DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris

DisLove E82 Celebrating Your Birthday and Wendy from J Dub Royal Designs

June 24, 2021 Vanessa Ferguson and Kris Johns with guest Wendy Season 3 Episode 82
DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris
DisLove E82 Celebrating Your Birthday and Wendy from J Dub Royal Designs
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode, Kris and Vanessa talk with Wendy from J Dub Royal Designs who makes custom sparkly tumblers.  Direct message her on Instagram to place an order for one of her cool designs. 

Earlier in the episode, they discuss some of the ways you can celebrate your birthday at Walt Disney World.  

Save with OrlandoVacation.com
Use the promo code "dislove" to save 5% off a room, condo or Mic Mansion at OrlandoVacation.com.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

For all the latest news about our episodes follow us on Instagram @dislovewithvanessaandkris.

Vanessa F  0:05  

Welcome to the DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris. I'm Vanessa Ferguson. Now Kris Johns, we would like to welcome you to show number 82. And for any listeners joining us for the first time, our show features things we love it Disney and in each episode, we have a guest who creates Disney magic for our listeners at home, or on their Disney vacations. from vacation planners to product producers, our guests can bring Disney Magic into your life. And as a reminder to our listeners, we appreciate if you can leave us a review on Apple podcasts or any other platform where you listen. We always like to give shout outs to the these reviewers and of course, that helps new listeners find us as well. And leaving those customer ratings is also a great help. Now, before we get started, Kris, did you have something to share with everyone

Kris Johns  0:50  
I did, I made a new friend. And that friend is Orlandovacation.com. And what they've done is, you know, since we're friends, they made an exclusive code just for you to get 5% off of lodging that you can use when you go to Central Florida to enjoy Disney SeaWorld spring training or any other awesome event going on in the Orlando area. And their coupon code is does love no other guests are doing this discount only our friends because we're good buds with Orlando vacation calm right. What I love about Orlando vacation calm is they have condos, pool houses and even MC mansions to choose from Yes. And so again, if you have a small family like us, you can go a little smaller. We have friends that have a large family and they have something for them. It's something for everybody. And so with that from a word keishon to a Walt Disney vacation with your family. The properties are flexible to meet your needs. You can book online at Orlando vacation calm or calling 800-641-4008. And Vanessa Aren't we going to be using Orlando vacation in near future

Vanessa F  1:56  
we are we are going down for the 50th anniversary of course in the fall and we will be staying in one of their houses for a couple of days. And I'm super excited.

Kris Johns  2:03  
So again, go see our friends Orlandovacation.com, use the code dislove to save  5%. Have fun at Disney. There you go.

Vanessa F  2:12  
And I'll make sure to put that in the show notes for everyone as well. Now on today's show, we are going to be joined by Wendy from J Dub Royal Designs she makes super cool custom sparkly tumblers. And we'll we'll be hearing all about those a little bit later in the show. But before we get to that, her designs are just fun. And they made me think of celebrations. And I think for most people a big celebration every year is their birthday. Sure is. So we did a episode way back I think the first year we looked at things to do as an adult for your birthday. And this is kind of just general things that you could do for anybody's birthday, whether they're old, young, kid adult, it doesn't matter. So we're going to talk about just some generic things that you can do for celebrating a birthday. We've done a lot of these for our birthdays, family members, birthdays, friends, birthdays, and hopefully these are just some ways that you could celebrate next time you're down celebrating your birthday or somebody who's close to you. Now, to start off, I think one of the most obvious things is you need to have some birthday gear. So whether it be getting like those I'm celebrating and then the birthday pins that you can get at Guest Services. If your group like if you have other people with you have them get pins that say I'm celebrating Vanessa's birthday or I'm celebrating Kris' birthday, the more people that kind of have it, the better off you are. You can also buy special pins but it's always worth getting those freebies at guest services have. There's Mickey birthday ears, some of the vendors that we've had on the show make really cool. Mickey birthday ears, get a birthday shirt. I've known people who've done the whole gamut. But I think at Disney that's one place that you can pretty much shout out that it's your birthday when you say that crystal Exactly. So make sure that you of course let people know that it's your birthday. Another thing that you want to make sure that you do is make sure that there's a note about it in your reservations. So whether it be your hotel reservation, or any dining reservation, in fact, when you make the dining you can make a note about that you're celebrating a birthday. But it never hurts to remind them when you check in at Guest Services or at a restaurant that you are celebrating a birthday. Now one thing I think you can't expect something but just know Disney's probably always going to do at bare minimum. There's some things that you will have kind of as a fun thing that a lot of times at restaurants you'll get like a cupcake or a special dessert. I we've had at some especially at the character dining settings we've gotten where they'll give you a birthday card, that sign By the characters. Sometimes we've not had this happen. But I've seen where people have had things put in their room, like a card in their room or sometimes even a balloon. There's never a guarantee that you're going to get something. But I think that's kind of the fun of it. You never know what sort of Disney Magic might appear. So taking that time to just remember to do that. And for your dining reservations, like I mentioned, sometimes you might get a cupcake or a special dessert. We were at Animal Kingdom one time and it was my aunt's birthday, and we ate at tusker house. Of course, this was pre pandemic, so there was character dining there at that point. And one of the cool things was that we kind of made our reservation at an off time, and the waitstaff there got all of the characters to come and do a big photo with like our entire group. Do you remember that? Kris? I should do yeah, so that was pretty cool. And that was just because it was her birthday. So instead of just getting Mickey and Donald and Goofy by themselves and Daisy, we were they brought them and we did a group shot with all of them. And that was kind of that Disney magic for her birthday. Now something that goes hand in hand with dining, his birthday cakes. And Kris Do you want to tell him about the birthday cake you got when we went to ohana?

Kris Johns  6:18  
Vanessa did something really nice. She's always really good about that. Me Not so much for Vanessa, but Vanessa always does. She got me an Olof birthday cake. Yes.

Vanessa F  6:27  
So the cool thing is if you are dining at any other restaurants you can order ahead of time. Like for instance, we were at ohana. So I had ordered to the Grand Floridian bakery depending on where you're at on property is going to determine what bakery you order from so because we were on the monorail loop, I ordered from Grand Floridian bakery. If you're over in the Epcot area sometimes they'll have you order from boardwalk bakery. And we'll talk about some of those also put in the show notes, Disney food blog and a couple other websites have some good tips about the different phone numbers you call depending on where you're staying, or where you're dining. And so I had to call a couple weeks in advance the Grand Floridian bakery and I let them know we want it. I wanted Olaf on it. And I even did I got a special flavor because I wanted a flavor from our vow renewal because this was the year after our vow renewal so I had sounds really strange, but it's almond cake with key lime filling and it's super, super good. We just came up with a concoction when we did our cake tasting for our vow renewal but we were able to order that then when I got to the restaurant Kris didn't know about the I don't think you never figured out that I had ordered the cake hadoo course. Yeah. So when we checked in at ohana, I discreetly let them know that I had ordered a cake and they were able to bring it out at the end of our meal. Now don't worry if you don't think ahead to to order a cake there you do have some options. One of the nice things is that any of the table service restaurants you they have kind of what's called a just a celebrate today cake they have chocolate and vanilla. And these are kind of like a round cake. You don't have to do any advance notice when you get to a table service restaurant, you just let them know that you want to get one of the celebrate celebration cakes, and they can bring that out to your table. There are only so many that each restaurant is going to have access to to it for a day. So there's a chance they might have ran out by the time you ask. But I've not really heard of anybody not get this. So the celebrate today those nice six inch cakes that you can get. So it's just going to be standard. I think they have a Mickey face on them. But it's still something that's nice. Another thing that you can do is that you can from Emirates patisserie at Disney Springs, you can pick up they have a really cool Mickey character cake that it's got the red and it's got his tail coming out and is the big yellow fee. And that's super cute. So you can pick that up there. That's something that they carry on a regular basis or you can pre order a specialty cake from them as well. And I don't know this is gonna go way back. This is one that might test your memory. Do you remember a special person who we had a birthday cake for at our dessert party? Oh, our friend Ben. Yeah,

my cousin Ben. It was his birthday The day after our wedding. So I ordered through Epcot bakery we had a birthday cake delivered to our dessert party for bed. So you there's always opportunity to be able to have a cake wherever you are in property and I would rate Disney cake is pretty great when you say that. Yeah. So birthday cake is definitely fun. No matter what the age most people like cake. And if you have allergies and different things, I know there are specialties things that you can order from Disney. So it's something to keep in mind. And like I said I will put the links about how to order cakes and the phone numbers you call because it is kind of a manual process. You do call and speak to somebody That way. Now another fun thing that you can do is that through Disney floral and gifts, you can have things delivered to your room. Now we were celebrating a milestone birthday for my mom. It's been a few years back, I think six years or so. And we were staying at old Key West and my dad and I went in in through Disney floral, we ordered some roses. And then they have balloons and chocolates and baskets and different things. We just ordered her roses. And then we ordered Mickey chocolate box. So it was shaped like Mickey wood, it was made out of chocolate. And then I had small chocolates inside. And we had that delivered to our room. So Disney can do all kinds of different things like that, in terms of having those special things delivered right in your room. So when you arrive, that birthday thing can be available, you can schedule what day you want it on your trip, so if you want it there on chicken, or if you want it there on the last day of your trip, whatever you want, or if the birthday itself falls during your trip, that's when you can have it delivered. Now there are quite a few of really great outside vendors, we haven't had any on our show. But we've there are some great outside vendors that will do in room celebrations for you, which means they'll come and deck out your room and decorations for whatever theme character etc, that you'd like. I know one I haven't used her for an interim celebration, but I've used her personal shopping service is Amy with pixie dust delivery service. And I'll put her link in the show notes. I know there's others. So if you have any other vendors that you've used for interim celebrations, give them a shout out in our in our posts on Instagram or Facebook, we'd love to hear from you. But the nice thing is that they can bring in things from outside vendors where it was that might not be as costly as Disney floral, and you'll be able to get more bang for your buck get much more things in terms of having your celebration in your room. So I've seen some really cool things that people have done. And then last but not least, well, there's always more that you could do at Disney. But something else that you can do is through Disney meetings and events. You can create like your own party, you can almost like how we did for our wedding and our vow renewal. You can plan a party through Disney so you can have something at a restaurant. Or you could have something like you could have a private dessert party for a group. We've been kind of brainstorming and figuring out wanting to do something. Next year we're taking our daughter and for what birthday is it for our daughter. Yeah,

so for her fifth birthday, we're trying to plan out something special. They are limited staff right now I'm hoping that Disney will be bringing back more of the Disney events staff because it has been hard to get ahold of people right now. But they are really great about planning these special events for you. And they can work within your price range for something. And of course the list is endless of what other things you could do. You could do a party at splitsville the bowling at Disney Springs, or you could have something fun at Fantasia gardens, miniature golf. We talked about fort wilderness last time, maybe have everybody come together and you go on hay ride. I mean, there's all kinds of things we've done birthday celebrations for the family members where they've rented the boats for the firework shows for illuminations and for like the Magic Kingdom shows. So there's always something that you can think of and come up with. These are kind of some of those things that aren't going to be super costly. When you look at the cakes and the inroom things you can work within your budget. And of course, it's always nice to be to add in other things throughout your trip, whether it be character dining, make sure that you make plans for a special tour or something that fits into whatever the birthday person's joys and their interests are. And I think one thing that is important to remember is that Disney realizes that we can't always be there exactly on our birthday. So as long as as long as you're within a few weeks of your birthday, it's okay to say that you're celebrating your birthday. I know I've been there one time, and I left like on my birthday so we celebrated the day after we happen to be actually in Disney on Kris' birthday when we did his K. But Disney recognizes if you're celebrating your birthday, it might not be the exact birth date but be reasonable and make sure it's within an adequate amount of time that you're celebrating. don't celebrate your birthday six months out. I don't think Disney would appreciate that. But if you are within a reasonable timeframe where those buttons were the shirts were the ears. Get those birthday. Congratulations and it really will be I would say Disney is one of the best places to spend your birthday. Yes. So we are looking forward to getting our call up with Wendy so you can hear all about what she does and her business. We would like to welcome Wendy To the show her shop J Dub Royal Designs specializes and really cool tumblers. The thing I love about them is they're extra sparkly. And we are really excited to have Wendy on the show with us today. Hi, thank you for having me. Now Wendy lives close to the parks, at least into the Disneyland Park. So hopefully this first question should be easier for her. As everyone knows, we like to ask our icebreaker to learn a little bit more about what people like at the parks. So what we'd like to know is what is your favorite food at any of the Disney Parks? Well, I always have to go to the churro cart. Oh, yeah. Are there I know sometimes they have specialty churros. Is there any that you that you've had that stand out? Honestly, no. I always go with the classic. Nice. Kris The last time we were in Florida, he got a chance at Sleepy Hollow at Magic Kingdom. They did a churro Ice Cream Sandwich. So the churros were like they had like twisted like a cookie. And then they made the ice cream sandwich and he loves ice cookie ice cream sandwiches anyways, but the churro one was something he got to try on our last trip. And Kris churros, of course, are her favorite. But what do you think about that churro ice cream sandwich?

Kris Johns  16:23  
It was a close second to you know, again, there's this mythical Ice Cream Sandwich that I had one time that I think it was just in my memory, but the churro is really good.

Vanessa F  16:31  
Yeah. So you would definitely have good company with Kris for that. Yes, definitely. Now, the main reason that we have you here of course, is to tell us all about your business and what products you offer connected to Disney.

Wendy  16:48  
Why mainly a tumbler designer. I am obsessed with Disney. So primarily the designs that I that I do, like if you were to walk into my office, he think it's a kid's room because it's full of Disney. Sure. I mainly try to focus on on Disney designs and make them stand out a little bit differently. I have my own little spin on it.

Vanessa F  17:16  
Nice. Now, I know that you have a lot of like, I love some of your Haunted Mansion designs and different things like that. So what kind of inspires those designs? Is that one of rides and characters you like? Or do you do like custom designs? How does that work?

Wendy  17:33  
Well, Haunted Mansion definitely is one of my favorite attractions. That is why I did that. I've also gotten random requests. So that inspires me to create things and sometimes I have Disney movie marathons and be like, Okay, I need I need to make that I need to bring that to life. For sure.

Kris Johns  17:53  
You know, with it, you know, when what was the inspiration behind you starting the business?

Wendy  17:59  
It was actually a couple of things. So my sister in law actually started her own business a couple months ago and her and my father in law, were discussing it at a family get together. Okay. And that just motivated me like okay, Wendy, come on. Let's do this. You have to do something. And Jane, from Jane, Change Your Fate Creations. Yeah, he was the one that inspired me. I saw what she was doing. And I was like, I need to put my own spin on this. I've worked with epoxy before. I used to make like magnets and little trinkets, but it never took off. So I saw the tumblers and I fell in love with the process of making it. So I started my Instagram account. And that's mainly where I promote everything is is via Instagram.

Vanessa F  18:51  
Awesome. And we as you mentioned, Jane from James earful creation, she's been a past guest and we'll make sure to put the link to her show in here too. It's always neat when we can have we over the years we've started to have guests who refer other guests. So that's always exciting to hear that you're connected to somebody else that's been on the show.

Wendy  19:10  
Yes, I love her. She's the sweetest I bought so many of her tumblers and it's just we actually met her through pop meats that I have a little store that I work on the weekend. Okay. So we just had one this weekend. We were both there. So it was exciting for everyone to see.

Vanessa F  19:27  
Nice. Nice. Now tell us a little bit more about how do you think your products can add Disney magic to your customer and our listeners lives?

Wendy  19:38  
Definitely, it's the customization. People will message me on Instagram or at the pop means they were like I want this but can you make it this way? I want my name on it. So that's the awesome thing about doing this as I get to bring their visions to life on a tumbler Sure,

Vanessa F  19:59  
no What are some of your favorite designs that you've done?

Wendy  20:03  
Oh, right my my hot Pocahontas. Yeah, that one is my favorite. The Beauty and the Beast stained glass rose that I made was definitely when I'm not beating the beast fan. But I love how that tumbler turned out. Sure. And I made a Maleficent one with like the planes in the back. She's my favorite villain. So

Vanessa F  20:24  
I had to query. Very cool. Now how does that process work? Like, because you mentioned about working with your customers. If I'm interested in getting a tumbler and I have an idea, how do I go about that process?

Wendy  20:39  
Right now my only outlet is Instagram. I don't have a Etsy or anything like that. So definitely, Instagram is the way to go. I did create an email. I haven't linked it to anything yet though. So Instagram is definitely the easiest for me.

Vanessa F  20:56  
So if I was wanting a Tumblr, how long what's the turnaround time? Like if I contact you, let's say wanted to get something as a gift. How early Should I reach out to you?

Wendy  21:06  
About a week to two weeks in advance? Depending on what you want on it. My tumblers do take a little longer just because I'd like to add the extra razzle dazzle shirt.

Vanessa F  21:19  
Now what is the care on your so if I had a tumbler of yours? What is there any special care instructions? Is it handwash? Like how does that how do I need to take care of it?

Wendy  21:29  
Yeah, I include a care card with every single tumbler, definitely no dishwasher handwash. No dropping it. And definitely keeping it away from excessive heat, which was impossible right

Vanessa F  21:44  
now. And so cuz it's so hot, for sure. And one of the things that I think is so that I love about a lot of your designs is you have a lot of like sparkle and different things. What are some of the different like customizations that you offer? So I can pick a character? I think you mentioned names, are there other things that you can customize?

Wendy  22:05  
Yeah, I will. One of the things too is I do like a beachy look. Okay kind of thing with. And then you can do like spray paint, kind of look. alcohol inks, the stained glass, like it doesn't necessarily have to be glitter is my main forte. Sure for sure.

Kris Johns  22:30  
And, you know, you've mentioned people can find you on Instagram, can you let our listeners know what your Instagram handle is?

Wendy  22:36  
Yes, it's j underscore, Dub underscore royal designs into just for the folks listening to that dub is d u. b?

Vanessa F  22:45  
Yes. And I will make sure to put that in the show notes. So that way everybody can find you and see all of your cool designs. Because I think that's one of the things that's really neat about your products. I like that is that custom customization because Kris always talks about, like, so many things, everybody has the same thing. And that's really what's unique. Oh, for sure. And

Kris Johns  23:07  
I think the other nice thing is like now that we're in the summertime, you know, at least for us up here in the upper Midwest, you know, our summertime is so short, you need to get one for the house, one for the boat, one for the beach. And so we want you know, please go to you know, again, J Dub Royal Designs, and find something really speaks to you. Because for a lot of our folks, you know, we're still working from home. And so it's kind of that one little way of being at Disney every time you take a sip,

Vanessa F  23:29  
for sure. Well, thank you so much, Wendy, for joining us today. We really appreciate your time. Now, thank you again, so much for reaching out and having me on. And thank you, Jane.

Kris Johns  23:43  
Thank you again to Wendy for joining us today. Don't forget to direct message her to have your custom Tumblr created.

Vanessa F  23:50  
And I will make sure to put the link to her Instagram profile in the show notes so you can get right to her. And now we are on to our two minute trivia and our wisdom from Walt quote. And, Kris, before we get to the trivia for that you've prepared, I have a couple of things. I want to ask you about birthdays and Disney. Okay. Hopefully this isn't any of your questions. Sure. We happen to be going for it. What milestone birthday is Walt Disney World celebrating this year? 50. Yeah, I figured that was the easy one easy. Now. Here's, do you know what date that is? It's I think probably the first week of October. October 1. Exactly. Correct. Cooper. Okay, this one is harder. We have been there on Mickey Mouse's birthday before. Yes. When is Mickey's birthday? Do you want to hint? Yes. It was when we were doing a planning session for our vow renewal. So it was in the late fall. October 15. November 18. Yeah, so anyways, now it's on to you. I just I saw those when I was doing some of the stuff and thought it was worth asking. So we're going to be going on it 15th Yes.

Kris Johns  25:01  
The last big celebration was on the 25th. Right? At least according to the internet. Yes that what was interesting is that Cinderella's castle was dressed as a birthday cake. Yes, people complain about that a lot. I said really the first time I've ever seen this, but I'm going to ask you some numbers. And I want you to say either say it's above or below so Okay, number and sounds fair. More than 300 gallons of pink paint was used to decorate more or less than 300 gallons, I would say more correct? 400 gallons, okay. More or less than 25 candles ranging in height from 20 to 40 feet high. Can I say exact? Because it seems like 25 would be how many they put if it was a 25? More or less than 25?

Vanessa F  25:53  
I want to say 25. Even there's not according to the internet 26. I wonder why they did an extra one.

Kris Johns  26:00  
Yes. More or less than 2000 feet of pink and blue inflatable icing. I'm going to say more 1000 foot out in width that they had 16 two foot long candy stars. There was 12 five foot gumdrops. I'm looking at you know what's in those kind of dinner my questions. But imagine being creating all this and having it only be up for a very finite time knowing that it will never essentially go in the storage.

Vanessa F  26:38  
And I know you're not as familiar but for somebody I didn't see it in person. But most of the Disney community who did a lot of people really hated it. It does look very ugly. Yeah, I had a friend we were in high school and their family went for the first time during that and they just couldn't imagine why the castle looked like that.

Kris Johns  26:58  
But it's just interesting that they would you know you do because I mean a lot. There's a lot of things, you know, even that there's Disney animated movies. Yeah. Where like, you'll see like the different movies characters, we were the same animation like the same. Like there's a thing in Jungle Book where they do all that another where they there's a good amount of recycling. But in this case, it was done. Nobody wanted it back and went into question like when would they have brought it back?

Vanessa F  27:24  
That's true. That's true. I think what they've done for the 50th is much more classy, and just it's better. I haven't saw it all in person. They were working on the castle when we were there last March. But it seems to be better than what they did for the 25th. So yeah, this again, interesting and gold look up the 25th anniversary of Cinderella's castle. Wall does a very great. So we always like to end with our quote from Walt and this is talking about movie theaters and the films but it just reminded me of how they create so many neat things for the different celebrations as we look towards the 50th or as you're planning your birthday celebration and at Disney. Our field of entertainment still has many new exciting and wonderful things to bring to the restless public wanting variety and novelty in the movie theater. So we could insert variety and novelty in the theme parks there. But thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Dislove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris. I'm Vanessa and I'm Kris.

Kris Johns  28:39  
This podcast is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or its holdings and it is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai