Mistake you will not repeat next time...

[vdub322]

I've really enjoyed reading this thread! All the various responses have me thinking about my plan for our trip next month!

As for us...

1. Dining plan. We felt stuffed constantly and we didn't feel like we could order what we wanted. We eat meatless a lot at home, and we felt like we had to order steaks to make it "worth it". Tons of snacks left over. With careful planning, we came out ahead, but next time we are just going OOP or doing TiW and ordering what we want, when we want.

2. Driving. NEVER again will be drive from Central PA unless we have no other option. That's the only way I did it as a kid, and we felt it would save money. Next month we are flying for the first time and I know it will be worth it. We were able to add extra nights because we aren't spending 18 hours driving each way. Leaving Disney is sad enough...without the added stress of spending eternity on I-95.

 

[stindall]

Yes this is making me reconsider things as well... However I'm afraid it might be too late.

it's not too late if it's before your final payment due date. You never know how it'll go for you until you try it though. If it's not someone you've spent an extended amount of time with before then I wouldn't take them but everyone is different.

For me it was inviting my husband on the last trip. We always have a nice time on vacations but inviting him led to the woman who invited me inviting her niece. Her niece then caused a lot of trouble and the trip was horrible after the first day and 1/2. Then again we'll never be in that situation again so it's not a mistake we'll have the opportunity to repeat!

 

[Srbright]

We are currently on our way home from 10 days at Disney and they were wonderful.

The big mistake I made was letting my 6 year old talk me into taking him on Stitch's Great Escape. I had never done it before and planned to keep it that way after reading on the DIS how horrible it is. It was horrible, dumb and completely ridiculous. And of course, DS loved it and said it was one of his favorites. I should've pulled out the "we're not going on it because I said so" instead of letting him sweet talk me onto it. Never, ever again. Next time we go DS will be 7. He can go by himself.

I was getting ready to post when this caught my eye! This could have been us in September. DS is 6 and we went on Stitch's Great Escape... the only time in the entire trip (except the part where we told them we lied and we weren't going to Frankenmuth, we were going to Disney World and he had no clue what that meant and burst into tears; oops) that he had an issue. I don't know how, but these two children managed to be angels the entire trip (partially rose colored glasses on my part I'm sure). We did SGE and he freaked. FREAKED. We were *that* family on the ride with the child screaming "No, no, NOOOOOO I want to get off. It's going to EAT ME!".

Never again. He'll be 12 before he goes on it again.

As for the others, same as other people. No park or dining reservations the day of arrival no matter what. Our flight was supposed to land in Orlando at 10 AM but due to delays (who knew you needed landing gear?) we didn't get to the hotel until 2:30 and we asked to switch rooms (view of highway and parking lot was not what we wanted) and by the time we switched it and got the luggage it was 4:30 and we had 5:30 reservations at CG.

Also, I will always buy trip insurance. My department head went two weeks before we did and he spent the entire time in the hurricane that hit late August. I didn't have trip insurance this time but I have vowed to always buy it in the future.

Sending box: If I travel any airline that charges a $25 baggage fee I will either ship down boxes fed ex or ship stuff back FedEx.

Stacy

 

[Tigger1]

Leaving Disney.

 

[DeaverTex]

Ride Space Mountain. I've never felt so brutally battered and so hideously nauseous in such a short space of time. Ugh.

Devote only one day to Food and Wine. It's a two day experience.

 

[tophatgirl]

We did SGE and he freaked. FREAKED. We were *that* family on the ride with the child screaming "No, no, NOOOOOO I want to get off. It's going to EAT ME!".

Never again. He'll be 12 before he goes on it again.

LOL! DD was 5 1/2 and I hadn't seen it either. It was raining, Laugh Floor was crowded, why not? AWFUL!! Even I was scared because she was terrified!

 

[SEASONK]

Riding the Rapids at AK an hour before your ADR!!!

Also I second going with people you have never vacationed with before.

One mistake I corrected this last trip was letting DH sleep in one day while DS and I went to MK. We had a blast, DH was rested and in a great mood, and I realized we didn't have to do EVERYTHING together.

 

[PixieDust1928]

I LOVED reading all of these!!!!! I DEFINITELY agree with NOT vacationing with friends or family no matter how much you love them...
I am embarrassed to say that I dont know what a dole whip is and I participated in a 5 month stay with the Disney College Program. Is it ice cream? We are going in 27 days! I will add it to my list!
As much as I want to an ADR on arrival day...I have decided if we are in good spirits after traveling, we will hit GF or poly food court and watch Wishes. (We are staying at POR.

 

[fadingjamie]

Eating at Tony's in MK It almost ruined his marriage proposal because I was turning green...

 

[mattsdragon]

Eating at Tony's in MK It almost ruined his marriage proposal because I was turning green...

Yeah, that's a mistake we'll never repeat again. Worst TS we've encountered.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Riding the Rapids at AK an hour before your ADR!!!

Also I second going with people you have never vacationed with before.

One mistake I corrected this last trip was letting DH sleep in one day while DS and I went to MK. We had a blast, DH was rested and in a great mood, and I realized we didn't have to do EVERYTHING together.

ROFL I remember riding Kali 8 times in a row one trip (no lines they just let us stay on) - let me tell you we were soaked! Luckily it was close to park closing time and I had towels in the car. FYI the All Stars are 2 minutes from AK - very handy. We also rode it once when I was wearing jeans - never again - it was the first or 2nd day of the trip - the jeans took forever to dry hanging in the hotel room!

Also I've discovered if DH gets tired it's much better to send him back to the room - we too have discovered we don't need to do everything together.

Other mistakes we won't repeat - not paying proper attention to 'clues' the ride queues are trying to give you. Sped through the It's Tough to be a Bug line on the first trip - didn't see any signs that it was scary. That was in January 2007 - DD was 7 - she's now 13 and we're on trip 14 (coming up this week) - she still won't go near it! Ditto Dinosaur I should have picked up on the adventure/ futuristic feel to it all and realized it would be scary - nope I thought it would be fine (we loved the movie). She hasn't ridden that again either (although she's made a few noises about checking it out). Lesson learned - pay attention!

 

[stindall]

Two things we won't do again:

1. Get any of the dining plans. We're happier just getting what we want and not worrying about how many credits we have, what's included, what's not, etc. I do understand why people like them, but they're just not for us.

2. Try to follow a touring plan, at least a highly detailed one. It worked well for us once when we visited WDW with extended family for Christmas one year. In fact, it was the only thing that saved our sanity. But when it's just me and my DH, we do better just getting to the parks early, hitting our favorites, and then going with the flow.

1. People like not having to worry about having that money with them. They're not for me but I can see the appeal somewhat. What they need to do is incorporate it in their app so you can enter some sort of account number and see what your credits are.

 

[stindall]

Truly park-hopping, which is what we did last time, isn't for me. Being able to get to a couple of the smaller parks in one day is fine. But going from one park getting a fastpass then going to another park and riding a few rides then going back to park a ride the fastpass ride then over to park c to eat...no i don't like it. The day feels like its so much longer to me and half of it is spent travelling. One park or 2 at the most (one in the morning one in the afternoon) is what i like.

I don't mean to sound rude but who does that? I think that's one of the most truly baffling things I've ever read on here.

 

[beatlesblonde]

Leaving Disney.

One of these years leaving Disney will only mean heading home, which will be within driving distance (i.e. the central Florida area). Not headed to the airport and flying several hundred miles away....

 

[merbobear]

I won't schedule a dinner ADR after we have tea in the afternoon...we all ordered the Buckingham tea service, and it was So.Much.Food. Don't get me wrong, it was great food and the tea was wonderful, we all really enjoyed it, but we just did not anticipate being so stuffed from tea and it really impacted our ability to enjoy our 1900 PF meal that evening.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The number one thing I will never do again is ignore the warnings on a ride. I have issues with claustrophia and let my husband talk me into going on Mission to Mars. I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack when the harness descended over my head and locked me into a middle seat between two large men, one of whom is the DH. I just closed my eyes and prayed that it would be over soon. I will never do that again.

 

[natfrac]

The one thing we won't do again is take Disney transportation from resort to resort when it's pouring rain (I mean really pouring). It would have been much cheaper to take a cab than replace cell phones.

To all those considering taking family/friends---we always take someone with us. Now that the kids are grown, it's a bit too quiet when just DH and I go. Last year, we had DM, DD, DS, plus a cousin, his wife and their teenager. We had a blast. Of course we had separate rooms and rule was everyone was free to do their own thing. Not traveling as a "pack" is essential--that way everyone gets to do what they want.

 

[bumbershoot]

I LOVED reading all of these!!!!! I DEFINITELY agree with NOT vacationing with friends or family no matter how much you love them...
I am embarrassed to say that I dont know what a dole whip is and I participated in a 5 month stay with the Disney College Program. Is it ice cream? We are going in 27 days! I will add it to my list!
As much as I want to an ADR on arrival day...I have decided if we are in good spirits after traveling, we will hit GF or poly food court and watch Wishes. (We are staying at POR.

NO it's not ice cream. It's a "soft serve dessert". Google "dole whip precision foods" to find the ingredients. The only good thing I can say about it is that it helped us find the third thing DS and DH cannot have in their diets. But finding that out wasn't so much fun for me! (corn syrup solids...DS goes manic and cannot hear me, and DH's blood sugar spikes and crashes, so I was chasing DS around while he was running in circles, and DH had passed out on a bench...oh JOY) And to me it tastes like what I imagine melted, pineapple-flavored plastic, would taste like.

 

[bumbershoot]

Family trips!

Although they haven't been *perfect*, we like doing them. We have extended family that lives in Florida, and we like getting a 2 bedroom villa so they can come stay with us. They don't really do LONG stays normally, so just 3 or 4 nights is good for them. I like visiting with them, and we try to be really open and honest with each other.

I think it's wrong to think that NO families should do big trips. If you do it and it's awful, don't do it again. But it might be good.

Another hint from my experience...either get there some days earlier or stay a bit longer, to have just-your-family time apart from bigger family. The first way makes sure you can get the things in that you know you *have to* do, and the second way lets you decompress.

 

[tophatgirl]

Family trips!

Although they haven't been *perfect*, we like doing them. We have extended family that lives in Florida, and we like getting a 2 bedroom villa so they can come stay with us. They don't really do LONG stays normally, so just 3 or 4 nights is good for them. I like visiting with them, and we try to be really open and honest with each other.

I think it's wrong to think that NO families should do big trips. If you do it and it's awful, don't do it again. But it might be good.

Another hint from my experience...either get there some days earlier or stay a bit longer, to have just-your-family time apart from bigger family. The first way makes sure you can get the things in that you know you *have to* do, and the second way lets you decompress.

I agree w/you. While our huge family cruise was wonderful and w/o stress, Disney is not by nature a stress free vacation. It may work for some, ie, having extra hands w/kids, multiple people to see attractions with, but for other be more stress than it is worth.