What strategy did you learn here on the DIS, that just didn't work for your family?

[geenerbell]

Taking an afternoon break back at our room just doesn't work for us. We prefer to book an early afternoon ADR and let that be our break. We felt like we wasted so much time going back and forth.

Just want everyone to know this is in no way a DIS bashing thread. I love the DIS and all the different ideas and opportunity to share with others. Ideas work for some and not for others and that's okay!

 

[Trying to Plan]

Ours was the mid day break as well. We didn't even try it to be honest but our kids are also not young, being 11 and 15 when we went. That may have made the difference....but pretty much EVERYTHING else we did based on what we read on here and it worked like a charm. We can't wait to get back.

 

[shannonstar]

That was the same tip we never used. Unless it was go to a park and then spend a long time at our resort and then hit EMH hours.
My kid doesn't nap, so breaks were a waste of time.

Also, for the most part, we found late EMHs (esp DHS) to be very crowded.

 

[Colleen27]

Ours was the same as well. We tried breaks on our first trip and gave up after two days... the kids didn't want to leave the park, fell asleep on the bus so they were wide awake when we got to our resort, wanted to swim, then didn't want to leave the pool to go to back to the parks in the evening. Our days work better with less changing gears, so instead of a midday break we plan a break day to hang out at the resort mid-trip.

 

[fall08CP]

Getting up early. We tried and were just miserable. Too stressful to get out the door on time. We'd rather sleep in, eat a decent lunch, attack a park all afternoon, eat a resort TS dinner, then evening EMH. We find nothing more magical than MK at 2am

 

[MomofKatie]

Same as others, the afternoon break isn't worth it for us. I feel like we are wasting good park time by hanging around the resort. We can swim at home, and nobody needs a nap. For us, a Disney vacation isn't about relaxing- it is about go, go, going!!

We also don't really use hopping a lot- unless we are going for a short trip, it just isn't worth the extra $$. We feel it just wastes time traveling from park to park.

Staying onsite is OK but not at all necessary- I'd rather be able to visit every year and stay at an inexpensive offsite hotel than save up for a Disney resort room and pay twice as much or more for comparable accomodations.

 

[WedgieSock]

Park Hoppers. Leaving a park to go to another one didn't work for us, we tried it - there was plenty to do in one park to stay all day so why waste time travelling & spend all that extra money? Also, we felt more relaxed not having to rush.

We don't have PH this trip and I am totally comfortable with that. $293 saved We also don't do breaks either.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Midday break for us as well. We are die hard rope droppers (thanks DIS) but we have found with the age of our boys that we do a 3/4 day and then return to the hotel to have dinner and an early evening.

We figure we will get to see those fireworks in a few years!

 

[Jillianv29]

Park hoppers weren't good for us either. My kids are 3 and 5 I think that would have been too much. We planned our days where we would get to park at opening then leave around 3- 4 ish head to hotel and then ADR. Didn't go back to much. We didn't really need fast passes either. Only used 3 on our entire trip and never waited more then 15 min for anything ( last week in sept)

 

[Jillianv29]

Midday break for us as well. We are die hard rope droppers (thanks DIS) but we have found with the age of our boys that we do a 3/4 day and then return to the hotel to have dinner and an early evening.

We figure we will get to see those fireworks in a few years!

Same here. I tell you getting to the park at rope drop is the BEST tip I ever got from DIS

 

[andyman8]

Ours, like some PPs, is waking up early and rope drop. I've done it so many times (and recommend it to all first time visitors) that, at this point, we just don't find it to be worth it.

We like to stay at a nice deluxe (GF!) for a shorter trip (4 or 5 nights; another DIS tip that didn't work for us: stay longer) and do one park per day/.

I enjoy waking up late (maybe between 9 and 10am), heading downstairs for a big TS breakfast at GF Cafe or 1900 Park Fare and heading to the parks. With, for say MK, we'll tour the park, from AL to TL, have a quick lunch in FL in the middle of it all, and we return around 7pm or for TS dinner at the hotel or we'll have TS dinner in the park.

 

[luvmy2babies]

It's the break in the middle here too. Our first trip was in November and my son was just 10 months so he nodded off in the stroller when he was tired and he never slept long. Plus the parks weren't that hot in the middle of the day, so the main reasons for taking the break didn't apply on our first trip.

On our last trip he was 2 and at home he does take a 2 hour plus nap each day, but I also have a 9 year-old. We tried to do it one day, where we did a park in the morning, then came back to rest for an ADR at Chef Mickey's that afternoon. I couldn't get either child to rest and I did everything short of tying them down. My son ended up going to sleep as soon as we got on the bus to MK (our transfer point to get to the Contemporary). Fortunately it took us an hour from our resort to the CR, so he was fine when he woke up. Most of the naps he took during the trip were about an hour.

We did much better touring 2/3 of the park's open hours or less. We did like rope drop to after the 3:00 parade at MK. We did 10am to 5pm, then a 6:00 ADR at Epcot, one 4:00 to 10:30pm at MK, 8am to 1pm at AK, stuff like that. One exception was a 8am to 6pm day at DHS. The plan was to leave after the afternoon parade, but my daughter found the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and we ended up hanging out in there for 2 hours.

 

[stindall]

Park Hoppers. Leaving a park to go to another one didn't work for us, we tried it - there was plenty to do in one park to stay all day so why waste time travelling & spend all that extra money? Also, we felt more relaxed not having to rush.

We don't have PH this trip and I am totally comfortable with that. $293 saved We also don't do breaks either.

Really? For most with hoppers you feel more relaxed because if you want to go elsewhere you can! If not then you're rushed to do it all in one day.

 

[awoogala]

mid day break. Does not work for us.
rope drop is not huge for us either. We can do early breakfast in the park 1 or 2 days, stroll in at 9:30 the other days.
again, I will say we go during january, so I think a lot of things don't work the same, 2+ hours at the resort when the parks close at 9 pm is a huge deal, being there at 9 am vs. 9:30 does not seem to make a difference when we run past lots of things others will run to.

 

[disneynewbee]

Mid day breaks and park hopping do not work for our family. We stay at values and doing the buses with a stroller one round trip per day is enough for me. It would be way too much wasted time. We just find a quiet place in the park and rest. I know this is also a no no but we have never ever made a rope drop. We are not morning people and I do not want a grumpy family. We've tried but it has never happened for us and well.... I've given up. My kids do better at midnight in the parks then they would at 8am. We have always managed to do everything we've wanted so it works for us.

 

[ZoZo]

Mid-day breaks don't work for me. I usually go in October, when the parks close early (compared to summer hours). If the parks close at 9:00 at the latest, it seems like such a waste of time to go back to the resort, spend an hour or two resting, then traveling back to a park.

I might do a quick "back to the room to shower and change clothes" break if I'm very hot and sweaty, but no long afternoon breaks for me!

 

[appleorchard]

Mid-day breaks work fine for us when it's just adults but when kids are with us it's a waste of time. Granddaughter won't sleep, does better just falling asleep in the stroller. If she goes in the pool, we can't get her out. Too much gear-shifting, as someone else said.

 

[Maleficent53]

Dining plan doesn't work for us! We might set up 1 or 2 reservations in advance, but I hate having to try to decide where to eat and try to get reservations weeks/months in advance of our trip. Who can really decide what you want that far out? Sure we might miss out on some great restaurants, because they are fully booked when we arrive, be we find other places to eat and believe me, we never go hungry!

 

[Julie711]

Mid day breaks and rope drop doesn't work for us either. We tried our first trip with dd when she was 2 to take a mid day break, when we got back to the resort she wanted nothing to do with napping, so ended up going to the pool for a bit, then back to the park for the evening. She has always been perfectly fine with napping in the stroller. Now we have ds ( will be 12 months next trip) and we will just let him sleep in the stroller as well.
Rope dropped never works for us b/c we aren't morning people, usually don't get up till 8:30, 9 am, we prefer evening EMH!!

 

[rentayenta]

Making too many ADRs. We ended up canceling half of them and I was able to book same day at other places with more convenient times. I'll never book 9 ADRs for a 12 day trip again. I think having a full kitchen in our DVC villa made it SO much easier too.