Tips about Magic Kingdom, Mousecellaneous and Photography

EPCOT - Walking through Epcot this past weekend, I saw lots of folks taking photos of family and friends through the Goofy frame, located just past the Canada pavilion and the Refreshment Port, on the way to Showcase Plaza. If you are looking straight at the frame, you will get a lovely photo, with the water in the background. However, for an even better shot, move slightly to the left and crouch down a bit. You can capture Spaceship Earth in your photo as well! - AllEars(R).Net Photographer Dotti Saroufim

I enjoy using my SLR camera for trip photography, but it's no fun to carry a large camera bag around PLUS a backpack with snacks, raincoat, etc. In my quest to solve this problem, I've discovered a wonderful backpack/camera bag combo! There's a separate, padded camera bag section at the bottom that is accessed by its own zippers. The top of the bag is a typical backpack, with a padded back. The style I bought has a hipbelt as well as the shoulder straps, and is very comfortable to carry! I found mine on eBay by searching for "camera backpack," and have since seen others in photography stores. For anyone concerned about their camera/video equipment, this is a great way to carry it all safely around the parks! - Bethany Lewis

Hang on to your hat! My husband wears a baseball cap to prevent sunburn. He was astounded to have it fly off his head on the Tower of Terror. He was very relieved he caught it. What he didn't realize was that our brand new annual passes had been in his front shirt pocket. They, too, had levitated. Fortunately, the Cast Member saw them and called our names. WHEW! - TJ

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

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

ALL PARKS - I just returned from a trip to WDW. The 3M Company now has a new Post-It Flag Highlighter that includes both a highlighter and Post-It flags in one. It was PERFECT for marking the maps to the parks. I would circle the attraction number with the highlighter and then put a Post-It flag on the number on the map. They are see-though, so they don't cover up the number. The "pen" fit perfectly in my fanny pack! - Leah Price

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

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

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

This is a big one for the shutterbugs: leave the pile of lenses at home! Those pounds of lenses really add up. I took a photo kit that I would normally take when on vacation -- a five-lens kit with a flash -- and found it to be too much by the end of the day, and most of it went unused. For the second day I only brought two lenses with me. I used the extra space in my normal camera bag for snacks, rain jacket, socks. The exception is Animal Kingdom: if you want pictures of the animals, go ahead and take a telephoto. - John-Erik

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