← Frugal Friends Podcast
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If you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of a deal. But are you getting the deal and cash back? Rakuten shoppers do they get the brands they love? Savings and cash back and you can get it too. Start getting cash back at your favorite stores like Target, Sephora and even Expedia. Stack sales on top of cash back and feel what it's like to know you're maximizing the savings. It's easy to use and you get your cash back sent to you through PayPal or check. The idea is simple. Stores pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers, and Rakuten shares the money with you as cash back. Download the free Rakuten app or go to rakuten.com to start saving today. It's the most rewarding way to shop. That's R A K U t e n rakuten.com Limu Emu and Doug Limu and I always tell you to customize your car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual, but now we want you to feel it. Cue the Emu music. Limu Save yourself money today.
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Increase your wealth.
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Customize and save. We save.
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That may have been too much feeling.
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Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
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Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Fairy underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. Affiliates excludes Massachusetts.
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How to do Disney World on a.
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Budget.
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Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jim. Jill.
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Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast. My name is Jen. My name is Jill and today we are going through a comprehensive plan to save money on Disney World and debunking some of the myths that you might be hearing on how to save on Disney in the next year or to 18 months.
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B
You can't trust everything you read or hear, folks. But you can trust us. And you can trust aj.
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C
Yeah, we spoke to AJ Wolf, the creator of Disney Food Blog. She has been embedded in Disney for the past 15 years plus and she gave us some great insights to fill in the gaps of our research.
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B
But first, this episode is brought to you by being a YouTube adult. Kind of like being a Disney adult, only much less expensive. You can be a YouTube adult by just getting all your info, entertainment and even financial motivation on YouTube, watching shows like ours. Be a YouTube adult. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Frugal Friends Podcast. Thank you so much.
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C
All right, so let's get into it. We know Disney's not an inexpensive vacation, but let's look at the actual numbers before we get into the savings tips so you can have a better idea of what to expect expect when saving so according to several estimates that we saw in 2024, the median cost of a Walt Disney World vacation for a family of four was over $6,800. For a five to seven day vacation, a more budget conscious median was found to be around 4, 700. While elevated experiences like deluxe accommodations, premium dining, those vacations exceeded 10,000. And every year you can expect hotel and ticket prices to increase by around 5%. Disney does increase every February like clockwork, but so this is kind of what we're talking about when we're giving advice. Probably going to go around that $4,700 range.
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We know that Disney has been doing a lot of refurbishments in the last couple of years. There's a lot of new rides. They're even building new lands, new attractions. Magic Kingdom's getting Villains Land, which is very exciting, and two new attractions inspired by the Cars franchise. Hollywood Studios is getting a new area featuring a suspended roller coaster. Animal Kingdom is getting a new land which is going to replace Dinoland featuring attractions like Encanto and Indiana Jones. And adjacent to that, if you guys are all familiar with the geography of Where Disney World, it's very close to Universal and they are opening up another park as well. So we were really curious to hear kind of how these changes are going to be impacting pricing of tickets. So that's one of the things we get to talk to AJ about and just really hear her advice on how to save money.
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C
And I'll be honest, I really thought that these things were gonna positively impact how ticket prices would be at Disney with all these openings in 2027. I thought things in 2026 will be good for finding deals, enticing people and getting in there with Epic Universe. I thought they will be offering some deals to entice people to just tack on a Disney day. But really interestingly we found that may not be the case and we will let AJ tell you why. AJ welcome to Frugal Friends Podcast. We are excited to have you here to talk about one of my favorite topics. It is a dream of mine. I love it when we get to talk about Disney.
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A
Awesome. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
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B
I gotta say in preparation for this interview I feel even more influenced to go to Disney. I got really hyped up looking at this outline so I'm excited too to talk about this. So let's jump right in. A.J. can you tell us. We're talking about how to get the best deals on Disney, which can feel like a feat, but we know that there's some changes coming with the 2027 openings and epic Universe. How do you think that that's gonna impact some of the deals that we see in 2026?
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A
This is a very good question. You know, Disney offers deals in order to get people in their parks, right? They offer deals when they're not seeing enough people come. I don't think we're going to see a ton of massive deals in 2025. We did just see Disney quietly remove its free dining option from the website, which means they're feeling pretty good about the bookings that they have. We just heard their earnings call last week where they were like, yeah, we are actually ahead on bookings. We're good. So I don't think they're super concerned about making it cheaper for us all to get there next year. And despite what everybody says about Epic Universe over at Universal Orlando, cutting into Disney's, you know, market share, it actually doesn't. Statistics show that when something big opens in the same area that more people come. Right? So it just, you know, rising tide lifts all boats. So I'm, I'm not, you know, they will probably run. They always have a hotel discount somewhere. They always have park ticket deals that they offer especially to get people kind of excited to come during those times that are usually down times, like when kids are in school. But I'm not seeing any huge mega deals happening next year. If they do mega deals, it might be for Disneyland specifically because it's celebrating its 70th anniversary. They're trying to get bodies in there. They're trying to get coverage. So that might be where we see some deals.
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C
Okay, tell me more about the. The dining plan going away. Are there. So have you seen anything else like that Disney maybe, like, quietly in 2025, removing things or anything behind the scenes that you don't think has been, like, you think deserves more coverage?
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A
They don't. We don't usually see them do something like that, which is why we thought it was newsworthy that they, you know, just didn't. They didn't have an end date on that offer in the first place, which is why I don't think it's a sneaky thing that they're trying to do. They never put an end date on it in the first place. But the fact that they're like, yep, nope, we don't need. We don't need to offer this anymore. That's, it's not unprecedented, but it's rare. So anyway, I think that's, I think that's a compelling thing. Kind of basically confirming for us that Disney's doing just fine in terms of they've recovered from COVID You know, they are, they're good.
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C
Yeah. What was that? What package was that attached to?
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That was. And that was not the free dining for kids. I believe free dining for kids is still in existence for 2026, but that was just a regular free dining plan with I think a four day booking, something like that.
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C
Okay, cool. So do you think the best way to see deals is going to be in the things and the places people have just been talking about for years? So you don't see like anything special or unique on the horizon for like the next 18 months?
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A
I don't see anything special or unique on the horizon. Disney can always surprise us. If they are feeling stressed that they're not getting the bookings that they want, then they can absolutely bring in, you know, 30 to 40% discounts on hotels or mega dining discounts or, you know, the fact that they're doing kind of free dining just for kids is, is all, you know, that's always interesting that we're doing the partial discount. So we're making you feel like you're getting a deal when you're not getting nearly as much of a deal as we were going to give you in the first place. You know, in terms of where to find deals, I may have been misinterpreting your question, but I do want to, I do want to say that I think that the best place to find deals is always going to be right on Disney's website. I'm always super nervous to use third party, third party deals, third party sites when it comes to Disney because Disney does not enter into those relationships lightly. So I'm always real careful about like I always tell people, don't, don't try to find discounted tickets. Discounted tickets most of the time are going to be a scam. So, you know, plus there's also all of the added. If you book through Disney or through a Disney approved travel agent, then you will have the option for Disney's cancellation policies. If there is an issue or a problem, then you're going to be able to go to Disney directly and get that dealt with. If you book through a third party booking engine, you're going to have to figure out how to deal with a third party booking engine. If there's any issues if there's a hurricane, if there's, you know, whatever reason you need to cancel. And so when it comes to discounts, don't like, don't fall for what looks like an awesome deal. But it's too good to be true because then it's too good to be true.
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C
Yeah, absolutely. We had heard maybe like using something like Undercover Taurus, not for discounts specifically, but because it codes as travel. Like if you're using credit card rewards, like cards, is that something like a, are you including that in your third party, like blanketed or. That's pretty much the only one I've heard people like confidently recommend.
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A
I think just look at all of the small print. Just know exactly what's going to happen if you need to cancel that situation or if you need to, if, if something comes up that you're going to need to, you know, do some sort of follow up with someone, like make sure that you know what you're getting into with any third party.
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C
Awesome. All right, well then let's talk about some of these more traditional ways to save money because I would love to hear some of your insight on them. So I guess the first thing I would like to ask about is hotels. There's always the debate between on site and off site, but I have seen in some of these off site hotels that they are stacking on fees. Like the base price looks so low, but by the time you get to checkout, the fees are so high that they are essentially more expensive for the same stay at the same time than just maybe staying at like al. At an all star resort.
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Right.
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What have you experienced when you, in your research on hotels?
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Yeah, I mean, I think that's happening a lot. I think it's always sort of been happening. Now they're adding on, of course the resort fees are always a culprit and the parking fees are suddenly astronomical. So and of course you've got the taxes and in a particularly tourist focused location, there's always going to be a significant tourist tax. So I, I agree with you a thousand percent. I think that there, there are going to be situations with those big vacation resorts, the, you know, around Disney, around Orlando, that you are going to see fees that Disney doesn't tend to have associated with their hotels. Now Disney, Disney's even taken off the parking fee for people who are staying at their hotels, which is a huge, huge deal because if you stay at another hotel in the area, you are going to have a pretty hefty parking fee if you drive. So I think that's a very, very good point that if you actually really do the math and see what the, the bottom dollar is going to be that a value resort at Disney could be comparable and it just again it just depends on what, what the non Disney hotel is. I think there are some great deals to be had in those Disney Springs hotels, like the hotels the Disney Springs Road. Like you can get some pretty good deals there especially if you, if you are loyalty for those particular brands etc. So there's lots of opportunities there. But yeah, you've got to look at those hidden fees and, and they are tacking a lot of those on these days.
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What would you say would be the best way to save on hotels.
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Staying at a Disney hotel, specifically like a Disney World resort hotel?
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Yeah. In general, if you were gonna do a video about hotels like what do you think? What's your tips?
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A
I mean my tips are gonna be very similar to yours, I'm sure. I always am going to look at Disney's discounts that they have available. Another something that I often tell my audience when it comes to Disney's package discounts or just discounts in general is to again be sure to read the small print. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. Disney will often promote their hotel deals as get a, you know, a six night, five day stay and get this discount. But if you go and you look at their, at their small print, you can see that the minimum stay is actually fewer days than that. And so you don't have to pay for five days, you can pay for two days or three days or whatever their minimum stay is. So a lot of people, you know, they, they market it so that you think oh I have to book five nights, but you don't. So that's something that I will often remind my audience about is to look at that small print, figure out that they're, their minimum stay is often very different from what they're marketing to you. So I think that's a big, a big savings for a lot of folks. Again, just look at the Disney special offers page. They always have hotel discounts there, there will never be a time that there's not a hotel discount and they will always have a general public hotel discount. I would say I shouldn't say always, never say always. Never say never. 90% of the time they're going to have a general public hotel discount. Now when it comes to hotels around Disney World, I'm a huge fan of the Swan and Dolphin resorts which are right on Disney World Property. They're within walking distance to two of the parks. They're right next to the Skyliner and those are Marriott hotels. If you have Marriott points or if you're Marriott Bonvoy member, you can get reward points by staying there. They also often have several discounts. That is, those are hotels that do have some fees so you need to look at the bottom line on those. But they, you are quite often going to be able to get a Disney Deluxe hotel experience paying significantly less than what you would for a Disney Deluxe hotel that's literally right next door. So that's something that I would always recommend is looking into Swan and Dolphin and again like I said, those, those Disney Springs area hotels loyalty points are going to go far for you with, with all of those brands. And then something else that we, we don't often talk about but we should is the amenities for the hotels makes a big difference. It may not be a dollars and cents benefit, but there are like the Drury Hotel down there in Disney Springs has free breakfast and it has a free kind of what they call it a kickback hour at the end of the, at the end of the day where you get free food. Right. So there it's very possible to have free two free meals at that resort that isn't necessarily a dollar amount you have off, but it is going to save you on the final budget of your trip.
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C
Yeah, I love staying at the Hyatt place near Disney because they have a free hot breakfast every morning and it is such a luxury to go out before. And you save, you do save significant money. Even if it's. I think it's when I was looking at hotels that offered free breakfast versus didn't, maybe it's like 100 to $150 extra over four or five nights. But if you're a family of four or something.
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A
Right.
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C
That is significant savings.
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A
Absolutely. Something else to consider too when you're, when you're thinking about hotels is that when you are in Disney, time is money. And I think a lot of people don't value their time the way that they should. So they're like, well, I'm going to pay a lot less, but I'm going to stay what's essentially going to be a good hour from the parks in terms of waiting for the bus and taking the bus and then walking into the park or whatever. Right. So you just lost an hour on your day. So when it comes to potentially staying at Pop Century or Art of Animation where you can get the Skyliner right in and you're going to save significant time. You know, that's a huge deal. I think people sometimes are so focused on paying the least amount that they're not realizing that they, over the course of their trip, they're going to lose half a day to a full day just in transportation. So that's another.
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C
Yeah, because you don't pull up to the Magic Kingdom and walk in.
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A
No, Right, right. You don't. And, and, and I think when, when you're thinking about staying at a hotel where you have to battle I4 traffic or whatever, I mean, it's just a nightmare sometimes on those streets. And so that's something that I harp on all the time in my videos is time is money. In Disney World, you are spending an exorbitant amount of money to be there. Use every minute that you can. You know, either sleeping or being in the parks.
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C
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B
So, speaking of deals, moving on to our next favorite category, food. If. If a sale, if we see the sale includes a dining plan, when is that worth it? When is it not? What should we be considering when it comes to eating while at Disney World?
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A
Yeah, so what I say about the Disney dining plan is that Disney's not stupid. They did the research. They know how much people spend on food in Disney World. So that dining plan is priced at the very top of what people average spend, right? So if you get the dining plan, don't get it to save money. It's not going to save you any money. It probably, in the end is going to cost you money because most people don't eat that much food. Um, and so if you're going to get it it's for convenience only. It's for prepaying, making sure you don't have to worry about paying while you're there. Right? So, so, but for. From a budgeting perspective, it. It can make sense that you're like, okay, I know how much I'm spending, and I'm not worried about it, but it's not going to save you money, most likely, unless your entire family is going to eat steak and lobster for every meal, and you're going to eat every single snack and you're going to drink every single alcoholic beverage included. Um, and so that's. That's normally what I say. Now, if you get. And we've done. We've done the research. We have crunched the numbers. We do it every year. We're like, if we go and pay out of pocket, this is how much we're going to spend. If we go get the dining plan, this is how much I'm going to spend. I don't think we've ever been able to save more than $10 by getting the dining plan. And usually we're spending, you know, usually we're going to end up spending more because there's no way people can eat that much food if it's a free dining plan. If Disney is going to give you a free dining plan with your package, the key there is that usually that's not. You can't combine that with any other discounts, which means you can't get a hotel discount on top of that. So you want to look at the hotel discounts that are available during that time. You want to budget out what food you're going to get and how much that's going to cost you. And remember, you can bring your own food into Disney. That's no problem at all. And so you could very easily go to Disney. Disney for a week and just eat granola bars and sandwiches and not pay anything for Disney food. Right. So that's an extreme, but it's possible. And so you want to definitely look at how much are you actually going to eat? How much might that cost? Compare that to if you were on the dining plan. But then also, can you get a significant hotel discount? If you can get a significant hotel discount, that's going to. Combined with what you know about how much you're going to eat and how much you're going to spend on food, be a better deal than don't get the. Don't get the free dining plan. So it's a lot of number crunching. It's a lot of Math. And when we've done that number crunching, we usually find that value resorts are a good deal with the dining plan. Deluxe resorts, not as much, because you can get a deeper discount on deluxe resorts. So when it comes to free dining, it's a number crunching situation. Disney dining plan is never going to save you money most of the time.
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C
So what are the parks that you would say bring your sandwiches and granola bars and then these are the parks that are worth buying food in?
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A
Super good question. Of course, it depends on your family and what they like, Right. If your kids are just super into chicken fingers and, you know, hockey puck esque burgers, then definitely eat in Magic Kingdom. For me personally, the parks that I will, that I want to eat in are going to be Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Magic Kingdom is fine, but it's probably Magic Kingdom and Hollywood series are probably my lower level food parks at the moment. And this all changes, you know, Disney changes menus all the time, so it's kind of like depending on the month or the year. But right now we are at Epcot and Animal Kingdom are good food parks. Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios aren't, which is great because that's where the most rides are anyway. So if you're trying to go in and get everything in in one day, bring in your sandwiches and just hauling through Magic Kingdom is great. And you, you're not, you're not missing too, you're not missing too much.
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C
Yeah, I was thinking as you were talking, I was like Epcot and Animal Kingdom are usually the ones we hear don't splurge on the lightning lanes for.
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A
Right, exactly. Because there's not enough, there's not enough rides.
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C
So you can just sit down and eat your good. Yeah, that's great.
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A
Yeah.
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C
So great. So let's talk a little bit more about Lightning Lanes. There are still people that don't know, like FastPass is gone and Genie is gone. Yes. So now we have what's called Lightning Lanes. What is a good budget friendly strategy? Because essentially, in my opinion, you have to use some amount of Lightning lanes if you want to get them a good experience at Disney World. So, like, what would be your strategy for using them judiciously?
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A
Okay, so we have done so much experimentation. We have had, you know, we have people in the parks every day and so we have lots of opportunities to practice and play with Lightning Lanes if it is not a busy time. If you are there in late September, I'm sorry, early September, late August, you probably don't need Lightning Lanes for Any park. Right. If you are there during a moderately busy time, so we're talking maybe a three day weekend or the fringe weeks around when school is out, then I would say Lightning lanes for Magic Kingdom and for Hollywood Studios for sure. If you, if you can, if you can swing it. If you have to choose one and you have older kids, I would go with Hollywood Studios. If you have younger kids, I go with Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom. You literally never need to buy lightning lanes for. There's only six rides and none of. Only two of them ever have lines. And then Epcot. But you can very much get where you need to go by just doing rope drop, getting there really early and then you can get a couple of those rides in in the morning. The rest of them aren't going to have too bad lines. Or you can use single rider lines for, for those if you are comfortable splitting up your group. So I think it's rare that I would buy lightning lanes for Epcot or Animal Kingdom. What I would do for those two parks, if you absolutely cannot stand in lines, if you hate lines, then buying a single pass Lightning lane. Right. Which is just. Those are the most popular rides have a single pass lightning lane, which means you pay for one ride through per person. There's no way to get that with the multi pass lightning lanes. You can only get it with single pass. And so Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar Flight of Passage, those two, I will once in a while get a single pass lightning lane for.
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C
Yeah. It's so hard to know am I overspending on it? But also time is money. Yeah. Lightning lanes for me are the most like, oh, should I do it? I don't know.
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A
Yeah. Because it can be a giant hassle too. And I think another issue that we warn people about is choosing too late. Right. Because now Disney has it set up that you can pre book your lightning lanes, your first three lightning lanes seven days in advance if you're at a Disney hotel three days in advance otherwise. But it breaks my heart when people go to the park and decide halfway through their day that they're going to buy lightning lanes. Because lightning lanes sell out. So you're not going to get a lightning lane for the, for the ride that you really wanted to ride. And the reason why you bought the lightning lane, if you wait and don't, you know, purchase that amenity like beforehand. So book em before, don't book em the day of. I've done it. I regret it.
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B
The thing that stands out to me about Disney and enjoying Disney World as I've been there a handful of times, but I still feel like an observer of the people who are really bought in. And it does seem like to get the most of it, you've gotta read the fine print, you've gotta plan ahead, you've gotta know. You've gotta have the map memorized and know the order of events that you're gonna. How important would you say pre planning is for the person who has saved up? They're probably going to do this maybe once in a lifetime, maybe once every couple of years. And they do want to get the most out of it. Like, what does planning need to look like?
- [30:52]
A
So how I sort of talk about it is you're. You're not going to show up in Cairo and just get off the plane and be like, ah, what am I going to do? You're not going to do that. That's not how you're going to plan your trip to Cairo, right? Same thing for Disney. People don't visualize it the same way because they. And honestly, there's probably less planning that goes into Cairo than Disney World at this point because Cairo is probably less expensive vacation. So I think it's hugely, hugely important. And I say that from a completely personal perspective because I have been on trips with people who didn't plan, and it's heartbreaking, you know, because they inevitably end up angry and they're mad at their family and they're mad at Disney and they're, you know, and they, they're out a couple of mortgage payments. You know, there's. They're not going to get that back. And so just a little bit of pre planning can go a really long way. If you do significant pre planning, like, if you join the culture, you know, then, you know, you're definitely gonna get your money's worth. It is possible. But Disney, it almost feels like they've decided, let's make this as hard as possible, and then they decide to cancel things and change things. And Disney Genie? No. FastPass? No. And it's like, what? And so I barely keep up with it. And I do this every day for a living. I can't imagine someone going and just showing up. Now, if you were the kind of mom who, when you had your kid, you just, you know, shoved a diaper in your pocket and you're like, let's go. And you have a family that's cool with that and you don't necessarily care as long as, you know, you get to ride a couple rides and have a Mickey bar, fine. Okay. Don't worry about it. But most of us care a little bit more than that about, you know, the amount of money that we're spending. So, you know, if you're super free flowing and that's cool and it's gonna stress you out more to plan, fine. I just think it's incredibly important to get your money's worth when you're there because Disney is definitely charging you for everything.
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C
Yeah. And so we talked, we, we kind of alluded to these, the people that are all in and they are referred to as Disney Adults. And you just wrote a book that I think has a really interesting premise as people who talk about spend on what you love and don't let anybody else tell you you can't love that thing. You've kind of aligned that with Disney adults and this, this value of, of magic and escapism. Can you tell us a bit about your book? Yeah.
- [33:48]
A
Disney Adults is a deep dive into this community. And so I like to punningly call it a rollercoaster of a book because we are talking about people who are completely mentally stable and they're balanced and they're fine. And we're talking about people who have maybe become obsessive or gone into a realm that is unhealthy with their focus on Disney and getting to Disney and doing Disney things, going into debt, spending way too much money on things like merchandise and park trips disguised as therapy. Right. So there's a lot to this book. And I think that Disney adults stereotypically are a very thin, thinly understood community. People who hear Disney adults like, oh, I know everything about them. And it's like, you really don't, you don't know anything about Disney adults. It's a huge community. It's an incredibly impactful community and there's a lot going on there. And so the book just covers stem to stern who Disney adults are, how they're affecting Disney itself, which is a very interesting concept, is that this is such a huge group of people and with social media being such a massive megaphone, Disney can't help but pay attention to this audience. Right. And so there actually are changes that have been made at Disney by Disney based on what is coming out of this community. So fascinating stuff. I just absolutely love it. But you're right, a thousand percent people should be allowed to spend the money, their money, on what they want to spend it on. But my caveat is as long as you're not hurting yourself or anybody else. So once you get to the point of hurting yourself or somebody else, then we need to talk about it. Yeah.
- [35:51]
C
It is just this crazy microcosm of a group that we love to poke fun at. But the same can be seen in every, like, category of consumerism. Absolutely. Every category has its own Disney adults. And so I think it is a fascinating observation and look into how this value drives this, you know, part of capitalism, the travel and entertainment like category.
- [36:23]
B
And it's thanks to that community that we can do the research ahead of time and maximize our trip, because people who are all in and dedicated have done the research for us and can help those of us who might just be a little bit more on the fringe to know how to get the most out of Disney.
- [36:40]
C
I love to be a Disney influencer. Yeah.
- [36:42]
B
Yeah, you would.
- [36:44]
C
I would absolutely love to be a Disney influencer.
- [36:46]
B
One day we're out here influencing other things. Like the best part of the week.
- [36:52]
C
Yeah.
- [36:53]
B
The bill of the week.
- [36:56]
C
The bill of the week.
- [36:58]
A
This is the bill about me.
- [37:00]
C
This is the bill about me.
- [37:05]
A
That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills. Buffalo Bills. Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.
- [37:25]
C
AJ Every week, we yell at our guests and our listeners and ask them to share their bill of the week, and we'd love to know yours.
- [37:38]
A
My bill of the week. Okay. They, by the way, you guys, they told me not to think too hard about this. Just.
- [37:51]
C
You're giving away the secrets.
- [37:53]
A
So, you know, specifically AJ Because I really wanted to spend just days just really ruminating on the bill of the week. And they were like, no, don't.
- [38:03]
B
It's not like preparing for Disney. You can be the mom who throws a diaper in her back pocket for this one.
- [38:10]
A
But I was not that mom. I had.
- [38:13]
C
Oh, my word. Yeah. No, I am not.
- [38:15]
A
I had so many bouncy chairs, it's not even funny. Okay, the bill of the week is. I just recorded a. A YouTube video where we are talking about secrets from former cast members who worked at Disney, right? And one of the secrets is the hilarious questions they get asked when they are cast members at Disney World. And one of them has to do with a duck bill. And so we're gonna go ahead and use that as the bill of the week. So one of the questions that one of our former. And these. The former cast members work for me now, by the way. They work for us. And we just sort of pulled them. What's the craziest stuff that happened to you? Or what are the secrets that you have to tell people about working at Disney? And one of the questions was, you know, where's Daffy Duck? We wanna meet Daffy Duck. And so our team member, who was a cast member at the time, was like, well, I'm pretty sure you wanna meet Don, and Donald Duck is going to be over here. But there's just that concept of everything just sort of runs together for people when it comes to cartoon characters. So they often will get asked like, where's Harry Potter? Where's. You know, and. And it's.
- [39:30]
C
That's so funny.
- [39:31]
A
Yeah. So they're just like, you know, they can't be like, okay, dumb, dumb. You know, they have to just be like, well, that's. That's Donald. And it makes sense because Daffy and Donald are both pretty sassy.
- [39:43]
C
So they got the D's, the double D's.
- [39:46]
A
That's right. They sure do.
- [39:47]
C
You know, the ducks, I get the ducks. I get confusing them.
- [39:54]
A
Sure. Very confusing.
- [39:55]
C
Where Harry Potter is in Disney as something else a little different, you know.
- [40:03]
A
That'S my bill of the week.
- [40:04]
C
How sad would it be if you went to Disney World to see Harry Potter?
- [40:08]
B
That would be so sad.
- [40:09]
C
And then you get there and you ask where it is.
- [40:12]
A
Listen, he's right down the road, though.
- [40:16]
B
But you're not gonna get one more thousand.
- [40:17]
A
Yeah. You're not gonna get your money back for that ticket.
- [40:20]
C
No.
- [40:20]
A
Like, can I interest you in a Cinderella instead?
- [40:25]
C
Also, wand, fairy godmother. Same same thing. Same thing.
- [40:30]
B
If you all listening, have a bill you want to share. If it has to do with mixing up duck bills or your name is Bill, or you've got a ton of dollar bills you just want to talk about. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill, we can't wait to hear it. And now it's time for the lightning round.
- [40:49]
C
Pew. Pew. All right, in your opinion, we're all going to answer this one. The biggest waste of money you can spend at Disney World.
- [41:02]
A
Okay, there's a meta and there's a micro meta is not planning. Before you go, you will end up spending so much money on things like bad food. And you will buy tickets you don't need. You will again book five nights when you should only be booking three. You won't see the discounts you can get. You're gonna waste thousands and thousands of dollars if you don't. If you don't pre plan micro I'm gonna probably say, like, very specifically.
- [41:36]
C
If.
- [41:36]
A
You want to go to one of those very expensive character meals, right, where character meals is not where you're eating characters, it's where you are meeting characters. They're very expensive. But it also saves you a ton of time waiting in line for characters in the parks, which is, you know, again, time is money. But if you're going to go to one of those, go to breakfast, don't go to dinner, because it's going to cost you a ton less to have breakfast than it is to have lunch or dinner at the same restaurant, and you're going to see the same characters. So that's a waste of money as far as I'm concerned.
- [42:09]
C
And thanks to you, I'm having, like, deja vu, because I've watched your videos on character dining, and I'm hearing you say character dining. We went to Topolino's Terrace for a character brunch. We scheduled it for, like, right at noon, which is, like, their last available time. So it was, like, both breakfast and lunch. And it was such good food. Even my husband, who could not care less about Disney, enjoyed the food. My children were afraid of the characters, but took pictures with them, and I got what I wanted, so that's all.
- [42:49]
A
That matters in the end.
- [42:50]
C
Yep. Yep. That is a good one. Um, for me, Lounge fly backpacks.
- [42:58]
A
Oh, my God.
- [42:59]
C
They seem to be such a big thing. They are so expensive. What are you going to use them for? They don't look comfortable.
- [43:06]
B
What. What are they.
- [43:07]
C
When you. When are you going to. Okay. And so I. I do rundisney, right? So, like, every Run Disney race has a lounge fly. And how long are you going to use that for? One month, until you do your next race. You are definitely not going to use that. Wine and dine 2021, like, half marathon lounge fly ever.
- [43:26]
B
What is it? What are you talking about?
- [43:28]
C
What is it? There are little mini backpacks, okay. That you purchase for, like, over a hundred dollars.
- [43:35]
B
Okay.
- [43:36]
C
Per backpack.
- [43:36]
B
Okay.
- [43:37]
C
And there are people who have, like, full collections of them.
- [43:40]
B
Okay. Yeah, yeah. The souvenirs can get crazy.
- [43:43]
C
I don't think all souvenirs. I personally got my Mickey ears on ebay and saved a ton of money. And they are from Disney World. Like, they are authentic Disney Minnie ears, but Loungefly. Mm, mm. No, thank you.
- [44:02]
B
Um, you all know me. My hot take. I've talked about this before. I think the food at Disney World is a waste of money.
- [44:11]
C
And I was bringing in turkey sammies.
- [44:14]
B
I was so thrilled to Learn that you can bring in your own food. And I do, because it's way better than anything I've ever had at Disney.
- [44:24]
A
Oh, I know this. I know this site called Disney Food Blog. You should.
- [44:30]
B
People have tried to tell. And I'm like, I'll go if you come and help me decide what to get. Like, I'll give it one last college try, but I feel like I've tried the recipe, I've tried the stands, I've tried the.
- [44:42]
C
What's the one thing she needs to try? What's going to. What's going to be her on ramp to change her mind?
- [44:46]
A
I don't know what she likes. I mean, this is. You're really putting me on the spot. I need to spend some time with her. We need to hang out.
- [44:54]
C
I think your initial answer will be it. I think. I think you guys will be aligned.
- [44:59]
A
You think so?
- [45:00]
C
I feel like, what do you love when you go?
- [45:03]
B
What are you like, I've got to get this. I feel like Disney.
- [45:06]
C
I mean, I don't want to say it, but I think I know what you'll say.
- [45:10]
A
Okay, go.
- [45:11]
C
I've been watching enough of your videos.
- [45:12]
A
All right, go.
- [45:13]
C
What is that? I think the cheeseburger egg rolls. You'll like those. The cheeseburger, I think that'll be the on ramp. They're very inexpensive, the on ramp, comparatively.
- [45:24]
A
It's your gateway.
- [45:24]
C
I think it could be. I think it could be. I love the Cheshire. The Cheshire, like, it's like a. Yeah, it's like a chocolate croissant with, like, I don't even know, but I really love that. With a coffee.
- [45:40]
B
Yeah.
- [45:40]
A
Yeah, those are good.
- [45:42]
B
There's never been anything that I've eaten there that, like, hasn't disappointed me. So I just. I just bring in Panera. And mind you, I don't even like Panera that much, but, like, it's way better than anything I've had at Disney. But I do like going to Disney. I think it's very fun. I'm just not gonna waste money on their food.
- [46:02]
C
Well, so here's what we're gonna do. We are gonna take Disney food block.
- [46:06]
A
We are gonna take. We're gonna take you in. We're gonna have a super relaxing, chill, awesome day, and you're gonna eat fabulous food, and. And we're gonna hopefully change your mind. But that's.
- [46:15]
B
Yeah, I. I am willing to be won over. I don't have to draw this line in the sand, but it is where I find myself currently.
- [46:24]
A
And here's the Other thing is, usually when I'm gonna introduce someone to Disney food, I'm gonna take them to Disneyland first because Disneyland has much better food than Disney World has. And so that might be our first, you know, baby step into eating at Disney.
- [46:40]
B
Just hop over to California for our.
- [46:42]
A
Come on over.
- [46:43]
C
Hop over with me. I'm going in February for the Disneyland half Marathon.
- [46:49]
A
Well, I don't know where either of you live. You might very well live in Oregon. I don't know.
- [46:53]
C
St. Petersburg. We're in St. Petersburg.
- [46:56]
B
Yeah. We're an hour and a half away from Disney World.
- [46:58]
C
Yeah.
- [46:58]
A
Okay.
- [46:59]
C
Got it. Got it.
- [47:00]
B
Yeah.
- [47:01]
C
Well, aj, thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [47:04]
A
Thank you.
- [47:05]
C
Tell people all the places where they can get more from you.
- [47:09]
A
Sure. So disneyfoodblog.com, our YouTube channel is dfbguide.com and I am forever recording voiceovers for that. We are also on Disney Food Blog, of course, on Instagram, all of the channels. And then Disney adults is coming out from Simon and Schuster on August 5th. You can read all about that over at AJWolf.
- [47:34]
B
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all your tips with us, aj.
- [47:38]
A
Yeah, thank you guys so much. It's been a blast. I really appreciate the time.
- [47:45]
C
I really enjoyed AJ's candidness about how to save on Disney. There are a lot of quote unquote hacks you can do, and then also just people who won't budge on anything. They're so, like, Disney saturated. But I enjoy And I respect AJ's opinion because she's been in this sphere studying, like, even sitting in on earnings calls for Disney. She's been doing this for 15 years. And so what she says about Disney, I listen to.
- [48:24]
B
Yeah, it really does strike me as it's one of those vacations that you more so want to save up for than be looking for all the ways to save on, because you just might not get as quality of an experience. So if you know that this is something you really want to do, yes, there are ways to decrease the cost slightly, but you're still looking at about $5,000 for a week for a family of four. You just. That's just how much it's gonna be. So it's more so your values and what kind of vacation are you gonna wanna do and what are the smart ways to be able to save and to really value our time and energy as well? I really appreciated that point because I think that that's true nearly on any vacation that we go on of recognizing what is it gonna cost us with our time and energy to be further away from the areas and attractions that we wanna be to transportation just so we can save a little bit on accommodation. So there's always something to weigh out with that. And I think she highlighted that well.
- [49:33]
C
Yeah. So thank you so much for listening. I hope this helped you decide if you're going to plan a trip to Disney, how and when you're going to do it, and if it helped you at all. Please, please, please. We would love it if you would leave a rating and review on Spotify or if you've read our book Buy what yout Love without going Broke if you'd leave a rating and review on AM even if you didn't buy it there. We prefer bookshop.org, libro FM, things like that. But if you're looking for inspiration for some feedback. Cali Girl gave us five stars and said this book helps readers discover what they value so their spending and values are aligned. The authors walked me through how to become more mindful about what I was spending on and help uncover some of the reasons. I love their explanation on Maslow's hierarchy of needs needs, how it affects our purchases. The questions and stories included throughout the book help reveal hidden motivations for some of us who feel shame spending on ourselves. This book will especially be helpful. Maybe the book could also be called buy what you love without feeling Guilty.
- [50:41]
B
I like that. Yeah, it could be called that. Yeah, it's not what it's called, but it could be.
- [50:46]
C
Thank you, Cali Girl. So yes, please leave us a rating and review. And if you watch this on YouTube or if you haven't yet subscribed to our YouTube channel, please do. It very much helps people find us and get this info that will greatly.
- [51:02]
B
Help them be a YouTube adult. Thank you everyone for listening. Thanks for sharing, thanks for subscribing, thanks for leaving reviews. Just thank you, thank you, thank you. We'll see you next time.
- [51:12]
C
Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
- [51:28]
B
Jen, what is your favorite ride at Disney?
- [51:36]
C
Guardians the Galaxy. Oh, it's really good.
- [51:40]
B
I don't know that I've done that one.
- [51:41]
C
It said Epcot. I know some people will say Rise of the Resistance and that one is really good. I think my favorite is Guardians. Tron is too short and I just think it's. The IP is useless. I don't like it, but Guardians. Yeah, that's it.
- [52:05]
B
I don't think I've been to Disney since Guardians opened.
- [52:09]
C
It's good. How about you?
- [52:11]
B
I love soren oh, my gosh.
- [52:13]
C
Yeah. Soren is a classic.
- [52:15]
A
We love Soren.
- [52:16]
C
Yes.
- [52:16]
B
It really feels like you're flying.
- [52:17]
C
Epcot is really my favorite park, and, yeah, I just love it.
- [52:22]
B
One of the unfortunate things for me that I've realized about myself in recent years is I really can't do the VR rides, which is funny because I can do Soarin, but most of the other rides that are primarily VR with just a screen, and then they're kind of doing all sorts of motions with your body, but you're not, like, actually on a coaster. You're just, like, in a chair that shakes a little bit with a screen. I get sick on.
- [52:53]
C
I get sick on actual roller coasters. Hagrid's I can do. It's not, like, for me, an intense.
- [53:00]
B
Roller coaster that's at Universal, but Hagrid's is my favorite ride ever.
- [53:04]
A
It's so good.
- [53:05]
C
It is my favorite ride, but I haven't been there since they opened Velocicoaster. I can't do, like, the Rockin roller coaster or the. The big roller coasters that go, like, loop de loops. Those make me sick now.
- [53:21]
B
Yeah.
- [53:23]
C
Old.
- [53:24]
B
Yeah, I know. And everybody's moving towards VR rides, so it really kind of starts to make these theme parks inaccessible for me.
- [53:32]
C
I heard that Soarin is everybody's mom's favorite ride. That checks out.
- [53:40]
B
Yeah, that checks out.
- [53:42]
C
I personally, if I'm gonna pick a second favorite, the People Mover.
- [53:46]
B
That's a fun one. It's not thrills, but it's a classic.
- [53:53]
C
I am a devoted fan of the People Mover.
- [53:55]
B
I hear that. So is AJ Everybody's grandmother's favorite ride?
- [53:59]
C
Oh, did you just make that up? You did.
- [54:04]
B
If you're gonna burn me, I'm gonna burn you back.
- [54:06]
A
Secrets, lies, and one family's life turned upside down. Nothing Ever Happens Here by Serafina Nova Glass is a gripping thriller packed with twists you won't see coming. Experience the suspense as the story unfolds. Wherever you are on a walk, commuting or unwinding at home. Press play today and uncover the truth in this thrilling audiobook.