Takeaways:

• The recent vacation to Disney World was a lengthy and exhilarating experience, filled with various attractions and leisurely moments.
• Pop Century Resort stands out as an exceptional accommodation choice for budget-conscious travelers seeking proximity to the parks.
• The Skyliner transportation system significantly enhances the efficiency of traveling between Disney resorts and parks, providing a swift and enjoyable experience.
• The Halloween party at Magic Kingdom has grown increasingly popular, resulting in larger crowds and longer wait times, which diminishes the exclusivity of the event.
• Dining experiences, particularly at Beak and Barrel, provide unique thematic atmospheres that cater to adults seeking more than just typical park fare.
• Navigating Epcot's vastness necessitates a strategic approach, favoring the exploration of specific areas over extensive park hopping to conserve energy.

Foreign.

Wishes podcast.

Tony Desiri along with all the magic travels.

Lauren Mallard, Glad you could be with us as we head into the fall months.

Well, I just got back from Disney World on a five day vacation, so this podcast is going to be the things I saw and Lauren's reaction to some of the things I saw, Good, bad, different, etc, because it was six days of Disney magic.

But there were some things that I had to note down on my trip to say.

Boy, I really want to kind of talk about this in the podcast.

How you doing, Lauren?

How are you, Lauren?

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm good.

Kind of still exhausted from the trip.

I'm getting too old to walk around a park or six times.

Okay.

I'm starting to think maybe the scooter is in my future.

It was really long.

They're everywhere.

You know, on the scooter note, I think it's funny, every time I'm there, I'm like, I kind of feel like we need like a scooter path and a walker path because, like, you know, you don't know who has the right of way anymore.

Yeah, it's funny too because with like strollers now, and I know you and I kind of joked about this, about how big they are.

They're like rolling apartments.

It was when I just a couple of days ago, I was doing a little bit of, not necessarily research, but I was kind of thinking about this topic and I found on YouTube, like Disney Dave's like VHS, old Magic Kingdom videos.

And when the people's VHS tapes back then, all the strollers were tiny.

Like everyone walking around had just one kid and one small stroller and that was it.

They weren't lugging around tanks around just pushing their way through the store or, or different things.

And now scooters are in the same way.

So you got to be careful.

You're dodging a lot of things when you're walking around.

All right, so my trip, we stayed.

Here's what we did.

We did five days, had the quick service dining plan.

We stayed at Pop Century.

Now, if there's one consistent thing over the last number of years that I've gotten from people who have come back from a trip is how much they love Pop Century if they stay there.

This is, this is extremely popular.

So I was kind of really excited to see what the fuss was about, you know, quote unquote.

I had never been at Pop Century.

I stated art of animation, and when we stated art of animation when it first opened, people were still talking about Pop Century, how cool it was.

And I will say this, if you're, if you're looking to just stay on property and you're not interested in some of the more expensive, lavish hotels, Pop Century is the way to go.

This is my now new go to place to stay at Magic Kingdom.

Yeah, I agree.

You know, having the one bus stop, having the Skyliner to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, the food court is fantastic there and even the standard rooms, to me, you know, they're a little bit of a walk, but they're really not bad from the main areas of the hotel.

So it's a really, really great option for that budget conscious traveler.

Yeah.

And I did a little bit of research there because I was wondering, we kind of lucked out in staying in a building that was relatively easy to walk to the front of the hotel to catch the, for anything that we wanted.

And we weren't that far from the Skyliner.

It was a little bit more of a walk as we were more on the front end of the hotel and the Skyliners on the back end of the hotel.

But it wasn't, you know, that much.

So just out of natural curiosity, I took a look at the entire hotel map and saying who would be the most disadvantaged?

And it's really not.

You can't really find one.

I mean, you, you might be closer to the Skyliner, a little longer to the front, but the way they've kind of designed it, it's not like you're on one end and you gotta really haul to one end of your resort to get there.

So I loved the layout because you're right, just one bus stop, which brings me to the next thing, which is the transportation.

So the Skyliner was a big issue for my wife and I because she doesn't like heights.

And I was really nervous because I said if the Skyliner doesn't work, we're kind of in trouble if we want to go to Epcot or Hollywood Studios.

Luckily for her, she loved it.

She loved the Skyliner, had no problem with the heights.

But because I knew there was no bus from Pop Century to those two parks, I'm curious how many people didn't know that.

And when their 75 year old grandmother doesn't want to get up in a Skyliner, how do they get to Epcot Center?

Yeah, you know, that's a great point.

I know when it's raining or if the Skyliner is down for, for something, then they will offer a bus, but otherwise they don't yeah.

And so.

And it's not really well advertised, to be honest.

So if you get out there in the morning and you're looking for the bus stop, Epcot or Hollywood Studios, and then you have to pivot, you know, your choices are limited.

You're looking at doing an Uber or a Lyft, which is going to cost money, or you're looking at potentially transferring to another park and then to another resort to get to the back of Epcot.

And it's.

Try explaining that to an old person as well.

Exactly, exactly.

And the thing that I was.

Again, I understand that sometimes they will run buses, so you have to make a stop, you have to keep a stop.

But it, but it is confusing if you're.

If you're kind of going there for the first time or you hadn't been there in a long time, or you hadn't been to that particular resort.

Yeah, there's.

There's the bus stop for Magic Kingdom, then there's one for Epcot, then there's one for Hollywood Studios.

These are empty.

No one is in them.

But there's a board that says when the next bus is coming.

And if you just kind of glance up there and don't see used Skyliner, you just think that, oh, the bus.

Obviously there's a bus here.

They have it on the board and they have places for people to stand.

Not realizing that these are just for emergency only or overflow or if the Skyliner is down, which it's going to be reportedly down, I think, later this year.

So it's.

It's something that I thought, wow, I knew this, but I wonder how many people went to that front desk going, I was never told I couldn't get a bus to these parks.

Yeah, that's a great point, and I'm glad you pointed it out, because it's something that we should be making sure that, that our guests know as well, and that you, you know, got to do a little research yourself before going for sure.

Now.

This was my first time on the Skyliner.

I didn't even do it on my other, like, trips where I had a park hopper and I could just try it out.

This is my first time.

This is a game changer.

I knew it would be, but to experience it, it's.

It's a great way to get from these resorts, the Caribbean Beach, Pop Century Riviera, to get over to the parks.

I mean, it is speedy.

It's quick, it's easy, it's.

It's relaxing.

If you don't stop in Midair, and it takes you right to the front of the gate, back end of Epcot, front end of Hollywood Studios.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

And, you know, because it's moving continuously, then even if the line looks really long at the end of the night, it's typically not a super long wait to get on board.

That is when keep in mind, if you are traveling at a busier time or you're trying to get on the Skyline or at a busier time, they're going to put you on there with somebody.

Most likely, you're not going to get a private one, but that's what helps keep it going and helps keep the wait times low.

And it's also great, too, because the way they're designed and the, the, the engineering behind it is it's going at a certain speed and.

And then when it comes in, it slows down to a certain speed.

So I think a lot of people get a little intimidated.

Well, I'm not very mobile.

It's.

I see it in the sky, I'm never going to be able to get on it.

I'm going to struggle.

No, it slows down, or almost a crawl.

It gathers up in the turn and then you're basically walking on this thing as easy as pie.

You've got some time to get on it and get settled before it takes off to the sky.

So I know that was like, Lori was concerned about that because she's like, I might like it, but it kind of goes really fast.

And I, you know, I'm trying to, you know, but I said, no, it'll slow down.

I do have a quick story because I did post that we did ride a Winnie the Pooh car on her first day of the Skyliner.

So my wife's a big Winnie the Pooh fan and I.

Here's how this, this is the story behind this.

So we didn't get on one on our way to the.

The kind of the Caribbean beach terminal, but while we were waiting for Epcot, I noticed I was kind of doing the mental math because we didn't have a lot of people in line and I'm like, they're going to get that one.

They're going to get that one.

They're going to get that one.

We're going to get the one ahead, right?

So I said, we're going to get the cart car right ahead of Winnie the Pooh.

So there was nobody behind us, so I thought, I'm going to pretend as if I'm missing something and I can't get on the car right Away.

I have to find something in my backpack.

So I told the guy, I said, can we just hold on for a quick second?

I gotta.

I gotta make sure I've got this thing.

I think I might have forgot it back in the hotel room.

So I'm opening, and I'm looking and I'm looking.

My wife does.

We've been married 27 years.

You think she would understand what I'm doing here?

She says to the guy, oh, he's okay.

He's just trying to get me on the Winnie the Pooh car.

And I said, her, you just called me out for lying to the guy so I could get you on the Winnie the Pooh car.

So did you get your ride in one of the videos?

Yes, we did get the guys.

And the guy said to me, he goes, you know, you could just ask and we'll put you on the car.

Yeah, I know, but I. I don't know why I just lied there.

I was just playing.

I was just playing the timing.

So that's.

That's the.

That's the story.

So it is luck when you get the right car, if you want to get.

If you want to, like, get the right car, but sometimes can manipulate this and do the same thing.

But going back to the Skyliner, I was a little nervous about it because I know that, like, there are people, like, you know, they don't like heights or.

And I just didn't.

I didn't know, like, how this would really work.

You know.

I know it could be a lot of people.

Boy, they maneuver that so well.

They really, really manage that well.

Yes, absolutely.

I agree.

And you get to go to Riviera.

If you want to go to Topolino's Terrace, you know, you can.

It's a great.

And you can go from Epcot to Hollywood Studios without waiting on a bus.

And it does reduce the bus system, which I think is really important, because if there's one.

If somebody were to give me a crystal ball and say, change one thing about Disney, it's.

I don't really like the bus.

Wait, I just.

Not.

It's.

To me, it's not a fun way to go.

To go to the park, you're crowded, everyone's standing, it jammed.

And this at least relieves so much of that.

If you're staying at one of those resorts or just trying to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios.

Absolutely.

All right, so Sunday we went to the Halloween party.

So this is.

This is my biggest thing now with the Halloween party.

I think Disney has seen something that has over the last 10 years grown in so much popularity that the genie's out of the bottle.

They can't put it back in.

Yeah, this place was slammed and it's a lot of money to be that slammed for a party.

And I don't want to tell Disney, look, they got hit by Covid to reduce the amount of people.

But my goodness, I remember like going, I don't know if any of these families were paying this kind of money.

Are really getting to enjoy this now.

Maybe it was the day we went, we went on a weekend, but man, it was packed.

Yeah, you know, I'm hearing that more and more and it's really unfortunate because when you're paying a premium like what the Halloween party is, you are expecting some exclusivity out of it.

And more and more we're hearing, you know, longer wait times for the characters, bigger crowds at the parades.

You know, you can barely find a spot for the fireworks.

And it shouldn't be that way.

I understand that if that's normal park admission and there's a new parade or there's a new ride or something like that.

But we're talking, these people have already paid park admission for the day, the majority of them.

Right.

And then we're doing an additional 200 on the low end for these parties per person.

And now let's see, let's consider you have a family of six, which a lot of people do have four kids.

I mean, you're talking astronomical amounts to go just for a few hours.

And it's, you know, there's unique experiences.

So look, we've advised, we've done our Halloween party shows and we've done the advice of, hey, listen, if you're going to Magic Kingdom at other times, if you're there for the week, if you're there for four days, if you're gone, if you're going to the after the day at Magic Kingdom, don't spend your time waiting on Tron.

Don't spend your time waiting on Tiana's.

Like, go ride those another time.

But if I'm going to the Halloween party and I want my family picture with Mickey Mouse or my family photo with Jack and Sally, My kid loves Nightmare before.

You're waiting two hours of the five hours to just to get a picture taken.

Yeah, go ahead.

The lady was like, you want to go on again?

Sure.

It wasn't as busy And I know a lot of people were doing other things trick or treating and not riding rides, but it is.

It has grown so popular that it's very, very difficult for me.

I. I came away from that going.

I think we spent more time, like just kind of walking around, not really wanting to engage in any long thing and just enjoying the party because we've done it before.

But if I didn't do it before, I think I'd be like that one.

That one was tough.

Yeah.

You know, I would be interested to see a graph of what the party capacity was.

It was very early on.

And we decided on a whim that day to get tickets.

Still remember thinking it was Chris and I before we had kids.

And the price of the party was 59.

Exactly.

Exactly even.

And then, I mean, we were young, Mary.

We.

It was.

That was a big decision for us.

Party for 59 each that night.

But we went and there was hardly anybody there.

And I don't know if it was because not that many people were buying tickets or the capacity back then.

They were just not allowing that many people in.

And I think that if they would, even if they wanted to increase the price of the party, you know, you're going to have people pay it, but let's decrease the capacity so that those people feel like they are getting something for that price that they're paying.

Yeah.

And this is this little thing I'm.

This antidote I'm going to share.

Wasn't a real big deal.

But it is when you think about how, you know, exclusive this ticket was is.

My wife and I each picked one treat out of the exclusive desserts that they had at the party.

And she chose the funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow Tavern.

We went over there, she had a funnel cake, and then I wanted a whoopie pie at Pinocchio House.

Okay.

We walk over there.

It shut down.

I'm like, we still have an hour and a half left on the party.

And you're.

And you've closed.

Like, again, no big deal.

I don't really need these sweets anyway.

But at the same time, I thought, but nothing should be closed.

Nothing should be shut down.

You're getting an enormous amount of money from every one of these people with their tickets.

Clock.

Whatever it was, whatever was.

As people are getting out of the park at midnight and so that was my only two complaints otherwise.

I mean, the candy stations were great.

Different kind of characters were out there.

The parade is always fantastic.

I got a great picture, a video of the Headless Horseman, which is just, I think, one of the most thrilling events of the parade.

So that's how we started off our five days.

And then we get into Monday where we've got our reservations to Beak and Barrel.

Okay.

So I was very happy about getting this reservation because it was hard to get.

We finally landed it.

Couple of things on this.

It's a Pirates of the Caribbean bar.

You probably have seen a whole bunch of youtubers posting pictures about it, videos about it.

Couple of things to note.

One, this is a two drink maximum.

The drinks are expensive, but the theming is phenomenal.

Right down to the way the servers talk to you.

I think the server told me not to steal the menu in pirate language, but I couldn't tell because everything is pirate language.

But I think she said, no, no looting, no looting.

And I think she was implying, don't take the menu.

Oh, I bet that's been done.

Oh, I'm sure it's been done.

Where they've just.

People are just taking them.

Yeah, but they will.

Here's the other thing, though.

We were a party of two.

They sat us at a table with a party of five that were already in there.

They are going to jam you in there.

So if they give you a booth and there's room in the booth, you are going to get people sitting with you.

So be willing to make friends.

It's very, it's, it's unlike it.

I don't, you know, there's not very many places that will do that.

I think the Star Wars Tavern did it when it first opened.

Yes.

Okay.

So we did.

We got two families, a family we sat with at the beginning and then they left and another family came and sat with us for the second thing.

There's a lot of cool things to go on Beacon Barrel.

There's a storm inside the parrot talks.

There's a lot of pirate ruckus that goes on with the servers.

It's really, really.

But the reason I brought this up is because you and I had talked about this on a podcast earlier about Disney adults.

This felt like even though families and young people could be there, get non alcoholic drink, you could see the adults drinking at this bar.

Yeah, yeah.

It's definitely a spot for adults who are looking for a little something more in Magic Kingdom.

I can imagine.

Yes, exactly.

I had a regular drink, a non Alcoholic drink.

The drink my wife had out of the pirate head mug was enough to kill her for the day.

She was like, all right, I'm not drinking anymore.

I'm good.

I was very strong, but really, really well done.

And I wouldn't be surprised if they start popping a little bit of this kind of thing.

More something else somewhere else.

Because you could see how many adults were really into this idea of a pirate theme bar.

Just some bar.

They could have a few cocktails.

We did do Nomads at your recommendation and Animal Kingdom.

That was wonderful.

Sitting outside, comfortable chairs, having a couple of cocktails.

That was great.

Quiet.

It feels so secluded.

It's a great place to just kind of take in a little bit of peace while other people are riding other things.

Did you get the churros?

We did not.

And then that was a mistake because we had already had eaten.

We went in there for cocktails.

We told the lady we did.

And then she said that, do you want the churros?

And we said no.

And then we found out this is like the best thing at Nomads.

Yes, the churros are excellent.

But I'm so glad that you, that you made it to Nomads.

Yeah, that was a great recommendation.

And that came on the fly as you kind of hit us up really quick with that as I told you.

Yeah, I knew where you were for once.

I said, have you been to Nomad Lounge?

Well, because I did the, I did the cheeseburger pods for the first time.

So I, I had to try those and I, I really did enjoy those.

We did do the quick service meal plan.

This was part of the package that we took.

But we did do two sit down dinners.

My wife surprised me with breakfast at Bo Animal Kingdom Lodge.

And even though it's expensive, I recommend it because it's a great breakfast buffet.

It is absolutely delicious.

I say so many times, it's not super convenient to get to if you're not staying over at the lodge, but it to me is the best breakfast on property.

Good point.

Because we drove our car there.

It was just, it was early in the morning.

We knew we weren't going to go to Magic Kingdom by bus.

To then go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge by bus at like 6:00am we, we had to get out of the hotel, get into our, our Boogie over there, tell them we have reservations park.

But if you do, if you are, if you are driving or do have easy access to Animal Kingdom Lodge, whether you're staying there or you can get there, I recommend it too.

Because if you're, if you're not staying at Animal Kingdom, it's a chance to walk around the resort and really check it out.

I mean, how beautiful it is and how unique it is.

So we really enjoyed that.

And then we both decided we were going to do a character dining at Artist Point.

Yes.

For the Snow White Seven Dwarves Evil Queen dinner.

And we did that on the final day of our vacation.

How did you like it?

And I loved it.

So you get, so it's a fixed menu, but you get to choose your entree.

But the appetizers and desserts are all coming to your table.

They're little portions.

You can have as many of them as you want.

I like the turkey meatballs and they were delicious.

So he brought me more and we, there was like a, a soup, like a mushroom soup.

That was really good.

So that was really good.

And then we had, we both had the prime rib.

It came with mashed potatoes, horseradish, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding.

So it was a big piece of Yorkshire pudding.

And then the desserts come out and they're just Snow White themed.

There's like a glazed apple chocolate dessert that's really nice.

And they bring out a box Hunt Huntsman's box and give you some chocolate candies as well as some other desserts that were on there.

So.

And fantastic.

And again, I'm always impressed with the, the face characters at Disney World, how they stay in character.

Even when you're an adult, you're not a kid.

I mean, the Evil Queen was as evil to us as she was to the little kids.

That's amazing.

So that was really fun.

Snow White was sweet.

Getting our, getting our pictures with her.

That was fantastic.

And so that was a really nice thing.

We just sort of said, said, you want to do something as we're leaving, you want to do one thing.

She just looked through the reservations, found that we just said, let's do that.

So let's do that.

Because that, that being a character meal, but not being a buffet setting, not feeling so chaotic.

Right.

Really good option that I think we forget about sometimes.

And again, I advise this to people.

If you're, if you're doing Disney World for like the 20th time or 15th time, what we found was on our last day and we had a five day pass.

By day four, we're pretty much done right.

We're, we're using that last day, walking around a few things, cleaning up some rides we may want to do one more time.

But that was the reason we decided to do the dinner was, you know, we're kind of done.

Let's do something else.

Let's do something unique.

Let's find a unique thing to this vacation rather than, you know, just yet another cheeseburger or another, you know, wrap sandwich at Magic Kingdom while we ride.

One ride for the fifth time.

Yeah, that was our decision.

It gives you the opportunity, too.

I don't know.

Did you take the boat from Magic Kingdom over to Wilderness Lodge or how did you.

No, we did not.

We did bus, because we were at.

I. I think we're at Epcot at that time.

Okay.

I was gonna say the boat ride from Magic Kingdom over to Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness.

Oh, that's great.

It's a nice, relaxing ride, too.

And so that gives you an opportunity to see more of the property, too, if you do think.

Yes.

So, again, if.

Again, I wouldn't recommend it.

If you got kids and you've never been there and you just want to do the parks.

Do the parks.

But, like, you know, this.

This has been.

We've been there so many times.

We were like, what can we do differently?

Yeah.

That brings us to my next story.

Okay.

My next story is somebody trying to do something different.

So we were.

We had a very busy, long day on Wednesday, and it was just.

I think we did three parks, and we were.

I was like, at 25,000 steps, and I'm just exhausted, and I.

You know, I don't.

Like, I get to a point where I just, like, I need to sit down.

I need to be done.

Yeah.

So we went back to the hotel, and it was late at night.

And here.

Here's why I'm gonna.

Before I tell you the story about Thursday morning.

Wednesday night.

And I don't know if you've experienced this before.

So Wednesday night, we're at Magic Kingdom.

We did the Starlight Parade.

The park is emptying out just as, like.

And they.

I've been there 100 times.

I've left it close 100 times.

I've never, ever exited the park through the back way of Main Street.

Yeah, they.

Oh, where the.

Where the first aid station is by Crystal Palace.

They open that gate.

Have you ever seen them do this?

I've only done it one time, but I've been back there once as well.

Back behind the Emporium.

Yep.

And back through there.

And you're walking along that back end where you see the delivery trucks and the.

The forklifts and basically all the magic they don't want you to see.

And they're guiding you on this like path with, like, stick flashlights.

Yes.

And then they're funneling you by the fire station on Main Street.

Yeah.

I make the comment, I've never seen them do this.

The guy ahead of me goes, I have season passes.

I've never seen them do this.

And I'm like, it's mid September.

I've been here at Christmas.

I've never exited it this way.

Yeah.

And I'm like, is it.

So I'm wondering if, for viewpoint, if you heard that they just started doing this or like, there was just too much danger in people cramming up to leave.

Was it during fireworks or were the fireworks already finished?

There were.

It was.

No, it was just before fireworks because I want to say it was just this flux of people trying to exit it.

So the one time that I did it, it was.

It was about three years ago, and it was during Happily Ever After.

Okay.

And I wondered if it was because of that.

Now, I have been through on the other side that they open that up pretty often.

Yeah.

I told my parents that, and they said, oh, what did you go?

Were you on the far further side?

Said, no.

I said, I was by Crystal Palace.

They go, all right, we've never seen that.

But we've seen the other side open up.

Yeah.

And so I don't know what the rhyme and reason for it was, but I do remember the fireworks were going on.

It was during March at this time.

So, I mean, it was not particularly busy, but not also not empty either.

So.

Yeah.

It's interesting.

I don't know why they do it.

Yeah.

And because they don't want you to see the.

You know, they don't want.

They don't want you to see how the sausage is made.

Right.

They don't want.

They want you to be in.

In the magic.

So for you to be walking by delivery trucks and forklifts and scaffolding and.

And they don't want you to do.

So I thought there was a story behind it, like somebody got trampled.

And they were like, you know.

But I couldn't find anything because I was like, in all the years I've been to this park, I've never left the park this way before.

Interesting.

So anyway, that was Wednesday night.

We get to the bus and we go back to the hotel, and I'm beat.

My wife says, I want to be first on Winnie the Pooh Thursday morning.

I'm like, what?

She goes, I want to.

I just want to try it because I want to drop rope, drop Magic Kingdom.

And I want to Be first on Winnie the Pooh Thursday morning.

And I'm like, are you kidding me?

I might sleep till 10.

I'm like, I'm not getting up.

She goes, well, I got to find out when the first bus leaves the hotel.

So we get off the bus and I'm limping to the room.

I'm in so much pain, my feet are killing me.

She goes, you go to the room.

I'm going to the front desk to find out when the first bus is leaving.

So I go, all right.

She goes to the front desk.

I go to the room.

She comes back to the room.

The bus, first bus leaves at 7.

The park opens at 8:30.

She goes, do you want to join me on this?

I go, I don't know, I might just have to meet you there or meet you at Epcot.

I don't think I'm going to get up that early.

I'm beat.

She goes, all right.

I didn't think she'd get up for this.

I thought she'd just be like, it was a dumb idea.

No, no.

5:30 in the morning, she gets up, she goes, gets ready.

She goes down to the bus.

She takes the bus.

I'm still in bed.

She texts me a picture of her fourth in line for the entry of the park.

At this moment, I'm going, all right, I gotta get up.

I gotta go there.

All right, this is not.

This is.

This is happening without me.

And I gotta get up.

So I get up, I go down to the bus, I catch the bus.

She texts me, I'm in the park.

So they let them in the park, but they don't let you in.

They.

Unless you're a resort guest.

She got through to fantasyland.

She'll text me later.

I'm first in line because I'm gonna cry.

Oh, I love it.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

So now I'm thinking, the park opens at 8:30.

I'm on the bus at 8:10.

We're almost there.

I'm like, if I run, I might be able to catch her and be on the ride with her.

So that's exactly what I do.

I get off, I run to the gate, no problem.

Beep, beep.

Get in the park.

Run that walk fast down Main street, get into the fantasy land, text me picture of the ride.

She's on the ride.

They let him on early.

So I just got there as she was exiting the ride.

Now, I did say to her afterwards, I said, you know what?

I'm actually glad I didn't join you for this, because I feel like this is kind of like your thing, your story.

That's right.

So I let that be the case.

That's so funny.

I had no idea that you weren't with her.

I saw her post the pictures of her first on Winnie the Pooh, and so this makes me even more proud that she did it.

She figured out where Winnie the Pooh was.

Yeah, she just fell by herself.

She went completely by herself.

And then I made the joke.

I said, wouldn't have been funny if I was in line with you.

And just through some sort of weird arrangement, I ended up walking on the ride first.

But I was.

And I told her that.

I said I loved it because again, we are doing things like trying to do stuff for the first time, and we've never rope drop and been on a ride first like that.

We might have rope dropped, but with hundreds of other people.

She made a point to be like, I'm gonna be there way before, way before this, this ends.

So I said, okay, fantastic.

So that was the other thing.

All right, so back to the.

The scooter situation.

As I'm getting older, I'm starting to realize what.

What a big park Epcot is.

Yeah.

Oh, it is really hard to get from point point A to point B sometimes.

Now, I think eventually I'm.

I'm.

I'm going to not have to do that.

But I think for my advice to people is we did too much.

Let's go here.

Because the wait line is long, is short.

Yeah.

And I think I'm at an age now where I'm just gonna have to go.

No, I'm staying right in this area of the park.

Yeah.

Because I think the way the lines are doing, it's.

It's not easy sometimes to get to Ratatouille from Guardians of the Galaxy, you know, so that was the other piece of advice I had.

I think we had a lot of energy even in our older age, and yet we saw, oh, look, frozen's at 20 minutes.

And I'm like, well, how.

By the time we get there, it's gonna be 50 minutes.

So those were just some of the points that I had with, with my Disney vacation.

Yeah.

I definitely think that for on your Epcot point, I think that Epcot is a park that we really have to look at doing in sections.

You can do it all in one day.

But if you're going to go over to the Land Pavilion, don't go back over there.

You can't help it.

Do everything in that area during that One time.

And then when you're over to do test tracking Guardians of the Galaxy, make sure you're doing those together too, because you're right.

I mean, you can spend all day walking back and forth in Epcot and it is extremely tiring.

And one other thing too.

And again, we realize this, this is as again veterans and older, maybe we don't need the hopper pass as much as we thought.

I did like the idea of going to a park like later at night, but that was the other thing when we did our kind of vacation review was we park hopped a little too much.

And that in itself can be tiring, you know, to go wait on a bus to Animal Kingdom just to go over there for a bit, to then go over to Magic Kingdom for a bit.

It's, it's, it's a large piece of property.

Park hopping can be fun and exciting because you get to go to the other parks, but there is a lot of time between point A to point B.

It's not, they're not all connected by a skyliner, you know what I mean?

And even the monorail, you got to change monorails and get in line again.

So those are just some of my observations of my, on my trip down there.

I love it.

I was living vicariously through y' all when you were posting and a little bit of jealousy here and there because I always want to be there.

Sure.

I mean, I'm the same way.

I'm the same way.

I had two young, two young friends of ours that, that we're familiar with were down there on Monday.

We met them and I, I did warn them.

I said, listen, if you're gonna spend time with me, I'm gonna talk your off about all of these rides and the history and everything.

They were like, oh, no, we love it.

I said, you might not love it at the end, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

So fun.

So that is, that is our review of our trip, of my trip, of the podcast.

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Lauren at allthemagictravel.

Com.

Thanks for joining us on the Wands and Wishes podcast.