It's funny now, but not in the moment

[DisneyMommy77]

It seems like every trip we have that one day where the exhaustion finally catches up and everything seems more annoying than usual.

I definitely do know that feeling of the family moving extra slow in the morning and checking the time over and over to try and make the fast pass time. I tell myself as long as we are off the bus by this time or reach the gate by this time we can make it! Then the bus is late....or one of the kids decides they need to go to the bathroom one more time.

You finally get off that Monorail or bus and of course it feels like everyone around you is walking like a snail. You finally get close, but of course you get in the bag check line and everyone in front of you has 7 pockets on their back packs that need to be checked, and security is really enjoying all the small talk conversation today and is in absolutely no hurry. That’s no way to vacation, so thankfully I have learned to relax and be ok with plans changing.

This last trip we didn’t get back from celebrating NYE until 2:30AM and we were back up by 5:30AM to be at MK for a breakfast ADR. We stayed at MK until 11PM. We did it, it was awesome, but we were exhausted!

 

[danikoski]

My DH and I honeymooned at WDW. We decided to do a couple of days at Universal. We went in January...our Universal day it was 95F. Coming from Iowa, our bodies were woefully unprepared. We both ended up with heat exhaustion. Then about 48 hrs later, we both ended up with raging head colds. I cancelled all roller coaster FP, because roller coasters are not fun with head colds, and we had to slow down. There were other things that happened at the front end of that trip that started making it feel like everything was going wrong, and the head colds were just icing on the cake. But in the end, the head colds, by making us slowdown, were the best thing. We ended up enjoying more resort amenities. We stopped and watched the whole parade at MK. We lingered at dinner at Tusker House and ended up running into friends from Iowa. We relaxed in WS with drinks and ice cream macaroon sandwiches from France. We just did the boat ride from HS to Epcot a few times because it was relaxing. We rode the monorail through the resorts then took a boat from CR back to WL. Just so many memories made all because of a silly head cold forcing us to slow down.

 

[Keckster]

celebrating NYE until 2:30AM and we were back up by 5:30AM to be at MK for a breakfast ADR. We stayed at MK until 11PM.

I don't think we would have made it out of the room under those circumstances.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

On caraway cay I lost my passport and it happened to be my birthday I was in a panic luckily they let me back on the ship and even luckier they found my passport it was so funny I was called down to customer service they handed me my passport along with a birthday button did not know they handed out birthday buttons on the cruise ship I knew they did it in the theme parks

 

[PollyannaMom]

It seems like every trip we have that one day where the exhaustion finally catches up and everything seems more annoying than usual.

Yep. We call it "The Day 3 Curse". Over the years, we've learned to plan only two really long days in a row, then we insert either a late start or early end day before any more long ones.

 

[Keckster]

plan only two really long days in a row

That is exactly what we said after our trip where my story came from. Next time, 2 park days to 1 resort/relax day. Everybody would have been happier.

 

[KenHutch]

I feel your pain. For our 1st 4 trips I would schedule stuff and my daughters mother/stepfather and a pair our great aunts and uncles would just move at their speed and that's usually slow. I am a retired Marine and am incapable of being late for anything. My solutions for this trip. If your at the restaurant with me I pay, if not your on your own. Same for rides I just stopped worrying. My daughter and her little sister are like me. We had a blast. Except for the cell phone thing. Girls and their phones. Sigh

 

[quagmire0]

My wife's biggest complaint about Disney Vacations is that we're always exhausted at the end of them. While the touring-plan/there-at-rope-drop approach works really well in terms of getting everything in and not having to wait endlessly in line, 5+ straight days with it just eventually grinds on people. And everyone tends to have a different threshold, so they drop out at different times. I have this problem because our Disney trips are usually a few years apart from one another. So, I naturally want to get every drop of Disney in and the idea of taking a 'beach day' or 'pool day' is almost blasphemous to me. The ideal trip is probably where your park days are separated by off days. Let everyone get in what they want to get in and then the park days are yours to maximize.

 

[AllyReggie]

Back in the day (2004-2005, I honestly can't remember) I was 16 and my parents took my brother (at the time 14) and I to WDW for the first time.

The night before our EPCOT day my mom ended up with some kind of infection in her eye. She was taken to the hospital via cab, given special eye drops and pain meds and told to take it easy.

Next morning we get to the park, ride Test Track and head for Mission Space (I feel like this may have been before the days of Green vs Orange but I am not sure, I know it was intense). Needless to say my drugged Mom didn't do so well and ended up with a protein spill just outside the exit, we made a mad dash for the buses back to our hotel and pretty much lost the day to caring for my mom... we were all pretty grumpy and feeling not so great after that!

 

[Superchikk]

I feel your pain. For our 1st 4 trips I would schedule stuff and my daughters mother/stepfather and a pair our great aunts and uncles would just move at their speed and that's usually slow. I am a retired Marine and am incapable of being late for anything. My solutions for this trip. If your at the restaurant with me I pay, if not your on your own. Same for rides I just stopped worrying. My daughter and her little sister are like me. We had a blast. Except for the cell phone thing. Girls and their phones. Sigh

I'm married to a former Marine, and it KILLS him to walk behind slow people or walk behind people who stop in the middle of the walkway. We are also early for almost every single Fast Pass... because why WOULDN'T you be 15 minutes early to your Fast Pass?! (On time is LATE... even my children know that.) We took an adults-only anniversary trip this past fall and were able to relax a little more. But most of the time, even though he says he doesn't want to commando the parks, he's the one driving the rest of us. He gets irritated at people & crowds, and I have to start poking fun at him to diffuse the frustration. So there are LOTS of moments we have that are super frustrating at the time and we end up laughing about them later.

If we were to go with extended family though... we'd leave them all in the dust and meet up for 1 meal/day. There's no way they could keep up with us.

 

[blistex]

Yep. We call it "The Day 3 Curse". Over the years, we've learned to plan only two really long days in a row, then we insert either a late start or early end day before any more long ones.

We tried this last time and it ended so badly we ended up adding an extra park day to our ticket and heading to Epcot to partake in the World Showcase pavilion. Our overtired toddlers do better with some kind of planned activity, apparently.

 

[FabFive24]

Our second trip to Disney was for my daughter's 9th birthday. We are rope drop to fireworks people and were waiting in the AoA food court line to get a pizza around midnight after being in the parks alllll day (in August). As it was her actual birthday, I had also asked if there was a celebration worthy desert that would accommodate her gluten intolerance. I heard a crashing sound and turned around to discover my daughter had literally fallen asleep standing up and fell over into the line barriers. I was able to get her up (she was too heavy for me to hold already), assure everyone that she was okay and by this time her father had arrived with our refillable mugs so he took her back to the room. While I was waiting to pay for our pizzas, the kitchen staff brought out a gf brownie ice cream sundae with a Mickey bar stuck in it ready to sing Happy Birthday to her and I had to explain what had happened. She woke up enough to eat that dessert once I had it in our room though. We definitely laugh about it now!

 

[heymommy]

My story is one that we have told many times over..
Our first trip to Disney was 18 years ago. Our son had just turned 3. We came across a great deal..kids fly free, stay free, get in the parks free and eat free! I did all my planning and research right here on The Dis. We were ready, I had the family game plan in my notebook...we were going to do it all!
Our trip began just as I planned. We arrived in Orlando that Monday morning, checked into All Star Sports and headed to MK. True to Florida days, it poured just before the 3 o'clock parade..but then the sun came out and my plans were still on track...parade time in the Florida sun. The rest of the day followed just as we planned. My hours on The Dis were paying off!! ( I even had a lime green ribbon on my bag to signify to other Dis'ers that we were part of the secret club...remember this was 2001...)
So we are off to a great start...what could possibly be the problem, you ask..... well, it happens on day 2 of our adventure. We got up and headed to AK. We were following my plan and everything was going just right. We went on the safari..saw lion king and did a few other things all before 11 am. Then, we stopped for a potty break. This is the part of the story I have told many times over... we were in the happiest place on earth, taking a quick potty break when we hear an announcement over the loud speakers..." Due to circumstances beyond our control, the park is now closed". What? Closed? What is happening? Remember, we are in AK .. in the happiest place on earth and they are closing the park... What would you think?? We come out of the bathroom looking for an elephant or lion roaming free or something... I mean that must be what is happening right?
Well, no, after first thinking that it must be an animal that escaped or something, we were hit with the hard reality of something else. The part that I didn't put in this story was that we arrived in orlando on Monday September 10. It was now Tuesday September 11. I mean no disrespect for what happened on that horrible day... but you have to find the lighter things in life sometimes..and on this day..before we knew what really happened, we thought an animal escaped at AK!
Our story does have some very happy endings... we went back to our resort and napped for a while...trying to understand what was happening. Our next day was planned to be in Hollywood studios... our son would see Buzz and Woody.. his Favorites! What would happen? Would we see them? How do we explain to our 3 year old? Well...true to Disney magic... this was what would start the caravan of characters that they had for several years after... they sent all the characters and entertainers to the resorts. We walked around the corner of our resort and There in the flesh was Buzz and Woody! Our son didn't understand what was happening... all he knew was that Buzz and Woody came to visit HIM! This momma was in tears!
We stayed the rest of the week.. and then a few extra days..due to the flight scheduling problems. We encountered people who went out of their way to be kind. But we experienced Disney with NO lines. How could we ever go back and deal with lines, fast passes, people? We kept telling ourselves we just couldn't do it. I mean the last time we waited for Dumbo.. only because they had to spin it dry.
Well, I am happy to report that I am back on The Dis making plans for our next trip to Disney in June!!
Our story was not funny at the time... but with a Disney magic, every story can have a happy ending. Oh and yes, we did get to go see Buzz and Woody that next day. ( the parks opened with the very first bag check at Disney)

 

[amiskell28]

Our second trip to Disney was for my daughter's 9th birthday. We are rope drop to fireworks people and were waiting in the AoA food court line to get a pizza around midnight after being in the parks alllll day (in August). As it was her actual birthday, I had also asked if there was a celebration worthy desert that would accommodate her gluten intolerance. I heard a crashing sound and turned around to discover my daughter had literally fallen asleep standing up and fell over into the line barriers. I was able to get her up (she was too heavy for me to hold already), assure everyone that she was okay and by this time her father had arrived with our refillable mugs so he took her back to the room. While I was waiting to pay for our pizzas, the kitchen staff brought out a gf brownie ice cream sundae with a Mickey bar stuck in it ready to sing Happy Birthday to her and I had to explain what had happened. She woke up enough to eat that dessert once I had it in our room though. We definitely laugh about it now!

OMG, that's priceless!! I'm glad she was ok!

 

[Keckster]

it KILLS him to walk behind slow people

Oh, we would have driven him crazy this past weekend. We were there Feb 1-4 and probably the slowest couple in the world. Due to my story at the start of this thread, we headed back for a "slow" no-kid weekend. We did do our best to stay out of the center and off to the sides of the walkways so people could easily go by. When walking through FastPass lines, we also let people go around us.

 

[Superchikk]

Oh, we would have driven him crazy this past weekend. We were there Feb 1-4 and probably the slowest couple in the world. Due to my story at the start of this thread, we headed back for a "slow" no-kid weekend. We did do our best to stay out of the center and off to the sides of the walkways so people could easily go by. When walking through FastPass lines, we also let people go around us.

If you know you're slow, you're more aware of it, I think. By letting people go around you or staying off to the side, you probably didn't hold anyone up or get in anyone's way. He's not bothered by people who are slow but courteous. It's the slow people who have no idea they are slow and act as if the universe revolves around them that he can't stand. Ha!

 

[Keckster]

It's the slow people who have no idea they are slow

Yes... the oblivious ones drive me crazy too.