RIP Early Entry: Disneyland’s Morning Magic Is Over

00:00:04Welcome to this happy place. Welcome. Hey guys, it's Tim. And welcome to episode 118 of The Dreaming of Disney because. We really, we really should be much farther along. We've only been doing this for like 3 years. I'm with my beautiful wife, Audrey Anne. Hello. And. We are fired up. We are fired up and we are doing something unique because as we record this podcast, we are also live on TikTok for the first time ever. What? No. While we're recording the podcast, we're. Recording the podcast, yes.

00:00:54So if you wonder, I know all of you out there have been like, where are they? Why hasn't there been a new episode? Yeah, it's been what, like. It's been a month. We haven't recorded since our our summer. Since our trip summer, we did a recap, but we have been doing a lot on, on the TikTok. And so then we're like, Hey, we should try going live on TikTok. And then we did it and we had a lot of fun. And so we've been doing that. But we, I have felt a little guilty, I'm not going to lie. Like there have been times where I'm like, like you said, you felt like we were kind of cheating on on IG. Oh yeah, yeah.

00:01:33Yeah, and I kind of feel like, oh, fat Kitty, I kind of feel like we're shooting on our podcast. We need to. Give a little bit on everybody we. Need to give more attention to to the podcast. So, but we, we didn't really have anything, you guys, we didn't, we, we were like trying to think of something to talk about and then today. Oh man, today. Today happened. Oh man, today. So I'm getting ready to go live on TikTok and you, I see that you text me and it's like a long text but I didn't read it. And then you call me. Yep. You also when you call me, you

00:02:15say OK, this is big new. And then your call drops and I'm not thinking anything Disney related. I'm like, when did you lose your job or something? Like what's happening? No. So then you tell me. Do you do? Do we? I want do I break the news? So I tell you and how I found this out, one of my Co workers actually told me because you know, I'm actually like working, you know, I don't go to work and just like browse, you know, really Disney blogs and news sites. Because yesterday I was live for two hours and you were on that live though. I know, I know.

00:02:53I was trying to actually get work done today and, and she comes out just like, hey, Tim, did you hear the news about early Entry and Lightning Lane? I'm like, what? What are you talking about? She's like, yeah, there's something about early entries going away while she's doing. I'm like quickly Googling like, wait, what are you talking about? And I see the news that starting January 5th, 2026, Disneyland Resort guests will no longer be able to use early entry. Early entry is going away. It's done. It's dead, you guys. But then they're like, oh, here, we'll give you this. And the way they word it was really weird.

00:03:36You can have one lightning lane multi pass selection per guest on the reservation per stay. And so you're like per stay. What does that mean? Does that mean like you get, you know, 1 lightning lane each day? Or is it only one for the entire stay? It wasn't clear. Come to find out it's only 1 lightning lane. One ride per person for one day. The one ride really got me. I figured when you told me, I figured it was just for one day because like, what if you're going for four or five days? Like they're not going to do that, Yeah. But no, yeah, doesn't matter if you're going one day. Are you positive I am a? 100 percent, 1000% positive

00:04:23there's. This thing as 1000%. I know, but that's showing how confident I am. It's crazy yes, Joe so on the podcast we are also live on TikTok, so I might be saying, you know replying to some people who's Joe We have someone new here on the podcast yes it is wild Darian yes crying yes yes, it's it I even had one of my friends texted me a little bit ago. She was like, what? Like this is the stupidest thing. And like, yeah, it's, it's so dumb. It's so dumb. Like I had all these thoughts all day long and now I'm just so. So, so yeah.

00:05:07So it doesn't matter if you're going one night, if you're staying one night at Disneyland Hotel Grand California picks our place, or you're staying five nights, you only get one Lightning Lane for one ride, which that's just and somehow that is not a even train. Well, and they said that it wasn't being utilized, which I find hard to believe because we typically would stay at the Disneyland Hotel and you we always used early entry. Like we would try not to. But there's, there's been like a handful of times in the last like 10 years, I'd say where like the second or third day, we were just too tired. And so we got there at like rope drop, not early entry. Like we can't help ourselves.

00:05:55And there was always a line going into security. There is always a line like there's always like, so I, I find that. Are you getting that? Yeah. OK, I find that very hard to believe that it wasn't being utilized. And also if they're like comparing what you want to think that they would compare to for the people on TikTok they see. Gotta get those taps in, yeah. Tap Share For those on TikTok, tap Share Go popular so you know what to do. If they I can't imagine that they're comparing it to Disney World because Disney World has like 30 something resorts that are on property and Disneyland has three.

00:06:48Also Disney World has deluxe, moderate and value resorts that are on property. All that get that benefit. So you can find a hotel that is a value price and get that benefit where in Disneyland. None of those are value though. Though I would say if you want to give them a tier it would be Grand Californian would be Deluxe, Disneyland would be moderate and Pixar Place would be value. But that doesn't even work anymore like that. I feel dumb even saying that because the prices do not match that except for the deluxe and ever since they redid Pixar place before it was paradise pier and you could find sometimes of the year where it was more of a value like the the

00:07:36range from that price to the Disneyland hotel, which would be like the next step up. There was like a difference there. Not lately. So like what is the perk now? We have stayed. We have I not. Yes, Aubrey. It is only at Disneyland. Yes. Yeah. Disney World hasn't said anything. I can't imagine that they would do this. Disney World is staying how it is. Nothing is changing in Disney World is status quo. This only effects Disneyland in California. And here's the thing, earlier on

00:08:15my Life Talking Disney podcast to check them out, they said something about like the the Disneyland Resort hotels only being at like 30% capacity or something like that. I don't quote me, I'm can't remember exactly what his comment was. But so if they're not having as many reservations as you would think that they would want, why in the world would they take away this perk? Because there are way more good neighbor hotels that don't get this perk. So yeah, there are going to be a lot more people that are going into the park not using early entry because there are only three on property resort like it. Yeah.

00:08:56Is this is it April first? Like I don't understand. There there was a report of the I think it's San Francisco Gate. I don't know if the newspaper online source, but they they did an interview, they had a quote from a Disney executive and his his reasoning or their the company's statement as to why they are taking away this perk is 'cause they say that not many people took advantage of of this offering, which I find. I find that very hard to. Believe and a very hard to believe because whenever we go and we see it, when we leave the Disneyland hotel and we go to that security checkpoint right outside the hotel, it there's a huge long line. Well, and like, OK, if if people aren't using it, but it's really

00:10:00the only big perk of staying on property. Yes. Are the hotels nicer? Yes, like are the themes great? Yes, they have nice pools. They have restaurant like Grand Californian. There's a spa, but you could use the spa even if you're not staying there. But like we have thank, we have. I was going to say been blessed. We've we've gotten to say it all hashtag. We have gotten to say it all three and they are all very nice. Very nice. But like. But now there are good neighbor hotels like you have the Westin, you have Marriott. You have, there's the Embassy

00:10:46Suites, the one on the corner like past Mimi's that has like a water park is Marriott. Is that the Marriott? Yeah, the Marriott, there's Hilton, there's the other. One that. There's a Howard Johnson. The Hojo, the Hojo and they have like a nice pool. They have like a splash pad for kids like so if you wanted to take a break or you want like. And so those hotels are half the price, if not more, more than half the price of the Grand California Disneyland Hotel. Oh. Absolutely. And you are actually closer. Good night, bud. Love you. That's her son going to bed. We got four of those four kids.

00:11:30And they're, they're half the price, they're closer. And so what's the difference? You're actually getting more for your money going to a good neighbor hotel that's closer and cheaper. And some of them have like complimentary breakfasts, which the Disneyland resorts do not have. We stayed at one last summer when we took our nephew. It was a. It was. A little bit more of a walk like I. Would say Hyatt or it was a Hilton. I don't remember. I think it was a Hyatt. We weren't OK, I will say we weren't, I can't remember the name of it.

00:12:03We weren't really crazy about the room, but we had four like teenage slash preteen boys with us and the room was kind of like small. So like we, I can't remember the name of it, but we, we weren't crazy about the actual room, but it had a full on complimentary breakfast like waffles, cereal, fruit, eggs, bacon, like Full breakfast and it was like a 10 minute walk. Yeah, thanks Joe for the go. Populars keep this coming. Thank you so much. But yeah, it's, it's, it's just really confusing now. Hello Toby, welcome in. We are talking about the news. We are also for those who are just joining us on the podcast or on TikTok live. They want to be just joining us

00:12:47on the podcast. Yeah, I know. Are they like skipping forward 15 minutes? Those on TikTok, we are actually recording a podcast right now. So this is probably annoying to our podcast listeners because we're going to be keep repeating ourselves. But if you just join us on TikTok, we are actually recording a podcast right now talking about today's news of early entry now going away next year for Disneyland Resort. Yes, we are not happy. We are not happy. And then they're also so on top of early entry going away for Disneyland Resort, which that completely, it's going away completely the entrance for Pixar Pier guests, Pixar Place

00:13:26guests, which you could also use if you stayed at the Disneyland hotel. The keys worked there as well. That took you alongside the right side of the Grand Californian. And then you came out of the park down on like by Goofy Sky School, they are taking that entrance away as well, which without early entry. Well, it still would be nice actually at 8. Yeah, it's just it's actually a really good spot where it spits you out. Which is that one, because when you were there, this was back in early spring, I think is when you found out. Yeah, we're trying. We're trying to do both. We're trying to do.

00:14:10We're. It's kind of an experiment, but you said that they told you that they were doing that entrance for the morning, but only doing it for about half of the day because no one was really using it. And it was kind of a waste of resources. Like the security guards. It was kind of a waste. And we had walked in there on the afternoon sometimes and they would be like sitting there chatting, like, oh, sorry, you know, because they just didn't have that many people coming through. So I'm like, OK, if they're like, it's not really worth us having these security guards, these cast members. But someone brought out today in

00:14:44my life, they just redid that they put those new gates in and all of that technology. Because if you haven't been to Disneyland in the last what, 6 months or so, they redid like the gates. And now it's like it takes your picture automatically and they have these new gates and they just put those in at the Pixar Pier entrance, so. What the the rumor is is why they're closing it is because they are going to be doing construction soon for the new Coco ride in that area. Oh. So. I thought it was going on the other side. It's going somewhere over. It's going to be in that area by Paradise Garden Grill and.

00:15:25Oh, I thought it was on like by Inside Out ride, I thought. I'm not 100% sure, but I know it's in that vicinity. So sometimes when Disney says they're closing something, closing something with no reopening date, it's usually because it's either because of construction or they just don't know when they're going to be done for sure. So they don't give a date. And so sometimes people say, oh, it's closing forever, so it may come back, it may come back, We don't know. But it was just kind of a double whammy today. Yeah, the I just, it really doesn't make any sense. And now it's just like, and I, I, because once you and I would tell friends this, that hadn't

00:16:11stayed at a Disneyland resort in Disney. This doesn't apply to Disney World. It's total whole different world over there. But once you stayed at a Disneyland resort, you were, you were ruined. Like I've told multiple people that and they've come back after their first day at like at one of the three and they're like, Oh my gosh, how do I go back? And you're like, I know it's horrible. You should never do it. And I, I had gotten there. We used to do like, because we usually go twice a year. We would do one and we would stay at a Disneyland resort and the other one we would just stay at a good neighbor hotel.

00:16:44And the last several, I'd say the last like 3 years we've stayed at a Disneyland resort. Both trips because I'm just like I don't. Well, except for last summer I guess. We took our nephew and we stayed at a good neighbor. I mean, it may change, you know, if we decide let's stay at the West End or let's stay at the Marriott, you know, those are very nice hotels. Yeah, well, and I love the theme. Like I've I've said it on the podcast, I think I've talked about it in one of our lives. But like the Disneyland hotel theme. Hello, got our Kitty. I love it. It, it feels like you're

00:17:18stepping back in time. Like it, it's, it's classic vintage Disney. I love it. And I've been wanting to stay at Pixar Place because we, you and I stayed there one night. We went for the last day of Splash Mountain and we stayed there just the one night, but it was in the middle of the construction. So it like you could see the lobby, but it wasn't like fully done. And I've been wanting to stay there since they redid it. Grand Californian. We only stayed at once. And one of our kids, I think, was sick during that trip because typically they are. So we didn't get to, like, use the entrance that much.

00:17:53And like, it was just, yeah, it was our last trip before it closed. It was February 2020. And but anyways, now I'm just like, you take away, which, I mean, they still have like, that you can send, you know, if you buy something in the park, you can have it sent back to your hotel. Yeah, that's nice. You know, Grand Californian, you've got the entrance into California Adventure right there, right across from Grizzly River Run, Disneyland Hotel, your what, maybe a 5 minute walk? Well, and then there's security, but like to the monorail, which takes you right into Tomorrowland. So there, there are still perks,

00:18:36it's just the early entry was a big one that I feel like a lot of people took advantage of. I feel like the reason they came out with it is not true, at least from my experience. And yes. Do I know all of the people staying at the hotel when we are? No, But there was always a line like, yeah. And, and it's just with Disney World, it's like, where was I going with that? My mind went blank. I don't know where you're going with that, but. I don't know where was I going with that, the perk, the price, the fact that the Disneyland hotel resorts are like there's no value price, you guys. And that's something that I've

00:19:22said to you that I, I, I do like more about Disney World is all the resorts. And I get that there's a space issue, right. Someone said today on the live like they should take some of the they should buy out some of the good neighbor hotels and turn them into Disney value resorts. And like, yeah, that would be even if you just did like 2, you know, like, and I get it in Florida, they have so much land like that. They they can do a lot more. Like in Anaheim, there's not much they can do. It's kind of amazing the things that they are going to. Can you continue to do given the space? I mean, you walk down the block

00:20:05and. You wouldn't even know that Disneyland was right there. It's just stores or there's houses or you know, like it's so they don't have all of this space to use. I don't know where I was going with this, you guys. I'm just so I told I picked up the kids from school and I tell the boys make you guys. We had some bad Disney news today and they were like Boston was like, what? Why would they do that? We are raising Disney, future Disney. Adults. Yeah, they were like, well, we need to go before January 5th. And I'm like, I don't think that's going to happen, but. And you know, I, I've, I've seen

00:20:46some comments and also talking to some Co workers, they're like, well, like 1. I never woke up early to take advantage of early entry. And also when I did, I maybe did like one or two rides. I only had enough time to do one or two rides. 30 minutes is not at a time. My answer to that is one, you're doing it wrong. 2 Yeah, not everybody wants to wake up when they early to go on vacation because yeah, if you want to make the best use of early entry, if park opens at 8:00 and that so early entry is at 7:30. And if you're a Mama, you're waking up super. I mean, you got to leave, you got to leave your hotel room by, you know, 6:45. We never did that, I know.

00:21:36But if you like really want to take advantage of it and like be there right when it opens, then 640 five, 7:00. But the main thing was, especially for families with young kids, is that for early entry, you could go straight to fancy land, fantasy land because early entry. I mean you could for early entry for Disneyland, all that's open is Fancy Land and Tomorrowland. Thank you. This guy welcome in. Thank you for the heart me and but if you do it right, you can do pretty much all of Fantasyland minus Peter Pan. Well, and yeah, Peter Pan would take up unless you were like the first ones in Peter Pan could take up your entire early entry. But you can do all those things

00:22:31by, you know, 30 by by the time the park opens or maybe, you know, 8:15 and then you can then do all the other stuff. Well, and like, you know, we were talking about it a little bit earlier and like, well, Fantasyland is still pretty dead even after rope drop. So like if you did use that 30 minutes to do Peter Pan because it's just going to go up most likely for the rest of the day. Then after that, a lot of people who are rope dropping Fantasyland are trying to get to Peter Pan. So then you can knock everything out. I mean, for the first hour or maybe more, the lines in Fantasyland stay down. But like you were saying earlier, like or no, I was

00:23:17saying because usually what we'll do when we do early entry, we head to Space Mountain, we get a rider's swap because our youngest can't ride. You will take some of the kids or maybe all of the boys and I will take Georgia and we will go do like all of the because the boys are getting a little older. Don't they'll go on the fantasyland rides like they they don't fight about it. I hope they don't get there because some like, hey, we spent years doing this with you. Now it's your sister's turn, but I'll take her and do all the fantasy land rides. And then we switch and I go on Space Mountain with somebody and, you know, and so we just got all that done within the first fight. 83845 and my mind

00:24:08went blank. Oh, OK. But we were talking about how it used to be a full hour and it used to be that they had a line outside in the Esplanade, like at the main. Gate dedicated line. Dedicated line for early entry so you didn't get into the park at all unless you were staying at a Disneyland resort. I get why they had now how it is now. Everyone can get in and they start letting you in around 7, I think a little after 7. And but if you have early entry, if you're staying on property, you go over to the right by the Plaza Inn and they check your reservation, make sure you have your key or your reservation and they let you through.

00:24:53And it's only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland that are open where it used to be more. And then even in Fantasyland, I've noticed like usually Pinocchio, Snow White, usually they're not open early entry. Small World is an early open early entry. So like you were saying, it does seem like a staffing issue, like they just don't have enough cast members to to do this to point this. This decision is 100% a business decision. Yeah, we've got it. Go ahead, we've got a comment. OK, Yeah. This guy Aaron says. We do everything in Fantasyland right before the close for the fireworks. And then when the fireworks what

00:25:40what I'm like, you ran out of characters. What do you do when the fireworks are over? But but sorry so so. If you're just coming into the live, we're also recording the podcast. So this is an experiment kind of. We haven't done both before. Yes so welcome to to TikTok live. We are recording a podcast at the same time talking about the news at Disneyland that broke today of early entry being cancelled in 2026 during January 5th. Small. World is my favorite. Right. The, the, this, this decision was 100% a business decision.

00:26:27It's all about money, so. Always is. So they, they see that by opening up the park early, 30 minutes early, by having to staff it, they, it's costing them more money than what they're getting when they, when people book. From people booking. Disney Hotels so. Well, they're, I feel like they're going to lose a lot more like. They may, they may be willing to take that risk because they're probably going to either break even or be in the black a little bit more because now they don't have to staff as many people early in the morning. Maybe I don't know. And then it's like, we have, you know, friends that are are

00:27:10Disney travel planners. And like one of them commented, you know, like, I was so upset. But like, she lives locally. So it's not like she is staying at these places. But it's like they're also trying to like, sell some of these packages probably. And the benefits of staying on property. OK. What are the benefits of staying on property in Disneyland, not Disney World? There's lots of benefits in Disney World, in Disney World. I really don't understand why you wouldn't. And. That's that's I. Mean I've only been three times to Disney World, but because there's so many and there's

00:27:42value moderate deluxe. Some people may want to have more space for like a Airbnb. Yeah, and like you, if you have a large family coming, you know, I, I do get that. We just it's just so much easier to stay on property in Disney World. For those on TikTok, you know, send us questions, you know, as we get going along, you know, we'll have time to answer those and and we can, you know, discuss this a little bit more, but feel free to add comments in this out to FYP go populars GIFTS and keep tapping because we appreciate the the exposure and also sharing this out to your friends. What? Was I going to say Kate, I don't know if you're still here, but

00:28:34my favorite ride is Small World. Favorite big ride is It's so hard for me to choose. I'm like racers, Incredi, Coaster Guardians. Mr. Blev here on. Tik. T.O.K, he says. I take living 10 minutes from Disney World for granted. Yes, you do. That's how often. Do you go? How often do you go? And what is your favorite park? We are probably not going to be back to Disney World for for a couple of years because we are in California. And so we're hoping to like the summer before our oldest graduates high school, But that's that's about two years. He just started to see a

00:29:19sophomore year. I did I. Did this guy here? And she did tell me about John Stamos and you know, Uncle Jesse. I hope Uncle Jesse was kind to you and. I, I mean, I don't know Beach Boys. He loves The Beach Boys and he loves Disney. I grew up on The Beach Boys. I love The Beach Boys. I loved it. I love Uncle Jesse. That was my I was obsessed with Full House when I was little and the same age as the Olsen twins. I was completely obsessed with it. He was my first crush. Uncle Jesse, thank. You, Mr. Blood, thank.

00:29:59You for coming in? Oh my gosh, yes. For those on the podcast, we have someone here on our live who earlier when I was live said that D23 last year, he got to meet John Stamos, Jodi Benson. Also, I can't remember their names, but the voices, the announcers of Disneyland, the couple, the voice of Mickey and the voice of Goofy, right? Like I was like, what? And I got, I was already like fired up about the the news. And then someone's like, I met John Stamos and I'm just, and he also was like, also he stays at the Disneyland hotel. There's my perk. There's your perk 'cause that's where I. Stay most. To the price of.

00:30:52Edition I got to meet John Stamos, Bill Rogers and Camille Dixon. OK, yes, that would be my that would be worth it. Go to bed buddy. Love you. Yeah, so there's my new perk, the chance to run into John Stamos. He probably stays in like 1 of the like the the the the suites, like the pirate suites or like. Staying in just a standard room with like a parking lot view, he stays. In the Cinderella suite, he's sleeping. He's staying in the He's staying in the Frontier Tower with the the parking lot. View the Downtown Disney parking lot No. He likes to stay.

00:31:35He likes to stay humble. Oh, you want to meet them Yeah. Why did it it it again? It's like blocking comments for me on TikTok Heather welcome in club level and adventure tower. Oh, I bet that's amazing. We that's our favorite tower adventure tower. Adventure Tower is, you know, you get if you get on the right side of the building, you get the best views of the park. It's also the closest tower. It's the closest tower. Yeah. You know what Boston told me last time? That Fantasy Tower was his favorite. He was like, I hope we get Fantasy Tower. And I was like, why? And he was like, I don't know

00:32:20why. Surprisingly, Fantasy Tower has a very good view of the fireworks. You can get a good view, yeah. If you're not. Facing the pool. We've been facing the pool in that one. You. You know, he's looking like, oh, I got the parking lot. But if you're farther down, then you actually see the fireworks, you know, over the over the castle there. So on TikTok, this guy Aaron said that's the original the Adventure Tower. Oh, OK. And then Joe has a question. How do you think this will change the plan of doing Disneyland?

00:32:52That's it. That's a really good question. We've got, we've got to think. I I already was thinking like, if we didn't get there, like, like we would usually aim to leave our room by 7 and we had, you know, 1015 minute before we'd get to the gate with security and stuff when walking through Downtown Disney. But I was also kind of like, Oh, we knew we're going to get early entry so we can bypass all those people and we don't have to be like at the rope because we're going past the rope. But now, now I feel like part of me will be like, well, then forget it. Let's oh, I'm touched. I'm like, sorry if I got muffled. I was touching my mic castles

00:33:45and cruising with Jenny. Hello. 147 in the fan club thank. You welcome in. For those just joining us on TikTok, we are recording a live podcast right now talking about today's news of early entry going away. Joe here asked, you know, how will this change the the the plan of doing Disney? And I feel like I really hate to say this. And if you have been listening to this podcast from the beginning and you know me, man, I remember like at the height when we were every week and people would like comment like, oh, Tran's not going to like this. Like they knew me. They did it a few times.

00:34:31OK, Yeah. I feel like, where was I going? Oh I feel like I'm going to be like forget it I've got 4 kids, I don't need to wake up this early on vacation anymore. I am going to take more advantage of lightning lane multi pass. You're going to have to. That's a that's a really good point. Disney's not dumb. Disney is very, very smart. They know what they're doing. And that's actually a really good point. They are going to, they, they're, they're seeing that if we discontinue early entry, because if you do early entry and do a lot of the big rides, there's not a need to buy Lightning Lane.

00:35:25So now what they're doing, hey, let's give you a little taste. Here's 1 Lightning Lane to use for one day. And you're going to be like, oh, this is nice. I like to be able to do this and scan in and bypass the line. And now I'm going to buy a full Lightning Lane for the whole day or the other case. We can do early entry now. Yeah. So now we have to have to buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass to be able to do all the things that we want to do. Because OK, I want to, I want to come back to that, but I want to this guy, Aaron says my #1 tip to everyone is don't rush. Take your time and take it all in. And that's a great tip.

00:36:09We, we like, can't help ourselves like with our kids, especially because they when we go by ourselves, we can do that more with our kids. Like we will take our time later in the day. But they're early birds too. So like they always want to get in there and get things done. And then later. And then we'll take usually a hotel break. We might take a pool break. But yeah, Joe says that's exactly what I was thinking. People will buy multi pass more and rope drop harder. Yeah, because I, and if you've listened to the podcast for a long time, you know, I hated Genie Plus. That came out right when we started the podcast and I I got

00:36:55very heated. It was so stinking complicated. I hated that they were charging you now for something that used to be free or talking. Disney podcast was talking. How like Max Pass was it? Yes, Max Pass was amazing. You could pay that $15. It was $8 when I first. Came out and then it went up to 15 to like get your fast passes a little early, but you also had that free option. That was hands down the best. I was like fuming over Genie plus and then the fact that they had individual lightning lanes on top of Genie plus like fuming. And now I'm mad because racers is one of my top favorite rides and but I won't pay for it. It makes me mad.

00:37:39I also have 4 kids and I'm not going to wait 90 minutes like I'm just they they wouldn't do that. So we always we always use our early entry. I have a a TikTok about it and now this TikTok is like after January 5th this stick don't take this advice. We would do the Pixar pier entrance, we would rope drop racers and we did the rider switch 'cause our daughter can't ride. So this has been our thing for the last several years. And our first group would wait 10-15 minutes. Second group would get to go through the lightning lane like so we get our favorite ride done first thing in the morning because the rest of the day it

00:38:21never goes below 60. Like maybe you see 55 but rarely do you see it below 60 minutes. I will say though, the only thing that always bumped me out about that is racers. Just so good at night and I haven't ridden it at night in so long because that's how we always get it. We did pay for it when we took our nephew because we weren't staying on property so we couldn't do early entry and he had never gotten to write it. It was his only second trip. We had taken him on his first trip but it was pouring rain the entire trip and so we took him back and he had never gotten to write it so we paid for it then. But Yep, Disney adults. It's a blog comment, no one saw it.

00:39:01Oh well, we're does needles so OK. And then I got even more mad when they changed the names and like. There's just fast pass to genie plus, not to lightning lane. I mean it yes it makes more sense. Like where did genie plus even come from? Like lightning lane makes more sense, but lightning lane multi pass lightning lane. Single pass. Single pass. Premier Pass. Does make more sense than Genie Plus, but we had just gotten used to those names, you know so anyways, I, I, this is not as fired up as I used to get about it. I used to get like so angry

00:39:37about it I have gotten used to it and just dealt with it but there were several days because we have a pass and we only live 4 hours away we would usually do half day so like our last day we usually get there early. We don't always rope like do early entry on our last day because like we're packing, but like we get there as early as we can and we usually leave a little after lunch so we don't get. Lightning Lane. But the days that, where was I going with this thought? There have been several days where we're like, hey, we're rope dropping if we do this and this and this. I think we even have a podcast about it. You don't really need to get

00:40:14Lightning Lane. We had a whole strategy of how if you do, if you stay on property and you do early entry and you do this and this and this, we had done, you know it several times at this point. Like, you can get by without getting the Lightning Lane and purchasing it because it's not cheap, especially for a family of six. Yeah. And now I feel like, 'cause I've heard people say like a Haley, Stuart Haley, Travel Haley. Happily ever ever Haley travel. Travel cause her family is not mourning people like they will sleep in. And so she's like, we take, you know, I think she has said that like we take advantage of, you know, Genie if they go a lot.

00:41:02So maybe they don't always do Genie plus. But like James becoming 148. I'm not on the actual phone so I can't do my clapping or my cheering. Thank you. For those who are just joining us on TikTok, we are also recording our podcast live right now. Hang on, keep going. And so we were talking about the the news today about early entry at Disneyland being cancelled. Audrey Anne's going to go makes her sourdough because she's doing her stretching and folding of her sourdough. Can't let that go. But but yeah, so we're we're talking about that new news today on the podcast. You know, one thing, you know,

00:41:59that I I posted a video, a TikTok earlier today about, you know, say goodbye to to this and this. And it was shots of, you know, empty, you know, cars land empty Main Street. And then you know, hello to, you know, this, which is deep crowds at rope drop that that's what everybody's going to run into now is that you're going to have these huge crowds because everybody, I don't know, I can't say everybody, but a lot of people are going to be coming to the park at the same time and that's just going to create a huge bottleneck. You know it's. I mean, unless it hang on podcast, podcast people can't hear me unless like, hey, what they said is true and not that

00:42:57many. And we felt like it was a lot of people. But this cat, my goodness. But in comparison to the amount of people in the park, it really isn't that many. Yeah, I mean well. I mean, most people come in the afternoon. You know, A lot of the locals come in the afternoon. They go, you know, for dinner, they do the shows evening after work. But I don't know I I think this is going to have a negative effect. I really do too. I wonder if they're going to and then my friend that I was texting with, she was like, I bet you they'll bring it back, but you have to.

00:43:34It'll be just be like the deluxe or you have to pay for it or something, which I wouldn't be surprised. It's all. Yeah, maybe it's if like you get a deluxe room, you know, or you know. Like if you stay, you have to stay. You can't just stay anywhere on property. It has to be like Grand Californian. Well no. Each room has like a a premium view room or a deluxe room. You have to stay in a deluxe room to get the the added perk. It's just becoming more and more appealing to go to Disney World. Yeah, yeah. And I, I mean, Disneyland is my home again.

00:44:14If you've listened to this podcast where the from the beginning, good on you. Amazing. But our like second episode, we started this actually, the first episode we recorded, it wasn't the one we posted, but the first one we ever recorded was a recap of our Disney World trip, our very first Disney World trip. And it wasn't a positive experience for the most part. There were things we liked, but overall we were like, but we also knew we wanted to go back because when we were there, I was like, we should come back alone. And and then when we would did get to go back alone, our view, it was like a complete 180. Like we were like that. We really, really liked it.

00:45:01And there were things we liked better out there. There are things we like better in Disneyland. And then again, when we took our kids back for their second trip, because we kind of knew our way around and everything, that trip was much better. They all liked it so much more. And people are like, oh, it's, it's easier And and it's I don't, I don't like using the word cheaper, more affordable. I don't even like saying that prices can be better out there. You get more bang for your buck. I don't know. I don't want to say it's cheaper even though it it I'm not. Saying it's all relative, Yeah, I'm not. Saying it's cheap but like. There's.

00:45:41More options. There's more options. There's there's just. Joe asks, What do you like better about world than land? I like how you hang on. Are you have you been to both, Joe? I like the entrance, how you get in. I like the the use of magic bands makes things so much easier. How you just like scan your fingerprint. I feel like it's a lot more efficient, a lot easier. There's security I liked better at first, but then this last trip, we ran into some snags with it where if you did have anything, they flagged it took a long time. And I'm not against like I don't

00:46:28get frustrated at the security even in Disneyland because OK, you've been to both. Because I'm like, hey, if if you need to check all our stuff to keep us safe, like do it. Like I've never had a problem with it. Even in Disney World. I was kind of like, are they sure? Like is this, They're like, are there metal detectors? Like really accurate? Like I'm like, keep us safe, but when you do get like flagged in Disney World and then you have to go stand in the line to the side for them to search your bag. That takes forever. That takes. Forever we kept getting dinged over an Altoids tin and we like

00:47:03learned a trick for it like to hold it out in front of you. But then I still got like someone was getting dinged for their like glasses case too. Then that line was really slow so but still like getting and I like better transportation. I love the sky liner. I love all of the resorts like I love we have no, actually, we've never stayed at a moderate. That's true. We have. Value and deluxe we're like the. Two extremes. Extremes, yeah. And I've liked them all, like even we stayed at All Star Sports, which was like the value value like it was like. It was actually pretty nice. And like you still have things like.

00:47:42You still have early entry. You still have early entry. There was still like a big chess board, you know, like life-size chess board you still have. Great pools. A great pool. The food, the food, the refillable mugs. Refillable 100% One number one thing we love about Disney World over Disneyland is the refillable. I love the refillable mugs, even though you can't refill them in the parks. I just love the feeling of like going back to your resort in the afternoon and like going and getting some quote UN quote free soda or hot chocolate or whatever. Like when we went on our own because we didn't get on the

00:48:17first trip, our very first trip, because again, we had never been. It was a whole new, whole new beast. Our second trip, it was cold when we were there and so like going in the afternoon and like we took a nap and then we'd like we're heading back in. So I'd go get some hot chocolate and it feels like it's free because I. Already paid for the month. Feels more like a resort stay even when you're staying at a value resort. If you stay at a good neighbor hotel across harbor, it doesn't feel like an all inclusive resort like it it, you know, so like. Disney just does it Disneyland. Well, first of all, Joe says

00:48:55Coronado Springs Grand Destino Tower is my favorite moderate. Oh, OK, I'll just. Give that a try. I've heard good things about Coronado Springs. I also want to try Caribbean Beach. Yeah, because I love the like views in the sky liner, right? Disneyland, The difference between Disneyland, Disney World. Disney World is a resort. You go, you spend time, you do things other than going to the parks. There you can do resort hopping. There's restaurants, there's shopping, there's other experiences that you can do that don't revolve around going to the parks. You could stay, you could do a

00:49:33resort day, which which highly recommend you need to to where you just go to the pool, hang out Disneyland. You can't really do that. There's not a lot of many options. Like you could try to stay at the Grand California just for it to do a resort day and do a pool. But then it's like, what else? What are you going to go across and walk around Disneyland Hotel like and again, Disneyland Hotel? Downtown Disney, but. And well, and from what people were telling me on the live and what I've we've known this is that Disney Springs is a lot bigger. We've never been to Disney Springs because it's like one

00:50:07thing I like Disneyland is like Disney. If you want to check out Downtown Disney, you can walk there. It's easy to get around in Disneyland because everything is so close where we've never been to Disney Springs because we just always ran out of time and we had to take transportation to get there and it just never worked out with our timing. So that is a nice thing about Disneyland, that and, you know, park hopping is so easy for sure. You can go back and forth several times in a day. We've done it. So there's good, you know, and again, Disneyland is the original, like the, the sentimentality of it and the

00:50:44history of it, you know, like I'm always going to be, I'm never going to be like, yeah, way bigger. Like I'm never going to be Disney World over at Disneyland. I'm just not will I? I mean, my, my mom grew up going to Disneyland and like sitting on Main Street, like I'm just, it's just Disneyland. It's Disneyland. It's the original but. Also one thing. And we're in California, so it's a four hour drive to Disneyland. It's a like what, five and a half six hour plane ride to Florida? All right, so our TikTok live got cut off because it was apparently too boring, but. No. No, it just it's TikTok, that

00:51:30stuff. But anyways, yeah, so we were talking about what we liked about Disney World over Disneyland. It's just just that resort feeling is so nice. Yeah. And the, the, the inclusive resort, you know, style, which I'm sure it's times 1000 when you go on a Disney Cruise. Oh my gosh. Cool, that's the dream. That's the dream for next. Year, but yeah, I mean it and we've talked about that all before. It's just, and with the the prices, they're just making it less of appealing. I feel like like it's just so weird and I just. It's like Disneyland is trying

00:52:11to have people not come. It's like almost like they're saying do not come here. We don't want you to be here. We are pricing you out. We're making it less desirable. Like is that because of like all the the local annual pass holders like oh. Wait, that's part of things, you know, they companies try to make things more exclusive to to get people to not come is by pricing them out. That's a that's a common tactic in business. And so if Disneyland is seeing that reservations are no longer, you know, keeping people away, they're going to start raising prices. You know, annual pass holders, you know, magic keys are way more expensive than they used to

00:53:01be. They're limiting how many they are selling now. You know, Disney, Disneyland resorts are crazy expensive, but people are still buying these things. But are they not? But now they just, they're taking away a big part and we keep repeating ourselves. But it's just I, I just, I'm so curious to see what this does. Like someone, you know, on TikTok, you know, Joe asked. Like, what do you think this is going to do for like a Disney plan, like for your day and like, yeah, what is it going to do to rope drop? And like, I, I feel like it could go either way. People could be like, I need to get there earlier, or people

00:53:39could be like, all right, I'm going in later. Yeah, because I don't want to deal with that because I'm kind of on that. OK, let's go in later. I think it's going to push people to buy lightning Lightning lane multi pass more. I think people are going to be like. Days where we were like, hey, we can do without it because we're going to get early entry, so let's see how we can do. And now it's going to be like, oh, although I don't know. I don't know. But I think to do that. Or we're going to be like, well, I guess we'll save money 'cause we won't be staying at a Disney resort, so we're going over to the Mojo and we can get

00:54:15Lightning Lane because we're saving money on our resorts. That's true. That's true. I I want to see Disneyland bring what Walt Disney World does for Lightning Lane, allowing you to make your first selection at 7:00 AM if you can't be there. Yes. Early. Then let me make my Lightning lane selections early. Yes, even before. Like Disney World does it seven days? Is it 7 days before? No, it's three days. It's 7. Days before which Disneyland, Disney World you have longer stays. People are staying 7 plus days. Usually you see the four days

00:54:58but like you, you typically see longer stays at Disney World. But, and, and Disneyland is a lot more locals that are going in for the evening, so it might not be worth it. That might be a little tricky with the demographic that's going to Disneyland to let them get Lightning Lane selections before their trip. But 7:00 AM? Absolutely. And from what I've heard is that that technology behind Disneyland's Lightning Lane and Disney World's Lightning Lane is completely different. So the whole, so the whole 7:00 AM in their ticketing system, which you know, is part of that, are completely different. And so to be able to do what Disney World does at Disneyland

00:55:46when it comes to light Lane, lane would require require a whole rewriting of their programs. So that's what makes it difficult, why they're so different. But if you can't get there early, it would be nice to be able to make your selections early. Well, yeah, because. Oh yeah, Because if we're like, oh, we'll get Lightning Lane, but we don't need to go in until 910 o'clock, then by the time we get there, the lightnings are going to be way pushed out. Yeah. So we'd still need one of us would have to go in. That still doesn't work because you have to. Everyone has to be.

00:56:24Everybody has to scan in their tickets to be able to buy Lightning. Lane All right, we're moving to Orlando. So even that doesn't work. Goodbye, California. We're moving to Orlando. Anyways, we should wrap this up so you know our feelings about this by now. I highly doubt anybody's happy about it. Like. Who in the world would be like that? Makes sense. Good idea. And I just, I, I'm just curious to know what Disney's thinking. I've seen this, it's blown up on social media. People are like, this is one of the worst things that they've

00:57:04done so far as far as taking things away and making things more expensive. So I'm really curious to know if they were expecting this kind of backlash. What was interesting, how this came about, there wasn't any press release. There was no announcement. It was a small little blurb on their website and someone picked it up, took a screenshot and shared it and then it blew up from there. I I, I already know the answer to this. I'm so I'm not even going to phrase it as a question. But like, what would be nice then is if you lowered your hotel prices, that's going to bring people in. If you lower the prices, you

00:57:43took away a perk, lower your prices, more people will stay there still if you lower the prices a bit, because again, they are nicer, like I'm not going to say, well, you, yeah, you can get a nice good neighbor hotel, but the Disneyland resort hotels are nicer. They're they're amazing. Like I love them, but lower the prices so more people can stay there, especially when you're taking away the biggest perk. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. Anyways, after all the backlash. Yeah, so we were live earlier on TikTok. We are more active on TikTok now than we were than we are on Instagram. So if you're following us on

00:58:22Instagram, we will probably still post there, especially if we're doing live, you know, in the park stories. Yeah, well, 'cause. Yeah, 'cause that's different than Tiktok. So Stories are always fun in the parks. It's just, well, we're going to be honest with you guys. Instagram was hard. You didn't get a lot of engagement. And I mean, we were saying we were going to do a giveaway for when we reached 1000 followers for like a year. Yeah, and they just plateaued and we would try and try and it was just and then within. Then within having a TikTok for like less than a month we got 1000 followers and now we're

00:59:01almost at 5000. Yeah, I. Mean so it's just like and people are engaging and it's so it yeah so we've just kind of been there because that's where people are showing up like not that we're not going to stop doing the podcast we're we just haven't been as active on on Instagram, but we have the same name so if you do have a TikTok and you want to check us out there we do go live there so. You can. Actually see us. Yeah. And we're doing, you know, what's called subscriptions. So that gives you, you know, a subscriber exclusive things. We're we're thinking of ways of doing, you know, exclusive early releases of podcast is doing

00:59:44subscriber only lives where you get to watch us, you know, do the podcast or you get to podcast early before anybody else, different perks, things like that. So if that's something that's interesting, you'll follow us up there on on TikTok dreaming of Disney podcast. But but that's it. That's the news. So follow us on Instagram, follow us on Tiktok, and until next time, we'll talk to you later. Bye.