DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris

DisLove E120 Bee from Charmed and Cozy and our Top 5 Character Dining Experiences

• Vanessa Ferguson and Kris Johns with guest Bee Hanslip • Season 5 • Episode 120

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In this episode, Kris and Vanessa are joined by Bee from Charmed & Cozy. The shop includes Disney-inspired apparel, accessories and much more. A favorite feature of the shop is their monthly Pin Club.

Earlier in the episode, Kris and Vanessa discuss their picks for the Top 5 character dining locations at Walt Disney World.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Di Love podcast with Vanessa and Chris. I'm Vanessa Ferguson.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Chris Johns.

Speaker 1:

We would like to welcome you to show number 120 and for any guest joining us for the first time, our show features things we love at Disney. And in 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 talking about show number one 20, this kind of marks a milestone. And I know Chris, you don't track things very well, but do you know what this marks for us?

Speaker 2:

I do not.

Speaker 1:

So this marks the start of our fifth season, which means that we have been doing the podcast for four full years and we're, this episode is the start of our fifth year. We're looking at doing some things to kind of celebrate that milestone, but just wanted to let all of you know that we appreciate you, we're thankful to you as our listeners and of course to our guests who've really helped make this show a success. And we appreciate all of you. And speaking of that, as a reminder to our listeners, we ask if you could take some time and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or any other platform where you listen that just helps new listeners find us and of course helps the show continue to grow. And before we get started on today's show, Chris, could you give us our message from our friends@orlandovacation.com?

Speaker 2:

For sure. And that message straight from central Florida is save money. Use the code dis love to save 5% off your next booking of three nights or more when you go to Central Florida, whether it be to Disney or one of the other awesome theme parks. And the great thing about Orlando vacation.com is that they have lodging for any size group. If it's a small family like Vanessa, myself, they have a condo to take care of you with room to spare. But if you have a big family, like we have some friends that have four kids and a large extended family, they have places that have enough room for everyone to stay under one roof. And again, use that code dis love orlando vacation.com to say 5% on your next booking or three or more nights in Central Florida. Not only do they have lodging, but they also can take care of your tickets.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and we've used them before and we've been very happy with our results as well. So on today's show we are going to be joined by be from Charmed and Cozy. Their shop features all kinds of amazing products. They have Disney apparel and accessories and really a lot of unique things. They have a pin club which is really interesting and awesome. So we're really looking forward for you to hear all about Charmed and Cozy. And before we get to that interview for the first part of the show, we are going to be looking at our picks for the top five character dining restaurants on property. I've went back and looked, we've done shows about character dining at the resorts and some of our general favorite restaurants would ha sometimes include a character Dinings, but we haven't just talked about our favorites. And right now, this is at the end of October, 2022 and there's been a lot of announcements by Disney in the last few weeks about more of the restaurants reopening or more of the restaurants having character dining returning. So it just felt like a perfect, perfect time. We're going off in our own ratings from the restaurants that we've been to ourselves, but I will say I pulled some information from UN our friends over at Undercover Tourists. They have some great information, some details about some of the experiences. Now of course this rating isn't complete because we haven't necessarily been to everyone At the end of the show we will re, we'll go over all of the different character dining ones that our own property that didn't make the list as well as mentioned out of the list, there was only one Charact, one restaurant we had never been to and one other that we had not experienced character dining at. So we have been to quite a few of them and we're gonna get started with one that, I don't know, we had just never been to this restaurant. And then suddenly, probably four or five years ago we went for the first time and I went with my, My Good friend and we've just seemed to go on multiple trips. And that's Chip and Dale's Harvest Feast at the Garden Grill in Epco. And that's a, if you're, it's in the land, it's a rotating restaurant so you see the different parts of the ride where it goes into the different um, settings within if you're, as you're taking the boat ride but you're the, the restaurant is rotating and this one's fun because Mickey and Friends, well Mickey, they come out in their farmer overalls and things and it's just been a lot of fun and I've really enjoyed Garden Grill. Oh yeah, I like it.<laugh>. Now this meal is pretty straightforward. It's very close to what you get over at Magic Kingdom. If you were to go to Liberty Tree Tavern, we went there um, in May, I think it was at the, at the end of our trip for our daughter's birthday. And aside from the dessert, the meals are very similar so you get a salad, which Chris and I really like the salad and we wanted the salad dressing recipe last year when we were there and they said they don't give those out anymore. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, so they have, you don't just get salad, you get mashed potatoes, Turkey, um, grilled beef with chi chewy sauce. You also get um, stuffing, they brought out macaroni and cheese. I'm trying to think what other sorts of things. The dessert is a berry shortcake, which is really good. I don't like blueberries but I was able to pick those out and I still enjoyed it cuz I like the other berries that are in it. You have Chip and Dale, Pluto and Mickey and they're in their farmer overalls and every time that I just feel like you get, you don't feel as rushed here as you do at some of the other character. Correct. And they are. So we've done it with just adults. We've done it with just Chris and I, I've done it with just my friends. We did it with our daughter when we were there earlier this year. And it's just a great experience. It's nice that they have it for lunch and dinner. They also do, if you're there for at any of the times of special like where you do the packages for seating, for concerts or for the candlelight professional, they'll usually do the dining packages, which is nice. So you could do a lunch there and that way you're in the front part of the park in future world and you can have that package and still get that seating for an evening show as you're back in the world showcase overall, I've never had a bad meal here. I mean it's pretty standard food. I mean it's pretty American style food. Yes. And the good thing is I have a friend who has a lot of allergies and needs to gluten and other things as well and tree nuts and different things and she always loves the food too because they do a great job with allergies there. Not that anywhere in Disney doesn't do that, but really good American faire and it's nice that it's in the park. It's a good respite if it's hot out. It's just a nice relaxing place to visit. The second one on our list is Topo Line's terrace, the flavors of the Riviera at, of course the Riviera Resort. This character dining is only in the morning and it's been fun because I like Mickey and friends are kind of, they're dressed as artists and it's a fun character experience and they look like um, they're so Mickey's a painter. MI is a poet, Donald is a sculptor and Daisy is a dancer. And I didn't realize all of those nuances with their passion. Passion. I did not. And what's ironic is our daughter has really liked Daisy a lot and she loves to dance and we have videos of her dancing with Daisy so it makes sense. Daisy's the dancer makes a lot of sense.<laugh> the characters are really great here. Even though it's a restaurant that's always packed in terms of getting reservations and things like that. I've never felt rushed. We've eaten there twice now. We've eaten there with our family, with our daughter and we've ate there with our good friend Shane and Charlie. And when it was adults we didn't feel rushed when we had our little one, we didn't feel rushed. And we've been there during Covid when you had the modified experiences as well as when we were there in May you were able to have a standard experience. It's really cool because you can go out on the terrace and you can get photos and you can see Epcot and you can see Hollywood studios. They do have a prefixed menu so they bring out pastries and then you get of course whatever beverage you'd like and then they have entrees and you can pick what you'd like. The secret is that you order one entree but you can ask for other ones as well. So what they'll do is they'll bring you a little bit of a smaller option. So they have everything from like a sausage hash, they have steak, they have salmon, the waffles or a sour cream waffle, which I enjoyed those a lot. They had a really cute option for kids is it's a Mickey Waffle and it has the different dipping sauces. So chocolate and different things like that. We did that for our daughter. The potatoes and the granola and the fruit cups and all of the sides are very good. I will say that it is nice because they just, overall it's neat to go to that resort to go upstairs and to experience it. It's not a buffet, which depending on if you prefer a buffet you can eat all you want here but it is a little bit more spaced out. What did you think about the food at to Belina?

Speaker 2:

Oh it was very good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And I think did you like ordering versus having the buffet at some of the other ones?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, with the ordering was nice. Yeah, I mean it was everything. You got what you wanted.

Speaker 1:

Yeah,<laugh> and it is good because they also have specialty coffees and different things like that. Cause I know our friend ordered some of those when we were there this last time. Here's a tip, it's very hard to get a reservation there. So what we've been successful with, as you know, you can start booking for the first day of your reservation at Disney. So what we have done is I try to get it towards the end of our trip. So if you're taking a seven day trip, you can start booking for day one all the way through the end of your trip. So you're not competing with as many people if you try to get day seven. We've also done this on the day that we've been leaving, which has been nice. It's kind of a nice way to end the trip and overall it's a great experience. You can drive there. We've driven there with our rental car last time. We've also taken the skyliner and then you can take the Skyliner right onto Epcot or to Hollywood Studios, which is nice. So really it's, it's a great experience overall and if you don't have a park ticket for a day, that's even a great one to go to and enjoy cuz the next two that we're gonna talk about are back in the parks, just like Garden Grill but they're at different ones. The next one is Tusker House Restaurant Animal Kingdom. And this is in Harambe Village in the Africa part of the park. And one nice thing is that starting November 1st, so as this episode's coming out they're gonna go back to the buffet style dining, which we have not been there when they switched to Family style. But they are going back to buffet in, we've talked about pretty standard fair so far at Garden Grill Topos is pretty straightforward, breakfast fair, but this is a lot of unique flavors they have. We've not been for breakfast, I will say that so I can't talk speak to breakfast. But we've done lunch and dinner and they have things like green curry shrimp, they have um, marinated pork, they have a lot of African inspired salads, Jasmine rice curry, they have Moroccan spice beef. I just found that everything was very good. They have cute little animal mini desserts. So what do you think about their flavors? I know you like some more unique entrees and things.

Speaker 2:

Well you know know it's just something you don't get all the time and so it's a real treat to be in the efca section and then be a tusker house and have something a little different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so even Ann don't be hesitant if you don't have a a pallet that likes different flavors. There are some standard things like they have house made macaroni and cheese and things like that that you'll be able to find something even if you have some pickier eaters in your group. But if you don't you'll have a lot of new things to try. As I mentioned, we haven't been to the breakfast but the breakfast is similar to some of the other ones. They bring a basket of pastries that has um, some unique mix of breads. Also cornbread, which I like cornbread a lot so it'd be nice to try. And then they bring out a platter that has scrambled eggs. A fun thing. Okay they have Mickey waffles. Yes. Who would you guess, what do you think is another character that they offer as waffles in the morning? It's in, it's in Animal Kingdom,

Speaker 2:

Lilo and Stitch.

Speaker 1:

That's a good guess but they offer Simba from Lion King.

Speaker 2:

Oh

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So and then they have Durban chicken, egg curry and then they have bacon and sausage and potatoes and that sort of thing. But again, it's a great opportunity. You can get into the back, you can head straight to the safari when you get done or right before your reservation. So overall we add car or Tusker house high on our list. The food's great. We've also been where you go right between like when lunch is ending and dinner is starting or right when dinner's starting and we were there one year for uh, relative's birthday and it was super fun. They brought out all of the characters at once and let us get a group shot. Do you remember that?

Speaker 2:

I sure do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And so the characters just seemed to be, we have some really great pictures of our daughter with the characters there. We haven't been there since Covid but we were there in March, 2020 right before the parks closed. And just some fun characters, good interactions there and that's really what I think how I picked our ratings. I picked our ratings based on character interactions, not necessarily on what specific characters were

Speaker 2:

There. That's a good point.

Speaker 1:

So next one as I say that the next one's a little bit different but is Crystal Palace over at Magic Kingdom and this has all of our friends from the hundred Acre Woods. So you have Tigger, your piglet and poo and the nice thing is that the characters have returned, which they had been gone for a while. We were there for the 50th anniversary last year and remember there was no characters yet. No, yeah. So now they're back, they have lunch and dinner, they haven't brought breakfast there but they have a good variety. They have fried chicken which was tasty prime rib. Um, they have sugar glazed pork tops, catfish, shrimp, they have a lot of great um, side dishes. The desserts are kind of run the mill. Years ago they used to have a carrot cake that I love there but now kinda have those standard small desserts. But I find that even though you're at Magic Kingdom and you are really in the busy park, I've never felt rushed there. We were there for our vow renewal with a group of I think 30 people and they took their time. I didn't feel like we were rushed with the characters at all. How, what do

Speaker 2:

You think? No, I think they really allow each family enough time to take photos and interact and it's never rushed.

Speaker 1:

No. And the one thing that people do warn about is be mindful of the times for the parades and nighttime shows and fireworks and that sort of thing. Cuz if you're getting out at certain times it can be hard to get in and out of that restaurant cuz of its location close to the hub. So keep that in mind. Now our last pick for our top five is one that's temporarily closed and my fingers are crossed. Uh, hoping that because Disney has been opening a lot more of these experiences and bringing lot more dining back, that this one will come back and maybe I'm prejudice cuz now we have DVC at this resort. Um, but is 1900 Park Fair at the Graham Floridian? And this one is fun because at different times of day there's a little bit of a different experience. We've been there for the breakfast and for the dinner. So you might wonder what does that mean? Well there's actually different characters. So in the morning there's a Supercalifragilistic breakfast which has, I'm not a big breakfast person. My dad and Chris like breakfast a lot. But one nice thing is besides your standard buffet Fair, they have made to order omelets and carved ham and in the morning you have Mary Poppins, Allison Wonderland, the Mad Hatter in Tigar in winning the Poo. And I think that's fun. We, we've got some great pictures of Chris with a Mad Hatter. I'm gonna have to dig those

Speaker 2:

Out. Oh yeah, I remember that.

Speaker 1:

So that's always a fun experience. And then in the afternoon, which this is fun, when this comes back I think I will definitely add this to the list of something for our daughter to do. They have a Wonderland tea party so the restaurant is closed for lunch. So this is one of those special venue or special events that you do and the kids get tea and cupcakes that they decorate and during that they have Alice and Matt Hatter and they come and do crafts and stories and if I remember correctly they get some special gifts. Reminds me of how we did the royalty uh, recently on the cruise line when we went to Alaska. So I think it would, it's a fun experience that most kids would enjoy.

Speaker 2:

Oh definitely. I think it's just one of those things just, it's great cuz you get to see the kids engage and the parents and then the other family members. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Yes. So that's a great thing that I would love to try out when they bring that back. And then for dinner we just, we did do this in 2020 in March. So it was right before the the restaurant closed but they have a Cinderella's happily ever after dinner. And of course the honor guest is Cinderella and Prince Charming. But I thought what was super fun is they had Lady Tremaine and Anastasia and GI so they had the stepmother and the two stepsisters and we had a great time with them. Do you remember

Speaker 2:

That? I booed them and they booed

Speaker 1:

Me back. Yes, that's true. I forgot about

Speaker 2:

That. I said you are mean to Cinderella and they told me some things I can't repeat on a family friendly podcast

Speaker 1:

<laugh>, I think you're exaggerating just a wee bit on that one<laugh>. But it was a lot of fun And these are ca like you don't see Lady Tremaine out at the parks, you don't see Drella Anastasia and they have a good mix of international salads and meats and seafood. Lot of those standard American faire as well. But I just think it's a fun thing. They have the organ that turn of the century organ that will is by the restaurant that they'll play sometimes. So the music, it was piped in, they would have a special photo experience with Cinderella slipper on the pillow that you could get as you were leaving the restaurant. So we've had good experiences there. I've eaten there with at breakfast and at dinner I've eaten there with family, with friends and with little ones and just with adults and it's been a great experience. So fingers crossed, knock on wood that this one comes back soon. And speaking of that, one thing that is important to note in terms of the character dining experiences, these are more expensive than what you would pay at a regular restaurant on property. But from what I've been reading, Disney has said that some of the in park experiences with characters are gonna be reduced just because of staffing and they're gonna focus on opening more of the character dining experiences. So that means really if you have little ones and you wanna guarantee that you see certain characters character dining's really where you had to go.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. And I think and just because it seems like either the timing is off or even if you are online, you're always maybe one family outside of how many they allow and it's one of those things you're gonna eat anyways. So why not eat and see a character?

Speaker 1:

Yeah and pay that little extra. To me it's worth it. I like paying for something that I know I'm gonna have a strong return in something that we wanna do. Now there are quite a few other character dining experiences that we didn't mention. You might wonder like well why isn't that on their list Now there's Hollywood and Vine at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I will say I've been to that one, The Mickey or the Mini and Friends, they, it's super cute in the evenings like for lunch and dinner many and friends they have costumes related to the time of year. So I've been there for spring and during the fall and they have like Halloween costumes in the morning for breakfast. It's Disney Junior characters. But the food always falls short to me. I mean our daughter would probably love the Disney Junior but the food is just never great there at Hollywood and Vine. I don't even think you've been, I've been with my parents. I don't think so. Yeah, the food's so bad. I haven't even taken Chris<laugh>. So I've been with my parents and with friends and I like the characters. It just the, the cost is hard to justify. There's also Ohana at the Polynesian in the morning you have Mickey and Stitch and Lilo and usually there's a few other characters. It's pretty standard fair, it's served family style. Nothing about the food sticks out to me. But if you really love Lilo and Stitch, this is where you know you're gonna get them. I ha that's when I've been, I've been with a friend who loves them, who loves Stitch. So we've gone to that Ma some people may wonder why we didn't say about the Royal Banquet Hall in Norway. Actress Royal Banquet Hall and this is coming back in November. So actually a week after this podcast comes out it will be open for lunch and dinner and I will say we took our daughter there in March, 2020 and it was good. I mean you saw the the princesses but I didn't feel like the interactions were as as meaningful. Would that be the right word? Yes, that's a very good way to put it. I just felt like there was kind of a standard line of like, okay we're gonna come, you each get your picture, we move on. No fault to their own. I think there's just such a high volume of people that come through there. They did do like a princess parade and our daughter did that and she was excited to see the characters but I could just dramatically notice the difference from other character meals we had that week. Let's talk about a few more. I just wanna quickly, Cinderella's Royal table at Magic Kingdom right now you're not seeing all the princesses for the longest time you could see a lot of the princesses during the meal, which I would like to experience that because we went there several times just for like special occasions and that was when it was just the fairy godmother and um, Cinderella and some of those characters right before Covid when they had it, there was more princesses. Right now you can only meet Cinderella and get a photo and the cost of this is so high unless you, especially right now without all the added characters, I just can't justify saying to go there. Um, storybook dining at Artist Point with Snow White at Wilderness Lodge, we've been there. We enjoyed the food. I thought we had good interactions with Snow White and with some of the dwarfs and um, the Evil Queen. There's just nothing for us that stood out extremely well from there. But I think it's a great option, especially if you're staying at Wilderness Lodge or somewhere near there. Um, Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary, we went there for our daughter's birthday and I just, the family style food is not great there right now. The it's a weird mix of

Speaker 2:

Food. Yes. Very weird

Speaker 1:

<laugh>. So the characters were wonderful. I will highly, I will applaud the characters. It was our daughter's birthday, they were awesome. I mean it was actually on her birthday and we have so many cute pictures of her but food is important to us and the food just really didn't hit the mark.

Speaker 2:

Correct. It's just, you know, we'll have to try it again to see if

Speaker 1:

It's better they bring a buffet back. That would be nice. Yes, exactly.<laugh>. Um, and I'm not one to say bring a buffet back but there are options at the buffet. Were much better. I am excited. This one I haven't been to and probably I'm gonna age myself 20 years, um, but at Kate May Cafe at the Beach Club, they have a breakfast and we'll be going there on this trip. It's great if you're planning to go into Epcot cuz you're right there you can walk over. Um, it's Mini and Mickey and them and their beach outfits. I was trying to think there's Chip and Dale as well. The fairs, this food fair is pretty standard breakfast but I'm hoping this might get added to our list of favorites. We're gonna be going there cuz we're gonna go for a half day at Upco before we leave that day. And so I'm excited to try that out. Here's one that we have not, this is the only character dining that I've not tried. It's, I've not even tried the restaurant. It's the, at it's Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast at tutorial A at the boardwalk and right now the restaurant is open but the character dining is is temporarily unavailable. It has Rapunzel and Flynn and Ariel and Prince Eric and I think it would be fun. Our daughter is into all of those characters right now but unfortunately the character dining hasn't happened and we've not eaten there so I can't talk to that. And then finally there's a good morning breakfast with Goofy and Pals at the Four Seasons. We've eaten breakfast at the four season. Their food is awesome. So I will say kudos to them. We've not done the character dining experience there but this gives you a lot of different options. These again are just our top five because of what we've, our personal preferences. I did rank more I think unusual food items as well as character interactions. Those were kind of what I, how I ranked my five. Did you agree with what I put on the list for us?

Speaker 2:

Oh definitely. I think, you know, there's just so many great options and you know Vanessa, she does a great job at finding where to go, when to eat and you know, being able to have that best experience.

Speaker 1:

So hopefully you can figure out what's best for your family and add lots of memories really you can't go wrong with character dining at Disney. You're gonna get those great pictures and you're guaranteed to see the character. So what could be better than that? Now we are going to take some time and you're gonna hear from Bee and hear all about her awesome business, Charmed and Cozy. We're looking forward to sharing with you all about it. We would like to welcome Bee to the show. Her shop Charmed and Cozy offers all kinds of great Disney apparel and accessories. She is a fourth generation Disney fan. Her shop has been open for six years and they originally started with Disney bounding and then have kind of expanded from there. A big part of their shop right now is their pin club as well, which we'll talk about some fun things outside of her love for Disney. She trains as a circus artist and does volunteer work with American Sign Language and she's traveled all over. She's been to six countries in Europe and Asia. So welcome bee to the show.

Speaker 3:

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm so excited.

Speaker 1:

Now we always start off with a icebreaker to learn a little bit more about what you enjoy at the parks and so we've been asking people lately what is your favorite snack at any of the Disney parks?

Speaker 3:

Well you can be a good dull whip in any of the flavors but lately uh, I think it just came out this year, my favorite snack has been the s'mores cereal treat from the bakery on Main Street. It is just, there's something about it that's just one of my favorite snacks that you can get and I cannot pass by Main Street without grabbing one.

Speaker 1:

You know what, that came out since our last trip so I definitely have to add that to my list of treats to try cuz that sounds right up my alley for sure. Now we wanna hear all about your business. So you, if you could tell us about your business and what products you offer connected to Disney.

Speaker 3:

Pretty much every single thing we offer is connected to Disney right now. We do pins, patches, stickers. We have a special limited collection of enamel jewelry as well. We do some stationary washy tapes and memo books. One of our newest things that we are super excited for is we are getting into designer bags. Ooh. So our first round of those is our Spaceship Earth bag. That one is hopefully arriving super soon and going out to all of our Kickstarter supporters. Um, and you guys are the first to hear this, but our second design is actually currently in production and will be announcing very soon as well.

Speaker 1:

How exciting. And we got married Atco, so I love anything with Epcot so I'll definitely have to check out the Spaceship Earth design for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that one has been so much fun to work on and it definitely sparked the desire to make a lot more, which we are in the process of doing

Speaker 2:

Now. You just mentioned sparking desire. What was the spark of inspiration for you to start your business?

Speaker 3:

That is such a long, convoluted story in some ways, but the short of it is I have always been a crafter my entire life. I've never been able to turn down starting a new hobby and eventually I was about 18 and one of my friends convinced me that setting up an Etsy shop was not as scary as I thought it was. Um, she helped me sit down and like get everything set up and originally it was just to recoup my hobby costs. I loved to crochet, I loved to make things out of polymer clay. So I started that just to try to make that some of my costs and pretty soon it spiraled and eventually I decided to make my first enamel pin and six years later here we are<laugh>.

Speaker 1:

Now you've mentioned some of your bags as well as like the different types of products you make, but what are some of your favorite ones? Like maybe one of your favorite pins, your favorite patch, what are some of your favorite designs you have?

Speaker 3:

Oh right now I would have to say probably our orange bird design. That's one of our newer ones and it was an instant hit and I was so glad it was because it was a design that I absolutely fell in love with from the very beginning. Um, so it's been really nice to see other people enjoying that one. But we have that in in pretty much everything. We have it as a pin, a sticker, a patch. We just got it made as a key chain and I have all of those items all over everything I own<laugh>.

Speaker 1:

I will have to check that out cuz my mom loves orange birds. So I think that gives me some good ideas for Christmas for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I did not realize the fandom that Orange Bird had behind him until I started making products with him on it.

Speaker 1:

Well me too because I love figment so I've always been a part of that world but since my mom has started liking the orange bird stuff, I didn't realize there was so much out there. Like you said, it's just neat to see.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And now that you said figment, I'm so glad that there's a lot of figment merch out there too cuz he's also one of my

Speaker 1:

Favorites. For sure. For sure. Now you've touched on this a little bit, but how do you think your products add Disney Magic to your customers lives?

Speaker 3:

Actually from the very beginning of Charmed and Cozy, like since day one, that has actually been the goal of our shop. Um, when I did first start out and it was handmade products, all of my items were more Disney bound. So I would make typical, like I made floral jewelry, I made scarves, different things, but everything was in color schemes of Disney characters I've always loved including a little bit of Disney magic in everyday life. And so that's where Charm and Cozy originated from was a desire to make that available to everyone else. And so we've continued with that goal all six years of our shop, of just finding ways to bring a little bit of subtle Disney magic to the every day.

Speaker 1:

Now with all of your great products, let's say I was wanting to order something for an upcoming trip or we're not too far from the holidays, what is your turnaround time and how early should I order?

Speaker 3:

Right now our turnaround time is less than two weeks. We try to keep it down to less than a week, but just in case we always have new products that are arriving. You know, maybe something gets a little bit delayed in transit arriving to us because we do pre-orders for a lot of our items. So generally if you can order at least a week out from when you need something. But I am always willing if somebody drops me a message to add a little bit of extra pixie dust and get it out a little faster.

Speaker 1:

Now do you do product launches at certain times of the year or should people just keep an eye out on your pages?

Speaker 3:

So for us, um, we do sometimes do special drops. Um, if it's a limited edition item, if it's a special new collection, we will do a special product drop. Otherwise, um, I don't have a ton of self-control all the time. So sometimes when we get new things they will pop up on the website as a surprise. Um, but we do also have our mailing list that you can sign up for. Um, the link is in our shop in our Instagram pretty much everywhere. Um, and with our mailing list everyone will find out exactly what all of the do goodies are and when they're available.

Speaker 1:

Now if you could tell us a little bit about the Pin Club. You talked about that before we started your interview and we'd love to share with our viewers about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things that we've done. Um, I absolutely love it. We use Patreon for it, which means it's super easy to sign up and it's a monthly reoccurring subscription. You can cancel it anytime. You can sign up and cancel the next day if you want to. Um, we have super low prices, you'll get a huge discount in order for signing up. Every month we make two pins. One is limited edition and only available to our Pin Club members. They also get access to a secret shop which contains the past pins for the club. Ooh. And then our other pin is a moving pin every month. Leftovers of that do go into our main shop, but Pink Club members get first ds. You get huge discounts by going through the club and with the club we have a tendency to go a little more niche, we'll go more the things that maybe every Disney fan wouldn't get the reference. We go to the real, the real specific things. And that's been the main selling point of our PIN club, which has been really fun.

Speaker 1:

Well and I think your li our listeners really fall under that. They're always looking for something unique and different and I think that's what's so cool about the Pin Club.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm<affirmative>. Yeah, it's been really fun getting to add in these little like references or maybe like for a specific defunct de or like a little place that maybe people don't know as much about in general, but our PIN club members definitely do and they love it.

Speaker 2:

Now with that you mentioned all these these awesome things you do. Where can people go online to find out everything you do?

Speaker 3:

We are pretty much everywhere and every single place we are, our username is just charmed and cozy. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, all of the things. Um, it's super easy to find us cuz we manage to get the exact same username everywhere on the internet. So that's been super helpful.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. And we will make sure to put the links to all of your socials on the show notes as well as share through our different posts. So thank you so much be for joining us today.

Speaker 3:

This has been so much fun. Thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thank you again to be for joining us today

Speaker 1:

And now we are onto our two minute trivia and our wisdom from Walt quote. And Chris, you are up with trivia.

Speaker 2:

So we talked a lot about characters and I tried to find something that was Disney character, dining related. A little tough. Yeah,

Speaker 1:

That would be

Speaker 2:

Tough. But this is a true or false. True or false. Dumbo is a character that you can meet in the park. False. That is correct. Dumbo has not been available according to the internet since the 1970s. Oh

Speaker 1:

The, you used to be able to meet Dumbo. Wow.

Speaker 2:

In the 1970s.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So before we were born even.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

I wonder if they would bring characters like Kim because especially now they have Bay Max where they had the big blow up outfit. You would think that they could do a Dumbo.

Speaker 2:

Yes. You would think. I mean, Correct. There's just a lot of opportunities and even if it was Dark Wing Duck and Roger, right? Like I, I mean I know some of this stuff is just old IP that's just not there, but you would figure with Disney plus and just some of this stuff. But again, like even like the retro things, like I if it was like a$20 Roger Rabbit me like I think just for how unique it is, I would go to see that

Speaker 1:

And I think that's why you get people striving to go on the cruises or go to the after hours, like the Halloween party in the Christmas party when they have those extra characters because they just don't bring those out on a regular basis, that's for sure. Now we are gonna end with, I thought this was kind of a fun, interesting quote because just talks about really as we're looking at the reopening of more and more things at the park, it's just exciting to see that. I remember when the parks were closing and we were there in March, 2020. You didn't really know what was gonna happen. We didn't know if that would be our last time at Disney. Yes. And this is kind of a point about how Disney's been successful and how they just really didn't know what would happen when they opened. We did it Disneyland and the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster closed and forgotten within the first year. Well look at where Walt's legacy has gone. I'm sure all those naysayers that thought Disneyland would close in a year would be amazed to see what has happened in the legacy that's been built. So thank you so much for joining us on this episode of The Love Podcast with Vanessa and Chris. I'm Vanessa. And

Speaker 2:

I'm Chris. This podcast is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or its holdings and it is intended for entertainment purposes only.