Top 10 Disney World First-Timer Mistakes
We’ve all been there: that first trip to Walt Disney World and the inevitable “learning experience” that comes with discovering we’ve made a mistake. If you haven’t been there, it’s not because you’re perfect…it’s that you have been there and you just don’t recognize it. (Updated September 24, 2023.)
That, or because you literally haven’t been there, with there being Walt Disney World, and are planning your first visit. If that’s the case, take some solace in the fact that everyone makes some mistake their first trip. No amount of planning can prevent the inevitable error. On second thought, maybe that’s more disconcerting than it is reassuring. I guess just know that you’re in good company.
This post takes a look at what we feel are the “top” (and by top we don’t necessarily mean “best”…more like most common) mistakes first-timers to Walt Disney World make based on various blog post comments, social media feedback, and more. It’s hardly a scientific top 10 list, but hopefully it provides some good food for thought, nonetheless.
So what are the biggest mistakes first time Walt Disney World visitors make? The answers may SHOCK AND ASTOUND YOU. Well, probably not, but we have to trick you into reading this somehow… 😉
10. Excessive FOMO
Social media has ushered in an ugly new form of keeping up with the Joneses. Between your own friends and the army of wannabe Kardashians showing off their extravagant experiences, it’s easy to get caught up and envious of the fake version of the lives that people present.
In fairness, there’s also a less insidious version of this. Parents see what their friends are doing, all of the endless possibilities for add-ons at Walt Disney World, and want to ensure that their kids’ rite of passage vacation is as special as possible. It’s less jealousy and more a misguided attempt at manufacturing perfection.
When it comes to Walt Disney World, there are so many upcharge offerings to make a “magical” vacation. VIP tours, dessert parties, special events, behind the scenes experiences, private cabanas, photo shoots, floral and cake delivery, even Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. That’s just a partial list–the options are endless, the budgets are limitless.
While many of these can improve a vacation, absolutely none of them are necessary to have a great vacation at Walt Disney World. For one thing, savvy strategy can overcome a lot. For another, it’s important to remember why you’re there in the first place–to spend time with family and friends, and make magical memories that will last a lifetime.
Both of those goals can be accomplished for the base ticket price. It’s impossible to buy your way into a memorable vacation and, frankly, it often backfires. The expectation of perfection creates pressure and stress, which is often the undoing of Walt Disney World visitors.
9. Underestimating Florida Weather
Florida is known as the “Sunshine State,” but I think that is a huge misnomer. In fact, I don’t really know why people flock to the state for its weather. Yeah, it doesn’t snow there and it’s sunny much of the year, but the summers are miserable with humidity. A common first-timer mistake is assuming Florida weather is perfect or underestimating just how bad it can be.
You need to account for the reality of what you might encounter, rather than just assuming it’ll be all sunny days and puffy clouds. During Florida’s 47 weeks of summer (give or take), you have to account for humidity and heat. This can truly be debilitating, and ‘feels like’ temperatures in the triple digits are possible pretty much any time between April and October.
This type of weather can cut your day short, leading to meltdowns and making midday breaks necessary. Accordingly, we highly recommend dressing appropriately, and planning for whether to interfere with your plans. Arriving early (before it gets really hot), leaving midday for pool or rest time, and returning once the temperatures cool down is smart. It’s unlikely that you’re going to last all day when the temperatures are over 90 degrees.
In the early fall, it’s storm season at Walt Disney World. Late fall through winter and you have temperatures that range from freezing to the 80s, requiring that you pack for a variety of situations. As we cover in our Winter Packing Tips for Walt Disney World, weather fluctuates dramatically in winter and humidity can make the feels like temperature much worse than the temperature readout suggests. Between that and single-day temperatures that can have a 30+ degree swing, the weather in Florida can be rough.
8. Not Knowing About Virtual Queues
The biggest recently-added ride at EPCOT is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is a hybrid roller coaster. This blockbuster attraction opened at Walt Disney World at the start of last summer. Cosmic Rewind is awesome–the best new ride at EPCOT in decades.
Magic Kingdom is home to the biggest and newest ride at Walt Disney World: TRON Lightcycle Run Roller Coaster in Tomorrowland behind Space Mountain. As with Cosmic Rewind, this is the biggest addition to Magic Kingdom in a decade. Neither Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind nor TRON Lightcycle Run offer standby queues!Â
We see so many confused guests go up to these roller coasters at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT only to be told they can’t ride without a boarding group or purchasing an Individual Lightning Lanes (which can sell out early in the day). These two attractions are likely a big reason why many first-timers take trips to Walt Disney World, as both are central to the company’s marketing campaigns.
But the advertisements don’t mention that you need to get up at 7 am join a virtual queue. Oh yeah, and you also need to be fast, as these VQs can fill up in milliseconds! The end result is that some first-timers cannot experience the thing that caused them to book the vacation to begin with. Ouch.
Suffice to say, you’ll want to consult our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for TRON Lightcycle Run for speed strategy to improve your chances of success for joining the free virtual queue. Same goes with our How to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind & Virtual Queue Speed Strategy (that’s largely redundant to the TRON Lightcycle Run Ride Guide–you really only need to read one or the other).
Selfishly, we prefer virtual queues as knowledge and “skilled” Walt Disney World guests. We ride TRON Lightcycle Run and Cosmic Rewind more than most other headliner attractions because the wait times end up being shorter. But we also recognize that the virtual queue is incredibly unfriendly to first-timers. (Not only that, but the VQs favor repeat visitors and those who might otherwise balk at long standby wait times.)
There’s also a pretty good chance that Moana’s Journey of Water at EPCOT will use a virtual queue when it opens in October 2023.
7. Going During Major Holidays
“Why was [insert holiday name] so crowded?! I heard before that [insert holiday name] usually isn’t busy because everyone is at home doing [insert activity].” We have received virtually this message from people pertaining to Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and the Super Bowl (not technically a holiday, but celebrated as such in many households).
If you’re wondering if the parks are busy during a particular holiday, don’t. They are. Some holidays are slightly less busy than others, but all holidays are busier than the norm. We want to draw your attention to the weeks around a few specific holidays that continue to be underestimated: MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Mardi Gras, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. The higher crowds around all of these weeks continue to catch Walt Disney World guests by surprise.
Granted, this doesn’t include the important holidays like Antzar Eguna, Namahage, or National Burger Day. And there are actually some holidays that aren’t too bad. This includes pretty much all of the summer ones–in recent years, crowds have not been bad around Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Labor Day. See our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2023 to 2025, which includes a lot of holidays–good and bad.
This isn’t to say that you will have an awful experience if you go during a holiday. To the contrary, we actually like visiting around certain holidays. Longer park hours and a certain ambiance to the parks can make for an enjoyable experience. With that said, there’s no way on earth I would ever have wanted to take my first trip during a major holiday. It would have been overwhelming, and the potential for it being my last trip would have been too great.
6. Eating Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Pizza
Theme park food has a reputation for being uninspired and overpriced. Like sporting events and other entertainment venues, parks often do the bare minimum, realizing they have a captive audience that will simply have to eat during their visit.
This is not necessarily the case at Walt Disney World. There are unquestionably some basic fast food places that phone it in as they feed the masses hot dogs and pizza both so suspect that I am hesitant to categorize them as “food.” Conversely, there are also some really intriguing and unique dining options at Walt Disney World that are quite good. Don’t go for the low-hanging, “safe” fruit.
Try the restaurants that look interesting, and be rewarded. This also helps from a planning perspective–the more ambitious the restaurant’s cuisine, the less popular or busy it tends to be. (In other words, popularity is a terrible barometer of food quality when it comes to Walt Disney World dining.)
5. Sleeping In
The first 2 hours the parks are open are going to be the most productive hours of your day. Getting up at the crack of dawn and being to the parks early doesn’t jive with the notion of relaxing and unwinding on vacation, but the simple reality is that you’d be better off showing up for the first 2 hours and last 2 hours and skipping the (roughly) 8 hours in between than you would by showing up 2 hours late, doing those 8 hours in the middle of the day, and leaving 2 hours before park closing.
If relaxation on your vacation is important, take a break in the middle of the day to go back to your hotel and nap or enjoy the pool. You really benefit greatly from being in the parks right at rope drop, though. Likewise, crowds are lightest again at the end of the night (and the atmosphere then is unbeatable).
Savvy standby strategy beats buying Genie+ and Lightning Lanes most of the time! From Early Entry to regular rope drop to Extended Evening Hours, you really come out ahead by arriving early or staying late. These are the simpler and straightforward ways to beat the crowd, requiring less (or no!) screen time and being infinitely less frustrating that Genie Plus.
This is Walt Disney World 101. Yet, it’s probably the most common mistake first-timers make.
4. Not Allowing Enough Time for Transit
Walt Disney World’s transportation system makes the metro Detroit bus system look like the pinnacle of efficiency. Buses take convoluted routes, make too many stops, and generally follow a perplexing “schedule”, all of which means it could take you up to an hour to get from your hotel room door to a park. Want to go from hotel to hotel? Good luck!
First-timers (or any logical human, for that matter) might assume that it would behoove Walt Disney World to have an incredibly efficient transportation system, as time lost in commute is time that is not spent in the parks. Instead of waiting for that bus, guests could be spending time–and money–in gift shops or restaurants. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this is not the case. Transportation–particularly the buses–is inefficient, and it’ll take you longer than you expect to get anywhere.
Fortunately, we have a resources that will help. Our Time Saving Walt Disney World Transportation Tips post has some “shortcuts” that can save time.
3. Buying the Wrong Tickets
Walt Disney World tickets are highly customizable, which is both a good and bad thing. On the downside, if you haven’t done your research and are prone to being upsold on things, you might end up purchasing more than you need. On the upside, if you have done your research, you can pay for only the options that you really need, passing on extras you likely won’t use.
For example, you might be able to use the Park Hopper Plus Option to extend your trip. You might be able to get away with no Park Hopper if you have small kids. You may find that one person in your party buying an Annual Pass is worth it for the discounts. There is a lot to consider, and no one size fits all solution. We cover the possibilities, pros and cons of each, and offer some recommendations in our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. That’s a great place to start before purchasing your park tickets.
2. Under-planning
If you’ve been a Disney fan long enough, you’ve invariably heard from a friend or colleague who returned from their first trip and had an awful time. Upon probing a bit, usually this is self-inflicted, and the result of under-planning. Did they make Advance Dining Reservations? Nope. Have a plan of attack? Nada. Get up early or stay out late? Nah. The questions and answers continue in that same fashion (with “what’s that?” often replacing the variants of “no”).
People lament the ‘death of spontaneity’ when it comes to a Walt Disney World vacation, and to some extent, I agree. There’s a lot that it’s imperative to know before you go, and that’s in large part why sites like this exist in the first place. However, I visit a lot of non-Disney destinations, and no matter where you go, you will always (ALWAYS!) come out ahead by planning. I can think of literally no location I have ever been that does not benefit greatly from research and planning.
When it comes to Walt Disney World, you need to know some basics about the place before you go to make the most of your time. You also need to make some plans and reservations prior to arrival. A good starting place for learning the basics is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide, which is comprehensive.
Alternatively or in addition to that, if you’re overwhelmed or simply don’t want to invest the time necessary to planning the trip, and would like the assistance from a professional, click here to get a quote from a no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. They get their commission from Disney, so there is no charge to you for them to book your trip, help you plan, etc.
1. Over-planning
As paradoxical as these last two entries might seem, the idea here is that you need to find the happy medium. Just as showing up without any plan can lead to a bad experience, so too can planning everything down to the minute or even hour. We cover our ‘planned spontaneity philosophy’ for visiting in our Being Spontaneous at Walt Disney World post.
The problem with a planning binder or minute by minute itinerary is that it sets unrealistic expectations, especially for first timers, and does not allow for spontaneity. If you plan a trip checklist style with 20 things to “accomplish” in a given day, that’s a recipe for disappointment.
The practical realities of Florida heat, navigating crowds, or other unplanned variables mean you will almost always accomplish less than expected. And that’s okay–you’ll still have a lot of fun in the process! It’s better to account for these factors in advance, be flexible, and lower your expectations. All of that will lessen the likelihood of disappointment.
Likewise, if you don’t plan for some spontaneity (another contradiction in terms), you might be reluctant to avail yourself of an opportunity for unplanned fun because it doesn’t fit neatly into your schedule. If there’s a random hoedown in Frontierland, you stumble upon a pirate band in Adventureland, or your family is having a blast just sitting in Cosmic Ray’s sitting to Sonny Eclipse, don’t pull them away just because the spreadsheet says you should move on to the next thing.
Don’t stop your kids from playing in the Boneyard or Moana’s Journey of Water even if they run over the allotted time for fun. Just remember, you dictate the schedule–the schedule does not dictate your day. Walt Disney World does require planning, but you should never become beholden to a checklist. Sometimes we have the most fun when we toss aside our plans.
BONUS. Skipping Country Bear Jamboree
This isn’t just here to underscore my love for Country Bear Jamboree. It’s also here to illustrate the point that tastes absolutely do vary, and you shouldn’t base your itinerary on the preferences of others. I know this advice is somewhat at odds with the premise of an opinion-heavy blog like this one, but the last thing you should do is trust my advice. (Except right now, when I’m telling you not to trust my other advice.)
If you spend enough time on any Disney forums, you will invariably encounter people who love and hate literally every attraction (yes, there are even fans of TriceraTop Spin–like the Great North American Snipe, they are a rare creature, but they do exist). I am a man with exquisite tastes in many things. You know that, I know that. But uh, not a lot a lot of things; a few things. Yet, I find I am sometimes in the minority when it comes to my opinions on certain Walt Disney World attractions.
There’s a good chance you might find yourself liking things others don’t–or disliking things others love. Walt Disney World Park Itineraries can be useful, to be sure, but you also have to account for your personal preferences or be quick to dismiss things out of hand on the basis of what random strangers think about them.
I think that about covers it for the “top” mistakes first timers make when visiting Walt Disney World. Now, there are no shortage of possible mistakes…this is really just the tip of the iceberg. So, if you don’t mind sharing some of the mistakes you or a “friend” have made when visiting Walt Disney World, please share them in the comments. Remember, your learning experience could help someone else avoid running into the same problem. Feel free to change the names to protect the innocent.
If you are planning a first trip to Walt Disney World, make sure to check out our Disney Tips & Tricks page for a lot of helpful tips to outsmart the masses. Also check out our dining reviews to find the best restaurants and our trip planning posts to figure out what to pack, where to buy Walt Disney World tickets to save money, which discounts to look for, and all the other ins and outs of a trip to Walt Disney World, all of which are covered extensively in our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide.
Your Thoughts
Did you make any mistakes before your first trip to Walt Disney World? Planning your first trip now and wondering how to avoid some specific common mistakes? Any tips of your own to add? Please share any of your own stories or questions you have in the comments below!
Your stealth campaign is working! When were at WDW in June we saw the country bears and the theater was 1/2-2/3 full. That’s easily 3x the number of people I’ve ever seen in there.
While not my favorite attraction, I do enjoy signing “there was blood on the saddle” to casue my daughter to flip out.
This blog’s true purpose is acting as a propaganda machine for Country Bear Jamboree and assisting the bears in becoming our bear-robot overlords. Don’t tell anyone.
My rookie mistake was not getting Tables in Wonderland before dining at Bistro de Paris (replaced by Monsieur Paul). If your vacations within a year include spending more than $500 at restaurants that take Tables in Wonderland, get the card first thing. One of my favorite TiW tips is that it’s good at Flame Tree BBQ and Landscape of Flavors at Art of Animation. Great food at both and an exception to the rule that it’s a table service discount card.
I will add that I told the CM at Epcot Guest Relations about the rookie mistake I made as I was buying Tables in Wonderland, and she added 2 months to my card without mentioning it. That was kind of her.
The biggest mistake my wife and I made was forgetting to eat because we just wanted to ride the rides and see everything! We had the dining plan and we used most credits in our last three days because we would go from early morning and not really stop until we both felt lousy and realised that maybe that pretzel we had at 10am wasn’t really going to cut it for the whole day.
That being said, we did get to have some nice sit down dinners because we didn’t use the credits as they say you “should”.
There are definitely a lot of people that don’t know about or understand ADRs and Fastpass+. Just look at the Disney World facebook page and there are people who just got back complaining about standing in lines when others get to skip to the front and thinking that Fastpass+ costs extra money, when in fact it is free for everyone going to the parks. And people complaining about the restaurants they wanted to eat at being booked up when they just try to do walk ups and thinking reservations cost extra money. Just looking at Disney World’s website would of explained all of these things, but I guess people are too lazy to do that.
Yep. We Disney fans things take certain things for granted because we are so familiar with them. Don’t give the general public so much credit. Reading Facebook comments makes me question how some of these people get out of bed and get dressed in the morning. Yikes.
Love this post! Luckily since Day 1 I’ve read your site RELIGIOUSLY and the only mistake I made during my first trip was #1…..and made the same mistake during trip #2. Don’t worry-I’ll be back at WDW in November and will redeem myself
Keeping sort of in line with over planning, we (or I should say I) forgot to even consider asking my kids what they would rather do on certain days and to help decide between specific attractions. On the third day of our 8 day trip, my husband made this suggestion and, to my surprise, my boys wanted to do something different than I wanted them to do:) for example, instead of the stunt show at Hollywood that I was sure they’d love, they chose the Bugs Life play area much to my despair, as the last stunt show of the day was happening. However, we spent over an hour in the play area because they literally just wanted to play- likely needing a break from my planning. Needless to say, we gave them may more choices after that and were sometimes surprised at the simple things that made the trip for them:). Well worth asking then!
Ugh, we made the “sleep in” mistake on our second trip, and will never miss rope drop again. We also scheduled a rest day smack in the middle of our last trip, which was the best decision.
The ‘rest day’ idea sounds like a recurring recommendation here. I like the idea…might I suggest modifying it to a laid back water park day?
Oh yes! That was our ‘laid back rest day’. Totally worth it but still feels like your not missing out.
When we go with our 6 kids, we go have an alternating schedule of one day at the parks and one day at the pool relaxing. It make for a fun but still restful vacation. And we never do the park hopper option, if we plan on spending 4 of our days in the parks we will just buy passes for 6 days. That still allows for doing two parks in one day and is a cheaper option the. Adding park hopper to your entire vacation. Love your site!! I read it almost everyday!
While our first trip went relatively smoothly, our biggest mistake was not fully understanding the true size of the parks when scheduling Fastpasses and ADR’s. At Animal Kingdom, we had a fastpass for the Kilimanjaro Safari, followed by a fastpass for Finding Nemo, and then a 12:00 PM lunch ADR at Tusker House. This resulted in a lot of inefficiency in our touring plans as we spent most of the morning walking back and forth across the park.
Ours too! We totally did not factor in distance between our Fastpass rides, and also that just ’cause it’s ‘fastpass’ doesn’t mean you’re not going to still get stuck in a line for 20-30 minutes. It made for a very stressful day at Magic Kingdom racing around.
We learnt to make dining reservations after our first trip in 2007. It’s been so much easier this time around as an overseas visitor because we can book online, in 2007 we would have had to call international to make reservations. A lovely concierge spent a long time on our second evening making reservations for us after we’d been turned away from many table service restaurants.
We’ve also done free dining which works best for us, I’ve never seen an offer in my country for reduced room rates like I’ve seen on US travel agent sites.
I’ve had to bite my tongue as a colleague is talking about a trip to Disney (with kids) but she hates planning, I enjoy planning (control!) so she already thinks I’m uptight, I know if I tell her I made my dining reservations 190 days out she would write it off as me being an over-planner.
I think going without kids allows you more flexibility in the planning/non planning balance because if an adult’s tired they can look after themselves.
Ohhh..I highly recommend you do NOT bite your tongue when your co-worker says she won’t plan. She has kids? She NEEDS reservations. They’re gonna want character encounters and you cannot skip doing those, and getting into them can be difficult. We had reservations for Chef Mickey’s and still had to wait over an hour for our table. The kids loved it though. We went for breakfast, the food is adequate, but the time with Mickey and Friends was incomparable.
There are some character experiences that you just cannot get reservations for without calling immediately when the lines open, and hoping you get through before the reservations fill up for that day. I called every morning for an entire week to get a res ANY day the week I was going to be there in 2005, and we didn’t get one.
My point is, your co-worker might not like to plan, but her kids are going to miss out on some great stuff if she doesn’t. And start calling 180 days out! It’s the only way!
Totally agree with Stacey. Your coworker will thank you in the long run.
Thank you so much for all your help! I have read everything you have written about Disney in the last 12 months since booking our first trip to Disney World & whilst it is my first time I do feel I understand how everything works. I have made dining reservations & fast passes & cannot wait to go enjoy it all in just under 2 weeks time. I would have found this a very daunting & impossible task without the advice from your blog, so again thank you!
My biggest mistake on my first “grown up” trip was assuming that the touring strategies my dad used in the 1980s and 90s would be good enough for my trip in the early 2000s. I totally wasn’t prepared for the higher attendance and expanded list of attractions at MK (both of which have grown even more in recent years). Rest assured, though, I’ve done much better on the six or seven subsequent trips!
We definitely bought the wrong tickets on our first WDW trip – five Park Hopper tickets, and we never hopped once. That was a costly mistake!
I wouldn’t give up on the park hopper completely and I’d still consider it for your future trips. Learning to use the park hopper efficiently can go a long way in making the most out of a Disney World Trip. Especially with the current state of Hollywood Studios, I think you will be hard pressed to find a full days worth of things to do there anytime soon.
That being said, I know everybody’s situations are different so take my suggestion with a grain of salt. For my trips its just my girlfriend and I so its not nearly the financial investment, and its also easier to change parks on a whim since we do not have any children. For us the park hopper is an absolute must since we like to eat in World Showcase several times per trip. We usually park hop and do about 3 or 4 evenings at Epcot rather than any 1 full day.
I should clarify: We have three kids, the youngest of whom was six at the time and tires easily (so no late nights). As first-timers, we just felt there was so much to see and do in each park that it just didn’t make sense to waste time traveling between parks.
Having said that, we are heading to WDW for our third trip at the end of next month, and we are getting Park Hoppers for the first time. Now that we ‘know what we’re doing’, we are very excited to park hop!
I agree with Michael Greiner.
We like to take advantage of morning extra magic hours sometimes, and then hop to a less crowded park after lunch. Or, sometimes we start at one park that is predicted lower on crowds, and hop to the park that has evening extra magic hours.
We also find ourselves eating in the World Showcase a lot.
We use park hopping as our “midday break”. My 4 & 6 year olds love to ride Disney transportation, so it’s all fun for them.
We just took our first trip without park hoppers in January. We really felt trapped. We realized how much we actually park hop when we couldn’t. While Park Hopping is not ever everyone, Park Hopper Passes work for our family.
Love park hopping; wouldn’t go without it. Gives you so many options for the day and into the evening.
I always buy the base ticket. You can always go to guest relations and upgrade your ticket, so why not go with the cheaper ticket to see if you really need the park hopper added. Most of the time, my family doesn’t want to waste time trying to get to another park (with Disney transport or rental cars with HUGE parking lots). Upgrading could be a very costly mistake!!
I’ve always enjoyed spontaneity at the parks but because of dining reservations and FastPass, I feel like so much more needs to be planned now. Even if you aren’t using the dining plan, you still have to make reservations. It didn’t use to be this way, you use to be able to decide that day where you wanted to eat. Because I don’t want to feel like I have a full day itinerary, this is now what I do…
Get to the park by 9am at the latest, with FastPasses set for approx. 11, 12 and 1. Then have a dining reservation for 1:30. Go back to the hotel for 2-3 hours of rest, then onto a different park for the later afternoon/evening until park close. Doing a quick service for dinner. I don’t plan ahead what park for the second half of the day – decide on the fly. Doing this has allowed us to have the planning needed, as well as the ease of doing things on a whim.
As far as buses go – I used them on a 4 day trip – Never, ever again. I honestly don’t understand why more people don’t rent a car, especially if you’re going to be there for a week. Rentals in Orlando are so cheap. I’d anther pay a little $ for a car and save myself soooo much time and the headache after headache of the buses.
We don’t rent a car because we do like to indulge in alcoholic beverages; we don’t drink and drive so Disney buses it is!
We don’t rent a car because driving in your country is terrifying – it’s the wrong side of the road for us!
Hahah! I’ve always thought the same about driving in other countries and, consequently, have never rented a car in another country.
That is pretty how much how I plan our trips, though we do make rope drop every day.
Even if you are not interested in Country Bears it has to be one of the best places to relax, cool off and take a break. The air conditioning there is great!
I know a lot of people that would add Muppet 3D to the list but we use it as a handy place to cool off with plenty of seats and air conditioning.
I think the most important list to make would be the non-restaurant take a break stops.
I also *love* MuppetVision 3D. I’m a bit scared it will soon be no more…
We (my wife, 7 year old son and I) are going at the end of August through beginning of September for our first time. We will be there for 8 days.
Right now I’m somewhere between under and over planning. We’ve got our ADRs booked, and our Fastpasses selected, and I have been creating touring plans at touringplans.com. We are Disneyland vets, so we have a better idea of what to expect than most other first-timers. However, we don’t usually plan our day when we go to Disneyland, and we don’t go for long trips.
I really hate getting up early (in fact, I get headaches if I get up too early) and I have a hard time sleeping for the first few nights in a new place. That and the 3 hour time difference is going to make rope-drop extremely tough, but I know I will have to tough it out. Fortunately my wife and son are both early risers.
Definitely not going to skip Country Bear Jamboree. I barely (bearley?) remember it from Disneyland when I was very young. That and the People-Mover will make me feel like I’ve stepped into my childhood (Carousel of Progress was before my time, but I do remember America Sings).
Not doing the dining plan because my wife and son are fairly light eaters and I would just pig out and gain 20 pounds. We figured out the price per day and are definitely better off paying out of pocket (plus, we are ordering some groceries from Garden Grocer).
I know we will still make some mistakes, we just have to be ready to roll with them. We have a pool day planned for the middle of the week too, to decompress a little bit.
I wholeheartedly agree with number 1! I talk to people all the time who claim to love Disney World, but admit to never viewing things like Country Bear Jamboree, The Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress or the Hall of Presidents. Some of them do not even know that these attractions exist! To me, these attractions sum up best my love for the Disney parks and the way they make me feel. At the risk of sounding corny or cliche, I would say these experiences are the ones that most make me feel that “Disney Magic”. I passionately feel they should be experienced by everybody at least once.
As far as myself goes, I am somewhat guilty of being an over planner. I used the touring plans site before every Disney (or Universal Orlando) trip to come up with a general game plan. While creating custom plans has you plan basically everything down the minute, I do not follow them that strictly. I basically use them to decide which parks to visit each day, and then strategize a basic path around the parks. It can also be useful for planning around showtimes and dining reservations. Once I’m at the parks however, usually my instincts take over and the plans really turn into nothing more than a sub conscience thing in my head.
We love Carousel of Progress. It is one of my 5 year old’s favorite rides. No kidding. “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…”
My wife and I went on our honeymoon in 2009. Two mistakes we mademade:
1. Not having a “rest day”. Every day we were in a park at rope drop (or close) and stayed almost until closing. Left us exhausted.
2. Doing a day at Universal AFTER a whole week at Disney. Nothing inherently wrong with Universal, I guess. But after a week at WDW, Universal just seemed so run down and cheesy. Ooooh, Jaws the ride, and the Twister experience, how fun! Or not. Same issue to a lesser extent when we did Knott’s after a few days at DL in 2011, proving that we didn’t learn from our mistake, I guess.
I’m guessing (since you mention Jaws) that you went to Universal before Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If so, it’s a completely different experience now. Except for Twister. It still blows (pun intended).
See #1 above. I love the Twister thing at Universal.
We did this, Universal after 8 days at Disney. It was so run down, bad service and Diagon Alley is just a shopping centre with one ride.
So disappointed!
Ah, yes. You must do Universal (and Knott’s) BEFORE you do WDW (or DL). Or, maybe, somewhere in the middle. It’s just how it works, you have to finish with the best. Even if we split stay offsite / onsite, or value / DVC, we always start with the least so we can end with the most. =)
I enjoy both Knott’s and Universal, but in no way, shape, or form are they in the same league as one another. I’d consider the two Harry Potter lands the absolute BEST in themed environments of the last decade (along with Cars Land), whereas Knott’s is mostly a hodgepodge. It’s endearing and has some good rides, but there are some really bad areas in Knott’s. Nothing nearly that bad at Universal.
My family and I were on our yearly trip to the “World’ a few weeks ago and finally went to see Country Bear Jamboree after all your praise and I have to say…..we found it to be very strange indeed. We MUCH prefer the Enchanted Tiki Room show. Each to his/her own I suppose!
Really informative! Thank you! Planning my first trip now, for April 2016. This post makes me consider purchasing an Annual Passport. I am a passholder at Disneyland, so I think I may look into upgrading to the Premiere Passport. Only planning one WDW trip next year, but with that passport, something tells me I will be tempted to try and stretch that to two. We won’t be on the Dining Plan, so access to Tables in Wonderland would be nice.
Love this post. I think it’s easy to slip into mistake #2 because you’re trying to avoid mistakes 3-10. When you’ve overplanned, something absolutely will not go to plan and suddenly what should be fun feels like a disappointment. (This also goes along with planning and paying for a bunch of extras…BECAUSE YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE FUN!!!) I like leaving at least 1 day of vacation for free time for this reason too.