Disney World Deluxe Hotels, But ”Plus” It

Deluxe Plus

[00:00:00] Dan: Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key. Adventurers Society. My name is Dan Leonard,

[00:00:04] Jeff: Hi, Dan.

[00:00:05] Dan: and joining me this week in the studio is Heather

[00:00:07] Heather: Hey.

[00:00:09] Dan: and Mr. Jeff Williams.

[00:00:10] Jeff: It sure is.

[00:00:12] Dan: It Sure, sure is. Our show, as always, is brought to you by Key to the World Travel. Key to the World. Travel is a full service travel agency specializing in Theme parks, cruising, and destinations around the world.

Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com for more details and a no obligation quote on the vacation of a lifetime. Yeah, we're, okay. We're talking about something different now. Have y'all ever heard the term Plusing thrown around in reference to Disney

[00:00:42] Heather: All the time.

[00:00:44] Dan: Disney

[00:00:44] Jeff: take something wonderful and make it Plus or

[00:00:47] Dan: Yeah. Even more. Plus, or, it's one of those terms that like Disney fans like to use to show that they know all about Disney

[00:00:56] Jeff: Like Disney plus.

[00:00:58] Heather: Dan, tell us.

[00:00:59] Dan: It's it dates back to before the Theme parks existed with with the Walt Disney Film studios. And they would he would, you'd taken a de an idea, something wonderful and make it even more wonderful.

[00:01:12] Heather: I hear Mr. Walter Disney, like to use that word.

[00:01:15] Dan: yeah. He would use that phrase a lot. He was always asking them to, plus a scene, plus a

[00:01:20] Heather: Good old Uncle Walt.

[00:01:22] Dan: Yeah.

[00:01:22] Jeff: It was actually Chad Plus that came up with that back in the late 18 hundreds.

[00:01:29] Dan: He was always pushing to have one more gag or one more joke added into a scene of animation or make everything just a little bit better so that it goes from being great to being iconic. So we're gonna have a series of episodes showing you how that you can, how you can plus your Walt Disney World Resort stay, no matter what your budget level is.

We wanna help you make every vacation feel like it's a deluxe vacation. We're gonna take it easy for the start of the snow series and we're gonna kick it off with a stay in a deluxe category hotel. So we're gonna talk about how we take this already pr they're pretty nice. I hear

[00:02:08] Jeff: of no matter your budget,

[00:02:11] Dan: Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. Sky's the limit on this one. So we're gonna talk about how you can take this already premium experience that you're having and make it even more so

[00:02:21] Jeff: More plus or.

[00:02:23] Dan: Right. That's right. So to start off there's quite a few, there's several cat hotels that fall within the deluxe category on Disney property.

Which one do you think already to start with has the most deluxe feel during your stay stay at.

[00:02:41] Heather: My favorite in the deluxe category is Riviera. but I don't know whether that would be the most deluxe feel.

[00:02:54] Jeff: I think back in the day I would've said Grand Floridian, but it's, and it's returning to that, but it's.

[00:03:02] Heather: it definitely

[00:03:04] Jeff: lately, but they're redoing all the rooms and updating 'em for more modern things. They were stuck a little bit in the nineties, but back in the nineties in his heyday, it was incredible.

[00:03:13] Heather: the rooms, the newly refurbished rooms are. back to being very nice. They're beautiful. They've

[00:03:20] Jeff: the grounds and all the building itself is beautiful. It's the closest one to the park.

[00:03:25] Heather: walk into Walt the Magic Kingdom, which is great.

And the contemporary also has that feel, but the contemporary is very modern. So it, it depends on your own particular style, whether you. Consider that the most deluxe property. There's no place that you enter into the Contemporary that feels grand because the entrance is in the basement with a low ceiling. Oddly, like there's no like wow factor when you walk in to the contemporary, or I feel like the one with the most wow right now might be the wilderness lodge cuz it's soaring giant high ceilings and just feels special and.

[00:04:10] Dan: it does.

[00:04:10] Heather: Lodge and Riviera are my two favorites and

[00:04:14] Dan: I would say for me I loved the Wilderness Lodge. I think for, there's something about the rustic feel of it that's not, like if you're talking like

[00:04:27] Jeff: It's not posh.

[00:04:28] Dan: Yeah it's not as po However, the rooms are pretty posh. Yeah.

true. That's true. The poly when it's not under massive amounts of I'm sorry, the

[00:04:39] Heather: Polynesian, Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.

[00:04:42] Dan: When it's not under massive amounts of refurbishment,

[00:04:48] Heather: And it's, there is construction happening there right now because they're building a D V C tower, but it's very contained. It's, you really could stay there and not notice it.

[00:04:59] Dan: Yeah. Now that they've finished the upgrades they made to the the grand ceremonial house, I believe is what they Yes. The port cache there and all that really mucked it up for a while. But that lobby is beautiful. It really transports me going in

[00:05:16] Jeff: Currently remodeling that lobby again.

[00:05:19] Heather: Yeah. They're doing some work on it again.

[00:05:21] Jeff: they're replacing all of the furniture and all the soft goods, and they're like, you just did that

[00:05:26] Heather: Yeah.

[00:05:26] Dan: Right. Yeah. But that one to me just feels it, it really feels like the relaxing, luxurious kind

Other place.

[00:05:37] Jeff: Now that I'm saying this out loud, like Yacht and beach club are pretty swank when you first walk

[00:05:42] Heather: yes.

[00:05:44] Jeff: There's a captain standing there to greet you.

[00:05:46] Heather: What does it for me at Riviera are the rooms are absolutely gorgeous there, and all of the finishes in down to the lowest room category at Riviera are very high end.

And stunning. It is, yes. And it is a D V C resort, so there are some, when you have, when it's. Was built to be Disney Vacation Club.

The lobby tends to not be as grand as in their hotel resorts, but it is still a beaut, really beautiful lobby. So there's that. They don't have a club level at Riviera that's worth noting. But still for me it just, it feels elegant and beautiful and

[00:06:36] Dan: it's not like bougie. It's not off-putting, it doesn't feel like you're not welcome or not good enough or not, doesn't have a large enough tax bracket to to stay there. It's it feels like

[00:06:50] Heather: and my favorite restaurant is there at the top at the very top of the building and no Topo knows Terrace, and they have a gorgeous. Terrace outside that has a little bar and beautiful furniture to sit and relax and you can watch fireworks from up there. Great lounge in that restaurant. So, and bonus Skyliner, access to Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

[00:07:20] Dan: And that the lobby might not be as spectacular as other places, but I've gotta say that if you get off the skyliner at night and you walk through the entranceway into the hotel with that kind of tunnel and the mosaics and the fountain, that is really a gorgeous spot. It's really beautiful.

So,

[00:07:40] Heather: And I have one hotel, one resort that I would add to this discussion that's not technically in the deluxe resort category.

[00:07:51] Dan: Ooh.

[00:07:52] Heather: Jeff knows where I'm going with this one. If you stay in the Grand Dustino Tower at Coronado Springs Resort, That is a very luxurious deluxe feeling space.

[00:08:04] Jeff: From the second you pull up in your car there, the soaring giant high doorway entrance, the arcs and

[00:08:11] Heather: the lobby is

[00:08:13] Jeff: style. Oof. It is

[00:08:14] Dan: lobby. The lobby bar. The bar upstairs.

[00:08:19] Heather: are gorgeous in the tower, and the most spectacular suite I've stayed in on Disney property is in that resort. The presidential suites at in the Grand Dino Tower are stunning.

[00:08:33] Jeff: And they have the best club lounge on

[00:08:36] Heather: Yes,

[00:08:37] Jeff: and it's not even a deluxe

[00:08:38] Heather: so I, I put that in

[00:08:40] Jeff: similar to the deluxe resorts, but not as much.

[00:08:43] Dan: Yeah.

[00:08:44] Heather: a way to plus your Walt Disney world stay if you don't quite have the budget for an actual, what Disney calls deluxe property. That's a hidden gem. Is that tower because it

[00:08:57] Jeff: of eating, drinking options. There many restaurants.

[00:09:01] Dan: Yeah. Yes, absolutely. So, so once you've got, once you've picked your deluxe hotel how do you make it even more, how do you plus that stay? What can we do at the hotel itself to make it even more special

[00:09:17] Heather: I think two things right off the bat before you even arrive. Booking either club level or a suite category. And a lot of them, the suites are club level. For the most part

[00:09:30] Dan: Yeah.

[00:09:31] Heather: Now that all of the club lounges are back open after covid, all of the sweet categories I believe will fall in the club lounge.

There's some exceptions. If you're staying in the D V C side of a resort, for example, at the Wilderness lodge, if you're booking a multi-room villa, that's not automatically club level.

[00:09:55] Jeff: what does club level mean? What do you get for that?

[00:09:59] Heather: Access to the club. Lounge is the first

[00:10:03] Dan: Which is absolutely a game changer. That's and I recently stayed for my first time club level back in November and before then I was was like, people going on about saying club level, oh great you got your free chicken nuggets. Cool. But

[00:10:20] Heather: chicken nuggets. Damn.

[00:10:22] Dan: But then I realized like, oh, I can stop at breakfast and get an actually good breakfast that I don't have to stand in a long line for and I don't have to pay extra for.

And it's a really good breakfast. And they do that they've got breakfast, they've got lunch, they've got snacks throughout the day,

snacks throughout the day. They have a a happy hour kind of cocktail hour with desserts in the evening.

[00:10:47] Jeff: some of

[00:10:48] Heather: level was it you just stayed at?

[00:10:51] Dan: Lodge.

[00:10:51] Jeff: was gonna say Wilderness Lodge has a self-serve beer tap right there. Like

[00:10:55] Dan: Yeah. Yeah,

[00:10:57] Jeff: beer. Like who doesn't love that

[00:10:58] Dan: right.

[00:11:00] Heather: we just experienced the Kronos Club at Grand Dino Tower at Coronado Springs and it, I think it's my favorite club level on Disney property. It's exceptional. It's huge.

[00:11:11] Jeff: and hot food. Tons of hot options for breakfast and dinner. Even

[00:11:17] Heather: Yeah, the breakfast is extraordinary, isn't it?

[00:11:20] Jeff: time style stuff. Yeah.

[00:11:22] Heather: he was making fun of me because I was talking up how great the breakfast is, and he's like, this better be really

[00:11:29] Jeff: This matter be the greatest breakfast anyone's ever had. As much as she talk. It was pretty great. They had little omelets, different egg things each day, but several hot options, and

[00:11:39] Dan: Yeah.

[00:11:40] Jeff: they were coming around with mimosas and you could get a mimosa made instead of with champagne and oj it was champagne and pog.

So yes, we had a hundred of

[00:11:49] Heather: Yes. And I think it may be physically the biggest of Disney's Club lounges. It's huge and lots of seating options. And one of the great things at that club is they have all kinds of games everywhere.

[00:12:04] Dan: Oh,

[00:12:04] Heather: So in the evening if you wanna play Scrabble or Monopoly, All kinds of stuff. They have it.

Yeah. They had a really, the most beautiful clue I've ever seen. It was this huge, beautiful wooden box, and when you open it up and you have the little floor plans of all the different rooms, they were carved, miniatures. It was very cool. I've never

[00:12:30] Jeff: Oh, that's neat. You should have stolen it.

[00:12:33] Heather: I, it would've taken a lot. It was a huge box.

[00:12:36] Jeff: One thing I'm just thinking of besides, so the club lounge is part of that and That level of service. But one, one of the best things about that is if you check in at noon and your room's not ready till four, often you, if you don't have a park ticket or something, you gotta go figure out something to do for four hours on those.

When you check in, you have access to the club right away. So you don't have to figure out somewhere to go, and you can usually.

[00:13:01] Heather: day, you gotta be outta your room at

[00:13:03] Jeff: I was just gonna say, we had to check out early and we didn't have till later flights. And then Heather wound up missing, or her flight was canceled completely. So they helped her while we were just hanging out in the lounge.

They helped her figure out where she could get another room and change your

[00:13:20] Heather: They have concierges right there in the lounge that

[00:13:23] Dan: Right.

[00:13:24] Jeff: They arranged a tour for us. That was just

[00:13:27] Dan: a special desk that's only available to the club members. I'm assuming at the other hotels is the same at Wilderness Lodge. It's behind a locked gate that you have to have room key access to get into that area, and they will take care of helping you book restaurants, helping you book tours, helping you book all those special extras that we're gonna talk about that you can add on to, plus your stay.

[00:13:51] Heather: Two of the deluxe resorts have actually more than one. Club Lounge, grand Floridian and the contemporary have two different levels of club lounge in the Grand Floridian. The outer building is one club level, and then all of their multi-room suites are in that main building and there is a second club lounge.

And that's just for the people who are in that main building club.

[00:14:20] Jeff: That's where you wanna stay. It's the rooms are extra, and then right outside your room is a really

[00:14:26] Heather: Very And that, that one's a pretty big club lounge as well. Right Now all of that is under construction. They have finished the outer building club level building is, has been refurbed. I would hold off a little bit until they finish Refurbing the main building, cuz they're gonna completely redo to the club and all the rooms there.

They haven't finished that yet, but that's pretty swank. Contemporary also has two, one of them is on. The 12th of floor, I think is the Atrium Club, and then they have a second club level that's called the Tower Club. And again, that one is for all of the suites in the main building. They have their own club lounge.

That's very exclusive.

[00:15:08] Jeff: I can't remember if I've ever been in that one.

[00:15:11] Heather: I have only stayed in the atrium one, the lower level.

But I did get a tour of the one the very night the, like the upper level club is just one level below California Grill on the 14th floor, and you can only get up to those, to both of those floors. You're, the rooms are on the same floor as the lounge, which is always a nice touch. and you can't get there without a magic band or a room key. We did get a tour of that one just when we were touring all the brand new rooms after they did the refurb of the

[00:15:46] Jeff: Oh yes.

[00:15:48] Heather: and that re that refurbishment was very good too. I think a lot of us, when they were first saying it was gonna be, Incredibles themed, people thought, Ugh, I don't

[00:15:59] Jeff: It felt a little chinsy,

[00:16:01] Heather: But it was very well done and the rooms are stunning, even.

[00:16:04] Dan: better in person than in the

[00:16:06] Heather: It really does. And even just, even the non-club level rooms in the contemporary are stunning in the garden level. They've done a great job with that. And it's a really, it's a little bit of a little extra Disney touch but not in your face.

Kind of like the new rooms at the Polynesian that are Moana themed, they did a great job.

[00:16:28] Dan: Yep.

[00:16:28] Heather: The club level at the Polynesian is very nice too, and that one. in one of the long buildings that faces the Magic

[00:16:37] Jeff: Super inconvenient.

[00:16:38] Heather: Is that one all is that club level is two levels. Right, but it's one lounge.

But

[00:16:44] Jeff: but not near anything.

[00:16:46] Heather: that's true.

[00:16:47] Dan: I thought it was right next to, did they move it? I thought it was the building that was literally right next to the

[00:16:52] Heather: No it's a across, you have to pass the pool because they, it's the one that's right in front of Seven Seas. Lagoon, it takes a little bit, unless you're staying in that building, which many of the

[00:17:05] Jeff: If you're in the main building or in the whatever, it would be convenient. But there's, I don't know, such a sprawling

[00:17:11] Heather: It is

[00:17:11] Dan: I guess it didn't seem so out of the way because the one time we stayed there, we stayed in the next building, passed it, so we walked. We walked past that

[00:17:18] Heather: It's the building that's called Hawaii there and a lot of the club level B rooms are in that building,

[00:17:24] Jeff: the King Camaya lounge, right?

[00:17:26] Heather: Yes. Besides club level, what else?

[00:17:29] Dan: The many of those deluxe hotels do have spas.

[00:17:34] Heather: Yes, I do love a

[00:17:35] Jeff: don't, I'm not a spa person, but I feel like Heather might have been to a spa before.

[00:17:39] Heather: couple, yeah, once or twice in my life. The Grand Floridian is the main really big spa,

[00:17:47] Dan: Yeah.

[00:17:47] Heather: is finally reopened post covid. Took a while. Yeah. Yacht Club has a smaller spa, but also Ha does, you know all the spa services that you would think of? Facials,

[00:18:03] Dan: Is that more. Is that more of a salon than a

[00:18:06] Heather: If yes, and it's not, it has not reopened Post covid still.

[00:18:11] Jeff: it used to be their snack bar by the pool. Then they built Geyser Point and made that a small lounge. It was mostly like salon like nails

[00:18:20] Heather: Yes. It was just, it was hair and nail salon and it hasn't reopened. I'm not sure why. I don't know if it just wasn't doing well before Covid and then they just haven't brought it back. It's they, it's a great little spot in a great building. I'd love to figure out what they're gonna do with that.

[00:18:38] Jeff: They should turn it back into the snack bar.

[00:18:40] Heather: Yeah.

[00:18:41] Dan: Close down Geyser Point.

[00:18:43] Heather: Oh,

[00:18:43] Jeff: no, guys are points like a sit down nice thing. It's not a convenience snack bar, but that was, it's just a bar for that pool. Anyhow, they didn't ask me what I want, but so many people love spa stuff. I'm shocked they don't have more spas on site. It more of the deluxe hotel.

[00:19:03] Heather: the My favorite spa that is technically on site, it's at the Four Seasons, the Walt Disney World, four Seasons, and it is a fantastic spa. That's beautiful.

[00:19:15] Jeff: Tell me everything you've ever

[00:19:16] Heather: rooms at the four season are pretty pricey. , you're looking at a minimum $1,500 a night for their basic room if you wanna stay there.

But it is a beautiful resort. The grounds are stunning. They have a great pool area and they have the best spa on. So it is technically it's not, it is not owned by the Walt Disney Company, but it is a Walt Disney World official resort and there's transportation to the parks and everything. So that's really a way to plus your Walt Disney World vacation.

stay at the Four Seasons.

[00:19:58] Dan: at a fancier hotel. Yeah. Just other special activities that they have that you can pay extra usually at the hotels there's always some sort of I don't know. Yeah. At every level there's the crafts. Jeff liked the Sangria

[00:20:15] Heather: Sangria University.

[00:20:17] Jeff: University. I'm a graduate. I may go back for my postgraduate degree there. Heather did, Heather and Aaron did a painting sip and paint kind of

[00:20:28] Heather: I love those. Yes. All of

[00:20:31] Jeff: two times.

[00:20:32] Heather: done it more than once at, they have those at Riviera, they have one at the contemporary that is a little, it looks like the Cinderella Castle made out of sand and you paint it. They changed that up seasonally, I think too.

Yeah. They do yacht, yacht club and beach club have a painting activity.

I think Wilderness Lodge has some kind of craft.

[00:20:55] Dan: Some sort of Coronado. It's not deluxe, but Coronado Springs does. A mosaic tile thing. You can make a Mi Mickey Mouse head or a mini mouse head with mosaic, And any of the deluxe villa resorts will have a kind of a whole slate of craft. Things that you can do of, some of them are for an upcharge. Riviera has a room, and you can paint wine glasses, you can do a little painting on canvas, some ceramics. You can paint a whole bunch of different upcharge crafts at Riviera.

[00:21:30] Heather: And then some of the, the different types of, sometimes there will be different like Sangre University or wine and laco tasting kinds of things that are se more seasonal that get

[00:21:43] Dan: Oh animal Kingdom Lodge has the, and you don't even have to pay extra for the one of 'em where they take you, Animal viewing.

know. Yeah, there's that. But for food and wine specific they do the one that's the food background where they take you into the restaurants and they teach you about the

[00:22:03] Jeff: Oh yes,

[00:22:04] Dan: for the types of food.

And

[00:22:06] Jeff: a great little tour. It's only about an hour.

[00:22:08] Dan: yeah. And then they do a they do a wine one that you pay a little bit extra for, but they teach you about the. Wine from Africa and do that,

[00:22:17] Jeff: Another cool thing that for

A lot of the resorts have to to plus it up a little bit perhaps on your non-par rest day is getting a cabana at the pool

And you can pay a little extra and get that. And they usually have a server that brings your stuff over to you and permanent shade, no one's stealing your chair when you're there.

I love those.

[00:22:38] Dan: that always makes you feel

[00:22:39] Heather: Oh, I'm a pool cabana girl. Yes, I love them.

[00:22:42] Dan: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that kind of covers it. Did we mention so then another kind of thing that Saratoga's Deluxe, right?

[00:22:50] Heather: It is. It's one of the deluxe villa resorts.

[00:22:53] Dan: Yeah. So they have, they've got a spa there and they also have a lot of the fitness center type stuff. Is that one on the go that's not on the golf course?

That's the one that's right by Disney Springs Spring.

[00:23:02] Heather: Yeah, there is a golf course right there too. Is Yeah,

[00:23:05] Dan: have a golfer. So, so, so that's something else that you can add onto your stay. If you're a golfer, you can there's opportunities for golf or for foot golf.

[00:23:14] Heather: I'm so, I don't want to do it, but I'm mildly fascinated

[00:23:17] Jeff: watch someone else. Do I wanna see a YouTube video of Dan doing

[00:23:21] Heather: Yes.

[00:23:22] Dan: All right. I don't even want to go outside and be hot

early April , make it happen.

[00:23:27] Heather: Yes.

[00:23:28] Dan: So that's something that you can add on there, is the sports center or the or sorry, athletic center or or golfing. There's the spot Saratoga. So yeah, there's lots of,

[00:23:40] Heather: mention v I P tours, which.

[00:23:43] Dan: yes. We're getting right there. There's, you can also add on things at the, around the parks and meals and stuff.

So I will start off with those v i p tours, which are, make you feel really special and pampered for.

[00:23:55] Heather: Yeah. They pick you up right at your resort. Your v i p guide will pick you up at your resort, or if you have a lot that you wanna get done in the parks, you can, you also have the option of meeting your guide right in the park, your first park of the day, so that you can jump right into the ride

[00:24:13] Jeff: add a little extra time so you don't have to drive over by the convenience of a guy in a van picking you up and just driving you right into fantasy land. Magic Kingdom is pretty amazing.

[00:24:24] Dan: and then if you've got small children for you, they push your stroller

[00:24:26] Heather: Yes. And they're,

[00:24:28] Dan: with them while you go on the rides.

[00:24:30] Heather: The same one. We've talked about Adventurers by Disney about how what great care and service they give to your children is, it's the same feel.

[00:24:40] Jeff: Yeah, they'll do as much or as little for you as you're comfortable with, and that there's snacks involved. When you pull into the parking, lots of the, it's like special parking areas, backstage at the different parks they take you to. They'll usually offer you a snack and drink and whatever. It's just lovely, and you're not getting right on the front of every ride.

You do still have to wait in the fast pass lines for the most part.

[00:25:04] Heather: Yep. Some of them, there are a few rides where they have better than lightning lane access. One of my favorite is a flight of passage because you enter in the lightning lane, but they get to this spot where there's a little secret door and you skip to the front of the line. It's fantastic.

[00:25:24] Jeff: a while they were doing a different entrance to rock and roller coaster too. Where they would come around

[00:25:31] Heather: and Tower of Terror. You were going in the, from backstage?

[00:25:36] Jeff: up from time to time, but you always get expedited access to everything and they really can get you. If you're at somewhere like Animal Kingdom, that's a large park on a day that's super crowded, they might drive you around the backside of the park in the van to get from.

If you were at Pandora and wanted to ride Expedition Everest, they'll drive you around and walk right in the back door of Everest or Dinosaur. Both of those, they'll go right in the back door, very.

[00:26:03] Dan: who doesn't like going right in the

[00:26:05] Heather: That is true.

[00:26:06] Jeff: Dog, Dan.

[00:26:09] Dan: on top of those private via. Beyond those private v i p tours, there's some other higher end tours that you can book that might not necessarily be the private tours, but for example everybody or lots of people like that. Keys to the Kingdom

[00:26:24] Heather: I, yeah that is a fun tour. You have to be 16 because it goes into some backstage areas that they don't wanna kill the magic for the younger set. One of the things you get to do on that is to go into the util under the Magic Kingdom. And I think that's why they don't want the younger kids on that tour.

[00:26:42] Dan: probably they don't wanna see Mickey Mouse with his head off. Hanging out with Cinderella

[00:26:46] Jeff: I don't know if you'd ever see him with his head off, but yeah,

[00:26:49] Heather: but having a togi

is possible down there to see some cast members that are not show ready and that's why they make it.

[00:26:57] Dan: Right. I don't know where they stop there, but there's costing

Kinds of things. So so you can see that and they take you behind the scenes of a bunch of stuff around magic Kingdom. There's also Heather's done Dive Quest

[00:27:11] Heather: Yes. In Epcot you can go scuba diving in the Living Seas tank, which is very cool. It's a very chill. Diving experience because they, they do everything for you. They get your gear ready, they put the gear on you. You don't have to do any of that stuff. But if you use up your tank of air because you're an air hog

[00:27:33] Jeff: so you can get around.

[00:27:34] Heather: If you use up your tank of air, cuz you're an air hog, they can get a new one on you in under 30 seconds and just go right back down, which is cool.

[00:27:43] Dan: They also, if you're not a scuba diver, there's a dolphins backstage kind of up close and personal with the dolphins. See how they're cared for.

[00:27:52] Jeff: There's a lot of niche things like that are so cool.

[00:27:56] Dan: Wild Africa Trek at

[00:27:58] Heather: I love that

[00:27:59] Dan: Where they st harness you up and you walk over the alligators That one is cool. You that starts off when we knew it was gonna be a cool one. The. You get a vest on and they give you a, it feels like you're gearing up to go on a safari. You've got a vest and they give you a water bottle that they everything on you. They have to, you have to strap to your vest.

[00:28:23] Heather: They even give you one of those things you put on your sunglasses. In case they fall, so that nothing falls in with the animals. And then you head out and in almost immediately you're going off the trail, walking through the brush, and you come out above the hippos. and they, there's some an animal care guide standing there with a bucket full of melons and lettuce and they start beating on the bucket and the hippos know that they're about to get a tasty snack.

[00:28:54] Jeff: I thought that was snack time for the guests. That's for hippos.

[00:28:57] Heather: Nope, it's for the hippos. And the hippos hear it and they come and you're really pretty close. It's very cool. And then, yeah, they have a rope bridge. They make look rickety and scary, but really if you look close at it it's very secure and there's a net underneath it. And you walk over the crocodiles and then they take you in out in your own little truck out onto the Savannah, and you get to go off course and see different spots.

And then they have this beautiful pavilion they've built in the middle of it where you stop for a really cool lunch. It was great. That one was a lot of fun.

[00:29:36] Jeff: I have another one I hadn't seen before. Savor the Savannah. Have y'all seen that?

[00:29:42] Dan: Yeah, that one's similar. I think they do a slightly fancier

[00:29:47] Jeff: Yeah. It's more like eating and stuff.

[00:29:49] Dan: Yeah I had that on my outline and then I lost my notes about it. Animal kingdoms

[00:29:57] Jeff: Yeah, this one looks really cool.

[00:29:58] Dan: fauna. You do You do a private safari rise. So it's the Africa Trek, but without the nets and stuff you.

[00:30:12] Jeff: looks more casual with a bigger meal.

[00:30:15] Dan: Yes. And then you're invited to indulge in a sampling of African inspired cuisine, paired with a selection of regional beer and wine offerings. Starts

[00:30:24] Jeff: Yeah, it's all like top of small plate stuff.

[00:30:27] Dan: Yeah, I think that's the one where they'd take you. Yeah.

[00:30:30] Jeff: This looks pretty cool. Sign me up.

[00:30:34] Dan: Yeah, that, that looks like a good tour. On top of that there's some special super swank restaurants that you could book into.

I have written down in my notes, my shorthand is Vicky and Burtz. You could spring for Vic Victoria. Alberts at the Grand Floridian. That's that's that super high end fine dining tasting experience, which keeps on getting.

[00:31:01] Jeff: Finer and.

[00:31:01] Dan: Pricier and pricier every time they close it

[00:31:04] Heather: Oh yeah, refurb it and come back with a new, more expensive menu

[00:31:09] Dan: Yeah. That's a multiple course tasting menu.

[00:31:13] Heather: like many

[00:31:14] Dan: fine dining. There's also in Epcot, in the Japan pavilion, you could go to tekume ta and that's

[00:31:20] Jeff: That just reopened.

[00:31:23] Dan: I think that's one that's definitely off of a lot of people's radar, but it's definitely a high end

[00:31:28] Jeff: think it was only open like one year before the pandemic, and then it shut down, and now it's opened with an entirely different menu concept. It's all prefixed now. Really high end multi-course experience

[00:31:41] Dan: And that's, there's another one where you can upgrade the types of food. You can spring for the fancy hand massaged cow and stuff like that.

[00:31:52] Jeff: Way there. Back before it was prefix menu. It's an incredible meal. I can't recommend it enough, but they are proud of it. What is like two

[00:32:00] Heather: now it's two 50 a person for the tasting menu.

[00:32:04] Dan: And isn't it themed to like Nature Elements or the seasons or something like

[00:32:08] Heather: It's the different elements. Yes, there's a water room, a fire room, an

[00:32:13] Jeff: It's the different Airb Benders, air, fire, water, and

[00:32:17] Dan: See, I always gotta go with Captain Planet The Planet Tears. Is there a heart room?

[00:32:24] Heather: I don't

[00:32:25] Jeff: I hope not.

[00:32:26] Dan: Oh. I think we just hit a generation

[00:32:29] Heather: I think

[00:32:29] Dan: On

[00:32:30] Heather: Move along. Move along.

[00:32:32] Jeff: Yeah, I don't know.

[00:32:33] Dan: Yeah so that.

[00:32:35] Jeff: thing I can't recommend enough if people have time and the budget to do so for a hundred dollars or less per person is the new Cirque Sole show at Disney Springs. That's a good plus if it, if you've run out of things we've seen and done everything. If you haven't seen this or you saw the old Cirque Sole show go see Drawn to Life, it's awesome.

[00:32:58] Heather: Absolutely

[00:32:59] Dan: It looks amazing. That one does look amazing. And there are there's some higher end nicer eating experiences at Disney Springs. There's there's the signature restaurants at all of the resorts all over the place that are gonna be if you want to elevate your food and sit down for a couple hours and.

Have a really fancy meal, then check out the, and the resorts and around Epcot. There's a few of those experience. Some of them are a little bit fancier and finer than others. But there's definitely those experiences there. So I

I had on my list.

[00:33:36] Jeff: like both fine and fancy.

[00:33:39] Dan: Yeah.

[00:33:40] Heather: Definitely.

[00:33:41] Dan: It's a way to live life.

Anything else you guys have on your list for how to Plus up a deluxe vacation.

[00:33:48] Jeff: Honestly, by the time you've done a tour, seen this show gotten a massage, scuba dived, and hung out in the concierge lounge. I think you're probably good

[00:33:56] Dan: Yeah.

[00:33:57] Heather: all of it. Yeah.

[00:33:58] Dan: else are you gonna do? Short of joining up Club 33. I don't know how you can

[00:34:03] Jeff: It's

[00:34:04] Heather: a whole nother

[00:34:06] Jeff: it's mind blowing how many things they're they've stopped doing a lot of things we haven't even mentioned you can do. You can rent a yacht experience and

[00:34:15] Heather: Oh yeah, I forgot

[00:34:17] Jeff: seeing things you can get boats that you can take out and drive and it's just so many things.

Yeah. I've been to Disney World probably, I don't know, 200 times or more, and I, there's so many things I've never done yet.

[00:34:31] Dan: Yeah I mean there's, it's that forgotten nickname for the resort. They used to call it the vacation kingdom. It was more than just go to the Theme parks. There was opportunities for vacation luxury. Experiences in so many different ways and there still are you just have to know where to look for 'em.Or you can have the help of a travel advisor, like the ones that you can the ones that you can find at Key to the World Travel, which means I'm gonna say:

thanks for hanging out with us again this week. If you are excited to try an ultra deluxe stay at the Walt Disney World Resort. Or explore anywhere else around the world, Key to the World Travel has the King Kamehameha suite at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort full of expert travel planners, and they're ready to make your vacation dreams a reality. Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com to get started with a no obligation quote. Word of mouth is the best way to help us grow our show.

If you have a friend or two who you. If you have a friend or two who you think would appreciate our special brand of Globe Trotting jack-assery, tell them what makes our show so great and send them our way. You can find links to subscribe to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest updates at www.goldkeyadventurers.com. We can't wait to hang out with you again. We can't wait to hang out with you again next weekend. We'll see you real soon!

[00:35:46] Heather: Bye y'all.

[00:35:48] Jeff: Goodbye everybody, and we will promise not to ghost silence you anymore after teasing an episode.