Worst advice you got

[bbak30]

Most of the advice we got for our first trip was great and I wish DW would have listened to a couple things. I guess the worst advice we got was it is too far to drive to WDW from Baton Rouge. Our first trip we flew which was fine. Because DW spent so much money on that trip I told her I would make all the plans for our trip to Universal. We drove and guess and it was very doable. We saved a ton of money and have been to WDW more than 15 times since....

I live in Baton Rouge too! That's just nuts! I feel so fortunate that we live so close and it's such an easy drive. 10.5 hours. We have flown too, but don't mind the drive at all?

 

[Mouse Mate]

While in line at the Magic Kingdom, I once overheard a man telling his family that they could take the monorail to "Harry Potter Land". When I tried (nicely) to correct him, he told me I was mistaken!

Ditto on overhearing people planning to take the monorail to Harry Potter... it's quite astonishing how many people seem to think that WDW & Universal is actually connected by the monorail... once, upon entering Disney's Hollywood Studios, we even overheard someone referring to it as being inside Universal Studios!

 

[Mouse Mate]

a couple:
- Rope drop is the only way to go
- Magic Kingdom IS Disney World

I couldn't agree with you more about the rope drop myth!

For our first WDW trip I did a HUGE amount of research & every one of the 5 guide books I read, as well as just about every "mouse centered" website I browsed, advocated that you absolutely MUST be at rope drop or else risk having completely wasted your ticket for the day due to the enormous queues that would have supposedly formed prior to your arrival & you subsequently getting to ride/do nothing at all.

Our first trip turned out quite miserable because of this advice: we were up at the crack of dawn each day, mostly skipped breakfast & was diligently at rope drop each morning just to be greeted by loooong lines of very impatient & often quite rude people who constantly shoved, pushed, bumped you with strollers & scooters from all sides... it astounded us every morning to experience how people completely lost all their manners in their haste to hop from attraction to attraction as if their lives depended on it! Another downside to being their at rope drop is that the days get incredibly long if you still want to hold out to see the fireworks at night. We really had very little fun doing Disney that way...

We've now been back to WDW 3 more times since then. We do it very differently now & really get to savour/ enjoy our Disney trips without ending up constantly grumpy & exhausted. We sleep in, have a leisurely brunch, do some shopping if we feel like it & then make our way to the parks during the afternoon hours once the rope droppers have exhausted themselves & have either already left the parks or are busy on the other side of the park. We never experience that insane shoving battle for the attractions anymore & we can stop to take a photo without someone cursing at us for slowing them down.

For the majority of the attractions we're interested in, the queues are never too hectic & if we feel it's not worth waiting that long for a particular attraction, we get a snack, find a shady spot & just take in the Disney ambience or watch the people... we're on our hard earned vacation after all, so what's the fun in rushing it just for the sake of ticking another thing off the list (touring plan)? We'd far rather just actually ENJOY the attractions we do get to do, than to do more attractions & end up enjoying it all much less... and we finish every evening with the spectacular fireworks shows that we now actually have the energy left to enjoy!

 

[Mouse Mate]

Apparently, you aren't aware of platform 9 3/4 at the Disney TTC.

Seems most of us aren't

 

[bdiddy]

On our first trip the kids were 2 and 4 and several people told us to leave the park and go back to the room and rest/nap. We tried it the first day and it was the worst advice ever!! Especially with little kids. It was so much hassle leaving the park and coming back. And then they'd fall asleep in the car and wake up when we got to the room and wouldn't go back to sleep. It was pointless and a waste of time. From then on we just let them fall asleep in the stroller and worked around that.

 

[GaryDis]

Seems most of us aren't

It's to the left of the monorail to the Ministry of Magic, behind the portrait of Mortimer Mouse.

 

[Robo]

It's to the left of the monorail to the Ministry of Magic, behind the portrait of Mortimer Mouse.

Note:

Ministry of Magic station will be closed for refurb through Feb. 30, 2026.
Mortimer Mouse portrait on loan to Constantinople Museum of the Perplexed, UFN.

 

[nduckles]

To wait to go WDW until your kids are older and can remember the visit(s). Seeing the joy and wonderment on my 2 yr olds face when first experiencing WDW is something I will always cherish. To quote another board poster, "I will remember it".

Agreed. And even if NO ONE remembers it, whatever happened to just cherishing joy and happiness as it happens?

 

[chiefmickeymouse]

Bring a bunch of stuff with you and store it in a locker. It took us 45 minutes to get back to the locker to get the chapstick, or whatever, that we needed. Now we are the "bring practically nothing" people. I'd rather buy it than have to drag it around all day.

 

[westcoastfldisneygirl]

Someone told me that The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster was Big Thunder Mountain but with a new name.
.........I had just gotten back from a weekend trip to Disney, and had ridden both rides. They were NOT the same ride!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I couldn't agree with you more about the rope drop myth!

For our first WDW trip I did a HUGE amount of research & every one of the 5 guide books I read, as well as just about every "mouse centered" website I browsed, advocated that you absolutely MUST be at rope drop or else risk having completely wasted your ticket for the day due to the enormous queues that would have supposedly formed prior to your arrival & you subsequently getting to ride/do nothing at all.

Our first trip turned out quite miserable because of this advice: we were up at the crack of dawn each day, mostly skipped breakfast & was diligently at rope drop each morning just to be greeted by loooong lines of very impatient & often quite rude people who constantly shoved, pushed, bumped you with strollers & scooters from all sides... it astounded us every morning to experience how people completely lost all their manners in their haste to hop from attraction to attraction as if their lives depended on it! Another downside to being their at rope drop is that the days get incredibly long if you still want to hold out to see the fireworks at night. We really had very little fun doing Disney that way...

We've now been back to WDW 3 more times since then. We do it very differently now & really get to savour/ enjoy our Disney trips without ending up constantly grumpy & exhausted. We sleep in, have a leisurely brunch, do some shopping if we feel like it & then make our way to the parks during the afternoon hours once the rope droppers have exhausted themselves & have either already left the parks or are busy on the other side of the park. We never experience that insane shoving battle for the attractions anymore & we can stop to take a photo without someone cursing at us for slowing them down.

For the majority of the attractions we're interested in, the queues are never too hectic & if we feel it's not worth waiting that long for a particular attraction, we get a snack, find a shady spot & just take in the Disney ambience or watch the people... we're on our hard earned vacation after all, so what's the fun in rushing it just for the sake of ticking another thing off the list (touring plan)? We'd far rather just actually ENJOY the attractions we do get to do, than to do more attractions & end up enjoying it all much less... and we finish every evening with the spectacular fireworks shows that we now actually have the energy left to enjoy!

Here's an example of why we skip the rope drop:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

 

[maxiesmom]

Here's an example of why we skip the rope drop:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

Here is why we do rope drop: While most everyone else is running to rides like Toy Story Midway Mania or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we head to Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. And ride them repeatedly with no wait. It is pretty much the same theory, just depends if you are a night owl or early bird.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here is why we do rope drop: While most everyone else is running to rides like Toy Story Midway Mania or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we head to Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. And ride them repeatedly with no wait. It is pretty much the same theory, just depends if you are a night owl or early bird.

These are good late night attractions also. On recent visit, the kids rode Tower 13 times in 2 hours and Space Mtn 4 times in 35 minutes. Both efforts did require some running though.

 

[TowMater92]

"Take DME to/from the airport! It's so convenient!" Nope. There is nothing convenient about sitting on a bus for an hour waiting for it to load, not getting your luggage until 7 hours after check-in, or getting picked up 3 hours before your flight home so that you can sit on the bus some more to wait for it to load at various resorts. After renting a car on our last trip and seeing how convenient THAT is, I feel like a fool for buying into the DME myth for so long.

We always get rental cars but we send my sister and mom on DME with the kids and all our luggage while my dad, BiL and I go get the rental cars. They always beat us to the resort and we use a on site rental company(at MCO) to save time. We don't have to handle the luggage, booster seats or kids while we rent the cars and we don't have to load all the kids and luggage into the cars. On the way back to the airport we check luggage at the resort and drive the cars back to the airport then all we have to check at the airport is the booster seats. It makes it easy for us since we have 10 people every trip.

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

Here is why we do rope drop: While most everyone else is running to rides like Toy Story Midway Mania or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we head to Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. And ride them repeatedly with no wait. It is pretty much the same theory, just depends if you are a night owl or early bird.

On the days we rope drop, this is what we do, too. Now that FP+ is out, we get those for the rides everyone is shoving there way to at Rope Drop like SDMT at MK or EE at AK.

 

[Maze Runner]

Not to go when the kids are young and won't remember it. We didn't listen thank goodness and had great times.

 

[toni nicole]

I feel like I'm the only one who had luck with the dollar store ponchos! First time buying them we could only use them once, they were basically extremely thin small garbage bags. The second time we bought a new set, they were just as good if not better than Disney's! They came in all different colors and were the perfect size and extremely thick, we've used them for all the water rides and the rain on the past 4 trips! I guess this was just luck at this particular dollar tree.

 

[GPC0321]

Ditto on overhearing people planning to take the monorail to Harry Potter... it's quite astonishing how many people seem to think that WDW & Universal is actually connected by the monorail... once, upon entering Disney's Hollywood Studios, we even overheard someone referring to it as being inside Universal Studios!

It's like trying to explain to my 70+ year old parents (who are quite spry and "with it" but still...) that Hollywood Studios isn't Universal Studios. Nor is it MGM Studios (which is what it was last time we were there). Mom keeps saying, "When we're in Universal Studios," and I keep saying, "We're not going to Universal Studios, Mom." And she says, "MGM, whatever." And I say, "It's called Hollywood Studios now, Mom." And she says, "What happened to MGM? Did they close it?"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (LOL!)

 

[WIcruizer]

Worst advice? Don't use DME. I took that advice from someone who's opinion I usually trust. So I avoided DME for years. Finally used it once, and have been using it ever since. It's just so nice to not have to wait in baggage claim, haul everything to the trans center at MCO to pick up a rental car, pay tolls, remember to fuel up on the way back, etc. Not to mention saving on the cost of it.

DME has worked perfectly for us every time, plus I like sitting with people who are starting their stay in the World at the same time/ place as us. Adds a little Magic, and I count it as our first ride ; )

 

[sunshine1]

I think it was Ridemax who said to stand at the front in the yellow zone for world of color at california adventure, the view is great and you dont get too wet' just splash mountain wet.

Good view but got soaked and left after 10 minutes or so.

Next day i had strep throat. Not sure if it was down to that but got soaked.