The Lazy Genius Podcast - Bonus: The Disney World Episode

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

My family of five went to Disney World for the first time in February of 2023, and I’m sharing the 13 things I’m glad we did and the four things we could’ve done without.   Helpful Companion Links Go Now Travel Company Disney Instagram highlight Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is a bonus episode, the Disney World episode. My family of five went to Disney World for the first time in February of 2023 and I'm going to share with you the 13 things I'm glad he did and the four things we could have done without. We'll start with the 13 things I'm glad you did. Number one, get a travel agent. A friend that we go to the pool with is a literal Disney travel agent and he was amazing. His name is Darren Watson and his agency is called Go Now Travel Company. We'll put a link in the show notes if you're in the market, but he was fantastic.

He's the loveliest person. He's obsessed with Disney. He knows all the things. But he asked the right questions. He didn't make assumptions about what we wanted to do. he asked what all of our individual kids were into. And when I told him that we didn't do rides or movies, he did not flinch.

And he helped us make great choices. Now, I recommend a travel agent for three reasons. One, they know more than you do, like always. Two, a good one is happy to answer any questions whenever you need them. Darren answered my questions while I was at the Disney resort the night before we we're going to a theme park where I was like, hey, Darren, how do I get to the park? Like, are there shuttles? And he did not ever make me feel stupid about any question. He answered them enthusiastically. He checked in several times to make sure everything was going well. A good travel

agent will answer your questions. And then three, travel agents are free. Like, at least a lot of them are. They are paid by the resorts and the hotels and the destinations, not by you. It's literally free expertise. I love travel agents. and Darren is an excellent one, which leads me to the second and third things. I'm glad we did that we're both at Darren's suggestion. Two, we stayed at a Disney resort. And then three, we got magic bands. All right, let's start with the resort.

The resort was, I think, a bit more expensive than a hotel. But there are so many different tiers of a resort experience that you can get by without spending like a large fortune, well, larger than Disney already costs. but several of the many pros to staying at a resort are one built-in transportation to and from the parks that is so easy to the cast members which is what every Disney employee is called they are so ready to help you have a great Disney experience whereas hotel workers don't have the same kind of vested interest in your particular Disney experience and three resort guests get into the parks an hour before everybody else. That was actually super

rad. We took advantage of that every single day. Now to three, the magic bands. Magic bands are not required at Disney. Most people I saw had them, though. They are, it's like a watch, you know, it's like a watch bracelet thing. They are basically your ticket into everything. And

they offer enhancements at certain places in the park. But mostly it was great that like any of the five of OS could open our room door with our magic band. That our park passes were scanned from our bands. that we could pay for things with our bands. Like, they're designed to be easy and they really, really were.

Totally worth the extra price for us. Plus, the kids kept their bands of souvenirs, which is super cute. I'm not a souvenir person or a nostalgic person, but I'm glad they are and they kept their magic bands. Okay. The fourth thing I'm glad we did was to get a grocery delivery to our resort the day we arrived. We did order so much that the cast member was like,

I need to get a cart for this, but grocery delivery, and we did hours from the closest Walmart, it was so easy to do. You just choose your resort as the delivery location. And the resorts all have places where those groceries wait for you. Then somebody can help you take them to your room if you need to. So we got, you know, tiny bottled waters, snacks, breakfast stuff like cereal, fruit, bread and butter, instant oatmeal, milk, juice. I'm going to talk about snacks in a minute, but having food in the room was amazingly helpful and way cheaper than trying to find breakfast on the resort when we were like trying to make a bus or when we slept in and for sure not at the park. Okay. Five. I am so glad we used the My Disney app, especially the park map. That thing is

magical. You can select what you want to see by category. So you can can see, for example, where all the characters are at the park. You can see how long the weights are at different rides. You can obviously see where you're going because it's a map. It's also the app you use if you buy a lightning lane pass for a day, which I'll also get to in a minute. But that app was our saving grace. I checked it constantly to find whatever we needed. Really solid and great to have downloaded before you need it rather than like scrambling for it when you're stressed out because the line for some ride is two hours and you already walked all the way over there, but you don't have two hours.

So that's number five, the Disney, the My Disney app. Six, I am so glad that we leaned into seeing characters instead of forcing the kids to ride rides. As I already mentioned, my kids are not ride people. They are also not movie people. It's a weird choice to go to Disney World with those two things being true. But this trip was partly a gift, so we rolled with it. Now, that being said, the character. at Disney are a delight. We waited in line for more than a dozen of them, and every single

interaction really was quite magical. My favorite wasn't even like a real person. It was a BB8 robot in a super rad Star Wars area. And I, I ooed and awed like I saw a puppy, but it was BB8. And he like made his noises and stuff. We got a picture. It was so fun. But the characters really were such a great choice, even for our older boys. Like everybody leaned into it. it. So if your family is a bit tired from rides or doesn't have more than just a carousel in them like we kind of do, pull up that character map on the app and just go meet people. It was so worthwhile for us. We'll be right back. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like,

playing Russian roulette with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Seven, I am so glad that we had a snack bag and didn't have rules about it. In our grocery order was a box of plastic baggies like tiny snack bags. And every morning before we left, we would pack up a bunch of snacks and a small backpack. that everybody took turns carrying, even Annie. She actually really loved carrying that thing around. So there were pretzels and crackers and whole apples and dried mango. And anytime someone was hungry, they could get something from the snack bag. Like anytime.

We did buy some snacks at the park, which I will get to in a minute. But ultimately, everybody snacked from the snack bag whenever they wanted something. Putting parameters on what you could eat and when you could eat it was too exhausting to manage. So we took away the management. We just packed things that anybody could eat at any time, and it was such a great choice to keep the children from getting hungry. Okay. Eight.

I'm so glad we got as much ice cream as we did. This was the one snack we would buy whenever we saw it and whenever anybody wanted ice cream. Our entire family's favorite food moment, and for some of us, like, maybe one of our favorite moments. For me, it was one of my favorite moments, was on the first day after we, watched the Indiana Jones show in Hollywood Studios, which my kids were like mostly scared of. It was fine.

But we, we walked out happy from the show, sort of glad it was over. And we walked right up to this dinosaur-shaped soft-serve ice cream shop by a big fountain in front of the Indiana Jones ride, herb show. And they just had chocolate and vanilla. And we all just got our cups and our cones at 11 in the morning. And we ate them in the slivers of shade that we could find. and it was seriously the best. It was delicious ice cream for one.

Delicious. But the spontaneity of like one kid sort of sheepishly asking if we could get ice cream and I was saying an enthusiastic yes. And it was our first day. And then eating it all together by this fountain. It was seriously so fun and like weirdly special. Like I'm actually like a little teary thinking about it. And it actually led us to getting ice cream every day.

Like sometimes twice, sometimes more than twice. Whenever there was an ice cream shop and a fairly hungry fan, family member, we would stop. It was so fun. It was so fun. Number nine, I am so glad we made lunch reservations. Now, most days, we did not make it at the parks past four. But we also started every day about eight o'clock or whenever the park would let us in. When you have little kids, I think that's mostly how it goes, I guess. So because we did not stay in the parks into dinner, we would order dinner from like one of the restaurants close to our resorts or just eat food we have in the room, and we would focus on lunch being a really restful, restorative experience.

Not just the food, but like the sitting down. Now, I will say, I think we kind of lucked into a couple of our lunch reservations. Most restaurants when I went into my app to book them were completely booked, like completely booked. But I did snag a couple of tables when I did not expect to. so all that said, I would make reservations at restaurants if you can before you come to Disney. And your travel agent can help you do that too. I don't even remember where we ate, honestly, but there was two of them were Italian places.

There was an Italian place in Hollywood Studios that we loved. And we also ate at the Lady and the Tramp restaurant in Magic Kingdom, which was also an Italian restaurant. I don't remember details of things. So that's sadly all I have for you. but a one to two o'clock lunch reservation worked so well for us with the snack bag and the, you know, 11 o'clock ice cream. We could rest, talk about what we still had left to do and have enough energy to make it, you know, another couple of hours. 10. I am so glad, like so glad we went to the parade at Magic Kingdom. Holy moly. That thing was

amazing. And we honestly just happened upon it. We did not know that this was a thing. So every single day in front of Cinderella's castle, there is a parade at 12 o'clock and at 3 o'clock. I think we saw the one at 12, but they're the same parade. And it was incredible. Now, the Adachi family, we love a parade. So we're easily impressed. But this parade was outrageous. So well done, visually stunning, great performances, like a lot of energy. And there were lots of places to see it well. You know, like you didn't have to have like one good spot. It was a huge parade. We stood like on a railing coming up over the hill to Cinderella's Castle because we just heard a bunch of commotion. We're like, what is that? And it was just beyond. Please, please, please. Be sure you go see that parade at Magic Kingdom.

It is amazing and absolutely worth it. Probably my favorite thing we did. 11. I'm sorry. I'm so glad we brought water. I think that there are probably places for you to get water and free water and accessible water, but they were not obvious to me. I didn't really see those places. So we, we bought, you know, we had tiny water bottles as part of our grocery order, right? And we would pack a few every day in that little backpack. It was so great to never have to hunt for water. And the little bottles were so much lighter than carrying around actual metal water bottles would have been. Because once we finished a water, we just, you know, tossed it, right? So staying hydrated at Disney feels super important. And we were not even there in the summer. Like, drink a lot of water,

especially if you go in the summer. And however you get it, you know, just get it. But we were happy with our choice to get it in the form of tiny water bottles that we brought with us. 12. I am so glad we saw the fireworks. In amendment, I'm glad that three-fifths of the family did. I did not see them. The fireworks at Magic Kingdom and Epcot are pretty great. But they start at like 9 p.m. or something, which is normal for fireworks. You need darkness, you know. So we left it up to Annie if she wanted to go back out to see them. But girl usually goes to bed at 7.30. She was tapped out. So I stayed home with her while Kaas took the boys. And they all loved it. They all loved it, said it was one of their favorite parts. And because we're at a Disney resort, getting back

forth was really quick for them, like really quick. I expected them to be back after I went to bed. I was like kind of actually looking forward to a little bit alone time. I didn't get much. I didn't get much at all. They were back really fast, but they loved it. Also, I did not mention this before, but by the way, we stayed at Saratoga Springs Resort. It is the, I think it's like the chillest, least expensive resort. And we really liked it a lot. We liked it a lot. And then finally the 13th thing, I'm glad we did, was to not rush and stress. Now granted, this was easier for us because we didn't ride many rides, you know, we didn't have to waste a lot of time in lines.

So we got to see pretty much everything we wanted to. But just the overall vibe of, you know, taking our time, enjoying what we saw, looking at something and being like, oh, let's go do that, you know, being spontaneous, not forcing anything. It really made for a truly lovely Disney experience. Now, please do not assume that we did not have our normal Disney breakdowns. We absolutely did. In fact, be sure to check the highlight on my Instagram profile of our Disney trip. And if you got the latest lazy letter in March of 23, you got to read the Cotton Candy Story. It was like not seen after scene of our family holding hands and lovingly laughing with each other. Absolutely not.

Like, we had our breakdowns. But not having a rushed energy and being okay with only seeing what was, you know, most important. It was easily the best decision we made. It made everything magical because nothing was on a pedestal. We'll be right back. And as we close, these are the five things that we really didn't need to do or probably would have done differently. Number one, we would have gone to Animal Kingdom instead of Epcot. And if we had still gone to Epcot, we would have gone to that before the other parks. It would not have been our last park, which it was. Basically, Epcot is real boring to young kids after you have been to the most magical magic kingdom.

At least that was true of our family. Now, we skipped Animal Kingdom because this might be a weird reason, but we have a really great zoo near us. Like, it's a great, the Ashboro Zoo is incredible. It's actually the North Carolina Zoo. but it's close to us. We have a membership. It's an incredible zoo. And we didn't want to spend our time looking at animals that we get to see a couple of times a year. However, we do love a zoo. And our kids did not care about all the little countries that you could walk to in Epcot. Apparently, we're not a fan of culture. So we probably would have skipped that. Or at the very least, we would have

started at Hollywood Studios. We would have done Epcot on day two instead of Magic Kingdom. And then we would have ended with Magic Kingdom on day three. We only did three days of parks, by the way, on a five-day trip. A lot of people do a whole week. We only did three days of parks. So that's number one. We would have gone to Animal Kingdom instead of Epcot or if we had to still go to Epcot, it would not have been last because it was kind of a letdown. Number two, we would have skipped using the Lightning Lane Pass. Now, Lightning Lane is a great setup where you can get one of the limited lightning lane spots for a ride. So you can jump ahead in line on something. There's actually like a lane, an actual line, a different line that you walk through called the lightning lane

when you get to that ride. And then once you do that thing, you can pick your next thing. So you can't like book lightning lanes all through the day. You have to do one. And then once that one's over, you do the next one. It's like a relay race of getting ahead in line. But when you do things that don't really have long lines, it's kind of a waste. Like we didn't need it. You know if you love roller coasters, it is without question worth it. But if not, save that money. For us, it wasn't really worth it. We lightning-laned the Indiana Jones show. Y'all, we got, it's huge. If y'all have been to the Indiana Jones thing, it's like massive. It's like a little amphitheater. I mean, hundreds of people can fit in there. We got a lightning

lane for it. And we walked in and there was no one there. We're like, oh, I think we're misusing this. I don't think we need this. But you buy it. it day to day. So it could be that there are days that are good for you to have it and then other days you can skip it, but we could have skipped it every day. Okay, number three, we did not get the Disney photo package and I'm totally fine with that. Like I said, we are not, well, I'm not super nostalgic. We don't have a lot of photo albums any really. And I'm happy with the photos we grab from our phone, you know. Now there were a couple of places where it would have been nice to, you know, scan a band and then let the professional photographer take our photo, like, especially in front of

Cinderella's Castle, that would have been great. That's a tough place to take a selfie and see everything. We just had to ask someone to take our picture for us. But it really wasn't that important to us. So it wasn't a big deal that we skipped it. If having access and ease around photos matters to you, I do think it's totally worth checking out. It just wasn't something that we really needed. And I'm glad we didn't do it. Number four. we could have done without the oversight of having one adult have both cell phones. At one point, Kauz had the backpack, which had my phone in it, plus his own phone in his pocket. And then Sam and Annie and I somehow got separated from him and Ben in the big Star Wars area.

And we could not find them for what felt like forever. It was unfortunate that he had both phones because we couldn't be in contact with each other. So if you go with another adult and you're not wearing an Apple Watch or something, please keep your own phone on your own person in case you get split up so that you can find each other, especially when it's like the hottest time of the day and everyone's hungry and you're trying to get to lunch. And then finally, number five, which is pretty controversial, but I could have gone without the pineapple Dole Whip. I didn't really like it.

We actually tried three different flavors of Dole Whip. We waited in a very long line for them. And for us, it was not worth it. Now, if you remember from my stories, if you watched my Instagram stories after Disney, that was the same ice cream experience where I had to get change from a stranger so that I could ask two people in the front of the line to take my $4 to get another chocolate ice cream for me because Annie didn't know what a swirl was when I asked her, do you want swirl? And she said yes, but then she hated that the vanilla was messing up her chocolate ice cream in the cone I had just ordered and had stood in line a long time for. Like, that was a whole situation. But if I ever go back, which is unlikely, because we like to go to new places, I would skip the door whip. You're allowed to hate me for that, but I would skip the door. Okay.

And that's the list. Magic Kingdom was absolutely our family's favorite park. We loved it so much. And recently, someone told me that Magic Kingdom was their least favorite because there were too many things to see. It was too overstimulating. So everyone is different, right? But we loved Magic Kingdom.

It really was magical. Hollywood Studios was also fantastic. We really loved that. And Epcot was a bit of a bummer. Again, because it's like a sad final park when you are a little kid and you're tired and you're used to magic. And it's 10 degrees hotter than it had been on the other two days. And you are not wooed by all the different kinds of food. You do not care, you know?

So Epcot was not really our jam. But Magic Kingdom was indeed full of magic. We loved it. Like, if I could just go back to Magic Kingdom for a day, I would. It was so fun. It was so fun. But that was our Disney experience, and that is the Disney episode. I hope some of these things help you as you think through your own trip to Disney.

If you ever take one, and more than anything, just name what matters to you about the trip. Make all your choices in support of that. You do not have to do Disney the way other people do Disney. Enjoy it the way you want to. All right, all thanks for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you on Monday. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life?

It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way.

We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcast. Thanks.