How to Survive Disney in July (Part I: The Heat)

On my last trip to Disney World (here in Florida), I found myself scowling and trudging through the oppressive heat and humidity.  I thought, "Why do people come here when it's this bad?"  Which is a question I was surprised to hear myself ask, because I won't hesitate to go to Disney on ANY day!  But now that I've been a FL resident going on 7 years, and have recently become an Annual Passholder again, I realize I'm spoiled with the ability to go basically whenever I want, so I get to be choosy!  I don't have to plan a trip months-out and around school holidays (though I still will).  So, if you find yourself at Disney in the horrible heat, but that's the only time you CAN be there, here are some tips I hope you will find useful.  

1. Hydrate (and wear SUNSCREEN)

This is probably the most obvious tip that you already know.  Please, please, please make sure you are drinking water throughout the day!!  You might NOT know that the water at Disney doesn't taste the BEST, so we always bring insulated water bottles from our own water at home (I use a Brita).  Yes, it's annoying to carry it around, but I always have a backpack, and lately I just carry it in my hand because I drink from it so often.  My boyfriend, Wayne, brought his running belt made for carrying water bottles, and that worked quite well since he didn't have a backpack.  

Every Starbucks will give you a cup of ice water for free if you ask.  You can buy ice-cold bottled water throughout the parks as well.  There are water bottle refilling stations and water fountains near the bathrooms.  My favorite place to get water in Epcot is the entrance to Spice Road Table in Morocco.  Just walk in, look to your right, and there is a cold pitcher and cups (they prefer you to fill cups, not bottles, but you can pour the water into your bottle from the cup quite easily).  This week at Hollywood Studios, we ate at Pizza Rizzo, and found a few water stations there too!

2. Shop (and reapply your sunscreen)

The souvenir shops have the best AC!  So even if you don't intend to buy anything, just pop in, admire the cute and creative merch, and when you're ready, head back out!

3. Use Cooling Accessories (over your sunscreen)

I see people with those headphone-shaped personal fans hanging around their necks--I haven't taken the plunge to get them myself, but they always look like a good idea.  There's also a ton of personal fans that are phone-sized that you can wear on a lanyard, and of course the ones you can clip onto strollers for the little ones.  Read the reviews though, because some are much better than others!!  And Disney parks sell the spray-bottle fans so you can mist and fan yourself at the same time!

The one accessory I DO use is the cooling towel.  They sell them at Disney with Mickey silhouettes printed on them, but I actually got mine from a pack my dad ordered for a family trip last year, I think from Amazon.  Just pour water fountain or sink water over it when you're ready, squeeze it out (or don't--you might want the extra drips), and drape it around your neck, head, wherever.  Yes, they warm up quickly, but just move them and flip them over for more cooling, and re-soak them when you can.  I still claim I would have collapsed without mine when my friend Kim let me borrow one of hers on a trip we took to Universal last July. 

4. Take Breaks (to put on more sunscreen) and Edit Plans

The only must-do on vacation is to take care of yourself!  If you're too hot and tired to wait in line for a ride or stay at the park for a dinner reservation, listen to your body, and your travel party.  You can cancel dining reservations with no penalty up to 2 hours before your reserved time.  I love being in the parks, but my favorite relaxation memories have been at the hotels.  There's something to just lazing about your hotel room eating snacks, getting a cocktail at the hotel bar, or walking around the resort looking at the water and little magical details in the theming.  An added bonus--if you're leaving a park and staying on property, you can enjoy the blast of AC on the Disney bus back to your hotel!

5. Use Windshield Covers!! (a literal sun screen!)

That being said, if you're NOT staying at a Disney hotel, or if you're a local and heading home at the end of the day, make sure to use one of those windshield sun-blockers!  If you plan on renting a car, see if one will fit in your suitcase!  I feel a HUGE difference between the times I remember to use it and the times I forget!  Like a 10 or more degree difference! 

Disney Planning 2015

Jim and I are back in the saddle of planning a Disney trip, which is always a very nice place to be.  We once again used the Magic Your Way package and booked Pop Century.  Even though we had a problem with Pop during our last visit (I'd written a review called "Mop Century" on the forum, as our floor was flooded by the door and window our entire stay, for which Disney offered to reimburse us in part and we were very glad for it), we figured the chances were low that we'd encounter the same problem, and besides, we didn't spend much time in the room.

We decided to go in October for what we've begun calling The Disney Trifecta: Dapper Day, Epcot's Food & Wine Festival, and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.  On my 2012 visit with my dad, we made it to the Food & Wine Festival and the Halloween party, but I wasn't yet aware of Dapper Day, an unofficial-to-the-parks meet-up of people who celebrate style by dressing in vintage or otherwise fancy outfits!  Some take it even further by "dapper bounding," which is a dapper take on Disneybounding!

Now that it's under 180 days until we arrive, I've been able to start making dining reservations.  However, we were restricted to certain parks each day of our visit last year because of all our dining plans, so this year we are taking it easy on the reservations.  The only one I woke up at 6am for on the 180th day prior to our trip was lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant.  We loved it last time, and since we stayed on property, they issued us a fast-pass for the quick-service lunch reservation.  I thought we'd have the same luck this visit, but after reading other Disney blogs and speaking with the chat people on the Disney website, I found out that they are no longer offering this perk.  Hence making my own reservation!  And we already know we'll be at Magic Kingdom our first full day for Dapper Day, so we'll be all fancy for our castle lunch!

I also recently found out that tickets are now available to purchase for MNSSHP, so I went ahead and got those, too.  The website said they sell out quickly so I recommend doing the same, tout-suite!

We are staying for a full week this time--Friday to Friday (of course we arrive after all the parks are closed our first night, but we will also spend some time in the parks before our flight on the last day), so we're hoping to be a little more relaxed on this trip (besides Jim's concerns of packing 2 different costumes for our events).  I'm hoping to have ample time to mill about Downtown Disney, which we missed out on our last trip.  Jim wants to spend more time pool-side, and we both want to order pizza to our room with those delicious caesar salads we miss so much!  It'll also be nice choosing which park to go to each morning!

I've been revisiting our last trip through Shutterfly--Jim & I haven't begun scrapbooking our last trip (something I'd been very excited over and he wants to help me with), so I spent my sick day and time waiting to visit the doctor by ordering all the prints we need for the scrapbook!  It definitely made me a little cheerier.  I don't know if you're familiar with Kellogg's rewards, but there are certain Kellogg's cereals with codes inside, and some are to enter for a free trip to Disney World!  That's why I started with the codes, but I also collect points towards other rewards, like Shutterfly.  I had 3 rewards I used on my Disney photos purchase today!  One was my birthday coupon for $20 off an order, another was a free reusable tote bag with a photo on it (for Earth Day), and the last was a free set of 2x2" magnets of your photos!  It was an excellent deal, and I saved about $80!  After adding on all my rewards, my prints order went down about $30!

More updates to come as our planning continues!

Short Tips For Your Upcoming Disney Visit!! (with plenty more posts to come)

It's been forever since my last real Disney World post, and that's because I hadn't been there since 2012 (as a kid I was used to going with my family every 4 years, so it shouldn't feel like it was too long ago, but it does) and it's hard to post about Disney without visiting!

First, I have to say how wonderful it was to have Memory Maker.  We purchased it before our trip so that knocked $50 off the usual price.  It costs $14.95 to download ONE PHOTO if you don't have Memory Maker.  At $149.99 (if you purchase it during your visit it's the full price at $199.99) you can download all of the pictures you take with PhotoPass photographers throughout the parks (there are even photographers at the water parks), and photos from rides that take your picture are automatically linked to your account!  We took over 140 picture so it was definitely a bargain!

If you are DisneyBounding (dressed up as a character from Disney) and happen to meet that character, they give you LOTS of attention (at least that was my experience with Sulley, and I've seen other pictures posted from other DisneyBounding fans).  Cast Members may also recognize your outfit!

FastPasses (or FastPass +'s) are a must for the big-ticket rides!  The one we wanted the most, Toy Story Midway Mania in Hollywood Studios, had an 80-minute stand-by wait, and we cruised right through with our FastPasses.  If you want a guaranteed FastPass, make sure you have a MagicBand.  That way you can reserve your FastPass+ selections months before your trip!  I tried to reserve another FP+ for Toy Story Midway Mania two days prior to our next Hollywood visit and it was completely booked.  We ended up waiting 65 minutes stand-by (yes, the ride is that good).

If you are celebrating something (anniversary, birthday, first visit, whatever), definitely tell the people checking you in at your hotel.  You get a huge pin that you wear around the parks and everyone working there wishes you a happy celebration!    

If you are making dining reservations, be sure to "add a celebration" too.  Not all restaurants will acknowledge it, but if you have it added to all your reservations, you may get a little something (our Character Breakfast at the Crystal Palace had Mickey confetti on our table as we arrived and gave us a cupcake with a lit candle for us to make a wish and blow out together.  And it was delicious)!

Some shops will hold purchases you'd like to make but don't want to carry around the park!  You don't pay for them but they put them aside.  If you return before the store closes, you can buy them whenever you're ready to leave.  We tried this with a shop in Epcot France (wine glasses, a bottle of wine, and a heavy box of chocolates), but didn't have the time or energy to walk halfway across the "world" to retrieve them.  Good thing they don't charge you first!  You may also have them delivered to your room, but they warned me that there is an extra charge (I didn't find out how much it was).  We did end up buying those souvenirs when we returned a couple days later!

Drink a lot of water and, if possible, take the bus back to your hotel in the middle of the day.  If you don't have Park Hopper (we did not), you can return to the park you were visiting that same day.  If you don't have time to go back to your hotel, find an indoor or cool, shady spot to sit down and have a meal so you can recharge and rehydrate!  Your feet will be aching, and if you don't eat, your spirits may be low!  It's very easy to not relax because there's so much to see.  Sometimes you just have to push yourself out of the park, knowing you will still have time when you return!

FastPass+ Planning, and That Elusive Be Our Guest FastPass!

It's so fun to plan a Disney vacation.  You get stuff like this:

It's a magnet, and it has all my personalized "important dates" to help me plan!  One of the dates was June 24.  On that date, I would be able to begin selecting my "FastPass+" experiences!  I spent some time talking to my boyfriend (who's never been!) asking what he wants to do while we're there, and together we selected a few "experiences" we'd like to book.  I received a second reminder a week before that date:

So I stayed up till midnight the night before to make my selections (since this is so new, I didn't know if they "ran out" or "got booked").  But when I signed into "My Disney Experience," they said I couldn't start booking my FastPass+ selections until August 23, the date of our arrival in Disney!!  I shot off a polite-but-honest-about-my-feelings e-mail (since their online chat services run from 7AM-11PM).  I tried again in the morning at 7 before leaving for work and was able to use it!  I wonder if everything on their site operates within those hours, too, 7-11?  (They did reply to my e-mail very politely and saying they could see I was able to book, yadda yadda, did I have any further questions.)

After snagging FP+s for everything I wanted (I didn't even plan all 5 days yet--I just wanted to make sure we had FP+s for Toy Story Mania!), I remembered hearing about Be Our Guest quick-service lunch FastPasses.  I googled it and found some weird, secretive-looking sign-in to a website that gives you the FP!  You need to enter your first & last names and an ID number.  Hmmmm.  I tried my booking confirmation number, but it had a mix of letters and numbers, and the letters just didn't show up!  

I read a Disney blog that said if you are staying at a Disney resort, you receive this FastPass to Be Our Guest, and they said that after you "check-in" you will get an e-mail invitation to it.  I checked in online (which you can do starting 60 days before your vacation begins) and waited.  No e-mail.  

I used the online chat service for probably the 3rd or 4th time since beginning planning this trip, and asked a very helpful cast member about it!  She said that we will indeed be receiving this FP, and that we will get it when we "finish" checking in, when we're physically at the hotel.  

So there you have it, folks, if you will be staying at a Disney resort hotel, you are given a FP to quick-service lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant!!  You even get to pick your meal before you go!  How wonderful!  I was worried we wouldn't be able to see the restaurant (I want to take pictures even though I've pretty much seen them all on blogs already)--I didn't want to waste any time waiting in line especially since we already have a Character Breakfast booked at Magic Kingdom (Crystal Palace).  But now we're going, and I can't wait!!  Hope you can enjoy this perk, too!