The Top 10 mistakes people make when going to Disney World…and What to do instead!
Our family has been to Disney over 15 times in the last decade. These are the biggest mistakes we have made…and what we suggest you do instead!
On our most recent trip to Disney for Spring Break 2025. This time my mom and sisters (Mary and Emily) joined us - it was so much fun! Epcot had the International Flower and Garden Festival going on!
Mistake #1: Booking directly through Disney instead of the DVC Rental Store
I’m starting with this tip as it took me 13 years of going to Disney before I learned this and it has truly been LIFE CHANGING!
Staying at a Disney property is truly magical and we think it really makes a difference in the overall experience of your trip - but it can be much more expensive to stay (especially in the deluxe accommodations!) and we have previously made the mistake of NOT booking through the Disney Vacation Club Rental Store.
*Jolly Good Travel is an Affiliate partner with DVC Rental Store, a brand who we have independently used and loved for years. If you book through any of our Thank you for supporting the brands that support Jolly Good Travel)
Since finding the DVC Rental Store, our Disney experience has not only been more budget friendly but there really so many benefits from staying in these suites and villas in general. You can Read all about how we discovered the Disney Vacation Club Rental Store and how we use it to find amazing deals for our on property resort stays to Disney World - but here is the TLDR version:
Get up 30-60% the normal cost of a Disney Hotel Stay (this is the MAIN benefit and why we always book this way now!)
The DVC Rental Store is a service connecting Disney Vacation Club members who want to rent their points with guests seeking resort accommodations.
Disney Vacation Club Members (members of Disney’s points-based timeshare program) sometimes have points they won’t be able to use, and so they can “rent” their points out to people like you and me - DVC Rental Store facilitates this exchange! Additionally, sometimes a Disney Vacation Club Member uses their points and makes a reservation at Disney - only to realize they will not be able to make the trip happen. In this case, they can sell their “confirmed reservation”.
Early and Late Access to the Parks on certain days (the same benefits ANY guest staying at a Disney world resort gets)
Kitchenettes: DVC villas come with full kitchens, helping you save money since you can prepare meals and snacks
Washer & Dryers: Many of the DVC suites have these right in your room, which we LOVE. Go home with clean laundry? Yes please!
Separate bedrooms and living spaces: the villas we have rented have all had multiple bedrooms and bathrooms and come with a separate living space and balconies! Being able to travel as a large family and have everyone stay in ONE spot rather than multiple hotel rooms is amazing. We can put the kids to be and still all spend time together in the living area hanging out
Location: The locations we have rented have been SO Close to the Parks - making transportation a breeze (and FREE - because anyone who stays in any Disney World property gets free on-site transportation to all parks and other hotels)
Some of the DVC rentals are so close to the parks that you only have to walk 5 minutes (For instance: You can walk to the Magic Kingdom from the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary and the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian.
If you stay at the Polynesian DVC, Grand Floridian DVC or the Contemporary DVC (Bay Lake Tower) you can also easily take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom.
For any park you can’t walk or ride the monorail to, you’ll be able to use Disney’s on-site bus system at no extra cost
(Note: if you use my link to book through he DVC Rental store, I will get a small commission as a DVC Rental Store Affiliate. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Jolly Good Travel!)
Mistake #2. Not being prepared to entertain kids when waiting in lines
There is nothing that can kill the magic more than kids who are complaining about waiting in line.
And yes, be prepared to wait in line for some rides, even if you do have lighting lane passes.
Some rides may be 20 minutes but some of the most popular rides wait times can be up to 90 minutes or more!
Here are some of our favorite ways to pass the time while waiting in line:
Eye Spy: We started by playing eye spy or some sort of sight game with the kids.
Kids Trivia: Now that they have gotten a little older (3,7&9) we LOVE to play trivia. I will make up questions for each kid and say “This one is just for Teddy!” (who is 3). That way the older ones aren’t just always answering and they are all involved. I also Google kids trivia and lots of questions and answers will come up. While we are in Disney, I will try to make some of it Disney or animal trivia and they have learned SO MUCH from playing this!
Simon Says: A classic for good reason! Once you start playing this, watch as all the other kids from the families around you want to join in too! A great way to make new friends!
Would you Rather
Mouth It: My kids LOVE this one and it always leaves everyone laughing! The gist of it: everyone goes around and mouths a 3-word sentence, one at a time. After one person mouths, everyone gets one guess to tell what they think that person said. It’s fun!! Pro-tip: really stress to the kids not to go over the 3-word limit or the game will get way too difficult!!! {example sentences: Halloween is scary; I love you; Brody is sweet, etc}
This really also comes in handy when waiting or riding on a bus or the monorail. Sometimes, the waits can get to be a lot for children so keeping them distracted to pass the time is a win-win for parents. Since starting to play with trivia with them, they BEG me to play all the time. This last trip, we would also guess what bus we would get as the buses all have different Disney characters on them.
Mistake #3: Parking at the airport instead of using this hack
We currently live in central PA so we usually drive to a major airport to get cheaper and direct flights. We flew out of D.C. for this trip but we had an early flight so the evening before we drove to D.C and spent the night at an hotel near the airport. We choose the Hyatt Regency Dulles for a good budget-friendly place to spend the night. We paid about $120 for the room. This made sense for us because if we booked flights out of State College for the 6 of us to Orlando it would have been 3K. We spent less than half of that for our flights out of D.C.
We also choose the Hyatt Regency Dulles hotel because we were able to also park our car there for the whole week for an amazing price. Then we woke up in the morning before our flight and we took the hotel shuttle to the airport. It was such an easy process and would 100% recommend doing this if you don’t live by a major airport.
We used a 3rd party site called One Stop Parking. You choose your departure airport or city you want to park in and the dates you will need. Then all the options and pricing will come up for you to chose. We ended up saving 50% of what we would have paid to park at the airport.
**You do not need to stay at the hotel to book this. It is all done through a third party site. We have done this multiple times in different cities when driving straight to the airport.
Mistake #4: Not downloading the MyDisneyExperience App ahead of time
To Download, go into your App Store and search “Disney World”. The app is called “My Disney Experience”. Once you have it downloaded, create an account and from there you can add your park passes in or you can even buy them through this app and they will automatically be loaded in.
You are going to use this app!!! It might even be your most used app on your trip. A great feature of this app is if you are going with other people or another family who have bought tickets separately and you plan to try to ride rides together you can sync up and book ride reservations together.
-Your park tickets to enter the park will need to be scanned from this app.
-If you are staying on a Disney Property, they will give you mobile key that you access via this app. When going into a park, your passes are loaded into this app.
-When inside of the parks, if you want to order any fast casual food, most of the restaurants make you order from the app and then you can pick it up inside (even if you plan to eat inside).
-You can look up wait times for restaurants and book reservations on the app
-You can see the current wait times for RIDES/SHOWS and this is constantly updated. We used this our whole trip to figure out what ride we would want to ride in between our Lighting Lane windows. For example, if we were right by Pirates of the Caribbean and the wait was only 20 minutes we would choose to ride that next instead of walking all the way over to a ride you want to go on and finding out its an hour+ wait time.
-The app has park maps, park hours and any special events going on.
-All over the park there are photographers who will take your pic, then they will scan your app to send you the photos. These photos are available for purchase in the app
PRO TIP: You can also ask these photographers to take your pic with your phone and they will so you can have both the ones on your phone and in the app.
Mistake #5: Not booking Lighting Lanes passes 7 days before your trip
As of July 20234, guests of Disney Resort hotels and other select hotels can purchase passes up to 7 days in advance of their stay—and other Guests not staying on a Disney property can purchase passes up to 3 days in advance of their park visit.
If this is your first time going to Disney World, you will probably have no idea what I am talking about. Even if you have been to Disney, but it has been a while, WDW changed GeniePlus to what they now refer to as Lighting Lanes. We recommend purchasing the Lighting Lane Multi-Pass. You can purchase your tickets in advance and pick what 3 rides are MOST IMPORTANT for you to ride and sign up for time blocks for each. They give you about a 50 minute window that you need to scan in between that time to get in the lighting lane. Be aware, depending how busy the ride is you can still end up waiting between 10-20 minutes. Usually, it is more like 5-10 minuted though.
Prices of these vary by season, date and how busy the park is. Some of the most in-demand attractions are not available with the Multi-Pass and you would have to purchase them separately with a Single-Pass. Rides like TRON, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance are some examples of having to purchase a Single-Pass for.
**PRO TIP: Once you SCAN to get in the line for 1 of your 3 rides from your Multi-Pass, then you can go into the app and try to book another ride. Most people think you have to wait till you get off the ride, but you do not!
To learn more about Lighting Lanes works and why it is super beneficial, I recommend visiting Disneyworld.com/lightinglane.
Mistake #6: Lining up hours before the fireworks to get a spot
Lining up hours before the fireworks to get a good spot. Crowds of people will start to sit and line the streets around the where the fireworks will go off in each park every night. With little kids we would not usually stay in the park to watch the show because it can it can be late and then when the show is over the crowds can be BAD. Depending on where you are going, you can wait an hour or more for a bus back to your resort. With little kids, it wasn’t worth it for us.
This time we were planning to walk back to our hotel as it is only a 5-10 minute walk to the Bay Lake Tower snd we were going to watch them from our balcony. But as we were making our way to the front of the park to leave we passed by Liberty Square.
The parks have these lines on the ground where they want to keep the walkway clear but there was plenty of open space to sit or stand between the Ye Old Christmas Shoppe and Sleepy Hollow (I starred this area between 40 and 41 on the map).
We actually ended up getting a snack from Sleepy Hollow and sitting on the ground to watch the show. IT WAS PERFECT! When I say that, I mean it. You can hear the music and see the fireworks perfectly. You are on the side of the castle, but you can see the whole light show that is projected on the castle perfectly.
The Magic Kingdom does an amazing job with the show each night. They even have a real person, dressed as Tinkerbell, fly from the top of the castle over the front of the crowd, spreading pixie dust. Below👇 is a map where you can see the exact spot we sat!
Mistake #7: Waiting till the last minute to book a stroller rental
I know some people will prefer to bring your own stroller and that is a great way to save money! We decided we wanted to rent a stroller for this trip because we were only going to need it for part for the trip and less hassle in the airport. We booked ahead of time with Stroller Bug because they were the only company who would drop off/pick up the stroller at our hotel without us being there. I did this about a week ahead of time and I think we got one of the last double strollers, so don’t make my mistake and book it further in advance. This was a huge help because when we got to our hotel, it was there waiting for us! Ours also came with a free small cooler and rain cover for us to use for free, which came in very handy!
Pro Tip: Bring or rent a stroller even if you don’t have kids who are toddlers. My 3 year old of course needed the stroller and napped it in almost every day, but my 7 year old also sat in the stroller almost just as much. I was SO THANKFUL we got a double. Remember, most days we were walking 15,000-20,000 steps and it can be a lot for kids. It’s also so nice to have to put coats in or anything else you decide to bring. Then towards the end of the night, going home they won’t complain as much as can fall asleep in the stroller, if needed!
Mistake #8: Not using the My Disney Experience App to look at transportation wait times
Using the My Disney Experience App you can look up when the next form of transportation is expected to arrive so you can make sure you are there.
THIS IS CRUCIAL - If you want to aim to get to the park at “rope drop” (when they open) a lot of others will be trying to get there at the exact same time as you. Buses can only take so many people, so you will want to be at that bus stop ahead of time to get on the bus.
Like I previously said, the My Disney Experience is going to be your go-to app for everything!
Having taken many Walt Disney World vacations, I have spent a lot of time wondering when our bus would show up. Way too much time to be honest haha. Depending on where you are staying, you might be able to take a bus, monorail or gondola to WDW from your hotel or resort.
How to see the bus wait times: start by ensuring that you have the latest version of the My Disney Experience App. Next, you need to ensure you have a current Walt Disney World Resort hotel reservation linked to your account. Finally, you can tap, "See Bus Times" to access the current approximate wait times.
The monorail does tend to come every 5-10 minutes or even quicker but they can get quite full especially at the beginning or end of day. We have never stayed at the resorts where you can take a gondola but it is on our bucket list!
**NOTE: To see the bus wait times, you will need to have your resort linked in the app and will only be able to access this information on your app if you are a current resort guest and are physically at the resort you’re staying at. Once that is done, go into the app and go to “My Resort” then click “Bus Times”.
Mistake #9: Not booking this character dining experience
Now, the first thing I want to say about this is it is a bit of a splurge. It’s not cheap, but with that being said I believe it is 100% WORTH IT!!
For so many Disney-goers, meeting some of the characters top of the list in importance - and this is a great way to guarantee that you will not only see them - but get time to actually “hang out” with them.
There are many different dining experiences you can book, and one thing you might not know is that different experiences have different characters. For ex: The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom has Winnie the Pooh & Friends, while the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway (EPCOT) is where you can dine with all the princesses.
However, if you want to see the OG characters: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and Daisy - you will LOVE this tip.
My #1 Disney Character dining recommendation is… a late afternoon TUSKER HOUSE reservation!
Tusker House is in the Animal Kingdom and offers a buffet-style dining experience. It cost us $60 per adult and $30 per child (but pricing and menus vary for breakfast/lunch/dinner (kids 2 & under are free)).
There are lots of options to do these character meals but we ended up doing it on a rainy afternoon for lunch to get a break from the rain and sit for a little while.
Which Disney Characters are at the Tusker House? All the OG’s including Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto are all dressed up like they were going on a safari (we were in the Animal Kingdom after all).
Why Is Tusker House the Best Character Dining In Disney? I think this character dining is still a bit of an unknown as everyone I mentioend it to had never heard of it, and even though we were in Disney over a really busy time (Spring Break!) - we didn’t make reservations until the day before and they still had tons of availability.
What Time if Day is the Best Time to Book Tusker House? We made a 2:10 PM reservation and it was PERFECT! The way these character meals work is that you stay in your seats and the characters walk from table to table in a circle - so you have to wait until they reach you. The more crowded it is, the less time they can spend at your table. And if you miss them, it could be another 60-90 minutes until they come back around.
However, by booking in the late-afternoon, The lunch crowd had left and it was pretty empty - so the characters came around to us THREE times in just 60 minutes! And they could really spend a lot of time with us talking, playing with the kids and taking pictures - we did not feel rushed AT ALL!
What kind of food does Tusker House serve? It is a Buffett style meal with soft drinks and coffee included in the meal. You can purchase other non-alcoholic & alcoholic beverages for an additional price. They had lots of great options for food! The offered pizza, chicken fingers and mac & cheese for kid friendly options but also had some African inspired dishes you could try like Black-Eyed Pea Stew, Moroccan-Spiced Beef, and Green Curry Shrimp. Then they also had cookies, brownies and an assortment of desserts to choose from.
To book a reservation ahead of time and see what other options they have for meeting the characters visit Disneyworld.com
Mistake #10: Forgetting to pack a portable charger
My sister has a portable charger, she carries with her anytime she travels. She of course brought it on this trip and THANK GOD she did! There were 4 of us adults and we all used it. At some points we were literally flighting over it. This is because when you are at Disney, you need your phone for so many things. Of course you will take pictures you also MUST use now it to order food online in the park, see ride wait times, and book those lighting lane rides!
The Portable Charger was lightweight, easy to throw in a purse or backpack and fully charged 3 of our phones with its one battery charge. It also has multiple device cords like USB, USB-C, USB-A so you can charge other devices if needed.
** Jolly Good Travel is an Affiliate partner with DVC Rental Store, a brand who we have independently used and loved for years. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Jolly Good Travel).
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. DVC Rental Store is a Jolly Good Travel affiliate partner, but we always provide honest opinions about every hotel stay, airline and partner program we review.
