I have been to Disney World twice in the last two years. My first time was just my husband and I. Our second time was was a family trip with my mother, sister and her 1 yr old and her husband. We love everything and anything Disney!! My sister ( who also wrote to you for this same blog) taught me alot. So these are some things I’ve learned.
4 Mistakes I made:
1.) Not planning enough down time when traveling with a 1 year old (especially one who is not used to the humidity).
2.) Changing the time of year we went. We like to go when its cooler, usually around October. Last year we went at the beginning of September. We thought it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but boy were we wrong!! We were not prepared for the difference in humidity or heat.
3.) Not making my reservations for my most important restaurants first. I hesitated when booking reservations at 180 days out. If it weren’t for my absolute devotion to get our family of 6 into Be Our Guest, we would not have gotten a reservation! I checked hourly and most times more then that to see if a reservation opened up. This is now why I plan all our diner meals way ahead of time and coordinate with any special events we are attending (like the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party.
4.) Not taking time to visit other resorts. There is so much to do at each resort and its usually something different then the others. I wish we had planned more time to visit other areas.
4 Things I did right on our trip:
1.) Extra Travel Time! We always stay on property and do the dining plan. Generally all our dinner meals are in Epcot. We always give ourselves a 2 hour window when traveling from park to park. Typically everything I’ve read says leave 1 1/2 hours for travel, but when you are caught in an afternoon downpour (making the lines super long for buses or monorail) giving yourself that extra times lessens your panic a lot!
2.) Having a plan! I plan my meals, down to which restaurants we want, rides, the hotel and even our pool day ahead of time. I research all my plans, what I want to eat at each meal, what park has the lowest crowds and rides we want to ride.
3.) Dressing comfortably… by which I mean choosing the most comfortable shoes and clothing. Comfortable for is not so much “cute” as it is athletic for me. I make sure to bring 2 pairs of comfortable walking sneakers.
4.) Memory maker. My one most expensive purchase that is not necessarily a must have for everyone, but for us is definitely a must have!! I love pictures, but taking them on my cell phone or lugging my camera around all the time and then asking someone else to take a picture of us just gets time consuming and annoying. There are sometimes lines for pictures, but they are usually quick moving. It’s the best purchase I make, next to my park tickets!!
I really only have a small list of things I did wrong, but only because I was so prepared thanks to reading this blog and getting advice from my sister (who has been going for years). It really boils down to reading. I did a lot of reading before my trip on everything from menus to what to wear at Disney.
(Thanks Amanda!)