No matter how many times I tell myself, “I’ve learned from last year,” I still mess up in Disney World.

Do you drive to Disney World?

We’re spilling the beans on where our planning, stomachs, and timing all failed us this year at Disney World. These are the kinds of mistakes you don’t want to make — some are embarrassing, some are costly, some are just not the smartest. Below, you’ll find some of our top fails. Let’s dive right into it.

Underestimating I-4 traffic (again)

As someone who drives all the way from the Tampa Bay area, the trip always finds a way to eat extra minutes. No matter how much buffer time we build in, there’s always more traffic. We planned as though I-4 would be kind… it wasn’t.

Driving to Disney World

On multiple trips this year, what should’ve been a 2-hour drive turned into 3+ hours of crawling — and we showed up late, tired, and cranky. I promise, we’ll never assume extra time is optional again.

Visiting EPCOT on a weekend during a festival

Some things seem like fun in theory, but in practice they get chaotic fast. We made this mistake more than once: we rolled into EPCOT on festival weekends, expecting we’d soak in the atmosphere and enjoy all the food booths.

Crowds at EPCOT

Instead, we ended up paying more attention to the crowd flow than to our enjoyment. The lines were long, walkways got clogged, and we spent more energy ducking people than tasting treats. We’ll never go into a festival weekend unprepared again.

Big lunch when I had Hoop-Dee-Doo that night

I can’t believe I almost did this again. In the past, I ate a massive lunch on the day I had evening Hoop-Dee-Doo reservations, thinking “I’ll just eat a little then.” Big mistake. I showed up too full to enjoy that cornbread or chicken like I planned.

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

This year, I was on guard. Lesson: Don’t overdo lunch when you have a heavy dinner reservation coming.

Being late for Cake Bake Shop dinner and getting charged by OpenTable

We finally visited the Cake Bake Shop for dinner — one of those reservations I’d been looking forward to all trip. We messed up: We arrived late.

Inside the Bakery

Because of that, OpenTable dinged us with a fee. That sting of paying money just for showing up late is one I want to avoid forever. Show up on time or cancel that reservation beforehand!

Back-to-back reservations in a tight window

This was ambitious — and in truth, a little reckless. We booked a GEO-82 reservation, then queued a Cosmic Rewind Lightning Lane, then had Le Cellier reservations all within an hour and a half of each other.

Inside GEO 82

I thought we could pull it off, and we did this time. But I can absolutely see it going badly: being late, missing one, rushing the whole night. We ended up stressed, constantly checking clocks, and eating half of one reservation so we could catch the next. Lesson: allow more breathing room between reservations.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

We’re not perfect, and we don’t expect you to be either. But you can skip a lot of our pain points by learning from them. If you remember just two things— never underestimate traffic and space out your reservations — you’ll already be way ahead of where we were.

Keep following us at DFB for more tips on making the most of your Disney trip!

I Made a Foolish Mistake with My Lightning Lanes in Disney World. Here’s How I Solved It.

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Which Disney trip mistake would you absolutely refuse to repeat? Tell us in the comments below!