Planning a Disney vacation can be overwhelming, time consuming,
and expensive. But what if there was a better
way to do it? There absolutely is and that's
why we always call in an expert. Our friend and partner Ashley
Dixon from Adventure Awaits by Ashley.
She does all the research and work to make our trips easy and
stress free. That's right, thanks to Ashley,
our time can be better spent choosing our favorite ears to
match our outfits, or which Lightning Lanes, dining
reservations and enchanting extras we want, because she will
book all of that for us. And she saves US money because
she can get deals on park tickets, resort hotel stays, and
vacation plans that we can't even see ourselves.
The best part? Her services are always free.
As a former cast member and Annual Pass holder at both
Disneyland and Walt Disney World, nobody knows the parks
better than Ashley. So what are you waiting for?
To book your next adventure to Disney and beyond, find Ashley
on social media at Adventure Awaits by Ashley or send her an
e-mail at adventureawaitsbyashley@gmail.com.
And make sure you mention that. The Wonderful Thing About Disney
podcast sent you. We just found a whole new way to
enjoy our trips to the Disney Parks.
Where in the park is a signature theme park seek and find game?
Each game features images showcasing unique and often
overlooked details. Inside the parks, players
explore the park at their own pace looking for each image.
Play solo or team up with friends and family.
This makes the perfect addition to a park day, whether it's your
first visit or your 100th. What's even better is that it's
not only for Disney. Where in the Park offers packs
for theme and amusement parks across the country.
Make sure to check out Where in the Park and all the different
games they have to offer. Use our code WONDERFUL at
checkout for 10% off your next purchase.
Happy searching. Hi, I'm Jake.
And I'm Ashley. And this is the wonderful thing
about Disney Podcast. Because Disney's a wonderful
thing. Come on down, stop on by, hop a
carpet and fly with us as we discuss the parks, treats, and
all things Disney with new episodes every wonderful
Wednesday. What's up, Dingle hoppers?
Happy, wonderful Wednesday. We're back.
It is a great week. It's a great episode because we
have a very special guest this week.
I'm so excited for this one, actually a little nervous too,
like, but excited. So yeah, before we introduce our
special guests, we want to preface this episode.
So if you follow us on social media, you know we love our one
star reviews and you love them as well.
Yeah, because they're ridiculous.
And that's what makes it so great.
And it highlights the various and wildly random opinions of
all Disney guests around the world.
Yeah, and we got our one star reviews off of Google,
TripAdvisor, Yelp, but it really got us thinking, like what are
the lowest rated things in Walt Disney World?
Yeah. And so we came up with this idea
that we're lovingly calling Walt Disney World's worst rated, Yes.
But in order to do that, we had to call in a special guest, nay,
an expert. And we have our friend Becky
from Raising Mini Meez is here with us.
Becky, thank you for coming on. I'm so excited.
Like who doesn't love really trashing those worst Disney
experiences, right? This is going to be a blast.
I'm ready for it. Right.
And and I think the best part of all of this is at one point or
another, I feel like we've all thought it.
Yeah. Some of us are just a little
more vocal and outspoken and are disdained for certain
experiences, attractions, foods, whatever it might be.
And that's what this episode is all about.
But before we get into that, Becky, we would love for you to
introduce yourself, kind of tell our listeners who you are.
Tell us about you and your platform.
Sure. So hey everyone, I'm Becky.
If we haven't met, I do Disney data in my ample free time in my
life, which is a total joke because this is not my full time
job and I have two kids. So what am I doing?
Who knows? I'm doing the fun Disney stuff.
That's what I'm doing. So I authored the unofficial
guide to Walt Disney World. That's a lovely 600 page
textbook of all things Disney that comes out once a year every
August. It funds my trips to Disney so I
appreciate it. And then I run the Raising Mini
Me's Instagram page. The book comes out once a year.
The 2027 edition is already at the printer, so not very timely.
The Instagram page let's me be timely and get those posts out
four days a week with the most up to date information.
And then I work with Touring Plans, which is where we're
getting most of the data for today.
And they do a bunch of Disney data analytics as well.
Help people understand about which wait times to believe and
which ones not to. And so I do a weekly post there
called the Disney Data Dump that also comes out on these
wonderful Wednesdays where people can get all of the most
up to So lots and lots and lots of different ways for me to
spread the word with Disney data.
It's amazing, love that and we cannot wait to geek out with you
because like this, this stuff fascinates me and I have so many
questions, but we will get there.
We'll get there. Perfect.
Hopefully I have answers. We'll find out.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
So we love to ask each of our special guests, what is your
Disney origin story and where did your love of Disney come
from? Yeah, grew up going to Disney,
so I've always lived in Saint Louis.
I'm not an Orlando person or an LA person.
I'm smack dab in the middle of the country, just about as far
as you can get from any Disney parks if you're in the United
States. My parents took me when I was
about 1 year old to Disney World for the first time.
And so that's I guess technically my origin story, but
my mom really loves to tell the story of how I would tell every
attraction bye bye. Like I just wanted out of there,
bye bye, bye, bye, bye bye. So maybe I was the original 1
star review. I don't know.
I could have started this trend. It was you love that so many
years ago. I was about to say how many
years ago and I won't, But then we went to Disney World like
once every three years. Growing up.
We were a little bit scheduled in our vacation taking.
We went lots of other places too.
I just always loved Disney. So then when I was an adult got
married to my husband. He hadn't been to Disney World
since he was 5, and his only memory from that trip was that
he was not tall enough to go on Space Mountain.
So at that point I was like, well we got to go.
And so we went there. On our first anniversary, we did
another big Disney trip, started having kids, had to bring them.
Started working with touring plans around that time as I
started planning my own trips as an adult, used their data, met
the lovely people that run it there and started working with
them since we were fellow data nerds.
And the rest is history. Amazing.
And that's, that's This is why we love this question so much is
because we all got hooked, you know, kind of a different way.
Some of us were able to go as children, others of us speaking
for myself, never went until I was an adult.
Whether it's the films or just cartoons or whatever, there was
always something that brought us here.
And so it's so fun to hear everybody share that.
But you know, we're, we're calling you the Disney data
queen. And so we want to know like you
kind of touched on this a little bit, but how did you start on
this like data endeavor like this, right, exploration of of
all the data. Of all the data.
So I'm a data professional in my like real job, real work life.
That's what I do. I'm a data architect now.
I've been in that space for a couple decades now.
Love data in general. So as I started planning trips
with my husband and then with my kids, my very first boss in my
career said, you should really use this website that I used to
plan my Disney trips called Touring Plans.
And I was like, oh, cool, I haven't heard of this.
Started using touring plans as a customer, like planning out my
days. When do we go to avoid the
crowds? What order do I do the
attractions in? Thought that was really cool.
And so then I was like, I know how to do the data stuff.
I wonder if they would give me access to like their actual data
that they're using, not just their product.
And so I literally just reached out and I was like, hey, I'm a
data person for real life. And I would love if I could use
your Disney data. And so Len Testa would start
sharing Disney data with me just randomly.
He's like, here's all the Be Our Guest satisfaction data.
And this was like, right when Be Our Guest was popular and then
not like right at that tipping point, he's like, can you
analyze it for me? Sure.
And so I started picking up some of that.
And then I was eventually like, could I blog for you?
Because I think that would be cool.
And so then I got access to all the datas and started doing
that. And so that's really like the
data thing comes naturally to me.
Clearly, the Disney fandom has been baked in since birth.
And so this just has really been the perfect marriage of those
two things. Amazing this is so like both of
us spent time in the nonprofit space doing fundraising right
and like what is the secret to fundraising?
You find people with money and you ask them for it.
That's it. This is like so applicable in
life, y'all like if you just are curious about something, just
ask the question. Yeah, if you're like, I want to
know this. I'm just I'm going to shoot my
shot and look at you now. Like that is so cool.
I love that. I love this.
Who knew that one random e-mail back in like 2014 would lead to
where we are today? It's crazy.
Amazing, amazing. I love that.
So you mentioned touring plans, so for our listeners that might
not know what that is, why don't you tell us about touring plans
and your involvement with them? Yeah, so they have a website
that has blogs, has a crowd calendar, so you can look ahead
and see any day of the upcoming year and any park.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how crowded will it be?
10 is like, think New Year's Day.
One is like the dead of summer now.
It used to be just the week after Labor Day.
Now it's just all the summer because no one wants to be hot
and anywhere in between. So it helps you figure that out.
But they also make these things called touring plans where you
feed it all the attractions you want to do in a day.
You click a lovely little button that just says optimize.
It runs a bunch of fancy math in the background and spits you
back out a plan for your day that tells you where you can go
in which order to have the lowest weights in line.
Then they have an app that you can use in the park on your
phone that has all the most up to
You can time your own weights so that we get actual wait time
data back instead of what just Disney posts, they host the post
visit survey. So when we're talking about sort
of these worst of that's where we're getting this data from is
touring plans users and unofficial guide readers fill
out surveys for us after they go to Walt Disney World and they
rate everything. And so that's where we get all
of that data from. So I generally, I just use all
their data really it's all I, they, they graciously share all
their data with me and I write for them and I share the word as
much as I can. But just a bunch of really smart
people who like math and then using that math to help people
have better Disney trips. Amazing.
Well and y'all have been doing this for some time too like this
isn't something new and that's kind of this amazing thing like
you know we've got teenagers now and you know everything is AI,
you plug it into chat, you plug it in, you know wherever.
But I'm like you guys, like this stuff has been around for
decades. It's just we called it math.
Yeah, and. We called it data analysis and
we just worked a little harder and even this there's a huge
difference between what y'all are doing and what AI is today,
and this is the magic behind it. Exactly.
AI can only do so much, right? It doesn't have the real time
information, it doesn't have it. It takes all of the history of
everything. So there's a time and place for
AI generally. Disney planning is not it, no.
It's not at all. Use real humans and real math.
Yes, yes, yes. So we want to ask about your
book because it is so great. So you are the author of The
Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
How did you get into book writing and your experience with
this? And again, you mentioned like
next year's book is already at printing.
I mean, can you walk us through a little bit of the process?
Because I'm sure it's a lot. It's.
That wild. It's bizarre to me.
So unofficial guide has been around since I want to say 1986,
mid 80s. Let's say it's it's a big deal.
I have the very first edition. A friend gifted it to me when I
started writing the book. It's very cool.
Back the very first edition was just Magic Kingdom because Epcot
was so new they hadn't written about it yet.
And then the second one had Epcot in it and it was called
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and Epcot, which is
kind of hilarious now because Epcot is part of Walt Disney
World anyway. So this was another case of I
had been working with Touring Plans, doing the blogging thing,
using their data. I would help.
Lynn Testa, who owns Touring Plans, wrote the Unofficial
guide for a big chunk of that time.
Another man, Bob Sullinger, started writing the unofficial
guide. Then Lynn took it over from him.
And so in 2024, 2023-2024, when they were starting writing the
2025 edition, Lynn was like, you know, my kids have aged out.
He still goes to Disney. He still runs touring plans,
still very much a Disney expert. But he's like, I really think
someone who has kids that are still that Disney going age
should be the one writing the book.
And would you be interested? And I was like, well, so cool.
Again with all my ample free time.
Sure, not right, 600 pages a year.
That sounds like a fun hobby, but I did.
I had never written anything before ever.
So this was a totally new venture, but essentially so for
the 2027 guide, right? We're still many, many once away
from the 2027 guide. I get my contract for that guide
in September of 2025, and I get all all of the edible copies of
the 2026 book, which is already released at that point.
In October of 2025, I get the 2026 book to edit to become
2027. Well, this is already getting
confusing. So then I have about 3 months to
crank that book out. So 1/3 of the book is due
January 15th. A third of the book is due
February 15th. A third of the book is due March
15th. And then I get about a month.
I get, so I just write in China Word documents.
So then the editor goes and lays it all out and makes it look
pretty. I get those layouts back over
the course of about a month. And so I have about a month to
go through everything and make sure it's right and make sure I
haven't made any terrible typos and that Disney hasn't changed
anything because they love doing that.
And then it goes to print in early May, usually end of April,
early May, to then make it to the August release date for the
next year. It is wild.
So my summers are my time off because I don't have to be
writing anything, which is a lot of fun.
But it's a it's so much fun to do and such a challenge at the
same time. But I I thoroughly enjoy it.
Well, because I mean, again, you're, you're talking about
essentially 200 pages a month and then you get all 600 back to
do a final like brush up, clean up of it.
And this isn't, you know, like when you think of writing books,
various sizes, lengths, but like 600 pages.
It's not just once, not just in the series over, you know, a
decade. This is every year.
Every year, and I mean, thankfully a lot of it's
updating. Yeah, a lot of it's updating.
But the lot does change every year and especially these next
several years so much as changing in the theme parks.
We've got whole new lands opening.
So that's another challenge. Like Tropical Americas is
opening in 2027. So I had to write touring plans
for that. For this book I had to write, I
mean, I had to write an intro to that land that hasn't like we're
it hasn't even barely gone above ground yet.
I this book was locked. The 2027 book was locked before
the Walt Disney Studios and Hollywood studios opened, which
is the 2026 opening, right. And before Bluey and Bingo and
that whole area open the Kingdom, which is another 2026
open. So it's a little bit wild to
like try to get ahead of all that and we don't get any, we
don't get any special info or anything from Disney.
So it's always like for best predictions and guesswork, and
then usually Disney will change something major right after it
goes to print. So of course, we'll see what it
is this year. Right.
All right. Well, I think we're ready to get
into our episode for today. So Becky, you had mentioned that
you had pulled all of this data based off of guest satisfaction
surveys from touring plans. Is that correct?
That's correct. And they're all.
So the data I'm going to be using today is surveys that have
been filled out in 2026 so far. So the three types of surveys, I
mean, it's all one survey, but the three types of data we'll
look at today are restaurants and people can give those a
thumbs up or thumbs down when they visit them.
And then attractions which any member of their party can give
it a rating 1:00 to 5:00. So we'll get ratings from
preschoolers and grandparents and adults.
And whoever I pulled, I pulled overall numbers for us today.
That's an average of everyone. And then the last one is hotels.
And so people can rate their resort on a bunch of different
things. I just pulled overall resort
rating on a scale of very dissatisfied to very satisfied.
That's also a scale of five. And so we'll get all of that
information. We've had like 10s of thousands
of surveys already come in. So this this is this is what's
crazy because when we read these one star reviews like it, it
does take a lot of time for us to sort through them and comb
through because one we're looking for the more comical.
Yeah, but like you get all types of opinions on this like some
people are at the travelers, others got drug along for the
trip. Some people, like you said, are
very young, old. It's some expectations are
reasonable, some are not. So this is where as we were kind
of prepping for this, I'm like, no, logically it would be this
and then I start second guessing because people are wild.
I really hope no. People are wild, people are
wild, and it's very interesting. The cost of experiences also
impacts how people rate them. So the most expensive things
don't always rate the best because if it's expensive,
people expect more, right? There's all this interplay.
It's very fascinating. I do always like to call out.
So especially when we're doing worst of lists, whenever I share
worst of lists on Instagram, people are like, but that's my
favorite and I always have to call out like we'll, we'll go
over the numbers here too. But like even the worst of the
worst is that like a 70% satisfaction rating and that's.
Incredible. 7 out of 10 people still like it.
You are welcome to still like it we're just calling out that it
is the lowest rated and so there are more reliable options your
favorite that's also okay I'm okay with that yes all right so
you. Hear that, everyone?
Put down your pitch for yeah, douse your torches.
Calm down, okay? Don't take it personal, all
right? Are we ready for this?
Nervous. I'm like so nervous, okay?
All right, let's start in animal Kingdom.
So let's do the attraction first.
So Jake, what do you think is the lowest rated attraction?
Well, I went. With one and again, it seems
like it's pretty polarizing from what I've gathered.
I know that this attraction is no longer with us, that is, it
is now extinct. But I had to go dinosaur that.
That's my guess. It seems like you either love it
through the pain or you hate it because it's just crazy.
So I. Thought about Dinosaur, but I
want a different route. I said Cali River Rapids because
I feel like not a lot of it doesn't live up to a lot of
people's expectations. Like they want to go and get
soaked and sometimes they're like, I barely got wet on this
ride. Yeah, that's fair.
That's good. I didn't think of that one.
That's a good guess. That's my guess.
All right. I think, I think I'm going to be
able to do like live feedback about the things that you pick.
So we'll see it's working. But I will so far.
So these are all on a scale of five our attractions.
Dinosaur actually this year has a 4.3 before it closed.
Now that's a little bit skewed because people that were riding
Dinosaur this year before it closed are generally the ones
that loved it. And we're like trying to get a
last ride on it, trying to save it before it.
Goes so that might. Just be a factor of like the
time frame that we chose Cali river Rapids worse, a 4.1 still
not terrible though. Our actual worst attraction
rating so far this year at animal Kingdom comes in at a
3.77 and it is drumroll the wildlife express train.
Nobody likes that train, right? Which is?
It's not the. Thing once you get off the train
it's the actual train which is going to be very interesting
when we open up Bluey and Bingo here and anyone who wants to see
those very popular pups will have to be riding that train
yeah, I think it has a lot to do with like the weight and this
isn't an exciting train ride because it's not the means to
get you over there so we'll see what happens with that one there
you go and that. One does have its moments.
I honestly didn't think of that one.
But it has its moments where you're like, hey, I have to
wait. This is the only way over there.
Yeah. And then you get there and it's
like, I feel like. Over like on the way there, it's
not bad. It's on the way back that I'm
like, oh, this line is not great.
No, thank you. Yeah, no one wants to wait to
just get back to the main part of the park.
Yep, right. Well.
And we're off. Over 2 Over.
Yeah, it's fine. Let's try.
Let's try a table service in Animal Kingdom.
OK, I went Rainforest Cafe. I also.
Went Rainforest Cafe because I feel like.
People are like, why am I going to Rainforest Cafe and Animal
Kingdom? Yes.
And I feel like as cool as Rainforest Cafe is, I feel like
people are very critical of Rainforest Cafe for right or
wrong. But also this was tough because
we low key think the Animal Kingdom might have the best
dining options in Walt Disney World.
Yeah, we said what we said like there's a really good table
service spots, like it's so good.
Yeah. It is the foodie park so
normally. I was actually surprised by the
result on this one. Normally Rainforest Cafe is on
the bottom at Animal Kingdom and it is still very low.
It's at 76% so far this year. The one in Disney Springs
actually. You were in the ballpark.
Disney Springs. Rainforest Cafe actually rates
even a little bit lower, just FYI.
But so far this year, the worst rated table service restaurant
is at 70% in Animal Kingdom and it's Tiffins.
We OK, we. Talked about Tiffins and I was
like no, there's no way, right? Yeah, OK.
It's that. Nice everyone.
Everyone of the SO comments are optional when you fill out the
survey. Every comment that we got that
was related to a thumbs down score was about the cost and how
they didn't think it was worth what they were charging for what
they got. So and.
And this is something that I think Walt Disney World does,
there's a whole lot more of than Disneyland, let's say.
Like there are a lot of options for a lot of different price
ranges when it comes to eating. I think we've kind of been more
of the mindset, like if we're already here and paying this
much to be here, we're probably not going to spend an hour plus
sitting down at a very fancy restaurant.
However, you're catering to a lot of different people from a
lot of different walks of life. And yeah, like you, you
mentioned in the opening, like when you're paying a lot for
something, people tend to be very critical.
Yeah, Yep. So there you go.
Wow, go. If you have an annual pass, hit
it this summer when it's 40% off because then it's like right at
the right price point. It's great.
What? OK, cool.
Good hack. Good hack.
That's the hack I love. That.
I love that. So now that leaves quick service
I. I said Pete Safari Pizza.
Faries because I'm like does. Anybody go to Animal Kingdom to
have that food? Yeah, probably not.
And pizza can. Be so like hit and miss.
It's volatile for sure. It is I I had to go restaurant
Asaurus and I worry that I might have made another error that
people were trying to cling on to it desperately before it
goes, but I don't know. It's always been OK for me.
Yeah, I'm. Trying to find Restaurant
Asaurus. I might it might have filtered
out because it closed so early. So I actually don't.
I don't think I have results for Restaurant Asaurus.
OK, so we'll just pretend it was the lowest.
That's fine. Sure we can.
We can just, Yeah, we'll make it up.
I'll go pull surveys from last year and let you know.
But this time, yeah, you got one right.
It is Pizza Safari. We'd go.
It is sitting at 87%, which is actually impressively high for a
so high. Quick service.
In a park. So this proves your point of
Animal Kingdom really does generally have very high quality
dining. Even their worst is not too
shabby. You hear that?
Everybody who came after us before when we were like ranking
the parks on food. That's right.
This is data-driven, right? Data.
Driven, yeah. We will now.
Accept your apologies. Oh my gosh.
Let's let's move on. Let's go, Let's go to Epcot.
Let's go to Epcot. OK, let's start with attraction
this. This one, I think I struggled
more with Epcot than any other park because again, this is one
of those parks that one people don't really come for the
attractions. I think Disney's trying to make
it more appealing with some of the attraction in the additions
they've had, but there was one that I thought would probably
win, but I just I couldn't help myself.
I have to go after my boy figment.
It's it's got to be journey into imagination with the whole skunk
experience and and Nigel turning into the moon.
It is it is a fever trip. And that's that's my answer.
I'm sticking with it. There is that.
Skunk man. So I went mission space.
I was like, I think that's the one that everybody does not
like, I thought. About mission space, because it
is intense, but oh man, see. Oh, I don't know.
It's. Very intense.
OK, we'll start with your results again.
You came much closer to the bottom this time, so well done.
Mission space is pretty close down there.
It's at 3.84. So instead of you all were in
the four point ones and you're now on the three-point eights.
So we're getting. Better we are.
Yeah. And Figment comes in right below
that at 3.83. So they're both not not quite
the lowest rated. The very low illustrated at
Epcot is it's not living. With the land, is it no, No, no,
no. Okay, good.
Like we. Still have standards in this
country, thankfully, yeah. So it's.
Image 3.4 Yeah, so it comes in at 3.43.
It's the little play area after you get out of Figment that
people just really don't think is worth any time.
So at Epcot, these are the things that drag scores that
I've caught down are these play areas.
People don't rate them really highly.
I got it. As someone with young kids, I
find them to be really valuable. Yeah.
It means my big kid and my spouse can go ride the big major
headliners and. But my little kid isn't bored.
She's going, and she loves these things.
So this is another one of my little disclaimers of like,
yeah, does Image Works need an overhaul?
Probably. But even still, it has its
audience, so it does well. And it's amazing that I guess I
never really stopped to think about it, but Epcot does have
multiple play areas like that after.
Yeah, big, right. Yeah.
So. That's really.
Cool the. Second lowest rated attraction
at Epcot at 3.49 is Project Tomorrow, which is the same exit
space after Spaceship Earth. Yeah, So OK, there's a thing.
There's a third. OK, OK.
No, that makes sense. Yep.
All right, OK, all right, let's go to table service.
And I think I struggled with this one the most.
Right. You didn't.
It's all so good. Yeah.
I, I did not, I actually had one that came to mind right away.
And this is 1 again, from our research during one star
reviews, we actually found a lot of one star reviews for Coral
Reef restaurant. So I'm going off of just what we
have seen. We've never eaten there yet, but
yeah, I, I'm, I'm just going to go with Coral Reef I.
So I thought about that one. I also thought about Garden
Grill, but I went out on a limb and it's again a place that we
have never eaten, but I've only ever heard like negative things
about it. I went in Italy and I said Via
Napoli. What?
Because I've. Again, we've never eaten there,
but every review or every person that we've talked to that has
eaten there is like it's just not worth it.
Like it's not the great, it's not the greatest food.
Where was I for these? Conversations like I would I'm
I'm all about Italian food. I don't care.
Even bad Italian is better than no Italian for me.
I'm sorry. You need to talk to Bethany
Benton because she also hates Via Napoli.
She is one of those people. So she that way she.
Did you tapped into Bethany? No, I don't hear you.
She would know. She would know.
That's she would know. I would call out Garden Grill is
one of my favorites personally and it is one of the highest
rated restaurants in Epcot and it is rated at 90.
I did. Not go home.
Yeah, 90. 6% good for you people.
Because it's a gem, it is a. Like you're you see and live in
with it's a good character experience.
Like it is you get stay at your table, the characters come to
you. It's a lot calmer than most
character dining anyway. Via Napoli.
Not calm and quiet, quite the opposite.
But 93% can't really go wrong with pizza and pasta.
So that's above average for what people?
That's coral reef. I'm also a coral reef defender,
but it does score pretty low. It is not the lowest, but it
does not pretty low. Coral reef is at 85% so far.
Well, still. Though Yeah, decent score.
Decent. Below average, certainly the
lowest rated table service restaurant and this one hurt me,
but I think I can explain. Why I?
Know, right Is Spice Rd. table in Morocco at 79 percent, 79%?
I think it's a little too adventurous for, you know, the
clientele. Yeah, it is.
It's if you don't know what the menu is before you go, it is a
bunch of small plates. It's different.
So it just doesn't cater to the normal Disney tourist.
And that's what most of the comments are about.
It's just sort of this, like I was expecting a meal by the
water. Yeah, but that one hurts my
heart. That one does.
I that I think you're spot on, Becky and that like that.
OK, that hurts me. I'm not happy about that one.
But again, like, no, before you go people, that's not we.
Just got to go. Yeah, up Spice Rd. table.
Let's get it off the bottom. Come on.
Yeah. All right.
Come on, come. On people we got to save spice
Rd. table. You know, the mission now let's
go. OK, quick service, quick
service. OK.
And there's again, a lot of options here.
This is 1. I kept going back and forth and
back and forth. And finally I just said, you
know what? I'm just going to go right down
the middle. This is this is my long shot
pick. I'm going to go connections
eatery because I feel like there was a lot of hype around it
before it opened. There's nothing wrong with it.
But in the like Epcot with the World Showcase, that's kind of
the most tame, boring option of all.
Like, I don't know. Yeah.
I went Sunshine Seasons because again, there's not a single
person that I know that actually goes there.
Like who says I'm gonna go to Sunshine Seasons to get lunch?
What do not sometimes? If I'm over there for soaring,
you're living with. Land.
Exactly. You don't go out of your way.
There's nothing else. There, it's a convenient spot.
I am grateful for it. You hear that people?
I'm grateful for it. He's grateful.
For it, right, Well, you're both like in the whole, I have all my
restaurants ordered just top to bottom by score, table service
and bars and lounges and quick service connections.
Eatery and sunshine seasons are literally right next to each
other, so they could not have closer scores.
They're both at 89%. So that's still that's below
average. Our average actually sits like
91 to 92%. It's higher for quick service
than it is for table service, but the worst rated one in Epcot
that's at 84%. So we're slightly lower than
Animal Kingdom's worst. And this one surprised me too.
It's Regal Eagle, right? We're all like, what do we love?
Regal Eagle I know, but I. Think it is that you talked
about how connections you pick connections because it's just
sort of like why would you go there when you have all the
World Showcase? Regal Eagle suffers a little bit
from the same dynamic of like, I had all these options.
Usually it seems like it's usually a parent filling it out
that like regrets that they were forced to eat here by the rest
of their family. And it's like that when there
were so many options, why did I end up at Regal Eagle?
So that is so. Sad.
It is. Sam.
Eagle is ready to go to war. It's America 2. 50 people eat
the BBQ. Seriously.
Barbecue. Seriously.
Have some pride for our nation. Where's the patriotism?
I know it is not the best barbecue in the world, but we
live in Utah where our BBQ is about as mid as it gets.
You know what? Yeah, it's pretty good.
OK, so back off. Regal Eagle back.
Well, it's got The Muppets. For crying out loud.
I mean, kind of, yeah. I will call out the highest
rated attraction so far this year in Epcot is Voices of
Liberty. It comes in higher than
literally anything else in the park.
So we've got some patriotism in us somewhere.
It's just not for the food. Just not our food.
Not our food. Our food.
Sucks, but God Bless America. Wow, I'm noticing.
We're not great at this game. No, we're not.
It's hard. It's hard, it's not great, and
it's. Like I'm second guessing every
choice. I'm not.
I'm not going to lie. I did have a passing, fleeting
thought that was like, you know, I could see people being very
critical of our own nation's cuisine.
And then I waved goodbye because I'm like, no, it's America 250.
There's no way. OK.
Should we try to go to Hollywood studios?
I believe in. You.
I believe in you. For Hollywood studios, I think
you can do this one. I don't know.
OK, let's start. Let's start with attraction
again. OK, so I did have a thought and
if it ends up being Mickey Minnie's Runaway Railway, I'm
going to kick myself because I know that people in Walt Disney
World tend to get very fired up when attractions specifically
are taken away. Disneyland side of the country,
they're more used to change and updates and stuff.
But Disney World, like they get sentimental and they get
defensive, so they're just mad about.
The Great Movie ride they are. Everyone hates that the Great
Movie ride is gone, even though Mickey and Minnie's runaway
railway is cute as a button and it's great.
I could see that. So I almost went there, but then
I was like, no, I'm going to go Alien Swirling Saucers because
one, I could see people not feeling the best after.
Maybe you had too much Woody's lunch box.
I don't know. But also that is a long line for
a very short ride. I agree with screaming children.
That was my. Logic.
So I also went Alien Swirling Saucers is I feel like that is
the one ride that we skip almost every time.
Unfortunately, it just it's not the top of our priority list and
not a top of our. It's not our favorite, yeah.
Meanwhile, so I've taken both my kids on one-on-one trips to
Disney. We did it 2 summers ago, we're
doing it again this summer. My littler kid, she's 7 now.
So the last time we did she was 5 when we did this.
They are in charge on it's one-on-one trip.
They're in charge. We get to do whatever they want.
We started a day in Epcot. We wore our living with the land
shirts. We had breakfast at Garden
Grill. We did behind the scenes and she
said I want to go ride Alien swirling saucers.
So we literally took the sky liner all the way to Hollywood
Studios, rode Aliens room saucers, and sky linered back to
Epcot. For the rest of our day, that
is. Incredible.
There are those. People.
Apparently I'm not one of them. Thankfully for both of you, many
people are not that person. Because Aliens Swirling Saucers
is the lowest rated attraction at 4.09, which is much higher
than any of the other attractions talking about today.
Wow, so Hollywood Studios doesn't have any stinkers?
The kids still love it, but it's amazing.
Runaway. Railway is near the top though.
It's actually at 4.64, so as it should.
It's a great way. We're far enough.
Away from Great Movie Ride that a lot of families that are
filling out surveys these days that's not I would have kicked.
Myself, but I'm like, you know what?
People grow up. We did it.
Great ride. We did it.
We got one. One we got.
My good. All right, Keep it up, right.
OK, so I don't know. Let's go.
From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, here we are.
Let's go table. Service.
Table service this one is tough again, but I I'm gonna go sci-fi
diner or dine in restaurant because we were recommended to
go there the first time that we went to Hollywood studios.
I'm so glad we did. It was really really cool.
However, as like well that's it. It's cool cuz you get to eat in
a car but I just don't know that it was our favorite.
Didn't live up to the hype and the food wasn't.
That great, I don't think, yeah. So sci-fi dine in restaurant for
me. So I almost.
Went sci-fi, yeah, but then I went 50s primetime Cafe just
because of the atmosphere. I think it's not for everybody.
Like, again, if you don't research it and you don't know
what to expect, then you go there and you're like, this is
not what I wanted. Like even if you just look at
the menu, that's great, but maybe the atmosphere is not what
you wanted. Yep, I think table service
dining in Hollywood studios is just rough and very hit or miss
depending on the year and the menu and the service.
I will say this is now my favorite one we've done because
one of you picked the worst and one of you picked the best.
Crap ready go. So coming in at 97% satisfaction
this year and the top rated table service restaurant in
Hollywood stews this year is 50s Primetime Cafe.
My gosh I'm loving this. So.
Bad and sci-fi does come in last place at 85%, so not even that
big of a spread really. No, it's really not.
Yeah. I'm so.
Proud of myself right now. Consider this my retirement from
podcasting. I'm just going to go out on top
A. Lot more to go.
Oh, what? Let's.
Keep it going, right? All right, quick service.
Quick service and this is again, another tough one.
Like like you said, Becky, like food in Hollywood studios is
kind of just a mixed bag. I had to go Catalina, Eddie's
and This is why pizza is either feast or famine.
So I had to go pizza. I don't know.
That's really my only reasoning behind it.
And I just feel like over there, it's kind of a hot area of the
park anyway. And I don't know, I'm, I'm shot
in the dark, I. Had a similar thought.
I want Rosie's All American because I feel like people don't
go over there a lot to eat the food and again, it's not the
best food in the park. I mean, I probably should have
picked Catalina at ease. I'm sure that's you say that.
I don't know you. Just always second guess
yourself. I do all the time.
Rosie's not great, 88% so yeah, a clear skip.
But coming in at bottom place in Hollywood Studios, you actually
got perfect at Hollywood Studios.
It is Catalina Eddie's at 77% satisfaction this year looks to.
You one of the. Lowest rated?
It's the lowest rated quick service in any of the four
parks. Wow.
OK. Don't do it.
But yeah, you knocked Hollywood studios.
Yeah, you, you were three for. 3/3 for three.
Same. Look at you, you know, I think.
I've eaten at Catalina Eddie's like one time, but it wasn't
that bad. Like I liked it OK, I'm sorry.
It was, It was decent. It's fine.
But yeah. Yeah, wow.
All right, let's. Go one more park.
We've got Magic Kingdom I, I'm. Exhausted.
I've given everything I have like I'm done.
We should have ended on that one, right?
We should have, OK. So this one, if, if I could say
one guess that I was the most confident in it doesn't mean I'm
right, but I think it's this one.
I think it's Tomorrowland Speedway.
It's the fumes, it's the noise, it's the handling of the cars.
I know it's nostalgic and it's special for kids to be able to
drive, but we all hate it. You know I'm right.
You know I'm right, people. I I do think you're right.
I do think that could be it. I went barnstormer, though.
Why Barnstormer? I don't know.
It was just a hunch. Honestly, I don't know.
It's. Barnstormer is remarkable
because people don't really like the queue is all in the sun, so
you're just there baking. It loads really slow and then
you literally get 21 seconds of actual at speed roller coaster.
The rest of it is either going up the hill or coming in for the
landing. That's true.
That's so. Sad.
So actually we're both coming in near the bottom here, so I can
pull overall rankings. So the Barnstormer is the 15th
worst attraction in Walt Disney World as a whole, and it comes
in at 3.8. So it is like it's down there.
It's pretty bad. Yeah, it's pretty.
Bad. We had already talked about the
second and third worst. Those were both at Epcot.
That was Image Works and Project Tomorrow.
Tomorrowland's Tomorrowland Speedway is actually the fourth
worst in all of Walt Disney World at 3.64 hour.
Worst worst in Magic Kingdom and all of Walt Disney World.
Neither of you guessed it's at 3.15.
Let's see if we can get there. This is an attraction that many
people don't even really know exists.
It's more of like oh this is a thing you don't have to wait in
line for but it literally ruins parents days when their kids
discover it and play here. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah,
it's got to be. Is it?
No. Are kids getting?
Wet here, yeah. Yeah, yeah, my gosh, is.
It in Tomorrowland, no. Okay, so I know there's like.
The spinning ball, Yeah, it's not the spinning.
Ball, It's the Casey junior splash and soak station right
outside of Dumbo. Okay, I thought about that
sideshow. And so literally all the
comments we get are like, I couldn't keep my kid away and
now they're soaked and I have nothing to change them into for
the rest of like, parents just loathe this thing.
Yeah. There you.
Go worst in Walt Disney World this.
Is really funny, so we always start our day at 7 Dwarfs Mine
Train and then rarely do we get back into that corner of the
park. Until night.
Yeah. So I think we kind of avoid the
screaming and, you know, the disdain.
That's, yes, it makes sense. But man, they're on a hot
afternoon. Yeah, on a hot afternoon, kids
are just loving it. And you just see the parents
scowling, scowling. Yeah, wow.
But I agree with. Tomorrowland Speedway.
Let's get rid of it. Use that space for something
better get rid of. It yeah, we don't need that.
Table. Service.
Table service? How about?
You go first this time.
So similar. To what we were talking about
before I my guess is based on just price point so I went be
our guest I feel like for the price that you're paying it's
just not worth it well and I. Almost went there as well
because I really wanted to pick Cinderella's royal table, but I
thought the princesses would save it because even though
you're paying an exorbitant amount, when you see your little
girl or your son interacting with the princesses, I think
your hearts are softened. I went Tony's town square and I,
I don't know. I just feel like that's one that
is not that great. I don't know.
I know some people love it, but yeah.
Yeah. OK, here we go.
I'm going to start with Be Our Guest and then I have lots of
comments about all the others. Be Our Guest has Perennial
perennially been the worst rated restaurant in Magic Kingdom for
like each of the past five years.
It's not This year, it's actually up to 889%, which is
still below average. But I do know they've been
trying to make tweaks to the menu because it hasn't Be Our
Guest. Be Our Guest does more business
than any other restaurant. Walt Disney World from a revenue
perspective. And so.
The the fact that it's not selling out and that there are
lots of open reservation sport always is a really big sort of
red alarm bell for Disney. So I know they're focused on
that and maybe that that is making so interesting factoid.
Be Our Guest does an average of $300,000 a day in business.
It's an insane amount of money. So if people stop going there,
that's really bad for Disney. So I think they're varieties.
Cinderella's royal table is actually slightly lower this
year. It's at 86%.
So the price point does really hurt it there, but the
princesses do save it. Tony's Town Square, the top
rated table service in Magic Kingdom so far this year.
Why I lost it? It's gone.
I I. Would not, I would not have
called that one myself, no. So I don't know which means
we're sort of running out. Usually it's Liberty tree,
Liberty trees slightly lower because their prices did go up
and that is impacting. OK, thanks.
Lowest rated so far this year is Crystal Palace.
Wow. What?
I will say. I dined at Crystal Palace.
That was in late November though, but so it wouldn't have
been a 2026 survey. Food quality was not good.
It was not good and we only got 2 out of the four characters to
our table. Pooh no longer goes to tables,
he just stands at the front, which is fine, but we missed
Piglet entirely and we were there right at the breakfast to
lunch switch over and we were spending a lot of time there to
try to cover both anyway, so I can get it.
It's another expensive one and you want that good character
interaction and I guess it's just missing this year a little
bit. That's too bad.
Because we were there in November, the beginning of
November, yeah. For breakfast, Yeah, breakfast
out. But breakfast is the way to.
Go. Yes, you go.
Absolutely. Like we, we just posted a reel
on Instagram today that if you could eat at one restaurant for
free the rest of your life, what would you pick?
And, and one of our friends, Justin, he chose Ohana and we're
like, Oh yeah, we love it there. We only eat there for breakfast.
He's like, no, you go for dinner.
I'm like, no, you go for breakfast.
This is kind of interesting, but yeah, that is funny.
But yeah, you if you do a meal at Crystal Palace, do breakfast.
They have the trigger waffles. It's cheaper.
That's the way my girl it is. Most of the thumbs downs are
from lunch and dinner, not breakfast.
Interesting. OK, all right, that leaves quick
service. Quick service.
I I already? Know you don't even have to tell
me it I went. With my main man who I hate, I
hate Pinocchio with the firing, burning passion.
So I went Pinocchio Village House because I could not help
myself. And also I mean the view is
nice. Like when we took our daughter
for the first time, she loved to look over.
It's a small world, sure loved it.
But again, the food, it's just not that great, I think.
You're letting your bias and your I totally.
Am get. To you, you can't pick with your
heart. You have to focus on logic.
I went cosmic rays. That's what I probably.
Should have gone and I went. There because I think as we were
doing again, one star reviews, we saw a lot of polarizing
thoughts on it, but it tends to get really crowded.
I think that people may be a little upset that the toppings
bar is no longer there. And yeah, I don't know, I think
food there can. I mean, if you just want a
hamburger in a quick spot, like it's not bad, but I think people
could be critical and it's just OK.
Yeah, I agree. My favorite story from Cosmic
Rays. My husband and I ate there once.
I have to eat everywhere occasionally so I can try them
all. So I even go to the bad places
and we both ordered different specialty burgers and we didn't
realize until about halfway through our meal that we were
eating the wrong specialty burgers that we hadn't ordered
because they were so bland we couldn't even tell that we had
the wrong ones. Anyway.
That being said, neither one of you picked the worst rated, but
in this case, the heart did better than the logic.
So the cosmic rays came in at 85%.
Still not great. That is still one of our lowest
scores. That would have lost at Animal
Kingdom. It would have almost lost at
Epcot. Pinocchio Village House is very,
very close to the bottom, enough that it could statistically be a
tie. It's at 82%.
Yeah. You're going to smoke phase.
We can claim. This one, but the lowest rated
is, is it a real quick service place?
It's the lunching pad. So the lunching pad is right
under Astra orbiter. It has rubber pretzels and the
only good thing there is if you're really hot in
Tomorrowland, they have slushes that can save your day.
But otherwise that's the real 1 you want to avoid.
It's not a real meal place so but it is a quick service
restaurant. So you know you know why.
I didn't even think of that place is because we just don't
go there, Simba. No, it's not.
Right. Avoid.
It go to cosmic rays instead, but don't actually do that
either. Just don't eat in Tomorrowland,
that's the goodness. Gracious.
OK. So to round out the parks, to
round out the parks, Oh yeah. Which?
Of. The four parks do you think is
the lowest rated park? See this.
Is this is what kills me because especially going through all of
this now, I know I'm second. Guessing myself, I am.
But I'm going to go with the one that has the shortest hours of
operation and has what feels like the fewest amount of
attractions. I think I've got to go with
Animal Kingdom, even though I love it.
I think there's a lot of people if you're like, hey, I've got a
three day Walt Disney World park ticket like I'm skipping Animal
Kingdom so. I originally said Hollywood
Studios and I'm second guessing myself because of Epcot.
In the playgrounds. I'm like, oh, does that bring
like the average down? Love Epcot.
No, yeah, I'm just, I'm. Going to stay with Hollywood
Studios, OK. We're going to go top to bottom
on this Magic Kingdom Top Rated Park at 4 point.
And so this is like an amalgamation of the way people
rate things at that park. Yeah.
Hollywood Studios comes in at the top at 4.51.
It has a lot of just attractions and things that people love.
So yeah, sorry, yeah. In 2nd place is Animal Kingdom
at 4.48. So you're right, it is the least
attended park. So very like relatively few
people go there, but the people that do go there and therefore
give it ratings rate most of the things really highly and the
things that weren't rating highly have closed.
Triceratops spin, it's tough to be a bug was really lowered like
that park is sort of in the middle of this transformation to
be more high rated, I think. Yeah, third place.
Third place goes to Magic Kingdom at 4.36.
And you caught on as we were doing our attraction ratings.
Epcot comes in last at 4.30. This gap I know nothing.
That much of A. Right.
It's not that much of a gap, 4.5 to 4.3, Everyone loves all the
parks. It's not that big of a deal.
But it used to be a lot bigger. Epcot used to be a lot lower
actually. And.
Yeah. So the top rated attractions in
Epcot are things, well, Voices of Liberty, but we want, we want
to talk about that things like Cosmic Rewind, very popular,
Frozen Ever After, incredibly popular.
So Disney recognized this and is also working to get these
scores. Sure.
Yeah. Well, and I think we live in a
world, especially when you talk about Universal and their high
intensity attractions, but also everything they did with Epic
Universe, like people, consumers like they want big ticket
attractions, they want blow my mind stuff and Epcot is
definitely leaned into that. So I can see why maybe it's
making up ground and closing that gap.
Yeah, yes. I'm a little bit sad because I'm
a like wander, enjoy the ambience person.
And clearly the trends say that's that's not what's going
to happen, I don't think, in the future at Disney.
Yeah. Unfortunately, no.
But I mean that is that is hard. We are the same way.
So all that to say, that takes us now last but not least to the
resorts. We have a goal to stay at every
Walt Disney World Resort hotel. We have been trying that.
Just last November we did a challenge of can we visit every
Walt Disney World Resort hotel in one day using only Disney
transportation. We did it.
It was a grind. It was amazing, it was fun.
But. This one's going to be
interesting for me. Yeah, because we broke.
It down. We broke it down by value,
moderate and deluxe. Deluxe is gonna be crazy.
Yeah, yes. Again, can we split deluxe and
DVC? I can do it either way, yeah.
Yeah, let's do it. Let's do that.
Let's do it. OK.
Value Resort Ashley I. Said All Star.
Sports. All Star sports.
Yeah, I went All Star movies, so we both think it's an All Star.
I mean, I'm I'm hoping that like kind of decor sports might carry
it forward. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know would. Anyone be?
Yeah, like, of course it's an All Star.
This math, the three All Stars all fight for the bottom spot
all the time. OK, so it goes back and forth
wildly. I actually, because I was
interested in this specifically, I pulled the last 12 months and
then just 2026. So all the data we've been
talking about has been just 2026.
Yeah, do it. And most of the answers don't
change when I did that, which is why I did it to see if it was
pretty stable for All Stars for the value it did change.
So when I did the last 12 months it was All Star Sports on the
bottom. When I did just 2026 it was All
Star Movies at the bottom at 4.4.
Point 2 is what All Star Movies gets.
So far this year All Star Music and All Star Sports are both at
4.35. This year, not that much better,
but interesting all the time so. Just very, very quickly when we
did our challenge, it was very interesting seeing those cast
member teams and how they welcomed you and, and the
different things even from the moment you get in and you check
in and you know, I can see where those types of things matter.
And you know, these All Star resorts, they play a very
critical role in family staying on property.
And so we're grateful for them. But again, unfortunately you
kind of get what you pay for and those are lower level of
amenities and other, yes. I will say there is some hacking
to do here a little bit. I don't know if it's hacking,
but doing your research your your experience at All Stars are
going to be heavily impacted by how many teams of high schoolers
are staying there while you're. Staying there.
And actually, it usually usually don't take this as the Bible.
Late in the year, most of those teams are staying at All Star
Sports for their competitions. Early in the year, a lot of them
are staying at movies. So I'm thinking that this is the
reason that this has shifted. It's always worth asking if
you're thinking about booking an All Star resort, my
recommendation is either calling that resort directly or having
your travel agent call them and asking for your dates.
Are there any competition teams staying there?
They should be able to tell you that.
Usually they're willing to tell you that and then you can sort
of zig somewhere else if the answer is yes, right?
Amazing. OK, OK, not bad.
Not bad. So now moderate resorts which.
I really enjoy all of the moderate resorts, so it's hard.
It was hard to pick one, but one of them has to rate the lowest.
So I said Caribbean beach. No, I.
Also said Caribbean Beach. And I went that one because it's
so big. It's so.
Widespread, although you do have the sky liner.
It's just it is such a huge resort and I will say.
Like we one of our favorite resorts to stay at is, you know,
French Quarter and Port Orleans is just great in general.
Yeah, I love. Riverside.
We love Coronado. Yeah, it just I.
Think it just had to be Caribbean beach only because it
was the odd one out for us and by default.
Yeah. So it is.
It is Caribbean beach and it's at it's the highest rated worst
out of any other categories. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Four point. 32 so far this year, which really isn't so bad, but
it is a combination of a couple things it is the spread
outedness that's one part of it yes it has the sky liner, but
you can be really far from the sky liner and still be at this
resort and it's also their refurbishments because it is
such a large resort with so many buildings their refurbishments
tend to stall out before they get to all the rooms.
So there are a lot of buildings at Caribbean Beach that haven't
been refurbished in a long time and it's very hit or miss the
room quality that you'll get there.
I, I love this resort personally for its access to Riviera dining
and the sky liner. But it is you have to be very
careful with your room requests that you ask for and get in, get
in the right spot to make it work.
Good to know. Because we will be staying there
this September, we will. So yeah, we will.
Literally like if you just call the resort or put in your check
in thing or you can even chat online or in the app and say I
would like to be near the sky liner.
That puts you ahead of like 90% of people who don't put OK, and
then you're set. Yeah, that's really.
Good to know. We will definitely try that and
report back. Yeah.
OK. So if we're gonna break it down
deluxe, then what are our options for deluxe versus DVC?
Yeah, for example. Like Animal Kingdom Lodge does
both both. And I have the Radiance
separated for both, so it'll show up in both spots.
So the only ones that aren't deluxe that are DVC are things
like Riviera, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs.
OK, are those the only ones? I think.
And then the other ones you can sort of separate out into their
deluxe. Yeah.
And OK the. Components.
OK. So if we're.
I don't know if we're going deluxe, I'm going to say I don't
know. Three what is your ball at the
split? Yeah, that's this one.
This one is tough to try and think.
I wonder maybe let's do this like we'll just, we'll just
guess anything, whether it's DVC or deluxe, like let's throw it
out and I'll tell you both. Yeah, OK.
Yeah. Perfect.
So for this one, I went Yacht Club and I really don't know why
I thought about going Grand Floridian.
I really did, just because you expect a lot and but it's so
close to Magic Kingdom that I really think anything on the
monorail loop, like it's hard to see one of those end up in the
very bottom. So yeah, I went Yacht Club.
So I. I wanted to go contemporary
because I feel like not a lot of people love that one.
But I think, I think I'm going to go Saratoga Springs because I
feel like there's not, there's not a lot of people that talk
about Saratoga. Like everybody talks about the
contemporary, everybody talks about the Grand Floridian, but
nobody really talks about Saratoga Springs.
So I I don't know, I guess that's my guess.
I don't know very. Reasonable.
So I will call out, you called out Grand Flow.
Grand Flow is the top rated deluxe resort so far this year
at 44.92. So people are finding it worth
it. Now Grand Flow did just come
through a big refurb. Yeah, the brand new lobby, like
it's looking fresh and clean and maybe that's looking real.
Nice. Yeah, she's looking nice.
She's all done up. It's great.
So the top rated DVC for whatever it's worth is Fort
Wilderness Cabins so far. Wow, OK.
So that's. I mean goals.
Right goals that would be that would be amazing they're.
Beautiful. So you all actually called out
the worst DVC and deluxe resorts.
So Yacht Club is the worst rated deluxe resort this year at 4.22.
I will say this is a little bit because there's been a lot of
construction going on at Yacht Club on the outside only, It's
just the facades, but it doesn't impact for sure your view and
your experience. So there's a little bit of that
and I will give Yacht Club that credit.
I actually prefer Yacht Club to Beach Club personally.
Interesting. Quieter, you get all the
families go to Beach Club because that's the thing.
And Yacht Club's just a little bit more refined and set back,
but it is also further away when you're walking.
So Yacht Club and Saratoga Springs is the lowest rated DBC
resort this year at 4.15. So that is lower than all the
All Stars. Oh my.
Goodness. Yeah, so I'm so glad I didn't go
contemporary. Almost did I?
Almost the last minute changed my mind.
Yeah, A. Couple of things going against
Saratoga Springs, especially right now.
So Disney noticed is this and is trying to fix it.
What they aren't going to be able to fix this?
Transportation. Transportation pretty much
stinks at Saratoga Springs unless you want to spend a lot
of time in Disney Springs, which the dining is all really dated
now. They are doing active
refurbishments of a couple of the restaurants and the rooms
themselves haven't seen a lot of love in quite some time.
It's not the most. It's the lowest rated Disney
owned resort for theming because it's horses vaguely is the
theme, I guess. So it just it's, again, I've
stayed there. It's fine, especially if you
have your own car and especially if you want to spend a lot of
evenings eating at Disney Springs.
But otherwise, if you're going to the parks, hit up somewhere
else. Yeah, gotcha.
That's see, that's great perspective though.
And, and again, I don't think we really thought through this or
knew, but like when we were planning out our resort hopping
challenge, like that one was problematic for us.
That one was the worst. Yeah.
That one that. One in Old Key West were the
worst. Yep, it took.
A lot of time to get to cuz there is only one way in, one
way out, yeah. So yeah.
Yeah. Wow.
OK. Look at it.
Look at you did so much better than I did.
You both ended on a high note though.
Like that's true. Yes, that's.
True. Absolutely.
That's true. Wow, Becky, this was so much fun
though, and I feel like we could talk to you for hours about all
of this. But you know, I think what I
would like to highlight before we close is just the incredible
work that y'all do for families who want to have a great
experience because we recognize like now more than ever, the
dollar just doesn't go as far. And for families, you want to
have that perfect experience. And thankfully for us, when we
took our kids for the first time, it arguably will never be
a better vacation than what we had.
And I want that for everyone. And so I love that what you guys
are doing is giving families the best opportunity to stack the
deck in your favor and just have a wonderful, magical experience
at Walt Disney World. So thank you sincerely for what
you do. It is awesome.
I appreciate. That that's why I do what I do.
So hearing that music to my ears, yeah, well, and.
We leaned into it, we, we really tried to pick the best time and
do the best we could and it, it made a huge difference.
So from us, sincerely, thank you.
Thank you. But before we let you go, can
you just let everyone know where to find you if they want to
follow you and. And again, where we can find
your book? Yeah.
So if you want to follow me on Instagram, it's at raising many
me's many like the mouse all lowercase one word.
Otherwise, if you just Google touring plans and my name Becky
Gandelen, you'll find my blog and then as well as all the
other touring plan blogs that go out every week And the
unofficial guide to Walt Disney World 2027 edition will be out
in August. You can find the twenty 26th
edition out now you can get it on Amazon, your favorite local
bookstore. That's what I like recommending
it's it's pretty much or get it from your local library.
Bunches of libraries carry it. So save yourself even more money
and just rent it for a little bit.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Good. Well, it was such a pleasure to
have you on. Thank you for for being here
with us. We just we love you so much.
This is a treat. But thank you.
Thank you. For having me, I've had a blast.
Good. That's it for this week's
episode. Don't forget to rate our show on
Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe to
support our show on Patreon, check out our T-shirt shop, shop
Threads of Imagination, and until next wonderful Wednesday,
TTFN.