Today we'll have Kristen's Universal and Disney World Tripp report that's coming up on this episode 416 of WWE Prep To Go. Hello and welcome to WWE Prep To Go. We talk shadgy and ideas for people playing their Disney World Trippes. I'm your host, Shannon Albert from wdwprepschool.com. Thank you for being here for episode 416. So today is another tripp report this time from Kristen, who is a frequent visitor, annual pass holder, and she went with her family to stay first at Universal and then at Disney World. So I'll have that report for you in just a second. As we were recording the post trip, it is the day that Disney announced all the changes to the Gini Plus system where the Gini Plus system is going away in favor of a new Lightning Lane pass system. And I want to mention it here because although we have a lot of tripp reports coming up in the next several weeks, I also will have a standalone episode and I'm going to talk all about that system because we are personally very excited about it because we love the old FastPass Plus system and really wanted something like that to come back and that's exactly what the new system is going to be, kind of a hybrid between FastPass Plus and Gini Plus. And so I want to talk all about it so that you can be prepared for your trip. So that'll be coming up in I think two weeks or so. In addition to that episode and the tripp reports, I will also have my own tripp report, but not from a Disney theme park. We are taking a group trip to Marcelline, Missouri, which is where the Disney hometown museum is and to the Disney 100 exhibit, which is in Kansas City and it's about two hours away. So we're doing a whole big group trip there and I will have updates from that trip as well. That trip is end of July and it actually precedes us playing to Florida to test out the new lightning lane system, so Heather and I will be in the Kansas City area for the Marcelline group trip and then flying directly to Orlando so we can test out the new system and have updates for that. So that'll be coming up in the next weeks, the summer late July, early August timeframe. So that is it for now. Here are my chats with Kristen. Welcome to the podcast, Kristen. Hi, Shannon. Thanks for having me. We are talking on Thursday, May 30th and I understand you're going to Disney world. I am and I'm also going to Universal. Oh, okay. Great. And what are your dates for those? So we're leaving on June 11th and we're coming back on the 16th and fun fact, Shannon. Today is my anniversary with my husband and he is pleased to let me do this. He is pleased to have me do this today so I have to start by saying happy anniversary to him. Happy anniversary to Kristen and her husband. Did you say June 11th through the 16th? Yeah, June 11th through the 16th. Okay. And on this trip, it is your husband going on this trip? Yeah. He's going to come to. Okay. It's going to be me and Carl, my husband, my daughter Olivia, who is 11 and my other daughter, Vivian, who is 10 and June 11th is her 10th birthday. So this is her birthday trip. Okay. So I know that you live near Nashville. Are you flying out of Nashville? Yes. We're going to fly out of Nashville on the 11th. I think our flights at like 930. Okay. And when you get to Orlando, how are you getting from there to just zero? People taking the Uber or Lyft, whatever's cheaper, easier. I've been comparing a lot. I used to be a little lonely, but now I just compare because sometimes they're so wildly different. Lyft is, I feel like Lyft is generally cheaper, but Uber has like more clout or something. I don't know. I don't know. But doesn't have to use both. A lot of most drivers do both. What hotel are you staying out? We are. So we're staying one night at Hard Rock. We're club level there. So we'll do universal on Tuesday and Wednesday and then we're moving over to the beach club to one bedroom where DVC. So we booked it on points a few months back. Okay. So the Uber or Lyft that you take from Orlando Airport is to the Hard Rock Hotel. Yes. Okay. And I know that you are frequent visitors to Disney World. Are you frequent visitors to Universal? No. So I took Vivian, who's the one who's turning 10. I took her a couple of years back. So she has seen some stuff, but not everything because she was still kind of little then. Carl has never been to Universal and Olivia has never been to Universal. So this will be new territory for them. No one. No one but me is a Harry Potter fan. So nobody. Once again, the family, a humorous mama and the things that she wants to do. But like, I think, you know, they'll switch on when we're there. They'll be, they'll be the biggest Harry Potter fans in the world as soon as we walk into a gift shop, I think. Are they ride people like big ride people? It's a little tricky. It's really going to depend on the day. Vivian is always big rides. She'll do coasters. She's not sure if she wants to do Hulk, but she says she's in for Velocicoaster this time. Mm hmm. Olivia, like, we're just going to have to see it's going to depend on the day and the feelings. We'll see. She's saying now she's going to ride everything because the reason I asked is because even if they're not in Harry Potter, then, you know, the bigger rides could appeal if they're into that. But we'll see. Yes. That works out. Yes. And Carl is the, I have the, the, the thrill seekers and Carl is the chill seeker. So he, he is happy to hold, hold bags to the popcorn and the beer, while everybody does the big rides. So he's saving you some Walker rentals. Yeah, I didn't even think of fun. Have to remember to get must had lanyards to the list. Yeah, lanyards, lockers, the ills. So you're going to Hard Rocker's home and are you going into a park on this day? Yes. So we will go to Islands of Adventure that day. Mm hmm. That's the plan anyway. Priorities for that day are all of Anders. Right. There's like, even, even if Olivia doesn't fully appreciate it, I'm so stoked about taking my 11 year old to get her wand as she gets ready to enter sixth grade. Like that will be meaningful to me. And as everybody who's listening to this knows like this is this, these trips and these vacations are just as much about our enjoyment as they are about our children's enjoyment. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm pumped to have the great feast at the three brooms texts, I had it with my sister like six years ago, so I ended the two mad again, and Olivia really likes the Simpsons. So I'm sure we'll spend lots of time in Springfield and goofing around in there, but I don't know if we'll do that ride. So that's at Universal. Oh, so you, good. We'll just move it to the other day. Mm hmm. Oh, okay. So you're saying that that's your priority in general. So this, this Simpsons you can do the next day, if you're not going to Universal, let's say. Okay. Do you have any dining reservation? I guess three-room sticks. Yeah, I mean, we're planning to hit three broomsticks. I have met those, couldn't 100% tell you to do which day. But the family has been tasked with eating the ex-dollars worth of food that is the difference between the regular hotel room and the club level hotel room during the like 12 hours that will be a 10-0 pill. Yeah. Okay, how are, when are you going to the club lounge? I don't know. As much as possible, probably Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. And if like our cards still work and everything, it would be great to take a midday break in there, but I don't know. Mm hmm. I don't know how that's going to work. Okay. So Olive Adventure, Olive Anders, Memphis dinner lunch reservation, something like that. Probably dinner. Okay. And then maybe sometime in the club that your hotel, are you thinking you're going to walk back and forth from the hard rock? Yeah. Well, slightly. Okay. It's pretty, pretty easy from there. Yeah. Okay. So is that it on Tuesday, June 11? Yes. Thank you. I mean, everybody wants to swim. I told Carl the whole, you know, they, they play music underwater in that pool and he was like, oh God, I see that. So hopefully that one day is at least 48 hours long so that we can do all of the things. 48 hours long. I was just going to say that the forecast isn't available quite that far out. But if it is anything like my recent trip, you will be thankful for the swimming pool. I'm sure. I'm sure it's going to be warm. It's okay. It's okay. It's always, always is in the summer. Okay. So Wednesday, June 12th club lounge, you're back. Yeah. Of course. It's like big breakfast folks. Carl and I aren't at least, but like we need to make them it will note that the children should be fed before we go anywhere so that they are happier and they last longer before we need to stick ice cream in them or something like that. Ideally. So ideally, you know, we'll probably start again at islands of adventure that day. And you know, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and then we'll plan is to sort of early ish take the Hogwarts Express over to universal studios where we will then do this and stuff. Yes. Yeah. Good luck on that one. For anyone who's motion sick. Good luck. Oh, I'm not. I'm not writing that. Oh, okay. Then the camp. Then the kids. See if the kids ride. Yeah. All right. Do you have any dining reservations on this day? We do, but that's over in Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom. Oh, cozy. You're leaving this day. Huh. Okay. Head to the beach club. Yeah. Okay. So we have our we have our owner's locker. It's going to be delivered to the beach club. I couldn't tell you what's in there. I've packed it up last time. I think it's full of Halloween candy from last year's Halloween party. There's pair of sneakers in there, human sized towels. We have Wednesday, I'll say this, hopefully nobody gets mad at me. So because we're DVC, I booked a Tiana preview for three o'clock, but it's really unlikely that we're going to make it to Magic Kingdom. By then, I don't want to sacrifice the expensive stuff that we're doing at Universal to get over to Tiana for something that we're, even if we don't ride it this trip, which hopefully we will, but even if we don't, we'll be back, we'll ride it. Okay. You have a preview, which you may or may not make. Yeah. And you have a Magic Kingdom reservation, you said. Yes. So when the news started coming out about Tiana, when it started to sound like it was going to open around at this time, I went ahead and made park reservations for Magic Kingdom for every single day of this trip, just to be safe. Here, Daniel Passolders, and so are you eating? Oh, this is a gift for Cantene, of course. Okay. No more else ever to go. So that day we'll go over to the beach club whenever we go over there. We'll probably take a dip in the pool, chill out for a little bit in Magic Kingdom is open that night for extra, I want to call it extra many. It sends an evening theme park hour. It sends an evening theme park hours until one o'clock in the morning. So maybe we'll try and bang a couple of things out that night, Olivia, I think could stay up all night. If you wanted her to, the older child and the younger child literally said to me, "I think I'm good until about 9.30." So I imagine it's possible that she and Carl will head home and Olivia and I will tie one on. Mm-hmm. Well, that'll be fun, whoever wants to stay up at 1 a.m. Right. That's pretty rare. Yeah. Yeah. And also unlikely that we will make it that late, but it's just me. It's such a different atmosphere there when it's dark outside and it's cooler, it's quieter. It's fun experience. And no lightning lanes. Yeah. I don't know how I feel about that though. Oh, it's good. It's good. Okay. Yeah, it's good. Just. Yeah, I imagine getting a medsket. So that sounds like a fun day. What is the next day, Thursday, June 13th? That'll be the 13th. So that morning, we're going to try and do the virtual queue for the Tiana preview for annual pass holders. And in my magical fantasy, it all works out and we get our preview and our return time or number, whatever corresponds to like a late afternoon experience. We have an 11 a.m. beaches and cream that day and all of the planning that I have done for this trip, at least for the Disney portion, has us hanging out at the beach club for most of the day and goofing off, leaping in, splashing around, and then going into the parks in the evenings with stacked up lightning lanes. Okay. Evening. That's the plan. Okay. The virtual queue is such a crapshoot each time. Yeah. Well, we're just going to see. We'll see how that goes. And it's such a bummer that this is the first AP preview with the virtual queue. So people are supposed to book plane tickets and hotels on the chance. Yes. Might. Yes. Hopes are up, but I am. We'll be back. If you don't get it, you're going to be okay and I'm sure we'd be going to get it. It would be. I hope you. Fingers crossed. So if you have it your way, you will be at the hotel first for the day and then in Magic Kingdom at the last part of the day. Yeah. Okay. Any reservations other than beach and cream? No, but I wrote in my notes. Lawl, I should probably book us another skipper canteen for that night as well. We just we really like it. The girls like the cheese bread like I like the kungalooch like the fish dish that they have in there. We know we know what we like. We like the atmosphere. The only other thing that maybe we could do is like Crystal Palace because those characters are cute and fun, but yeah, I find Magic Kingdom tricky with table service other than skipper canteen. It's hard to stray characters, lots of them. And that's a big investment when you have a family for and yeah, and you're all dizzy adult. Yes. Yes, we are. Yes, you are officially. You're literally our dizzy adult. Yes. Okay. Friday, June 14th. Yes. So again, sleep in splash around this day. So I have Magic Kingdom booked this day just in case we don't get the Tiana preview the previous day that we can give it another shot. And in my head, we can be super flexible. And if we don't get the Tiana preview on Thursday, then that day we'll do a different park, but assuming everything went to plan on Thursday on Friday, we'll go to Animal Kingdom around noon, Olivia really likes the Navi River journey, peaceful, Carl and I like the Nomad Lounge. So they're in my head. What we could do is Carl and I sit down in the Nomad Lounge and dick the girls into it's tough to be a bug, which is nearby. And then laugh at them and they get back. They've been on it. They know what to expect. They know where they're going. Yes. Okay. That is anything else in Animal Kingdom, but you want to do it like it's high priority. Let me inflate a passage in the Safari. Those are our typical hits. Okay. And then are you booking individual names? Yeah. Okay. We'll do that in the morning. Okay. All right. Is that it for Friday, June 14? Oh, and then around five o'clock plan is to hop up of Animal Kingdom and go over to Disney Springs, where we're going to see who wins, the kids are the adults. The kids want to go see inside out too. This is the date open. Yeah. It's still open, so we would really have to have those tickets now. I don't. And also there are movie theaters here in Nashville, so I have trouble justifying that. No, I'd really like to go to somewhere else on the lake, I think that would be nice. You could, it could be a win-win. You could send them to the movie while you go to the somewhere else or do both. I'm so glad you suggested that is also what I would like to do, but I'm not 100% sure how comfortable I am with that. I'm comfortable with them in the parks and like they're pretty comfortable with the parks. This is just like one level above that, you know, it's more open, more wild, yes, but like still metal detectors, but more wild, so I don't, I don't know, we'll see how tired Carla and I are at that point and how much we want to put them in a movie theater and have a nice dinner just the two of us. How about a drone show? How about a drone show? Yes. 100%. That's on the list too. So pumped for the drone show. So many people do not do Disney Springs that I assumed if you were going, maybe it would include the drone show when 100% and that's part of the reason why we picked Summer House on the lake because it is closer proximity to that area. I did that combo. I did the Cirque du Soleil Summer House drone combo. What did you get at Summer House? I haven't listened yet. So my first ship there was pizza, so I do recommend their pizzas, but this last time I got a cup, an appetizer that was a tostada appetizer and then I also got, I didn't get to dessert in a couple of rose drinks or something. So I just kind of like pieced together the meal, but I haven't had any good bad there yet. Great. So love to hear that. And the word is out because that place is really popular, but if it ends up being just you and your husband asks at the bar, they have three bars. So even if they say 45 minute way, even if they say, you know, reservation, you could say, I'll check out one of the bars and there's three different one. So easy when you just have one or two people to find a seat. Brilliant. Do you have a reservation? Okay. For all four of us, but he likes to sit at the bar like whenever we go out to eat that business preference, so we'll take that advice. Thank you. Yeah, it's just so easy. We didn't have a reservation because we didn't know when we were going to get a house work to celebrate. We just sat at the bar. So that was great. Hopefully. But I'm happy to see that in the busy springs getting some attention because summer houses brought us a little bit of life. Good. So anyway, okay. So that sounds like a fun day. What about a Saturday, June 15th? Saturday, same drill, sleep in, splash around, and then the plan here is to go into Hollywood studios around four, stack up those lightning lanes. We will buy an individual lightning lane for rise of the resistance. Vivian really likes that the past couple of trips that we've been on, she has asked to go on rise and it just hasn't panned out. So because this is her birthday trip, we'll make sure that we get that scheduled. So tower of terror and all that. Are you stacking them all day or are you using stammer skipper? I will be using standby skipper. Okay. So I have my, the order in which I want skip to book them. And this, this will be the first time though, that I'm going to roll the dice with a by asking skip to book something later in the day. Normally I always say first available, but I assume because flinky goes out so fast that if I said, if I tell skip to book slinky in the afternoon, I'll still get it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think so, you know, that's still very early in the day. Very early. And then the next one will be something else. I would put, I would put, um, sinking in first, yes, and then put all your other requests in and then just go in the evening and do them back to back. That's fun. Yeah. And just roll it all out. Okay. Anything else planned reservations or anything? We have, uh, we have a, like a nine PM beaches and crane just in case, I don't see us using that, what I want to try and get, I have, but I had a late night, um, Ogas set up that night a couple of years ago and we were in Hollywood studios with some pals and we like walked in a late night, Ogas after park closing. And it was just the coolest thing, walking out of the empty park and everything is cool and dark and lovely, so I'd like to manufacture that experience again, if we can, but also I know the kids will be toast and not necessarily wanting to do a late night. Oh, goes. So we'll see. Okay. That is fun. And how do you think you're going to get back and over to Hollywood studios because you have options? I am going to say, we'll probably take a boat to Hollywood studios and we will likely, oh, maybe the Skyliner, be fun, or maybe we'll take the Skyliner home. I don't know. You can do one one way, one the other, whatever lines up being faster. They're not good with waiting, unless we have to. Okay. Well, you have approximately three methods that you can maybe, maybe four if you can't register. Okay. That sounds good. And then Sunday, June 16th at your departure day, are you doing anything else yet? And this is also like my question out to the patrons. So this is technically our Epcot day. We're going to not going to sleep in and splash around. We're going to a rope drop at caught Vivian, this is tricky to Vivian really likes guardians. I've tried like three times and it's not good for me. I can't do it with the motion sickness. I don't want to do it again. I will do it for her, but I would prefer not to still if Olivia would be open to riding guardians with Vivian, that would really be best for everybody. Yes, hopefully. Other priorities in there, the girls love the department store in Japan. So there will be some, some kitschy stuff coming home with us from there. Carl likes to spicy margarita in Mexico. We like Soren, I love living with the land, popcorn in Canada, Kamal Koush. The question for fellow patrons is we're sitting there next to Epcot in our hotel for three days and we haven't yet been to Epcot with the priority of relaxing. How do we also find more time to go to Epcot, you might have to sacrifice some swim time to pop in there for a marg or a champagne in France, that's my favorite thing. Yeah, the whole time that you're, I mean, obviously swimming is a big deal at beach club. So you're doing that, but you are right by, okay? So we'll probably wind up popping in there from time to time. We'll see. Best laid plans, right? And when is your flight home? So this got a little tricky. I had a work trip get scheduled for the following week. So my flight out is at 6.30, I'm flying to Washington, D.C., and then Carl and the girls will fly home, their flight is at 7. So it's, it's really not a thing, but it's a bummer to have to flit off from them. And also a fun packing challenge to pack for Disney and work at the same time. Mm-hmm. Are you flying south west by chance? Yes. So one suitcase for Orlando, one for D.C., that's pretty much how it's going to have to be. Mm-hmm. And a very large suitcase in general. And also, if you don't need your Orlando suitcase anymore, can you send it with your husband? Yes. Yes. So what's so funny about your plans is that it is very indicative of an, of an, of an your puzzle. It's more loose, not trying to do everything. It's different. Yeah. It's not. But it's because you get to go. Pretty good. Yeah. We're trying, like, making a real effort. I say this every single trip, like, um, oh, we're just going to take it easy this time. And, like, just going to dabble and, like, pop in when we feel like it. And I never do. And I turn into this person who's like, well, I, I stacked up all these lightning lanes and we need to make sure we use them. Like we can't leave the park until we've done pirates and haunted and jungle crews. And we're really going to try to tell that back. Mm-hmm. We're going to go back probably before the end of the year. It's going to be okay if we don't do everything. It is also the ages of your kids. They're not quite, like, teenagers yet, but they know kind of how things work. They can do stuff. They can ride by themselves. Yeah. So that's very different than someone who has littles, which you had at one point. Yeah. And I think there will be some opportunity for that. We'd dabbled in that a little bit on past trips. Like we would, you know, we'll sit and have, you know, drink at La Cava and send them on the boat crews in Mexico. Or we were eating at Skipper Canteen, we'll go stick them in line for Aladdin or something like that. So they, they can navigate Magic Kingdom, certainly pretty comfortably. It's really just a matter of how comfortable we are with them doing that. Mm-hmm. They have Apple watches so we can, we can get them wherever they are. So I just really not worried and it's one of the things that I love about Disney. Mm-hmm. Because I can't, can't do that at home. I can't quite cut them loose in the mall yet, but it's so safe there. Yeah. And they can navigate like a little city. So this is a little bit of a tangent, but as someone who is in Gen X, we were allowed to go wherever we wanted all everywhere, right? And there are these theories that younger people, yep, people younger than me are, they have a lot more anxiety because they aren't allowed to practice and fail or do anything by themselves. Even if the parents wanted to use society, doesn't really allow it anymore. And I feel like Disney will give us a little bit of that or to see, and Disney cruises as well. It's like you could go and do things in this like enclosed environments and they get a chance to practice. Yeah. And it's, it's really a, to, in my opinion, a pretty safe place for them to practice. Yep. Well, this all sounds good and I appreciate you sharing and we'll see how it turns out when you get back. Yeah. It's going to be fun. It's going to be great. All right. Thanks, Kristen. Thank you. Well, come back from me, Tristan. Dang. I'm sad to be back. You've been back for a little while because we're talking on Tuesday, June 25th, so it means you've been back for about nine days. My math is correct. Yes. How old? It was a good trip, man. It was really good. It feels like it was a hundred years ago at this point, because it was nine days ago. Yeah. Yes. We do normally record as soon as you get back, but I was gone. So we had to wait. So let's dive in, be how it went because you told us Tuesday, June 11th line at a Nashville. Yeah. We're going to Uber to your hotel at the Hard Rock. That's right. So what Tuesday, June 11th, we flew out. Our flight was about 930. So this was my daughter's 10th birthday and our big joke, our big joke whenever we go to Disney is that we're going to the broccoli farm. So Vivian had to try and guess where we were actually going. And she had settled on Legoland. And when we pulled into Universal, like she didn't figure it out until we were pulling into the hotel. It was so stoked. So that was a nice surprise for her. So after our 930 flight, we pulled into Hard Rock and about 125 via Uber. And it was boring. That was a common theme during our days for this particular trip, but we're frequent visitors. So we had our ponto's in our bag and we put them on and walked over to Universal. In your ponto's, the downside being that it was probably hot. There's trapping heat in. Well, this day, this was the only day where it wasn't like deadly hot. This was fine. Like we were comfortable even in our poncho that day. And I have a couple of key learning from our early moments in Universal. And is that you have to remove your poncho before you get on to the ride for all of those? No. So just be mindful, don't be rolling up to ET with your poncho still on otherwise. Gotta take it off. Not a big deal. Yeah. But I've never been to Universal on the rain. I don't think so. So we didn't know that. I'll tell you, there's a lot of put on the poncho, take off the poncho, and just water going everywhere every time. Just with a crummy poncho, a little less fun. But it's fine. Water. This is theme park in the summertime. Other tips, my friend, don't forget to buy those lanyards. We talked about it in the pre-trip report. And I wrote it down. Like I was going to go buy them. And I didn't. And it was $111 for lanyards and for little passholder cases for approximately 24 hours of park time. So that's a lot only for lanyards. Don't do that. Yes, lanyards are very helpful at Universal. And so they start letting us use Magic Bands over there. We'll see. We'll see who wins the technology wars. But I mean, $111 is like, that's probably what we would have spent on four Magic Bands. So like, you can't buy a Magic Bands on Amazon. You can buy this stuff before you go on the trip. So spend that $111 somewhere else, friend. We hit ET as our first ride that was a walk on, is adorable. We did Men in Black. Oh, and as a reminder, so this is the first time that Carl and Olivia had ever been to Universal. So all of these experiences over these two days, first time things for them, which was so joyful to see them do things for the first time. So we did ET, Men in Black. Can we talk about how I got your tickets though? Because, oh, usually there's some kind of process with getting your tickets before you go out. Oh, yeah. Yes. So when we checked into the hotel, there was, like, they gave us the room key, but the room key is not your ticket. You have to go to a separate desk at the hotel for them to print your ticket, which feels a little duplicative and silly. But yeah, don't go, don't go walking out the front door without your ticket with your room key. Yeah. So you made a couple of steps at your hotel before you could make your way over to Universal. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So let's see. Yeah. Great. We did, we did the mummy twice and everything we had expressed past because we were staying at Hard Rock and that's why we stayed at Hard Rock so that we would be close and have expressed past pretty much everything was a walk on except for the train between the parks and like a couple little gattered issues, but everything was pretty easy and straightforward. Kids loved the mummy. Carl did not ride that one, but he changed his tune later on in the trip. We, we did all of Anders, which brought joy to my heart. It was cool seeing Carl experience the Harry Potter stuff. He's not a fan, but he was really impressed with the show that Universal puts on with all of that content in particular. Well, the girls got one. They pretty much went into our park bag and didn't come back out, but they're, they're here at the house and we're playing with them here. They don't do as much here though. No, as much as that. Yeah. Universal. Nope. So we'll have to go back. Mm hmm. I don't know the solution indeed. We rode Ringoth, which Carl also rode and at this point, he liked it a lot and he's fine. The park was closing at six. So we got in line, this is where I actually started recording how long we were waiting in line. Sorry, I didn't have the weights on those other ones. We got in line to get on the Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure. And I suspect because the park closing the line was longer. So it was a posted 60 minute wait. We waited about 30 with the Express power. We then immediately went to the three broomsticks and had the great feast, which anytime you can consume vegetable and food that doesn't fried during your theme park vacation. Do it. It's great. I love it. And then while we're eating, the girls went and did forbidden journey twice while Carl and I sat and had beers and food. Good. Good call. That one's a tough one. I'm thinking if he likes green got mummy feels like it's about that same level, right? And you said later in the trip he did do it. So wait a sec, wait till you hear about the tunes that changed here. Okay. Great. Yes. Okay. So after dinner, we walked by Hagrids and the weight was posted at 75 and I thought we'll be better off doing that at rope drop, which was incorrect. We did not ride Hagrids at this point, but we take over to the Jurassic River crews with our ponchos on, which is smart, got very wet in the first row. And then the girls and I went over to Velocicoaster at 750, the park was closing at eight with our, even with our Express Pass, the weight was posted at 30 and we waited the full 30. And the coaster, Shannon, have you ridden Velocicoaster? No. I'm a little scared too, after I had my knitting problem, but oh, yes. I looks fun now. Looks fun. Yeah. Right. It looks fun. I think it looks like fun too. And the kids loved it, but it like it hurt my brain. I've never had a coaster feel like this before, like made the inside of my head hurt. And I didn't understand that it's like, always scary. He just has that lap bar. And at one point, you go into the barrel roll and you're just like dangling from the lap bar. I didn't care. I didn't care. I didn't care. I liked it. None. Didn't care for it. Yeah. But I tried it again the next day. Okay. Brave. After you got your brain shook up so, so brave, so brave. We went back to the hotel around 8.30 walked back. We were club level and it was dessert time. So we checked the lounge for dessert and they had two types of cookies and brownies, hot chocolate coffee machine and a cooler with the water and coconut, right? And that was, which was a little disappointing. But the note that I made is seriously, how does anyone extract value from this offering? It was like over $200 of an upcharge over a regular room. So I don't think I need to do that again. That would be disappointing. Yeah. And I don't want to sound like a boozer or anything, but like at that point of the night, I might expect a glass of wine could be cool. But that's when I'm most likely to book it is if it's a trip where I imagine sitting around chatting with a glass of wine and maybe having to, you know, feel a little end of the evening, appetizers, desserts, yes, apparently that offering takes place from like 5 to 6. That's it and that's interesting. That's kind of a bummer, but that's okay. The kids got in the pool. They had fun and we went to bed around 1030 that night. So it's operating eventually, yes, eventually, yes, after you were in your ponches on the parks. Okay. So that's your first, okay. So you don't have a lot of time at Universal, so let's talk about your impressions of the Hard Rock Hotel in general. I think it's great. It's clean, it's cute, it's close to the park, like it does all of the things that you wanted to do. I don't need to do club level again, but like I'm, that was great. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You can't get any closer than that hotel, but it's also it's one of only two Universal hotels that I've ever stayed at. I went with my sister like six years ago. So this is your second Universal hotel, but your first, that that's like their deluxe and you have the express passes and stuff. Yeah. So it, it happens to you, my, I've stayed in all of them. And this one is my favorite because it's so close. Did you walk back and forth? And it's my, my favorite feature in a theme park hotel is walkability to stuff. As evidenced by your choice of Disney World, this sort of stuff. Yes. Okay. So, but before we jump over to Disney World, you had, did you have breakfast at the club launch on Wednesday, June 12th? By which we had, oh no, Wednesday, June 12th. This day was like two days in one. We actually started at Islands of Adventure. We had a really hard-topped Universal and we went to Magic Kingdom twice. I away was scheduled to open at eight. I woke up at six and got ready and I got the kids up at about 645. And this was too late, French. We left the room at 10 past seven and grabbed don't from the club level alone. The girls and I walked over to Islands of Adventure. Carl had a different errand that he was running. We walked over to Islands of Adventure and we got it to line it. The line at this point was about where that like big tall lighthouse thing is. They opened the gates at 750 and like we were just in the wrong line and it took us like 15 minutes to like shuffle up and actually get into the park. Which was a bit of a bummer because we were trying to get on Hagrid. By the time we got into that line the weight was posted at 90 minutes to add this. But it's okay. The pit ball gift here, there's two sets of lockers for Hagrid. Everybody goes to the lockers on the right and those were full and it led to five minutes of momentary scene park panic when if we had turned our heads to the left we would have seen very, very open and like why did we have multiple bags with us? If we had just stripped down to one fanny pack we could have avoided that entirely. That would be my guidance for rope dropping Hagrid. Again, very different than Disney World. Super different. There's some good and there's some pros and some cons of both. But that bag situation is a tough one at Universal. With different and like you know the girls each want to wear their lounge fly and everybody needs to work with their wand so like it's difficult to avoid but if you can avoid it and just wear a fanny pack you're in good shape. And it's also expensive if you have lounge fly size bag because you have to pay for those lockers. Now we were not very nice to our lounge flies. There was a lot of smashing that took place. If they're not full you can do that again. Sorry bags. So you made it on Hagrid so it just took a while. Yeah, we made it on. It took about 35 minutes for us to get to the inside queue. I think we waited a total of about that in the five minute. There's lots of trees and shade in that outside queue and a couple of water shallowns. So it wasn't horrible but I would not have wanted to do it in the middle of the day. The girls loved it. It is. It is their number two favorite ride. They still they hold Velocico's on high. That is their favorite thing in Orlando now. They like it. They like a thrill ride. They are my best thrillers. So next we went back over to Velocico's store. We waited about 15 minutes at this point with the express pass. It was posted at 50. This time I rode in row four the last time I had ridden in the back row. It hurt my brain less this time but it still wasn't a super fun feeling. So I'll ride it again with someone special but I don't need to do it again like tomorrow. Tell your girls to go ride for a bid and journey in Velocico's store and come back. In 30 years. Come back in 30 years to try it again and tell me how that feeling. But you could just sit down and have a drink while they go ride their rides. Have a beer at the three sticks which is what I did back and it was lovely. So while the girls and I were doing that the husband of the year packed us all up and put our bags in an Uber and took them to the beach club so that we would be able to leave directly from universal and go straight to Magic Kingdom to try and make our Tiana's DVC preview at three o'clock. So at this point he had come back to universal and he didn't stay there. No he did a good old Aaron Beck and he met us at three broomsticks and the girls dragged him on the forbidden journey and I was waiting to hear him cry about how sick he was and he was like that was awesome I can't believe it but do it again. Who are you it was amazing that's a that's a it's less of a thriller than just a nose. This is so nauseating for him not him. I didn't even ride it was like I'm not doing that go go for it dude. So he he wouldn't do Velocico sir but he could do for been doing yeah yeah the back patio at the three broom fix is my favorite place on universal property because I could be in Harry Potter looking at Jurassic Park which two of my favorite things it I hadn't been there since the Velocico sir went in and it's a little it's a bit of a bummer to see that peaceful space have a rollercoaster stuck in the middle of it but it's not disruptive I say that that back patio is the nomad lounge of universal because it's like quiet and there's never anyone out there it's great. You're brave to go out there I've only ever been inside because usually so hot until when I go outside there's a lot of shade it was it's fine there's a little little bar there you get your little beverage and sit out there and it's nice it was empty there's one other family out there nice yes after that the girl did flight of the hypocrite we did pong which was a walk on with the express pass everybody was really dragging at this point we had twelve ten miss those that place is great everyone was happy food was good I had the fourth knife and spoon grilled cheese get the hummus meatballs chicken fingers and at this point I bought genie plus and started stacking lightning lanes for the evening your last time ever is the day where we couldn't have made all these and all the changes so this will be knowledge that you will have to put in in a book this is what I used to do now it's now it is immortalized forever in this podcast the way the way we used to do it kid we did we did villain con after that oh I don't know what that's supposed to be I wish they would give it a little bit of a pre-show to show you how to use the blaster so that it feels like more of a conveyor belt where you're trying to figure out what to do drag the family to the the born stunt show which I think is super rad I think it's one of the coolest things that they do there express pass the last time I went there express pass seems to put us into a different cue like we went where like the there's the other line that they have for like their dash system or whatever that's what it seemed to do the last time this time it did not do that this time it was welcome to gen pop so just to mention it I love that thing that's really cool go to the stunt show everybody and then at 245 we got in an uber to the TTC yeah because you're you have a tight schedule here because it was a three o'clock preview yes it was a three o'clock preview and we were just rolling the dice and the dice rolled in our favor which great so we got in the lift at 245 we got to the TTC at 310 we were on the monorail at 317 on a train to frontier land at 330 and we were in cue for kyana by 340 so theme park at theme park in experience to experience essentially in a little over an hour which brings me great pride to have executed that maneuver and it's it's magic kingdom which is the hardest one yeah so that's extra impressive so you went right to tiana huh we went straight to tiana and that was all we did we didn't kyana and then we got out of there and went and got in the pool how was that talk about tiana it's amazing let's do it was that the cue had so much detail in it we so we had a dvc pre-d this day and i was expecting to wait in line for an hour and it was just like through the cue and i almost wish that we had had to wait more so that if we would have had more time to take in all of the detail in the cue like there's letters from her dad and neighbor friends like there's a lot in there that you want to take in that we didn't get the chance to but we'll see it again mm-hmm i have so the ride itself is like a cross between the old bash mountain and novie river journey it was it's pretty and they have new effects that are in there there's something really cool that that mama odie does to you while you're in there i i thought it was great no no it's really really lovely and lots of signage on the ride about like all are welcome which is a wonderful thing to see and the water tower as you're going by on the raft again forget exactly what the message was but it just had a really nice sweet message like it was it was really lovely the whole fam like did a lot good i'm glad i was afraid you're going to say it was broken down no we had no problem we wrote twice there were no issues whatsoever and the wetness wise front face full of water very wet back pretty dry only only wet but in the back no wet face good and then i have i have right like it's good to know i have tiana conspiracy theories for our friends then i i'm i'm curious if you all can help me solve so gritty the rabbit was fed to us as one of the critters that tiana is going to meet and in the promotional material he held a lice he she she they held a lice plate that said like oh five 28 something or other and we know the 28 correlates to the opening date of the ride right on the ride and in all of the signage in the queue the lice's plate has changed now it says oh seven one nine seven five and i can't fill the life and they figure out the significance of that so i want somebody to solve that for me okay so oh seven one nine seven five yes july 1975 yes presumably like what about it who is it why not a great question we did a lot of googling and we could not we couldn't figure it out yeah because the original ride opened in october of officially so 1975 maybe it means nothing maybe it looks like it it looks like it could be something has to be something to someone so if anybody wants to get displayed in there i would just get it if that's someone's birthday i think they should they should try to take a picture a selfie oh yes i like that take a selfie with gritty mm-hmm uh my only on july 19 yes there you go only complaints there is that we didn't have access to the merch i have no diana murk sadness that is a bummer next time i'll have to go back yeah here to do this it keeps growing you're like i gotta bring back the wand get a shot for tiana's merch huh and a couple more things we didn't quite get to so you left magikina and went to the beach club at that point yeah our room is ready at about four o'clock by four thirty we were waiting for the first of many of the minivans but we do of course of our visits to the magic kingdom we went back to the beach club pool was closed because it was storming but it was open again shortly so we had a dark stormy at alan compass which everybody should do and then the kids got in the pool for a little bit and we hopped back in a minivan back to the magic kingdom and what was your goal here it was extended evening theme park hours but yes you said that that morning everybody was kind of dragging yep and i i continued to just drag in and behind me well for another few hours so we had a 30 dinner skipper canteen which like bummer of all bombers i'm i'm gonna chalk this up to the fact that it was the end of the night it feels like maybe a different chef i can tell you the fish dish is different they're using a different fish now and it was much bicier than it used to be but maybe maybe just a bad experience i've had this thing like ten times and it's my favorite thing in all of disney world and it was different and that made me sad yeah it's hard to keep up if they make changes it's like well the our review from two years ago is no longer relevant yeah i feel like a lot of things have changed like we don't go to columbia harbor house much anymore used to be the next no so at this point we have any time experience redemptions because we've been stacking lightning lanes uh for haunted mansion and faced and uh pirates so at about nine thirty we we rode pirates uh this posted it five minutes helped me him start lightning lean anyway because you got it we did big thunder after that which carl would not do no doesn't want to some coaster that was posted at 50 we waited five we did haunted mansion after that that was a posted 30 we waited 10 and then at this point carl and Olivia split off the older child and they went back to the room and Vivi and the younger one said she can only stay up until nine o'clock was maxing out so after that we did base mountain barnstormer peter pan and teacup and i rolled up to tron thinking that we could do it stand by but that is wrong we needed to do the six o'clock drop for the lightning lane so sorry kid i didn't get to do that mhm how they were you there for that we were there chilts well so proud and we were in bed at one thirty that's a 18 and 19 hour day it was a big day it was two days in one day yeah which is a lot for a ten year old especially also a lot for those of us that are a little bit older for a little older than ten i'm like needed a nap at that when you went back to the beach club i would have been taken a nap but anyway that's a long long day is a good day i was really proud i was proud of everybody for trying new stuff and to carl and Olivia for saying when is when and to Vivian for hanging in there it's great to the next day i'm curious to see how this goes since you had such a late night that Thursday June 13th you were trying for a virtual queue for tannas and we didn't wind up trying for that because we wound up riding it the day beforehand we didn't do it this day i but i handed the reins over to carl he was up though he booked individual lightning lane for tron and seven dwarves and he got in the virtual queue for tron and he got boarding group 64 with like props to him i i don't usually do that and i was really impressed that he just went ahead and did it um and you were also using standby skipper so did you have it set up to like book lightning lanes for you yeah yes skipper book i just wrote down that skipper booked a magic kingdom lightning lane for the afternoon mm-hmm probably with the jungle crew if i know me mm-hmm but you had all the things going you had your husband doing the individual lightning virtual queues you had standby skipper doing regular lightning and i was doing sleeping and which is good you're up late it's great yes so skipper was doing that i i put in some laundry the girls got up at 10 and we went to beaches and cream and had ice cream for breakfast uh they've had a no way hoe they which was super fun and parl which our park passes to epcot like all by himself which was great gipper booked dorin for us and we went into epcot at about one o'clock okay and so you're gonna start at epcot and then hop to magic eating later obviously right that appears to be the king yes we got into mexico the lakava line was halfway down the ramp carlik's a spicy drink he really likes a spicy margarita and this trip he had trouble getting a proper spicy drink i don't know if they made new rules on spicy stuff but no one was making anything mean spicy for him even at lakava even at lakava that's all right we both attempted the tiana vertical queue at one o'clock and experienced double failure here like it was it was like it didn't even exist some days it doesn't because they had so many issues but they just don't open the one o'clock one perhaps that's the case mm-hmm just tell yourself that if it feels yeah that way it's not my fault it's the system at lakava i got the the mentio rosa which is the alcohol free beverage there it was great dude it was terrific i lose in theme parks makes me sleepier than ever now and so like having this to still feel fancy was fantastic you should go get one too love the motel options yes we i tried to get the kids do the inconto sting along they were they were not interested but it looked adorable we we did soren after that at about one forty five it was about a 20 minute wait and at this point i told gip to find test track within two hours and it immediately came back with a three fifteen which was great car went to festival favorite he got the area passed which he said were quote unquote nuclear hot outside and cold inside and the mango IPA there was really good too and what about this whole area because this is just opened i think it's really nice i i thought having that space for like the stage in the sing along is super cute the festival face they have in there now it's a little sad but it shade and it's air conditioning and it's chairs like i can't in in a good mind complain about having those things like could they be themed a little bit nicer sure i'll take it on themed versus not having it at all i presume they're going to continue to work on that space that would be great if they did i think the issue is comparing it to the original artwork you know where amis is to be this whole set amazing structure and it's not yeah it's not my parenting hack here the kids wanted ice cream and made them eat jug of water before they were allowed to have any ice cream because it was just so hot and they were they were melting mm-hmm we went to club cool where my Italian husband like in all seriousness really liked the Beverly the Beverly he wants a Beverly t-shirt for himself he liked it so much so now we have to figure out how to find it for him to make cocktails with i love that for him yes we have a decision point here where we're going to go back to the hotel and relax or go straight from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom now which is the decision that we made i don't know if it was the right one dragged the fam around a bit got on the monorail cut the jaw freeze though right before we got on to that monorail which is handy gotta wake up gotta wake up everybody and the goal here was to do stuff in tomorrow land so another dumb thing i did i just like the railroad i always want to be riding the railroad took the railroad over to tomorrow land instead of just walking which would have been faster and less of a walk but we got to ride the railroad and this is where we heard the rumor from the cast member who was working at the main street train station he was talking to another family and he said oh did you hear about beyond the thunder and i leaned in and he said yeah you know word on the street is that radiator springs is going in back there which i think would be great and now i'm gonna hold that is gospel regarding what's going to happen because radiator springs is lovely it is indeed i just have serious doubts about if that cast member really need dare to dream i hope you find out in a few weeks between here except oh yeah that's what well i do yeah yes it's early august so we should hear about it very soon i'm not not getting my hopes up something's going back there has to be something something we'll see we did we had a lightning lane for buzz at this point posted 20 we waited five we had a lightning lane for space mountain right after that close to 25 we did 10 and then of 535 we had our individual lightning lane for tron which carl rode and he loved it he had written it once before he just doesn't usually ride it with us but now he says he's gonna ride every time and he loves it i don't understand i can't understand what it is that scares him away because big center mountain was a no i think it old coasters shankark older coasters like they're a little rough maybe has he been on in credit coaster at Disneyland is it california adventure yeah no he has not ridden it okay because that would that's like that's a pretty intense older style coaster i just wondered how he felt about it i think the true decision point is what the kid wanted him to do and how willing he was feeling to stretch himself to a point of discomfort for their desires but he liked it though he liked it at least he said he did mm-hmm yeah he warned everything based on his experiences right i got it i'm not gonna steer you the wrong way mm-hmm we we had the lightning lane individual lightning lane to do mind train but it was down and we we didn't wind up going to guest services to ask them to do anything about that we pretty much at this point just got in a minivan and in that minivan harle booked us a 745 reservation at the yachtsman because we realized all the children had eaten so far that day it was ice cream and a donut so we had a bit of a nap in a shower and that had a nice meal at the yachtsman we had lovely drinks at the grooves cup dentist was the cast member there he was very sweet maybe if you're at the yachtsman friends ask for your steak cooked a little bit less than your at preference and the kid dessert there is painting a micky puzzle which is a super engaging wonderful activity but it came out after everyone was already done with their food and we were all ready to go so ask for that kid dessert early on in your meal so that they can work on that and you can relax and enjoy your food while they're doing that mm-hmm i'm surprised they didn't the servers didn't do that if it's late i think what we're learning on this trip is like the later in the evening that we're dining in like on property in disney the maybe not as great as we're usually experiencing not as great as what we're used to experiencing there as not as great as usual we during the festivals we sometimes have issues with this where you know we eat it all the boost and if it's later in the day and we give something a negative review we think was it sitting under the lights this whole time is it just because then the day we don't know for sure but also we can't go and eat it all all the boosts all the time a day except it's hard yeah but yeah and if not you might have that issue and i don't i don't fault them at all for it like all wonderful we love all of it but you might just have to do a little bit more asking and give a bit more direction if it's later in the day mm-hmm so was that the end of your thursday at 13th then no we went to bed yes understandable and then the next day was friday june 14 and i think you were trying for tiana's again yes though let's see what do we do here uh-huh uh-huh yes in the middle of the night i bought genie only for animal kingdom because that was my mental plan of where we were going to do mm-hmm and in my pre-trip genius what i did was i booked magic kingdom park pass for every day except the day that they weren't offering tiana previews my book hollywood studio's back day so i rolled into friday with park passes to magic kingdom thinking that it wouldn't be a problem just switch them to another park because it never is except the state was there was nothing anywhere we were married to the magic kingdom but i did some like refresh refresh refresh refresh and was able to individually one by one switch all our park passes to ephop i also this morning looked into reserved viewing for dreams that soar because our plan is to go to fizzy springs later that day to see the drone show haleo was offering thirty five dollars reserved standing space and you could reserve that via open table summer house only had the second viewing available and i was really nervous the kids like wouldn't stand around and wait for that so i didn't wind up booking anything special for that okay so we have ephop park passes at this point and what i did with plan to feed that it would be super fun to go and get great so that we could each tap in an ephop before we went to animal kingdom which was just fantastic at ten in the morning we left the room we tapped in the ephop we got the crepe i got the trigger one bivian got the Nutella and Olivia got the ice cream one and by 11 o'clock we were in the pool at the beach club i love the beach club for that that was awesome the note that i made here if if you have your heart set on enjoying the lazy river add a pool noodle through your whatever delivery you're having sent to your room because there just aren't a ton of floatation devices to be able to be lazy in the lazy river so bend five bucks send yourself a pool noodle and keep it on your person that's great yeah that was lovely and then at one o'clock we went over to animal kingdom we had the same experience probably you want to know how i got there probably it was most likely an uber so we had the same experience as heather and felicia where i just kept joining the nomad lounge walk-up list and it would say great it's going to be 40 minutes and then immediately getting a note saying that we're ready so hopefully i'm not on the naughty list there either we had a lightning lane for navi river journey it was posted at 85 and we waited five minutes we then went straight over to flight of passage where we had a lightning lane it was posted at 65 and it was 10 minutes before we were in the pre-show everyone rides this one everyone loves this one we again joined the nomad lounge walk-off list and table was immediately ready so at 220 i'm just going to nomad lounge at 10 30 like the minute it opened i'm in there not usually going there in the afternoon like this they also they sat us in the back room and i've never been shat in there before the service was a little blow french the next note that i have on my list we walked in at 220 and the next note that i have is 340 wow we are still at nomad waiting for food oh my god yeah the background that you're talking to mal i believe is normally part of Tiffin yeah they're just using it right now for nomad so not not the best showing from nomad but still like air conditioning indoors it was hot as heck the churros were always amazing i think i also like carl get remember what he got i also got the chicken satay which was fine but i don't need to order it again i like the churros you can order both right there we go one of everything yes i had time for it that day that it turns out as it turns out we then went over to safari this is at this point at four o'clock so we tapped into the safari it was posted at 10 it was a walk on the bummer about this especially like summer time this time during the day the animals are done like you're done the animals are done it's not the world's best safari like something cool is going to happen on every single safari but like less cool stuff happened at this time of the day which like by the way was also my experience doing savor the savannah about a month ago there just weren't that was mostly savoring of shulmingos yeah at this point let's see we're 30 the weather was coming vivian really wanted to ride Everest but it was down it was just so hot like it was time to go we had reservations for summer house on the lake canceled them but we still went to dizzy springs what time was that i i don't have this in my notes i feel like we went back to the i know we went back to the room at this point we went back to the room and we took a nap like a good solid nap drank a bunch of water and probably went back to springs around he didn't have to he didn't have to on the way for the drone show then well the drone show was canceled oh no which we bumped into one of the security people we didn't know it was canceled we were just trying to go in the right direction to go be in the right place for it she said they sent a push notification the only notification i got said that traffic patterns were different so if if there is weather start asking if the show is going to be happening and even if there's not you might want to ask yeah just ask when we were there it was canceled and there was nothing visible from where we were like no wind no rain but you never know what's happening up in there yeah exactly exactly so that made us sad it was you know our original plan this day was for carl and i to have dinner and maybe send the girls to the movies but it was crazy busy like if there were no people anywhere else they were in disney springs hoping to see that drone show that day it was not scary busy but like i couldn't i couldn't have cut the kid loose in that yeah at this point i think your kids can do some stuff independently in the parks disney springs might be a different vibe yeah i um having seen what i saw like now i would definitely suggest the reserve seating and i would absolutely pay 25 bucks a person just to like know where i'm going and know where to sit and like have a dedicated place to do that yes we designed some m&m for for the fam and then carl while we were doing that he went and got walk-up seating at summer house on the lake which was one of the highlights of our trip that place is great i want to go back every time yeah it's it's newly popular for a reason i think it's fantastic and i'll tell you their kids menu of all the dumb things to get excited about they have a very engaging kids menu it has lots of activities on it that need to be aimed at an older kid so our girls like joyfully sat there for like an hour goofing on their kids menus um my one daughter had the best pizza she's ever had the other one had breakfast for dinner that she's still talking about like we're not going to be able to not go there on our future trips they loved it i think it's making that section of disney's friends more popular because most of most of this stuff was you know the other two sections it was awesome like great food like clean fresh the pricing was especially at by disney's standards like if it more than fair i can't wait to go back it's good but we we probably could have waited like 20 more minutes and caught that drone show the second one but everybody was done so we we got in a new bird back to the beach club and then we went straight to bed okay the next day was hollywood studios plans yeah so we booked rise for 930 and told skip to book slinky dog dash ASAP but we saw that rain with scheduled to come in at noon for the goal was to get out of there by then and wrote pop making minis runway real way we got onto the skyliner at 805 we had the early park entry that was opening at 830 for us that day so we're on skyliner 805 got to the park runaway railway was down so we pivoted to midway mania which had a posted stand by wait of 30 minute and we entered the standby queue at 835 they made the announcement that they were experiencing delays so that was it was a full 30 minute wait we it's the next in parks like there's only eight rides open right now i think so when they start going down it's like where are the people gonna go yep the shows aren't running yet what are you gonna do but i mean that was another thing i had to like try to teach myself more of that you know we probably all need to hear is that it's okay to pivot especially if you know you're going back like it's okay it is definitely okay to pivot and i think that's the beauty of learning a lot before your trip is to make pivoting easier i just always feel for the people when it's their first time so they have like a plan in place it's hard it's hard to pivot when it's all new and you like you did all your homework to put that plan in place it really it's really really hard but the more you learn about where else is available to you that the easier it will be for you to pivot but don't don't be afraid to pivot that's the point of these doing the pre-trip and post trip is to show the pivoting yes so we tapped into slinky at about nine ten it was posted forty five we waited five this was one of the better examples to me of how much better genie is working after the changes to dash i feel like that weight would have been longer pre pre-dash changes you wrote that that was quick carl rode with us we had the obligatory blue donut and cinnamon roll for job from jaw freeze we can't pass by that one stand outside of toy story land without getting though we did that we had a rise lightning lane next it was posted 55 we were immediately in the pre-show there was no weight and then the girls and i went to tower of terror carl did not do this one that was posted 75 and we waited 10 they did announce that they were only running one elevator so maybe that contributed to it let's see next we went to the tune-in lounge because we really wanted to try and get on runway railway before we left the park so we went to kill some time over there apparently they didn't used to have seats at the bar and they they have them now so that was the big the big talk over at the tune-in we saw Quincy from all years there she's very sweet that was nice and get pulled a lightning lane for us at runway railway for 11 45 which we what we did next it was posted 45 minutes we made it five and by noon we were on a skylanner to ePCOT and this is very different than your pre-trip plans because you were in need to go to hollywood two years later in the day but this time you started there and you're hopping to ePCOT so so what was your plan for a concert night plan with that carl felt like having hibachi so he made a 1240 tepan tepanito tepanito reservation and that is what we went and did Vivian was dragging pretty bad at this point but once we we put a little hibachi into her she was feeling a bit better the girl loved the department store that's probably one of their favorite places in all of disney so we do this family thing where everybody goes to the department store and chooses a weird snack and whoever picks the thing that tastes the best we go into the the little museum that they have there with the melting girl we sit by her and we share our snacks with each other and decide who won the snack attack and it was didn't know it was carl this time I think I don't remember what he got I was gonna that was my expression when did he get but what's the good snack someone got a shrimp thing someone else got like sugar rocks I got high chew someone picked something fairly edible that that's always nice it's fun yes we love that we love that Olivia Olivia had been bribed with money for something or other so she bought herself a book on the Japanese language and a blank notebook and when we went back to the room after this spent a couple hours just teaching herself Japanese which is adorable didn't I love that what a great use of world showcase I know great okay cool buddy so right after that we went straight back to the room I took a big nap Carl took Evian to the pool Olivia taught herself Japanese we they were still oh we we wanted to go wanted to go back into Epcot after this and we tried really hard to wait out the weather but it was just rain rain rain is pouring so we walked over we left the room at about six and went through the gift shops and walked into lobbies the gift that the yacht club is better than the gift shop at the beach club have fancier stuff in there heads up it's lucky it's all under the it's all on their one roof for you so you don't want to go out three that's the big bonus you can't do that at boardwalk you're all under one roof at beach club you have a lot of stuff that you can do under a roof that the lobby was they have there were people everywhere and they had it looked like they had maybe moved some of the pool game into there to try to keep people busy in the meanwhile at seven o'clock by seven o'clock we were back into Epcot and the Carl and the girls went off to ride guardians and i was like good luck man i'm not doing that and was it was this his first time right yeah yes i was so impressed i can't write it it makes me sick it makes me very sad that it makes me sick because everybody else loved it if he can do forbidden journey i feel like he can do anything like like anything that's motion thickness i feel like his his brand and my brand are are different motion sickness wise while they did that i took myself to the seas and i watched the cuddlefish and looked at the dolphin and there was nobody in there and it was quiet and so pleasant to have that space to myself that was great met Carl and the girls in creations after that they were they were real funny he pretended like he was like staggering in in between them and like like he was sick and then he was like that was awesome i'm doing it again like i'm doing all this stuff now on okay good and that's thrilling now you don't have to wonder like no is it gonna go because he did a lot of big rides he did all the big stuff and so did Olivia for that matter i think you know it also it depends on the day and the kids were begging him to go but he really he really enjoyed that at eight ten we walked on to spaceship earth because you got to do that and then we walked back to the beach club and i was i was still awake so i grabbed myself a mini bottle of prosecco from the market at the beach club and i sat on my back patio of our room and just had some quiet after everybody went to bed it was lovely and i know your dvc owners so were you in the villa section or the non-villa section we were in the villas yes so we were in the villas we had room 108 i believe it's the perfect room everybody it's quiet is on the ground floor and it was very close walking distance to the lobby and to ePCOT we could get to ePCOT in like six minutes if it was perfect i see in my notes now that you mentioned the pre-trip that you did a one bedroom with your point so yeah that makes sense that you were in the villa section so have you stayed in the standard rooms there before i don't think so we have stayed at yacht club okay and how did you like the layout of the the one bedroom i love it it's a little goofy with the doors everywhere but doors make a great vacation fortunately i'm gonna let let's write this go down chris and says doors i mean good great vacation it's true i do think one of the most stressful things about vacations is everybody's in the same room the whole time if it is standard hotel room yes this i mean we love this being able to have the kid in their room and like have us in our room is it's very special and fantastic and i'm yeah blessed to be able to do it i wouldn't want to do it another way yeah but it's it is nice i like that oh we don't use the kitchen but yeah it's there as an extra space for us to put stuff on even if you just want a place to put leftovers or to heat up leftovers i feel like the kitchen can be nice yes yes i feel sometimes i feel silly that the portions are so big and i'm like i am not taking them with me because i can i have no way to heat them up i'm not suspicious of the beverage refrigerator been able to keep it cool i don't know agreed yes i think all of the fridge held at any point might have been like a couple bottles of water and an extra bottle of prosecco that did not get get drank um but you have options there yes and my owner's locker is mostly composed of microwave popcorn and candy from previous trips that would be it's a funny question to ask you but what's in your owner's locker yes popcorn and candy popcorn candy a towel full-size like full-size deodorant like disney jewellery is in there we packed the park bag it's back into there will be left so i don't love but now it's there all your orlando things okay you could have left the wands the all ofander's wands but then we could only access them after accessing disney because you can't have your owner's locker send to universal properties you can go get it yourself yeah that would be a risk that would be a risk okay so that was the end of saturday june 15th he had one more day sunday gas 16 original a plane trap cut what well no we went to the magic kingdom so this day everybody was on top of their stuff i at seven a.m i booked the tianna they did it in this order i booked the tiana virtual queue i got group 36 approved a booked the individual lightning lane for seven dwarves i got that for nine thirty i booked the tron individual lightning lane i got that for ten thirty and then i joined the tron virtual queue and i got group 90 okay stacks yeah totally stacked with the virtual keys are tricky because you don't know when they're going to be cold but yes let's see how it went yes the wind did you go to magic i was pretty pleased with group 36 i was petting myself on the back for that one mhm we were out of the room by eight o'clock and walked what are we doing here i think carl stayed to take our bag to he was no he was doing something i don't know what he was doing we left the room at eight the girls night we walked right onto the bus the bus was there waiting for us and we got to the magic kingdom by eight eighteen and we went straight to space mountain stand by which had a posted wait of 20 minute um now friends there is a joffrey's card right in front of that standby queue and it's going to stack up outside of the queue and you're going to get yourself a beverage and then they're going to open the queue and they're going to tell you that you need to finish or dump your beverage unless it has a lid on it so don't do that get it after the ride or earlier than we did i don't this didn't happen to me but yeah be mindful uh and we were boarded after that we did stand by on buzz which had a posted wait of 10 minutes we walked right on girls were looking for the mike wazowski cake which we thought was at the lunching pad and we could not find it anywhere wherever wherever it was we didn't get it we were sad about that hmm that's what i would have assumed here all right i don't know if we went to the wrong spot but you did not eat it next time it it was offered at the lunching pad last year oh maybe we were looking at last year's and we were at the wrong place yeah yeah i don't know if it's a different place or if it's just gone oh don't tell my kid okay i won't hear your mom's kid mom screwed up Carl in Olivia Olivia was starting to feel a little tired around now here at 920 so Carl in Olivia split off and did some shopping while Vivian and i did autopia which i don't ever do but it's actually pretty cool when you have a little kid who can't drive yet it's better in Disneyland but still fun in Disney World we just did that stand by it was posted five minutes we made it 10 is that's fun i'll do it again good and happy for you it's the heat and the fume that that do it for me i couldn't work there i don't know how they do that's tough it does not smell good does it make a candle out of that one no you can't know exactly that's not a scent that you're craving after you get home fun for kids though fun for kids cute cute to see the 10 year old drive always fun we used our our lightning lane at this point for jungle cruise which had a posted 40 minute wait this was another jungle rush is another one where lightning lane doesn't always work super great but now it did we walked right onto a boat with that one there was a posted 40 minute wait after that we did mind train which had posted 55 minute wait we had an individual lightning lane we walked right on and then our tiana group got called good timing yes so this was about 11 o'clock we just Vivian and i went carl and Olivia we're still feeling a little little little sleepy so they shopped a bit we got into line we waited 10 minute for our annual past preview at this point so like great once again and at this point we rode in the back and got less wet 10 minutes is not bad for virtual queue no it's great i was shocked i thought it was going to be an hour again it was not we at 11 15 we got in line up for the train to tomorrow land for our prong individual lightning lane we got there at 11 35 you're like 5 minutes late it was fine they tapped us in and everybody enjoyed that since it's you're at 11 15 your day i want to go back to your hotel so before you left your hotel yeah did you leave your bags with all services did you have late checkout how did that work yes we had that's what happened this day we i wish we had late checkout i have never had that i feel like i ask word every time and they're always like no we had bell services come to get the bags as we were leaving at eight and this day the day he said i had everybody but carl booked at magic kingdom and carl had epcot so while the girls and i started at state's mountain he went and tapped into epcot and i just spoke grabbed himself a margarita or something and then met us in the magic kingdom around nine o'clock like he it was quick a breakfast margarita they're on vacation no it's so fun why not can't go wrong time is a contract indeed so yeah we we put our stuff with bell services and what i usually do is all pull because our light was later that day i put all of our swim stuff into the pool bag and then i put changes of clothes for us into another bag so that nobody has to get into their dirty park clothes again after being in the pool okay so you had that all worked out eight a.m yes i did like you do with your with your zip lock bag ready to receive your bathing suits that's right so going back to magic kingdom is 11th and 15 yes so we had just ridden tiana we got in line for the train so i love the train we got in line so the train did tomorrow and did that tawn individual lightning lane the after that the girls really wanted the aurora comb those were great they were very blue i have an adorable picture of my ten-year-old just blue blue and the fingers blue in the face lots of blue melted really fast no one is surprised after that we did the haunted mansion that was our last ride we did some shopping in the emporium and we were in a minivan back to the beach club for some swimming at 115 okay and how much time does you have to do that before you had to leave the airport so their flight were at seven so i think stayed in the pool to like four and that's a long time it was great it was so great we got to cool off we had some lunchy food at what's it called the little beachy bar that's right there yeah i know you're talking about yeah it's actually really good pool bar yeah it was wonderful and the we staked out like we had like that piece of the pool all to ourself like the little shallow end with the sand area it was like our personal pool so we just goofed around in there and cooled off the hurricane is her again that's it yeah we had some chicken fingers there and a salad the concrete at the pool was just racy hot i don't know the right way to move around that enormous pool in all of that space like maybe pool shoot maybe or like your water shoes this might be a good occasion for them it's hot it was bad so we swam for a bit and then we went and got our bags and changed and at four thirty we were in an uber to the airport and that was that you flew to dc mm-hmm i flew to dc and carl flew back to nashville with the girl and and that was the end of that trip yes and leaving at four thirty for my six o'clock flight there was not a ton of wiggle room that gives me anxiety no six six thirty six thirty i take it back but still there's a ton of wiggle room there you have tsa pre-check yes were you checking it back okay then make the help and i i took your advice and i had one suitcase that was just workstuffs and once you case there were many cks that there were probably many but it made it really easy to just to already be packed for the work trip yeah that's nice that's nice if the bags are free and like because there was laundry in the room i had like i did laundry twice while we were there so i sent a whole bunch of clean laundry home and i had clean stuff for myself like that one bedroom yeah that laundry is nice so sounds like a good trip it's lovely i am i think i'm still catching up on sleep from it but i think everybody had a nice time they've had a fun birthday everybody got to do lots of new stuff including carl including carl who learned that he can do any ride yes and it will will remind him now that we're memorializing it here yes yes now there's a trip report to remember how brave carl was exactly so i know you guys are frequent visitors do you have a future trip plans oh man so while i was there the thought in my head was like oh my god this is so hot like this is not as much fun as a winter trip i'm never coming back until the winter and then i'll be darned if i wasn't home for three days before bivian and i just happened to book a dvc stay over labor day weekend because we didn't get to see the drone show she wants to ride Everest and what else did she want to do there's something else that she didn't get to do oh and a rock and roller coaster gotta do that so we'll yes see there's like a 50% chance of that happening and then we have a cruise on the treasure this spring oh that's gonna do yes i was gonna i was gonna add to your labor day that you could also go to country river jamboree just it opens next month and what else is opening i don't know i've been food wine festival if you want to go to that halo halo halloween party i don't know but we did the halloween party it's fun i feel bad spending more money on more stuff when we have the annual passage but i also want to do it so we'll see it listen it i feel yeah as a person who buys a lot of annual passes and i think it it's like man this is on top of the annual passes that we already purchased yeah and as out of state visitors they are the most expensive annual passes so yes yes a lot we did the how is that the two of you going i suspect if if we go it will it will be all four of us someone should tell Carl about that feel that he's aware we'll see we'll see what happens it's a book just in case we need it just think you never know the great thing about dvc that's right well i feel like your trip has been a perfect example of someone who goes often and can be flexible and laid back and if it happens and you know it's very different i'm so glad it sounded that way to you i didn't feel very flexible in the moment on this trip but but it was humbled by the last couple of days to be sure yeah i think first time visitors are necessarily more structured you know they they have some very concrete plans we got to do this we got to do this and so and even if they even them if they have longer trips they tend to at the end feel a little bit more like financial because yes they've already done the the main things yeah so yes anyway good trip all in all as always can't wait to go back just might prefer to do it when the weather is a little blur yeah well labor day good luck good luck so anyway well thank you it's a good time to share i hope you do get to go over labor day might run into you during that time could be fun thank you so much for having me on the podcast and and this is fun i hope you enjoyed my conversations with christie there is an after chat up on patreon in both audio and video form so if you're already a patreon be sure to go and check that out if you're not the information on how to do that is in the show notes of every episode i think that'll wrap up this episode of wd repurposed to go for more information on this episode please check the show notes in your podcast at or head to the website wdw prep school calm click on podcast at the top scroll down to episode 416 until next time i will see you on the site you
