Walt Disney World vacations always provide new experiences for families. For spring break this year, Ryan and his family had some great new experiences at Walt Disney World, and we’re going to discuss it all.
- RunDisney
- Building a Lightsaber
- Using Genie+
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Enchantment (with FW Dessert Party) and Harmonious
- Deluxe After-Hours
- Space 220
- Creperie de Paris
Question: What is one of your favorite Disney World experiences?
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Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.
- Contact Ryan at DisneyTravelDad.Com.
- Contact Shayne at Shayne.fun.
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Episode 109 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence,s so there are likely some highly amusing translations!
Episode 109 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence,s so there are likely some highly amusing translations!
Ryan: So Shayne, I just went to Walt Disney World.
Shayne: Yes. How was it? Was it fun?
Ryan: It was awesome. Believe it or not. This was the first time my family ever went to Walt Disney world for spring break.
Shayne: Yeah. So what do you think about that as spring? Is it going to be another break trip for you or to stick with outside of spring break? Do you
Ryan: I think.
we’re going to stick with outside a spring break, but that’s not because there was anything wrong with being there this time. It’s just, we have some other things planned, like Disney land next spring break.
Shayne: And as we’ve talked about before, we only have a certain number of spring breaks left to plan these trips.
Ryan: That’s true. That’s true.
Shayne: yeah, we’re going to talk about a lot of new experiences that you got to enjoy this trip.
Ryan: Yeah, it was exciting because we intentionally had some different things that we hadn’t done before. You and I have talked about this, both on the podcast and between us, everybody always says, why are you going back to Walt Disney World again and again, and because.
Every trip is different. And this trip, was exactly that of my kids did different things. We ate at different places. We handled the parks in a different way. We stayed at a place we’d never stayed before, this was a completely different trip.
Shayne: Well, even if you did the same thing every time, it would still be fun, but there’s always something else that you haven’t tried. our friends Rob and Kerri, who they probably go more often now that they live in Orlando, but they would go every month every month after who knows how many trips, they would still do something they had never done at Disney before.
Ryan: Shayne, this is usually the time in the introduction where I ask you where in the world is
All Things Travel, but I’m not going to do that this time because I took it upon myself we have our review aware in the world together.
Shayne: this is the ideal. This is the way I would love for it to be.
Ryan: So we have a new review entitled TSA from preach. And pre-check says, thanks for the great advice about TSA pre-check it was worth it a million times over. I love listening to you guys on my daily commute. Thanks Danielle from Wolverine Lake Michigan. So Shayne that is where in the world for me this week over in Michigan. Thank you so much, Danielle for that great.
Shayne: Thank you Danielle and welcome Wolverine.
Ryan: Absolutely. So I know where Wolverine Lake is because of my time living in east Lansing oakiness area. And I’ve actually been to walled lake, which is just a little south of, Wolverine.
lake, Michigan. And I say, if we go up and meet Danielle Shayne, we should go to the Kaia.
Shayne: Yeah.
Ryan: This is a smokehouse, but it’s also has some really good craft cocktails.
This looks like our kind of place.
Shayne: it sounds exactly like our kind of
Ryan: Have some pulled pork, some ribs a nice old fashion or two. I can dig it.
Shayne: Let’s go I’m there.
Ryan: Well, Danielle, I tell you what reach out to Shayne or I either via email or on the Facebook group, because I have a really nice thought thank you gift for not only leaving a review, but being featured on today’s show.
Shayne: And Disney plus subscribers stay tuned. Because Walt Disney world has a special offer for you. And we’ll discuss that at the end of the show.
Ryan: All right. So Shayne, like I said, we went down for spring break and we were there a full week, a Friday to a Friday. And. We were staying at animal kingdom lodge, which for us was new. We’ve only stayed there one night before a cruise. So we felt like we needed to give it a fair shake and stay there for the week.
So we did the dream man. We had a Savannah view. We had a Nice.
big room animal kingdom, and we loved every minute of it. I love animal kingdom, but we had a really hard time getting on our trip.
So my dog. It was going to run well, she did the run Disney 10 K on that.
Saturday morning. So we were going to get there mid day on Friday and have a chill day. Her and I were going to go over to her bib at the expo and everything like that, and just relaxed, have a nice dinner and then go to bed. Well that Friday morning at 3:00 AM, Southwest, send us a text that said your flight’s been canceled and we’ve rebooked you for Sunday night. And we’re like
no, partially because of her race.
I mean, to be quite honest, we could have shaved a few days off, but because of her race, I wasn’t willing to do that. So. We meaning my wife finagle through a lot of stuff and figured out that we could get a flight out of O’Hare. We were originally flying out of Indianapolis and for later that day, so luckily my dad wrote up with us and drove the van back for O’Hare cause
Shayne: Oh, nice.
Ryan: back into Indianapolis.
So shout out to my dad for doing. But our flight, then that day kept getting pushed back, and so much show that Miriam and I were going to miss the expo to pick up her bib. And I was afraid that she wasn’t going to get her information she needed for the race. luckily. Like, Shayne you’ve worked in travel advising and with greening magic vacations long enough, there’s always somebody at Disney and so one of our listeners Coleen actually was there and agreed to go over to the expo and get Miriam stuff for.
So at 10 o’clock at night, we finally get to animal kingdom lodge. We hadn’t eaten, we hadn’t eaten since lunch. We were dead tired and Coleen saved the day she brought Miriam stuff. Because Miriam was a minor, she was able to pick up her for information for her and everything. So it was a rough way to start our trip, but, we handle it.
Okay. We got there. And I know from working with clients and seeing friends on Facebook, not everybody was as lucky as us.
Shayne: Well, I saw your Facebook post about having trouble with the flights and you all seem to be handling it. Well, you seem to stay in good spirits about it.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, if she would have missed her race, there, there would have been problems, but we got there in plenty of time. We were good at.
Shayne: What time did the run start?
Ryan: So this is what I wanted to talk about first. One, because it was the first activity, our trip, and it was new for us.
So the 10 K was on Saturday morning and it started at 5:00 AM because they run all the races before the parks open. So I had talked to one of my friends, ju. Who is a run Disney, fan. And so she gave me all the inside scoop. So at two 20 that morning, I woke up, got my coffee, got ready to go.
Got Miriam up. We got on the first bus from animal kingdom and that left at 2 45. And we got there. We got checked in, it was a really positive environment. They had music go in, they had these MCs and hosts. They had different spots. You could take your picture and everything like that. And about. I would say about 3 30, 3 45.
We had gotten through everything. We were ready to go. The race actually started and ended at the parking lot and Epcot. And so Miriam took off and she went into the races, racers, only area. And I went to the spectator bleachers and sat there from four to five. And that’s really when the sleepy set in, I’ll have to tell you the Shayne. But it was really cool. I mean, at five o’clock they, they S they had music, they had the National Anthem and they have different waves of runners go through. So you’re when you sign up, you give a time that you expect to run and then they assign you based on. They also had wheelchair racers.
They had people who walked, they had people who were Very competitive. had people that were in costumes based on the theme. So it was for everybody, it really was. And so I would say Miriam was in the third group, but there were multiple group Baltimore. Starts in each group.
And I would say by five 20, she had started. And the cool.
thing is there’s actually a website where you can put in a bid number and you can track her along the way. So I was able actually to track her during she, she took about an hour to run the 10 K cause she wasn’t trying to kill herself. She wanted to have a fun experience.
And so. Yeah.
it stays in a year, the guy who won it in like, less than 30 minutes, I think. I mean, it was crazy. And so between the find my phone app and that app where I could track her run, I pretty much knew where she was the entire time.
Shayne: varied. How so? How did she do, how did she enjoy it after such a stressful
day and then arriving? So.
Ryan: She really liked it. So.
so this race ran through Epcot. It ran through the Boardwalk area. She thought it was a lot of fun. She said the only thing is she wished that she had been running it with a couple of her friends. Because that was where people were stopping and getting pictures and everything, but she took it a little too racy, if you will.
She didn’t enjoy the experience of stopping and everything. I know in some run Disney races, they actually have rides going that you can get on and things
like that.
Shayne: in the middle of your run.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. So, so no she’s already made plans for next run Disney event. And then afterwards, you.
She picked up some food that was there for her and cooled down a little bit. And then there were buses for each resort and we got on an Animal Kingdom bus and, by seven 30 in the morning, we were back home at the resort. And so we went to sleep and my wife and son went to the pool.
Shayne: Cool. Well, congratulations, Miriam. That’s awesome.
Ryan: Yeah.
Shayne: have a way, I know a way if she’s wanting to take her time getting through the run, I knew a way to slow her down lot,
Ryan: Yeah.
Shayne: and I think you should start training tomorrow.
Ryan: Here’s my thing. So I’m a big Walker. I walk every day. I like to walk, especially when I’m traveling, it’s not uncommon to, for me to walk hours, through a city or things like that. And so I’m saying, I think, I could easily not easily, but I would be happy to walk a 10 K you know and enjoy that run digital experience.
But, I do that at a Disney park anyway. So I don’t know if I need to pay the money to have that experience, but I’ll tell you what it is. One of those things that my guess is with run Disney Shayne, once you start, it gets pretty addictive and I it’s a subculture unto itself.
Shayne: Oh, yeah, I bet a few. A few runs and it’s a great way to see a city. If you’d want to do
Ryan: Yeah, right, right.
Shayne: and roll marathons, it’s a great way to see an entire city with all of the support along the way. Music it’s a lot of fun. So I can only imagine how Disney takes that to another level.
Ryan: Yeah. She said, there was her favorite part, honestly, was the cast member. The number of cast members that were there to cheer her on during the race. She thought that was really cool.
Shayne: Very cool.
Ryan: So my son had an interesting experience that he wanted to try for the first time.
Shayne: Yeah. So y’all built out a lightsaber.
Ryan: He did. So the, on our Hollywood studios day, he and I went over to Olga’s Cantina and had a couple drinks, non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks and enjoyed our time there. And then he had a reservation at Sotheby’s workshop to make a light saber. And he’d been talking about this for a long time.
He’d been saving money for it. It was a really neat experience, Shayne. Do you know anything about the building?
Shayne: How similar is it to building a droid.
Ryan: It is very different. It is very different. Although we have built droids before, so basically what you do is you make reservations ahead of time at 60 days. And you need to do that. So it’s not, it’s very hard to just walk up and do this and you. Check in, and this is obviously in bed to star wars Galaxy’s edge.
And your first selection is what type of. Lightsaber you went to build, there’s four different categories. And for him it was power and order because he’s always identified with, the dark side.
Shayne: Sure.
Ryan: The villains, if you will. And so that’s the theme of lightsaber that he chose.
And so you choose that and they give you a pink. That you put on your shirt based on that. So they know what to give you. And you go into this area, this room and there’s cast members there that are there to assist you. And there’s a, there’s a lead actor or a lead cast member that leads you through this story of, they’re the ones that are trying to revive. The Jedi art of the Kyber, crystal and the light saber and all, and they just do a fantastic job. And. They basically lay a tray out with all the different pieces and you can choose to mix and match. However you want. metal pieces. It’s very durable stuff.
And then you choose your Kyber crystal.
And for those of you who are not familiar with star wars war, your Kyber crystal is what gives your lightsaber not only its power, but its color. And so Caleb chose a red Kyber crystal and.
Shayne: Like Darth Vader.
Ryan: Yeah. And so he was able then to insert that in his lightsaber hilt, and you take the hilt when it’s done and you put it in a tube.
And when the lead cast member tells you, you pull out your lightsaber and it’s now the color That you’ve chosen with the Kyber crystals, and you raise it into the air. It’s a really cool experience.
Shayne: That sounds like a lot of fun.
Ryan: It is, don’t know if I’m willing to spend the money, it’s over $200, so it’s not a cheap souvenir by any means.
And it’s certainly not something for a little kid. There’s plenty of those around Hollywood studios. he really wanted to do it. And he’s told us multiple times he was so glad that he did it and it was so worth the money. So for me, that’s his new, Walt Disney world experience.
Shayne: Very cool. Yeah. There’s not many souvenirs that I want, but the lightsaber is one that if my kid doesn’t want to get one next time, then be one of those adults in there. That’s building
Ryan: And yeah, and absolutely they’re there. I would say that he was probably the youngest kid in there, the age of 13. Yeah, so, so I wouldn’t be worried about that at all.
Shayne: All right. Oh, I’m not, but So in, before you would try Genie plus not long after it was introduced, but this time you used it on your entire trip.
Ryan: We did so the first time I ever used genie plus was with the reads, my Mike and Leah Reed. And we were at Hollywood studios for one day. And so with this trip, we said, We’re going to use it all week. ,
and we’re just really gonna play with it. And we’re really going to see how it works or doesn’t work.
And we used it all. But the last day, because I had to get mine separately and my wife had to get her separately because we both have annual passes.
With their tickets automatically, we bought it had to add it. We chose the last day not to, because it was pretty much a rain out of a day.
So
Shayne: okay.
Ryan: that, We used to all the parks and we really got an education in how plus works or it doesn’t work.
Shayne: Have you come to a conclusion about whether to use it or how to use it any.
Ryan: So there was not a park that I was upset that I got it for. I would say we used it the least and animal kingdom. But partially that’s because it was too cold that day for Kali river rapids Everest was still.
Shayne: Okay.
Ryan: are two things that we would have used it for that.
Weren’t that weren’t part of the equation. And the wait times were just pretty low that day. And so that’s the only park where I thought, I probably don’t need this. So what would happen is the same setup. 7:00 AM every. I would make sure that I had purchased genie plus for my wife and I before seven, so that we all had it.
We were all ready to go. I would do what we’ve talked about before. We would the night before talk about, Okay.
here are the two or three things that we really want to do at the park. And I would make sure to only have each of those listed for lightning lane. And so you can go in the day before and check what you’re interested in doing.
Just check those because then when you get on at 7:00 AM, the next day, those were at the very top you’re not scrolling through
Shayne: Oh, wow. That’s
awesome. Because I can remember with, I remember what fast passes is having to scroll or search, and that
Ryan: That is something that we suggested and that certainly held true. So that’s what we did change. We would choose something for as early as we could. And then rope drop something else. So for instance, the morning that we went to, Animal Kingdom, we roped drop flight of passage. I would say we probably had a 20 minute wait on flight of passage. We roped drop Mekhi in minis. Essentially a walk on we roped dropped.
Shayne: And this is during spring break.
Ryan: This is during spring break.
We roped dropped. I don’t remember what we roped dropped at. I think we went to Tomorrowland area and magic kingdom. But then I would go on and I would get something for mid-morning. So that we’d have our first lightening lane. Now a couple things that were frustrating. And we dealt with this before.
And I think I talked about this on the podcast. There were times where they would say that a lightening lane was available for, let’s say 10 30 to 1130, and you would scroll through and you would choose it and you would choose your people. And by the time it went through, it would say you have a lightening lane for 12, 15 to one 15.
That’s really frustrating. And it happened more than once it happened on our first day when I was with the reeds. It happened multiple times this last week. And so that, that is something that they need to fix because people are relying on those times.
Shayne: Sure. Yeah.
Ryan: Another thing.
Shayne: without fixing
Ryan: Yes,
absolutely. Absolutely. So one of the, two of the ways that we found.
Genie plus to be the most successful one is if you roped dropped, it worked to your advantage because you were able to get things done before that first lightening lane. So always rope drop, which is our advice. Anyway, secondly, we maximize Jeannie plus the most when we park hopped, which meant. About halfway through the day, we switched from getting lightning lanes at the park that we were at.
To switch over to the park that we were going to later the day and the day, even if we weren’t going to it in the evening. So for instance, the day we went to magic kingdom, we were there in the morning. We had lunch, we took a break back at the resort for pool, a nap, things like that. And then we were going back for the fireworks.
So my wife started stacking lightning lanes. I’ll tell you what that is. So that, by the time we went back at about five 30 or six, we had four lightning lanes that we could use, that were ready to be used.
Shayne: So you’re able to pick
Ryan: We were more successful moving forward than we were trying to.
get lightening lanes for while we were actually in the park, which is hard for folks that aren’t park hopping.
So What do I mean by stat?
Shayne: What do You mean by
Ryan: can get a lightening Lane every two hours once starting the clock once the park opens. So for instance, you can get that very first lightening lane at 7:00 AM. Okay.
Let’s say that first lightening lane was for eight 50. Okay.
Once you use that eight 50 lightening lane, you can get another one and you can pick up another one immediately. You can always get a new one once you use one. However, the way that you stack them, Shayne is two hours after the park opened.
You can get another lightening lane, two hours after you get that lightening lane, you can get another lightening way.
And even if you haven’t used it yet, so that’s where it’s stacking. And so what we found was that was more successful in our evenings than it was during the day. Also. If you keep track of those times, you can predict when you’re going to get your lightening lane for, so for instance, there were times where we knew we were going to be at a park later and we wanted a lightening lane around six o’clock.
And let’s say at 1:00 PM, lane was for like four. And so we would know, Okay.
we need to start paying attention because that time’s going to keep getting backed up and we want to wait and wait for it and get it at six.
Shayne: So you
Ryan: So there is some strategy involved in this. And I think I it’s too.
It’s very complicated, especially for folks who are not used to going to, to Walt Disney world. And don’t have this strategy brain of choosing your stuff. I think for those folks, they will spend the $15 during the day and get very frustrated because. Walt Disney world has come out and said, Jeannie pluses for getting you two to three experiences throughout the day. And for me, that’s not enough to spend that much money every day of my trip for everybody.
Shayne: But if you were able to stack the lightning lanes and you were able to get more than those
Ryan: Yes. Yup. Yup. Yeah, because when you stack them, they can overlap.
Shayne: Okay.
Ryan: So, which is different than FastPass. The old FastPass system, which I actually like. So, I mean, we, like I said, when we went back to kingdom like that one evening, I mean, we were able to just go boom, away.
Shayne: So overall then I guess you would say that it enhanced your trip.
Ryan: It did enhance our trip, but there was quite a learning curve to it.
Absolutely.
Shayne: How many days did it take you to. To ride that curve.
Ryan: I think. I think by the third day we had a strategy of how we were going to do it. One of the things that I really liked is I really like the tip board that’s integrated in genie. Plus they lays everything out from dining to attractions to shows are in one spot. So you don’t have to keep flipping around.
I like that.
Shayne: And it does this based on what you entered in as your interests, right? It gives you, it’s not
Ryan: Both. So, so, so I never put any interest other than that first Lightening Lane that I wanted to do.
Shayne: Okay.
Ryan: So it would have everything in a park. Now, if I wanted to take stuff off, I could certainly do that. I could certainly take it off so that I could just focus on the things that I want to focus. and then I want to talk about the individual attraction selections. So our first day at Hollywood studios, we tried to get rise of the resistance. A time popped up our, I chose the time I went through and it wouldn’t take my payment and it wouldn’t take my payment and it’s fun and it’s fun and it’s fun.
And by the time it re centered itself, the time was 7:30 PM.
Shayne: Oh,
Ryan: And this was at 7:00 AM. So we just let that one sit. We didn’t worry about rise of the resistance. And we chose not to rope drop it. We decided we wanted to do Mickey and Minnie’s rise to the resistance one because we knew that the wait was going to be shorter and we’d be able to go on and
Shayne: Sure.
Ryan: we did by Remi Remy’s rectitude.
Because this was our first time for anybody writing that. And with the individual traction selections, you are able to choose your time. So we said, we want to ride it around 3:00 PM. I was able to go through, choose that. Now, obviously, sometimes we’re going to fill up, but that was very slick, very easy, not a problem at all.
And Remy’s was awesome. That was such a fun ride. We wanted to write it another time in the. But we didn’t want to pay for it a second time. And the wait time just didn’t go down enough. We thought a rainstorm would kick everybody out and it really didn’t. It’s a fun ride. I highly recommended if you haven’t written it.
Shayne: I’m going to have to watch the entire movie I’ve seen, the first half, two thirds of it.
Ryan: Yeah.
Shayne: times I need to watch it all the way through before I go.
Ryan: Yeah. And the scene that they chose for the ride. And I know this is a carry over from Disneyland Paris. So I know it’s not a completely new ride, but the scene that they use is really cool. The scene from the movie. I like it.
Shayne: And you also experienced Enchantment?
Ryan: For the first time. Yeah. This was the first time anybody in our family, including me had seen in chairman, which is the new ish fireworks show at magic kingdom. And we paired this with a fireworks dessert. Which we absolutely love. So before the fireworks we had we had desserts and some savory snacks and an open bar.
And you could be in there for about an hour and a half before the fireworks started. And then you made your way down to the green there in the hub, and you had a place that was reserved for everybody at the party. So we had we had a nice space. It’s not a cheap experience. But it’s a Very nice.
experience.
It’s a good way to experience something new like that. We won’t do it every time by any means, but I would say, every third or fourth trip, we may talk ourselves into a dessert party because it’s just fun. The desserts are good. But also you’re there to see the show in a good setting and Shayne it’s a phenomenal show.
It is, the projections are amazing. The music is great. The fireworks are great. It is it’s Disney at its best.
We are not night owls at the parks. I mean it, if we are there till. That’s a long time for us to be at the parks. And that’s just how my family rolls that we, and, but this was a special night. So we hadn’t Chapman and chairman was over about nine 30.
And again, we had been getting lightening wanes for later in the day, the park officially closed at 11. But from 11 to one we’re deluxe after hours, which meant if you were staying at a deluxe resort, the park was open to you for those two hours. And since we were staying at aminal animal kingdom lodge, we qualify.
So we stayed and we did lightening lanes all up until 11 and enjoyed our time there and then at 11 o’clock, those Deluxe After Hours started, I thought there was going to be a lot of people.
There was hardly anybody. I mean, it was so like we literally my we got to seven doors, mine train, and they were no longer showing wait times on the app because the park had officially closed right on the sign. It says 45. And okay, well maybe there’s a lot of people in the queue. And we started walking in and I like all of a sudden I’m like, well, if we were at 45 minutes, we would have been stopped by now.
My daughter timed it from time walking into the queue to getting off the ride, 12 minutes.
Shayne: Wow.
Ryan: Hi, Ritz pirates. The same thing walked straight through to.
Shayne: Very
Ryan: We could’ve done any ride we wanted over these two hours all walk on. It was amazing. We did not stay till one. But this is really a perk, especially if you want to maximize your part-time and you look at the calendar and they start doing, even a couple of these a week, which they have bad to me.
This may push you over the edge to, to stay in a deluxe room.
Shayne: Sounds like a great way to get in a lot of extra attractions
Ryan: Yeah.
Shayne: just a couple of hours.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this was a way to really end, and this was not tied to your ticket. I mean, obviously you had to have a ticket to get into the park. You had to have a park, but you know, there was no, I mean, this was not associated with FastPass. You didn’t pay any extra for this. This was just, I mean, at the front of her ride, they scanned your magic band to show that you were staying at a deluxe room.
And you had the time there and there was also, the stores were open that some of the food was open. So this was really a time you could have stayed and just played in the park into the night.
Shayne: Wow. That sounds like a great perk. A great way to get people to go ahead and upgrade to a deluxe resort.
Ryan: really liked it. I I think that they’re doing this at least at Epcot and magic kingdom. If not Hollywood studios as well. I know with animal kingdom they can’t always do these things because of the animals. But yeah, th this is really cool. I mean, w we will definitely do this on future trips where we’re staying at deluxe.
Shayne: So I think in my opinion, we might’ve saved the best for last. I am really excited to hear about space two 20.
Ryan: All Right.
So the last night of our trip, I had secured reservations to space two 20, as we looked at the dining. So space two 20 is a prefix menu. It’s not very cheap. It’s for dinner. It’s $80. And as we looked with my daughter being a vegetarian, we’re just like, I don’t think this is the best option for her.
She settles a lot when it comes to going out, to eat with being a vegetarian. And the last thing we wanted to do was spend that much money for one, for her to get the plant-based dish they had, which she doesn’t care for. Like the fake. Type of dishes or just to get a kid’s Mac and cheese or something like that.
So my wife and daughter decided they wanted to go try the creperie in Paris, the new crepe spot. So they did that. They absolutely loved it. Highly recommend that’s definitely going to be on my, to eat next time, Caleb is a huge space. What’d we say that again. Cause I got a phone boards. Caleb is a huge space geek and I’m a huge Disney dining geek.
So we’re like, Nope, we’re okay. We are sticking with this place. And so we, we kept the reservation for the two of us. You walk in and it’s. Beside mission space. In fact, you almost go into the queue of mentioned space to go into space two 20 and you walk in and it’s odd because it’s nondescript and everything.
And you’re like, okay, this doesn’t look very. High end or highly themed and they check you in, and then you go into this room and it’s like, okay, this is starting to look Spacey, like a travel wait room. And then you go into the elevator, you go into the elevator with about a group of 10 and they have screens below you and screens above you.
Have you ever done Shayne? One of the, like those big, giant.
Balloons where it raises you into the air with the baskets. You know what I’m talking about?
Shayne: oh,
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. But it’s where it’s tethered.
Shayne: Like the one at Disney Springs.
Ryan: Yes. Yes, exactly. It felt like that you stood around a railing and the screen at the bottom open, like it opens up and you can see yourself going up and you actually come out of the building and Epcot raise up and you are up and then you see more afforded you raise up and you raise up and suddenly you’re in space.
And then you look up. And you see the space station above you and this elevator goes above and quote unquote into the space station. And when the doors opened up, You’re in the space station and everything is themed. Like you’re in a space station. You walk into this really really space themed
dining area.
And then in front of you is this panoramic window where you’re looking at earth and also little things happen there. So, space rovers. Go by or the X two for mission space might fly by your window. Or there might be a couple astronauts working on something or an asteroid flies by it’s really cool.
Shayne: Wow. That sounds amazing.
Ryan: So Caleb and I, we had a really nice dinner. So it’s a prefixed menu for dinner. You choose an appetite. Uh, Main dish and a dessert. We had an excellent waitress named Allie. She was just a phenomenal waitress, walked us through everything. For our drinks I had I had the Nebula, which was described to me as a tropical old fashioned.
And that’s exactly what it was like. It was wonderful. We had for appetizer, I had the two Nitara. And Caleb had the calamari, which it was his first time trying that and shout out to him because he wanted to try it without ever having it. And he loved it.
Shayne: Excellent.
Ryan: I had the chicken breast, which was chicken breasts on top of a polenta cake was seasoned lentils and Caleb had the duck breast with asparagus and Jasmine rice.
Shayne: I mean, he was really adventurous
Ryan: He, he, I was really proud of him. He is not always an adventurous eater. He likes to eat a lot of different things, but he won’t necessarily go out of his way to, and I think he just felt kinda like, Hey,
this is a really cool dinner. I’m going to eat some really cool.
Shayne: Awesome.
Ryan: He had chocolate cheesecake for dinner, and I had a pineapple panacotta and I will tell you, Shayne, we sampled each other’s food.
Everything was phenomenal. If you are a space junkie, if you like good meals, this was a really fun Disney dining experience.
Shayne: Had you finished the Nebula yet when you got the pineapple Panna cotta. Cause I could see those going pretty well together.
Ryan: Yes, would have. They, they would have, but
Shayne: Didn’t last.
Ryan: no, That, that drink was one. So, no, we had a really good experience. I, it is a good addition to Epcot. Epcot already has great dining, but I think this, that the Future World side, which I know it’s not called future world anymore, but the Future World side of Epcot needed something like this.
And it’s great.
Shayne: Now that they’ve changed the name from Future World, there’s something. Literally futuristic and
Ryan: yeah.
No, it was really cool. My guess is the graphics of the used in the windows are the same things in the Starbucks. Like in the hotel rooms and those public spaces, the darker’s or it was neat. We got a lot of photos, we had a fun time with it. And then when you’re done, you go back to the elevator and you go down.
you know, it’s like the Hogwarts Express, where if you go one way, it’s one type of show and you go the other way and you actually you start looking at the top and you’ve got the space station there and you just keep dropping and dropping. And then for, the globe comes into view for, to comes into view.
Epcot comes into view, and then you’re back at the building.
Shayne: That is so cool.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah totally awesome. I mean, it was Disney, Imagineering and Disney dining at its best,
Shayne: Well, that sounds like an incredible week.
Ryan: And like I said, everybody asks, why do you keep going back to Disney? Every single thing that I talked about was new to us.
Shayne: Yeah. That’s eight things. You got to try than one per day and then an extra on a day that after all the times you’ve been to Disney that you haven’t got to experience yet. So always lots of reasons to go back.
Ryan: absolutely. No. We had a wonderful week. And if anybody has any questions about any of these things we talked about reach out to me. I’d love to, to share our experience with you in planning your trip.
Shayne: It sounds like we need to write a book or a guide based on what you and Elizabeth figured out with Jeannie plus.
Ryan: I think that sounds like a great plan. Y we’ll get working on that Shayne, and we’ll share that with folks when it’s done
Shayne: Soon
Ryan: soon.
So there is a current promotion going on right now. have got you excited about going to Walt Disney world, and this is specifically for Disney plus subscribers can save up to 25% on rooms at select Disney resort for stays most nights, July. Through September 30th. So the second half of the summer, if you will, and a Disney subscriber needs to be on the reservation, not necessarily the lead guest, but you Will have to prove that you are a Disney plus subscriber or you won’t get the discount.
Shayne: Will they accept the screenshot of my new Moon Knight avatar for my account. Do you
Ryan: I don’t think so, but I think if you can get that, I think you’ve got to.
Shayne: we would love to help you plan your next vacation, especially to Walt Disney World. As we are both travel agents with Creating Magic Vacations and authorized Disney planner, you can reach out to us@ryanryanatcreatingmagicvacations.com S H a Y N e@creatingmagicvacations.com.
Ryan: Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation, we work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interests, saving you time, money, and stress.