Today’s article is quite the hodgepodge. It is a list of random things I either learned or was reminded of while on my last Disney trip. Enjoy!

1. Two Mouths are Better than One. My mom and I have similar taste in food and in the past we’ve tackled the Epcot Food & Wine Festival without an effective plan. We would stop at a booth and each order what we wanted. The end result? We picked the same thing and after eating only a few dishes, we were stuffed to the gills. This year, we used our noggin instead of just our taste buds and went in with a plan. We picked dishes we both would enjoy and split them, thus doubling the number of items we ate. Over the course of week, we had at least one dish from almost all the booths which was a marked improvement over our previous attempts.

2. Invest in a Stroller Rain Cover. This is one essential that I have been cavalier about packing in the past. It has rarely rained during our October trips so I never worried about having a rain cover for our stroller. Big mistake. I looked at the weather forecast a few days before our trip and saw dark rain clouds for more than half the days on our trip. Luckily, Kingdom Strollers, who provided our double stroller, includes rain covers upon request. We were able to keep the kids and the stroller very, very dry while spending our days in the parks instead of climbing the walls in our resort room.

3. Rain Can Be Your Friend. Now that you’re armed with a good rain cover for your stroller and ponchos for the adults, don’t be afraid to hit the parks in the rain. Attraction lines can be practically non-existent. The rain helped to make for a somewhat lazy morning mid-trip and we didn’t make it to Epcot for rope drop. Still, we were able to ride Soarin’ during the first hour the park was open with only a 15-minute wait thanks to the inclement weather.

4. Be Part of the Community. Rain is a common theme for this list so it’s appropriate that it plays a role here. I was looking for a way to keep my toddler entertained during a rainy afternoon and we decided to check out the Community Center; Disney Vacation Club properties have a Community Center. We’ve been DVC members for a few years but never visited before. I won’t be making that mistake again. I likened the Community Center to a large playroom when describing it to my husband. It is stocked with a variety of familiar toys, arts & crafts supplies, and games. It was a friendly place for my son to have some room to spread out for some free play time. The comfy couches for me weren’t half bad, either.

5. Snakes aren’t the Only Thing Indy is Afraid Of. It turns out that during periods of heavy rain, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! show is abridged. The airport scene and rooftop stunt scenes were cut from our show for safety reasons.

Stay tuned for another edition of Disney Hodgepodge next week as I share five more random Disney lessons.

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