10 Things not to do at WDW

[Grumpy92]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/10-things-not-to-do-at-walt-disney-world/ar-BBfGWIY
This is a a good article.

1. Sleep In
2. Expect to do it all
3. Make it a Parent planned trip
4. Wing it
5. Stay on the eastern side of Orlando
6. Eat nothing but Fast Food
7. Keep your family together 24/7. (This is a big mistake by groups and large families.)
8. Have tunnel vision (miss the details in the park)
9. Give kids Mickey phobia
10. Assume all rides are appropriate for all ages

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Might be a good article for first timers but almost none of those apply to me (I'm not a parent so some of them wouldn't apply in any circumstances.) I don't do rope drop, don't try to do everything, wing it all the time and eat in the signatures.

 

[AngiTN]

I don't get #3. We have done both, 100% parent planned, because really, can a toddler aid in planning a trip to Disney World? and because we wanted to plan a surprise trip. And according to DGD, the surprise trip is her favorite way. She wants only surprise trips now. Which means we always do #3.

My #1 Thing not to Do at Disney is something that many here do all the time,
travel with anyone outside the immediate family.

 

[fnm]

I love how everyone says don't sleep in, but it's what we always tend to do. We're on vacation we're absolutely going to sleep in and not rush ourselves to try and do everything and wind up falling asleep super early.

 

[Mikie]

I don't get #3. We have done both, 100% parent planned, because really, can a toddler aid in planning a trip to Disney World? and because we wanted to plan a surprise trip. And according to DGD, the surprise trip is her favorite way. She wants only surprise trips now. Which means we always do #3.

My #1 Thing not to Do at Disney is something that many here do all the time,
travel with anyone outside the immediate family.

#3 must really depend on the kids. I did tons of planning and tried to include the kids just enough to be fun, but they really wanted no part of it except for counting down to departure!

Probably excellent advice to NOT travel with extended family, and I kind of held my breath through my recent family trip, but it turned out fantastic! I doubt I'll repeat it, though, too much can go wrong - I think it was "beginner's luck"

 

[hakepb]

I love how everyone says don't sleep in, but it's what we always tend to do. We're on vacation we're absolutely going to sleep in and not rush ourselves to try and do everything and wind up falling asleep super early.

Especially when you arrive from a different time zone, I don't get why you need to adjust your body clock.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

I love how everyone says don't sleep in, but it's what we always tend to do. We're on vacation we're absolutely going to sleep in and not rush ourselves to try and do everything and wind up falling asleep super early.

I think experience and FP+ make this a lot easier.

We used to do all the rope drops, but ee feel pretty laid back for our next trip. We will sleep in a bit, get good FP+s and wait on lines for other stuff and not worry. We don't feel the need to do the headliners 3 times a day...we are happy to do them 3 times in the whole week.

 

[cattywampus]

We stayed on California time -- slept until 10:00 am and arrived at the parks around noon. We used the extra magic hours and MVMCPs to stay out late and ride attractions when the rope drop people were long gone and asleep. Worked out great! Used our FPP in the afternoon and then rode attractions at night with little to no wait.

We also went in off season. I can see where you might want to make rope drop on a hot summer day with max crowds but trying to be at a park at opening with a three hour time difference would be p-a-i-n-f-u-l.

One size fits none....

 

[Mome Rath]

1. Sleep In (it depends)
2. Expect to do it all (agree)
3. Make it a Parent planned trip (it depends)
4. Wing it (disagree for dis-vets, I love wingin' it)
5. Stay on the eastern side of Orlando (I haven't a clue)
6. Eat nothing but Fast Food (it depends)
7. Keep your family together 24/7. (agree)
8. Have tunnel vision (agree)
9. Give kids Mickey phobia (ummm.... ok)
10. Assume all rides are appropriate for all ages (agree)

 

[bumbershoot]

I can see where you might want to make rope drop on a hot summer day with max crowds but trying to be at a park at opening with a three hour time difference would be p-a-i-n-f-u-l.

Now try to do a rundisney morning event, when the buses start running to the start at 3am. Youch.

That's why the tower of terror and wine&dine runs have been my fave, because they start at 7pm pacific time. And the after parties go until 1am. Pacific time.



The big about parent-planned only works if the kids have been there and have any sort of true memories of their previous experiences. I cannot tell you the number of "oh I thought that was this" moments we've had with DS, when he insisted on going on something that he then figured out was wrong. And if kids haven't been there, they really cannot be of much help.

 

[cattywampus]

Now try to do a rundisney morning event, when the buses start running to the start at 3am. Youch.

That's why the tower of terror and wine&dine runs have been my fave, because they start at 7pm pacific time. And the after parties go until 1am. Pacific time.


.

Thankfully (or not, depending on who you ask), I'm not a runner!

Staying on California time was the best idea for us! I was really struggling with the schedule initially, knowing that it was going to be tough to try to do RD.

The MVMCPs really helped by keeping the MK open until midnight. It was a trade off of time for money (3 nights of tickets for four was a lot of money), but it worked great. We came back on Saturday night and am back to work this week with very little trouble.

 

[Sparkly]

Honestly, our favourite park day in our 2013 trip was the one where we showed up to MK at lunchtime and stayed through closing. Much more relaxed and we LOVED MK at night.

Now I make it a point to see MK at night as much as possible! So many areas beautifully lit. (and Dumbo is better at night!)

 

[FelisLachesis]

My first time at WDW was with my mom, my brother, my mom's favorite sister, and her kids (my cousins). It was an extended family, but we were all so close, it was like one big family. My dad and my uncle had to work, and couldn't come with us, but (shhhh) they're kinda anti-fun anyway.

We did stay somewhat close, but we split up from time to time. My mom and my aunt just found somewhere to relax and told us kids to run off, but be back at that same spot in 3 hours. I loved it! This was the early 90s, long before websites, MDE, FP+, ADR...

I feel this upcoming trip, I did do a lot of the planning. I asked the kids what they wanted to do, and only one came back with a small list of rides (2 in MK, nothing in the other parks). The other kids were like "meh."

 

[TowMater92]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/10-things-not-to-do-at-walt-disney-world/ar-BBfGWIY
This is a a good article.

1. Sleep In
2. Expect to do it all
3. Make it a Parent planned trip
4. Wing it
5. Stay on the eastern side of Orlando
6. Eat nothing but Fast Food
7. Keep your family together 24/7. (This is a big mistake by groups and large families.)
8. Have tunnel vision (miss the details in the park)
9. Give kids Mickey phobia
10. Assume all rides are appropriate for all ages

We always do #1 I'm on vacation I will be sleeping in. #4 again I'm on vacation why would I want to plan out everyday for 2 weeks(thanks FP+ for ruining that ) How do you not do #3 kids can't plan a Disney trip, we do things they will like but its planned by the adults #6 we do eat fast food 90% of the time, with 10 of us sit down dinners aren't easy to plan and they're expensive. We do go off site for a few meals and we have villas with kitchens so we make breakfast and sometimes lunch. #9 makes no sense how do you give someone a phobia? Mickey either scares a toddler or he doesn't #10 rides that aren't appropriate have height restrictions

#2, 5, 7 and 8 I will agree with for the most part.

 

[JZCubed]

I love how everyone says don't sleep in, but it's what we always tend to do. We're on vacation we're absolutely going to sleep in and not rush ourselves to try and do everything and wind up falling asleep super early.

We are starting one day at Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. Our child finally want to see Fantasmic and I want to see Beauty & Beast at dusk. We have an afternoon Toy Story Fastpass to start that day, but only after a morning viewing holiday decorations and a poolside lunch. Only possible with FP+.

 

[DawnM]

I think we stay on the East Side of Orlando all the time. We have never had an issue.

We stay at places like Summer Bay. Isn't that East?

Dawn

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/10-things-not-to-do-at-walt-disney-world/ar-BBfGWIY
This is a a good article.

1. Sleep In
2. Expect to do it all
3. Make it a Parent planned trip
4. Wing it
5. Stay on the eastern side of Orlando
6. Eat nothing but Fast Food
7. Keep your family together 24/7. (This is a big mistake by groups and large families.)
8. Have tunnel vision (miss the details in the park)
9. Give kids Mickey phobia
10. Assume all rides are appropriate for all ages

 

[EPCOTatNight]

These make sense to me.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/10-things-not-to-do-at-walt-disney-world/ar-BBfGWIY
This is a a good article.

1. Sleep In Rope drop gives you a huge "head start" over most people.
2. Expect to do it all Not possible.
3. Make it a Parent planned trip Include the kids if possible. It's their vacation too.
4. Wing it 50/50 on this one. While having a plan based on research will help, some people will be happier with no schedule.
5. Stay on the eastern side of Orlando It's a long drive and traffic is horrible.
6. Eat nothing but Fast Food I agree, but your budget may not.
7. Keep your family together 24/7. (This is a big mistake by groups and large families.) If traveling with someone that doesn't live in the house with you, staying together may be more frustrating than fun. (Believe me, I know)
8. Have tunnel vision (miss the details in the park) Look around, listen, take it all in.
9. Give kids Mickey phobia
10. Assume all rides are appropriate for all ages Depends on the kid. My DS experienced everything that he was tall enough to experience.

 

[SmithSmith]

I swear Fodors regurgitates the same article year after year.

 

[poppins79]

My youngest gets terrible motion sickness, so height restrictions are not the best indicator of what is "appropriate" for him. He can ride some of the thrill rides, but Tea Cups puts him over the edge.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Eat corn out of a can.