[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: So this episode is basically a list of things. I am very intentionally skipping at Walt Disney World, and I just wanna be clear upfront that this isn’t like a, things I hate episode or things I don’t like. And it’s definitely not a episode where if you do like these things that I’m like yucking or yum.

[00:00:28] Dana Stanley: These are more of the things that I have experienced, tried, spent money on, and now I’ve kinda just drawn like a hard line of like, Nope, this is not for me,

[00:00:42] Dana Stanley: like decisions I’ve made ahead of time so I don’t have to negotiate with myself in the middle of my trip or while I’m planning.

[00:00:54] Dana Stanley: And waste mental energy on something that I know I don’t actually want. Because I think one of the sneakiest ways that Disney can get overwhelming is when everything is, when everything is an option. You could wait in this line, you could go to this restaurant, you could chase X, Y, Z, new thing. You could stay out late and suddenly you’re not enjoying the day at all.

[00:01:21] Dana Stanley: You’re just kind of deciding all these things, the entire trip. So over the years, I’ve started pre-deciding what I’m skipping, and it’s been just as important as the things that I do plan for.

[00:01:39] Dana Stanley: So today I am walking you through the seven things that I will always skip on purpose. These are the things that if you see me doing them, there’s like something wrong. Like someone’s forcing me to do it. I, not because they’re bad, but they are certainly not for me. And, and I’ll show you how these things have made our trips.

[00:02:07] Dana Stanley: Calmer by skipping them more enjoyable, by skipping them, and just way less draining in general.

[00:02:21] Dana Stanley: Before we get into it really quickly, this is actually episode number 50, which feels really crazy to say out loud and to say thank you for listening to the podcast being subscribed. Anytime you shared it with a friend or dmd me any of your questions, I’m doing something that I have never done and that is for a very limited time, you can get $50 off laid back Magic.

[00:02:49] Dana Stanley: This is my Walt Disney World planning bundle that comes with support from me with the code 50 F-I-F-T-Y 50. This is the biggest discount I have offered, and it’s specifically four people planning trips this year. Who want to feel prepared. If you’ve been listening for a while and kind of been on the fence about joining Laidback Magic, this is your sign to join.

[00:03:17] Dana Stanley: You can grab it now and then we’ll get into all the things I intentionally skip at Disney World.

[00:03:41] Dana Stanley: Starting off with the most obvious thing that I am skipping in Disney World and I promise that the list is not all things like this, but I can’t not say it. And that’s lines. I am not taking the easy way out by saying lines, I promise, but, but when I say lines, I mean any line, like not necessarily. The most obvious choice, which is the lines for rides.

[00:04:07] Dana Stanley: But there can be lines for buses, for example. And in that case, I’m gonna walk. There could be a line for the boat or the skyliner. Any opportunity to walk, I’m going to walk. There can be lines for Starbucks coffee. In that case, I am gonna go somewhere else like Joffrey’s to get coffee. When it comes to rides, yes, I am going to be spending a lot of extra money to skip those lines.

[00:04:40] Dana Stanley: If you’re new to the Disney World Language, lightning lanes is essentially the faster line that you can pay to use in Disney World.

[00:04:54] Dana Stanley: And I think for certain parks and certain rides, people may think that they don’t need lightning lanes, and in some cases that could be certainly true. But I have had experiences where maybe the standby line wasn’t that long. Maybe it was like 15, 20 minutes. And I’ve been in a lot of different scenarios where a.

[00:05:18] Dana Stanley: You join the standby line and the line just gets longer and longer while you’re in it, or B,

[00:05:30] Dana Stanley: the ride goes down like right when I’m headed to get on it, or C, everything works well, but even if it saved me 5, 7, 10 minutes, all of those things add up with a lightning lane, which is what I really like about it. If I have a lightning lien for a ride and the ride goes down, which just happens a lot, now I have something in my back pocket to come back when it comes back up, and I don’t have to worry about staying in the area or keep checking the app to see when it comes back up.

[00:06:02] Dana Stanley: It’s just another safety net that I really like.

[00:06:10] Dana Stanley: So yes, I am definitely budgeting to stay out of. Lines for rides, but there are lots of different tools that you can use to just stay out of lines in general, like the mobile ordering feature and some of the quick service locations in Disney World, that’s gonna save me a lot of time in line.

[00:06:34] Dana Stanley: I am using my phone to check out of the store if there’s a long line to buy some merchandise.

[00:06:44] Dana Stanley: Using the online check-in at my hotel to avoid potentially a long check-in line. I could go on and on, but that is definitely something that I am always skipping. Now, I want you to hold me accountable here and make me do this. Like if I forget, I want you to DM me and remind me that I said this because I sometimes.

[00:07:11] Dana Stanley: Because I record these episodes pretty far in advance, but I want to show you photos of me, Dana Stanley, past Dana in full blown matching Disney tees because I’ve brought it up many, many times. That it’s something that I’m skipping. I am not doing the matching family Disney t-shirts. And the funniest thing is I was really into that for a short period of time until I filled an entire Tupperware in our basement of t-shirts from Target h and m Etsy that I will never wear again.

[00:07:48] Dana Stanley: Like, do you remember when t-shirts were super tight, like from the collar to the hem? Like super, like cap sleeve skin tight all the way down. I can’t even imagine wearing a t-shirt like that now makes my skin crawl.

[00:08:10] Dana Stanley: It’s like just, I don’t know. It’s just a weird thing to think about. T-shirts aren’t like that, but anyway, I get it. They’re cute. And actually I have had an experience in Disney where a family and matching t-shirts. Made me cry in line for Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway. There was just like a sea of gray t-shirts in front of me, like maybe a family of, I wanna say like 20 ish people ranging from like grandmas to like babies and, and I forget exactly what it said on the back, but it was some type of.

[00:08:50] Dana Stanley: Monsters Inc. Theme, like I wanna say, it was gray with like a Mike Wasowski and it might’ve had the last names on the back, something like that. And I didn’t really think anything of it, just that there was a lot of them. And as we were turning the corner of the line, I caught a glimpse of the front and it said, oh my gosh, I’m not gonna start crying.

[00:09:16] Dana Stanley: It said our little monster is cancer free. Like if you have someone in your family who beat cancer and a kid no less beat cancer and now you’re celebrating by going to Disney World, please get the matching t-shirts. Don’t make them skin tight though, but like, yes, get the matching t-shirt. So there are, so there will be a little asterisk next to this one.

[00:09:44] Dana Stanley: The next thing that I’m always going to skip is under planning, and that may sound like the opposite of like my laid back approach because we don’t wanna be over planning our trip. I just wanna go over like the two different kinds of under planning, like what the difference is of the two, because I’m not talking about one and I’m definitely talking about the other.

[00:10:10] Dana Stanley: So the first kind. Of under planning is that you haven’t planned enough things to do, like in terms of a park day or any trip, like it could be your honeymoon. You could say, oh, we didn’t plan enough. Like we didn’t plan enough to fill up our time. We were kind of bored. We under planned our activities in Disney speak.

[00:10:33] Dana Stanley: That could be, we didn’t plan enough pool time. Um, I wish we had planned more dining reservations, et cetera.

[00:10:47] Dana Stanley: But the true definition of under planning, which is what I’m talking about here and I’ll read the definition, is inadequate preparation. So key steps or potential problems are not considered in advance, and the result is an increased risk of failure. The lack of thorough planning means the outcome is more likely to encounter unexpected obstacles, or the project will fail to meet its goals.

[00:11:17] Dana Stanley: That is exactly what I’m talking about. I will always skip having inadequate preparation. I will always skip not feeling prepared when it comes to our Disney trip.

[00:11:32] Dana Stanley: You know, growing up my parents weren’t really sticklers for like good grades. We weren’t like, I certainly wasn’t like a very academic child who strived for that. But we did have Bible study a lot, and in our Bible study we were strongly encouraged to comment and that means like, answer certain questions correctly.

[00:12:00] Dana Stanley: And it was kinda like an unspoken rule that my parents really wanted me to raise my hand to comment twice per Bible study. And 99% of the time I would be getting my comments ready or my answers ready, like while we were doing Bible study, like I would be skimming ahead. To try to get an answer really quick, but sometimes when I wasn’t being like dumb and lazy and would prepare ahead of time, I’d actually, you know, sit down and get my highlight out in my Bible and I would study and maybe do a little bit more research and I’d reference like maybe another scripture that was mentioned, and I’d even have a backup answer if I didn’t get called on for the one that I really wanted.

[00:12:56] Dana Stanley: So I’d have like my ideal choice answer and then a backup.

[00:13:10] Dana Stanley: I was so much more excited and like less dread going into those Bible studies when I was prepared than when I wasn’t. I am sure you’ve experienced this with a test or a speech or something for work,

[00:13:32] Dana Stanley: and it may sound silly, but that is how I feel going into a Disney trip when I know I put in the work, like really thoughtful undistracted research, even if it’s only a few minutes here and there, I go into our trip. Twice as excited. Literally twice as excited as I would feel if I didn’t do that research on my own ahead of time.

[00:14:03] Dana Stanley: This one is a hard no slash skip for me. Again, I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but I’m always skipping Be Our Guest, which is a restaurant in Magic Kingdom.

[00:14:19] Dana Stanley: And this made the list because it actually came up about two days ago. I was meeting up with friends. I met someone new. Disney came up as it does all the time, and she was telling me how they had a great trip. Um, they had a great trip last year, except the one thing they would’ve skipped was be our guest, because it just wasn’t what they were expecting.

[00:14:44] Dana Stanley: It’s one of those restaurants where depending on where you sit, can have like a very different experience. It is not a true character dining. People usually expect Bell and or Beast and it’s just not that type of experience where the characters are gonna walk around and greet you. In fact, for my character dining episode, I didn’t even talk about beer guests because it’s not, because it’s not, I don’t even consider it a character dining.

[00:15:14] Dana Stanley: Disney doesn’t consider it a character dining, and the food is good, but it’s just very heavy for most likely hot weather in Orlando. And it’s very expensive too. So if you see me there, it’s because. Maybe someone took me there or like it’s free. I don’t know. Check in on me if you see me at be. Our guest

[00:15:58] Dana Stanley: number five is going to Disney Springs. On a weekend, specifically Disney Springs, like Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening. I could probably be convinced for brunch, especially Chef Art Smith’s homecoming love brunch there. But anything after maybe like four or 5:00 PM it’s a weekend. That’s a hard skip for me.

[00:16:30] Dana Stanley: I have done it many, many times and every single time I regret this and listen, I know people who like being where like the people are not to reference a Disney movie. They like the energy of the crowds. They feel like they’re where they’re supposed to be. ’cause everybody’s here. That could be maybe shopping.

[00:16:53] Dana Stanley: In December, during Christmas with all the decorations or going to the Lego store on like a Friday night and having dinner. But this is not for me. I can handle a certain level of people and I know it is strange because Disney World, for some reason, the crowds don’t bother me when I’m actually in the parks, but Disney Springs, if we’re there, it’s because I’m not in the parks and I wanna just relax, do some shopping.

[00:17:24] Dana Stanley: I wanna get dinner at the boathouse. Like I don’t want to do like the Disney thing, if that makes sense. So to go on a weekend when it can get really, really packed with people. I don’t enjoy the shopping. I,

[00:17:43] Dana Stanley: I could. Go for dinner and then leave. But again, I usually regret that, like, why didn’t we do this on like a Tuesday night? Why are we here on a weekend? So if we fly in on, let’s say like a Saturday, there have been times where we don’t have enough time to go to the park and like my in-laws really like boathouse.

[00:18:08] Dana Stanley: So we say, okay, let’s just like kind of get that out of the way. And do it on this free night when we’re flying in. And sometimes that can certainly work. But if that falls on a weekend, now I don’t do that. It’s gonna be a hard skip. Now, if my travel day is on one of those nights, I’m gonna stay somewhere around a resort and have dinner there.

[00:18:44] Dana Stanley: I almost had this next one as fomo, but the difference is that this isn’t really the fear of missing out, per se. I feel like this is something different and that’s like I’m literally skipping, chasing the new thing. And of course, like my job is to try the new thing sometimes. So I want you to give me a little.

[00:19:10] Dana Stanley: Bit of like grace of knowing the difference here. But what I mean is going somewhere, maybe opening day or opening weekend, like cramming something in because it is the hot new thing. Whether it be a snack that you heard of or the viral blankety blank, or the new character or a new ride or update.

[00:19:37] Dana Stanley: Because what can happen, and I know is going to be happening for a ton of people in 2026, is you’re gonna have your trip booked from this day to this day, and you’re gonna find out that something is opening. Like the day that you leave or the day after you leave, you’re gonna start scrambling of like, oh, I need to add on one more day.

[00:19:59] Dana Stanley: Or nevermind, we’re actually not doing animal kingdom because we have to go back to this park to try this new thing because the ride just opened. And I just wanna remind you that there are a lot of downsides to things when they first open. The kitchen can be working things out. Um, the ride could be getting their kinks out.

[00:20:21] Dana Stanley: Um, if you’re seeing things online about previews or media previews. That isn’t always a good depiction of what your experience is gonna be. Sometimes it’s nice skipping the new thing,

[00:20:44] Dana Stanley: and I know this is very much something that I have. I mean, I can list off so many things. Rides, parades, restaurants, things that we just missed. And I’m not local to Disney. I can’t just pop in and pop out whenever I want to, and it’s something I’ve made a job of. Even with all of those things, I’ve just learned that it’s worth it sometimes to just skip it.

[00:21:13] Dana Stanley: Now the last thing is just very black and white, and that is skipping Magic Kingdom on Mondays. This is just a data thing of wait times or higher in Magic Kingdom on Mondays

[00:21:35] Dana Stanley: when I’m sketching out my trip, I work around this and make sure that this doesn’t happen no matter the order of parks that I wanna go to. I let the crowds dictate. What parks I’m going on, what day, and having a balance of the things that are set in stone versus the things that I can control, like what park we’re visiting on Monday through Sunday.

[00:22:04] Dana Stanley: I have posted a reel a long, long time ago, uh, where one of the rules, I guess was Magic Kingdom on a Monday, or maybe it was. Ways to upgrade your trip was to skip Magic Kingdom on a Monday. And the number one comment, ’cause it had a lot of different other tips in the reel, all the comments were like, why not Magic Kingdom on a Monday?

[00:22:26] Dana Stanley: But I’m booked on Magic Kingdom on a Monday. I’m going Monday. Why hundreds of comments of people going to Magic Kingdom on Monday? Because that’s just because it happens. For most people the way that their trip works out, they want to start in Magic Kingdom or end in Magic Kingdom. I think the second highest day is a Saturday, but now the exception to my little rule here is if there is a party that falls on a Monday from August through December.

[00:23:00] Dana Stanley: So these are party nights. IE Magic Kingdom closes early. If that happens to fall on a Monday, which it happens a lot, the wait times dip like 40%, so that doesn’t count. You actually will see me in Magic Kingdom on a Monday. I didn’t get abducted or anything, so absolutely skipping Magic Kingdom on a Monday, with the exception if it’s a party day.

[00:23:31] Dana Stanley: And that’s really the thread through this whole episode is skipping things on purpose, isn’t about doing less stuff, it’s about doing Disney World in a way that actually feels good to you. When I know what my plan is and what I’m not doing, the lines, I won’t stand in the places I’m not gonna force myself to like.

[00:23:56] Dana Stanley: The plans, I’m not gonna cram in. Everything else just starts to get a lot easier and honestly, I’m just like a lot less annoyed in general.

[00:24:12] Dana Stanley: So hopefully this episode maybe gave you a little thumbs up to skip something that you’ve been side eyeing or wondering if you wanna do for years or maybe helped you realize that not. Every must do has to be something that you must do.

[00:24:37] Dana Stanley: And if you’re listening and thinking, okay, but I want help figuring out what my own lines in the sand should be. That’s exactly what I help you do inside laid back magic. And don’t forget, you get $50 off for listening to my 50th episode with the code 50. I’ll put a link in the show notes for you.

[00:25:03] Dana Stanley: Thank you for listening, and I will see you next week.