Any MISTAKES made on past trips?

[ZoZo]

Forgetting our rain gear even though the sky looked clear. We were drenched, the stroller was drenched. Needless to say, I will lug it everywhere now in Disney. And overpacking. I always over pack clothes, and never wear them all cause I end up doing laundry anyways

Ooh, I hear ya! That's when those 79-cent emergency ponchos from Target come in so handy. They're "disposable", small (you can tuck one or two into a pocket or fanny pack very easily), and cheap.

We were at WDW in 2005 during Hurricane Wilma. The night before the hurricane came through, the weather was really weird - overcast but not raining, and warm, but you could tell something was going to happen. We went into Maelstrom, and by the time we came out, it was absolutely pouring. I've never been in a storm like that before (and I lived in Florida for a year!) -- the rain was literally going sideways! I had a cheap poncho, but everyone else had to buy one. Even with a poncho, we got pretty wet (especially our shoes) - had to walk all the way from the World Showcase to Epcot entrance, catch the monorails back to the Poly. Yikes - it was awful!

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

It sounds stupid but my biggest mistake was underestimating the humidity there! We were there in June & I have long straight blonde hair......I looked like Krusty the clown as soon as I stepped outside of the hotel room. No matter what I put in my hair, it was so frizzy, then weighed down because of what I tried putting in it. All of my pics look so crappy. The secret weapon I found (It's pricey but worth it, you can get it at ULTA on sale quite a bit or ebay) TIGI Bed Head After Party Just a tiny bit amount in your hair will give you 100% frizz free hair, super shiny, bouncy, and it will NEVER look weight down.

Love this idea! Looking for that product for sure, thanks!

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Love this idea! Looking for that product for sure, thanks!

My Toni&Guy (TIGI) instructors would die if they knew I said this, but John Freida Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon is virtually the same product. I prefer Biosilk Silk Therapy to both, but if you want to cut costs (and I only let this cat out of the bag because you're not my clients ), Secret Weapon is pretty darn good. After Party does smell pretty great, though. We had to use TIGI products in school, but I really don't like most of them. It's mostly about smells and packaging. I do love Curls Rock, though, great for frizz free curls!! I will definitely be taking that one to WDW with me, as I doubt I'll waste time straightening my massive amount of hair only to ride Kali, go swimming or get drenched by a storm.

 

[tomerin]

2 things come immediately into mind.

1st was on our first family trip doing the commando thing. it almost ruined our trip. our kids we young and it was in july so guess what happened? yup meltdowns all over the place. we never did that again and have had much better trips.

2nd was allowing me to carry our cameras without a strap. i managed to drop our new video camera in the morning, breaking it and then that afternoon i proceeded to drop our digital camera and broke that too. now i must at all times have the camera attached to a strap on my neck or wrapped around my wrist

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

2 things come immediately into mind.

1st was on our first family trip doing the commando thing. it almost ruined our trip. our kids we young and it was in july so guess what happened? yup meltdowns all over the place. we never did that again and have had much better trips.

2nd was allowing me to carry our cameras without a strap. i managed to drop our new video camera in the morning, breaking it and then that afternoon i proceeded to drop our digital camera and broke that too. now i must at all times have the camera attached to a strap on my neck or wrapped around my wrist

I always think I'll look like a big nerd with my camera around my neck, but I am definitely getting a strap for our trip. I can just imagine dropping or leaving my camera sitting somewhere.

 

[Sleepy]

I have not read the other posts, but I have one.....

Don't start new medications before a trip.

 

[TiggerMomNine]

We use lanyard neck straps on all handheld electronic items. Gameboys, DS's cameras, thumb drives, MP3 players, etc. This works great, especially for kids - our boys put their cameras around their necks, and we dragged them all over Paris & London. I told them they could take as many photos as they wanted (digital, thank goodness), but I finally had to stop them from taking photos of each other taking photos of each other. We ended up with over 2000 photos! But no broken or lost cameras!

 

[ms*mountaineer]

1) Not taking a few snacks into the park with us. I knew we would get stuff to eat in the park - but it got WAY past breakfast and we were hitting ride after ride and didn't want to go find food. The kids were starting to get cranky from no breakfast - thankfully a friend with us had packs of crackers.

2) not trying the Kidcot stops in Epcot - I kinda forgot about them and I wasn't sure how they them. But now I think they really would have liked the masks and we would have enjoyed the countries more.

3) THIS IS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE OF ALL -
I did not double-check with a CM before the evening parade about Tinkerbell's appearance. I was SURE she started the parade by flying from the castle - and we waited for it. When she didn't show - I figured it didn't happen every night. SHOULD HAVE ASKED SOMEONE!!! We were half way down Main St when the fireworks started and MISSED my DD's favorite fairy flying from the castle. Her tears broke my heart.

We're going back in December - guess what's at the top of our to-do list!!

 

[*Dreamin'Dad*]

Lessons Learned:

Dining Plan for kids: The dining plan is great and we utilized it big time (adults). For my DD 9 this was not a priority. She would usually eat breakfast pretty good, but the rest of the meals were mostly a waste. I could have easily shared and ordered her small things, if any, other than a drink. Soon figured out the the character meals were the best place to spend her credits and let her snack the rest of the way through. In the same respect, as I said the meals were great for adults, but most of those were waaaaaaay too much food. The feeling of having to get the most for my $$ by eating everything made us miserable several evenings. It was good though .

Going with friends: We shared a room, no big deal there. Thankfully I suggested on day 2 that we hit the park together, do a few rides and then split and meet for lunch. We did the same after lunch, a few rides together and then split to meet back up for dinner. We then spent the evenings together.

Letting a kid be a kid: My DD 9 (DD 4 at the time) is very well mannered and wears her heart on her sleeve. After my first few experiences of trying to talk her into something or out of being scared, I thought to myself, we are not going to taint this trip with frustration and have drama displays for everyone else. Her little decisions stood after that and we were so more relaxed. Even simple things like after Wishes (it had rained during the fireworks) she was walking down main jumping in puddles and having a ball. All of this is on video and 5 years later she still comments on that evening. Not saying to let them act out and ruin others experiences, but let them be a kid.....along with you .

We did forget the time change on our trip in 2002. We had a PS at Prime Time 50's and were going to make it just in time after a few wrong turns on the drive over. We checked in, rode over to MGM and had 5 minutes to spare....nope, we were an hour late.....doh! Luckily, not an issue as we were seated in 5 mins because of a smaller croud.

 

[logansmummy]

Believe it or not, not spending more money on souvineers. We should have purchased more things for ourselves and those at home. QUOTE]

AMEN!! I refuse to buy stuff for everyone and their cousin this time when half of them didn't even appreciate it. This trip is all about ME!

Isn't that the truth!! I refuse to buy anymore souveniors for anyone back home. They don't appreciate it. The only people I buy for is my parents. I usually buy them an ornament, they takes care of our puppy. My mom looks forward to what we choose for her.

 

[ArmandXG]

Just came up on this post. First thing that came to mind (which has been repeated over and over) is vacationing with family. Spouse and I took sister #2, sister #3 and #3's 8 year old son. Left Sis#1 home because I refused to vacation with her ever again after spending 17 days driving out west. I now refuse to vacation with ANY sister!
I set rules before we left. Do your own thing! Meet occasionally for a family dinner. Don't gripe about what others are doing! Yeah, that worked for all of one day!
Now it's just me and spouse. Doing what we want to do, when we want it. We always plan for midday breaks, touring outside the parks, special dinners, etc. We never over plan (no rushing) or grumble about what the other wants or doesn't want to do.
I will admit to over packing on occasion, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Spouse doesn't complain, cause he doesn't do the packing.

 

[d1gitman]

#1 - One year we planned out what parks on what days based on how we saw it as adults, to save our favorites for last. Well we found out that our 5 yr. old didn't see it the way we did. He kept worrying about when would we get to MK? Let's just say it made the first 3 days rough. Lesson learned for us was that as adults, we like all the parks and don't really care what order we see them in, but for our son, he had been to disney before and remembered what was his favorite and was upset, thinking he wasn't going to get to his favorites. Needless to say, on our trips since then, we have made MK the first day, middle day and last day. We then stagger other parks and down days in between based on special events, reservations, etc... This has worked much better.

#2 - we didn't do the water parks the 1st 3 trips made to WDW as a family. What a mistake, once we finally did go to BB and TL, we regretted not discovering them sooner. Oh well, at least we have them to look forward to from that point on.

#3 - not doing the dining plan sooner, what a deal, especially when it is free.

 

[Chelley00]

I believe the Unofficial Guide says Saturday is usually one of the busiest days at MK.

Actually it doesn't. It says Saturdays are the second shortest wait times at MK because it's a travel day, which doesn't jive with the massive crowds we ran into on both Saturday MK days on our last trip

 

[Sysyphus]

In our car battery after 2 weeks of sitting at the airport...it was not a fun way to end a trip!

Been there, done that.... stupid dome light

 

[angiepangie8]

2) not trying the Kidcot stops in Epcot - I kinda forgot about them and I wasn't sure how they them. But now I think they really would have liked the masks and we would have enjoyed the countries more.

3) THIS IS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE OF ALL -
I did not double-check with a CM before the evening parade about Tinkerbell's appearance. I was SURE she started the parade by flying from the castle - and we waited for it. When she didn't show - I figured it didn't happen every night. SHOULD HAVE ASKED SOMEONE!!! We were half way down Main St when the fireworks started and MISSED my DD's favorite fairy flying from the castle. Her tears broke my heart.

We're going back in December - guess what's at the top of our to-do list!!

Thanks
I didn't know about Kidscot! Also, was assuming that of course we would see Tink! I Better check into that.

 

[connorsgram]

We took DGS5 to MNSSHP and decided to watch the second parade since I'd read on Disboards that the crowds were smaller then. The crowds were smaller, we found a great place to watch the parade, DGS fell asleep and missed the whole parade!! And it was wonderful! I felt so awful that he missed it since it was my idea to wait.

 

[tinaninea]

The double stroller that we had to strap to the top of the truck & stop & check every 30 minutes of the 10 hour drive because it kept coming loose. And then, with the extra money we spent on gas because it was messing with the aerodynamics of the vehicle, we could have just rented a stroller without all those stops to strap it back down.

 

[MrsV28]

I absolutely love this thread! Many things I have read have really tickled me!
I too have had some forced learning through my travel experiences. You might even say I am an expert in doing the wrong thing! At times we have been known as the Royal Family of Stupidity!

Disney life lessons part one:
Stayed at FWR – loved it! Loved most of it, except…Murphy bed for 11 days…Ouch! One bathroom…double ouch! Not so bad if you are somewhere else but here at this resort where you spend more time this was difficult. However, I do recommend this resort for families; it was a blast with lots to do! Stayed at Grossenovers – These people never went to Disney school. They were vial and rude from the manager to the housekeeping staff. The rooms were mildewed and we checked out in less than 24hrs of arrival, (this place has gratefully since closed). Checked into POR; another error for us; though we were five people and the room is for five, this did not work. I have 2 sons and one daughter sandwiched between. The 5th bed was a pull out daybed, too small for any of my kids except the younger of my sons who tried his best. That would mean daughter and older son sharing a bed. Never gonna happen. They took turns using the bed and otherwise slept on the floor. None of this was good for asthmatic kids. Okay so lesson learned, if we are staying for more than 4 days, get 2 rooms at All-Stars! Basically know what you are getting!

Now let’s discuss sunscreen. We would bring it, never use it, and inevitably someone would wind up miserable! Misery is of course contagious. This is Florida – it is hot – beastly hot - Africa hot – the sun doesn’t care who you are or where you are from. You need sunscreen! But try putting in on at the parks once the sun and your own sweat have taken hold. It’s a nightmare! Now we apply to everyone, and I do mean everyone, before leaving the air conditioned room! (BTW – we are Floridians)! When you need to reapply, try going into an air-conditioned store that’s not to crowded.

 

[MrsV28]

Disney life lessons part two:
ADR’s: Brilliant idea! Of course now you have to know where you will be every moment of every day! But not making them has you jumping from place to place till you wind up eating whatever you can find on an already aggravated stomach!

This leads me to two more of my “learning experiences”
First, though I was smart enough to pack first aid items, I was dumb enough to leave it all in the hotel room. We searched for a Band-Aid for over an hour (we thought first aid was too far away (lol). We wound up buying a whole box for the price equivalent of twin lobster tails! A little baggie with Band-Aids, Bactine and Tums (or the like), have solved many an issue since then.

Next, before the same Disney trip we shopped for much needed clothing items. Things like cute shorts and tight tank tops, new shoes etc. Here’s where the mistakes came. We ate like prisoners, as if every meal could be our last! After two day everything was too tight, after two more days nothing fit! It was a pricey lesson for us here. Now I make sure I pack some exercise type shorts, and more loose fitting clothing, (it helps with the heat and water rides too). As for shoes, heels are a bad idea especially in DTD. I did however make use of that costly box of bandaids!

 

[FmrCastMembr]

Biggest "mistake" - when I took my kids for their first visit, after it had been 18 years since I had been there, I chose to purchase the Dining Plan. It was great, but I made the mistake of thinking we could get to all the sit-down meals. My mother went with us and I feel we wasted too much time trying to get to these reservations from way too far away. We ended up not going to a lot of those restaurants. I did Dining Plan again last year, but will not use it again. With the changes, it's not worth it anymore and I realized it's easier not being tied to a sit-down reservation each day.

Also, these are not mistakes, but things we laugh about now; my mother lost her wallet one day at Epcot and her cell phone another day at MK. Thankfully we retrieved both at Lost/Found...

And when we drove back home, even in an SUV, we had so much that we bought, my kids couldn't move in the back seat!