What would you do differently?

[momof2n2]

It's funny, to me, how many people in this thread say they would switch to flying instead of driving. Once we switched to driving our experience got so much better! Now I can bring anything I want to bring, and not worry about luggage limits. Granted we always rent houses, and prefer to stay two weeks. I want more of my own things when I am there for so long.

 

[Disneyliscious]

What did you learn from your first trip, that you would do differently next time around?

Our first trips were in the months of June, July and August. I have since learned to go in October (lovely weather). You're likely going to fight crowds at some point during your trip so at least plan to do it in nice weather if possible. It honestly makes the crowds seem not so bad.

This time around, we are packing our lunches for the parks instead of spending $60-$140 per meal for 3 of us. I did this back in 1996 and it broke me down carrying everything for our meal (was heavy). So now I will find a middle ground and pack our food but not our drinks. We'll buy drinks for our meals in the parks.

For the first time I am flying instead of driving. Its a 12 hour drive or a 2 hour flight. By doing this, I can add an entire day to our vacation that use to be used for travel time.

Staying off site in a house or condo instead of a hotel. When my parents took me as a kid, all that was available was hotels. Not anymore. I haven't stayed in a hotel in 15 years now and never will. You can rent private houses/condos within 2 miles of Disney and its SO nice to have the space.

 

[BudgieMama]

Things we'll do differently:

* A longer trip. 7 nights is too short. 14 nights for us next time. We couldn't have committed to 2 weeks without trying a short trip first, but with the cost of flights, it's worth a longer stay.

* AK needs at leadt 2.5 days for us to see properly.

* I can't see the fireworks one day and make Rope Drop the next morning. I need more sleep than that.

* DTD isn't our thing. We can finish our visit there in about 2 hours. We'll probably go to pick up our gift card and visit World of Disney and that's it. In fact, I might not bother taking DH.

* One QS credit easily feeds 2 adults. We don't need to worry so much!

 

[mshanson3121]

This time around, we are packing our lunches for the parks instead of spending $60-$140 per meal for 3 of us. I did this back in 1996 and it broke me down carrying everything for our meal (was heavy). So now I will find a middle ground and pack our food but not our drinks. We'll buy drinks for our meals in the parks.

How old is your child? For counter service, indoor, sit down meals, we never spent more than $40 and that was for four of us. I found the food very reasonable, and the drinks and snacks over-priced. I'd pack my own drinks and snacks, and buy the meal there.

 

[Mikie]

I say this every time, but eventually I'll learn to spend more time at the resort and possibly a whole break day mid-trip! Maybe I'll choose a new resort that really tempts us in order to encourage this.

We love TS restaurants at WDW, but I think I'll cut back. We're outgrowing so many character meals, and it would be nice to not feel tied to a specific park each day or specific time to be somewhere.

I was happy not to do hoppers previously with the ages of our family and traveling in off times when park hous are a bit shorter, BUT I think we'll be forced to look at more peak times on our next trip and the kids are becoming night owls too - hopping may be a new thing for us.

We're the awkward-for-Disney family of 5, so it may be time for us to learn about the benefits of leaving "the bubble" and see how an offsite rental suits us.

 

[Cando86]

When it's hot, you're just not going to get as much done as you hoped. We got a lot less done this September than we did in January but were 100x more exhausted from the September trip. I think if we go again in the summer I'd take it a LOT easier. I read that a mid-day break when it's hot is crucial but thought we could handle it. I was wrong. And we're two twenty somethings without kids. I won't make that mistake again. The one day we DID take a break was one of our best days. It's just so necessary in that heat. It completely exhausts you.

 

[crazylady]

Not let my husband get a vote! We usually go to the parks every other day which works great for us for a week long trip. Last trip was a short trip and I wanted a 3 day base tickets for 3 shortish days. DH talked me into a 2 day bopper which didn't work great on a short trip for us.

 

[mitchwebb]

Keep to Holiday trips. We have done thanksgiving ,NYE (Favorite) and spring break. We are trying FW next year. The Winter Holidays are our favorites. Spring break was a little to hot for us. We're lucky to be one hour to the beach, three hours Tahoe, three hours Yosemite and six to disneyland. Not to add some reasonable price flights to Hawaii. Warm weather we have to many local options.

We will not fly non-stop in the winter months. We were able to get out of Denver about ten hours before it closed for two days on our last trip.

No FP+ before 11am, teens and early mornings when you are from the West Coast is setting yourself up for disaster. another reason we like holiday trips when Magic Kingdom is open until 2 or 3am.

We like less ADR's and more eating at bars and small plates.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

From our last trip with two young kids, I decided that this coming February we should:

1 - make fewer ADRs. While my DH and I both enjoy the breaks, the kids simply get too antsy.

2 - bring peanut butter sandwiches for the kids' lunch on park days. I cringed the few times I paid $6 for an Uncrustable, 5 mini carrots and 5 grapes. I would rather bring a couple of sandwiches of my own and pay $2 for a whole apple.

3 - schedule more non-park days. My boys loved the pool and the playground, but with only one down day on our last trip, I felt like we were "wasting" park tickets to go for only 5 or 6 hours then leave to play in the pool.

4 - study the maps (including DTD and the resorts) and memorize where all the bathrooms are. And ask twice if anyone has to go before moving on, because sometimes a child may answer no on impulse, think about it for all of 10 or 15 seconds, and then decide he really meant yes.

5 - wait until our last day in each park or DTD to buy souvenirs. When we bought things as we saw them, we ended up with so much stuff. And this time, my 5 year old will have his own gift card and have to budget (with help, of course).

 

[Bricket]

Can't skip HS----hello---Fantasmic!

 

[pens4821]

In order of importance for me

1. Lower expectations. This is the one thing that I'd say is most important for us (and it ties into number 4 also). We had such high hopes of how every day was going to work out, and what my nephew would do, and none of it happened. It was very frustrating, and towards the end of our trip I said screw it, and had much more fun. My nephew wasn't into riding much, which was annoying because that's why we were there. But in the end he had a GREAT time, and that's truly all that matters. We didn't have every minute planned, but did plan on doing more. Between little things popping up unexpectedly, someone really enjoying something and wanting to do it again, and the day moving fast, my mental plan of how the days were going to work out were nothing like how they happened. This time I have a couple things planned per day (will be FP+ and ADRS and thats it) the rest of day is up in the air.

2. Get park hoppers. While I know some people hate them, we were sorry we didn't get them. Even though it was January and hours were short, we just felt like they would've let us tour better. We went to Epcot on our first day, and while we got tired around 4-5, we figured it was stupid to go back to the resort, so we stuck it out until about 8. If we would've had hoppers, we could've went back another evening (we really didn't see world showcase at all). HS has our favorite rides so we planned two days there (and none at AK), but that was too much. Although I wouldn't have done it different because we really love RNRC, TOT, and TSM.

3. Get the dining plan or at least make more ADR's. Once again, I know some don't like it, but we could make it work. We usually like more expensive things, and we like buffets, so it'd be worth it for us. Even if not, we should've made more ADRs for dinner. We made for Chef Mickey's and Coral Reef and lucked into walking up to Tutto Italia, but we would've liked a nicer meal every other day. Eating QS for lunch then dinner everyday got old. While I know some do have different things, we just got tired of it. We ate too many burgers, and really they weren't that good at the QS locations.

4. Everyone in the party do as you please (if you have multiple kids and not adults that's hard though). It was 4 adults and my 5 year old nephew. We did so much waiting for my brother and nephew. We've decided next time that we don't have to be together at all times. Do what we want, try to be together as much as possible, and everyone will be happy. Nephew wanted to swim, we wanted to tour. If he wants to swim next time, he can more than we let him last time.

5. Stay cheap. If you have the money, then go for it. We are a middle class family, and the extra money wasn't worth it to us. would've rather put that extra money towards better dinners. This is hard for me as I LOVE CR and want to stay in a nice place-not an All Star. While we're still staying on property, we've decided to save some money and go All Stars. We did split stay (which went smooth and I'd do again FYI) at AOA suite and CR TPV. It was amazing, but we really didn't have time to enjoy the resort (did take one day off from parks at AOA). Maybe, like some here, if we went more regularly and didn't tour all day it would be worth it, but we spent very minimal time at CR. It was $500+ per night, and I think that by the time we got to the room to see Wishes, everyone showered, it was about time for bed. Then up in the morning and relax and leave.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

No ADR's, other than MAYBE a breakfast before park opening. We did just one, a lunch. And trying to make sure we were there on time, plus the actual time the lunch took, well there's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back!

Spend more time at Epcot - and as it was, we were there more than any other park, but it still wasn't enough.

Skip DHS. Glad we did it once, but don't feel any sort of pull to return, especially with the changes in the works.

2 days at MK & 2 at AK. We were able to do everything we wanted in 1 day each. But, there's more of MK we would like to just explore & we love everything at AK (besides EE) enough to do everything over again on the same trip.

Glad we did RD daily
Glad we did the water parks
Glad we drove (1,100 miles each way)
Thrilled with our offsite accommodations

 

[J'Adore Disney]

I live 3 and a half hours away from WDW, therefore, I'm considered a "distant local." A lot of my friends go to Disney during the weekend; they leave on Friday and come back Sunday. I avoid weekends entirely.

I also avoid Disney during June, July and early August. I usually request days off from work and book my stays during the work week.

Wednesdays and Thursdays, in my opinion, are the best days of the week to visit Magic Kingdom.

I stay on property and [patiently] use Disney bus transportation if I'm not staying at a resort that is within walking or monorail distance to a park.

And last but not least, my family and I mostly "wing it" . I've actually seen people walking around Magic Kingdom with a spreadsheet!!! With all due respect, this is a tad ridiculous. I understand that some people are coming from other states, other countries, and may not be able to ever visit Disney again, however, so much planning takes the fun out of the Disney Experience! Unfortunately, Walt Disney World cannot entirely be done during one visit. I've visited 40+ times and I still have yet to do it all!

Let It Go, the robotic planning that is, and have a wonderful time, see Disney through the eyes of your child (i.e. don’t force them go get on a ride if they are afraid; don’t repeatedly remind them how much the trip cost you), sit on a bench and people watch while enjoying a cool drink, watch a parade, try to ride at least one of the mountains, pay attention to the details, enjoy your surroundings, don’t leave before the fireworks, and don't get sucked into the souvenir shops. Let your vacation flow naturally.

 

[JustCor]

This is the first year I've been to WDW and I've learned a bunch from each trip:

• Don't over-plan. I had less fun when I made massive, plans that crammed in a bunch of stuff because I always felt like time was working against me. My "plans" are now a loose framework of things that will point me in a direction now, with more space in between.
• Early dinners. I found that having dinners at 4-5ish got me in to most restaurants on property before the rush. Also, because of the larger portions of food, I'd have much more time to walk off all of it before the end of the day, and I could always get a small snack if I was hungry later. It was easier than eating a big dinner at 7 or 8 and then ending the day with a mass of food still trying to digest.
• Park hoppers are awesome. Granted, I've never had anything but a park hopper (AP holder), but I couldn't go without it. There have been trips where my day will start at one park, and with the volume of people, it works out better to just change gears and spend most of the day at another park.
• Avoid the buses. Yes, in some instances it's harder to do, but I've done pretty well to avoid most of the buses, even with park hoppers. DHS to Epcot by relaxing boat ride. Epcot to MK by mono. DTD by boat if you're staying at POR or POFQ. During the hotter days, there were few things more refreshing than hopping on the boat from DHS and recovering in a nice air conditioned boat ride. I'd arrive at Epcot completely refreshed and ready to go.
• MK is awesome after 5pm. I keep falling into the trap of trying to plan out a full day at MK, and it's fun, but I enjoy it far more if I start there later in the day. My favorite MK days are EMH days that I don't even get to the park until 6pm. By then, the crowds start to taper off a little and the crushing heat is subsiding. There are still plenty of hours to do a lot of stuff without the added burden of a potential heat stroke.
• A good resort is the equal to a day at a park. I learned that on the last trip, where I stayed at ASMo. It wasn't a good resort (for me). I didn't realize how much exploring of resorts I've done when staying at Poly, AKL, or POR. There seemed to be a good deal to see and things to do that were independent of being at the parks. It was a viable option to the park madness to still have a Disney experience while also recharging the internal batteries. I did do a little walk around at GF that was amazing and really hammered home how important the right resort can be. ASMo seemed to have nothing and I just did not like the aesthetics, atmosphere, or feel of the resort. I might as well have stayed off property.
• Good QS is hard to find. I spend more for TS because so much of the QS places have such middling to bad food. Not that a QS place can't be great, mind you. Friar's Nook is my absolute favorite spot to eat in all of WDW, and it's a often overlooked place that really only serves mac and cheese. But what wonderful mac and cheese it is.
• The little things are fun. I have a nice collection of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. I look forward to collecting my new cards each trip, even though I have most of them now. I love playing the game. Just visiting each of the portals and seeing how they are incorporated into the surroundings is fun. It's an excellent way to kill a little time and get out of the crowds. It was also a great way to get to know the different areas of MK. I'm working my way up through the game still. I might have strongly considered spending an entire day at MK just playing SOTMK just to finish it and start fresh. I see lots of kids playing the Perry game at Epcot, and it looks like a similar thing.
• Ziploc bags are good. It's Florida and it rains. Often. My first big rain storm at the park had me flat out soaked. It also soaked my phone, my camera, and my wallet. Now, they sit in a Ziploc. Great for water rides, too.
• Solo trips are awesome. I've done a lot of solo trips so far, and they've been lots of fun. There's something very freeing about being able to change plans on a whim, glide through crowds, and do whatever without having to pass it by a committee. It's worth doing, even if it's just once.

Not a bad list for my first year of Disney.

 

[PurpleKomodo]

After our first trip with DS, the things I would change would be:

• Spend less time at AK. I really like that park, but it is probably my least favorite and DS was completely unimpressed (even though he usually likes zoos). A half day to see FOTLK, Nemo the Musical, and ride Everest. There is not much else there that is a must for us.
• Spend more time at EPCOT. DS could not get enough EPCOT. He loved it so much that he even chose to buy the EPCOT playset. I love the ambiance at EPCOT too. I feel so relaxed there.
• Go to a princess meal even though I have a boy. DS loves princesses, but we skipped the princess meal because I was afraid it would be all little girls getting all the attention. With how much he love the princess M&Gs, I think a princess meal would be so fun with him.
• Choose only 1 FP+ a day to do together with a big group. We had a group of 9 and we often had most FP+ booked to ride together. We split up more than I expected and sometimes even ended up at different parks. I think we should have just picked one attraction to do together, booked it first, and then let everyone else pick their own other 2.
• Give the whole group a time 30 minutes before you want to leave the resort. We missed the welcome show at MK and RD at EPCOT because we were waiting for people to get ready and left almost 30 minutes later than we wanted to leave.
• Go in fewer stores. I love shopping at Disney (even window shopping and not buying), but the toys and things with all of his beloved characters in each shop was just way too exciting for DS. Shopping turned into frustration really fast because his ears turned off as soon as we entered the store. I think I would have been better off limiting the browsing a bit.

 

[caroline1851]

Not waste money on Crystal Palace lunch.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Can't skip HS----hello---Fantasmic!

Unanimous choice for least favorite theme park attraction ever in our family.

 

[revdon64]

Do differently this time?

Travel days exclusively for travel. We used to book our return flight for late in the day and hit a park in the morning. It was fine when it was just DW and I; too much for the littles on the last two trips.
Less time in the parks and more time in the resorts. We're taking one whole day just to resort hop this trip.
See more of the nighttime stuff. Planning "you've got no choice in the matter" naps for our boys so that we can do MVMCP, Illuminations, Candlelight Processional, Fantasmic, Osborne Lights. We've had to skip/miss a lot of nighttime stuff on our last two trips.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Although it's been many years since our first trip, one thing we learned the hard way was realize that WDW is HUGE. That means don't make a Character Breakfast ressie anywhere early in the morning. We found out we had to drag the kids out of bed and be on the buses an hour earlier. The second time we found that the most enjoyable character breakfasts were the ones near to or if we were lucky, even IN the resort we were staying at.

 

[TiffanyA]

Wow, I do have a twin.

In order of importance for me

1. Lower expectations. This is the one thing that I'd say is most important for us (and it ties into number 4 also). We had such high hopes of how every day was going to work out, and what my nephew would do, and none of it happened. It was very frustrating, and towards the end of our trip I said screw it, and had much more fun. My nephew wasn't into riding much, which was annoying because that's why we were there. But in the end he had a GREAT time, and that's truly all that matters. We didn't have every minute planned, but did plan on doing more. Between little things popping up unexpectedly, someone really enjoying something and wanting to do it again, and the day moving fast, my mental plan of how the days were going to work out were nothing like how they happened. This time I have a couple things planned per day (will be FP+ and ADRS and thats it) the rest of day is up in the air.

2. Get park hoppers. While I know some people hate them, we were sorry we didn't get them. Even though it was January and hours were short, we just felt like they would've let us tour better. We went to Epcot on our first day, and while we got tired around 4-5, we figured it was stupid to go back to the resort, so we stuck it out until about 8. If we would've had hoppers, we could've went back another evening (we really didn't see world showcase at all). HS has our favorite rides so we planned two days there (and none at AK), but that was too much. Although I wouldn't have done it different because we really love RNRC, TOT, and TSM.

3. Get the dining plan or at least make more ADR's. Once again, I know some don't like it, but we could make it work. We usually like more expensive things, and we like buffets, so it'd be worth it for us. Even if not, we should've made more ADRs for dinner. We made for Chef Mickey's and Coral Reef and lucked into walking up to Tutto Italia, but we would've liked a nicer meal every other day. Eating QS for lunch then dinner everyday got old. While I know some do have different things, we just got tired of it. We ate too many burgers, and really they weren't that good at the QS locations.

4. Everyone in the party do as you please (if you have multiple kids and not adults that's hard though). It was 4 adults and my 5 year old nephew. We did so much waiting for my brother and nephew. We've decided next time that we don't have to be together at all times. Do what we want, try to be together as much as possible, and everyone will be happy. Nephew wanted to swim, we wanted to tour. If he wants to swim next time, he can more than we let him last time.

5. Stay cheap. If you have the money, then go for it. We are a middle class family, and the extra money wasn't worth it to us. would've rather put that extra money towards better dinners. This is hard for me as I LOVE CR and want to stay in a nice place-not an All Star. While we're still staying on property, we've decided to save some money and go All Stars. We did split stay (which went smooth and I'd do again FYI) at AOA suite and CR TPV. It was amazing, but we really didn't have time to enjoy the resort (did take one day off from parks at AOA). Maybe, like some here, if we went more regularly and didn't tour all day it would be worth it, but we spent very minimal time at CR. It was $500+ per night, and I think that by the time we got to the room to see Wishes, everyone showered, it was about time for bed. Then up in the morning and relax and leave.