Tips about Grand Floridian, Mousecellaneous, Resorts and Souvenirs

We have accumulated so many Disney photo keychains over the years that I decided to use them to decorate our Christmas tree. I crochet around the keyring with red and green yarn. I make a loop and it is all set to hang. Now I have my own Disney Memories ornaments. - Joanne Dillon

ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE - During a recent stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we walked outside to enjoy a warm evening, seeing if we could see any animals. Well, being nighttime, there wasn't much to see. One of the guides stationed at the observation posts offered us his night vision goggles. It was absolutely incredible. Each of us got to see the animals moving around. It was literally like opening my eyes when looking through them. There were lots of animals where we thought there were none. We have been to the Animal Kingdom Lodge before, but this was a first for us. I highly recommend this experience. Ask the guides; they are always so helpful. It's just another reason tolove this resort, and Disney! - Linda Waltz

ALL STAR RESORTS - We stayed at All Star Music Resort during a "value" or low attendance time period for WDW. As it turns out, due to the lower volume of people, the transportation buses tend to make stops at All Star Sports, All Star Music and All Star Movies -- in that order. The end result is that by the time the bus gets to Movies over 50 percent of the time it's standing room only. This may not apply during the regular season and I'm sure it does not apply during the peak or holiday seasons. I developed a saying midway through the vacation: If you want to sit and ride, stay at All Star Sports. - Michael Dodson

I noticed in some of the online forums that many people will use their vacation as a reason or inspiration to get in shape. After all, you will need your "walkin' shoes" in the World! I, too, have begun walking in the mornings for exercise... inspired by our pending trip to that Magical Place! My tip is: there are many new sources for podcasts about Disney World. Listening to these podcasts really makes your walk go quickly! You don't need an iPod to listen; any MP3 player will do, or even burn them to disc for your old-fashioned CD Walkman! - Tom in Connecticut

EDITOR'S NOTE: We're aware of several Disney podcasts that have started up in recent months -- there's MouseTunes found at: http://mousetunes.com/ There are also the podcasts at WDWToday.com -- be sure to check out Episodes #19 and #22, which feature ALL EARS® editors Deb Wills and Deb Koma, discussing their book (PassPorter's Walt Disney World for Your Special Needs). We're sure there are other podcasts out there, too -- do a quick internet search if you're interested in finding more.

While preparing for our trip and reading all the tips I could find, I came across the tip about getting the dish wipes for washing out the refillable cups or anything else you might need to wash. I thought that it was an excellent tip and set out to try to find them. I looked in every store in my area trying to find them, but could not. Finally I decided to try to make my own. I got some thick baby wipes and laid them flat on the kitchen counter. I squeezed on some dish soap and left them to dry until the next day. When they were dry, I put them in a zipper top bag. It worked perfectly and I was able to use things I already had around the house! - Angela B.

All Resorts - In the room at the hotel, there typically isn't any place to store your bathroom stuff. Toothbrushes, makeup, medicines, shaving supplies, or whatever else ends up sitting on the counter where it either gets moved or is subject to cleaner overspray when the staff comes in to make up the room. My wife found this tip on a cruise ship website and it worked great for our Disney trip over Thanksgiving. She found a clear plastic hanging shoe holder, the kind that has pockets for holding individual shoes. We hung this in the closet and put all our bathroom stuff in there. It was out of the way, but easy to see where individual items were. The holder went down to the floor, too, so we could put things our 5-year-old needed towards the bottom so she could get them herself. Everything had a place so the bathroom countertop was completely clear when we left for the parks each day. - Pete Johnson

Contemporary - Though you can't just go to the top floor of the Contemporary to watch the fireworks, you can go to the third floor lookout (or the stairwells of the 4th-14th floors). Also, remember that the monorails stop when there are perimeter fireworks. - Kenny

Fort Wilderness - We seem to arrive at Fort Wilderness late in the afternoon after driving for several days. After setting up, it's too late to visit any of the parks. What we do is take the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge for some minor shopping (the Orlando paper) and then over to the Magic Kingdom. We don't go in, but exchange our vouchers for the park tickets. By that time of day, there's no line but a couple of Cast Members are still on duty. If we time it right, we can watch the fireworks from the boat on the way back. - David and Dayle Youngs

We have been several times to WDW throughout the past several years, with and without our daughters. Now that they are all grown up, we seem to visit WDW more often without them. They always get a postcard or two from us to let them know we are thinking of them. On our latest trip we started what we call our "audio postcards." While we were in Pirates of the Caribbean we called them on our cell phone and instead of saying "Hi" we put the speaker phone option on just as "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me" could be heard. After a few moments of that I quietly said (so as not to disturb others in our boat), "We're having fun and guess where we are." They LOVED it, and we used several more opportunities during our visit. Some easily recognizable sounds are "Dead men tell no tales,""It's a small world after all," the "zapping" sounds from Buzz Lightyear, and the drummers from the Japan pavilion. There were so many opportunities once we got started. We just had to be careful not to disturb our fellow park-goers with our phone. Toward the end, we didn't even have to say anything; we just let Disney do the talking for us. - Jodi and Jim M.

Grand Floridian - We found that the Gasparilla Grill at the Grand Floridian Resort provided decent food at just a small premium over counter service in the theme parks. The food available poolside at the waterside pool was very expensive; however, you could get a tray from Gasparilla's and bring your food out to the pool. - Michael Gizzi

Grand Floridian - We found that the Gasparilla Grill at the Grand Floridian Resort provided decent food at just a small premium over counter service in the theme parks. The food available poolside at the waterside pool was very expensive; however, you could get a tray from Gasparilla's and bring your food out to the pool. - Michael Gizzi

When we travel to the World, we make sure to purchase as much as we can on our Magic Band. On one hand, there's no need to carry cash around, but the real benefit for frequent visitors is that at the end of your stay you get an itemized list of all expenditures. We still pay for it all with cash when we check out. After we get home and are settled in from our trip, we go through the list and use it to track exactly where we spent our money (dinner, lunch, toys, etc.). Doing this allows us to budget almost exactly how much money we will need for our next trip and there's no need to save all of your receipts to do it. - Fred Block

When my wife and I are at WDW we always send postcards home to our parents. Each parent gets their own postcard for each day that we are at WDW. It is a lot of fun finding the right card and writing the right message. Last year, while at breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, we had all the characters sign each card and we didn't add any message of our own. Our parents got the cards and couldn't figure out what was going on, since they had been reading our messages explaining what had happened on each day. They loved them! We later found out that these cards were our parents' favorites and are the ones that they show to other family members first. - Ray & Cindy Kuykendall

Port Orleans Fench Quarter - We had several problems with our room at Port Orleans French Quarter, the worst of which was being locked out three straight days due to a malfunctioning lock. Readers should know that there is a courtesy phone in the vending areas at each hotel that can be used to reach the front desk. This could have saved us the long walks back to the lobby had we been told! - Andrew from Boston

Save those receipts! Twice our receipts from food service locations at Walt Disney World included a 20 percent off total merchandise purchase (from store opening to 1 p.m.) coupon at the bottom, good at select locations, good through January 5. This happened at both Pizza Planet in Disney's Hollywood Studios and also at the Electric Umbrella at Epcot. - Cheyenna

EDITOR'S NOTE: This promotion usually runs several times a year. Be sure to check if your receipt is one that has the coupon.