Unlock the secrets to a magical Disney experience with our latest episode featuring Kelly and Rick, the masterminds behind the innovative Mouse Life app. Get ready to discover how their app transforms your Disney journey with creative challenges, wait time tracking, and community insights.
If you're planning a Disney resort stay, let us guide you through an array of delectable dining and exhilarating activities. From monorail bar hopping to adventurous dining at Disney Springs, the possibilities are endless. Learn about resort offerings like parasailing, horseback riding, and unique keepsakes such as custom painted crystal cups. We'll share personal stories about our own Disney adventures, including beloved staycations at the Wilderness Lodge and the luxurious appeal of the Grand Floridian.
For those looking to make their Disney trip truly unforgettable, Kelly and Rick's insights into the Mouse Life app are indispensable. Discover how it enhances your experience through features like note-taking, photo uploads, and tracking favorite attractions. Embrace the challenge of Disney-themed tasks and dig into special sections on festivals and food offerings. This episode promises to inspire your next adventure, celebrating the joy and individuality that make every Disney visit a cherished memory.
- Mouse Life App Instagram
- Mouse Life App TikTok
- Mouse Life App on X
- DisLove Episode 143: Classes Outside the Parks
- DisLove Episode 133: Activities at Fort Wilderness
High quality, clean baby gear delivered right to your resort while on your Disney Vacation.
Use the code "dislove10" to save 10%!
Where In the Park game packs are fun & challenging for anyone who knows the parks and for newbies.
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For all the latest news about our episodes follow us on Instagram @dislovewithvanessaandkris or on YouTube.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to the Diz Love Podcast with Vanessa and
Chris.
I'm Vanessa Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And I'm Chris Johns.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We would like to welcome you to show number 155.
And for any listeners joiningus for the first time, our show
features things we love atDisney and in each episode we
have a guest who creates Disneymagic for our listeners at home
or on their Disney vacation.
From vacation planners toproduct producers, our guests
can bring Disney magic into yourlife.
And as a reminder to ourlisteners, we appreciate if you
(00:55):
take time to leave us a reviewon Apple Podcasts or any other
platform where you listen.
We always like to give listenershout outs on future episodes
and, of course, it helps theaudience grow.
And before we get started withour regular show, Chris, we have
a message from our friendsKevin and Amanda.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, kevin and Amanda want you to have more fun the
next time you visit Disney orone of the major parks.
What they do is they have aservice called when in the Park
and they make scavenger huntgame packs, and what's awesome
is that it's a great challengefor people who are new to the
park, as well as those who'vebeen there many times, and I
know for Vanessa and I.
We've been there so many times.
We've walked past the littlethings that you might just not
(01:31):
notice, and what's great aboutwearing the park is that it
gives you a reason to noticeevery little detail that
Disney's awesome aboutpresenting.
And so not only do they haveDisney, but they also have
Universal Parks, and coming soonincludes Dollywood and King's
Dominion.
Where is King's Dominion,vanessa?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's actually in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We have some family that go to it Awesome, and so
yes again.
So the next time you go to thepark, if you're standing in line
, get out the scavenger huntpacks and find something awesome
to do, and use the codeDISLOVE10, d-i-s-l-o-v-e-1-0,
through the link in our shownotes to save 10% off your next
order.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Thank you so much, chris.
And on today's show we will bejoined by Kelly and Rick.
They are creators of anothergreat fun thing to do when
you're at the parks.
They're the creators of theMouse Life app and we are so
excited to have them on the show.
And we are so excited to havethem on the show.
Now, before we hear about allthe awesome things you can do
with the Mouse Life app, we'regoing to dive into some of the
(02:29):
fun things you can do for astaycation I don't know if
that's the right term to use,but I'm using the term
staycation at a resort ratherthan going to the parks.
What do you think?
Is that an okay term?
Yes, it is Okay.
So the great thing number onewhen we talk to Kelly and Rick
later, you'll see they have somecool challenges that you could
(02:50):
do in the app.
That would help you generatesome ideas to do and hopefully,
with the show, you can have alot of fun.
We're going to talk about someof the entertainment that's
available outside the parks,some of the different activities
, along with great food andcharacters, and, of course, we
always will like to be able toshare some of our experiences
(03:11):
that we've had doing some ofthese as well.
So let's get started, and firstwe're going to talk about
entertainment.
Now, I think most people, whenthey think of entertainment and
they go to Disney World, theyassume they have to go to the
parks.
Yes, now the great thing is itmight not be the same caliber
(03:32):
entertainment that is at theparks, but there's lots of great
things that you can do that areeither.
There's some that are no cost,aside from getting to wherever
you want to go.
So, first off, at Disney Springsthere is lots of live music.
You can catch live music downcloser by the World of Disney.
We've gone and listened todifferent groups.
(03:53):
Sometimes there's like schoolgroups, but sometimes on the
weekends there's likeprofessional local bands that
are there, which is a lot of fun.
Raglan Road if you have areservation to go in there, they
have great live Irish music anddance, and we've been to Raglan
Road several times.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
We sure have.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And another thing if you are a concert person, which
Chris loves concerts the Houseof Blues hosts a variety of
bands that come in for concerts.
Of course, those are going tobe ones that are going to cost a
ticket price.
But also at Disney Springs youcan go to Drawn to Life.
I've been there with a friendand there's a show that we have
(04:36):
that goes over a great review ofDrawn to Life and that's a
great.
Those are just some fun thingswith shows and music you can do
at Disney Springs.
There's also I don't know, Ithink this would be considered
entertainment too they have thetethered balloon ride.
I've heard that is so awesometo get a great view of the parks
(04:57):
and there's different or of thewhole property and there's
different discounts that you canget too, which is awesome,
which makes it a little bit moreaffordable.
Now, moving from Disney Springs,you can also head over to
Boardwalk, which is one ofChris's new favorite resort
areas.
Yes, it is so in the evening,especially in the weekends, they
(05:19):
do have some street performers,but all the time you can count
on they have dueling pianos atjelly rolls.
We went and checked that out.
We didn't actually end up goingin, but I think it was around
20 a person, so equivalent ofwhat we would have paid for
something like that at home.
And as long as there's not aspecial event there, the
atlantic dance hall is open andthat's free, like we went and
(05:41):
danced for a while.
That was fun.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
We did, we had a lot of fun, we were one of the few
people dancing.
Yes, the DJ was awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, so that's a fun thing to do, especially for
adults.
In the evening and we've hadsome of our great guests on that
can provide babysittingservices for your little ones if
you want a night out, and thenof course I think this would
count as entertainment as wellyou can watch the fireworks from
a lot of the different resortsand restaurants.
(06:10):
So if you from being on thebeach at the Polynesian or the
Marina at Grand Floridian, youcould also get a reservation at
some of the restaurants, like atthe Contemporary or the Lounge
at the Contemporary Ohana, a lotof these well Narcooses, they
pump in the music, so it adds tothat ambiance and you can see
(06:31):
the fireworks without being inthe parks.
And another added bonus on allof the monorail resorts you can
watch the Electric Light Parade,the Electric Light Pageant that
goes around on Bay Lake and iteven goes back over by Fort
Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge.
So those are some entertainmentthings.
(06:52):
And then finally, to round out,one of my favorites is Yeehaw
Bob at Port Orleans Riverside.
It's a great.
Is that a real place?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeehaw Bob.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's the guy that played piano at Port Orleans.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Oh, Yeehaw Bob, yeah, at Port Orleans.
Oh, I thought you said it was aplace.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But you remember that guy that played piano?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh, of course, yes, he's always so much fun.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes, so he, of course , had returned a while ago after
a long hiatus.
Excited for him.
That's one of our favoriteresorts.
Before we got DVC, we stayed atPort Orleans Riverside all the
time and Yeehaw Bob's great.
So it's nice because you have awide mix of different
(07:33):
entertainment options.
And then at certain times ofthe year, like we watched the
drone show at Disney Springs,that was over the summer.
They've also had a holiday onewhich has been quite a while
since they had the drone showthere, but not every
entertainment has to be in thepark, so that's something to
remember.
So, entertainment there's lotsof things that you can do even
(07:54):
if you're not at a Disney park,and I dare say there are things
outside of Disney that you coulddo as well, but we're not going
to touch on any of those.
Secondly is dining.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I will say, some of the best dining that we enjoy is
outside the parks at some ofthe resorts, definitely.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Obviously, I know one of our favorites has always
been Ohana, but if you'relooking for one of the things
that we've looked at when we'vedone vacations where we haven't
necessarily gone to the parks,especially now that we have our
daughter so we like to go tocharacter meals, and one of my
favorite character meals isoutside the park and that is
(08:33):
over at Cape May.
The breakfast is great there.
The characters take so muchextra time with people and
obviously you have yourmainstays like Chef Mickey's.
You also have the breakfastwith Mickey and Stitch over at
Ohana we also are going to betrying.
There's a character breakfaston certain days of the week at
(08:54):
the Four Seasons, so there'slots of ways to be able to see
the character.
And then, of course, 1900 ParkFair.
You can see all of thecharacters there as well.
So there's lots of greatcharacter dining options, but
just food in general.
Another great characterbreakfast that I missed was at
Topolini's Terrace.
That's a really great characterbreakfast, wonderful view.
(09:15):
Yes, great view and greatcharacters.
So of course, you have lots ofgreat regular food as well.
So, whether you want finedining at something like at
Victoria and Albert's, or evenjust a date night, like at
Narcoossee's, or family time atOhana, there are so many great
restaurants and I know you'veall heard us talk and talk and
(09:37):
talk about food.
We talk about food on prettymuch every episode, but one of
the great things is there's somany great restaurants that
aren't in the parks, which isawesome, and it doesn't always
have to be a full meal.
So if you want some of yourfavorite Disney snacks like,
let's say, you want a Dole Whipthere's Pineapple Lanai at the
Polynesian Resort.
(09:57):
You can get yourself a Dole Whipand then go sit on the beach,
also over, like at Port Orleans,at French Quarter.
They have the beignets, whichare so good and you can get
those and go and listen to.
They have jazz music that's atthe bar.
And then, of course, there'slots of special treats, so you
can do some special ice creamtreats, like at Beaches, and
(10:21):
Cream you could get the kitchensink.
Have we told our kitchen sinkstory here before?
Only about 10 times we havetold that.
Okay, so go back and listen toa previous episode.
You could get kitchen sink oryou can all get your own
individual ice cream at Beachesand Cream which is over at the
Beach Club.
Another great place to get atreat is Goofy's Candy Company
(10:41):
at Disney Springs.
We haven't done this since COVID, but remember you can get the
giant Oreos dipped in stuff andall that stuff.
So if you're at Disney Springs,go to Goofy's Candy Company and
of course there's somemainstays like Ghirardelli, also
Gideon's, but I will sayGideon's Bakehouse we always
skip this one and we go toOrlando location.
(11:03):
So if you have a car head overthere and skip the wait, I'm
hopeful for the cake bake shopthat's getting ready to open.
Obviously there's beencontroversy back and forth about
pricing, but I've heard fromfamily.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
What's the controversy?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That it's expensive, but to me everything at Disney I
mean I go and I pay it, butfood's expensive at Disney.
So they are from Indiana, theoriginal one.
I'm going to give a little sidenote.
I have family that lives nearthe original ones.
They go there for specialoccasions and enjoy it.
The ones at Disney they werepriced about 40% higher on a lot
(11:41):
of things, but they'veretracted that.
So I'm hoping I'm going to getmyself some cake when we're down
there and we'll let you knowhow that is.
But so this is just a smallsampling of all the amazing food
you can get.
There's also great lounges thatyou can go to.
There's lots of great.
We are not drinkers, butthere's lots of great bars that
(12:01):
you can go to.
I know people will do monorailhopping to the different lounges
and bars along the monorail.
You can do food court hopping.
I also saw a video last weekwhich I thought this was fun.
You could do this for food.
They did it for food, but Ithink you could do it for a
variety of things.
They were at Disney Springs andthey waited and the first bus
(12:24):
that came up they went to thatresort and had a meal.
I thought that was fun, verycool.
So lots of great options forfood.
And then now let's look a littlebit at the activities.
We've talked a lot aboutdifferent activities you could
do at the resorts, so I'll put alink to some of those shows in
the show notes.
But there's a couple of thingsthat I already kind of touched
(12:47):
on.
A few of these, like watchingthe electrical water pageant
outside one of the resorts andsitting on the beach and
watching that.
But there's lots of otherthings you can do at the resorts
as well, things you can do atthe resorts as well.
Now a ton of the resorts havewater activities and I know I've
gone parasailing with my cousinbefore.
We've done where you can rentthe pontoon boats, and actually
(13:12):
that's a great way that wedidn't mention that in
entertainment.
But you can do where you rentthe pontoon boat and see the
fireworks from Magic Kingdom,which is super cool.
You can do it.
We've done it for my aunt'sbirthday.
We did it when I graduated fromcollege.
So lots of ways to enjoy thewater.
Also, at Contemporary there'ssome other watercrafts that you
(13:33):
can rent, and even over at likePort Orleans, you can do fishing
.
There might be fishingsomewhere else, but I know for
sure you can go fishing thereand I believe also at Fort
Wilderness.
At Fort Wilderness our daughteris getting ready.
She's going to be doinghorseback riding or, well, pony
rides, but my mom and I yearsago did horseback riding there.
(13:55):
You can also rent bikes andthey have an archery thing which
I think that would be kind ofcool.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So archery and just lots of fun activities at Fort
Wilderness.
I know we've done the wholeshow about Fort Wilderness so I
will put a link in the shownotes for that as well.
And then one of the nice thingsis that, depending on where
you're staying, just using thetransportation is fun.
(14:22):
So if you're on one of theSkyliner resorts, just riding on
the Skyliner, maybe going to adifferent resort for a meal, if
you're on the monorail, takingthe monorail around and stopping
at the different resorts, andthen of course there's a lot of
activities that are at each ofthe resorts, especially some of
the value resorts like PopCentury and Art of Animation.
(14:44):
They have things like tie-dye,shirt making, movie nights under
the stars.
That's also something you cando over at Fort Wilderness.
So just lots and lots of funactivities and I think you could
fill I would dare say you couldfill a whole week up with doing
stuff just at the resorts andDisney Springs.
(15:05):
There's also some fun activitiesover at Disney Springs.
Obviously there's Splitsville,which we love Splitsville.
There's some other activitiesyou can do, like going to the
movie theater.
But then, if you want to dosomething a little more unique
at Erebus Brothers you can do acustom painted crystal cup At
(15:26):
Uniqlo.
You can do printed bags.
I just saw a video about thiswhere you can pick from all
these different screen printsand then they'll print them
right on bags and, I believe,shirts as well.
So so many fun things to do, somany.
So, chris, if you had to pickone resort for a staycation,
where would it be and why?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I would have to say the Grand Floridian.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Are you just saying that because you're a DVC owner
there?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Partly.
Well, I just also like justthere's nice places to sit.
Yes, I would love just to sit.
There's times where sitting isa real luxury, like the splash
pad area the splash pad is nice.
It's just close to the waterand then it's, of course, right
on the monorail.
So if you just want to ride themonorail, I mean that in itself
is a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And I think Grand Floridian during the holidays
would be extra special as well.
And I think Grand Floridianduring the holidays would be
extra special as well.
And as I say that we have astaycation coming up and we
actually are not staying at theGrand Floridian, we did have our
reservation there, but we wentahead and we moved over to
Wilderness Lodge at BoulderRidge because we wanted to be
(16:40):
able to be there for some of theChristmas things as well and
some access to Fort Wildernessbecause of some of those things
that we were just talking about.
So we hope this inspires you tohave a magical vacation.
And as ticket prices go up,it's not always feasible for a
family to go down and do a fullpark days, like for us.
(17:02):
We're doing a staycation becausewe're actually going to a
college bowl game, but when wewent down for planning our vow
renewal, we didn't do the parks,and there's been a few other
trips.
We have family in that downthere.
We already don't always do theparks, but there's always
something, especially if you'rethere during the holidays or
different seasons.
There's lots of great things todo.
(17:22):
So I hope all of you can get achance to plan a little bit more
relaxed and low key, althoughwith our staycation that we have
coming up, we have the wholeday planned every day for the
entire time we're there, somaybe it's not as relaxed as
we're thinking.
We're just getting a chance todo some new things, but
(17:43):
hopefully you can do this aswell.
I'd like to say thank you toour friends at allearsnet for
some of their great ideas that Iwas able to add in with some of
the things that we haveexperienced ourselves or plan to
experience.
And before we get our call upwith Kelly and Rick, we have a
message from our friends Ericand Alexa.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yes, they want to make sure that you have one less
thing to bring on the plane.
Having toddlers or a baby evenrequires a lot of equipment
strollers, car seats and evenmore.
The great thing about Eric andAlexa is that they are
independent baby equip providers.
What that means is that theyhave access to brand new
equipment that you can use foryour baby and toddler.
We've used them numerous timesfor Karis and getting strollers.
(18:24):
The great thing about them isthat they're in Orlando, they
have awesome customer serviceand almost everything they give
they provide to you is neareither brand new or near new,
and so it's one of those thingswhere you're going to get a
stroller that will glide easilythrough the park.
And again, that's Eric andAlexa with Baby Quip.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And we have a link right to their website in our
show notes, so definitely checkthem out.
So give us just a second and weare going to get our call up
with Kelly and Rick.
We'd like to welcome Kelly andRick to the show.
Their app, mouse Life, wascreated to really make sure that
(19:04):
anyone was not going to missout on any magic of Disney when
they were on their trips.
So it's great because it hasall kinds of fun little
challenges that you can do.
You can track all the sorts ofthings that you've done at any
of the parks and the resorts andthe restaurants, which is super
cool.
We've had a chance to playaround with it and I know we've
really enjoyed it and I know allof you will enjoy it as well.
(19:26):
So we'd like to welcome Kellyand Rick to the show.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Thank you.
Now.
We always start off by askingsome things that people enjoy
about traveling to the parks,and lately we've been asking
people is your favorite event atany disney park?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
that's a tough one, I think.
For me it's uh, it's probablyfestival holidays.
I I love the decorations andit's just really cool to kind of
see all that up and it's a nicetime of year where it's not so
hot.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
But similarly mine is a festival of the arts.
I just love walking around tosee all the great art they have
and they still have all thegreat food booths available
without the Florida heat.
So that is my favorite time ofyear to visit and visit that
event.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh, for sure, and we had a chance.
We were actually there thefirst year.
They had the festival of thearts and that was so neat to see
, and it's cool to see how muchthey've been able to add since
they started.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, it's really growing every year.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Now I was able to share a little bit, but we'd
love to hear more about the appand what is the different
services that kind of areoffered through it and what
you're able to track connectedto Disney kind of are offered
through it and what you're ableto track connected to Disney.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, so the app is really an extension of the whole
Disney user experience.
We wanted something like youhad said earlier to enhance that
magic of the visit.
So it allows the visitors toeasily see all that Disney has
to offer.
It'll list out every attraction, dining option, character meets
(21:04):
in great great spots and alsothe entertainment offerings to
the parks.
So you go in and you can selecta park, one of the resorts or
disney springs, and it quicklypulls up a list of everything
they have to offer and fromthere you can filter down to
those different categories forattraction, entertainment,
dining or characters.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
So, and once you drill down into kind of each of
those areas, you can look atdetails.
You can pull up a map withwalking distance.
We have wait times in there forthe rides, menu links for all
the restaurants.
You can do community.
You can see community ratings.
You can you know rateattractions and those things
(21:43):
yourself.
There's also a spot for you totake notes, which was really
important when you want to goback and kind of see oh, this is
what we loved about it.
Or you know, these are somethings we didn't like,
especially if you have kids likewhere did they like chicken
fingers the best?
So you can kind of keep allthat stuff.
Um, you know, you can keeptrack of all those things in
(22:03):
there and then, um, in a lot ofthe uh pieces, depending on
where you are within the app, uh, on some of the attractions we
have like cute unique triviastuff that, uh, people may not
know about.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So it gives people something to do when they're in
line too and in addition totracking those lifetime
completions, you can also createa trip and from there you can
add the dates and a name for thetrip and then check off exactly
what you did on that particulartrip and then you can upload a
few photos of it and generate atrip recap and then you can just
(22:38):
post that to social media, sendit to your grandparents.
That might not be on socialmedia, whichever way you want to
share.
You know everything.
You did that on that visit, um,and it's really great to be
able to go back and see what youdid on that past trip.
I talking with some of ourfriends, that was a big
highlight for them to be able tojust remember what they had
(22:59):
done, um, you know, in the pastyears, because we are those
Disney adults that kind of goyou know multiple times a year
and they kind of all runtogether at this point.
Another one of my favoritesections is the Food and Wine
Festival, e-passport and Disneygives out little books that have
all the Disney food boothofferings, that list all the
(23:19):
food options and beverageoptions, but we really wanted a
way to capture it on our phone,so this lets you see all the
booths and what they're offering, with price and food details,
and then check off what you'vetried and then create a trip
recap of that as well, to see ona map all the booths you've
stopped at.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Just as important are the drinks.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
That's wonderful.
Now, what was your inspiration?
To take all of the things thatyou wanted to do and put it into
an app.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So, as Kelly said, we've always been kind of a huge
Disney family.
So we have five kids between usand you know they all love
Disney.
But we also get to sneak awayon adult trips a couple of times
a year, which is which isalways fun.
We thought we had done almosteverything in Disney, but over
the past few years, if you lookat social media growth and just
(24:15):
some of the things that we'vestarted to to do, looking at
some of the different Facebookgroups and and some of the other
things that come up on TikTok,we realized that there are a lot
of things we haven't done yet.
So Kelly started trying to keepa list on her phone.
That got pretty long,especially when she tried to
make a list of all the bars anddrinks, things like that.
(24:37):
Once we joined Disney DayDrinkers, we just realized it
was a lot bigger job than whatwe could do in notes.
So we started looking for appsthat would help us kind of track
that, but there really wasn'tanything out there that did what
we wanted as Disney fans.
So we started to lay it out onpaper, talk to some friends,
(24:59):
talk to our kids, and then youknow, the more we talked about
it, the more we really felt likethis could fill a gap in that
Disney experience.
And once we wrote it all down,we got super excited about the
concept and just decided we weregoing to go develop it eric got
to work, wireframing it andstarted out with, you know, with
(25:21):
just that concept of trackingeverything you can do at disney.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I mean, I designed the database for it and it just
grew from there and, you know,for months we'd sit around the
dinner table every night withthe kids and talk about it and
they were so excited to givetheir ideas and opinions and it
really expanded on that initialconcept and it went from a list
based system into really a fullblown app.
It's something that you can usefor your entire visit to Disney
(25:46):
World, not just, you know, justretracking, checking off things
, but, you know, reallyenhancing that experience and
pushing you to do more.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Now that kind of adds to our next question, which is
how do you think that well, inthis case, your app adds some
Disney magic to your customers'lives?
I know you've touched on a fewthings, but maybe highlight some
of your favorites.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, I think it's.
I think one of my favorites isthat it makes it so easy to see
what's available in each ofthose categories of the parks,
resorts and Disney Springs.
And then checking them off andbeing able to share that on
social media is a huge, huge win, I think it's.
It's always fun to share yourhighlights from your trips.
And then one other fun piecethat we have in there are Disney
(26:31):
themed challenges you cancomplete and then you earn
digital pins and it goes onto adigital lanyard.
So, for example, one of them isto get a popcorn bucket in one
park and fill it up in the otherthree parks.
Or to get a Dole Whip in fourdifferent locations of Animal
Kingdom, magic Kingdom,polynesian and Disney Springs
Animal Kingdom, magic Kingdom,polynesian and Disney Springs.
(26:51):
So it's fun to check those offand then you get some fireworks
in the app and then it puts thepin in your lanyard.
So that's a fun way to kind ofpush you to do something new for
people who've been to the parksa lot and are just looking to
have a new experience.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, and I really like adding to that is that
there's things in there, biggerthings, like the four-part
challenge, which we've done, butsome of those might not be
realistic for maybe, a familywith little ones, but I like how
you mentioned, like you havethe popcorn one and Dole Whip
and things that are manageable.
So it gives you a chance.
Even if you can't do some ofthose bigger bucket list things,
(27:29):
you can still do some funchallenges that you might not
have thought of before, which Ithought was really creative.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Thanks.
I think one of the other thingsthat we thought was a lot of
fun Kelly's a big numbers personand stats person, so for her
you know it was it was reallycool to put in the statistics
component to be able to seethere's 633 things that are
available and she's done over 60percent of them.
(27:57):
So now clearly she's on amission to do all of them right
and you know she's got to stayin the top one percent and tells
me every day that I'm below,beneath her and that.
So, um, you know.
So that part of it is reallyfun and I'm sure that we will be
food court hopping at everyresort, since that seems to be
(28:20):
one of the things that we'vemissed out on so far.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I'm just motivating him to.
You know, keep up with mynumbers.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
A little bit of competition going on is never
bad.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Now, when you were talking about I scrapbook and
one of the things I did like inthe app was that ability, like
you mentioned, to kind of putsome notes and photos and things
from your different trips Couldyou share.
I know you said you can do iton social media and you
mentioned about being able toshare that with other people.
Are you able to save that onyour phone or how can you share
out some of those memories?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, so in each of the major categories, like the
trips, or food and wine festival, or your global statistics,
there's a social media share.
It does is it pulls a singleJPEG picture together that you
(29:16):
can either save to your phone oryou can click a button and it
will share it to whatever socialmedia platforms you have
enabled on your phone.
So it was just kind of that wasone of the things that we really
wanted to focus on was ease ofuse, so kind of that single
button, collection of all thethings that you've done,
collection of all the thingsthat you've done, perfect, and I
know.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Obviously this is a business.
And how much does this cost?
Like how much does the app cost?
Is it an annual fee?
If somebody were to get it,what is the total cost for them?
Speaker 4 (29:52):
So it's a $14.99 per year subscription and there'll
also be a monthly offeringthat'll be coming out in the
next couple of weeks to helpsupport that.
If anybody just wanted to do iton a monthly basis.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Now where, probably just to interrupt.
Where would you ask people togo to find more information
about the app or how can theydownload it?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So the best place to find us is on Mouselifeappcom,
so M-O-U-S-E-L-I-F-B-A-P-Pcom,or you can go to the Apple or
Android store and if you look upMouselife we'll show up there
as well.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But if you go to the website you'll see some
screenshots and a little moreinformation about kind of who we
are and a little moreinformation about the app and
then links to all the socialmedia pages where we're showing
some videos of the app in useand just some fun recaps of us
(30:48):
trying to check off everythingin Disney and using it to
experience all of Disney World.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Perfect and I know I will share all those links in
the show notes and we do alwayshave a trivia segment so I might
have to have Chris pull some ofyour trivia off in the app to
use on one of the shows.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Oh perfect, oh cool, that would be fun.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Well, the issue is that we're at show how many
Vanessa.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
We're at over 150.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Over 150.
Over 150,.
So she asked me for a triviaquestion.
And really I mean, disneyUniverse is expansive, but for
some of the narrow niches thatwe talk about, I struggle to
find a new, unique triviaquestion.
So the app will be great andplus we're going to be making a
trip to Disney this December, soit'll be perfect for our trip
(31:32):
then.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, great, I know we assigned, we broke up a lot
of the attractions and gave themto the kids.
They all had lists of triviapieces they had to find for us
so it was a, like we said, fullfamily effort here on this app
design.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
We told them to go find the opening dates and then
give us some unique trivia thatmost people wouldn't know about.
Some of the things that weresome.
So the apps.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh perfect.
We will definitely be usingsome of those, for sure, but
thank you so much for joining ustoday.
We really appreciate takingsome time to learn more about
the app and hear about theexperience of creating it, so
thank you for being with ustoday.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Yeah, we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Thank you again to kelly and rick for joining us
today.
And now we are on to our twominute trivia and our wisdom
from walt quote, and chris, youare up with trivia.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So we talked about things to do outside of disney,
yes, and this is more of aphilosophical question, but what
was the first theme park inFlorida?
And I could have said Orlandobut it's Florida.
But it's near Orlando, so itcounts, it's Florida.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh darn, it's where Legoland is now.
They had the ladies in the biglike southern bell dresses with
the parasols and stuff and forsome reason the name of it is
something, garden something.
Oh, it's slipping my mind.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You're right on the second part, I'll give you a
hint.
The first word starts with a, c.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Cypress Gardens.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You are correct?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
My mom went there as a kid, because we have family
down in Florida.
Yes, my mom had went there as akid and I've seen pictures of
it and I believe that's whereLegoland is now.
Is that correct, that?
And I've seen pictures of itand I believe that's where
Legoland is now.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Is that correct?
That is correct.
They purchased theirintellectual property and it's
now part of Legoland and thepark went through because at one
point it was owned byAnheuser-Busch, but it was also
owned by a book company thatused it for part of SeaWorld.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Huh, interesting, yeah, very interesting.
So we're going to closeeverything out, of course, with
our wisdom from Walt quote, andI think we talked about like
making your trips and your staysunique and looking at ways that
you can maybe customizesomething and be a little
(33:51):
different than by skipping theparks.
So I thought this one was kindof a fun quote that went along
with it a little bit.
The more you like yourself, theless you are like anyone else,
which is what makes you unique.
So I think that's a great quote.
Hopefully your next trip can beunique as well.
And don't forget to check outour other episodes on our
(34:12):
Buzzsprout page and to follow uson social media for even more
Disney magic.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this episode of the Diz
Love podcast with Vanessa andChris.
I'm Vanessa.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
And 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 Diz Love Podcast with Vanessa and
Chris.
I'm Vanessa Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
And I'm Chris Johns.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We would like to welcome you to show number 155.
And for any listeners joiningus for the first time, our show
features things we love atDisney and in each episode we
have a guest who creates Disneymagic for our listeners at home
or on their Disney vacation.
From vacation planners toproduct producers, our guests
can bring Disney magic into yourlife.
And as a reminder to ourlisteners, we appreciate if you
(00:55):
take time to leave us a reviewon Apple Podcasts or any other
platform where you listen.
We always like to give listenershout outs on future episodes
and, of course, it helps theaudience grow.
And before we get started withour regular show, Chris, we have
a message from our friendsKevin and Amanda.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, kevin and Amanda want you to have more fun the
next time you visit Disney orone of the major parks.
What they do is they have aservice called when in the Park
and they make scavenger huntgame packs, and what's awesome
is that it's a great challengefor people who are new to the
park, as well as those who'vebeen there many times, and I
know for Vanessa and I.
We've been there so many times.
We've walked past the littlethings that you might just not
(01:31):
notice, and what's great aboutwearing the park is that it
gives you a reason to noticeevery little detail that
Disney's awesome aboutpresenting.
And so not only do they haveDisney, but they also have
Universal Parks, and coming soonincludes Dollywood and King's
Dominion.
Where is King's Dominion,vanessa?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's actually in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We have some family that go to it Awesome, and so
yes again.
So the next time you go to thepark, if you're standing in line
, get out the scavenger huntpacks and find something awesome
to do, and use the codeDISLOVE10, d-i-s-l-o-v-e-1-0,
through the link in our shownotes to save 10% off your next
order.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Thank you so much, chris.
And on today's show we will bejoined by Kelly and Rick.
They are creators of anothergreat fun thing to do when
you're at the parks.
They're the creators of theMouse Life app and we are so
excited to have them on the show.
And we are so excited to havethem on the show.
Now, before we hear about allthe awesome things you can do
with the Mouse Life app, we'regoing to dive into some of the
(02:29):
fun things you can do for astaycation I don't know if
that's the right term to use,but I'm using the term
staycation at a resort ratherthan going to the parks.
What do you think?
Is that an okay term?
Yes, it is Okay.
So the great thing number onewhen we talk to Kelly and Rick
later, you'll see they have somecool challenges that you could
(02:50):
do in the app.
That would help you generatesome ideas to do and hopefully,
with the show, you can have alot of fun.
We're going to talk about someof the entertainment that's
available outside the parks,some of the different activities
, along with great food andcharacters, and, of course, we
always will like to be able toshare some of our experiences
(03:11):
that we've had doing some ofthese as well.
So let's get started, and firstwe're going to talk about
entertainment.
Now, I think most people, whenthey think of entertainment and
they go to Disney World, theyassume they have to go to the
parks.
Yes, now the great thing is itmight not be the same caliber
(03:32):
entertainment that is at theparks, but there's lots of great
things that you can do that areeither.
There's some that are no cost,aside from getting to wherever
you want to go.
So, first off, at Disney Springsthere is lots of live music.
You can catch live music downcloser by the World of Disney.
We've gone and listened todifferent groups.
(03:53):
Sometimes there's like schoolgroups, but sometimes on the
weekends there's likeprofessional local bands that
are there, which is a lot of fun.
Raglan Road if you have areservation to go in there, they
have great live Irish music anddance, and we've been to Raglan
Road several times.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
We sure have.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And another thing if you are a concert person, which
Chris loves concerts the Houseof Blues hosts a variety of
bands that come in for concerts.
Of course, those are going tobe ones that are going to cost a
ticket price.
But also at Disney Springs youcan go to Drawn to Life.
I've been there with a friendand there's a show that we have
(04:36):
that goes over a great review ofDrawn to Life and that's a
great.
Those are just some fun thingswith shows and music you can do
at Disney Springs.
There's also I don't know, Ithink this would be considered
entertainment too they have thetethered balloon ride.
I've heard that is so awesometo get a great view of the parks
(04:57):
and there's different or of thewhole property and there's
different discounts that you canget too, which is awesome,
which makes it a little bit moreaffordable.
Now, moving from Disney Springs,you can also head over to
Boardwalk, which is one ofChris's new favorite resort
areas.
Yes, it is so in the evening,especially in the weekends, they
(05:19):
do have some street performers,but all the time you can count
on they have dueling pianos atjelly rolls.
We went and checked that out.
We didn't actually end up goingin, but I think it was around
20 a person, so equivalent ofwhat we would have paid for
something like that at home.
And as long as there's not aspecial event there, the
atlantic dance hall is open andthat's free, like we went and
(05:41):
danced for a while.
That was fun.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
We did, we had a lot of fun, we were one of the few
people dancing.
Yes, the DJ was awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, so that's a fun thing to do, especially for
adults.
In the evening and we've hadsome of our great guests on that
can provide babysittingservices for your little ones if
you want a night out, and thenof course I think this would
count as entertainment as wellyou can watch the fireworks from
a lot of the different resortsand restaurants.
(06:10):
So if you from being on thebeach at the Polynesian or the
Marina at Grand Floridian, youcould also get a reservation at
some of the restaurants, like atthe Contemporary or the Lounge
at the Contemporary Ohana, a lotof these well Narcooses, they
pump in the music, so it adds tothat ambiance and you can see
(06:31):
the fireworks without being inthe parks.
And another added bonus on allof the monorail resorts you can
watch the Electric Light Parade,the Electric Light Pageant that
goes around on Bay Lake and iteven goes back over by Fort
Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge.
So those are some entertainmentthings.
(06:52):
And then finally, to round out,one of my favorites is Yeehaw
Bob at Port Orleans Riverside.
It's a great.
Is that a real place?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeehaw Bob.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's the guy that played piano at Port Orleans.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Oh, Yeehaw Bob, yeah, at Port Orleans.
Oh, I thought you said it was aplace.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But you remember that guy that played piano?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh, of course, yes, he's always so much fun.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes, so he, of course , had returned a while ago after
a long hiatus.
Excited for him.
That's one of our favoriteresorts.
Before we got DVC, we stayed atPort Orleans Riverside all the
time and Yeehaw Bob's great.
So it's nice because you have awide mix of different
(07:33):
entertainment options.
And then at certain times ofthe year, like we watched the
drone show at Disney Springs,that was over the summer.
They've also had a holiday onewhich has been quite a while
since they had the drone showthere, but not every
entertainment has to be in thepark, so that's something to
remember.
So, entertainment there's lotsof things that you can do even
(07:54):
if you're not at a Disney park,and I dare say there are things
outside of Disney that you coulddo as well, but we're not going
to touch on any of those.
Secondly is dining.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I will say, some of the best dining that we enjoy is
outside the parks at some ofthe resorts, definitely.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Obviously, I know one of our favorites has always
been Ohana, but if you'relooking for one of the things
that we've looked at when we'vedone vacations where we haven't
necessarily gone to the parks,especially now that we have our
daughter so we like to go tocharacter meals, and one of my
favorite character meals isoutside the park and that is
(08:33):
over at Cape May.
The breakfast is great there.
The characters take so muchextra time with people and
obviously you have yourmainstays like Chef Mickey's.
You also have the breakfastwith Mickey and Stitch over at
Ohana we also are going to betrying.
There's a character breakfaston certain days of the week at
(08:54):
the Four Seasons, so there'slots of ways to be able to see
the character.
And then, of course, 1900 ParkFair.
You can see all of thecharacters there as well.
So there's lots of greatcharacter dining options, but
just food in general.
Another great characterbreakfast that I missed was at
Topolini's Terrace.
That's a really great characterbreakfast, wonderful view.
(09:15):
Yes, great view and greatcharacters.
So of course, you have lots ofgreat regular food as well.
So, whether you want finedining at something like at
Victoria and Albert's, or evenjust a date night, like at
Narcoossee's, or family time atOhana, there are so many great
restaurants and I know you'veall heard us talk and talk and
(09:37):
talk about food.
We talk about food on prettymuch every episode, but one of
the great things is there's somany great restaurants that
aren't in the parks, which isawesome, and it doesn't always
have to be a full meal.
So if you want some of yourfavorite Disney snacks like,
let's say, you want a Dole Whipthere's Pineapple Lanai at the
Polynesian Resort.
(09:57):
You can get yourself a Dole Whipand then go sit on the beach,
also over, like at Port Orleans,at French Quarter.
They have the beignets, whichare so good and you can get
those and go and listen to.
They have jazz music that's atthe bar.
And then, of course, there'slots of special treats, so you
can do some special ice creamtreats, like at Beaches, and
(10:21):
Cream you could get the kitchensink.
Have we told our kitchen sinkstory here before?
Only about 10 times we havetold that.
Okay, so go back and listen toa previous episode.
You could get kitchen sink oryou can all get your own
individual ice cream at Beachesand Cream which is over at the
Beach Club.
Another great place to get atreat is Goofy's Candy Company
(10:41):
at Disney Springs.
We haven't done this since COVID, but remember you can get the
giant Oreos dipped in stuff andall that stuff.
So if you're at Disney Springs,go to Goofy's Candy Company and
of course there's somemainstays like Ghirardelli, also
Gideon's, but I will sayGideon's Bakehouse we always
skip this one and we go toOrlando location.
(11:03):
So if you have a car head overthere and skip the wait, I'm
hopeful for the cake bake shopthat's getting ready to open.
Obviously there's beencontroversy back and forth about
pricing, but I've heard fromfamily.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
What's the controversy?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That it's expensive, but to me everything at Disney I
mean I go and I pay it, butfood's expensive at Disney.
So they are from Indiana, theoriginal one.
I'm going to give a little sidenote.
I have family that lives nearthe original ones.
They go there for specialoccasions and enjoy it.
The ones at Disney they werepriced about 40% higher on a lot
(11:41):
of things, but they'veretracted that.
So I'm hoping I'm going to getmyself some cake when we're down
there and we'll let you knowhow that is.
But so this is just a smallsampling of all the amazing food
you can get.
There's also great lounges thatyou can go to.
There's lots of great.
We are not drinkers, butthere's lots of great bars that
(12:01):
you can go to.
I know people will do monorailhopping to the different lounges
and bars along the monorail.
You can do food court hopping.
I also saw a video last weekwhich I thought this was fun.
You could do this for food.
They did it for food, but Ithink you could do it for a
variety of things.
They were at Disney Springs andthey waited and the first bus
(12:24):
that came up they went to thatresort and had a meal.
I thought that was fun, verycool.
So lots of great options forfood.
And then now let's look a littlebit at the activities.
We've talked a lot aboutdifferent activities you could
do at the resorts, so I'll put alink to some of those shows in
the show notes.
But there's a couple of thingsthat I already kind of touched
(12:47):
on.
A few of these, like watchingthe electrical water pageant
outside one of the resorts andsitting on the beach and
watching that.
But there's lots of otherthings you can do at the resorts
as well, things you can do atthe resorts as well.
Now a ton of the resorts havewater activities and I know I've
gone parasailing with my cousinbefore.
We've done where you can rentthe pontoon boats, and actually
(13:12):
that's a great way that wedidn't mention that in
entertainment.
But you can do where you rentthe pontoon boat and see the
fireworks from Magic Kingdom,which is super cool.
You can do it.
We've done it for my aunt'sbirthday.
We did it when I graduated fromcollege.
So lots of ways to enjoy thewater.
Also, at Contemporary there'ssome other watercrafts that you
(13:33):
can rent, and even over at likePort Orleans, you can do fishing
.
There might be fishingsomewhere else, but I know for
sure you can go fishing thereand I believe also at Fort
Wilderness.
At Fort Wilderness our daughteris getting ready.
She's going to be doinghorseback riding or, well, pony
rides, but my mom and I yearsago did horseback riding there.
(13:55):
You can also rent bikes andthey have an archery thing which
I think that would be kind ofcool.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So archery and just lots of fun activities at Fort
Wilderness.
I know we've done the wholeshow about Fort Wilderness so I
will put a link in the shownotes for that as well.
And then one of the nice thingsis that, depending on where
you're staying, just using thetransportation is fun.
(14:22):
So if you're on one of theSkyliner resorts, just riding on
the Skyliner, maybe going to adifferent resort for a meal, if
you're on the monorail, takingthe monorail around and stopping
at the different resorts, andthen of course there's a lot of
activities that are at each ofthe resorts, especially some of
the value resorts like PopCentury and Art of Animation.
(14:44):
They have things like tie-dye,shirt making, movie nights under
the stars.
That's also something you cando over at Fort Wilderness.
So just lots and lots of funactivities and I think you could
fill I would dare say you couldfill a whole week up with doing
stuff just at the resorts andDisney Springs.
(15:05):
There's also some fun activitiesover at Disney Springs.
Obviously there's Splitsville,which we love Splitsville.
There's some other activitiesyou can do, like going to the
movie theater.
But then, if you want to dosomething a little more unique
at Erebus Brothers you can do acustom painted crystal cup At
(15:26):
Uniqlo.
You can do printed bags.
I just saw a video about thiswhere you can pick from all
these different screen printsand then they'll print them
right on bags and, I believe,shirts as well.
So so many fun things to do, somany.
So, chris, if you had to pickone resort for a staycation,
where would it be and why?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I would have to say the Grand Floridian.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Are you just saying that because you're a DVC owner
there?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Partly.
Well, I just also like justthere's nice places to sit.
Yes, I would love just to sit.
There's times where sitting isa real luxury, like the splash
pad area the splash pad is nice.
It's just close to the waterand then it's, of course, right
on the monorail.
So if you just want to ride themonorail, I mean that in itself
is a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And I think Grand Floridian during the holidays
would be extra special as well.
And I think Grand Floridianduring the holidays would be
extra special as well.
And as I say that we have astaycation coming up and we
actually are not staying at theGrand Floridian, we did have our
reservation there, but we wentahead and we moved over to
Wilderness Lodge at BoulderRidge because we wanted to be
(16:40):
able to be there for some of theChristmas things as well and
some access to Fort Wildernessbecause of some of those things
that we were just talking about.
So we hope this inspires you tohave a magical vacation.
And as ticket prices go up,it's not always feasible for a
family to go down and do a fullpark days, like for us.
(17:02):
We're doing a staycation becausewe're actually going to a
college bowl game, but when wewent down for planning our vow
renewal, we didn't do the parks,and there's been a few other
trips.
We have family in that downthere.
We already don't always do theparks, but there's always
something, especially if you'rethere during the holidays or
different seasons.
There's lots of great things todo.
(17:22):
So I hope all of you can get achance to plan a little bit more
relaxed and low key, althoughwith our staycation that we have
coming up, we have the wholeday planned every day for the
entire time we're there, somaybe it's not as relaxed as
we're thinking.
We're just getting a chance todo some new things, but
(17:43):
hopefully you can do this aswell.
I'd like to say thank you toour friends at allearsnet for
some of their great ideas that Iwas able to add in with some of
the things that we haveexperienced ourselves or plan to
experience.
And before we get our call upwith Kelly and Rick, we have a
message from our friends Ericand Alexa.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yes, they want to make sure that you have one less
thing to bring on the plane.
Having toddlers or a baby evenrequires a lot of equipment
strollers, car seats and evenmore.
The great thing about Eric andAlexa is that they are
independent baby equip providers.
What that means is that theyhave access to brand new
equipment that you can use foryour baby and toddler.
We've used them numerous timesfor Karis and getting strollers.
(18:24):
The great thing about them isthat they're in Orlando, they
have awesome customer serviceand almost everything they give
they provide to you is neareither brand new or near new,
and so it's one of those thingswhere you're going to get a
stroller that will glide easilythrough the park.
And again, that's Eric andAlexa with Baby Quip.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And we have a link right to their website in our
show notes, so definitely checkthem out.
So give us just a second and weare going to get our call up
with Kelly and Rick.
We'd like to welcome Kelly andRick to the show.
Their app, mouse Life, wascreated to really make sure that
(19:04):
anyone was not going to missout on any magic of Disney when
they were on their trips.
So it's great because it hasall kinds of fun little
challenges that you can do.
You can track all the sorts ofthings that you've done at any
of the parks and the resorts andthe restaurants, which is super
cool.
We've had a chance to playaround with it and I know we've
really enjoyed it and I know allof you will enjoy it as well.
(19:26):
So we'd like to welcome Kellyand Rick to the show.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Thank you.
Now.
We always start off by askingsome things that people enjoy
about traveling to the parks,and lately we've been asking
people is your favorite event atany disney park?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
that's a tough one, I think.
For me it's uh, it's probablyfestival holidays.
I I love the decorations andit's just really cool to kind of
see all that up and it's a nicetime of year where it's not so
hot.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
But similarly mine is a festival of the arts.
I just love walking around tosee all the great art they have
and they still have all thegreat food booths available
without the Florida heat.
So that is my favorite time ofyear to visit and visit that
event.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh, for sure, and we had a chance.
We were actually there thefirst year.
They had the festival of thearts and that was so neat to see
, and it's cool to see how muchthey've been able to add since
they started.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, it's really growing every year.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Now I was able to share a little bit, but we'd
love to hear more about the appand what is the different
services that kind of areoffered through it and what
you're able to track connectedto Disney kind of are offered
through it and what you're ableto track connected to Disney.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, so the app is really an extension of the whole
Disney user experience.
We wanted something like youhad said earlier to enhance that
magic of the visit.
So it allows the visitors toeasily see all that Disney has
to offer.
It'll list out every attraction, dining option, character meets
(21:04):
in great great spots and alsothe entertainment offerings to
the parks.
So you go in and you can selecta park, one of the resorts or
disney springs, and it quicklypulls up a list of everything
they have to offer and fromthere you can filter down to
those different categories forattraction, entertainment,
dining or characters.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
So, and once you drill down into kind of each of
those areas, you can look atdetails.
You can pull up a map withwalking distance.
We have wait times in there forthe rides, menu links for all
the restaurants.
You can do community.
You can see community ratings.
You can you know rateattractions and those things
(21:43):
yourself.
There's also a spot for you totake notes, which was really
important when you want to goback and kind of see oh, this is
what we loved about it.
Or you know, these are somethings we didn't like,
especially if you have kids likewhere did they like chicken
fingers the best?
So you can kind of keep allthat stuff.
Um, you know, you can keeptrack of all those things in
(22:03):
there and then, um, in a lot ofthe uh pieces, depending on
where you are within the app, uh, on some of the attractions we
have like cute unique triviastuff that, uh, people may not
know about.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So it gives people something to do when they're in
line too and in addition totracking those lifetime
completions, you can also createa trip and from there you can
add the dates and a name for thetrip and then check off exactly
what you did on that particulartrip and then you can upload a
few photos of it and generate atrip recap and then you can just
(22:38):
post that to social media, sendit to your grandparents.
That might not be on socialmedia, whichever way you want to
share.
You know everything.
You did that on that visit, um,and it's really great to be
able to go back and see what youdid on that past trip.
I talking with some of ourfriends, that was a big
highlight for them to be able tojust remember what they had
(22:59):
done, um, you know, in the pastyears, because we are those
Disney adults that kind of goyou know multiple times a year
and they kind of all runtogether at this point.
Another one of my favoritesections is the Food and Wine
Festival, e-passport and Disneygives out little books that have
all the Disney food boothofferings, that list all the
(23:19):
food options and beverageoptions, but we really wanted a
way to capture it on our phone,so this lets you see all the
booths and what they're offering, with price and food details,
and then check off what you'vetried and then create a trip
recap of that as well, to see ona map all the booths you've
stopped at.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Just as important are the drinks.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
That's wonderful.
Now, what was your inspiration?
To take all of the things thatyou wanted to do and put it into
an app.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So, as Kelly said, we've always been kind of a huge
Disney family.
So we have five kids between usand you know they all love
Disney.
But we also get to sneak awayon adult trips a couple of times
a year, which is which isalways fun.
We thought we had done almosteverything in Disney, but over
the past few years, if you lookat social media growth and just
(24:15):
some of the things that we'vestarted to to do, looking at
some of the different Facebookgroups and and some of the other
things that come up on TikTok,we realized that there are a lot
of things we haven't done yet.
So Kelly started trying to keepa list on her phone.
That got pretty long,especially when she tried to
make a list of all the bars anddrinks, things like that.
(24:37):
Once we joined Disney DayDrinkers, we just realized it
was a lot bigger job than whatwe could do in notes.
So we started looking for appsthat would help us kind of track
that, but there really wasn'tanything out there that did what
we wanted as Disney fans.
So we started to lay it out onpaper, talk to some friends,
(24:59):
talk to our kids, and then youknow, the more we talked about
it, the more we really felt likethis could fill a gap in that
Disney experience.
And once we wrote it all down,we got super excited about the
concept and just decided we weregoing to go develop it eric got
to work, wireframing it andstarted out with, you know, with
(25:21):
just that concept of trackingeverything you can do at disney.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I mean, I designed the database for it and it just
grew from there and, you know,for months we'd sit around the
dinner table every night withthe kids and talk about it and
they were so excited to givetheir ideas and opinions and it
really expanded on that initialconcept and it went from a list
based system into really a fullblown app.
It's something that you can usefor your entire visit to Disney
(25:46):
World, not just, you know, justretracking, checking off things
, but, you know, reallyenhancing that experience and
pushing you to do more.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Now that kind of adds to our next question, which is
how do you think that well, inthis case, your app adds some
Disney magic to your customers'lives?
I know you've touched on a fewthings, but maybe highlight some
of your favorites.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, I think it's.
I think one of my favorites isthat it makes it so easy to see
what's available in each ofthose categories of the parks,
resorts and Disney Springs.
And then checking them off andbeing able to share that on
social media is a huge, huge win, I think it's.
It's always fun to share yourhighlights from your trips.
And then one other fun piecethat we have in there are Disney
(26:31):
themed challenges you cancomplete and then you earn
digital pins and it goes onto adigital lanyard.
So, for example, one of them isto get a popcorn bucket in one
park and fill it up in the otherthree parks.
Or to get a Dole Whip in fourdifferent locations of Animal
Kingdom, magic Kingdom,polynesian and Disney Springs
Animal Kingdom, magic Kingdom,polynesian and Disney Springs.
(26:51):
So it's fun to check those offand then you get some fireworks
in the app and then it puts thepin in your lanyard.
So that's a fun way to kind ofpush you to do something new for
people who've been to the parksa lot and are just looking to
have a new experience.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, and I really like adding to that is that
there's things in there, biggerthings, like the four-part
challenge, which we've done, butsome of those might not be
realistic for maybe, a familywith little ones, but I like how
you mentioned, like you havethe popcorn one and Dole Whip
and things that are manageable.
So it gives you a chance.
Even if you can't do some ofthose bigger bucket list things,
(27:29):
you can still do some funchallenges that you might not
have thought of before, which Ithought was really creative.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Thanks.
I think one of the other thingsthat we thought was a lot of
fun Kelly's a big numbers personand stats person, so for her
you know it was it was reallycool to put in the statistics
component to be able to seethere's 633 things that are
available and she's done over 60percent of them.
(27:57):
So now clearly she's on amission to do all of them right
and you know she's got to stayin the top one percent and tells
me every day that I'm below,beneath her and that.
So, um, you know.
So that part of it is reallyfun and I'm sure that we will be
food court hopping at everyresort, since that seems to be
(28:20):
one of the things that we'vemissed out on so far.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I'm just motivating him to.
You know, keep up with mynumbers.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
A little bit of competition going on is never
bad.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Now, when you were talking about I scrapbook and
one of the things I did like inthe app was that ability, like
you mentioned, to kind of putsome notes and photos and things
from your different trips Couldyou share.
I know you said you can do iton social media and you
mentioned about being able toshare that with other people.
Are you able to save that onyour phone or how can you share
out some of those memories?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, so in each of the major categories, like the
trips, or food and wine festival, or your global statistics,
there's a social media share.
It does is it pulls a singleJPEG picture together that you
(29:16):
can either save to your phone oryou can click a button and it
will share it to whatever socialmedia platforms you have
enabled on your phone.
So it was just kind of that wasone of the things that we really
wanted to focus on was ease ofuse, so kind of that single
button, collection of all thethings that you've done,
collection of all the thingsthat you've done, perfect, and I
know.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Obviously this is a business.
And how much does this cost?
Like how much does the app cost?
Is it an annual fee?
If somebody were to get it,what is the total cost for them?
Speaker 4 (29:52):
So it's a $14.99 per year subscription and there'll
also be a monthly offeringthat'll be coming out in the
next couple of weeks to helpsupport that.
If anybody just wanted to do iton a monthly basis.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Now where, probably just to interrupt.
Where would you ask people togo to find more information
about the app or how can theydownload it?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So the best place to find us is on Mouselifeappcom,
so M-O-U-S-E-L-I-F-B-A-P-Pcom,or you can go to the Apple or
Android store and if you look upMouselife we'll show up there
as well.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But if you go to the website you'll see some
screenshots and a little moreinformation about kind of who we
are and a little moreinformation about the app and
then links to all the socialmedia pages where we're showing
some videos of the app in useand just some fun recaps of us
(30:48):
trying to check off everythingin Disney and using it to
experience all of Disney World.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Perfect and I know I will share all those links in
the show notes and we do alwayshave a trivia segment so I might
have to have Chris pull some ofyour trivia off in the app to
use on one of the shows.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Oh perfect, oh cool, that would be fun.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Well, the issue is that we're at show how many
Vanessa.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
We're at over 150.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Over 150.
Over 150,.
So she asked me for a triviaquestion.
And really I mean, disneyUniverse is expansive, but for
some of the narrow niches thatwe talk about, I struggle to
find a new, unique triviaquestion.
So the app will be great andplus we're going to be making a
trip to Disney this December, soit'll be perfect for our trip
(31:32):
then.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, great, I know we assigned, we broke up a lot
of the attractions and gave themto the kids.
They all had lists of triviapieces they had to find for us
so it was a, like we said, fullfamily effort here on this app
design.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
We told them to go find the opening dates and then
give us some unique trivia thatmost people wouldn't know about.
Some of the things that weresome.
So the apps.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh perfect.
We will definitely be usingsome of those, for sure, but
thank you so much for joining ustoday.
We really appreciate takingsome time to learn more about
the app and hear about theexperience of creating it, so
thank you for being with ustoday.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Yeah, we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Thank you again to kelly and rick for joining us
today.
And now we are on to our twominute trivia and our wisdom
from walt quote, and chris, youare up with trivia.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So we talked about things to do outside of disney,
yes, and this is more of aphilosophical question, but what
was the first theme park inFlorida?
And I could have said Orlandobut it's Florida.
But it's near Orlando, so itcounts, it's Florida.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh darn, it's where Legoland is now.
They had the ladies in the biglike southern bell dresses with
the parasols and stuff and forsome reason the name of it is
something, garden something.
Oh, it's slipping my mind.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You're right on the second part, I'll give you a
hint.
The first word starts with a, c.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Cypress Gardens.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You are correct?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
My mom went there as a kid, because we have family
down in Florida.
Yes, my mom had went there as akid and I've seen pictures of
it and I believe that's whereLegoland is now.
Is that correct, that?
And I've seen pictures of itand I believe that's where
Legoland is now.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Is that correct?
That is correct.
They purchased theirintellectual property and it's
now part of Legoland and thepark went through because at one
point it was owned byAnheuser-Busch, but it was also
owned by a book company thatused it for part of SeaWorld.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Huh, interesting, yeah, very interesting.
So we're going to closeeverything out, of course, with
our wisdom from Walt quote, andI think we talked about like
making your trips and your staysunique and looking at ways that
you can maybe customizesomething and be a little
(33:51):
different than by skipping theparks.
So I thought this one was kindof a fun quote that went along
with it a little bit.
The more you like yourself, theless you are like anyone else,
which is what makes you unique.
So I think that's a great quote.
Hopefully your next trip can beunique as well.
And don't forget to check outour other episodes on our
(34:12):
Buzzsprout page and to follow uson social media for even more
Disney magic.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this episode of the Diz
Love podcast with Vanessa andChris.
I'm Vanessa.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
And 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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