Mine is not setting expectations ahead of time the first time we travelled with a child.
On my first trip it was my parents, me and my sibs, we were all teens and all thrill seekers.
The second trip was 8 years later, my parents were still paying but by then my sister and I were both engaged and I had a 5yo. My mum really expected my little boy who had never been to a theme park at all to ride everything. The first ride was Space Mountain! He refused and she was mad as hell. DH doesn’t like coasters so he was delighted to have an excuse to skip it, it wasn’t a problem. But I think my mum saw it as not getting what she had paid for.
If we had only agreed ahead of time that we wouldn’t even attempt to have him ride coasters, things would have gone better. The row at Space Mountain was repeated every time he was scared to ride something.
He’s 30 now and still doesn’t like coasters, he takes after his dad in that respect. Thank god for DS20 who is my coaster buddy.
I liked it when they played it “straight” with respect to the educational elements. I still have vague memories of the intro film at the old living seas, before you “went down” the elevators. Just kind of inspiring…
My biggest mistake was actually at DL and not at WDW. We had our two daughters with us and our youngest was just over a year old. We rented a stroller, and I put the camera bag in the holding pouch. When the fireworks were over, I had to make bee line out of the park because my daughter was not happy and making sure the world knew. I left the stroller at the front and exited to wait for my wife and older daughter. The next morning, I realized that I did not have the camera bag, and our park tickets were in one of the pockets. I called lost and found and it had been turned in, so I was able to get everything back before we were to go back to the park.
My biggest mistake was about 10 yrs ago paying for a park day as well as an evening party(Christmas) on the same day. I should have slept in & just relaxed at the resort, grabbed a nice lunch and just went to the party instead of rope dropping and being dead tired by 10:00PM & spending twice as much.
Our first trip as a family was only 2 days. My boys were 3 and 5 at the time. We planned MK one day and AK the other day. I regret not making both days MK. Also, I did not do my research (this was before I found TP), and didn’t know you could get more FP after you used the first 3. When I learned this later on I was so mad at myself for not knowing because it would have made our MK day so much better. I discovered TP after that trip (not chat or forum) and was better prepared for the next trip. Which went well, except that DH and I regretted allowing the boys to buy legos at DS on our arrival day because all they wanted to do each day was play with legos, not go to the parks.
This is a general observation inspired by your post. I’m not having a go at you!
I read the Unofficial Guide cover-to-cover and the one part that really stuck with me was the survey that showed that the thing kids remember most about their trips to WDW was the pools.
It reminded me of an experiment they did on TV where they were trying to save people money. They got a bunch of five year olds together and put them in a room with some big cardboard boxes and marker pens and whatnot. The kids had a blast. Their point: Don’t shell out hundreds of pounds for the latest must-have toy. Little kids don’t care. They can make their own entertainment.
It’s like with pets. You can spend a fortune on toys for pets. When I got my rats I bought some expensive little huts and so on for them. But I discovered that they’re even happier with cardboard boxes and wrapping paper. They can make their own things. Saves me money and stimulates their brains and encourages natural behaviours.
WDW is wasted on the young. No-one I know who went as a kid remembers it. Just that they went.
WDW is for adults. Adults trying to recapture the innocence and joy of youth. Kids don’t need to do that.
One summer when my two oldest were probably 7 and 4, I packed up all their toys and gave them large cardboard boxes, crayons, and scissors. They had a blast building towns, tunnels, houses, whatever. By the time they went back to school in the fall, the boxes were well-loved and tattered. They still talk about it now in their 30s.
Every kid is different, but as an example … DD9 has a few (such as BBB) memories of our WDW trip when she was 3.5 y/o (but most of the stuff she has forgotten), many memories of our WDW trip when she was 4.5 y/o, and remembers close to everything from our WDW trip when she was 6.75 y/o.
DW and I have many magical memories from all of the our trips with the kids.
I think so with respect to my kids. At ages 9 and 7 (and 6 WDW trips each), they now have a good sense of which attractions are in each park and where most attractions are located once in a park.
–it might make me think the way DH does about my trips. I don’t wanna).