I am. I am so jealous right now of
Derek's hoodie as soon as he changed because he changes every
episode so it. Looks new, so you keep.
Me like it Now just wait. Hold on.
Let me make sure you look at that.
Everything about that. The color is perfect, the design
is perfect. And he said you got what, two
years ago Vera Beach like? Two years new.
I was at Vera Beach two years ago.
I never saw it. That's 'cause I bought them all.
And even though it's like 80° here in Florida, I was like, OK,
I'm still gonna bring this hoodie, 'cause I think literally
this is the last Disney piece that I have not worn on.
So I'm like. I'm going to look on eBay.
I love how the front though, just has like the plain Disney
Vacation Club logo. Like, yeah, all I've ever.
Wanted is like a. Is like a just a plain T-shirt
like that? Or just a a polo or something
like. And I'm always about like with
sweatshirts, 'cause I love sweatshirt.
You've got to have like wide, like wrist, so you can't be too
tight. Like, I hate when they're too
tight, so you have to widen up and I can pull it out.
Yeah, and. It's such a Beachy color.
As if I. Can't get it on eBay?
You don't. Need to love Vero?
Not even on eBay. Look at that.
No, we don't have. To get a sour yogurt.
Derek, not in order to get it. How much I'm out of Vero Beach?
Although I'm not going to buy like a Bay Lake one, if they had
the same thing I wouldn't wear. He had to get that dig in.
Hey everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of the DVC
Show. I'm your host, Paul Krieger, and
I'm joined this week by my lovely wife, Amy Krieger.
We've got John Saccari, AKA Big Fat Panda with us.
Welcome home guys. Sweatshirt extraordinaire Derek
Debore. Hey now and the one, the only
Mr. Jeff Haslam. Hey everybody.
We never know how we're going to start these shows, but it always
turns into something that I I really, really like and I hope
that you guys listening and and and watching enjoy kind of these
new kind of cold open concepts. Derek and I were just talking
about this before we got started.
I originally thought of it because I listened to Smartless,
which is an awesome podcast if you've not.
If you've not listened up to it, it's got Jason Bateman on it.
Will Arnett, who's Who's the 3rd?
One, the guy that plays Jack on Will and Grace.
Sean Hayes. Sean Hayes?
Oh, Sean Hayes, Yeah. Terrible with names, but the
three of them are great. And I I also love.
I feel like we should do this sometime for a round of shows.
Is that they always have like, so there's a guest with every
show, but the other people on the panel don't know the guest.
So like if I was bringing the guest in tonight, I would know
who I'm bringing in as our guest and I would introduce them and
then we would have like an hour long.
We we need to do this like. That would be fun.
That'd be really fun. Sounds pretty fun.
Who who knows you? Need to check out the podcast
too? Yeah, it's a it's a good show.
Well, thank you folks for listening to me, Could.
You imagine my disappointment when you bring up the special
guest and it's Jeff. That was the worst Jeff dig of
all time, I feel. Personally attacked.
He's savage. He's savage.
That's. That's, that's bottom of the
barrel. Yeah.
Well, thank you folks for listening to this podcast
because you've been listening to it long enough that for some
reason or another we just keep doing it week after week after
week and and here we are yet again.
So thank you for listening. And if you just tuned in for the
first time, you can expect more ramblings like this if you go
back and watch previous episodes and listen to us in the future.
So make sure you subscribe in whatever place that you do the
podcasting stuffs and you'll get more of this this fun podcasting
stuff. But this week we are talking
about all things DVC on a budget and this was an Amy Krieger
topic idea. Yep, that's it.
Good night. He was like, yeah.
I don't know. I did an article a while back
and then I kind of revamped it for DVC fan and it was related
to, you know, just free and cheap things to do at Disney.
A lot of them were things I tried to find that didn't relate
to going into the parks, you know, because park tickets can
be very expensive. But there are some on here that
that do involve that. But basically thinking about
DVC, you know DVC is meant to save money in in the long run
and DVC members come in all you know all shapes and sizes and
and some of us take multiple trips a year and just looking to
get the best value you know a lot of time.
So I just want to kind of take a a deep dive into planning or
having a DV Ctrip doing a DV Ctrip on a budget and what that
might involve. So looking at things like
transportation, what kind of things can you do that don't
cost money? Where are cheap places to eat on
property? So things like that.
We will try to run down the list here that you've got here over
the course of the show. But before we get started, as
always, please show some love for our sponsors of this and all
of our DVC fan content. The World of DVCDVC resale.
No, you can't use that one. We we we retired that one DVC
that looked terrible. That looked terrible.
DVC resale market. If you're looking to buy or sell
a Disney Vacation Club contract, they can help you with that
contract purchase or sale. Monera Financial where they will
help you with financing the DVC resale contract purchase and the
DVC rental store. Our logo is now a suitcase, not
a thumb. Where you can try before you
buy, rent some DVC points, rent out your own DVC points for cash
swap DVC points, you know the drill.
You guys have been showing tremendous love to those brands
all along and we continue to be very grateful for that because
it allows us to do what we do. So please show some love for our
sponsors, but getting into just cheap or budget friendly
thoughts. I thought we could start the
show by just going around the room and talking about you know
maybe something in the past that you you've you've kind of done
that has been top of mind when it comes to maybe saving a
little bit of money either at the Disney Vacation Club
properties or at at at you know the Parks and Resorts or
something like that. And Derek, I'll let you kick
things off for us. Yeah, I mean, I've I've been a
boardwalk owner for a really long time, like 20 plus years
and one of my favorite things to do.
And it's always amazing to me when people don't realize that,
like the boardwalk area actually exists.
So I talk to people all the time that I had no idea this area was
actually here and to be able to go out on the boardwalk that
night is phenomenal. And I say this, yes, there's
clubs you can go into. You can go into Jelly Rolls,
which is like you know, 20 some dollars, you know, to get in.
They've got so much incredible free entertainment on the
boardwalk between jugglers and you know, all these people doing
all kind of, you know, vaudeville acts out there and
it's all for free and it's right on the boardwalk, right on
Crescent Lake. It's incredible.
And so I I love the boardwalk at night.
And again, you could be on the boardwalk at night and then you
could watch the fireworks go off at Epcot, 'cause you can see
them right over there. It it it's just perfect.
And odds are you can probably walk into Atlantic Dance for
free. Or they probably will pay you to
come in 'cause. We we do all need to go to
Atlantic Dance Hall and bust a move some night or or something.
Let's do it. Bust a hips maybe.
I don't know, Panda. You know when when you go to the
parks or anything like that, anything, anything that pretty
frequently you're kind of like I do this and it and it saves, it
definitely saves me a lot of money.
I think it's a lot of food stuff, like literally bringing,
you know, a a quart of milk and cereal to the D to the DVC
resort. I could not try saving money.
I did not think we were going to go to milk and cereal.
That's. What I do?
Remind me never to vacation with Panda.
I'll be like what do you bring you?
Know what it is I I'm. Not wine because.
I because I live here. No, I I bring milk and I bring
cereal because I live here. It just seems to be the thing to
do. It saves you money on breakfast.
You could even eat it for lunch, bring an uncrustable for dinner.
But I do a lot of those little things.
I made fun of you at first, but I will say just to back you up a
little bit, So we did Old Key West in a one bedroom and I
actually did an art very cool about this years ago for DVC
fan, but it was cooking in a one bedroom villa.
And what you don't want to do is what I did, which is go to the
gift shop at Old Key West and buy all of your ingredients for
your cooking. Because I basically went with,
you know, the slim pickings that were available.
I think we had eggs overpriced. Slim pickings.
Yeah, overpriced eggs with like deli meat, ham, and.
You just went to Olivia's and saved money.
I could have gone to Olivia's and saved money but also just
you know to your point either bringing food with you or doing
something like Instacart or you know Publix having groceries
delivered so that you can then cook in that one bedroom, 2
bedroom, grand villa. You know that that is definitely
going to save a lot of people money.
We have a lot of articles actually over on DVC fan about
that actually a series that was done about like various recipes
and things like that, that you can cook and experiences that
people have people have had. So yeah, I think that's.
You can. You can knock the gift shop all
you want, But we rode out Hurricane Ian at the Riviera and
we were so worried because it was our first hurricane so we
didn't know what to expect. The best meal I've ever eaten on
Disney property to this day is the Kraft Mac and Cheese and
Tater Tots that I bought at the gift shop and made in my room,
pants down. So.
Don't knock it too much. Did you have a one bag it?
Sounds pretty good. We did, Yeah.
I. Think that was a situational
thing. I just.
Wanted to make sure you weren't making Kraft Mac and cheese and
tater tots in a deluxe studio microwave or something.
So. You could.
Oh, you could but.
They need an air fryer. That's the next.
We also went down to Primo Piata.
Is that the name of the quick service?
Yeah, and bought like four of their flatbreads because we
didn't know if the power was going to hold or whatever.
So we had, we had pizza and Mac and cheese for days.
We were. We were so.
Pizza Backup. I like it.
I don't think it's budget. I don't think that was a budget
friendly idea. Not at all, no.
But it worked. On on that same topic though,
just just going over the general options, you know?
Obviously if you if you do food in your villa, you are going to
save money. You know, even just something
simple is breakfast bars for the morning.
So you're not buying breakfast or you know whatever.
But there are a variety of of grocery delivery options for
those of you that can't just pull your cereal milk out of the
fridge and drive to Disney with it.
You know, options like Kroger does delivery here in Florida,
they actually just have a warehouse.
We actually get the majority of our groceries from there.
I. Heard it's closing.
Just today I read the Kroger warehouse is closing.
I don't know if that's going to stop them from delivering in
Florida, but the Kroger Florida is closing.
I'm going to be, I'm going to be devastated if that is true.
Let me look it up and. Make.
Sure. I my, my Kroger Boost delivery
pass is good until like 2026. So if that really happens, Oh my
God, they're going to be hearing from me.
That's. Going to be terrible.
Yeah, that's our main grocery source.
Also on that list you also had related to grocery delivery,
alcohol delivery, which you know I think we priced this out
before and Chefah Hofa the the, the grapefruit Hefeweizen that
is sold all over property. You should know this beer.
If you don't, it's, you know, it's basically juice.
It's not. It shouldn't.
Derek would not. Derek would not classify it as a
beer. I was just going to say don't
not even call that a. Beer I drink.
Like .007%. I am going to have to look into
that and maybe. They said despite all the
business, it didn't meet the benchmarks that they needed.
What I order like every other week.
He's like but I don't eat. Again, now we're going to
starve. The Kriegers are moving back to
West Virginia. OK, don't go that far.
Let's let's calm down. But yeah, in in terms of like
the price of that, like I think it's like 11/12/13 dollars for a
beer on property and you can get a four pack for that price and
get it delivered. Alcohol at Disney on Disney
property is very expensive and in a lot of cases, I'm starting
to really realize that you can get an alcohol drink for the
same price as an entree as some quick service restaurants.
You know what I mean? So alcohol.
Alcohol is very expensive. It adds up.
So if you avoid buying alcohol at restaurants or, you know, you
just have a drink on your balcony in the evening and you
Instacart it, or Walmart delivery or Dizzy Dolphin, you
have all sorts of grocery delivery options.
Apparently not Kroger Soon, but you have all these options that
can help you, you know, just in general, save, save money.
Which is kind of funny too, because I've looked because I'm
a beer and a wine guy so. But the beer is insanely
expensive, even if you go to a gift shop to look to buy a six
pack. I think the last time I checked
at Disney it was like $117.00 for like a six pack just to be
able to buy it from like a gift store.
Then you look and you go you can get a bottle of wine.
It's not that crazy overpriced, so it's not insane.
Meaning you probably are better off getting wine.
And it's not that big of a but man, the beer will just
absolutely. Mixed drinks, too.
Mixed drinks or. And bottles of vodka.
Yeah, it's insane. Jeff could just bring his
partisan. OK, I'm so I'm not even paying
attention to anything you guys are talking about over this
Kroger news right now. The article says that they are
closing 3 facilities. San Antonio, Miami, Dallas.
No, Austin Austin. Another facility.
Is Ours is in Groveland. It's actually over by Panda I.
Think both the Dallas and Groveland facilities will
continue to operate? Yes.
Oh. Nice.
OK, we were just about we just talked about this the other day.
We we're about to start this because Publix is too expensive.
Kroger's awesome. Use the coupons.
By the way, this is for anyone. If you are shopping on Kroger
for your delivery to a Disney resort not sponsored, go through
the coupons, the the E coupons and make sure you add the ones
that are relevant. And it is.
It is. Publix is really expensive.
And the other thing is for for anyone that's at Disney all the
time and maybe will benefit from the the Boost which is free free
delivery. So instead of paying $10 per
delivery you get a whole year of delivery.
Boost is $59 a year. On Black Friday they had a
special where Boost was $29.00 for a year.
So even though I had just renewed I was able to renew
again for that $29.00. So now we're clear out to like
2026. If if they were closing, she was
going to have strong words with customers.
Getting that money back. The article's just says Florida.
They should say it's not. Going to be it was Miami.
Click panda got click baited is what happened there.
Some other some other things, just general thoughts.
And this actually, like this came to me from from Jeff when
we did our show about the Disney Dining Plan.
And if you're not on a dining plan and you're looking for the
cheapest way to eat out, breakfast is by far the
cheapest, you know, on property, you know, at most places
especially like a la carte breakfast versus a la carte
dinner or lunch. But so that's a thought.
Like maybe you go out for a nice Big Breakfast and then you have
dinner in your villa. Or you know, something like that
could be a way to still enjoy Disney restaurants but save save
some money. Also on the kind of the general
front you mentioned here just in terms of transportation, you've
got, you know obviously you have mirrors now, you've got
rideshare, you have other options and comparing those
options. But also something that we've
learned is you know it, it's very rare in some of these cases
that some of these options offer any discounts or offer any
promotions. But be on the lookout for those
things like kind of do your research type in like mirrors,
discount mirrors, promote, like do your Googling to see if those
things exist. A great one we talked about
recently on a show is the Bright line train that runs from Miami
all the way to Orlando. And depending on when you buy
it, it can be half off. And so you want to with any of
these type of promotions really look into options.
And I would couple that with if you're looking at like
rideshare, so Uber, Lyft and things like that, also look at
credit card options because a lot of different rewards credit
cards will offer. I believe like one of my
American Express cards that I have offers like so much in Uber
credit per month that really can help cut down on that cost.
So the the card might have an annual fee, and this is even a
broader, you know, topic of just saving money and budgeting.
But don't get blown away by the annual fees that some credit
cards have. Because when you start to add up
the benefits involved in that credit card, it really pays for
itself very quickly. And you're making money before
you know it on a lot of those points.
And a lot of those rewards and just on the topic of
transportation and seeing what is the best and most affordable
option for your family, definitely always price it out.
I would get. I would tell you to go on Lyft
and Uber's websites and just look during the time that you
feel like you might be riding to your resort and see you know
what are the average prices around that time.
Mirrors right now Is $33.60 for a round trip from your resort to
MCO and then back to MCO or vice versa?
You know, round trip, resort to airport, 3360 for adults 2730,
Round trip for children aged 3 to 9.
I'm assuming under three is free, but you know if you that's
more like if you're individual, that's cheaper than taking a
Lyft or an Uber. If you've got four people, it
might be cheaper that you can fit four people in a Lyft or
Uber for less. So just always look at that,
because what is going to be the best value for you is going to
depend on your family and your situation and your needs.
Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong on this next one, but you're
pretty. I I feel like if you're a Disney
Vacation Club member, you're big into this, but saving on
discounted gift cards is is huge too.
Definitely. To kind of help with your your
vacation or your dues or anything like that.
Yeah, and always keep an eye out for those deals as well.
I mean Target with your red card, you always get 5% off gift
card purchases. But places like Costco and and
BJ's, sometimes those discounts are even heavier, especially on
Christmas time if you're using gift cards to pay your dues or
just we stopped doing the dining clan years ago and we have just
we put money every month on a gift card.
I've got my Star Wars one that's metal, that's permanent that I
carry. With me all the time.
It is the coolest gift card. And we just, That's what we used
to pay for our meals. Because there's always wants on
there. Dude, wait till you see this
gift card. I'm going to find it.
Yeah, you can find it. But yeah, it's we just got, we
just renewed our BJ's membership.
There's a Groupon for that. Right now it's 20 bucks for the
year instead of 60, so. There's also a.
Groupon was still a thing. Yeah, there's also a discount
for teachers sometimes. Thought it, got Krogerd.
If you're an educator, look for BJ's membership discount.
Kriegard, it got Kriegered. Oh, and and Speaking of gift
cards, I would also add, you know, don't just think about
just some gift cards. Think about all Look how shiny
and pretty. It's little metal, isn't that
wild look? At that, cover it, cover it.
That's. A gift card.
Oh, I got to go scan it. Right now, way to worry, yeah.
You can get that at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.
The gift card's 5 bucks, and then you have to put $100 on it.
But. Then you have a nice souvenir.
Then you have it forever. Yeah, and you.
Don't want to lose? It as I was going to say though
also think about gift cards that are not necessarily Disney.
So you know a great gift that you and I have gotten our moms
over the years now that we're in Florida is Southwest gift cards.
And so you know take advantage of deals related to the other
kind of travel things that you're doing because those are
going to be things that you know you need gift cards for as well.
So flights, you know, transportation, food, meals,
that kind of stuff. So.
I was at BJ's on Saturday and they had Lyft or Uber.
It was Uber gift cards for 10% off.
So that's another. 10 That's really good deal.
Yeah, perfect. Last on Amy's general list here
is take advantage of Moonlight Magic and other free events for
qualifying members. Yeah, I mean that's a if you're
a qualifying member and you can go to Moonlight Magic and it's
it's available during your trip, definitely try to get it for
your whole party if you know if you're able and that's you know
you could avoid buying a park ticket that day.
You can get in early. You know, we I think we did the
math and it's about 8 hours in the park if you actually go in,
you know as early as they allow you in because you're allowed in
before mulay magic starts. So that's always something you
definitely want to take advantage of, since it is
technically free as long as you're staying on property and
you get in with your. And Derek?
Derek said moonlight magic was the best experience in the parks
he's had in the last 20 years. So.
Exactly. And if you happen to be there
and see me, you might get one of these.
Which he gave out and free snacks, you know, so you can't
really beat that too. Derek really enjoyed some French
fries as well. His favorite Favorite type of.
He did. He did.
Enjoy them.
I did. It was a great event.
It was my first one, but I can tell you it was super fun.
A you're with amazing friends and then you're with awesome
Disney Vacation Club members. The wait times are super low and
they get even lower the later the night goes on.
But yeah, it was just a fantastically fun time.
So yeah, it was awesome. It was great.
Moving into the next section of kind of budget friendly things,
Amy kind of put together a list of free or cheap entertainment
examples. And the first that actually you
threw on here is funny because Disney actually just highlighted
this. And yeah, Disney Vacation Club
actually put out a video highlighting some of the
offerings around Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort because
obviously they need to try to sell more points there because
they're not selling. And so the first, the first
option on your list here was try Circle D Ranch, which is free to
explore and roam around. And pony rides for children are
only $10. And we have gone there twice now
and had, you know, just a wonderful time walking around
seeing everything. We got actually invited back one
time by a cast member to kind of see a little bit behind the
scenes. Yeah.
And we talked about this a little bit during like our
things to do outside the parks. So if you haven't seen that
video, but just just it's free, you know, take your kids over.
It's not huge, but you know if they like seeing animals and
horses, you know it's it's cool. It's a great little option that
doesn't cost any extra unless you buy Pony Ride.
That's my 20. Four Kingdom.
My 2024 bucket list is a pony ride with Jeff.
Passes. There is a height limit.
Unfortunately, I think you might be just a tad too doll.
The animal Kingdom infrared glasses, do they charge you for
that or is that a free thing? Yeah, that's that is.
That's an extra. It's a little bit pricey, like
in the 80s is dollar range. I didn't put it on my list since
it was. She didn't.
She didn't put it on the budget. I was.
Sticking for a cheap, free or just low cost.
If you want, if you want to actually, yeah a a funny thing
our friend Phil Murphy did a long time ago on DVC fan was he
did a series called Ballin or Budget where like it compared
the two extremes and I feel like I feel like that that would fall
into the ballin ballin ballin trip.
Also on your list of free or cheap entertainment examples
that I definitely know we need to do on our next trip is foot
golf at Disney's Oak Trail. Because I've never really been
good at soccer or football, whatever you want to call it,
and this just sounds like an hilarious adventure.
For all it sounds fun. Yeah, yeah, we.
Need to do. It 25 to $35 depending on the
season and 25% off for those under 18.
So pretty recently, do you do you know like what?
Oh, I just answered that question.
Never mind that. Sounds like a good.
For me though. I can definitely kick.
And I think they do DVC discounts at the golf courses
too, so. Do you have, do you have to bend
a lot or can you kick a lot, 'cause I can kick a lot.
No, I think you just have to kick.
So I yeah, and I didn't include DVC discounts or AP discounts on
any of these prices, so. Derek looks so concerned about
it. Could be cheaper.
I just have a lot of thoughts cuz it sounds like really fun.
It sounds like, Oh my God that sounds amazing.
And it'd be really fun for like the 1st hole and then you
realize, Oh my God, I got to do this for like another 8 Volt
like 9 hole, 18 hole, like no way.
It's like pancakes. Like pancakes sound like a great
idea. Then they come to the table and
you eat like 3 bites and you're like.
I just wanted one. There is no truer.
Statement ever been said like I've I don't like.
I've never verbalized eating pancakes, but that's exactly
what happens every time I eat pancakes.
Craving goes down after the first bite.
I've I there used to be the there used to I'm.
I'm really going on a tangent now.
Bob Evans used to have like this fit breakfast meal where it was
like the perfect combination of sweet and savory.
Because that's my obstacle at breakfast is it's like I do want
a little sweet but mostly I think I want savory.
So how do we mesh? Those no, no, no, no.
You have a pancake with a little bit of syrup.
You have some eggs. You have some bacon takes.
Exactly. That's that's what that meal was
3. Button bacon 3 button bacon
right. 3 button bacon. Anyways.
And then you top it off with some, what, golf.
That's. What you?
Do Amy Hates us today. She's over it.
No, the mini golf I think is also pretty cheap.
Winter Summerland or Fantasia Gardens, $19.00 per adult,
$12.00 per child, 3 to 9 and Jeff.
They do. They do discounts at they.
Do they do? And I mean, for Disney, that's
cheap. But if you have a car or want an
Uber, there's some excellent miniature golf courses just off
property that are like half that much money.
Are they as themed up, Jeff? They're as themed up as the
Disney ones. There's one I can't remember the
name of it, but it's on Urlo Bronson Memorial, right outside
the Animal Kingdom area. Freaking fantastic.
It is really. Oh, it's like a jungle thing.
Like a jungle. Yep, I got OK, we got to go to
that. Well, that's good.
That's good information. What else do we have here,
Polly? Oh, it's free to.
It's free to go to Animal Kingdom Lodge and check out the
Savannah. So you asked about the night
vision glasses. Obviously that's expensive, but
just going, there's multiple Savannah overlooks at Jumbo
House has I think 3 different overlooks.
Kadani has one. So.
We've said to have your own binoculars.
Bring them. Yeah, yeah, we've said this on
so many shows too in the past. Just resort hopping, walking
around the resorts, checking out The Walking trails, that's going
to be huge in terms of just something fun for you and your
family to do. If you've never explored some of
these other resorts might give you inspiration for the future
of a nice add on contract or someplace that you might want to
stay within that zero to seven month window.
So you know all of that, you know, just just head to the
resorts and check out all that they have to offer.
Derek, you already mentioned one on here, the Boardwalk nightly
entertainment, just the things to do around boardwalk, even if
you're just walking along the Boardwalk and seeing the
performers like. Some of those little acts are so
good. They're so good and even if you
don't want to pay the money to go into Jelly rolls and there's
like benches, you can like sit outside and you can still hear
the piano players inside channel if you want.
But just being in that atmosphere and just you could
literally have a whole night of just kind of.
Strolling around. And going to the boardwalk and
going to the beach club and going to the Yacht Club, all of
that for free. And again, you can watch the
fireworks and everything from right there.
It's it literally, it's a whole other world that many people
don't know about. But those people that know that
world, they love that world and that's why they buy the. 2040
This may be controversial, but couldn't you also take a free
ride on the gondola if you're at the boardwalk?
Yeah, no, that's not controversial at all.
You could. I mean, some people may say, you
know, don't use the system if you're not using it for
transportation. I don't agree.
I think you can't. No, it's never really that
crowded. Yeah, I took my mom, not this
time around, but last time that she was in town, we didn't have
park tickets and we went and had breakfast at Yacht Club at Aon
Compass. And then I wanted her to see
some of the resorts. And so we we walked around Beach
Club and Yacht Club and and boardwalk.
But then we got on the sky liner and I took her out to our
animation because it's just so cute.
And I and she really liked walking around and seeing like
the cars area and the Nemo area. So yeah, you can certainly, you
know, just take a ride out to Caribbean Beach, Riviera, you
know? And some of the Caribbean beach.
I mean, always keep in mind, too, that like, you know,
especially the Epcot resorts and the Magic Kingdom resorts, you
can't just kind of pull up and draw it if you're not staying
there. Unless you have a dining
reservation or something else. You can't just say, oh, I'm just
here, 'cause, you know, Panda told me you'd be super cool if I
did this. They're probably not going to
let you in. So you want to make sure that
you have, you know, at least a dining reservation or something
else that you can get in. We just want to set up the
expectations. Right, right, right.
The right or you. If you are staying on property,
use Disney transportation because it is free, you know.
Then that's totally fine, yeah. Yeah, but no, That is a good
point. And that was actually like a
disclaimer in my article. It's like you need if if you
know you can't just drive up and park at any users or at any
time. Another nice thing about the
gondola is if you go to that central area by the Caribbean
beach, there's a Joffrey's and wonderful bathrooms.
So it's not like you're stuck. You actually can take a
breather, get a nice coffee or a something to eat and then get
back on. Yeah, DSQ well.
And Speaking of. Do you want to know?
A fun fact, which I will tell you whether you want to know it
or not, is that I have never, ever been on the Sky Liner.
Never. Is there a reason or is it what?
Are you scared of it? I never had no, I've just never
had a reason to be on that. So I've never been on it.
So I think at some point we're going to have to do like a D.
VC Yeah, that's something to film.
But a Patreon here. Oh, we're going to put him on
the sky liner. I'm that's his first I'm just.
I don't even know what to think anymore.
Nope. Derek, call me next week.
Let's plan a sky liner ride. Not pulling.
Jeff, before that mind blowing thing, what were you going to
say? I don't even know if I can focus
anymore. That just is crazy to me.
I I park at Hollywood Studios just so I can use the sky liner
anyway. We were talking about Boardwalk
and the entertainment at night and stuff, but something that
people don't often equate with going to Disney, that is a free
thing at night is the live music at Disney Springs, and it's
gotten better and better and better.
But like House of Blues has an outdoor place.
Splits. No, not Splitsville.
I can't remember the name of the other one that's right there by
the movie theater has an outdoor place, then the mainstage by
World of Disney, and then there's that other little one by
the Margarita bar, like Friday, Saturday especially.
There's always really good live music going on.
You can go and grab a drink and just kind of hang out.
Doesn't cost. So.
Great point. Derek, you mentioned this one
too, just briefly fireworks from outside the parks at the
boardwalk. You just did Narcosis recently
as well and got to do the fireworks from kind of dining
outside of Narcosis and said how, how awesome that was.
It was awesome. It was like I had not done that
in so long because a lot of times I stay at the Poly cuz my
beloved Poly. But this time was our first time
eating at narcoosis. It was amazing.
And then the servers understand that hey, it's almost fireworks
time. So everybody go outside, they
pump in the music perfectly. It was just sensational.
It was just happily ever after was.
It was awesome. So yeah, I love that more than
sometimes watching it from the Poly beach.
So when you're staying at the Poly and you can watch it from
there, sometimes the sound can be a little muffled.
Sometimes it can get super, super crowded.
But at Narcoosis it's not overwhelmingly crowded.
So it it it was just a perfect place to watch the fireworks.
I loved it. Yeah.
And if you're not eating at Narcosis, you can go down to the
the dock there at Grand Floridian.
You can also see the fireworks from like the little patio area
where people eat outside at Gasparillas.
So there's all those options. Obviously the Polynesian, the
path, there's no music here, but the path between Grand Florian
and Polynesian and when it's open you could you can see
fireworks. So there are definitely options.
Contemporary there's free. What is the the area there
outside of the contemporary? It's just like on the main level
there, right? Outside by the gift shops.
Yeah, that's that's a free spot. The freezeway.
Yep, Yep. Yeah.
You can see them from the the bridge between Bay Lake and.
Contemporary tower. At least we'll have good
fireworks views. I never thought of that.
It's going to look good from that tower.
Should be. Should be very nice from the
tower. Yeah.
The. The.
Next, Were you worried that place was going to be kind of
shabby? No, I just didn't think of the
view because there's not a lot of positives right now about
that building, but the firework viewing is going to be
beautiful. Yeah.
The the next section that you had here Amy was cheap Extras
kind of in and around the parks. These are things that people are
you know a little bit off the beaten path that people might
not think of whether or not it's something that's kind of an add
on within the parks, but they are cheaper options to kind of
do something that's a little bit different.
Your first one here, I loved when we did it behind the scenes
tour at Epcot in the Living with the Land pavilion.
So if you love the ride, living with the land and and kind of
everything as you go through that ride, this behind the
scenes tour allows you kind of an up close and personal you
know view of it with a guide that takes you through the ride
on foot and allows you to see the vegetables and learn a
little bit about all of the. Yeah, and I added that one
because it it is the cheapest tour that there is.
You know, if you're looking at just a little extra special
tour, the, you know, the keys of the Kingdom, all that those are,
those are pretty expensive. How?
Much is behind the scenes. Behind the scenes ranges from
$39.00 to $45.00 a person. I've never done that.
When we did it, it was 20 bucks. So I feel like inflation is
caught up, but it still remains one of the the most cost of
efficient extras you know that you can do.
And it's and it's all the vegetables you can eat, right?
Like. They let you try the cucumber.
You don't have to jump off the boat and grab it or anything,
but think that's about about it. I don't think it's like a a
buffet or anything. Jeff's already dealing with a
ferpter. He doesn't need a cucumber.
You had on here utilize standby lines for Epcot festival
concerts. Jeff you you hit up the festival
concerts pretty frequently. Have you done this?
We I don't ever do the standby line because you're not
guaranteed to get in especially if for some of the more popular
ones so. You're more ballin, yeah.
We do the dining one, you say ballin, but like, I feel like
you got to eat anyway, so it's not that much.
More. To have a nice meal and and good
seats. Not if you brought your milk and
cereal. That's true.
Listen, I bought. I brought my cereal, but I
bought the milk. Just saying.
It is possible to use the standby lines.
Obviously like Jeff said, you know you're not the first in
like the dining package people are you're not guaranteed a
spot. But we did utilize standby for
the Candlelight Processional this year because we didn't feel
like do on the dining package and we did get get get the good
spots to see. And one of the benefits of these
concerts is that there are multiple time slots.
So they'll play it like this time then a couple hours later,
you know, I mean and the same thing with Candlelight
processionals. So if you're willing to wait in
line and you don't wanna pay for a dining package, even if go to
the early one, if you don't make it into that one, then you're in
line and you're going to be one of the first for the next
concert. So, so that's just just a
thought. But there are a lot of like free
little game things outside of, you know, just riding rides and
stuff throughout the parks. And one of the ones that I
really want to do because I see people doing it, is that
DuckTales World Adventure Showcase.
I want to do this so bad. Yeah, and it's free.
You just you do it from your phone and it took the place of
that Agent P1 that used to be there.
And you just, I just always see cool things happening and moving
around and the World Showcase. So we're going to have to try
that one soon. What was the one?
Were you going to continue with the other games?
What was the one where you had to actually get a foot?
Was that Kim possible? Kim Possible.
Kim possible we're. Dating.
Ourselves now, yeah. OK, OK, OK.
Yeah, it was way back when. That's old school.
They gave you an iPod Touch. Yeah, did they?
They kept you. One out and yeah.
Wow. Yeah, No, there are other free
games you've. Got the Pirates Adventure
Treasures of the Seven Seas that's free at Magic Kingdom,
The Wilderness Explorers at Animal Kingdom, and then Kid Cot
Fun stops at Epcot in addition to the DuckTales, yeah?
And a lot of people don't know this.
Also, there is a free animation class called the Animation
Experience. If you're already, you know, at
Animal Kingdom, it is at the conservation station.
There's also, yeah, there's also one at DCA too, but that's
always cool. They always do different, they
teach you how to draw different characters.
So that's always a great option. That's just something unique and
and doesn't cost any extra. I I feel so gluttonous 'cause I
just went to the grand and just sat by the pool and drank.
Since we're since we're talking about DVC, I mean Aulani too has
that. Is it the Menahuni trail or
something? Where?
You get the iPad. Go.
Around and discover the things we did that one day.
That was really fun. Yeah, and DVC in general.
I always say before your trip, hop over to the Disney Vacation
Club website and look at all of, like the extras and things that
are available on there. A lot of them are direct extras,
but like, there's things like Sunrise Yoga at the boardwalk,
and I know they do that out in California too, at Disneyland.
So, like, there's all of these like, little things.
Movies. The movies, yeah.
Basically, I think every resort is doing Movies Now.
Like I know, but still it's. Free.
But yeah, it's something fun to wind down the evening if you
don't. If it's not a crazy.
Park Day. And the kids think it's a big
deal too. They love it.
Yeah, normally they have smores accompanying that and other
things going on, other games and activities, so Chip.
And Dale is out over at Fort Wilderness.
Yeah. Yeah, so much, so much to do at
the resorts. So any other last activities
before I I head into Amy's final?
Real quick, I we've we talked you know, a little bit about
Universal on a couple of our shows, but Universal, SeaWorld,
Busch Gardens, they've stepped up their festival game lately as
they're trying to compete with Epcot.
Right now at the time of filming, it's April or end of
March. What day is it?
I don't. Even know anymore?
Seaworld's doing the Seven Seas Lagoon dining situation, same
kind of thing as Epcot. There's booths with different
things that go around, but they also have free concerts on the
weekends. I think Ludacris is this
weekend, so it's, you know, and Busch Gardens does it.
And then Universal Mardi Gras has free concerts as well.
And they're free like. Yeah, included with your park
ticket. But, but yeah, Universal's Mardi
Gras has has had some good ones in the past that's we saw sticks
there and they're, they're one of my favourites.
But yeah, it's always, always check into those, those concerts
that are part of the being at those parks, 'cause there you
could, you could actually, you could actually see a concert
that you've been wanting to someone you've been wanting to
see without having to pay, you know, an extra concert ticket.
You're going to the park anyway or you know.
The last section that you actually had here for us were
some cheap dining examples around property.
So we did talk earlier about, you know, cooking in your DVC
villa or bringing milk and cereal with you or things like
that. But you put together a small
list of just like some cheaper quick service or or fast options
as you go through the parks. A lot of these focus around
Disney Springs where you can see probably some of the cheaper
options on property Earl of Sandwich.
All sandwiches are either 799 or 899.
You can also get a cup of soup for 299, yeah?
I think that's such a Earl sandwich is such a.
Good deal. Yeah.
Yeah, incredible. Sandwich is filling.
And they're good. Like, it's good sandwiches and
good food. Like it is.
Like if Amy and I debate at all over where we're going some
night. We just end.
Up at our own sandwich because it's just like, you know, you're
gonna get a good. Satisfies everybody, yeah.
Exactly. Another great one.
And I know people should be familiar with this because it's
kind of nationwide Blaze pizza. So build your own pizza for
1195. You know where else on property
you're going to get a pizza for 12?
Dollars. As many toppings as you want.
As many. Toppings as you want and you
know that's that's been our go to recently for run Disney
races. So like before before 1/2
marathon or something, we'll we'll hit up, hit up, Blaze
Pizza at Disney Springs and Car Load of Pizza before the next
morning. And it kind of does kind of does
the trick. Yeah, the next two I added, I
just thought that they were some of the best deals when it comes
to like a full meal, like Creperie to Paris, which is the
newer Sit Down crepe restaurant in France and Epcot.
They have a prefix prefix menu. It is 3995 a person and you get
to choose either the soup of the day or a salad.
You get a savory crepe and then you get a dessert crepe and you
also get like a hard cider, which is alcohol or a soda or a
juice, all for 3995 for one person.
So, so yeah, so like appetizer, entree, dessert and a drink.
So that's pretty good. If you were to price those out
individually, they do add up to more than that, like 43 to 50
something dollars. So that prefix menu I've always
thought was a really good deal. And the plate pig has a butcher
board for two people. It's $44.00 so we're talking
$22.00 a person. And you get 4 different kinds of
meats. I didn't list them all out, but
it was like sausage and this and that and this.
So four meats, two sides, 2 cornbreads, coleslaw and house
made Pickles. It is a whole giant board.
Paul and I have shared it before.
It's delicious. It's plenty for two people and I
mean that's you know $44 to feed two people at Disney is pretty
cheap and you can you know play Pig can kind of feel more like a
sit down restaurant even though it's a quick service.
We actually, when we ate this, we sat at the bar and you know
it was just like being out of in any kind of restaurant so.
Yeah, the the Le crepery when we ate there the first time and
that was the price. I said to myself right away I
was like, there's no way this remains the price this has to
increase because it just felt too reasonable to be at Disney.
Or a table service. Like you look at a bill when
you're at Disney and you're like, Nah, yeah, I'm at Disney.
But then like if you if something comes in lower than
you expected, you're like what just happened?
Like you know, So I think those are great examples.
Any other food examples or anything else you guys can think
of around around property? I mean the boathouse, if you got
the filet mignon sliders, I know they've changed a little bit.
You still get out of there with tip and a good meal for like
under 27 bucks. Not bad.
And I think now, now that they brought back the sliders over at
the Cruise Cup Lounge, which are hands down one of the best
things you'll ever eat your whole entire life.
They were gone for years and years, and I just curled up into
a ball and cried for the last few years when they were gone.
Now they're back. They're literally sensational.
So it's great. You can go there.
Basically. I think they're open like
starting at like noon, I think. So you can go there and get
those. It's phenomenal.
Those are fantastic and will not break your bank.
Another thing that I found, like when I was just looking through
pricing and stuff is that a lot of the pull bars, their food is
somewhat cheaper than you would find you know some of the other
places. Oh, the other thing.
Every park has a Starbucks. If you wanted to save money and
you wanted to eat a little something, you could get your
breakfast sandwich that you normally would get at Starbucks
for five or 6 bucks and take care of a meal.
Yeah. And this is not, I would not
call this budget friendly by any means but if you've done the
Disney Dining Plan Speaking of Starbucks, I think you can get
any like it basically for a snack credit you can get like
any coffee drink or anything like that at Starbucks.
And like in terms of the add-ons or the additions to that drink,
like I've seen people post on Instagram and stuff like that
they've made like 30-40 dollar drinks essentially after all of
the add-ons and stuff like that. But but you know based off of
the qualification it, you know it, it counts as a snack.
So that'll probably ruin it for all of us eventually there'll
be, there'll be more limitations in the future, but I think
that's, you know a a great option.
You know, there's there's some great options.
Yeah, something else that that reminded me of is I primarily
drink water most of the time. So it's besides the fact that
it's usually cheaper, free, it's just better for you.
But any anytime you're in a park you can go into a quick service
restaurant and you can get free water and there are a couple
places that you probably don't even know to look, especially at
Epcot for example, that just have like water available and
sitting and ready for you to take in Germany.
If you walk back by into Summer Summerfest which is the little
quick service in Germany, they have trays already like set up
of pre made water cups for you to just grab and go.
And something I saw like last this past weekend is if you walk
into Spice Rd. table they have a big water like thing where you
can where you pour it yourself. So you can go in there if you're
thirsty and out at Epcot and just get free water really
easily, you know what I mean? So there's always like little
places like that if you just know where to look.
There you go, all of our budget friendly ideas and I'm sure
there are a million, million more that you guys have thought
of. So please put in the comments.
You know anything that you've done around the parks over the
years that has helped save you a little bit of money because
every dollar goes a long way, it can go towards your annual dues
or that next add on itis contract.
So, you know, so many different options when it comes to saving
money over the years and it adds up for sure.
And it just makes kind of the Disney inflation aspect of
things a little bit more manageable as as the prices
continue to go up around the parks and everything.
But that is going to do it for this week's episode of the DVC
show. I hope you enjoyed it and we
will see you as always next Monday.
Hi, everybody.