husband said we could manage if we could keep the expenses the same as our trip two years earlier. I asked him to write down what we spent in each of four major categories -- food, tickets, souvenirs and gasoline. We always stay in Fort Wilderness in our RV so would be able to cook meals as often as we wanted. I made a chart with four columns, a title on each and the amount of money we had spent on the previous trip at the head of each column. We explained the plan to our sons and included the reality that even if we had not spent half the gas money by the time we got to Florida, we could not move gas money to another category because the price might be different on the way home. Each day I subtracted our expenses from the appropriate column so we had a running balance. I saw the boys check the chart daily to see what money was left. Their requests for food and souvenirs were much less extravagant than on previous trips and we got home under budget. - Jan Easterly

ALL PARKS - I mistakenly left my video camera in a locker after Fantasmic last April at the Studios. The following morning, after a harried cab ride and security escort back to the locker rental (I was checking out and flying home that day), I was surprised to find out that they do not clean out the lockers each evening. It is up to the next rental guest to turn in left packages, etc. It was even more difficult, as the manager could only open one locker at a time (there was no master key) and I couldn't remember the exact locker number.TIP: Take a digital photo of your locker number in case you lose your key or, like me, leave articles in it overnight. That way the manager can go directly to that locker and find your personal belongings. The next guest DID turn in my things, the manager called my cell phone immediately, and WDW shipped my articles back to me at no charge. I am very grateful for this service, but could have saved everyone a lot of confusion if I had just snapped a quick photo. This is helpful if you jump parks and have different lockers to memorize every day. - Elizabeth Marsh

ALL PARKS - I mistakenly left my video camera in a locker after Fantasmic last April at the Studios. The following morning, after a harried cab ride and security escort back to the locker rental (I was checking out and flying home that day), I was surprised to find out that they do not clean out the lockers each evening. It is up to the next rental guest to turn in left packages, etc. It was even more difficult, as the manager could only open one locker at a time (there was no master key) and I couldn't remember the exact locker number.TIP: Take a digital photo of your locker number in case you lose your key or, like me, leave articles in it overnight. That way the manager can go directly to that locker and find your personal belongings. The next guest DID turn in my things, the manager called my cell phone immediately, and WDW shipped my articles back to me at no charge. I am very grateful for this service, but could have saved everyone a lot of confusion if I had just snapped a quick photo. This is helpful if you jump parks and have different lockers to memorize every day. - Elizabeth Marsh

Ever wonder how much walking you do at the different parks, or on different days? So did we. A couple of years ago I bought an inexpensive pedometer basically for this purpose. You may want to consider this, as it gives you a little more to talk about after your vacation. We keep a daily log of the miles we walk and share it with our friends back home. Also you will either confirm what you already think about how far you walk, or you may be quite surprised that you walked as far as you did. Just a note -- we always rack up the most miles on our days at Epcot. - Bob Rogers

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

I recently made reservations for a trip to Disney in January. Being Florida residents, we go every year and use the discount. This year, for some reason, I decided to ask if there was a AAA discount on hotels and if it was different than the Florida resident discount. Come to find out (much to my surprise!) there is a difference and AAA was a little cheaper. I don't think they offer the AAA discount at every hotel, but we were looking at one of the All Star resorts. Oddly enough, we could only choose between the Music and Sports to use our AAA discount. So, for anyone out there who is a Florida resident and also has AAA, make sure you ask about it. - Charlene

Epcot - Here's a tip for getting on Test Track with little or no wait: show up right before Future World closes, then get in the Singles Line. We waited less than 10 minutes on a Saturday night. - Jen