Cheers 2 Ears!
Two dudes named Aaron toasting their way through the Disney resorts. New episodes drop every Monday morning
Cheers 2 Ears!
Aaron & Family Disney World Trip Recap with The Roller Coaster Meltdown
Diving into a multi-generational Disney World adventure, Aaron shares his experience guiding five first-timers through the magic and mayhem of a five-day park excursion. From the moment their flight time changed, throwing off carefully crafted plans, to navigating the complexities of the Skyliner system while teaching others, this episode captures both the carefully orchestrated dance and beautiful chaos that is a family Disney trip.
The group's journey through all four parks reveals surprising favorites (Animal Kingdom unanimously won their hearts) and unexpected challenges, particularly the Florida weather that brought daily rainstorms and energy-sapping humidity. Aaron's insider knowledge helped the family navigate everything from booking Extended Evening Hours at Epcot (was it worth the $175 per person?) to making the most of Lightning Lane access across the parks.
Food emerges as a highlight throughout their adventure, with Satu'li Canteen in Animal Kingdom earning the unofficial title of "best quick-service restaurant in Disney" for its breakfast offerings. The group's culinary exploration extended to Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue's all-you-can-eat comfort food, croque glace ice cream sandwiches in France, and Chef Art Smith's famous fried chicken at Disney Springs.
Beyond ride strategies and dining recommendations, this episode paints a vivid picture of the real Disney experience—complete with transportation dilemmas, getting soaked on Splash Mountain, tormenting each other while flying the Millennium Falcon, and DJ's unexpected star turn in the Hoop-Dee-Doo show. Whether you're planning your first Disney trip or your fortieth, you'll find valuable insights on pacing yourself, managing expectations, and creating memories that last far beyond the park gates.
Here's who we are and what is in store for you
Hello and welcome to Cheers to Ears, where today we are sipping on a roller coaster meltdown. Yes, that's a great name of a drink. It is a great name for a drink. Before you even drink it, it sounds good.
Speaker 2:It's at the Leaping Horse Libations at Disney's Boardwalks Pool Bar, right, yes, yes, never been there, never been there, we walked by it, walked by it On one of our last trips, right, and so this is the recap episode of my recent trip. Yes, and I picked something from the boardwalk because we spent a lot of time at the boardwalk, dave and Asha kids, they love the boardwalk, so I figured it was fitting for this trip, because I didn't get to do a lot of drinking on this trip, right, so Right.
Speaker 1:So it's made with Selva, Selva Ray coconut rum and Myers dark rum, blended with flavors of coconut and pineapple.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did Gosling's dark rum, largo Bay coconut rum, and then, yeah, pineapple juice, and we used to coconut. I don't know coconut cream Right, but it's been in the refrigerator. It didn't blend well, no, but it's getting a good coconut taste from the cream anyway.
Speaker 1:And we've got to figure that out next time, because it's set in the refrigerator after opening Mm-hmm, and it wasn't like totally liquidy, so maybe set it out for a bit beforehand. Yeah, that might be I a bit beforehand, yeah, that might be, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It wasn't perfect Go to the microwave Right.
Speaker 1:Nuke the coconut, Nuke the coconut, yeah. So this is. I like this drink. Let's talk about the drink first. I'm going to dive right in. It's a good one.
Speaker 2:It's fruity. It's a different type of fruity than a lot of, because it doesn been drinking have had that. So this is just coconut and pineapple. Very good, I could imagine sitting by the pool drinking one of these, getting the feet a little bit wet, you staying completely dry.
Speaker 1:Probably. I love a pool, I love the idea of the pool, but as long as there's a pool bar, I'm a big pool bar guy. They're fun.
Speaker 2:They always have a nice fruity drink there, which I love, and it's cool to sit out in the nice hot sun. Yeah, let eli swim, watch the people splashing right and carrying on with right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, this drink's very good. I have no complaints. It's just. There's nothing special to say about it.
Speaker 2:No, it's just a little bit different because it's just coconut and pineapple Right, whereas a lot of the other fruity drinks we've had have had one or two other flavors.
Speaker 1:And it is $16.50.
Speaker 2:Oh, and so a moderate price.
Speaker 1:You know we haven't recorded for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:Yes, A little rusty and we started to record. Last week we did and I picked from Gwendolyn Rogers Cake Bake Shop. I picked a Tom Collins. I wanted a classic drink. That was another one at the boardwalk, that was my first, and then I forgot my microphone at home and so we didn't record, but we still had a drink.
Speaker 1:Right, we still had the drink. Right, we still had the drink and we just we talked about your trip. So I know more than I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we also talked about, right, the naval academy which is, yeah, the two topics I talk about now.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's all I talk about naval academy and disney. Yeah, if you don't want to have a, if you want to have a conversation with me it'll be on those, yeah, or? Just don't talk to me. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I need your stupid topics, mine are better. So your trip yes, you went. Let me break it down real quick, because you're going to say names. Yes, you're going to name names. You're going to say names of people, so let's say who you went with. It was you, yeah, and it was Dave, and.
Speaker 2:Asha, dave and Asha, who are I'm introduced as the brother, okay, but it's just, I've been adopted into the family. Yeah, totally yeah.
Speaker 1:Their kids call you Uncle Aaron. I'm Uncle Aaron, right, so it was Dave and Asha, and they're two kids.
Speaker 2:DJ and Leah and then Leah's fiance Right, Brad, Brad. So this was Brad's second Disney trip. He did, I think, when he was 12, he did Disneyland trip. This is first Disney World and same for Dave and Asha, first Disney World trip and the second trip for Lee and DJ Leah. This was like trip one, one B for her Because when I took her for graduation a few years ago it was all the shows were shut down because of the it was still COVID lockdown stuff and so she didn't get to experience the shows and there were a few things that it was just a limited trip.
Speaker 1:Right, we should have like little intro music, as I, as I say, tell everyone to, because this is our. These are our characters of our show today. Yes, we just mentioned the lead characters. Yes, I'm just like our show today. Yes, we just mentioned the lead characters. Yes, I'm just like a passerby. Yeah, it's a person you're telling the story to.
Speaker 2:And that's unless it's an us trip and right, it's one person.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so those are the characters, so everyone sit back, relax and listen to Aaron's Disney World vacation.
Speaker 2:Tale of a tell and go.
Speaker 2:So it was Wednesday through Tuesday, so it was a five-day full-day there trip and we did the first day. It was completely open, as I recommend if you're flying from the West Coast. I recommend that first day doing nothing Because you're just kind of wiped out from travel and I've just noticed that when I go full bore on the first day I get worn out a lot quicker and I mean it's a struggle to do like 20,000 steps and then the next day like 20,000 steps and I'm completely wiped out and beat and ready to just go immediately to bed, whereas if I wait a day I can do like 28,000 steps and I'm fine. Yeah, so I always recommend waiting. Now. Did I do that? Not quite. I messed that up a little bit, not quite, I messed that up a little bit.
Speaker 2:So the first thing that happened, they sent us a notice we were flying Alaska, which is the only direct flight from Portland to Orlando, and I thought it was great. The flight left at 7 am and arrived there at 3.40. And I'm like that's perfect. We'll be at the hotel by five. We can go up to the boardwalk. Actually, I wanted to go up to Yacht Club and try out the Crew Club Lounge. I had all this plans of what to do, and then maybe we go over to Beaches and Cream and get a little ice cream afterward. I had my plans made up and then Alaska sends us a notice. And this is after I've received like three notices from my return flight because I flew back on delta. But oh, by the way, we're changing it, we're not leaving at 7, we're leaving at 10 30. So good news is we get to sleep in. You know, we didn't have to leave the house till 7 30, I don't think. And then, so great, we don't have to get up till 6, 630 in the morning, no problem. Except then we landed it like, and didn't get to the hotel till 830. And by then, yeah, so it kind of killed the evening.
Speaker 2:I was hoping to get there when the lounges all first opened maybe the abracadabra. You know, I wanted to go. I was thinking, well, I could probably sneak in there for a little bit. Well, that kind of messes everything up, because by then those places are potentially crowded. And if you get there when they first open, boom, you go in and yeah, you get to enjoy the place.
Speaker 2:So we get there and we stayed at Pop century. Okay, there's two rooms at pop century that's my next question. And oh, so we took an. We were gonna. Now lyft, is the partnered like ride share with disney, correct? But uber does an xxl vehicle. So six people plus luggage. So we did that because there were six of us and all of our luggage Someone pulled up in a minivan. It was great. Now with the surge pricing, it was still with tip, it was like 105 bucks, but it was still cheaper than by a dollar, than doing Mirrors Connect. And you get there quicker, right, because as soon as you're ready to go, you call and like five minutes later there's your minivan ready to take you. So Dereck dropped us off at the door. That was great.
Speaker 2:I went back on Mirrors Connect because I was going back at a different time than everybody else flying out on a different airline. And so we get there late and I'm like, well, I mean we could. Everybody's hungry by then. You know it's dinnertime, you know there it's 830, but in our stomachs are saying it's 530. And we hadn't eaten since that morning. So we're like, well, we could go up to the boardwalk. I mean there's no reason for us to get up early the next day. So we all hopped on the Skyliner and I'm being the tour guide and pointing some things out. Let's just hop on the Skyliner. We went up to the Boardwalk and Boardwalk Deli. We all had sandwiches, which is a good go-to. It was good, I think. Yeah, tomato soup.
Speaker 2:On a really hot day yeah like we had, you had, I had. You didn't have the tomato soup, no, I had the coleslaw. It's still good. It was still good, it was just, it was really hot.
Speaker 1:It was really funny. And we did not have the. We didn't get a good shaded seat. It wasn't shaded enough to compensate for my hot seat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because those umbrellas, they're painted where the sun's at, you know, but them where the sun's at, you know, right, yeah, so, but good place to relax, although I I forgot who I was watching recently. But the boardwalk is because half of it's shuttered jelly rolls and the the dance hall is fairly lame as far as, like, nobody goes there. You know, you walk in and there's only a handful of people there, and then there's a burger place that is shut down, so they need to build it back up and then it becomes, I think, more of a destination. But everybody loved going there. In fact, we were back at the boardwalk two more times during the trip, so everybody liked going there, and so we're taking everything over and I'm trying to teach them about Skyliner Don't get off here, you have to get off here.
Speaker 2:And then you go to this one. But then you know, yeah, that was, that was fun, teaching everybody how to do this. Now, wait a minute, do we get off? We get off here. No, no, don't get off here Cause because this is the Riviera we got to keep going.
Speaker 1:Why couldn't they just follow you?
Speaker 2:Well, we did, but I was like, in case they went later, I wanted them to know how to do the whole Skyliner thing. So there we go, we went, we had sandwiches and then we went back and I think people may have jumped. We got back in time because they pushed back the pool closing time. It used to be 10. Now it's 11. Okay, closing time used to be 10, now it's 11. Okay, I think everybody most everybody went and jumped in the pool real quick and I just laid down, went to sleep and, or you know, watched a little watch my youtube videos, right, but, yeah, hung out in the room.
Speaker 2:The next morning we got up and I I mentioned this my favorite place to go for breakfast is the Riviera at Primo Piatto. I think that Is that what it's called. Yeah, so they're a quick service restaurant. Okay, right, we talked about it before. And they get the croque, madame, which is ham and cheese sandwich baked with an egg on top. Yes, this one, it tasted like it had set out for a little bit, and so that's different. Yeah, it was still good, but it was a little I don't know, maybe stale, but everybody else really enjoyed it and it's still a great place to go, but I think, like in the future, I might go someplace else for those first days. Maybe I'll just go back and order something different for once. But everybody like had the lemon blueberry pancakes, I think everybody tried some different breakfast, okay. So, yeah, that was great.
Speaker 2:And then we went back to the hotel and some people went to the pool and I just kind of hung out in the room because I was staying. I did the epcot late night, where after the park closes you get to stay till 1 am, and I'm like and we were going to hope to do a review later on that day so I'm like I don't want to be up doing a bunch of stuff. So I went just hung out in the room and people jumped in the pool and whatnot. Okay, so then we go to Hooptydoo, which I've been once, but everybody, it was just one of those fun things for everybody else to do and I still enjoyed it. I like the Golden Horses at disneyland and the fact that they haven't brought that back to me is really irritating. It is irritating because it's they've like killed all their entertainment anyway, stupid.
Speaker 2:There's no reason for it. So great show. We got there. We were there first. So we went to tricircle, tricircle d ranch, ranch, and saw all the horses and walked around there. Yeah, good little thing to do for a few minutes. We talked to the DVC gal for a little bit who was on property there. Did she remember me?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I talked to all of them. You talked to all of them, Me and the DVC people. We go way back.
Speaker 2:We go way, way back. So we went back and we got in line. Of course, then it starts raining, and I think it rained pretty much every day we were there.
Speaker 1:But did you have normal Orlando rain, the big raindrops?
Speaker 2:Yes, we had a couple of days. It's a different kind of rain. We had a couple of those heavy rains.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause we live in rain. Yeah, we're used to rain, but those big raindrops are different, and when there's a lot of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're waiting in line and because we were first in line, we got called up and DJ got to ring the dinner bell for Hoopty Doo Review, okay, and we were there at the 4 o'clock one and to get there we took the bus up to magic kingdom. Then we took a ferry over. Ferries are by far my favorite mode of transportation. I'll hop on a ferry, even when there's no point in hopping on a ferry, just to ride the ferry. You know, to me it's a there's a great ride. It's like skyliner, yeah, great ride buses. Well, you know I'll do those, but actually this is the one trip I did all of the transportation, all the transportation things and we did them all too right yeah, but I did the monorail from magic kingdom.
Speaker 2:So after hoopty, do we hop back on the ferry? We went back to magic kingdom, they got on the bus to head back to the hotel and dj and I stuck around. We got on the monorail to take that down to Epcot, right. So we get in there and okay, first thing, so we were allowed in at 7. Technically, the party thing or the event didn't start until 10, and the park closed at 9.
Speaker 2:So I'm like well, the line's only about 40 minutes down at Remy's, let's just walk over and do Remy's. So we did Remy's, let's just walk over and do Remy's. So we did Remy's. And you know, that was the thing it was like. We were just not hungry at all and I wanted to try go to get a La Cava avocado, right. But you have to have a reservation at that restaurant and I thought there was a place where you could just walk up, like the tequila bar. You could just walk up and grab one. That didn't seem to be the case, so that didn't happen on this trip, which I'm really bummed. So I think we're just going to have to make one for an episode, right.
Speaker 1:I guess we'll have to get a reservation to place next time and next time make a reservation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess we'll have to. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause that's. I mean that's on your bucket list of drinks.
Speaker 2:It is, and I did hit some bucket list things, but anyway. So when we were in Hoop-Dee-Doo going back to that so, DJ, we were sitting like right in the middle, right where the action was happening. So when they come into the crowd and they're singing and doing all that, it's right next to our table, so we have front row seats to all this. Dj got sucked into the end of the show. He had a little part in the show so he was up on stage, Great acting, little overacting. They told him to exaggerate and he did. Is there video? I think Asha might have some video. Okay, well, that's important. We might have to post some video. That's important. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Asha has some video. Yes, I like this. So he was the something scout. He was the scout.
Speaker 1:Okay. So for those of you who don't know, we haven't talked about Hoop to do too much on this show. I don't think, have we?
Speaker 2:Have we covered the whole thing? No, because I before we started the show Right.
Speaker 1:So I I don't think we've talked about it, so it's a. It's a. It's like a review, like a burlesque type. No, not, it's more of a country Western view.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you've ever been to the golden horseshoe and seen that show, it's the same show for the most part.
Speaker 1:Yeah so, and it's just a bunch of guys playing music and playing songs and it's all you could eat food. Yes, it's fried chicken and ribs and tons of sides.
Speaker 2:There's cornbread, salad, coleslaw, beans, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, right. And then they give you strawberry short cake at the end, and sodas, water, beer and wine are all included. All you want to consume and it's around 78 a person for the the high end.
Speaker 1:It's like 70 to 80 bucks per person.
Speaker 2:So we paid top dollar and we got great seats on the floor and what was really cool- about Not because they paid top dollar.
Speaker 1:everyone paid top dollar. They just ended up with great seats, so you know.
Speaker 2:But the seats at the table are swivel, so you know know how, like if you're sitting at a table and there's a show going on, you have to turn your whole chair around. No, you could, just because it was on a swivel. So, it was really easy to turn around to watch the show and then turn around back and have some food and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So the positives of it are it's a great show. It's a great show, great food, lots of food, lots of food. Funny, yeah, and you have a great time. The negatives are the cost and the location kind of, because it's kind of away from everything it is. It's not next to a park.
Speaker 2:No, it's a ferry ride from Magic Kingdom. Right, if you go where you know out front, it's one of the ferries and we we had, we rode one of the bigger ferries. They have the little ones which I think are really cool looking and I like riding and those are a little more open air. But because they were taking so many people, it was we were on one of the bigger ferries not a big deal, and it always seems to rain right, right when you get there, so make sure you have those umbrellas or your ponchos handy Always, and so, yeah, anyway, great show.
Speaker 2:So we go, and we're now at Epcot and right when we got in and we walked over to Remy's and we're walking back because we're wanting to get in line for Guardians, guardians, and I'm like already, I'm like, okay, I'm pretty beat, I'm ready to go back. Oh. And I'm like, right, we're here till 1. Oh, and here it is maybe 8.30. Oh, something like that I think we did. We walked around for a little. Oh, we went and saw Moana's. We were trying to kill a little bit of time till after the park closed. When that closed, then we went and got in line. It was walk on for guardians, so we did it two times in a row, got off immediately, walked back on, but because I think between being tired and a very full stomach so you can't. I think you can't go on it. If you are at risk of motion sickness, on an empty stomach, don't go. Or a really full stomach, right? So after two rides we were both like, yeah, we need a break. So do you remember how much you paid For the?
Speaker 1:It was like $175. $175 about yeah, how much is it for the single pass for Guardians 16. 16. So you wrote it twice, so you can take. We wrote it three times total you wrote it three times total. So you can take that off of there, because that's the main reason. Yes, that was the main reason, right? So is it worth 178 bucks? You'll probably get to that. I'm probably jumping the gun If For writing Guardians, because that's I mean.
Speaker 2:Our mistake was going that first doing something that first day. Okay, now, if I didn't do anything, or I had a low pressure day, or it was just a regular Epcot day and I got to stay at Epcot till one, I think it would have been worth it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I like that. I think it would have been worth it to have a full Epcot day and it included sodas, bottles of soda, bottles of water, ice cream like all the ice cream Mickey bars, all that type of stuff and popcorn as much as you want for free.
Speaker 1:That's something crazy Disney World does. Disneyland doesn't even come close to touching.
Speaker 2:So I mean, technically, you could be getting like 50 bucks worth of snacks. We got a couple of bottles of water, which is still $10, I think for a couple of bottles of water. But again after having a big meal, that kind of yeah, we just didn't.
Speaker 1:Right, you just had a big meal.
Speaker 2:We just had a big meal, so we would have taken advantage of those snacks much more.
Speaker 1:The better plan would not have had a big meal, not do Hoop-Doo that day, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the next morning we also had to get up early for Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, for.
Speaker 2:Magic Kingdom Day. It was one, I yeah, it just wasn't the timing wasn't right the first day. It was just a bad idea, so it's not a bad idea to do that.
Speaker 1:It's a good idea to do it. It's just how you did. It was kind of yeah, kind of faulted how you did it. It didn't work.
Speaker 2:I get it For me and for coming from the West coast. All of that right. But everything was walk-on, we, and so we ended up going, getting on frozen. We did figment the car to ourselves, we did three caballeros, I think the we might have had a couple more people in the boat. In fact I think they held us until more people came so that they weren't sending just us in the boat. Yeah, and Frozen, same thing, where it was just walk-on. Everything was walk-on and so we walked around. I think we did Spaceship Earth as well. We did Soarin' Again, everything just literally walk-on, right.
Speaker 2:So you can get a lot of rides in in those three, four hours, mm-hmm, a lot of rides in in those three, four hours. A ton of rides in and, if you like, can handle doing the guardians back to back to back to back, just constantly. Yeah, it, literally you would get off and it takes like cause it's a big, long indoor line queue, but as soon as you get to the end you're in the room where the pre-show starts, wow, and so you know we just walk back up in there. But it's like a hike to get back up into the, the pre-show room. So worth it. Just bad timing on our part. So I think it was about 1230. We, just, like we'd had just I was sitting on a bench just taking a break for a minute and we were like, well, let's go do this and this and Guardians and call it a night, and so we left till about 1230. We didn't wait until one. Also, only bus transportation afterwards, so we couldn't take the Skyliner back to Pop Century, so we had to take the bus. Oh, and it's a bus that stops at both Art of Animation and Pop Century.
Speaker 2:So, guardians one more time. We got Disco, I think the whole time, because we wrote it once or twice, maybe only once on our Epcot day. Okay, so four times. Yeah, we had September twice and twice, and disco inferno twice, yeah, which is perfect for me because those are my two favorite songs. So love that and it's just such a great ride. Even like, okay, I'm feeling a little queasy, but I'm still gonna go do it again. Like I'm tired, I'm not feeling all that great, I still going to go get in line and do this again, just because I'm like, okay, so I throw up.
Speaker 2:It's that good of a ride. So we get back and it's like getting into bed at 1.30. I know, okay, I need a couple extra hours sleep the next morning so I'm not going to rope drop Magic Kingdom. The alarm goes off in the morning as if I am and I tell Asha I'm like I'm not rope dropping, I need a couple more hours sleep. Dj did and Asha got up and Brad and Leah, they all went and rope dropped and I said, okay, here's your rope drop strategy, because we had multi-pass for every day. And so I said, oh, strategy, because we had multi-pass for every day. And so I said, oh. I said do peter pan and then go to winning the poo and then meet us over at pirates and then that's when we'll get there. They did that. They went to dave and I slept in. Everybody went. They did all that. We did everything at magic kingdom all the, all the rides, all the shows, everything got done. So it was great.
Speaker 1:Let's break down the parks right what people liked and how everyone in the group liked their first time there.
Speaker 2:Okay. So overall, everybody really liked it. Okay, then I'll go back. Everybody yeah, the heat was the killer on the deal. Deal, because it's just so draining and stuff we got, we accomplished everything and I I found out that even from animal kingdom and I think overall, animal kingdom was everybody's favorite park. Okay, because it was. It's so different. You know, hollywood studios feels like dca yeah, magic kingdom feels like disneyland yeah, they, they just do, they just they have the same feel, whether or not there is good or not and that's.
Speaker 1:That's what bugs me about magic kingdom, because I like disneyland so much. Yeah, so it kind of minuses magic kingdom because it's not as good it's not quite.
Speaker 2:No, because, like fantasyland isn't as good and plus, it just it's a better layout at Disneyland. So everything went Tiana's. We had a bit of a nightmare because we went to use our single or our Lightning Lane and it was broken down. So then we came back and we were just getting in line and Thunder and Lightning just started, so they shut it down right as we were walking up to the line. So then we left and then we went and did a couple other things. Well, when we came back, we accidentally used they gave us a multi-experience pass. We accidentally because we signed in or got ourselves into another ride early, a couple minutes early that we had a lightning lane for it used that multi-pass or that multi-experience pass instead of our lightning lane for that ride. So we get to Tiana's and like oh yeah, did that happen? And she knew what had happened, that we had accidentally used it, and I was like, yeah, okay, go ahead, andie dusting right there. She led us into tiana's.
Speaker 2:Anyway, everybody loved tiana's. That was like the ride that everybody wanted to go on. It was like the focus to go on tiana's. So, unlike some of the others that people sat out on, yeah, we went on that. Did anyone get soaked? No, no one sat in front. No, I think people sat in in front, but it's not a ride. You get really wet on man. I got wet On the front of that one. Yeah, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then Disneyland I really got wet on it. Oh, you really did. Yeah, Disneyland has like five times more water.
Speaker 2:So Asha tried the bacon skewer and loved it. Okay, I wasn't feeling all that great that next day. I was a little dehydrated from the day before. I was up late, just wasn't feeling great, so I wasn't really. I wasn't hungry for most of the day so I had kids meals, which are great. Yeah, great. Alternative order a kid's meal if you're not really hungry, and then they have a new like caramel, pecan bacon, cinnamon roll Wow, at the same place that they have the bacon skewer. Dave had that Really good.
Speaker 2:So that was our Friday. So then we go back and the next day we're doing Hollywood Studios and we all got up. That was the thing, to everybody's credit. Everybody got up and rope dropped the rest of the trip. Oh, really, yeah, that's really good. Yeah, everybody was rope dropping everything. So we got in and what did I? Did? I send? I had Dave and Leah because they weren't going to do Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. I sent them to go do something else and I can't remember what, but we rope dropped Rockin' Roller Coaster and we had a lightning lane for Tower of Terror. We went to Woody's Lunchbox for breakfast. Again, I had the kids portion. Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 2:And the only other highlights about that one Villain's Show was great. Yeah, great stage, great show, looks great. Really enjoyed it. But the downside is they had the new Little Mermaid show. Don't leave. If that's something that you want to do, you got to prioritize it. Don't leave it to so that you're going to the last show, because I got there 15 minutes before it started and it was full, yeah, and so I couldn't see that. The other thing, the frozen show it was. It fell flat it was still.
Speaker 1:It was still good. It wasn't the same actors, it was the.
Speaker 2:Different actors.
Speaker 1:They just didn't have that, that vibe.
Speaker 2:That vibe Because when I went with you, so good, that was the best, they were so good show I've ever seen this one. It just fell a little flat and Eli had good actors too. Yeah, yeah, entertaining great show, all right. So, even though it wasn't as good, it wasn't as good for me because I'd seen it before. So the you know, there you go. Oh, and then we we were on smugglers run. So our thing with smugglers run is asha has to fly the millennium falcon, okay, and then we torture her, okay, good, we're just yelling stuff at her. Love that that I want to do that. So, as soon as, that's my new goal. It was like the last Asha let's do that.
Speaker 2:We're coming in for a landing, yeah, and there's like one spire sticking up, so you've only got to miss one thing and she hit it. Or maybe Brad did, I don't know. Brad was flying too, but and I'm like, are you kidding me? I just yell at everybody, but people couldn't do their jobs because Dave and I were just yelling at her constantly.
Speaker 1:I want to sit next to Asha and fly and hit everything and blame her.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's our thing on there. And so, brad, he was like, oh my, they're pretty rough on you. And yeah, we were Nice. So Sunday we went to Animal Kingdom. Okay, because we always ended Epcot Right, that's my rule.
Speaker 2:We always ended Epcot Rope, dropped Everest, then we had to walk back to the other corner of the park to do Navi because we had a lightning lane and then it was like back to back, to back real quick, so that Safari and everest again at 10 o'clock and then come back and do at 11 o'clock for the flight of passage. Everybody really liked it. We saw the shows. The only problem with that is so there was thunder and lightning off and on all day. So it kind of messed up our doing a kelly river rapids. We're about to get on, they kick us off because the thunder and lightning we go to the flight, the bird show, and we don't have them fly during. When there's lightning, a chance of lightning and storm.
Speaker 2:So it was not that we missed that show, we didn't. And then we were gonna go do rafiki's planet watch, but after the finding neo it's maybe 4.15 in the afternoon and it's pouring down rain, so we'll just, let's just head back. So overall though, everybody really liked the Lion King show. Great show, great win you have Now and this is what convinced me you do not need multi-pass at Animal Kingdom or Epcot, you don't need it, you don't need it.
Speaker 2:But I will always get it because it makes being able to get through your day so much easier. You don't have to get in line early for stuff. You just okay, I'm ready, boom, you just go do stuff, right. So, yeah, one of the cool things and I'd never done it to this extent is when they were doing Flight of Passage, leah didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it and Dave didn't want to, and they have, like their stomachs are a little more sensitive and I've ridden it and it's mine too. I don't like screen rides like that a whole lot. They're okay, but eh, but I've done it, I don't need to do it again. So we walked around the Tree of Life looking for all the where the animals were put into the tree. That was cool, because we spent like maybe an hour just walking around the tree, looking at everything and so and looking at all the animals around there. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:See, that's why I like going to Disney all the time. Yeah, because it feels like you can do that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, I'm not like I got to go ride this. Rides, rides, rides, rides, rides. Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Lightning Lane just made things more relaxed. It does Didn't feel like. Had Satooli Canteen for the first. Had for breakfast. Had the goat cheese and veggie frittata with like strips of beef beef was super tender. Had like a chimichurri sauce on it.
Speaker 1:The frittata was great, yeah, yeah, we were just talking about this on wednesday, me and you and we're gonna go out there right now and, like right now, just off the top of our heads, say it's the best quick serve place in all of disney. Yes I had to look into it more and really think about quick serve places. But I don't know Right now. Just off the top of our heads say it's the best quick-serve place in all of Disney.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't know. We have to look into it more and really think about quick-serve places, but I don't know. I haven't had anything bad there. Their food and drinks are great. It was good. It was a really good breakfast and I think everybody else had like pancakes. A couple other people had some sort of meat-based dish, yeah, but I think people had more waffles. I can't wait to try meat there. Because we went during Lent, shrimp is meat.
Speaker 1:We weren't allowed to yeah Right.
Speaker 2:You could have shrimp, yeah.
Speaker 1:But we had other stuff, mm-hmm and just delicious. We only went there because it was the only non-meat place that looked good. Yeah, neat place that looked good. Yeah, that we found and it was great, it was great yeah it's, and I was.
Speaker 2:I was wanting to go there. I thought I was going to come back for lunch and because we had some time to kill after doing navi river journey, I was like, well, let's just have breakfast. Everybody's hungry, right, and went in and so the place was empty. You know, we went in so it didn't take us very long. Really good to kind of a. The dining room's comfortable, it's kind of neat inside there, everything's really cool looking anyway. So, yeah, it was. It was just, it was a good meal, it was and reasonable priced, it wasn't like you pay a lot extra. And now Bronto Breakfast, bronto Wrap is up there. This rivaled that as far as best quick breakfast. Wow, that's tough, very different, yeah, but that was a good, it was a good breakfast. So, anyway, highly recommend that.
Speaker 2:So then Monday we Epcot, epcot. Yeah, always ended epcot, so rope dropped remys, because we come in through the international gateway, right, and it just makes it. So now they do it a little bit differently. So basically they let you in and they hold you for a couple minutes and then it's just okay. Now walk to the rise, you want to get on, and you'll stand in line for a while, like half an hour, and so we did that. We rope dropped Remy's, which I really, I really like Remy's, I like the. You know the visuals of it. I really enjoyed that Remy's a lot. Again, we had lightning lane very helpful. And then we got the crepes as soon as we came out Good grapes, yeah. Got the crepes as soon as we came out Good crepes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which ones did you?
Speaker 2:have. Do you remember? I always go for the ham and cheese galette I want. I need to have some protein in the morning and DJ got the berry one, which looked really good the mixed berries.
Speaker 1:That's a good one too.
Speaker 2:And then some of them got just the butter and sugar crepes. That's a good one, and mine was technically a galette. Technically a galette. I think Asha got the brie galette, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good stuff. I had the ratatouille one last time.
Speaker 2:Oh, and that's what.
Speaker 1:I thought you did Still good, yeah, still good yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that one, because it's more of a savory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had lunch there. We did it for lunch and so, oh, that was trying to remember what you got, I think. I got either a berry one or, like a Nutella one. Oh, okay, that's what I always go for. I always go to that when I go to. We stay at the Paris. We go to Vegas, okay, and they have a crepe place. I always go berry, that's your go-to, that's my go-to morning crepe.
Speaker 2:So did that? Trying to think I that trying to think I think we walked around the. Did we go back to the? I think we went back to the front and hit some rides pretty early. We, there were a few we didn't. The biggest one we didn't do was living with the land yeah, and that's because it's a mess every time we walked by it was like line up the door for the lightning lane and even the.
Speaker 1:The standby was kind of long and yeah, it goes pretty fast, though it goes pretty fast but it was because we had a long lightning lane we stood in for when we hit the land, but we still.
Speaker 2:It still goes by because it just circles around yeah, and the lightning lane just goes around once right, it dumps you and they you know they're moving that one pretty quick anyway, but we didn't do that one, but we did everything else walked around earth, oh yeah, oh, mission space. No, we didn't do that, that's not everything else that's not everything else no, no, we did everything for, like the, the must-do's, that's not.
Speaker 1:That is not a must-do. If you haven't done it, it is. Everything you haven't done before is a must-do.
Speaker 2:Nobody in our group would have wanted to do that one, and the green is meh. It's not one that you've Green's, all right, yeah, but you said that with some great enthusiasm. It's all right. I like the orange better.
Speaker 1:It's all right. Root canals are all right, it's not bad.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's an experience. So okay, you do it once, but you do it once. But yeah, we didn't do it once. Yeah, we ended up leaving early that night too, and you missed a ride there's two rides left early ah so anyway, so I did try the croque glace. Oh yes, we've been talking about this?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I had the vanilla with caramel. Oh my God, it just looks good. That was such a good snack. It was like it was yeah.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn't hear you mention Ottawa apple.
Speaker 2:I did not have an Ottawa apple, that's a rule.
Speaker 1:You broke a cheers to ears rule I've had plenty of auto apples and you're supposed to have a show with the group that I was with nobody else drank so I'm the only one that drank the auto apple when I was there christy drank some too, didn't? She had a different drink than I did there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she had a different drink, so you were with people who would I don't think that's a caveat different drink than I did there, yeah she had a different drink, so you were with people who would drink.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's a caveat in the rule.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to have to have a meeting.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't. I did eat and this time I wanted to eat at the Japan Pavilion, had the ramen. It was good but it was overpriced because it's ramen it. It was good but it was overpriced because it's ramen. It didn't need to be $15.99. Right, but it was a pretty good bowl of ramen. But I wanted to eat at the Japan Bafillian because I've never eaten there.
Speaker 2:Good yeah, and so the weather overall was not quite as humid as when we went and it wasn't as hot at times. So when we were walking out, we walked out a bit early that night and we were walking by Yorkshire Fish Shop and I was really tempted to get some fish and chips because it was the weather wasn't making it work. Who wants to eat fish and chips when it's 110 degrees out? I did have school bread, of course, nice, and that was I forgot. I I peeled off from the group so we all kind of split up at certain times and I was there with my iced coffee and had a, had a school bread. I wanted to try the pretzel. The pretzel banana pudding, yeah, or not bread pudding. But I'm like I've already had the croque glace. I've had that. I've like had a. I've had enough sugar, I didn't want any more sugar.
Speaker 1:Man. So I'm thinking we should do two Epcot days, Right? Yeah, Half every day, focus on food. So do half the rides one day, but the rest of the day have food. The second day do the other half of rides and then focus on food. Yeah, Because we don't. We do all the rides and stuff and then we have that. You know, we can only eat so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially when you go for a festival Right and wanting to try some of the festival.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know the festival foods have all been fairly disappointing. The festival foods have all been fairly disappointing. I know we focused on the festival too last time we went.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that was the weirdest thing, there was no festival going and all those booths are empty, yeah, and they're just kind of sitting there, right. So it felt like half the park was closed, but it's like, oh, it's not, it's just, this is what it normally is. It's just all those things are going when a festival is going Food and wine, or flower and garden, or the holiday one. So I think this is one of the few times I've been there. Second time I've been there without a festival. It's hard to get there without a festival, yeah, because those last like half the year is a festival, yeah. So, anyway, but it was. It lets you concentrate on eating, like just the regular food that's there, which is there's plenty of good regular food. Oh right, trying to think, oh, so we split up, because I went and ate at the japan pavilion. Dave and asha and dj ate at chef de france. They loved it. Now, granted, I probably don't ever want to eat there, because it's a heavy meal, because it's hot, it's a heavy meal and it's a sit-down restaurant.
Speaker 1:So it takes a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they said it was really really good, like some of the best food they've ever had in a park.
Speaker 1:Huh.
Speaker 2:Interesting. Beef, bourguignon and the mac and cheese were what they had and, yeah, they said it was incredible and the service was. They said the service was great. It was just a really good experience. So they talked it up really well. But I'll probably never go just because there are a million other places there are a million other places like on my 40th trip.
Speaker 2:I think I might make it there. That's not even on my list of stuff to try, so there's just a lot of other things that I'll want to try. But yeah, we hit everything I did skip out because they wanted to do and DJ and Brad and Leah had broken off from our group earlier and I'm not sure where they ate or they went, but at one point Leah did text me a picture of school bread. They were eating school bread.
Speaker 1:Oh, they did yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you and Leah and Brad had school bread. Asha, dave and DJ did not try school bread. Man, that's a fail too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have some fails here. We have a few, a few mistakes there are, yeah. Yeah, it's all right. I mean, everyone has them.
Speaker 2:But see, that's the thing. You just go back and you try it next time. Right? Yeah, they tried a bunch of stuff that I probably wouldn't. Restaurants yeah, I'll never try that, but I got a great review. So if you want a good sit down restaurant, you like French food or French, take on food there. There you go.
Speaker 1:I'll have to look more reviews on that place, Cause I haven't really.
Speaker 2:it's not even on my radar. It's yeah, it's next to Montsour Paul which is like the $200 meal Right. But overall it was a good day, but we left early, but we, we left early, but then we went over to the boardwalk and you know, walked around there and gosh, I can't remember. I think we all ate again at the boardwalk cafe.
Speaker 1:So my last question because we're running, we're running out of time is did you go to other hotels too? Did you visit their hotels and show them other places?
Speaker 2:we walked over to art of animation.
Speaker 2:We walked around riviera we got the grand floridian no, because we just didn't have time for stuff like that. Yeah, but you know, we walked around fort wilderness, just the places you went. We got the bird's eye view of caribbean beach and asha seemed to really like the way that looked, which that might be a future stay. She, they all liked the pool there. They're like, oh, that looks really cool, yeah, down there. But yeah, as we're flying over it and stuff and we kept looking, I did see my first snake. We did Park, yes, as we were coming back on the ferry from Hoop-Dee-Doo. I'm looking over in the water and about a three foot long snake is swimming through the water. And on the bus ride back to the airport I saw an alligator floating in one of the ponds by the highway, so I saw my first gator.
Speaker 1:That was your first gator. Yeah, oh, wow. I know Of all those times I guess quite a few gator sightings. Well, we drove all up and down Florida Lots of gators. I mean I look out constantly for gators because I love to see a gator swimming.
Speaker 2:See, and I've been wanting to.
Speaker 1:So fun, so awesome.
Speaker 2:When you're just, you know they curb the gators there. Saw lots of turtles Right, saw a lot. So yeah, tons Cool. So last day we went to Disney Springs we had breakfast lunch. It wasn't our reservation, it was at 11. So that's when they opened. So we went when they opened to Chef Art Smith's Homecoming Right, and I think everybody liked burgers. It looked like they had a really good burger and stuff, but I had their famous for their fried chicken chicken. So that's what I had Incredible fried chicken. Okay, I could only eat half that meal and I was stuffed, which is good that I ate a huge meal because my flight back again thank you Delta Left late.
Speaker 2:Tight layover in Minneapolis so I had to walk 0.6 miles in the airport to get to my connecting gate, which and like 30 minutes I had to get to the other gate from where I was at, so couldn't stop for food. So really that was the only thing I ate all day. But as soon as that was over I was like, okay, see you guys, because I didn't want to walk around Disney Springs. I've seen all the shops and I wasn't going to buy anything. So I went back to the hotel and just kind of hung out for a while and they went around, walked around. They got me a hat, one of the vintage hats that I was eyeballing for probably five or six years now nice, so I got another disney hat to wear on my adventures.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was pretty much it. It's the, you know, the big takeaways lightning lane. Don't need it, but it's just helpful. Even in all the parks, even if you, you don't need it, it's just helpful to get. And yeah, umbrellas, umbrellas. I didn't bust out, always have an umbrella In my poncho at all. Other people did. They use their ponchos, yeah, but it rained on us at some point every day Always.
Speaker 1:Always be ready for rain in Florida, but overall, great trip, Great trip. I can't wait to talk to everybody else from your group and maybe we'll have one of them on the episode sometime and talk about that. I thought Brad and Leah would be good because their first experience yes, what they thought and yeah, so this I went. I just went an hour and a half just now, without talking about Naval Academy you did At all. So get ready If you stay here at all after we record Aaron. Get ready.
Speaker 2:I do because I have half my drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're getting bombarded with Naval Academy stuff, so thank you everyone for listening. Cheers, awesome show. Cheers.
