Stressing over friends Disney trip

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

After speaking with her there trip was OK but not great, biggest complaint was lines for rides and not understanding the fast pass system.

TBH the FP system isn't actually the easiest to get. I took a lot and I mean a lot of time of researching screen shots, what rides I wanted to try to get FPs for, etc and I was still nervous about booking them when my window opened up. And then I was nervous the first time I went to enter the park and used my fingerprint plus my magic band and then nervous the first time I went to the attraction and used a FP+ for the 1st time. This was all for my trip last September. Back in 2011 we only used Legacy FP like 3 times in 5 days so FP+ was totally and completely foreign to me and I did all the research for it. I can totally get not understanding it.

As for lines, that complaint never goes away whether you did your research, whether you are a veteren, whether this is your first time there. Unfortunately it goes with the territory. Waiting in line period when time is ticking away it starts to ramp up the frustration level.

Then she commented about the viewing areas for "Happily Ever After", saying they tried finding a spot about 10 or 15 minutes before they started.

Now people do get viewing close to when the show goes on but a big difference is for HEA the projections require being closer up by the castle which typically fills up quickly and enough time before the show. If you're wanting fireworks you can see that much further back.

They did EPCOT and MK in the same day and since they were not resort guest had to pay for parking at both parks

Actually that's not true at all.

It doesn't matter if you are a resort guest or not. Once you have paid for parking at 1 park you get parking included for the rest of the parks you visit that day. So if they started at Epcot and then went to the TTC to get to MK they would show their parking receipt for when they were at Epcot and they would not have been charged for parking at the TTC.

complained about that not knowing they had to even pay for parking.

Well that's probably a bit silly considering paying for parking in general at places is fairly common. Maybe it was the fact that they had to pay for parking at all their destinations that it really started adding up (speaking about going to WDW, SeaWorld, Universal and if there was any other paid parking in the meanttime).

They crammed a lot into the week they were there with EPCOT, MK, Universal, Sea World, a beach day in Cocoa Beach and a dance competition, almost getting into 3 car accidents 1 on Disney property, 1 leaving Sea World and 1 on the way back to the Airport.

Sounds like they tried to cram quite a bit in to see as much as they could while there. I can understand trying to do that especially if WDW and Universal isn't the highest point of interest.

For me I know that if I go to Orlando I'm going there just for WDW and Universal and if I go to FL in general then I'm going to the beach. I can understand the stress too of nearly getting into multiple car accidents and probably the stress of the dance competition.

All in all said she would not do another trip like this without doing a lot more prep work pre-trip.

At least she didn't swear off Disney forever...silver lining

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*Sounds like some things would have been helped by going to WDW's website.

~Like parking:


~FP+ information though TBH I can understand the confusion like I mentioned above

~Looking up what attractions they wanted to see in case they realized they either were cramming too much in or that they couldn't get it all done

Etc.

Universal's website should have the information about parking as well though because you park at a parking garage it's a different set up than Disney.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I heard the same thing from my Nephews wife. That she did not have to do all this planning (ADR and FP) when they went as a kid. I explained things have changed and with so many people visiting WDW you really have to pre plan in advance to get the best experience or miss out on a lot of things. I have given her all the advice and info to help her it is up to her to use my advice or else. She called the other day about needing MDE help and linking reservations and tickets and scheduling FP. And now she has decided at the 70 day mark she wants to do a meal where her daughter can meet the Princesses. Not to mention she wants to be on a tight food budget has a very picky eater who is 12. They are going died when I tell her that her only option will cost about $59 a person including the picky 12 year old eater who will probably eat (3) chicken nuggets for her meal. So you just have to know you have given them the best advice and its up to them to use it and not fret about what will happen.