Hard Learned Lessons at WDW -

[jennyincolo]

Thanks for sharing your viewpoint - I was WAY overtired when I originally posted this, and I've had a few days to cool off. We definitely fell into the " we are spending a lot of money and flew 4 hours to get here (I live in Colorado) so we better do all we can" kind of trap. While I was there, I felt like I had been misled about how much work it is to take care of 3 small kids and a husband who really doesn't want to be there. And considering how much we spent and saved, well, I was hoping all that planning and strategizing ahead of time would be enough to make an awesome vacation and everyone would just have a marvelous time. The more I look at our pictures, the more fun I realized we had.

I've had a few days now to get some rest and reflection - and I'm going to chalk a lot of this up to learning experience. My kids had an AWESOME time. I"m going to focus on that. And if we never go back, c'est la vie. We'll see where we are in 5 years!!

Ok before I start I just wanna say sadly there is a lot of negativity emanating from this thread.. I mean it got to the point of making me feel sick in my stomach from all the bad experiences. To the point of skipping to the end. Now I understand you're all just showing the importance of break days but ouch lol

As for I usually go at least 1-2 times per year since mother has a condo about an hour away, so those trips are 1 days, then every 4 years we get to stay on site which are slightly longer trips but still short compared to others so honestly break days for us are wasted money. However we try for 1-2 parks but only because time and we don't feel a need for all four.

Tolls? We've only ever hit 1 so don't know what the so many tolls post was about. Yes DTD is under construction and a mess... If you drive, if you take the complementary transportation everything's fine. Love Down Town Disney

And then I try to add something a little special each year like an add on or something to make a meeting day magical

Sorry if my post comes off as rude but just saying from my view point hurts that some people don't get as good a trip as they planned

 

[Mrs Lapo]

I leave next Sat and am starting to get cold feet. My husband is so not into our trip either. I mean when asked if he wanted to go he said yes.. but he shows absolutely no excitement whatsoever. He wanted nothing to do with any of the planning, when asked for advice he replies IDK and I am just absolutely dreading him being a sourpuss the entire time we're there. We will be there 9 days. We have 2 break days and I plan on coming back early on days we do rope drop and not being there for rope drop on days we want to stay late for the evening shows. I have 3 kids but my girls are mostly self sufficient and they are SOOOO excited to go! My son just turned two and I am also super nervous about traveling with him and being away from home for so long. He's only really had a few weekends at the shore here & there. I can't say that reading these posts made me feel better but at least I know I'm not the only one. I'm sure we'll have a marvelous time (at least my kids and I will). I'm happy to know that I am planning correctly with the breaks and what not. I already told the hubby that he can just go back to the room at any time if he's going to be a crabby patty. I refuse to let him ruin our fun! Not after what I worked hard to pay for

 

[buzznina]

We have been going since our 1st DD was 6 months old and we learned early that the schedule needs to be 2(now 3) park days followed by a non-park day. The whole family likes staying later more than getting there early, so we may only do 1 or 2 rope drop mornings. We also never set the alarm after a late night, we make sure the DDs get their sleep. We learned going back midday was not right for our family and really wasted our time and made us grumpy We also use to schedule(touring plan) our park days and found that we enjoy it sooooo much better without a set plan, Yes we may not get everything in but we are more relaxed and been having a lot more fun since stopping the plan. We still take a stroller (sit-n-stand) and that also help keep the girls energized.

 

[SweetMissy]

I totally agree with your #7....the gift shop issue! It's extremely annoying and pushy! When you're getting off a ride, you just want to move to the next or it's meal time....but no, when you're getting off a ride with a few kids and they see toys....you waste another half hour trying to get them out of there. It's annoying the rides are set up that way....but any way to make even more money. :/

 

[jacknsally19]

I have to say that I was a little disappointed with my most recent trip. I found MNSSHP wasn't worth the extra cost, the food seems to be going down hill, and the amount of construction at MK and AK really took away from the experience. That being said, I still booked a bounce back LOL.

I was at Disneyland shortly before my trip to WDW and if I lived closer to DL - that would totally be my home park! If I lived in Colorado, I would certainly enjoy that more. So I highly recommend checking that out before you give up on Disney. I thought the halloween decorations and the food were far superior to WDW.

But it bears repeating to anyone that is planning the first trip, LESS IS MORE! If you are running all over the place, you will be exhausted. I usually make sure to have one complete day off with nothing planned as well as 1/2 days during my trips. This gives us plenty of time to enjoy the amazing resorts and get some sleep. Despite the downtime, my DD still managed to fall asleep standing up when we got back from our most recent trip. WDW is a tiring place.

 

[pookybean]

our first trip was like that, where i tried to make sure we hit every single thing. i was literally crossing things off the map as we went on, in or by. it was exhausting. thankfully about halfway through the trip i realized we would be back and relaxed a bit.

now we are go back and rest/swim in the afternoon people. very rarely do we make it to rope drop (not for lack of trying, just cant seem to get it moving!) and we stay up in the evening after doing a 6:30ish dinner. you will always get tired at disney and need a vacation from the vacation, but it is worth it!

as for the gift shops i made a rule. you can't buy anything from a shop after the ride drops you in it. the only exception to this was star tours. for the most part the kids hustled through because they knew they would get to do a big shopping at another time. i let them poke around the resort gift shop a lot too.

my dh didnt love disney either. we went twice before we divorced. he made it a little rough, always criticizing everything. it was so much easier when we started going without him. the extra hands werent even worth the grief. there was always a kind stranger willing to help me off the bus with the stroller

we learned as we went along, and the trips are always different...but we always have a great time. and if we don't, well then we plan a redemption trip.

i hope your trip to dl is kinder to you and that you get back to dw soon.

 

[mcjaco]

We just got back yesterday, after seven days. I will do trip report at some point, but we chose the past week due to attendance being slow every other time we went the second week in November......not this time. At least not Monday the 10 and Tuesday the 11th. Crowds were horrendous at EPCOT and MK.

It put a bug up my keister, simply because I was not prepared for it. We got discounted tickets through our time share, so we were unable to set up FP+ before we arrived, which made things worse....and that the app isn't compatible with our old Galaxy SII Skyrockets. I had to go into panic mode, and just decide what was the most important things to hit for the kids, and let caution fly to the wind.

After Wednesday, things slowed down and it got better.

Agree on Downtown Disney. We ended up eating at BWW at the Crossroads, after navigating gridlock on Buena Vista for twenty minutes. That whole area is brutle.