Episode 2: Beyond the Pixie Dust: Tips and Tricks from our Very Own Travel Agent, Olivia

In Episode 2: Beyond the Pixie Dust: Tips and Tricks from our Very Own Travel Agent, Olivia, hosts dive deep into the world of travel planning. Whether you're a seasoned globetrotter that travels frequently or a newbie, there's a whole side to the industry you don't see. We will hear from Olivia how she turns a stressful planning process to a seamless magical experience for you!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome back to Chasing Disney Dreams. I'm your host, Andrea Tolino, and today we are talking with our co-host and travel agent, Extraordinaire Olivia. Whether you are a seasoned Disney vacationer or you're someone who's just planning your first vacation, you've probably come to realize that there's just a lot that goes into the planning of it. First, you need to decide: are you going to Disney World? Are you going to Disneyland? Are you going on a Disney cruise? And once you've established that, then you have to start thinking about things like dining reservations and lightning lanes and what resorts you're going to stay in. There's just a lot to juggle, and it can get very stressful. But what if I had a secret weapon that would reduce the stress? Let's do a deep dive on vacation planning. We're going to learn just how the pros plan, mistakes you're probably making, the hidden perks of using a travel agent, and how to actually stress less and enjoy more of your dream vacation. Let's get to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So grab your Mickey ears and pick your spot for the three o'clock parade.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

The show is about to begin. So Olivia, let's talk first about your most recent trip. When was the last time you went on a Disney vacation?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So I actually went in October of 2025, so only a few months ago. And I think I'm ready for a return to Disney because I am feeling the Disney depression.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

But it's a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yes, it is. I went on a girls' trip. It was really fun. I haven't been during Halloween. A lot of the times we go during Christmas just because we like all the decorations and stuff, and the weather's great during that time. But we decided to go on a Halloween trip this year. We got to do Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. That was great. We also went to Epcot during the Food and Wine Festival. We stayed at the boardwalk, so it was a great time there as well. But we just did like a long weekend, it was really fun. And we went with some people who have not gone in a while, and some people who go all the time. So it was a great like refresher kind of seeing new things because I've never seen the Halloween party. And that's something that's great about Disney is there's always something new to be seen. So we had a great time.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Since your last Disney vacation, how do you think Disney's changed, or or what do you think some of the upcoming changes are going to be? And what does that mean for people planning their future trips to Disney?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah, so really Disney hasn't changed since I've been there because I went in October of 2025. So it's only been a few months. There hasn't been many things that changed. Obviously, we all well, some of us know Epcot has festivals, so like right now, flower and gardens going on, and it's a great time to go see all the flowers that they do at and the topiaries and all that type of stuff at Epcot. But other than that, like not a lot is changing. There is things changing for the future. We know that the Muppets area closed, rock and roller coaster actually has closed since I've been there and is doing the refurbish, but nothing's changed quite yet, so things are still in the process. So that being said, like we know there's going to be like monsters inc coming in, we know that cars land is coming in. Do you know that Soren is about to change? That instead of Soarin' around the world, it's gonna be Soarin' around America. Those are the little things right now, nothing's fully changed since I've been there. The for Epcot specifically, I was there during Food and Wine Festival. Right now, like I said, the flower and garden festival is going on, so that's technically changing, but Epcot changes that all the time, so it's not necessarily something that's a big change and it's done right now, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

No, it absolutely does. Did your trip in October, because I know you've I know you've been to Disney numerous times and have your entire life and everything, but you're relatively new to stepping into the travel planning as a profession, if you will. Do you think did was there something about that trip that really just kind of set you on that trajectory to be a travel travel planner?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

I think part of this question, I kind of need to talk about like my behind the scenes of like why I wanted to do this.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, let's get into that. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So I again, like you said, been to Disney lots of times. Thankful for my parents to take me to Disney because right now I just recently turned 21, so most of my trips have only been with my family. My mom is a Disney lover through and through. She listens to Disney podcasts, she has Disney merch, she has a Disney TikTok, so she grew up loving Disney and her family didn't go as much, but she's kind of gotten into it on her own, if that makes sense. Because she's in love with Disney, she's kind of passed that to me, and I truly love getting to go to Disney and being ex being able to experience all the great things about Disney with the people I love. That being said, I feel like that kind of pushed me to do something with Disney. I knew that at some point in my life I wanted to do something that is technically working with Disney or for Disney. I am extremely close with my family, and so I felt like moving to Disney moving to Orlando, I guess I should say, wasn't necessarily in my cards, and I'm okay with that, but I always thought like, oh, maybe I do the Disney College program, or maybe I do something like working for Disney, because I do have some family members that live in Orlando, so technically I could like live with them and do stuff like that. But it just I am very close with my family and very close to especially to my mom. And I don't think that it would have been something that I truly would have been able to do and enjoy if I did that. So Disney travel planning was the next option, and it not just the next option, but the greatest option that I thought would be for my life at the moment. I thought about it and I just got out of like college and kind of was like figuring out my life with my college degree because I actually work for my mom or my parents, I guess I should say, but I work at their coffee shop and it's a family-owned business, so I started doing that and I work there full-time, but that's a great option for me because I'm done most days at 12 o'clock, so I have the whole evening to do different things, and why not fill that time with Disney? So I kind of was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the travel agency stuff, and to be honest, it was very difficult because they a lot of travel agencies would not accept you if you didn't have experience, and how can I get experience if nobody lets me get experience type of thing? So it was kind of difficult to like actually move forward with this, but I work for a company now and I work for a company, but I'm kind of an independent travel agent if that makes sense. So I work for Magical Moments Vacations, it's a great company. With that, I'll kind of talk about that in a second, but I started with them and it's just kind of moved forward from there. I did their schooling, so they have like a schooling program, and so I become like an expert in some of the different categories that I get to pick. I did decide to pick Disney as an expert category just to learn more information, but a lot of it I like to say I specialize in Disney resorts just because we do a lot of like resort hopping, and so I really think that the magical moments provide so much great information for us, but at the same time, they a lot of information I knew, and so I really enjoy what I'm doing now. And when I went on my trip in October, I was kind of thinking about it then. I started the school in December, I think, and it was like right around Christmas time, I think it was, but I a lady I knew who came in the coffee shop kind of mentioned to me that she has a friend that's a travel agent and she works for a company. I met with her, she was extremely helpful and just like kind of like telling me how it worked and stuff like that, and she actually helped me like walk through the process of booking my first trip on the travel agent side of things because it's it looks a little bit different. But that being said, like we kind of went through the process and she's been extremely helpful, and so now we're here. But yeah, it's been great. I really love booking trips.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Let's get into the why. Once upon a time, booking your own Disney vacation really wasn't that hard. I remember the days when you the number would come across the the phone number would come across the TV and you called and you ordered a VHS tape or eventually a DVD, and I don't think they do either one of those anymore. I could be completely wrong though on that. But those days are are long gone, and and now you've got Google and you've got AI and you've got other resources that mean people are planning their own trips. It's also putting a lot in the mix that can get confusing, especially if you don't know the ins and outs of Disney.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

What is the number one thing a travel agent provides that a website can't?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

So I think the first thing that we like should go from that question is one realizing that I'm completely free to use. So like you're not paying me anything. It's like, and that might seem like oh, there's a catch. Like I'm being so serious, no catch at all. Your maybe your trip costs total, now mind you, just giving an estimate, but maybe your trip costs total five thousand dollars. You're not paying five thousand one hundred dollars to give me a hundred dollars, you're literally paying five thousand dollars and that's it because that's how much your trip is. And so I think that that's important for people to know because I think that people always think, like, oh, I'm gonna have to pay you to book my trip that I could actually do myself. And so I think that that's really important to know just because if you know that I'm completely fee-free to use, then that makes you not want to book your trip because then you don't have to worry about any of the details, you don't have to worry about oh, when's this gonna happen? When's that gonna happen? I do think that having a person to always be at your on-call type of thing. I am the type of person that I do not like to leave people in my messages for more than an hour if I can, and so I think that it's really important because I love customizing trips. Disney, I always tell people is completely customizable. You can spend ten thousand dollars or you could spend one thousand dollars, and like you could literally could spend your budget, and I think that it's important to know that you're picking a travel agent that you should trust because it is completely customizable, and you should have a travel agent that wants to get to know you, and that's what I feel like I could say that I specialize in. I love asking how old are your kids? What what what are they like, what are they dislike? What are you thinking about for parks and kind of getting to fully know you because that's something that I can provide for you and then book your trip based off of that, instead of you just like asking Google, hey, what age is this ride for? And I could what if your kid's scared of pirates? Then you don't want to take them on pirates to the Caribbean. So I think it's very important that you have somebody who's really wanting to know you and your family, so then they can make your trip as magical and as perfect as possible.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

No, that makes complete sense. And and your example there, if your kid doesn't like pirates, then you're not gonna want to go on pirates. Something that I think somebody that maybe hasn't been to Disney like you and I is you may also not want to go to somewhere like Beacon Barrel, because that is also very themed too, the Pirates of the Caribbean, from what I understand. It's right there by it. I've never been there. But if you're not familiar with Disney, you may not know that.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

And some of my past clients that I've had so far, I've only been doing this for a couple months. Have I been to Disney a thousand times? Yes, but I've only been booking trips for a couple months, and I think that that can kind of like freak people out in a way, just because they don't think I know what I'm talking about in a way. But I think it's important that I really tell people that like I do know Disney, like the back of my hand. But I've had some people ask, like, okay, will my child like Bippity Bopity Boutique? And knowing the child, knowing kind of the background of the child, then I can answer that question. If you ask Google, what what is Bibity Bopity Boutique? You might just book it and then your child might hate it. And children are unpredictable in so many ways in Disney, and I think that it's important knowing that going into things, but also just booking with somebody so then they can handle all the details, so then you don't have to pause your life to handle the details.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

So talk, you know, talking about handling the details. Yeah, do you handle the dining reservations? Do you handle the lightning lane airport transfers? Is that something that you do? Is there anything that I, as let's say I'm the one going on vacation, is there anything that I would be responsible for aside from just getting myself there?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah. So with a travel agent, they again specialize in certain things. I specialize in Disney. So I specialize in creating your guys' itinerary if you want one. If you would like a more relaxed vacation, you could go down that route. If you wanted something that you want in dining reservations, then I can give you. I know this family really likes Italian restaurants. I'm gonna offer them toppolinos, or I'm gonna offer them different restaurants based off of what they like. If I know this family doesn't like pirates, I'm not gonna tell them to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm gonna list the rides that they should go on. Or I've just had a family book with me, and their daughter loves the colors and the festival and like just like a bunch of like more action type of thing. And so I said that if you guys go to Animal Kingdom, you should really go watch Festival of the Lion King because she'll love the colors, the details, the dancing, she'll love that. So I think it's very important that when you book with a travel agent, you feel like you're getting to know them at just as much as they're getting to know you because it is supposed to be a magical special trip, and so I think that that's kind of important. But off of that, like the only thing that you really technically have to handle is going to be airfare, usually, because especially with Disney, like airfare can be a kind of a tricky topic, especially right now, as we see like planes getting cancelled, stuff like that. It is important that we don't necessarily handle that because it's hard to control, and so we have nothing to do with controlling the flights. So usually we don't book our airfare for you guys, but we'll do most of the other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

So, in your you know, as you're doing your research and and keeping your eye on things, let's say there's a price drop or a special promotion that comes out is that something you can accommodate in terms of let's say free dining happens. I booked last year and they just announced Cool Kids Summer, I think is what it's called. Could we could you help me to take advantage of that?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah. So with working with an agency, so so I'm working with magical moments. The great thing about working with an agency is if I don't catch all the details, they catch the details. So they'll send us, make sure that we're getting all of our updated emails based on what's going on, and make sure that we get all of the deals and promotions. So something that's really amazing about working with magical moments is they're really on top of things. So I do stay on top of things just because I like Disney and I follow all their pages. But if someone was booking with a Royal Caribbean cruise, I might not pay attention to those deals as much because that's not something that I'm like as interested in. So I wouldn't see that, but they'll send that to me immediately, so then I can post that or even say, Hey, like they just offered this drink package for the cruise. Do you think that you want it? And that's just something that I can kind of keep up on for my mom. She's actually an annual pass holder. They dropped an annual pass holder deal over the springtime, so like right now, actually. But she booked her trip in December, so I was able to add that on, and she got a pretty good discount, and there's different discounts like that, so they'll usually do like the dining discount. Sometimes they have free water park days, so that's something that not everybody knows, and I can kind of keep you updated on that. But I can always go in and change your reservation, and you can always move and adjust your reservation. Maybe you want a different resort. I actually had somebody that um booked with French Quarter, but they wanted to do Caribbean Beach instead, and I switched it really quick, and they were actually leaving the next day.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Having a travel agent that can keep an eye on those things because I think one thing I've learned from going to Disney for many, many, many years is that things are always changing. Yeah. There's, I mean, we could wake up tomorrow and hear of a new promotion that they're offering. Yeah. I know when I believe it was when uh Disney Plus came out, they offered something for people that have a subscription. Had a subscription and all those little things that would be it for me anyway, be very stressful.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Because it would be like you book your trip and then you think, okay, everything's good, but then you could be saving money in the long run if you knew that that was coming out. And so really that's kind of my job is I'm paying attention and I'm going to I am going to book the best possible trip, but also the I'm going to watch your budget. I'm going to save you money where I can. I'm going to make sure that everything's perfect into the T because I want you to keep going back and saving money is great, obviously. So if you can do that, then we're going to book the trip and save you money.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Yeah, and I think for me, I I really like people to just experience and love Disney like I do. Yes. Which doesn't always happen.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

But that's okay. Um, but yeah, and I I think again to your point, that's one way to do it. I mean, I think it could be a real uh real not fun way to start your vacation, depending upon who you are. Maybe it maybe it doesn't make a difference to you, I don't know. But going down there knowing you spent X amount of dollars, but get down there and realize there had been a promotion you could have taken advantage of, yeah, and you're out 200 bucks. Heck, I'd be mad if I was out 25, let alone something more than that. So I think that's a really cool aspect of using a TA.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

So my mom and my aunt actually had booked a trip with the travel agent, and they didn't get what they thought they should have out of the travel agent. Not that they're paying them more again, but just kind of they were thinking it was gonna be more helpful. And I am again the type of person that's always gonna be communicating with you. Dining's dropping in 60 days. I'm gonna make sure that I have 60 days marked in my calendar and my phone before your trip so then I can let you know and I can book those for you. Or what time does lightning lanes drop, and all the things are very important to me because I know that that's gonna make your trip less stressful or even less of an issue for you, and so I think that it's very important that somebody's always keeping up on those things, and when you have a travel agent that's not doing that, and you find out, oh, she booked us this, but my child's not gonna be able to do that, and then you find that out, it's kind of like so. Why are you actually doing this for me if it's not almost helping them and benefiting them? Sure, and then also on that, it just defeats the purpose, so it just is important that again you know your travel agent and you know what their kind of what their values are as a person, just because I want you to go and have the best possible time, but they could also be looking at it in a different perspective, whether it's their only job or their only commission coming in, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Talking a little bit, you know, about saving the money and and all the things that you can help with. What's been the and I know you've only been doing this for a couple months, but what's been the most magical save you've ever pulled off for a client?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

This is kind of I guess you could say. So back to the story about my aunt. This is their first time going to Disney as a family. She uh married my uncle, and they aren't big Disney people, they don't really know much about Disney, they just kind of you know go with the flow, but they want it to be the best trip ever. She booked with a travel agent. This was very, I mean, recently-ish, but she booked with a travel agent, and her travel agent wasn't really communicating with them. But anyway, so they have their daughter, and she is non-verbal, and so they booked their vacation with a travel planner that said she specialized in being a helpful like travel agent for non-verbal or autism or anything to do with that whole category, and pretty much she didn't answer any of their questions, she didn't really communicate with them on dining, she didn't sh with Disney you can pay your trip off monthly. She was going to save it till the end of the month until their payment was due, so it just kind of put a lot of stress on them because they were constantly asking me, but they booked with her before I became a travel agent. So she also did something that they our first time to Disney. People and so she booked them park hoppers for every day that they were going, and Disney's overwhelming, and then you add parkopping to it, and it's just completely overwhelming if you don't know what you want to do and get things done. And so along the whole time that she's booking this trip, I was like, Hey, I wouldn't do that. Hey, and she was asking me these questions, and I was like, Hey, maybe ask her if she can just do like one-day passes instead of um one park day passes instead of doing the park hopping and just different things. So, anyways, I asked her, I was like, Hey, like, I don't this is an option if you want to kind of like rebook your trip, and sh she did cancel with her because it just like and did they kind of thought that the whole trip was ruined. But I was like, maybe you rebook it and we try again. And so we rebooked the trip, we got everything figured out within a couple days, everything's good. They're going to Disney actually over their son's first birthday, so they're gonna get his haircut there, and we kind of figured out all those little details. They're gonna do a dining reservation at Chef Mickey's, and so I think that that was kind of great seeing that she was getting all of her questions answered and just kind of you know feeling more comfortable about their trip because she had to cancel it with them thinking that it was ruined and that they weren't gonna be able to go, and we got it worked out, and it's kind of a great thing for me just because it was kind of a time and pressure situation, but we got it figured out, and they're gonna have a great trip, and we have all the details figured out. I kind of helped them, I made like a dock for them, so then they're able to see like okay, what rides can we all ride together? What rides can just my older child ride? Um, what can we do for dining at this park? And what can we do for dining at Disney Springs? And so I kind of gave them that all that information. I also helped them with transportation, what time rides are open, things like that. So she's feeling much more confident and happy to go rather than being stressed out because she didn't have a great travel agent experience, so that was kind of my magical moment, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

No, I think it absolutely does, and I think that's a big win for you being a mom to now a toddler and taking my toddler before she was a year old. I learned your days are very different than when you don't have a toddler.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

So at one time in my my life, I would have parkopped. I would have been ready to go to all four parks in one day and just been, you know, get 30,000 steps and and be good. However, with my toddler, I have realized that normally we can hang at the parks until noon or one, and we'll get back to the resort, take a nap. When we're done at the resort, usually she wants to play in a splash pad or something, and then go back to the park. And to your point, I don't think you have to park hot for that. If you're if you're going, you know, you're going for a week, let's say, you've got enough time that you can do one park a day. And I I think that was a really, really awesome thing that you could recognize that and really help them to understand that. Because to your point, coming off of a not great TA experience, yeah, it just sounds like that could have been incredibly overwhelming, especially, you know, with having a one-year-old and they know nothing about Disney.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

So they don't know how the transportation works. Yeah. And their travel agent said, Hey, your dining reservation's open if you want to book. She didn't know how to book it. She also didn't know what she should book. And so she knew her daughter would want to see the characters. Sure. So I was like, Hey, character breakfast would be a great idea. You don't have to wait in line. And so, like, obviously, I kind of adjusted that and we figured all everything out, got everything booked, and she is at a much more excited, peaceful level with her trip rather than being stressed out and not knowing anything. Yeah. And I think that that was kind of my moment of like, okay, I can do this. I helped them out, and they're gonna have a great trip.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I can't rave enough about Olivia and her travel planning that she does because she's helping us a lot with saving me a lot of stress. Yeah. With our Alaskan cruise when we take that next year. Yeah. Let's let's take your cousin. Let's go back back a step here and and talk about your cousin again. So she's taking her family for the first time. What is the first thing you would tell a client who says they want to do everything in in one day or in five days? Let's say I'm gonna be there a week and I wanna I wanna do everything.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah, so I think that that goes back to like knowing the family for specifically my aunt and uncle that are going. I told them that go in with the mindset, like you're going to Disney. Don't go into the mindset that you're going to meet Rapunzel, Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Tiana, all in one day. You're setting high standards for yourself, and that's great if you don't have kids, but as soon as you have kids, your life revolves around them, and so it's very important that you don't go in setting such high standards for yourself because you're gonna feel like you either disappointed you yourself or disappointed your kids. And so I especially told her don't go in telling your five-year-old that you're going to meet Minnie today or Mickey today, because you don't know that that's gonna happen, especially with characters at Disney World, they're not always in the places that they're gonna be walking around, you can go up to them. With that also being said, if you're going with just your boyfriend, your husband, your family that are older adults, you can set standards for yourself. We're getting here at rope drop and we're not leaving till the park closes. But when you have the kids with you, go in thinking, like, hey, we're gonna go to Disney and we're gonna try to get to this ride and this ride or that ride, and we're gonna try to make it to the Festival of the Lion King. But if we don't, it's okay. We got to experience something, we're having a fun time, and I think that it also it reduces your pressure because you'll see so many times families getting upset and worked up and not maybe having the most magical moment, but that's okay too. You're gonna get flustered, it is a lot, and every day you know with kids can be a lot. You never know how they're gonna react, or you know, you'll never know how they'll handle something, or maybe they don't like the characters, and I think that it's just important that you go in with no expectations because if you go in with too high or even any expectations, you can fail necessarily, but you're not actually failing, it's just you're not thinking that you're doing enough because you didn't hit those standards of what you set for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

You touched on something that I'd like to dive into a little more. How would a client reach you if something goes wrong? You were talking about, let's say your kiddo doesn't like the characters, yet they've got Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's and Tusker House all planned as character meals, but they go to that first one and their kid is terrified of the characters.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

How do you how do you handle those situations? Is it something you can handle?

SPEAKER_00 29:07

What yeah, so working with the client is something I work every day in customer service at my mom's coffee shop. But with that being said, this is somewhat of a customer service. It's also me just like caring about your trip and wanting to it to be the most magical vacation. And if that's the case, we're gonna reroute your trip. And I am always like, I would say on call because I'm ready for your questions, your concerns. Hey, Olivia, I'm so sorry. How do I get here? How do I get there? That's always questions that come up, like especially if somebody doesn't know how Disney transportation works and they need to get to their reservation at maybe they're from resort to resort and they don't know how to get there. That is something that I like to help you with and like to like say again that I could specialize in just because I'm ready to answer your questions. I'm ready to help you get to one place to the other, or even reroute your trip. And instead of we're going to Tusker House, we're gonna reroute it and maybe not do a character meal just because Mickey might freak us out sometimes. But if that's something that happens, I'm ready to be there and I'm ready to help adjust your trip just because we're learning how you want your trip to be, and that's something that I'm always ready for.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Veering off of that a little bit here. If a client comes to you and they say, I've got one day at Disney, just one, how are you how do you or help plan them or how do you help best guide their day? What suggestions do you make? I'm sure it all goes back to really getting to know the family that you're you're working with.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

But what would, you know, what would you tell them so they get their best the best bang for their buck?

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yeah. So if it's a family that I've been talking to, I definitely know what they like and what they don't like. I think it does base off of that, and I think that we could go one of two ways. If it's a family that is ready to go, go go, I'm gonna say, okay, we're gonna set up lightning lanes and we're gonna get this all figured out so then we can make sure that you're hitting every single ride you want to. You're not waiting in line, we're getting everything next, next, next, next, so then we can get everything situated. But if it's a family that's never been to Disney or they this is their first time, or this is their first time just going with kids, then we're gonna reroute that whole trip and we're gonna go a whole different way. We're gonna make it more relaxed because the more stuff that you pack into your day, the more stressful you're gonna be because you're not hitting those standards or those marks, and so then you're just gonna think that your trip's ruined. So we're gonna go a whole different route and we're gonna say, Okay, we'll get to the park when we get to the park. We're not gonna rope drop now. What we're gonna do is we're gonna get to the park and we're gonna go maybe get some Mickey waffles, or later we'll go to the confectionery and I'll list some of the places that they can enjoy food, or we can do a dining reservation and that just be the only thing that they have technically planned for the day. And then we'll kind of go down two different routes depending on based on the family and kind of what they're looking for in a trip, but it is definitely customizable, so to answer that question is a little bit difficult, but at the same time, we work it out.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

How would you handle a situation when a client, let's say the client calls you and says, I found a better deal online?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

I think that it with that, all deals are available for everybody, so like they can't really come to me and say I found a better deal for is I guess I should say d Disney because Disney deals are usually open for everybody. If it's something that we need to cancel and rebook or something that we can figure out, everything is adjustable, everything is customizable, so we can just kind of figure that out and figure out how we can get that deal perfectly for you. If it's something that maybe I didn't see, I'm always willing to adjust and kind of go a different route, but it's never something that I can't get for you.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

What is the one thing you always pack in your park bag that most people forget?

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Fuel rod that saves your life because especially being now a travel agent, pictures and videos are extremely important for me. I have social media accounts, so I we'll talk about that in a little bit, probably. But it is very important that I have pictures and videos of what I'm doing in the parks and stuff like that, just because it's important to show off, and so a fuel rod is very important because they have fuel rod stations where you can like it's kind of like a battery pack for people who don't know what a fuel rod is, but they have stations where you put it in and then a new one comes out, so it's like interchangeably a new one always comes out that's fully charged, and I'm always able to charge my phone, so that's something that I always have.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Is that a list you have? Like, do you know where all the fuel rod stations are?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, because it's important. It's important for some. It it most certainly is. And I'm I need to make sure that I'm getting the pictures of the fireworks at the end of the night. And if my phone dies, I'm gonna be extremely upset. So that's something that I always have.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. I actually my I don't know if it was in November, if it was the trip we took in May of last year, but I always take my fuel rod too, and I was ready to to swap it out, and I could not find one of the stations to save my life. Now they're there, I just was looking at all the wrong places.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

And I also always bring a poncho. You never know Florida weather, and I always bring a poncho, and this is really kind of embarrassing, but I always bring the shoe ponchos because I hate wet shoes, and so I always bring both.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Yeah, wet shoes are the worst, and there are certain places in Disney World that water can very quickly puddle, if you will. So, no, I completely understand that one.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

So, two things in my park bag are fuel rod and ponchos and ponchos.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

I love it, I love it. Ponchos are important. That silly Florida weather, it can be bright blue skies, and then all of a sudden it's raining, and you're like, where did this come from? I have no idea. For those not familiar with Disney vacations or the way a Disney trip works, can you explain a little bit about the virtual cue system, the park hopping, those little things that are really specific to Disney and getting the most out of your park day?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

So obviously, one park, so there's we're gonna talk about Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Ebcot, and Hollywood Studios. Those are the parks that are gonna be at Walt Disney World. With that, there is different types of tickets for each park. So you can do just a one-day park ticket. Um that's simply you're going to one park in one day. Um, but then there's also park hoppers, and park hoppers can be kind of confusing. It is a park ticket though that you can purchase and it allows you to park hop, which kind of sounds funny, but it lets you go from park to park. So maybe I wanted to start at Magic Kingdom in the morning. I wanted to go to Crystal Palace for breakfast. I'll go to Crystal Palace and then I think okay, I actually want to now go ride Slinky Dog in Toy Storyland in Hollywood Studios. So then I'm gonna get on a bus, go to Hollywood Studios, and I'm gonna ride that ride. Now I am done with Hollywood Studios and I want to go to Ebcot and spend most of my day there. I'm gonna go to Epcot, I can eat and drink around the world, or I can go ride rides there. And then after I'm done with that, I decide that I am okay with skipping Animal Kingdom today. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow. But if you decide to do Animal Kingdom, we're gonna reroute the whole trip. But then I'm gonna enjoy the fireworks with the castle at Magic Kingdom at night. If you ever think that you want to do Animal Kingdom, I always suggest starting there. Starting at Animal Kingdom is important to me because number one, you can ride Kilimanjaro Safari. I have a great video on my TikTok right now. It is of one of the lions that just become like an adult male, I guess you could say. But he was roaring on the like in his area, you know, and we were on the ride, or I guess in the safari cart, and on video, and it's a really cool video just because like you don't see that very often, but the animals are most active in the morning. So if you can start there, it actually opens the earliest, so it's a perfect way to like start your day because you get that hour before the other parks open, and then you can kind of go from there to maybe Magic Kingdom, you can even do breakfast after you do Kilimajaro Safari or whatever. So you can kind of adjust your day, and it just kind of again depends on what you want out of your trip, which I've probably said that a million times, but Disney trips are customizable, so it just kind of depends on what you're thinking.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Yeah, it really does depend on what you what you want to accomplish when you go to Disney.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

And I always want to make sure that you're getting the most out of your trip, and so that's why I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna probably ask you a million questions. But I do want your trip to be absolutely perfect.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Do you ever talk to your your clients about I need you to make I don't know if I'd say make me a list, but you know, I I think all of us, especially those of us that have been to Disney numerous times, you always think something like you're like there's something in your mind that you're like, this is what I I have to do. Yeah on one of them, Phantasmic. Love Phantasmic, probably my favorite thing in all of Disney World. Yeah, and I know that's the thing that I have to accomplish. And if I can't accomplish anything else, I want to accomplish that. Do you have your clients come into you and say, Hey Olivia, I on my Hollywood Studios Day, I know I want to do Phantasmic, I know I want to do Slinky Dog, and I know I want to do Tower of Terror. After that, whatever else I get to do is fine. Yeah, those are my like must do's though.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't. If the clients never been to Disney, they don't know much about it, then obviously they can't really make me a great list. But someone for my mom, she has like she watches videos all the time, and so she will go and make a list of food she wants. So I at the that point we kind of will usually go together, or she'll go with my dad, so then she kind of knows her way around the park. But if she didn't, then I would say, Okay, you want to start here and work this way, or you want to go to this ride first and then go here. I have a client who actually works with me at the coffee shop, and she made a list of rides that they definitely want to do, and so I'm going to set up their lightning lanes, hopefully, to fit that. With lightning lanes, it sometimes can be a little difficult just because it's you gotta fiddle faddle is what we call it. You kind of have to work with it and figure out what you're doing. But that being said, I do have some people make me a list, it just kind of depends on what they're wanting. And it's it's really cool that again, like I said, one of the girls actually made me so she her sister's birthday will be during the time, and so she's going with her in June, and I asked them if they have anything that they like for sure want to do, and they wanted to go to dinner for her sister's birthday. So I kind of sent them a list of restaurants that would be a good idea for that specific event, or they also were the same ones that made the list of like the rides that they wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Yeah, so you it sounds like you have you have both sides of the spectrum there. You have people that do come in that say, Hey, here's kind of where I'm thinking, while you also have people that are just like, Yeah, take care of it. I'm I'm a I'm a hand it over to you and like you just take care of everything type of person.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

So my aunt she was kind of the take care of it type of person, but she still had her questions that she wanted to, you know, ask and get answered. So I made them the document that I was talking about, and every park I wrote down what time it opened, what time it closed, what time the fireworks were, what rides they could do as a family, and then what restaurants they might want to eat at or quick services that they might want to eat at. So I have both sides.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Let's okay, you've got you've got a client and they're mere hours from their vacation. They're they're it's the day, it's the night before, let's say. Yes. And packed, ready to go. What is one piece of advice you're gonna give them as they are preparing to start their trip?

SPEAKER_00 40:49

I have said this in this episode so far, but I would definitely say go in with no expectation. Go in to just enjoy your trip. Disney is a beast, as you could say, but also it's your vacation, and it might be the only vacation that you get that year. And so uh go in just enjoying it. See every moment, take pictures, relax, sit down when you're tired, don't push yourself to the limits because it can start arguments, fights, whatever. So, like go in just enjoying it because if you don't, it's not gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

I love that. I I I love that. I think that's a great piece of advice, and I think anybody going into a Disney trip, regardless if you're a professional, you know, you go all the time or you're going out for your first time, it's just things just get to be unpredictable, like you said. You never know how I the first time I took my kid out, I had no idea that the splash pad was gonna be like the it thing.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

I've I had never gone in a splash pad at Disney. And yet we spend a lot of time there. Yeah. So I can't.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

And at the end of the day, like if that's making you and your family happy, it might just be the part that you, you know, waste a little bit of time there because it if you push them, especially kids, if you push them to their max, they're just gonna get tired and they're gonna get grumpy. And that's not kids being ungrateful, but it's more them just not knowing. And so just go in knowing that they're not trying to ruin your trip, as you could say, but they don't know. And so it's just less stress, less pushing is gonna be better for the result of your trip.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Is that something that you tend to that you talk to parents about when they're they're booking saying, Hey, I get that you want to go sun up to sundown, but yeah, you've got a toddler, and in the middle of the day, that toddler's gonna really crash.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Yeah, so we've been on buses before going to the park, and the mom's just getting upset because their toddler isn't like uncontrollably crying, yeah. And she's upset because she wants it to be the best trip ever. While I understand that, sometimes it just you have to change directions. Right. And I think that that is an important conversation to have if they're not, if they're expecting, especially their first time, it's just important to talk about, just because you never know where it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Yeah. No, I I think you've given us some really great tips. Yeah, I think we've covered a whole lot of ground. I think everybody needs to know what an incredible resource Olivia is, and that you really, if you're planning your vacation, you need to reach out to her because if you couldn't tell, she knows her stuff.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

So we've talked about a lot of details today about travel and travel planning and all the things. And again, travel agents are great to use, but you want to make sure like you know the person that you're working with. If maybe you're planning a trip in the future and you'd like to maybe just even ask questions or just kind of see like what the price of something would be. I have a couple social media accounts that I'd like to introduce you guys to. I have a TikTok, an Instagram, and a Facebook, and they're under MMV Olivia Allward. Olivia O L I V I A and then Alward A L W A R D.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

And uh for the podcast, we also have so far TikTok and Instagram, and you can follow us and our adventures on there at Chasing Disney Dreams A plus sign O for Andrea and Olivia.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

And we'd love for you guys to share and comment and maybe even like reach out through any of the social media platforms for any questions, or maybe you just want like a podcast episode to be revolved around a certain thing.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Yeah, we're we're open to suggestions. I mean, we're just getting started at this, and I think if you've got, as as Olivia said, you've got questions, you've got a great idea about something we should cover. I know we're gonna be doing some, you know, recent events, hopefully, in the near future. Yeah. You know, Josh Demorrow just took over, and and I'm sure he's gonna be coming up with a lot of things in the near future. So we'll we'll be going over all that. But if there's something specific you want to see, we'd absolutely love to hear about it, and we'll do what we can to make sure we get a podcast out there for you. So to wrap us up a little bit here, first and foremost, if you're planning a trip right now, make sure you get with Olivia. Take screenshots of the episode, whatever you need to do to make sure you've got her contact information. And with that, we are wrapped up on this episode of Chasing Disney Dreams. Thank you, Olivia, for sharing all of your incredible insider tips and navigating the world of travel. Whether you're planning a massive international trek or just looking for a quick weekend getaway, having an expert in your corner can really and truly make all the difference.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

Thank you so much for tuning in and dreaming big with us today. Make sure to check us out on all of our social media to get more fun traveling tips and tricks. I cannot wait to help you guys plan your dream vacation. I'm Andrea Tolino. And I'm Olivia Allward. And until next time, keep exploring, keep ex miling, and go out there and chase your dreams.