Rookie mistakes

[kim]

Just remember that this is vacation. Take it slow. Take breaks and get cooled
off. Some of the shows are indoors (Little Mermaid, Hall of Presidents etc), in a cool dark theatre. That is very relaxing for my family. Buy mister fans at home (5.00) before you
go (parks-15.00).

Just remember to take your time. That can't be said enough. Have a great
time.

kim - going to the briar patch in only 25 more days!!!!

 

[hobogary]

Crystal Palace is to your right at the end of main street, NOT the same as Cindys castle. Hoop dee doo is in Ft Wilderness camp ground (boat from MK or Contemp, bus from everywhere else) Chef Mickeys is in the Contemp.

 

[DIZZYDISNEY]

Originally posted by DIZZYDISNEY
Please help this first timmer! Where are the following restarants? crystal palace, hoop dee doo, contemporary Cheif Mickey. is cinderellas castle the same as the crystal palace? is the fantasma fireworks available in 8-25 to 8-28-01? thanks so much!!!!!!

 

[DIZZYDISNEY]

thanks everyone for your help. do i need bug repellent?
is it ok at the caribbean beach resort? what is the earliest that the park buses run?
still dizzydisney

 

[RumpleMom]

WDW in July- August- My mistakes:

1) Packing pantyhose
2) Bringing jewelry to wear
3) Packing a pair of long pants in case there is a cool evening-ha!
4) Not bringing enough shoes and socks to be able to change into dry ones in the middle of the day,every day. Sneakers do not dry over night.
5) Not bringing a hat
6) Not bringing nongreasy sunscreen, also non-stinging for little ones' eyes
7) Thinking I would wear make-up. It just rolls off.
8) I knew the parks were big and knew we had to take transportation from park to park, but didn't truly understand the enormity of WDW. Thankfully we had the little ones walking with us at our local park several months prior to our trip. We all needed to build up stamina. This also broke in our tennis shoes, which you can't buy too soon because little feet grow so fast, but must be gotten used to.

 

[CatOne]

Cameo and kim gave great advice!! TAKE YOUR TIME. Notice the small things and enjoy them!! We went in May for the first time and rushed so much we hardly felt like we were even there!! We are going back in Dec. with a slightly different frame of mind. DO NOT pack a bunch of dress clothes unless you are going to V&A. We were actually quite over dressed for many of the places we visited for dinner. And have fun, no matter what. Sometimes people go to WDW thinking with all that magic nothing could possibly go wrong and if it does they take it very hard. IF something turns out to be a little less than perfect, oh well. There is always next time


Happy Day
CatOne

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Our Rookie Mistakes

Cast includes, me, DH, DD's 4 & 10.

#1) Not getting up at 5-6am, the first day to take advantage of EE. Granted we were coming from HRH but we lost valuable MORNING park time when it isn't so HOT!

#2) Plan on only EE, if you can.

#3) Make breakfast/lunch/dinner PS's at MK BEFORE you leave. MK is packed and while they got us in at Liberty Tree for lunch, I could have made that PS for Cinderellas Castle for lunch before I left.

#4) I did buy the mister fans before I left, I would not have survived without them.

#5) Bring your stroller with a cooler full of ice and bottled water! If you buy a bottle of water in 10-15mins it is warm, even with the bottle huggie I had. We would buy water, drink, toss back into cooler, and it was always ice cold! That helped alot.

#6) Get out of the parks after lunch or we would leave park, grab fast food, then go back to room and rest/swim.

#7) Remember that even if you "plan" the shows you want to see, showtimes are limited, so it would be very tricky to get them all in.

 

[ckay87]

Just back from a 7-night stay. Was our first trip in 15 years! Anyway, I considered myself pretty well-informed thanks mostly to this board and a couple of books. Keep in mind that we have 2 young boys, 5 and 8. Two mistakes stand out in my mind:

1. We had been having so darn much fun at MGM that at mid-day my DH and I said to each other, "I don't think we need a break today, do you?" You can guess the outcome, though we managed to save the day with a nice dinner at Hollywood & Vine prior to Fantasmic.

2. I refused to go by any of the "touring plans" you will hear about in books such as the "Unofficial Guide." I still refuse to have someone else dictate my course through the theme parks. However, we spent way too much time studying guide maps, deciding what to do next, where things were, and how to proceed. On our last day, our 2nd day at Magic Kingdom, I sat at the table in our room early in the morning and poured over the guidemap and determined our exact course of action. With pencil and paper I drew up our own "touring plan" based upon what we still wanted to do and the physical locations of those attractions. We had the most productive, enjoyable day of the whole week.

Example:
-Go to Adventureland, get FP for Jungle Cruise
-Ride Pirates of Carribbean
-Ride Jungle Cruise
-Get FP for Big Thunder Mountain
-See Tiki Birds (my kids loved this, can you believe it?)
-Ride BTM

and so on, and so on. It was an itinerary, but loose and personalized. Even a prolonged thunderstorm and the subsequent closing of Jungle Cruise didn't throw us off.

So my suggestion would to be to somehow get a hold of park maps prior to going and, at the very least, know where things are, what you most want to see and when, and which of those attractions have fastpass.

Have fun!

 

[DISNEYFAMILY#1]

Don't try and do and see too much each day. Get to the parks at least a half an hour prior to opening and leave by noon or so. Enjoy the resort pool, rest and perhaps visit another park at night. Decide which rides the kids definitely want to do and get a fast pass for that ride as soon as you get into the park. Make PS ressies right away if you haven't already. Have an itinerary of what park you want to visit on which day. I've found that it helps to be organized when planning a disney vacation.
Be prepared for hot hot hot and hotter weather with daily afternoon showers. Sounds like a lot of work and details! LOL, but it's so worth it! Hope this helped and didn't scare you!!

 

[DIZZYDISNEY]

thanks soooo much to everyone who shared theretips and advice!!!!! i feel much better about the trip. i know ill have more ?s. cant think of them now!!! thanks again.

 

[King Triton]

Here's a tip for rookies. You must see Fantasmic - the best Disney show ever. Be sure to get the Fantasmic dinner package at MGM Studios. They'll give you a special pass to avoid waiting in line. Without it, you'll have to get there two hours before the show. Also, do not miss SpectroMagic night parade - it is simply awesome!! Have fun!!

King Triton

 

[DisneyFix]

I recommend getting Birnbaum's WDW For Kids By Kids and letting your kids read through it. It even shows them how to plan 'their' vacation and make lists for each park of the top 10 things they want to see/do. I like it more than I expected to for our soon-to-be 8 year old, and she feels like she's more involved in the planning now.

 

[2boys'mom]

Myself, dh, and ds 2yo and 5yo ds went in April 01.

1. Do not make dinner reservations across the world from where you are located. It is too hard to get there unless you drive or take a cab. Cabs are cheap, but they are hard to find. Keep a number handy. Example:WL to Flying Fish--an insane trip, took almost an hour. Took 10 minutes to return from Boardwalk with a cab.

2. Did not get a sitter for naptime on a couple of days. DH got to do RnR Rollercoaster at MGM and other things at Epcot while I sat on the balcony at WL wishing I could do something. It would have been worth it to me. The kids slept 2or 3 hours each afternoon.

3. Beware too many ps's. Felt like we had to go to them even if we would have saved time and money by not doing sit-down. However, I was glad that I had the ps's as shen I tried to change the times, there wasn't much available.

What we did that worked.

1.Did get a sitter for e-night. Very worth it. Felt good about the sitter after taking her with us to dinner at the hotel and talking to her before leaving the kids with her.

2.Plan a schedule but be flexible. We ended up only going to MGM for Fantasmic because needed more time for MK. It took us 4 days to do MK because the kids would only last about 4-5 hours then need a nap. Early entry is great at MK. We got the most done on those days.

3. Ds put his foot down. We have to use the pool every day. He loved the water slide and it was great fun.

4. Took time to enjoy the natural wildlife at WL. A vacation in itself.

 

[susy]

Some people don't like the" Unofficial Guide to WDW 2001", but I grew up in Florida and have been to Disney a million times and it does paint a very realistic picture of what to expect. After reading these boards and the book, I came up with my own touring plan for 2 days at MK with my son (first time for him). Lo and behold-it matched their touring plans exactly!!! They know what they are talking about. Buy the book! It is the perfect compliment to these boards! I got it at Barnes and Noble. Also , go to Deb's unofficial WDW site to look at rest. menus and make those PS's!!!!

 

[diana's mommie]

Go to Deb's web site is a great idea to decided how much you want to spend at Disney. I have it used to see if the DM was worth it for me and my Dh and it was. At one restaurant it will end up costing us 100 pp if we didn't have this package. Also go with the flow.

 

[DIZZYDISNEY]

thanks for all the good advice and help posted here!!! it realy helps me to make planes for our familys first trip in aug. i will probably have more? but am sure i can find help here. thanks a lot!!!!!

 

[Coll0610]

Have everyone choose one or two things they really, really want to do, and then make sure you do them.

 

[BrerMom]

There were only one or two rides that my middle child wasn't tall enough to ride. He knew he couldn't ride them before we went and we had explained how the "baby swap" worked. I underestimated how disappointed he would really be while he was waiting. My solution was to let him buy a pin to trade whenever he had to wait. Since his sister got to ride the ride (he didn't) and he got to trade pins (she didn't), it kind of evened out.

I also underestimated the number of jars of baby food our baby would consume. We ended up making a trip to Wal-Mart. He ate twice as many jars at the World than at home!

One of the best things we did was stay on-site and we stayed eight days for our first trip. It was a financial stretch for us, but so nice to be able to go at a leisurely pace.

 

[BigWaveDave]

To throw $0.02 more in...

A critically important thing is to know your group and their limitations. For example, my family are not early risers, so the often-repeated suggestion to "get to the park before it opens" would result in screaming and mutiny in our room .

Some people need a break in the afternoon. My kids (3 and 8 when we started going a few years ago) never napped in the afternoon, they would just keep going (no whining or anything; amazing!) until they hit the wall and passed out around 10 or 11pm. This is what "worked" for us. The key thing is to know your group, and don't be in denial about what your limitations are.

For us, it's better to go later, and stay later at night. This better fits with our natural "body clocks." Yeah, it's more crowded but we usually go during less-crowded times of the year anyway.

The biggest rookie mistake people make is to try to force the trip into some preconceived notion of what's there. If you've never been there, you can't really imagine what it's like. So, you've gotta be ready to adapt, or you'll spend the whole trip "fighting" the place.

Another thing we don't do is stress over spending $3.... When you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a vacation, it seems silly to get all worked up over spending $15 or $20 in a day on cold drinks or snacks. Yeah, maybe you could save $10 or $15 by buying the stuff at Publix and smuggling it in. But, that's what you do the rest of the year; you're on vacation; relax!

Have fun!

 

[catwho]

I'm a planner (dh says "overplanner") but we still ended up having a few oopses.

1. Not know about Baby Swap!

2. Forgetting a hat for MOM! (Kids had them and dh had planned to by a safari hat)

3. Not taking enough water the first day.

4. Not staying for the fireworks the first time.

5. Not having a copy of WDW with Kids!!! (A must!!!!)

As for staying late for the fireworks, the key is to find a nice fairly empty spot (we found that the outside eating terrace at Plaza Pavillion. Good view. Peak times it may not be available as they seat Package Guests there. We found it a great place. Then instead of trying to beat the crowds to transit, "mosey" around, pick up some fresh baked goodies for breakfast on Mainstreet and leisurely enjoy the nightlife at WDW. The CM's will gently herd you towards the exits, but we've never had anyone give us any trouble. There is not hurry to get to transit from MK because the people movers run for another hour and a half after official closing time for those that took the monorail over to Epcot.

Oh, Park at MK and take the monorail over to Epcot even if you don't plan on going into MK. You don't have to deal with parking hassles (as most of the MK parking lot will be empty by the time Epcot closes) and the ride over is beautiful. You get a small feeling for how vast the property is. Also, since fewer people do this first thing in the morning, there is a better chance that you can sit in the front of the monorail and if you have a good driver (we did) he will fill you in with all the "inside scoop" That is our favorite way to get to Epcot.

I would suggest if you are staying off-site to drive your own car (or rental) rather than take the "free" hotel bus. If you end up needing a break, you can't always guarantee that your resort's bus will be available when you need it.