Disneyland Untangled – Making the Most of Your Trip

In this episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast, Hilary Erickson and guest Kim Fidler share their best Disneyland tips for a spring break trip. From utilizing Genie plus and Lightning Lane strategically to prioritizing children’s preferences and making the most of dining options, this episode is packed with valuable insights for a magical Disneyland vacation. Plus, don’t miss the exclusive discount code for Getaway Today to help you plan the perfect Disneyland trip.

Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts

This episode is sponsored by my Disneyland Day Planner:

Today’s guest is Kim Fidler from Get Away Today. She has been with the company for 20 years helping families make vacation memories, and has been to the Disneyland resort too many times to count. Be sure to mention that you found them through Pulling Curls and use code CURLS10 to save $10 on your upcoming trip!

Links for you:

Genie+ Tips

Timestamps:

00:00 Podcast sponsored by Disneyland day planner, featuring Kim.
03:25 Frequent park visits, early mornings maximize time.
07:32 Maximizing park time with Genie+ was crucial.
11:40 Easier ordering with specific planning and availability.
13:30 Set a phone alarm for Disney’s 2-hour rule.
15:46 Book special experiences to break chaotic routine.
19:13 Prioritize popular rides to avoid closures.
23:22 Expect the unexpected and go with flow.
27:55 Enjoy the trip, stay relaxed, future topics previewed.

Keypoints:

1. Genie plus is recommended for maximizing time at Disney parks, especially during busy times and for half-day visits, allowing access to popular attractions without long waits.
2. Pre-purchasing Genie plus at $30 can be a good investment, particularly during peak season, and strategic planning is essential to make the most of the Lightning Lane system.
3. Families with very young children or those who prefer slower rides may find Genie plus less suitable, but it can be beneficial for those prioritizing high-demand attractions.
4. Research and strategy are crucial for utilizing the Lightning Lane system effectively, with only one ride allowed per attraction.
5. Special experiences like princess breakfast or Droid Depot visits can provide a break from chaotic rides, enhancing the overall Disney vacation.
6. Timing late 2 PM lunch breaks to rest and hydrate is advised, and exploring cheaper sit-down restaurants like Lamp Light Lounge and attractions outside the park, such as Downtown Disney, can be worthwhile.
7. Listening to children’s ride preferences and being flexible with their choices is important, as simpler activities can create lasting memories.
8. Utilize time-saving methods like mobile ordering, which allows for setting later return times for specific items and accommodating allergy adjustments.
9. Strategize Lightning Lane bookings, consider the 2-hour window rule, and prioritize attractions that sell out quickly, stacking subsequent bookings for a more efficient park experience.
10. Booking with Getaway Today offers benefits such as cheaper hotel rates, white glove service, personalized assistance, and specific room requests for families with young children, and listeners can use code “curls10” for a $10 discount on their trip.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.780] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls podcast. Today on episode 223, we are talking about the best Disneyland tips for your spring break trip. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:09.020] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the pregnancy nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarrows with pregnancy and parenting untangled, The Pulling Curls podcast.

[00:00:39.660] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of The Pulling Curls podcast is sponsored by my Disneyland Day Planner. If you are looking to make sure that you use the time at Disneyland the most responsibly, grab my Disneyland Day Planner where I share the rides that are going to be the busiest or the least busiest so you can know how to plan your day.

[00:00:56.580] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is one of my favorite people to do Disney with. She actually works with Getaway today, but I have worked with her for years. She’s been with Getaway today for 20 years. She does a lot of their marketing and social media. I wanted to introduce today’s guest, Kim Fidler.

[00:01:10.450] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Kim. Welcome to the Pulling Curls podcast again.

[00:01:13.330] – Kim Fidler

Yeah. Thanks, Hilary. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:15.320] – Hilary Erickson

I think we recorded our last one together before 2020. So things have changed.

[00:01:20.450] – Kim Fidler

That feels right. Yes.

[00:01:22.200] – Hilary Erickson

So we probably talked all about MaxPass, and what were they called? No.

[00:01:29.220] – Kim Fidler

Were they called Fast Pass. Max Pass and Fast Pass.

[00:01:31.740] – Hilary Erickson

Just Fast Pass.

[00:01:33.000] – Kim Fidler

Yeah. Max Pass was the paid, Fast Pass was the free. You’d have to run around to the machine and come back later.

[00:01:40.620] – Hilary Erickson

You could buy the internet one, though.

[00:01:42.470] – Kim Fidler

That was Max Pass, yes. So Max Pass was on the phone. Would it give you access to the fast pass lane? That fast pass is like, go collect your ticket return time.

[00:01:53.170] – Hilary Erickson

It was very exciting. Yeah, the ship has changed. It has changed course.

[00:01:57.840] – Kim Fidler

Yes, for sure.

[00:01:59.740] – Hilary Erickson

All right. So Kim and I, we got spring break coming up. Kim and I wanted to give you guys some good tips about going to Disneyland for spring break. And Kim is so fun to go to the parks with because she is just like Mama Kim, and she tells us what we’re going to do, even when I’m in a group of people who do Disney. But it’s also really relaxing to just have Kim tell me what to do, because usually I’m the one that’s saying what we have to do. So it’s nice.

[00:02:25.700] – Kim Fidler

And Hilary’s my nurse, so if anything ever happens, Hillary is prepared. She’ll tell you what to take. She’ll mix you up cocktails. She’ll make sure you get the right bandages. She does all the things. It’s a perfect combination. One, two, point. Everybody wants to come in apart with a two-a-a-but.

[00:02:40.680] – Hilary Erickson

Injury in Disney, they go hand in hand. All right, Kim, You’re the guest, so why don’t you give us your best tip for Disney, first off?

[00:02:48.980] – Kim Fidler

Okay. So my best tip is, and this applies no matter the time of year, I will preface this by saying I am not a morning person unless I am at Disney, in which In this case, I am up an hour before the park opens, and I am like, green getting ready, and I’m out the door like, 45 minutes, at least before the park opens, getting to the park to enter security no later than half an hour before the park open. Get there early.

[00:03:18.080] – Hilary Erickson

The rope drop- If you’re going to do the parks. Yeah. Because I, at this point, I’m like, I’ve been. Do I really need to get there that early?

[00:03:25.910] – Kim Fidler

Here’s what’s funny, because I go to the park all the time. It feels monthly, sometimes more, sometimes maybe less. But my kids only go once a year. So when I’m with my kids on spring break, like we did last year, we are up and we are at them, period. Because we are doing the rides, and that is the best way to maximize your time. By getting there first thing in the morning, you can just get so much done in those first 2 hours. But if you need to go back to the hotel and take a break midday, no big deal. You do that. You do what’s best for everybody. But there are fewer crowds, which leads to less overwhelm. And again, you just get so much done. That’s my number one tip.

[00:04:03.030] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, I’m a morning person anyway, so I’m awake. It’s usually kids or the people that I’m with are like, Oh, let’s get to the parks later. So I get up and get work done, and then I go to the parks, usually.

[00:04:14.960] – Kim Fidler

My kids, they are so well trained. They’re so good at being parked. I’m like, All right, guys. They’ll even sleep in their clothes. I’ll shower the night before, sleep in their clothes. So that alarm goes off, they’re brushing their teeth, and they’re out the door. They know the big difference of getting there at 8:00 and having that time from 8:00 to 10:30ish and rolling around 10:30 when the rest of the people, the Hillaries of the world, show up with their family.

[00:04:36.670] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, my kids, we’re going to go spring break, and we will go open to close. Perfect. Because we only do one day. That’s hard for her. So I’ll be the one It’s on the concrete, crep. They’ll be fine.

[00:04:47.630] – Kim Fidler

Okay. Cree can carry you home. That’s there. That’s the least they can do.

[00:04:52.020] – Hilary Erickson

Right. Why do you have a wagon? Oh, it’s for my mom. It’s fine.

[00:04:55.720] – Kim Fidler

Don’t worry about it. We don’t have questions.

[00:04:58.100] – Hilary Erickson

We’ll leave that in the locker. Okay. So my tips all seem to circle around Genie Plus. So when people are like, should I get Genie Plus? If you are going for five days, you have small kids, no, you probably don’t need it. But the way our family does it, we try and do less days because we have working kids, kids in school, whatever, and maximize our time there. So my biggest tip for people is to always be holding a Genie Plus at least one-ish hour after park opening. So once it starts to seem like it’s a little bit busy, you always have a Genie Plus, including as soon as you scan in, you know which one you’re getting next, and you’re getting it as you walk onto the ride. Absolutely.

[00:05:38.330] – Kim Fidler

I completely agree with that. I would even go as far as to say, with my kids, even though my kids are little, if you’re there during a busy time, I’m still getting Genie Plus, because for us, that means we can go and take a three, four hour break in the middle of the day when it’s super crowded. We can staff our lightning lane return times for later in the evening, afternoon, and then we’re still not waiting in line. So I’m a huge, huge fan of Genie Plus. A huge fan. Now, Mickey and Mini’s Runaway railway is included with Genie Plus, which it used to be an individual lightning lane. That’s great for the littles. Great for the littles. The other thing I would say with Genie Plus, if you are going, especially if you’re only doing, I mean, hopefully not one day, but two or three days, you can pre-purchase it, and that will lock in the price at $30. Right now, it’s $30. But if you wait, especially spring break time, it will likely be more than $30, and it can sell out. So be mindful of that if you’re going during a real peak season time.

[00:06:32.720] – Hilary Erickson

The only bummer with that is if you are coming for half a day, don’t want Genie Plus on that. Oh, my gosh. Let’s say you get in on the afternoon, you don’t want to pre-buy Genie Plus, and you get in the only thing that’s available is Winnie the Pooh.

[00:06:46.580] – Kim Fidler

Well, that’s normally… That’s what’s cool about Disneyland is that’s normally not the case. I have used it on half days. I’ve used it when I’ve gotten it at five o’clock in the afternoon. Walking in at five o’clock, I’ve been able to do Big Thunder. I’ve been able to do Space Mountain for I mean, obviously a later return time. But those are things that there’s no way I would be waiting an hour and a half, two hours, while I only have a four-hour time block in the park. So I even say… And I’m like, okay, so let’s say it’s 30 bucks. I’m like, oh, when I say, when I pay $15, I When I get to Disney, all of a sudden my time becomes real valuable. And I’m like, I will pay any amount of money not to- Wait, am I? So I’m like, Would I pay $15? Would I pay myself $15 an hour to not wait in that line for an hour? Yeah, I would. So if you can Do that. I say do it. The other thing is, let’s say you have a morning. It was the same thing I went with my daughter.

[00:07:37.440] – Kim Fidler

Now, this was December, so obviously different time of year, but peak season. We only had until noon in the park. We absolutely used Jeanie Plus, we were able to ride… How many things? Well, we went to California Venture first. We got a lot down in California Venture. And then we hopped over to Disneyland, and we were able to do Matterhorn, which is her favorite attraction, and Small World holiday. And both of those were really, really long lines. There’s absolutely a zero % chance we would have been able to ride with that limited amount of time. So I am still a fan of Jeanie Plus, even for the half days.

[00:08:08.040] – Hilary Erickson

That Kim, she just likes to throw money out the window. I think you just have to be mindful of it, because if that’s not something that you I think. And little kids makes Genie plus hard. So if you have little tiny people, I’m talking about.

[00:08:20.400] – Kim Fidler

Like ride or swap type people.

[00:08:22.570] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. Or just like infants, you got to reevaluate your life plans.

[00:08:28.370] – Kim Fidler

That is very true. And again, I’m coming at this from a point of taking somebody who does not go to the parks regularly. I think the second you get to the Disney park, if that is your one vacation that year, or maybe you go every other year, you’re spending a lot of money to be there anyway. So to spend that extra $30 per person to really get the most out of your time, I think is a really good investment, even if it’s just that half day, because, again, you’re not coming back. You and I are a little bit skewed because we tend to go regularly. But when I’m with my kids, it’s a completely different story.

[00:09:02.200] – Hilary Erickson

Also, I have kids who only want to ride fast-fired fates, right? My kids are like, Skipping fantasy land. We might go on one in fantasy land if we’re desperate to fill some time, but we pretty much only like Lightning Lane at this point with the. Yes, I get that. But we’re lightning laneers for the most part. I do think that if you are going to Lightning Lane, you’ve got to research it a little bit. So check out Getaway today. I have a couple of pumps on my site. I’ll put it in the show notes because so many people are like, I had Lightning Lane not used on four rides today.

[00:09:35.530] – Kim Fidler

And I’m like, no, you did it wrong. You’re not doing a ride if you only use it. Unless you only have three hours, then great. Use those four rides. But you’re right. Now, there’s a strategy to it, and it feels big and confusing. But once you get to the park, it is really intuitive. And Disney has made it very easy to change lightning lanes. If you are like, oh, our plans change. We want to switch this. One big change from if you haven’t been since COVID is that previously, you could book as many fast passes as you wanted per each attraction. It would just like, let’s say you love big vendor, you wanted to do it over and over and over again. With the new Genie plus lightning lane system, it’s only once per attraction. So that is something to keep in mind, too. So be a little bit strategic. And that’s one reason why I love that early. You can normally get your favorite rides done twice by going and doing.

[00:10:26.400] – Hilary Erickson

Yes, that’s what we totally do.

[00:10:28.110] – Kim Fidler

And then save your lightning lane.

[00:10:29.200] – Hilary Erickson

What do you want to ride more than once? Let’s rope drop that. Yeah, exactly. All right. What’s your next tip, Kim?

[00:10:36.000] – Kim Fidler

Okay. So mobile order is a great way to save time in line. Plus, it’s easy, and you can do it while you’re in line for something else. If you have really hot items, like the raspberry rose macarons that you want, order those earlier in the morning. Set a later return time. But I say mobile ordering is easy and it’s fast, and it’s great. Yes.

[00:11:00.780] – Hilary Erickson

And it fills your time in between your lightning lanes for our family because we do not want to go on Snow White. So we’re like, What are we going to eat between these two lightning lanes? And we get it booked in easily. And you don’t have to hem and hop. Kids could look at it on the phone. They can easily just tell you what you want. It’s a game changer. When I went to Universal, I was like, What is wrong with you?

[00:11:22.620] – Kim Fidler

Where is the mobile order? I agree. They have it down. Now I go anywhere and I expect to be able to I just order my food.

[00:11:31.730] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I hope other theme parks get on. I hope they license their software. I don’t know. It’s hard for other parks.

[00:11:40.730] – Kim Fidler

It is. Well, and verbal ordering has even become easier. You can go on, you can see what’s available right now. If you have a very specific thing you want to order, I’d say do that earlier and plan your day around that, which I know sounds a little bit silly, but those raspberry rose macarons, come on. But for anything else, you’re like, Oh, no, I’m hungry right now. You can just hop on and see, Oh, these are all restaurants right by me or, Oh, these are all the ones that have availability within the next half hour. I can pick up right now for half an hour out. It’s easy and it’s good.

[00:12:09.920] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And some of them you can mobile order just a Coke. Some of them you can just mobile order a Wetzel. You don’t have to do a whole meal. No. That’s the beauty of it.

[00:12:17.270] – Kim Fidler

Absolutely. And there’s ways to order it allergy-free. If you have a very severe allergy, I still recommend ordering in person because the chef can come out and talk to you, but you can make adjustments. And it will show you all the allergies. Like, Oh, this is egg-free. Oh, this is dairy free. Oh, this is gluten free. Whatever it is that you need. I’m a big fan.

[00:12:35.580] – Hilary Erickson

All right. That was my third tip. I was on the same.

[00:12:39.760] – Kim Fidler

Great. I love it.

[00:12:41.700] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. My second tip, though, is to be mindful of which stuff sells out lightning late, especially if you’re going spring break, you’re going at a busier time. You need to know that Space Mountain is going to sell out. It doesn’t really sell out, but it’s gone. It disappears earlier in the day.

[00:12:58.460] – Kim Fidler

Or it’s 11 o’clock at night. Yes. And you really want to stay till 11:00? My kids don’t. They can’t hang.

[00:13:04.480] – Hilary Erickson

So what you’re going to want to do, and I go over this in all of my things, but you’re going to want to book Space Mountain at two o’clock, then you’re going to wait your time period. It’s 2 hours, right, Kim? Yes. Is it two hour, 90 minutes between? It’s two hours. Then you’re going to wait your two hours, and then you’re going to book in Star Tours because that’s only going to be like a half hour from now because that ride’s horrendous. And then you’re going to… So you’ve gotten your Space Mountain, it’s walked in, and it’s not at 11:45 PM.

[00:13:30.430] – Kim Fidler

A hundred %. And when we talk about that two hour rule, you’re setting an alarm on your phone because two hours in Disney time, weird. It’s going to not feel… It never feels like two hours. It either feels like 15 minutes or four hours. So set an alarm for your phone. So with the lightning lanes, you can hold one at a time, which means that you can either, like Hillary was saying earlier, if you go through the line of Indiana Jones, the second you scan in, you can start making your lightning lane for the next thing. However, what do you do? If It’s 10:00 in the morning, and the return time for a Mickey and Minnies runaway railway is at three o’clock? Okay, well, does that mean you have to wait five hours to get your next lightning lane? No, it’s a two-hour window. That’s how you stack. That’s what I like to do with my kids. So we’re like, Okay, in two hours, I’ll make my next lightning lane. Oh, and Mickey and Minnies is around 5:00. Oh, okay. So at 2:00 or whenever that time expires, I’m going to look and see if I can get Roger Rabbit because that’s right by there.

[00:14:24.860] – Kim Fidler

But let’s be real, I’m really not riding Roger Rabbit.

[00:14:26.980] – Hilary Erickson

Why are you going to ride Roger Rabbit?

[00:14:28.550] – Kim Fidler

I’m not. I’m going to do Small World because that’s close. Yes. But my point is you can stack and you’re so right on. You’re going to do an attraction that’s right next to it that doesn’t have that long wait time.

[00:14:40.900] – Hilary Erickson

And I have a Disneyland day planner that just basically shows these are the top eight attractions that are going to sell early. So you’re going to want to put those earlier in your day if you can. But I’m weird. I love to ride Big Thunder at night. I love getting up in the dark. So I try and I just watch that one to see what I can get at 8:00 PM or whatever until the time the sun’s gone down, just because I like the magic of it. But if you don’t care, like when I go with my kids, we will just be going and going and going, but we are still going to want to get those premium ones in first because we know that we can always ride Star Tours.

[00:15:15.130] – Kim Fidler

Later in the day. Yeah. Or Roger Rabbit. Or Roger Rabbit.

[00:15:19.430] – Hilary Erickson

We want to make a mistake.

[00:15:22.400] – Kim Fidler

If we want to question every life decision we’ve ever made, we can ride Roger Rabbit. I still haven’t ridden it since it was redone. Have you?

[00:15:32.110] – Hilary Erickson

Yes, I have. She’s in a trench coat. I mean, that’s all I really noticed. She was out of her red dress, and she’s in a trench coat. So that was amazing. It was so gratifying that Disney supports women.

[00:15:41.570] – Kim Fidler

Great.

[00:15:43.370] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, what’s your tech? This is your last one, right, Kim? Yes.

[00:15:46.690] – Kim Fidler

And really, Genie Plus was one of mine, too. But I would say something that I think is really fun to do. If you’re there, especially over spring break, and you know it’s going to be busy, and you don’t want to be just going from ride, ride, ride, ride, ride because I do that in the morning. I really think it’s fun to book one or two special experiences. For example, last time we went, I took my daughter to the Princess Breakfast, just the two of us, and it was perfection and magical. At our leisure. Well, my husband took our sons over to the Droid Depot, and they got to custom build their Elf droids. That was something that our kids were really looking forward to, and it felt like a break from the hustle and bustle of the vacation, but we still had such a great experience. Experience. You could do the same thing with a special lunch at Blue Bayou or a roll the Color Dessert Party if your kids can stay up that late. Just something that feels special. The other thing that we did that I’m telling you It’s not a special experience per se, but I did the Art of Animation drawing classes with my kids and my middle child, especially.

[00:16:53.750] – Kim Fidler

We did three of those classes. That’s a good chunk of time of your spring break vacation. He loved the animation We spent a lot of time there, which felt way less chaotic. Then you get a free souvenir after, and it was fun. Take time to build in some stuff that doesn’t feel chaotic, that allows you to have a good experience at a relaxed.

[00:17:18.190] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So in my case, we try and get a late lunch, like a 2:00 PM lunch somewhere where they will bring me water. That’s all I want. I want to put my feet up and get hydrated so that I can run the marathon of the rest of the day with my family. And those don’t have to be expensive. There are some cheaper places. Blue Bayou is expensive, like she mentioned, but there are some cheaper. Sit down. I really like Riverbell Terrace, even though it’s the ugly stepsister of Disneyland Reservations. I feel like. I really like it there, and it’s not too expensive.

[00:17:48.720] – Hilary Erickson

The other thing is you can- Lamp House.

[00:17:50.310] – Kim Fidler

Yeah, Lamp White Lounge is great.

[00:17:52.130] – Hilary Erickson

Lamp Lounge. And you can easily split things there, too. So little kids, you can get a few appetizers, just enjoy them bringing you water.

[00:18:00.210] – Kim Fidler

Absolutely. And I even think you can go outside of the park. And downtown Disney has some really good choices. You can ride the monorail into downtown Disney, which feels like an adventure in and of itself. You’ve got tortilla Jails. You have… Oh, my gosh. The only one I’m going to think, right, you have tortilla Jails. Jazz Kitchen is over there. I can only think of Napoli, which is the quick service version of the rest. Naples is the full service. But there are sit down restaurants that you can go have a really good experience that are just a few minutes from the parks as well and maybe feel a little less chaotic, too. And yeah, keep bringing me with my feet at night. Great.

[00:18:36.140] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. I mean, that’s probably my number one tip is to take an Ibuprofen and hydrate at lunch.

[00:18:42.280] – Kim Fidler

And compression sogs. You’re like the queen Compression Sog.

[00:18:47.120] – Hilary Erickson

I’m the queen. It really helps my legs not ache when I’m standing in line. When you’re just standing there, it really helps. So I’m a big compression Sog fan. I think I have one other tip, though. I remember when we went to Disney World, I I was asking a cast member when we were waiting in a line, I was like, Would you go to Norway or would you go to Test Track? And he was like, Which one’s more important to your family? And I was like, That doesn’t make any sense at all. My values don’t play into this at all. But it really is true because if your kid really wants to ride Indiana Jones, you go to Indiana Jones because you don’t know if that ride could go down. It’s true. If it’s open, go on it. Even if your kid really wants to ride Casey Jr, if they really want to ride Roger Rabbit, I would talk them out of it. But if they wanted to ride, if there’s just something that they love, get it in early because you don’t know if it could close. Some of them close with weather. Let’s pretend like there’s an afternoon shower.

[00:19:42.650] – Hilary Erickson

It could be done. Casey’s just done. He can’t do the hill anymore.

[00:19:46.150] – Kim Fidler

It’s so true. That is so true. As parents, I think we get these ideas of what our kids are going to like and what they really want. But your kids have a better gage. I thought for sure my kids were going to love Indiana Jones. They were finally taller enough. We were so excited, and they were I’m like, That was way too scary. They’re like, Mom, we’re never going on that again. They would much prefer to be the Jungle Cruise. I’m like, Okay, I guess we’re a jungle cruise family, and that’s okay. I think, yes, talk to your kids, make sure you’re getting what they really want out of it, too. I heard something recently that I’m like, That is such a good point. As grownups, we get a little caught up in, Well, this is how much we paid for this vacation, so I’m going to get as much out of this as possible. I want to make sure we’re doing that. But your kids don’t see your vacation from that lens at all. They’re just happy to be there. My daughter has never been more excited than when she got a bubble wand for her birthday and was like, This is the best day of my life.

[00:20:41.960] – Kim Fidler

I just wanted to play with her bubble wand for a good portion of the day. I don’t. Like, okay, that’s why we’re here. It’s fine.

[00:20:49.470] – Hilary Erickson

You have to think that now the trip is costing what it cost at this point. I’m here for free. Now I’m here for free. I’m already done it.

[00:20:59.400] – Kim Fidler

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I love it. Yeah.

[00:21:01.780] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, my boys, because I had two little boys for a long time going to Disneyland, and they would have done Tom Sawyer’s Island for hours.

[00:21:08.190] – Kim Fidler

All day. And hours.

[00:21:09.510] – Hilary Erickson

They just loved it. Sadly, there are no benches on that island. I’m like, Where did all the old people sit, Tom? Tom. It’s not Tom Sawyer’s Island anymore. It’s Pirate Flair.

[00:21:22.660] – Kim Fidler

It’s Pirate Flair on Tom Sawyer’s Island.

[00:21:25.410] – Hilary Erickson

I think Tom Sawyer’s Island.

[00:21:26.890] – Kim Fidler

Anyway, my kids loved the Redwood The Redwood Creek Challenge.

[00:21:31.280] – Hilary Erickson

The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

[00:21:33.250] – Kim Fidler

It’s a glorified park.

[00:21:34.480] – Hilary Erickson

So magical. The cast members were so great. Yes. But I was like, Dude, we cannot spend all day here.

[00:21:40.980] – Kim Fidler

Can you? We should have.

[00:21:42.140] – Hilary Erickson

We should have.

[00:21:42.760] – Kim Fidler

Right. Those are the things that your kids do remember.

[00:21:47.240] – Hilary Erickson

What we could have done is if my husband really wanted to go on guardians, he should just go, We’re the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Absolutely.

[00:21:55.360] – Kim Fidler

He gets single-riding a lot. I mean, we have to still wait in the big line.

[00:21:58.630] – Hilary Erickson

We don’t have a single rider.

[00:21:59.860] – Kim Fidler

But What they will do is they’ll call out for single people. When you get to the front, they’re like, Hey, can we go on for a walk?

[00:22:05.110] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t know that it gets them through any faster, though. It really does. I don’t write guardians.

[00:22:08.430] – Kim Fidler

It might get him a cart or two faster. Maybe. I’ll take whatever I can get.

[00:22:12.750] – Hilary Erickson

Maybe they’ll go on it someday.

[00:22:13.240] – Kim Fidler

It’s true. I would love it.

[00:22:15.980] – Hilary Erickson

Let’s do it. Yeah. I think that’s the best. The key is today is free. That money is already gone. It is burned. So we’re just enjoying what is happening today because as I go to Disney more without kids, I see the moms just freaking at Disney. And I want to just be like, just take some breaths. I get it. It’s so hard. I’ve been the mom freaking out before. Yes, think we all have. It just feels overwhelming. So just take some breaths. Just sit down and eat a pretzel, cream cheese filled pretzel. Always. Always. And hydrate and take some ibuprofen.

[00:22:50.870] – Kim Fidler

Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I would say we always prep our kids before. I’m like, Oh, my God, they’re so good at rope dropping. It’s because we talk about it. We’re like, Okay, this is what’s going to go down. This is why. My kids are very receptive to that. I realize not everybody’s kids are going to always be like, Okay, Mom, I got you. But even letting them know what to expect. The other thing that we say all the time, there are no promises at the park because it’s exactly what you said, Hey, can we ride in credit coaster later? You know what? I’d really like to. But again, I’m not going to promise that because what if it goes down or what if something else happens? Or like, Oh, well, we ended up going here instead. Okay, we’ll really try. We’ll put that on our list. But my kids know that there’s just too much that you can’t control, and you have to roll with the punches and go with the flow. We’re like, Okay, it’s probably going to be really busy. Okay, it might be really hot. Okay, it might rain. Okay, it might do this.

[00:23:47.530] – Kim Fidler

What are we going to do? How can we still have an enjoyable experience? And then I just… If you go in, Michael, hopped up, Oh, this has to be the best day ever. And you have that pressure on yourself, it might not be the best day ever. But if you’re like, Oh, things might happen. Things might be a little tricky. We’re going to roll. Then at the end of the day, you’re like, Wow, that was the best day ever.

[00:24:08.780] – Hilary Erickson

Or it was fine. Or it was- I’m so glad my kids, we have that memory.

[00:24:12.270] – Kim Fidler

We’ll laugh about that Sunday. I just had a labor nurse on the podcast, and she was talking.

[00:24:18.400] – Hilary Erickson

She was like, Our trip, I mean, we have some memories from it, and I guess that’s what I wanted, was some memory. I was like, And everyone made it back alive as far as I could tell.

[00:24:27.070] – Kim Fidler

Here we are. Here we are.

[00:24:28.480] – Hilary Erickson

It’s true. It’s true. Of course, my number one trip is to book with Getaway Today because you could spend hours frazzled looking at all the 6,000 hotels in the Anaheim area that say they are walkable to Zizy Park and are lying to you unless you’re a pioneer. Some of those that are walkable to Disneyland Park, I’m like, or you can walk there.

[00:24:48.040] – Kim Fidler

You can walk there. You can be a marathon runner. But not bad. I can walk a mile there, but not after a day at Disney. Yeah. Not getting home. No.

[00:24:58.480] – Hilary Erickson

I always recommend people book with Getaway Today. I booked with them since 1998, you guys. We were baby. I called them. I had no money. I was graduating nursing school, and I really wanted to go to Disneyland, and they made all my dreams come true. Was it the nicest hotel? No. Well, but it worked. It was in our budget, and it was just me and my husband, we just didn’t even care. I don’t think I even thought about bed bugs or anything.

[00:25:21.300] – Kim Fidler

I don’t think there were bed bugs back then.

[00:25:24.440] – Hilary Erickson

. There probably weren’t. But Getaway Today, it makes it so easy. And I’m always shocked by how much cheaper it is with getaway Today versus looking at the hotel website because I’ll go and I’ll check. And I’m always like, I don’t get it. I don’t get the magic of Getaway Today, but somehow it works.

[00:25:42.950] – Kim Fidler

It’s over 30 years of business. And you know, Wade is our secret weapon. Wade has worked with these hotels, his personal relationships with them. And what’s pretty cool, as you may have heard, looking at your third parties can sometimes be trickier. When you come to Disneyland, when you book with a third party, and that third party is Getaway Today, You get white glove service.

[00:26:03.180] – Hilary Erickson

It’s so different than if you book with Travelocity. And I don’t think people understand that at Disneyland, because if I ever have an issue with my room, they directly call Getaway Today because they have so many people that are booking with Getaway Today, and it’s just fixed immediately. Versus Travelocity, they would be like, You call Travelocity. This is your problem. Right.

[00:26:21.100] – Kim Fidler

And let’s say you contact us because you’re like, Oh, this isn’t quite what I expected. We do all of that work on your behalf. And because we’re Getaway Today, we know the hotel contacts by name. We know who to get a hold of. We can do it quickly. Everybody wants you to have a good vacation. Nobody wants you to not have a good vacation. We really care.

[00:26:41.930] – Hilary Erickson

We treat everyone like- My favorite thing was I couldn’t sleep in a room where my kids could see me from the playpen. I would call getaway today, and I’d be like, I just need a half wall. Even in the bathroom, a half wall. And then the girl who would answer the thing would be like, Well, let me go through the ones because they have two of them. They know what’s in each room. And she would be Okay, well, here’s five that you could pick between. And then I would pick which one worked for me. Some had a door, some had a wall. And it made it so we could all sleep instead of just little eyes looking it up at the playpen going, I love that.

[00:27:12.580] – Kim Fidler

That was great.

[00:27:14.930] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So get away today. You can use code Curls10 to get $10 off your trip. And we love it when you guys mentioned that you heard about it from Pulling Curls, Hillary, pregnancy nurse, whoever you want to say. I’m in their system and all the brands.

[00:27:28.660] – Kim Fidler

All the way. Our I’m your favorite podcaster.

[00:27:31.480] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t think I’m your favorite podcaster. At the pregnancy podcast, you guys are like, Yeah, I love those.

[00:27:37.460] – Kim Fidler

Actually, we have a lot of moms and moms here, so you’re not wrong.

[00:27:41.060] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. There are people. I’ve trained so many getaway Today, people, it’s to have babies like that. I am the official OBE sponsor of Getaway Today. I’m pretty sure, right? Absolutely. Pretty sure.

[00:27:52.400] – Kim Fidler

Thanks for having me, bro. This was so fun.

[00:27:55.360] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. I think it is so important to just think the trip’s free. Once you’ve paid for it, hopefully you got a good deal with getaway today. But don’t put any pressure on yourself to have the most amazing trip of your life because it’s going to be a great day, but there’s going to be some goods and some gads, and just roll with it. So hopefully you guys have a good spring break and you enjoy your Disney trip coming up.

[00:28:18.950] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned, because next week I’m going to give some of my favorite facts about one of the most important parts of pregnancy, the placenta. And then after that, we’re going to be talking about some secret mom hacks. So stay tuned.

[00:28:30.260] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls podcast today. If you like today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

Keywords:

Disneyland, Genie plus, Lightning Lane, park, vacation, pre-purchasing, peak season, attractions, rides, strategic planning, special experiences, princess breakfast, Droid Depot, sit-down restaurants, Downtown Disney, children’s preferences, mobile ordering, allergy adjustments, lightning lane bookings, 2-hour window rule, Getaway Today, hotel rates, white glove service, personalized assistance, pregnancy, mom hacks, Tom Sawyer’s Island, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, memories, maximizing time, early arrival