I was talking to a woman I know who just did her first trip with her family, with precious little research ahead of time. She was telling me some decisions they made, which just puzzled me, but I figured to just chalk it up to newbie error. What stupid thing(s) did you do on your first trip, before you became a Disney expert?

My first trip as an adult was about 10 years ago and I remember literally carrying the massive “Idiot’s Guide” through the parks; in hindsight, we were considerably underprepared, though I can’t think of anything particularly dumb we did. This stuff makes the list, I guess.
  • Stay off property (which is not entirely dumb, depending, but we really didn’t do the research to know to stay on site, which we should have)
  • Eat at Denny’s and generally plan for way more time off-property than necessary
  • Not claiming a parade spot far enough in advance, and then expecting that by sitting on a curb a crowd of people three deep wouldn’t stand in front of us.
  • Not taking time to explore resorts
  • Not packing warm clothes in March (one day it didn’t top 50 degrees)
  • And then some attractions we went to, which were clearly a waste of time for us (but we were trying to take in everything, I will say, given it was our first trip), such as the Country Bears and The Circle of Life AK movie
  • Being unaware of little stuff, like hidden Mickeys, detailed effects, the party-line payphone and raining umbrella-type things, and cult food favorites like Dole Whips, etc.

I remember as a kid – my very first trip and obviously I wasn’t in charge – we got to the park like, two hours after opening and left each day with several hours still remaining for the parks to be open. At the time I wondered why we were leaving, but as a sixth-grader, didn’t have much say. We’d leave and get in our hotel pool. Sigh, Dad and Mom!