What would you do differently on your trip?

[TN Traveler]

You've all heard the old saying "Hindsight is 20/20" so looking back at your most recent trip to Disney what would you change if you could?

For me, I would stay our first night onsite instead of trying to save money and stay offsite. We knew we would arrive in Orlando sometime late in the afternoon so thought instead of
"wasting" a day at the park, we would stay at an offsite hotel. WHAT A MISTAKE!! Yes, we saved $30 or so but we lost so much time at Disney. We could have gone straight to our room, unpacked, ate and then gone to MK for the fireworks. Then the next morning gotten up early and had the entire day at the Kingdom instead of 1/2 a day.

Another thing I would do differently is try to get up earlier and hit EE at least 1 day!! We slept in every morning and ended up not getting in the parks before 10 on any day!

I'd also take more pictures of the kids w/the characters. I was so concerned about not hogging the characters and being in a hurry to let the people behind us have time, I took only 1 picture w/each character. Now, if I had to do it over, I'd take at least 2 pictures and try to get in some of the pictures myself. AND I'd have bought more of the pictures at the end of the rides and as you come into each park. Or at the very least had the CMs take pictures of us together as a family.

Now, your turn....answer the question...."If I knew then what I know now............"

 

[llij]

What I would do differently is not be so much of a commando and take more breaks. I did this with our very first extended trip in 2002 and we were pooped! Also, as a group of 10 we never split up so that was a little tough!

We learned from our mistakes and had a wonderful trip last October!

 

[mad4themouse]

I would not book such an early flight. We left Philly at 6:00 am and arrived at MCO by 8:30 am. By 9:45 am, we were at our hotel. Surprise! They had a room ready! So instead of hitting the parks, my DH and DD went to bed! DS & I wasted the whole day waiting for those two sack rats to get up and and do something! By the time they got up, I was so worn out from trying to keep DS occupied that I needed a nap!

 

[a Really Bad Egg]

We'd stay longer...

 

[jann1033]

pick places to eat that were not buffets and skip the more expensive places or go for lunch

 

[Dalpal]

I would have gone to TL like we had planned. We didnt go because it looked like rain. It did rain , but we would have still had time to have a good time!
Oh well I still have the pluses, so maybe next year!

 

[snowglobe girl]

TN Traveler - I agree totally with you. We stayed off site for our first two trips and learned our lesson after that! We've stayed our first night on-site ever since.

Other things I'd do differently:
Get up early and make it to Blizzard Beach before it gets too crowded or they close due to capacity

Not ride the rides that I know ahead of time will make me sick (
AKA Mission Space)!!

Not try to rush and get everything in - slow down and take more time to enjoy small stuff - like scenery around the castle or sitting on a bench and watching people.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

There is only one thing I would change.

First of all, keep in mind my last
five vacations have been solo. DH just prefers to be home.

My DH told me that one of my Christmas presents can be parasailing at WDW. We booked it many months in advance, using HIS charge card to reserve it for early Dec. I booked it for my last full day at WDW.

BUT IT WAS TOO WINDY THE WHOLE DAY!

I missed out. ( We were NOT charged)

This year, I will book the same thing, but for my FIRST full day at WDW. This way I have some lee-way for a too windy day.

Lesson Learned !

 

[gigi1313]

make my fantasmic ressie during the beginning of our stay so if we got rained out we'd have other opportunitites to see it... go to parades and fireworks...

and i plan to do both of those this trip

 

[jann1033]

this is the hard lesson learned our very first wdw trip .... never never never stay off site..!it just is not the same! even though i know some love it,save bundles doing it or stay at a mansion for the price i pay for Pop Century,sorry, but i think it was our biggest wdw mistake ever!

 

[pumpkinfish]

About pictures...I am the photo-enthusiast between DH and I. On our first trip, almost all our pics had DH in them and not myself! I was so disappointed

But, last year, we BOTH had a camera and therefore DH was able to take candid photos as was I. We also made sure to ask CMs and fellow travelers to capture the two of us.

*funny thing is, after we had the film developed, DH had taken LOTS of pics of the scenery! I joked on how many photos he had taken in Fantasyland- especially the scenery in front of the Tea Cups. He said it made him smile and remember WDW looking back on the photos. And I agree. I pull out that photo album and it takes me back as I go through withdrawl.*

So another piece of advice is to not just take pics of each other, but of your surroundings (one of my fave pics is of the Prayer Tree at AK. It was a misty morning when I took it, and the pic is absolutely beautiful. I enlarged it and it hangs in the bedroom...)

 

[vicb]

I have been 3 times now as an adult with my family and each time we learn somethings and adjust our next trip.

First trip: Learned to "go with the flow", I (mom) had certain expectations that were not realistic. My kids were young (3 and 6) and wanted to only do MK and resort pool. Once I accepted that we weren't going to "do it all" we had a great trip... at the pool and MK! LOL

Second trip: Kids were 6 and 9, stayed at an Epcot resort to get away from only doing MK. Kids liked Epcot area, BW activities and were better able to handle night time activities. There was no ee during this time so we slept in more and they could stay up later.

Third trip: We knew we wanted to spend more time at MGM and Epcot and we did. We ate at 4 WS restaurants and loved them! We tried to spend more time relaxing at the pool. We spent a whole day at BB.... what fun!

Next trip: No DTD for us, been there...done that. Would like to see La Nouba, more WS at night, more pool time, definitely rent surrey bikes again!

 

[disneymom99]

When we were at Disney last year, we did E-ride night at MK and planned to get up the following morning to do EE at Epcot. MISTAKE!! What were we thinking? We didn't get in until after 1:00 am and planned on getting up at 5:45 to get ready for EE. Never again!! The next time we do E-ride night, we will not plan anything for the following morning. That day will probably be a non park day.

Live and learn

 

[captJack88]

Next time we are planning more days of rest! On our trip last April, we went for 7 days and bought 5 DPH's, since it was our first trip that the kids would remember we wanted to do all the parks and have a day to park hop. We had a great time and got to see everything, but we were beat. So now that we have seen everything, on our next trip, we will still go seven days but only get 4 DPH's, and still may come back with a day left, but we will have more pool time, thats for sure. We will also do a character meal for the kids ( aww who am I kidding it, would be for ME!!!)

 

[hockey mom]

I will never bring snacks into the parks to try and save a few bucks again. My kids are eating fruit snacks and what they really want is the Mickey ice-cream bar, and it just wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[Keebles]

I think I learned more "lessons" this past January, that I ever thought!!

1. Leave the Grumpy bear (my step-dad) at home. When we went in 1980 (I was ten), it was the last family trip I ever took and swore I'd never go anywhere with him again. But hey, I figured I'm grown now, he's older, we could have a good time! WRONG!!

2. Take better pics...I spent so much time getting "artsy" shots of things that interested me, I didn't realize when I showed my pics to friends family, I'd have to explain what everything was.

3. See the shows...thought we wouldn't like so I didn't schedule them in, but caught the Lion King show by accident and loved it!!

4. Afternoon breaks...we all pretty much crashed by 7:00 and really spent no Q.T. at P.I.

5. More DisneyQuest...yes folks, even adults can enjoy DisneyQuest, who knew?

6. More money...$1300 spending money for 7 days just ain't enough!! I was broke by day 4.

I could probably come up with a dozen more!! Oh well, all will make the next trip even better!!

 

[jobanana]

Not go w/ my D father. We went together in 97 and had a blast. But, I guess when you're still in love it's more fun. We wanted her first time there to be w/ both of us and we had so much fun before what could possible go wrong?!?! He was pouty and whiny. Something he denies now. In his mind it was a great time watching him not smiling and just moping around. I didn't force him to go. In fact I paid for the room and tickets myself! If I had any idea it would have been like that I would have taken someone else. Up until the minute we pulled out of the driveway I had NOOOOO idea he was going to be poopy. As you can see I'm still mad. He doesn't know I'm taking her back next sept. W/OUT him. And too bad if he doesn't like it. He shouldn't have poo pooed this past trip. Rant over.

 

[te2077]

this is acutally my trip where im adding in my hind sight from before. this time im leaving in the afternoon(even have the day off that day) and staying on site the first night. doing this because in the past ive always had to be at the airport at 5:30 am or earlier, never sleep that night and have never seemed to get caught up on sleep while at wdw and get grouchy twards the end of the trip. were also staying at the akl this time and plan to do breaks and not try to commando it so much this year. might even take in a movie one night when the parks close earlier.

 

[disneyjunkie]

QUOTE]Originally posted by hockey mom
I will never bring snacks into the parks to try and save a few bucks again. My kids are eating fruit snacks and what they really want is the Mickey ice-cream bar, and it just wasn't worth the hassle. [/QUOTE]



I can't believe how much food I wasted on our last trip. We had all kinds of snacks and breakfast food in our room. Most of it ended up in the trash before we left.

On our first trip in 2001, we were there for 7 nights 8 days. To save money I purchased the 5 day park hopper plus passes with 4 plus options for my son and I. I figured the days we didn't go to a major park, we'd do a water park or just relax by the pool. That was fine until about 6:00 or 7:00 when we really wanted to go to one of the parks but I didn't want to waste a park day for just a few hours.

Whenever we go now, I make sure we have tickets that will allow us to go into the parks each day of our trip. During our last trip we went to Disney Quest for 3 hours. There's no way I would have done that if I had to pay to get in.

 

[LorieR]

I am going to do things when the opportunity presents itself!

Last time my DH and I went to Disney was in Dec. 2002 at POR. We rented a surrey bike the first day and rode around the resort. That evening he wanted to take a ride in the the horse and carriage but I wanted to "save" it for another night!! Big mistake!!! Rained just about every night after that or it was too cold!! I am not "saving" anything this time.


Lorie