Tips about Food & Beverage, Planning and Transportation

On a recent family trip to Disney I soon found out that a bottle of hand soap should have been on my list of things to bring. With five of us sharing a hotel room, the bar soap can be not so nice to share. - Susan Riedling

We recently returned from our trip to WDW! Such fun! We arrived early in the day, checked into our resort and headed straight for the parks. We left our luggage in the car and decided to unload it later on. We returned later in the day after temperatures in the 90s to find that several items had melted in the heat. Our deodorant and lip balms had melted and the packages of fruit snacks were melted into a giant "blob." My advice is to make sure to put anything that melts in a separate zipper-top bag and put it in a cooler. - Denise Schlawin

I just finished reading Mike Scopa's feature about car rentals during a Disney World vacation. It is much-needed information, as I found out last year when planning my family's most recent trip. We spent six nights at Pop Century Resort and then took the three-night Disney Cruise. The cost of Disney transportation from our resort to Port Canaveral was extremely prohibitive and the thought of loading all of our luggage onto a Disney bus to get to the "moderate" hotels to rent an Alamo car was unappealing! The solution came from Enterprise Rent a Car. Their advertising slogan is "We'll pick you up!" and that they did. I made our reservation prior to arriving in FL and then called the morning of check-out and they came to pick up my husband to rent the car. It was very convenient and did not cost anything additional. Thank you for all the amazing information about everything Disney, you made our trip the, "trip of a lifetime!" and I would not have been able to do it without you! - Stephanie Lundgren Parker

In response to Mike Scopa's excellent article, I take one more step when renting a car. Knowing for sure that I am headed to the World for a vacation, I immediately make a car reservation for the best deal I can find. Check back often after that as prices will fluctuate like airline prices (though usually not as much) and better deals can sometimes be had. You can cancel a reservation easily with no penalties if you find a better deal later. - Mike Nowicki

If you will be renting a car while on your WDW vacation and flying, check flying into Tampa Airport. Twice we found that we saved so much money flying into Tampa vs. Orlando. We always rent a car when we go and the drive from Tampa to WDW was almost the same amount of time. Also, the airport seems much more low key. - Kim Brown

Use the Disney bus from the airport to your hotel and as soon as you check-in call the car rental at Disney. They will send a shuttle over to pick you up, do the paper work and save approximately $100 over renting the same car at the airport. It is much more comfortable taking the bus from the airport than driving to the resorts (and no toll cost). Dropping your car off at the end of the vacation is easier and taking the bus back to the airport is much more convenient. When it is time to leave your resort you check out at 11 a.m., and the hotel will store your baggage. When you are approaching your departure time, you return the car and their shuttle will take you back to your resort and then you jump on the Disney bus. We have rented cars from the airport many times, but the last time we went we tried the above and it worked out very well. You also save the gas it takes to travel from and to the airport. Because we were able to keep the car well past check-out time, we went back into one of the parks, had a great lunch, went over to Disney Springs, shopped, filled the tank up with gas. Then we drove over to the Magic Kingdom parking lot and dropped off the car. They dropped us off at our resort and everything went as smooth as clockwork. And because we were so close to every place we wanted to go we only used $14 in gas for a 10-day stay (we had an SUV for four people). We found that we would normally lose close to two days of our vacation because of check-in/out, and getting the car back to the airport on time. - Dan Cotterell from Canada

On our last trip we brought a couple of the battery-operated tea candles. Used one in the bathroom as a night-light. - Brenda

My family just recently returned from our week vacation at Disney World in May. We are a family of five. We always bring one water bottle per person into the parks. This trip I bought a ball of different colored rubber bands. Each person had their own color and attached it to the neck of the water bottle. So when all the water bottles were put in the stroller, you could tell whose bottle belonged to who. With young children, this ended all arguments of "Who drank all my water?" - Karen Hopkins

My family just recently returned from our week vacation at Disney World in May. We are a family of five. We always bring one water bottle per person into the parks. This trip I bought a ball of different colored rubber bands. Each person had their own color and attached it to the neck of the water bottle. So when all the water bottles were put in the stroller, you could tell whose bottle belonged to who. With young children, this ended all arguments of "Who drank all my water?" - Karen Hopkins

Animal Kingdom Lodge - A reader writes in about the new "Dining with Animal Specialists" at Sanaa that we reported on last week: The best way to book the new "Dining with Animal Specialists" offering is to call the Safari line for Wanyama Safari at (407) 938-4755. That gets you the Animal Kingdom Lodge Itinerary Planning Office. Calling the Kidani Front Desk will actually get you the call center, and they know almost nothing about the new offering and can't book it.

When we've made our Disney Dining reservations, one thing that helps us to get to our restaurant on time -- I enter my reservation number and time of reservation into my phone. I set my alarm to go off to remind me at least an hour before the reservation. That way, I'm not late and I have plenty of time to get from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot, or wherever I am. - Judy Shock

Pick up some 3M Command hooks with the removable adhesive and put them, along with some extra adhesive, into your suitcase. We are a family of six, and I have the problem of too many wet things and not enough room, too, and this seems to solve the problem. They're easily removed when you leave and don't take paint off the walls. - Beth McMeekin

The last trip to Walt Disney World, I brought three plastic hangers with me -- handy for drying bathing suits or any hand wash things. They can be hung on the shower rod or in the closet. - Gaylin in Vancouver

My way to dry bathing suits when there are a few of us in a room: I bring a bungee cord in my suitcase, then string it up on the balcony outside my room. Instant clothesline! - ckjrn1959

Just saw saw that someone mentioned in a recent newsletter that they were used to traveling with a sound machine, and suggested that guests bring them to help drown out noise from traffic. Wanted to share my tip -- we found it helpful to just put the room's clock radio to a static channel. - Tracey DiMillo