In our latest episode of #TalkWealthToMe, we chat with Walter Russell, a financial advisor and self-described Disney superfan on ways to make trips to Disney theme parks more affordable AND more enjoyable.
Walter Russell is a financial advisor who specializes in helping financially successful people achieve their most important goals that are aligned with their most deeply held values. He has been in the financial services industry for 20 years.
Comments, questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at talkwealthpodcast@gmail.com.
Want to learn more about Walter Russell? Visit his Disney savings tips website, Follow the Orange Backpack or check out his financial firm services at Russell & Company. Walter also has a personal finance website geared toward women - SimpleMoneyTipsForWomen.com. You can follow Walter on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
To learn more about DebtWave Credit Counseling, visit our website or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
To learn more about the San Diego Financial Literacy Center, visit our website or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
In our latest episode of #TalkWealthToMe, we chat with Walter Russell, a financial advisor and self-described Disney superfan on ways to make trips to Disney theme parks more affordable AND more enjoyable.
Walter Russell is a financial advisor who specializes in helping financially successful people achieve their most important goals that are aligned with their most deeply held values. He has been in the financial services industry for 20 years.
Comments, questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at talkwealthpodcast@gmail.com.
Want to learn more about Walter Russell? Visit his Disney savings tips website, Follow the Orange Backpack or check out his financial firm services at Russell & Company. Walter also has a personal finance website geared toward women - SimpleMoneyTipsForWomen.com. You can follow Walter on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
To learn more about DebtWave Credit Counseling, visit our website or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
To learn more about the San Diego Financial Literacy Center, visit our website or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Welcome to Talk Wealth to Me- a safe space podcast where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance.
Felipe:The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting legal, tax or other professional advice.
Chase:Hello and welcome. I am Chase Peckham of the San Diego Financial Literacy center and this is talk wealth to me, the seventh edition where we talk personal finance, everything from tips to in-depth discussions. To interviews with some of the most interesting and well respected professionals and experts in their fields. And today we have a very unique interview. I mean most of us love Disney and the idea of going to Disneyland is one that is kind of a rite of passage, but also some thing that most families will try and do anything they can to get to experience, whether it's in southern California, uh, in Anaheim, at Disneyland, the original or down into Orlando. But it can be extraordinarily expensive. And Walter Russell experienced this and he has now come up with an incredible way to pay for this, how to navigate the hotels, how to know, get, navigate the toys, navigate the parks themselves what to do in between. And Felipe and Katie do an incredible job with this interview here it is.
Katie:All right. Joining us from Ohio is Walter Russell. Walter, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
Walter Russell:Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Katie:And we really wanted to pick your brain about traveling specifically to Disney parks. A lot of us look forward to traveling during the summer. Kids are out of school and typically the work culture is a little bit more relaxed, but you've actually found a way to make Disney vacations a little bit more affordable.
Walter Russell:Yes.
Katie:How? So, I gotta ask, how many times have you personally been to Disneyworld? How many times did it take you to figure out, maybe there's a way I can do this a little bit. A more affordable way?
Walter Russell:Yes. So, um, I'll be honest with you, I take, I've been to Disney probably, I know well over 10 to 15 times. Yeah, we've been so often, I actually have lost count.
Katie:Oh Wow. That's great.
Felipe:That's impressive.
Walter Russell:Um, so I'm one of those Disney, you know, crazy fans. You know, we'd go watch all the movies and you know, try to, we try to get to the parks at least once a year. Um, that being said, I originally took my children back in I think 2009 a right after the financial episode or whatever you want to call, you know, I just said to my wife, we need to get away. Um, so we decided to book a trip, you know, and one late evening, Hey, we're going to jump on and get airplane tickets and go down to Walt Disney world. And I think we spent over$10,000 going on that trip. Yeah. We didn't really know what we were doing. I just said, hey, let's get away. We've got three, three girls, you know, let's go see the cast. So let's go have fun. There'll be 70 degrees when we get down there and everything else like that. So we spent$10,000, you know,
Katie:And can I just stop you right there. The$10,000, is that an amount that your family is normally able to afford to spend on a vacation or is this a little bit of above or below what you guys would normally spend?
Walter Russell:Um, at that time, um, it was above because we, you know, my parents, you know, I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, but my parents were, you know, their vacations where they don't go anywhere. Let's just work. And my wife is, she's a travel person, so she loves to travel and she was like, you know, we just needed to get away. You know, there's a lot of stress in dealing with the markets and all this other stuff. Let's just get away and you know, let's regroup and refresh so at that time, you know, it was like, all right, this is, you know, this is a once in a lifetime trip. Let's go there and you know, let's just go have fun. And so it was above the budget, you know, at that time. So we generally don't want to spend$10,000 on a trip down to an amusement park per se. So, but at that time, we didn't know any better, you know, we just thought this is the way you do it. So, um, in 2009, we went and we stayed at a resort. And I think, you know, our thought processes, because it was five of us, we thought that every one of our kids needed their own bed. Well, we were stupid if it, when we were doing this. And we also thought that we needed a, you know, a rental vehicle, you know, we rented a minivan, you know, cause with kids and you know, car seats and everything else like that. We thought we needed that. And we also thought we needed a kitchen. So, um, we stayed at Saratoga Springs, which is, you know, one of the resorts and Walt Disney world, and it's a farther resorts. So, um, it, you know, it took us a longer trip and everything else like that. So we rented a room that actually sleeps around 12 people because each one of our kids had to have their own bed. You know, my wife wanted a washing machine, you know, just in case the kids had an accident or anything else like that and kind of going back and forth in their so at that time, I think it was like$700 a night. Um, you know, just, you know, for the 10 day stay that we, uh, stayed there. So I think first five nights for like 700, then the next five nights for 500, because we, it was a special discount.
Katie:And I gotta ask you too, you know, so many people you mentioned that you're a Disney Super Fan. So many people are just so enchanted by the magic of Disney and the stories that come out of Disney and it seems like a lot of us are willing to justify spending more because we're going to Disney.
Walter Russell:Yes, exactly right. Um, so I'll answer that, but let me finish this last part about our story. So we ran our kids because, you know, I wanted to get my money's worth. You know, my parents raised me to be fiscally responsible with money and everything else like that. And we ran our kids from sunup to sundown, you know, um, by staying on property, they have extra, you know, they had extra magic hours. I took the parks are open the two o'clock in the morning, so we had our kids out to two o'clock in the morning and everything else like that. Well, on the way back, um, we should've saw the signs, but my middle daughter started to get sick. Halfway through the trip on the way back, my middle daughter, she threw up in the airplane and then two days later the other two of our children got sick as well. So you look at that and say, Hey, we spent all this money and we just came back home with sick kids and wasn't a really enjoyable trip. Um, and so that's why we started our blog is because we wanted to help people make the vacations magical and not complicated, um, and everything else like that. So that's part of the reason why we are probably the main reason why we started the blog.
Felipe:I have to admit, that's how I travel. I get up as early as possible and stay up as late as possible to try and get the most out of it. My wife is not about that. So she's like, we need to break. We need nap times. We and I, I just want to skip them.
Walter Russell:Yeah. And I think that's where everybody is at is, you know, when you're spending this amount of money, you know, it costs$100 per person to get into the any one of the parks. You know, you want to get your money's worth, you know, so, um, what we came up with this, with the strategy that, you know, you're not gonna see every attraction. You're not going to see every show. You're not going to go into every ride at Walt Disney world. You need to play, you know, pace yourself and you know, see the best things that you want to see. Um, because nobody likes to sit in line. You know, when it's 80 degrees out, you're sweating and you're walking through a, uh, an amusement park. So nobody wants to do that, you know, and waiting in line for three hours for a ride and everything else like that. So,
Katie:yeah, and the sheer size of the park too, you were saying you can't get on every ride. You can't visit every attraction. I think I was reading, and I don't know if you know the answer to this, but Disney world is the size of two Manhattans.
Walter Russell:Yes. Yeah. It's, it's pretty huge. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, it's a city within the city. Um, you know, they've got tons of restaurants. I mean, you know, they've got tons of attractions and there's no way you're going to be able to see everything. So that's part of the reason why we try to make this as less complicated. You know, you find the, you know, two or three attractions that you want to see and then you go see them. Um, then you know, you make it enjoyable. Um, you make it relaxing. And that's what we've kind of had our system, because the last thing you want to do is come home and you're yelling at your spouse because you spent all this money and you know, your feet are hurting. Cause you walk, you know, 10 miles a day, you know, tracking through a park and it's 80 degrees, you're dehydrated. You know, and, and we see this all to time, you know, too many times when we're in the parks is that these parents that have pushed these little kids and the little kids by three, four, five o'clock, they're having temper tantrums. You know, they're, you know, they're going crazy or they're passing out in their strollers and all for the want to, you know, continue to push the more and more and more and more. So, um, there are a lot of things you can do on, at Disney, um, you know, that don't really cost that much money. So that's what we try to do is we try to help people, you know, get, you know, do what's inside your budget to, uh, have a enjoyable vacation.
Katie:Yeah. And on your website, you know, I saw that you guys offer different packages or plans, I guess, where you've gone and you figured out exactly what somebody can do to have an enjoyable day at Disney world or Epcot or the animal kingdom.
Walter Russell:Yes, yes. So what we did is we created a, these, right now they're one day plans for all the parks. You know, assuming if you had a, you know, those small children or you've had teens, you know, just trying to, you know, use our recipe. Um, and I'll give a free tidbit. You know, what we try to do is we try to get people up early as possible. Um, and we try to take a break in the middle of the day. Um, because you know, your body can only push some more with so much, you know, we're not all athletes, you know, that are playing in the NBA or NFL. So, you know, going 12 hours straight is not, uh, not, not the best thing for everybody's body. You know, you need to be hydrated and everything else like that. So in the middle of the day, we generally take a rest, you know, because we're in Ohio, we're not blessed with, you know, great weather all year long. So we always generally say, hey, let's go back, you know, around lunch time. Um, and that's another tidbit that we do to save money. And also time is when most of the people are coming to the park we're actually exiting the park and having a Russ, you know, going swimming, eating lunch, then it allows you to have more enjoyable times with your family. Um, and kind of going from there.
Katie:Sure. So I want to actually go back and ask you, you're talking about that, you know, the different plans that you created in different tips on what people could see, how many attractions is it is a reasonable, I guess, amount to expect to see in one day if you go to Disney.
Walter Russell:Oh. Um, so if you go to magic kingdom, you know, you can probably see anywhere from eight to 12 attractions and that's depending on how fast you want to move, you know, so if you look at it, depending on who's inside your party, you know, if it's just two adults, you could probably see more. Um, but when you have small children or you're going with, you know, last year we went with my parents, my stepfather had a scooter and my mother, uh, she didn't want to take a scooter, but she needed one. So she slowed the pace down. So that's the biggest thing is that, you know, we always tell to tell people you've got to move at the pace with the people in your party. Um, you know, depending on your shoe size and how long your legs are, you're going to cover more ground when you're walking through the parks. So on average we think if people can get to eight to 12 rides or attractions, you know, within a day using our strategy.
Katie:You know, for a lot of people looking at just the ticket price, I think you mentioned it's at least a hundred dollars for everybody walking in the door.
Walter Russell:Yes.
Katie:When you have a small child, like Philippe for example, has two small children. I mean for him and his family to walk in the door, it's like what, 500$400 Felipe?
Felipe:It gets pricey. And especially now that the, the, the oldest one is no longer free. Yes. Um, you know, now I'm paying two adults and then one child and the little one, he's still a little he's still in the stroller, but you know, it can get pretty expensive just to get started. Well not even including the fact that if you have to travel, we have Disneyland up the road. It's tank of gas, half a tank of gas. It's not a big deal. But if you're traveling from at the, it might, you might be spending a lot of money before you even get through the door.
Walter Russell:Yeah, exactly. And so that's part of our strategy is, uh, there are hard costs to just get there. You know, just getting into the parks, that's a hard cost. Um, so we try to use tidbits to save money. Um, so if I know that I've got$100 just to enter the park, um, so how can I cut my costs? So food is one of the biggest ways that you can cut your costs. Um, so generally what we do is we eat breakfast and lunch inside the, um, wherever we're staying. Um, and the reason we do that is because, you know, if you've got a small refrigerator, everybody can have milk and cereal, so that takes care of your breakfast. Um, then on lunch, you know, if you, you know, sandwiches or salads that can be stored inside your refrigerator, so that cuts down your costs as well. Um, what we generally do is we will, um, go to either like a Walmart or Publix grocery store in the Florida area and we will get water bottles, um, because water bottles costs$4, you know, per water bottle inside the park. So we'll generally, you know, if we have a freezer, will freeze the water bottles inside the, um, hotel accommodation and then we'll take water bottles with us. So those are ways that we generally save, you know, a lot of money inside the parks. Um, because the cost of entry you, there's really not that much around it. You know, you might be able to find a discount here or there. Um, but you know, like may maybe moves you from a$100 down to$80, you know, for a park ticket or something like that, depending on what discount you're able to find. But the food costs is the biggest way we can save. And also the accommodations. Um, we generally like to stay on the Disney world resorts because that does save us a lot of time, but that is pretty pricey. There are places like VRBO where you can rent a house in the Orlando area and you can, you know, books that happened with, you know, 10 of your closest friends that can actually cut down your costs are accommodations, but now you have to pay for parking and it takes you longer to get to the parks and everything else like that. So,
Katie:well I think you actually mentioned that on your, your Disney website, followtheorangebackpack.com that staying at a Disney hotel may cost a little bit more, but you may have access to the park earlier or later. And transportation is largely covered. Okay.
Walter Russell:Yeah. So give me an example. We've, you know, two years ago I took, we stayed off, um, the Disney property, we stayed at a hotel, I think it was like a Hilton hotel, so it cost us$25 a day to park, so you have to commute back and forth. And um, you know, we had a cheaper hotel stay, I think that we were paying like$200 a night in the hotel and it had a freezer and a refrigerator and everything else. Like that. So it was great for our family, but the time you had to, you know, you get to go to the transportation area, you had to walk back and forth, you know, from the transportation area to your car and everything else like that. So you're spending a lot more time commuting. Um, so we always say in the world, time is money. So, um, that's what you give up by staying local. Also Disney offers, you know, extra magic hours, you know, so with the new galaxy edge opening that they're actually in the process of opening, I think it opens up today in Disneyland and it opens up in August at Disney world, but they are actually having what are called extra extra magic hours. What that means is they were going to open up the parks a lot earlier. I think they're opening the parks at like 6:00 AM.
Felipe:That's awesome.
Walter Russell:The benefit of them doing that as, okay now if you stay in the Walt Disney world, all their different hotels, you could get to the star wars galaxy at galaxy edge area at 6:00 AM and no other guests will be allowed to get in there until eight o'clock. Um, and the reason they're doing that as they're trying to incentivize you to stay on their locations so that they can benefit from that. But that's one of the, that's actually one of the biggest perks that we found are more beneficial. So generally when we are planning our trip is we are looking at what are the extra magic hours are, what are the extra, extra magic hours so that we can have our, our trips coincide when they have met extra magic hours. Cause that's, that's a way that you can increase your chance of your potential of going to, um, to see a lot of rides. If you look at it, how many people are willing to get up at four 30 in the morning, be on the bus, you know, at five 30 to get to the park at 6:00 AM not too many people are going to do that. Um, you know, so, but that's something that Disney I'll actually allows you to, to do because it's going to be beneficial. So
Katie:does that, just as a parent traveling with kids too, does that help kind of reduce some of the pressure or stress around like, oh my gosh, I have to see everything in Disney. I have to make sure my child sees all of their favorite characters in this one day. Does that magic hour time just kind of help just calm everyone?
Walter Russell:Yeah. Yes. Cause you know, so we've gone to the extra magic hours and I want to say the park attendance is cut down to maybe a third or fourth of the people that are. So if you look at it and you say, okay, hey, we're going to go to the 6:00 AM you know, extra magic hours, you know, I find, or extra, extra magic hours, I would spend all that six to nine o'clock in the morning in galaxy's edge location. You know, I would see all the attractions, I would try all the food, everything in that Disney Hollywood studios park. Um, and that would be a day and we would probably, if we were going there at six o'clock in the morning, we would probably be leaving maybe around nine 30, 10 o'clock to go back and do our rest period. Um, and the reason is, is because, you know, we're already up were, you know, your body's getting up at four o'clock in the morning, you're riding the bus and everything else like that, you know, you can only go for so long. So now we're going to maybe take an earlier break and we might not return back to the parks until maybe three o'clock in the afternoon. Um, and that allows you to enjoy your time with your family and you're just not on the grind because the last thing you want to do is go on a vacation. You feel like you're working a full time job. Um, and with all the crowd levels that are at Disney, um, you know, that can become a fulltime job navigating around people waiting in and everything else like that.
Felipe:It's like a maze in, in just walking down the, even the big paths on the crowded days because it's, yes. And then especially if you've got a stroller, you're trying not to bump people with the stroller. People try and get people not to trip on the stroller yeah, it's really quite the adventure. Just navigating
Katie:Didnt they just change the stroller size requirement too?
Felipe:They did. So my stroller would not work.
Walter Russell:Yeah. Um, so, you know, this thing's always trying to make it beneficial. I mean, cause if you look at a Disney, what they're really trying to do is they're trying to provide you an experience, you know. So, for example, the magic bands that they provide you in the, uh, Walt Disney world in Florida, um, they sync it up to your credit card. So the reason they want that to happen is because you're not swiping your credit card, you're just tapping your magic ban. Then at the end of the day, you can see a report of all the charges that you've done. So the reason Disney does that is because they want to make it as painless as possible so that they can generate more and more revenue. But then also you have an easier experience. You know, if every time you had to pull out your credit card, it makes you think, oh, what am I spending and everything else like that. Um, you know, so what, I've been on vacation and I've had my kids use their credit cards and I've gone down to the hotel and I've had them print out just to see our charges, just to see where we're at from a budget standpoint, just to make sure that we're not getting over budget. Because, you know, at night you're getting Mickey bars. Are you getting, you know, pop or snacks or anything else like that? All that adds up for five people rather quickly
Katie:oh, sure.
Felipe:So it's like having a, it's a modified version of keeping a tab open back in college.
Walter Russell:Yes. Then there's that day of reckoning that comes where you have to pay the piper. So, and that's what we try to do is we try to make people understand, you know, hey, you're not going to see everything, you know, take your time. You know, this should be enjoyable. You know, there's going to be tons of people there. You know, there's going to be tons of people from all over the world that are coming directly into this. Um, just be patient, enjoy yourself, go back to the hotel. If you don't like to swim, you know, lay out on this, you know, on the patio, you know, take strolls. There's tons of things to do that don't even require going to the parks. You know, last time we were there last year we were saying at the old Keywest lodge and we were talking to some people in the pool and they said, yeah, we just flew down for the weekend and we're not even going into the parks. We're just going to go eat some dinner, you know, go to Disney Springs, you know, do some shopping and that's it. They we're going to fly back home.
Felipe:That's funny that you mentioned it because I was just telling Katie about an hour ago when I was looking at when I was on your website. You know what I'm gonna do this summer is my oldest. He's five and he wants to go to Disney, but I don't really want to. We just went not that long ago. It's a quick drive up. We're going to go up, tell him we're going to eat at one of the characters, um, restaurants. I don't know out there in Florida, here it's goofy's kitchen and breakfast is like$35 for adults. I don't know how much it is for kids. Maybe it's the same, but get them breakfast. You see whatever characters show up that day at that time and then walk them around downtown Disney and it's less than the price to get in. Yeah,
Walter Russell:it's, it's enjoyable. So there are a lot of, you know, especially here in our, in the Florida location, I mean they have tons of in a restaurants and everything else like that, you know. So we Guy Fieri, I don't know if you guys are familiar with him, he opened up a, um, it's kind of a fast casual restaurant called the Chicken Guy. Um, and the recent helping up it's, you know, chicken fingers and fries and there's salads and everything else like that. He's got some great herbs and spices on it. And the biggest thing is I think he has like 30 different sauces. You can dunk your chicken into excellent experience. And it's a Disney springs. I think it was probably 10 bucks per person to eat. Um, and it was a great atmosphere. You know, it was a real nice night, didn't really cost that much, but there are a lot of people who just do that. The scale of there because there's tons of food. Anytime,
Felipe:chicken fingers and fries, chicken fingers or fries is my son's Staple food. Yeah. Like to him that some of our main meal. Yeah.
Walter Russell:And that's part of the experience. So usually at the Disney springs here they have different, you know, live entertainment. You know, one year we, when we first got there at like two o'clock in the morning, they had a DJ out there and it's a big dance party. Um, you know, so Disney knows how to throw a party and it's, you know, to me it was cool. just to hangout, you know, coming from the cold weather here in Ohio and we were down at Disney Springs, just, you know, saying what's happening and everything else like that. That was a cool evening, just hang out. So that's what I encourage people, you don't have to go to the parks, you know, but there's tons of foods, you know, here in the Florida, Walt Disney world resort area, they have like 20 different resorts that you can go in and out and just check out the resorts. And that's what my parents did, that they can only take, they only lasted one day at the parks and then they wrote the monorail and they just went resort hocking and they enjoyed going through the different resorts, you know, and looking at the amenities that are in each resort and kind of going from there. So
Felipe:yeah, it's funny, I've never been to Disney world, but I did go to a conference just down the block and you have to go eat somewhere after the conference. So we went into like the little area where the, I guess it's part of the resort. It wasn't in the actual park. So I can kind of sort of like to say that I have been, uh, even though I never actually got to go inside.
Walter Russell:Yeah. So where was the conference at? Do you know the name of the hotel?
Felipe:I don't remember. It was years ago. It was a Marriott. Okay. Right.
Walter Russell:Yeah. And you know, so in that area, so I have my stepbrothers, they live in Orlando, uh, close to the University of central Florida. They say they hate driving over to that area because it's full of tourists. Because real close to Disney, there's universal studios there, seaworld, um, they have, you know, outlet malls that are in that area as international drive. Yeah. International drive. So that's, yeah, it's a crazy, you know, crazy area and that's where all the traffic is going. Um, so that's what I tell people, you know, not only is there's Disney world there, but there's all kinds of other attractions what we generally do is if we go to Disney, the biggest tidbit that I would want to pass on to your listeners is we generally buy what are called the Disney tickets that have the park hopper plus option. Um, and what that is, is it allows you to, let's say you buy a three day park hopper option, um, park hopper plus ticket. What that gives you, it gives you three days to the parks and you can move, you know, you can go into any one of the different parks that you want, but then it also gives you three tickets to their water parks as well. So what we generally do is we might go to magic kingdom, you know, in the morning, animal kingdom at night, the next day we might go to a blizzard beach, which is a waterpark. Uh, the next day we, might go to Epcot and maybe back to magic kingdom. And so we go park water, park, park, water park, park, water park. The reason we do that is because we find that, you know, granted the tickets are a little bit more pricier, but we also find that that allows us to relax. You know, there's nothing like sitting by the wave pool for three to four hours and letting the kids, you know, burn off their energy and kind of going from there. You know, the water parks aren't as full as the Disney, you know, amusement parks. So it allows us also to enjoy the vacation.
Katie:I bet that water feels nice On your feet too after all that walking all around. Yeah.
Walter Russell:It's amazing. So that's, that's what we try to do is because we wanted, you know, once again, we don't want all of a sudden kill ourselves and everything else like that. And generally what we do is my wife loves the beach, so she will also include a beach trip. You know, maybe we'd go to one of the beaches, one of the days. So that's something people could do is, you know, if they wanted to go to Disney, you know, parks, you know, you can then maybe commute to one of the beaches. You know, the closest beach to the Disney world area is cocoa beach. Uh, I want to say it's probably maybe 45 minutes from that area. So, um, that's something that's free, you know, to go to the beach and everything else like that. Um, so, and that's what I encourage people to do. Um, you know, the vacation is about resting and spending time, um, you know, the bonus of seeing attractions and everything else like that.
Felipe:I think the beach is where you would probably find Katie.
Katie:Yup. Definitely. And Walter too, I want to ask you, we talked a little bit about food and ways to save on that, but let's get to the toughest part of Disney for me at least the shopping aspect. The souvenirs. Yes. How do I save on that? Because when I'm walking around Disney, I see different ears that I may want. They may have a little mermaid, mouse ears and then all of a sudden there's this, you know, sequined Minnie mouse ears that I want. There's all these different stuffed animals and pins and tee shirts. There's just so much. How do you try to cut down or save on I guess a souvenir or some sort of way to remember your trip?
Walter Russell:Yeah, so one of the biggest things that we do is everybody generally has one of these smart phones. So you know, you can take a lot of pictures, you know, when you're walking around Disney. So that's usually free. Um, the other thing is, is there's the trading buttons. So a lot of people will buy a button and they can then trade buttons with different cast members. Um, so that is something you can always do as part of their, it's, you know, unwritten rules that you can trade buttons with cast members. You know, if you, they've got a Cinderella button that you want or you can trade it and the cast members will, you know, be willing to take pictures with you. So that's another way you can actually identify
Katie:And the cast members. Those are just any Disney employee. It's not necessarily an actor or character.
Walter Russell:Yeah. So, um, Disney calls their employees cast members. Um, so the park maps, you know, those are, those are free. Um, and the reason why you would say, well, why would I want to a park map? Because Disney is always expanding. Um, so if you imagine if he had a park map from back in 1982 where we are in 2019, well that park map's going to look a little bit different. So it's part of the historic, you know, in the styling world of Walt Disney world and everything else like that. Um, you can go up to the cast members, um, they have buttons that you can get buttons and stamps. So that's a great way to, um, get things, you know, from the cast members that are free, um, as well. Um, you know, so what we generally do as we tell people to, um, bring a autograph book or you know, you can buy an autograph books. So if you see one of the princesses or one of the, um, you know, let's say characters in a movie or something else like that, they generally will sign your autograph book for You, um, and kind of go from there. So those are free. You just have to wait in line for those, um, for the character autographs. Um, if you're able to get into the Jedi Academy, so that's at Hollywood studios, they give you a Jedi training certificate. If you go to the Jedi Academy, that's free as well. Um, tomorrow, tomorrow land speedway, they can give you a driver's license. So that's a cool thing to kind of get, um, as well
Felipe:My son has his in his room. Yeah.
Walter Russell:Um, so you can get resort postcards as well. Um, some Disney resorts offer free postcards as well. And one of the things that my wife likes to do, she'd probably hit me when she listens to this podcast. It's a soap and shampoos from the Disney resorts. So we have tons of soap and shampoos from the Disney resort.
Katie:I do that too, I do that
Walter Russell:you know, and they'll get hair gel and everything else like that. So we came home and we had like 30 of them. I said, what in the world are you doing? You can also get menus from the restaurants, you know. So those are ways to kind of put it in a box that you know, time keep safer box that you can just say, hey, in 2019 we went to Disney are some of our things. And the kids love to go back and look at that and kind of go from there. So those are ways to do that. Another way to, you were talking about Mickey ears on international drive. There is a, so Disney makes all of this, the stuff, you know from mouse ears to tee shirts and everything else like that. But at the outlet mall there's a Disney outlet mall store. So all that merchandise that didn't sell, it's eventually going to end up at the outlet. So we will, we generally tell people to do is instead of buying stuff at the re, you know, at the amusement parks, go to the outlet mall and you'll be able to save tons of money. I mean shirts that maybe normally costs$50, you can get there, you know, anywhere from 10 to$15 depending on where they're at. And those are ways that you can save a lot of money getting stuff there.
Katie:Oh Wow. I had no idea there was a Disney outlet mall
Walter Russell:because they have all this stuff, you know. So like for example, my daughter's, uh, I think last year I bought them rose gold, um, mouse ears. Well, as you know, soon rose gold is going to be out of style. So it's some point in time. All those rose gold mouse ears are going to be sitting on their shelves and the ears are like$30. You can see I'm there for probably$10, you know? And that can be a way people can save money, just buying it stuff there.
Katie:So for anybody that would be looking to plan Disney vacation, but is maybe trying to save money and time, they can just go to your website and get help. Follow the orange backpack.com?
Walter Russell:Yeah. So what we're doing is, um, not only we are blogging but we have free resources and we have links to affiliate companies, um, that we, um, that are sponsoring a relationships with us. So for example, we have different car rental relationships, you know, that can offer, you know, free discounts and everything else like that. But, um, our ultimate goal is we want to be the one stop resource guide for you because we want to save time and money. Um, my business partner, Steven, he wasn't able to be on the podcast today. actually his wife mother's, getting ready to go back home for his wife was from Australia, so from her mother's getting ready to fly back home. So that's why he wasn't able to be on the podcast. But, um, he's a pilot and you know, his job is to make, um, travel more efficient. And so that's what he always is looking at is how can you save time. Um, my job as a financial advisor is to how can we save money? So that's how we came up with a strategy. Our goal is, you know, time is money and we want to help you save both.
Katie:Yeah. And all the advice that you guys are giving out on this website is advice that you guys are actually taking yourselves. These are experiences you've lived.
Walter Russell:Yes. Yeah. For the$10,000, you know, so say our costs now, I think we have, you know, for there, you know, we're probably in between three to$5,000. So we cut our costs in half. Um, and it all depends on how many days do you want to go to the parks and you know, or do we want to stay and everything else like that. Um, you know, food wise, you know, we, we have our food down. You know, there are some times where we, depending if we're going to be in Florida longer, a Disney allows you to mail a care package, uh, to your resort. And, you know, there's been times where I FedEx, you know, a whole bunch of dry food and snacks and everything else like that. Um, you know, from Costco and I mailed it down there and Yeah. Cause it saves us time. So we sent it directly to our, I think we were saying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I'm at that time. So we sent it directly to the animal kingdom lodge and they brought it up to our room and that was all our snacks for the whole trip. Wow.
Katie:Well, yeah, I did not even know that that was an option.
Walter Russell:Yeah.
Katie:I mean that probably saves you at the airport too with the weight restrictions on luggage.
Walter Russell:Yeah. So, um, I have a huge, um, my company has a relationship with Fedex, so I think we get Fedex labels for let's say an 85% discount, you know, 85% off the cost. So we just, you know, put a box together and just mailed it down. And it was sitting there for us. Um, that year I think we drove down. So it allowed us to save, you know, having one less, um, bag, you know, with, you know, four women that live in my house, each have their own suitcase plus an additional bag, you know, so they like to travel with a lot of things and I know you only need one bag, but you know, that's a battle I'm not going to win.
Katie:Okay. You just never know what outfit you're going to feel like wearing
Walter Russell:youre right. Exactly.
Katie:All right. Well, Walter, any other tips or advice for somebody who's maybe on the fence about going to Disney but doesn't really know if it's quite affordable for them?
Walter Russell:Yeah, what I generally tell people to do is I tell them to start planning. If you say, hey, in June of 2020 we kind of want to go to Disney. Um, but you know, we're, we're kind of on the fence. So the first thing I tell people to do is, you know, if you're planning on doing that, you can contact Disney. If you buy the package through them, they will allow you to put, let's say like a$200 a reservation, you know, holding your reservation and put in place. That is the starting point. So you pay the$200, you know, if it's your debit or credit card. Um, but I then tell people to start doing is start planning. You know, what hotel you're going to say at, you know how you're going to eat, you know, what attractions you want to see and you start building this plan up together and that's something we can help you with. But once you have everything in place, I then would advise you to, you know, look for ways to save money. A lot of people, um, they use, you know, credit card points, you know. So, um, there was a friend of mine, he said he came up with a strategy using credit card points. If you sign up, with a you know, a Marriott card and you can get 60,000 points from a Marriott card, um, for you and your spouse. Yeah. That gives you 120,000 Marriott points that Marriott points can then be used to, you know, stay at the swan and Dolphin Hotel and that can actually allow you not to have to pay for lodging. Um, I think on the Marriott credit card you have to spend what,$3,000 within or three to$5,000 with then I think a 60 or 90 days or something else like that to get the 60,000 points. But that's another way to save money. You know, using credit card points. A lot of people, we tell people, hey, if you want to run every transaction through your credit card, you can use the money that you get from the credit card points to pay for your Disney tickets or anything else like that. So, um, it starts with planning, you know, just to kind of like your, um, organization, you know, it's all about planning what you're going to go to this. The sooner you now start planning sooner, that's going to make your life a lot easier.
Katie:All right, well perfect. Thank you so much for joining us on our show today. We really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Yeah.
Walter Russell:Yeah. I appreciate your time. And, um, yeah, if you guys ever need anything, feel free to contact us or you know, um, we would love to help.
Katie:Yeah. I think we'll definitely be in touch in the future because you have your other website, simple money tips for women.com
Chase:Well, how often do you find people do that or, and I would say probably quite a bit that there doesn't just like their regular life when it comes to budgeting and not, oh, I'm planning for the future.
Katie:I can't tell you the number of people who've told me I blew my budget, but it's okay because we're going to Disney. Like Disney is kind of viewed as this once in a lifetime magical experience. So budgets don't apply suddenly.
Chase:It's really, yeah, it's interesting about that too, right? I mean, I, my father to this day, uh, we'll, we'll say, oh my gosh, you know, that's like an e ticket ride, right? Back in the day when you only got tickets for Disneyland, but Disneyland was, you know, relatively affordable at that time. And I guess whatever you consider affordable is, but it seems that they are excruciating. Excrutiatingly expensive, yet people pay it.
Felipe:It's packed.
Chase:It's packed
Felipe:It's always packed. You can go during the week off season and you're still standing in line,
Chase:at least here in southern California. I have not been to Walt Disney world in Florida, so I have been to the outskirts of it and I've been to the Disney. I've been been in Florida, I just haven't physically been in the parks, but I've been into downtown Disney and those kinds of things and it's absolutely packed, you know, with Bubba Gump shrimp and all those kinds of restaurants and things.
Felipe:Yeah, I even mentioned it to him while we were talking. It's like been there a few conferences in Orlando and we did go eat at the Disney area, but not actually been into Disney. So I like to say, well[inaudible]
Chase:What's the sandwich shop that we always, oh Sandwich of Earl.
Felipe:Which they have in Anaheim or they they did construction.
Chase:Yeah. I'm understanding that downtown Disney is changing, it's kind of going away? Yeah, yeah. That they're adding another hotel there.
Katie:I think there's a sandwich of Earl in San Diego you guys, I don't wanna I don't want to boost you too hard, but I'm pretty sure I was looking
Chase:Are you kidding me?!
Katie:I'm not kidding. I actually got, um, Amazon restaurants. I got an Indian food badge the other day cause I ordered so much Indian food. Yeah. I swear there was an Earl of sandwich because I asked AJ if he wanted that because I thought it was hilarious that it was called Earl of sandwich.
Chase:It's the best place.
Katie:Is it really?
Chase:Oh my goodness,
Katie:all right.
Chase:In fact, when we were there for our conferences,
Felipe:Look at this Chase, it is downtown
Chase:No, it isn't.
Felipe:Yeah. You're going to have to go when you're down there.
Chase:Oh Keri is going to flip out.
Felipe:First and G over by the Ralphs.
Katie:Padres and Earl of sandwich.
Chase:Oh my gosh. Phenomenal. Yes. Oh, what a delicious sandwich that is. We would go out of our way when we're up in Anaheim just to go there. Just because there's not many of them around
Felipe:I found one in Vegas once
Chase:That's where they are there. That's in, uh, the, the Miracle Mile. Yeah, right at the end there. Yeah. That's okay. We're a little off topic,
Katie:but you guys have never been to Disneyworld? I have. I've also been to Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. The only Disney. I have not been to his Disneyland Tokyo.
Felipe:Wow. That's it.
Chase:That's awesome. Fun fact, fun fact. So how was Disney world, I mean, I know we have Kerry went to Florida State University for Undergrad and um, so we go visit a lot of her friends in Florida. Florida is like my wife's second home. She loves it. Uh, and, and I've really come to love it too. Not In the dead of summer, but gosh, it's really hot. But Felipe, like we mentioned financial literacy conferences that we've gone to, the hotels were right next to it. So we've seen the landscape of it and the scale of it is so huge,
Felipe:Katie mentioned that the, the Orlando one is the size of two Manhattans Disney world, which was kind of eye opening because if you were going to New York, I've been in New York and I had no intentions of saying, you know, I'm going to try and see Manhattan all in one day, but if I was going to Disney world, I feel like I would be, I'm going to look at all of it in one day. I'm just going to go, go, go.
Chase:Well, you got to figure that it is such a crazy industry that when you land at the airport in Orlando, I mean 90% of that airport is filled with Disney stuff. I mean, it's literally Disney centric and it makes sense, but people travel all over the world. I mean, what is more famous? DALLAS, Texas or Orlando, Florida, around the world. And even though Dallas, Texas is a much more known city or our industry and everything, bigger city, more people would probably know Orlando just because of Disney. And they literally will spend there, as you mentioned, their entire budget to go and have their kids experience Disney. It's really an incredible, it's an incredible iconic place that people feel like they have to go experience
Katie:and Disneyland just for our size comparison is about the size of San Francisco.
Chase:Yeah.
Katie:So that it's smaller. It is smaller by, I looked it up 43 miles. Yeah. By Disneyland is the original where Walt Disney had his office and there's a lot of right. Just kind of enchanting history.
Chase:They built it where orange groves were. Uh, and there was nothing really around it. Anaheim was, and that orange county was literally called that for a reason, that there was nothing but orange groves around and citrus and, but as you drive by it, we were driving by it on our way to the voice a couple of weeks ago. And my kids are just like, you just barely, if you couldn't see the Matterhorn stickup or the tower, what used to be tower of terror that now is the guardians of the galaxy. If you didn't see those as landmarks, you wouldn't know that you were going by Disney because you just all the industrial buildings around it. Yeah. Yeah. It's just built up around everything. I remember you used to be able to drive by it and you could clearly see, um, space mountain and those, and now you may be, if you're paying attention, you can catch them. You have to be looking for, yeah. It's a big difference, but it's unbelievable how, which has got a whole city really caters to Disneyland.
Felipe:It's great when you have little kids and you have to drive by it.
Chase:That's a fact that kind of takes off
Felipe:five year old, Barrington, He doesn't know he's driving right past it.
Chase:Are we almost there? Are we there yet? How much further? How much longer?
Katie:Even as an adult, I mean the signage for people not in southern California. Just seeing Disney way to exit there. It's kind of magical and cool.
Chase:It's funny. Now my son's older and he gets more excited by seeing Anaheim stadium to your right. That's where angels play. He's very nearby. I have to, I've done it a few times, um, where in fact, the last, this is the first year in the last four years that we haven't done Disney as a family for the kids' birthdays. My kids' birthdays happen to fit, um, about a month apart. So that was like their birthday trip every year. And we've done it a couple of different ways, but the first year was super expensive because we stayed at a Disney hotel, had the Disney breakfast with all the kids are with all the animated characters and all that stuff. Um, and the kids liked it, but they were younger. But as the kids have gotten older, we've found less expensive hotels, but also looked for deals. So we've actually stayed at nicer hotels, lesser hotels, uh, and, and done the, the park passes. Um, but it typically, you know, that that's still, that whole wheat costs us, you know, a couple thousand dollars first year. I don't even want to tell you what it costs, but we learned the hard way.
Katie:I think that's kind of the point that Walter was making and you know, talking to them is that if you don't plan, the spending will go out of control real quick at Disney just because there's so much.
Felipe:Yeah. It's funny how you, when you talk to people across the, it doesn't matter what financial topic you're, you're talking about planning seems to always come up. Cause he was saying, yeah, if you're going to plan and what was he talking about? Like June 2020 if you're planning now, you should be planning for June, 2020 year ahead. Yeah. And you can set deposits and you can start making plans and he had all kinds of great info. You know, I, my wife, before we started, you know, Sarah was in here, she was trying to convince me we should go to Disney land. And unfortunately she's going to listen to the podcast and say she's going to Disney world.
Chase:Well that's a whole different ballgame for us on the west coast. It's not a short trip.
Katie:No, not only is it not a short trip, you guys, the cost of admission is more at Disney world than it is at Disneyland.
Felipe:Hmm. Uh, I'll just keep driving.
Chase:It's a long drive.
Felipe:No, no, not to Orlando.
Chase:Oh I was going to say, yeah. God bless you.
Felipe:With kids? No I'm not driving into Orlando with kids. Driving to Anaheim seems like a nightmare with the little one's
Chase:It's not too bad if you leave in the morning, we would do Friday, we would go Friday morning, take off Friday from work, go get up early in the morning, be it the, uh, be at the park before it opens up. And if you buy the Po, the park hopper tickets, they would let you in an hour earlier than the general public. So you would have more parking availability. Uh, and it depended on where we would stay. Like where you stayed at a hotel close enough. We would just park at our hotel and walk up to the resort or take one of the mini trams. Yeah. Yeah. Other Times.
Felipe:Even if you parked, if you end up at a hotel a little bit further, they have Anaheim{inaudible] that are free, have little bus, they have bus routes specifically for Disney. Go by a whole bunch of different hotels. And then I want to say it's like a one day pass. I don't remember how much it, five or$10. And you each know each it is each um, eh, but you know, if your hotel, you don't have to pay for the parking at the Disney just
Chase:But by the time you buy the$5 bus passes for the day or you paid the parking lot, you've already paid for parking. So it's just, you know, it's tomato, tomahto, whatever it is that you can most deal with. I personally hate waiting in lines and I don't, I know there's not many people that like lines. I don't like it. I'm a very patient person. But when it comes to that, that frustrates me and less the standing in lines for rides and those kinds of things. Cause you just know in your head that's the way it's going to be.
Katie:And there's certain rides. I'm more willing to wait in line for like the Indiana Jones ride. I'll wait in line.
Chase:It's, you know, that is,
Felipe:that's the one you wait in line
Katie:or the pirates of the Caribbean[inaudible]
Chase:that's just, that just kind of touches the dark because, yeah. Okay. I get quick story. I was a teenager, uh, in 1980, I think this was 88, 87, 88. Uh, and God, I might have even been around 85. It was, cause I was in eighth grade and I was with a church group, a friend of ours. I was invited to go. I wasn't a part of the church, but it was a good friend of my bet. My best friend met him an hour and his family invited us. We were in line at pirates of the Caribbean and we finally got to the inside part where the boats are kind of going by you. Yes. And there was a side door and all of a sudden the door opens up right in front of us and it's this big huge guy stops us and you want to know who walked out.
Katie:If it's Johnny Depp, I'm going to fall out of my chair
Chase:It was not because Johnny Depp wasn't even 21 jump street when I was in eighth grade. Can Dream 21 jump street. I don't think it was even popular yet. That's how old I am. So I think this was 85. Michael Jackson walked out in front of us and he and a little entourage walked in and then they just got on a boat right in front of us, their own boat and took off. But I got to be that close to the King of pop at that point. Wearing the glove. Really? Yeah. This was Michael Jackson, uh, after the thriller album. And I think bad might have, he might have been working on bad at the time. Um, but this was coming off of, of a thriller, that album. So it was not a big man, but I remember us just freaking out and, and how word would travel throughout Disney? Like, did you hear Michael Jackson was here? Michael Jackson was here. Michael Jackson was,
Felipe:this is before pictures. So you couldn't just took two camera's on and take great care of,
Chase:in other words, nothing like that. You had to have your little Kodak Instant Camera, whatever. Yes. Right. And then it would look terrible if the flash didn't go off. Yeah. And right, exactly. Uh, then on our last trip, this was just last year coming off of space mountain. Adam Sandler did the same thing right in front of us, except Adam actually stood in line for a little bit and we actually talked for a little bit. I used, yeah, Clay's like I, and I'm proud dad moment, but he was, I was so proud that he says happy Gilmore. Well then yeah, this is one of his favorite movies. But yeah, he was there with his two sons. That seems, yeah,
Katie:there's a lot of celebrity sightings at Disneyland.
Felipe:Uh, Adrian who works over here, he, he was there a couple of weeks ago, bumped into poo host other foods. Is that how you say Pujolz? Uh, I guess it's not. The issue would be Albert Pujolz. Okay. I think, I dunno how he said you're kidding.
Chase:So on. But the idea is though that, you know, you want to talk about costs, that's priceless. That is how do you run into somebody who gets to talk to us and Adam Sandler that made our whole trip and not because I'm stargazed I mean working in baseball as long as I did, I don't get, but Adam Sandler was super nice.
Felipe:The really little ones I remember going, hey, two years ago, Barrington was three, almost four and almost too young. He almost too young. But when he, we waited in line forever, but saw Mickey to him at that point in time celebrity that was the celebrity that was, you know, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which, you know, if you have little ones, I'm sure you're familiar with. Um, Katie, you've probably never watched a few episodes of that. But um, to him that was like, fill that show. Yeah. I'm glad he's almost over it, but the other one, we'll just pick it up soon. Um, to him that was his moment. That was his celebrity. Uh, and that was like, okay, cool. That's why I've been waiting in line for the last hour and a half. Um, yeah,
Chase:Keri did the whole princesses a thing where you get to go take pictures with them and meet them at by the castle right there and Disneyland and clay. And I held the bippity Boppity Boutique. Yes. And clay and I had no interest in doing that at all. So we went off somewhere else and they waited in line for a good 45 minutes to an hour and but Avery just smiles like you would not believe what the, you know, cause they really doll them up and they look great and it was worth every, every second to her. Clay. And I know not so much, I think we went and bought like a pirates of the Caribbean sword or something. But again, the merchandising costs me probably$12 for plastic sword
Katie:Sure, which you know, Walter was telling us, there's outlet stores where, you know, rose gold mouse ears are really in right now. He was saying pretty soon those$30 mouse ears, will probably be at the outlet store for$10.
Chase:Yeah, yeah. I would imagine that the new star wars land, which is coming up and I've been, there's lots of articles on that. You can build your own lightsaber for a mere$200 I saw that,
Katie:I saw that too. My husband is interested
Chase:and there again, if your plan out ahead and you know what things are going to cost and you have it budgeted for and you're going to be able to pay for it, why not? If that is something that you or your happiness, right to one person, that might be complete[inaudible] All right. That might be something. How could you spend money on that wall to that person that that might be as important as your hundred dollars steak that you really, really enjoy. Right, right. Other people that might be a little bit crazy for, you know, eating for half an hour, hour.
Felipe:Yeah. Someone might, I mean he might rather eat some fast food place. Yeah. A couple of times you see that there's some kind of Cantina drink for$42 and that's going to be the only, only one of the only places in the park that actually serves in the Star Wars land that serves alcoholic beverages. Oh Wow. That's one reason to go right there. I agreed because supply and demand, one thing, what does everybody say when you're walking around Disneyland and you're going, hey, I need a drink this place,
Katie:but I also have done Disney a little smarter now that I'm older, so when I went with my nephew and my brother and my parents in some of my sisters, we actually brought reusable water bottles into the park. You can fill them up at a drinking station, so it'll save you on the water bottle. You can also bring in your own snacks. The other option is there are certain foods that you have to buy a Disney not have to. It's awesome if you can buy a light Saber Churro, but maybe you can't eat the whole thing. Not everybody needs their own churro, but you can also bring in like a sandwich bag or something to take back with you to the hotel if you don't finish
Chase:main street as you're walking towards the park towards the castle. So the middle of the park, there's a little corn dog stand that has forever been in my heart as a little kid and it's still there and it's really just a giant, huge corn dog. And my kids, when I introduced it to them thought it was the most incredible thing ever. So we have to go there. It's a corn dog.
Katie:The other one is Dole whip. I know Felipe can't have it is allergic to pineapple, but have you ever had double whip?
Chase:I don't think I have.
Katie:So it's like crushed pineapple and cool whip and it's blended in with where it's the texture of a soft serve ice cream. It's amazing. It's over by the jungle cruise. Another ride I would wait in line for
Felipe:really, I'd never written on that until this last time when we went with the Sara and Barrington and she told me like, we have to go on the jungle cruise. I was like, really? I've been here a lot of times throughout my life and I've never actually gotten on.
Chase:Or is it part of, is it pioneer land? A lot of star wars went into that frontier land, I don't know, fantasy land or a toon land. Uh, the tunes. Oh, like toon town and part of um, frontier, frontier land.
Katie:Is that where the old star wars stuff was?
Chase:No, that they did star wars in, in um, that was over in this space. Like we're star tours was over in Ireland. Ireland. Okay. Yeah. So now tomorrow, and we'll be back to basically tomorrow land again. But uh, with the spaceships in the buzz light year and, and those things, but all the star when he, I think star tours will actually still be there too. But then star wars land is now what used to be toon town effect.[inaudible]
Felipe:they just cut out the like a portion of, oh, they still kept it until we went there. It was already, it was a construction zone. Um, but Toontown still there, but it's just that I think they took like a chunk of the backend of it that they just limited the size I think.
Chase:I think bottom line, what was so interesting about what he said and how he talked about the different scenarios of Disneyland is, is when you think about all the scenarios, how much of it does it come back and bring memories of your childhood or your past? How vivid those memories are. And a lot of people, I think the argument, the reason that they'll blow budgets on it when it's shouldn't they probably shouldn't, is those are memories that last forever.
Katie:It's a very emotional vacation.
Felipe:It is for some people and it brings back like the vivid memories. I mean, we just been sitting here chit chatting. I know. We've all are born tears in there.[inaudible] you're still listening, you know. Thank you very much. Um, but you know, it does create those. And I hate to sound Cliche, but the lifelong memories of, Oh, I remember, uh, you know, I don't remember when I was like my son, he still remembers he was three when we went,
Chase:we don't remember how much our feet hurt know towards the end of the day
Felipe:I do, he doesn't.
Katie:Walter recommended trading off. He did a water park, park, water park.
Chase:It's smart. It's very smart. But if you have only have two days, they're like we did. Although when the kids were younger, we would go in the morning, we would leave at noon, we'd go back to the hotel, kids would nap, we'd nap probably. Um, maybe you have a libation or to then go back at like four o'clock and do the, the parade and the fireworks and
Felipe:only way you could have a kid make it to the parade. Yeah. Cause if you take that middle of the day nap, got it.
Chase:Yeah. But the parents need to too. All right. It's not just the kids. You've got to rejuvenate a little bit. Yeah. There's no doubt. No doubt at all. I, I agree with that. And then you can eat back at the hotel or eat on your way back.
Felipe:And we're in the community around when you're walking back to your hotel or, yeah, eat it Earl of sandwich. Now we don't have to go all the way to Anaheim.
Chase:And I'm just in shock that it's in downtown. I've got to get out of my San Diego bubble?
Felipe:I've probably driven by it. You've probably driven by it. It's unbelievable to me. So Katie, what do we have next week?
Katie:Oh, we have investing in real estate in your 20s we chatted last week about maybe buying a home for the first time. You might be in your 20s when you do that, but some people are in a better financial situation. So we're going to chat about this,
Chase:a different financial situation and yeah, and you can do it. There's ways to do it. So tune in next week.
Outro:[inaudible].