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
Topiaries, Treats, and Tunes: Navigating Disney World in Spring
Springtime at Disney World blooms with possibility and magic! The refreshing temperatures (70s-80s) create the perfect backdrop for exploring the parks without summer's sweltering heat or winter's occasional chill. If you time your visit just right – especially in May after spring break crowds disperse – you'll enjoy one of the year's most pleasant, less crowded Disney experiences.
The crown jewel of Disney's spring offerings is undoubtedly Epcot's International Flower & Garden Festival. This botanical celebration transforms the park with breathtaking character topiaries that come alive with light after sunset. Wander through the butterfly garden, indulge in seasonal treats from outdoor kitchens, and discover hidden surprises around every corner. For families, scavenger hunts like Spike's Pollination Exploration and the Easter Egg-stravaganza offer interactive entertainment beyond the rides, while music lovers can enjoy popular artists at the Garden Rocks Concert Series.
Easter brings its own special touches to Disney World with elaborate egg displays crafted by master pastry chefs at select resorts. These incredible chocolate works of art feature intricate designs inspired by beloved Disney characters and attractions. Special seasonal treats appear throughout the parks too – from carrot cake cupcakes to Easter egg macarons – making spring a delightful time for Disney foodies.
Whether you're capturing photos with the stunning Moana topiary, sampling innovative dishes at the festival booths, or simply enjoying shorter attraction wait times, spring at Disney offers a refreshing, vibrant experience unlike any other season. Don't forget to pack layers for cool mornings, sunscreen for warm afternoons, and inexpensive ponchos for those brief Florida showers. Spring truly showcases Disney magic in full bloom – have you planned your springtime Disney adventure yet?
Stay up to date with all things Going Beyond the Castle at beacons.ai/GoingBeyondTheCastle
There really is just a lot to do at Epcot in spring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the festival is really. And look my family, we're not festival people. We don't typically go to festivals around the house. We don't go to Mardi Gras parades. We're just not that kind of family. But a festival at Epcot is definitely different than a typical festival.
Speaker 1:It is. It's super chill. You hear the word festival and you think like big party, but it's really not. It's just like. I mean, epcot is so big as it is, so everything is so spread out and it's just super chill. It's honestly just another day at Epcot. There's just extra stuff to do. What is up and welcome back to another episode of going down the castle.
Speaker 1:Super excited to be here for another week of our podcast, as always. Thanks you guys for joining us each and every week. I am your host, fred briley, and with me, as always, my fabulous podcast princess, lori talamo. And uh, this week we're diving into one of my favorite seasons at disney world, which is spring, and spring means flower and garden festival, so super excited to dig into that. Already mentioned it a little bit, but, as we do every week, we just want to shout everybody that follows us each week and joins us as we go beyond the castle. We would not be where we are without our followers. So definitely thank you guys for joining us every week. So, yeah, I've got a super exciting episode planned. It's been a crazy week for Disney and even Epic Epic dropped some big stuff this week, I know. So before we dive into this episode. I'll turn it over to Lori and she can talk about some of the things that dropped with Disney and Universal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has been a busy week and I'm like I don't even know which ones I'm more excited about Right, probably Epic because it's new and anyway.
Speaker 2:So Epic Universe has announced now finally you can buy one day tickets. Previously you had to buy a three day park tickets, where you got two days in the other parks and one day at Epic, and so you were limited to one day. But now you can add additional days to your package or standalone tickets so you can visit Epic Universe multiple days now, which is exciting because from all of the announcements and things that we've heard so far is like there's no way you're going to get everything done in one day. And also they've announced that you can get Express Pass for Epic Universe and there's also VIP tours on sale. So, as far as we know right now, epic um express pass is not going to be included with any of the resort stays, so you definitely need to add that express pass if you're interested in doing that. Fingers crossed that they change that and at least Helios gets included in that, since we are staying there in December um, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:Maybe. I think maybe by December. I don't think we're going to see it included anywhere for the first couple. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:And maybe not by the end of the year either, but we'll see. Hopefully let's see. Oh and so this, which is a tech spread during the week, I'm like I am definitely going to have to GoPro up and take Olivia into the gosh. What's the area Dark Universe? And take Olivia into the gosh. What's the area Dark Universe? Yeah, is that right? Why am I confusing myself? Yeah, yes, because just the experiences, it looks like it's going to be monstrous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, but they do have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of creepy and actually this week I had to call in to Universal and the person that I was speaking to that was helping me book a trip. She said they got to walk through there and she's like it kind of gives a Halloween Horror Night vibe at night. She's like there isn't anything that's gonna jump out and scare you like Halloween Horror Nights, but it does have that kind of vibe. So if it's not your thing, then maybe you want to visit it during the day.
Speaker 2:So definitely I will be going to that area before it gets at night, at night maybe you know what, maybe, since I'm gonna go two days in june, maybe I'll take one for the team and I'll go live make me ride the wheel of death for our podcasts entertainment. You have to go through, okay I won't do tower of terror, but I'll go at night. That'll be our deal. You have to ride but you have to go on video because that's going to be.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:But anyway, there's a dark, dark, more I knew I was going to say it wrong experience where you can go and get you know the monster makeup If. If that's your jam and you want to do that, I don't think I'll be doing that. But and then the other thing that came out was a lot of Disney promotions. There's free dining, there's kids half off tickets this one I'm not as excited about, because who goes to disney and doesn't really do magic kingdom? I mean, I'm sure there are some people. But there's the three day three park tickets, um, which doesn't include magic king, which you can do, those tickets and get the discounted price and then add a one dayday Magic Kingdom and there are some room discounts out.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that was super cool that I did today. I don't usually do travel business on Sundays, but I have a client that I had been working with who was staying at the Grand Floridian and actually changed her room and got her the free dining and it saved her like $2,200 today. So if you have a trip already booked, you can go and retroactively apply those promotions. But that's it, I think, because I know we'll talk about it later, but our episode next week is really going to dive into a lot of the new stuff. I figured those were the ones to hit today and we'll leave the rest for next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, cool Disney.
Speaker 3:I think next week is going to be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, next week is going to be a good episode. We have a lot of good episodes coming up. You know we'll dive in. I'm excited, just like as a heads up to everybody. We're trying to plan out the next couple of months. We got a lot of good episodes planned for April and June. We have a lot of guests planned for April and June as well. We don't really know what May is going to look like yet. Both Lori and I are taking quite a bit of trips in May, so we're still trying to figure out what May is going to look like. It could be a break month for us, but we just kind of take a break from the podcast and kind of step back for a little bit.
Speaker 1:So more to follow on that, but definitely, as we ramp up to possibly taking a break we got planned. Yeah, me too. It's going to be fun, all right. So Disney, that's springtime Possibly my favorite time of the year. My first ever Disney trip was in May, so that definitely takes in, you know, has some input on why I love Disney in the spring.
Speaker 1:It really is a great time of year to go, depending on like when you go, right, you know, looking at Florida in. You know, march, april, may timeframe really is a great time to go to Disney because the weather is typically fabulous. It's coming out of that cold season which I mean in Florida we're talking, you know, 50s, 60s, so we're really hovering 70s, 80s in the March through May timeframe. There's, of course, rain because it's spring, but it's usually not as bad as like hurricane season. Once you get into the fall it's a really great time there crowds are really fabulous.
Speaker 1:We were talking to some individuals today that were that are going to disney here soon and just talking about their trip in may. Um, and just talking, like you know march, you know you're kind of pushing with crowds because of all the spring break crowds. You and I have had this conversation Like, yeah, you're really pushing it as you get into April. It's going to get better as you get into May. May's a really great time to go. I love going to May solely because, if you time it right, everybody has just gotten back from spring break. They're finishing out the last couple weeks of school and nobody wants to go because they're about to hit summer break, so they just want to wait it out a couple.
Speaker 2:Yeah so unless you go, like me, on the weekend when there's the cheer competition, I don't do that, so it's it's really not bad.
Speaker 2:People complain about the cheer competitions and dance competitions a lot and I'm like those kids are busy, like their focus is on competition. I know there are some that get to go. They do get rowdy in the resorts I get that, but the parks really don't. I don't feel like they're that more crowded, especially during the days. Now, if you go early and go late to do like we're going to do, maybe so, but this may be a competition weekend yeah.
Speaker 1:And this may be an unpopular opinion, but let's be honest If you are staying at a value resort, just go ahead and expect it to be full of kids. Like do not pay to go to a value resort if you don't want to be surrounded by children, because that's what that's the type of crowd the value resort pulls like, because you're exactly go to single like your single mid-30s people, like they're going to go to a moderate resort.
Speaker 1:You know your older crowd. Unless they're grandparents that are going with family, they're gonna go to your moderate and your deluxe resorts. The people with kids that have three, four or five kids, they're gonna stay in the cheapest resort possible, either off-site or they're gonna stay at all-star sports, so you get what you're paying for. Like sorry, absolutely, but if you don't want to be around a bunch of cheerleaders, don't stay at All-Star Sport.
Speaker 2:And I guess too, like a lot of times. I guess because you know I'm a cheer mom. I've been a cheer mom forever, so maybe I get a little defensive. I guess too because our girls are very disciplined and then very. I mean, you know how Olivia is and most of the girls are like that when they're out. There are some rowdy teams, they're not all the same.
Speaker 1:No, they're not. And I mean even still, like you brought up like a really great point, like nine times out of ten easily, like 70 to 80 percent of their time they're at competitions, like they're not running around the parks, they're over at the sports complex like either getting ready for or actively participating in a job. But yeah, I mean I really do like crowds can be a great time, you know, in the springtime. You know they're hit or miss, but it generally, if any time before you know, memorial day, weekend, great time to go really is.
Speaker 1:Plus, one of the things that we're going to talk about in just a few minutes is one of my favorite festivals, solely because I haven't been to the festival of the arts yet. I'm curious to see if, once I go to that, it becomes my favorite. But the food and wine which takes place at Epcot is an absolutely fabulous festival. Some of the things that we'll dive into a little bit is the food, the alcohol. One of the great things about the Food and Wine Festival is the topiaries. There's a lot of great things about.
Speaker 2:Flower and Garden.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, sorry, I do love Food and Wine Festival. The Flower and Garden Festival yes, did I put wine festival? The flower garden festival yes, so did I put that wrong? Yeah, no, it was just me. We primarily go to the food and wine festival because a lot of times we go in september, so that's usually when we're there.
Speaker 2:But the flower and garden festival is a fabulous festival that was the first festival that we ever went to um at disney, because we the first. Our first trip was in march.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my first trip was in may and favorite memory was finding a stitch toppy. Loved it, absolutely loved it. So which? They got some super cool. We're gonna have some post-its. I have to post some pictures because they got. Like the moana top area this year is saw that amazing. Like oh so, but we'll dive into those tips for what to pack.
Speaker 1:We take the same thing every trip. Like I'm not gonna lie to you, we have a. We have a sole suitcase whose sole purpose is to stay packed with our Disney stuff. Like nothing ever changes. We always have sunscreen, we always have ponchos, we always have cooling towels, we always have chargers and we always have fans. Like reusable straws. Like absolutely, we each have our own little sign, reusable straw by color. Like it's just our Disney go bag. Like some people, they have a hospital pregnancy go bag. We have a Disney go bag. That's funny. Like we just have that stuff packed. But like, yeah, for sure. Like I'll, I'll preach it all day. Like go to Dick's Sporting Goods and buy the cheapest ponchos that you can find for like $3. Because it and buy the cheapest ponchos that you can find for like three dollars, because it's just so much cheaper than buying ponchos at disney or an umbrella, and you don't want to carry around an umbrella at disney like and if you sit like phantasmic is a great one.
Speaker 1:Like if you can't use an umbrella at phantasmic, they're going to tell you to close it because you're going to poke the eye out of somebody behind you. Like you can't, you can't use umbrellas for those types of things. So definitely just have cheap ponchos ready. You're going to sweat, it's going to be miserable, but it's going to be the best miserable time of your life because you were at it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I have a, I have a pullover, I have a couple of them actually pull over rain jackets and I bought one of them. The first time I bought one was on the mouse marketplace, and so it's blue and it's got pink and white Mickey balloons. So then when we go, a lot for cheer, so I got a white one and I have red and black balloons, so that way it's the park colors.
Speaker 2:However you know, and it folds inside of itself. But then it's like I don't feel like lugging that around, so I love having them. But for the most part I do the same thing like I think on. I ordered a box on amazon of the cheap ponchos and I just I just throw a bunch in my bag because I'm like that way it fits in in the fanny pack and I don't have to carry a big poncho around on our last trip?
Speaker 1:have you seen that retro cartoon rain jacket that they got right now? That's super popular. I'll just find a picture and send it to you. I tried to buy it last time when we first got there and Rachel was like you're never going to wear it. And I was like, come on, I don't have a rain jacket, I just want to buy a rain jacket. I'd like to have this Disney one. She was like you can buy it if you want, but you're not going to wear it. I was like fine, I'll think about it. Never needed it the entire time.
Speaker 2:Do I ever wear jacket like she wasn't right? Yeah, I mean I use the, the school one, like when we go to parade, I mean to um, like football games.
Speaker 1:If it's gonna rain or whatever, I'll bring it so, but I don't use it at disney uh, but for sure ponchos I always am a big fan of ponchos are gonna be your best friend at disney, just because there is always a chance of rain, whether it is a 30 second like downpour and then it's over for the rest of the day, or whether it's just a straight torrential downpour all day, like there's always a chance of rain. Yeah, and depending on when you go in the springtime, like March, can be a little cool in the mornings, so definitely be prepared to wear some cooler clothes, but by definitely mid-afternoon like you're going to be in shorts and a t-shirt, no doubt yeah, that happened when we went, we um, we ended because we didn't pack anything warm yeah and so we ended up having to buy like sweatshirts when we were there, um, because at night in the early mornings, it was so cold.
Speaker 1:It can get pretty chilly in the mornings and in the evening. So yeah, it's why I have a nice little picture of josh go ahead I was just saying, hence why I have john collection of spirit jersey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a nice picture of josh sleeping on the friendship boats from port Orleans to Disney Springs with his rain poncho on nice.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean, I mean we always pack the same stuff regardless of what time of year we go. Yep, same have that disney go back. So so yeah, easter's coming up. Disney does some cool things for eas. I don't know what they do, you know what they do, but I do.
Speaker 2:Well, because I did look it up, because I've actually never gone during Easter. So, like I've been on Mother's Day, I've been for other holidays, but never on Easter and I didn't realize that there's a lot of stuff that they do for Easter, just like they do for Christmas and Halloween. They have over in epcot and this is, um, I guess, part of the flower and garden festival too they have an extravaganza scavenger hunt I've heard of that so you, yeah, so you purchase a like a map and there's stickers on there.
Speaker 2:It's like ten dollars, um, for the map and then you go around and collect the eggs at different locations and then, once you finish it, you turn the map in and you get a prize, and it's this year. It says it's one of six different easter egg charms. That's. You know we talk a lot about. You know different things for little kids to do, and so that's super fun, because I think we've talked about it before when brayden did the finny, the yeah, harry the platypus one that was super cool.
Speaker 2:Um, so this is really fun and it's it's easter related. They have just like the gingerbread house. They have a lot of displays. They only have a few resorts that do the egg displays, though. It's a beach and yacht club, contemporary and the grand floridian, and so they have.
Speaker 1:Each one has specific egg displays, like I'm looking over kind of like they do the gingerbread house and stuff like that yes, oh, here's the little cards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the card is like little faces. And then, trying to find where I had it, the egg displays, um, just oh, so this one's got like winnie the pooh, orange bird. There's one egg in the shape of um spaceship earth and it's got figment sitting on top. So there's kevin with little looks like little baby kevins. So yeah, they're open. Those are open. So grand floridian is open now through april 20th. It looks like they all end on april 20th. Beach club and yacht club those don't start until aprilst. Also the Contemporary. So it looks like right now only Grand Floridian is open for the egg displays, but those look really cool. There is also Meet and Greets with the Easter Bunny. I couldn't find exactly where that was at, but they do have a Meet and Greet option. It might be over at one of the resorts.
Speaker 1:Pictures of the eggs.
Speaker 2:These are super cute yeah, it's really cute because it's not like huge displays, like the gingerbread houses, it's like almost like a table. You know how to do it see figured it out.
Speaker 1:See, look at that. That is super cute.
Speaker 2:I was like we need to show yes, I was like we need to show pictures now, the people who are listening the audio versions.
Speaker 1:You're gonna have to go in and look at the videos because see, like these are super cute, like yes, these were last year's, let me put that out there. Like all those are so cute, that is cute yeah, and there's some like mr paid ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh wait, here's the yes. He doesn't say we don't have dates yet, because this is 2024 information yeah, this is I bet you we're looking at the same site, so it doesn't say when.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was looking at that one earlier. I just realized this one. I want a different one, but that's where it was. It says they meet Okay, traditionally they meet at Liberty Square, gazebo, also known as Bunny Lane Garden, or there's one near Town Square, courtyard and Magic Kingdom, so it looks like they're in Magic Kingdom. They'll have and I didn't put this in there they'll have like an Easter parade, easter themed parade, a cavalcade, so that's fun, fun stuff. So let's see, yeah, this one is like the heaviest crowds are like the first week of April. A lot of that is to do with spring break and the runtime springtime, surprise Moderate crowds the next week week, then heavy crowds the following week because that's when easter is, and then towards the end it kind of tapers down a little bit, so we're gonna I'm gonna back I'm gonna backtrack.
Speaker 1:Is this what you? Were talking about hang on this the little map you were talking about, or you can do like so the one. This is different, but yeah, this is, but, like I said, the one that I'm looking at this is from back in earlier.
Speaker 2:It looks different, but yeah, this is like I said, the one that I'm looking at. This is information. It was just published but it's from like last year's stuff, but, yeah, kind of similar, so that's really cool. So if you go to it's on Walt Disney Prep School one and it shows a picture of the, it's shaped like an egg and it's got like the little charm.
Speaker 2:but it's basically the same thing, yeah little charm, but it's basically the same thing, yeah, yeah. Another fun thing around easter is that, because you know, all of the seasons and all of the festivals all have different food items that are specific to that event, and so for easter, oh, and they have. Which I think is really cute is the thumper popcorn bucket oh god, it was so cute yes, it was, and I'm look, I'm not a pop, I don't collect anything, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know I have ears behind me, but I don't either what I collect.
Speaker 2:I collect nothing but the thumper popcorn basket is so cute, yeah, um, but they have a lot of like snacks that I wish were gonna still be there when we go in May, although they'll have other snacks but the one. I mean there's a lot of them so I won't go through all the stuff, but there's's. One is carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese buttercream. That looks really good, but that one's like only at Beach and Yacht Club. There's Easter egg macarons over strawberry honey Sounds really good and blueberry coriander Sounds good.
Speaker 2:Those are over at Riviera. So, like each location like has different stuff. And then they have the sulfur carrot cake. So like each location like has different stuff. And then they have the Thumper Carrot Cake. You can get it at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, like 12 different locations. So I think that one's probably easier to find. Amarette's over in Disney Springs has a lot of cute little different. There's an Easter egg cake Josh and I went one time because I just wanted to go try it and we got Tiana's little mini cake it's like a chocolate cake and that one was really good and the ganacherie Everglades donut. So lots of different Easter snacks that you can find throughout the resorts and a couple of locations, like at Disney Springs. So Easter is fun, a fun time as well Easter one year.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So next couple of sections. I feel like we should just kind of combine and just kind of do a blurb on, especially because, now that we're, I found some stuff to show on the screen too. So, okay, sweet, we can just kind of talk it together. So yeah, so yeah, let's talk Flower and Garden Festival.
Speaker 1:Flower and Garden Festival is one of the festivals that epcot does every year. Usually runs from like march to like june-ish. Oh, hey, look, you put dates in our notes. This year it's march 5th to june 2nd. So there's with every epcot festival there's all sorts of different, you know special experiences that that puts on. One of the biggest that I think people know the flowering garden festival for is the topiaries. Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pull up, so this is our 2025 topiaries. So disney does some absolutely crazy work with I'm just gonna say flowers, because that just seems like a good general statement to do so. All throughout the park, in each of the different pavilions, you're going to be able to see all these gorgeous different top years that you know epcot spends weeks putting together. Here you can see in kanto, they've got figment um, buzz, lightyear um. They do all these different Disney characters. This is from Wish. I don't know her name. I think I've seen Wish like once yeah, I watched it once as well.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for the best one that everybody's raving about. I mean, you've got Goofy, mickey and Minnie. When you go back into the pavilion you'll see you know characters that are applicable to that country. So in norway you've got on an elsa um over in. Where is the snow white? Seven dwarves. I'm drawing a blank. I'm drawing a blank on it germany germany.
Speaker 1:Thank you uh yeah, over in mexico, you know you've got a kanto the big one. That is super great this year. What's? We were just talking about it and now I'm drawing a blank. Thank you. Moana is absolutely stellar this year and like they do some crazy things like especially like it's not just like a walk around and look at during the day type thing, like they incorporate lighting into the topiaries so even at night you can walk around and see these crazy gorgeous works of art that Epcot puts together. So topiaries is one of the key takeaways from the Flower Garden Festival.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was excited when I was looking earlier because they have um phineas and ferb is back this year, is it oh? That's fine yes, because I told josh I'm like oh, they have phineas and ferb, and he's like didn't they have that before? And I'm like it said new, but then it went back and says that they are back, so they apparently they must have been there one time before yeah, I love, I love the topiaries same like, especially like, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say like one of my favorite parts like about Epcot is just being able to walk around and explore and just look at stuff. So to have that added on to the park and especially like be embedded in with the different cultures, like it's just super cool to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially because, like you know, the first time we went I didn't know all of these things existed. We just, you know, josh had a friend going, I had a co-worker going, so we're like, yeah, we'll go. And so then you go there and you're just wowed by the you know the amount of um details that each one of them have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like, even if you've seen it, I mean like I take a picture of miss piggy and kermit every single I mean, there's a lot of them that I take pictures of, you know, but it's like they just so cool looking that you know you take pictures of them over and over again, yeah and um.
Speaker 1:One of the cool things kind of keep it on that topic is the butterfly garden which they put up every year over towards? Isn't it back over towards figment? Yes, yeah, since they did all that construction?
Speaker 1:I don't remember, I think it's over by figment, but it's literally just this gorgeous butterfly garden that you can walk through, get to experience all these different butterflies, which is super cool for kids, you know. If you've got kids, you know, just take them and walk through the um, you know, the butterfly garden and let them get to experience that. So that's a super easy way, to you know, distract your children for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely a kid-friendly.
Speaker 1:I don't know why my camera randomly zoomed out. I'm going to fix that real quick Now it's not responding. We're stuck with my camera where it is, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Like it, didn't look like it too far, all right.
Speaker 1:Doesn't look like it too far, all right, doesn't look like it changed much, so next of course, my favorite topic is food.
Speaker 1:Yes, as with any epcot festival, of course, with epcot itself, you have the different pavilions epcot germany, norway, france, canada, morocco. You have all these different pavilions that are always there at which you can always partake in the dining of. You know those cultural styles. But one of the cool things about the festivals is that Epcot brings out these different food booths in these outdoor kitchens. They kind of bring in some different types of food and culture Like. So this one new for 2025 is the beach grub. So we've got like a take a seafood coming into the flower garden festival. You've got a seafood bake with shrimp, mussels, clams and duly sausage, red peppers, corn on the cob. That sounds fabulous. But, yeah, you've got like a lot of different little pop-up food air places that you can go and get all sorts of different types of food, which, of course, if you're partaking of the Disney Dining Plan, always something to incorporate into your plans, because typically a lot of those items that are included in those outdoor kitchens are part of the looking over some of the not easy enough fresca.
Speaker 2:I don't know what this drink is, but I want it. It looks really good. Looks like it's got some lavender.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, especially, like you know again, you know I'll always talk about how you know I just love walking around Epcot. Like, like, definitely, just you know, take your time, walk around Epcot, especially during the Flower Garden Festival, and just look at all the different foods and, just you know, take a lap and then come back and start working on what you want, because there is so much food at Epcot as it is already, and during these festivals they add on so much more food and drinks that you can try. You know, a great tip also to keep in mind, you know, lori and I have talked about it plenty of times is mobile ordering. Mobile ordering is not available at these pop-up spots, so typically, lines in these locations are going to be a little bit longer because people can't mobile order.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, definitely you, you know, be prepared to wait in line a little bit longer. So definitely plan it out, like I said, if you take a lap, kind of see what you want and then kind of make a game plan and go back and be like all right, we're going to eat around the world today. So, yeah, definitely, just go into it with some patience, because especially, you know, in the evenings and on the weekends we always talk about being more packed because of the locals. You know you're definitely going to see that during festival time, especially with the flower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I struggle so much when there's a festival because, of course, you know how we talk about. We always love our specific dining reservation, so it's like you know we really should just walk around, though, and and just because it's not like large portions at the booth. So I mean, you really can, you know, kind of walk through and just pick at different things and make a meal out of them. There's this one, which I don't know if they always have this, but it's called the Garden Graze Food Stroll and you get a passport and then you can Do. They have that at Epcot. I'm looking at it right, and that's why I'm like I don't remember seeing this so cut. I'm looking at it right, like it's, and that's why I'm like.
Speaker 1:I don't remember seeing this, so I don't know if this is something new. I know disneyland has a type of pass that you can purchase at their it's, but or is that? I think that's their food and wine festival that's going on right now you use the passport?
Speaker 2:yes, because actually what's her name? Stephanie was talking about that with the.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's what I passport.
Speaker 2:You could purchase five menus, five menu items, and then you collect a stamp at each one and then you bring your stamped festival passport to Pineapple Promenade and then you receive a festival treat. So I might have to do that when we go in May. Okay, and just try it out, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know I'm looking forward, since we're going in May looking forward to taking a look at all the topiaries, eating some food. Something we'll talk about here in a minute is, you know, the outdoor live entertainment. There really is just a lot to do at Epcot in spring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the festival is really. And look, we're not my family, we're not festival people Like we don't typically go to festivals around the house, we don't go to Mardi Gras parades, we're just not that kind of family. But a festival at Epcot is definitely different than a typical festival.
Speaker 1:It is. It's super chill, Like you know. You hear the word festival and you think, like you know, you think like big party, but it's really not like. Yeah, it's just like. I mean, Epcot is so big as it is, so like everything is so spread out and it's just, it's super chill, Like it's honestly like just another day at Epcot, Like there's just extra stuff to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm looking at this one and this is sidetracked because I'm now looking at the snacks and it's a chocolate cake with coconut custard and passion fruit caramel. A chocolate cake with coconut custard and passion fruit caramel, I want that.
Speaker 1:That looks really good. There's a lot of good food options.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's making me hungry.
Speaker 1:Brunch Cut has fried cinnamon roll bites with cream cheese frosting and candied bacon. Sign me up for that.
Speaker 2:That sounds really good.
Speaker 1:Sounds amazing.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at all the desserts, there's a lemon tart too. Lemon tart is my favorite from La Madeline. I don't know if you ever had that that is so good.
Speaker 1:Blueberry crumble cake with blueberry, lemon zest soft serve and blueberry compote. That sounds and a lot of it's like crazy affordable too. Like that's a $4 item right there. Like you know, this conch fritters with key lime aioli or aioli is only $6. Florida strawberry shortcake with vanilla pound cake is only $5. Light of beer is $10. Like, a lot of this stuff is super affordable, but it will add up very quickly. Yeah, if you start going Definitely Doing like Trying every little thing yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how to pronounce some of this, doing like trying every little thing. Yeah, I don't even know how to pronounce some of this a caramelized beignet filled with vanilla cream and glazed with caramel fleur de sel. Don't know what that was, but sign me up. Yeah, this is that's gotta be over in the france pavilion yeah, and they have a lot of farm.
Speaker 2:What's it called farm to table? Octopus balls yeah, I don't know about that one. Ah, bad, hard bad. I mean I have, I have eaten octopus before, but nope, it doesn't really sound and they have like two.
Speaker 1:Like you know, we've had a conversation, we've had an episode all about, like allergies and things like that. Like even you know we've had the conversation, disney is allergy aware, like as it is, yeah, but even like you get into, like this food festival or the flower garden festival, you know, the food and wine festival, like all those festivals like they incorporate those allergies into their menus. So there's definitely, you know, if you're somebody that has allergies or you don't eat meat or things like that, like they have things for you. So don't like worry if you have these allergies or these food intolerances, like there you're gonna, there's gonna be plenty for you to eat yep, you just have to keep walking until you find yeah, and the right thing.
Speaker 1:I've seen a couple I've seen I've been looking at this menu like I've seen lots of things that have like the word impossible or allergy or um, there's. Definitely they take that into consideration. Yeah, I used to rum cocktails. Sign me up yeah, this looks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got so many things see, I might find me a new, a new snack that I can get.
Speaker 2:That's outside of the fall the yacht so definitely also new for 2025, oh I see, that is that it looks like little chips with dip, yeah it's a chip and dip charcuterie so it sounds so good, assorted artisanal cheeses and a company yeah, so one of the things you can do is like fred and I are doing is you can browse the website, you can look on the app and there's also okay. So now I gotta find it. There's an app that you can get. It's the food and wine. I have it on your phone.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I didn't realize that you can pull up different festivals and it'll give you the different menus that they have, because when I went in just now, it automatically pulled up the Flower and Garden Festival, so you can kind of go on there and look at all the different snacks and stuff that they have. That way you get a hot honey chicken sandwich Yum. But if I'm going to get that, I'm going to get thigh-high chicken biscuit. So sandwich yum. But if I'm going to get that, I'm going to get thigh high chicken biscuit. So anyway, yeah, so you can look up all the different snacks they have and it has the prices in there, so you can kind of price it out and see oh, I see your fried cinnamon bites yeah, that was only five dollars, that's not bad right.
Speaker 1:We'll be partaking when I go to yes, so it's the flower and garden app, and then I mean the food and wine app, and then you can sort it by the different festivals and then it'll tell you where they're located, what the items are and what the price is, so you can budget out your your meals you know, if you're a foodie and you're going to epcot during the any of the festivals, but you know specifically this episode talking about the flower garden festival definitely download the app, take a look at some stuff in advance, get a game plan Because there is so much, and if you wait Again, we always talk about having a plan Because if you wait and show up, you're going to be like I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1:Disney makes it easy for you and gives you all these apps, so definitely go on with a plan For the foodies out there Then, and gives you all these apps.
Speaker 2:So definitely go on with a plan for the foodies out there. Yeah, then you get hangry and you just eat whatever and then you miss out on some good stuff because you, like you know, just got the first thing, which I'm sure it's all good, but yeah, not me getting hangry, right All right.
Speaker 1:Next up is Entertainment, entertainment.
Speaker 2:Yes, so along with the Flower and garden festival, they have the garden rocks concert series. So this is where they'll have, you know, different headliners that will come out and do concerts right there in epcot, and so let's see some of the I was looking, didn't we do this before, where we went through names and I'm like who, who is this? I don't know this.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm just looking at the ones I know Like Sugar Ray's coming up next week. Don't know that. Oh my God, Simple.
Speaker 2:Plan. I think this is who we talked about last week.
Speaker 1:Come on, please tell me, you know who Simple Plan is.
Speaker 2:Simple Plan yes, who?
Speaker 1:sugar ray is, I don't know simple plan 98 degrees.
Speaker 2:Come on, come on now, I do know 98 degrees, thank you. One of the things too, though, a lot of times like I don't know, like I won't know the names joshua you know this song and I'm like, oh yeah, I know that song. See, like my age group is like jody messina taylor dean block of seagulls come on. Nope, can't say that I do hey, there delilah okay, yeah see, I know, I just don't yeah, okay, maverick city.
Speaker 1:You gotta know who maverick city is I know maverick city.
Speaker 2:Yes, and actually that is why our friends troy and melissa are gone yes, they want to go and check out a list on wednesday I'm so jealous of them because they're going to be there when our other friends are going.
Speaker 1:I'm so jealous because of how much they go plain and simple.
Speaker 2:True Facts. Yeah, I'm like I wish my spouse loved it as much as me and wanted to go all the time like me, because that would be amazing Facts. Who else is coming? We, the kingdom? I don't know who they are either. The hooligans, spinners, the pointy sisters, outlaws, southbound I think I know who southbound is. Uh, there's a latin night, latin ambition, lots of concerts, um, that you can check out, and then I don't know why. What's that?
Speaker 1:don't see it in your thingy majigger is the garden rocks dining package. Yeah, I know I had that. I don't know why. What's that? I don't see it in your thingy-ma-jigger. It's the Garden.
Speaker 2:Rocks dining package. Yeah, I know I had that. I don't know why they put it in there. Yeah, so you can. Where's my notes? Yeah, you can buy the dining package that includes a sit-down restaurant reservation and with the so I'm trying to see which, so it's Spice table and then you can do it, the other one here we go. Yeah, the big list, so there's lots of restaurants yeah my favorite is on there vietnamese two-toe, italian teppanado spice road table. Who would? Who would pick regal eagle?
Speaker 1:hey, you never know Somebody might be obsessed with the Regal Eagle.
Speaker 2:Yes, my people, if you go to Epcot, please do not Now. I'm saying that Josh and I have eaten there before. I think we got barbecue chicken and something, I don't know, but we don't do that anymore. That was early on.
Speaker 1:The uneducated individuals.
Speaker 2:Yes, the uneducated. And a cool thing is that you can also do breakfast at garden grill. So even if you don't want to do um, you know, lunch or dinner, you can do a breakfast at garden grill and still get. So you get the dining reservation and you get one seat per person to the garden rocks concert of that day.
Speaker 1:So make sure you check out the schedule. I wish Magic Kingdom had a dining package for Happily Ever After. That wasn't the dessert party. Let me put that out there, Like let me go eat at VR Guest and have a guaranteed seat at Happily Ever. After Like a blocked off area. That'd be super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like a missed opportunity, I think.
Speaker 1:Maybe one day I'm going to write what's his face in email.
Speaker 2:There you go, so there's lots of options there. Can we please get to the dining package?
Speaker 1:Dearly, your biggest fan. Yes, thanks for bringing back happily ever after the previous shows suck. Yeah, thanks for bringing back Happily Ever After the previous shows suck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's crazy, because I don't even remember. Well, because we don't do them a lot.
Speaker 1:The last one was not good, but that's a story for another day. Yeah, we should do an episode on Disney failures. That would be fun there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. I need to look this thing up because I put this in here and I don't even know if that's such a real thing. Let me see that might be old news, because I don't want to say it, in case it's not, You're talking about it Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not going to say it because I don't see it, so it was another scavenger hunt, but anyway, and we kind of talked about Butterfly Landing. There's also festival merchandise. Yes, that is specific to each of the different festivals, so you can grab. You Is the Orange Bird? No, that's which festival is the Orange Bird?
Speaker 1:Is that this one? Because Figment is food and wine True.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy because the Orange Bird is like so popular. I mean Figment is too.
Speaker 1:They dropped a Figment Magic Band and I ordered it for my May trip. I'm super excited.
Speaker 2:Did you? I saw which. There's no reason why I would need to buy it. But when I was looking for some other ones, I saw they had the Cars ones now too. Yeah, so yeah. So you can definitely get some different merchandise that's specific to the event or the festival.
Speaker 1:I feel like epcot has some really good stores. There's a lot of good stores, yeah, but I don't see it.
Speaker 2:I'm not drawing a blank on it right now um that new one that they just built.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's a great yeah, that one is really good, super cool store like. They have a lot of stuff, except for they don't have three-year-old pants. Don't know why, but when it was late at night and we had a blowout, they did not have pants for my three-year-old don't know why. Yikes. But they have everything else that you could ever need. Yeah, and then of course, you know, all the countries have some really great stores and merchandise. There's so much. Disney is great for shopping. It's been all your yeah, and there's.
Speaker 2:I'm looking too, which I didn't we didn't add this in here, but there's, um, there's a lot of maybe it is somewhere, but there's a lot, a lot of photo opportunities. So I'm looking at one of these. It's like a little magic shot and it um has someone holding their hand out. It looks like there's a little baby topiary in their hand, so there's topiary magic shots. There's a little baby topiary in their hand, so there's topiary magic shots. There's butterfly magic shots. What is it? Dandelion magic shot, isabella orange basket, spike the bee, orange bird, fairy wings, tiny world and Groot.
Speaker 2:Stop it Sign me up for.
Speaker 1:Groot all day.
Speaker 2:Yes, here's the thing. Okay, so I did find what I was talking about. It's Spike's Pollination exploration. I was like, is that a real?
Speaker 1:thing did I make that up best spikes, pollination exploration.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna tap out at one, but that's another scavenger hunt. So it says set out on a scavenger hunt following spike to be on his pollination trail. So you get the scavenger hunt map and stickers, which is ten dollars, and then you you go around and look for the different sections, for the stickers, for your map, and then once you finish it all, you can take it over to um, the creation creation shop. Is that where?
Speaker 2:it is yep yes and you get a surprise. So that's two different um scavenger, scavenger hunt type activities that they have for kids. So, yeah, super cool, it's cute.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot to do, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know I am, if we don't go in the fall, spring is. You know when we go. You know we went. We've got a couple of marches now. We've gone once in May I'm going back in May this year. Like, spring really is a great time to go. There's a lot of stuff to do, the weather is really great. You know if it's not crazy for spring break. You know crowds can be super low and can be an ideal time to go and I mean, if that's not motivation enough for you, the flower and garden festival is really where it's at. Like it's a solid event to go to. Yeah, you know, if you're looking for a time to go to Disney, spring Love it Absolutely great time of year to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy Cause, like you have that spring sweet spot with the flower and garden festival and the nice weather, and then you know if you're not dictated by kids' school schedules and you can hit the fall with the flower I mean the food and wine and get that sweet spot where it's not super busy. Yeah, those are definitely the two best times to go.
Speaker 1:For sure. Yeah, I think that wraps up our episode for spring at Disney. Yes, sir, any last minute things we need to add? I feel like we covered everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went through. Yeah, definitely. You know, if you're considering going to Disney in springtime, definitely take a listen to this episode. If you have not already, no go, we'll post this week. We always say we need to do better about it. We never do, but we'll do a post in our facebook group, going beyond the castle castle podcast group, about what's your favorite thing about disney springtime is. You know there's a lot of great things we cover. You know just a handful of things in this episode. So definitely, if you're listening this episode, when finish up, please head over to our Facebook page and join our group If you're not already in our group, and if you are, go comment on our post so that way you can let us know what your favorite thing about Disney is at springtime. Like we said in the beginning, we've got a lot of fun episodes coming up. We have a really exciting April planned out.
Speaker 2:Next week. Lori hinted at it already. What are we talking about? We're doing park updates and plot twists, the latest from Disney and Universal. It's going to be a good episode, because I feel like there's been so much that has come out in the last week or so, especially with Epic Universe, all of that stuff, but even some things from Disney too.
Speaker 1:Definitely be looking forward to that episode. We also have coming up, we have battle of whatever you want to call it ultimate ride showdown there we go, the ultimate ride showdown where we're going to talk.
Speaker 2:Olivia would love to join us for that one.
Speaker 1:She's like oh, I want to come more than one yeah so we're going to talk ultimate rides showdown between disney and universal after that one of the episodes I'm really looking forward to. We're going to dig into Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom's anniversary is coming up on Earth Day and then possibly the one that I'm more looking forward to than Animal Kingdom is halfway to Halloween, at the end of the month Same yes.
Speaker 2:Me too. I'm like really excited about all of the April ones.
Speaker 1:I think they're all going to be super fun but the last two definitely yeah, if you're planning a trip to disney in the fall, definitely recommend tuning in for that episode and definitely keeping an ear out on the podcast and our social media channels.
Speaker 1:As we approach that time of year, we're going to start seeing a lot more information. Disneyland already dropped all their stuff because it's 70th anniversary, so nobody cares about them at this point. But disney world should be dropping all the information about mickey's nasco scary halloween party, details about that party, as well as dates and prices for tickets. So definitely, if you're planning a trip now, if you're out on the podcast for those will be drawn announcing that information once it comes out. So, yeah, a lot of good stuff planned for april as we head into a slowdown season in May as Lori and I take some trips to Disney ourselves, disney and Universal. So got a lot of fun information coming out over the next couple of weeks and then we have some good hands on recaps coming in June that we're excited for as we welcome some guests onto the podcast. Talk about our trips.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be fun. You want to close it out or you want me to?
Speaker 2:I can close it out, okay, unless you want to, since you do it so well.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's up to you. You tell me what to do.
Speaker 2:I'm here for a good time all right, I got it all right, um, all right. So, as fred has said in the beginning, we really appreciate everyone who joins us and who goes back and listens to our episodes, and actually tonight is episode 25. So kind of like a milestone. You know, it's like that, one of those big numbers, so, we really appreciate y'all listening.
Speaker 2:I would love to get a little more interaction as far as things that you want us to talk about, because, of course, we come up with ideas, things that we want to talk about, what we want to hear, what you want to talk about. So you know, let us know those things. If you want a vacation request quote, because Fred and I are travel agents, so you can always reach out to us for a vacation. I don't know why I can't get it, I'm like tongue tied. Request a vacation quote, there you go. Yes, you can reach us at info, at going beyond the castle. Connect with us on all of our social medias, our podcasts. Fred has mentioned it before. It is beaconsai forward slash. Goingbeyondthecastle Got it and we do have a website, goingbeyondthecastlecom, and I don't know if Fred has mentioned it on here before, but we also have a blog now, so you can find all of those links on our Beacons page and our website. So go and check it out and share with your friends and join us every week. We love having you guys with us, yeah.
Speaker 1:Keep an eye on our website because we've got some updates coming out soon that I'm currently working on just to kind of give you guys some more updated information about some great deals that are going on at the parks and you know across the different destinations that we sell. So we're going to get our website updated so, as the destinations drop some fabulous deals, you guys can stay up to date on those. So, yeah, cool, great job closing us out. Fabulous job, cool, cool. With that being said, thanks for joining us. It's been awesome. We love you guys and we'll talk to you guys next week. Bye, bye.
Speaker 3: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 Lounge, where we share tips, updates and beyond the scenes moments. Until next time, see you real soon.
