October 27, 2022 • 39 mins
In this episode, Kris and Vanessa are joined by Bee from Charmed & Cozy. The shop includes Disney-inspired apparel, accessories and much more. A favorite feature of the shop is their monthly Pin Club.
Earlier in the episode, Kris and Vanessa discuss their picks for the Top 5 character dining locations at Walt Disney World.
- Charmed and Cozy on Instagram
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- Charmed and Cozy on Facebook
- Charmed and Cozy Etsy Shop (to see their full selection of merchandise visit their website in the link at the top of this description)
- Episode 43: Resort Character Dining
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Di Love podcast with Vanessa and
Chris.
I'm Vanessa Ferguson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And I'm Chris Johns.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We would like to welcome you to show number 120
and for any guest joining us forthe first time, our show
features things we love atDisney.
And in each episode we have aguest who creates Disney Magic
for our listeners at home or ontheir Disney vacations.
From vacation planners toproduct producers, our guests
can bring Disney Magic into yourlife.
(00:30):
And talking about show numberone 20, this kind of marks a
milestone.
And I know Chris, you don'ttrack things very well, but do
you know what this marks for us?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So this marks the start of our fifth season, which
means that we have been doingthe podcast for four full years
and we're, this episode is thestart of our fifth year.
We're looking at doing somethings to kind of celebrate that
milestone, but just wanted tolet all of you know that we
appreciate you, we're thankfulto you as our listeners and of
(01:01):
course to our guests who'vereally helped make this show a
success.
And we appreciate all of you.
And speaking of that, as areminder to our listeners, we
ask if you could take some timeand leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or any other platformwhere you listen that just helps
new listeners find us and ofcourse helps the show continue
to grow.
And before we get started ontoday's show, Chris, could you
(01:23):
give us our message from ourfriends@orlandovacation.com?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
For sure.
And that message straight fromcentral Florida is save money.
Use the code dis love to save 5%off your next booking of three
nights or more when you go toCentral Florida, whether it be
to Disney or one of the otherawesome theme parks.
And the great thing aboutOrlando vacation.com is that
they have lodging for any sizegroup.
If it's a small family likeVanessa, myself, they have a
(01:49):
condo to take care of you withroom to spare.
But if you have a big family,like we have some friends that
have four kids and a largeextended family, they have
places that have enough room foreveryone to stay under one roof.
And again, use that code dislove orlando vacation.com to say
5% on your next booking or threeor more nights in Central
Florida.
Not only do they have lodging,but they also can take care of
(02:09):
your tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yes, and we've used them before and we've been very
happy with our results as well.
So on today's show we are goingto be joined by be from Charmed
and Cozy.
Their shop features all kinds ofamazing products.
They have Disney apparel andaccessories and really a lot of
unique things.
They have a pin club which isreally interesting and awesome.
(02:34):
So we're really looking forwardfor you to hear all about
Charmed and Cozy.
And before we get to thatinterview for the first part of
the show, we are going to belooking at our picks for the top
five character diningrestaurants on property.
I've went back and looked, we'vedone shows about character
dining at the resorts and someof our general favorite
(02:54):
restaurants would ha sometimesinclude a character Dinings, but
we haven't just talked about ourfavorites.
And right now, this is at theend of October, 2022 and there's
been a lot of announcements byDisney in the last few weeks
about more of the restaurantsreopening or more of the
restaurants having characterdining returning.
So it just felt like a perfect,perfect time.
(03:18):
We're going off in our ownratings from the restaurants
that we've been to ourselves,but I will say I pulled some
information from UN our friendsover at Undercover Tourists.
They have some greatinformation, some details about
some of the experiences.
Now of course this rating isn'tcomplete because we haven't
necessarily been to everyone Atthe end of the show we will re,
(03:39):
we'll go over all of thedifferent character dining ones
that our own property thatdidn't make the list as well as
mentioned out of the list, therewas only one Charact, one
restaurant we had never been toand one other that we had not
experienced character dining at.
So we have been to quite a fewof them and we're gonna get
started with one that, I don'tknow, we had just never been to
(04:00):
this restaurant.
And then suddenly, probably fouror five years ago we went for
the first time and I went withmy, My Good friend and we've
just seemed to go on multipletrips.
And that's Chip and Dale'sHarvest Feast at the Garden
Grill in Epco.
And that's a, if you're, it's inthe land, it's a rotating
restaurant so you see thedifferent parts of the ride
(04:22):
where it goes into the differentum, settings within if you're,
as you're taking the boat ridebut you're the, the restaurant
is rotating and this one's funbecause Mickey and Friends, well
Mickey, they come out in theirfarmer overalls and things and
it's just been a lot of fun andI've really enjoyed Garden
(04:43):
Grill.
Oh yeah, I like it.
.
Now this meal is prettystraightforward.
It's very close to what you getover at Magic Kingdom.
If you were to go to LibertyTree Tavern, we went there um,
in May, I think it was at the,at the end of our trip for our
daughter's birthday.
And aside from the dessert, themeals are very similar so you
(05:07):
get a salad, which Chris and Ireally like the salad and we
wanted the salad dressing recipelast year when we were there and
they said they don't give thoseout anymore.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah, so they have, you don'tjust get salad, you get mashed
potatoes, Turkey, um, grilledbeef with chi chewy sauce.
You also get um, stuffing, theybrought out macaroni and cheese.
(05:28):
I'm trying to think what othersorts of things.
The dessert is a berryshortcake, which is really good.
I don't like blueberries but Iwas able to pick those out and I
still enjoyed it cuz I like theother berries that are in it.
You have Chip and Dale, Plutoand Mickey and they're in their
farmer overalls and every timethat I just feel like you get,
you don't feel as rushed here asyou do at some of the other
(05:49):
character.
Correct.
And they are.
So we've done it with justadults.
We've done it with just Chrisand I, I've done it with just my
friends.
We did it with our daughter whenwe were there earlier this year.
And it's just a greatexperience.
It's nice that they have it forlunch and dinner.
They also do, if you're therefor at any of the times of
(06:11):
special like where you do thepackages for seating, for
concerts or for the candlelightprofessional, they'll usually do
the dining packages, which isnice.
So you could do a lunch thereand that way you're in the front
part of the park in future worldand you can have that package
and still get that seating foran evening show as you're back
(06:32):
in the world showcase overall,I've never had a bad meal here.
I mean it's pretty standardfood.
I mean it's pretty Americanstyle food.
Yes.
And the good thing is I have afriend who has a lot of
allergies and needs to glutenand other things as well and
tree nuts and different thingsand she always loves the food
(06:52):
too because they do a great jobwith allergies there.
Not that anywhere in Disneydoesn't do that, but really good
American faire and it's nicethat it's in the park.
It's a good respite if it's hotout.
It's just a nice relaxing placeto visit.
The second one on our list isTopo Line's terrace, the flavors
of the Riviera at, of course theRiviera Resort.
(07:14):
This character dining is only inthe morning and it's been fun
because I like Mickey andfriends are kind of, they're
dressed as artists and it's afun character experience and
they look like um, they're soMickey's a painter.
MI is a poet, Donald is asculptor and Daisy is a dancer.
(07:34):
And I didn't realize all ofthose nuances with their passion
.
Passion.
I did not.
And what's ironic is ourdaughter has really liked Daisy
a lot and she loves to dance andwe have videos of her dancing
with Daisy so it makes sense.
Daisy's the dancer makes a lotof sense.
the characters arereally great here.
Even though it's a restaurantthat's always packed in terms of
getting reservations and thingslike that.
(07:56):
I've never felt rushed.
We've eaten there twice now.
We've eaten there with ourfamily, with our daughter and
we've ate there with our goodfriend Shane and Charlie.
And when it was adults we didn'tfeel rushed when we had our
little one, we didn't feelrushed.
And we've been there duringCovid when you had the modified
experiences as well as when wewere there in May you were able
(08:16):
to have a standard experience.
It's really cool because you cango out on the terrace and you
can get photos and you can seeEpcot and you can see Hollywood
studios.
They do have a prefixed menu sothey bring out pastries and then
you get of course whateverbeverage you'd like and then
they have entrees and you canpick what you'd like.
The secret is that you order oneentree but you can ask for other
(08:41):
ones as well.
So what they'll do is they'llbring you a little bit of a
smaller option.
So they have everything fromlike a sausage hash, they have
steak, they have salmon, thewaffles or a sour cream waffle,
which I enjoyed those a lot.
They had a really cute optionfor kids is it's a Mickey Waffle
and it has the different dippingsauces.
(09:02):
So chocolate and differentthings like that.
We did that for our daughter.
The potatoes and the granola andthe fruit cups and all of the
sides are very good.
I will say that it is nicebecause they just, overall it's
neat to go to that resort to goupstairs and to experience it.
It's not a buffet, whichdepending on if you prefer a
(09:24):
buffet you can eat all you wanthere but it is a little bit more
spaced out.
What did you think about thefood at to Belina?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Oh it was very good.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
And I think did you likeordering versus having the
buffet at some of the otherones?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, with the ordering was nice.
Yeah, I mean it was everything.
You got what you wanted.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah, and it
is good because they also have
specialty coffees and differentthings like that.
Cause I know our friend orderedsome of those when we were there
this last time.
Here's a tip, it's very hard toget a reservation there.
So what we've been successfulwith, as you know, you can start
booking for the first day ofyour reservation at Disney.
So what we have done is I try toget it towards the end of our
(10:04):
trip.
So if you're taking a seven daytrip, you can start booking for
day one all the way through theend of your trip.
So you're not competing with asmany people if you try to get
day seven.
We've also done this on the daythat we've been leaving, which
has been nice.
It's kind of a nice way to endthe trip and overall it's a
great experience.
You can drive there.
We've driven there with ourrental car last time.
(10:26):
We've also taken the skylinerand then you can take the
Skyliner right onto Epcot or toHollywood Studios, which is
nice.
So really it's, it's a greatexperience overall and if you
don't have a park ticket for aday, that's even a great one to
go to and enjoy cuz the next twothat we're gonna talk about are
back in the parks, just likeGarden Grill but they're at
different ones.
(10:47):
The next one is Tusker HouseRestaurant Animal Kingdom.
And this is in Harambe Villagein the Africa part of the park.
And one nice thing is thatstarting November 1st, so as
this episode's coming outthey're gonna go back to the
buffet style dining, which wehave not been there when they
(11:07):
switched to Family style.
But they are going back tobuffet in, we've talked about
pretty standard fair so far atGarden Grill Topos is pretty
straightforward, breakfast fair,but this is a lot of unique
flavors they have.
We've not been for breakfast, Iwill say that so I can't talk
speak to breakfast.
(11:28):
But we've done lunch and dinnerand they have things like green
curry shrimp, they have um,marinated pork, they have a lot
of African inspired salads,Jasmine rice curry, they have
Moroccan spice beef.
I just found that everything wasvery good.
They have cute little animalmini desserts.
So what do you think about theirflavors?
(11:49):
I know you like some more uniqueentrees and things.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well you know know it's just something you don't
get all the time and so it's areal treat to be in the efca
section and then be a tuskerhouse and have something a
little different.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so even Ann don't be hesitant if you don't
have a a pallet that likesdifferent flavors.
There are some standard thingslike they have house made
macaroni and cheese and thingslike that that you'll be able to
find something even if you havesome pickier eaters in your
group.
But if you don't you'll have alot of new things to try.
As I mentioned, we haven't beento the breakfast but the
(12:23):
breakfast is similar to some ofthe other ones.
They bring a basket of pastriesthat has um, some unique mix of
breads.
Also cornbread, which I likecornbread a lot so it'd be nice
to try.
And then they bring out aplatter that has scrambled eggs.
A fun thing.
Okay they have Mickey waffles.
Yes.
Who would you guess, what do youthink is another character that
they offer as waffles in themorning?
(12:44):
It's in, it's in Animal Kingdom,
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Lilo and Stitch.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
That's a good guess but they offer Simba from Lion
King.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
So and then they have Durbanchicken, egg curry and then they
have bacon and sausage andpotatoes and that sort of thing.
But again, it's a greatopportunity.
You can get into the back, youcan head straight to the safari
when you get done or rightbefore your reservation.
So overall we add car or Tuskerhouse high on our list.
(13:13):
The food's great.
We've also been where you goright between like when lunch is
ending and dinner is starting orright when dinner's starting and
we were there one year for uh,relative's birthday and it was
super fun.
They brought out all of thecharacters at once and let us
get a group shot.
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I sure do.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah.
And so the characters justseemed to be, we have some
really great pictures of ourdaughter with the characters
there.
We haven't been there sinceCovid but we were there in
March, 2020 right before theparks closed.
And just some fun characters,good interactions there and
that's really what I think how Ipicked our ratings.
I picked our ratings based oncharacter interactions, not
(13:51):
necessarily on what specificcharacters were
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There.
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So next one as I say that the next one's a little bit
different but is Crystal Palaceover at Magic Kingdom and this
has all of our friends from thehundred Acre Woods.
So you have Tigger, your pigletand poo and the nice thing is
that the characters havereturned, which they had been
gone for a while.
We were there for the 50thanniversary last year and
(14:21):
remember there was no charactersyet.
No, yeah.
So now they're back, they havelunch and dinner, they haven't
brought breakfast there but theyhave a good variety.
They have fried chicken whichwas tasty prime rib.
Um, they have sugar glazed porktops, catfish, shrimp, they have
a lot of great um, side dishes.
(14:45):
The desserts are kind of run themill.
Years ago they used to have acarrot cake that I love there
but now kinda have thosestandard small desserts.
But I find that even thoughyou're at Magic Kingdom and you
are really in the busy park,I've never felt rushed there.
We were there for our vowrenewal with a group of I think
30 people and they took theirtime.
(15:07):
I didn't feel like we wererushed with the characters at
all.
How, what do
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You think?
No, I think they really alloweach family enough time to take
photos and interact and it'snever rushed.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
No.
And the one thing that people dowarn about is be mindful of the
times for the parades andnighttime shows and fireworks
and that sort of thing.
Cuz if you're getting out atcertain times it can be hard to
get in and out of thatrestaurant cuz of its location
close to the hub.
So keep that in mind.
Now our last pick for our topfive is one that's temporarily
(15:39):
closed and my fingers arecrossed.
Uh, hoping that because Disneyhas been opening a lot more of
these experiences and bringinglot more dining back, that this
one will come back and maybe I'mprejudice cuz now we have DVC at
this resort.
Um, but is 1900 Park Fair at theGraham Floridian?
And this one is fun because atdifferent times of day there's a
(16:01):
little bit of a differentexperience.
We've been there for thebreakfast and for the dinner.
So you might wonder what doesthat mean?
Well there's actually differentcharacters.
So in the morning there's aSupercalifragilistic breakfast
which has, I'm not a bigbreakfast person.
My dad and Chris like breakfasta lot.
But one nice thing is besidesyour standard buffet Fair, they
(16:24):
have made to order omelets andcarved ham and in the morning
you have Mary Poppins, AllisonWonderland, the Mad Hatter in
Tigar in winning the Poo.
And I think that's fun.
We, we've got some greatpictures of Chris with a Mad
Hatter.
I'm gonna have to dig those
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Out.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
So that's always a fun experience.
And then in the afternoon, whichthis is fun, when this comes
back I think I will definitelyadd this to the list of
something for our daughter todo.
They have a Wonderland tea partyso the restaurant is closed for
lunch.
So this is one of those specialvenue or special events that you
do and the kids get tea andcupcakes that they decorate and
(17:06):
during that they have Alice andMatt Hatter and they come and do
crafts and stories and if Iremember correctly they get some
special gifts.
Reminds me of how we did theroyalty uh, recently on the
cruise line when we went toAlaska.
So I think it would, it's a funexperience that most kids would
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Oh definitely.
I think it's just one of thosethings just, it's great cuz you
get to see the kids engage andthe parents and then the other
family members.
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yes.
So that's a great thing that Iwould love to try out when they
bring that back.
And then for dinner we just, wedid do this in 2020 in March.
So it was right before the therestaurant closed but they have
a Cinderella's happily everafter dinner.
(17:52):
And of course the honor guest isCinderella and Prince Charming.
But I thought what was super funis they had Lady Tremaine and
Anastasia and GI so they had thestepmother and the two
stepsisters and we had a greattime with them.
Do you remember
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That?
I booed them and they booed
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Me back.
Yes, that's true.
I forgot about
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That.
I said you are mean toCinderella and they told me some
things I can't repeat on afamily friendly podcast
Speaker 1 (18:20):
, I think
you're exaggerating just a wee
bit on that one.
But it was a lot of fun Andthese are ca like you don't see
Lady Tremaine out at the parks,you don't see Drella Anastasia
and they have a good mix ofinternational salads and meats
and seafood.
Lot of those standard Americanfaire as well.
But I just think it's a funthing.
(18:42):
They have the organ that turn ofthe century organ that will is
by the restaurant that they'llplay sometimes.
So the music, it was piped in,they would have a special photo
experience with Cinderellaslipper on the pillow that you
could get as you were leavingthe restaurant.
So we've had good experiencesthere.
I've eaten there with atbreakfast and at dinner I've
(19:05):
eaten there with family, withfriends and with little ones and
just with adults and it's been agreat experience.
So fingers crossed, knock onwood that this one comes back
soon.
And speaking of that, one thingthat is important to note in
terms of the character diningexperiences, these are more
(19:25):
expensive than what you wouldpay at a regular restaurant on
property.
But from what I've been reading,Disney has said that some of the
in park experiences withcharacters are gonna be reduced
just because of staffing andthey're gonna focus on opening
more of the character diningexperiences.
So that means really if you havelittle ones and you wanna
(19:47):
guarantee that you see certaincharacters character dining's
really where you had to go.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Exactly.
And I think and just because itseems like either the timing is
off or even if you are online,you're always maybe one family
outside of how many they allowand it's one of those things
you're gonna eat anyways.
So why not eat and see acharacter?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah and pay that little extra.
To me it's worth it.
I like paying for something thatI know I'm gonna have a strong
return in something that wewanna do.
Now there are quite a few othercharacter dining experiences
that we didn't mention.
You might wonder like well whyisn't that on their list Now
there's Hollywood and Vine atDisney's Hollywood Studios.
(20:25):
I will say I've been to thatone, The Mickey or the Mini and
Friends, they, it's super cutein the evenings like for lunch
and dinner many and friends theyhave costumes related to the
time of year.
So I've been there for springand during the fall and they
have like Halloween costumes inthe morning for breakfast.
(20:46):
It's Disney Junior characters.
But the food always falls shortto me.
I mean our daughter wouldprobably love the Disney Junior
but the food is just never greatthere at Hollywood and Vine.
I don't even think you've been,I've been with my parents.
I don't think so.
Yeah, the food's so bad.
I haven't even taken Chris.
So I've been with my parents andwith friends and I like the
characters.
(21:06):
It just the, the cost is hard tojustify.
There's also Ohana at thePolynesian in the morning you
have Mickey and Stitch and Liloand usually there's a few other
characters.
It's pretty standard fair, it'sserved family style.
Nothing about the food sticksout to me.
But if you really love Lilo andStitch, this is where you know
(21:29):
you're gonna get them.
I ha that's when I've been, I'vebeen with a friend who loves
them, who loves Stitch.
So we've gone to that Ma somepeople may wonder why we didn't
say about the Royal Banquet Hallin Norway.
Actress Royal Banquet Hall andthis is coming back in November.
So actually a week after thispodcast comes out it will be
(21:50):
open for lunch and dinner and Iwill say we took our daughter
there in March, 2020 and it wasgood.
I mean you saw the theprincesses but I didn't feel
like the interactions were as asmeaningful.
Would that be the right word?
Yes, that's a very good way toput it.
I just felt like there was kindof a standard line of like, okay
(22:12):
we're gonna come, you each getyour picture, we move on.
No fault to their own.
I think there's just such a highvolume of people that come
through there.
They did do like a princessparade and our daughter did that
and she was excited to see thecharacters but I could just
dramatically notice thedifference from other character
meals we had that week.
(22:32):
Let's talk about a few more.
I just wanna quickly,Cinderella's Royal table at
Magic Kingdom right now you'renot seeing all the princesses
for the longest time you couldsee a lot of the princesses
during the meal, which I wouldlike to experience that because
we went there several times justfor like special occasions and
that was when it was just thefairy godmother and um,
(22:55):
Cinderella and some of thosecharacters right before Covid
when they had it, there was moreprincesses.
Right now you can only meetCinderella and get a photo and
the cost of this is so highunless you, especially right now
without all the addedcharacters, I just can't justify
saying to go there.
Um, storybook dining at ArtistPoint with Snow White at
(23:17):
Wilderness Lodge, we've beenthere.
We enjoyed the food.
I thought we had goodinteractions with Snow White and
with some of the dwarfs and um,the Evil Queen.
There's just nothing for us thatstood out extremely well from
there.
But I think it's a great option,especially if you're staying at
Wilderness Lodge or somewherenear there.
(23:37):
Um, Chef Mickey's at theContemporary, we went there for
our daughter's birthday and Ijust, the family style food is
not great there right now.
The it's a weird mix of
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Food.
Yes.
Very weird
Speaker 1 (23:48):
.
So the characters werewonderful.
I will highly, I will applaudthe characters.
It was our daughter's birthday,they were awesome.
I mean it was actually on herbirthday and we have so many
cute pictures of her but food isimportant to us and the food
just really didn't hit the mark.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Correct.
It's just, you know, we'll haveto try it again to see if
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's better they bring a buffet back.
That would be nice.
Yes, exactly.
.
Um, and I'm not one to say bringa buffet back but there are
options at the buffet.
Were much better.
I am excited.
This one I haven't been to andprobably I'm gonna age myself 20
years, um, but at Kate May Cafeat the Beach Club, they have a
breakfast and we'll be goingthere on this trip.
It's great if you're planning togo into Epcot cuz you're right
(24:33):
there you can walk over.
Um, it's Mini and Mickey andthem and their beach outfits.
I was trying to think there'sChip and Dale as well.
The fairs, this food fair ispretty standard breakfast but
I'm hoping this might get addedto our list of favorites.
We're gonna be going there cuzwe're gonna go for a half day at
Upco before we leave that day.
And so I'm excited to try thatout.
(24:54):
Here's one that we have not,this is the only character
dining that I've not tried.
It's, I've not even tried therestaurant.
It's the, at it's Bon VoyageAdventure breakfast at tutorial
A at the boardwalk and right nowthe restaurant is open but the
character dining is istemporarily unavailable.
It has Rapunzel and Flynn andAriel and Prince Eric and I
(25:19):
think it would be fun.
Our daughter is into all ofthose characters right now but
unfortunately the characterdining hasn't happened and we've
not eaten there so I can't talkto that.
And then finally there's a goodmorning breakfast with Goofy and
Pals at the Four Seasons.
We've eaten breakfast at thefour season.
Their food is awesome.
So I will say kudos to them.
We've not done the characterdining experience there but this
(25:41):
gives you a lot of differentoptions.
These again are just our topfive because of what we've, our
personal preferences.
I did rank more I think unusualfood items as well as character
interactions.
Those were kind of what I, how Iranked my five.
Did you agree with what I put onthe list for us?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Oh definitely.
I think, you know, there's justso many great options and you
know Vanessa, she does a greatjob at finding where to go, when
to eat and you know, being ableto have that best experience.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So hopefully you can figure out what's best for your
family and add lots of memoriesreally you can't go wrong with
character dining at Disney.
You're gonna get those greatpictures and you're guaranteed
to see the character.
So what could be better thanthat?
Now we are going to take sometime and you're gonna hear from
Bee and hear all about herawesome business, Charmed and
(26:30):
Cozy.
We're looking forward to sharingwith you all about it.
We would like to welcome Bee tothe show.
Her shop Charmed and Cozy offersall kinds of great Disney
apparel and accessories.
She is a fourth generationDisney fan.
Her shop has been open for sixyears and they originally
started with Disney bounding andthen have kind of expanded from
(26:50):
there.
A big part of their shop rightnow is their pin club as well,
which we'll talk about some funthings outside of her love for
Disney.
She trains as a circus artistand does volunteer work with
American Sign Language and she'straveled all over.
She's been to six countries inEurope and Asia.
So welcome bee to the show.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Hi, thanks for having me.
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Now we always start off with a icebreaker to learn a
little bit more about what youenjoy at the parks and so we've
been asking people lately whatis your favorite snack at any of
the Disney parks?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Well you can be a good dull whip in any of the
flavors but lately uh, I thinkit just came out this year, my
favorite snack has been thes'mores cereal treat from the
bakery on Main Street.
It is just, there's somethingabout it that's just one of my
favorite snacks that you can getand I cannot pass by Main Street
(27:48):
without grabbing one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know what, that came out since our last trip so
I definitely have to add that tomy list of treats to try cuz
that sounds right up my alleyfor sure.
Now we wanna hear all about yourbusiness.
So you, if you could tell usabout your business and what
products you offer connected toDisney.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Pretty much every single thing we offer is
connected to Disney right now.
We do pins, patches, stickers.
We have a special limitedcollection of enamel jewelry as
well.
We do some stationary washytapes and memo books.
One of our newest things that weare super excited for is we are
(28:31):
getting into designer bags.
Ooh.
So our first round of those isour Spaceship Earth bag.
That one is hopefully arrivingsuper soon and going out to all
of our Kickstarter supporters.
Um, and you guys are the firstto hear this, but our second
design is actually currently inproduction and will be
(28:51):
announcing very soon as well.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
How exciting.
And we got married Atco, so Ilove anything with Epcot so I'll
definitely have to check out theSpaceship Earth design for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, that one has been so much fun to work on and
it definitely sparked the desireto make a lot more, which we are
in the process of doing
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Now.
You just mentioned sparkingdesire.
What was the spark ofinspiration for you to start
your business?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That is such a long, convoluted story in some ways,
but the short of it is I havealways been a crafter my entire
life.
I've never been able to turndown starting a new hobby and
eventually I was about 18 andone of my friends convinced me
that setting up an Etsy shop wasnot as scary as I thought it
(29:41):
was.
Um, she helped me sit down andlike get everything set up and
originally it was just to recoupmy hobby costs.
I loved to crochet, I loved tomake things out of polymer clay.
So I started that just to try tomake that some of my costs and
pretty soon it spiraled andeventually I decided to make my
(30:05):
first enamel pin and six yearslater here we are.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now you've mentioned some of your bags as well as
like the different types ofproducts you make, but what are
some of your favorite ones?
Like maybe one of your favoritepins, your favorite patch, what
are some of your favoritedesigns you have?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Oh right now I would have to say probably our orange
bird design.
That's one of our newer ones andit was an instant hit and I was
so glad it was because it was adesign that I absolutely fell in
love with from the verybeginning.
Um, so it's been really nice tosee other people enjoying that
one.
But we have that in in prettymuch everything.
(30:45):
We have it as a pin, a sticker,a patch.
We just got it made as a keychain and I have all of those
items all over everything I own.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I will have to check that out cuz my mom loves orange
birds.
So I think that gives me somegood ideas for Christmas for
sure.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, I did not realize the fandom that Orange
Bird had behind him until Istarted making products with him
on it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Well me too because I love figment so I've always been
a part of that world but sincemy mom has started liking the
orange bird stuff, I didn'trealize there was so much out
there.
Like you said, it's just neat tosee.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.
And now that you said figment,I'm so glad that there's a lot
of figment merch out there toocuz he's also one of my
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Favorites.
For sure.
For sure.
Now you've touched on this alittle bit, but how do you think
your products add Disney Magicto your customers lives?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Actually from the very beginning of Charmed and
Cozy, like since day one, thathas actually been the goal of
our shop.
Um, when I did first start outand it was handmade products,
all of my items were more Disneybound.
So I would make typical, like Imade floral jewelry, I made
scarves, different things, buteverything was in color schemes
(31:59):
of Disney characters I've alwaysloved including a little bit of
Disney magic in everyday life.
And so that's where Charm andCozy originated from was a
desire to make that available toeveryone else.
And so we've continued with thatgoal all six years of our shop,
of just finding ways to bring alittle bit of subtle Disney
(32:22):
magic to the every day.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Now with all of your great products, let's say I was
wanting to order something foran upcoming trip or we're not
too far from the holidays, whatis your turnaround time and how
early should I order?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Right now our turnaround time is less than two
weeks.
We try to keep it down to lessthan a week, but just in case we
always have new products thatare arriving.
You know, maybe something gets alittle bit delayed in transit
arriving to us because we dopre-orders for a lot of our
items.
So generally if you can order atleast a week out from when you
(32:59):
need something.
But I am always willing ifsomebody drops me a message to
add a little bit of extra pixiedust and get it out a little
faster.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Now do you do product launches at certain times of the
year or should people just keepan eye out on your pages?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So for us, um, we do sometimes do special drops.
Um, if it's a limited editionitem, if it's a special new
collection, we will do a specialproduct drop.
Otherwise, um, I don't have aton of self-control all the
time.
So sometimes when we get newthings they will pop up on the
(33:35):
website as a surprise.
Um, but we do also have ourmailing list that you can sign
up for.
Um, the link is in our shop inour Instagram pretty much
everywhere.
Um, and with our mailing listeveryone will find out exactly
what all of the do goodies areand when they're available.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Now if you could tell us a little bit about the Pin
Club.
You talked about that before westarted your interview and we'd
love to share with our viewersabout that.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, that's one of my favorite things that we've
done.
Um, I absolutely love it.
We use Patreon for it, whichmeans it's super easy to sign up
and it's a monthly reoccurringsubscription.
You can cancel it anytime.
You can sign up and cancel thenext day if you want to.
Um, we have super low prices,you'll get a huge discount in
(34:22):
order for signing up.
Every month we make two pins.
One is limited edition and onlyavailable to our Pin Club
members.
They also get access to a secretshop which contains the past
pins for the club.
Ooh.
And then our other pin is amoving pin every month.
Leftovers of that do go into ourmain shop, but Pink Club members
(34:44):
get first ds.
You get huge discounts by goingthrough the club and with the
club we have a tendency to go alittle more niche, we'll go more
the things that maybe everyDisney fan wouldn't get the
reference.
We go to the real, the realspecific things.
And that's been the main sellingpoint of our PIN club, which has
(35:05):
been really fun.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Well and I think your li our listeners really fall
under that.
They're always looking forsomething unique and different
and I think that's what's socool about the Pin Club.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's been really fungetting to add in these little
like references or maybe likefor a specific defunct de or
like a little place that maybepeople don't know as much about
in general, but our PIN clubmembers definitely do and they
love it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Now with that you mentioned all these these
awesome things you do.
Where can people go online tofind out everything you do?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
We are pretty much everywhere and every single
place we are, our username isjust charmed and cozy.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,Pinterest, all of the things.
Um, it's super easy to find uscuz we manage to get the exact
same username everywhere on theinternet.
(36:02):
So that's been super helpful.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Awesome.
And we will make sure to put thelinks to all of your socials on
the show notes as well as sharethrough our different posts.
So thank you so much be forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
This has been so much fun.
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Thank you again to be for joining us today
Speaker 1 (36:20):
And now we are onto our two minute trivia and our
wisdom from Walt quote.
And Chris, you are up withtrivia.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
So we talked a lot about characters and I tried to
find something that was Disneycharacter, dining related.
A little tough.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That would be
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Tough.
But this is a true or false.
True or false.
Dumbo is a character that youcan meet in the park.
False.
That is correct.
Dumbo has not been availableaccording to the internet since
the 1970s.
Oh
Speaker 1 (36:53):
The, you used to be able to meet Dumbo.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
In the 1970s.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah.
So before we were born even.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I wonder if they would bring characters like Kim
because especially now they haveBay Max where they had the big
blow up outfit.
You would think that they coulddo a Dumbo.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yes.
You would think.
I mean, Correct.
There's just a lot ofopportunities and even if it was
Dark Wing Duck and Roger, right?
Like I, I mean I know some ofthis stuff is just old IP that's
just not there, but you wouldfigure with Disney plus and just
some of this stuff.
But again, like even like theretro things, like I if it was
like a$20 Roger Rabbit me like Ithink just for how unique it is,
(37:32):
I would go to see that
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And I think that's why you get people striving to
go on the cruises or go to theafter hours, like the Halloween
party in the Christmas partywhen they have those extra
characters because they justdon't bring those out on a
regular basis, that's for sure.
Now we are gonna end with, Ithought this was kind of a fun,
interesting quote because justtalks about really as we're
(37:56):
looking at the reopening of moreand more things at the park,
it's just exciting to see that.
I remember when the parks wereclosing and we were there in
March, 2020.
You didn't really know what wasgonna happen.
We didn't know if that would beour last time at Disney.
Yes.
And this is kind of a pointabout how Disney's been
successful and how they justreally didn't know what would
(38:17):
happen when they opened.
We did it Disneyland and theknowledge that most of the
people I talked to thought itwould be a financial disaster
closed and forgotten within thefirst year.
Well look at where Walt's legacyhas gone.
I'm sure all those naysayersthat thought Disneyland would
close in a year would be amazedto see what has happened in the
(38:39):
legacy that's been built.
So thank you so much for joiningus on this episode of The Love
Podcast with Vanessa and Chris.
I'm Vanessa.
And
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I'm Chris.
This podcast is not affiliatedwith the Walt Disney Company or
its holdings and it is intendedfor entertainment purposes only.
Welcome to the Di Love podcast with Vanessa and
Chris.
I'm Vanessa Ferguson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And I'm Chris Johns.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We would like to welcome you to show number 120
and for any guest joining us forthe first time, our show
features things we love atDisney.
And in each episode we have aguest who creates Disney Magic
for our listeners at home or ontheir Disney vacations.
From vacation planners toproduct producers, our guests
can bring Disney Magic into yourlife.
(00:30):
And talking about show numberone 20, this kind of marks a
milestone.
And I know Chris, you don'ttrack things very well, but do
you know what this marks for us?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So this marks the start of our fifth season, which
means that we have been doingthe podcast for four full years
and we're, this episode is thestart of our fifth year.
We're looking at doing somethings to kind of celebrate that
milestone, but just wanted tolet all of you know that we
appreciate you, we're thankfulto you as our listeners and of
(01:01):
course to our guests who'vereally helped make this show a
success.
And we appreciate all of you.
And speaking of that, as areminder to our listeners, we
ask if you could take some timeand leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or any other platformwhere you listen that just helps
new listeners find us and ofcourse helps the show continue
to grow.
And before we get started ontoday's show, Chris, could you
(01:23):
give us our message from ourfriends@orlandovacation.com?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
For sure.
And that message straight fromcentral Florida is save money.
Use the code dis love to save 5%off your next booking of three
nights or more when you go toCentral Florida, whether it be
to Disney or one of the otherawesome theme parks.
And the great thing aboutOrlando vacation.com is that
they have lodging for any sizegroup.
If it's a small family likeVanessa, myself, they have a
(01:49):
condo to take care of you withroom to spare.
But if you have a big family,like we have some friends that
have four kids and a largeextended family, they have
places that have enough room foreveryone to stay under one roof.
And again, use that code dislove orlando vacation.com to say
5% on your next booking or threeor more nights in Central
Florida.
Not only do they have lodging,but they also can take care of
(02:09):
your tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yes, and we've used them before and we've been very
happy with our results as well.
So on today's show we are goingto be joined by be from Charmed
and Cozy.
Their shop features all kinds ofamazing products.
They have Disney apparel andaccessories and really a lot of
unique things.
They have a pin club which isreally interesting and awesome.
(02:34):
So we're really looking forwardfor you to hear all about
Charmed and Cozy.
And before we get to thatinterview for the first part of
the show, we are going to belooking at our picks for the top
five character diningrestaurants on property.
I've went back and looked, we'vedone shows about character
dining at the resorts and someof our general favorite
(02:54):
restaurants would ha sometimesinclude a character Dinings, but
we haven't just talked about ourfavorites.
And right now, this is at theend of October, 2022 and there's
been a lot of announcements byDisney in the last few weeks
about more of the restaurantsreopening or more of the
restaurants having characterdining returning.
So it just felt like a perfect,perfect time.
(03:18):
We're going off in our ownratings from the restaurants
that we've been to ourselves,but I will say I pulled some
information from UN our friendsover at Undercover Tourists.
They have some greatinformation, some details about
some of the experiences.
Now of course this rating isn'tcomplete because we haven't
necessarily been to everyone Atthe end of the show we will re,
(03:39):
we'll go over all of thedifferent character dining ones
that our own property thatdidn't make the list as well as
mentioned out of the list, therewas only one Charact, one
restaurant we had never been toand one other that we had not
experienced character dining at.
So we have been to quite a fewof them and we're gonna get
started with one that, I don'tknow, we had just never been to
(04:00):
this restaurant.
And then suddenly, probably fouror five years ago we went for
the first time and I went withmy, My Good friend and we've
just seemed to go on multipletrips.
And that's Chip and Dale'sHarvest Feast at the Garden
Grill in Epco.
And that's a, if you're, it's inthe land, it's a rotating
restaurant so you see thedifferent parts of the ride
(04:22):
where it goes into the differentum, settings within if you're,
as you're taking the boat ridebut you're the, the restaurant
is rotating and this one's funbecause Mickey and Friends, well
Mickey, they come out in theirfarmer overalls and things and
it's just been a lot of fun andI've really enjoyed Garden
(04:43):
Grill.
Oh yeah, I like it.
Now this meal is prettystraightforward.
It's very close to what you getover at Magic Kingdom.
If you were to go to LibertyTree Tavern, we went there um,
in May, I think it was at the,at the end of our trip for our
daughter's birthday.
And aside from the dessert, themeals are very similar so you
(05:07):
get a salad, which Chris and Ireally like the salad and we
wanted the salad dressing recipelast year when we were there and
they said they don't give thoseout anymore.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah, so they have, you don'tjust get salad, you get mashed
potatoes, Turkey, um, grilledbeef with chi chewy sauce.
You also get um, stuffing, theybrought out macaroni and cheese.
(05:28):
I'm trying to think what othersorts of things.
The dessert is a berryshortcake, which is really good.
I don't like blueberries but Iwas able to pick those out and I
still enjoyed it cuz I like theother berries that are in it.
You have Chip and Dale, Plutoand Mickey and they're in their
farmer overalls and every timethat I just feel like you get,
you don't feel as rushed here asyou do at some of the other
(05:49):
character.
Correct.
And they are.
So we've done it with justadults.
We've done it with just Chrisand I, I've done it with just my
friends.
We did it with our daughter whenwe were there earlier this year.
And it's just a greatexperience.
It's nice that they have it forlunch and dinner.
They also do, if you're therefor at any of the times of
(06:11):
special like where you do thepackages for seating, for
concerts or for the candlelightprofessional, they'll usually do
the dining packages, which isnice.
So you could do a lunch thereand that way you're in the front
part of the park in future worldand you can have that package
and still get that seating foran evening show as you're back
(06:32):
in the world showcase overall,I've never had a bad meal here.
I mean it's pretty standardfood.
I mean it's pretty Americanstyle food.
Yes.
And the good thing is I have afriend who has a lot of
allergies and needs to glutenand other things as well and
tree nuts and different thingsand she always loves the food
(06:52):
too because they do a great jobwith allergies there.
Not that anywhere in Disneydoesn't do that, but really good
American faire and it's nicethat it's in the park.
It's a good respite if it's hotout.
It's just a nice relaxing placeto visit.
The second one on our list isTopo Line's terrace, the flavors
of the Riviera at, of course theRiviera Resort.
(07:14):
This character dining is only inthe morning and it's been fun
because I like Mickey andfriends are kind of, they're
dressed as artists and it's afun character experience and
they look like um, they're soMickey's a painter.
MI is a poet, Donald is asculptor and Daisy is a dancer.
(07:34):
And I didn't realize all ofthose nuances with their passion
.
Passion.
I did not.
And what's ironic is ourdaughter has really liked Daisy
a lot and she loves to dance andwe have videos of her dancing
with Daisy so it makes sense.
Daisy's the dancer makes a lotof sense.
Even though it's a restaurantthat's always packed in terms of
getting reservations and thingslike that.
(07:56):
I've never felt rushed.
We've eaten there twice now.
We've eaten there with ourfamily, with our daughter and
we've ate there with our goodfriend Shane and Charlie.
And when it was adults we didn'tfeel rushed when we had our
little one, we didn't feelrushed.
And we've been there duringCovid when you had the modified
experiences as well as when wewere there in May you were able
(08:16):
to have a standard experience.
It's really cool because you cango out on the terrace and you
can get photos and you can seeEpcot and you can see Hollywood
studios.
They do have a prefixed menu sothey bring out pastries and then
you get of course whateverbeverage you'd like and then
they have entrees and you canpick what you'd like.
The secret is that you order oneentree but you can ask for other
(08:41):
ones as well.
So what they'll do is they'llbring you a little bit of a
smaller option.
So they have everything fromlike a sausage hash, they have
steak, they have salmon, thewaffles or a sour cream waffle,
which I enjoyed those a lot.
They had a really cute optionfor kids is it's a Mickey Waffle
and it has the different dippingsauces.
(09:02):
So chocolate and differentthings like that.
We did that for our daughter.
The potatoes and the granola andthe fruit cups and all of the
sides are very good.
I will say that it is nicebecause they just, overall it's
neat to go to that resort to goupstairs and to experience it.
It's not a buffet, whichdepending on if you prefer a
(09:24):
buffet you can eat all you wanthere but it is a little bit more
spaced out.
What did you think about thefood at to Belina?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Oh it was very good.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
And I think did you likeordering versus having the
buffet at some of the otherones?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, with the ordering was nice.
Yeah, I mean it was everything.
You got what you wanted.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah,
specialty coffees and differentthings like that.
Cause I know our friend orderedsome of those when we were there
this last time.
Here's a tip, it's very hard toget a reservation there.
So what we've been successfulwith, as you know, you can start
booking for the first day ofyour reservation at Disney.
So what we have done is I try toget it towards the end of our
(10:04):
trip.
So if you're taking a seven daytrip, you can start booking for
day one all the way through theend of your trip.
So you're not competing with asmany people if you try to get
day seven.
We've also done this on the daythat we've been leaving, which
has been nice.
It's kind of a nice way to endthe trip and overall it's a
great experience.
You can drive there.
We've driven there with ourrental car last time.
(10:26):
We've also taken the skylinerand then you can take the
Skyliner right onto Epcot or toHollywood Studios, which is
nice.
So really it's, it's a greatexperience overall and if you
don't have a park ticket for aday, that's even a great one to
go to and enjoy cuz the next twothat we're gonna talk about are
back in the parks, just likeGarden Grill but they're at
different ones.
(10:47):
The next one is Tusker HouseRestaurant Animal Kingdom.
And this is in Harambe Villagein the Africa part of the park.
And one nice thing is thatstarting November 1st, so as
this episode's coming outthey're gonna go back to the
buffet style dining, which wehave not been there when they
(11:07):
switched to Family style.
But they are going back tobuffet in, we've talked about
pretty standard fair so far atGarden Grill Topos is pretty
straightforward, breakfast fair,but this is a lot of unique
flavors they have.
We've not been for breakfast, Iwill say that so I can't talk
speak to breakfast.
(11:28):
But we've done lunch and dinnerand they have things like green
curry shrimp, they have um,marinated pork, they have a lot
of African inspired salads,Jasmine rice curry, they have
Moroccan spice beef.
I just found that everything wasvery good.
They have cute little animalmini desserts.
So what do you think about theirflavors?
(11:49):
I know you like some more uniqueentrees and things.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well you know know it's just something you don't
get all the time and so it's areal treat to be in the efca
section and then be a tuskerhouse and have something a
little different.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so even Ann don't be hesitant if you don't
have a a pallet that likesdifferent flavors.
There are some standard thingslike they have house made
macaroni and cheese and thingslike that that you'll be able to
find something even if you havesome pickier eaters in your
group.
But if you don't you'll have alot of new things to try.
As I mentioned, we haven't beento the breakfast but the
(12:23):
breakfast is similar to some ofthe other ones.
They bring a basket of pastriesthat has um, some unique mix of
breads.
Also cornbread, which I likecornbread a lot so it'd be nice
to try.
And then they bring out aplatter that has scrambled eggs.
A fun thing.
Okay they have Mickey waffles.
Yes.
Who would you guess, what do youthink is another character that
they offer as waffles in themorning?
(12:44):
It's in, it's in Animal Kingdom,
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Lilo and Stitch.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
That's a good guess but they offer Simba from Lion
King.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
So and then they have Durbanchicken, egg curry and then they
have bacon and sausage andpotatoes and that sort of thing.
But again, it's a greatopportunity.
You can get into the back, youcan head straight to the safari
when you get done or rightbefore your reservation.
So overall we add car or Tuskerhouse high on our list.
(13:13):
The food's great.
We've also been where you goright between like when lunch is
ending and dinner is starting orright when dinner's starting and
we were there one year for uh,relative's birthday and it was
super fun.
They brought out all of thecharacters at once and let us
get a group shot.
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I sure do.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah.
And so the characters justseemed to be, we have some
really great pictures of ourdaughter with the characters
there.
We haven't been there sinceCovid but we were there in
March, 2020 right before theparks closed.
And just some fun characters,good interactions there and
that's really what I think how Ipicked our ratings.
I picked our ratings based oncharacter interactions, not
(13:51):
necessarily on what specificcharacters were
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There.
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So next one as I say that the next one's a little bit
different but is Crystal Palaceover at Magic Kingdom and this
has all of our friends from thehundred Acre Woods.
So you have Tigger, your pigletand poo and the nice thing is
that the characters havereturned, which they had been
gone for a while.
We were there for the 50thanniversary last year and
(14:21):
remember there was no charactersyet.
No, yeah.
So now they're back, they havelunch and dinner, they haven't
brought breakfast there but theyhave a good variety.
They have fried chicken whichwas tasty prime rib.
Um, they have sugar glazed porktops, catfish, shrimp, they have
a lot of great um, side dishes.
(14:45):
The desserts are kind of run themill.
Years ago they used to have acarrot cake that I love there
but now kinda have thosestandard small desserts.
But I find that even thoughyou're at Magic Kingdom and you
are really in the busy park,I've never felt rushed there.
We were there for our vowrenewal with a group of I think
30 people and they took theirtime.
(15:07):
I didn't feel like we wererushed with the characters at
all.
How, what do
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You think?
No, I think they really alloweach family enough time to take
photos and interact and it'snever rushed.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
No.
And the one thing that people dowarn about is be mindful of the
times for the parades andnighttime shows and fireworks
and that sort of thing.
Cuz if you're getting out atcertain times it can be hard to
get in and out of thatrestaurant cuz of its location
close to the hub.
So keep that in mind.
Now our last pick for our topfive is one that's temporarily
(15:39):
closed and my fingers arecrossed.
Uh, hoping that because Disneyhas been opening a lot more of
these experiences and bringinglot more dining back, that this
one will come back and maybe I'mprejudice cuz now we have DVC at
this resort.
Um, but is 1900 Park Fair at theGraham Floridian?
And this one is fun because atdifferent times of day there's a
(16:01):
little bit of a differentexperience.
We've been there for thebreakfast and for the dinner.
So you might wonder what doesthat mean?
Well there's actually differentcharacters.
So in the morning there's aSupercalifragilistic breakfast
which has, I'm not a bigbreakfast person.
My dad and Chris like breakfasta lot.
But one nice thing is besidesyour standard buffet Fair, they
(16:24):
have made to order omelets andcarved ham and in the morning
you have Mary Poppins, AllisonWonderland, the Mad Hatter in
Tigar in winning the Poo.
And I think that's fun.
We, we've got some greatpictures of Chris with a Mad
Hatter.
I'm gonna have to dig those
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Out.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
So that's always a fun experience.
And then in the afternoon, whichthis is fun, when this comes
back I think I will definitelyadd this to the list of
something for our daughter todo.
They have a Wonderland tea partyso the restaurant is closed for
lunch.
So this is one of those specialvenue or special events that you
do and the kids get tea andcupcakes that they decorate and
(17:06):
during that they have Alice andMatt Hatter and they come and do
crafts and stories and if Iremember correctly they get some
special gifts.
Reminds me of how we did theroyalty uh, recently on the
cruise line when we went toAlaska.
So I think it would, it's a funexperience that most kids would
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Oh definitely.
I think it's just one of thosethings just, it's great cuz you
get to see the kids engage andthe parents and then the other
family members.
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yes.
So that's a great thing that Iwould love to try out when they
bring that back.
And then for dinner we just, wedid do this in 2020 in March.
So it was right before the therestaurant closed but they have
a Cinderella's happily everafter dinner.
(17:52):
And of course the honor guest isCinderella and Prince Charming.
But I thought what was super funis they had Lady Tremaine and
Anastasia and GI so they had thestepmother and the two
stepsisters and we had a greattime with them.
Do you remember
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That?
I booed them and they booed
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Me back.
Yes, that's true.
I forgot about
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That.
I said you are mean toCinderella and they told me some
things I can't repeat on afamily friendly podcast
Speaker 1 (18:20):
bit on that one
But it was a lot of fun Andthese are ca like you don't see
Lady Tremaine out at the parks,you don't see Drella Anastasia
and they have a good mix ofinternational salads and meats
and seafood.
Lot of those standard Americanfaire as well.
But I just think it's a funthing.
(18:42):
They have the organ that turn ofthe century organ that will is
by the restaurant that they'llplay sometimes.
So the music, it was piped in,they would have a special photo
experience with Cinderellaslipper on the pillow that you
could get as you were leavingthe restaurant.
So we've had good experiencesthere.
I've eaten there with atbreakfast and at dinner I've
(19:05):
eaten there with family, withfriends and with little ones and
just with adults and it's been agreat experience.
So fingers crossed, knock onwood that this one comes back
soon.
And speaking of that, one thingthat is important to note in
terms of the character diningexperiences, these are more
(19:25):
expensive than what you wouldpay at a regular restaurant on
property.
But from what I've been reading,Disney has said that some of the
in park experiences withcharacters are gonna be reduced
just because of staffing andthey're gonna focus on opening
more of the character diningexperiences.
So that means really if you havelittle ones and you wanna
(19:47):
guarantee that you see certaincharacters character dining's
really where you had to go.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Exactly.
And I think and just because itseems like either the timing is
off or even if you are online,you're always maybe one family
outside of how many they allowand it's one of those things
you're gonna eat anyways.
So why not eat and see acharacter?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah and pay that little extra.
To me it's worth it.
I like paying for something thatI know I'm gonna have a strong
return in something that wewanna do.
Now there are quite a few othercharacter dining experiences
that we didn't mention.
You might wonder like well whyisn't that on their list Now
there's Hollywood and Vine atDisney's Hollywood Studios.
(20:25):
I will say I've been to thatone, The Mickey or the Mini and
Friends, they, it's super cutein the evenings like for lunch
and dinner many and friends theyhave costumes related to the
time of year.
So I've been there for springand during the fall and they
have like Halloween costumes inthe morning for breakfast.
(20:46):
It's Disney Junior characters.
But the food always falls shortto me.
I mean our daughter wouldprobably love the Disney Junior
but the food is just never greatthere at Hollywood and Vine.
I don't even think you've been,I've been with my parents.
I don't think so.
Yeah, the food's so bad.
I haven't even taken Chris
So I've been with my parents andwith friends and I like the
characters.
(21:06):
It just the, the cost is hard tojustify.
There's also Ohana at thePolynesian in the morning you
have Mickey and Stitch and Liloand usually there's a few other
characters.
It's pretty standard fair, it'sserved family style.
Nothing about the food sticksout to me.
But if you really love Lilo andStitch, this is where you know
(21:29):
you're gonna get them.
I ha that's when I've been, I'vebeen with a friend who loves
them, who loves Stitch.
So we've gone to that Ma somepeople may wonder why we didn't
say about the Royal Banquet Hallin Norway.
Actress Royal Banquet Hall andthis is coming back in November.
So actually a week after thispodcast comes out it will be
(21:50):
open for lunch and dinner and Iwill say we took our daughter
there in March, 2020 and it wasgood.
I mean you saw the theprincesses but I didn't feel
like the interactions were as asmeaningful.
Would that be the right word?
Yes, that's a very good way toput it.
I just felt like there was kindof a standard line of like, okay
(22:12):
we're gonna come, you each getyour picture, we move on.
No fault to their own.
I think there's just such a highvolume of people that come
through there.
They did do like a princessparade and our daughter did that
and she was excited to see thecharacters but I could just
dramatically notice thedifference from other character
meals we had that week.
(22:32):
Let's talk about a few more.
I just wanna quickly,Cinderella's Royal table at
Magic Kingdom right now you'renot seeing all the princesses
for the longest time you couldsee a lot of the princesses
during the meal, which I wouldlike to experience that because
we went there several times justfor like special occasions and
that was when it was just thefairy godmother and um,
(22:55):
Cinderella and some of thosecharacters right before Covid
when they had it, there was moreprincesses.
Right now you can only meetCinderella and get a photo and
the cost of this is so highunless you, especially right now
without all the addedcharacters, I just can't justify
saying to go there.
Um, storybook dining at ArtistPoint with Snow White at
(23:17):
Wilderness Lodge, we've beenthere.
We enjoyed the food.
I thought we had goodinteractions with Snow White and
with some of the dwarfs and um,the Evil Queen.
There's just nothing for us thatstood out extremely well from
there.
But I think it's a great option,especially if you're staying at
Wilderness Lodge or somewherenear there.
(23:37):
Um, Chef Mickey's at theContemporary, we went there for
our daughter's birthday and Ijust, the family style food is
not great there right now.
The it's a weird mix of
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Food.
Yes.
Very weird
Speaker 1 (23:48):
So the characters werewonderful.
I will highly, I will applaudthe characters.
It was our daughter's birthday,they were awesome.
I mean it was actually on herbirthday and we have so many
cute pictures of her but food isimportant to us and the food
just really didn't hit the mark.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Correct.
It's just, you know, we'll haveto try it again to see if
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's better they bring a buffet back.
That would be nice.
Yes, exactly.
Um, and I'm not one to say bringa buffet back but there are
options at the buffet.
Were much better.
I am excited.
This one I haven't been to andprobably I'm gonna age myself 20
years, um, but at Kate May Cafeat the Beach Club, they have a
breakfast and we'll be goingthere on this trip.
It's great if you're planning togo into Epcot cuz you're right
(24:33):
there you can walk over.
Um, it's Mini and Mickey andthem and their beach outfits.
I was trying to think there'sChip and Dale as well.
The fairs, this food fair ispretty standard breakfast but
I'm hoping this might get addedto our list of favorites.
We're gonna be going there cuzwe're gonna go for a half day at
Upco before we leave that day.
And so I'm excited to try thatout.
(24:54):
Here's one that we have not,this is the only character
dining that I've not tried.
It's, I've not even tried therestaurant.
It's the, at it's Bon VoyageAdventure breakfast at tutorial
A at the boardwalk and right nowthe restaurant is open but the
character dining is istemporarily unavailable.
It has Rapunzel and Flynn andAriel and Prince Eric and I
(25:19):
think it would be fun.
Our daughter is into all ofthose characters right now but
unfortunately the characterdining hasn't happened and we've
not eaten there so I can't talkto that.
And then finally there's a goodmorning breakfast with Goofy and
Pals at the Four Seasons.
We've eaten breakfast at thefour season.
Their food is awesome.
So I will say kudos to them.
We've not done the characterdining experience there but this
(25:41):
gives you a lot of differentoptions.
These again are just our topfive because of what we've, our
personal preferences.
I did rank more I think unusualfood items as well as character
interactions.
Those were kind of what I, how Iranked my five.
Did you agree with what I put onthe list for us?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Oh definitely.
I think, you know, there's justso many great options and you
know Vanessa, she does a greatjob at finding where to go, when
to eat and you know, being ableto have that best experience.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So hopefully you can figure out what's best for your
family and add lots of memoriesreally you can't go wrong with
character dining at Disney.
You're gonna get those greatpictures and you're guaranteed
to see the character.
So what could be better thanthat?
Now we are going to take sometime and you're gonna hear from
Bee and hear all about herawesome business, Charmed and
(26:30):
Cozy.
We're looking forward to sharingwith you all about it.
We would like to welcome Bee tothe show.
Her shop Charmed and Cozy offersall kinds of great Disney
apparel and accessories.
She is a fourth generationDisney fan.
Her shop has been open for sixyears and they originally
started with Disney bounding andthen have kind of expanded from
(26:50):
there.
A big part of their shop rightnow is their pin club as well,
which we'll talk about some funthings outside of her love for
Disney.
She trains as a circus artistand does volunteer work with
American Sign Language and she'straveled all over.
She's been to six countries inEurope and Asia.
So welcome bee to the show.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Hi, thanks for having me.
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Now we always start off with a icebreaker to learn a
little bit more about what youenjoy at the parks and so we've
been asking people lately whatis your favorite snack at any of
the Disney parks?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Well you can be a good dull whip in any of the
flavors but lately uh, I thinkit just came out this year, my
favorite snack has been thes'mores cereal treat from the
bakery on Main Street.
It is just, there's somethingabout it that's just one of my
favorite snacks that you can getand I cannot pass by Main Street
(27:48):
without grabbing one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know what, that came out since our last trip so
I definitely have to add that tomy list of treats to try cuz
that sounds right up my alleyfor sure.
Now we wanna hear all about yourbusiness.
So you, if you could tell usabout your business and what
products you offer connected toDisney.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Pretty much every single thing we offer is
connected to Disney right now.
We do pins, patches, stickers.
We have a special limitedcollection of enamel jewelry as
well.
We do some stationary washytapes and memo books.
One of our newest things that weare super excited for is we are
(28:31):
getting into designer bags.
Ooh.
So our first round of those isour Spaceship Earth bag.
That one is hopefully arrivingsuper soon and going out to all
of our Kickstarter supporters.
Um, and you guys are the firstto hear this, but our second
design is actually currently inproduction and will be
(28:51):
announcing very soon as well.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
How exciting.
And we got married Atco, so Ilove anything with Epcot so I'll
definitely have to check out theSpaceship Earth design for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, that one has been so much fun to work on and
it definitely sparked the desireto make a lot more, which we are
in the process of doing
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Now.
You just mentioned sparkingdesire.
What was the spark ofinspiration for you to start
your business?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That is such a long, convoluted story in some ways,
but the short of it is I havealways been a crafter my entire
life.
I've never been able to turndown starting a new hobby and
eventually I was about 18 andone of my friends convinced me
that setting up an Etsy shop wasnot as scary as I thought it
(29:41):
was.
Um, she helped me sit down andlike get everything set up and
originally it was just to recoupmy hobby costs.
I loved to crochet, I loved tomake things out of polymer clay.
So I started that just to try tomake that some of my costs and
pretty soon it spiraled andeventually I decided to make my
(30:05):
first enamel pin and six yearslater here we are
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now you've mentioned some of your bags as well as
like the different types ofproducts you make, but what are
some of your favorite ones?
Like maybe one of your favoritepins, your favorite patch, what
are some of your favoritedesigns you have?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Oh right now I would have to say probably our orange
bird design.
That's one of our newer ones andit was an instant hit and I was
so glad it was because it was adesign that I absolutely fell in
love with from the verybeginning.
Um, so it's been really nice tosee other people enjoying that
one.
But we have that in in prettymuch everything.
(30:45):
We have it as a pin, a sticker,a patch.
We just got it made as a keychain and I have all of those
items all over everything I own
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I will have to check that out cuz my mom loves orange
birds.
So I think that gives me somegood ideas for Christmas for
sure.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, I did not realize the fandom that Orange
Bird had behind him until Istarted making products with him
on it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Well me too because I love figment so I've always been
a part of that world but sincemy mom has started liking the
orange bird stuff, I didn'trealize there was so much out
there.
Like you said, it's just neat tosee.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.
And now that you said figment,I'm so glad that there's a lot
of figment merch out there toocuz he's also one of my
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Favorites.
For sure.
For sure.
Now you've touched on this alittle bit, but how do you think
your products add Disney Magicto your customers lives?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Actually from the very beginning of Charmed and
Cozy, like since day one, thathas actually been the goal of
our shop.
Um, when I did first start outand it was handmade products,
all of my items were more Disneybound.
So I would make typical, like Imade floral jewelry, I made
scarves, different things, buteverything was in color schemes
(31:59):
of Disney characters I've alwaysloved including a little bit of
Disney magic in everyday life.
And so that's where Charm andCozy originated from was a
desire to make that available toeveryone else.
And so we've continued with thatgoal all six years of our shop,
of just finding ways to bring alittle bit of subtle Disney
(32:22):
magic to the every day.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Now with all of your great products, let's say I was
wanting to order something foran upcoming trip or we're not
too far from the holidays, whatis your turnaround time and how
early should I order?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Right now our turnaround time is less than two
weeks.
We try to keep it down to lessthan a week, but just in case we
always have new products thatare arriving.
You know, maybe something gets alittle bit delayed in transit
arriving to us because we dopre-orders for a lot of our
items.
So generally if you can order atleast a week out from when you
(32:59):
need something.
But I am always willing ifsomebody drops me a message to
add a little bit of extra pixiedust and get it out a little
faster.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Now do you do product launches at certain times of the
year or should people just keepan eye out on your pages?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So for us, um, we do sometimes do special drops.
Um, if it's a limited editionitem, if it's a special new
collection, we will do a specialproduct drop.
Otherwise, um, I don't have aton of self-control all the
time.
So sometimes when we get newthings they will pop up on the
(33:35):
website as a surprise.
Um, but we do also have ourmailing list that you can sign
up for.
Um, the link is in our shop inour Instagram pretty much
everywhere.
Um, and with our mailing listeveryone will find out exactly
what all of the do goodies areand when they're available.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Now if you could tell us a little bit about the Pin
Club.
You talked about that before westarted your interview and we'd
love to share with our viewersabout that.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, that's one of my favorite things that we've
done.
Um, I absolutely love it.
We use Patreon for it, whichmeans it's super easy to sign up
and it's a monthly reoccurringsubscription.
You can cancel it anytime.
You can sign up and cancel thenext day if you want to.
Um, we have super low prices,you'll get a huge discount in
(34:22):
order for signing up.
Every month we make two pins.
One is limited edition and onlyavailable to our Pin Club
members.
They also get access to a secretshop which contains the past
pins for the club.
Ooh.
And then our other pin is amoving pin every month.
Leftovers of that do go into ourmain shop, but Pink Club members
(34:44):
get first ds.
You get huge discounts by goingthrough the club and with the
club we have a tendency to go alittle more niche, we'll go more
the things that maybe everyDisney fan wouldn't get the
reference.
We go to the real, the realspecific things.
And that's been the main sellingpoint of our PIN club, which has
(35:05):
been really fun.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Well and I think your li our listeners really fall
under that.
They're always looking forsomething unique and different
and I think that's what's socool about the Pin Club.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Mm-hmm
Yeah, it's been really fungetting to add in these little
like references or maybe likefor a specific defunct de or
like a little place that maybepeople don't know as much about
in general, but our PIN clubmembers definitely do and they
love it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Now with that you mentioned all these these
awesome things you do.
Where can people go online tofind out everything you do?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
We are pretty much everywhere and every single
place we are, our username isjust charmed and cozy.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,Pinterest, all of the things.
Um, it's super easy to find uscuz we manage to get the exact
same username everywhere on theinternet.
(36:02):
So that's been super helpful.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Awesome.
And we will make sure to put thelinks to all of your socials on
the show notes as well as sharethrough our different posts.
So thank you so much be forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
This has been so much fun.
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Thank you again to be for joining us today
Speaker 1 (36:20):
And now we are onto our two minute trivia and our
wisdom from Walt quote.
And Chris, you are up withtrivia.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
So we talked a lot about characters and I tried to
find something that was Disneycharacter, dining related.
A little tough.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That would be
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Tough.
But this is a true or false.
True or false.
Dumbo is a character that youcan meet in the park.
False.
That is correct.
Dumbo has not been availableaccording to the internet since
the 1970s.
Oh
Speaker 1 (36:53):
The, you used to be able to meet Dumbo.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
In the 1970s.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah.
So before we were born even.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I wonder if they would bring characters like Kim
because especially now they haveBay Max where they had the big
blow up outfit.
You would think that they coulddo a Dumbo.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yes.
You would think.
I mean, Correct.
There's just a lot ofopportunities and even if it was
Dark Wing Duck and Roger, right?
Like I, I mean I know some ofthis stuff is just old IP that's
just not there, but you wouldfigure with Disney plus and just
some of this stuff.
But again, like even like theretro things, like I if it was
like a$20 Roger Rabbit me like Ithink just for how unique it is,
(37:32):
I would go to see that
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And I think that's why you get people striving to
go on the cruises or go to theafter hours, like the Halloween
party in the Christmas partywhen they have those extra
characters because they justdon't bring those out on a
regular basis, that's for sure.
Now we are gonna end with, Ithought this was kind of a fun,
interesting quote because justtalks about really as we're
(37:56):
looking at the reopening of moreand more things at the park,
it's just exciting to see that.
I remember when the parks wereclosing and we were there in
March, 2020.
You didn't really know what wasgonna happen.
We didn't know if that would beour last time at Disney.
Yes.
And this is kind of a pointabout how Disney's been
successful and how they justreally didn't know what would
(38:17):
happen when they opened.
We did it Disneyland and theknowledge that most of the
people I talked to thought itwould be a financial disaster
closed and forgotten within thefirst year.
Well look at where Walt's legacyhas gone.
I'm sure all those naysayersthat thought Disneyland would
close in a year would be amazedto see what has happened in the
(38:39):
legacy that's been built.
So thank you so much for joiningus on this episode of The Love
Podcast with Vanessa and Chris.
I'm Vanessa.
And
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I'm Chris.
This podcast is not affiliatedwith the Walt Disney Company or
its holdings and it is intendedfor entertainment purposes only.
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