Any MISTAKES made on past trips?

[kittengal13]

Bless you. I took my Mom with Alzheimer's to Disney, as she had gone with me every year since 1973. I took her for the last time in 2010, knowing full well that it would be her last trip, and she so enjoyed the Magic Kingdom.

I just came back from my first trip without her along. Taking the granddaughters and remembering the things we used to love to do with Mimi at Disney was hard, but knowing we were in her special place helped.

God bless you. I know that must have been hard big hugs xxxxx

 

[cka]

1. Bringing a quality poncho when it rained every day!
-It was stupid bringing a quality poncho when you had to stuff it in your bag when it stopped raining and bring it the next day...still wet! For my trip in October I plan on buying tons of 99 cent ponchos and throwing them out after use!
2. Not bringing a plastic ziplock bag for my cellphone. It is something so simple and small and saves your cellphone incase of rain or a water ride.
3. Making to many ADR's! Sometimes I forget to relax in Disney!!!!

 

[aimeeinohio]

I forgot to pack socks for our honeymoon. Thank goodness they sell socks at WDW.

I brought my cowboy boots to wear to Hoopty Doo last year and forgot socks! Yes they sell socks but crap they were expensive!

 

[Letshavefun]

Saving to read later!
Thanks!

 

[Letshavefun]

This is more funny than a mistake. When our daughter was young, about 4 or so, she was at the World of Disney store picking out a souvenir. She was going through pink plastic princess glasses on a big display, checking out each one of them. Which we thought was strange at the time, because they were all identical. These cups played a song when you tipped them over. A little pricey, but cute. She selected "THE ONE", we paid for it and left. When we got home after the trip I was unpacking everything and noticed that her plastic glass did not play music when I tipped it. I thought it had been damaged in the suitcase. "Oh no Mommy", she said, "I went through all of them until I found one that didn't play music because I didn't want it to". So we paid a premium price for a broken cup when we could have just directed her to the "silent" type for a fraction of the price. We have checked our kids' souvenir choices a little more carefully ever since.

That is a precious story!!

 

[ZoZo]

My mistake was that I didn't bring a variety of clothes for different weather possibilities. I looked at the forecast for the first seven days of my October trip, and since it was supposed to be in the mid-90s and very humid. I packed almost exclusively shorts, sleeveless tops, and sandals, plus one light jacket and one pair of lightweight yoga pants.

Well, seven days into our trip the temperature dropped about 30 degrees overnight. I had one pair of long pants, no warm jacket, no warm socks. I layered the best that I could with the clothes I had brought with me. It was very breezy at Epcot that day, and the cold wind was blowing up inside my pant-legs, over my bare calves. I was so cold! It took ages for me to find warm socks. I ended up buying a $11 pair of socks in the Japan store (the kind of socks with a split-toe that are meant to be worn with traditional Japanese flip-flop-type footwear). Most expensive socks I ever bought, and I never wore them again!

So now I bring at least one of everything, including warm clothes at supposedly hot times of the year!

 

[dsneygirl]

Making all of our ADRs at suppertime. At the time the kids weren't old enough to make it a full day at the parks (they were 6 and 7) so we would leave the parks at around 2 and head back to the parks for our supper ADR at around 4:30. This gave us an afternoon break of just 2.5 hours and by the time you factored in Disney transportation time back to the resort we were probably left with less than two hours. If we wanted to do pool time and you factor in getting ready for the pool and, on the other side, getting ready for supper, we were left with only 30 minutes of pool/relaxation time. Needless to say, our first trip was extremely hectic!

Our next trip (and all that followed) we made out ADRs for lunchtime at whatever park we were in that day. After that we could either stay at the parks, head back to the resort, or take an afternoon break before finishing out the evening back at the parks if we felt like it. The point is that our evenings were wide open to do whatever we felt like doing. This was a much more relaxing approach and we are doing the same thing for our upcoming trip in August!

We're doing all lunches in Sept as well. Many times we are back at the hotel swimming, relaxing and no one wants to rush off for a 5:30 dinner at 4:30.

 

[Orreed]

We went to EPOCT almost every night after a full day in the parks for dinner. We toured so fast and were whiped at the end of our vacation. Plus some nights I feel we rushed our of the other park because hunger made us want to get to EPOCT quicker.

 

[ness0905]

first mistake was friends not mine but went for senior week and flew in early room wasn't ready so went to pool well bags weren't there yet so no sunscreen she got so burnt I had to dress her all week put her shirts on and even did her bra ha a
Second was bringing toys when I went with ds2 and dd5 they didn't touch them I was sure those fav. Toys would be needed they took up much needed packing space following trips no toys.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

1. Bringing a quality poncho when it rained every day!
-It was stupid bringing a quality poncho when you had to stuff it in your bag when it stopped raining and bring it the next day...still wet! For my trip in October I plan on buying tons of 99 cent ponchos and throwing them out after use!

My mistake was the exact opposite! Tropical Storm Andrea hit during our trip. I brought a bunch of dollar store ponchos and they were crud - too short (only went to the waist) so our pants/shorts got soaked, no arm covering so our sleeves got all wet. We were wet & cold. They were so thin they ripped, got wet some more. I was so envious of all those folks in the looong Disney ponchos that covered their shorts and their arms. Next time I will invest in quality ponchos b/c when you really need a poncho, you need a good one! And I will make sure everyone pack flip flops/sandals for rainy days.

 

[bluezy]

My mistake was the exact opposite! Tropical Storm Andrea hit during our trip. I brought a bunch of dollar store ponchos and they were crud - too short (only went to the waist) so our pants/shorts got soaked, no arm covering so our sleeves got all wet. We were wet & cold. They were so thin they ripped, got wet some more. I was so envious of all those folks in the looong Disney ponchos that covered their shorts and their arms. Next time I will invest in quality ponchos b/c when you really need a poncho, you need a good one! And I will make sure everyone pack flip flops/sandals for rainy days.

We had the same experience during Monsoon week in May 2009. I had plenty of cheap ponchos and while they're handy for quick rain showers or water rides, they really don't hold up for all day, day-after-day rain. We invested in the Disney ponchos on day #2 that week. They held up great and if they tore, we got them replaced for free. I became the master of draping the wet ponchos all over the room at night to let them dry off for the next day (just in case it was actually sunny when we woke up and we'd be putting the ponchos in a backpack to carry with us...not that that ever happened. ).

 

[she who must read]

we forgot to pack (didn't even think about it actually) insect repellent. Had to buy it at Wilderness Lodge and paid a small fortune for it.

Will we need this is November? Thanks for any advice...

 

[ShayBells]

Flip flops!!! That sounds so silly, but I wear shoes around disney and I forgot flip flops for the pool!! I had to buy a pair there and paid a small fortune. Not money I wanted to waste!! This year I won't forget haha.

Another silly thing is sunglasses. My mom never wears them so she didn't even think until we were in bright sunlight all day. Another small fortune haha.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[djmeredith]

I put this in a separate thread but thought I'd add it here. If you use PhotoPass, make sure you also have them take a photo with your own camera just in case something happens to their camera. That happened with our Rapunzel photos.

 

[momfeez]

Thinking an umbrella would be better than a poncho. Kicked myself all afternoon at EPCOT when it poured down rain and the umbrella started to leak and I had to fight the wind for my umbrella. Plus the poncho covers way more than the umbrella does. What a bad idea that was! Now we only go with ponchos.

 

[couldcareless]

Biggest mistakes I can remember in recent history for us would be not bringing a sweatshirt (fiance found a way to be cold during September) and bringing shoes, but no socks.
Echoing the post from earlier, socks are expensive.
Bodyglide will also be on the packing list for all future trips.

 

[SarahDaisy]

Eeek, this is my first post

Last year was my first time in Disney as an adult (my family went quite a few times when I was a kid). I headed down there with my boyfriend, now fiance.

First mistake--TOTALLY packed too much. I'll blame it on wanting to look good for my man but I think I brought like 3 bottles of perfume and at least 5 pairs of shoes--for a five night trip!!! I don't think I wore perfume the entire time we were there and wore only one pair of shoes. Well, two, if you count flip flops to the pool. My bag must have been 100 lbs and the wheel on my suitcase was broken from a trip earlier in the year. FI carried the whole thing across CBR in the rain the day we checked out - we'll just call him a saint.

The biggest mistake though was the Hoop Dee Doo. It was something we used to do when I was a kid, and I wanted to take FI. I bought the tickets, made the reservations, and we trek all the way from CBR to Fort Wilderness for the late show only to find the whole place empty. We wait and wait, STARVING because it's 8:30 at night, thinking that people will show up in time. No one ever does show up, because the show was cancelled due to low attendance. And of course, I was never notified--not because of any mistake by Disney, but because the tickets I bought were NOT EVEN FOR THAT NIGHT. I looked back at the tickets and realized I bought tickets for a show one week after we would leave! Luckily Disney is fabulous and changed my reservation to a night when we actually would still be in Disney. Unfortunately, that still left us to find food at 9:30 in Disney World with no reservations!!

 

[railwife]

1. Not getting hopper tickets our first two trips.

2. Letting your husbands aunt plan your disney honeymoon.

3. Getting non refundable la nouba tickets. We missed the show due to bus delay at the parks. Was pointless to attend halfway through. Sad $400

 

[Purplebaby1216]

1. Not getting hopper tickets our first two trips.

2. Letting your husbands aunt plan your disney honeymoon.

3. Getting non refundable la nouba tickets. We missed the show due to bus delay at the parks. Was pointless to attend halfway through. Sad $400

Oh Ouch! On both the La Nouba and on the aunt doing the planning!

 

[The Queen Bee]

The biggest mistake I ever made was leaving our passports in the room safe after check-out and not realizing it until we got of the Magical Express bus at the airport.

DH had to take a cab back to CBR to get them.
Fortunately, he made it back in time for our flight.