Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Travel Agent, Disney and Beyond, your Canadian connection to theme park news, travel information, practical tips, and agent statement. I'm your host, Stephen Payne. Coming up in today's episode of our special guest, Ryan Payne, will tell us about his trip to Disneyland, California, and offer some tips on how to approach the park. Ryan will also assist in the park hauls as we will be talking about Universal Studios Halloween Horror Night 35, a topic that he knows a fair amount about. And then we'll talk about how to find the best deals on experience and add-ons for cruises, and for our Canadian Compass Travel tip of the week, we will discuss the online appearance. And as per usual, I'll let you know about a deal that you can take advantage of at the end of the show. If you want more information about cruise data and travel, including the latest cruise promotions and limited time offers, subscribe to my Expedia Cruises Personalized Email Newsletters. Simply click on fan mail and send me your name and email address, and I'll add you to my mailing list for the newsletter as well as for show updates and information. You can also email your name and email address to the following email stephen at the travelagent.ca. Stephen is spelled S-T-E-P-H-E-N and make sure you spell agent with an E H because we're Canadian. That email once again is stephen at the travelagent.ca. This information will also appear in the show notes. Now for those of you who are interested, I have returned from my Manitoulin Island camping trip. And yes, while I was there I saw Bridal Vale Falls, Gor Bay, and Mindamoya. Now this isn't the first time I've been to Manitoulin Island, so I've seen those things before, along with many other things. But we keep going back because we really enjoy it there. We spent some quality time on the beach in Providence Bay, and we had Ice Cream Nightly at Here on Times, which is along the boardwalk in Providence Bay. Manitoulin Island is a great natural getaway. Because it's on an island, it's away from the mainland, so what happens is there are fewer people who take that trip across Georgian Bay to the island, which makes for a nice getaway. And then on top of that, it's mostly rural, if you want to call it that, and there's not much that's been built up on the island. So if you like nature and you like trees and rocks and just the rugged Canadian landscape, Mentulin Island is a great place to go. Just to note that we did take the ferry from Tobamori. You can actually get to the island by driving if you go around to the northern part of the island and cross at Little Current. Or you can take the ferry from Tobamori, which is what we did on our way there. Other things you can do on Manitoulin Island include hiking at the Cup and Saucer, a fantastic hiking trail. It's it's I want to say world renowned, I don't know if that's true, but it's certainly well known. And uh the views on the Cup and Saucer Trail are fantastic. You're high up on a cliff face looking over the countryside. It's it's amazing. Also at the Cup and Saucer, there is a an exercise hiking trail or an activity hiking trail, as well as a regular hiking trail if you'd like. Something else we've done on Manitoulin Island, which we've quite enjoyed, is horseback riding. And there are some very scenic ones. There's uh several places on the island that will offer you the horseback riding experience. Some of them will even give you an overnight experience, which sounds lots of fun, but I've never tried. So when we returned, we didn't take the ferry back, we did drive around through Little Current, and we came down, I believe it's Highway 69 that runs south through Perry Sound, and we did stop at Gilly's in Snug Harbor, which is an excellent restaurant offering fish and chips. And a shout out to that restaurant if you ever are in the area. That's a great stop. It is a little more expensive than some restaurants, but you do get quality food. And it's right on the harbor in Snug Bay, so it's a little picturesque as well. And then also a shout out to Providence Bay Tent and Trailer Park, which is where we stayed. It's right across the road from Providence Bay, so it's easy to walk from your campsite to the bay, so the location is fantastic, and the owners are excellent, they take an interest in providing you with a quality experience. If you want more information about that, you're certainly welcome to contact me. And

Mouse Minutes: Disneyland Review

SPEAKER_00 4:30

now it's time for Mouse Minutes. For Mouse Minutes, I interviewed Ryan Payne, my son, who just came back from Disneyland, California. In the interview, we moved from Mouse Minutes to Park Pulse as Ryan was able to offer insights about Universal's Halloween horror nights as well, since he's attended numerous times. So here's the interview. Hello, Ryan, and welcome to the Travel Agent, Disney and Beyond. Ryan, you've been to Disney World a number of times, but this was your first visit to Disneyland, and you're here to give a review of your experience. Now, I believe you visited for two days. Day one, you visited the Magic Kingdom, and day two, California Adventure Park. Does that sound about right?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yes, yes. We started with Disneyland, and then second day we decided to go start with California Adventure, but we eventually did actually move on to Disneyland again after that.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Oh, okay. So you you you turned around and and and went back to the Magic Kingdom in your two days. Exactly, yeah. All right. So we'll come back to that shortly, but before we do, let's just talk about uh where you were staying. So when you visited Disney World, uh, where did you stay?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Actually, my travel agent, the travel agent, give me a scoop on the place called the Best Western Stovel Inn. I didn't know where we were gonna stay when first go into Disneyland. I thought maybe like a Disney property, because I like to be close to the parks where it's really easy to get there. So that's like a very important aspect for me because I like to rope drop the park. So I stayed at the best western stovel inn and it's uh it's just a small little motel. It's got like the outdoor rooms, it's like the outdoor parking lot, and you got you got your room's exterior, right? And so we stayed there and it was really cheap. I think I only spent like $237 a night Canadian on it. It was really nice, it was clean, the rooms were what you'd expect, which is just clean and simple. You're not trying to have a very luxurious room since you don't spend too much time there. And they had free breakfast every morning. And the thing I actually really liked about it is because I like to rope drop the park, I wondered when the breakfast is, because if I have to get there early, if the breakfast didn't start until a little bit later, but the breakfast opened at 6 a.m. So the breakfast was there and waiting when I when I wanted to get to the parks.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Well, that sounds pretty convenient. And you know, really when you're going to Disney World or Disneyland, you want to be in the parks and you want to spend your time in the parks. So it really just makes sense to have a room. You don't need all the luxuries and amenities. You just need a place that's clean and nice to stay in, but you certainly don't need lots of extra amenities and luxuries because that's not what you're there for. So that sounds like it worked out really well.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, it was great. It was it was a great stay. And the breakfast was good. Coffee, not so great though.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, now did they did they offer you transportation to the parks at all?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

There was a shuttle that we could take, but we opted not to take the shuttle because it was just an extra charge. It wasn't really all that expensive. But we actually walked to the park instead because the distance from the hotel to the park is is not far at all. Um I'd say it took us about eight to ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the entrance of downtown Disney. And so that's where you go through like the security and everything. And so from the entrance to downtown Disney, it was like 10 minutes, and then it's about like a five to ten minute walk again through downtown Disney to get to the actual park entrances. So we never felt the need to take any of the shuttles. They did offer a shuttle, but we didn't feel the need to because it was close enough. It was just a short walk. Uh so we we opted to just walk there.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

I suppose if you are okay walking, then it's not a problem. But if you needed transportation, it's available then.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, yeah. The shuttle was like an extra charge. So I think it was $15. I can't remember exactly, but it wasn't expensive, but we just thought, you know, it's pretty close. There's no need for us to walk. We're gonna be walking around the parks all day. It's just a little extra walking.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Now you said you wanted to be uh relatively close to the park because you wanted to uh rope drop the park and you wanted to have breakfast on time so that you were able to rope drop. So I think for people who maybe aren't familiar with that in Disney language, which is a common it's a common phrase used among Disney fans, maybe you could just quickly explain what you mean by rope drop.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah, so the key to rope drop is you get there before the park opens so that when you get there, you can go on the high traffic rides during the low traffic times, so that you save yourself a lot of time and wait time in lines. And I'm someone who loves amusement parks, but I hate waiting in lines. So I opt to you have to get up pretty early because I think we got up at six because my girlfriend had to get ready. I was ready pretty quickly, but but she she was a trooper, she she toughed it out to to tease me for my rope drop ideas, and so we got up at like six. She was getting ready, we had some breakfast, and we got to the park around 7.45, I think is when we we eventually got to the entrance of the park. And so they let you in to the main entrance and you walk in, and then you can get into the main like street walk, I think it's called main street of Disney. But they have the actual parts of the park that allow the rides still closed off. So you kind of line up at which park entrance if you're gonna go to like Adventureland or Fantasyland, or if you're gonna go to Tomorrowland, you kind of line up at which area you're gonna go in. And so, yeah, when you walk in, then you get to go onto the rides, the high traffic rides, and usually there's a lot of rides you can just walk straight on, so it saves you a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Back in the day, they used to actually have a rope where they held people back with the rope, and cast members would hold the rope and then move the rope when it was time to open. Did they still do that? I guess there was probably no rope.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

There's no rope. There's no rope here at this time. Maybe that's only a Disney World thing. I remember the rope, but I didn't I didn't see the rope here this time.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, my understanding is they did do it at Disneyland, but you know, that's something of the past, I think. Okay, so when you first entered the park, what were your first impressions?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

So when I first got to the park before I even got into the entrance, it reminded me a little bit about the Universal Studios park where you go through their city walk. Because I've been to Universal Studios in Orlando as well. And then you have the two parks, you go right for Universal Studios Orlando or Islands of Adventure. It reminds me of that where I walk through the downtown Disney, and then on either side of me is either the California Adventures entrance and the Disneyland Adventures. And so we were going to Disneyland the first time. So we walk in, I get there, and initially on first look, it reminded me a lot of Disney World. It's like I can see the train station and everything, just like just they have at Disney World. So initially I walk in, I'm like, this is a lot like Disney World. And we walked in, and I'm walking down Main Street, and I'm looking at the the buildings and looking down the side, I'm like, yeah, yeah, this feels a lot like Disney World. And then I see it. I see the castle. I'm like, that's that's a small castle. That's my first impression. Because I've only ever been to Disney World, and I'm used to this big towering castle that you can see almost throughout the entire park. It's like that's your central point. That's a if you're trying back to get back to the center of the park, you look for that castle and you'll see it. When you go to Disneyland, the castle is significantly smaller, was my was my first impression.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Nice. It might have been a little underwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, the the castle is definitely a little underwhelming for me, but it's still got the Disney feel to it. You're walking and everything is perfectly themed. The Main Street looks very similar to Disney World's Main Street. It's got that same old-time like 40s, 50s feel to the main street that that you're kind of accustomed to.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

So moving into the park, you rope dropped. So you must have had a plan as to what attractions you would start with. How did you approach your your attraction touring?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Right. So the key for me was to get on the most popular rides, at least one of them first, and then I was going to fast pass the other one. And so the ones that typically have uh larger lines that are closer to the beginning of the park are Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. From what I understood, Pirates of the Caribbean can get busier throughout the day, but because it's a very efficient loader, that's one that you don't have to go to first. Because my girlfriend was like, Pirates of the Caribbean's line can get pretty long, but I was like, I hear it's an efficient loader, so I think we'll be able to walk onto that after we go on to some of the other ones. The same thing with Haunted Mansion. And so we decided we initially I was like, we're gonna go to Indiana Jones, is what I told her. And so we start walking down Main Street, and I pull up the app because once you get into the park, you kind of want to book your first fast pass because the way the lightning lanes work there is if you pay for them, you can book a ride the moment your ticket is scanned to get into the park. So to be the most efficient, you want to get in there and scan it, and then you can't scan another fast pass or lightning lane until either you have used your lightning lane or it's been two hours. So the key is to get on that quickly. And so when I looked, I could see there was fast passes available for Space Mountain, still quite early. Like I was just in there at eight, and there was ones that were like for 8.30. But when I looked at Indiana Jones, the earliest one was 9.45. And so when I saw that, I was like, you know what? We're gonna book the fast pass for Indiana Jones at 9.45 and go to Space Mountain instead. And so we quickly changed our mind and we went and entered Tomorrowland. And just as I hoped, it was just a walk-on. We walked up, there was no line, we got right onto the ride. And so that that's that's the nice thing about rope drop, is like later throughout the day you'll see the Space Mountain line. I think the longest I saw it was 70, 70 or 75 minutes. So that line can get quite long, and so to get on that early was really important for me, and then we had the fast pass for Indiana Jones for later, so I knew we'd be able to get on that one too.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

That's amazing, and then I assume that once you rode Indiana Jones, then you immediately looked for the next pass.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, so what happened for us is we went on Space Mountain, and then we went next to Haunted Mansion, and then we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion are right beside each other. And so the plan was we were gonna get through those and see what time it is and see if it was time for us to use the fast pass for Indiana Jones yet. But we got through all those so quickly, all of them we just walked walked on basically. That it was we had already been on three rides and it was only nine o'clock, and my fast pass was for 9.45. Well, one thing I noticed while I was looking at the fast pass for Indiana Jones was the the ride was actually closed, which made me feel like I made a great decision not to go line up for that. Because sometimes when you get into a line and the ride closes, you feel committed because you lined up for it and it's a waste of time. But that ride was closed beyond what my fast pass actually went to. So my fast pass actually didn't end up working out for us in that one. Then we went on to, I think it was Peter Pan we went on next because I tried to want to get on that one early because that is it's a good ride, but it's also popular and it kind of loads people slowly. So no matter when you go, it it's kind of always a long lineup. So I wanted to get that one out of the way pretty early as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, it's pretty great to hear you talking about the the load times and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

It seems like you learned uh really well. Yeah. Overall, like at the Magic Kingdom, then do you have any idea how many attractions you actually got on during that day?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

On the top of my head, like at least 15 to 20. Like, I I went I went on Haunted Mansion three times because that one's my favorite ride. So throughout the day, I just kind of kept using Fast Passes to go on Haunted Mansion. Um, my girlfriend's not a huge thrill seeker, so there's some we didn't go on. We didn't go on um Tiana's Bayou, I think that's what it's called, the Splash Mountain replacement. We didn't go on that one because she doesn't like the drop there. We didn't go on the Bob Sled one. And I think those might be the only two in Magic Kingdom that we didn't go on. I think we went on everything else in that park, unless there's another thrill one I'm not remembering, but I think that's all of them. The most of the thrill rides are in California Adventure.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

That's pretty good. And I guess it comes down to you rope dropping, you know. Yeah. The the fact that you were rope dropping with a combination of that and and the lightning lanes.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, so we utilized the lightning lanes pretty well. One of our favorite rides was the Mickey and Mini Runaway Railway, I think it's called. We we loved that one, and that one was when we utilized the fast pass for. Once we got into the park, there's two main rides I was thinking of because once you get on all those other ones, because everyone one of the keys of getting in early and doing the the rope drop is people get stuck in those longer lines, which leaves the rest of the park's lines a lot more open for you. And so the key for me there is people seem to go towards ride of resistance. So, like when you rope drop, I would not recommend going to ride of resistance first because it seems like a lot of people try to rope drop to go to ride of resistance, and it's surprisingly ride of resistance line was easily the longest early in the day when we were there rope dropping, versus any other time in the day. So we're hitting all the rides, and most of them are all walk-ons, or we're using the fast pass. So we're going on like Buzz Lightyear and we're having a good time. We went on Mickey Mouse Mini Railway. We waited like maybe in the fast pass 15 minutes for that. So like Peter Pan Mini Railway and Ride of Resistance were our longest lines that we did. Everything else was under 10 minutes. Peter Pan, I think probably about 20 mini's railway, about 15 minutes with a fast pass. And then ride of resistance, you have to pay for a fast pass, but we didn't want to do that. I think we waited about 30 to 40 minutes. That was the longest wait time we had all day. And so when we went on Mickey and Minnie's Railway, that's that's a fantastic ride. So that's one. I've been on a lot of the rides that have been there, like prior to the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. They're a little bit different from Disney World's, but not so much that you can easily tell the difference. The main staple parts of both those rides, I feel like, are still in the Disney World aspects, other than Space Mountain. Space Mountain actually caught me by surprise, but I'll circle back to that one. Um, but the mini railway, I hadn't been to Disney since they created that ride. And so I went on that one. And that one's a really cool ride, the way they do the animation. They use a lot of projectors on the walls to make it look like you're almost going through an animation. And so they do a good mix of practical effects with an art that still looks animated, mixed with the projector technology on the walls. And it was a lot of fun, I thought. And it was a very, very pretty ride, a cool use of technology, and it's like one of those rides that I think mixes some rides, newer rides that people they at the at the parks that they make these days, I feel like lean too far into their technology to the point where at least there's a little bit of that whimsicalness of the ride with the physical props and everything. And I think this one does a good job mixing the two of them. Even the opening of it, they have this screen, and I won't spoil it for anyone, but they have a screen and they do something cool with this, with this like theater screen that I think was really cool and caught me by surprise in one of those things that they do that I'm looking at it. And usually I can spot the tricks they do to do things, but with that one, I was actually pretty surprised and didn't expect it. Now I went back on the second time I was like, I need to figure out how they did this because it was it was very cool, I thought, but I'm not gonna say anymore because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't been on it.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

I do know what you're talking about. I remember the same thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

When it comes to rides that were different from Disney World, the one that stood out to me the most was Space Mountain. And in the Space Mountain of Disney World, I remember it being a launch coaster. You go through the tunnel and it kind of gives you this warp speed feeling, it kind of launches you off, which Disney World has a few of those kind of launch coasters. And so I went in there expecting that. And so we're going through and it's saying preparing to launch, and you've got the the warp speed like light coming at you, and you're like, okay, here we go. And then we start going up a chain, uh like a hill, like a normal roller coaster. And I'm like, wait, what's going on? And so we go up like multiple hills, it goes up like three or four different hills on this chain before it eventually goes down and launches you. And so it's still I had a lot of fun. I'd have to go on them back to back to figure out which one I like better. I thought this one was actually quite good. Um, better than I remember, at least from Disney World. I don't know if that means it's better than the Disney World one, but I do remember it. I was pleasantly surprised with how good it was. But I was caught off guard because I didn't expect it to go up the hills. I expected it to launch me, and so I was very surprised by that.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

How crowded did the park feel? Did it seem like there were a lot of people there?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

It definitely felt crowded into the afternoon. Initially, at the start, it didn't feel too crowded, but into the afternoon, it can definitely feel more crowded in certain areas. Um even like a weird thing I found actually was in the area where parts of Caribbean is sometimes when that line gets long, they have to extend it and it actually extends up into a main walkway bridge. I found that a little bit weird because it's like Artery that gets clogged a little bit where it's like almost hard to get through a little bit sometimes when that line gets too long. So the way that lineup works is a little bit, and that's where I'd say I noticed it being the most crowded. But other than that, it wasn't it was I didn't think it was too bad, but it did feel a little crowded at times.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Alright, so you had a full day of riding attractions, and then did you close out that night with fireworks at all?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Uh that night we didn't. That night we by the end of the night, we were kind of like, oh, you know, maybe we'll go to the shows tomorrow because we because we were gonna rope drop that day, but the next day we weren't planning to rope drop. We were only planning to do that one day, and so we our plan was to actually close out the night with uh fireworks the next day.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

And at Disneyland, then there is California Adventure Park, which is uh newer park, not not there when it originally was built. How was the experience then on day two when you went to the California Adventure Park?

SPEAKER_01 22:57

And I take it you didn't rope drop, so we didn't rope drop California Adventure. California Adventure was okay for me. I think the theming was pretty again, it actually reminded me a lot of Universal Studios, Orlando, and there's some areas that feel very like studio-esque in the way that they're set up, especially where they have the Monsters Ink ride and the animation studio draw animation drawing studio felt like straight out of Universal Orlando from the way I remember it. The atmosphere of the park is very cool. The different themed lands, cars land is really cool, well themed, lots of neon lights, and you're walking down like the road that they pave in Radiator Springs, which is which is really cool. And it has like a little bit of a a dock, like a like an ocean dock carnival feel to it in in Pixar Place, I think it's called. Um which is it looks looks nice, the lights are very nice. I feel like it's it's lacking a little bit in in attractions, but to be fair, I didn't go on some of the main attractions because um I'm a thrill seeker, but my girlfriend's not too much of a thrill seeker, so we decided to opt out of going on on some of the more thrilling rides. So I didn't get to go on cars. We were thinking about going on cars though, but I think the problem is the lineup for cars is always so long. Like I was checking it throughout the day, and it was always well over an hour. And for me, it's like once you start lining up for an hour for something, that's a really long time to be lining up for an attraction. So I feel like the park could do with a few more attractions to maybe break up the amount of people in the cars line because there's the Gardens of the Galaxy one that I know is very popular, and Toy Story Mania, and the cars ride. But those are kind of the main three, because like the rides I went on, The Little Mermaid, I wasn't all that impressed with. I thought it was pretty dated. The Monsters Inc. ride was was okay. Um what other rides did I go on there? I feel like those were two. We did the Animation Academy, which was cool. It's very cool inside there. Um they teach you how to draw classic Disney characters, so that was a cool experience there. I can't think of I can't think of too much else more more we did there. We mostly explored and took a look at maybe getting some themed drinks, but we didn't end up getting any. We opted for the Star Wars Worlds canteen instead for the drinks we ended up getting.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Did you explore or see is it Avengers Campus? Is that what it's called?

SPEAKER_01 25:36

We did we did walk through Avengers Campus. We did walk through Avengers Campus. Um honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with Avengers Campus. I thought the theming was kind of bland, especially when I think about the way the theming of Disney Parks typically is. And I think about Avengers Campus is a bit of a newer land. I compare that to Star Wars Land, and it's night and day the difference in terms of theming. Like Star Wars Land almost reminds me a little bit about if you go to Universe Orlando and go into Harry Potter land. They've got like cool moments where like Star Darth Vader's walking around and interacting with the characters and everything. I'm sure they have superheroes walking around in Avengers Campus, but the the aesthetics of it itself just looks honestly kind of boring. And it's like I didn't care to spend that much time in Avengers Campus. And it's not like I'm not a superhero fan. I I like superhero movies. I'm caught up with most of the Marvel stuff. I wouldn't say I'm a diehard Marvel fan, but you'd expect someone who at least is kind of tuned into that area to at least be pretty interested in the Avengers campus. But my takeaway from Avengers Campus was the theming was pretty boring. Carsland was a lot cooler, and I'm not a Cars fan, but Carsland was a lot cooler than Avengers Campus.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they rushed that one when they built it.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah, it's just kind of boring. You kind of walk through it. It's an it's even like you think about like Universal and how they have that that Marvel Island place and it's very comic book themey and everything. That's a lot cooler than Avengers Campus. Like Avengers Campus, I guess, is made to look like the Avengers building in in the movies, but it's kind of like it's kind of plopped into the middle of the park. And when you compare it to all the other aspects, so you walk through the classic Hollywood looking theater buildings, and you go into cars world where you're walking right down Radiator Springs and you go to Pixar Place, and it's this cool carnival vibe, and it feels very grand. You walk into Avengers Campus, it feels very small, and it's just kind of uh it it just feels small, and you can walk through it and you're out. And it's it's it's quick, it's small, the scale isn't there. It's it's a little lackluster, I would say, for Avengers Campus for me, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Alright, and then you later in the day went back to the Magic Kingdom, I guess. And that's when you saw Fireworks. That was the fireworks show.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yes, the fireworks show was was outstanding. The the Disney Fireworks, the you never disappoint. You're you can just sit there and relax, and you're just the fireworks goes on for like 25 minutes, it doesn't really end, and they have a great grand finale. And so yeah, it was it was the fireworks was a lot of fun. Fireworks are always a lot of fun, though. Disney knows how to deal with the fireworks.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Did you watch from Main Street?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Uh we actually decided because we didn't care too much about what kind of projections they were going to be doing on the castle. Neither of us seemed all that interested. We preferred more of the fireworks, and so we actually watched from the center. We went back. We noticed this when we were leaving earlier for people setting up for the fireworks. There was a number of people who kind of leave the park and then sit right in front of the entrance so they can see the fireworks, but you're also not getting caught up in the huge crowd trying to leave at the same time. We just and it there was way more room, and so we just sat down out there and watched the fireworks from there, and it was like near the train station. Yeah, near the train station, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

That's actually what if I don't know if you remember, but that's what we did as a family the first time we were there. Is that what we did? Yeah, we watched from the train station in Walt Disney World. And then of course it was uh easy to make a quick exit.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Yeah, exactly. That's what we did.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Okay, um, so now just thinking about the two parks, then I I think I already know the answer to this. But if you had only one day to be in Disneyland, which park would you visit?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Definitely I would visit Magic Kingdom. It has a lot more attractions. A lot of the attractions are more fun. It has a lot more family-oriented attractions. So I could see people, if you're a thrill seeker who wants rides that are more fast and thrill seeking, I still think you might prefer Magic Kingdom, but I think you'll get a lot more out of California Adventure. The vibe you get there is it's almost geared more towards young adult, is kind of the feeling I get from California Adventure. They sell alcoholic drinks at a lot of the vendors versus in Disneyland. The only where place you can get like a real alcoholic drink is at a sit-down place or in the Star Wars Cantina. But you can get them at a lot of the vendors there. So it feels very geared to young adults, and you can go on the thrill rides there and everything. But if you're thinking about the classic Disney family experience, I think it's Disneyland, hands down, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Now, you didn't do too much dining, I take it, at the parks. In terms of food and drinks, what did you encounter?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

We did eat in the park one day, and we our experience was not great, so we definitely decided to eat outside the park. So we went to Pizza Planet, and we grabbed, they had these things called the green drink. So we grabbed two of those because we're like, of course, a theme drink, but $8.50 per drink, which was pretty expensive. And then that what really caught us off guard was the price per pizza slice, which was about ten dollars per slice. And the slices were not big enough where you felt like you could get it, like maybe a young kid could get away with one slice, but an adult spending the full day at the park, you kind of felt like you needed two slices. And so I ended up spending like over 60 American dollars on four slices of pizza and two drinks. And I wish I could say it was the best pizza I ever had, but the pizza was kind of just okay. So when we experienced that, we had decided next time we're eating, we're gonna exit the park, go to downtown Disney and find somewhere to eat there instead.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Yeah, that's one of the great things about uh Disneyland Park is it's right in the middle of the city, basically, right? Uh you could probably find restaurants in in the local area as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Yeah, you could even eat in the local area. We actually ate at oh, I can't remember the name. On the first night before we went into the park, we ate at a steak place. Uh, I don't remember the name of it though. It's it was some sort of pub. It wasn't too expensive for steak and everything, and it was quite good. And then on another day, we ate at this place, I think it was called Jazz Kitchen in downtown Disney. The prices there are still relatively expensive. I think it's kind of what you get doing a sit-down at downtown Disney. I think no matter what, you're gonna kind of come across some more expensive prices. But the food there was significantly better at the Jazz Kitchen. We had a we had a great meal at the Jazz Kitchen. They had good drinks, they had good food. And then unfortunately, by the end of the trip, when we were leaving, I wanted one more bite to eat before we left because I was a little bit hungry by the end of the day. And we got to it's kind of right at the end of downtown Disney, right before you leave the park. There's a place called Earl's Earl Sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Earl of Sandwich, I think it is.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Is that what it's called? Yeah. It was really, really good. It was a really good sandwich, and the price was like 10 bucks. And I was like, wow, I should have found this place earlier.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Yeah, well, as you know, I've done a lot of research and reading about Disney World and Disneyland, and uh I do know that Earl of Sandwich always gets high reviews from all of the uh Disney fans and so on, just for the same reasons you're mentioning good food and reasonable prices, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah, exactly. So it was uh if you're looking for a cheaper, cheaper food while near the park, uh Earl of Sandwich, that was uh I highly recommend it. A great sandwich for a good price.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

All right. So let's just wrap this segment up by asking you this question. So, what advice would you have for any of our listeners who might be considering a visit to Disneyland? What kind of advice would you leave them?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah, I'd say the park can get quite busy in the late middle, late afternoons. And so if you want the best experience, I highly encourage rope dropping because you can get on all the rides you want, lower wait times, and even if you think it's gonna be a longer day. When I was there, they were have we were having heat warnings in LA, so it was quite hot when I was there. And when you get into that middle of the afternoon, it's really hot. And it was it was really hot. The sun's beating down on you, so you could even decide to do a rope drop, get on everything early while the wait times are low in the in the morning, and then maybe go back to the hotel and take a break until the evening and you want to go back after a little bit of a break. But I'd highly recommend rope dropping and doing the main high volume rides first to save yourself a lot of time in lines. You're gonna have a better experience. It's it's hard to get up in the morning, but you're gonna have a way better experience of the park. You're not gonna be sitting in lines for an hour to two hours, like it. Like I said, like I think later on in the day, you I saw lineups for Space Mountain at 75 minutes. I saw lineups for Indiana Jones upwards of 50 to 60 minutes, and even Buzz Lightyear, I think the Buzz Lightyear ride got up to 45 minutes at one point. And all those rides we we basically walked on. So to save yourself a lot of time and get the best experience possible, I'd I'd highly recommend doing the rope drop.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

With the price of tickets these days, you know, you do want to get your money's worth. You don't want to be sitting in a lineup for yeah, yeah, it's not cheap anymore, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

And I'd also recommend lightning lanes, they they're an extra charge, but it does give you a lot of flexibility for you to enjoy the park at a better pace rather than relying solely on standby, standby wait times.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah, and you know, lightning lanes are not actually that expensive, not the not the general ones that you can use for multiple rides, right? The single lightning lanes can add up. But if you're just buying like the the the multi-pass lightning lane, that's probably worth your money, especially if you're only going for a day or two, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Yeah, yeah, it's a small charge, and you get um you just get a lot more flexibility on throughout your day. It helps you plan on what to go on, and knowing you're not going to be waiting too long for for rides, especially ones that have longer standby wait times, you know, when you have a fast pass for that one, you'll at least get to go on it. And especially if you're like me traveling from Canada to go to Disneyland, you know, it's not like you can just keep going back. You kind of want to get your money's worth while you're there. So it's kind of worth the small investment. It's not too expensive, and you know you're gonna get on everything you want to get.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Yeah. In comparison to all the other expenses you you have to pay, you know, between flights and and uh hotel stays and tickets and so on, the the surcharge for the the lightning pass, especially at Disneyland, is reasonable.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, no, it's it's it's one that we we had it for both days. So um we got good use out of it for both days. So I I'd recommend just if you're gonna if you're gonna go there for just the short stay and you're gonna and you're traveling from out of town to go there, uh it's well worth it, so you get to go on everything

Park Pulse: Halloween Horror Nights

SPEAKER_01 37:11

you like.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Now I want to move over to my Park Pulse section of my podcast, and I was hoping you would continue to join me for a few more minutes because you are a big fan of Universal's Halloween horror nights. And in Park Pulse, that's exactly what I want to talk about, because the Halloween horror nights are coming up pretty soon. They're gonna start at the end of this month. And this year it is Universal Halloween Horror Nights number 35. I believe it starts on August the 28th and runs through until November the 1st. And as far as these theme park Halloween celebrations, I think Halloween horror nights uh at Universal in both uh Florida and California are setting the standard. They are the premier uh Halloween haunt night type of thing. I know last year I was at the Cannabis Wonderland um Halloween haunt, and we had a lot of fun, but I think it probably pales in comparison to what Universal uh Halloween Horror Nights does. So if you attend this event, basically you're signing up for uh again, it's a limited ticket event or a limited admission event separately ticketed from your stay or your ticket at Universal. And um, I don't know, I think it probably begins around 5:30 or 6. Does that sound about right, Ryan?

SPEAKER_01 38:31

So usually I believe the official start time often is around 7. Um, it depends. I think Florida, so at least I'm going to I'm doing the California one for the first time this year. So I'm gonna attend this one. I've been to the Florida one three or four times now, so I've done I've done the Halloween Horror Nights quite a few times, but um it might start in six and Florida, but I believe at least in in Hollywood this year it's gonna start at seven. But a little trick you can do often with Halloween Horror Nights is they have this thing called stay and scream, where if you're in the parks before they shut everything down to set up for Halloween Horror Nights, you can actually stay and go into the the kind of main area until they open things up again and you kind of get in line for some of the uh haunted houses early and get through some of the houses decently quick, even using just standby lines before it officially opens. I think they even have a thing where you can pay if you just have a Halloween Horror Night ticket, you can actually pay to get in a little bit early as well. You can add as an addition onto your ticket. But if you're in the parks already, you can do this stay and scream thing where you stay. If you have both a Halloween Horn Knight ticket and a day pass at Universal, you can stay and actually go in earlier. So yeah, usually around six or seven is the start time, depending on which park. But if you're there and you are already at the park, think about you doing the stay and scream thing. It can get you uh into some of those haunted houses a little bit early.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

That's a pretty good tip. Now, you mentioned the haunted houses, and that uh I was just going to run through for our listeners what exactly is involved in Halloween horror nights. So this year there are 10 horror houses or haunted houses. I think they call them horror houses. And uh there are three sinister scare zones, two street experiences, and two Halloween shows. And then in addition to that, you have themed food and themed merchandise, and finally you have access to many of the attractions which are open during the time of the event. So most people are interested in the Halloween horror houses, and so I thought I would uh present to you the lineup for this year. So I'll run through the 10 houses and then Ryan, maybe you can tell me which ones sound the best or which you'd look forward to. Now I know you're going to California, and I'm not sure if they're the same in California, but uh if you were going to Florida, tell me which of these interests you the most. So number one is the horror house for Sinners, and it's based on the award-winning film Sinners, and in that house you will defend Club Jake from Bloodthirsty Vampires. House number two is Stranger Things 5, where you can spend some time in the upside down and defend the town of Hawkins from Vecna and the Mind Flair. Then you have Hellraiser, that one is based on the Hellraiser film trilogy. You're likely to come face to face with Pinhead if you know that trilogy. Then there's Evil Dead Burn. The Book of the Dead has been opened again, and now you have to deal with all the deadites. House number five, Ozzie Osborne, Prince of Darkness, which is a haunted house inspired by the music and lyrics of Ozzie Osborne, a place where everything has gone off the rails, and I would imagine something involving a crazy train, I would think. Um then there's Jack and Oddfellow, Chaos and Control, featuring a showdown between Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow. You'll be caught up in the Oddverse. Is that something that you've seen before? Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow?

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah, both of them are are pretty staples for the they're the kind of their biggest original monster for Universal Halloween Horn Knight.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Yeah, that's what I figured. Okay, uh house number seven is Invasion. Alien Abduction. And you run through the house trying to escape alien tentacles and creatures, and of course try to avoid abduction. And then there is house number eight, which is Madland's Caged Cannibals. There you're trying to survive in a dystopian world in a defunct zoo, and you're dealing with some cannibal factions with extreme instincts that may involve dining on you. Then house number nine is Cybergoria. You have to look out for the cyber human machines that were seeking immortality, but were stripped of their human flesh by cybernetic caretakers. And finally, there is HR Blood and Guts presents a Halloween fright tacular. That's where the Matri D of macabre returns to WKNB with a special scarathon featuring Blood and Guts favorites. Now, some of those things you probably recognize as you say, some of them are universal staples, part of their Halloween horror nights. But there of course are some new things as well, like Sinners, I think is likely new. And Evil Deadburn would be new. So out of all those, what do you think sounds the most interesting?

SPEAKER_01 43:33

So whenever I go to Halloween Horror Nights, the ones that always interest me the most are typically the IP houses. Those ones have the name brand to kind of get you excited and kind of what pull you in. So the one I'd most excited for is The Sinners House. Um I love the movie. And maybe even a top 10 movie for me all time. I love that movie. So I'm really excited about the the Sinners House. It's one of the main reasons I'm going to Halloween Horror Nights this year's. I initially it wasn't entirely on my radar. I haven't been in a few years. Not because I don't love Halloween Horror Nights, but I've been more focused on focused on other things to. So I haven't really had time to go to Halloween Horror Nights. But when I saw they were doing the Sinners House, I was like, okay, I have to I have to find a way to get there because the Sinners House is it's something I really want to experience. I actually do like the Hellraiser IP. I've seen the original and I've seen one of the remakes, so I don't care too much about the remake, but I like the original Hellraiser and I like the I like Pinhead and the art of that. So the Hellraiser House. I like the Evil Dead franchise, so I probably want to see the the Evil Dead burn house. And I also like Stranger Things, so the Stranger Things House is something I'd be interested in as well. And actually, one of the last times I went, they did a Stranger Things house, and it was it was it was quite good, the Stranger Thing House. They had Vecna in there and he looked very good. There was a Demogorgon that jumped out and scared my brother Tim. So there was there was it was it was pretty good the Demagorgon at how that looked at the Stranger Thing House. So that one was pretty good. But I highly recommend if you go to make sure you get into some of those original houses because sometimes you can get some really good IP houses, and sometimes the IP houses can only be okay, and you can get really surprised by some of the original houses to kind of stick out in my mind. One year I went, there was a house that was something about a pumpkin king, and even the entrance was just all these little pumpkins, and it was one of the cooler houses I've been in. And there was also another one that was more of a like frozen shipwreck house, again, another original house. And both of those houses have some of my favorite moments from Halloween Horror Nights and some of the haunted houses. They have this moment where it's this shipwreck with like this lady's kind of humming a song and it's there's wind blowing and everything. That was very, very cool. And so when you go, make sure not to not sleep on some of the original houses because some of those original houses not related to IPs can sometimes be one of the best houses at the park.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Yeah, it's like watching movies, right? Sometimes you're attracted to the uh the stars of the film or whatever, and then if there's a film you've never heard anything about, you tend maybe not to watch it and you miss out on some great things. Same with these haunted houses. Uh you don't recognize the IP, so then you're tempted to skip it, but maybe uh you're missing out on something very cool.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Yeah, exactly. Some of their original ones are very cool.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Yeah. So in the Halloween horror nights, there's also these scare zones, which are just areas, I think, in the park where various scare opportunities exist. So this year they have Fort Nightmares, they have the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares, and they have the Sideshow of Decay.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

I know, I know the side sideshow of decay, I think, is a carnival type thing, and carnivals are always creepy, right? Uh or no, I guess that's the carnival of nightmares. So the sideshow of decay, I'm not sure. It's a carnival of nightmares, it would be the carnival, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

Um, Fortnightmares, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

Um, it's just related to Fortnite. I don't know how that one will be scary, but I hope it is.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

Uh and the sideshow of decay, that just sounds bad all round. They also have the street experiences. So at Mel's Drive In, they have Mel's Drive-in zombies, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Oh, that's cool. They haven't had that when I've been there. I'm not gonna be at the Florida one, so I don't know if they have I don't even know if they have Mel's at Hollywood, but they always like make the sign. It's like it says Mel's Drive-in, but they say die in whenever it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

So I think they're adding they're adding zombies. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Uh malt shop.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah, it's got the neon lights, so it looks really cool at night and everything. So that's a perfect spot if they're gonna do some like zombie with walking around and everything. That'll be cool.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, I think you might like go in there to to dine on hamburgers, but then there's a bunch of zombies around who want to dine on you, so that doesn't seem like a good combo.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

I mean, why can't the zombies be hungry if you're hungry too? You know, everyone's gotta eat.

SPEAKER_00 48:10

The other street experience is they're calling club horror. And I think that's there's a DJ there and some dancing and things like that. So I think it's like a night nightclub but but horror version.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Yeah. Yeah. And are they doing are they still doing the the Death Eaters that um Yeah, it doesn't seem like it because there was no reference to that at all in any of their materials.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

So perhaps they're not doing the the Death Eaters. Ryan's referring to last year when they had some Harry Potter themed scares, and they had the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter franchise. And they did, I think, a bit of a stage show and used their their wands and cast spells and things like that, and uh it was quite good from what I hear.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

It looks like uh I'm just reading, I'll have to take a look. Like it looks like it might be confirmed for this year, so we'll have to look and see.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

It's not in any of their promotional material, so yeah, but it could be just because it's returning.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

Yeah, we'll have to see. But that's always a highlight, too. And you can get a butter beer while the Death Eaters are walking around, they do some cool stuff there too.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

So there's also a couple of shows that they have going on. So one is a show based on Stranger Things, Return to Hawkins, it's called. It's set up as some sort of a radio show where they review elements of the the show Stranger Things. And then there's another show they've called Nightmare Fuel, Blood Noir, which is music in stunts in a vampire-ridden metropolis. So did you see a stunt show when you were there last year?

SPEAKER_01 49:41

We saw Nightmare Fuel. That's the one we saw. We saw Nightmare Fuel.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

That's the one you saw, so that's a repeat.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

So they always do a different one, I think, but Nightmare Fuel is a consistent one they've done. It was very popular one year. And so yeah, we I I have seen the Nightmare Fuel show, and it's it's very good. That's another thing that you won't necessarily think because you're so focused on going to the houses. The Nightmare Fuel show is very, very good.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

I don't know why, but I feel like there's gonna be motorcycles in that one. Are there motorcycles in that one?

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Uh they do a lot of pyrotechnics, acrobatics stuff, and tell a whole story kind of thing, a whole horror story with lots of pyrotechnics and acrobatics, and it's it's a lot of fun. It's a it's it's a high energy, it's a very high energy, lots of music. It's it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

We like it when things blow up, eh?

SPEAKER_01 50:29

Yeah, yeah. It's very high energy, very high energy.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

All right, so for you, I know as you've mentioned, you visited Halloween Horror Nights quite a few times. What is it that draws you to Halloween Horror Nights? What do you like best about it?

SPEAKER_01 50:41

So I always go for the houses. They're the main draw for me is to always go for the houses, but having gone a few times, one of the mistakes I I felt like I made the first time I went to Halloween Horror Nights was I always get the fast pass because I don't like waiting in lines, so the fast pass is very expensive for Halloween horror nights. But if you don't like waiting in lines, the lineups can be quite long. So I like to get the fast pass when I'm there. I don't know if I'm gonna get the fast pass this year. So I can talk about how I feel about that, and maybe next time when I come back from that. But the one thing is there's a lot of immersion to go with the scare zones and checking the merch and the themed drinks and food. That if you go solely to go to all the haunted houses, you don't get a good moment to really immerse yourself because you're running from house to house to try and get them all done in one night. So the first time I ever went, I only did one night of Halloween horror nights. We were rushing from house to house to house. And by the end of the day, especially if you were at the park all day as well, it can be a little exhausting. And so one thing I started doing was I typically do two nights of Halloween horror nights. One night where I'm focused on doing all the houses, and we do another night where it's focused on we're gonna go to the show that they do. It sounds like they have two this year, so you even have more to do. Usually it's just the nightmare fuel one. Um, so we'll go to the show, we'll make sure to go in the scare zones and maybe go on some of the rides. The rides typically have really short lines because everyone else is in the in the Halloween and horror night houses, so you gotta go on some of the rides. Men in Black is usually like a five-minute wait. You can just walk on that over and over again if you really like that ride or the mummy. Mummy's usually a little bit longer, but you know, you gotta explore the park at night, go through the scare zones, try out the themed drinks and food, and explore the merch at a more leisure pace and immerse yourself in some of the scare zones. And so it's nice to have that contrast of a chill night at Halloween Horn Nights and then a go, go, go night at Halloween Horror Nights.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

I was about to ask you, you know, if I'm visiting for the first time, what do I need to know?

unknown 52:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

But it sounds like it sounds like you just said that. You just told us what we need to know. And basically that is to not miss the the streetmosphere and the shows and the merchandise and and the other things that are there to create the atmosphere. Um don't get caught up in the the game of trying to get on as many, see as many houses as possible. I would imagine if you only had one night and you didn't have a fast pass, that it might even be a good idea just to give up the idea of trying to do all the houses and do the ones that you really want to, but allow yourself some time to do some of the other things as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Exactly. It depends how much what you really value. If you want to try to do all the houses without a fast pass, it'll be difficult. But if you do utilize the stay and scream thing, I think it could be possible, but you'll also have to understand you'll be spending a lot of time in lines and not so much hanging out around the park. So it's kind of a give and take, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Yeah. So the ticket prices are $92 to $140 USD just to get in, depending on what night you go. Obviously, if it's close to Halloween, it'll be more expensive. And uh if it's a weeknight, you'll find it's cheaper than going on a weekend. And then if you want to do the Express Pass, it is pretty costly. It's $169 to $279.99 per person plus tax, depending again on the date you go. So, like you said before, you know, you were talking about you go a long way, perhaps, to enjoy the parks. So it might be something to consider if you're you know you live a long way away and you're gonna be there one time in who knows how many years. Maybe it is worth spending a little extra money so that you can skip the lineups and get a full efficient day out of it, as opposed to standing in line, because there's nothing worse than spending a lot of money to stand around in lines for hours.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

And and to be like frank with people, the lines can be incredibly long for some of those, especially because it's different than um lining up for a ride. Like the ro you will never see lineups this long the way they are for Halloween Horror Nights because it's a constant stream of people. So if there's a line where people are just constantly slowly walking through, but the lineup is two hours, you just it's it's a huge line, it's incredibly long, which can be very intimidating. And it's like, do I really want to wait in line for this haunted house? So you have to decide how much you like lining up in lines and everything. If it's not something that bothers you too much, the haunted houses are always great and they're high production value. It's like walking through a movie. Um, but the lines can get very long there. So I'd at least, if you're not wanted to shell out the money for the fast pass, at least think about the stay and scream if you're already going to be in the park or maybe pay for the extra upcharge. I think it's like 25 bucks last I looked to get into the park slightly earlier so that you can get in some of the lineups a little bit early.

SPEAKER_00 55:45

Alright, that's great advice. All right, we should uh should move on. So I just want to thank you for sharing all your ideas about Disneyland and the review you offered us and the tips there, and also for your thoughts on Halloween horror nights. If people are interested in attending either of these things, I think they've got uh a few ideas uh before they go about what they uh they can expect and how they can maximize their time. So so thanks for joining us. Wonderful. Thanks for having me.

Cruise Contemplations: Best Deals on Excursions and Add Ons

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Thank you again to Ryan for the interview with some great tips and ideas about experiencing Disneyland and experiencing Halloween horror nights. On to cruise contemplations. I wanted to talk about getting the best deal for excursions and add-ons. Now specifically, I'm going to talk about celebrity cruises and their cruise planner. As you know, if you've been on a cruise before, you can access their cruise planner to make plans for your cruise. So you can make reservations, you can book excursions, you can purchase Wi-Fi on the boat, you can purchase spa services. There are usually special events like culinary experiences or wine tasting that you can make reservations for, and of course there's specialty dining. Now these apps are pretty useful in getting yourself organized for the cruise. What I wanted to do is just mention how to find the best pricing. And the key is to understand that the pricing and specials vary from day to day. So what you need to do when you are getting ready to go on a cruise, once you've booked it, you need to set up and enter into your cruise planner right away. And you don't have to pull the trigger right away, but I think you need to closely monitor it over the time from when you booked until you leave. Because what happens is, as I say, there's pricing that changes from day to day. So one week there might be a flash sale, another week there might be a Black Friday sale, another week there might be a summer sale. They are constantly throwing things at customers, and there are often discounts offered. And what I've found is that over the time, if you if you just monitor it, you can find the best pricing, but you have to be just a little bit diligent going back to check. I usually tell my clients, you know, check in frequently to look for best pricing. Now this just happened to me recently, and that's why I thought I'd talk about it. I did recommend for a client to look for the best pricing, and they did. And they were very intentional about checking back. As you're checking back, you're looking for the best pricing, and what I do is I just lock in a sale price when I see one. So if I'm booking a drink package, I will book it in at say 15% off. But then maybe three weeks later I'm looking and I see that the price is 30% off. Well, it's easy to deal with that. So all you do is you just cancel your initial booking, so you cancel your drink package, and then you book at the new price. And I do that all the way through from when I made the booking right through until we leave for the trip. And so hopefully, in the end, I'll have managed to get the best pricing for whatever it is I'm trying to book. Again, it takes a little bit extra time, but I think it pays off. My son and his girlfriend are going on a celebrity cruise, and I decided for her birthday I was going to buy a specialty dining experience. And it was kind of funny because I purchased it, I gave it to her for a birthday, and then she came back to me and said, hey, I've been looking at the cruise planner, I've discovered that you can save money on the specialty dining booking. So I had a look, and sure enough, I could cancel my initial booking and rebook. And in doing so, I saved myself about $25. So the only danger in using this approach is if you cancel out something and rebook and suddenly an excursion is sold out, or you can't get the dining time that you chose for specialty dining back. I mean, obviously there's no danger in changing the price of the drink package or the Wi-Fi, but there's a small risk, I guess, if you cancel an excursion and try to rebook it that somehow it says that, you know, you can't book that excursion again because there's it's it's sold out. And as far as dining goes, when I canceled the specialty dining for my son, I did, when I went back in, I had lost the 12.45 p.m. time that I'd booked, but I just booked it for 1 p.m. So the time slot was gone, and I'm sure the time slot would be returned after I canceled it and after they processed it. But I was easily able to make another reservation 15 minutes later. So hopefully that idea will help you if you didn't realize that. I mean, I think some people just go in and book their excursion or book their specialty dining or their Wi-Fi and don't think about it again. But if you want to get the best pricing, go back and take a look and see if you can adjust the pricing.

Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week: Sherpa

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

For our Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week, I wanted to talk about Sherpa. When I'm looking for information for clients about what requirements are needed for travel when they're going to a specific country, I often use Sherpa. It's a very handy tool, and the great news is that you can use it for free. Right up front, I'll tell you that if you want to access Sherpa, you can type in apply a pply.joinsherpa.com. So joinsherpa is j-o-i-n-s-h-r-pa.com. I'll try to put that in the show notes so that you can go back and look. If you go to that website, you'll see there's a place where you can put in your destination and if you have any stopovers, if you have a flight that has stopovers, you can put that in as well. And if you click the button, which I don't remember what the button says now, but it's a blue button, you click, it'll tell you all that you need to know. So if you're researching destination entry rules, for example, or you want to check out whether your passport is enough to get into a certain country, you can check to see if you need a visa. You can also find out if you need health or testing or vaccinations to visit a particular country, and you can check if there's any border restrictions for flights. So all that information is provided for you for free. And so that really helps. It's a very simple and easy way to figure out what you need to do before you leave for your vacation. Now there is a paid portion to the app. If you do want to join and pay for a membership, it allows you to apply for visas, e-visas, and other things like that, or it allows you to pay for application fees. And usually Sherpa adds a processing or service fee when handling applications on your behalf. Also, there are some business integrations too for Sherpa. So if you have a website or something like that, you can put widgets on your website and so on. But again, that's all the paid-for service, so it's more for business people or for people who just want the ease of applying for what they need through the Sherpa app.

Deals Dish: Celebrity Upgrade Offer

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And finally, let's talk about Deals Dish. This week I wanted to mention a celebrity upgrade offer that is available right now. So you can easily book an Ocean View room and then have that upgraded to a Veranda State Room for free. And that's on Select 2026 Caribbean and South American sailings with celebrity cruises. So the booking window for this special upgrade offer is August the 7th to August 20th, 2026. So it's live right now as you listen to this episode and will be for a little bit afterwards. And the sailing window is you need to book a cruise that will leave sometime between August 21st, 2026 and January 4th, 2027. And also the good news is that you can combine this offer with Celebrities Summer Sale. So right now, in the summer sale, if you book Friday through Monday, you get 75% off a second guest's fare. You can save up to $750 per room. Plus, in some cases, you can get third, fourth, and fifth guests in the stateroom to sale free. And again, that's on select sailings. Just having a look at this summer sale, just for details, the third, fourth, fifth guest cruise fares are for free. That happens on sailings between July 28th, 2026, and May 10th, 2029. And the booking window for the summer sale is July 28th to September 21st, 2026. And the applicable sailings are July 28th, 2026 to May 10th, 2029. So there's a big range for the summer sale, but if you can pick off a cruise that's in the sailing window for the celebrity upgrade offer, you should be able to get the summer sale plus the upgrade offer at the same time. So that's a little tip for you on a celebrity cruises offer if you're interested in booking a celebrity cruise in upcoming months.

Outro

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Coming up next week, we'll talk about the Lakeside Lodge, which will be opening soon in Disney World, Orlando, and we'll find out what Universal Studios is doing to celebrate Christmas. We'll discuss whether the concierge class is worth it on a celebrity cruise, and we'll acknowledge the importance of thinking about travel insurance as a part of the cost of a vacation. And of course there will be a deals dish. I do hope you keep tuning in as I am continuing to line up special guests for interviews. For the August 22nd episode, I will have Michelle Croft on from Celebrity Cruises to discuss the new Celebrity River cruise offerings as well as the Celebrity XL, as that ship is part of my agency's March break cruise plans. I do have other interviews planned relating to the Celebrity Beyond, solo traveling, and exploring Portugal. Lots of exciting content is coming up. If you're enjoying the information and inspiration provided in this show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast reviewing platform. Links to the show's page and to Apple Podcasts can be found in the show notes. Also, feel free to follow me on Instagram. Just search up at the TravelAgent with an EH because we're Canadian. If you want to respond to anything I've talked about on the show, or if you want to offer topics, suggestions, or ideas, please send an email to stephen at the travelagent.ca. You can be part of building the content for our community. That's it for today. I'm getting ready to do something very Canadian, that is to attend a rush concert in Toronto. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep planning, and keep exploring.