Tips about Mousecellaneous

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

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

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

On a recent Disney trip I decided to forgo bringing my purse and just buy a cheap, small man's wallet. I just popped my ID, credit cards, ticket and a few dollars in, and off I would go. I could skip the bag line and not worry about where my money and information was. It made airport check-in a breeze also. I still use it today and leave all my other seldom-used cards in my larger wallet in my purse. How often do you really use all that other stuff you drag around with you? - Donna

Want to get prepped for your Hidden Mickey hunt at WDW, Disney style? Just watch Lion King 1 1/2. There are so many Hidden Mickeys in this movie that I lost count! - Alea L.

We have been searching for Hidden Mickeys at WDW, so to 'train' my husband for our last trip, I hid one Hidden Mickey a day for him to find before work. I only hid them in the bathroom because if he had to look all over the house before work, it wouldn't be fun! We both enjoyed this pre-trip practice, and I really think it paid off! He did 100 times better at spotting Hidden Mickeys once we got to WDW. A few words of advice for anyone who might want to try this: limit it to two weeks or less before your trip! Also, certain scrapbook stores sell Mickey punches; those were small and I could stick them anywhere! Other good ideas for Hidden Mickeys are placing anything in the three-circle shape, such as dots of cream connected to look like Mickey. There are many Hidden Mickeys like that at the World, so be creative! - Alea Laughery

Regarding two-way communication with other members of your party, we have found that texting works the best. It's too hard to hear my cell phone ring with all the noise of the parks, and it's also too hard to talk on the phone. So we just send each other text messages to set up meeting places, or to let the other person know if we're running late. - Kirsten Searle

Don't forget to mention that a trip to the Kennedy Space Center is worth it. It's only an hour's drive and the backlot bus tour for the $20 was well worth it. Wow, unbelievable what this day trip offered. Not a lot of walking (so go after a day of hard walking around WDW. - David