OK Experts: What's the biggest Disney mistake you have made?

[scarlet_ibis]

Whether you've given bad advice, whether your planning and scheduling was off, whether you were new to the whole Disney thing, or whether you just plain had your facts wrong, what's the biggest goof you've made re: Disney?

 

[scarlet_ibis]

My scheduling "oops," which seemed to bother everyone else in our party more than it bothered me, was scheduling the Lilo & Stich breakfast at 'Ohana when we were staying at BCV. Traveling resort-to-resort can be a big pain and the Magic Kingdom bus never seemed to come that morning. When we finally got there, we needed to decide whether to try monorail or resort boat to get to the Polynesian. We took the boat and were just a few minutes late, but it took well over an hour to get there.

My mom ( ) tends to have navigational oopsies, mostly involving the monorail. Trying to get from Epcot to BLT one afternoon, she accidentally got back onto the Epcot monorail and had to loop around again. Another time, another trip, she was trying to get from Via Napoli back to BLT with leftovers and (remembering her last monorail hardships) she walked to the Epcot bus stops only to find that there was no bus to the Contemporary or to Magic Kingdom, so she had to go back to the monorail. All in all, she said it took her almost 3 hours to make that round trip and from then on, they took the boat to HS from Epcot and the bus back to BLT. The monorail is her nemesis!!!

 

[JohnsonsRUs]

When booking our airline for our trip that is coming up in November, I apparently didn't pay very close attention to our departure and arrival dates because I was so excited about the cheap fares. I ended up booking us to depart and return on the same day. Of course, I didn't even know it until I got a time update from the airline (thank goodness for that) and realized what had happened. So much for the cheap airfare, I ended up having to pay $100 per person change fees to get it corrected. That will teach me to slow down and pay closer attention!

 

[jadeblue13]

On our first trip we checked in and were told we would "never make it" to our Hoop De Doo reservation on time. After running to our room to drop off carryons, we carreened over to the taxi stand to order a taxi-the very nice CM there told us we had plenty of time and told us exactly how to get there. She was a lifesaver.

Trip 2- Hoop De Doo-left super early- POFQ bus stopped at every stop in POR, then we got on the wrong interior bus at Fort Wilderness, my husband's foot swelled up so he couldn't run-I am pooh sized but I made a run for it anyway-felt like I would have a heart attack-the CM at the door laughed and said they were waiting for us-don't worry-Too Late

Hoop De Doo is still our favorite show to see-hope to get back there next year. We will definitely be taking a taxi.

 

[mom2cookies]

1st Believing when i was told that i could go into the park and get Fastpasses for all the rides at one time. 2nd Another was eatting lunch too close to dinner. 3rd not staying for NYE fireworks the one and only time we were there between Christmas and New Years. But on my behalf, kids were small and i had a migraine.

 

[olwyngdh]

Our biggest mistake was believing the guidebooks when they said that Animal Kingdom can be done in less than a day--we spent a full day there, and still missed large sections of it!

 

[Dragontears]

My DH did 21 years in the Navy, many of them in the southern California area. We did so many day trips to Disneyland, that I can’t count them. So when we did our first WDW in 2007, even though it was a long trip, I was prepared. Everything went as planned.

However, the trip next month may be another story. I deliberately went for early October to be sure the kids were all back in school. (We have no school age kids) But here in the Midwest schools do not get fall breaks; snow days keep them I class well into June as is. Now I find out that the week of our vacation is a holiday for southern schools.

All that planning and checking weather etc. and I still may have blown it.

 

[sweetbambi]

I forgot my reading glasses one year---there at that time was not a single place on the property or at Downtown Disney to get a pair of reading glasses so at dinner, DH had to read me the menu. I could not read myself to sleep, could not see the prices when I was shopping....it was awful. Finally after 4 days of listening to me complain, we took a taxi to Walmart.

 

[adamsclan]

The first time we took all 5 kids, I didn't make any dining reservations. You can't exactly luck into a table for 7, so most of the trip we were frustrated every time we needed to eat. Now I try to book 1 ADR a day.

 

[DisneyBum303]

Carrying a purse! A really big, throw everything in it purse! I couldn't understand why my back always hurt a few days into our vacation

I later moved onto fanny packs, and finally settled on a small little girl sized backpack a few years ago. Now I carry only the essentials and have never had so much as a twinge in my back since!!

 

[Sarahleigh]

Carrying a purse! A really big, throw everything in it purse! I couldn't understand why my back always hurt a few days into our vacation

I later moved onto fanny packs, and finally settled on a small little girl sized backpack a few years ago. Now I carry only the essentials and have never had so much as a twinge in my back since!!

Purses are a no-no! I learned too. I could hardly move my shoulder after 2 days and I don't even want to think about the huge rash I had from having a "leather" strap on my shoulder for 7 days all day in sweltering heat. Ouch.

My biggest mistake? Ignoring the fastpass feature... While planning for this next trip I go through the lists of attractions and man, did we miss A LOT on our last trip!

 

[smidgy]

booking a trip in July (the restaurant where I work closed for the month), and not knowing anything about the Brazilain tour groups. staying at the same value resort with them, in the SAME section, while they yelled, chanted, swam, and played soccer until 1 Am, when they were finally told to be quiet (due to our complaints), but still were noist till at least 2 am.
I can't believe we didn't know about this and didn't do our homework!

 

[Christinarella]

Our biggest mistake was not realizing that it would take more than one day to do Future World AND the World Showcase at Epcot.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

My biggest mistake was trying to get from Splash Mtn to Tomorrowland right as Spectromagic started. We were trapped, and you would have thought I learned the first time it happened. I can promise you that it will never happen again though.

 

[DreamLiveLoveDisney]

Great thread!! I'm subbing!!

 

[mjh8955]

I lugged all kinds of door decorations down one time, thinking it looked like fun and wanted people to write on our marker board. We were placed at the far end of a remote section of Pop, no one anywhere near us, not a soul signed our board and I doubt if anyone even saw our decorations. Never going to waste the time, effort or suitcase room to do that again!

 

[alexi120]

I don't have any mistakes to report, but I'm learning a lot here. Subbing!

 

[TravelinMouse]

I made two transportation no-nos on the same day! It was a mid-vacation "day off" and I decided to take the bus to Downtown Disney for lunch @ Bongo's. The place was really dead and so afterwards I decided not to stick around and went to wait for the bus. After 40 minutes of melting in the sun there was nary a bus. I took the first bus going anywhere (I was trying to go to the Poly where I had ADRs for the Spirit of Aloha). I transferred to the MK, took the monorail to Poly, and had wasted an hour and a half of my life. Then after the luau I thought I was smart enough to make it back to Pop Century. Maybe it was the mai tai's talking? I remembered in the past you could catch resort buses from the TTC, so I took the monorail to the TTC and found a very dark, scary, deserted place. Then I realized the last time that information was relevant was about 15 years ago. Soooo, took the monorail back to Poly, asked how to get home, took the monorail to MK, walked 2 miles to the bus stop, and finally bussed back to Pop. Another hour and a half of my life wasted. So the moral of this story- buses to Downtown Disney are few and far between, and if you aren't sure how to get from Point A to Point B: ASK!

 

[dansyr2514]

booking dining reservations too early!

I would always try to get prime time at restaurants 5:00...5:30pm. We would always miss them because we wouldn't want to leave the park to go shower and change. I've learned 7:30ish is a muc better time for us.

 

[knitster]

Excellent thread! We're making what could be our only WDW trip ever in May, and I want to learn from other's mistakes as much as I can!