The Worst: Beyond the Magic
The Worst: Beyond the Magic is a travel podcast breaking down the best and worst of Disney, destinations, and vacations people actually book.
Hosted by travel professionals Pete Morrison and Jamie McMahon, the show goes beyond the highlight reels and hype to talk about real expectations, real costs, and real experiences. From Disney planning mistakes and dining myths to destination travel insights, each episode delivers honest conversations and practical advice you can actually use.
If you’re planning a Disney trip, researching travel destinations, or tired of advice that ignores reality, this podcast helps you make smarter decisions, avoid common mistakes, and get more out of your vacation.
New episodes weekly.
The Worst: Beyond the Magic
Disney Planning Without The Panic
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Disney World is supposed to feel like magic, but planning it can feel like filing taxes during a hurricane. We’re Pete and Jamie, two very tired adults who genuinely love Disney and also love telling the truth about it. If you’ve been drowning in Lightning Lane rules, 60-day dining reservations, virtual queues, mobile order, early entry, and 47 conflicting “Disney hacks,” we’re here to cut through the noise and give you a plan that doesn’t wreck your sanity.
We talk about what a legit Disney travel advisor actually brings to the table: real-world experience, updated training, and the behind-the-scenes help that most people never see. We break down resort selection and transportation strategy (because Disney World logistics can quietly eat your entire day), plus how we approach dining planning and Lightning Lane decisions without turning your trip into a speed run. We also call out the stuff that makes travel feel sketchy online, including MLM vibes, influencer clickbait, and “secret tips” that don’t exist in real life.
Then we tackle the big myth: using a Disney travel advisor costs more. For most Disney vacations, you’re paying the same price either way, because commission is baked into the package, and the real product is confidence and fewer headaches. We also explain when planning fees can make sense for complex trips, how we watch for new Disney discounts after you book, and how a good advisor helps you pivot when the weather hits, rides go down, or the day just doesn’t go to plan.
If you want a Disney vacation that actually feels like a vacation, hit play, follow along, and share this with the person in your group chat who’s currently stress-refreshing the Disney app. Subscribe, leave a five-star review, and tell us the most unhinged Disney planning advice you’ve ever heard.
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Have a question, an episode idea, or a Disney topic you’d like us to cover? Send us an email at theworstbeyondthemagic@gmail.com.
And if you’re planning a Disney vacation and need help with resorts, dining reservations, Lightning Lanes, cruises, or creating the perfect itinerary, reach out. We’d be happy to help.
You can also connect with us on Instagram:
📸 Jamie: @5_OnThe_Fly
📸 Pete: @Petriemax
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Thanks for listening, and remember…
Sometimes the best Disney memories come from surviving the worst.
Disney Planning Got Complicated
SPEAKER_00Disney World is supposed to be magical, but somehow planning feels like filing taxes during a hurricane.
SPEAKER_01Three dining reservations, lightning lanes, virtual cues, 14 influencers screaming contradictory advice, and somehow every video is titled You've Been Doing Disney Wrong.
SPEAKER_00And then somehow your cousin's friend who also sells essential oils is a Disney expert.
SPEAKER_01Listen, we know the Disney we know the internet has made Disney plan and feel like a pyramid scheme wrapped in a lightning lane tutorial.
SPEAKER_00But today we're talking about why a good Disney travel advisor can save you on your vacation, your sanity, and quite possibly your marriage. This is the worst beyond the magic.
SPEAKER_01Disney used to be simple. You showed up, you rode rides, you ate a turkey leg. Ooh. But you survived. Now.
SPEAKER_00Dining reservations open up at 60 days. Resort selection matters. Lightning lane strategy matters. Rope drop strategy matters. Mobile order. Of course, mobile order. Definitely entry matters. Early entry matters. All these things matter.
SPEAKER_01Lightning lane strategy. I think you said rope drop too. Oh, it's a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. At this point, people have watched 47 different YouTube videos on how to ride Guardians of the Galaxy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, has has Disney planning become too complicated? I think that's what we're here to talk about today.
SPEAKER_00I think for the people that don't know are they pleasantly uh uninformed, they don't know. So they don't know any better. Uh someone like us, and if you have somebody like you and I in your corner, you're gonna have a way better time than if you were to just wing it and show up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think winging it is always like, hey, I'm I'm uh I'm spontaneous and I'm great at you know showing up and having a really great time. Disney's not for that. Um and I applaud that. I applaud winging it, I applaud showing up and being in the moment. But in order, I think, to be in the moment at Disney, you gotta plan it out. You gotta um not get that 7 p.m. argument about where you're gonna have dinner um or what park you're gonna be in. You can't get reservations last minute sometimes at the parks. So um, you know, I think this whole episode will be great to we're gonna discuss a little bit about you know why travel agents are legitimate.
What Makes An Advisor Legit
SPEAKER_01I think that's the first part we want to talk about too. Um we work for TravelMation, and um, you know, you'll see a lot of there are some multi-level marketing corporations out there, um, just like everything else. Um, and but you know, Travelmation, who we work for, and there's others out there, but Travelmation is uh partnered with Disney. We are a diamond level producer for Disney. So we have that partnership. And so so what does that mean for people, Jamie?
SPEAKER_00I mean, uh, I know it doesn't sound like a lot when a piece has it, but having Disney's name behind our agency's name means a lot in the travel space. Not every agency is uh is awarded that same luxury. That means that we get insider knowledge, we get insider knowledge of what's going to happen uh in the near future and years down the road. Uh, we get uh special training on Disney every single year and throughout the year via emails and and uh webinars that we can attend. It also means that we have a contact, we have a name and number of somebody we can call immediately. Uh, this is our BDM or business development manager that we can call if something goes wrong with your vacation. I don't have to sit on hold with Walt Disney World Reservations for an hour and 10 minutes like everybody else. I can make that phone call to that BDM and I can get your your uh your problem solved within a matter of minutes.
SPEAKER_01So we bring it to the money has. No, definitely not. And so we do bring a little bit of legitimacy to that. Um, you know, a lot of what we do is um is set up where, like Jamie said, we have those connections. Um we have training every year right at Walt Disney World, and they send out some of their high-level executives to talk to us and train us to make sure that we're up to date. Um, so that's a little bit of what we're gonna talk about.
Internet Tips Versus Real Life
SPEAKER_01Um so the first thing we're gonna talk about is the internet. Um there. You love it, huh?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't. I don't. It's it's ruined humanity. It's it's ruined humanity. It's it's ruined our our travel, our our travel space, it's ruined our job. Because essentially it make it makes everybody some sort of what they think of as an expert. And you just you get little bits of knowledge here and out there on the internet, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or Google, whatever it is, right? Yeah, how much of that is real, how much of that is updated, how much of that is real life experience rather than just trying to get clickbait.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think there's clickbait, there's rage bait, there's influencer, just nonsense. They're just trying to get likes and shares. So they're they're giving you outdated advice, impossible itineraries. You know, and I know we've talked about this one before, Jamie, but like, are you ever gonna try to do all four parks in one day?
SPEAKER_00Listen, uh VIP tour is is gonna be on the horizon. That's something I need to do. So that's the only way I would recommend all doing all four parks in one day is with a VIP tour. Nice plug for the VIP tour there, brother. Oh, yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. Um, listen to our podcast, by the way. Uh send us emails, all those things. Uh go to Morocco. Go to Morocco. Mobile order in Morocco. Anyway, um, yeah, I there's so much wrong information out there. Like Pete said, do all four parks in one day, eat 19 snacks. Uh you have to rope drop and use this exact strategy. Uh, this this is a secret act and this changes everything. Oh my god, the secrets kill me. The secrets want secrets. No, it doesn't exist. It doesn't, it just doesn't exist. And Pete are here, if he and I are here to tell you the right way to do things and the way the way we're gonna we're not here to plan every minute every day for you. We're trying to help you along to get the most out of your experience because it Disney's not cheap. You're dropping a you're dropping a lot of money, especially if you have a family of four or a family of five. It it could be upwards of five or six thousand dollars or more for a five or six-day long trip. So, and in some cases, even more for over peak times of the year. So we we want you to have a great time and we want to take the stress away. That's our job, is to make it so that you have fun and we do everything and behind the scenes and so that you have a great time.
SPEAKER_01I think half of the internet advice is made up of people who don't actually enjoy vacationing.
SPEAKER_00No, not at all. Not at all. It's just they're out there looking for for views. That's all it is. If if your Disney strategy requires you waking up angry at 6 45 in the morning, we we may have lost the plot. Like it does that's not part of that's not part of vacation, okay?
SPEAKER_01And we're gonna help. You know, if you spend so much time trying to optimize your Disney that you forget to Disney, um, I think that's uh where you you lose some of that plot as well. So that's again, like we hate selling ourselves. We'll say that this whole way, like, you know, we're that's why we're the worst travel agents for travel nation. Um, we just want to tell you how to have the best time, um, but we don't want to get in front of you and be like, hey, you know, spend this money here, do this. You know, we just want to want to get in there and help you. But it should not be a fight.
SPEAKER_00No, when when when did Disney become uh pack sunscreen and have a great time to now fight some random woman from New Jersey for a virtual queue? Like when did when did that when did that happen?
SPEAKER_01The line skippers.
SPEAKER_00It's out there. It's out there.
SPEAKER_01Go ahead. Yeah, go yeah. We're just so excited. We both want to tell you all about what a travel advisor can actually do. I'll I'll leave it up to you to start, Jamie.
SPEAKER_00Go
What A Travel Advisor Handles
SPEAKER_00ahead. So here's my confession. And it's it's no secret. I I hate selling it myself. I hate I hate I hate telling people that this is what I do. I hate that like I feel like some scummy, like used car salesman who's gonna send you, like, who's gonna sell you some lemon off the lot that's been there rotting for months for a special deal price that I've never given anybody else that's ever come to my car lot before. Right. So that's that's I feel scummy. I feel yucky. Like I don't, I don't, I don't like it. That's not who I am. Who I I am beyond that is a person who wants to help. Um we've been both between Pete and I, we've been to Disney, I don't even know how many times. It's a silly amount of times more than any adult should ever go in their lifetime. Don't say that. So because so we're still listening we're still gonna go back. Good, good, good back. Yeah, yeah. It's okay. Uh but because of that, we had that experience. We've done the bad things, we've done a lot of wrong things in in in in our Disney trips and in life in general. So we know we know how to get around, we know what's good, what's bad, what not to do, and how to how to strategize and optimize your your your entire trip, whether it's a Disney cruise or whether it's a a five-day or six-day or seven-day or however long Disney vacation on property.
SPEAKER_01Clearly, we have a passion for this because we're here every week talking to you and those two goldfish about how to optimize your vacation. I think you know, people look at um travel planners and they're like, oh, they just they just book the vacation. They click a few buttons and get paid to do nothing. But the reality of it is a good Disney advisor is going to help you with resort selection. Because, you know, and I think one of the first two episodes were where we're just verbal diarrheering all over you. We uh think that was the first one, yeah. Yeah, we're talking about resort selection, and you've got different values that you can get. You can go for your cheapest um uh the value, you can go for the moderate, you can go for the deluxe, and depending on what you're looking for, all of them are great. You know, All Star has a lot of great stuff. I have one um uh affluent uh customer that comes to me, and they only want to stay at All-Star. Um, they save their money for other things um on that trip, and I think they're trying to get into a cruise, but that's beside the point. Um, but there's transportation things, you know. We we talk about the Skyliner a lot. We can tell you about the the monorail. Um, we try to talk about dining strategies too. Uh I think you know, we're getting used to this podcast, so we're we're trying to get a little smoother. But there's so many things, you know, there's lightning lanes, there's we can help you with the budget planning, you know, because you need a deposit uh for most things, which is about $200 um for that deposit. And then you can pay uh all the way up until 30 days before your trip. Um we can help you set those real that uh the whole point of this show is to help set realistic expectations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is. That's that's exactly. And you you you've said it all perfectly. Most importantly, I think one thing to pick out well done, sir. Well done. Golf clap for you. Um, you said one good thing. That was good job. Um I did it.
SPEAKER_01It took what eight episodes, and I finally said you finally got there.
SPEAKER_00You finally got there. Yes, we can retire. Uh my God. We have word thanks, folks. This has been the worst beyond the magic. Thank you for listening this week. Uh find us all on social media, help us uh help us help us get the yeah. Yeah. Um that comes with it. Anyway, you said the word budget planning. Is that is that a thing? Like, do people actually know budget planning with Disney? Because I'm not sure that you and I do.
SPEAKER_01I mean, we probably don't do it as well. I mean, I think my favorite, one of my favorite reels right now is spend four thousand dollars on the trip of a lifetime at Disney every year. I'm like, uh yeah, sign me up.
SPEAKER_00That's that's right. No, it goes up every year. It's definitely not four thousand. It may be four thousand the start, but it goes it goes up every every year. But so let's say you do have a budget, and that's it's super important to stick to that. That's great. We again with Pete and I's experience, we can help you optimize that budget over the time period that you're gonna be there. All right, because you don't have to pay for everything, right? No, not at all. Not at all. I think, and I think that's where people become overwhelmed with it because there's so much to know, there's so much to uh encompass in a trip. Uh, and Disney will let you spend the money, trust me. They will allow you to do it. Um, Mickey, Mickey loves the color green, and he's not shy about it. And uh because of that, there's so many different options options out there for you to pick from. That's where Pete and I come in. Not every option is right for everybody. And that's and that's where that's where that that helper on your right hand shoulder is gonna is gonna help you optimize your trip the best. But we do we do speak fluent Disney. We do. It's it's certainly a language that we speak. We're basically, I I guess you could say we're basically like lightning lane interpreters or Disney interpreters. Is that fair? I think that's very fair, yeah.
Does An Advisor Cost More
SPEAKER_01All right, so let's talk about a myth. Um, you know, using a travel advisor costs more, or you have to pay additional fees to the travel advisor. Um so serious question. How much does it cost to use a Disney travel advisor, Jamie?
SPEAKER_00Uh for most Disney vacations, nothing. So nothing. I'm not paying extra for me. Nothing.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So uh for how do I get paid your time, not for your dashing good looks, none of that. I pay you nothing for that. And of course your advice.
SPEAKER_01Yes, my advice is always free whether you like it or not. So um, how do we get paid?
SPEAKER_00So the way this works is that um believe it or not, uh, the way Disney does things is there is commission uh baked into the cost of your vacation. Now, whether you decide to give that that price or that whatever is baked into the cost of the vacation back to Disney, or you decide to give it to somebody like Pete and I who's gonna help you in the back end, right? Pete's raising his hand right now for those of you watching on YouTube and Apple Podcast. Um so it's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01I'll take the money over the mouse any day.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm happy to take Mickey's money. I am happy. So let me give you a one quick story. When I first got into this, before I talked you into joining me, I was super hesitant uh because like I was like, well, I don't like the idea of taking my friend's money at all. That this it just didn't sit well with me at all. I don't want to like swindle somebody out of some $500 or something, right? That is it just didn't sit right. Um, as the more research and it I did, and I obviously landed on Travel Amotion because I used to have a travel advisor a long time ago, just so happens to be the top sales guy of our entire company for Disney. Uh, I didn't know that at the time, but uh that's who my agent was. Um, he pointed me in the direction of Travel Amotion. And uh it made me find out just by doing some research and with his help that when we get paid, we're not taking your money at all. We're we're getting paid by Mickey. Mickey is bake is paying us. Uh, and that goes for anything. That goes for all inclusives or cruising. Uh it doesn't matter what it is. We get paid by the vendor or the supplier that you book with, not by you. The what you pay us goes towards the cost of your vacation, and we get paid about 30 to 60 days after your return. So it's not an uh it's not like a quick return by any means, and we obviously have to wait for that. And that's fine. Uh I'm not counting on the money whatsoever. It's just nice to have every once in a while. But that's how this works. Um, we get paid by the mouse in the end, um, and you get all of our services for free. It does not cost you a penny more. Go ahead.
Planning Fees And Transparency
SPEAKER_01Let me throw something in there too. So every agency is different, and some advisors charge planning fees. That's their business model, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, they can go ahead and do that. Um, especially when you have bigger, more nuanced trips where you're going overseas, and which we can do for you too, where you're going overseas and you have multi-level of um regions that you're going to and multi-events that you're going to, that takes a lot of work on the back end. Um, and some of those things uh that they're setting you up for aren't commissionable. So sometimes travel agents will put fees in there and they'll be upfront about it, or they should be upfront about it. Um we are not at that point where we're doing that. Um, you know, especially since we focus mainly on Disney, we can do anything else in the world that you need, but we're but there there's nothing wrong with that. We're not we're not saying that that's a bad thing. What for Disney and what we're doing here, the Disney room costs the same, the Disney ticket costs the same, the Disney vacation package costs the same, whether you book directly through us or you do directly through Disney.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we book on Disney's website. All we do is we log in as an advisor first. It's the exact same website that you see at home. There's nothing different, nothing different at all. Um, also, Pete, they should know uh you mentioned the adding uh like a um a fee on our agency does allow us to apply uh planning fees if we'd like them. It's it was a new thing this year, it was a big announcement to the company. Usually they uh excluded that only for our top producers uh folks, but they made it available to the little people like Pete and I uh this year. Um both Pete and I choose not to do that. Um I think it's uh a small deterrent, but if it's if it's a a deterrent for the customer, I should say. Uh I think if it's a large all-encompassing trip, or where there's a lot of moving parts like like Pete's saying, um, you know, there's a lot of work that goes into that. And a small planning fee on top of the cost of your vacation, I don't think is is uh certainly a bad thing. I mean, think about it in the cases of a lawyer, right? Lawyers don't work for free. You and I don't work for free. You have somebody on a retainer. So you when you want to speak to a lawyer, you hit you pay their lawyer a upfront fee, and then you use that lawyer's time until that retainer is gone, right? So that's basically what a planning fee is. Um, but Pete and I choose not to apply them uh to majority of our customers.
SPEAKER_01And let's be honest, because we're the worst, our uh clientele is is very small. So the work is uh is very small. Um, some of our top producers, um, the very uh famous uh uh one of our lead producers, I won't name him because I don't want him to steal all our business, but um, I'm sure he too he charges a little bit of a fee because his time is probably 80 hours a week, where we both he and uh Jamie and I both have full-time jobs, and um so we we are committed to the small quality selection that we have and people that come to us so we we can focus on them and um we're still um not at quite that level. But if you're gonna um if you're gonna if the price is the same, the real question becomes what value are you getting? If you're using a travel advisor, whether it's us or anybody else, let's talk about what the value is. Where where do where does that come in? I think we've touched on it a bunch of different places, you know. We already rem mentioned um the the resort recommendations. Well, what else can we talk to them about, Jamie?
SPEAKER_00No, I think I think we've we I think we've really hit anything, uh, everything. We certainly talked about it in our very first episode. You mentioned uh resort recommendations based on your budget. Uh you want to be Captain Bougie over here and stay nothing but deluxe. Um you remember you're I of course I remember. I'm never going to forget that. Um you have transportation guidance, whether it's taking a boat or the monorail or the skyliner or a minivan. Uh you have dining planning. Pete and I take care of all your dining planning for you, six days out, and that's a conversation we're having ahead of time with you. What are the most what are the your most favorite restaurants? What have you done? What haven't you done? Is there something that you want to do and that we all take that into effect in that 0600 is 60 days uh out from your vacation? Pete and I are both up booking those those uh dining reservations for you. Something again, that's something not every agent does.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you're looking for ways to uh save money or get the most amount out of uh your trip, we can both do that. You know, we're both super bougie, but we haven't always been bougie. So we've had to do this trip at a minimal cost. And we have been fortunate enough to um spend a little bit more money to skip lines. So we'll talk about lightning lanes. For instance, if you go to Magic Kingdom and you order the basic lightning lane packages, which used to be the fast passes, and you can order your three and three rides at a time. We're gonna help you navigate that and figure that out. Because what does that mean? Because as soon as you book your three rides, you have to wait until you're in the park, and then you're at your first line, you could go ahead and book your next one so you can continue using them all day that you're there. But some of those parts will take Magic Kingdom. If you're using the regular lightning lane, you're like, oh, well, where's Tron? I came, I wanted to ride Tron, and you're there and you realize now you're in the park that you can't ride Tron on that lightning lane because it's an additional one that you have to do. So we're gonna help you navigate that. So if you really, really, really want to do Tron, um, we can set that up so you can buy it by itself ahead of time, or you can buy it on top of your lightning lanes, or we can discuss um what your strategy is. Are you gonna go at night when it's slowed down? Are you gonna rope drop it, or are you gonna keep an eye on the map for the cues? So just some of those realistic expectations and definite problem solvings for those type of things.
Discounts Promos And Disney Math
SPEAKER_01So, Jamie, I have a question for you. Do you go back for your clients and see if um Disney has released any promotions after you booked, or you just let them be?
SPEAKER_00So I know um, I know that your inbox from Travelmation lights up like mine does. And certainly all the social media from Travelmation lights up when there is a discount. So this is something that we're gonna do for you. Um, and it's that's just an extra thing that we offer. So so let's say you we book your your your Disney vacation. I don't know, let's say, let's say you're being super productive and you want to book it like six months out, which never happens, by the way. Have people come to me three months out, sometimes less than three months. Um, but I I would say three months is probably the best, the best time to start putting things together. But let's say six months. So within that six months, Disney releases new promos, which happen all of the time, by the way. We get those emails, we get those uh emails from our business development manager from Disney. Hey, this is what we're doing right now. If you have any clients going during this time, this is a great promo to apply to their To their uh to their vacation. Now that may mean that your vacation price goes down. That's great. That's exactly what we want. So we're going to do that for you. We're going to apply, we're going to rebook your trip. We're going to spend um some time on the phone with Disney reservations, and we're going to do all that behind the scenes and get you that lower rate. That's something that we do in the background anyway. That's something that I would want. So I know I speak for Pete when I say this that he's going to do the same.
SPEAKER_01If you get a lower rate, I'm thinking that you're going to be so happy that I got you a lower rate that you're going to use me again in the future.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So those are all the little extra nuances that we can provide for you behind the scenes. So not only is it the planning aspect, but it's also the saving money aspect as well. I just did this for a client that's going here in uh in August. So I also did the Disney math for her. So she was uh she was between the car suite and she was between the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation. And of course, the Little Mermaid rooms were cheaper, but Disney was running a current promo for the summertime in the car suites, specifically the car suites. So I did the math for her. I did, I brought up her two reservations side by side. I had a little bit of help uh from the internet, and I I did I did the Disney math for her. Disney math is a thing. And I showed her the price difference between uh where she was currently in her career reservation and how much more would be go to go to the uh art of animation car suites. It turned out it was like it was a very nominal difference between yes, it was more for the car suites, but it was a very small amount, way less than it would be normally if it was just a regular rate. But because they were running that promo and I knew about the promo, I presented to her, and I'm like, hey, they're running this. Do you want me to look into it? And we did that. And we ended up booking her in the in the car suite and her family, her two little boys, uh, one's three, one's five. They're both they're both gonna love it to pieces. They're gonna both, I mean, they're gonna love it. It's the perfect, perfect time and age for them to enjoy the car suites.
SPEAKER_01That's great. I'm gonna throw this out there too for my military fam. Um, you could stay at Sage of Green and you can get the salute to service tickets. Um, I can help you with that. Uh um you you have to book Shades of Green on your own as a military member or dependent. Um, I cannot do that for you, um, but I can definitely help advise you. But I also want you to keep in mind that I can call Disney or I can go through and run the numbers for you too. Because if you want to stay in the Disney bubble, um Disney does offer some decent deep discounts for whole packages or even room packages um at 20% and sometimes or more. So sometimes um the very first time I found about a Disney um military discount, I ended up being able to stay at the contemporary club level for the same price that I thought I was gonna be able to stay at for shades of green. So um it does um it does help to have somebody on your side that can go through and has that kind of knowledge. So you're not at home um having to spend six months refreshing Disney's website looking for these uh discounts.
SPEAKER_00Right, yeah. One anxious Disney adult is enough. We don't need two at home. So you got you have you have a Pete and I in your corner, so you don't have to worry about it.
Preventing Mistakes And Chaos
SPEAKER_00So what's the real product here? We're not selling Disney, are we? No, Disney already sells Disney. Mickey does an excellent job of selling himself and brings people to and from the park all day long, every day. It's 365 days a year. All right. What we're selling is confidence and fewer headaches. Definitely fewer headaches, definitely fewer. Exactly. Segment number three, the mistakes Disney Travel Advisors prevent. What are some of those common mistakes we're making? I think I think we've I think it's the same, it's the same thing from every segment we've talked about thus far. I think it's uh picking the wrong resort. What else you got?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think staying um too far away from your priorities. Like if you're an Animal Kingdom person and you only want to do Animal Kingdom or Epcot for that matter, and you're staying um, let's take Epcot, if you're staying off the monorail line or if you're staying um off one of the value ones that have the Skyliner, and a lot of Disney is time management. Um if you're spending all of your time on transportation, then you're gonna miss all that magic within the parks or wherever your destination is.
SPEAKER_00Right. And transportation is something you have to play into it. Um, I know for our Disneyland folks, and here's this is me talking. I think Disneyland is is better. And and the only reason why I say that is because you Pete's talking about logistics in it, and because he's a military guy, and I understand logistics from the fire department side thing as well. I I get it, trust me. Um, you can't have an oil oil machine without logistics. If you don't, it it falls apart and crumbles in front of you. Um so with Disneyland, there's no transportation needs at all. They are the two parks are literally a hundred steps away from each other across a promenade. That's it. So you can park up, go from park to park to park to park, and it'll take you 10 minutes to walk across the promenade, and you're already in the next park. That's something that Disney World doesn't have. And for first-time visitors, uh, even for you know expert visitors, so to speak, that's something a lot of times they forget is that they have to plan in time for transportation. Those buses can take a long time. Maybe there's a bus broken down, or maybe a driver didn't show up, maybe they're short-staffed, maybe, maybe the Skyliner's down for uh for uh for it to be fixed during during the winter like it normally is. So all these different things play into effect on how well your trip goes. And those are things that uh Pete and I are very uh aware of, and so we're not going to allow you to make those mistakes ahead of time because we're gonna tell you about them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think you brought it up nail on the head. Um, because we go have gone so often, um, we've made a lot of mistakes. Uh I yeah, I made fun of Jamie relentlessly because we had a reservation for Beacon Barrel at like seven, but he wanted to leave property, go all the way over to the Polynesian for dinner, and then come back. Um so you never leave property and come back.
SPEAKER_00That was dumb. That was that was that was a rookie mistake on my part. Again, here we are, so-called experts, and I I messed up that bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, but that it happens, and and now you can you can learn from our experience. You know, we we've done the unrealistic park plans. You know, we thought we could do a full day at one and parkop and do a full day at another. I thought um, you know, all kinds of things. Um, but you the real the reality of it hits after you've done it um, you know, more than a dozen times.
SPEAKER_00What other actual experience can you think of other than my my screw up in our lab, our last trip in January? I'm humble about it though. It happened, folks. It did. I I honestly got I screwed up. I made us late for beacon barrel. And the nice cast member, the little guy didn't let us in, but he's like, hey, check the app and see if there's something available later. And lo and behold, there was. So we still got in. Always.
SPEAKER_01What else do you have for me? Any other good uh good stories? I mean, there's there's value in um what happens when things go right, right? You you set yourself up for magic. Um but when things go wrong, it's just uh nobody so nobody calls a travel agent because everything went perfectly. You forget we exist. You know, we set you up, we put you underway, everything went great. It's when things go wrong, like you don't read the sign that you're gonna get wet on the uh ride. In cali Cali River Rapids. You will get wet. And uh to be honest. Um so I I think I was just trying to think about all those things. Um, you know, we got we've gotten stuck in the rain, and it turned at my daughter and um my niece just started took the shoes off, and you see it all the time. They just started slashing in puddles and had a great time. Like that was the ride. Um, you know, these these things things do go wrong, and and uh it'll it'll happen. Um, but you know, at least you know you can um we've got you set up for a packing list and all the things that can go well.
SPEAKER_00I think you have to have some sort of a contingency plan. And I think because of our expertise and because we've been so many times, we like I said, we've we've made the we've made the bad mistakes, we've been caught in the rain, we've been uh where we've had several lightning lanes to a couple of rides that we wanted, and then we show up and all of a sudden the the lightning or the ride is down, right? So you have to have those contingency plans of what are we gonna do when something doesn't go as planned, which is gonna happen. You have to look you have to roll with the punches, and that just that's just not not Disney specifically, but that's that's with any travel. Uh travel is stressful in general. It doesn't matter if you're going to Disney, if you're going to a theme park or to Europe, or if you're going to get in the car and drive, you know, halfway across the country to grandma's house. Travel is stressful in general. So you you gotta have, you gotta think about um what how do I pivot from if something goes wrong? And that's that's yet another plug for for travel advisors, uh, for because again, we've we've made those mistakes. We've been there, we've seen what happens, and things go wrong, and how to recover from it and still may have a great time.
SPEAKER_01I had a great client from um Davenport, Iowa, um, real great guy, and he um set up his whole trip. Um happened to be hurricane season, and he's set up, we set up the lightning lanes, everything was good to go, and then this hurricane's coming in. I think this was about two years ago, and I was literally on the phone for him for 12 hours. Um, I think six on one call and then six to get the lightning lanes changed after um they had to adjust their trip. And Disney was great. I mean, it just everybody else was trying to call at the same time. But uh, I don't know if he knows it or not, but I uh I did that for him, you know, and I was able to take care of that. And he just was like, Oh, great, thanks. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's again, it's one of those hidden things in the background that that you we can do for people that either we choose to tell them that we did or not.
Avoiding Bad Agents And MLM Vibes
SPEAKER_01So let's move on to the um the uh the this is something I really wanted to talk about. This was something I definitely wanted to make sure I added. Out in the information space, which is so wide, um, if you start looking for Disney, you're eventually going to start getting ads that say travel agent, travel agent this. And a lot of those influencers are travel agents. The reason they're putting out that really great content that I don't know how to make um is so that they're you'll ask them questions.
SPEAKER_00This is why the why we're the worst, Pete.
SPEAKER_01This is why we're the worst. Um but but let's be honest, with this multi-level marketing stuff, at some point social media got weird. I mean, maybe it's always been weird, but suddenly it's always been weird. Oh gosh. You know, everybody um they were selling me essential oils, they were selling me Tupperware, they were selling me kitchenware, and now I feel like everybody's a Disney planner, a cruise expert, a CEO, a lifestyle coach. Um I every third Facebook friend was selling leggings, candles, protein powder, or Disney vacations. So I think we need to buy some really LulaRoe leggings.
SPEAKER_00Did you win on that pad?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I got um, you know, the sticker uh the sticker nails from my daughter. Nice. But the reality is the reality is is that some people like us just genuinely love to travel. I've been in the military now for 30 years, uh shameless plug. And uh, you know, I've been all over the world. And so I just I have a passion for it. And Jamie's a firefighter and a paramedic, and I was a firefighter and I'm a soldier. So we just allow me paramedics. We're the worst. Um, but what we're not the worst at is helping people. You know, we've built our whole professions and lives around helping people. Um so that's the difference there um between someone selling you travel between versus someone who genuinely enjoys helping people travel.
SPEAKER_00So I have a good story about this, and just this just happened to me last week. So I had a guy at work uh reach out to me. And again, this is something I don't talk about at work. I have my professional life at work. Um, I don't talk about what I do part-time. If guys approach me and want to talk about it, then I open up and start to talk about it. Um, but I really, I really I'm a horrible salesman. I don't, I don't like put myself out there at work. Um, I do a lot on social media, uh, which I'm not great at, but um that's that's where it ends for me. I I really just I I don't bring it up uh while I'm at work. Um anyway, this guy texts me or uh adds me on Instagram and then he texts me, a guy I know well and I work with. He said, Hey, uh we're going to to Disney next week. And the I didn't know you did this, by the way. I I wish I would have contacted you earlier. And the agent that my parents used is uh kind of not great. He used a different word. Um and you know, as firemen do. And it was a colorful language. And he didn't set them up for their lightning lanes, he didn't do their dining 60 days out. I said, Who like who did you even book with? Like who like how how can you, as a professional in a travel space, how could you even like that's just taking someone's money and being done with it? So here's what he did. Um, back three months ago or four months ago, however long ago they booked it, I think it was three months ago. He booked their trip and he and my friend Robbie hasn't heard from them since. Done, period, gone. The guy's gone. So as I know, I know I felt so bad, and I'm and I'm talking to him now, like he's there, he's currently in Disney World now. And I just texted him this morning. I said, Hey man, how are things going? Everything okay? He said, you know, it's it's hot out here, it's June. I said, You're a brave man for going in June. Um, I said, Text me, call me. I'm happy to answer any questions you have for why you're there. I'm like, I felt so awful. Like, how how like how in the travel space can you call yourself a planner and be willing to help somebody and then just uh like off to the wind you go and book the trip and be done? Like, I'm sorry, that that puts a bad taste in somebody's mouth for using an advisor in the future. I I couldn't believe anybody told me that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I can't believe anything. That's I mean, that is legitimately what we're trying to warn you against. I mean, it's just I mean, taking the time to know who your travel agent is. And and in some cases, there are some of us and some of you that will still want to have control. Once we get you set up, get your reservation number, you could open up your own app and maybe you want to make your own dining reservations. Hopefully, we're partnering with you and like, hey, you know, try to get this one first, try to get this one last, you know, here's here's this and here's that. We'll give you that information. But it some people just like the control of it. So if you want to do that, we will partner with you, but we should we'll never leave you just like, all right, hands off, you know, I took your I took your reservation and now you're all done. Um, so we'll we'll stay with you through the park um and then we'll check on how the trip was and hopefully you had a good time. Uh the industry got weird, but travel didn't.
SPEAKER_00No, it didn't. It's it's I mean, it it's evolved. It's evolved. And then like your like your famous line, if uh evolve or die, right? So you have to you have to be up to speed, you have to be up to speed, you have to be up to what's going on, and that's that's our job as professionals in the travel space to be up on that news, to be up on that ever, ever changing atmosphere, especially with Disney. Because you know, Disney, as long as I have paid, uh it it can it changes almost monthly about what promos that they're running or what uh what new tickets they have out, what when their events start, when they end, like what who qualifies for this. It's average, it's a lot to stay on top of, and that's not something that we're asking you as the customer to do. That's our job. That's what I take pride in doing. That's what I take pride in knowing is to make your vacation that much more special because I take all of that off your shoulders. Like Pete's saying, if you are, so to speak, a control freak, which is fine, like it it you it's okay. I'm not here to take that away from you. I know Pete's not either. We're just gonna set you up for success. Yeah, that's it. There's two middle-aged guys who like going to Disney. It's not weird, it's not weird at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that it I mean, it's a little uh we should probably discuss this a little
Why Disney Still Works
SPEAKER_01bit. Why do we love Disney? Why why we love Disney? I mean, it's not perfect, it's hot, it's not expensive. You just mentioned June. I'm going next week and it's gonna be hot. It's definitely expensive. It's crowded. I'm a guy from the military who hates crowds. Um, it's exhausting. You're walking 20,000, 30,000 steps, and then somehow it's still magical.
SPEAKER_00It's still magical. And that's and I and I said it uh at the end of last episode, and I'll say it again. All are welcome to this happy place. It it's time, it's time with your family. It's time, it's family memories, it's it's moments spent with your loved ones sitting out in front of Cinderella's castle and watching the fireworks. Um, it's first visits, taking somebody that's never been there before and watching their eyes light up with the magic for the very first time. That's something I'll never forget with my children. And still to this day, even though my oldest is 13 and my youngest is five, there's more magic in the five-year-old's eyes than there are in the 13-year-old's eyes at this point. But still, it that's that's what keeps me going back year after year, is is that is those times with your loved ones. And Pete's got you know his his daughter that he's watched grow up through Disney. And that those are memories that you'll never make anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, those multi-generational trips and those, I mean, not everybody can do year after year, and and that's great too. So sometimes you want to make that one trip as as magical as you can. And uh, you know, nobody remembers uh a random Tuesday at work, but you're gonna remember, you know, the um first castle visit, the first time walking down Main Street. I think every podcast we've come up with some random story that happened to us that there. I mean, I not even necessarily on a ride or um at a attraction we um paid money for or waited in line for, but just those random moments in between, you know, um sharing a snack with my daughter, or watching her splash through the the splash pad, or you know, going to buy an ornament with her. Like there's just always those things where you're forced together, you're in the forced fun, and you're you're hot and you're miserable, but sometimes somehow it's the best stuff for your life.
SPEAKER_00We we don't love Disney because it's perfect, like Pete's saying. We love Disney because it helps people feel something. Absolutely. All right. So let's end it, Pete. I think we've taken enough of these people's times. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think this is great. Usually I'm like, we gotta end this. We gotta end this in now. Yeah. Let's wrap it up.
Biggest Myths And How To Reach Us
SPEAKER_01What do you think um the biggest Disney myth is?
SPEAKER_00I think the biggest myth is to go and see and do it all in three in three to four days, even a four-day park ticket. Like people are busting their hump. Like they're getting up at the crack of dawn and they're they're just you come back and you're you're just exhausted. You're exhausted from your vacation and you need to go on another vacation. I I see that a lot. And and I know that if with Peter I is going to plan your trip, we're not gonna do that to you. That's not something, that's not a relaxing vacation by any means. That's that's work, is what it is. You you went to that, yeah. You went you went to go to Disney, where it's surface of the sun hot during the summer, and you parented your child in Disney World. That's what you did for the week. And you it wasn't you come back and you're just tired, and it's just not you you don't think back, man, that was great. You think, man, it was miserable. And that's not what you can change. That's not the attitude that it's not the attitude that we want you to have. We're gonna make it.
SPEAKER_01We're old and broken, so we're gonna try to get you through that as fast as possible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that's that we want you to have the exact opposite experience, and that's what keeps you coming back, and that's what keeps you talking to us and keep keeps you coming back here every week to listen to us to old books.
SPEAKER_01My uh my dig biggest myth is, and I think we've started to build a brand around this, is setting expectations. I think people go to Disney, they've seen the really great commercials, they've heard the really great stories, and they think they're gonna go in there, and this cast members gonna provide them with the most magic, and it's just gonna be this epic trip. Um, while some of that may be true, I think the expectation management and what you heard are the worst to tell you about is show you the mouse droppings along with the with Mickey, is that um you know there you have to go into this um with realistic expectations. It's gonna be hot, you're gonna get rained on, your kids are gonna have a meltdown. Um, but if you've planned it well enough, there's an opportunity for some some with our help. With our help, hopefully, with the uh five-star diamond producer for Walt Disney World, Travel Mation. Um shameless plug.
SPEAKER_00Um, so biggest Disney planning mistake. It's doing too much and too little time. I do I think I just said it. Uh, I've skipped ahead one back by accident, but terror trying to do everything all at once is the the the steal it from uh Disney Deciphered, uh the forced march of happiness. Uh that that's what people do. You got the knife hand dad, right? You got the military guy, and we're doing this. We're gonna be here at this time, we gotta make it to this resolution by this time. Man, what type of vacation is that? It's just not. It's just not.
SPEAKER_01I brought my 70 something year old mom and was like dragging her from one fast pass to the other because my sister wanted to do all these rides, and I was like, wait a minute, we got a time out here. Something's not driving. My mother's not having a good time.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, right. So those are all things that play into it, right? What is what type of family are you bringing with you? Especially those multi-generational trips, something to think about, right? Not everyone can do park uh sunup to sundown like Pete and I can do, which we don't recommend, but we don't recommend, by the way. But some people like to do that.
SPEAKER_01And that I think for me is the most underrated Disney advice is that it is okay to not rope drive. It is okay to take a midday break and go back to your hotel. It is okay to not try to take a resort day. It is okay to not try to do everything all at once. All right. Here we go. Best reason. We're gonna wrap it up with this one. Best reason to use a travel advisor. Go ahead, Pete. Take it. The pressure. The pressure. Because I'm gonna tell you all about Morocco. And where are you coming? Mobile ordering. Yes. This is the this is what we got for you, kids. Um no, so the best reason to use a travel advisor. Um well, I mean, from a from a uh selfish standpoint, um, I think you're you're spreading around the wealth a little bit. You're uh you're you're helping uh someone else who is a bit of an entrepreneur or who has a second job, you're helping them um invest in something, you know. So for us, you know, we're not just giving all of that money straight back to Mickey Mouse. You're you're helping out. So a lot of the people that come to me know me and I'm straightforward with them. But that's not the best reason. I'm just shameless plug. I think the best reason is um, and I learned this from the beginning, my trips in the beginning are very different than they are now. Um you just get a lot of insider information on how to avoid more meltdowns. So your kids, your husband, your wife, like there's gonna be a meltdown. But you know, there's probably gonna be one or two less if you're like, hey, I know you're hungry. We've got a reservation to go eat, and I know the fastest way to get there. Um, so I think that's your that's your real um your real benefit for having a travel advisor.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you don't have to worry about booking it because Pete took care of that for you at sixty days out. I mean, right?
SPEAKER_01It's already a lot of people. I mean, here's a little plug for Jamie. I when he started this, and I noticed he also plugged in there though that he got me signed up for this, um, but when he started this, he was like, Yeah, I'm I'm in my client's app and I'm booking this and I'm that. And I'm like, bro, you're what? You're you're doing their app for them? Like, oh my god, I didn't know this was work. But um kudos to him for uh inspiring me to do the same thing. Like, you know, if if you want to give us the keys to your app, we can get in there, you you can stay asleep, and we will book those restaurants for you, or we can book those lightning lanes for you.
SPEAKER_00Um so it is really teach you how to use them. And I by by the way, I'm still on my client's app. I'm still doing that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. No, I now I've started.
SPEAKER_00So I mean I don't have a lot of clients because I'm the worst, but well, you know, yeah, it is the title of the show, after all. Yeah, um, I think my best reason to use a travel visor is is all the things that we've talked about today. Even everything we've talked about in our very short time as podcasters in here now at what eight or nine and nine episodes in, right? We're almost at ten. Um think about all the advice. Think about everything we've we've given away uh to you in advice and in planning and how to make it a great trip, right? That that's free. It doesn't cost you anything at all to use a travel advisor. Whether you use Peter I or not, or somebody else, it doesn't matter. This is a small business. Um, like Pete's saying you could pay the same price and that money goes right back to Disney, or you could support a small business in one of your buddies, like Peter I. Um, right. So that's just something to think about. You're getting all that perfection, you're getting all that knowledge and experience for no extra costs. So why wouldn't you use one? I'm such a bad salesman, Pete. I hate it. No, I'm such a bad sales.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's funny too, because we didn't even talk about the fact that we can help you out with Disney cruises, we can help you out with um travel by Disney, we can help you out with those Disney adventures. And then we're just also travel agents that can do everything else. Somebody was on, hey, I was looking at a Viking cruise and I was like, oh, I can help you out with that. Oh, I thought you just did Disney. No, my friend, we can put you anywhere. I've got people that have gone to Scotland, I've taken to in Iceland, I've sent people to um Puerto Rico, I've sent people um all over the world, um, and not just to Disney. So if you need something, um, you know, you can feel free to reach out. But if they want to reach out, Jamie, how do you how do you reach us?
SPEAKER_00Uh you can email us at our email, which is uh the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com, or I can reach out to Mr. Pete Morrison.
SPEAKER_01I'm uh Petervax on the Instagram, P-E-T-R-I-E-M-A-X. But really, the best way to find us is the worst beyond the magic on Instagram or the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_00And I am at five on the fly at number five underscore on the fly on Instagram and TikTok. Thanks so much for spending your time with us. So if you want to wake up at 5 a.m. and speed run through Upcot like you're going through Navy SEAL training, uh, you could absolutely do that.
SPEAKER_01But if you want help planning a vacation that actually feels like a vacation, that's kind of why we're here.
SPEAKER_00We're not here to sell you protein powder.
SPEAKER_01Or like though, I would absolutely sell Mickey Shape creatine gummies.
SPEAKER_00I'd buy those. Um, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for spending the time with us each and every week. I really do appreciate it. Thank you for the emails. Thank you for the five star reviews. We are just blown away by how much uh support we're getting on the back end from you all. You all make it worth it for sure. Uh Pete Morrison, you're the worst. Man, you are the worst. This has been the worst. Beyond the magic.