The Ultimate Disney Vacation Resort Guide | Family Travel Tips
Your guide to building the ultimate Disney resort experience. In this episode, the team breaks down what makes each Walt Disney World hotel unique—from amenities to theme park strategy—then builds the Hall of Fame resort combining everyone's favorite features. Plus, catch the latest Spring Discounts to stretch your family vacation budget. Perfect for first-timers and budget-conscious planners.
You can get ahold of Allison to plan your Family Vacation at [email protected]
Jason: And welcome to episode seventy-four of Castle Secauldrons. I'm your host, Jason Davis. I'm here with Terry and Micah. Rachel is out at sea on the wonder of
Terri: She said,
Jason: the sea.
Terri: it's a great
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: ship. She's having a great time, I'm sure. Mm-hmm.
Myka: That's the that's the one you guys went on, right?
Terri: Yeah, when I saw pictures,
Jason: Yeah. So we won't have a
Terri: I was like, that's our ship. I love it.
Jason: We won't have a full trip report from her when she comes back since we just talked about it. But we will see how her she enjoyed it or not enjoyed it. She's there, just her and Andy, her husband. So she should enjoy it pretty well since no kids. But to
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: to take well, I can't say take her place because that'd be mean. But I mean to reach it. Yeah, no one
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: No one replaces Rachel.
Jason: does. That is Alison on for her I guess it's her tenth time. I haven't I've lost count.
Terri: We've lost count. We're just
Allison: I count.
Terri: saying number ten.
Jason: And it's been a while since you've been on, so
Myka: Yeah. Welcome back. We always love to have Alison on.
Allison: Thank you.
Jason: Yes. Me and Allison will be going down with some of the other agents of magical travel to Walt Disney World this weekend. When you hear this, we will be on a magical VIP tour around the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios in Epcot. So we're gonna have good time. We are because we said anti
Myka: You're skipping my favorite part.
Terri: That's gonna be great.
Allison: Woohoo! Yeah.
Jason: mica.
Myka: Ha ha
Allison: Ha ha ha.
Myka: well.
Jason: I mean, we all have park hoppers, so the this what we're meeting at one o'clock or something that afternoon. Yeah, we can
Myka: so you guys could do Animal Kingdom in the morning.
Jason: go into Animal Kingdom do if we want to and then 'cause we wanted
Myka: But I I mean, let's be real. I'm probably the only person here that loves Animal Kingdom as much as
Jason: I'll go I haven't done Flight of Passage. Yeah, I'll I'll go do
Terri: No, I love Animal Kingdom. Yeah.
Jason: it. But like Everest and Flight of Passage I haven't done in a while, so I might go in, hit those up and then
Myka: Well, from Everest you can see the construction on tropical Americas.
Jason: Well, f you can also see the construction from tropical Americas just by looking over the walls.
Myka: I'm too short for that. I know, I'm not a very tall person.
Terri: The the walls are high. You can't look over the walls.
Jason: Okay.
Myka: Let me pull up.
Jason: We'll be seeing the construction walls of the construction progress of Piston Peak though when we go on Big Thunder.
Terri: yeah.
Allison: yeah.
Terri: Take pictures.
Jason: I assume we're going on bigger.
Allison: I'm sure.
Jason: Which is great 'cause T I I am dealing with a kidney stone right so maybe I can get off that roller coaster.
Terri: I was gonna ask if to shake anybody's kidney stones loose. I guess so.
Myka: I don't know, they changed the track so it's not as rough as it was, so it might not work the same.
Jason: I don't know. I'm I'm kinda kinda praying that I can get this thing out. So all of us will be listening to this episode, making sure it's went out w well while we're doing a VIP tour, right?
Myka: Yeah, you'll have your air your
Allison: Right.
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Myka: AirPods in just listening to it.
Terri: Yep.
Jason: whatever, I'm gonna be watching walking around.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: so we we do have some discounts that we're gonna talk about right quick for Walt Disney World. just to get it out of the way. I think we have a really fun episode today after we we get done with that. We're gonna make a our Hall of Fame resort. So we're we're going to debate different as aspects of the resort and what would make it a the quintessential Walt Disney World hotel to stay at. So that's coming up. I I heard a similar idea when it came to the ships, the Disney Cruise Line ships. So that's not fully my idea. I give credit where credit is due. So I was like, Well that's cool. Let's do it with a hotel though, 'cause you know, Terry hasn't been on ship. Yeah.
Terri: More people have experiences. Yeah, I feel like more people have experiences at, you know, the resorts
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: than different ships.
Jason: So let's talk about some of these discounts that we got coming out. This is for the early spring and early summer. Like it's pretty, pretty long for a lot of these discounts. they start January 3rd and run anywhere to J April 29th, March 31st, and as late as July 28th.
Terri: Uh-huh.
Jason: the easy one to go over right quick is The save up to 25% rooms for the spring. That's the one that starts January 3rd and ends April, what did I say? 29th.
Terri: April twenty ninth, yes.
Jason: a lot of these will have two different booking types situations. So the 20 it starts at 10%, works its way up to 25%, depending on resort. So the values get the cheaper end, the deluxe is get the more exp expensive. 10% off room stays most Sunday through Thursday nights, January 3rd through 25th. January 3rd through February 25th. And then save 15% on rooms most nights, February 28th to April 29th. Then you can move up to moderates at save 15% for January 3rd to be February 25th, 20% from February 28th to April 29th. Finally, deluxes, those are saved 20%. From January third, febr to February twenty-fifth, and save twenty-five percent February twenty eighth through April twenty-ninth. This does exclude the three bedroom villas, the cabins at Copper Creek, the bungalows, tower one bedroom villas, two bedroom villas, the penthouses, at Holly Villa villas and bungalows. So that's actually pretty cool. I didn't think the campsites ever got included anything. Well it does exclude. January and February for the campsites. But everything else open that entire time.
Myka: I was able to save a client money with it this week that's going in January, so they were really excited for that text message.
Jason: I any any money saving thing is great for me.
Terri: And a reminder that like Micah didn't call her clients and ask them. So they might have even gotten the email or sent seen it, but they didn't have to worry about doing it. Like, unprompted, she did that for them. They didn't have to stress about it. So if they didn't see it, she saved two hundred dollars if they saw it and were like, I forgot, or I don't have time to to check. That's one
Myka: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Terri: of the reasons you and use someone like us because it doesn't cost you any more and it can still save you money. Someone's thinking for you, basically. You have a sense.
Myka: She even said, I had no idea that you could do that, that you could see that a new offer was out and that you could save money.
Allison: Yeah, and those discounted rooms are limited and we have access to the online booking portal which actually
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Allison: gives us, you know, earlier modifications than if
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: you were to call in and ask about changing your, you know, stay to a discounted rate.
Terri: That's very true. And nobody wants to call in. Nobody wants to call in.
Allison: No.
Myka: Not if you don't have to.
Terri: Yeah, so if you have to make one of us do it. No one wants to phone.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: Especially during these, 'cause like when you're talking about we had New York come online for DCL the week before. So you're talking the phone lines are backed up and that's even for travel agents, it's gonna be worse on the consumer side.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: and then to just to plug the agency itself is that you know, we're not Costco, so we're sitting there and we've worked with you personally. So we know what you want. We have your contingency plans for if the if A resort if some type of discount comes out and your resort's not included, where to go in just in case. We don't even have to ask you. It's just there. We can do it. You know, Coast Costco doesn't know you. That's gonna you're gonna get a s separate person from every time you call Allison has the other discount I think pulled up. She had we had talked pre-show at least about it. It's the save up to two hundred and fifty dollars a night per night. Sorry, on select four night and four day room and ticket patches. Rachel's can you tell us or Rachel. Rachel usually does this. So Alison, can
Allison: I will go by Rachel. Rachel will tell you about the discount.
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: you tell us about those?
Terri: Substitute Rachel.
Allison: Yep, so this is a package offer. It is required four night minimum stay and at least a four day base ticket, which is one part per day, but you can upgrade to more days or a park hopper. But January 3rd through February 27th, you can save $40 a night on value rooms, $75 a night on moderate and $150 a night on deluxe. And then the next set of dates is February 28th all the way through July 28th. And that has even bigger savings where you save $75 per night at a value, 150 at a moderate and that 250 at a deluxe resort. So I mean, that's a great offer, especially if you're already planning on summer or trying to book those spring break vacations. You gotta look into that.
Terri: Yeah. I was saying those are good weather dates.
Allison: Yeah.
Jason: What it's telling us as agents is that Disney has a really light booking for this summer since they're offering something like this all the way through July twenty eighth and they're fixing
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Jason: to put the fall stuff out there here
Myka: huh.
Jason: in the next few weeks, one would hope. so you know, jump on it 'cause the cloud the crowds were gonna be are gonna be lighter for any reason. Like it's so hot down there during the summer. It's miserable,
Myka: It's always so hot.
Jason: but I would go for lighter crowds.
Allison: You gotta go for those mid-day pool breaks.
Jason: Yes.
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Jason: But those are those are some offers they have out there. I said about those guys.
Allison: And Disney Visa card holders can still get that broad room offer, but they can actually save up to 30%.
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Jason: And you have to book with your Disney Visa card. So
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Jason: that's the biggest caveat is and if you don't have it right then when you book, usually there's a way for us to for you to get that card number so we can book that. If not, we can put it on a hold and you can get that number. So But yeah, those I'm excited for to see what's going on. Like this is it's with Disney going to all these new lands and new experiences opening, I think they're seeing a lot more lighter stuff happening because with Tropical America monsters, those opening in the next few years, those are some big, big, bigot items. You know, villains
Myka: Mm.
Jason: land will never come online
Terri: Mm.
Jason: for people to be like, let's let's go there. Let's hold our breath for that one.
Terri: It will.
Myka: We can just, you know, hope.
Jason: It's gonna happen in twenty thirty five.
Terri: It's gonna happen.
Myka: One day.
Jason: One day. One day more. So let's
Myka: We'll get there.
Jason: maybe before we have gray hair. Which y'all won't because y'all y'all dye your
Myka: I already have gray hair.
Terri: Whoop. Too late.
Jason: hair.
Terri: Too late.
Myka: Yep, too late.
Jason: I do let's talk over about resorts. So like I said, we I got the idea for this this episode off of another podcast doing Disney ships. So what we're gonna do is create a Hall of Fame resort for Walt Disney World. We're gonna base it off a location first. We got we all have to agree on this. We can we're all gonna throw out our ideas. So we'll do location, we'll do like theme, and it has to be one of the resorts that's already existing. So, you know, you can pick the campsites if you want that. You know, whatever you want. We we've got to convince each other which one's the best one and we gotta agree upon it. And then we'll do pool specialty specialty rooms, restaurants. And I figure the way we'll do restaurants is if we if we st sit on a moderate resort for our main We can do a quick service and a a d a sit down. It doesn't have to stick to like non character and character, but you know, one one of each. But then if we do it a deluxe, we add in the signature experience type thing. But if we do a value, we only do quick service. Kind of keep it in that line. We are Frankensteining it. This is like a Halloween episode, so
Terri: So we're Frankenstein and this thing together. Okay.
Allison: You
Terri: yeah. With the Christmas lights
Jason: But I think this
Terri: in the background.
Jason: this will be Castles of Cauldron's official Hall of Fame resort. So
Myka: Resort for Walt Disney World.
Terri: Twenty twenty six. It's subject to change by next year. We might have to do it again. Yeah.
Jason: Yeah, with Lake Lakeside Lodge
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: comes online, we might all like, this is fantastic. So I I don't I don't see myself saying that about too much about it though. Terry, let's start with you.
Terri: To be pleasantly surprised.
Jason: Maybe we should start with our guest since she's on. That's that's right.
Terri: Yeah, start with Allison.
Jason: That's why I think they're doing. so location
Allison: Alright.
Jason: Allison, what location are you picking for this resort?
Allison: So mine's gonna be a general area. don't narrow it down to one resort, but the Crescent Lake area, beach club, yacht club, boardwalk, that is gonna be my number one pick for an area of any time, any trip, any family, couples, families, solo trips. You can't beat it.
Jason: Anybody wrong goes down?
Myka: also had boardwalk area as mine, just like that
Allison: You
Myka: general vicinity.
Jason: Okay, so Terry doesn't matter because I had boardwalk as well. So
Terri: Well, I did not specifically have boardwalk, but I said anywhere with easy access to the Skyliner, which the boardwalk
Allison: Okay.
Terri: area in my opinion
Jason: Yeah.
Terri: does, even though it's not technically
Allison: Yes.
Terri: in that area, it's right there at Epcot. So and yeah, when she said boardwalk in my head I was like, We're on the same, we're on the same plate, but good.
Allison: I just think the lights around that area at night are just beautiful. Yes. You can't beat it.
Myka: It's so pretty at night. Yeah. There's great places to eat.
Terri: Yes.
Myka: Like, there's all the different options you have right there, not to
Jason: Well see, here's the thing though, it doesn't matter about the places to eat because we're we're frankens thing. Yeah,
Allison: Ha ha ha!
Terri: It's just the location.
Jason: it's just the location.
Myka: Right, I'm just saying it's a great location
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: 'cause you're close to two different parks. Then you have the skyliner as well. Like it's it's a great spot.
Jason: Transportation is is amazing right there.
Allison: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jason: was I would that I was like that's gonna be the
Allison: I'm glad we could all agree on that because I was going to have to hold out if someone said magic kingdom area.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: that was gonna be mine. It was like I'm I'm gonna fight for this one for sure.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: All right, so location settled. It's boardwalk Crescent Lake. I think boardwalk is like the better place just 'cause it's on that one side and when you're walking back and forth from the parks it gives that that nice ambiance. so
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Jason: theme of the resort, Alison. Where are you gonna go with theme?
Allison: I just feel like the Polynesian just keeps coming to mind because every time I'm there, it just still, that relaxed island vibe. I could say Caribbean beach as well, but it's just that beachy vibe. I love it.
Terri: It's a tropical beachy vibe.
Myka: Are you reading my mind? 'Cause I also wrote Polly for mine.
Allison: Maybe this isn't going to be that hard of a Frankenstein competition.
Jason: I think it is. Even like 'cause
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: Terry if Terry has something different then it will be Good night. This is gonna be like
Terri: No, who you can't go wrong with Polynesian. I mean
Myka: Well w is that what you had written down too, Terry?
Terri: yeah, definitely. I definitely
Myka: No
Jason: Wow.
Terri: wrote all these down. But in my in that written down in my brain, yes. you know how much I love the Polynesian and how much I want to stay in a bungalow. I love all things tropical. I love the smells. I just yeah. If it wasn't gonna be there, it was going to be like Boardwalk or somewhere like that that has like the same kind of beachy islandy vibe that you're Disney World but you're also at a resort on an island at the same time.
Jason: Okay, so mine was actually French quarter. Because
Myka: It's not a bad one. I like French Quarter.
Terri: Not a bad one.
Jason: And I was I was picking French Quarter because of the s the size. I like how small it is. So you put that over there next to the water of the Crescent Lake. And then you put those lights. Then you can
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Jason: still kind of do the like the Mardi Gras style stuff that French Quarter does. I just really like that how s like I said, how small it is. When I come back to the I don't to the room at the end of the day, I don't have to walk ten miles just to get back to my room. It's right there.
Myka: Right. I don't I don't hate the idea
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: But I lost that.
Allison: Yeah, French Quarter is one of my favorite moderates.
Myka: of French quarter, but you did get outvoted for Polly for
Jason: I did get outvoted, but I think Polly is like so big now with the with the island tower, with the bungalows, with
Myka: just thinking overall theme, not the actual size of it. I'm just thinking of overall theme.
Jason: But I that's
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: I like the overall theme though of French Quarter better than I do Polynesian because it does have that down like New Orleans area, like the can't even remember what it's called, but New Orleans Square type feel. So it feels like you're actually walking around the streets in New Orleans. Yeah, that's it, Reverend Street.
Myka: I guess if I'm choosing to go on a vacation, it's not New Orleans
Terri: Street.
Myka: that I'm thinking, it's a tropical destination.
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: Well see, I'm not thinking like vacation
Terri: New Orleans is dirty.
Jason: to go to New Orleans. I d I've only been once and I don't want to go back. But
Myka: I've never been to New Orleans.
Jason: I just like the way Disney's done it. Okay, so
Terri: Don't waste your time. It is it's
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: Hahaha
Terri: very pretty. It is it is. It like you like you do even if you're in riverside, you do feel like you're in like the old south with the s the Spanish moss coming off the trees and it's real quiet and the river that flows through
Allison: Yeah. And that river.
Terri: it. So yeah.
Jason: Yeah, and that's the other thing was like the river being able to get on the Sassagula and taking a boat down to Disney Springs and whatnot. I love that feel. And that's one reason I wanted boardwalk for the location was because of the boats and whatnot. But French Quarter was was my choice, but that is the bottom of the barrel. So it
Terri: You're knocked out.
Jason: is knocked out. Lobby Allison.
Allison: So do I have to go first in every category?
Jason: Yes, you're the guest.
Terri: Of course.
Allison: Well, I was a little torn on this one, but ultimately I still keep coming back to Wilderness Lodge. And I
Myka: my God, we are the same person.
Allison: would say that my two hours between are very similar. The Wilderness and Animal Kingdom Lodge, I think have that same feeling where you can see all up five floors in that main central lobby. And it's just so grand and... I just love it. Love
Myka: Yes.
Allison: it, love it, love it.
Myka: Same. I literally wrote down Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge and I'm like, I'm gonna go with Wilderness Lodge. Just be wait
Allison: Me and Micah are the same.
Jason: Okay, so the
Allison: We do have lot of similarities.
Jason: the only reason the only reason would go Animal
Myka: We too.
Jason: Kingdom Lodge is Jumbo House with the bridge across the lobby. I like that, but Wilderness Lodge has the the fountain in there. if we could go back in time, Holly Lobby would be the one to go to because of the big waterfall and everything like that.
Myka: Mm.
Jason: But yeah, Terry, what what's yours?
Terri: well I'm probably gonna be outvoted, but I'm just gonna throw it out there. But I've never really stepped foot in Wilderness Lodge. So that's the caveat here. I've only heard good things about it. So I think when I go down earlier than y'all this year, I think that's gonna be what I do like the first day or the first time I'm there. I'm gonna do resort hopping because there are a lot that I haven't gone into just to like get the feel of walking through the lobby. get the feel of just walking the grounds and then hopping on whatever mode of transport they have and go to the next one. So because I've only heard good things about wilderness lodge, but my favorite to walk into is so weird because it's like grandma's house but Grandflo.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: Because
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Terri: it's grand and the the the carpet is pretty and it smells good and you just f
Jason: Is this it is this grandflow pre birdcage bar or is this
Terri: Either. I'm not particular because I'm not rich enough to stay there anyway. But it just it feels fancy. Like an a good southern term, it just feels fancy when you walk in there and you're like,
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: I'm I'm like a high society right now, you know, and my flip-flops and athletic
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: wear. So that's my my vote.
Jason: My vote is Pop Century. Not really. Nothing feels
Allison: No it's not. It's not.
Terri: I was gonna say a lobby?
Jason: better nothing feels
Myka: what?
Jason: better than walking into Pop Century. No. Wilderness
Terri: Now if you ask my kids, they would say that.
Allison: That is like my home away from home though. I'm like, I'm back.
Jason: Lodge. It is. Like I love Pop Century.
Terri: It's the best value.
Jason: It is it is amazing. Like the All Stars is where we're staying in October, but Pop Century's has been my go to for forever. but yeah, Wilderness Lodge, that's what I had. So I'm I love contemporary. That would have been my second one. But it's not a lobby so much. I love the concourse
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: where the paw the monrail comes through and all the shopping is. So unless it if it was open, I would have taken that. But yeah, Wilderness Lodge. where do we want to go next? Let's go to pools. I think we will all agr I I this was the one I'm pretty certain we could all agree on. I didn't think we'd all
Allison: You think we'll all have the same one?
Jason: I think. This is the one like I wouldn't have thought we had the same one for location and lobby and like yeah.
Allison: Well, I don't know. I don't think y'all would have this one, but I just really like Riviera's pool. I like that they're silent. Like they've got the
Myka: with like the kids splash plat splash pad of
Allison: silent pool that truly, or the quiet pool that truly is like a resort oasis for adults. And I mean, kids can still go, but you don't typically see them over there. But then their like regular family pool is so exciting and it has that awesome slide. And then I think that play area is really cute. although it's not maybe what is on a lot of people's radar, I think it's got the best combination of pool areas.
Jason: That's not what I was thinking.
Allison: You were thinking everyone's gonna pick beach and yacht.
Myka: Storm along Bay.
Jason: Which
Terri: Yeah. Yeah, me too.
Allison: Mm-hmm. Well,
Jason: which is what I'm picking.
Myka: I mean, that's what I put down as well.
Allison: can I tell you some things that I dislike about it, depending
Myka: Yes.
Allison: on families?
Jason: Yeah.
Terri: Pleased.
Allison: So, my daughter's only six. She cannot walk across to the slide by herself. So, again, back to like Terry's point, either we have to put our husbands on duty, or we all have to be like actively playing at the pool. Like, I can't just let her... keep sliding and sliding where I can when it's in the fenced in area. And then also it's a little too big where I still get a little bit nervous that she's gonna go too far or she hates the sand on her feet. And you just never know what weird quirks your kid's gonna have about that sand.
Jason: So Travis Travis and Lily are about the same age.
Allison: Yep.
Jason: and he loved when we stayed at Yachtin Beach. Now he doesn't love this the slides so much. He doesn't go down slides yet. but he does he love playing in the sand. He loved everything about the sand. I like the idea there's a lazy river right there. I think if anyone's going to be a like better hotel to do this stuff at, it's gonna be Lakeshore because of the how they have a lazy river themselves.
Allison: yeah.
Jason: But that's why like I'm Since you said said that w you were thinking that Storm Along. Yeah, that's that's me. That's one hundred percent that's everybody that's the only
Allison: Yeah.
Jason: one you have to get a wristband for to go in 'cause everybody wants to do it. so that's
Myka: Well, I think like I'm looking at like Alison has like you and Allison both have younger kids. Like I ha my son's now nine, Kova's nine. And I feel like like somewhere like that, he's getting to a point just like when we were on the cruise, like I'm okay sitting in one spot and like he can go up
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: to the slide and stuff. Like he's at a age now where I don't have to worry about that. But I totally get where you're coming from, Alison, like She's a lot younger than Kova is. Like when he was that age, no, I would not have let him go off by himself like that. But now at nine, just like when we were on the cruise at Norwegian, I sat in one spot on the pool deck and he was going up to the slides. He was in hot tubs and like he would just walk by. It was the cutest thing. Like he would come by and just give me a kiss on the cheek and be like, Okay, I'm going to this spot or I'm going to that spot. But I could see, like, if someone's like, hey, my kids are like six and under. what would you recommend as one of the best pool areas? I can see how Riviera would beat out Swarm Long Bay because then if a mom is like me and I don't necessarily like I'm okay going down water slides, it's not my favorite, but like I wanna sit in my chair and relax or go around the lazy river.
Terri: Yeah, I wanna relax.
Myka: I don't want to be in the water actively playing. That's my husband's job. I said in our
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: house the rule is if you gave birth you're not the pool parent. So
Jason: Well see, and I'm not the pool parent because I don't like the pool. Bethany loves
Myka: No
Jason: Bethany loves the pool.
Myka: I'm not a pool parent. I wanna float, but I don't wanna do anything else.
Terri: I don't really want to float sometimes.
Allison: Yeah, I just want to lay in the chair.
Myka: Mm-hmm. What was yours, Terry?
Terri: mine was Stormalong Bay, but I get what Allison's saying, 'cause the year we stayed at Caribbean Beach, my kids were smaller and there was no rest at that.
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: Because that's got the big, was it pirate ship or whatever in the middle.
Allison: Yeah.
Terri: And it was actually my husband and I, and then my sister and her husband, four kids. And it almost took all four of us, like on different points of the pool, 'cause we had four kids, ranging from like two to nine. So a
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: varying n none of them are really old enough to go off and do their own thing. You still had to wait and you couldn't see around the pool. Like you couldn't
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: that's what we really like pop is because of the hippie dippy pool. You can see from one side to the other. So if you plant yourself in a chair, you know, the little flower things spray on them, but otherwise you see everything that they they get up and they go to the bathroom. You can see the bathroom clearly from the chairs. You don't have to watch your kids.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: So I don't know what we're gonna decide. I mean, I said Storm Along Bay, but you got y Allison brings a good
Allison: And I mean I can definitely agree that it is a top-notch pool like nothing against the pool I just think you know I just I love the Riviera
Myka: Well well, maybe because this is our resort we're putting together for castles to cauldrons. We
Jason: Yeah, that's
Myka: take the idea of Storm Along Bay, but it's it's in a Finston area where you don't have to worry about your kid running off and it still
Jason: Yeah, you're just yeah.
Allison: We fixed that.
Myka: has a lazy river. And it Yeah,
Terri: And there's a lazy river, I was gonna say.
Myka: and it has all of those things. Like we kind of combine the two and go, Okay, like this is our version of Storm Along Bay. Maybe it's a little bit smaller, maybe the the slide's not quite as big, but you still have like the sandy bottom, like the zero entry pool, you have the lazy river, but it's just condensed down to a little bit of a smaller version. So we don't have to worry about the kids.
Jason: So we doing Stormer Long?
Allison: Swim along.
Terri: Yep, I got the details.
Myka: Yeah. Harry's like, I'm keeping track of it. Are we gonna try and come up with a name for this resort when we're done?
Terri: I said lazy revenge
Jason: No.
Terri: in
Jason: It's gonna be the poly the way we want it.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: The Frank and Polly.
Jason: Frank and Polly. let's go to bar. Let's do a pool bar and a a lobby bar
Myka: Okay.
Jason: Allison.
Allison: See I didn't I didn't pre think through some of these I wanted to just see what popped into my head
Terri: Mm.
Allison: don't know, so I haven't been to many of the pool bars.
Terri: the one at Coronado has the sangria. Isn't that the big Yeah or Yeah.
Myka: the triple hold on. The the three bridges is that's not the pool bar though, but
Jason: Three bridges, yeah.
Terri: I thought it was again, going
Jason: The
Terri: with kids, I don't go to bars a lot when I'm here. So
Allison: I know, I'm trying to think of when I actually get to go up to the pool bar.
Myka: But Three Bridges is a great bar. Three bridges is a good place.
Terri: the one at
Myka: What's the one I was gonna say at Wilderness Lodge. What's the name of that one?
Allison: Is Geyser Point considered theirs?
Jason: Yeah, Guy Geyser Point is a
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: is a bar in grid.
Allison: That's a great one, but it's located still a little further away. Like, I don't know if I would pick it based on that.
Terri: The one at Riverside has live music sometimes, so that makes the
Allison: I feel like you read my mind, Riverside is actually, I feel like it has a little bit more of an atmosphere if you're gonna sit at it. That or Hurricane Hannah's
Terri: Yeah.
Allison: has its own seating area that's not just a walk up.
Terri: And like I get why
Allison: And then for lobby, lobby bar, let's see. There's not that many lobbies that have a bar. Is Grand the
Terri: First.
Allison: only one that has one now in the?
Jason: I I I use I use lobby bar in parentheses, like so technically like Polyn
Myka: We're talking about like
Terri: The one that's co connected to the restaurant.
Jason: yeah, Polynesian has one with connected to Wahana. I can't remember the name of it. Ellen Compass has theirs next to in the lobby. There's the lobby bar and boardwalk. You know, those it's mainly a deluxe thing. You have Skycat and French quarter.
Allison: I mean I would definitely say the Tambu Lounge at Pauley just because of the food. Yeah.
Terri: Tamboo Lounge, that I just googled it, yeah.
Allison: I mean I've go there multiple times for the food and the drinks. The Ba Ta at the Polynesian is a fabulous beverage.
Myka: Yeah. I'll have to try it next time I'm there.
Jason: So what was your what was your pool bar?
Allison: I'm gonna go with Riverside. I can't remember the name of it.
Jason: Can't remember the right name. Okay.
Terri: let's see.
Allison: But I will be there this weekend, so maybe I'll check it out a little bit more.
Terri: be honest
Myka: I'm looking up.
Terri: the what I just keep bringing up Pop Sentry because we say that all the time but they have froses in a machine
Myka: Muddy rivers
Terri: at the Pop Century pool bar and let me tell you they're really good really simple
Myka: That's not at Riverside. Hold on. I'm trying to look up the name of it and the one that keeps popping up is Port Orleans.
Terri: That's a banana cabana Caribbean beach.
Myka: that one's good.
Allison: Yeah.
Terri: Yeah, Hurricane Hannah's. I'm trying to think of the popular wind.
Jason: Okay, so I know my two, so I'll just go ahead and just blurt mine out.
Terri: Okay.
Allison: Blurt out.
Jason: pedals at pop century. It's I know it's random.
Allison: Petals is a great bar.
Jason: It's it's the pool bar. Yeah.
Terri: Is that the pool bar I'm talking about? see two for us. There we go.
Jason: It's great. I mean, like when we were there last June, we all hung out there just about every night. It's low key. We're drinking. We have fun. We can be loud if we want to. I don't I don't care. for my for my lobby bar, it's Scat Cat over at
Allison: Okay.
Jason: French quarter because they have the jazz band right there.
Allison: I always thought you were gonna say beignets.
Jason: And the beignets. But I I
Myka: Ha ha ha
Terri: I hate jazz.
Jason: like I like that the the bands there and it's live music. I know Riverside has Yeehaw Bob. But I just I like a jazz. I don't like somebody singing to me the entire time. If I like jazz being played in the background.
Terri: Going Tamboo Lounge in Polynesian.
Allison: So do we take
Myka: I'm gonna s
Allison: the majority?
Myka: probably. I mean, I was
Jason: Yeah, we always take majority.
Terri: With with Micah's. I 'cause I think we're all just
Myka: gonna say tambour lounge because I I love everything Polynesian. and then
Jason: And I can I can I like Tamboo. Like I just the only thing I don't like about Tamboo is that it's sitting excuse me, right next to Ohana.
Myka: Right.
Terri: Can't beat tiki drinks though.
Myka: I know, and but then for like a a pull
Jason: I mean Trader Sam. If you want to say Trader Sam's instead of I would do Trader Sam's as a lobby bar versus Tambu. Even though that's technically installed.
Allison: but they don't have that great food that Tambu Lounge has that comes from Ohana.
Jason: I'm going to the bar to drink, not to eat.
Terri: We'll do a slash.
Allison: Both, both.
Terri: What if we do Tamboo Sams?
Myka: Sambo Sam's.
Terri: Just put together. Frankenstein to Frankenstein.
Allison: and technically, I wonder, can we consider Trader Sam's the pool bar, since they also have the outdoor access?
Myka: they have the Yeah, they do. They have their patio.
Jason: You can yeah.
Allison: holly all around.
Myka: I feel like that could definitely
Terri: What do you guys wanna do?
Jason: Sorry, I put
Myka: be the pool bar easily for Trader Sam's because of the patio outside. And then I do like for the lobby bar, I do like the Scat Cat lounge thing, 'cause I just like the the feel of it, like Jason said, like with the music, but it's not someone like singing to you the whole time.
Terri: Alright, so what are we narrowing this down to? We got two Tambu, two scat cap, two trader Sam, two petals. We're split.
Jason: Look, I think pedals is the best thing to be able to go to at the end of the day, 'cause you can take your shoes off by the pool. You don't have to be in the pool area, but you can just sit there and you are completely relaxed. You know, if it feels good outside, it feels great outside. Yeah.
Terri: You're feeling hippie dippy.
Allison: You can flip my vote to petals. I do like petals.
Terri: I was saying, why don't we do Tambu
Jason: And then
Terri: lounge as the best lobby bar and petals as the best pool bar? Because
Jason: No, because it's not. Because
Allison: It is.
Terri: you got your way with petals, so you gotta give away the scat cats.
Jason: The the whole point of this episode is for us to fight for what we want.
Myka: It is. I agree with pedals 'cause I do love the idea of coming back at the end of the day and it's something that's easy, that's right there at the pool. and
Jason: Scat Cat is one of those where you can sit and relax and have some some music.
Terri: But I hate jazz music and it makes me wanna blow my brains out when I have to listen to it.
Allison: I don't know if you're gonna swing all of us to
Jason: I hate
Myka: No,
Allison: scat cats.
Myka: so if I if you looked at me and said, Let's
Jason: I hate Taylor Swift, but you know
Myka: go if you said let's there's not they would.
Terri: But there's not a Taylor Swift bar! No.
Jason: Pedals would play Taylor Swift.
Myka: If you looked at me and said, You have the choice between Scat Cat or Tamboo Lounge, I'm gonna pick Tamboo Lounge. Like I'm going to pick
Terri: Yeah. Nine times out of ten.
Jason: I'm gonna pick here's here's the biggest thing that I can I can argue with for Scat Cat versus Tambu is that Tambu has Ohana with all the kids that are screaming and why
Allison: You do not hear those children in that restaurant.
Terri: I was gonna say, does your kid scream? 'Cause my kid does not scream.
Jason: my kid does scream. Yes. Not as bad as Allison's kid does it at at restaurants, but mine Sorry, Allison.
Myka: Mind us sometimes. not at the restaurant.
Terri: Not at the restaurant. Well, was one time. Not every
Allison: There are plenty of children who scream at Disney.
Terri: time she goes to a restaurant. It's not like Lily just goes in there. It's like
Allison: That was one time.
Jason: It's only when she only when they go with us. But I mean I don't Scat Cat is not attached to the restaurant, so it's it's bar by itself. It's relaxing. If you don't want to sit in the jazz area, they do have a little seating area outside the jazz, so you can sit there at the bar and just relax without hearing the jazz music. But they have the
Myka: But does it have the bread pudding in the noodles?
Jason: No, but it has the beignet.
Allison: Wings.
Myka: Wings.
Terri: But I like the big wicker chairs
Jason: It has the beignets. The fat guy likes beignets.
Terri: in the lobby. I was this
Jason: These are more relaxing chairs.
Terri: I like the smell of the Polynesian. I like the greenery in there where I feel like I'm on an island.
Myka: I don't think you're gonna sway our votes, Jason.
Jason: I'm
Myka: Scat cat's not winning.
Jason: I hey I can try.
Allison: And we already have the majority, so I mean, it's just a done deal.
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: I don't know, but I'm just saying I I gotta fight a little bit.
Myka: I know. Pedals is the pool bar. Yep.
Terri: For your right. Petals and Tambu.
Myka: I fully
Terri: Dun dun dun.
Myka: support these decisions so far.
Jason: So we got those. You got those written down, Terry.
Terri: Yes. I have them written
Jason: What else did I have?
Terri: down. Restaurant.
Myka: Yeah, we haven't done restaurant.
Jason: Okay, so yeah, so restaurant. So we we've picked well how we'll do restaurant, we picked Polly as our base
Terri: Resort.
Jason: resort. Polly has two dining loc sit down dining locations in Kona Kona and Ohana and they have the quick service with Captain Cooks. So that's how we'll go
Terri: So
Jason: with this.
Terri: do you want us to do a quick service, a table service, and then a character meal since Ohana has stitch sometimes?
Jason: It doesn't they have a stitched breakfast, but we can do we can do
Terri: Okay.
Jason: it however we want to. Two two table services, whether it's a sign but you you can include signature, so you can include Victorian Alberts if you want to. Yeah, so one quick service
Terri: Okay, so table service or signature. Okay. And then just one regul
Jason: and
Terri: One table service and then one table service with a signature or signature. Okay.
Jason: Yeah, one table sign or
Allison: Alright, so I'm just gonna do my favorite restaurants and the quick service is Primo Piatto at the Riviera. My favorite sit down is Sebastian's at Caribbean Beach and that is a hidden gem. That salad, that
Terri: Good. It's very good.
Jason: I've never eaten her.
Allison: steak with the chimichurri sauce, I mean delicious. Yes,
Terri: Delicious. And they have like the bread pudding dessert. Like did you get a Hana?
Allison: I'm telling you I would eat there every single trip except for I do want to mix it up sometimes but I wish I could eat there. every single time. And then for my, I think I am going to character. I'm going to do Topolino's Terrace just because the food is so good and it's a character experience.
Terri: Yes. I'm with her on Tiplinus Terrace.
Myka: Same. I have Topolinos as one of mine.
Allison: Those are going be my three.
Jason: I'll be Topolinos. I wasn't gonna go with it but I'll I'll I'll
Terri: So that's the signature slash table service. Okay.
Jason: Very true. All right, Michael.
Myka: My all right, so since we already got Topolinos, that was on my list. I had the Yachtsman Steakhouse as w one of my restaurants, a good steakhouse to go to. I'm
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Myka: I'm a meat and potatoes girl. And I did have the quick service for Riviera written down as well. 'cause I just like that it's
Allison: Yeah, delicious.
Myka: a little bit different than when you go to like All Stars and and you just have very like limited choices. Yeah.
Allison: It seems so fresh. Like the food there seems just fresher. It's not just your average, like we heated it up.
Myka: Right. Yep. So I and I and they also have better coffee at Riviera. And I'm a big coffee drinker anyway, so
Jason: Terry.
Terri: Per table service, I'm going to be Rachel right now and I'm gonna say flying fish. Just 'cause I feel like it has to be mentioned per episode. So that's my and quick service, honestly, I don't have a preference because to me
Myka: They're a lot are very similar. Yeah, I mean Do you know which
Terri: And a lot is the same,
Myka: quick service I didn't like? Polynesians. We went to go like 'cause we had the dining planning. We were gonna eat at like Captain Cook's and I was just like, I don't really want anything from here.
Allison: Well, special like mention, their pulled pork dachos, one
Terri: they sound good.
Allison: of the best quick service options there is and I ate it like three times when I stayed at the Polynesian. Like I just ordered it for every lunch each day.
Terri: So good.
Allison: so good. But I do agree though, the rest of the menu is just got things that I don't necessarily want or is just a little too out of my comfort zone. So then I end up eating the chicken tenders if I don't get the nachos.
Myka: Yeah. You know, like side note,
Terri: Exactly.
Myka: I had people say the same thing when they went to Animal Kingdom Lodge. They didn't love the dining options there and like the quick service. They were just like, We just wanted like
Jason: Yeah.
Myka: normal food, like, but
Terri: No more food.
Myka: it was like very, you know, African inspired.
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Jason: Okay, so
Terri: That just I just got my quick service. The Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom with the bull pull
Allison: No, you can't pick it apart.
Jason: Yeah, that doesn't count. It's in the theme park. Can't do that.
Terri: dang it. See, that's why I can't pick quick service, because I don't ever eat at the resorts. Dang
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: it. I was like, this is
Jason: Okay, so
Terri: the one thing I eat.
Jason: I'm in I'm in a little bit of a conundrum with Quick Service because I have two, but so I don't know which one I want to pick. I'm with Micah though on Yachtsman. That's my like one of my favorite sit sit downs.
Terri: Okay.
Jason: Quick service, I'm choos like I would choose between Al whatn it's not Sort of animations, landscape of flavors.
Myka: Okay.
Jason: Or Geyser Point.
Allison: geyser point is a great option.
Jason: I think and and the reason I think Gri Guys of Point wins out for me over landscape is because of the location for it being right next to the water and being able to put that to where we're at now, ha still having a nice big restaurant outside. It has good food.
Myka: Well, I've never eaten there, but I've heard nothing but good things about like food and stuff from the don't they have wings that everyone really likes at Geyser Point? Yeah.
Jason: Yeah. I have a bicep driver that I love.
Allison: yeah, and they have a great bison burger. They've got a great like French dip style shaved beef sandwich.
Terri: Ooh, I love a good French dip.
Myka: Well, I think I may have just been like eased on over to Geyser.
Allison: We can do a guys or point.
Terri: So you wanna say Geyser Point as a quick service?
Myka: I was like that one I'm kinda eased on over. Like, give me a good French dip sandwich. That's one I love.
Allison: Yeah, it's got a great menu. Although, I I just find it not as accessible. But now that we're Frankensteining it over to the boardwalk, we can get in. Honestly,
Jason: Yeah.
Allison: Terry, that's what you need to do when you go to wilderness to see the lobby.
Terri: Uh-huh.
Allison: Eat at Geyser Point.
Jason: Very yeah.
Terri: Okay. Lunchtime. That'll be the one on my list.
Jason: And it's and you can mobile
Myka: Right, so now we just have to have our final
Jason: you can mobile order.
Myka: table service. So we have Topolinos.
Jason: That was yeah, so
Terri: So
Jason: we had Top no, Topolinas is our signature, right? So Yachtsman
Terri: This is a signature, yeah.
Jason: is me and Micah.
Terri: I'm lone wolfing
Jason: Alison.
Terri: it on the flying fish.
Myka: Linefish. And then what was yours, Allison?
Allison: the Sebastians.
Myka: Sebastian's. I've heard great things about Sebastian's. I'm just
Jason: I mean we're we but
Terri: Bashions is good.
Myka: not a big seafood person and I feel like they're
Allison: It's not seafood though, the steak
Terri: Mm mm.
Allison: and the salad. my goodness, I need it right now.
Jason: Name. But if you're talk if you're talking about steak though, you're you should go to the steakhouse and have a steak. Yachtsman steakhouse.
Allison: I know. It's just different though. Is that like slightly a shaved
Terri: Timicherie.
Allison: steak with the chimichurri? The chimichurri is the secret to
Terri: So good.
Allison: it being so delicious.
Jason: I just I can't give up y'all. I mean technically we're in the majority, Micah. We can go ahead and just
Allison: Yeah, I mean, y'all can take it. I think we gotta give an honorable mention to Sebastian's.
Jason: We can do that. We can we can be like We could. I just want and
Myka: I mean it's our resort. We can have as many restaurants as we want.
Jason: if you wanna you we have the the tower too, the you know, the poly tower they built that
Myka: Right.
Jason: other restaurant.
Allison: I don't know what Wylulu is officially considered, but that place is delicious too. That just needs to be mentioned.
Jason: Yeah, I haven't eaten there.
Allison: It's more of a bar and grill, but...
Jason: Which is what which is what Geyser Point is, is like a bar and grill.
Allison: Yeah.
Jason: so we have restaurants, we have bars, we have the lobby pools.
Myka: Specialty room.
Jason: Specialty room. Let's go with that. So this will be like your the cabins at Wilderness Lodge. Yeah, special like
Myka: Especially themed rooms, yeah.
Terri: Dean.
Jason: princess themed rooms, the the A frame well not the A frames they're not built yet, but the bungalows, all those type of things. So if if you pay an extra amount to stay in a room that has that little bit of extra magic to it, Violet.
Allison: The one that comes to mind, there's no way it's gonna end up at our location though, because I'm thinking of a Savannah view room.
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Allison: So we gotta get some
Jason: Okay.
Allison: giraffes by the four o'clock.
Terri: We can move some giraffes
Myka: Ha ha ha
Terri: to the beach.
Jason: Yeah, there's there's some giraffes sitting over there next to the water.
Terri: We just have to get caught to build in Africa.
Allison: If it weren't that, if I were to pay for an extra room, it's definitely those water view rooms in that Crescent Lake area. I'm not sure if that officially counts, but I think they are some of the prettiest views you can get at Disney, and I would certainly pay extra for that view.
Jason: Okay, Micah. I
Allison: Is he gonna allow it? Fuck he was thinking.
Terri: He's like mm.
Jason: was I was thinking, I was like, I'm also trying to
Myka: actually put the tree houses because I well
Allison: Well, those aren't going to be by the boardwalk either.
Jason: Mm-hmm.
Myka: they could be their own thing like their own thing because I just love like the layout of them and where they're at and how much space you have in them. Like if I could choose I mean again Savannah view room yes but it doesn't necessarily fit into where we're trying to put our resort but I just feel like Well also when I wrote down Treehouse on here, I didn't know Polly was gonna be the winner of like the theme of it or also the boardwalk area. I didn't think anyone else is gonna pick that.
Terri: Well you can have tree houses in Hawaii.
Myka: They do, yeah. No. I know they're kind of far
Jason: Have you s have you stayed at the tree houses? Okay.
Myka: off, but
Jason: I I'm not knocking it. Just It's Saratoga, yeah.
Terri: Are you talking about tree houses like when you're on the boat from
Myka: Say or to yeah.
Terri: like Riverside to Disney Springs? Okay. That's what I was wondering. Just making sure.
Myka: That's that's mine. Like I just think like I didn't wanna be like the person that's like, the bungalows are Polynesian 'cause who doesn't want to stay there? But I just feel like the tree houses are really nice.
Jason: It's only where we all wanna stay every time we talk about stainks.
Terri: My vote is definitely the bungalows of Polynesia.
Myka: Ha ha ha.
Jason: I'm actually gonna go with yeah. I'm
Terri: Pretty basic. Okay.
Jason: I'm gonna go with Mike on this one, the tree house. I really like sta I've stayed there a couple of times, really enjoyed both times I've stayed there. being able to go up and have your own kitchen and multiple bathrooms, multiple bedrooms, a living room, you know, and you're not right next to somebody else, like your wall's not touching somebody else, it's great to be able to
Myka: Yeah. I can yell at Kova and no one else is gonna hear. Yep.
Jason: Yeah. It's perfect. I love it.
Myka: When you're trying to get
Jason: And then the
Myka: ready in the morning and you're like, kid, the bus leaves in twenty minutes. Like we gotta go. Like when you're fussing at him.
Jason: Yeah, that's the downside of it being where it's at is that you're
Myka: Yeah, I'll just drive.
Terri: That's what I was gonna ask, like
Myka: I'd end up probably just driving at that point if I had my car.
Terri: How is it transportation or like like my kids are old enough now where they can like run and get breakfast and come back to the room and eat it? Well like they'll get ready real quick and then while Matt and I are getting like the bags packed and everything, they'll go get their breakfast and come back to the room and eat it. So
Myka: No, it's far off. Like they're
Jason: Yeah, it's
Myka: not close.
Jason: in in real life these things you have to take an internal bus to get to from Saratoga Springs to the tree houses and vice versa. So but in here
Terri: Yeah. I'm the opposite of you guys. I don't want to be secluded. I want to be in the action, but like bungalow in the action. Like I can see Magic Kingdom. I can hear some fireworks. I feel like I'm in Disney World. But I'm in my own little place.
Jason: And I think with this you would be like the way the way we're setting it up. No. Because
Terri: Yeah, but then I gotta take a bus to get food.
Myka: Yeah, I No, I mean, again, like we said
Allison: Yeah
Myka: with the Storm Along Bay, we're making it like fit
Jason: Our own.
Myka: our resort. Like we're we're making our resort.
Terri: Okay. If you can put it to where I don't have to take a bus to get a snack when I'm feeling like a chocolate chip cookie.
Jason: No, you can just walk down to the res to the lobby.
Terri: as I'm eating cookie dough right now.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: Didn't have time to bake
Jason: So we're going tree houses on this thing.
Terri: Is that cool with you, Alison? I can do treehouse
Allison: Okay, tree house. That's fun.
Terri: as long as it's not and plus
Jason: It's more it's better than a savannah because the whole whole hotel is based off of the Savannah feel. The Savannah banana.
Terri: Bananas? I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Allison: Yeah.
Myka: Savannah bananas? What? Are we talking banana ball?
Allison: Ha ha ha ha!
Terri: That and the the tree houses feel snaky to me 'cause they're like feel like they're in a swamp area. Like a crocodile or I mean an alligator or a snake is gonna like creep by my house.
Myka: Well it's Florida. There's lots of snakes there.
Terri: Yeah, but like you're you're animal friendly. Those things don't scare you. They scare me. City mouse over here, they scare.
Myka: Are we gonna do transportation?
Jason: We can. I mean, I think the transportation's
Terri: We have tri in store. But I think
Jason: pretty self explanatory for the boardwalk area with the
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: fact that we have the boat, the skyliner.
Terri: But what's your favorite one?
Jason: Well, if we're making it the way
Allison: walking.
Jason: if we're making it the way I'd want it, it's different.
Terri: Yes, I don't know.
Jason: I mean, I'd pick my picks well, Alison, go ahead.
Allison: For transportation?
Jason: Yeah.
Allison: I mean, really truly like if I can walk to a park, that's gonna be my first choice.
Jason: Well you can't walk to Magic Kingdom from boardwalks. How are you getting there?
Allison: Yeah, but we'd have to do a bus then from our location that we chose.
Jason: Not from our we can we can do the transportation how we want to. This is our all starter.
Terri: So you're saying like if you want this
Myka: Yeah, 'cause we're making
Terri: thing like connect
Allison: Well.
Terri: the skyliner to connect everything, then your brain skyliner can connect everything.
Allison: So I would have to go monorail for that far because I get a little anxious on the Skyliner sometimes. I'd rather just be on the monorail to take me to the other parks that I can't walk to.
Jason: I'm with you on Monroe. I'll just go out and say
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: it.
Terri: I'm going Skyliner because the monorail smells like pea.
Myka: I was gonna be an outlier. Go ahead, Skyliner. It does sometimes. I was gonna say what if at our resort if you stayed there, minivans were included.
Terri: I was also gonna say minivans, but I was like sometimes minivans take you out of the Disney feel. Like at least on like the monorail
Jason: Yeah, well it depending depending on the
Terri: or the skyliner you feel like you're in Disney World and sometimes the minivans, which I take all the time.
Myka: I'll choose Monorail. I I would say Monorail then, like Sky I do love Skyliner, but some of the resorts like Animal Kingdom are not very close and that's a very long Skyliner ride from most of those resorts.
Jason: So like here's the thing for the Skyliner
Allison: yeah.
Jason: at our location, right? Is if you're walking to Epcot from Crescent Lake to get to the Skyliner to you know, you just wasted time because you're walking straight in. If you're the Monorail, if you're trying to get to the Skyliner and go to Hollywood Studios, you're walking the opposite direction to the Skyliner just to get over to the park you could have walked to.
Myka: But we're making it how we want. So the Skyliner picks you up pretty much in the lobby.
Terri: Yeah. But if you're at the beach club and you wanna take the monorail then you gotta go like all the way across the park. By your rules. You gotta go like
Myka: Think of the skyliner
Terri: So
Myka: in the same way that the monorails at the contemporary. It comes in and picks you up.
Terri: I think of the skyliner with the bus routes. Yeah. It's like the bus routes. It'll go any you know, not anywhere 'cause the buses don't take you anywhere. Sometimes you get a hot buses. But still. You can get from A to B.
Myka: I'll go Moneral though.
Jason: Monroe. Monorail
Allison: excuse me.
Jason: is the winner. well
Myka: Monerate.
Terri: I'll say monorail. Without the piecemeal.
Jason: Alice and not even said
Myka: Ha ha ha.
Jason: Monorail. This will be brand new Monorails
Terri: I know.
Jason: that the company needs to go ahead and purchase.
Myka: As far as store goes, I got nothing.
Terri: I know. I don't know any resort stores. Like if you said the emporium
Jason: Everything pop.
Terri: or the thing, you love pop. You're like my kids. I mean,
Jason: That's the it's the only one I know the name of. Everything about.
Terri: if you wanna like talk about different stuff, like Grand Floridian has like their little fancy stores.
Myka: They do. With the really expensive hoodies.
Terri: And then
Allison: Yeah, I honestly love just the whole monorail loop kind of going shop popping. Yeah.
Terri: Contemporary, yeah.
Allison: trying to think if there's any stores that really just stand out to me.
Terri: I like the one on Sunset Strip, but we can't choose that one.
Jason: Yeah, there there's not a store that stands out. Like I just put it as a a suggestion.
Terri: Would you like to put something you would want in a store? Like if it was in your like
Jason: No, I mean it's like cause I when you talk stores, it really depends on like what this what the company allocated to it. Cause like Riviera, when you go into it, it's a small store, but it has a lot of Riviera merch. You go into everything
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: pop and it has a couple pop things, but it's a really big store. But it's mostly the merchandise you buy your pop. You don't? I love it.
Terri: Yeah, I don't like when they have resort specific stuff. I like, no. Why do I want a sweatshirt that says Riviera?
Jason: Because it might be your favorite resort. Contem I I
Terri: But Disney World encompasses all that.
Jason: I like I have a contemporary polo 'cause I love contemporary. Yeah. And
Terri: Yeah. Which I can see that 'cause Contemporary is a it's like an icon of Disney World. That awkward shaped building. You know, it it looks like Disney World. So I can see that being like its own brand almost. But like why do I want a Pop Century backpow backpack? yeah.
Allison: I do think Coronado and Animal Kingdom Lodge have a good size store, like where I find that I can easily browse it for a little bit.
Terri: Yes. It's not the same old, same old
Allison: And that's what I like. I want a store
Jason: Right.
Allison: that's long enough that I can take some time to browse. I don't want to just be able to look and almost see everything in one take.
Jason: I got I do have an
Terri: Yes, yes.
Jason: idea since we're not gonna settle on a store. Holiday theme.
Terri: Holiday theme?
Jason: When when it comes to the holidays, the Christmas decorations. Which what would you take and put there? It has to be in existence though now. On the official like
Terri: Like at the resort.
Allison: the tree at Wilderness Lodge.
Jason: So like you can't use the gingerbread house now because they don't do the gingerbread house starting this like they haven't done it last season.
Terri: Mm.
Jason: They s announced it's gone. So we do have the wilderness lodge as our lobby and it is probably
Allison: And so we need that tree.
Myka: It is beautiful.
Terri: I'm choosing the snope as my holiday favorite thing. And I wanted to
Myka: Ha ha ha.
Jason: Which which they do
Terri: snope all the time.
Jason: they do snope at
Allison: Ha
Jason: when I went to French quarter, which is what the picture is behind us. It was it was snoping at some point. So
Terri: I want it
Allison: It'd be like a Hallmark movie.
Terri: all the time, all day long. I'm gonna review it and we're gonna do a podcast about it. We're gonna make
Allison: Okay.
Terri: Jason watch it. We're all gonna watch it. Probably not
Jason: I'm I'll watch it.
Myka: Yes. Instead of a book club, it's a movie club.
Terri: Rachel. I We can't we can't make Rachel watch
Jason: You know, but it
Terri: that, I feel like.
Jason: is there any other things we can put in this hotel? I can't think of anything.
Terri: I don't unless you just 'cause we did a location basically. Yeah. I mean if you could do like location
Myka: Mm.
Jason: Yeah, that was the first thing we did.
Allison: Hmm.
Terri: like a specific park, maybe. Like if you wanted to pick up Crescent Lake and put it beside Magic Kingdom. So that way
Jason: No, I think that's the point of it is like we're th everything is is in existence as it is,
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Jason: the resort itself. So having the
Myka: All right, so what would we name our resort?
Allison: Jason didn't want to name it.
Terri: Polly something
Jason: We called it. We called it.
Terri: 'cause it's got poly
Myka: Ha ha.
Terri: needs everything.
Jason: The polychauldrons.
Terri: The polycauldrons? The polypedals. I'm looking at the things we chose.
Jason: The pop poly.
Terri: It would just
Allison: I'm probably not good at thinking of a name.
Terri: we did a lot of Polynesian and like wilderness lodge.
Myka: Good at names either.
Jason: The polylodge.
Terri: The poly that sounds very sexual.
Myka: No, because you can really use the poly as bad things.
Allison: Crescent Crescent Lake Lodge
Myka: There we go.
Terri: Yeah. But Hawaiian themed.
Myka: Crescent Lake Lodge. Yeah, not Lodge. Crescent Lake.
Terri: Bungalows. Cross not light. There you go.
Myka: Resort in bungalows. Resort in tree houses.
Jason: Tree entrance houses.
Terri: yeah. Tree houses.
Myka: A a Polynesian themed lodge. There we go. Crescent Lake Lodge. Brought to you by Castle Stacaltrons.
Jason: Can't think of anything else. Like I'm really trying to think. It's on Crescent Lake.
Terri: Now large sounds too lakey. So we gotta have something with an
Myka: It does.
Terri: and but we gotta have something with the island feel 'cause we have a lot of Polynesian influence in here.
Myka: Mentira.
Jason: The lobby's not though. Like the th the build
Myka: Yeah, the lobby's the wilderness.
Terri: It's not, but all the restaurant the theme, literally the theme is the Polynesian. The theme. So it's gotta have something island Hawaii tiki
Jason: The tiki Lodge.
Allison: Boutique Lodge at Crescent Lake.
Terri: That can there you go, there you go.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: The
Jason: Yeah.
Terri: tiki lodge I that sounds
Jason: The Tiggy Lodge and Tige Houses.
Myka: Yeah. Tiki tree houses.
Terri: tiki lodge
Jason: With the with the tiki rooms. So would the tree houses then have like so on a specialty level, a brand new specialty where we'll have tiki the tiki room themed rooms. Where instead of the light up
Terri: You have
Jason: headboards, you have the tiki birds singing. You push a button. Your alarm clock is the tiki.
Terri: I would not stay there. I hate the enchanted tiki room or whatever.
Myka: Tova loves that. He makes me go to it multiple times.
Terri: My kids are like, why are we in here? What is going on? I think they were scared of the
Myka: I don't know why he loved it.
Terri: I think it's one of those things. Either you love it, because like Rachel loves she says it's nostalgic. I think it's one of those things like you love it or you're like, What is going on? Why are we doing this?
Jason: I like it in Disneyland. I don't do it in Disney World too often. But I'll try to do it when we go in Disney w which we didn't do in June.
Myka: Mm mm. I'm still sad you didn't get to see the wall animatronic. It wasn't working while we were there.
Jason: I am still pissed at that. Don't bring that up.
Terri: I didn't get to go to the small world of Disneyland 'cause it was under construction, so but the same original, I wanted to go on that one.
Jason: That's a blessing in disguise though. Small world is It is the original. That's the only reason I go on that one. But
Terri: And it's prettier. From the outside,
Myka: It is.
Terri: it's prettier. It's iconic.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: It's very great at Christmas. I think that's gonna do it. So Terry, what what is our hall of fame?
Terri: holiday theme, we didn't s a theme. Was it the wilderness lodge tree?
Myka: No, we said the wilderness lodge tree, yeah.
Jason: Yeah. With with
Terri: They're about killing me with no snoop here.
Myka: All right, so the Tiki Lodge at Crescent Lake.
Jason: with snope. We'll put the we'll we'll let you have your snope on this one.
Myka: Yep.
Terri: Do we need to explain what Snoop is to listeners?
Jason: If they're listening to this podcast, I'm pretty sure they understand what Snoop is, Terry.
Terri: Okay.
Myka: They should.
Terri: Okay. Just make sure.
Myka: Don't look up and have your mouth open 'cause it doesn't
Terri: No.
Myka: taste good.
Terri: But it's so pretty. I
Myka: It is.
Terri: love it. Okay, you want me to name out what we have?
Jason: Yes, let us know what we have.
Terri: It is the Tiki Lodge at Crescent Lake. It is located on Crescent Lake with a Polynesian theme. The lobby looks like the wilderness lodge. We have the Storm Along Bay tight pools. However, we've integrated a lazy river where you can see all around it so you don't have to get up and walk around, and it's fenced in for your younger people. Children. The bar on the outside is a Tambu lounge and the no, excuse me, that's the inside bar is a Tambu lounge. The pool bar is petals. The quick service restaurant is Geyser Point. Your table service is the Yachtsman with an honorable mention of Sebastian's that we also added in there recently.
Myka: Mm-hmm.
Terri: Your signature dining will be Topolino's Terrace, character dining at breakfast. Your store is big with lots of inventory, some resorts, some not. your specialty room are tree houses located on the Crescent Lake. Your transportation you can get there with monorail with no hobo piecemail. Sorry. I tried to get
Jason: So the way is so we we
Terri: it out without laughing and couldn't.
Jason: We put the tree houses on the lake. Is that what we did? They're bungalows. They're we're not putting them on the lake.
Myka: So they're bungalows.
Terri: Yeah yes. But they're not bungalow shaped. They're treehouse shaped. You know, 'cause tree houses
Jason: Which are bungalow shapes.
Terri: they don't have the thatched roofs. Yeah, they're all
Allison: And they don't sit right on the water, they just sit like along the water.
Myka: No, bungalow more round. Close along
Jason: They sit near the water, yeah. Not not on the water, just on the beach or something like that.
Myka: the water. Yeah.
Terri: Yeah. But not on the sandy beach where you play. The other lakey beach.
Myka: Mm.
Terri: You know. And then our holiday theme will be the Wil Wilderness Lodge Tree with Snoop twenty four seven during the holiday months.
Myka: Yay.
Jason: That make for one slippery lobby, by the way.
Myka: It would one very special
Terri: I wasn't gonna s I wasn't even snow from the outside, like when you walked outside. Like when you walk outside here and it's snowing, you
Jason: Okay.
Myka: like on the concrete? Yeah.
Terri: walk outside your resort and it's snowing on you, like
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: it's Christmas time. Not inside.
Jason: Something we didn't mention about Wilderness Lodge though is like their fireplace that they have. It's so nice and just rustic right there. I just
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Jason: I was kind of dis I was
Myka: All right, Disney, listen to us and make this and make it affordable close to a value.
Jason: Yeah. That's gonna happen.
Terri: Or make different le like what if they had a nice resort but had different levels within the resort? Yeah. Like obviously your tree houses
Myka: Right. It had all the different levels that you could stay, value, moderate, and deluxe in the same resort.
Terri: are deluxe, you know, and then you have some value rooms and some moderate rooms mixed in there.
Allison: Honestly, some
Myka: See?
Allison: resort view rooms should be priced better than they are. Even if they're at a deluxe resort, there's
Terri: Yes.
Allison: a few rooms that I just want to be like, there's no way you're charging me full price for this.
Jason: Yeah,
Terri: No
Jason: if you're if you're on a looking at the trash cans or something like that, the parking like the parking lots, you shouldn't be paid the upper echelon. And I know you're not, but you should be Yeah. It should be it should be on the high end of a moderate, not the low end of a deluxe.
Terri: You're paying the lower end of the the deluxe, but that's still expensive. You should not have to pay that. Exactly. Should
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: Mm-hmm.
Terri: I be view baked 'cause you they're like, well you're getting the transportation, you know, privilege, but it's like, Well, that's still not as great as it's like you said, trash can view. You know, I can't see the park or anything.
Allison: Yeah, so our one, it was in July, I think. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night and we literally got the room that has no view. It looks where the cars, I can never say the word, like where you pull under with the cars.
Myka: The awning?
Jason: Yes. Porter Cashay.
Allison: Yeah, like it was at the awning. So
Terri: With the ballet.
Allison: our balcony wall was taller than I am. And then if you did
Terri: god.
Allison: look over it, all you were seeing was like not even the top of that drive. It had like a little hole. So you were literally like looking down into cars. You had not even a view of a parking lot. And I was like, I was, it was kind of sad because I was hoping
Terri: Yeah.
Allison: for at least some sort of view. And we,
Terri: Like a corner view of something.
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: like, I can't even believe they have that as a room. Like it just needs to be blocked off and made into like,
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: storage.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: I felt the same way when we stayed at Alani. Like we just paid for the cheapest room for one night there. Still over seven hundred dollars for one night. And we looked at a parking deck.
Jason: Yeah, we can do that.
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: Like that's it. Like we literally looked into the parking deck, which again, it was kind of like a last minute booking, but for seven hundred dollars a night, like I would think I was at least looking at trees. Like not
Allison: Yes, exactly.
Terri: Yeah, give me a garden view.
Myka: Yeah, like at least looking at trees, not the parking deck. Like that's literally what we we watched people like driving the cars around the parking deck. That's what we could see from the room. Thankfully we didn't really stay in the room very long, but
Allison: See, those should be offered for a discount.
Myka: Yeah.
Terri: Yeah.
Myka: Especially since they were not selling that out. Like we were staying at a condo, like at a neighboring resort property that we could walk to a lani from, and Robert surprised me with one night. So they would not have sold that room, 'cause Robert literally went the day before and got the room. They would not have sold that room to somebody.
Terri: Well, like Jason said, they should be listed on the site as like a bonus price or something, but with like an asterisk with a caveat that's like no view. Like yeah, like like
Myka: You have no view.
Allison: or how cruises have obstructed views. This is an obstructed view ring.
Myka: Yeah. And you're gonna get it at a discounted rate.
Terri: this room is a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper per night than the other one. You're like, I'm getting a deal but you won't be able to see anything. Like it's you're paying for the location.
Allison: Yeah, but at least you would know.
Terri: Yes. And some people are okay with that. You know, like some people are cool. They're like, I just wanna be near the animals. I don't care if I see them. I
Allison: Yeah.
Terri: just wanna be or I wanna be in this particular resort. I don't care about the balcony. And they would, you know, p they would be sold out, I'm sure, all the time. But they do need to l lower price.
Myka: Aga I wouldn't have cared about the view at Alani if the price wouldn't have been as expensive as it was. Like if I would have known going into it.
Terri: Exactly. Like like you're paying the same price as someone with a garden view. You got parking but garden and parking lot are basically the same thing.
Myka: Yeah. Yeah.
Allison: Yeah. And like I we even asked, even, it was one night, I at least did ask. was like, is there anything else? And they said, no, they were sold out, which sometimes, I mean, I know Disney gets sold out when I'm in a bakery. You don't even have like one room in the corner of this building.
Terri: Sure.
Myka: Yeah. That's not this view.
Allison: You triple sure. We mostly spent time at the pool though, because we got there that evening. And so we had a nice time by the pool, you know, and.
Terri: That's nice.
Allison: relax but it would have been awesome to just have be even just be on the balcony at all like said it wasn't even an open balcony it was a fence taller than me so you
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Myka: Yeah.
Allison: didn't have natural light coming into your room either
Terri: You're like I'm not gonna jump
Myka: That's crazy.
Terri: off into the parking lot, I promise. You can lower the balcony.
Allison: I'll have to send y'all a picture in a group chat. It was a little depressing.
Jason: Let me say this while we're talking about resorts and disappointments. the Grand Californian,
Terri: Mm.
Jason: great resort, like the whole layout of it. It was beautiful. however, the pool and the restaurant they have next to the pool is very awkward. It's because
Myka: It is.
Jason: it's it's it you have people sitting right at the pool being served.
Terri: Yeah.
Jason: It's not like horrible dinner, it's but I mean it's not also Top tier dinner. It's Yeah.
Myka: It's kind of expensive for a pool bar.
Jason: And it's like
Terri: And I mean honestly the hotel the resort is expensive and hi Travis. the lobby and everything is nice, but the room is a it's a moderate room. Like it's not priced that way. But the room is a moderate it's nothing fancy about the rooms. That's
Allison: Yeah.
Terri: what I was disappointed in. Was I was like the lobby's beautiful.
Allison: They could use a little bit of a refresh.
Terri: But it was like if you took the lobby away, this is like walking into like Hampton Inn. You
Jason: It is.
Terri: know, it's it wasn't and I like that's the first thing my husband said. He was like, This is the deluxe and I was like, Yeah, here 'cause you know, like
Myka: Like it is.
Terri: you said, the the lobby looks great, so you're expecting kind of a better than normal room and it just didn't produce.
Jason: It was when we we went and ate what the last night we were up there, for dinner.
Myka: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jason: And when it was that view, I was just like, What on earth? Like we're paying this much to eat here and
Myka: It was expensive to eat there. I mean it was really convenient for Christine and I.
Jason: I can't I r I can't remember how much I spent, but I was spent a little bit more more than I was expecting.
Myka: Right.
Terri: I think we split a cheeseburger and fries there one night. It was good.
Jason: That's what I had was cheeseburger and fries.
Terri: The fries are delicious. Every fry I had in California was delicious. I was like, what do they do here? What magic is here?
Myka: All the fries were so good.
Terri: Yes.
Jason: Well, the next time we do this, we'll do Disneyland. We'll do the three resorts at Disneyland and combine them all. Which, you know, would end up being like the same thing because No, there's nothing there's
Terri: I was gonna say, is that enough?
Jason: not enough down there. I think that's gonna do it. Was that a gummy?
Terri: Mega?
Jason: Uh-huh.
Terri: Yep.
Jason: I think that's gonna do it for this week's episode of Castles of Cauldrons. Allison, thank you for coming in and joining us today in lieu of Rachel being on the wonder of the seas. can you let everybody know where they can find you since it's been so long since you've been on?
Allison: Yeah, of course. So I'm most active on Instagram. It's at Allison underscore magical travel. And when y'all are hearing this, I will still be in Disney world. So definitely check out my stories because maybe you'll get to see some sneak peeks. Well, that'll be
Terri: She has great stories. Yeah.
Myka: She does a great job.
Allison: Tuesday will be VIP tour day. So maybe some sneak peeks of the VIP tour and then Facebook. I'm also on Facebook, Allison Hobbs magical travel. So You can always follow me for tips and tricks and definitely stories when I'm in the park.
Myka: love following your like park days. Like I love
Terri: Yeah. I wish I did Yeah.
Myka: to follow that. You do such a good job. I have all the intention of doing really good things. And then I get done I get through something and I'm like, I should have taken a picture of that or I should have recorded something. I should have done something for this and I am terrible. Especially when I have cova.
Jason: Yeah.
Allison: I need a better system at organizing my content though because I probably have 10 videos of the Little Mermaid Rod, like the same section, and I
Terri: Yeah.
Allison: just need to store it somewhere instead of taking the video every single time. But, you know.
Jason: Yeah, so I'll I'll be on like I said at big top of the show, I'll be on that that VIP with her. I will my my Instagram is I Yeah.
Allison: Yeah, Pete Jason in the stories. He'll be in the background somewhere.
Jason: I will be the only guy in that group with of agents. But I will not be updating my Instagram as much as she will 'cause I don't I'm I'm like like like I said, I'm not good at doing that type of stuff. I want to I'm more in the moment type person. I'll probably have a my big camera with me and taking pictures and videos for for B roll of other things. So But so that's gonna do it for the episode. You can find all of us over at magical travel dot com. Allison will be glad to book you a VIP trip at any resort
Terri: Mm-hmm.
Jason: in Walt Disney World besides the Tiki Lodge, because that doesn't really exist. But we would
Myka: Ha ha
Jason: love for it to come to question.
Terri: It will one day.
Jason: Yes. Maybe maybe Josh DeMaro is listening to this and he's like, That is a great idea.
Myka: Thanks, Josh.
Terri: That's a great idea. They should always stay there for free for the rest of their lives.
Jason: After you fix the Yeti. Yes.
Myka: Yeah.
Jason: But your tickets will cost five hundred dollars a night per person.
Myka: Ha ha ha.
Jason: But you can find any of us over at magicaltravel.com. Any of our great agents will help you get any of the great discounts that we talked about today. I've actually been working with somebody as we've been doing this, trying to get them a great deal for the spring. So that's kind of why I'm scatterbrained. But until the next episode, we will see you then.
Terri: Bye.
Allison: Bye!
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