Jeremy is back with this month's Journey Into Imagination series and sits down with Shannon Ford, an Annual Passholder, DVC Owner, Disney Fan, and YouTuber, to talk about where her love of Disney comes from and how she started creating content, as well as discuss Disney Vacation Club, Disney adults, the ultimate Disney job, IPs, makeup and so much more!
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On this episode I'm back with our journey into imagination series as I sit down with my friend Shannon Ford. Today's July 16th, 2024, this is episode 685 of the Main Street Magic Podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host Jeremy Stein and I'm not joined by Ronda today, but I will soon be joined by my friend Shannon Ford. But first make sure you check us out on the web at mainstmagic.com as well as follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at mainstmagic. If you've not done so already, head out to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic community and ask to join. If you go ahead and hit that subscribe button you get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. If you're planning that trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, it can be overwhelming and at times just downright frustrating. But don't worry because mouse dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal and time. Visit msmfriends.com to use this free service. Shannon Ford was born and raised in Miami, so trips to Walt Disney World were a big part of her childhood. She remembers driving up to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot for the day, spending a few hours in the park and then heading home. Sometimes the family would stay in a hotel near the parks overnight, but Shannon says it never really felt like a vacation. Her dad was a big Epcot fan and she fondly remembers playing an old Epcot with him. Shannon met her husband Ray in college and Disney continued to be a big part of her life through trips with him and now they vacation with their son Ryder. Ryder's first Disney vacation was on Disney Cruise Line for his very first birthday, wanting to make the trip a little more special. The family added on three days in the cabins at Fort Wilderness before their cruise departure. Shannon calls the full kitchen and living space a game changer and remembers thinking this is how you do Disney. While the cabins at Fort Wilderness were not DVC back at that time, it did make Shannon and Ray realize there were other ways to stay at Disney, which led them to their DVC ownership. Please help me welcome Shannon Ford to the Main Street Magic Podcast. Shannon, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of Journey into Imagination on the Main Street Magic Podcast. Welcome to the show again. You are a previous guest. Yes, it's been a while though. It has been and I think we're going to try and have you on again soon because I know you have a stay at the new cabins coming up at Fort Wilderness in DVC. So I would love to get you back on once you get back from that trip and hear all about them because I don't know when we're going to get a chance to go check them out. We stated a cabin when Ryder turned one and ironically that was the reason why what convinced me to get into DVC even though they weren't DVC at the time. But I realized having a kitchen at Disney on vacation was a game changer. So that was when I looked into DVC and I literally came home and did an impulse purchase of a put a bid out on a on a resale contract and they countered. I took it and two weeks later I was under contract with DVC. And now that they've been made DVC, they're not selling really great though, so that's going to be interesting. So I'm curious to experience them and see once they're now open if that helps with the sales because I know the sales have been abysmal to be honest. Yeah. And I mean I can see that. I think there was so much pushback not only really from the DVC community but the Fort Wilderness community. For folks that love going there, the way that we have now for 15 years I think or so, we've been going there probably even longer doing everything from tent camping to RV rentals to having our own pop-up camper all the way up to the DVC, or not the DVC, I'm sorry, the older cabins. So it would be interesting to see how they go but so that's going back over seven years for you becoming DVC. But I'm guessing that your love for Disney started possibly long before that. Where does your love for Disney come from? Is that something that you grew up with? I think my mom's like I went to Disney when I was three months old, so and my birthday is recording this in July. I don't know how soon it's going to go up but my birthday is July 12th, so it was probably September, October of 1976. And yeah, my brother was probably three at the time and they had a trip planned and my mom was a stepmom to my older sisters and that's what I heard, that I went to Disney like a three or four months old. Disney at the time was just Magic Kingdom. There was no, that was it. But yeah, it was always a part being in Florida and South Florida specifically I grew up in Miami. It was always just a part of our life. You know, I remember the second grade field trip. My son just finished second grade, which I can't even imagine him going to Disney World at second grade with his field trip. Oh man. It's bizarre to me but we won, I think it was like the chocolate candy sale, chocolate candy bars there and everyone used to have to sail the door to door. So our class won and we won a trip to Disney World, which was Disney World was Magic Kingdom and I remember that was the first time I ever rode Space Mountain. I remember that. So it was always part of my childhood and we would go to trips and then my parents divorced and I remember that around Epcot was when Epcot opened. My parents divorced a few years after that and I remember my dad taking us because my dad really didn't know like what to do with us. So he would take us and then he had a girlfriend who had kids that were our age. So he would take us and we went to Epcot and he kept telling us that it was for educational. It was educational and then when I became an adult I realized oh no it was because there was alcohol. It really became clear as to why we went to Epcot a lot. But yeah and then honestly I moved to New York in 2002 and I did not go to Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom until after I moved back in 2008. So because I didn't go to the parks for a long time because I was living in New York and then when I came back I ended up getting back together with my ex-boyfriend who was now my husband and one of our first kind of trips together when we started to see like if we were going to start dating was to the theme parks. It actually went to Universal but and then we started going and we just loved theme parks. We loved Disney. We loved theme parks and we would go to Disney a lot when before we were married and then even when we were married we would go a lot and then when Ryder came along it just changed the whole dynamic because you know when you go with kids you see it through their eyes and then every trip is different especially when they're young. Now he's a little older so now the trips are very similar but you know I can think about his first trip was when he was a year that was when we stayed at the cabin and then we went two months or three months later and it was a completely different trip because then he started walking and then we went three months later and then it was still a different trip because every trip was different because they changed so much at that age. So and then he just he's obsessed with Disney. He's a little Disney. He loves watching YouTube videos. He loves finding weird facts about Disney and he loves if there's a glitch or something goes wrong in a ride and then he makes me record it and so I can send it to TPM bid because he loves he loves that. So our last ride on Splash Mountains it went completely down. Everything stopped. The lights came on and we went through the ride almost entirely with no music and with the lights on. Oh wow. And he I was sad because I was like man this is the last time we're riding Splash Mountain and this is what it is. He was thrilled. Right. He was thrilled. So but it was it was a little eerie and I was like okay I guess it's time for refurbishment. Yeah right. Yeah so it's just it's just I guess to answer your question that was like a long-winded answer but it's just always been a part of my life. Yeah and I love hearing that you know I mean I I grew up going to Disney but it was about once every three or four years and we made the drive from Maryland down but it wasn't a lot and you know it wasn't until I moved to Florida that I really started to fall in love with it. So I don't I don't have that history you know of being super young and it being kind of ingrained you know into my mind of going every year or more often. So I always love hearing people's stories and you know where that love and all comes from. So does does Ryder watch your YouTube? He doesn't watch my YouTube. He will he you know he has his own YouTube channel. So we're trying to work out. It's amazing. We're working out trying to do some heat. The last time we went we went to ride test track right before it closed so he wanted to put a POV so he has a GoPro. It was a little dark so it didn't come out that good but we're trying to we're toying with it but no he does not watch my YouTube videos because my YouTube videos tend to be I try to make them educational and or inform informational for parents. I because I'm not a daily vlogger. It's not that you know that daily vlog type mentality. I always say our trips to Disney are our trips to Disney. Like those are our vacations first. I am just documenting our vacations and that's kind of how my YouTube channel came about. So I'm documenting our vacations and I'm trying to give a realistic expectation because that's one of the things I don't like about a lot of the vloggers is that they give this fixie dust type feel of what it's like and they try and do a lot of things that are click late not all of them but a lot of them and they give people an unrealistic expectation of what to expect in the park. So I try and give a realistic realistic expectation some tips and sometimes it's positive sometimes it's not and it's it's just you know I I do try and put things on a positive spin but because that's just the type of person I am I try to see things in a positive light but if there are negative experiences I'm definitely going to voice them. So yeah and honestly if anybody wants to see an unrealistic version of Disney they can just watch Disney's marketing you know I mean yeah because that's that's that's what you know picture they're kind of painting but I love that he you know enjoys YouTube and creating his own stuff especially at that age you know because that that's something like it's something I wish so much that they would teach in school you know I wish that you could have an entire course you know maybe it's once you get to middle school or high school on you know how to create a social media company you know in that sense or how to create a YouTube channel and how to be successful and things like that because you know I think it's something that everybody can do whether they they want it as like a little hobby or side hustle or whether it's something they want to turn into a you know full-blown type career so I think that's amazing and I like YouTube now because YouTube if it's a kids video they can't there's no comments you can't comment on it yeah and when that change happened that's when I he we had started it before but that's when I started feeling more confident and putting video his own videos up because I mean you would I would see videos like I would post things under his channel and the negative comments for her I don't mind negative comments on mine but I was really surprised how people could put negative comments on a kids video I know yeah it's nice that they're building in a lot of those protection layers now and making those different sides of you know YouTube that's more family oriented and then one that's more for you know the rest of the world so you you were you were documenting kind of your vacations I mean if you if you go back I mean you've had an incredible life up to this point former Miami dolphins cheerleader miss florida usa 2002 missus united states 2011 missus florida america 2019 missus universe 2021 we're all of those we're all those experiences something that led you into content creation and helped you with it or like how did that come about or was it was it something like hey I'm going to document these things and by the way you know you obviously have a presence of being on stage at these different pageants and these things you know was that something that made you decide to get into content creation the content to creation honestly came about because I really wanted to be part of a Disney park mom's panel or I guess it was a Disney's mom panel at the time now it's called the Disney's the plan Disney panel yeah and I really wanted to be a part of that and I kept applying and I think the only I've only made it to round two I've never made it past round two and I what we went on a Disney and I really had no my husband has said you should start a youtube channel I was like no I don't I don't I don't have noticed I had no desire to do it and then we went on a Disney cruise um in 2020 so right before the shutdown in february of 2020 we went on a marvel day at sea and I had done some videos on my phone but nothing really like for content creation and then after the cruise there were so many things because we had cruised a lot on rural Caribbean before rider and we did one cruise when he was when he turned one but there were so many things that were different on a Disney cruise that I wasn't prepared for just so many things that I wasn't prepared for that I learned and I wanted to put that out there and I didn't know where to do it and I said well I'm just gonna do a youtube video and I'll put the video so I kind of made my videos into a vlog even though they were you know vertical and not horizontal and I just got in front of my iPhone and I popped my iPhone on and I kind of talked about things I'd learned things I wish I had done differently and then my my channel just picked up some traction now it's one of those that's like a slow steady growth I'm just under 30,000 subscribers now but I started getting views on those and um and then the shutdown happened so when the shutdown happened um can I think I start I think I like my first video went up on March 1st 2020 and then everything yeah bad timing but so I started creating videos of things that like educational stuff about Disney like you know um and then I started learning um and then I remember having a we had done a room in the of the Boulder Ridge Boulder Ridge Villas and I had picked this room I had done the train plans request and we didn't get that room we got the room next to it and the room next to it was awful the room like it was just like the best room was one room and the worst room was next to it and they were both studios and I was like man I wanted to create it so I I ended up meeting Len Testa in um in July of 2020 at in in Galaxy's Edge and uh randomly you know it was like the park was empty at that time because it was July of 2020 and I saw him and that was when he had his long curly locks and he was very recognizable so I reached out to him and I said you know I'd like to create these these series of videos I've had a request rooms and the best and worst rooms could I use your site and screenshot it to create these videos and he's like absolutely so that's when I started creating that series which is called best and worst best and worst rooms at Disney World and so I have one on each resort and that again also picked traction so I try to make my videos sometimes it's just daily vlogs but even my daily vlogs are um like you know for example like we just went on the icon of the seas uh Royal Caribbean so you know things like one of the things we didn't go into St. Thomas so that we could go on their water parks well they had all the slides closed when we were in court and they didn't advertise it so it was like okay well don't do what we did yeah because you're gonna you know if you think you're gonna go use the water park and skip the fort you know you're not going to so I tried that's how I try to make my videos a lot of we do use genie plus we're gonna happen to be there with the new launch of the lightning or multi-pass uh lightning lane multi-pass yep so I don't like being there the first day because I like to you know again like I said it's our vacation but again I will use it as an educational experience and kind of teach people what we learn and tips and tricks as well yeah so you're you know a lot of your content of course is educational and informative as you're saying and then that content is either kind of reactive like you saying all right well these you know all these slides were closed let me make a video about something we experience and then you have some of the videos that are proactive that are you know let me get ahead of something or let me you know talk about you know something that's coming up what's your process for creating that content like for example okay you know you're talking lightning lane multi-pass and single-pass I know you did a video on that what's the process for that video you know from you gathering content do you then script something and and you know what does the editing process look like how do you how do you do your videos and put these together so I have a little set in my office so I have a little office and I have a set there um a lot of times when when news and you know this because you're in the content creation with Disney we don't get any heads up like there's no heads up I knew this was coming but this has been coming for over a year and we knew it was coming so when it was a finally announced um I I was actually a day late in getting the video up because I just physically put in the cord I do have a full-time job I am a mom and I just physically couldn't get the video up um the same day as it as it happened um which would have helped my views if I had but you know it is what it is I think I did a thorough review but I do I usually I don't create a script I do it outline and um and then I try and just gather my thoughts do as much research and then just talk and as I've gotten done my my channel and gotten used to content creating I've learned to be more concise when I'm speaking because I can't tend to ramble which hopefully I don't do today but I can tend to ramble um and so I try to be more concise and then also sometimes I'll be like oh yeah I said that like three times and I'll edit it out so I try and make my videos so it's easy to edit so I'll you know stop and you know record stop record stop so I can just kind of make it easy to edit and then um so that way it's when the editing process because you know that's that sometimes the hardest is editing so yeah so that video was pretty easy to edit because it was just me sitting in front of the uh the camera and um and just going through my outline and then my outline is my are my time stamps so I I do try and put time stamps in in my videos especially when it's something like that so that somebody if they just want to learn about the single pass or they want to learn about when it's launching or something specific they can look at the time stamps and see what what area they want to like skip to yeah wow I mean no one wants to listen to me for 45 minutes well well everything that you just said I mean if anybody that's listening is thinking about getting into content creation you know you just laid it out so perfectly especially with an outline you know I think like when we first started trying and we were trying to do you know YouTube vlogging style videos at one point and I just decided that isn't what I wanted to do but you know it was going to a park and just filming everything and then getting home and going oh no what do I what do I do with all this like you know but when you actually have that outline whether you're at home or you're in the parks doing it and say all right I want to do a video on this specific thing so let me let me get the video let me get an outline of I'm going to let's just say it was a you know something about a resort you know I'm going to film the lobby I'm going to film the amenities the pool you know and you actually break all those down it makes it so much easier because that was most of the reason that I gave up on it was I came home with you know three and four five hours of just straight footage that I didn't know what to do with you know and so yeah breaking it down that way I think is just absolutely genius of having that plan and especially the the stops and starts you know of of doing these videos at home you know I mean that's just key if you sit in ramble for an hour and you got to cut that down to 20 minutes it's going to take five hours you know it's true it's true yeah so yeah and the vlogging I will say the vlogging is because my my channel is not like a daily vlogging channel my Disney vlogs don't do as good and that's fine um you know but I will try and you know put a tie in but I don't try and do clickbait and that's probably hurts my channel but I don't try and do clickbait I try and you know cover you know obviously my jollywood nights because we you and I we're and it's so funny we were both there but we didn't see each other yeah um we had different experiences and you know that was one of my most popular videos because it wasn't a positive experience and I've learned that when you do negative videos those tend to get more views unfortunately yeah but that's just not what I want to do and nor I the the youtube channel is a side gig it's fun I enjoy it it helps pay for our vacations but at the end of the day I have a full-time job which I'm very happy with I have no intention of leaving um so it's if if youtube was to go away tomorrow then that would be fine like I would be fine with it so um I want to stick to my personal belief and not have to you know rely on trying to get clicks and views yeah and I mean and that's another great tip for anybody looking to get into content creation is you know I mean there's the saying put all your eggs in one basket for a reason you know I mean if yeah you know if you if you put your entire livelihood on being a content creator on one specific platform and it shuts down tomorrow you know you've you've lost everything as opposed to you know doing it as something that's on the side or a hobby or you know spreading out what you're doing amongst multiple channels and and sites and things like that um you know is super important I think for people that are getting into this type of thing so you know your your stuff course is educational informative you're obviously trying to give people knowledge but what I guess what is your overall goal and what do you hope to accomplish with the content that you're creating so again one the original reason was to get that information out like things I learned because a lot of friends would come to me like oh you know what's your best room do you recommend on it at Disney Road at this resort where do I request for a cabin state room because now I do have best and worst cabins crew state rooms for both Disney and real Caribbean um so I was just like so now I can just send them to a video which is a lot because everybody would come to me and now I can just say like hey watch this video and genie plus was a big one I did a huge video on genie plus and I will probably do one on multi-pass as well and now I can just send them to the video you know this is this is how to do it um so that that's probably also a little selfish because now that I didn't want to help my friends but it was like it was getting a little repetitive and I tend to go into great detail that's just my personality and then also it was just a way to vlog my vacations and and I will sometimes you know I have one pop up in memories and I'll look back and like oh my god Ryder was so little and he was only four when we went on this Disney cruise and you know it was and then recently I think last week was three years since the restart for the cruising and Ryder and I were on the first row Caribbean cruise out of the US um it was three weeks and three weeks and they said it's starting and it's going to be July 2nd and I booked it Ray couldn't go because he couldn't get the holiday weekend off and you know and even just seeing how different he was at five versus now he's eight and it was it's so it's it's also just nice that I have all those vacations on you know it's saved so we can look back which is wonderful as well and then um I did want to say just add that this also kind of turned into not only lucrative I don't make a ton of money but I do make some and we've had some great opportunities but then I started getting products because of that pageant background I started getting like beauty products and I had posted a couple videos of reviews and brands asked me to do some reviews but it didn't really make sense so about two years ago I broke off and did a separate channel called Shannon Loves Makeup because I do love makeup and I do love beauty so I have a separate channel called Shannon Loves Makeup and now I get a lot of I got a lot of makeup for free I got a lot of skincare because I am in I'm turning 48 so a lot of beauty brands are sending me their skincare to review and do videos on and it's even turned into where now I'm getting products that brands send me and ask me to create content for them wow and uh so it's you know it's a couple you know hundred two hundred dollars there but that's that helps pay for using vacation oh no for sure um yeah there's two things I want to touch on with that one is is those memories you know and it's funny you bring that up because uh you know lacy who's going to be um 14 you know uh next week um is we went we took her and a friend to typhoon lagoon on july fourth and anytime I try and take a photo of her now she has to put her hand in front of her face or make a stupid face or you know it's just it's her style you know she's saying well don't and of course she's 14 years old and she's saying well I don't you know I don't want my picture on your Facebook or this and that which I can understand but right I said to her I said lacy I said the whole reason really that I want to take these photos and I want to post them to my Facebook is because I wake up every morning and one of the first things I do is I look at Facebook memories you know and that's that's nowadays for a lot of us that's our photo album you know we're we're not using a film camera and getting it developed and literally sticking our you know trip photos in a photo book and pulling it out every year and and thumbing through it you know it's those Facebook memories or you know time hop or whatever from social media that I can go back and go oh you know here was july fourth 10 years ago and and here's what the girls were doing and here's what we were doing so um you know that's one of the things the in the reasons that I love to do it and and I love to go back and look at the content that we've created you know I had very short-lived um had kaolin and lacy that were part of our youtube videos and it's so neat to go back and and and just watch those you know I haven't saved on my hard drive and sometimes I'll just pull that up and go back and watch it from when they were writers age you know and and just remember those things um and then the other thing that I think is is so cool is you know a lot of people want to get into something like podcasting or youtube's because they think they can make money off of it um they don't understand how hard that is you know to actually monetize something like that but what you've also been able to do with those products you know and and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who are traveling the country in an RV you know they're an RV family now they've been doing it for over a year it's something that they do with their content is it affords them the ability to connect with these companies who will give them product you know and so you can look at it that way too and I'm not saying people should get into content creation because they want free stuff but right it's it's just another level that I think you know uh people tend to overlook you know I mean my thought is if if you are going to go purchase these products or these makeup products or whatever anyway you know that's money out of your pocket by them sending these to you for youtube create content on that's technically putting money back into your pocket you know it's something you don't have to spend so I think that's that's something I tell any you know anybody that that asked me about doing a podcast I'm like do you want to do it to make money and if they say yes I'm just like all right well don't I wouldn't know I mean honestly just don't or go ahead but I'm not going to give you any additional advice um so you know I think it's great that you have that same mindset what with all of that and all the content creation that you do what for you is the hardest part about content creation editing yeah editing I hate I hate I hate I don't I I still use iMovie because I have a Mac and I purchased final cut pro probably two years ago I still yet to use it I just um you know I learned iMovie it's easy and I probably don't it was I could I use final cut pro and I've heard it it can make it enhance it and make it even better but I just don't have the time to to learn a new software and and that and then managing two channels so that that's probably the hardest it's just I mean I I'm still I still have one more video to edit for our icon of the seas and we went in March and it's July yeah it's just um you know because I like I said I'm a mom and I have a full-time job and if work gets busy and work became unusually busy for a variety of reasons and I had to just put my channels off to the side and and that's hard sometimes because I put so much work into it but at the same time it's okay that's not going to pay my mortgage so it's hard to kind of lose that momentum and uh but you just have to you know you have to have your priority straight and I would say kind of touching on what you mentioned is that you notice that the people that really make it in in content creating are the people that didn't start to make money like they didn't want to do it to make money they just you know whether it's a beauty vlogger or a Disney vlogger most of them started because of a love you know even Tom Poreless who you know has W-G-W-N-T he started because he loves Disney you can tell that he loved Disney and he's created this great site and website and and and vlog that because but but it all stemmed from his his love for Disney and I think you can take that from anything so whether it's your niche until like my niche is is family content right it's family trips trying to make give a realistic expectation and trying to help other families with kids give them a realist expectation you know how to do Disney you know genie plus which genie plus you know we learned that it was you know you stack all day and then you go in the afternoon you close the park well now they're changing in on it so we're going to figure out like that's probably not going to work with the new system but we'll see how it works so trying to give those types of tips because we learned the hard way the first time we did genie plus we tried to do it where we went first thing in the morning and we realized okay that's not going to work it doesn't you don't get anything done that way yeah so um you know that's but but again it comes out of a true love of Disney and love of trying to help other families you know give them those tips and tricks to make their vacations better yeah yeah and I think that's how your that's how your podcast is too it is yeah and we always say and and you obviously have the same mindset you know that our number one goal is to help people on their vacation have a better time save money you know save time enjoy their trip like that is our number one goal always um anything else will just fall into place you know if eventually that you know makes us money or then great but if if we change and say making money is our number one goal then we lose sight of everything you know and the content's not like we don't want to chase content um which I guess brings me to a question you know with the constant changes at Disney is there a part of you that loves that because it fuels your content like you know you're always going to have something to talk about right yeah not really because um like for this I mean we had learned genie plus I didn't really like genie plus I don't I'm the one that's always on my phone um but I learned to use it to our advantage this new system I do there's a lot of things I do like about it but um I don't like that it's being launched on July 24th all at once they obviously didn't learn from the park pass reservation opening up you know where everything crashed that day and it took us eight hours to get our power pass reservation I'm pretty sure everything is going to crash on July 24th I will be shocked if it doesn't but um you know because I if I was local and this was more of a full-time job or even like a more dedicated part-time job yeah or a part-time gig but I like example when the when the word came out with multi-pass I just couldn't record I recorded that video at 11 o'clock at night yeah and the night that it came out I didn't get it up until the next day but at that point everybody had already heard about it so my my video has got about a thousand views which you know is not great for that type of video usually that would get because that's not used long term yeah so I tried it my content I try to make my content where it has um it's it's something that's going to be relevant like room for example change you know picking your best room at Disney well the rooms don't change they may get refurbished but the sizing of the rooms the rooms that are a little extra large you know those extra large one bedrooms that the boardwalk villas those aren't going to change they might get refurbished but the size of the room isn't going to change um the vaulted ceiling in the ceiling that I had my head on at Boulder Ridge that's not going away that so that room is still going to be the worst room at Boulder Ridge because you're going to hit your head all week um so those are the that's what I try to focus on my content where it's going to be it's not ever changing because those time sensitive videos aren't really where my my channel thrives because I'm just a smaller channel yeah yeah and I it's you know it's hard with all this because unless you are a full-time content creator there's such this you know first culture um where you know everybody wants to be first and and and a lot of them don't worry about being accurate as long as they're first they figure I can be first and if I get some stuff wrong I'll just make another video in a couple days and I'll explain it or or I'll do whatever um but you know I think it's another one of those where you look at it and your your channel and your videos are done so very well and they are super informative and you know educational and all and but you can tell that you put a lot into making sure that they are accurate and that you know you you'd rather have that info and and what it comes down to a lot of times and it's very hard as a content creator I think to sell is yourself you know because you have to say to someone all right we're going to give you the exact same information that hundreds of other people are going to give you but you should watch ours because it's us you know and and and that's a real I think fine line and it's it's hard to you know distinguish yourself from a lot of other creators when they are able to be first you know I mean I you know I think it's one thing that we've said is you know living and we're only two hours from Disney but being two hours from Disney is a a major roadblock in us turning this into something bigger you know we can't drop everything and be at a park in 15 minutes even if it is to say all right multi-pass and single lane don't come out for a couple of weeks but I can actually record my video inside Magic Kingdom about the changes you know gives this sort of presence and everything so it's it's certainly something that's that's hard to combat I think so you are a national spokesperson for celiac disease awareness can you talk a little bit about your experience with being gluten-free amongst Disney and how it compares to I guess kind of you know the world in general in your everyday life and then some of these other places that you visit or cruises that you go on how does that all work for you and what have you kind of learned from from this whole process so for Disney I'll touch on Disney cruising I'll such a cruising in general because we like I said we do cruise Disney Cruise and uh Royal Caribbean uh those are the two lines that we go on and I think they're very comparable I actually have a video on comparing the two lines because I think depending on what your situation is I would recommend one or the other and but they're very similar they have very similar processes you know you can if you go to the buffet which is not recommended if you have celiac disease or you have an allergy it's not recommended to go to a buffet but you can have someone go around and tell you what you can eat what you can't risk of that is cross contamination so usually um you know trying to do sit down or a lot of times they will go in the back and prepare something for you um but uh and then also you know for the meals at night like in the mind the main dining what you do is in both lines are the same you order your meals the night before so you'll see the night before main dining your meal you'll go to your waiter you'll place your order and if you don't do that they can still make you a gluten-free meal because they do have dedicated kitchens on board um the cruise lines but it will take longer so when you pre-order your meal you could also maybe something can't be made gluten-free that night but if you tell them the night before they can make it gluten-free so those are those are types of tips now in the parks it's actually just Disney is great with the parks and I would say universe is not bad but it's not nearly as easy as as Disney World um Disney World does now have even on the mobile app they have gluten-free so and they have like an allergy menu so you can even order that was something that when they first launched the mobile app that was not something they had or initially or it was very hard to order yeah um so now you can so one thing I will say is if you order a an allergy meal don't order them on this the order two separate meals this is a tip that I do point out um is don't put them on the same order so for example if I'm ordering at Connections Cafe and Epcot I will place my order and then I will place a separate order for my husband and my son the reason why is because my order would be would be made in a separate kitchen so they'll prepare mine and then once mine is out and ready then they'll start preparing raisin riders oh wow so a lot of times I'll wait 20 minutes for mine they'll serve mine and then I'll have to wait another 10 minutes for Ray and Ryder yeah so what we've done is I've learned and I've learned that the hard way and that's just how they that's how they work in the parks which makes sense because the those meals those gluten-free meals have to be prepared separately so what we just do them separately because that way Ray and Ray especially Ryder can get his food because usually we eat when he's hungry yeah of course that's how it works um so that way he can get his food because a lot of times there was one pandemic at cosmic rays where we waited another 25 minutes for Ray for Ryder's food oh wow yeah yeah just because they forgot and they just they're like no you've got your order I'm like no I got half my order you know so that was it was it was two times in one trip that I realized okay this is you have to do it separately and it was it was actually that manager at cosmic rays that said when you do she was the one that told me order them separately and it would be better off for us for that so that's a little tip but even sometimes I forget to do that so yeah wow and how how's your experience been on some of the other cruise lines is it pretty similar with I mean I feel like everywhere now most any restaurant you go to they're so sensitive to these types of needs are they are the other cruise lines pretty well it's just rural Caribbean we don't really cruise other than rural Caribbean and Disney and rural Caribbean is probably where we cruise most and rural Caribbean has always been great um so but I've heard through um Packer Pixie Dust who is uh she's a travel agent and she's also um DCL podcast uh Christie she's also celiac so she is really she does a lot of good and even right right before I go on a cruise uh whether she does a lot of rural Caribbean too she does she'll give like some tips and she's the one that told me a great tip of ordering there was a side dish on the Disney wish in the 1923 she goes ordered this it's gluten-free it doesn't come with the steak but it but asked for this like I think it was a scalloped potatoes or something yeah and it was the best tip because it was the best potatoes I think I've ever had in my life but you know so those types of tips so I would say like follow I'm not a big foodie um people always ask like why don't we do more food reviews and it's basically because if you want to watch people eat grilled chicken and vegetables it's not going to be that entertaining because that's pretty much we do try and eat fairly healthy um and then usually like on a cruise we'll go out like all out the last day but we're not big foodies and then we're also we try and eat healthy which doesn't really make the best content um like we'll cover it and we'll show it but we don't really get into into depth because we like everything like we're not I'm not going to tell you like if you know this is this is cooked good it's like yeah I like it it's good that's you know it's fine yeah that's that's about it well you you stick to your strong point which makes total sense you know cover the the things that you know very very well um I do have I have one more Shannon specific question uh before we we have a couple fun questions from the hat uh for our listeners who you know are doing makeup doing hair to go into the parks do you have a couple tips or products you recommend especially you know you're going here in two weeks in july what are some tips because ronnie gets asked this a lot you know for for folks with makeup hair things like that to to make it all day in the parks so I actually have a video and I need to do it again is how I did my makeup in in Walt Disney World some of the products that I initially are usually I originally used are no longer they've been discontinued which was really upsetting but um I I go full hair and makeup so that's one thing I do go full hair america with and there was a couple reasons for that um well the main reason is is that is Disney and cruising but specifically Disney is really the only time I get family pictures yep because usually it's me taking pictures of writer or maybe writer and right I never or selfie of me and writer or a mean writer we rarely get thank god for photo pass because that is how we get family pictures so I do have like you know well hair and makeup um so I would say depending on your your skin type so know if you have dry skin or if you have oily skin a lot of people don't know what type of skin they have um so I have a primer of a makeup primer that's also an SPF it's from charlotte tilbury and so but there's a lot of good ones that do have SPF so don't wear an SPF um on its own get one that has it's a makeup primer because there's a quite a few of them even from the drugstore I think malani has one that's pretty you know affordable that will help make your makeup last and then it will also protect you from the sun yeah so that's one tip and then one thing I do with especially during the the summer months I have combination skin so my skin can get oily but it's not too oily is I dust powder like the loose powder before I put my my foundation on and that just helps kind of create a barrier for the oils so they don't break through as easily and um and then I do you know use a setting spray so a setting spray does help and then I have a setting spray it's from naked sundays and they sell it now at target and it is a setting spray that's also an SPF so you can use that when you need to reapply your SPF you can use that as well and then I also have a powder that's also an SPF from a brand called CL cosmetics now that one is a little pricier um you can get that at Sephora but it's a it's a great SPF but it's also a great powder so again you're getting your sun protection and in July or anytime in Florida you want you I mean you've seen it in in you know in Disney World where you see somebody and they are burnt to a crisp and you're like oh I'm so sorry yeah it's the worst feeling I usually carry an extra SPF and I've usually I have been known to give out like just give them a bottle of like here's your sunscreen you're a lifesaver for that yeah I get it at Trader Joe's like my little spray bottles great Trader Joe's has great SPF or all they also usually have some sometimes during the summer um and I've been known to just like if I see somebody and it's usually like someone from like the UK you're like oh you're not used to the Florida sun so uh yeah I have uh I've given that a couple bottles of of sunscreen throughout my time in Disney World but those are some tips but I think knowing what works for you yeah um if you're not a person that wears a lot of makeup don't wear a lot of makeup you know um I wear you know I have a really great mascara that's from called that from Cali Ray it's sold at Sephora and that stuff man I was in typing lagoon in the wasteful and that stuff did not budge it is so waterproof now the problem is is it doesn't come off you know it's you you need I mean it it takes a lot of makeup remover to get it off but when you go on Splash Mountain you're not gonna look like a raccoon actor so those are those are those are couple tips um you know but just you know go look them like yourself but don't also don't be afraid to wear makeup in the parks because I know a lot of people are afraid to wear it yeah but then also don't feel like you have to like some people are like I can't wear it but in the park them don't you know what to yeah those are great tips and I know a lot of listeners are jotting down notes during that um but that reminds me I will probably need to do a video when I'm there I'm gonna try and record it while I'm at Disney World yeah um and uh I'll probably maybe I don't know which channel I'll put it on but maybe I'll put it on both but um so that's I it needs to be redone for sure yeah yeah well everybody will we'll be sure to keep a lookout for that um well we're going to move on to the hat and we'll pick a couple random questions out of here uh if you could have any Disney World job there is what would it be oh this one's always fun yeah um let me think I would probably I'd want to be a cruise director oh that would be so I mean I don't know if you said Disney World but I'm gonna go with it I'm gonna go with this I mean that would have to be like before I was married or if I could bring right and right or on but um yeah I think the cruise director I mean you worked you worked you know 24/7 that just seems like fun yeah yeah I always think back I'm like if I was 20 again you know before before wife and kids there's so many things I wish I had done even I mean imagine doing that even for one year of your life and that was it just imagine how much you would learn and experience like so yeah so anybody who's who's young you know look into looking at things you're probably not going to do when you're in your forties and have a family you know yeah or maybe even like I would think like being a princess on the cruise yeah like I mean you you've been on the Disney cruise and you see those little girls and those little kids and I remember writer like he was when he was four now he's a little bit a little bit um older and he I just make him take the picture but you know especially I will say especially when you see the little girls that love Tiana yeah and especially like that's one of the reasons why I did I was not upset I loved Splash Mountain but I was not upset about the change because I saw firsthand when you see a little girl of color and she sees Tiana and she sees all the other princesses she likes them but she sees Tiana because Tiana looks like her and you see how important it is so yeah so maybe that too I don't know yeah we saw that in the parade I mean and it brought Ron and I both the tears you know right to when Tiana's float comes around it's just amazing and what I love about the cruise with the characters that's so different than the parks like when you're when you go to the parks and you see the characters you feel like you're in their house you know like you're visiting them but on the cruise it almost feels like they're just another guest you know like if you were to see you know your favorite actor or actress or or music you know pop star just happened to be on the cruise with you and you know and people kind of formed around them and wanted to meet them like it has a feeling like you're kind of all just guest on the cruise and what's along this Disney cruise you've done four nights was we did the magic so we are looking next we're probably going to try and expand to five we'd love to do a seven a lot of it is so hard with Rhonda because you know I mean I can yeah well yeah and I mean I can I can work from anywhere and I can technically say I want to take next week off therefore I'm just going to bust my butt this week and I'm going to do everything for next week and I can kind of sit back and relax but for Rhonda when she doesn't work that Monday Tuesday Wednesday at those 12 hour days not only are we spending money on a cruise but then she's losing three days worth of pay you know she doesn't have PTO and days off paid days off so that's the only reason we haven't even really you know looked at a longer cruise but we're gonna try and figure out some ways and you know try and move around that I would say is the longer the Disney cruise the longest we've done is five nights which was that Marvel day at sea and writer was four and writer was at that age he was you know he's he's still a pretty cool kid but I at four he was just he stole the show yeah and he also let me use the dress up now he doesn't let me dress him up anymore it's sad but he that he the characters were his best friends you know spider-man saw him and he had this somebody had given him a spider toy a spider-man toy the first night and he carried it around everywhere and so awesome you know the the characters and that they're all the entertainment crew right so they're all chatting they all know so we ended up seeing spider-man so he had been carrying the spider-man and he ended up losing it at Rapunzel's Royal Table and the the the rough hands were helping him look for it and they were literally looking under the tables it was quite quite embarrassing but they were amazing and so what by the time we saw like we got to Marvel day it's the Marvel day spider-man he's like are you writers oh and he's like I heard it because he was carrying around the the spider-man toy and he just thought by the fifth day spider-man was his best friend because he would and to the point where spider-man we saw him the last night and they're like he's like where's Ryder and we're like oh he's at the adventure ocean he goes well go get him I need to take a bite of him so we had to pull him out and and I mean I have these amazing videos of spider-man walking us holding his hand while we're walking behind him and he's walking us to our state room and and then the princesses knew him and I had had him like get little little chocolate bars and like he wrote like little like we had little gifts that he gave all the princesses when he met them and one it was a way to give the calf members and the crews a little gift but it was also him to show like you give stuff you nice to give so we're kind of like a double and did you know um benefit to it and they all loved it and it was just so they knew him and they knew what because of it and I've noticed that like on the three nights you don't get it as much because it's such a short cruise but the longer cruises and I've heard like for a seven night it really becomes like that so um but we we definitely experience that on the Marvel day of sea that's incredible yeah absolutely I love that and yeah after we did the three night on the wish like I'm just like I will never do a three night again I mean you you get on the boat and the next thing you know you wake up and you're getting off like it's just such a blur um four nights felt pretty right but I feel like five nights would be truly a sweet spot you know of of the amount of time that you want to spend I love days at sea like that's actually my favorite day is the day it's like totally totally we don't we never got off at Nassau and honestly the last time we were on the wish that was when there was a hurricane and we actually didn't board until six o'clock at night oh wow yeah it was it was not the best um this was a November of 2022 and we we skipped Nassau because um there was no Nassau they ended up skipping the port because we weren't going to get there in time and then we had we decided to skip castaway key because we had been to castaway key we had been on a cruise maybe six weeks before and we're like you know what we really wanted beyond the wish this was the second time we were on the wish and we really wanted to go on you know the alpha mouse and do all the things and it was an amazing day to see the because everybody gets off the castaway key no one gets no one stays on the ship at castaway key inlet they can't right um so it was I mean we were it was we were literally going on the aqua mouse getting off and going back on again I mean it was just amazing like you would just we I think we wrote it four times in a row with just to walk on I mean maybe there was five people in line yeah which was amazing so um now you know it's it's we missed castaway again we had been to castaway key and we had no regrets doing that um I I like three nights because usually it's just a weekend um you know we we do a lot of three nights and but but also we live in south florida so we just jump on the ship we just we literally we have we have been known to get um pick up rider from school and go on a cruise so that's cool yeah and you know I mean I grew up in in Maryland so I think it's just you know I have this mindset like my kids and and rider I'm sure like they don't they can't grasp or understand how incredible their childhood is yeah you know I mean I didn't go on a cruise until I was almost 40 years old you know like it just it wasn't something I ever did and again you know a trip to Disney every couple years if I was lucky and we'd go to the beach but like yeah I don't think that that our kids in that generation can truly appreciate how just incredible they have it especially living yeah by a port or a couple hours from a theme park like Disney uh in Universal and the whole central florida area it's just yeah and I try and tell them that um it's so fun I've been I was watching stranger things with kaolin I finally started it like on the last person I feel like to ever start I've never I don't want I haven't watched it so you're you got me there it's so good but you know I mean the whole place takes it takes place in the 80s you know and I was born in 79 you're born in 76 so we both grew up in the 80s and and every like 10 minutes I would pause it and I would just talk with kaolin like did you know that's how it really was like do you know how good you have it that you don't have to do these things and of course that's coming from people that grow up in the 80s you can go yeah talk to our parents and they're gonna tell you a whole other set of things um but it's just it's funny that uh and I think it's so cool you know I think it's cool that our kids get to grow up in this environment in this this world in these these areas um there's a lot of other areas that I wish they didn't have to and we could go back to the 80s but you know that's a that's a whole other podcast yeah we do try and tell writer we tell try and tell writer you know how lucky he is and you know we I wanted more than one kid it just um he was IVF and and he was my miracle baby and it just wasn't in the cards for us but then I look back and I think wow we wouldn't be able to give him the childhood we are giving him because even something like genie plus or multi-pass I don't think I could pay for it for a family of four every day oh yeah you know when it's a family of three it's a little bit it's a lot easier but when you're talking a family of four and I know you you're in that situation it's you have to be more frugal because it's it just adds it it makes it just everything's more expensive and you have more tickets and stuff so I mean even right now our our annual passes are the pixie dust we have the weekday pass and um that was because for a long time that was the only pass you could get and when they opened it up we're like you know what we're fine with this one because we don't really like going on the weekends anyway it's too many people right yeah so that's what we do um and we just we work around it and but that way we can afford the other thing yeah and it you know it's it's hard our girls decided a couple years ago and it was their decision to not be annual pass holders anymore you know we know I remember seeing that post and I was just like so heartbroken for you it is and it's heartbreaking but on a positive side in a positive spin it has given ronda and I an opportunity as far as content in the show goes to to do more things because you know we're not having to pay for four people you know we'll you know it'll be a lot easier to stomach you know the lightning lane multi pass and single pass and figure it out without times four or you know our annual passes every year and things like that so um you know we we certainly miss them being there but you know much like you and ronda's our positive spinner you know she always puts the positive into everything you know the way that you do um we kind of look at it that way you know we're doing things that we couldn't do as a family of four but we've had that experience so we can still speak about it and like we're going at the end of the month we'll we'll have to to talk offline because I think we're gonna be there the same time you are for a couple days possibly um and we're going with a friend and her nine-year-old daughter and like I'm so excited to like be with a nine-year-old kid again and watch them experience the parks you know and all these things but I don't have to pay for so that makes it even better what's a Disney IP that you don't think is well represented in the parks and you'd like to see come to life tangled tangled yeah tangled I and and writer is I mean his name is writer my son's name is writer we did not I had never seen the movie and his name is spelled with an i so r i d r um and I had never seen the movie but before he was he was born um and I mean yeah the bathrooms I mean it's the best bathroom beyond Walt Disney World property but you really it's such a it's such a I mean I think to me it's the best it's the best Disney film out there yeah yeah yeah I would I would love mine was always princess in the frog but we've got that now so yeah um yeah I agree with you I'd go on with tangled um well here's here's a good question that I always find interesting with the answer you know do you feel valued as a Disney World passholder and it you know whether it's just now compared to the past or it's just now in general do you feel valued being a Disney World passholder? I don't I wouldn't say I feel valued but I don't say I feel unvalued either yeah um I don't feel like there's I think there's certain there's some perks um I I think for Disney Vacation Club you know I I happen to be going when there's the welcome home week so there's those events that are happening that are starting the week that we go so hopefully we'll be able to participate in that but um you know a lot of times you know with Disney Vacation Club there's a lot of like magic and stuff but a lot of times you just can't go because if you don't have a trip planned right you you you can't go yeah um and then you also have to be a direct member which we were we're locked in we have we have 25 direct points but that was before you had to buy 150 so um I wouldn't buy direct just for the perks right I will just say that yeah but um I don't feel unvalued but you know they that annual passholder lounge at Epcot I did get to experience that um that was amazing yeah that was absolutely amazing and we went uh and you know to have the genie and have those pictures with the genie um that was much better than the DVC lounge that was at Epcot um that is going to be reopening soon so I'm I'm curious to see if any changes or what they if they did to it very much looking forward to the DVC lounge at Magic Kingdom I think that's going to be amazing um whenever that opens so I would say as a passholder I don't feel unvalued but I don't necessarily think all the time um I would say that yeah no that makes sense and it's it's it's hard to not look back at some of the things we used to get like I remember they used to do when they first introduced that um you know very important passholder VIP passholder technically you know I remember that they had the the special nights that you know you could reserve um because we did typhoon lagoon one night that was specific to the VIP nights and you know the things that you used to get during like I've got this set of four etched glasses from I don't know what it was I'd have been like 2017 maybe that you got at Epcot you know and we've got the cutting boards that actually Caitlin uses every time she eats strawberries she pulls out our little annual passholder cutting board like I have the coasters yes yeah we have those two and it was yeah so it's hard not to compare back to that but I do think that they're they're listening and they're doing more where they can with the thing like the lounges you know and and I know a lot of people scoff at getting a magnet but you know I think that I love them to death we have every single one and if I were to ever not get one it would it would break my heart you know and I'd I'd probably end up buying it on eBay just so I had it so yeah it's hard it's hard to to not look back at what used to be but I really do think that they're heading back in the right direction of of showing their passholders that they value them with some of the things they're doing so the only time I will say I was really disappointed and it wasn't because I was a passholder or DVC member but that jolly woodnights and just you know if you want to you can go buy youtube channel you just look up Shannon for jolly woodnights there's videos but you know the experience that we had that night and now we actually had a pretty good night compared to most but you know at the end of the night we they had a bunch of content creators there and they were allowing them to cut the line and they were allowing them to cut the lines of kids that were waiting to see characters and then the rain came and my son didn't get to see fantasy and verb after waiting for 45 minutes but we would have if they hadn't let three content creators cut the line and spend five to 10 minutes and while everybody else waited and that's where I was just that's when I realized this is this was not and I wouldn't I didn't blame the content creators at all this was because they were being led by Disney PR yeah and I did speak to josh tomorrow's assistant and they called they ended up refunding I never asked for a refund but they did refund us and I even said I'm not asking for a refund she's like I'm refunding you anyway yeah which I wasn't gonna say no but you know that was the only time and and I did hear that they have listened obviously they made a lot of changes to jolly woodnights and that was not because of me that was just because of they you know it was they knew it was bad that night yes it was um it was you know it was like that should not happen like you should not you know have a have a preview night you know for content creators where you do it you know a couple that's that's if you're gonna do that have a preview night where you get a test run of things and you get the content and they get the content and then you have them put about that night or do something yeah but don't don't just be detrimental to the experience of the paying guests for you to get content yeah and that was that was the only time I felt unappreciated because usually our experienced are pretty positive that was that was the only time but again I did voice my opinion and I did get a call back from josh tomorrow's assistant and hopefully that I just don't want that to ever happen to any other families yeah and I think you raised a good point you know of going and sharing experiences you know it's and there's a very different you know going going back to you know you were saying about negative content does better but I think that there's such a difference between being honest and being negative you know being honest is saying here's my experience this is exactly what happened and people can pull more out of that what they want you know negative is more going uh jolly woodnights sucked you know what i mean like but but seeing more of the lighting but I think it is important that people do voice their opinions and experiences without expecting anything return it's it's going to guess service and and simply saying we just want to let you know that this was our experience and and leave it at that you know and and because disney will take note of that um do you plan to to check out jolly woodnights this year i think so um you know we're we're planning on trying to get to the hollywood the the halloween party you know writers at that age he's almost 9 o b 9 later this year and he's getting to the age where it's i know the time is limited as far as him wanting to go with us and really enjoying those things now he is he is immature for his age he is a boy and i think boy you're just relatively more immature but he wants to go to the halloween party he wants to be Oswald this will be the third year going as odd to Oswald that's his favorite character um but then we talked about the the party and and he said he wants to go to both we didn't do the very merry christmas party last year but we won't have annual passes our annual passes expire in november yeah and we're not planning to renew right now um so i think we might do a weekend and do both parties um so that's what we're trying to figure out right now but yeah that's um i think so and i i but i will say don't go to the party of the first night yes and that's i i we only went the first night because that was our trip and it was that was the week that we were there and it happened and that was that was why we we ended up doing it we we never would have planned to go to first night um and i will avoid the first night like the plague yes agree completely and it's something that it's something that we learned ourselves you know because and not that we've ever tried to be part of the first culture but our thought with jollywood nights last year was let's specifically go to the first night because a it's brand new and b there's not a ton of them you know and only ten and one got canceled right exactly so we thought all right if we're at the first one then we can really help people you know who are going to go to end of the remainder ones and we learned quicker like let's not let's not do that again you know um again people can either you know if anything we'll do a preview and say hey here's what's coming you know or we'll just say we're gonna go when it works for us and then we'll talk about it right so yeah we definitely learned that lesson but i agree first night we just try and go early just early in the in the in the the the dates because it's cheaper yeah oh 100 percent yeah like we're looking at um labor day weekend for i think it's the august 30th is what we'll probably do for the halloween party yeah and then we go to what we did last year's we then we go to um to universal yeah so we'll go to universal um so we'll do that one night um that's what we're planning on um but yeah that's so i am i'm and i love the halloween party um it's so much fun it's the best i love the christmas party i love christmas i'm not a halloween person but man the halloween party is so good agree yeah halloween party made me a halloween person like in in that sense like i didn't i never cared about halloween at all and then we went to the halloween party and i was like oh you know i kind of want to decorate the house more i kind of you know i want to do this every year i want to go all out i want to get dressed up i want to like it's it's just it's it's something um all right i got one more hat question and then a rapid fire and we'll close out that sound good yeah all right um how do you feel about the term disney adult i you know i think it's a negative connotation to it but i kind of get it because there are some people that are a little annoying um but you know at the same time let them be who they want to be you know i i i can see you know people and i will say for for south florida we don't do the parks like south florida like when we i'm telling people no we're going to disney for a week what you're going to disney for a week because most people hear just go for a weekend yeah and they go first thing in the morning and they'll go to two parks a day and that's how we used to do it before before writer was born you know nobody to be a Disney vacation club member in in south florida is unheard of yeah because most people in south florida just go for a weekend that's kind of how we do cruising we'll get it we'll see a good deal on a cruise we'll jump on a cruise ship we won't do that at disney because disney you need to plan yeah um so it it's um so i can see the the term disney adult i i i think if if you're a disney adult you know wear it with pride you know um i i do see where people see it as a negative but at the same time you got to be you like you know if people see negative and everything and anything oh yeah and a lot of times i think it's just because they're jealous like if someone's talking bad about a disney adult it's probably because they're just not happy in their life or they don't have something that makes them that happy i have like a hundred disney ears right mouth ears i'm actually kind of on into it right now and i'm debating on whether or not i'm gonna you know get rid of my collection or downsize because i just don't wear them right any as much anymore um but you know for a lot of times people were like i can't believe you have so many i'm like yeah okay fine it makes me happy you know it makes me happy and some people at shoes some people it's close for me for a long time it was mouth ears um you know it's just do what makes you happy and if people see it as a you know negative then that's fine but i do see the term can be negative um but i i don't i you know um again like where the only thing i would say for some disney adults is when you have kids and like i remember scouting out a part you know a parade route and then having some you know what would be disney adults cut in front of us i think that they could sit in front of my child or stand in front of my child who's three yeah um that's that's kind of annoying but i would say that's the exception of the rule yeah and i yeah and i think in those instances you know it's you do you as long as it doesn't hinder somebody else's experience exactly you know exactly and and i think a lot of it comes to um for folks that you know term these other people disney adults is sometimes a a misunderstanding or just lack of knowledge of about you know disney and disney world because you know again disney's marketing is all surrounded about i'm still really families and children and so i think there's still a misconception for a lot of folks that don't know disney that it is just for kids or families you know why would right now ronda and i you know to almost 45 year old adults with with teenage kids who don't go anymore like why would we put so much of our life into it because they don't you know a lot of folks don't know what else there is you know they don't know about the fine dining and these something like jolly woodnights and these experiences so you know i think there's a lot of still misinformation out there for for folks that just don't know disney we try and do we try and do a different experience each trip so this trip we are doing hope to do just because we're on we're saying it for voters we haven't done it before we did it right before the pandemic so excited to do that we're actually doing not the first night um but we're doing a wild africa trek which again that's an experience that i don't think most people know yeah one of these i am a certified scuba diver so i do want to do um the scuba dive in yep caught so that's that's kind of on my bucket list so there's a lot of things to do at disney that a lot of people don't know about and and again like what i what i told people and what i mentioned earlier is we don't we learned um that we we take it easy in the morning Ray usually goes to the gym works out i sleep in i have coffee you know do whatever we chill do you know maybe if there's a community hall or whatever there is at a resort go to the pool do something and then we go to the parks in the afternoon and we close we used to take naps we used to come back and take naps but that was when writer was little but now i mean that kid got really the park at one o'clock in the morning and he's like why are we leaving um so you know but that's how we enjoy it and that's it feels more like a vacation that way for us and that works that works for us it doesn't work for everybody but you know find out what works for your family and and works and then the the beauty of of going every so often we are going less we're probably going down to two trips maybe a year one or two trips a year um and like this right after this trip we really don't have a a long trip plan we have the party's plan but that's about it um you know it's just that if something's closed or you know something breaks down it's not a big deal like we'll just ride it next time yeah so that's the beauty of it um we did go back like i mentioned i did do a surprise trip with my son for test track um because he was sad when it was closing that was one of his favorite rides so when he heard it was closing and we hadn't ridden it since November uh i did surprise him with a day trip to go ride it twice um before it closed like two weeks before it closed which was great you know but um which is a special time because it was just him and me and it was it was exhausting i was exhausted um but uh it was a great it was a really special trip for him and i and and the bright side we got to see Phineas and Ferb uh they were randomly at Hollywood studios so it all came for a full circle yeah oh i wish there was more more Phineas and Ferb well we were there the day that they closed the park early for that adam and levine like corporate yeah so they closed it at five and let me tell you the park was empty i had bought genie plus rise of the resistance with a ten-minute walk-on and we had gone to the park to just ride one or two rides and then we were going to drive home i'm like oh no we're staying yeah and they had characters out they had max they had goofy and max meeting they had Donald and i mean there were characters everywhere because they were really that's where i realized okay Disney's they're they know that the park is closing early they know people are paid full price for this ticket and they're making it worth their while i mean there were characters you would turn and there was another character and they were with photo pass photographers it wasn't just characters out on their own they were you know Phineas and Ferb were not but um it was amazing to see them and we got to do a dance party and we got a better experience than we would have at jollywood night so it all came full circle that's amazing that is great all right we're gonna go into some rapid fire questions for you and we're gonna start all first with what is your favorite Disney snack oh that's hard just because i am uh celiac yeah i think this is going to help a lot of folks actually yeah um there are gluten-free churros uh what's the place i like i can't think of it um not tipping the lounge oh no mad yeah no mad they have gluten-free um they have a gluten-free churros and i wish christy from vcl podcast had never told me that but they are amazing okay all right i might just try them next time we have a a really good friend of ours that we go to disney a lot with we meet up with them um who's gluten-free and so we've we've learned a lot about it and we always try and try some of the stuff that she gets just to give a comparison uh the one thing surprisingly we actually liked better gluten-free than the original now it didn't have a caramel sauce um is the bread pudding uh when you know from ohana or you get it right there from tambu tambu um it's really really good yeah so you can actually get that bread pudding gluten-free it just won't come with the caramel sauce okay it's outstanding uh what is your current favorite disney park does i know that changes sometimes for a lot of people yeah um it has been oh god it's really whatever park writer was to go to and his favorite i was just gonna say yeah i was just gonna ask what his was his is that hot okay his is that hot um but i i think magic kingdom and especially with tron and now tiana's it's probably gonna be magic kingdom for a little bit yeah yeah uh your favorite attraction ooh tron okay tron or cosmic rewind but tron is tron's up there oh it's so good i just yeah as everybody says i just wish it was longer but that's how good it is you know like we we pay we pay the extra lightning lane because we like to write it at night and the only way to guarantee you write it at night is to do that lightning lane and it's like you're paying a dollar a second because oh yeah it's 60 bucks for three of us for a dollar a second but it's worth every second oh hundred percent um let's see what is your favorite quick service restaurant on property ooh um the regal eagle okay uh favorite table service or signature the Cinderella's World table oh yeah that's a good one uh favorite resort that could be dvc or non dvc um old key west if you're in a one bedroom or more yeah old key west yeah um your favorite Disney character Rapunzel okay and finally for the rapid fire would you rather do a Disney cruise or visit the Disney parks Disney cruise yeah i'm kind of leaning that way and i never i never thought i would be a cruise person that's just because i'm gotten old and i i mean i literally i have to work out before i have to bring i mean i'm the person that has three muscle creams for the day after the park because i have to do otherwise i can't walk the next day and i worked out but it's just it's a different you're using different muscles yeah it's completely different and especially when you when you put yourself in that heat and the sun like i know for me the sun just drains my energy like nothing else this is the funny thing i used to go to the parks when i was dating ray this is this tells you like the difference between before and after dating yeah i used to go in like four inch wedges and um now i like now you know now he's like you used to wear wedges to the parks and like yeah no that's like i got i got the ring on it that was it yeah i don't know how i did that and now i'm like you know now i i i i've done videos on the best sneakers to wearing the parks oh like it's changed and here's the thing and again that's why you know information and and education and channels like yours are so important because those are the things that people don't think about you know same with somebody going i bought a brand new pair of shoes i can't wait to wear them at disney and you say all right have you broken them in no i'm gonna wear them day one you're like oh you're making a huge mistake you know walk walk miles and miles before you ever get to the parks uh and break those suckers in or you're going to be miserable but it's those types of things that oh it's like a stroller yeah you know i know some people are like oh you gotta get a jogging stroller i'm like are you gonna try to hold a jogging stroller trying to get on a bus no awful and same thing with kids ages i mean we had the girls and strollers you know years past anywhere else in the world at disney and we even i mean i remember i think i think lacy was eight or nine at a time and we had not brought a stroller but our friends did and she was in that thing more than their kids were who were younger wait the trip in june was the first time i didn't bring a stroller for rider yeah we we always brought one like last time he was just before he turned eight but we would park it at the front and we didn't necessarily have it the whole time but you know if you're saying so close and the park closes at 1230 you yeah you know we're not i'm not carrying that you know a 65 pound kid to the car right yeah or just or your stuff you know for things that's where now i have to carry a backpack that's the sad thing is i have to carry a backpack because i don't have the stroller i miss that we got out a backpack stage because that was us too and i look back now and i'm like man i would just i'd kill over and die but this was you know a decade ago i mean i had one of the big disney backpacks i loaded it with pins that we were collecting so you know you put a hundred pins on the backpack that's adding weight then we had uh it was when they first came out with the yeti water bottles that had a screw off top and they're like i don't even know 30 ounce something like that and we had each of those filled with ice water and they went in both sides of the backpack and then yeah we had all the the kids stuff and i'm like how on earth did i ever manage with all that and now i mean i went to the park the other day and i just had my wallet in my pocket and it was like the most freeing thing ever it was just like wow i got this thing for the cruise and i need to make a short i made the short i just need to edit it it is called my cap it's um c-a-e-p and it is a it's a it's a phone holder and but you and that it also attaches you can wear it as a wristlet or you can wear it as a kind of a crossbody but it attaches to your phone and then you can wear your phone kind of like a crossbody and i bought it for the cruise because they also have a little wallet attachment that is amazing to have it was really great to have on the cruise because i had that where i had my phone it was just across me but then anytime i wanted to take a picture i needed to grab it i didn't have to pull in my pocket i didn't have to like feel like i needed to reach and get it it was just it was there then plus it was easy to keep like my key to the world card or you know my my key card was there but um i used it in the park when we went in june and i was like oh this is fantastic it is really great so i am i need to get in more color because now it's amazing and it i was like afraid like it was gonna fall but it's really secure okay and um it really is i have to make a video on it because and i paid full price i didn't get that one for free but man it really made it especially with the phone because i have like a an iphone max so it's big it doesn't always sit in every pocket and um so that was that's been really good but no i'm i'm still i'm but i'm moving out of the stroller and then all i have all my my my my camera equipment so yeah um i do have to have the backpack so i'm trying to see if i can get a smaller backpack but um yeah it's gonna be hot so we're gonna be changing clothes and stuff so we'll see we'll see well um i do want to wish you a happy birthday um thank you very much coming up here on the 12th so so happy birthday and this this episode will go out right around that time so everybody can wish you a happy birthday go ahead i know you've talked a little bit about it but plug your your youtube channels your social media anything else you want to plug uh go for it so my channel is Shannon Ford um and it's easy way easy way to find me is it's Shannon Ford's Disney because there's a Shannon Ford that's a reality tv star that is not me um American Pie fame she was on no she was on the Kristen Cavalieri show okay and she was a red head i used to be a red head so and she was also a pageant girl so people who choose a lot of times i have gotten called from us weekly when they were a little scandal with her but that was not me um that was always interesting they asked me if i was dating jay cutler i was like nope sorry i'm married but i didn't get that phone call yeah oh he would have he would have been like i wish he was me um you know but uh yeah um so Shannon Ford and then my beauty channel is just Shannon lip makeup and then you can find me on tiktok and instagram i'm not that great on both of them i'm trying to get better but uh it's missus Shannon Ford there just no no dots just miss the Shannon Ford on both of those i'm on twitter too but or x but i barely use it i usually only find i usually only use that when they're disney news and i'm trying to find it yeah yeah perfect well Shannon thank you so much i'm yeah i'm so glad you're able to join me for so much fun this is yeah this has been just just wonderful for me as well so thank you uh yeah happy birthday enjoy your trip thank you and we will have you back on to uh yeah talk about the the dvc cabins here very soon yeah absolutely all right thanks thank you all so much for listening i hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as i did and again thank you Shannon so much for coming on of course if you want to keep up to date on all things main street magic you can follow us on social media at main st magic or search for the main street magic community and facebook and ask to join and go ahead hit that subscribe button you get brand new episodes every tuesday and friday and ronda will be back for the very next episode as long as you're out on the internet checking out Shannon's socials watching her youtube video subscribing to our show you might as well leave us a rating and review because as you know it helps our show grow that's all we got we'll see you real soon jeremy and ronda are more than a little panda disney world so they make this podcast to share it all with you reports and resorts top ten lists of all sorts main street magic springing at home [BLANK_AUDIO]
