Post-Trip Report: Ron’s Buddy Trip with a WDW First-Timer (April 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. I am alive and thank you to everyone who sent me a message checking on how I was doing. In case you missed the pre-trip episode, I was out of commission starting on Saturday afternoon when I had a kidney stone attack and found myself in the emergency room in the middle of New Jersey because I was not at home. Hooked up to an IV, getting a CAT scan, and all of the things.

[00:00:40] That basically continued into Sunday and part of Monday, but when I got up on Tuesday, I felt like a new person. I texted people to let them know that the sun was shining and the tank was clean and that I felt like a million bucks and that has continued into today, Wednesday. I feel amazing. There's nothing like feeling you're at the brink of death to give you a new lease on life when you actually start feeling good again. So again, thank you for all the good wishes for helping me.

[00:01:10] And thank you to Alex for stepping in for me. And let's get going on this post-trip episode. For anyone who didn't tune in for the pre-trip report, today's guest, Ron, was traveling to Walt Disney World on a best friends trip with his bestie, Michael. Michael was a Walt Disney World newbie, having only been to Disneyland once as a kid, if I'm remembering correctly. While Ron and his husband, Stacy, have been to the parks together before, Ron is more the Disney guy.

[00:01:38] And he was very much looking forward to playing the tour guide for a newbie and showing Michael all the fun there was to be had. In fact, Ron made Michael swear he wouldn't check out any ride spoilers so that he could experience it purely.

[00:01:52] They stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and were planning to take advantage of, get this, multi-pass Lightning Lane, premier pass Lightning Lane, individual Lightning Lanes, an after hours party, and a dessert party, along with a number of fun dining reservations.

[00:02:09] Before we start, I want to note two things with the audio so it doesn't drive you crazy. In the last half of the episode, the air in my building was pumping at different points at the highest pressure imaginable. So if it sounds like I'm next to an air vent, I might as well have been.

[00:02:26] I silenced out the parts of my track that weren't super important to hear. So you may notice the airflow. I just didn't want you to think it was your headphones messing with you or anything like that. So I'm just acknowledging that the airflow is loud at different points.

[00:02:40] The other thing is that at one point, there is a car that revs its engine twice like vroom vroom. And I did not notice it when we were actually talking, but I did hear it on the track and it's not in a spot where it can be fixed because we were in the middle of a sentence or something to that effect.

[00:02:56] So rather than fret over figuring all of that out, if you can tell me what restaurant Ron and I were talking about when you hear the vroom vroom, and it's very clear vroom vroom, I will figure out some sort of small gift for the person that messages me the right answer first through the voice recording feature on my website.

[00:03:16] So you go to my website, which is whereilongtobepodcast.com, click the Send Virginia a voice message button, and leave me a recording of yourself calling in to take a guess, say hello, and to be the first person to do that with the correct restaurant that we're having a conversation about when you hear the vroom vroom. I have no idea what I will get you, but I'll pick out a small token for you on my July trip. So with that, I have made you wait long enough. Let's get into it.

[00:03:45] Please welcome back, Ron. Welcome back, Ron. Thank you. Happy to be here. You're in Colorado, right? Yep. Denver, Colorado. And what is the weather like? We were just talking about how cold I am here in New York. What is the weather like today for you? The weather is definitely swinging back and forth like it likes to do in Denver. So while I was gone, there was actually a little snowstorm, and it dropped into the 30s, and now we're back up into the 60s and 70s this week with sunny, clear skies.

[00:04:16] Aren't you glad you missed that? I am. I am, definitely. That's why we have rules about planting things here in Colorado. You wait until after Mother's Day because we can continue to get snow until Mother's Day typically. Oh, wow. And I think I see some greenery in your window there. Are you, you're a big into the plants kind of person?

[00:04:37] Some, some, definitely. Yeah, we do like mostly flowers and just pretty things. We don't grow anything to eat. Don't trust ourselves with that quite yet. So you're not going to go off and live with the land fully yet. No, not quite ready in bed. Take the boat ride a few more times and I might be ready.

[00:04:59] Uh-huh. Yeah. We always talk about, you know, like if you could retire and, and work at Disney as like a fun retirement job, what would it be?

[00:05:07] Uh-huh.

[00:05:37] Walt Disney World vacation talk. And you had a nice, nice good trip April 12th through the 18th down to Walt Disney World staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. So first question out of the gate, how was the trip overall? Oh, just fantastic. Very, very hectic. Every day was 20 to 30,000 steps. We added it up. It was 60 miles according to Michael's, you know, Apple Watch.

[00:06:07] But worth every bit of the exhaustion we had when we got back. I think most people at the end of a Disney day are, are checking their steps because it is so far beyond what you do in a normal day at home that it's just, it's shocking every time. It's like we did 20,000 steps. We did 25,000 steps. So I don't know. I, I kind of like seeing like if we can top the next day and everything. I don't, I'm not sure how my feet feel about that. But anyway. Just running on Mickey pretzels and adrenaline.

[00:06:35] Yeah. How did you, speaking of feet, how did your feet do for, for all of that walking? Do you have any strategies? Like for me, I try not to wear the same shoes every single day. I'll like try to at least swap it on and off every couple of days. Yeah. I just, I had a new pair of on clouds. I love on clouds. Oh, they're amazing. Yeah. They really, the name says it all. And just broke those in for the week before and they were, they were wonderful. So my feet were fine.

[00:07:01] I have the waterproof kind and I can attest that they actually work. So it's a good way to, you know, combine shoes. If you're going to time of year when you might be expecting rain, it's nice because they're like normal sneakers and you're walking around or whatever. But if it does start to rain, your feet stay totally dry. You know, whatever is actually in the shoe, obviously like the top of your sock might get wet, but it makes a huge difference.

[00:07:27] So highly recommend on clouds, not sponsored unless they want to sponsor me, but definitely opportunity here. Good shoes. Yes, I know. Well, let's, let's get into all of this fun. Cause I cannot wait to hear all about this. You had some, some really exciting things planned. Let's start with your travel.

[00:07:46] So you flew fairly early, 8.15 AM down to Orlando with a time difference. So that got you there in the early afternoon. Did everything go on time? Yeah. Flight was really smooth. I woke up at 5 AM to the airport by 6.15, plenty enough time. There was a funny little moment that the captain came on and told us that the co-pilot would be taking us down. So I guess he must be getting close to, but it was a beautiful flight. Very smooth.

[00:08:16] Wait, wait, wait, hold on. The co-pilot would be taking you down sort of like when you are doing driver's ed and you have to do like a certain number of, like he was just going to let the co-pilot take over. That's, that's the impression we had. He did not elaborate and I didn't know we were allowed to ask questions. Can you imagine raising your hand? How much pilot would be? Hold on. I have questions. Excuse me, ma'am.

[00:08:40] How many hours does he have on this aircraft? No, but it was, it was very smooth. Beautiful, beautiful job bringing us down. So my guess is he's probably pretty close to maybe getting his captain wings maybe. Oh my goodness. All right. Once you got there, Orlando Lux Transportation was your mode of getting over to the resort. I cannot recall if you told me that you've used them before. Was this your first time using them?

[00:09:05] Uh, no, this was my first time. Uh, I picked them out, um, by just looking through, I, I tend to look through reviews and try to see and anticipate, uh, if, if something's going to be a fit for me.

[00:09:19] They have a 5.0 on Google. It was kind of a little weird the day before we were leaving. They actually called me and told me that the stop on the way to the resort was now going to be an extra $25, which I was kind of a surprise because they had sent me a quote almost a year earlier when I booked them for $125 for the trip.

[00:09:43] And that trip included the stop. So it was kind of funny that they were adding an extra $25 now at the last minute, you know, at the time where I probably couldn't change plans even if I wanted to. Right. So I just said, you know, no, just cancel the stop then because when you add $25 on top of just some yogurt and berries that we wanted for breakfast, I may as well now just go to the Mara and get. Right. Yeah. Right. I mean, just pay the Disney premium at that point.

[00:10:11] So we just canceled that trip and went, but the driver has some. Or you just order from like Amazon Prime or something like that. And then as long as they're not delivering it to your room, you don't have to pay that fee. You just like go up to the bell services and pick up your stuff. Yeah. So yeah, I wouldn't have done that either. I think it's good that you canceled it. That's a good tip. I think maybe I would have considered a delivery service had our, I'm getting ahead of myself, but our room wasn't ready.

[00:10:39] It wasn't going to be ready for a while. They were being transparent and saying it was going to take a little longer than 4 p.m. Okay. So already it was going to be like a little logistical problem. So I just, but by the time we got to the room, we just had made the decision to just go ahead and do the Mara because to get little snacks for breakfast. But, you know, the driver was amazing. His name was Hassan and he was very friendly, very interested in Michael being a first timer. Yeah.

[00:11:08] Wanted to, wanted to know what were my favorite spots and then shared he and his family's favorite spots. Just really an amazing conversation. Made the time to drive over to the resort just flash by so quick. Mm-hmm.

[00:11:52] And about staying there in the future and all of that. Very. Yeah. I have, you know, I have a small contract. It's just a hundred points, but it's enough. It's enough for me, I think, to do maybe every year or two trip. Mm-hmm. But now I'm so excited to plan little trips and even if it's just a long weekend to get away. Yeah. Well, the good news is I think your points go really far at Animal Kingdom. Yes.

[00:12:16] Because, you know, when I've used points to stay other places, I feel like we can comfortably get a studio every year for a full week and then have, you know, 20 to 30 points left over that we just bank into the next year. But this year we're staying, we're using our points for Animal Kingdom Lodge. And we couldn't do the whole week in a one-bedroom, but we're doing like five nights or something in a one-bedroom. Nice. And then we're switching over just so that we could have enough points.

[00:12:46] But I just, I felt like, wow, I really, like, these went a long way here. For sure. For sure. Sure. The points chart is really good for Animal Kingdom Lodge. And I think also you, the, I kind of compared prices per point when I was looking at resales. And you can also get a pretty good price as compared to some of the other resorts, especially some of the, you know, especially the ones that are right around Magic Kingdom, which are of course going to be the most popular for families.

[00:13:14] Yeah. Now when you got there, you had been aiming to try the little trick to get a partial view room. So did you go up to the counter to ask about that? And were you successful? Yes. So we needed to go to the counter anyway, because Disney likes to default to just putting everything on whatever credit card is registered. But Michael and I, being on a buddy trip, we wanted whatever each of us tapped our Magic Bands for, we wanted to go to separate credit cards. Like he was going to pay his way, I was going to pay mine.

[00:13:43] So you do need to go to the desk to set that up. It doesn't happen automatically. So while we were at the desk, I went ahead and said, and you know, if you have any flexibility, we would love a partial Savannah room. I wish I would have gotten his name. He was so sweet. The gentleman at the desk told us, you know, I think we were already trying to get that for you, but we're still, we're still kind of sorting out the rooms. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:07] And so I said, well, we were just planning on running off to Epcot. So you guys take all the time you need. And he said, oh, that helps. And I was like, oh, good. So basically giving them more leeway, giving them more, more time to get everything clean and sort things out. He put a note that we were giving them that time and not applying any pressure. And we really ended up getting something quite beautiful.

[00:14:31] We had a fantastic view of Uzima Savannah, and we couldn't be happier with the view. We were seeing giraffes and antelope every day. Mm-hmm. They were always coming over and nibbling on one of the little hanging barrels full of hay. So. Aw. Yeah, we were definitely enjoying coffee on the balcony watching giraffes in the morning. It was pretty great. Before you headed to Epcot, did you go get your dining plan mugs like you had mentioned you might do?

[00:14:59] No, we ended up just running off and we got those the next morning. Okay. And they have a new design. They do. I'm super excited because do you know how many of those mugs I have in my cabinet? It's so many. And I'm just like, I cannot wait to get the new version. No, it's super cute. I love it. So yeah, we had the mugs the next morning. I think we would have gotten them that evening had we had a room to put in. Sure.

[00:15:23] Or something. But we didn't want to fuss. We had already checked our bags with Bell Services to get them to hold them so we could run off. And so it just didn't work out that night, but it was fine. All right. Tell me about your Epcot time. Yeah. So we got to Epcot and Michael refused to wear his first visit button that I had picked up for. Oh, come on.

[00:15:43] But no, we really just walked the entire park kind of looking for topiaries, taking pictures of those. We were checking every little festival booth for the nibbles that we wanted to try. Mm-hmm. We did end up really enjoying Farmer's Feast. They had this beef strip loin with risotto. Mm-hmm. It was absolutely delicious. The beef could not have been more tender, really creamy, beautiful risotto, not overcooked, which is what I would expect, right? Festival food. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:16:12] But it was actually just beautifully cooked. Fantastic. And they had a little frozen lemon honey bourbon cocktail, which was also delicious. Okay.

[00:16:21] So we had that. We nibbled on that, took our time. And then we took off and walked the World Showcase, which I thought Michael was going to enjoy this, and he really loved it. He loved looking at all the architecture of the buildings. He didn't know beforehand that a lot of the workers are from the countries. And so when he started going in the shops and talking to people, he's like, oh, this is so cool. I'm talking to people from all over the world.

[00:16:47] So he was just really fascinated with that and really enjoyed it. But that's all we did. We just kind of walked the World Showcase all the way around. And then by the time we finished up, we went Canada to Mexico. I know that's controversial. I say you can go your own way and whatever way works for you. Because I frequently go that way just because I'm trying to get to France in the morning. True. Or like, you know, croissant or whatever. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The festival booth in France really had some amazing things too.

[00:17:17] They always have a long line there because people are really, really into the French booth. Yeah, for sure. But then we had our GO82 reservation, which they were running a little bit behind. But there's a little like waiting room there with some of the most comfortable furniture that you just sink into.

[00:17:37] So we just kind of hung out in there and chit-chatted. We were striking up conversation with some of the people next to us, plotting which drinks we were all going to have. And by the time we got in, we ended up getting a couple of the brown butter old fashions, which are absolutely delicious. They definitely are living up to the hype there. It sounds like you're a big bourbon person. I am. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Michael is, Michael departs a little bit here and there.

[00:18:07] Okay. From this throughout the trip. But yeah, I think he was really interested in this particular one. Yeah. I'm not a bourbon gal, but I do love a gin cocktail. Oh, there was a lot of good ones. Yeah. That Michael pointed out with gin, especially being spring. I think gin is very springy. It's spring and flower and garden. I noticed that a lot of the booths have gin cocktails at them because I've already marked up my choices and everything.

[00:18:36] And I'm actually going to Geo 82 when I head down at the beginning of May with my friend Jeanette. And it's my first time there. It's not her first time, but my first time at Geo 82. And so I've already been looking at that menu and marking the things. And there are multiple things I'm excited to try. Nice. Nice. Well, please, please do a podcast on that. I can't wait to hear. We for sure will. Did you get any food bites while you were at Geo 82 or not because you had already been to the booth? We did.

[00:19:04] We didn't eat quite enough at the booth. So when we got there, the charcuterie plate was really tempting. So we got that. And the crab gateau, it's like a little crab cake with a little bit of a salad and vinaigrette on it. They were both now looking back at everything we had on the trip. They were probably among the top two or three things that we had the entire time, especially the crab gateau. It was just the most delicious thing. No fishiness to the meat whatsoever.

[00:19:31] It was a very light dish with a just kind of like zesty vinaigrette over the top with the spring mix and everything. Just really a beautiful dish. That sounds delicious. Yeah. I love a good crab cake. Did you ever make it over to Guardians of the Galaxy? Because I had written down that you were going to get an individual lightning lane for that. Yes. So I can't remember if I told you before or after because originally I had the Guardians ride, the lightning lane booked before Geo 82.

[00:20:00] And then I started getting nervous. Like what if a spring storm delays our flight and we miss it and don't get to it. So I get antsy like that about things and I redo my planning over and over. So I moved the Guardians lightning lane to after Geo 82. And why not? Because we had one bourbon at Farmer's Feast and then we had two more bourbons each at Geo 82. So now it's time to ride a roller coaster.

[00:20:29] So we did. We went straight from Geo 82 and did Guardians. I think I know your next question. What song did you get? We got One Way or Another, which is good. Yeah. I like that one. Yeah. And again, you know, I really did try to keep a tight lip about all, especially these things like Guardians, which is like peak Disney World. Like this is something that people love so much. I really kept my mouth shut about things like that.

[00:20:59] So Michael went into this with absolutely no expectations and not knowing anything. So he did not know there was going to be music at all, much less that he could get a rotation of one of six songs. Right. And he didn't know that the car was going to start turning and he didn't know we were going to take off backwards. Like so he was just absolutely blown away. And he's like, couldn't stop talking about how, you know, and the car would turn this way and that way.

[00:21:27] And it was just so much fun to do it again because I hadn't done it in a year and a half. And I wondered if my memory of it was going to live up to, you know, doing it again. And it did. That ride is just absolutely incredible. So good. So good. I was just we were talking with we, me, I personally was talking with someone the other day about Guardians. And we've, you know, long talked about like if you could have other songs, what other songs would you want?

[00:21:55] But then whoever I was talking to the other day and forgive me, I cannot remember which guest it was, brought up the idea of doing like times where there's a theme. So like for this, you know, month or whatever, we're celebrating the work of Michael Jackson or something like that, where it's like you get one of five or six songs, but they all will be from that same artist. And I thought that was a really fun idea. That is an amazing idea. Yeah. Yes. Listen up, Disney. I know.

[00:22:25] I know. Somebody needs to come to me for their ideas. All right. What happened after Guardians of the Galaxy? Did you have any time to get anything else in before you went back and collapsed? No. So we really wanted to watch Luminous this night. So we had just enough time because I had seen the Ottawa apple at the Maple Popcorn Cart in Canada and was curious about that. That drink is incredibly sweet. I could not even finish one of them. It was like syrup.

[00:22:54] So is it like a alcoholic cider type thing? Yeah. So bourbon again. And OK, OK. Or it might have been Canadian whiskey in just cranberry and apple juices. And so it was just but even even just plain old apple juice, I don't feel like is this sweet. So if you like a super sweet cocktail, great, great way to go. A little too much for me. But we did get a great spot for Luminous right up on the rail over by Mexico.

[00:23:22] Very clear view of the entire thing. And that show is just amazing. I just absolutely love it. One of the things I do for my Disney blues is I will watch the YouTube videos, any films or, you know, any one of those that have really good recordings. And it just doesn't compare to in person when you're feeling those percussive hits from the shells. And it's just all around. Yeah. Well, it's it's everything in combination.

[00:23:50] So it's it's the sounds of the show, all of the fireworks. It's like where you're standing. You could smell whatever food is coming from that pavilion. And then just, you know, the general excitement of being there with other people and getting to watch it as a community is a big thing that really adds to the excitement and energy.

[00:24:14] And just, you know, in most cases, if it's not your last night, knowing that you have the whole next day for even more fun. So. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Speaking of the next day. Yes. That brings us to Monday, April the 13th. And this was a Hollywood Studios day. Yes. And I think I mentioned in the pre that we I wasn't really getting good multi pass times for this day. And I was growing a little bit worried.

[00:24:39] And so we did decide to drop on premiere pass for this day as well as okay caught the next day. So. Okay. We actually ended up with multi pass and premiere pass, which seems a little piggy, but. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Hold on. So you swapped premiere pass and they don't like refund you for your multi pass? No. So then you get so what you end up with is being able to do some rides twice because you can use your multi pass time.

[00:25:09] And then if you try to badge into a ride that you don't have a current time for, it just takes it automatically from your premiere pass. Okay. All right. So I mentioned this when we interviewed the first time you're the first person that I'm talking to that's used premiere pass thoughts on it. Do you like it? Obviously, you know, you have used it before. So this is not your first trip using it. Correct.

[00:25:37] But how do you feel about it overall as a product? I think in the right park under the right circumstances, it can be worth it. Knowing that, like, for example, on this day, the Hollywood Studios Day, we wanted to get over to Magic Kingdom because we had the after hours party this evening. Mm-hmm. So we had a limited time to get everything done.

[00:25:59] And Hollywood Studios is such a, is a park that's so full of, like, experiences that adults enjoy a lot. Mm-hmm. Right? So the math works out for me in this case. Mm-hmm. Because we're able, you're able to cover the park in a more, just walk through at your own pace and do everything in each section. And you're not worried about bouncing back and forth because you have a lightning lane over here. Right. And you're in a different land, right?

[00:26:28] So it does allow you to take the park at a more relaxed pace and you don't have to worry about the FOMO as much. But my, my, you know, the counterpoint to that is there are parks like Animal Kingdom that don't have enough attractions to be worth it. And just good planning with Multipass is plenty. And then there's parks like Magic Kingdom, which for, for a couple of adults going, there just aren't enough rides that we're going to want to do to worry about.

[00:26:57] So I would never buy it for Magic Kingdom. Mm-hmm. Okay. So you had also mentioned, and I don't know if this, getting the Premier Pass just threw this out the window, but you also mentioned considering getting Standby Skipper. So did you triple layer your help and get Standby Skipper on top of these other two things? I did a little bit more digging and Weight Magic worked better for me because- Okay, I have not heard of this one. Yeah. So Weight Magic is the product that Thrill Data puts out.

[00:27:27] And Thrill Data website is amazing for trying to figure out which day is going to be the best day to hit what parks, especially if you're a big data nerd. Okay. And they do a product called Weight Magic. The way theirs works is you set everything up in advance. You don't really do it like on the fly, like Standby Skipper is, where you, Standby Skipper, you're sort of having to open the app during the day and select what your next thing is.

[00:27:55] Weight Magic, you just sort of set up all this criteria. I would like this ride between seven and eight on this day. There's lots of options. There's lots of different contingencies you can build into the various searches. And it was really successful, especially for Magic Kingdom. It was able to get us five lightning lanes on the Magic Kingdom day that I wouldn't have otherwise got. Because as soon as I was badging into the rides, it wasn't-

[00:28:21] I hadn't even opened up the My Disney Experience app and Weight Magic was texting me that it grabbed me something. Okay. Is it similar pricing to Standby Skipper? It was $30 for the week. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's even cheaper than Standby Skipper, if I remember correctly. Because I feel like Standby Skipper was like $45 for the week, or it used to be, I think. Yeah, it might be. I don't remember either. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm going to look into that. That's interesting. All right. I've looked at Thrill Data before, but not in a really long time.

[00:28:50] And I didn't realize they had this extra option now. Yeah. Thank you. For sure. All right. Walk me through your Hollywood Studios time. So, yeah, I don't think I mentioned that on the pre-trip. I think I forgot to mention that we do have an Ogas at 1. Okay. So Ogas Cantina at 1. So I kind of structured the day around getting over to the Star Wars area, Galaxy's Edge, after lunch. So we kind of started in the front of the park. Did, I think we got there around 9, 10.

[00:29:20] So we weren't really rope dropping necessarily. Just kind of strolling in right after open. We just headed to, there just happened to be a Frozen show happening in like 10 minutes. So we just headed straight back to the Frozen show. I have never seen this one. Michael was really interested. He likes the music. So we headed over to Frozen. I was really surprised by the talent, the actors, especially the two little historians. They were hysterical.

[00:29:47] And I feel like I've seen like reels and Instagram reels and TikToks of them before, but they must change their, they must change their little act like constantly to keep up with pop culture. Yep. Yep. You don't know what you're going to get when you go to that show. And I just think it's so much fun. And it's, it's one that I kind of, I kind of forget about it. I mean, I don't forget, but it's just like when I'm in Hollywood studios, typically it's not one that Alex wants to do.

[00:30:17] I don't think Charles would want to do it unless he was ready for a nap or something, but I like to do it. And so I just kind of like forget about it because I'm trying to like do, do the rides and things that they're interested in. But it's a hidden, well, it's not really a hidden gem. It's a hidden gem for me. Lots of other people. It's a priority for them. Yeah, for sure. So, but it was a cool show. I did not expect the, like, I don't know how I didn't know that it was going to happen because I look at so much Disney content, but the snow at the end and all the lighting and everything, that was pretty fun.

[00:30:47] So it was a very cool show. Hopped out of that, did Mickey and Minnie's. I keep seeing new details every time I do Mickey and Minnie's Railroad. Like there is so much going on. And it's just an absolute smorgasbord for the eyes. Just crazy stuff. And the way they shift from scene to scene is just the, technically how they accomplish that is, is not to be. It's really cool. Yeah. Very neat. Then we headed over to Tower of Terror. This was Michael's favorite of the day. He loved it.

[00:31:17] And we did that twice with Unfairly Ever After in between. Okay. Did you, did you spring for Memory Maker? Yes, we did. Okay. So you got to see your videos of Tower of Terror. How did those turn out? Um, not, not flattering. But fun. Yeah, they're cute. Yeah. Lots of people are trying to do the glam bot thing when they do it. I've seen that trend for sure. Yeah. I've tried. There was no attempt.

[00:31:46] I can't flip my hair sexily enough. I just look awkward, but I continue to try. But Unfairly Ever After was a lot of fun too. Again, the acting is really, really good, which, you know, surprises me, even though it maybe shouldn't. It is Disney. They're usually pretty on point with stuff. We were a little disappointed because we thought Maleficent was the best, but she did not win. Who won? We had the very rare hook. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. That is very rare. Yeah.

[00:32:16] And so regardless of how you felt she did, was his applause legitimately louder? I did not think so. Was it kind of like the same? Yes. I think it. So that argument could be made. Yeah. Okay. I have a new theory. I keep having theories about Unfairly Ever After because I'm determined to figure it out. So my thought is that if they have the same level, they would give it to him since he like never gets it. Right? Maybe. Maybe.

[00:32:45] But if hers is significantly louder, you can't deny that because I have heard like the applause does actually impact it. But if it's the same level, then they have the leeway to go, oh, his was louder even because you couldn't tell really. Yeah. Okay. New theory unlocked. That might be the case. I also just don't think his song, just from a catchiness of the songs.

[00:33:09] I don't know that his song is as catchy and earwormy as Maleficent's and Cruella's. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm going to continue to unravel this knot. For sure. For sure. Okay. It was lunchtime by this point. So we went over to ABC Commissary, got our buffalo chicken sandwiches, which I agree with you on. They are so good. Mm-hmm. So good.

[00:33:36] Like, I did not know I liked buffalo flavor. And now I know I like it. Mm-hmm. Opened up a whole other world for me. A whole new world. And it's not too spicy. No. Because a lot of people, I think, are worried about buffalo sauce being really spicy. And like... It's not. It's just flavorful. It's not. Yes. It's spicy in an, like, I'm made with spice kind of way, not in a, like, I'm hot kind of way. That sounded really weird coming from my mouth. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm spicy. I'm not hot.

[00:34:10] What was after lunch? Star Tours, which is another big favorite for Michael. So, again, no frame of reference at how old this ride is. Sure. You know, because it's not popular anymore. It's, you know, it rarely gets more than like a 20-minute wait. Mm-hmm. But I thought it was a lot of fun. I haven't seen it since the 90s. We didn't do it in any of the more recent trips. Mm-hmm. So, I really enjoyed the update with Grogu and Mando.

[00:34:39] Well, one thing to know is that the update, there's lots of options. So, the next time you go ride it, it could be totally different characters. And you can go to a totally different location. And it's constantly changing. I don't know how many variations. So, Grogu and Mando don't always show up? No. It's, I don't know how many variations there are. And I don't know, I don't think that it's like a whole, like, storyline where you get this storyline or that storyline. I think there's, like, pieces where you could, like, these are the people that could show up.

[00:35:08] And this is the location you go to. And all of that in combination can be mixed up in multiple different ways. Oh, wow. Okay. Good to know. Yeah. I'll have to do that on my next trip. Mm-hmm. All right. So, then we just continued on. Tried to peek over the barricades around Monsters, Inc. to see if I could see if anything was happening. Mm-hmm. Nothing? No. Nothing I could see anyway. Mm-hmm. Headed into Galaxy's Edge.

[00:35:35] You know, Michael isn't a big Star Wars fan, which is, honestly, it was kind of a shame that he's not. Mm-hmm. Because so much cool stuff was happening that Star Wars fans would appreciate. Mm-hmm. Like, Kylo was walking around. So, Kylo Ren, which I didn't see last time, he was walking around harassing people in the streets. The stormtroopers busted into Ogas while we were in there and started questioning people around the bar. Love it when they come in there. And they did the whole record screech thing. And the music shuts off.

[00:36:05] It was pretty cool. And just, there was just a lot of character interaction happening. Mm-hmm. And then we walked by again and Kylo was standing outside of his ship, you know, doing the force choke on his lieutenant, whatever the story is there. So, there were all these really cool interactions that I did not see last time I was there. Mm-hmm. But, so, I enjoyed it because I am a Star Wars fan. So, now, his impression is that that's going to be every time. And you're probably like, no, seriously, this is not every single time. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:36:34] So, has he seen the movies, at least? Yes. Seen the movies. Okay. They're just not, like, in his top, you know, love these things and must-see. But he at least knew who the characters were. For sure. It wasn't like, who's that guy in black? Yes. For sure. Okay. Good. In Ogas, we met a couple from Lafayette, Louisiana, which Lafayette is the, kind of the next town over after Baton Rouge, where I lived for a long time. And a couple towns over from New Orleans, where I grew up.

[00:37:04] So, it was kind of fun talking to them. Got along very well. Of course, they kind of force interactions because they stick you in Ogas. They kind of stick you at a table with a bunch of other people, kind of like random people. But I'm glad we got a really cool couple and we just hung out and had a couple drinks there. You do not sound like you're from Louisiana. I don't? No. I guess I've been in Colorado long enough. I don't know. Yeah. You have a more neutral, like, standard American accent to me. Okay.

[00:37:33] And this is coming from somebody who's, like, studied accents because of my theater background. Oh, true. Yeah. I never, I never would have guessed that you're from Louisiana. Especially because I'm a Southern girl of myself. At heart. I'm originally from North Carolina. So, I usually pick up on people's Southern accents. I love it. New Orleans is different, too, because even. Yeah. Because you got. Most people in New Orleans don't actually have. Yeah. The Creole. Southern drawl. Yeah. And they have more of that French influence. But yeah, it was a great time.

[00:38:01] I ended up getting one of the drinks. Inadvertently, I didn't know I was ordering one of the ones that bubbles. Oh, yes. The. Wait, is it the one where your lips go numb? So, I got that one first. The Fuzzy Tauntaun. Yes. And then I got the Bespin Fizz, I think. Yes. And it has like the little popping pearls. It didn't have anything in it. It just was bubbling with like the dried ice in the bottom. Oh, that's what you meant by bubbling. Okay. Yes. Yeah.

[00:38:31] I feel like I've had that one before, but I also like don't recall that I've gotten anything with dry ice coming out of it. So, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm thinking about a different one. Well, we all had to see how they did this and what we noticed after I finished it was there's a little, there's like a little chamber in the bottom of the cup that we assume that they are pouring liquid dried ice into. But then there's also like a little cage to prevent it from coming out while you're drinking it. Uh-huh. Because that would be bad.

[00:39:01] Okay. I'm looking up Bespin Fizz. That's the one with rum. I've had this before. Maybe I just don't. Oh, I had it in Disneyland at the Ogas there. Okay. Not that that makes that big a difference, but I'm just like, when I think about Ogas, I think about my experiences in Florida and I tend to get other ones, but I think I tried it at the Bespin Fizz in California. All I remember is the flavors that I'm reading here. I do not remember anything about dried ice, but the flavors were very good in my opinion. Yeah.

[00:39:30] Yeah, they are good. They're very tasty little cocktails. Again, not too sweet, but a nice sweetness to them. So we finished up there and then headed over to Toy Story Land to kind of wrap up the park for the day. Mm-hmm. I think we both just loved Slinky. Slinky Dog is just so much fun. So we did that a couple of times. And then we did Toy Story Mania a couple times as well. Michael is highly competitive. Okay. All right.

[00:39:57] And so I think he was getting really aggravated the first time through, but we have to remember that I have experience. I've done this a couple of times previously too. So, but he beat me on the second time. So. Okay. Good for him. So, so yeah, we were one for one and the rematch would be Space Ranger spin a little bit later. So. Okay. That night. But we also, we had other things during the trip with competitiveness between the two of us.

[00:40:23] He, he has certain shirts that he likes to wear and he has this great flamingo shirt and it's really, it really is a great shirt. And he, he saw me wearing my Roosevelt's Disney shirts. Uh-huh. And so it became a competition about which one of us would get more compliments on our shirts. Oh, so you were counting the compliments? We were counting the whole trip. I like that game. That sounds fun. I got to play that next time. Yeah.

[00:40:51] But again, you have to remember the setting you're in, we're in Disney World. So of course my Disney Roosevelt shirts are going to do a little bit better. So did, I did win that game 11 to five. Uh-huh. Through the course of the trip. So after Toy Story Land, we had some time. So we did go back to the resort at about five o'clock. Just kind of crashed for an hour or so. I think we left at 6 p.m. again because we had a 710 reservation at Liberty Tree.

[00:41:21] And the bus from Animal Kingdom Lodge all the way up to Magic Kingdom is I think probably one of the longest bus rides. And it sounds like you not only changed your restaurant that you had the reservation at, but you moved the time earlier as well. Because I know we had talked about your Tony's reservation, but you were like, I'm not sure. I did forget to mention that. Yes. So that was a big win by Mouse Watcher. It got us that time. I had a few good successes with them.

[00:41:51] I did decide not to get trapped at the front of the park potentially with starlight and happily and all of that kind of stuff going on. For listeners who are not familiar with Mouse Watcher, it is a service where if you are looking for a reservation that you were not able to secure, you can put in an alert basically where it keeps an eye out for you so that if a reservation comes up, you can jump on it and get it.

[00:42:18] And I cannot recall, I don't think so with Mouse Watcher. I think with Mouse Watcher it tells you when it's available, but you got to go and get it. There are some services where you can pay extra and if something comes up, it will also book it for you. But anyway, all that to say, if you don't find a dining reservation that you have your heart set on, there's multiple services like this. And so even if you just take advantage of the free portion of each of the services, just sign up for all of these different types of places,

[00:42:46] Mouse Watcher being one of them, where you can just get an alert on your phone or whatever so that you can hopefully snag it before your trip time. And then if you can't, then people always cancel within the 24 hours leading up to the time that you're looking for. So just keep looking once you get there too, if you didn't get what you wanted. Absolutely. That works sometimes too. With Mouse Watcher, I'll add that with the paid service for Mouse Watcher, when it does send you the text to alert you that there's a time available,

[00:43:15] there's a link in the text which goes directly into Disney's website on that reservation page. So it gets you there pretty quickly. And I did like that feature a lot. Yeah, I think the non-paid version, and it may not be Mouse Watcher, I might be thinking of a totally different service, but there's one where the non-paid version, it will only email you if a reservation has come up. Oh. Yeah. Where, so you kind of have to be like in your email.

[00:43:42] So it's kind of nice to use the ones where like it will text you so that you know right away, because you know if it's hard to get one and you don't notice it right away, you're going to miss out. Yeah. And there were a couple of occasions where I got a notification. And even as fast as I am, I'm a very responsive person to technology. I respond very quickly. I still lost out to somebody else who clearly was doing the same thing probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:08] So we had the 710 Liberty Tree, and sometime during the day while we were going through the multi-passes at Hollywood, I was able to get a Tiana's at 7 o'clock. So I now have a Tiana's and a Liberty Tree at the same time. What am I going to do? So I kept, again, Mammoth Club fiddle faddling on the bus on the way to Magic Kingdom, and I think it was like a 620 popped up for Tiana's. Oh, perfect.

[00:44:38] So I grabbed that, and we ran straight to Tiana's in order to get nice and soaking wet right before dinner. Nothing like getting soaking wet and going and sitting in some AC. Yeah, absolutely. But we got really nervous because it must have been around 640 by the time we got to the... It was the ramp to go up to the big drop, right? And then the whole ride shut down and just stayed shut down.

[00:45:08] There was one car ahead of us, and then there was one on the ramp. And so we're trying to stay positive, and so we're sitting there singing, dig a little deeper. And then we turn to each other, I hope we make it to dinner tonight. And sing, dig a little deeper, a little longer. But no, by 650, it started again. We were getting off of the ride right at 7 o'clock. So we just scampered immediately right over to Liberty Tree. Thank goodness it's pretty close.

[00:45:37] And we were on the first row, so we were drenched. We were completely drenched. Oh, no. It was fine. It's all in good fun. Mm-hmm. But we did make it to dinner on time, didn't miss our reservation. I'm a very paranoid person. I do not like being even a minute late for my reservations. They would have been kind about it, though, especially if you say we got stuck on Tiana's. They'll just get you in the first seat that they can give you. I'm sure they would. I understand. If you're like a type A.

[00:46:06] Oh, I know. Yeah. Yeah, it can be stressful. It can be stressful. So we got the Washington Room in Liberty Tree. They have the six different rooms that are each kind of decorated after a different president. And we were the first ones to get sat there. So we were in a nice, quiet room for the beginning until they started seating other people with us. Really lovely dinner. I had no idea Liberty Tree was that good. And Magic Kingdom can be hard to get good food. Was this your first time there? Yeah.

[00:46:35] Or maybe if we did it as a kid. I don't remember. It's so good. Oh, delicious. I think about that salad all the time. Oh, beautiful salad. So good. With all the little cranberries. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. They have replaced the smoked pork tenderloin with like a traditional spiral cut ham. Interesting. But it was still on the menu as a smoked pork tenderloin. Okay. So we kind of like was like, but it was delicious.

[00:47:05] It was a lovely ham. You know, no complaints in the end. It was just as good. I think the waiter said that it had just been changed like less than a month earlier. And that's going to be part of the new menu. Interesting. Very good to know. Alex will be very disappointed. He loves pork. I mean, ham is a kind of pork, I guess. It's, you know. But the loin is a little leaner, I think. Mm-hmm. Yeah. At least you can feel a little better eating the loin. It was still delicious. It was amazing. And we're doing 30,000 steps this day, so we're not going to worry about that.

[00:47:35] Mm-hmm. But yeah, just great comfort food. Had a great time there. And then what did we do? This was one of the evenings where I was having good luck with the weight magic. Mm-hmm. It was able to grab us a Jungle Cruise, a Pirates, and a Buzz. Oh, wow. All before the end of the official park hours. Oh, my gosh. The one I'm most impressed by is Jungle Cruise because that one books up and is frequently sold out. Yeah. So that's amazing.

[00:48:05] So we finished all of that. I also had a Tron single this evening. Mm-hmm. So we jumped on Tron. Great ride. Just so much fun. But I think the fun part was Happily Ever After began while we were on the Jungle Cruise. Uh-huh. And our skipper was so good, and she started improv-ing off of the fireworks. Uh-huh. Like, you know, I planned a special show for y'all tonight, and there it is.

[00:48:33] And, you know, the sky would light up. Uh-huh. You know, it was just really cute. And she actually had people laughing, which I know this is a topic of conversation a lot. She actually had the people in the boat laughing along with her. Mm-hmm. And I always feel so bad when nobody laughs, and they just, like, stone-faced stare at the bus. Oh, my gosh. Well, A, I mean, they need to have good delivery. But I think that I find their kind of jokes funny anyway, just because I have a really cheesy sense of humor.

[00:49:03] Um, but maybe it's, like, maybe it's my theater background. But I feel like when I'm on the Jungle Cruise or in any live show, it is my job to be the best audience member they have all day. And so I am, like, in it, and I'm paying attention. And I'm, like, if I can sit up front, I want to sit up front. I want them to feel supported. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad that they got a good reaction, it sounds like, from the entire boat, and not just the crazy, different people like me.

[00:49:30] Yeah, she definitely had people rolling on a couple of them. For some reason, her timing on the elephant memory joke, which I know I've heard this before. It's one of the bits that I'm sure is standard. Mm-hmm. But making the same joke over and over about having the memory of an elephant. Mm-hmm. It was just her delivery. It was her timing. It was perfect. Mm-hmm. And just so silly. So finished up the evening by doing Space Mountain a couple times.

[00:49:58] At the point that the Happily Ever After was ending, Space Mountain was just a run-in and wait 10 minutes. Okay. Yeah. So it wasn't super popular that night. I kind of thought it was a busy Monday night, but... Mm-hmm. I guess people were leaving immediately after Happily this night. Well, and there was the after-hours party. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So they had to leave, right? By a certain time. They did, but I always suspected that people would still run out and try to get that one

[00:50:28] last ride in as long as you're in line before 10 o'clock. Sure. Then they let you on. So we finished up Space. We were able to get on Mine Train just by waiting in line, and that was only maybe a 20-minute ride. Mm-hmm. By this point, it was like officially into the after-hours times. Mm-hmm. So by, you know, we're getting more towards 11 o'clock, which is when the Enchantment show started, and I really wanted to see Enchantment. And I had never seen it before. Mm-hmm. So we grabbed a couple of premium bars and got a little spot.

[00:50:57] There is nobody in front of the castle during after-hours watching the firework show. Not really nobody, but there's so much space. No. So you are not the first person I'm hearing this from because I saw, it might have been the same night you saw. I think it was Michael Does Disney. Do you know him, the creator? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think he posted, I think it was him, posted like video of Happily Ever After in

[00:51:25] front of the castle with nobody there. And his caption was something like, like, nobody's here. I'm getting my private showing. And I was kind of like, what? How did you do that? And then like in the comments, I could tell he had been to the after-hours. And so there probably were some people there, but they were probably behind him. But it was essentially empty. Yeah. Yeah, we stood right in front of the Walt statue, had that perfect center. You know, no obstructions, no little light posts in our way or anything. Beautiful view of it.

[00:51:54] And I really enjoyed the Enchantment show. I'm not sure why that show gets a little bit of hate. Hmm. I think a lot of people like Happily Ever After better, which maybe is a fair argument to be made. But yeah, I thought Enchantment was a beautiful show. Very, very good. Yeah. And then after that, we just, we did mine train one more time. We were getting tired at this point. And then we ended up on Small World.

[00:52:19] And I think the operator was deliberately torturing people because we were in a boat in the second to last room for what felt like must have been 20 minutes and the boats were not moving. There were no people in any of the boats ahead of us. And there were no people behind us. It was just us in that room. Uh-huh. And the boats just absolutely crawled through the last two rooms. Uh-huh.

[00:52:45] And when we got to the end and, you know, the little operator is in the bridge above the boats, there was nobody waiting to get on. So he could have been letting those boats move forward. Okay. But he, I think he wanted to leave us stuck in the last room and make sure that song was permanently. How long were you stuck in there? In our heads. It must have been 20 minutes just for the last two rooms. Really? Because he just was not moving the boats through. Wow. And there was nobody waiting. So it's not like it's because they were loading and unloading and all of that.

[00:53:15] That was like- No. Nobody in any of these boats. Maybe he forgot you were there? Maybe. Just kidding. I don't know. But Michael never wants to do that again. Oh, no. And I did tease him for the rest of the trip by humming, it's a small world whenever. Well, you need to get him out to Disneyland because at least at Disneyland, it's slightly different because the IP characters are hidden within small world.

[00:53:42] So there's almost like a where's Waldo type of thing where you're looking for like, oh, there's Cinderella. Oh, there's Pinocchio or whatever. Yeah. Oh, that's neat. Yeah. Yeah. So we were in bed by 1.30. Okay. Probably the hardest sleep of my life. Yeah. Really exhausting day. Tuesday, April the 14th. The first thing I have written here is sleep in. Yes. And we did for the most part. Good. And you had Premier Pass Lightning Lane this day as well.

[00:54:11] So you really didn't have to worry about too much. What time did you end up getting over to Epcot, which was your plan for the day? So we got there about 9.30, which I think is a kind of relaxed start. That does not sound like a sleep in morning, Ron. Sorry. That doesn't. That sounds like we missed Rope Drop and we're here a little bit later. It's a type A sleep in. Okay. Okay.

[00:54:39] But yeah, we walked in, grabbed some Joffrey's. This is another one where Mouse Watcher came through for us. So we had the beer garden reservation for the evening for dinner, but it was able to grab us a Space 220 for 540. Okay. So I was very excited to try that. So we went ahead and canceled the beer garden and went with the Space 220. So that'll be a little bit later. But yeah, it started a little bit late. Joffrey's, when we got into the park, we knew we had the Behind the Seeds tour.

[00:55:08] Oh my gosh, when was the Behind the Seeds tour? I think we had that for like 1020 or something like that. Okay. But we were able to do the Little Nemo ride in the Seeds Pavilion and then visit the manatees. The manatees were so cute. The caretaker was setting up like a salad bar on the ledge, just head after head of lettuce. And he was just coming along and hoovering all those heads of lettuce. Very, very cute little manatees. So we enjoyed seeing that.

[00:55:35] And by the time we just saw, you know, walked through the aquariums and did the Nemo ride, it was time to head over and do our Behind the Seeds tour. Now, I don't think you rode it when you were at Epcot the previous day or two days before, right? Living with the land or... Right. No, no, we didn't. Okay. So Michael's first experience of it was the tour. Right. Okay. All right. So we walk into the tour. This was really, really excellent.

[00:56:05] It was a great tour. Our tour guide was Olivia. She was super energetic and very passionate. Her education was actually in the marine biology. And she also does caretaking on the animals over in the Seas Pavilion with the sea creatures. But she also is very passionate about plants. And it really came through on the tour. She could, you know, spit out this information about the growing techniques and how the food

[00:56:34] is used in the parks and everything about the various vegetables, spices, greens. So she really kept us absolutely enthralled for the entire hour. It went by very quickly. And you told me before that Michael's degree was in plant biology. It is. He must have been just in heaven. Oh, yeah. A kid in a candy store looking at all these techniques. And he was very familiar with...

[00:57:00] And he was, of course, adding on and whispering things over to me about various types of, you know, creating hybrids. And so he was completely intrigued and just really, really enjoyed it. And you got to meet Stanley. We did meet Stanley. Who's Stanley? Wait. Stanley's the plant. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I was like... I knew the name. I was like, I know I met Stanley. Which one was Stanley? Yes. The little sensitive plant. Yes.

[00:57:30] And I... In my head, I'm like, I can't remember if it's Stanley, one word, like the character from The Office, or if it's Stan Lee after the Marvel guy. Right. I'm not sure which at this point. She did not explain. Very cool. Very cool. So we finished up the Land Pavilion. After the tour, Michael really just didn't feel a need to do the Living with the Land boat. Mm-hmm. I think he was just ready to move on. Mm-hmm.

[00:57:57] We were also getting hungry by this point because we really didn't get much breakfast other than the... Mm-hmm. ...than a Joffrey's Coffee. So we went over to Connections. Usually, that's not my place to go for lunch. I kind of feel like it's just, you know, it's just basic like chicken sandwiches and things like that. Mm-hmm. But it was really, really tasty. It might have been that I was just really, really hungry. You know, it's a good place in a pinch. Yes, they have like the normal like pizza and stuff like that, which by the way, if you get the pizza there, it's absolutely ginormous.

[00:58:25] I always get the General Tso's salad there and it is so good, like really good. So if I'm ever stuck at the front end of the park and need something to eat and it's not festival booth time or I don't want to run off to a festival booth or whatever, I think Connections is a solid choice. Like if you need something. Would it be my first choice? No, but it's a solid choice. Yeah, the hot honey chicken sandwich and I had the Parmesan truffle fries. Mm-hmm.

[00:58:54] Very healthy options. Oh yeah. I went for that. But the restaurant, restrooms were being renovated. Didn't realize that at the time. Oh, okay. So my hands were incredibly sticky after that meal selection. I had to try not to touch anything while I went to the bathrooms all the way in the next building over. Uh-huh. So that was fun, but it was fine. It was fine. A delicious meal. So after a nice heavy lunch, we decided to do the fast rides.

[00:59:23] So we back to back did Guardians Test Track and Mission Space Orange. Okay. What song did you get for Guardians this time? Okay. So we got One Way or Another again. No! Oh! I know. So it was like, all right, that's okay. So I think Michael's thinking I'm lying at this point that there are six different songs. But no, lots of fun. The new version of Test Track is so good. Oh, I like it a lot. We really enjoyed that.

[00:59:51] Again, I think the last one that I was in was way back in the 90s. It was closed when I was there last year. And then prior to that, I just didn't make a point to see it. So the, and I had forgotten actually how long it is, how much winding through the indoor part of the building. But they, you know, they kept some of the scenes like the driving through the forest with the tight little curves and stuff like that. Right. So they kept some of the scenes. And I was like, oh, okay, that refreshed my memory. I remember doing that. But some of the updated scenes are really neat.

[01:00:21] Lots of fun. Yeah. Yeah. And did you say you did Mr. Space Orange? Did I hear that? Why? Why? Why would you do that to yourself? I kind of like it. I don't know why. Do you? Even after a lunch like that? Were you okay? It doesn't bother me. I was worried and I knew it wouldn't bother me. But I was worried about Michael because I didn't know how he would deal with that. And we just, so I kept checking over and over and I was worrying him about it.

[01:00:49] And then he's, and, but I'm also trying not to give away what it is. So he's like, well, is it just bumpy? Is it like a rollercoaster? No, it's not a rollercoaster. It's like, you know. And so, but all of that was completely wasted effort. He had no problems. He was like, oh, that wasn't anything. So he just kind of, so he thought I was being like overly dramatic at that point. And you're like, no, seriously, there's barf bags here for a reason. Right.

[01:01:16] And I did explain that, you know, a lot of people call this like barf alley over here with all these rides. Well, good on him for not being impacted by it. Yeah. Cast iron stomach. So then it was time to go over to figment because we had finished up land and sea, but we didn't get up to figment before we decided to go to lunch. So we headed up to figment, did that.

[01:01:39] I'm a figment lover, even though I know that the current version is not really as popular as maybe some other previous versions. But I just think figment is goofy fun and I like him. So we saw figment doing a meet and greet. We did not go get pictures, but it was fun to see him doing the meet and greet and little kids enjoying seeing him. And then we kind of headed into the World Showcase again.

[01:02:07] We did Canada to Mexico again. I'm not sure why we didn't go, you know, and try it the other way around. And we just had a couple of drinks as we went. I had the Le Vie en Rose from France. Yes. I love it. Delicious. So good. Yeah. Michael was into the wines. I think he got one in France and one in Italy, which if you're going to get wines, those are two great countries to get them from. Sure.

[01:02:33] Along the way, we did the Ratatouille, which I think it's better in 2D without the 3D glasses. Do you? Okay. I have not ridden in 2D yet. So, yeah. I always struggle with the 3D glasses. I can never get them at the right distance on my nose to make them work quite right. So it's always kind of, it's always a little funky and blurry. Mm-hmm. And I have that experience with the Flight of Passage ride in Animal Kingdom as well. I can never get those 3D glasses to work right.

[01:03:02] Going 2D was really cool with this. So lots of fun there. I had never done the Frozen ride either. Is it called Frozen Ever After? Or is that the show? Oh, gosh. I think Frozen Ever After is the show. Hold, please. Frozen. Frozen Epcot. No. Frozen Ever After is the ride. Yeah, I had never done that. So wait, what is the, hold on, what is the show called?

[01:03:25] Frozen Show Hollywood Studios is for the first time in forever, colon, a Frozen sing-along. Excuse me, a Frozen sing-along celebration. I missed that part. Yes. Okay. That's a very long time. Yeah, so Frozen Ever After. What did you think? It was cute. It was much shorter than I thought it would be. For some reason, I just thought it would be much longer. But then I should have known because I had done the old Norway ride through the fjords and stuff with the troll.

[01:03:55] Thank you, Maelstrom. I had done that before, so I should have remembered that. But, you know, it's been a good amount of time. But it was super cute. The faces, so I never had the, I don't have both experiences to compare the weird projected faces versus the new kind of soft rubber, like animatronic ones. But they were super cute animatronics.

[01:04:14] And really, really good fluid movement to them so that you can tell that they're very kind of modern technology animatronics versus some of the ones you might see in the older rides in Magic Kingdom. It was really neat. We enjoyed that. And right about the time that we were getting out of Frozen, it was kind of time to start heading over to Space 220. So our timing, our timing is kind of a, became a trend on this trip.

[01:04:39] It was almost kind of perfect where we were never running, but we were like comfortably moving to the next thing very quickly. So we headed over to Space 220. I thought this was a big surprise because the reviews on the bloggers and are that the food isn't great, but you go there for like the experience of, you know, the simulated space station kind of thing. Uh-huh. But, you know, we did the elevator ride, which was really cool.

[01:05:09] I actually walked out of it a little dizzy for some reason. I think it was tricking. It definitely fooled my brain enough for me to kind of be a little like it. So you can ride Mission Space Orange, but not the elevator to Space 220. Apparently. Apparently. Whatever kind of wizardry they're doing in that one is one step too far. Did you, was your reservation for the dining room or was it for the lounge? Dining room. Okay. So the prefix dinner menu. Yeah.

[01:05:39] Got in. It really is beautiful. You know, it is not, it is not photorealistic as far as the scenery, but it really is a cool atmosphere and ambiance. The room is much bigger than it appears on pictures and maybe YouTube videos. So big, big, big dining room. We got to sit down. We had an amazing server who was extremely helpful in making really, really great recommendations. We both had the calamari for the appetizer.

[01:06:08] The cook on the calamari was perfect. It was really tender with a nice light batter. The star of that is the little aioli stuff. It's like a red bell pepper aioli. Delicious. Michael had the filet and I had the short rib dish. The server told us up front that you can substitute almost anything on the sides. And I'm not a big green bean fan, but she substituted the broccolini for me. Really enjoyed that.

[01:06:34] Both of those entrees were really, really tender, delicious meat. You know, great, great entrees. The desserts were just okay. We got the carrot cake and the s'mores. They were tasty. Did the job. Yeah. So then after that, I think it was a long experience. I think it was an hour and a half. Oh, okay. So yeah, it was almost seven o'clock when we were walking out and we decided to just kind of hang around and wait for the firework show again because we both wanted to see it

[01:07:03] again after, even though we just saw it two nights prior. Where did you end up watching from this go around? Exact same spot. It was just such a good spot. So we went back to Mexico. I think we grabbed a couple of margs in Mexico and kind of waited for it. As one does. As one must do. Again, we were hanging around that rail and this is another trend. And we encountered another couple who was just hanging out there, kind of past the time by

[01:07:32] chit-chatting with them. They were from Arizona, just south of us here in Denver. So we kind of talked with them for a little while. Watched the show. Loved it just as much the second time. And then on the way out, I made a mistake that I have previously made and I get so mad at myself when I make a mistake twice. Okay. So exiting, trying to head towards the bus. We get to the bus stop and then we watch an Animal Kingdom Lodge bus drive right past us.

[01:08:01] And we're like, okay, wait, hold on. Why did that bus go right past? And two other couples were standing there with us and they're just like, wait, are y'all trying to get back to Animal Kingdom Lodge? Like we're trying, you know, all of us obviously had made the same mistake. We went to the bus corral for Animal Kingdom Park, not Animal Kingdom Lodge. And of course, Animal Kingdom Park was closed at this point. So there weren't ever going to be any buses to come pick us up.

[01:08:29] And I've done this before, so I don't know why I did it again. But the fact that there were other people making the same exact mistake as you. Yeah. Don't feel too bad, A. And B, I wonder like what their signage looks at. Like, is it totally apparent or is it a little too close to the way the other one looks? So I'm taking the blame off of you. Oh, thank you. We're leaving you of your guilt.

[01:08:54] It is just one word difference because on the signage, it either says Animal Kingdom Park or it says Animal Kingdom Lodge. Yeah. And that's my story and I'll stick to that. Okay. But we eventually, I ran back. The other two couples that were standing there were kind of older couples. So I ran all the way back and tried to find somebody. By the time I found somebody, he explained it and I was like, oh gosh, okay. So I ran back, told everybody and we all.

[01:09:21] But we ended up being able to get that bus that drove past us, even with all that time trying to figure out what happened. Because by the time that bus got over to the bus corral, we needed to load up two, what do you call them? The electric scooters. ECV? Yeah. ECVs. He had to load up two. So it took him so long that we were actually able to get over there and we caught that bus. Okay. And then it passed by. So. Nice. It ended up not being a huge delay, just a whole lot of wasted effort. All right. Was that all you did for that day?

[01:09:51] I mean, that was planning. We actually had a nightcap at Victoria Falls Lounge because it doesn't close until 11 at Animal Kingdom Lounge. Bartenders there make a lovely old fashion. So I would recommend that. So just had a little nightcap and then we went to bed. All right. So that brings us to Wednesday, April the 15th, aka Tax Day. I know I said that during your pre-trip interview too. It's like all coming back to me now. Breakfast, 815 at Boma. How was that? It was good.

[01:10:18] Boma is usually consistently solid as far as an option. So we did have a really good breakfast there. I think that the meats on the carving station were getting a little drier, but I kind of feel like 815 by the time we sat down getting more towards 830, 840. I think that's kind of later in the breakfast period. So I don't, I kind of don't blame them. Those, those pieces of meat had probably been sitting there for a hot minute. Literally.

[01:10:45] But I mean, if that's the worst critique I can make of an enormous, you know, breakfast buffet, that's, that's not bad at all. Everything else was absolutely delicious. Tried some of the things I had not tried before. The chakalaka was really tasty. I'm not a big cabbage person. The texture isn't right for me, but it was still just really delicious. The boboe is always tasty there. Those are some of the African inspired dishes that they serve. Mm-hmm. Really good.

[01:11:13] And then after wrapping up breakfast, we had our Up Close with Rhinos tour this day. How was that? Really, really amazing. And this, by the way, is another win for Mouse Watcher. It is a very, very hard tour to get. They only do 12 people in the tour and they only do one tour per day. So this makes so much more sense as to why it's so hard to get. Because I have tried it in the past too and wasn't able to snag it.

[01:11:42] And so I kind of was just like, ah, next time. Because, you know, I'm always going back anyway. But that makes me feel a little bit better about it. And I think the other reason it's so competitive is the price point is really, it's 49 bucks. And you get to go hang out with rhinos. Mm-hmm. Really cool experience. So first they gather everybody together. There's a long laundry list of rules that they tell you because you are going into backstage space at Disney.

[01:12:11] Mm-hmm. So no pictures must stay within the lines. There are lines drawn all back behind there of places that were allowed versus not allowed to go. Mm-hmm. So we get backstage. I will say the magic of Disney kind of disappears the moment you go backstage. Because you have delivery trucks dropping off food. You have cast members sitting on a bench eating their lunches. You know, so you get that peek. And it's intriguing. But it's also like it's not on stage at Disney.

[01:12:41] So it's a different feeling for sure. So we walk through this big area backstage, get to some buses. Then they bus us over to the rhino barns. Mm-hmm. We pass the elephant barns on the way. And they were doing some training with one of the elephants. So the tour guide kind of stopped the bus and kind of explained what was happening. So we actually got a little sneak peek at the elephant too over there. Mm-hmm. Doing a little bit of training. Got to the barn. And the rhino keeper's name was Bryce. And so Bryce then took us through.

[01:13:10] And as he's walking through the empty barns, because all the animals are out on the savannah, we're walking through empty barns. And he's explaining all the care and all of the needs that the rhinos have. And how we meet those needs in captivity. And how they would usually get these sort of needs in the wild. Mm-hmm. There's a big discussion about rhino conservation with as endangered as they are. Mm-hmm. And so kind of talking through all of that.

[01:13:40] And then he turns us around a corner and there's a big rhino in one of the barns. Doing some training with another one of the keepers. And so he introduces us to Harris, who's one of the male white rhinos. Mm-hmm. Harris is 4,000 pounds and looks every bit of it. Just an absolutely enormous animal. And especially seeing it that close up with only a couple of bars between you and the animal

[01:14:09] was really neat. So part of it was that what they do on this tour is they're actually training the animal to be more comfortable around strangers. Mm-hmm. So he explained that Harris knows how he smells. Harris knows how he looks. Harris knows all the people around who do the keeping. Mm-hmm. But Harris doesn't know any of us. And so the goal to get him more and more comfortable around a variety of people is they feed him.

[01:14:38] And I forget the name of it, but it's the sweetest hay that they give them. And it's very much the treat hay, whereas the other hay is just for sustenance, right? Mm-hmm. So the other trainer is feeding this delicious, sweet hay. And we were each, two and three at a time, allowed to walk up and pet Harris. So don't get your hand between the bar and him, but you can pet him anywhere where there's like exposed. And they did not rush us.

[01:15:07] We were all allowed to take as much time as we wanted. Um, there was, there was a young boy there who I think was maybe a little neurodivergent and just warmed up to that animal so much faster than he did anybody else in the crowd. And I was very touched by that. Like he immediately wanted to touch the little rhino. Mm-hmm. Just a really cool experience. I love how they did not rush us.

[01:15:33] Everybody was allowed to take as many turns as they wanted, as long as we washed our hands afterwards because dirty rhino is a happy rhino and they didn't want us taking any of that away. But that was kind of the end of the tour was, was petting the rhino. How long did it last the tour in total? It's just an hour. An hour? Okay. Yeah. It's funny that just a couple of days ago, rhinos randomly came up. Charles and I were having a conversation.

[01:15:59] And in Googling that from what I learned, if what I saw is correct, there are only two white rhino in the wild left in total. Every other rhino is in captivity and the two that are in the wild are both female. And so there will be no more wild white rhino out there. And that's just amazing to me that that is happening, but thankful that places like Disney

[01:16:26] and other places that are working on this conservation to try to help keep them going to some degree, even if it is in captivity. Yes. And they do work with other zoos around the country and they will move their, they sort of move the males around to that's kind of keeping in how the rhinos act in the wild. The females sort of pack together in little social groups. Okay.

[01:16:56] And then the males are generally a little more like I'm over here somewhere like removed from the little pack of females. So what they do is they move the males around the country to try to breed and diversify the population. Okay. And it's a successful program. They talked about several of the successful breedings they've had. And I think only one of the females they have there has not had a cub yet. Okay.

[01:17:21] So, but they continue to work on that and they continue to try to, you know, build up the population in the hopes that one day they'll be able to introduce them, reintroduce them into the wild. Yeah. That was my, that was my next question is like, if you're doing all these conservation efforts is the idea that eventually they will work that into the wild. Like, I don't know how that would work. I mean, it would take a long time. I would imagine. Yeah. And a lot of efforts to kind of like put them out there, but in a place that, you know,

[01:17:50] is safe for them so that they can get used to it before they let you actually just go off and be on your own. Yeah. And I think stricter laws need to be passed about poaching and, you know, in those countries where it is, you know, where their natural habitats are. Yeah. But I think, I think there is some success in that. I can't remember specifically what was discussed though. So I wish I could pass that on, but yeah.

[01:18:16] There was a cute little story that Harris has a little blue streak on his, on his horn, on his nose. And one of the people in our, in our group asked Bryce, you know, what's with the blue streak? Where did the blue streak come from? And he just immediately pointed over at a door, which had previously been painted blue. And Harris just likes to rub his horn on that door. So it was just paint. It was just paint from the door.

[01:18:43] I thought you were going to say he pointed in the direction of Pandora and was like, he's trying to become Navi. Maybe that's what he wants, but yeah, apparently they all rub their horn and they rub their horns into a horn style, much like humans have a hairstyle. And it'll be very individualized. And once they pick a shape to their horn, they keep that shape for their entire life.

[01:19:07] So he likes to rub his horn on this door that's in his pen and he just rubs the paint off all over it. Yeah. That's funny. I thought that was cute. This is the only thing you did in the park this day, right? Or the only thing you planned to do in the park this day. It's the only thing we had planned to do. And it is the only thing we ended up doing this day. We were so exhausted from the previous two days that after this tour, we just wanted to head home. I did check in with Bryce on the way out.

[01:19:34] He gave such a good tour and I'm accustomed to tipping my tour guides, but the keepers are actually not there among the Disney employees that are not allowed to accept tips. And he asked us to donate that money to the conservation funds that you can do at any of the gift shops in Animal Kingdom. So we did. We tipped the conservation fund instead of Bryce since that's what he asked us to do. Okay. Well, you could also give him a cast compliment.

[01:20:00] So if you did not do that already, you can still do that through your My Disney Experience app. Yes. We did that as well on the way out for sure. For sure. We were doling out a lot of cast compliments. Good. I love that. I forgot. I do try to do that as much as possible because the cast members are just absolute heroes of making the magic happen. Oh, for sure. I definitely love my cast members. So back to the resort to rest. Yep.

[01:20:28] Did you do anything at the resort like pool time or anything like that? Michael went off to the pool. So I ran and just laid in bed and caught up on taking notes for us to talk about so that I would have good notes for our talk. And that took a couple of hours to make sure I was thinking through everything. Oh my gosh. I hope you did not take a couple of hours, Ron. This is not supposed to take up that much time for you. Okay.

[01:20:58] Well, just not to scare potential future guests. Like you do not need to spend hours and hours on your vacation taking notes. That's a Ron thing. No. And part of it for me was as I was taking the notes, I was enjoying reliving everything in my head. So part of it was I'd stop and I would think about things and I would just enjoy. And then I would go look at my pictures. And then, you know, so that's really the reason why it took what it did.

[01:21:27] It does not have to take that long for sure. Did Michael enjoy the pool? He did. He said he was taking dips. I think both of us had run to Zawadi gift shop and gotten like the little one glass of champagne things. And so he took his over to the pool. I sat in bed with mine. So we just kind of had a little drink. You know, traveling with a friend, sometimes it is good to take some time apart. Because you're living in such close quarters together. So I think that was good.

[01:21:56] Got back together, got dressed and headed off to Disney Springs. Where you had tickets to Drawn to Life, the Cirque du Soleil show. And you had dinner plans and definitely had some candles you were going to check out as well. So tell me all about your Disney Springs time. Yeah, so exactly that. So when we got there, we still had 45 minutes before our Haleo reservation at 530. So I ran into Bose and decided against the candles.

[01:22:27] I just got diffuser oils instead because I like those too. Bose is great. Very friendly staff too. I don't think they can... They can't use like trademarked names for Disney. So everything is kind of named like similar, but not really to the different things. So it might say pirate water and that means Pirates of the Caribbean, right? So if you need help finding something, the staff there is super friendly. They were able to go straight to the scents that I was asking for.

[01:22:56] Which I wanted the scent that is there when you walk into Animal Kingdom Lodge. I did want the Haunted Mansion scent. And so they brought me straight to that. So I got my oils. And then we headed over to Haleo. We decided to do the eat and drink like Jose. Jose, which is all the things that Chef Jose Andres would order if he were to come to Haleo. They literally just bring it out one after the other. I completely lost track of how many courses.

[01:23:26] I think it was six courses. Just one thing after the other. And as they set down anywhere between two and four dishes for each course, they're also bringing out a wine pairing that goes with that course. Okay. Very, very, very, very cool experience. I think some of the highlights were the little Enviva salad. We had the croquettes, which were amazing. The jamon imberico with the caviar on top.

[01:23:54] And then dessert was amazing with the pan con chocolat and the flan catalan. I know I'm not saying those things right. And I apologize for my pronunciation. But yeah, the wine pairings were delicious. They were perfectly paired to each course. Very, very cool experience. And I would definitely recommend that. Our server was Avery. She had previously been a bartender and moved over into serving tables.

[01:24:20] She just knew everything like the back of her hand and was explaining everything and how everything worked and went together. So fantastic experience. They were running a little competition about which server can get more Google reviews. And so we put in a couple of Google reviews for Avery, hoping that she will win her competition. And then we rolled out of Haleo to go to Cirque du Soleil. What did you think about this show?

[01:24:48] And help me remember, was this your very first Cirque du Soleil show or have you seen others? No, we're lucky in Denver. So we get the touring productions pretty frequently. You did mention this during your pre-trib interview. I remember that. Yeah. Okay. So I've never done a resident show. I've only ever done the touring tent. It pops up over downtown Denver, if not every year, every other year. So we've done several. This was amazing. I mean, the performers were just absolutely on point. You know, nothing's ever perfect.

[01:25:18] And a lot of times you'll notice with the Cirque shows that they may like slip a little or something. And then they'll immediately perform the same stunt a second time to get it right. But I didn't even notice any of those slips. They were just so like smooth and on point and graceful. I think one of the things that stuck with me was if you know the show well, there's a dance towards the end with the mother and father characters. I don't want to give away too much in case people want to go see this.

[01:25:45] But the dance between the mother and father character was absolutely tear jerking and flawlessly beautiful. I remember crying at the end. I can't even remember exactly what they were doing that made it. But it was just it was really touching. I mean, I know I'm very soft hearted in that way. It does not take much to make me cry. But but it was so good. Really beautiful. Yeah. And then wrap that up.

[01:26:10] And then we we ran off to Enzo's Hideaway Bar because that was listed on the Disney Springs website as a lounge. Ended up kind of feeling bad because it's not so much a lounge as it is a restaurant. And so and after all that food at Haleo, we did not want food. So we we took up a whole table just to have a couple of old fashions before going back home. So we tipped well to try to compensate the server for not serving any food. You also had on your list that you were going to try to grab a summer house cookie.

[01:26:41] It doesn't sound like you did, though. Oh, God, we were so full. Yeah, no, no more food. It's OK. It leaves you something to do for next time. For sure. All right. So Thursday, April 16th. This was a Magic Kingdom day that you were starting bright and early with a reservation at Ohana. No, we didn't do that. Oh, did you cancel it? So we canceled that. We were like, we can't get up that early. And we had so much food and we were so stuffed and so sluggish.

[01:27:10] And I'm glad we actually did cancel that when we thought about it. And we canceled it the night before. We didn't wait until two hours before we tried because we know somebody else would enjoy it. It was 530 a.m. And I'm sure somebody was super excited to see that pop up. So that is true. And I'm sure it went very quickly. So somebody else enjoyed that reservation. We just got a very, very light snack at Mara and then kind of headed over to Magic Kingdom kind of late.

[01:27:36] We really didn't have much left to do because we had done so much at the after hours party. So we did kind of take it easy, which is what we had sort of planned. We had three reservations booked for this day. We had successfully gotten a beacon barrel at one. Okay. So we're looking forward to that. And then we had a Jiko reservation back at the resort for 510.

[01:27:59] And then we ended up booking a post party dessert party for the Happily Ever After fireworks that night back at Magic Kingdom. Okay. So you were going to do a little bouncing around this day. Yes. A little yo-yo. But we spent the morning. I think we arrived at about 10 at Magic Kingdom. There were some big wins with weight magic again this day. I think they got us three Lightning Lane reservations that I wasn't able to get. I honestly forget what they are.

[01:28:29] I think I wanted to do Buzz Lightyear again. Again, that competitiveness between the two of us. Like who can win the most games this trip? It did get us another Tiana's. And I know that we did Space Mountain again this day. Okay. So I feel like those are the three that it got us that I wasn't immediately coming up with myself. But we also spent time just doing the shows. Like the Tiki Room, we did that. That is an absolute, like, I don't know.

[01:28:56] It's just the sheer number of animatronics in that room all going at the same time. It's kind of mad. It's a little bit crazy with so much going on. So that was a little bit overstimulating. We did Country Bears after that, which I hadn't seen the new show with the Disney IP songs instead of the old classic ones. I thought it was hysterical. I loved every minute of the new show. Oh, good. I like it too. It's so good.

[01:29:24] Just super funny how they took these old characters and made the songs work for each one of them individually was really super cute. And then what happened? Yeah, we kind of wrapped up Magic Kingdom by maybe 3, 3.30, and we were headed back to the resort. We had literally done everything that we wanted to do. I think the only things we didn't do in Magic Kingdom were, like, the spinny rides, like the Dumbo, the Magic Carpets. We didn't bother doing those.

[01:29:53] But we pretty much did every other show and every other ride between the two days. I know you really wanted to catch Grayson playing the piano. So did you ever see him? Yes, we did. And I got a little video of him playing and I got some pictures. Nice. I didn't make any requests. I'm generally the person who sits in the last room. So didn't try to interact at all, but it was a lot of fun seeing him.

[01:30:19] He was out actually on our way out of the park because we didn't catch him coming in. I think it might have been a little early, but we did catch him on the way out. And I was like, there he is. And made Michael stop for a minute and listen with me. That was really good. Very cool. All right, so over to Gico for the evening. I have not eaten at Gico before. What did you think? I think this is a must-do. Like, it was top meal for me. Even better than Haleo, which I was blown away by Haleo.

[01:30:48] But we both got a Diver Scallop appetizer, which was like a big Diver Scallop. Kind of a mustardy cream sauce, kind of weird. Kind of odd, but it was delicious. And then it had a big piece of a pork belly. Nicely done pork belly with the Diver Scallop. That was really, really delicious. Had the filet for dinner. And it has like the bone marrow crust with like a chocolate demi sauce over it. That was...

[01:31:17] And it doesn't sound like it would be good. And it's not chocolate like sweet chocolate. It just has a little bit of cacao in it. And you can kind of barely detect it. Yeah. Yeah, that's how I would describe it. Okay. For sure. Just a really beautiful dinner. And I think we both had the pochi, which is like a little chocolate cake with a caramel center. Lots of different textures going on. Lots of little crunchy things on the plate to add texture. Great dessert as well. For all our little three-course meal was really, really a lot of fun.

[01:31:45] And then we were heading out to the dessert party at that point. And how was the dessert party after having such a nice filling meal? Were you approaching it more to have a really good spot to watch the show? Or because you wanted to experience a dessert party? Or what? Yeah. So I think there's three good reasons. And the funny thing is the desserts are like the third, like the least important of the three reasons. Right? So we did the post party.

[01:32:15] So we did have the nice reserved seating. I like the post party because you're in the little rose garden while half of the crowd is still inside eating their desserts. And during that time was when Starlight passed by. And it passes right by that rose garden. So as much as I... It's like a twofer. Yeah. So as much as I've seen...

[01:32:39] I've seen bloggers and stuff make the comment that you really want to get out of the rose garden to watch the parade. I thought it was a great spot to watch it. The rose garden is kind of elevated above street level a little bit. So the people who are standing street side are a little bit like lower. And so you're kind of looking over their heads. So yes, you're at the far back of the crowd that's watching it. But it's still a great spot to catch the parade. So we watched Starlight. I thought that was a beautiful parade. The music is really cool.

[01:33:09] The way it just blends from one tune to the next as the floats go by. So really neat show. Love that. So getting back to answering your question, sorry. The spot was the most important reason. But also like when everyone is exiting the park and the buses are mobbed, at that time you're eating your desserts. And you're having a little bit of champagne or wine or beer or whichever one of the beverages you want to select.

[01:33:35] So you're enjoying that while everybody else is clearing out and the buses are struggling and they're all packed. Right. So by the time you do stroll out of the park, there's none of that stress of being in the cattle call. Okay. That's a very good reason. But the desserts are good. I will say the highlight dessert was something called the Pirate's Cheesecake. It's just like a little cheesecake parfait in a glass. That was really delicious. I might have had more of those than I would admit.

[01:34:04] Yeah, I was thinking about Jiko the other day because I'm trying to figure out like I'm about two weeks out from my 60 days for July. And that's our big family trip. And I was thinking we usually try to do I let each of us pick one that we want to do. And it could be either one that you want to do again or you want to do for the first time. And then I purposefully pick one that's like, okay, this is new for all of us. We're doing this. And then we make like four dining reservations inevitably in the parks.

[01:34:34] Girls will be like, can we eat there? And I'll be like, hold on. Let me get us a reservation. But it's like we start out our trip with four. It's a good way to kind of keep it in check. Yeah, it's definitely a signature. Not, you know, not cheap, but worth it. Did you do anything else on the Thursday or you just went back to bed? That was it. So we just headed to bed. We didn't even stay at the post party very long. I think we each had a glass of the sparkling wine and got a couple desserts. The pirate cheesecake was really amazing. So grabbed a couple of those.

[01:35:04] Tried a few other things. You know, the desserts are always good. I think, you know, nothing spectacular. These aren't signature restaurant desserts, but they're good. No, they're Instagrammable as well. That is true. Very much. All right. So Friday, April 17th was, in my opinion, your long-awaited Animal Kingdom day, like where you actually got to do Animal Kingdom, considering the fact that you were staying in Animal Kingdom Lodge this entire time. So how was that? Oh, Animal Kingdom is great.

[01:35:33] It's actually my... I'd go back and forth between that or Epcot. But Animal Kingdom is just such a great park. It's a little bit small right now until they finish Pueblo Esperanza. But we had a great time. Starting out, we had a reservation planned for lunch at Tusker House. That ended up getting canceled again. I think this was another theme of this trip for us was shuffling things, like making last-minute decisions that we were...

[01:36:00] We had overplanned maybe some things and needed to eliminate some stuff just for comfort. Yeah. And then we had... That night, we were looking forward to a Topolino's dinner right in time for the fireworks. So we headed out to Animal Kingdom. We were there by 7.45 and kind of headed in and just took a slow walk in, taking lots of pictures. It kind of seemed to me that they were letting everybody in at 7.45, which I thought was...

[01:36:25] I thought that that was just, you know, rope drop just for resort guests, early entry. But it seems like they just let everybody in. What time did the park open that day? I thought it was 8 o'clock. I don't know. Let's see. Yeah, because I think early entry was 7.30. So I wonder, is it possible that they might have been... Like, once they saw the crowd had died down from that initial rush of people, maybe they were letting people in the main gate, but then they would not have been able to swipe

[01:36:54] in at any rides without proving. Which seems strange to me just because they do usually, when they're doing early entry, make you swipe at that one spot. And it feels weird to, like, divide it up and make people swipe in multiple places. It looks like the park hours are still early entry starting at 7.30. Yeah, it was 7.45 and I feel like everybody was just being allowed in. But no worries. We were still in plenty enough time to get the lightning lanes that we had.

[01:37:24] The first one was Kilimanjaro that we had at 8 o'clock. And I think that's a little early because I don't think the animals had woken up yet. Okay. There was not much out on the savannah. We didn't see any giraffes, very little of the hooved animals. Some of the ones that I would call the more captive ones where there are specific little, like, sort of structured habitats. Like, the lion's habitat is very structured. Obviously, you don't want the lions mixing with other critters.

[01:37:52] So, the more structured habitats we saw animals out on the wild savannah where they all mix together, all the hooved animals kind of hang out. There was very little. So, 8 o'clock was a little early. So, lesson learned on that one. We did Everest twice in a row because it was only a 10-minute wait. So, we just did that one back to back. We headed over to Lion King, which is Michael's favorite Disney movie. Loves Lion King. And he just thought that show was so much fun.

[01:38:20] I don't think I had seen this one since the 90s either. Maybe, like, 96, 97 when I went. It is such a good show. And I think, again, the talent was surprising, even though I shouldn't be surprised by Disney talent, you know? Well, I mean, you know it's Disney talent. You know that most of these performers are in the Actors' Equity, Stage Actors' Union, which I'm a proud member of. So, you know you're getting good quality performers.

[01:38:49] But I think there's something about it being in a theme park that you do kind of have that sense of like, oh, that was really good. Yeah. Yeah. And it was. It was all the singers. I forgot it was live music. And so I was so like, so excited to actually get to hear live music too. So really enjoyed that. Our children are very happy at this point. So we went back to the safari and the Kilimanjaro safaris and tried it again. By this time, it was like 10 a.m. and there were animals everywhere.

[01:39:19] Like four giraffes walked right past our bus. The painted dogs were out. The cheetahs were out. The lions were out. Elephants, rhinos, all of it. They were just all out and happy. Did you see Harris? I couldn't tell. Were you looking for his blue striped horn? I was. Both of the rhinos we saw were walking away from us. So it was really difficult to see. So yeah. Might have been him though. Might have been. Okay. I'm going to pretend it was. Okay. Yeah. And then we did.

[01:39:48] So we finished up the Africa and Asia section. We did watch the Feathered Friends in Flight show. I always like that because I feel like there's always a little improv going on there. They're kind of, they sometimes like play off of each other and it's always two different keepers. Every time I've ever seen it, it's been two different keepers. So there's always a little bit different dynamic to watch there. And the birds are always so much fun to see. I had also never done Cully River Rapids before. So we did that.

[01:40:19] And what was, what was your Russian roulette of water rides like? Did you get splashed? Not completely soaked. Head to toe. Both of us. So to dry off, we went and did Everest one more time. And I think we did, I think we did the single rider line this time to get through it. Yeah. I, I didn't, I didn't know anything going into it either. Cause it's another one that I, I kind of was blind to. Didn't really know anything going in.

[01:40:47] I knew that you could get wet, but I thought it was just like little splashes. If you hit, like if you hit the ravine wall or something the wrong way, you might get a little, no, I didn't know that there was a huge like slide and then crash down into a huge pool of water, but. And the thing about that is, is it's like based on the angle you come down at, like it can be nothing. You can get off that ride completely dry still, but then the person across from you is totally soaked. You just don't know. So you have to like to take chances.

[01:41:17] Yeah. And we should have played the lottery that day because we were lucky. So heading over to Pandora, as we're walking towards Pandora, we went ahead and mobile ordered our Satuli Canteen food. And we noticed Nomad Lounge on the way. So I was like, let's try that too. So we went ahead and hopped on the wait list, which was 70 minutes at about lunchtime. But it all kind of worked out because our food at Satuli Canteen wasn't quite ready.

[01:41:45] So we hopped on Navi River, which we had a lightning lane for. By the time we got out of that Satuli, our window had opened. So we went and ate. And right as we were finishing up our Satuli Canteen, the wait list came up on Nomad. And we were close enough. Yeah. And it's so close. So we just ran right back out and did that. And then by that time, we really just, we only had Flight of Passage left to kind of wrap up our day. And so we did Flight of Passage, which Michael absolutely loved that.

[01:42:14] That was a big hit. Again, imagine going into Flight of Passage and knowing absolutely nothing and asking through the whole line, is this a roller coaster? Is this a, it's no, no, no. You know? So when he got there and he's like, wait. So you sit down on the little bike and everything. And he immediately picked up on everything. He immediately picked up on the bellows that simulate the critter breathing and all of the smells and all of the movement and everything, which I missed some of that the first time I did it.

[01:42:44] I think I was just sensory overload, but. Yeah. He picked it all up the first time, which was cool. So it seems like you had a little bit of time between that and your Topolinos. So what did you do with that time? So we just took more, a little bit more downtime at the resort. We sat out on the Arusha Outlook and just watched animals for a while. We went back to the room and we actually packed up as much of our luggage as we could leaving very sadly the next day.

[01:43:12] So we did as much packing as we could just to get a jump on that. Yeah. And then I think we just kind of relaxed in the room a little bit. Didn't really do much. Again, end of a very exhausting week. So we were happy to have a little bit of downtime. Yeah. Now, what did you think about your Topolinos dinner? Because it is one of my favorite places to have dinner. Love the filet there. What did you end up getting? It was absolutely amazing.

[01:43:39] So Michael got the tomato bisque with the uni for appetizer. And then I got the gnocchi with the braised short rib and like the mushroom sauce, which is absolutely delicious. It's like the most elevated version of a comfort food that I can imagine. And that, you know, it's comfort food, but it was so refined and delicately put together that you, you know, you have to call it like a luxury plate.

[01:44:09] And then we got the ricotta for the middle of the table. What I did find a little funny is that the amount of ricotta they give you is huge. But... And not enough bread. And not enough of the little tomato jam to go with it. Yes. So we actually ended up leaving some, which I felt guilty leaving a big hunk of ricotta, but we didn't have anything to put it on. And I'm not going to sit there and just eat ricotta with a fork. So that'd be a little weird. I mean, yeah, it would be a little bit weird.

[01:44:39] So for dinner, Michael got the filet, which was cooked beautifully. Just, yeah, he was in heaven with that. And as you stated, it's a beautiful dish. I did the bouillabaisse, which I was really looking for some seafood at this point. So just wanted to try that. And that's another just absolutely beautiful dish. I mean, the balance of the flavors. I noticed all the flavors, especially things like tarragon and dill in there,

[01:45:07] which can easily become too much, but they just really get it right on the line. And it's very perfectly balanced. Okay. Very, very good. Would recommend that. And then the fireworks were kind of going off right as we were getting the appetizer. So it was kind of perfect timing. They were just right out the window. We were kind of inside a little ways away from the window. So it wasn't like unobstructed or anything, but it was still just having that there in the background

[01:45:34] and having that sort of full circle moment where we had watched Luminous the very first night we came in back on Sunday and having that playing in the background as we're having our last nice meal. Yeah. I just love those little, I love building in those little full circle moments like that. Yeah. I love that. I love it. Especially like, you know, when you're taking a first timer and you're trying to curate their experience

[01:46:00] and just like adding in that way, adding your own magic into it so that everything times out really well like that. Yeah. That's nice. But that was it. Went straight back to the room after this. Mm-hmm. I just kind of went to bed knowing we'd be having a busy travel day the next day. But before you hit the road, you had some brunch scheduled at Whispering Canyon. Did you keep that reservation? We did. We did. We enjoyed that a lot. Headed over.

[01:46:26] We did get a lift over there because that's the easiest way to get to another. For sure. We did that. We did that for Topolinos as well. We just used lift rather than try to navigate the bus system for that. Mm-hmm. So Whispering Canyon. Let's see. It was like a 950 brunch. Nice late time. So we were able to kind of sleep in a little bit. Mm-hmm. We got to Wilderness Lodge early enough to look around a bit. I caught the Copeland. You told me to listen for the Copeland.

[01:46:53] I think Lincoln Portrait was playing when we walked in. I was like, oh, there it is. There's the Copeland. I think our waitress showed us a little bit of mercy because we did tell her we were first timers and didn't know what we were in for. But we noticed the servers picking on other people, putting the big giant foam hat on people, things like that. Also, I think the dining room was especially rowdy because there was a lot of runners in there. One of the races had just finished that morning.

[01:47:22] And I think there were some runners that were still high on their endorphins. Sure. And really feeling themselves. Mm-hmm. There was some rowdy where everybody gets up and runs around the dining room on the little horse sticks. Hobby horses? Yes. Hobby horses. But it was a lot of fun to watch. I'm glad that the waitress decided not to try to nudge us into that because, again, I'm a back row kind of guy. I like to watch it. I like to be an observer, not to be a performer.

[01:47:51] But it was a lot of fun. The brunch itself was absolutely delicious. I think I did the carnivore plate. And yeah, Michael got the heritage platter, which is more of a traditional breakfast. And then I got, which was something that's much more traditional lunch. It was like the ribs and the chicken and all the meats. So really good. We did not order a second platter, even though it's all you can eat. I don't know who these people are that order a second platter. But I mean, I've never ordered a second platter, but I've been like, can I have a little bit

[01:48:21] more of this one thing? Okay. You could do that. I guess I didn't realize you could do that because I might have done that. But if I knew it was an option. Yeah, they'll bring it in like a separate little bowl for you if you want more of whatever. I just would have felt awful if they brought out a whole nother platter and I wasted all that food. So I said no, but maybe next time. That's a good idea because that chicken was pretty amazing. So at this point, I hadn't yet gotten a call from Orlando Lux, which they had on the arrival day.

[01:48:51] They had actually called me ahead of time to confirm, you know, here's your pickup time. And I began getting a little bit nervous because the flight time had changed several months ago. And I had emailed and I said, okay, we need to move our time up from 1.30 pickup to a 12.30 pickup because the flight changed. And so not getting a confirmation call, I was like, oh, I better check on this. So I called. And unfortunately, as I was afraid of, they hadn't fixed the time. They were going to come pick us up at 1.30.

[01:49:21] Oh my goodness. And it potentially could have missed our flight. Luckily, they were able to accommodate. And what I will say is that the driver started immediately contacting me directly by text. So he was trying to, you know, trying to do a little service recovery and like, let me know, here's my cell phone number. I'm on my way. You know, I'm aware and I'll get you to the, I'll get you there on time. So we did get to the airport in plenty enough time, but I'm glad I thought to check because

[01:49:48] otherwise they would have showed up at 1.30 and it would have been too late. So given this issue where you had emailed them plenty in advance and the tacking on of a cost you weren't expecting on the way there, it sounds like you might want to branch out and explore other options to see how it compares to your experience this time. Yeah. There's just too many good companies out there.

[01:50:16] Um, and I've, uh, I would rather try a different one. Makes sense. Did everything go okay with your flight? Yes. Uh, flight was super smooth. It actually left 10 minutes late. There's, there's always delays at Orlando. I feel like they, like they could use a whole nother terminal to expand a little bit. Yeah. But the pilot was actually able to make up the 10 minutes late and we actually arrived in Denver early ahead of schedule.

[01:50:44] So he must've just stepped on the gas really good and made up that time. I'm convinced the flight attendant was trying to get me drunk. She asked me at least three times if I wanted more wine. I was like, no, I've consumed so much this week. I was just, I was tired of consuming stuff. Yeah. You know, because when you're in Disney world, you eat like you're a kid. So, um. Right. You're like, I'm ready to go back to my normal habits. Yeah. So I did.

[01:51:10] I just kind of relaxed and enjoyed a movie on the way back, but yeah. Yeah. Good. Very smooth flight. Mm hmm. Very friendly flight attendants, just trying to take care of everybody. Now I know that you will be back. You have just purchased DVC. You're clearly, you know, in it to win it. You, you've, you've drunk the Kool-Aid, all of that. Is Michael looking forward to his next chance to go?

[01:51:36] So he was already asking me how the DVC thing works because he was curious. And so we actually had a conversation. I even forget what this was on, but I made recommendations about how to rent some points first before he goes and starts going full, you know, whole hog and buying a contract or something, but I think he's already interested to be the me in the scenario and plan a trip with someone else. So. Okay.

[01:52:05] I, I think he, I think I successfully got him to drink some Kool-Aid too. Okay. Fantastic. Yeah. Now, if you can speak on his behalf, if you know, let's go through just a couple of what you think his favorites were. So what do you think his favorite dining experience was? If he had to say, he actually said overall it was space 220 because he enjoyed all three of those courses in total, but he said Gigo is a very, very close second.

[01:52:33] The only thing is he, I don't think he quite cared for the diver scallop appetizer as much as he liked the calamari over at a space 220. So it was, it was like, it was down to those kinds of shades of gray and splitting hairs to, to make that decision. But we did talk about that. We talk about food a lot. Okay. What was his favorite ride? The guardians easily. Okay. In spite of getting the same song. He could just redo that. Yes. Yes. All right. And last question.

[01:53:02] What was his favorite park? We did talk about that. He loved Epcot because of the countries and he loved walking into the shops and talking to people from Italy and then walking right next door and talking to people from China. And, you know, he, he just really loved those experiences. Okay. Well, Ron, this has been so much fun chatting with you. And I hope that if Michael does go back, Michael, if you're out there listening and you'd like to come and chat with me the next time you go and you get to be the Ron in the

[01:53:31] situation, please let me know. Love to have him on. And I hope that you'll be back again someday, Ron, as well. For sure. Well, have a great rest of your evening and this is not goodbye. It's see you later. Thank you so much, Virginia. Thank you. Thank you again to Ron for being such a delight. Talking to you was so easy and I hope that you will come on again and send Michael when he's ready to. I did look up Ron's suggestion for Weight Magic for anybody who had not heard of that

[01:54:00] like I had not. And I have it linked in the show notes. But I just wanted to also note that I noticed that with Weight Magic, it also includes those dining alerts as a part of the service as well. So that makes it an even better value. I again have not tried it myself. I had not even heard about it until Ron and I spoke. But I do think I'm going to give it a try for my next trip and see how I like it. And that is all for now. It has been a long week for me, as you can imagine. And it might have been a long week for you too as well.

[01:54:28] So I want to get this episode out the door. Thank you all so much for listening and keep daydreaming about where you long to be.