[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: So that’s great. Hi Bailey. Welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast.

[00:00:05] Bailey: having me.

[00:00:07] Dana Stanley: I’m excited to chat about your trip because you kind of literally just got back from Disney

[00:00:13] Bailey: We did. We got back on Saturday.

[00:00:15] Dana Stanley: And where did you stay? Actually, I know where you stayed. You said Art of Animation, but I’m curious to talk about that resort particularly because I think you’ve only stayed there.

[00:00:28] Dana Stanley: For all of your trips, like you went the first time and then you booked it again and

[00:00:32] Bailey: That’s correct. We’ve stayed there for three trips now, three years in a row. And we initially booked it just because it’s a value resort with the Family Suites option. So we book a cars themed family suite. And have,

[00:00:51] Dana Stanley: And what’s the like, setup of that room, like with the beds? How, what does it

[00:00:55] Bailey: it’s really nice. You walk in and there is essentially like a kitchen or dining room table with four chairs, and that table converts into a Murphy bed. I believe it’s a full size. And then you can walk further in and there’s the little kitchenette and living area with a pullout couch that is also, I believe, a full size.

[00:01:16] Bailey: And then off to the side is a bedroom with a queen size bed for my husband and I and our own bathroom. And then the kids have a bathroom out in like the main living area. Mm-hmm.

[00:01:28] Dana Stanley: So it’s really almost like a one bedroom.

[00:01:30] Bailey: Yeah, I guess so. Mm-hmm.

[00:01:32] Dana Stanley: but with an but. But actually one bedroom, like a one bedroom villa is only one bathroom. So having two bathrooms is really

[00:01:39] Bailey: is, it’s very nice. The one is like a tub, shower combo, toilet room, and then the sinks outside of that. And then the one in kind of the primary bedroom is like a walk-in shower.

[00:01:51] Dana Stanley: And having two boys helps, like I’m sure they love the cars

[00:01:54] Bailey: do, yes. When we were first looking to go to Disney and realized that. Cars was an option. My, at the time, my 2-year-old was obsessed with Lightning McQueen and all things Radiator Springs and the theming of that resort. You walk into that area and you feel like you are literally living in radiator springs.

[00:02:15] Bailey: They had the life-size cars all set up to take the photos with the pool is themed to like the Cozy Cone Motel that’s in the movies. It’s very

[00:02:25] Dana Stanley: Yeah. ’cause there’s not a lot of cars stuff. I know they’re building that section of Magic Kingdom, which I’m excited about. But that’s one of the things I love about Disneyland and I’m kind of waiting for my son to at least be able to ride more rides before we go to Disneyland because it is such a, I love cars.

[00:02:44] Dana Stanley: I like just more like Pixar stuff in general. I would love to see more of that, but we have not gotten over to Art of Animation. I’ve almost, I don’t love the Skyliner or maybe you don’t know that, but most people love it. My kids love it and I recommend that a lot to members of like if they’re looking for like car stuff or just more like of the characters to just like hop on a little skyliner ride to.

[00:03:12] Dana Stanley: Art of animation and like walk

[00:03:13] Bailey: Definitely the, there’s the Lion King section with, , the larger than Life Lion King. Character statues. There’s the Fighting Nemo section, and then there’s the Little Mermaid section too. So you could spend a whole day just walking around feeling like you’re kind of in a Disney park at a resort.

[00:03:30] Dana Stanley: How do you feel the buses were there? I mean, obviously they don’t bother you ’cause you’re going back and you like

[00:03:35] Bailey: Yeah, I will say we are not a rush to the park rope drop family, so we are not out at the bus line. Very early in the morning when it could be busy, but we never had to wait much longer than five minutes if that, for a bus to come.

[00:03:52] Dana Stanley: What time do you usually leave? Like nine,

[00:03:54] Bailey: well, like 7 30, 7 45, so we’re still, we’re early, but just not the super, super early crowd where I’ve

[00:04:03] Dana Stanley: No, that’s good to know. ’cause I never leave

[00:04:05] Bailey: Yeah, and we were at , the Skyliner too. To go to Hollywood Studios and to go to Epcot. We would be at the Skyliner line about that too, like 7 45, 7 50, and it would feel like, it looked like a long line, but it moves very quickly. We were still in the

[00:04:21] Dana Stanley: does move really fast.

[00:04:22] Bailey: By eight 30.

[00:04:25] Dana Stanley: That’s good to know because I know that’s one of the things like people worry about with value resorts. I mean, obviously being able to walk is always my number one thing, but with the value Resorts of Art of Animation and pop, just being on the skyliner. Again, if you’re a normal human being and not me, then it’s really nice because it’s constantly moving.

[00:04:47] Dana Stanley: So even if the line looks long, and we saw that even when we were leaving at nighttime, like it can look like a really crazy line, but, and they put people together. I don’t know if they do that in the

[00:04:57] Bailey: they do when it’s busy. I’m a family of four with a double stroller. They would still add another two to four people with us in the skyliner, , gondola, or whatever you wanna call it.

[00:05:09] Dana Stanley: Did you do a stroller this time?

[00:05:11] Bailey: did my

[00:05:12] Dana Stanley: Did you do a double or?

[00:05:13] Bailey: a double. My oldest is nine. We told him this is his last year.

[00:05:18] Dana Stanley: this. , Don’t have any, even like a hint of embarrassment ’cause. First off, like, I need a stroller. I know people joke about that, but literally I have sat in the stroller when I was pregnant and my feet hurt and I was pushed on the way back to the boardwalk.

[00:05:33] Dana Stanley: But nine, I was only asking if it was single or double because I feel like when my, okay, so I have an almost 10-year-old, an almost 6-year-old, not really, almost six. She’s five and then the 2-year-old. And when the 2-year-old was born. The oldest kind of got kicked out of the double stroller, right?

[00:05:55] Dana Stanley: ’cause I’m not gonna do, she was seven, which is borderline. And that was kind like, we took it very easy ’cause I had a newborn with me and like you can’t do a lot. But I decided that like seven, eight, I think she was almost eight, is borderline. Like they don’t need to, they don’t really need the stroller when they’re in the park.

[00:06:20] Dana Stanley: Because they’re going from like ride to ride and like getting up going to the bathroom or you’re eating or whatever. But it’s that getting to the park and like getting back to your resort and I’m sure it’s kind of like a hike, right? From actually getting to your room at Art of Animation, like you’re getting off the bus and then you gotta go all the way to your room.

[00:06:39] Bailey: It wasn’t bad. I guess because we were in the car section, we did stay in the Lion King section last year, so we’ve done cars, lion King cars. My youngest became obsessed with Lion King for a year. So I would say that everything is pretty centrally located to that bus station and to the skyliner too.

[00:06:58] Bailey: But when they are tired after a long park day, he definitely, my oldest definitely hopped in the stroller and got pushed to the room.

[00:07:06] Dana Stanley: Yeah. So, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. But , you did the double and you didn’t regret doing

[00:07:11] Bailey: my husband just got tired of, folding it up and lifting it, into the skyliner and in the room. It takes up a bigger amount of space. But it allowed us still to, book it across a park or, through security easily. Just having the option to be like, just sit there for a second.

[00:07:30] Dana Stanley: Just sit there for a second. Right, totally. And you didn’t take a midday break like once you got to the park,

[00:07:38] Bailey: No, our, we did, we stayed, like I said, we’re not a true rope drop family, but we were there usually at early entry. And we would last through the park until a sit down table service dinner, usually around 5, 5 30. And then after dinner we would just be done for the day.

[00:08:00] Dana Stanley: Okay. That sounds doable.

[00:08:02] Bailey: So we are just not. I would say like the nighttime park people yet my youngest doesn’t take a nap anymore and my boys are very active and so it just getting from the resort back to the room. Taking a rest, getting back to the resort. It just, that honestly would stress me out more and just seemed like more of an effort.

[00:08:26] Bailey: Whereas if we could just stay in the park and at that, , two to four timeframe, we just kind of planned to do more low key things. We would see a show, we would get an ice cream and just sit in the shade for 20, 30 minutes. So they kind of had downtime in the park and then.

[00:08:44] Dana Stanley: because it also wasn’t, was it really hot

[00:08:47] Bailey: It got hot after lunch.

[00:08:49] Bailey: The mornings were beautiful, but it would get mid eighties, I guess. That’s not really hot for Disney, coming from March weather at home, , it felt hot,

[00:08:57] Dana Stanley: yeah. Your body’s like not acclimated where we’re where we are right now.

[00:09:02] Dana Stanley: Yeah, totally.

[00:09:02] Bailey: So they still needed like a little downtime, but , not enough of it to require going back, taking a nap. And then getting back to a park to do more things later.

[00:09:13] Dana Stanley: yeah, that makes, so you weren’t doing fireworks or like

[00:09:16] Bailey: We have not done them yet. I wish we could, but it’s something to look forward. Yeah. It’s something to look forward to. We go back and forth a lot with , the risk of keeping them up later and then them not being as well rested the next day, even if it’s just for a rest day. We just, we treat it like a normal, nine to five routine and have our dinner and we go back to the resort, take showers, watch a show.

[00:09:45] Dana Stanley: do like a early-ish

[00:09:46] Bailey: they’re in bed by 8, 8 30. Everyone’s tired, so everyone goes to

[00:09:50] Dana Stanley: No, I think I know everyone goes to sleep so much better. Like I do get. Overly worried of like our sleep situations, like the setup of where everyone is and the white noise machines. And then once the trip is happening, I’m like, oh, they like are exhausted. Especially my middle. She’ll put herself to bed and just be like, curled up in the bed.

[00:10:12] Dana Stanley: The TV will be on and she’s just passed out. But that’s great. I think that’s smart. I kind of do that with Animal Kingdom a lot. It opens really early. So I’m the same as you. Excuse me. I had this flu last week and it’s like, I don’t even know if it’s gonna end. It was like two weeks ago, and my voice is still like, please hold.

[00:10:37] Dana Stanley: What was I saying?

[00:10:38] Bailey: Animal

[00:10:38] Dana Stanley: so Animal Kingdom, because it opens so early. I kind of do the same approach of like, honestly, usually we miss early my kid’s flushing the toilet. Did you hear that? I’m like, wait, what minute is this? 11

[00:10:54] Bailey: write that one down.

[00:10:56] Dana Stanley: seconds. Yes. My love, my headphones are connected to your headphones.

[00:11:02] Dana Stanley: They’re not. Yes, ma? No, I don’t hear anything. It had a, because it’s all the way down. Okay. You’re gonna have to deal with it. Okay. Yeah, I’m almost done. She’s so funny. That’s the one that puts herself to bed. She said my headphones were, yeah, the middle. She said that my headphones were connected to her iPad, but they’re not. Sometimes they do. I’ll hear like Toka Boca like little music and I’m like,

[00:11:29] Bailey: Yeah.

[00:11:30] Dana Stanley: turn the Bluetooth off. So with Animal Kingdom, because it opens so early. We aren’t usually in a rush to get there, but it’s still like on the early side, if you wanna get to early entry, it’s still like sometimes seven 30 depending on the time of year.

[00:11:46] Dana Stanley: And it’s kind of a far park. Nothing’s too far, but it’s not something you’re getting around super easily to like sometimes from Boardwalk it could be like 15 minutes and it just seems like not worth it to go all the way back. For a nap and then go back to the park. ’cause then it closes at six.

[00:12:05] Dana Stanley: And I’m always surprised by this, ’cause I guess it didn’t always used to close so early and they really need to make it later. They’re obviously doing it for some type of reason, but I think it’s so cool at night, especially Pandora world, so it’s not worth it. We just kind of get there when we get there.

[00:12:24] Dana Stanley: Do dinner at four. And go home and treat that almost as a half day early bedtime. But it’s hard, especially, , your trip wasn’t too short, but if you are doing a lot of later nights, you almost have, you’re like missing the next morning. Like you know that you’re not gonna be able to get home after fireworks.

[00:12:45] Dana Stanley: That’s always my problem is I love the fireworks, but especially in the summer, we’re going in July. I know that the fireworks are gonna be like nine 30.

[00:12:54] Bailey: That’s what they were this week too.

[00:12:57] Dana Stanley: Oh my goodness. I thought they’d be a little earlier.

[00:12:59] Bailey: it would be like eight 30. I think Fantas was earlier, maybe eight 30, but I believe the fireworks were nine 30 and I was like, there’s no way. Not

[00:13:08] Dana Stanley: That is the nice thing about like the more winter months if you go before the times change, so that kind of makes sense. But yeah, the fireworks are like so nice and early. In the summer we were like going to bed and it was almost sun, , still the sun was setting and you hear like kids playing outside.

[00:13:25] Dana Stanley: It’s hard because I’m like, go to bed, like it’s late.

[00:13:29] Bailey: I’m tired.

[00:13:30] Dana Stanley: tired. I know. No, like seriously. But I like that you stayed value, but then you also did, I feel like a few splurges too. So you did the dining plan, which I’m not gonna, I’m gonna put that in like. The medium category because both of the boys were free.

[00:13:51] Dana Stanley: ’cause they’re nine and four, which is really nice. Did it end up, , did you price, like how much did you price out before you decided to add

[00:13:59] Bailey: So my older son has two food allergies, and so before every Disney trip, honestly, before anywhere I go, I am looking at restaurant menus and I’m figuring out what he can eat that’s safe for him, and I’m figuring out. what we’re all ordering, just to be prepared. And so this year I, like I’ve done before, have planned out every quick service lunch.

[00:14:27] Bailey: We were going to get every table service dinner that I wanted to get. And a friend said, why aren’t you doing the kids eat free promotion? And I was like, I don’t know. It always just seemed pretty stressful to worry about making sure you. Accomplished all of your credits. Used up all your credits. And I did the math and Sarah from the Main Street mom is our planner, so she helped me figure out how much it would cost to add the dining plan for the four of us.

[00:14:58] Bailey: And I added up every meal that we were going to get and realize that if we, on paper, if we order everything that we plan to order, it will cost us less money if we. Pay for it ahead of time using the dining plant.

[00:15:14] Dana Stanley: That’s great.

[00:15:15] Bailey: I think what gets tricky with it is the little details of it. For example, an adult quick service meal includes a drink, but on paper, if I order the drink, I’m saving money.

[00:15:27] Bailey: That’s great. In the moment, I may not have actually wanted it, and in real time I may not have actually even ordered it. So it’s close enough to think, or a dessert at a dinner. I ended up being full. I didn’t actually want the dessert, but it was paid for already. I ordered it, I took a little bite.

[00:15:47] Bailey: It’s a lot of food. Disney is a lot of food. So on paper.

[00:15:50] Dana Stanley: Which is what, it’s funny, we talked, I had Sarah on the podcast and that’s what we talked about, and it’s been a long time since I did it, and I’m where you were months ago. Because I remember we were chatting about this in the forum too, of like calculators and deciding if it’s gonna be worth it.

[00:16:08] Dana Stanley: I’m kind of in that boat right now for our summer trip, but the difference between our situations and yours is I have, my daughter will be 10, which stinks because she’ll be an adult. So I’d have to pay adult prices for her and lose. So like you got it like right, the perfect time with the nine and 4-year-old.

[00:16:29] Dana Stanley: I do think there’s a few things that are different in my mind versus when I used it. A big one is just that the technology now and the app, like it does help keep a little bit more track for you versus when I did it, there wasn’t even an app, which is so weird. I mean, maybe, I’m trying to think if there was an, I mean, I’m sure there was an app.

[00:16:55] Dana Stanley: It definitely wasn’t something like you couldn’t mobile order food for sure. But it also felt like a lot of food if you’re the type of couple, because I know it’s not everybody, but like me and my husband will share a lot. He’s not like a huge dessert guy. We do drink but again, it’s not, it has to be like.

[00:17:20] Dana Stanley: We’re in the mood for it. , It’s not like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We need like a dessert or a cocktail. So it is nice with the kids dying free. ’cause that was like half your family was free.

[00:17:33] Bailey: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:35] Dana Stanley: Which is really nice. So it sounds like it was still like, you still saved money,

[00:17:39] Bailey: Financially we saved money. Yes. I just don’t think I would do it again. It would be number one. He’ll be, my oldest would be 10. So adult prices. And it, , the app did make it very easy to keep track of. I was able to see when my husband accidentally ordered my son an adult chicken figure instead of a kid’s meal.

[00:17:58] Bailey: And I know, and then, the one night at the resort, my boys wanted the pizza slices, and that’s not offered as a kid. Credit, so they got the pizza. I ended up eating kids meal lunches for the next three days, which is a decent portion. I wasn’t complaining. And not having a big bill at the end is a huge, just kind of relief, , it’s already paid for.

[00:18:22] Bailey: You’re adding up the tips, anything extra that you’ve added to your meal, whether it’s a second drink or if the kids wanted a character cup or something. But that’s a much smaller number than it has been at in the past,

[00:18:35] Dana Stanley: is what Sarah said. It just makes it feel more like a cruise or like an all inclusive, ’cause you’re used to paying for those extra things. But yeah, I am, I’m kind of leaning towards not, because you also have to think about where you want to eat and I realize two or three places that we wanna try, we can’t use the dining plan.

[00:18:54] Dana Stanley: So I’d be paying cash for that.

[00:18:57] Bailey: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:58] Dana Stanley: know, did that end up happening to you guys? Did you pay anything? ,

[00:19:02] Bailey: Not for a meal, but for snacks we did just because of where we were in the park and what we wanted at the time we were in Pandora and we wanted , the big pretzel from, so

[00:19:15] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Yum.

[00:19:16] Bailey: pong, so I say

[00:19:17] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Ponga.

[00:19:18] Bailey: And they didn’t, they wouldn’t take it as a snack credit. I was like, okay, it’s fine. It’s what we want right now.

[00:19:24] Bailey: We’ll pay cash for it. It’s fine. So that was kind of just tricky to

[00:19:28] Dana Stanley: Tricky. It’s just another thing to think about.

[00:19:31] Bailey: yeah.

[00:19:31] Dana Stanley: Exactly. Yeah. But on the other hand, you’re not thinking about the cost as much because it’s kind of like a prepaid experience. So yeah, I go back and forth. It’s hard. I think that it is enough with the kids eat free to at least price it out. So it’s smart that you did that, but the big thing I wanted to talk to you about is you decided to do Premier Pass for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

[00:19:59] Bailey: we did.

[00:20:00] Dana Stanley: I love to hear, well, first off, like why did you wanna do Premier Pass this time? This was the first time,

[00:20:07] Bailey: this was the second time it was released, right? We love it. It was, it came out right before our trip

[00:20:16] Dana Stanley: Trip

[00:20:17] Bailey: year in 2025. When, so our first, sorry, I’ll start over. Our first trip was in 2024.

[00:20:24] Dana Stanley: was four.

[00:20:25] Bailey: was in the Genie Plus Time, and thanks to all of your tips and tricks, I was a Genie Plus Ride booking master, and we got on everything we wanted to in the times we wanted to, and my husband was so impressed that he agreed to just keep going back to Disney because I made it so easy for him.

[00:20:45] Dana Stanley: Because you did such a good job.

[00:20:46] Bailey: thanks to you. So then our second year he said, okay, we can go back, but let’s make it a shorter trip this time. Let’s only do Magic Kingdom one day. And as it got closer and we started talking about what we wanted to do, and we started, I started looking at return times on thrill data. I was realizing that with Lightning Lane Multipass.

[00:21:13] Bailey: I can reserve my three rides for the day, but they may not be the times that I want. They may be later in the day, in which

[00:21:22] Dana Stanley: Right. Which wouldn’t really work for

[00:21:24] Bailey: it doesn’t work for our right. It doesn’t work for our family. For some people that’s totally great. They’re fine to rope, drop, do a bunch of rides, take a break and come back and have the stacked lightning lanes.

[00:21:34] Bailey: It just wasn’t, didn’t fit with us in the phase of life we’re in right now. So we ended up doing premier paths because it just kind of made sense. We would be able to go into the park at whatever time we wanted and walk around, not glued to my phone, not stressed about a return time, and just as we came to a ride we could scan into it.

[00:22:01] Bailey: It also allowed me to kind of make really fun. Sections of our day. So we would have like a whole Star Wars morning where I had my day anchored by more of the experiences versus anchored by the exact ride times that we had to hit. So we could go watch Kylo rent, search for the resistance over in that one area.

[00:22:24] Bailey: We could wait in line to meet Chewbacca. They could go through the gift shop. Of course.

[00:22:30] Dana Stanley: Hey, oh, we got it. Oh, like, oh, we gotta get going ’cause our lightning lane’s about to start, or

[00:22:36] Bailey: and I’m the type of person that when the lightning lane’s about to start, we have to be there at the very beginning so that I can then book another ride. I’m not waiting till the end of that

[00:22:45] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Yeah. Right.

[00:22:47] Bailey: so it really just took a level of anxiety away from just the ride portion, and that’s what is most important to our family right now.

[00:22:59] Bailey: The phase that we’re in is just. They’re obsessed with the rides. Some people are more, they wanna go back and have a really great afternoon at the hotel pool and go to a really nice dinner close by. So this was more our splurge where we’re staying at a value resort. We’re saving a little bit of money on that, but we’re able to put that money towards having a really full laid back park day.

[00:23:26] Dana Stanley: That’s so smart. Like especially when you don’t have toddlers who are napping and you don’t have to, I don’t, I don’t like when people say that it’s just a place to sleep. But in your case, if you are very ride focused and that’s what your boys are into and they’re not, they’re in the stroller so they’re not getting like super tuckered.

[00:23:51] Dana Stanley: You can stay there a little bit longer and then go back and like literally sleep, which is really nice.

[00:23:58] Bailey: And it

[00:23:58] Dana Stanley: Does the app like keep track of, I mean, I guess it. You don’t really have to keep track of like which ride like you would remember. But does it have, like, does it do like a little check?

[00:24:11] Bailey: does.

[00:24:11] Dana Stanley: Like, oh, you rode the teacups or something?

[00:24:14] Bailey: will show you like what’s left in your Premier Pass. So it says, you’ve checked into these, and then towards the top it says something like Experiences left and you can see which ones you haven’t hit yet.

[00:24:28] Dana Stanley: That’s

[00:24:28] Bailey: And it’s also nice speak.

[00:24:29] Dana Stanley: I mean, I’m trying to think like. Would you remember how many you wrote? ’cause at Hollywood Studios doesn’t have a ton of rides, but like Magic Kingdom, you can’t write everything.

[00:24:41] Bailey: So we almost did,

[00:24:42] Dana Stanley: We almost did it. Wow. That’s

[00:24:45] Bailey: everything with a lightning lane. So like Astro orbiter doesn’t have a lightning lane. We didn’t ride that. But we did all of fantasy land. My older son and my husband did Space Mountain. We did Rider Swap for Tron. My youngest got to do the Speedway twice While we were doing, we just swapped their magic bands so that my oldest could do Tron again.

[00:25:08] Bailey: My youngest could do Speedway

[00:25:11] Dana Stanley: that’s the easiest thing to

[00:25:12] Bailey: It really

[00:25:13] Dana Stanley: just to swap bands.

[00:25:14] Bailey: rather than

[00:25:15] Dana Stanley: I did that because it’s hard to cancel Lightning liens. Once you’re in the window, so like that trip when I had the baby, I missed so many rides ’cause I was nursing or he fell asleep and someone had to stay back. And sometimes it was easier to just hand my band to someone for them to scan me

[00:25:33] Bailey: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:34] Dana Stanley: even though I wasn’t there so that I could book another ride.

[00:25:37] Dana Stanley: We do, we actually do that a lot to just kind of swap things around. It’s like the easiest

[00:25:42] Bailey: Yep. And then Yeah, we

[00:25:44] Dana Stanley: and they don’t, I don’t think the cast members seem to

[00:25:46] Bailey: I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re even paying attention. There’s so many people going through that. It’s,

[00:25:50] Dana Stanley: Yeah, it’s true.

[00:25:51] Bailey: lot for them to be worrying about.

[00:25:53] Dana Stanley: you could technically, I guess if like, I know people that book Premiere and you could also buy a single pass, like if you wanted to do the lightning lane for Tron twice,

[00:26:06] Bailey: So that is with, yeah, with the Premier Pass, you’re only riding each ride one time, but I guess if you wanted to add on again, you could add the single pass on top

[00:26:15] Dana Stanley: were like a rise of the resistance, die hard, which I am not, but I love it. I don’t need to ride it twice,

[00:26:22] Bailey: It’s great.

[00:26:24] Dana Stanley: so that’s really cool and interesting because I, like even Hollywood Studios, it’s just one of those parks because there isn’t a ton of rides, especially like for little kids, it can get hard to.

[00:26:41] Dana Stanley: Balance the lightning lanes and getting them early enough so that if you want Mickey and Minis and you want Slinky, it just makes it really hard. Which I’m assuming you rode both ’cause they’re really

[00:26:53] Bailey: Yeah, we rode everything in Hollywood, but it did help that, rock and roller coaster is currently closed in Magic Kingdom. Big Thunder Mountain is still closed. Buzzes at the time was still

[00:27:05] Dana Stanley: It makes it easier for you with Premier, but it’s harder with

[00:27:08] Bailey: Exactly. So you’re not necessarily getting the times you want or maybe even the ride at all. Just if it’s a crowded week or something and you’re not tied to your phone.

[00:27:20] Bailey: Trying to figure out if you can get it later. I’m not refreshing, hoping that something will pop up. I’m literally just spending that time paying attention to my family and having a blast.

[00:27:32] Dana Stanley: Yeah. When did you buy Premier Pass? Like when did you decide and just like buy

[00:27:37] Bailey: at the seven day mark when you can buy.

[00:27:40] Dana Stanley: you bought it

[00:27:40] Bailey: Yeah, I knew exactly.

[00:27:42] Dana Stanley: Did you notice if it sold out while you were there? Did

[00:27:45] Bailey: It probably did. I was watching leading up to our trip to see how tricky it would be to get it. I had no problem getting it, but I would imagine as we were there at peak spring

[00:27:58] Dana Stanley: buy it like that day sometimes

[00:28:00] Bailey: when they realize they’re not getting great return times, they’ll just add it on probably.

[00:28:05] Bailey: Or the people not

[00:28:06] Dana Stanley: sure. Magic

[00:28:07] Bailey: and then booking three days out if they’re not staying on

[00:28:10] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:28:11] Bailey: that’s probably when it really sells out.

[00:28:14] Dana Stanley: Yeah. So it was, it felt busy the week you were there.

[00:28:17] Bailey: It felt crowded in areas. I feel like not much different than when we were there in April before. Magic Kingdom Fantasy land felt empty, but I believe that’s because early entry was at seven 30 that morning. So by the time we got there at 8 45, I think most of the people had already done everything.

[00:28:38] Bailey: So there were moments we were scanning into rides and I was like, we didn’t even really need the lightning lane for this ride. It’s just a little five minute wait. But it was nice to just be able to. Jump from Ride to Ride and have more downtime between it. Whenever I thought we needed the downtime,

[00:28:58] Dana Stanley: Yeah, that’s really nice. And you don’t have to worry about rides like going down or like just basing your schedule on anything else. You just. Skin in when you

[00:29:10] Bailey: right, we walked into Hollywood Studios at eight 30. And the cast member was saying that rise of the resistance, slinky dog and alien swirling saucers were all currently down. So if that was your rope drop early entry plan, you were then scrambling to go find something else to do. And that would really put a wrench in your plans for the rest of the day too.

[00:29:32] Bailey: Probably.

[00:29:34] Dana Stanley: I hate Hollywood Studios in the morning. It drives me nuts. ’cause like you just don’t

[00:29:38] Bailey: don’t know? Mm-hmm.

[00:29:41] Dana Stanley: We never, ever rope, drop, rise or slinky. We don’t, when I say rope drop, I just mean do first really. But slinky. Pretty much every time we’ve been there has like a delayed run and people are just , waiting in the line for it to open.

[00:29:59] Dana Stanley: And then toy story media can kind of be a little bit surprising, a little bit finicky I guess, ’cause there’s two sides, like maybe one side will be running. Like I’ve actually gotten in the lightning lane for that and left because I could tell. It was not moving. Like I was like, I think we should just go do something else and come back.

[00:30:20] Dana Stanley: So if I gave you the option, I’m just curious ’cause you’ve only stayed value so far. Do you have any desire to like stay deluxe and not do premier? If like gun to your head you had to choose,

[00:30:38] Bailey: If I had to choose, I would stay value and do a premier pass. I do have the desire and hope to stay at. The beach club or the boardwalk when I think my kids would enjoy the pool time a little bit more , or be able to kind of take a break, go back in at dinner time and do some rides later in the day too.

[00:31:02] Bailey: I just know for the phase of life we are in right now, we are just that. Nine to five Park Day, and we try to get in as much as we can, and that Premier Pass is just the key to doing it all, but it is a, at a laid back, relaxed pace. I’m not dragging my kids ride to ride, and they’re melting down.

[00:31:26] Bailey: We’re making our way there slowly. There’s still a line when you’re going through a lightning lane, you’re still waiting a couple minutes. As you’re moving through it. So there still is that downtime, but I do think if you can save in one area and splurge in another, if that’s what is important to your family, that’s a great splurge to have.

[00:31:46] Dana Stanley: I love that. It’s funny because I had a friend, we were trying to plan out when she should use Premier or like what Park Day, and I had said something along the lines of like, oh, it’s smart that you. Did a rest day after Premiere. ’cause like I’m like, you’re gonna be exhausted. And she’s like, no. It’s like the opposite, like you’re actually doing, you’re doing a lot, like I would call that like you’re going hard because you’re doing a bunch of rides, but it’s completely different because you’re literally just getting on the ride and then leaving, like you’re not doing all of the work.

[00:32:26] Dana Stanley: Of leading up to and like having to pull kids away from certain things to make it and scan in so you can get another one. So it actually ends up being more chill.

[00:32:35] Bailey: feel like mentally it’s so much more chill because I’m not stressing about any of those return times or windows, or is my dining gonna conflict with what we’re getting for later?

[00:32:49] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Which is what’s working for your family, which is the whole point. And I always hate like telling people like it depends, like is it worth it? It depends. And I know that’s not an answer, but that’s usually the

[00:33:04] Bailey: It’s true. And my kids are both. Old enough and tall enough to do all of the rides too. If my youngest was still two years old and he couldn’t ride the majority of those rides, we wouldn’t pay for that because that would be a waste. But he can go on everything except for Space, mountain and Tron right now.

[00:33:21] Bailey: So

[00:33:23] Dana Stanley: And they like

[00:33:23] Bailey: And he loves it. Yes.

[00:33:26] Dana Stanley: Aw. I love that. I have a little bit more of timid, a little bit. I don’t know. It’s funny, my oldest kind of reminds me of me like she wants to ride it, but she’s scared. So it’s that balance of . If I know that she’s genuinely gonna like it, kinda have to push her a little bit and then she’s happy that she did it and she feels great.

[00:33:48] Dana Stanley: I’m just looking, I think we chatted about all those main things. I print double sided and it’s not smart. , Don’t do it because like I’m always like going like this and like, wait, which page? I know it’s like trying to save paper. So we talked about Premier Pass. I feel like we talked about the no midday break. I had it in my notes of like the cost of another day versus

[00:34:15] Bailey: Oh yeah.

[00:34:17] Dana Stanley: I feel like we, I think that’s

[00:34:19] Bailey: Yeah.

[00:34:23] Dana Stanley: Did you just do those two park days?

[00:34:25] Bailey: This trip. No, we did. We did six nights, four park days, rest day in the middle. So for Animal Kingdom and Epcot, we just did regular Multipass.

[00:34:36] Dana Stanley: Okay. Wait, so it was four. So you did , park, rest.

[00:34:41] Bailey: Yep.

[00:34:42] Dana Stanley: Park, park. I’ll say that in the intro.

[00:34:51] Dana Stanley: So then how. So you did Multipass for Epcot and Animal

[00:34:56] Bailey: We did. I,

[00:34:58] Dana Stanley: how’d that go?

[00:34:59] Bailey: it was good. Animal kingdom, there’s just not enough to justify a premier pass for that. But.

[00:35:06] Dana Stanley: Well, and there’s no

[00:35:07] Bailey: There’s not, yeah, it’s just kind of, we booked we booked, pre-booked the Safari. We pre-booked Navi River and we pre-booked Everest and then my oldest and husband did fly to Passage and we just kind had a relaxed day going about the park.

[00:35:25] Bailey: And then for Epcot, we had our rides picked we did Sorin mission space. And I’m blanking on the other one.

[00:35:39] Dana Stanley: What do you guys think of Mission Space to

[00:35:41] Bailey: My boys love it. It’s kind of,

[00:35:43] Dana Stanley: Oh my gosh.

[00:35:44] Bailey: my first time on it. , My husband and older son had gone on it before, but , they just think it’s

[00:35:50] Dana Stanley: have people, , there should be a warning about. So if no one knows what mission space is I don’t like it, which is probably no surprise to anybody. But , it gives you the simulation. Of being projected upwards to space through centrifugal force. So you’re spinning, but it doesn’t feel like you’re spinning.

[00:36:11] Dana Stanley: It feels like you’re going straight up and it’s very realistic if you or your child have the dream of going to space. It does really feel like that, which is my worst

[00:36:23] Bailey: Yeah.

[00:36:24] Dana Stanley: I’ve been watching the the lunar launch and I’m like, ugh, like mission space. But I’ve had members once they close that door, like you’re

[00:36:34] Bailey: Oh, you’re stuck. Yeah.

[00:36:36] Dana Stanley: I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what I was getting into. Because it’s obviously like when you go into the ride, it’s low. , You know that it’s not a roller coaster, that it’s not, whatever. And it can be a little surprising for people. And it’s always funny when people. Love it or hate it.

[00:36:54] Dana Stanley: It’s like there’s no like in

[00:36:56] Bailey: No. And it was one of those that, looking at return times, I probably didn’t need it to be one of my pre-booked rides, but I knew we wanted Remys. That’s what we did first. We had our Remys booked for the later afternoon. We had Soren for the morning, and then I just added Mission Space around the time that we bought a single pass for Guardians.

[00:37:15] Bailey: ’cause you’re right there in that area. I will say though, guardians was down until about three o’clock that day. So it, it, that stressed me out. So I didn’t have, I knew that they would honor the lightning lane whenever it came back up. But what happened was we, we just lucked out. We came out of Spaceship Earth, which is again, close by, and guardians had just reopened.

[00:37:42] Bailey: So we bolted over there and scanned in. But when we got out of it, the lightning lane line. So long because everyone who had bought it for that day was now standing in the lightning lane. So things like that just, it’s stressful.

[00:37:59] Dana Stanley: Yeah, and you can’t do anything

[00:38:02] Bailey: out of your control.

[00:38:03] Dana Stanley: it. Yeah, rides going down is probably not talked about enough. Because it is so out of your control, obviously, like if it’s raining, you kind of expect outdoor rides like, okay, it’s raining. They can’t run when it’s like lightning or something like that.

[00:38:20] Dana Stanley: But there’s rides that, indoor rides that will just go down. Like I remember we were having a trip where we could not ride nemo, which is like. It’s shells that are going in a straight line, like I don’t understand on a conveyor belt. But there is something up with Nemo and every time we went it was down.

[00:38:39] Dana Stanley: And it’s not the type of ride that it’s like worth it to really hang out or like bolt when it came back up. But just every time we were going, it was just always down. So it can be hard because completely outta your control and there’s no like rhyme or reason to. For guardians to be down all day. I mean, not all day, but till three

[00:39:01] Bailey: It was, I was pretty convinced it wasn’t going to come back up, but we just

[00:39:06] Dana Stanley: Oh, I’m glad you guys got to ride it

[00:39:07] Bailey: too. It was all of our first

[00:39:09] Dana Stanley: and not get stuck in that lightning lane.

[00:39:11] Bailey: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:12] Dana Stanley: I heard they did something different with the pre-show, like when you get into the pre-show.

[00:39:19] Bailey: Okay.

[00:39:19] Dana Stanley: My kids are fighting. When you go into the pre-show, was it different than last year with like the people, the way they divert people?

[00:39:28] Dana Stanley: Did you notice

[00:39:29] Bailey: It was our first time, so I’m not sure.

[00:39:31] Dana Stanley: Oh, it was your first time. Oh, I’m

[00:39:33] Bailey: it was

[00:39:33] Dana Stanley: I’ll report back when I

[00:39:34] Bailey: Yeah. We loved it and even my 4-year-old loved it. It was very

[00:39:40] Dana Stanley: Oh, I love that ride. It’s so

[00:39:42] Bailey: Yes.

[00:39:43] Dana Stanley: It’s not scary like it is, but it’s not like, it just, it gives you that feeling in your belly that just like makes you laugh like the

[00:39:51] Bailey: Yes, we were loving it.

[00:39:52] Dana Stanley: Even though it’s like a rollercoaster.

[00:39:55] Bailey: It’s a crazy rollercoaster, but awesome.

[00:39:57] Dana Stanley: It is crazy and it’s funny. I think I probably like that because you can’t see the

[00:40:02] Bailey: Right. I agree.

[00:40:03] Dana Stanley: so dark. I don’t know where I am, so I’m just, I feel safe. And secure. It’s just dark enough that I can have a good time.

[00:40:12] Dana Stanley: I love that ride. It’s so fun. Well, this was really fun. Thank you for chatting with me about your

[00:40:17] Bailey: Thank you for having me.

[00:40:20] Dana Stanley: What was like your favorite thing this time that you think you’re gonna remember for a while?

[00:40:25] Bailey: Oh, my favorite thing, it has nothing to do with rides or the park days, but we brought Disney Uno card game with us to our.

[00:40:36] Dana Stanley: You posted about that.

[00:40:37] Bailey: to our table service meals, to our character meals, and at Tusker House and at Tainos, the characters, when they came over, they just started playing cards with us and it was the cutest character interactions we ever had.

[00:40:51] Dana Stanley: Do you remember which characters?

[00:40:54] Bailey: Goofy and Donald at Tusker house, and it was our second time seeing them, so they had come through once, signed our things, took our pictures, and then you’re there long enough, they stop by again. Then at Topos it was Donald again came over and started playing

[00:41:10] Dana Stanley: I was gonna say like I can just see Donald doing

[00:41:13] Bailey: was so funny. He picked up a card, look at the character on it would start, miming something about them, and my husband and I were trying to like, narrate for

[00:41:21] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:41:22] Bailey: It was just really cute and meaningful. They can’t talk to you. So sometimes my kids wanna take their a picture with them, but then they’re like, okay, bye. So it was a really cute

[00:41:32] Dana Stanley: love when they really get like that, like long interaction or it’s , like you said, their second time around or if just a slow day and they can spend some extra time with you. Can you send me the link of like the exact ones that you played

[00:41:46] Bailey: Oh, sure. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah,

[00:41:49] Dana Stanley: gonna put that in the show notes for everybody because you posted that and I was like, I have to order that for our trip. ’cause my girls are definitely at that age where they could

[00:41:58] Bailey: Yeah, it’s definitely an easy game. My 4-year-old could play it. And it’s great for passing the time anyway when you’re waiting for them to come around, when you’re waiting for your food. We love that and we love spot it too. That’s a great Disney card game too, so.

[00:42:12] Dana Stanley: I weirdly don’t have the Disney one. I have like the classic and I have the beach one. Do you have the beach one?

[00:42:18] Bailey: We have the the Disneys.

[00:42:20] Bailey: Oh, I love that.

[00:42:22] Dana Stanley: Yeah. They’re like, I mean, I don’t think the regular ones would fare too badly, but they’re like laminated so you could take ’em to the pool and they’re all on like a.

[00:42:32] Bailey: Like a rain.

[00:42:32] Dana Stanley: chain ring. Yes. So I just like throw them in my beach bag and they’re great for any time, but I obviously need to get the Disney one. So Disney, UNO, Disney spot it. Adding that to my packing list for July. So thank you