Pre-Trip Report: Mariah’s Delightful DVC Split Stay (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. Thank you for tuning in and for all of you in the US, I hope you are able to take a moment today to reflect and recognize Memorial Day. I very much appreciate everyone who has given their lives for our country and I'm especially thinking of the families who are missing those servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. On today's show, I am welcoming back return guest Mariah. Mariah was

[00:00:41] last on the show about a year ago when she and her family including husband Matt, daughter Hallie, and son Brooks were taking their very first trip as newly minted DVC members. Now they are heading back for another DVC trip. Please welcome back Mariah. Welcome back Mariah. Thank you. I last spoke with you about a year ago. So am I correct that Hallie is now seven and Brooks is three? Yes. Why do they keep getting bigger? I didn't tell

[00:01:11] them they could do that. I know. I know. It's funny how time works that way. But I'm here to tell you as somebody who has a 15 year old, almost 16 year old at this point, it does not stop and only speeds up. So man, I know. I know. It's crazy. I just got together with a friend yesterday actually for dinner and Alex and her daughter met when they were like six months old in Gymboree class. And that's how we became friends. And we're still friends all these years later. And we were just like,

[00:01:41] how did this happen? Because we were talking about the fact that they are both about to be old enough to get their learner's permits. And they are both starting to think about, you know, what colleges they might be interested in because next year, junior year is the year they have to start touring. And I just I can't even fathom how this has happened. So just I know they say treasure every moment. And it's hard because like, you know, what do they say?

[00:02:09] The days are long, but the nights are short or something like that. The years are short. The years are short. There we go. And there are certainly moments where you're like, why should I treasure this moment? But it's going to go by so fast that you'll even look back on those times and be like, what I wouldn't give to just, you know, experience that one more time. Yes, for sure. So this trip you have coming up is this your the next trip you've taken since the last time we spoke? Or have there been any trips in between?

[00:02:37] No, this is the this will be our first trip since the last time we spoke, we tend to go about once a year. So we like going in the spring, the weather is beautiful. So we're really excited to get back. And the last time you had gone, it was your very first DVC stay. Yes, it was. So am I correct that you are going to be staying in a DVC property for this go round? Okay, yes, we are. We are doing a split stay. We're going to stay at the Grand Floridian for the first part of our

[00:03:07] day. And then back to our favorite home resort Riviera for the second part. Okay. Did you do a split because you wanted to do a split? Or was it because you're trying to try new resorts and you could only get Grand for a certain number of days? We want to try new resorts. Our goal is obviously to try them all. And Matt is really hesitant to try new ones. So he thought if we did a split stay where we would end the trip with something we know that we love, that's a good way to like test the waters, which I can't imagine we're not going to love the

[00:03:36] Grand Floridian. I think we could have done a whole week there, but it is hard to get an entire week at that seven month window. So this did make it easier for sure. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I have done split stays for the reason of not being able to necessarily get the whole week at the seven month mark. But I agree with your theory on doing the part that you know for a fact you're going to love at the end because then you have that to look forward to.

[00:04:00] All right. So your trip is going to be April the 4th, which is a Saturday through April the 12th? April 6th, Monday is when we start. Oh, okay. Through April 12th. Yes. Okay. For some reason I wrote down the 4th. I just I want you to be there longer. I want you to- I wish we could be. Enjoy it all. Okay. So April the 6th, a Monday, and you live in Kentucky. So are you flying this go-around?

[00:04:28] We are flying this go-around. I think that was one thing. We wrote down a few things after our last trip of things we'd like to do differently. Number one was fly. With the current TSA, we may regret that, but we're going to try it. So yes, we are flying. What airport do you fly out of? We fly out of Nashville, BNA. So it's about an hour drive down to Nashville, park the car, and then fly out. Okay. And what time does your flight leave?

[00:04:56] Our flight leaves at 9 o'clock in the morning. So we'll be up early, 5 a.m. is what I'm hoping. We can try to get on the road because it'll also be Monday, rush hour traffic, trying to get to Nashville. So we're going to try to beat all that. Okay. And so what time does that put you into MCO? About 11? Around noon. Yeah. Yeah. We lose in hours. You know, different time zones. So about noon, when we land.

[00:05:21] I forgot about time zones. They exist. Okay. All right. So that gives you half the day to enjoy. Are you going to make this a park day? No, we are not. We're going to try to build in some rest time. I know I'm not very good at that, but we're going to try to build in some rest time. So this is a built-in rest time, explore the resort, pool. Hallie loves the pool. So that's what we're going to do this day.

[00:05:48] What kind of tickets did you opt for? So they had a deal with the Disney Plus subscribers where it was like a three park, three day. So originally we were going to do three days park hoppers. We don't really like park hopping. We like kind of just doing one park per day. So when they came up with that deal, it was actually cheaper to do three days, three parks, and then add on. It doesn't include Magic Kingdom. So we added on a one day Magic Kingdom and that was the same price as a three

[00:06:15] park hopper. All right. Then that definitely makes it worth it then. Yeah. Yeah. I was excited. Okay. All right. So for your three park, three day deal, do you have to do all of those days consecutively before you do your Magic Kingdom day or can you like intersperse? How does that work? There was a timeframe for like how you could spread them over. I think it was like five days where you could spread the tickets over. The also good thing about doing a split stay where you do kind

[00:06:44] of like the Magic Kingdom area and then the Epcot area is that if you plan your park days well, you can kind of plan your transportation. We prefer not to use the Disney buses. So we're going to do Magic Kingdom in the Grand Floridian time and then we'll do Epcot Hollywood Studios when we're at the Riviera. Okay. So you've already mentioned that you want to build in some rest time and you want to try to not be so go, go, go on this trip. What are your other priorities?

[00:07:13] Yeah. We are doing the dining plan for the first time this trip. And so we love to eat good food. We're big foodies. My kids are very adventurous eaters. They are very spoiled. They love to get a fancy special drink at every meal. And so I think the dining plan will be a good opportunity for us this trip to try some new things. I won't have to say no or make them share like a specialty drink or

[00:07:38] snacks or something like that. And they were doing the deal where the kids eat free for this year for the dining plan. So my kids are three and seven. The deal was three to nine eats free. So this will be perfect. We haven't had to pay for Brooks before this year. So that added cost in really helps with the dining plan. I am a huge nerd. I keep tons of spreadsheets of all of our Disney trips. That's what keeps me going the whole year up until my next trip. And so I'm really excited. Yeah,

[00:08:08] I'm going to try to beat the dining plan. I know a lot of people are like, well, it's it's hard to beat it or it's stressful, but it's fun for me like this is fun. So I'll keep a spreadsheet of what we would have spent if we had bought those meals out of pocket versus the dining plan. And then I have last year's spreadsheet to kind of compare like what we would normally spend if we weren't doing the dining plan at all. So we'll see if the Durham's can come out ahead. Okay, I feel like you're up to

[00:08:33] the challenge. And if you're looking at it like a game, and you don't, it's just like for you know, science. It's not like you're going to be like, oh, beating yourself up if you if you don't win per se. Yeah. Then yeah, good luck to you. All right, any other priorities on this go round? Like, are there any rides that maybe the kids weren't tall enough for last time that you're hoping to prioritize this time? Yeah, Brooks has definitely had a growth spurt. And we are not

[00:09:03] a roller coaster family myself. I am not a roller coaster person. Matt loves them and he will do them. Hallie and I both tried Slinky Dog on our first trip. And we both said never again, we did not like it. But Hallie's cousin went down to Disney for the first time this year and rode Flight of Passage and absolutely loved it. And Hallie has convinced herself that she wants to ride Flight

[00:09:27] of Passage this trip. So I'm not sure how that's gonna go. We will try it. But that's, that's something on her to do list that she wants to try. And I want to be brave with her and got like all the things. So like the scopalamine patches, the meclizine, the C bands, all the things. Zofran, I'm gonna be all drugged up trying to ride Flight of Passage with her and we'll see how it goes. Okay, well,

[00:09:53] I mean, one thing about Flight of Passage is even though it is thrilling is it's, it's, you know, a simulation ride. So I think in terms of like bravery, that makes it a little bit easier for her to, to potentially do for the first time. Now you with motion sickness or whatever you're going to be dealing with might be a different story. Just close my eyes, right? Like it's, it's all a simulation. So I'll just close my eyes if I have to. Well, it's simulation, but also the room itself

[00:10:22] moves. Okay. So well, I'm trying to think, is it the room? Is it the floor? What exactly is moving? But if you did happen to turn your head and look backwards while you're riding, you would see that the the back wall where you can put your bags and things while you're riding is moving around. So yes, it's simulated in that it's a screen, but the platform that you're on or something is, is kind of like raising up and down to give you that sense of motion as well as what you're looking at.

[00:10:52] But I think if you close your eyes, you'd probably be okay. Yeah. Matt's kind of worried he's gonna have to like come in there and get me with a wheelchair at the end of it, but we'll see. Well, maybe just plan your timing of it so that it's kind of towards the end of your part time there. Yeah, that's like the last thing we're gonna do. And we'll just see how it goes. We're gonna try Soarin first. I've heard that that's, you know, a baby version. We'll see. I've never

[00:11:16] done that before either. So yeah, definitely a baby version. Okay. Are you going to be doing any other kind of what I'll call upgrades this go around? For example, do you plan on getting multi-pass? Yes, we will. Last trip, we were really trying to be strategic in which days we got the lightning lanes. And so we didn't get lightning lanes for every day. And it just ended up being more stressful because then we could rope drop everything. But then you kind of rope drop all the rides in the

[00:11:45] morning. And then the rest of the day, we weren't really doing a lot of rides and we were doing more shows. And with the kids, it's easier if you kind of break it up, do a show and then a ride and then a snack and then etc. So we have budgeted in to just get multi-pass every day. And I love rope dropping. That's like part of the fun for me to get there early to be the first one in the parking lot. But one of Matt's requests was that we don't rope drop every day. So we're only gonna rope drop Epcot.

[00:12:13] The rest of the days, our kids are up early. We'll be in the parks early, but we are not going to try to beat the rope. Okay, the other days. Okay, yeah, that sounds like a good plan. All right, let's get into all of your day to day fun and find out what kind of dining reservations you have. And let's see what multi pass priorities you're going to have for each park. But starting with Monday, the six, you said you're going to explore the resort. Do you think you'll do anything besides

[00:12:39] explore the resort? Like maybe go to Disney Springs or walk over to the Polynesian or watch fireworks from the beach or anything like that? Yeah, you got it. Those are great. Those are great ideas. We're going to avoid Disney Springs. I think this trip, we went last trip and we loved it. It was like one of our favorite days. But this is expected to be like one of the busiest weeks of the year. And so with thinking about high crowd areas, we could try to avoid. I think we're

[00:13:05] just going to skip Disney Springs this trip. We'll see. Maybe maybe we change our mind once we're there. But we do have a dinner reservation at Wailulu Grill, which I am super excited about. We've never been. So I'm really excited about that. I think we can probably just walk over there from the Grand Floridian. Yeah. And so that is at 8pm. And fireworks are at 930. So we're hoping we can just hang around on the beach and watch the fireworks from the beach that night. Okay, yeah, you can

[00:13:32] definitely walk over there. It's a super easy walk. And it will be very nice to walk along the water in the evening. Okay. All right. So Tuesday, April 7. Which park are you starting at? You said Magic Kingdom? Yes, we're going to start at Magic Kingdom. So this is our where we like bought it for this particular day. And poor Brooks, the whole time he's been so excited to ride Buzz. And it comes back up on the 8th. So like the next day. So we're gonna miss it. But I think it'll be okay. I don't I don't

[00:14:01] think you'll really realize that we're missing it. Hopefully. So I mean, I'm gonna cross my fingers that you get some Disney magic and maybe they do some previews for people. Like I know that influencer previews. And I think they're doing cast member previews. Yeah, I think that's really early. They're doing a lot of previews. I don't I think they should just go ahead and open it up. We should just go ahead and do it. So we'll see. Yeah. Okay. If that's the case, then we'll rope drop that. If not,

[00:14:28] then we'll just go to the castle, take some pictures, Starbucks on Main Street, kind of leisurely walk our way in. All right, which multi-pass are you planning on booking for Magic Kingdom? We're going to try to get poo and jungle cruise. And then I'll try to get a burner for the morning just so I can start churning those out. So Little Mermaid or Dumbo or Barnstormer. Both kids really want to ride Barnstormer. So that'll

[00:14:55] be kind of our first test of how the how the speed goes with Brooks. He's not been tall enough to ride anything yet. So this is his first trip to see how he does. I think he'll like those things. He likes going fast. He's a little bit more adventurous than Hallie is. So I think he might be Matt's little thrill buddy. Cute. All right. Yeah, I will look forward to hearing how he likes that and what what the look on his face was when he realized what it feels like to be on a roller coaster. Yeah. Will you do

[00:15:23] Barnstormer? Maybe? I think I can do it. It's quick, right? It's oh my god. It's like I can do it 30 seconds. I mean, it's probably more than 30 seconds. But it feels it feels super short. Yeah, I'll do it with him. If Brooks decides he wants to do it, then surely I can do it too. Okay, do you have any dining reservations this day? We don't for the morning. I think we're probably going to snack around and get some quick service maybe for lunch. I am going to try to do Enchanted Tales with Belle.

[00:15:51] That's our priority for the day. We try to do it last four trips. We have never been able to do it. Something has always gone wrong. So you know, fifth time's the charm. We're going to try to do it. So that is the priority. So we're going to rope drop that it starts at 1030. We're going to be there at 1030. Hopefully it opens. If not, then we'll keep trying to get that in. But then we'll do our normal break for naps. We Brooks still takes a nap. I love to take a midday break and take a nap and

[00:16:19] recharge as well. So since we're going back to the Grand Floridian to get a rest in, we're going to do dinner at 1900 Park Fair around five o'clock. I thought that would be nice to get some characters in. Since you don't get the lightning lanes for characters anymore, it's hard to stand in those lines and wait for characters. I really like doing the character meals, get a lot of characters in that way. Yeah. And that's a good one to see a variety of characters. Yeah, we've never done that before.

[00:16:47] So that'll be something new for us too. Yeah, I haven't done it since they changed the characters. I did it, you know, previously pre pre COVID, I guess. Okay, any other specific things you're going to do this day? Like will you stay for happily ever after? I want to try to stay for the starlight parade. I think the kids would really enjoy that. I think that'll be fun. So our plan is after dinner to go back into the parks, maybe hit jungle cruise and pirates kind of the left side of the park,

[00:17:14] and then find a spot for the parade and watch starlight parade. If they're doing really well, then we'll stay and watch happily ever after. If not, hopefully, we watched them from the beach the night before so we could we could head back out if we need to between the parade and fireworks. All right, Wednesday, April the 8th. What is the plan there? Okay, so this is going to be another rest day. This is when we're going to transfer from Grand Floridian to Riviera. And so

[00:17:38] we're going to not try to plan too much for this day, some pool time, exploring the Grand Floridian, maybe do the arcades. I think I want to try to walk over to the Poly and eat Captain Cook's for lunch. I know you love Captain Cook's and we've never been over there to eat there. So I think that'll be good. If not, then we'll just eat quick service at Grand Floridian if we don't want to walk over there. Okay. And then you can get a Dole Whip while you're at the Poly. Yes, yes. Hallie's really

[00:18:07] excited. She wants to get a Dole Whip, but that's on her bingo card too. And then we're going to do another first. We're going to get a minivan to the Riviera. I didn't say this in the beginning, but we're not renting a car this time. Every time that we've flown to Disney, we've rented a car or we've driven. So we've always had a car for transportation and it was really expensive to rent a car. So I priced it out and it was cheaper to do like a private transfer from the airport to the

[00:18:33] hotel. And I estimated we could probably get three minivans in during the week and still come out ahead. So this will be one time where we're going to plan to do a minivan. That way we can transfer our stuff from Grand Floridian back to Riviera, get the stroller, the car seats, all that thing. So we're really excited about that. So minivan to the Riviera. And then what do you think you might do in the afternoon? We're going to hang out at the Riviera. We'll go down to the Aventi room. They

[00:19:02] have such fun activities in the Aventi room, but pro tip, a lot of them require drying process. So one trip we did this on like our very last day and it needs like two to three days to dry. So we weren't able to do all of the activities that we could do. So you can do mosaics, you can do paintings, all these things. Hallie loves doing art. So we're going to try to go ahead and do that our first day. That way it has ample time to dry and that'll be one of our souvenirs that we can bring home.

[00:19:30] Okay. Can you do more than one activity in one sitting? Yeah. I don't think they limit how many you can do. Some of them cost extra. There's free activities and then there's ones that cost extra. So we'll kind of just play it by ear of which one the kids want to do. We'll look forward to hearing which ones they choose. Yeah. And then we do have dinner reservations over at the boardwalk. We've never been over to the boardwalk area and I've always wanted to go over there. No. So we're doing lots of firsts,

[00:20:00] lots of firsts this trip. Okay. And so we're going to take the Skyliner over to the boardwalk. We have dinner at Trattoria Alfano, 6 PM. Matt also saw a reel with a drink at one of the boardwalk bars that he thought looked really good. So he has his eye on that, maybe doing that afterwards and then checking out what the boardwalk entertainment might be out. I've heard mixed things on what nights they have like things going on with how busy it'll be this week. I feel like there'll be things going on.

[00:20:30] If not, we'll just enjoy walking around for a little bit. Which bar is Matt's drink at? I think, is there an abracadabre bar? Yeah. Okay. I think it's that one that he wants to go to. Yeah. So it's a magic themed bar. So there's like tricks and things that come with your drink, like color changing and things like that. He does not know that. And I'm going to guess that they probably will have some sort of like fun drinks maybe the kids could get too. Okay. All right. Well,

[00:20:58] I was planning on letting him go in and do that and me take the kids to do something, but maybe we'll try to see if we can just all go in and do that. Yeah. It, it looks kind of like a combination bar and like magic shop. Okay. I did not know that at all. Cool. Yeah. Like abracadabra, but abracadabra. That makes sense now that you say that. The queen of puns. She, you would have

[00:21:21] gotten it way before me. Okay. All right. So that brings us to Thursday, April the 9th. So which park are you heading to this day? So this is going to be our Epcot day. And so this is the one day where we're going to try to rope drop. It's just so hard with the lightning lanes. We love Frozen and Remy. Those are two of our favorite rides to make sure that we get to ride both of them. The only way is

[00:21:46] to make sure you rope drop one. So we're going to rope drop Remy's and we'll do multi-pass for Frozen, Soarin' and Living with the Land probably is what we'll try to get. It has just occurred to me that because you are doing a split stay, your multi-pass reservation days will be split as well. So for split stays, your dining reservations are split, but multi-pass you can book up to 10 days from the first day. You are totally right.

[00:22:14] So this will be nice. I only have to wake up one time, but for dining, I had to wake up twice. Okay. And when is your, you can do it a weekend at the end of the day. Monday. Yeah. So Monday you're going to be able to do that. Okay. Fantastic. All right. So Frozen, I'm so glad you reminded me of that because that is one of the downsides of the split stay is having to split things up literally. And so that can be a little bit of a challenge sometimes.

[00:22:43] Yeah. And I had a really hard time getting all of our dining reservations. It's definitely going to be a busy week. I it's spring break for the Northeastern schools. Yeah. It's our spring break. It's Easter. So it's just going to be busy. So I definitely had to be up right at time to get all the dining reservations that we wanted. Are you going to do any of the flower and garden booths while you're in? Yes, I hope so. I'm hoping to use up some of those snack credits on the flower and garden booths.

[00:23:10] We've got several marked on the app. I think the app is called food and wine, but it is. Yeah. They change it based on what the active festival is and flower and garden is our favorite time to go. It's so beautiful. All the topiaries, the kids love doing, seeing all the topiaries and picking out their favorite ones. And I have pictures of Hallie in front of the beast and bell topiary every year. We'll make sure we get a picture in front of that one again and try, try some new things on the booths.

[00:23:38] And I will make sure to put a link to the food and wine app in the show notes for anybody who's interested in it because it is one of my favorite apps because you can mark things that you want to try and it makes it very easy as you make your way around World Showcase or wherever in the parks you're aiming to head to a booth because you can filter your map view and only show the things that you marked that you're interested in. And I just find it to be so handy.

[00:24:06] It's such a great app. I learned about it on your podcast and it was really, really helped. We went one time for a food and wine festival and it was really helpful. And then we've used it for Flower and Garden too. Yeah. Yeah. I will never not use it. And speaking of which, I have a little trip that I've planned for the first week in May. So I'm actually going to get to go to Flower and Garden this year. Fun! Yeah. My friend Jeanette and I were like, we need to, we need to go down again because we're annual pass holders. So it's kind of like...

[00:24:37] Might as well. You can't go too long without being in the park. So I need to actually go look at the app and see what all the selections are because in my opinion, Flower and Garden has some of the best food of all the festivals. Yes. Yes. That is my favorite for sure. Yeah. What other things are you going to try to hit up while you're in Epcot? We would like to try to hit up the countries. We usually do not spend a lot of time in the

[00:25:04] countries. I don't know. It just always seems difficult to navigate the stroller back into the country areas and to actually get back in there and look at things. But we're going to try to do a couple of countries. We decided to pick two and then like actually explore in that area and get the booths and things like that. So we're going to, instead of trying to hit all of them, we're going to try to really go back into two. I think what we decided to do was Morocco maybe and France are the ones that

[00:25:32] we marked on the app. I'll have to look and see on the app. Okay. All right. That's a good idea to just really say, okay, we're going to focus on these two and anything else we happen to walk through, we will. It's just a bonus. Yep. Okay. Are you going to be participating in any Easter egg hunting? Yeah. Well, I'm hoping that they still have the Easter egg scavenger hunt going on. If not, they have a regular flowering garden scavenger hunt. I thought that would be fun for the kids.

[00:26:02] It would kind of keep them, give them something to do. They love stickers and finding things. That's their favorite game. Okay. So Brooks is really into hiding Easter eggs right now. Like that's all we've done all day is hide Easter eggs around the house and he goes and finds them. So I think he would love that if there is an Easter egg hunt. Yeah. Scavenger hunt going on still. And when you're at the boardwalk, you could pop into those resorts to look at Easter decorations as well. So that'll be. That's a good idea. I hadn't thought about that. I'm glad you brought that up.

[00:26:31] All right. Any dinner plans for this day? We do have dinner at Tepan Edo at 7.50 PM. That's the earliest I could get it. So I'm going to try to keep looking day of. Lots of people cancel day of. So I have a couple of stakeouts to try to move that up. Because we're not interested in staying for fireworks and fireworks are at nine. I don't want to get caught in the Skyliner crowd of everyone exiting fireworks if we're just wrapping up dinner

[00:26:59] around that time. So if I can bump that up, that'll be great. If not, then we'll just do what we have to do. Are you going to take a midday break this day? Yes, we will. For sure. Okay. All right. All right. Friday, April the 10th. Yes. This is our Hollywood Studios day and we're going to do Galaxy's Edge for the first time. We've always walked through it and never really done anything back in there.

[00:27:23] Like I don't think we've ever ridden a ride or done anything. So Hallie saw the lightsabers the last time we were there and she has talked about them nonstop since. So her souvenir this year is going to do the lightsabers. We're not doing the Savvy's Workshop lightsabers because Brooks is going to want to do one too. And that's just too expensive and too nice for us to play with them at home. So I think it's called Tatooine Traders, the gift shop. You can build a lightsaber for like $35

[00:27:54] and they'll love that. They'll think that is so much fun. You get to pick what color, you get to pick a crystal. They'll really enjoy that. So we're going to rope drop the Star Tours gift shop. That's what we're going to do first. We've built lightsabers in that same shop with my nephews and they had a great time because they've got lots of different options. Like you can get like the double ended or, you know, lots of different choices that they can make. And the cast members

[00:28:21] are right there and they sort of help the younger kids make decisions and make suggestions and everything. So it was a good experience and definitely a good way to get a souvenir that is not anywhere close to as expensive as the one you get in the Savvy's Workshop version. Yeah. Matt was like, oh, let's let her build a real one. He saw a video about it and I was like, I showed him the price and he was like, just kidding. We'll do that in a couple of years.

[00:28:49] Yeah. And those are like, super nice quality. Like when you hold it, it's heavier. Yeah, I would not want a younger child to be playing around with that. No, but I'm glad they have that option of something that the kids would still enjoy. Yeah. Yep. Okay. What are your multi-pass choices for Hollywood Studios? I think we're going to try to get an individual Lightning Lane for Rise. We've never done that. Matt's never done that. I think that would be fun. So we're going to try to do that for the three

[00:29:18] of us. Brooks, I'm not sure on yet. He's almost tall enough. With shoes on, he would be tall enough. So we're just going to, I might buy it and then see what, if he wants to do it or not. And then we will just ride or swap if we need to. So we will do that while we're over there in the morning. And then for our multi-pass, we'll do our multi-pass for kind of the tour story area. So we'll do Alien Swirling Saucers, Tour Story Mania, and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. And I'll kind of try to

[00:29:46] plan those for mid-morning since we'll spend early morning in Galaxy's Edge. Okay. Do you have any lunch plans for Hollywood Studios? We do. We have a 50s primetime reservation at noon. We've never eaten there before. We've also never done Fantasmic. So we've gotten the Fantasmic dining package and they just announced this week that they've added two shows of Fantasmic. So there's one at 8.30 and one at 10.30

[00:30:12] and our package is for the 8.30 one. So that was really exciting for me. That way we don't have to stay out too late. So we're going to eat lunch there and then we'll probably take a break after that. Okay. And are you going to be doing any shopping in Hollywood Studios? Because it is one of my favorite parks to shop in. There's something about the Sunset Boulevard stores. Yes. Such good shops. We are. We're going to try to get some souvenirs. The kids always like to do

[00:30:39] their souvenir shopping there. And those shops, they're really good. What else are you going to focus on when you come back in the late afternoon, evening besides Fantasmic? I would love to see the new villain show. Hallie loves villains. She loves Descendants. That's like her favorite thing. We went to the Descendants concert and so she's really excited about the villain show. She hopes Maleficent wins. So I'll tell you, I'll be able to report back who wins. So we're hoping to do that. And then

[00:31:07] if we can get in any rides, we might do that. But we're not planning on doing any of the bigger rides there. Okay. Since you're doing a table service for lunch, are you doing a table service again for dinner or a quick service? I think we'll do a quick service, maybe ABC Commissary or maybe if we're over in Toy Story area, do Woody's Lunchbox or maybe we'll just get snacks for dinner or maybe we'll eat dinner at Primo Piato before we hop on the Skyliner back. That's the nice thing about Riviera

[00:31:36] is that it's got such good food that we could eat and then hop on the Skyliner and head to Hollywood Studios if we want to. Oh, for sure. Yeah. That is one of the best things about their Riviera. I mean, besides the fact that it was beautiful. Their food and drinks and coffees and everything is just top tier. It's my favorite. Top tier. I completely forgot to ask you when we were talking about where you were staying, what type of room you would be in. Are you in a studio in both Grand Floridian and Riviera?

[00:32:05] Yes, we are. So Grand Floridian, we're in the resort studio preferred view. So we'll see what that is like. And then for Riviera, we're in a deluxe studio standard view, which are my favorite to get because if you get the right height, like a higher floor and near the Skyliner, you can usually see the Epcot fireworks from your balcony. So I am crossing my fingers. That's something that we'll be able to

[00:32:31] do one night. Yeah. It just occurred to me because as I was asking about food plans, I was like, you know what? She might have a full kitchen. Who knows? I wish we had enough points to do a one bedroom, but we do not. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It's, it's really nice to be able to do that occasionally. I don't have enough points to do it every single time and be able to stay as many days as I want. I can do a studio for a full week every single time. And then because of being able to book,

[00:32:58] excuse me, bank points that I don't use, I usually, you know, every other year or so will have enough extra to do a one bedroom as a, like a one-off. And then one time I had enough points to do a two bedroom and that was the year when sister came with me and it was amazing. It was so nice. Yeah. It's a game changer when you have access to a kitchen and a washer dryer. I will tell you that. See, Matt would love access to washer dryer. He loves washing our clothes so that we come

[00:33:26] home and we have all clean clothes. We don't have to do laundry. So I cannot get him in a one bedroom. We will be adding on way too many points. Deluxe studios it is for now. But at least because you're a DVC member, you will be able to do your laundry for free if you would like in the resort facilities. So that is one of the perks. Yes, we usually do that. So if he's dying to do laundry, I mean, girl, let him. He says it makes it feel like he's like living there. If he's like

[00:33:54] doing laundry, it's like it's his house. Yeah. I'm like, there's something about doing regular old life things while you're at Disney. Like, I mean, not that I want to work remotely from Disney, you know, on a regular basis. Like I'd rather just go to Disney and be at Disney. But I have had a couple of times where I've gone down and it's like, okay, I'm here. I'm working remotely for the first day that we're here. And then I'm actually on vacation. And there is something special about

[00:34:23] sitting there in the resort, looking up at a palm tree with my laptop open, doing my work, taking zoom calls and being like, okay, as soon as I'm done for the day, I can have dinner on Disney property. That's incredible. All right, Saturday, April the 11th. This must be your animal kingdom day. You got it. All right. And we're not rope dropping. And the good thing since that would be

[00:34:50] the earliest rope drop you could possibly have. Yes. What are your multi-pass priorities in this park? We're going to do Safari, the Zootopia show and the Navi river. And then we're going to get our individual lightning lanes for flight of passage and see if we can do it. What else are you looking forward to for animal kingdom? We're definitely going to hit up the Starbucks at animal kingdom. It's our favorite Starbucks on property. And so we will try to walk in and get some pictures

[00:35:20] in front of the tree of life and then hit up Starbucks. I love getting a coffee and then walking those tree of life trails. They're so beautiful to look at all the animals in the tree of life and the kids get to pick out like which ones they see. So we'll do that first. And then we'll head back to the Safari, do the Safari and maybe the Lion King show. And then we definitely want to try to do the Zootopia show. I'm a little nervous. I've gotten mixed

[00:35:48] reviews of whether it's scary for the kids or the kids are going to like it. The kids love Zootopia. It's one of their favorite movies. So we're going to try it. And if we traumatize them, I'll ask for forgiveness. But that was my like only memory of when we went to Disney, when I was a kid, we went to animal kingdom one day. And the only memory I have is the Bugs Life show. So you know what? Sometimes it's worth the traumatizing because it forms a core memory. Gosh, gives you something to talk about in therapy. Yeah.

[00:36:19] I have not watched any spoilers for the Zootopia experience. I'm gonna wait and like let it all be new for me. Same, same. So I'm excited about it. Are you going to take a midday break on your animal kingdom day when it closes the earliest? We are probably not. But they did just change the hours this week and it's staying open until 8pm. Which now that tempts me to maybe take a break and come back. But I don't know,

[00:36:46] this is going to be kind of some rest time to enjoy the Riviera. So we'll probably play it by ear. If we haven't felt like we had enough pool time or Riviera time, we'd probably just cut our day short. But if we feel like we could head back and maybe see a little animal kingdom at dusk, that would be nice too. Yeah, because you so rarely get to see. I know, I've never gotten to see anything. The

[00:37:12] bioluminescence. Yes, it's beautiful at night, but I never get to see it. Do you have any dining reservations for this day? We do not. We definitely want to try to get lunch at Satuli Canteen. I have tried to do this every trip and we've never made it over there at lunchtime. So I'm trying to plan our lightning lane and individual lightning lane times to do those around lunchtime so that we can get lunch at Satuli. And so that way we can do Navi and Flight of Passage after lunch right before we

[00:37:38] leave. Anything else special happening this day that you want to note? No, we will head back to the Riviera, maybe get some pool time, do the marshmallows and the movie. We've never gotten to do that type of stuff. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. And then we'll probably just get quick service for dinner or maybe we'll eat Bar Riva by the pool. Oh my gosh. What I wouldn't give to be having Bar Riva by the pool tonight. It's my favorite. It's so good.

[00:38:04] What do you like to get there? I love to get the, um, the burger is really good. It has like mushrooms on top. That's really good, but they also have this vegetarian, uh, it's like a Mediterranean pita bread with hummus and veggies. It is so good. So good. Yeah. Good cocktails there too. If you want to indulge. I do. I will. And I do. And I will. All right. Is that everything for Saturday? I think so.

[00:38:33] All right. So Sunday, April 12th is your departure day. What time is your flight? So our flight doesn't leave until 5 p.m. So hopefully we have some time to, in the morning to enjoy the resort, sleep in, get a cup of coffee on the balcony. Um, and then we have the Topolino's brunch at 1130. Have you eaten at Topolino's before? We have. We usually do this on our last day for all of our

[00:39:00] trips. It's kind of our departing goodbye to Disney. We go to Topolino's and have a great meal. It's our favorite character meal. It's such good food. I dream about the steak and eggs and the polenta. Yes. It's my favorite. Oh my gosh. I haven't had dinner yet, Mariah. You're making me hungry. Oh, Pog Juice Mimosa. So good. So good. Yeah. All right. Um, how are you getting, are you doing a

[00:39:30] private transfer back to the airport as well? We are. So we're using, we drive, you fly. It's our first time using that. So we'll see. They had the best price for the transfer. So I think they're picking us up around 130 so that we can be at the airport in plenty of time. Our flight leaves at 530. So we will see how it goes. What kind of things have you been hearing from your neck of the woods about

[00:39:56] the lines for security and everything? Not good. I mean, it's certainly not been good. The word out of JFK and Newark and LaGuardia, which, you know, I should take a moment to just acknowledge the horrific crash that happened just the other day. It is just awful, awful. And I feel so badly, not only for the families of the pilots, but also, you know, for the people who were running the air

[00:40:21] traffic control and all of the employees that have to now contend with that kind of trauma that they're going to be dealing with. So, you know, I don't want to bring our conversation down, but it feels, it feels bad not to acknowledge it. So just everybody keep those, those folks in your prayers. All right. Is there anything else about this trip that you wanted to note before we bring Miss Hallie

[00:40:47] on who has some sort of bingo card activity she's created for herself? So I'm looking forward to hearing about that. Yes. Hallie, I don't know where she got this idea, but she asked if we could make bingo cards for our next trip. And so everybody in the family made a bingo card this week of all the things that we want to do. So we tried to theme it around something to eat, something to do, something

[00:41:13] to ride, and something new. So all the things that we could think of, we put on our bingo card, and I'm going to laminate them and bring them and we'll mark them off. And whoever gets bingo, it gets to pick where we eat for dinner on that Saturday night. So that is our plan. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let me go get her so she can show you her bingo card. She's very proud.

[00:41:38] Hello there, Miss Hallie. Hello, Virginia. It's so good to see you. So good to see you too. Thank you. I am so excited because your mom was telling me that you came up with the coolest idea to do a bingo card for your trip. So I want to know all about how you came up with this idea and just tell me how it's all going to work. You don't know how you came up with it?

[00:42:04] Did you dream about it? Just one day it was like one little spark of imagination. Did we see a video of someone else that did it? Maybe? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So tell me exactly how this is going to work, Hallie. So we write down what we want to do. And then when we go to Disney, if we do that, we check it off. And if we get four in a row, we get bingo. Okay. Do you have one of

[00:42:30] your cards in front of you? Yep. Okay. Do you want to show me? Okay. Wow. My eyes are not good enough to read that from this far away. So do you want to pick a couple things to read off to me of the ones that you're especially excited about? Well, I'm really excited to do Goofy's Barnstormer. Okay. Yes. I heard that's going to be your first time. And for drinks, me and my mom have been

[00:42:55] talking about trying the Dole Whip. Are you going to do the Dole Whip float? Yep. Yes. Mmm. I love the Dole Whip float. So good. What about a snack? I really want ice cream. What kind of ice cream? Do you have a particular flavor in mind? Maybe chocolate. Sounds like a good plan to me. What else do you have on that bingo card? Why don't you read off this last line right here? Do matching outfits. Okay. Do you have a matching outfit planned already? Yeah.

[00:43:25] Okay. Tell me about it. So it's kind of like an Animal Kingdom one. Does it involve some animal print? Yeah. Okay. What kind? Cheetah prints on it. That is perfect. I have a cheetah print outfit that I have worn to Animal Kingdom before. So I think that is a good choice for your Animal Kingdom outfit. And so is it you and your mom that are going to match or is the whole family going to match? Just me and my mom. Okay. What about your dad and

[00:43:55] Brooks? They don't want to match each other even? We have one day where Brooks is going to match us, but the other days it's just the girls. All right. That sounds like so much fun. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you said that you're going to laminate the cards. So how are you going to mark the cards? Only because I'm thinking if you laminate them and you use a marker, it might rub off. So are you going to use a sticker? What's the plan as far as marking the card?

[00:44:23] Well, as you said that, I actually don't know now. We were going to use a marker, but she makes a good point that if we use a marker, it'll probably rub off. I think a sticker would be a good idea. We have lots of stickers we could take with us. That'd be fun. Yeah. Especially if you have some Disney stickers. Yeah. Okay. Well, I hope you have the best time doing your bingo game. That's such a cool thing to plan for. And I love that you're putting all this effort and it's helping you get excited about the trip.

[00:44:51] Yeah. We're excited, aren't we? Yeah. All right. Hallie, do you have any predictions on who's going to win bingo? Well, I hope Brooks wins, but I really think I'm going to win. You hope Brooks wins? That's so sweet. That is really sweet. All right. Well, I hope he wins too then for you. Like we can all cross our fingers for Brooks. That would make him feel really good. I'm sure. Yeah, it would, wouldn't it? I'm just hoping my

[00:45:15] dad doesn't win. Maybe your dad will forget sometimes and you just don't remind him. Like if you notice he doesn't put a sticker on it, you'd just be like, I'm not going to tell him he forgot. Well, how about this? How about after your trip is over, when I get a chance to talk to your mom about the trip, would you come back on for a few minutes and tell me how the bingo game went? Yeah. Okay. I would love that. All right. So I will talk to you

[00:45:43] after you get back from your trip, Hallie and Mariah, you have to have a safe trip. Take care of these munchkins and I can't wait to hear all about how your trip goes. Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to come back on and give you all the details of our spreadsheets and our bingo cards, all the fun. Gotta love the spreadsheets. All right. I will talk to you ladies very soon and have a magical rest of your day. Thank you. Bye, Virginia.

[00:46:11] Thank you so much to Mariah and to Hallie for appearing on the podcast. The post-trip episode is up next, so stick around for that. Please remember to rate and review the show and be sure to share it with friends. As always, keep daydreaming about where you long to be.