Wish I Would Have Known
Wish I Would Have Known
Walt Disney World: Exploring Beyond the Theme Parks
Get ready to unlock the Magic Kingdom's best kept secrets! Ever wondered how to fully experience Disney without stepping foot inside a park? Allow us, Amber and Clint, to guide you through an enchanting journey beyond the parks and into one of the most vibrant parts of Disney, Disney Springs. We've got stories and tips that are sure to make your next Disney trip unforgettable. You'll chuckle with us as we share a hilarious tale of some friends who tricked their kids into believing they were actually in a Disney park while at Disney Springs!
But the magic doesn't stop there! We'll take you on a virtual tour of the dreamy Disney resorts. Even if you're just visiting, these resorts are treasure troves of adventure and relaxation. Join us as we wax poetic about our favorite resort, the Polynesian Resort, with its alluring tropical aroma and exclusive treats. One bite of the unique Dole Whip flavors exclusive to the resort and you'll feel like you've been transported to a tropical paradise. Plus, we'll spill the secrets of the peaceful beach at Bay Lake, the perfect place to unwind and soak in the Florida sun.
Finally, we'll share the fun and excitement of Disney merchandise fanatics like us. You'll discover the joy in matching Disney shirts for family outings and the allure of Disney-themed apparel. Don't miss our tidbits about the unique dining options at the Contemporary Resort and the hidden gems of the California Grill. And just when you think we've shared it all, we'll recount a delightful encounter with Peter Pan at Wilderness Lodge! So put on your Mickey ears and join us for this fun-filled, Disney-centric ride. Adventure awaits!
Check out @wish.podcast on Instagram!
Welcome to the Wish I Would've Known podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Clint and I'm Amber, and we've been married for almost 20 years.
Speaker 1:And in this 20 years we've gained a lot of wisdom and found ourselves in the middle of some pretty crazy stories.
Speaker 2:And now we want to share those things with you.
Speaker 1:So here's some stuff that we wish we would've known. Hey friends, hello, I hope you're having a magical day.
Speaker 2:Aw, we do hope that.
Speaker 1:We really do.
Speaker 2:Whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1:If you're sitting in traffic hope it's magical.
Speaker 2:I hope it's magical. Traffic it's magical.
Speaker 1:What constitutes something being magical?
Speaker 2:I think it's a feeling Right. It's like an overall feeling you get when I get that feeling Nope, not that.
Speaker 1:Not that one, a different one A different, magical feeling.
Speaker 2:Got it All right.
Speaker 1:Anyways, guys, glad you're here. Yes, we're glad that you have tuned in to our Disney series. So this summer we just kind of figured everybody's going on vacations. We might as well talk about some of our favorite vacations and our favorite place, which is Walt Disney World. So so far we've knocked out our top 10 list.
Speaker 2:Yes, our tips and tricks.
Speaker 1:Yep, we've talked about Magic Kingdom, we've talked about Epcot, we've talked about Hollywood Studios, we've done the Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 2:We've done all the four parks.
Speaker 1:And you say to yourself, but that's it right. I mean that has to be it.
Speaker 2:That has to be it.
Speaker 1:What else could they possibly talk about? Why am I here? Well, my friend, I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 2:Did they ask or are we just prompting?
Speaker 1:I asked on their behalf.
Speaker 2:You asked yeah, they were thinking it.
Speaker 1:They were.
Speaker 2:We know. We know what you were thinking.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So so, Amber, why, why are they here? Why are they here? Tell them.
Speaker 2:So you, our friends, are here today on our last of our Disney series, the last episode, because we're going to talk about things other than the Disney parks that you can do while at Walt Disney World, and those things are Visit Disney Springs, which used to be downtown Disney.
Speaker 1:I still call it downtown Disney I know it's okay that you do.
Speaker 2:And the Disney resorts. There are tons of resorts and there's fun things that you can do at the resorts even if you're not staying there.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about all of that.
Speaker 1:It's true, so buckle up.
Speaker 2:Click, click. So maybe you and your family are. You know you're taking a trip to Disney, but you don't have park tickets for every single day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or maybe you just want to take a day where you're like you know what, let's not go to the park today, we're going to chill.
Speaker 2:We're going to chill, yeah, but also want to have some Disney fun, still have that Disney feeling, disney experience. The magical feeling, the magical, so let's talk about Disney Springs, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I'm ready.
Speaker 2:So if you're not familiar with Disney Springs, it is basically like a Disney park. It's basically like a huge outdoor shopping center with tons of shops and restaurants. The stores are not all Disney themed. There's some nice, just other kind of stores there, Disney restaurants, themed restaurants, I mean kind of anything that you can imagine out at Disney Springs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's some really cool restaurants which are actually some of my favorite restaurants on Disney property. Yeah, actually are at Disney Springs.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have one called the T-Rex. Is it called T-Rex?
Speaker 2:It's called T-Rex Cafe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, t-rex Cafe and there's dinosaurs in there. But they're like, okay. So we took the kids when they were really little. It's one of our favorite little memories because then we have it on video, yeah. So the kids were little and we were like put a phone in front of them or a camera in front of them. We're like, oh, and tell us about the dinosaurs. He's like I saw the dinosaurs and do, we, will, do, we will Do, we will Do we are. And he was just like enamored.
Speaker 2:Every couple of minutes, the animatronic dinosaurs will come to life.
Speaker 1:So it's like Rainforest Cafe, which there also is one of those at Disney Springs, but it's like Rainforest Cafe, but with dinosaurs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is great.
Speaker 2:And you know what the food is actually. It's fantastic, really good.
Speaker 1:I think I had one of the best like salmon. Yes, I think I had a barbecue salmon. Some things are one of the best things about it the food is excellent.
Speaker 2:So, that's a fun one if you have littles, because the dinosaurs are will, we will, they will, we will. There's T-Rex Cafe, rainforest Cafe, which you mentioned, which, if you're not familiar with that, it's like animals everywhere kind of thing. They're animatronics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this one's inside a giant volcano, yeah, which erupts every hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is kind of a fun thing to see with your kids.
Speaker 2:It's super fun. It's fun to do. You need to do it at least once.
Speaker 1:You know what I think it's important for me to tell just a quick little aside story.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So we've loved Disney for a long time. Some of our friends have talked about taking their kids to Disney. You're like, oh, it's too expensive and they don't really remember it. So we're just going to go to Disney Springs. So they just went and took their kids to Disney Springs and told their kids that they went to Disney, which and it was okay. Look, they did.
Speaker 2:To a little child who doesn't remember, and there's like the big, huge Disney store, so you take them in there.
Speaker 1:But I was being obnoxious so I asked their kids like what was your favorite ride? Yeah, and they're like shut up.
Speaker 2:There's a little train and a carousel out there.
Speaker 1:There it is, that is true, that is true.
Speaker 2:You know a Disney park, but it's still fun, Super fun to go. One of our favorite sort of, I guess, casual dining spots that maybe is not super expensive is called Earl of Sandwich.
Speaker 1:Yes, earl, as in like a royal Earl, like a duke or an Earl. Like a duke.
Speaker 2:Earl of Sandwich.
Speaker 1:Yep, another side note I'm just going to sit here and do Okay.
Speaker 2:Here's a word of the week. You're just doing side notes. I'm talking and you're just going to do You're going to do content.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do side notes. Neat, okay, I'm going to grab it, enjoy this Jack's freshman year of high school, he was a part of homecoming court.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And so there's a homecoming king and queen and there's prince and princess, and they go down the royal line. Well, jack was a freshman when he was nominated for this, and so the female is the duchess and the male is Duke. He didn't know this term, so he just thought it was dutch and duchess, so he was like. He came home one day and he was like hey, I got voted, I voted for homecoming dutch and I was like what.
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, just low key, we call Jack the dutch.
Speaker 2:So if you happen to see Jack walking around a real life, just call him dutch. It's fun, he loves it, the dutch Okay.
Speaker 1:Back to Earl of Sandwich, which was not one of the homecoming designations.
Speaker 2:This sandwich shop is phenomenal, so good. Oh my gosh, we still talk about it. It's like hot sandwiches and they're all super good. So definitely, if you're at Disney Springs, hit up Earl of Sandwich. You won't regret it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we opened up a bakery called okay. So this isn't, it's not like a Disney IP type thing, it's called Gideon's Bakery.
Speaker 2:What is IP for people who don't?
Speaker 1:know Intellectual property.
Speaker 2:Which means what?
Speaker 1:It means an idea or a character that Disney owns.
Speaker 2:Got it, thank you.
Speaker 1:So Aladdin would be an IP.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:So. But Gideon's Bakery? No, it's not. It has its own. It's not owned by Disney, even though they have a space in Disney Springs, right? So Gideon's Bakery, it's almost like okay, I don't know how to describe it it's like a haunted mansion. If you got to go inside a haunted mansion, there was a bakery in there. Pretty much I mean it's kind of what it is, but like when I'm telling you that the cookies are like as big as your face.
Speaker 2:They're the size of a plate, like an actual plate. They weigh a half a pound.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like a half pound cookies and they're the best cookie you've ever had. But you have to wait in a line. And when I'm saying wait in a line, sometimes the wait's like an hour. So like vote for your least favorite family member, Say, hey, we're going to go to explore Disney Springs and have fun. You're going to wait in line at Gideon's.
Speaker 2:But does that mean they get to have like first bite of the cookie, or is there like a reward for that?
Speaker 1:And I think the reward is that they can increase their favoritism within the family.
Speaker 2:They can move up from Dutch, so they know that they're not liked in the family. They know, they know.
Speaker 1:And they can move up from Dutch to Prince in the lineage of the family. Be like look, you're the Dutch, You're the Dutch.
Speaker 2:But if you wait in line at Gideon's, you can be the prince. Make sure you check out Gideon's Bakery as well if you're out there. It's so good.
Speaker 1:It's really good. Oh, there is another actual attraction there that I've never done and never will do ever. So right behind the Starbucks in Disney Springs there's the giant hot air balloon and most likely if you've been around on Disney property, you've seen this hot air balloon go up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can see it from the highway. You see it from all over, From all the parks just about.
Speaker 1:So there's a hot air balloon. It's tethered to the ground. You can go up in it and it gives you like an awesome view of Disney property Me, no, go there, nope not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna get you to do it one day. You won't, it is my life goal there is not a tether that has ever tethered.
Speaker 1:That tethers enough to keep me on the ground.
Speaker 2:It's not gonna like release and go floating off into nowhere.
Speaker 1:No, but I've seen it like start moving in the wind and stuff.
Speaker 2:Okay, we will pick a not windy day, hard pass, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1:Hard pass on the giant hot air balloon at Disney Springs.
Speaker 2:So Disney Springs great place to go Check it out.
Speaker 1:Also really fun places to go the resorts, I think, okay. So most people think that when the only way you can go to a Disney resort is if you're staying at the Disney resort, okay, wrong, okay wrong.
Speaker 2:That's the parent. That is a parent noise that you just made.
Speaker 1:Yep, I did. It's like put that down, Eh, eh so.
Speaker 2:It's universally understood.
Speaker 1:Our kids listening to this podcast just got like PTSD.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh God, what did I do? Oh, what was I doing?
Speaker 1:They heard, eh, and they're like what did I do? Anyway, so you can go to any of the Disney resorts. You can either go and have dinner there. There are restaurants, various restaurants.
Speaker 2:So good, Different Disney resorts which are fantastic.
Speaker 1:We'll cover some of those Also. You can just go kinda explore. So one of my favorite times of year at Disney is Christmas. It always is. Christmas is amazing at Walt Disney World and one of the coolest things that we've ever done is for my birthday. One year we got a massive group of people together, a bunch of our friends and family, and we went to all the different Disney resorts just to go see their Christmas trees, and there are some of them that you can actually walk from one resort to another, and so we walked around go to see the Christmas tree you see in the big giant gingerbread village that was at the Grand Floridian.
Speaker 1:That was really cool. The incredibly massive Christmas tree that's at the Wilnerness Lodge. It's just so cool. So there are a lot of really fun experiences that are at the resorts.
Speaker 2:Just go and hang out at the resorts. You can walk around, you can.
Speaker 1:Look, when we lived at Walt Disney World which is the whole reason that we're doing this whole podcast series is because we're experts and whatnot I used to take my laptop and just go work at the fireplace at the Wilnerness Lodge At Wilnerness Lodge, like all the time I would just post up here's fireplace this is a great place to work, yeah it was amazing. It made me feel like I was in the mountains.
Speaker 2:So our family has stayed in a couple of them. We stayed at the All Star Resort, all Star Sports, excuse me, all Star Sports, resort Sports.
Speaker 1:Resort.
Speaker 2:When the boys were younger and they loved it, they thought it was a blast. I mean, all the resorts are themed so well. The grounds are really themed so you can run around and enjoy those.
Speaker 1:And we've also stayed at the Port Orleans Resort, yep that was the very first one that we ever stayed at. Yes, and it was. It's obviously like Mardi Gras themed and whatnot, which was so cool, and so they give like Mardi Gras beads and coins.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so Jack had never been to Disney World. So we went down, we went to go stay there, and there's this guy that opens the door, says hello there, friend, and gives Jack beads and this little coin and he goes. Why did they give me this? Why do I have this? Why did they give me this? Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've stayed at those. I'm sure staying at the resorts are amazing and wonderful, but we're just saying if that's not how you roll.
Speaker 1:Which, look, I we've said it before on one of the podcast episodes that normally we would suggest staying off different property. It's a lot cheaper, it's a good way to do it, but if you, if you want to go and hang out the resource, they're great place to hang out. So there's a couple different ways you can get around to like, connect the resource. Some of the resorts are connected, so there's the monorail resorts, which are all connected via the monorail, and it's let's see, the Grand Floridian.
Speaker 2:The Grand Floridian and the Polynesian Resort, which is my favorite and contemporary and the contemporary yeah and then wilderness lodge you either have to drive to or you can take a boat to you can't take a ferry boat, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yes over from Magic Kingdom over there.
Speaker 2:So we're gonna focus on those four, just for this sake, just because there's a lot to talk about, and I think those are the ones that we mainly hung out at around Magic Kingdom, for sure. So we talked about the contemporary, the wilderness lodge, polynesian and Grand Floridian. Let's see. So, okay, let's talk about the poly, because you love the Polynesian, that's my favorite one, is it? That's your favorite?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I really don't have like a super concrete reason of why that's my favorite one, I think it's the smell. I love the smell, Guys. The smell of the Polynesian Resort is the best thing in the world. It smells tropical and like Fruity. I don't know how do you describe smells.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but Disney knows they know how to do that though. They know how to attach feelings to smell?
Speaker 1:I can smell it.
Speaker 2:They pump that smell through that whole building.
Speaker 1:I do, and it's amazing as soon as you walk in you're like honest. So the Polynesian Resort, as you can imagine, polynesian Village Resort Is that right. As you can imagine, it's based on, like Polynesian culture, so it's a very Hawaiian type tropical. Yeah, and so there's Tiki's everywhere and there's like a lot of really cool ornate woodwork and water fountains and Different statues and things like that all around Yep, which are just so cool.
Speaker 2:You feel like you're on an island, like a tropical island.
Speaker 1:It's extremely, it's extremely immersive.
Speaker 2:The food is great. We love Kona cafe. Kona cafe is amazing. Oh, Hanna is there.
Speaker 1:Everybody loves Ohana. That's kind of that kind of seems to be like a Disney fan Go-to. Yeah that's like the one of the ultimate places that you want to go and eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah which is so good and then you can also get Dolwips at the Polynesian Resort.
Speaker 1:I forgot about the Dolwips yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm not correct in this, but I think there are some flavors that you can only get there.
Speaker 1:I think you're right like we.
Speaker 2:They had a lime one one time. That was so good a lime. Dolwip. Yes, it was legit. So you get. You can go to the Polynesian and hang out and you can get your Dolwip. And then they have this really awesome beach Down by Bay Lake that you can go and just hang out on the beach.
Speaker 1:But not only can you just hang out, it is a killer spot to watch the fireworks. It's a very cool spot to watch fireworks amazing spot to watch fireworks at for like the 4th of July or any night at Walt Disney World.
Speaker 2:So we were there with your whole family, where there was like 20 of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we posted up for 4th of.
Speaker 2:July posted up for 4th of July. We had all planned out y'all. We were so excited and we had everybody there and we're hanging on the beach, we're taking pictures and then all of a sudden, as Florida does this Gigantic dark clouds starts to form and roll over and we just got like Drenched and got run out of there and didn't get to see the fireworks. Yep.
Speaker 1:All right, let me tell you a wish I would have known. This is something you wish that I wish I would have known. Okay, um the Polynesian resort, if you park in the main parking lot of Magic Kingdom on the heroes side.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:It's within walking distance of the Polynesian. You literally there's a little entrance over there. You walk straight into the poly and a lot of times what we would do is if we parked on the hero side of the Magic Kingdom Parking lot. We would just walk through the poly and then hop on the monitor monorail to Polynesian instead of going to the ticket transportation center yeah, the other way. So that's kind of a cool little note. It's a really beautiful walk at night.
Speaker 2:It is so so often like torches everywhere.
Speaker 1:So we would. We would take there there. So we talked about this before, I believe. But there's the, there's the monorail. You can go to Magic Kingdom and then there's also the ferry boat. Then to the different Individual resorts that are on that monorail line, you can take a boat, a smaller boat, directly to those docks. Yep, so at the end of a long Magic Kingdom night, when there's a million people waiting for the monorail, if we parked in the heroes lot, we would take the small boat Directly to the Polynesian and hop off there and then walk to the parking lot from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think people are maybe a secret intimidated to do that because I think why I'm not staying at the resort? I can't take the resort it doesn't very. It's like a peaceful little ride it's a really unique experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it probably one of the cooler ones out there on Bay Lake to be able to come, a smaller boat and like. It's a very cool vibe.
Speaker 2:It's a good vibe, so that's a good one.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go. Let's go around Towards Magic Kingdom. Okay, you want to hit the grand Floridian, the? Grand Floridian and boy, is it grand it is great.
Speaker 2:The lobby is beautiful. Usually there's somebody in there playing a grand piano.
Speaker 1:They used to have a ragtime band.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they played in there.
Speaker 1:That was made up pre COVID yes, pre-covid, they had a ragtime band that was made up of, like, old men that had retired, that just wanted to play like Ragtime music was fantastic.
Speaker 2:I hope they bring that back.
Speaker 1:It was amazing.
Speaker 2:We used to Park there because you would order like Cookie on the app.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a little little backstory. The, the resorts, are closer to Magic Kingdom than the actual parking lot of Magic Kingdom. They're much closer, yeah, and so why would you not park there? Well, you can't park there because you're not staying there, right? I found a loophole when I'm like I ordered.
Speaker 2:I know you all listening this like anybody.
Speaker 1:Then, yeah, clint found a loophole. What, how could he do such a thing? So, anyway, I found a loophole where they're like if you order food at the grand, at the Grand Flurry, and they have to let you order a mobile order a cookie and Then I'll show.
Speaker 1:I'm a like hey, I ordered food, and they're like okay, great, you can park right over here. And then I would park over there and we would rock paper scissors which one of us had to go get the cookie, because you had to walk a little bit farther than everybody else. Yeah so somebody, usually Owen, would run, pick up the cookie, eat the cookie on the way to hop on the monorail. We hop on the monorail, we're in Magic Kingdom in like three minutes, yeah, and it's way faster. It was way faster.
Speaker 2:I don't think they let you do that anymore, so they shouldn't have let me do that to begin with.
Speaker 1:There's no reason why they should ever let me do that. It's a it's a Disney loophole. There are several of these that that I've discovered over the years. That one I'm pretty proud of that your role following wife.
Speaker 2:Just oh, oh she's so uncomfortable. I'm so uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:She gets so uncomfortable cannot handle it, cannot handle the cookie to buy to get a parking spot.
Speaker 2:Anyway, um, you can't. Yes, so then you can hop on the monorail from the Grand Floridian there's shops and stuff in there to wander around into, but then you can take it over to Magic Kingdom. Or they just recently, like within last year, made a pathway that goes all the way From the Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 1:Can I, can I tell you Disney lovers, disney vacationers, this is something that you must do at some point in your life. You need to take an a late evening stroll Between the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom. It's this beautifully lit Sidewalk with all these old lanterns along the way.
Speaker 2:You're walking along Bayleigh.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. If you do it at the right time, you may be able to see the water parade that they do every night. They do that like kind of like the electrical water parade. It's just such a cool experience and and so chill, and I have a lot of great, great memories of like aimer Not going, and like having awesome conversations and taking long walks around Bay Lake together. Super, super thankful for that. All right, so let's, let's continue around. We're gonna. We're gonna pass right past Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 1:Okay, ignore that, it's on your left, you're gonna wave at it. There it goes, there it goes, and we're gonna keep going to the contemporary resort the contemporary resort is the one that the monorail actually goes through. Guys, it goes through it.
Speaker 2:Our kids always thought that was the neatest thing. The monorail was through a building through a building, you're inside the hotel.
Speaker 1:It's so cool.
Speaker 2:I've always known we've never stayed there. I've always wondered what that's like to stay in the hotel. Do you hear the monorail going in and out?
Speaker 1:Well, I, mean it's a pretty silent monorail, it's not like this.
Speaker 2:No, don't they have no no, I mean you hear, like the announcement as the doors are opening and closing Please don't clear the doors, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the kids have that memorized in both English and Spanish. They do and have t-shirts to that effect as well. Also we can. Can we just okay side, okay, before we talk about Give, give our listeners a ballpark, a ballpark of how many Disney themed t-shirts or clothing, apparel items that that we have or have had while we live there.
Speaker 2:Gosh, that's really hard to say between all of us. We have at least a hundred t-shirts have to which, now that I'm thinking about it, I should have those turned into like a blanket or something you can do. You know how you can do that with t-shirts.
Speaker 1:Now there's companies that take like are you going crafty mom on us over here?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not doing it oh okay. You look really weird. There are Companies that you can send, like your kids sports jerseys and over the years and stuff like that, and they'll turn it into like a Throw blanket.
Speaker 1:So you want to throw a blanket of formerly sweaty t-shirts. You're not selling this to me. Yeah, let's get the pit stain ones, okay. Anyway, I think over under we probably got about a hundred. We have a lot of like, and they're, they're usually. We really love A obscure Disney themed things. Yeah so um, I like one that has Edna mode on it, but it says but it looks like a Gucci shirt.
Speaker 2:Or anything from Goofy Movie, or anything from Emperors New Groove Emperors New.
Speaker 1:Groove? Yeah, totally so anything that's kind of off the beaten path. We're not talking about Mickey and Minnie like holding hands.
Speaker 2:Which is so funny, right, when you're at Disney World, you're wearing all the Disney things. Right, you're buying the Disney sweatshirts and the T-shirts, and the hats and the you're buying a Pluto hat with the ears you know this platform.
Speaker 1:I wanna use this platform right now to stop the shaming of people wearing the same shirt. The Jensen family reunion with the Mickey Mouse Like who shames that? Everybody does. They shame them on, like social media and the stuff like oh, I'm not wearing I'm not because remember, there's actually shirts that say I'm not wearing the stupid matching shirts.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, like guys, have fun, just wear the matching shirts. Have fun, wear the matching shirts, just wear them. I did it. Yep, we did it.
Speaker 1:I'm a non-conformist. For your mom's retirement, I sure did, we did it and it was super fun. It was really fun.
Speaker 2:We got the picture and everything it was great, all right okay so I don't know that it's cool to wear Disney. Is it cool to wear Disney things outside of Disney World, though?
Speaker 1:See, I'm struggling.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm saying we own all of these Disney shirts.
Speaker 1:But they're all in like storage yeah. Because we don't wear them anymore and now you're trying to make blankets out of it. So clearly you just answered your question. Do you rather it be a sweaty former sweatshirt saying blanket than actually wear it in your like normal life?
Speaker 2:I just mean that it would get some use, or like we could have it around the house and like Just rags.
Speaker 1:They're just like random, like rags to clean up things around the house. Now I'm not wearing that anymore. I'm not gonna wear Disney. No, it's a nice one. Anyway, hey, if any of you guys want some free Disney merch apparently it's either the options are rags, blanket, or we could just send it to you. We got lots of Disney shirts so we could send you away. Okay, beep, beep. I just heard the monorail haunt. We're back into the contemporary resort. Here we are. I lost her mojo over here. I'm just picturing this blanket. Stop, stop with the blanket, sorry.
Speaker 2:She's okay, okay, all right, contemporary. There's places to eat, there's good food, you know, I mean it's Disney food. They have Mickey's Cafe, right? Is it a character breakfast?
Speaker 1:And they call Mickey's Cafe or something like that. There's a character breakfast where you can actually have Chef Mickey.
Speaker 2:That's it, Chef Mickey. Yeah, you can have breakfast with the characters. That's fun.
Speaker 1:There's a couple of really cool like kind of hidden secrets. I will say this For one anniversary Amber and I it was our 15th 15th anniversary. We ate dinner at the California Grill. Is that what it's called At the top?
Speaker 2:of the contemporary, so you get this amazing view of Bay Lake and Magic Kingdom Incredible.
Speaker 1:We ate our sunset and then there's a deck where you can go out and watch the fireworks at night. And like it was magical, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:It really was. You had a $100 steak.
Speaker 1:I had a $100 steak and you had a pork chop. That was better than a $100 steak. That's what I remember, happy 15th, happy 15th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, $100 steak. Oh, and I also saw Peter Pan in the lobby, do? You remember that I saw Peter Pan.
Speaker 1:Wait, like it was really here In the hotel.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have a picture of it. We were on an escalator with it.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, I remember it Because you were like Peter Pan.
Speaker 2:Well, it was like seeing your teacher outside of school Sign my t-shirt blanket. Oh I, we could do that, Peter.
Speaker 1:You think?
Speaker 2:you can get it signed.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:No, but like it's just like seeing somebody out of context, right Like you see Peter Pan in the park. That makes sense, but he was just like in the hotel lobby.
Speaker 1:Was he staying there?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. It was just Peter Pan. Wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's the. That's the monorail resorts.
Speaker 2:Those are the monorail resorts.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're gonna hop on to a little boat. We're gonna make our way over Is there a boat specifically for Wilderness Lodge? Yes, there's a boat specifically for Wilderness Lodge. We're gonna make our way over to Wilderness Lodge. Okay now, I said earlier that Polynesian's my favorite resort. I think, pound for pound, polynesian's my favorite. I love Wilderness Lodge.
Speaker 2:It is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. It's very rustic, it's very mountains and the scale of it to me is what gets me?
Speaker 2:You walk in that lobby and I don't know how many stories. It is 10 stories.
Speaker 1:I don't well, that's we used to do, okay. So again, resorts are great to go and just hang out like for the day. So our kids would just go into the Wilderness Lodge and just go run all the stairs Just like yep it's raining outside because it's Florida. We're going to Wilderness Lodge. Go run the stairs.
Speaker 2:Run children.
Speaker 1:They would zigzag the way all the way up to the very top and then wave at us while Amar and I were down at the bottom and, like that was a fun day. There's also, you know, I don't know if you recall this, but there was you can go up to the lobby. In the lobby, you can go up to the desk and you can ask for a chart of hidden Mickey's that are hidden around the resort, and you can do this at a couple different stores.
Speaker 2:It's like a scavenger hunt.
Speaker 1:It's a scavenger hunt for hidden Mickey's and it gives you clues. We did that one time and had the most fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so much fun because it takes you all around the resort looking for them, it gives you clues and, yes, we had a blast. I don't know if they still do that, but if they don't, you go there and demand that they start it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really fun to go all the way up to the top.
Speaker 2:Tell them which I would have known sent you.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, tell them that. Okay, speaking of which I would have known. Let's tell our people about the time that you went to Wilderness Lodge, and with a squirrel in your purse. Let's do that. Let's do that. What a weird story. Yep, okay. So here's a story you've never heard before.
Speaker 2:Okay. So we're living in Florida and I had these guys come out and work on our pool and they knock on my front door and I open the door and the guy is holding a baby squirrel and I'm like hi, and he's like this, I found this in your yard. It fell out of the tree, it's mom's nowhere around here and just hands me the baby squirrel and I'm like I don't know what to do with this. He's like oh, I've raised them before you. Just you know you take care of it and like walks away. So I call you and I'm like we now own a baby squirrel. You're like the heck we do.
Speaker 1:It sounds about like what I would say I don't know what to do with this.
Speaker 2:So I Google and apparently you can like, you know, you can raise them and you can have his pets, which we was not our intention. So the kids get all attached to this little tiny baby squirrel because it's cute. What do they name it? Squirrely, squirrely.
Speaker 1:We have very creative kids.
Speaker 2:Right, so they're attached to the squirrel. We kind of take care of it and try to feed it for a couple days, but it gets to the point where, like the thing is like pooping on you when you're holding it and it just feels chaotic.
Speaker 1:It's not cute anymore.
Speaker 2:No, once something starts defecating.
Speaker 1:Yes, pretty much Okay. So here's the conundrum that we are faced with. We could just put it back outside. Yeah, like that could be easy.
Speaker 2:Good luck to you, baby squirrel.
Speaker 1:Okay, but it may survive. It may be fine, but I'll tell you this every time somebody runs over a squirrel in our neighborhood, our kids would assume that it was their squirrel. Yes and so we didn't want them to have the trauma of every dead squirrel that they see in our neighborhood, for forever was their squirrel. So instead I come up with a bright idea let's take him to Wilderness Lodge.
Speaker 2:What a great place for a squirrel to grow up.
Speaker 1:We're better for a squirrel to enjoy his formative years than Wilderness Lodge. But then we're faced with the conundrum of how do we get him from the parking lot of Wilderness Lodge into, like, the actual like other side of the resort where all the cabins and whatnot are.
Speaker 2:Out back. There's beautiful grounds, there's trails, there's woods. It's a really neat place. It's a great place for a baby squirrel.
Speaker 1:Yes, a perfect place for a baby squirrel that you don't want.
Speaker 2:Inter squirrel in my purse.
Speaker 1:Inter squirrel in my purse, s-i-n-p. Squirrel in my purse. Alright, so you like that. So Amber has to put the squirrel in her purse and take it through the lobby of Wilderness Lodge.
Speaker 2:So we just gonna picture, if you will roll, following self me, yeah, walking through a lobby of a hotel with a squirrel in my purse. So we get out back. We find a good spot.
Speaker 1:We set the squirrel free, set him free to live a life that I am sure he, to this day, is still very much enjoying.
Speaker 2:So there's a Hudson's Do Disney video of this, but in the video we picture it like we just happened to see a baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't really want to be like we took the squirrel from our house and we're dropping it off at Disney, so we don't even know if that's.
Speaker 2:Is that a thing like? Is that, are we gonna get in trouble?
Speaker 1:I think I'm not. Please don't tell anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're listening to this. Just don't tell anybody.
Speaker 1:Bob Iger is listening to this. They're like black, black listed. We've been black listed, why can't your? Didn't your parents love going to Disney? Well yeah, they got caught for taking a squirrel to Wilderness Lodge one time and my mom's purse and talked about on the podcast. Now they can't go back.
Speaker 2:Weird story.
Speaker 1:It's a weird story. It's a very weird story, but I do love Wilderness Lodge.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful place and just the boat ride over to Magic Kingdom is really special. It's great.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Man, we got some random stories about some of these resorts and whatnot. That's some that's.
Speaker 2:That's some interesting stuff mostly circled around shenanigans, I think shenanigans.
Speaker 1:I agree, look, one of the reasons why we want to start this podcast and begin with is because we want to share, like, some things that we wish we would have known, and also just be able to share some stories with our friends. Like we have some really crazy stories, like how many of your friends have ever stuffed a squirrel in their purse and walked it through the lobby?
Speaker 2:of a Disney Resort. I'm gonna start using that for like get to know you games like what's the oddest thing about you? Like I smuggled a squirrel in my purse.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, that's not the oddest thing about you. I wouldn't. I don't know what it is. It might be in your top five.
Speaker 2:Really. Yeah, there's something odder than that.
Speaker 1:Odder, odder.
Speaker 2:Odder. Odder Is it more odd Odder.
Speaker 1:It was a squirrel, not an odder.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh dad.
Speaker 1:Oh, dad joke, got him. Guys, thanks for listening to the pod. Listen, we, we're a year in to this.
Speaker 2:I cannot believe that.
Speaker 1:This is episode 30. I think this episode 30. We set out to have an opportunity to be able to connect with more people than we could ever have over at our house to have dinner.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's the whole purpose for this, although if you're listening to this and you really want to come over for dinner, just come over, you can ask.
Speaker 1:You can ask it's fine, don't? I mean just don't, just don't invite, maybe just ask us to come over to your house for dinner.
Speaker 2:No, you can come to our house.
Speaker 1:That's fine, bring your own squirrel. B-y-o-s. B-y-o-s.
Speaker 2:No, do not bring any squirrels to my house.
Speaker 1:I'm here for the t-shirt blanket. I have brought you a gift of a squirrel. May I please have dinner? The whole reason we do this pod, though, is we want to share with you guys some things that we wish would have known, some lessons we've learned along the way, but also, like this is just fun for us to be able to tell stories. Amar and I really love each other, and we love laughing at each other, and, like she was laughing so hard a minute ago, it's hilarious.
Speaker 2:I'm crying.
Speaker 1:I know that makes me laugh. Disney World, okay, one of our favorite places in the world. Yep, we, we have spent a lot of time there. I did say in a lot of time there. We moved our family across the country to live there for a while. It will always have a special place in our hearts, a special place in our family. Yeah, I'm excited for the day when I get to go as a grandparent.
Speaker 2:That's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1:Peep-A-Pan.
Speaker 2:Peep-a-pan another t-shirt. To give me the t-shirt, put it on the put it on the blanket.
Speaker 1:Hope it, hope it makes the blanket that's like the centerpiece of the little t-shirt blanket that you've made, so Peep-A-Pan.
Speaker 1:But we're really grateful that we get to share some of these stories and we're so grateful that we had the special years there that we had for sure, our kid family time our kids are at a point now we're they're a little bit older and they're gonna start having their own families and doing their own thing, and so the fact that we got to live there and do that For the time that we did is really special to us.
Speaker 2:So if you yourself are planning a trip with your family, please reach out. We you're never bothering us asking us questions about Disney, or where should we go, where should we eat or what should we do.
Speaker 1:We love that it's really fun because we don't get to go anymore as much and so we get to live vicariously through you and your vacation, and so, like, the best thing in the world is when somebody will text me, be like, hey, I'm at blankity blank and I want to give dinner reservation. What's the easiest way for me to get from blank to blank? I'm like, oh, just take the skyliner, do this, do this. That's that kind of stuff's fun for us.
Speaker 2:Reach out to us at wishpodcast and there's some messages. If you have any friends or family that are going to Disney soon, shoot them this podcast, let them know. Hopefully this will help with some, you know, wondering what to do or what there is to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's time I that's tying a bow, little magical bow, on our Disney series. So share with your friends if they're gonna go to Disney or if they just want to be able to laugh at a bird trying to think it's a good idea to make our t-shirts into a Sweaty blanket. And nobody wants to lay under anyway. Season three check it out. Season three is on deck. So this coming up, this coming fall, at the end of summer, that's when fall comes. I Don't know why I needed to designate that not the fall that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not no. So it's not the fall that comes after spring, not that one. Anyway, into this summer, a, we're not gonna start rocking some episodes for season three, but yeah, so be able to look out for that this fall. We're excited to be able to continue to do this and thanks for giving us time on your commute. We hope this is beneficial to you. Yeah, and it's something that makes you laugh and helps you get to know us a little bit more. Maybe you learn some things that you wish you would have known.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like how to make blankets out of t-shirts.
Speaker 1:You nobody's learned that. Nobody wanted to know it. Nobody wanted to know it.
Speaker 2:Like oh, you can do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody just learned that today today, yeah, and that's enhanced their life, wow, all right. Well, all of you guys out there, enjoy your sweaty blankets and we will see you next time. Wish I would have known is recorded in the beautiful hill country of Austin, texas, the live music capital of the world. Follow us on Instagram, at wishpodcast, and stop by to say hi. We like it when people say hi.
