บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Is Dining Plan Worth It? Ashley and Gabbie's Experience

everything we experienced as it pertains to the dining plan and kinda talk about the ins and outs and where we saw ⁓ strengths versus weaknesses. ⁓ first and foremost, as always, we do cover the news. ⁓ a little bit of news dropping out of ⁓ Walt Disney World this week. There was Halloween Horror Nights news. I'm not a huge Halloween Horror Nights person. I don't know if you saw Lori. They're getting rid of one of the passes. Like you can't add one of the passes. Like you can't add express pass to the Frequent Fear pass or something like that. And I tried to understand it and then I like, I don't even like Halloween Horror Nights, so I'm not gonna care. Yeah. So I'm trying to figure out because Rob is commenting, but I don't see the comments here. I only see them on the Facebook. Yeah. Something he said was not consistently, so I don't know what he was saying that to, but ⁓ I'll have to go. ⁓ there it is. Now all of a sudden it just popped in. Got it. Got it? Wanna make sure Rob gets notified noticed, you know, gets his recognition. Yeah. My new Facebook friend. Yep. couple bits of news. Animal Kingdom changed their rope drop procedures, which I didn't even I didn't even know they had a rope drop procedure. I don't recall this. If you guys recall a rope drop procedure, please be feel free to interject. But from what I understand, security opens at seven, the gates now open at seven fifteen, and they hold you at Discovery Island. Whereas they used to hold you at the Oasis. I don't recall ever being held anywhere. I mean, to be fair, I don't often rope drop it same. Like I kind of feel like as soon as you got in, you could go straight to Pandora or Yeah. That's where everybody runs to, but yeah. Gabrielle, do you recall a rope drop procedure for Animal Kingdom at all? What a mood. ⁓ so yeah, and then once you're held on Discovery Island, if if you make it to whenever they decide to open, there are three entry points one at Island Mercantile, one to just go into Zootopia Better Zugether, and then the other entry point is ⁓ at the bridge to formerly Dinoline USA, future home of Tropical Americas. So Kind of interesting. Yep. ⁓ we got an opening date for the magic of Disney Animation. It's opening September fourteenth. So I guess we'll just see it next year. I'll check it out in January. Are you Yeah, I was gonna say, I thought you were going sometime between now and whenever we get back. ⁓ and then the last bit of news I had, it's not really news, it's just kind of happening. But Neopatrick Harris is hosting the Disney Experiences panel at D twenty three, which I found kind of exciting because he's a a nerd like the rest of us. So ⁓ I'm really excited for that panel. It is ⁓ D twenty three is running. August 14th through August 16th, which are the days we will be at Walt Disney World. ⁓ and then the panel is happening the fifteenth from seven PM to nine PM. So is this the big one where they usually make announcements or no? Yes. That is the one. Gotcha. ⁓ so yeah, Rob said he has spotty internet service, so it may be a hemp. ⁓ so yeah, that's the news this week. I feel like it should be like a that's the news this week brought to you by Liberty Mutual. I have nothing. as always, well, as of late, before we get into any topic, we try to do a round of this or that. So we will do a quick round of this or that. ⁓ How about I I ask the question and everyone answers. How's that sound? Sounds great. As the honorary guest, Gabrielle, you can answer first. Pressure song. ⁓ quick service or table service, Gabrielle. Quick service. What about you, Lori? Table service. Horn but I think I'm just gonna go quick service. Get me in, get me out. ⁓ Gabby, character breakfast or character dinner? character breakfast. Lori? I would say the same breakfast. I'm gonna go Denver, just to be different. Mickey Waffle or Mickey pretzel? Pretzel. Waffle. Waffle. I think we're gonna get the churro waffles when we go next month and I'm excited about that. Same. I cannot wait. I've been dying to try like I was excited about the cruise because I'm like, ooh, I can try them. Which I will be on the cruise before I ⁓ actually, do they have those at Disneyl Disneyland or is it only a Disney World? I'm gonna have to check. I don't know. Because I know at Disney World it's new. And anyway, yeah, I'm gonna I wanna try those. I need to copy. Yeah, we 'cause you get ⁓ at Caribbean Beach and when we were staying at All Star Sports, there wasn't really like a convenient way to get there. But now that we're gonna be on the Skyliner for pop next month, it's just a quick jaunt over to Caribbean Beach. ⁓ sweet snacks or savory snack, Gabriel. ⁓ Savory? Sweet. Savory. I feel like I've been super into ice cream though lately, and I think Gabrielle will tell you that's an understatement. Like every night I just want ice cream. ⁓ you should try chocolate do you like ⁓ you don't like chocolate milk, huh? No, I will not be trying chocolate milk with chocolate ice cream, sorry. ⁓ well. We'll try Gabrielle on the other cream. Probably would. I'm gonna try some white milk vanilla ice cream. It's so good. You eat the ice cream and then you drink the cold chocolate milk after ⁓ my gosh, it's yummy. Hm. Anyway. Doesn't sound appetizing to me. Dole Whipper Mickey premium bar. Mickey Bar. Lori? Mickey Bar. Go and Dolep. Resort dining or park dining? Park dining. Alright. Yep, I'll say the same. Park dining. Park dining. I'm gonna go resort dining. There's just some of the resorts are just unmatched with what the the food they have. Yeah, I mean I guess because like my favorites are all in the parks. Obviously, like Yakineti Vinapoli. However, Sebastian's at Caribbean Beach is in my top. probably my top three now so really yeah that's really ⁓ the exit to get off the interstate to go to Gabby's parents there's some very sketchy restaurant Asian restaurant called Tiffin's we stopped there like at the gas station next door at the other day and I was

like Gab should we go to Tiffin's? She's like absolutely not this is not the same this is not Disney's Tiffin's yeah ⁓ last one, Gabrielle, do you want dessert with every meal or absolutely not? Absolutely not, Laurie. So it depends on what kind of trip I'm on. If I'm on a cruise, absolutely. Because you get it just comes with every meal. So I get it. It doesn't know. I don't. Yeah, I suppose I don't want to pay for a dessert every meal. Yeah. ⁓ Alright, that does it. For Disney dining, this or that. Now I want to eat churro Mickey Waffles and Dollo. Thanks guys. Same. I definitely want the churro waffles. I can't wait to try the churros at Disneyland. Sorry, I'm moving my desk. ⁓ so I can compare them. Since everybody says they're better. I don't think I've ever had a churro at Disney World. I thought about getting one last month, but I never have. I don't know that gotten one but I Olivia has and I've taken a buy of hers. So we'll see. All right. as a basis, we will discuss ⁓ dining plans now and dining plans in the future and then Gabby and I will kinda go into why we chose the dining plan we chose, what we expected, what happened, so on so forth. So without further ado, we will go into the first dining plan, which is the quick service dining plan. ⁓ and Lori, please correct my details and feel free to interject at any point. But ⁓ the quick service dining plan, you get two quick service meals a day, one snack credit, and you get your resort refillable mug for the entirety of your state. How long are those refillable mugs truly good for? Because I feel like when I'm scanning it, Definitely good definitely good for longer than my stay every time. Yeah. So that's like that's a debate. I see people all the time in Facebook groups saying how they brought their cup from previous trips. The intent is that it's for your stay. ⁓ I don't think it's intended for you to be able to bring your cup and use it like for a lifetime. ⁓ but I don't know because I feel like No, but I mean people do that. Like I've seen in the Facebook groups, they're like, ⁓ I bring my cups all the time. So but I think i if it does work, I think it's a fluke because you can bring your cup for a new trip, but they're gonna you're gonna have to pay to to use it. So why not just grab a new one? Yeah, to reactivate it. So it's supposed to be the length of your stay, but I'm sure there are occasions where maybe it slips through and people can use it. Not to start a super tangent and if I'm a dirt bag for doing this, well we are dirtbags for doing this, then please let us know. But last year when we took the kids, Gabby and I got a refillable mug and then we just like you know, Gabby and I would share a mug, we'd let the kids share a mug. And then we started checking the laundry rooms because you know, people leave whatever they don't want in the laundry rooms and people were getting ri rid of refillable mugs. So we just grabbed two mugs out of the laundry room obviously soaked the crap out of ⁓ and cleaned them as much as we could and then the boys had refillable mugs for the rest of the week. Well I mean somebody paid for it and left it, so Yeah, I mean it obviously it would be different if we just like found it somewhere, but it was obviously yeah, you know, someone didn't want it, so we stopped. Gabby went and checked the laundry room and we got ⁓ So if you ever need a good way to save money. Check the laundry rooms and check the Facebook groups too. Like the pop century Facebook groups and all those because people are constantly leaving stuff like outside their doors or whatever until mousekeeping gets them. Yeah. Piece of advice. Don't leave something outside your door that if you're not intending for someone to take it. Even I've seen so many people like, somebody stole my stroller. Like they left it outside and people just automatically assumed that it was up for graves and took it. ⁓ my gosh, no. No, no, no. Yeah. I would only do that if I saw it like on a group or something. Yeah. No way. And people get rid of like the craziest stuff. How some people don't like brand new tennis shoes. I only wore my tennis shoes twice. And I'm like, well, you can't take your tennis shoes home and wear them at home. Like you don't wear tennis shoes at home? Some of the stuff is very I've seen people get rid of strollers. Yeah. Yeah. People are crazy. Craziness. Anyways, ⁓ so yeah, that's the Disney quick service dining plan. Good for any quick service location at the parks or the resorts. ⁓ the Disney dining, is it the Disney table service dining plan or just Disney dining plan? Right now it's the Disney dining plan. ⁓ it will the name will change next year when they ⁓ when they change the dining plans across for all categories. And the Disney dining plan currently is two table service meals? Yep. So two table service meals? No. No. The dining the dining plan is one quick service, one table service, a snack and the mug. The current plan. That's so much food. It is a lot of food. It's already we've talked about it before and I feel differently on the dining plans. If you're heavy, like for the table service dining plan or the Disney dining plan, if you're heavy on character meals or things like that, then I think it's beneficial to get it because, you know, you can use it for the the character meals. ⁓ but otherwise I I'm not a fan of it. I mean, unless my clients want it, of course. I will gladly add it to the impact. It's all about preference. To me, eat with both of the dining plans, it's if you want it to feel all inclusive, like if you want to have everything paid for up front. So that way when you're there, you don't have to worry about it, you just go and eat. It's it's beneficial. That way, you know, f especially if it's a trip that you plan it for and you want to kind of pay for things and get everything taken care of, ⁓ then then it's fine. But If you want to do it as a cost savings or save money, I feel like it's cheaper

to pay as you go. You know. Unless you're heavy heavy eaters and you eat all of that. Like 'cause you know, like the quick service meals. I mean, a lot of times Olivia and I can share a quick service meal. So we don't we would not need, you know, one that for my family of four, we wouldn't need four full meals, you know. I'm shaking. I thought I was a heavy eater. And the dining plan humbled me for sure. Yeah. I will say. Yeah. ⁓ so those are the two only two standard dining plans as of twenty twenty six. ⁓ that changes in twenty twenty seven where they're adding a dining plan to the mix. ⁓ we've got, you know, the quick service dining plan that we just talked about, two quick service meals, a snack, your resort fillable mug. Then Lori, the table service, is it two table service or is it still a quick service to table service? The table service is essentially the Disney dining plan now. This is how it used to be years ago, and then it kind of Going back to it. So the table service is the one quick service, one table service, the snack and the mug. It's the deluxe dining plan that they're adding back in. And that's where you get two table services, a quick service and a snack and a and a mu ⁓ the mug. I mean, there are people like I have one client who goes and will literally book like breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. It's very rare. I think it's a a really a waste of time to sp you know, to because that's you think about it, it's at least an hour, hour and a half for each meal. I mean, unless you're going like they do two like two weeks there. So wow. You know, and some days they may not, but ⁓ you know, so you have a lot of time. But that's that's a lot. And the only thing is is if you want to do like the fancier restaurants that are two table service credits. Then that plan would work because you know you don't have you would use two credits for one sit down, like Brown Derby and ⁓ I forgot which other ones are two credits, but ⁓ it's probably ⁓ LaCellier, Torrein Alberts, stuff like that. Yeah. Yes. Got it. So Yeah, way too much food for my liking, but kudos to anyone who can A afford it and B live comfortably on it. Yeah. ⁓ all right, Gabrielle. Tell the people why we chose the dining plan we chose. We do not sit down and eat a meal. We are really bad about sitting down, enjoying a meal in the comfort of a booth or a table or whatever and I feel like our the the style in which we enjoy the parks is just not suitable for the Disney dining plan as it is now. What do you say you agree? ⁓ I don't I don't know that we had too many expectations going into it. I think my only expectation going into the dining plan was that I was going to eat the most expensive thing on the menu every time we had a meal. And that I was just going to try and rack up as many dollars as I could when I did it. ⁓ I had like I had an idea of like where I wanted to eat to like get the most bang for my buck. But other than that, like I don't I don't really think I had

like too many expectations I think I was excited to not have to worry about like planning how much money we needed to budget for it because that was already packed into our week and our our vacation. Yeah. I was worried that we would run out of meals at one point. Like going into it. I was like, shoot, what if we run out of like meal credits before we leave? Or What if we run out of snack credits and we just have to pay out of pocket? Which would have been fine, but like it's you know, it's just the things you think about as you're like you show up and they're giving you like the brief on like, all right, here's where you see your dining plan credits, these are how many you have, this is what you can get. And you're just like, ⁓ that's not as ⁓ like, that's not a lot. As many as I thought. Kind of thing. Do you do y'all typically do breakfast, lunch, and dinner? No. No, we try we've always like Like we snack on the go. So like we we're more so like ⁓ god words are hard right now, I'm so sorry. We get breakfast, we grab breakfast and go. Like, you know, we get up, we get ready, we grab a pop tart, and we get out the door. And then we're kinda just like on the go until lunchtime, kinda thing. ⁓ Gabrielle's always done a really good job of like making sure we're stocked on snacks. And even going down this trip, we both had just a huge gallon Ziploc bag full of snacks. So that way, like we wouldn't use up all of our credits quickly. So like, you know, she had wh whales slash cheese Its, we had yogis, we had granola bars, we had Pop Tarts, like we had everything we needed. What is a yogi? In case we were to get hungry and didn't need to eat up our snacks. ⁓ my god, you don't know what yogis are? No. But they're like little yogurt bikes bites? ⁓ they're amazing. I'm gonna have to show ⁓ to you later. Okay, so I know what that is, but I didn't know what they would call it yogi. ⁓ Yeah, they're newer. They're so good. I think I've burnt myself up to And it was the first thing that came up. Yeah. Okay. Gabrielle, what would you say your expectations were going into it? Yeah. Just kind of goes and this wasn't your first time getting the dining plan, right? Or the first time maybe paying for it 'cause I know sometimes ⁓ it was the first time y'all had it. I d Gabriel, have you had it before? I gotcha. I've only had it once, but it was when we went for the first time in twenty fourteen and we had free dining. That was the only time we dined. Nice. Yeah. ⁓ how we planned our vacation around the dining plane. Gabrielle, do you have anything to say to that? How we planned our trip around the dining plan. That's what I'm saying. Like, did we have any I don't think we really planned anything around the dining plan. ⁓ we went during our anniversary, so like we knew that we wanted to eat probably at a table service for our anniversary. But like other than that, we didn't really like plan anything around it. ⁓ Gabrielle never really eats like whole meals. She kind of s smacks and doesn't eat large quantities like you and Liv. So if anything, we kinda went re prepared with the knowledge that like Gabrielle would be getting way more food than she typically does. Than she would eat, yeah. Yeah. To be fair. When we go to like if we go to now it depends on which one, but like some of ⁓ will even share You know, like at the table services that we do, but some of them we like no, we're getting our own food and we're eating it. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah, like there's times when like Gabrielle will eat like half her meal and then take the rest to go. And that was the case sometimes like this trip too. ⁓ but we'll get into it. We paid are you ready for the number? Yep. We paid. Three sixty two eighty two per person for our trip. So that's three sixty two eighty two. Yeah. So times two would be three six two eighty two times two. Nope. No seven twenty-five. Yeah. So we paid $7.25 total for the dining plan. It is $60.47 per night, and we stayed six nights. So that's where I got the $363.82 per person. We spent Four hundred and seventy one dollars and fifty one cents total. Between the two of us. That's it? Yeah. Yikes. ⁓ that must be So we were short. Calculated it out. Yeah. We were hurt by two hundred and fifty-four dollars. I really thought we were gonna get closer than that. Yeah. And and that's where, you know, and and I'm I'm very up front with people and and you know that too. Like you knew that going in that this may happen. So it wasn't like you were blinded. And that was kind of, I guess, the basis of even doing a comparison just to see. But it just kind of validates, you know, the the concept of it being one like an all inclusive field where everything's taken care of up front. versus, you know, kind of paying as you go to save money. Cause honestly, most people aren't gonna calculate it out and realize that they, you know, ⁓ spent more than they would have. Because it's you know, once it's done, it's done. But Yeah. I think our most expensive day I had it calculated out the other day. Our most expensive day was our departure day because we blew all our snack credits that day. But outside of that, our second most expensive day was I had it all written down and now it's all gone. I'd say it was probably one of our off days. Or so on one of our off days we ate at Captain Cook's. Gabby got a flatbread for thirteen dollars and a power aid for five. I got the bacon cheeseburger meal for fourteen dollars and a drink for four seventy nine. Then we ate at the daily poutine, we both got poutine for eleven ninety nine, Gabby got a water for four twenty five, and I got a s or no, I'm sorry, I got the water, Gabby got a slushie. And then the next day we burned two snack credits at Kringla Bakery. I got the school bread, Gab got the cinnamon roll, then we went to Cosmic Rays, I got the chicken sandwich, Gab got the tenders, then we went to Pecos Bills and ate nachos. And like that was probably one of the more expensive days.

So it was hard. I think one of my bigger takeaways, Gab, and I'll be curious to hear what you say as well, was that like one of the first meals I got was like the chicken parmesan sandwich or something like that, and I like, ⁓ I'm gonna get the slushie to like really maximize how much I'm spending here. No one wants to drink a slushie when it's ninety five degrees outside and your body just needs water. I mean, maybe. What kind of sl what what was the flavor was it? It was blue raspberry. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I g I get like the sweetness and then being hot. Yeah. But then also I could just think of, ⁓ my god, I'm hot. I want something cold. Yeah. So but I like I also knew that like I needed to drink water. Yeah. So it was just hard. So that chicken parm sandwich is pretty good too. I thought it was awful. You thought it was awful? I did not think it was great, no. It's been a shake it was that for thrown on the pilots or whatever. Yeah. Well, I don't know. We also got that gosh, like I don't know, ten years ago when we went on a trip. So maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Yeah. Gabrielle, what was one of your bigger takeaways from like using the dining plan? Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I'm trying to think. I guess too. Like if you did eat Go ahead. I was gonna say if you do eat like breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, you maybe could have like gotten one meal, you know, like one meal and shared some stuff, I guess, maybe to split it out. But yeah, you would have to eat breakfast on the It ended up working out in the end, so like it wasn't a huge deal. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. ⁓ I don't really think we found value anywhere. Like one of the one of the questions is where did you find the most value? Gabriel, where did you where do you think we found the most value in it? ⁓ well I sent it to you. Good news. I would say we found the most value I don't I don't really think we found value anywhere. If anything, it was nice to be able to get like an orange juice or a Powerade or a Water or something like that, but outside of that, like you know, we just ate. Yeah. The ⁓ so when you when y'all at the end when you got all of the candy, was that like literal just snack credits you had left over or did they 'cause I know you used to be able to convert quick service to snacks. I don't know if you can do that anymore. We had five snack credits left. So we went to Goofy's. We had one quick service and I think Gabrielle used it for lunch before we left. ⁓ gotcha. Yeah. So that yeah. I don't know how well I do know how. But it ended up working out to where on our off days we were able to eat breakfast. Like using the dining plan. And then yeah, Gabby had breakfast one time before we left. And that was only because I got bre I got lunch or dinner at Regal Eagle and she didn't. So like I A d like a quick service credit when she did it. Gotcha. ⁓ the house is credits we struggled. Credits we struggled to use, like I said, we struggled to use snack credits. I think Gabby got the most

bang for her buck and snack credits, because once again she doesn't eat the full meals. Like when we went to Regal Eagle, Gabby just got a side of mac and cheese, and that was a snack credit for her. ⁓ yeah. Also, Gabby was early in pregnancy, so all she wanted to do was snack. So she would get a pretzel. ⁓ what other snacks did you get, Gab? Yeah. ⁓ yeah, I forgot about the beignets. So the beignets at Magic Kingdom are considered a snack. Yes. ⁓ so yeah, I think I think I struggle to use snack credits because when I eat I put down. But Gabby does not, so she did not struggle to use the snack credits. I just struggled to keep my credits. Gotcha. ⁓ Yeah. I'm shut off. Dang it. Probably overdo it when I'm there. Because I want to eat all the snacks. Like more than I do at home. And the food. Yeah. And like on the app, it doesn't break it down per person. It's all culminated into one in the app. So like when we showed up, we had twenty four quick service credits to use. I like, dang, I have a lot of quick service credits. And then she was like, No, this is like per family. You thought you had twenty four and she had twenty four. Yeah. I was like, Don't worry, Gab, I'll be good for the week. I got twenty four meal credits. Yeah. Yeah. Did we order differently? Because we had the plan. Yes, we did. At least I did, Gabrielle. I think you did too, but I definitely and you know what I didn't. I did not at all. I feel like with or without the dining plan, I would have still gotten the things I got. Gabriel, what about you? Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ did you order differently because we had the dining plane? ⁓ yeah. And also like it's kind of difficult to use at Disney Springs. And I feel like I'm doing more complaining than I should. But we're first timers, so I I feel like this just like speaks to like Yeah, the veil that was kind of lifted when we got access to all of it. But it was really hard to use at Disney Springs. Like Gabby, you could talk about your chicken guy experience, but just like knowing what you got where. Was hard. Yeah, you just have to ask the cast members understand what it's you can't like look at or low or something. That's crazy. Like I wonder why it wouldn't be the same Like as in the parks. 'Cause it's still Disney restaurant. Well, I guess maybe 'cause it's not. Necessarily. Yeah, like Gabby got chicken guy, the fur like for her first meal she got chicken guy. And like you only get tenders and a drink. You don't get a side. So like she had to pay for a side out of pocket. That's weird. I'm going look at my guides right now to see what it says. ⁓ and then I got Deluxe burger and everything was covered. I got a burger, side, and a drink. So it literally like just depends on where you eat. Yeah, and that's what I was saying. I guess because I don't ever I mean I I have a guide that sends out to clients and it it has all of that listed in there. Like which I hadn't thought about it, I could have sent it to you. ⁓ yeah. You know, like which restaurants are considered ⁓ like if it takes one credit or two credits. What could be a snack? 'Cause I was just looking to see. Yeah. It's got and then also like we ate at the poutine stand, the daily poutine, and we were like, we don't know if this the poutine counts as a snack or if it counts as a credit. And if so, like that wildly changes what we get, 'cause then we have to get a drink as well. And we're not just burning a snack credit as well. Yeah. So I think just you know, if we were to do it again we'd feel more comfortable 'cause we have more familiarity with it. But Just an oddball thing that we ran into. Did we actually save money? No. We did not save money. And that sucks. Yeah. So I'm gonna have to put a note because on here, on my guide, it just said it does have the chicken guide, but it doesn't say like that not everything is covered. So I may have to think about how I send this information out now. Yeah, I literally like just started asking AI and hoped that it gave us the right information. Gab, what's your verdict on the dining plan? ⁓ I don't plan on doing it again. Basically I lost money in the end. Yeah. Yeah, the two hundred dollars is not good. ⁓ you know something we didn't really talk about was our out of pocket costs. We spent ninety five dollars out of pocket because we ate at homecoming for a meal. Seventy of the seventy a meal. Yeah, it was our meal at Homecoming. So in that case, like sign me up for the table service dining plan and hopefully Homecoming will take my credits 'cause I bet that one takes two credits. Mm-mm. It's just one. Wow. That's crazy because of how expensive it is. It is so good. Homecoming is so good. I would eat there over and over again. It's my fa I can't remember if you told me that. What did y'all get? Yeah, what you get? Chicken tenders and rice. Hey, I've actually been good though. I got the chur is it the church lady doubled eggs? ⁓ my god, so good. And I got the smothered fried chicken. With mashed potatoes and maca cheese. Yeah, we get the ⁓ church lady double eggs every time we go. We God, he just said something in our family group chat there. It's like ⁓ what do they call when the pickles like cut in four long ways? The spears. ⁓ yeah. I don't know if y'all eat fried pickles or if you eat pickles at all, but they have the spears, it's fried pickle spears, and I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, it looks so good. We get that and I always get the ⁓ thigh high chicken biscuits. That's my favorite thing there. Yeah. Yes. Also we felt bad eating leftovers because we weren't using the dining plan. Like we were hungry, so we were like, let's we have all of this food sitting in our fridge. We should eat that. But then we're like, but we have the dining plan, so we should like maximize what we're eating right now. So that was another struggle we had. Yeah, I don't know. But Gab, I think you had chicken tenders. I had the smothered chicken. We had mac and cheese. We had everything in that fridge. Did you

get any dessert? Did we get any dessert from Homecoming? No. No. ⁓ man. Their ⁓ hummingbird cake is amazing. It's so good. We get that too, Josh and I. So we we definitely split when we go to Homecoming because we want to get the dessert. Like that is one place that we will get dessert at. Because that hummingbird cake is it's so good. I've heard it's good. Yeah. And you know, ⁓ Daddy Josh doesn't eat desserts all the time. Ever. But he will make it yeah. He'll make an exception for that one. Josh. Sorry, it took me a minute. Daddy Josh. Daddy Josh. I know. Olivia. Olivia just texted me that long ago and she's I miss Roddy. I'm like, I need to. We need to get him. Yes. ⁓ Who do we think Well, wait, my verdict is I would do it again. But I think I could only do it again if Gabriel didn't do it. Bye. There were times when like for example we were at Animal Kingdom and I looked at Gabby and I said, I'm not wasting my dining plan credits on anything but cheeseburger pots today. That is what I want to use my dining plan credits on. A because they're delicious. And B because it's probably the biggest bang for your buck in the park right now. What was that? We're still looking at the cheeseburger. ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah. I was saying that in the beginning I tried to be like very choosy about how I spent my dining plan credits. And Gabby and I have very differing tastes in food. So it was hard to like find the happy medium there of like I was giving the example of like when we were at Animal Kingdom, I was like, I won't settle for anything less than cheeseburger pods. That's what I'm using my quick service dining plan on. Whereas Gabrielle has no interest in cheeseburger pods. So like I had to eat my cheeseburger pods and then we went over to Pizafari. Obviously that's on me because I wanted the cheeseburger pods, but like when you're trying to maximize the bang for your buck there, you shouldn't have to run all over the park to do that. Yeah. I mean I feel like that's any time because we do that sometimes when you know, like if it's quick service obviously, where like if somebody wants something and somebody wants something else, you know, we'll we'll kind of split up and do that. But for the most part she said we'll not put it somewhere else. ⁓ yeah, like if you have your head if you got your mind set, you're getting it. Like no matter what, s everybody else has got a yeah. I mean, we'll we'll do that sometimes too. Like if it's something where we don't really care, like I'm I'll wait, you eat, and then I wanna go get this. But ⁓ usually we kind of stick to the same places. But we also are very ⁓ routine and almost always eat at the same places that we all kinda like, so But it doesn't matter anymore because my children have are leaving me and it's just Josh and I, so we'll and we'll eat wherever. We kind of go with the flow. Gabby, are you saying I don't have the patience to wait for you to eat somewhere so I can eat somewhere? No. You will just eat where

I eat because you won't eat separate from me. No, because I feel bad. You don't get to complain when The offer's on the table and you just refuse to take it. We wanted to maximize at Magic Kingdom by getting the lobster rule at Columbia Harbor House. But I settled for Pinocchias instead. Why didn't you just eat separately? Or while you didn't eat. Like you didn't want her to eat first so she would be f full and then you go eat because she would have to watch you? Yeah. Is that what she's saying? Yeah. I gotcha. Can you all hear the party going on in the background? I can. I'm super jealous right now. So my mom just got home and she has to greet the dogs like they haven't seen each other in ten years. Honestly same. ⁓ I think I've pretty much hit on like what we would do differently if we did it again. I would advocate for myself to you where I want to go, Gabrielle. Okay. Is there anything that you would do differently? still wouldn't I just wouldn't do it. Yeah. It do I mean it doesn't make sense if again, if it's too much food and then you're paying for it, especially now that you know, you know, because it's forgot, was it like sixty dollars a day? Yeah. You know, you gotta think, are you gonna eat sixty dollars worth of food every day to make it worth it? I could any other day. I don't understand why I couldn't when we were there. I'm sure you got it just me that did it. Maybe you brought down our numbers. I think I'm gonna have to cut the dead dead weight next time, guys. I'm just gonna have to go by myself and eat on the dining plane. Gabby's like, let's see if that happens. speaking of next time y'all go, did you did you even bother to tell Gabby what my plan is? I figured she listened to the whole episode last week, so I think she knows. ⁓ okay. Lori's just gonna be our babysitter. I'll come along and babysit so that way Well actually I said you and I can do the fun rides and Ashley can sit and have the baby. But then if it's something that y'all wanna do, then I'll just sit and hold the baby and let y'all go. And it's a win win. Sounds like it. Yeah, Lori can ride Guardians and Yes. Rock and Roller Coaster. Everest. Yes. I'd ride Everest. ⁓ and I'll stay with the baby. And then we'll figure everything else out after that. And Lori said she'd pay her way. I think we're seeing now you're just like Fred. Fred was like, You said you would pay for me. I'm like, no, I did not. No, I said you would pay your own way. ⁓ I thought you said I would pay for y'all. Like Fred was like, Lori said she he even told Rachel that I said I would pay for them. I was like, in what world are you living? No, I yeah, I would pay my own way. You wouldn't have to pay me. Free babysitting. Yeah. So we'll just ⁓ keep that in mind. for the future. We've been discussing when is a good time. post December for us to go back. Yeah. Not looking good. I think I think January's great. I don't see a problem with just waiting a month. I wish y'all I really wish y'all could go in January because I'll be there. But that's too soon. When does what's what you do date again? December twenty third. ⁓ at the end. Olivia's birthday is December 5th. December babies. Yeah. All right. We should probably let these people go. Gab, do you have any final remarks on the side for all I would never do? Yeah. Final remarks, yeah. What do you got? I've said it numerous times. Not doing it. Not doing it again. Love the snacks. Hate the full adult size meals. And my sign off is that I look forward to going back by myself and taking on the dining plant challenge again. ⁓ thank you guys for joining tonight. Once again, we're live every Thursday night at 6 30 Central, 7 30 Eastern. This episode, if you're not hearing it now, you are more than likely going to hear it on Tuesday when our episodes drop every week. Follow us on any social medias you can find at Going Beyond the Castle Podcast. Follow our resident in-house travel planner, Lori Talamo. That's ⁓ Glory T at MouseCounselors.com and Travel with Lori Talmud. Good job. Thank you. Don't forget to check out our Beacons channel, Beacons.ai forward slash Going Beyond the Castle, and our website, going beyond the castle dot com. We look forward to seeing you next week. I'd tell you what we're talking about, but I don't know. I'm sure it'll be something great. What is it? Unless we change it. ⁓ what's actually worth prepaying before vacation? That's right. Not the dining plan. Not the dining plan. Everybody have a good week. Have a good night. And we will see you next Thursday. Thanks for coming. See ya.