November 17, 2025 • 54 mins
A nervous dad, two small kids, and a head full of Six Flags memories walk into Hollywood Studios—and everything changes on Slinky Dog Dash. We invited fellow creator Jarrett to share the real story of taking a young family to Walt Disney World after decades away: planning paralysis, stroller logistics, and the unexpected magic of cast members who turn chaos into calm.
We dig into the moment Galaxy’s Edge flipped a switch and turned a four year old's casual curiosity into full-on Star Wars fandom, from Kylo Ren’s patrol to a life-changing meet with Darth Vader. You’ll hear how a simple popcorn bucket became crisis control, why Pop Century and the Skyliner are clutch for parents, and how to balance the urge to “do it all” with strategies that keep toddlers regulated and adults sane. We also talk food realities when kids only want pizza and chicken strips, plus why Disneyland’s snack scene and walkable layout might be the next best move.
Then we stack parks against a Disney cruise: built-in childcare, stress-free dining, and slower rhythms versus kinetic wonder, character moments, and confidence-building rides. Jarrett shares what he’d do differently next time, how to time shorter Magic Kingdom days around party nights, and why the best plan is sometimes to plan less. Whether you’re choosing between cruise or castle, or plotting both, you’ll get practical tips, candid takeaways, and a reminder that the right moment often finds you when you stop forcing it.
If this helped your planning brain unclench, follow the show, share it with a Disney-loving friend, and leave a quick review so more families can find us.
You can find Jarrett at jswordsmith.com and on Instagram and Threads at @js_wordsmith.
----
Adventures & Mousecapades is a passion project from Alicea & Nathan Novak - two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse. We are not affiliated with Disney, nor are we travel agents. Opinions are our own.
Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Twitter: @ourmousecapades
OurMousecapades.com
podcast@ourmousecapades.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:03):
Please stand clear of the doors.
Please stand clear of the doors.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicia.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
I'm Nathan.
I'm Jarrett.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Welcome to episode 203 of Adventures and Mouse
Capades.
This week we are joined byJarrett, writer, podcaster, and
kind of person who says yes tomy random ask on threads.
Bold.
SPEAKER_03 (00:41):
Bold move, Cotton.
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
Jarrett hasn't been to Disney World since he was a
kiddo.
The last time he went, characterdining was filmed on camcorders,
and FastPass was just a twinklein Tomorrowland's eye.
SPEAKER_03 (00:54):
Fast forward to 2025.
Jarrett, his wife, and two youngkiddos tackled a Disney cruise
earlier this year and morerecently stayed at Pop Century
and visited Hollywood Studiosand Magic Kingdom.
We wanted to chat with Jarrettand see how their first family
trip to Walt Disney World went.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Welcome, Jarrett.
Hi, thank you.
And uh congratulations onbreaking the 200 mark.
SPEAKER_03 (01:19):
Yeah.
Our own stick to itiveness andstubbornness has seen us
through.
Exactly.
Somebody was asking me the otherday, like, we were we have this
trip coming up and all theseother things, and they're like,
you could just skip a week,right?
I was like, well, yeah, we don'thave any sponsors or or you know
any other monetary things on theline.
(01:39):
But um, I have promised myselfthat we're gonna put out a
episode every week, and I'mgonna be darned if after 200
episodes I'm gonna screw thatup.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So Yeah.
It's crazy how that consistencyas a content creator really
builds up.
Yes, it does.
I totally understand it.
SPEAKER_03 (01:56):
If only if only we could do the same thing with our
social media posts.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Maybe someday it will happen.
Maybe.
Maybe.
All right, let's let's dive in.
Um first off, who was in yourtraveling party?
SPEAKER_01 (02:15):
Uh my wife, myself, and my four almost
five-year-old, his birthday isin 20 days, 25 days.
No.
unknown (02:25):
Sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (02:25):
Soon.
21 days.
Yeah.
Soon.
And then my two and a half yearold.
SPEAKER_03 (02:30):
We know this was your first time back to Disney
World in quite a while.
How about for your wife?
Did she grow up going to theparks?
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Uh she did not grow up, but she did go more recently
than myself.
Okay.
Uh, I think she said she was sixor seven.
SPEAKER_03 (02:46):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Got it.
SPEAKER_03 (02:47):
And you were uh toddler, is that right?
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
I found pictures after we got back, which I wish
I had looked at beforehand.
And I think the date on it putsme at three years old.
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (02:59):
Okay.
So obviously, core memories, youremember every single thing you
did, all the snacks.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (03:06):
Space Mountain was amazing back then.
I remember things, but I feellike it was the video that I
watched and the pictures that Iwatched.
SPEAKER_02 (03:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
I even found the picture that is that core
memory, and it is not the samecharacter that I thought it was.
Oh wow.
So um, you know, I don'tremember much about it at all.
Got it.
Got it.
Well, we we won't hold thatagainst you.
Yeah.
It was nice because it was kindof like a fresh, like I had no I
mean, I was super intimidatedwhen we decided we were gonna do
(03:39):
this, and I had nowhere, no ideawhere to start and stuff, but it
was all kind of a blank slatesince I hadn't been there since
I was tiny.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
Yeah, it's it's a lot too.
SPEAKER_03 (03:49):
Well, that that's actually kind of a a good kind
of segue.
Did you do any planning ahead oftime?
Did you like book dining or dolightning lings or anything, or
was it more just like vibes andstroller navigation?
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Um, my wife did all the planning.
She's amazing at you know,getting us these super amazing
vacations.
Um she spent weeks on TikTok,Instagram, figuring out the best
things to do.
Yeah.
I was paralyzed by fear becauseI didn't have any idea where to
(04:21):
even start.
Um it felt very intimidating forme.
Like I wasn't even reallyinterested.
I wasn't dying to go to theparks at all, even though we
have some friends who have kidsthat are similar age and they've
been like three times already.
SPEAKER_02 (04:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
Um, like uh their daughter is a month older than
my oldest son.
But I was just kind of paralyzedby fear.
I didn't even know where tostart, how to look, what to do
for a you know, two-year-old, afour-year-old.
I didn't even think my youngestwas old enough to go and enjoy
it, but uh, we made it happen,and my wife did an amazing job
(04:56):
planning.
We flip-flopped on which parkswe were gonna go for a long
time.
And I know like maybe a week ortwo before, she saw a video
about the lines are super shortwhen there's an event uh the
Magic Kingdom, like when theyshut for the day.
And so we ended up like the weekbefore just switching which ones
we were gonna go to because wedidn't want to wait in line and
(05:18):
stuff, and it worked out prettywell.
SPEAKER_03 (05:20):
Nice.
Yeah, I mean, there's a fewlines that are gonna be long all
the time, but typically ifthere's an after hours event,
like a uh not so scary Halloweenparty or the the Christmas
party, they close the park tothe Magic Kingdom park to day
guest around six o'clock.
Yep.
And so you don't get that fullday experience.
(05:41):
But honestly, for for youngkids, sometimes if you're
hitting rope drop, you know, youget towards dinner time and
they're kind of done anyway, orat least you may be done.
Um, and but those days aremarkedly reduced or not
capacity, but there's not asmany people in in those parks
because it is a shorter day.
(06:02):
So that's awesome that you wereable to take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
Yeah.
Uh we missed out because I thinkmy wife was really set on having
the kids see the fireworks abovethe castle.
Uh but but by the time I mean werolled out of the park about 4
p.m., maybe 4 30.
It had been raining on us for awhile.
Uh we were kind of tired andmiserable.
My four-year-old was being veryuh I'm trying to think of the
(06:29):
right word.
Everything we were asking him todo, he would not do and throw a
big fight about, like go to thebathroom or eat.
Uh so we were kind of done, andI think it worked out perfect,
even though we did miss thosefireworks.
Uh we had a, you know, I hadenough, and I was very my cup
was very full.
SPEAKER_03 (06:45):
Well, you gotta leave something for next time.
SPEAKER_00 (06:48):
Right.
So you all stayed at uh PopCentury.
What made that the resort ofchoice?
SPEAKER_01 (06:55):
Uh that would be a better question for my wife.
But I think it was mostly it wasone of the cheaper resorts that
was on property.
I think we just decided wedidn't want to deal with
transportation with a two andfour four-year-old.
Yeah.
And Pop Century provided so muchadequate transportation to the
(07:16):
parks and stuff where we weren'tgonna have to worry about car
seats and Ubers.
We also, uh one of my son'steachers last year is a Disney
fanatic and she's been to theparks multiple times, and she
told my wife that it was herfavorite resort that she stayed
at.
So nice.
SPEAKER_03 (07:31):
Well that that always helps to have the the
inside knowledge there.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
And I we both when she showed it to me, that was
one of the few videos that Icould like sit through and not
get, you know, panic strickenbefore we went.
I felt like it had a lot ofcharacter, a lot more than some
of the other ones that we hadseen.
And it was just a nice change upcompared to some of the other
places that we've been with thekids and stuff.
So awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (07:56):
You've talked a little bit about you know the
the the fear in your eyes, youknow, ahead of this trip.
Talk about the the trip itselfcompared to those expectations.
Did anything really likecompletely surprise you?
Did it was it scary in the end?
It sounds like we had somemeltdowns, but that's kind of
like your average day with atoddler and a and a young kiddo
(08:19):
anyway.
So for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Expectations.
It's kind of str a strangefeeling because my lack of
experience with the parks.
I grew up in East Texas.
We were about an hour and a halfaway from Six Flags Over Texas,
and so that's you know, myamusement park experience.
We I went there quite a lot.
SPEAKER_02 (08:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
I was expecting a little bit more like that, where
it was just roller coaster,roller coaster, roller coaster.
And I I think this also has todo with having a two-year-old
who's not gonna meet many of theheight requirements.
Right.
You know, we didn't get to do awhole lot of those roller
coasters, but we did Peter Pan,it's a small world.
I wasn't expecting those type ofrides as much.
(09:02):
So I'm not sure that my I don'twant to say like my thrill meter
got met.
Sure.
It wasn't exactly what I wasexpecting.
And not in a bad way, but itdidn't leave me with that
feeling of uh going to anamusement park.
SPEAKER_02 (09:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:21):
However, afterwards, like I'm still Jones and I'm
ready to go back, my son wantsto go to Disneyland now, uh, we
want to do another cruise, youknow.
It yeah, it's an it's a strangefeeling because I had fun,
wasn't exactly what I wasexpecting, and it kind of left
me a little disappointed in acertain way, but I'm still my
feeds are all Disney now, likeeverything's on there, and I'm
(09:43):
like, oh man, I gotta go backand try that.
I gotta go back and try that.
We gotta go do this.
SPEAKER_03 (09:47):
Yeah, I could see how you know, with that six
flags experience, yeah, Disneydoesn't Disney has very fun
rides, very, but nothing'sextreme.
You know, if you want to go toextreme and if you're in central
Florida, you're going to uhUniversal Park.
(10:08):
Yeah.
You know, if you want to goextreme and you're in um
Southern California, you're Imean, actually, Knott's Berry
Farm has some incrediblecoasters.
Um but but that's probably moreclassic six flagsian I just
moved up an adverb or no addwhatever.
Um grammar.
(10:29):
My mom's gonna kill me theformer librarian.
Anyhow, sorry, mom.
Um it yeah, it Disney, it's adifferent level, but I think it
it does cater to those families.
It gives us even as adults somespice here and there with some
stuff, but it's just moreapproachable.
And I think there's so much elsegoing on in the parks in terms
(10:53):
of kind of the vibes and theatmosphere and everything else
that it makes up for that lackof like it's just it's just
different.
It is a different kind of fun.
SPEAKER_00 (11:03):
It's it's uh I've heard it's called a theme park
rather than an uh amusementpark.
SPEAKER_01 (11:10):
That makes sense.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:13):
Was there was there a moment that felt especially
magical or um or emotional foryou or the kids?
SPEAKER_01 (11:23):
Yes, but so uh the very first thing we did once we
got into one the parks, we wentto Hollywood Studios first.
SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
Uh we had I don't think we necessarily c planned
it.
Like we originally wanted torope drop and get in there, but
uh the night before we had readthe rode the skyliner with the
kids just to kind of prep them,and somebody was telling us,
Hey, little kids, you know,you're probably not gonna want
to wake up super early, get inthe long line for the skyliner,
(11:54):
get in the long lines of ofthat.
So we kind of took it easy thatmorning, but we still got there,
I want to say around 7 45 or 8.
SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (12:02):
So we still got in there, we rushed a Slinky Dog.
Uh the Slinky Dog Dash, becausewe've heard that one fills up
fast and it's a fun one.
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:10):
When we got into line, we were very far back
because I don't think they hadeven opened the ride yet, and we
didn't know that.
So we got in line.
I was pushing a double strollerwith both kids in it, and uh we
realized that we couldn't be ina line with the stroller, right?
Like that's and I knew that,like I knew we weren't gonna go
(12:31):
around, but I felt like as soonas I showed up with that
stroller, one of the castmembers was like, Hey, let me
take you over here, we'll handleyour stroller and stuff.
And so she helped me.
I pushed the stroller over,wasn't smart about it, and the
kids were still in the strolleras I was pushing it to the
station.
The parking, yeah.
Yeah.
(12:51):
And so once we got them out andthe cast member like parked the
stroller for me, we walked backand they had opened the line, so
my wife was nowhere to be seenanymore because she had gotten
through the stuff, and I wasjust like, Oh my gosh, what are
we gonna do?
Like, I don't want to just takeboth of these kids, you know,
holding them, uh, pushingthrough everybody in line.
(13:12):
Right.
And so I'm trying to text her,I'm holding the kids, a cast
member comes over and he's like,Are you okay?
And I explain the situation.
They were like, Okay, well,we'll just take you to the
front.
When you see her, you know, youcan jump in line.
And that was awesome.
Yeah.
I'm already kind of feelingpretty uh, you know, man, that
would never happen at Six Flags.
Right.
(13:32):
You know, it hadn't happenedwhen I was a teenager and going
to theme parks all the time oramusement parks.
Then uh we get up there, and mys my oldest has never really
ridden a whole lot of rollercoasters.
Um they don't have Six FlagsAstro World, which is in Houston
and our area anymore.
We did take him to like a countyfair and he rode one ride that
(13:52):
just kind of went in a loop.
It had a little bit of a hill.
And I think one of the kidsactually like broke the ride in
the middle, so he got stuck fora little bit.
Oh no.
And then he came back, and so hedidn't have much experience.
But when we got to the front andhe saw all Slinky Dog and all
the cars and all the people, hestarted to panic.
(14:16):
And he's like, I don't want todo it, I don't want to do it.
Um, I want to go back to thehotel.
And so, like, I'm holding him,I'm explaining to him we can't
just leave mom in line.
Right.
Let's wait for mom to get up tothe front, and she can take our
two-year-old on the ride.
Um, and I'll I'll sit here withyou.
SPEAKER_02 (14:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
And so he's still like he's in a bad mood, he
doesn't want to do it.
I've been down to try to uhconsole him, and my two-year-old
takes off.
And so I go and chase mytwo-year-old and get him back,
bring him back to the front, andthen my four-year-old,
five-year-old is starting to,you know, he's still kind of
(14:57):
whining, my two-year-old'sfighting, everybody's just it's
not a good time at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (15:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
I'm like, what have we done?
Some of the cast members againcome over and I was like, Hey,
can you talk to my oldest totell him this ride's not gonna
be bad, there's nothing to bescared about, and they did.
We ended up waiting maybe 25minutes, I think.
Um just the three of us, andagain, every time I'm focusing
on one, the other one's runningoff.
And finally, my wife gets up andmy four-year-old, like, I'm
(15:25):
holding him, I'm like, and he'sscreaming, I don't want to go, I
don't want to go.
And I was like, Okay, okay.
I don't know if this makes me agood parent or a bad parent, but
I put him on the ride andbuckled him in.
Yeah, because I knew that if hetried it, he would have fun.
He just has to get over thathump.
SPEAKER_02 (15:42):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (15:42):
And he he was kind of panicking.
I let him hold my hand.
I was like, squeeze as hard asyou can, you're gonna be okay.
Yeah.
As soon as the ride startedmoving, his face went and he was
having so much fun.
Awesome.
And that just kind of, you know,it was a moment.
Uh I actually recorded our facesthe whole time too, so I can,
(16:03):
you know, send you that photo,but or that video.
But he had so much fun, and assoon as we got off, he's like, I
want to do it again.
But by that time, the line hadgotten to like 45 minutes long,
and so we moved on.
But after that, every ride thatwe did, he would put up a huge
fight, we'd make him ride it,and then he'd be like, I want to
do it again.
SPEAKER_00 (16:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:21):
So like it was it was a good experience.
I had so much fun just watchinghim, you know, lighten up,
enjoying something new.
The second day, uh, my wife toldhim about Space Mountain, and he
he's like, Let's go, let's doit.
I want to go right now.
And he wrote it and loved it.
And uh, you know, he definitelychanged and kind of overcame a
(16:44):
little bit of fear, and I thinkthat's gonna help him, you know,
not just for that, but for life.
So it was a really cool moment.
SPEAKER_05 (16:50):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
And it was really cool to have all the cast
members, you know, talk to usand try to help us.
And it was a differentexperience than I was used to at
that this kind of situation.
SPEAKER_03 (16:59):
Yeah.
Yeah, we've had we've had lotsof moments like that.
Um our daughter was deathlyafraid of costume characters.
And uh yeah, like the marinermoose was like when she was
really little.
And then finally she was it wasfour.
(17:19):
She's four or five, same similarage as as your oldest.
And we did a Mickey meet andgreet.
I think it was in HollywoodStudios, I don't think it exists
anymore.
And we were putting our bagsdown, and Caitlin, our daughter,
got beckoned over by sorcererMickey, and she was very timid.
(17:42):
And then we went to after we'reputting our stuff down, we went
to approach and Mickey just heldhis hand up and said, Stop, I've
got this.
And they had a wholeinteraction, and Caitlin's fear
and all the rest of that stuffjust completely melted, and it
was off to the races and everylike all the characters all the
time from then on.
It was it was pretty magical.
(18:04):
The the cast members at Disney,whether it's on a ride or
character attendance or friendswith the characters or guest
services, or like they just knowhow to take care of people in
those situations.
And the the one thing that Iwant to stress for for us
parents and for all the parentswho are who are listening to
(18:24):
this or who are thinking aboutgoing to a park for the first
time, we've all had kids gothrough this stuff.
Everybody except like nobody'ssurprised, and nobody's judging
you as a parent when your kiddohas a meltdown.
It's gonna happen, and we allhave the utmost sympathy for
you.
This isn't the airplane whereyou're getting sneers and jeers,
(18:47):
right?
This is just like, oh, I've beenI wish I could help you.
Yeah.
And the cast members know how tohelp you through that stuff, and
you experience that, and thatmakes me so happy that you got
that experience because that ispretty magical.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
Yeah.
And we've we've had somethingvery similar with with our son
as well.
He'd been on roller coasterswhen he was younger, and
actually, even up to I thinkage, oh gosh, how old was he?
Um, nine or ten.
You know, we go to Disney a lot,and he rides these rides a lot.
And then he didn't want to go onBig Thunder Mountain Railroad.
(19:25):
Like he's like, he was freakingout about it.
Like we were in the line, he washe was ready to go, and then we
got up to the front, he's like,I don't know, I I can't do this,
I don't want to go on this.
We sat down on it, and I'm like,you've been on this before.
You've been on this multipletimes.
And me just saying that justgave a switch for him.
He's like, oh yeah, I've donethis, I'm okay.
(19:47):
And it's kids.
I don't know what goes throughtheir heads.
We we know our kids though, andlike you knew that he didn't
join this, yeah.
Just putting him on there.
And yeah, we know what's we knowwhat's gonna work for them.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
We're gonna have to plan different for the rest of
the time.
SPEAKER_03 (20:07):
So But child psychology is a thing, man.
SPEAKER_01 (20:12):
Man, I'm so tired of it as a stay-at-home dad.
SPEAKER_00 (20:16):
How did your kids react to the parks?
Were they were they wide-eyedwith wonder or were they just in
it for the snacks?
SPEAKER_01 (20:27):
Uh my four-year-old, I want to say he started with
some trepidation because we hadnever really done it.
Yeah.
Um also being first timers, wedidn't know our way around
Hollywood studios.
So I kind of just followed thecrowd because I'm pushing the
stroller.
Um, my wife, I think, was tryingto find the directions to get to
Slinky Dog Dash.
(20:47):
But we ended up going throughGalaxy's Edge first.
Uh, and that opened up my eyesand my four-year-old's eyes.
Like he he likes liked StarWars.
Like, he never watched themovies, but he's seen a couple
of the cartoons.
He's had lightsabers.
I don't know if it's a nationalchange, I don't remember, but
(21:09):
Party City, uh, they had lots ofcostumes.
They went out of business and wewent, we picked up, you know,
two, three dollar costumes, andwe got him like a Darth Vader
one.
Nice.
Uh he never wore it.
But uh we went through there andhe something clicked, and he
just was like, I oh Star Wars,this is amazing, these
(21:29):
starships, and blah blah blah.
So while we were doing SlinkyDog, like after we were done,
he's like, I want to go to seeStar Wars, and like he just
really kind of dove into it.
Yeah.
And I think that was reallycool.
And again, for me, just kind ofgoing through and seeing like an
X-Wing or you know, the droidsthere, I was like, wow, this is
this is something I've neverexperienced before, and it's
(21:52):
very you know, very touching tome because I grew up with Star
Wars and love it.
SPEAKER_03 (21:56):
Yeah, you're like two-year-old?
We feel the same way, buddy.
Like, we're there.
Oh my gosh, that's theMillennium Falcon.
Holy crap.
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
Uh my two-year-old, I don't think he he was just
he's a good natured, easy to go,easy going boy.
I he was just like along for theride.
He was having a good time.
He didn't express a whole lot ofanything.
Um But he was loving it.
Every ride that I took both ofthem on, they were like, again,
again, I want to do it again.
(22:26):
So I think they really, reallyloved it.
But I don't also don't thinksince we hadn't really discussed
it much, um, I don't think theyhad much preconceived ideas for
it.
The only experience they reallyhad was the cruise that we went
on in February, and uh they'venever been to an amusement park
(22:47):
or anything.
We didn't tell them until themorning we left what was
happening.
I kind of I mean part of it wasbecause we didn't want them
asking, are we going tomorrow?
Or are we you know when do wego?
SPEAKER_03 (22:58):
You have to look out for your own sanity.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
Yeah, but I also didn't help prep them to know
what they were gonna be excitedfor as well.
SPEAKER_02 (23:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Yeah.
But uh I think they they lovedit.
I asked my son when you knowwhen we came home, did you like
that or did you like the cruisebetter?
He's like, Disney World.
It was amazing.
I want to go to Disneyland next.
Like he wants to invite all hisfriends, and so he had a really
good time.
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
So we we've talked a little bit about the the
interactions you guys had atSlinky Dog.
Was there any like charactermoments that really stood out to
you with with the boys?
SPEAKER_01 (23:37):
So we did the first day at Hollywood, we did uh
character dining for lunch.
SPEAKER_02 (23:43):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
And we uh rolled up into the restaurant, we sat
down, and the kids both went forthe knives and started playing
with them, and it kind of droveme crazy.
But that doesn't have anythingto do with we were told that
Goofy was coming in like fourminutes.
Okay, and so we'd been at thepark, we're like, all right, we
(24:06):
gotta go take care of businessreal quick.
I need my son to pee.
He hasn't peed since we left thehotel at 6:30 in the morning.
We need to wash hands and stufflike that.
And so I took the oldest first,and we came back, and then my
wife took the younger one, andwhile they were gone, Goofy did
show up.
Uh and so we're taking pictures,uh, I'm taking pictures with my
oldest and Goofy.
SPEAKER_02 (24:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:28):
And I was just like, man, he's gonna be so sad that
he missed it, my wife.
And Goofy was just kind of likemotioning to me that he'll come
back.
SPEAKER_02 (24:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:38):
And like that restaurant was packed.
There were so many differentsections, and he did come back
when my my youngest showed backup and he took pictures with
everybody again.
And nice.
I know that was just a reallycool moment that they went out
of their way to make sure thateverybody there got, you know,
some time with them.
That's number one.
Uh, number two, after wefinished Toy Storyland, we went
(25:01):
to the Star Wars section becausemy oldest was asking to go back
to Star Wars.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:06):
We got like front row seats for the Kylo Wren uh
thing where he comes out of theship and he's looking for the
Rebel spy.
That's cool.
Loved that.
Uh that started really gettingmy son invested in Star Wars.
And then that afternoon, hewanted I wanted to go meet Darth
Vader, and it was like one ofthe last ones.
And my son was like, DarthVader, I want to meet Darth
(25:29):
Vader.
And uh we couldn't figure outhow to get to him.
Like we saw him walk past us,and then he walked back and he
went to the section that lookedroped off, and we didn't know
how to do it.
So he and I went and rode startours.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (25:47):
Uh while my wife stayed with the youngest who
fell asleep in the stroller.
And then we came back and shewas in line to meet Darth Vader,
and so we did that.
And ever since that moment, myson has been all Star Wars all
the time.
In fact, while I was sittinghere in the closet, I found his
toy lightsaber hidden in myclothes.
(26:09):
He has worn his costume justabout every day.
He wore it three days in a rowfor Halloween, like to his
schools.
SPEAKER_03 (26:17):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_01 (26:17):
Uh anytime he goes out and plays with our neighbor
kids, we have a bunch of kids inour cul-de-sac.
He puts on his Darth Vaderoutfit and goes out there with
his lightsaber.
And we have since watched the uhoriginal Star Wars, and we
started Empire Strikes back lastnight, and they are just Darth
Vader! Darth Vader's on thescreen! They're stormtroopers.
So you know he it helps himdevelop a love for something
(26:42):
which I'm just so excited forhim because he he loves it and I
love it, and we can bond on it,and I'm really hoping we can
make it through Empire Strikesback before it gets spoiled for
him because he does not know allthe stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (26:54):
Yeah.
Well, just man, if he's reallylatched onto Darth Vader, just
watch out for Return of theJedi.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
We're gonna put that one off for a while.
SPEAKER_03 (27:04):
Yeah, good call.
Good call.
We ended up watching uh RogueOne uh on a Disney cruise uh uh
uh premiere at sea, and uhSterling was about that age, our
son, and he latched on, justlike absolutely fell in love
with K2SO.
And then, you know, threequarters through the movie, all
(27:27):
of a sudden I had a verydistraught four and a half or
five-year-old next to me in themiddle of that uh the Walt
Disney Theater, and um that wasa little rough for a few
minutes.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:38):
Yeah, not looking forward to that one.
We're gonna go maybe watch uhReturn or Empire and then go
back to maybe one and two andthen all as long as we can.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
There's all the animated stuff too, which will
um help with those.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
What was your uh what was your strategy for
managing two littles in theparks?
Uh did you have any tricks ofthe trade, or did you just rely
on caffeine and optimism?
SPEAKER_01 (28:10):
Um besides my four-year-old's like
oppositional behavior when itcomes to bathroom and food, he's
actually both kids are prettygood, especially when we take
them on these types of things.
So basically we just took thestroller.
We kinda we didn't necessarilylet my oldest guide the way, but
(28:31):
we would ask for his input, likewhat kind of things he wanted to
do.
Yeah.
We'd be like, hey, we could gosee uh Pirates of the Caribbean
or Haunted Mansion, do and thenhe'd pick one and we'd go.
Other than that, we bought apopcorn bucket on the cruise and
brought it and filled it upevery time things started going
a little haywire.
Ah, nice.
Uh we also on our full day atHollywood, we planned a midday
(28:55):
break to go back to the hoteland relax and take naps, and the
only person that ended upsleeping was my wife, and the
kids were going crazy.
So it was funny when we wentback to meet Darth Vader,
because we went after that naptime.
My youngest fell asleep in thestroller after, you know, an
hour of in the hotel hoping hewould nap and he didn't, then he
finally fell asleep.
(29:16):
Uh but uh other than that, wedid take a couple of toys with
us for those times we did haveto wait in line.
Uh my four-year-old loves towrite things like he I don't
understand how he's alreadystarting to read, but he's
already reading, he's writing.
Uh so my wife had gotten them alittle goodie bag of a bunch of
(29:40):
Disney stuff that we gave himwhen we got to Pop Century and
had a whiteboard in there that'slike Mickey themed.
And he would just sit there andwrite, and you know uh like when
we were on the Skyliner, he sawthe sign that says Disney
Skyliner and he just startedwriting it out.
Whenever we were waiting inline, he'd find things around
that he could.
Write out and draw, or he wouldwrite Skyliner again.
(30:04):
And then we had a uh Woody fromToy Story Doll for my other one.
And then other than that, wejust try to keep them fed, you
know, get them to drink a drinkevery once in a while, because
they'll forget to do that too.
But uh they they were good.
We I think, like I said, my wifeplanned everything so well we
didn't have to wait in too manylines.
I don't think we waited longerthan maybe 30 minutes for any
(30:27):
ride.
SPEAKER_03 (30:27):
Nice.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
Yeah.
So uh she did a great jobplanning, and then we had the
toys to distract them when theywere in line.
And other than that, they weregood except when we told them to
eat or go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_03 (30:42):
I love I love the term oppositional behavior.
Yes.
That's that's coin that.
That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (30:50):
Uh at Magic Kingdom, we rode a bunch of rides, and it
was getting to be like 10:30,11.
We'd been there for a while, andwe passed the bathroom, and we
were like, hey, this is a goodchance.
Do you need to go to thebathroom?
No, I don't need to go.
I don't want to go.
Okay.
You don't have to make a bigdeal out of it.
Uh we went to the magic carpetride for Aladdin, and he didn't
(31:12):
want to ride that one, so I tookmy youngest, and then he decided
he did want to ride it, so hejumped in line, and then as soon
as he got in line, he starteddoing the I Gotta Pee dance.
He's like, I gotta go pee.
That was like within 10 minutesof us stopping.
So it was just stuff like thatthe entire time, it felt like.
Yeah.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (31:29):
Kids.
Yay.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
And I hope he listens to this when he's older
and realizes how much you put methrough.
SPEAKER_03 (31:38):
Uh well, speaking of of uh memories from uh from
childhood, you mentioned notreally remembering hardly
anything from from your lasttrip.
Did anything feel vaguelyfamiliar or spark a memory?
SPEAKER_01 (31:52):
The I mean, just the character dining, really.
SPEAKER_03 (31:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
Uh just because the kids were doing exactly what I
was doing in the pictures inthat video.
SPEAKER_02 (32:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:02):
Uh like I said, I did find a bunch of pictures
after we got back, and I haveone of my brother holding me,
because my brother was 11 yearsolder than me.
SPEAKER_02 (32:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
Um, he was holding me up in front of the castle and
took a really cool picture, andI really wish that I had seen
that beforehand so that we couldhave recreated that with you
know me holding my son or youknow, something, or all of us in
that same spot.
That would have been prettymagical too.
Yeah.
But it means we just gotta goback.
(32:32):
Exactly.
Oh no.
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
How did the park stack up for you?
Were there any favorites or anynever-again moments?
SPEAKER_01 (32:44):
There were no never-again moments.
Um I don't want to say I was letdown like I mentioned earlier.
It was a weird feeling.
I really enjoyed the Star Warssection and Hollywood and Toy
Story, and you know, the more weexplored it, the more we
realized we kind of missed out.
You know, we if we could goback, I would do some things
(33:06):
different.
However, I was expecting morerides, kind of like we talked
about.
And it didn't even have to belike super exhilarating rides.
I was just expected more thantwo things in Star Wars and
three things in Toy Story.
Yep.
Um But then when you go toMagical Kingdom and there's a
lot more rides, I wasn'texpecting the story kind of
(33:27):
rides.
SPEAKER_05 (33:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:29):
So it was a very, very weird, like I already
mentioned, like I wasn't letdown, it wasn't what I was
expecting.
I had fun, but not as much funin it.
Like I wasn't I was expecting tobe to feel magical the entire
time.
Yeah.
And that's not necessarily thecase.
Uh but again, the algorithm onall my feeds and just that
(33:52):
desire to go back, like it'salready there.
And I'm gonna be interested tosee if we do go back and the
kids are older how that feelingchanges.
Because we'll definitely be ableto approach things differently,
because we'll be able to ridemore rides, because they'll be
taller and you know, do somethings.
SPEAKER_03 (34:11):
Something definitely does change about that whole
experience when you go fromkeeping your kids alive mode,
which I think you're still kindof in, to more of a uh like
experiencing with it with them.
So when they're in that likeeight and above kind of range,
(34:34):
like the the that Disney magicreally is magical to them and
they just experience everythingand it's fantastic.
And then, you know, you can keepgoing and they get a little
older, and all of a sudden theyget some independence and things
like that.
And you know, you can you can goto a lounge and enjoy a a beer
(34:56):
and a really nice churro whilethey go ride like Pandora or
something like that over AnimalKingdom, and that's really
fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (35:05):
I was thinking that like uh I was talking to my
wife, I was like, can youimagine going back there where
we don't have to corral thekids?
Like they can go off on theirown?
Like, I don't even know what Iwould do.
SPEAKER_03 (35:16):
There's lots now.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
There's yeah, give us a call.
SPEAKER_03 (35:19):
We'll we have suggestions.
So you also did a Disney cruisethis year earlier.
Uh how did that compare to theparks for you guys in terms of
chaos versus relaxation?
SPEAKER_01 (35:35):
The cruise was much more relaxing.
SPEAKER_02 (35:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:39):
We had a uh we had a friend that went with us that
kind of helped corral the kidswhen we needed a little bit of a
break.
Yeah.
But also the kids' club, and uhwe my two-year-old wasn't even
two at the time when we went, soyou know, we did the I don't
remember what it was called, butwhere we the baby can go take
(36:00):
away.
Yeah, the the nursery.
Yep.
The nursery, yeah.
Um I definitely felt like it wasmore relaxing for me, but also
when we ate, you didn't have toworry about spending$200 on a
character dinner or how muchthat churro that really looks
(36:21):
good is gonna be, because youcould just go to the buffet and
be like, oh I'm gonna, you know,fill up on these.
SPEAKER_04 (36:26):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
Uh we still had fun.
It was again lots of waitingaround for character meetings
and stuff, and my son was waytoo scared and probably too
small to ride the the slides.
SPEAKER_05 (36:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:39):
Um but we did do the uh the pool, which you know he
loved.
I hated because I've got kickedin the stomach or lower multiple
times just sitting there byrandom kids, not even my own.
SPEAKER_03 (36:51):
Sure.
It's kid soup.
Uh uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (36:54):
It's kid soup.
I was trying to remember whatyou called it.
I listened to one of thoseepisodes the other day.
Um but kid soup.
I personally like the cruise alittle bit better at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (37:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:06):
But my son was like, oh yeah, Disneyland.
100%.
Like it was way or Disney World,excuse me.
SPEAKER_03 (37:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:12):
What ship were you on?
We were on the magic.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (37:16):
We actually, in in uh uh as we record this, they
just announced some FAA flightrestrictions.
So uh in theory, we fly out onMonday to to get to Puerto Rico
to get on the magic.
But uh the good news is we haveuh uh uh three three and a half,
four days to get there becausethe cruise doesn't leave until
Friday.
So we have flexibility.
(37:38):
We'll we'll figure it outsomewhere somehow.
SPEAKER_01 (37:41):
Y'all have cruised on the magic before, correct?
Or no?
SPEAKER_00 (37:44):
Fifteen years ago.
SPEAKER_01 (37:45):
Fifteen years ago.
SPEAKER_03 (37:46):
It's been a hot minute.
Uh it's been through multiplerefurbishments and all sorts of
stuff.
So um yeah, we're we're excited.
So I'm guessing you went out uhwent uh out of Galveston then?
Correct.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice.
We're actually the cruise we'reon is going from San Juan,
Puerto Rico to Galveston.
It's the repositioning cruise.
So we'll wave when we get intown.
(38:09):
And then go go.
Yeah, let me know.
SPEAKER_01 (38:10):
If you need a ride, I can take you to some good
Mexican food.
SPEAKER_03 (38:13):
Nice.
Yeah.
Well, we may need a ride earlyto the airport or something like
that, so we can stand in the youknow 12-hour TSA line there at
the at the airport.
So yay! Anyhow, let's move on tohappier things.
SPEAKER_00 (38:28):
Do you have any tips for families doing both a cruise
and a parks trip in one year, oris there anything that you might
do differently next time?
SPEAKER_01 (38:38):
I think they're both different experiences.
So maybe judge what you need bythat time of the year.
Yeah um you know, maybe if it'sbetter for you to go in the
spring to the park, go do that.
Definitely don't go to it in thesummer though, because it's way
too hot.
Yeah.
Um if you're trying to choosebetween the two, I would maybe
(39:01):
weigh what's more important toyou, you know, the rides or the
relaxation or the you know, thebuffet versus you know, trying
to wait in line for all thoseother, you know, delicious
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (39:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:13):
Which, by the way, I don't know if we want to get
into later.
The food was m how do I putthis?
The food was my biggestdisappointment, not because of
the quality of the food, butbecause we were always in what
are these toddlers gonna eat?
Uh so we didn't get to goexplore, you know, all the good
stuff that often.
SPEAKER_03 (39:32):
Yeah, that is kind of the nice part about the
cruise is that you know they'llhave, you know, especially
thinking of main dining uh foryour dinners, they've got the
kids' menu there and they will,you know, cater to getting that
food out quickly, keeping thementertained, all the rest of
that stuff, and then you canactually have a pretty nice meal
(39:53):
uh alongside that and and nothave to do dishes and all the
rest of that stuff.
And I wouldn't say it's a freemeal, but you've you've already
paid for it, so you're notworried about that price tag at
the end of it.
Exactly.
It can get a little hectic inthe parks.
SPEAKER_00 (40:06):
Yeah, there's so many choices, and then you have
to worry about mobile orderingand then timing and all of that,
and then finding somewhere toeat.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01 (40:16):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:17):
It gets a little hectic.
SPEAKER_01 (40:19):
If I were to give parents advice for their first
time at the park, though, uh uhit's hard to say, but I would
try to say don't overplan.
Um I try to do a whole lot ofjust go with the flow, um, see
what we can do, which again,because my wife's amazing
(40:39):
planning on it, you know, wenever had to wait too long on
any lines, but I realize that'snot always the you know ideal or
the situation you can getyourself into.
SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (40:50):
Um, so I'm not really sure if I would say, hey,
take that three-year-old and gorope drop slinky dog dash at six
o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_02 (40:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
But there's there is so much to do.
You might not be exactly whatyou want to do.
Like you might want to rideroller coasters, but that hour
and a half wait to get on thatride, not gonna be the best for
your toddler, so maybe go find ashow or something instead.
There's always something thatyou can be doing.
Yeah, try not to stress toomuch.
SPEAKER_03 (41:19):
Yeah.
Um, just kind of to wrap up thissection.
What's next on your Disneyradar?
It sounds like maybe Disneylandis uh coming up uh next, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (41:31):
I think next is we're gonna do another cruise.
Nice.
Uh, we have some families thathave talked to us about it, and
a few of them read uh my reviewof the cruise that I wrote way
back in the spring.
And so they've been asking mequestions, and I was like, well,
we're thinking about doing it.
And they're like, oh really?
Can we go March, April?
You know, we haven't sat down tolook at dates because we just
(41:52):
got back from Disney World.
SPEAKER_02 (41:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:55):
Uh, but we would like to go.
I would love it if we couldexperience a different ship just
to get that experience, but I'mnot sure flying to another port
would be uh viable right now forus.
SPEAKER_02 (42:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (42:10):
So hopefully, I know that they do like a seven-day
cruise out of Galveston now thatgoes to the islands.
Uh casting what's going on.
SPEAKER_03 (42:19):
Yep, every once in a while they'll throw a seven in
there.
Um the other thing, and I knowthis doesn't help you for near
term, the kind of rumor mill andassumption mill is that they're
going to have one of the biggerships rotate over to be kind of
more semi-permanently based outof Galveston than the magic has
(42:39):
been there.
So I think you'll have anopportunity for a different um
size ship, a different um set ofexperiences.
It may be a couple years beforethat comes to fruition.
We haven't seen that hit theitineraries yet.
But yeah, um, you know,hopefully, hopefully coming
soon.
I will say yeah.
I will say though, um you guys Ithink would really enjoy
(43:03):
Disneyland.
It is a different vibe from whatyou got at Disney World.
It is you can literally it is a90-second walk between the two
parks.
Um it's just way more compact.
Um, you will you will see thatthat castle there in Disneyland
and go, oh, how cute.
SPEAKER_02 (43:24):
It's so short.
SPEAKER_03 (43:25):
What's the point?
Um, but it's just it's a muchdifferent vibe.
And I I to me, I think it's alot more laid back because it's
more of a locals vibe kind ofpark.
Um you don't have people tryingto to like maximize everything,
every single ride and all therest of the stuff.
(43:47):
And it's not that you won't getlines, it's just it's just more
relaxed.
Um I think you'll really enjoyit.
There's a lot of a lot ofgoodness there in Disneyland.
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
Well, I think the idea uh I could be talking out
of turn because we haven'tofficially discussed this, but
uh we would like to go doDisneyland, so we might do like
the cruise in the spring andthen go to Disneyland in the
fall again.
God willing, you know, thecountry's not in a civil war or
(44:18):
something like that.
Um but because you know, like Isaid, my son said as soon as he
got f done with Disney World, hewas like, I want to go to
Disneyland and I wanna we havefamily.
My brother lives in Seattle andour he has two sons.
Okay.
They're a little bit older thanmine, but my son was like, and
we can invite the cousins and wecan all go.
(44:39):
And you know, if we can makethat happen, I think that would
be an amazing trip for usbecause we haven't done much of
that.
You will love it.
SPEAKER_03 (44:47):
You will love it.
Well, Jared, it is now time forAlicia's patented Disney torture
test.
But you know, you you've you'vegot you know some podcast stuff
going on, you've got thereviews, you've been to Disney
things twice, I guesstechnically three times now.
You've got this.
But seriously, good luck, man.
Uh I'm pulling for you.
SPEAKER_01 (45:08):
May the force be with me.
SPEAKER_03 (45:10):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (45:11):
This is easy.
I'm just asking a couple of yourfavorites from um Disney, Pixar,
Star Wars, Marvel, everythingunder Mickey's umbrella.
And I'm changing it just alittle bit since you are not a
Disney regular.
But first off, is who is yourfavorite character?
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
Oh man, that's a tough one.
We've got to think about likeHan Solo, Spider-Man.
Does Spider-Man count?
No, he's in there, but he's alsoa Sony guy.
SPEAKER_03 (45:44):
Well, it's fine.
There's enough of a dotted line.
We'll we'll include them.
SPEAKER_01 (45:49):
Uh I grew up with Aladdin and Simba.
Uh we did Emperor's New Groovefor Halloween as our family
costume.
So I might have to go with Kronkbecause he's so under the radar,
I feel like.
Yes.
Uh those are a few of myfavorites, I would say.
And of course, Mickey.
SPEAKER_00 (46:06):
Of course.
Do you have a favorite Disneymovie?
SPEAKER_01 (46:11):
It would definitely be a tie between Aladdin or Lion
King, because those are somecore memories.
I remember sneaking into somemovies after I watched Lion King
the first time.
I would just go to one of theother showings and watch it
again when I was tellinganybody.
SPEAKER_03 (46:25):
Don't worry, nobody listens to this.
SPEAKER_01 (46:28):
They can't catch me anyway.
No.
Uh Empire Strikes Back wasn'tnecessarily a Disney movie, but
it is now.
So Emperor's New Groove, again,it's underrated.
Uh my wife's mother is fromPeru, so it's cool that there is
a Disney movie set in Peru.
SPEAKER_02 (46:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:47):
So that's one reason why we really like it.
Up is always a classic for me.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
And I could keep going with allthe Marvel movies and stuff.
They're all good.
I'll stop there.
They're all not all of them, butmost of them.
SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
Okay, that's fair.
That's fair.
I stand corrected.
SPEAKER_00 (47:06):
Uh out of the rides that you went on, what was your
favorite?
SPEAKER_01 (47:11):
Slinky Dog Dash for sure.
Excellent.
We rode the is it theBarnstormer, Goofy's
Barnstormer.
Yes.
We rode that one about fivetimes with the kids and it was
fun.
Although I hated the long walkoff of it to go back around and
then get back in line.
Uh the kids loved it.
I liked it.
It was, you know, almost thatclassic.
(47:34):
It was a classic roller coasterthat I'm used to, and it didn't
jostle me around much like SpaceMountain broke my back, I feel
like.
SPEAKER_03 (47:42):
Maybe don't do Matterhorn when you get to
Disneyland.
Just if you've got backproblems, if you don't have back
problems, you will when you'redone with that ride.
It's like chiropractic, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:55):
Did you guys have a favorite restaurant while you
were there?
SPEAKER_01 (47:58):
No.
We didn't I don't even rememberwhere we ate, but again, it was
just trying to get the toddlersfed with chicken strips or pizza
most of the time.
SPEAKER_00 (48:08):
Yeah, yeah.
Did you get to try any snacks?
SPEAKER_01 (48:11):
Did we try any snacks?
We got popcorn a couple times.
I was a little let down with thepretzel, the Mickey pretzel.
We did get that.
Uh maybe it was just myexpectations that it would be so
magical and I would start, youknow, flying like Peter Pan, but
I didn't feel like it was thegreatest.
SPEAKER_00 (48:31):
I think the humidity in Florida, for some reason,
really messes with the bakedgoods.
Yes.
So like churros and pretzels,they just they don't last.
They just don't taste as good.
I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_03 (48:46):
Not at the carts.
If you're getting those at thecarts, it's it's not it's not
the same as it is in inCalifornia.
The snacks.
Actually, the food in general inCalifornia is top-notch.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (48:59):
Yeah.
We did get a uh you jog mymemory that we did get churros
when we went to see Phantasmic.
SPEAKER_04 (49:06):
Okay.
unknown (49:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:07):
And then uh at Pop Century, they had a Mickey bar
that was dipped in saltedcaramel beads.
That was it was delicious.
SPEAKER_03 (49:19):
Nice.
SPEAKER_01 (49:20):
Sorry, I dawffled my laptop a little bit.
Oh, you're fine.
SPEAKER_00 (49:24):
And lastly, your favorite moment from the trip.
SPEAKER_01 (49:27):
I think it would have to be uh when Slinky Dog
started and my son completelyturned around and had a good
time.
It would either be that or KyloWren, like when he came out,
that it was really kind ofspecial, and my kids were really
into it, and it felt likesomething a little like not
planned.
We didn't have to wait in lineto meet somebody, it was just
(49:48):
kind of happening in front ofus.
Yeah.
I think that was a little bitmore of what I was expecting to
happen at Disney World.
Yeah.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (49:57):
Well, congratulations, Jared.
You survived.
SPEAKER_00 (50:02):
It was easy.
SPEAKER_01 (50:03):
I'm gonna have to go take a nap now.
My heart was racing.
SPEAKER_03 (50:07):
So you're online, you do some content creation,
you've you've mentioned kind ofyour blog and some reviews.
How can people find you?
SPEAKER_01 (50:14):
Uh my website is jswordsmith.com.
That's where most of my or allmy writing is, and I'll link out
to anything that's not on myblog there.
Uh you can find me on threadsand Instagram with JS underscore
underscore wordsmith.
SPEAKER_02 (50:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
Uh, but I'm pretty sure if you just search for JS
Wordsmith, you'll find me onthere.
Uh those are the two I'm mostactive on, but I'm also on Blue
Sky, Mastodon, Facebook, youknow.
All that's trying to get contentout there.
Yeah.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (50:46):
Well, we'll work on the I was gonna say we will link
you in the in the show notestoo.
So if people want to find youthere.
SPEAKER_01 (50:54):
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Been furiously trying to getthrough uh my write-up from my
trip to Disney World, butbetween kids, doctor's
appointments, and you know,getting caught up with the real
world since getting back.
It's taken me a while, but I'mhoping to have that out.
I was hoping to have it out bytoday, but uh my school district
that my kids go to also decidedto give the kids the day off for
(51:17):
voting day, so uh I lost a wholeday of work on that one.
Sweet.
Um but yeah, hopefully I can getsome stuff done and written up.
And if anybody's interested, youcan read a little bit more about
my experience going to the park.
SPEAKER_03 (51:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (51:31):
Definitely.
SPEAKER_03 (51:32):
Well, this should go up in actually a couple weeks.
This will go up on November17th.
So you have a deadline now.
If that helps.
SPEAKER_01 (51:41):
Well, I'm hoping to get it done by early next week
if I can't get real motor goinghere.
And thank you guys for extendingthe offer.
This was really fun and cool.
I've been excited and preppingfor it a little bit.
And uh, you know,congratulations on over 200
episodes.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (52:00):
Yeah, thank you for responding to some random person
just asking about your trip.
SPEAKER_03 (52:07):
That's what I'm here for.
We will absolutely uh have youback on.
Um I'm looking forward tohearing uh how future cruises
and and uh you know maybe maybesome uh a Disneyland trip in the
in the future goes as well.
That sounds exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (52:22):
Yeah, I think y'all.
And maybe we'll run into eachother at a park one day or a
cruise.
Maybe.
Well, with with our schedule.
SPEAKER_03 (52:30):
Maybe.
All right, thanks, Jarrett.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (52:36):
Please remember we are not affiliated with Disney
or their subsidiaries.
These are our own personalopinions and suggestions based
on our own experiences.
We recommend working with atravel agent or contacting
Disney directly to plan yourperfect vacation.
SPEAKER_03 (52:51):
If you have questions or suggestions, or
like Jarrett, would like to beinterviewed on our show to share
your Disney experiences, pleasedo send us an email to podcast
at our mousecapades.com or findus on uh on the socials.
Alicia, where can they find uson socials?
SPEAKER_00 (53:09):
We are at our mousecapades.
We're on Instagram, Facebook,Threads, YouTube, X Twitter.
SPEAKER_03 (53:18):
Yeah.
I mean, technically we have anaccount, and I think some
automation cross-post some stuffstill.
We we don't we're not reallyactive there.
Of course, we're not October.
Well, please do say with all ofthat in mind, please do give us
a rating and a review in yourpodcast app.
(53:38):
That absolutely helps peoplefind us.
SPEAKER_00 (53:41):
And of course, don't hesitate to share us with your
friends and fellow Disney loversof all ages.
SPEAKER_03 (53:47):
Thanks for listening.
We'll be in your ears next week.
SPEAKER_01 (53:52):
Thank you for flying Star Tours.
Bye bye.
Please stand clear of the doors.
Please stand clear of the doors.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicia.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
I'm Nathan.
I'm Jarrett.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Welcome to episode 203 of Adventures and Mouse
Capades.
This week we are joined byJarrett, writer, podcaster, and
kind of person who says yes tomy random ask on threads.
Bold.
SPEAKER_03 (00:41):
Bold move, Cotton.
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
Jarrett hasn't been to Disney World since he was a
kiddo.
The last time he went, characterdining was filmed on camcorders,
and FastPass was just a twinklein Tomorrowland's eye.
SPEAKER_03 (00:54):
Fast forward to 2025.
Jarrett, his wife, and two youngkiddos tackled a Disney cruise
earlier this year and morerecently stayed at Pop Century
and visited Hollywood Studiosand Magic Kingdom.
We wanted to chat with Jarrettand see how their first family
trip to Walt Disney World went.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Welcome, Jarrett.
Hi, thank you.
And uh congratulations onbreaking the 200 mark.
SPEAKER_03 (01:19):
Yeah.
Our own stick to itiveness andstubbornness has seen us
through.
Exactly.
Somebody was asking me the otherday, like, we were we have this
trip coming up and all theseother things, and they're like,
you could just skip a week,right?
I was like, well, yeah, we don'thave any sponsors or or you know
any other monetary things on theline.
(01:39):
But um, I have promised myselfthat we're gonna put out a
episode every week, and I'mgonna be darned if after 200
episodes I'm gonna screw thatup.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So Yeah.
It's crazy how that consistencyas a content creator really
builds up.
Yes, it does.
I totally understand it.
SPEAKER_03 (01:56):
If only if only we could do the same thing with our
social media posts.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Maybe someday it will happen.
Maybe.
Maybe.
All right, let's let's dive in.
Um first off, who was in yourtraveling party?
SPEAKER_01 (02:15):
Uh my wife, myself, and my four almost
five-year-old, his birthday isin 20 days, 25 days.
No.
unknown (02:25):
Sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (02:25):
Soon.
21 days.
Yeah.
Soon.
And then my two and a half yearold.
SPEAKER_03 (02:30):
We know this was your first time back to Disney
World in quite a while.
How about for your wife?
Did she grow up going to theparks?
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Uh she did not grow up, but she did go more recently
than myself.
Okay.
Uh, I think she said she was sixor seven.
SPEAKER_03 (02:46):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Got it.
SPEAKER_03 (02:47):
And you were uh toddler, is that right?
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
I found pictures after we got back, which I wish
I had looked at beforehand.
And I think the date on it putsme at three years old.
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (02:59):
Okay.
So obviously, core memories, youremember every single thing you
did, all the snacks.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (03:06):
Space Mountain was amazing back then.
I remember things, but I feellike it was the video that I
watched and the pictures that Iwatched.
SPEAKER_02 (03:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
I even found the picture that is that core
memory, and it is not the samecharacter that I thought it was.
Oh wow.
So um, you know, I don'tremember much about it at all.
Got it.
Got it.
Well, we we won't hold thatagainst you.
Yeah.
It was nice because it was kindof like a fresh, like I had no I
mean, I was super intimidatedwhen we decided we were gonna do
(03:39):
this, and I had nowhere, no ideawhere to start and stuff, but it
was all kind of a blank slatesince I hadn't been there since
I was tiny.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
Yeah, it's it's a lot too.
SPEAKER_03 (03:49):
Well, that that's actually kind of a a good kind
of segue.
Did you do any planning ahead oftime?
Did you like book dining or dolightning lings or anything, or
was it more just like vibes andstroller navigation?
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Um, my wife did all the planning.
She's amazing at you know,getting us these super amazing
vacations.
Um she spent weeks on TikTok,Instagram, figuring out the best
things to do.
Yeah.
I was paralyzed by fear becauseI didn't have any idea where to
(04:21):
even start.
Um it felt very intimidating forme.
Like I wasn't even reallyinterested.
I wasn't dying to go to theparks at all, even though we
have some friends who have kidsthat are similar age and they've
been like three times already.
SPEAKER_02 (04:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
Um, like uh their daughter is a month older than
my oldest son.
But I was just kind of paralyzedby fear.
I didn't even know where tostart, how to look, what to do
for a you know, two-year-old, afour-year-old.
I didn't even think my youngestwas old enough to go and enjoy
it, but uh, we made it happen,and my wife did an amazing job
(04:56):
planning.
We flip-flopped on which parkswe were gonna go for a long
time.
And I know like maybe a week ortwo before, she saw a video
about the lines are super shortwhen there's an event uh the
Magic Kingdom, like when theyshut for the day.
And so we ended up like the weekbefore just switching which ones
we were gonna go to because wedidn't want to wait in line and
(05:18):
stuff, and it worked out prettywell.
SPEAKER_03 (05:20):
Nice.
Yeah, I mean, there's a fewlines that are gonna be long all
the time, but typically ifthere's an after hours event,
like a uh not so scary Halloweenparty or the the Christmas
party, they close the park tothe Magic Kingdom park to day
guest around six o'clock.
Yep.
And so you don't get that fullday experience.
(05:41):
But honestly, for for youngkids, sometimes if you're
hitting rope drop, you know, youget towards dinner time and
they're kind of done anyway, orat least you may be done.
Um, and but those days aremarkedly reduced or not
capacity, but there's not asmany people in in those parks
because it is a shorter day.
(06:02):
So that's awesome that you wereable to take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
Yeah.
Uh we missed out because I thinkmy wife was really set on having
the kids see the fireworks abovethe castle.
Uh but but by the time I mean werolled out of the park about 4
p.m., maybe 4 30.
It had been raining on us for awhile.
Uh we were kind of tired andmiserable.
My four-year-old was being veryuh I'm trying to think of the
(06:29):
right word.
Everything we were asking him todo, he would not do and throw a
big fight about, like go to thebathroom or eat.
Uh so we were kind of done, andI think it worked out perfect,
even though we did miss thosefireworks.
Uh we had a, you know, I hadenough, and I was very my cup
was very full.
SPEAKER_03 (06:45):
Well, you gotta leave something for next time.
SPEAKER_00 (06:48):
Right.
So you all stayed at uh PopCentury.
What made that the resort ofchoice?
SPEAKER_01 (06:55):
Uh that would be a better question for my wife.
But I think it was mostly it wasone of the cheaper resorts that
was on property.
I think we just decided wedidn't want to deal with
transportation with a two andfour four-year-old.
Yeah.
And Pop Century provided so muchadequate transportation to the
(07:16):
parks and stuff where we weren'tgonna have to worry about car
seats and Ubers.
We also, uh one of my son'steachers last year is a Disney
fanatic and she's been to theparks multiple times, and she
told my wife that it was herfavorite resort that she stayed
at.
So nice.
SPEAKER_03 (07:31):
Well that that always helps to have the the
inside knowledge there.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
And I we both when she showed it to me, that was
one of the few videos that Icould like sit through and not
get, you know, panic strickenbefore we went.
I felt like it had a lot ofcharacter, a lot more than some
of the other ones that we hadseen.
And it was just a nice change upcompared to some of the other
places that we've been with thekids and stuff.
So awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (07:56):
You've talked a little bit about you know the
the the fear in your eyes, youknow, ahead of this trip.
Talk about the the trip itselfcompared to those expectations.
Did anything really likecompletely surprise you?
Did it was it scary in the end?
It sounds like we had somemeltdowns, but that's kind of
like your average day with atoddler and a and a young kiddo
(08:19):
anyway.
So for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Expectations.
It's kind of str a strangefeeling because my lack of
experience with the parks.
I grew up in East Texas.
We were about an hour and a halfaway from Six Flags Over Texas,
and so that's you know, myamusement park experience.
We I went there quite a lot.
SPEAKER_02 (08:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
I was expecting a little bit more like that, where
it was just roller coaster,roller coaster, roller coaster.
And I I think this also has todo with having a two-year-old
who's not gonna meet many of theheight requirements.
Right.
You know, we didn't get to do awhole lot of those roller
coasters, but we did Peter Pan,it's a small world.
I wasn't expecting those type ofrides as much.
(09:02):
So I'm not sure that my I don'twant to say like my thrill meter
got met.
Sure.
It wasn't exactly what I wasexpecting.
And not in a bad way, but itdidn't leave me with that
feeling of uh going to anamusement park.
SPEAKER_02 (09:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:21):
However, afterwards, like I'm still Jones and I'm
ready to go back, my son wantsto go to Disneyland now, uh, we
want to do another cruise, youknow.
It yeah, it's an it's a strangefeeling because I had fun,
wasn't exactly what I wasexpecting, and it kind of left
me a little disappointed in acertain way, but I'm still my
feeds are all Disney now, likeeverything's on there, and I'm
(09:43):
like, oh man, I gotta go backand try that.
I gotta go back and try that.
We gotta go do this.
SPEAKER_03 (09:47):
Yeah, I could see how you know, with that six
flags experience, yeah, Disneydoesn't Disney has very fun
rides, very, but nothing'sextreme.
You know, if you want to go toextreme and if you're in central
Florida, you're going to uhUniversal Park.
(10:08):
Yeah.
You know, if you want to goextreme and you're in um
Southern California, you're Imean, actually, Knott's Berry
Farm has some incrediblecoasters.
Um but but that's probably moreclassic six flagsian I just
moved up an adverb or no addwhatever.
Um grammar.
(10:29):
My mom's gonna kill me theformer librarian.
Anyhow, sorry, mom.
Um it yeah, it Disney, it's adifferent level, but I think it
it does cater to those families.
It gives us even as adults somespice here and there with some
stuff, but it's just moreapproachable.
And I think there's so much elsegoing on in the parks in terms
(10:53):
of kind of the vibes and theatmosphere and everything else
that it makes up for that lackof like it's just it's just
different.
It is a different kind of fun.
SPEAKER_00 (11:03):
It's it's uh I've heard it's called a theme park
rather than an uh amusementpark.
SPEAKER_01 (11:10):
That makes sense.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:13):
Was there was there a moment that felt especially
magical or um or emotional foryou or the kids?
SPEAKER_01 (11:23):
Yes, but so uh the very first thing we did once we
got into one the parks, we wentto Hollywood Studios first.
SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
Uh we had I don't think we necessarily c planned
it.
Like we originally wanted torope drop and get in there, but
uh the night before we had readthe rode the skyliner with the
kids just to kind of prep them,and somebody was telling us,
Hey, little kids, you know,you're probably not gonna want
to wake up super early, get inthe long line for the skyliner,
(11:54):
get in the long lines of ofthat.
So we kind of took it easy thatmorning, but we still got there,
I want to say around 7 45 or 8.
SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (12:02):
So we still got in there, we rushed a Slinky Dog.
Uh the Slinky Dog Dash, becausewe've heard that one fills up
fast and it's a fun one.
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:10):
When we got into line, we were very far back
because I don't think they hadeven opened the ride yet, and we
didn't know that.
So we got in line.
I was pushing a double strollerwith both kids in it, and uh we
realized that we couldn't be ina line with the stroller, right?
Like that's and I knew that,like I knew we weren't gonna go
(12:31):
around, but I felt like as soonas I showed up with that
stroller, one of the castmembers was like, Hey, let me
take you over here, we'll handleyour stroller and stuff.
And so she helped me.
I pushed the stroller over,wasn't smart about it, and the
kids were still in the strolleras I was pushing it to the
station.
The parking, yeah.
Yeah.
(12:51):
And so once we got them out andthe cast member like parked the
stroller for me, we walked backand they had opened the line, so
my wife was nowhere to be seenanymore because she had gotten
through the stuff, and I wasjust like, Oh my gosh, what are
we gonna do?
Like, I don't want to just takeboth of these kids, you know,
holding them, uh, pushingthrough everybody in line.
(13:12):
Right.
And so I'm trying to text her,I'm holding the kids, a cast
member comes over and he's like,Are you okay?
And I explain the situation.
They were like, Okay, well,we'll just take you to the
front.
When you see her, you know, youcan jump in line.
And that was awesome.
Yeah.
I'm already kind of feelingpretty uh, you know, man, that
would never happen at Six Flags.
Right.
(13:32):
You know, it hadn't happenedwhen I was a teenager and going
to theme parks all the time oramusement parks.
Then uh we get up there, and mys my oldest has never really
ridden a whole lot of rollercoasters.
Um they don't have Six FlagsAstro World, which is in Houston
and our area anymore.
We did take him to like a countyfair and he rode one ride that
(13:52):
just kind of went in a loop.
It had a little bit of a hill.
And I think one of the kidsactually like broke the ride in
the middle, so he got stuck fora little bit.
Oh no.
And then he came back, and so hedidn't have much experience.
But when we got to the front andhe saw all Slinky Dog and all
the cars and all the people, hestarted to panic.
(14:16):
And he's like, I don't want todo it, I don't want to do it.
Um, I want to go back to thehotel.
And so, like, I'm holding him,I'm explaining to him we can't
just leave mom in line.
Right.
Let's wait for mom to get up tothe front, and she can take our
two-year-old on the ride.
Um, and I'll I'll sit here withyou.
SPEAKER_02 (14:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
And so he's still like he's in a bad mood, he
doesn't want to do it.
I've been down to try to uhconsole him, and my two-year-old
takes off.
And so I go and chase mytwo-year-old and get him back,
bring him back to the front, andthen my four-year-old,
five-year-old is starting to,you know, he's still kind of
(14:57):
whining, my two-year-old'sfighting, everybody's just it's
not a good time at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (15:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
I'm like, what have we done?
Some of the cast members againcome over and I was like, Hey,
can you talk to my oldest totell him this ride's not gonna
be bad, there's nothing to bescared about, and they did.
We ended up waiting maybe 25minutes, I think.
Um just the three of us, andagain, every time I'm focusing
on one, the other one's runningoff.
And finally, my wife gets up andmy four-year-old, like, I'm
(15:25):
holding him, I'm like, and he'sscreaming, I don't want to go, I
don't want to go.
And I was like, Okay, okay.
I don't know if this makes me agood parent or a bad parent, but
I put him on the ride andbuckled him in.
Yeah, because I knew that if hetried it, he would have fun.
He just has to get over thathump.
SPEAKER_02 (15:42):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (15:42):
And he he was kind of panicking.
I let him hold my hand.
I was like, squeeze as hard asyou can, you're gonna be okay.
Yeah.
As soon as the ride startedmoving, his face went and he was
having so much fun.
Awesome.
And that just kind of, you know,it was a moment.
Uh I actually recorded our facesthe whole time too, so I can,
(16:03):
you know, send you that photo,but or that video.
But he had so much fun, and assoon as we got off, he's like, I
want to do it again.
But by that time, the line hadgotten to like 45 minutes long,
and so we moved on.
But after that, every ride thatwe did, he would put up a huge
fight, we'd make him ride it,and then he'd be like, I want to
do it again.
SPEAKER_00 (16:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:21):
So like it was it was a good experience.
I had so much fun just watchinghim, you know, lighten up,
enjoying something new.
The second day, uh, my wife toldhim about Space Mountain, and he
he's like, Let's go, let's doit.
I want to go right now.
And he wrote it and loved it.
And uh, you know, he definitelychanged and kind of overcame a
(16:44):
little bit of fear, and I thinkthat's gonna help him, you know,
not just for that, but for life.
So it was a really cool moment.
SPEAKER_05 (16:50):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
And it was really cool to have all the cast
members, you know, talk to usand try to help us.
And it was a differentexperience than I was used to at
that this kind of situation.
SPEAKER_03 (16:59):
Yeah.
Yeah, we've had we've had lotsof moments like that.
Um our daughter was deathlyafraid of costume characters.
And uh yeah, like the marinermoose was like when she was
really little.
And then finally she was it wasfour.
(17:19):
She's four or five, same similarage as as your oldest.
And we did a Mickey meet andgreet.
I think it was in HollywoodStudios, I don't think it exists
anymore.
And we were putting our bagsdown, and Caitlin, our daughter,
got beckoned over by sorcererMickey, and she was very timid.
(17:42):
And then we went to after we'reputting our stuff down, we went
to approach and Mickey just heldhis hand up and said, Stop, I've
got this.
And they had a wholeinteraction, and Caitlin's fear
and all the rest of that stuffjust completely melted, and it
was off to the races and everylike all the characters all the
time from then on.
It was it was pretty magical.
(18:04):
The the cast members at Disney,whether it's on a ride or
character attendance or friendswith the characters or guest
services, or like they just knowhow to take care of people in
those situations.
And the the one thing that Iwant to stress for for us
parents and for all the parentswho are who are listening to
(18:24):
this or who are thinking aboutgoing to a park for the first
time, we've all had kids gothrough this stuff.
Everybody except like nobody'ssurprised, and nobody's judging
you as a parent when your kiddohas a meltdown.
It's gonna happen, and we allhave the utmost sympathy for
you.
This isn't the airplane whereyou're getting sneers and jeers,
(18:47):
right?
This is just like, oh, I've beenI wish I could help you.
Yeah.
And the cast members know how tohelp you through that stuff, and
you experience that, and thatmakes me so happy that you got
that experience because that ispretty magical.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
Yeah.
And we've we've had somethingvery similar with with our son
as well.
He'd been on roller coasterswhen he was younger, and
actually, even up to I thinkage, oh gosh, how old was he?
Um, nine or ten.
You know, we go to Disney a lot,and he rides these rides a lot.
And then he didn't want to go onBig Thunder Mountain Railroad.
(19:25):
Like he's like, he was freakingout about it.
Like we were in the line, he washe was ready to go, and then we
got up to the front, he's like,I don't know, I I can't do this,
I don't want to go on this.
We sat down on it, and I'm like,you've been on this before.
You've been on this multipletimes.
And me just saying that justgave a switch for him.
He's like, oh yeah, I've donethis, I'm okay.
(19:47):
And it's kids.
I don't know what goes throughtheir heads.
We we know our kids though, andlike you knew that he didn't
join this, yeah.
Just putting him on there.
And yeah, we know what's we knowwhat's gonna work for them.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
We're gonna have to plan different for the rest of
the time.
SPEAKER_03 (20:07):
So But child psychology is a thing, man.
SPEAKER_01 (20:12):
Man, I'm so tired of it as a stay-at-home dad.
SPEAKER_00 (20:16):
How did your kids react to the parks?
Were they were they wide-eyedwith wonder or were they just in
it for the snacks?
SPEAKER_01 (20:27):
Uh my four-year-old, I want to say he started with
some trepidation because we hadnever really done it.
Yeah.
Um also being first timers, wedidn't know our way around
Hollywood studios.
So I kind of just followed thecrowd because I'm pushing the
stroller.
Um, my wife, I think, was tryingto find the directions to get to
Slinky Dog Dash.
(20:47):
But we ended up going throughGalaxy's Edge first.
Uh, and that opened up my eyesand my four-year-old's eyes.
Like he he likes liked StarWars.
Like, he never watched themovies, but he's seen a couple
of the cartoons.
He's had lightsabers.
I don't know if it's a nationalchange, I don't remember, but
(21:09):
Party City, uh, they had lots ofcostumes.
They went out of business and wewent, we picked up, you know,
two, three dollar costumes, andwe got him like a Darth Vader
one.
Nice.
Uh he never wore it.
But uh we went through there andhe something clicked, and he
just was like, I oh Star Wars,this is amazing, these
(21:29):
starships, and blah blah blah.
So while we were doing SlinkyDog, like after we were done,
he's like, I want to go to seeStar Wars, and like he just
really kind of dove into it.
Yeah.
And I think that was reallycool.
And again, for me, just kind ofgoing through and seeing like an
X-Wing or you know, the droidsthere, I was like, wow, this is
this is something I've neverexperienced before, and it's
(21:52):
very you know, very touching tome because I grew up with Star
Wars and love it.
SPEAKER_03 (21:56):
Yeah, you're like two-year-old?
We feel the same way, buddy.
Like, we're there.
Oh my gosh, that's theMillennium Falcon.
Holy crap.
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
Uh my two-year-old, I don't think he he was just
he's a good natured, easy to go,easy going boy.
I he was just like along for theride.
He was having a good time.
He didn't express a whole lot ofanything.
Um But he was loving it.
Every ride that I took both ofthem on, they were like, again,
again, I want to do it again.
(22:26):
So I think they really, reallyloved it.
But I don't also don't thinksince we hadn't really discussed
it much, um, I don't think theyhad much preconceived ideas for
it.
The only experience they reallyhad was the cruise that we went
on in February, and uh they'venever been to an amusement park
(22:47):
or anything.
We didn't tell them until themorning we left what was
happening.
I kind of I mean part of it wasbecause we didn't want them
asking, are we going tomorrow?
Or are we you know when do wego?
SPEAKER_03 (22:58):
You have to look out for your own sanity.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
Yeah, but I also didn't help prep them to know
what they were gonna be excitedfor as well.
SPEAKER_02 (23:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Yeah.
But uh I think they they lovedit.
I asked my son when you knowwhen we came home, did you like
that or did you like the cruisebetter?
He's like, Disney World.
It was amazing.
I want to go to Disneyland next.
Like he wants to invite all hisfriends, and so he had a really
good time.
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
So we we've talked a little bit about the the
interactions you guys had atSlinky Dog.
Was there any like charactermoments that really stood out to
you with with the boys?
SPEAKER_01 (23:37):
So we did the first day at Hollywood, we did uh
character dining for lunch.
SPEAKER_02 (23:43):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
And we uh rolled up into the restaurant, we sat
down, and the kids both went forthe knives and started playing
with them, and it kind of droveme crazy.
But that doesn't have anythingto do with we were told that
Goofy was coming in like fourminutes.
Okay, and so we'd been at thepark, we're like, all right, we
(24:06):
gotta go take care of businessreal quick.
I need my son to pee.
He hasn't peed since we left thehotel at 6:30 in the morning.
We need to wash hands and stufflike that.
And so I took the oldest first,and we came back, and then my
wife took the younger one, andwhile they were gone, Goofy did
show up.
Uh and so we're taking pictures,uh, I'm taking pictures with my
oldest and Goofy.
SPEAKER_02 (24:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:28):
And I was just like, man, he's gonna be so sad that
he missed it, my wife.
And Goofy was just kind of likemotioning to me that he'll come
back.
SPEAKER_02 (24:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:38):
And like that restaurant was packed.
There were so many differentsections, and he did come back
when my my youngest showed backup and he took pictures with
everybody again.
And nice.
I know that was just a reallycool moment that they went out
of their way to make sure thateverybody there got, you know,
some time with them.
That's number one.
Uh, number two, after wefinished Toy Storyland, we went
(25:01):
to the Star Wars section becausemy oldest was asking to go back
to Star Wars.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:06):
We got like front row seats for the Kylo Wren uh
thing where he comes out of theship and he's looking for the
Rebel spy.
That's cool.
Loved that.
Uh that started really gettingmy son invested in Star Wars.
And then that afternoon, hewanted I wanted to go meet Darth
Vader, and it was like one ofthe last ones.
And my son was like, DarthVader, I want to meet Darth
(25:29):
Vader.
And uh we couldn't figure outhow to get to him.
Like we saw him walk past us,and then he walked back and he
went to the section that lookedroped off, and we didn't know
how to do it.
So he and I went and rode startours.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (25:47):
Uh while my wife stayed with the youngest who
fell asleep in the stroller.
And then we came back and shewas in line to meet Darth Vader,
and so we did that.
And ever since that moment, myson has been all Star Wars all
the time.
In fact, while I was sittinghere in the closet, I found his
toy lightsaber hidden in myclothes.
(26:09):
He has worn his costume justabout every day.
He wore it three days in a rowfor Halloween, like to his
schools.
SPEAKER_03 (26:17):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_01 (26:17):
Uh anytime he goes out and plays with our neighbor
kids, we have a bunch of kids inour cul-de-sac.
He puts on his Darth Vaderoutfit and goes out there with
his lightsaber.
And we have since watched the uhoriginal Star Wars, and we
started Empire Strikes back lastnight, and they are just Darth
Vader! Darth Vader's on thescreen! They're stormtroopers.
So you know he it helps himdevelop a love for something
(26:42):
which I'm just so excited forhim because he he loves it and I
love it, and we can bond on it,and I'm really hoping we can
make it through Empire Strikesback before it gets spoiled for
him because he does not know allthe stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (26:54):
Yeah.
Well, just man, if he's reallylatched onto Darth Vader, just
watch out for Return of theJedi.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
We're gonna put that one off for a while.
SPEAKER_03 (27:04):
Yeah, good call.
Good call.
We ended up watching uh RogueOne uh on a Disney cruise uh uh
uh premiere at sea, and uhSterling was about that age, our
son, and he latched on, justlike absolutely fell in love
with K2SO.
And then, you know, threequarters through the movie, all
(27:27):
of a sudden I had a verydistraught four and a half or
five-year-old next to me in themiddle of that uh the Walt
Disney Theater, and um that wasa little rough for a few
minutes.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:38):
Yeah, not looking forward to that one.
We're gonna go maybe watch uhReturn or Empire and then go
back to maybe one and two andthen all as long as we can.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
There's all the animated stuff too, which will
um help with those.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
What was your uh what was your strategy for
managing two littles in theparks?
Uh did you have any tricks ofthe trade, or did you just rely
on caffeine and optimism?
SPEAKER_01 (28:10):
Um besides my four-year-old's like
oppositional behavior when itcomes to bathroom and food, he's
actually both kids are prettygood, especially when we take
them on these types of things.
So basically we just took thestroller.
We kinda we didn't necessarilylet my oldest guide the way, but
(28:31):
we would ask for his input, likewhat kind of things he wanted to
do.
Yeah.
We'd be like, hey, we could gosee uh Pirates of the Caribbean
or Haunted Mansion, do and thenhe'd pick one and we'd go.
Other than that, we bought apopcorn bucket on the cruise and
brought it and filled it upevery time things started going
a little haywire.
Ah, nice.
Uh we also on our full day atHollywood, we planned a midday
(28:55):
break to go back to the hoteland relax and take naps, and the
only person that ended upsleeping was my wife, and the
kids were going crazy.
So it was funny when we wentback to meet Darth Vader,
because we went after that naptime.
My youngest fell asleep in thestroller after, you know, an
hour of in the hotel hoping hewould nap and he didn't, then he
finally fell asleep.
(29:16):
Uh but uh other than that, wedid take a couple of toys with
us for those times we did haveto wait in line.
Uh my four-year-old loves towrite things like he I don't
understand how he's alreadystarting to read, but he's
already reading, he's writing.
Uh so my wife had gotten them alittle goodie bag of a bunch of
(29:40):
Disney stuff that we gave himwhen we got to Pop Century and
had a whiteboard in there that'slike Mickey themed.
And he would just sit there andwrite, and you know uh like when
we were on the Skyliner, he sawthe sign that says Disney
Skyliner and he just startedwriting it out.
Whenever we were waiting inline, he'd find things around
that he could.
Write out and draw, or he wouldwrite Skyliner again.
(30:04):
And then we had a uh Woody fromToy Story Doll for my other one.
And then other than that, wejust try to keep them fed, you
know, get them to drink a drinkevery once in a while, because
they'll forget to do that too.
But uh they they were good.
We I think, like I said, my wifeplanned everything so well we
didn't have to wait in too manylines.
I don't think we waited longerthan maybe 30 minutes for any
(30:27):
ride.
SPEAKER_03 (30:27):
Nice.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
Yeah.
So uh she did a great jobplanning, and then we had the
toys to distract them when theywere in line.
And other than that, they weregood except when we told them to
eat or go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_03 (30:42):
I love I love the term oppositional behavior.
Yes.
That's that's coin that.
That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (30:50):
Uh at Magic Kingdom, we rode a bunch of rides, and it
was getting to be like 10:30,11.
We'd been there for a while, andwe passed the bathroom, and we
were like, hey, this is a goodchance.
Do you need to go to thebathroom?
No, I don't need to go.
I don't want to go.
Okay.
You don't have to make a bigdeal out of it.
Uh we went to the magic carpetride for Aladdin, and he didn't
(31:12):
want to ride that one, so I tookmy youngest, and then he decided
he did want to ride it, so hejumped in line, and then as soon
as he got in line, he starteddoing the I Gotta Pee dance.
He's like, I gotta go pee.
That was like within 10 minutesof us stopping.
So it was just stuff like thatthe entire time, it felt like.
Yeah.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (31:29):
Kids.
Yay.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
And I hope he listens to this when he's older
and realizes how much you put methrough.
SPEAKER_03 (31:38):
Uh well, speaking of of uh memories from uh from
childhood, you mentioned notreally remembering hardly
anything from from your lasttrip.
Did anything feel vaguelyfamiliar or spark a memory?
SPEAKER_01 (31:52):
The I mean, just the character dining, really.
SPEAKER_03 (31:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
Uh just because the kids were doing exactly what I
was doing in the pictures inthat video.
SPEAKER_02 (32:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:02):
Uh like I said, I did find a bunch of pictures
after we got back, and I haveone of my brother holding me,
because my brother was 11 yearsolder than me.
SPEAKER_02 (32:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
Um, he was holding me up in front of the castle and
took a really cool picture, andI really wish that I had seen
that beforehand so that we couldhave recreated that with you
know me holding my son or youknow, something, or all of us in
that same spot.
That would have been prettymagical too.
Yeah.
But it means we just gotta goback.
(32:32):
Exactly.
Oh no.
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
How did the park stack up for you?
Were there any favorites or anynever-again moments?
SPEAKER_01 (32:44):
There were no never-again moments.
Um I don't want to say I was letdown like I mentioned earlier.
It was a weird feeling.
I really enjoyed the Star Warssection and Hollywood and Toy
Story, and you know, the more weexplored it, the more we
realized we kind of missed out.
You know, we if we could goback, I would do some things
(33:06):
different.
However, I was expecting morerides, kind of like we talked
about.
And it didn't even have to belike super exhilarating rides.
I was just expected more thantwo things in Star Wars and
three things in Toy Story.
Yep.
Um But then when you go toMagical Kingdom and there's a
lot more rides, I wasn'texpecting the story kind of
(33:27):
rides.
SPEAKER_05 (33:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:29):
So it was a very, very weird, like I already
mentioned, like I wasn't letdown, it wasn't what I was
expecting.
I had fun, but not as much funin it.
Like I wasn't I was expecting tobe to feel magical the entire
time.
Yeah.
And that's not necessarily thecase.
Uh but again, the algorithm onall my feeds and just that
(33:52):
desire to go back, like it'salready there.
And I'm gonna be interested tosee if we do go back and the
kids are older how that feelingchanges.
Because we'll definitely be ableto approach things differently,
because we'll be able to ridemore rides, because they'll be
taller and you know, do somethings.
SPEAKER_03 (34:11):
Something definitely does change about that whole
experience when you go fromkeeping your kids alive mode,
which I think you're still kindof in, to more of a uh like
experiencing with it with them.
So when they're in that likeeight and above kind of range,
(34:34):
like the the that Disney magicreally is magical to them and
they just experience everythingand it's fantastic.
And then, you know, you can keepgoing and they get a little
older, and all of a sudden theyget some independence and things
like that.
And you know, you can you can goto a lounge and enjoy a a beer
(34:56):
and a really nice churro whilethey go ride like Pandora or
something like that over AnimalKingdom, and that's really
fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (35:05):
I was thinking that like uh I was talking to my
wife, I was like, can youimagine going back there where
we don't have to corral thekids?
Like they can go off on theirown?
Like, I don't even know what Iwould do.
SPEAKER_03 (35:16):
There's lots now.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
There's yeah, give us a call.
SPEAKER_03 (35:19):
We'll we have suggestions.
So you also did a Disney cruisethis year earlier.
Uh how did that compare to theparks for you guys in terms of
chaos versus relaxation?
SPEAKER_01 (35:35):
The cruise was much more relaxing.
SPEAKER_02 (35:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:39):
We had a uh we had a friend that went with us that
kind of helped corral the kidswhen we needed a little bit of a
break.
Yeah.
But also the kids' club, and uhwe my two-year-old wasn't even
two at the time when we went, soyou know, we did the I don't
remember what it was called, butwhere we the baby can go take
(36:00):
away.
Yeah, the the nursery.
Yep.
The nursery, yeah.
Um I definitely felt like it wasmore relaxing for me, but also
when we ate, you didn't have toworry about spending$200 on a
character dinner or how muchthat churro that really looks
(36:21):
good is gonna be, because youcould just go to the buffet and
be like, oh I'm gonna, you know,fill up on these.
SPEAKER_04 (36:26):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
Uh we still had fun.
It was again lots of waitingaround for character meetings
and stuff, and my son was waytoo scared and probably too
small to ride the the slides.
SPEAKER_05 (36:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:39):
Um but we did do the uh the pool, which you know he
loved.
I hated because I've got kickedin the stomach or lower multiple
times just sitting there byrandom kids, not even my own.
SPEAKER_03 (36:51):
Sure.
It's kid soup.
Uh uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (36:54):
It's kid soup.
I was trying to remember whatyou called it.
I listened to one of thoseepisodes the other day.
Um but kid soup.
I personally like the cruise alittle bit better at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (37:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:06):
But my son was like, oh yeah, Disneyland.
100%.
Like it was way or Disney World,excuse me.
SPEAKER_03 (37:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:12):
What ship were you on?
We were on the magic.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (37:16):
We actually, in in uh uh as we record this, they
just announced some FAA flightrestrictions.
So uh in theory, we fly out onMonday to to get to Puerto Rico
to get on the magic.
But uh the good news is we haveuh uh uh three three and a half,
four days to get there becausethe cruise doesn't leave until
Friday.
So we have flexibility.
(37:38):
We'll we'll figure it outsomewhere somehow.
SPEAKER_01 (37:41):
Y'all have cruised on the magic before, correct?
Or no?
SPEAKER_00 (37:44):
Fifteen years ago.
SPEAKER_01 (37:45):
Fifteen years ago.
SPEAKER_03 (37:46):
It's been a hot minute.
Uh it's been through multiplerefurbishments and all sorts of
stuff.
So um yeah, we're we're excited.
So I'm guessing you went out uhwent uh out of Galveston then?
Correct.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice.
We're actually the cruise we'reon is going from San Juan,
Puerto Rico to Galveston.
It's the repositioning cruise.
So we'll wave when we get intown.
(38:09):
And then go go.
Yeah, let me know.
SPEAKER_01 (38:10):
If you need a ride, I can take you to some good
Mexican food.
SPEAKER_03 (38:13):
Nice.
Yeah.
Well, we may need a ride earlyto the airport or something like
that, so we can stand in the youknow 12-hour TSA line there at
the at the airport.
So yay! Anyhow, let's move on tohappier things.
SPEAKER_00 (38:28):
Do you have any tips for families doing both a cruise
and a parks trip in one year, oris there anything that you might
do differently next time?
SPEAKER_01 (38:38):
I think they're both different experiences.
So maybe judge what you need bythat time of the year.
Yeah um you know, maybe if it'sbetter for you to go in the
spring to the park, go do that.
Definitely don't go to it in thesummer though, because it's way
too hot.
Yeah.
Um if you're trying to choosebetween the two, I would maybe
(39:01):
weigh what's more important toyou, you know, the rides or the
relaxation or the you know, thebuffet versus you know, trying
to wait in line for all thoseother, you know, delicious
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (39:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:13):
Which, by the way, I don't know if we want to get
into later.
The food was m how do I putthis?
The food was my biggestdisappointment, not because of
the quality of the food, butbecause we were always in what
are these toddlers gonna eat?
Uh so we didn't get to goexplore, you know, all the good
stuff that often.
SPEAKER_03 (39:32):
Yeah, that is kind of the nice part about the
cruise is that you know they'llhave, you know, especially
thinking of main dining uh foryour dinners, they've got the
kids' menu there and they will,you know, cater to getting that
food out quickly, keeping thementertained, all the rest of
that stuff, and then you canactually have a pretty nice meal
(39:53):
uh alongside that and and nothave to do dishes and all the
rest of that stuff.
And I wouldn't say it's a freemeal, but you've you've already
paid for it, so you're notworried about that price tag at
the end of it.
Exactly.
It can get a little hectic inthe parks.
SPEAKER_00 (40:06):
Yeah, there's so many choices, and then you have
to worry about mobile orderingand then timing and all of that,
and then finding somewhere toeat.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01 (40:16):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:17):
It gets a little hectic.
SPEAKER_01 (40:19):
If I were to give parents advice for their first
time at the park, though, uh uhit's hard to say, but I would
try to say don't overplan.
Um I try to do a whole lot ofjust go with the flow, um, see
what we can do, which again,because my wife's amazing
(40:39):
planning on it, you know, wenever had to wait too long on
any lines, but I realize that'snot always the you know ideal or
the situation you can getyourself into.
SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (40:50):
Um, so I'm not really sure if I would say, hey,
take that three-year-old and gorope drop slinky dog dash at six
o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_02 (40:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
But there's there is so much to do.
You might not be exactly whatyou want to do.
Like you might want to rideroller coasters, but that hour
and a half wait to get on thatride, not gonna be the best for
your toddler, so maybe go find ashow or something instead.
There's always something thatyou can be doing.
Yeah, try not to stress toomuch.
SPEAKER_03 (41:19):
Yeah.
Um, just kind of to wrap up thissection.
What's next on your Disneyradar?
It sounds like maybe Disneylandis uh coming up uh next, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (41:31):
I think next is we're gonna do another cruise.
Nice.
Uh, we have some families thathave talked to us about it, and
a few of them read uh my reviewof the cruise that I wrote way
back in the spring.
And so they've been asking mequestions, and I was like, well,
we're thinking about doing it.
And they're like, oh really?
Can we go March, April?
You know, we haven't sat down tolook at dates because we just
(41:52):
got back from Disney World.
SPEAKER_02 (41:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:55):
Uh, but we would like to go.
I would love it if we couldexperience a different ship just
to get that experience, but I'mnot sure flying to another port
would be uh viable right now forus.
SPEAKER_02 (42:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (42:10):
So hopefully, I know that they do like a seven-day
cruise out of Galveston now thatgoes to the islands.
Uh casting what's going on.
SPEAKER_03 (42:19):
Yep, every once in a while they'll throw a seven in
there.
Um the other thing, and I knowthis doesn't help you for near
term, the kind of rumor mill andassumption mill is that they're
going to have one of the biggerships rotate over to be kind of
more semi-permanently based outof Galveston than the magic has
(42:39):
been there.
So I think you'll have anopportunity for a different um
size ship, a different um set ofexperiences.
It may be a couple years beforethat comes to fruition.
We haven't seen that hit theitineraries yet.
But yeah, um, you know,hopefully, hopefully coming
soon.
I will say yeah.
I will say though, um you guys Ithink would really enjoy
(43:03):
Disneyland.
It is a different vibe from whatyou got at Disney World.
It is you can literally it is a90-second walk between the two
parks.
Um it's just way more compact.
Um, you will you will see thatthat castle there in Disneyland
and go, oh, how cute.
SPEAKER_02 (43:24):
It's so short.
SPEAKER_03 (43:25):
What's the point?
Um, but it's just it's a muchdifferent vibe.
And I I to me, I think it's alot more laid back because it's
more of a locals vibe kind ofpark.
Um you don't have people tryingto to like maximize everything,
every single ride and all therest of the stuff.
(43:47):
And it's not that you won't getlines, it's just it's just more
relaxed.
Um I think you'll really enjoyit.
There's a lot of a lot ofgoodness there in Disneyland.
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
Well, I think the idea uh I could be talking out
of turn because we haven'tofficially discussed this, but
uh we would like to go doDisneyland, so we might do like
the cruise in the spring andthen go to Disneyland in the
fall again.
God willing, you know, thecountry's not in a civil war or
(44:18):
something like that.
Um but because you know, like Isaid, my son said as soon as he
got f done with Disney World, hewas like, I want to go to
Disneyland and I wanna we havefamily.
My brother lives in Seattle andour he has two sons.
Okay.
They're a little bit older thanmine, but my son was like, and
we can invite the cousins and wecan all go.
(44:39):
And you know, if we can makethat happen, I think that would
be an amazing trip for usbecause we haven't done much of
that.
You will love it.
SPEAKER_03 (44:47):
You will love it.
Well, Jared, it is now time forAlicia's patented Disney torture
test.
But you know, you you've you'vegot you know some podcast stuff
going on, you've got thereviews, you've been to Disney
things twice, I guesstechnically three times now.
You've got this.
But seriously, good luck, man.
Uh I'm pulling for you.
SPEAKER_01 (45:08):
May the force be with me.
SPEAKER_03 (45:10):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (45:11):
This is easy.
I'm just asking a couple of yourfavorites from um Disney, Pixar,
Star Wars, Marvel, everythingunder Mickey's umbrella.
And I'm changing it just alittle bit since you are not a
Disney regular.
But first off, is who is yourfavorite character?
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
Oh man, that's a tough one.
We've got to think about likeHan Solo, Spider-Man.
Does Spider-Man count?
No, he's in there, but he's alsoa Sony guy.
SPEAKER_03 (45:44):
Well, it's fine.
There's enough of a dotted line.
We'll we'll include them.
SPEAKER_01 (45:49):
Uh I grew up with Aladdin and Simba.
Uh we did Emperor's New Groovefor Halloween as our family
costume.
So I might have to go with Kronkbecause he's so under the radar,
I feel like.
Yes.
Uh those are a few of myfavorites, I would say.
And of course, Mickey.
SPEAKER_00 (46:06):
Of course.
Do you have a favorite Disneymovie?
SPEAKER_01 (46:11):
It would definitely be a tie between Aladdin or Lion
King, because those are somecore memories.
I remember sneaking into somemovies after I watched Lion King
the first time.
I would just go to one of theother showings and watch it
again when I was tellinganybody.
SPEAKER_03 (46:25):
Don't worry, nobody listens to this.
SPEAKER_01 (46:28):
They can't catch me anyway.
No.
Uh Empire Strikes Back wasn'tnecessarily a Disney movie, but
it is now.
So Emperor's New Groove, again,it's underrated.
Uh my wife's mother is fromPeru, so it's cool that there is
a Disney movie set in Peru.
SPEAKER_02 (46:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:47):
So that's one reason why we really like it.
Up is always a classic for me.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
And I could keep going with allthe Marvel movies and stuff.
They're all good.
I'll stop there.
They're all not all of them, butmost of them.
SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
Okay, that's fair.
That's fair.
I stand corrected.
SPEAKER_00 (47:06):
Uh out of the rides that you went on, what was your
favorite?
SPEAKER_01 (47:11):
Slinky Dog Dash for sure.
Excellent.
We rode the is it theBarnstormer, Goofy's
Barnstormer.
Yes.
We rode that one about fivetimes with the kids and it was
fun.
Although I hated the long walkoff of it to go back around and
then get back in line.
Uh the kids loved it.
I liked it.
It was, you know, almost thatclassic.
(47:34):
It was a classic roller coasterthat I'm used to, and it didn't
jostle me around much like SpaceMountain broke my back, I feel
like.
SPEAKER_03 (47:42):
Maybe don't do Matterhorn when you get to
Disneyland.
Just if you've got backproblems, if you don't have back
problems, you will when you'redone with that ride.
It's like chiropractic, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:55):
Did you guys have a favorite restaurant while you
were there?
SPEAKER_01 (47:58):
No.
We didn't I don't even rememberwhere we ate, but again, it was
just trying to get the toddlersfed with chicken strips or pizza
most of the time.
SPEAKER_00 (48:08):
Yeah, yeah.
Did you get to try any snacks?
SPEAKER_01 (48:11):
Did we try any snacks?
We got popcorn a couple times.
I was a little let down with thepretzel, the Mickey pretzel.
We did get that.
Uh maybe it was just myexpectations that it would be so
magical and I would start, youknow, flying like Peter Pan, but
I didn't feel like it was thegreatest.
SPEAKER_00 (48:31):
I think the humidity in Florida, for some reason,
really messes with the bakedgoods.
Yes.
So like churros and pretzels,they just they don't last.
They just don't taste as good.
I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_03 (48:46):
Not at the carts.
If you're getting those at thecarts, it's it's not it's not
the same as it is in inCalifornia.
The snacks.
Actually, the food in general inCalifornia is top-notch.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (48:59):
Yeah.
We did get a uh you jog mymemory that we did get churros
when we went to see Phantasmic.
SPEAKER_04 (49:06):
Okay.
unknown (49:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:07):
And then uh at Pop Century, they had a Mickey bar
that was dipped in saltedcaramel beads.
That was it was delicious.
SPEAKER_03 (49:19):
Nice.
SPEAKER_01 (49:20):
Sorry, I dawffled my laptop a little bit.
Oh, you're fine.
SPEAKER_00 (49:24):
And lastly, your favorite moment from the trip.
SPEAKER_01 (49:27):
I think it would have to be uh when Slinky Dog
started and my son completelyturned around and had a good
time.
It would either be that or KyloWren, like when he came out,
that it was really kind ofspecial, and my kids were really
into it, and it felt likesomething a little like not
planned.
We didn't have to wait in lineto meet somebody, it was just
(49:48):
kind of happening in front ofus.
Yeah.
I think that was a little bitmore of what I was expecting to
happen at Disney World.
Yeah.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (49:57):
Well, congratulations, Jared.
You survived.
SPEAKER_00 (50:02):
It was easy.
SPEAKER_01 (50:03):
I'm gonna have to go take a nap now.
My heart was racing.
SPEAKER_03 (50:07):
So you're online, you do some content creation,
you've you've mentioned kind ofyour blog and some reviews.
How can people find you?
SPEAKER_01 (50:14):
Uh my website is jswordsmith.com.
That's where most of my or allmy writing is, and I'll link out
to anything that's not on myblog there.
Uh you can find me on threadsand Instagram with JS underscore
underscore wordsmith.
SPEAKER_02 (50:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
Uh, but I'm pretty sure if you just search for JS
Wordsmith, you'll find me onthere.
Uh those are the two I'm mostactive on, but I'm also on Blue
Sky, Mastodon, Facebook, youknow.
All that's trying to get contentout there.
Yeah.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (50:46):
Well, we'll work on the I was gonna say we will link
you in the in the show notestoo.
So if people want to find youthere.
SPEAKER_01 (50:54):
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Been furiously trying to getthrough uh my write-up from my
trip to Disney World, butbetween kids, doctor's
appointments, and you know,getting caught up with the real
world since getting back.
It's taken me a while, but I'mhoping to have that out.
I was hoping to have it out bytoday, but uh my school district
that my kids go to also decidedto give the kids the day off for
(51:17):
voting day, so uh I lost a wholeday of work on that one.
Sweet.
Um but yeah, hopefully I can getsome stuff done and written up.
And if anybody's interested, youcan read a little bit more about
my experience going to the park.
SPEAKER_03 (51:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (51:31):
Definitely.
SPEAKER_03 (51:32):
Well, this should go up in actually a couple weeks.
This will go up on November17th.
So you have a deadline now.
If that helps.
SPEAKER_01 (51:41):
Well, I'm hoping to get it done by early next week
if I can't get real motor goinghere.
And thank you guys for extendingthe offer.
This was really fun and cool.
I've been excited and preppingfor it a little bit.
And uh, you know,congratulations on over 200
episodes.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (52:00):
Yeah, thank you for responding to some random person
just asking about your trip.
SPEAKER_03 (52:07):
That's what I'm here for.
We will absolutely uh have youback on.
Um I'm looking forward tohearing uh how future cruises
and and uh you know maybe maybesome uh a Disneyland trip in the
in the future goes as well.
That sounds exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (52:22):
Yeah, I think y'all.
And maybe we'll run into eachother at a park one day or a
cruise.
Maybe.
Well, with with our schedule.
SPEAKER_03 (52:30):
Maybe.
All right, thanks, Jarrett.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (52:36):
Please remember we are not affiliated with Disney
or their subsidiaries.
These are our own personalopinions and suggestions based
on our own experiences.
We recommend working with atravel agent or contacting
Disney directly to plan yourperfect vacation.
SPEAKER_03 (52:51):
If you have questions or suggestions, or
like Jarrett, would like to beinterviewed on our show to share
your Disney experiences, pleasedo send us an email to podcast
at our mousecapades.com or findus on uh on the socials.
Alicia, where can they find uson socials?
SPEAKER_00 (53:09):
We are at our mousecapades.
We're on Instagram, Facebook,Threads, YouTube, X Twitter.
SPEAKER_03 (53:18):
Yeah.
I mean, technically we have anaccount, and I think some
automation cross-post some stuffstill.
We we don't we're not reallyactive there.
Of course, we're not October.
Well, please do say with all ofthat in mind, please do give us
a rating and a review in yourpodcast app.
(53:38):
That absolutely helps peoplefind us.
SPEAKER_00 (53:41):
And of course, don't hesitate to share us with your
friends and fellow Disney loversof all ages.
SPEAKER_03 (53:47):
Thanks for listening.
We'll be in your ears next week.
SPEAKER_01 (53:52):
Thank you for flying Star Tours.
Bye bye.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.