Okay, don't worry I have made plenty of mistakes in our last two trips.
Our first family vacation ever was in 2011 to where. My Happy Place. First off I had been on disboards for a few years since my last trip with just my dd at the time who was 3 in 2007. Well the mistakes I made then were trying to do All 4 disney parks and a water park in 5 days. Lets talk about exhausted. I found myself many times racing through parks to get to meet and greets and park rides in early August, with CM's constantly telling us to slow down add the fact I had my dd in an umbrella stroller. LOL, then counting on my friends friend who was a CM to meet us at the parks each day to get us in for free. Well three out of the four days he couldnt meet us and I ended up having to buy tickets anyway and we had wasted time trying to get in touch with him each day. PAIN
On the first family vacation I had done a lot of planning. And put a chart together, had a lot of ADR's and all the days for each park mapped out.
What I failed to do was a number of things.
1. Pick the rides to get on in each park other than the few I knew I wanted to get on.
2. Plan to be in the park from RD to end of night. We were there end of Sept
and it was hot as hell and humid. My kids at the time were 2, 5, 7. My poor DH has sensitive skin and all the walking non stop in the heat broke him out all over. And nothing he used would allieviate him. He to this day says I had the family on a Japanese Death March. Its funny now. But man he was cranky and so were the kids. Well my son anyway.
3. Spend more time at the resort. For both recent trips we still have not spent much time getting to enjoy our resort. Primarily because we had base tickets to save money since we always add a day for IOA we are litterally in parks every day with no down days. I did learn my lesson some with our recent November trip but it was also cooler weather and my DD had tons of homework to do so we spent about 2 hours every morning waiting for her to stop messing around and get her homework done! I will never go again when the kids are in the throws of school. Just too much homework. I spent half my vacation stressed trying to get her to get it done each day.
4. I also learned after I ended up cancelling a bunch of ADR's not to plan a bunch with small kids. At the time my youngest dd was 2 and after the secoond night of eating in a reastaruaunt by night three we were at CRT and she was acting up half the time wanting to get down and run around. I was not able to enjoy the experience as much nor the food.
5. I know some say they wont drive again but I will not. We have a 15 hour drive and we do commando and drive straight through the night with limited stops. I love it as its a great adventure. DH takes the first shift and I try to sleep. then when he gets tired I start powering on the energy drinks, put my tunes on and just drive away. And now we have the new van equipped with a tv and power plug the trip was actually quite nice. And we save a ton of money as flights for a family of 5 could cost us easily another 2k depending.
6. Okay another one is I will not go to park before getting us settled at our resort. In november 2012 we decided to go to Melbourne to a beach for two days before coming to Disney. We had a blast the fam was all relaxed it was a great weekend. When we got to SSR to check in at 1pm the room was not ready. I asked for the text when it was but it was the last day of the F+W festival and I really really wanted to experience some of it. I am a food lover and the idea of foods from all over the world at my fingertips was too enticing. So I begged DH who really wanted to settle in the room first and get the kids fed if we could just hurry over to the park. Big mistake. Kids were starving, my DS was having a melt down fifteen min after we got in the park and my DH was uber pissed. DS wanted a pretzel and DH said no. Well ten min later DS was melting down and DH was like fine, only we were far away from one of two of the only places to get a pretzel. LOL So DH and DS went on a mission to find him something because now he was over the hill upset and wouldnt eat anything. Me and my two DD's had to wait to find tables at La Cantina, cause man was Epcot Crowded, plus it was veterans day too. Anyway DS ended up with chips and DH was beside himself. The day got better but DH stewed half the time and never let me forget how upset he was I didnt let us get things unloaded and get kids settled first. Also about one hour into the time at the park we got the text our room was ready. That sent him over the top.
At this point I apoligize for the story. I'm a writer so telling stories comes naturally. LOL
7. So getting back to #1 With all this planning I hyped with DH we get into our first park on the first fam trip and its AK and I am looking around like a lost child. LOL I think I was just stunned. It took me a few days to get into a groove but mostly I hadnt done specifics when planning where to go inside the parks and that was a major mistake. My husband grilled me the whole week about what the heck I was doing on disboards for all that time and what was I researching bcecause

Turns out mainly looking at food options


By trip two in Novembmer I had a much better plan and needless to say kids got on almost every thing they wanted. With the exception of Soarin because that day of the F + W festival ended up being our only day in Epcot. We were only in Disney for six days total and one was spent in IOA and the seventh day was preparing to go home. Oh which ended up being an awful day. The night before we were at Boma for diner and my DD, 3. Slept all evening and wouldnt eat. Well she neded up being sick still. And I woke up early that morning thinking I had indegestion and by the time we were getting ready to go home I had become full on sick

THAT was a miserable drive home!!!! I almost think it would have been worth booking another night somewhere just so I can recover. Not sure I want to have a 15 hour drive anywhere again where I spend most of the time hunched over spewing my brains out. Sorry for the TMI
8. This last time we went I forgot to check where we were staying and make sure it was close to the pool. I just lost my head when I went to check in and we ended up being in a horrible spot across a big a@@ parking lost having to lug all our pool gear and 3 kids. Big mistake. This time when I made ressies for Sept. I made sure to request beign by the pool.
9. Trying to fit a family of 5 in a studio! Even though DD was 2 we were so cramped. In 2012 I rectified this by putting us in a 2 bedroom. Imagine my shock and awe when I walked in and saw how much space we had LOL..
10. Not planning fast passes better. I'm still not that great with it. But will get better.
11. In the first family trip we did not line up early enoug for parades and fireworks and so we didnt have that great spots. I even listened to a lot of people say on here do the second parade for
MNSSHP thinking it would be less croweded and it wasnt!!! We were all worn out and should have just done the first one and prepared enough time at least an hour to find ourselves a spot and hang out. We did not make this mistake again when we went to
MVMCP in November. We got in the park and at about 5:30 promptly headed to a great spot on the hub to see the parade. We had great seats and the most magical part was when Cinderellas prince saw my dd, 3 dressed in her cinderella dress in her stroller and he blew her a kiss!!1


The best part is I got it on video with my iphone!
12. Not let DH get enough sleep. He was a cranky SOB on this past Novembers trip.

And was killing my happy place. I think I will also try to check with him a head of time to see what his needs are to make sure they are taken care of so I don thave to hear it. otherwise I'm going to start leaving him at home lol

13. Base tickets. I felt so limited and it was hard to be flexible. I knew we only got a certain number of times to go to each park and that made me cram more stuff into single days instead of being willing to leave the park early if people were wanting a break. If I can help it I'm going to spend the extra dough for hoppers. Fourtunately I am DVC and caught the awesome deal when we were there so I have AP's for the next few trips.
14. Oh and standing right in the main circle by the yard with the Disney statue just in front of that small circle during Wishes. Great view So much sulfur and debree from the fireworks was falling down and getting in our eyes. That was one I had never encountered before. Next time I think I'll stand back further. Must have been the way the wind was blowing, it was cold that night. Could have just been random occurance.
Okay thats enough. Sorry for the long list.