Ever fantasized about wandering through the magical realms of Disney World? My wife, Colleen, and I are here to make that fantasy almost feel real. Join us for a lively recounting of our recent Disney adventure, where we journeyed through the Magic Kingdom and dined at the fabulous Steakhouse 71. Colleen vividly describes her first encounter with the enchanting world of Disney while we also reflect on how convenience in air travel has evolved family vacations from our parents' days.
Have you ever imagined a shopping paradise nestled in the world of Disney? Let us escort you through Disney Springs, where the allure of high-end stores meets the mesmerizing world of Disney. We savored delectable meals, indulged in dessert fantasies, and even visited the unmissable Lego store. Colleen and I also share our insider's perspective on the benefits of investing in a resort stay to elevate your Disney experience, using our own experiences at the Saratoga Springs and Polynesian resorts as examples.
Finally, we invite you to sit back and imagine the warm sand beach of the Polynesian resort under your feet, the mesmerizing fireworks show over the Seven Seas Lagoon painting the sky, and the joy of exploring different parks. Leaving nothing out, we share tips and tricks like knowing your departing airport in Orlando, and our personal recommendations for dining and activities. As we look back on our memorable stay at the Polynesian Villas and Bungalows, we welcome you, our listeners, to share your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Here's your chance to step into a magical world and experience Disney, just like we did!
Ever fantasized about wandering through the magical realms of Disney World? My wife, Colleen, and I are here to make that fantasy almost feel real. Join us for a lively recounting of our recent Disney adventure, where we journeyed through the Magic Kingdom and dined at the fabulous Steakhouse 71. Colleen vividly describes her first encounter with the enchanting world of Disney while we also reflect on how convenience in air travel has evolved family vacations from our parents' days.
Have you ever imagined a shopping paradise nestled in the world of Disney? Let us escort you through Disney Springs, where the allure of high-end stores meets the mesmerizing world of Disney. We savored delectable meals, indulged in dessert fantasies, and even visited the unmissable Lego store. Colleen and I also share our insider's perspective on the benefits of investing in a resort stay to elevate your Disney experience, using our own experiences at the Saratoga Springs and Polynesian resorts as examples.
Finally, we invite you to sit back and imagine the warm sand beach of the Polynesian resort under your feet, the mesmerizing fireworks show over the Seven Seas Lagoon painting the sky, and the joy of exploring different parks. Leaving nothing out, we share tips and tricks like knowing your departing airport in Orlando, and our personal recommendations for dining and activities. As we look back on our memorable stay at the Polynesian Villas and Bungalows, we welcome you, our listeners, to share your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Here's your chance to step into a magical world and experience Disney, just like we did!
Hello and welcome to another episode of this Won't Teach you Anything. We have a special surprise on this episode and that surprise is the fact that this will not be a two-part, four-zillion-hour marathon, and I'll be using a laugh track because I have it. Actually, the special surprise on this episode is having my wife, colleen, on for the first time since we've been doing the show. So Colleen say hello. So she's getting a little bit used to the equipment the mic, to see where all the money is going that's been spent, so she can actually get some use out of it.
Speaker 1:I brought Colleen on this week because we're going to do just a quick rundown We've initial thoughts on. We had just come back from a vacation down in Orlando to Disney World and so we just returned home here within the last few days and just a couple quick thoughts on the vacation itself. We won't get into too much depth because I'd like to have the rest of my family on to go ahead and talk to them and get their thoughts about the trip and what they enjoyed and what we would do different next time. So yeah, we'll have everyone else in a future episode to really dig into what we liked and, again, what we would do different.
Speaker 1:But, colleen, there's a lot of things that I talk about on this show that you enjoy some of the subjects, but not to the degree I think that I do to do an entire podcast around pop culture type stuff. So growing up, disney World was something that was part of my upbringing with my parents. I'd been to Disney World before I met you, six, six, seven times probably over the years back when it was just the Magic Kingdom was the only park down there and then up through Epcot and Hollywood Studios and then the Animal Kingdom, along with what used to be downtown Disney is now Disney Springs. But where I'm going with this is the appreciation I have for movies and things like that, and going over with my friends and repeating these movie lines that you always ask me how can you go ahead and remember that stuff? But not the stuff that matters.
Speaker 1:And that's been covered ad nauseam on here. I don't know, but I think one of the things that we can both agree on is the enjoyment that can be had down at Disney World. It's something for me which is a little bit counterintuitive to who I am, which I am not a huge fan of big crowds and things like that. I do enjoy going to concerts. For you, there's no way to get around that with crowds and whatnot, and there's really not a lot of ways to get around big crowds down at the happiest place on earth. No, so this time around growing up, when was the first time that you had been down to Disney World? Do you remember? Or when was your first trip down there? Might not even been when you were growing up, it could have been when you were already grown.
Speaker 2:I think the only time that I can remember, I would say I was probably 12, 13.
Speaker 1:Okay, Who'd you go down there with with your parents? Yeah.
Speaker 2:My parents.
Speaker 1:My sister. How long a stay was it? Did your parents go for the day?
Speaker 2:No, we stayed for a little bit. I cannot remember exactly how long, but I would say probably five, seven days, okay, and we drove down there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We did a lot of driving when I was growing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seemed like there was a lot more people drove down there. I think, sure, sure, or then then do now.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely, I would imagine it depends on your, your location to the area, right, yeah, with so many different flight options and whatnot, it just and people's schedules, I know that that I don't think living up here in Indiana, where we do, and then a 12 to 14 hour drive down there and then running into those parks and crowds and things like that is not something, at least right now, that I really want to do when I'm retired. And can you know, go ahead and take two or three days to get down there and, and you know, see some things along the way to where I don't have to be back to a job or anything like that. You know, and or you have kids and you know dogs, or you have, you know your kids can dog sit.
Speaker 1:You know you can. You can do that and it's not a major inconvenience to everybody.
Speaker 2:So I don't know how my parents did it, you know, because they had two kids and we drove our van down there and they went right back to work afterwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as we've talked about. It seems like you know earlier generations are just built different. It seems like so. The for me right now where I'm at. I need the plane to get down there. Right, you have that one. One day we left, um, uh, actually, uh, flew out of Chicago midway, yep, and we drove up the night before, stayed at a hotel near, near the airport. Got up the next morning. Our flight left, I think seven, yeah and yeah, so we had to be there.
Speaker 1:We were up probably at four in the morning and got over there to the airport, um, and caught the flight as soon as we got there, grabbed an Uber or a lift, I should say over to, uh, saratoga Springs, where we, we started, uh, the vacation was at the Saratoga Springs Resort, yep, uh stayed there for two days, but as soon as we got off the flight, we uh room wasn't ready. We just dropped off all the bags and my parents were already there waiting. We ran into them, um, and, honestly, the room was ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 1:It was that time it was. So we, we got the bags over there and then we headed over to um, took a uh a bus over to the magic kingdom uh, to the contemporary. And then I walked to the contemporary where we were having lunch at Steakhouse 71 contemporary resort. So that was a. That was a busy day. So we didn't have what would be considered what we call a park day that day. It was just it wasn't. We had no plans to go to any parks that day. It was just get there, Do lunch, get back, kind of relax, get situated. Yeah, so we did that. But I think we went to Disney Springs that night. Yeah, we did too. So I mean, we had a full day.
Speaker 1:And then the plan was the next five days were park days and the day before we came back was not a park day, it was just kind of a relaxed day and preparing to come back. But so we did two days at, at, at Saratoga, at the resorts, and then what I didn't explain is we are members of the Disney Vacation Club, which is essentially a timeshare Down there and at different resorts. They have options for this Disney Vacation Club that you can basically buy into it. So it's a deeded Real estate contract for a term of usually if you buy directly from Disney 50 years, mm-hmm, and it's a point-based system. So if any of you are familiar with Timeshares, it's similar in that sense. The difference is the resale market for these things. It's not something that that people really have a tough time unloading, I would imagine, as those contracts near the end of the 50 years, that'll change a little bit because it'll drive more people, I think, to go ahead and and spend. You know, maybe wait it out till then the next round of contracts after 50 years are ready to go. You know, I don't know if people are gonna be wanting to buy a three-year contract. Yeah, because that's usually Depending on how many points and where you're staying. You know your break even is a few years in, even if you go a couple times a year. But it's something we're planning on doing. Yeah, being down there and it's. You know, if you've never been to Disney World and you, you have an idea of what it is and that it's, you know, a kid's place. Well, it is essentially born of Idea for kids and families, mm-hmm. But there is so much more to do.
Speaker 1:We've got another trip coming up here shortly, within the next few months, that we're gonna go down and Not even go to the parks. Yeah, we'll be staying at Disney's Old Key West Resort, which again is another vacation club Resort, our home resort that we bought into again. You buy into a different resort and that that enables you to go ahead and Reserve rooms out 11 months at that particular resort. So, for instance, we bought into Disney's Polynesian villas and bungalows resort, which the Polynesian Hotel resort is one of the original three hotels down at Walt Disney World the Polynesian, the contemporary and the Grand Floridian are the original three. So if you've ever heard, if you haven't been down there and you've heard of the monorail, which is basically an elevated Train that runs on a single rail, runs between the Magic Kingdom and those three resorts and then over to what's called the ticket and transportation Center, which you can transfer there, get on another monorail over to Epcot. So two of the four parks are covered Just from those three resorts without having to get on a bus.
Speaker 1:Now, but it's nice, it's very nice. We got we got very spoiled the bus System. Every resort has that option. It takes you, miss a bus to a park, you. You basically go to these bus stops and there's buses that run that will take you to the Magic Kingdom, that will take you to Typhoon Lagoon, the water park, that will take you to Epcot, that will take you to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs. There is some logistics involved when you go down there. You know, and I can't suggest enough to, if you are planning a trip down to Walt Disney World, to go ahead and and and utilize some of these Vloggers on YouTube. Those have been a huge help In in some of the stuff and and I've got great resources in in my my parents and my brother, who know a lot of the ins and outs Of Disney World.
Speaker 1:My parents go down there two or three times a year, my brother's down there a couple times a year. We plan to be down there a couple times a year, but for somebody a bad idea would be to go ahead and just wing it down there. Do you just it? It can be overwhelming. I mean, oh yeah, we were.
Speaker 1:We had five park days and I bet we didn't see I Bet we saw you a quarter of the parks, if that, yeah, and we had a lot of. We're not early risers, so we got up later in the day, but we stayed out usually till the end of the day and if you don't plan it, you're going to burn time and you're going to waste time and down there, you know, it's a time is money situation, which is why when we go in the next couple of months we're not doing any parks, we are going to just take it a lot easier and do things like resort hop and, you know, go to some of the restaurants down on property, which will be fine for us, because I, you, always need a vacation from the go go go parks. I saw a lot of people with young kids, you know, and it was hot in September. Oh yeah, it was. I mean, every day was above 90.
Speaker 1:Yep and very humid, yeah, very humid. We'll get into the rainstorm once I have everybody here, but we'll kind of just cover the resort side of things on this episode. But again, reason I'm talking this is because you know, as far as pop culture goes and vacation destinations, I think the perfect mix of pop culture and vacation is Disney World and again, you know you may have preconceived notions of you've never been down there, but there really is something for everybody to do down there. I mean you could have a great time not even going to the parks.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, there's a lot to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, and there's a lot to do. It is very easy to spend money down there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It is perfectly constructed to take your money.
Speaker 2:And everybody take everybody's money, because there's something for everyone that interests everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you can go, for you know, I mean there's things, t-shirts and the stuffed animals and things like that that you would think would be down there. But you're also looking at designer handbags that are, you know, multiple hundreds of dollars for those, and then the Home, furnishings.
Speaker 2:You know all kinds of things for your home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that aren't the loud, yeah, the loud. Mickey Mouse colors and things like that. You know there's a lot of higher end and there's art galleries down there that you can buy high end art. There's collectibles and when I say collectibles not just a little statuettes or figurines, there are things like Walt Disney signed checks that are framed that you can drop 15 grand on for those type of things and really high end one of a kind artwork down at Disney Springs there's an entire shopping district and it's not all Disney. There's plenty of Disney stuff in there.
Speaker 2:But I mean, you've got high end stores and we went there two, maybe three times while we're down this time and I don't feel like I. You know, I saw maybe not even a quarter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think the world's biggest Disney store is down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did see that.
Speaker 1:Appropriately called World of Disney. Yeah, we spent a lot of time in there because I mean that's got so much stuff. Yeah, it doesn't make for good podcasting, but I am looking at a shirt that Colleen did buy down there with Grogu on it, so that is appropriate for the podcast. That shirt sweatshirt is just oozing current pop culture. So good on you. The yeah, I mean the dining at Disney Springs and the shopping options and dessert options and there's a huge Lego store down there. There's so many things down there that we didn't run a car. I never run a car when I go down there because I can get everything I want. Yeah, I get everywhere I want to get to by using the Disney transportation, by for staying on Disney property at one of the resorts.
Speaker 2:And now, with the, being able to get groceries through. Amazon through Walmart, you know.
Speaker 1:To have a delivery. They deliver it to you Mm-hmm. So yeah, we had a split stay again, as I mentioned earlier, which was a couple of days at Saratoga Springs, which is not our home resort, but it is a large resort and you can usually get rooms in there at what's called the seven month mark. The seven month mark is where you can go ahead, since we belong. Our home resort is a Polynesian. We have an 11 month window that we can reserve out. My parents have bought into Saratoga Springs and my brother owns at Disney's Riviera Resort, so I cannot, at 11 months. I can reserve the Polynesian, but no other resorts at 11 months. My parents can reserve Saratoga Springs at 11 months, but no other resorts at 11 months. My brother can reserve the Riviera at 11 months, but no other resorts at 11 months.
Speaker 2:Do your parents real quick. Do your parents only own at Saratoga? Yes, Yep.
Speaker 1:So at the seven month mark you can go ahead and reserve at other resorts. The only difference there would be if you are a non-direct purchaser of Disney Vacation Club points. You cannot at this time stay at the Riviera on those points unless you buy direct. But that's one out of a bunch. So if we wanted to stay at Saratoga Springs, we have to wait for that seven month period before we can do that. So basically, buying into a resort gives you four months of a head start on everybody else. It does not belong at that To give those people who did buy into that resort that extra time to reserve rooms, and so that's. We originally were just gonna go down five days and I had reserved the Polynesian for five days at the 11 month window. And then it came to where my parents were gonna be down there at the same time, my brother and his wife were gonna be down there at the same time and I decided to add a couple days. Well, wasn't able to get anything at the Polynesian inside after it hits that seven month mark. So I stayed over Goddard's rooms at Saratoga, which we've both stayed at before.
Speaker 1:Great resort, great locale, with being within walking distance to Disney Springs and you have some different options there. You can take a boat to Disney Springs, which, on the way back, one night we did take the boat back, which is really nice or the bus. No other access to any of the parks, no monorail or the new skyliner from Saratoga. The other thing that you would wanna plan for if you were going down there and hadn't been down there before, is the logistics of you know if you're staying on a Disney property. Yes, they have the buses, but one of the things that's I didn't appreciate. When I was younger, my parents, my mom in particular told me that she liked going to the different resorts, the different hotels and trying the different restaurants and just seeing the architecture of how the you know the theming of those other resorts.
Speaker 1:And when I was younger, I just wanted to do parks.
Speaker 2:I didn't wanna any of the tests? Yeah, you're really interested in that stuff.
Speaker 1:Right when you're younger. Now I am.
Speaker 1:Now I like seeing that stuff. But again, with logistically speaking, there is no way to take a bus from one resort to the other. You have to make a stop in between somewhere. So that can be. You know, if you wanted to go to lunch, say, at the Riviera, at this place that I'd been before on a previous trip called Bar Reva, which has some a really great bacon cheeseburger that I think I told you about, we didn't get there.
Speaker 1:But next time you would have to take a bus to the ticket and transportation center or a park and then from that point take it, take another bus or a skyliner or something to the Riviera. So there's always a stop that you have to do. So you know, just going over there isn't a 20, 30 minute deal. It can be 20 minutes to go to the one spot and then, if you don't catch the bus right, it can take you 30 to 40 minutes to get to your end destination at the Riviera. Now again, if you do your homework before you go, if we were gonna do that, we would go ahead and take it from the Polynesian. We can walk to the ticket and transportation center. I mean, we found that out about halfway through our stay of how close that really is, I mean it's literally, it's right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, an eighth of a mile maybe. I mean just take a quick four minute walk or something like that if that. And that's nice too. Yeah, and so at the Polynesian we can walk right over there and then we could catch a direct bus to one of the parks to be able to go to a resort after that. So that gives us a little edge location-wise to be able to resort hop. But that's something important to remember if you've got multiple people going and staying at different resorts, it's not just real, it's not just point A to point B. You will have a stop in between.
Speaker 2:You've got a plan or you won't get there on time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's real easy to go ahead and not have time to do everything, but the best advice I can give is just do your homework. Some of the channels that I like on YouTube are the DFB channel, disney Food Blog, which is not just food related I think at one time it was, but it just went into pretty much all things park related and they cover things at Disneyland and Disney World, but it's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it Again that's a DFB Disney Food Blog. It's really well put together, really informative. They've got a lot of stuff. They've got stuff out every few days, so that's really great, really well produced. Another one that I really enjoy is Paging Mr Moro and that one. It's basically a one man show on that one One man and then the evening's one dog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna say one man and his dog, yep, gracie the Dalmatian, but Nate Moro, who runs that that channel, is just seems like a really genuine friendly guy. It seems like what you see is what you get Very down to earth, yeah, and very. It just seems like somebody you'd like to hang out with on vacation. So, again, that's Paging Mr Moro. He doesn't just cover Disney stuff Primarily. I see mostly Disney stuff, but I've seen stuff at Universal Studios. I've seen he's got family in Pennsylvania and I've seen things at Hershey Park that he's done and he's really caught on with these.
Speaker 1:On my YouTube channel this won't teach you anything visually the shirts I've worn on there from a company called Roosevelt's I actually saw on Paging Mr Moro. He'd been wearing them for a while and eventually got sponsored by the company and so he's been brought out to conventions and whatnot and I saw just the other day it's got. They put together a Mr Moro collection of his favorite shirts. Oh, really, yeah, on Facebook I saw that. So, but that's another great one to watch and there are some. There are a lot of different ones.
Speaker 1:You know, I recommend my brother's podcast, rudy's Roundup, for Disney information and really in-depth stuff. That one is a Disney-centric podcast that he puts on and it is really informative much more informative than I am. I'm just kind of going off the top of my head with the resort stay and what we enjoyed down there on the resort side. And you know, one of the things that I really like about the Polynesian one is the just a feel in the plants. I know what were your thoughts on the Polynesian?
Speaker 2:I thought that it was very relaxing to come back after a long day at the parks. To come back, it's very quiet, the lighting is low, especially outside on the grounds. You know, like you said, they've got a lot of plants and foliage and stuff Tropical, yeah to look at. But as you're walking through the paths you know they're kind of they're low lit, which one of our daughters said she wasn't sure that she liked that because there wasn't a lot of light. But I like that because you come back from being at the parks with all the noise and all the lights.
Speaker 2:Sensory overload yeah it definitely can be sensory overload and you come back there and it's just very relaxing.
Speaker 1:And part of the lighting that's used around. There are the actual torches.
Speaker 2:Yes, that was the other thing.
Speaker 1:Open flame torches throughout there and then they do have some more conventional LED lighting in spots because, as we figured out the night before we left, when we were doing a walk around and videoing that, the torches seemed to go off around one in the morning. Yeah, we figured that out. Closing down the walking paths at the Polynesian. The other thing that's really great about the Polynesian it sits on Seven Seas Lagoon and you have a. It's a man-made lake Lake and so you can't go out into the water, and in Florida, going out into water like that's a bad idea, yeah, so it is roped off, but there is sand on what?
Speaker 1:would be the beach, that you can go out there and sit and look over the lagoon and you can go ahead and see you're right across from the Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 1:And you can see Cinderella's Castle, you can see Space Mountain, and we stayed out there and we watched Happily Ever After, which is the fireworks the current fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom from over there, sat on beach chairs Adirondack chairs Right there on the beach and watched the fireworks from there, which was you can't really see the projection mapping on the castle from there, right, but you're in. You walk right back to your room in three minutes. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, instead of the again, if you've never been out there and you are doing a fireworks show and you're watching it, it's a great experience. Until it's time to leave and thousands of other people are trying to pile on buses back to resorts and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Well, the other thing, too, is not just when you're leaving, but you have to plan for being able to find some place to sit or stand to watch. Yeah, and we just we walked right up on the beach there at the Polynesian.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there were two chairs and nobody was sitting there. We just plopped right down and watched the show.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it's not always that way. You have you know, when it's really busy, yeah, but I don't think you'd run out of beach.
Speaker 1:I mean, you could sit in the sand, right, I would think. But yeah, that's for me. That's one of my least favorite things is the end of the night and and yes we know, and getting on a bus standing back to your resort.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean, the buses only hold so many people and you know you might be waiting two buses and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So, again, you know, homework is paramount, without going too much into what we did in the parks because I, like I said, I'd like to go ahead and get the rest of the family on to go and discuss that part of it.
Speaker 1:There was an adventurous night we had over there at Epcot, but we'll talk about that when we do the full rundown of the vacation with everybody there was. On the way back, you know it's always at least I try and time things out to go ahead and to where it's not too early in the morning to leave, because none of us are morning people, nope. And so you know, trying to get full use of that 11 o'clock checkout and then give you some time maybe to eat lunch and then take off, which is what we did, for I think our flight was at four o'clock and getting over to the airport. One of the things that's really important for people who've never been down there to know is there are two airports in the Orlando area Orlando International Airport the airport code for that is MCO, and then Sanford Orlando, sanford Airport, and so you found that out.
Speaker 1:Well, I had known it, but I was typing in too fast and wasn't paying attention when we called the lift. So we get, we call for the lift, get loaded up and head out, and Colleen and I must have been sitting thinking the same thing. I was in front, she was in back. After a while I thought, man, this has taken a lot longer than I remember and I don't remember seeing this stuff. So I looked at my phone and I saw that I had chosen a ride for the Sanford Airport and had to ask the driver. I'm like, how do I stop this ride? I need to reroute over to Orlando. And our driver was great. Yep, he said no problem, you know, we'll go ahead and get it taken care of. And luckily we were only about 23 minutes from Orlando Airport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had gotten out of there early enough that we had some extra time to make up for that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was an adventure. I'm very glad that I decided to look down there, because we would have pulled up to that airport and then it would have been a little tighter getting out of Orlando, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I was in the back just kind of dozing and I just thought, man, this has taken a while, what's going on? And then you asked, you started asking him and I'm like, oh boy, yep yeah, yeah, it wasn't not one of my better moments. But yeah, like I said, I'm just glad that I didn't make that mistake.
Speaker 1:I bet you are. I was not glad that I made it, that's for sure. The anything else resort wise that you enjoyed. I know we had breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really good. The Tonga toast there was really good. What was the Tonga toast? That's like a really thick kind of French toast. I mean it's a big piece of bread, like cinnamon bread.
Speaker 1:It's like two big slices.
Speaker 2:And then in between they stuff it with bananas, and then you get a strawberry Compote, yeah, to pour over it. Yeah, and that's really good too. I mean, I could only eat maybe half of it, I think.
Speaker 1:But yeah that's very highly recommended. We did have a reservation for the restaurant there called Ohana, but we did cancel it because we were just we were gassed from doing so many different things and I think one day again, without getting into too much of the resort, the actual parks, we had reservations for the girls to build lightsabers, and right after that we went to August Cantina, which is in Galaxy's Edge, the Star Wars portion of the Hollywood Studios Park, and so we did lightsabers, walked around Galaxy's Edge and then went to August Cantina, which we had reservations for. After August Cantina, we headed back out of the park to head over to Epcot and then we went to the. To head over to Epcot, which we took the Skyliner. That made it easy. The Skyliner is a gondola transportation system and as long as there's not lightning and heavy rainstorms it's always running.
Speaker 1:And so we caught from the Hollywood Studios to Epcot, rode that, and that made that ride really, really easy, because those drop off at the backside of Epcot, so if you were taking buses you get dropped off at the front, which Epcot is a park that has a big spaceship Earth sphere. That would be the front of the park. Around the other side of Epcot is what's called the World Showcase, where they have all these different countries represented, and we were having lunch in Italy and the Italian pizza place, which is it's very hard to get into A brother pulled it off and the Skyliners drop off right at the back of Epcot in the World Showcase. So we didn't have a huge long walk to make it over there, but it was a busy day by that point. At that point it's 3.30 in the afternoon. Yeah, cause Epcot is huge.
Speaker 1:You can do a lot of walking at Epcot, yeah, and then it was a food and wine festival. Again, I'm getting into park stuff that we'll cover when we have everybody down to discuss.
Speaker 2:The other thing I wanted to say that I liked was resort wise was being able to go over to the contemporary to take the monorail again, which made it really easy. But to go over to the contemporary they had their quick service. They had a ton of different things to eat, and Polynesian is nice. They've got some different things on their menu, but I'm kind of picky.
Speaker 2:And so is Kira and Skyler to a certain extent, but they just had a lot of different stuff and it was easy to get over there. That was by taking the monorail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the monorails are running at what seemed like about every seven minutes one comes by. I could be a little off that, but it's very easy to do that, so it's gonna be hard to, Since we're not going to a lot of parks. It won't be bad at Old Key West because we'll be on a lot less of a schedule.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, exactly. But yeah, I think staying at the Polynesian is worth its weight in gold, strictly just because of the monorail, the other things that I like. Resort wise and again, there's something. It's just something. It's like there's something for everybody when it comes to those resorts. Saratoga is infinitely different than the Polynesian. Saratoga is modeled after the horse racing culture of Saratoga Springs, new York. Polynesian is exactly what it sounds like it's tropical. All the plants and the flora is all tropical. There's little waterfalls up in the lobby when you're coming in.
Speaker 1:Again, the torches when you come in, a lot of Maui, yeah, Maui the Tiki God when you enter the entrance, not the Dwayne Johnson version of Maui from Milana, but a Tiki God right there in the main lobby. If you Google the Polynesian, you'll see it right away. We also the next morning the second morning we were there. That'd be the first morning because we got in the afternoon. So the next morning we got up and went to Boma, which is at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is African themed and very, very well done as far as the lobby and things like that.
Speaker 1:I'll be putting up some of our footage that we took on this trip on the YouTube channel here in the next week or so, once I get everything edited. So some of the stuff I'm talking about here you'll be able to see when I go ahead and get that up on the YouTube channel. Again, this won't teach you anything visually and you'll be able to see some of these things that we're talking about, colleen, anything closing thoughts here on the trip as it relates to the resorts that you enjoyed.
Speaker 2:I did like the fact that they were able to change our room from the initial room that we had.
Speaker 1:That's right. We got into a room at the Polynesian that was a little further away than we wanted to be from the lobby area, which is called the Great Ceremonial House. It's where the shops are, where the Quick Service Restaurant and the Ohana and Kona are.
Speaker 2:Oh, and don't forget the Lanai.
Speaker 1:Pineapple Lanai, which is where you can get Dole Whip, Dole Whip, Pineapple Soft Serve Ice Cream. And, yeah, being able to get that every day is a plus if you choose to do so. Dole Whip Legendary Treat down at Disney World. So, yeah, that's having it right, there is a plus. But yeah, the cast members were able to go ahead and get Colleen taken care of. The building we were in was called Pago Pago and it's a little further away than we wanted to be. Again from the Great Ceremonial House Would be great if you were going to the Ticket Transportation Center. I think that's the closest building to that, but a little. I mean we're not talking half a mile, but just further than we wanted to be, and it sounds trivial that it's too far away from-.
Speaker 1:But it never hurts to ask.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing is is that once you're there, you start to understand how important it is to be kind of closer to the lobby and the Quick Service and you know the pools and things like that Not the pools so much, but the lobby and the Quick Service. You know the shops and things because you have a lot of walking when you're at the parks.
Speaker 1:A lot of walking and the Monterey Rail Station is at the Great Ceremonial House, so to get over there, to that you do need to. So she just called down and asked if there was, if we could get into a building called Tokulao, and they said, no problem, we'll have something for you tomorrow. And so they took care of that and I think that room was ready at like 8.30 in the morning and so that was really nice.
Speaker 2:That building was right there and so and it was on the third floor, which is what we wanted. It was close to the elevator and the ice machine and the vending machines. It was just all around. You know, nice yeah, when they got us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that's that was. I think it's recognized that when you know it's, let's not fool ourselves. It is not cheap to do a trip down there, and so you would expect that that the service would be part of what you're paying for, and in that instance it worked out very well. There was no back and forth or anything. It was yeah, we'll take care of you. Yeah, so that was, that was good. I think that's a good spot to end this one on talking about resorts and things that we enjoyed down there, and we'll go and get our thoughts together, have the kids get their thoughts together on on what they enjoyed, and finish that one up next time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. So thank you for taking some of your time out of your busy schedule to go ahead and discuss this. It was great having you on here after a couple of years of not having you on. You seem like a natural. You seem like it's something that that you've been wanting to do, and maybe even start your own show. Is that your attitude or is it more? I've got a lot of these buttons and I've been dying to use them.
Speaker 2:I'd say more. The first one Nice.
Speaker 1:So again, colleen, thanks for coming on and we will see you upstairs. Yeah, all right, thanks. So there you have it, the latest episode of this Won't Teach you Anything. Again, I want to thank my wife, colleen, for being so kind to come on and talk about her experiences down there at the Disney Resort Polynesian Villas and Bungalows. It really was a great time and I can't wait to talk about the rest of it.
Speaker 1:So again, as always, you can go ahead and reach the show via email at thiswon'tteach, at gmailcom, on Twitter or X, at thiswon'tteach, instagram, at this underscore won't underscore teach, underscore, you underscore anything. And on Facebook at this won't teach. Now, again, I did mention the YouTube channel I have. This won't teach you anything visually, got a couple of videos up there. Give it a like and a subscribe. If it's something that you think that you'll watch, I'd really appreciate it. And again, thank you for all your support on the podcast, and if there's any ideas you have, shoot them over to me. We can go ahead and see if it's something we can fit in or maybe even have a guest join us on the show. So again, thank you for your support. And this has been this Won't Teach you Anything.