Tips about Food & Beverage, Keep The Magic Alive, Kids, Magic Kingdom and Mousecellaneous

Check the local TV listings for the Travel Channel and the Food Network. Both regularly have programs featuring Walt Disney World. - Mike

I like to look at my Disney vacation pictures from years gone by and see how the parks have changed and relive my wonderful vacations. I also subscribe to the Disney Magazine. I have the Fantasmic CD and a CD I made at the Imagination Pavillion with all Disney songs from the parks/rides. - Connie La Tempa

We've found a great way ~ Internet radio "hub" Live 365 has a number of broadcasters/stations that play Disney music - everything from soundtracks to ambient park music, even some sound bites from attractions! We don't realize how we relate hearing ambient park music to "feeling" like we're there, until we listen to it at home! Just go the the Live 365 website, and search "Disney" or "Walt Disney World". A list of stations that play that music are listed, complete with short descriptions of the type of music they play. It's a great way to feel like you're at the park, when you're at home! - Cindy W.

One of my favorite things to do for a quick Disney fix, when a trip is not in the near future is play a video I bought on a previous trip. This video travels throughout the 4 theme parks showing the various attractions (the name escapes me..."Around the World"?). I think you can still purchase it from WDW directly. Also the free promotional planning tapes/DVD from Disney are loads of fun. Sometimes I'll even watch a Sing-Along tape with the kids (Campout or Beach Party at WDW or even Disneyland fun). Finally, Some days I just listen to my CD's of the theme park rides and show. It is a great way to remember the fun had on the last trip and anticipate the next trip. - Holly Bryfogle

Visit a Disney Store...if you can still find one in your area! 🙂 -Tony

To keep the Disney fun going between trips, I bought a small dry-erase board, hung it in the bathroom, and my husband and I take turns playing Hangman. The answers we come up with are anything Disney related from Disney movies to the parks to something we've read on AllEars®.Net. We've been playing for many, many months and still haven't run out of creative answers. We even made up fun rules like if one of us happens to guess the answer before guessing any letters, the winner gets a one-hour massage from the other person. (This is challenging, but very possible!) - Paulette Kusmierz

By all means make sure you have that house key when you head out from home! We DID lock ourselves out of the house on one WDW vacation. We, like a lot of folks, have an automatic garage door opener and use that as our main means of entry into the house. We don't normally lock the inner garage door leading into the house. Well, because we were going to be gone, we decided to lock things up extra securely, so we locked the inner door and hard locked the garage door. As soon as that lock went "clunk" I realized that I don't even carry a house key! I asked my hubby and he had paired down his keys to the bare minimum, and guess what? He took the house key off! We growled at each other for a couple of minutes, then decided there was nothing we could do about it at themoment and went on our trip. When we got back, we broke a window in our back door, and had it replaced the next day. That was an extra $50 we sure didn't need to spend! - Carol Kelley

Greetings from Alaska! I just read a tip from another reader about bringing snack size bags of Gatorade powder to add to water. Recently, I bought a round plastic container that has three compartments to hold servings of powdered baby formula to use in our upcoming trip to WDW. It has a top that twists to allow an opening to pour the contents of one compartment at a time. I think the container is made by Munchkin, and I found it in the baby products section of one of our local stores. Next time I'm out shopping, I'll pick up another container to use for Gatorade powder. - Anne-Lise Hagevig

Have disposable cameras for your children to get their 'view' on their vacation experiences! - Madison

ALL PARKS - I purchased "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" book before our trip. I tore out the pages in the back of the book (the ones that suggest which attractions to see and in which order -- a very valuable tool) and laminated them. I then punched a hole in a corner of each page. As we set off for a certain park for the day, I would attach that set of pages with a binder ring to my fanny pack. I then had a quick reference guide for all the attractions and restaurants in that park. It was outside my fanny pack so I could look at it quickly without having to open my fanny pack each time. It was laminated so if it rained, the pages were not ruined, and they could withstand a lot of abuse. I took along a Sharpie marker and marked off each attraction as we visited it so I could see at a glance where we'd been and where we were supposed to go next. It worked out very well for our trip. - Lisa Kent

We just returned from our first trip to Disney World since having kids. I was a little anxious about how I would be able to make bottles for our 10 month old daughter at the parks--I didn't want to rely on trekking to the baby care stations every time. I found that at any counter service/quick service location in the parks I could ask for a cup of hot water to make a bottle--they must get this request a lot because everyone was ready and willing to hand over a hot cup of water (and for free of course). I just mixed in some of my own ice water with the hot and made the perfect bottle every time. It was a great time saver for us and kept our daughter happy. - Matt & Ellen Evans

If you are going to be in the park all day with small children, invest in a small collapsible cooler that can fill inside your luggage. These cooler are inexpensive to purchase. Walmart has them for $6.00. After you arrive in Disney fill it each morning with a six pack of water and some ice from the hotel. Bottle water is about $3-4 dollars for a six pack, verses the $3.00+ per bottle you will pay inside the park. These coolers have arm straps, and can easily be hung from your stroller. Many cast members were gracious enough to throw a couple of scoops of fresh ice into the cooler. The security guards at the front gate overlook the no food brought into the park. My husband and I did this last year and we literally save over 20 dollars a day by not buying the water in the park. - Peggy, Point Pleasant, NJ

When at WDW, no matter the time of year, there always seem to be a "wait" for something! We help pass the time with our 3 yr old by packing a deck of cards. While waiting for meals, Mickey's Philharmagic, parades, and even the boat back to the hotel, we'll play quick games of "Go Fish" or "Crazy Eights." She'll even make up her own games to help pass the time. It's truly been a lifesaver for an ansy little pre-schooler! - Alison Boeckman

My wife and I took our daughter to WDW when she was three years old. Wanting to remember all that we did, we kept a journal of each day's activities. The pictures were later put into a scrapbook, but we did something else that has paid great dividends since. We incorporated the journal with numerous pictures (some were our pictures scanned in, some were "borrowed" from Disney.com and AllEars.Net) and created a newsletter in Microsoft Publisher. Now, whenever my daughter (who is now five) wants to relive the experience, we pull out the eight-page newsletter and give it a read. It has really helped her keep the memories of her first trip to WDW alive!!! - Steve Grohne

We took in small snack-sized bags of Gatorade to put in our water bottles for the really hot days. The park charges a lot for Gatorade -- almost as much as the canister itself costs -- and you can just tear a tiny bit of the bag off and pour it right in. We also carried our water bottles with our own water bottle holders. Family Fun Magazine shows you how to make your own. We made some for our Girl Scout troop that were similar: Use two to three feet of webbing, which you can get at a fabric store, or get those cheaper dog leashes from a dollar store. Cut to your desired length, fold each end around a rubber O-ring (found in plumbing areas of hardware stores) and sew the ends to form your water bottle holder. You simply slip the O-ring over the mouth of the bottle and you have a hands-free bottle of water that you can refill and use to keep yourself hydrated. - Clemley