Mistakes you made while at the Parks

[Tara922c]

I don't know how I did this, but I got fast passes for POTC, did a little park touring, dug out my FP, and realised that they were for Jungle Cruise. I felt really dumb, and after all the times I have been to MK, I can't beleive I did that! Might have been the rain (we were there that week in May), or the fact that I was so upset about the rain. The worst part about it was the FP return time was for like 2 hours away, but JC was a walk on, as was POTC. Just a dumb moment for me at MK!

 

[honeydiane1953]

Getting too tired and not leaving for a rest. But the one that I NEED THERAPY for is not understanding the dining plan one year and our family left yes LEFT 19 snacks. I am a foodie so I will never get over this.

 

[lorraine31]

worst mistake was attempting to spend the whole of our first day at the parks on independence day.

We had flown from Glasgow on the 3rd, spent 9 hours on the plane and landed about 5pm. Completely shattered that night, we went to bed about 9pm US time, which was like 2am for us. Then woke up at 5. 30am and couldn't get back to sleep, so we got up and went to the parks. We really wanted to see the fireworks, but couldn't manage it. Got to 1 hour before the firewroks started and had to leave, beacause we were so tired.

The whole thing totally screwed us up for the rest of the holiday and we were shattered the whole time. Totally learnt our lesson and only spend a couple of hours at the park on the first day.

 

[Tomh]

Thanks to the DIS, we didn't make a lot of mistakes, but there were a few.

With a group of seven, we foolishly tried to do mid day breaks, which totally didn't work for us. We used more energy, and wasted more time trying to take a break than it was worth. After about the second day, I gave up on that, and from that point on, we have never bothered with breaks.

We meandered into AK at about 10:00 in the morning on a day when the park had AM EMH. It was a DISASTER! We then wasted the better part of an hour waiting for my cousin to pick out a pair of flip flops to buy because she had a hole in hers (the hole was there before we left NY to go to Florida, why she didn't just buy a new pair in NY I don't know). By the time we got started in the park, we managed the Safari, and walked one of the forest trails, then it started pouring, so we headed for lunch, and wound up sitting outside in the rain to eat. We went to see Rafikis Planet Watch, and the Conservation Station, and that was pretty much all we got done the whole day.

The first year we didn't really understand that you can use fast passes after the ride window has expired, so we rushed back and forth across the park to use our FP's during their window, and ones that we weren't able to get to in time we didn't use. It was on day 5 of our 7 day trip that it finally dawned on me that I had read here you could use them late, so we tried on TT, and sure enough they were accepted. That made the last two days, and our entire next trip a lot easier on our feet.

 

[kimis]

Here are a few mistakes we have made over the years.....
*Shoes (I have arthritis in both ankles and usually by the end of the day I couldn't walk
but found crocs and love them)
*not walking a few nights a week before the trip (this helps get you in disney mood)
*buying water ( they will give you water for free)
*using snack tokens for bananas ( they are a dollar and I feel this gives disney to much
of your snack money )
*scheduling too many good resturants in the same day.
Enjoy and have fun!

 

[Sora1978]

I used the DDP on my last trip and I hated it. Eating at a TS resturant is a big time commitment, not just the time spent in the restaurant but scheduling your day around mealtime is tough. Since you are waiting in lines for about an hour on average for each ride you need to start planning for lunch about 90 minutes before your reservation. Next time I would not make so many ADRs.

Another big mistake was planning to do two parks in one day. I stayed at the Monorail resorts and just to get from MK to epcot took over an hour. (Some people say that AK and DHS are half-day parks but there really is enough to keep you entertained for a full day) I like the park hopper option for flexibility, but I wouldn't plan to do AK until 9AM to 5PM and then MK until 11PM.

 

[tinkerdee]

I can't tell you how many times on previous trips we said "oh, we can come back to that later" and never did. Then we would go back the next year and it was no longer This year we are doing everything we want when we see it. Last year we tried going back to the room mid day to relax, and wasted so much time. The kids would swim, which is great, but being teenage girls it would take forever to get out and we would get back to the park for dinner and a few rides and then head to the hotel again. We found if we are in the parks we stay there all day, if we get tired we do a sit down show or ride or have a relaxing meal. It's all good though, Disney magic at its best.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Too many ADRs/too much food, which caused us to have to work our fun in around meals instead of working meals in around the fun. It also caused us to be too full to really enjoy ourselves. I will never do the DDP again...

 

[SnowWtch]

We went commando on more than on occasion and wound up hurting so bad we didn't have much fun. It made the car ride back home terrible as well. We were never so happy to get home.

 

[vettechick99]

Worst mistake at the park was stopping for characters and photopass before getting our fast passes. We missed Toy Story Mania last trip because all the fast passes were gone!

Rookie mistake. We run past the characters!

My worst mistake was also shoes. I can not emphasize enough how important the right shoe is.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Letting the kids make the plans for Epcot. I missed out this year on most all of the World Showcase and I am still kicking myself.

 

[Seeker615]

I have not been to Disney for 10 years but I remember the first mistake was taking my 4 year old on the Snow White Ride. She hated it and it was a nightmare to get her on anything else rest of the day. (And silly me I knew ahead of time that a lot of young kids are terrified of this ride but she wanted to ride it)


My other mistake which I corrected was trying to see it all. I had everyone rushing here and there. Once I realized we can't do it all we had more fun living in the moment.

 

[LilGMom]

Biggest mistake - Going with newbies that didn't believe in riding anything more than once. Also big mistake of not ditching the extended family members mid-day each day.

 

[Grumpy's Old Lady]

Not visiting all of the shops at the World Showcase and not drinking enough water during the day. The trip in May this year I am drinking only water and going to Epcot for 3 days and thoroughly seeing the shops.

 

[littlepeppers]

You can't do Disney with too many people in tow.

Let the extended family & friends go their own way. Do your thing. See them for dinner & when you get home. This makes comparing pictures & videos more fun anyway. You can have an after party at your house for the pictures & video. Get some food, drinks, lots of desserts & enjoy sharing memories & moments.

RELAX!!!!! You will never please everyone. You will spend all of your time pleasing others & not your immediate family.

Let your kids be the guide (with your guidance). Do buzzlightyear 4 times. It takes years to do everything, & trying to cram it in isn't wroth it. Vacations shouldn't be stressful. Now we don't sleep in or come in early. We payed $ for this & we are going to do stuff. We can sleep in & relax in front of the TV at home (it's cheaper there).

 

[KandD]

Biggest Mistake - Not making time for relaxation!!! Last time (our first whole-family trip) I went all sorts of commando all up in my family's face.... Not to say we didn't have fun, and I really wanted to get our money's worth (it's a lot for us to spend on a vaca)... but by the last day we were so exhausted we skipped our last park day just to lounge around the resort pool. Even with that, I returned home with Mono. Out of my entire fam, i was the only one with it. According to my doctor (insert DH's "I told you so's" here) the doc said it was really b/c I pushed myself so hard and stressed out so much about the "perfect" vacation.

Trying very hard to "schedule in" lots and lots of relaxation this time 'round!!! Including one entire "no park" days and lots of early evenings and one or two "sleep in" days (I would have more, but we are all early birds).

Along the same lines sort of...about two years ago we had an early flight like always, hit MK after checking in like always, but we stayed ALL day and even stayed for the fireworks. We were EXHAUSTED! We had Disney adrenaline during the day I think but by the time we were walking to our car we almost collapsed!
So make sure you take it easy on the first day (especially if you have to wake up at 3 or 4 in the am to catch a flight).

 

[Princess Figment]

I packed a different pair of cute shoes for each night we were there, and only one pair of sneakers to wear everyday. My feet decided they didn't like the sneakers I brought (even though they were fine and broken in at home- so frustrating!) and I didn't have a backup.

I learned to always bring 2 pairs of comfortable shoes! After all, there will be no cute shoes at night if you're a blistery mess from a long day in the parks.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Don't book too many character meals.

Don't try to keep 11 people together all the time.

Make sure you don't get stuck trying to leave a part during a parade. The 3PM parade starts at 3PM

Don't panic if everything doesn't go perfectly.

Remember, you are on vacation.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Forgot one:

Don't overpack.

 

[LadyGracey]

Arriving at park opening and staying through evening EMH with no midday hotel break, for every day of a 4-night trip...in JULY...AND leaving the MK 9am-3am day for last!!!! By that MK day I was totally exhausted and sore, and it ceased to be fun. I just wanted to swim and go to sleep!

Needless to say I have learned a little since then
It was a fun trip but I will never do that again-I like my breaks now.