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30. 10 Ways to Save on Your Next Disney Trip · Sisters, Sisters: A Mouselets Podcast

• M2: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Sisters Sisters. M1: Welcome back. M2: You wanted to kick it off with a libations update. Inquiring minds want to know. M1: A very important update, like probably a month ago now, Mouselet3 was talking to me and used the word libation and then like felt the need to define the word libation to me. And I said, first of all, I know what the word libation means, because it's whatever, not that crazy of a word. regardless of that, I was like, feel like I actually know the word libation really well. Okay, well. M2: Yeah, what's it from? What's it from? A libation. M1: Yeah, I said, what's it from? It was making me think Hot To Mansion, Pirates. I posted it on Instagram. A lot of people thought I was thinking of the pool bar at the Boardwalk Resort, which is called Leaping Libations. Unfortunately, it definitely wasn't that. I had no idea that that's what that was called. I think what I'm thinking of is there is a line in the movie, A Cinderella Story, one of my favorite movies from growing up with Hilary Duff, where her little sidekicky friend, Zorro, M2: Zorro? ⁓ M1: says like a libation for me lady and I think that that's what I'm thinking of. M2: Is it her sidekick render or is it the weird guy? No, like the weird... No, no, no, the weird guy who comes up to her and is like... M1: Yeah, one in the same to me. ⁓ maybe it is that guy. Someone says like a libation. I think it might be him too. M2: I think it's him. I don't think that's what I was thinking of with libations, but. M1: I think I get confused with the Haunted Mansion guy saying sympathetic vibrations. Also, Disney just calls a lot of drinks libations, like, cause they like like fun names, but it wasn't that. I think it's the Cinderella story thing. I know everyone's been dying to hear this update, so I just needed to close the loop. M2: Yeah. Nobody cared, but good thing you did. M1: Okay, my next thing I wanted to talk about, did you see the Disney Cruise Line ad? I sent it to you. M2: I did, oh, I didn't see that, but I did because I saw that you put it in the show notes. So I went and I watched it. It was also all the talk on social media. I thought it was cute. It didn't blow me away. I think everyone's like obsessed with them. Like, oh yeah, it's an advertisement. M1: ⁓ you didn't look. thought it was so cute. If you did not see it, it's an ad that premiered during the Oscars and it basically is showing like one little boy slash family's like generation being on Disney Cruise Line over multiple generations as he grows up. then like, you know, eventually his father is like an old man and the son has a son of his own. ⁓ I thought it was so cute for an ad. I loved it. M2: I thought it was cute. mostly, honestly, when I was watching it and I was like, wow, I wonder like logistically how they filmed this. Like they had these people come on the cruise and then they filmed at nighttime and there were kids there. Like that was kind of where mine went. No. M1: I also thought of that. Did you clock what ship it was? It was the treasure. They had one scene in the lobby and you could see the lanterns hanging down. So I was like, did they film this like in between sailings, you know, when guests, but there was a nighttime scene. I did have the same thought. I was like, how did they film this? M2: ⁓ I didn't even. No, it was nighttime. Yeah, that would be like a very high production value for but it was cute. People were like obsessed with it. I'm like, it's cute. It's a cute ad. OK, and then, yes, there's one more story that I need to tell. So me and Melsa leave in just a week. Well, from a week from now, we'll actually be in Disney when you're listening to this. And we booked through David's Vacation Club Rentals. And I like it, dragged my feet a little bit and was like. Did I link this reservation? I had like a confirmation number, but I'm like, did I fully link it to my Disney experience? Which you can do right when you book it, literally like seven, 11 months out, whatever. Anyway, cause I'm going to book park passes for me and Mel Cede because we're annual pass holders. And for some God forsaken reason, they require park M1: That deserves A. M2: That does deserve a boo. Enough of the park passes. So I'm going to make us park pass reservations. And I'm on FaceTime with Mouselet1. And suddenly I look and I go, and I like my jaw dropped and my eyes are wide because I'm looking and I'm realizing that we're staying at the Riviera that I had the dates wrong because the reservation coming up is from Saturday to Tuesday of like March 21st or something. And I was like, ⁓ my God. M1: Enough, enough! And guys, where on FaceTime, MouseLutu's face is literally like pure horror. M2: Well, I was like, Mouselet one, Mouselet is gonna murder me. M1: And she goes, I'll just book a different resort. I said, no. And she's... M2: Well, obviously I would have just booked a different resort. You think I would change my entire trip? No. Okay. Luckily our friend Greg, that Parklife podcast happened to tell him the story happens to be going to the Riviera on those dates and I'm linked with him. And so actually that's what I was saying. Sorry, Greg to like spoil the story if that's a surprise. ⁓ It was Greg. Okay. It was Greg. And I was like, ⁓ okay. M1: Yeah. Luckily, we didn't have to worry about it. M2: Thank God. So it was absolutely terrifying. We're going to do a full planning episode next week with Mouselet A talking about the trip. ⁓ M1: Do wanna talk about your girl math quickly though? Yeah, that gets, know what, another, another. M2: no, stop no more. Okay, you're banned from the boo button. Okay A fun fact about me I hate I hate Ubering I Hate Ubering I despise being in someone else's car I just really and the more that I think about it the more I dislike it I think some of it stemmed from the fact that my old apartment in south boston that I lived in I would always uber to the airport and get like violently ill M1: You've said this before. You've said this before. M2: That'd be on my phone in the car, obviously. M1: So it's all your own fault. M2: I hate the smell of the air freshener. Anyway, I was just like, ⁓ my God, I don't want to Uber. I don't want to Uber. And I was like looking and I was like, you know what? How much does a rental car cost? Cause if we get like a two door manager special and I'm like, how much does it cost? M1: But let's be clear that you only need a rental car to get to and from the airport. This trip does not require a rental car to go to the parks. You could use it, but you don't need it. M2: That's not true. There's another day that we'll use it. You never need it. You could take the bus always anyway, so I'm looking at like how much does it cost and I'm like, okay I don't remember how much it cost. I think it was like 200 bucks or something M1: It was like $219, I think. M2: And I was like, okay, it's about $45 to Uber from the airport with and then also tip right so $45 to Uber from the airport So I was like night $90, okay, ⁓ and then I was like, all right M1: Girl Math! I wish you had a Girl Math Sunday. Girl Math! So there's a $130 Delta here. M2: And so then I posted a viral video of Papa Mouselet and it popped off. It has like 2 million views on TikTok. Of course, it's not one that people are necessarily gonna watch the whole thing. So like, we're not making as much per like thousand views as like a normal video. Still blew it away. Totally that video of Papa Mouselet completely covers the difference of the rental car. So I'm like, if I hadn't posted that video, maybe I wouldn't, but I did post that video so that money will cover the rental car. So I rented the car. M1: Guys, and so, and then Mel Cidu is trying to be like, so I'm saving money. And I said, well, you're not saving money. M2: No, I am saving money. I think in the end I'm saving like 20 bucks M1: because you could still Uber and then we would have that Delta still in the bank account. M2: No, but I'm also gonna drive to Animal Kingdom and then the last day gives me flexibility to have a car, so. M1: Yes, I know you're thrilled about your rental car, but let's just be clear, you're not saving money. M2: I'm saving my therapy bills from the torturous. hate guy. Honestly, I hate Ubering. One more thing, Mels that I tried to say that we would like Uber somewhere in, ⁓ in London. She's like, well, just Uber back to Heathrow. And I said, ha ha, you think I'm going to Uber to Heathrow? M1: Okay, well even I would not hoober. Hoober? Hoober to Heathrow. And I love hoobers. M2: Well, I was like you can take the Piccadilly line and you can also just take like whatever the train is so M1: Heathrow Express which if you book it more than 30 days in advance is only 10 pounds. I just booked mine, you should book yours. M2: I was gonna take the Piccadilly line, but maybe I will. That's not that much different. I'm gonna go visit the island that I worked on in college, Lots8. All right, guys, let's get into some. M1: Correct. Okay, we're getting into way too much nitty gritty. I need to read the note on this, because I need to tell you that this, little document, says Adventureland preview. And Mouselet2 wrote Adventureworld idiot. And I would just like you to know, I didn't write Adventureland preview. Mouselet did when you guys were doing this together. So Mouselet. That was for you. But let's start with that piece of news. Adventure World, which is the newly renamed park in Disneyland Paris, which has World of Frozen, if you've seen any of that content online, has been doing previews. M2: Yes, and that park used to be called Walt Disney Studios. There's a lot of really cool lore and history of the park. Basically, the fact is that Disney promised that they would build a second park and they contractually had to and they already got an extension. So they had to pop up a park. They did it as inexpensively as possible with just the big like sound stages and dropping a bunch of random rides in there. M1: the park you could tell the park was kind of a stink guys we love Disney and Disney M2: It's like you walk in, yeah, and there's like a random Aladdin spinner ride, just like floating there with like a weird backdrop. We're just like. M1: Yes. It's like, we love Disneyland Paris. The actual Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris is so beautiful and well done. And then you go to Walt Disney Studios, the former name for this park, and it was just like, it was really bad. It was notoriously the worst Disney park in the world. M2: Let me, absolutely no question. When we were there last time, it was under construction. ⁓ One of the things you could go see, this probably will sound cool to people, but it's not. Do you guys remember Lights, Motor, Action at MGM Studios, the car show? That started in that park. That's why it was French, very cool. Okay, they got rid of the show there and instead they put in an Alice in Wonderland BMX bike show. Just like random, random. M1: Which I believe I was looking at them so they have released the new map for adventure world again the newly reimagined version of this park I believe that show is gone based on what was in the map I don't think it's gonna be there when the park reopens. So a lot of the park has remained No, I mean one like that whole thing real opens ⁓ a lot of the park has remained the same but they kind of did like an overhaul expansion of these certain new areas so they M2: I mean, wait, the park isn't closed. ⁓ M1: have World of Frozen and like a Rapunzel thing and this whole esplanade. Anyways, most people here are probably not going to Disneyland Paris but there's been a lot of content about it online. It has an official opening date at the end of March and it will officially be renamed at that point to Adventure World. Not my favorite name for a park but that's okay. M2: Here's what they've got in the park world premiere Plaza, which has Tower of Terror and like the whole entryway entryway leave something to be desired They should have knocked that entire big building down but world of Pixar which has Toy Story suckland. Sorry Toy Story playland which sinks Ratatouille Crush coaster and this interesting like cars back lot thing. I don't see the Aladdin's magic carpets in here. There's world of frozen There's what they're calling Lion King area very M1: so bad. which is coming in the future, that it's not ready for this opening part. M2: Yeah, under construction. Marvel and then there is Adventure Way and Adventure Bay. So they're adding like a center lake. You know what this park should have been called. And if you can't guess it, you don't know me at all. Cinemagique. Because that's what they claimed that they were renaming Hollywood Studios to. Some weird rumor. M1: Cinemagique. which was definitely a rumor that got crisscrossed and was actually supposed to be for this. M2: and was supposed to be for this park and I absolutely support this park being called Cinemagique, Cinemagique, Cinemagique. Adventure World, sounds... M1: Adventure Road gives you universal, just doesn't really give Disney. M2: It's like, it's the safest bet. So that's exciting. I will be there in June. We just talked about this in the Patreon segment. ⁓ M1: ⁓ my God, are you kidding me? I didn't realize that, I didn't put two and two together and now I'm fuming and I'll need to deal with that. Anyways, the next piece of news. So the Main Street Philharmonic, which is like the marching band, I guess randomly the last couple of days, Mickey has joined and it's so cute. He's in a little like marching band outfit to match them and he's been like leading the parade. Apparently it has only been for the first show of the day and cast members have been like surveying guests as to how they felt about it. M2: Apparently. M1: So it seems like it was a test. Nothing official has been announced. Unclear how long it will continue, but I really hope it continues. I think that's so fun. M2: It's interesting because I saw someone post about it and I was like, okay, I didn't it wasn't like new. It wasn't like clicking that this was like something special to me. It reminds me of the music festival they had at Disneyland Paris though. A couple of other pieces of news. So first the garden tea lounge at Grand Floridian opens today on March 19th, the date that this episode releases. We're probably going to do that on our May family trip. Can't get into that now, but really excited that they're bringing that back. I think it's absolutely time. Also, I saw some random cast member M1: Yes. M2: who is friends with Captain Hook in the villain show who posted a whole TikTok about how he's friends with Captain Hook. The whole thing was interesting, I sent it to you. He walked under the rock and roller coaster car and it was repainted. I think it, you know what? What it tells me is what this overlay is gonna be. And I think for rock and roller coaster fans, great news. I think it's gonna feel a lot like rock and roller coaster. Cause it's the exact same car and they just like put a little bit of rainbow paint on it. M1: ⁓ you don't love? Okay, I saw something recently and I don't remember what it was, but whatever it was gave me that exact same impression. I was like, ⁓ this is rock and roller coaster. Maybe, maybe, yeah. M2: Was it the guitar with like some rainbow paint on it? I cause I saw that and I was like, oh, okay. It's just, it's, think they're going to leave the parking garage. think it's going to be, and you know what? I'm fine. I'm fine with that. I have no complaints about it. Not everything has to be a whole redo. The ride is good. Whatever. M1: Me too. That's fine. That's fine. Nope. Me too. Okay, the last little piece of news I wanted to throw in is in the sitting on the ground talking segment, ⁓ we sort of did a whole deep dive about Disney movies. And one of the things we mentioned is that Mel's Luttu and I are just not personally fans of the live action movies. I don't know. ⁓ And so the live action Snow White, which neither of us saw, won two Razzie's this week. If you don't know what that is, on the same night as the Oscars, which is of course the best of for the year, ⁓ a different organization hosts the Razzie's. which is the worst of, so the worst movies of the year. Famously the year that Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for The Blind Side. She also won a Razzie for All About Steve, one of Mouselotoo's favorite movies. So a Razzie means that it was the worst in a category and the live action Snow White won two. I don't know what they were for. I didn't see the movie, so I can't speak on if it deserved them. M2: One of my favorite movies. I might watch the movie in French, honestly. So, but that's the news. Honestly, it's big news, but mostly that was like Disneyland Paris news. I think that the news is gonna be kind of slow for a bit just because like we had so much stuff that came out and then we have D23 coming up. we'll kind of see what comes. All right. M1: get into the main episode. Mouseletou is looking for the sound bit. That was worth the wait for sure. Our main topic today is 10 ways to save on your Disney vacation and we've broken these out into some categories. We're going to start with the category of kind of booking your trip. M2: I want to introduce this kind of topic because we are, you know, booking a trip right now with ⁓ our family in May. At least I am still unclear if you're coming on that trip, but we are booking a trip. you? you? We're booking a trip and I have to buy mama and papa mouse lit tickets and they're booking flights and it's just different the way we do Disney where we have annual passes and things and we just kind of. have different schedules, but when you go on that one family trip per year, every few years or however you do it, it can get expensive. like 100 % recognizing that, and we took that one family trip for 22 years, 22 years of the one family trip. And then we finally started going more and more. I feel like we have a ton of good tips on how to save. I don't feel like we don't talk about it enough. So do you wanna start with number one? M1: So the first one is when you're booking, be flexible with your dates, if you can. Obviously this isn't an option for everyone, but things to consider. The first is the time of year that you're going. there are, I actually found this like amazing website, which I definitely knew about at some point, but I haven't seen it in a long time. It's called Mouse Savers and they post the like prices for each sort of block of time throughout the year for each resort. Yes, yes. M2: Is that website like yellow and white? Okay, I know that website. M1: So you can go look and kind of gauge like when is a more popular and more expensive versus less popular time of year. ⁓ For example, like if you're going over Christmas week, that's like the most popular time of year that Disney has. But there are pockets of time that are much less popular. So that's one. Also, if you can avoid a weekend, I know that's hard with work, but weekends are gonna be more expensive than weekdays, especially like depending on when you're coming in. And then school breaks. We have actually vowed to never go back on a three-day weekend. We recently accidentally went on a three-day weekend, what, Veterans Day, and it was just so busy. It was unpleasant, not even from a price perspective. It just actually wasn't really pleasant being there with all the crowds, but it also was going to drive up the prices. So try to not go during the school breaks. Spring break especially is the worst one. That's when it's the most crowded. M2: was Veterans Day. Un unpleasant. It was unpleasant. What I will say is that obviously a lot of people with kids, you don't have this flexibility, you're going on spring break, you can still have a great time. It's in this capacity, well, it's gonna be busier, but it's gonna be a little more money, because you're gonna need to buy lightning lanes, and it's gonna be busier crowds, and tickets are gonna be pricier. Luckily, we have a list of nine other things that will be very relevant to you. So if that one specifically doesn't apply, don't worry. But if you do have that flexibility, if you, seriously, I really encourage people, price out a cheap trip staying at like one of the all-stars and going down for like three or four days and maybe doing like two park days. Like it's not as bad as you think. And I don't know, it's fun to go to different time of year. But number two, when we're talking about booking is don't pay full price for a resort. Do not pay full price for a resort. We have a couple of different sort of options here. So the first one, we talk about this all the time is renting DVC points. Do you wanna explain briefly how the renting like DVC points? process works. M1: Yeah, so renting DVC points, we rent through David's Vacation Club Rentals. And basically it allows you to stay at Deluxe Resorts in DVC Villas. Specifically, have regular DVC Villas. just like a standard hotel room pretty much. And then they also have larger ones, one bedrooms, two bedrooms, even a three bedroom if you really wanna splurge. But you are basically, everything is under your name. It's your reservation. It's linked to your Magic Band and My Disney Experience and everything. But because you are renting sort of a misnomer, you're using someone's DVC points, you get a much cheaper rate than if you were going directly through Disney. Literally 30 to 50 % off the rooms. If you are going to go, say, Deluxe, you have to, have to, have to, have to, have to go look at the cost of that room on Disney's website and remember that that does not include taxes. And then go to David's Vacation Club Rentals website and look at the cost calculator. And remember that that does include taxes and is the full price for your trip. You will be shocked by the savings. If you want to stay deluxe, even if you want to stay moderate, some of the rooms through renting DVC points can be comparable to moderates. You should at least check. It won't match value prices. Values will still be lower. But take a look because that is like the ultimate, ultimate savings hack for onsite Disney resorts. M2: Yeah, you actually can save literally so much money. So I've pulled a random Friday night in August, just as an example. If you wanna stay in a studio, a value studio, Animal Kingdom launch, $207. That's like a special type of studio. So the other one that's more standard is gonna cost you $300. $250 to stay in a studio at the boardwalk. one, $250 for one night at the boardwalk. It's like almost like the numbers don't seem like that number. M1: It seems not real. Every time MouseLut2 looks at this website, guys, she's like, wait, she gets confused and like, no, that is the price. It is crazy. So yes, if you've ever wanted to stay at the Boardwalk, you could stay there for $250 on this Friday night in August that MouseLut2 is looking at. M2: That number actually, I'm like, wait, what? like all of these things. I'm like, are these real? It's just like the Disneyland Hotel, like $300. So when you're looking, it's not gonna necessarily compete with your value resorts and definitely acknowledging that. But if you're looking for a slightly elevated experience, it's gonna be comparable to your moderates for a lot of these resorts. And at the very least, if you're someone who stays deluxe, and I'm talking to my coworker right now who refuses to rent DVC points and pays with cash, you are throwing money in the trash can. There's genuinely zero reasons to not. ⁓ M1: Yes. Yeah. My biggest advice if you're renting DVC points is try and book your trip at least more than seven months out to try and like guarantee availability. Well, 11 months if you can do it, but at least more than seven months and you'll have a good chance of getting that room that you want at that amazing rate. M2: and did not run DVC points. that's. but I just booked renting David's points for the Disneyland Hotel. It was not available. I got on the wait list and ⁓ I got in. So that's one thing, renting DVC points is gonna be a really great option. If you're looking to stay deluxe, you're gonna get a lot of those deluxe resorts at moderate prices. Next up is gonna be, look at Disney's discounts. We don't always talk about them, but right now, we'll try to talk about them more. Disney has a ton. of discos you want me to run through or do you have them up? Okay. M1: I have them up. Disney has released, this is sort of similar to last year. They're once again doing their cool kids summer promotion, which has a lot of stuff in the parks. We'll actually have to do an episode on that at some point, but kind of associated with that, they do room discounts. So they have up to 30 % on room discounts for most nights from May 1st to July 29th. And it's like, on the resort and how long you're staying. But then they also, from July 30th to October 3rd, have another 30 % discount. So again, depends on where you're staying, but look at it, that can save you a lot of money. Then they have free dining plan for people who have done the dining plan, free dining plan for certain arrivals from like June to October and then some in December as well. It's a mix. And they have a special four day four park magic ticket. We used this on one trip. It was so good. M2: No, but they for a while had a three park magic. They didn't include Magic Kingdom in it, which was, and I remember that's when we gave it to your friend. M1: ⁓ right. Yes, now they have the four day four parks. So each day you can go to one of the four parks. as a spoiler for what's ahead, Mouseletoo and I don't typically recommend getting a park hopper. So you don't really need a park hopper in our opinion. So four day four parks for total ticket price starting at $436, that is really cheap for a Disney ticket. That's like a very good price. And so that's for most dates from May through September. Lots of deals. Lots of deals. M2: Yeah. And if the deals thing overworms you and you don't want to rent DVC points, the easiest way to secure a deal and not have to be like fishing around looking for offers is honestly to book with a travel agent. There are a ton of Disney travel agents. We know a bunch that we just like we know we're friends with in real life. If you need a travel agent recommendation, absolutely send us a DM. We can send you a couple of different names, different types of people who are really great, who we've worked with for a while. And then the last thing when we're looking at resorts, right? Your cheapest option for Disney is gonna be looking at the value resorts. So the all-stars are gonna be your cheapest option. Usually all-star music, all-star sports are gonna be a little bit cheaper. Another option is to stay off-site. And I know there are people listening who are like, ⁓ no way. And like, that's fine. There are a ton of people who have always been in that Disney bubble. It's the most important thing to them. And staying at the values is a great option. But I will say that staying off-site is something that we did for over 20 years. We always stayed off-site. There is a special spot in my heart for staying offsite. We didn't know anything different. It was enjoyable. And now that I know the kind of greater Orlando area, ⁓ there's a lot of good options. And I think that I'm gonna say two of my preferred options and you can, I don't think you probably have any to be honest, but me and Mouselip3 stayed ⁓ at a resident in, in Flamingo Crossing. Well, you've stayed there before too. Residents in in flamingo crossing over near animal kingdom. I think we stayed there a bunch of times We do call it the dumpster hotel only because we had to park our car next to a dumpster, but it's a very M1: Their parking lot is too tiny and so we always end up having to park by a dumpster, but that does not say anything about the hotel. M2: That's unrelated to it. It's it's pretty good proximity. It's a pretty good option. ⁓ You probably want a rental car. You don't really want to rely on Ubering. So factor in that rental car. Two hundred and twenty dollars for my upcoming trip. ⁓ But it's a good option if you're like someone who likes a Marriott, there's a lot of options around there. The other option that I'll say is Disney Springs on Disney property. Basically, Disney Springs there has a bunch of offsite resorts that you can stay at. We stayed at one on our October 2020 trip, Mouseless Laura for another day. I stayed there recently with Mouseless Laura by chance. She had a work conference. It was the Wyndham. There's like 25 million Wyndhams, okay? But this is the Wyndham that was right near Disney Springs. M1: The Wyndham Garden Hotel, like Lake Buena Vista at Disney Springs, something like that. M2: Yeah, something like that. I could walk from that hotel to Disney Springs, which was so, so, so nice. I did do that. I went to Gideon's and I walked where I worked. It was easy for me to just hop in my car. I had a rental car. Highly recommend if you're staying off site, get a rental car. You can talk about the resort shuttle in a minute. But that resort, I'm not going to say that this is like the top to your best resort ever, but it actually was pretty nice. And like I would if I was staying off site for the proximity, I would stay there again. I'm going to mention one more. The Bonnet Creek Resort's great proximity to the parks. Like, there are offsite options that might be more affordable than some of the values. Or it's just a different experience. M1: We are, we've said it before, like there's no denying we love staying on site. But if you are going down for a trip where you're focused on budgeting, offsite is probably going to be a better option for you. And if you're going on a trip where you're really go, going in the parks and you just kind of need a place to sleep, it doesn't necessarily make sense to pay for an onsite hotel. Like staying offsite and just going there to sleep is completely fine. Again, it's what we did for years and years and years and years. There's no. M2: And I think you mentioned it when we were talking about the All-Stars recently. I think the biggest downside that we felt with that room, we loved everything about it, but the room size itself felt tight. The bathroom was good. Like the room itself felt a little bit tight. When you're staying in these offsite resorts, they're just kind of a regular hotel room size. So you're not maybe feeling that pinch again. Like I know there's people who love to stay on site and that's totally fine, but staying offsite is I think a M1: Need. M2: an option to consider if you're looking for a budget friendly place. M1: but you do need to rent a car because the resort shuttles are gonna tell you that they have buses, but it's like they leave for Epcot at 10 a.m. Yeah, Hollywood Studios at 11 a.m. and then they pick up at Hollywood Studios at 4 p.m. and that's the only run of the day. Like it just isn't gonna work. So do factor in renting a car. Next up, we're going to move into tickets and our number one tip with tickets is get discount tickets. We've talked about this before. We've always worked with undercover tourists. They're a verified. M2: 9 a.m. M1: They work with Disney. It's not like, never buy tickets on like, yeah, don't buy tickets on like eBay or Facebook Marketplace. You're getting scammed. Undercover Tourist is a legit thing. It links into your My Disney Experience. And you can save, you'll save more on like longer trips, but sort of as a subcategory to this I added, which I mentioned before, we really don't recommend a park hopper. You can always upgrade to a park hopper while you're there, as long as it's not your very last day. ⁓ M2: It's not sketchy, it's like. M1: So if you like feel the need, you can walk up to a ticket window and do that. But we just don't feel like most of the time, unless you're going for a super condensed trip, you're trying to do four parks in two days or something, you don't really need a park hopper. M2: And even like in this upcoming trip with mama and papa Maslet. Like obviously, is it nice to have a park hopper for the flexibility? Yes, of course, right? And some people love the park hopper and that's great. But I'm thinking of that trip, I'm like, you know what? With just a little bit of good planning, it'll be fine. Like the odds are what there would maybe be one night that we were like, ⁓ we could pop into Magic Kingdom for two hours. It's just like, is that worth paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars more? Probably not. Maybe maybe it is for you, but a lot of times we recommend skipping the park hopper. ⁓ But yeah, totally agree on the discounted tickets. Even like the small savings once you get like four or five days, like if you're getting those tickets, you are saving enough that like there's no reason not to. Same thing with when you're like renting DVC points, you're going to save the money. So there's no reason to not do it. ⁓ We've done undercover tourists. Our parents used AAA a bazillion years ago. There's other places. Again, we know undercover tourists are reliable. Biggest thing. Don't Don't from eBay, don't buy from Facebook Marketplace. Don't do any of that. ⁓ Next up, when you're thinking of tickets, you're thinking of how many days to get for your trip. Build in a resort day. This will come up later in our special segment for me, at least. A resort day is so, so, so needed in general. It gives you an amazing break from the parks. If you're staying on site, you can enjoy the pool and a lot of the on-site amenities. Even if you're staying off site, you can go and do the Skyliner tour, the monorail tour. M1: No, no, no, no, no, no. M2: which is just getting on those and going to the different resorts. You can go to the boardwalk. You can go to Disney Springs. I think for a while we were like park focused, like laser focused on the parks. So was Mouselet A. And now we are like a totally, we love our resort time. Almost like, almost like, ⁓ I know we should probably, we probably should go to the parks. Like. M1: ⁓ my God, guys, Mousletoe actually has been talking about her upcoming trip and the Riviera. She has so much resort time, okay? Like when she's talking me through the schedule, when she's talking me through the schedule, I'm like, ⁓ you're getting so much time at the Riviera, which is great. We love that resort. And she keeps being like, I feel like I don't have enough resort time. I'm like, ⁓ my God, you have time there almost every day. M2: I have a Google Sheet. I like, feel like every time we're at the resort and it doesn't matter. It's the Riviera Resort and it was even being like at the All-Stars. I regret not spending more time at All-Star movies. I just feel like I'm always wanting a little bit more resort time. And I think it's something that people don't fully appreciate. The Boardwalk area is super fun. There's like mini golf. There's a ton of things you can do. Even with like tickets, your first day you arrive, free water park, like that deal. Yeah, there's. M1: Yeah, that deals amazing. You should take advantage of that. M2: You should take advantage of that. There's a lot of things that you can do. I have to tell you something that Mousely said to me when we were planning this trip. There was a time, and I think we all go through it, that you're obsessed with rides and you're obsessed with the parks. And in 2018, ⁓ my God, I played the wrong, I should have played that. In 2018 we went on a trip and me and you wanted to go to art of animation for the first time we'd never been there I'm gonna only open like four years before which is kind of crazy mouse a day was confused She thought we were going to an animation class. We went to art of animation and she like despised it She was like, are we doing here walking around a resort? She like didn't get it. Okay She only wanted to do rides and I think we all go through that phase I think we all sing when we start, you know when you start going to the parks Mouse a day said to me the other day You know what on this upcoming trip if we don't do any rides on any days, I'd be fine with that. M1: you know who that's giving and I can't say this person's name but it's giving it's giving that person. M2: Yeah, I do know who it's giving. And I was just like, OK, wait, do know that bit from Victoria Justice saying like, think we all sing. ⁓ because that's what I said, I just felt like you didn't react. It's like a funny sound bit. M1: I literally was like doing something and I said to myself in my head, did she just say sing? But you don't like when I roast you for saying the wrong thing, so I did not say anything. M2: It was Victoria Justice talking about Ariana Grande and they were like talking about Ariana Grande singing and Victoria Justice like butts in and it's like, I think we all sing anyway. ⁓ I feel like you... No, I think most people here know it. But yes, what I was going to say is that Mouselet A is now like a resort fiend. And so work in time for the resorts. It is fun. M1: What a niche, niche, niche reference. When we were kids, we stayed offsite at our parents' Marriott timeshare, which at the time was called Horizons. It's not called that anymore, but yeah. Yeah, you can look it up. We loved it. But so we would go from like a Friday to the following Sunday, and we would always have two Horizons days. And honestly, those days were some of my absolute favorite days. I loved Horizons days. They just were like... M2: It's called Harbor Lake, you can know. Our parents don't have time to share that anymore. M1: And again, we were staying offsite. It's not like we were staying at an on-site resort. They were so special and so fun. Our parents made them so special. Like it was some of my favorite memories. And I think a resort day hits in a way that you might not realize if you're used to just park, go, go, go, go. M2: My colleague, not the one I mentioned who always pays cash for rooms, this other random man stayed there with his two twins and his other kid. It's three kids. And they stayed there. And they went one day to Disney and the other like five days they were there. And he's like, they have a pirate shipboat and they have this. And I was like, I stayed there. and we loved it. Yeah, I still, that pirate ship pool still like, we'll have to maybe go there with the baby one day just to like, just to experience it. Okay, next. M1: And we loved it. I loved that pirate ship pool. I know, it's amazing. The memories. The next one is if you are going during a time of year, Halloween and Christmas, when they have the special events, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Jollywood Nights, or if you want to do one of the other events they sometimes have, like the special after hours, if you are going to do one of those, do not go to a park that day. You are already going to be spending a lot of money on the ticket for that event, and that ticket will get you in at 4 p.m. traditionally if you're going to one of the parties. And honestly, you don't need to go to a park that day because you need to have energy for that whole entire nighttime event. And so enjoy the resort. Do not pay for a park ticket for that day. Do other things and then just use your party ticket. M2: You don't want to be sleeping in the back of the Tomorrowland dance party at Christmas time while Mike Wazowski is on stage. OK, speaking from experience. Yeah, that is a good one. It's a little more niche, but like it is absolutely relevant depending on the type of trip. OK, next up, we're talking food. We're talking meals. This is tip number six. Bring your own meals. OK, I know we all love like eating at Disney food and it's fun, but again, we're a budget. M1: while Mike Wazowski is on stage. Speaking from experience. M2: family, a budget friendly family. We did this on our May of 2025 trip. So like, this is still relevant for us. Mama Mouselet made us all wraps, which was great. Eat a breakfast in the resort room, bring a lunch. You don't have to do every meal like at Disney, especially the breakfast. It's so easy. Like, what are we really getting? We're getting quick service from one of those places. Like you can get stuff. You can Instacart groceries. They'll literally drop them off. They have freezers that they can store your groceries in, or fridges, whatever. and you can bring them to your room. This is especially helpful if you're staying in a DVC villa, which has an actual fridge versus some of the other rooms, which has like a drink, a drink fridge only. So rent DVC points, do this. ⁓ If you want to lunch. M1: But like, yeah, get granola bars. Get like, you know, instant oatmeal. Yeah. M2: oranges, apples, instant oatmeal. And if you want, I was gonna say, if you want a good recommendation for lunch, Mouselet1 has kind of like a specialty that she does a sandwich with potato salad on top and then sliced up split in half hot dogs. And that's an M1 specialty. M1: I said, that once and you know what it was and you know what? It was delicious. But literally like peanut butter and jelly or something. There's fruits, vegetable. There's so many things. And yeah, especially breakfast at Disney. Disney really doesn't do breakfast very well in terms of quick service. we don't really understand why they don't put more effort in, but they don't. And so no need, get your own groceries. Yeah, long trip. M2: especially on a longer trip, like on our family trip that we do, that's like that longer, like over a week trip. We cook dinner in the room a lot of times, but we especially, I mean, we always do breakfast unless there's something particular we want. And even lunches, like at Magic Kingdom, we're bringing wraps and we're eating them and we're carrying them around. And that's just the reality. Like we don't bring food to Epcot, because Epcot food's great. like, so that I think is a good one. Other things with meals, don't buy water bottles. Deal with it guys, water, Papa Mouse like hates it. The water of Florida is not that bad. You can drink the tap water. M1: Bring a refillable water bottle. You can fill it up in the water fountains or you can go to any quick service location and ask for a cup of water and they will give you a free cup of ice water, as many as you would like. So you really do not need to be buying water bottles. M2: What is the, what's the worst water fountain? You should know this. Everyone, you need to know this. What is the water fountain you should never, ever, ever, ever use and fill your water bottle from? Yeah, it tastes like ketchup. It does. Okay, last thing with bringing your own meals, the dining plan. Melslet A told me, she said, ⁓ include the dining plan. I said, perfect. I'll include the dining plan to tell you to not use the dining plan. The dining plan. M1: You're gonna say the one by China. It doesn't, it doesn't. No, it does not. M2: and people have done much deeper dives and breakdowns we can do that. It is not a good bang for your buck. It is not, it might make things simpler. The only time it's an amazing bang for your buck is if you are someone who always gets like an alcoholic beverage with every meal and you wanna do all of these sit down meals, maybe. M1: You can try to beat the dining plan. Like there are ways to do it if you would like to do research about exactly what restaurant you should go to and then what you should order at that restaurant to quote beat the dining plan. But the dining plan is good if you want to pay in advance and then not think about it on your trip. If you want to budget, no dining plan. We've never done the dining plan. yep. M2: I mean, never will. It's a waste of money. I would never ever do it. To be honest, we also don't really drink enough alcohol to make it worth it. We don't really drink like soft drinks. They're dining plan loyalists. But if you do a breakdown, you do the math out, you are losing money. M1: Yeah, unless you try to beat it, which is not the budget friendly option. Okay, our next tip related to meals. This is tip number seven. If you want to do character dining, obviously you're going to Disney. A lot of times you're bringing kids, kids want to do character dining. It's so special and fun. Do a breakfast. Character dining for breakfast is going to be typically closer to like $35. Character dining for dinner, lunch or dinner is like $55, $65 or more. A breakfast is still really fun. There's lots of great breakfast options. We are saving money that way if a character dining experience is important to you. M2: Yeah, I absolutely agree. I like a breakfast for character dining and pick one, you know, pick one, do the one special one. You don't need to do like a bunch of them. OK, next up we have bang for your buck sit downs. And for this we wrote via Napoli because that's the one we always go to via Napoli is an amazing bang for your buck sit down. You can get like a giant pizza and it literally comes out to like sixteen dollars per person. M1: You can get a giant pizza for like 40 something dollars and it's giant. Like truly it is giant. It feeds so many people. So yeah, the way that that breaks down per person is so, so, so cheap. So cheap compared to other Disney restaurants. I did have on my list, what else? I was kind of hoping that maybe you would fill in some other ones that were really good big for your book. M2: Yeah. What? Others? Good bang for your buck. I mean, I can tell you like cheaper, more cheaper restaurants, like the Sit Down restaurant in China is a little bit on the cheaper side. Tony's is a little bit on the cheaper side. But like amazing bang for your buck. This is an episode for another day, I think, where we really dig into it. M1: But Vianapoli is a really good bank for your buck. The next segment, our sort of last category is in park, things that you can do in the park. So the first is be smart with your lightning lanes. We just did a whole episode actually about this, talking about different strategies and when to buy. For example, do not buy lightning lanes for Animal Kingdom. ⁓ Like you do not need lightning lanes for that park at all. You often can do Epcot without lightning lanes. Again, we have a whole episode you can listen to with various strategies, but instead of lightning lanes in every park, take advantage of other strategies. So be sure that you're rope dropping. ⁓ Do single rider when single rider is available. I know that can be harder with kids. They just opened up double rider at Smuggler's Run. So you can have two people, which is cool. Go on rides during the parade and during the fireworks when other people are busy. So the lines are lower. M2: now. do early morning magic hours if you're staying deluxe, do extended evening hours, which is something we really should try again soon. But yeah, really make the most of those different times. And also check a crowd calendar, like see if a park's gonna be really busy one day and try to shuffle things around. All right, the last one. ⁓ This one, all right, there's layers to this. It's about souvenirs. And something I will say, and I think that this gets into our special segment a little bit too, is that there is... in like, if you're in the Disney space, which you probably at least are slightly adjacent because you're listening to this podcast, right? There is, there are a lot of people, influencers and things who buy a ton of merchandise and it's fun and it's fun to see. And there's been like a huge uptick in people buying merchandise. And it's so fun to do souvenirs. When we were kids, we got to pick out one souvenir at the end of the trip and it was so special and fun. And we didn't know anything different. There are certain things like a bubble wand that like, I remember I have like a poo one. That type of stuff, you can literally bring that stuff, you know, from other places. Some of these things, like it might make sense to just buy a Walmart, buy on Amazon or whatever instead of the upcharge in the parks. And then I would say one souvenir. That's that's literally all like you don't don't get caught up in like the merch buying game, which I feel like so many people it's so easy to now. M1: Yeah, and if you think your child is going to be seeing these things and being like, ⁓ my gosh, I really want a bubble want, have one that you bought on Amazon, on Walmart, whatever it may be, beforehand have it in your bag and when they ask for it, pull it out and they're not gonna know that it's not from Disney parks. Like it's super fun, I'm sure, to let them have that experience of getting, again, the one souvenir like we did, but you can get other stuff like in advance. M2: Even like ponchos buy your ponchos, but bring them yourself if it's gonna rain like that type of stuff Try to avoid the trap of like if it's cold buying a sweatshirt in the park just because you're cold, right? So I think I think that is a good one and like it's maybe more geared towards people with kids or people who just Feel like they want to buy a lot of merch. ⁓ honestly, there are so many other like I've already thought of like a million other money-saving things We'll have to do a part two to this but these are definitely tips that you can implement even if you're saving like what seems like a small amount from these tips. When you add it up, can, it really, really, really can add up. M1: Even if you're there with a family of four and each person's breakfast is $15, which is like cheap, that's $60 per day. You're on a four day trip, that's $240. Like everything so quickly adds up at Disney. You can end up saving so much money if you just are like more mindful in certain ways. But now it is time to do our special segment. Do want me to explain it? M2: Yeah, I thought you were waiting for me to roll a bit. I want to say we don't have a sound bit. M1: So our special segment today is we're gonna do a little State of the Union. We're getting into spring. So we each compiled five, what we're calling hot or nots. This is all for fun, obviously. But just little things that we're saying, this is in and this is out. If you used to read the click books, yeah, the click books back in the day, State of the Union. So we're gonna say this is in and this is out. Do you wanna start with one of yours? You can see mine and I can't see yours, which is kind of cheap. And you keep looking at your phone, because I assume you've been working on them. M2: I was about to say Massey Block, click State of the Union. Yeah, well I can It's i'm not well I I will say I looked at your list and I was like, uh-oh we went we did totally different routes So I changed mine and then we ended up having a similarity. So i'm gonna do the one we had the same I have an extra so no worries out. ⁓ bad hair days and in is slickies M1: You copied that exactly from me. M2: No, I did it first. That was what I had bad hair days are out when I look at it I look at a picture of myself sometimes and I'm like like my hair right now. I'm just like, you know what? Just slick it back. Just slick it back My hair does not do well in humidity and I also don't like to do my hair to be honest I just sort of like wake up my hair is what it is I'm not gonna like blow dry my hair at Disney slick it back do a braid do something for me This is a me thing. It's a you thing. Some people look over their hair down M1: ⁓ my God, it's awful. It's awful. said out is frizzy hair. Listen, if that looks good on you, some people can pull it off as a look. For me, I just look like a sloppy, sweaty mess. And I don't like that I like try and force myself to like blow dry my hair, curl my hair in like, even though I know it's like 99 % humidity outside, in hopes that it's maybe gonna look okay when obviously it's not. And I should just be comfy and put my hair up a sli- I also wrote a slicky slick my hair back in a slick back bun, put my hair up. Be comfortable, embrace the fact that my hair is not gonna hold a curl, it's gonna be frizzy. Frizzy hair for me is out. M2: Yep. Okay. All right. What's your next? M1: Okay, my next one is In our Mickey Bagus. Bagu, so Mousletoo and I are big fans of bagus or fake bagus. We have both, like just the shape of bagu. Okay, yeah, I was gonna not say fagus, because they're fake bagus, just like fugs, you get it. ⁓ So In is the new Mickey Bagu collection. I think it's so cute and fun. M2: Mm-hmm. Yep. They call them faggoos. That's what we go. There's nothing offensive about it. We call them faggoos M1: Mouselet2 posted some stuff that she bought off it the other day, but previously before it sold out, we'd each gotten one of like the traditional bagoos with the Mickey on it. It's supposed to come, I ordered them to my house, I they're coming this weekend, I'm very excited. So I think that that is in, and I said out, this is for me, this is at me, is wearing two bags. This is what happens. We want to plan fun, stylish outfits, right? So. M2: Take your orange purse or that little like wicker purse. M1: Yes, so I have a cute little bag. I have a bag that is about the size of smaller than a CD. Does anyone even know what a CD is anymore? The size of a CD. It's smaller than a CD. It's in the shape of an orange. It's so cute for flowering garden. I love it. It's completely impractical for the parks. So then I also have a big tote purse and then I just have two bags and I look chaotic and sloppy and like I hate it. So that is out for me. I am M2: 99 % of our audience knows who the CD is. Okay, please. M1: want to go to one bag like the size of a bagu, I can hand, I can fit stuff in there. I don't need to bring everything under the sun into the park. Two bags are out. M2: Honestly, I think this started from our photography era when we would carry our massive giant Yes Not only this this is insane. This is literally ups. I Just clicked the wrong button Okay, we had the same camera the exact same camera that we would both carry each of our own and then we would both carry like ⁓ for a while a giant zoom lens both of us would carry it and we would pull out our M1: ⁓ it did. Giant cameras and multiple lenses. This is insane. ⁓ my God. Exact same. So we'd have our regular lens on our camera and then in our bag we'd have a separate zoom lens so we could swap it too. M2: We'd swap them. And then eventually I got a, ⁓ you got a portrait lens and then I got like a fisheye type lens or something. And we would carry these different things around, two cameras, same account. And we would be like, we're using my camera now. We're using my camera now. And we'd go. M1: We were so possessive over like whose photos it was and like we'd each be like, I don't know, we'd be doing something and we'd both be furiously going to put on our zoom lens to take a picture, like the exact same picture, but the exact same zoom lens. It was so dumb. But therefore, because we these and they were DSLRs, like they were like legitimate cameras. So quote legitimate. I mean, I'm sure any photographer would scoff at them, but to us they were legitimate. So we would have a big bag to fit those and therefore. M2: I yeah, they're good cameras. M1: I feel like we literally it's like our baby blanket. Like we can't give up our big bag. We always have to have a big bag. We're like, this is so I feel so. I feel free. That's what we always say. So two bags are out. I need to go down to just one bag. M2: No, literally every time we bring like a little bag. We're like, ⁓ my God, like I'll bring like a tote bag in that park and I'm like, I feel free. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Okay, next up for me, niche Disney characters are in and the familiar Plane Janes are out. And I'm thinking of the new animation experience where like, it's just the most basic characters. I'm like, you know what? There is a huge diverse bench repertoire of Disney characters. Get me Oswald, get me someone niche, not that monkey from the Jungle Book. Yeah. M1: gonna say, you know who's out? King Louie. Guys, this is some... Okay, other people may not agree with this because someone on Instagram recently was like... They posted... I don't remember who it was. Some other creator posted King Louie and they were like, ⁓ my god, like so fun getting to see King Louie, like never see him. I see King Louie every day of my life. King Louie is everywhere. M2: King Louis. I know King Louie better than any other character. King Louie lives in my house. Like I actually, I just saw an old cast, like a entertainment cast member being like, ⁓ you know, you could be this character or this character or King Louie. I'm like, what is he doing? Do they think he's like special and niche? He would be, he's out way too often. He's out way too often. So. M1: But he's out everywhere. But here's what I don't understand. Okay, face characters is one thing, but for characters, which are characters like Mickey, know, King Louie, of course, you know, for Disney to put out someone, to put out Mickey, versus to put out like a more rare character is kind of irrelevant. Like I don't understand why they lean so heavily on the same few characters. I'm like, you could just put someone else out. M2: King Louis. And I understand that obviously when we talked about this, when we talked about the Hollywood stuff, obviously, clearly at every park, they want all the fab five there. But again, I'll go back. You're meeting Mulan. mean, toss Mooshu in there. Give me someone, give me someone a little bit different. I'm looking for something a little bit different, and Disneyland gets all of this, and Disney World, the tourist destination, it just gets the same people. M1: Yes, that's fine. Okay, but who is the King Louis for you of Disneyland and Disneyland Paris? For me, it's one, Geppetto. Geppetto! But Geppetto is everywhere in Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. Why? It's random. M2: Jepetto. Jepetto! And he's, yeah, it's upsetting. I don't know. It's upsetting, though. People don't want to see him. Anytime I see him, I'm like, ⁓ I better go say hi. Yeah, Jepetto is always out. But like, bring the Tweedles out more. I'm like, do something a little different. The Tweedles, the Tweedles are how I found out that Disney characters are. M1: Yeah. I agree. Why? Over his zipper. Okay, I hope that no children were listening to that. Okay, and they don't have ears? Anyways, guys, next up, my next ⁓ in versus out. For me, lots of fun Disney accessories on my outfits are in. I've been seeing so many people wearing like a bunch of different bag charms, the Mickey sunglasses, like lots of fun things, I think. M2: That's how I found out I saw his zipper in the back. I whispered it. getting here. M1: is fun. Something that Mouselet2 and I tend to do is like, we're like, we have to curate an outfit around this one character. For example, Mouselet2, your flower and garden outfit that you've been working on is a good example. You have Minnie Mouse on the shirt, but you're going to wear Tinkerbell potentially. And I think that we need to do that more. Like, not everything needs to be so niche down. Like lots of fun accessories to meet is in for my outfits. And what is out for my outfits is ordering crap off of Spamazon. M2: Mm-hmm. M1: Okay, listen, Amazon has a time and a place. I own lots of stuff from Amazon, like it's fine. But before Disney trip, feel like sometimes we're like panicking and I'm like, ⁓ my God, I like need to go get this something to make this outfit work. And I just get like a literal like piece of fabric that is like the cheapest quality garbage ever that I like is gonna shred by the end of the day. And that's out, I'm done with that. M2: I have one that's sort of similar. said over consumption is out and like using what I have is in. I didn't know by July last year. I've barely bought anything new for a Disney trip or if I am at something very specific, like it's for a costume or for this next trip I got, bought like $4 miniature watering can like that I want for my, where's the key chain? But like it, again, this goes back and like, love it and I think people do great job with content, but there are a lot of influencers, not Disney necessarily, but like all across that are like, this newest TikTok shop thing or like you have to have this shirt. You have to have this score and it's fast fashion. And whether you like it or not, you're buying all this fast fashion and they're buying so much of it. At the end of the day, there's a way more sustainable way to buy stuff. It's fun to buy stuff. And if you want to buy like, if you want a Tiana shirt, cause you don't have one, buy the Tiana shirt, but don't feel like you always have to buy something new. Like work with what you have. And I agree, like accessorizing, be more intentional and don't just buy a bunch of new, yeah, like. Garbage. M1: Yeah, like I wanna buy cute, fun accessories that I love. Like we have a bunch of new memos, because to me, new memos are so much fun. They're really fun with an outfit, but like I don't need to go buy whatever, some, you know, $1 shirt off Amazon. What's your next one? M2: That was mine. Do you me to do another one? M1: ⁓ right, yeah I feel like I keep going first. M2: Okay, ⁓ lightning lanes are out and fast passes are in. I'm, I'm done. I'm done with the lightning lane name. I get it that Disney like had to do it because they were going to start charging for it. And I understand there might be some confusion that people are like, Disney's bringing fast pass back and they'll get some, a bad rep. I'm done. I'm done with the lightning lane thing. It's choppy. It doesn't make sense. It's sort of a terrible name. Fast pass is iconic. How long until they can bring that back? Couple more years. M1: Okay. They never will. They never will. But I agree. It would be so in if they brought it back. M2: I know I disagree. I think they will I'm just like enough enough of this lightning lane. That's a terrible name and fast pass is an amazing name They made a huge mistake. They should have just started saying fast passes are fast pass plus now We have Jeannie plus and your fast pass costs money Deal with it deal with it They were so upset and they've ruined it. So that's mine. It's simple, but I'm done M1: I agree. Yep, but they were too sad. They were too sad that they were making it cost money. Okay, my next one is trying new restaurants. Melsitu and I love to try new things and I do feel like we do a decent job of trying new restaurants, but sometimes we fall into the trap of going to old favorites. And there's so many restaurants that we still haven't tried, which is actually crazy, or we haven't done in like a million zillion years. ⁓ For example, we recently went back to the Grand Floridian Cafe, recently-ish, after not having been there for a bit and they had totally revamped the menu and it was amazing. M2: Yeah. Yeah, we tried spice road table. I got a mimosa and which I thought sangria. ⁓ But it's like, yeah, there are over like 500 to 600 restaurants on Disney property. Try different ones. Me and Mouse Lade are considering eating at Sebastian's Bistro. I know, I remember you liked it. M1: what you thought was it what did you think it was i can't even remember i was angry at but you got it mimosa ⁓ I ate there. I did. Trying New Restaurants is in, and my out is chaotic restaurants. Sometimes Disney restaurants are just so crazy crowded and chaotic. A restaurant that I think looks really chaotic, I have not been here to confirm. The main dining room at Be Our Guest to me looks so loud and chaotic. when I've been in a theme park all day, M2: Yeah. M1: I just want to go somewhere and like chill. You know what actually is really loud is Via Napoli, but Via Napoli has a room in the back. It's carpeted. No, I know it's carpeted. It's closed off. It is the most serene place of all time. We like literally request a table back there because the main restaurant is me too. It's so good. The main restaurant is really, really echoey and loud. And that just makes me feel like overstimulated being in that background. The other one is the bamboo room. M2: Mm. I almost like don't even want to say this. It's quiet. It's serene. I would wait like I would wait an extra hour to sit back there. bamboo room at the Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios. Yeah. M1: Amazing. But being in chaotic restaurant just doesn't hit for me in the park. M2: Agreed. I have a similar one. This is one of my OGs before I saw your list I said quick service like food halls are out and like carts and like different type of experiences are in and I'm gonna give the example of like Cosmic race Pinocchio's village house. It's not good food. It's like yeah, it's like the loudest of piccos isn't like the worst, but it's loud It's chaotic the spring rolls and like finding these other little like fun bites is just better like smaller bites smaller snacks combining things like my cream cheese pretzel all that stuff M1: PECOSPILL. loud in there. M2: I'm done with like the giant, the giant like quick service food hall, which mostly is you magic kingdom. It's mostly a magic kingdom thing. M1: I agree. Or even like at least at, for example, Casey's, you could go sit on the hub grass or like sit elsewhere and have a more serene experience sitting in one of those chaotic food halls. M2: Yeah. Like Pinocchio's, just like, since the 50th, it's been a killer for me. So that was mine. M1: I agree, it's out. Okay, my last one. In our Hawker walks, we've been loving our Hawker walks around Disney. It's such a fun, like different thing to do. Out, speaking of walking, is murdering ourselves by walking 25,000 steps because we are at the parks from rope drop to park close and we do not take a resort break and then we are dead and our feet hurt so badly and like we have, we get back from the trip and I'm like, ⁓ wait. I have to go back to work and I need a vacation for my vacation. M2: Yeah, no, it's accurate. Like we have to stop murdering ourselves. We just gotta... M1: Speaking of resort time, enjoy the resort time, take a little break. M2: Speaking of resort time, resort, this is what I alluded to, resort days are in and full park days only for your trip or out. Like I think we were on the same lines of some of these, but it's a resort day, working in that time, working in a break. It is worth it. It's a nice break. There are only trips you want to do all park time and that's fine, but it will be more relaxing and a different type of vacation. And I have to give one plug. Like that is one reason I love Disney Cruise Line and I never thought I would, but Disney Cruise Line, M1: Yes. Yes. M2: There is no ability. I mean, I guess you hypothetically could, like to be like an animal, like rope dropping, doing all this stuff, you have to relax more. And it's still that Disney experience. So yeah. And it's amazing. All right. The pit and peach of the week. Do want to start? M1: And it's amazing. Okay, should we start with pits or peaches? M2: for those sort of pets. M1: Unfortunately I was vamping because I didn't have a pit. I do have a peach locked and loaded but why don't you start with your pit? I'm sure everyone's loving this back and forth. M2: I'm sure they are too. My pit. My doll. I think my pit is like sort of a silver lining that like there's an upcoming project that I'd be working on. Turns out like we're not going to work on the project. It's a decision much above my head. And I've been kind of back and forth like I was kind of sad, but now I'm realizing I'm OK with it, I think mostly. So it's a kind of a pit. My like, in fact, here's my pit. I. M1: My dollar! M2: I get too stressed about things. had to watch a whole hour long video while I was walking in the treadmill today wanting to try to like kick up some endorphins and the video was all about how to deal with anxiety about work. I'm trying to better myself, so. M1: I'm sad for you. ⁓ My pit is that, I've said this a million times, I get really bad FOMO. I don't like when Melsa too does Disney things without me. She's going to Disney in a week, she's going to Disneyland Paris without me, and it's making me sad. The trip in, that's for a wedding. The trip in February, I always knew I wouldn't be able to go on because it was literally right when the Miklid was due. just sort of had, that trip was like, I was at peace. I'm not at peace with these ones yet, so. M2: I mean, you're going to London without me though. M1: pit. M2: You will be. I mean, you'll be able to watch the stories. You'll live vicariously through me. M1: No, no, it's a pit. It's making me more upset to talk about it. It's making me feel sick. M2: My my peach is I think my peaches that we booked like Paris and London and getting ready for Disneyland Paris I'm excited. I'm excited for that trip. I have a lot of like fun stuff this year. I was It's immature. I was going through like I said in my mind for a while 2023 was like the year of travel we traveled so much in 2023 we went to Disney World in six weeks we went three different on three different trips and then We went to Paris and then we went to California. Like 2023 was the year we had like this special trip hosted by Disney, whatever. I think that this year is gonna be kind of that for me, except I'm paying for everything myself, but. M1: makes me sad without me without your sissy okay I've always told you I would come on your honeymoon with you M2: Well, my honeymoon is one of them. And you could have come on this Parastrip, but you're going to London the week before by choice. M1: I have a wedding, which is immovable. This paris trip seems like it's at an arbitrary time. M2: No, actually, this is like the only date that we could get it to work. have doctor's appointment the following week. ⁓ and I can't trust me. No, my dermatologist. I can't move any doctor's appointment to be clear. What's your peach? M1: And gosh, and is it your dermatologist who you always say you can't move? My PhD is that me and the Mikkels started a little mommy and me class and it's so fun and so cute and I love it. I did bring Mels to see the first week. He was the only father there and he was like literally dying. But I had an amazing time. I had an amazing time. M2: I mean, that's humiliating. That's a peach. All right, let's end with the fact of the day. Go ahead. M1: Okay, my fact of the That was rude, actually. ⁓ My fact of the day is I'll do a hidden Mickey. I love hidden Mickey's. One of the very, very first hidden Mickey's that I ever found, which is still one of my favorites, is in the Buzz Lightyear queue. ⁓ my gosh, should they remove this hidden Mickey with the Buzz Lightyear redo? I'll be so sad. M2: You I it's at Disneyland, so I bet they kept it. There's no reason for them to remove it. M1: It's in the earth when you like are looking on the walls and you can see the maps of the different planets in earth. There's a side profile of Mickey and another hidden Mickey in Tomorrowland is on the people mover. When you see the hairdresser scene on her belt buckle is a hidden Mickey. M2: That was mine. M1: How was that possible? ⁓ because you were inspired by mine. M2: Yeah, that's was fine. I'll do what my I posted about this the day that we're recording this It's a big storm in New England right now, although not as big as some might have alluded to it seems like it's M1: Yeah, yeah, Ra's Al Tu was very panicky about the storm didn't really come to fruition. M2: But you know what, that's for the best. One of the things you might be wondering is what do the animals do in a swarm? We went on M1: animal kingdom. The animals at animal kingdom. I was worried they were thinking about the New England animals. I don't know. M2: Well, that's a good question. What do they do at Animal Kingdom? We saw the drafts. We were on a tour It was absolutely downpouring and the drives were all like hovering under a tree Because their gate was locked because they couldn't get into their backstage area and they were getting all wet They have they all have backstage areas you could see it when you went on Rafiki's Planet watch if you haven't seen that you can't right now because that area is closed but it they still will have those they've all of these little like Areas and a lot of the animals will sleep there every night back. Maybe all of them M1: They wanted to go there so badly. RIP. Okay, before we end, just thought of something. A million dates were announced for openings. Did we talk about that for news? I feel like that news came out like last Thursday, the day that we released the last episode. M2: No, we did not talk about that. M1: Okay, so a quick here, we're just gonna add a little ⁓ extra dose of news. Let me just pull this up really quick. But basically Disney announced a ton of opening dates for new attractions. And this happened like last week, which is why we completely forgot about it. I know that Buzz Lightyear is gonna be the first that opens. That opens on April 8th. I wanna say if I'm remembering it quickly enough off the top of my head. M2: I am incredibly excited about that. Buzz Lightyear opens on April 8th. Bluey's Wild World Conservation Station opens on May 26th. Soarin' Across America opens on May 26th. The Walt Disney Studios Animation Experience opens on May 26th. The Disney Junior Mickey Mouse Clubhouse opens on May 26th. Lot of May 26th. M1: ⁓ I'm so excited. Blue-E's Wild World opens on May 26th, did you say that? ⁓ okay. M2: I already said that. Big Thunder Mountain, there's also one for that. M1: ⁓ yeah, Big Thunder opens in early May. Okay. M2: They can Mandalorian and Grogu. We already talked about that. ⁓ Rock and roller coaster opens this summer. And then, there's some of these that we don't know. For example, like Villains land, right? That one's very far out piston, whatever. M1: But guys, just tossing a little news your way, actually the hugest news that we've had in a while that Mousetoo and I just completely forgot to talk about. M2: I thought we covered it last week that we covered it last week If you liked this episode other than us forgetting the news give us a five-star rating on Spotify Apple It helps people find us helps more people listen to sisters sisters If you want even well if you're watching on YouTube thumbs up subscribe to our channel And if you want even more sister sisters you want more chit chat the beginning of the episode our pit crew gives access to an extra extended cut of Of the podcast so every single time 15 to this it was 25 minutes today of us gabbing about stuff And then the Peach Group gets access to that plus quarterly bonus episodes and close friends access on stories. I'm about to go on a trip. I will be utilizing a lot of close friends, I'm sure. So you can check out all of those things on our Patreon. M1: Thanks for listening everybody. M2: Bye.