Exit Interview with the Husbands after our Family WDW Trip: Episode 186

This week we are interviewing the husbands for their thoughts on our recent multi-generational, marathon family Walt Disney World trip. Things get real.

Want help planning your own adventure? Danielle would love to help! Reach out to her today an daniellegriggs@fantasticalvacations.com to get started!

Mickey with Minis podcast outro music

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Well, hello there. Hey, how are you? I'm good to have you. Nick says we survived. Did we though? Are we just we did now? I'm not sure. I wish we were doing this um like from a table at Geyser Point on the water with a Huckleberry punch in my hand. That would be so much nicer than this currently. A Sunday night. A Sunday night. It's eight o'clock. Only one child has been showered. We just finished dinner. We have cleaners coming tomorrow. We have not finished prepping for that. Oh, the worst. I'm supposed to be at the gym in nine hours. Um my gosh. So, you know, it's it's good. Everything is good. It's fine. I don't regret coming home at all. No. I also got wicked sick. We all got wicked sick after we got back. You got sick, I got sick. Mom and Mary got sick. Yeah. It was a bit of a wrestling. It was.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

It was our constitutions.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Um is it related to me recording the podcast? No. You can have more if you'd like. Does it have pasta on it? No. It does not have any pasta on it. It's just pasta with vegetables. You don't have to eat it. Yeah, I'm vegetables. You know what I miss? Not cooking for people who don't want to eat anything I make. Um I know. Yeah. All right, children. You can vacate the premises currently. She's back. She came right back. It's like I said, you can vacate and then she came right back. Oh my god. Oh my god, my god. Children everywhere. Well, we have the town in my head. Okay. We have the husbands here today to do a little debrief of the trip. An exit interview, if you will. An exit interview, yes.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

An airing of the grievances.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Nick says it's an airing of the grievances, and I'm gonna maybe you can air some grievances here. We like to bring the positivity when we can, but we also keep it real. Honey, we're doing it. Don't worry, you're staying home next time. I know we are staying home next time in like 32 days. Oh my goodness. No, you had two apples already. You can go in the living room. Glory, I just don't want to talk to any more children about food. I just don't. I'm sorry. A banana is fine as long as the peel lands in the trash and I don't have to talk to you about it. Okay. Just like you always do, is why there's rotting banana peels under the couch all the time. Head on out of here, please. Oh my goodness. They have been relentless today. Okay. All right. It's the extant interview. I had some questions, and then maybe we can do some general reflections. Yes. And if there are grievances to be aired, they can be aired. We're open to feedback here. We're open to constructive criticism for next time. Yes. Um, just keep in mind that any criticism you give may result in you being responsible for that portion of the next trip. Yes. Best of luck. All right. Let's start off happy. What was you guys' favorite memory from this trip? Favorite memory made on this trip.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Oh my god. Uh I really enjoyed apparently the Magic Kingdom Day when the girls went and got Bibbidi Bobby Boutique.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:11

Um my kids on Rise of the Resistance.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:17

They hadn't done it before, and they were all very excited. They were very impressed.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Oh, it was very good. Oh, that's what about you, Haley? Um oh gosh. One of my favorites was watching the fireworks, honestly. I cried like a baby, and the our baby was wearing his hilarious infant noise-canceling headphones, which were like completely ridiculously hilarious looking on him. Um, and that was just lovely. I that that was definitely one of my favorites. And overall, my favorite was just sitting outside at Boulder Ridge, just like hanging out. That was really mine, letting the kids bomb around, having a little dance party, and while we just sat and chatted and had some beverages. That was like the most relaxing thing. That was also my like favorite memory of the trip, too. I think was just like the impromptu outside geyser point. Like, we're just chilling. The kids are all like bonding, slash fighting, slash dancing, playing school, being ridiculous, and like they had room to roam around, and I feel like that was really good quality cousin time. Yeah, they were playing school, and it was really fun to see Audrey get involved because like she's older, so sometimes she doesn't want to play with the little kids, but she was totally into like playing school with them, and that was really cute. She was very much into bossing them around a whole bunch.

unknown 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Um, yeah, no, that was really cute. And yeah, I feel like that was also, I I would imagine I'm not gonna ask them because they have said so many words at me today that I don't want to ask them anything at this point. But I think if you asked my younger girls, that would be one of especially Gloria. Gloria, like Gloria was like, Are we going back to that place tonight? Yeah, oh she wanted to make sure we were all gonna go have a Geyser Point hangout, which I thought was really cute. Yeah, there was a building right next to Geyser Point. I think it is it Humphreys Hideaway or something like that, but it has like a big spotlight on the back of it. And the girls basically decided this was their personal dance floor space, and just like went to town forever, just dancing like absolute lunatics under the spotlight for like an hour. Yeah, it was yeah, really, really cute. It's sort of like the night they were still in their princess dresses, sometimes they were in DJs, sometimes they were fully made up, it was sometimes a combo. Just like very, very cute, hilarious. Um, all right. Try not to like unleash it all too hard at once, but your least favorite trip experience. John's laughing. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

SPEAKER_06 8:05

I think my least favorite and I mean it's actually not an indictment on anybody, but it was the day that we met up with your mom, Mary, and Donna at Epcot. And like there were just too many people to manage an efficient trip, and um we just ended up like waiting for any number. I mean, like, people were waiting for me at points, like it just was just waiting around. Like, we barely did anything. We were there all day, and we barely did anything.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

We hadn't found our groove yet as like a large group. We were still like flailing about trying like one person to go to the bathroom, and 10 minutes later, four other people had to go to the bathroom, and like we couldn't find a seat big enough for us, and like it was just it was a little chaotic. We didn't have our moved down yet. It was also our first park day with mom, Donna, and Mary. And I think we had gotten used to like we had figured out Dan, right? Like we just figured Dan out. This was like a pivot, it was a new day with a new group, and like that, you know, there's a learning curve there. Well, yeah, that explained your rhythm.

SPEAKER_06 9:18

Yeah, and we had that same group back at Magic Kingdom, and it was fine, like it we had figured it out by then.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 9:26

Um, but yeah, that Epcot day was just it was a it was just kind of a bummer. It was like the vibe wasn't there, and like we just weren't.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Which I think it's really funny. We had the exact same experience on the last family trip. Do you remember that? 2022 at Epcot, yes. 2022 at Epcot. It was a the first Epcot Day was a total dud, and it was partly the crowds. The crowds that day were very intense. Um, it was partly hurricane desperation, but it was also like we just couldn't figure out how to work together as a large group. Yeah, we were trying, I remember we were trying to do rider swap on Soren, and it took like three and a half hours, three and a half hours for some reason. Like just because there's only one elevator, yeah. Yes, it was crazy. Yeah, but then our second one o'clock day that trip was like miraculous and amazing. Yes, we killed out, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:14

And you know, speaking of that day, you had mentioned Soren. We did Soren that day. That was one of the few rides that we got on. Yes, and I like I was totally bummed out on that one too, because we were sitting all the way on the like we were in the last row, so we were the lowest one, like that gets lifted up for it. Oh, yeah, and like I never knew this because I had always ever been kind of like on the front end of the ride that gets lifted up higher, but like all I could see was like feet and legs in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Including bare feet, which he was horrified by which I thought was oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

Well that's honestly Soren is one of those guys like uh uh like a park nerd.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Sorin, where you are seated, makes a huge difference in the ride experience.

SPEAKER_06 11:02

Um not even a huge nerd about it, but like I when I was sitting there, I was kind of like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Nick, what was your next least favorite moment?

SPEAKER_05 11:16

Hands down, the Skyliner.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

The Skyliner, yeah. Nick did not enjoy the Skyliner at all.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

Okay, just I know, I'm sorry. Not as curious was giving unhelpful facts about how fast we would fall to the ground if the Skyliner were to collapse.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Terminal velocity.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

Yeah, terminal velocity. Oh, Dan.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

To be fair, I don't think that those things would have reached terminal velocity by the time they hit the ground. I think it'd be a lot more painful and terrible.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Danielle, what about you? Um yeah, the Epcot Day was a tricky one. Um I don't know. I don't have like a super least favorite.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

I uh I'm trying to think.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

I guess that that was definitely the biggest pain point. Yeah, for sure. How about you? Um, it wasn't even like bad. I just felt kind of really anxious on our first night at Animal Kingdom, um, just because it was our first time at the pool that afternoon. So nobody really wanted to leave, but we had a big list of like must-d's at Animal Kingdom. And I I think we planned to be there that night. We had not planned to be back. We almost didn't even go to Animal Kingdom. That is so funny about this trip. Yeah, we didn't think we were going back. And so I like as one of the two main main planners, I felt like pressure, like, okay, guys, we can stay at the pool, but like then some things are gonna get done tonight at Animal Kingdom and we're not going back.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

So I felt kind of under the gun the whole night at Animal Kingdom, like, okay, now we need to run to this and now we need to run to that.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

And it ended up not mattering because we we did end up going back to Animal Kingdom very unexpectedly and had like a really lovely day. But that one night I was like, oh boy, I'm feeling the pressure here. Stressed out. Yeah, I was stressed out that night. I don't know. And this is like a larger takeaway, I guess, is I and I don't know, I kind of don't know how we would fix this, Haley, if it were you and I planning a similar trip for this group another time. Like we had a big first day planned because of rock and roller coaster closing. Did not think we almost didn't plan to go to Animal Kingdom at all. And then the husbands were like, and then we were like, all right, we'll give a half a day. And then we had like the husbands episode, and both John and Nick were like really psyched for Animal Kingdom, and we were like, phew, good thing we plan to do that this time, right? And then the kids were all like, we want to stay in Animal Kingdom forever. Like it was so unexpected.

SPEAKER_06 14:01

Yeah, I think I think part of it is the kids got really like blown, like when we went over to um uh uh flight of passage and we entered like the avatar world. Like I've never been there at night, and it's super cool because everything's all like bioluminescent, yeah, yeah. And like the kids, especially, especially the older kids, like Ella and Audrey were they like they wanted to go back there. Like Ella especially was like, This is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:29

And I don't think that we considered that when we were talking, when we were thinking about the schedule, or you guys were yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Some things you don't it was our failure, Annie. This is our failure. No, just sometimes you don't know until you get there what they're gonna end up loving, and then you have to kind of try to work around it and make sure everyone can do all the things they want to do. That's enough of that, yeah. Totally, but overall I would say not many like least favorite moments. I had it a really good time overall, yeah. Um, how about everybody's best new thing we did? Something that was new to you, it doesn't have to be new to everyone, but new to you.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

There's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

I'll go first. Mine by far was beacon barrel.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I loved that so much. Like the bar was awesome, the drinks were great, the server was great, the kids were all in like real, really pretty good moods that morning. It was just super, super fun.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah, the thing was, yeah. I I have a I mean, I have a bunch, honestly. I mean, beacon barrel blew me away. Usually it's kind of like ogas. Like, I there was so much hype about ogs, and it was so hard to get. And there was a 45-minute limit, and you can only get two drinks, and like kind of like they're doing a beacon barrel right now. And then I went the first time and I loved it, and I still love it, but it's like you know, now you can kind of get a walk-up, like it kind of wore off kind of quick, you know what I mean? And this I was like, is it being overhyped? Like, there's not much on the menu, like what's even going on in here? No, I thought this like actually is underhyped for what it is. Yes, I thought it was great, and it's pretty rare. I haven't been to Trader Sam, so I don't know how the drinks are there. But like at Oga's, the only drink that's getting me a decent buzz is that jut juice. Everything else there is sugar water, you know what I mean? It's just it's not it's just not the kind of stuff we typically would drink. So uh for better or for worse, I guess. But um, I so I don't know how true your Sam's is, but like I got two really decent pours, like good drinks, well balanced, not sugary, like kind of boost forward, but like balanced, good cocktails there. And the food was great.

SPEAKER_06 16:58

The food was really good. I I was kind of surprised. I was just starving, so I wanted to get stuff off the menu, but like yeah, it ended up being like really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Um, I would be psyched to sit. Hopefully, maybe after the race, we get a more bar set. We had Haley and I, spoiler alert, Haley and I we are going back in like a month, and we have we're running the uh 10 miler as part of springtime surprise. And Haley got us beacon barrel for after the race. So I am kind of hopeful that we would be closer to the bar to see more of what goes on with like the parrot and all of that. Yeah. And also for anyone who's planning, um, I still had dining alerts set up on my phone from when we were like doing our initial planning. I had just never canceled them. Every single day I had beacon barrel set up for an alert. I got a flood of messages the day before and the day of. So I think people are still really reporting these reservations. So if you were trying to get a reservation and weren't able to, don't give up like while you're there. Try the day before and even the day of, and probably something will open up. Something will pop up. Yeah, for sure. Same one for say uh space 220. Yeah, it's same thing, yeah. Yeah, um, your favorite news thing we did.

SPEAKER_06 18:19

Space 220, the one that had like like you were in space.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:23

Okay. I was kind of let down by that place.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

I know, it's it's kind of like meh.

SPEAKER_06 18:27

I thought when we went to that place, I thought I thought it was 20 25 years old.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

No.

SPEAKER_06 18:35

You know, and then it turned out it's like relatively new, and I was kind of like, ooh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:40

Swinging a mess, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

It's something, you know? It's it's yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:46

Yeah. It was it was.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

But now you sit in the main part of the restaurant, it's still a fixed price menu, and it is bonkers expensive, and it's not on the dining plan because it's third-party operating operated. So anyway. Um, what about you, Nick? What was your favorite new thing?

SPEAKER_05 19:05

Social choice, but Tiana's uh ride. Oh I would say. I really like that. Yeah, I like the theming. We even watched Piana's uh Princess and the Frog last night.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Oh, cute. What's such a good movie?

SPEAKER_05 19:19

Yeah, I like um Mama Odie.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Mama Odie is so good.

SPEAKER_05 19:24

I was singing the song for like hours after we won't went on the ride.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Dig a little deeper, find out who each are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:34

Was that oh wait, wasn't that the last mountain? Yeah. Well, Nick, did you go on that one?

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:38

Oh, that's funny. I didn't realize you did. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Didn't you go on that one?

SPEAKER_06 19:41

I did.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Was Nick? Yes.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

I went on it twice. I took your kids on it after the city.

SPEAKER_06 19:46

Because he then took our end of the trip, uh, where my brain was starting to get very, very smooth. Absolutely melt.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Well, we tried to go on it. We tried to go on it the first day in Magic Kingdom, but it was down the whole time we were there.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:00

Every time we tried to go on it, it was down.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

And then when we did ride it, John was very preoccupied with Gloria, who was um very, very nervous when we first got on.

SPEAKER_05 20:10

And then also uh what was I gonna say now?

SPEAKER_02 20:14

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

I don't know, yeah. Um can I give it last mountain? But uh I haven't been on it since the new theming, which I thought was great.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

I'll try.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Yeah, other people have questions about the new theming.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

I liked it, I just didn't love it, but I liked it.

SPEAKER_06 20:34

I was surprised, like, it's not really an action ride. The only thing about it is the the drop at the end, like right, the rest of it is you're just going through.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

But I thought this should have done it. I just was tapped out. Sometimes I run out of bravery, I use it up on other things. That's okay. I want to give an honorable mention for favorite new thing to well, number one, Geo82 was fast. That was a new thing for everybody. That was really great. I loved the drinks I got.

SPEAKER_06 21:04

It was that place we went, Nick, with Dan, and it had the uh the the lights that uh transitioned color along with the sunset. Oh, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

With the tranquility scented towel, not the least. It was infused with tranquility, Haley. It was infused, infused with tranquility, yes.

SPEAKER_06 21:23

Some of those up to Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_05 21:24

Seriously, I need some of that right now.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Um give you some tranquility.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Well, you got that uh French onion soup martini.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I mean, he was so wrong about both of my drinks. He was so wrong. I was like, Aren't you supposed to be selling this stuff? Are you supposed to be selling it?

SPEAKER_06 21:40

He was like, it's basically like a chilled French onion soup.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

It's like a it's like a cup of cold French onion soup. So if you really like that, then yeah, you should get it. And I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_06 21:51

It was like a it was like a delicious old-fashioned with like a little caramelization.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

No, that was the other one. That was the that was the old brown butter old fashioned.

SPEAKER_06 22:00

Oh, that was the brown butter.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

It was my martini that he described as a bowl of cold French onion soup. And honestly, it had a little sweetness, it had a little onion, it had a good brine, it was very well done. And then the old fashioned was fabulous. So that's one of the better drinks I've had.

SPEAKER_06 22:18

That was probably the best drink that I had in the entire time. Yes, so and he was warning us that it was like too sweet. It was like it's it's very sweet, it's almost like a like a breakfast style cocktail type of thing. But it was like it was like, no, it was a it was a straight up old fashion, delicious old fashioned with like a really nice, nutty, like nutty finish.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Great. Um, but no, my my real honorable mention goes to Topolino's. I had never been to Topolino's and I loved it. Yeah, the breakfast was great. Yeah. The space is gorgeous, the service was wonderful. Um, it was great. I like Artist Point, I feel like it's pretty pricey for what it is, for what it is, and I liked it. Maybe later at night it would have more of the vibe. I don't know. But um, I was so glad we tried it, but it just wasn't like my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 23:20

The kids talked about artist point, like they were talking about meeting the queen and oh yeah, all of the characters for like days after. And even like I think it was like yesterday or the day before, where they were telling me what the queen said about their drawings that they brought. So they that was cute.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Yeah, but I didn't I didn't love the food.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

No, I mean the food is the food.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

So I should have gotten what John got. John got the pork, everything I ate from John's plate was amazing. The pa roast was fine, or that what was it, prime rib? It was it was fine, it just wasn't great. It was kind of underdone and under seasoned in the middle, and then a little fatty too. Overdone, a little over seasoned on the outside. Yeah, yeah. So I mean it was fine, but I liked John's a bunch. If I had listened to everyone on the internet and gotten the pork, I would have loved it. But I also didn't love my drink. You we both got the smoked one.

SPEAKER_06 24:16

Oh, yeah. It was fine.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

It was fine, and it was such a small pour that you would have thought it was more boozy, but it wasn't. It was super, super sweet. It was just not my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

So yeah, you know. The drinks were awful there. It was like drinking pure sugar.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah.

unknown 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

I got different ones. I can't remember what the first one was, but I also got the smoky one. And the first one I had, I think it was uh anecdote or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Antidote.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Antidote, yeah. Not anecdote. Anecdote, something different in antidote. Uh it was like drinking pure sugar. There was like sugar on top of it, sugar in the middle. It was awful.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:58

No. I would say the entree. My entree was good, but the appetizers and the desserts were that you could do without them.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

I couldn't, well, I couldn't eat the mushroom soup. The mushroom bisque is supposed, it's like the thing that everybody talks about from there, which I can't eat. I can't eat. So I had like five of them. I had a ton of them.

SPEAKER_06 25:21

They were great.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

I think I counted. I think I counted six little you know, terrines of that mushroom mushroom bisque on our table that went completely uneaten because nobody wanted it.

SPEAKER_06 25:34

We didn't I couldn't eat anymore, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Mom and them didn't eat anything at this meal. Like, I I think we picked it because of the location, not yeah, because of like the food necessarily, and it just made the most sense for that, right? So I'm glad we tried it, but probably not a repeat, especially if we're going with mom and company. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

Yeah, and it was pricey. Or I think it was meal, we used the meal plan.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Well, we only sorted it.

SPEAKER_06 26:00

We're not even gonna get are we gonna talk about the meal plan at all?

SPEAKER_02 26:02

A tiny bit.

SPEAKER_06 26:06

I'm gonna I'll keep it briefly.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah, because it's too much. Um, okay, so let's see. What was my next question? That was best new thing. Okay, thing you wish we got to that we didn't get to. There was very little we missed, I will say. Yeah, the things that we missed were mostly adult focused, they were not kids. We like made sure the kids got what they wanted.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

I would say the booths. I wish we had gotten to the booths.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, the kids festival booths, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Yeah, you guys didn't get around. I wish we had gotten to Nomad Lounge. Okay. I also wish we got to the booths, but at the same time, it was just like one of those parenting decisions where like we could haul our kids around right now, but they are in no state to continue. Our kids were just completely, completely fried. So it was the right call to head out for us. Honest, even if you had stuck it out, it was the second day of the festival. The bass were mobbed. So yeah, we did do all of world showcase at every single booth. We stopped, checked the menu, checked the line, then it was only worth it one time. It was kind of like we're not doing this. What?

SPEAKER_05 27:17

Which one did you guys actually go to?

SPEAKER_02 27:19

The one we went to is Japan because we wanted the the kids really wanted the ramen and the frushi, and then they wound up being out of the fruushi, so they only got the ramen which then they didn't like it.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

They didn't like it.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Yeah, Audrey.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

It wasn't like ramen noodle soup. What? It wasn't like ramen noodle soup.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

No, it was like a cold ramen salad, and she was annoyed about it. And she eats honestly pretty authentic ramen. So she was kind of like, what is this even?

SPEAKER_06 27:48

And it was, I think so. Danielle had the kids back at the America Pavilion.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

I had Gloria back at the America Pavilion.

SPEAKER_06 27:57

Oh, right. Yeah, so I picked up the other, I picked up the ramen and we got sake, Danielle and I did. And the the serving cups that they gave them to gave us to them in were they were almost like um the tupper where I bring my raspberries in. Well, it was like you put a tea light in it. Yeah, it was like a it was like a tea light holder. And I had a stroller.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

It was filled to the brim, because that's the shot.

SPEAKER_06 28:20

It was filled to the brim, and I had a stroller that I was like piloting over cobblestones with these two things in my hands, and like I spilled probably probably fully half of those things before. And it was all over my it was like all over my hands on my arms. Like it was just it was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

He had been through something trying to get that. Yeah. But no, we I'm looking forward, Haley. That's something I'm hoping we can spend, if we can, spend some time on next month is visit. Yes, this is a podcast, Audrey. Um yeah, Audrey, say hi. Hi Audrey. Audrey, what's your favorite memory from the trip? Splash Mountain. Maybe we'll walk in. Okay, Hun. And then go chill up. We're gonna give you a shower in a couple minutes, okay? We're not doing a parenting job on a Sunday night.

SPEAKER_05 29:18

We couldn't see Audrey's face on the photo on the second time we wrote it. Her and Ella were trying to do poses. Yeah, we could see Ella's face, but we couldn't see Audrey's because the other person's hand was that was in front of us, was right in where her face line was.

SPEAKER_06 29:34

Sounds about right. My favorite. Yeah. I was just gonna say my favorite ride photo, especially of Audrey, was when we went on Expedition Everest.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 29:43

Her and Ella was classic. Her and Ella and Ella were terrified, but the ride picture is just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yeah. We got to the bottom. We were like, Audrey, what'd you think? And she was like, I think I'm gonna pass out.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

The one consensus thing that I wish um we had done, and it wasn't even really on my radar, was uh meeting Anna and Elsa. Um Emma. No, Emma asked the next the day after she was like, Are we gonna meet them? And I was like, Oh shoot, I didn't I hadn't even really thought of that. So I wish I had planned ahead for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

And then maybe like dispersed the princesses a little bit differently. Um, so if you if you have kids listening, pause, pause here, skip ahead like 30 seconds. But I found it a little annoying that um there were so many repeats at Cinderella's royal table as there were in Princess Fairy Tale Hall. Because you meet Cinderella over there and at Cinderella's royal table, and then we had we skipped that purposefully. So we skipped Cinderella's side at Royal Hall, but we did meet Tiana, and then we went right over to Cinderella's royal table, and Tiana was there.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

And my girls were like, How is Tiana's? And I was like, She is so fast, like it is amazing. She got over here so quickly and had to like kind of explain it away.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

And that was very different. Tiana's. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

So I went to the case.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

First Tiana, fairy tale hall, Tiana. I want that woman's upper body routine. I want it written down. I know I can't achieve it, but I want to try. It's a goal. She was incredible. Yeah. I I know when we didn't get over to Bells. I mean, it's fine. It's just, you know, you can't do everything for sure. And it's it's fine. But I think I, in terms, I wish we had done Moana with the kids, because that's the Moana journey's water. That's something I've been meaning to do. We almost stopped. It was nighttime, it was all lit up, but honestly, we were just dead. That was the epic day that was dud that we then stuck it out for like five more hours. We just couldn't have it. We just couldn't do it. So I just have to get back to bed. Yeah. So with the kids, that's one I wish we had kind of done for the grown-ups. Like, I would have loved. You've never sat down in the club. No mat, I think you would love. Um we just didn't have the the vibes for that this time.

SPEAKER_06 32:02

Too many kids.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Too many kids. My god, where'd they all come from? I know. Um, all right. Thoughts about boardwalk versus wilderness lodge.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

So I actually like the boardwalk better than wilderness lodge.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Did you? Why? Tell me.

SPEAKER_05 32:22

The I th I you know the beach is more of my vibe, I guess. I would say my favorite resort to stay at is the Polynesian because it has that like laid back vibe. Yeah. But uh, I like the food at the deli, the pizza place.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

We have multiple drink options. Um at you know, wilderness lodge. I don't like that they there's very limited seating at the pool. So you feel like you're like scrambling to find seats. There's no pool bar per se. Like you have to walk all the way to the city. Yeah, that is annoying.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:03

Um, and then like really geyser point and territory lounge are like your only options for drinks later on. Uh I did I did like the food at Geyser Point. Uh, Whispering Canyon was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Yeah. I'm so glad you liked it. We almost didn't bring you guys. I know. We thought we were gonna let you guys sleep in and not bring you because initially we didn't have you guys on those reservations. And it was like, Nick will walk out. Nick will hate that because you will leave.

SPEAKER_05 33:33

Well, the kid I liked it so much because the kids loved it. Yeah, our kids had a blast interacting with our waitress. Um, she was amazing, yeah. Like in dealing with our kids who were pestering her nonstop about the mess she made.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

I think for an adults only trip, I'm gonna pick boardwalk every time. But with the kids, I felt like Boulder Ridge was a much better fit just because they have a more robust quick service than Boardwalk does. Like we could get Mickey waffles, we could get chicken tenders. Um, and that made a really big difference for us. Um, and what we could get everyone to eat. I I love it.

SPEAKER_06 34:16

The room was much bigger too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Oh god, they had the brief.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Yeah, with the one bedroom. So I feel like that hotel spoiled me for everything else. Like, Haley, how are we about to go stay in an all-star? The only solution is we're never gonna be in the room.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

Let's just be realistic. You two are upgrading at some point, and you're gonna know because did we use my rate?

SPEAKER_02 34:39

I think we used my rate.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

I don't think Haley was just giving me a look. She's like contemplating upgrading, Danielle.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

So Haley's always contemplating this. I'm always contemplating something. I'm always contemplating something. A very funny thing. I now at my new day job, I work in a theater and we are doing more self-produced shows, and that means trucking in more talent, which is sometimes like director creatives, like directors or designers or whatever, and sometimes it's actors. And this weekend we had a play on stage reading. So we had a playwright in-house, we had it brought in from elsewhere, and then I think five out of town actors, and they're making changes. They're they're like, Can I stay one more day? I don't like this car. Can I get a different car? Can I switch hotels? I wish I had a gym membership, I gotta fly a different time. And I'm just like, yep, sure, yep, sure, yep, sure. And my boss was kind of like, This is very frustrating. I'm sorry. I was like, you have not traveled with my sister. You have no idea she does this constantly. And I am I'm I've gotten very comfortable.

SPEAKER_05 35:49

It's let's just put it this way. You guys are gonna be back at Boulder Ridge before you know it.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

And I mean, I love Boulder Ridge. I love Boulder Ridge particularly for the kids. I would agree. The quick service situation at Boardwalk, which I had not considered because we had been there as an adults only trip previously, yes, and not on the dining plan, so we didn't have quick service credits to consider. I love their coffee shop, that's great. They do a great coffee was good at cappuccino's. I'm happy with it. The one at Boulder Ridge is also fine, but they do a better one at Carousel Coffee at Boardwalk. So for me, that's better. And I love Bellevue Lounge. Yes, that's how wonderful. But for going there with kids, having the more traditional quick service breakfast available is great. Not being limited to like pizza or a meatball sub for lunch is good. Yeah, and then having the out having a bar you can sit at outside at night where the kids can run free is huge. Yeah. I mean, I yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:55

We did meet an imagineer though at Orlando. We did.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Hey Sean, how are you? Sean, I hope you're listening. He gets a shout out every week from now on. Sean's a patron, he's a patron of the podcast.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

Um very nice, very gracious with this time.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Yes. Um, let's see. Oh, okay. Favorite, favorite food you had, favorite place we ate, or favorite meal you had, or favorite drink. Tell me more. What?

SPEAKER_05 37:29

I said, I think I feel like we're all gonna say the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yachtsman.

SPEAKER_05 37:33

Yeah, my Yachtsman is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

It was so good. I got so sloppy after. I'm sorry, guys. No, it was awesome, it was great. I can't mix wine into anything, it wrecks me every time.

SPEAKER_06 37:49

I I liked my Yachtsman dinner, but actually, I I enjoyed the dinner that I had at um the place at the boardwalk, like night one.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Oh, yeah, Tatsaria L4 now.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

Yeah, Haley, that's where you and I ate. Because that's right. Nick had the kids. I had a table with Haley and Danielle's that was her dad. And two kids. And two kids.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Um, you all the kids.

SPEAKER_06 38:19

Well, it was Haley and I and Audrey at the table.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

But yeah, um did Audrey fall asleep?

SPEAKER_06 38:25

Uh no, but she came very close.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Yeah, she was she was about to order dessert, and then she was like, I cannot have dessert, I need to go to bed immediately.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

I ended up at a table with three sleeping cakes and had to take the freedom to go.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

I got I got the strip steak there, and like it was wonderful. Like, it was so so good. Yeah, it was just really good. And like, I I really I did like my meal because I got the filet at Yachtman, which was also it was also great, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Uh there was something else about that strip steak, but it was possibly be that we dragged you through like the mines during the day.

SPEAKER_06 39:08

It may have been that I that I burned 15,000 calories during the day and really needed to make up some energy. But no, I I thought it was just really good.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

I would have said Yatzman for me. I my filet was perfect. I like I got the filet at Cinderella's and it was underdone. Oh, you know what I was bummed out by. Um, and the filet at Yatzman was perfect. And Haley got so we mooched off Haley. Haley got the flight of sauces. And usually if we make filet at home, which we do on a not a regular, like maybe once a month, we'll do like a nice filet mignons.

SPEAKER_06 39:45

Yeah, that's often there, but yeah, they're here and there.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Um I think we're having a piskey carby.

SPEAKER_06 39:50

No, we don't have filet steak.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

What you get for steak?

SPEAKER_06 39:53

I didn't get steak.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

I thought steak was on the list. It wasn't the list. Okay, fine. I get what's on the list. Uh but usually I'm like, we don't we don't do garlic butter, we don't do a sauce. Like the filet is its own thing, it's so good on its own, you don't want to overpower it. You got that peppercorn sauce, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna drink the sauce. Yes, I'm gonna drink the peppercorn sauce. This is so good. I love it. Um, I'm sad that you didn't love your Cinderella's Royal Table meal because I was just gonna say that was my honorable mention. We had a fantastic meal there.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

I would say we we've been to Cinderella's Royal Table a few times, and this time, I don't know if they're rotating the menu or whatever blew it out of the water. The best time by far at Cinderella's Royal Table.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

I've only ever been there for breakfast, so I've never been there for lunch before. So this is our first time there for lunch. I really liked that too because it felt like we were all at one table. Like we had mom and Donna and Mary in the middle of them and the each. No, that was great. And for anyone who's wondering, there's apparently not a two-drink minimum a two-drink maximum at Cinderella's Royal Table. I I know I read somewhere on the internet that you could only have two drinks. So I made I went to the bathroom and made Nick order my third drink for me because he disproved it. I don't want to get cut off at Cinderella's Royal Table. That's embarrassing. I'll make my husband do it for me.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

I couldn't told you that there was no maximum because we've been to brunch there before, and I'm pretty sure I had like four or five mimosa royales.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

So I do love that legacy mimosa. Actually, an honorable mention for me would be with Spring Canyon. I feel like the last time we went there, Haley, you get the skillet for one person. There's no way you can eat all of this. Getting the skillet with three people at the table getting it, it was perfect because it was like each person wanted more of one thing. And so we kind of balanced out. We only got one refill on a couple things we wanted. I felt like we didn't throw throw out like an embarrassing amount of food. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:14

That was really good. That was so funny because you know, on the menu it says you can't share with people who aren't the skillet. Well, but then as soon as it came, as soon as it came out, Cooper took like four Mickey waffles out of the skillet. And then she was like, I'll just add up to the skillet.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

No, she upgraded it. No, this was awkward. This was this was like kind of an awkward moment. They brought over the whole skillet, and I said, Oh, he actually ordered a separate thing of kids' Mickey waffles. And the man who delivered it was like, oh no, it's fine. He just eats these. And I was like, Oh, okay, because she said she made a big point when she took our orders of saying if you didn't order the skillet, you can't share with the people who did. So I was like, okay, so that's fine. So Cooper started eating off that. And when she popped by, she was like, I'm gonna upgrade him to the skillet because he's eating off the skillet.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

And then I felt kind of weird because I don't think she meant to make us feel weird, but I felt weird that we were.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

So I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Yeah, like I write it differently than Haley did. Separate Mickey Waffles, yeah. Yeah, all of which he ate because yeah, he eats like four or five Mickey waffles sitting, so but I thought whispering canyon was fun.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah, that was really good.

SPEAKER_05 43:40

Yeah, it's a good vibe. I would I mean, I wouldn't have been yelling for ketchup.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

No, you can do the quiet ketchup if you tell them. You can do quiet ketchup. You can ask the waiter to be like, I want the ketchup, but I don't want to do the thing, and they will get you. They call it the quiet ketchup. I'm like, hey Haley, I have a quiet ketchup.

SPEAKER_06 44:01

Let me stop yeah, the ketchup thing was funny. And I mean, yeah, the skill is great. I think like a lot of the eggs went back, but I mean they were like they were like sheet pan scrambled eggs, and they just like it reminded me of this. It reminded me of the stuff that I got in college at the dorm. Yeah, like oh yeah, for sure. For sure. Everything else was good. The eggs just were not good.

SPEAKER_05 44:24

The biscuits and gravy. I was the only one eating biscuits and gravy, and I love it. Oh, I had some of that gravy.

SPEAKER_06 44:29

I thought that gravy was great.

SPEAKER_05 44:30

Yeah, oh yeah. Haley was like only stealing the biscuits and leaving all the gravy free.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

They were so good. So good. I don't like the gravy, but the biscuits are great. I do wish they had grits there. Yeah. Feels funny not to have grits.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

What? It's kind of surprising that they don't, because it's that.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

That's what I mean. It feels like it's on the vibe. And then the grits you get at uh Roaring Fork are smoky cheddar bacon. And I really don't I kind of just like grits. I don't even want another cheesy. I just like grits. Um, because you can't really get them here. Um Other questions that I had. Favorite ride that we did for you guys? With or without the kids?

SPEAKER_05 45:12

I think the my favorite, and this is a particular riding. I think my favorite was the second Cali River Rapids when everybody uh got soaked and the kids were very excited. Oh god. Um, but I don't do many of the huge uh roller coasters or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

That's okay. It doesn't have to be a roller coaster to be a favorite ride. Hello, Luke. Look at you. Shouldn't you be asleep? He is like, there's my mama. My mama's uh it's a small world. Did you like it's a small world? Did you like that?

SPEAKER_05 45:47

He was tripping through it's a small world.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Um, I had the most laughs on the people mover, probably, because it was just so ridiculous. Like my kids were weirdly nervous about it because they didn't know what it was. So everyone had like an anxious energy going into it, and then it was like totally fine. But and then dad was like completely unmanageable. He thought it was a ride that like a train that took us to the other end of the park. So, like three quarters of the way through the ride, he was like, Wait, is this a ride? Where are we going? And Grace was um kind of squished between him and Nick. So she was freaking out, but in like a hilarious way, like a way over dramatic way.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

And it was just like it was it was hysterical. I don't know how to describe it, but that was really funny.

SPEAKER_05 46:30

I like seeing Haley's face photos come off of Rise. She looks like a crazy person when she like the photo from Expedition Everest. She looks like she is tackling like a witch coming down on that uh mountain. Haley, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Yeah, and I just got like a crazy look in her face. Every ride photo, I look like I'm about to birth a child, every single one.

SPEAKER_06 47:03

Just looked utterly catatonic with her hands over her. So, like she wasn't holding on, so she was essentially like having her arms up in the air.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Yes, the other arms. I was sitting next to a stranger on that ride, and he could not stop laughing at them. He was like, This is amazing.

SPEAKER_06 47:20

His face in that photo also is also absolutely hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 47:24

Yeah, it's um yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:29

Um, I my favorite, I mean I had mentioned it already, but Rise of the Resistance again. Yeah, like um the first time I did it when we went last time in 2022. Yeah, um, I was like, I was so blown away by it that I didn't like pay attention to a lot of the details.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:48

And this time I like paid attention to the details, and I also like watched my kids uh do it. And like they they are not like they don't know Star Wars, they're not like into the Star Wars universe yet. They will be.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Um you will be.

SPEAKER_06 48:06

You're right. But uh like they I don't know. Like it's like when you get off the ship and you're in the you know, you're in like the docking station.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

It was like where are we?

SPEAKER_06 48:22

They were like, but they were like blown, like utterly blown away. And it's like you walk into that room with like you know, a hundred stormtroopers that are all slightly animatronic doing stuff. It's like it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Oh, I wish I had seen that, seen them on it.

SPEAKER_06 48:40

It's the perfect ride.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

We also had dad on it, and I was like, Dad, isn't this cool? And he was like, Yeah, this is this is something this is cool. I was like, All right, I don't know what I expected or why I would expect anything different here. But all right.

SPEAKER_06 48:56

Yeah, I also I also I mean this is all Star Wars related. I don't know why I keep going there, but um, when we did what's the other one at Star Wars? Smuggler's Run. Uh I paid more attention to like following the directions in the ride, like because I was the engineer, so you have to like push the buttons and like do all this stuff. Um, and it's funny because when you do it, like you actually affect how like how the ride is going. And it's again, it's one of those things where the first time I did it, I was just like, This is the coolest thing that I've ever done, ever. And I got to pay more attention to it, and it was it was just really cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

I loved so obviously Cosmic Rewind is my favorite ride every time. Um forever. It was and actually Gloria, since we've got home, it's been like, I wish we I had on it. And I think she could have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:48

Audrienella did not like it again.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

They're nerds.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

I think they are fine.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Yeah, going deep. Yeah, of course we are. It's the best ride. She needs a shower. Actually, can you go start her shower? It's almost nine. We're not doing it's Sunday. What are we gonna do, Haley? No, you have to shower. Look at your hair. You have to take a shower.

SPEAKER_05 50:11

Our kids have a design morning, so we don't have to worry about waking up that early.

SPEAKER_06 50:16

I have a Disney adult husband uh pro tip though.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

No, wait, come back after you're just done. Just start the shower and come back. She showers herself. Um, yeah, so Cosmic Rewind, as always, is my favorite. But I really loved the kids on Flight of Passage in a way that I did not expect. None of them had been on it before. And they all really, my kids really loved it. So that was really cool. Oh, that's awesome. I know Cooper was not a fan. He was not, but it was very fun to watch him on Millennium Falcon because I again not he's never seen Star Wars and he absolutely loved it. So that was really fun. And then also the guy sitting next to me was a single rider, and he was, I think, like probably like college age, maybe even like a senior in high school. He was a young guy, but he was a single rider. And um, when we were in the room with like the chess table before you board, he was like, excuse me, will you take a picture of me? And then he you could tell he felt real weird about it. And he went and like posed at the chess table. It was really cute. And then he was, we were both. Um, I asked him if he would mind being a pilot because Cooper didn't want to be a pilot the first time. Um, so he swapped with him, and you could tell he was like so excited. It's always kind of fun to ride with someone who's like either never ridden it before or is just like so excited to be doing it. Yeah, and he was super excited. So that was really fun. No, I love other people's enthusiasm about sex. Like one of my favorite things. Actually, so I was listening to the Disney adult book by AJ Walsh. AJ from Disney Food Blog. And I don't watch a lot of Disney food blog anymore. It's kind of gotten off of like what I kind of like about it, but right, um, it's a it's a fun book, and but that's something she talks about, and something she talks about with one of the people she interviews for the book is like, yeah, I am enthusiastic about this, but I also love it because other people are so into it. I love seeing other people being so enthusiastic about something. I love that all even when it's about something I don't get at all. Right. What about Smiley Baby? He's so happy. What's he doing? Luke, what are you doing? You laid awake. I had so much fun the day. Um, the day rock and roller coaster closed. First of all, yeah, I was kind of surprised how emotional I was. I know. I really love that ride, and it was one of my first like really big roller coasters, so I was really sad. But also the crowds, like everyone there was so psyched. There were people dressed up as Aerosmith, like they were like with strangers, and it was just super fun. It was super fun. Lou or Jacob, our younger, much younger siblings, like went to a park dressed as Aerosmith. Yeah, they were like into it in a very funny way. I love that. A lot of bands they absolutely do not know. No. What do you want to say to Auntie? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What's your favorite ride? Sir. What was your favorite ride? I also um weirdly loved pretty much watching the kids on anything is my favorite, but they our first ride of the trip was alien swirling saucers, and the kids loved it. We got off and they were all jumping up and down, going again, again, again. And it was like on alien swirling saucers again. Here we are, rope dropping alien swirling saucers. And it was just so fun to see them so excited. I think um it was it was really fun to see that um Audrey was so excited to go on rides with Ella with no adult. Like Audrey wants to do no adult, and she was like, To do that, I must ride with Ella because Ella is old enough for me to do that. It was really cute that they were so excited about that. Yeah. And that was the first one. What's up, Emmy? What was your favorite ride at Disney?

SPEAKER_03 54:26

Oh, I made a name something.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

Okay, we'll look for it. What was your favorite ride at Disney World?

SPEAKER_03 54:46

Don't mind me.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

What was your favorite ride at Disney World? Oh, I made it out of my Okay, no, no, they're not gonna respond to any of my questions.

SPEAKER_03 54:56

I don't know what we have.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

You don't have Emma, do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_03 54:59

I know.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

What was it?

SPEAKER_03 55:01

It was uh uh uh no my me. It was the one and I was not stretchy.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

Not stretchy? The haunted mansion? No, you did not like the haunted mansion.

SPEAKER_03 55:21

Yeah, because that was ghost.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

Yeah, it was ghosts.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

I like that right.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

Don't come to my work.

SPEAKER_03 55:32

I did.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

You like that.

SPEAKER_03 55:34

Well, why was that drop? I hated the drop.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

You hated the drop.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Do you mean the pilots one?

SPEAKER_05 55:43

No, you should mean the one where the one where Pops got wet.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, I agree. I do like that fine. I like it, but I hated the drop. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

You like it, but you hated the drop.

SPEAKER_03 55:58

That's what I'm wearing right now.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

Oh, she's wearing her bibbity bobbity boutique t-shirt. Very nice. I have so many of your clothes from this trip at my house right now. How? How did that happen? Well, no, that's not true. I have a leather jacket I'm giving you. Okay. I have your shorts from this trip. I don't know why I have them. And then I have your shirt for race tag.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

For some reason. I think I'm actually taking it home on Christmas. Okay. We have to get tutus, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

We gotta do outfits. I'm sure I gotta do some research.

SPEAKER_05 56:31

Danielle, I'm trying to talk to leaving the baby with me.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

He's trying to talk me into leaving the baby with him. It's a a topic of discussion. We'll see. Tvd. I'm not I'm not getting involved in that. No, I don't I don't have a horse in that race. I don't even have a me in that race. I'm not worried about the race.

SPEAKER_05 56:48

Danielle agrees.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

We'll be done soon. Go ahead in the other end. I don't agree, Nick. I don't agree with anything. Uh okay, here what surprised you about this trip? Something you didn't expect.

SPEAKER_06 57:08

Well, I mean, I guess it was uh it was easier than I thought to keep everybody together and to like you know, I and I mean I had the like there was a group management issue that happened, but I mean like the group management also sort of came together in a way that became really efficient, especially when it was sort of like groups would splinter off and like go do something, and it was totally fine. Like we would it would be like okay, we'll meet you here, whatever, whatever. Like, we got really good at that, and it wasn't it wasn't a huge pain. Like, you know, I talked to some random people here and there, and it was like, Oh yeah, we're here with like seven kids, and they're like, Oh my god, that sounds awful. Uh, but it really, but like it wasn't, it really wasn't. Um like we got everybody where they needed to be, and like everyone had a good time, and it wasn't actually that bad. It wasn't actually that bad. It wasn't that bad as my review. It's the review yourself.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

It wasn't that bad. Call fantastical vacations for all you're not that bad planning. It's not that bad. If you want a not awful vacation, Danielle will plan your not that bad vacation. By the way, Danielle Griggs at fantasticalvacations.com. I'd be happy to help you plan a not that bad trip.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

You might kind of like it.

SPEAKER_02 58:41

You might like it, sort of. You might be surprised by how it happens. What surprised you, Nick? Anything?

SPEAKER_05 58:48

I don't know if I had any surprises on this trip.

SPEAKER_02 58:51

I mean I feel like the entire trip was a surprise to you guys.

SPEAKER_05 58:59

As each day was revealed to me of what was going to happen. That's right. We did have a few days that like so the the no eat, no sleep days.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

You were every day. Nick was like, but when are we eating? And I'm like, that's your business, man. That's on you. You sort that out for yourself.

SPEAKER_05 59:20

I was explicitly instructed that there would be no napping on some of the brakes a few times.

SPEAKER_02 59:26

What what surprised you did, y'all? Uh I was surprised by how spoiled I got by traveling without my family.

SPEAKER_06 59:38

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

I don't mean that in a bad way.

SPEAKER_06 59:41

It was kind of okay traveling with my family.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

No, I just mean I forgot there's a skill set, it's a different skill set. And like, yes, you and I have done some things, you know. You've done like a bunch of trips since the last time we traveled as a large group, and it's a completely different thing. And one thing I would like to change next time we do this, hopefully in four years, uh, with lots of solo trips planned in the meantime. Um I want to build in more time for the kids to have like not a dichotomy, but like yeah, more vibes, more like Audrey kept wanting to poke around gift shops. And I was like, well, we can, but then you miss your ride, like that you wanted to do. Um, and I I think the the system I think is an improvement for sure over Genie Plus. So I'm not complaining, but yeah, I wish that there was more wiggle room for that kind of improvisation. And I we we should probably our kids have gotten old, my kids especially have gotten older. I thought they were all kind of in on the plan. Yeah, I feel like I had reviewed it with them. I think next time we need to take them, we need to work them into the we need a meeting, yeah. Planning process where we get the must-dos, want-to-dos, favorite thing from last time, thing I wish I did from last time. Like they're old enough to have informed opinions. And so that just kind of was something I didn't really expect. And another thing, similarly, um, funny. So I I folded a 10, 12 loads of laundry today, an insane amount of laundry today to get ready for our cleaners to be. We do a huge St. Patrick's Day dinner. It's next weekend, so we have cleaners coming tomorrow. So I spent a huge amount of time folding laundry today to get it out of the way so the cleaners can clean. Fine. I wanted to listen to the on the go from this trip that's been published so far, which at the moment is just part one. By the time this airs, I think both part one and part two will be out. But I listened to part one and then I finished, and then I was like, oh, I'll go back and listen to like some other on the goes we've done because I really love a good on the go. And I got back to the one that we did our last trip to Maine with the kids, our camping trip. And in my like kind of wrap-up of that trip in the on the go, I was saying, I think we really need to spend more time thinking about like the composition of our trips based on the ages of our kids because it's changing. So it used to be we could just sort of say, This is what we're doing, and like all three kids were youngish and fine, and now Ella is like a legit teenager, and Audrey is basically a tween, even though she's eight.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:48

She didn't want to do bippity bobity.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

She didn't want to do it when it came. She wanted to do it in advance. We talked about it in advance. She was down, she helped pick out her dress, like she was there for it. And then the day before, she was like, Do I have to? And then we did the whole thing. She was like, Oof, that was cringy. And I was like, Yikes, why are you a teen now? Like, I think we have to get our heads around, like our family specifically, not you guys. Yeah. Like, what does the makeup of a trip look like that serves the needs of all the different ages that we have on a trip?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:25

If we take all the families again in four years, it's gonna matter for them too.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

Yes, it will. Yeah. So it's just that's something I would like to think about because we had like pool days where Ella is not doing the pool. She just wants to like do her video game, like do her call with her friends and disassociate. But then she missed out on a lot of the hangout time and like can we find a way to kind of I don't know, integrate medium, happy medium. It's just changing in a way that's new for that was surprising. I hadn't really anticipated that that much this trip. What about you guys? I have three, but I'll do them very quickly. My first one was almost exactly what you said, just like the stratification of our kids' ages right now. Like I did last time, I felt like they were all pretty much close in like what their experiences were. Like they were scared of the same things, they were excited about the same things. And this this trip, Ella was completely at one end. Audrey like bopped back and forth between being with the little kids and being with Ella. Yeah. And then, like, obviously, there's Luke who's very little, and Emma was kind of like in her own little world. So that that surprised me, being like, oh, this is different now. This is like not quite what it used to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:38

And it's just, it's just different. It's not bad or good, it's just different. Um, so that caught me a little bit off guard. Two, I know we're gonna do a separate episode about like whether the dining plan was worth it or not, but I was just completely taken aback by how many problems we had with it. Like the cats, don't make me mad.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

What?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:59

It's a don't make me mad.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

John's pretty much how many times I had to go to the front desk or how or use the chat feature to like fix something that happened, and like how unequipped cast members were to figure things out with like very easy. It's not even dollar amount, was it worth it or not? It's about how much friction did it introduce.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:20

Well, my yeah, it was also like the receipts, you might as well have been written in the foreign language, you don't have much data for kids.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:26

No bonkers and like bonkers, and like Danielle and Haley, right? Like, you guys know this stuff, right? Like, you guys are like generally understand it more than just about anybody else. And like I I don't, right? Yeah, and like it was the I I'm not gonna go into a whole thing about it, about the meal plans, but like I I could not understand by by the time we were done on like day eight or nine, I was kind of like finally starting to get it. Yeah, but but even then it was sort of like there are so many things that they could do to make this easier, like the menus could have a call out. Like every time we went to eat, we got like uh we got like 15 feet worth of receipts all cut up that we had to read and sign and stuff like that, and you know, and then they're like, oh, also you know, you owe us an electric an extra$11, and you're like, you know, there's hieroglyphics flying off the receipts and knocking you out of your chair. It was it was so it was so neat, like needlessly complicated. It was very difficult.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:38

And I could never figure out what amount I was actually like tipping on. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

My current perspective on the dining plan, and again, Haley and I are gonna do a great dining plan debt.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Deep dive. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Um, my current perspective as a travel agent, travel advisor, is I would not recommend the dining plan to anyone unless. They have a group of people who will fit at one table at every reservation. They will only be dining with the people they're traveling with who are on the dining plan. In one in one, everyone has the same dining plan, they're in the same room. Like easy. And they have one reservation, no split stays. Yeah. So it's you need a really basic trip for a normal people. For normal people, we we can navigate this. It was annoying enough for us.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:32

But like, yeah, I mean, even you guys have to spend a ton of extra time.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:35

Like a ton of extra time. That's why I would recommend it to a client at this point. I'm not sure we're not sure we lost money. We we actually think we still came out on top. Yeah. But the amount of legwork that it took on the vacation to make sure that happens is incorrect. That's I have never I've used it for years and I've never had that happen. Yeah, we've so I'm very confused.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:04

And this was the most confusing time I've ever seen it.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:07

Like it was the what was the restaurant at um wilderness lodge, the outdoor one?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Artist uh Dancer Pointer?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:20

So like they had them they had a mobile pickup window there.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:24

But it's a table service product.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:27

No, they're counted as a table service. And I asked like we figured that out eventually. I asked one of the bartenders there about that, and I got I can't even verbatim like tell you the answer that I got. Because I was like, I know this is a sit-down, but you have a pickup window. Is the pickup window like a single or is it a double?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:53

It was like a 10-minute yeah, no, I felt like the cast members were very much confused by the system, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:00

Yeah, and I mean they also for to be fair to this cast member, like they apologized to me because they were like, I'm sorry, I know it's really complicated. And I was like, I don't get that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:08

Don't it's a whole thing. We'll talk about we'll talk more about it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:14

Yeah, and then the the third thing I was gonna say, and again, this is not like hey, don't do that again. Don't let me see that again. Put it down.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Just swung a broom at her brother. Um, I get his head. It's not great. Oh, is that funny? Is that funny to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:33

Um, the third thing that I was gonna say, and this is again, neither not it's not good or bad, but I was kind of surprised at how much our kids did not want to ride. Um, yes. Because before the trip we watched so many YouTube videos, and Emma was like, I want to ride that, I want to ride that. And of course, you know, not everything they'll want to ride, but there was a lot that there was one day that she just didn't want to ride rides, and she was perfectly happy with that decision. Like she was just like, No, I'm not gonna ride rides today in the morning. Yeah, I'm not doing rides today.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:04

Even in the road, she did.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

She was like, I hated it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:12

I she just wanted to sit in a corner and build houses out of pine needles at Animal Kingdom, and she was perfectly happy to do that. And then there was a lot more that Grace was scared of that I I was kind of surprised she was scared of, especially considering a lot of it was things she's written. She's done before, and then that's the Kai. Cooper pretty much did everything he's done before, but I thought he might be ready to try some new things, and he definitely wasn't, um, which is totally fine, but I'm glad we figured that out because I have been thinking like when could we get to Epic? And I'm like, not for a few years. So we're we're always out from that. I don't, I don't honestly think universal even is worth it for Ella for a few years. I yeah, something else. So yeah. Um, let's see. I think I had one more question, and then we have to put our children to bed or else. We do. Um, what would you do again for sure, or what would you not do again?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:12

For sure. I would definitely go eat at the Yachtsman at that place.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:18

It is my heaven. Oh, was that funny? What would I not do again? Uh oh man, that's a weird one. Um wow I don't know what I wouldn't do again. Yeah. That was fair. I mean, I was very disappointed in the dining plan, but we've also had also had great experiences on the dining plan. I don't know what they've done with like the configuration such that it was so difficult to comprehend the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:01

Yeah. Like before, I just felt like it was just like so simple. You knew exactly how many meals you had, you know how many points or how many like snacks and everything. Like we've used it before.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

We have not used a dining plan since 2012. Yeah, yeah. So it's been a while, and it was wicked simple then. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:23

It was like meal. It was the the dining plan was meal. Meal and snack. Yeah. And it was super easy.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:31

Uh what would you do or not do again?

SPEAKER_06 1:12:35

Uh I mean, yeah. That's a hard question, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:39

I mean, or I guess like what would you change next time? That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:43

So, like, next time I would do, and I mean, we did we did end up doing this, but I would do more time at Animal Kingdom. Um and like, I mean, this is controversial, I guess, but I would probably do less time at Epcot. Yeah. Like, I think Epcot is great. And there were so many people there.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:06

And I mean, maybe it's because it was the second day of the festival.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:08

Yeah, it may have been because it was the second day of the festival. Gloria, honey, yeah, you have to you gotta go, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:15

Dry your hair in a few minutes. I need you to go hang out, and then I'm gonna blow dry your hair. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:19

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Gloria wants in the living room, is what I meant by that. Thank you. Like, even she wants straight hair too much.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:33

Yeah, I mean, Epcot was just so busy, and also actually, the other thing was our first rest day that we had. Uh, we traveled around a whole bunch of different resorts to do things, and it didn't feel very it wasn't very restful.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Um, good at that, Haley.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:58

The second rest day that we had, we stayed at uh Wilderness Lodge and it was chill. It was much more chill. The the first one it was sort of like at the end of it, like everything was great, like everything we did was great. Great. Yeah, but but it was like by the time you got back, it was like I'm tired.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:21

And uh I mean stuff that I would do again. I mean, I don't know, like everything everything we did was kind of great, so it's hard to it's hard to say like I would definitely do this thing again. Yeah, it was I like I I did see Danielle's cheat sheet about this question, and it was kind of like I think I'm gonna answer this one about stuff I wouldn't do because it's a shorter answer than what I wouldn't do again, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:51

Danielle, how about you?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

Um yeah, so I think about this more in terms of like what would I change next time or whatever. I definitely think we slightly handicapped ourselves with the first day.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:07

God, that was a long day.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:08

That's mine too. Mine too. We we may have maybe just kind of overshot the abilities of the group with the first day.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:18

Um, I mean, it was like a we went hard on day one.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:21

That went real hard. And even like you and I, we're we're 28 to 30,000 step people, and I was like, I think I am going to die as a result of this day. Yes, it was a lot, and that kind of set us up for a couple of days of kind of lagging a little bit. So I think there were reasons that we did this that were not out of our control, which was rock and roller coaster. Closing, yeah. Um, and so that's not on us, I think, but I think I would probably recommend an easing into the vacation rather than a yeah uh submarine dive with no oxygen on the first time.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:13

Well, these these trips are like a diminished, it's like your energy, it's like a diminishing return type of thing. It's like I mean, we we were tired after day one and we did sort of we bounced back and stuff, but we did another huge day on day eight. And after that, like we had big plans for the very last day, and by the end of that, by the end of day eight, we were like, okay, actually, what we're gonna do is sleep until everyone just wakes up naturally, and then we are going to go to Animal Kingdom and do that. We did not get to Animal Kingdom until like noon, like because we were like just exhausted, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:58

I also think Hayley and I again got spoiled by not well, spoiled, but also just like we got used to being able to plan trips where we just drive ourselves into the ground, yeah, and we kind of enjoy that. We love it because there's something wrong with us, but we can't really do that with this many people. There's many. I think one thing we could have done better, so easing into the vacation for sure. I think we could have probably we did eventually organically do this, but I think we could have planned for it better. Your family, like a slow start for my family, is different than a slow start for your family. I think we could have planned for our family's different natural schedules, and for sure, like with a group that big, splitting up is a totally normal thing to do, and so we could have planned for that in advance and built that in to some of the especially knowing the kids are in different places, and yeah, like my kids are night owls, your kids are early birds, yeah. So early, so early. So I still I'm an early person. I don't like getting out of bed early, but I'm usually wake early. I miss my Disney sleep still. I sleep so good there, it's insane. I sleep good there, I sleep good camping, and I miss that. What's the thing you would do again? Did you say I would do again? I mean, I will never not pay for happily ever after. Yeah, I the dessert party was way better than I anticipated because it was way better than it had been previously. I would do that again in heartbeat. Every time we want to see that, that's the thing we're gonna pay for. I I would pay for all the lightning lanes. I I'm sorry if you're going every if you're going every six months, if you're you guys and you have the AP and you go regularly, yeah. Maybe you make choices differently on different trips, but I don't get my family down there more than every handful of years, and yeah, we're paying for it. We're paying for it every time because it saves time, which means you have more trip time, and that's better. Um, so that's for sure. I'm not sure I would dining plan again. Yeah, you would have to really think hard about that. Um I would maybe try next time to get a better read on the kids about specific experiences before we made plans. We I feel like we planned this trip a bunch while it was a secret. Yeah. And so then, like next time, I think I probably're old enough I have to bring them in earlier. For sure. Yeah. What about you? Um, mine are actually very similar. I mean, uh one, um, I would I would have gone less hard on day one. And some of the things I wouldn't do again were things we just didn't have a lot of option about.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

Like maybe we could have gone that hard on day one if we hadn't gotten to the hotel at like 10 p.m. the night before.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:23

But again, when you're, you know, we booked the cheapest flight on Saturday, and when you have 11 people, like a$75 difference in the flight price is enormous. It's huge. So, like it, you know, if we could have flown out at noon, that would have been great, but it also would have been a zillion dollars. So, like we would have been in bed by eight, everybody would have been like rare and exited, ready to go. The kids were already asking for pool time before we had even gone to the park. It was just like, you know, nothing you could do about it.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:52

Maybe we wouldn't have had that horror horrifying turbulence.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:55

Yes, 45 minutes in. Horrifying turbulence. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:01

I got a flag attendant in my lap.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:03

Yes. Not like a cute one. She was like a nice little mom. Like a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:08

It was all it was all good, but I was kind of like, I'm holding your hips. What do I do? What do I do?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:14

How do I get out of this? How do I back out of it?

SPEAKER_06 1:21:16

Yeah. Do I push you off? But you're gonna fall on me again.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:22

Yeah. Um, also, this is again out of anyone's control. I think I did not anticipate my family's circumstances have changed massively since the last time we traveled. So last time we took a huge, I mean, last time we took a family trip at all, which was camping. I still was not working full-time outside of the house. Um, and the last time we took a family trip, I was working part-time, remote, at home, like the kids were at home most of the time. Like our family's schedule has changed massively since October. And I think we are all completely exhausted. Like, yeah, winter break wasn't a full winter break. The kids I went back to work in between holidays, the kids went to after school care in between holidays, like a snow day, and I still work through, and that means the kids are on there. Like, our our vibe has just changed a lot. And I think going into a trip like this, we used to come in at a different level of stress, you know, and like we need to mellow out, we need a vacation, yeah. We need a vacation in a different way than we used to do it. All of us, me, John, the kids, everybody need a different. And I I talked about that before the trip. I was like, this is so weird. I usually go into a trip like locked and loaded, and I'm going in so fried and like it took me a couple of days to get into vacation mode. Yeah. So it's just we have to change how we think about vacations now that we have a completely different dynamic at home for us and for our kids. The other thing, and this is like very specific, and we'll do like a separate episode on this because it's very niche. But uh, when I went in January, I was still very much trying to like maintain my breastfeeding supply. And so like I was pretty religious about the pumping, and I used the baby care centers and I brought my pump every day. This trip I went into it more like it is what it is. If my supply dips, I don't really care. Like, I just we're doing our best. I want to make it through the trip, like not in discomfort. And that's basically it. But the first few days, I still brought like all my pump stuff to the park every day, which is like my back was killing me because it is so much stuff setting up the security left and right. By the end of the trip, I was like, I will be okay if I go five plus hours and it's fine, and I'll leave it back at the hotel and like it's okay. But I would have tried earlier to like ditch all that stuff and not bring it up. And then the the thing I would do again is exactly what you said, the happily ever after dessert party. Like when we and it's funny because I did change, I kind of changed my mind about it. That night we were very rushed getting to the seating area. Yeah. Like we got there like five minutes before the fireworks started. And internally I was very anxious and I was like, oh shoot, was this even worth it? But then I was like, what are you paying for if not sitting there for an hour before the fireworks take out a good seat? Like we rolled up five minutes before the fireworks and had a fantastic view. And we banged out like four different shifts of rides in the hour beforehand that we would have been waiting in a crowd that would have really stressed you out. Yeah. And you know, we didn't stay as long at the dessert party as we would have if it was just grown-ups, because we would have shut that thing down and drank all their margaritas. Um, but you know, I think I had two drinks, the kids had a ton of desserts, we left before anyone was totally melting down. Like everyone was very resulted. Like no one was melting down. Yeah, didn't even finish my margarita. And I yeah, loved those. I I didn't even finish one. The crazy crowds dissipated by the time we were done with our desserts, and we headed to the bus, and there were still food. No. Again and again, I this is a splurge that just very it very much works for our group for sure. Nick would like you to know, he had four glasses of champagne, so he made it. Nick did really make use.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:46

Yeah, I was focusing on the drinks, not so much the dessert aspect of the drink.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

This is exciting because last time we went, there were like four different desserts and like a cheese plate. Yeah, they all looked like desserts you maybe picked up at like Sam's Club or BJ's, like nothing special. And these to this was all fun and cute. Little mermaid seashell cupcakes, like everything was Disney themed, it was adorable cupcake. It was good, it was really good. Yeah, they leveled up for sure, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:17

And it was it was cool too that um one of the like the cast member manager of that event.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:23

She was from here, used to most towns. Yeah, that's fun.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:27

So, like we we chatted a little bit about town stuff, which is kind of funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:32

Yeah, that's hilarious. That's cool, yeah. So that's that's kind of an always. If you want to see the fireworks, I for us, even if it's just us, me and you as like adults, worth it. We're paying for it. Yes, worth it. That was cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:48

I have one last question. Do you have a question? Are you done? No, I'm done. When are we going back?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:54

32 days? Well, we're going back in 32 days, but when are we dragging these husbands back? Oh my god, I haven't quite quiet, quiet catch up. Quiet catch up. I would really love to get just the dudes and us down for Halloween Horror Nights.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:13

Just get that money tree going.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:17

It wouldn't be that bad. We're on it, we're on it. I haven't used my benefits for universal yet. I'm just saying. I think I'll start researching like late September, early October. I think we could do a three night. I think we could get there early on a Thursday, on a Thursday. We do Halloween Horror Nights that night. Yeah. I think we do the OG parks. Oh no, wait, we get there on a Friday. We do the OG, we do Halloween Horror Nights the Friday. Yep. Saturday, we do both OG parks park to park. Sunday, we do Epic. Yeah. Monday we fly home. That's my I'm in. I'm in when we do Cabana Bay. We're not staying fancy. No. And then my um my thought for next time we might get all of us down there. I don't want to wait another four years because the kids are just growing. They're growing and growing. When would they stop growing? I don't want Ella to be like in high school in like a junior in high school. If we go.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:31

I had so here's here's the thing, and this is actually something I talked about. I I talked about it in therapy also. Oh uh, and like I things have been very crazy, and I have not had a lot of time to focus on this type of stuff, but I focused on it a bit at Disney because the uh like like you said, Haley, like the family stratification thing is like real. And in four years, if we go in four years, Ella will have her driver's license. Like not even. Even learning, not even learning how to drive. Like she's gonna be driving fully.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:06

And guess what? Another two years after that, she's out.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

She's gone.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:10

She's in college.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:12

And and that's not a lot of time. And I've been having a very hard time with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:17

Uh yeah. Even Gloria, who is sitting here staring at me, waiting to go to bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:22

And spitting a pee out of her mouth. Like it's a shot.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:26

In four years, she's gonna be ten.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:29

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:31

Which is insane. I mean, it's insane. It's insanity. And like I'm not gonna be old, I'm gonna be like years older, but I'm gonna be the same big dummy dum-dum that I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:42

So much hotter though. Silver fox. Silver fox.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:48

Sorry, Tom's show real quick.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:50

I like it.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:53

I'm gonna be no, I'm gonna be in four years. I'm gonna be 47.

unknown 1:29:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:57

Bro.

unknown 1:29:58

Oof.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:00

I'm 43.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:03

We have to put our kids to bed. It's 3:30. Okay. John has a secret dad tip he needs to give. Okay, okay. And then I want to say one more thing. Go ahead, John. Living room so that daddy can give his secret dad tip.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:18

No, go away.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:19

No, I'm gonna be here. You didn't eat it. Go out. Go out. Let's hear it. Secret dad tip.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:26

Okay, so it's Florida water. I mean, I don't know about all of Florida, but Central Florida, Disney especially, the water tastes disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:32

Swamp water.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:33

It's swamp water. It tastes like sulfur. It's gross. It's safe to drink. Fine. All of the water fountains and all that. Most of the water fountains, many of the water fountains that you get, your taps in the hotel and all that stuff taste gross. In Magic Kingdom, at Cinderella's Castle, if you walk past Cinderella's Castle, if you're facing it, if you walk past it on the left-hand side, when you get around to the other side where Bippity Bopity Boutique is, there is a Cinderella's fountain.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:06

The wishing fountain.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:07

It's the wishing fountain. And there are four water fountains around it. That water, that water is filtered.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:14

Not the fountain water. Don't drink it from the fountain.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:18

Don't go on the fountain.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:19

Don't drink from the one where they throw the coins in.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:22

Use the water fountains, or as they call them in New England, the bubblest. The bubblers. That water is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:31

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:32

Yeah, but I was just gonna say targeting next trip. As much as I love these nine-day extravaganzas, maybe we aim lower for like a three to four night where we hit like a Halloween or Christmas party or something like much lower stakes, just so that we get there again before four years pass. That might be like the way to go. Yeah, less pressure. Yes, definitely. And we pick like very specific things we're gonna do, and we just do those things and eight is a lot of legs, David. Eight is a lot of legs, David. And seven is so many kids. Oh my god. And they're growing so fast. And I'm so glad we did this, guys. I had I honestly had the best time. It was what you wanted. This was your birthday trip. You just kept denying it was your birthday trip.

unknown 1:32:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:20

Wouldn't let us celebrate you at all. And the waitress at Artist Point was very committed to not celebrating me because she was like, um, I put your birthday cake on your tab. I hope that was okay. Shoot, I owe you for that. That's like mom's idea. I mom really wanted it to feel like your birthday dinner. And I was like, she does not want this. She does not want this at all. And mom was like, please, will you put the cake on the thing? And then I was like, shoot Haley's reservation. So it's on Haley's thing. We owe you$49.99 for the benefits of the city. Oh my god, you don't owe me. It was just hilarious that she even for a second was like, let me put this on your tab. They weren't every single cast member. If anyone had sang to me, I would have hurled myself into the sea. So thank God no one did that. When she when she brought over the cake, I was like, oh god, please no.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:12

Um we're gonna need this cake. We're gonna need this cake at the price of Haley's tab.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:22

No, it was absolutely wonderful. I had such a great time. Thank you for coming on this journey with me. For me right now, I'll come on all the journeys. Right now, the journey I have to go on is my children are losing their mood.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:39

If they don't go to bed, I'm gonna make them dig a hole in the backyard until 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:44

We're down here. All right. Hey, see you real soon.