Mistakes Made On First Trip

[Barbara76]

For future reference, adding a day is always an option.

Does this mean that we can add a day on the last day for the same price as if we had added it before arrival?

 

[lovewdwfun]

Our biggest mistake was too many ADRs for dinner, especially ones that relied on park hopping to Epcot! I did not realize what a pain it would be to get there with two kids. A 5:30 ADR meant we woke kids up from their nap at 4:00 to get on a bus. Then we would have to walk all the way across Future World and the World Showcase to get to dinner. We would get out of dinner around 7:00 and would barely have time to look around to get kids back to 8:30 bed time. It wound up being almost 3 hours of planned travel time (waiting for bus, rising bus, getting through gates, walking through Epcot, etc) and 4.5 hours out of the day just for a meal! Now we only do the Epcot evening once a trip unless we stay at an Epcot resort. We also leave a couple of nights open so we have the flexibility of a nap or staying at a park all day. We've gotten some of our favorite ADRs (Citricos) by booking last-minute when the kids wake up!

 

[teach22180]

I do think our mistake the first trip as an adult was staying at CB. We totally did not like internal buses, and I have never stayed anywhere with them since then. That's just us though; I know others don't mind them as much. I just hate waiting to get to the parks in the mornings!

 

[Mikie]

Does this mean that we can add a day on the last day for the same price as if we had added it before arrival?

Yep. Before the most recent price hike, it was just about $11 to add a day to a ticket that was at least 5 days to start with. Not sure of the current exact upcharge. I believe it just has to be done prior to you using your last day - if you wait til it's completely used up, then you'd have to buy a new 1-day ticket at full price!!

 

[LinderInWonderland]

Our last trip was my first since the advent of Fast Passes. My SIL had complained about a trip pre-FP+ where all her friend wanted to do was race back and forth across the parks to collect FPs and SIL wanted to enjoy the journey around the parks. When she booked the trip for us, we were hesitant about asking for anything since she was paying. She was frustrated because we wouldn't speak up and we all got frustrated because we just got FP+ for rides we wanted to go on without thinking of where they were in the parks.

This lack of judicious FP+ planning also played into another mistake - I failed to consider how badly the heat and humidity would affect me. After a lot of unnecessary trudging back and forth between Asia and Dinoland USA at AK, I had to put a fork in myself and go back to the resort for the rest of the day and night. That's when we learned mid-day breaks at the resort (in the pool or the room) are lifesavers for us. Thankfully, MDE was awesome about letting us change stuff on the fly once we decided on our new touring style.

 

[loves to dive]

I've been going since 1982 so there is no way I could list all my mistakes. The good thing about going for that long and often (we started going every other year and have now progressed to twice a year and I might even hit 3 times this year) is you just sort of go with the flow as things change. Even after going for so many years, just about every trip I learn something new. My only big mistake was years ago, I'm guessing mid to late 80s, I took my stepdaughter with my son and myself, normally it's just the two of us. We decided to combine a beach/Disney trip, started at the beach for a few days then moved over to Orlando. We had planned on doing 1 night in just Orlando doing non-Disney stuff then move onto property at what is now Shades of Green, wasn't military back then. Anyway, we decided to go ahead and go to MK the morning we were moving onto property, were just going to go to the park then check in. Got to the gates and got turned away because it was full. That is the one and only time I even thought about staying off property, never have since, never did before. I've learned not to underestimate the moderate resorts. When we started going there was no such thing so we just always stayed at deluxe. Other than a few times staying at Shades of Green with my mom and brother (could have been the only resort on property other than Contemporary which we couldn't afford) we moved over to the MK resorts and just stayed there until the Epcot resorts opened and started staying there. On a whim during a solo trip I decided to do a split stay with POR and OKW and found I enjoyed POR.

 

[J.Casto79]

Biggest mistakes from our trip last week which was the first time taking the kids 4 and 10 months:

1) Trying to do it all in 1 trip. 5 days was too much and we didn't really have any down time. We loved the parks, but they will still be there when we get back.
2) Goes with #1, but not scheduling a pool day. Every time we had a short park day it would be rainy in the evening.

 

[gorkt]

My first trip as an adult was my Honeymoon in 1995. Things I did wrong:

1) I planned it for early June - too hot and crowded.
2) I did no real ride or touring planning.
3) I did no early mornings.
4) We did a go go go all the time trip with no breaks and no down time during the heat of the day.

 

[Robo]

Yep. Before the most recent price hike, it was just about $11 to add a day to a ticket that was at least 5 days to start with.

1. Not sure of the current exact up charge.
2. I believe it just has to be done prior to you using your last day - if you wait til it's completely used up, then you'd have to buy a new 1-day ticket at full price!!

1. After 5 days, it varies from appox. $15 down to approx. $11 per added day, per ticket. (Plus tax.)
2. Nope. Upgrading can be done as late as close-of-busniness on the same day that you use the last day on the original ticket.
(Otherwise, guests who'd originally only bought a one-day ticket and used it (and had fun) could not add days to their trip.)

In fact, in many cases, I don't think that there really IS a limitation anymore on when you can upgrade, as long as it's no later than 14 days from the time that you started using the original ticket.

 

[disneyseniors]

I always seem to make this same mistake over and over again I always see a tshirt, jacket, ornament I really love on the first day. I always say, I'm going to keep looking to see if there is something else I like better. Then, at the end of our trip, I still find I liked the first item the best. Sooo.................on to the search for that exact ornament, jacket, etc. One time we looked in every park shop in every park for a white hooded sweatshirt with multicolored stripes, lots of Mickey's and celebration on the jacket. (I like lots of bling) I told my husband, the first day, "we will be able to find this everywhere, so let's wait". Famous last words as we looked and looked and I finally found it in Epcot on the last day at Mouse Gear. I was happy!!!

This year, I hope I won't make the same mistake again, but probably will My long suffering husband has the patience of Job, and doesn't complain or "I told you to buy it" at all. What a saint. We Will probably do this again, as I can't seem to make myself buy the first thing I love that I see; I MUST look around everywhere for "something better" Sigh...................................................................

 

[angierae]

Our first trip mistake, agreed to by all six people who went, was not getting hoppers. I know there are people who never get hoppers, but I've never been back without them.

 

[Mikie]

I always seem to make this same mistake over and over again I always see a tshirt, jacket, ornament I really love on the first day. I always say, I'm going to keep looking to see if there is something else I like better. Then, at the end of our trip, I still find I liked the first item the best. Sooo.................on to the search for that exact ornament, jacket, etc. One time we looked in every park shop in every park for a white hooded sweatshirt with multicolored stripes, lots of Mickey's and celebration on the jacket. (I like lots of bling) I told my husband, the first day, "we will be able to find this everywhere, so let's wait". Famous last words as we looked and looked and I finally found it in Epcot on the last day at Mouse Gear. I was happy!!!

This year, I hope I won't make the same mistake again, but probably will My long suffering husband has the patience of Job, and doesn't complain or "I told you to buy it" at all. What a saint. We Will probably do this again, as I can't seem to make myself buy the first thing I love that I see; I MUST look around everywhere for "something better" Sigh...................................................................

Do you stay onsite? I don't know about every store's return policy, but I know resort gift shops will accept return with a receipt bought from any Disney shop! Buy on day one, hang onto it, and if you actually find that "something better" you can return that first thing.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

Not getting a flu shot

I got the flu shot and still ended up with the flu, though my symptoms were a lot less severe than they could have been.

Mine was going with someone who didn't want anything to do with the planning, and then would continue to say they didn't care what we did while in the park, but would still complain about what we were doing or not doing.

 

[disneyseniors]

Do you stay onsite? I don't know about every store's return policy, but I know resort gift shops will accept return with a receipt bought from any Disney shop! Buy on day one, hang onto it, and if you actually find that "something better" you can return that first thing.

Yes, we stay onsite. And now, DUH, do I feel like a dummy for not realizing that!!!!!! Thanks for the enlightenment, oh Yoda.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Overthinking and overplanning! Our first trip had me playing general and my husband and kids probably wished I'd left my spread sheets, index cards and guide books at home!

We all enjoyed planning (we were Disneyland vets) but I took it a bit too far. Next trip we took things a lot slower and had a much more relaxed trip with more pool time which made everyone happy.

 

[Legendteri]

I did a lot of researching for our first trip in 2012. It was wonderful but if I had to pick one mistake, I would say I would have used our first hour at MK after rope drop more wisely. We headed straight to the TownHall to see the Princesses ( that was a good idea) but then I got the dumb idea in my head that we should go to the Tony's for a pawtograph of Lady and the Tramp. That took way too long. Should have just skipped it and headed straight to see TInkerbell like I planned.

Also, I wish we would have went to the Poly beach to see the MNSSHP fireworks.

 

[flutterby3]

Biggest mistake the first 2 trips was not staying on-site. So many advantages to staying at a disney resort

 

[GardenMom]

Our first trip as a family I put my then DD3 on POTC as her first attraction. We didn't realize it at the time but she has diagnosed anxiety and sensory disorder. She was literally shaking the entire ride. The dark, the wind, the smell, the unanticipated drop, the noise of gunfire. It literally was an assault to all her senses. She didn't ride anything else but the carousel the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even ride a train. It was awful. She went from character to character M&G hugging each one and leaning on them as if to say, "My crazy parents brought me to this very scary place, please help me." Other than that she played in the fountains, and fed the ducks. Big lesson learned for this Mom.

I have learned to so much since then, but boy were we insensitive to her special needs.

 

[newageretro]

My first Disney trip was to DLP alone. I had no idea about things like parades and shows at that point, so when the ride areas cleared out when parades were going on, I thought "What luck! the lines are short".
If I would have know what was going on, I would have much rather caught the parades.

 

[KaSe]

Our first trip as a family I put my then DD3 on POTC as her first attraction. We didn't realize it at the time but she has diagnosed anxiety and sensory disorder. She was literally shaking the entire ride. The dark, the wind, the smell, the unanticipated drop, the noise of gunfire. It literally was an assault to all her senses. She didn't ride anything else but the carousel the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even ride a train. It was awful. She went from character to character M&G hugging each one and leaning on them as if to say, "My crazy parents brought me to this very scary place, please help me." Other than that she played in the fountains, and fed the ducks. Big lesson learned for this Mom.

I have learned to so much since then, but boy were we insensitive to her special needs.

Awww! Bless her heart! That had to be rough for all of you. :-(