Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Disney World is absolutely massive. 25,000 acres or 39 square miles of land.
This means that there is always something happening on property that you may not know about.
So here’s the Worst FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) moments at Disney World
Missing Merchandise
You knew it was coming. My biggest fear is not being able to get a limited edition piece of merchandise, so imagine being at the Magic Kingdom and knowing afterwards that the size of shoe that you were wanting is actually in stock at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
How will you know? Sometimes the cast members will be able to check and see if something is in stock in other stores, but it’s never a guarantee. One time, Jill and I were walking through Magic Kingdom and Jill was wearing her Belle ears. Suddenly a man came running up to ask where we had gotten THOSE ears, and we had to disappoint him by telling him that they were about 4 years old and were “retired”.
Moral of the story? If you see something you love, buy it. You can always return it later if you find that you didn’t love it enough.
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Your Favourite Celebrity
This has happened a number of times, but how would you feel that you missed saying hi to your childhood hero because they were walking in Tomorrowland and you were stuck in line at the Pirates of the Caribbean and the loud speaker just came on saying that the attraction has experienced “choppy seas ahead”?
What would you do and how would you feel?
Advanced Dining Reservations
You get up at 6am on the day that your Advanced Dining Reservation window opens just to find that every single reservation that you wanted wasn’t available.
Victoria & Alberts, Space 220, Saana or ‘Ohana…all not available.
The fear of missing out is also the fear of having a bad trip when you’re still months out. If you’re anything like me, you’re on the Disney website multiple times a day, every day, leading up to your trip just in case something comes available – and sometimes you get lucky.
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Attraction Shut Down
I’ve been the next to get on a ride right before it broke down for the day. Or you save a specific park for your last day and that happens to be the day that the coolest ride is down.
You walk back through the queue that you’ve waited in for a substantial amount of time just to think that you made a poor decision and could have done anything else.
The fear of disappointment is real, and it mixes with the fear of missing out because you could have been having fun instead of wasting your valuable vacation time.
A Food Item Sells Out
“Oh, we’re all sold out of that today…”
Those words will haunt me, but what can you do? You made the decision to take the scenic route instead of go straight to the food cart and now you don’t get spring rolls. Sometimes it isn’t even your fault, and Gaston’s Tavern just happened to close at 4pm that day.
The disappointment.
Waiting for the Bus instead of watching the Fireworks
Ever thought that you could beat the crowds out of the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT, just to spend the next 15-20 minutes waiting for a bus to show up?
You could have been watching an epic nighttime spectacular instead of twiddling your thumbs in a transportation hub.
The FOMO is real. We all appreciate that things will happen when we make decisions, but there’s always a chance that your next decision will domino effect your vacation.
Don’t let it!
It’s your vacation. Own your decisions and if you do experience a little Fear of Missing Out, or make a mistake, then you can always decide something different next time.
Maybe THEN you can meet Joey Fatone on Main Street USA!
