What did you do that you thought was a waste of money?

[TiffanyA]

As said by so many people, these are all so subjective as to what you personally find rewarding and your touring style.

Park hoppers - Many posters have canned them. I usually go with my family for an abbreviated (usually 3 days!) trip around Christmas. We would get nothing done WITHOUT park hoppers, crowds and time being what they are. Hoppers allow us to enjoy ourselves, see all the parks and skip over to another park on any whim (too crowded, decided we actually did want to do xyz etc). Also helps on days there is MVMCP and MK closes down to regular guests early.

Water parks Option - I also love water parks in the heat of the summer. We'd spend mornings at one park, leave to relax at a water park until early evening, then head to another park as the sun was going down. Makes the relentless summer sun bearable.

Biggest waste of money for me?

Counter Service - It all goes to your priorities - mine would be eating at places like Electric Umbrella for convenience or to save a few $$. Overpriced and underwhelming food in a loud, generic place, even if it is cheaper than a TS meal. I'd much rather pay big bucks at a Signature restaurant for a steak cooked to order - because I really appreciate how much better my mood is after a good meal. My family likes to take their time, talk and take in the atmosphere, have espresso/tea after our meal, just take a load off. It's relaxing. And a few of us are kind of foodies. That is not to say some QS isn't worth it to me. Hello Turkey leg! Come to mama! I'm also dying to try the pork shank at Gaston's Tavern this Xmas. But we usually appreciate at least one TS a day.

Photopass - another waste of money for me. Because of our abbreviated trips, we don't really want to stop to take pictures. We have people take photos of us in line, or we take each other on rides. It's just what works for us. YMMV.

Someone mentioned Cirque as a waste of money - I absolutely agree with that! But my parents would not. Different strokes for different folks. My sister also likes to stop and watch all the parades and fireworks. I see those periods as times to hop on all the rides as lines are shorter!

 

[tmoo]

Where were you in the park?! I keep hearing people complaining about this but I've never experienced large crowds at limited ticket events, even on sell-out nights. Most rides cap at a 15 minute wait time. Maybe since I avoid the parade route I've been lucky. *shrug*

I distinctly remember one night trying to get from Main Street to Tomorrow land and almost having anxiety issues trying to get there (no it was not parade or show time). It was so jammed in the hub that it was more like a mosh pit. If there were ever an emergency there is no way they could evacuate. You couldn't get close enough to see the parade unless you wanted to stake out a spot 2 hours before. At $500 for a 5 hour event where you have to spend half of it to watch a parade, to me that seems like a waste of money.

 

[HotMama]

I'm reading so many negative things in this thread about activities we loved. We have picked 1 or 2 "extra" things each trip & have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I would pick 1 thing that you think your family will enjoy the most, and go for it! We have done BBB, dessert party, dinner shows, MNSSHP, memory maker, water parks, several character meals, Disney Quest, etc. and have made the most of each with a great attitude, which made wonderful memories for my family. Make your trip affordable so you can book a bounce back trip for next year. Have a wonderful trip.

 

[busymommy2pink]

Ok..I haven't read the whole thread, but here's my in put

As a first timer, I would definitely book a princess and fab 5 meal if you want to meet characters. This means less waiting to meet characters in the parks. Personally, our fav fab 5 is Tusker House (AK) for breakfast! We love it SOOOO much!!! Chef Mickey's has gone WAY down hill in recent years. For princesses, we do love the Royal Table, yes it's expensive, but it's the experience, the wishing ceremony, the princesses, being in the castle, having your waiter call you "my lady" and "princess". We all agree lunch is WAY better (and less expensive if paying out of pocket). Both of these were our best call for our first trips. In fact, we are doing CRT still this trip.

We do love the dining plan. We are very much the type of family that appreciates that planned sit down break in some nice AC with some decent food. Sure, we don't love the dessert every meal, but just recently, they made it so you can also choose a starter (soup or salad) instead, so that will be worth it even more for us. We've also asked that they give our dessert to a family not on the dining plan as a bit of pixie dust where they wouldn't normally have purchased it. We've seen it happen and other times just assumed they followed through, but either way, it's a nice way to spread the magic a little bit without directly costing much. We also love the convenience of it being all paid before we get there. We are Canadian, so buying Disney gift cards isn't the way to go for us, we can't get them here. Even if we could, I would still get the dining plan.

BBB...we had it booked on our second trip and cancelled. The dresses are itchy and stiff (I got a FAR more lovely Elsa dress on aliexpress for $8 shipped..it's sleeves were soft and overall it looked nicer than the $100 set up in the Parks), the hair looks like torture, and overall just wasn't for us. The price tag wasn't worth it for our family.

Pirates Fireworks Cruise. We've always wanted to do this, but haven't. I can't say it's a waste of money. I could see it being a one and done thing, but definitely a fun experience if fireworks are important to you!

MVMCP and MNSSHP. We went to the halloween party last year. It was a monsoon until about 7, we waited it out at Wilderness Lodge (where we had dinner). Got there and still had the best time ever. The trick or treating was fun, we rode splash mountain 6 times without getting off (I told DD we were getting off after 40 minutes on her favorite ride lol..but hey..it was HER trip that time), the characters were neat to see (we didn't stop for most as they just aren't that important to us). We loved the short or no lines for rides, the dance party, the snacks, the parade, hallowishes, the atmosphere...EVERYTHING. I LOOOOOOOOVE the parties. Yes they are expensive, I would go again, but only if my other daughter who missed it was coming. We are doing the Christmas party this year and are super excited!!! Cost wise, it's a little less than a park day. It's unique and a lot of fun!

We used to get Memory Maker when it was Photopass. On our last trip (first one with Magicbands and memory maker) a good 30% of our pictures were missing. It was severely disappointing. I called, and they were able to find a few that I specifically told them were missing, but overall I didn't love that my memories seemed to slip away in their hands. I don't think we will do it again. We will still take pics and decide when we get home if we would like to purchase them. We will buy the 39.99 for the party though.

 

[AuroraRora]

My parents did Cirque, and said it was a massive waste of money, they hated it. But I know some people would disagree.

 

[ghtx]

We prepaid for the Memory Maker, which I don't think was worth it (~$150). The pictures were nice and all, but not that much better than pictures we took with our own cameras. This is probably only worth it if you are really planning on using the photopass photographers a lot (e.g. if you want to visit lots of character M&Gs).

 

[AzzySpazbourne]

What did you do during one of your trips that you thought was a complete waste of money?

Park Hopper option. For my family it doesn't make sense to get. Until they change the ability to select your 3 FP+ from different parks, and it doesn't take an hour to get from one park to another (which will probably be never)... we won't get them again... that is unless they force it on us for a discount/package (like this year's free-dining deal).

Anyways... last time we got them was in April 2011. We only used hoppers once that trip.. but only because we felt compelled to use it since we bought it. We just spent the whole day in one park and got to see things we wouldn't have considered or thought was a waste of time before, but quickly discovered the amount of intra-world travel to be the biggest time killer.

 

[AzzySpazbourne]

My parents did Cirque, and said it was a massive waste of money, they hated it. But I know some people would disagree.

Although we would never do Cirque again (at least not La Nouba)... we didn't necessarily kick ourselves for buying the tickets/seeing it.. until after we bout the tickets and saw it. The more and more we're thinking about it.. YEAH.. why did we spend money on that when we could've used it towards staying an extra day!?!?!

The show wasn't bad.. but wasn't good either (IMO). I think had it been any other vacation, we would not have had much of an issue (besides high price point) to see it.. but since we were in WDW, now we constantly ask ourselves why we thought that was a good idea.

 

[busymommy2pink]

Oh...we also love hoppers...because we aren't rope drop people nor go all day type of people. We like to hit up one park during the day, rest, sit down meal and go somewhere else for the evening. NEVER have we not done everything we wanted, and it was a much more relaxed pace. We never come home feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation. We come back relaxed, which was the whole point, plus we had a load of fun

 

[AzzySpazbourne]

we also love hoppers...because we aren't rope drop people nor go all day type of people

I can respect that. I just think it depends on who you go with and your vacation style. We also aren't "go all day people", but we are rope-droppers (but only recently though since we have a DD-2). We don't go more than a leisurely pace and always take time to stop and smell the roses.. we just do so in one park on one day at a time. This allows my family to stay longer and see things we normally might have overlooked if we're constantly being reminded we have hoppers and we "can" go to any other park... if we don't mind another hour of transportation. We also like to have the flexibility of keeping a mid-day break at the resort. Transportation's tough with a 2-year old, we can't imagine adding an extra 2 intra-world trips on top of the 2 (or 4, if we elect to take our mid-day break) we already make per day.

 

[summerlady]

My parents did Cirque, and said it was a massive waste of money, they hated it. But I know some people would disagree.

DH has been pushing me to go there for years, I finally relented and bought tickets. I'm going in thinking I won't like it at all but I hope I will. And if I don't like it, he owes me, big time.

 

[Pirate Me]

Be Our Guest breakfast was a waste for us. Lunch was really good but we felt weird spending $20 each on egg whites and cheap pastries. I'd much rather start off with a cinnamon roll at Gaston's.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

The Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party.

Dinner at Chef Mickey's

Dinner at Rose and Crown

Face painting. UGH! That was the worst idea ever, but my daughter begged and pleaded to have her face painted into a beautiful blue butterfly at one of those stands in DHS. $20 or so later, she looked lovely....for all of 5 minutes. Then, it began to itch and melt off of her face. In 15 minutes that paint was everywhere but her face, she looked so awful I found and bathroom and we scrubbed the remnants off. Facepaint in 90plus degree heat with high humidity is a terrible idea. I can make $20 last longer in a casino than that face paint lasted.

Face painting was my DD's favorite. The cool thing was, once you got it done, you could go back as many times that day as you wanted to have it redone for no charge. DD got it done at DTD at lunchtime, then again at MNSSHP for no charge (same company). If you get it redone, it can be worth it.

 

[ameliahyde]

I find many of the experiences/ extras worthwhile, but agree that you might want to take it slow for your first trip. However, I am a big fan of doing a lot of character dining with the ages of my children. I find it to be much easier to get through a meal when there are characters coming by to meet, and I also enjoy seeing them in a restaurant versus waiting a long time in line outside. But to each their own! On our upcoming 8 night trip, we are doing 5 character meals.

I am a big fan of memory maker. You get as many pictures as you really want and you don't have to worry about carrying around a large camera. To me, pictures are priceless and the extra charge is worthwhile.

I have always been a huge fan of the Halloween and Christmas parties. We have been many times, and while I do not think it has to be a yearly thing, I do think it is a nice thing to throw in a trip, especially after your first time.

For a first time trip, I do not think that Park hoppers are worthwhile or necessary. We have done trips with and without park hopper, and I think the best value with a park hopper come when you are staying at a deluxe resort in walking distance to a park. Otherwise, my touring style does not allow me to get a big value out of the park hopper.

I am also not a big fan of the hoop-dee-doo revue. I know there are many people who love it, & I am probably in the minority. But I just don't find it to be worth.

This is the first year we plan to do the bibbidi bobbidi boutique. We did not do it on earlier trips with our daughters, because we felt like they would not give a lot out of it. We are going to take a try at it this trip, but I plan to bring our own dresses and we will be doing the least expensive package

 

[vanyel]

Hoop Dee Doo. The night we went there was something "off" with the food. Nobody else seems to have had the same experience so it could very well have been a one time thing. I, however, spent too much for an experience which is not a good memory.

I enjoyed our one time at Hoop Dee Doo but would never do it again. It was ok, but not great. So see, you're not the only one who doesn't love it!

I don't regret anything we've done but I'll admit that we don't tend to do a lot of the extras. We usually do one character meal, just for fun, and try to make it a different one each time. I wouldn't purchase the dining package, unless it's free, and only after "doing the math" on room discount t vs free dining. So far, fd has been the better deal.

Don't try to do everything in one trip.

 

[thewelts]

Park Hoppers were a waste of money for us. We are Disneyland regulars where park hopping is essential (You can easily walk from park to park). I had no idea how big Disneyworld would be (40 square miles!). It is literally miles between parks (8 miles from Magic Kingdom to Hollywood Studios). Disney buses can take 45 minutes (as much as 90 minutes) from one park to another.

We spend a lot of money to stay onsite so we value some time in our room and enjoying the pool. We did not have the stamina to double up on parks especially when parks like Animal Kingdom close as early as 6 PM!

 

[To the honeypots]

Garden grocer. The refrigerators here don't keep things cold. Our milk was totally rotten in 2 days

 

[disnut1149]

This has probably already been said but staying off site will save you a TON of money and it will be more relaxing than a cramped hotel room. You can get a condo with 3 BR for $60 a night. Cook breakfast in the condo. Have chili dogs for supper, etc.

Also, packing your own lunches can save you a fortune. You could do PL or BBB for the cost of a meal alone.

Where do you get the condo for $60.00 a night? I always stay on property now, but might be interested in this. How far away from the parks is it and is there a pool? I don't cook on vacation, but would like more room.

Also, we wouldn't do the Behind the Seeds tour in Epcot. It didn't cost that much, but took up time that we would've rather spent in the park. It was too hot in the greenhouse and my DH was so bored.

 

[PeculiarMadmoiselle]

Some have mentioned this but the dining plan. Specifically the deluxe one. The first time my husband went with me he insisted on the deluxe. Too much food and we each gained five pounds in 6 days! If you are watching what you are eating don't get the dining plan, it is easier to track what you are eating without the plan.

 

[Mamapapa]

MNSSHP - went last November. Cookies were basic store brand, nothing special, hot chocolate was watered down, park was packed. Most crowded we've ever seen it. Ride lines were extremely long, no where to stand where we could even see the parade, very few trick or treat stations and they were stingy with the candy (one little piece each), but we did enjoy the fireworks. Even at 11:30pm, the wait times were over 75min for the main rides. Total waste of money, never again.