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Q&A MinnieCast: Are After Hours Events Worth It For Short Waits at Epcot and Hollywood Studios? · Ear Scouts Podcast

• Rob: In this episode of the Ear Scouts podcast, we're answering your questions from YouTube, Patreon and the forum at EarScouts.com. We've got questions about everything from park hopping to resort picking and plenty of things in between. We got a lot of stuff to cover, so let's get to it. Hi ho everybody, this is Rob with Ear Scouts coming to you from our makeshift studio here in Celebration, Florida. And I am sad to say that the studio is a little empty today because Eric, who is the other half of Ear Scouts, is usually joining us from here in Celebration. He is stuck right now in Atlanta. He was off for a wedding. And if you've been traveling in the United States ⁓ recently, you may know that things are... Things are a little complicated. So we are certainly hoping that Eric is going to have a safe journey the rest of the way home. But right now, he's just waiting for a plane in Atlanta. ⁓ But we do have our other co-hosts here with us today. First off, we have Jessica, who's also the host of Jessica Scraps over on YouTube. Hi-ho, Jessica. Jessica: Hi, hello everyone. Rob: Jessica is joining us from the great state of Connecticut. Also joining us from the great state of Indiana is our Disney trivia guru, Quizmaster Craig. Hi-ho, Craig. Craig: Hi ho everybody from snow covered northern Indiana. Love it. Rob: I hear you guys got more snow. Is that correct? A fresh batch? Craig: more snow. It's not a lot. Luckily, I mean, it's gonna go in a couple days, but still, just, I'm done with it. I'm done. Rob: I heard that apparently we're getting a false spring. was what was happening and that we're going to go back into winter for a little bit. But then the real spring is coming. ⁓ Which reminds me, we've had a lot of questions. So if you haven't seen it, we have our new Lightning Lane guide over on YouTube. And one of the things that we do in our Lightning Lane guides is we do what we call the decks of Lightning Lane cards. Craig: You Rob: We kind of rank each ride or each attraction in the different parks by how difficult it is to book that attraction, especially later in the day. So the ace of the deck is the most difficult to book. And it goes all the way down to, you know, the twos. And we have to update this deck kind of quarterly because obviously things change when it's cold outside. People don't want to ride water rides. So. Rides like Tiana's show as lower in the deck than normal. Also, new attractions open and they kind of have some moments where they're in the sun and they become really popular. But as they've become open for a while, they tend to drop back down the deck. So this is something that we update seasonally. And a lot of folks have asked, when are we going to be doing the spring update to the deck? And the answer is Probably it's not going to be until sometime in April, mainly because we need more warm weather to kind of look at the trends to see what's happening with the lightning lanes. If I looked at the data right now, we still had a lot of cold days recently, so I don't know that it would be a true indication of what we should expect when things warm up in spring proper. So we will have those out probably. early to mid April is my guess when we'll have a refresh of that deck. But if you would like to see the current deck, just head over to earscouts.com forward slash deck the ECK and you'll find all of the lightning lane cards there currently for winter. And that was the first question that we're going to answer. We actually have a whole bunch of questions to answer today because we're doing what we like to call the Q and a mini cast. It's kind of a a shortened version of the podcast where we look for questions that have been asked either on YouTube or here on Patreon, where our Patreon friends are joining us from, or on our website, earscouts.com. There's a forum there. And we've collected some questions. Jessica and Craig have each picked some questions as well to answer. So let's go ahead and start off. Craig, why don't you start us off this week? What is our first question? question ⁓ about Disney park planning. Craig: Okay, so my first question comes from Christine Daly on YouTube who asks with the experience redemption if I choose a new lightning lane Can I still go back and ride the original ride via lightning lane or do I lose that lightning lane altogether? So first of all, ⁓ you're not familiar with the experience redemption that's what you get if you have a lightning lane say for test track and before That window started during the window before you get there it goes down. You're gonna automatically get and experience redemption in your Lightning Lane list. And you can use that for anything at any time from a specific list. Depending on what ride went down, it will show you what rides you can use this for. And again, you can use it for any of those rides at any time. And of course you can use it for the ride that you booked initially when it comes back up, if it comes back up. So ⁓ I'm assuming she's asking if you use the experience redemption for a different ride, can you go back and book a lightning lane for the original attraction that went down? And the answer is yes. ⁓ Once it goes into a redemption, experience redemption pass, it unlocks it again. It opens it up so you can rebook it. once it turns into an experienced redemption, ⁓ it's its own thing. So ⁓ that test is open again, you can book another Lane for that if they're Rob: So one thing I know a lot of people like to do, it would be tough to do with a ride like Test Track, but with a less popular attraction when it's down, a lot of times people will just keep trying to book that attraction as quickly as possible because if it's still down, when your next ⁓ ride time comes up, then you get another experience redemption. And I've certainly had days where I ended up having four or five experience redemptions that I could use. and I didn't even end up using all of them. Another thing I will add on to, if you have experience redemptions at the end of the day and you're still gonna come back to the parks on your vacation, you can always go by guest services or stop at one of those blue umbrellas, the guest experience umbrellas, and they can typically make it so that you can use that experience redemption on another day. So they're very handy to have. Jessica: if you actually tap into the and you've gone past the actual tap-in spots and you've used that Lightning Lane, Although they give you an experience redemption so that you can ride ride again, you won't be able to rebook the Lightning Lane because you've already rebooked and used the Lightning Lane. That kind of hit me by surprise once, because I used the Experience Redemption for a different ride and thought, ⁓ I'll just come back and re-get the ride, and I couldn't. And when I asked ⁓ guest services, they were nice, but like, well, you already used, it shows you already used that, that's why it's not there. So just be aware, if you've gone past the tap styles and you've already logged in with your Lightning Lane, they're giving you the Experience Redemption to use on that ride. And if you really wanted to ride that ride, Don't waste it on a different ride. So I'll just put that caveat out there. Rob: Yeah, I think the key difference between these two scenarios, one is when the system gives you the experience redemption because you haven't tapped in at the ride yet and it's gone down during your window. act of it giving you that experience redemption unlocks and lets you book that ride again. However, in the situation Jessica's talking about, once you've tapped in, the system isn't going to do it. it's not going to give it to you because it doesn't know that you didn't ride it. It's going to be a cast member and that queue is going to give you the new experience redemption, but that's not going to unlock the fact that it's not going to let the system know that you didn't ride. So you're then going to have to use that one that they gave you for that ride if you want to ride it. Yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Well, let's see. I've got a question here from YouTube that's also about lightning lanes. This is from Brandy Smith 013, and she asks, is there a way to choose the order of the initial three lightning lanes that you book? So if you've ever booked lightning lane multi pass, it starts by asking you what three attractions you want to start with. And then it just proposes times for you. It assigns times that it chooses itself. You don't have to stick with those times that it suggests to you. So if it if it set the order as, you know, showing your first lightning lane was going to be test track and then your second lightning lane was going to be living with the land and your third was going to be spaceship Earth. But you really wanted. to do Spaceship Earth first, because it's the first attraction you're going to come across as you enter the park. You can do this. You can even do it before you make your purchase, because when you look at that screen, you're going to see there's a little button for each one of those lightning lanes that says Modify Time. And it's a little bit like a game of Tetris at this point, because you kind of have to move things down and then move something back up in its place. You can use that modify time feature to select different times for any of those three lightning lanes or all of them. And that would essentially reorder them ⁓ in your day. The other way that you could do this, and this is what I always recommend doing, wait until, ⁓ if you're a night owl, wait until midnight on the night before your visit. If you're more of a morning person, do it first thing when you get up on the morning of your visit. Go ahead and tap on each of those lightning lanes that you're not really happy with the time for and choose Modify from the list. There's a little menu list that pops up. And in many cases, you will find much better ⁓ return times if you just kind of keep at it. Just keep refreshing the view if you don't see what you want initially. Because number one, at that time, lots of people are changing their mind. they're deciding they don't want to go to the park yet. They're canceling their lightning lanes or they're booking for a different park or they're booking for a different attraction later in the day. And those lightning lanes that they had are coming back into the pot. And it's it's much easier at that moment than it is at any other moment to grab those lightning lanes and get better times. That's reason number one. Reason number two that I recommend doing this, though, is because at midnight on the day of your visit, the system is going to allow you to completely overlap your lightning lane return times if you want. So up until then, it's going to prevent you from letting those lightning lane times get too close to each other. It'll let you overlap a little bit sometimes, but it's not going to let you completely overlap. And sometimes that's kind of what you want, right? If you've got, this is a perfect example. If you've got spaceship Earth, Jessica: Mm. Rob: It would be great to be able to go straight from Spaceship Earth right over to Test Track as soon as you finished. You don't want an hour between those two lightning lanes. So the ability to overlap that happens at midnight can be a great tool for tightening up your morning, getting more things done. And of course, every time you use a lightning lane, you can book another one. So that means you're going to get more attractions booked in your day. Jessica, what is next question ⁓ YouTube or Patreon or wherever it may be? Jessica: I'm gonna do another ⁓ question on Lightning Lanes. This is from Noah Xoxo9256. ⁓ Thanks for the video. So if the multi pass allows you to use it on all parks, why? It's the price is flat for all the parks. If one can order a pass to Epcot and use it later on on all parks, why would I pay for Magic Pay Kingdom, which is higher? Thanks. And there's a lot of interesting answers to this question. I think the biggest answer is you should not decide your park hopping strategy based on the cheapest Lightning Lane. I think that's the first thing that I'll say is you should always, I say always, 90 % of the time, you should buy the Lightning Lanes for the park that you're going to first. I think the most I've ever seen the Delta is $10. between like Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. And yes, $10 times five people's $50, it's a lot. It is a lot. If you're going to Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning, you should buy Magic Kingdom. That's what you should buy. And It's a really good program. It's one of the best changes in the new multi pass from the old Jeannie. But I think ⁓ the biggest thing is don't let the price of Lightning Lane decide where ⁓ you're park hopping. Always get the Lightning Lane the first park you're going to. And then by the single passes, I however, by the single passes for the most important ride of the day, ⁓ even if it's your second park. ⁓ I would buy the single pass for whichever two rides you really want. Doesn't matter which park it is. That's kind of my feedback. I don't know you guys have any other thoughts on that. Rob: Well, this is a question that comes up a lot in a different way, which is a lot of people, it's not a price issue. They just really want to buy Lightning Lane for their second park instead of their first for a bunch of different reasons. And I can tell you there's only two reasons I can think of where it makes sense sometimes to purchase Lightning Lane for your second park of the day. One is if you just know you're gonna breeze in and out of that first park. You're going in to do breakfast and then you're leaving, right? You're not planning to do attractions in that park. In that scenario, it could make sense to book for your second park first. But that's pretty rare that people do that. Usually when people start in a park, they're gonna spend some time there. The other time that it sometimes makes sense is if your second park of the day has an attraction that is just in possible to book and It is your your group's most important attraction I think the best example of this right now is probably slinky dog dash ⁓ If you were starting at animal kingdom for some reason this is always a scenario that comes up in the questions like we're starting the animal kingdom But we don't feel like we really need lightning lane in the animal kingdom But we're really worried about slinky which is you know the park we're going to second Does it make sense to book for Hollywood Studios to buy Lightning Lane for Hollywood Studios? And I would say only if Slinky is the must do and you've got a crew that is just not dealing with lines, you know, then yes, in that scenario, it could make sense. But I got to tell you, I have always been able with enough patience and persistence to get even even attractions like Slinky Dog Dash if I start aiming for them as soon as I tap in at an attraction at my first park. I've done it in multiple videos. I will say the exception to that though is if you have a really large group that's going to become much more difficult to do. But if you've got a small crew, four or less, I think you can do it. ⁓ But yeah, those are the scenarios where I think it sometimes makes sense to book for your second park first. Craig, what is our next question? Craig: Well, I actually have a couple of questions from YouTube that are very similar, so we're going to answer them together. First comes from Brian Hellman, asks, for the extended hour events for the Deluxe Hotel guests, how do they filter out those who have a Deluxe Hotel versus everyone else? And the next question is from Ste5326, who asks, with extended evening hours for Deluxe Guests, what stops the regular day guests stopping in the park? Can they stop in? but just not do any rides. So ⁓ quick review, extended evening hours is a perk for deluxe resort guests ⁓ where a park will stay open, a certain park will stay open an extra two hours and a certain amount of attractions will be open during that two hours. ⁓ Kind of like early entry in reverse ⁓ when you're nice and exhausted by the end of the day. ⁓ So ⁓ during the extra evening hours, ⁓ What cast members will do, they will scan your ticket media, be it Magic Band, Magic Mobile, physical card, whatever you use to get into the park. ⁓ They will check that at every ⁓ attraction entrance before they will let you in. I've also heard they check at, they can check at merchandise locations and food as well. ⁓ I never experienced that, but I have heard that they can do that. So if you aren't a Disney Deluxe Resort guest, you're technically not supposed to be in the park and linger. ⁓ But unless you're trying to get onto an attraction or purchase something ⁓ I've never been stopped like randomly stopped to check my Ticket media to make sure I'm there so I mean I don't know why you'd want to hang out that long But if you want to like just hang out for a little while while they're kicking people out and everyone is ⁓ I don't know if there's I've never heard anything as far as that being like really against the rules and you're gonna get you know banned or anything for for hanging out longer, but. Yeah, and remember a world showcase is all shut down except for I mean it's shut down between Norway and France. Rob: Yeah, mean, I think we actually have a question later in the show about whether or not it's worth purchasing after hours, which is the ticketed version of after hours at Epcot. So I think we'll have a deeper conversation about that then. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: ⁓ good. Rob: So as we mentioned at the top the show, Eric, sadly, is not with us. And normally what Eric does he up with the over Patreon because you can watch each and every episode of our podcast recorded live each week at patreon.com. com forward slash ear scouts. But since Eric is not here, I'm just going to jump in and see if we have some questions in here that we should answer as we're going through. Jessica, I think you said you saw one on here that was related to what we were already talking about. Do you want to? Jessica: I do. Kelsey asked a question that's kind of like what we were talking about about the starting at getting your lightning lanes at different parks. her question is, I was thinking of starting at Epcot and then hopping to Hollywood Studios for one day of her two day trip. But am I crazy to start in Magic Kingdom, then go to Animal Kingdom and then back to Magic Kingdom for the second day to maximize rope dropping and lightning lanes? We are used to going to the park open to close and I'm looking for what you would have made recommend to be able to ride the most rides. And I think this is another one of those weird scenarios that might go against what I said earlier. you got Lightning Lanes in Magic Kingdom and you rope dropped Magic Kingdom and you did like Seven Dwarves or Tron and got that at a short wait to get the single pass out. And then you rode first thing, one of the rides at Magic Kingdom to get your clock started, but you held on to ⁓ Tiana's or Jungle Cruise, whatever it were, Winnie the Pooh, whatever it was that was the ride at Magic Kingdom that you were worried about getting in the afternoon. And then you could chug through the rest of the, you know, Safari, ⁓ Everest, Collie River, Zootopia, Navi. You could chug through those at Animal Kingdom with just that one slot, one or two slots open in the afternoon and go back to Magic and get the rest of your lightning lanes. That's the one, it would actually, it's, you would be tired, but it would work. And that would maximize lightning lanes and rope drop. Cause you're rope dropping. I mean, if you were really, really efficient, could rope drop animal kingdom an hour early, go do, ⁓ I would probably do Navi. Cause I'd get, I'd buy the single pass for flight of passage. I would rope drop Navi because it's the one that's that the Rob: Do we have early entry in this scenario? I missed that. Jessica: She doesn't say if she has early entry. So if you don't have early entry, then probably not. Then I would, then I might just start at Magic Kingdom, start at Magic Kingdom with either Seven Dwarves or Tron, ride your first Lightning Lane ride, go to Animal Kingdom, you know, play the slots, get all the other Lightning Lanes, get one single pass for flight of passage, and then go back to Magic Kingdom, ride the rest of the rides and the single pass for whichever one you didn't rope drop. That's what I would do. It's a lot that you'd be tired, but you'd have fun. You'd have a lot of fun. Rob: I will say this, I love those kind of days. I love crazy park hopping days that start early and go way into the night. That's my jam. But if you've never done that before, especially if you've got a crew that's maybe got differing levels of energy for a day like that, it's exhausting. I mean, it really is. And the other thing you have to think about if you plan a day like that, your day after you're probably going to be at least for the first half of the day, you're going to be kind of at half capacity. Let's say you're not going to be, you can't really do that kind of a Disney day, multiple days in a row. I would just say that. I mean, if you do, you're going to exhaust yourself and everyone in your party and people are going to get cranky. So. Craig: Thank Rob: ⁓ Just some things to think about as you're deciding if you really want to do that double park hopping kind of a day. A single park hop isn't that big of a deal. Once you start going, you know, moving between parks twice in a day, it becomes a lot. Well, I'm going to go ahead and jump back to our questions that we have from YouTube. And this is another Lightning Lane question. We have a lot of Lightning Lane questions. I promise we're going to have some more questions that are not Lightning Lane related. But this one ⁓ is ⁓ ⁓ Mark O.L. ⁓ on YouTube asks, for those with a three day limitation, Does Disney actually release more slots at three days, or are you just getting the leftovers? So what he's referring to with this three-day limitation, if you stay at a Disney Resort Hotel, ⁓ you can start booking your Lightning Lanes seven days before your check-in day. But if you're not staying at one those resort hotels, you've got to book three days out, either from the first day of your multi-day park ticket, Or if you're like me, an annual pass holder, you just got to do it three days out from each day you visit the park. And he's wondering if Disney maybe is generous and drops in some more lightning lanes at that three day mark because they know lots of people are only able to book starting three days out. And the answer is they do not. ⁓ Now, Disney does not come out and say, When they drop lightning lanes, they're very opaque about it. There's not a lot of transparency there, but you can tell just from their sites that that essentially watch lightning lanes 24 seven and they have a system that's just looking to see what comes available when and those systems can see when Disney is dropping lightning lanes because it's just too many appearing at once for it to have been organically happening, you know, and. They never see Disney dropping Lightning Lanes before the day of, before your park day. So it would be awesome if that changes at some point, but as of right now, no, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get any additional availability three days out. Having said that, people change their plans. Like we mentioned earlier, there's a very good chance that you will get the ride you want. you're just not going to get it from Disney dropping it. You're going to get it from someone else changing their plans and letting it go. ⁓ Craig, what is the next question you have for us? Craig: This is from FliBix55 who asks, Hi, if I book my individual lightning for my party, but on the ⁓ one doesn't want to ride, can I transfer it to one of our party even if they have an individual lightning lane for that ride already at that time? So the basic answer to that is no. One person cannot hold two individual lightning lanes for the same attraction on the same day, even if you move it to a different time slot. But all is not lost. You can still modify an individual lightning lane to a future date, different time, and you can also reassign it to a different person in your party. So say the person didn't want to ride that day just wasn't feeling well, but they want to they still want to ride it and they're OK the next day and you can go to the park. They have park hoppers, whatever. they can just switch it to a different time on the next day. Or if they just don't want to write that one at all and somebody else wants to write the next day, you can modify it to that as well. So null is not totally lost if one person does not want to use your individual lightning lane. And you can keep kicking it down the road if you need to. Rob: Yeah, and if you're in a situation where you're going to need to kick it down the road ⁓ past your visit, I would say it is worth going to talk to the folks at Guest Relations. Technically speaking, they can't give you a refund or give you, know, just kind of like a lightning lane that can be used on a future trip. But sometimes if you're polite and nice and Sometimes they can make a little magic happen. So I would say your best bet though is to try to do what Craig said. Move it to a different day yourself, move it to a different person in your group. But last resort, check with guest relations and see if they can make a little magic for you. what the next question you have for us? ⁓ Jessica: So I have one from C. Bowman and they say, ⁓ planning on test track during early entry on a non-festival day in June with a goal of arriving at Epcot main gate between 745 and eight. Will arriving at this time put us in a decent position for a short-ish wait, assuming no delayed open? Wait times have been showing 45 minutes during early entry around 845, but I wasn't sure how accurate these numbers actually are. ⁓ if you arrive between seven and 45 and eight in the morning, I would say, you know, all you're doing is moving your 45 minute wait from the line to the preline. But I think that's a good, that's, that should be good for getting a shortish wait on test track. ⁓ I'm trying to remember, we did this with my parents, ⁓ the last time we all went together and I, we got there and we only had like a 30 minute wait at test track. And most of that was before they opened test track. Like we were just waiting in the test track line for them to actually officially open the park. ⁓ so I would say between seven 45 and eight, assuming that the early entry is eight 30, is, is a good, is a good amount of time. I think that's perfectly fine. Rob: My next question here is from Patreon. comes from Susan S. who asks, she's asking for anyone who lives overseas to answer this question. I don't live overseas, but I do know the answer. So I'm going to answer in place of someone from overseas. She says, we're going to be in Europe when we are seven days out from our next trip to Disney World. Will we be able to book Lightning Lanes from there on the app or do you have to be in the US to book? And if this seems like a strange question to you, it didn't used to be a strange question because it used to be the case that you couldn't. The way that the system was structured, it was really related to international law and Disney's ability to sell a service like this in other countries. ⁓ You couldn't book Lightning Lanes until you physically entered the United States unless you were gonna cheat and use like. you know, a VPN or something that made it look like you're in the United States. Thankfully, that is fixed. what is our next question? Craig: Mm hmm. Yes, this next question comes from Christina on Patreon who asks when park hopping to or from Animal Kingdom, since Animal Kingdom closes earlier, are there still options to park hop to other parks later later in that day? Also, what are the chances of getting into Nomad Lounge if we don't show up at Animal Kingdom until later in the day of the afternoon? So as long as a park that you want to park hop to is still open, When you get there, you can get in. You just need to watch the park hours, make sure, you know, when Animal Kingdoms close, whenever you plan on leaving that, leave enough time to get to the next park before they close. As long as it's before closing time, you can tap in. And as long as you get into a line before the scheduled park closing, you can get into that ride. ⁓ This is where I would definitely suggest using a ride share service. ⁓ over bus transportation because time will be of the essence. So now as far as scoring a seat at Nomad Lounge later in the day, first of I think it depends on the size of your party, first of all. Remember there is bar seating and that's first come first service open to anybody who walks in. So if it's just one or two of you, that's very, very possible. I've also found that the people sitting around the bar are very kind and if they happen to have like two single seats, people will move. They'll shift over. I've had that experience before. They very, very happily will do that for you so you two can sit together, just two of you. Jessica: Nomad Lounge, ⁓ in sometimes, believe it or not, it's the reverse. It's the reverse where, because people leave, most people leave Animal Kingdom first. So you'll actually find that you'll get more availability at Nomad Lounge, like at three o'clock than you had at 11, 12, one o'clock, because people have left. ⁓ And that all goes down the window on like the busiest days of the year, but. ⁓ ⁓ In general, I think, you know, if you get there later and they're pretty accurate on the wait times I see on the app for Nomad. ⁓ But bar seating is really the way to go. We've always been able to find, there's just two of us, always been able to find bar seating ⁓ there at Nomad. Rob: One thing I'll add to that too, they will usually seat at Nomad almost right up until park close. Now, I don't like to get seated at that point because I mean, you see them starting to close everything up and you just even though they're not rushing you out, you're going to feel that pressure to hurry up and finish up and get out. So I would say get there as early as you can. But in my experience, you can usually get seated. Yeah, pretty close to pretty close to part close. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I never had a problem. Rob: Jessica, what is our next question? Jessica: Well, our next question is from DMC3. And they asked, we stayed at Pop last November and liked it. Skyliner was great. Food Court was fine, but the resort itself wasn't particularly relaxing. For our June trip, we booked Riverside to level up a bit. ⁓ French Quarter wasn't available. We have a six day tickets, two studio days, two Epcot days. plus a resort rest day, which I figured would be the most enjoyable at Riverside. Now I'm second guessing myself. My main concern is bus only transport and how spread out Riverside is. I requested a central building, but no guarantees. Should I stick with Riverside for the upgrade and feel or take the savings that go back to a Skyliner resort and my overthinking the bus situation? So I think. you're overthinking the bus situation a little bit. If you're talking about taking the bus once in the morning and once in the afternoon or once at night, it's a bus ride. And the only caveat to this is if you have like strollers, if you have big strollers that you're going to have to collapse and un-collapse, or if you have somebody in an ECV, the bus is harder than the Skyliner. I mean, that's true. But in every other case, yeah, the bus isn't the best form of transportation, but it's still good. A Disney bus ride is better than almost any other transportation you're going to find in any other city. And I just think that relax day and the amenities you're going to have at Riverside, the bed, the towels in the bathroom, it's just a little bit nicer. I think you're going to enjoy Riverside more. ⁓ If the only thing that's keeping you is you're scared of that bus ride, I would stay with Riverside. We stayed at Riverside for the time and ⁓ the rooms were great. We enjoyed it. ⁓ Never had an issue with the bus. ⁓ We weren't that closest to the bus, but we were able to get the bus every time. And it wasn't that far of a ride. I just, and the fact that you can take the boat into Disney Springs on your rest day, take the boat into Disney Springs, you can go down there, have a drink. mean, your rest day really becomes this kind of fun spa day where you can go and then get cookies at Gideon's or get a drink at Polite Pig or go to Wine Bar George. You have all of these things just available to you, a bus ride or a ⁓ boat ride away. So it's just that bus ride in the morning and the afternoons that you're worried about. I not give up Riverside for the buses. Craig: Yeah, interesting because I'm staying at Pop Century for the first time in April and then ⁓ French Quarter in June. So I would definitely be able to answer this a lot better in a couple of weeks. But yeah, I'd have to agree with that. think, yeah, you're overthinking the bus thing. They're not that bad. And you can always write the Skyliner on itself just to write it, which I do often. Rob: Yeah. And I think Riverside, you have so many amenities available to you there that a lot of people don't even realize are there. Number one, just walking around that resort is beautiful. I mean, it is just a lovely place to take a walk. You've got Old Man Island, which has a really cool backstory behind it. I recommend look into that before you go and visit. ⁓ Jessica: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Rob: But the pool at Old Man Island is much, much more relaxing and fun than the pools at any of the value resorts. You've also got the amenities of French Quarter because whenever you stay at either of the Port Orleans resorts, you are invited to use the amenities at both. That also means that you've got Mickey shaped beignets at French Quarter. There's a lot of great things about, about Port Orleans. And if you've never done it, Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: I think it's definitely, you'll enjoy it. You'll have a great time. as I feel like Craig has brought this up in previous shows before, and I completely agree, don't discount how big of a part of your vacation, your resort can be if you plan it that way. If you go into it and it sounds like you're doing that, you're planning a resort day and... That's the way to do it. I mean, you're just going to have a totally unique and different Disney experience from what you've had in the past by picking a new resort ⁓ that you're excited about and taking a day to enjoy it. So I'm seeing a whole bunch of questions coming in over on Patreon, which is awesome. We're going to be answering all those questions in our Patreon exclusive after party. And we may get to one or two more during the show itself. But if you'd like to join us live or experience that after party, head on over to patreon.com forward slash ear scouts. There's a special podcast that is just for our ear scouts, a Patreon family and they get as part of their podcast, the full after party ⁓ included. So you want to hear the answers to those bonus questions, head over to patreon.com forward slash ear scouts. But I've got one more question from the forum at your scouts.com. And this is from, I'm not sure how to pronounce this. It's one of those abbreviated names, I think, Mellis, which I'm guessing is maybe short from Melissa, Betus and ⁓ He or she asks, my family and I are going to Orlando and it's our first time. I just purchased three day Universal and Express tickets, but we also want to experience Disney parks too. We're all adults and my parents don't want to wait in long lines for rides. I'm planning the whole trip and I just thought that Hollywood Studios and Epcot would be the best for us. There are after hours events on our chip days, and I'm curious, should I buy any of those after hours events? So the question is very specifically about after hours. I would say that if lines are your concern, a much more inexpensive way of reducing your lines would be to just add lightning lanes, single pass and multi pass. Yes, it's a little bit more complicated than the way they do things over at Universal. But you're going to find those express lines, especially for the most popular attractions and doubly, especially for Epic Universe, those express lines do not move fast. And they're way more expensive than Lightning Lane at Disney. So yes, you do have to jump through some hoops to use Lightning Lane at Disney. But it's way cheaper. And it'll actually end up being a shorter wait. As for the after hours events, I think after hours is great at studios. I have no reservations about doing an after hours night at studios. ⁓ There's enough attractions in that park that people kind of disperse to all those different attractions and you do end up experiencing really short waits. I've seen ⁓ Rise of the Resistance, for example. I've been there for after hours events where it's just a walk on all night long, which is just crazy if you look at what those lines look like during the day. Epcot is a different story. Epcot has the problem that there's really three attractions in that entire park that everyone really wants to ride, maybe four if you include Frozen. But I feel like in the after hours, Frozen becomes less of an appeal because you don't have as many littles sticking around, it's Remy, Frozen, Test Track, and Guardians. Those are the attractions that everybody's clumping at, especially Guardians. And the lines are not always short, even for those reduced capacity after hours events. So if you want to guarantee a short-waited Epcot, I think Lightning Lane is pretty much the only way to do it. I don't think... I don't think after hours guarantees you that. Also, you don't get much extra at Epcot for your after hours dollars. Over at Hollywood Studios, they're going to have extra things. They're going to have characters that only come out for the after hours event. It's it's I think way cooler over there. Epcot, they shut down half of World Showcase. So you can't enjoy one of the prime features of the park during after hours, which We said earlier in the show, we were going to talk about this, how crazy that is, because that's adding to that problem I was telling you about. When I say that everybody is jammed into those few cues and it makes the wait still really long, part of the reason for that is because all the World Showcases closed. And a lot of folks probably would be enjoying other things in World Showcase, but since that's not an option, they just end up getting in in ride line. Jessica: Mm-mm. Rob: Every time I've been to the after hours events at Epcot, I've left feeling disappointed. I'm sad to say that, but that's just how I felt. And I never felt that way about studios, actually. I always have a great time at the after hours events at studios. Well that is all the questions that we had from Beyond Patreon, but we have some questions that have come in From our patreon family who've been watching us live. Let's just go ahead and answer a couple of those before we jump to the after party and ⁓ I'm going to go ahead and start with the ones that most people have upvoted, meaning that they're really excited to hear the answer. The first one is from Debbie, who asks, Hi, everyone. We're visiting from England and we'll get to Epcot on June 1st, the very last day of the festival. Any tips? Will it still be busy and will there still be festival food left in the booths? The good news is There's always festival food left in the booths until the very last day of the festival. They will not typically run out. There have been rare occasions where I, the one I'm thinking of, I feel like I went to the cookie, one of the cookie stroll booths at the end of festival, the holidays on the last day, later in the day, they ran out later in the day. They just, weren't gonna bake more because it was the end of the festival. But that's rare. It's usually the festival food will all be available all day for the last day and it's not an issue. ⁓ The festivals are all very different in terms of the last day, what you're gonna experience. Food and wine and flower and garden tend to not be as crazy at the very end because they're very long festivals. And so, The locals have had a long time to go and experience them and you don't get as much of a rush when it's finishing. The shorter festivals though, which are Festival of the Arts and Festival of the Holidays, boy ⁓ boy is it chaos for those last days because so many locals haven't made it there yet and they're like, ⁓ we gotta go. And then for Festival of the Holidays, the last days are, you know, Christmas, New Year's season, which it's already crazy at the parks anyway. So. ⁓ Those are the two that I think you really have to just be aware and be prepared. It's gonna be nutso ⁓ But I think the the longer festivals it could be busy. I'm not saying it won't be I'm just saying it's less of a Danger that you're gonna get a huge locals rush. What do you guys think? Do you have anything to add to that one? Craig: Yeah, I think you'll have a great time regardless. It might be busier, but I don't think you're going to miss out on anything specifically just because it is the last day. Jessica: And I'd say they asked for any tips. I I would, because you only have, not because it's the last day, but because you only have one day, I would pre-look at the food menus and pick like two or three of your must do's and just plan on doing those and make it a priority. A lot of people come in and kind of with no plan on the festival days, which works if you have two or three days to kind of go and eat at a bunch of places. But if you only have that one day and you definitely want to get the avocado toast, because that's one of the big things at the Flower Garden Festival is this avocado toast that has real flowers on it. It's really pretty and that's a big thing for you. I wouldn't go and eat everywhere else and then come back to brunch cot at the very end to find out they ran out of avocado toast. Like I would start with the ones that you definitely want to see. That's my only tip is kind of pre-plan, not because it's the last day, but because it's your only day. Rob: we're going to answer one more question from Patreon and then the rest we'll answer in our after party. ⁓ I'm curious to hear ⁓ what you guys are to say to the answer of this one because ⁓ I've been racking my since I saw it come in and I'm not sure. Anthony asks, sometimes you just want a really good slice of pizza, but we've yet to find one at Walt Disney World. Fuel at the Dolphin is the closest we found to something that we like. Any suggestions? And yes, we're aware of the Italy Pavilion. A little subtle shade for Vianapoli there. ⁓ So most people would say Vianapoli. I feel like that's the popular answer to this question. A lot of people love Vianapoli. I'm with you. I'm not a huge fan of Vianapoli. It's just not my style of pizza. I'm going to let you guys start off. Jessica, Craig, what do you think? What is your go-to if you're craving pizza at Disney? Craig: Yeah, well if it's not Viannapoli, it would be Blaze Pizza at Disney Springs where you can build your own and it's it's wood fire just like they are at Viannapoli, a lot cheaper, a lot easier to get to. So that's my suggestion for sure. And I honestly, I can't think of anyplace else I would suggest personally, but I am a pizza snob. Jessica: Yeah, I come from Connecticut, the best pizza in the country as voted multiple, multiple, multiple years in a row, just in case you guys wanted to know New Haven pizza, New Haven style pizza has actually been ranked higher than New York or Chicago or Detroit, definitely over Disney World multiple times. Hot take here. Rob: Wow. Wow. I feel like I feel like we have a lot of people from from New York and Chicago and Detroit who are going to take serious issue with that, but continue. Jessica: Well, here's the thing. I like New York pizza and I like Connecticut pizza because I like a thinner crust pizza, which both of those are and they're both really good. I have not found pizza at Disney World that I like. I'm with Craig. think Blaze, which is actually a chain. We have a Blaze here ⁓ is close, but I have always and I was racking my brains. We actually found a place. I've Uber Eats pizza and there's like a there's a pretty good thin crust pizza place right near Disney and just Uber Eats it. I mean. ⁓ If I think of it, I'll put it in the chat to Patreon, I none of the pizza none of the pizza at Disney World Has been what I would call good It's been edible, but not good Rob: So I would say if I had to pick my favorites, there's a place in Disney Springs called Pizza Ponte, I think is what it's called, but it's basically attached to Maria and Enzo's. And not every slice there is amazing, but some of the slices there are really good. So it's a little more hit or miss, but there are really good slices to be found there. The other one I would throw out, and this is not really a slice of pizza kind of place, so it doesn't, it may be cheating to say this, I've had very good pizza at Trattoria Al Forno ⁓ at the Boardwalk Resort, which is a table service restaurant. They specialize in Italian food, ⁓ pizza, they're known for their steaks, they're known for their breakfast where they have an amazing ⁓ eggs al forno is one of my favorite things at Disney World, but they also do pizza. And I've had, especially their more inventive pizzas are pretty good. But what I put it at the top of my like, oh my gosh, you have to do this when you're at Disney World. No, I don't think there is a pizza that I would rank that. And while I agree that Blaze is good, I mean, I don't know to me because it is a chain. It depends on if you have no access to it, then it doesn't matter. There's a chain because you can only get it when you're there. ⁓ For me, would say Pizza Ponte would be probably my pick. Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have for questions, but we will answer some more in our Patreon after party. Before we head to that, though, we have one last segment that we like to call Happy Thoughts, because we always like to end on a positive note. Jessica, what is your happy thought this week? Jessica: So my happy thought is that on Saturday, I got to be part of a brewing event at our local brewery to support something called the Pink Boots Society. So I have my shirt. I'm gonna put my shirt up here. Women Up Brew Crew. So Pink Boots is a organization that supports women's charities and particularly women in ⁓ brewing industry, the fermenting industry. And... Every year, the local breweries will come together and they have their own grain and their own malt line. And we will help brew a beer at the brewery, all women, ⁓ know, kind of all of us in a room. So it was really cool. had a, you know, brewery owner, a brewmaster, there was a woman. But my shout out is if you're into beer at all and you are looking at your micro breweries around town and you see either something called Women's Up, or pink boots, a beer that's called either one of those things, please give it a try, buy it, because the proceeds to that part of the proceeds go to support women's charities. ⁓ If you're in Connecticut and you see the women's up beer, it might just be one of the batches that I helped brew. ⁓ come and get that. But yeah, pink boots or women's up, particularly in Connecticut. That's what I did on Wednesday or Saturday. And it was a lot of fun, had a lot of fun. Rob: Awesome. Now I want some beer, ⁓ which, you know, as we're recording this, it's 8 p.m. It's perfect time to grab a beer after the show. Craig, what is your happy thought this week? Craig: You Jessica: Always time for beer. Craig: Okay, so my happy thought, well, one of my favorite things that we do on Patreon is called the Mad Tea Party, where we will ⁓ have a Zoom call much like our Jamborees, but do it earlier in the day so our friends from across the pond can join us. So my happy thought is by the next time we do another Mad Tea Party, I will have already experienced an actual tea party in London because I am leaving in just a few days and I will be in England for the first time. And I am very, very excited about that and very happy and Hopefully I'll get to meet some of our good Patreon friends as well. Rob: That's awesome. You're going to have the best time. I have to say that I haven't been there in many, years. So this may not be a thing that people do anymore. But when I was there, ⁓ one of the highlights of my trip was doing high tea at Harrods, which is kind of like their version, I think, of sex with Avenue, I would say. ⁓ And they have a delicious high tea. And I still dream about Craig: Can't wait. Rob: the little snacks that they brought out. And it was the first time that I'd ever had a smoked tea. I'd never had ⁓ Lapsang Sushong before, and now I'm addicted. But I hope you have an amazing trip. I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back. Craig: Please. I'll be posting stuff on Patreon for sure. Rob: So my happy thought this week, it's not nearly as exciting as going across the pond, but we are redoing our dining plan video this weekend, which means not only do I get to stay a couple of nights at a Disney resort hotel, we're going to do a Coronado Springs this time, but it means that I get to stop my diet for a couple of days and eat pretty much whatever I want. And I'm gonna be going to some of my favorites like the Polite Pig. If you've never done Polite Pig and you come to Disney World, it is a Michelin recognized restaurant that is a quick service restaurant. And you can actually eat there on the quick service dining plan. The fact that you can get Michelin recognized food on the quick service dining plan is just amazing and it's so good. So I'm excited about that, but I'm also excited I'm going to try for the very first time Shiki Sai in the Japan Pavilion, which both Craig and Jessica have highly recommended. So I'm looking forward to a really great weekend of eating Disney food. And that video will be coming your way soon over on the main Earscouts YouTube channel. But until then, we want to thank you all so much for joining us. We'll see you again real soon. Keep thinking happy thoughts, everybody.