Before going to WDW, I wish I would have

Walt Disney World
41

Because LEFT is best. IDK, lol.

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42

It is a well studied phenomenon that most people choose to go right

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43

I seem to always go left first at Disney!

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44

that’s because you already knew to go left

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45

I like neon! You can instantly spot your prince and princess; and the CMs and other guests can, too!

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46

We never match :woman_facepalming: i cant be THAT much of a dictator in Disney :woman_shrugging::joy:

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47

You’re on vacation. Go with whatever works for you. :grinning:

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48

Oh, I would match! Printed shirts and all! But I could never get anyone on board :grimacing:

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49

Ditto.

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50

Yes, then there is the family… My family conceded to MY wishes (DH, DD21, and DS19) because I planned the whole WDW trip. And you know how much work that is. I said it is my commission as their travel agent and for agreeing to wake up at 3 AM during our trip so we could take DS to watch the rocket launch at KSC. And we didn’t match everyday.

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51

We didnt “match” in color, but I planned everyones outfits to coordinate. They give me that much leeway, for every trip!

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52

I haven’t read everyone else’s, so sorry for repeats.

It will be hot and humid. Not like you’re used to. Like REALLY hot and humid. You’ll be sweaty as soon as you walk outside. At 7am. Get used to it and get over it. Also, swimming counts as a shower.

If you’re traveling with kids, be prepared to get stressed/ angry at some point. Try to remind yourself you’re supposed to be having fun. Everyone deals with their kids in their own way, but I found that trying to say yes to them whenever possible made things go very smooth. Luckily they never figured out I was doing this, so they only had ice cream 3 times a day.

The buses will always have just left before you got there. Unless you’re @Randall1028. He seems to get lucky with them.

Ride Splash Mountain

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53

This is so good advice. It is just my wife and I, and I have built in a table service lunch every other day, so that I know we can relax in a comfortable cool place and sit for awhile. Because of the shorter park hours it is harder to go back to the hotel, nap and swim, then go back for the evening. We will go early, and stay until we are tired, then just call it a day. We have hopper tickets, but can not use them now - so many of the old strategies from the guidebooks don’t work so well anymore (and we don’t get to go to the water parks at all). I don’t know if we will do Disney right - but we will have a good time.

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54

Great insights, thanks. What do you mean by packing cubes in luggage? Also, go left - always. Really? You must be talking about lines.

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55

That’s how you do Disney right - you have a good time.

That’s what’s nice about WDW.

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56

Excellent parenting skills. :medal_sports:

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57

Any recommendations?

58

Well, my first trip was when I was about 6. I guess I wish I had known to enjoy the moment more. I spent the whole trip looking forwards to our character breakfast that was scheduled for our departure day. To the extent that I didn’t value the events of the day, because I wanted it to be that final day so I could go to the character meal. Once the meal was over, it kind of crashed down on me that our trip was done and I realized that other fun things we did that I just kind of rushed through. I really wanted a do over! Life lessons, eh?

In terms of the first trip I planned: I wish I better understood the limits of the folks in my party. DH and I were fine with our wake-up-early-and-go-go-go plan, but the kids and Grandma were exhausted. DS fell asleep at the dinner table one night, DD fell weirdly ill and had to skip one morning (which happened to be the morning of CRT, funny that her older brother did the princess breakfast but not her), and Grandma did a happy dance when we got to our planned rest day. (I say weirdly ill because she was only down for about 10 hours. Threw up a couple of times in the night, slept till noon the next day, and then was pretty much fine.) I think the trip would have been more enjoyable for our group as a whole if we had skipped more rides/attractions/events and gone at a slower pace.

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59

I wish I had known before our first and only trip so far:

  1. My kids were going to love character meets. I did not expect that and did not plan those but we ended up doing most the major meets at each park.

  2. Snack credits are hard to use up. With the DDP and a family of 5 that is a lot of snacking especially if the kids eat a lot at the meal times.

  3. To take a rest day. We went 8 straight days to the parks. We took naps/rests every day and then went back but a full relaxing rest day would have been nice.

  4. That the Disney transportation is actually really good. Now this may just be my experience but we had no problem between the skyliner, buses, and even took a boat and monorail. A lot of people complain about issues but we literally had zero problems and no long waits.

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60

Every time I see this I think that #boymom. 3 girls with long hair (plus me) means everyone needs to wash, condition, and brush their hair after swimming. Or they will all have dreadlocks by the end of the vacation.

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