Tips about Food & Beverage, Planning, Souvenirs and Theme Parks

When my wife and I took our nieces (ages 7 and 9) to Disney World two years ago, they especially wanted to meet Cinderella. I had already made reservations for the Cinderella breakfast in the castle, but I didn't tell the girls right away. Instead, I said only that if we were very lucky maybe Cinderella would invite us to meet her in her castle. In the meantime, my wife, Kathy, purchased some invitation cards at one of the shops, with Cinderella and the castle on the cover. She filled out the invitation from "Princess Cinderella," and, the day before the breakfast, secretly left them on the girls' pillows as we left the room for the day. When we returned, the girls found the invitations and were thrilled that Cinderella had personally invited them to breakfast! Also, don't give up if you can't get reservations for breakfast in the castle or for other popular character meals. If the meal is all booked up, try calling again for reservations just a day or two before the meal (or even the day of). Often there are cancellations. It worked for me! - Dennis Driggers

I recently planned a birthday dinner for my fiance at the California Grill to correspond with fireworks time. When I made the priority seating a month prior to dinner, I was given a 10 p.m. fireworks time, so I made the priority seating for 9 p.m. When we arrived for dinner, we were told that fireworks would be at 9 p.m. and we couldn't be seated before the fireworks. I don't know if Disney Dining told me a wrong fireworks time, or if the time was later changed, but always confirm the fireworks times in the weeks leading up to your visit if you're planning on dinner, a cruise, or any other activity that involves Wishes or IllumiNations. - Kim Button

On a recent trip to WDW we elected to eat at 'Ohana at the Polynesian. We had a table right on the corner of the room facing the Magic Kingdom. To our surprise, the lights dimmed and the music for the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom started. What a delight! We had front row seats for the fireworks, music and all, and a wonderful meal to go with it. I would highly recommend this for people with small children who hate the noise of the fireworks like my 2-year-old son does. He was able to enjoy the fireworks and the music that went with it without the noise that frightens him so much. - Jody McElroy

Did you forget to purchase that special souvenir? Although Walt Disney World does NOT have an Internet shopping site, nor do they have a catalog of park items, they do have a Mail Order Merchandise Department that can get most items for you. They are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) and may be reached by phone, fax or e-mail.
Telephone: 407-363-6200
Fax: 407-352-6369
Email: [email protected]

Shipping charges are $8.95 to $13.95 for UPS, and $13.95, $18.95, $22.95 and $27.95 for Federal Express charges, depending on the value of the order and the service requested. - Glo from Miami

The Earl of Sandwich, located in the Marketplace at Disney Springs, is a great place for a great sandwich. The sandwiches were a good size and filled us up. They also offer salads at a reasonable price. We ate there three times and enjoyed it every time. It is a counter service style restaurant right next to the Once Upon a Toy store. Also, if you booked your trip through AAA and received a AAA Diamond Discount card, you can save 10% there. - Kristen Secrist

http://allears.net/dining/location/earl-of-sandwich

We generally start planning at least a year in advance. I have a plastic tub that is labeled "WDW stuff." I place our heavy-duty hotel mugs in it so they are already packed. I also buy things throughout the year for the trip: toothbrushes, toothpaste, magic gloves and whatever else we normally use during our week-long trip. I also go to my local laundromat and pick up boxes of laundry detergent for $.50 a box. One box cleans two loads and is a lot cheaper than the hotel laundry dispenser. I also pack several dryer sheets in a freezer bag and place them in my suitcase. It keeps the clothes smelling nice and I have dryer sheets for use while there. One nice thing about the bin is that, for those times that we drive to WDW, we just put the lid on it and pack it in the van. After we arrive to the hotel we empty it out and use that as our clothes hamper for dirty clothes. It works great for those trips to the hotel laundry. - Sirena Penn

The restaurants certainly do get booked up in advance, but remember that you can still walk on up to the seating host/hostess and ask if they have anything available. We live in Tampa Bay and visited on Valentine's Day. I called the dining reservations line every day for two weeks before and couldn't get in anywhere. We drove up anyway, and a Polynesian Resort Cast Member offered to help us out by calling all the resort restaurants for us. There was still nothing available until late so we decided to just grab a quick bite anywhere. We took the monorail over to the Contemporary, tried the dining reservations number again -- nothing. Just for yucks, my brother-in-law went to talk to the host/hostess at Chef Mickey's (they were just opening), and they said, "SURE, we can get you in right now if you're ready." This also happened at 'Ohana on another occasion, with a wait of only 20 minutes. The dining reservations are great, but there's nothing like being there and asking.- Melinda M.

We took them all home, also, but what we used them for was to "wrap" our everyday photo album with our pictures in it from our vacation! This lets us know exactly which album is our "Disney" album among our other ones. - CapeGoofy5

I also use the Disney plastic bags that I bring home to carry my lunch to work. It helps me have a little bit of the magic here in the frozen tundra of Indiana. - Jude Wood

Another benefit of shipping purchases home is that Florida sales tax won't be applied to the purchase if shipped outside of the state. I'm pretty sure the cash registers take care of it automatically now, as long as the shipping is processed on the same transaction. - Kenn C.

Don't forget that the gift shops will also ship directly to your home. I usually buy water globes and my husband buys steins from Epcot. It's much easier and safer to have them shipped directly to the house, and if I remember correctly it wasn't that expensive. - luvmy2girls

Although lots of people ship home their souvenirs, I usually UPS home most of our clothes. I go to the laundromat, wash them and pack them up in a sturdy box (usually provided by the store from whichever Disney Resort we are staying in). They help tape it up and it goes UPS Ground. That way the kids can play with the souvenirs and/or bring them to school, and our vacation clothes arrive 3-5 days after we do! - Brenda Hawk

Someone mentioned using all those Disney plastic bags to wrap packages. We brought them all home (seemed like thousands!) and the kids use them to bring snacks to school/daycare, transport gym clothes, or anything else needing a quick bag. Not only are they much cuter than grocery store bags, they are a fun reminder of a magical trip. - Amanda

My favorite tip to pass along is this... I always ship my souvenirs home. I have both a UPS and a FedEx account. I pre-print the labels before I go and pack them in my suitcase. I get a box from the gift shop at my hotel and slowly pack the box during my stay. Then, the morning of my departure, I take the box to the front desk. They call the shipping company and the package gets shipped. About 2-3 days after I've arrived home, it's like Christmas opening the box. - Lisa Noch

All the counter service restaurants we went to at Disney World showed their sandwiches as a combo type meal with fries -- indiviual sandwiches aren't listed on the menu boards. But if you ask you can just get the sandwich (hamburger, ham and cheese, whatever) without the fries and save about $2.00 per meal. Also they give you plenty of fries, so we would just get one combo meal and the rest of us just the sandwich and we easily had enough fries to share. - Lisa Marrott