DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris

DisLove E14 Group Trips and Guest Val the Travel Gal

• Vanessa Ferguson and Kris Johns • Season 2 • Episode 14

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Vanessa and Kris will share about things to do when planning a trip with a group including specialty fireworks cruises and celebration cakes at meals.  Later in the episode they will be joined by Val the Travel Gal.  She is a mom of four, lover of all things Disney and a vacation planner.

Order a specialty celebration cake by calling (407) 827-2253. Learn more about firework cruises.



For all the latest news about our episodes follow us on Instagram @dislovewithvanessaandkris or on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the DisLove podcast with Vanessa and Kris. I'm Vanessa Ferguson and I'm Kris Johns. Welcome to show 14 and for any listeners joining us for the first time, our show features things we love it, Disney and, and each episode we have a guest who creates Disney magic for our listeners at home or on their Disney vacations from vacation planners to product producers. Our guests can bring Disney magic into your life and we'd like to, today we're going to switch it up a little bit. I'm a little bit under the weather, so Kris is going to do the bulk of the talking today so we'll see how that goes, but before we get started, just a reminder to our listeners, please go onto apple podcast and leave us a review. We always appreciate, appreciate those five star reviews. We also like to give shout out to any listeners who listen to anything on apple podcasts. And of course we also appreciate those five star customer ratings as well. So if you have the opportunity, please go out and give us a review to help more people find the show,

Speaker 2:

preclude us. And again, let us, where are we at an Instagram? I do not use Instagram. I know you do let the folks know where we're at.@dislovewithvanessaandkris. Boom, follow us on IG. Vanessa is always, or they're posting photos. We get new stuff all the time. So this today our focus is travel with groups. And I think the great thing with Disney's that it can accommodate a, you know, when we were, you know, on our honeymoon groups of two or even a much bigger groups and I know for both our wedding, how many people do we have at our wedding? We had 50 people at our way. How about our vow renewal? We had 35 wonderful. And then when we went out to California, um, I know we did something with some other people. How many were in our group there? I think there's about 25 25 so I think the bottom line here is that, you know, Disney can definitely handle your big group and whether it be a corporate party, corporate event, we've seen sports teams go down there even to the bigger piece of just having your family go down because if you don't have enough for your family, get more of them at Disney. And so today we're going to focus on travel with groups. So you mentioned before, but what's awesome is our guest today is Vail, the travel gal who we know personally, she's a momma four lover of all things Disney in is the vacation planner with assurance travel. She's also a fellow Disney bride. And we've had the chance to meet her a couple of times at Walt Disney world and we're going to see her later this year on a Disney cruise just for Disney couples. And the great thing about Vail is it she handles all of the details. Because I think the one thing that we've mentioned many Italians, and we'll keep saying it, is that when people don't, when they hit, when you hear people complain about Disney, it's because they fail to get the most out of it. They're last minute planners, they don't know the game. And it's one of these things where avail does the work for you. She knows the reservations, she knows fast passes. So when you're eligible, she goes into action and gets you the most for your money. And I think the biggest thing is that it doesn't cost you anything. It doesn't cost you anything because Vale has these connections with Disney. So she works. Disney throws her a of coins on the side. But that's just part of the deal. So what we want you to do is work with Vale because she will make your life so much easier because when you work to save up money for a vacation, get your money's worth. And so with that, we're going to talk today about Disney experiences. And I think the first thing that we want to go through is really about my Disney experience. And it's ultimately, you know, your gateway into Disney and it's going allow you to really coordinate those things are important to you. Your fast passes. So you get the most out of it. You're dining cause you have to eat. Exactly. Vanessa. I mean she loves eating and then the other pieces, you know, your photos. And so we highly, you know, Vanessa, she, I'll admit I've never planned one. Disney you've never gotten, I've never, I've never made one Disney phone call now gotten up to do FastPasses FastPasses I'd never done dining. No. Um, there's times where Venice will be up till one, two and then you have to in the morning to do some of those things. Yeah. I'm sleeping when she does all this. So I know I had my, my own personal Disney concierge and my family. But you know, for the folks who don't, that's why, you know, we mentioned, you know, recommended bail, the travel gale. But then other side is knowing that within Disney, my Disney experience, it allows you to coordinate all these pieces in it. You know, the Nice thing is that if you book through an authorized travel agency, it doesn't cost any money to your trip, but they will also monitor rates. And I think the key thing is is as things change a Disney, which they always do, they're on top of things. So when you're with a group, the key point like Kristmas talking about is with my Disney experience, you know, wanting to connect with anyone who maybe they're staying in other rooms, you can still connect with them on my Disney experience, which allows them, when you make like, I mean dining reservations, I think we had what, 25 people that went to Ohana last time. If you say so, it was a big group of us at Ohana I, but by being connected with them on my Disney experience and the friends and family lists, then you're able to make sure that they're listed on your dining reservation. You'll also be able to see each other's FastPasses. So I may not be able to book someone's FastPasses that's in another room. But when, if we, if they see my fast passes, they can coordinate times to make sure that you can all right at the same time. And that's what we were able to do a lot by making sure that you connect those friends and family's lists on my Disney experience. And like he said, Val can help you or any other authorized travel agent can help you with those reservations. But by being connected on my Disney experience, that really makes it easier for our group. And I think the big thing too is when we, you know, in our experience, cause I know when we were married 11 years ago now, wow, I think you could even say, might've been even 11 and a half years ago, we went down for a tasting. These are the things we're Disney, you know, again, for a dollar. It will allow you to control all these details that are special to your event. And I think the key thing is that when you look at special kid or events, you know the other thing really comes up as cakes. I know that's probably the area I spent the most pay most attention to. You know, all these other dishes. I really didn't care. That was Vanessa Vanessa's domain. My area of specialty is eating cake. And so I think the nice thing is is that by having you know, a special cake, they can a make it to your demands, but then also make it available to you where you want within the park at this point

Speaker 1:

restaurant. So what he's talking about is not only does Disney do wedding cakes like we've been able to do, but if you're there for a group or even with just your family and somebody's celebrating a special occasion, a birthday, an anniversary, or are you just want to have you just love cake? Like I personally love cake, then you can have Disney provide a specialty cakes. So you're able to have these delivered at most table service restaurants. You can also have some preordered where if you want a certain character on a cake, I've seen where people for anniversary, they've had a replica of their wedding cake, all kinds of different things. So if you go to a table service restaurant at Disney, simply let the host or hostess know that you'd like a cake for your celebration. Typically, they can always, I'm the spot, provide just a basic chocolate or vanilla cake. They also don't want, basically you want something really, you watch something special. So if you do, if you call it at least 48 hours in advance, you can have a custom cake made and we'll put the Disney bakery cake call line in our show notes. But you're able to have something custom for that special celebration, have it delivered right to the restaurant. They also have, besides a real basic or the real fancy, they kind of have a middle of the road cake, which is a Mickey celebration cake. And these do require some advance notice because what happens is they make so many during the day and then once they're gone, they're gone. So if you call ahead, you're able to reserve that in these look like Mickey. It's pretty straight forward. It's a mickey head, they're really cute. So that's kind of the next step up. If you call a little bit earlier, you're able to reserve that. So we'll share some information about how you can reserve one of those, make you celebration cakes or how you could call ahead of time and have one of those custom cakes and cakes are kind of the first entry into a specialty catered event. We'll talk a little bit more on a future episode, how you can plan a full catered event party. I've seen where people have done first, Birthdays, 50th birthdays, 25th anniversaries, all kinds of different things where you can have a small intimate gathering for five people up to hundreds of people. But we'll talk about that on other events. But if you have a group, it's always nice, have the cake, then you're not having to eat it all yourself. But those are some ways that you can add a cake to a special celebration that you're having at this. And then in particular at one of the table service restaurants and something else that we've personally done is the fireworks cruises. And you want to talk a little bit about those fireworks cruises?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they're awesome. Yeah. I think the key thing is, I don't know how many years ago it was, I know are we hit some family from Indiana now from Iowa that we went with on a boat that was a very nice cruise. You know, pro tip, you know, if even if it's kind of maybe South America definitely take a coke because we ate with is free. It was very cold that water. But you know, the Nice thing is that we had the privacy. I think the awesome thing about this specialty cruises is it, you know what you're looking for. You know, an illuminations pontoon boat about three 19 the basic magic kingdom's fireworks cruise will run you about three 99 and hour and you definitely want to tip your, your boat men. But I think the key thing there though is, you know, after a couple of days with Disney you really come to respect your personal space. And what's Nice about these cruises is that it allows you to enjoy the fireworks ultimately within kind of your own piece in what you know. What's Nice is just being, you'll have your privacy, have your space, get to enjoy your fireworks. And again, when you look at the prices, you know it does cost some money, but you spread that out over a number of people, 10 people, boom. That's a value.

Speaker 1:

So for those magic kingdom cruises, there's two different size boats. There's an eight person in a 10 person pontoon and then they also have like a gray, the grand one yet that's probably more than what your group may be willing to pay. And then on the illuminations crews, those can accommodate up to 10 guests. You also get, they put pop and water and like bags, chips and stuff like that as snacks on the boat. So that's always a little bit added touch. And again, for eight to 10 people, you divide that price up. It's not as bad as it seems if you were paying for it all yourself.

Speaker 2:

We had a call with veil from assurance travel. The audio feeds a little bit, but we hit a lot of fun talking with her and she has a lot of great information. So please listen to the whole interview.

Speaker 3:

So we are so excited to have val, the travel gal with assurance travel, which is an authorized Disney vacation planner on the phone with us today. We actually have met her in person. She is one of a fellow Disney bride as well, and she is a lover of all things Disney and of course is going to be here talking to us today about her job as a vacation planner and how she can make things easier for your family as you plan your next Disney vacation trip. So we always like to start out with an icebreaker for our guests and we just wanted to find out from you what is your favorite Disney attraction? Anything.

Speaker 4:

Okay. Okay. Yup. Well I was gonna say which version of the caption specifically. Um, I just love what, I mean, I love the costumes. I just love just being there. I feel like, you know, as soon as you get there it's just you and literally inside of the haunted mansion.

Speaker 3:

Oh yes. Yes. Have you, do you have any of the special shirts or ears or anything for the attraction?

Speaker 4:

Absolutely. Um, as soon as they had released on any of that limited merchandise, I had to have the spirit jersey. Yes. Um, I think even too for my daughter, I had gotten her accustomed, gives me dress for one of our last trips that I had made with another friend. Ah. And I seen her dressed up as a girl

Speaker 3:

and that shop there. Yeah. And that shop there is super awesome too

Speaker 4:

momentum or he has some of the best ones. Imagine you could certainly find, I mean they are looking to close some of the duty employment process because I am an avid lover of the Disney do is we're gonna find some great teachers. There really was just so much there.

Speaker 3:

Yes, that's for sure. And I do have one of the duties for honey haunted mansion and I don't have any other ones. Um, I definitely loved that as well. So with it, you know, please just tell us more about what you do and how you help folks get to Disney world.

Speaker 4:

So I am essentially your Disney go to Gal. Um, I plan look heights of Disney destination vacation, so it's not just Disney world. I dabbled at Disneyland, I love the Disney cruise line and then you also have a lot, so it's not just busy world that as, and when I offer my clients it's going to be vacation planning. Okay. Um, not for that too. It's like you had me 24, seven. Wow. I only have my phone attached to me. If you haven't have a question, it can even be at, you may not get a response right then, but you will get a response from me at nine APP. Right. So you have that peace of mind of knowing that you always have somebody in your back corner who's ready and willing to help you with your Disney vacation.

Speaker 3:

And do you do everything from like fast passes to in dining or what sorts of things can you help them with their planning?

Speaker 4:

Oh, absolutely. So I'm 180 days prior to their vacation. I wake up bright and early and I made all of those dining reservations that you had in mind as well. Clearly you want to get up your us or maybe even one of my favorite persons being deployed an Lod. Yes. You actually have to make that better. So that's actually good to have me in her back. Point on that. I'm going to get up and handle all that for you. I was going to say is with that cup, so you also have all of your itinerary planning as well.

Speaker 3:

Right, and I know as somebody who has made my own dining reservations in the past, that is such a great help to have somebody who's able to handle that for you. And like you mentioned, who can kind of, you can kind of help guide, I'm sure. What are some of those questions that you help individuals when if they're planning their first trip or maybe they haven't been in a long time, what are some of those key areas that you're able to help with? With the vacation planning. Okay.

Speaker 4:

Oh, for dining, a lot of my clients, they want to know where the characters are. Um, I am a character junkie. I love taking pictures. I love Disney bounding. It's totally what I'm into. I'm also too, they asked about the nighttime shows. You have so many of these dining reservations, they offer dining packages, which gives you reserved seating. Yeah. The form it says kind of knowing how to schedule all of the dining reservations because I feel that I have mastered yes. You know, partnering with Your Path, you know, those where they're feeding, you know, opportunities, opportunities that you may have. Um, you could really like a solid itinerary but not feel that you have to schedule your Disney vacation minute by minute.

Speaker 3:

Yes. Yeah. Cause some people distress themselves out and they don't realize that it's important, that whole itinerary because you want to make sure that your dining meshes well with what fast passes and that you're not running back and forth all over the parks cause you're already doing enough walking as it is. So what, so what kind of led you to starting doing vacation planning and getting set up with assurance travel? What got you into this?

Speaker 4:

I love this question. I get this pretty much all the time. I had started head, um, my very first trip to Disney I'd probably say was in 1986. Okay. I would always go with my family, always bet the kid every year. So I grew up loving and, you know, just, just the whole Disney world. Um, so when I had my children, I got sure it was essentially free live that right. Um, you know, my children, they're much older now, but, um, you know it with them when, you know, just seeing that magic in their eyes. It just really made me want to, you know, share that with a lot of my friends and family. Okay. So, you know, obviously through social media, um, I've always had my children very heavily involved in sports. So a lot of my friends who are local, they would always come to me and ask me for help. Right. Um, and do time and planning. All of my guests who had attended our wedding was there and that I was like, Oh my God, I love doing this. Right. This is what I want to do.

Speaker 3:

So let our guests know or let our listeners know. Um, because we talked quite a bit about our Disney wedding. Where did you get married at Disney?

Speaker 4:

I was, I'm sorry. We were married. Um, and uh, with an APP tops we'll showcase. Yes, it was the best ever. I absolutely loved every minutes. Otherwise I think everything was perfect. We are awesome. And you bought roughly about 65 doing wonders with us that off to Florida. Right. And that being one of the coldest weekends in 2014 when they had their arctic cold front. Oh my goodness. Everybody accommodating. And just with my pictures, like you can never really do even know that it was 30 degrees the morning of my wedding in Florida, but it was the best thing ever for, from our, from our ceremony at, it'll be plaids as to the two areas, which is located at the beach club. Oh yes. That's a nice spot. Yes, that was nice. Um, I have to lose most rock fest and he did totally end up having the French bread. Um, we also had some heavy lunch options as well. And the most part of our wedding was we actually had some special guests come. We had suitable Minnie and Mickey come to our wedding as guests. But did that was intentionally is the highlight of the day?

Speaker 3:

Yes. Yes. That's for sure. I know. And when you're talking about the cold, when we did our vow renewal, which was also in Italy, it was so cold that morning for us too. It was like 30 degrees when we were taking pictures. And like you said, nobody knew the difference when they saw the photos afterwards. So that's all that matters. Now. What are some ways that your services can really add a little bit of Disney magic to our listeners trips as their planning and all the way as they're down there on their vacations. What are some ways that you feel like you add that little extra Disney touch?

Speaker 4:

Um,[inaudible] office, we'll kind of do you understand? So if there is anything that you need while you're on vacation and then we will take an elbow genius, whether that be maybe a stroller rental or maybe you need help with a babysitting service. Or recently I had actually just had a client do the VIP experience Tor Magic Kingdom. Oh cool. Hearing about like her day, my day, knowing that she got so much done and she was very thing for that, that little extra and I had, you know, added onto her package. Right. I'm also two very different answers. It depends on the season that you actually go to Disney. I absolutely love the Halloween party this year. I got to go three times. I felt very lucky. Very fortunate. Oh Wow. Amazing. Just to be able to experience every single thing that's being Halloween party has to offer because it's so how to do it in one day. Yeah. I said that. So just having that experience, I said, okay, knowing your family, this is what I sense that you want to do is distance will be our plan of attack of how we need to get it done.

Speaker 3:

Right. Exactly. And would that experience you're evil to to help them. Like I was down over Halloween last year as well and I had already been to the Halloween party and I was down there with a friend. So her and I went one night but then she was seeing a couple of extra nights and it was her first time so she ended up going to the Halloween party twice. Cause like you said, if you are new to it and you've not been able to do some of those things, having that extra time at the, at the party was something that she really enjoyed. And I'm sure like you mentioned, being able to go multiple times, a lot of guests don't realize how much there is to at some of those special events

Speaker 4:

are even, not only that, there's so much to do is that they actually also allow you to enter the park before and he actually stated start time of the Halloween party. Right, exactly. Yeah. Having those extra hours to kind of maximize, you know, some of that part time. Well you can go ahead and get some of those attractions, things on the character meet and greets and[inaudible] and the whole focus. You know, what popular stage show. Yeah. Where you could kind of like get ahead and talk all holidays, attractions off your list and the party that started at seven 30, but just start with it.

Speaker 3:

Especially with those lines for characters. You want to be ready for that? Yes. Yes.

Speaker 4:

So I need the depending on being in character or characters that you had in mind. You know, just, just with me, we could kind of like figure out the best way to go about it. He gets you in and out. They're awesome.

Speaker 3:

And what are some other, what do you, what is the interesting story or one of your favorite experiences that you've had while being able to offer these services to some of your clients?

Speaker 4:

Probably one of my, he was, my experience was um, one of my clients, they actually had the opportunity to ride and the tea cups, that's Alice. Oh my goodness. That is not a thing like this. The, the sheer joy and the fees, you know, of, of just the dad and the daughter got together. Like with adolescents, it's just something that they, you know, are going to happen. It wasn't something that was planned in advance. Right. And we just kind of like, we were like in the right place at the right time. Hey Val, do you want to go ahead and see outlets? What do you think that we would be able to do? Something like that. And then we thought though, we said it all the time and luckily she ended up being the very first person I wanted and wasn't invited. So I think you spend with Alison and he thought, oh my goodness that I have also helped out with proposal. Those are my favorite. Right. I wrestled a lot of 15 with, those are my suggestions of, you know, Juliet proposing essentially where there will be a photographer from the disease. Um, you know, memory neighbor service. Ah, yeah. Or even had a special restaurants where they have these special tables that are kind of like along side by the window where you know, you could actually kind of sense of plan out your proposal to actually coincide with the fireworks. So Ohana is another amazing, right? That's our favorite restaurants. Yes. Um, that was actually where my husband has a pony so that all kind of come from him. But it is definitely something that I had actually shared along with with my clients. Okay. And obviously you don't, sometimes you were saying we will go on and your Disney vacation. Um, the best thing about working with, you know, with a travel agent or especially with, with working with, with is that you're only going to have somebody in your back corner. Whether if you're having a problem with your dining plan, I'm sure I had recently had a client who had a machine where the diamond plan however upgraded, oh my God, they do her bottle or help with the whole vacation, all her credits where, oh no. So we were sat there and tried to figure out x, Y andZ, hang, this can be sex and what we can go ahead and do. And you know, roughly she had me in her back one or why was actually able to go ahead and call Disney and statue that I hadn't worked out. She was actually on her vacation home visitation.

Speaker 3:

Right. Instead of being on the phone calls trying to deal with this. Exactly.

Speaker 4:

Awesome. The theme parks and good, bad. Yeah. Because a lot of you know, gets to actually, you know, go to the wealth as he called resort. They do rely on the Disney transportation. Yeah. Sometimes having to go ahead and get that to another hotel. If it takes you a few minutes, you could even take a little bit longer. Right. So she was asking him to have that time alone with her family when I was working backstage, essentially. Right. Handling everything for her while she was just enjoying her vacation.

Speaker 3:

And that's what you want to do. If you've invested that time and money into a vacation, you want to be able to enjoy yourself. And it, it's great to have somebody like you in the corner to be able to help. If there are some of those problems that may arise. Now are, if I have a group of people that are wanting to go on a trip, are you able to coordinate that for, if you have several families that are wanting to go down, are you able to work with groups as well?

Speaker 4:

Yes, those are my favorite. Um, and I've actually worked with Peter today at a previous time where if you did want to have like a private dinner, he wanted to have kind of like a private event, have a larger group, um, a certain travel to and we have also worked with, um, it was actually a team and then also dance studios. Oh, okay. So we came also assessment looking as a thought. Oh, that's a great, well along with that too, you still also have our concierge service. So as you know, any type of itinerary planning or if you would like to go out to have that special meal together as a team are together. Understand that that's the way something that we could also arrange. So oops, he absolutely loves him. He could do groups for Disney world, Disney cruise lines, but whatever did the destinations our client has in mind, we could easily make it happen.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. And so with that, please tell us more about where can folks find you online social media. Because you know people like to do or a bit of research before they make an investment is like a Disney vacation. And so just tell us where can folks find you.

Speaker 4:

So you are going to find me while the travel ball and it's just the travel cow. That's where you get ahold of me. Um, but you will also find travel agents were just fascinating as me@assurancetravel.com.

Speaker 3:

Okay, perfect. And we will make sure to share all your information as well as the link for assurance travel as we put up our show notes for our listeners so that way they're able to find you and be able to connect not just for um, their next Disney vacation but working with you long term and what are there some other destinations that you're able to work with individuals besides Disney

Speaker 4:

weapons, a lot of different cruise lines. We also specialize in any of the all inclusive resorts in Mexico are also, did I hear a public? So any vacation destination that you have in mind, we can get you there.

Speaker 3:

Great. So we will make sure to help our listeners find out how to connect with you. And thank you again for being on the show today.

Speaker 4:

No,

Speaker 2:

thank you very much. So we are so excited that we're able to have val on the show. It's always great to hear from one of the travel planners and of course, if you're planning a next Disney vacation in particular, if you're planning with a group, definitely get ahold of Val the Travel GAl, she can help you with all of those plans. Now onto some of our favorite segments of the show. We're going to do our two minute trivia and our wisdom of wealth quote. All right, Vanessa, this two minute truths can be a little shorter today. It's about, we've, we referenced by your works earlier. Okay. And I know you love the fireworks. It is new. That is the one thing that Vanessa always stops and watches according to the Internet. Okay. How much does Disney spend on fireworks at Walt Disney world per year? Oh, per year. Per Year. I'll give you a hint. It's more than a million dollars. I figured that, um, let's go with$23 million. Very close. According to the Internet,$18 million a year. Wow. The cost is anywhere from 40 to$55,000 per show. And again, when you figured you times that by 365 plus a couple of shows in between that when he really adds up and that Disney is the largest consumer of fireworks in the world. Oh Wow. I believe it. Which makes sense. And we've always talked about people will say, oh, the cost of a Disney ticket, just the fireworks alone. You're never at least where we live. You're not going to see a show like that even on the 4th of July, let alone every night of the year. So it's definitely well worth your time and check out one of those specialty cruises. Well, you know what, that makes a lot of sense. Vanessa, what is it? The American experience, they're kind of venture managing the standard American adventure watching fireworks. She's like 4th of July every day. It is. Yeah, that's a good point. Boom. Exactly. Or American flag shirt. Shirt, flex. So she'll show your love for America. And so with that Vanessa, awesome. How would you end the show with some wisdom from wall? Okay, so this week's was him from while I wanted to tie into thinking

Speaker 1:

about groups, spending time with family and friends. And so this quote from Walt, I am interested in entertaining people and bringing pleasure, particularly laughter to others. So again, that really summarizes what a Disney trips all about, especially a Disney trip with a group. We'd like to thank you again for joining us today. I'm Vanessa Ferguson and I'm Kris Johns

Speaker 5:

[inaudible].

Speaker 1:

This podcast is not affiliated with the Walt Disney company or its holdings, and it is intended for entertainment purposes only.