10 Things You Should Know About A Disney Vacation

Flavor your water and carry your snacksTap water at Disney World smells and tastes awful. To avoid a fight over staying hydrated - and to save money - we carried reusable water bottles and packed a handful of packets with sugar-free lemonade mix. There are water fountains all over the parks to refill your bottles, free. We as well carried a small bag of snacks to avoid lines and the added expense of snack shops. We bought our share of giant cookies, Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and elephant ears, however we satisfied regular cravings and long-line hunger pangs with individual servings of apple sauce, fruit twists and granola bars.

The Polynesian Resort

Call aheadWe stayed at the Polynesian Resort and knew we wanted a room overlooking the lagoon with a view of the Magic Kingdom. Those rooms have a clear view of Cinderella's Castle and offer an incredible seat for the nightly fireworks show and boat parade. For obvious reasons, the best rooms are often reserved for those in the vacation club or paying more for fancier trips and what Disney calls concierge level service. One of the Disney "cast members" we called for information recommended calling the hotel 3-5 days previously our arrival with any special requests. I can't say how often that works, however we followed the advice and when we checked in, our room opened onto the calm waters of the lagoon with the castle poking out of the trees in the distance. No extra charge. A similar strategy got us a tank-side seat then to the giant turtles, sharks and fish at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot. We stopped by 30 minutes earlier our scheduled reservation to request a table by the tank, and 15 minutes later a server guided us to the front.