About It
I’m going to talk about real experiences and lessons learned from life love and the pursuit of happiness. Will we find it? possibly. Are we about it? Most Definitely! Come along for the journey as we venture through the up’s and downs together.
About It
Disney Magic for Grown-Ups
We explore the world of Disney adults, theme parks, and insider tips from a former Walt Disney World monorail driver. Bradley shares his personal connection to Disney and provides comprehensive guidance for planning the perfect Disney vacation.
• Disney World spans over 40 square miles with four main parks across the property
• Upcoming Epcot International Food and Wine Festival runs August 28th to November 22nd with 35 global marketplaces
• The Eat to the Beat concert series features performances from Joey Fatone, Hanson, Boyz II Men, and others
• Special July 4th celebrations include enhanced fireworks displays at Magic Kingdom and Epcot
• Book your Disney trip 6-12 months in advance to secure better rates before potential price increases
• Visit during off-peak times (mid-January to mid-March or September to mid-November) for smaller crowds
• Take advantage of mobile food ordering and early dining reservations to avoid long waits
• Arrive at parks before opening and utilize Lightning Lane passes for the most efficient experience
• Disney transportation options include monorails, buses, watercraft, and the newer Skyliner gondola system
• Being a Disney adult means embracing joy and nostalgia without fear of judgment
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So let's talk about those Disney adults. Come on, welcome to the show. It's the About it Podcast. Here we go. Go, I'm your host, bradley Marsbrough. All right, you might be thinking to yourself what is this guy going to say next? Okay, spoiler alert, I'm a Disney adult too. I love all things Disney.
Speaker 1:I used to work for Disney back in the day. Specifically, I drove monorails at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, florida. P5 life to my rail guys. One rail, one family Just wanted to give that shout out real quick.
Speaker 1:I mean, how can you not love Disney? They're literally everywhere. I grew up on Disney, watching movies, tv, going there as a child in Orlando. They got 12 parks across the world in four countries. I mean United States, china, japan, france. They're definitely out there. The one I wanted to talk about, and the spot I wanted to talk about today, is Disney World. I mean, just there they have Magic Kingdom, epcot, hollywood Studios used to be called MGM Animal Kingdom. Then you got the water parks and all the resorts around there. The happiest place on earth, right, go there to have fun. I mean easy time, go on vacation, but at the same time, it's 40-something square miles of property that's almost as big as some of the big cities we have in our country. But yeah, about Disney World, they got some cool stuff coming up soon.
Speaker 1:Ebci has the International Food and Wine Festival, august 28th to November 22nd. It's going to have some cool stuff going on. It's going to run for 90 days. You're going to have Emily's fromage montage returning for all my foodies out there. Uh, going to have about 35, I think. Global marketplaces at Epcot it's going to be a lot of eating and drinking going on. Epcot alone is a 270, I think. Acres it's a pretty big spot. A lot to do there for everybody that knows the eat to the beat.
Speaker 1:Concert series Now that is some good stuff, I know. I've always loved going and tasting the flavors around the world and then going and seeing the concerts that they have there. They have a lot of big talent show up. I have a list here for this year that just got released. So on August 29th through the 30th you're going to have Joey Fatone and Friends. On August 31st through September 1st, Mercy Me is going to show up. September 5th through 6th. Kt Turnstall he's going to be new this year. Got Toby Mack coming on the 7th through 8th of September. Love that guy. September 12th through 14th you're going to have Starship featuring Mickey Thomas On the 15th of September, basilios, let's see. September 19th through 20th you're going to have Sheila E and 21st through 22nd Ben Rector. September 26th through 7th you're going to have Tiffany, then Jesse and Joy. On the 28th through 29th.
Speaker 1:The Baja men are coming October 3rd through 4th Still hasn't been announced who's coming. The 5th through 6th of October the wanted 2.0 is coming October 10th through 11th. The 12th through 13th you're going to have the fray. The 17th through the 20th is Hanson. And you got Hoobastank coming on the 24th through 25th and for all my all-stars out there, smash Mouth 26th through the 27th of October. And for all my all-stars out there, smash Mouth 26th through the 27th of October. You got Big Bad Voodoo Daddy coming on October 31st through November 1st. Then you got my boys to men coming on November 2nd through 3rd. David Archuleta is coming on November 7th through 8th.
Speaker 1:Jordan Sparks she's new this year. That's going to be pretty cool. November 9th through 10th yeah, bowling for Soup on November 14th through 15th. And then you got the Beach Boys, also new this year, november 16th through the 17th. As you can see, got a lot of talent spread out over the whole season of the Eat to the Beat concert series. It's a lot of excitement going on, a lot of star power. I'm pretty excited. I hope to get to go see one of them this year. Most, I hope to get to go see one of them this year. Most of those guys sound pretty good, and girls. But up first. You got the 4th of July right. That is literally just around the corner here.
Speaker 1:I'm recording this on the 2nd of July, so in two days here we're going to have the 4th of July celebrations going on across the Walt Disney World property. The Magic Kingdom show is going to be called Celebrate America 4th of July concert in the sky. Everyone knows Disney has fireworks that go off every night, but on holidays like the 4th of July and New Year's, they really amp up these shows. During the regular shows they have fireworks going off from about one location, but on events like these they set up several satellite stations around the area that start shooting off fireworks as well and create an entirely different spectacle in the sky. It is truly amazing. I mean pretty dang jaw-dropping, honestly. Pretty freaking cool.
Speaker 1:Ebcot's going to have their Luminous the Symphony of Us. But it's also going to be followed by the 4th of July only edition and that's going to be called Heartbeat of Freedom. It's going to follow some of the same rules as the Magic Kingdom, like the satellite location set up for displaying the extra fireworks around the perimeter, putting a lot more light in the sky there, a lot more of a show. It's going to be a sparkling grand finale. It's going to have pyrotechnics and tributes to Americans' history. I cannot wait for that.
Speaker 1:I know back in the day when I was driving the monorail one time when I used to work there, I was able to actually I happened to be driving the monorail into the Epcot Park at the strike of midnight on the New Year's Eve celebration when the grand finale went off, and that was one of the most exciting times I've ever had there. That was freaking amazing, I mean. I think at that point I started just laughing uncontrollably from the sheer sight of it and joy that it caused me inside like a straight front row seat, no lie. So don't miss it. If you happen to find yourself around Disney on the 4th of July, definitely check that out. It is not something to miss for sure.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, what if it's your first time going to Disney Disney world, what are some tips, tricks and pointers I could give you? Well, let's start with the, you know, creating a budget and booking timeline right. There is a lot going on there and it is important to get ahead of things when planning a trip to this place. As soon as you know that that's where you're headed to, that's pretty much the time to start locking in and making some decisions and getting things on the books. You know what I mean. So obviously, start planning ahead as soon as you can. If you can start planning months to a year ahead even you know, let's say, you're going in 2026, you can go ahead and lock in your room rates now for that timeline, because everyone knows that not everyone knows.
Speaker 1:But ticket prices, they can go, they can fluctuate, they can go up from year to year and if you book it a year ahead of time, the year prior, then sometimes you can take advantage of getting ahead of that and not running into a price hike, because those tickets and uh they can take a chunk out of your wallet. Not gonna lie, you can uh book a disney vacation package for about a 200 down deposit, I believe, and that is, uh, refundable, of course, as long as it's more than 30 days out from the time your trip's supposed to take place, and I think sometimes around february they can raise the ticket prices as long as you. As long as you get ahead of it before then, I think you're going to benefit from it. It's definitely something to budget for, and I'll get into it a little more later in the show. Once you get to Disney, of course you're going to want to have a budget for each day you're there. Maybe you're going to want to buy some things, budget for some food. I'm going to give you some tips on that and all that good stuff. Some experiences possibly. Luckily, disney's not like a carnival park. Obviously they're not on that level. Once you get in the door, everything's included in the packages and the ticket prices to get on the rides and all that. Yeah, let's get into it some more. Before you get there, you're going to want to set up the my Disney Experience Once you know you're going. They have this thing nowadays where you can book the lightning lanes and genie plus selections 60 days out from the time you're going to be on on the property there and be visiting the park.
Speaker 1:To all my old timers and and veterans of disney let's bring back fast pass. Who misses that? It was to me. Honestly, what they have going on now it's just makes things too complicated. Back in the day, the lightning lane is used to be FastPass and it was so easy back then. All you had to do was there was no electronics involved, nothing like that, no booking online or worrying about having to pay for anything. Back then, all you had to do was take your ticket, go to the ride itself and insert your ticket into one of the FastPass machines there and it would print out a FastPass ticket for you. That give you a time to come back and you could go in the FastPass lane to get on the ride quicker.
Speaker 1:To me, I love that system so much more. It was so much simpler. What they have going on now it just it's not for me particularly. So, yeah, bring back the FastPass Disney, please. We miss that. To be honest, I think it had something to do with costing them money. When now they're making money off of it. I think Walt Disney World alone earns something like a billion dollars per quarter at least A billion and a half dollars per quarter. Almost. I'm just in profit after they pay all their bills. I'm in the wrong business.
Speaker 1:One good tip I can give you is to, if you plan on eating on property, use a mobile food ordering. That is something good that they brought out. You don't necessarily have to wait in lines anymore For that. You can get on your Genie app I think it is and order your food mobily, do a mobile food order, which is pretty cool and saves some time. You can also get on that app and reserve spots for the sit-down restaurants as well, the table service restaurants. You can even reserve those 60 days ahead of time before you get there.
Speaker 1:If you're wondering about when to visit, like you still haven't booked your trip yet and you're wondering, hey, when might be a good time to go? Maybe you really do just want to go in summer the popular seasons go around to holiday. Those are going to be some of the busiest times. Those are going to be some of the busiest times. But if you're wondering when to go when it's not so busy quite as much, some of those times are basically during when school starts, starts up, so like mid-January to mid-March, and then again in September ish to mid-November. Those are some good times to go for lower crowd counts and shorter lines, and they're also some of the cooler slightly cooler times of the year in Florida, of course. Florida basically has two seasons melt your face off and not quite so hot. If you're interested to learn a little more about that and timing and all that stuff, google undercover tourist crowd calendar. They'll help you pick the best week for your travel dates.
Speaker 1:So let's get into some in-part strategies. Right, like all right, you've made your plans, you've booked your rooms, you know where you're going to stay and all that. You know when you're going to get there. All right, we're there at Disney World now and we're at the parks, we're getting ready to go. What are we going to do, like? What are we going to bring about it? So if you're wondering what to bring, let's say you're in your hotel room at this point. What are you going to have there? You're getting ready to go to the park. What are you about to bring with you?
Speaker 1:Personally, me, I like to travel light. I like to go to the parks and not have to carry too much. So the most I've ever carried is, if I'm bringing anything with me is a small backpack or something like that. I've seen the good old fanny pack whipped out before. But, like I said, there's over 40 square miles of property here and if you get one of those park hopper tickets and plan on moving around a bit, you're not going to want to be weighed down too much. What would I put in the backpack? What would I have in my pockets?
Speaker 1:That is one thing I suggest is, if you're going to Disney, wear some shorts or pants with pockets in them. Because you're going to Disney, wear some shorts or pants with pockets in them, because you're going to have a lot going on and you show up in just a pair of athletic shorts or something. It's going to make life a little hard to carry the things you need to carry with you or pick up along the way. So, yeah, wear some cool clothes, some cotton or sweat wicking clothes. If you have issues with the sun, you're going to want to pack some sunscreen because if you look up the UV index in Florida on an average day it's up there. It can go over 10, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I suggest limiting your alcohol intake before going out in the heat all day long. I've definitely been there and there's been some sorry to laugh, but there's been some medical emergencies involving folks that had drank too much the night before and possibly even that morning or day or something, and and they show up in the medical facility or having the paramedics called on them because they're severely dehydrated and passing out in the in the sun and all that, so a lot of heat going on. So, yeah, again, drink water, drink some fluids before you go out into the parks. There, I mean, if you want to bring a cooler, more power to you, but personally I would just drink some water before going. And if you want to go ahead and eat before you go into the parks and after you leave and like me, myself and my family, we would usually only eat one time in the parks and maybe get a snack or two if we were staying there all day we just didn't bring anything with us. Pack your sunglasses I mean again, it's bright out there, so I'd definitely bring some sunglasses with me.
Speaker 1:Try to leave your valuables in your room or just don't bring them with you at all, because you don't want anything happening to them. Something you might not think about is bring some sanitizer with you. Right, you got thousands of people every day. You got about 50,000 people a day that can visit those parks and you're touching all the rides and all the hand railings and everything. So, yeah, a little sanitization wouldn't hurt either.
Speaker 1:And again, while you're deciding on your budget and all that, try to figure out what you're going to do each day. If you think you're going to be buying some souvenirs and all that, you know, bring one or two debit cards with you in your wallet, your credit card, whatever. Bring a little cash with you. Of course, try not to bring too much of that in case you lose your wallet. I know folks there have lost their purses and wallets and all that kind of stuff every day. You wouldn't want it all to disappear in one fell swoop. So yeah, that's a few things I just wanted to pass along to you. Think about, of course, make your own list up. You know what you're comfortable with and not. So yeah, you're arriving at the park.
Speaker 1:Now, if you want to really get on some rides and stuff like that, something I'd suggest is getting there early. Of course, if I'm on vacation, I'm not necessarily wanting to wake up at the crack of dawn, but to wake up at the crack of dawn, but there's definitely folks that do that. They wake up and some of the restaurants even allow you in before the park opens. But let's say you're wanting to catch a bunch of rides and such, go ahead in there and get there before they opened. You can have about an hour or two of good times and then slightly shorter wait times before everybody crowds in, and you can even catch some of the morning shows that happen around the parks there. Speaking of shows, if you're the kind of person that likes to go watch the shows around the parks Magic Kingdom, epcot and all that, and MGM you got Fantasmic over there, something I'd suggest, and it didn't always used to be like this but you're going to want to show up a decent amount of time before the show starts. Because if you get up there right at the start of the show time, there's a high likelihood that, especially nowadays, that the show could be filled up and then you don't get to get in at all. You know what I mean and that's definitely a downer when you're supposed to be having a good time. So, yeah, show up to the shows early. You don't want to be late for a first act. Yeah, once you get in there.
Speaker 1:Now, like I said before, they used to have the FastPass thing. That was my favorite. I mean to me you can't beat that and it was free. I know other park systems like what is it? Seaworld and Busch Gardens have some FastPass systems. That I think is better as well, where you can just buy one FastPass for the whole day without having to worry about putting yourself on each ride, and that is so much more convenient. But yeah, nowadays they offer the Lightning Lane Passes.
Speaker 1:You get to book one ride at a time on there. Of course, you get on there, you book your ride, you want to get in for the fast lane and you come back at the time it says and you got to pay a little money for each one of those, and that will help you squeeze in a few more rides in the day if that's something that you want to do. Another tip is to tip at getting on the rides quicker and cutting some of the lines out. Of course, if you're into the shows, like I said, you're going to be at those more than the rides, possibly. But if you're not as concerned with making each show, then you can use those show times when everybody's going to watch those to get into the shorter lines on the rides that will be happening at those moments and those times, like the parades, fireworks, some of the bigger shows going on, so definitely take advantage of that. Something else that's pretty cool at Disney is, especially if you're staying on property, they have extra magic hours, so for the hotel and resort guests staying on property, so before the regular park hours begin or after the end, you have the option of visiting the park when everybody is not there, which is pretty awesome. So that would be basically a low crowd time to be able to get on the rides and enjoy the amenities of the parks and not get too stressed out with all the lines. Another thing that's fun to take advantage of is the behind-the-scenes tours that they have there, so you can do tours like Keys to the Kingdom at the Magic Kingdom, savor the Savannah, and Behind the Seeds tours, where you get to do things that not everybody else is getting to do and get some insider experiences. I'd suggest booking those far in advance to your trip, though, because they can fill up quickly.
Speaker 1:Now, for everyone that doesn't know what a Disney adult is, the dictionary definition would basically be, you know, millennials like 20-somethings to 40 year olds, who visit the parks without children, basically and celebrate the Disney life outside of kids. A lot of us are drawn by nostalgia and basically the atmosphere and vibe and everything that Disney provides. A lot of folks will dress up in Disney character inspired outfits and all that good stuff and basically, if there was a psychological meaning behind it, I would say it's embracing your childhood and that inner child. It can actually bolster your well-being and your authenticity in adulthood, basically being more comfortable with who you are. It's not necessarily a way just to escape maturity.
Speaker 1:Of course you get some Disney adults like myself. I mean the point of going to the happiest place on earth is to be happy, have fun, be joyful. Right, I know this can annoy some of the families that are there, but I know everybody who's been there has seen folks in line the ride announcements come on and they're sitting there mimicking them, just acting youthful and joyous and all this stuff. To me that's a good part of the celebration. That goes into going to Disney, of course not getting too overzealous, but you know, have fun. Disney's there to create a world of immersion, so you got to respect that too. I know some folks can get a little far out there with it. But yeah, basically being a Disney adult means you're not afraid to enjoy yourself and to fall into that immersion that happens and that Disney creates for the guests that show up there. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're 5, 25 or 85. Get you a crown to wear on your head. Get you a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, laugh it up, smile while you're there, have a good time and be considerate while you're at it. Don't be afraid to be a Disney adult.
Speaker 1:All right, getting park to park right. So, being in transportation myself when I was there before driving the monorails, like I said, I got to learn a lot about how the transportation worked. So one of the biggest positives about visiting Disney is that you don't have to pay for the transportation. There is a way to get from anywhere to anywhere while you're on property Going park to park. If you're going between the Magic Kingdom and EBCOT, you get to take the monorails, which are pretty awesome. Obviously, I have a bias towards those. They have the buses that can take you about anywhere on the property, the Disney bus system, and they also have the Disney watercraft system. So where, uh, you might not want to get on a monorail, or where it might not take you, or if you want to try something different, you can get on the watercraft as well. They also just recently added some odd years ago the uh Skyliner system. So it's a gondola overhead system that transports folks between some parks and resorts on the property as well, of course. Get on the Disney website and they'll have maps of all these things that'll help you with your plans to move around the property. So yeah, for monorails, they have in their collection 12 monorails For that system. They have in the watercraft system they have several types of boats from the big ferries, like the General Joe Potter. They have smaller watercraft, everything in between pretty much with that, along with those buses and Skyliner systems. Just be aware that they are interested in efficiency as a part of their motto. So it might get kind of crowded on the Disney transportation. They try to fit as many folks as they can in Also.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to talk about some of my favorite rides as well. Right, so they got all these kinds of rides there. In Magic Kingdom you got Space Mountain, big Thunder, railroad, pirates of the Caribbean. They're redoing what used to be called Splash Mountain. That's going to be a fun ride. Over at Epcot you have Spaceship Earth and the big ball there. There's actually a ride inside of it, test Track Mission Space. It was, I believe, designed in part with NASA, so that's a pretty awesome ride. And over at Hollywood Studios, of course, you have the Tower of Terror, hollywood Tower Hotel, now that they call it. They used to have the Aerosmith ride at the Hollywood Studios as well, but now it's being rethemed to the Muffets, I believe. Oh goodness, I'm going to miss riding those limousines. And then Animal Kingdom, of course. Oh goodness, I'm going to miss riding those limousines. And then Animal Kingdom, of course they have Mount Everest, a big roller coaster there. That's pretty awesome. And another one would be the Kilimanjaro Safaris. That's pretty awesome. Cali River Rapids and, of course, the Flight of Passage ride from the Avatar movie is bad to the bone.
Speaker 1:Just a few of my favorites to help guide you along the way if you don't know what to pick necessarily. But of my favorites to help guide you along the way if you don't know what to pick necessarily, but try as many as you can, of course, get those park hoppers and take the challenge. Get to all four parks in one day and ride everything if you can. Might need a couple energy drinks to make it through.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was younger I used to go with my family. They had these pin trading events. So when you get there, of course they got all the Disney pins that they wear on all the lanyards, and it would also be a part of getting in the parks early too. So we'd show up at like five in the morning or something like that to get a limited edition release Disney pin, wait in line, sit there for a few hours and get this limited edition, limited release pin that we could keep, that we could collect, and then we'd literally go to all four parks in one day, riding like all the rides and going to everything, stay until like 10, 11 at night. Man, those were some long days, but I was a kid then so I didn't necessarily notice a difference. I was going to be awake all day anyway, full of energy, and I envy the kids. They don't ever seem to run out of it.
Speaker 1:They also have a couple of water parks that you can check out there Typhoonoon and blizzard beach, usually open in the summer only. Then you also have downtown disney, which is now called disney springs. Um, they basically changed everything about the place. Mostly they went from about, I think, 150 shops there to now somewhere around 300 or something like that. They've also added two cool parking garages. The only thing I don't like that they took out was the Disney Quest. Back in the day, that was the best Like five floors of straight arcade awesomeness. They do have a cool bowling alley there now, though, but yeah, a lot of shops, great places to eat there. Now it's a great way to spend a little time out of the parks.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, a couple other things, just like some of the backstage tours you can take and alternatives to just staying in the park all day. They also have golfing at Disney, so, if that's your thing, hit up one of Disney's golf courses. They are some of the best in the country, definitely. They even have horses at Disney, right? So another cool thing to do is go check out the horses at Walt Disney World, the Tri-Circle D Ranch located at Fort Wilderness, I believe. You can see various breeds there, including Clydesdales, percherons and Sheetland Ponies, so go take a ride. All right, folks, that's all for now. I just wanted to thank you for joining me and look forward to talking with you guys in the future and joining you on future podcasts. Please follow me on the socials at the about it podcast. I'm on all major podcasting platforms. Follow me, subscribe, look me up. Um, yeah, it's been good. Thank you, we'll see you next time.
