[00:00:04] Dana Stanley: All right, cool. Hi Marianne. Thank you for coming to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I have been so excited to talk to you ever since we ran into each other. You’re one of the very few people I follow that I actually got to meet in person. I think I’ve met maybe like two or three people and you’re one of them

[00:00:23] Marianne Southerland: feel.

[00:00:23] Dana Stanley: at um, okay.

[00:00:26] Dana Stanley: So we saw each other first at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Because we were both staying there and then we ran into you in Hollywood Studios on like the hottest day of my life melting into the pavement.

[00:00:40] Marianne Southerland: no, literally.

[00:00:42] Dana Stanley: But I had a great trip on that trip. I think it was July of last year.

[00:00:47] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, that sounds right. July and Disney is just, whew.

[00:00:52] Dana Stanley: I know. And yet we keep doing it to ourselves. I know.

[00:00:55] Marianne Southerland: I know, I know. But the price is right.

[00:00:58] Dana Stanley: Well, and it makes sense that we ran into each other there. ’cause I think we were both renting DVC points, I believe, and staying there. I hadn’t stayed there in a very long time. And I do really like Animal Kingdom Lodge a lot.

[00:01:12] Dana Stanley: Um, I think we kind of bonded over that. And also I think the food is the best at Animal Kingdom Lodge slash Animal Kingdom Park, which I think maybe you agree with.

[00:01:24] Marianne Southerland: Yes, a hundred percent best food. I mean, and so much at Animal Kingdom Lodge too.

[00:01:30] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Do you like Disney World stuff in particular, is what I wanna talk to you about. Have you stayed at all of them? All of all of the deluxe resorts in Disney World,

[00:01:43] Marianne Southerland: I have stayed at every single resort at Walt Disney World Value

[00:01:48] Dana Stanley: You have.

[00:01:49] Marianne Southerland: Deluxe. All of them? Yep. Every single

[00:01:51] Dana Stanley: That is so awesome. So if you were talking to someone that hasn’t been to any of them, what would you say in terms of like, do you think Deluxe is worth it versus the other resorts?

[00:02:06] Dana Stanley: Like is it actually worth the cost for the differences of like amenities and all of the things?

[00:02:12] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, so I’ll say too, I say that I’ve, let me preface by saying, I say that I’ve stayed all of them as like a resume builder, not like a pat on the back. I also kind of wanted to check those boxes ’cause I thought it would be cool because at the time I was like really leaning into giving Disney advice. So I’m like, if I’m gonna do this, I really wanna like experience things for myself.

[00:02:35] Marianne Southerland: Like that’s just who I am. So I’m like, I wanna stay at every resort. So I can confidently be like, this is somewhere you should or shouldn’t stay.

[00:02:43] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Like research purposes. Even if you don’t like want to stay there, you wanna try it so that you can give feedback.

[00:02:49] Marianne Southerland: A hundred percent. So I say that because I feel like I can confidently say for me and my family, um, the only reason we will stay on property is if we’re staying deluxe now.

[00:03:02] Marianne Southerland: And there are a couple reasons why I say that. I. Personally would rather stay offsite than stay value, and that’s like a whole nother topic for a whole nother day. Um,

[00:03:14] Dana Stanley: Um, but

[00:03:16] Marianne Southerland: For us, the deluxe resorts really feel like vacation. And we’ve stayed like in the deluxe, like the resort part, and then also the DVC part of a lot of these resorts too.

[00:03:27] Marianne Southerland: So, um, being able to have that perspective of like, and we, I’ve stayed at the Disney, the DVC Disneyland, we’ve stayed at Hilton Head. Um, so I feel like. The Disney deluxe resorts do set themselves apart based on like experience, but also you have better dining options. You have walkability or transportability, whether that’s boat, monorail, whatever, not just to parks, but also to the other resorts.

[00:03:56] Marianne Southerland: So if you’re like. Hey, I’m really tired of what this quick service option is at Wilderness Lodge. I’m gonna get on the boat and go over to Grand Meridian for breakfast this morning, or I’m gonna head over to the Polynesian. Um, you can’t do that at the value resorts. I mean, I guess at the value resorts you can do that at the All Stars ’cause you can like walk and they’re kind of all connected.

[00:04:19] Marianne Southerland: Um, and you can do that a little bit at some of the moderate, but I just feel like the convenience of it is better at Deluxe. Um. Um, but yeah, I feel like the room size, just the quality, the, um, level of service that you’re going to get, like it just truly feels like a vacation rather than a constant overstimulating experience of like, Disney, Disney, Disney, Disney, Disney, Disney.

[00:04:45] Marianne Southerland: Some of you might like that, but I need a break from that.

[00:04:48] Dana Stanley: from that. Well, and I get asked a lot like, what’s the best resort for toddlers? And some of the value or moderate resorts will come up because of the theming. Like it, it is over the top a little bit more over the top, but I said recently in an episode, um, that I just, I think the convenience is the best for toddlers.

[00:05:08] Dana Stanley: Like toddlers will play with like a cardboard box. So they don’t, they don’t need necessarily the overtop theme over the top themeing. I think like there’s things that I can see my son, you know. Um, like pop, pop century art of animation be like, wow, like he loves cars and all of that stuff. But for me, the best resort for toddlers and or as a family is just convenience, I think, of the location.

[00:05:39] Dana Stanley: So it sounds like for you, I mean, I imagine kind of like, um, pricing being like little circles of like a radius around Disney World, so you’re gonna pay more to be close. And then less to be farther away. And it sounds like with value, if you are going through a, like if you only have a certain amount of spend and you have a certain budget, instead of going value to save money, it might be better to just get a house or Airbnb off property with a car.

[00:06:12] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, that’s what we do. Because then you have space. The value resorts just feel very, and I’m not like a hater by the way, like, I mean, I think any Disney trip is a great Disney trip. Um, I will say.

[00:06:24] Dana Stanley: for sure.

[00:06:25] Marianne Southerland: But, um, yeah, I just would rather have like a two bedroom condo and drive into the parks, not deal with the buses, not deal with, um, I mean the buses are the most reliable form of transportation.

[00:06:39] Dana Stanley: Is there a lot of, there’s a lot of bus stops too at the value resorts, right?

[00:06:42] Marianne Southerland: Yeah. And it’s just like. Sometimes it kind of depends. It depends on the busy season. It depends on like what resort, but um, like sometimes art of animation and pop will share a bus.

[00:06:56] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:06:56] Marianne Southerland: you know, and it’s just like, I don’t know, it’s just a lot. And I would rather be in my, I would rather be in my car with my stroller in my trunk, in charge of the ac in charge of the music with my kids rather than like, you know, that

[00:07:12] Dana Stanley: I’m getting, I’m getting more and more like that and I can’t, I can’t get my husband on board, um, ever since adding the third. I’m like, wouldn’t it be nice?

[00:07:20] Dana Stanley: To just like, if he’s screaming, it doesn’t matter because we’re in our own car. Um, he ended up loving the buses and that it, he’s the opposite of how my other kids were. But I think that’s something I might just make him try next time. Even if we do stay on property, it’s just having a car for those days that I don’t wanna take a bus.

[00:07:39] Dana Stanley: If we can walk, obviously we will walk, but Yeah.

[00:07:44] Marianne Southerland: even when we’re on property we sometimes will drive ’cause we typically always drive to Disney. Um, so we use the car. Something else I do wanna mention though about, ’cause I just thought about it, is it’s not just like the convenience, but also I think, let me also back up and say that my kids never ask to go to a value resort.

[00:08:04] Marianne Southerland: They only ask for, my daughter asks for Grand Floridian and my son asks for Animal Kingdom Lodge. So.

[00:08:10] Dana Stanley: So

[00:08:11] Marianne Southerland: It’s the pools too, right? In the amenities, like you’re just not gonna get like the cool slides or the cool water features. And for us, we actually do stay like at the resort a lot being pass holders.

[00:08:22] Marianne Southerland: We’re fortunate to not have to feel like we have to get our money’s worth out of a park ticket. So we do spend a lot of resort time and like even just the pools and the amenities are better at the deluxe resorts. And so that’s why I feel like it really feels like a vacation rather than like. I came, I got in a hotel, I went to the Disney parks.

[00:08:40] Marianne Southerland: I went home. Like we try to make it a holistic like resort experience when we go.

[00:08:45] Dana Stanley: Well, and I think with the exception of not, I think, but hang on, I’m gonna just stop this. 

[00:08:52] Dana Stanley: This all leads me to what I was gonna ask. ’cause you mentioned your kids’ favorite resorts. Out of all the deluxe resorts, what is your favorite, but then, which I think is gonna be hard for you to say, I feel like it’s gonna be like certain situations, and then also like your husband and your kids, you said your son likes Animal Kingdom Lodge and your daughter likes Graham Flo.

[00:09:15] Marianne Southerland: Yep.

[00:09:16] Dana Stanley: What about you?

[00:09:17] Marianne Southerland: Okay. So it’s so funny that you say that, Dana Stanley, because literally as you’re asking me that, I’m like, well, it depends on what type of vacation we want.

[00:09:25] Dana Stanley: I know,

[00:09:25] Marianne Southerland: And I know that’s such

[00:09:26] Dana Stanley: How about like time of year? Like where would you go for Christmas?

[00:09:30] Marianne Southerland: Christmas Wilderness Lodge. Hands down, don’t put me anywhere else.

[00:09:35] Dana Stanley: I feel I, I, it’s funny, we were looking there for the summer. And I’m sure it’s, I mean, it would be fine and great and wonderful in the summer, but I just was like, I don’t know. It has like that cabin woodsy, even like Halloween, but Christmas, I know they have that beautiful tree

[00:09:51] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:09:53] Dana Stanley: and it is, it is like a very holiday vibe.

[00:09:56] Dana Stanley: And then how about, I mean, I feel like it’s either Christmas or summer, like those are the two seasons.

[00:10:02] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, well I think ours separates a little bit out from that. So like, let’s think summer, so we do stay club level a lot. Um, and so if I’m staying club level, it’s gonna be grand flow. There’s not a better, we’ve stayed at almost all of the lounge, all of the club level resorts and grand.

[00:10:19] Dana Stanley: And what makes that club level, for those who don’t know, can you just do a very high level overview of what Club Club level means?

[00:10:28] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, so club level or concierge level is, um, you’re paying.

[00:10:33] Dana Stanley: paying,

[00:10:35] Marianne Southerland: you’re not really paying a fee, but you’re, you are definitely paying more in your, your room rate. Um, but you get access to a lounge that serves breakfast in the morning, light hor d’oeuvres and snacks during the day, and then like heavy hor d’oeuvres.

[00:10:50] Marianne Southerland: I, I think you could even like eat a full blown dinner

[00:10:53] Dana Stanley: mm-hmm.

[00:10:54] Marianne Southerland: In the evening, um, alcohol, beverages, mickey bars, snacks, like unlimited as you go. And then you also have access to your own concierge team. So when you get there, if you need help with, um, booking any reservations, changing any reservations, um, like you need some lightning lane tips or literally like.

[00:11:16] Marianne Southerland: Anything like getting a minivan, whatever the concierge team is available to those, um, staying club level. So I, um, it’s, it is costly, right? I’m not gonna pretend that it’s not. Um, but I would say we like, we like to stay club level when I really want to show up and not think about a single thing. So like I don’t have to order groceries, right?

[00:11:39] Marianne Southerland: ’cause I can go grab snacks and waters and get a can of Diet Coke, throw it in my bag to take to the park. I don’t have to worry about.

[00:11:46] Dana Stanley: about

[00:11:47] Marianne Southerland: Literally anything. Right? I can eat breakfast there if I

[00:11:49] Dana Stanley: And that starts like on the morning of your check-in day, right? So like, if your room’s not ready. Because that’s one of the things I always run into is, especially with DVC, like it’ll be a while. It’ll be three, four o’clock, sometimes even later, until our room is ready, which is hard because I wanna get my groceries and I wanna get unpacked.

[00:12:09] Dana Stanley: I wanna give crew his milk. Whereas if you showed up at like 8:00 AM like we take an early flight, you drive, you can just head straight to the lounge.

[00:12:18] Marianne Southerland: Yes. Yeah. And if you had like, I don’t know if you had, like, if you’re pumping, this is so specific, but it’s a lot of us, right? Like I’ve, I’ve been in the parks when you’re pumping and been to, and they’ll store your milk for you in the club level, fridge in the back. Like, um, just to me it’s like it is the perfect thing for a person who isn’t budget conscious, but just wants to show up to Disney and not have to think

[00:12:46] Dana Stanley: Yeah. And you think Grand Floridians club level is better specifically for the lounge, I’m assuming?

[00:12:53] Marianne Southerland: yes. The lounge, the food, it’s three stories. Um, so when you go into grant, the grand flow lobby and you look up the third, fourth, and fifth floor are all concierge level. Um, it’s called the Royal Palm Club. And so when we’re staying club level, we prefer to stay grand flow ’cause it’s our favorite, um, animal Kingdom Lodge.

[00:13:14] Marianne Southerland: Just side note. Because I know we’ve talked a lot about DVC Animal Kingdom Lodge is the only resort that has club level where you can rent, um, DVC points or use DVC points towards a club level room. And they have by far the best food. So.

[00:13:32] Dana Stanley: who are listening, I’m just gonna explain what she’s saying is if you wanna stay club level at any of these resorts, you would be booking through Disney, like their website. Cash rate versus Animal. Kingdom Lodge is the only DVC resort where you can also do club level.

[00:13:54] Dana Stanley: So it’s either like club level or you’re using or renting DVC points with the exception of Animal Kingdom Lodge. And is that at the main building or Kani? Is that Kani? It’s at Kani.

[00:14:04] Marianne Southerland: It is at Jambo.

[00:14:05] Dana Stanley: It’s at Jumbo.

[00:14:06] Marianne Southerland: It’s actually the top floor. So if you’re in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo lobby, and you look up, it’s in open air. So the um, animal Kingdom Lodge, wilderness Lodge, and Grand Floridian, all three of those clubs, lounges are open air, meaning they’re at the top of the lobby. Like if you look up,

[00:14:27] Dana Stanley: and you like that?

[00:14:28] Marianne Southerland: um.

[00:14:30] Marianne Southerland: Eh, it can get a little loud, especially, so we did Grand Floridian, so that’s why I, everyone’s like Grand Floridian at Christmas time, which obviously has changed this year with the new bar and them not

[00:14:41] Dana Stanley: mm-hmm.

[00:14:42] Marianne Southerland: house. But, um, it’s very loud in the lounge at Christmas time, and so I actually, yeah, I actually would, I don’t think you could pay me to stay at Grand Floridian at Christmas time, to be completely honest.

[00:14:54] Marianne Southerland: It’s hectic.

[00:14:56] Dana Stanley: And is the, because everyone, so usually in the lobby they have this huge gingerbread house and it draws a lot of people from locals to the other resorts just to visit the house. This year they’re skipping it because they were updating the lobby and adding a new bar. I’m assuming you don’t like love.

[00:15:18] Dana Stanley: This whole situ do. What do you think about the bar, the new bar?

[00:15:21] Marianne Southerland: No. Um, I, so I will say that I tend to try not to have an opinion until I get there and experience it for myself. I’m very much like I have to experience things for myself to like form an opinion. I don’t know what it is about me, I just, it is who I am.

[00:15:36] Dana Stanley: That’s good. It’s not like preconceived judgements. Well,

[00:15:40] Marianne Southerland: Well, I do have some of those too, so don’t, yeah, don’t throw that out.

[00:15:46] Marianne Southerland: Trust me. Um, I have plenty of those, but, um, I, it’s so instinctively I don’t like it. Um, just because, I don’t know, I just, I don’t think it’s very kid friendly and that’s just my personal opinion. I understand that these resorts and Disney isn’t catered to a, to just kids. And I, I get that and respect it. I just.

[00:16:07] Marianne Southerland: I don’t know. You’ve got Enchanted Rose upstairs for us, typically, if we’re staying at Grand Floridian, um, we’re staying club level and it, it just gets super loud up there. It gets so loud and echoy like, and so I don’t know.

[00:16:23] Dana Stanley: loud. Does Wilderness Lodge get busy in the lobby during Christmas?

[00:16:28] Marianne Southerland: Yes, but not as much. And I think that the lobby, so wilderness, just like the footprint of it. Um, side note, by the way, animal, kingdom Lodge, wilderness Lodge, and Grand Californian, were all designed by the same architect. So they have very, yeah, very similar vibes. Um, and I, I always say that he would’ve designed Lakeshore Lodge, the new resort that’s being built.

[00:16:52] Marianne Southerland: He were still alive, but, um, it’s very similar, like the flows are different. So like at Grand Flow it’s open, but I feel like it’s just not as big as wilderness because at Wilderness you can go back into the side and then at Grand Flow you’re kind of like trapped a little bit. So it feels, I guess it feels more congested than it does at Wilderness

[00:17:13] Dana Stanley: it doesn’t have a lot of like offshoots of places to go at Grand Floridian.

[00:17:18] Dana Stanley: Exactly,

[00:17:18] Marianne Southerland: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:17:21] Dana Stanley: Okay. Interesting.

[00:17:22] Marianne Southerland: Yeah,

[00:17:23] Dana Stanley: I am gonna cut this part out. ’cause I’m thinking where, so

[00:17:26] Marianne Southerland: I’m sorry. I was like staring at a bird.

[00:17:29] Dana Stanley: no, I had to like double. Do you, can you see that? I printed a sheet of paper and ran out of paper for something else and had to like,

[00:17:37] Marianne Southerland: Oh, no,

[00:17:39] Dana Stanley: so I’m just

[00:17:40] Marianne Southerland: no. I was like, there’s like a bird that I was thought was gonna like fly. It’s like right here. So that’s why I was like staring off into the abyss for a little bit.

[00:17:48] Dana Stanley: Oh, that’s really funny. No, I didn’t even notice. Um. Okay, so I, I think you and I both love renting DVC points and one of the problems that I’ve run into is I kind of convince people to rent DVC points and then they love it, and then they love DVC. And then their next question to me when they get back is, you know, do you own DVC?

[00:18:14] Dana Stanley: Should I buy DVC? And we are DVC owners. Kind of by, I’m like, I got, I married in, I’m just, I’m just gonna say that I, I married into a DVC family, so we use our points only with our family. We don’t like, uh, and when I say family, I mean like the in-laws, the, our brother-in-law that my niece, like, we all share them so we don’t.

[00:18:41] Dana Stanley: Use those when it’s just like the five of us. So nine times out of 10, if we’re in Disney, we’re renting points. And for us, I can like, I can see both sides because I’ve experienced both sides of seeing, like my in-laws when they join DVC, the boardwalk wasn’t even built yet. It was like a little table with like a mock up of what it was gonna be like.

[00:19:08] Dana Stanley: And. I think back to when they joined or became members, I didn’t, I wasn’t in the picture. Their four grand babies weren’t in the picture. And now all these years later, we get to keep experiencing that as the family gets bigger. And on the other hand, I don’t think Colton and I would join DBC. How do you feel about it?

[00:19:34] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, I have, um, a lot of thoughts, so I’ll try to keep it as concise as possible.

[00:19:40] Dana Stanley: That’s fine. You can be long-winded.

[00:19:41] Marianne Southerland: Um, so I wanna preface by saying I’m not, I’m actually not anti timeshare at all. Like, I think that it does make sense for some people. Um, I personally just don’t, so I get asked this a lot too, Dana Stanley, right? Like, people are like, why haven’t you bought in?

[00:19:58] Marianne Southerland: Why haven’t you bought in? It makes so much sense for a family like you. Um, I would argue that it actually doesn’t, ’cause we stay off site like two or three times a year. When we do stay on site, we like to stay club level a lot. Like we’ve kind of gotten the hook on that. And then. When it’s, so, I feel like relatively easy to rent DVC because we’re, we kind of know when we’re gonna vacation.

[00:20:22] Marianne Southerland: Like we’ll do some last minute trips, but like, I don’t have to worry about, you know, needing to change my vacation every month on a whim. So I feel like, um, I don’t know. I’ve also kind of heard some horror stories about DVC owners not being able to, like, get dates that they want. And I’m like, man, if I were putting that amount of cash into something, which that’s like a whole nother, I, I wouldn’t personally finance

[00:20:44] Dana Stanley: Well, I can, I can jump in and say that that is us, um, because you know, we have a certain amount of points we go every other year, um, for our big family vacation. And people not, I don’t wanna get like too into the jargon, but people will walk reservations and it’s like very hard to get what you want. And even my father-in-law, like he, he doesn’t understand.

[00:21:10] Dana Stanley: He’s like, what do you mean we can’t get a room? We’re DVC members and we can book first. So that is the difference, um, which I could explain just a little bit, is you can start booking at your home resort. So like. We are members at the boardwalk, we can start 11 months out versus if, let’s say you owned a animal Kingdom Lodge and you wanted to stay at Boardwalk, you’d have to wait until seven months out.

[00:21:40] Dana Stanley: So because it’s our home resort, we should, it should be just like log on and the morning and get a room. And unfortunately it’s not. It’s not like that. And I can attest to that.

[00:21:49] Marianne Southerland: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, I, I don’t know, it’s just, it’s a lot of money too, like for the amount of, I feel like if we were, and now I’m also a never say never person, right? So like, you could play this back to me in five years when I’m like, I’m on a DVC contract. I’d be like, yeah, you hypocrite. Um, I mean, totally like anything’s possible, right?

[00:22:11] Marianne Southerland: Um. Uh, we have now, I’ve done, I’ve listened to the presentation. I have like listened and talked with people about DVC because again, just my nature, I’m like, I wanna know about it before I make a decision about it. Um, but yeah, I just, it’s so easy to rent. Um, and now I know availability has been getting scarce a little bit, but with us and the annual past discount, bounce back offers and being able to rent DVC me personally.

[00:22:42] Marianne Southerland: I cannot say that my family’s gonna vacation at Disney World for the rest of our lives. I just can’t say that. Would I love for that to happen? Absolutely.

[00:22:51] Dana Stanley: Well, I think that’s, I think that’s the defining factor for. Any group or like rewards program timeshare, it’s worth it if you do that one thing a lot

[00:23:03] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:23:04] Dana Stanley: like gonna Starbucks every day. Like if you are only gonna get coffee from Starbucks, you know that.

[00:23:10] Dana Stanley: Then use your points scan every time, but if for the next 30 years you’re not sure. Or 20 years, if you’re not sure. Um, if your kids just like one day are like, I am so tired of this. Or you just wanna start vacationing other places, or your kids get really into Universal.

[00:23:31] Marianne Southerland: Yeah. Exactly. It’s a risk reward type for me, right? Like I, I am okay paying extra right now and not not being locked into a contractual obligation for 20 to 30 years.

[00:23:47] Dana Stanley: Yeah, I’m, I’m on the same page, but I also, it’s hard because I, again, I have that nostalgic factor of like, I imagine like my dream is to be my in-laws, you know what I mean? And, and be in Disney at the boardwalk with my grand babies, like I’m already. I’m already priming my kids for that. Um, so I do, I do see both sides.

[00:24:14] Dana Stanley: So I would just say if you are like, committed to like you’re drinking the Kool-Aid, you know that you’re gonna be going back every year. It, it could be something to look into,

[00:24:24] Marianne Southerland: A hundred percent. For some people it does make sense, but I, I would just like, don’t, I, I also am a believer in this. Don’t make the decision while you’re at Disney. I will say.

[00:24:34] Dana Stanley: well, ’cause you’re like on drugs. You’re,

[00:24:36] Marianne Southerland: you are 100%. You are like, you smell Main Street and you smell whatever diffusers they are putting out at you at whatever resort and you are on your Disney high.

[00:24:49] Marianne Southerland: Do not make your decision until you get home. I would just at least do that. Sorry, that’s the mom in me, but like,

[00:24:55] Dana Stanley: and also wait until like, you’re not so sad, like don’t do it the day that you get home and you’re like, I wanna go back. Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that and I know that you are very knowledgeable and have like a well-rounded knowledge, I would say, of Disney World.

[00:25:15] Dana Stanley: What is your, I hate to say hot take. What’s your, like, favorite tip? Like, like what you wanna say to people, but you know that maybe you’ll get some backlash for it.

[00:25:29] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, so this one might ruffle some feathers. Um.

[00:25:33] Dana Stanley: That’s exactly what I was going for.

[00:25:34] Marianne Southerland: Okay, good, because you know, I love to do

[00:25:37] Dana Stanley: You can even ruffle my feathers.

[00:25:39] Marianne Southerland: No, no. Um, okay. Here’s what I wish I could, like, sit every person down and tell them, and, and I mean, no harm by this. It’s just truth. Your travel agent, your best friend, or your favorite Disney content creator is not always going to give you the best advice.

[00:25:57] Dana Stanley: Yep.

[00:25:58] Marianne Southerland: And I know it’s like a hard pill to swallow. Um. But everything that I like to do is not gonna be what you wanna do. Everything that your travel agent knows isn’t going to be what your family needs to know. Everything that you know, Dana Stanley is not going to be what every other family needs to know or is important to them.

[00:26:19] Marianne Southerland: And it sounds so cliche, but like. I truly think it’s a mindset thing. Like the only person I, I, again, this probably will sound harsh, but the only person responsible for the magical experience of your vacation ultimately is you, and it’s your mindset and there are gonna be things that go wrong, like, trust me, it.

[00:26:43] Dana Stanley: it

[00:26:44] Marianne Southerland: Woo. Have we had meltdowns? Okay. My son has had a meltdown and ran backstage at Epcot. Okay. I am like chasing him down. He’s like back there with a French chef in France Pavilion and I’m like, I’m sorry. He’s mine. Like, okay. Like we like. Stuff goes down, right? Like, and you get stressed out. Your travel agent may have told you something that ended up not being right, because mistakes happen and people like Disney is changing 24 7. I have put out, like these are my must dos at this park. You know, listen, if you know anything about me, you know that I have my animal kingdom as a whole day park flag waving all the time. But if you don’t like animals, it is not a whole day park for you. Right? So like.

[00:27:33] Dana Stanley: Well, it’s, and it’s funny because like that’s, I, I, I love all of the parks. I, I go back and forth between an animal Kingdom and Epcot. But pre-Kids, animal Kingdom, hands down was our favorite.

[00:27:47] Dana Stanley: And we’ve skipped it like the last two, maybe three trips. ’cause it, it closed early. It didn’t make sense with our plans. Um, I didn’t wanna get up super early. We weren’t staying close by and. I completely agree with you when it comes to not only the advice, because I’ve even had members who, they go through my planning course, they have support for me, and they, they have great trips, like nothing goes awry per se, but in their trip recaps, sometimes they’ll give like a little piece of advice for like other people and they’ll say something like, um, I’m trying to think of an example of like just FYI.

[00:28:27] Dana Stanley: If you order groceries to your resort, like you have to show ID, and I wish I would’ve known that ahead of time or something like that, and I wanna be like, Ugh, like I would’ve told you that, or like not. You should have known that, but like I know that and I wish that I had been able to tell you that beforehand, so that you are aware.

[00:28:49] Dana Stanley: My point being, it’s true. Literally impossible to download. Your travel agent’s brain or my brain or your brain into someone who has like years of experience for one trip. So you have to go into it knowing that you’re literally going to be learning what you liked and what you didn’t like. And the only way to know is to do it.

[00:29:16] Dana Stanley: Like some things are just gonna be surprising. And unfortunately, I can’t even say that you can repeat the trip because. No two trips are different because your kids get older. There’s trips that I long for like May, 2022, like one of my favorite trips, and that it’s so sad. I’ll start crying, but that’ll never happen again ’cause they’re different and they’re older.

[00:29:42] Marianne Southerland: No, it’s so true. It, it’s so true. Like we, I don’t know. I, I, and, and I don’t mean that like anyone’s giving like wrong advice, but here’s the other thing is like. Things happen for people too that don’t happen for others. Like, um, I don’t know. I saw that another creator on TikTok shared that like, you get free grocery delivery because she was never charged a grocery stocking fee at from her resort.

[00:30:08] Marianne Southerland: And like, but that was true for her experience, right? Because she wasn’t charged. But like, there have been times where I have been charged and times where I haven’t been charged. There have been times where I’ve had to show my ID getting my groceries. And I’m gonna be honest with you, there have been times where I haven’t. So it sometimes a cast member isn’t doing their job either, right? And so like, there, there are so many variances and I know that these are little things, but like, um, I don’t know. I just also about like the things that you wanna do. Like if you see everyone on Instagram, like, I’m sorry Dana Stanley, this one might peer she a little

[00:30:45] Dana Stanley: It’s all right. Is it about Boardwalk though?

[00:30:47] Marianne Southerland: No, it’s not about Boardwalk. Okay. You know, I hate the boardwalk, but boop. Um, no. There is one ride that you will never see my family on and it’s Peter Pan’s flight.

[00:31:00] Dana Stanley: No, that actually doesn’t hurt me. It doesn’t hurt me as much as Boardwalk to be honest, because the, the thing about Peter Pan, I know that I have the nostalgic factor for it. ’cause I grew up getting on that in Disneyland and one of the stories in my family that we still talk about is I wet my pants.

[00:31:19] Dana Stanley: Waiting in line for Peter Pan. So now as an adult, I will only ride Peter Pan if we are wa if we are walking right on with a lightning lane. ’cause I will maybe pee my pants

[00:31:32] Marianne Southerland: I love

[00:31:32] Dana Stanley: so I, I understand. Um, I, I wouldn’t wait for that ride

[00:31:36] Marianne Southerland: No, no, I wouldn’t even get a lightning line for it, to be honest.

[00:31:39] Dana Stanley: Oh yeah. Okay. All

[00:31:41] Marianne Southerland: So, right, so like, I mean truly, but like, that’s what I’m saying, like, don’t, don’t do the things that like you feel like you have to do, do the things that you truly want to do, and sometimes you’re not gonna know until you get there.

[00:31:53] Marianne Southerland: Right. And that’s why it’s so important and, and I love what your corpse teaches about, like what to do when that happens. Right? So like, know how to modify lightning light. Know how to modify your dining reservations. Know how to like, know how to pivot, I think is so much more important than knowing. Um, if you wanna get to storybook circus the fastest way from tomorrow, land, go through this.

[00:32:17] Marianne Southerland: Like, you’re not gonna remember that stuff.

[00:32:18] Dana Stanley: right? The hacks.

[00:32:20] Marianne Southerland: Yeah, like don’t, do not stress yourself out over that. Spend more time learning on how to pivot and how to like be in the moment because you’re gonna get there and you’re gonna be like, oh, if it’s your first time, or even if you haven’t been in a while, you’re gonna think you like know what to do.

[00:32:35] Marianne Southerland: And then you get there and you see your children. This is where I get emotional and like. To see them there and like honestly, what’s so cool about us going so often is that they wanna do something different each trip. And if I like sat there with my little itinerary, like I think about all the magic that my kids would’ve missed out on and in turn that I would have missed out on because I was over there with my clipboard, like being a psychopath.

[00:33:05] Marianne Southerland: Well, sorry, I probably shouldn’t say that. Anyone’s a

[00:33:07] Dana Stanley: No, no, no, no. I get what you’re saying.

[00:33:08] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:33:09] Marianne Southerland: You know. You know what I mean? Like I think about all the things that we’ve done on a whim that have been like the coolest experience. Like my son loves animals, right? He, that’s why we love Animal Kingdom Lodge. That’s why we love Animal Kingdom so much.

[00:33:22] Marianne Southerland: He is in kindergarten and every Wednesday they have library and he gets to pick out a new book. And since the first week of school, he has brought home a new animal book every single week. It’s like the most precious thing. But he got, we had actually, we were gonna park, hop and meet some friends over at.

[00:33:39] Dana Stanley: at

[00:33:40] Marianne Southerland: Another park and I ended up being like, he will not leave Animal Kingdom. I’m so sorry. We’re gonna have to like reschedule. And I’m also like, sorry, I’m gonna put my family first, like above all things. So he ended up having a one-on-one experience with a zookeeper. Because we like pivoted and listened and like let him.

[00:33:59] Marianne Southerland: Now I’m not saying let your kids have their way all the time. Let me also make that clear. Like sometimes you need to pivot them sometimes like, but I’m when it makes sense, right? Um, and he wouldn’t have had that like one-on-one experience if I would’ve been like

[00:34:13] Dana Stanley: no, we have to go. Because we had this thing, I mean, meeting up with your friends, you could use that with other variables of like, no, we have a lightning lien. We have to go. Yeah.

[00:34:23] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:34:24] Dana Stanley: So how do you, I mean obviously we talked about like things do go wrong.

[00:34:30] Dana Stanley: I get asked a lot recently, um, specifically about like, yes, mindset, but what do you do? Like, what is your approach? Or what, like what are the thoughts that kind of like go into your head of like, when you know what absolutely hits the fan wheels are coming off you like almost broke your nose. I think one trip

[00:34:55] Marianne Southerland: Oh, I did break it. Yeah.

[00:34:56] Dana Stanley: was, did it actually

[00:34:58] Marianne Southerland: it actually did break, and they told me I needed surgery to fix it, and that’s why it’s still crooked.

[00:35:03] Dana Stanley: What did he do? What did your son do? What did he do to

[00:35:06] Marianne Southerland: bad. So like I actually toughed it out for the rest of the evening because I didn’t want him to feel guilty because like I know his heart so I, we toughed it out.

[00:35:16] Marianne Southerland: But, ’cause it was like a mommy and Sunday, but we were in line of alien swirling saucers. And Have you ever had like, he was like bending down looking at something and I was looking over him

[00:35:25] Dana Stanley: and he didn’t know.

[00:35:26] Marianne Southerland: no. And my, my son also, he has a DHD, like legitimate A DHD. So he is like, just when I say Energizer bunny like.

[00:35:34] Marianne Southerland: Bing. So he just jumped up and headbutted me, like right as I was looking down and broke my nose, fractured my nose. And I’m like, yeah. And of course I like did the whole, you know, people are like, go to first aid. I’m like, guys, I posted this a week later. Like, relax.

[00:35:53] Dana Stanley: this is not live. She did not post, she did not post live from Disney.

[00:35:57] Dana Stanley: That her nose was broken.

[00:35:58] Marianne Southerland: This is called marketing, but um, everyone was also irate that like, I didn’t break my nose by getting, like, punched in the face by a character or too, by the way.

[00:36:08] Marianne Southerland: It was like you didn’t break your nose at Disney. You

[00:36:11] Dana Stanley: your son broke your nose while you were at Disney.

[00:36:14] Marianne Southerland: Yeah. I’m like, come on guys, anyways, whatever. Um, what did you even ask me, Dana Stanley? See, this is what happens.

[00:36:22] Dana Stanley: I was thinking about when anyone is in Disney World and you, you know, that you have to pivot or things are just really going awol, what kind of goes through your mind or what do you tell yourself?

[00:36:38] Marianne Southerland: we’re getting the heck up outta here.

[00:36:39] Dana Stanley: here. No questions asked.

[00:36:42] Marianne Southerland: Sorry,

[00:36:43] Dana Stanley: Just, just abort.

[00:36:44] Marianne Southerland: abort. Half the time now. Well, well hold on. That is what I do.

[00:36:50] Dana Stanley: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:51] Marianne Southerland: That is not what I would tell a family who was there as a ticket. A a day ticket holder. And so I want to preface that that’s what our family does, right? Like we have the privilege to be able to go often, so we get the heck up out of there.

[00:37:04] Marianne Southerland: Um, I think.

[00:37:05] Dana Stanley: so if you had to stay in the park, what would you do?

[00:37:08] Marianne Southerland: Um, if I had to stay in the park, we would go do something quiet. I think it, here’s also what I want people to know. Do not care about anyone around you. It is you and your child in that moment, and they are having a full blown meltdown. And I want to, like, I get that probably more than most people.

[00:37:24] Dana Stanley: And also no one’s paying attention to you because they’re all worried about their other kid, their own kid having a meltdown.

[00:37:30] Dana Stanley: And if

[00:37:30] Marianne Southerland: And if they are, so be it. You’re never gonna see them again. Like, who cares? Who cares? You gotta let

[00:37:36] Dana Stanley: what I thought about breastfeeding, literally everywhere. I was like, I’m never gonna see them again.

[00:37:41] Marianne Southerland: No, no. And if you do, Hey, how’s it going? Um, so like, get them calmed down if you feel like, um, I, I would personally like cancel any dining reservations that I had for the rest of the day. Um,

[00:37:56] Dana Stanley: two hours now PS for the listeners, which is awesome.

[00:38:01] Dana Stanley: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:01] Marianne Southerland: Yeah. Which is really nice. Or try to move them if they’re like, you know, coming up, maybe not totally canceled, but, um, I would, first thing is like, get everyone calm on board. I would go do something like very not stimulating. So go to the playground if you’re at Epcot, if you are well.

[00:38:19] Dana Stanley: well,

[00:38:20] Marianne Southerland: Not really a animal kingdom anymore, boneyard, but I, there i, there are more chill things that you can do to animal Kingdom. If you’re at Magic Kingdom, go to Dumbo, um, Dumbo Playground. If you are at studios, uh, pray for yourself.

[00:38:34] Dana Stanley: I know studios is so hard,

[00:38:37] Marianne Southerland: Um, something though about studios, I love this tip. This is like a random tip. If you’re at Epcot Magic Kingdom or studios and your kid’s having a meltdown and you get them calm. Tell them that you’re gonna go on a monorail ride or a skyliner ride and try to just like, maybe get them relaxed a little bit and away from crowds.

[00:38:58] Marianne Southerland: Um, go on a walk outside of the park. So like you have the walking trail to Boardwalk from Hollywood, from Magic Kingdom. You can walk over to Grand Flow or walk to the Poly at Epcot. You can walk around Crescent Lake. Remove yourself from the park to an extent where you’re not like really removing yourself and just decompress.

[00:39:19] Dana Stanley: mm-hmm.

[00:39:19] Dana Stanley: I say that ’cause, not that I ruffle feathers, but I’m just such a diehard for like a midday break, but. With every scenario, there are different variables that maybe that doesn’t make sense if someone’s staying off property or you have older kids who don’t nap. I still, that’s my advice is if you’re in Magic Kingdom, just go over to like Polynesian and just kind of sit in those big chairs and like,

[00:39:49] Marianne Southerland: Let them play in the sand.

[00:39:50] Dana Stanley: or let them play on your phone.

[00:39:52] Dana Stanley: Like honestly, like we’ve done. We’ve done that, where we’re like, we have to go back to the room and like literally dim the lights and like read a book, do an iPad, like just, which can be stimulating, but it

[00:40:05] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:40:06] Dana Stanley: to calm my kids down in certain scenarios. Um, but just getting out of the parks because it, it’s hard to relax when you, it’s like fomo.

[00:40:18] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:40:19] Dana Stanley: like you have to be doing something. But if you just go to like a nearby resort, Epcot to Boardwalk is awesome. Like that’s, or the boat, um, Epcot to the Riviera would be really nice

[00:40:32] Marianne Southerland: I also, this is like probably an. Not very often used. But if you are at Magic Kingdom, get on the boat and go to Fort Wilderness Campground. Not Wilderness Lodge. Fort Wilderness Campground. Um, that’s also one of our family’s favorites,

[00:40:49] Dana Stanley: Is that on the same, that’s like the same boat route, right? Like you just get off at that stop. Okay.

[00:40:55] Marianne Southerland: sometimes no, they have their own separate boat.

[00:40:58] Dana Stanley: Oh, cool.

[00:40:58] Marianne Southerland: So there’s a campground. Yeah, sometimes there’s a campground boat. Well, it depends. Again, it depends. It depends on busy season, whatever. Um, typically it can be different. So, um, anyways, the campground, when you get off of the boat at the campground, there’s a big beach, but then there’s a massive playground, and it’s like weeping willows, not weeping, willows the tree with like, I’m just picturing it.

[00:41:26] Dana Stanley: The moss?

[00:41:27] Marianne Southerland: Yes, thank you.

[00:41:29] Dana Stanley: Okay. I mean, that looks like a weep of Willie though. Yeah, same vibes.

[00:41:33] Marianne Southerland: Um, but there’s, there’s a quick service trails End Cafe right there. You’ve got your big giant playground, you’ve got your beach. It’s like, ’cause there’s not a playground at Grand Flow, there’s not a playground at Wilderness Lodge and there’s not a playground at the Poly or the contemporary.

[00:41:48] Marianne Southerland: Right? So that’s your only Magic Kingdom playground. That is like an amazing spot to decompress as a family. And you can

[00:41:55] Dana Stanley: think I’m gonna try that. Especially like people listening that are sad about Tom Sawyer’s Island being gone. That sounds like a great. Alternative. Very

[00:42:04] Marianne Southerland: Very similar vibes.

[00:42:06] Dana Stanley: familiar. So selfishly, I want to talk to you about your house just a little bit before we wrap up, because not everyone would know this, but you’re renovating a lake house from 18 something.

[00:42:22] Dana Stanley: How old is it? 1970. Okay.

[00:42:25] Marianne Southerland: Not too terribly old.

[00:42:27] Dana Stanley: Not that

[00:42:28] Marianne Southerland: Another, another.

[00:42:30] Dana Stanley: Ah, yes, the 1970s. Um, but what you’re doing is so cool because you’re doing these like very subtle, um, nods to Disney by like theming each room, which is very cool. And everyone needs to follow you. Just to follow that in itself is very cool. Um, what are, what’s your project right now?

[00:42:51] Marianne Southerland: Oh my gosh. Well, the

[00:42:52] Dana Stanley: all of them,

[00:42:53] Marianne Southerland: literally, that’s why I, you know, I’m a DHD, but also just the way life has life. Um, I don’t think we’ve like fully finished a single project or I’ve finished a single series because I’m always waiting on a contractor or like someone to finish something that I can’t do myself.

[00:43:10] Marianne Southerland: So, um, couple like. Quick ones that we’ve done is, um, speaking of DBC, we love Community Hall. So every, not every, most DVC resorts have community hall, which is a place where kids of all ages can come and they have different activities that you can do. So they have like video games for the older kids. They have, like, some of them have, um, like, uh.

[00:43:36] Dana Stanley: uh,

[00:43:38] Marianne Southerland: I am gonna say table sports. LOL, like ping pong and billiards and like whatever. Yeah. P

[00:43:46] Dana Stanley: Foosball. There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:43:48] Marianne Southerland: yeah.

[00:43:48] Dana Stanley: Look at us. We’re like

[00:43:49] Marianne Southerland: look at, yeah, sports, table sports. Um, and, but they have like toys and blocks for little kids and like, uh. Activities, crafts you can do, and then also like free coloring, whatever, a bunch of stuff. So we transformed our dining room because we have a whole nother dining area into our own community hall, so that we literally call it community hall.

[00:44:11] Marianne Southerland: So my

[00:44:12] Dana Stanley: That’s so cool.

[00:44:13] Marianne Southerland: They’re literally like, I’m in community hall. Um, but that’s where our Mickey Mouse wallpaper room, that’s our, our community hall. So that’s where they do their homework and their activities. And then my daughter’s bedroom where, where it’s inspired by the Grand Floridian and then her bathroom is like her own little bit bitty Bty boutique. Um. And then my porch is inspired by the new poly tower. We’re almost done with that. I’m waiting on new screens. That’s why that’s paused. And then just a fun little teaser. We have an elevator in our house. Not because, I mean, I live in a nice house, but not because I’m

[00:44:47] Dana Stanley: you’re gonna do tariff terror.

[00:44:48] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:44:49] Marianne Southerland: Yeah.

[00:44:49] Dana Stanley: I mean, you have to.

[00:44:51] Marianne Southerland: yeah. So we’re gonna make the elevator Tower of terror themed. That’s next.

[00:44:56] Dana Stanley: That is so cool. I think if, I mean, if you have an elevator in your house. And you like Disney, you have to do something. I can’t wait to see that. I feel like we just got like an inside peak at your, at your upcoming plans.

[00:45:09] Marianne Southerland: You did. I haven’t told anybody about that yet. So, um, but yeah, I feel like now if you didn’t know Disney, you wouldn’t walk into my house

[00:45:17] Dana Stanley: No.

[00:45:18] Marianne Southerland: the mouse room. But you wouldn’t walk in there and be like, oh my God, this girl’s a Disney freako. Um, it’s very

[00:45:23] Dana Stanley: no, it’s very tasteful for those that are listening. We’re not no cheese, no cheese allowed.

[00:45:29] Marianne Southerland: No cheese.

[00:45:30] Dana Stanley: That’s so cool. Um, okay. I think that’s it. I could keep going, but I don’t want the episode to be too long, so I’m gonna skip the rapid fire

[00:45:40] Marianne Southerland: Okay,

[00:45:41] Dana Stanley: if that’s cool.

[00:45:43] Dana Stanley: Okay.

[00:45:43] Marianne Southerland: of course.

[00:45:44] Dana Stanley: Thank you so much, Marianne Southerland. Can you tell us where to find you?

[00:45:49] Marianne Southerland: Yes, you can find me on Instagram. It is at Marianne Sutherland and on TikTok there as well. Same handle.

[00:45:58] Dana Stanley: Awesome. And I’ll have those linked in the show notes for everyone to give you a follow. Thank you so much.