Main Street Talk - A Disney World Podcast

Main Street Talk Podcast: Disney Discount Updates and Fantasyland Spotlights

• Nick Garcia • Season 2 • Episode 22

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In this episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, we discuss the arrival of October and share their thoughts on the changing season. We provide updates on the latest discounts and special offers for Disney World and Disney Cruise Line, including substantial savings for Florida residents and annual pass holders in early 2026. The episode also covers park news, including the planned reopening of Spaceship Earth and a tribute to the late Jane Goodall. Additionally, they conclude their spotlight on Fantasyland with insights into Casey Junior Splash 'n' Soak Station and the Smellephants on Parade. The movie of the week is 'Raya and the Last Dragon,' with Nick sharing his first impressions. Finally, they offer a valuable tip on making the most of split stays at Disney resorts.

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Nick:

Hello everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, your go-to podcast for all things Disney World related, all the news, the updates, and the tips and tricks. My name is Nick. I'm your host, and as always with me is Joni.

Joni:

Hi everyone.

Nick:

So it's October, it's.

Joni:

it's cold, it's October. It.

Nick:

hot outside.

Joni:

outside,

Nick:

92, 92 degrees outside today. I mowed the lawn hopefully for the last time. Yeah. October's here my favorite holiday. Mm-hmm. And your favorite holiday, of course, is next month.

Joni:

Mm-hmm.

Nick:

So we're getting closer to that. It's

Joni:

all in the same season.

Nick:

All in the same season. The season of fall, the leaves are falling except for our stubborn tree out

Joni:

Yeah. We have a late bloomer, late faller that

Nick:

tree doesn't shed until, what is it, mid-November usually?

Joni:

yeah, there was a time I was on vacation. Where was I? I was gone somewhere and you had sent me pictures.'cause I told you well just kind of leave all the leaves. It'll be cool for the ambiance of, of Halloween and, and it was just like buried. There's no way. So we tried mowing them, well, successfully mowed them. However, not suggested when you had a lot of leaves,

Nick:

causes a bunch of dust as all happens. We will never do that again. I was like, I have a great idea. Let's mow'em up. This will save so much work.

Joni:

Well, why not? And

Nick:

And then I came in looking like, um, like, like just covered in dust. I couldn't even see the lawnmower'cause it was so dusty. Yeah.

Joni:

Yeah. You know what I used to like to do is get those, um, pumpkin bags that you can

Nick:

fill.

Joni:

Oh yeah. With the leaves in'em and stuff, but Yeah. But then it rains and they just get wet and soggy and they're never real plump, you know, as they settle,

Nick:

they look great on the pictures. They,

Joni:

yeah. Yeah. They sure do.

Nick:

don't look like that when you fill

Joni:

No, not at all. And like I said, even when you get'em filled up, they settle. So you then you have like the bottom half, the pumpkin, all you get is the bottom nose and the mouth.

Nick:

So

Joni:

anyway,

Nick:

yeah. We're

Joni:

gonna rake'em up and let the leaf

Nick:

the leaf,

Joni:

vacuum come by and

Nick:

Get'em blown into the street and rake up what we can. But yeah, Halloween is my, my favorite holiday. I usually, I like to watch scary movies in the month of October, but that has kind of subsided'cause Joni's not a scary movie fan. So No, I gotta sneak'em in when she, when she's not at home.

Joni:

Yeah. Or I'm not a scary movie fan, but I do, I do dabble a little bit in, um, paranormal videos and, you

Nick:

you know

Joni:

know, unsolved mysteries

Nick:

life paranormal stuff. But you won't, but you won't watch a, a scary movie with

Joni:

Nope. Uh, one of our grandsons is gonna be er for Halloween, which I'm absolutely shocked.

Nick:

was shock of that too.'cause he's, he's not a real brave horror. Person?

Joni:

he's, he's seven gonna be eight next month and he turns all the lights on during the day to go down the hallway,

Nick:

Yep. Middle of the day. Two o'clock in the afternoon, he is turning lights on to go to the bathroom.

Joni:

We love you buddy. Alright. Okay,

Nick:

well we're gonna dive into the news. All right, so Disney has, released their spring. Discounts. Okay. Well, one of'em is a, I'm sorry, one of'em is a fall discount, and that's the Disney cruise line. For Disney Visa card members, you can receive up to$250 onboard credit for select fall 2025 sailings. Okay., It is a big list. If you want to know that list, contact me. I can give you that list. Our cruise is not one of them. That's okay.

Joni:

We already got a deal.

Nick:

Okay. So the, the big news is. It's the Disney World discounts. So there, there's a lot of information here. So I'm gonna go through this one by one. So guests visiting the Walt Disney World Resort from January to April, 2026 can save on their vacations depending on if you are, just a regular visitor, a Florida resident or an annual pass holder. Okay,

Joni:

Okay,

Nick:

so this is how it breaks down from January 4th to Feb, February 19th, 2026. Out of state guests, regular guests that are non pass holders can save up to 20%. Honor rooms for stays most nights Sunday to Thursday for Florida residents. For those same dates, Sunday to Thursday, they can save up to 25%, and for annual pass holders, they save up to 30%. Okay, I remember those dates are Sunday to Thursday, so from February 22nd to April 30th, 2026, non pass holders and non Florida residents can save

Joni:

is a separate discount or a separate special?

Nick:

It's the same. It's a spring special, but it's different dates, different, yes, different dates. February 22nd to April 30th, 2026. For all nights, not just Sunday through Thursday. You can save up to 25%

Joni:

for regular.

Nick:

for regular, for regular. The Florida residents can save up to 30% on those days and annual pass holders up to 35% on those days. Oh, now, keep in mind when I say up to 25 or up to 30, that is typically the high end is gonna be the deluxe resorts.'Cause obviously the values of moderates are cheaper, so you don't save as much there.

Joni:

get as much of a discount. Right. Okay. So,

Nick:

so yeah, they released that, that was pretty

Joni:

Well that's nice.

Nick:

Yeah. If, if you wanna book that, contact me, nick.Garcia@academytravel.com. Those are some pretty good savings. Yeah. Especially for the spring break, you know? Yeah. Spring break's big at Disney World

Joni:

it is.

Nick:

you save some money going to spring break.

Joni:

Yeah. And I think every spring break or group, It goes to pop. So anyway, side note. Yeah. Pop's very popular.

Nick:

Pop is popular. Pop

Joni:

I did not plan that, that just came out that way. But

Nick:

That's just how it is.

Joni:

just going with the flow.

Nick:

Okay, so now we'll get into Park News. Okay. Not a lot of park news, but we got some, um, spaceship birth has been closed since August 25th. It is now showing on Disney website with ours as of beginning October 25th. So it should be reopening on October 25th, 2025. Okay.

Joni:

Okay.

Nick:

So if you're gonna be an upcott October 25th, spaceship birth will be open. That's a must ride for us every time we go on.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

every time we go there.

Joni:

I still want one of those t-shirts that says,

Nick:

I thought it was a golf ball. It was a golf ball. Yeah, those shirts are cool.

Joni:

Uh.

Nick:

Unfortunately there is more sad news out of Animal Kingdom. Well, not directly related, related to Animal Kingdom, but kind of Jane Goodall has passed away at the age of 91. She passed away on October 1st. For those of you that don't know who Jane Goodall is, she is legendary for her, works with with primates. She acted as an ambassador for the Disney Nature Studio, co-producing the 2012 documentary Chimpanzee, and she is the subject of several National Geographic productions. Disney consulted Dr. Goodall during the construction of Animal Kingdom and was honored with the plaque on the tree of life, alongside a carving of David Gray Beard, the original chimpanzee who approached her at Gamay. The plaque and carving are near the entrance to the Tree of Life. Theater. I never knew that. So I did do some research on David Graybeard and I was like, who is David Graybeard? This is a primate she was particularly close to and I think like, had very good interactions and there's carving them in the tree of life. So next time you cannot see the carving right now due to, the refurbishment of refurbishment bug's life to, to zootopia. So, but, yeah. Sad news. Dr. Goodall has passed away, but 91, she then had a long and great life.

Joni:

Mm-hmm.

Nick:

And an animal kingdom. A new permit has been filed for the work at Harambe Market. Disney previously announced that Harambe market will temporarily close this winter for refurbishment, and this permit appears to be linked to the preparation of the new menu they're going to be serving there. That's it for Park News.

Joni:

Wow.

Nick:

And in the miscellaneous news, this,

Joni:

I'm gonna be honest, I just didn't even hear the last whole park news because I'm reading about Jane.

Nick:

Oh, you're, you're reading about Jane Goodall. Yeah. So.

Joni:

yeah. So Have to listen later.

Nick:

Listen

Joni:

tomorrow, listen tomorrow or Monday when it comes out.

Nick:

in, miscellaneous news. This, we've talked about this before. This is shouldn't surprise anybody. The Bloomberg magazine, you know, the financial magazine? Mm-hmm.

Joni:

Mm-hmm. Printed

Nick:

article that's Disney's new CEO list. Who's gonna replace Bob Iger next year is getting smaller and smaller and Josh Gama continues to be the front runner for that. The article, pretty much but locked him in another name. Got

Joni:

name got,

Nick:

dropped from the list of, of notable front runners, but Josh dama is definitely heading that list to become the next CEO. And if you're a Disney Parks fan, other, you know, rather than the Disney Entertainment fan, this is gonna be great news, I think, because he's in the, he's the head of the parks. He's there every day. He knows what needs to be done. I would love for, you know, if he did become CEO. Maybe he brings back Magical Express and other things, because maybe the only thing that's stopping that

Joni:

they already? Aren't they already experimenting, aren't they experimenting? Experiment.

Nick:

they're, they're doing a luggage service. If you only, if you fly Southwest

Joni:

Right.

Nick:

and only at Value Resorts, you can check your bag at the resort and you won't see your bag again until you land. So,

Joni:

So we're getting our toe wet.

Nick:

Yeah. And that's been going on for a while, but yeah, I think if he gets CEOI think we're gonna see some

Joni:

well, I'm sure they want data and statistics

Nick:

Oh yeah.

Joni:

a decision like that to see if it's worth their, you know.

Nick:

know. All right, well that's it for the news this week.

Joni:

Wow.

Nick:

Yeah. A

Joni:

That's a short one. Yeah,

Nick:

short one. Yeah, short one. And, you know, terrible news out Animal Kingdom in the last couple

Joni:

I know. What the heck.

Nick:

All right, well, let's head to our spotlight on attraction. What are we doing this week,

Joni:

doing this week? Oh, spotlight. We are gonna do, oh, we're gonna do a fun one today. We're gonna close out, fantasy land today.

Nick:

Closing it out.

Joni:

Closing it out. So we're done with all the rides, but I didn't get into a whole lot of the meet and greets. may

Nick:

do that as a separate segment sometime. Yeah,

Joni:

yeah. Because I have a whole list of like meet and greets where they are and whatnot, but we'll, we'll maybe close those out for the whole as a park hole. Yeah. Okay. So for our attraction. We're gonna talk about Casey Junior Splash and soak station and smell fence on parade. Okay, so we'll start with Casey Junior Splash and Soak Station, although they are both located in, storybook Circus, portion of fantasy land. So we'll just talk about. The splash station first. So cool off at a whimsical water play area. Inspired by the circus train from Walt Disney's Dumbo. Casey Junior is the train scene in the film where Dumbo, his mother misses Jumbo and other animals travel to, all of their circus shows. So it is across from the Dumbo Flying Elephant and the Barnstormer. It's designed to look like it has actual animals, in the trains. Where there's monkeys, camels that spray and elephants. So obviously, you know, if you don't wanna get wet, don't go in it. They have benches. They have benches, you can sit around or

Nick:

It's basically a splash

Joni:

Yeah. Yeah. And it's obviously no age. There's, it's set. Now, this is silly to me. I apologize. It's not silly to me. I was looking at the wrong line. I thought it said 20 minute wait time or 20 minute duration, and I was like, you could be there as long as you want. I was looking at the wrong line. Forgive me, get out. I know. Up. I know. Okay. So it opened in Walt Disney World December 6th, 2012, as part of the park's larger expansion of fantasy land after replacing Donald's boat. That was in Mickey's to town Fair. There are four train cars and each is numbered to represent the opening year of each of the four Walt Disney theme parks. Really? Yeah. Okay. So that's something

Nick:

something I did not

Joni:

Yeah. One of the cars is number 71. There's an elephant in the car, and that is for Magic Kingdom, 19 71 1 19 82. So car number 82 there is a clown

Nick:

Epcot

Joni:

and he represents Epcot. Yep.

Nick:

Yep.

Joni:

There is an 1989

Nick:

Hollywood Studios.

Joni:

no, really? Oh yeah, it's, I apologize. Look at me. Screw it up. Um, 1989, so the car number is 89 and there's a giraffe in there representing Hollywood Studios, which was originally, in 89 Disney MGM studios. And then of course the last one is marked with a 98, so that is a camel. And that one stands for Animal Kingdom for 1998. Sorry. Yeah, I didn't

Nick:

think I didn't know that. That's news to me

Joni:

and I'm happy to hear that with Animal, A camel is like my favorite animal. I love the camels camel. Yep.

Nick:

They do spit.

Joni:

I think. I just think they're, they're kind of cool, you know, they, they resemble a little bit of like giraffes. I've never ridden on a camel though. I've ridden on an elephant before. Have you? Yeah, I have. They're very coarse. I didn't. Yeah, at a circus,

Nick:

look hairy. Are they hairy?

Joni:

it's very cor, it's very thin, but it's cosy. But no, I like camels, but actually drafts are my ultimate favorites. But, um, anyway, and then the number nine on the locomotive has no significance. I thought it did. I was looking and looking and digging and digging. So all it makes me think is that little, engine engine number nine going down Chicago line.

Nick:

Yeah, you just think

Joni:

So I just thought number nine, it's gotta

Nick:

have something. We'll, we'll go with it. We'll go with it.

Joni:

but it made no sense because

Nick:

we may be completely wrong, but we're gonna go with it on this show.

Joni:

No. So, as a train, it was an opening day attraction in Disneyland. July 17th, 1955, and it closed the next day for safety testing and reopened. July 31st, 1955. Disneyland, Paris version opened March 20th, 1980, or, I'm sorry, 1994 as a roller coaster for the littles through Storybook Land. Casey Jr. Is a reference to Casey Jones, the famous railroad engineer. Who sadly passed in a train collision in the 19 hundreds. Hmm. So lots of history going on there, which we would expect with Walt being a big train fanatic. Yeah. So, yeah. So that is for the Casey's. Splash and soak. Now onto smell a fence.

Nick:

Smell a fence.

Joni:

So this is a walking activity. And you get, if you go into, there's a certain area that you meet and you can collect a map and some stickers. Yes. Mm-hmm. So what you, what the idea is, it's a walking activity that you embark on, an interactive search and sniff experience that is perfect for noses of all ages.

Nick:

ages.

Joni:

This opened at Walt Disney World May 5th, 2024. And in order to get your map and your stickers, you visit the ticket booth in front of the big top souvenirs, and you'll get your illustrated map and your sticker sheet to guide you in your search. Find all eight statues scattered around storybook circus using the stickers and map to track your progress. Let your nose guide you to these colorful and frag smell elephants presented by sensei.

Nick:

Okay,

Joni:

to throw that in there.

Nick:

so yeah, we did this.

Joni:

are not paid sponsors of senses.

Nick:

Um, we did this at the Christmas party last year, I

Joni:

I believe. Yeah, yeah.

Nick:

Um, yeah, it was fun.

Joni:

I'll tell you though, I got some looks here I am walking around smelling and literally this man was sitting. You know, by one of'em. And I'm like, Ooh, what one is that? And I'm going out and smelling. And he just looked at me all strange, and he didn't know what I was doing. And then I said, I said, well, I'm just, I'm just smelling this elephant. And he, he had no idea that that was a thing. And just the look he gave me was so. Comical that I was just like, see, don't you smell it. And I like, felt like I had to explain myself and then I was like, whatever.

Nick:

So you just go to theme parks going around smelling, smelling the random statues around the

Joni:

Yeah. But it is cute. And we actually do have a map and a sticker sheet that, if you're, if you want to, you can post it up on the

Nick:

Sure.

Joni:

So, you guys can take a peek and see what it looks like if you haven't done it.

Nick:

I kinda, yeah. I kinda feel like this is like a hidden thing in meant that it's not well known. Yeah. In

Joni:

Well, it came out in 2024. Okay. So that's all I have on that.

Nick:

Okay. So that closes out Fantasy land,

Joni:

Yeah, and they're right. I mean, the elephants are within Oh yeah. The train. So they're all scattered around. So you can basically.

Nick:

you basically

Joni:

Knock out both of them in at, at once if you want to.

Nick:

Yeah. And it's fun, especially if you have little kids. Yeah. You know, the smells are kind of powerful.

Joni:

They have eight of'em. I mean, and, and some of them are, I thought I had some of them written down here. I don't wanna give them away, but there's like popcorn and cotton candy and churro.

Nick:

And I believe so we did

Joni:

bubble gum.

Nick:

did it during the Christmas party. And remember one of'em was right by the snow machine.

Joni:

I'm sorry, what?

Nick:

right by the, the snow machine.

Joni:

Yes,

Nick:

And we were just getting drenched with snow while we were trying to snow,

Joni:

which is soap. Soap bubbles. Yeah.

Nick:

Okay. Well that closes out fantasy land. We were going to move around the park next. I don't know where we're heading next, but we'll find out. We'll find out. Find out next week.

Joni:

figure it out.

Nick:

Okay. Thanks Joni. Now onto the movie of the week. And I gotta be honest, I had never seen this movie. We just watched it last night for homework for our show. We do do homework. Yes, we are assigned. Joni assigns me stuff. We did watch it last

Joni:

have to give him snacks, but he,

Nick:

So go ahead. What movie did we have this week?

Joni:

Uh, yesterday. Now I had seen this movie prior, but as Nick said, he has not seen this movie. So we are gonna talk about Raya today, although not noted as a princess. She is the chief's daughter. So Will counter, just like we did Pocahontas. So Raya and the last dragon came out March 5th, 2021. It is 107 minutes. The budget, a hundred million box office 130.4 million. Now before we start thinking, oh my goodness, that didn't make a whole lot of money.

Nick:

Yeah. Oh,

Joni:

We'll explain it, um, here in just a little bit. So the directors and I am gonna try my best on these names and I apologize ahead of time.'Cause I am for sure gonna slaughter them. The directors are Carlos Lopez, Estrada and Don Hall. The writers are Key. Win and Adele Lim. Liam, I think it's Liam and producers

Nick:

ocher

Joni:

She and Peter delve. I believe that's how those

Nick:

I think those names came off your tongue very well.

Joni:

I will. I will. Just a little side note here, I just asked Alexa before we started this, how do I pronounce this name? This O-S-N-A-T, and she said it's pronounced snot.

Nick:

We're not gonna do that.

Joni:

it's not.

Nick:

Even if it is, we're not gonna

Joni:

not gonna do that. So it's Or oat. Or oat something. Anyway, story ideas by Bradley, Raymond and Helen. I'm not even gonna try this one. I'm gonna spell it. K-A-L-A-F-A-T-I-C

Nick:

Okay.

Joni:

the inspiration is traditional Southeast Asian culture. RA's age is 18. In this show, this movie rather, traits include initially she is, suspicious and she lacks trust, which gradually gives way to bravery, resilience, and a strong belief in unity and hope. And at times she displays moments of humor and wisdom, her nationality region. I'm just gonna a little bit about her name'cause I was kind of like trying to fo focus a little bit on that. So it says that it's a Ria is UA name used by people from many different countries and cultures, so it doesn't have a single nationality. Okay. So I wrote them down, but let's see. I would just count'em 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It could be from five names. And four other surnames. So it's used widely.

Nick:

yeah, it's all over the

Joni:

Yes. Occupation. She's a skilled warrior and athlete. Proficient in martial arts, is a Disney animated film where RAA set in the mythical land of Kuman, where humans and dragons once lived together in harmony when a dark force called the drun. Threatened the world. The dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity, leaving behind a magical dragon gym. Centuries later, the people of Mundra are divided into five rival lands. We've got the heart, the Fang Spine, talon, and Tail, and I just realized yesterday when watching this, that it literally, each one of those is a part of the dragon.

Nick:

Yeah. They said, yeah. They actually said that in the movie. They said each, each land is a part of the

Joni:

The first time that I watched it. I didn't even, I was probably chasing a couple of children around or getting snacks. So when the Dragon Gym is broken, evil Drun returns turning people into stone and Raya being the skilled warrior that she is from the land of heart. Embarks on a quest to find Sisu, who is a legendary dragon. Together, they travel across fractured lands to recover the missing gym pieces and try to unite the people of Mundra. So they're gonna try to put all these talon, spine, heart, all

Nick:

Yep. Put'em. Yep.

Joni:

Because right now they're at rivals.

Nick:

Yep. They're all fighting and

Joni:

They all wanna be the top one and they think heart is getting special treatment. So, along the way, Raya gathers a team of unlikely allies and begins to learn that trust and cooperation may be the only way to truly save the world. The film focuses on themes of unity, hope, and the power of believing in others. her sidekick, she, she gains several, but her official best friend throughout the whole movie his name is, uh, Tuk. He has a loyal, cute fantasy creature who is a hybrid of a pill bug. An armadillo and a pug.

Nick:

Yep. He crawls up in his shell and he rolls

Joni:

Yeah. When I saw that, that he was a pill bug, I'd never heard it called a pill bug. I call him rolly pollies.

Nick:

Okay. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've never heard it called a pill bug.

Joni:

my kids used to like touch him and they'd roll him balls and then they would roll him on the sidewalk. So the family, she has her is her dad, who is also her trainer and his name Chief Benja. There's no spouse and there is no official movie confirmed as a follow-up. Although there are rumors and speculative reports that suggest that there may be a sequel potentially to be released 25, which we're nearing and I haven't seen anything at theater. So don't think that's true,

Nick:

I don't think that's true.

Joni:

but it says 25, 26. However, the information is not confirmed by Disney. So probably not true if they're not talking about it. No children. Lots of, lots and lots of award nominations. 48 total.

Nick:

Oh wow.

Joni:

Seven wins. I'm not gonna go into all seven'cause there's quite a few, but one of which was the golden reel for outstanding achievement and sound editing sound effects, fully dialogue. And a DR for animated feature film. Okay, now here's, here's where we get into the,

Nick:

a hundred Budget

Joni:

being a hundred box office pulls. One 30.

Nick:

I think I know where you're going, but go

Joni:

The film was delayed twice due to the pandemic Uhhuh.

Nick:

Uhhuh.

Joni:

It was supposed to be released November, 2020, so it didn't get a lot of, you couldn't go anywhere, but it became the third most streamed movie of 2021.

Nick:

Did it really? Yeah. So, yeah. So during the,

Joni:

so it didn't get the box office, um, monies

Nick:

but it got the views it got.

Joni:

Right.

Nick:

So yeah. During that time, the movie theaters were shut out a lot or shut down. A lot of movies were just coming straight to streaming. Yeah. Because they

Joni:

And how do they charge for those? It just comes outta your streaming. I don't,

Nick:

yeah, but see now they, and I don't remember how they did it back then, but now, like Disney will even put out. Movies that are in the theaters, they'll put it out on Disney Plus, you have to pay$30 to watch it. I think it's$30. Even

Joni:

you have Disney

Nick:

if you have Disney plus. This is for the new movies that are in the theaters during the pandemic. I don't know. I don't remember how they handled that. I don't know if it was just with your service or if you had to pay extra.

Joni:

I don't know. I don't remember. I didn't. I don't remember that either, but I would hope. If anybody knows, let us know. But I would hope that it was just included because

Nick:

It's not your fault

Joni:

It was out of everyone's control. I mean, so anyway, um, yeah. In addition to being the most streamed film of 2021, it received positive reviews from critics. So I don't have any of those quotes from critics, but they were positive.

Nick:

Okay.

Joni:

So yeah, pretty cool.

Nick:

My first time watching it was last night. Wasn't a huge fan, wasn't terrible. I, it was average. I think I told Joni it was, it was average. But it's worth

Joni:

he was. I knew what he, I knew what he was gonna say before he even opened his mouth last night after I said it wasn't your favorite. It wasn't Mulan, was it?

Nick:

No, I did like,

Joni:

it.

Nick:

I, I liked Mulan. I told my coworker that, that we loved Live Action Mulan. She's like, she's like, really? She's like, I haven't heard any. She goes, I haven't. You're the first person I've heard say that. I'm like, oh, we loved it better than the movie or the cartoon. Oh

Joni:

yeah, for sure. We really did enjoy that one.

Nick:

Okay. Thanks Jonie.

Joni:

Yep. You bet.

Nick:

bet. That's Raya. This week's tip or trick is regarding stays at Disney World, your resorts. And this tip is to, if you've ever wanted to stay at a deluxe or a moderate, but it's a little outta your price range. Mm-hmm. Go ahead and do that. Split.

Joni:

a, Hey,

Nick:

What is a split stay?

Joni:

What is a split stay?

Nick:

split stay is you can stay at multiple resorts during your Disney vacation. there are some caveats to that. I'll get into that in two in a minute. But Disney will transfer your bags for you.

Joni:

Yes.

Nick:

So let's say you've always wanted to stay at the Polynesian, but it's expensive to stay at the Polynesian. You can go there for one night. Yeah.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

You know, just stay there and,, don't go to any parks. Just stay at the Polynesian

Joni:

and

Nick:

and then you. Give your bags to, the bellhop in the morning before you go to the park, and they will transfer your bags to your new resort for you. So you could stay one night at the Polynesian, then spend the rest of the week at Allstar or wherever you wanna stay.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

The caveat to that is if you are doing split stays, that will interfere with your dining reservations. What I mean by that is you'll have two reservations, so you'll have two different 60 day windows. Yes. From your check-in days. Correct. So just keep that in mind. A lot of people don't realize that when they book

Joni:

so give an example. Like you just used Polynesian. Mm-hmm. So let's say, let, let's pick a date. Let's, what's Monday's date?

Nick:

October

Joni:

Okay. Let's say October 6th. Mm-hmm. We're checking into Polynesian. Okay. We want and, and our it's, and then we're going to pop.

Nick:

Okay.

Joni:

Okay. On Tuesday.

Nick:

Yep.

Joni:

So what exactly does that mean as far as if we wanted to make a dinner reservation?

Nick:

if you wanted, okay, so your first line of Polynesian, when you check in, if you wanted to make a, an, an advanced dining reservation, you would make that 60 days prior to your Polynesian check-in day.

Joni:

dining, where

Nick:

anywhere that anywhere you want to eat, that requires an advanced dining reservation. Okay,

Joni:

okay,

Nick:

so, uh. Now the following day, you're gonna start a new reservation'cause you're moving resorts. So your 60 day window will restart from 60 days prior to that

Joni:

So what happens to your reservation you made at the Polynesian the day prior?

Nick:

Nothing. You go there any,

Joni:

you were, I thought you were implying that it would affect reservations.

Nick:

no, no. It doesn't affect reservations. It affects when you book

Joni:

Oh, I see.

Nick:

see. So perfect example. I

Joni:

knew something that I didn't. No.

Nick:

no, no. We have a split stay coming up in November, December. We're staying at Bay Lake one night and then moving to Animal Kingdom, so we will have two different 60 day dining reservation. Booking windows. Mm-hmm. So just keep that in mind does not affect,'cause we did a split stay last year. It does not affect booking lightning lanes. Don't know why they don't. I don't know why it's not uniform, but it's not. So if you do a split last year we did four days at John Boat, three days at Kani. We were able to book all seven day lightning lanes. You know, from our first check-in day of our whole stay. Yeah,

Joni:

Yeah. I'm not one that particularly likes to live out of my suitcase now when we've gone to Mexico. Nick lives out of his suitcase the entire time. I don't like it.

Nick:

You've broke me of

Joni:

I did break him of that because it was very annoying to me, however, so I would say that, that for me. Is a little bit of a downfall that you have to basically get there. You can't really unpack and get settled in. I agree. Another thing that I think is a, might be a little bit, a bit of a downfall is if you're traveling with children.

Nick:

yes. That would be the downfall.

Joni:

That is a little bit of a downfall, but I do think it's positives is that you get to venture out and explore a lot more, which you can always go to any of these resorts

Nick:

Yeah. You can visit any of

Joni:

be staying there. But in order to be able to get in and see the rooms and you know, different things like that and just be immersed in it, I think it's good. And I'm happy that, that we have the opportunity to do split stays, that that's even a thing.

Nick:

Yeah. And like I said, Disney transfers your bags, so you just give it to them. They take care of it. It shows up in your room at your new resort. Yeah. Another good thing about doing split stays is if you're gonna be doing all four parks on your vacation, you're doing, you, you could do Magic Kingdom and Epcot and stay at a monorail resort. Yeah. And then if you know you wanna do, or if you wanna do Hollywood Studios, you know. Later in your trip, you move to a Skyliner resort. Mm-hmm. So an animal kingdom's, you know, a bus only all by itself, but,

Joni:

but,

Nick:

but you know, you can make your split stays Yeah. Accommodate your, your park days.

Joni:

Well, because we've also like on some of our off days, our off park days. Yeah. We've done the resort hops. Mm-hmm. And we didn't by any means, get'em covered at all. I mean, just a little glimpse of here and there. I mean, there's no, there's, what's that one that's just absolutely. Saratoga Springs is just enormous, huge. Huge. Huge.

Nick:

Like I didn't, I've heard it's big, but until we got on, we went over, we went there to go to the gift shop.

Joni:

met a couple people on the bus. Yeah. And, walked with them and they,

Nick:

they explained around. But even getting on the bus to leave Sara to. We there was like, what, six, six stops? Yeah. Just in Saratoga. Yeah. It was

Joni:

Yeah, it was, it was very, very, very large. But, so there's no way. But if you just wanted to. You know, like you said, don't even have it be a park day. You just wanna enjoy the resort. That's perfect. Yeah.

Nick:

So yeah. Split stays look into it.

Joni:

It doesn't cost any extra.

Nick:

Nothing. No. Actually right now there's an advantage. Like we're doing a split stay in, like I said, in December, Disney did not put a stop to this. And it's been known, but we get two free waterpark days.'cause we have, we have two different check-in days. Yeah.

Joni:

Yeah,

Nick:

We're checking into Bay Lake. We get a waterpark day, which is good because we're arriving late later, like three o'clock. But the next day we move to Animal Kingdom, we get another free water park day. So that's what we're doing while they transfer our bags. Yeah. So.

Joni:

Yep,

Nick:

I thought Disney would catch onto that. They did not. Well,

Joni:

Well, you know what, maybe it's a thing that they're just like, let'em

Nick:

yeah, just let it, just let it go. You

Joni:

you know? It's a, it's a perk that it, They're just being generous.

Nick:

Yep.

Joni:

So Cool. Okay.

Nick:

All right. Well that's it for this week's show. You can visit our website in main street talk pod.com. All of our information is there. Our Facebook page is Main Street Talk. The Facebook group is Disney World Tips and Talk. Instagram is Main Street Talk podcast and you can contact me for any of your Disney vacation needs. nick.Garcia@academytravel.com and you can bring the theme park smells home if you want. The link for the Magic Candle Company is on our website. Use the code Main Street talk at checkout for 15% off. And those are some good smelling candles.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

All right, so we will be back next week and we are gonna be in a new land with Spotlight. We haven't figured out which one we're gonna do, but tune in next week and we're gonna start a whole new land. Yeah. Until then, we

Joni:

before we, before we, before we cut off, I would just like to, say

Nick:

say a

Joni:

quote here from Miss Jane Goodall.

Nick:

Yes, please do

Joni:

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

Nick:

Jane Goodall gonna be missed.

Joni:

Okay?

Nick:

Okay? All right. We'll leave you with that. We will talk to you real soon. Bye

Joni:

everyone.

Contributor

Joni

Host
Contributor

Nick

Host