Episode Transcript
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Eric (00:00):
Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to Zippity-Doo-DahDisney, the podcast where I give
you my favorite tips andrecommendations to help you make
the most of your Disney Worldvacation.
So sit tight, thanks forlistening and let's go on that
ride.
Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to episode 31 ofZippity-Doo-Dah Disney.
(00:21):
I'm your host, Eric Frenchman,and this episode is titled Going
Back and Forth to the World inthe Year 2025.
That's right.
We just got back from a superfabulous trip to Disney World
First week of December 2024.
(00:42):
We had a blast.
I got a ton of content.
Yeah, maybe I'm not going to beputting out podcasts every
other week, but there's nothingwrong with a five episode
podcast miniseries when we havesomething to talk about.
So here we go.
So this episode will just be anoverall strategy about when to
(01:05):
decide you're going to DisneyWorld, where you could stay, how
to get to and from the parks,because there's still a lot of
people confused on that and thenwe're going to do an episode on
food, which is always one of myfavorites, and then it's going
to be three more episodes.
We'll do one episode ofnavigating the Magic Kingdom,
one episode navigating Disney'sHollywood studios, and then one
(01:29):
episode for Epcot and AnimalKingdom.
So that's how this five episodeminiseries is going to flow.
Thanks for listening, thanks forstopping by.
Welcome back, and let's go onthat ride.
All right, back, and let's goon that ride, all right.
So let's jump right in in themost important part of planning
(01:49):
your Disney World vacation.
It's to decide when you'regonna go.
And let me tell you somethingthere's no such thing as a slow
period anymore.
Maybe there's.
It's a freaking madhousewall-to-wall body period, and
then there's periods of timewhere it's not so crowded.
(02:10):
We decided to go in the firstweek of December because we were
sick and tired of fighting thecrowds.
The week between Christmas and,say, january 4th those are the
most crowded times of the yearfor Disney World.
January 4th, those are the mostcrowded times of the year for
Disney World.
So, but even when we went inthe beginning of December, you
still needed to make LightningLane reservations.
(02:31):
You still had to book yourdining reservations in advance.
If you wanted to wake up earlyand bang out a bunch of rides,
you had the ability to do that.
But if you wanted to sleep inand maybe get there an hour
after park opening, you stillhave to worry about lines.
So what is my biggest tip foryou about when to go to Disney
(02:53):
World.
If you got kids, take them outof school.
Don't try and do it aroundvacations.
Don't try and do it on likemajor holidays, because you know
why Everybody else is going tobe there.
Plus, you have the Floridaannual pass holders.
They'll show up those weekendsif they're you know if they're
not blacked out.
So the most important tip is totake your kids out of school.
(03:15):
We used to go the first week inNovember.
That was Jersey week, becausethe Jersey schools were closed
on Thursday and Friday due toteacher's convention.
So what we would do is we'd flyout on Tuesday, usually
election day stay for about aweek.
Kids would miss a couple daysof school, maybe half a day on
Tuesday, wednesday and thenMonday and Tuesday following
(03:37):
week.
You're taking them out for fourdays.
It's infinitely better to dothat.
The other reason why you need todo that is because Disney does
a fabulous job of packing eventsduring the year.
So, for example, you have theFlower Festival in the spring
and then you have food and winein the fall.
(03:57):
Then you have the holidayseason in the month of December.
You have the Halloween paradesand parties around October and
the beginning part of Novemberthere are literally every month.
Disney has something going on.
You go too late in the spring.
You're running into cheerleadercompetition.
There's always, you know.
(04:19):
You got to worry also aboutwhen Disney's running.
Some run Disney like marathon,half marathon events.
Those are a blast, but they dodrive people to the parks.
So again, there is no slow timeanymore at Disney.
Your best bet is to just takethe kids out of school.
Pick a good time of year.
(04:39):
You want to go in the spring?
Go to the flower festival.
You want to go in the fall?
Do food and wine.
You want to go in the spring?
Go to the flower festival.
You want to go in the fall?
Do food and wine.
Pick a nice day.
Try a nice week.
Try and do it around when it'snot a major holiday where people
are taking off.
And one other thing to keep inmind when you're going to Disney
World and you're going therebetween, say, june and September
(05:00):
or even October, it's reallyhot during the day.
I remember when the kids werelittle we got a free Disney
dining plan for all of us.
I think we were there for sevendays and as part of that back
in the old days you'd get onesnack or two snacks per day, a
sit-down meal worth one pointand a quick service meal, which
(05:21):
is like you know, they're fastfood-ish kind of um lunches or
breakfast.
For seven days we had thosepoints.
I drank my entire seven daysnack allowance in the first day
.
That's how hot it was.
Lisa and I went a couple ofyears ago in November Wasn't
supposed to be hot.
Do you know what rides we wouldgo on?
(05:41):
We would.
We would go on rides, even ifit was for little kids or like
the carousel of progress.
You know why?
Because it had air conditioningand it was cold.
You could sit in the air and atleast take a break.
Believe me, it gets hot indisney world.
So again, keep that in mind.
But if you want my best tips,you go into the spring, you go
(06:02):
in the fall, you do one of thefestivals.
If you're going to go indecember, you go in the first
week of December.
Maybe go the first weekafternoon, thanksgiving or
something like that.
Take the kids out of school.
You won't regret it.
You'll have a better time thatway.
All right, you've decided whenyou want to go.
Now you need to know whereyou're going to stay.
Let me tell you something youonly stay on property.
(06:26):
I don't care if you're stayingat a deluxe, moderate or a value
resort.
You stay on property.
Don't go off.
I don't care how good the dealis elsewhere, it's not worth it.
Listen to me.
A couple years ago, lisa and Idecided we wanted to go to
Hollywood Studios oh, notHollywood Studios, duh, disney
(06:49):
Springs a day early.
So we made a reservation at oneof my favorite restaurants,
wine Bar George, and we stayedat a hotel near Disney Springs.
It was fine, but you know what?
It's old.
You know what else?
It's kind of like they justthrew up some Disney names and
(07:12):
pictures and stuff.
Not a Disney hotel.
Stay near Disney.
And you know what?
When you want to go to one ofthe parks, you got to get in one
of their little buses.
Screw that Right at Disneybuses anyway, stay on property.
Let me tell you why.
First of all, yeah, blah, blah,blah.
(07:34):
You get all the Disney customerservice.
Everybody greets you, the roomsare clean.
You have a problem?
They got housekeeping.
They'll take care of it for you.
Let me tell you what else youget.
You get to get into the parks30 minutes earlier than
everybody else.
You want to do a rope drop?
(07:56):
That's what you do.
The park opens at 9.
30 minutes, 8.30 am, for peoplestaying on property.
That's definitely worth it.
What else you get, let's see.
Oh, you stay at a deluxe hotel,every park, pretty much every
(08:20):
night.
You got to look on the Disneycalendar or the my Disney
Experience app.
You get an extra hour in theparks after everybody else
leaves.
That's pretty awesome.
You know what else you get?
You get Disney transportation.
You get to ride the monorail.
You get to ride the buses, youget to ride the boats.
You might even be able to walkto the parks.
You get the Skyliners.
(08:41):
Yeah, anybody can ride thosethings once you're at the world.
But you walk out of your hotelroom and it's right there.
Or you're like us, you'restaying at somewhere near the
Magic Kingdom.
You can walk, walk to the MagicKingdom.
Oh, get on some other bus witha bunch of other people.
Get it driven.
(09:01):
Listen, stay at the parks.
You'll also get parking, ifthat's what you want.
If you drove down Now, you canget deals for Disney hotels
stays.
They're usually bundled withpark passes.
There's nothing wrong with that.
(09:21):
Look for those deals.
Let me tell you something deals?
Let me tell you something.
Let me tell you a little secret.
You need two rooms Because youdon't want to sleep With your
son or daughter anymore.
You want your own room, or youneed two rooms.
Your kids are too old.
You're all not climbing into aking size bed, four of you
(09:43):
Sleeping with a head in your Imean sleeping with a foot or a
hand in your head or on yourface.
You could rent Disney VacationClub rooms from owners.
You could go to Dave's DVCRental.
Put in what type of room youneed when you want to stay, and
(10:06):
they have Disney Vacation Clubowners like me that rent their
points out.
It's a good deal for you, it'sa good deal for them.
Let me tell you why it's a gooddeal for you.
Let me tell you about the roomwe just had.
It's at Bay Lake Towers, whichis the closest you could get to
the Magic Kingdom.
It's closer to contemporary butit's attached to the
(10:29):
contemporary.
We had a master suite king-sizebed, tv, hot tub, I guess,
jacuzzi that's it, jacuzzi, youknow.
Bathroom, full shower.
And then we had another fullbedroom, think it had another
(10:50):
king-sized bed, another fullbath.
Then there's a full bath out inthe main living space including
a kitchen, full kitchen withdishes, plates, pans.
Full kitchen with dishes,plates, pans, refrigerator.
Did I have a toaster?
Yeah, toaster coffee maker,microwave.
Then, like a table, there yougo, sit on another big TV, big
(11:13):
pull-out couch which, believe itor not, is very comfortable to
sleep in.
Disney kind of solved one ofthe great mysteries of the world
how to make a pull-out couchwithout a bar jamming in your
back so you get no sleep.
My mother slept on that bed.
She didn't have a problem.
There's a pull-out bed too.
So you know what.
(11:34):
You need a room like thatbecause your family's too big.
You don't want to rent tworooms.
What are you out of your mind?
Go try and see if you couldrent DVC rooms.
What are you out of your mind?
Go try and see if you couldrent DVC rooms.
Go to Dave's DVC rental.
That's where I'd recommend.
All right.
So you've picked the type ofroom.
You got one of my littlesecrets about trying to rent DVC
(11:56):
rooms Picking your hotellocation is key.
Let me explain to you.
First of all, you got the MagicKingdom resorts Resorts Bay
Lake, contemporary, grandFloridian, polynesian.
Those guys are on the monorailand that's excellent access to
(12:17):
the Magic Kingdom.
You can even walk to the MagicKingdom.
Plus, those monorails connectto Ticketing Transportation
Center, where you get busesanywhere, but screw that.
You can then transfer to amonorail to Epcot so you can go
from your hotel to Epcot.
(12:37):
That's really, really, reallycool.
There's one other well, actuallythere's two other hotels, woo,
one's the Wilderness Lodge andone's the Wilderness Campgrounds
.
Yeah, campgrounds, just what itsounds like.
Wilderness Lodge is awesome.
We used to stay there all thetime when the kids were little.
It's a beautiful hotel.
(12:57):
The one knock against theWilderness Lodge.
Same thing I would say aboutthe campgrounds is that your
access to the Magic Kingdom isvia the boat.
It's not a problem.
Boat runs nicely and it'spretty cool.
And then, if you want, you cantake the boat to Contemporary,
get off, walk to the MagicKingdom.
That's what you want to do.
(13:18):
I'm not sure it's faster, butthen you're also on the buses to
everywhere else.
But Wilderness Lodge,wilderness Campgrounds, nothing
wrong with staying there.
Then you got your EpcotHollywood Studios hotels.
Yep, they were linked together.
You got the Yachtsman, you gotthe Beachman, you got the Yacht.
The Yacht Club.
(13:41):
The Beach Club, boardwalk Swanand Dolphin.
The Beach Club Boardwalk, swanand Dolphin, caribbean Beach,
the Riviera you know what makesthose all cool Boat and you
can't walk from the Riviera tothe Caribbean Beach.
But Yacht Club, the Beach, clubBoardwalk, you could walk.
I've done it many times.
(14:02):
Not Club Boardwalk, you couldwalk.
I've done it many times, not abig deal, 10-minute walk.
You could also walk toHollywood Studios.
That's about a 20-minute walk.
Both scenarios.
You got boat ride access toboth of them.
It's worth it.
And you could get access to theSkyliner for the Riviera,
(14:25):
caribbean Beach, pop Century andArt Animation.
Those are the well.
The Caribbean Beach, I believe,is a moderate hotel.
Riviera's Deluxe is also a DBChotel and the Art Animation and
Pop century are their standardhotels.
Again, nothing wrong with them.
(14:48):
They're just going to be alittle more crowded.
You're not going to have thefancier restaurants, but they
are connected to the Skyliner.
Skyliner gets you to Epcot.
Skyliner also gets you to allthe other hotels, plus Skyliner
goes to Hollywood Studios.
Say, you want to stay at DisneySprings?
Well, you got two to threehotels, believe it or not.
(15:09):
Actually it's four if I countthem right.
No, you got Saratoga Springs,port Orleans, old Key West.
They have boat access.
You also can walk there, butit's a very long walk.
We do like taking the boat andwhen it's just lisa and I, we're
going to spend a lot of time atdisney springs.
(15:30):
Highly, highly recommendsaratoga springs.
It's our little home away fromhome.
Then, of course, you got theanimal kingdom lodge, which is
beautiful same architect,designer as the wilderness lodge
.
You get, basically you got.
You don't have access, but youdo get the animal kingdom.
Animals roaming there's sort oflike their own little park
(15:55):
where you can see them from yourroom.
Really, really cool.
You're out on the savannah.
We love the african theme, therestaurants and there are very
good.
So there you go.
That's the rundown, but there'snot nothing really close to the
animal kingdom.
Yeah, it's the animal kingdomlodge, but you're still taking a
bus to it, so it's not reallythat close.
I mean, you're on the bus,you're not on the bus that long,
but there you have it.
(16:16):
Decide where you want to stay,pick your hotel.
Plenty of options.
Again, figure out if you'regoing to stay in the Magic
Kingdom.
You pretty much.
If you could afford it, becausethey're expensive, you want to
stay at the Magic Kingdom hotels.
Your kid's a little older.
You like Epcot and HollywoodStudios.
You got a lot more to choosefrom, especially with the
Skyliner in play.
Oh, one more thing I want tokeep in mind is I'm telling you,
(16:39):
find a location, figure outwhere you want to stay.
One very important thing it'svery difficult to go hotel to
hotel.
Yes, the hotel you want to goto, you're staying at, is on the
monorail.
Going to the monorail hotelsare easy.
Or if you're staying at, say,the Contemporary and you want to
go to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Reviewwhich is over in the campgrounds
, take a boat.
(17:06):
So you do have hotel to hotelaccess, as long as they're on
the same transportation system.
But if you're like us and youlove eating at boma and you're
staying at bay lake, you can'tgo hotel to hotel with disney
transportation.
You can, of course, order alift to mirrors, uber, or what
you do is you go to a park andyou take the bus or the
transportation system for thathotel.
(17:27):
So in our case, we want to goto the animal kingdom.
We walk to the magic kingdomand then we took a bus from the
magic kingdom to the animalkingdom lodge.
That's how you do it.
Keep that in mind.
It will cut down once youfigure out, kind of, where you
think you're going to stay andwhere you want to target the
most.
Pick your hotel.
(17:48):
Keep in mind, unless the hotelsyou're trying to go to are on
the same transportation circuit,it's very difficult to go hotel
to hotel, especially for dinner.
So yeah, I just pretty muchtold you you should spend more
money to stay at one of the morenot more expensive, but a more
(18:09):
expensive hotel, disney style,rather than staying off property
.
But before you do that, youneed to look at deals.
There are ways to get discounts.
I don't think these discountsare huge, but you could usually
find a way to shave 5% or 10%off some of your costs with
(18:29):
Disney.
You could join Disney's fanclub D23.
You do get some discounts.
You can get a Disney Visa cardand they give you promotions.
You can also look online whendisney's running some promotions
again, when they do thatthey're bundling a room, usually
(18:52):
with a park pass, and you canget a good discount on that.
But then again you sort of runinto the problem.
If you need more than one room.
They do offer militarydiscounts and then even like saw
this and you need to check it,but like, the Disney Visa card
will get a 5% discount onpurchasing the Disney dining
plan.
So there are some ways tofigure out how to save money
(19:18):
when going to Disney World.
So check that out, and thepromotions always change.
Once you've settled on yourhotel, you know when you go, in
what time of year you're goingand your hotel.
The next thing you need to knowis you need to buy park passes,
and this can get reallyexpensive.
Not that the hotels can't getreally expensive the cat is you
(19:39):
go crazy.
But the park passes for me arethe most expensive.
When you go online, disney sortof prices up based on day of
the of the week or or time ofyear, so they do have different
pricing.
They usually start at around Idon't know somewhere around like
(19:59):
120 a day per park and that'skind of expensive.
But I will tell you, the moredays you save, the more days you
go and the more days you buy apark pass, you get a discounted
rate per day.
(20:21):
So check out Disney, check outthe park passes.
I'll give you a couple of tips.
The first thing I would tell youis that decide whether you need
a park hopper.
It tacks on about $90.
You can't.
You can add park hopper to yourpark passes after you already
(20:47):
get to Disney World.
But it's not worth it becausethey charge you for the entire
length of your stay.
So if you're staying seven days, it's like $90 to add the park
hopper.
If you start off on, likeyou're there on day one and day
two and then day three decideyou want to add the park hopper,
it's $90.
So decide on whether you'regoing to.
(21:08):
We don't use the park hopperanymore.
When the kids were little we'dstart off in, like the Magic
Kingdom and then go to Epcot fordinner.
You know what we do.
We go to the park.
We spend as long as we can atthe park, the specific park.
We go back to our hotel room.
Maybe we change.
We go out to dinner and we gosomeplace else for dinner.
We're at a different hotel.
Go to Disney Springs.
Rarely do we go to a differentpark.
(21:31):
If you want to go, do parkhopping, go for it.
But I'm trying to tell youthat's one of my tips now.
We don't do the park hopper.
We spend the one day in thepark.
We go back, we go to the hotel,we get changed, we go to the
pool, we relax.
(21:51):
Then we go back out.
You would have to go back outto the same park that you
visited that day or go to DisneySprings.
It's a good way to save money.
Or go to Disney Springs.
It's a good way to save money.
The other thing you got todecide is are you going to get a
park pass for every single day?
And usually you go, yeah, allright, if you're there for four
days.
You got four parks.
You're going to want a parkpass for every single day If
(22:11):
you're there six or seven days.
Do you want to go back to theMagic Kingdom for a third day?
You want to go back to theMagic Kingdom for a third day.
Do you want to go back to Epcot?
The past trip, just Lisa, kaylaand I went back out to the park
.
Yeah, we just went to Epcot forthe morning.
Two other party members, lukeand Megan.
They stayed at the hotel andhad fun on Bay Lake, so they
(22:35):
didn't need a park pass the lastday.
So figure out, maybe you'restaying six or seven days, maybe
day seven You're not going togo to the park, you're going to
hang out the pool.
Maybe go to Disney Springs.
You know that'll save you somemoney.
And then the final thing, as Ido recommend that you get the
money.
The Disney memory maker it's$185.
(22:56):
Sounds the Disney memory maker?
It's $185.
Sounds like a lot.
It's for your entire stay.
It's for every member in yourparty and what it does is it
gets you pictures.
You get the.
You get all the pictures fromall the rides.
You get you know you can.
You could go with the Disneyphoto path.
Photographers are inside theparks.
You get all the pictures youwant you have to take.
It's $185.
Sounds a little expensive.
(23:23):
I think it's worth it.
Yeah, you're taking picturesalong the way, but I like the
pictures on the rides.
I like the pictures in the park.
They take good pictures, so Idon't mind shelling out for $185
.
So, in summary, for the parkpasses, decide how many days
you're going to go.
Keep in mind the longer youstay, the cheaper it is per day.
I don't recommend Park Hopper.
I just think it's not going tobe worth it and you're probably
(23:44):
tired and you might as well goback and enjoy the pool,
especially if it's hot.
You're going to want to be atthe pool, not at another park.
That'll save you some money.
Oh, one other thing I forgot.
You can add the water parks for$70 per person.
I wouldn't do that.
If you decide to go to thewater parks, buy your water park
ticket that day when you'rethere.
But anyway, get the MemoryMaker and decide again do you
(24:10):
need a park pass for everysingle day you're there?
And that's it from episode 31.
I'm back.
You got a good review on whento plan your Disney World trip.
Hotels Even talked aboutdiscounting, how to get some yep
(24:34):
, some all-important discountsat Disney, because it's so
freaking expensive these days,and it also gave me some tips on
purchasing your passes for yourtrip.
I think I'll come back in abouttwo weeks or so with episode 32
, which will be a review oneating around the world.
(24:57):
So thanks for listening, thanksfor stopping by and thanks for
going on that ride with me.