I Had the Worst Day Ever in Disney World, And Here’s How I Turned It Around

Let me preface this post by saying I’m usually a glass-half-full kinda gal.

It takes quite a lot for me to feel discouraged, down in the dumps, like dirt — whatever analogy you’d like to use. Especially when I’m in Disney World. Alas, on my trip to Disney World last week, I had my worst day EVER in the parks and became DETERMINED to turn it around.

To get the full picture, you need a little bit of backstory:

I’m a writer for AllEars, but while a lot of our team lives in the Orlando area and visits the parks every day, some of us live in other states and work remotely.

I was invited to go on a trip with a friend of mine and one of their friends (who I didn’t know super well) over spring break season. I was beyond thrilled to be on this adventure. (Spoiler: Trios are hard anywhere, but especially Disney World.)

Our drive from Georgia was smooth, with me switching off driving with my friend, and we stayed in one of the gorgeous Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside (my wallet hates me, but it was worth it!). Our first day in the parks went fairly smoothly, but I had the slight feeling I was a third-wheel.

That feeling became ever so strong on Day 2, which is what I call “JP’s-Terrible-Horrible-No Good-Very Bad Day in Disney World.” I constantly felt like I was being left out of conversations and decisions, like my list of things I wanted to do was being forgotten about, and overall just like I was an afterthought. Things came to a head halfway through the day when my group wanted to extend our trip a day out of the blue, and I went into an absolute spiral.

To explain a bit, I’m autistic, and that means I don’t do great when plans change suddenly, especially as drastically as extending a trip. On top of that, my social skills are often less than ideal, with hints, jokes, and references flying over my head left and right. I try to warn all the friends I make of this and tell them about these struggles (which I’m always working on getting better at but WOW IT’S HARD), but sometimes miscommunication still happens, like in this case. I encouraged them to extend the trip and that I would find my own way home with a rental car, feeling that was the best option for us all.

By the end of the night, I was sobbing on the phone with my mom outside Rainforest Cafe (apologies to anyone who saw that…and to my mom), just wondering what I was doing wrong/what was wrong with me. I wanted to go home, I wanted to give up, to hit things, to scream — it was a bad (albeit quiet) meltdown. When the waitress at the restaurant brought me a birthday cupcake after noticing my celebration button (thank you Laura, you made my day 💜), the only wish I could think of as I blew out the candle was “I hope my actual birthday is better than this.”

It was then I knew something had to be done.

How I Fixed It

I was in Disney World for goodness sake! I told myself I would do whatever I needed to in order to make sure I had the best day possible on that third and final day.

I started by getting up for Early Entry while my companions decided to come into the park later. I knocked out three of my favorite rides in the first hour and a half, and then met them at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (which was spectacular indeed). We rode Slinky Dog Dash together, I got a Ronto Wrap for lunch (my favorite), and while my group waited an hour for our Rise of the Resistance reservation, I decided to do a loop on the Skyliner (also my favorite). 

By this point, I was feeling pretty fantastic, but the day was about to get even better. I had been messaging back and forth with Emma, who I had been hoping to briefly meet up with that day. When the team’s filming got changed to EPCOT to dodge an incoming storm, I decided to park hop to say hello and forgo my Rise reservation. And WOW was this an unexpected highlight of my day. 

Getting to meet up with four of my coworkers was pure joy and complete coincidence in a way (at least, when it came to Sage, Myranda, and Breedlove), but it was the cherry on top. I’ve told them approximately 5 times each, but they really will never know how much this meant to me. If you get a chance to say hi to them in the parks, they’re just as kind and welcoming as they seem in the videos — don’t be shy!

At this point, the stars were on my side, and my brain was rewired to focus on all the positive things happening in my day — an amazing Joffrey’s Cast Member let me have my frozen lemonade for free (!! Magical Moment !!), and even though I was soaked from the storm, I had a great trip on Millennium Falcon with my travel party. Even though we didn’t get to see Fantasmic! because of the rain, I ended the day feeling happy and grateful — a complete opposite from the day before.

What Should You Do?

Now, there is one major thing I should have done immediately when I started to feel negatively, and I didn’t. That’s a major mistake on my part, and is a HUGE reason why so much miscommunication happened in the group. I should have TALKED to my group about how I was feeling! 

It sounds simple, but it felt terrifying and unattainable at the time. I didn’t feel they would listen to me and would get angry, and I didn’t want to ruin their trip. As it turns out, during the full discussion my friend and I have had since the trip, I found out they felt they were trying very hard to include me, but unfortunately those were NOT hit-me-with-a-frying-pan-obvious signs and were therefore flying right over my head, so they were hurt and felt I didn’t want to be there. We’ve since accepted each others apologies, and both agreed that we needed to nip things in the bud immediately in the future. I’m grateful we’ve come out of this with our friendship still in one piece — it has a stitch now, bit sometimes stitches make things stronger.

So that’s what I advise you to do FIRST if you’re having a bad day on a Disney World trip, unlike what I did: Attempt to start a conversation with your group about how you’re feeling. And hear me now: I KNOW it’s hard. I KNOW it’s scary. I was there! But I should have pushed past that fear and done it anyway. If talking doesn’t work, though, then I do suggest splitting up from your group at times to protect your peace and make sure you hit what’s on your list (as long as it doesn’t leave anyone else out!). You paid for this trip, too, so make sure you get done what you’d like in the time you have!

When you’re planning a Disney trip, I think it’s really important to remind your group that it’s okay for group members to split up when interests are different. This way, everyone accomplishes what they’d like to in the park day, and you can meet up for mutual interests.

Also keep in mind how different members of your travel party work — who’s go-go-go, and who wants to go with the flow? Trust me, this makes a HUGE difference. I’m go-go-go, and my group wasn’t, which is why I started splitting off in the first place and doing things they weren’t interested in. I should have talked to them about it before our trip even began to decide how best to handle that situation before it arrived. 

Overall, I did make some great memories with my travel party and am thankful for our trip. But if you’re heading to Disney World with friends, talk about communication before the trip begins in case an argument does break out. Talking can be really, really hard, but no one’s a mind reader, so be ready to hold a “sudden death” moment (or more than one) and let everyone get what they are feeling off their chest.

We’re always here to help you plan your upcoming trips and give you all the tips and tricks, so stay tuned to AllEars!

Did I mention I have social anxiety too? Yeah, that’s why I avoid this airline at all costs

What have you done to turn around a terrible day in Disney World? Tell me in the comments!

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