Episode 35
Our best tips for a number of questions for your Disney Vacation
This podcast episode encapsulates essential guidance for individuals planning a visit to Disney World, addressing a multitude of inquiries frequently posed by prospective travelers. We commence with an examination of the paramount considerations when selecting a resort, emphasizing the significance of accessibility to the parks and the nuances of budgetary constraints. Subsequently, we delve into the intricacies of the Disney dining plan, elucidating its potential benefits based on dining preferences and family dynamics. Furthermore, we explore the logistics of park hopping, advocating for a flexible approach that allows for spontaneous decisions based on real-time conditions within the parks. Finally, we proffer strategies for managing long days at Disney, underscoring the importance of pacing and the judicious selection of rest periods to enhance the overall experience.
Takeaways:
- When selecting a Disney World resort, consider the ages of your children to determine the best fit.
- The dining plan at Disney can be beneficial, particularly if character dining is included in the itinerary.
- Park hopping allows for flexible exploration of the parks, but should not be viewed as mandatory every day.
- To maximize dining reservations, book popular restaurants towards the end of your stay for better availability.
- On non-park days, consider character dining and resort hopping as engaging alternatives.
- Manage expectations during long park days by incorporating breaks and staying hydrated to enhance overall enjoyment.
Transcript
Foreign Wishes podcast.
Speaker A:Glad you can join us as we go.
Speaker A:Everything about Disney World giving you the best advice for your Disney World vacation.
Speaker A:Joining me, all the magic travels, Lauren Mallard as we head into the fall now into the getting into the winter months.
Speaker A:How are you, Lauren?
Speaker B:I am good.
Speaker B:How are you?
Speaker A:So this podcast I thought we were going to talk about, we both get a lot of people coming up to us.
Speaker A:I'm going to Disney World.
Speaker A:What's your best advice for this?
Speaker A:What's your best advice for that?
Speaker A:So I thought I'd come up with seven questions and our best tips for those seven questions.
Speaker A:Love it.
Speaker A:So let's get started.
Speaker A:So let's talk about resorts.
Speaker A:So the best tip for finding a Disney World resort.
Speaker A:And I wanted to throw this caveat out.
Speaker A:Let's exclude just price.
Speaker A:So let's say you've got somebody that's going, I can do deluxe or moderate, or I can do value and moderate.
Speaker A:Or I could do all three rather than.
Speaker A:Because that would be the first thing I think I would say, well, how much do you want to spend?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But outside of that, a little bit more details.
Speaker A:How would you go about giving the best tip for finding the right Disney World resort?
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a really good question.
Speaker B:And I think the number one thing that I'm going to ask somebody is like, what are the ages of your kids?
Speaker B:If there are any kids joining you, what are the ages of them?
Speaker B:And if they have young kids?
Speaker B:My first reaction is if you have the budget to stay on the monorail, that's going to be the best because it's going to be a Magic Kingdom heavy trip most times.
Speaker B:The other thing that I'm going to ask somebody is, do you plan to park hop?
Speaker B:Because if you're planning to park hop, the Skyliner resorts offer so much flexibility for that.
Speaker B:And so you can do that without spending a ton of money.
Speaker B:So those are my first two questions that I'm going to ask somebody is if you're going to park hop and how old are your kids?
Speaker B:And if you have the budget for the monorail, great.
Speaker B:And so what do you think?
Speaker A:Yeah, that's kind of where I was leaning towards as well.
Speaker A:How do you want to get to the parks?
Speaker A:Because every resort is gonna, you're gonna need the bus to go to Animal Kingdom.
Speaker A:But if you're going to do Magic Kingdom, try to get somewhere where it's very easy to get to.
Speaker A:Like you said, the monorail or even someplace it's going to be a little bit closer.
Speaker A:If you're going to do that park a lot.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:And if you're going to do Epcot, the transportation from Magic Kingdom to Epcot is easy.
Speaker A:Like I said, if you're, if you're Skyline, if you're at the Skyliner resorts, then you're.
Speaker A:You're taking 50% of those of the four resorts with easy transportation.
Speaker A:So if you're staying at Caribbean beach or staying at POP or you're staying at Riviera, it's very easy to get to those two parks.
Speaker A:So the ease of access to the parks, I think, would be a big question that I would want to say.
Speaker A:Is that what you're looking at?
Speaker A:If it doesn't matter, then yeah.
Speaker A:Saratoga Springs, Key West, Animal Kingdom Lodge might be something down the road, if you don't mind.
Speaker A:Where buses, if you don't mind waiting in line for that.
Speaker A:But if you're looking for ease of transportation, what park do you want to go to?
Speaker A:And let's get you a resort that's giving you easier access to that park.
Speaker B:Absolutely, I agree.
Speaker A:All right, let's go on to dining plan.
Speaker A:I think this is a deep, deep dive, because there's one thing I get all the time is, is the dining plan worth it?
Speaker A:What is the best tip that you would give to somebody who's thinking whether or not they should do the Disney dining plan?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, this is one that I tell my clients a lot.
Speaker B:I will literally work the full numbers for you.
Speaker B:If you want to.
Speaker B:If you want to tell me that I want to eat here, here and here, I will look up those menus for you, and I will tell you how much it's going to cost your family to eat out of pocket at those particular table service restaurants.
Speaker B:Now, that does not take into account counter service or snacks or your refillable mugs.
Speaker B:If you want to have soft drinks at the resort and.
Speaker B:And then we can look at it apples to apples and say, is this going to be worth it?
Speaker B:Typically, though, if I were to pull out one tip for whether to use the dining plan or not, my number one thing that I tell people is, are you going to want to do character dining or are you not?
Speaker B:That's a great question because you're paying out of pocket per person for that meal rather than for what you order.
Speaker A:Yeah, And I think it's a great point.
Speaker A:And one of the things about the dining plan that I always tell people is how much do you want to eat?
Speaker A:Because you can get a lot of food on this plant if you're calorie restricted.
Speaker A:Like, we don't eat a lot.
Speaker A:Like my parents, for example, give them a couple of uncrustables.
Speaker A:They're good for the day.
Speaker A:I mean, they're old, they're senior.
Speaker A:You know, the senior citizens, you know, they'll have one big meal a day.
Speaker A:If they were going, they wouldn't want the dining plan.
Speaker A:It's just too much food.
Speaker A:They would just say, look, it's just too much food.
Speaker A:I'm not really going to eat all of that food.
Speaker A:That being, that being the case, I always lean to.
Speaker A:If you're going to counter service, if that's all you want, the quick service meals, you might be better off not having the dining plan because it does kind of force your hand.
Speaker A:But I think you make a good point.
Speaker A:If you plan to sit at these restaurants, the variety of pricing could be so extreme that just having it all in one prepaid package is probably a better economic plan.
Speaker B:And you might make a different decision at the restaurant.
Speaker B:You know, whereas, you know, I might order the burger if I was paying on the spot there.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:But if I already paid for it, then, yeah, I'm sure as heck going to order that most expensive steak that's included.
Speaker B:And so there's that aspect too.
Speaker B:And one, one more thing about the dining plan that I want to point out.
Speaker B: in: Speaker B:It is free for those kids.
Speaker B:If you purchase the dining plan for your entire package.
Speaker A:Yeah, great point.
Speaker B:Four kids under the age of 10, you're getting, your kids are eating free the whole time you're there.
Speaker B:As long as you're paying for, I guess it just has to be one adult.
Speaker B:If you have one adult in the room that's paying.
Speaker B: ly, really can be worth it in: Speaker A:And you know, the thing too is, listen, I know you're paying for it.
Speaker A:Look, it's going to come out of your pocket.
Speaker A:It's in, in if you're, if you're going to go down this road.
Speaker A:But when you're inside that bubble, and again, I get, I get it, I get the trick.
Speaker A:I understand what they're trying to do.
Speaker A:They're trying to let you get away from economics as much as they can.
Speaker A:The, the tickets are paid for, the resort is paid for, the meals are paid for.
Speaker A:And once you're kind of in that zone, it does take a lot of the economic pressure on if you're going on a budget and you're looking at the price of a meal and you really want X.
Speaker A:But it's like $28 when you know back home that meal is 15.
Speaker A:It does affect you mentally, and if you do that two or three times a day, it's going to affect you mentally.
Speaker A:But when it's already locked in, you've already done it, it's already on, on.
Speaker A:On the payment, and it's been finished.
Speaker A:There's a big difference in mentality on how you experience your Disney World vacation.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:All right, now, tip for park hopping.
Speaker A:I got a family, they want a park hop.
Speaker A:They kind of don't know how it works, or maybe they don't know what the best way to do it.
Speaker A:How would you give them best tip for park hopping on these days?
Speaker B:So with park hopping, I would say the number one question that I get about it is, well, I only want to park hop one day of my trip.
Speaker B:Can I just get the park hopper for one day of my four days in the park?
Speaker B:And the answer to that is no.
Speaker B:It's kind of either this or that situation.
Speaker B:You either have park hopping added.
Speaker B:Don't look at it as per day.
Speaker B:Just look at it as, hey, I'm going to add this component to my ticket, and that allows me to park hop at any part of my trip.
Speaker B:So what I always tell people is don't think about it as you have to park hop every day.
Speaker B:Think of it as it allows you that flexibility to your trip.
Speaker B:So let's say you think you only want to spend time in one park a day, but if you limit yourself to only having one park a day and you're finished with Animal Kingdom by 2pm what are you going to do the rest of the day?
Speaker B:And so what I usually will tell people, my number one tip for part copping is not to have a rigid plan with it.
Speaker B:Not plan necessarily where you want to go to the second part of the day and just kind of see where it takes you and use it more as a flexibility tool rather than something you feel like you have to use every day.
Speaker A:Yeah, and it depends on when you go, because if you are going during some downtimes, you may catch Epcot at a festival, for example, and it's packed and it's busy.
Speaker A:You check the app or where are the wait times at Hollywood Studios?
Speaker A:Where are the wait times at Animal Kingdom?
Speaker A:Maybe it's a lighter day and you're saying going, you know, today just seems to be a busy day at Epcot for this festival or for whatever reason it could be.
Speaker A:Then you can make the decision.
Speaker A:I'm going to boogie over to this park.
Speaker A:One of the things I tell people is, if especially people with children, how are your children going to be able to handle the transportation to and from the parks?
Speaker A:For some, it's easy.
Speaker A:Jump on the Skyliner at Epcot, go to Hollywood Studios, you can go back.
Speaker A:But some, that monorail, you're going to be transferring the monorail at the, at the ticket transportation center.
Speaker A:A long bus ride to Animal Kingdom.
Speaker A:There are some of these questions that I would say, look, park hopping in theory sounds like a great idea and I love doing it.
Speaker A:But sometimes when you have three kids and you got two little ones and you got a stroller, sometimes going back and forth could be really difficult.
Speaker B:And another thing I tell people too, especially if it is their first trip, I say don't bother with it.
Speaker A:Do.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Good point.
Speaker B:There's plenty to see in every park if you've never been there before without overwhelming yourself with that park hopping option.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But if you've got, if you've got like an adventurous group, it can be awesome, like to do three parks in a day.
Speaker A:If you're into that long day and you're just like, we're going to start at Animal Kingdom or we're going to go to Magic Kingdom, we're going to go to Epcot for the night.
Speaker A:There's so cool.
Speaker A:It's so cool, like planning, like multiple parks in one day.
Speaker A:What you're going to do and how you're going to do it.
Speaker A:I give, I tell people, if you can do it, park, hop.
Speaker A:Even if, even if one day you don't park up and like, oh, I missed the value.
Speaker A:You'll find the value for the rest of your vacation.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Booking hard to get reservations.
Speaker A:There's a number of angles we can go here, but if I want to go to space220 or beacon barrel or Royal, you know, the Royal Castle.
Speaker A:What, what are some tips that you can give a client that's saying, I really, really want to get these reservations.
Speaker A:How can I do it?
Speaker A:I'm three months away from my vacation or whatever it might be.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So let's start with, you know, at what point can we book our reservations?
Speaker B:And that point is 60 days before your check in day.
Speaker B:So if you are staying on property 60 days before you check in, you can log in at 6am Eastern Time and your entire trip will open up.
Speaker B:So let's say it's 60 days before I'm checking in on right now.
Speaker B:Would be like December 17th.
Speaker B:So then if I'm going to be there from the 17th until the 24th and I log in 60 days before December 17th, I will be able to make dining reservations all the way through December 24th.
Speaker B:So my first hot tip is if you have a reservation that's harder to get, like Beacon Barrel or like Cinderella's Royal Table, try to schedule that towards the end of your trip because those days will be less taken when you log in at 60 days than the ones on the front end of your trip.
Speaker B:So if you're looking at something that's right at 60 days before, make that be a dining reservation that's not as popular because that's going to have more availability on the front end of the trip than once you get towards those back end days.
Speaker B:My second tip would be I love sites.
Speaker B:There's some free ones out there and there's some paid subscriptions, but there's sites like Mouse Dining or Mouse Watcher.
Speaker B:I can't remember the names of all of them, but I do use them.
Speaker B:I actually have a subscription to one so that it makes it easier for me to get text rather than just emails.
Speaker B:If there's something that you really want to watch to open, and that includes Bibbidi Boppity Boutique, then you can subscribe to one of those sites.
Speaker B:And they really have have done wonders for me in the past in finding those hard to find reservations.
Speaker A:Yeah, because if you are going last minute and somebody says like you say, oh, going to Disney next week.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, you should eat at space220 and you're like, oh, I've never heard of that.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker A:And then you go on there and you can't find it.
Speaker A:Those sites are great because we ended up with a last minute reservation on that as well.
Speaker A:One other thing too, and you can try it, there's no guarantee, but you can also go up to the restaurant on the day and say, hey, I'd like to leave my name on a list.
Speaker A:If there's any last minute cancellations, we're in the park all day.
Speaker A:And sometimes that works.
Speaker A:It doesn't always work, but if, if it's the last sort of thing, it's last option that you have.
Speaker A:Don't be afraid to go to the restaurant and say if there's any reservations, please.
Speaker A:Here's my contact information.
Speaker A:We'd love to take it.
Speaker A:No matter what time we're going to be at Epcot all day or Magic Kingdom all day.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Best tip for the Non park days.
Speaker A:So you're not going to the park, but you need something to do.
Speaker A:What is the best tip on what you want to do on non park days?
Speaker B:Okay, so I think I've said it before.
Speaker B:I am not a Disney Springs fan.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're not.
Speaker A:I got that.
Speaker A:Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker B:And so that's not where I'm going to go.
Speaker B:But I actually was just talking to a friend of mine this morning this week, because we have a school cheer trip coming up for nationals in January, and we were talking about what to do with the girls on a day that we are not going to go to the parks.
Speaker B:And so our plan actually is we are thinking about booking a character dining for a late breakfast.
Speaker B:And so we're thinking about going over to the Polynesian to have breakfast with Stitch.
Speaker B:And then we're gonna do a whole, like, monorail round and like, let the girls shop and just kind of see the resorts.
Speaker B:That's my favorite way to spend a non park day.
Speaker B:Along with the obvious, which is the pool.
Speaker B:The pools at all levels of resorts, whether that be value moderate or deluxe, are some really great places to hang out.
Speaker B:There's an entertainment team that's going to be there doing trivia and songs and just helping everybody have such a fun time that you can have the best day without even going to the party parks.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:My advice would be just that if you're just looking for something to do, resort hopping is great.
Speaker A:And you can see some really unique merchandise in a lot of these gift shops that you're not going to be able to find anywhere else.
Speaker A:So maybe you spent your childhood at Fort Wilderness Lodge, let's say, and you just.
Speaker A:And you're like, you remember how great that resort was.
Speaker A:You can zip on over there and look around, go maybe buy a souvenir and just sort of, oh, I want to capture that memory.
Speaker A:You can do that.
Speaker A:Those some great unique merchandise.
Speaker A:Also, don't forget you can play nine holes of golf at Oak Oak Trail.
Speaker A:You can play miniature golf.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of other things to do.
Speaker A:A lot of people just assume off day means pool, but yeah, you know, my kids love the pool, but they can only do that for a certain amount of time.
Speaker A:And then they're, what are we doing next?
Speaker A:You know, we've doing this for a couple hours.
Speaker A:When you've got a whole off day, I think it's imperative to make sure you know what other options are out there.
Speaker A:Not just hanging around your resort, not just looking around.
Speaker A:Going to Disney Springs is Great.
Speaker A:But it's pretty much shopping.
Speaker A:That's pretty much what you're going to do there with some restaurants.
Speaker A:But there are some activities to do.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Best tip for character meet and greet when you have toddlers.
Speaker B:This is one that I have obviously a lot of experience with.
Speaker B:I've taken three toddlers at all ages down to Walt Disney World.
Speaker B:And, you know, I would say if you're not looking to stand in line at all, obviously the easiest, most convenient way to meet the characters is going to be with character dining.
Speaker B:It's not always my favorite way to meet them.
Speaker B:And, you know, you're adding a cost with that.
Speaker B:Obviously, if you have a family of four or five and it gets really pricey to do these character dines, but that's going to be the easiest way to knock out several characters at once.
Speaker B:My next tip that I'm going to throw in there is actually to rope drop some of these character meet.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker A:Completely.
Speaker B:You don't have a headliner that you're going to go do, or if you have big kids that are going to go ride Tron or Seven Dwarfs, take the little ones over to Princess Fairy Tale hall and you can knock out four princesses really, really quickly first thing in the morning.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker A:That's the key right there is know where you want to go, know what your kids want to see and who they want to see, where exactly to go, and get there as soon as you possibly can.
Speaker A:The lines for some of these meet and greets are get really long, and people need to remember these aren't rides.
Speaker A:So they're not, like, timed like you would get a ride.
Speaker A:Sometimes they go through quickly.
Speaker A:Sometimes each kid is taking a little bit more time.
Speaker A:And their estimates, you know, like, if you line up for Winnie the Pooh, let's say, and it's kind of going around the corner, they'll tell you, that's an hour from here.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You might look and say, wow, really?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It'll take an hour to get everybody sit, get the pictures taken, get the hugs for the kids.
Speaker A:The kids don't want to leave.
Speaker A:Parents are trying to move the line along.
Speaker A:When you add up those little minutes that those things take, it can be a long time.
Speaker A:So get to those as quickly as possible.
Speaker A:But I always tell people, if you.
Speaker A:If your kid knows that want to see Elsa, get to that place as quickly as you can.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:And keep in mind, too, that there are no Lightning lane options for any characters.
Speaker A:Good point.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:You know, know that the wait time is the wait time there.
Speaker B:And everybody's waiting the same amount of time.
Speaker A:And the other point to make about the character dining, and I think you make a really good point, is that also, you know, take a look at some of these guides of what the character dining is going to entail.
Speaker A:You might hear Chef Mickey, but they're not going to have Stitch, but you might have to go to Ohana to get Stitch, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker A:So know the place you're going to go to get the characters you want to, you know, you want to see.
Speaker A:All right, and the last one.
Speaker A:And this is our seven tips.
Speaker A:Managing the long Disney days.
Speaker A:You want to go open to close.
Speaker A:You want to go rope drop till fireworks, but then maybe boogie over to another place for those extra hours.
Speaker A:It's going to be pacing.
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:What's the best tip to do that?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, if, if somebody is planning on not going back to the resort during the day for any kind of breaks, which this is what I do a lot.
Speaker B:And I think the, the number one thing that you have to keep in mind is manage your expectations and be willing to take a breather every once in a while, whether that is on a bench or whether that is in the air conditioning.
Speaker B:Just like seek out some places to have your lunch that's not out in the blazing heat.
Speaker B:Because if it's 95 degrees outside and you're going to be walking around all day, choose not to eat your fish and chips in the sun when you could walk into the pub next door and find a table that's in the air conditioning.
Speaker B:And so just my number one tip is just to just manage that time well without just completely exhausting yourself.
Speaker A:That's a great point.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because I tell people, look, you may have seen Carousel progress a hundred times, but there's more benefits to seeing it 101 times when it's 95 degrees outside.
Speaker A:Hall of Presidents.
Speaker A:The same thing.
Speaker A:American Adventure.
Speaker A:The same thing.
Speaker A:They're 20 plus minute shows in air conditioning away from the sun.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:So don't be afraid to be like, look, I know my kids might be aboard.
Speaker A:Have them relax.
Speaker A:Have them chill out.
Speaker A:Use it for a little bit of the entertainment, but also using it for the, for the relaxation.
Speaker A:And I think you make a good point.
Speaker A:It's that pacing.
Speaker A:I've seen healthy people, athletic people, worn down to the nub on long days at these parks.
Speaker A:You're walking 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 steps in a day.
Speaker A:If you're going to go open to close and even the close at another park, you could be looking at 25,000 steps.
Speaker A:You can only get 7, 8, 9 miles of walking.
Speaker A:And even the most fit people in that Florida heat and humidity will be worn out.
Speaker A:So take your time and please, like.
Speaker B:Look out for those water jugs that they have sitting outside of some quick service restaurants with the little plastic cups.
Speaker B:That water is free.
Speaker A:That water is free.
Speaker B:Get the ice water, fill it up, make everybody drink their water, because it's a really, really exhausting day.
Speaker A:We're.
Speaker B:Whether you're there from open to close or not.
Speaker B:So, yeah, drink the free water.
Speaker A:All right, any bonus tips?
Speaker A:We did seven of mine.
Speaker A:Do you have any bonus tips that you'd like to give for any topic on any reason at all?
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker B:You kind of caught me off guard.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:You know, I feel like we kind of ran the gamut here.
Speaker B:I think we.
Speaker B:We really covered almost everything.
Speaker B:But, you know, there's always some good tips that we're going to throw in there for our clients, so.
Speaker B:So when you book your trip with us, you never know.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:I give one tip to people you're gonna have to shop at if you're staying on resort.
Speaker A:Shop during nighttime or after your day.
Speaker A:They don't deliver to your room anymore.
Speaker A:You don't want to be carrying that big Mickey plush all day.
Speaker A:And it used to be such a great service.
Speaker A:When we were down there just a couple of weeks ago, I was telling my wife, I said, you know, because I'm.
Speaker A:Logistically, I always think logistically, and I always think about, okay, that service, when they got rid of it, was probably a smart thing.
Speaker A:Think about the process of what each store in each place in the resort had to go through to get that bag of goodies to every room.
Speaker A:They had to take all of the bags, put them in a place, separate them, send them off by cart, then separate them there, and then send them to other people to send them the rooms.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was a great service, but I totally get why they discontinued it.
Speaker B:Yeah, me too.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So go do your shopping at the end of your day.
Speaker A:If you see something you really like, though, my wife has this thing, she says all the time it won't be here when we come back.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's very true.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So if you can carry it, maybe you should.
Speaker A:All right, Reach Lauren.
Speaker A:Lauren and all the magic travel.
Speaker A:You can reach me travel with Tony dmail.com please subscribe.
Speaker A:Like the podcast, we give you great tips, great information on Disney news, and notes in it's all the It's Wands and Wishes.
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