Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Mouse Ears podcast, where we talk about all things travel, but mostly Disney, brought to you by fairytale journeys travel.
Hello, everybody. Welcome back in another episode of the Mouse Years podcast, a podcast about all things travel, but mostly Disney. Back again. My name is Kelton. I'm one of your four hosts for today's episode. Along with me, I've got three great people. We've got Jenny over there in North Carolina. Jenny, you guys, are you guys still getting the hurricane?
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Yes, we are.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Oh, dear.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yes, we are.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: You have enough rain for the entire summer season?
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah, she's.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah, she's just still going at it.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: She's still going. She's still going.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: She's just the gift that keeps on giving all year long.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Along with that, we've got Brooks and South Carolina. Brooks, you guys also got some rain from Hurricane Debbie, or I guess tropical Storm Debbie by that time.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Yeah. Howdy ho, neighbors. And yeah, I was watching the news, which I don't really watch unless there's severe weather, and they were talking about how in some places in the last four days got 17 inches of rain.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Oi.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Oh, dear.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:01:35] Speaker D: So, yeah, Debbie, she's a. She's a wet one.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Exactly.
And then somebody who is not a stranger to wet weather at all. Steph down in Florida. Steph, how are you?
[00:01:50] Speaker C: I am here. I am doing great. I am barely.
Barely out. Almost out the door, I should say, heading to D 23 tomorrow. So by the time this episode drops, we'll have some great news for everyone.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: I do hope so. It's gonna be. It's gonna be awesome. We're sure.
So with that, we can go ahead and go over to probably one of our favorite segments of this podcast is our new news.
That was the wrong button.
[00:02:35] Speaker D: Welcome to the new news. I am your anchor, Christian Brooks, runner. I'm going to need those glasses because I did not have my contacts on. So we're going to go straight into the new news. Going try to get through this rather quickly. So Royal Caribbean is set to spend more than $100 million on the refurbishment of the allure of the seas. She will have 35 ways to eat and drink to new thrills and ways to chill in and buy the water. With the addition of water slides, a splash area for toddlers, and a redesigned pool area. Royal is also adding an escape room theme to Apollo 18 laser tag and the addition to the ultimate abyss, which is a dry slide down ten stories of twists and turns.
That sounds amazing.
So stay tuned for more details on the Royal Caribbean and hit up Kelton for all those Royal Caribbean needs.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: I'll actually be on the allure in 2026, so I can't wait to see the $100 million.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: Stay tuned for that episode.
[00:03:53] Speaker D: Yeah.
So moving on to probably one of our favorite subjects, Disney.
Mickey's not so scary Halloween party starts as, as of this recording tomorrow, August 9. So starting the spooky season down there at Disney. If you're interested in booking tickets to this private event, contact your FTJ agent today before tickets sell out. FyDE, the first five parties have already sold out, and I think the party closest to Halloween has already sold out.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Halloween is sold out.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: There's like five different days that I've sold out at this point. Yeah. And Halloween and almost all of the dates in August, I want to say, too. So that's selling out.
[00:04:45] Speaker D: If you're thinking of going, go ahead and book those tickets today.
And also, as we mentioned earlier in this podcast, D 23 in Anaheim begins as time of this recording tomorrow, August 9, and will continue through Sunday, August 11. So when this podcast goes out, D 23 will have already happened in our very own Steph will have boots on the ground there for the Saturday festivities. So make sure you follow FTJ and Mouse Ears blog on Instagram for all the news and videos from D 23. And then also, if you saw Steph, she may have given you some, uh, stuff from Sticky Mike and the boys for, for Mouse Ears podcasts and blog.
All right?
[00:05:39] Speaker C: And with that, find me at D 23 Saturday.
[00:05:43] Speaker D: Hopefully next year when it's in Orlando. We're all there.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I hope so.
[00:05:48] Speaker D: Yes. In my Roosevelt.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: Fingers crossed.
[00:05:51] Speaker D: Yes. So that is it for the new news, and we're going to send it back over to Kelton there in the studio. Kelton.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. So moving along here, we're going to go ahead and just start out right now with today's trivia question. For all of you trivia buffs out there. This trivia question, of course, is brought to you by the Magic Candle company. Next time you want a Disney inspired scent to fill your home or office, which now I have an office, I need one. Whether it may be a candle room spray or more, make sure to use our special promo code, mouse ears, for 15% off. That's m o u S e a r s, for 15% off any of your future magic candle company purchases. So today's trivia question is, because we're doing a Walt Disney World episode, we got a Walt Disney World trivia question. What is the fastest attraction at Walt Disney World. Currently, as of today, what is the fastest attraction at Walt Disney World? If you want the answer, make sure to stay tuned to the end of the episode, where we will tell you what it is. Very good.
So, for today's episode, last week, we did a $5,000 challenge at Universal, which I don't know about you guys. I thought that was a little difficult, especially, I think, more of us. We all are more Disney buffs than we are universal. But, you know, when you're a travel agent, you got to be flexible. You got to know, you know, what it is you're selling. So I think that turned out really well for us. We did a great job, but this was probably an easy episode, except for poor Jen that's got five adults in her family, so I cannot wait to hear what she has to say and what they did for $5,000. But today's episode is talking about taking a vacation to Walt Disney World for $5,000 or less. We have posed this question to our four MEP hosts, and we have been tasked with coming up where to stay, number of days, airport, transportation, etcetera. Now, this will not include airfare and will need dollar 500 for food costs if they didn't book the dining plan.
So this planning vacation will be for our own households. And like I said, the budget is five grand. So let's hear what the hosts have come up with. Going in alphabetical order. We've got Brooks with two adults and one infant. Brooks, what you got for us?
[00:08:53] Speaker D: So this one, again, it was. I felt like it was a little bit easier than playing in the, uh, the universal trip. Uh, so with this one, uh, I tried to also pick, uh, do it around the same time frame that I did the universal one. So you can so kind of get a compare and contrast between the two.
Uh, but I also took some inspiration from last week's episode, so the dates I chose is a shorter trip than our one for universal. So we're going for Thursday, September 26 through Sunday, September 29.
So it's a quicker trip. Arrive on a Thursday, leave on a Sunday.
We're going to be staying at the Coronado Springs. So a moderate resort. It's one that I've never stayed at before, one that I hope to stay at soon. And we chose a preferred room for this one because Coronado is one of the biggest resorts out there.
So unless you get one of the rooms in the tower or get a preferred room, you maybe, maybe far away from transportation. So we chose preferred room, and we did get a discount, and I'll get more in the discount with a moment for. So for the tickets, again, I took inspiration from Jenny.
We did annual passes. We included those with our trip.
So that was the bulk of my budget for this one. So with two annual passes, since we are not Florida residents, we could only get the incredible pass.
Did one with the one with a photo pass, one without. So with both of those, tax included, came out to be three. $3,191.81 for. For calcium, but bless you.
But since we did the passholder, we were able to then also include the passholder discount for our hotel room.
So with the hotel room, it was $984.40. With the passholder discount, which was a huge discount, I think it brought it down, like, over $130 a night.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: That's a great discount.
[00:11:47] Speaker D: It is. So then we decided to add add on a little extra.
So that Thursday when we arrived, there is a Mickey's not so scary Halloween party going on that night. So we decided to add on two tickets for the Halloween party for Thursday, September 26. They came out to be $317.88.
So with our trip, and then again, we all. We factor in $500 for food. May try to make a breakfast reservation.
So I think each trip we've been trying to do one breakfast reservation somewhere that we haven't done before, haven't found one that tops topolinos yet, even though the churro waffles at Crystal palace may have been one of my favorite things I've ever had in my entire life.
But with the tickets, the hotel, the extra tickets for Mickey's not so scary, and food all total comes out to be $4,994.09.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Whoo.
Wow.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: That is just under the wire.
[00:13:14] Speaker D: That is just. We were having a conversation before we hit record that I don't know if anyone is get. Is getting under that 5000 closer than me that I had. I had to tweak it a couple of times to get it under that 5000, because at first, I was. At first, because I really wanted to make sure I added in those Halloween tickets, because when I was looking and I was basing it off availability, that is currently available.
So when I was looking, they had, like, a tower king bed, but that put me, like, over, like, 80 something dollars. And then I was looking at a preferred king bed, and that was literally, I think, over $15. So that's why we prefer, chose the preferred to queen beds. So Kelsey would be very happy with having her own bed to spread out on for that trip. So that is our Disney planned trip.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Great trip, Brooks. Yeah, that does, that does sound fun.
That was good. Adding in the annual passes there. You're right. That did take up quite a bulk of your budget.
[00:14:38] Speaker D: But then that also gives us flexibility throughout the year of, hey, you know, because that's kind of what we did this past year. We had that one large expense, and then we were able to, with discounts not only on rooms, but merchandise, food.
It adds up.
I think our first trip, I think we counted up. I think we saved close to a $1,000 on just our first trip.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: With even, even your Mickey's not so scary. You get a discount for being an AP and some tours throughout the property. You can also get discounts with the annual pass. So, you know, definitely something to weigh a cost away.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that, I mean, the annual passes, they.
Yeah, they're nice. They definitely are nice.
That's awesome. Very good, Brooks. Very good.
So our next contestant, shall I say, we've got Jenny from the block with five adults. This one.
This one's going to be interesting.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: I'm interested in this one.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: So I had, um, I had trouble with this one, um, because there's five adults. Universal was easier than this, but I was able to come up with a really good plan for all of us.
So I again chose pretty much the same dates, just like Brooks. I. The reason why I did that is because of the current specials that were going on and the parks are going to be less busy during that time period. So I chose Monday, September 16 through Thursday, September 19.
And I chose Saratoga in a one bedroom.
And I did two day parkhopper plus with the Disney dining plan.
So you're going to hear barking. I'm so sorry.
I chose Saratoga. We've stayed there several times. We really, really like it. It's very spacious. I wanted a full kitchen. We have a lot of food allergies, and I like to be able to have a full kitchen. I also like the separate bedroom.
That's very nice. It's also a deluxe resort, which is why I felt comfortable doing a two day park hopper plus. So when you stay at a deluxe resort, everyone that stays on property gets the early entry that 30 minutes before. But if you're in a deluxe resort twice a week, you get to stay day. It's like two to 3 hours afterwards after closing. So I went with the two day and then because it's a shorter trip and, you know, we don't have to do everything.
I did the park hopper plus, so on arrival day, we can do, and we planned on driving, we can do a water park and then go and eat at Disney Springs or one of the other resorts. I don't know about you guys. I love eating at the resorts. They have some of the best restaurants, so.
And then I had planned for that Monday to do Epcot during the day, or, no, I'm sorry, animal kingdom during the day, and then the extended hours are at Epcot. So we would hop over to Epcot and be able to stay really, really late. It'd be a very full day.
And then Tuesday, you know, we could.
I'm sorry, Tuesday, we could do a water park. I have my days mixed up. And then Wednesday, do Hollywood studios and then go over to Magic Kingdom for the extra hours. So they do those on Mondays and Wednesdays usually.
And it's usually magic kingdom and epcot that they do those. So we thought that would be great. And then if you've ever gone with a larger party and done a table service restaurant, especially if it's a character buffet and gotten that bill, it's an ugly bill.
So I went with the Disney dining plan just so everything would be taken care of. We wouldn't have to worry about anything. So tickets, food, everything.
The total for that? $4,858.05.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Hot dog.
You know, I will say, like, you know, it's cool. You pick Saratoga. That's probably that. Saratoga, I think, is one of the most underrated deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World. You know, I think a lot of people pass it over because, you know, it. It really. The theming isn't Disney ish. I mean, when you get into the rooms, you see your more Mary Poppins and that kind of stuff, but it's very minimal.
And then it's a. It is a little bit further from the parks at that point, and a very spread out resort. But I will say it's definitely with my. My parents own DVC there, and it's my dad's favorite resort because, you know, because of that. And then plus just a short, you know, walk over to Disney Springs or a short boat ride over, I could surprise. And then plus the full kitchen, one bedroom.
Way to go.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. And for those who haven't been there in a while, it's fully refurbished. It's really, really nice.
And it is, you know, more.
More on the simple, minimalistic side, but very clean lines. And it's quiet there.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: It is very quiet.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: We have stayed there several times, and it's so quiet. And the grounds are just beautiful.
That internal bus loop is, you know, something long it can be long, but with driving, we could just drive to the parks, or, you know, we could just relax on the bus. It doesn't, you know, really matter, but it's one of our favorite places to stay.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Sorry, continue.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: No, I was gonna say it's. It's usually, you know, more affordable than some of the other deluxe resorts.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: I was just gonna say I'm glad you brought up the grounds, because I think, like, the landscaping is beautiful there.
Honestly, most, if not all, have fantastic landscape, and it's just part of, like, that ambiance that's just relaxing and kind of like you're in Disney, but you're also kind of disconnected, too, in the best way possible, because you think Disney. You also kind of, to an extent, think rowdy and, you know, boisterous, and a lot of these places are anything but. Saratoga is a great example of that. Like, I. I remember when we stayed there, just waking up in the morning, making coffee, sitting out on the balcony, you know, February. So you have a little bit crisp weather and just sitting, sipping, coughing, watching, like, the lake and the leaves and the trees billowing, and it's just like, man, this is so nice. And you're, like, charging up, getting ready before you go to the parks. Like, it's. It's really something.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that. You're definitely correct on that one. It's a great resort on that. Yeah.
I love that. That's so cool.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: I'm sorry.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: So, Jenny with the breaking news, do you want to go ahead and just do a quick touch on our universal Orlando ticket giveaway before we move on?
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Yes. So, due to some amazing generosity from fairytale journeys, we are giving away two universal Orlando tickets for free, free people.
So if you go to our social media platforms, you can see all of the rules and how to enter for that. I believe it is a three day, three park.
Three day, three park ticket for two. Two people. So that is a very, very nice giveaway. I think we're setting the bar very, very high for giveaways, and currently, there.
[00:24:04] Speaker C: Are no blackout dates. This ticket is valid until November 1 of 2024. So the contest will close at midnight on August 19. So, you know, August 18 transitioning to the 19th, and we'll do a story or something of the sort with the video to announce who the winner is, and we will check to make sure all of the rules are being followed for whoever does win the giveaway. And it's just really exciting, honestly. You'll still have about two months, and you'll be able to get paired up with an FTJ agent so you don't have to worry about any stress whatsoever. So you get it. You get free tickets, and you get, you know, agent to help you along the way. So what more could you ask? Right?
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Fairytale journeys, travel for sponsoring us on that. That's awesome.
[00:25:01] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: That's a nice giveaway.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Okay, so I guess if we're going alphabetical order, I would be next.
And we seem to be following in, uh, the same trend because I kind of stuck to about the same time frame for myself, Casey and Kenny as well. So two adults, one toddler.
Unfortunately, he's four now, so there's another ticket and all that stuff. It hurts.
It hurts. Cherish it, Brooks. Cherish it away.
So my dates are December 8 through December 14. So we're going six nights.
I had to go with a backup option because, like everybody else, you know, I first want it, thought it was great. Went over the $5,000 mark. So we are doing six nights at Disney's all star movies resort in a standard room. So I went with all star number one being, you know, on the. A little bit on the cheaper end for the hotel. And I've got a number of things listed here, so we'll see why in a second.
But, of course, with Kenny being four, the larger than life statues, and he loves 101 Dalmatians, so pongo and purdy kind of, you know, being that he's gonna. Gonna have a great time. So that's why I chose movies over sports or music. At least it's Disney characters he'll recognize from the movies.
And I also was able to get it on a discount, the discount being save on rooms this fall and holiday season.
And this I did not know until I went to book. But this discount actually included the park hopper option at no additional charge.
I am not much of a park hopper person because I think it tends to. You're looking at anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes of transportation time, unless you drive or you pay for an Uber or a minivan. So I tend to like to just stay in that park, you know, that park all day, but how can I turn down something that's included? So we've got that. Food wise, I went with the Disney quick service plan being two quick service meals, a snack, and one refillable mug for the resorts, only for this one, just because with. Especially with Kenny, we don't know. You don't know when a toddler is going to be hungry or not. So I don't really don't like to put dining times. And this gives us just a little bit more of a go with the flow type of park Day, which I thoroughly enjoy, because then we don't have to stick to that detailed of a plan.
We are also adding in memory maker, because who doesn't love those pictures? And that on top of it's going to be an extra $185.
Like I said, our ticket is a four day park hopper.
So that leaves four days in the parks that's going to leave us with one rest day. So that'll kind of give us a little bit of freedom to just hang out at the resort. If we want to do that, visit Disney Springs. We also have some cast member friends that are around, so we'll go see them or they'll come kind of a nice, relaxed day before you knock out two more parks at the end.
On top of this, since we are going in the Christmas season, we are doing Mickey's, not Mickey's very merry Christmas party.
So for two adults and one child for that, that was a whopping $593. So that was a bit on the pricey side, but that's kind of what you get for going in December. It is what it is.
And I.
I kind of had a little bit left to play with. So I was looking at the lightning lane, uh, amount, multi pass amount for today.
And each park was kind of average, you know, between 25 and like $16 for animal kingdom. So I just kind of averaged it out at $25 for four park days. So I'm buffering about $100 for our lightning lane multi pass. Or I can add in the. The additional single lightning lane. And my dollar amount came out to $4,920.67. Definitely could have been less, but because coming from. From Houston, it's, you know, it's either almost 900 miles drive or a two hour plane ride. So we're going for. I'm going for the week. And so that was a little bit, like I said, I redid this three times to try to get. Because I wanted to stay Coronado. Coronado is one of my favorite moderate resorts, but to do this for six nights, it wasn't going to work, so. So that's my trip.
[00:30:48] Speaker D: No, that sounds like a great trip to me. And honestly, the all star resorts.
[00:30:57] Speaker C: I.
[00:30:57] Speaker D: Mean, they're not bad people. They, especially since they've redone the room. So as well. So there are a lot. The theming inside is pretty much like you would get at pop century.
And I think the only ones they haven't really done the little mermaid rooms are still kind of the same as they have been. Those haven't really been rethemed.
But no, don't. Don't sleep on the.
On the all stars.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Well, especially if you're just gonna be going to just hit the parks and then hit your pillow.
[00:31:37] Speaker C: Right, exactly.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: And I.
[00:31:40] Speaker C: Right.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: I love the deluxe resorts, but if you're gonna stay for that long, it's a lot of money if you're just going to the parks, you know, especially.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: If you have a larger family like mine. The family suite at all star music.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Two bathrooms, a bedroom, and a kitchenette that has a freezer, fridge, microwave. Like, it's counter. Yeah, you have, like, counter space to, you know, put all of your snacks and stuff. That's one of our favorite places.
[00:32:16] Speaker C: Three queen beds.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, um. That's one of our favorite places to stay. And I actually, for mine, I did look and see if it was available, but it wasn't because I was like, yes, we'll do that. Especially with the discount I had. And I didn't mention it until, you know, and I didn't think about it until you said it, but I did mine with the discount, the stay five nights or more and save 30% for our listeners out there. And this is one of the benefits of working with a travel agent. You know, if you don't read the fine print on that, you might miss out that that is also good for shorter stays. So, you know.
But, yeah, I love the all stars. I love the all stars.
[00:33:04] Speaker C: And you know what, Kelton? I think it's awesome that you also brought up budgeting for the multi pass and the single pass lightning lanes, because it is something that, you know, we think about food. We obviously think about what we're saying. We think about tickets. We don't always think about, hey, I want to do the fast pass, you know, or how much does it cost? How much is it? How much should I budget for it? You just kind of think, okay, I want to do it. And now that they changed the new system, you have to start thinking about it a little bit sooner, because if you're staying on resort property, you get to do that seven days before, if you're not three days before.
So it's a great idea to think about that and fit that in your budget one way or another, because it really does make your day last a lot longer, and you get to do a lot more things. And especially you have a toddler who probably doesn't like to do long lines. It's just the reality. And he's not the only one. So, you know, happy kid, happy family, happy trip.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah. We are gonna find out a lot of things when we all meet together for the first time next month. We're gonna see how well kids do in, like, Peter Pan. The Peter Pan line.
That one's going to be rough.
[00:34:30] Speaker C: So it's going to be a great time.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: It is. It's going to be a lot of fun.
So, steph, we're going to round it off with your trip. You know, you got you and you and good old sticky Mike down there, lord of residence.
So you have a lot of money to spend. So what. What do you have for you and Mike?
[00:34:56] Speaker C: All right, so I believe it or not, did also have to make probably several adjustments and change from my original plan. So I actually originally wanted to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Did not end up that way in the end.
So a couple of things to kind of preface my plan. I originally also to wanted to go with the same dates that I did with universal and do like a compare and contrast. However, I just thought it would be more fun, a little bit more unique to do it over a holiday at Disney. So I chose Halloween.
Yay.
Not. Not fully Christmas, where it's crazy, but, you know, I think it's a fun time to go and spend Halloween there, and it's something different and something fun. And so I decided to do four nights, October 29 through November 1 of 2024.
And this includes the Florida resident Disney pirate pass plus photopass for two adults. This is like Brooks takes up a good amount of my money.
I currently have the Disney Pirate pass, and I really like it. It does have several blackout days, but for the most part, I'm not someone who's gonna travel, for instance, during Christmas and New Year's. It's too crazy.
Would I still go? Yeah, I still would go.
But, you know, for the sake of also budget, I stick with the pirate pass. It's one above pixie, and it really does have plenty of days throughout the years to go. So anyways, I did the fluorescent Disney pirate Pass plus photo pass for two adults. That is around $1,912.74. Now, with the pirate pass, it does block me out on Halloween. But that is why I chose to stay at Disney's Coronado Springs resort. Kind of like Brooks.
We opted in to stay tower deluxe suite with club access.
Now, that's kind of where a lot of my money is kind of going to. I know that we're supposed to budget $500, so a little bit of wiggle room there, I would say, because you.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: Do get with that club level.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: I mean, you get, you get breakfast.
Breakfast, you get snacks during the day. You get what they consider hors d'oeuvres. But honestly, you can, you can get an entire dinner of that. They do have alcoholic beverages throughout the day. So you're saving on that and you get a little dessert bar towards the end of the night, too. It's fantastic. I was lucky enough to experience that with Jen last month. And it's worth its weight in goal just to have club access alone for food, for drinks, and just like to feel extra special, honestly.
So, and that was very strategic, too, with like, hey, you know what, even if we can't go to the parks on Halloween, hey, we'll go to, you know, we'll go to Disney Springs, we'll maybe go resort hopping, maybe we'll just hang out here and drink and have a relaxing day at the hotel. People are still going to be around dressed up, trick or treating, whatever. There's still going to be things going on and it would just be nice to be in that, you know, atmosphere at that time.
Would have done the Halloween party that day since I'm blocked out, but I'm taking into consideration the fact that it is sold out. So if it wasn't sold out, I would have added that to my plan.
So anyways, this hotel stay, I was able to implement the special offer of passholder room offer for holiday, for the fall and holiday season, which to those that are listening, Disney typically does not offer a lot of deals when it comes to the holiday season. November, December, you don't get much, even January, if I'm not mistaken, but definitely not November and December. So the fact that they do have options across the board for this time period, whether you're a Disney visa, there's a deal for you. If you're a Daniel passholder, there's a deal for you. If you're an out of state, there's a deal for you. It's really fantastic to have the opportunity to save money.
This room per night would have cost me $978 per night. Without the discount, I would be paying $684.60 per night. Remember, that does include food and alcohol.
Tell me that's not a great deal.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: That's a lot of costs bundled in on that.
[00:40:13] Speaker C: That's from 978 down to 684 per night. Wow.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: So what was your total?
[00:40:20] Speaker C: Well, I'm not done.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Oh, you're not done?
[00:40:23] Speaker C: No. Sorry. I do take my sweet time explaining things. So with my annual pass and my hotel stay, that would have put me around $4,223.30. So I was like, you know what? I got some wiggle room.
Let's throw in a magic kingdom park. Keys to the Kingdom tour.
Oh, yeah. So for those that don't know, this is for adults only. There's three times available.
When I was putting this together, the dates that I was staying wasn't open yet, so I kind of just went based off another date. These dates are kind of standard throughout the year. So for two adults, it would have been $274.78.
So that would have put me at a total of $4,498.08.
Again, I just kind of wanted to stop there because thinking about the dollar 500 food budget, but frankly, I wouldn't need an entire $500 budget at this point because I'm staying club level and I'd be saving a lot there.
So if I wanted to include a Mickey's not so scary Halloween party for two adults at $199 per ticket, because it's towards the end of the Halloween season, I chose the 29th, my arrival day. However, I would have loved to have done Halloween, and it is the same price. So, you know, take it as you will. Let me. Maybe you want to think about this for next year's Halloween season.
So the total for two adults with that ticket, there are no AP discounts at this time. It's only towards, like, the front end of the Halloween season. So full price would be $423.88. So if I factored that into my price, it would put me at $4,921.96.
And that is, you know, that is my plan, my splurge. I really liked club level, especially at Disney. It just seems like the best way to relax and dine and just, you know, like Jen and I, we were able to go to the parks and come back and relax and then go back to the parks and come back and relax. And you don't necessarily do that, like, when you. And again, we. We love values here. We love, really all the hotels, but typically you choose value because you're not going to spend time at the resort. You're going to want to spend most of your time at the parks.
The idea here was, hey, we're not going to be at the parks for Halloween. We're going to try and have a more leisure experience. We've got the annual pass. We get to come back again. So we want to enjoy the hotel. It's still. It's still sunny and hot in Florida, so it's not like, you know, pool is out of the question because it isn't. It is an option for us. So again, it's just an opportunity to be able to enjoy the resort, the amenities. They got a fantastic restaurant up there, Toledo. They've got the Dahlia lounge. Their pool is fantastic. They got the three bridges. Jen, you mentioned how fantastic some of the resort hotel restaurants are. I completely agree. And I did want to say one more thing.
So this passholder room offer for fall and holiday for hotel stays popped up. I want to say in July, maybe June, doesn't matter. The point is, what is so valuable about working with a travel agent? And I will obviously plug in fairytale journeys. Travel is that we price monitor and with Disney specifically, does not matter when you book a trip. Let's say I booked a trip for November, October, December, whatever, back in January. And at that time there was no discounts. But as soon as those discounts get dropped from Disney, as long as it's applicable with whatever your Disney plan is, we're able to go in and make an any adjustments and give you a, you know, make adjustments to your plan. It could be a reef in the form of a refund. It could just be, hey, now, you don't have to pay a full price at the end of your final payment day. So it's just a beautiful thing to be able to work with an agent and see these price changes, because I don't know about you guys, I always get so giddy, so giddy whenever I'm able to save a client money. And it's always a pretty decent amount. And at Disney, any amount is a good amount because anything will at least get you a Mickey ice cream bar. So.
[00:45:11] Speaker B: Which are free club level.
[00:45:13] Speaker C: Yes, they are. Yes, they are. I had one for breakfast. I had one for breakfast. And I was unashamed, but yes. So one of the many perks of working with a travel agent, but, yeah, that basically is my $5,000 budget Disney trip for two adults. Yes, I cater to the Florida resident audience. But hey, Florida residents, like, you know, what are they?
[00:45:46] Speaker D: You gotta take advantage of that.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: Yeah, why not?
[00:45:50] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, I would if I could.
[00:45:53] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just, you know, many people say, oh, you probably go to the beach a lot, don't you? Or go to the pool. No, I go to Disney.
That, that's where I spend my free time.
[00:46:08] Speaker D: I mean, I'll say I live in a coastal town and I think I can count on one hand how many times I've been this year. So yeah, of course, I'm also a redhead that burns at the side of.
[00:46:22] Speaker C: The sun, so at the side of.
[00:46:26] Speaker D: The sun, I mean, I. I keep sunscreen in, like, in the center console of my car just in case.
[00:46:34] Speaker C: I don't blame you. I don't blame you.
[00:46:36] Speaker D: I have gotten. I have gotten sunburnt driving.
[00:46:40] Speaker C: Me, too.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: So.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: Oh, I get it.
[00:46:45] Speaker D: And it's not just. Not just on my arm, on my leg, like, wearing shorts and, like, got sunburned on my leg where the sun's coming through the window.
[00:46:56] Speaker C: That's terrible.
[00:46:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:58] Speaker D: But I mean, like you were saying, booking with an agent, uh, I mean, I've. I've told clients before where they're like, you know, should we wait in book and till the deals come out? I always tell them, put that deposit down.
[00:47:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:13] Speaker D: When those deals come out, I will look at applying them and then also deals open up every day. I had one client that literally, I looked for months trying to find a deal open up, and they're in the room because they wanted a particular room. And literally one morning, I'm doing my daily check and it opened up. And I was a. And I got on the phone with.
With Disney right away. I was like, I need to book this now.
I need, like, I need to update this. So.
Yeah, yeah. That way you don't have to worry about that. You don't have that stress. We have that stress.
[00:48:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Right. So.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: And it is a favorite thing to just, you know, 730 in the morning, text a client, be like, hey, I just saved you x amount. And sometimes that x amount is a lot.
[00:48:21] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: You know, or, hey, you know, for the same price, now you can go deluxe and stay club level.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: You know, those. Those are my favorite. Those are my favorite.
[00:48:34] Speaker C: I completely agree.
So, out of curiosity, I did mention that I originally was going to go with an animal kingdom lodge budget, but considering so much of a chunk would go to my annual pass, just couldn't do it and spend the amount of days that I would have wanted to minimum. And that's why I switched. What were you guys going to do? Jen, you said you were looking at all star music.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it was not available.
However, art of animation in Nemo suite.
September 16 through 20 with a three day park hopper. Came out for the five of us. Came out to 42, 70, 35.
[00:49:30] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: So that would, you know, that would leave us $800 for food around or 730 for food.
We could also stay at the boardwalk the 16th through the 19th with a three day park hopper, and that was 4300. But, but I went with Saratoga and I took a day off so that I could do the full Disney dining plan, which is, you know, a table service, a quick service, a snack and the drink.
You know, we really like our table service.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: So.
[00:50:10] Speaker C: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And I want to emphasize, too, Disney normally has the best, the best ticket deals and honestly, some hotel deals, too.
All the way, most of the summer, all the way through the end of September. It is my, like when people ask me when is the most affordable time of the year to go.
Eight out of ten times, I'd probably say September.
[00:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:44] Speaker C: So it's a, it's a great month to travel to Disney.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: And I like, I like September. It is hot. It can be very hot.
It's also in the peak of hurricane season. And like I said last week, I prefer to go during hurricane season. Not that I want any hurricanes, but they usually cool things off. If you're okay with having some rain, it usually cools off a little bit. And there's going to be people, even if a storm gets close. And I prefer that it gets close and then goes back out to sea, of course. But if you're going to have to ride out a storm, you know, Disney's a place to do it, no doubt. But it's, you know, a lot of people will change their plans and it'll, you know, it's just nice to have even less people in a little bit cooler weather. At least take the chance on that. You are taking the chance of not being able to get back home or having to change your plans to get down there. And I did that for a client once with a category five storm coming. I was like, let's go in a day early. She's like, I'm sorry. I like to, trust me, it's going to turn. Trust me. That was Hurricane Matthew.
[00:52:04] Speaker C: And it did.
[00:52:05] Speaker B: It turned and they had a blast. They had a blast.
[00:52:08] Speaker C: So, and more on that topic, Jen, I also want to make it clear if you're traveling to Disney, none of us included this, and it is worth mentioning, you can purchase, and we do recommend travel protection. Travel protection. Correct me if I'm wrong. I want to say it's $95 per adult. Children do not pay for travel protection. It is only per adult. $95 and it covers the entirety of your trip. Yep. If anything happens with flights, things like that, it all falls under that. And it's always worth having it, especially during hurricane season, so that you have that peace of mind at the end of the day.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: So, yeah, especially if you're flying.
[00:52:59] Speaker C: Yep, yep, yep. None of us included it. I could probably budget in, but I do live in Florida, so I feel not as much stress. But again, do I recommend it 100%, especially if you're flying, flying in period, full stop. But anyways, Brooks, were you always gonna stick with Coronado or did you have something else in mind?
[00:53:25] Speaker D: So looking at the dates that I had picked, um, trying to stay in the budget with doing the annual pass, there actually weren't a lot of options for that particular time.
Um, if I had the ability to go longer, uh, there were some, but that Thursday through Sunday, Coronado was actually the cheapest option of hotels that were still available.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: And just so the audience knows, we could have gone at any point throughout the next year. But I feel like all of us just ended up falling into this time period because there's so many great deals that are currently available.
And again, you know, yes, we could have planned something further out ahead and discounts could have popped up and we could have applied them, but we're working with what's available currently and the deals that are currently being offered. So just again, a side note, Brooks, is that, that it basically, that was what you said.
[00:54:39] Speaker D: Because, I mean, that's because my whole thing was, I was trying to add in with the annual passes and trying to also include the not so scary Halloween. So, yeah, that was looking at the availability, I was, my plan was always coordinator. It's just trying to fit it within the budget and also trying to do at least preferred room.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: Coronado is fantastic hotel. I absolutely love that moderate love. The only thing I can make it better is if it was actually connected to the skyliner. But it's amazing. I love that place.
Anyways, Kelton, you're last. And then round us up and then close out the episode.
What were you originally gonna book?
[00:55:29] Speaker A: So great question. So I originally wanted Coronado. We've all talked about it, how great it is, better restaurants than the other moderates. Because the convention stuff, it's been mentioned many times before, but when I was doing it because I wanted the quick service plan, but I couldn't do a standard room, the quick service and a Christmas party, because I would have gone over well. And with that, after, you know, trying to finagle ball, I was like, am I gonna just dump the dining plan and go with the Christmas party route?
And then kind of just flipping through, just settled down on movies, just, it gave me everything that I wanted. And then a little bit more to budget for the lightning lane multi pass so I would have preferred Coronado just because I. I love three bridges, the restaurant area out there on the water, because any place where you can sit on the water and eat, especially being from Florida, you know, we used to go eat up at. At Port Canaveral all the time, because you could sit right at the water and, you know, outside, at least with December, it can be hit or miss. They can either. You know, we always call that. It's either you're gonna wear shorts on Christmas or pants. It all kind of just depends on what's gonna happen with the weather. So that was my number one pick.
But I don't think. I don't think movies is a bad.
[00:57:09] Speaker C: Oh, God, no.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Bad substitute for that.
So.
Yeah. So, moving along, I will go ahead and kind of look into our closing here. But before we do, we have a trivia question that we need to answer.
What is the fastest attraction at Walt Disney World? Does anybody know or have a guess?
[00:57:36] Speaker C: I would have. Oh, God.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: Jenny from the block, what do you have?
[00:57:41] Speaker B: Test track.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: Test track is correct at the 64.9 miles an hour, I think is actually what the sign says when you go around. So 65 miles an hour.
[00:57:53] Speaker C: See, I thought for sure it was gonna be Aerosmith. Uh, rock and roller coaster.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think that actually goes very fast.
[00:58:04] Speaker B: It does not.
[00:58:05] Speaker C: It's that launch. It's the launch that's deceiving all.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: But that we know once you hit that first loop, you slow down quite a bit.
[00:58:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:58:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: So.
[00:58:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Well, there we go.
[00:58:15] Speaker C: But test track, I am excited to see their refurbishments. When I was there, um, this week, they had a blue fence all around it, and they had, I think it was like, four different cars, Chevrolet cars, lined up at the front that people were taking pictures with. And they just installed a new entrance statue that you could kind of see, like, peak over, peeking over the top of the fence. And obviously, I don't know what it looks like in full.
But, you know, I'm really hopeful that this refurbishment won't take that long. Not like the rest of the Epcot refurbishments of the day. That took years. Right. So hopefully. Hopefully for next year, it'll be open, if not sooner.
[00:59:01] Speaker A: Poor epcot.
By the time they're done, they'll have to redo it.
[00:59:08] Speaker C: Oh, shots fired.
[00:59:10] Speaker D: Well, I mean, they're. They're just.
They're just a living embodiment of Walt Disney's phrase, it's never finished.
[00:59:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:22] Speaker D: So.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: And that's okay.
Well, folks, that just about does it for this week's. Episode of the Mouse Ears podcast. Don't forget to join our Mouse Ears podcast Facebook group, TikTok YouTube page, where you'll see this fine video and Instagram to stay up to date with all things travel, but mostly Disney. Please remember, of course it's gonna by the time this airs, it's all over. But check out everything that Steph and our sponsor agency, Fairytale journeys Suzanne, they're both going to be, like we said, a D 23. So next week's episode, y'all are gonna have a great time. Of course, I'm out on vacation, but it's gonna be an awesome episode next week as well.
And if you're interested in having a fairytale journeys agent book your next trip, please visit fairytalejourneys.com and let them know that us at the podcast sent you. Lastly, if you have enjoyed our weekly episodes of the Mousers podcast cast, we would love for you to leave us a review or rate us however you listen. So everybody, until next episode, have a great day. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
[01:00:42] Speaker C: See you next time. Bye.
