Tips about Food & Beverage, Kids, Souvenirs and Special Events

Epcot - My husband and I recently learned of something called the "Wine Walk" at Epcot. For $20 you can purchase a passport at the France, Germany or Italy wine shops. The passport allows you to taste six different wines (two per country). The passport lists the two specific wines in each country. What is unique about the Wine Walk is that you do not have to use the whole passport in one trip. You can try a few and then save the rest for a future trip if you like. Each wine is a two-ounce pour, but Germany seems to be the only country that was very strict on this. Italy and France were a bit more liberal with their pours. Our favorite country for the tastings was Italy. Even though you only get about two ounces per taste, we felt it was a pretty good bargain as we would have paid about $35 if we bought each pour individually. - Tiffany Harmon

Epcot - My husband and I recently learned of something called the "Wine Walk" at Epcot. For $20 you can purchase a passport at the France, Germany or Italy wine shops. The passport allows you to taste six different wines (two per country). The passport lists the two specific wines in each country. What is unique about the Wine Walk is that you do not have to use the whole passport in one trip. You can try a few and then save the rest for a future trip if you like. Each wine is a two-ounce pour, but Germany seems to be the only country that was very strict on this. Italy and France were a bit more liberal with their pours. Our favorite country for the tastings was Italy. Even though you only get about two ounces per taste, we felt it was a pretty good bargain as we would have paid about $35 if we bought each pour individually. - Tiffany Harmon

The entire Disney World resort now has 3" Vinylmation trading. Shops that sell Vinylmation have a trading box out on the cash register that contains three Vinylmation figures. Like a pin-trading lanyard, you are free to trade from this box. In addition, some locations have large, black "mystery boxes" containing about 25 Vinylmation figures that you cannot see beforehand. You pick a number and they trade the Vinylmation that is located in that number's corresponding box. It was a lot of fun. - Nikki

I just returned from Disney and I took some bubble wrap with me this time, because I knew I wanted the Roaming Mickey from Epcot, and I also knew its box would take up way too much room in my luggage. This was a great idea, it doesn't weigh anything and I can pack it flat, it doesn't take up any room at all. I am going to do this every time I go on vacation now, and I don't have to worry about not buying that breakable item that I see and fall in love with! - Melanie

While Disney resorts don't have microwaves in the room, they do have at least one microwave for common use that is usually situated close to the food court. They are available 24 hours a day and can be a great money-saver. From a snack such as popcorn to soup or noodles, using the microwave to replace or supplement bought food can be a big money-saver. - Connie McGouldrick

We tackled going to Walt Disney World with three boys ages 10, 8, and 5 who wanted to buy everything they had in front of them like this: We had them hold up the item they wanted and we took a picture of it. The day before we left, while I was packing, they went through the pictures to pick the one thing they liked the best. Now we knew what to look for, as well as having some extra pictures for memories. If we were going to a park, we used the Shop Disney Parks app, which we had downloaded. It told us where to go and in one case had the item delivered to Guest Relations at the front of the park. The app will also tell you what delivery options are available (to your room, to guest relations, or to your home). - Robbie Haines

If you are there for a week or longer, find out how much it is to take a cab for shopping. We did a roundtrip cab (having him even wait for us in parking lot) and it cost us $32 with tip to Walgreen's. We got much needed cold/flu supplies, drinks, and snacks. I added up just two of the tons of items we bought price for price for what they were in the gift shop, and there alone was our cab fare! - Dana Barish

Animal Kingdom - If you're looking for a cheap, healthy snack in the Animal Kingdom, check out the fruit cart in the Harambe Village of Africa. There's lots of fresh, ice cold fruit that's cheap and much healthier than ice cream or popcorn. Our family got apple slices with caramel, fresh oranges and bananas, and it was delicious. The cart also sells chips, water and drinks. - Katherine

Animal Kingdom - If you're looking for a cheap, healthy snack in the Animal Kingdom, check out the fruit cart in the Harambe Village of Africa. There's lots of fresh, ice cold fruit that's cheap and much healthier than ice cream or popcorn. Our family got apple slices with caramel, fresh oranges and bananas, and it was delicious. The cart also sells chips, water and drinks. - Katherine

On our last stay, we stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside for 10 nights. We were a bit worried: How could we enjoy some late night TV without waking our 5-year-old daughter? How would she fall asleep with the lights and TV on? We found a great solution. We bought our daughter a small dome tent (it packs up very compactly), which we shipped ahead of our arrival. When we got to the room, there was just enough space (once we rearranged a table and chair) to set her tent up in a corner. She loved it! She put all her "babies" in there each night with her, and couldn't wait to zip herself in for "camping out." Interestingly enough, the housekeeper brought in extra bedding unasked and one of those foam egg-crate pads to soften the "bed" inside the tent. Housekeeping also rearranged the "babies" around the tent each day. - Laura Suffi

I save the black, plastic Mickey-shaped "dishes" you get food on at some of the quickie eateries (like the eat-on-the-street Rosie's All-American Cafe in Hollywood Studios) and take them home. Every night I put out fresh veggies for our girls with ranch dressing in the ears for dipping. They get a kick out of it and we've been using them literally for years! We think it's neat that we recycled them all the way from Disney. I wash them on the top rack in the dishwasher with no issues. - Shanlee Ginchereau

CHRISTMAS - Our family had finished 10 days at Disney World the week before Thanksgiving. However we were in Florida for the entire month of November. Needless to say our girls, ages 6 and 10, were very bored and missing Disney very much before our time had ended in Florida. We wanted to go back to Disney, but couldn't afford more tickets. We had seen a special on HGTV about how Disney decorated for Christmas. We wished we could see some of the resorts after seeing this special. I called guest relations and they told us that we could see each of the resort decorations, such as the gingerbread house (amazing) at the Grand Floridian. The simplest way to do this is to park at a monorail resort and take the monorail to the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary Resorts. Of course if you wanted to see the Beach & Yacht Club, and the Boardwalk resorts then that is a separate drive or a bus ride. These decorations are absolutely breathtaking. Unbelievable how gorgeous these lobbies are. We have never stayed on property, but after seeing some of these resorts up close we plan to make a future visit. On our way to the resorts we passed by something we had no idea was at Disney World -- miniature golf courses. There was Winter/Summerland miniature golf, and Fantasia miniature golf. We had planned on going to a mini golf course that day around Orlando after touring the decorations. The prices are not any higher than any other course outside of Disney. These courses were so much fun and you have all the Disney magic surrounding you. Our girls loved it. We played the Wintertime course and then went to the Fantasia course and played that twice. Our favorite was the Wintertime course though. We finished up with a drive to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see their decorations and had dinner at the Boma restaurant. We were able to have a great day at Disney even though we didn't have tickets to the parks. You get to see a lot of Disney property that you wouldn't normally see. I highly suggest touring the resorts and especially playing the golf courses. They are a blast. Thank you Disney for making our final day magical outside the parks. - Noelbigmac99 EDITOR'S NOTE: During peak times, many resort parking lots are closed to everyone except those staying there and those with dining reservations.

CHRISTMAS - One of the best-kept secrets of the holiday season is to walk through Fort Wilderness and view all of the Christmas decorations that the campers put up. Most of the decorations are more elaborate than anything many of us have at home. Stick around at the beach for the evening to watch the Electrical Water Pageant and view the fireworks from Magic Kingdom. - Susan Visconti

I found a tip that sounds really good especially if you are traveling with little ones. Get a pizza box for each child and you can store crayons, paper and color book in there and they can use the box as a desk when riding in the car. Crayons don't roll around the car and when done it all goes back into the box. I think you could just go to your local pizza store and ask for a clean unused box. - Suzy Kozicki

Early evening, we made our way to Fort Wilderness for a carriage ride (which is wonderful this time of year, with all of the personal Christmas decorations on the campsites!) Our ride was extra special because I told our driver, "Thank you for working on a holiday." She almost cried! She really appreciated just the simple gesture of "thanks" -- all of those cast members miss out on seeing their families on some holidays so that we can enjoy ours! After that it was time for 'Ohana. I love this restaurant, but I was especially excited to see they had a special Thanksgiving menu (as do many restaurants in WDW). It was a typical Thanksgiving dinner, 'Ohana style -- and of course delicious. We asked if we could please have a window seat, and even on a busy night they accommodated us. We timed it perfectly that we were able to watch Wishes while eating dinner, and it was beautiful! Our server had to ask if I was all right because I did start to tear up. We had seen Wishes several times, and this was a very nice, different perspective, and I thought of the thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the MK while we enjoyed a wonderful meal. We ended the night grabbing hot chocolate and sitting on the Poly beach, watching the Electrical Water Pageant go by. To me, it was a perfect Thanksgiving! I did not have to deal with crowds, and I got to experience several unique things WDW has to offer. - Carissa