The Squeeze - Tay & Taylor: Inside the Magic at Walt Disney World

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

In this week’s episode, Tay and Taylor are back from The Most Magical Place On Earth—Walt Disney World! The Lautner’s share all the highlights from their trip, from just how massive Walt Disney World is and the mental reset that came with being fully immersed in the parks. They reflect on being fully present in the moment, spending less time on their phones, and the inspiration they’re bringing home to carry that same mindset into daily life. From Animal Kingdom and EPCOT to Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Disney Springs, they give a full recap of their favorite rides, food, and attractions. Whether you’re a Disney superfan or just love a good travel story, this episode will transport you right into the magic with them!For more information on all you can experience at Walt Disney World and special offers, visit Disneyworld.com. To email us your questions or share your story, you can reach out to [e-mail] Be sure to rate, review, and follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode! Plus, follow us on all of our socials: The SqueezeInstagram: https://instagram.com/thesqueeze/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@thesqueezepodcast Tay LautnerInstagram: https://instagram.com/taylautner/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mrstaylautnerAmazon Storefront https://urlgeni.us/amazon/FDXj7  Taylor LautnerInstagram: https://instagram.com/taylorlautner/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@taylorlautner To learn more from The Lemons Foundation, follow https://instagram.com/lemonsbytay/ and visit https://lemonsbytay.comProduced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The following podcast is a dear media production. There's a lot of pinch-me moments, but I feel like this is definitely one of them. Like, that's the castle. Do you think we can put one in our home? Um, we're at Walt Disney World Orlando. Woo! It's been 20 plus years since I've been here.

Your first time ever. Literally my first time ever at Disney World. I am the guy that has a turkey late once a day while here. You didn't. Don't get me wrong. And a pickle. And a pickle. Yeah.

A hill? Yeah. Avatar was a top three for me. There was also Expedition Everest, which, to my surprise, went backwards. It's not prepared to go backwards. The tracks end, and you're like, uh-oh. And it was in that moment. It legitimately felt like we were in Africa.

Us and our whole group was like tearing up. Wait, what happened? Well, I don't. I'll tell you off camera. It does something that I don't remember it doing before. I got to meet Rapunzel. That you did. They literally just like plucked her out of the cartoon.

I got to hold her hand. I fear this is going to become a date night for us. Just the two of us going to Disney World. Fun wife. Fun wife. Hello, Lemon Drops. Welcome back to a very special episode of The Squeeze. You may realize we are not in the studio.

What? This isn't our studio? No. Oh, that's strange. We are not in our home. Where are we? We're at Walt Disney World Orlando. Woo!

And this is so crazy. Like that's the castle right there. Do you think we can put one in our home? I don't know about that, but maybe we can say after this episode that this is our home and we like live at the castle. I would live in the castle. Yeah, we live with Mickey. Oh my gosh, that's so sweet. No, this has truly been such surreal.

I was just telling Taylor before we started that this is like, there's a lot of pinch me moments, but I feel like this is definitely one of them because I am a Disney human through and through. So this experience is one of a kind of. When people ask for our highlights moving forward, you know how they ask us all the time? They're like, you know, what's the coolest,

who's been the coolest guest? It's going to make it so easy. Yeah. We're going to be able to say, never did we think when we started this podcast? that we would be filming in Disney World, like right here. No. And I feel like you may be wondering what the tie-in of mental health and Disney World is,

but I feel like it is such an obvious one after thinking about it. You know, a lot of us grew up going to Disney World, Disneyland, and it truly, every time I come back, I feel like it provides such like an escape and a nostalgic type feel. and you're able to just kind of get away from your everyday life and almost like play as an adult. Like you get to come back and play and do all of these things. And when people think Disney World, I feel like they maybe think kids and families, but I feel like I've seen a lot of young adults here and we've been having the time of our lives here. Yeah.

I actually grew up going to Disney World because as many of you know, I did martial arts first. a long time. And one of the tournaments yearly was in Orlando. So every year when we had that tournament, I would also come to Disney World. But that stopped when I was 11, 12 years old. And I haven't been back since. So it's been 20 plus years since I've been here. And it's your first time ever. Literally my first time ever at Disney World. I grew up going to Disneyland. I did Halloween at Disneyland. I had an annual pass for like almost my entire life.

And this is my first time here. So it has just truly been such an insane thing. But I also feel like people don't, which I didn't until coming here, the size difference. Like this actual, the castle alone behind us. Like, yeah, the castle alone is about five times the size, but also the property in general. Like, don't get me wrong. Disneyland is incredible. Oh, I love Disneyland.

But Disney World. They call it Disney World for a reason. I understand the world now. It's like you come through the gates and you have entered. It's its own city. Yeah. So there's, you know, there's four different theme parks. It's four theme parks in one, but they're so spread about because in between that is like 20-something resorts and their own like downtown that has movie theaters and food.

And there's just so much to do. It's like it's its own city. Yeah. It's shocking the scale of it. That was something that I had truly no clue. I thought we were going to be able to just like walk between parks. And yeah, I mean, because you'd never been here. Yeah.

And even, but even me being here once a year when I was a child, I didn't realize and remember that. Yeah. And there's so much more than just the rides. Like there's so much shopping. There's so much food. We're going to get into the food because I have been blown away by the food. Like, I feel like we were kind of shocked by how good our meals have been. Yeah.

Because when I think Disneyland, I think, you know, iconic turkey leg and, you know, the pickle, which are a staple, which we had multiple of this trip. Yeah. But the food, like there's Michelin Star restaurants here. Yeah, because we're actually, like, we're foodies. Yeah. So, you know, like we literally scheduled lunch after this taping to go back and have lunch

at one of our favorite restaurants because we loved it so much yesterday. We're going back for a round two. And I am, I am the guy that has a turkey leg once a day while here. You did. Don't get me wrong. And a pickle. And a pickle. Yeah.

That's the go-toes. But no, the higher-level food was delicious. Should we get into telling them about our days? Because I feel like, even though I grew up as a Disney kid, I didn't realize how much there was in Disney World and everything that it entails. Should we just kind of recap our trip and start with Animal Kingdom? Probably, it's so tough to say, but I loved Animal Kingdom.

I just feel like the biggest state, I mean, there's literally real animals. The safari It was unreal. Was insane. I didn't know how I didn't realize that there was real animals. Oh, I didn't, yeah. That were going to be there. Especially at that scale.

Like baby giraffes, we got to see. We got to see animals that I feel like I only saw in like the lion kink. It legitimately felt like we were in Africa. Yeah. And I left that ride or whatever you want to call it. And I was like, we need to go to a safari because that was. Literally. My phone camera roll has so many videos of me just like zooming in on these animals

because they were the cutest little things. And just like crazy that we got to see them in real life at Disney World. Like my brain can't like comprehend the two. I know. That was really special. But I think Animal Kingdom, that was like a really big standout. There was also Avatar passage. Do you want to explain that right a little bit?

If you haven't done the Avatar ride, you have like it's worth coming. and you're just for that. It's one of those like screen rides where you're like in something and it's a 4D immersive experience. So if you've done soren, it's similar to that. I think a lot of people call it soren on steroids and that's pretty accurate to me.

It's just like you get the smells, you get the spray, the mist, the, and it literally feels like you're in Avatar. So yeah, that was definitely, Definitely, Avatar was a top three for me, for sure. Yeah, that was a standout. There was also Expedition Everest. Yes.

Which, to my surprise, went backwards. And I was not prepared to go backwards at all. Yes, it did. But I remember, it's so cool because you, like, go up and, I mean, I don't want to spoil the ride or anything, but you go up and it's like the tracks end, and you're like, uh-oh. And it was in that moment. You know that trend with, like, the record scratch? It's like, you'd be wondering how I got here.

That was me in that moment. I was like, oh. There was one way out. Yeah, there was one way out, and it was backwards. There was also the tree of life, the giant. Remember, we saw the real version of the tree in the safari. Yes. But the tree of life is like, this, I mean, it's like almost as big as the castle.

Yeah, no, it was huge. And they have, I think they said, like 365 carvings of different animals. Yeah. Within the tree of life. And just like standing under that, we took our photo in front of it and there's water coming down. Like, it was, it was so cool. No, it's truly so magical.

I feel like it was the perfect way to kick off our weekend here. Yeah, although I wanted to go back. Yeah. Yeah. I guess we're just going to have to do double the time. I guess we have to come back. Another cool thing that we did was we went to Disney Springs and we had some lunch drinks at Jock Lindsay's hangar bar. They have some really cool Halloween little snackies. We had

cute little like pigs in a blanket, but they were like little mummies and they had little eyes. We had dumplings that were ghosts. We had a little like chicken sandwich that looked like a little alien with olives his eyes. And it was just like it was like spooky in there. It really ties in like the play with your food. Like the food was so cute. Again I have my camera. My camera was really full after this trip just. Yeah. But you know, We love fall. Yeah. This is like we are entering our favorite time of year.

Yeah. So it was cool to be here at that time because they, they transform this place into fun, Halloween, fall themed, like special things. Yeah. That's only, you know, available this time of year. So it was, it was the perfect time for us to be here. And now I want to come back for Christmas. Yeah. After that, we made our way over to Epcot.

Which also was a good time to be here because they're doing their food and wine festival. When you walk around the world, and this was a part I remember from when I was a kid and being my favorite. And again, we're talking 20 plus years ago. One of the major things I remember was Epcot and trying different drinks from, keep in mind, I was 10. different, but different drinks from different parts of the world. For sure. I loved that. Yeah.

And it was like that, but again, on steroids for this food and wine festival, because each country you enter, it's like you feel like you're just like, Oh, you're fully immersed there. Teleported in there. Yeah. I did not know what to expect, but it was way more than I expected. They're also, like, on top of all the food and wine that you can. go and have.

They also have shops. Like we bought so many snacks from like Japan, from Germany, like clothes and knick-knacks. Yeah. That are specific to that country. Yeah. So that was really cool. And we did buy a lot of, I think we probably bought the most in Japan. Yeah.

Japan was a good one. I love Japanese little snacks. Yeah. In Germany, though. Germany was cool too. I am German. We did splurge on some German goodies. Yeah.

But we did have dinner. a habachi dinner. Again, the food. That was one of the tops for sure. Yeah, I love an habachi dinner. Yeah. We do a little Christmas party every year at our house with our close friends, and we do habachi at our house. Um, so you could say we're habachi connoisseurs. Yeah, now, now you can. Yeah, especially after doing this, but. We went to teponado. Teppenado. Tepponato. Sounds right. I also loved the food pop-ups that they have. That's just for, you know, right now, like this time of year. So outside of the normal restaurants that they always have in the world,

you know, on the walkways, they have these pop-ups that's like just like snack. So like when you're in Germany, like we got a Bratworth stand. When you're in, there was, what was the, there was Euros and just, fun little like snacks and knickknacks. Yep, we did we did pass Greece. We did have spondacopoeitas, which are my favorite. Yes. Because I'm Greek. Yeah. So Epcot was a hit. That had your favorite ride. Oh, Guardians. Yeah. Guardians is insane. If you've never been on Guardians of the Galaxy and Disney World, you're missing out. It's one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. It's insane because it's like it's a ride. If you think like,

Space Mountain, but the cart you're in turns while you're going. So you're like moving on the coaster, but then you're also spinning. But then to make it even more fun, they're like blasting disco inferno or September. So when I did it, I was just screaming September the entire time because that was our song. The best way I could describe it is it feels like a dance party. Like we did it twice because it was so good. We had to do it again like right away. And the whole time, both times, I was literally just dancing the whole time.

Yeah. It's the funnest ride maybe I've ever been on. Yeah. Another one was Remy's Rattitoui adventure. Yes. You've never seen Rattatoui. Embarrassingly enough, I have not. Now after riding the ride, will we be watching Rattatooie?

Well, you know the answer to that because last night I said to you that I wanted to watch Rattatooie. Because it was so cool. It's one of those ones, again, with the screen, and you feel like you're there and there's, like, the smells. We literally couldn't have enough Disney during the day. We literally went home last night and put a Disney movie on. It's true. We were inspired. Yes.

Look at us. I love it. The biggest thing, though, I do want to touch on with Epcot is the Symphony of Us, which is their, like, water, light fireworks show. I think that's been one of the biggest standouts here for us, has been the first. shows. Yeah. Like fireworks, oh, like I love a good fireworks show, but these shows, the way they combined, like, light and music and the, like, choreography almost of the fireworks, it's emotional. Well, and the stories. Yes. Like that one specifically, us and our whole group was like tearing up from this show. And then, I mean, of course, we'll get to it, but the fireworks show, right?

here is insane, but yeah, it's just crazy because there's so much, there's so much for us to do here. Like, not just the rides, the food, but the shows, the fireworks shows. The fireworks show there was definitely a highlight for me. I can't get over it. I'm like still thinking about it and I have a lot of videos of it on my phone. Well, we can watch it back. Also, I do want to flag that if you guys want to come to Epcot's food and wine festival. It's running now through November 22nd. So it's a limited time. So, yeah. If that peaked you're interested at all. Now is the best time to be here for sure. I mean, I'm sure it's magical any time of year, but I just feel like the fall and Halloween stuff they're doing here is so fun. Yeah. Day two.

Uh-huh. We started our day at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Yes. Which I feel like it's comparable, not really comparable, but kind of comparable to California Adventure. Yeah. Yeah, but it's- Some of the rides are the same, but. But they have different spins. Oh, yes. Like at California Adventure, we have the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, which used to be Tower of Terror.

But here, they have the, like, original Tower of Terror, but also with a spin, which I don't want to say out, I don't want to say out loud because I don't want to give it away because it was shocked when it happened. But yeah, having like the OG Tower of Terror theme. Wait, what happened? Well, I don't. I'll tell you off camera. But it does something that I don't remember it doing before. You're going to have to wait. Interesting.

It was fun. Taylor finally got to live his glam bot moment. I don't know if you guys have been seeing that trend where it's like the slow-mo. And then it's like people will just like flip their hair. slow-mo and they have like the total glam bot moment yeah you got to have a glam bot moment yeah no I worked how did that I served um it felt good I haven't watched it back like 10 20 times in a row okay I have to talk about the Star Wars ride the rise of the resistance because as a star wars girlie I grew up watching star wars I had multiple lightsabers I was like queen of I dressed up as queen almodala when

year for Halloween. There's a great photo. And at this moment, we should... We should be putting it up right now. Because all of my friends were like cute, like little cowgirls or princesses. And I wanted to paint my face white and be in a full on gown head thing. So Rise of the Resistance is truly such an immersive experience because the riot starts like before you're even on like the actual ride.

Yeah, it feels like you're in the movie. And you walk past all the Stormtrooper. It's just like every, if you've watched Star Wars, it's a dream. We did it at Disneyland a while ago, and that got you excited to watch Star Wars. Yeah, literally, yeah. Again, I'm admitting that. I've been educating him. I've been educating him.

Yeah, I had not seen all the Star Wars before, but it was Rise of the Resistance that made me want to dive into it. I think that's like the biggest thing with everything here is it really is such an experience and an escape. Like it really just gives your mind a break from what's going on. You put your phone on, do not disturb. And you're able to just be fully immersed in the magic. I think that's something important to talk about is I noticed yesterday that the whole time I had been here, I had not been looking at my phone. Yeah. Like, and I'm, I'm, I'm, it's one of my weaknesses.

I, I need to work on that and probably do more things like that that take me away from my phone. Um, and it was like three full days of, I would probably glance at my phone three times throughout the whole day. Yeah. And then, you know, I would, I'd do whatever I need to. to do before we came here and when we got back into the hotel. But while we were here for eight to ten hours, my phone just didn't exist. Yeah. And I didn't feel the need for it.

And everything going on outside of here, like the real, like stressors of life, it just like completely went away and disappeared. It was the best feeling. I know. And that's, I feel like something we talk about a lot. is how important it is to find. I mean, you guys, if you've listened to this podcast, you've heard me literally preach for years,

how important self-care is. And taking that time for yourself to kind of just hit a reset button and recharge and restart. And I feel like the past couple of days, what we've been able to, you know, experience together has been so fun. Like there's just, there's something to, the magic of Disney World and also just getting yourself out of your normal routine in your normal space.

Yeah. And yeah, but you said not being on your phone. It's been so great. Like, I'm not looking forward to flying home and having to get back on my emails. Maybe now is our time to finally set or do not, or what's it, the timers on the apps that we've been saying we're going to set. Yeah, but no, I mean, I think now is this was a good reminder. Yeah. Maybe we can take some of this home with us.

For sure. And, you know, not be so glued to our phones and devices and stressors of life and be able to, you know, just a little part of us, take Disney World home with us. I do want to talk about the cop salad that we had. Okay, go ahead. Because we're going to have it again after this taping. I love a cop salad. You love a cop salad.

I sure do. The Brown Derby. I wouldn't make it a talking point on this podcast, but I do love a cop salad. No, my tummy growled, so I was thinking about the cop salad. Well, I think that also we were, I mean, at least for me growing up when I thought Disney World, I did just think, you know, the food on the carts, which are great. But there's Disney World that has some amazing. restaurants too. I think that was like the biggest thing for me. I was like, oh, I can get like a good

meal here. Oh yeah. I loved it. I had several of them. Yeah. Okay, I want to talk about my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom. All right. Well, I know where this is going. Yep. And I am not one that normally likes a water ride. No, I have to pull her on to water rides. But I was being a loving wife and Taylor really wanted to go on the water ride. So we went on Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Which is new. Which is new, yeah. And it literally, we wrote it twice. I would have done it a third time if the group would have allowed me to.

But. Well, she started, she started this ride by, like she said, doing it as a favor to me. And as we were getting on to the ride, she looks at me and she goes, fun wife, fun wife. And I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, you're going on a water ride, fun wife. And it started with you treating. it as you were doing a favor for me and you were bragging, you know, how brave you were and stuff. Well, that I was being fun because I do get a little motion sickness. So there's a couple rides that I had to sit out on.

But Taylor loves them. So, you know, he was a little sad. I couldn't go with him. So this one I could. So I was teasing him and saying I was fun because I could still do that one. And then she did it. And the second we finished, she was like, can we go again? And I was like, this is what happens when you put yourself out there and you stretch your boundaries.

Hey, I tried. Go outside of your comfort zone. You experience new things. I did do guardians for you, but I could not tell left from right from up. That one didn't go as well. Which was fun for you, not fun for me. We won't talk about that one. But no, this ride.

And I haven't seen Princess and the Frog since it came out. Mind you, we did go home and watch it last night after we went on the ride twice. But I just feel like the design of it. Like you were truly so immersed. It was just beautiful. Also sit in the back row if you don't want to get wet. Because I was fine. That's why I did it twice.

But no, I just feel like it was just the coolest thing. And it was so funny how something I didn't think was going to be my highlight. Was the highlight. Was the water ride. I know. And I'm not a, I don't like being wet. And it was fun. I loved it.

My other highlight I have to talk about is I got to meet Rapunzel. That you did. Which was really fun. because I love tangled. I am a tangled girlie, through and through. Meeting Rapunzel was crazy because it literally felt like she stepped out of the screen. They literally just like plucked her out of the cartoon and put her here. She was unbelievable.

Yeah, no. So cute. I got to hold her hand. Oh, yeah. She was like, hold my hand and we took a photo. You did dance moves. You did dance for her. Uh-huh.

Multiple times. Yeah. She wanted to meet us after the Snuggly Duckling, but. Yeah. She did. And Taylor's like, I have no clue where or what that is. No, I didn't know what she was saying, but I nodded my head. But he danced for her and concluded, but she was truly just the cutest thing. It was a dream come true for me.

I also got tangled ears. I have them somewhere. I got a lot of ears. A lot of ears. These have popcorn and a cute little bow. I don't know if you've noticed at all during this taping. I think they can see that. Okay. It's cute. I had to buy them. I have three pairs of ears. literally and I'm bringing home with me and I already have two at home. So that's fun. But I think the other biggest standout to us is the fireworks shows that took place at the castle. Yeah.

The first one we saw was the Halloween fireworks show. And then last night was the happily ever after fireworks show. Yeah. It's just, it's so, it's so, I hate saying a fireworks show because it really is so much more. Like, you are just like immersed, like into this thing. Like, I feel like Taylor and I didn't even talk the whole time. We're just staring at it. the way they like project lights onto the castle and like someone will like shoot something out of a wand and you see it like on the projection and then all of a sudden a firework comes out and it's just like yeah it's insane how that happens yeah like the the choreography of it is nuts like mini or whoever will shoot something out of a wand on the castle stay with me here on the castle and then when she does that there's like a sound

and a firework comes from behind the castle, like she just shot it out of her wand. Yeah. And just stuff like that keeps happening. And I don't even understand how they put all of these elements together. But it was the cool. I've never seen anything like it. And especially the, you know how much we love Halloween.

The Halloween-specific fireworks show at the castle was so much fun. And I think that was really cool for me because, like I mentioned before, I grew up going to Disneyland. And I, for probably, like, five or six years, went to the Halloween at Disneyland. And I would do the trick-or-treating. I'd come in costume with my girlfriends and our moms would wear, like, matching shirts. And so getting to come here as a 28-year-old and see this full-on production just, like, it put me in my feels. And it was just so, it was so cool to get to experience.

Yeah. I fear genuinely that this is going to become a date night for us, just the two of us going to Disney World, because it was so much fun. And we just like, we had so much bonding time with the two of us and we had some friends with us. Yeah, I think it was like intentional, intentional time. Because, you know, we spent a lot of time together, live together, we work together, work from home. Like we... But this was a different kind of time. Getting to have intentional time together and experience fun, memorable things.

Like, I already know on our flight home, we're going to be like, oh my gosh, remember this? Or like looking at photos. Yeah. And it's just so sweet that we get to do that together. I know. As you guys can clearly tell, we have truly just had the time of our lives. We had no fun. We had no fun whatsoever.

And I just am truly still pinching myself that there's literally like the castle behind me. and I'm sitting here working. This was a dream come true. We literally filmed an episode of the squeeze at Disney World in front of the castle. Like, pinch me. It's so cool. Take this as a reminder to make sure as we're heading into this busy back to school, back to work, summer's over, we're getting back into our busy routines to make sure that you're still taking time

to prioritize your mental health and your self-care and finding. Time for yourself and to be with your loved ones, with your family, with your friends. And there's really no better place than Disney World to do that. I highly recommend 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. What the? Oh, my. Where are these bubbles coming from?

I think, I think Mickey's calling us. Mickey? Is that you? I'm coming, Mickey. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.