Any MISTAKES made on past trips?

[ARAITHEL]

Planning for other people. They always say they'll do whatever you plan, then rebel when you get there.

I am currently the travel planner for a family trip for my MIL, SIL, my niece(11) nephew (9) and a babysitter (for the kids...? I don't know why MIL needed her...) my DD (12) .

It's already started. I booked SIL's plane tickets yesterday. I've already called and changed them once. iDK, but I think she's still not happy. It's her first time flying...My MIL is paying for their family's trip. We had to beg her to go.

They are newbies to WDW...I'm hoping this boat doesn't sink. My DH says that I should never plan anything again, I'm glad they have smoking areas and serve drinks on Property.

Wink me luck and pixie dust!

 

[RadioMom]

Love this story! A great example on how to keep a relationship happy, even in trying situations!

Yeah, we had a mistake. The last trip was saved for over a period of several months. I found that Disney Dollars were great in that buying them kept me from robbing cash in my savings before the trip. We kept the Disney Dollars in my partner's safe at home. I don't know where she keeps her safe, I don't have a key to it, it's her thing. I am respectful even six years into our relationship about her things being hers. I guess it's the only child in me, but I digress. Gabby is really careful with her money, so I knew that she was going to do better at saving real money and Disney Dollars than I would ever be able to do. So, we packed the car, went over the packing list several times, and chose to head off down the road. Just outside of Valdosta, GA, roughly half way into our road trip, I turn to her and asked playfully, "Did you get the Disney Dollars out of your safe?"

"Holy $#%&!, No!"

It was at that moment that Brad Paisley's song, "Little Moments" quite possibly saved our relationship. I chose to laugh at the situation. We turned around and drove home. Luckily, we were going to be staying with some of her family in FL for a few days prior to WDW, so it didn't do anything other than cost us more in gas. She still will tell you that it's my fault for not reminding her about the over $700 in Disney Dollars in the safe before we left home, but when a woman is as careful about money as she is, it's on her. lol

So, I hope that everyone here that travels with Disney Dollars will make a point to add them to the packing list! Maggie

 

[RadioMom]

My biggest regret is taking ALL of the pictures. Of the hundreds of photos we have, I'm in one of them. I have beautiful scrapbooks of our trips, and no sign that I was even there. Stupid!

 

[disneydreamerinny]

My biggest regret is taking ALL of the pictures. Of the hundreds of photos we have, I'm in one of them. I have beautiful scrapbooks of our trips, and no sign that I was even there. Stupid!

Yep, same here! Only I have several trips worth of Disney albums, and in each one, I am only in the photo pass shots, and about 3 others that the wait staff took of us together..

 

[SingingMom]

My biggest regret is taking ALL of the pictures. Of the hundreds of photos we have, I'm in one of them. I have beautiful scrapbooks of our trips, and no sign that I was even there. Stupid!

Oh I hear you!!!! I gave my husband the camera once and said, "take a picture of ME so this child remembers her mother DID go on vacation with her, too!"

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I'm the photo geek in the family, and the only one that takes pics. So when on vacation, while I tend to take hundreds of photo's there may be only 4 or 5 of me in them. Unless I give my DH the camera to take some family pics with me and the kids there will be none of me in the vacation photos.

 

[phrekyos]

Just got back yesterday. Here's some off the top of my head...

- Trying to rely on buses. Both the WDW buses and Lynx sucked. I want to go where I want, when I want, and I don't want to wait 10, 20, 30 minutes in the hot sun getting there. I ended up just renting a car. Best decision I made on that trip. It saved us a ton of time and suffering. WDW makes navigating the roads and parking so easy.

- Not making enough ADRs. I didn't want to overly constrain us, but it led to us picking restaurants spur of the moment and without reading reviews first, which led to eating some crappy meals.

- Going in May. I'm from Virginia, so the weather isn't that great here either, but JEEZ the heat was just unbearable.

- Keys to the Kingdom tour. It was somewhat boring and you spend way too much time standing out in the sun while other people ask stupid questions in the backstage areas. The included lunch was easily the worst meal of the whole trip. We waited forever to be let into the special section upstairs, and the meals were waiting for us... ice cold. My drink was wrong, too. After it's over, it's early afternoon and the lines for rides are all insanely long.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Oh I hear you!!!! I gave my husband the camera once and said, "take a picture of ME so this child remembers her mother DID go on vacation with her, too!"

I have to do the same thing or I'm never in the pix. We just had a surprise party for my ds's 13th birthday and I'm not in any pix. with him at all

 

[jeli]

Biggest Mistake was Moving on property halfway through the trip!!! We paid about $110 a night I believe to stay off-property for our first week at the Point Orlando Resort. It was the most wonderful resort we ever stayed at! Beautiful , quiet pool that was so relaxing after a long day walking in the parks; free shuttles to Universal, Sea World and Disney; walking distance to International Drive (Great restaurants!), very very clean, great breakfast buffet and poolside bar/grill, palm trees and a relaxed tropical atmosphere. Then we moved to the $130 per night Pop Century hotel at Disney - and this was one of the worst hotels we ever stayed at! The pools were cutely themed but full of noisy kids, no hot tub, no space to relax - we just avoided them. You can hear everything through the walls; the rooms are tiny. We will never stay on-property again; what you get for a "moderate" disney resort you can get at an off-property resort for half the price!

 

[klmall]

DD & I went to DL for a Mom-n-Me trip. "Mommy, I'm having the time of my life!" But on the last day, her stomach acted up-- after we'd already checked out of the Disneyland Hotel. The hotel let us go back in our room, but had to check out by 1pm. I should have paid for an extra night and dealt with the change in airline flights. But I didn't. I thought she just had motion sickness from the morning of last-chance rides. She was really in no condition to fly and I failed her by sticking to the travel plans. She was green the whole way home.

But this Friday (now 3 years later), I have a chance to redeem myself-- we're flying to Orlando and our whole family of 4 will spend a week at WDW for the first time! This time, we're all healthy, and she'll be using dramamine.

Have a wonderful (and healthy) first trip to Disney World! I am sure you will love it!!!

 

[klmall]

From a 10 family trips WDW vet and other Disney trips solo and to DL:

1. Not asking for and then listening to each person's priority - super important if the person is NOT a Disney fan like DH. Last trip I based all our ADRs on his preferences and he was so much happier! The way to this man's heart is definitely through his stomach at Disney! And DS loves certain rides multiple times; give him those and he will go into any park early!

2. Not knowing your way around a park or a resort or Orlando etc. > We saw couples arguing last December over the best way at the TTC to get to Epcot or the Contemporary or the Poly etc. If you don't know from planning ahead of time, or reading the signs, ask a CM! Don't stand there wasting precious park time or losing your good mood fighting over which monorail line gets you to the GF or the MK or wherever.

3. Not just enjoying some down time IN A PARK! DH is not a street entertainment fan at all. And we haven't seen shows in parks since DS was a little kid and he is now 25! I made the two of them stop and watch some street players in DHS for 20 minutes last December and we all enjoyed it! And you can count on me seeing shows next week! As an "former ride commando" I now want to enjoy these excellent acts!

And if you haven't walked back into the United Kingdom and sat down in the little square in the back, do that. It wasn't until our 9th trip that I found a whole little world back there with park benches and townhouse fronts just like in London.

4. DS brought only 1 pair of shoes with him last December and guess whose feet were blistered by day 3 of an 8 day trip? He decided not to buy other shoes since I had Spenco's Second Skin and other blister relief stuff. But his pace was slowed a bit and I knew enough to keep my mouth shut!

5. We always pack too many clothes also!

 

[mullysisters]

On my first solo trip I booked at POR and loved it! Couldn't have been more beautiful. Here's the thing, I make every rope drop each day of my trip and stay at the parks until closing. After closing I head to resorts for a late meal or drink. I didn't get back to Riverside until midnight each night. I had a late night swim in the quiet pool then headed to bed.
Kinda made me wonder why I would splurge for a moderate instead of one of the values, when I never used the main pool or ever ate there!
It was beautiful though-what I saw of it.

 

[msp2mco]

After a number of trips where we have rented a car and where we have only relied on ME, we decided to only do rental cars. Time is money, and it is frustrating to wait for ME up to an hour to get to a park in the morning or get back to the resort in the middle of the day.

This is little, but our group went on Jungle Cruise without a FP; the line was supposed to be 20 minutes, but it was much longer. Even though it isn't a headliner, it was a big waste of time to stand in line--it took a lot longer than 20 minutes. Also, the FP return times weren't much later than the distribution time, so we should have gotten FPs and used our wait time to grab a bite to eat.

 

[flipflopgirly]

Great tips! We were trying to decide whether or not to rent a car on property -- now we may just do that.

 

[noahdove]

When I go to Disney, I want all the benefits of vacation..meaning, I want to be catered to..like taking me to the parks, making my bed, bringing my food to me and just not having to think about who what or where. I am the one whenever we go anyplace, I drive and miss out on conversations, and doing Disney I can sit back and chat about our day

 

[AshleeH]

Biggest Mistake was Moving on property halfway through the trip!!! We paid about $110 a night I believe to stay off-property for our first week at the Point Orlando Resort. It was the most wonderful resort we ever stayed at! Beautiful , quiet pool that was so relaxing after a long day walking in the parks; free shuttles to Universal, Sea World and Disney; walking distance to International Drive (Great restaurants!), very very clean, great breakfast buffet and poolside bar/grill, palm trees and a relaxed tropical atmosphere. Then we moved to the $130 per night Pop Century hotel at Disney - and this was one of the worst hotels we ever stayed at! The pools were cutely themed but full of noisy kids, no hot tub, no space to relax - we just avoided them. You can hear everything through the walls; the rooms are tiny. We will never stay on-property again; what you get for a "moderate" disney resort you can get at an off-property resort for half the price!

Strictly speaking, Pop Century is not a "moderate" Disney hotel, it's a Value. It's also consistently ranked the worst of Disney's hotels. We've never stayed there, but from what I gather - if you're looking for some rest or relaxation, a value is not the way to go.

That being said, there are some amazing offsite properties! I prefer the onsite, but if it came down to a decision between a Value hotel on property and an offsite place, we'd take offsite each and every time!

 

[leanne2255]

Staying off property. Never again. I see that one poster wrote about her wonderful experience off-property, but for me, the convenience and magic of being on property is well worth it.

 

[loricdietzel]

Ordering the souvenier photo book from the photopass site. I did it so that I had to make a photobook of what I thought would be a once in a life time trip (um, now we are going again a year later because I am HOOKED!) Don't get me wrong, I love the photobook. But the program to make it through Disney is not user friendly and it took over a week of aggravation to get it close to right. It would have been so much quicker, cheaper, and less stressful to use snapfish or something like that to make it.

Also, I would have asked for a cup of water at the food places (which is free) instead of wasting a snack credit on a bottle of water.

I also would have had more hotel/non-park days in our itinerary.

 

[shallwechat]

I didn't bother to make reservations and we were on the dining plan. That was a BIG mistake! I know I can stand to lose a few pounds but not being able to find a place to sit down and eat when you are tired and hungry isn't a good situation. I have since learned that I must at least make a reservation.........there is always the possibility of changing it but at least I have a place to eat!

 

[DisneyMommyNewbie]

Holy.....I just read all these, and for our 1st trip we just came back from on the 25th, wish I would have read this.....butthead!!!

Make sure you get your yellow tags for luggage from Magic Express
Don't plan reservations the day you get there, unless its 3-4 hrs from whe your arrive
Know the bus systems, we weren't told at Conceirge, and we just hoped on the DTD bus thinking it was the 1st stop....heck i don't even know if we read where it was going) but we needed to go to Epcot, and we were far from it...had to cancel dinner, missed out on a table service for 4, and EPCOT....God I'm still mad about that.....
I would only do ADR 2-4 times depending on the length, I felt like our days revolved around them....I hated that!!!!
Also, they give you alot of food.....so we barely ate 2x a day!!!!
May is somewhat hot...not a melting hot, but a little sweat....next time we won't do May-August....
Have soime sort of plan, I did....and then it went out the window.....when we got there....
If you have kids, bring nice strollers, well ones that hold things well and aren't heavy...like Chicco umbrella and Maclaren strollers....
Backpacks work, but sling purses, and fanny packs are better
book for more than 5 days!!!! espeically for your 1st time
fly southwest or direct flight!!!
don't pack alot od snacks, you won't have time to eat them...lol!!!!
do use the photopass....we only have 8 pics, not a big deal....but i have about 800 pics on my camera )
do eat lunch and go back to resort....we have a 4.5, 3, and 8 month old, and the 3 yr old had meltdowns with no naps....
some days get up early for emh....other days sleep in....
DO the after hours, its awesome at 11pm....fireworks, parade, and no waiting!!!!
DO THE matchy outfits, its the only time when wearing minnie ears and a minnie shirt will pass!!!!
if you're on a budget, or wanna stay for a week, do VALUE...even though we stayed at Coronado for 4 nights, I would have rather stayed at Pop, or All starts for 7-8 nights...
DO chef mickeys!!!!!! amazing, and too cute!!!!
BUY Mickey/Minnie Ears.....and do buy when you see it....
spend a day at dtd and your resort )
don't rent a car if you stay on disney, bus system is good, when you figure it out!!!! lol
Book your 2nd trip when you are there, or shortly after!!! i am trying to get DH to go back within 3-6 months....
do bring wipes, and sunglasses!!!!
don't bring toys, the kids are too interested in everything around them!!!!
do go see fantasmic!awesome....luckily, someone gave us a pass from their dining seating...we go front row!!!!
do get a fastpass to the Buzz/Woody ride at HS.....fast passes are gone by noon!!!!!
get souvenirs at walmart....$25 is expensive for a kids shirt....nice, but pricey!!!!
bring gift cards for sounvenirs....$300 in gift cards, $50 outta pocket was nice!!!
i wore flip flops the whole time, buy don't bring shoes you haven't wore yet....made the mistake toi wear cute flats when we got there....feet hurt for a bit
at least stand in line once to meet a character, we didn't, and kind of regret it....
do see the electric parade...awesome
bring 2 cameras, and a camcorder.....
get a lanyard and clear card holdr for fastpasses, tickets, room keys and photopass.,...comes in handy!!
make sure you arrive on time for your bus to the airport.....they won't check your bags, and you may miss your flight...oppps...
get maps at your resort, they are different than disney's site
don't cram everything into 1 trip....just make sure you do the main things you wanna do....
make sure you research.....it helps!!!!
I agree, next time we are going by ourselves with the kids....