Jenn’s Florida Trip Report 2024 – Disney Updates & New Experiences

TMP 97 - Jenn Trip Report
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Meggan: Hey everyone and welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Meggan joined as always by Jenn. Now, one of us recently went on a trip and newsflash, it was not me. Um, so Jenn, welcome home. I can't wait to hear about your most recent trip to Florida. Seems like you had some firsts on this trip. let's dive in. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, you rented a car on this trip to get yourselves around, is that right?

Jenn: We did, we rented through Avis, which has been our usual choice the last three trips that we have rented a car. so way back when I was booking, I think there was a spot to like click off if we were okay with renting an electric vehicle, but I literally don't remember. I know I booked like the smallest, cheapest car possible. Right. So, in my booking confirmation it says Kia Rio or similar. So we landed in Florida and the app tells me that we have a Hyundai Iconic EV with all wheel drive. And I was like, oh.

Meggan: Yeah, case it snows. You need that all wheel drive. You never know. How iconic indeed.

Jenn: Yeah, so I totally forgot about the whole electric vehicle thing. So first, this is just another reminder to take advantage of the free programs that are offered. We are Avis preferred. It is free. You literally just sign up for it. It means we don't have to go to the counter at all. I literally got an email.

Um, and it came up in the app as well with the location of our car. The keys were inside. All we had to do was go get in our car and my husband was the primary driver, the only driver, so he just had to show his license at the exit, there was someone at the exit of the parking garage. They look at your license and your name and the car that you have, and make sure you have the right car and then you're good. So no lines.

Meggan: Love that. We love their, we love no lines.

Jenn: We love no lines. So. This is our first time with an all electric vehicle. We have rented hybrids in the past. They were, um, not a plugin hybrid, so we've never had to charge before. It was a totally new experience, and of course there are pros and cons as you can imagine. So the main con obviously is that it has to be charged and we were actually able to drive quite a bit before we had to charge, which was really nice.

But there was a charging station at our hotel at Disney and there's also charging stations at the Disney parks. We didn't use them, um, but they are there. So after our first couple days at Disney, we drove to our friend's place. About an hour away and they have a charger, which was really convenient because they do have a plugin hybrid. However, their charger was not able to charge our car quickly. When we plugged it in, it was like 32 hours to a full charge and we were like, oh no, that won't work, so, so we were able to kind of like top up our vehicle by charging it for a little while, but we ended up driving about 15 minutes away to use a fast charger.

So it took about 40 minutes for our car to charge from 30, I think it was 36 or 32%, all the way up to a hundred percent. However, the major pro is we spent 19 US dollars to charge the car, and that was it on this entire trip. So that was really nice.

Meggan: Yeah, that's, nice indeed.

Jenn: yeah. So similar to a, right, like when you rent a regular gas car, you have to return your rental with a full tank or you will get charged.

So in this case, to them a full tank means at least a 70% battery. Uh, or they will charge you. So we just topped up our charge the day before we had an early flight. And then, our drive from our friend's house to the airport, wasn't we, I think we lost like 10% battery in that 45, 50 minute drive. So yeah, it was, uh, it was interesting when we first got in, my husband's like, I don't think I like this car. But after driving it for a couple of days, he was like, no, I actually do really like this car.

Meggan: Nice.

Jenn: I don't think it would be super practical. In Canada, no, but in Florida it was great.

Meggan: Yeah, I don't think we're there yet. Like a, the cold B charging stations like this is in the future for sure. I think, uh, eventually we'll all end up probably with electric vehicles, but we're just not there yet. But it's cool that you had that experience to sort of see what it's like at least.

Jenn: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Meggan: Excellent. Now talk to us about accommodations. Where did you stay?

Jenn: Yeah, so like I said, we spent the first three nights at Disney, so we decided to splurge a little bit on this trip and stay at a nicer resort. So we stayed at the Walt Disney World Swan Resort. So we usually stay at the value resorts. So this was a big upgrade in that case. So the thing to know about, it's called the Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort.

It's actually three separate hotels. So there's the Swan, the Dolphin, and the Swan Reserve, which is new and I didn't go in, but it looks fancy af. So they are on Disney property. They do have many of the perks, not all of them, of being a Disney resort. However, it's a Marriott property, so it is much less Disney than other resorts that we've stayed at or even visited and walked through.

So it was really interesting. So there were two major downsides that I didn't know, and I probably could have learned them before I went, so that I was prepared, but I didn't. We did book through a travel agent, a Disney travel agent, and I feel like she could have shared these with me, but she didn't.

Anyway. The two downsides. One of them is being that we had to pay for parking, which was $35 a night. Other Disney owned hotels, parking is included both at the hotel and at the theme parks. But this is not the case with the Swan and Dolphin Hotel. So that is unfortunate and just something to know that it is going to be an extra cost on top.

So the other downside is the bus to Magic Kingdom that leaves from your hotel, takes you to the Transportation and Ticket center, which means that you then have to take the monorail or a boat to the entrance of Magic Kingdom, the other Disney buses drop you off at the main gate. So it's just doesn't take as long to get to the park, if you know what I mean.

So the buses also share between the swan, the dolphin, and the Swan reserve. So we were the first stop and then we had to stop at two other hotels. There were actually, there wasn't a lot of people on the bus, but we were on the bus quite early that day. So I understand people were not awake yet maybe.

Meggan: Yeah.

Jenn: Um, the other smaller downside is that at a Disney resort, you can use magic bands, which is, it kind of looks almost like a smartwatch, and it acts as your hotel room key and park tickets At a Disney resort. You can't use them at the swan, it's a regular old hotel key, uh, you know, plastic card that I had to keep getting in and out of my bag or a wallet or whatever. So just something to keep in mind. There's just those like little things. the other thing that , that happened was that our tickets wouldn't stay linked to our magic band, so we couldn't use our magic band to get into the park. We had to use the plastic ticket, which again, we had to keep taking it in and out of our bag, which is just another thing that's kind of annoying

Meggan: Well, I think it's more of an opportunity to lose it that

Jenn: Yeah, I know, right. and I wouldn't have been able to use any, to use my magic band to pay for anything at the park. Some, when you're at the parks, you can scan your magic band and it charges your room, which you can't do that here. So that's life. It was just a couple of downsides to keep in mind, the parking thing, I was like, really? I don't wanna pay another

Meggan: I know, and you saved all that money on gas, and then you're having to pay it on parking, like that's a huge bummer.

Jenn: Right, the big pros, so the big pros of course, are the location and the price. So the location is in Disney's boardwalk area. We love that area. It has a lot of great restaurants. It's just like a good feel. The vibes are good. It's a bit more adult. the biggest pro about the location is you can walk or take a boat to Hollywood Studios or Epcot. So at the end of a long Park day, it is so nice not to wait for a bus and you can just walk back to our room. And also on our Epcot day, we took like an hour and a half break back at our hotel. And we've never done that because before you had to like get on a bus, wait for the bus, get on a bus, go back to your room.

Wait for the bus, get on a bus, come back to the park. It's a huge thing. But when you can walk 10 minutes to your hotel and just take a little break,

Meggan: that's a huge pro.

Jenn: it is a huge pro. So another pro that we didn't get to take advantage of is that you can use the extended evening hours for deluxe guests at the park. It's only offered on certain nights, and it wasn't offered on any of the three nights that we were staying there. But it is a great way to get two extra hours in the park with way less, way less people. So anybody who's not staying at a deluxe resort has to leave.

So the price point is really good for the location. So there are other deluxe resorts in the area that average about 760 US dollars per night for the nights that we were there.

Meggan: Oh my God,

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. So those are the cheapest rooms. We paid 430 ish per night, not including the parking, so.

Meggan: really did splurge. Pardon me, but good for you also.

Jenn: Yeah, no, I mean it was, it was really nice and I think I would stay there again, the room was really great. It had two sinks, which was really lovely. I've, I don't know if I've ever had that, so it had like the little sink area. And then the bathroom with the shower, the toilet, and another sink, like getting ready area.

So if you're like two people who need a lot of mirror time in the morning to get ready, it's really, really nice. I would stay here again. If I could get the other deluxe resorts for a similar price I would probably choose them instead just for the Disney perks. But yeah, it was, it was a splurge and it was really quite lovely.

Meggan: Well, I'm happy for you. That's excellent. You know what? What else are we doing here if we're not treating ourselves once in a while, you know,

Jenn: Perfect.

Meggan: so obviously you went to the parks. Talk to us about your experience there.

Jenn: Yes, so we only visited three parks this trip. It's the first time we've skipped a park. Usually we go to all four, but that's just not what we did this time. So we spent a half day at Hollywood Studios on the day that we flew in. We spent a full day at Magic Kingdom and a full day at Epcot, and we managed to do all of the rides and stuff that we wanted to do.

I didn't get to eat everything I wanted to eat, but I literally never do. I always have a list and you only have so much belly room to eat All of the things.

Meggan: You are only, you're only tiny. You can only fit so much in there, you know.

Jenn: Right. Uh, so our first day at Hollywood Studios, we didn't do anything too new to us. There wasn't like any new rides or anything like that. Lines were long that day, but they weren't terrible. I have to say, I had the vegetarian Ronto wrap that's in the Star Wars area and it was like super delicious and I really wanna have that again. So if that's something you're into, I would, I would go have that. Um, we also watched Fantasmic for the first time since I think 2017 they changed the show and so that was really fun to see kind of the updated show. It was a really good day, but we were like super tired from flying in that day, so it was good to have a half day.

So the next day we planned to Rope Drop Magic Kingdom. We failed a bit. Like I said, I didn't realize that the bus would take us to the transportation and Ticket center and not at the front gate. So we got to the park around 7:35 in the morning. The park technically opened at eight, but for Disney Resort guests, and the Swan does get this perk, you can get in a half an hour before um, the park technically opened and, but only two sections of the park were open, so Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, which has the least amount of rides that we're interested in. So that was kind of a bummer. We ended up doing, it's a small world first, and we were literally walking into it and I was like, oh my gosh Derek and Doug from Rope Drop Radio. Would absolutely murder me right now if they knew that I was rope dropping small world, but sorry guys. I'm, I'm sorry. That's just what we did. But because of where small world is, we were then able to get over into Haunted Mansion as soon as that area opened and we were able to walk on that ride, which was super great. So between 7:50 in the morning and 10:40, we did six rides and we waited less than 10 minutes from all of them, and a lot of them were just like walking onto the ride, which is so nice.

Meggan: Excellent

Jenn: Yeah, so Tron, Light Cycle Run is a new ride that opened in the last year. So we had not ridden it before. I had watched YouTube videos of it, so I knew what to expect, but Tron does not have a standby line, so you either have to join a boarding group on the app or purchase an individual lightning lane, which is $20 a person. So that's a bummer. We joined the boarding group, so at 7:00 AM you have to go on the app and click the button and hopefully you get a boarding group. Not everybody does, obviously. So we got boarding group number 51. So our group was called around 1145 in the morning. once your group is called, you have an hour to go get in line for the ride and they just scan your park ticket. So we waited over an hour for the ride, although it did break down while we were in the line.

So I don't know if that hour long wait is typical. It might be, um, a little bit longer. They actually like announced that the ride was broken down and like turned on the lights for a little bit and we're like, oh God, are we ever gonna get on? But we did eventually. The ride itself is quite short. It's like a minute or maybe just over, just under a minute.

It's intense. It's a, it's an intense ride. You're on like a motorcycle type thing. You're like leaned forward and it is very fast and part of it is in the dark, so.

Meggan: Oh,

Jenn: That's fun. Yeah, it, it was intense for me. That's not my usual jam. I'm really happy I did it, but, uh, I don't think I'll be rushing to do it every time.

Meggan: gotcha. Gotcha. Well, it's good to have the experience and know for yourself.

Jenn: Yes, one of our friends also works at Magic Kingdom. He is a Dapper Dan, which is a barbershop quartet. So it was really fun to see him perform again and then stayed for the fireworks at Disney for Happily Ever after. It's my favorite nighttime show, and it was such a good day. I love Magic Kingdom.

Meggan: Oh good. Now obviously the third part was Epcot, so how did that go?

Jenn: So because we could walk the par, the park was opening at, I think 9:00 AM so rope dropping and we could get in a half an hour early at 8:30. So I think we left our room probably around eight. Our plan was to rope drop Remy's Ratioulle adventure first. However we got into the park. Everybody else had the same idea, obviously. There was a ton of people there already. Um, but they were announcing that Remy's was not going to open when the park was opening it, and they didn't know when it was gonna open. So we kind of had to change our tactic, but that's fine. It was quite a busy day, but we did ride everything that we wanted to. So a few highlights. We rode Soarin over California. It was, um, the regular Soarin- Soarin over the world has been switched out for Soarin over California right now, and I've never done that one before. So that was really fun. It was the Festival of the Arts. So if you've listened to my similar trip report from last year, I talked about the Festival of the Arts, so there's different food booths, so we got to try a different, uh, couple different foods, which was really nice.

We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Epcot, and it was so delicious. I can't even, ugh, I was so full, but it was so worth it. Uh, and then one of our friends performs with the Voices of Liberty, in Epcot. So it's in the American pavilion and it's just, it's fun to see your friends doing, doing their thing.

And we saw the new nighttime show Luminous, so it was a good day. We did take a break in the middle of the day day. It was crowded, like just crowded, but we, we had fun.

Meggan: Excellent. So anything from this experience that will influence how you do Disney in the future? 'cause obviously, like you said, you stayed somewhere new, et cetera. So sort of talk us through that.

Jenn: Yeah, so this was our eighth trip to Disney, or my eighth trip to Disney, and that this was different, right? So in the past we've always stayed at the value resorts. We've usually spent all day at the parks and. And usually a week. And the last couple of years, of course, it's just been a couple of days. So after our experience last year, and you can go back and listen to that episode where we did an after hours event at Hollywood Studios, we were able to ride every single ride at Hollywood Studios, like literally all of them.

And then the crowds this time really had us rethinking how we might do Disney in the future. Especially like staying at a nicer resort. If you're at the parks all day, you can't enjoy all of those really nice amenities that you're paying for, right? Like these nicer resorts have nicer pool areas, they have nicer restaurants.

It just makes you want to spend a little bit more time there enjoy the amenities that you're paying for. So while we were walking around our resort the morning that we were checking out, we were kind of discussing that we might not do regular day park tickets. And just go when we can do a couple of after hours events to kind of like enjoy our resort and enjoy the parks with less crowds.

So we'll see, I don't know, as two childless adults, it just kind of changes I guess, the way we wanna do it. And having gone so many times, I'm not like obsessed with riding, you know, every single thing or like jam packing my day as much as possible. It's just more about enjoying, the time that we do spend there.

Meggan: Well also, if you are going to spend more, like you mentioned where you are staying, it always makes you feel like, okay, well I'd like to actually enjoy what I'm paying for, so I could totally see that. And like you said, you've been there a lot of time, so now you know what you'd like to do, know where you wanna go.

It doesn't have to be everything. So a little bit of mixing and matching is good.

Jenn: Yeah, our hotel had like a really nice pool area and we literally just saw it the day that we were checking out because I wanted to go see it. We didn't get it in it at all. So, yeah, I think, uh, that we'll see. We'll see what we do next year.

Meggan: That will be interesting.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: you said not all Disney, so what else did you do during your trip?

Jenn: Yeah. So after our three days at Disney, we drove to our friend's place. They live in the Golden Triangle area, which is three cities, uh, Mount Dora, Eustis and Taveres. So we spent the last four nights at their place. If you listened last year, you know that I fell in love with Mount Dora. I love it so much and it was so good to be back.

So one of the things on my must-do list was to visit the farmer's market again. We went last year and I literally have spent the last year dreaming of this sweet and spicy kettle corn from Pura Vida Kettle Corn, and I could not wait. I bought the biggest bag that they sell. So it was really funny. I had messaged them probably three weeks or four weeks before our trip to ask them if they were going to be at that farmer's market. Because if they weren't gonna be there, I was gonna have to like mentally prepare myself for not getting that popcorn. And they're like, yes, we'll be there. We can't wait to see you. And so we got there and it was just really funny.

Um, 'cause we were like, oh, we're from Canada, and they're like, the Canadians there you are!, so, we had a really great chat with them and they actually travel, they're from New York, so they go back to New York in the summertime and, and, uh, do some, some popcorn selling in New York. So might have to make a trip. Who knows?

New New York state's. Not that far.

Meggan: Just go for the popcorn and tell people that's why all this way.

Jenn: It's so good. You don't even know. Um, so one of the other things we booked in advance, uh, we didn't have a whole lot of plans for these four days. We kind of flew by the seat of our pants a little bit more. But one of the things we booked in advance was a ghost tour with Mount Dora Ghost tours. So they operate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and the tour is two hours.

It was really fun. We had a small group of six I, I think their usual groups, like they, I think they sell like 20 tickets maybe, or something like that. It was Super Bowl Sunday, so I guess people were doing other things perhaps. But it was just the four of us and one other couple. Our guide Doc also, um, was taking us around, so we were armed with ghost meters.

Which was very, uh, little handheld devices. So we were searching for the ghosts and we wandered the streets of Mount Dora and we, he took us into a known haunted hotel, the Lakeside Inn. The Inn was really nice, but after doing the ghost hunting there and seeing, um, there was like a picture that he showed us and, uh, hearing the stories of staff, that's things that staff have seen there.

I was like, I'll never stay here. That is too

Meggan: It's lovely, but no thank

Jenn: I will not sleep. it was, it was really interesting. You, you get, you know, a history of the city and then also some, some creepy things. So it was, it was really fun. So one other thing we did was a wine tour at Lake Ridge Winery. I know when you think of Florida, you think of wine, the.

Meggan: Immediately.

Jenn: Obviously, um, it's in the Claremont area, so it is the biggest winery in Florida. So the tour, which is free, led us through the wine making process and the history of Florida wine, and included a tasting of, I think, eight different wines, which is, I mean, that's good. It's a free tour.

Meggan: I guess.

Jenn: I know, and then we bought a few bottles to have a wine and cheese night that evening. It was lovely. The wine is definitely on the sweeter side, so if you are into sweet wine, it's good for you. I usually like a sweet wine and some of them I was like, Ooh, this is too sweet for me.

Yeah. so the last thing we did was an escape room at a place called Mystique. It was really fun. We have done a few escape rooms here in Nova Scotia, and I have to say that this one at Mystique was the most intricate room of any of the ones that we've done. Uh, we did Crypt of the Vampire and we escaped with a few moments to spare.

We had to kill a vampire.

Meggan: Oh.

Jenn: So the, the company Mystique is in a town called Lake Mary. It's about 20 to 30 minutes north of Orlando, uh, depending on traffic. And our friends have done all of the rooms there now, and they said that the room at Murder in London was like amazing, top notch. So, uh, if you're looking for something different to do, might be a good, uh, thing to do when you're in the Orlando area.

We had a lot fun and our room had a 50% escape rate and we got out, so I'm impressed.

Meggan: Smarty pants. I love that. Well, excellent. Thank you so much for sharing all this. I'm sure for anyone either headed, uh, to Disney or even the Mount Dora area, golden triangle. You provided some really great tips and new insights, which I think is is key as well. Really bringing back some new information, updated information for people. A lot of people interested, of course, in going to Disney. So as always, thank you everyone for tuning into the Travel Mug podcast and supporting the show. If you want to, show your support even a little bit further, we would love it if you left us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps the show. Another way you can actually financially support what we're doing here is by buying us a coffee. It helps us keep the lights on around here and you receive some bloopers and extras and whatnot for your support. Otherwise, just give us a follow on social media. We'd love that too. At Travel Mug Podcast, we are on Instagram, Facebook threads, and YouTube, or share the show with a travel loving pal.

We'd love to have more friends. So until next time, everyone happy travels and bye.

Jenn: Bye!