We took our kids to WDW in April 2016, at the time our kids were 6 and 4. It was my fourth trip to see the mouse, but the first for our kids. Before this trip, the last time my husband and I were at Disney was in September 2009 for our anniversary. We were all so excited for this trip!! We had an amazing time and my kids still talk about it almost a year later. However, there are a few things I wish I would have done different.
1) You may be smart…but not that smart. I was naïve to think that just because it was my fourth trip, I knew what I was doing. MAN, was I wrong. Not only is there so much more to do then anyone can imagine, but things change, you don’t remember things like you thought they were and you end up confused. Different factors will throw a wrench into your ‘expertly’ laid plans before you even realize it. For our next trip, I am learning as much as I can about Disney World. I mostly use Kristin’s blog as my main resource. Between the blog, vlog, live feeds, eBooks and social media, I learn as much as I can even if it is something I think I already know. I take notes, save articles or print things that I may want to keep for future reference. I know I will not become an expert, but I will have more confidence when I am booking our next trip. I expect that I will also feel more prepared when we get back there again.
2) Plan early, book early. It was somewhat a last-minute plan, so it was under the 90-day mark when I booked and dining and FP were very limited. I was scrambling to say the least!! A lot of things were different since we visited last and now we had two kids in tow. Needless to say, thanks to Kristin’s Disney planning guide, I am already planning our next trip for early 2018. There are a lot of things to think about even 365 days before your trip. It is also time consuming to toss ideas out to my hubby and get a response in any sort of timely fashion. I have even considered contacting Kari Lynn James O’Dell, Kristin’s travel specialist, since I might as well tap all available resources!!
3) Don’t wait to break. I tried to take full advantage of the dining reservations and FPs that I was able to get. I thought that mid-day would be the time we would take a break and go back to the resort and rest. I mean, that is what so many people suggested doing. However, it was not what worked best for my family. We would have been better off either starting early and leaving the park early or starting late and staying late. When I tried the mid-day break, the kids only wanted to go swimming and we wanted to rest. Before we knew it, it was time to make a dining reservation or FP and we didn’t get either done. Next time, we will also plan a mid-week break. As you can see from our photo at Animal Kingdom, my kids were more than done…. they were overdone!!
4) Transportation, transportation, transportation. This was a biggie for us and I had not given it a second thought before we left. We were just going to take Disney transportation everywhere. Now we may not use Disney transportation again. We knew we had to bring our stroller because we were taking our two small kids. It was the stroller of our dreams and was purchased primarily for traveling. However, it does not work well with Disney transportation. At the end of the night when leaving a park, it is crowded, it is warm, you are tired, the kids are tired and you have to haul them and all your gear onto a PACKED Disney bus to go back to your room. You can’t pray hard enough to get out of that situation! They packed us so tight on that bus, my youngest was on my lap and my son had to stand. My husband was with the stroller which was wedged between two other travelers. Even after that, they tell us to move further back to allow more people to get on. I understand, everyone wants to get to their room and it is only a short time of misery compared to your whole trip, but after that night, we rented a car for the rest of our stay.
5) Not working the dining plan. I literally cringe when I say this, but we left a lot of snacks and quick service behind. I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention to the bottom of our receipts. For our next trip, I am really going to dig into dining. I have been looking over menus, locations, prices, etc. Even though I wait until the free dining comes around, I am going to make sure I get my money’s worth out of it!
6) Over Thinking every detail. I spent so much time and money buying things we never used. I was so obsessed thinking about how this trip would make my kids either love or hate Disney. I felt I just had to make everything as perfect as possible. I had cool chilling towels, filtered water bottles, temporary tattoos for our kids to put our phone numbers on, lotions for every possible situation. All things that had a simpler solution that I would not have had to pack and carry around the park, if I put my mind to it and not just spent my money.
7) Not being flexible to your best laid plans. I should have known better. Having kids, I know you sometimes have to roll with the punches. However, because we were in the happiest place on earth, I guess I just had this idea that everything was going to work out magically as I planned it. I was prepared for the meltdowns and accidents. What I wasn’t prepared for was someone not having a good time. If my kids had a choice they would have spent half the day playing video games and swimming. However, I felt like this was an expensive trip, and we were going to take advantage of every minute. One night they wanted to leave right before Wishes. It blew my mind!! I was out numbered so, we left. My husband had to remind me that Disney World is not going anywhere and we will be back. If I had made them stay and they were miserable, then they would have resented mom and Disney! Maybe…. maybe, if we go to Disney every day for the rest of our lives, will we see it all. Since, that is not an option for us, we will have to stick with a family trip every other year or so. Even though you want to see it all while you are there I am glad that you can’t, because then there are new things to experience when you come back. Plus, it will get easier as the kids get older.
8) Explore everywhere you go. There were a lot of places we did not investigate because it ‘looked crowded’, ‘it is just a tourist store’, ‘can’t fit the stroller in there’. There were so many things we missed out on. Places we would have taken pictures of, things the kids would have liked or even things we would have liked. For instance, there are a ton of amazing snacks you can get with your dining plan. Many times I have seen Kristin’s posts and thought “where do you find that delicious snack…. oh…it was in that one shop we didn’t go in”.
9) Illuminations dessert party. This was such a waste of money for us. I wanted something magical and it was a flop. My husband’s favorite thing at Disney is Illuminations. So I booked the dessert party, thinking he would love it. Nope and nope!! We got there late, even though there was plenty to eat we had been rushing and felt rushed as soon as we got there. No place to sit, it probably would have been more crowded had we got there earlier so maybe it was for the best we were late. But, then we went to the reserved viewing area and our view was obstructed. I was devastated! We had to sit on the ground and though I knew ahead of time it had no seating, I thought it would be ok. However, by the end of the night, we were exhausted and wanted to sit.
10) Forgetting that I am on vacation too and I deserve this. Almost every mom I know puts their families before themselves. It is just what we do. I spent so much time and energy trying to make sure everyone was happy, that I spent a lot of valuable time being stressed out! I only went on rides everyone wanted to go on. I skipped all the thrill rides I have never been on because no one would go with me, or I felt like I was being selfish if I made them wait for me to ride Tower of Terror! Next time, my kids will be older and will be even more self-sufficient. So, I am planning on either doing a half of a day to do what I want or taking them to the child care center and taking an evening for my hubby and I to relax. After all of that, there are a few things I did right and will do again!!
So what did I do right?
1) Staying on site was the best decision. We enjoy and prefer to stay on site. I know we may pay more but we enjoy the extras and the atmosphere. I did splurge on this trip since it was the first for my kids and we stayed at Art of Animation in a Cars suite. My kids LOVE Cars and seeing a life size Lightning McQueen and Mater was a dream come true! Seeing the look on their faces melted my heart!! Staying here made it so much more magical for them and us!!
2) Memory Maker captures the memories. I knew were still going to take tons of our own photos but I wanted the memory maker so I could get good quality pictures of our family. It was just so much easier rather than having a cast member use your phone or camera to take a picture. I will for sure do it again. The only thing I will do differently is get more pictures taken!
3) Dining Plan for us every time. To me, the dining plan is worth it because it is paid for ahead of time. Sure, there are things you will still have to pay for but it alleviates a lot of stress if you are not thinking about how much this meal is going to cost, especially once you see the prices on the menu!! However, researching is key for me with kids this young. They are so picky about what they eat that I need to be sure they have something on the menu that I know they will enjoy.
4) Fantasmic with dining. We loved doing this. We ate at Hollywood and Vine then got reserve seating for Fantasmic. You are not guaranteed front row type seating but it was a reserved section. The kids loved it all! The characters at Hollywood and Vine and Fantasmic.
(Thanks Tori!)