Mistakes you made while at the Parks

[Cortney96]

I thought this could be helpful for others when they go to the parks. What is the worst mistake you made while at the parks?

 

[matt and beth]

We waited to ride different rides because other members of our grand gathering wanted to ride them with us. They were slow risers. We would get there early to do it all. Needless to say we should not have waited. They got there late and even pimped us when it came to some of the attractions. Oh family God love em.

 

[chrismb22]

SHOES!! My friend bought "cute" sandals for our one trip and didn't even make it from Caribbean Beach to the bus station. She didn't even bring a pair of sensible shoes. We wound up spending our first afternoon in Downtown Disney so she could buy sneakers. It was a nightmare

 

[shduncan]

Worst mistake at the park was stopping for characters and photopass before getting our fast passes. We missed Toy Story Mania last trip because all the fast passes were gone!

 

[sters]

Booking 3 back-to-back buffets..(lunch at Germany, dinner at O'Hanas, breakfast at I can't even remember where because I was so sick of eating). As for park strategy, not getting there at rope drop.

 

[twokids0204]

This may help:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2062337

 

[Nadjalu]

Not sleeping in!

I know many are going to screech, thinking how terrible not to make rope drop. But really for us it is better to ease back and relax while on vacation.
We don't have to GO like at bat out of "you know where" to get it done.

We ease into the day, remember we are on vacation and relax.
YES we do get it all done, everything we want always gets done. Have we seen all of WDW.....no, but I can safely guess most "rope droppers" haven't either.

So our mistake it to do what others do, climb out of bed before the sun, run like mad men and women to get to the gate to watch rope drop.

Nope, did it once and it set the tone for a miserable day.

 

[AmazingDWRacer]

Not sleeping in!

I know many are going to screech, thinking how terrible not to make rope drop. But really for us it is better to ease back and relax while on vacation.
We don't have to GO like at bat out of "you know where" to get it done.

We ease into the day, remember we are on vacation and relax.
YES we do get it all done, everything we want always gets done. Have we seen all of WDW.....no, but I can safely guess most "rope droppers" haven't either.

So our mistake it to do what others do, climb out of bed before the sun, run like mad men and women to get to the gate to watch rope drop.

Nope, did it once and it set the tone for a miserable day.

Funny you say this -- we slept in too much last year! While it did help our moods, we felt we missed out on some park time. Our plan this year is to get up early and try to make it to the parks earlier. Last year we dawdled in our rooms getting ready and didn't make it to the parks until later in the morning/around noon or so. Now, this plan may only work for a few days, but we're aiming to get there earlier and enjoy more park time!

 

[liamkelly]

Im a huge character fan and a tip for others would be: if you see a character in the morning, do not wait and meet them latter, because they probably wont come back out.
EX)
Daisy duck
pinocchio
chip
dale

these don't happen all the time but are just some that happened to me

the other mistake i made was at epcot. if you want to ride soarin then get the fastpass first thing in the morning. i went back there maybe an hour after the park opened and the fast passes were sold out.

 

[Smokeyspawn]

If you're with kids, do what they want(in moderation)...Waiting in line for an hour to see Snow White may not seem like your cup of tea but to them its the greatest moment of their life.

 

[Poohbear123]

Yea, I made it to the parks LATE in July and August, and I was not happy, if I had gotten there an hour earlier, I would have been able to get fastpasses and ride MORE rides! However, a few weeks ago, we made it to AK at 9:15am and got to ride EE twice! Killamanjaro was a 10 min wait too! Epcot the next day, early and I actually got to ride Soarin hadn't ridden that in a year!

 

[peekinglemer]

Not being more flexible. I had planned out which park on which days and was determined to stick with it. On our DHS day the weather called for rain in the morning. My son wanted to do Jedi Training which is weather permitting. We had to wait out THREE rained out shows that day before the weather cleared and he coud fight Vader. If we switched things up and did that park the next day it woud have been sunny skys and we would not have wasted so much time.

 

[dhiwannabe]

going 2 all kinds of trouble 2 eat @ the yak and the yeti after it opened...maybe the cuisine has improved since then, but it tasted like mall chinese food

 

[Buckeye Princess]

We saw launchpad and some other rare characters at AK. We were with all of my in-laws who are not into characters so I said that my husband and I would come back to see them later in our trip. (The in laws were only there a few days.) I didn't want to make them wait. Well of course it was just a special greet and those characters weren't back again. Grrrrrrr

 

[LaurenT]

Taking my mother. If you know someone is going to be a wet blanket and do everything they can to ruin your trip, do not let them invite themselves, even if it's your mother!

 

[lauralong81]

Biggest Mistake - Not making time for relaxation!!! Last time (our first whole-family trip) I went all sorts of commando all up in my family's face.... Not to say we didn't have fun, and I really wanted to get our money's worth (it's a lot for us to spend on a vaca)... but by the last day we were so exhausted we skipped our last park day just to lounge around the resort pool. Even with that, I returned home with Mono. Out of my entire fam, i was the only one with it. According to my doctor (insert DH's "I told you so's" here) the doc said it was really b/c I pushed myself so hard and stressed out so much about the "perfect" vacation.

Trying very hard to "schedule in" lots and lots of relaxation this time 'round!!! Including one entire "no park" days and lots of early evenings and one or two "sleep in" days (I would have more, but we are all early birds).

 

[d_lairson]

We did a EMH to 2am then I got up for a Steam Train Tour which started at 7:30am.... I had to leave the resort at 6:30am just to make it in time. Doing a tour with 2-3 hours sleep. It sucked because I was the only person on the tour and they went out of their way to do a few special things for me but I was too sleepy to fully appreciate them. You know it's bad when you are asked several times if you are awake...

 

[MNTwinsMom]

Arriving mid-day at Epcot, even in off-peak early December was our bigest mistake. Soarin fastpasses were for right before Illumiations, so we ended up waiting an hour to see Soarin in the stand-by line. (The whole rest of our trip we never waited more than 20 minutes for anything) Every other day we went to a park first thing in the morning, took a mid-day break at the resort and went back in the evening for the nighttime shows. A much more effective touring plan!

Another mistake I made was planning too many sit-down meals for our trip. I had reservations for one per day because we had "free dining", but it was tough for our family to take time away from touring to eat. We ended up cancelling some of the reservations and just eating counter service or back at our FW cabin because it was more convenient.

 

[mickin]

paying $14 for parking on a day trip. I know its frowned upon, but I think next time i might try parking at dd and busing it around. with that extra $14 i might be able to afford lunch next time...

 

[littlepeppers]

Feeling like you have to stay together w/ your group. Let friends & family know ahead of time that you will see them for your dining reservations.

Do your own thing? Even if it isn't the same park. Everyone is differnt & your time is your $. You never know what life will throw at you & you may never get to see WDW again. Relax, do what you want & ENJOY!!!! You are family and/or friends. You will see them again.

Love ya, but see you at dinner.