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, Lori and Ashley 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
Fred’s First Disneyland Adventure: VIP Style
Ever wondered what happens when a Disney World regular steps into Walt's original kingdom for the first time? Join Fred as he takes us on a fascinating journey through Disneyland Resort, sharing insights that only a travel agent's trained eye could capture.
From the moment he checks into the rustic elegance of Grand Californian Hotel to his final character encounters, Fred's experience reveals the surprising differences and delightful similarities between the California and Florida parks. The episode's highlight? A VIP tour guided by the knowledgeable and passionate James, who transforms the day into an unforgettable adventure with behind-the-scenes stories and instant access to fourteen attractions in just five hours. Standing outside Walt's apartment above the Fire Department—where a lamp still burns eternally—brings Disney history vividly to life.
Food takes center stage throughout the narrative as Fred confesses his daily addiction to brioche French toast, discovers the oversized delights at Pym's Test Kitchen, and confirms what Disneyland fans have always claimed: those California churros truly are magical! The World of Color dessert party earns its price tag with reserved seating, unlimited refreshments, and a show emotional enough to bring tears to seasoned Disney veterans.
Perhaps most valuable for future travelers are Fred's practical observations: the ease of park-hopping when the parks are just 50 feet apart, the different approaches to character interactions, and technological differences that might surprise Walt Disney World regulars. Whether you're planning your first visit to Disneyland or simply enjoy comparing Disney experiences across different parks, this episode offers both practical tips and heartfelt reflections on experiencing the park where Walt's dream first came true.
Ready to experience the original magic for yourself? Reach out to our travel experts who can help make your Disneyland dreams a reality, complete with insider knowledge on must-do attractions, dining reservations, and how to maximize your time in the Happiest Place on Earth.
Stay up to date with all things Going Beyond the Castle at beacons.ai/GoingBeyondTheCastle
Anything else you want to share about VIP tour day. You want to move on to your next day?
Speaker 2:I can talk food real quick because I love food. We did not do lunch just because we wanted to keep going. A couple of months ago we did a podcast episode with Lori's friend about Disneyland and she mentioned the Disney churros. And when I tell you, there is no churro, like a Disney churro. I'm telling you like they are magical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she said that the one she doesn't even eat, the ones at Disney World, she's like it's.
Speaker 2:she didn't say garbage, but basically it's trash Like they're not any good. Everything is trash compared to a Disneyland churro, but the amount of churros that I ate during those 72 hours was not healthy what is up, and welcome back to episode 33 of Going Beyond the Castle. I am one of your fabulous hosts, fred Braley, and with me, as always, is the fabulous Miss Ashley Rue and the podcast princess.
Speaker 1:Miss Lori.
Speaker 2:Talamo, I should wear my crown. You please don't.
Speaker 1:I am wearing a crown next week, I think you should.
Speaker 2:You should wear them. I'm quitting the podcast. Anyway, welcome back. We're super excited to have you guys join us this evening, super excited to be back after a nice break last week I think it just came down to it on Sunday, and between me traveling and, you know, seeing family and friends, and Lori dealing with Liv's stuff and Ashley also traveling for work, it just it came down to it we were like, let's just, we just got a Knicks this week. So sorry to all of you who were looking forward to last week's episode, but good news is we're doing it tonight. So and I'm rocking my Disneyland 70th anniversary swag, so I am ready to talk all things Disneyland. So before we dive in, as always, I will turn it over to the fabulous ladies and we'll do some announcements. Sweet.
Speaker 1:So just a few announcements for you. One thing that's exciting is that Disney Cruise Line has changed their deposit requirement, so previously it was yes, previously it was 20% down, but now it's 10% down. So 10% down to book your cruise and then you have a certain time to pay it off. It just depends on your level. So, good thing, reach out to Fred or I. We'd get you on a Disney cruise with a lower deposit. Another thing, that's super exciting, yeah, well, yeah, it'd be nice if it was a $200 deposit, like Disney World.
Speaker 3:But I get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I get why they do it. I guess it's more of a commitment Then you'll stick to it when you have the higher deposits, but I don't know. And another thing that's super exciting and I'll get to try it out tomorrow, because no Tuesday, because I'll be doing my dining for our client for the first time with the new reservation system. I did go in and just kind of look at it to see, um, and it's super cool because now you can filter by which park you're looking for reservations for. You have a broader time that you can. You know you can pick dates. So I'm super excited to see how it works to call.
Speaker 2:I've heard, heard some Really yeah. And then, when a couple travel agents called in because they go in to make the dining reservations and it only shows one day at a time and so they end up having to call and the dining reservation line is like yeah, we're struggling with some glitches for the new update, so just be ready it better, better not.
Speaker 1:I tested it today and let me go through all the way of course because I don't have a reservation, um, but we'll see so hopefully. But I'm excited about that because that's one thing, um, you know that's always a pain when you're doing diner reservation.
Speaker 4:So I'm excited to see the changes and see how it works, if it works yeah, or you'll have to uh give me your notes, because I am actually doing it on wednesday for our trip, oh sweet, 60 days. That's the one that's exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have. She's got a lot of big ones too, um, so we'll see how it works out. She picked my fate one of my favorites, vianapolis. I was excited about that, nice, yeah, so we'll see um, but those are the only announcements that I had um, so I'll let you take it away.
Speaker 4:Actually sounds good we've been seeing. I don't know if any of you guys have seen any of the povs, but test track is now in a uh preview mode for cast members. It opens to the public july 22nd. The videos I've seen are really cool, yeah I mean, some of the stuff has stayed the same, but some of it is like upgraded and pretty high tech and I don't know. I I'm really excited to see it.
Speaker 2:Fine, I think I wish they would have done something a little bit different with the outside area.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I get. It's hard. But I fully agree, it looks super cool. I'm excited to try it out whenever I go to Disney World again, which God knows when that will be. It's super sad.
Speaker 4:I'll be interested to see if they do the virtual queue for it. I would assume they are, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:I haven't really heard much about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we'll see what happens yeah, for sure yeah, and then uh. Last thing is, we are I guess it's a hard launch now we're hard launching a news post on fridays called park bench banter. Every friday you'll just kind of see a oh, what's the word I want here, like a combination of all of the news from the week um, starting today.
Speaker 1:Anything you didn't hear about you'll hear about on park bench banter on friday hey, sweet, yeah, I think it'll be cool too, because that way, um, we can get things out, you know, in a blur where everybody can just kind of go and read it, and then we'll just hit, you know, know, get some of the highlights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely On the episode, For sure. Yeah, fun stuff.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. And so then another thing in which I changed the title on this one too. It's not really news, but it's fun things that we've seen or crazy things that we've seen. So I'm kind of changing it to beyond the comments because, yeah, I thought it was cool, ashley, and I just voted on it because you were absent in that conversation I'm absent in none of our conversations because you do it while I'm sleeping that's because ashley's up earlier than us and I'm up early for work, so we're we're getting stuff done y'all, I'm gonna enjoy my sleep
Speaker 1:yes, um, but we were gonna call it comment, comment section chronicles, but I'm like sometimes it's not stuff we find in a comment.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, one I thought was really interesting because we had just had a conversation about me not taking leftovers home to the resort at restaurants and, and so because I'm like, who wants to take leftovers home and eat them later?
Speaker 1:However Fred yeah, fred, I could see taking pizza home, and one of the things that I've seen recently all over was that Pizza Moon over at Epic Universe you're not allowed to take the pizza out, and so when we went, there was five of us and we shared three pizzas and we had a good bit of pizza left which none of us and we shared three pizzas and we had a good bit of pizza left which none of us really thought about taking it home because we weren't going back to the resort. But a lot of people were complaining that they were trying to go and get pizza and they couldn't bring the pizza out of the restaurant. Now it's reported that they have boxes and so if you want to take your pizza, you can take a pizza, and there was a couple of folks in one of the travel agent groups that were like you know, at the end of the day they just went and ordered a pizza and were able to take it back, so I thought that was cool. Now you can take pizza home from Epic Fred.
Speaker 4:now you can take some to go.
Speaker 1:I will eat cold pizza, so like I could see taking pizza back and just kind of eating a slice in the morning.
Speaker 2:I don't know back and just kind of eating a slice in the morning. I don't know, I still probably won't. You've never had experience where you've eaten food. You're like, man, this is really good food, but I can't finish all the food. And then you go later and you get hungry again. Man, I wish I could have some more of that food. And bam, you took it home and it's in your fridge slash. You're at a value resort, the beverage cooler, and it's there ready for you to eat at midnight, and it's fabulous.
Speaker 1:Well one. I've never wanted to eat at midnight if I was back in the room because I was usually sleeping.
Speaker 1:No, but we have taken some stuff back. Usually, like Josh says, when we're in a restaurant at home, let's take it back home. So instead of them throwing it away, we can throw it away later, because one of my children will take leftovers home and doesn't always eat them, so anyway, but yeah, you can take pizza home from Pizza Moon. I'm going to do this one first and then I'll do the last one. So okay, I just put a note in what is the name of this park, because I already forgot it Cedar's Point. Why aren't we talking about that?
Speaker 2:with Jamal. First of all, it's called Cedar Point C. It's called Cedar Point Cedar.
Speaker 4:Point, get it right.
Speaker 2:It's one of the best non-Disney theme parks in the whole wide world. Okay, that is pretty great so they have that crazy, the Sirens. Curse Top Thrill Dragster.
Speaker 1:So there was just a report. That it was you know how like it comes down. It was stuck, People were stuck on there. I would have died. I would have died.
Speaker 4:No, this is a different ride from top throw dragster fred.
Speaker 1:This is like a new ride.
Speaker 4:It's called siren's curse and like it's the same one, but it's.
Speaker 2:They just redid it right is it?
Speaker 4:I don't know, but basically like you get out and you stop, and then the tracks like lean in and like connect oh no.
Speaker 2:And what happened? That is literally final destination waiting to happen yeah and like so they were like yeah go ahead.
Speaker 4:No, yeah, you know it better than me, I've never seen it, but no I would never do it, but I guess, like the, the computer locking mechanism, like at least we know it works, yeah yeah, all over here complaining like would you rather it not lock and they just go straight off, before it goes down like 10?
Speaker 2:no win-win here is what I see, yeah not happening with that, yeah, um.
Speaker 1:So the other thing I thought was funny because a lot of times we, you know, we always say when you see Facebook groups, whatever, don't believe half of the things that you see in there, because a lot of times the stuff is not true or you have people complaining about things, and so there's a lot of times I'm scrolling through Facebook and I'll see something and I'm like these people are nuts.
Speaker 1:And then I'll look and I'm like, oh, that's because I'm in rope drop humor, and so if you haven't, I think Ashley's in that group. I know, fred, you said you don't get in a lot of groups because you have enough. So I don't think you're in it, but it's really fun. It's just and I don't want to go into too much of the details because I don't really know exactly how it got started I just kind of started reading into it and I'm like maybe one day we'll get Scott, who is the founder of the group, on the show and he can tell us. But it's a lot of off the wall stuff and I just think it's really funny. So if you're looking for some humor or some things that sometimes I feel like it's, you know, kind of making fun at other stuff that people say or do.
Speaker 1:So I just thought it was a super cool little group that's, you know, kind of goes along with this little section of funny things you see on Facebook. That's my little plug for road drop humor. And that was it for the beyond the comments I tried so hard to find a sound clip. I wanted to get Buzz saying to infinity and beyond to play at that point.
Speaker 2:But I'm not that tech savvy so I was like never mind If you would have texted the guy I know Runs all of our tech, he could have done it in three seconds.
Speaker 1:I know, but maybe next time I was. I've been sick.
Speaker 2:I'll have it done for you next time, sweet.
Speaker 4:Wow, look at that teamwork. I know that was great.
Speaker 1:That's what I true podcast princess does. She just shows up and asks for things. That is not all that I do. I'm going to kick you out. How do I kick you out of here?
Speaker 2:You can't. I'm the admin.
Speaker 1:Anyway, all right, let's move on to the fabulous Disneyland trip that I'm still a little salty that I didn't get to go on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think we should preface with Lori and I have never been to Disneyland before.
Speaker 2:So we were both just so jelly 2026 happening. We're speaking it into existence. Now I need to get a patreon up and having so that way we can go.
Speaker 4:Yes, all right sounds good, let's dive into this trip. Fred, give us the um, the pre-tip details. How'd it come about? How'd you, when'd you go? How many days did you stay? So on and so forth.
Speaker 2:So back in January, february timeframe, my agency manager reached out to the little travel agency and pretty much said hey, we've been invited to go on at Disneyland what we call SPF. So in the travel agent world that's what we refer to as a self-paced familiarization trip. So it's essentially where, you know, we as travel agents go out and familiarize ourselves with the parks. You know we do it with Disney, we do it with Universal. You know, from time to time you'll see it with, you know, cruise lines, things like that, just to help us, as travel agents, better familiarize ourselves with the destinations that we're selling. So she reached out and she was like hey, I got 10 spots. And I was like, hey, I got 10 spots. And I was like, oh, I wish I could go. Like, if I didn't already have a bit at disney world trip book, I would totally sign up. Well, my, my agency manager actually misread that and signed me up and I was like crap, let me talk to my wife first and make sure this is okay, which rachel kept putting off. She was like let's talk about it saturday, let's talk about it Saturday. And I was like, why can't we just talk about it now? Come to find out. She was going to tell me that she was pregnant because I didn't know yet. And so she was like we need to figure all of this out, with me being pregnant. So she was like I wanted to hold off to tell you that I was pregnant so we can make an educated decision. So, yeah, moving forward, rachel's like nope, that's totally fine. Like definitely go enjoy disneyland without us, which she's still super salty about. And so yeah, so we, just the agency, we started planning the trip.
Speaker 2:There was uh, it was me, my agency manager, and nine other people, one of which was thankfully a guy, because initially I had booked off-site and I wasn't looking forward to it. But then he was like let's, well, I'm going now, so let's book a room on-site. And so I was like well, where do you want to stay? And he was like Grand Californian. I was like sold. So no, we stayed at Grand Californian.
Speaker 2:The original plan was to do two days, the first day really being a full agency, we stayed together all day. And then the second day was going to be kind of do what you want, go where you want. And then I added on a third day, um, so that I could really just kind of do my own thing. So, yeah, I ended up doing, I'm going to say, two and a half days in the park, because it was also a travel day for me. On the way back and then also while we were planning the trip, our agency manager was like hey, are each of you willing to send me? I think it was like 30 bucks? And we were like sure why. She was like because I just booked as a vip trip. And so we were all like super soaked, had no idea, and so we got to do our first vip tour. So, yeah, it was. It was kind of a crazy ride getting up to Disneyland.
Speaker 1:So you only had to pay $30 to participate in the VIP tour? Yeah, and there were. How many of you?
Speaker 2:There were 10. So we covered the tip. I don't know what our agency manager did with the rest of it. I never asked questions.
Speaker 1:I just know I contributed to the tip. There you go. I'd have been the same way here you go?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely no questions asked. So you flew in day one. What time did you get there?
Speaker 2:So I flew. I had a direct flight here to LAX, I think I want to say I was on a plane at like 6 am, maybe even like 5.30 am it was super early and then I think I landed around like eight or eight 30 LAX time and it was about, I want to say it was like a four hour nonstop flight. There's a much closer airport, but I it was way cheaper, I think I paid a dollars for both flights there and back to go through LAX. So flew through LAX, got a rental car that sat in a parking lot and I paid for it for three days for no reason, didn't move the whole time. But it's what it was. It is what it was, just because there was. There was really no other way. It was either pay for a rental car or pay the same price for an Uber.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:Cause it. It's a solid. It was probably a solid 40 minute drive from LAX down to Disneyland. Uh, so I got, uh, I got to the airport around like eight, 30 in the morning. Obviously, I couldn't check in yet, so I picked up my rental car and, um, I just drove around Los Angeles. I've never been, I've never been, further West than El Paso, texas, when I was stationed there back in 2015. Um, so, to be able to say that I was finally in California, I was like I'm see the Santa Monica Pier, I'm gonna go see this, I'm gonna do that. So I just, really just drove around for a couple hours in Los Angeles until I was finally like all right, I'm bored, I'm gonna go go hang out at the hotel and get some breakfast. So made my way down to Disneyland, checked into the Grand Californian, which is for those that have never been to Disneyland but have been to Disney World. It is very much Wilderness Lodge vibe, super like.
Speaker 4:It was super rustic before you get to that, I have one question was traffic absolute chaos?
Speaker 2:I didn't hit any traffic, but I was also driving at 8 am on a Sunday morning, so oh, it was Sunday. Yeah, because you always hear the nightmare stories about traffic yeah, I didn't hit a, did not hit any traffic, so yeah, it was super rustic vibes. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was um, it was star wars time, since we went on may 4th. I think we got there on may 5th right after it. So they did have a giant cookie shaped death star in the lobby that's rotated.
Speaker 2:It was fabulous interesting so, and then they had these fancy lightsabers that they're like, easily like not the ones you build it at a galaxy, that these were like $800 lightsabers oh my god, they were handing out people to take photos with. I was like yes.
Speaker 2:So it was super cool.
Speaker 2:It was a super nice lodge. Like. It took me a while to get into my room but the room is absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. We stayed. We stayed in just your basic, you know, general room. We didn't get any fancy upgrades, but it was a super nice room. It was definitely one of the nicest resorts that I've stayed at. It felt much more bougier than Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 2:Animal Kingdom has like a nice, you know, like family feel. This gave off Grand Floridian, where I was like I should not be in this place right now without khakis and a dress shirt like. But it was a super nice room. We stayed right above downtown Disney so we got to just sit down like we sat out on our patio and just looked at it downtown Disney. So super nice. It's got all your basic amenities. There was nothing like I would say super fancy about the room. It was just a super nice room so it was super cool. They did decide that since we were travel agents, because they knew we were travel agents, they were like we're gonna put you on the highest floor as far back as you could possibly walk, like you could not have walked any further to a room than we did.
Speaker 4:That's funny that's brutal after a while, let's keep these folks away.
Speaker 1:It was rough, um.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I I really did enjoy the grand california and I would be. I think I did it just because he asked. He was like are you cool with doing grand california?
Speaker 2:I think next time I would be more likely to stay like disneyland hotel, that's more up my alley, especially because a lot of the other agents stayed over at the disneyland hotel. That's more up my alley, especially because a lot of the other agents stayed over at the disneyland hotel and it really kind of gives that that value feel which is just that's where I, that's where I stay comfortable at.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, for sure, uh, what else did you do on your check-in day besides checking in?
Speaker 2:I ate some lunch or some breakfast. I had this meal possibly every single morning for breakfast, so it wasn't good, yeah, so it was terrible. It wasn't good at all. It was their brioche French toast. Oh yeah, oh, my God, I'm telling you. I had it the very first day and I was like this is what I'm having every day for breakfast, and I did, I had it.
Speaker 2:Sunday, mondayay, tuesday and wednesday. There was not a lot of options, just because it was either it was really either this or it was there. They had I can't think of the name of it, but they have a character dining at the grand california I can't think of the name of it and of course it's booked if you unless you get dining reservations, all the stuff. I didn't get any of that. So, uh, this was their quick version of a quick service. It was kind of like they had a lot of really good options like from your traditional america breakfast. They had this, they had a bunch of snacks. It was really it was really cool setup. It had a lot, pretty much everything that you needed.
Speaker 2:So, uh, ate breakfast, hung out in the lobby because my room took like I said, my room took forever to be ready. I eventually had to go pick up my roommate from the airport because I had the rental car, so went and picked him up and then by the time it's literally as soon as I got bored. It was like, well, I guess I'm gonna go pick eric up now I walk out of the hotel and I get the text. Your room's ready, of course. Yeah, I was like you were literally sitting at that front desk waiting for me to walk out, um, so went and picked him up, came back and then, um, after we got back, he's a big pin nerd. Like huge pin nerd, he spent I want to say he spent 800 on pins in the first 10 minutes in downtown disney. Oh my god, like he literally dropped his stuff and went to downtown disney and dropped it like 800 bucks was there any good ones like.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he got a bunch of stuff like and he's one of those people that like go to like pin training events. Like he's got pins that are worth hundreds of like, if not a thousand, dollars. Like he's got he's all out pin trader Like and it was super cool Like. He really kind of got me into doing some pin stuff Like. So I'm thankful I got to room with him, get to know him some more. Shout out to Eric, he's a super cool dude.
Speaker 2:So he went to that. And then I actually met up for lunch with my agency manager and some of the other travel agencies. We went to what was the name of it was the black crap, black tap craft burgers and shakes really good burgers. I was wanting to go there anyway. Um, I actually went there by myself and eric texted me. He was like hey, everybody else is there and I debated, ignoring it, just sitting by myself, and I was like, no, I'll go meet him. I would have done that, lori, I may give off an extrovert vibe, but I'm totally an introvert and I would just Really. Oh yeah, if you're telling me I could just sit there and not do anything and not talk to anybody and just people watch. Literally the best time I'll ever have.
Speaker 1:I would not have guessed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm super introvert. So yeah, I got the black truffle burger. It was like a mushroom Swiss burger Super good. The fries are really good if you're ever in downtown Disney area, strongly recommended as a quick service option. A couple of the other agents actually they they added a date on Sunday because they got there like Saturday night. So a lot of them kind of went off and did their own thing. I just walked around, took pictures of downtown Disney and just kind of hung out.
Speaker 2:I sat and people watched for a hot minute, like I literally just sat by myself in the middle of downtown disney and just stared at people. It was fabulous. And then dinner was at a place called centrico this was in downtown disney as well it was I. I did not pack appropriately for disneyland at disney california is not not.
Speaker 2:Orlando all right, it's not Florida anyway. Jay performed it. It was so cold like I'm super glad that I bought this. I my initial plan was to show up with shorts and, uh, hawaiian shirts, like I was fully prepared to sweat my butt off for the three days that I was there. And I got there and I ended up wearing shorts and spirit jerseys and I was still cold, like it was like a solid 60 degrees every day. Uh, it was cloudy, which, looking back, it was perfect weather for going to disneyland, like because wednesday the sun finally came out and I was like this sucks, um, yeah, yeah it gets cold, then it does especially in the evening, in the evening, which that being said, centrico is centrico, however you pronounce it.
Speaker 1:Fabulous mexican restaurant, absolutely fabulous, it's all outside so if you don't dress appropriately, you couldn't, you couldn't get warm there's heaters, but they didn't help.
Speaker 2:But now it's super fabulous, super fabulous. Mexican, I got the birria tacos. Oh, absolutely fabulous. If you know me, you know that I love birria.
Speaker 4:Absolutely Doesn't even look like tacos.
Speaker 2:I think it was a quesadilla. Did you eat it with a fork and knife? It was a quesadilla.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like a pickup.
Speaker 2:It was a quesadilla.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it wasn't like a pickup it was a case of birria.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looks like it looks very messy, but it also looks like it would be absolutely delicious it was fabulous.
Speaker 1:It was gone in about two minutes. Isn't that what you got when we went to eat the?
Speaker 2:if there's birria on the menu. I will eat it.
Speaker 4:Hasbiro will travel.
Speaker 2:I wish I got a picture of it, but I got their mango Rita Absolutely fabulous. They didn't mix it very well and so the very first shot was just like straight tequila, but it was, it was really good. So they had a lot of really good options on the menu. Um, it really was a super cool vibe to just kind of sit and hang out at, and then afterwards I think we just went to bed.
Speaker 2:It took us forever to eat. Yeah, it was a really good first day, super chill, uh, just getting to walk around and explore the resort. I would, you know, walk around exploring downtown disney. It's nowhere near as big as disney springs. You could probably walk through all of downtown disney in about five minutes. It is very, very, very much smaller, but they still have a lot of great stores. They still have a world of disney, they still have the pin traders, they still have a star wars shop, a lot of different restaurants at starbucks. So there's, there's, you know, it's definitely a great place to hang out, but it's, yeah, it's just nowhere near as massive as disney springs yeah and they have a monorail.
Speaker 2:They do have a monorail, which I think I wrote on the last day just because the monorail was like really far away and I just didn't want to walk because y'all were so far back. Yeah, so it's super cool. The monorail goes through the grand california. You can't get on it, but you can like, as you're kind of walking through, uh, you can see it just passing through it's. It's super cool.
Speaker 1:So sweet, sounds like a good check-in day it was solid yeah, all right. So you want to move on to day two, which was the vip tour day, right it?
Speaker 2:was so did you guys what wait, what I was just to say? I started my day with a brioche french toast fun, so it's something about french toast, pancakes, waffles, like.
Speaker 1:I feel like when you're on vacation you have to eat that.
Speaker 2:Yes, the little cream cheese topping and then the blueberries yes, like when I'm on vacation.
Speaker 1:I don't want to eat eggs. I want to eat something with maple syrup, waffles and yep yes breakfast sandwich every now and then yeah, um, so did you park hop on your vip tour? Did you just stay in one? So?
Speaker 2:every day was park hopping. It's so much easier to park hop at disneyland because you literally have 50 feet between both.
Speaker 1:Yeah like so how did the day start off? After you had breakfast, like do?
Speaker 2:did y'all where'd y'all meet up and get started so vip tours always meet in the grand california lobby because that's where the fabulous vip merch is and that's the time that you'll get to purchase your vip merch. Um, so there is like limits per item, obviously, because they don't want you buying 17 shirts and 20 lounge flies, but that's the time when you do it so typically and you typically want to get there beforehand, uh, before your tour starts, which there was 10 of us, so it took us forever, I think it all of our VIP merch figured out and they have like a secret little mobile checkout that you have to use and then they'll either delete or deliver it to you right there, and then you carry it around all day, they'll hold onto it and you can pick it up at guest services, or they'll transport it to one of the lockers outside the park so you can grab it after you finish your day. We chose to have it delivered to our room and this is what I came back to oh god it was amazing, get the.
Speaker 2:Which one is yours? I think mine's like. Back over here I got the lounge fly and the hat, so it was super cool. The rest is everybody else's, because everything just got. The plan was to have it delivered to guest services, just like a couple of us come to my room but they said we're just going to have it delivered to guest services. Just like a couple of us come to my room but they said we're just gonna drop it all.
Speaker 1:So I thought that was like all yours on your bed and all his on his bed, all of ours, I gotcha.
Speaker 2:So once we, once we finally got that hashed out, because technically, like, when your tour starts is when your tour starts, like, if you are still trying to figure out merchandise and it takes you 30 minutes and 20 of that is in your tour that you're paying for it. So that's why they're like super like, get there early, figure out what you want to buy and get it bought. But there was 10 of us. So our travel, our VIP tour guide, james, who was the sweetest. I have lots of stories about James. I love James. He was super great. He was like I don't think he started. I think our tour was supposed to start at 9. I don't think he started it till like 9.45, 9.50. Because between trying to get all the VIP merch taken care of and then the introductions and getting through security, it took us a while. But that's pretty much how the day started is we meet up with our tour guide. They do have special first-time pins for individuals.
Speaker 2:So you get a Disneyland VIP tour pin, which is one of my favorites, and then we also got vip tour first time visit pin oh, that's awesome so and then, leading up to leading up to it, like you, whoever schedules the vip tour actually like goes back and forth in emails with the vip tour guide, like oversight person, trying to tell them what we want to do. So that way you know, when james meets up with us he has an idea. But we just kind of told him, like you know, we want to do the big things that are different, because 99 of us had been to disney world multiple times, we've rode all the rides. So we we didn't necessarily want to do tianas or rise to the resistance, we wanted to hit some things that we wouldn't be able to hit at disney world. So and then, once we kind of finished that like talking and figure out what we were going to do, we made our way over the parks and we just started hitting things.
Speaker 1:Sweet. Which park did y'all start in?
Speaker 2:We started at Disneyland because of course, that's where everything started, so you have to start at Disneyland slash the very first ride we went on, which was Indiana Jones. He was like like we have to hit this one first because it always breaks down and it's it could get super long.
Speaker 1:literally as soon as we got on and got off, the ride broke down oh no, so uh, we got on it just in time, but um, I'm gonna take a note, so I'll make sure I put that in my planning guide for my clients, stealing your tips.
Speaker 2:We started the day off by just kind of checking out all the instances. It was super cool to see, you know, just Walt's original park it was. It truly was a wah, wah, wah moment when I saw this castle I think. I think all of us made fun of it, because it is crazy how long it takes you to get down main street before you actually see it. It's tiny, it's so tiny.
Speaker 2:But we started the tour just kind of looking at like small, like he was super knowledgeable, like I truly loved james like especially picking his brain about all sorts of different things while we were walking. And just getting to have somebody that was so knowledgeable about disneyland was just such a super cool experience like. And he getting to have somebody that was so knowledgeable about Disneyland was just such a super cool experience Like. And you got to point out like a lot of things you know, like Laura and I you we've talked about it many times like the walk down main street that so many people don't pay attention to, like the window with Tony Baxter who helped create figment. Like there's like so many different like aspects. There's a window for Eliias disney.
Speaker 2:We spent a lot of time standing outside the fire department, which is where walt used to work in whenever he had, whenever he was at disneyland I think actually you posted a a post about it, about the lamp always being on, so that way all waltz, all you know, imagination and inspiration always shines to the people of disneyland and the cast members. So it was super cool to get to see this, uh, and just kind of take a step back, you know, having gone to disney world and always been a disney world baby and to get to see like where it really all started. So it was super cool to just kind of take a step back and experience like what started it all. Yeah, but then it was just rides, like after that we were hit right, we knocked out 14 rides oh my god from about 10.
Speaker 2:When did he leave us? I want to say he left us about three, maybe five hours or so. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we knocked out 14 rides we knocked out what I was.
Speaker 2:No, you go ahead. We knocked out Indiana.
Speaker 4:Jones, which is the exact replica of Dinosaur, except way better of a ride, because Dinosaur sucks.
Speaker 2:Does not Hot take. Dinosaur sucks. We knocked out Indiana Jones. We knocked out Haunted Mansion. Haunted Mansion is one of my all-time favorite Disney rides.
Speaker 4:It's so good.
Speaker 2:Disneyland is way better Really. Yes, because the stretch room is an actual elevator at Disneyland so you could actually feel the room moving as you're lowered down, because the actual queue is underground. So like it's super cool. And one of the things that I noticed when I went to Disneyland versus when I went to Disney World is that you know the flashing scene at the top. It's just a little bit different at Disneyland. It's kind of less CG friendly, which I noticed about a lot of things.
Speaker 2:At Disneyland they really kept that original, like 1960s feel. So, yeah, we rode Haunted Mansion, we rode Rise of the Resistance, we rode Big Thunder Mountain and we rode Pinocchio, peter Pan, mr Toes, wild Ride, which was mind-blowing to me how that ride is still around. Like there's literally a whole section of the ride where you go into hell and they heat the room, so it's hotter, mind boggling to me. But, uh, road hyperspace mountain, hyperspace mountain is really cool. Uh, it's very similar to space mountain, but it's actually not the same ride, um, and because it was star Wars week, it was all star Wars overlay, so it was just like. Um, it was just like space mountain was just like Space Mountain, except there were TIE fighters and all sorts of stuff like fighting oh, that's awesome it was so cool, jealous, so that's all we did at Disneyland.
Speaker 2:So we did all of that and then we hopped over to um Disney California Adventure and we knocked out Guardians of the galaxy, mission breakout that, where I did it for me. I thought I was gonna throw up um isn't, is that one like tower of terror?
Speaker 2:except it's that tower of terror just goes. This one was like wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, like it just bounced, and so it was like. The whole time was like, like it was, it was super cool. Uh, it really was.
Speaker 2:I missed the whole aspect of you know the scenes at disney world where it like goes in through and rides and you get to see all the why am I drawing a blank of the twilight zone. Thank you all. The twilight zone stuff that was. I missed that aspect of it, but it was still. It was still a super cool ride. The queue is super cool. There is actually a figment in the collector's queue, so that was super cool to get to see that. So, yeah, mission breakout. We did radiator springs, which is the same exact ride as test track, but way better. I am way bigger of a fan of radiator springs. Such a great ride. Web slingers that's the one where you're like you got on the 3d glasses, you're doing this. That was a super cool one. We did sorenarin' and then, after he left, we also knocked out Pirates and then I did Haunted Mansion again, was it Soarin' over California.
Speaker 2:It was or was it?
Speaker 4:just regular. Soarin'.
Speaker 2:It was just regular Soarin'.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So some of the ones that you have that were at Disney World and Disneyland. Obviously you said Haunted Mansion was better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Any others that you would Haunted Mansion was better. Yeah, any others that you would Haunted Mansion was better. Rise of the Resistance is the same. I haven't ridden Big Thunder Mountain in what feels like so long, so I really couldn't tell you if those are the same. But it's Big Thunder Mountain. I mean there's not much to change about it. Peter Pan. Peter Pan was a little different. It was kind of more old school peter pan. But which?
Speaker 2:that would make sense, considering that was there before the peter pan that was built at disney world. But I I'm not a huge peter pan fan. Like I don't have to write peter pan when I go to disney world, so that was just kind of like a yeah, for me extra yeah yeah, soren was the same to me, pyrus was totally different.
Speaker 2:There's a clip out there somewhere. Uh well, I'll have to send it to you so you can post it. But I was live streaming on tiktok while we rode pirates and nobody told me there was a second drop, and so, yeah, I saw that somewhere, I don't remember where I saw it there like we're going on this ride and it drops.
Speaker 2:And then like we're all like ah, then we're talking, and then eric's like are you ready for the second drop? And I'm like what second drop? And then it happens, and then you just hear me screaming and it's pitch black, so you can't see anything did you have your light on no, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was a different.
Speaker 2:It's a different Pirates, Like there's a whole Bayou scene to it which is actually where you eat dinner at the Black Blue Bayou. It's inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It doesn't have the smells which it could just be the Florida water, but it doesn't have the smells that the Florida one has, which is one of my favorite aspects about the Pirate Caribbean. So I miss that aspect. And then there's just some small differences Again, like the second, there's two drops. There's like it ends differently, like you kind of go into like this boat dock area to get off, rather than you know how it is at Disney World. So it was different, but I wouldn't, I'd still prefer the Disney World one over Disneyland.
Speaker 1:I think that was it. Did y'all do fireworks or any nighttime shows?
Speaker 2:So there were no fireworks, but we did, because with VIP tours you can request assistance with dining reservations and like any type of VIP seating. So we did do. I couldn't tell you what it was called. I felt it was the biggest waste of my time. But they had some castle projection. I don't even know what happened. There's a TikTok video out there of me just bashing it the whole time it's on. So it was like five, ten minutes and I was like, okay, this is over, we can leave now.
Speaker 1:So no tears were shed.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely zero tears were shed, which the same can't be said about the second night, but we'll get to that later. But no, so it just depends on what they don't do. It's not like Magic Kingdom where they do happily ever after with fireworks every night. It just kind of depends on what they have different shows that they do. Sometimes they do fireworks, sometimes they do this show, sometimes they do that show. But we did get VIP seating seating, which was super nice. We were right in front of the castle and we had benches to sit in.
Speaker 2:It was super cool, so nice. Strongly. Don't recommend it strongly. Don't sorry, I don't even remember what it was called. I was super disappointed, I gotcha that's fair.
Speaker 1:I don't know, yeah, that's fair yeah, so I know you talked a little bit about you know having the guide and how it was cool, you know, for him to kind of give you some inside scoop. Was there anything particular that he said that was kind of like a standout moment or a secret thing that he shared, or was it just kind of general knowledge that's kind of out there?
Speaker 2:already. It was like a solid month and a half ago, so I don't really remember, but I can tell you like I do. Really I don't remember a lot of what he said, but like it's crazy how much knowledge those guys have. Like I will always recommend a VIP tour now that I've had one, just getting to experience his knowledge and his love for Disney. Like you talk about cast members loving their job, like this dude I got this picture right here he was the sweetest little dude ever. Him and his girlfriend actually met when they worked on soren together and now they're dating and it's just, oh my god he was.
Speaker 2:If he if I, if I was if I was gay and he was single, I would have snatched him up. I'm telling you he was so cute like, like he was just, his name was james and he was just. He was just the sweetest, like happiest person I've ever met, like he was always that, all of your stuff, that was all of our stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh so anytime that we wrote something do what I said, and that's on Pride Month- yeah, he was super cool, like just, and I mean I loved just getting to, you know, walk down the street with him and just hear the knowledge that he had and just getting some side conversations with him about how he fell in love with Disney and how he started working at Disney and, you know, just hearing his experience like it was, was it really was super cool, just to get to experience and spend time with him. So that's all of us. I was like one of our last photos together, so it was, it was a super good time fun.
Speaker 4:Fred, you are cheese in the most I try to cheese.
Speaker 2:I try to be the biggest cheese in all of the photos I possibly can. I was also in my prime. Like I've always wanted to go to Disney world. Like it was a dream come true, like it was just. It was super cool, so it's awesome, nice, sweet.
Speaker 1:Anything else you want to share about VIP tour day? You want to move on to your next day?
Speaker 2:I can talk food real quick Cause I love I. To move on to your next day. I can't talk food real quick because I'm yeah, I love food. We did not do lunch just because we wanted to keep going. A couple months ago we did a podcast episode with laurie's friend about disneyland and she mentioned the disney churros. And when I tell you there is no churro like a disney chur.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you like they are magical, yeah she said that the one she doesn't even eat, the ones at Disney World.
Speaker 2:She's like it's. She didn't say garbage, but basically it's trash. Everything is trash compared to Disneyland churro.
Speaker 1:But she's like the Disneyland churros.
Speaker 2:The amount of churros that I ate during those 72 hours was not healthy.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to let Stephanie know. I mean hours was not healthy.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna have to let stephanie know. I mean, was anything healthy?
Speaker 2:no, yeah, I had a lot of churros. We did stop by the mint julep bar for lunch and one of the super cool things about a vip tour is they will tell you to like to help save time. They'll'll be like all right, everybody place a mobile order. So we all did. And he was like what's your mobile order numbers? And he had some super fancy VIP phone that he would text our order numbers to and that would put our order number in front of everybody else's. So it could have been like a 30, 40 minute wait to pick up your mobile order. It took you two minutes.
Speaker 4:Way to go.
Speaker 2:James. So this was the passion fruit mint julep. It was super good. We also all got mickey beignets, and by all I mean all of them, because I'm from new orleans and there's no beignets like new orleans. I was like'm good, I don't need a taste of Mickey beignet.
Speaker 1:Didn't you have those today?
Speaker 2:Do what?
Speaker 1:Didn't you have menus today?
Speaker 2:I did not no.
Speaker 1:You didn't go.
Speaker 2:I did not go.
Speaker 1:We didn't go either.
Speaker 2:It's a long story. I'll tell you later.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It's actually not a long story but I'll still tell you later. So yeah, passion fruit mint julep. It was super cool to go to the mint julep place. This was in the french quarter area absolutely fabulous drink. And then for dinner we did the blue bayou which, like I said, was inside pirates of the caribbean. The vibe really gave off, gave off a great new orleans vibe. The food did not give off a new orleans vibe at all isn't it?
Speaker 1:it's terrible because anywhere you go that says it's new orleans style food it never really lives up to it, no it.
Speaker 2:Well, and like you know, I was expecting, like I don't know. I was expecting to see, like some clams, I was expecting to see some crawfish, or like some crawfish etouffee, like there were these different, like like creole pasta, like I was expecting to see these types of items. I think the only menu item that I saw that was the bread and butter, which I'll say was fabulous, but it's hard to mess up bread and butter those look like cheese sticks they were butter, but, yes, those were the cap crate crab cakes super good crab cake.
Speaker 2:That was the only like southern thing I saw on the menu was is it gumbo? Yeah, it was gumbo, which wasn't that great, not gonna lie, yeah it's. And then, like they had prime rib, like they have prime rib salmon, I think, and I think like a chicken dish and I'm like how is how is this by you eating? Yeah, I was like, no, it was good, it was good food. It's just, the food did not match the vibe at all to me. We also offended our waitress quite a bit, which was unintentional, but when you get 10 travel agents in a room together who have never met, it tends to get a little bit crazy. I think that's everything. Yeah, yeah, I feel like that's it, and then, like I said, I had an excessive amount of churros.
Speaker 1:Sweet.
Speaker 2:I just text stephanie and told her that you agree and said the churros were amazing. This is. I'm gonna show you this before we move on. This is one of my favorite ride photos super great ride james wrote it with us. It was super fun. So, as you can tell by my face, I'm focusing on not vomiting. James is just there to have a good time. He was, as you can tell by my face.
Speaker 4:I'm focusing on not vomiting. James is just there to have a good time.
Speaker 2:He was, it was good times so that you know the tour guide like it's worth it for the rides, because the amount of rides that you can get in in a tour ride or a VIP tour is excessive. And then to just to, if you have a love for Disney, just to getting again getting to share that with somebody else who also has such a passion for sharing Disney with others.
Speaker 1:Super. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I keep looking down. I have my phone over here so I'm getting lots of text messages from my daughter. She's spilling the tea on some things, yeah.
Speaker 4:Do you want to air it all out live?
Speaker 2:Please do.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe on the next episode we got to see if it plays out.
Speaker 4:Before we move on, I do, fred, want to hit on making sure you tip your VIP tour guide. Yeah, you kind of hit on it at the beginning, but I think it's really important to note again that those people dedicate their whole day to you, from sunup to sundown. It sounds like James even skipped lunch for you guys. He gave you everything he had, and you know, I don't know what they make, but also those tips are really important to them as well.
Speaker 2:James was amazing and, in addition, again, I don't know how our agency manager paid for for it, but we didn't even, as the 10 of us didn't even cover the whole tip. There was more to that tip than what we gave. Like, people need to understand that you're paying disney for the tour you're not paying. Yeah, you're not paying him. So, like one, vip tours are expensive and a long time ago a good friend taught me that you know, if you can't afford to go out to eat and tip somebody, don't go out to eat. It's the same thing for a vip tour if you can't afford to tip your tour guide, don't take a tour. You know there's a lot of other tours that you can take that are way cheaper. You know, yeah, definitely don't take a vip tour guide if you're not willing to cash out a couple hundred dollars in a tip, because that again I, like ashley, said, I don't know what, I don't know what their standard pay is, but he probably got like seven, eight hundred dollars in in a tip that day.
Speaker 2:So but it was worth it, like the service that he provided us was amazing. If I go back to Disneyland and ever do a VIP tour, I will ask for James. He was amazing.
Speaker 1:Have to keep that name. We'll have to keep that name for next year when we go.
Speaker 2:His girlfriend is also now a VIP tour guide, so I want to figure out how can I get them both together and make this happen.
Speaker 4:We'll double the tip if we have to.
Speaker 2:Yes, I will.
Speaker 4:There you go? Yeah, sweet, all right, are we ready to move on to let technically day three day three and a half days yeah, um what, what'd you do? Day three did you have a strategy? Did you use lightning wind?
Speaker 2:let's start there so one of the great things that I loved about my trip to disneyland is that I didn't have to do anything but show up and ride the rides. The other agents were way more motivated to take care of the lightning, so I was like got it and they, they handled it really well.
Speaker 2:One of the disney land is different from disney world and that disney world you can book your lightning lanes. Uh, you can pre-select three of your lightning lanes, um, seven days out if you're staying on a resort and three days out if you're staying off property for Disneyland. You do it like the old days were, when the park opens at 7 am, um, so that's, it caused them to spend a lot of times on their phone looking at stuff. So, uh, it was definitely different to go back to um, but we did. Do we park? Hopped again. We we actually started at disney california adventure, went over to disneyland and then went back disney california adventure to finish out the day. We definitely did use lightning lane on just about everything. We rope, dropped disney california adventure and hit radiator springs again because, again, it's just such a great ride. Again it is the exact same vehicles as test track.
Speaker 2:Again, you comment on my cheesing every single time I will do it it's the same exact ride, vehicles, this test track, almost the same exact layout of the ride. It was such a super cool ride, loved it especially. You know they do a really good job when you first get on the ride of kind of, it's just a nice gentle cruise and you go out and you see everything in the waterfall and it's just, it's just super cool. Absolutely loved the the ride. It shut down right after we wrote it because it started to rain a little bit. Yeah, we roped, dropped that. Uh, where are my notes? Here's my notes, uh. And then after that we went over into guardians, sat out for guardians. I was like yesterday a little bit too much for me so I was like I'm just gonna sit this one out, uh, because it's nine o'clock in the morning and I'm not trying to vomit today. So we sat that one out while the while they, uh, while they went and did guardians and then spent some while they did that.
Speaker 2:I spent some time in avengers campus, which is really one of the one things I've always wanted to see is avengers campus, just because I'm a huge Marvel fan and it's just so crazy how much Marvel stuff they have over there. You know they. You know, spider-man was out, captain America's out, black Panther was out, doctor Strange was out. They had so many Marvel characters out, like it was just super cool, which we'll get in. That's pretty much how I spent Wednesday, but we'll get into that later, so spend some time over there. We did have breakfast over there. We went to Pim's test kitchen Nice, one of my favorite spots. Like I'll definitely go back there and eat. Pretty much everything is extra large. It is, it's ant man. As you can see, right there in the middle is the fork.
Speaker 4:That's cool not edible.
Speaker 2:This is my fork. I kept it so it was super cool. Like absolutely loved getting to eat there. The french toast was absolutely fabulous. Also, shout out to celsius. If they want to sponsor us, they're more than welcome to. I will gladly try all flavors of the celsius and talk about them on this podcast. What's your vibe is the best yeah is that a uh like a blueberry?
Speaker 2:it was like a blueberry syrup. Yeah, it was. This was an amazing breakfast. Again, I did have french toast every single day, I told you I did, and then we just kind of spent the day kind of hopping back and forth. We knocked out Web Slingers again, which was such a super cool ride, great technology that they have. We did the Little Mermaid, we did Incredicoaster, also one of those ones that my body did not agree with. Again, as you can tell, I'm taking deep breaths, trying not to vomit for some reason. So how?
Speaker 1:how was that one like what? Is there anything that you can compare it to?
Speaker 2:people were trying to say it was as bad as like, uh, spaceship, earth. I don't. It wasn't a bad ride. Like it was your. I thought it was your normal, typical roller coaster. There was nothing crazy about it. It had all of one loop. I don't think there was anything crazy. It was a good ride, super cool, a little outdated, but it was a great ride. So did that. We hung out in San Fran, tokyo for quite a bit, found out that there is a bakery in I don't know where the picture is, but there's a bakery in San Fran, tokyo. This is Pixar Pier. There's the Will of Death in the background, which I did not ride. My next question it was literally traumatizing just sitting there watching as like the world as as it spun, and then all of a sudden your car just goes and it's like nope no thank you Um.
Speaker 2:So hung out in Pixar pier for quite a bit. Hung out in San Fran, tokyo. There's actually a little place right here called ant cast cafe. They make Mickey and Baymax bread, sourdough bread that you can take home.
Speaker 2:I did buy both of them, but they did not make it home in one piece, nor did they last long once they made it home, of course, of course. So that was super cool. So we hung out. I actually got to experience the Disney Vacation Club Lounge for a little bit as well, just because there were a couple DVC members on the trip with us Got a cool little DVC I don't know what you call that cup which was super cool. So nobody tried to convince me to drop 1000s of dollars on a DVC membership, which I was thankful for, because I don't know if I could have said no, experience that for a little bit.
Speaker 2:We did the Little Mermaid, because I don't know if I could have said no, experienced that for a little bit. We did the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid is much bigger and like more intense. Like it's in this massive theater, like it's just. I feel like they go way more intense with their Little Mermaid. We did. We did dinner at Lamplight Lounge, which was super cool because it was on Pixar Pier, got to hang out there and have dinner there. We sat outside and of course it was cold but we had a nice fireplace, so I got I think it was like a peach beer Super good. And then this was the burger and fries I had Absolutely fabulous of a burger. It was just their typical classical American cheeseburger, but it was super good. I did not realize how big it was going to be when I said I would like to add a patty please. I regretted that decision, but it was worth it.
Speaker 4:It looks so good, it looks good.
Speaker 2:It was amazing. And then, yeah, we pretty much just hung out there, did Toy Story Mania, we did Monsters Inc. Monsters Inc I'm trying to think of what to relate it to Monsters Inc. I'm trying to think of what to relate it to Monsters Inc is kind of like a Winnie the Pooh kind of thing almost. Yeah, it's very similar to. Winnie the. Pooh which is going away. So, as we discussed previously, so that was that was super cute to see they have at the end what's the what's the, the Monsters name who always picks on Mike Wazowski, Randall Roz Roz.
Speaker 2:They have a Roz at the end and she just makes fun of people in your car while you wait to go. That's amazing. That's pretty funny. I did Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, which I've always wanted to do. Always seemed like the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 2:It was about as no, yeah it wasn't great, but you can say you did it. Kids would love it like it was. It was a pretty cool experience, like it is underwater, but I I definitely prefer disney world's version of finding nemo, just because, like this whole time, I was sitting there looking at a window like this, cramped in a submarine, with a whole bunch of other people who'd been walking around parks all day and smelled bad yeah, it's fun times, no thanks um, yeah, we didn't do a lot.
Speaker 2:We kind of we took that second day again. We knocked out so much in the first day that we didn't have to stress about. Well, it's the second day we leave tomorrow. We got to do this. We already did everything that we wanted to do on the very first day, so the second day was kind of just like to get to explore, take some pictures, grab some content and really just hang out. We did do the World of Color dessert party, which was totally worth it.
Speaker 4:I do have a question, send it. I notice your hats and your ears. Do you have, like, the clip on ears?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're magnetic.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've been thinking about getting those. Where did you get them?
Speaker 2:Park ears dot com. I think.
Speaker 4:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, super great, like the only time, like they were on through rides, like they're super strong magnets, they were absolutely fabulous. They have all different types. You can get stitch. You can different types. You can get Stitch. You can get Mickey, you can get Pluto. You get all different types of ears. The only time that it came off accidentally was when it got caught on my backpack as I was trying to pull it off and I literally had to rip it off. But they were again super cute, love them. So I bought them for all of. We had a church family go on a bottom for all of their guys.
Speaker 1:Nice Speaking of, I have some of them that were returned today.
Speaker 2:Why were they?
Speaker 1:returned To give back to you. I don't want them back. Well, I told them I was like oh, they can keep them for a souvenir. And they're like well, they're not going to wear them. So we didn't know if y'all would maybe want to use them.
Speaker 2:I don't want them back. You have my address Mail them to Ashley, I can.
Speaker 1:I'll mail them to you. Love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do there's like five boys. Yeah, there's like five of them. So.
Speaker 4:I don't want them back.
Speaker 3:It was a gift to them. I hope they're listening and feel bad now.
Speaker 1:I guess I think her thoughts were that, since they're not going to go back and wear them, that you could get use of them or give them to someone else that could use them she thinks they're not going to go back yeah, they're not right. You never know. They're not going back.
Speaker 2:They're not going back nine people is a family of nine. It's a family of nine.
Speaker 4:They're not going back to disney we were at the zoo with families of like more than six and we're like why do people do this?
Speaker 1:I can't imagine anyways, they have some. Those kids are amazing, though.
Speaker 2:I love them they are shout out to the dixon clan.
Speaker 4:Yes, before you get too far in the world of color with everything you learned on the vip tour, did you go into these following days with a little more appreciation for what you were experiencing or seeing, or anything like that?
Speaker 2:yeah, like I think I think again it just kind of all goes back to like the very first thing that we started with was, you know, looking at the firehouse where walt used to do all of his work and just kind of oversee things.
Speaker 2:It really, it really kind of felt that way more at disneyland because that, you know, that's the park that walt oversaw and just seeing, you know, just walking around on tuesday and wednesday like, and just seeing the little things that you know walt created and established throughout the park that are still there to this day was just super cool and just it did give this like a nostalgic vibe like, which was super cool yeah, it feels like it would be like added value to your experience just like knowing those things yeah, it was different.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, like I said, he gave james gave so much knowledge and so much tips like I can't I can't remember all of it, but just like walking through the queues, like he would talk about how, like long the queues are, and like tips and tricks for the queues, like he knew we were travel agents, so like he helped give us tips and tricks that we can hand off to our clients to make their trips better.
Speaker 4:Very nice, in the interest of time. I know you wanted to hit World of Color, so let's hit that and then we can move on to your next, it is super late.
Speaker 2:World of Color was super cool. We did pay for the dessert party. The dessert party was absolutely fabulous because we had our own table this was our view and it was very much rivers of light at animal kingdom. Back when they had it, it was all water projections. Um, I mean, that's pretty much all it was. It was just water projections, um, which they're now doing something different for the 70th anniversary.
Speaker 2:But most of us cried because, like they just it was just like heavily ever after, but with water, oh man, the feelings, uh, the music, like they just brought back some old classics. It's really great because, um, you get to your seat like 30 minutes or so before the show starts and so this is automatically sitting at your seat for you. Yeah, the, the uh, laurie's favorite macaroon. It was absolutely fabulous. The rice Rice Krispie treat was great, like all. The dessert side was super great.
Speaker 2:They had they have different, you have to ask, but you pretty much get unlimited sodas, teas and water while you're there. You have a waiter that waits on you and then they also have specialty alcoholic drinks. They had like super some. I can't remember what it was called, but it was. It was like a fiery margarita or something like that Absolutely fabulous the. The waiters and waitresses were like super friendly, taking pictures of us joking around with us having a good time, so it was super cool to do that right before the show. And then, like I said, world of color is absolutely a fabulous show. It starts off talking about walt disney, uh, and just the imagination and the dream that he had for disney, uh, and then it just goes into like everything that disney created, from the parks to the, the movies and the shows and it just like, oh, it hit the feelings like most of us cried and by most of us, I mean I was the only guy and the other females cried the other guy that watched did not cry yet.
Speaker 2:Yet that's funny. So, yeah, definitely recommend world of color. Um, it's over at disney california adventure. Um, and again recommended if you can get the dessert party. I think tickets were only like 70, 65, 70 bucks, so you know for the dessert tray and then all you can drink drinks and the seating. Like I think it's totally worth it because they do run out, like so for their phantasmic and I think world of color, they have a virtual queue that runs each day and once they run out, that's it, like you don't get to watch it.
Speaker 1:You don't get it, oh wow.
Speaker 2:So I definitely recommend it because it's guaranteed seating and you get some great dessert with it.
Speaker 1:Was it unlimited dessert or was that dessert like once you got your plate of desserts?
Speaker 2:To be honest, for some reason I was super. I was wiped out at this point.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:So you were like one and done. Yeah, I had one. I didn't even finish the dessert tray.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know what it was, it was probably all the churros, but I didn't even finish the dessert tray. But we did get the multiple drinks. Like I had I had a sprite, I had an alcoholic beverage and I had a non-alcoholic beverage and I had hot cocoa. Like all of that was just wait. I couldn't finish it all because they just kept bringing it. I was like, oh wow. So they were like, would you like some hot cocoa? And I was like I'm not gonna say no. Then they would like would you like this? Yeah, so just bring it, set it down, don't even ask anymore, just set it on the table. So yeah, it was super cool. Definitely recommend Mortal Color. There's a lot of there's a lot of hate, I feel like, towards it because it's not the greatest dessert tray. But I mean I have low standards. So, except for dinosaur, that sucks.
Speaker 4:Way to bring it back around.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He has some strong feelings on dinosaur, I will say I got to walk out as but so we can move on quickly. They are way more strict at disneyland about getting you out of the parks. Uh, especially once it's time to close. They're like keep walking. And I was like can I take a photo? They were like really quickly. I was like. They were like we're trying to go yeah, so it was super cool to get a walk through at night and just, uh, take different photos.
Speaker 2:So it was not full 70th anniversary swing yet same as the anniversary started a couple days after we left. But we were thankful to get to see some of the decorations and, um, get some merch. So, yeah, fun times sweet.
Speaker 4:All right, let's move on to last day.
Speaker 1:You're okay. We're still talking about the tea the tea.
Speaker 4:The tea is hot and not the tea you're drinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right um, she just got home from cheer camp from all weekend, so it's really catching up on stuff these are the moments that I look forward to, one day when my kids are like 16, 15 and yeah, I get to hear all the gossip and I'm just gonna go post all videos on tiktok and talk about it yeah, this is this one's fun, which is saying so.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I don't want to jinx it or talk about it, because it's not even really real yet, but we'll see so much vagueness. Yeah, I'll tell you off air. Okay, so last day was half day set and travel day, so, other than starting your day with French toast, take us through your day before you headed back to the airport.
Speaker 2:So my last day I really just wanted to focus on photos with characters. There were a lot of characters that you don't get to see at disney world that are at disneyland, so really just wanted to take advantage of that, take advantage of the photo pass. Um, I started my day late because I was absolutely exhausted. I don't think I started until like maybe 10 o'clock and then I started over at disney california adventure and I mean, I just took my time taking photos and let's see, I took pictures you got some good ones I did get some really good ones.
Speaker 2:Took pictures with iron man. That one was super cool, nice, you gotta take a picture with him. Took a picture with a spider-man. That one was super cool, like it. Just the personality and just the way that he talked and interacted really gave off. You know I can't think of the kid's name, but the recent series thank you Tom Holland. He really gave off Tom Holland vibes and it was super cool. Love taking a picture with him. That was possibly one of cool Love taking a picture with him.
Speaker 2:That was possibly one of my favorites. Took a picture with Black Panther. That one was a fun one. I think that was all that I did over there. I did take a picture with the Red Guardian. This was one of my favorite experiences. But it wasn't until afterwards that it became my favorite experience, because I had no idea really who he was as a character, because I hadn't seen the movie yet. Um, but I knew I wanted to take a picture with him because I was never going to get to see it again. And after I went and saw the movie I was like this dude is spot on the character, like he really did have the personality of the character, like in the movie.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I didn't want y'all to blast me like y'all do sometimes. All the time I was going to be like I don't even know who that is. So I'm glad you said you didn't know who it was either. I knew who he was.
Speaker 2:I hadn't seen it yet, but I didn't, like I didn't know his character because he just he really just got introduced as the red guardian in the previous movie that just came out. We've seen him before in older movies really only one but we didn't know him as the red guardian. So again, it was super cool to meet him and then go see the movie and then connect it and be like, oh, that's cool yeah, we haven't watched a new movie yet um, we're slackers, you are.
Speaker 2:I got a picture with mickey mouse. It was super awkward but the most awkward character interaction I've ever gone for, because I went for a hug, mickey went for a handshake. I switched it up to go for a handshake, mickey went for a hug and then we just went back and forth and eventually I just awkwardly pulled him in and was like like this is awkward, that's great. It was so awkward. Worst experience of my life got a picture with pluto. That was a fun one, cute. One of the things I really did love about disneyland is you just have a lot more characters that are just out meeting, like they're literally just walking.
Speaker 2:This was one of my favorite part that is the photo pass photographer. There was like you want to do a photo session with your new shirt. I was like, yes, and what was really awkward is she was like turn around so I could take your picture. And so I turn around and I go wait, why am I smiling? I'm not looking at the camera. It took me a second, I was just staring. I'm just staring at the side. But she was super cool. Love this shirt. This is my new favorite spirit jersey.
Speaker 2:But no, like you know, I went over to toontown and, like you'll just see mickey and minnie and donald and goofy, they're literally just walking around interacting with people. It's not like disney world, where you see them walking and they're walking to get somewhere. Like at disneyland, they're just walking to walk, like to interact with people, and they stop and they take pictures with people, and so that was super cool, just to get to see and to experience that. I did have lunch over at aunt auntie Ann's whatever it was called. This was the Mac and cheese sourdough bowl Absolutely fabulous. And then this was the Baymax bread that I bought. It was super cute. So nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's really all I did on. You know, Wednesdays I was by myself. Everybody had left. I just walked around the parks and took pictures and ate food. I ate some more churros. I ordered one, they gave me two. I walked away. It was a win, it's a good time. So I did get in line for one ride Roger Rabbit Because I was like I'm never going to get the chance to ride Roger Rabbit again and it broke down and I just left Like I'm not waiting.
Speaker 4:Bummer.
Speaker 2:The one ride I tried to ride broke down. So yeah, it was super cool. And then after that I got my rental car and drove back to the airport so sweet.
Speaker 1:So, to wrap up your report, what do you think was the like? What's your favorite moment of your trip?
Speaker 2:I would say I would like the whole, all of the one. On one time I got with James. Like the man truly had a passion for Disney, he had a knowledge for Disney. Like just getting to the amount of pictures that are out there of me walking next to him, talking to him. Like I stole him from every other travel agent, like sorry, I wanted to talk to him. Um, I just loved the, the conversations that we got to have with him. You know him giving us his backstory, the backstory of Disneyland, his experience working at Disneyland, like all of that combined, in which just my favorite part Was just getting to spend time and talk with James.
Speaker 1:Sweet Sounds like you had a great trip.
Speaker 2:It was my only thing. The only thing I don't like about Disneyland Is one the magic bands.
Speaker 4:They don't rely on magic bands at all.
Speaker 2:The only thing you could really use your magic band for Is to put your ticket on to get in the park. You don't use it for your room, you don't use it to pay for stuff with, you don't use it for photo pass like. Everything is done on your phone, so it's different. I mean you can, you can link it to your ticket and do it that way, but so many people just use their phone because they're not. They're not magic band heavy over there yeah, and then two was the PhotoPass on the rides.
Speaker 2:It's not like Disney World again where you can go up and scan your Magic Band and it pulls it. You have to take a picture, old school, it's got a code and you have to take a picture of the code and then you have to type that code into the app to get your PhotoPass on rides, code into the app to get your photo pass on rides.
Speaker 1:So I feel like I don't technologically I feel like disneyland has some work to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also feel like the app wasn't as easy to use as disney world, so technology wise, I feel like they have to catch up to you. But other than that, like it was an amazing trip, I can't wait to go back next together, together next year, the three of us, yep yep, yeah, um, my, my travel agent, besties and I we were just talking about that yesterday, today.
Speaker 1:How it's crazy how disneyland and disney were all so different. It's drastic the way you plan it when you're there.
Speaker 2:It's wild that it just wouldn't be the same across the board yeah, it's, it's interesting, like, like you said, you, you have two different planning strategies when you're going to the different parts. So, uh, you really got to know those and that's why I'm like super thankful, saying like I've gone now, um, it's like I've experienced those strategies. Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 4:For sure For sure Fun stuff. All right, fun times Sounds good yeah, fun times.
Speaker 2:All right, so next week? What are we talking about? I don't know. You guys have been playing and stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, if we're going to go with what was supposed to be next week since we skipped a week it's going to be on the um. Where's my episode list? Isn't it the um theme park entertainment, fireworks and nighttime magic the best shows in the parks, yes you claimed, happily ever after, before I could even get to it.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, the one time that was the one time you can guarantee ever after pops up on my phone, I'm paying attention makes me feel like maybe he's listening or watching, but just doesn't respond.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I screen paying attention makes me feel like maybe he's listening or watching, but just doesn't respond. Sometimes I screen your text because it's like selective hearing because I was like you guys can rob paper scissors, because I know you both love it and he was like dibs.
Speaker 4:I can't remember what I was doing. Oh, I was mowing the yard and I checked it and I was like, oh, that's all right.
Speaker 1:I love my dad, my dad. I'm a little salty that Animal Kingdom doesn't have nighttime stuff.
Speaker 2:That would be the one that I would want to pick. Rivers of Light really was.
Speaker 1:That's okay. In honor of the 4th of July and fireworks, I thought it would be neat to just kind of go through and we could talk about the different nighttime shows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure That'll be a good episode. I'm looking forward to that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I promise not to cry when I talk about Happily Ever After. If you do, it's okay. You and Ashley can cry. That would just make fun of y'all.
Speaker 2:That's fair, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like maybe I'm like am I really a diehard fan because I don't cry at Happily Ever After and I don't have a collection of things Like I feel like you guys are like all in and I mean I have the ears behind me, but I don't really consider that a collection.
Speaker 2:But maybe it is, I don't know. I don't have seven more popcorn buckets over there.
Speaker 1:Right, You'll do the popcorn buckets. The lounge flies the Funko Pops, I don't know Tiki mugs.
Speaker 2:Think of it as saving money, Lori.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I'm like, you know. I'd rather just spend money on the trips and not buy the things.
Speaker 2:See, it's a problem when you do both.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, olivia has a collection. She gets a stuffed animal every time I go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but gets a stuffed animal every time we go.
Speaker 1:yeah, but I'm gonna go to universal and get her a shark. I know well. She saw my comment when I told you I wish it was still there so I could take I'm pointing at you, like you're sitting there, that I would take her on it and she commented like absolutely not. We're going to the beach thursday and they've been reports about sharks in pensacola beach and she's like I'm not gonna get in the water, like I don't know. I need to stop talking because I like it all right fun times anyway fun times.
Speaker 2:I'll close this out.
Speaker 1:It's time to call wrap it up next week.
Speaker 2:Ashley's closing out so she has to do her, her practice. Yep, there you go. Okay, cool, cool, well, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you guys tuning in every week. It is a blessing to get to do what we do every single week with you guys, so definitely make sure that you are.
Speaker 1:Did I? I muted myself.
Speaker 4:Lori, you haven't muted yourself this whole podcast.
Speaker 1:It's not muting. No, why didn't y'all say something?
Speaker 4:We just rolled with it.
Speaker 1:I am muting on there.
Speaker 2:I don't know why it's not muting.
Speaker 1:You know I am muting on there. I don't know why it's not muting.
Speaker 2:You know what? It's? Alright, y'all wait until the end, thanks anyway. Thanks for joining us. Definitely, you know we would love to reach more people. We'd love to get to meet other individuals who have passions like ours for Disney, universal and all things travel. So definitely share our stuff. Please like and follow us on all of our social media platforms. That way we can reach more people.
Speaker 2:Best way to find all of our social media is on our beacons channel, beaconsai forward slash, going beyond the castle. There you can find all of our social media channels as well as quick links to us into the podcast each and every week. We also do have a website if you're looking for a little bit more in-depth stuff for the podcast. Everything that we do is on that. It is going through some updates right now as we have added Ashley on, as we've got new logos. So definitely just ignore the things that you don't see and just look at the things that you do see.
Speaker 2:That is wwwgoingbeyondthecastlecom. And then, of course, we do have an email. If you want to reach out to us and connect with us, whether it be to talk about an episode or to talk about possibly booking a trip with Lori or myself, definitely reach out to us at info, at going beyond the castle dot com. With that being said, again, thanks for tuning in. Love getting to talk Disney with you guys and I'm super excited to cry while we talk about, happily ever after next week, absolutely Anything before we wrap it up. Lori, now you're muted. Now you're muted.
Speaker 4:Now you figured it out.
Speaker 1:Y'all must have muted me. No, we didn't. Well, that's weird, because I just realized that my microphone has not been connected. This whole time it's been my camera.
Speaker 2:That's what's up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so sweet Fun time. I told y'all I was having technical difficulties before we started. Don't say anything about me, I wasn't going to call you a boomer at all. Yeah, I wasn't. Actually, I'm not a boomer, I'm not that old. Anyway, have a great week. Bye.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for hanging out with us today on Going Beyond the Castle. We hope you had as much fun listening as we did sharing To stay up to date on all things Going Beyond the Castle. We hope you had as much fun listening as we did sharing. To stay up to date on all things Going Beyond the Castle, head over to our website, goingbeyondthecastlecom. There you'll find more info about your hosts, both audio and video versions of our episodes, our weekly blog and even some fan favorite merchandise. Want to follow along on social media? The easiest way to connect with us is through our Beacons channel beaconsai forward slash. Going beyond the casket, you'll find links to all our social platforms, travel updates and giveaways in one place. And hey, if you're dreaming about your next big adventure whether it's Disney, universal, a cruise or a tropical escape we'd love to help make it happen. Our travel planning services are completely free when you book through us. Until next time, keep dreaming big, keep exploring and, as always, go beyond the castle.
