Here’s What a Day at Disney World Can Look Like if You Aren’t Prepared

8. MISTAKE: You waited until yesterday to make FastPass+ selections.

And all the available FastPass+ times have been booked. And you’re in the parks today—without FastPasses. Plus, it’s the middle of June. And there are a kazillion people at Magic Kingdom. Virtually every stand-by queue has a wait time of 65 minutes and longer. Except Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland, which is a great attraction, so you and yours walk into the carousel theater and enjoy the show. You emerge from the theater, hopeful that the heat will have miraculously dissipated. But it’s June and it’s still hot—too hot to wait in long lines for rides. And because it’s hot and the lines are too long, your four-year-old is whining and whimpering. She wants to meet Cinderella, but that encounter at Princess Fairy Tale Hall had no available FastPass+ times, so you tell her she can’t meet Cinderella today. Now she’s in full-blown meltdown mode. Because he’s hot and tired, your husband is getting cranky too and asks the rhetorical question, “Why did we come to Disney if we can’t ride anything?” heaping a gallon of guilty feelings onto you because you didn’t make those FastPass+ selections earlier. Now you’re feeling disappointed. And because you are starting to feel yourself melt into the pavement, you go back into the Carousel of Progress theater, but since your four-year-old was just there 20 minutes ago, she’s not keen on seeing the show again. T-minus 6 seconds until meltdown mode resumes.

SOLUTION: Be sure to make FastPass+ selections 60 days in advance of your trip if you are staying at a Disney Resort and 30 days in advance if you are staying off property during your trip and avoid the meltdowns, the crowds and the terribly long lines that are only made worse by uncooperative weather.