Mistake you will not repeat next time...

[tophatgirl]

Originally Posted by Srbright

We did SGE and he freaked. FREAKED. We were *that* family on the ride with the child screaming "No, no, NOOOOOO I want to get off. It's going to EAT ME!".

Never again. He'll be 12 before he goes on it again.

LOL! DD was 5 1/2 and I hadn't seen it either. It was raining, Laugh Floor was crowded, why not? AWFUL!! Even I was scared because she was terrified!

[SEASONK]

Riding the Rapids at AK an hour before your ADR!!!

Also I second going with people you have never vacationed with before.

One mistake I corrected this last trip was letting DH sleep in one day while DS and I went to MK. We had a blast, DH was rested and in a great mood, and I realized we didn't have to do EVERYTHING together.

[PixieDust1928]

I LOVED reading all of these!!!!! I DEFINITELY agree with NOT vacationing with friends or family no matter how much you love them...
I am embarrassed to say that I dont know what a dole whip is and I participated in a 5 month stay with the Disney College Program. Is it ice cream? We are going in 27 days! I will add it to my list!
As much as I want to an ADR on arrival day...I have decided if we are in good spirits after traveling, we will hit GF or poly food court and watch Wishes. (We are staying at POR.

[fadingjamie]

Eating at Tony's in MK It almost ruined his marriage proposal because I was turning green...

[mattsdragon]

Originally Posted by fadingjamie

Eating at Tony's in MK It almost ruined his marriage proposal because I was turning green...

Yeah, that's a mistake we'll never repeat again. Worst TS we've encountered.

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Originally Posted by SEASONK

Riding the Rapids at AK an hour before your ADR!!!

Also I second going with people you have never vacationed with before.

One mistake I corrected this last trip was letting DH sleep in one day while DS and I went to MK. We had a blast, DH was rested and in a great mood, and I realized we didn't have to do EVERYTHING together.

ROFL I remember riding Kali 8 times in a row one trip (no lines they just let us stay on) - let me tell you we were soaked! Luckily it was close to park closing time and I had towels in the car. FYI the All Stars are 2 minutes from AK - very handy. We also rode it once when I was wearing jeans - never again - it was the first or 2nd day of the trip - the jeans took forever to dry hanging in the hotel room!

Also I've discovered if DH gets tired it's much better to send him back to the room - we too have discovered we don't need to do everything together.

Other mistakes we won't repeat - not paying proper attention to 'clues' the ride queues are trying to give you. Sped through the It's Tough to be a Bug line on the first trip - didn't see any signs that it was scary. That was in January 2007 - DD was 7 - she's now 13 and we're on trip 14 (coming up this week) - she still won't go near it! Ditto Dinosaur I should have picked up on the adventure/ futuristic feel to it all and realized it would be scary - nope I thought it would be fine (we loved the movie). She hasn't ridden that again either (although she's made a few noises about checking it out). Lesson learned - pay attention!

[stindall]

Originally Posted by GusGusGirl

Two things we won't do again:

1. Get any of the dining plans. We're happier just getting what we want and not worrying about how many credits we have, what's included, what's not, etc. I do understand why people like them, but they're just not for us.

2. Try to follow a touring plan, at least a highly detailed one. It worked well for us once when we visited WDW with extended family for Christmas one year. In fact, it was the only thing that saved our sanity. But when it's just me and my DH, we do better just getting to the parks early, hitting our favorites, and then going with the flow.

1. People like not having to worry about having that money with them. They're not for me but I can see the appeal somewhat. What they need to do is incorporate it in their app so you can enter some sort of account number and see what your credits are.

[stindall]

Originally Posted by StarMoon

Truly park-hopping, which is what we did last time, isn't for me. Being able to get to a couple of the smaller parks in one day is fine. But going from one park getting a fastpass then going to another park and riding a few rides then going back to park a ride the fastpass ride then over to park c to eat...no i don't like it. The day feels like its so much longer to me and half of it is spent travelling. One park or 2 at the most (one in the morning one in the afternoon) is what i like.

I don't mean to sound rude but who does that? I think that's one of the most truly baffling things I've ever read on here.

[beatlesblonde]

Originally Posted by Tigger1

Leaving Disney.

One of these years leaving Disney will only mean heading home, which will be within driving distance (i.e. the central Florida area). Not headed to the airport and flying several hundred miles away....

[merbobear]

I won't schedule a dinner ADR after we have tea in the afternoon...we all ordered the Buckingham tea service, and it was So.Much.Food. Don't get me wrong, it was great food and the tea was wonderful, we all really enjoyed it, but we just did not anticipate being so stuffed from tea and it really impacted our ability to enjoy our 1900 PF meal that evening.

[Wood Nymph]

The number one thing I will never do again is ignore the warnings on a ride. I have issues with claustrophia and let my husband talk me into going on Mission to Mars. I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack when the harness descended over my head and locked me into a middle seat between two large men, one of whom is the DH. I just closed my eyes and prayed that it would be over soon. I will never do that again.

[natfrac]

The one thing we won't do again is take Disney transportation from resort to resort when it's pouring rain (I mean really pouring). It would have been much cheaper to take a cab than replace cell phones.

To all those considering taking family/friends---we always take someone with us. Now that the kids are grown, it's a bit too quiet when just DH and I go. Last year, we had DM, DD, DS, plus a cousin, his wife and their teenager. We had a blast. Of course we had separate rooms and rule was everyone was free to do their own thing. Not traveling as a "pack" is essential--that way everyone gets to do what they want.

[bumbershoot]

Originally Posted by PixieDust1928

I LOVED reading all of these!!!!! I DEFINITELY agree with NOT vacationing with friends or family no matter how much you love them...
I am embarrassed to say that I dont know what a dole whip is and I participated in a 5 month stay with the Disney College Program. Is it ice cream? We are going in 27 days! I will add it to my list!
As much as I want to an ADR on arrival day...I have decided if we are in good spirits after traveling, we will hit GF or poly food court and watch Wishes. (We are staying at POR.

NO it's not ice cream. It's a "soft serve dessert". Google "dole whip precision foods" to find the ingredients. The only good thing I can say about it is that it helped us find the third thing DS and DH cannot have in their diets. But finding that out wasn't so much fun for me! (corn syrup solids...DS goes manic and cannot hear me, and DH's blood sugar spikes and crashes, so I was chasing DS around while he was running in circles, and DH had passed out on a bench...oh JOY) And to me it tastes like what I imagine melted, pineapple-flavored plastic, would taste like.

[bumbershoot]

Family trips!

Although they haven't been *perfect*, we like doing them. We have extended family that lives in Florida, and we like getting a 2 bedroom villa so they can come stay with us. They don't really do LONG stays normally, so just 3 or 4 nights is good for them. I like visiting with them, and we try to be really open and honest with each other.

I think it's wrong to think that NO families should do big trips. If you do it and it's awful, don't do it again. But it might be good.

Another hint from my experience...either get there some days earlier or stay a bit longer, to have just-your-family time apart from bigger family. The first way makes sure you can get the things in that you know you *have to* do, and the second way lets you decompress.

[tophatgirl]

Originally Posted by bumbershoot

Family trips!

Although they haven't been *perfect*, we like doing them. We have extended family that lives in Florida, and we like getting a 2 bedroom villa so they can come stay with us. They don't really do LONG stays normally, so just 3 or 4 nights is good for them. I like visiting with them, and we try to be really open and honest with each other.

I think it's wrong to think that NO families should do big trips. If you do it and it's awful, don't do it again. But it might be good.

Another hint from my experience...either get there some days earlier or stay a bit longer, to have just-your-family time apart from bigger family. The first way makes sure you can get the things in that you know you *have to* do, and the second way lets you decompress.

I agree w/you. While our huge family cruise was wonderful and w/o stress, Disney is not by nature a stress free vacation. It may work for some, ie, having extra hands w/kids, multiple people to see attractions with, but for other be more stress than it is worth.