Going Beyond The Castle
Going Beyond The Castle is your ultimate travel podcast that takes you beyond the magical gates of Disney. Join hosts Fred and Lori as they explore a world of vacation possibilities, diving into the best experiences from Universal Studios, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Virgin Cruise Line, Sandals Resorts, and so much more. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just dreaming of your next getaway, tune in for expert tips, in-depth reviews, and insider secrets to make your vacation truly unforgettable.
Going Beyond The Castle
Spring Break Survival: Conquering Crowds at Disney & Universal
The dreaded question every Disney and Universal travel agent faces: "When is it not crowded?" For spring break travelers, the answer might be disappointing, but your vacation doesn't have to be.
Fred and Lori tackle the reality of March and April crowds when schools across the country schedule breaks at different times, creating a sustained peak season at the parks. Rather than avoiding these periods, they share proven strategies for thriving despite the crowds. "Go in with the expectation that it's crowded. That way, if it's not, you're happy," Lori advises, sharing stories of clients who experienced surprisingly short wait times during traditionally packed holiday weekends.
The hosts dive deep into maximizing early entry benefits that come with on-property resort stays, with specific guidance on arriving well before the perk begins and knowing which attractions to target first. They break down when Lightning Lane and Express Pass investments truly pay off (hint: Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are must-haves during spring break) and how to strategically use mobile ordering to bypass lengthy food lines.
For families battling Florida's heat, Fred and Lori offer creative solutions beyond the obvious advice. From taking advantage of the new complimentary water park day offered to Disney resort guests, to identifying the best indoor shows for midday breaks, to using cooling towels and finding hidden shaded areas throughout the parks—their practical tips come from years of personal experience navigating crowded parks.
The episode concludes with alternative activities for when lines become unbearable, from engaging scavenger hunts and explorer badges to resort hopping and shopping districts. Their message is clear: with proper planning and realistic expectations, spring break at Disney and Universal can still be the magical experience your family deserves.
Stay up to date with all things Going Beyond the Castle at beacons.ai/GoingBeyondTheCastle
Crowd level reality check what to expect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is probably one of the toughest questions that we get asked to as travel agents is when is it not crowded at Disney or Universal? It's so hard to address that because we really don't know. And what I tell clients most of the time just go in with the expectation that it's crowded. That way, if it's not crowded, then hey, you're happy. But if you're planning on having crowds and planning for it to be busy and you do all the right things, then you're going in with a different expectation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I talked about it last year. I had clients that out of the blue, were like we want to go for the July weekend and I was like you're crazy. I was like it's going to be stupid pack. And you know I set them up for that expectation. You know I think they said most days the longest they waited was 15 minutes, like perks to me for planning the trip, perks to them for going with expectations like you really do just got to set yourself up for expectations when you go.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Going Beyond the Castle. I'm super excited to be here. As always, I am your host, fred Riley, and with me, as always, is my fabulous co-host, lori Talamo, and we are excited for this episode as we dive into some spring break tips, because we are officially in march and we are approaching spring break season across the country and the unfortunate side of traveling to disney and universal is that everybody has spring break at a different time. Um, so we're going to dive into some tips today about how you can successfully do disney and universal during march and april and just still have a good time, even with the crowds that are going to be flooding to those locations. So, yeah, super excited for today's episode.
Speaker 1:Before we dive in, as always, want to give a shout out to those that are joining us to go beyond the castle every single week. We we really appreciate you guys and, as always, we ask that you guys definitely like our stuff, share it and give us a follow. So, with that being said, I will turn it over to Lori for some announcements. Apparently, she has some announcements this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like Disney has released a little bit of teasers to give us a little bit more information of some new things that are coming up. You know, with D23, they announced a lot of the new things that are happening and it looks like they announced the. So they're going to update the by the smugglers run. It's right in front of my face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they're going to debut that now. It's not until May 2026, but they're giving a little bit more details on exactly what that's going to be. So Mando and Grogu are going to join in on the Smuggler's Run.
Speaker 2:So I'm super excited for that, because Disney did a really good job on the series of Mandalorian, so I'm super excited to see that come into play in Smuggler's Run yeah, we um, dara and I were talking about it a little bit this morning at church and, um, I don't know, we didn't do this one on the last trip, just because you know when you get placed with another family. And yeah, since it was just the two of us, we decided to sit it out. But we'll definitely try it out when it's the um, the new uh scenes.
Speaker 1:I think that'll be fun it's always fun when you do new stuff we skipped it on our last two trips just because, again, like we wrote it the very first time when it opened and it was super great ride, wrote it twice but again, like it's just for us, it was a one and done, especially with the whole, like I got tired of being the person that always got sat in the back pushing the button and that was all I did for the whole ride.
Speaker 2:Good yes, well, same with us. And I guess too, because, you know, because they do put you in with other families. So of course, if you have other families that go and they have children, you know you kind of take the leftover. So we always are in the back too, like I don't think we've ever gotten to be pilots. So we were like we're going to sit this one out.
Speaker 1:And we did do Rye, so that's important. Oh, yeah, must do Rye every time. Yeah, for sure, For sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, moving on over to Hollywood Studios Monsters Inc. Area, they put out a little bit of information on that as well, and so we knew that it was going to be a suspended coaster, but now it says it's like the first one to have a lift. Now I missed exactly where the text is it?
Speaker 1:looks a little bit like Soarin' Kind of. Yeah, did you see that? You saw the video that they put out?
Speaker 2:I did see it and you're right, it does, because it kind of looks where it lifts up. But then, yeah, I guess it like turns you in. Yeah, so I cannot wait. I want to see if I'll be able to get Josh on this one. Oh, he's watching.
Speaker 1:Josh has to ride it like he doesn't have a choice. He has to ride Monsters, right choice.
Speaker 2:He has to ride monsters, right josh.
Speaker 1:Every new ride that opens at a disney park, you gotta ride it with her, because if not, you're depriving glory of knowledge as a travel agent.
Speaker 2:Thank you, we have had this discussion a lot this week about how many times we have to go to disney and I'm like it's literally my job, yes, like I have to go because it's it's research.
Speaker 1:So I get it, I understand us, but it's, it's worth, right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, I think he will, he'll do it with me. He gives into my my disney craziness, yeah, okay, so now, and I guess we're staying in hollywood studios, I think or maybe this is over no cars land is going to be in magic kingdom magic kingdom but they announced.
Speaker 2:So this I thought was pretty, pretty cool. They actually went today. They kind of gave it a little bit of information, like they're calling it off-roading vehicles for the new cars rides, and so they said they actually went out into the arizona desert and jumped into an off-road vehicle just to kind of see what it would feel like driving over rocky terrain. So I'm very curious on how that's going to translate over to the car's ride. I think kind of makes it sound like it might be a little rough but hey, that's fine with that disney.
Speaker 1:I feel like disney needs a ride like that, like because, yeah, I don't know, but then again the way with suspension is nowadays, especially on those rides like they can make, like the off-road, be a super smooth ride yeah, um, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:I cannot wait for this new stuff. I can't wait for cars. I think it's gonna be fun this, okay. So they put out an article and like the refurbishment and the new things with all of the all-star resorts and with pop, and so you know, they showed a lot of the concept art with the the wall mural, murals and murals, whatever, I can't talk you guys know what I'm trying to say murals got it murals.
Speaker 2:No, I that look really neat and I know you I think you went since they've done some of the updates over to pop. But what is super exciting and what's really going to make pop even more attractive is getting a new coffee shop yes, I have.
Speaker 1:It's supposed to wrap up in april. Sadly, the food court was still under refurb. Oh I gotcha when we went, so we were sitting in the old under refurb. Oh I gotcha when we went, so we were sitting in the old, not updated portion. They had the back portion. No, they had the food court area actually cleared off or locked off and the seating still open and then they positioned. But yeah, I, I saw they're getting a coffee shop now does it say whether it's going to be joffrey's or starbucks?
Speaker 2:it doesn't say so, they don't really give much, or even I don't even think it says. It just says a brand new coffee shop is also joining the lineup, offering specialty beverages that are sure to perk up guests throughout the day.
Speaker 1:So If it's not at Joffrey's, I'm going to be disappointed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hopefully it's not a Starbucks. I mean, I know I like my Starby's sometimes, but I'm not a Starby's fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so I'm excited about that. I already love Pop and especially I think we may have talked about it a little bit, or maybe not when you know, with us staying over at Saratoga Springs, I've done it, so I'm good. I definitely am going to go to Pop next time I can.
Speaker 1:I got a client, I got a referral today that she's looking at staying at Pop, and I'm so excited. I always get super excited when people are like I want to stay at Pop and I'm like, yes, favorite resort ever, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's so fun, and actually I think next week we talk in resorts, so it is so fun just that, and especially like I love the pictures of the new updates that they've done.
Speaker 2:It's already a really fun resort, especially because, let's be real, when we go to disney we want to be immersed in disney and so you know some of the the more upscale resorts. Some people like that and I'm happy to sell you contemporary or help you book contemporary. But you know I'm good with pop and then I'm not going to go into too many details. You can give us some information on that when you come back, although it'll probably be over.
Speaker 1:I know where you're going with this.
Speaker 2:Yes, they've put out a little bit more details on the 60th anniversary over at disneyland. That's starting on may 16th, uh, so if you have any interest in going we can tell you about that. It looks like a lot of fun stuff.
Speaker 1:World of color happiness, our worst night show is supposed to be going on while we're there. I'm pretty sure fun.
Speaker 2:I'm so jealous, I'm so jealous, I'm so jealous of you.
Speaker 1:We had a group chat going the other day for those of us that are going and I guess, luckily me and the guy that I'm hanging out with we planned our trip perfectly, but one of the nights Disneyland Sure, yeah, we'll go with that. Disneyland is closing for a ticketed Star Wars night, because I guess they have that going on right now. See, disneyland, it's one of the two parks, I can't remember which one it is, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks super cool and of course there were a couple nerds that were like I'm so going to that and there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looks really fun. I mean, all the festivals that they do are super fun. Um, yeah, so we don't have to go too much, but they did put out some more information. So you interested, it's not too late to book a trip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could tell you all about that.
Speaker 2:And then the last thing before we move on, I just want, like I don't know if you saw the video of um, the team members that they miked up that were walking through. I'm getting chills again. I know this is josh is gonna think I'm stupid you're epic, I'm getting chills just thinking about it, when they miked up the team members that walked through epic for the first time yeah and like at the very end, one of the guys was like I get to work here and I'm like, I'm so jealous of him, like what an awesome feeling it looks like.
Speaker 1:I've seen a couple videos, flyovers. I've seen a couple photos both day and night, like that is is going to. It's going to be such a gorgeous park like, especially at night. I'm like they they really took into account building this park and how it would look at nighttime, because it's just look gorgeous.
Speaker 2:I know and I cannot and I didn't tell you, but we've probably changed our family's plans. I had booked the trip to go in November with Olivia for her birthday, but she decided she would like to try a Virgin Voyages cruise instead. So we have to wait until she's 18. So we're going to pivot and do it late. You know we think, and maybe Mardi Gras next year of it. And do it late, you know we think, and maybe mardi gras next year, but she still gave me permission to go on my agency trip with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good job, because I was like, look, I'm okay with it.
Speaker 2:I would love to do a virgin voyager screws with you, but you got you promised that you won't get mad if I go on my agency trip so I'm hoping by then we can get one day tickets and I could still throw in an epic day on that trip. I'm sure we'll see one day tickets and I could still throw in an epic day on that trip.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll see one day tickets by that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I just I thought that video was so awesome because it was just like pure. It's almost like when you with someone who's visiting Disney for the first time or you know that I don't know that Universal usually gets really gets that same feeling when you walk through for the first time, like you do at Disney.
Speaker 1:But I felt it in that epic video. We'll find out, because I'm gonna mic jamelle up when I take him for the first time at the end of may. So I totally plan to mic him up the day. We walk in a magic kingdom that's awesome we'll see we'll see if it's the same high expectations from jamelle that'll be fun anyway.
Speaker 2:that's it for announcements. Nice, just some cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Another major. That's super near term, but the stuff at Disney World is really going to be great once we start seeing some movement on that stuff.
Speaker 2:I got it. We have a prom dilemma this weekend and so I just got a text, so I needed a pivot for a second. Okay, wait till you get to prom days. Nope, not ready for that.
Speaker 1:I still got like 13 years Good.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's not anything bad, just appointments overlapping.
Speaker 1:So Okay, sweet, let's dive into we got 45 minutes to talk crowds at disney world, disneyland. All right, let's do it, we can stay on track tonight. Last week we just kind of went in a long episode yeah, we're trying, we'll not do all right. So crowd level reality check what to expect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's. This is probably one of the toughest questions that we get asked to as travel agents is when is it not crowded at Disney or Universal? It's so hard to address that because we really don't know. Just in what I tell clients most of the time just go in with the expectation that it's crowded.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That way, if it's not crowded, then hey, you're happy, you know. But if you're planning on having crowds and planning for it to be busy and you do all the right things, then you're going in with a different expectation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I talked about it last year. Like I had clients that, out of the blue, were like we want to go for the July weekend and I was like you're crazy. I was like it's going to be stupid, pat. And you know I set them up for that expectation. You know I think they said most days the longest they waited was 15 minutes, like perks to me for planning the trip, perks to them for going with expectations, like you really do just got to set yourself up for expectations when you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you said it in the intro too. What's different about spring break is, unless you're going to research, you know all across the states of you know when everyone's spring break is. It's really hard to tell when spring breaks are happening and when it's typically mid-March to April is when those spring breaks are happening, especially around Easter. Wherever Easter falls, too, you have to take that into consideration.
Speaker 2:Again, it's just, it's super difficult. There are crowd calendars out there that we can look at or that you can look, but just, you know, since COVID, it's really hard for them to really project on what's happening, for them to really project on what's happening. So some of the things to keep in mind over on the Disney side as well as spring break, is you also have the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival that's happening over, which I don't know necessarily that will make the crowds a lot more, but it is a festival that's going on. Anytime you have festivals over at Epcot, you will get a little bit more crowds. That's I don't know.
Speaker 1:I love, as I said, it's probably one of my favorite festivals. I do like food and wine.
Speaker 2:A day festival, all day, it's yeah on a weekday yeah, but I do love flowering garden festival and then early April, you know you'll run into the springtime surprise weekend, the race over at Disney um, you have Easter in there. And then, once you get into May, you'll run into the springtime surprise weekend, the race over at Disney, you have Easter in there, and then, once you get into May, you'll have Memorial Day. So those are also dates that you want to consider if you're looking around spring break.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I think I've said it before too and you know it's kind of a motto that I'll stick to is, if kids are going to be out of school, it's going to be busy. Yeah, just because because you know people all over the country love to travel anytime the kids are out of school. Because I mean, let's be honest, you know, if you don't go to an all-year school, like those times during those long weekends and those those week breaks that you're off during the school year, people love to travel. So not everybody, of course, is going to go to disney or universal, but a lot of those people do so. Just, you know, rule of thumb is, if kids are out of school, just plan for it to be busy yeah, definitely, but there are ways to work around that.
Speaker 2:I feel like we we hit the crowd level one pretty quick. We did. There's really not much you could say you know not it's going to be crowded, or you may get lucky and it's not. And then, too, one of the things it's so hard to tell but I know forever. It was like don't go to Epcot on the weekends, because that's when the locals go.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But then you may go on a weekend and like, oh, it's not really that crowded.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing I mean. It goes back to what you said at the very beginning. You really just have to go into it with the mindset that it's going to be busy Because we can't rely on crowd calendars anymore. Crowd calendars give us a good idea but like you shouldn't look at a crowd calendar, see that it's yellow or orange and be like crap, I've got to move my entire trip. Like, absolutely shouldn't do that by any means.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and I feel like there are times like for me. I will not go during Mardi Gras. I will not go again during Thanksgiving, even though I almost just did it but that was for a specific reason, but there are families who can't help it.
Speaker 2:Now. Look, I've said it before, Olivia, we can only go in the summer. It's hot as heck. If I can only go during spring break, that's the only time I'm going to get to go. I'm going and I'll make it work, but you know you take the planning steps and so don't take what we're saying as, oh, it's going to be so crowded I don't want to go. We can help you navigate through and make your days work.
Speaker 1:You know you, um, you know you just have to go in with the expectation that it's going to be crowded. You're not going to get 10 minute lines. Yeah, no, I mean you could. Just depends on what you. You really got to go into it with a strategy which you know, just segueing into the next one. Absolutely, yeah, you know, I have people all the time that are like I'll never go back to disney. I went one time and it was the worst experience of my life and I'm like, okay, well, tell me about your trip. And they're like we showed up and everything was a 45-minute to an hour and a half wait. I'm like did you do any research? Did you plan your trip? Did you do any prep work? No, we just showed up. I'm like there's why your trip sucked do any prep work.
Speaker 1:No, we just showed up. I'm like there's why your trips suck. Like you can absolutely, you know you can absolutely, you know show up and wing a trip and you got a 50 50 shot of you know it being a good trip. But you know, one of the things that you know rachel and I do with all of our clients is, you know, before they go on their trips, you know we schedule, sit down with them and we're like all right, what rides do you want to do? What's, what characters do you want to see? What shows do you want to see? What's important to you about this trip? And then from there we just take it. We're like all right. So you know you want to do safari. Like, okay, you're going to animal kingdom, you want to do safari. You know, this is when we really recommend you should do safari. This is when we recommend you do this and just really go into it with a plan and if you do that, like there's a solid chance you're going to have a really good trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:One of the things I'd I like to tell folks to do too is, especially and I know we're going to get into that at some point um, especially if you're going to buy lightning lanes, or I mean with the express pass is different, because you don't have to schedule your time Right, you know, if you're going to do the lightning lanes or whatever, get a map out.
Speaker 2:And even for myself, as many times as I've been, I still like, if I'm planning my park days, I pull up the map on one computer and then I have my phone because, just because you know what, you want to be strategic and you want to see what's available, and you know and plan your days around that. And one thing I don't do is I don't like to zigzag across the park. So I may have to, you know, like, sacrifice a little bit of time and say I'm going to stay in line a little bit longer just so I can get these, you know, this area of the park done first, then kind of make my way around, way around, you know. So you just have to pick and choose your strategy and what works for you yeah, like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean for us, like you know, as we start approaching, you know, my disneyland trip and as we start approaching my disney world trip in may, like a week out, like I'm gonna start watching the app and be like, okay, what rides are super popular, because every week it's different. Like you know, one week soaring could be a 10 minute wait and then the next day it's like two hour wait, like. So you really got to keep an eye on the rides as you approach the trip and just kind of you know strategize. But you know, one of the things that we definitely want to hit on is like the time that you arrive in the parks. I think Lori and I will always say, you know, whether it's Disney, whether it's Universal, like stay at a on property resort.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Get a lot of perks out of that and one of the biggest perks is the early entry. So you know you have a lot of people that can't necessarily do, like you know, open to close and you know that's totally fine. Um, you know, if you want to do early entry, like that's definitely one of the things we recommend doing is getting there like an hour early, um, before early entry even starts, because those lines are going to start forming up, you know, 30 to 40 minutes before early entry starts. Um, so really, get there early, get in line and have a plan of where you're going. Because, like for magic kingdom, for example, the left side of the park stays closed so everybody gets funneled to the right and goes around to the back. But tron is not part of early entry. So if, like, you go in with this mindset that you're going to ride Tron, you're going to be hurt.
Speaker 1:So make sure you do the research, knowing what rides are open. And it's like I was talking to somebody today one of my clients is there right now and hopefully they don't watch this, take this the wrong way but they were talking they're going to Epcot tomorrow and they were like we're going to do early entry. What ride should we do for early entry? Should we do Guardians or spaceship or no? Not spaceship, earth, a mission space? And I was like, first of all, you don't drop mission space, mission space all day yeah but then she was like, well, you know he doesn't like roller coasters.
Speaker 1:Like all right, well, let's talk frozen, let's talk remys, because you know those are going to be one of the two rides that you want to hit. But you know, if you're coming in from the front of park, keep in mind that all the people that are on the skyline are going to hit Remy. So you may want to go hit Frozen. So it's things like that that you really got to strategize if you're going to do early entry.
Speaker 2:I do recommend too, like and I have the conversation with clients as well Like, my family are not rope droppers, they don't want to get up early, but we know going in, we know that, we know that we're behind the crowd. So once we get there, um, but I do purchase the multi-pass and the single pass because, let's be real, when you go to disney you just pretend like you have all the money in the world and you just spend it on everything. So I but I plan my first lightning lane or the single pass to start the day and just kind of work from there. We don't go too late, we'll get there by like nine, but we're not rope droppers, you know. But I have those conversations with clients, like if you want to maximize the day again, yeah, go early. Or if you want to sleep in a little late, then plan on staying until the end, you know it just kind of depends on, like you said, what your priorities are.
Speaker 2:Do you want to be there?
Speaker 1:You guys don't really do shows because you've done a lot of the nighttime shows multiple times. That's a solid strategy for a lot of people. You sleep in. Once those nighttime shows start happening, you start hitting rides because you know everybody's going to be watching the shows. You rock out rides through those shows up until hit rides because you know everybody's gonna be watching the show. Watching the show, you know you rock out rides through those shows up until like right when the park closes.
Speaker 2:You get in the busiest line, dead last, and you, you wait that bad boy out yeah, we timed it and I might have talked about it one time when we went with my we took my in-laws the first time they had ever been at disney and I wanted my mother-in-law to see the show. You know I was like, well, let's let her go watch. But we just, you know, already decided to do rides. But we actually timed it where we were on big thunder mountain at the time of the fireworks so that was super cool yeah, so that was.
Speaker 2:That was awesome too. So, yeah, if you're not, if you're ride heavy, definitely recommend riding during the the fireworks, but I also recommend seeing it at least once. Yeah, for sure yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:And getting back onto what you said, like you know, I think you know, getting into lightning lane and universal express pass, you know, I definitely think the express pass is always worth it at universal, you know, and you can, if you can afford, to stay in one of the top three resorts, which is hard rock portofino what's the other one? Is it royal pacific? No, yes is it?
Speaker 1:uh, you're making me think yeah, right, I'm gonna have to look it up. I can't remember what the third one is. Oh man, I'm gonna look at it. If you can stay in one of those top three resorts. Like one, you get early entry. Two, it includes the universal unlimited express pass. So like strongly recommend that.
Speaker 1:And you know, one of the great things about universal express pass is, like lori said, you don't have to pre-book your rides, like you just show up and you just hop in the line for whatever ride you want to ride and I'm telling you it's totally worth it.
Speaker 1:Like, the last time that we used it, we rode every single ride in the park almost twice and we're done each day by five o'clock, like, and we left the parks and went, got dinner, like, walked city walk and just had a casual evening because we were literally nothing else to do, whereas, you know, lightning lane multi-pass, single pass. You know we've had a conversation before but hopefully one day disney will transition to the universal style, but you know, you know, I strongly. You know, if you're going to Animal Kingdom, I can kind of say, you know, get it for Avatar. I don't know if I would recommend it for anything else at Animal Kingdom, epcot, like, unless you have kids that absolutely have to ride Frozen or Remy's, like I would say, you could also avoid it there. If you're going to Magic Kingdom and if you're going to Hollywood Studios any time March to April, go ahead and drop that $35 a person and get it for both of those parks each day. It's going to save you time.
Speaker 2:Just want to tell you it is Royal Pacific. I always confuse that one with Sapphire Falls. So you're right. The jury is still out for me on Premier Pass. I always confuse that one with Sapphire Falls, so you're right. Yeah, and I'm still. The jury is still out for me on Premiere Pass.
Speaker 1:My client said she loved it. Like I mean, I'm sure she got it for Magic Kingdom. And she said, totally worth it. Like I mean, if you can afford to drop like four hundred dollars a day per person, like live your best life.
Speaker 2:I'll say I saw on Facebook somebody in one of the groups maybe the tips and tricks groups or something and folks, if y'all are listening, don't believe everything you hear in those groups.
Speaker 1:Facts.
Speaker 2:But somebody posted. I hope it's worth it and it was a day for Hollywood Studios and it was $1,800.
Speaker 1:I know the exact post you're talking about.
Speaker 2:And I was like no, don't buy it. And I'm like I don't know. You know, for a premier pass you can only use it in one park, so it's not like you can park, hop and use it somewhere else. To me, I would not spend $1,800 for Hollywood Studios, I wouldn't. Yeah, I thought that was wild. I saw that post.
Speaker 1:I read all of yes. Please do not. If you listen to this podcast and you are part of one of the facebook groups that has like 15 000 people in it and it's like for tips and tricks about disney and universal, please don't believe everything that you see in that post or in that group. Right, 99 of people have been to disney once and they think they know everything in the world, so exactly think of it with a great speaking of groups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of groups, I know we haven't been super active in our group. We try to get that group to grow and once we do then we can have those kind of conversations in there, because then you have fred night, who are both season travel agents and have been multiple times, and we can answer those questions. So shout out for our group, go and share and join the group and then we can have those discussions. And then you can leave the other groups or just take it with a grain of salt when you see stuff, especially the off-the-wall stuff about them taking out the Tree of Life or some random stuff that they post.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they post some crazy stuff in those groups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Anyway, random stuff that they post.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they post some crazy stuff in those groups, yeah, um, yeah, anyway, that's it yeah, lightning lay universal express pass, you know is definitely going to be a time saver, especially during those busy seasons. Yeah, I think you know, if you get to the slower seasons you know late january, february, even early march and you know, sometime in the fall, like august, september, you know I could easily say you know you could do a really successful disney trip without either of those, disney annual universal trip without either of those. But you know, looking specifically at spring break time, just consider it an investment in your trip.
Speaker 1:Like absolutely don't consider it like an extra that you have to buy. Consider it an investment to make your trip better yeah, add it to your package.
Speaker 2:That way. You know well, disneyland, you can not, disney, yeah, disney, where you can't, but universal. Then you have time to pay for it yeah yeah, and I have, and I haven't done express pass, but we've always gone to universal on off times, so we've made it work. But I would absolutely get it if we went during a holiday or a busy time, I would make it work and then we kind of talked about it a little bit.
Speaker 1:But staying on the whole rides aspect, like definitely do the research, like I mentioned it a little, you know, do the research, like if you know that you're going to want to rope drop, like the week before, like get up at that time and start looking at you know right, see what, see what rides are going to be.
Speaker 1:You know, real data is a fabulous website that I also recommend to everybody. Um, they pull some fabulous data, uh, from all of the parks to include you know what times the rides were busy, what times they weren't they. It also pulls data for you know lightning lanes and multi single passes. Multi passes like how far out, many days out, they sell out, versus how quickly into the day the multi-pass sells out like. There's a lot of really good websites that can also help you strategize. Like. All right, I can see that mission space is never busy, so let's not rope drop that, whereas I can see that guardians is like busy right there because it's right near the main entrance and people just beeline towards it, so let's hit that one. So definitely, you know, strategize those rides and do the research before you know, you get to the park?
Speaker 1:yeah, definitely. And then, of course, it's always important to talk food, because if you've ever been to disney and even universal during a busy time, you know that those lines are stupid long. And when you forget, when you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're going to wait even longer because the lines are stupid long. So one of the things that we've always talked about is just making sure you know to find restaurants that have that mobile order opportunity. You know, really take advantage of mobile order. That way you can really just like all right, I'm starting to get hungry, let's mobile order food. All right, 30 minutes from now we'll go pick up our food from columbia harbor house and eat our lobster rolls. Like, really, make sure you're taking advantage of mobile ordering to hit those those times of when you're eating yeah, when josh and I went in october, no february.
Speaker 2:I keep forgetting now we've been so many times when we went last we didn't really have any plans. We knew our first day there we were going to. We were going to epcot because of course I went to ride guardians and so we just went in shoot. Now I thought forgot the name of it. Connections oh connections and so the reason why is because I wanted to try the pizza there, because I was told that the pizza there was kind of comparable to um vietnam, which yeah I can still say I like vietnam better, but it was good, it was better than a pizza window.
Speaker 2:But anyway, we went in and the lines were so long and so I was like hold on. So I mobile ordered. Like within five minutes we got our food and there was still people like just packed in the lines. I'm like this is crazy to not use mobile order yeah, absolutely like.
Speaker 1:Mobile order is just such a fabulous tool to use to really save you time in the parks, like, even if the parks aren't busy, just use it. You're gonna thank us later, like, right, yeah, because I mean, like lori said, your food, your food is ready so much faster with mobile order yep, I think it took us longer to find a table than it did for us to get our food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I will say too, like you know, going to disneyland for all of two days, like we don't have a lot of time, there's so much to do and you know, thankfully there's a lot of stuff at disneyland that is also at disneyworld.
Speaker 1:So you know, as a travel agent who's never been to disneyland, like thankfully I don't have to try to hit every single ride there, but I do want to spend a lot of time focusing on rides and attractions, things like that. And if that's the type of person you are, one of the things that we are already planning to do is like I think we're only planning to do one sit down dinner, um, and that's because we're going as like a big group, so we want to have time to get together, um, but it wasn't for that. Like I honestly think like we would prioritize quick service, uh, and doing that mobile order and just eating on the go. Because if you really want to focus on the rides and the attractions and the shows, avoid those table service dinners that are going to take an hour, hour and a half of your time, and just grab some mini corn dogs from Casey's Corner and go straight back to it. Just probably don't go ride like Tron right after eating that.
Speaker 2:But no, no, not at all. Yeah, we were just talking about casey's corner at work the other day because I was saying how I don't like hot dogs and then somebody brought up corn dogs. I'm like you know what?
Speaker 1:I did eat the corn dog nuggets at casey's corner when I went for them um yeah, it was good all right, we're good, we ready to move over to beat the heat.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's move on to beat the heat, and so I know we're talking about spring break and so, which could be, we said, march or April, but let's be real, it's hot in Orlando most of the time. So there are ways, though, that you can beat the heat, especially now with those guests. Fred mentioned how it's good to stay at a Disney resort. I know I feel like we're talking mostly about Disney and this is supposed to be Disney and Universal, but with your, you know, everyone gets a free water park day. Now, when, on your check-in day, you can hit the water park, so that's a good alternative to like spend the day there just to kind of get acclimated, especially if you're not used to the heat. You know, take use of that free water park day and go spend the day there. Or if you're at Universal, it's not free, but you can get the three park tickets. That includes Volcano Bay, and so you can spend one of your days over at Volcano Bay. So it's it's always fun water slides and pools and all of those things to kind of cool you off, and then it's a little bit different. However, we're not water park family, so I have not done any of them. I can tell you that my tribal agent besties that I hang out with love Volcano Bay. Lori is one and she loves it. So she will talk up Volcano Bay all the time. Kind of sorry I didn't do it when we went on our last trip, but I chose the Disney life instead on that day.
Speaker 2:It's good to find, you know, like spots to cool off we talk a lot about or at least I do like, although when we went in February it was kind of hot in there, or at least I do Like, although when we went in February it was kind of hot in there. But find rides like Carousel of Progress, where you can get out and take a break from the heat. Or if you're over at Animal Kingdom, go see a show. Go see Lion King or go see Finding Nemo. There's what's the Beauty and the Beast show over at Hollywood Studios. Over in Universal there's the Bourne Show. Find a spot that has some AC midday and if you do want to take a little break to have a bite to eat, you can book a lunch as well to get inside somewhere.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we've done and it was like a lifesaver was the cooling towels, because again, the last two years. We had to go in the summer because of Olivia's cheer life and that's the only time that we could go and those cooling towels were great. The one day like one trip. I think it was either june or july. I mean it was super hot but like it didn't feel miserable because you know they keep your neck wet and you just kind of patch your face. I don't know, have y'all used those or y'all do?
Speaker 1:fans we have four of them in our disney suitcase. Downstairs we have a suitcase that just stays ready ponchos, fans, neck fans, reusable straws, cooling towels it just stays ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So those are good, and I got them on Amazon. They were fairly cheap. They were like four in a pack for maybe like $20. Now you can get them at the parks, where you're going to probably pay $20 for one, because, especially the ones at Disney, they have the little Mickey heads on them. And then one of the cool things about and I don't know, maybe you'll know, I don't know if they do this at universal, probably so, but at disney you can get cups of ice water, and so we'll do that a lot yeah, they have a chew on the ice, yeah they have a lot of the, a lot of the small little hole in the wall places.
Speaker 1:They'll have like a cooler water set up. They just don't want you using your own water bottle. They say for sanitary purposes, but it's probably just so. People don't still like all the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can walk up, grab you can grab it too especially reusable cups, as you want, but don't put it in your own water bottle yeah, well, I could see especially like if they put the part where they drink out of close to it.
Speaker 1:Did you already hit? I got distracted. Did you already hit the shaded rest stops in each part.
Speaker 2:I did not. I skipped it, to be honest. Yeah, I went straight for the cooling towels. Yeah, it's so hard because I know a lot of people like Epcot is the hottest, or Animal Kingdom they are pretty hot.
Speaker 1:They're all hot.
Speaker 2:They're all hot, to be honest, when you're there, you know on the hot months or when the humidity is going. There are shaded spots, though I know you mentioned a lot about Flametree Barbecue. You know how they have that little seated area where you can get some shade One too, if you want to think like.
Speaker 1:One of the places I always recommend for kids wanted Epcot is if you go into the space, the mission space exit, there's a like a kid's little play area thing. Yeah, it's indoors, so it's like a jungle gym indoors, so it's a great spot to play.
Speaker 1:Like if you're doing a rider swap, one of your pet, one of the parents, is riding a guardians you know the other one can take kids over and let them play the exit of Mission Space. If you go to Magic Kingdom and you go like you're going to ride on Dumbo, but halfway through you go into the jungle gym area. Yes, that's another really fabulous spot to cool off, let the kids play for a little bit, get out of the sun. Hollywood Studios really it's your shows. There's a couple shaded areas.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, back on Sunset Boulevard that are shaded and typically tend to be not very crowded. There's a couple good areas back over there but really a lot of your shows are going to hit it. And the same thing for animal kingdom like there's not. There's not really like a good like place to just chill
Speaker 1:just chill so again, again. If you can get into the Festival of the Lion King, or even if you can get back to Rafiki's Planet, that's always a good spot to hang out to and get out of the sun for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no more Dinoland, so you can't go anywhere over there.
Speaker 1:Thank God.
Speaker 2:I just saw where they took the big dinosaur down.
Speaker 1:No Gertie's at Hollywood Studios no.
Speaker 2:Gertie's at Hollywood Studios. I forgot what the name was that they called it. Yeah, but that's gone too. Yeah, and I'm trying to think, walking through, I'm trying to think like I'm walking through in my head Universal, I mean, that's covered, yeah, and they also have the little splash pad there, so there's some shade there. I can't really think too much. Even on the Islands of Adventure side, I feel like I can't really think of any shaded areas. Yeah, go hide in the locker rooms. Epcot's got a new playground.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I'm back on Disney.
Speaker 2:No, that's okay.
Speaker 1:Epcot's got a new shaded playground area for the festival.
Speaker 2:I'm going to check it out when I go in May. What else we got? Yeah, one of the things I do because hydration is definitely important. So usually what I do in the morning before we start our day is I'll drink a water. Now I used to drink liquid IV but recently just changed over to a healthier option less ingredients LMNT is what it's called. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but I'll drink that before I start my day. So at least I've got a bottle of water in with the hydration stuff in to kind of get started and then definitely make sure you're drinking water throughout the day because you don't want to get dehydrated, on top of being hot and crowded.
Speaker 1:You know, and definitely just to you know, get in one last little spill before we move on. It's. Definitely just know when to take those breaks. Like like yeah, you're not hard fed enough. If you don't know when to take breaks in the crowds and in the heat, your trip is going to be miserable because everybody's going to start fighting, your kids are going to get angry, your spouse is going to get angry. Like just take the 10 minutes to sit down, drink some water and just chill, like or your trip is not going to be absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um yeah, I feel like we went really quick in the beginning. I feel like I don't know how long we've been here now. Oh, we're at nine minutes 49 minutes, so let's all right, so, yeah. So, as Fred said, make sure you take breaks. You don't want to stress out. I know it's hard, because when I'm on vacation I really I hate to go back to the room and take a nap. But if you have to Like it's much better to get that little rest than you know to have a miserable trip or go nap on people. Mover.
Speaker 1:Facts Been there, done that. Great recommendation yes, absolutely, absolutely. Or when you ride through Space Mountain, your nap gets ruined very quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with the screams and the yeah. Yeah, it's so crazy. It's funny because every time I ride that I forget how dark it gets until we're in there. Yeah, all right, best rides and attractions for crowded days?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, all right. So best rides and attractions for crowded days? I will say that if you're going to go to Disney or Universal, know, make sure you download the apps. Um, just because those are really going to be, you know, the best information for up-to-date stuff of where you need to go. Like, if you're going to go in and just wing it, at least download the apps because you know you're going to be able to see, like you know, guardians is, you know, 120 minutes, but living with the land is 10 minutes. Let's go there. Um, so that way you know, you know what rides to hit. You know at the moment, if you're not sure where to go, just go look for one of the rides with the low wait times. Honestly, there's not a lot of rides at disney that aren't great. Same thing for universal.
Speaker 1:You know a lot of the rides are really really good rides, I think the only ride that gets me out is winnie the pooh, and that's just because it's like I don't know, it's just like a psychedelic drug overdose type of ride more is it where jow more than at yeah, yeah, um, so, definitely, you know, keep an eye on that, the app, um, so you can know.
Speaker 1:And, of course, you know you're older and not an uh technology person. You know a lot of the parks do have, um, you know, signs up of like, hey, here's, you're in the. You know you're in frontierland, here's the wait time for all the rides in frontierland. Or hey, you're in, you know the new york section of. You know universal studios, like here's the wait times for these. So definitely, just keep an eye out for those. One of the things that I always say is, when in doubt, just try to go for a show. There's a lot of really great shows that just run continuously. Mickey's PhilharMagic is a great way to get out of the heat and just rest for a little bit. Festival of the Lion King, muppets, like a lot of those shows just continuously run. Uh, you know moving over to universal.
Speaker 1:You know you've got the jason bourne stunt show. You know hollywood studios, you've got indiana jones. You know there's shows and you know attractions all over the park that are just continuously running and they're not rides. So they usually have really quick wait times and they have a massive queue so they can fill up like a whole stadium really quickly. Um, so I would definitely just say you know, if you're looking and you can't figure out what ride to do because everything looks long, just go hit a show because guarantee you got a 15 minute wait, you'll be in that show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree, it's crazy, because when we went to do the Bourne show, I had never done it before and I'm like, okay, it'll be just like a little quick, you know, take a break. But it was amazing, yeah, you know. And the same thing when I went into the Lion King show, I was like, oh, it's going to be you know whatever. And it was amazing, yeah. So, even if you're not a show person typically, it's gonna, it's gonna be awesome, you're gonna enjoy it, it's gonna immerse you into whatever it is. You know, whatever the show is finding me. Well, I haven't done that one yet. Which I want to do? That one?
Speaker 1:the first time we went. I think we've talked about the very first time I ever did. It was childless and I was with Rachel and her dad and it was just the worst experience of my life. Did it back in September, which of course, it was a different show. They changed a lot of things from back when we went in 2018. It was a really fabulous show. Strongly recommend the show. If you get the opportunity to go see the Finding Nemo show at Animal, Kingdom please do Ablet Great show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely want to check it out. That was a quick section, I like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like even you know, we kind of already talked a little bit, like you know, going into the next section, like you know, what are some other things to do when the rides are too packed, which we've kind of talked about, you know, with the shows. Another thing, um, another thing too, is they, um, you know, like they have scavenger hunts which I don't know if this, I hadn't hadn't researched this one. So if you let me know if that, if there's one at magic kingdom, if that note is legit or if that was made up. I do know of the one over in epcot. So when brady and I don't know if it's still the same way, but the very first time that we went there was, it was like a oh God, phineas and Ferb, I think it was Perry the Platypus.
Speaker 2:Perry the Platypus. Yes, we did that. I remember over in England when he had to go into the tea shop and say like a secret code to the girl working and then she gave him something super cool. That's really fun for the kids to do.
Speaker 3:I think they got rid of that, they also have one.
Speaker 2:They got rid of that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think they have it. I think they even got a little walkie-talkie or something. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But they also they do have the passport where you go to the different countries and get it stamped. So there's different things that you can do. Gosh, where is that?
Speaker 1:Is you can do gosh. Where's that over? Is there over an animal kingdom? They have the petting zoo.
Speaker 2:They have over in um animal kingdom. They have, what's his name from up? Um little boy, scout, dude, dog. No, that's the dog.
Speaker 1:Dog is the dog, no, kevin's the bird, yeah, yeah, no, he's the one that kevin said.
Speaker 2:I mean josh said I was me and him last week uh, he said the kid yeah, they have.
Speaker 1:Uh, they have like a little thing that you can do around animal kingdom where you get like little nature badges for stuff that you do.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a really cool one, the explorer badge or something explore badges yeah yeah, yeah, so they have those kind of things that are fun for kids. So, you know, do those things when when the ride lines are too busy, or go in the shops. There's so many shops, which I know, if you have little kids it's kind of hard to do that, because they want to buy everything.
Speaker 2:Or just touch it you know, but over, yeah, over in Universal, you know they have a lot of the themed shops. You have the Spider-Man toys over close by, which I know nobody wants to buy ET toys, but over in that area they have it. They got the SpongeBob stuff. There's so many shops that you can kind of walk in too, and so that's kind of some ways to do extra things that aren't rides, to kind of keep the time flowing.
Speaker 1:I guess you could say and I'll say, you know, just to wrap it up too, you know, even sometimes too, like you know, if you're just looking and the parks are super busy and you just want to try changing it up, like there's a lot of things that you can do outside of the park, like you can go out of the park and go back in at any point, you know, if you don't have park copper, don't try to go to a different park.
Speaker 1:Go back to the same park that you were in, right? But you know there's a lot of great things that you can do outside of the parks. This last trip of ours really made me a big fan of resort hopping. The resorts, especially around the parks, are absolutely gorgeous resorts that have their own style and own Disney vibe. Take a break, go out, see one of the resorts. One, you're going to experience something new. Two, you're going to get some air conditioning. So always a great thing to do.
Speaker 1:You know, whether you're at disney or universal like, go check out one of their like shopping areas. They're out of the malls for disney. You have disney springs. Go over there. Disney springs is massive. There's so much to do, so much to see. Uh yeah, and you know here, soon they're going to get some new arcade type stuff over there at disney springs. You know universal city walk is a great place to go. There's not as big but there's still a lot of cool stuff that you can go do. Go check out um, and then, of course, like you know, if the parks are just too busy, go hit up a water park. Go hit up volcano bay or typhoon lagoon um and just you know, take a break from the heat, go swim for a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know there's so much to do.
Speaker 1:There's so much to do at Disney Universal outside of the park. They are not just the park, so definitely take advantage of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:All right, we covered everything in 58 minutes.
Speaker 2:Not bad Sweet, and I just noticed on the wrap-up. I didn't change it from last week.
Speaker 1:I noticed it's fine.
Speaker 2:We're not going to thank our partners.
Speaker 1:I'll wrap again as we wrap up. You know, definitely, if you're going to be going to Disney or Universal during spring break, please, you know, do some planning and just be prepared for the crowds. You know, know, if you're not sure how to plan properly, lori and I would love to help you out and help you plan a trip. Um, it's what we do for a living, so definitely reach out if there's any way that we can help you guys plan a trip. But definitely, you know, take a look, take, just take a listen to this episode, if anything, and we've covered a lot of great tips and tricks on how to, you know, know, handle the crowds, because you know, during this season, like it's going to be hard to avoid the crowds. So just be prepared to handle the crowds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, yep, you can do it.
Speaker 1:All right, so next week I need to prepare actually prepare for this episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm, I'm a little scared, I'm intimidated a little bit about next week only because I haven't stayed. So we're gonna do um a final countdown where we rank. We should join the worship team.
Speaker 2:I am on I mean you're already on it, but I mean, you know what I mean. Um, yeah, so we're gonna rank the disney resorts. So I think what I'd like to do is maybe pull the audience a little bit this week so we'll throw some questions out, um, and see what people think on ranking the resorts, to get some feedback on that. So we'll see, I'll put some stuff out there yeah, all 26 of them.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I just made that number up, but that sounds about right yeah.
Speaker 2:so we'll chat a little bit before, kind of get on some strategy on how we're going to do it. But yeah, I think it'll be fun, I think it'll be informative too for folks who haven't been, and then also to see you know, especially from the different perspectives, especially now from staying in a deluxe resort and also staying in moderates and values, like you know, how we compare and what we think is best for you. Of course, if you you know you have the money and you used to stay in the elegant resorts, then go for it. But if not, we can make an all-star or pop work too.
Speaker 1:Who's closing out? Is it me or you?
Speaker 2:I'll close to that. Okay, I'll give you a break. No again. We just want to thank everyone. I know Fred says it all the time and shout out to Fred. I know I say this all the time, but we have a new intro video that I thought was really awesome and it's because of all of you guys that we continue to do this and that you know we want to make this podcast successful, not only because it's fun for us, but we want to keep it going and give you folks some some entertainment and some some fun stuff to listen to. I know I have a few podcasts that I listen to and I think it's super fun podcasts that I listen to and I think it's super fun.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking for information about the show or you want a vacation quote, you can visit us at our website at goingbeyondthecastlecom, to connect with us on social media, to listen to our podcast, stay up to date with all the things Disney, universal and Cruising. You can check us out on our Beacons page at beaconscom forward slash, goingbeyondthecastle. And, lastly, if you do want information on a quote or if you have some topics that you'd like to talk to us about or just want some information on anything that we've discussed, or just to say hello so we can get to know you. You can reach us at info at going beyond the castle dot com. Good job, I did it, you did it. All right, all right, but that was it. So good night everyone.
Speaker 3:Have a good night We'll talk to you guys next week. Thank you for joining us on this magical journey. We hope today's episode brought a little extra spark to your day and inspired your next adventure, whether it's a thrilling escape to Universal, a dream cruise getaway or unforgettable memories at Disney. Have questions, a topic you'd like us to cover, your own magical story to share, or looking for travel assistance We'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line at info at goingbeyondthecastlecom. Be sure to check out all our social media links and podcast platforms at beaconsai forward slash going beyond the castle podcast and don't miss the fun in our Facebook group Going Beyond the Castle Podcast Lounge, where we share tips, updates and beyond the scenes moments. Until next time, see you real soon.
