Latest / Of Mice and Main Street Men / Adventures by Disney with Jens & Jamie (Episode 235)

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Adventures by Disney with Jens & Jamie (Episode 235) · Of Mice and Main Street Men

0:00
SPEAKER_04: There's a great big beautiful tomorrow.
0:04
SPEAKER_04: Shining at the end of every day.
0:08
SPEAKER_04: There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.
0:12
SPEAKER_04: Just a dream.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Mice and Main Street Men.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: I am Sean.
0:18
SPEAKER_04: And I am Jackie.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: And we are Tristanless today because Tristan is very, very busy, gentlemen.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: But we are very lucky today to be joined here on the podcast by some dear friends, not only of ours, but also the podcast for quite a while, Jens and Jamie.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Say hey, Jens and Jamie.
0:37
SPEAKER_06: Hey, Jens and Jamie.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Jens was on our 200th episode, and uh we did a show back before, but this is Jamie's first time with us.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for joining us, Jamie.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Excited to be here.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they're here is to chat with us about one of my lifelong bucket list items, and uh that is an their recent adventures by Disney outing.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: So, Jackie, feel certainly feel free to jump in when you have questions.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: But I will get things rolling by by, I guess, first of all, asking, was this your first adventures by Disney, or have you done it before?
1:14
SPEAKER_06: No, this was our first.
1:16
SPEAKER_06: Uh, an opportunity came along where we could jump onto this uh this trip.
1:19
SPEAKER_06: It was kind of being set up, and uh we thought it was a great way uh to celebrate my my son's eighth um graduation from high school, and so it was like uh one last big trip, family trip before he went off to college, and we're we'll be empty nesters then.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So then we can really start planning some trips for you.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Then we can do a lot more trips.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, I will I will say, and I I cheated because I asked Jamie before we started uh the podcast, you know, why adventures by Disney right now?
1:50
SPEAKER_00: And I loved your answer, Jamie.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: So please share it with everyone.
1:54
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we were looking for a trip that could have I guess I wanted it to be a little adventurous for my son because we love you know doing fun things as a family, and I did not know where to start.
2:09
SPEAKER_05: And I knew that Adventures by Disney, they basically plan everything from the moment you land at the airport, they're there with a sign with your name on it until the moment they drop you off back at the airport at the end of your at the end of your trip, and every single thing is planned.
2:30
SPEAKER_05: I did not um want to be you know making plans for river rafting and ziplining with a random company.
2:40
SPEAKER_05: Gents and I had done a trip before out of the country when it was just us that got a little dicey.
2:46
SPEAKER_06: We thought we were dead.
2:47
SPEAKER_05: I thought we were dead.
2:48
SPEAKER_05: That's that's dicey.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: That's as dicey as you get, Jens.
2:52
SPEAKER_05: Right.
2:53
SPEAKER_05: And I did not want my family to be in any situation where I ever did not feel 100% safe.
3:02
SPEAKER_05: So I knew I just I kept looking for options.
3:05
SPEAKER_05: I was talking to people about different trips and excursions, and I did not find anything I felt comfortable with.
3:13
SPEAKER_05: So I remembered um Adventures by Disney, and we had kind of decided on a destination.
3:19
SPEAKER_05: We decided Costa Rica, and I just said I'm gonna let them plan every single minute of it, and it was fabulous.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, I will I will say as a travel agent, I when I talk to people about Adventures by Disney, I really do explain to them that it's kind of the Cadillac of vacationing.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's not got an inexpensive price tag to it, but it has value, and the value comes exactly where where you're talking about Jen or Jamie, in terms of they plan everything, and you know it's gonna be safe, you know it's gonna be exciting and Disney standards, and so so I love that.
4:01
SPEAKER_06: Um yeah, I mean, there was even times where you know it was this so there was some landslides that took out some of the roads.
4:09
SPEAKER_06: They were checking that the night before, you know, for everywhere we're going the next day, and they actually had to switch up a couple of our days because of that, you know.
4:17
SPEAKER_06: So they're planning that, they're taking care of that.
4:19
SPEAKER_06: Where if we were just on our own, uh, you know, we wouldn't have been able to to even know that, I would think.
4:24
SPEAKER_06: And then we'd be, you know, delayed and you know, having all kinds of issues.
4:30
SPEAKER_04: So I know you went to Costa Rica, but why Costa Rica?
4:34
SPEAKER_04: Was there a special reason?
4:37
SPEAKER_06: Um, I think the diversity of, you know, we we've done some other big trips, you know, and and the fact that it's the rainforest and the beach areas, and you know, for being such a small country, there is very um vast differences, you know, between the different regions that they have there.
4:54
SPEAKER_06: And, you know, just to spend some time through their rainforest or their high canopies and things like that, uh that was pretty neat, I think, would be, you know, lends itself to the uh kind of more adventure that we were looking for.
5:07
SPEAKER_05: And another reason is we had only about a week, and so we kind of had to look at the the length of the trip.
5:16
SPEAKER_05: And we also had a very specific time period because my kids don't have a lot of time off this summer.
5:24
SPEAKER_06: And it was easy to get to.
5:26
SPEAKER_05: We kind of narrowed it down that way.
5:28
SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, we did Europe last year and I planned every moment, and it took me about six months to do, and I was I'm still like not over that.
5:39
SPEAKER_05: So I I wanted this all planned out.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: You need a good travel agent, is what you're but uh was this an adults only?
5:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know your kids okay.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: This was a this was a family departure.
5:54
SPEAKER_06: Correct.
5:54
SPEAKER_06: Okay, correct.
5:55
SPEAKER_06: They do have adults-only ones, um, even for Costa Rica, but those dates didn't quite work out.
6:00
SPEAKER_06: And like I said, but um, so there was kids, but honestly, it wasn't any sort of distraction at all.
6:06
SPEAKER_06: It was it was nice to have them, and um, you know, there was they they do do some separate activities in the evenings, like for adults only, like there was a a tasting and a uh cocktail mixing that the adults went to while the kids did went and did like uh fruit tasting and and things like that.
6:26
SPEAKER_05: And they also had like another evening and they had adults only dinner, and they took the kids and the kids had a fun night as well.
6:36
SPEAKER_06: Movie, popcorn, yeah, Disney movie, whatever.
6:38
SPEAKER_05: Whatever they had fun.
6:40
SPEAKER_05: Um, so they take care of all of you, and they also are mindful of the adults, like the adults may need some alone time, but honestly, the families all did very well because I think everything was very planned, the parents are not stressed out.
6:54
SPEAKER_05: Um, all the kids who are on our trip, all the families, they are well traveled, and this was not their first trip.
7:01
SPEAKER_05: A lot of them was like their fourth, fifth, yeah, sixth trip by adventures.
7:06
SPEAKER_06: I will say, I think we were the only ones there that was their first adventures by Disney, our group.
7:11
SPEAKER_06: Oh wow.
7:13
SPEAKER_06: There was a lot of people there who had done more adventures by Disney than they had to like trips to Disney World.
7:19
SPEAKER_06: Um, it was like they weren't really Disney people, but they loved that Disney service for the Adventures by Disney.
7:25
SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: Well, and I will admit I stopped some of your vacation pictures, and so I saw pictures of your group.
7:32
SPEAKER_04: It seemed like a pretty big group of people.
7:35
SPEAKER_04: How what was that like traveling with that group?
7:39
SPEAKER_06: Um, there was there was a total of about 36 of us, I think.
7:43
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, we've done smaller tours, um, you know, but we've also been on the cruise ships where you do, you know, much more people than that.
7:53
SPEAKER_06: Um, so I think this was kind of a happy medium.
7:56
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, we've done some tours where it's just our family or us and our friends that we're with, and you know, kind of setting up those private things.
8:05
SPEAKER_06: So it wasn't as you know, luxurious as that, you might say, but it was it was still great.
8:11
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I think that would be hard to do, you know, for this side or for this type of trip.
8:17
SPEAKER_06: Um, but while it it looked like there may have been a lot of people, by the time you know the week was done, it didn't seem like there was a lot of people there.
8:25
SPEAKER_06: It seemed like you're a good group of of friends.
8:30
SPEAKER_05: Do you really realize how small the world is?
8:34
SPEAKER_05: Um so many people, like one person from California, her son, was here in Bettendorf.
8:45
SPEAKER_06: At the Bet Plex.
8:46
SPEAKER_06: At the Bet Plex, which is um I guess five miles from our house, like the weekend.
8:53
SPEAKER_05: Not even five minutes, it's like two miles, and for the weekend, they flew into a close-by airport, and he was here for the weekend, and she didn't even like know the name of like she had no clue where he was at, and she's like, It's somewhere at this place called TBK, and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's right by our house.
9:14
SPEAKER_06: But there was a guy from um Rhode Island who grew up in Davenport or or lived in Davenport for a while, again, just right down the street, because his dad went to Palmer, you know, and so again, you see these people, you run into them in a foreign country and you meet up, and then you realize that you know you have all this stuff in common.
9:34
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
9:34
SPEAKER_05: And there was this family from Peoria that were awesome.
9:38
SPEAKER_05: Like it was just so funny.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it's it is, it's crazy.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: You travel the world.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I got recognized in a theater in London because people sitting next to me go to the old creamery all the time.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, it was insane.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, we ran into people from Iowa on our on our Boston outing last year, and our tour guide was like, We've never had one person from from Iowa, let alone two groups from London.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it is pretty amazing.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: How far out did you start talking to Adventures by Disney about this trip?
10:15
SPEAKER_05: Um I would say maybe like April.
10:20
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, like it was probably April April, and we went in June, right?
10:28
SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah, July.
10:29
SPEAKER_06: Beginning of June.
10:29
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so it was the very first part of July.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So pretty tight turnaround.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Did you did you have your own vacationista that you spoke with?
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Or is that something that travel agents get?
10:40
SPEAKER_00: When I book a vacation, when I book Adventures by Disney, I have to talk to my own vacationista.
10:47
SPEAKER_06: Oh, no, I don't I don't recall talking to a vacation.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't get a vacation.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: But I just love that word.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: It's just fun.
10:59
SPEAKER_04: It is fun.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh okay.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: So was there anything special about the pre-departure communication?
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Anything you thought Disney did really well or before you left?
11:10
SPEAKER_06: They they definitely keep you they're they're you know well informed.
11:14
SPEAKER_06: Um they send you this whole big, you know, kind of gift basket before you go.
11:20
SPEAKER_06: They, you know, they send it, it has like a backpack and a hat and some lanyards and all your like luggage tags and things like that.
11:27
SPEAKER_06: And um, you know, it's just you know, kind of a little brochure on your itinerary and what all you're gonna be doing, and you know, they kind of really lay it out for you.
11:36
SPEAKER_06: And um, yeah, they they definitely keep you well informed and and they work with you like we came in a day earlier, and they still were there to pick us up at the airport, you know, even though it wasn't necessarily part of you know the day we were supposed to be getting in with the tour, they still did that as part of you know just their hospitality.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Because you're a smart tourist and you go the day before you're supposed to be somewhere.
12:01
SPEAKER_06: Well, we wouldn't have made it if we actually did, because uh we were thinking about going in the the actual day through Chicago, down to Dallas, and then down, and uh all those flights were canceled.
12:12
SPEAKER_06: So we wouldn't have made it if we didn't go in the day before.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's why they met you at the airport.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: They were grateful that you had come in the day before.
12:20
SPEAKER_04: Because that would have been their headache had you not so I know you mentioned already um rafting and zip lining.
12:29
SPEAKER_04: What other kinds of activities and adventures did you get to experience?
12:34
SPEAKER_06: Oh, there you want to handle what else, what were some of your favorites?
12:39
SPEAKER_05: Um we gotta do those two days.
12:43
SPEAKER_05: Uh another day, I will call it a boat safari.
12:47
SPEAKER_05: We were on what they called a real life jungle cruise.
12:53
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
12:54
SPEAKER_05: And we saw all the animals, you know, that that you would want to see.
13:03
SPEAKER_06: They were, you know, capuchins were almost attacking the boat at one point.
13:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
13:08
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, floss.
13:09
SPEAKER_05: Um which that was on my bucket list.
13:12
SPEAKER_05: But they had like a big list of really, you know, their top animals to see in Costa Rica.
13:18
SPEAKER_05: And we saw them all on our jungle cruise safari.
13:23
SPEAKER_05: Um, and then they take you to like this beautiful little place for lunch, and they have everything ready to go for you.
13:32
SPEAKER_05: Um and that, but that that was about a whole day.
13:36
SPEAKER_06: Um yeah, like I say, they they set up the lunches.
13:41
SPEAKER_06: You know, one of the other things I really like, uh they had a catamaran that they we went out on a catamaran cruise and did some snorkeling, and uh there was an octopus, so we got, you know, I mean, and all this type of things.
13:52
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, another day we went through the the cocoa uh cocoa plant, um, like kind of rainforest the area so you can see how they make chocolate.
14:04
SPEAKER_06: Um they they had me get up and do a dance in front of everybody to make fun of me.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Um you have video of that.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: I do.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, send that to Tristan.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: I think I think a share.
14:16
SPEAKER_05: He even had Mickey ears on.
14:19
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
14:20
SPEAKER_06: But uh no, so there was a lot of different things, and you know, variety of the different areas that the that Costa Rica has.
14:27
SPEAKER_06: It was it was great.
14:28
SPEAKER_06: Um, one thing I was surprised at is so they kind of give you the itinerary every day, and each day has a theme or a name to it.
14:35
SPEAKER_06: Like the first day was Olaf, like hello, welcome, you know, come in here.
14:38
SPEAKER_06: The second day was oh good.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: I I thought you said Olaf, and I thought it's gonna help in Costa Rica.
14:45
SPEAKER_06: Okay, the second day was yeah, make a splash, and it was the day we went whitewater rafting, and they get so every day they give you a pin, and you know, like adventures by Disney, like a nice little Disney pin that you can put on your lanyard, and every day it has the name, you know, of that.
15:01
SPEAKER_06: You know, so the first day was Mickey Mouse with an Olaf pin.
15:04
SPEAKER_06: Um Ariel was on the second day with Make a Splash, but there was one day, you know, if you look forward in the itinerary, it was high in the sky.
15:13
SPEAKER_06: So I didn't quite know what pin they were gonna give us for that.
15:16
SPEAKER_06: Maybe you know, Donald with bloodshot eyes or something, but I don't know.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: It would I would I would pay for that pin.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: It ended up being goofy on a zip line.
15:26
SPEAKER_04: So um a zip line.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, that's a little more family friendly.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, so was all of your transportation by motor coach?
15:36
SPEAKER_00: This was not, but this was not a river cruise attached to it, correct?
15:40
SPEAKER_06: No, that's correct.
15:41
SPEAKER_06: It was um uh we were on a big bus, uh big yeah, motor coach and and everything.
15:46
SPEAKER_06: And and like I say, when when Jamie says they have everything planned, they had everything planned.
15:51
SPEAKER_06: Um, like when we went on that boat, uh Whitewater Rafting, they had us, you know, pack a spare bag and they took us to a different place where we could change and get a snack, and they gave us sunscreen and they gave us um bug spray and they made sure we had everything there.
16:08
SPEAKER_06: Um, and then they said, Hey, we're gonna put these, you know, your change of clothes in the bottom of the bus.
16:13
SPEAKER_06: So when you come on, you don't have to walk through the bus and get your seat wet.
16:16
SPEAKER_06: You know, you can have it right there, and we'll give you a plastic bag to put your wet clothes in.
16:20
SPEAKER_05: And I mean, so plan everything down to and as a mom, that always comes down to me, and then everyone would be mad that they're wet or they lost their clothes, or so, like for me, it was so easy.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've heard I've heard people and and see, doesn't this make you want to go?
16:41
SPEAKER_04: I never said I didn't want to go.
16:43
SPEAKER_04: I just need to win the lottery, and then I'm there.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Um it's worth it, it's a value.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I have I have a solo traveling client, and as we were analyzing options for her, it quickly became apparent that Adventures by Disney was going to be a great option for her because she was would be traveling with the same people who she'd get to know a little bit.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, Disney would be there to take care of her 24-7.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, and she's ready to go back.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: So um so I, you know, it sounds like they really do take excellent care of people.
17:20
SPEAKER_04: Um what I don't know what I would be remiss if I didn't ask.
17:26
SPEAKER_04: Were there any like drawbacks or negative feedback that you had?
17:33
SPEAKER_06: Um, I would say, and it just may have been because of the roads that we were dealing with.
17:39
SPEAKER_06: Um there was a day or two of the trip where I felt like there was a lot of bus time, you know, kind of sitting on the bus.
17:46
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, they did do a lot of um, you know, try to, you know, bus games, you know, why we're we were doing that, but they did have to reroute us around some of these landslides that we were talking about.
17:58
SPEAKER_06: So again, they were doing the best they could, but you know, it just kind of did seem like some of that uh was um yeah, and it's not a lot of roads, I guess, in Costa Rica.
18:08
SPEAKER_05: So if one's out as it was, it was it took a little while to go around.
18:13
SPEAKER_05: But what they did was like, all right, we're gonna go to this rest stop.
18:18
SPEAKER_05: And do you want a strawberry or mango smoothie?
18:22
SPEAKER_05: Or they had a list, and so you put your order in and you got there, and they had a mango smoothie ready for me, or if you want a coffee soda, and like and they had the nice bathroom, so they knew exactly where to go, and they knew like everything was planned, yeah.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Wow, it's like if you had me at the park and I knew where the bathroom was all the time, right?
18:46
SPEAKER_06: Or you could mobile order food for us as we were gonna walk around, yeah.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, you you've talked about how beautifully and wonderfully they have everything planned for you and all.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: How did you feel though?
18:59
SPEAKER_00: In time, did you have any time sort of where you could do sort of what you wanted to do or have downtime?
19:05
SPEAKER_00: Or for those people that are concerned that it's just go, go, go and you have to do what Disney tells you.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And and did you feel like you had some flexibility with your own breathing time, or were you just excited that you had a bunch of options that were laid out for you?
19:20
SPEAKER_06: Um, no, I I think they do a good balancing of that.
19:23
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, they they did have some time where you could just, you know, you know, lay around the resort, you know, they scheduled some of that in there.
19:31
SPEAKER_06: It wasn't all go, go, go.
19:33
SPEAKER_06: Um, was there a day that you liked, maybe in the Fortuna?
19:37
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, after we went zip lining, they dropped us off in a town of La Fortuna, which is kind of where our hotel was.
19:45
SPEAKER_06: The base of a volcano.
19:46
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you know.
19:47
SPEAKER_05: And they let, like, as a family, we could go out and do whatever we wanted.
19:53
SPEAKER_05: So we went and got our own lunch, and we had the most fabulous lunch.
19:57
SPEAKER_05: Um, and we had maybe like three hours or so just to walk around this town, and that's a day that we could get souvenirs.
20:05
SPEAKER_05: And we went to uh a grocery store, and I was able to get um some good, you know, Costa Rican coffee.
20:12
SPEAKER_05: That's what they're known for.
20:13
SPEAKER_05: So I got all sorts of coffee that I brought home, um, you know, and some different like salsas and things that that Costa Rica is known for.
20:23
SPEAKER_05: So that was fun just to kind of experience the city.
20:27
SPEAKER_06: Um But the evenings were kind of slow too, you know, the uh you know, they had a nice dinner, you know, for most of the evenings, I think every evening.
20:35
SPEAKER_06: Um, and so you'd get together as a group and and then you can, or there was sometimes you had dinner on your own and you know, in the hotel restaurant there.
20:42
SPEAKER_06: Um, but yeah, you could just kind of relax and and unwind at the end of the day.
20:46
SPEAKER_06: Well, there's one or the uh where we had a hot tub in our room under these big huge windows that overlook the volcano.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was that that sounds like my kind of vacation.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Um that that lunch you were talking about, Jamie.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: Did you guys just sort of stumble upon it, or did Disney kind of give you some recommendations?
21:07
SPEAKER_05: Or well, as so when we were going through town, we kind of circled and they pointed out different places that they recommended, and they probably recommended 10 different places depending on what you were looking for.
21:20
SPEAKER_05: Um so I saw one.
21:25
SPEAKER_05: We walked a couple blocks, went there and just kind of checked out the menu and decided to go.
21:30
SPEAKER_05: I think we passed by a couple others that we decided not to, but I mean it was very it looked very casual.
21:38
SPEAKER_05: They had, you know, the World Cup on.
21:41
SPEAKER_05: Um and we just were able to go and Caitlin got a huge steak.
21:45
SPEAKER_06: I mean it was like the best steak, I think, the whole trip.
21:49
SPEAKER_06: Oh and then with that salmon, you got a a a meal where the you know, sometimes you think, you know, the local guy there, the the you know, waiters just trying to, you know.
22:00
SPEAKER_06: Maybe upsell you, do something like that.
22:02
SPEAKER_06: But he made his recommendation and um it just really hit the mark.
22:06
SPEAKER_06: And it was like the some of the best food we had the whole trip, you know, just by listening and and accepting what he was, you know, recommending there.
22:15
SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
22:17
SPEAKER_04: So did you have a favorite moment during the trip?
22:24
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I guess big or small.
22:27
SPEAKER_06: Um you know, there was I think I had a lot of good times just because, you know, my son's now 19 and going off to college.
22:35
SPEAKER_06: My daughter's 22 been at college for a while.
22:37
SPEAKER_06: There was some really good family times in there.
22:40
SPEAKER_06: Um going up on these big gondolas up to the top of you know this volcano area and and just seeing them go down on the zip lines or you know, doing some whitewater rafting where we just got soaked.
22:53
SPEAKER_06: Um, it was those types of moments that you know, just as a family as a whole, we were just you know had a great time.
22:58
SPEAKER_05: In the afternoon, we had our raft, like it was just my family and the raft.
23:04
SPEAKER_05: It was the four of us.
23:05
SPEAKER_05: So that was so fun, or and the guide.
23:08
SPEAKER_05: But um one of the nights there, they had like a dance group come and then and they did that a couple times.
23:20
SPEAKER_05: They had people come like after dinner to kind of teach us the the culture, but one night they had dancers come, and then the dancers taught like flamenco and all these other like and then they called people up to go learn, and my son was the first, you know, my son walks straight up and he starts learning the dance, and then my daughter, you know, a couple minutes later goes up, and then they had like um paired dancing, and my kids are dancing together.
23:50
SPEAKER_05: I have never seen that, like I have it on video, I have pictures, and I told gents, I think this was like the second night, and I said this is all I need, like this makes the trip for me.
24:04
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
24:06
SPEAKER_05: Like my kids never in a million years would do that here, but on vacation they were dancing together, and it was so fun to see.
24:17
SPEAKER_05: Like my mama heart was so happy, and I didn't tell either of them to do it.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Disney magic without even being in a theme park.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
24:26
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I so I have a question for you.
24:29
SPEAKER_06: One of the so on the on the road trips or the bus rides, they were doing some Disney trivia.
24:34
SPEAKER_06: They made Caitlin and I actually separate to be on different teams.
24:37
SPEAKER_06: Um wow, you were that and then there was a question that stumped both of us.
24:42
SPEAKER_06: Neither one of us got it, no one on the bus got it.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
24:45
SPEAKER_06: I wonder if you would know.
24:46
SPEAKER_06: What is the only attraction that in any sort of variation is in every castle park?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh is it this came up in this came up in something because I th uh I think we thought it was small world and it wasn't.
25:06
SPEAKER_04: I think it's haunted mansion.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't well, but Jen's probably would have guessed Haunted Mansion.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
25:15
SPEAKER_05: See, yeah, and I said small world, right?
25:18
SPEAKER_06: And um, it's a Dumbo.
25:21
SPEAKER_06: Oh that makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
25:24
SPEAKER_06: You know, Tristan the other day was saying it was iconic for some reason.
25:27
SPEAKER_06: He couldn't quite say why, but you know, you guys talked about the family runs, and I was like, it's the only one that's in every castle park.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow, all right.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've learned something new.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I was I was texting with Tristan, and he says to send you his love.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's he's sorry he couldn't be here, but um wow, yeah, no, that is tough trivia.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: I we wouldn't have gotten that either, honestly.
25:50
SPEAKER_04: The biggest part of it is that the hunting is not necessarily always in the magic kingdom, right?
25:55
SPEAKER_00: In some other places, no, but it's things like Mystic Manor, and it's but somebody doesn't have it.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Um but sorry, we we've gone down a spoke here, which we are often wont to do.
26:07
SPEAKER_04: Um that's so good.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: How so how long was this trip from leaving the quad cities to returning to the quad cities?
26:16
SPEAKER_06: Well, we went down early, um, you know, so that added you know, just a couple days.
26:23
SPEAKER_06: But the trip itself was um six nights, seven days.
26:27
SPEAKER_06: Um, so and how many different lodgings did you have?
26:31
SPEAKER_06: Three.
26:32
SPEAKER_06: So like one every couple of years.
26:35
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, first one, if you're on just the tour, it'd be one night at the first one, three nights at the second, and then two nights at the third.
26:46
SPEAKER_06: I really like the third.
26:46
SPEAKER_06: It was in a beach side shoreside resort, and it was just had I known what the last resort was like, at least an extra day.
26:59
SPEAKER_05: But you don't know what you don't know.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for making sure that all of our podcast audio visitors now know they may want to tack on an extra day in that last Costa Rica resort.
27:12
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
27:12
SPEAKER_04: Um do you have any advice for first-time Disney adventure planner seekers?
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Do it.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: I guess I mean it just sounds like from listening to Jamie that the whole reason to do adventures by Disney is because they do everything for you.
27:37
SPEAKER_06: You just you they they even you know, like a lot of times you're trying to to fight for get the pictures or who's gonna take my picture.
27:45
SPEAKER_06: Are you trying to do the selfies as you hold it up?
27:47
SPEAKER_06: They were the ones, the guides, the Disney guides, were taking pictures of you the whole time.
27:52
SPEAKER_06: They're and they give you all those at the end, and so again, it's in their posing you and having you do this as a family, and they're doing it.
27:59
SPEAKER_06: Um, and so again, it's it's they're taking care of that as well, they're taking care of those memories and those pictures.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: So again, that was something you didn't have to worry about.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what I'm talking about when I talk value.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: It's like having Disney's professional photographers taking all these photos that they then don't try to nickel and dime you to purchase like a cruise ship does.
28:20
SPEAKER_05: It just yeah, I did not take one picture until the last night.
28:26
SPEAKER_05: Um, other than that, all of our pictures were from them.
28:29
SPEAKER_05: I was able just to put my phone away.
28:31
SPEAKER_05: And a lot of the adventures, you couldn't even have your phone with you.
28:36
SPEAKER_06: Um like you don't want to bring it whitewater acting, obviously.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Right now, I would advise against that as your travel guy.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: I would say don't.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: So, and you sort of touched on this with the fact that you said several of your travel companions were not really Disney people.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes when I talk to a client who's looking for, you know, a very curated experience, and and you know, I do use the fact that, you know, when Adventures by Disney goes to Rome, they do a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and things like that.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And so when I'm talking to them and they're not Disney people, I think they think that, you know, Mickey Mouse is gonna knock on your door every morning and they're gonna cram Disney down your throat.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: How, as a Disney person, how do you feel like Adventures by Disney balances the Disliness of the experience with what other people may be looking for when they travel that's not Disney?
29:36
SPEAKER_06: I would say it is very um, you know, very low-key.
29:41
SPEAKER_06: The Disney, like they weren't throwing the characters in you.
29:44
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you got the pins with characters on them and stuff like that.
29:47
SPEAKER_06: But again, that's that's not like rah-rah, Mickey Mouse, or or anything like that.
29:53
SPEAKER_06: Um, I will say that from the people we talked to that been on a lot more, um, that was one thing that they really loved is the all the extra um exclusive things that Disney could get them into, like you say, the Sistine Chapel, or you know, just different things where uh they were talking with people who went to Egypt.
30:13
SPEAKER_06: They got private tours of of in the um uh not King Tut, but you know, in that yeah, in the pyramids, but the uh uh what's the one with all the pharaohs or the kings?
30:25
SPEAKER_06: The Valley of the Kings.
30:26
SPEAKER_06: Valley of the Kings, yes.
30:28
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, they got special Valley of the King access that you know no one else could normally have got.
30:34
SPEAKER_06: Um, so again, it was a lot of of that type of uniqueness that they were all raving about.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's on your short list now?
30:42
SPEAKER_05: There are so many of them.
30:45
SPEAKER_05: I would love to do Egypt.
30:48
SPEAKER_05: Um there were multiple groups in our in our um tour guide group that had done South Africa within the past two years.
30:59
SPEAKER_05: Every single said top trip ever, we recommend South Africa.
31:06
SPEAKER_05: And we did just get back, we went there two years ago as a family, but oh my gosh, Adventures by Disney would have been such a great way to travel in Africa.
31:18
SPEAKER_06: Um there I think those would be the two, like if someone said, Hey, I can only go on you know two, what would one do you suggest?
31:26
SPEAKER_05: Well, if you love to do China or Japan, um like I have a whole list now.
31:32
SPEAKER_05: Like people said Alaska was amazing.
31:36
SPEAKER_05: Um it just kind of depends what what you're trying to do on that trip, you know, who's your who are your travel companions?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: So well, and now that we're on Zoom and can see your very talented daughter behind you, yeah, let's you horrify her by letting her know how soon you want to book one of the adults only version.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Although she can go on that.
31:59
SPEAKER_06: You can go on all that.
32:00
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, all of our kids can.
32:02
SPEAKER_06: So, Kate, and what was your favorite part of the trip?
32:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, I really liked the first day where we went whitewater rafting, and then also there was one part of after we went zip lining, they gave us time in the in the afternoon to explore the city on our own.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: And I liked that too.
32:24
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, because you got the big old steak.
32:26
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we heard.
32:27
SPEAKER_06: We heard that was an amazing stuff.
32:30
SPEAKER_05: We gotta go to some hot springs.
32:31
SPEAKER_06: Yep.
32:32
SPEAKER_05: And we were there for a few hours, and just as our family, you know, with the family, we just kind of sat.
32:38
SPEAKER_05: There were all these different hot spring pools that we could go to, and we we did that, and we're just they served you drinks on loungers in the hot springs.
32:46
SPEAKER_05: Oh, it was lovely, yeah.
32:49
SPEAKER_05: That's my Disney Pina Colada with uh our glass of wine in the loungers in the hot springs, and then they had a big dinner for us there when we were done.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: So wow.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: So I guess I guess it is safe to assume that you will be returning to Adventures by Disney at some time.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: I would like to do that sometime, yes.
33:15
SPEAKER_06: But I have a question for you.
33:16
SPEAKER_06: If we if we wanted to book another one, or if one of your listeners wanted to book an Adventures by Disney, how would they go about doing that?
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Wow, thanks for taking the Tristan role this week.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: I do appreciate it.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh honestly, I love booking Adventures by Disney.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: I love hearing clients tell me the kinds of stories that you are telling me.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I promise I am going to link this episode of the podcast to a couple of my non-Disney clients who I think would enjoy Adventures by Disney.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Go listen to this.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how these people enjoyed themselves.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: But you can certainly go to the Of Mice and Main Street Men website and there's a link there to the agency page.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And uh you can also find me on Facebook at Sean at Briarmain uh as well as Briarandmain.com or send me an email, Sean at Briarandmain.com, and I would love to talk about all the amazing places that Disney goes.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: So so thank you.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Any other last parting thoughts you all had about this vacation?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Anything, Caitlin?
34:19
SPEAKER_02: It was really fun.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: I enjoyed myself and I would do it again.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: I think we would all do it again.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: All right.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Did you have any final wrap-ups for our for our three talented and wonderful guests?
34:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, then we will let you get back to your ordinary lives as you reacclimate to life after an Adventures by Disney trip.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: And I guess thank you so much, all three of you, for joining us and sharing your thoughts about Adventures by Disney.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: And until next time, I guess, first of all, we say here, bye, you friends.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: And you didn't even join me.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: You're a regular.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: You're a regular, these are new people.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, let's do the first.