Planning a Disney Vacation w/ Cast Member Jordan Lohmeyer!

Hello hello, welcome to Episode 62 of Life on the Brink!

Today we're talking about the Happiest Place on Earth, and how stressful getting there can be. Whether or not you're as big a Disney fan as I am, there are so many ways to enjoy Walt Disney World (and all the other parks) that most people travel there at least once in their lives. I personally have been to Walt Disney World several times, the most recent of which was on a big family vacation this past spring, and I ended up doing so much research ahead of time that I'm now able to bring to you!

These days it takes some real planning to get the most out of your Disney day, so I've brought in some big help, a college friend of mine, Jordan Lohmeyer: real-life cast member! Whether you're planning an upcoming trip or are just looking for a little dose of Disney magic, this episode is absolutely packed.

In this episode we're sharing:
-our Top 10 tips for planning a Disney Trip
-our favorite dining locations
-a whole breakdown of Genie +
-ways to work within your vacation budget
-some favorite Disney memories, and a whole lot more!

Plus, Jordan shares a touching Little Joy, and I supply you with magical background music to bring the sounds of Cinderella's Castle to your home.

For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!


Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys

Transcript

Unknown: 0:07

Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us, and often discovering something new. Hello, hello, and welcome to episode 62 of life on the brink. I hope you're doing so well that these last weeks of summer have been relaxing and restorative in in the summery way. And today's podcast is a lot of fun. Not only because I find planning, planning vacations and blending things in general to be fun. But we're talking about Walt Disney World and the other Disney Parks by extension. So I shared a couple months ago that I went with my family to Disney World in May. And it was like the first big family trip that we had done of that in years. But also I traveled with Josh there two years ago, and have gone a few more times throughout my life. And in fact, while I don't talk a whole lot about Disney specific content on this podcast, my family and I are definitely big Disney fans. And in fact, I think I mentioned it way back on the first time I had my sister Sarah, on this podcast that she owns a business that provides character, performer entertainment, I forget what the terminology is basically princesses to two birthday parties. And I work for her. So I am fully immersed in several, the most beloved characters, and it's so fun. And yeah, we know a lot about Disney films and the Disney parks. And even with that, planning this last trip was an endeavor, because going to Walt Disney World is a different thing than it used to be. And it's gotten a little more complicated, it's gotten a little bit more expensive. And it's very crowded right now, because everyone is making up for all those trips that we weren't able to take for a couple of years. But with all of that in mind, it was still so fun and amazing and worth it when we went earlier this year. And I know that people will continue to go to the Disney parks. So if you find yourself planning a Disney trip, whether by yourself or with your partner, or with your family or with whomever, then this is for you. Or if you just you know, you'd love to hear all the Disney related things. This is also for you. And hopefully all of the research that I did before this trip. And I feel like I fully grasp and understand how to do this how to have, you know, the best bang for your buck, and have a lovely trip and I would like to just pass on the most helpful of that advice to you. So before I introduce today's guest, go ahead and make yourself a cup of tea. Today I am drinking the Trader Joe's organic ginger, turmeric, herbal tea. And I really I rather like it especially in like the afternoon, I was out of basically all gingery teas. And I think that this would be really nice iced perhaps. But I'm enjoying that. So go ahead and make yourself something whether it's hot or cold, or even coffee, it's up to you. And with that, let me introduce today's guest. I'm so excited to invite onto today's podcast, a real live Disney cast member. So her name is Jordan Lohmeyer. We went to school together, we studied music together, she was a vocalist. And we sang in chorus together and she actually sang on my recital, and it was lovely. She's very talented and very kind. And it only makes sense that she ended up in the happiest place on earth. And you'll hear in our conversation, a bit of how she got there. But she told me Well, before we were before we started recording that she's currently working at the yacht and beach club resort in the Epcot boardwalk resort area. But she's worked in Disney Springs, she's worked in the parks, she's worked in several, like a lot of different capacities and truly loves it and she's making magic for people every day. And today she's bringing some of that magic to all of us. By sharing her top tips for having the best Disney vacation that you can, I'm sharing some of mine, she's sharing hers, we overlap a little bit. And we just had a really nice talk about what makes Disney special and some very personal memories to each of us, and just how, yeah, it's a very unique kind of place, and also the ways to get prepared, so that you can enjoy it as much as possible. So hopefully, it brings you a little dose of Disney magic. And be sure to stick around to the end, where I'll make sure you get all of the links and resources and music and all of that. So, without further ado, this is my conversation with Jordan Lohmeyer, a real Walt Disney World cast member. Well, welcome, Jordan, welcome to Life on the break. I'm very excited to have you here today. Thanks so much for having me on. It's been a long time. It's nice to see you over zoom. But it's been probably like four years since we've seen each other. Yeah, person. It's been a while but only good memories. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember specifically, that you and I were the only two people that were really stoked to be singing the music of Star Wars. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was after finals. So no one wanted to be there. But we were eating it up. Literally so excited. And I had, I had recently gotten myself like a light up baton. And I used as like my little lightsaber kind of thing. And I like use that to light up my music during the concert. Oh, my God. I didn't know that. Yeah. No, really like, top five musical experiences ever? Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. So before we jump into our list of how to help people have the best Disney trip they can. Why don't you just share a little bit of background how you came to be a cast member? Absolutely. So my best friend did her Disney College Program at the end of college. And I saw how much she loved it. And then when I first applied I didn't get in. So I was like a little discouraged about it. But then the next year came around and she was like Jordan, you have to apply again, like you're coming down to Disney. This is what you're doing. And so she basically pushed the button for me and I applied, got into the program. And then once I was down here, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the best thing. I'm so excited to be a cast member to be making magic to be in Florida. I was like, This is my next career move. And then COVID hit and they sent everybody home after six weeks. So I had a very brief enjoyment as a cast member at first and then got sent home due to the pandemic. Because we were all living in like college quarters. And at that point, like Disney had to follow suit because all of the other colleges weren't reopening after spring break. And so it was only a matter of time for Disney was like, Yeah, you're gonna have to go home too. But that summer, she was like, there's a room in my apartment. It's yours. If you want to move back down to Florida. I know you want to come back. So I moved down. I worked for a third party company at first. So within Disney, there are some places in Epcot that aren't directly. Some of the cast members aren't directly working for Disney. They're working for other companies. So I worked in the France pavilion in Epcot for almost a year and then got rehired by the company in June of 2021. So that's awesome. I know so many people, like were displaced, you know, with COVID. And so I'm really glad you were able to get back in there. Yeah, I definitely knew I wanted to and I am really lucky that I have a lot of friends who have my back and were encouraging me to get back to where I wanted to be. That's awesome. Now, how, how many times would you say before you moved down there? Had you been to Disney World? Like how many trips? Um, oh, I think probably at least four or five. My family didn't go like often but we went for like big celebrations. So we had done a whole trip just for Disney World. We did a couple of Disney does a couple of packages where they like do a three night cruise and like a four day in the parks kind of something similar to that that they do like a land and sea package. So I had done a couple of those with my family as well and done the week long cruise so I kind of got to experience everything that Disney had to offer. But like as a child it was I didn't get to go as much towards like my teens late like early adulthood. But every time I went it was always so magical. So exciting and Just a new experience every time. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I have had sort of a similar experience, though more. So in adulthood, my family also has done a few trips, we just did a big family trip just like it like two, three months ago. And so it was, it was really cool to go as a family, but I've gone a couple times, either with my husband or now husband. There's a jet flying by I'm sorry if you can hear it. Or I went sort of to celebrate after I graduated from college, and I have actually gone down to audition before. Yeah. Yeah. I came down to audition for the voices of liberty once. Okay, because I just love them. My dream role for me to go during roll right there. Right. Yeah, it's like, I think some of the most like, vocally demanding, like, actually would be fun to sing all the time over and over. But um, yeah, it all worked out. It all worked out well. So you wouldn't know what, what kind of things people would want to know, I feel like these days, especially post COVID, Disney can be an intimidating trip, everything has changed. And so I would love to just sort of go back and forth, we've each prepared like five top tips of like things to consider when you're making a trip, either with a family or, or with a group or smaller group or by yourself or whatever. So I'll defer to you what, what would you like to start with? Um, I guess my first one is to plan early, if you can, the 60 day mark is where a lot of the reservations open up. So as long as you kind of get a big idea of like, there are certain like dining experiences that will book up like that day. So if there are things that you really, like you've done your research and you want know that you want to do, try and plan it as early as you can, there's always that chance that like people will drop their reservations, and you can pick it up if you continue looking for it. But the best chance you have to get some of those big name experiences like the whoop dee doo review or space 220, which is one of the new restaurants, or just some of the other great experiences that Disney has to offer that 60 day mark is a big one for planning. Yeah, I totally agree. And probably I feel like most people feel like most people know at least 60 days in advance when they're going to go, usually for budgeting purposes. But yeah, I actually, my sister and I were intent on on getting like booking a dining reservation at Ohana on this past trip. And something that we didn't know was that. Well, I'll talk a little bit about resorts in a little while. We weren't able to get 160 days prior, but we were able to get one later when people dropped their reservations. But yeah, by then we knew exactly which days we were doing what. And I think that's a great idea of planning early just to know what your priorities are. Absolutely, yeah, knowing those priorities is I'll get to that later online if you don't get Yeah. Well my first tip is sort of in line with that which is to know what is important to you on this trip and to spend money in those areas and not worry about it in other areas. For example, I my family and I like I've gone many times and I've never stayed on Disney property like at a resort and that has never liked that's okay with me i It would be fun, but I don't think it's as necessary for me. But I do know that the things that I tend to prioritize is like food and meals. So I will like you know, I'm scouting out snacks weeks in advance and so I will budget that money rather than you know, all of the other things that are available with like the balloons and the ears and the magic bands and all of that stuff. And if that's what you want to spend your money on, by all means I just think that there's I don't know maybe an idea when people go to Disney have like this is this is how you do it. And there's lots of different ways that you can do it and so I think it's just a good idea to know what you what how you like to travel because if you're not too keen on scouting out snacks then you can bring snacks into the park and save money that way or you know only have one meal In the park, in most things, but also in traveling, I think knowing your priorities in terms of what you want to spend money on is a big thing. Oh, absolutely. Disney is expensive. There's no other way to put it, except for Disney is expensive. And they're able to be expensive, because they know people will pay the money to do it. And I'm guilty of it, too. I couldn't tell. I think I've got over 20 pairs of ears now. Like, I will pay the money for the things that I want to spend my money on. Absolutely stay off property. If you're not prioritizing, like, time in a resort, there are great things about being in a resort that I love getting the opportunity to do. There are great activities, there's the convenience of having the transportation. But if you're not going to spend time in the resort to enjoy all of those things, then maybe spend your money in other ways. Yeah, yeah. Well said, Okay, well, what what else do you got? I have train, like train yourself for your trip. There is a lot of walking. When you go to the parks, people get upwards of like 25,000 steps a day. So if you're not used to walking around, absolutely take time out of your day to do a little bit of a walk outside. treadmills are great, but that fresh air as well will get your arms pumping like you're going to be, you might be able to leisurely stroll, but you might have a reservation on the other side of the park where you need to book it. So lots of walking, and also knowing that you will be drinking a lot of water. Florida is hot, good 90% of the year. So just training your body to be like, Okay, I need to keep drinking water, I need to keep drinking water. I'm going to be walking a lot for parks in four days is great if you can do it. But it is also very taxing on the body. I did it myself with one of my another friend of mine from college. And we were absolutely exhausted by like the third day, we were like, Oh my gosh, we need to slow down a little bit. Let's prioritize what we need to do. We ended up getting through most of the stuff we wanted. But it was our feet hurt. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that is an excellent idea. And I would just tack on to that. To bring band aids and arch supports. And I got this past trip, I bought these really nice little cushiony blister pads that you put on your heels. And it was so nice. Because, yeah, especially for the feet, you're just walking constantly. I think it's always great if it's possible if you're doing four parks a day in each park, to have a day in between and do two and then a brake day and then two, because it's it's a gauntlet it is and it's so fun. And there's lots of ways that you can like rest throughout the day. But yes, preparing for that mentally and physically, I think is a great idea. Oh, absolutely. And there are great options for mobility as well. So don't think that if you can't walk all day that you can't go to Disney because they do have ECBs and wheelchairs available to rent for the day. The whole park is handicap accessible, there are ramps everywhere, all of the lines are accessible for different mobility devices. So Disney did a great job with that inclusion aspect. So don't feel like if you can't walk around all day that you can't go because you absolutely can and should go. Just know that if you are planning on walking the whole time it it will be very taxing. Yeah. And that thank you for including that because I I wouldn't have thought to remember that to mention that. Okay, so I think that is also really important. And you will probably know more about this than I. But I have as my second tip just to check Disney's official website for special ticket offers. But not generally, I believe it's not a good idea to go to a third party. And would you agree with that? I definitely agree. I think your safest option is also always going through Disney, I think. Now there are great people who are like vacation advisors and like vacation planners that you tell them and they'll book through Disney. But I think booking through Disney is probably your safest option, because they're going to be the ones who will say like, Oh, can I see confirmation that you had a reservation? And let me see where it went wrong? And let me help fix it. Whereas if you go through a third party, they're not as flexible because they don't have the proof of anything that you would have potentially done beforehand. Yeah, yeah. And I have heard tales of a bit of scammy in that area. It's unfortunate, but true. Yeah. But I will say if anyone is military that the military offer is awesome. That's what my Family is always taken advantage of. And as long as the military member, either active duty or retired or their spouse is present, you can get up to like six people, I think it is, for multiple days at significantly discounted rates, you just buy it through, like the MWR. Office on military bases. So that has been just huge. Every time that we've been able to take advantage of military deals, Disney usually puts forward like a really great offer for that. They do they really do. Okay, oh, and I just wanted to mention that since COVID, the park pass reservation system has been into place, which I believe is for capacity control, all you just need to know when planning is after you have your actual tickets, you then want to make sure that you reserve it's not like an extra ticket. It's like a free section of this where you choose which days you're going to be in which park and you reserve your park pass. So as long as you have a valid ticket and a valid park pass, you're good to go in. But you have to make sure that you that you follow those steps and the website makes it very easy to follow that just don't forget. Yeah, definitely. Don't forget to make your park reservation because if you show up with just a ticket, they're gonna be like, Hi, do you have a reservation, and if you say I don't know, then they're kind of up a creek. I mean, you can absolutely go to Guest Services, I have a ton of friends over there that are very willing to help with anybody who needs help with getting their reservations or park passes all sorted out. If you're having any kind of issues. They are a wonderful resource to use once you get to the parks. But having it beforehand is definitely appreciated and helpful. And it'll get you into the parks nice and quick. Reservations also do fill up sometimes, for special holidays, a lot of times Magic Kingdom will fill up because most families if they're going to Disney and they're only doing one park, they're usually going to go to Magic Kingdom. It's my favorite park so I don't blame them at all. But then parks like Animal Kingdom might not look up as fast unless there's a special event going on over there. And just being aware of that to the Disney website has all of that lined up like for when there are race weekends and when there are other special events like when festivals start and end in Epcot. Yeah, yeah, well, that goes right into your earlier thought of planning early because yeah, there's a calendar of availability and that's when you buy your tickets like you should immediately after by the not by but reserve the day that you're going for sure. And you can do multiple parks after you get your first reservation you can after 2pm go into a different park, you do have to go to that first park first. So like say you wanted to go to Epcot, but there weren't any reservations so you can pick one up for Animal Kingdom you just have to check into animal kingdom sometime before two o'clock and then be able to head into Epcot as long as the capacity allows. And and if you have a park Hopper ticket, right, right Yes, you do have to have that park Hopper ticket gotcha gotcha my I'm usually a one park per day kind of girl but Animal Kingdom is my favorite. Always so yeah, I could spend all day there just wandering and I feel like there's so so much and I just love being in there but there are a lot of hidden gems in Animal Kingdom one of my like I have to do as a cast member one day is go to refugees planet watch. It's a little bit of a train ride over but you get there's an opportunity for you to learn from a Disney artists how to draw Disney characters. And I just want to spend an entire day there just drawing. I think that's amazing. Like, just being able to sit there in the air conditioning out of the rain. For those of you who know how crazy the Florida weather can be just having a spot to sit in air conditioning for several hours is wonderful. But the experience is about 45 minutes long, I believe and you get to take home like your own drawing of a Disney character. Yeah, I Josh and I went out there when we went in 2020 when things were still very limited. So as a result we were like well we haven't done this let's do this. And we just missed the the window for doing the animation class but it was still really cool to see that portion so far away from everything else. And I just I just love that park with all the trails and stuff but okay, well what what is your third tip, make sure that you have the My Disney Experience app or some way to access it. It is available for both Google Samsung iPhones and a smart device. That app will be a huge help in getting Quick service food ready to go. You can order it ahead of time. You can see how long the lines are at any of the rides so that you can be like, Oh, look, Haunted Mansion only has a 20 minute wait right now. But Big Thunder mountains at two and a half hours, maybe I head over the other direction so I can get more out of my day. You'll also be able to pick up any kind of dining reservation if you wanted to do the genie plus with the now paid version of Fastpass that's all done for the app as well. So it's a great resource for not only getting yourself around, but helping plan the rest of your day while you're in the park. Yeah, that's that's a really great tip. I still have the app on my phone, it kind of just hangs out. But even sometimes in like the weeks approaching my trip, I will go and look at wait times, like throughout the day and see how what what's trending on whichever day and sometimes it's useful sometimes I'm just looking at it just because I want to see what's going on in Disneyworld. But I agree the mobile order for a lot of quick service food locations was excellent. Like went really smoothly through the app. And I totally think yeah, everyone should should have at least one representative with the app on for sure. Okay, and actually, that leads right into my next tip, which is about Genie plus. Yeah. So back in the day, there was the Fastpass system where anyone could make, I believe it was three, three attractions that you could basically get a shorter line or skip the line. And then after you used all three, you could use more whatever. Now there is Genie plus. So within the app, there is something called Disney Genie, which is a free service. And it will just try to help make an itinerary for you based on what you want to do. And that was a little useful, but within that you can pay for Genie plus. And there are two different branches of it, which is kind of confusing. And one side of it, you can pay $15 per person per day. And that will let you basically do the Fastpass sort of thing throughout your day, depending on what Park you're going to. But there's a secondary branch of it, which is for individual attractions, and those are going to be the big hitters. So things like seven dwarfs mine train and flight of passage and rise of the resistance. Absolutely. And now, cosmic rewind, and Epcot, those are going to be their own separate thing. So you can pay it varies from attraction to attraction, I think between nine to $15 per person just for that ride. And some people are very upset about and under maybe understandably, I think sometimes it helps out if you are like a family that is like this is your one trip for several years as it was for my family this year. Sometimes it was going to be totally worth it. And we budgeted for it. So you also don't have to do Genie plus every day. And so that's what we we chose to do. We used the genie plus for Hollywood studios, because there's a lot of attractions and for Magic Kingdom, for the same reason. And then there were a few attractions that we use to the individual line Skippy part of Genie plus, which was for me, because I love for me more than more than anything. And flight of passage. And we would have done it for Rise of the resistance. Except this is something that I discovered. And like I did so much research before this trip, and then didn't have any idea about this. If you are just doing the normal Genie plus, which is the $15 for like most attractions and you're doing a Fastpass situation, you can start making those reservations at 7am The day of your park day. But for the individual ones for the big hitters, you can start making those reservations at 7am If you're in a resort, but if you're not in a resort, it starts at the parks opening time. So I did not know that I was ready to go. And we were trying to book Rise of the resistance. And I was ready at 659 refreshing, refreshing, refreshing. And then it was like no, you can't do that yet. And I had no idea. I think just probably because a lot of the resources that I was going from maybe we're assuming that you're staying on property. So that's just a thing to know. I will be leaving some resources, some videos and we can talk But other resources at the at the end of this conversation because there's a lot of in depth like it's, once you understand it, it totally makes sense. It's not a stressful thing, the whole of your trip, I was I ended up being the designated Genie plus person with my family and I was I was in the app. And as soon as we scan, before we're even on the ride, I'm like, Okay, we're gonna do this and this. And it worked out great, we did a lot we did basically everything that we would have wanted to do, and just chose where to spend that money. So I think I tried to give us as clear a crash course as I could. But if you have anything to add, that was honestly a great little crash course in Disney, or in Genie plus, I think it's still a little elusive to me, because I haven't used it as much. I used it for a couple of days. And I didn't get to use it as much as I could, because I wasn't ready to go at seven o'clock in the morning, because I wasn't sure what the rest of my party wanted to do. So I missed out on some of the opportunities to go on some of the rides because they all filled up so quickly first thing in the morning. But I think everything that you said pretty much if you haven't found a better resource online on our right there just gave you everything you need. Oh, well, thank you, I, I spent a lot of time trying to make sure I figured it out because it felt like like it came down to the wire and so many things. It's sort of like you have to You're planning ahead, but some of it you can't do until the day of and I think, you know, there's there's mixed reception about it. But I think it does, perhaps help out those that are willing to pay the money because it's going to be like a once once in a several years kind of thing, as opposed to people who go very often and are okay, you know, doing some attractions here or there. But yes, it does cost money. So it's just a matter of knowing what you want to do. Absolutely, um, we've kind of played off of most of the ones that I had. So this is my last point. And it kind of goes along with stuff that we've talked about before. But doing your research early, but then also doing research right before you go. Disney is constantly changing how they do things. So sometimes if you look up something six months ago, and you plan for it, it could be changed different the ride could be down for construction, but knowing that you've done your research beforehand, gotten like the big things out of the way, but also looking for those updates, right before you go. So you're not surprised at Oh, Splash Mountain is going down for the next three months. And it won't be operational while I'm there. Which at that point, stuff happens where I'd have to go through refurbishment every once in a while but knowing that instead of arriving at the park being like Oh no, I'm not going to be able to do this. I was really looking forward to it. You can plan other things to go in its place or find other experiences that you would now be able to use that time for. Yeah, that's really important. I found the news article a few months before this recent trip that said Expedition Everest was going to be on its spring refurb and was going to be closed for a while. But that's like, so many people's favorite ride in my family. And the last time we went it closed down like as we were approaching the coaster. Oh, yeah. And it was so such a bummer. And I had done it since then. But I was just checking the news. I was like I need to hear Everest is open. And then when I did it was great. And it was fine. And we did. Yeah, yeah. mentally preparing for that. I think that's that's a really good point. And one of the resources I'm going to share gives like constant updates. So let's see. I just have a couple other little thoughts. Which is to not forget about Disney Springs, and Disney resorts in terms of like exploring and like break days and stuff and you've worked in while you're Wait, you said you're working at the at the yacht and beach club right now and you've worked in Disney Springs. So do you have any, any tips as to how to go about that sort of thing? Resource? Sure. So resorts depending on when you're going there and depending on how busy the resort is, sometimes you can't just drive into a resort. Sometimes if you wanted to go resort hopping as we call it. Disney transportation is the best way to do it. So you can hop on a bus from Magic Kingdom to Art of Animation or you can take the boat to the Grand Floridian or the Skyliner over to the Riviera or something like that. That's going to be one of the easier ways of transportation into the resorts just to make sure that you'll be able to go in and explore and walk around. But all of the Disney resorts have such different care character, they're all so different none, no two are the same, you can truly find any kind of ambiance that you want. If you're looking to just sit down for a while the Wilderness Lodge lobby is gorgeous and has a big fire off to the side. During Christmas time, there are large Christmas trees in the lobbies of every resort, that are decorated with the theme of the resort. So that's always super fun if you get a chance to go and do something like that, and experience how the holidays are celebrated in all the different resorts there. So resorts are definitely a great resource. And if you have dining reservations at any of them, you can absolutely drive right up and be like, Hi, I've got a reservation, and then hang out for a little while afterwards and really explore around and see what you can see. But I haven't even been to all of the resorts yet. That's still on my bucket list. I'm still trying to make my way around the property. But everyone that I've been to has been so neat to see how you see what Disney or what Walt Disney was envisioning when he had this big idea to have such a immersive experience for everybody, wherever you are. And I love that in all of the resorts. With Disney Springs, it's it's so much fun to see all of the different things that you can down there, there are so many cool shopping experiences you can get a deal with there. If you're not able to get into Magic Kingdom you can get a deal with there's a new place dedicated to dole Whips that has all kinds of different flavors. Now. You can get your Mickey pretzel, you can get a churro you can get popcorn. There are lots of things that people don't really expect to find in Disney Springs. There's a lot of the merchandise at World of Disney and trendy. But there's also neat other shops who like there's a Lilly Pulitzer store, if you wanted to find something like that for like a nicer dinner. The different food options in Disney Springs are incredible. You can find anything from one end of the spectrum to the other to find something to eat around there. So it's a really great and the atmosphere is just it's unlike any other kind of experience there. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I honestly love walking around there. And because parking at resorts can be a little dicey. If you don't have a reservation. What I have like to do is take a bus from Disney Springs because the parking is free at Disney Springs. And you can just go anywhere this past trip my family and I we went from Disney Springs to the boardwalk resorts, which is not right in your area now. Yeah. And walked around the whole thing and, and that was just beautiful. I like seeing all the different environments and then we just sat in the boardwalk resort for a while and ate our Gideons cookies. Delicious. Yeah. And then we took a bus back and it was great. And I know when we did finally get a reservation at ohana, we were able to park there because of it. And then from there we took the monorail to the Grand Floridian just to look around. Nice. Amazing. Oh, it's gorgeous. Yeah, one time when I was there when I went for that audition a friend of mine and I we went and had tea there. I don't think they brought the tea back. But it was the best immaculate vibes for sure. Yeah. Um, yes, Disney Springs, the resorts Oh, and then this is a very sort of Disney last quote unquote point to make which is just not to feel glued to a schedule or if you are like me to try and optimize every moment and get your money's worth. Because I found some of the best moments the best memories are from things that you didn't plan and you really can't they're the more intangible things like for example, my family and I we have a soft spot for our guests ons tavern. Like that's our favorite place. Oh, just because it's so cozy and the music is happy and the cinnamon rolls obviously. Yeah. And so just sitting in there the last time we were there, a cast member came out and started like quizzing us with bits of trivia. And it was just like really special like who's uh, we wouldn't have been able to plan that. Right. And there are so many other things like walking around the parks. Another one for Magic Kingdom is I love just the vibes of Tomorrowland. I don't know. I can just sit in Tomorrowland, whether it be on the people mover or just sitting somewhere around and just the music is so unique around there like just the way it's so futuristic kind of feeling and just watching everyone go by people who love people watching Disney is the place for you. If you want to sit on the have grass by the castle and just have the castle views with your Casey's corndog nuggets. If you would want to be in guest ons tavern, just enjoying the ambiance of like seeing how antlers are literally decorating the entire place. But Disney goes into such detail anywhere you go, you'll find something different every time. And so you could be going somewhere for years. And then the following time that you go see something that you never even noticed before. Like just finding those hidden Mickey's some places. I love the line in the frozen attraction at Epcot, there's a whole like little right as you go in like it's very early on in the line, but there's like a cork board on the side. And there's like a flyer for Christoph to do a concert with his mandolin, I think it is, or some kind of instrument, I don't remember exactly which instrument he was supposed to be playing. But like there's a concert flyer there. I'm pretty sure there's also like a wanted poster for the Duke of Wesselton on there. So it's just the little things that you're like, wow, that's just like chillin in the line as you're walking through. And it's those little details that you're not going to be looking at the wall very often as you go in to the lines or something. But the moments you get to just take a moment, take a breath and look around and see how much detail everything has brought in like you think about if any of you have been in the rise of the resistance line, like that whole experience like you've but if you think about how they built that, like it's just like any other building, but yet somehow they made it feel like you're inside of the cave, like there are rocks all around you. There's like that darkness, that almost humidity probably from being in Florida, but also like just to feel like you're in a totally different experience rather than a heavily crafted, exciting like, office building. Right, right. I agree. Some of the the detail that goes into the queues is like it's astounding. And I just know about the concert flyer in the frozen up for after cute. That's really cute. Definitely look for the next time you're through. Yeah, yeah, I I really love the ambiance of certain places. And maybe that's why I love animal kingdom as much as I do, because I just I love the plants and sitting and all of that. But I was talking to my sister and she I put a poll on my Instagram this week of like, what's your favorite Disney park? And she I said you put Magic Kingdom like can you actually decide and she said that it was just the vibe overall that put it a little bit higher. I love that you love Tomorrowland though, because like I don't know anybody who loves Tomorrowland, like I don't know, I also love like, I've been a galactic hero several times. So like I learned all the tips and tricks to get like the 999,999 on Buzz Light Years ride. No, that would do it. That one's that's the ride that has like a special place and like my family's heart like we always went. My brother was a big Buzz Lightyear fan. So it was really cool when I finally learned how to be a galactic hero. And when he came down to visit, right as like COVID was hitting and he got to be galactic hero to like that was one of those like core memory moments. I'm just getting to experience that. But between that and that Space Mountain, the Carousel of Progress has a special place in my heart just because my family would always go on it together. Nowadays with some of my friends, that's where we take a nice little like 15 minute nap because it's just so like calming. And there are other times where you'll get into it. And then all of a sudden you're singing along with. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow. You don't know what it's about Tomorrowland, but between that and then it's also where the starlight Cafe is in sunny Eclipse. And I just simply remember sitting with my chicken nuggets, like listening to the music and I still do that today as an adult like I just feel gravitated to go and I'll sit through his entire playlist if I need to take a break out of the sun and I'll just listen to his whole set. And then once I realized that I've gotten back to the beginning. I'm like okay, maybe it's maybe it's time to move on for today. Well, I I have an inexplicable love for the tiki room. So I'm tracking with you. Yeah, I dragged with my whole family. And when it was done, I was like, Do you remember? Isn't it so great? And they were like, all right, like whatever. Yeah, a good friend of mine. That's her favorite too. She was like you have we have to go to the tiki room and that's usually one that I hadn't prioritized. But now that I went on it and like it's it's also fun experiencing Disney with people who love certain bits of Disney because you find a love for something that maybe you wouldn't have before. Like I now have a new love for the tiki room because I got to spend it with my friend who loves The tiki room and so you kind of get a whole new rejuvenated energy about certain places. So, yeah. Oh, it's all that fun to have with people who love the place with you because you'll find something different every time you go. So true. Okay, well then just very quickly, I have a few like rapid fire questions. So um, well, some will be more rapid than others that from, from Instagram some questions. One, do you think that staying on property is worth it? I think it can be worth it. If you are, I think the transportation is incredibly helpful to know that you're not going to have to find an Uber or some if you don't have a car down there having that transportation to literally any part of Disney property. I think that's incredibly convenient. I think if you're going to spend some time in the resorts, there's always something exciting to find within the resorts or fun activities to do there. I think it's worth it if you're going and you want for like that one time to spend that little extra money to spend to do it on property. But look into which resort you want to go to. Because there are anything from Wilderness Lodge to Art of Animation to Pop Century to the Grand Floridian. There's so many different, like experiences and things that you could have and even just being in the rooms and having like, an incredible themed room in the contemporary or if you wanted, like that Mulana theme that's now in the poly. So just kind of depending on what you want, I think it can be worth it if that's the kind of experience that you want, but again, don't feel obligated. Yeah, yeah. Well said, um, yeah, I think that depending on like you said, if you have a car, my usually my family has been road trippy people with cars. But if you don't, that is a big factor. And like I was saying with like earlier, I mentioned the Ohana reservation, which for those who don't know, is like, probably the most coveted dining reservation, and it's in the Polynesian resort. I didn't know until trying to get this reservation that if you're staying if you've booked reservations at a Disney Resort, you can begin to make dining reservations. 60 days out, but also for your entire so if you're there for a week, you could make a dining reservation that 60 days and sometime in that week, which is probably how most of them were. Well, there was no availability when we went looking 60 days out, if that makes sense. Yeah. And so eventually, we did find we use a website called mouse dining, which sort of tracks when reservations are dropped. And my sister managed to snatch one up like prime dinner time. She called me she's like, I just got us a reservation at Ohana at 630. And I was like, No, you did not. Because someone dropped it. And then the website alerted her. And she happened to be looking at her phone at that second and immediately booked it so and cultures for those kinds of reservations so good on your sister for having like quick fingers to get in that reservation. Because even if that drops, there are probably 60 People who are looking for that same reservation. Right? Yeah, so that would be a perk to staying on property. You'd have a little bit of an edge for stuff like that. But as as I've said there are ways to work around it and Ohana was definitely a splurge. But it was like one of those core memory moments like best meal, one of the best like top five meal experiences of my life probably it was just so special. Okay, and what do you think maybe give like, three quick service and like two or three table service like what do you think is your top dining locations in the parks? Or maybe pick like one per Park? I know mine at least for quick service. So I'll give you some time to think. Okay, I'm usually a quick service kind of gal. I know that my favorite of all time. In animal kingdom. They've got the best ones. And it's so truly canteen in in Pandora excellent and fresh food. I'm also always on the hunt for a vegetable in the Disney parks. And then also I love her rhombi market, which is not open yet but the Oh my gosh. delish. And then in Hollywood Studios. Oh, I really enjoyed docking bay seven food and cargo in the new Galaxy's edge in Epcot. If it's actual I usually just snack all around Epcot. Yeah, I don't have one for and in Magic Kingdom I usually go for pick Coatesville because you can really get like a lot of bang for your buck and a lot of vegetables and toppings and stuff. For sure. I'm trying to think. So for Dak or for animal kingdom, I definitely would say subtlely is probably a great one and then for a sit down restaurant there I think Yak and Yeti is delicious. It's over in Asia and your Expedition Everest. It does have a little bit of a pricier bit, but you get so much food for what you're ordering. And it's I really enjoyed when I went there with some of my friends. For Hollywood Studios. I kind of love pizza Rizzo. I'm a muppet. Everyone says something about pizza Rizzo. But like, honestly, for a quick service pizza, it's not bad. No, I agree. I have been in pizza Rizzo and I come from a muppet family as well. So I don't I don't dog pizza. I love that. Yeah. Um, so and I'll probably think of other things at the end of us recording and be like, Oh my gosh, why didn't I say this. But that was the first one that came to my mind. And then the Sci Fi drive in for a sit down restaurant. That's another one of the coveted reservations that you get to sit in a little car. And so it's like you're at a drive in theater to sit down for the meal. So it's another cool like, experience with the whole Hollywood vibes going on. I mentioned that I love the starlight cafe. That's one of those like, a lot of people will be like that's really your favorite quick service and Magic Kingdom. A lot of people will go with Casey's, which is where all the hot dogs are and the corn dog nuggets also great option right on Main Street. There are a lot of really great options for character dining in Magic Kingdom. So if you're looking for something like that, I love Crystal Palace has all the Winnie the Pooh characters when they come back. I don't know if they're back right now yet or if they're coming back soon, hopefully. But that's a really great one in Epcot, the one in Norway, I cannot pronounce it properly. Ocker shoes. Yes. That's another character dining option that has a bunch of princesses. They're really great food as well. And then for food and Epcot. Like if you go during a festival, there are quick things that you can grab all around the world showcase. There's really no limit to the amount of good food that you will find in Epcot, whether you're there during a festival or what I like to call diet Epcot when they're in that couple of weeks in between festivals where they don't have those extra booths. All of the different places. I worked in France, so I have a special place in my heart for the bakery in France, they have some incredible desserts. It's so underrated like and you can get like a like the prices are good in that little hidden bakery. They really are. The easiest way to find it is if you do the Sing along this soon as you come out, you're in that little gift shop and then the bakery is right there. I also love the little ice cream shop strawberry sorbet is incredible. I know a lot of people who love the little ice cream sandwich within the brioche. That's good. They have an ice cream martini, which a lot of people really enjoy. So like lots of really cool little things within France to eat. It's probably one of my favorites. I gosh. I'm like missing it now. Yeah, I've only done a couple of of table service restaurants in my years of going but I've totally loved Marrakech in Morocco, which I don't think is open yet still. But also via Napoli in the back of Italy. delicious pizza, the pizza is so good. And my sister has been to Yak and Yeti and they like was they were raving about it. So. Okay, I think that's, that's great. That's a great list to go off of. So do you have any other resources that you would recommend for people to check out as they're planning their trip, because I'm going to just leave a whole bunch of links in the show notes. Sure. Disney food blog is always great. They're showcasing everything from the different bites in Epcot to like limited time snacks to all time favorites. I think even like some of the influencer pages. Some of them are always fun. I follow the last bros there. They do a bunch of Disney T shirts and I've got a couple of their designs, but they're always in the parks or doing something fun. They'll give you honest opinions about things. Even pages like that can be really useful because they're not necessarily like they're not paid by Disney to do this, but they're still going and giving you that like honest content of what to experience. Yeah, I'll check them out. I haven't heard of of course Disney food blog I completely agree 100% best resource for everything food and not food. But I also would recommend another podcast called The W dW radio podcast. Yeah, I love him. And on Instagram, it's Lou on jello is his name. And I, he loves Disney so much. And he does like a lot of the history and like, he's done the walking tours. And he's just so incredibly knowledgeable about everything. And so every now and then, on the podcast, it'll be like a q&a episode. And I find those really useful. So yeah, I'll leave links to all of those in the show notes. And if you think of any more, and you want to send me I'll just leave the links. Okay, well, this has been such a fun and informative chat. And I'm so glad that you were able to, to join me today. And so I would love to leave this week's little joy UP TO YOU SHOULD YOU like to. So the little joy is just something that you can highlight something in your week, or like a physical thing, or perhaps a memory or something more abstract than that, that has been sort of brightening up your everyday life. I think having opportunity, I've had a lot of opportunities this week to catch up with friends and catch up with family. And that can be really difficult when my schedule does not always allow me to have like regularly scheduled times where I can talk to everyone or meet up with people. But I've found little moments this week to really try and reach out. It's been nice to talk to friends and family and kind of be rejuvenated with that because I do live so far away from a lot of them. Moving down to Florida, that was the biggest thing that I was nervous about was it most of my family is not down here. They're all back up in Virginia where I'm from. But it's been really nice to catch up and talk with friends and my boyfriend and just have that support down here when I'm missing them a little extra. That's so beautiful. I love that. And I know, it must not have been an easy thing at all. But I'm really glad that you have found your way in the Disney world a little bit and seem to be really enjoying it. So I'm so happy for you. Thanks. It's definitely been an adventure. I know there are more adventures ahead to the Disney company has so many different opportunities within it. So I'm looking forward to next hopefully finding something within music to kind of get back to my roots. And I know there are opportunities out there, you just kind of have to keep looking for them and keep shooting. And we'll see what happens next. I love hearing what other people love about it too, because that's the only other thing for me is that it's exciting to be down here. But it's exciting to talk to people who aren't down here about it too, because a lot of my friends are people who work for Disney or work in other a universal or at SeaWorld. And so it's kind of what I live with every day, but talking to people and they're like you work at Disney. That's kind of cool. And it's like you know what, it is kind of cool. So it's very cool. And I'm so glad that we got to talk about all this stuff today. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks so much for having me. It's been so much fun that was just such a lovely time. Thank you again, Jordan for coming on to the podcast. Your insight and your just your personality and your kindness is so appreciated and so present. So for everyone listening, like like I said, I have plenty of resources. In the show notes, you can go to life on the brink dot live, where you can find links to not only Disney food blog and the other ones we talked about, but also the ones that we couldn't think of in the moment. I also added some YouTube resources and stuff like that. So that you have everything you need to prep yourself and your family and have a wonderful time on your next Disney vacation. Wherever and whenever that might be. I do actually have a couple more just fun things. One, we need some music of course. And I'm going to leave you with an ambiance video. If you're unfamiliar, you can basically find music from all areas of not just Disney, other parks and other things like that. So I'm going to leave you with a video that is called Magic Kingdom music and ambiance Cinderella's castle, and it's like the nighttime loop around the castle and it's just that quintessential magical flowy dreamy Disney feeling. So you can find that video again at the show notes and also I'm going to include the video that my sister Sarah made from this past trip so she brought her camera and and compiled everything into a very short five and a half minute video. In case you're in She said, Because it's well done. And you can see little snippets of that trip. And also, finally, on the blog, this isn't a podcast episode, but it is a blog post on life on the brink dot live. I documented and shared my Disney audition story, the one that I mentioned about the voices of liberty because it was at a very pivotal time in my life, and I had a lot of feelings and thoughts, and I catalogued it pretty specifically. So if you are either interested in knowing what a Disney audition is like, or could be like, I'm sure there's different kinds, or are simply interested in my experience, you can check that one out. It's called My Disney audition story. And I think that's about it. If you're listening to this, on August 4, which is the day that it comes out, you still have time to sign up for this month's free newsletter. If you would like for lots of extra inspirational content, you can find that that form on the website. And if you're not listening on August 4, you can get it next month. It goes out on the first Friday of every month. And yeah, as things continue into the fall. I'm gonna figure out how much time if we can keep going with weekly episodes or bi weekly episodes. I'll let you know for sure. But I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Thank you so much, and have a very magical day. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends, you have a lovely week. Bye