Tips about Kids, Packing and Resorts

ALL STAR RESORTS - When we stay at the All Star Resorts we like to make our room feel larger and also give our daughter more playing room. Simply push the two beds together against the wall and move the night stand and table between the beds and the door and these small All Star rooms become much more roomy. Just leave a note politely asking the housekeeping to leave the furniture the way you have arranged. - Amy Kearns

SHADES OF GREEN - With a military ID, you can purchase items at the Shades of Green Gift Shop that are VERY reasonably priced. For instance, we bought pins there for my son to trade in the parks: $3 for pins that are $6.50-$8.50 in WDW gift shops. - Joseph and Renee Witmer

SHADES OF GREEN - We stayed at the Shades of Green this past October during the National Car Rental Golf Tournament. The great perk of staying there was admission to the tournament was FREE! My husband got to see Tiger Woods in person for free. Needless to say we've made reservations for this year's tournament. - Connie Roberts

We fly from the DC area to Walt Disney World at least once or twice every year, and we pack our "half-boosters/backless-boosters" in a super large hockey bag. We throw the seats in the hockey bag when we get to the airport and check the bag with our luggage. We unpack the bag at the rental minivan and we are on our way! - Joanne Zeidman

Pop Century - My wife and I just returned from a stay at the Pop Century Resort. We discovered that if we were trying to catch a bus from a park back to Pop Century and the lines were very, very long, we could sometimes hop on the Art of Animation Resort bus instead. (The stops are usually next to each other.) The walk from the Art of Animation, through the lobby, and across the short bridge to Pop Century took only a couple of minutes -- much quicker than the possible long wait we would have had for our own resort bus. - Rory Osborne

The only really important advice I would add to this [bringing other people's children] is to make a copy of the other child's health insurance information and also have a signed or even notarized letter from the child's parents stating they will be traveling with you, to where, and on what dates. Hopefully you will never need to use it, but you never know! - Tara Felicio

Don't count on the weather forecast being accurate for your whole trip. We visited the week before Christmas. Checking the weather the day before we left, it said the high each day would be about 70 and the low about 50 (give or take a degree or two). After we arrived, the temperature was a little cooler than we expected. This wasn't too bad since we had sweatshirts packed for the evenings. The next couple of days, however, it was really cold even in the afternoon. We absolutely froze our tails off after the sun went down! If you're going during the winter, and in particular during the holidays when the parks are open until late in the evening, take long underwear and winter jackets even if it appears you won't need them! Better to have them and not need them than to not be able to enjoy the parks due to the cold! The weather can change in a hurry. - Sandy Tidwell

When packing for each child, I roll up a pair of shorts, a matching shirt, matching socks and underwear, put them into a quart size zip lock baggie and squeeze the air out of it. It takes up very little room, the clothes stay relatively wrinkle-free, and best of all in the morning when we're in a hurry to make the bus the kids just grab a bag. No one has to look for the right shirt or matching socks (as long as the socks match each other i'm happy). - Edith Raible

Our small kids don't care for sudden or loud noises. Take along a couple pairs of kid-sized ear plugs. They don't take up much room, but they make all the difference in the "world" to jumpy little ones! - Vicki Knuckles