Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Travel Tip Tuesday

If you are staying on Disney property and have your own car, drive it to Hollywood Studios or Epcot. It is much faster (especially if you get there at park opening). The bus stops at Epcot can be quite a haul at the end of the day (especially if you are staying at a hotel that has it's stop at the second set of bus stops....i.e. Pop Century).

If you are going to Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom however, I definitely suggest taking Disney transportation. Animal Kingdom does not open the parking lot until right before park opening (we have found this out the hard way one too many times), but the buses run about an hour before park opening. So, unless you like sitting in the car waiting for the parking attendants, take the bus. At Magic Kingdom, if you drive yourself and park in the parking lots, you have to take either the ferry or monorail over to the main gates. However, the Disney buses drop you off right outside the turnstiles. This is a huge time saver in the morning of course, but also at the end of the long day when you have little ones who you have to literally carry out of the park.

Happy traveling!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Travel Tip Tuesday

Those of you who have ever visited Orlando know that there are often pop up showers in the afternoon. Guess what most people do when that happens? They run into the closest gift shop and spend a lot of money on a piece of plastic to keep them dry. Now don't get me wrong, the Mickey Mouse on the back is cute, but let's face it...those ponchos are overpriced. Why would I want to pay close to $10 for a poncho (I don't know the exact price) when I can buy ten for that price at home?

We go to the camping section of Wal Mart before each trip and buy the "travel" ponchos for .88 instead. These are very lightweight and compact and easily fit into any bag. In fact, my husband will often stick them in one of his pockets on his cargo shorts. So, what we do is buy several before our trips, then stick a couple in our backpacks and forget about them. Then when it rains, or when you ride a water ride, they are ready to pull out. Since they are so cheap, we can just throw them away once we use them. However, they are thin enough that they dry quickly so sometimes we throw them back in our bag for one or two more uses.

We use ours a few more times than just when it rains though. My dear husband does not like to get wet on the water rides. He wears a poncho on every ride that has the potential to make him wet. A great thing about these ponchos is that they open up to be pretty big. My husband holds all of our phones and our bag underneath the poncho as well to keep them dry. A very nice bonus for me!

One final point, if you do pack ponchos, don't forget to pack one for your stroller if you have one. The last thing you want is to have to place a child or your bags in a stroller that is soaking wet. If it looks like rain before you get in line for a ride or a show, go ahead and use the poncho to cover the stroller just in case. You won't be sorry if it rains!