Pre-Trip Report: Heather & Mike’s Universally Magical Vacation (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. Happy Monday and happy belated Mother's Day. Charles got me a gigantic bouquet of flowers and Alex halfway cleaned his room at my request. We didn't really do anything and I didn't want to go anywhere since I just got back from Orlando late on Friday night, so I needed time to do my editing and at least begin to start unpacking.

[00:00:38] On today's Trip Report, I have the pleasure of welcoming Heather and Mike who are from Western North Carolina and quite literally from my neck of the woods. Heather is my sister's bestie and I have known her since she was knee high to a grasshopper as we like to say in the South. Last May when my sister got married, we reconnected and found out that she and her husband Mike were Disney people. In fact, they have a page on Instagram dedicated to Disney memes called Disney Mountaineers.

[00:01:06] The link is in the show notes if you want to check it out. And that's how we got to this very moment. So now it's time to talk travel. Please welcome Heather and Mike to the show. Welcome to the podcast, Heather and Mike. Hello. Hi. Oh my gosh, you are a sight for sore eyes. So listeners, you will not know this, but Heather and Mike and I are old friends. So this is just a delight to have you guys here on the podcast.

[00:01:34] But luckily we have seen you recently and at least the last year. So that was so that's kind of how this came about. Yes. So speaking of that, do you want to just talk a little bit about your background, who you are? You can talk about how you know me if you want. But just let's give the listeners a sense of of who are Heather and Mike. Heather, you want to pick it off? Sure. I'm Heather. And I, let's see, I've known you since, let's see, I've known your sister since preschool. So I've probably known you most of that time.

[00:02:05] Yeah. I was just thinking recently about the time that Jordan and I came up and visited you in New York. Oh, yes. Gosh. What year was that? That was 2000, I think. Oh, okay. So I will have, oh, God, everybody's gonna know how old I am exactly. I will just graduate from college. You will have just graduated from high school at that point. Okay. Yes. It taught me that not every apartment is like the one in Friends. No, it's not. No, it's not.

[00:02:35] But this, I've been going to Disney for a long time. My parents used to take us down to Florida every year for Easter and every now and then they would take us to Disney for a day trip. Since we got married and we went to Disney for our honeymoon in 2004, we've kind of become Disney people. Yeah. After we got jobs and was able to, you know, we're able to afford these sort of things. Yeah. Well, Mike, where did your love of Disney start? Has it been since you were a kid?

[00:03:02] You could say that. I remember one of my fonder memories was when The Lion King came out and I begged my mom to order The Lion King on QVC. Oh, wow. So I don't know how many listeners remember QVC, but... It's, no, Mike, it's still on. Oh, my God. Is it really? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's just most people, I would, I don't know, I'm making a guess here, but I think most people are on the list. Most people don't have cable anymore because they use all the streaming services.

[00:03:30] But yeah, we have direct TV as one of our services because, you know, we cancel cable and then we added everything back in and now it's like just as expensive as it was before. Well, yeah. But QVC is one of those channels. Okay. Well then, all right. So QVC is still a thing. That is great news, I think. So, but yeah, I remember doing that. I remember certain other like movies that we used to watch are Little Mermaid, things like that. But it's funny because my parents were not Disney people at all.

[00:03:58] I wasn't really raised in a Disney house. I will say one of my fonder memories though was my uncle lived in Florida and worked for an airline and he went to Disney a lot. So he would bring back little, just little trinkets to let me know it was there. I have like a really old vintage like key chain from Walt Disney World, a little tiny pin flashlight. So it's just little things like that. Just let me know Disney was there.

[00:04:24] And then I think it was when we, when we got married and we talked about it or we talked about it and got married. We ended up going to Disney World for our honeymoon. I have a hard time remembering it now. But I do remember like now that we've gone, there's all these changes and all these things like, I don't remember this, but this is pretty cool now. So our first trip, Hollywood Studios was still MGM. The first time I went actually was with the band on the band trip where we, we did the Main Street Parade.

[00:04:54] And every once in a while, you know, as many times as I've been now after all these years, I sometimes will get a flash of that trip. And it's usually waiting in line for things. When I'm walking up the ramp to go into Spaceship Earth, for whatever reason, I flash back to walking up that ramp with, with my friends from high school to ride it for the very first time. So, I don't know. That's cool. Time is funny. I always remember a trip in high school where we got to see kind of behind the scenes stuff.

[00:05:24] Mm hmm. And I got to ride Space Mountain with the lights on. Oh, I've done that. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's more terrifying with the lights on. Oh, truly. Yes. I was sure my head was going to come off. I was, I was like, I've never wanted to hold my arms up when riding that because I know they wouldn't do that. Especially like, I'm so short, like, that's not going to happen. Mm hmm. But it worries me. And then when I rode it with the lights on, I was like, this just confirms I should not raise my arms on Space Mountain. Yes. Yes, exactly.

[00:05:49] But we'd, we'd realized yesterday that the Nemo, under the sea with Nemo and friends, when we went the very first time to Disney or when we went to, you know, Epcot to the very first time, it was still, uh, what was the name of it? Just living with the seas. Under the seas. It was just a normal aquarium that was in Epcot. So that didn't even really occur to us until yesterday. We're like, Oh my God, that's, that's wild. Yeah.

[00:06:15] It's fun to see the changes and how it evolves. And also, you can still like I said, when, when I have that memory, you can still flash back to those times even as much as it changes, which I don't know, I just I love that. Um, let's, let's get into the details of this trip. So how did you decide to travel at this particular time? Is it a school break? It is spring break for our daughter.

[00:06:40] Usually when we visit Disney, we either visit in the fall or in the spring because winter is too busy and summer is too hot. So our pattern has been fall, spring, fall, spring, but not every year or even really every other year. It's just that's kind of the way it's worked out. And you mentioned your daughter. So you want to tell us a little bit about her, how old she is, and maybe like what her favorite character is. Autumn is 12.

[00:07:08] She, she started loving Disney when we took her the first time. This will be her fourth trip. I, I, you know, I think she liked Disney until we took her and then she learned how much fun the rides can be. Mm hmm. And she became fearless when it came to those rides. And she is in for it now. She loves it. Fantastic. I love that. So this is her fourth trip. I love, I love that she's turned into a Disney girl.

[00:07:34] And I, I think there's, you know, there are people who are Disney fans of the different movies. There's people who are really into the Disney channel and all of those original shows and things like that. And then there are parks obsessed people. And I would consider myself to be a parks obsessed person. I mean, I love the movies. I really do. I love the characters. You know, obviously I've fallen in love with all that, but really at the end of the day, if I had to, to say, you can only keep one of these things, it would be the parks for me.

[00:08:04] She's become more selective. I think there in her movie viewing, like one surprise when she watches Milan a lot more than we actually knew. We, we, we didn't actually even know. So she was like, Oh, I love, you know, the song or I love this. We're like, when do you watch Milan? She's like, I watch it all the time. That's, that's the funny thing about kids. Sometimes I am like talking to Alex about a movie that I assume he's never seen before.

[00:08:27] And I forget that, you know, he has times when he's like sitting in his room and I'm not in there and he's watching movies. And he'll be like, Oh yeah, I saw that already. Like we were trying to figure out like a movie to watch last night. I looked up like greatest movies of all time. And I would name something. He's like, Oh, I've already seen that. And I was like, really? And then he was like, Yeah, it's the one where blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, Oh yeah, you did actually see that you're not lying to me. What, what kind of tickets do you have for this trip?

[00:08:54] We have the regular with Park Hopper. How many days? Six days. Okay. And I know that you are also rolling in some universal to this trip. So what kind of tickets for universal? We are going to do just normal regular day tickets for that. Three days. Do you have any three? Thank you. She's she keeps up. This is kind of an experiment with how we're doing this. None of us have been to universal yet. Yeah. Exciting. Okay.

[00:09:22] And the cost of the express passes was just, yeah, it was a little bit more than what we were ready to pay for trying to get fast track on the rides. We did try to look into the Lowe's hotel for getting the complimentary tickets, but the cost still just didn't add up. And when we called back, they gave us some really good deals on just the standard ticket price and the standard room. We're staying at the endless summer. Oh, okay.

[00:09:49] It's a resort or suite or whatever the full name of it is. Yeah. It's got a long name. I have not stayed at that one before. I've typically stay at, oh gosh, what is the name of it? It's the, it's the one that sort of has the Polynesian vibe. I've stayed there a couple of times and then I've stayed at the hard rock, but endless summer, it looks cool. And I was actually, I was looking into that to consider cause I'm doing a Disney slash universal trip in July and we're staying at the hard rock for our universal portion of it.

[00:10:17] But we're flying in the day before, which I wasn't really thinking we would do. And I was like, oh, maybe we'll stay at like endless summer or something for one night before we move over. And I think cause it's a holiday week, the prices went up and I was like, I'm not going to do that just for my arrival night. So I picked something a little bit, a little bit smarter for the first night since I am splurging on, on the other hotel. Yeah. Right. So you've never been to universal before. When was the last time you were in Disney though? Fall of 2024.

[00:10:47] Yep. Okay. All right. Are you doing the Disney portion first or the universal? Universal is going to be first. Yeah. Oh good. Okay. That's how I do it too, because I like to end on Disney. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's kind of how we were thinking about it. Cause so what we're going to do is we're going to come up, we're going to drive up, so drive down. Down. Yeah. She always gets me on that one. We're going to drive down and- Wait, before you move on, I don't think you ever, we ever said where you live. Oh yeah. We're in, well, we're close to Asheville, North Carolina. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:17] We're going to get that in for everybody. Sure. Because that's going to play into like, you know, how far is your drive and all that kind of stuff. So you're driving down. Driving down. Yes. We'll, we'll hit a mid spot in Savannah and stay for the night. Okay. Cause that's about a, the map says four hours and it ends up being more like six. It usually comes down to what traffic is going to be like, but we're, we're, we're officially staying, staying in Pooler, which is a very popular, you know, spot that people stop

[00:11:45] at during Disney trips that are coming from around, you know, North Carolina, maybe Virginia, Tennessee. I know we've talked to people from Tennessee that kind of come through and then go down, but we're staying at a Drury, a new Drury hotel there. It gets really good reviews. So we're going to, we're going to give it a shot. It's, it's gotta be better than some of the other ones we've actually run across in Pooler said, cause some of those are really bad. Okay. So we're going to give this one a shot. So hopefully, and then of course, try and get into Savannah while we're there.

[00:12:13] Cause I don't know if you've ever been to Savannah, but it's. Oh, I have. Yeah. And you know, it's just a, it's such a cool place to just. Yeah. It's beautiful. Yeah. So then the idea is to wake up very early the next morning and take the rest of the drive down to universal. Okay. And we're going to try and get some universal time. Like we're hoping to get there closer to the noon ish time so that we've got half a day at one of the parks. So are you starting your drive on Friday, April the 3rd? We're starting our drive on Thursday.

[00:12:42] The 2nd. Okay. So the 3rd is the day you arrive at universal. Yeah. Right. Okay. Fantastic. We did go at that was originally. We were just going to show up and just kind of hang out, maybe do city walk. Cause we have been the city walk before, but we were thinking about just doing that. And then we were like, well, we're getting there kind of early. If we get up and really get moving, why don't we just go ahead and get that extra ticket and try and stuff in what we can, especially since they have like the Mardi Gras celebration and stuff going on right now.

[00:13:12] Oh yeah. It's that time. Okay. All right. So what part do you think you'll hit up first? It's traditional universal studios or islands of adventure. I think we're looking at universal first so that we can rope drop island of adventures on the next morning. Okay. This actually, this actually makes me realize there's a correction. We did get, I forgot. We got, we got standard tickets, but we did get the park to park tickets. I totally forgot about that. I don't know why it didn't occur to me until right now, but yeah.

[00:13:40] No, it probably occurred to you cause I was about to ask you. So there you go. Yeah. So reading my mind. So yeah, that's yeah. So we're going to try and get in and you know, I don't know if we're going to split them both in that day, but it's definitely an idea. Yeah. Okay. All right. So in terms of the universal parks, what are you both and what is autumn the most excited to see and try? Harry Potter. A hundred percent. The big reason why we hadn't been to universal before is I could never get her into Harry Potter.

[00:14:10] And then I started reading her the books and she got super excited about Harry Potter. Mm hmm. So now we've read all the books, we've seen all the movies. She loves the storyline. And so our priority because we know wait lines times are going to be really high. Our priority is anything Harry Potter. And then what we get to do outside of that is bonus. Yeah. Okay. Well, so. Except for. I'm epic. Yeah. With epic, I'm looking forward to like dark universe.

[00:14:40] So that'd be super cool. But really it's, it's, it's, this is about Harry Potter. How much research have you done on the universal parks? Are you all watching all the YouTube and all that kind of stuff to prepare? As much as we can. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's different. It's still a different vibe. It's like trying to, I don't know. It's like learning a new, you know, like a whole new language or something. Like when you've just known the Disney language, now you're trying to learn the universal language.

[00:15:09] And there's just some things that I think the other thing about universal that as we've been watching videos and looking at, of course, looking at the wait times and everything as we're figuring it out. It is a little easier to say, well, I don't think we're as interested in going over to Toon World or the Toon, Toon Land sort of thing where, you know, Popeye and everything is because we don't think Autumn's going to be super excited to write anything about Popeye the Sailor Man. I mean, do kids these days know what Popeye is? I don't know.

[00:15:39] I couldn't imagine if I told her that she would probably think I was talking about Papa or something and her grandfather or something. So it is a little easier for us to say because we're on such a short turn with Universal, it's easier for us to leave out some of these other, you know, rides and parts of the park and really just focus on, you know, the Harry Potter stuff, the curse of the mummy, maybe men in black. I don't know. Something.

[00:16:04] I mean, so we're trying to keep an eye on some of those, some of those probably more popular IP rides that we're just more aware of. Okay. So you said that Autumn is a thrill seeker. Yes. Are both of you thrill seekers? I am. To varying degrees. The only thing Autumn doesn't like is loop-de-loops, which I love a loop-de-loop and she does not like a free fall. Oh, okay. And I love a fall. Okay. Tower of Terror. Yeah.

[00:16:32] So I'll ride everything within a certain reason. Like there's still a part of me that I guess like Velocicoaster isn't on my, on my radar. Oh my God. But I might go on it. But she might go on it. Heather, go on it. It's so good. It's going to depend on wait times, but if I can, I'm going to get on that one. But I, but I do kind of have a slight interest in like Stardust Racers or something like that. Cause I feel like that's probably like a middle, that's like a middle of the middle of the road sort of coaster.

[00:17:00] But I think that's the hard thing about having a kid with you that might not want to go on a ride like that. Cause then we've got a time who can, who can go on that ride by themselves. And then what are the other two going to do while you're, while you're waiting for that ride? And her fear, her fear is not that she's worried cause she's so, she's a, she's a small kid. She's worried. She's going to fall out on a loop to loop. That is like a legit concern we've asked her. And she goes, I just don't want to fall out. Like, you're not going to fall out. She's like, no, I'm just going to slip right out and fall.

[00:17:30] I'm like, Oh my God. Well, I was like, I have irrational fears too. So I can't sit here and lecture you on it. I get, I get the fear. I really do. I mean, most loop de loops have the over the shoulder harness. Right. VelociCoaster does not. VelociCoaster is a lap bar. But the way that you're situated, it's not like a small little rinky dink lap bar.

[00:17:57] Like the, the seat that you sit in has this like plastic piece that comes up that like keeps your legs separated. And the, the bar that comes down, like goes all the way to that plastic piece. So it's like your legs are like trapped in those two openings. So I felt extremely secure on it. I've always felt like, you know, there's never been a news report that someone has fallen out of that ride. So I feel safe being on it myself. Right. Yeah.

[00:18:24] And I think, I mean, a lot of, a lot of people don't really, I don't think I realized that at the time when we first rode Rock and Roller Coaster during our honeymoon, I was not like a huge coaster fan, but I rode that and I didn't know until later on. It actually does a loop. You really don't, because you're in the dark, you don't really notice that. And so that's why I was like, well, it's, you know, that's not so bad. It says it's once you do it, kind of, kind of, and then you'd realize it later on, I guess.

[00:18:53] Because again, I did not know. It's just like, all right, that's a loop. How do all of you do with screen based rides? Because Universal has a lot of screen based rides. And those sometimes will bother people a little bit more in terms of motion sickness. So far, we've been good. I, I, I don't know. I kind of just tend to vary, I guess. When we did Guardians of the Galaxy, which I realize isn't really a screen based ride, but. Right. It has some screens. Yeah. We did it back to back.

[00:19:21] Like we got off the ride and we got right back in line and we did it again. That kind of made everybody a little motion sick. But other than that, we haven't had a lot of motion sickness. I'll tell you the one thing that, that gets me most times that I ride it is the Simpsons ride. Yeah. It's because you're just staring at a screen the entire time. It's your, like the, the motion of like your, your POV is like you're on a rollercoaster almost.

[00:19:50] And there's like smells involved. So like when baby Maggie comes on the screen, you smell baby powder. And there was just something about the combination of those things that I don't feel great every time I've ever done it. I think I've basically decided that if we are in that area, which I'm sure we will be when we go in July, they can ride it. And I'm going to sit that one out. And I'm not usually somebody who sits out rides. Usually I'm like good for anything, but I'm not going to do that to myself this time. Yeah. We finally, we did that with, um, what's the space one in Epcot?

[00:20:19] Oh, mission space. Mission space. We rode on our honeymoon and we were not okay for hours. But, but to be fair back then, it was only orange. There was no green. There was no green, uh, option. It was just get on here and, you know, regret it later. But since then we will not get on that ride because you don't want to ruin a whole day at Epcot. I mean, even green, even green. I'm like, I just don't want that memory. Cause I, I don't love either. I like every couple of years I'll do it.

[00:20:45] Cause Alex wants me to, but otherwise I'm like, no, I'm, I'm, I could never ride that again and be totally fine. The Gary Sinise days is what you refer to it as. Back when Gary Sinise is on there and you were like, oh man, Gary Sinise is sending me the space. This is awesome. And now it's like, no. Gary Sinise is making me sick. Now it's like, I hate Gary Sinise. It's this, God, not really, but still. Okay. So heading into Universal Studios first, Islands of Adventure on Saturday.

[00:21:13] Does this mean that maybe you're going to Epic on Sunday? That is correct. And that will be Easter Sunday. Yep. Okay. All right. And you said that you're going to first focus on the Harry Potter stuff, but it sounds like you want to go over into the Dark Universe section as well. And definitely Isla Burke. Yeah. We're going to try and stuff in as much of that part. Cause that's since that'll be, we're not a hundred percent. That will definitely be probably the day we're not going to do any kind of park hopping or, you know, and so it's one of those things that we're going to try and get as much done there as we can.

[00:21:43] I mean, watching the wait times so far has been, they're all over the place. I mean, that, that might be the one part where the, the wait times from what I can tell are just all over the place. Like certain rides that I expected to have longer, uh, queues or shorter and the ones I didn't expect. Battle of the Ministry one night and it was maybe eight o'clock and the wait time was like 25 minutes. I mean, the fact that this is going to be Easter weekend and a lot of people's spring

[00:22:10] break, I think you're going to have very high crowds. And as long as you go in with, with that knowledge and prepared to pivot, do whatever you can as you can. Um, I think you'll be fine. Are you staying two nights at Endless Summer or three? Three. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Yeah. So you have this whole day to, you're not going to be like, okay, now it's time to go to Disney. You've got the whole day to enjoy and then the next day you check out. Yep. Okay. All right.

[00:22:37] So when you check out of Endless Summer, where have you decided to stay for the Disney portion of your trip? Well, yeah, we decided this year it was, uh, it was, it was finally time to upgrade and splurge, uh, splurge for the deluxe. And so we will be staying at Yacht Club. Oh, wow. Okay. Exciting. I have not stayed at Yacht Club yet. It's, I've got, I think three resorts I still have yet to hit and Yacht Club is one of them. So I can't wait to hear how you like that. I have stayed at Beach Club though, which, you know, they're connected.

[00:23:06] So yeah, one, one, one's got a beach theme and it's kind of pinkish, kind of a pinkish red. The other one is more of a sailing one and kind of blue. So yeah, I mean, Yacht Club has a, like a fancier feel to it. Beach Club feels a little bit more laid back. Are you planning on getting in that pool? Because that's what everybody tries to go for. That, that was kind of the, that was, that was what influenced the decision.

[00:23:32] I was pushing a little heavier for Riviera because we've, we've stayed at Carabee Beach for the last two trips, um, just because we like the moderate and kind of being able to get the Skyliner. But I, I just liked that area. So it was kind of like Riviera seemed like the next evolution of that process. But looking at the pools, it was Riviera's pools kind of, you know, just there.

[00:23:58] But when we saw the one for Yacht, I mean, Stormalong Bay is just this massive pool. And would it go in? We were a little worried also because it was undergoing the reconstruction or refurbishment or whatever they were doing to it at the time. We were a little nervous. So that's why Riviera was still on the radar. But it, it changed, got done. And so we were like, all right, let's, let's book it. We're going to go to Stormalong Bay. I mean, everybody's excited about the lazy river. Okay. That's one thing I was going to bring up is that the lazy river, for whatever reason,

[00:24:27] is insanely deep. Like you will not be able to touch the bottom, Heather. So just know it's not a lazy river. You can walk down. It's, it's literally, it's like a real river that is lazy, I guess. But yeah, we, well, yeah, we recently found that out. I didn't know that until watching a video. Somebody was like, oh yeah, it's like 10 feet deep or something. I don't think it's that deep. Eight feet. I think, I think it's probably like six feet deep or something. It's deep enough that it's like, you know, I'm short.

[00:24:57] That's too deep for me. So anyway, you know how like with a normal lazy river, if you, if you're feeling it, you can just kind of like walk along. And I kind of like that. And this is like, no, you're making an effort to stay on your, on your inflatable there. Well, it's twofold, I think, because you got a, yes, we can't just kind of do the float with your feet hitting a little bit. Cause I, yeah, I like that too.

[00:25:22] But on the other side, it keeps like some children that are, I guess more unruly from just running around inside of it and just knocking everything over. Cause that's, that is like, we found that at like a great wolf lodge or something like that when they just kind of, it's, I don't know, it's chaos in that thing. And even the one, even the lazy river that's over at Typhoon Lagoon is kind of like that too.

[00:25:48] I welcome, I welcome the challenge of staying on my float and hopefully Autumn will also not fear. Luckily she's a good swiffer. Do you, do you think that she will be doing a lot of the water slide and will she feel comfortable going out to get on the water slide herself? Cause you have to cross the main path outside of the pool area to get across to the entrance to the water slide. Yeah. That's a good question. We will probably take her to the entrance.

[00:26:15] And I, I think that she's going to be nervous about the water slide, but I think when she does it, she's going to be hooked. She's going to be hooked on it. Yeah. Typically with her, once you pull that bandaid off, it's no holds barred after that. She just kind of, she just goes for it. So, and then, then we have the problem trying to, you know, peel her away from it. Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling that you'll take her over there, you show her, and then very quickly she'll get accustomed to walking across by herself.

[00:26:43] Like when Alex was younger and we stayed at beach club, it, I worried about it a little cause I'm like, you're going out into like the public area with the people who aren't staying here and getting to the entrance. And he was totally fine. And we just kind of like hung out in the pool where the water slide spits out so that we could see him like there he is. And then he'd get out and go do it again. And it turned out to be fine. So, all right, let's get into the day-to-day plans.

[00:27:07] So arriving on Monday, April the 6th, are you doing a park this arrival day? Yes. Okay. Which one? Well, we have, we have breakfast at Ale and Compass planned. Okay. And then by noon, we're wanting to get into Epcot. Okay. And this is what you are going to love about staying at the Yacht Club is being able to walk into International Gateway. Yes. Yeah. Okay. We're very excited about that, that opportunity, just kind of the get up and, you know, it's

[00:27:37] like you said, we're going to get up, do, or we're going to get there. We'll do Ale and Compass and then maybe, maybe pool time if there's a little bit, because it's so easy just to say, okay, well, let's, let's get ready and head on over. And then the nice thing is also because it's a deluxe resort, Monday will be extended hours at Epcot. So we don't feel so rushed to get to the park since we'll have some extra time at the end of the day. Sure. Do you think that you'll be getting multi-pass for any of your park days? We plan on it right now to do it every day. Oh, okay.

[00:28:07] So have you, your, what are we? Tomorrow he gets to book those. Tomorrow, yeah. We've already got that plan in motion too, because usually I'm drop off for school. She's going to do drop off for school and I'm going to do the crunch tomorrow of getting it all planned out. Okay. What are you aiming for, for your three pre-planned lightning lanes here? Let's see. Monday. Um, definitely guardians of the galaxy. Okay. And then we're looking. For an individual lightning lane for that one. Okay.

[00:28:36] And then we're looking to try to get test track as our tier one. Mm-hmm. And then probably living with the land and soaring for our tier twos. Because what I've noticed is with the extended evening hours, the highest wait times are for guardians and test track. So if we can get those in, then we can enjoy the lower wait times for the other rides as the park closes. Mm-hmm.

[00:29:01] I mean, what I will say is that because this is your arrival day, you might have a little bit harder time booking that as your, as a pre-planned lightning lane. Yeah. Whereas you might have a little bit more luck with a day later in the trip. So just don't, don't freak out. No, no. So fortunately, fortunately we've got a lot of Epcot time planned. Mm-hmm. So that, that, that being on purpose because of being at Yacht Club, because of the Flower and Garden Festival, you know, things like that.

[00:29:31] We, we decided to put a little bit more effort into Epcot because it's just so convenient. So. Speaking of Flower and Garden, are you going to be doing any of the booths? Hopefully, yes. We've, we've done our, we've done our studying. We've done our research. Can't name them off the top of my head, but we definitely have done a lot of the, looking at certain, certain booths that we definitely want to visit. But we're going to try and hit up at least one from every booth if we can. We've done that with food and wine before. So we're going to try that.

[00:30:01] We do have an extra with the concert series that's going on. On our arrival day, another carbon dating us, Sugar Ray is playing that evening. So. Wow. We've got it penciled in. We're going to, we don't, we don't know. I mean, we'll see. We anticipate that's going to be a more popular show, but we've got it penciled in to try and see Sugar. Okay. Wow. Sugar Ray.

[00:30:31] That's what she said. You know, she's, she's, she's really. Okay. We'll go see that. I'm way more excited about it than I should be. I'm sure. That's funny. Okay. Do you have the food and wine app? There's a separate app? Yeah. There's, there's not one that's that. Well, maybe there's one that, that Disney does, but this is a third party thing. It's an app called food and wine. And you can set it for any of the festivals.

[00:30:58] Food and wine app is one of my favorite apps because you can mark everything that you're interested in trying. And then if you go on the map version of the thing and filter it for only the things you marked you wanted, then it shows you like with little pins around World Showcase, like here's all the booths where you wanted to try things. And so it helps to organize your day. Okay. So if you go to your app store, it's just called food and wine, but don't be fooled. It's for every festival. Yeah.

[00:31:28] See, I think that's why I'd always heard about the food and wine app. And I was like, well, we're not going to food and wine. So I didn't even, I didn't know it worked for both. So that's, that's actually super helpful. Yeah. It'll automatically update. Like if you're, if you're looking at it for different times of the year, it'll say, do you want to switch festivals? And you just switch. And then if you, if you really want to get into it, you can rate the things that you try and upload photos and stuff. And then it helps other people decide what they'd like to try. I don't usually do that part of it. I just mark what I want and, and move on with my life.

[00:31:57] But, but I appreciate the people who do write reviews and stuff. So yeah, they're the, they're the unsung heroes. They really are. They really are. All right. We're running out of time. So let's run through each of the next days and kind of go through like what your lightning lane priorities are, what kind of, what kind of dining reservations you have and, and all that jazz. And if you have something that you want to specifically say, that's not within the park, then just let me know when we get to that section. So is that all for your Monday plans? Yes.

[00:32:25] The only other thing we're doing for Monday is we've got reservations for geo 82 separately because she can't, because Autumn can't go, but we're going to both try. We've, we've got separate times so we can try that out. Okay. Yes. I have not tried that yet because I've been with, with Alex, but I have a reservation for May. I'm going for a couple of days with my friend Jeanette. So we have a reservation to try that. All right. Tuesday, April the 7th, which park are you heading to? We are rope dropping animal kingdom that day. Okay.

[00:32:54] And then we definitely want to get into nomad lounge. We love that place. Oh, me too. Me too. The, the, the rope drop strategy for that one is expedition Everest. We've, we've always found that that's, that's the empty side of the park. Everybody goes to avatar. Yeah. Correct. So we go to Everest. So we've, we have found that a successful one. Yeah. We have found that to be a successful rope drop every time for the last three visits. I'd say three visits.

[00:33:22] We've done no two visits for the last two visits. It has been super successful. It's easy going. You could even write it twice if you feel so inclined. Mike, you can even write it six times. I think that's my record. Wow. All right. Well, I'm going to try that one then. Alex likes to try to write it as many times in a row back to back during rope drop as possible. And I think, I think he's done seven before and I, I hit a wall at six and I was like, I just cannot do this. It's too much.

[00:33:51] And I love Everest, but it was a little bit, a little bit much. What are the three lightning lane priorities? So we'll buy the, uh, flight of passage. Mm-hmm. And then we want to do, um, Navi river, Kilimanjaro and the Zootopia show. We feel like we'll definitely want to see a festival of the Lion King while we're there, but Zootopia show, I want to prioritize since we've never seen it. We've never, we've never had a problem getting festival just, you know, during,

[00:34:17] during any of those times, but we're, we're trying to commit more time to Animal Kingdom this, this time around and not doing it, not treating it as the half day part. We're going to try and really put some effort into it. It is a day where we've booked some pool time because we figure, you know, we can wrap it up there and then maybe get some pool time in. In the evening, the pool time? Yeah. Okay. So no Monday break for this day. No. We'll probably, yeah, we're going to go as far as we can pool time, maybe Disney Springs

[00:34:44] that afternoon or that, that later that evening, cause we do have reservations. We have reservations at the Boathouse. Okay. What time is your Boathouse reservation? Eight o'clock. Okay. All right. Wednesday, April the 8th, which, uh, which park are you heading to? Magic Kingdom. All right. So we're going to do breakfast at Garden Grill, actually at Epcot. Ooh. And then. Okay. The idea is a monorail crawl to Magic Kingdom for the day. Mm-hmm. And again, we're doing Magic Kingdom on Wednesday because we're deluxe resort and we get the extended hours.

[00:35:14] And so we don't feel the need to be there as early since we'll have some time later in the evening. Okay. And then we have a Beacon Barrel reservation at 440. Okay. So far, I have not heard hopping happening. Are you planning to do? We have that later. Well, I mean, that's today. I mean, that is today because we're leaving Epcot. On Wednesday, we'll start at Epcot with the Garden Grill. Oh, yes. That's true. The Garden Grill. We'll monorail crawl over to Magic Kingdom. Yes, that is true. Okay.

[00:35:43] Beacon Barrel was at 440. Okay. And this will be your first time at Beacon Barrel, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. Exciting. I've been there once. It's very cute. Have you done Garden Grill for breakfast before? We've done it for... No, not for breakfast. We did it for lunch last time. Okay. I love it for breakfast. I do. Yeah, we're really looking forward to it. Yeah, we're doing a lot more breakfast this time around than we are like dinners and stuff like that. Like as far as like fancier, like we're not doing Le Cellier this time.

[00:36:12] And this time, try and be a little bit more focused on trying newer things instead of going back and doing the same thing. So even though we're doing Garden Grill again. That's true. Lightning lane priorities this day. All right. We will buy the Seven Dwarves Mine Trade and Tron. Okay. And then our tier one, it's going to be a toss up between Jungle Cruise and Tiana. So kind of whatever we can get into. Okay. And then for tier two, Haunted Mansion and I think Pirates. Okay.

[00:36:40] Though I believe we've talked about refocusing this day maybe a little bit and trying to hit a ride over at Epcot early, like doing one for Epcot. I think you and I talked about this the other day, kind of upping for Epcot so we can unlock the tiers by hitting one at Epcot, just whatever random thing, like a spaceship Earth or something on the way out to the monorail. Okay. But that wouldn't be one of your original lightning lane priorities. I mean, you wouldn't pre-book that because you pre-booked that.

[00:37:08] You're kind of locked yourself into Epcot for your pre-selection. Just a point. Yeah. Well, I thought, yeah, I thought, but if you hit one, maybe I'm wrong. Okay. No, only if it was one of your lightning lanes. So if you scan into your lightning lane, then you can go ahead and book the next one. And like, if you scan into a Magic Kingdom one, then your next lightning lane that you book could be at any of the parks. Right. It has to be at the one that you originally made your lightning lane for. Oh, okay. We want to book Magic Kingdom. Maybe that's why.

[00:37:38] Maybe that's why. Maybe that's why. It's the way it is. Maybe I already thought through that process or something. I always try to get too clever. That's... It might be my downfall. Have you all ridden Tron before? Multiple. We've done both day and night. Okay. I made the mistake of locking my Magic Band into the locker. Oh, no. Before we went on the ride. And then I had to get a cast member to help me get into my locker. While we were trying to get to the fireworks. No, we were trying to get over to Tiana's because there were like minutes from closing. That's right.

[00:38:08] I forgot about that. Oh, my goodness. The one time we rode Tiana's by ourselves. Nobody on it. Nobody. Like, we were those people that pulled up five minutes before the closing, but there was nobody on it. It was like a completely empty ride. Alex and I, one time, rode Big Thunder Mountain. And it wasn't closing time or anything, but we were in line. And for whatever reason, they put us into the last car of Big Thunder. And then they did not fill up any other seats. They let ours go.

[00:38:37] And so he and I rode it, the two of us, in the very back by ourselves. And you would think we had won the lottery. We were like, this is the best. It was so much fun. And I was like, people probably wonder who we are. Like, maybe they think we're famous or something because we get to ride this by ourselves. Yeah. And then just stare at everybody when you get off. Like, just with this air of arrogance. Put my sunglasses on. Like, don't look at me. Oh, that's funny. All right. Thursday, April 9th. What is the park plan that day?

[00:39:07] We are rope dropping Hollywood Studios. And then Mike has a reservation to build a lightsaber. His, what, third? My third lightsaber. Yes, yes, yes. We have reservations at Oga's. At 530. And then it looks like we want to do a Skyliner crawl before our dinner at Yacht Club. But, yeah. If I remember correctly, and if I remember correctly, this one is we're going back, because we're going to go back to Epcot. Yeah. And hang around Epcot for a while until our dinner, Rezzy.

[00:39:37] Yeah. Okay, where's your dinner reservation, did you say? Yacht Club? Yeah, at the Ailing Compass. Oh, at Ailing Compass. Yeah. Yeah. I had to, right? No. No, not Ailing Compass. Yachtsman. The Yachtsman. Oh, Yachtsman State House. Okay, okay. She has Yacht Club dinner here, so it kind of like threw me for a minute. I was like, wait, what is Yacht Club dinner? Is that at 530, or was there something else that I... 530 is Oga's. At Oga's. Okay. All right. And I imagine that you all have been to Oga's many times. Yeah, we actually...

[00:40:06] The whole thing about this day in particular is we have friends, a friend, an old co-worker that's going to show up in the park this day, so we're kind of keeping it a little open-ended because he's a huge Star Wars fan. So we're going to meet up with them for maybe try and get a full crew for Smuggler's Run. Okay. We'll see. What do you think you'll try to rope drop? We were Slinky Dog, right? No, we were going to rope drop Mickey's and Minnie and try and get a Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog. Okay. Okay.

[00:40:34] So your multi-pass priorities this day are Slinky, and what else? We're going to buy Rise of the Resistance, and then I've got Tower of Terror, and then I've got Indiana Jones and Villain Show highlighted, so it'll be what we can get between those two. Okay. Okay. Theoretically, we don't need to use a tier for the Indiana Jones show. Yeah. Right. Just walk on.

[00:41:03] And I may be the only one that wants to go on Tower of Terror. Okay. I'd love Tower of Terror. I know. I want to go on it, but we'll just see how it works out with her. Because, yeah, she was terrified of that. Autumn was terrified of that last time, so she did not like lifting out of her seat. Well, you could all do the line together, like have it where you all tap in, and then when you get up to the front, they have a chicken exit where she can go through. The cast member will show her.

[00:41:33] As long as she felt comfortable going in, and I think you ride a normal elevator down, like the kind where you're just standing there, there's no seats or anything. You ride it down, and then she just waits for you at the exit. And it's such a short ride, and you'd be at the front of the line then anyway. The most you would need to wait probably would be like three or four minutes while you did the ride. And then you're meeting her right in that little area where you pop out. So Disney will let her be alone that long? Yeah. She's 12. Yeah.

[00:42:03] He didn't ride it for years, and now it's one of his favorite rides. So it wasn't trauma for life. Yeah. You know what happened is we got him on Rock and Roller Coaster, and I was like, if you can do this, I think you should give Tower of Terror another try. And I said, Alex, I know you, and I really think you're going to like it. And so we rode it, and we went, and we were doing the first drop, and I hear him next to me yell, oh my god, I love this.

[00:42:32] So it was good. It's all good now. So yeah, I would recommend that. Just tell her like when you get in line, you're not going to do it. You're just going to be with us in line, and then they'll take you downstairs. And yeah. Okay. We'll definitely. That way you can tap her in and like move on to the next lightning lane as you're in line. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even really think about that. So yeah. All right. Friday, April 10th. Which park this day? We are starting the day with a breakfast at Ohana. Ooh, okay. And then that's at 8.50.

[00:43:00] Then we thought that we would wander around Disney Springs for a bit, and then we're going to split the rest of our day between Epcot and Hollywood Studios, ending the day at Hollywood Studios so that we can see Fantasmic. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I love this because this is kind of leaving things more open and just whatever you feel like doing. Are you doing lightning lanes this day because of that? We will, but we just don't have any kind of real prioritization. Yeah.

[00:43:26] We'll probably start booking something at Epcot since we'll start the day. Yeah. We're going to start the day at Epcot. It's one of those things that- And then we can move it around. Because we've got to move it around. Wait. You're starting the day at Epcot? Well, not starting it, but that'll be the first- When you get there. Okay. Got it. Okay. It'll probably go into it, so we'll get the lightning lanes most likely just to- Just to book something. Wait. I think if I remember correctly, our original line of thinking with this one was, we're

[00:43:54] going to see what we have ridden at this point and what we're missing, if there's anything we're missing or if there's anything we want to prioritize. So it's got to- That's definitely just the up in the air. I would try for- If you're buying it anyway, I would try for Test Track this day. And in fact, I would say when you go in to book, book this day first and then go back to your first day. Oh yeah. I see what you're saying. Because then you could lock it in and then you could pick a different tier one for your first day.

[00:44:23] Or maybe it'll be available the first day too, but I'm guessing it may not be because it's so early in your trip. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things that, because while it'll be great to have the extended hours, we can't count on the extended hours to really provide easy access to rides. It's a hope, not a- Right. My experience with extended hours at Epcot is that the line for Test Track is very long.

[00:44:51] And so you're just basically spending your whole time there. Yeah. Which you don't want to do. You know? No. No. I don't like waiting in lines. No. If there's an opportunity to pay to not be in the line, I'm taking it. Why do you think Universal has us so terrified? We're going to be so terrified because we usually don't stand in regular lines. So we're just going to get the sunscreen out and be ready. Okay. So we'll see what happens with that. We're not even going to go through the priorities since you're going to figure that one out as you go.

[00:45:20] What's the park for Saturday? Okay. So Saturday, we've got to... We'll be checking out of our hotel Saturday. So we've got to get the car packed up. And then we figure we're going to start at Epcot. And this is another kind of what have we missed day. We can... Pretty much the only park that's not on the table is Animal Kingdom. So we're going to kind of wherever we feel like going. And then we need to be heading out of town by three o'clock because we've got to head back home. Okay. Sadly.

[00:45:49] So we did this where we hit Magic Kingdom on the day we were leaving. So the plan was we're going to leave by three o'clock. And then we got kind of obsessed with finding a popcorn bucket that might have been available around five. I don't want to talk about this. So we didn't leave the park till like five. We weren't getting to Savannah to our hotel, our halfway hotel until almost midnight. This is a raw memory for that popcorn bucket. I don't want to talk about that.

[00:46:17] Uh, but no, but funny enough in that day, we were able to ride pretty much every single thing. And that same day was the day that Jungle Cruise, we actually were going back because of Jungle Cruise too. When they reopened. That's when Jungle Cruise reopened in 2024 after that, after its refurbishment. And we opened on that day that we were leaving. So we did get a lane to get on Jungle Cruise.

[00:46:46] And so that was actually kind of cool to catch Jungle Cruise right there at the end. But other than that, we, we somehow were able to almost ride everything at Magic Kingdom that day, at least, you know, the, the rides that we, we wanted to ride with very little problem. It was so weird. We were just really, so we didn't mean for that day to turn into such a. I think that's why that and the popcorn bucket was why it took us so long to get out the popcorn bucket. Heather, quit, quit triggering him with the popcorn bucket. She's really, she's really just after me today. I don't know.

[00:47:15] I gotta, I gotta dig it in so it doesn't happen again. That's true. That's funny. So essentially you're going to decide which park you're going to go to sort of midway through your trip. You're going to be thinking about which one you'll go to. Will you pre-book any lightning lanes or you're just not going to do lightning lanes at all this last day? I think we may not do lightning lanes. If I pre-book anything when I'm going in tomorrow, it would just be stuff to go ahead and start like an Epcot.

[00:47:40] Cause I, I think it would just to go ahead and unlock every, you know, unlock it, go in, go in and casually. Cause the last time I do recall the last time we went with a kind of a no agenda to Epcot early on, we went and got some crepes over, um, you know, over France and then we just hung out. And that's what something we're trying to replicate is kind of a chill go enjoy. I mean, that's like the overall theme of this trip is, which is why it sounds kind of, kind

[00:48:08] of loosey goosey in some areas, but we're just trying to go and go with the flow a little bit more. So I'm less stressed out and not kind of hanging my head over a railing like I did last time when the Skyliner shut down and it ruined, it almost ruined our plans. So we get, we got a little overbooked last time. When you get overbooked, it's hard to pivot when something goes awry. And that's what we learned from that. I'm going to make a recommendation and you can follow it or not follow it.

[00:48:37] But my recommendation would be to not get multi-pass for this last day, because if you pay for multi-pass for three people, your feeling is probably going to be, we need to get our money's worth out of this day because we paid for it. And because you need to hit the road by 3 p.m., if it were me, I would probably pop into Epcot and get breakfast, like you said. Like there's nothing like rolling up to France and just getting your breakfast there and then rolling right back out.

[00:49:04] And then maybe have decided, okay, there's this one thing we want to do again. And then that's your priority. And anything else you do above and beyond that is just icing on the cake so that you can feel more relaxed in that last day. Because if you're running around like chickens with your heads cut off and planning to hit the road and drive, that doesn't sound very relaxing to me as a way to finish out your vacation. No, it wasn't.

[00:49:30] I mean, we had fun, but it was not getting, getting into Georgia at, you know, like you said, midnight was not fun. Like, cause we were like scrambling around to get food before we even got that and ended up at some crappy place. So it's no, I mean, this, this is a good point. So yeah. So you talk about it in this vacuum of our, of us. And so, you know, finally telling somebody else the plans cause nobody else wants to hear our plans. Like nobody, nobody around here cares that we go to Disney. Oh, you're going to Disney. Everybody's listening to this cares about your plans.

[00:50:00] Oh no, no. I assume they do. But it's like around here, we haven't, you know, everybody, even though it's funny, our neighbors are going at the exact same time, but they also don't care about our plans essentially cause they're, they've kind of got a whole family, big family thing going, but it's one of those things that we're, it's, it's good to talk to you about that. And that's a great recommendation. Yeah. As much as you literally two minutes ago, Heather said that you wanted to feel a little bit

[00:50:28] more chill about things like every single day you've got plans. So I'm not hearing that in what you've actually done. So I would save that for your last day and be like, this is our go with the flow day. Now universal will feel more go with the flow because you're not going to be booking it. You're just going to ride what you want to ride when you want to ride it. So, um, I think, I think to make a good point though, for us is that relax, when we say relaxing, we still have to be doing things.

[00:50:57] We don't actually relax. There's no such thing as that to us. We've tried relax. That's why we, we were going to go to Hawaii for our anniversary at one point, but we were like, that sounds boring. What would we do there? We're going to just, we're just going to lay there and not do anything. No, we got to be moving. So maybe when we say relaxing, we mean just not, not, yeah, not having a panic attack. Okay. Have you all ever been to Disneyland? Disneyland? No, we, we had put it on the books once. We were supposed to a couple of times, but we keep saying, oh, let's just go to Disney World. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:27] You should go at some point in your life, but yeah. Yeah. We're waiting at this point now. We're kind of possibly taking a break after this to do a little bit more international travel. But for, for what it's worth, we'd probably end up going to Japan and going to, you know, the Disney stuff out there. But another thing I'm waiting on at Disney is for them to refurbish a lot of the Avengers, Avengers Campus stuff because they're, and they're getting ready to add what, a couple of rides to that.

[00:51:53] So it's gotta be nice to catch some of that stuff after it's done instead of trying to go before it gets completed. And then we're, you know, not go again for like 10 years or something. Yeah. The good thing about Disneyland is that you could probably do, you know, as, as Disney fans who are going to want to soak everything in, you could do three days there and be good. I think that's what I've always thought. If we did it, it would be three days. Yeah. And I think we talked about that last week because we want to do some, you know, while we're on the West coast, check out a couple other places.

[00:52:23] Go to Universal Hollywood. Yeah. You know, that's the real, that's the real Hollywood. We don't need to go see the other part. Oh my goodness. Okay. Well, I think I have all of your details here and I'm really excited to hear how this trip goes. And even more so since you, you all are such old friends, just a delight to be able to talk to you all about your trip plans. And so it's like even more exciting for me to hear like how everything's going to work out for you. And then we'll talk when you get back.

[00:52:52] So take some good notes and, and take a lot of pictures and talk to you then. Yeah. We're going to definitely get as much video and stuff maybe for our, for our Instagram stuff. I don't know. Oh yeah. No, we didn't even talk about that. Can you real quick before we go tell everybody about your Instagram channel? Yeah. We're big meme, Disney meme people with Disney, just fun. We'd like to share funny stuff. Uh, we've tried doing some more serious content with it and we're, we're still redoing it,

[00:53:21] thinking about it, but it's a Disney Mountaineers, just one long word, Disney Mountaineers as it's spelled. No clever ears at the end, even though that probably would have been pretty cool. And that's on Instagram and Tik TOK. I will link to that in the show notes so that everybody can, can find it easily. Otherwise I will talk to you when you get back. Have a magical trip. Thank you. Thank you to both Heather and Mike listeners. The post-trip episode should be next up in your queue.

[00:53:47] If you're subscribed in the podcast app of your choice, if you're looking for more trip reports that incorporate universal studios, this is your reminder that if you go to my website, which is where I long to be podcast.com, you can click on the episodes tab and then click on universal studios, either Florida or Hollywood. I have trip reports for both. Thank you all for tuning in and please remember to share the show with others, rate and review and reach out to tell me if you have any comments you want to share.

[00:54:16] I always love hearing from you. And with that, keep daydreaming about where you long to be.