Disney, Disney and more Disney - Page 2

12)    Camera supplies - Buy your film and batteries ahead of time. You will pay a fortune to get it in the parks. If your camcorder batteries run out mid-day each park has a 'camera shop' and I have been told (but not tried) that they will allow you to leave your battery and charger there plugged in. I've not tried this, so I'd be leery of it.

13)    Rides - All parks for the more popular rides and shows have something called 'Fastpass'. This allows you to get a pass to come back to the ride at a certain time later in the day If the lines aren't too bad, you don't need to worry about this all that much, but you can save yourself quite a bit of time not waiting in line all the time. You can only hold one fastpass at a time per ticket. This means that you cannot run around the park getting Fastpass for all the rides - you can get a new fastpass about an hour after you get your current fastpass. Some rides have a 'single rider' option. If you don't mind splitting up your group, you can do this and save quite a bit of time too. They sometimes change the rules on when/how you can get a fastpass - ask a cast member at the fast pass distribution area and they can help you.

14)    Special characters - Some parks have special characters associated with it - normally a remotely operated mobile 'thing'. Epcot has a robot that wanders around the Mousegears shop, AK has Wes Palm a talking palm tree (normally seen at park opening in the front), MK has a talking trash can (normally seen in Tomorrowland. AK also has Devine - a walking, active Tree/Bush. She likes to hang around still in one place for a while then will walk around. She looks as if she should be part of the vegetation and will blend right in - if you see a big group of people looking at a tall bush for no reason, that's Devine.  Both the Magic Kingdom (in/around Tomorrowland) and the Animal Kingdom (Rafiki's Planet Watch) have a roving garbage can - in the MK he is called PUSH and at the Animal Kingdom he is called PIPA.

15)    Disney Shopping - Disney Marketplace has everything known to man that is Disney related EXCEPT park merchandise. If you are at Epcot and you see a cool Epcot shirt that is the only place you will see it. There is a huge 'Disney Store' type store, big enough you could really spend hours in there. There are a few nice clothing stores, and a huge toy store (they have a make-your-own Mr Potato head 'kiosk'). There is also a HUGE Lego store. Weekends are the busiest by far - if you can reserve a portion of your arrival day or departure day (if on a weekday) to spend time here to get things to bring back, clothes, etc. that would be your best bet. They will ship your purchase back home which makes it a lot easier if you are getting larger things. it's a good deal if you are shipping a lot of things because you don't pay tax on it then(I thought it was weird too). We generally try to make this one of our last days that way if we didn't see anything in the parks we liked, we most likely will find something here. If it's raining and you say to yourself 'hey, this would be a good day to shop' - everyone else is thinking the same thing. There is a multi-screen cinema that is sometimes a good bet on rainy days, but again it'll be busy. If you make purchases here, or anywhere in the parks, they also send packages back to your on-site hotel room - a good deal if you're at the parks and buy something you don't want to carry it all day long.

16)   Extra Magic Hours - On-site guests get into a certain park on certain days earlier than everyone else. Other days the parks are open later than normal.  This is a great benefit - use it. You can get a lot of your MUST-SEES done before the rest of creation gets into the park.

17)    Magical Express - Disney buses pick you up at the airport and take you to your resort. You don't have to get your luggage, and it's free. Of course, other people are using it too so you may have a busy packed bus and it may take you a while to get to your resort. If you are not renting a car, our preference is to get a limo ride to and from the resort (round trip) for about $100. They will stop you off at a grocery store on the way to the resort for free.  While you can take the magical express to and from the airport, only certain airlines participate in the program so that you don't touch your luggage.  You should check into it when you book your vacation.  If you on a non participating airline you just have to drag your luggage to the bus.

18)  Remember, these are just guidelines. Tour the parks at YOUR pace, do the things it seems like you want to do, not solely based on what I have said. Every vacation will be different. IMHO your vacation experience will be MUCH better if you take your time, pay attention to the LITTLE things in the park, and see Disney through a child's eyes. it's the most Magical place on Earth, it really is.

***Disclaimer: Many of the links on this page link to WDWInfo (DISBoards). This site has been an awesome source of information for me and I can find pretty much anything i need to know there or in their forums. Most of these hints are gleaned from years of reading the DIS forums. Please visit them and see what they have to offer, also!