Notes – to do next time – to not do next time – thoughts – comments – suggestions

1- Do NOT go grumpy in any way. It is Disney, you spent a good bit of time and money getting there and you CANNOT let anyone else annoy or bother you. There are people from MANY different cultures there. Their etiquette (and hygiene) are very different from ours. You will not change the world while you are there. You will never see any of these people ever again. Let them cutting you off, getting in your personal space and being a bit self centered flow off your back like water. You cannot let it get to you or it will be the ruin of your trip. Yes, I did get annoyed when people would cut us off or just walk right towards us like they didn't see us. But I stepped to the side and kept going on my way. NOT big deal!

2- Don't make fast passes for early. Get to the park at opening and ride what you want then. Save your passes for the late morning/early afternoon. Or, what I think we will do, is make them for right before our midday break and make a new FastPass before we leave the park for when we plan on coming back once we used all of those first 3.

3- Dining plan. I love it. A few things though...

      A- Remember to use your snack credits! We had like 10 or 12 left at the end of the trip and no where to pack the food!

      B- Plan your meals well so no one gets HANGRY or so you are not in a food coma and cannot enjoy the meals. This I still have to work on. I want to try all the new stuff and get random reservations. Next trip I will put more thought into when we normally eat/snack and try to work around that so we are not wanting to kill each other because we have not eaten! Also planning out buffets before and after lighter meals so we have the stomach for them all.

      C- We brought some snacks from home. Most of them sounded good when we were at home, but once we were there...not so much. We did bring some homemade beef jerky and that was awesome...and also some small packs of Target Monster Trail Mix. Once again, we had ALL those unused snack credits that could of helped there.

4- Pin. More pins. Rebekah and I had a pin trading addiction. It was so fun to trade with the castmemebers! However, the 50 pins I bought on Ebay for trading did not last all that long! By the end of the trip we were buying cheap sets at the pin sellers and using them as traders. More pins next time. I will also admit, about 50% of the Ebay pins I got were scrappers. HOWEVER about 50% of the pins we got from castmembers were also scrappers. I trade for the cool pins, not for their value, so it does not matter to me. But I do know it is a major thing with hardcore pin traders.

These are all the pins we traded for.  On the right are Rebekah's (and a bit on the left bottom) and mine are on the left.  I needed to take a picture of the pins
by the end of the trip so I knew what we had when we were trading!

My 3 pin boards - 92 pins

 My assorted pins and park lanyard

 My Haunted Mansion, Figment and Park pins and Haunted Mansion 

lanyard that we used for our keepers

 My old Disney Store pins and John's 4 pins

Rebekah's pins all organized - 84 pins

5- TouringPlans. I did sign-up to use their service. I bought the current edition of the Unofficial Guide anyway, so I used that discount so it only cost me $8 or $9. Worth it just for their room request fax service. I went on their site and looked at all the rooms where I requested online. You are able to see the view from the door and how long of a walk and noise levels on the website. I chose POP room 5113, 1^st floor, lake view, end room, looking at a cool bench and the path around the late. I also requested early check-in (noon). I got room 5118, just a few doors down from 5113. Same view, but a bit closer to Main Hall and the Buses. I also got my “Room is Ready” text when our plane landed in Orlando at 11:20! I did not use the touring plans they set up for me, but seeing the crowd calendar (and how accurate it was) was nice.

 View from our window!

 Kissing the window goodbye!

 Outside our room!

 Good room!

6- Disney Transportation. I love it. The most we waited for a bus was maybe 10 minutes. I found a website Our Laughing Place Transportation Wizard (http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx#.VqOXBlJJ3IV) and I ended up using it a lot. Next time I want to find ways to ride on the boats, but I really enjoy their transportation system. Use it!

 Magic Express at the airport

 Magic Express buses are cushy!

 Entering the world!

 Bus travel - a good napping place!

 Buses, buses everywhere!

 Monorail travel is awesome, too!

Our seasoned Disney bus traveler!

7- More time at EPCOT. I wish I had more time there. I did not get to see any of the shows in the Countries. I am not quite sure what I could of done differently, though. Perhaps having Park Hopper passes so when we have extra time (like after Hollywood Studios) we could head over there. Or maybe an earlier arrival and head right to EPCOT earlier than we did. I am not sad or disappointed, just wish I spent more time there. But we will be back!

8- Flights. Yes, it was hard to get up so early, but I would totally do it again. Snooze on the plane. My excitement about being at Disney carried me through the day, for sure. Getting there early and starting the touring is really important to me. I am paying for the trip that arrival day, lets get the most of it! Coming home, I really did enjoy leaving when we did (place took off at 5:30). I though I would be worried the whole day, but I wasn't. We were able to get a late check out (1pm), so we packed in the morning and hung around the resort using up our meal and snack credits before the Magic Express got us at 2:25. I will also only ever fly an airline who is part of the Disney check-in. Checking in and dropping our check luggage there, not having to deal with it at the airport and going right to security was smooth and super easy. Lastly, I really enjoyed flying Delta, nothing super special, just good service at an amazing price.

9- Packing. I dislike carry on luggage. Perhaps next time we will just do a backpack and check the rest. Worth the money to me to not lug around a bunch of stuff. We did pack an extra carry-on inside of ou checked bag. On the way down it had our snacks in it and we planned so on the way back it would have the stuff we bought in it and we would carry it on. However it was not needed. It stayed packed in the checked luggage.

10- Park bag. The backpack really was too much. John used his satchel sometimes, but that only worked because 1- HE carried it, not ME and 2- he did not do many of the fast rides. I did use my Vera cross body bag I got at Savers and I LOVE the size of it, however it will not fit snacks and a water bottle at the least and it will for sure not fit whatever we are having characters sign. Need to be on the hunt for a perfect, comfy bag for next time! Oh yea, it also needs to be easy to open so going through security bag check is quick!

11- Shoes. Bring 2 comfy pair. Well broken in for lots of walking. I have a pair of New Balance walkers that I actually wore for our last Disney trip that are SO comfy! I also brought a pair of Nike sneakers. On days we went back to the room for a rest, I would change shoes just to help my foot fatigue. It worked. My feet were never sore. Which brings me to...

12- Walking. I walked about 85 miles in the 8 park days. Luckily I am very active at work so it was not too bad on me. But I imagine if you work a desk job, or cashier etc job, you will need to prep for all that walking!

13- Use a Disney Travel Agent! Even thought I am a Disney freak and I can plan out the trip without any help, I LOVED using my TA! She was able to do the reservations and the FastPass selections for me. Sit on the phone to get the Dining reservations when I don't have the time to. I was able to ask her random and obscure questions about stuff I heard and she had answers. Between me know what I wanted and her being able to help me get it and tweak it all so it works perfectly, I will TOTALLY use her again! He name is Denyse Hathaway and she works with Mickey World Travel. You can contact her at dhathaway@mickeyworldtravel.com or 573-808-3834. She is also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MickeyWorldTravelDenyseHathaway/info/?tab=page_info.

Thanks everyone!

I would LOVE to go back to Disney in 

January 2017. We have a whole year to see 

what life brings!