Any MISTAKES made on past trips?

[KSR0330]

1. Staying off site. I thought we would save money by staying off site and renting a car. It probably would have been just as much to stay at a moderate, and more magical!
2. Over planning every minute. There was no time to just "hang out and relax" or be spontaneous. Every part of every day was planned. My family did not appreciate...
3. Booking ADR's every evening. We always had to be someplace at a certain time...

So this trip:
1. Staying at the Poly!
2. Planning in some unplanned time
3. Only booking a few ADR's. We will do more CS, which will save money also!

 

[JFox]

My BF and I had our first WDW trip in September. I planned and planned and planned so it would be perfect. These are the things I got wrong,

1. We booked through a travel agent. Neither of us had the time to do the number crunching. While it did make things easier I'm not sure this is something I would do again.

2. We had tickets for every day of our trip. We didn't need tickets for either our arrival/departure days. Also we had tickets to MNSSHP and could have saved a day of admission on that day as well because we were going to the MK. We also added the Waterpark Fun and More option. Those options took away from our park days and we could have saved money on theme park tickets for the day we went to Typhoon Lagoon.

3. No matter how many times I tried to explain the best way to maximize the snack options to my BF he still used a bunch on drinks and items sub $4.00.

4. O'hana breakfast. It was OK. I would have been just as happy with the Adult Breakfast platter in the QS restaurant at the Poly AND had a Dole Whip for dessert.

 

[gap2368]

I got lost went about 45 minutes out of my way one way then turned around and the sun was coming up right over the road in front of me ended up driving off the road finally got to POP about 2 hours after I had planned. the really funny thing is I go to disney about every 4 to 6 weeks moral of the story never trust a Garmain when you already know were you are going

 

[Minniegirl621]

Biggest mistake -- Overscheduling and not getting to relax as much!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

• Going in the height of summer on a holiday weekend.
• Not staying at an Epcot resort.
• Prioritizing Future World over World Showcase.
• Expecting CMs to be knowledgeable about their own parks.
• Over planning and under-pooling.

 

[dreamit]

I made a master packing list using all the great tips from this site, and I didn't need to use half of the stuff. Next time I will only pack what really makes sense for my family.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I made a master packing list using all the great tips from this site, and I didn't need to use half of the stuff. Next time I will only pack what really makes sense for my family.

I totally agree and a good point to make. I think people have to keep in mind what they've used and needed over past vacations to anywhere.

Different families have different needs and for that matter different people in a family have different needs. My husband doesn't need most of the stuff I do however my sister-in-law needs much more than I do. I like to look at the large must-have lists (mostly found from Pinterest) and then pare them down to stuff that I know I'll need.

 

[jbee]

Underestimating Orlando weather and that it can rain (a lot) even if the weather report says there's only a 10% chance of it raining. Bring your dollar store ponchos with you every day, just in case! It's a lot better than being wet & miserable when you're in the parks. On my last trip, it at least drizzled 4 out of the 6 days I was there even though the weather report said mostly sunny the entire week. And it was mostly sunny! Except for the few hours when it wasn't

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

Eating at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and fine dining in general. Not worth the price.

 

[Mary Beth Grater]

Thanks so much for all of the advice. As if tomorrow, only 45 days to our trip - haven't been there for 20 years. Very excited!!!
Glad to hear that all of the things I read about on the packing lists on different sites are probably not needed - they could take up a whole suitcase alone. We are taking our kids and young grandkids so I was looking for separate bedrooms rather than just a hotel room. Heard about renting points from DVC and got 2 villas at Beach Club for a third of the cost of reserving the rooms directly from Disney. Also because of changes to the dining plan that allow you to share credits and because we have 2 rooms (still need to buy dining plan for everyone on a reservation) we got the deluxe dining plan for the one reservation and will have enough credits for sit down breakfast and dinner for all 8 of us - lots of character meals for the kids

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Nope can't share credit between two different rooms. If you paid for 4 people to be on the dinning plan and you are taking 8 people to eat you can only use enough credits to cover 4 people even though you have more credit to use.

 

[alopez926]

Not being clear with my family of first-timers this last trip about leaving enough travel time to get to our dinner reservations and make our Fast Pass windows before they expired. We were late for everything and it absolutely made my blood boil every day. I'm a very prompt person who hates to be late for anything, especially things I had to work so hard to get like 7DMT fastpasses for our party of 8. It took a lot of time to get those arranged and we missed our window. MK was a 9 that day and we didn't want to wait over 90 minutes for standby. I was so disappointed. They were 20 minutes late for our BOG breakfast, we missed several other Fast Passes altogether (some of which I was able to rearrange at a later time), and we had to run through DHS to make our Mama Melrose ADR at 1PM (yes, we were just arriving at the park at that point).

After two days of insanity, we agreed on a time we would be leaving each day. If they were not ready, we went without them and we'd meet up with them later.

Never again!

 

[Nathansmommy]

First trip with DS last year, we went to the park on our arrival day, the 3 of us were up since 4am to catch a 7am flight, got to AoA at around 11:30 napped for about an hour and headed to Epcot, big mistake!!! DS was beyond tired and fussy! Never again will we go to a park on arrival day.

This past trip Nov15-21 I over packed winter clothes and not enough summer clothes, and it was so hot! I had to buy a few clothes over there. I didn't pack enough formula for DD, I was so thankful for turner drugs! They delivered the same day I ordered her formula.

 

[bluezy]

Nope can't share credit between two different rooms. If you paid for 4 people to be on the dinning plan and you are taking 8 people to eat you can only use enough credits to cover 4 people even though you have more credit to use.

I believe that changed this past summer. You can use your credits to pay for people who aren't on the plan but are dining with you.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/changes-taking-place-to-the-disney-dining-plans/

 

[nicolej92]

We made a Dinosaur reservation late on arrival day.. After a 6 am flight (and 2 hour drive to the airport), we were falling asleep at dinner instead of trying to enjoy it.

 

[Mary Beth Grater]

I believe that changed this past summer. You can use your credits to pay for people who aren't on the plan but are dining with you.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/changes-taking-place-to-the-disney-dining-plans/

Yes they did change it earlier this year. I even called Disney directly to confirm. I would never want to commit to the 3 sit down dinners a day that you get with the Deluxe plan, because we have 2 separate reservations and can split them between the group I think it will be worthwhile. We have several character meals booked.

 

[hkkatie]

Wow, what a wealth of information! I don't even want to guess how many hours it took me to read this whole post over the last several days. We are planning our first WDW trip in 2018, and I am so excited! One thing that has got me worried, though, is that we invited my husbands family to come along with us. As we live overseas, and dh only has so many vacation days, he might not get to see his family at all on that trip unless they come. (The kids and I will be in the US a few weeks longer than my dh, visiting my family.) I have no idea what kind of travelers/park-goers they are, so I guess if they do decide to come along, we'll just have to be very clear about what we want to do. This is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us, so I'm not going to let them get us down.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Wow, what a wealth of information! I don't even want to guess how many hours it took me to read this whole post over the last several days. We are planning our first WDW trip in 2018, and I am so excited! One thing that has got me worried, though, is that we invited my husbands family to come along with us. As we live overseas, and dh only has so many vacation days, he might not get to see his family at all on that trip unless they come. (The kids and I will be in the US a few weeks longer than my dh, visiting my family.) I have no idea what kind of travelers/park-goers they are, so I guess if they do decide to come along, we'll just have to be very clear about what we want to do. This is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us, so I'm not going to let them get us down.

Wow I cannot believe you read the whole thread!! That is true dedication. I had to re-read my post. This will be the first trip of its kind with my in-laws though we've gone on plenty of vacations with them so we know what travelers they are. That being said they are not road warriors perse like my husband and I are. We can go go go they cannot (part of that is due to age the other part is due to low tolerances).

I know MIL will never be ready in the morning at the time that I want to go. That means my husband and I will be at the park riding rides before the in-laws show up. That means they might miss out on some rides (if we don't have the chance to ride them again) as I am not going to wait forever in a queue simply because they didn't wake up early enough to go when the lines were typically shorter; they know and it's not a big deal to them-though it would be a big deal for me to miss out on a ride.

I think you will do just fine with them as long as you're clear with the expectations. I think sometimes we all feel like we have to do everything together on a trip but sometimes that doesn't work out. If it's at all possible you might have a sit down with everyone going or skype it so that way you could all go over expectations like getting up in the morning, food options, ride options, and even priorities you might have. Even while you're there plans will change so even just saying "I planned for this but it may not happen the way I planned for" can be good to mention.

Happy planning!!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Wow, what a wealth of information! I don't even want to guess how many hours it took me to read this whole post over the last several days. We are planning our first WDW trip in 2018, and I am so excited! One thing that has got me worried, though, is that we invited my husbands family to come along with us. As we live overseas, and dh only has so many vacation days, he might not get to see his family at all on that trip unless they come. (The kids and I will be in the US a few weeks longer than my dh, visiting my family.) I have no idea what kind of travelers/park-goers they are, so I guess if they do decide to come along, we'll just have to be very clear about what we want to do. This is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us, so I'm not going to let them get us down.

I agree with pp about expectations!
I'm assuming you are not staying in the same room?
Perhaps set a couple of times daily to meet up, for an ADR at one of the park or resort restaurants to "catch up" on your dsy, and maybe plan a FP for the group to meet to do an attraction together. Also, if you guys are doing nightly entertainment, meet up for fireworks. That way you have a great deal to talk about, but you're not in each others pockets.
Just an idea, IMHO!

 

[hkkatie]

I agree with pp about expectations!
I'm assuming you are not staying in the same room?
Perhaps set a couple of times daily to meet up, for an ADR at one of the park or resort restaurants to "catch up" on your dsy, and maybe plan a FP for the group to meet to do an attraction together. Also, if you guys are doing nightly entertainment, meet up for fireworks. That way you have a great deal to talk about, but you're not in each others pockets.
Just an idea, IMHO!

Well, if they all come, there will be 16 of us total, so either we'd all be in different rooms, or we'd rent a big house off property. We've all stayed in the same house together before, and it was fine, but yeah, I don't think we could spend all day at the parks with them. Thanks for all the tips!