Tips about Health and Mousecellaneous

For $.79 at your local Target store you can purchase a clear plastic coupon holder in the office supply department. It's 5" x 7" in size, has a Velcro closure, and is perfect for holding your tickets, money, etc. It keeps everything from getting wet on the water rides and is easy to find in your backpack! I never go to WDW without mine! - Noreen Rachuba EDITOR'S NOTE: Magic Bands eliminate the need to carry many cards, but for those you do, this is a great suggestion.

I brought Dawn DishWipes with us and washed out our refillable mug in our room sink every night. My mug just never felt truly clean on any of our other trips when I would just rinse it well with hot water. The wipes come in a clear plastic box and are dry, so I just put a bunch in a Ziploc bag. Dina

A runner friend of mine turned me on to something called "Body Glide." It looks a bit like deodorant, but you put it on your feet to prevent blisters (it reduces the friction that causes them). We had four people and five days at Disney, and not a single blister -- it was great! - Debbie M.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Body Glide also works well to reduce chafing.

A runner friend of mine turned me on to something called "Body Glide." It looks a bit like deodorant, but you put it on your feet to prevent blisters (it reduces the friction that causes them). We had four people and five days at Disney, and not a single blister -- it was great! - Debbie M.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Body Glide also works well to reduce chafing.

We had great luck booking the Illuminations Cruise over the years. We have done it several times. This year we booked the Magic Kingdom Fireworks Cruise. I think it is a little more available. We enjoyed it much more. There was a lot more "cruising" before the show and the backdrop of the castle and Magic Kingdom was fantastic. - Margaret

Recently, on a trip to WDW, the screw to one of the arms of my sunglasses came out. Luckily it happened in my purse so I had the screw but I didn't have a tool to screw it in with. My friends and I went through our purses trying to find something we could use (we weren't at our hotel at the time), but we came up empty-handed. Then my friend Gina came up with the idea to try one of her pressed pennies. It worked! Pressed pennies are just the right thickness for tightening eyeglass screws, and they are big enough to make it easy to turn them. Even if you don't have a pressed penny, the machines are everywhere you turn, and the cost (51 cents) is much cheaper than buying an eyeglass repair kit in a vacation destination. - Karen Zayas

The small Disney shopping bag is perfect for holding a raincoat. It packs easily into backpacks and can also even be threaded through a belt. Like others, I always save every shopping bag until we go home just in case we need it for something, but when we have to purchase a new raincoat, I'm always glad there is a little one stored in our room. - Lori Wedeking

I use the Disney shopping bags as gift wrap. If the item does not fit in the bag I cut the bag at the seam. I have even taped several bags together for a large box. Teamed with curly ribbon, kids love the Mickeys all over a package. - Patricia Towsley

I also have another idea for the Disney bags that you get when you buy something in the "world." I bring home all the bags and when I put my photo album together I use one of the bags for the cover of the album. That way I know exactly which album I'm looking for. - CapeGoofy5

By all means make sure you have that house key when you head out from home! We DID lock ourselves out of the house on one WDW vacation. We, like a lot of folks, have an automatic garage door opener and use that as our main means of entry into the house. We don't normally lock the inner garage door leading into the house. Well, because we were going to be gone, we decided to lock things up extra securely, so we locked the inner door and hard locked the garage door. As soon as that lock went "clunk" I realized that I don't even carry a house key! I asked my hubby and he had paired down his keys to the bare minimum, and guess what? He took the house key off! We growled at each other for a couple of minutes, then decided there was nothing we could do about it at themoment and went on our trip. When we got back, we broke a window in our back door, and had it replaced the next day. That was an extra $50 we sure didn't need to spend! - Carol Kelley

If you are taking any medications, have a regular big bottle in the hotel and a take some pills in a smaller container with you to the parks. That way if you lose the container, you only lose a couple of pills and you still have more of your medication in your hotel and will not have to get it refilled. - Erick Jauregui

My tip is to bring a package of good old fashion corn pads in my hip sack....the kind with the hole in the middle....and when I feel a blister starting, I put a corn pad on with the hole over the blister. Relief! - SGPEREIRA

This summer, my family decided to give back a little to the Cast Members who make each stay even more magical. Before leaving home, we printed (using print programs that are out there on the Web) character thank you cards. Each card had a different princess or Tinker Bell on it, and said something nice like, "We put your service to the test, and you're the best!" or "Thank you for making our vacation magical!" We added our family name, hometown, and "Summer 2004." We printed them out, and each member of our family got a sheet of their own to color. After coloring, we laminated them. Once in the park, we handed them out to Cast Members who we felt had gone above and beyond the call of "normal magic." Most of the Cast Members we handed them out to were so surprised and thanked *us*! We really enjoyed doing this, and I feel sure that it will be a new tradition for our family. - Ashlee Farris

Disney goes out of its way to accommodate people with mobility issues, but for those who opt against the motorized scooters, please remember: Although one doesn't think of the parks as having significant ups and downs, the truth is those walkways and lovely bits of landscaping often disguise some serious slopes and inclines. If your wheelchair rider has some weight, don't expect him or her to be able to propel that chair all day long at a fast clip. Feet, backs, and legs are going to get really tired. Before you get to the parks, consider whether renting a scooter would be more practical and/or fit into your budget. If you decide on the push chair for whatever reason, don't expect to cover as much ground as you might have, unless you have several adults who can swap off providing the extra boost (or ballast!) needed to get up and down those slanting pathways. I mention ballast because what goes up laboriously will come down the same slope at a frightening speed if someone doesn't act like a drag chute on a race car! - Joyce A. Deen

I carry corn pads and antibiotic ointment (Bacitracin) in my bag. If you get a blister, put the corn pad on so that the blister is in the hole in the center. Squirt the ointment in the hole and put a band aid over the whole thing. The corn pad, since it is cushiony, keeps pressure off the blister, and the ointment heals and cools it off. - Lynn LaMunyon