In this week’s episode, Chris discusses the 5 lessons we learned from Spring Break at Disney and how we’ll change things on our next trip. Kelli gets into the science behind our favorite Disney smells and then ranks the top 10.
Listen to us on your favorite podcast platform or at these links:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supercalifragilistic-awesome-disney-podcast/id1519529786
IHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-supercalifragilistic-aweso-68324055/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7aEKXzO7tTCqZfnvJnzAPC
SCFADP on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scfadp/
SCFADP on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SuperCaliFragilisticAwesomeDisneyPodcast
All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
For more things DISNEY (and Disney food reviews), check out our website: https://scfadp.com
Show Notes:
Chris and Kelli discuss the gap between Disney fans’ online opinions and the reality of park experiences. They share tips for planning a successful Disney trip, including budgeting and prioritizing downtime. They also explore the science behind why smells evoke stronger memories than images, sharing their personal associations with various scents. The conversation highlights the importance of considering both online opinions and personal experiences when planning a Disney trip.
Outline
Disney topics, vintage merchandise, and listener locations.
- Chris and Kelli discuss their recent trip and share insights from their travels.
- They mention vintage Disney merchandise, barbecue in Georgia, and hockey in Canada.
Disney park experiences and short memories.
- Chris and Kelli discuss Disney fans’ criticism of park experience leaders.
- Chris and Kelli discuss short memories and dissatisfaction with Disney decisions.
- Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World is a game-changer, immersive experience with characters from the Star Wars universe.
Disney investments in new attractions and technology.
- Disney took a $400 million swing with Galaxy’s Edge, despite COVID challenges.
- New attractions and renovations in Disney World, including Tron and Ratatouille.
- Chris and Kelli discuss Imagineers’ work on unannounced projects, including a potential casita, while acknowledging the limitations of short memories and attention spans.
Disney trip planning, including budgeting, gift cards, and the importance of down days.
- Chris and Kelli learned to purchase Disney gift cards ahead of time to save money on their trip.
- Chris and Kelli prioritize meals over shows, missing opportunities at Disney.
- Chris and Kelli discuss the importance of planning down days during vacations, even with shorter stays.
- They emphasize the need for balance between park days and relaxation to avoid burnout and make the most of the trip.
Disney World tips and tricks for managing crowds and making the most of the experience.
- Chris and Kelli learned that visiting two parks in a 4-day trip can be exhausting and may not be the best use of time.
- Extended magic hours at deluxe resorts can provide a more enjoyable experience with reduced crowds.
- Chris and Kelli discuss the effectiveness of Extra Magic Hours at Disney Resorts, sharing their personal experiences and insights.
- They also highlight the importance of scents in evoking nostalgia and memories at Disney parks.
Disney’s use of scents to evoke emotions and memories, with a focus on the science behind it.
- Disney uses smell machines called “smell Tisers” to release familiar scents throughout its parks, which can reduce stress and evoke happy memories.
- According to a 30-year Disney park veteran, these machines release scents on purpose to engage visitors’ senses and create a more immersive experience.
- Kelli and Chris discuss the science behind nostalgic smells, with Kelli sharing her top 10 smells from Disney parks.
- Kelli and Chris play a game where they try to quickly describe a Disney smell, with Kelli mentioning specific smells like apple pie and champagne, and Chris associating Main Street USA with sweet confectionery.
Disney scents and memories.
- Kelli and Chris analyze the scent of Disney World resorts, with Kelli identifying specific smells and Chris associating them with memories from his childhood.
- Kelli’s top 3 favorite scents are Riviera resort (smelling like expensive perfume), grand flow (elegant and money), and water during the bombing corner of Pirates of the Caribbean (damp ocean air and fresh rain).
- Chris and Kelli discuss their experience on a Disney ride, particularly the scent of the Banshee.
- They mention a future t-shirt design and encourage listeners to leave a review and support the show.
Top 10 Disney Smells: “Scent-evoked nostalgia”
https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2023-09-19/disneyland-disney-world-addiction-travel-craving-science
https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-smellitzer-how-disneyland-uses-smells-to-influence-visitors-2023-9
https://www.fastcompany.com/40425628/the-secrets-of-disneyland-company-vet-explains-how-the-magic-happens
https://phdprincess.com/blog/disney-smells
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-scents/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/aromas-disney-magic-behind-smellitizers-marketingmindin/
https://dvcshop.com/the-scents-of-disney-resorts-and-attractions/
- Main Street
- Today’s Topic(s)
- A recent topic proposed on social media (aka DisTwitter), was effectively – are Disney fans too hard on the Park Experiences leaders for either not bringing on new experiences fast enough, or for making changes to beloved experiences, or not making certain changes to beloved experiences.
- It’s what they are discussing on Main Street, so let’s talk about it.
- I think, at least in part, there is some insight built into the question:
- Yes, the Disney rabble are not happy if we change existing rides, we are not happy that Universal is adding more right now than WDW, we aren’t happy when new stuff comes to a park other than the park we visit most, and we just aren’t happy in general.
- But we are also super quick to ignore the work that has been done:
- Galaxy’s Edge at WDW: August 29, 2019 (May 31, 2019 at DL) – not even 5 years old
- The auto-negative response – yeah but Smuggler’s run sucks!!
- Pandora – the World of Avatar: May 27, 2017 – not even 7 years old
- Tron in Shanghai, June 2016, construction started 19 months later in Orlando, and in just over 2 weeks it will hit it’s first anniversary.
- Tiana’s Bayou adventure has been the subject of MUCH consternation. Lord knows we didn’t see the level of backlash when Universe of Energy was replaced by Cosmic Rewind – I wonder why?
- Speaking of Cosmic Rewind – it’s a tremendously cool ride, hugely innovative, $500m to build, May 22, 2022 (not even 2 years old)
- Remy’s Rattatoulle Adventure opened Oct 1, 2021 (delayed in part due to Covid), it’s only been around 2.5 years
- Let’s talk about the HUGE SWING that Disney took with the Halcyon (Galactic Starcruiser) experience – at WDW. That was an ENORMOUS investment ($400 Million just to build the physical space), not to mention the time to create the storylines, hire and train actors, etc. (opened March 1 2022, and closed just a year and a half later in Sept 2023)
- They’ve completely rebuilt a HUGE portion of Future World at EPCOT and rebranded the entire park which more to come
- Which includes the Journey of Water – again new and innovative, but maybe not everyone’s cup of tea. Only 5 months old
- Frozen Ever After – June 21, 2016 – less than 8 years old.
- New experiences on Star Tours, with more coming. I haven’t had the same experience twice on that ride in years.
- Galaxy’s Edge at WDW: August 29, 2019 (May 31, 2019 at DL) – not even 5 years old
- Today’s Topic(s)
- Tomorrowland
- We learn things with every trip, and this time was no different. Some of these are things that maybe we knew, but have never implemented for ourselves until now.
- Purchasing Disney Gift Cards ahead of time is so worth it, especially if done so in a way that takes advantages of discounts (Target Red Card for example.
- I have half a mind to build $100 into the monthly budget to buy a gift card for whenever the next trip is.
- I’m also glad we made the switch to the Disney Visa card. The redemption points from that paid for lunch and dinner for 4 people at EPCOT (Sunshine Seasons, and Via Napoli).
- Don’t schedule shows or highly anticipated meals for the travel day.
- For the second time we’ve missed Drawn to Life that was scheduled for our travel day.
- We also missed reservations at Homecoming, and shopping at World of Disney / Disney Springs.
- As a result, we missed our chance to dine with Snow White or enjoy the DVC lounge at Bay Lake as our entire schedule was shaken up.
- Going forward, whatever we get to do on travel day will be seen as a bonus.
- Plan down day, no matter the length of stay.
- This trip was a couple of days shorter than our usual trip. We had 4 full days and without thinking about it too much, we just scheduled 4 days in the parks, and told ourselves the Animal Kingdom day would be short and we could use the evening to relax.
- But then Wednesday happened… 16.5 hours in Magic Kingdom (technically) was an absolute killer. EPCOT was super abbreviated as a result because we just needed some sleep.
- In the future, on we will prioritize down days even if it means we don’t get to all the parks. I’m not willing to have a day at EPCOT that is super limited, because I was overly tired.
- Done differently, I think we would have eliminated our day at either HS or AK, moved EPCOT to one of those days, knockled out MK the same way we did on this trip, and our last day would have been a down day – which opens the door to Disney Springs stuff we ultimately missed out on.
- Extended hours for the deluxe resorts is what Extra Magic Hours used to be and I can’t say it’s worth the expense of staying in the Deluxe Resorts, but it is a nice perk.
- I was skeptical. I remember being a kid and taking part in the extra magic hours, which meant literally staying on rides to re-ride them over and over. And I just couldn’t imagine a world that allowed that kind of things again.
- But between Lightening Lane stacking and the immensely reduced crowd – and franky the Tron ride pulling a lot of guests, we rode Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion for a second time, Pirates for a second time, Dumbo, and Tron, all within the 2 hours allotted.
- And frankly, if this had been our first park day, and we were approaching it with more vigor, we could have also ridden Peter Pan (and if you know about the lines for Peter Pan, you know that’s really saying something), Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.
- A WONDERFUL way to end your day at EPCOT is to NOT fight the crowds for Skyliners, Busses, and Monorails. Instead, walk over to Boardwalk for a bit.
- The general store there is MUCH better than the average Resort store.
- They do a wonderful job of scheduling street performers to start their shows just as folks are leaving EPCOT.
- Between that and the people leaving EPCOT, the Boardwalk atmosphere is really lively and fun.
- We stopped into Abracadabar for the first time ever, which was lively, but not crowded, and had just a great time with fun drinks, meeting new friends, great service, and a delightful atmosphere.
- Then we used a short uber ride to our resort. Perfect way to end the evening.
Episode Transcript:
NOTE: This transcript was produced by AI and may have many inaccuracies. Please excuse any transcription issues.
welcome aboard Disney fam Hello out there Disney fam. My name is Chris. And
Kelli 0:35
I’m Kelly.
Chris 0:36
We are just recently back from our trip this past week, we might need a few weeks to to recover from it. And you decided to go with the the Navi yours today with the headband and all that.
Kelli 0:54
These are good ones. cute nose. Yeah. And they’re their own point, their own topic or they don’t sell these in the stores anymore. They had different versions.
Chris 1:04
Because I definitely saw a couple of folks with those parts. I saw several
Kelli 1:07
wearing them. But it appears that these are now vintage. Vintage. Vintage. Yes.
Chris 1:15
Awesome. So yeah, we’ll have some insights into our trip as part of this episode, I think. Yep. And we had downloads this week from trainer Iowa trainer, trainer, Iowa. This is 1000 Folks that live on 413 acres of land about 30 miles east of Omaha. Wow. Hold down 413 a day. Wow. It’s cute. And you know what they probably all listen to us gathered around in the community hall. Arlington, Texas, which is nestled right in there between Dallas and Fort Worth home of AT and T Stadium also known as where
Kelli 1:54
the Cowboys play. Okay, Arlington. I
Chris 1:57
think the Rangers are also in Arlington. Norcross, Georgia. I used to work for a company that was based out of Norcross it’s a sweet little community outside of Atlanta was the first place I had Dreamland barbecue. And if you’ve had Dreamland barbecue, that’s something you remember. A loaf of bread on the table with a with barbecue sauce to dip into that’s your appetizer, a dreamland and it’s white bread, right? Why? Just straight up stick to the roof of your mouth white bread, white bread. That’s
Kelli 2:25
right pop. I like his brother Wonder Bread. So stick to his dentures.
Chris 2:29
Yes. And then Konata Canada. Xin Ontario. It’s a suburb of Ottawa, is home of Canadian Tire Arena, home of the NHL is Ottawa centers. Okay, so welcome fine folks of Canada, Canada, if I’m not saying that, right, please, forgive me. Okay, we
Kelli 2:48
love you. Very, very interesting. Well done.
Chris 2:51
So, let’s jump over to Main Street, we got a little bit of a change. Here in the start of season nine, we’re gonna change up how we do main street a little bit, it was gonna be a little more focused on maybe an item or two or what people are talking about on this Twitter or maybe a news item that we just want to ponder a little bit. We rarely get through all the news items anyway, so you know how you like to ramble on. So I figured, like, I think this format would give us an opportunity to ramble. Okay, so here we go. Today’s topic on Main Street. Someone recently posted on social media, what we will affectionately called dis Twitter. The question was this, are Disney fans too hard on park experience leaders for either not bringing on new experiences fast enough, or for or for making changes to beloved experience or not making changes to beloved experiences? Right? Or? There’s just it’s a constant stream out there of, oh, I don’t like this decision. I don’t like that decision. When are they going to make this decision? One of the it’s just, it’s constant out there in the social media. Now. I don’t want to I don’t want to assume that. Social media speaks for the for the greater populace. Right. It’s it’s an easy in any platform, any social media platform, any subject any topic. It’s easy to convince ourselves that because people online are saying it, that’s what the world at large believes. You would think that Disney parks would be suffering mightily from all of the consternation to be found online and social media. But as we know, the parks are killing it.
Kelli 4:31
Right. Shockingly, you can profits with all making
Chris 4:35
big profits doing well standing up the movie and television divisions, frankly. But the parks are not suffering at all from a lack of people visiting as we can attest to during spring break week, or anyone that goes really anytime of the
Kelli 4:51
year. Yes. People were there. People were
Chris 4:55
there were I was listening to one of the cast members. I can’t remember exactly where we were, but someone’s asked to cast them or is it just like this? I know that this is the start of spring break. What is your spring break season? Because every state, every school district all have sort of different spring breaks between leading up to and just after Easter. Right? And so he said, Yeah, it’s about a six week period during spring break. Then we have about two weeks in May where it’s not, you know, it’s still people here, but it’s not the big crowds. And then we hit the summer season and it gets crazy again, right? And then the holidays get crazy. Yes. So it’s people are there people are in the parks. They’re not running away as a result of all the horrible decisions being made by the park experience leaders. But I thought I’d take a minute and just sort of talk about, it’s not just that we seem dissatisfied with the decisions that are being made. It also seems like we have horrifically short memories. Yes, people do. Right? People do depart. Walt Disney World is 50 years old. We just celebrated it. It’s 50 years old. The Walt Disney Company is 100 years old. Right? Because we do the same thing about the movies. Right? All that movies suck the Disney’s falling apart. Well, Encanto is not really that old. Right. You know, right. Yeah. Which is just a glorious movie. Okay, and others. All right. So I thought I would sort of talk about some things that we clearly have short memories over. Okay. Okay. I just wonder what your thoughts are. How do you think Galaxy’s edge at Walt Disney World is
Kelli 6:40
Galaxy’s edge. I’m gonna say 10 years.
Chris 6:44
It is not even five years old. Really? Yes. Absolutely.
Kelli 6:49
I know. Felt like I mean, it feels like just yesterday that you were doing the getting in the queues for rides the resist. Exactly.
Chris 6:59
Yes. Galaxy’s edge at Walt Disney World opened on August 29 2019. So in August, it was at its fifth birthday. The one in Disneyland opened a couple months prior on May 31 2019. Okay, right. The now the automatic negative does Twitter response to that is okay, yeah, well, Smugglers Run sucks. You know, that would be the auto response to realize that
Kelli 7:27
the captain hummus platter does not whatever shift is in charge of the ronto wraps and the Capto and hummus platters killed it. And I’m telling you, I was walking around with one of those coffee drinks with the cocoa puffs on top from everybody wanted to know everybody. Where did you get that? Is that coffee? Does that have caffeine? Where did you get that? What is that? I mean, I got stopped no less than 10 times, right?
Chris 7:48
And this Galaxy’s edge is also a game changer. Right? This was an immersive experience. The cast members are not just cast members, they live on bat too, right? They are characters as much as they are cast members, right? This is not a place where you line up in line to have your picture made with a Disney princess. This is the characters from the universe that Star Wars exists in our walking around amongst the crowd. Right. The storm troopers are walking through the crowd and interacting with you. You know, it’s a it’s a real game changer and it’s less than five years old. Okay, yeah. Peter Pan would never have guessed that Peter Pan’s Flight was created and opened up in Disney Land in 1954. Whenever the park opened out there, and and it’s got, you know, two hour long lines, right? Well, there’s still still so let’s you know, Galaxy’s edge. Just five years old, right? Okay. Speaking of Galaxy’s edge, while the galactic starcruiser did not work, okay? Did not work is just cost prohibitive, especially during this time. Yeah. But I get Disney credit for taking a swing, a big swing, a big swing, huge, huge cost $400 million, just to build the physical space. Wow, that doesn’t include storylines, the data pads, the actors, right, the training and getting those folks all right, a huge swing game changing swing, I’m sure that they will have learned a bunch from that and it’ll apply that to things in the future. But that was a huge swing a major investment. While they take the hit for it not working out. They gotta get some credit for trying.
Kelli 9:49
Yeah, they took they took a massive swing like that. Right during COVID. Exactly. Sure. That wasn’t the ideal time to do it. Right. But still, they didn’t say we’re gonna wait on That’s
Chris 10:00
right. And additionally, people are also often complained that Walt Disney World never gets any the new stuff all the best cool new stuff goes other places. Well, not that. That was that came directly to Walt Disney World, right? Absolutely. Pandora world of Avatar. How old is it?
Kelli 10:19
That’s 10
Chris 10:20
years for sure. Seven not. Not quite seven years old. Okay. Wow. Quite seven years old. That ain’t no small feat. What they did over there and Pandora, gosh, two attractions, amazing food as we learned this time, and just a sight to behold at night. It’s ridiculously beautiful. Yeah. Okay. That’s crazy, right? I mean, the technology, the wind and just the decorations there,
Kelli 10:47
right? Yeah, insane. Absolutely insane. Tron in
Chris 10:50
Shanghai opened in June of 2016. And construction started just 19 months later in Orlando. And in just over two weeks, it’s gonna hit its first anniversary. You and I have not seen it in person. We’ve experienced it. That’s not a small thing there that was added to the Magic Kingdom years. They were building that during COVID as well. Yes, we were one of our first episodes was talking about Tron coming to this right. So practically still brand new. They’re still doing virtual cues for that one. Tiana’s Bayou adventure. Obviously the center of a lot of online consternation. Lord knows we didn’t see that kind of backlash when universe of energy went away and did was came cosmic rewind, but that’s going to be a brand new attraction that reflects a ton of investment. Okay, speaking of cosmic rewind, tremendously cool, hugely innovative $500 million, just to build it. And opened may 22, or 22. It’s not even two years old.
Kelli 11:56
Yeah, that one I would have guessed. Actually, I would have thought it was one years old, right? Yeah, just just under two because it was like brand new. And we went the last time and I didn’t ride it because I was worried I was gonna puke my guts out. Right, right.
Chris 12:07
Yeah. So again, brand new in Epcot there. Roomies ratatouille adventure. How old is it? It’s a year, maybe two and a half. Okay, two and a half years old, effectively brand new in the grand
Kelli 12:21
new it opened up around cosmic rewind. They have
Chris 12:24
completely rebuilt a huge portion of Futureworld at Epcot, and rebranded that entire portion of the park, which included journey of water that’s only five months old, which is also a new innovative walk through attraction. Frozen Ever After is only eight years old. New experiences I know, I know Maelstrom was left way before that. But yeah, that’s fine. And then new experiences even on Star Tours. I haven’t had the same experience on Star Tours in years. Yeah, right. Yeah. So you know. This little podcast segment is not going to change anybody’s mind. Right. When you argue with pigeons, you lose or what is the saying? You don’t argue with these people? Because it’s like playing chess with a pigeon. Yeah, they knock over all the pieces poop on the board fly away, and then they tell all their friends they won. Yeah, right. So this isn’t really going to do any good. But just for for this conversation. They’ve invested a labor invested a lot and they continue to and we know more is coming. You and I were just chatting last night somewhere in the world. There’s a team of Imagineers that are working on casita. Yeah, from in Canada. You know, they are it hasn’t been said officially. But you know that there are people that probably
Kelli 13:41
had to take some folks off of that project to help the bears rehearse, and
Chris 13:47
I’m so you’re mocking me now. Now. We’re mocking we have moved from I’m just constructive conversation to a lot of
Kelli 13:54
projects going on right now. Yes. And you’re talking about a project that hasn’t even been announced? We don’t even know if it’s a real thing, but somebody somewhere is designing a casita. You know, they are, even though that hasn’t even been announced. So Imagineers are working on things that honestly we can’t even dream about. And
Chris 14:11
the investment is coming. People just have short memories, and short attention spans. And in today’s age, they just want more and more and more more and more. But we need to take a minute and and sort of be grateful for what we have. And that line for Peter, Pan’s Flight is still two hours long, right? That’s true. That’s truth. Truth. So go go get some of that all over you. Yes, Twitter. You ready for you good. You get anything else
Kelli 14:37
dad? No, no, no, let’s it Tomorrowland. Tomorrow.
Chris 14:40
Here we go. All right. As we said, we just came back from our trip we landed two days ago. We learned things with every trip this time was no different. And some of these things. Maybe we knew but we’ve never really actually applied it before. Hmm, and I’m categorizing this as Tomorrowland. Because these are things we’re going to take with us and make sure we implement next
Kelli 15:08
time, which I’m pretty excited about. Yes, I’m
Chris 15:10
implementing some of the at least one of them. Quickly, let’s hit on purchasing Disney gift cards ahead of time. It’s so worth it. Yes, we we effectively paid for the vast majority of our trip over over the time period leading up to our trip, because we were able to collect Disney gift cards. I got 5% And you say 5% If you do like it, yep, we’re depending on where you get your gift cards from you can save a little bit of money and if you buy enough of them that really adds up. And it’s it makes such a big difference. I am sincerely considering you in my own personal budget you’re marking like 100 bucks a month just to buy a Disney gift card once a month right you know and have those for whatever the next trip is we’ll go back right so yeah, I would highly recommend that and then also we we took advantage of we just recently applied for and got the we don’t can you know we don’t promote the people around and get credit cards right but it the Disney Chase Card Visa card did did help us it did help us and we we paid for lunch and dinner at Epcot On our last day for four people
Kelli 16:29
yeah and so we’ve only had that card for about three months yep and again we get nothing off of this we’re not you know influencers or anything but it absolutely we got $250 on it and $150 at Disney is not anything to laugh at Napoli plus lunch for for at Sunshine sunshine seasons.
Chris 16:48
So yeah,
Kelli 16:49
I’m a fan eight
Chris 16:51
meals effectively at Disney. That’s, that’s that is significant. Fan. Okay. Let’s see here. Don’t schedule shows or highly anticipated meals on travel day.
Kelli 17:08
For the sake we would have learned that before you.
Chris 17:09
For the second time, we have missed Drawn to Life, because we scheduled it for our travel day. We also missed reservations at homecoming and shopping world to Disney or Disney Springs. And as a result we missed our chance to as a result of all the moving around our schedules, we ended up two days later missing our chance to do the snow white dinner it at the Wilderness Lodge and the DVC lounge at bay, like we’re very much looking forward to that meal, very much looking forward to seeing the new villains lair at the DVC lounge. But because we prioritize something like homecoming, and having an opportunity to hit Disney Springs and all that, over those two experiences, we missed out on those because we didn’t get to do those on our travel day.
Kelli 17:58
Right.
Chris 17:59
So no plans on travel going forward. No plans on travel days and anything you do get to do is a bonus system bonus. Yeah. Which which would feel nice because otherwise
Kelli 18:08
you’re standing in line at the airport and you’re upset with the airline and you’re upset because your plans are getting in you’re just you’re just generally a
Chris 18:15
very miserable day all around. It’s gonna if your travel plans get screwed up which ours have been blown early, completely to smithereens. I mean, like, incredibly destroyed. Yes. Beating the dead horse. Yes. On our first travel day on our last two trips. And it only compounds it when you know you’re missing things you’re really looking forward to. So yeah, no plans on travel days, whatever you can get there on time, and you can go do something that’s a bonus. And 2025 that something might be a free trip to the waterparks. Yep,
Kelli 18:50
absolutely. Absolutely. So okay, next lesson.
Chris 18:54
Next lesson. Let’s see. This is the biggie. Oh, look, I just saved it for last No, because we won’t get there. You’ll just ramble on Oh my gosh. Plan. Plan a down day, no matter the length of your stay. Yeah,
Kelli 19:10
I’ve been saying that for we
Chris 19:12
have been preaching this podcast has been an advocate for down days. We have done down days before I don’t remember any of them. We have we’ve done down days before we did our on our last time we stayed at Poly we did a down day where we did the poll and I took the girls out to see a movie at Disney Springs. It was that’s because it was raining. Well, we still we had it was a plan down day. But you ended up doing Yeah, that’s right. But it was a planned down day. But what we just didn’t even consider doing this time because we knew it was a shorter trip. We had four full days for parks and so we just just said okay, well we’ll do its part one part per day. That’s too much too much. That’s too much for
Kelli 19:54
the adults and the kids yet or how old the kids are. Yeah, how young the adults are.
Chris 19:58
That’s right. It’s too much That’s to do and then we compounded that with a 16 and a half hour day at Magic Kingdom on Wednesday because we got to take advantage of the extended magic hours that day. And so then what ended up happening was Epcot was not as fulfilling as we would have liked for Epcot
Kelli 20:20
to be quite as magical, right. And we didn’t make it out there until almost one hour, just so we had to get
Chris 20:27
back to the room until we didn’t get in the bed until 230. And we were going into the next day was going to be our fourth. You know, hit it hard day at a park. And we just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it got up had breakfast. I literally put the kids back in bed. Yeah. And
Kelli 20:48
my kids, he means teenager, teenagers. got out of bed.
Chris 20:52
Yep. And so we did not leave the resort that day until one because just frankly, we needed to sleep. So I think I think that if we were doing this particular trip again, what we would have done is probably skipped the animal kingdom day made made that day be like Epcot or switch 10 Animal Kingdom because we wouldn’t have wanted to move the Magic Kingdom that extra magic hours mattered. And I’m going to be talking about those. But then our last day could have been a down day. Right.
Kelli 21:20
Before you travel home. Yeah,
Chris 21:23
I think that’s probably what we would have done and we just would have skipped out on animal kingdom. And or, you know, somebody else could have done a different but that’s how I think we probably should have done this trip. Yeah, lesson learned. It was only a four day trip.
Kelli 21:35
Stepping down the park. Yes.
Chris 21:38
That’s right. Yeah, I think if it’s a three day Park trip, you’re gonna visit two parks. And one day in between, you’re gonna just do a down day, and you’ll thoroughly enjoy those other two days in the parks. Right? Yep.
Kelli 21:50
Absolutely. Yeah,
Chris 21:52
I think that’s how that’s a lesson learned there that will be applied into the future
Kelli 21:56
lesson.
Chris 21:57
All right. extended hours for the deluxe resorts is what extra magic hours used to be. And I can say it’s worth the experience. I can’t say rather than it’s worth the expense of staying at a deluxe resort, because those are really, really expensive.
Kelli 22:11
But if you’re a DVC, member of
Chris 22:12
your DVC that in any case, if you aren’t a deluxe resort, however you get in there. That’s a really nice perk. I was skeptical about that. Because I had not we’ve done the DVC park after hours party before and it was still just chock a block packed full of people. So many people, but I was wrong. I mean, we the park got empty. Yeah, it really got empty. We wrote like five rides within between between the lightning Lane stacking that we had done, which was good. And the immensely reduced crowd. And frankly, Tron was pulling a lot of people. That was the only reason we got on Tron. Yeah, that’s right. So we rode seven dwarfs Big Thunder hot. Imagine for a second time pirates for a second time, Dumbo, and Tron all within those two hours from 11 o’clock to one o’clock for the extended magic hours. If that had been our like first day in the park, and we weren’t tired, and we’re approaching it with more vigor at that time of the day. I think we probably could have also got on Peter Pan. And if you know anything about the Lions of Peter Pan, you know what a big deal that is. Right? We could have written Spaceman and the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin again. And all within that that two hour block. That’s how effective that magic hours was. I was I was shocked. I was surprised. I didn’t think that it really worked that way anymore. I was reminiscing back to when me and my grandmother used to go and it’d be late we’d had those extended magic hours for staying at a Disney Resort. And we could just ride big thunder without ever getting off right over
Kelli 23:51
and over again. Because it used to be any Disney Resort is extra extra magic out there. We’re
Chris 23:56
just less of them.
Kelli 23:56
People get there early morning for extra magic say later for extra magic. It was any Disney Resort. And that’s not the case now. So it does really cut down on the crowd.
Chris 24:04
It does. It really does. So that was that was pleasant. All right. Last one. A wonderful way to end your day at Epcot, even if you only there since one o’clock is to not fight those crowds for Skyliners buses monorails or boats instead. Welcome to the boardwalk for a bit. Yes, the general store there is much better than the average resort store. They do a wonderful job of scheduling street performers. So their shows start, right as folks are leaving. And so that creates this vibrant boardwalk of people but not too many people and street performers. It’s just a wonderful boardwalk atmosphere is great
Kelli 24:48
over there for an hour and then there’s no line on the Skyliner That’s right. Because they do get people through that line fairly quickly. Still, just exhale for a bit, take a break at the boardwalk and then hop On we’ll do
Chris 25:00
a whole segment on this one. But the abracadabra car we did that for the first time. And it’s it is absolutely worth it. There wasn’t. It was lively, but it wasn’t overcrowded, we were able to walk right in and get a seat and ended up being there for two hours. Yeah, that’s because it was just wonderful in there. So then we use a really short Uber ride over to our resort. So those are things we learned that we’ll be applying to future trips.
Kelli 25:24
Absolutely sure, for sure. All right. And so I am World Showcase. And so I’m going to talk about scents,
Chris 25:34
smells, smells.
Kelli 25:36
So this is called scent evoked nostalgia, oh, yes, of people who are aware of the phenomenon. Okay, but essentially, what Disney knows is that we use all five of our senses when we were in the parks. And research has shown that smells have a very strong nostalgia poll that can be attached to so many memories and recall the memories really quickly. So I’m gonna tell you a little bit about how Disney does this. And then I’m gonna tell you my 10 favorite scents. So first of all, Disney has patented what they call a smell Tiser. Now these are fairly simply simple machines that pump certain fragrances into the air at Disney through hidden vents. Okay, the smell advisors combine a potent scented substance like popcorn, with a powerful source of pressurized air, creating a fan like movement, it propels the scent towards visitors, while an exhaust system ensures that the aroma is efficiently circulated without contamination. So y’all some of these, some of this, I’m reading word for word from other websites. And I’m going to put all of our links in the show notes if you want to go a little bit deeper. My nerd just came on full nerd. But I was doing this and so there are appropriate citations in the show notes. But in any case, so essentially, you may think that that is, you know, the smell of waffle cone wafting out from the confectionery, it’s not, it is actually little vents that you can’t see right out there on Main Street right on Main Street, and they’re pushing that smell to you. It’s not a real waffle cone smell, which is fascinating. So this military visors are carefully disguised, some of them are hidden away throughout attractions, shops and walkways, but all of them is pumping out a very specific scent for that area. In 2017 interview a 30 year Disney park veteran said these machines release familiar sense in quotes on purpose because the company is mindful that visitors are using all of their senses when they’re there. The effect is actually ingenious, and this is says Melanie English, who is a licensed clinical psychologist in Seattle. She explains that not only do such smells release happy hormones in visitors, but breathing them in can actually reduce stress. So when taking the slow deep breath required to take any to Roma, she explains that park goers complete some inadvertent meditation, which slows their heart rate down and reduces their cortisol levels totally so true. walked onto some of those rides, I will be instantly Calgon take me away D res. Right Imagineers understand that smell is hardwired to our brain, specifically the area that handles emotions. Because we have more unique types of receptors for smell, some say at least 350 than we do for sight, our memories for smells can be much more specific, and also require less complicated integration of sensory information. Right, so I can still smell what my grandma maternal grandmother smelled like I could smell mama Sue right now and it would take me straight back to her hatching.
Chris 28:55
Right, right.
Kelli 28:57
This specificity may be one of the reasons why we can recall a more specific set of memories from a smell than just from an image. Interesting, right? And so that’s what Disney wants to pull on is that nostalgia to recall the certain sense of smells and memories, right? So you spend so much time where it is me talking about my mom. Oh, and I did this right? When I did this, I can remember that time mama and I did this right? All of those smells are related. Yes, food smells, right. Smells. Land smells, right. They’re all very, very related. Okay, so that’s the science behind it. Now we’re going to get into my top 10. Okay, and I’m going to see if you can sort of describe the smell but you got to do so quickly. Honey, we can’t have any of them. And you can’t like take a long time. So just you’re just gonna say the first thing that comes out of your mind.
Chris 29:52
Okay, I’m gonna try a lot of pressure all of a sudden pressure. All right, philharmagic Oh, I don’t know. This
Kelli 29:59
isn’t Pass, pass. Pass. So a lot of people online are talking about the apple pie. Oh, okay. All her magic. I actually liked the smell of the champagne. It doesn’t smell like real champagne, but it’s like this sweet bubbly smell. I can’t even describe it. But I love the smell of the champagne.
Chris 30:20
Sorry philharmagic I thought it’s tough to be a bug and that’s why I said oh
Kelli 30:24
my gosh, okay, I need Okay, look, I need for you to focus. Okay, that was number 10 You’re gonna get into some really important smells here. All right. Are you with me now? Okay, number nine Main Street USA. How do you describe Main Street?
Chris 30:40
I just I see that as sweet confectionery like I’m walking into a state fair almost
Kelli 30:49
a state fair. It is described as cotton candy and raspberry. Right so the sweet confectionery side of it is what we smell. Okay, that was number nine for me. Okay. Number eight. Rome burning on spaceship Earth.
Chris 31:05
That’s a bitter, almost pungent. Oh
Kelli 31:08
gosh, I don’t smell that as bitter I think of it as like campfire. Okay, yeah, that yeah, that’s I don’t think of campfire is a bitter fire smell interesting. I think of it is campfire and I get right when you the nostalgia from that is this is when Rome burned to the ground. All of our documentation was lost. But thank goodness, we had a first backup system.
Chris 31:31
Get them setting.
Kelli 31:34
You know, I you know, the nostalgia side of that definitely is of a negative moment in history. You know, Rome burning to the ground. As a man, I would think you’ll be more attuned to the Roman Empire if you know you, you have like a stronger smell there. But in any case, I call that campfire. Okay, okay. All right. Seven, the Riviera resort. This
Chris 32:00
to me this smells like well, the smell that I get. We’ve been to the actual French Riviera. When I step into the lobby there. I immediately go back to looking out over the med at all those, those cruise ships out there. Okay, that’s that fresh sea smell.
Kelli 32:20
That’s interesting, beachy smell fishy smell because I put it down as an expensive perfume. Oh, interesting as a very floral note to me. Okay. That I equate with a an expensive perfume. Like, it’s not overkill. You know, sometimes very, you get on the elevator with somebody wearing a floral perfume and you’re like, whew, you know, it’s not overkill, but I definitely got floral notes here. Okay, the grand flow,
Chris 32:49
grand flow. That feels like elegance. Smells like smells like money. He’s one of my
Kelli 32:55
money. Okay, so the actual sense they are our green clover, aloe Jasmine, Lily and ilang and cedar. I’m pretty sure that’s not how you pronounce inlaying. I have that in my body wash and it says a lanky Lang and I’m pretty sure that’s not how you pronounce it. But in any case that in Cedar, so that’s a very specific combination of smells. But yeah, I give you money. Right. That’s how I think Scrooge McDuck house smells. It probably his store on dreamlike Valley. Okay, all right. Number five. Water during the bombing corner of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Chris 33:35
Yeah. That to me smells like what I smell that this is gonna be hilarious. I would go to my grandmother’s house, my my maternal grandmother and she would hang sheets out on the line. And I would go running through those sheets. And they would they would brush up my face as I ran through them. And that’s the smell that
Kelli 33:54
I gave you that completely. It is damp ocean air, fresh rain and a salty sea breeze.
Chris 34:01
That means probably just gain, but whatever.
Kelli 34:04
A lot of people online call this bromine,
Chris 34:06
essentially. So oh, I used to lifeguard in a pool to use bromine. Yes. Yes, that’s right.
Kelli 34:14
It does feel just like so a lot of you were like, Oh my gosh, that smells like bread. That’s not where I go back to go back to my grandma. Mom’s laundry. Right, right. Even though that’s a different grandma than the one that took you two days. That’s right. Okay, so then for I’ve got Soren specifically the savanna grass area. Yeah. So this is where you’re flying over the elephants and you get the smell of fresh grass.
Chris 34:36
What was it? You described it as Friday, Friday afternoon. I love that because my
Kelli 34:40
daddy used to always cut the grass on Friday afternoon. So when I got home from school, that’s what it smelled like.
Chris 34:45
Yeah. Summertime because I associate that with cutting our grass. Yes, my Friday
Kelli 34:48
afternoon. Okay, three. Okay, there’s the top three. Number three. Soren about the orange groves. Yeah. This is tangerine citrus and fresh florals. Yeah,
Chris 34:59
It smells like that. Okay, number two. Number two,
Kelli 35:03
the Polynesian lobby. This is citrus hibiscus teak wood Island fruit and Mussi. Yeah, yeah. Holly. Polly lobby is very, very popular.
Chris 35:12
Yeah, that’s right. And I’m instantly transported to the to Hawaii. Yeah, yes.
Kelli 35:17
Okay, number one, my number one favorite interesting.
Chris 35:20
This is going to surprise me whatever it is. I don’t think it
Kelli 35:23
is flight of passage. Okay. All right, right. It cool salty breeze and lush jungle grass. It has notes of fresh ocean breeze Apple melon, orange Bergamot lavender, Boyd, The Rose, Woody violet and mus it’s a busy when there’s a lot going on there. People are working hard on those things when we straddled that Banshee. And it’s weird. I must have taken 10 Deep breaths before that right even started because I loved it so much. And I get it like I was taking deep breaths with a perfection of a scent. Yeah. And then you’re like gliding through the jungle and over water and I mean the Banshee do not have the Oh, no,
Chris 36:10
they don’t they don’t smell he smelled lovely.
Kelli 36:14
I don’t know what they do man, but the beachy smell nice. And I straddled that they and she and I was just like
Chris 36:26
it was absolutely high
Kelli 36:28
and bonus. They’re now selling that candle when you get off the ride. We’ve got it and I’m going to just you know manage that thing so tightly that it lasts forever. I
Chris 36:37
think I think a future t shirt on our merch site is dang she’s don’t have Bo I think that’s a great t shirt. Boats. That’s the show for this week. We hope you enjoyed it. We certainly did you know what to do now run out to wherever you get your podcasts from leave us a five star rating and if it allows it leave us a review because that’s what’s going to bring other people to the show.
Kelli 37:03
It absolutely does and if you’re looking for more things Disney please visit SCF adp.com. That’s s for Super C for Cali at Preferred journalistic a for awesome D for Disney P for podcast. We are going to have some bonus episodes coming out it won’t be this week, but we’re planning on we’re scheduling them out season nine is going to have several all restaurant related so we’re very excited about it. Yeah,
Chris 37:23
we definitely are. Join us online on Instagram at SCF ADP for the conversation out there. We’ve posted a lot of pictures from our trip we’ll post some more. We look forward to having that conversation with you the more the merrier. And with that we will see you real soon.
