Tips about Food & Beverage, PhotoPass and Resorts

Instead of stopping at a grocery store on arrival we have found Garden Grocer to be a great delivery service for all those drinks, water, snacks and breakfast goods that make getting organized in the mornings especially easy. We order from the comfort of home, there's a discount for ordering a couple of months out, and we have the items delivered early on our arrival day. Bell Services hold them and refrigerate perishables and then when we arrive we simply ask to have them delivered to our room. It's so convenient and we love not having to actually stop and shop enroute to our hotel. - Moira

EDITOR'S NOTE: Read what other AllEars.Net readers have to say about this service in our Rate and Review section.

Here's a tip for families who use Disney Photopass, but can't afford either the high price to purchase many individual pictures or the approximately $100 to purchase the CD of all of your pictures. After our trip in December 2008, we had a Photopass with about 40 great pictures on it. Some shots we had also asked the photographer to take with our camera, but some were wonderful candid shots they captured while my kids spoke with characters or of our whole family together. I really wanted copies of some of these but could not afford to pay the price for many pictures. That's when I found the calendar option on the Photopass website. For $24.95 I was able to create a 2009 calendar with 13 of our best pictures on it -- one on the cover and 12 months. It just arrived today and I am really impressed with the color and quality of the photos as well as the size of the calendar. The pictures themselves are about 8" X 6" in size with a Disney border around them that makes the total size of the page about 11" X 8". Now we have a great keepsake of 13 memorable pictures from our trip that we could not otherwise have afforded! - Chris Lininger

I wanted to mention that going to the parks for five days made the Memory Maker well worth it. Two tips: 1) They take lots of photos during the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, but afterwards they do another shoot if you want more of a finished product. 2) For an extra $30 you can get all your photos on CD, but the real value is the 400 Disney Park photos. These are the best photos I have ever seen in this regard. Worth double what they are asking. No people in photos, right time of day, etc. - Dennis Schipper

I have a tip for the vegetarians visiting Disney. At some counter service restaurants (Cosmic Ray's in particular) you can order just a bun and two slices of cheese for $1.79 and put whatever toppings you want from the topping bar. This works really well at Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland because they have a huge variety at the topping bar including sauteed mushrooms. - Angie

Regarding hard to get dining reservations. If at first you don't succeed... Count back 45 days from the date of your desired reservation. Call that day to check for cancellations. The thinking behind this is your final payment for any Disney vacations is due 45 days prior to arrival. People may need to change travel dates or cancel before final payment is made. It worked for me with Chef Mickey's. I called 45 days prior to my desired reservation date and got a 5:00 ressie. The cast member and I were both shocked and surprised. Simply Magical! - Gina Thayer

I've noticed a lot of comments on the benefit of Photopass, but have yet to see this one. If you are going on a Disney vacation and know that you will be utilizing Photopass photographers and will want to purchase the pictures, you can go to the Photopass website and PRE-PURCHASE the photopass CD more cheaply before you travel as opposed to when you get back home from your vacation. I saved $25 and did not have to pay for them to ship it to me! - Christina Holland

Pay attention to the dates! Each photo is online for 30 days from when it was taken. Make sure you claim your photos on http://www.disneyphotopass.com/ before the 30 days are up. They will be deleted from the system and can't be restored.

Save your ID number in some way! Write it down or take a digital picture of it. If you have your ID, you have your photos, no matter what happens to the card. Also remember, you can have more than one card! The PhotoPass site allows you to enter multiple IDs.

Before you leave the parks on your last day, go to one of the photo centers and have them upload the photos from your digital camera. They will use your Photopass card and upload your photos to the same Photopass. This was much faster than doing it from home. Then when I got home and looked at the Photopass, I was able to use the pictures from the Disney photographers as well as my own photos to create a Photobook. The album is great. It was well worth the money I spent. - Susan Vaughan

Coronado Springs - We want to let "winter" vacationers know that the outdoor pools are heated. We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort in October, and thought it was too cool to swim at night. One night I happened to see how cold the water was and to my surprise it was warmer than it was during the day. No one mentioned that the outdoor pools are heated! So fellow vacationers, enjoy the uncrowded pools under the stars, in the warm, warm heated pools. - Krista Hook

Can you encourage your readers who are considering buying Photopass pictures online at home to check their pictures prior to leaving the parks (especially if what they plan to buy can only be purchased online)? The pictures are so small online that you cannot determine the quality. I ordered a CD of all my photopass pictures and did not find out until after I paid all the money and received the CD that 1/2 of them were blurry. Thanks for passing this along so others don't have to learn the hard (and expensive) way! - Kristi Webber

T-REX, the restaurant, is loud. We brought earplugs, but only needed them during the meteor shower. I saw some people complaining about the ice room, but it was actually pretty cool (ha ha) to look at... We were seated in a room that had the woolly mammoth, the baby mammoth and some flyers. The Dino room was very cool as well, and one of the tables is surrounded by a dinosaur. Neither of my kids was overwhelmingly disappointed that they weren't in that room, though. They liked looking around. - Holly P.

Old Key West - We just enjoyed a wonderful week at Disney's Old Key West. However, we wondered why we spent so much time (greater than 45 minutes on a couple occasions!) waiting for buses to take us to the parks. After inquiring (finally) with the concierge, we were told that if the bus filled prior to our stop at Hospitality House, the bus driver would automatically skip this stop and a bus would only stop when vacant. Our tip -- walk the extra three minutes to the Peninsular Rd. bus stop and enjoy an empty bus each time! - Jen Tesoriero

EDITOR'S NOTE: We are afraid that the concierge gave you some erroneous information. Buses at OKW make all of the stops since many times people will use a park bus (any park bus) as an internal shuttle to the Hospitality House as they all stop there last before heading out to a park. This is especially true in the mornings and around dinner time.

My kids, ages 7 and 9, take me to Disney World for a three-day weekend about six times a year. Through our many trips, we have come to learn that it's necessary for us to have enough energy to enjoy ourselves and eat as healthy as possible. It also cuts down on the whining that occurs when kids are bored and tired and hungry, and saves us some money as well. As a routine, each night each kid packs himself parent-approved snack bags, brought from home or bought in the gift store, divided up into those little snack bags (fruit roll-ups, Chip n' Dale pretzels, raisins, grapes, etc.). My kids are usually OK with about four to six little snacks apiece. The kids are then responsible for their own fanny pack all day and can help themselves to what snack they want when they want without whining or fighting or arguing. I keep additional snack baggies in my purse for those times when we indulge in some Cheetohs or chips in the park so the kids can share more easily or save for later. It works well for us!! - Ellen Holbrook

Another place that serves real coffee (including espresso drinks) is the walk-up window at Pepper Market at the Coronado Springs Resort. The latte I ordered there was actually larger and cheaper than the one I usually get at my local Starbucks. - Anne Hickling

POLYNESIAN RESORT - I just returned from a magical nine days in the World. It could have just as easily been a disaster. As soon as I checked into my room at the Polynesian, I went to charge my cell phone. Unfortunately I realized that I had forgotten to bring my charger. I thought I'd be incommunicado for the entire trip. Since my husband and I often take our kids in seperate directions, I was really worried about how we would manage our days. Thinking it was a slim chance, I inquired at the concierge desk. What a pleasant surprise when they brought out a bin of about 20-25 cell phone chargers for me to look through and find the right one. I was able to borrow it a few times during my trip so that I always had my phone ready and charged. - Vicky

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a great idea, but don't depend on it, as not all resorts can accommodate you like this. Go ahead, ask Senior Editor Debra Martin Koma how she knows...