20 Ridiculous Things Parents Do BEFORE a Disney Vacation Even Starts

Sure you're excited to take your (really) little ones to Disney for the first time, but at 3 months and 2 years old, we're warning you, it's not going to be easy. They won't remember the sweaty diaper changes, the in-line meltdowns, and the firework shows they slept through, but you might be traumatized for life. Tip: consider waiting a year or two.

You're going to Disney. Now what? You start calling every friend of a friend whose Disney pictures you spotted on Instagram in the last year for advice. They're happy to give tons of it, and bam, you're already overwhelmed.

The internet has an endless amount of information about how to best plan your trip to Disney World, and you decide you're just going to have to read it all. Twelve hours later, you're in a Disney spiral and remember there is such a thing as TMI.

Sure, Disney offers some reasonable hotels, but can you see Cinderella's Castle from them? No, no you cannot. So you decide to go for a deluxe resort, then realize you're spending more for that room than any room you've booked in your life!

You start doing the math (or just using the Disney online vacation planner), and the numbers start climbing. Between the resort, the park tickets, the meal plan, and the Memory Maker PhotoPass, you start wondering if you're going to have to pick between a Disney trip and paying for college.

You've gathered all the info, put down a deposit so big you can't believe it's just a quarter of the trip's cost, and have multiple booking date reminders scheduled in your calendar, and now you're starting to wonder if it's all worth it. Maybe you should just scrap your Disney plans and take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's.

A solid half year before you're going to Disney, you look at your daily calendar and realize today's the day you're supposed to book dining reservations, and oh sh*t, it's already 11 a.m. You run to your computer only to find that Cinderella's Royal Table and Be Our Guest are already booked unless you want to eat breakfast there at 10:10 a.m. or lunch at 2:40 p.m.

Screw it. You're not going all the way there and not eating with Rapunzel and Snow White. Remind yourself to bring Ziploc bags so you can sneak extra rolls and leftovers out with you.

A dream is a wish your heart makes, and yours is to eat dinner at Be Our Guest at a reasonable hour, so you call every day wishing that a reservation will magically open up. It's a real beast (har har).

You're going to every park Disney World has to offer, but it's Magic Kingdom your kids are most excited about. You decide that it should the last park you visit thanks to this tip your buddy gave you: you can book FastPass+ reservations for all your park days 60 days out from the first day of your trip. Since Magic Kingdom is day four, that means you scored yourself a 64 day window, you sneaky parent.

FastPass+ booking starts at 7 a.m. ET 60 days before your trip starts, and you're prepared, setting your alarm for 5 a.m. so you're logged on and ready at the first possible moment. Bring on the coffee, Mickey.

Despite your early alarm, you still don't get FastPass+ reservations for Toy Story Mania or Avatar Flight of Passage, and the only time you can get one for Peter Pan is during the fireworks. WTF?! You book your second choices and hope you can make changes later.

Who doesn't want to spend a day with shellacked, glittered hair in a polyester princess dress? Certainly not your kid, and because you know they're not going to be happy with the basic hairstyling/makeup package, you go for the one that will score them a princess gown, starting at a mere $200. There's also the deluxe knight package, a totally reasonable $80 for a prince costume, sword and shield, and hairstyling with gel.

You spend hours familiarizing yourself with the My Disney Experience app, which links up all your dining, park, FastPass+, and resort reservations and gives you park maps and ride wait times. Plus, you download the new Play Disney Parks app, which offers themed games, Disney trivia, and an audio experience with Disney music and classic sounds from the parks.

Do you want to be that family with matching shirts for every day of your trip? Or do you not want to be that family? You just can't decide.

Matching or not, you're finding it hard to resist buying every cute Disney tee and accessory that you see. I mean, of course your family should wear shoes from the new TOMS Extra Magical Disney Capsule collection while walking around the park. Who cares that they're $50-$75 each?

You've spent a good chunk of your life savings on this trip, and you're going to make the most of it. You make a minute-by-minute schedule of when you need to arrive at the parks, which rides you'll visit in what order, taking into account usual wait times and your FastPass+ reservations, how long you can spend eating meals, and where you should stand for the fireworks show. This trip is going to be as magical as possible, even if it kills you.

Maybe you take the opposite route, get totally overwhelmed, and just decide to wing it with no dining or FastPass+ reservations and no plan whatsoever. You arrive at the park around 11 a.m. and head straight for your kid's must-ride attraction, which happens to have a 2-hour-plus wait, then try to eat at the park's most coveted restaurant, which has been booked solid for six months. Good luck with that.

This is Disney World, and surely characters will just be strolling through the park greeting children who happen upon them, right? Wrong. If your kid is dying to meet Mickey, Minnie, Anna, Elsa, or really any of the princesses, you're going to have to wait in line . . . even if you have a FastPass+. If you didn't score a magic line-hopping ticket, you'll probably be able to catch those characters at a parade, performance, or fireworks show from afar.

You're investing a lot into your Disney World experience — money, time, energy — but don't expect to relax when you get there. They might call this a vacation, but believe us, you're going to need one once it's all over.