Stay Inside the Bubble: Why Disney Resorts Enhance Your Vacation

Tony: 00:00:03

Thanks for joining us.

Tony: 00:00:04

It is the wands and wishes podcast, your podcast for all things Disney and Universal as we go through the theme parks and giving you the best tips to plan out your vacation.

Tony: 00:00:13

Well, one of the things that people always have to factor in when they take a trip down to a theme park, whether it's in California or in Florida, is where you're going to stay.

Tony: 00:00:21

And especially in the Orlando area, there are plenty of hotels in the area to stay.

Tony: 00:00:26

But what are the benefits and what are some of the things you can look forward to staying at a Disney resort?

Tony: 00:00:31

Mallard, all the magic travel.

Tony: 00:00:33

How are you doing?

Lauren: 00:00:33

How are you?

Lauren: 00:00:34

I'm good.

Lauren: 00:00:35

How are you?

Tony: 00:00:35

This is going to be a very fun topic to discuss because there are so many varieties of hotels at Disney for all sorts of different ambiances, different themes, whatever you might go through.

Tony: 00:00:48

We're going to go through the three different levels of resorts, some of the tips and what you can look for at these resorts.

Tony: 00:00:53

But I also want to start with the benefits of staying on a Disney resort.

Lauren: 00:00:58

Sure, staying at a Disney resort, to me, is half the fun of the vacation.

Lauren: 00:01:03

I enjoy just being there, being on property.

Lauren: 00:01:07

And I joke all the time that I could go to Disney World and never set foot in the park and be so happy.

Lauren: 00:01:13

But.

Lauren: 00:01:14

So we'll start broad and say the main benefit of staying on property is the transportation, right.

Lauren: 00:01:20

You have included transportation to all four parks, whether that be by bus, monorail, Skyliner, or boat, or even walking in some cases.

Lauren: 00:01:29

So we'll talk about the differences of all of those and what each resort category gets you.

Lauren: 00:01:34

But aside from that main benefit, another main benefit will be that 30 minutes of extra early part time every morning.

Lauren: 00:01:42

They're calling it early entry now.

Lauren: 00:01:44

It used to be called extra magic hours, and now they've kind of just condensed that down to early entry.

Lauren: 00:01:49

30 minutes doesn't sound like a lot of time, but if you've ever seen one of those pictures where you've got the off property guests that are waiting behind the gate.

Tony: 00:01:57

That's right.

Lauren: 00:01:57

And then the ones that have already been in there getting one or two attractions done, it really does.

Lauren: 00:02:01

It can make a difference.

Tony: 00:02:02

And you make a good point, because back in the early days of Disney world, when it just had a theme park, people still would go down for a week.

Tony: 00:02:10

They would stay at the contemporary, or they would stay at where, you know, polynesian or wherever.

Tony: 00:02:14

They would stay for a week, and they would go to the pools and they'd go to the theme park.

Tony: 00:02:17

But most of the time it was golfing, sailing, stunned by the lake, doing things with the family recreationally other than the theme parks.

Tony: 00:02:26

So there's still people who do that.

Tony: 00:02:28

You see them all the time.

Tony: 00:02:29

They're taking two or three non park days within their Disney vacation, but being within the, the Disney sort of complex and the Disney bubble, as people call it.

Lauren: 00:02:38

That's right.

Lauren: 00:02:38

And Disney does it so well because they have such a wide variety of theming amongst the resorts.

Lauren: 00:02:45

So you've got some that if you want to take a vacation that makes you feel like you're in Hawaii, you might want to stay at the polynesian.

Lauren: 00:02:50

If you want to take a vacation that makes you feel like you're at the beach, you might choose caribbean beach or beach club for something like that.

Lauren: 00:02:57

So there's truly something for everybody to have that escape and have that kind of theme park vacation, but also your relaxing vacation as well.

Tony: 00:03:07

Getting out a Disney vacation, I think one of the biggest things that you would decide on is, okay, what is my budget?

Tony: 00:03:14

Where can I afford this?

Tony: 00:03:15

There is deluxe, there is value, there is moderate, and it's hard to navigate a lot of this.

Tony: 00:03:21

You can just look at it by price, but also location.

Tony: 00:03:24

Where exactly is this resort and relative nature of the theme park?

Tony: 00:03:29

When somebody says, I don't know what I'm going to do, here's my budget.

Tony: 00:03:32

Where do you sort of start with them?

Lauren: 00:03:34

So usually I'll start with if they have any children and what the ages of their children are.

Lauren: 00:03:39

If they tell me that they are wanting to go all out, they want to stay deluxe.

Lauren: 00:03:44

I typically will start with the monorail resorts if they have younger children because we know that's going to be a magic kingdom heavy trip.

Lauren: 00:03:52

So if you're on the monorail, it's so much easier with the strollers.

Lauren: 00:03:55

I know we've talked about that before.

Lauren: 00:03:57

So with, with younger kids, with deluxe resorts, I'm going to go with the monorail resorts with younger kids, with, let's say, a moderate budget.

Lauren: 00:04:05

I typically love to go with Porterleen's french quarter.

Lauren: 00:04:08

Yes, I love that one because it is a small resort.

Lauren: 00:04:12

It's easy to navigate.

Lauren: 00:04:13

The pool is so fun.

Lauren: 00:04:15

I have so many memories.

Lauren: 00:04:16

It's the first one I ever stayed at when I was six.

Tony: 00:04:18

Little Mardi Gras theme, the serpent slide.

Lauren: 00:04:21

And the serpent slide, just hopping down that thing.

Lauren: 00:04:23

And so I love that one.

Lauren: 00:04:25

And then if I have a younger family, younger kids that are wanting a value resort, my go to is typically pop century over art of animation even because I love the layout of pop century, just the larger than life everything there.

Lauren: 00:04:39

But art of animation is also a good choice.

Lauren: 00:04:41

The only thing that gives pop the edge to me is that the little mermaid rooms at art of animation can be such a long walk that I think that they have better proximity to everything at pop century.

Tony: 00:04:51

Yeah.

Tony: 00:04:51

And you also get access.

Tony: 00:04:53

If you cross the bridge, it can go over the pool to the art of animation, which is the largest pool on property.

Tony: 00:04:57

It's got the music underwater, go swimming, and it's pretty.

Tony: 00:05:01

stayed at art of animation in: 2012

Tony: 00:05:04

And we got.

Tony: 00:05:06

We started off with a lion king suite, but then the air, air conditioning was broken, and so I called up and I said, the air conditioning is driving us crazy.

Tony: 00:05:13

We cannot stay in here.

Tony: 00:05:15

It's 100 degrees.

Lauren: 00:05:16

So did you get a new thing?

Tony: 00:05:17

They gave us cars.

Tony: 00:05:18

They took the cars once they got the seed.

Lauren: 00:05:20

Two for one.

Tony: 00:05:21

We got two for one.

Tony: 00:05:22

We stayed in the family suites, and they were great.

Tony: 00:05:24

You're right about french quarter.

Tony: 00:05:25

We stayed at riverside one year and again, you can use both of those pools if you're staying at Riverside.

Tony: 00:05:29

These are little tiny things that I think people kind of need to know because sometimes feel they're limited to what their resort has.

Tony: 00:05:35

But sometimes staying at one resort gives you access to something in another resort that you can utilize.

Lauren: 00:05:41

Yeah.

Lauren: 00:05:41

And even just choosing the resort can be so overwhelming for, especially a first timer, where we come in handy.

Lauren: 00:05:48

So you contact your travel agent.

Lauren: 00:05:50

We've stayed at multiple of these resorts, and so we know the ins and outs of them.

Lauren: 00:05:56

We'll know what kind of.

Lauren: 00:05:57

If you tell us what your preferences are, we know what might fit your needs better than you can by googling and doing just so much research.

Lauren: 00:06:05

So, yeah, I mean, it's overwhelming to somebody that's never been there before.

Tony: 00:06:09

And theming is extremely important, too.

Tony: 00:06:11

Like, you were just talking about having kids and listen, there's different levels of theming throughout the.

Tony: 00:06:16

And all of them were great for families and whatnot.

Tony: 00:06:18

But if I can pick and choose my resort, and I've got little kids, I might want to say, look, I'm taking art of animations over Saratoga Springs.

Lauren: 00:06:26

Sure, right.

Tony: 00:06:27

You know what I mean?

Tony: 00:06:28

Absolutely.

Tony: 00:06:28

There is just a different feeling of some resorts than the other.

Lauren: 00:06:32

That's right.

Tony: 00:06:32

I might want to do the beach club rather than the boardwalk.

Tony: 00:06:36

If I've got kids now, maybe if I'm older, like my wife and I are empty nesters, those might be more suitable for what we're looking for.

Lauren: 00:06:43

That's right, yes.

Lauren: 00:06:44

Every one of them has different things to offer.

Lauren: 00:06:47

You just compared beach club to boardwalk.

Lauren: 00:06:49

And I'll say in that regard, those two are so similar.

Lauren: 00:06:52

But if you do, like you said, if you have kids, you're definitely going to be wanting to be over at Yachton beach club because that pool over there with the sand bottom and all the different things.

Lauren: 00:07:02

Lazy river.

Lauren: 00:07:03

Absolutely.

Lauren: 00:07:04

And like empty nesters, whereas the resorts themselves are very similar.

Lauren: 00:07:08

The boardwalk area has jelly rolls and they have the dueling piano bar and such really good restaurants to have at night.

Lauren: 00:07:16

The ice cream bar is over there.

Lauren: 00:07:18

And so it's just, there's so much more than just a place to sleep.

Lauren: 00:07:23

So many people will come to me and they'll say, well, I'm not really going to be in the room, which is probably true for some people, but take into account, you know, what are you going to do if you don't want to go back to the park after dinner?

Lauren: 00:07:34

Do you want to have activities on site?

Lauren: 00:07:37

Do you want to have an I, a lawn movie at night?

Lauren: 00:07:41

Or, you know, just kind of think about that and your budget as a whole.

Tony: 00:07:46

What do you do with people who say, listen, I am a go getter.

Tony: 00:07:49

I am up early, I'm taking advantage of those things.

Tony: 00:07:52

But I'll be honest with you, I'm going to be in the room for ten minutes awake and 8 hours sleeping.

Tony: 00:07:56

So is it somebody who says, the pool's great, but I'm not going to use it?

Tony: 00:08:02

The amenities are great, I'm not going to use it.

Tony: 00:08:04

How do you direct them to say, I want to stay on property, but I don't need the bells and whistles, I'm a theme park person.

Lauren: 00:08:09

No, I get that.

Lauren: 00:08:10

And what I will actually be very transparent about is I'll say, you know what, a value resort might be best for you if you're not going to be there very often.

Lauren: 00:08:19

But I will say, I'm not sure how well my back does on those value beds anymore because there is a little difference in a value bed versus a moderate bed.

Lauren: 00:08:28

So usually I will go ahead and push for something like French Quarter.

Lauren: 00:08:33

Coronado Springs is another fantastic option that is not going to break the bank, but it's also not going to just give you every bell and whistle that you can imagine.

Tony: 00:08:42

And I will say a lot of the valuers at the all stars especially have gotten a reputation of this is where the cheerleaders are coming, this is where the bands are coming often.

Lauren: 00:08:50

That's true.

Tony: 00:08:50

And that is very true at times.

Tony: 00:08:52

So if you are somebody that's got older kids or no kids, and even though you say, look, I want the cheapest resort, but I want to stay on property, know that sometimes you're going to run into that teenagers are just going to be there.

Tony: 00:09:04

That's where the groups stay.

Tony: 00:09:05

That's where a lot of high schools will stay when they go down there for a variety of events or whatever they're doing, performing or whatnot.

Tony: 00:09:12

So keep that in mind.

Tony: 00:09:13

If you're trying to have a leisurely stroll at night and 17 teenagers are running around having a good time as well.

Lauren: 00:09:18

That's right.

Lauren: 00:09:19

And the atmosphere at a moderate resort is so much quieter.

Lauren: 00:09:22

And often when there's a promo that we can apply, we can get that moderate resort for just basically pennies more than what you're paying at a value resort.

Lauren: 00:09:30

So let's compare the two and just see.

Tony: 00:09:32

All right, now the next thing is food.

Tony: 00:09:33

And I think that this is an often underlooked situation when it comes to resorts, because if you have a favorite restaurant, you either want to be at that resort or at least near that resort, because there's nothing worse than being, you know, having, look, I want to, I want to eat at boat rights, and I'm staying all the way across the other end, and I got to take a bus all the way there.

Tony: 00:09:51

Why don't I just book at Riverside?

Tony: 00:09:53

Or why don't I just book at French Quarter?

Tony: 00:09:55

If you know what kind of hotel restaurants you want, get as close to those as possible.

Lauren: 00:10:00

That's right.

Lauren: 00:10:01

Absolutely.

Lauren: 00:10:01

Because if you're thinking about if you only want to use Disney transportation, let's not take into account Uber or Lyft, which I do cheat and use those a lot.

Lauren: 00:10:09

But let's say, like, let's take your example of boat rights.

Lauren: 00:10:13

So let's say I am staying at Coronado Springs.

Lauren: 00:10:16

Well, in order to get to boat rights, what I want to do is go to the bus stop, wait for the first park bus that I see, take that park bus, and then transfer once I'm at that park, and wait for the riverside bus, and then take that bus to boat rights and then do the same thing on the way back.

Tony: 00:10:33

Yes.

Lauren: 00:10:33

And so it can often take, I tell my clients, you know, if you're going to do that, you need to allow like 90 minutes and it's not going to take you that long, but you might be waiting for a bus for that long.

Lauren: 00:10:43

So, yes, I definitely agree with you.

Lauren: 00:10:46

If there's a resort that has multiple restaurants, and you know, you're going to be sitting down for dinner a lot and you think that you might enjoy those restaurants.

Lauren: 00:10:54

Let's look at that.

Lauren: 00:10:54

You know, let's see if that's in the budget to stay at that particular resort, because I'm a big proponent of eat where you're staying.

Tony: 00:11:01

Eat where you're staying.

Tony: 00:11:01

Exactly.

Tony: 00:11:02

One other thing that we were talking about is, is transportation.

Tony: 00:11:05

And I always look at the resorts and say, look, some of these have boats to Disney Springs.

Tony: 00:11:10

Now, Disney Springs can be a great nighttime event thing to go to.

Tony: 00:11:14

If you're just wanting to go party, have a dinner at a res, a restaurant there.

Tony: 00:11:17

There's plenty of restaurants there.

Tony: 00:11:19

If you just want to do something a little different, you can take the boat there from a number of different resorts.

Tony: 00:11:23

So that's another thing to factor in.

Tony: 00:11:25

Now, you can go to those resorts and go on the boat if you want to.

Tony: 00:11:28

That's totally fine.

Tony: 00:11:29

But, hey, nothing better than getting off that boat, going right to your room.

Lauren: 00:11:32

That's right.

Lauren: 00:11:33

And it gives you a little bit more of an experience, too, that not everybody at every resort is going to get by taking that boat over to the dock.

Tony: 00:11:39

That's a really fun, leisurely, nice roll right into the dock.

Tony: 00:11:43

It's a lot of fun, for sure.

Lauren: 00:11:44

Yes.

Tony: 00:11:45

All right, so now, we talked about some of the benefits here, the amenities.

Tony: 00:11:49

We talked about the activities.

Tony: 00:11:51

How does somebody go, all right, I got two kids.

Tony: 00:11:53

We're not gonna do the theme parks.

Tony: 00:11:54

e know we're gonna be done at: 06:00

Tony: 00:11:57

There's just no more walking.

Tony: 00:11:58

But I wanna know, is there a movie night?

Tony: 00:12:00

Is there arts and crafts?

Tony: 00:12:01

Is there character sing alongs, whatever there may be.

Tony: 00:12:05

How does somebody navigate through all that?

Lauren: 00:12:07

So that's something that we can look at together.

Lauren: 00:12:09

We can look at park hours, first of all, to find out what time the parks are going to close, and then we can look at resort activities together.

Lauren: 00:12:17

There are some resorts that are known for their activities and others that are less known for it.

Lauren: 00:12:23

Take, for example, animal Kingdom Lodge.

Lauren: 00:12:25

There are some cultural things that happen there in the lobby that they will teach you different things, or they'll do story time, different things like that that are pretty much going on all the time.

Lauren: 00:12:37

Then you've got some resorts, like any of the resorts actually right now, are having what they're calling, like, character bus pop ins.

Lauren: 00:12:46

I don't know what the actual name for it is, but you might pull up to the resort and see that the character van is outside.

Lauren: 00:12:52

There's no schedule for that.

Lauren: 00:12:54

You don't know, but you might find three or four characters that have stopped by for autographs and pictures at any time of the day or night.

Lauren: 00:13:01

There are some resorts that will offer s'mores at night.

Lauren: 00:13:05

The movie on the lawn is happening, every deluxe resort, possibly the moderates as well.

Lauren: 00:13:11

So you can find that schedule there.

Lauren: 00:13:13

Every pool is going to have activities during the day.

Lauren: 00:13:16

There's an entertainment crew that's going to be out there doing different games with the kids that's playing music and just keeping everybody entertained.

Lauren: 00:13:23

So I definitely always look at which resorts have a splash pad, which is going to be the smaller area of the pool that might have like a dumping bucket or a smaller slide for the kids to play on.

Lauren: 00:13:35

So if you think your kids are going to want to come back and cool off, let's look and see if that that resort has a splash pad.

Lauren: 00:13:41

And those are available at all three categories of resorts.

Lauren: 00:13:45

So you're not having to stay at a deluxe resort just to get that splash pad.

Tony: 00:13:48

And I know the pools there, each one of them is different.

Tony: 00:13:51

Each one of them has some sort of thing.

Tony: 00:13:52

We talked about art of animation.

Tony: 00:13:54

It's a gigantic pool.

Tony: 00:13:55

We talked about the beach and yacht club where the, with the sand bottom and the lazy river and just how dynamic that looks compared to other pools.

Tony: 00:14:03

You've got the, you've got the mayan temple at Coronado Springs that kind of rains down the water into that area.

Tony: 00:14:11

Each pool is different and unique, but each pool offers things that maybe some people want and some people don't necessarily need.

Lauren: 00:14:17

That's right.

Lauren: 00:14:17

And, you know, to some people, storm along Bay might be a little overwhelming because it's so huge.

Tony: 00:14:22

It is huge.

Lauren: 00:14:22

And so in that regard, I would often push them over to somewhere like polynesian, which is very similar to Stormlong Bay, but on a smaller scale.

Lauren: 00:14:31

And, you know, while we're talking about the resorts themselves and just something to do at night, I even take into account the lobby because, you know, the lobby can be so bustling at night and so much going on that it can be an activity in itself.

Lauren: 00:14:46

There's shopping in several of the resorts.

Lauren: 00:14:48

There's live music in some of the lobbies.

Lauren: 00:14:50

So if you're thinking that you want to have something like a nice place to people watch, I can also recommend a good place for that, too.

Tony: 00:14:58

All right, now, transportation back to that.

Tony: 00:15:00

Let's talk about the skyliner.

Tony: 00:15:01

Where can you use the skyliner?

Tony: 00:15:03

What resorts are best utilizing that to Epcot and to the Hollywood studios.

Lauren: 00:15:08

Yeah.

Lauren: 00:15:09

So we have value, moderate and deluxe that all have access to the skyliner.

Lauren: 00:15:13

For your deluxe resort, you have Riviera Resort, which is the newest Disney resort.

Lauren: 00:15:18

It is part of the Disney Vacation Club.

Lauren: 00:15:20

So you're going to find studios one and two bedroom suites there.

Lauren: 00:15:23

So it is going to run on the higher end.

Lauren: 00:15:26

They have a quick service restaurant there, Primo Piotto.

Lauren: 00:15:30

They have Topolino's terrace for character breakfast and signature dining at night.

Lauren: 00:15:36

Their pool, to me, it looks somewhat basic, has a nice slide.

Lauren: 00:15:41

It's not anything that's going to be just super wow factor, in my opinion.

Lauren: 00:15:45

The resort, however, the lobby is absolutely breathtaking.

Lauren: 00:15:50

They do have a direct skyliner to epcot.

Lauren: 00:15:52

And then the other way goes back to the hub, which is at Caribbean beach, which is what we're going to talk about next.

Lauren: 00:15:58

Caribbean beach is the main hub for the skyliner system.

Lauren: 00:16:02

This is a moderate resort, used to be my least favorite resort of all resorts, to book only, because it is the biggest resort on property.

Lauren: 00:16:11

It absolutely huge.

Lauren: 00:16:13

There are seven internal buses, I believe.

Lauren: 00:16:15

So you're not really looking to go anywhere really fast, unless you're super close to the skyliner or to the main building.

Lauren: 00:16:24

But since the skyliner has come along, it really has taken some notches up in that regard.

Lauren: 00:16:30

They've redone some of the rooms lately to a nice under the sea theme that I was able to tour last summer that have.

Lauren: 00:16:36

They're the standard fifth sleeper beds, rooms.

Lauren: 00:16:40

So if you've got a family of five, this is a really good budget option.

Lauren: 00:16:44

It's got two queen beds.

Lauren: 00:16:45

This small fifth sleeper, that's not going to be good.

Lauren: 00:16:49

So if you're saying, well, can five adults fit in there?

Lauren: 00:16:51

I would not recommend it, because that fifth sleeper is really made for a child, let's say age ten and under.

Lauren: 00:16:58

So you've got caribbean beach.

Lauren: 00:16:59

That's the main hub for the skyliner.

Lauren: 00:17:01

You can get direct access from Caribbean beach to both Hollywood studios and Epcot.

Lauren: 00:17:06

You'll obviously stop at Riviera along the way, but you do not have to get off if you're staying at Caribbean beach.

Lauren: 00:17:12

It's a one shot and then the other two are value resorts.

Lauren: 00:17:16

Pop century and art of animation have access to the skyliner.

Lauren: 00:17:20

They share a skyliner station.

Lauren: 00:17:23

It's between the two of them.

Lauren: 00:17:24

But that skyliner will go to Caribbean beach, where you can then transfer to Hollywood studios or Epcot.

Tony: 00:17:32

So now let's get into rooms, because I know they've recently renovated a lot of rooms and a lot of these.

Tony: 00:17:37

Let's, first of all, how does somebody know when construction is coming?

Tony: 00:17:40

I think this is where you and I can play a very big factor.

Tony: 00:17:43

If you don't want to hear construction or see construction walls, you're going to know when these are.

Tony: 00:17:47

Maybe you don't know.

Tony: 00:17:49

You book a trip online by yourself and you don't know when I get there.

Tony: 00:17:52

They're renovating half of the side, half of the facade of the hotel, but there's a lot of new rooms that have been sort of renovated over the last couple of years, including Mary Poppins theme at Grand Floridian and whatnot.

Tony: 00:18:04

So how does somebody go?

Tony: 00:18:05

Look, I need a bed, but I need a little more than just two beds.

Lauren: 00:18:09

Sure.

Lauren: 00:18:09

So if we will talk about kind of what you're looking for in a room, and then it is my job to look and see what construction is happening.

Lauren: 00:18:20

nce, for the first quarter of: 2025

Lauren: 00:18:40

But so, yes, so we look and see what type of construction is going on.

Lauren: 00:18:45

For instance, right now at Polynesian, they're building the tower.

Lauren: 00:18:48

That's the new DVC tower.

Lauren: 00:18:50

However, I don't think that that construction is really causing too much trouble for guests that are staying on property.

Lauren: 00:18:58

So I look at all of that and think how disruptive is it going to be and then versus what the client is looking for.

Lauren: 00:19:05

If there's been rooms that are recently renovated, I like to look at those first.

Lauren: 00:19:08

I like to request those again.

Lauren: 00:19:11

When it comes to requests, Disney will tell us they will not guarantee them, but they will do their best to accommodate.

Lauren: 00:19:16

So if there's a recently refurbished room, I always request that for my clients, too.

Tony: 00:19:21

All right.

Tony: 00:19:21

You mentioned earlier transportation.

Tony: 00:19:23

I have gone back and forth with this because I've stayed on property with the car and I've stayed on property without a cardinal.

Tony: 00:19:29

I sort of prefer the car better because I'm not a bus waiter.

Tony: 00:19:32

And that's what happens when you stay without a vehicle.

Tony: 00:19:35

Sometimes you get a bus, you know, you're going to be two buses in.

Tony: 00:19:38

Like, you know, when you're in line, you're like, this is a two bus wait, and I got to wait for the second one.

Tony: 00:19:42

But at the same time, um, a lot of times where if you are leaving the parks and whatnot, you can get a hotel that is relatively quick from your bus route.

Lauren: 00:19:52

Yes, yes, that's right.

Lauren: 00:19:54

So, um, so going back to, if I have a car, I always suggest if you're willing to drive to all of the parks except for Magic Kingdom, because magic Kingdom is more of a headache because you do have to park in the transportation and ticket center parking lot and then ferry or monorail over to the park.

Lauren: 00:20:12

But if you're willing to drive to the other three, it can really save a lot of time and a lot of headache throughout the day.

Lauren: 00:20:19

But, yeah, so if you're looking, let's say, for instance, Coronado Springs all stars and Animal Kingdom Lodge, I would say, are some of the, or maybe pop century over all stars are some of the further ones away from most of the parks.

Lauren: 00:20:34

So keep that in mind when you're booking.

Lauren: 00:20:36

If you're thinking you're going to go back for an afternoon nap, Animal Kingdom Lodge might not be the place for you because it's going to be, you know, at least a 20 minutes ride once you're on that bus from Magic Kingdom to get back to the resort.

Lauren: 00:20:48

So you might want to consider something like Wilderness lodge, that's right there by magic Kingdom if you're going to spend a lot of time there.

Lauren: 00:20:56

Or let's say for Coronado Springs, you're pretty close to Hollywood studios and Epcot, but you've got that moderate budget.

Lauren: 00:21:03

That's a great option there, too.

Tony: 00:21:05

All right.

Tony: 00:21:05

And again, some people are still renting cars because the magical express is no longer there.

Tony: 00:21:09

You can still take mirrors, you can still take Uber to get to your resort.

Tony: 00:21:12

But some people are still like, you know what?

Tony: 00:21:13

I'll rent a car.

Tony: 00:21:14

I got it for a week.

Tony: 00:21:15

I can bounce resorts and then maybe get off property for whatever it is that they want to do.

Tony: 00:21:20

I've always said this about the, the cost of park tickets, for example.

Tony: 00:21:26

I say, well, look, I understand people have problems because a lot of us do.

Tony: 00:21:29

Remember when it was $50 to get into it?

Tony: 00:21:32

I mean, that's the way it is.

Tony: 00:21:33

But as prices increased, it has gone up a lot more exponentially than other things.

Tony: 00:21:38

But I still say, look, I'm in the sports business.

Tony: 00:21:40

You can't get into a titans game for less than $100.

Lauren: 00:21:43

That's right.

Lauren: 00:21:43

You're paying for that experience for that full day.

Tony: 00:21:46

That's right.

Tony: 00:21:46

You're not getting a three hour game.

Tony: 00:21:48

And I always say, look, I can't go to a concert for less than $100, usually a major concert for less than that.

Tony: 00:21:52

I can't go to a football game or a baseball game or maybe not a baseball game, but more like a high end NBA game, for example, for less than that.

Tony: 00:22:00

So I sort of keep it in that perspective.

Tony: 00:22:02

Hotels are a little different.

Tony: 00:22:04

I get you can get more value outside, but the perks.

Tony: 00:22:08

How much do you say, look, there's so much more value that you can't see monetarily in staying on property than you can if you stay at a comfort inn outside Kissimmee.

Lauren: 00:22:19

Yeah.

Lauren: 00:22:19

So I get this question all the time.

Lauren: 00:22:22

People will ask me, well, hey, it's half the price if I stay off property than if I stay even at a value resort on property.

Lauren: 00:22:29

And so my answer is not because of any benefit to myself or to our agency or anything like that, but because I just know that as a guest of Walt Disney world, it is an entire experience from the moment that you arrive until the moment your vacation is over, when you're staying on property, it just really puts you into the bubble and allows you to escape from reality.

Lauren: 00:22:54

And I know that sounds cliche or just ridiculous, but I do think there is value in just being in the bubble that the actual benefits don't give you.

Tony: 00:23:06

Yeah.

Tony: 00:23:07

If there was one thing, and again, I'm spending Disney's money here, I don't know if I should or not.

Tony: 00:23:11

If there was one thing I would beg them to bring back is magical express.

Tony: 00:23:14

I think that is so important.

Tony: 00:23:16

It is part of the completion of what you said from start to finish.

Tony: 00:23:20

If I am somebody that says, okay, look, I can take the mears shuttle.

Tony: 00:23:25

I can take the bus there.

Tony: 00:23:26

I can take Uber, but I can afford to rent a car.

Tony: 00:23:29

If I can afford to rent a car, I am more likely to leave the property for other things.

Tony: 00:23:34

I'd say, hey, you know what?

Tony: 00:23:35

Let's get away for the night.

Tony: 00:23:36

Let's go to Orlando, and let's go do this.

Tony: 00:23:38

Or this, or this.

Tony: 00:23:39

Which was part of why they had magical express in the first place, was to say, the second you land, we've got you.

Tony: 00:23:46

From start to finish, we've got you pretty much from gate to gate.

Lauren: 00:23:49

It makes you feel like they're almost like a concierge where almost like they're down there holding your name on a sign, the desiry family is here.

Lauren: 00:23:56

But, you know, it's taking that away puts it back into the client or the guest, just the realm of what are we gonna do now?

Lauren: 00:24:08

Kind of thing.

Lauren: 00:24:09

Whereas with the magical express, it was almost like Disney was a little more in control of, okay, well, this person obviously isn't stopping at Publix along the way, or they're not, you know, doing this, that or the other.

Lauren: 00:24:24

And we have them the entire time, and we are not going to charge you anything for it.

Tony: 00:24:29

That's right.

Lauren: 00:24:29

And that meant so much because, yeah, while I'm sure it was costly to Disney, at the end of the day, that value was worth so much more to the guest, I think.

Tony: 00:24:40

Now, I always say to people, look, there are, if you're sitting down with two options, let's say you're going with a relatively affordable value resort compared to a value hotel outside of Orlando.

Tony: 00:24:53

Yeah, you might save money, but if you break it down to say, okay, look, how much is needing a rent a car?

Tony: 00:24:59

How much is parking per day?

Lauren: 00:25:01

Per day.

Tony: 00:25:02

All of a sudden, when you start adding in some of the extra costs and taking those off the table and adding to what you're paying for the hotel to that, all of a sudden you start seeing that number really start to shrink, and then all of a sudden it becomes maybe for just a couple of can stay on property.

Tony: 00:25:18

And that's a complete experience.

Tony: 00:25:20

Rather than fighting traffic out of the park every day.

Tony: 00:25:23

Fighting I four every single night.

Tony: 00:25:25

As we get back to the hotel, my kids are exhausted and we're 4 miles away.

Tony: 00:25:30

And if you ever been on I four, it could be 5 miles away.

Tony: 00:25:32

It could take 45 minutes to get to the hotel.

Lauren: 00:25:34

Definitely.

Lauren: 00:25:34

And everybody's tired and hangry and, yeah, it's definitely worth it.

Lauren: 00:25:38

I think when we get down to it, if we're looking at a matter of two or $300 and you're already spending five or $6,000 on a vacation, what is that extra two to $300 to go ahead and just make it a full experience?

Tony: 00:25:52

Exactly.

Tony: 00:25:53

And plus, and you can do the same thing with higher end hotels in New York, Orlando area.

Tony: 00:25:58

If you're a Hilton, if you're whatever, and you can still look at a moderate or even a deluxe resort, yes, it's going to be a few more hundred dollars.

Tony: 00:26:06

But if you're also talking in that value, then you also say, look, at the same time, I'm shrinking that cost as well.

Tony: 00:26:12

So I see people.

Tony: 00:26:13

I know you feel like you're saving money here, but the time and the extra things that you're not getting is something to consider.

Tony: 00:26:21

If you're trying to figure that out.

Lauren: 00:26:23

You've got to look, too, at all the fine prints.

Lauren: 00:26:25

And when you say, I'll have people say, well, they've got a shuttle from this hotel.

Lauren: 00:26:29

Well, if you look at the fine print, that shuttle happens every hour.

Lauren: 00:26:32

And so if you're ready to go and it's just left, then you're waiting another hour to get there.

Lauren: 00:26:38

Or some of these resorts, some of the higher end hotels in the area, might have a resort fee, a daily resort fee that can be up to $45 a day.

Lauren: 00:26:46

So then you add that on.

Lauren: 00:26:48

So you just got to look at it and compare what's going to be best for you and your family.

Tony: 00:26:51

I remember when I went for spring break, and this is the early nineties, so obviously things have changed.

Tony: 00:26:55

eren't going to pick us up at: 11:00

Lauren: 00:27:13

There's not that flexibility.

Tony: 00:27:14

There's not that flexibility.

Tony: 00:27:16

So again, these are sort of things to consider.

Tony: 00:27:18

And I say, look, once you start doing the math, and boy, believe me, we've done the math a couple of times, you start going, hey, listen, it's much easier to just stay, to stay on property than it is for, you know, to sort of nickel and dime every piece of what you've got to do to get there.

Tony: 00:27:34

There's also, again, I think, and again, I'm not trying to be all like rainbows and dreams here, but there isn't, there is an immersion that is 24/7 when you're staying there.

Tony: 00:27:46

There is no, again, there is no traffic jam on I four to bring up the example earlier, staying at a hotel that I'm not really sure who's running the hotel.

Lauren: 00:27:56

That's right.

Lauren: 00:27:56

That's right.

Lauren: 00:27:57

My husband and I will joke so often if we've got magic bands on, he's like, well, it's not real money when we're at Disney World, apparently, and then until you get your bill when you're at home.

Lauren: 00:28:05

But.

Lauren: 00:28:06

So, yeah, so there's that convenience of being able to use our magic band just to go down and buy breakfast in the morning or whatever we might need to do.

Lauren: 00:28:14

So, yes, it totally gets you in that Disney feel from the moment you are.

Tony: 00:28:19

All right.

Tony: 00:28:20

And there are, again, perks about early entry.

Tony: 00:28:23

There is the resort bottle that you can fill up while you're in the resort you can get and you can fill up every single day while you're lounging by the pool and whatnot.

Tony: 00:28:31

What are some other things that people may need to know about some of the other things that could come by staying at a resort?

Lauren: 00:28:36

Yeah.

Lauren: 00:28:36

So we were talking about early entry.

Lauren: 00:28:38

So there's also, on the evening end of that, if you're staying at a deluxe resort, there are typically two to three nights out of the week that extended evening hours are being offered at one park at a time.

Lauren: 00:28:53

So they have been offered at all four parks at some time or another.

Lauren: 00:28:57

They're typically offered at Magic Kingdom or Epcot.

Lauren: 00:28:59

And these are a huge advantage because you feel like there is nobody in the park.

Tony: 00:29:04

That's right.

Lauren: 00:29:05

They're open for two extra hours at night.

Lauren: 00:29:07

So you do have that benefit if you are staying at a deluxe property or a deluxe villa property.

Lauren: 00:29:12

So if you're even renting points at, say, Bay Lake Tower or Beach Club villas, then you get that benefit as well.

Lauren: 00:29:20

So there's that.

Lauren: 00:29:22

There is also, you have at your disposal, you have a quick service restaurant at every Disney resort where you're not always going to have that.

Lauren: 00:29:33

If you're staying at the Holiday Inn, you might have that free breakfast in the morning, but if you come back at night, you might not have an opportunity to get a snack, whereas at a Disney resort, you can do that.

Tony: 00:29:42

story about this, because in: 2012

Tony: 00:29:46

We were staying at, no,: 2013

Tony: 00:29:51

So we got the kids up way earlier than normal, and they were really dragging, but we had a great time.

Tony: 00:29:56

Spent the day, bounced around from some parks.

Tony: 00:29:59

Magic kingdom was late.

Tony: 00:30:00

Amberly, who at the time, my daughter, was seven and exhausted, but my favorite football team was playing, and I'm working as a sports broadcaster.

Tony: 00:30:10

So I was like, I will go home and watch Monday night Football.

Tony: 00:30:12

Go back to the hotel.

Tony: 00:30:13

I'll take Amberly.

Tony: 00:30:14

She's got a.

Tony: 00:30:15

So my wife and my son went to Magic Kingdom for extra, the extra magic hours at night.

Tony: 00:30:20

And when they came back, it really did sound like they had the whole place.

Tony: 00:30:23

I was so envious of their experience.

Tony: 00:30:25

They were like, well, we went on haunted mansion, then we went over to Space Mountain, then we went back over to Peter Pan, then we went down to the pirates, and they were just talking as if everything was snap.

Tony: 00:30:34

Everything they wanted, anything they wanted at any moment.

Tony: 00:30:37

And I remember going, yeah, I stayed home and watched my daughter sleep while I watched a football game, while you guys got 2 hours of pretty much the park to yourself.

Lauren: 00:30:45

That's right.

Tony: 00:30:47

They still even buzz about that, how much fun they had all these years later.

Lauren: 00:30:52

It makes such good memories when you can feel like you've gotten to do something that somebody else isn't getting to do.

Tony: 00:30:58

Yeah.

Tony: 00:30:58

And when you're at that, when you're at Magic Kingdom, especially at that witching hour of midnight, it's so wonderful.

Tony: 00:31:04

It's a different kind of experience now, navigating all of this from start to finish.

Tony: 00:31:08

I know you help people, I help people.

Tony: 00:31:10

But is it just cost when it comes to the three tiers of resorts, or is there something that you want to say, look, yes, value, you're going to pay less, moderate, you're going to play less.

Tony: 00:31:21

In deluxe, you're going to play the most.

Tony: 00:31:23

But how else do you sort of differentiate when somebody says, all right, I don't even know how to begin to figure all of this out.

Lauren: 00:31:28

Right, right.

Lauren: 00:31:29

So, yeah, I mean, it does.

Lauren: 00:31:30

Obviously, the biggest factor is cost, but because of that, you're getting different things at the different levels.

Lauren: 00:31:37

A lot of times if somebody's never been to Disney before, I will ask them, okay, when you travel, what type of hotel do, do you like to stay in?

Lauren: 00:31:44

Do you like to stay in, let's say a Holiday inn or a fair filled inn?

Lauren: 00:31:48

Do you like to stay in something like a Hampton or a courtyard, or do you like to stay in something like a mainstream Marriott or Hilton?

Lauren: 00:31:56

And then we go from there and say, okay, then if you like to stay in the mainstream Marriott or Hilton or JW Marriott or even Ritz Carlton, we obviously know these are probably deluxe clients that are going to like deluxe amenities.

Lauren: 00:32:09

And with that you're going to have typically with a value.

Lauren: 00:32:13

We're not going to have a sit down restaurant with a moderate resort.

Lauren: 00:32:17

We typically do have one sit down restaurant in addition to the quick service restaurants.

Lauren: 00:32:22

And then with the deluxe resorts, we will have at least one sit down restaurant, often more than one, and then the quick service restaurants, and then they'll have a wider array of shopping on site.

Lauren: 00:32:35

The rooms are going to be larger, larger with the deluxe resorts than either the moderates or the values.

Lauren: 00:32:43

The values and the moderates will both have two queen beds, but the moderates are going to have slightly more square footage for a little more space to spread out those deluxe resorts.

Lauren: 00:32:53

The lead in deluxe resorts, as I call them, which are animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge, can only sleep four so they only have those two queen beds with a little table to the side, whereas the rest of the deluxe resorts are going to be able to accommodate five.

Lauren: 00:33:09

So you have an extra twin size day bed that's going to allow for a little more space.

Lauren: 00:33:14

Most of the deluxe resorts are also going to have a private balcony in most of the rooms.

Lauren: 00:33:18

So if you're looking for somewhere to be able to sit out at night and relax with your spouse, get up early in the morning before everybody have some coffee on the balcony, then that's a good option, too.

Lauren: 00:33:29

So you're going to have different amenities with different categories.

Tony: 00:33:31

And every resort you're going to see a preferred standard.

Lauren: 00:33:34

That's right.

Tony: 00:33:35

Pool view, whatever it is, some things you want to navigate, I mean, I know you just stayed at the animal kingdom lodge.

Tony: 00:33:42

There's the Savannah view.

Tony: 00:33:43

There's the partial savannah view that you asked for.

Tony: 00:33:46

You might be able to upgrade your room for.

Tony: 00:33:49

So there are little things in each room or each hotel or resort that you might want to consider.

Tony: 00:33:53

Do I want to look at the pool?

Tony: 00:33:55

Do I want to see the pool in the morning?

Tony: 00:33:56

Or does the balcony overlook the lake?

Tony: 00:33:58

Or does the balcony overlook something that I want to see?

Tony: 00:34:00

Do I not need that at all?

Tony: 00:34:02

Those are the kind of things to question.

Lauren: 00:34:03

That's right.

Lauren: 00:34:03

And another thing, if you're wanting the amenities, a deluxe resort, but you don't really care about your view, which is where I am most of the time.

Lauren: 00:34:10

I do like to have a balcony, but I don't really care about what's below me.

Lauren: 00:34:13

So you're saving money by taking that lowest end room, but while still getting the category room that you want.

Lauren: 00:34:22

The category hotel that you want.

Tony: 00:34:24

All right, so that is so our talk about resorts.

Tony: 00:34:27

There's one other thing about this.

Tony: 00:34:29

If you are at a Disney resort, they can help you just as much as anybody else in the park.

Lauren: 00:34:34

That's right.

Tony: 00:34:35

And that's the other key, because a lot of times when you stay, stay somewhere, there might be a Disney friendly hotel or partner a little bit.

Tony: 00:34:41

But if you go to the front desk to say, hey, when is this?

Tony: 00:34:45

Or how do I navigate this?

Tony: 00:34:46

Or how do I get from pointed?

Tony: 00:34:48

They might go, I don't know.

Tony: 00:34:49

Yeah, I don't know.

Tony: 00:34:50

But if you go to a front desk person and ask, hey, how can I get from the park to Disney Springs?

Tony: 00:34:57

They're going to tell you even if you're staying nowhere near Disney Spring, you're staying in a resort that can't get you there directly.

Tony: 00:35:02

They know how to do it, or they definitely will find that answer for you.

Lauren: 00:35:05

Yes.

Tony: 00:35:05

And that's the other part of it.

Tony: 00:35:07

And that's, and that's happened to us many times.

Tony: 00:35:09

Magic band didn't work.

Tony: 00:35:11

We went to the front desk.

Tony: 00:35:12

They got us a new one and redid it and reset it all up for us.

Tony: 00:35:15

Try doing that at the Ramada Inn on international Drive.

Tony: 00:35:19

They're not going to be able to help you with that.

Lauren: 00:35:20

That's right.

Lauren: 00:35:20

That's an excellent point.

Tony: 00:35:21

You know, so all of those things to consider.

Tony: 00:35:23

All right, that'll do it for us here on the Wands and Wishes podcast Resort edition.

Tony: 00:35:27

If you'd like to reach us, you can hit Lauren up at Lauren at all themagictravel.com hit me up.

Tony: 00:35:32

Travelwithtonydmail.com dot.

Tony: 00:35:34

We'd love to help you prepare not only your universal trip, but Disney World as well.

Tony: 00:35:37

Help you navigate resorts, help you navigate the tickets, help you navigate the entire experience to make your vacation extra magical.

Tony: 00:35:45

All right?

Tony: 00:35:45

If you like the podcast, please subscribe.

Tony: 00:35:47

Leave us a five star review.

Tony: 00:35:48

It helps us with the algorithms and all of that.

Tony: 00:35:51

Next week, we'll have a trip report on my visit down to the Walt Disney World resort.

Tony: 00:35:55

This is Tony and Lauren, and this is Wands and Wishes podcast.