[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: What if your Disney World trip didn’t need some huge overhaul to feel just a little bit more fun? What if it just needed to be 1% more fun? I’ve seen this concept pop up a lot of like getting 1% better than you were yesterday. Like 1% better in your workout, 1% better at doing the dishes, whatever it may be.

[00:00:21] Dana Stanley: It can actually change your trajectory quite a bit as time goes on. If you think about flying from, let’s say, like New Jersey where I am to Orlando, if the pilot changed the course by just. One degree, like his flight plan, just one degree off. You’re obviously not going to end up where you thought you were going to end up.

[00:00:44] Dana Stanley: Just a tiny, tiny shift. Just that 1% at the beginning changes the entire outcome later of where you end up. That is how Disney World trips can work too. There are some things that don’t sound huge or like that big of a deal on their own, but over time they can stack up enough that those 1% changes. All together.

[00:01:07] Dana Stanley: Suddenly the trip feels easier if you do the correct 1% shifts, they can be 1% more fun and look way more like I’m going to assume you are picturing in your head. So that’s what today’s episode is going to be. I’m going to share just very small 1% changes that you can do now. And some that you can do while you’re actually in the parks that will make your trip just 1% more fun.

[00:01:39] Dana Stanley: Hello and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of. Lay back magic. As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here.

[00:01:59] Dana Stanley: We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories. So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts, real life trip recaps, and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday, so be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment.

[00:02:20] Dana Stanley: Okay, let’s dive in.

[00:02:28] Dana Stanley: So, like I said in the beginning of the episode, this is not about like giant splurges or upgrades or like changing your whole itinerary. It’s just about the little things that can only make your trip 1% more fun. But together, I really do think that they can really change the way that your trip feels.

[00:02:46] Dana Stanley: And I think one of the easiest places to start is probably the day that you get there, your arrival day, because your travel day, the day that you get there, your check-in day has so much potential to. Go right or wrong. I feel this is something I think about a lot because we really love getting the first flight out.

[00:03:08] Dana Stanley: When we fly to Disney, sometimes we are up at 3 34 in the morning and on one hand it feels like a no-brainer because I love starting my vacation early, like I’m not wasting a day. If we got there late afternoon or evening, you’re essentially just eating dinner. And going to bed. So I feel like you’re not wasting a day of like the pool and just starting your vacation early.

[00:03:37] Dana Stanley: But I do know and totally commiserate that saying let’s wake up at three 30 or 3 45 in the morning. Sounds absolutely horrible, especially with little kids. But I have come to realize, ’cause I’ve done it both ways, I would much rather be miserable. For those few hours in the morning when I just feel tired and just have almost like a full extra day in Disney World or any vacation really Then spend the entire day like traveling or the chance of getting delayed.

[00:04:09] Dana Stanley: And I always check the data on this because I’m a little bit psycho about flights and I don’t really like to fly. So I will check, you know, between the two or three flights out, the percentage chance of it being delayed for that flight. And it’s just true that earlier flights are statistically much less likely to be delayed, and especially true for Orlando because those delays can just stack up.

[00:04:36] Dana Stanley: Like your plane at 3:00 PM isn’t going to be starting in Orlando. Like it’s already flown 2, 3, 4 times before it gets to you. So like if it’s the weather in another city or like maintenance issues, just timing when things get backed up earlier in the day, it just like follows you and can get worse and worse.

[00:04:55] Dana Stanley: And because I told you I’m a psycho, I looked it up and it says that nationally flights in that 6:00 AM hour window. Have only a one in nine chance of being delayed or canceled, but then by 10:00 AM it jumps to one in five, and then by 3:00 PM it jumps from one to three of a chance of being delayed or canceled.

[00:05:15] Dana Stanley: It also says that flights between seven and 9:00 AM are more than 83% on time while late afternoon and evening flights can dip below 60% on time. And I was thinking for like Orlando specifically and just the weather there. It tends to get more thunderstorms and rain like later in the afternoon, especially for like hurricane season.

[00:05:40] Dana Stanley: So even if your flight landed at like noon, it has a much better chance of avoiding like weather related issues than if your plane was landing at like three or four. I know that most likely if you’re listening to this, you fly to Disney World and I’m just going to encourage you for that 1% little upgrade that if you can.

[00:05:59] Dana Stanley: Suck it up and take that earlier flight. That also leads me into one of the most underrated things I think that I swear by, and that is to skip the checked bags if you can. Now, before you write me off and stop listening and like fast forward, like, no, I have three kids. I can’t, I can’t do that. I have to check back.

[00:06:22] Dana Stanley: If you’re thinking to yourself, I have to check a bag. I’m just going to challenge you for just a second. Now, I’m not saying that you need to fit your entire family in like one carry on bag, but I want you to just look into this a little bit for me and think about picture if you have kids. What if each of my kids had like a small duffle bag or a backpack or like, what if.

[00:06:51] Dana Stanley: My husband and I each did a small carry-on roller bag, and then we each had a backpack. Could we possibly maybe avoid checking a bag? And again, maybe you were driving. This doesn’t apply to you. And in that case, stuff, that car have fun. But the chances are, again, that you were flying, and I could go on and on about different reasons of why I love not checking a bag.

[00:07:18] Dana Stanley: But the biggest thing when it comes to Disney World specifically is being able to just get off the plane with the kids after this early flight and head straight to your ride or the bus or however you’re getting to the resort. It is incredible. I don’t want to downplay how good it feels to skip the baggage gleam, but can I tell you like how many times.

[00:07:46] Dana Stanley: Doing carry on onlys have just saved us in general from lost bags or missed connections on other flights looking at each other like can you imagine if we had checked a bag, like we’d be in so much trouble or that would be so much more stressful? I thought that my carry on only days were over when I had kids.

[00:08:07] Dana Stanley: When I had one kid. I figured it out and then I thought my days were over when I had two kids and I figured it out. And then I thought my days were over when I had a third kid and I was bringing a baby to Disney World. Who needs so much stuff like a newborn, it’s 90% baby stuff, and like 10% tiny, tiny clothes.

[00:08:26] Dana Stanley: It can be done and it feels great getting a text from your driver that they’re waiting for you and they tell you, you know, go to this bag check, or I’ll meet you outside this, and you’re like, Nope. No check bags. We can just, and they’re like, oh wow. And they just pick you up and you go and you’re at your resort and you can rope drop the pool bar if that’s what you wanna do.

[00:08:47] Dana Stanley: And then when you finally get to your room, I suggest that you unpack, and this may seem totally obvious, and you’re like, Dana, what are you talking about? But I mean, to spend 20 or 30 minutes as soon as you get there, if you wanna take some nice pictures of the room for later. ’cause it’s gonna get all messed up.

[00:09:06] Dana Stanley: But then after that, fully unpack to the point where your suitcase is empty. So you’re going to take all the packing cubes out, put them in the drawers, you’re going to hang up your, I mean, I actually really like to hang up almost everything of mine, but especially dresses and things that you want to Unw wrinkle.

[00:09:27] Dana Stanley: So this is actually when I like to spray my clothes with a little bit of like wrinkle releaser. I always bring a small. Tiny spray bottle, like a travel spray bottle that I fill it up with, and I’ll put a link in the show notes for the one that I like, but just honestly like a spritz of water with your hand, like just splash some water and let those things hang while you go to the pool or if you’re going into the park, whatever you’re doing.

[00:09:55] Dana Stanley: Those things can kind of just like settle and unwrinkled from being shoved into your bag. But I do this because when you just take a few minutes to unpack, it really does save you so much time in the long run, especially when you’re getting ready. For example, I like to keep a pile hopefully up top somewhere, like somewhere vertical that my kids can’t get to it kind of out of reach of things for restaurants.

[00:10:19] Dana Stanley: So I usually have things from the plane to keep the kids busy, like. You know, the typical soft stickers or coloring books, coloring pads, whatever it may be. And I usually find that I over bring these things and a lot of times there’s things left over that they haven’t touched on the plane. So I like to just keep almost like a pile of activity things out of reach.

[00:10:45] Dana Stanley: And that way throughout the trip I can like grab something and just throw it in our bag. If I know that we have a character meal, or maybe we’re going out to a nice dinner that night at the resort, I can go to that pile and then when I pull it out of my bag at the restaurant, the kids have probably forgotten about it by then, and it keeps them busy while we’re waiting for the food.

[00:11:06] Dana Stanley: And another thing I’m unpacking is tied a little bit to the 1%. Better or more fun, which is to order anything that you forgot to your resort. And that’s actually not necessarily the 1%, the 1% thing that makes this better, that to ensure that you are getting that Instacart order or whatever it may be, from Amazon, whatever, is to, instead of going on Google to look up the address of like, let’s say you’re staying at.

[00:11:38] Dana Stanley: Boardwalk. Instead of going into Google Maps and typing in Boardwalk and using that address, I want you to go into the My Disney Experience app, and this will show up after you’ve checked in. So this could be still while you’re home and like pre-ordering something, I want you to use the resort address that is under your hotel reservation that is going to be the most accurate ’cause things can get a little.

[00:12:04] Dana Stanley: Wonky and specific with the addresses of the resorts. So I want you to use that particular address. And then when you put in your name for the address of the order, I want you to write guest in all caps. Guest a little hyphen, and then your name. And the name should be the name that is tied to the reservation.

[00:12:26] Dana Stanley: So if it’s your husband or you put your full first and last name. This will make sure that it does not get lost and that it actually gets to you, and that once it’s dropped off and the bellhop wants to give it to you or take it up to your room, that it actually gets to you and they are able to find it for you.

[00:12:45] Dana Stanley: And this is not necessarily to make it more convenient, which it will be, but it’s like removing an inconvenience of having something that you need or something that you are really counting on, like let’s say it was diapers and making sure that there is no hiccup and getting your order. And then once you are actually starting your trip in Disney World.

[00:13:05] Dana Stanley: The mornings are going to matter more than you realize. Like if everyone is feeling rushed and frantic and nobody can find their stuff and you’re feeling frazzled, it can just make the whole day feel off when you’re headed into the park that way, which is obviously a huge bummer. We don’t want that.

[00:13:21] Dana Stanley: Which is why one of my favorite tiny changes is to lay out everyone’s clothes the night before, and I think I’ve said this before in the podcast, but laying out everyone’s things beforehand, it obviously makes it easier, but what it does is when you do it the night before, it will remind you of little things as you’re doing it.

[00:13:41] Dana Stanley: So like, oh, I’m gonna wear this top and I need a strapless bra for this, or. I forgot. I need to cut the tag, like this itchy tag off of my daughter’s t-shirt and she’s gonna freak out about that tomorrow. Or, oh, these are the shoes that gave her a blister last time, so, so let me throw some like extra socks in my bag in case it hurts her.

[00:14:05] Dana Stanley: And when you’re laying everything out, I want you to lay everything out. So if you have a toddler that includes the diaper. That is going to go on them in the morning. It means, you know, any pins that you wanna wear on your shorts or like Mickey ears, if you’re wearing Mickey ears, if your husband’s wearing a hat, like if you had a little tiny paper doll, what you would dress them up in and then like put it somewhere easily that the kids can’t mess up.

[00:14:34] Dana Stanley: And this may sound like the most obvious. Mom advice in the world, but we’re being a little boring with this advice, so I’m gonna stick with it because it’s actually a really big deal, and that is to bring shoes that are already comfortable. I have yet to fully unpack of why people think or why we think that we need like special shoes in Disney World.

[00:15:02] Dana Stanley: I mean like if you are a mom who takes the kids to the park. Or you have a dog that you walk or you run errands or you exercise whatever workout, most likely, your sneakers are fine and they’re going to be shoes that you know fit. You know that they don’t rub in certain places. Maybe you know that they do rub in certain places and you can be preventative about things.

[00:15:31] Dana Stanley: But if they’re your shoes that you’ve worn for a while, you most likely like them. And remember, shoes can be washed if you’re think they’re like raggedy shoes. You can throw them in the washer, take them out, take a little magic eraser to them. They look brand new. And I guess it, it does make sense because I think.

[00:15:48] Dana Stanley: With Disney World, you’re just excited about the trip, so you, your brain just thinks that things need to be fresh and new and exciting for a Disney World trip. Totally understand and trust me, I have been there with the new shoes thing and that’s why I am telling you that even if you are bringing new shoes, like for fun, or you have like a particular outfit and you’re dressing up, that’s fine.

[00:16:11] Dana Stanley: Just make sure that you’re bringing another pair from home that you have worn a lot. And going back to like the carry on, only thing I typically, or I should say I used to, or like other vacations, I usually only bring two pairs of shoes on vacation, which might sound crazy, but I’ll wear a sneaker on the plane, which is my biggest shoe.

[00:16:33] Dana Stanley: Then I’ll pack one slide that kind of goes with everything for like the beach or like out to dinner, just like a neutral slide. But for Disney World, I do bring and will bring three pairs of shoes and I’ll tell you why. There was a trip when I was pregnant with my third, where my usual shoes, my go-to old faithfuls, like, I’m gonna bring these and taking my own advice.

[00:16:59] Dana Stanley: They actually gave me blisters. The bottoms of my feet, which is as painful as it sounds. And it was really bad. I think what did it was walking from Hollywood Studios to the Beach Club. ’cause we were like racing the boat, which sometimes we do to see who will make it fastest. And I totally regretted it.

[00:17:19] Dana Stanley: Obviously. I didn’t know that that was gonna happen. I think it was just a combination of like. I guess my feet were swollen, which I didn’t really realize I really have that problem. And then the combination of the heat and like the socks, well friction against my shoes. It was bad. And I got really bad blisters, and I was desperate because the shoes that I had were just rubbing the worst way.

[00:17:41] Dana Stanley: And I really just wanted another shoe so that I could kind of rotate at least between the different shoes, like rubbing in different places. So. From that trip on, I will bring three pairs of shoes and thinking about pregnancy and food leads me to my next thing just to make your trip a little bit better.

[00:18:07] Dana Stanley: That is where reading menus ahead of time comes in. I just think there is something deeply calming and satisfying about already knowing what you’re gonna order at a restaurant. I know a lot of people might disagree with this. I know my husband disagrees with this. He likes to be like surprised. But just knowing like, okay, this place has something that my picky kid will eat.

[00:18:34] Dana Stanley: This place has a special Manhattan cocktail that I know my husband’s gonna like, whatever it may be. I heard recently about how the more decisions you have to make, the worse. Those decisions often get over the course of the day. So if you throw in like a Disney World trip that you were the one that planned everything, and then you sit down to dinner and if you’re like me, like my brain is fried, not only am I ordering my drink and my meal, but now I’m ordering for the three other little humans and going through.

[00:19:10] Dana Stanley: Oh, if I get this drink for this kid, then like the 2-year-old is gonna want one. And this kid likes mac and cheese and will share with this kid, but the third kid doesn’t like mac and cheese. They all like shrimp, which would be great to get shrimp, but I wonder if there’s shrimp on the menu. You see where I’m going with this?

[00:19:31] Dana Stanley: I am completely team read the menu beforehand. Go on the Disney World app, go to the little search bar, type in the restaurant. You can just read the menu. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s all there. And this is where I’m going to convince you of just being in the app more for these little 1% shifts.

[00:19:49] Dana Stanley: Because one of the most underrated things I think you can do before a trip is just to look at the park maps like just for a few minutes. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be hours. Uh, you don’t have to make yourself crazy, but just enough to get your bearings, especially if you haven’t been to Disney World before.

[00:20:08] Dana Stanley: The app is great where you can kind of zoom in and virtually walk around a little bit. Like you can see where fantasy land is in relation to Liberty Square, or like a park like Epcot, where you have the countries. I still don’t have the country straight of like, what is next to which one. And you’ll notice when you start doing this that like Epcot is much bigger than it seems when people talk about like just walking around the world or drinking around the world.

[00:20:38] Dana Stanley: Uh, you can notice where the bathrooms are, where the baby care centers are, where all the major rides are. You get the idea. ’cause just like even a tiny bit, like just a few minutes of getting familiar. It’s going to help with that mental load of figuring it out. Like when you get to the park and just knowing like, oh yeah, haunted mansion’s over there, or we’re near, you know, this in the world showcase and not near the front of the park and we’re in the back.

[00:21:07] Dana Stanley: Like you’re just less disoriented in general, and when you’re less disoriented. You are just a lot less likely to do a lot of zigzagging, which is like a horrible Disney thing to do, and you kind of just can end up wearing everybody out for no reason. And that same category of like not wearing people out for me is to do like a reset day after every two park days.

[00:21:34] Dana Stanley: So like Park Park. Reset Park. Park if you can. And this will only apply to very specific trips of like it’s a week long classic vacation, but this is one of the smallest changes on paper that you can have that will have one of the biggest effects by day four, I would say. Because it’s not just like physically tiring, it is very mentally tiring.

[00:22:00] Dana Stanley: So if you’re doing like Park Park. Park, park on top of park day. On top of park day. A lot of families will start to feel bad, like right in the middle. But if you’re doing a day in the middle where you’re kind of just, you know, you’re not gonna do nothing, but I do want you to sleep in, like not have an alarm clock, not be rushing to somewhere first thing in the morning.

[00:22:25] Dana Stanley: Spend some time at the pool if, if that works out in the plans. Um, just let everyone chill a little bit with like less. On the schedule and reset your room. Like just take a little bit of inventory, clean up a little bit, um, take a shower, do your hair, all of those things. And since we’re talking about like tiny things that make Disney feel better in the moment, I do want to throw in a lightning lean tip in here because this is exactly the kind of thing that most people wouldn’t know unless someone told them.

[00:22:59] Dana Stanley: And that is. When you are getting ready for your trip and you can book your Lightning liens, before you do that, go into your My Disney Experience App and edit your my day. It’s called My Day on the App ahead of time by starring the rides that you care about the most that you know that you’re going to be booking a lightning lien for.

[00:23:24] Dana Stanley: And the reason I say this is that. That way when you are booking your lightning lanes, those rides get starred. Like literally, there are little stars next to them and it seems like the dumbest thing, but when you are booking lightning lanes at 7:00 AM and everything feels like it’s moving really fast and you’re like swiping through the long list, especially like Magic Kingdom that has a bunch of lightning lanes, having the visual cue of those little stars.

[00:23:54] Dana Stanley: You can just tap, I, I wish I could like test like how much faster, like, oh, it makes you 20% faster. I can’t say for sure, but in my experience, those little stars make me faster when I’m booking lightning lanes and now like Disney changes the app constantly. So I’m not pretending that this is some like eternal truth that is set in stone.

[00:24:16] Dana Stanley: It’s gonna be for forever. But for now, this has been sticking around and it’s exactly the kind of. Tiny little tweak that will make your trip 1% better. I also think that some of the best little tweaks don’t necessarily have to be about being efficient all the time, and it can just be about making the trip just more fun and enjoyable.

[00:24:40] Dana Stanley: And when I think about that, I think about letting your kid have their own little film camera to take pictures on vacation. This is good for a lot of reasons. Are you going to get the most amazing pictures? No. Is it more expensive because you have to get the film developed also? Yes. So like, here’s what I love about it.

[00:25:02] Dana Stanley: When you hand a kid, a film camera in the moment, what you realize is what your kid focuses on and like what they find important, like maybe they’re taking pictures. Of their baby brother, and they might, again, it might come out blurry or like there’s a finger in the way, but when you’re watching them you’re like, oh, wow.

[00:25:24] Dana Stanley: They are taking a lot of pictures of flowers. Like, my kid really likes flowers. Or like my oldest, when she had the film camera, it was, it was all photos of signs, like banners, and she wanted to have like a complete series or like a complete collection. Of those banners. So she was looking around like, oh, there’s another one.

[00:25:45] Dana Stanley: Like one time she like ran back ’cause she missed one. And there’s also a lot of pictures of food, a lot of pictures of food on the camera roll. But it really does keep them occupied. So if you need a little bit of downtime, um, like the world showcase can be a little bit boring if you’re walking around trying the different food.

[00:26:03] Dana Stanley: Cameras are great for that, and it kind of forces them, I think, to look outside a little bit more. And when I say outside, I mean, you know, they’re not thinking about the next thing or like complaining or finding something to complain about. ’cause when you have a camera in your hands, that’s just what your brain does.

[00:26:20] Dana Stanley: It’s just starting to look for things that I wouldn’t normally notice or look for. In the same lines of this, and this doesn’t have to be like analog, like a paper and pen. You could totally do this digitally as like the notes app on your phone, but just writing down things that your kids say when you’re on vacation, like just little highs of the trip.

[00:26:42] Dana Stanley: Like for us, I wanted to remember riding the barnstormer front row with my sailor girl, seeing my oldest when she was like dancing with stitch. But it could be just something that one of the kids said that was really funny. And I know pictures are like the first thing we think about, but there is something special about writing it down too, because sometimes you’re not able to get like the moment on camera and then you could just jot it down in your notes.

[00:27:10] Dana Stanley: And then there are the in the moment, like 1% shift. So it could be things that you don’t have to plan too much for or like do ahead of time. Just things that take a situation. And avoid it being worse and make it a little bit better. A perfect example of this would be to avoid watching the parade from Main Street and watching literally anywhere else, like from Frontier Land or Liberty Square.

[00:27:38] Dana Stanley: You know, it’s gonna have the same parade, same float, same characters, but most people are going to naturally gravitate towards Main Street because you have. You know, like the iconic castle in the background, which yes, but also who cares? It is also just very like crowded and hectic, especially when the parade is done, it’s hard to get out of it.

[00:28:07] Dana Stanley: So like Liberty Square, for example, one of my favorite spots is actually like right outside of Hall of Presidents. Sometimes if the doors are still open, you can get like the waft of the air conditioning, which is nice, but really anywhere other than Main Street is going to give you a little bit more breathing room and it’s going to be a lot easier to get out afterwards.

[00:28:27] Dana Stanley: To head to your next spot. And that to me is really what this whole like 1% idea is about. These are definitely not overhauls, but because when you stack these together, the early flights, groceries, shoes that hopefully do not hurt menus, you looked at the clothes set out, you really can end up somewhere different than maybe your original, you know, flight plan, so to speak.

[00:28:54] Dana Stanley: Had you on. I hope that this episode gave you maybe just one takeaway or maybe you were torn about something. Maybe you were torn about what time to fly and I convinced you to take the earlier flight. Either way, thank you for listening. Be sure to come back next week because I am sitting down with another laid back magic member Bailey.

[00:29:15] Dana Stanley: We’re chatting all about her recent trip to Disney World.

[00:29:21] Dana Stanley: Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode and it was helpful for you, it would mean the world to me. If you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them seriously.

[00:29:37] Dana Stanley: Thank you in advance. You can find me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile, and I’d love to hear from you there. DM me. If you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.