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
Disneyland 101: First-Timer Tips with Stephanie Breeden
Curious how Disneyland stacks up against Walt Disney World? This week, we’re joined by Stephanie—a Navy veteran and seasoned Disney traveler—who shares her love for Walt’s original park. From childhood trips with her grandmother to her recent visit for the Food & Wine Festival, Stephanie offers insider tips and unique insights.
She breaks down her split stay between the luxurious Grand Californian and the vibrant Pixar Place Hotel, explaining how staying on property elevates your experience. Plus, discover the Disneyland-exclusive attractions that outshine their Florida counterparts—like the extended Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers Campus, and the thrilling Indiana Jones Adventure.
Stephanie also dishes on must-try dining spots, from Blue Bayou to the best churros, and even shares a surprise celebrity encounter in the Grand Californian lobby.
Whether you're a Disney World fan eyeing California or a Disneyland newbie, this episode is packed with tips and magical details you won’t want to miss.
Ready to explore the original magic? Tune in now and start planning your Disneyland adventure!
Stay up to date with all things Going Beyond the Castle at beacons.ai/GoingBeyondTheCastle
What about the spinning wheel of death? Do you like the spinning wheel of death?
Speaker 2:So when I go on the spinning wheel of death, I get in the non-spinning car.
Speaker 1:All right, that's fine.
Speaker 2:But it's one of my favorite photo spots, so it's phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Wait, you're talking about the Ferris wheel thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the one that moves.
Speaker 2:Did you have to do options? You can get in a stationary, yes, where you can get in a elliptical loop. Half of my family goes with me on the stationary. The other half goes to their doom.
Speaker 3:See, I wouldn't be able to ride it because I don't do heights very well. But I just recently saw a TikTok where they didn't tell the grandma about the ride and she was freaking out. I'm like that would be me. I would kill my family if they did that. To me. It was, it would not be pretty, but I'll never ride that. There's no way.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of Going Beyond the Castle. We're super excited to be here. As always, I am your host, fred Briley, and with me, as always, is my fabulous co-host, podcast princess, lori Calimo. We have a special guest with us this week, but I'll let Lori dive into a little bit about her a little bit later on. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to give two shout outs. One, first of all, to all of those that are joining us, watching with us each week, listening along, as always. You know we super appreciate you guys. It is a blessing to be able to do this every week and just get to talk about things that are super passionate to us, and it's even more of a blessing to have people that are right there beside us, just you know, enjoying the excitement with us. So definitely shout out to you guys.
Speaker 1:Second, shout out to Park Ears. For the dudes that are out there who have always been envious of the females because they get ears. You should definitely check out. Park Ears Recently found out about them. Absolutely fabulous company. They have magnetic ears that will go on top of your hat so you can join in with your wife, girlfriend, your daughters, whoever it is, so you can join into the park fun. And, of course, I got this cool hat off of it that says I'd much rather be at disney, which is always true. So, yeah, definitely check them out if you guys are looking for some ears to wear for the men. But with that being said, I I will turn it over to Lori. Lori will introduce our guests. She wants to dive into some announcements.
Speaker 3:I'm going to get Josh and Braden some of those ears for me. We'll see if they wear them.
Speaker 3:Yeah not going to happen, so we've had some guests on before. But I am super excited because this is one of my favorite people, stephanie. Stephanie and I met through our agency. We both are agents for Mouse Counselors and so that brought us together and we've become really good friends and so I'm super excited to have one of my TA besties. As I call on the show, stephanie is going to give us a little trip report on her recent trip to Disneyland. She's been many times, but we're super excited to talk about Disneyland, especially with someone who has been there, so you can give a little more insight than than Fred and I have done. So super excited to have Stephanie with us today. So we'll go into a little bit of announcements and then we'll kind of kick off our episode. Not too many, cause I want us to have a lot of time to spend with Stephanie and it's she's an hour ahead of us, so it's a little late. So we'll get rolling here. Fred and I like to go off on a deep end sometimes.
Speaker 2:Mostly me so we'll get started.
Speaker 3:So just recently, if you have a Disney Visa card, they released a new promotion for free dining. It is on select dates, but starting in June and through December there are some blackout dates. So if you have a Disney visa, if you already have a trip booked, make sure you look to see if you qualify for that. If not, then you can reach out to Fred or I and we can help you get that taken care of. And then I don't know if you guys knew this, but when I was doing some quick research they announced some new information on the Spaceship Earth lounge, which Fred and I kind of talked about a little bit before. I'm not really a lounge person when I go to Disney, but I didn't realize this is an adults only lounge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I don't think it was supposed to be. I think they changed it to be an adult.
Speaker 3:Because I was like when I saw that, I'm like I didn't see that. So it says adults ages 21 and up. So it'd be interesting to see how many. I guess Epcot, though I could see it, cause it's more people.
Speaker 1:Leave my kids at the door and be like bye.
Speaker 3:Can't they need to have like a little play area at the front, like drop your kids off? Um, there's, uh, a few, three new dining experiences coming to Disneyland. They have paint the Night dining package at Plaza Inn, so you can have lunch and then get a reservation for Paint the Night. The nighttime parade, there's Donald's Tale of Adventure Buffet at Storyteller Cafe and then the Docking Bay 7 food and cargo nighttime gathering. So that's new things that are starting. They kind of randomly one's in April, the other two are starting in May, I think.
Speaker 3:So where I just lost my, I lost you guys. Here we go. Okay, sorry about that. And then the screen just went blank. And then the only other thing I'm not going to like really talk about them too much, but they are putting out so much stuff about Epic right now that I'm like so excited I cannot wait, like right now that I'm like so excited I cannot wait Like all of the videos and all the stuff. So if you haven't been looking on social media, go check it out, because there's so many new things being shown about Epic.
Speaker 3:So I guess, that's the point to get everybody pumped up because it's opening soon. We're at 59 days and counting. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm so excited to do that in December.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for it to open in May because I will be at Disney World when it opens. So I'm hoping everybody goes that way and I can just enjoy. Disney World myself.
Speaker 3:Get less crowds.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so anyway, all right, so let's jump in so we can get some good conversation with Stephanie. So just some kind of background information. I know you said you've been to Disneyland a good bit, but give us a little history of your Disneyland adventures and kind of how you started with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I joined the Navy in 2001 and my grandparents had moved to Southern California before I did that and so my grandmother was like super nervous about me going to boot camp and this was in March of 2001. So not really like a huge time to be nervous, just kind of being grandmotherly, and she's like why don't you come out for a visit? You know, hang out, we'll go to Disneyland. I had never been. And she took me and of course we had this magical time three nights, two days in the parks with my grandma, right before I left for boot camp. And after that I was stationed on the West Coast twice in Everett, washington, and I would drive all the way down the five from Seattle down to Southern California to visit my grandparents often and we would go. We would always stay at the Disneyland Hotel. I was like helping sort out all of her things. She passed away three months after my grandfather did so, both of them within three months, so we were sorting out their house and everything and we went once then and then since then we've been back five times. I absolutely love dis Disneyland. So it's hard being an East Coaster and loving Disneyland as much.
Speaker 2:I did take my entire family all three of my four daughters, my husband and my best friend went out last July. So it was the first time my husband had been and the first time my two youngest girls had been. So it was really fun too. But this trip was great, great. We were there for the first day of the food and wine festival at california adventure, so that made it extra special. There's not necessarily I don't think there's a bad time to visit southern california. Um, when I went two years ago it was the end of march. It was a little drizzly and dreary, but even then it was. The weather was so much better than it was back home sweet I forgot, um, I forgot that you were military too.
Speaker 3:I mean that just to connect, because fred is also military. So lots of, uh, military and it's all different branches, because you're no, you're army, right, fred. Yeah, that's what I was, too, so anyway so this army?
Speaker 1:so I gotcha, so I'll claim a little big, happy family, not during the army we can't all be perfect to join the Army.
Speaker 3:You know, this is okay. Here's the way we sidebar One of my family members because I didn't do the Marines. And so, like one of my uncles, like we would fight over the holidays because I didn't do the Marines, like him and my grandfather did. So I'm like, look, you're lucky I joined anything, because I wouldn't have made it to a Marine boot camp and anyway, so your recent trip you just went recently. How long was your stay there and who did you go with?
Speaker 2:So we went February 26th through March 1st, so three nights, four days and I took one of my best friends from here. He's a huge Disney fanatic named Kim and she went with me two years ago also, so it was really cool. She had gone with her daughters in between, so she's kind of like my go-to traveling buddy for Disneyland because she loves it just as much as I do. We actually did the main street tour when we went two years ago, so like we went into Walt's apartment. She's the kind of friend that like didn't make fun of me or ever bring it up again, that I was like bawling tears streaming down my face, you know having a moment like breathing in walt disney's, like dust laying around, because she was doing the exact same thing.
Speaker 3:So it's a lot of fun to travel to disney with her yeah, well, next time y'all go, let me know, because I'm I'm tagging along. I was like man, I should, I want to go, um. So that was that was it for my section, friend, man. Man, you've been a strong suite.
Speaker 1:All right, so we'll dive next into where you stayed at Disneyland. So when you guys went back to February, what resort did you guys stay on property, I assume. And then, because who stays off property? Like, let's be honest here?
Speaker 2:A lot of people at Disneyland it's like it's crazy and I get that the prices are high, but you cannot beat that off.
Speaker 1:ability like zero percent able to beat that, especially with how close everything is at disneyland anyway, before before we take another plane ride, uh. So where did you guys stay and what made you pick that resort?
Speaker 2:so we actually did a split stay. So we did the first three um or the first two nights at Grand Californian and well, technically we got in super late because, again flying East to West coast and we got in by the time we got settled it was like 11 PM. So we did stay off property the first night because we got an 11 PM and it didn't make any sense to like check in on property, so we stayed at the Marriott Convention Center that night. So then the next two nights we stayed at Grand Californian in just a regular standard room and then the last night because I had stayed at Disneyland Hotel so many times in California and before stayed at Pixar Place, so that that way I had a chance to visit all three resorts and we stayed club level in a full view room there.
Speaker 1:So what would you say? So I'm staying the grand california when I go in may. What would you say is like the vibe of the grand california definitely.
Speaker 2:In my opinion it's almost like the wilderness lodge versus like the grand floridian, right, because a lot of people will be like, oh, oh, it must be just like the Grand Floridian. But because you've got this majestic forest fame going on, california is so noted for Chip and Dale are kind of like the mascots, if you will. So very laid back, very crunchy, if you're into like labeling people as though they're going to be granola-esque on the West Coast. Muted tones throughout the whole hotel. They're going under extensive refurbishment right now so they did actually move our room, uh, because they were working on the room right above us. Both kim and I are very susceptible to migraines, so they were kind and moved us to the other side of the property, but like right now. For example, I will tell you one of the best perks of staying at the grand california is that entranceway directly into Grand California Adventure Park, but it's currently closed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You got to walk a little bit further down to the Pixar Pier entrance and I think it's supposed to be back up before you go.
Speaker 1:That's what we're hoping. We'll see. We go May. We check in on May 4th, so we'll see. It's supposed to like go right to the beginning of may, so it'll be.
Speaker 2:I was thinking like the first or second, but that might. Yeah, disney likes to do things on disney's time sometimes and uh yeah what?
Speaker 1:how would you say like, how was the club level experience at pixar?
Speaker 2:so I would not stay club level again at pixar. I wouldn't pay the extra money to do it, honestly, and one of the reasons I did it was because I had heard through a bunch of like different circles with other TAs, but it was kind of subpar and so I wanted to see for myself. I didn't want to just take everybody else's word for it. It wasn't bad, but for the extra money. Honestly, the Disneyland Hotel is so iconic and nostalgic I would rather stay there than Pixar. And the walk is just a little bit further, and if you don't tell anybody, you can always exit out the Pixar exit. Nobody's going to stop you because they don't check when you exit, so that's not a big deal. I will say the coolest thing that happened, though and you can't beat this, and I think you would only find this the grand Californian literally almost bumped into Gwen Stefani in the lobby.
Speaker 2:Californian literally almost bumped into gwen stephanie in the lobby like she was there while we were there and I was walking and I like almost shoulder bumped somebody and I was like, oh my gosh, I turned around and she had like her iconic space fun. But I was like I looked at kim and I was like kim looked at me and I was like, was that gwen stephanie? She was like I don't know, it looks like when stephanie. And then we saw her again in the park and then she posted on her socials that she was there and I was like this wouldn't happen, doesn't happen at disney world like this. But like literally nobody was like I loved it, nobody was running up to her, everybody was giving her her own space.
Speaker 1:Ah yes, so definitely love grand california and so going back to the grand california right, it looks like a massive resort it is pretty big is it? Is it as big as it looks?
Speaker 2:oh funny, you asked because I had a bunch of stuff out and I was like looking at it earlier. So that's basically what the shape of it looks like. And then you know like a third of it butts up to downtown disney, and then a third of it on california adventure and then, like the last, maybe a little less than a third is kind of along the disneyland drive road, gotcha yeah I'm excited to stay there.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited. I was originally gonna stay off property because I was the only guy going and I was like there's no way I'm paying for a room by myself at disneyland. And then our like head travel agent lady was like there's another guy going. I was like give me his number or we're both, we're splitting a room yeah, I mean let's go with grand california and I was like so it's crazy because the good, no, go ahead.
Speaker 2:The chip and dale theming just like is really cute. And I have another one of our mouth counselor friends. Her daughter collects chip and dales and so like I was picking up little pins and little like magnets and everything for us, we were walking through oh, that's cute.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just gonna say how funny it is when, like with these agency trips because that was what I did the first time too is like the person that lived the closest. I'm like, okay, let me call them up and say, hey, let's go, because there's um one counselor that lives about an hour, she lives in mandeville, and so we're like hey, you want a room together? My family were like you don't think that's weird?
Speaker 1:I'm like, nope, nope, not at all never met this person, but we're gonna be besties for three days, right right.
Speaker 3:And then that's how I met stephanie and when we went in october we all shared it was what five of us in in the one room I mean we had the suite so it was sick, but, um, but yeah, no, absolutely, I'll stay with with my friends we will say, especially because we talk so much, pixar place is super cute.
Speaker 2:So like besides not wanting to say club level again and if you have somebody in your family who's a Pixar fan, they're just going to totally lose their mind you walk in and there's the big lamp and ball and everything like in the lobby and like I got I want to probably one of my favorite hats that I'll ever own. It's just a white hat with a pixar lamp and ball on the front of it and that's it doesn't say anything else. So it is super cute. So I would definitely put somebody there, recommend somebody stay there.
Speaker 3:um, I just wouldn't pay the extra money for club, for club again yeah, yeah, I think that my family would love it, would love it there, especially brayden. He's a pixar pixar kid. I think that my family would love it, would love it there especially Brayden.
Speaker 1:He's a Pixar, pixar kid, I think that's my section, yep.
Speaker 3:The next one's get a little bit longer, okay, so how many days did you spend in the parks and did you park hop?
Speaker 2:Yes, so we had three day park hoppers with advanced lightning lane multi-pass purchase and then full disclosure. I am a disabled veteran so I have like a VA rating and I have. I did the interview for the Disability Pass for Disneyland. So what I will tell you is, knock on wood, I've been really lucky in my experience with being able to advocate for myself and receiving accommodations.
Speaker 2:This time was such an outlier, it was the easiest thing I've ever done. They literally said we can see, you already have it for disney world, so we're just going to go ahead and add it on and I like my jaw the floor and I thought I was going to pass out. That has not been the experience that a lot of people have had. So and I have an annual pass to disney world. So I don't know if, maybe because they had lengthened the amount of time for it since I went last July, because, like, I had it for Disney World but they wouldn't have seen it because it wasn't hadn't extended as much. So I will say we had the lightning lane multi-pass which we always, always get, but we get it in addition to the DAS pass, which changes kind of like my trajectory of how I view my day a little bit.
Speaker 1:But absolutely we've done the DAS pass before and it it totally changes how you think about, which changes kind of like my trajectory of how I view my day a little bit.
Speaker 3:But absolutely We've done the DAS pass before and it totally changes how you think about your park days. Yeah, sweet.
Speaker 2:So did you Go ahead? No, I was going to say so and we definitely hopped every single day. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I know that the parks are smaller, but I still feel like I don't know. I go back and forth with. I don't think I could do base tickets anymore. At one point I'm like I just want to go and just stay, but now it's like no, I like being able to switch it up a little bit. So do you guys? Are you a rope drop family or sleep in?
Speaker 2:I can't remember from well, I think we kind of slept in so at this point, at this point, so like, if so, I'm going to epic in what did you say? There's 59 days until it opens. I'm going in 71 days to universal and, like, I will be a rope drop to park close as much as I possibly can be for that, right, yeah, I've been to disneyland enough, I've been to disney world enough that I'm like, uh, I'd like to get there for pre-park opening. If we have the, we have the perk. But I'm probably gonna need to come back in the middle of the day and I may or may not make it to the nighttime activities.
Speaker 2:Um, because I don't worry, a lot of times you guys don't make it to the nighttime activities. I am, but it's only because I've seen them before, right, so like if I hadn't experienced them before, then I really pushed myself, but I'm just tired and broken and sometimes, yeah, but this trip Kim went and she actually went off on her own for a little bit while I had something else that I was taking care of and she rope dropped. She did early entry and rope dropped, and then the next day, um, we both went at early entry. Like we were actually in line 20 minutes before I think they were even opening the first night. I stayed for the world of color, one we had like a specialty viewing area that we were in for, that which is super fun.
Speaker 2:I will tell you that phantasmic is my absolute favorite, favorite favorite nighttime show at disney world. I like it at disneyland, but if nobody's been before and fred, like if you haven't heard this, you don't have this grand stadium right like you're just sitting on the sidewalk, and so we always do the blue bayou every time we buy a dining package it.
Speaker 1:It's like on Rivers of America, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's on Rivers of America and you sit on the concrete and it's like it's flat. So if you have something tall in front of you, you got to like reconfigure your party. At one point in time, when you did the dining package, they would give you like little garden knee pad things to sit on, but they don't do that since COVID. It's phenomenal and fantastic and there's a whole pirates element to it that you don't get at disney world, but for me it's like a two to three times and done because it's my bones are hurting but, we try to get up.
Speaker 2:You know 45 after it starts. Um, so we did see. We did see that we did not. Um, we watched the fireworks from pixar. You can watch it. Um, we went up to the rooftop. So the interesting thing about pixar's club is on level three. The other two resorts, their club level is like normal walt disney world club level, where it's a higher floor. So at pixar if you want to watch the fireworks and you have club, you actually go up to the rooftop pool area still instead.
Speaker 3:That's cool, yeah, what else do we? Have um. So are there any? Any? When you talked a little bit about the shows, are there any rides that you're like okay, I'm gonna hit this one first or like ones that you know you're not gonna miss when you go?
Speaker 2:so indiana jones is a multiple ride during the day. For me it is by far my favorite ride attraction other than Guardians of the Galaxy, cosmic Rewind at Epcot now, which I think is the best ride ever made at anywhere in the universe.
Speaker 2:Now I haven't seen this epic universe yet, but as of now, cosmic Rewind is phenomenal. Indiana Jones has one of those things that it's always been super nostalgic for me personally, just because a lot of people don't go to Disneyland when you're from the East Coast and so I love the sense spectacular. But man, we wrote it three times. The one day we rode it with Lightning Lane and then Standby and then the DASS. So if that tells you anything, that's how often. Also, pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaker 1:It is so different.
Speaker 2:At Disneyland, in my opinion, you actually have a spot where you go outside. The storyline is a little bit longer. The other two big differences I would say between Walt Disney World and Disneyland is Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the ride vehicle. Now it looks a little bit different. It's like a log flume, it's one person Like you sit four people back, Whereas at World it's two people and then two people and two people. And then the opposite is true at Space Mountain it's two people, two people, two people versus the log flume at World. So it's really kind of cool to compare them. And then for anybody that's a pin collector, for a couple of those rides that they have on both coasts and the railway, you can actually get a coast-to-coast pin. It's like a little spider pin. It'll have the world and the land, and so we started collecting a couple of those when we went last time.
Speaker 2:My kids love pins oh, that's awesome I would also say avengers campus cannot be beat. We are a huge mcu family and the fact that they own the rights on that side of the mississippi phenomenal they're actually expanding. So one of the things that I got to do while I was there was get a little bit of updated information and I know they released it at D23, but they're doubling the size of Avengers Campus, which I cannot wait to see. We got to one thing that we saw this time that I hadn't seen before. We'd always seen the shows. We'd always seen Spider-Man hanging around. They actually did like a little thing for kids where Captain America came out and then brought like a bunch of his Avenger friends and they took some kids from the audience and like taught them how to do like their famous moves. So that was pretty neat.
Speaker 2:I had not seen that show before the other. So San Francisco adorable, the updates that they did last year there for San Francisco and just tying in a franchise that I think historically gets lost a little bit with Big Hero 6. Especially for the boys that are going, I feel like sometimes they feel left out when they're at Disney. What about the?
Speaker 3:I don't know, and this is in notes, but I'm just curious about the Incredicoaster.
Speaker 2:I love the Incredicoaster, so it's fun. The only I like roller coasters. The only roller coaster that I really absolutely hate is Hulk at Universal Orlando. I black out on that thing every time I get on it. So, incredicoaster, the story is super cute. You go through and you see Jack, jack and Jack Jack throughout this whole storyline and it's just, it's thrilling. We really like it. The other thing that I would say is it was closed while we were there this trip. It's a small world. Walt disney world. It's a small world, doesn't hold a candle to the one at disneyland, which again goes outdoors. Right, you have like a section outdoors and it is based on the original world's fair model. So hopefully I can't remember when the refurbishment ends, fred, but hopefully it's back up before you guys go, because I'm hoping so top notch um.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing is there are a lot of rides at disneyland that don't offer express lightning lane. So it's a little different than world and it's a lot of the ones like the snow white mr toad's wild ride, like if you have the das pass there is, you know you go to the exit to go in, but it does, it's not on the traditional lightning lane the storybook boats, so a lot of those smaller rides and as much as I love magic kingdom, I will say there are 30 plus rides with no height restrictions at Disneyland. Like it's kind of amazing. It's such a family-friendly park, fun.
Speaker 1:What about the spinning wheel of death? Do you like the spinning wheel of death?
Speaker 2:So when I go on the spinning wheel of death, I get in the non-spinning car.
Speaker 1:All right, that's fine.
Speaker 2:But it's one of my favorite photo spots, so it's phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Wait, you're talking about the Ferris wheel thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the one that moves.
Speaker 2:Did you have two options? You can get in a stationary car where you can get in an elliptical loop. Half of my family goes with me on the stationary, the other half goes to their doom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, I wouldn't be able to ride it because I don't do heights very well. But I just recently saw a TikTok where they didn't tell the grandma about the ride and she was like freaking out. I'm like that would be me, like I would kill my family if they did that to me. It would not be pretty, but I'll never ride that.
Speaker 2:There's no way I can't so if you're in the stationary and not afraid of heights, it's not bad I'm just now okay on the skyliner.
Speaker 3:I've been on it a million times.
Speaker 1:Like I can ride it now without having a meltdown since we're on the topic of lori, let's stay on that topic. Real quick and just fly that plane around a little bit longer. Did you see the video of the new werewolf ride over at epic universe? It looks like it's going to be fabulous for you, like the whole. Like cart just turns on, a roller coaster just spins.
Speaker 3:You're gonna love it I mean it's, I mean I could. I love guardians.
Speaker 1:Guardians is my favorite and I'm like this is different.
Speaker 3:It's like wow, yeah, I'm gonna definitely have to take some I'm boonied before I get on it. Yeah, I'm gonna ride everything because I'm gonna try it you have to we'll see.
Speaker 1:We'll see how it goes and josh has to get video footage of it all well, he's not gonna be there we'll attach a goat. We'll send you with a gopro stephanie, stephanie can uh I can use that my gimel to there we go
Speaker 3:yeah, I was thinking about getting one of those before the trip, so we'll have to talk yeah, I love mine, absolutely love it, but we'll land that plane yeah, we can move on to the foodie, foodie stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick foodie real quick and I'm gonna go back to. Also. Something that you mentioned earlier was what the nighttime show over at California Adventure is world of world of color the dessert party. Have you done the dessert party?
Speaker 2:because I've been blessed that two of the three last times I've gone we had a private viewing area and my kids will not eat. They're now 10 and 11. So they're like just over the threshold for the adulthood. My wallet cries when I have to spend adult prices for them.
Speaker 1:That's fair. There's a bunch of us doing it when we go, so I was just curious.
Speaker 2:It'll be fun. Well, and the one thing that I forgot to say. I mean talking about it's kind of the difference between, but one of my favorite favorite parts and something that I would seek out every single time almost over a ride the wandering characters at Disneyland. Right, the wandering characters at Disneyland. Right, so it's not necessarily an attraction, but the fact that they wander, you don't have to like go in a room to like wait in the queue to see them. They do queue a little bit more than they used to, especially like the photo you guys used. For instance, mickey, like is just standing by a fountain, right, they let like 15 people into the line, that's it. You go up, you see him and you see him dressed in that was a California inventor, so he's dressed as like 19 days California filmmaker Mickey. I've met Geppetto, we met the Evil Queen walks around, peter Pan walks around, wendy walks around. Like all of these characters that I think are just missed opportunities at World really shine at Land.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. I've heard a lot of good things about characters at Disneyland versus Disney World.
Speaker 3:So I have to hide you while you're there, so I don't get jealous.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to FaceTime you the whole time. There you go All right, so cool, just kidding. Let's talk food. Where did you eat?
Speaker 2:And did you snag any dining reservations or did you just wing it with mobile orders? Yes to all of it, excellent. So we, we ate everywhere, because I'm a foodie, um, and so I will say, if people aren't like super knowledgeable about disneyland, even when you stay on property, it's not day you check in. Plus 10, it's an, every morning, up at 9 am, east coast time. Uh, to dinner dining, but that's the one plus is that's the time east coast time comes in handy, right yeah so my favorite places to eat.
Speaker 2:I love blue bayou. So blue bayou is on the inside of pirates of the caribbean. Upscale dining a little bit more expensive, but the the food quality, in my opinion, is on point. It's something that I would spend probably the same amount of money on at a non-Disney restaurant, maybe like five to ten bucks more. Love Blue Bayou Lamplight Lounge at California Adventure and over at Pixar Pier Really cute, good food kind of more like laid back. We like to eat there for lunch, so we have lunch there.
Speaker 2:Trader Sam's one of the hardest to score dining reservations on the planet. I'm convinced I think I've gotten Victoria and Albert's more often than I've gotten Trader Sam's when looking for reservations. We scored another reservation there that allows you to go inside and eat. You can always. The other cool thing about land versus world is they have a lot of walk-up waiting lists that you can join. But when you do that, or when you do walk up at Trader Sam's, you're automatically seated outside. So anything inside will always have to be a confirmed reservation. So we did that. We also did. We were originally going to do Napa Rose at the Grand Californian but then we were just tired. And another amazing thing about Disneyland hotels they have room service. So we ordered room service because we were both like we're done, so we're ordering room service. So that was pretty fun.
Speaker 2:We did, I'm trying to think of, like, because it was food and wine the last day. So I had a sip and savor pass and I was going to show it to you guys and then I realized, um, so the sip and savor pass, you either pay for four or eight um snack credits, if you will, at any of the booths. And so I had one that had eight credits on it and I had only used six. And I met a little boy in the elevator at the Pixar Place Hotel who was there for his birthday trip. So I actually gave my pass to him and said happy birthday here, use the last two on here. But I would have shown you guys. But it looks very similar to like on a lanyard type thing. You wear it around your neck, it's nice. They used to have pull tabs on it, but if you pulled the tab it was considered like expired, like you voided it. Um, so they got smart this year and going forward, they scan your code on your pass and then you enter the four digit pin that comes with your pass. Highly recommend that for anybody that's going for food and wine. Um, so we did that a lot.
Speaker 2:Um, we ate wine country trattoria this time as well good food. A lot of people knock it. I don't think it's bad. I will say snacks are my favorite at disneyland over disney world. Churros actually taste like churros. They don't taste like with cinnamon sugar on them and mickey pretzels. You can actually it's at the churro stand over by. It's a small world close to the matterhorn. They sell guava cream cheese dip and they technically sell churros, but it is chef's kiss on a Mickey pretzel. It is so good so we always try those. Obviously, we got Dole Whip while we were there, because you just can't, and actually there the Dole Whip area that's right behind the Enchanted Tiki Room they sell bao buns as well and that's one of my favorite places because we'll go get bao buns and dole whip.
Speaker 2:We did eat at one of the newest restaurants it's at Downtown Disney called Din Tai Fung. It's, it is. It's like a disease really, really they have. Um, it's the. That's gonna be a clip. Have you guys seen like the soup dumplings? Yeah, they're like all the rage these days. So they're called yeah, wow and um. So we got that. They all said sushi, really just amazing food and was.
Speaker 2:Kim was impressed. She said she was a little nervous when we went in, but she left saying that she was so glad that was one of the times we actually had a second Trader Sam's scheduled for lunch and we were like we're just not feeling it, we need a little bit of a nap. We're going to cancel it. We canceled it outside of our two-hour window and then we woke up. We were like famished. We're like let's walk around Disney Springs and that's where we and it was pretty, it was pretty great.
Speaker 2:They also have like a chocolate bowel bun like with liquid but not molten chocolate on the inside for dessert. I would put it up against almost any dessert across Disneyland property, except maybe salt and straw. So I know there's one at Disney Springs. I think a lot of people are scared to go in there. I adore it. I adore their crazy ice cream creation. Pear and blue cheese and balsamic, strawberry, black pepper were the two flavors that I got this time, which are some of my favorites I've heard disneyland has better quick service than they do table service I think so with that statement.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, absolutely oh. And tiana's Palace opened up last year too, so I will say we didn't go this trip but we did go last July Most pretty on point, you know, obviously. But that's a great option. You honestly can't go wrong anywhere. I don't think the food is just great and at California Adventure so much of the food is like infused in that SoCal vibe. Even in san francisco you've got like asian fusion with like california food.
Speaker 1:so I'm excited for the food that I'm gonna eat over those two days on pims test kitchen at a vendor's campus too oh, I've heard great things about that pims is pretty great too, and you can mobile order there.
Speaker 2:There's a shawarma cart. Shawarma cart is pretty phenomenal. If you like shawarma, they have have good breakfast.
Speaker 3:I think she answered. I dropped out for a second, sorry.
Speaker 2:The menu at Oga's is a little bit more like, just slightly more robust than at World, like you can get a sharp degree of reward. Yeah, instead of just like nuts and alcohol.
Speaker 1:I always think about getting a dining reservation there, and then I just look at the menu and I'm like why yeah?
Speaker 2:Just for the ambiance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd rather be riding Rises.
Speaker 3:We went. That one time Was that last. I forget the years that we went, but that was the only time that I went in when we went on the Mouse Counselor trip and we were all separated, though. Yellow shop for tea, tea tree dish, fun stuff.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 3:Back to you, laurie, all right, yeah, and what some of these questions? We'll just kind of generalize this topic. Um, what about like shopping and any like extra stuff? Like, how are the shops and things over at disneyland?
Speaker 2:love downtown disney, um, and so we're talking earlier and I don't know the exact. Like I'm a disney fan, but I am not as much of a fanatic as some people, I would guess that it's a football field in between the entrance of Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure, and then like a football field in the half until you're at the entrance to Disney's downtown Disney. So it really is so different. Like you don't have to take a bus from the park to get to the shopping and entertainment district. Um, they just opened a brand new suite store there that was pretty fun to walk around. A new avengers store, um, and then a new kind of like it's called designed store on the back end. The world of disney that's there is great. Um, of course, we shopped there. They have a disney home store that we really liked. Highly recommend mobile checkout no matter where you go at shopping at disney. Honestly, um, mobile checkout is just phenomenal. The I actually I tried really hard to like save money this time and not overspend, because at world I have my ap discount so I get 20% off. Disney Visa discounts only 10% off, so I was like missing that 10%. Um, yeah, we'll say that, my favorite thing that I've ever done at any Disney park was that tour of the main street, walt's main street tour, and it wasn't this trip.
Speaker 2:But you have a VIP, essentially guide, take you up and down Main Street, go over, like the history of the little quirky things. If you guys don't know about the light bulb on Main Street, then you learn about the light bulb on Main Street and even if you do know about it, they point it out. If you don't know about the penny, about the penny arcade and the significance of that, it's actually something I put in my scavenger hunt for clients. Just all these little tips and tricks, talk about all the names on the like the dentist. I never realized before. But the dentist has somebody like fake screaming out of the window of the dentist's place. That's on the second story on Main Street and then you end up back in the apartment. You get to no photos, no video. They'll have a PhotoPass photographer come in and take some photos of you. But you get to hear a little bit more about the history and you get to actually see where the Disney family hung out Sweet.
Speaker 2:I don't want any worries Like anything. I'm expected on this trip Like extra. So we saw a hummingbird and my friend Kim and I like just really immersed in this hummingbird. There's a family next to us like probably a pre-teen girl and her mom. We're all like staring at this hummingbird and all of a sudden we hear, oh my, is that a hummingbird? And we turn around and anna's like just standing right there like look at, just like it's so surreal because that doesn't happen at world right, and she's just like chatting for a couple minutes and then she's like bye friends, I have to go now to go see some other people. And it's just super cool and gotta love it that is awesome.
Speaker 3:I know. It's like when you get in those moments it's because I've talked about, like the first time braden met buzz lightyear or live met cinderella, and you're like you know my gosh, these people. I'm like, okay, snap out of it.
Speaker 1:It's a person.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My daughter just got accepted to the Disney College program, so like it's going to be people she's going to meet right.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, I know.
Speaker 3:I cannot wait to find out what she gets to do. That's like my dream. I I know I cannot wait to find out what she gets to do. That's like my dream. I'm like am I too old to?
Speaker 1:do the Disney College program? No, there's not an age limit. I've thought about it.
Speaker 2:I've thought long and hard about going AWOL from the Army Because technically I graduated college like two years ago, so I could have done it after I got my master's. That was the same with me, fred. I graduated with my master's in May of 23, and I was like, oh, I could go make 17 an hour at disney. Totally worth it to support and I was proud of my children taking away.
Speaker 1:Yeah I'll send it back.
Speaker 3:I'll send it back to rachel's dad I got my masters when olivia was 10 months old and she's 17, so I think it's been you did it the right.
Speaker 1:I say that the girls were that old. Oh, oh, no, I was 34 or 35.
Speaker 3:So I was older. Yeah, I had Olivia when I was older.
Speaker 1:I graduated in like May 22. So the girls were like eight months old, so I was typing my dissertation and all that stuff while rocking a child. Fun times, don't miss it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, same same. I was like, what was I thinking? I told Josh I was like, if I ever try to go back to school, tell me, no, like this is stupid.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Anyway, yeah, and I know we kind of Land that plane. This is yours. Yeah, we landed. The next section is yours, but we already kind of talked about Disneyland versus Disney World, so I'll let you decide where you want to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I mean you. I mean you know Disneyland is the original park all day, like that is the OG park, you know, and it's totally different from Disney World. Like you have. Of course you have some, you know some of the same concepts, but even like the rides are different, pirates is different, you know Small World's different, like the character, meet and greets are different, food's different, like would you say like because I have a friend who is diehard, born and raised california, and I'm sending her to disney world in a week and a half and this was a hard process to get her to go to disney world while she lives over here, because she was like disneyland for life and I was like shut up, no, so like would you say that one is better than the other or would you just say they, they're two different parks and is equally as fabulous?
Speaker 2:so I get asked this all the time and my family does not agree with me so their team view all the way, which breaks my heart. But I will take disneyland over magic kingdom any day.
Speaker 2:Cot has my heart and soul same animal kingdom like I'm a pretty big animal kingdom nut too. I know a lot of people write it off, but love animals. Not making a safari trip anytime soon, so it's about as close as I'm gonna get and hollywood studios I could just fit back in disneyland, so disneyland over magic kingdom and hollywood studios. But epcot the fact that epcot and animal kingdom are in florida like edges it out just a little bit.
Speaker 1:So they each have their own like pools towards. You know, there's definitely parts of Disneyland over Disney World.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fair and I think, like one of the big things that I really think that they're working on at Land, like, so they're going to be expanding you know, Avengers Campus, but they built this product that is now like the cornerstone of a vacation, but it's not just a Disney-centric vacation like it is at World, it's the cornerstone of a Southern California experience, right, so a lot of people that go to Disneyland, you know, I really do think two to three day park hoppers are the minimum that you can do there, even though the parks are so much smaller. Right, that gives you the ability to not be stressed, to not really have to rush, to not worry about like rope drop to park close because the parks close there at like 11 pm still or 1 am. Right, they didn't do what Disney World did post COVID and start like this nine o'clock craziness. Right, they're still closing super late. So if you're trying to do open to close I don't know when you're sleeping, but a lot of people will do that They'll go to Universal in Hollywood.
Speaker 2:They'll go to the beach. We, almost every single time we go, except this last trip we go to Huntington Beach while we're there, absolutely love it. In July of last year we went to palm springs for three days and we actually stayed at a marriott that's across the street from the sentino I think that's the name of it the disney like housing community that they're building. We stayed right across from that so we kind of got to see them building that a little bit. But it really is like this cornerstone.
Speaker 2:Now and then you have like they're doing a ton of cultural celebrations there that they don't do anywhere else at any of their theme parks. They've got the lunar new year, um, in february they have the gospel black history month stuff going on. They have hispanic festivals, they do the sweethearts after night. After you know the event. I know somebody that did that a couple years ago and you actually like danced with all the couples, like you got to see like all of the prince and princess couples, which is pretty cool. You know they're going. Are you going to be there for the big Star Wars?
Speaker 1:We will be there. We're not doing, we're not paying for that. Yeah, the extra Star Wars. There's a couple agents that are going to pay for this extra hours, but we're not yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think the cool thing about that is it kind of makes every visit feel like a new visit, even in one year. Like I know, there's a halloween party and there's the christmas party at world, but there's just, I feel like land pulls in so much more and it's a lot easier to navigate with strollers. You don't have to take your stroller down to get on a mode of transportation unless it's the skylighter or the big ferry mode and it's just. Yeah, it's different, but I think it's equally as amazing. My turn all right.
Speaker 3:So what is your top piece of advice for someone planning a Disney trip?
Speaker 2:Other than use a travel agent Right.
Speaker 2:I mean like not to sound salesy, but like just, especially if you're not from Southern California because, like Fred said, pulling in Southern California they know Disneyland pretty well, people above LA. I have a lot of clients from Central and Northern California Cause I don't think anybody realizes how big California is until you're starting at Land or California Adventure. They do it for kids 0 to 4 and 5 to 10. I have found so much value in that because my kids are now getting older so it's been a long time since I've had kids that were there when they were 0 to 4 years old.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing is just like world manage your expectations, Know that you have a plan going in, but being sent for Gumby, always flexible and like realizing that you're going to need to pivot at some point. The weather's not as big of a deal. You don't have those 3 pm showers like you kind of do almost every single day in central florida and just I know that it's more expensive. But staying on property that would be my number one biggest tip is the extra value that you get in that there's a reason that it's priced the way it is and rooms still sell out wait I think that's it.
Speaker 1:That was. That was enlightening. I'm counting down my time to disneyland 42 days, so I'm super excited. I'm super excited because you know I'm a diehard Disney World guy, like all day, through and through. I've only been to Disney World. So, like, disney World is really all I know. So I'm really excited to get a different aspect of Disney Seriously like dive into, you know, the MCU side of the house and get to experience, know marvel's campus and, you know, get to experience the food and just the vibes. So yeah, I'm definitely, definitely excited for disneyland. I wish I could take glory with me, but shame sucks to suck. So thanks for it. Anyway, stephanie, thanks for joining us. It was a pleasure to have you on and definitely appreciate your input on Disneyland and educating our listeners on Disneyland. I think this is a first time topic for us. We've talked, you know, disney World. We've talked Universal. We've talked Epic. We've talked immersion voyages.
Speaker 1:We have not got to dive into Disneyland yet so this is super exciting for us to be able to dive into that topic, I think for those that are watching, for those that tune in. If you have been to Disneyland or Disney World, definitely drop us a comment. What is your preference, whether it's Disney World, disneyland and tell us why. You know that's your part. So, that being said, as we wrap up, what are we talking about next week? Because Lori's changing things around on me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mixed up the weeks but up the weeks. But next we're going to do spring into disney, so I think we'll focus on um like flower and garden festival springtime stuff so excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be fun, it's fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love seeing all the new tobigueres when they do the moana tobigueres this year is amazing. Yeah, well, I can't wait to see it in person well, yeah, well, yeah, because it'll be up, it's still, yeah, it'll be, it'll be, yeah, it'll still be there when we go in May, so I'll get to see it in person in May. Oh, that's right, and you're going in May too. So he's going to Disneyland and Disney World in May.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 3:My wife not going to either of them, but that I can't help it.
Speaker 1:Sorry now that I'm gonna do it's all right, I'm gonna come steal you girls, that's fine okay, anything before we wrap up?
Speaker 3:nope, I don't think so. I know you already said thank you, but thanks for for joining us. Stephanie was good chatting with you uh, on video again, so it's been a while since we've seen each other, so it'll be fun. Oh, thank you both. Fun chatting, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're welcome back anytime, we love having guests.
Speaker 3:Yeah we love having visitors.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, that being said, as we wrap up, if you are looking for more information about going beyond the castle, if you're looking to learn more about Lori and I, look into some of our episodes. You know we have a blog now, as I mentioned last week. So if you're looking to read our weekly log, don't have time to watch or listen to the episode. We do post a weekly blog that drops on Fridays, so you can always check that out at our website. All you know, all things going beyond the castle, you find at wwwgoingbeyondthecastlecom. If you're looking for any of our social media channels Facebook, instagram, tiktok, twitch if you're looking for ways to listen to the podcast, whether it be on on Apple Podcasts, pandora Podcasts, iheart, all that fun stuff, you can find all that information at our Beacons channel, at beaconsai forward slash, going beyond the castle.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, if you'd like to reach out to us directly, send us an email, whether it be for a vacation quote, whether it be to come and join us on the podcast, or even to recommend a topic for the podcast. You can send us an email info at going beyond the castlecom. And, with that being said, that wraps up this week's episode. Again, thanks to everybody for joining, listening and going beyond the castle with us each week. We will talk to you guys next week.
Speaker 4:Bye. 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 going beyond the castlecom, 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, where we share tips, updates and beyond-the-scenes moments. Until next time. See you real soon.
