Mistake you will not repeat next time...

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Not bringing pins thinking it wasn't a big deal and kinda lame. Was given a few pins to trade and had so much fun doing it. Ran out of ones I wanted to part with and got sad lol.
Will for sure get pins for next time

I did that also! Was really annoyed now because we come at least once a year I keep them in our owners locker.

 

[UConnFan]

A big one for our family is to no longer waste so much time waiting on parades/fireworks. It just isn't worth it for us and I can't justify it. If we happen to be in an area near a parade and we happen to get a decent spot, then we'll stop and watch. Otherwise, I don't let it determine when we need to stop doing attractions and such so that we can secure a spot.

This is how I feel. We don't have children yet, so we use this time to enjoy rides. We're just not that into the parade thing. I do love MSEP, though, and will stake out a spot for that. We always watch in Frontierland, though.

Spend less time taking photos and videos! I spent to much time looking at things thru a view finder and 3" LCD screen.

I feel the same way...I have a DSLR. It's not the best camera ever, but it's nice. I secretly do not want to bring it with me when we go in May because I don't want to lug it around and I don't want to spend all of my time taking photos. I have used my iphone pretty exclusively lately. I'm not great with my camera and the iphone gives me decent photos, and anything I really want a photo of I can usually get online. I love the idea of bringing a small bag and not worrying about it...

I would say pack less. We had too much stuff.

I have this problem too! We just had carry ons the last two times we went. It was kind of nice because I could only pack what I needed. It ended up working well.

We LOVE Cape May’s and it is a must-do. We go on a HS day and take the friendship boat at the front of HS to get there. Maybe 15-20 minutes total, each way.

However, I agree with you in principle. After going to Sanaa for two years in a row, we realized that it takes WAY too much time.

I think that's one of our big mistakes. We made ADRs outside of the parks and never wanted to leave. We canceled all but one (Cape May because it had a CC hold) on our last trip.

 

[bluejasmine]

I did forget to say there were a few trips I regretted not slowing down, taking more pics, and just going back to the resort to relax.

We were able to do this on our Sept 2010 &2011 trips and it made a world of difference we weren't able to do on our 2 trips in 2012 and it left my DH very unhappy and feeling like he never relaxed before he went back to work..

 

[BarbieGal457]

Forget bug spray (while at Caribbean Beach, specifically), lose my locker key at the water parks, and not bring enough spray sunscreen! Otherwise I'm not sure I've made too many mistakes, I feel. Also, I will not leave home medicine that I may even have a slight chance of needing. My parents weren't too happy overnight FedEx-ing me a 1" bottle of eye drops a few trips ago!

 

[Fancychicken]

Here's my biggest WDW mistake to date:

First of all, I love GOOD ice cream. You know who has good ice cream? Hollywood Scoops at DHS. Location: Sunset Boulevard. Okay, so the whole family, complete with in-laws, is all set to have a killer time at the Lights! Motor! Action! extreme stunt show, and I think to myself "wouldn't it be great to enjoy the show with a yummy chocolate ice cream cone in hand?" Oh yeah, on a warm (though not terribly hot) sunny Florida afternoon. Location of stunt show? Pretty much as far away from Hollywood Scoops as you can get.

You can probably see where I am going with this. I ordered cones for me, dh and three kids. I was smart enough to bring along my kids to help me carry. The CM makes my first cone and immediately put it upside down into a cup. I said, "excuse me, could I just get them as cones...no bowls?" She gave me a strange look, but did as I requested. Well, within seconds those cones started to melt as we began our cross-park journey. My top scoop? You guessed it - it rolls off immediately and lands upon a choice location of my cream-colored shirt. Well, the entire way to the stunt show, I had rivers of chocolate running down my arms and legs from the top and bottom of the cones I was carrying.

I don't know how, but my kids (11, 9 & 7) were not nearly as messed up as I was. I mean, I was a MESS! I showed up at the stunt show as they were roping off the middle seating area, and pled with the CM to allow me to join my family. She agreed, I'm sure out of sheer pity for me. I looked like a preschooler. Sticky chocolate on my face, hands, arms, and legs. I sat there and enjoyed the stunt show in utter humiliation. My mother-in-law took one look at me and could not stop laughing. I started laughing, too, because I figured if I didn't laugh, I'd cry. What a night!

Moral of the story: If you MUST get a treat, make it a cupcake.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

My biggest mistake was doing free dining! All the TS restaurants were so crowded it was not unusual to wait over an hour for our ADR's. And I hated cutting short our park time just to get to the ADR's! Now we make one or two ADR's and eat CS the rest of the time.
On vacation, I HATE to be scheduled!

 

[jadebaby0714]

YES!!!!!!! It was AWFUL!!!!

I would love for this post to have a like button

 

[UncannySquirrel]

One year My family & I had dinner at the castle, when we came out it was almost time for the fireworks, so we managed to get front row for it(although I don't think we would've been able to go anywhere else). As awesome as it was to watch the show that close to the castle, turning around to leave was a horror. It was like trying to walk through a zombie horde with the slow walk.
Luckily I got my parent to head towards the ice cream shop, and we just walked thru all the connecting stores to the front. wounds up being a 30 min wait for a bus to pop century, and I don't wanna know how long the wait would've been if we walked down main street.

 

[belle032]

I was a CM for the past 3 years and I learned 2 great things: I can't wait to have kids and bring them to 1 of my favorite places in the world and 2. Disney is 1 of the best forms of birth control ever (besides Walmart)

So when I have children, some things I will hopefully remember are: Not to drag a young, screaming, terrified child onto a ride they are truly scared of. It's not worth it to traumatize them and ruin the experience for the guests around you. I realize all kids are different, but I refuse to do this. Rider switches are there for a reason!

Not take children until they are old enough to remember and appreciate it. I have no problems w/young children because they can see the magic in the smallest things, but I want the vacation to be worth it! And no strollers! I've dealt w/more strollers in my lifetime and I don't even have kids yet!

I love the ideas of bringing goodie bags from home because I know firsthand how expensive Disney things are. And no balloons! Biggest waste of $15 dollars ever, no matter how cool they look!

Not going during the summertime, Christmas time, Spring Break or New Years Day. (Fun fact: Ya'll know how insane it is on NY's Eve but people are dying to see the MK fireworks? They do the exact same fireworks Dec. 30 as a test run. It's still crowded, but definitely better than NY's Eve!) During those times, working 60-90 hour weeks was common so I know what the parks are like! I will always try to pull my kids out of school. Easier said than done, I know! But it's not worth it. Ever. I applaud all of you who brave the chaos!

 

[DisneyFive]

Thought of another one:

I always make sure I have alternate evenings planned to see the night time shows and fireworks. On our first visit ever it rained A LOT and I think it took us three tries to see the MK fireworks - they kept getting cancelled due to lightening. Now I always make sure to schedule the evening festivities during the earlier part of our trip so that if something does happen we can try again later in our trip.

100% agree with this. We do the same thing for Wishes, Fantasmic!, etc... We try to do them at the first opportunity because you never know if you’ll be able to see them later in the stay due to weather, change of plans, etc… Plus, at the beginning of your stay you have more energy and are able to enjoy the later events more in my opinion.

I think that's one of our big mistakes. We made ADRs outside of the parks and never wanted to leave. We canceled all but one (Cape May because it had a CC hold) on our last trip.

Many of our favorite meals are at resorts that are outside of the parks, but we only go to the resorts that are easily accessible by the Monorail (like ‘Ohana) or Friendship Boat (like Cape Mays)… Plus, we just love checking out other resorts. This year we’ve booked The Wave on one of our MK Kingdom Days to try a new TS meal, and just as importantly to check out the Contemporary.

We’ve found that Sanaa, for example, while a very fun place to visit with pretty good food; it just takes too much out of our day to walk out to the bus stop, wait for the bus, eat, wait for the bus, walk back to the park, etc…

Dan

 

[mickey1510]

I brought too many pairs of socks. I thought I'd change them twice every day but after the first two days of our trip, I ended up wearing my sandals and my sneakers sat in the closet.

Getting the kids the Mickey ice cream pops. Yes, they're fun and you have to get them but inevitably, they ended up falling off the stick and onto the ground about 5 minutes after they started eating them.

We had the PP+ and stopped at a lot of photographers. When I got home, I looked at the pictures and I'm sure there are some missing. I would either, look at them every night in the hotel or log when I stop at a photographer so I can get the photos added to my account.

Not swimming every day. I love being in the parks and going on rides but the kids really enjoyed the pool time at the resort too.

 

[FortForever]

I was a CM for the past 3 years and I learned 2 great things: I can't wait to have kids and bring them to 1 of my favorite places in the world and 2. Disney is 1 of the best forms of birth control ever (besides Walmart)

So when I have children, some things I will hopefully remember are: Not to drag a young, screaming, terrified child onto a ride they are truly scared of. It's not worth it to traumatize them and ruin the experience for the guests around you. I realize all kids are different, but I refuse to do this. Rider switches are there for a reason!

Not take children until they are old enough to remember and appreciate it. I have no problems w/young children because they can see the magic in the smallest things, but I want the vacation to be worth it! And no strollers! I've dealt w/more strollers in my lifetime and I don't even have kids yet!

I love the ideas of bringing goodie bags from home because I know firsthand how expensive Disney things are. And no balloons! Biggest waste of $15 dollars ever, no matter how cool they look!

Not going during the summertime, Christmas time, Spring Break or New Years Day. (Fun fact: Ya'll know how insane it is on NY's Eve but people are dying to see the MK fireworks? They do the exact same fireworks Dec. 30 as a test run. It's still crowded, but definitely better than NY's Eve!) During those times, working 60-90 hour weeks was common so I know what the parks are like! I will always try to pull my kids out of school. Easier said than done, I know! But it's not worth it. Ever. I applaud all of you who brave the chaos!

@ the birth control comment.

I totally agree about not forcing kids on rides. I hate to see that. I've seen people on here post that their child loved it after the fact. That doesn't change my opinion that it's cruel.

I'm another one who would never visit at peak times. Never have, never will. Growing up in DC, I've seen the fireworks on the mall so many times that I'm jaded. No amount of fireworks would get me there on New Years or Independence Day.

As far as your points about age, strollers, and balloons - you may just change your mind when the time comes.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

I brought too many pairs of socks. I thought I'd change them twice every day but after the first two days of our trip, I ended up wearing my sandals and my sneakers sat in the closet.

Getting the kids the Mickey ice cream pops. Yes, they're fun and you have to get them but inevitably, they ended up falling off the stick and onto the ground about 5 minutes after they started eating them.

We had the PP+ and stopped at a lot of photographers. When I got home, I looked at the pictures and I'm sure there are some missing. I would either, look at them every night in the hotel or log when I stop at a photographer so I can get the photos added to my account.

Not swimming every day. I love being in the parks and going on rides but the kids really enjoyed the pool time at the resort too.

They were just not eating them fast enough!

 

[LucyBC80]

My biggest and still talked about mistake was booking a two DDP credit dinner for our arrival day.

We talked about Narcoosse's for over six months and how much we're looking forward to it but it was a total bust. We're burned out after a 15+ hour flight (Brazil-Detroit-Orlando) and a few park hours. My mom had a really bad headache, I was dead tired and didn't enjoy the food nor the fireworks. We left right after the fireworks and only because the waiters seems to disappear during them.

We should have talked it out (another mistake) and let them charge us the $10 fee and gone back to our room to sleep.

We'll definitely go back to Narcoossee's but never again on arrival day.

 

[squirrel4569]

@ the birth control comment.

I totally agree about not forcing kids on rides. I hate to see that. I've seen people on here post that their child loved it after the fact. That doesn't change my opinion that it's cruel.

I'm a cruel parent. With my ex-wife's kids they were scared to go on Splash Mountain because my ex had freaked out at the "drop" from the ride. They cried from the moment they got into line until they got into the boat. Then they were all excited and when we got off the ride they wanted to do it again.

I wouldn't suggest it for every kid but I think in some cases it's good to help kids conquer their fear of the unknown.

The mistake I learned from previous trips is to book your ADRs inside the park that you plan to be at and book off-park ADRs after you plan to leave a park or on a down day. Leaving the park for a meal can be stressful. Pre-RD ADRs are pretty awesome.

 

[bopper]

I'm a cruel parent. With my ex-wife's kids they were scared to go on Splash Mountain because my ex had freaked out at the "drop" from the ride. They cried from the moment they got into line until they got into the boat. Then they were all excited and when we got off the ride they wanted to do it again.

I wouldn't suggest it for every kid but I think in some cases it's good to help kids conquer their fear of the unknown.

I was a mean parent too...I guess the thing to know is if they are afraid of the ride or afraid of the unknown.

We are a family that likes to ride roller coasters. At some point we had to make my youngest try a loopy roller coaster to see if she actually did or did not like them too. There was gnashing of teeth and bribes but she did it and was proud afterward.

 

[FirstTimeDisneyVisit]

Wearing flip flops while walking Epcot. Absolutely killed my feet and made walking all the other parks a lot harder. For now on i will always wear sneakers and when my feet need breathe i will just switch to my crocks that i bought at Disney !

 

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

You're not, by chance, referring to a trip in 12/2010?

We went in 12/2010 and it was cold! Coldest trip we ever had....

 

[mom2rtk]

We went in 12/2010 and it was cold! Coldest trip we ever had....

That was the coldest trip a LOT of folks have had.

 

[mmcguire]

If we can help it, we will never buy passes or hopper passes; only AP. We bought our first APs about 4 years ago, after 15 years of visiting the parks. It totally changed the dynamic of our trips.

Instead of rushing constantly, feeling like we have to squeeze every second of park time out of our passes, we are much more relaxed, spend time at the pool, and don't feel like it's a waste if we only spend a few hours at a park. It actually feels like we are on vacation now instead of planning an attack.