[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: I just remembered what I wanted to ask you before we started recording. It doesn’t matter. Um, how do you say your name?

[00:00:08] Andrea: Andrea, Laura, Andrea,

[00:00:10] Dana Stanley: it’s Andrea. Not like Andrea.

[00:00:13] Andrea: No, no,

[00:00:14] Dana Stanley: I say, I say Andrea.

[00:00:16] Andrea: It’s Andrea. Yeah.

[00:00:18] Dana Stanley: Well, Andrea, thank you so much for coming on the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. You just got back, of course, you are one of my.

[00:00:27] Dana Stanley: First, like truly first laid back magic members. And so when I saw that you were going to Disney, I had to get you on to talk about your trip because there was a lot of, you’ve been to Disney before, but there was a lot of new things for you and I love seeing like how each trip is different and you had some little hiccups with rides being closed and things like that.

[00:00:53] Dana Stanley: Can you start off by just. Like a quick rundown of where you stayed. Um, maybe a little bit about the weather. ’cause when this, when we’re recording this, it is mid-February and you just got back, which I know the weather has been crazy. All, all across the country and freezing. Um, and then also like the ages of your kids and kind of what they’re into right now,

[00:01:20] Andrea: You bet. So we stayed at Riviera and this is our second time staying at Riviera and we rented points to do that. Uh, we stayed in a two bedroom villa. We went February 1st through the seventh, and we’re coming outta Boston. So it was super cold when we left. And also super. Holden Orlando when we arrived, much to my dismay, we did four park days in that week that we were there. My kids are three and almost five and they are super into Toy Story super in into princesses. Love, small world, love the pools. We watch the. Different YouTube videos of the Disney pools, the Disney resort pool, sometimes on TV for entertainment. Um, and it was, yeah, it was an incredible trip, but there were definitely some things I needed to be prepared for.

[00:02:24] Dana Stanley: obviously you went back to Riviera, so you know that you like it. We just stayed for the first time last summer and it is, it’s such a beautiful resort.

[00:02:35] Andrea: Mm-hmm. It is, it’s a gorgeous resort. And I, in full disclosure, I tried to get Grand Floridian first because that is my mom’s favorite resort, and my parents came with us. So it was myself, my husband, our two kids, and then my mom and dad. Which has been the same group for the past three years actually. So this is our third time going as a group.

[00:02:59] Andrea: Um, there was nothing available at Grand Floridian by the time I decided, yes, we’re going, let’s go. And I would say that was probably late summer. That I decided to take another trip. There was just nothing. And I even had Melissa McGill look for me. She was scouring and all of her travel agent magic that she works and it was just like, well, if you wanna try to stay at one of the two resorts she really wanna stay at, then it let’s, let’s look into renting points again, which I think is.

[00:03:35] Andrea: Always a smart idea. It’s worked out really well for us in the past, um, and it has saved us money. We’ve always had good experiences with it, but even with renting points, grand Floridian wasn’t available. So I said, well, we had a great experience last year at Riviera. Sorry, mom, we’re gonna, we’re going back to Riviera.

[00:03:55] Andrea: And of course, the kids were thrilled because unlike you, Dana, they love the Skyliner. They, it’s like their favorite ride in, in all of the parks.

[00:04:04] Dana Stanley: if I could just, if I could just walk to those places or teleport myself, I really, it, it would be definitely tied with the boardwalk. For me, it’s, it’s just such a good resort. It has really great food. Um, so I’m trying to think of the timing for when, ’cause I think you went through DVC rental store.

[00:04:26] Dana Stanley: I did.

[00:04:26] Andrea: I did.

[00:04:27] Dana Stanley: So you put in a request, not a confirmed, like you didn’t buy a confirmed reservation?

[00:04:33] Andrea: I couldn’t. I looked at the confirmed re reservations and they were either too short or not at the exact time that we wanted to go. February, early February seems to be our sweet spot for when we like to go. Um, kudos to you for going in the summer. I could never, you too

[00:04:50] Dana Stanley: I can’t either. I can’t either, and I don’t. I think we’re going back this summer and I’m like, what is actually wrong with me? But I think a lot of it is, is timing. So I, we are more like last minute with. With Disney lately. And I don’t know why, because classic, like say as I do or do as I say, not as I do.

[00:05:11] Dana Stanley: Um, but I, I get asked a lot about renting DVC points and, and when and how long does it take. And some people kind of misunderstand that

[00:05:22] Andrea: Okay.

[00:05:23] Dana Stanley: if the rooms are gone. It doesn’t matter, kind of if you’re booking through Disney or you’re booking through DVC rental store or maybe another broker. Once they’re booked up, they’re booked up.

[00:05:35] Dana Stanley: And I’m assuming in your case for Grand Floridian, it was probably like the room size. Maybe they book up really quickly ’cause it’s very hard to get a two bedroom. At Boardwalk as well. ’cause we’re in the same boat as you when we go as a big family, like every other year with my in-laws, we need a two bedroom at the boardwalk.

[00:05:57] Dana Stanley: And I’m like, are there like five of them? Like I, I mean obviously I could find out how many, but there just doesn’t seem like there’s a lot. So I’m wondering if Vieira just obviously has more of them available and

[00:06:12] Andrea: It. Yeah, it, it kind of seems like it because they have, you know, these two huge wings, the East Wing, as you know, and the West Wing, and then sort of a smaller portion that’s right by the Skyliner, and that also has DVC room, so it just seems like they have more villas available.

[00:06:29] Dana Stanley: they learn at, you know, I love the, the, not quaintness, but I love the smaller, lower resorts like Boardwalk or even, I mean. Ian is really sprawling, but they learn how they need to fit more people and they need more DVC rooms. So it sounds like you put in a request, let’s say seven months out.

[00:06:56] Andrea: Mm-hmm. It was about that.

[00:06:58] Dana Stanley: How long did it take you from when you put in your request to hearing back

[00:07:03] Andrea: A few days.

[00:07:04] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:07:05] Andrea: I remember the first time that we rented points three years ago, I was DMing you on Instagram saying, I haven’t heard back. It’s been a day. Are we not gonna get a room? What? But you just give it a little bit of time.

[00:07:17] Dana Stanley: gotta give it a little

[00:07:18] Andrea: you an email and someone was willing to rent to us, and it was, they’re, they’re also very, very responsive.

[00:07:25] Andrea: So, any questions, any concerns? You know, they’re right there to. Email you back, which it’s nice. It’s a more high touch experience than I was thinking it would be.

[00:07:34] Dana Stanley: experience. No, it’s just a good thing to keep in mind that A, it does save you a ton of money. B, the stars kind of have to align. You have to be like a little bit flexible, especially if you were going for like a confirmed reservation, which I really like because because I go last minute usually there is nothing.

[00:07:54] Dana Stanley: Truly nothing available and nine times outta 10, I do that confirmed reservation, but you have to give it some time. Were you going into this trip? Were you celebrating anything in particular or is this just kind of like your annual February, your parents come type of trip, or was there like a specific thing that you wanted to get out of it?

[00:08:16] Andrea: There was not a specific thing that we were celebrating. And it’s funny because you’re bringing me back to when we went because every restaurant we would go to

[00:08:25] Dana Stanley: to

[00:08:25] Andrea: a cast member would say, are you celebrating anything specific? I’m like, no. Just kind of life getting out of the cold. And um, it’s, Disney has been.

[00:08:36] Andrea: A very easy place for my family to vacation, which I didn’t anticipate having. Once I had children, I thought, oh my gosh, like this is gonna be so much work and you know, I’m not gonna like it as much as when I used to do my little girl trips with like, with my mom for a long weekend. But it has ended up bringing our family, like my parents and my husband and I, and of course the kids just so much joy.

[00:09:04] Andrea: And Disney makes it easy for parents, especially when you are planning and you have the right mindset and you can be a little bit more flexible and meet your children where they’re at. And my children happen to be on the autism spectrum, so I kind of have to live my life like that anyway. Um, but Disney makes it so.

[00:09:32] Andrea: Easy to meet my kids where they’re at, have their needs catered to. There’s a lot of really inclusive understanding that I have found amongst cast members and how the parks work, and if you just explain a little bit about what’s going on, you know, you’re afforded allowances and treated with a lot of compassion, which is nice, and I think that that’s one of the reasons why we keep.

[00:10:01] Andrea: Going back is because I can’t imagine having to my kids to Europe. Like it, it would be a disaster. Like they can’t, they wouldn’t be able to handle that. Like sitting in restaurant after restaurant after restaurant or like treat, sing around, you know, a, a, a big city. So I think it’s one of the things that we’ve realized just really works for our family and, and who our children are and brings us all a, a lot of joy.

[00:10:30] Dana Stanley: The other day I, I guess it must have been my friend who got back from like a beach vacation, which like everyone likes taking their kids to the beach.

[00:10:40] Dana Stanley: But it is so hard. It is so exhausting just taking your kids to the beach and I mean, listen, where I live, which is like tons of kids, tons of families, young families, and there’s certain restaurants we can’t go to ’cause they don’t have high chairs. And I just think of that like, ’cause people will maybe, um, be nervous to even go to like the nicer sit down restaurants in Disney World.

[00:11:07] Dana Stanley: And I’m like, no, this is when you do it, like go to like the nicest place that you want to go to.

[00:11:13] Andrea: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:14] Dana Stanley: ’cause there will be kids there, you know, California Girls Citrico. There will be kids. You’ll be shocked at how many kids there are. Your kid will not be the loudest one.

[00:11:24] Andrea: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:25] Dana Stanley: And because the cast members, like they’re dealing with people from all over the world in all different scenarios, like they have truly seen it all.

[00:11:33] Dana Stanley: So they know how to handle things and kids that might need some special attention or even from their diets versus like your small town, the people, they’re not used to that. Did your kids end up because this, this autism. Diagnosis is like a newer thing for you. Did that, what was different about this trip since then than like the other trips with them?

[00:12:00] Andrea: I think the difference is with this trip, I understand a lot more, you know, through the past. You know, my, my son was diagnosed over the summer. My daughter was diagnosed in the fall. The kids haven’t changed who they are. You know, I always knew that there was, you know, things that I was going to have to make concessions on in order for everyone to enjoy this trip, which is one of the reasons why I love laid back magic so much is because it’s set certainly my family up for success.

[00:12:33] Andrea: It makes me feel like a success doing these trips. Um, but this year what I was able to do is use the DAS paths. Um, and that was a huge difference, although a, a slight learning curve for me ’cause I had never, you know, used it before. Um, and it’s pretty hands on in my Disney experience app. But that also made a, a huge difference.

[00:12:59] Andrea: We were able to do a little bit more than I thought we would because my kids, they just, they, they can’t wait in line, you know? They just can’t, like, I have to be prepared to just leave. And that’s, that’s okay. You know? That is, that is okay. That is our reality. So if we’re in a line, even if it’s only like 20 minutes, we might be five minutes in and like.

[00:13:23] Andrea: The kids just can’t deal. And so we leave. Where the DAS pass really helps us is it eliminates all of that, all of that. So you still have to wait, you know, whatever that allotted time is, but you can wait somewhere other than in line and

[00:13:39] Dana Stanley: Yeah. It’s like you’re, you’re virtually kind of waiting in line is kind of how it works without actually having to be there. You’re like saving your place without making the kids have to just sit there. Did you also use lightning lanes or, or a mix of both? Yeah,

[00:13:55] Andrea: Yep. I did a mix of both and I. Because I didn’t have a lot of experience with the DAS pass. Um, and Melissa McGill really helped me and walked me through what that process

[00:14:07] Dana Stanley: she’s really knowledgeable with that.

[00:14:09] Andrea: yeah, she, oh, she was amazing. She sent me this like one page or so I felt really set up for success when I spoke with the cast member explaining, you know, the children’s situation and, and diagnosis, um, in order to obtain a DAS pass in the first place.

[00:14:24] Andrea: But because I wasn’t quite sure how it would work. I am very familiar with lightning lanes and do you know the laid back magic lightning lane planner and all of that. So I was like, I’m not gonna tempt the fates here. I’m just gonna do what I know how to do, and this’ll be a good learning if I end up saying, well, I guess we didn’t really need lightning lanes this day.

[00:14:44] Andrea: I’ll know for next time. But I ended up using both.

[00:14:48] Dana Stanley: And how do you feel? Do you think you liked having both or maybe you maybe not for every single park.

[00:14:54] Andrea: Yeah, I think that that’s, that was my big takeaway is probably not for every single park going forward. Um, there were some parks where it was really helpful to have both. And then for example, Epcot, I didn’t really need both because the Remi was the. Big ride that we were excited to go on and the kids love it.

[00:15:20] Andrea: And it’s my dad’s favorite ride and it’s just adorable. Um, but that, other than that, and Frozen was closed,

[00:15:29] Dana Stanley: yeah, so I know that was like a big, it’s open, it’s when this airs frozen is open, so nobody fret. But I know this was a big kind of wrench in your plans because there’s not, uh, there’s a ton of things for kids to do in Epcot, but in terms of rides frozen Remy, like those are, those are the top two.

[00:15:51] Dana Stanley: So if you. Take Frozen out, which was under refurbishment for literally just while you were there.

[00:15:57] Andrea: Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:59] Dana Stanley: Exactly. So how did you plan around that? Because I’m sure that was kind of, you would’ve done both, right? The kids like

[00:16:07] Andrea: Absolutely right. And that’s when I, I booked the lightning lanes. Um, that’s what I was anticipating doing, is I, I thought in my mind, I had it all in my laid back magic sketch. We’re gonna do early entry, go to frozen, then I’m gonna have a lightning lane for Remy, because you can only have, you know, one lightning lane for either frozen or

[00:16:31] Dana Stanley: I know it’s hard. You have to choose.

[00:16:33] Andrea: Yep. So I had planned on doing both of them, and then I thought, well, what the heck am I gonna do for the rest of the time with Epcot now? Because don’t come at me. But I, I don’t love Nemo with the land. I thought my family was gonna kill me for taking them on it last year. I was like, sorry, I’m just trying to fill the time.

[00:16:59] Dana Stanley: Your dad didn’t like it. I feel like it’s kind of like a dad ride. I know

[00:17:03] Andrea: I know it could, I think, but my husband was, you know, just, nah, he, it was fine. And my mother literally was shooting me dirty looks saying, what is wrong with me? Why would you, this is never gonna end. Like, what are we doing? Um, I was like, you are a teacher. You don’t like this. What’s, what’s the matter with you?

[00:17:18] Andrea: Um, so in terms of Right. Said, I know. And the kids are too short for almost everything else. And it was too cold to do, uh, Moana’s journey of, of water. Like it was way too cold on our

[00:17:33] Dana Stanley: do they, they had it running, I’m assuming, right? Or

[00:17:37] Andrea: I don’t, I didn’t even try. I, some things were turned off,

[00:17:40] Dana Stanley: because it was cold.

[00:17:42] Andrea: the weather. It was really cold. I mean, in the morning, it was in the thirties and it would climb, it would climb to like the fifties and some days it was lower sixties. But I mean, I had my son who’s very temperature sensitive. He was in like three shirts.

[00:18:00] Andrea: His jacket from home. The kids had beanies on. I mean, it was,

[00:18:05] Dana Stanley: it sounds like you were prepared though.

[00:18:07] Andrea: Yeah, and I thought, well, we were also coming from a cold climate, right? So we went on the plane with our jackets and our hats and sneakers and pants, but I refused to bring more pants on that. I was like, I’m, I’m going to will the sunshine and the warmth.

[00:18:24] Andrea: So I, I wore my off shorts like every day, and I was chilly, but it was sweatshirts

[00:18:32] Dana Stanley: I wore them, wore them every day and I was gold.

[00:18:34] Andrea: I wore them every day. And I was, yes, I was. Exactly. I, but I, I braved it. Um, so yeah, I don’t think for every, every park you would need it. And I also think because my kids are little and we’re primarily sticking to those smaller rides, like think fantasy land.

[00:18:54] Andrea: Think adventure land, the people mover, I’m not. Coming in, needing to go on Tron and Sedo, mind Train and Haunted Mansion, and all of the super, super popularized that you’re gonna wait for a really long time in, for example, at Magic Kingdom. So the DAS pass. Was plenty. Where the lightning lanes really helped me though is with park hopping because one of my favorite things to do is do, um, like Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom in the morning, take a break in the afternoon, go to the pool.

[00:19:34] Andrea: Have a nice spicy margarita at Bar Riva. Feed the kids and then go back to Epcot for like dusk, early evening. And so I used lightning lanes to then book Remy again, um, for the evening, and then we

[00:19:51] Dana Stanley: with da,

[00:19:52] Andrea: into the park.

[00:19:54] Dana Stanley: with DAS, can you do multiple parks if you’re hopp?

[00:19:59] Andrea: Yes, you just have, the thing about DAS is you cannot pre-book anything. You have to scan into the park, and then you have to physically be inside the park to book anything. So what you would do is I scanned in, I would open the, my Disney Experience app, A DAS icon comes right up for me. I would click on that.

[00:20:22] Andrea: Click the park that I was in and then look at the rides and see what I would do, and you could do one ride at a time. Then once you scan into that ride, you have to wait 10 minutes before you book anything else.

[00:20:37] Dana Stanley: Okay. So it sounds like. You are even using DAS but you’re par hopping, being able to like be at the pool and be booking rides for later. ’cause it’s kind of like if people ever use Genie plus, you can’t really stack like you used to, but you can kind of, you can kind of stack a little bit if you’re, if you’re going somewhere else.

[00:21:01] Dana Stanley: ’cause that’s the nice thing about lightning lanes is they do follow you and then you could ride Remys twice.

[00:21:07] Andrea: Exactly, and what I didn’t want to have happen is because, you know, e evening’s one of those times where it could be a little bit of the witching hour for the kids like it, it was either gonna go really well or it wasn’t gonna go well at all. But they did awesome. But I knew that there would be a long line.

[00:21:22] Andrea: For Remy’s and, and it was, it was 65, it was a 65 minute wait. So if I didn’t book that lightning lane in the afternoon when we were at the pool, I would’ve had to scan in and it was like, I don’t know, five o’clock or something. Wait till after six. Then, you know, it was just a lot

[00:21:39] Dana Stanley: Yeah. And then,

[00:21:40] Andrea: do that,

[00:21:40] Dana Stanley: when you’re like, like we usually are coming from the international gateway, which was included with Riviera because all of the Skyliner resorts are getting off of that same area. I don’t like, I either like doing Remys first or when I’m leaving, like I don’t really like waiting around.

[00:22:00] Dana Stanley: In that area, you can certainly kill a little bit of time, but I agree. It’s usually just nice to just get in, use a lightning lane and move on to other things. What was your favorite thing of the trip? It could be like a memory.

[00:22:16] Andrea: I think it was park hopping to Epcot in the evening. On our, our last evening, we had just had this like, wonderful trip. Like so many great memories, so many things were, you know, worked out so well. My, my littlest just fell in love with every fuzzy character she could find. Whether it was one of the bears from the country, bear Tambore or Daisy Duck at Topos,

[00:22:42] Dana Stanley: Oh, she liked the country bear.

[00:22:44] Andrea: She, she ran up and gave one of those band, one of those goofy bears, the biggest

[00:22:49] Dana Stanley: That’s funny. Yeah, because they’re a little, they could go either way.

[00:22:53] Andrea: yeah, they’re goofy looking. I’m like, okay, good for you sweetheart. I don’t think you looked at his face. Um, but I think just seeing, seeing that she just loved giving them a hug and you know, they would give her this big Disney hug back and not let go.

[00:23:08] Andrea: I loved seeing that. Character. Breakfast at Totinos is always a highlight. It’s great food.

[00:23:14] Dana Stanley: It’s so nice when you’re

[00:23:15] Andrea: interacting with the characters. It’s Beau. Oh yeah. It’s beautiful. And we just had to go upstairs. We were in the same wing, had to go upstairs. Um, and we had hit all the things that the kids really wanted to do.

[00:23:25] Andrea: Like they’re obsessed with small world and they’re obsessed with under sea, under the sea adventure. And the people mover is like a big hit for them. Um. So that last night I was like, I really wanna go back to Epcot. I wanna get some champagne in France, walk around a little bit, take some pictures, and go on Remy’s one last time, get back on the skyliner and just like wrap up our trip with an ice bow.

[00:23:52] Andrea: And it just, it worked out great. Like everyone was just like super happy and it, it was just a really nice

[00:23:58] Dana Stanley: Isn’t it amazing how every trip is different?

[00:24:01] Andrea: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:02] Dana Stanley: Even if they go every year, it’s never the same trip. Even if you do all the same things, the kids respond to it completely different.

[00:24:10] Andrea: it’s true. I thought because they’re so into princesses that they would love of the character meet and greets with the princesses. Well, that was a hard No, I tried that. Once I, I was able to book A-A-D-A-S pass to meet Ariel in her grotto and. The kids were not into it at all. They could not have sat further away from her.

[00:24:33] Andrea: Emmy did not wanna hug, so I thought, okay, well this was day two in the parks. I’m not gonna book any of these anymore. We’re not gonna wait for this anymore. We’re, I’m just gonna shift gears, know that Emmy really wants to interact with, you know, our, our fuzzy animal characters and, and Mickey and all of

[00:24:53] Dana Stanley: That’s so smart to do in the beginning of a trip too, like, or, or maybe someone. Hasn’t. Like if someone doesn’t know how their kids are going to react to a character, you should just do like a regular old meet and greet, like you said, like just meet Ariel or Meet Mickey and just see how they respond.

[00:25:13] Dana Stanley: Because you might have like a, you know, a storybook dining or aker or something with princesses. You might wanna cancel that if

[00:25:24] Andrea: And I did,

[00:25:25] Dana Stanley: that’s so funny. What did you have?

[00:25:27] Andrea: Rees. I had,

[00:25:28] Dana Stanley: That’s so funny.

[00:25:29] Andrea: Melissa actually book to me Rees, at which I should be able to say that better. My dad is from Sweden. It’s, I don’t know

[00:25:36] Dana Stanley: That’s how you say it, right? Like, it’s like

[00:25:38] Andrea: I think Ash, I mean, he would say it probably a little differently, but yes,

[00:25:41] Dana Stanley: Ask him, ask him and get back to me.

[00:25:44] Andrea: I will, I know it’s technically Norway, but that means the Scandinavian

[00:25:48] Dana Stanley: Yeah, yeah, I got you.

[00:25:49] Andrea: Um. But yeah, so we had lunch reservations for Epcot, um, that Melissa was able to book me, um, at reus. And once I realized that they weren’t that into interacting with the princesses, I thought, well, I’m not gonna spend this money. So we ended up doing quick service at Regal Eagle in America, and it was the biggest hit ever.

[00:26:11] Andrea: My parents loved it. My husband, who is from Kansas City, so he like, knows good barbecue. He’s like, this was great. I would definitely eat here again. Who knew?

[00:26:20] Dana Stanley: And you probably felt so good too. You were like, you’re welcome. You’re welcome.

[00:26:25] Andrea: Yep. You got it. The kids got watermelon.

[00:26:28] Dana Stanley: You probably spent an eighth of the price.

[00:26:30] Andrea: A hundred percent. Absolutely. It was, it was so much less, less money, and it was something that, you know, it, it, it would’ve, that’s something that would’ve felt a little bit disappointing, right? Is thinking, spending all this money on a character a. Meal that I thought the kids would really enjoy. ’cause that’s who you’re doing it for, right?

[00:26:50] Andrea: You’re doing it for the kids so they can have this like magical experience and then if they didn’t wanna interact with the princesses, that would not have felt so great. So it was nice to kind of test things out while we were there ahead of time. Another way that that testing things out, or park hopping really helped us was my parents were kind enough to watch the kids for Dave and I.

[00:27:13] Dana Stanley: I,

[00:27:14] Andrea: Tuesday night, that was our second park day. We were able, we did Magic Kingdom in the morning. We came back, we swam, we fed the kids, and Dave and I took the skylight to Hollywood Studios and I said, I want to go on Slinky Dog because the kids, well, Emmy’s too short. But Patrick has been saying, I wanna go on Slinky Dog.

[00:27:34] Andrea: I wanna go on Slinky Dog. And I’m thinking this is a really, really big rollercoaster. We just know

[00:27:40] Dana Stanley: So you wanted to, did you wanna test it out for him? Exactly. And what wa and what was your consensus?

[00:27:46] Andrea: It was a hard No, but my husband and I both as as, I mean, I loved it. I, we both thought it was a ton of fun. And that’s also another place that the Lightning Lanes helped us because it was just my husband and I, so we’re not eligible, you know, for the DAS without having one of the kids with us.

[00:28:05] Andrea: So I had booked a lightning lane for that. I booked a lightning lane for Millennium Falcon and I booked a lightning lane for rise of the resistance. All for us to do Back to back on

[00:28:15] Dana Stanley: sounds, sounds so fun.

[00:28:16] Andrea: It was great. The Millennium Falcon made me a little nauseous, but it did. Yeah, it was, yeah, I, I was, that wasn’t my favorite.

[00:28:26] Andrea: It was cool, but it wasn’t my favorite, but so yeah. So that we booked lightning lanes for those Tested out slinky dog. I immediately thought, no, we will traumatize like my sweet little sensory

[00:28:37] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Slinky is an interesting one because it is. It has a height limit, but it’s not like a 42 inch, it’s like one of the, it’s in line with seven do’s mind train, so it’s like supposed to be a kid roller coaster, but I get a little scared on it, like I’m a little scared. I mean, I’m obviously scared of heights.

[00:28:58] Dana Stanley: Everyone knows this, and I think that’s why I like riding Slinky dog at night. I think it’s so much more fun. all lit up, but I think a little bit of it is ’cause I can’t see as much,

[00:29:11] Andrea: Right.

[00:29:12] Dana Stanley: but there’s like that one turn in the beginning.

[00:29:16] Andrea: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:16] Dana Stanley: That’s it. It kind of, you’re not at like a total 90 degree angle, but when you’re like, look, kind of looking over at your kid, you’re like, Ooh, that is, and you don’t, you don’t tell them that.

[00:29:28] Dana Stanley: You’re like, woo hoo. Yeah, my kids, um, I’m trying to think how my oldest did it. My, my girls are funny because they, they will try anything once, but then what scares them makes no sense. So like people, Mo, my oldest does not like people Mover, loves Millennium Falcon, you know, loves Haunted Mansion or all of you know, the darkest rides.

[00:29:56] Dana Stanley: But something about people mover, but. It’s smart to either go on YouTube and watch, literally type in like Slinky dog, POV, like a front row, POV video. And then the second best is to get on it yourself first. And now you know not to incur because some kids do need, like, you don’t wanna force them obviously, but some kids, you know, they’ll like it.

[00:30:22] Dana Stanley: They’re just a little nervous. That’s how my oldest is. So I kind of have to. Because again, people mover, like really, so sometimes you wanna encourage them, but it’s not worth it if you actually think it’ll terrify them and turn them off to other rides.

[00:30:36] Andrea: Right. And that’s, that was my bigger concern. So it was really, I, I felt fortunate that we were able to get on first and say, okay, this is like, this is not for him. And we were both in agreement, so I knew that we were making the right decision because we’re not always. On the same page with those things.

[00:30:55] Andrea: Some, you know,

[00:30:55] Dana Stanley: No, but you both were on it. You both felt

[00:30:58] Andrea: Yeah, yeah. We were both like, oh no, nope. We are gonna say that. It’s our, our standard line is, oh, they’re cleaning it. They’re cleaning it. Today. We’re cleaning SLE doc.

[00:31:08] Dana Stanley: that’s actually really smart. I’m gonna steal that. just rides that I don’t like, rides that I don’t wanna get on. Sometimes it’s like, oh, it must be closed for cleaning. Now that you have, this was your third trip, I think. Yeah. Now that you have three trips under your belt, what advice would you give?

[00:31:25] Dana Stanley: If someone’s listening, they’re planning their first trip with their kids, maybe they’re worried about their kids in particular, how they’ll handle things. They’re feeling overwhelmed at things going wrong. What advice. Would you give them?

[00:31:44] Andrea: I think the laid back mindset, as much as you can have that through your planning, will help you to be able to make those strategic choices or changes depending on what’s going on with your kids on that particular day or in that particular moment. And I think what’s funny is if you talk to anyone who knows me really well in my life, no one would describe me as laid back, like zero.

[00:32:12] Andrea: Zero people. Who know me would call me laid back. Um, but I think that that’s where I’ve really been able to find a lot of joy and feel successful in booking these trips and have like my husband and my parents be like, oh, like way to go. We had the best time and all we had to do was follow you around and.

[00:32:32] Andrea: It didn’t, it doesn’t stress me out and I don’t part, I don’t know every park really, but I feel like I know Magic Kingdom decently well. Like in terms of like geographically, I didn’t know Hollywood Studios very well, you know, so there’s always gonna be something that could have gone better or that you wish you knew a little bit better.

[00:32:52] Andrea: Or I, we could have done this. If you can plan upfront to the best of your ability, how you think things are gonna go based off of your family and your kids, and what you think is best for them and what they really wanna do, then the rest can kind of fall into place and you can make those decisions and say, you know what?

[00:33:16] Andrea: Okay, we’re, we’re not gonna meet any more princesses this trip because that wasn’t a hit. So what can we do instead that you would enjoy just as much,

[00:33:27] Dana Stanley: Well, and I

[00:33:27] Andrea: That to me, wasn’t a fail.

[00:33:29] Dana Stanley: like you explaining this trip too, I think your trips are successful ones in terms of. Successful for what you and your family want.

[00:33:40] Dana Stanley: ’cause again, that’s gonna look different for everybody. But you have that perfect mix of like probably ’cause you’re not laid back like me is you. You are knowledgeable in the sense of like you’re researching ahead of time, you’re doing the planning ahead of time with that mindset of like, this is my plan.

[00:34:02] Dana Stanley: But it’s still gonna be great. Like it’s not gonna look anything like this. You just kind of know that off the bat. But you do need those anchors and guidelines instead of just wander. You can’t wander around willy-nilly. You need to have that plan that you think of ahead of time. And then when things small pivots like your regal eagle ends up being great.

[00:34:24] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:34:25] Andrea: Yeah. I think too, knowing, having the planning and, and taking a lot of the, the guidance out of the Laid Back Magic program is gonna help too, so you’re not traversing across the park like. My parents are not super young parents anymore. You know, they’re senior citizens. My dad’s back hurts. I can’t expect him to walk everywhere.

[00:34:47] Andrea: Like,

[00:34:48] Dana Stanley: My back hurts.

[00:34:49] Andrea: expectation. I know someone, I, I went back to work today and they were like, how, how was your trip? Do you need a nap? I was like, no, I, I need to ice my knees is what I need to do. I need to

[00:34:59] Dana Stanley: The back, the knees, all the things.

[00:35:03] Andrea: Um, and

[00:35:04] Dana Stanley: can’t be going hard. Is is the

[00:35:06] Andrea: Yeah. No. And, and what does success look like for you?

[00:35:12] Andrea: Right. For me, it’s not being in the park from Don through fireworks. Like we don’t do fireworks, Patrick. There’s no way that he could handle it. I don’t think Emmy would like it. Like it’s not, I’m not gonna impose that on them. I’m not gonna feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth because we didn’t.

[00:35:31] Andrea: See the fireworks. I feel like I am getting my money’s worth when we can have that Disney magic in the morning and then we go back to a beautiful resort and can swim. And my kids love the water and really enjoy, um, like the splash pads and, and all of that. And, and that’s fun for me to see too. And I

[00:35:50] Dana Stanley: Well, yeah, if your kids, I was gonna say, if your kids are watching Disney resort pools on YouTube for fun, then your best money spent is chilling at that resort

[00:36:02] Andrea: Right. Like I’m not gonna book Bippity Bty Boutique for Emmy. She won’t let me put a ponytail in her hair. So she certainly is not going to let someone else,

[00:36:12] Dana Stanley: Two girls, and I’m so thankful that I got to see my niece experience it when she was younger because my girls are not bty or bies. They, I tried, I tried there. No, I don’t. I didn’t get either

[00:36:28] Andrea: Emmy wouldn’t even let a cast member at Sir Mickey’s put pixie dust in her hair. I thought for sure she’d want some pixie dust. Oh, no, no. That was a hard no. So that

[00:36:40] Dana Stanley: Kids are so

[00:36:41] Andrea: That dream left. I know. So particular, I think too,

[00:36:44] Dana Stanley: too,

[00:36:46] Andrea: again, just knowing. Being able to spot, kind of feel out where everyone’s at.

[00:36:51] Andrea: Like halfway through the day too, we had lunch at Liberty Tavern, which the men in my family really love that food at Magic Kingdom. And then I had booked Peter Pan for the afternoon. Patrick really wanted to go on People Mover again. So we walked to Tomorrowland after Liberty Tavern. Did people move her?

[00:37:10] Andrea: And I’m looking at my mom, I’m looking at the kids, looking at my dad and my husband. I was like, we’re not going on Peter Pan. We’re gonna go back to the resort because we still have to wait for the bus.

[00:37:19] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:37:19] Andrea: we weren’t gonna get a minivan back to, to Riviera, so we had to wait for the bus, go back to the room, get changed.

[00:37:25] Andrea: I just thought if I push Peter Pan on everybody right now, I think someone’s gonna be unhappy. And it wouldn’t be one of the adults, not necessarily the kids, but I had to just say, okay. And I asked my mom, I said, do you care if we skip Peter Pan? She’s like, no, I, I think we should go. And I said, great, let’s go.

[00:37:41] Andrea: To me, that’s not a failure because we missed out. One ride that’s just kind of taking the temperature of where everyone is, and I knew that we had a ton of other great stuff lined up for the rest of the trip, so fine. Let’s skip it.

[00:37:55] Dana Stanley: I’m just so proud of you for the work that you put in because it is. It’s a lot of work and I know, I can see like the questions that you ask and things ahead of time and working with Melissa and then you had the DAS on top of it. It’s, it’s a lot of work and time and then also not letting like, oh, I put in all this work, like, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do Peter Pan, we’re gonna get her motors worth.

[00:38:18] Dana Stanley: It just, it reverses. It would have reversed all of the work that you

[00:38:23] Andrea: Yeah.

[00:38:24] Dana Stanley: and I’m just so proud.

[00:38:25] Andrea: Thank you. Well, I mean it’s, you should really be patting yourself on the back because it’s your program that enabled me to plan this way and to learn. I mean, how many dms

[00:38:36] Dana Stanley: her to say this.

[00:38:37] Andrea: No, she’s not.

[00:38:38] Dana Stanley: to say that.

[00:38:39] Andrea: no, no, no, no, no. I know you’re not, but every, every time someone’s like, oh, I’m thinking of go about going to dinner.

[00:38:44] Andrea: I was like, you need to follow Jesus Stanley

[00:38:47] Dana Stanley: Oh, thank you. Well, and thank you for coming on the podcast. You’re my.

[00:38:51] Andrea: having me.

[00:38:52] Dana Stanley: You’re my, my first member on the podcast and I knew right away that I wanted to have you on and just so happy that you came on.