Post-Trip Report: Heather’s All-Star August Adventure (August 2026)

[00:00:11] Welcome to Where I Long To Be, a Magical Trip Report Podcast. My name is Virginia and I am your host. Happy Monday and I am pleased to say that I have a new hot take to share with you this week. This one is from frequent podcast guest, Jeanette, who has some strong feelings about a certain duck you may know. Take it away, Jeanette.

[00:00:31] Hello, Virginia. This is Jeanette, one of your beloved Disney dames and a semi-regular podcast guest cohort. I have a hot take for you. Probably not a big surprise. My hot take is that Donald Duck is amazing and it is so unfair that all the merch that you would find at the parks is of him angry.

[00:01:02] Because he's not just angry. He contains multitudes. He is a loving uncle. You know, he is a naval officer. He is a devoted boyfriend, although he should put a ring on it. He is just so much. And the fact that he's only ever shown angry is a disservice to all of us. Love ya.

[00:01:28] Thank you, Jeanette, as always, for being one of my biggest podcast supporters and for teaching me to love both Donald and Daisy. I really didn't care for either of them too much before, but over the years, I've really come to love them and I definitely give Jeanette credit for that. In exciting news, my Paris trip is rapidly approaching where I will be traveling with three of the four other Disney dames, including Jeanette, Maria, and Chrissy.

[00:01:54] We will, of course, be missing Nancy as we hop across the pond for some fun in gay Paris. And, of course, visiting Disneyland Paris while we're there. Make sure you keep an eye on my Instagram stories and my TikTok where I will be sharing the adventure there. Jeanette, Maria, and Chrissy will also be joining me for some podcast episodes on our trip to Paris, where we will give all of the juicy details, not only on our Disneyland Paris time, but also our time in Paris proper.

[00:02:22] I'm so looking forward to it and I cannot wait to share it all with you. And now let's take a look back at Heather's most recent trip to Walt Disney World. Heather was traveling with her mom, Marla, a.k.a. Gigi, her daughter Vivian, who is 13, and son Ethan, who is 7. They planned to drive from their home in Virginia starting on August 5th and drive back on August 10th. They stayed at All-Star Movies and had tickets to the very first Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party of the season.

[00:02:52] Helping them along the way was Heather's travel agent, Megan Cahill, with Magic in the Sun Travel, who Heather has used several times before and highly recommends if you are looking for your own travel agent. Her information is in the show notes. That should have you all caught up, so here we go. Please welcome back Heather to the podcast. Welcome back, Heather. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. So happy to have you.

[00:03:19] You know, unfortunately, Vivian is tied up with school stuff. She's right back at it for the new school year, has lots on her plate, so she's not going to be joining us today. I know we were kind of thinking she might, but I know how it is with school starting and all of the commitments and, you know, homework and all that jazz. So how long has she been in school so far? She just started on Wednesday the 12th, so not too long, not even a full week.

[00:03:48] But, man, they're diving right on in. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Alex doesn't start back until September 10th this year because they always start the Thursday after Labor Day, and Labor Day is kind of late this year on the 7th. So I'm like, September 10th, that's really late. Yeah. So, I mean, he's glad. But on the other hand, I'm like, you need to get up and go do something. Get out of here.

[00:04:14] I kind of messed up because he had, like, his summer program and we had our vacation and everything. But it's left most of August pretty, you know, footloose and fancy free for him, which I'm sure he's very much enjoying. But I'm like, get out there. Do something productive. Come on. So, anyway. I know that feeling. Yeah. All right.

[00:04:40] So let's talk through all of the fun that you had in this trip. So, overall, scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate it? Oh, I think any trip to Disney is a 10 for me, no matter the circumstances. I will add to that, though. All of these plans that were laid out in the pre-trip episode, hardly anything happened the way I expected it to. But it's okay.

[00:05:06] We learned how to roll with the punches, how to make the most out of a rainy day, make the most out of brides breaking down. And, you know, you win some, you lose some. And when we're at Disney, we're always winning. Yeah. Agreed. Fully agree. I know that you've had a couple of trips in the past with your mom, and she was on this trip as well. And you've said that in the past you might have run her a little bit ragged. Did you take it a little bit easier on her this time? I did.

[00:05:37] But what we found during this trip is that my children have grown to be adrenaline junkies. And I think they dragged Gigi and I both around more than we had bargained for. Yep. That happens as they get older. And just as a reminder for listeners, Vivian is 13 and Ethan is 7, right? Yes. Okay. It's good that they're both becoming adrenaline junkies, though, because it's harder when they have different ride styles.

[00:06:06] Like, I know Vivian loved Tower of Terror a lot, so I knew that with her. But if he was like, I only want to do boat rides, then that would make it a real challenge. It would. But, you know, Gigi typically only likes the boat rides. Um, so, you know, it would work out either way.

[00:06:28] But it's harder, I feel like, you know, with my mom not riding more of the high thrill rides because most of these rides seat, you know, two or four people at a time. Mm-hmm. So, if we're doing that, one of, you know, Vivian basically has to ride alone sometimes because, you know, I can't let, I'm not letting Ethan ride alone in most circumstances. Mm-hmm.

[00:06:53] There were a few rides where the kids got along well enough for a minute to ride a ride together, and I would ride behind them. Um, but, yeah, it's challenging when there are three riders, um, except when you're doing Test Track and there's three across. Mm-hmm. But, yeah, I mean, I'm a family of three, so we always have that thing. But, you know, because Alex is an only child, generally, it's like, okay, are you riding with mom or dad this go-round?

[00:07:22] And I can't recall a time when it's been, like, Charles and I have ridden together and Alex has ridden separately, although he totally would. He wouldn't care. But we just kind of switch it back and forth. Um, all right. How was your drive? Because you typically drive down to Orlando, and it's kind of a long drive. So, I think you were, um, starting in the Roanoke, Virginia area, right? Correct, yes. Okay. How long is that drive?

[00:07:50] Uh, it should be about 11 to 12 hours, but when you add in our stopping, it probably ended up being about 14 to 15. Mm-hmm. Um, for us for this trip. We drove, we left Roanoke at about 7 p.m. on Wednesday the, the 5th. Mm-hmm. And then, uh, we drove to Florence, South Carolina with a few stops in between, and we stayed at a hotel there in Florence that night.

[00:08:19] And had the best of intentions to wake up early the next day and cannonball it down to Magic Kingdom. But that was another seven hours. So, that was the heftier portion of the drive. And, um, we did have a little bit of car trouble Thursday morning. Oh, no. Yeah. We hit a button in the car that was not supposed to be on, uh, and were too panicked to go anywhere.

[00:08:46] Um, so I called five mobile mechanics. And on the fifth try, I finally got someone who helped us. And he was able to help diagnose our issue over the phone and just walk us through it. Mm-hmm. And fix it within, within, within three minutes or less. And he didn't charge us a dime. And it saved our vacation. Wow. So, okay. I'm very grateful. You learn something new every day. I had no idea mobile mechanics were a thing.

[00:09:15] But it makes sense. I mean, we do mobile doctor's visits now and everything like that. So, that totally makes sense. I'm glad you were able to find the help you needed so you could get on your way. Me too. Because everything my mom and I were Googling was worst case scenario. You're going to have to, you know, get it towed on a flatbed back to, you know, six hours away in Virginia.

[00:09:40] But thankfully for the fifth mobile mechanic that I called, we got some help. And we're finally able to get on the road. Okay. So, what time was that when you finally started moving? Oh, goodness. Probably, I'm going to say 10 or 11 a.m. Oh, wow. Okay. So, that puts you arriving around dinner time. Yes. Yes. We had an 8.40 p.m. reservation at the plaza.

[00:10:08] Um, but that, and I had, I had paid for lightning lane for this day too and had several lightning lanes booked. Mm-hmm. Um, so, but anyway, so we, uh, we left Florence. We cannon balled it down as best we could, made a few stops, and we drove straight to All-Star Movies. Dropped our bags off at our room there in the Toy Story section and caught the first bus we could to Magic Kingdom. And it was pouring down rain. Oh, no. Yeah.

[00:10:38] Uh, Ethan was just pitiful on that bus ride. He was so worried that it was going to rain for our entire trip. Um, but we kept good attitudes and we told him we're going to make the most of it. You know, we, we'll still get to ride a lot of things. A lot of things are indoors there too. Um, so yeah, so we got to Magic Kingdom at, uh, maybe 7.30-ish on that Thursday. And what time did the park close that night?

[00:11:07] The park, I don't think, was going to close until 10. Okay. Mm-hmm. So, I selfishly had been, uh, wanting to try the creme brulee croissant from Gaston's for a long time now. Mm-hmm. And that was going to close at 8 o'clock. So, we're there in our ponchos and with our umbrellas and we made a beeline for Gaston's Tavern. And we're standing in line outside and we get in and they, there was one couple behind Vivian and I in line.

[00:11:37] Mom and Ethan went and got a table outside with an umbrella. And, um, there was one couple behind Vivian and I waiting in line. And once us and the couple behind us were able to squeeze into the building, they shut the doors and closed Gaston's.

[00:11:54] And, um, Vivian and I get up to the counter and, you know, explained we'd like to order one creme brulee croissant, a, um, gray stuffed cupcake, a Diet Coke, and a Powerade. And I was explaining to the cast member, I was like, yeah, this is our first time using the dining plan. You know, can you help me out? Like, I want to use dining plan snap credits to purchase the croissant and the cupcake, but I want to pay for the sodas outright.

[00:12:22] Because it was my understanding that buying just like a soft drink is not the best use of a snap credit. That's correct. And, uh, the cast member, there was a cast member behind me that came up and said, oh, first time using the dining plan, huh? And I said, yeah. And he said, well, you're going to have to use that somewhere else because it's all in the mouse tonight. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, thank goodness.

[00:12:46] I was waiting for this to take a terrible turn where they're like, no, you have to use these snap credits now. Because I was like, that's how your day is going. That's what it felt like it was going to do. Oh, thank goodness. You got a little bit of pixie dust there. Yes. It was the sweetest thing. And it's one of those things people talk on in these Facebook groups about how do I get pixie? You don't, it's not something that you solicit. You don't ask for it. Yeah. Exactly. And I never would have seen this coming.

[00:13:15] Um, but you know, it was the end of the night and they were closing down and I'm guessing they were liquidating a little bit of inventory. Um, while making a magical moment for my family and I at the same time. Um, so they gave us not one, but two creme brulee croissants and the drinks and the cupcake all totally for free. So that was an incredible start to our trip. Now you have to, to let us know, was it worth the hype that you've heard?

[00:13:45] I love all things creme brulee. Um, I felt like the croissant was a little overhyped. I agree. Thank you. I feel validated. I had it once and I was like, I don't need to have it again. And I love creme brulee. Oh my God. I love creme brulee. And I love croissants. And you would think if a croissant and creme brulee had a baby, I would love that baby. No, that baby can go on its merry way. I agree. It was a, it was sadly, it was a one and done for me.

[00:14:14] It's one of those things that I'm glad that I tried, but I probably won't seek it out again. However, that gray stuff cupcake was one of the best cupcakes I've ever had. And mom and the kids all agreed. Um, I would go back just for that. Okay, good. We've had the cinnamon rolls there before too, and they're good, but the cupcake is what we would go back for first and foremost. So, yeah, that was great.

[00:14:41] So we, um, we spoiled our dinner because, uh, by the time we had finished up at Gaston's, it was time to start making our way to Plaza for our dining reservation for dinner. Uh, we had never been to Plaza before, um, went over, checked in, still pouring down rain this whole time. Uh-huh. And, um, we get in, we have a, had a lovely server named Amanda who was very, very sweet.

[00:15:08] Um, and, uh, we, although not included in the dining plan, we couldn't resist trying out the cheese fries and the onion rings. And those were the best cheese fries any of us had ever had. We think we would go back just for those cheese fries. Okay. Um, mom got a, a really good fried chicken sandwich. Vivian got a shrimp salad. I got the pot roast stack. Um, and Ethan was really upset to be there.

[00:15:37] All he wanted to do was ride rides. He did not want to eat. And the only thing we could convince him to eat was an apple with peanut butter, which Amanda so kindly accommodated for us. He said, I want an apple with peanut butter and I want popcorn and I just want to ride rides. So. Poor thing. Yeah. And we had just filled up on those treats at Gaston's too. So, so, you know, I wasn't going to put a bunch of pressure on him to eat if he didn't want to. So. Right. You have to decide what battles are worth fighting. Exactly.

[00:16:08] Um, but yeah, so we, we all loved our food at the plaza and of course, uh, the dining plan included a dessert for each of us as well. But like I said, we just had those treats at Gaston's and we wanted to get on the road to do some rides. I wanted to see the fireworks and the parade. So we got one, um, like brownie sundae and we each had like maybe two bites of it and, uh, went ahead and headed out.

[00:16:36] We first went to Buzz Light Your Space Ranger Spin, which is what Ethan was most excited about that night. And we loved it. Loved the refurb. It was lots of fun. Um, I rode with Vivian and she absolutely obliterated me. I don't know what she was doing differently from me, but she just kicked my butt. But, um, but we loved the refurb.

[00:17:02] Um, and after that it was time for, I had, um, booked a lightning lane for Tron for just Vivian and I. Because I had asked Ethan before the trip if he wanted to ride it and he said no. He didn't feel like he was ready for it. And my mom is not into, it won't, is not into the big coasters like that. So, um, once it came time for Vivian and I to get on Tron, Ethan was like, well, I want to ride. I want to ride.

[00:17:33] And Vivian was like, that's going to be a disaster. And I was like, I think you're right. I think that could be a disaster because he hasn't been on a coaster like that. That's that intense yet. Um, and we just got here. All we've ridden is Buzz Lightyear. We need to warm, he needs to warm up a little bit more. So Gigi and Ethan did, um, People Mover twice and Buzz Lightyear a second time. All in the time that it took Vivian and I to ride Tron.

[00:18:02] And Vivian was really nervous about riding Tron because she gets motion sick really easily. But, um, we were in the very last row of the motorcycle seats. And so she could see where the train was, you know, the, the light cycles were coasting before us. So that really helped her because, you know, it gets, it's dark inside. So she was able to see and did not get motion sick.

[00:18:29] So she was so happy and I was happy that she didn't get motion sick. Um, we met back up with Gigi and Ethan. And by then we had missed the fireworks, um, which I was really sad about, but the kids were just having the best time. Um, I didn't know it then, but I found out later that when mom and Ethan were on People Mover, that they got to see glimpses of the fireworks as they were riding. So that's really, really sweet. I'm glad that was nice.

[00:18:59] So after Tron, we all four headed over to Frontierland and Ethan was adamant about Big Thunder Mountain. My mom was adamant about Tiana's Bayou Adventure. And so the park was about to close by then. And so we had to split up. So I rode Big Thunder Mountain with Ethan. I had my arms around him. He's really small. Uh, I had my arms wrapped around him.

[00:19:26] He had his arms up in the sky, waving, screaming, having the time of his life. Um, and I was just worried about him flying out of there, even though I know, I know that that's not going to happen. But there's always that motherly piece in my brain that's just, just worst case scenario, you know. Um, mom and Vivian got off of Tiana's and they loved that.

[00:19:49] And we were able to catch there in Frontierland the last two flights, uh, floats, the last two floats of the Starlight Parade, which was lovely. So I'm sad we didn't get to see the whole thing. But like I said, I mean, we were on Big Thunder Mountain, so you can't really complain. Right. So this was closing time. This is at the most at this point, you have like an hour to kind of hang in the shops. Right.

[00:20:18] Did you do any of that just to really soak in as much time in Magic Kingdom as you could? Absolutely. And Vivian is huge into pin trading. So any, any place or person or thing she sees that will trade pins with her, she is going to stop and trade pins. And she, she very proudly wears multiple lanyards of all of her pins at all times when we're at Disney.

[00:20:43] So, um, we did, we stopped at the Emporium on the way out and were there for an embarrassing amount of time. Um, did a little bit of damage there, but nothing too bad. So, yeah, we made it back to the room at, let's see, about 1230, I want to say.

[00:21:36] Okay. So, yeah. And we made it up there with lesser crowds anyway. So that did make me feel a little bit better about that. I am a little nervous based on what time you go back to the room and your plans for the following day, though, because your original plan, at least, was to drop Animal Kingdom, which opens the earliest. so did you pivot and do something completely different altogether absolutely so we realized

[00:22:03] on the drive down that we forgot to bring the stroller and you know like Ethan is seven but he's still he like I said he's very small and Vivian is 5 11 I'm 5 7 so we're all outpacing him so it's really helpful to have the stroller not only so he can rest for a few steps but to put

[00:22:24] all of our stuff right so I had arranged for a stroller rental delivery at our room and I the night before had been so ambitious about rope dropping animal kingdom that one of the times I could select for it was kingdom strollers that we used and they were fantastic but one of the times

[00:22:49] they had available was 5 15 a.m and so I put that down as my stroller drop-off time um and you have to be there to meet them I had to be in the lobby to meet them at like 5 15 a.m um and yeah so I went and got the stroller and came back to the room and everybody's still sound asleep and I'm just like my feet hurt my legs hurt I can barely hold my eyes open and I was like I guess this is what we're doing

[00:23:17] so I went back to we I went back to sleep too um yeah we slept in pretty hard I can't remember what time we eventually made it to animal kingdom but it was nowhere near rope drop um we unfortunately missed out on bluey completely um because by the time we did make it there just with the flow of things and needing to make it back for the Halloween party there was no way everything that I've seen online

[00:23:48] has been it's been taking people one and a half to two hours round trip really to see bluey once they're in the park because you know you have to get to the train station and you wait in line for the train and then you get to conservation station and you wait in line there to see bluey and then you have to wait in line to take the train back and it just it's a process it's a process it's a very

[00:24:11] seems to be a very time-consuming process um Ethan was did not shed a tear over missing bluey which was interesting to me because that was the entire reason we added on the day at animal kingdom was because he is such a bluey fan and he wanted to see bluey so bad it might have helped that we found out not long ago that the bluey's big play is coming to the bergland center here in roanoke virginia

[00:24:38] in january so i think we might try to get tickets to that and see bluey um in a person live and in person in a seated show right in the air conditioning um come january not that we'll need air conditioning in january but you know what i mean yes climate controlled right right um so we get into animal

[00:25:03] kingdom and it it was drizzling off and on but not the rain wasn't too bad and we hadn't had breakfast we were starving so we had to go to flame tree barbecue um which took a little longer than expected but as always it's delicious um and from there we moseyed over to pandora and mom and vivian had

[00:25:29] lightning lanes for flight of passage but not ethan and i because the plan had been that ethan and i would go to bluey while mom and vivian rode flight of passage because ethan initially had no interest in writing flight of passage but of course um by the time we got there he wanted to ride so i start looking for a blue umbrella so that i can see if maybe they'll sell me two more lightning lanes

[00:25:58] by chance um and i can't find i can't find any and i find a cast member and he was kind of unsure and he directed me back inward not in pandora but closer into the main part of the park and i went and find a found a blue umbrella somewhere else and she said i'm so sorry you'll have to go back to ticketing because i don't have the computer here to sell those to you and it was just like a

[00:26:26] it was a guest experiences umbrella but i think it was just like pin trading and brochures i don't know why but she didn't have like one of the ipads or whatever so i don't know where i ended up but i was not in the right place and so i start walking back towards the front and i'm like ticketing that's all the way like out like having to go out of the park and come back in and i was like

[00:26:51] i'm not walking that far and walking back into pandora and then walking back out all before the halloween party and it's it's just too much so i called mom and said this is just not going to work out for uh ethan and i to add on lightning lanes with you guys so mom and vivian and ethan stayed there in pandora and waited for me um while i walked back um i got there and it started torrential

[00:27:19] downpouring um ethan and i found this little cranny in pandora that was almost like a half open cave if that even makes sense where we were able to sit in there um and we had our umbrella our clear umbrella kind of on the outside of us but it kept us dry while mom and vivian rode flight of passage

[00:27:41] uh and then we headed out towards the front of the park and we stopped um there by tara treats i guess it was and got the viral cookie dough brownie ice cream sandwich which unlike the creme brulee croissant in my opinion i believe is worth every bit of the hype that it has gotten um it was delicious um i got two of them with snap credits and you know ethan and i split one and mom and vivian split one and

[00:28:10] those were the perfect portions for that because it is i don't think i could eat a whole one um they're very very very sweet that's what i've heard i haven't gotten to try one myself yet but you should it's in my future it's in my future definitely um yeah we did a little bit of shopping there at island mercantile on the way out and yeah took a bus back to all-star movies to freshen up a little

[00:28:36] bit and um yeah we were going to have lunch at rainforest cafe on the way out but everything was so behind schedule we had to nix it um which was fine because we hadn't made a reservation anyway um at that point i knew that we were going to have to have a meal before the party started

[00:29:01] and so i started searching for reservations and i found a last minute reservation for crystal palace which none of us had ever been to before and uh it's my understanding that the character meals are a pretty good use of dining plan credits also so this seems like a win-win so uh we took a bus from all-star movies to magic kingdom got in got our wristbands for the party we arrived at probably

[00:29:27] 4 30 for maybe closer to 5 and we went straight for pirates of the caribbean which had like a 10 minute wait um we rode that and then it was time for our crystal palace reservation and it was just fantastic um we have such strong ties to winnie the pooh from childhood um it was really sweet the food

[00:29:53] was great the characters were great our server was great just loved it from top to bottom you need to go back now next time for the breakfast because the waffles oh my gosh so good those are on my disney bucket list yes and those live up to the hype in my opinion oh yum now i do want to pause for a second

[00:30:19] i know that when we talked about the halloween party we had talked about the fact that your mom was crafty and that it was going to be too hot for costume but she might do a little something and then i think was it you that i had talked to about the window displays yes that's me that's my mom with the window displays yes okay so given how the time that you arrived was not what you expected

[00:30:44] and everything that has gone into this first day and a half did your mom take the time to decorate the window she did so she had three window displays for this trip the first one was bluey and it was just a very simple curtain um that she ordered off amazon it was just a bluey printed curtain but um she did that one for ethan since that's his favorite disney thing right now is bluey

[00:31:10] um she set that one up i guess late thursday maybe it was before we went to magic kingdom but right when we were dropping our bags off because it was just a really simple thing for her to hang easy to do yeah yeah and then um the next day she switched it out for the window that she did in honor of me which was the rescuers down under which is kind of a niche disney movie um

[00:31:37] not everybody is gonna get that one um but i did i loved it so it had um bernard and bianca and then frank who is that lizard from the rescuers down under um so it was really cute she had some lights in the window with it um but yeah and then uh for the last day and a half she had up um in honor of vivian

[00:32:04] she made a tower of terror display with stitch um where stitch was kind of hanging in the service elevator and it's got these spooky lights um and i will send you pictures we couldn't get very good pictures of that one because the just the lighting um it's best to take pictures of these when it's dark outside but the yeah with the reflection of the window and the lights i'm sure it's challenging

[00:32:32] yes yes but i've got pictures for you okay there she just does such a great job and she does it with so much love and it's so fun for her and it's really sweet to us and i did not inherit that crafty gene from her at all but i i love to witness her miracles that she works with it well at least you inherited the craft appreciation right absolutely yeah that's wonderful that she does that it's very

[00:33:01] sweet so what ended up happening with your outfits for the halloween party did you do anything specific or a halloween t-shirt or you just were like we're wearing clothes that's what we're doing i was basically like we're wearing clothes at this point um we had just had too much going on leading up to this trip to be able to really planned costumes um the kids the night before when we were at

[00:33:27] magic kingdom in the emporium on the way out they each got um a walt disney world orange halloween t-shirt and then i had my purple hocus pocus t-shirt that i wore to the halloween party in 2022 so yeah sort of sort of in spirit that's on theme yeah we were just happy to be there

[00:33:52] um what happened after your dinner um after our dinner um which was at the perfect time where they were you know closing things down and getting things ready for the party we got out of dinner and we went straight for tiana's bayou adventure and all four of us got to ride together and after that we went next door to big thunder mountain railroad and as we were coming off my mom said to the cast member

[00:34:18] she said that's when i could just ride over and over again and the cast member was like well do you want to ride again and my mom was like are you serious and so they they brought us back through the back and uh put us on again so we got to ride big thunder mountain railroad twice in a row that's really nice it was really sweet and then we did um a photo pass right there in front of big thunder mountain we went back to tiana's for one more time because you know you got to pass it to

[00:34:48] get out of that section of frontier land anyway so you might as well right it was only a five minute wait so um we did that we trick-or-treated a little bit um and then we made our way to the haunted mansion which had probably the longest wait of the of the night um you know they have that overlay where they have the the ghost in the in the queue talking and she's just such a hoot

[00:35:16] um what what would you say the wait time was for that on average for the party when we were in line it was probably 25 minutes maybe even 30 okay um but we were hitting it i think right at like probably seven when the party was actually starting and the overlay was starting and it was the first um you know it's the first halloween party of the season so okay it was hard to judge you know how that might

[00:35:43] look for other people's parties okay right right um but that was fun as always and then we went to peter pan did peter pan we did seven dwarves mind train we were the carousel we did more trick-or-treating um we trick-or-treated also in the the princess fairy tale hall and that had maleficent and the evil

[00:36:08] queen in it uh that night that was really cool to see so i i we had met the evil queen at storybook dining a few years ago but we'd never seen maleficent that up close in person um in the flesh like that you know so yeah that was really neat um uh we stopped at pinocchio's and stood in line for about 20-25 minutes to get this cruella cookie that we were all really excited for

[00:36:39] and we get up to order and they're sold out of the cruella cookie oh no um so we just got a diet coke um i and we also got um we got a like a ghost slushy there that was part of the halloween menu um that the kids that the kids really liked um so mom and the kids sat outside at pinocchio's while i ran to the fryer's nook to get vivian her number one request of the trip

[00:37:08] which was the buffalo chicken hand pie that was a party exclusive treat yeah see i haven't even looked up the exclusive treats yet and i i definitely need to now that i have a party on the books for october see what i'm you know looking forward to in terms of you know i love my snacks oh yeah oh yeah well they had a variation of this when we went to the party in 2022 when it looked like the book

[00:37:36] from hocus pocus oh yes i think i remember seeing that okay yeah but it was a little bit different because that one had this like um jalapeno lime sauce on it this one at this party does not but it did have a ton of blue cheese crumbles on top so if you're a blue cheese person you will love this i do like blue cheese yeah vivian loved it um so yeah so she got that i went next door to storybook

[00:38:01] treats to um get us some ursula cones because we were excited about trying those but they were closed storybook treats closed at 10 o'clock so that was disappointing but again we're at disney it's okay um after that uh ethan wanted to ride the teacups so i rode with him and then all four of us rode uh the little mermaid ride which we love it's classic for us

[00:38:30] and then ethan says this whole this whole time he's saying i'm gonna ride tron i'm gonna ride tron and mom and vivian and i are like let's let's leave that until the very end of the night um in case it goes sideways with him because we just weren't sure how he would how he was gonna do on it so we waited until the end of the night we got in line for tron at 11 55 and he's so excited and

[00:39:00] it's a huge line and we got in line and it said posted wait time was 40 minutes but i feel like they always inflate that at the end of the night a little bit they do especially on a party night like usual so i'm not too worried about the wait but we got in line at the almost at the bottom where they

[00:39:26] do the photo pass there in front of the tron sign okay yeah so that's a big line okay and it was a big line um we're waiting in line and we make it all the way up to where you would scan in for your lightning lane for that first touch point um and ethan says you know i think i've changed my mind

[00:39:47] oh no yeah and we were like okay that's fine so uh we we left the the line for tron and we made our way to the emporium which was still open selling merch so we um made a couple small purchases there and made our way out took a couple pictures outside of magic kingdom and headed back to the

[00:40:12] room we didn't get back to the room until at least two at least two yeah um how long did you have to wait for a bus uh we were i think we were in the first the next one's in line for the next bus for all-star movies at that point so not i don't know we stood there maybe 10 or 15 minutes it wasn't too

[00:40:40] bad okay yeah all right yeah you do see horror stories about that and we are we're really funny about hating to stand on the buses um not only are we just as exhausted as everyone else but it just it feels unsafe standing on those buses sometimes i don't know so we have waited um and let people go in front of us if it's like a standing room only bus but luckily we didn't

[00:41:07] encounter any of that on this trip yeah i have no problem standing on a bus just because i stand all the time here on subways and i rarely ride the bus in the city mostly i'm running subways but when i do i stand my problem is my feet hurt so bad at the end of the day after doing all of those steps and i'm tired that i want to sit and sometimes if there's a big line for the bus i'm sitting there praying like please let it fill up so it can drive off so that i'll get a fresh one and i can get a

[00:41:36] seat i have had those same thoughts myself i empathize but all right saturday august the 8th this was your hollywood studios day and you did have plans to rope drop but again i'm questioning whether that happened or not given how late you got back well not only did we get back so late but we had laundry to do we had a lot of wet clothes so i went and put in two loads of laundry there at 2 30 in the morning

[00:42:05] um and stayed up long enough to transfer them over to the dryer and then went to bed so we did sleep in saturday the 8th our hollywood day we did not even remotely make it to rope drop as a matter of fact we didn't make it into the park until about 1 p.m oh my word yeah um so we came in we were we were hungry

[00:42:28] um we got some mickey pretzels and popcorn and vivian and i had a lightning lane for tower of terror of course so while she and i did that mom and ethan went to the beauty and the beast show and um vivian and i scan in um the tower of terror which still had a hefty weight um and we get in

[00:42:53] and we're outside the elevator and it's our turn to board and the doors open and the cast member says wait a minute we got to check some things out and the ride broke down right broken down right there so you know then you're presented with do we wait it out or you know the cast members aren't telling us all that we're dismissed from the line at this point um it was it was 25 to 30 minutes uh and they

[00:43:22] got the ride up and running again so we got to ride um tower of terror which is a blast as always um and then we had to stop by the tower of terror gift shop and i mean you're walking through it anyway right right um we had to get the tower of terror beach towel um but anyway we got out of

[00:43:46] there we stopped at that joffrey stand right outside of tower of terror you have to walk past it anyway why wouldn't you exactly so vivian got an iced coffee that she was excited about and i got to try the i get i'm not sure what their official name for it is but i've heard it called referred to as the tower of terror cookie and it's a cookie i think it's called the terror cookie okay something to that effect

[00:44:14] but i got the last one that they had so that was exciting um it's it's good it's not as good as um the cookie dough ice cream sandwich at animal kingdom but it was good so i'm glad i got to try it um but yeah um mom and ethan ended up uh getting into some ice cream also while they were waiting for us to come off of tower tower of terror so that was great that they got to do that um

[00:44:43] then we made our way to backlot express for lunch um we were all ravenous by then we needed food food real food real food yeah so we uh ate a bit at backlot express which took a little longer than we expected um which made us late for ethan's 425 lightsaber appointment so i went to guest services and was like i'm so sorry we got stuck on tower of terror and then we

[00:45:12] had to eat and this and they were like no worries let's let me call over there and see if they can still get you in and and they were they were very accommodating so ethan and i made a beeline for savvy's workshop for him to build his lightsaber and he is a star wars kid through and through and this experience with my seven-year-old son was just the coolest it was one of the coolest

[00:45:38] disney experiences i have ever had and i will never forget it the cast member who was leading the whole thing inside was just phenomenal um i got some great video of of ethan with the lightsaber and once it was all over and everyone else left they kept ethan behind and this cast member said you know

[00:46:04] young jedi i see something in you um i know you're gonna be a great jedi someday and they gave him um they let him pick an additional kyber crystal for his lightsaber so now oh wow it can be blue or green um and it just it's it's moments like that that really just hit home and um moments you really won't

[00:46:29] forget yeah yeah that's amazing and this is the third magical moment here that you've shared and you know i feel like in a lot of ways all of this balances out all of these things that you've had thrown in your path along the way like you're still able to have a uh a good positive outlook about the

[00:46:54] experience in spite of it not going exactly as you had planned that it would you're still creating memories and really um you know counting the memories together less than like the number of rides that you got on or the amount of minutes you spent in the park mm-hmm so yeah it was it was it was wonderful

[00:47:17] and then all of it came together so nicely um but yeah so by the time ethan was finished with his lightsaber um and while he and i did that mom and vivian went and got to try the blue milk and the green milk in star wars and they enjoyed that did they have a preference um i i'm not totally sure i i think vivian liked the blue more and my mom liked the green more if i remember correctly

[00:47:46] i know i liked the green more um so all right so after our lightsaber experience and the blue and green milk experience it was time for our dining reservation at roundup rodeo barbecue and this was your first time this was our first time there and i had heard mixed reviews about it okay um this was booked solely off of vivian's request um she really wanted to to try here

[00:48:16] because of the theming so um we were still pretty full from backlot express and we had lightning lanes for slinky and toy story mania and i was looking at the weather it was starting to rain and i was like those are real stormy clouds that are coming in if we don't get on slinky dog now we might not get to do

[00:48:38] it um between the impending thunderstorm and the closing of the park i was like we're not going to get to ride slinky if we don't go now so yeah and you can always show up late for your reservation if you needed to and just say i'm so sorry yeah yeah so i um i did go and check in with them at roundup rodeo and we waited for a little bit and i was like i'm getting kind of nervous so i went to the cast

[00:49:03] member and was like hey we have these lightning lanes that are expiring and this storm is moving in do you know you know is there anything we can do is there any way we can push this back a little bit and they're like oh yeah sure we can put we can put your reservation on hold go ride your your lightning lanes and just come back let us know when you're back and i was like thank you um so yeah

[00:49:27] and you know those rides aren't far it's all right there in toy story land so right um the kids and i rode slinky dog gg does not care for that one so we um uh vivian and ethan sat together for that and i sat behind them with another really nice lady and we had a blast and we got off of slinky dog and

[00:49:49] picked gg up from the bench and we went into um toy story mania and um yeah i rode that one with ethan and mom rode with vivian and that was great as always and then we went to roundup rodeo barbecue and by the time we checked back in there we only had about a 10 minute wait and you know things just

[00:50:13] happened for a reason um we got in there and we just had the best server she was such a treat um her name was mckenzie and she was just fantastic and i don't know if the naysayers of roundup rodeo barbecue caught it on a bad day but we had the best experience the food was great it was fresh it was hot um

[00:50:41] and it was good it was really good it was it was not to us it was not theme park food it was it was good um and it was great fun the whole andy's coming and everybody freezes it's so cute the theming is so well done and we just had the absolute best time we loved it good yeah yeah

[00:51:03] so after roundup rodeo barbecue we had a decision to make and it was we have lightning lane single pass for rise of the resistance phantasmic is starting in like 20 minutes at park close at nine o'clock we're not going to be able to make both and phantasmic is my mom's favorite thing at disney

[00:51:27] but she also loves rise and i mean we all love both of those options um so we we had to make the decision and we went with rise and have never had a bad time riding rise of the resistance it's it was tons of fun as always and then we headed towards the front of the park and had to go shopping on

[00:51:51] both sides of um yeah the street there i mean that's a given yeah um yeah picked up a couple cute little things there in hollywood studios and then um one of the things that i wanted to do on this trip was to try out the minivan service so i called us a minivan and um that was a wonderful experience we had cameron picked us up and brought us back to our hotel at all-star movies

[00:52:20] and it was so nice it is such a sweet little luxury um to have that air-conditioned uh suv all to your own party you know um so i it's not something i would do in every single for every single pickup and drop off but it was a really nice welcome reprieve so we would do that again so all right so

[00:52:49] sunday august the 9th this was an epcot day and once again i have in my notes rope drop and in fact this one i wrote rope drop to close so what did you actually end up doing we actually did rope drop to close this day so the incentive for that was that i had booked us a 905 nemo

[00:53:15] and i said mom's favorite ride in that park is remy i said you know to have any chance at booking remy our only hope is to scan into nemo at nine o'clock on the dot and and pray that there is a remy available because i had already booked frozen as my tier one ride so uh we we did rope drop epcot and we went straight for moana journey of water

[00:53:43] and this was my mom's first time doing that and she cried and then i cried because she was crying because it's beautiful and we're huge moana fans and the kids were actually getting along and enjoying the elements together and it was really sweet so we headed from there straight across to the seas pavilion and we had a few minutes it was like 8 50 something and it was a little too

[00:54:12] early to tap into nemo but the cast member said no i got you come on in because it was rope drop nobody was was uh beating down the door for nemo also to be fair that line takes you like a full five minutes to walk through the queue yes yes it does so uh the very kind cast member let us go ahead and scan in early and the moment all four of us were done scanning in i immediately before we took another

[00:54:42] step had pulled down you know my disney experience app and was able to get a remy like that perfect so that was great so we rode nemo and then um we went through the aquarium we did turtle talk with crush as soon as it opened which was also my mom's first time doing that and she loved it of course and then we went next door to the land pavilion and we were ravenous and i was like okay i have

[00:55:12] a decision to make i have that teppan auto reservation for later tonight or we're going into the land pavilion i can see if there's a garden grill breakfast available and there was a garden grill available at like 10 10 and i like breakfast at garden grill it was great yeah so we went in we had our first ever um experience at garden grill and it was a total surprise to mom and the kids that

[00:55:38] it was a rotating restaurant and stuff um but it was great the food was great um the cinnamon rolls were great they had that cheesy potato casserole that was really good um but yeah we we loved it had a great time i do as well i always recommend it and then i hear sometimes people you know putting down garden grill on other podcasts i'm like i've only ever had good experiences there i mean i even i do like

[00:56:07] lunch and dinner too it's just if i have to choose between the meals breakfast is definitely my preference um and then your interactions with the characters like you get to see them so many times yeah yeah and just it's such a unique what other i've never been to another restaurant in my life that rotates like that it's just so cute um so my kids despise riding living with the land so they were happy

[00:56:33] to get out of it by being at garden grill where they could they could see parts of it and they didn't have to ride it so they liked garden grill much more than they like living with the land i think they'll grow into that i have hope that they'll grow into liking living at the land pun intended it wasn't but now that you mention it definitely

[00:56:58] um so from there we got to experience soarin over america um and that was it was great um we really enjoyed that and the the smells that they're pumping into that one specifically was those were great um so then we went next door and rode figment um of course as one does when you're at epcot

[00:57:22] um and then we moseyed on over back across the way and we um we ended up at connections vivian wanted some coffee at starbucks and we had a bathroom break and um just double checking everyone's um scopolamine patches and taking gramamine and stuff in preparation for our guardians of the galaxy lightning

[00:57:48] lane okay yeah okay so a little bit of a backstory on this um when we came in i'm not uh i guess it was the halloween 2022 trip yeah that was the the day that i dragged my mom around epcot um that ride uh had just opened not long before we went on that trip in 2022

[00:58:16] and so i had purchased four lightning lanes for it and vivian and i rode it that day and we came off of it telling my mom you're gonna love this and we genuinely thought that she would love who couldn't love that ride and ethan wasn't tall enough at that time to ride it so we had to swap off so the second round vivian rode it with my mom um and mom got out of off of that sick as a dog

[00:58:42] hating us um she was like never again that was miserable for me she's like i get it like i i get why you like it but she's like i can't um and so um i did not think she was gonna ride this time but she did we got these like anti-nausea like inhalant sticks um and of course they had the

[00:59:08] scoffing patch and vivian and mom both took dramamine also but gg was such a good sport about it um and ethan ethan had ridden it with me and vivian in december of 2023 and liked it then but was a little freaked out he loved it this time he loved it arms up the entire time having the time

[00:59:32] of his life um we got conga as our song which i feel like i've gotten every time i wrote it um one of these days he'll get september one of these days um but yeah gg gg was a good sport she did have to sit down and take a little bit of a break after it but she did okay and vivian's scoffing patch this time held up and and she didn't get sick and it was wonderful so good yeah we took a little

[01:00:01] bit of a break went to club cool and uh i guess it had been it's been three years since we had gotten to go to club cool so ethan didn't remember the beverly and he put his cup straight up to the beverly and vivian and i looked at each other and before we could say a word it hit him and his

[01:00:22] had the best look on his face and you know spit it back out into his cup and uh and i mean every we all laughed and um he tried the other sodas um but didn't hate any of them as much as he hated the beverly which is fair yes 100 fair oh gosh um yeah and from there we began making our way towards the

[01:00:51] world showcase um we stopped in that um what is it the passport shop there right at the entrance of world showcase if you're coming from space for birth we stopped there honestly just because we needed some air conditioning um but we did end up getting a couple little things um they had a great mouse

[01:01:13] detective t-shirt and loved great mouse detective growing up and my maiden name is baker aka my mom's last name and the shirt says meet me on baker street and it's got basil from the great mouse detective oh cute on it so my mom surprised me and got me the great mouse detective shirt which was very sweet

[01:01:34] um but yeah from there we headed to the mexico pavilion we went inside and uh rode um grand fiesta tour of course which was my mom's first time on that which you know it's sweet yeah yeah yeah how did she go that long without riding it well we didn't get to do it on our crazy trip in october of 2022

[01:02:00] 2022 and then in um december of 2023 when mom went with us that was when she had the flu and she missed our epcot day so she missed out okay yeah she had missed out on on a lot that day um but anyway so you know grand fiesta tour we moseyed around the displays in the mexico pavilion enjoyed the air

[01:02:22] conditioning and then headed next door to norway where we there was a posted wait time of 40 minutes to meet elsa and anna we barreled straight in and we were second in line inside oh wow yeah so we got to meet elsa and anna and then um we had that lightning lane for frozen but the ride broke down and so

[01:02:47] we went to the kringla cafe and got some treats and sat and waited for a while for frozen to come back up and um it it did we had a redemption something was going on with the lightning lanes this day because rides were breaking down left and right but the good news for me was i was getting the redemption passes which you know you can use at any ride at any time um so uh actually i'm not

[01:03:17] let me back it up a little bit before we made it our way into the world showcase we did go ride spaceship earth before we made it into into that so um anyway we uh get to frozen we ride frozen it's great as always um and we mosey on next door to china and we go through the gift shop there um i don't think we made any purchases there but it's still fun to go look and then we used one adult quick

[01:03:46] service credit at um uh is it the lotus blossom cafe i think in china quick service i think it's called something like that i think it does have the word lotus in it yeah we got um one adult orange chicken with rice meal and we each had a few bites of that um and that was that was good it was good

[01:04:08] standard um americanized chinese food uh and then we kept on going we um we went to trying to remember which part was next we went to the harambe market and got the cherry and pineapple dole whip swirl and we each had a few bites of that um we we kind of skipped over germany we didn't there was no

[01:04:33] the pretzel bread pudding there is good um but we didn't venture up into the pavilion aside from the caramel kush kusha i always get tripped up on the pronunciation caramel kusha yeah yeah i usually just say caramel kush yeah um but we got some treats from there um each kid of course wanted the most

[01:04:58] expensive caramel apples that they had that were not included on the dining plan but we don't go to disney often so they both ended up with their own lederhosen mickey caramel apples and i'm not complaining because i mean they ate most of them and yeah they were great and it's fruit right it's the fruit server exactly um yeah and we just we made our way through the world showcase um

[01:05:29] we didn't venture up into the italy pavilion or the um or the morocco pavilions um but we got to japan and vivian used a snack credit to get the sushi um there at kabuki cafe which is a great use of a snack credit because it's like a 14 dollar sushi tray um she enjoyed that and ethan got um a kakigori

[01:05:55] japanese shaped ice that was good um yeah did you go up into america because i i did write that you were hoping to catch the voices of liberty we did make it up into the american pavilion but we did not get to see the voices of liberty oh okay yeah so i was i was sad to miss that but oh we we were so

[01:06:19] hot um and yeah just the amount of you know what it's like i mean the amount of walking the august heat um we were we were going kind of slow through that but yeah we did go to the american pavilion and we got used another adult quick service credit to um we got a platter with some ribs and some barbecue and some brisket i think may have had some chicken on it too um and then we used a kids quick service

[01:06:48] credit and got some stuff from that um that that was great we sat outside the um the american pavilion bathrooms there's picnic tables over there on that side of like the um the art shop i love that little art shop it's so nice um but yeah so we snacked on the american food there and then we just kept on

[01:07:12] trucking we went to um to france and we rode remy and then we went to uh la boule orange patisserie i know i butchered that it's called la bouge oh god no i'm gonna say it wrong la boulangerie that we went there and got some treats we got some macarons um the raspberry lime is my favorite

[01:07:38] yes um yeah i love that with a with a frosé to drink on the side oh yeah the combination of those flavors is like chef's kiss so good so good um and i mean by then i mean the the park was close it was starting to close we did something else i'm trying trying to remember um i'm gonna

[01:08:01] peek at my phone really quick if that's okay was it your teppanito dinner did you already say that we canceled teppanito in um and did garden grill for breakfast oh you did i made the cancellation okay yes um and i'm so glad that we did because we got to try all those different foods from around

[01:08:26] the world you know and we all just got to graze um which is how we kind of prefer to do it um yeah me too but it was especially at epcot yeah especially epcot and you know we're in what i've heard uh referred to as diet epcot since there's no festival yes but you know diet epcot epcot zero whatever you want to call it i really liked it like this it was a little it was less chaotic

[01:08:54] without a festival going on and we were able to focus more on the actual pavilions and and not be worried about missing out on the latest foods at the festival booths right so i i really liked it um i love the festivals i've gotten to go to all of them at this point but yeah diet epcot is also a lot

[01:09:15] of fun um at this point yep folks were starting to get places for luminous we were done we were we were exhausted um we walked out of epcot at about 9 10 p.m so we missed we we didn't get to sit and watch

[01:09:37] luminous or anything um but we just we we were done um we were exhausted so we took a bus back to all-star movies and um got to hit the pool for a little bit before the pool closed at 11 oh that's a nice way to end an exhausting day by taking a little dip it was perfect it was perfect yeah so you know i some

[01:10:04] sometimes things don't work out the way you plan but learning to pivot and make the most of it is is really important um and it's also important to know how to talk to cast members and you know you see so many angry people there um who you know we all put a lot of money into these trips and a lot of time in planning these trips and planning lightning lanes and planning dining plans but at the end of

[01:10:31] the day if if it doesn't go right and you're nasty to the cast member you're not doing yourself any favors um i just can't imagine all of the angry people they have to deal with on a regular basis and they're typically so kind and forgiving and just willing to help you um as long as you're not being a jerk right so yeah and this is a great opportunity both for you to teach your kids how to react when things

[01:11:01] don't go your way in a in your disney day but also to treat how to treat cast members how to pivot how to recognize that just because you don't get to do one thing you were really looking forward to that doesn't mean you're not going to have any fun you know right and so like you setting the tone for that for your yourself and your family makes a huge difference and and i think that those are

[01:11:26] important lessons to learn as well yeah and use that cast compliment button in the app for sure um i know we we did tons of those on this trip so it really does make a difference but monday august the 10th was your departure day and i know that you had thought you would aim to leave around 10 or 11 and hit the road what time did you actually end up leaving uh i i think it was we did

[01:11:54] leave at 11 yeah we okay we got up early and um when i say we got up early my mom and i woke up early and we talked about it we were like do we do we get a little bit of extra rest now or do we just start the drive exhausted and we decided to get a little bit more rest so um we went back to sleep

[01:12:17] for a little bit we squeaked out of there right at 10 59 and cannonballed at home we made it home at about 12 30 i want to say um technically tuesday morning okay all right and then that was the same week that they started back to school right yes they started back to school on wednesday august 12th

[01:12:42] so we had not much time at all in between yeah and we still had a few last minute uh shopping things we had to do on top of working full time and other responsibilities so it was a whirlwind but i have no regrets um other than that i don't have another trip booked yet so i need to get on that well do you have an idea of when you want to book another trip um my idea is that i never don't want

[01:13:12] to book another trip um i would love to go that first week in december while my mom will already be down there uh volunteering for gary sinise's snowball express uh-huh um christmas is such a nice time every time's a nice time at disney but there's something about the christmas season at disney that

[01:13:34] is just extra magical in my opinion um and i would love love to go back for that i i keep wanting to book this 10 or 14 day long trip and have a rest day between every park day and really go slow and take it all in and my plans keep getting foiled so um but that's okay i will take any exposure any any time

[01:14:01] in the parks that i can get so i also think just based on you know your love of the parks and all of the experiences you've had thus far i i don't think that you had said that you'd ever gotten to do a solo trip that's correct i've never gotten to do a solo trip correct i think that's in your future at some point maybe not this year but i think that that is something that you should put

[01:14:28] on your bucket list because it is so nice to have a set amount of time where you're like i can do what i want when i want to do it and you don't necessarily have to have that rest day in because you have the power to rest whenever you want throughout it so it's not like oh i have to build that in because nobody's stopping you and saying but we want to keep riding these rides you can be like

[01:14:53] no i'm gonna go take a nap and i'll just pick it right back up when i'm done yeah we um you know we missed out on all of the like halloween specialty stuff so we did not get to see the parade we did not get to see the um the hocus pocus stage show we did not get to see the halloween fireworks we missed out on phantasmic we missed out on luminous we missed out on happily ever after other than mom and ethan getting to see a snippet while they were on people mover

[01:15:22] um and those were all major things that i wanted to do during this trip but the kids are only young once and they wanted to ride some rides and yeah fair enough no fair enough and that makes total sense i just think that at some point in your life even if it's just like a long weekend that that should be

[01:15:48] something that you aim for just for yourself so that because i think just having spoken with you and kind of getting a sense of your personality i think you would so love a solo trip i could see you just sitting with a nice coffee or something on a bench people watching moseying over to get a snack and just having the time of your life somehow it feels like you've known me longer than just these

[01:16:14] two episodes because you you've hit the nail right on the head yeah i would love to uh you give up those vibes like a like i just want to soak it all in i do i do i want to take in all of the little details again my mom being so creative and artistic i feel like i've been kind of trained to look for those things the big footprints in toy story land the peanuts schedule it's not scheduled scattered

[01:16:39] throughout dumbo storybook circus um those the droid footprints in galaxy's edge are all just those little details i appreciate them so much and love to slow down and take it all in so yeah it's a great time um i'm not sure that the dining plan was for us i'm really glad that we tried it while it was free because it was included right it was free for ethan oh it's free for kids i did

[01:17:05] right free right free yeah yeah it was so it was free for ethan we ended up using all of our credits except for one child's table service credit which was the night at the plaza where he just wanted apples and peanut butter um but other than that i think we did okay i think it was about a wash but you know we just we just don't really drink alcohol um and it was a lot of planning and we like to

[01:17:33] graze and mosey with with you know one or two sit downs here and there but yeah yeah it's it's very difficult to beat the dining plan it's not to say that it can't be done but you really have to like taking advantage of those alcoholic drinks um because if you really sat down and added up the kind of things that you would eat on a normal basis you're not you're not going to be spending as much

[01:18:00] as you would for the dining plan exactly yeah that was what i noticed right off the bat at the plaza was like okay i know that the best use of this is going to be to order a glass of sangria and the 26 meal and the 16 dessert but if i hadn't been on the dining plan i wouldn't be ordering that i'd be

[01:18:23] getting my mom and i would be splitting a burger um yeah so in that august heat walking around with that full of a stomach after a buffet and stuff is just and then getting on right it's it's yeah it's just too much um and i always say you know if you really think you want to try it add up how much it would cost for you to have the dining plan for your trip and then put that amount on a gift card

[01:18:49] and then just swipe it for anything that you're eating just use it for your food and for your snacks and you know everything waters sodas everything and you will have money left at the end and then you have some souvenir money because there's no way you're going to spend that much on your food even if you're just eating what you want when you want to eat it and i know because i've done this test multiple times on my own and every single time it comes out that way that's so

[01:19:16] really smart that's a really good idea yeah and i can put it a link to it in the show notes but there's a really great episode i know a lot of listeners uh of my show also listen to the main street dish because they're foodies like me and they have an episode with um becky uh gandalon i believe is how you say her last name and she is she's actually going to be on my show pretty soon

[01:19:43] she's the author of the unofficial guide to walt disney world and she is like a data expert and they did an episode about the dining plan where she like brings the data and like shows you the numbers and if you're a believer in the dining plan i think you if you listen to that episode the only way you're going to come out on the other side still a dining plan fan is if you're just like a

[01:20:07] oh i want it to feel all inclusive you know yeah if that's the reason you're getting it but not to win at the dining plan another thing it did that i noticed was you know gratuity is not included of course right so it drives up the gratuity cost at all of these meals too because like i said if if we had been going and we had had a reservation at the plaza mom and i would have each gotten a glass

[01:20:32] of water and split a cheeseburger not to be cheap but because that is what you would want what we wanted on a hot day like that we don't want to overstuff ourselves right but when you're you're sucked into the dining plan and you're you're getting the 16 glass of sangria the 26 pot roast stack and then the you know 15 dessert so that you can maximize your credit your credits on it then your gratuity

[01:21:00] goes from you know having been five to ten dollars up to i mean i think our our bill was around like two hundred dollars or something which is you know 40 bucks plus in gratuity um so it yeah i i know that there's a way to beat it but there is but it's so much work to do so so much work and it's already enough work to plan the trip and then to plan the lightning lanes and stuff

[01:21:28] so i don't again i i don't if people anyone who loves the dining plan you swear by it go for it to each go for it to their own yeah but i will link the episode becky's episode on the main street dish in the show notes because i found it to be very fascinating and i found it to be um you know something that i wanted to like have in my back pocket to point to when people are like no seriously

[01:21:54] it's it's a good value i'm like no it's not really like the mouse always wins it's just like in vegas where the house always wins so in this case it's the mouse you're not wrong all right well heather this has been a lot of fun chatting with you especially on a monday this has brightened up the end of my monday i know we both came came and sat down and we were like oh it's been a long day but having a talk with somebody about disney always like perks me back up almost to the point

[01:22:20] where i'm like well now i need to take melatonin to come back down and go to sleep me too but i thank you for that because it was a good time i had a great time thank you so much for having me yeah thank you and tell vivian i said hi i will have a great one thank you again to heather it was a pleasure chatting with you and hearing all about this magical trip remember if you would like to

[01:22:45] be a trip report guest yourself you can submit through my website which is where i long to be podcast.com i'm currently looking for guests traveling in early 2027 that is all for now if you like what you heard please make sure you share it with others and until we meet again keep daydreaming about where you long to be