Ava
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2006
We just got back last night from 10 days at the World, and while we DID have fun, it was a more difficult trip than last year. I definitely underestimated how much more time everything would take with a group of 6 vs a group of 4, even though the 2 additional people were adults. Plus, our 6-year-old was a total grump a lot of the time and our 2-year-old decided she hated the buses (which she rides at home and is fine with), would NOT sit through a meal (which she also does fine with at home), and screamed whenever she had to wait to see a character (we were happy she loved them but the waiting was ROUGH).
So, things I learned on this trip...
1. 10 days in WDW is too much for the grandmothers. I'm glad they both came and got to experience WDW with their granddaughters while they are still healthy/active but by around day 8 they'd had enough.
2. Park hopping is not for us. Planning ADRs and FP+ makes you lose a lot of the flexibility that hopping should provide, so it ended up just making us feel overly scheduled. (I was able to change some ADRs after the first day we hopped so we wouldn't have to do it any more. The only benefit we ended up getting out of the hopper passes was that DW and I got to go to late EMH at MK while our moms stayed at the hotel with the kids.)
3. Two TS meals in one day is too much for us. It was so hot that no one felt like eating very much, and we struggled to use up our QS & snack credits as well.
4. The discounts and crowd levels in late August are good, but the weather stinks. The heat we can deal with, but the torrential rains put a real damper on our plans some days. (See what I did there? )
5. Touring Plans is a great service, but it's too intense/detailed for me. We missed rope drop on our first MK day and I had a hard time reworking the rest of our MK plans to fit in the attractions we'd missed.
Basically, I tried to make all these wonderful plans but it was too much. Next time - which will not be for at least a couple years - I will make much simpler/more flexible plans. (And probably not invite the grandmothers. I love them dearly, but it was hard for all of us.)
Anyone else BTDT? How do you get over feeling like your trip wasn't as fun as it should've been? (And don't say plan another one, can't do that quite yet!)
So, things I learned on this trip...
1. 10 days in WDW is too much for the grandmothers. I'm glad they both came and got to experience WDW with their granddaughters while they are still healthy/active but by around day 8 they'd had enough.
2. Park hopping is not for us. Planning ADRs and FP+ makes you lose a lot of the flexibility that hopping should provide, so it ended up just making us feel overly scheduled. (I was able to change some ADRs after the first day we hopped so we wouldn't have to do it any more. The only benefit we ended up getting out of the hopper passes was that DW and I got to go to late EMH at MK while our moms stayed at the hotel with the kids.)
3. Two TS meals in one day is too much for us. It was so hot that no one felt like eating very much, and we struggled to use up our QS & snack credits as well.
4. The discounts and crowd levels in late August are good, but the weather stinks. The heat we can deal with, but the torrential rains put a real damper on our plans some days. (See what I did there? )
5. Touring Plans is a great service, but it's too intense/detailed for me. We missed rope drop on our first MK day and I had a hard time reworking the rest of our MK plans to fit in the attractions we'd missed.
Basically, I tried to make all these wonderful plans but it was too much. Next time - which will not be for at least a couple years - I will make much simpler/more flexible plans. (And probably not invite the grandmothers. I love them dearly, but it was hard for all of us.)
Anyone else BTDT? How do you get over feeling like your trip wasn't as fun as it should've been? (And don't say plan another one, can't do that quite yet!)