Mistake you will not repeat next time...

[Stinky_Pete]

After our trip last month I will NEVER, EVER, EVER rent a car for a WDW trip again.

It's stressful as heck trying to navigate around the World. Then there's the hundreds of other drivers (just like you) who are driving rental cars they aren't used to and have no clue of where they are going that you have to look out for, and I think we walked way more in the parking lots to get to/from the trams to our car than we would have walking from the buses to the park gates.

Exactly!!! We feel the same way! After staying at a WDW Resort and using ME, there's no going back to a rental car for us!

Sent from my Galaxy S II

Funny I'm the total opposite. What I feel is a mistake I made once was not renting a car when staying at Old Key West. We like to get to the parks for rope drop and take an afternoon break. I felt like I wasted so much time waiting for buses. This last trip I drove down and stayed offsite and loved having my truck waiting for me in the parking lot whenever I wanted to go. Always want a car going forward, even if I don't always use it.

 

[pjhootch]

1. Stopping at the Rose & Crown for "just one" drink, before walking around the rest of the world.

2. Riding Tower of Terror without realizing there are handles by the seat bottom to hold onto.

3. Stitch. Learned that one years ago, but every now and then one of the kids talks us into it again. Silly me. Our kids are grown so if they care that much they can go on their own.

4. Skipping Expedition Everest because I get motion sickness. Next time I'm taking dramamine and then just going to sleep on a bench somewhere until the drowsiness wears off.

5. Waiting too long in line for Mission Space.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

4. I always end up with pictures of things, not pictures of the people I'm there with. You look back at the pictures and they all look the same. This time, I want pictures of me and my friends, not 800 of the castle, or queues or the monorail.

Oh my goodness this is SO us!!!! This past year I ended up getting the photopass + and made sure we made good use of it. I always look back at the pictures and 98% of them are scenary pictures!!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

Funny I'm the total opposite. What I feel is a mistake I made once was not renting a car when staying at Old Key West. We like to get to the parks for rope drop and take an afternoon break. I felt like I wasted so much time waiting for buses. This last trip I drove down and stayed offsite and loved having my truck waiting for me in the parking lot whenever I wanted to go. Always want a car going forward, even if I don't always use it.

That's how my cousin and her family are. They always drive down and even though they always stay at AKL they still drive everywhere!! I think it's easier for them to do that since they have a stroller and they don't do park hopper so they don't have to remember which park they parked at. We had thought about trying renting a car again and staying at an offsite hotel to save money but we always park hop and like to relax at the resort in the afternoon. My biggest fear would be forgetting where at which park we parked at. For now we like to sit back and let Disney do the work!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

We made this same mistake on our most recent trip. We still had a good time but I felt like I was constantly checking my watch and rushing my poor DH around. This year we have dropped back down to the QSP so we can be far more flexible in where we eat. We might make a couple of ADRS but even the we might just wing it and see how we get on. Very glad BOG is counter service during the day

Yes, that is exactly how I felt!!!! Never again!! We're fine with 1 ADR/day.

 

[songkat]

I agree about not doing too many large meals in one day. Back in 1995, during the day we spent at HS, we had lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe and made reservations for dinner at the Brown Derby. Mistake #1.

Showed up at the Brown Derby for our reservation, went in, ordered expensive food we weren't hungry for, and left most of it on our plates. Mistake #2.

After making Mistake #1, we should have showed up at the Brown Derby only to cancel our reservation. We would have been happier with a light dinner or snack and would have saved a lot of money.

Thankfully, it only took that one time for me to learn from that mistake. We've never repeated it. In fact, one of our habits at least once during each trip is to have a sundae for lunch at the Plaza Restaurant. Without eating lunch first. It fills us up and we don't feel like we're overindulging on a big lunch plus a big dessert.

 

[Mom2darlingboys]

Buy my kid the $16 Lightning McQueen car in Tomorrowland, even though 'I can get it back home at Walmart for $9!'. TOTALLY not worth the meltdown that ensued.

$9 car. $7 piece of mind.

 

[txaggie94gigem]

You're not, by chance, referring to a trip in 12/2010?

Omg!!! We were there then and boy was it cold! Luckily I had checked the weather before we left Oklahoma so we packed all winter clothes for Florida! Crazy cold weather but it was worth it to see Disney decked out for Christmas!!!

 

[mfd25wife]

Omg!!! We were there then and boy was it cold! Luckily I had checked the weather before we left Oklahoma so we packed all winter clothes for Florida! Crazy cold weather but it was worth it to see Disney decked out for Christmas!!!

12/10 was incredibly cold, but it made the crowds next to nothing at night. Disney made a lot of money on winter gear. A CM at the Emporium just gave me a pair of gloves when she saw my hands. brrrrrrr. I remember that instead of "Have a magical time" they were saying "Stay warm". On the plus side, we literally walked onto most attractions. Anyone with small kids seemed to leave as soon as the sun went down. We got to ride the teacups with Goofy. It was just my two friends, Goofy, and me. It was so fun! It did seem odd to ride the monorail completely by ourselves one night; not just the one car, but the entire monorail. We were staying at the GF. We also were on a bus by ourselves more than once.

 

[Sparkly]

If you want to do the renting DVC points thing, don't leave it until a month before you go away!

 

[ginny_lynn]

Buy my kid the $16 Lightning McQueen car in Tomorrowland, even though 'I can get it back home at Walmart for $9!'. TOTALLY not worth the meltdown that ensued.

$9 car. $7 piece of mind.

LOL, i trianed my 6 year old well, if I sy I can get that cheaper somewhere else, he is happy! He knows if its cheaper he may be able to talk me into more.... With his own allowance he likes to hit up dollarama.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

If you want to do the renting DVC points thing, don't leave it until a month before you go away!

Ditto! Bang goes my savannah view hello parking lot at AKV lol...

 

[LovesTimone]

I have been heading to the world, since 1971, I am least at 50 + trips, some for the day, long weekend and week trips.

We will never stay off property , For us it's about the magic, we love the disney resorts, themeing and that feeing you get, we alway use extra magic hours.

Not take a break to relax swim, nap whatever, especially if DH is along, He is a trouper but we enjoy that down time, for us when the DD's were little this was a must, to get away from all that stimulation, for us it prevented or avoided any major meltdown for all of us

For DH and I we never head to the parks on Check-in day, we drive from GA and take our time getting there, once there pool time, DTD or the Boardwalk for dinner then early to bed, it's nice to be rested when you hit the parks.

Never will we do the parks cammando style.

When DD's where little, I would never not bring a "goody bag: - I would hit up the local dollar stores, walmart, target, where ever looking for little things that the girls could do while in line. I tried for disney themed items mostly, and each day they would have a surprise laying on top of the outfit for the day. I also would have coloring book and crayons for in the room while everyone is getting dresses.

Never ever.... not check what family has packed for trip!!!!!! one trip I just happened to open my youngest DD suitcase to add some socks she was 15 at the time, she had 2 pair of shorts and 16 shirts, no pj's and 1 pair of flip flops, for a week, what in the world????. I had been asking them for a month do you need anything she kept saying no I have everything I need, when I showed her she said I don't have any shorts that fit..... Arghhhhh so we were in the car to hit target and wal-mart for some shorts. DH says he packs, this entails him, picking out a few things, and hanging them on the door, no socks, t-shirts, swim shorts, I guess the rest of the stuff just appears in the suitcase..

Each trip is different and special - you have to make the time to see it...

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I agree about not doing too many large meals in one day. Back in 1995, during the day we spent at HS, we had lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe and made reservations for dinner at the Brown Derby. Mistake #1.

Showed up at the Brown Derby for our reservation, went in, ordered expensive food we weren't hungry for, and left most of it on our plates. Mistake #2.

After making Mistake #1, we should have showed up at the Brown Derby only to cancel our reservation. We would have been happier with a light dinner or snack and would have saved a lot of money.

We did something similar at EPCOT, we booked Coral Reef for lunch and Le Cellier for dinner! Huge mistake, there was just too much food

 

[DisneyFive]

Man, there are so many more good things than mistakes, but here are a few…

Staying up late and then getting up early. We did this too much on our second trip and spent part of the trip in a self induced fog due to lack of sleep. Sleep in if needed. You miss some park time but come out way ahead in the long run.

We won’t make the mistake of trying to leave in the middle of the mad crowd leaving MK after wishes. It’s a nut house, and actually seemed a little dangerous. This last year we hung back and had some ice cream, and browsed the shops until it cleared out. MUCH better.

We won’t make the mistake of trying to find a seat at Fantasmic only minutes before the show. (this was our fault, we had the show time wrong and thought we were 30+ minutes early)

We won’t try to tour the World Showcase in 95+ degree heat, 90%+ humidity. Man, that was brutal.

We won't eat two TS meals in one day. My wife and I had a nice date night planned for Sanaa, but were still full from a Coral Reef TS meal we had for lunch. Live and learn I guess.

We made the mistake of eating at Hollywood and Vine our first trip. Won’t be going back. The food wasn’t horrible, it’s just that there are SO many better options, and my kids didn’t really know the characters.

We won’t make the mistake of waiting to pack the day we are leaving the resort, AND trying to go swimming, eat lunch... We’ll either mostly pack up the night before, or skip swimming. It just never seems like there’s enough time that day you leave WDW.

That's all for now.

Dan

 

[Steven41782]

oh, and, don't stay at an off property resort and shop at dtd twice then go home and tell everybody you "went to disney". No, honey, you vacationed in central florida.

lol!

 

[dadddio]

Do any of the parks "commando".

I will not go into detail.

That post reminds me that I will never forget to bring Body Glide or some other anti-chafing miracle product.

 

[katt789]

Throughout my trips I've got quite a few things I won't be doing again:

-Traveling anywhere near Thanksgiving weekend, it's just a mess, more crowded than summer!

-Stay at Coronado Springs

-NOT use Fast Pass (the first time we didn't know how to use them properly, and only used them once!)

-AM EMH at Epcot aren't really worth it

-AM EMH at other parks are GOLD

 

[AshleeH]

LOL, i trianed my 6 year old well, if I sy I can get that cheaper somewhere else, he is happy! He knows if its cheaper he may be able to talk me into more.... With his own allowance he likes to hit up dollarama.

This is my theory and it works so well . As an extension of this rule, my kids know if they throw a tantrum, there is an absolute 0% chance that they will get anything (much less the toy they were wanting). Train 'em young, I say

 

[Gorechick]

We won’t try to tour the World Showcase in 95+ degree heat, 90%+ humidity. Man, that was brutal.

Totally agree! Went back to WS one afternoon by myself on one of the sunnier days this past August (had a lot of rain this trip) and literally baked walking around WS. THEN when I couldn't take it anymore, I had to walk all the way to the front of the park to catch a bus back to the resort. Should've just went back and swam like DH and the kids did.