Speaker 1: Episode three twenty nine, Doing Disney on a Budget with
Speaker 1: Lou Mangello.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are doing a
Speaker 1: listener request and only requested by listeners because I prodded
Speaker 1: you at an earlier episode to request it and several
Speaker 1: of you did about Disney on a budget, saving money
Speaker 1: on Disney, and very very excited to have a kind
Speaker 1: of like a Disney legend, Lou Mangello to talk about it.
Speaker 3: If you're a Disney fiend Disney guru, you already know
Speaker 3: about Lou. For those who don't, well, it'll still be magical.
Speaker 3: We're bringing you some Disney magic.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so if you ever want to take a
Speaker 1: trip to Disney, this is definitely when you're going to
Speaker 1: want to keep this in your pocket and listen. We
Speaker 1: are covering all the majors, all updated, so this is
Speaker 1: one you're going to want to run through. But first
Speaker 1: before we get into the tips, this episode is brought
Speaker 1: to you by thirteen point one miles. Yes, you could
Speaker 1: drive thirteen point one miles in twenty minutes, or I
Speaker 1: don't know how long it takes that in time it
Speaker 1: or you could take multiple hours to run it. I mean,
Speaker 1: sure some people can do it in less, but if
Speaker 1: you're me, it's multiple hours. You listen to a lot
Speaker 1: of frugal friends over that time. Don't have time to
Speaker 1: run thirteen point one miles. Don't fret. You can get
Speaker 1: everything you love about Frugal Friends and more in the
Speaker 1: friend Letter. We send it three times a week and
Speaker 1: we've got your freebies for the week. We've got your
Speaker 1: savings tips, things across the internet that you would love
Speaker 1: to know about saving money. We compile it all into
Speaker 1: an email that you get in your inbox three times week.
Speaker 1: It's like a text from your bestie, only it's in
Speaker 1: your inbox and you can ignore all those marketing emails
Speaker 1: that want you to spend money because we want you
Speaker 1: to be able to save it. So Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash friend Letter. It's definitely easier to read
Speaker 1: than it is to run thirteen point one miles.
Speaker 3: Wow, what a Lucy Goosey amazing tie in Jen, You
Speaker 3: can tell that the Disney Half Marathon. Does half marathon
Speaker 3: is on your mind?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well specifically the Wine and Dine half Marathon, because
Speaker 1: that's what I'm training.
Speaker 3: For, the only one you'll do. We are motivated, Yes
Speaker 3: you are.
Speaker 1: I've done Wine and Dine and Princess, and I do
Speaker 1: love those Disney races. I'm more of like, I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of Disney because I love the Disney races. And
Speaker 1: so this is we're talking about parks today though, because
Speaker 1: there's like literally no way to save on your running
Speaker 1: unless you're going to raise money for a charity. Then
Speaker 1: you can quasi get a free entry into your race.
Speaker 1: So maybe that is a tip for running, But if
Speaker 1: you don't want to run, listen to this episode with
Speaker 1: Lou Manngello. He is a former attorney who is the
Speaker 1: host of WDW Radio podcast he has been doing for
Speaker 1: gosh twenty years at this point, all about the magic
Speaker 1: of the Disney Parks, Disney Cruise Line, Marvel Star Wars.
Speaker 1: He is also the founder of the Dream Team project
Speaker 1: dot org, which has raised over half a million dollars
Speaker 1: for Make a Wish Foundation. He is fantastic and I
Speaker 1: don't know if there's anybody that knows more about Disney
Speaker 1: than Lou Monngello, and so we're going to talk talk
Speaker 1: about the four bigs to saving it Disney. We're not
Speaker 1: going to talk about how to save money for a
Speaker 1: Disney trip or how to save money on getting there.
Speaker 1: We have several you know, we have three hundred episodes
Speaker 1: on how to save money, and then a couple other
Speaker 1: episodes on how to save on travel. So like episode
Speaker 1: two eighty four, how to Hack Your Next Vacation with
Speaker 1: Chris Hutchins. It talks a smidge about travel hacking, but
Speaker 1: really just general hacking travel. And then episode two fifty
Speaker 1: how to Save Money on travel Frugal Traveling, so and
Speaker 1: then we have several actual like credit card point travel
Speaker 1: hacking episodes too, So definitely listen to those for money
Speaker 1: saving tips on how to get there. But with Lou,
Speaker 1: we're talking about saving money when you're there.
Speaker 3: Let's get to Lou.
Speaker 1: Lou, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are very
Speaker 1: excited to have you here.
Speaker 4: Jenna and Jill, thank you you very much. I am
Speaker 4: excited as well. Really appreciate it, but look, I speak
Speaker 4: for a living I really appreciate the opportunity and then
Speaker 4: looking forward to chatting with you today.
Speaker 3: Amazing. Well, let's just jump right in because I don't
Speaker 3: want to waste any time. I know we've got some
Speaker 3: Disney gurus listening.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, we we have a lot of listeners,
Speaker 1: and this was a listener request. Well, this was kind
Speaker 1: of a go died listener request because I did not
Speaker 1: tell you this before we started recording. I love Disney.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Disney, and I asked kind
Speaker 1: of selfishly if our listeners would like an episode on Disney.
Speaker 1: And I was like, but I'll only do it if
Speaker 1: other people want it, and we had like two people
Speaker 1: request it, and I was like, that's enough for me.
Speaker 3: So here we are full disclosure. I could take it
Speaker 3: or leave it. So I'll bring some balance to this episode.
Speaker 3: But go ahead, loud, tell us about yourself. And let's
Speaker 3: just also jump into like money saving ticket, how do
Speaker 3: you save on tickets?
Speaker 1: Like what?
Speaker 3: Just start there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we want to hit the big four today. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what you consider the big four, but
Speaker 1: for me, it's like tickets and that includes like Genie
Speaker 1: plus hotels, food, and then just like activities. So that's
Speaker 1: that's what we want to hit today. If you're listening
Speaker 1: and you're like, what are we going to cover? That's it,
Speaker 1: So let's yeah, let's start it off.
Speaker 4: So I'll quickly preface it by saying that it has
Speaker 4: gotten more complicated to go to Disney in recent years,
Speaker 4: not just in terms of when to go and where
Speaker 4: to go and what to do, but in terms of
Speaker 4: how to save money as well. Man, and I think
Speaker 4: I'd love to sort of start off by sort of
Speaker 4: dispelling some of the misconceptions or misperceptions about going to Disney.
Speaker 4: It's prohibitively expensive. It costs ten thousand dollars to take
Speaker 4: your family at seventy seven dollars for a churoh, I
Speaker 4: mean it's pretty close.
Speaker 1: I mean those are pretty seventy five for a Truro.
Speaker 4: But there are a lot of ways to go to
Speaker 4: Disney World on a budget. There's also a lot of
Speaker 4: ways to go to Disney World if you're not on
Speaker 4: a budget as well. It's very easy to sort of
Speaker 4: do a luxury Disney experience. But they really have implemented
Speaker 4: a lot of things, especially in recent years, to make
Speaker 4: it more affordable for the average guest and family to
Speaker 4: be able to go and I think you hit on
Speaker 4: a couple of the big sort of key points, which
Speaker 4: is knowing when to go, knowing where to stay, and
Speaker 4: having a strategy in terms of the tickets that you
Speaker 4: buy and the way that you actually approach the parks.
Speaker 4: And we can sort of break this down however you want,
Speaker 4: but I think if you want to serve just a
Speaker 4: very quick tip, I think knowing when to go to
Speaker 4: Walt Disney World is probably the thing that's going to
Speaker 4: save you the most amount of money because sort of
Speaker 4: from a very simplistic thirty thousand foot view, Disney speaking,
Speaker 4: specially specifically, if Walt Disney World breaks down the seasons
Speaker 4: of the year into value season, moderate season, high season,
Speaker 4: and pricing changes accordingly. Recently, that's even changed on sort
Speaker 4: of a daily basis because theme park tickets prices will
Speaker 4: vary by the day that you go, So you know,
Speaker 4: trying to avoid summertime, spring break, Christmas, Easter, sort of
Speaker 4: those big sort of tent pole holidays is one of
Speaker 4: the best ways to save money. Of course, understanding that
Speaker 4: some people can only travel during certain times a year
Speaker 4: because of their teachers, their kids are in school, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So what would you use if somebody could go at
Speaker 1: any time of the year, what would be like the
Speaker 1: best time to go.
Speaker 4: So when you say best, I think that there's a
Speaker 4: balance you have to strike in terms of best in
Speaker 4: terms of value and best in terms of crowds, best
Speaker 4: in terms of weather. You know, if you're going on
Speaker 4: July fourth weekend, God bless.
Speaker 1: You help you.
Speaker 4: You know, it's wonderful and you get the fireworks, but
Speaker 4: it's hot, and it's crowded, and it is one of
Speaker 4: the most expensive times of the year in terms of
Speaker 4: And it's a broad stroke of the brush here because
Speaker 4: it depends on holidays, et cetera. But September and January
Speaker 4: and February are sort of really kind of the sweet
Speaker 4: spots in terms of the least expensive prices for resorts,
Speaker 4: least expensive prices for tickets. Your crowd levels are lower,
Speaker 4: and especially in January and February, your outside temperature and
Speaker 4: relevant humidity is also going to be lower as well.
Speaker 1: And your chance for hurricane is lower in January and February.
Speaker 4: Yeah, your chance for hurricane is lower. And I think
Speaker 4: sometimes the hurricane thing gets blown out. You know, Orlando
Speaker 4: was very very far inland. So hurricanes are sort of
Speaker 4: few and far between. They get a lot of attention,
Speaker 4: but I had more hurricanes in New Jersey than I
Speaker 4: did since I've moved.
Speaker 3: To play right. That's crazy places get them too. Before
Speaker 3: we move on to the other three of the Big Four.
Speaker 3: Curious your thoughts on related to tickets Genie Plus, Like,
Speaker 3: what is that? I know they've kind of renamed it.
Speaker 3: Is it worth it?
Speaker 4: So? Genie Plus is a replacement for what was the
Speaker 4: fast Pass system, which was a way to be able
Speaker 4: to get a specified return time in order to go
Speaker 4: to some of the more popular attractions without having to
Speaker 4: wait on the standby line. In recent years, that's been
Speaker 4: replaced by Genie Plus and the Genie system. And again
Speaker 4: there's a lot of confusion. We can take two hours
Speaker 4: sort of explaining the complexities of Genie Plus, but it
Speaker 4: does allow the opportunity to via the app get specified
Speaker 4: return times. There also is a Genie Plus which is
Speaker 4: a paid option where you can pay for some of
Speaker 4: the bigger, more popular E ticket attractions to have a
Speaker 4: specified return time for a specific dollar for a year
Speaker 4: per guest. So if you wanted to ride Rise to
Speaker 4: the Resistance or Guardians of the Galaxy, cosmic rewind, you
Speaker 4: can buy a lightning lane which will allow you to
Speaker 4: return that specified time again. Depending on crowd levels and popularity,
Speaker 4: that dollar figure could be ten dollars to twenty seven
Speaker 4: dollars per person per attraction.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the confusion is a prohibitive factor for me, Like
Speaker 3: I don't I want to just go, I don't want
Speaker 3: to have fun, But I'm learning that like you need
Speaker 3: to be. You need to be a person who has
Speaker 3: really dug in and done a lot of research, in
Speaker 3: my opinion, to get a very good experience where you're
Speaker 3: not spending a ton of time in lines, which is
Speaker 3: why we go to people like you to get all
Speaker 3: of like the best tips. But so much confusion. And
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's on purpose or what, but
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: It's on purpose. I think it's it's it's sometimes an
Speaker 4: unfortunately unfortunate but necessary result of the fact that the
Speaker 4: parks are very crowded. People don't want to wait line.
Speaker 4: There is a way to make you have a more
Speaker 4: efficient and effective time in the parks, but the only
Speaker 4: way to do that is, fortunately, or unfortunately by having
Speaker 4: some sort of a financial based system, right, because giving
Speaker 4: everybody fast pass means now the fast pass line is
Speaker 4: going to be as long as the standby line. And
Speaker 4: to be clear, you can walk into the park as
Speaker 4: long as you have a ticket and a reservation. You
Speaker 4: can walk into the park and sort of wing it
Speaker 4: and still have a great time. You will have a
Speaker 4: better and dare I say sometimes even exponentially better time
Speaker 4: if you do some of that planning and preparation ahead
Speaker 4: of time. You go in a little better armed and
Speaker 4: prepared in terms of how to approach the day and
Speaker 4: how to approach the parks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you go in those off seasons January, February, September,
Speaker 1: sometimes you limit like you don't need Genie play us
Speaker 1: at all or fewer. I still haven't been on Rise
Speaker 1: of the Resistance because I can't like get it. I've
Speaker 1: never been able to get on that ride.
Speaker 3: And ironically I have been.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I haven't been to Hollywood Studios in a while.
Speaker 1: But so, yeah, that's like something I would pay for.
Speaker 1: But I would go maybe in January and not have
Speaker 1: to get Genie plus for all the other things and
Speaker 1: just buy the you know one thing I want. So
Speaker 1: there's there can be a balance too, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: know my friend Allison went during spring break and they
Speaker 1: did Genie Plus they got got it for everything all
Speaker 1: day whole trip, and she said it really did make
Speaker 1: a difference, like it was the one thing that was
Speaker 1: worth the money for them.
Speaker 4: And I think it's a very subjective thing. You have
Speaker 4: to determine where the balance really is. Is, you know
Speaker 4: you're only there for a couple of days, is making
Speaker 4: sure you and your family and your kids get to
Speaker 4: experience all the things they want to do, Or if
Speaker 4: you're really looking to go on a budget, are you
Speaker 4: willing to have some of those trade offs yet still
Speaker 4: have a great time, but running the risk that you
Speaker 4: might not get to experience everything that you want to
Speaker 4: do while you're there.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about staying at Disney. What are your
Speaker 1: best tips for saving on hotels? Do you recommend airbnbs?
Speaker 1: Like what is the sleeping situation? Saving money?
Speaker 4: Again? First things first, the time of year that you
Speaker 4: go is going to save you. I'm not talking like
Speaker 4: saving ten twenty thirty dollars. I'm talking hundreds, if not
Speaker 4: thousands of dollars. I mean, there's that much of a
Speaker 4: difference if you go in some of the off seasons. Again,
Speaker 4: it's a subjective thing. How important is your resort experience
Speaker 4: to your overall Walt Disney World visit. There are value resorts,
Speaker 4: moderate resorts, deluxe resort, Disney Vacation club, accommodations that really
Speaker 4: run a very wide spectrum. And from the value resort
Speaker 4: perspect the resorts are wonderful. They're very very wealthy. And
Speaker 4: one of my favorite resorts is Disney's Art of Animation resorts.
Speaker 4: It is theme towards Cars and the Lion King and
Speaker 4: the Little Mermaid. Very fun, very whimsical. I very highly
Speaker 4: recommend staying on property because I think you want that
Speaker 4: all five senses three hundred and sixty degree twenty four
Speaker 4: to seven Disney experience that you do lose. I know
Speaker 4: a lot of people like to stay off property. They
Speaker 4: get an air and B and B and B and like,
Speaker 4: well it's only a twenty minute drive. Well, that twenty
Speaker 4: minute drive is more than a twenty minute drive. Right,
Speaker 4: that's going to be a chunk out of your day
Speaker 4: to get in the car. Schlep pay to park right
Speaker 4: as opposed to if you stay on property, you can
Speaker 4: park for free or take the internal transportation, which is
Speaker 4: complimentary and it does sort of disrupt the day a
Speaker 4: little bit, especially if you have young kids maybe want
Speaker 4: to go back swim in the middle of the day.
Speaker 4: Now all of a sudden, it's getting to the car,
Speaker 4: driving off property, getting back on property. So I very
Speaker 4: highly recommend. But if you're trying to save money, you
Speaker 4: can and will have a very wonderful, magical, Disney filled
Speaker 4: experience at the valley resorts. And certainly depending on how
Speaker 4: much you want to spend, how important your resort is
Speaker 4: to you, you can very much upgrade to higher end
Speaker 4: resorts that are closer to the parks. Some of them
Speaker 4: are our sort of border the parks and can walk
Speaker 4: right into them as well.
Speaker 3: I've heard great things from people who stay at the
Speaker 3: campgrounds too, and that might be the value accommodations that
Speaker 3: you're talking about, But you get that magical experience at
Speaker 3: the park and then some of the fun of camping,
Speaker 3: at least for those who find camping fun.
Speaker 4: And there are people who like they live and swear
Speaker 4: by the campgrounds. They will go bring their RV and
Speaker 4: come and stay for thirty days and like literally make
Speaker 4: camp there. I'm not a camper, maybe a little bit
Speaker 4: of a glamper, i'd like to do. And they have
Speaker 4: cabins there, But if you're going to literally pitch your
Speaker 4: tents in the middle of August and stay outside, I'm.
Speaker 1: Not a camper. I do not like to camp. I
Speaker 1: do not like to sleep outside. Yeah, but I do.
Speaker 1: I think my resort of choice when I go there
Speaker 1: is I like to be like a little bougie, but
Speaker 1: not too much, so like Coronado, which is like the Chess,
Speaker 1: a tiny step above the value, but seems like it's
Speaker 1: so nice and it's so much less expensive than the
Speaker 1: other nicer resorts.
Speaker 4: So I love Cornado. I think it's beautiful. The new
Speaker 4: Grandestino Tower is spectacular. It has some of the best
Speaker 4: dining in all of Walt Disney World in terms of
Speaker 4: fine dining, casual dining. Three Bridges, Bar and Grill that
Speaker 4: is an overwater restaurant is spectacular. You don't necessarily have
Speaker 4: monorail access or skyline or access. You do need to
Speaker 4: take the internal bus system or have a car. But
Speaker 4: the resort is beautiful, and you're right. I think it's
Speaker 4: a deluxe resort comes in at moderate prices.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaking of dining, my favorite thing to talk about
Speaker 3: is food. What do you have to say about ways
Speaker 3: to save on food while doing this Disney vacation.
Speaker 1: I want to spend a lot of time here, so
Speaker 1: like really give it to us.
Speaker 4: I literally sat up in my seat.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 4: It's built by Disney. The whole thing about calories not
Speaker 4: counting in Walter's World, it's a lie. It's an absolute lie.
Speaker 4: I can swear that that's not true. Again, if you're
Speaker 4: thinking about coming to Walter's World and budget is important,
Speaker 4: food can and very easily get very expensive. But there's
Speaker 4: a lot of ways to I don't want to say
Speaker 4: get around that, but I think being strategic in terms
Speaker 4: of how you dine, maybe not doing a sit down,
Speaker 4: table service restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is going
Speaker 4: to save you one a lot of time, much more
Speaker 4: efficient day. It's also going to save you a lot
Speaker 4: of money. Some of the best meals I've ever had
Speaker 4: anywhere are counter service locations in the Disney parks and
Speaker 4: at the resorts. Years ago, they used to have a
Speaker 4: dining plan, which, since COVID has not necessarily come back yet,
Speaker 4: it is going to be coming back at some point.
Speaker 4: That literally, depending on which plan that you chose, would
Speaker 4: afford you table service credit, counter service credits and snack
Speaker 4: credits to help you sort of budget your day. But
Speaker 4: if you are looking to go and the finances are
Speaker 4: really important, you can sort of think about sort of
Speaker 4: what your dining budget can be. I'm a big proponent of,
Speaker 4: you know, when you get up in the morning, maybe
Speaker 4: having you know, cereal or pop tarts or whatever your
Speaker 4: thing is in the room, or grabbing something quick and
Speaker 4: going and then I like to save my time, my money,
Speaker 4: and my calories for a counter service lunch and then
Speaker 4: maybe treating myself to a table service dinner. You can
Speaker 4: also bring in your own snacks. I think people don't realize,
Speaker 4: you know, depending on how you want to do it
Speaker 4: and how heavy you want your backpack to be. You
Speaker 4: can bring in bottles of water, which I highly recommend
Speaker 4: rather than buying four or five dollars bottles of the
Speaker 4: Sanni water, bring in a refillable water bottle. There's water
Speaker 4: bottle stations everywhere at counter service locations will give you
Speaker 4: cups of water if you need to, But bring in
Speaker 4: snacks as well too. You don't necessarily have to get
Speaker 4: all the Disney snacks, although again I love them very much,
Speaker 4: so you have to sort of determine what your sort
Speaker 4: of daily budget is going to be and how you
Speaker 4: want to space that out. Again, this is where planning
Speaker 4: comes into play too. If you want to do table
Speaker 4: service restaurants, I very highly recommend planning your advance dining
Speaker 4: reservations before you go, because some of the more popular
Speaker 4: reservations will fill up, especially some of the busier times
Speaker 4: a year.
Speaker 3: I was pleasantly pleased to find out that you could
Speaker 3: take snacks and water bottles into the parks. I grew
Speaker 3: up around an amusement park where nothing know of those
Speaker 3: things were allowed. You had to leave the park go
Speaker 3: out to your car if you wanted to eat your
Speaker 3: packed lunch. So to me, that's an incredible perk and
Speaker 3: something really kind. I think that Disney does and really
Speaker 3: does help at least when I've gone to reduce what
Speaker 3: I want to spend on the food there. My sister
Speaker 3: and her kids came to Disney, and since I live close,
Speaker 3: I would drive in and like pick up Panera on
Speaker 3: my way and bring them breakfast. Everyone's fed and we
Speaker 3: can just blitz it out, eat some of the snacks
Speaker 3: we brought, and then get a nice meal while we're there,
Speaker 3: So that was how we did it. But I am
Speaker 3: curious your thoughts on you've said some of the best
Speaker 3: food you've gotten from that counter service. What would you
Speaker 3: recommend if someone saying I do want I'm budgeting for this,
Speaker 3: but that means a spending plan, where are you recommending
Speaker 3: that they go if they want the best bang for
Speaker 3: their buck.
Speaker 4: So there's a couple different ways to answer this question.
Speaker 4: So in recent years, Epcot usually four or sometimes five
Speaker 4: festivals throughout the year. The date of those festivals has
Speaker 4: been expanded. So for example, right now as we're recording
Speaker 4: this August first, the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
Speaker 4: just started. That's going to run through November. And there
Speaker 4: are I think this year, forgive me, it's like thirty
Speaker 4: or so marketplaces on the Epcot promenade that you can
Speaker 4: go and get small, bite size, sometimes even shareable items
Speaker 4: that can run anywhere from five to nine to twelve dollars.
Speaker 4: That's a really great way to sample not just some
Speaker 4: of the different sort of flavors from around the world,
Speaker 4: but sort of eight your way around Epcot as well.
Speaker 4: And there's festivals going on there all the time. I'll
Speaker 4: go quickly Park by Park. I think in Magic Kingdom
Speaker 4: my favorite quick service location. God, I love them also
Speaker 4: very much. Let's say I love Columbia Harbor House in
Speaker 4: Liberty Square in Epcot. I am a monstrous fan of
Speaker 4: the Japan Pavilion. They have a grill called kats or
Speaker 4: a Grill, which is this beautiful sort of tea house
Speaker 4: with bamboo outside and a little coy pond and a waterfall.
Speaker 4: The food is spectacular at Disney's Hollywood Studios Woodies Lunchbox,
Speaker 4: which is in Toy Storyland, which is incredibly well themed.
Speaker 4: The loaded tater tots.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's the only thing I like there. Unpopular opinion.
Speaker 3: I don't love the food, but that's good. Yep, Toy
Speaker 3: story go there, get the tots.
Speaker 4: And in Disney's Animal Kingdom. One of the best restaurants
Speaker 4: counter or table service is called Stuli Canteen in Pandora
Speaker 4: The World of Avatar. It's basically a create your own bowl.
Speaker 4: You pick the different ingredients, you make your own bowl.
Speaker 4: It's fresh, it can be healthy if you want to be.
Speaker 4: And the food is spectacular there, and they all come
Speaker 4: in at pretty reasonable prices as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with all of those. I also like
Speaker 1: in Magic Kingdom that it's called like a chesh your
Speaker 1: cat tail or the Cheshar Taiale. It's like a chocolate
Speaker 1: croissant with like purple and pink frosting on top. You
Speaker 1: get that with a coffee m I think. So my
Speaker 1: I go like opposite of you, Lou, Like I'll do
Speaker 1: breakfast in the parks and then like do dinner on
Speaker 1: my own, because I think there's so much good breakfast
Speaker 1: at Disney, like the Mickey Waffle over it. I mean
Speaker 1: you can get in a lot of places, but like
Speaker 1: with natilla and berries or the Cheshire cat tail or
Speaker 1: even like the buffets, like if you wanted to do
Speaker 1: a character buffet, Like it's much cheaper to do a
Speaker 1: breakfast one than it is like a lunch or dinner.
Speaker 1: So like I love it for breakfast, and then like
Speaker 1: will sustain myself on snacks that I have brought for
Speaker 1: the rest of the day.
Speaker 4: You're cartloading throughout the day is the way. It's more
Speaker 4: nutritional than it is. Yeah, anybody else.
Speaker 1: You're basically running a marathon walking a marathon, so you
Speaker 1: should carbload in the morning.
Speaker 3: You will get your ten thousand steps.
Speaker 4: The average guests walks anywhere from like eight to nine
Speaker 4: miles a day in the park.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, you're really you do it? Do
Speaker 3: it for exercise, you know, go to Disney for exercise
Speaker 3: or really?
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely as I'm like currently training for the Wine
Speaker 1: and Dine half marathon, like yeah, and then I'll be
Speaker 1: doing even more walking in the parks.
Speaker 4: It's so.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I wonder like why, like why I hate myself?
Speaker 1: But it's okay. Any more food tips, Like is there
Speaker 1: anything outside of the parks that you like for food
Speaker 1: that people may not know about, like as a local,
Speaker 1: like insider tips.
Speaker 4: So I think Disney Springs, which is a shopping, entertainment,
Speaker 4: dining venue that you don't need a ticket to to
Speaker 4: go into it. For me as a local, I'll tell
Speaker 4: you that I go to Disney Springs more than I
Speaker 4: go to the Disney Parks. And that's not hyperbolic, like
Speaker 4: it's actually true. I was there twice last week, usually
Speaker 4: going there because of the food. I think Disney Springs
Speaker 4: as some of The boat House in Disney Springs is
Speaker 4: my favorite restaurant on the planet, Like it's the Ladies.
Speaker 4: When you come out, We're gonna go to the Boat.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've never been. I've been to Homecoming and that's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite restaurants.
Speaker 4: Oh, Homecoming's good too. Homecoming launch on the weekend. But
Speaker 4: there's also a number of great counter service locations in
Speaker 4: Disney Springs. Again, if you don't want to or spend
Speaker 4: the money on a park ticket, you can really kind
Speaker 4: of spend the day wandering and enjoying and exploring what
Speaker 4: Disney Springs has to offer. A Chicken Guy by Guy
Speaker 4: Fieri is fantastic and it's probably, I think right now
Speaker 4: it is the best value anywhere on property. I think
Speaker 4: three fresh mead not heavily breaded and fried delicious chicken tenders.
Speaker 4: There's like twenty two different sauces you can choose from.
Speaker 4: I think three of them come in at under five bucks. WHOA, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a value, It's a really good value. Pepe by
Speaker 4: Jose Andres also is a Counterstom's location very like people
Speaker 4: just walk by it because it's really small. I think
Speaker 4: it's one of the best food in Disney Springs. There's
Speaker 4: a ton there's a poutine, there's a daily poutine stand,
Speaker 4: which again Body built it. If I if French fries
Speaker 4: were a health food, I would be in a Donnis
Speaker 4: so like French fries with gravy on it.
Speaker 1: You know, you would sustain yourself one one Gideon's cookie,
Speaker 1: you could probably sustain yourself for the day.
Speaker 4: Awesome. And the peanut butter cold brew coffee will change
Speaker 4: your life forever.
Speaker 3: Sounds gross, but I'll try it.
Speaker 4: Listen, when you guys come out clear calendars, We're going
Speaker 4: to spend a day just what's clear calendars, and bring
Speaker 4: stretchy pants for it.
Speaker 3: Okay, convince me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Only bring stretchy pants to Disney only those are the
Speaker 1: only pants I bring. Oh all right, so let's talk.
Speaker 1: Let's finish this conversation rounded out with activities. So yes,
Speaker 1: there's rides and walking, but like, are there any other
Speaker 1: free or low cost things families can do inside and
Speaker 1: then also outside of the park that people may not
Speaker 1: be aware of.
Speaker 4: There's actually a ton and I think this is one
Speaker 4: of the things that people don't think about too when
Speaker 4: you go to Disney, especially if you go into the parks.
Speaker 4: I like the fact that you might see the price
Speaker 4: of a park ticket and get sticker shock. Thing that
Speaker 4: I will say is the longer you stay, the less
Speaker 4: expensive your day by day ticket is going to be.
Speaker 4: They encourage you, and I think you want a need
Speaker 4: to spend as much time as you can, so the
Speaker 4: having more time actually reduces the price of your ticket.
Speaker 4: It also reduces sort of the stress and pressure of
Speaker 4: trying to do it all. But there's a ton of
Speaker 4: stuff that you can do, both in the parks and
Speaker 4: outside the parks. This is not meant to sound like
Speaker 4: a shameless plug, but it's actually going to be. I
Speaker 4: actually have I have a free diet. It's one hundred
Speaker 4: and two things to do in Walt Disney World at
Speaker 4: least once. And as part of that book, there's also
Speaker 4: forty free things to do, see, eat and enjoy while
Speaker 4: you're there. It costs nothing if you just go to
Speaker 4: If you don't mind me saying, if you just go
Speaker 4: to radio dot com right on the homepage, just sign
Speaker 4: up for the newsletter and I'll send it right to
Speaker 4: your inbox. But in each of the parks, I think
Speaker 4: there's a lot of activities, and sometimes I always recommend
Speaker 4: to people, if you have the time, don't get a
Speaker 4: park ticket for one day, do things like go to
Speaker 4: Disney Springs and wander around, do a resort tour, hit
Speaker 4: some of the other resorts, especially during the holidays. I love, love,
Speaker 4: love going to visit a lot of the different resorts
Speaker 4: because they have not just different themed holiday decorations depending
Speaker 4: on where you are. Especially if you go places like
Speaker 4: Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, you're there's see very different holiday
Speaker 4: decorations than you will over at Disney's Beach Club. At
Speaker 4: Disney's Pollenesian Village resorts. There's gingerbread Like when I say
Speaker 4: gingerbreads houses, I don't mean the ones that you get
Speaker 4: at the grocery store. I mean like life size gingerbread
Speaker 4: houses and carousels that, yes are edible and you can
Speaker 4: buy pieces of gingerbread as well, as long as we're
Speaker 4: talking about food. But even in the off seasons, going
Speaker 4: to visit some of the resorts, each of the resorts too,
Speaker 4: especially when you stay on property, go to the front desk.
Speaker 4: They'll give you and I think it's in the it
Speaker 4: might even be in the app too. They'll give you
Speaker 4: a list of daily activities. So there's games and stuff
Speaker 4: that kids can do out by the pool. There are
Speaker 4: different like craft making activities. There's guided tours, of the resorts.
Speaker 4: There are free ladies follow me around the room. There
Speaker 4: are free themed and culinary tours of Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge,
Speaker 4: so you can go and learn about places like Boma
Speaker 4: and Chico, and then you might even get a little
Speaker 4: sample of food for free. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh I love touring and samples.
Speaker 1: Were Yes, absolutely, I yeah, I love that area. Like
Speaker 1: I went to college in Orlando, and so we would
Speaker 1: go over there all the time, and like we wouldn't
Speaker 1: go into the parks, but we would just go to
Speaker 1: all of the tourist see things that are all around there,
Speaker 1: and some of them, some of them are a little
Speaker 1: tourist trap. Some of them are a little less exciting
Speaker 1: than I remember them being. Like I took my friends
Speaker 1: in January to this quirky gift shop that is uh
Speaker 1: that has a very large wizard head on top of it,
Speaker 1: and it was far less exciting than I remembered it being.
Speaker 1: But well, because you see.
Speaker 4: Find outside that it's like nine T shirts for four dollars,
Speaker 4: You're like, oh, this is where I need to go
Speaker 4: to get my souvenirs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I would say, no, but not not save it.
Speaker 1: Buy them pre buy them on eBay and take them
Speaker 1: into the park. That's act.
Speaker 4: Here's the tip if you really want to save on souvenirs,
Speaker 4: because yes, it can get very expensive. One like buy
Speaker 4: them maybe ahead of time, but when you if you
Speaker 4: have time and if you have a car, when you
Speaker 4: come down here, go to Walmart, go to Target, because
Speaker 4: the local targets have like authentic licensed Disney. It's not
Speaker 4: like the stuff you're getting from the Wizard Store sometimes,
Speaker 4: which may or may not be licensed, but it's authentic
Speaker 4: and license merchandise. So if you want to get like
Speaker 4: autographed books, t shirts, hats, water bottles, keychains, you can
Speaker 4: save a ton of money by taking a little trip
Speaker 4: or like grabbing an uber and going to the local
Speaker 4: Walmart Target. LEU.
Speaker 3: I'm going to put you on the spot here and
Speaker 3: we can edit this out if this is too complicated
Speaker 3: of a question. And I recognize it's subjective, but if
Speaker 3: someone were to go to Disney and want to hack
Speaker 3: it as much as possible, what would you say is
Speaker 3: potentially the lowest amount someone could expect to pay per
Speaker 3: person per day.
Speaker 4: So I'm hesitant. So I'm a recovering attorney.
Speaker 3: So I'm because.
Speaker 4: I want somewhere to walk up to the ticket out
Speaker 4: of though jealous.
Speaker 3: That's why it's a fun question.
Speaker 4: But I'll say that I think if you go in
Speaker 4: value season and you stay at a value resort, potentially
Speaker 4: take advantage of So there's a one word. We haven't
Speaker 4: talked about our discounts, And yes there are discounts available
Speaker 4: at Disney. If you are a Florida resident, if you
Speaker 4: buy your tickets in advance, you will actually save money.
Speaker 4: If you buy your theme park tickets in advance from Disney,
Speaker 4: then if you sort of show up at the gate,
Speaker 4: if you show up at the gate at ten o'clock
Speaker 4: and then we're like, we're gonna have a magical day today,
Speaker 4: you're already you've lost, right, but you're not hurting a job.
Speaker 4: I think this is and again i'm ballparking, but I
Speaker 4: think that you can potentially save like seventeen to twenty
Speaker 4: dollars per ticket. Like if you buy like a park
Speaker 4: copper ticket three days or longer at the gate versus
Speaker 4: buying it online, I think you can save like twenty
Speaker 4: dollars per ticket per person. Right, So that's if you
Speaker 4: have a large family multiple days, that starts to add up.
Speaker 4: But if you know that you're a person that's gonna
Speaker 4: come to Disney, and I think I think the break
Speaker 4: even is around nine days or so a year. You
Speaker 4: might want to look into buying an annual pass, which
Speaker 4: you're like, that doesn't make any sense. I live in Delaware. Again,
Speaker 4: if you come to Disneworld twice a year, it may
Speaker 4: pay off because one, you're sort of pre buying your
Speaker 4: days in the park, which gonna be much cheaper. You
Speaker 4: also get discounts like twenty thirty percent on discounts food
Speaker 4: on hotels, food and merchandise. But there's also other discounts
Speaker 4: if you are military, first responder, civil service. There's some
Speaker 4: corporate and government discounts as well. So for example, if
Speaker 4: you work for Hewlett Packard or some of the other
Speaker 4: companies that are sponsors and partners of Disney, they often
Speaker 4: have go to your HR department. They often have corporate
Speaker 4: tickets that you can get at a discount. If you're
Speaker 4: a Canadian resident, there's ticket discounts HI own Canada, Hello Canada,
Speaker 4: Triple A and CAAA they have great discounts all the
Speaker 4: time as well. One thing I do not recommend, and
Speaker 4: again you go, do you, But if you're driving down
Speaker 4: and you're on one ninety two going through Cassimi and
Speaker 4: you're like, ooh, discount tickets. Let's go pull in there,
Speaker 4: be prepared to be taken away in a van to
Speaker 4: an eight hour timeshare. President again, Mazeltov, if that's your thing,
Speaker 4: it's not necessarily I think the most effective and efficient
Speaker 4: way to save money on tickets?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, isn't there also a hack like if you're
Speaker 1: buying them on the Disney website and it's the price
Speaker 1: you pay per day is like dependent on the day
Speaker 1: you start your trip, and you can get it cheaper
Speaker 1: if maybe you pick a different start day.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, flexibility is gonna be your your greatest dast as
Speaker 4: flexible as you can be. And because the prices are
Speaker 4: laid out very clearly on the Disney World dot com site,
Speaker 4: you really get a sense. I mean you can sort
Speaker 4: of see the broad picture and say, look, if we
Speaker 4: just push our trip back four days, we're gonna save
Speaker 4: x amount of dollars per ticket. All those little savings
Speaker 4: really do add up. And again, like the reason why
Speaker 4: I wrote my and and now it would be even
Speaker 4: more my one hundred and two ways to save money
Speaker 4: for and at Walt Disney World book is because there
Speaker 4: literally are like hundreds of ways, and some of the ways,
Speaker 4: if you execute them, we'll save you just you know, hundreds,
Speaker 4: if not thousands, right off the bat. But if you
Speaker 4: start stacking those up, like I've had people reach out
Speaker 4: to me and say, we've literally saved thousands of dollars
Speaker 4: on our trip, they ended up spending it back because
Speaker 4: they because you know, they bought the kids souvenirs and
Speaker 4: a lot more food. So how you want to save
Speaker 4: and spend us up to you. But it is the
Speaker 4: reason why I think it. I don't mean to sound
Speaker 4: like a shameless plug, but it's the reason why I
Speaker 4: wrote the book was because how do I save money
Speaker 4: going to Walter Zoo World? Still, after almost nineteen years
Speaker 4: of doing this is the number one question that I get.
Speaker 4: And when you get the same question three times, like
Speaker 4: it's a common problem, I need to try and help
Speaker 4: people solve it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing, well well done circumventing the actual question. Still
Speaker 3: giving us tips but no monestary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm in prospect something else I respect, and we're
Speaker 1: all still going the same real yang.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 2: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died
Speaker 2: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Duck bill, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week, lou Every week we invite our listeners
Speaker 1: and or our guests to present us with their bill
Speaker 1: for the week, their favorite bill, person, place, thing, And
Speaker 1: we know you have one prepared for us, and we
Speaker 1: are excited to hear it.
Speaker 4: Well, don't be excited yet, because I want to make
Speaker 4: sure a spirit of I heard the bill of the week,
Speaker 4: and in order to keep it in the same sort
Speaker 4: of theme of what we're talking about, I thought about
Speaker 4: Disney and bills. Don't worry about the bill that you're
Speaker 4: gonna get your credit card bill when you go home,
Speaker 4: because it's incredibly frightening. Just enjoy your time while you're there.
Speaker 4: But I'll give you a little piece of Disney history,
Speaker 4: because did you know at one point Disney had their
Speaker 4: own bills. They had their own Disney dollar bills and
Speaker 4: Disney dollars. I look at your surprise face.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, No, I didn't know Disney.
Speaker 4: Dollars were actually a form of like real currency that
Speaker 4: you could use at Disney was created by the Disney
Speaker 4: Company and you could use them in Disneyland and Walt
Speaker 4: Disney World, and literally, like one of the legendary imagineers
Speaker 4: and marketing guys was like, wait a minute, like we're
Speaker 4: bigger than a lot of small countries, Like why don't
Speaker 4: we have our own currency? And they were. I think
Speaker 4: it was one of the first, if not the first
Speaker 4: private organizations in its in the country to print its
Speaker 4: own money and have it accepted in the theme parks
Speaker 4: like the dollar. So in nineteen eighty seven they launched
Speaker 4: Disney dollars, and you can find this. I think there's
Speaker 4: actually YouTube videos like in Anaheim. At Disneyland, motorcycle police
Speaker 4: officers escort this armored truck with Scrooge mc duck, the
Speaker 4: Secretary of the Treasury, like into there and unloaded sacks
Speaker 4: of Disney dollars at the ticket booths and each bill
Speaker 4: I wish I had one to show you, like one dollar,
Speaker 4: I think had Mickey five, had Goofy. There was a
Speaker 4: ten dollars one with Mini and then they for the
Speaker 4: fifty anniversary of Disneyland. They had a fifty dollars bill
Speaker 4: with a special mickey on it. So it was brilliant
Speaker 4: in marketing because people were buying them, going, oh here kid,
Speaker 4: let's just budget our day. But what ended up happening
Speaker 4: is people would buy them. They became collectibles and souvenirs.
Speaker 4: So you're basically just buying money and then putting it.
Speaker 4: I actually have a Disney dollar in here.
Speaker 3: Of course you do, Yes, you do.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of stuff that you can see.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so they became collectible. They don't make them
Speaker 4: any moorsh Now they're even more collectible.
Speaker 3: And what was the value? What's the conversion right of
Speaker 3: a Disney tollery US dollar?
Speaker 4: It was one to one?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 4: So? Yeah, there was no like you just exchanged. It
Speaker 4: was like a currency exchange and it was one to one.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: They were hoping you'd have dollars left over from your
Speaker 1: trip and then they would have the actual US currency
Speaker 1: and you would be left with a piece of paper
Speaker 1: that wasn't good anywhere else.
Speaker 4: You better believe it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Disney, Oh.
Speaker 3: This is a Disney does it a goal? An incredible
Speaker 3: lou You you knew the assignment. You did it, Yes,
Speaker 3: you did it. Amazing. We learned something we were We
Speaker 3: were shocked and shook. Still kind of confused. If you
Speaker 3: want to submit your bill if it has to do
Speaker 3: with a currency that was developed privately or literally any
Speaker 3: other type of brain your honor. Yeah right, visit from
Speaker 3: bronspodcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill, and
Speaker 3: now it's time for Pete.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's exactly Yep, you got it, you got it.
Speaker 3: We get wild at the end of this show.
Speaker 1: Yes, so this is our vulnerability round, but it's not
Speaker 1: going to get too vulnerable in this question. We just
Speaker 1: want to know. We're all going to answer it your
Speaker 1: best slash most memorable Disney Park experience, and lou this
Speaker 1: might be hard for you, but we'll have you go first.
Speaker 4: I have many I'm very blessed to do what I
Speaker 4: do for a long time, but probably one of my
Speaker 4: most profound memories is being with my daughter, who was
Speaker 4: born on Mickey's birthday. No way, we didn't plan it
Speaker 4: that way, seeing her face covered in ice cream, sitting
Speaker 4: on Main Street, USA, watching the parade go by, just
Speaker 4: wide eyed, and then there's me behind her, just crying.
Speaker 4: Blubbering like a wonderfully mature man that I am.
Speaker 3: That's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah I didn't. So I loved Disney, but I didn't
Speaker 1: get into Disney until I had kids. That was what
Speaker 1: did it for me. Like I'd always like been to
Speaker 1: Disney in college, but like could take it or leave it.
Speaker 1: And when I had my son and I put him
Speaker 1: in that Mickey Mouse onesie and he got into Mickey
Speaker 1: Mouse Clubhouse, that was the gateway. That was the gateway,
Speaker 1: and yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Well don't they say that really about parenthood as a whole,
Speaker 3: Like it's kind of his ho hum life. And then
Speaker 3: you have a kid and you get to like re
Speaker 3: experience things through their eyes, which can give life new meaning.
Speaker 3: So yeah, as a parent taking your kid to Disney
Speaker 3: and experiencing it but also experiencing it through them, I
Speaker 3: can see how that would be really meaningful.
Speaker 1: Seeing their little eyes look at the fireworks, assuming they're
Speaker 1: not afraid and like screaming. I know it's always a
Speaker 1: risk you take, but that guy was okay, So oh Lou, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: that one was really good. Jill, can you talk it now?
Speaker 3: You know me, I'm I'm not a Disney adult. I
Speaker 3: have made that clear. But I'm here for the rest
Speaker 3: of you. I support you in your dreams. We did
Speaker 3: go as God.
Speaker 4: We're going to find a way to convert you. We're
Speaker 4: going to find your entry point into Disney and the
Speaker 4: thing that you love that you can experience at Disney.
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean we've been to Disney before, Jill and I.
Speaker 1: So we went to Disney together in what was it,
Speaker 1: the second week of March twenty twenty, like.
Speaker 3: Two days before they shut down.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Together, Yeah, and that was the last time memory
Speaker 1: Hollywood Studios.
Speaker 3: What I'm gonna choose is something little bit more funny
Speaker 3: to me. We did go as a child with my family,
Speaker 3: and my dad had gotten Pacers hats. Mind you, we're
Speaker 3: from the Philadelphia area, like Pacers are an Indiana basketball team.
Speaker 3: We have no family from Indiana, like nothing. But he
Speaker 3: had gotten Pacers hats for all of us to wear.
Speaker 3: They weren't the right size, nothing fit, And it wasn't
Speaker 3: Disney because God forbid, but Pacers hats so that he
Speaker 3: and my parents could spot us. Because we grew up
Speaker 3: in the age of Honey, I shrunk the kids and
Speaker 3: home alone.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Parents were losing their children left and right, So we
Speaker 3: think this was his attempt to like, I'm gonna spot them,
Speaker 3: you know, if they're lost in a crowd, they're gonna
Speaker 3: be wearing these pacers hats. And we hated them, like,
Speaker 3: of course, we hated them. They weren't Disney, they didn't fit,
Speaker 3: we didn't understand them, we hated matching each other. But
Speaker 3: you we had to wear the pacers hats for our
Speaker 3: entire Disney experience so that if we got lost, our
Speaker 3: parents loved Otis in the crowd was probably I'm so
Speaker 3: proud of himself.
Speaker 1: I believe that he would. Yeah, I got these yellow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see and all these goofballs out here. I
Speaker 3: only spent a dollar per hat, and.
Speaker 1: They're yellow, so I'll be able to see them for sure.
Speaker 3: And then of course we were pretty poor, so the
Speaker 3: only characters we could see are like the Alice in
Speaker 3: Wonderland characters. I'd never even seen Alice in Wonderland, and
Speaker 3: then like the Queen of Hearts signed my autograph book,
Speaker 3: but she really scared me. She was very mean and
Speaker 3: I cried. So that was my Disney experienced. Pacers hat
Speaker 3: and the Queen of Hearts yelling at me. Okay, Jen Golden,
Speaker 3: I mean it is fun. It's funny and fun now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I also so I love taking my son.
Speaker 1: We got to take him several times before he turned three,
Speaker 1: and we have been back. We haven't been back since
Speaker 1: we had to pay for him. But now that I
Speaker 1: have another child, I think we'll go back before we
Speaker 1: have to pay for him. So I will, We'll get
Speaker 1: I have been with. I took a work trip a
Speaker 1: work trip in January and and went to Disney.
Speaker 3: She used quotes for those of you who aren't seeing her,
Speaker 3: which is everyone.
Speaker 1: It was a podcasting conference and actually we skipped the
Speaker 1: first day of the conference and went to Disney. So
Speaker 1: but it's peripherally park related. It's running the half marathons.
Speaker 1: So like every finish line for one of the run
Speaker 1: Disney half marathons is like I cried. Well, I cry
Speaker 1: at the starting line too, when the fireworks go off
Speaker 1: for every corral. I shed a tear for every single corral.
Speaker 1: And now they break up the corrals too, so it's
Speaker 1: not just one per corral, it's like three. So like
Speaker 1: by the time we get to me, because I'm slow,
Speaker 1: I am bawling because of all the fireworks. So I
Speaker 1: start crying, and then I also end crying because I'm
Speaker 1: like so proud of myself because I am not super
Speaker 1: athletic and I like running is like a very mental
Speaker 1: sport for me, and I am bad at it and
Speaker 1: that's kind of why I do it, and so I'm
Speaker 1: just so happy when I'm when it's over, like that
Speaker 1: I did it.
Speaker 3: Is this what it is? Is it tears? Is it
Speaker 3: like if you have tears, it creates a core memory,
Speaker 3: and so like extreme emotion. Is that the Disney magic
Speaker 3: is you need to cry? All of our stories cut tears.
Speaker 1: Involved happy tears.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're gonna get you here, We're going to get
Speaker 4: to eat, and we're gonna get.
Speaker 3: You to cry.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that was the problem. When we went,
Speaker 1: you didn't cry.
Speaker 3: So I don't cry it much, but I mean, sure,
Speaker 3: whether you like it hot kids, yeah, we can give
Speaker 3: it a charble.
Speaker 1: There's the tip. If you want your children to remember
Speaker 1: this Disney trip that you're paying a lot of money for,
Speaker 1: they better cry by the time you leave. And that's
Speaker 1: I think the biggest piece of advice we could give you,
Speaker 1: and I think Lou would agree. Lou where can people
Speaker 1: find more from you and more information about like how
Speaker 1: to make their children cry at Disney.
Speaker 4: You can find everything that I do the podcast, live
Speaker 4: video events and books and whatnot at WDW radio dot com.
Speaker 4: And everything that I do sort of on the business
Speaker 4: side of what I do and speaking and coaching you
Speaker 4: can find at Loumongelo dot com and I'm at Loumongelo
Speaker 4: on all social Amazing.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Lou. This has been incredible excite for all
Speaker 3: of your tips. Wow, I'm over here just smiling, gazing
Speaker 3: upon you and Lou just really geeking out over some
Speaker 3: Disney stuff. I mean, I'm here for it. I am.
Speaker 3: I am living off of that excitement a bit here.
Speaker 3: But it is really cool to hear some more about
Speaker 3: what should you be focusing on. Where can you slice
Speaker 3: and dice from someone who really knows the ins and
Speaker 3: outs of it? Because I think that's, as I even
Speaker 3: alluded to in the episode, a little prohibitive for me
Speaker 3: in just not knowing what I don't know, but not
Speaker 3: totally wanting to spend a ton of time scouring all
Speaker 3: that the internet has because there is a lot on
Speaker 3: oh what is even possible? Am I imagining that there's
Speaker 3: a way to save that just doesn't exist, and then
Speaker 3: where are the ways that I can cut? And it
Speaker 3: truly does come down to what do you value, because
Speaker 3: there's always going to be ways to cut, But there's
Speaker 3: going to be some people who want to spend on
Speaker 3: resorts and some people who would rather spend on the
Speaker 3: Genie pass. So I think it was really helpful to
Speaker 3: kind of pare it down to what am I going
Speaker 3: to want out of my experience and then what can
Speaker 3: I cut as a result, So really helpful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the best piece of advice is to
Speaker 1: to definitely choose what you want to include. The goal
Speaker 1: isn't to get the cheapest trip possible, but to do
Speaker 1: everything you can to stack those savings, like Lewis saying,
Speaker 1: so that you can spend money on the things that
Speaker 1: really are important to you. Like for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: it's going to be those Genie passes. So there are
Speaker 1: you know, you can stay off property if your maybe
Speaker 1: your kids are older and you don't think you'll you know,
Speaker 1: want to do those mid day naps or pool days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll have to spend twenty five dollars a day on parking.
Speaker 1: But if you're saving fifty dollars a night on your stay,
Speaker 1: you're still making out okay, so take everything and there
Speaker 1: are far more ways to save that we couldn't get into.
Speaker 1: But I think we really got into the best ones here.
Speaker 1: And make a decision based on your values and your
Speaker 1: family's values too.
Speaker 3: Well. Thanks everyone so much for listening. Many of you
Speaker 3: know that we do have a membership for our listeners
Speaker 3: who are paying down debt, who might even be saving
Speaker 3: for vacations, all kinds of things with money, and we've
Speaker 3: got money challenges that we do monthly where you can
Speaker 3: also get into accountability groups and help one another work
Speaker 3: through these challenges, gamify it, get connected with community. It's
Speaker 3: just a really fun time. But in light of this
Speaker 3: membership that we have that you all can join, we
Speaker 3: do want to congratulate and highlight one of our members
Speaker 3: for a big win. This comes from MLC titled Better Challenge,
Speaker 3: when they shared I was surprised how hard it was
Speaker 3: to let go of my shoes. Spent too much time
Speaker 3: thinking of the memories attached and not how they aren't
Speaker 3: used any longer. Haha. Ultimately, so glad I did it,
Speaker 3: not planning to stop the seven days seventy five items,
Speaker 3: so I can keep the clutter down. So that's referencing
Speaker 3: the challenge that it was seven days get rid of
Speaker 3: seventy five items, and well done, MLC. This is exciting.
Speaker 1: It's MLC that's so great.
Speaker 3: So anyways, thanks all for listening. We hope that this
Speaker 3: helps you do Disney at an affordable rate for you
Speaker 3: with what you want to do. And also if this
Speaker 3: membership sounds really cool, we'd love to see you in
Speaker 3: there again. There's courses, interviews, challenges, friends, tons of friends,
Speaker 3: and there's like actually a whole subgroup in there who
Speaker 3: loves Disney as well and is trying to figure out
Speaker 3: ways to get to Disney. So there's a reason. Frugal
Speaker 3: Friends podcast dot com slash club see in there. Bye.
Speaker 1: Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: There's so much I could say about Disney, but I
Speaker 3: want to keep listeners.
Speaker 1: I feel the same about Taylor Swift, so and there's
Speaker 1: there are some things that you just can't talk about openly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know what, I do appreciate that Disney
Speaker 3: is less expensive than Universal, and for that reason, thank you, Disney.
Speaker 3: Thanks remarkable to me how expensive Universal is, and I
Speaker 3: think with Disney you don't have to get like parked park.
Speaker 3: It's not as important. You can one hundred percent spend
Speaker 3: many days in just one park, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's cumbersome to get to another park, Like I wouldn't
Speaker 3: even imagine to do that, Whereas Universal, it's like you
Speaker 3: have to get parked park and then they tack.
Speaker 1: On like a couple of hundred dollars ride you can't
Speaker 1: do if you don't have a park to park.
Speaker 3: Pass, which is genius on their course, but like, like
Speaker 3: I tried to get a singular day ticket as a
Speaker 3: Florida resident to Universal Universal and it was over four
Speaker 3: hundred dollars. I didn't go like that. No, I'm too
Speaker 3: principled for this. I Am not going to spend four
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty five whatever plus tax dollars. It was
Speaker 3: to spend one day at Universal. So Disney Disney for
Speaker 3: the win on that one.
Speaker 1: Absolutely they do have I mean they're expensive as heck,
Speaker 1: but they do have some good specials for Florida residents.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're it is a fun and I will say
Speaker 3: I didn't share this in the actual episode, but I
Speaker 3: got the most into Disney when my niece and nephews
Speaker 3: came down and went you were even a part of this.
Speaker 3: I think I painted my nails now, I did it myself.
Speaker 3: I didn't go pay someone to do nail art on me.
Speaker 3: But I did do my own mini mouse nail art,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, extreme for me.
Speaker 1: Which I've never done before. For the record, I bought
Speaker 1: mini mouse ears, so you'll see a lot of instagrammers
Speaker 1: and influencers with their mini mouse ears.
Speaker 3: Quick tip.
Speaker 1: I got them on eBay. I got two and they
Speaker 1: are official Walt Disney World ears from Disney World Hong Kong,
Speaker 1: and I got two for less than the price of
Speaker 1: buying one at the parks. So you your Disney ears.
Speaker 3: If you want to be able to spot your children
Speaker 3: in the crowd. Yeah, don't do Disney ears.
Speaker 1: Do pass do Paclers hats for sure, But yeah, so many,
Speaker 1: so many things we could say about Disney, positive and negative.
Speaker 1: But I think I think believe we're.
Speaker 3: Gonna end it there. We're gonna end it there. Go
Speaker 3: get a snack.