Overrated, Overhyped, & Outdated

Grim Grinning Dads: Itinerary and logistic pistfall pitfalls. Pitfalls. There's our old open. There it is. There's the open. Right there. We found it. We found it. Welcome, Foolish Mortals to the Grim Greening Dads, the show where three Disney loving dads share tips, tricks, and a whole lot more. my name's Charlie, and as always, I'm joined by Tyler and Caleb. Before we jump in, please make sure to like, follow, and subscribe on YouTube and wherever you stream your favorite podcasts, including iHeartRadio. All three of us are travel advisors with Genie Travel Company, and we would love to help plan your next vacation. Completely stress free. You can reach out to us directly through the link in the description or find us across all of our socials. Today we are going to kick the Hornet's Nest. Every Disney blog, blogger, and travel brochure will tell you there are certain must do rites of passage you have to check off every single trip. Well, we are going to call some of those out. We're going to break down our top five Disney must skip. Traditions, the overhyped, overpriced, and sanity draining rituals that need to be retired for good. But before we get into our main topic, Tyler has some news items that we can take a look at and discuss this week. Yeah, just a couple quick things. I did want to highlight that Costco is running an incredible deal for Disneyland tickets right now. so they are offering a bundle that costs $329 for a two-day parkopper ticket with Lightning Lane and a $60 dining card. So you might be wondering, is that a better deal than getting it directly through Disney? Well, yes. So the average Disneyland two-day parkopper ticket is $435, and that's before adding Lightning Lane. Once you add Lightning Lane, you're saving about $173 on the ticket plus you then have the sixty dollar dining card. so this is an awesome deal. if you are a Costco member and want to go to Disneyland, I would highly take I highly recommend taking advantage of this. and as a travel advisor, you know it we would love to book the whole package, but the truth is we don't make any commission on two day tickets. So if you do this and then end up booking a hotel, it's exactly the same for us. So we can still help book the vacation But you get a good deal on the tickets. because it breaks down to if you factor in all the savings, it ends up breaking down to just under $100 a ticket for the two days, which is kind of amazing. So definitely want to look at that. I think we we've been debating about doing a Christmas time trip. So this might be this might be the way to do it for sure. and then the other news item today, which may only be relevant to Disney dads like us. but Roosevelt's is doing a pop-up shop at Disney Springs later this month, October 17th and 18th, at the Marketplace Co-op in Disney Springs, and they will have two exclusive items, including a white pullover sweater featuring Figment with a retro Epcot design and a button-up featuring Mickey and friends in Disney Parks ride vehicles. I want both of these. So if anybody's gonna be at Disney Springs that weekend. let me know. I'll cash you. I want one or both. Figment just made an appearance. There he is. There he goes. What's he doing down there, Charlie? He was just he was just popping up and disappearing. He's over here. He's he's over He's over there. Okay. You know, I mean it could have he could have done this, I guess, but it would have then you would have seen my hand, in which case you you didn't see my hand here. And hand check. Yeah. another item that I want us to get into, maybe this could be more of a full segment for a a future episode, but I did want to discuss some things from ChayPek's book that have come out recently. But I would love to do it. I don't have those pulled up and I haven't read the book. So I think maybe in a couple of weeks we give us some time to dive more into that because I think there's going to be a lot of kind of nuggets to discuss. from from that, but that'll be for a later day. Yeah. I think we can probably dig into that one when we maybe do our breakdown of of food and wine with with Jacob whenever we're we're able to kind of schedule that one. That would kind of fill out that that podcast pretty good. Yep. so backing up, are there any restrictions on the the Disneyland ticket? Is it basically you just buy it's just like straight up this is what you are getting any time of year. Like I I'm kind of curious if there's any No there are there are date restrictions. So it is between October second and December eighteenth. this year. So it's yes. So it is a relatively small window, but I mean obviously the closer you get to Christmas, the more value you're getting out of that ticket because once they hit December the tickets get more expensive. So and if if we were gonna, you know, do this as as my family, we would probably be going like early December. So that can be a a pretty good deal. but yeah other than that, no restrictions. Says at first the bundle was only found in California, but ticket bundles will often show up in other states like Washington, Arizona, Nevada. So we'll make it work. Okay. Yeah. So I was I was gonna like be I'm gonna be at Costco potentially later and I was gonna go and like look. Pretty sure that it won't be there at the I don't think they would have a Disneyland ticket there. But no. I I think it makes sense because of the shorter time window to have it a little bit more regional. But yeah, I I think if I had that option if I had that option, I'd be like, Hey guys, here's what we're doing. Like there would be I'd I'd be like, instead of doing this thing where we drop seven hundred or eight hundred bucks. We're just gonna do this thing instead and we're gonna go to Disneyland and, you know, hang out and have hot cocoa and maybe not hot cocoa. I don't know. Do you have hot cocoa when when it's like seventy degrees? It's it gets a little colder than that in the winter time. Not much, but a little bit. We're gonna be so I wonder if Caleb's gonna be dealing with the the crazy, I don't even know if it's called El Nino anymore, but like some sort of El Nino esque thing is happening this year where we're where there's supposed to be ridiculous amounts of snow. Yeah. we're suppos we'll have snow in about eighty days. Very specific. Yeah. I think it ends up being like December like December 17th or 18th. Okay. 80 days. All right. So Mark Mark is on the show notes. Mark Dyne. Yeah. We're not from the weather podcast. October 3rd. Yeah. Slight weather aside. One of my favorite things about winter time in the Las Vegas Valley is that you can see the snow and all the mountains, but it doesn't snow down in the valley. So we don't have to mess with any of that, but you can still appreciate the the view of it. I enjoy that. What's the coldest that it gets where you are? I mean it'll get down into the thirties at night, but it the air is so dry that it won't snow. And if it and if it ever did flurry, it won't stick to anything. So it it occasionally will you'll see some flurries But yeah, it's ne it never piles up. But you do see it on the mountains because the elevation's pretty high on the mountains. So so it makes for good scenery, but we don't have to deal with like shoveling or anything like that. So I'll take that trade off. Yep. We're already preparing and thinking about like how how all of this is gonna go down. What are we gonna do for plowing our driveway this year and all of that stuff? Fantastic. Couldn't do it, man. Not fantastic is All of these crazy traditions and rituals that people have at Disney. what a what a transition. I am I'm getting good at those, man. You're getting real good. Segway right into it. So every Disney blog calls some of these experiences essential. But for a parent trying to run an efficient vacation, they're kind of overrated traps. So the ground rules for what we're gonna be doing, we're gonna break it into a couple of different segments. by the type of ritual it happens to be. It could be a park tradition, it could be food related, it could be rides specifically. but we're not gonna allow you guys to be able to pick something that's already universally hated. so a good example, Tomorrowland Speedway fumes or expensive bottled water was the example I gave you guys earlier. It must be a genuine crowd pleaser or a long standing tradition. And you must provide a superior replacement. a replacement. Yeah. This is the this is the difficult thing. So breaking into this next section, our first section will be the park traditions and rituals. So give you guys a second. I'll I'll talk through one of the ones that I think is I've always noticed it and kind of thought it was crazy, but now now I'm like, you know, I kind of waver on it. is staking out Main Street fireworks spots 90 minutes early. I'm not sure that that's as as a person who's been to Disney as many times, I'm not sure that that's really worth it because you can see the fireworks from a lot of different locations. meltdowns happen when you are requiring your kids to stay in one place for ninety plus minutes. and and the in the moment the lights dim, every kid within fifty feet of you gets hoisted onto shoulders, instantly blocking your view anyway. So and the ki the po the the the worst thing for me is the post fireworks cattle herd to the monorail and ferry is almost it's like the most chaotic forty five minutes in Orlando. So I would replace that with walking onto Big Thunder Mountain or Seven Dwarves Mind Train during the fireworks or watching the fireworks from the Polynesian Beach or the ferry dock with zero crowd rush. That's what I would do. Or California Grill. Or you could just go to California Grill. That's true too. Yeah. And then or or or even you know, Cat Caleb, you bring up a really good point, or you could have gone to California Grill for breakfast. And you could return to California Grill and watch the fireworks at night. That's I think that's a probably like I'm sure that that people know about it now, the people that are like the into the the Disney vlogs and stuff. But for like your average person going to Disney, you wouldn't consider that you could have breakfast there and then go back and be like, Yeah, I was here for breakfast. I'd like to watch the fireworks from from the the with the balcony. And and have a a truly one of a kind magical experience up there, like we did at our at my first fam trip with GD Travel Company. So what do you guys think about what would be a park tradition or ritual that you would put into a fire pit and burn to cinders? I do think that the midday parades are not something that I generally need to participate in. Not specifically just like freezing the entire afternoon and like parking out like a an hour ahead of time, because that's extra unnecessary, but like The nighttime parades are so much better. So I would personally wait for that and do literally anything else. I think based on like where the parade route is, like try to be on the opposite side of the park where theoretically less traffic will be and take advantage of a little bit lower wait times. So if you've got the parade going down Main Street in Magic Kingdom, you know, be over in Frontierland. For example, or Adventureland and try to knock out like pirates and stuff like that. just avoid that parade route. Mm-hmm. I like that one. Yeah. probably for me is taking the monorail from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom. it's always overcrowded. It's always flooded with people trying to get on and get off. when you get to the Magic Kingdom, like take the ferry. Just take the ferry. It's it's a much calmer ride. And you get to appreciate going across the water with the the castle at the front and you're you're going right into the kingdom and it's it's pretty cool. So So that that brings up a good point. I believe one of your friends, Marilina, had posted on one of our TikToks, what's up? Marlia? My God, Marilyn was was Bethany's ex supervisor. Marlia, sorry, sorry, Marlia. Marlia posted on the TikTok about the the amount of time that it took. I guess somebody had put it online and the amount of time it took if you took the monorail or if you took the ferry, how long it would take. And I I think she said that the ferry came in at a little bit faster, right? Mm-hmm. Is that is that what you saw as well? Yeah. A little bit faster. So it's one of those if you want to hear our discussion about that, we talked about that, I believe, in our last episode a couple couple weeks ago. So Yeah. The ferry boat is it it it's just a nice change of pace. Yeah. So I mean I really I really enjoyed not necessarily that ferry boat, but I enjoyed the one coming from Port Orleans Riverside, taking that one over to Hollywood Studios and also just taking it to Disney Springs. Like it's just just again, it's one of those views you just don't get to see and you're like, Whoa, this is it's weird seeing it from the outside. You're like, it's all the things that I that I really enjoy, but I've only seen from the other side. So you're like right coming in at the dock and and just kind of enjoying yourself that way, which is cool. Yeah. It's it's cool. And especially if you're wrangling kids, like you have a lot of space on those ferry boats. Like you can you can have your stroller there, get everything ready during the the commute and It's nice. So monorail. Same for the loss. Same concept with people with that have their their ECVs being able to get on those. that was one thing. My mom had a friend who was going, yeah. It's way different than having to get on the bus. But like it in my mind, I look at that and I'm like, this was really easy for her because she didn't have to do anything. The guy just drove it onto the bus, he put it in a corner, and she just kind of sat in the seat. but in her mind, she's like, I had to get out of the thing. I had to wait standing there, and then it got on the bus and I had to walk on the bus and and you know, it just kind of feel like you're a burden or something along those lines, and it's just kind of a bummer. So the ferry boats very easy. They just the ramp is there. You're walking on the ramp anyway, you just drive it on and you're just able to drive it off, which is really nice. So for our next ritual slash iconic thing that we're gonna try to talk about is the iconic food and snack traps. we're gonna talk about one that we again want to burn to cinders. I have a couple of these but the the main one and as as much as I as much as it pains me to say it, doesn't pain me to say it actually, is the the turkey leg. get rid of the turkey leg. I don't think I like I think the idea of having something like that in your hand and just eating it as you're walking around like a caveman seems like a good idea, but it's just never a good idea. Let's let's just be clear, we're talking specifically at Disney World. I didn't have I I wouldn't have even attempted to try the one at Disneyland. Is the one at Disneyland better? Yes. I you I I know you have different flavors. There are different flavors. They are better. Yeah. I I don't know that I've ever had one at World now that I think about it, but I can s I can speak from experience that the ones that land are very good. But I do think some of your points on here, they they do still apply. Like kids won't necessarily love it. And while it's big enough to share, it's not necessarily easy to share. No. but especially when I had that buffalo one, like I was taking that down by myself. I think that was all me. Was it good? It was so good, yeah. So what did they do? Like marinate it in the buffalo sauce? 'Cause I don't know how that's It seemed to me like they Like, you know, how you can have those like turkey injectors. It seemed like the flavor was like through the meat. It wasn't just on the outside. Yeah, it's like the the turkey leg looked like Wolverine from like the X Men movie and is pump full of buffalo sauce on the outside. So it's not like they just took a a standard turkey leg and like dipped it. It it it had like the flavor throughout. So which did make it very messy, to be fair. However, some things are just worth it. Yeah, that that is one that is worth it. But if we're sticking to the East Coast, yeah, I would agree. I've never heard anybody have a turkey leg at world and be like, This is great. The Dapper manatee. Well, that's what I was gonna say. He he gets one every time. And I'm like, Yeah, but why though, man? Does he love that guy? Well if he had the comparison. Like if he tried a West Coast one, would he be like, my world has changed. Right. Everything is upside down. Probably. I I the Dapper Manatee is a good dude. I I do disagree on the turkey leg though. I'm not a I I've he was just there. He was he was just there, right? It looked like it looked like the same so when he took the turkey leg out, the one that he got at Disn at World, it looked like the same plastic one that he has at home that he pulls out all the time in his videos. I was like, is it is is did he just carry it around with him? And then he bit into it. And I'm like, my god. Yeah. I was like, Whoa, okay, that is not great. So turkey leg, let's let's get rid of it. Or if we're not gonna get rid of it, let's make it better and take what Disneyland is doing and maybe inject some flavors into it that make it juicy instead of like dry as hell. I'm not a I'm not a Buffalo sauce fan, but like a barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce is good. Buffalo, yes. Sweet buffalo. Yeah. I like I like a good barbecue sauce. I can be kind of picky with the barbecue sauce if it's just like pure smoke flavor and doesn't add anything else to it. No. No, like it's gotta be like a brown sugar base. But like knowing how Disney would probably do this, they would just like dip it in some like generic. Yeah, like they would just dip it in the crumbs of churros. That doesn't sound bad. That doesn't sound bad. I don't know how it would stay on there, but it doesn't sound we're gonna roll a turkey leg in it. Yep. Yeah. I think for me the the trap for for me would be the like the standard snacks that you can get anywhere. when you're in a place that has some more unique offerings. So for example, if you're an Epcot, should you ever be getting regular popcorn or a standard Mickey bar or like these, you know, run of the mill kind of standard Disney snacks when you could get the wafer ice cream sandwich in Japan or the Croak glass or school bread or, you know, you name it, you know, anywhere around the world show. Even a baguette. Even a even a freshly made baguette. Even a a three dollar baguette. in France or if you're in Animal Kingdom, like get a Mickey Bar or get that cookie dough brownie ice cream sandwich. Yeah, the Brooklyn sandwich. Yeah. so yeah, I think those those standard things are are a trap. And some people say like, it's iconic 'cause they've had it forever. It's like, yeah, but like, you know, you can get those literally anywhere. You can get a lot of those in your grocery store at home. The Mickey Bar is in my grocery store at home. Yep. The Mickey Bar's at like a local gas station. Yeah. If if you've gone all the way to Orlando from, you know, Maine or South Dakota or Nevada, like make it worth it. Get something more unique. Get the good stuff. Hey, we have we have recommendations for those things. I think we did, didn't we do a snack draft when when we did do a snack draft? One year, one week. I don't know what's happening. What is it? Years? Bethany was like, You guys have been doing the podcast for two years, right? And I was like, No, it's been one year. Just over a year, yeah. It just shows it just shows she's been she's been feeling feeling the scheduling conflicts. It just cracked me up. Yeah, we've been doing it for one year and we're, you know, we're keeping we're keeping it strong with with with new topics because you can can kind of run into new things only so often with these things. Yep. What about you, Caleb? I mean The the first one that comes to my mind is is popcorn. Like Yeah, in general. I yeah, like I just generic generic popcorn, right? Right. Yeah. Like walking into Magic Kingdom and stopping at the popcorn cart. Like I I don't get that. But like there's always a line. Always. At yeah. Nine o'clock in the morning, there's a line for popcorn. And I'm like, What are you guys doing? Like there's all the smell. It's like the smell. Well, I know. And it is a lie. But like the there are people that are fanatics and like I know that they've got popcorn buckets and things like that. Like I I know that they do those limited time drops for merch and what people Can I just buy the bucket without the popcorn? That's the question. I don't think so. Probably. I think if you don't think they would sell it? Yeah, I think they would sell you just an empty bucket. I think they would. Yeah. Why wouldn't they? 'Cause you could just take the bucket and dump the popcorn like immediately, you know. Do you want to waste popcorn? Don't waste the popcorn because I all I want is the the cool bucket that the special edition I don't know the the Donald. Yeah. Right. So yeah, right. There's a Figment bucket. But like I I don't see the the the point in having the popcorn, the the regular popcorn. Or like the you go through Main Street, the Emporium. And you could buy or like the the candy shops, you can buy the Disney character fab five branded Hershey bar. I mean it tastes different than a regular Hershey bar, right? No. No. It's just different. It's the same chocolate with just does it ha does it even have the faces on it? And would you give it wrapper? Just the wrapper. Just the wrapper. I just thought of another one as you were talking about candy. pretty much anything from Goofy's Candy Co. Right. anything that's pre packaged at Goofy's Candy Co. is mostly garbage. it's like it's gonna be a worse version of the whatever it's trying to be. so just get like a big bag of Sour Patch Kids at Target rather than the Disney version. I think the only thing I think is worth it is if you do the build your own rice krispie treat. 'Cause you can then customize all the toppings and stuff. That's a cool experience. My daughter loved that when we when we were out there in May. But that's an experience, right? You you're not doing it necessarily for the treat. You're doing it because there's an experience tied to it. Well, it's a little of both. Right. Well, yeah, that that harkens back to the building your own lightsaber as well. That that's really about the experience because there are better lightsabers out there that you can buy now. but it's not mine. But it's not mine and I didn't make it and it didn't, you know, mine didn't Apparently I wasn't becoming a Jedi that day because mine did not light up with everyone else's when they told you that to to hold it up. Did you guys know that? I didn't tell you that story. No. my God, dude. I was so sad. I held it up and I clicked the thing. They should let you do the experience again. I they should have, yes. And I should have like I should have gotten something extra because it wasn't my fault. It was like something about the way that it connected. I didn't I mean I I am very good at following directions, gentlemen. If you give me a recipe, I can make that recipe. If it's mine that I built, or no. Yeah. That one over there. That's mine that I built right there. The one that's in the that's Kylo Ren. That's Kylo Wren. No, it's good. This is my custom one. Mine's in the back corner behind me. I I probably should should like hang it up somewhere, but I just don't know yeah. I don't even know where I would put it at this point. So I do have the lights in here too, but Anyway, that was that's another one of those. I I would definitely do it. What's up? Mine's going right there. Cool. That's worth it. In the window? It's totally it's totally worth it. No, we don't know. I don't know where anything is. So I'm just I'm just imagining he's got like just a glass door over there and he's gonna put it on the glass door. It becomes the door handle. What do you guys think about character breakfast buffets? Are there any the the would would we scrap that or is that an experience that some people should have? And if if so, where? Ohana though. Ohana. But I will revive my theory around character dining that you cannot combine good character interaction with a worthwhile dining experience. So I would say no. Ohana is yes. Great setting. I think the character interaction beat the food quality, in my opinion. Now I've never been there for dinner. I know dinner is not a character meal. So I I would I would be curious to try it for dinner and then maybe do like the fireworks viewing from there, I think would be cool. But the character breakfast to me, I I only did it 'cause my daughter's obsessed with stitch. So we kinda had to do it. But the food was fine, like Nothing special. but that's not a buffet either. That was more like a family style, like every table's getting the same thing. They bring you these big platters. So I don't like that as much because for what you're paying and you don't really have a say in what you're getting. So like I would prefer a buffet to that because then at least I'm in control of what I'm having. so that's like to compare it to like storytellers at Disneyland, like I like that better as an experience, even though the character interaction isn't as good, but I think the food the food is really good. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoyed that when we did that one. yeah, I think good on breakfast buffets personally. I I would be as well. I well, breakfast buffets I'd I'd be okay with. I I just think the character dining experience at a breakfast buffet doesn't necessarily line up with with what I would with what I feel like I'm paying for. because again I kind of kind of missed the the time frame where Sawyer would have cared. about meeting the characters and not be terrified by them. I do have some pictures that I well, maybe yeah. May I so I do have some pictures that I want to sh that I can share with you guys at some point of Sawyer meeting the Timu Mickey and Minnie at a local church that my my sister in law had invited us to because Sawyer loved, you know, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and all that stuff. you know, old toodles, like all of that stuff was like huge in in our in our lives for a bit before YouTube became a thing and is now the only thing. but he met these two and I he just c I I don't know. He just couldn't couldn't figure out how to make sense of it. And then we didn't go to Dis Disney World for a couple more years after that. So Okay, so I think that wraps up that section, unless you guys have other things you want to kind of bring up for snacks that we that we would kind of skip. I think the just as a add on to my point about the generic snacks, I think the one that is is worth getting at some point is a dole whip, especially if it's hot outside. But you can kind of be selective about where you do that. And there's places outside of the parks to get those as well. What would you say, both of you guys, what would you say is the best version of the dole whip that you've had? Peach float. Well, yes, either pineapple float or a peach. Peach. Pineapple floating. Slaps. So good. Okay. So I haven't had the peach one and I haven't had the float because because when we were there at land, you guys made me do just the regular and I thought it was okay. Again But I'm not I'm not like s I'm not crazy pineapple and it also was at night. So it wasn't like it wasn't gonna hit the same way as it would have been during the day. Yes. So like my my personal favorite, this will surprise no one. My personal favorite is the Dole Whip float at at the stand outside of the tiki room in Disneyland because you get it right there and then you're in that awesome courtyard waiting to go in the tiki room where the gods start talking to you while you're waiting. And that's just a whole vibe. There is no equivalent of that at world. You have the was it Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom, but that's kind of your standard like counter service. You have the pineapple and eye at Polly, and then you have swirls on the water at Springs, but they're all kind of your standard, like you walk up and get it, and there's not really like a vibe around it. Correct. So Yep. But still worth getting at at some point, like I do love swirls on the water because they they typically have some other flavors there. Yeah, they have the flight and they have some other flavors that you may not find in the parks. Yeah. So like let's see what they've got right now. You're looking it up. Yeah, Caleb, I remember on that first fam that that we were at together, we definitely did Swirls on the Water. We a hundred percent did Swirls on the Water because it's so good. It was a time. All right. So we have a vampire Mickey Comb, which is a pumpkin and chocolate soft serve swirl. Ooh. Peach Raspberry Sunday with Dole Whip Peach. That sounds great. Dole Whip raspberry, peach pie filling, a strusel, raspberry crisps, and whip topping. What the hell? Yeah, sign me up. That sounds amazing. And then there's a Dole Whip angry orchard float. Ooh. Okay. With the with the cider? Yeah. Yeah. Why? Dole Whip. Choice of Dolwit flavour with an angry orchard hard cider. Okay. So if there's an apple cider, what flavor would go? You think the peach would go well with that? I would do the peach. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, so they're there three flavors right now are raspberry, peach, and then standard. pineapple. But then you could get Wonder if the peach is taken off. Like, was it successful during flower and garden and now it's just gonna be kind of a staple? That'd be great. Yeah, and then for so for nine dollars you can get the Dole Whip Peach or the Dole Whip Pineapple with vanilla. you can get Dole Whip raspberry, Dole Whip Peach with raspberry crisps, and then you get the pumpkin soft serve with the chocolate s swirl. So you get all three samples for nine bucks. okay. That was all three of them. Plight, yeah. That's the way to do that's kinda sounds like the way to go, except for the thing that you described earlier that had that had a whole bunch of cool things in it. Yeah, the the peach raspberry sunder. sounds great. But like the the Dole Whip Angry Orchard Float, and then there's the float topped with rum, which is the pineapple dole whip with Captain Morgan. Yeah. And Mallard. There is a there's a bar in Vegas called the Golden Tiki, which is basically like a adult version of the tiki room. And they do Dole Whip with rum. And they have actually a couple cocktails where you can get Dole Whip in them. Problem is the Dole Whip they have, it's not the same consistency as the Disney Dole Whip. So the flavor is there, but it's like, I don't know, it just doesn't, it's like too frozen. Yeah, it doesn't hit the same. It's closer to like an ice cream consistency than it is the soft serve, and that just doesn't hit the same. Right. Yep. Yeah, we have our Costco here has Dole Whip. Like you can get Dole Whip in the freezer and it's just not the same. It needs to be whipped. Like it comes out of the, you know, it comes out of the thing. Like it's it's just like when you get soft serve, you know what mean? Like if you like if you put soft serve in a container and then scoop it out, it's not the same. No. Right. It's not the same at all. All right. So next segment, boys. itinerary and logistic piss fall pitfalls. Pitfalls. There's our old open. There it is. There's the open. Right there. We found it. We found it. I've done such a good job of not having stuff like that come out and then it just comes out of my mouth. Charlie hadn't forgotten anybody's name yet, so we still have that too. Yeah, we're good. I've I've I've gone out of my way to not try to remember anyone's name because I as soon as you get me in a situation where I have to remember a name, just out my brain. Just not not happening. Don't do it. Don't you do it, Tyler. Don't you do it. You you've experienced it on our other podcast. Like it's it's it's I'm just like I who's this guy? Well Sergio What? What's his last name? Like forget forget Aguero's last name, like in the middle of the thing. all right. So my I think the one that I'm gonna put up here as my example is rope dropping Seven Dwarves Mind Train. I'm not sure that that is worth doing. you burn your rope drop and you end up standing in potentially forty five minutes to an hour of a queue because everybody goes there for some reason. it it they want to avoid paying for lightning lane. There's that. Yeah, there's that. And it's almost like it's people are pretending like it's still new. Been there for a while at this point. And that people are like, this is the new thing. And it's still it's still a major part of it. So starting off the day with your family being stressed about something like that seems crazy. And I think the better play is to do Big Thunder now that the now that it's back, pirates, because it's awesome. So then you can do it again later. You can do it twice. It's is it still awesome. It is. If you only have the option to go to one of them, you're gonna go and you're gonna have a good time, Tyler. And I won't hear any slander about the one that's on this coast, okay? The the real ones know. The real ones do know, but the not but the real ones have the money to be able to go to both coasts. Okay. You can't if you don't have a comparison, then you're Or the real ones just happen to live closer to California. Sure. Sure. Let's let's go that route. You could also ride seven dwarfs at the very end of the night before park close instead of starting off your day with. We're getting on his nerves. Yeah. Well y you told you told me that I had to be appropriate with my language and you know, you're just gonna hear it in my tone instead, Tyler. Yeah. You swear at me on our other podcast. my goodness did I swear at you on the other podcast. Well, I mean, yes. so what do you guys think? Itinerary and logistics pitfalls. So the first thing that came to mind for me, kind of in the same vein of of what not to rope drop, is Animal Kingdom. Like don't rope drop flight of passage because then you're missing out on Safari. God do the safari. If you're gonna be there at 7 30 in the morning, like take advantage, especially if you're there during, you know, the summer because you know that it's gonna be less active like for the animals later in the day. So you gotta get that one. And you know, as we kind of discuss, like it is worth doing the lightning lane for flight of passage, or you just have to be okay with a sixty to ninety minute wait, because that ride is worth it. But I think because of how There's so much variance with what you can get on the safari. Like you have to kind of take your best bet and go in the morning. Well, you mean you could you could run into the lion being like the lion that's there being on top of, you know, Pride Rock and actually like roaring first thing in the morning because it's first thing in the morning. I mean, you could experience that. That is something that people, many people have have they've been like, look, this is the you know, it's like a one once in a lifetime thing and it's like You're only going to experience that first thing in the morning. You're not going to experience that midday and you're certainly not going to experience it later in the day either. Yeah, I'm definitely not saying skip flight of passage. Just no, don't don't prioritize it as number one. Now, also could Disney please update the three D on that? If they could update the three D on that, it would be like that that ride is so good. If they could update the three D, it would be like it would take it to the people love it anyway. Yeah, not saying they're not incentivized to do it because the demand is still there. Yeah. Take it to that next level, please. Like I told you guys though, the last time I went on it, it was You thought it was better, right? It was better except for the cave sequence. The out all the outdoor sequences did look better than what I remembered. So maybe it has improved a little bit, or maybe it's just all in my head. I don't know. I will say this about the Safari, rope dropping Safari. Safari does not open with extra or with early entry. Yes. Yep. You do have to wait till park actually opens to do the safari. So if you get there for early entry, you will be rope dropping early entry to go rope drop at park open. Which that's what I did with with the kids when we were there in May. We went straight back there. And we were in maybe like the third car to go off for the day. So yeah, and and What was cool about it is like that not a ton of people waiting back there. I mean, enough to fill up a few cars, but they have the like Kusafari and the snack stand are open. So if you want to grab a coffee or I think we got like a banana and, you know, a drink or something, it's right there. So you have options for a quick breakfast while you're waiting, 'cause that's seven thirty to eight, like you said, you're still waiting for the ride to open. But I think it's worth it 'cause You know, not a huge line and you're gonna get the most activity. Yeah. Patrick and I did it on our fam last year. when when we were like, we have time before we have to be the coronado to do the thing. So we're gonna go rope drop Animal Kingdom. And we did. And then we were like, we don't get early entry to the safari. So we learned that one the hard way. Yeah. But I still think it's worth it. 100%. Hundred percent. I wouldn't have done anything else. The wait time at the the point of us going to Animal Kingdom standing in line, the wait time for flight of passage was already over ninety minutes. And that was at like seven forty. Yeah. I mean that that that ride gets that that right you you could s you could see, you know, a hundred and twenty minutes on that one for sure. Depending on the time of year. And the first year it opened was when I went and I stood in line for two hundred and sixty minutes. that's that's a lot. That is a lot two hundred and sixty minutes. We had done everything else in the park and then we ended there. And that was when we was still two hundred and sixty Yeah. I was like, what time was this? Three o'clock? Two? That we got done with everything else? No, it was like four. But like Animal Kingdom was also open till like nine o'clock. So it was open until nine that night? Yeah. Like it was like that's when they had the they used to have the water show over in Asia. before they had the the kite show over there, they had the like the flower petals that would go across the yeah the lagoon there and the tree of life was lit up and we got to see Animal Kingdom at night, which is gorgeous. So especially Pandora. 'Cause when we went into when we went inside for flight of passage, it was day daylight out. When we came out it was pitch black. Love that. And it's cool to see Pandora at night. It's beautiful. Beautiful. That's why they need more nighttime stuff in that park. Maybe they will. I mean, here's the thing. I think they're gonna have to. Disney wants to they they want you to stay in the parks as long as they can, have you there. you know, and the the barrier to leaving that park and going somewhere else is not small. I mean, you know, like it's it's it's kind of a bummer. Well the challenge is b i it once it's dark, the walking trails are basically useless. So they have to close those. So it's really just down to the attractions. So I think when Tropical America opens they can probably justify an extra couple hours. Well then you just move everybody to the front of the front half of the park. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I guess you'd have to close Everest, unfortunately. Or maybe you can keep Everest open. Yeah, you keep Everest open. Everest at night would be kind of cool. I don't think we've ever done Everest at night. It's so much better at night. Did you do it? It's amazing. Like 90 times in a row because there was nobody there. Was the Yeti working when you did that? I've never seen the Yeti work. I'm pretty sure that I got to see it work once. In the early years. Yeah. Or the year that it was working. Yeah. That's all right. We're getting it better. Hey, don't worry. It's coming back and we're gonna do a whole musical number to tell you about it. Yeah, we are. All right. You mean in our Halloween episode? Is that is that is that our things we're gonna do we're gonna do the the entire episode's gonna be a musical number? No. We're just taking a dig at the D twenty three for all of our Halloween episode. We should do a Halloween episode and we all come dressed as our favorite animatronics. I'll be one of the I'll be one of the Epcot ones. Charlie will be a figment. Or will Charlie be Dreamfinder? Charlie is Dreamfinder? Hell yeah, dude. I could see it. It would work. I could definitely do it, but no. Imagine imagine imagine going in. I already have my my Halloween costume for our for our podcast is already picked out, so we're we're good there. Caleb I definitely did go full emo Charlie for for our I did emo Charlie and we also had emo lead in theme song which made Tyler giggle a little bit, which I thought was great. I watched it because his team got found guilty of cheating. Yeah. big time. Big, big, big, big bad. Yeah. Anyway, not to sidetrack us. We we have some other For your itinerary and logistics pitfall, what did what did you want to run with on this one? Burn it alive. Burn it to death. Rope dropping Remis. Okay. Like don't do it. Why? Be it it's not a rope drop worthy r attraction because later on in the day the wait time will drop and it'll be less than forty minutes to get on that ride without an issue. Yeah, but then it broke down. Okay. It's still gonna be less than forty minutes. Let's see, with with with Sawyer, I think we've gone three or four times at this point. And he's never gotten to ride Remy's because it like the the one time we were about to do it, we were like jumping in line. We had our lightning lane, we were ready to go. Walk up to the ride, and they were evacuating everyone because it broke down. Cause it did, you know, cause it desynced. Like the the carts desynced with the ride and that was it. And I don't know, I don't know what they have to turn off and turn back on, but it but at that point. They were like, Yeah, you guys gotta all gotta go. And I like, really Wonder if it's it's I think it's gotta be better now that it's the that's no they don't have three D. Mm-hmm. But yeah, so really like any of the main staples, like the you see it on everything. They're like, You wanna make sure you rope drop this ride, right? Whether it's Rise of Resistance or Remy's or Fight of Passage or Seven Dwarfs or Frozen Ever After. Like The only one in that that makes sense is Frozen Ever After. Because frozen ever after is consistently ninety minutes. Consistently. Yeah, I think it doesn't switch. I think the reason I mean obviously the reason that a lot of people go straight to it is because if they're if they're coming in the back entrance, then it's right there. But the three of us know what you really rope drop in France. That's the bakery. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So yeah. So instead of rope dropping all those, I would go find another attraction that is high on your list that you would rather do. and then wait for those wait times to drop after the rope drop surge. People are impatient though. That's I think that's the really the really difficult thing is that people are impatient. They're like, I just wanna I wanna do this 'cause I know I feel like I'm gonna miss it. and again, don't don't fool yourself. Like if if you are thinking that it's a once in a lifetime trip You're probably fooling yourself and you will go back. I mean Sawyer will get to ride Remy's at some point. So that client that I just had there before that sent the email because like I fell down the stairs and hurt myself and I hadn't responded to her or whatever, like sh she just rebooked a a bounce back. Nice. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. And they know she they know she's she's paying less for more people this time than she did last time with. Less people. The bounce backs are awesome. Yeah. They can be. So they can be if you don't want to stay at the contemporary. All right. So let's let's get into our final segment of the day. What where'd that come from? If you know what it was, it wasn't part of the the the trunk part of the part it's not part of the bounce back. Well yeah, I think it it can be very limited. Yeah. Very, very limited. And no yeah, like and that's what happened with with a client of mine. Like they they wanted to go and do it do the bounce back and now I was able to save them a significant amount of money with like one of the new promotions that was happening at a similar time, get them into a different room, which reminds me I needed to actually call because the technical schnafuos were happening all over the place. all right, but let's get into our hills to die on. So we are all gonna pick one. That you personally refuse to ever spend time or money on again. and for me, the one that I would choose is the matching shirts. I hate the matching shirts thing. I know the people love it and I know the people do it, and and that's fine. But I've always been in it's just like my my personal weirdness. Like I don't want to wear the same shirt as somebody else who's around me. Like I don't want to be matching you in the same day. You can have the same shirt as me. Do you feel weird when we're at our fam trip? Yes, I did. Of course I did. Yeah. but but I went along with it because it was like again, that was maybe an experience that maybe only happens like one or one or once or twice. It's different when we're it's dictated to us as opposed to choosing it for yourself. We made we made we made the shirt and chose like the the way that it looked and stuff too. And it wasn't the other thing that that's the bad about it, let's see. The The way that people get these shirts done, they don't consider the fact that it's hot as hell in Florida. They get a hundred percent. It's a really thick, hundred percent cotton, not breathable shirt. You're gonna sweat through it. It's not gonna dry, and you're gonna be you're gonna have a bad time. so if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna do those matching shirts, maybe you get matching shirts, but they like have different colors for the different people that are in the family, or it's like slightly different things for each person, and make sure that those things are breathable. The shirt that Caleb's wearing right now, I can tell, is that nice fabric that is thin and breathable. Like you can tell the only these are the only shirts I wear to Disney. Yep. And they're great. And you can tell I mean you can just tell the fabric is with the Roosevelts on top. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. So it I'm wearing my a hundred percent. Cotton Gideon shirt, which I would not wear to Disney. No. So no, you would fry. I would fry it feels Halloween festive. So yeah. what's your hill to die on? I'll save mine for last because it's gonna make Caleb mad. boy. I thought we weren't gonna do that. But sorry, doing this just to make Caleb mad. That's gonna be a Just literally the one. Okay. All right. I don't set out to do that. It just kinda happens. There's a few but my absolute hill to die on is I will not pay for Lightning Lane at Animal Kingdom. But that could change. I was gonna say mic you with new stuff. As of right now, I will not pay for Lightning Lane at Animal Kingdom. Is there anything you feel like you'd be missing out on by not having Lightning Lane when you're there? Nope. no. Because w w okay. You guys say it all the time, it's a half day park. Okay. Of all the things, the longest I'm going to have to wait for anything is probably ninety minutes to get on flight of passage. Mm-hmm. Everything else I can do, I can get food and then go stand in line. And then get off that and then go get a cheeseburger pile. Just on a on a busy day or a hot day, you know, there could be long lines at Everest, there could be long lines at Cali River Rapids. Sure. So I think it it it depends. I made the call to do it when we went because it was Memorial Day weekend and it just seemed like a time saver. And it was only nineteen bucks. So Yeah, the the only time that I do buy Lightning Lane, and I'll I'll say this the only time I do buy Lightning Lane at Animal Kingdom is if I'm also going to hop to another park. Yeah, because it transfers. Yeah. Because it is the cheapest. It is the cheapest Lightning Lane multipass. But then I can go hop someplace else and still use it. Yep. That's one of those insider tips that the people if you are okay with hopping parks, you literally could go get your lightning lane, scan in at Animal Kingdom, do whatever you're doing there, then leave, and then you can have ex experience Magic Kingdom lightning lanes that you may or may not be able to get throughout the day. Yeah. All right, Tyler, let's make Caleb mad. What do we got? Hey. have no need to see Phantasmic in Disney World. Maybe ever again, if it's up to me. No. What? It's a staple. Yeah. It's a staple somewhere else that's better. how is it better? I have to friggin' stand. Yeah, no. It's just it's the setting. It's the setting. The setting is better. theatrical yeah, but getting in and out there is a disaster, like it's such a time suck for sure. That's really what it is for me. It's it's being there early and then taking forever to get out of there. Like could that time be better used, you know, riding Slinky at night or Tower of Terror at night. So nice. or just you know enjoying a later dinner at Brown Derby or something like that. I just don't see the need for phantasmic bec and that's really only because I know that it's better at Disneyland. Course I say almost everything is better at Disneyland, but this one really is. Disneyland doesn't even have Rivers of America. What? Disneyland doesn't even have a dragon. Yeah, they don't need it. The setting speaks to itself. Didn't they used to and it caught on fire? And then it just never brought it back. Yeah. So apparently their fire response is not better. Well. That's fair. That I guess that's fair, however. Fair. Yeah, I just I I don't see it as as necessary, especially like if you've seen it already, you really don't need to do it again. I guess if you've never seen it on either coast, maybe, but I'm good. Like if I if I'm in Hollywood Studios, I will find a better use for my time than the like two hour plus time suck that is seeing Phantasmic at the end of the night. Yeah, I I I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't go see Phantasmic every every time I go to Hollywood Studios. But like I'm I'm never gonna be like, no, I will never do that again. No, I love that. I love Phantasmic. 'Cause like it's I think it was the thing that made me the saddest when I left Disney World a couple of years ago, was like just seeing it and then like knowing that other people were continuing to experience it while I wasn't there. it's like it's literally the FOMO. Like that it's why it's why a lot of those people who just walk around Disney doing things, it's why they do as well as they do on like live platforms is because I'm you know it's it's the FOMO. Like I'm I'm not there. I want to be there. So I'm just gonna experience it through someone else and maybe have a conversation with them. So but that's all for today's breakdown of the Disney traditions. You have officially gotten our permission to skip. Now we want to hear from you down in the comments which Disney ritual are you ready to retire or which one of our takes was completely out of line? Tyler's probably Tyler's Drop your thoughts below, hit that like button, and make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. If you're ready to start planning your next Disney or Universal vacation without the stress, the headaches, or the rookie mistakes, let us do the heavy lifting. All three of us are those travel advisors with Genie Travel, and our planning services are completely complimentary when you book your package through us. Head to the link in the show notes or check our socials to get a free quote and get your trip started. Until next time. Keep those strollers parked, keep your park days smooth and remember, when the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake, that's when the dads come out to socialize.