Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts

This episode is sponsored by my Disneyland Day Planner:

Today’s guest is Kim Fidler from Get Away Today. She has been with the company for 20 years helping families make vacation memories, and has been to the Disneyland resort too many times to count. Be sure to mention that you found them through Pulling Curls and use code CURLS10 to save $10 on your upcoming trip!

Links for you:

Genie+ Tips

Timestamps:

00:00 Podcast sponsored by Disneyland day planner, featuring Kim.
03:25 Frequent park visits, early mornings maximize time.
07:32 Maximizing park time with Genie+ was crucial.
11:40 Easier ordering with specific planning and availability.
13:30 Set a phone alarm for Disney’s 2-hour rule.
15:46 Book special experiences to break chaotic routine.
19:13 Prioritize popular rides to avoid closures.
23:22 Expect the unexpected and go with flow.
27:55 Enjoy the trip, stay relaxed, future topics previewed.

Keypoints:

1. Genie plus is recommended for maximizing time at Disney parks, especially during busy times and for half-day visits, allowing access to popular attractions without long waits.
2. Pre-purchasing Genie plus at $30 can be a good investment, particularly during peak season, and strategic planning is essential to make the most of the Lightning Lane system.
3. Families with very young children or those who prefer slower rides may find Genie plus less suitable, but it can be beneficial for those prioritizing high-demand attractions.
4. Research and strategy are crucial for utilizing the Lightning Lane system effectively, with only one ride allowed per attraction.
5. Special experiences like princess breakfast or Droid Depot visits can provide a break from chaotic rides, enhancing the overall Disney vacation.
6. Timing late 2 PM lunch breaks to rest and hydrate is advised, and exploring cheaper sit-down restaurants like Lamp Light Lounge and attractions outside the park, such as Downtown Disney, can be worthwhile.
7. Listening to children’s ride preferences and being flexible with their choices is important, as simpler activities can create lasting memories.
8. Utilize time-saving methods like mobile ordering, which allows for setting later return times for specific items and accommodating allergy adjustments.
9. Strategize Lightning Lane bookings, consider the 2-hour window rule, and prioritize attractions that sell out quickly, stacking subsequent bookings for a more efficient park experience.
10. Booking with Getaway Today offers benefits such as cheaper hotel rates, white glove service, personalized assistance, and specific room requests for families with young children, and listeners can use code “curls10” for a $10 discount on their trip.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.780] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls podcast. Today on episode 223, we are talking about the best Disneyland tips for your spring break trip. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:09.020] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the pregnancy nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarrows with pregnancy and parenting untangled, The Pulling Curls podcast.

[00:00:39.660] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of The Pulling Curls podcast is sponsored by my Disneyland Day Planner. If you are looking to make sure that you use the time at Disneyland the most responsibly, grab my Disneyland Day Planner where I share the rides that are going to be the busiest or the least busiest so you can know how to plan your day.

[00:00:56.580] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is one of my favorite people to do Disney with. She actually works with Getaway today, but I have worked with her for years. She’s been with Getaway today for 20 years. She does a lot of their marketing and social media. I wanted to introduce today’s guest, Kim Fidler.

[00:01:10.450] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Kim. Welcome to the Pulling Curls podcast again.

[00:01:13.330] – Kim Fidler

Yeah. Thanks, Hilary. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:15.320] – Hilary Erickson

I think we recorded our last one together before 2020. So things have changed.

[00:01:20.450] – Kim Fidler

That feels right. Yes.

[00:01:22.200] – Hilary Erickson

So we probably talked all about MaxPass, and what were they called? No.

[00:01:29.220] – Kim Fidler

Were they called Fast Pass. Max Pass and Fast Pass.

[00:01:31.740] – Hilary Erickson

Just Fast Pass.

[00:01:33.000] – Kim Fidler

Yeah. Max Pass was the paid, Fast Pass was the free. You’d have to run around to the machine and come back later.

[00:01:40.620] – Hilary Erickson

You could buy the internet one, though.

[00:01:42.470] – Kim Fidler

That was Max Pass, yes. So Max Pass was on the phone. Would it give you access to the fast pass lane? That fast pass is like, go collect your ticket return time.

[00:01:53.170] – Hilary Erickson

It was very exciting. Yeah, the ship has changed. It has changed course.

[00:01:57.840] – Kim Fidler

Yes, for sure.

[00:01:59.740] – Hilary Erickson

All right. So Kim and I, we got spring break coming up. Kim and I wanted to give you guys some good tips about going to Disneyland for spring break. And Kim is so fun to go to the parks with because she is just like Mama Kim, and she tells us what we’re going to do, even when I’m in a group of people who do Disney. But it’s also really relaxing to just have Kim tell me what to do, because usually I’m the one that’s saying what we have to do. So it’s nice.

[00:02:25.700] – Kim Fidler

And Hilary’s my nurse, so if anything ever happens, Hillary is prepared. She’ll tell you what to take. She’ll mix you up cocktails. She’ll make sure you get the right bandages. She does all the things. It’s a perfect combination. One, two, point. Everybody wants to come in apart with a two-a-a-but.

[00:02:40.680] – Hilary Erickson

Injury in Disney, they go hand in hand. All right, Kim, You’re the guest, so why don’t you give us your best tip for Disney, first off?

[00:02:48.980] – Kim Fidler

Okay. So my best tip is, and this applies no matter the time of year, I will preface this by saying I am not a morning person unless I am at Disney, in which In this case, I am up an hour before the park opens, and I am like, green getting ready, and I’m out the door like, 45 minutes, at least before the park opens, getting to the park to enter security no later than half an hour before the park open. Get there early.

[00:03:18.080] – Hilary Erickson

The rope drop- If you’re going to do the parks. Yeah. Because I, at this point, I’m like, I’ve been. Do I really need to get there that early?

[00:03:25.910] – Kim Fidler

Here’s what’s funny, because I go to the park all the time. It feels monthly, sometimes more, sometimes maybe less. But my kids only go once a year. So when I’m with my kids on spring break, like we did last year, we are up and we are at them, period. Because we are doing the rides, and that is the best way to maximize your time. By getting there first thing in the morning, you can just get so much done in those first 2 hours. But if you need to go back to the hotel and take a break midday, no big deal. You do that. You do what’s best for everybody. But there are fewer crowds, which leads to less overwhelm. And again, you just get so much done. That’s my number one tip.

[00:04:03.030] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, I’m a morning person anyway, so I’m awake. It’s usually kids or the people that I’m with are like, Oh, let’s get to the parks later. So I get up and get work done, and then I go to the parks, usually.

[00:04:14.960] – Kim Fidler

My kids, they are so well trained. They’re so good at being parked. I’m like, All right, guys. They’ll even sleep in their clothes. I’ll shower the night before, sleep in their clothes. So that alarm goes off, they’re brushing their teeth, and they’re out the door. They know the big difference of getting there at 8:00 and having that time from 8:00 to 10:30ish and rolling around 10:30 when the rest of the people, the Hillaries of the world, show up with their family.

[00:04:36.670] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, my kids, we’re going to go spring break, and we will go open to close. Perfect. Because we only do one day. That’s hard for her. So I’ll be the one It’s on the concrete, crep. They’ll be fine.

[00:04:47.630] – Kim Fidler

Okay. Cree can carry you home. That’s there. That’s the least they can do.

[00:04:52.020] – Hilary Erickson

Right. Why do you have a wagon? Oh, it’s for my mom. It’s fine.

[00:04:55.720] – Kim Fidler

Don’t worry about it. We don’t have questions.

[00:04:58.100] – Hilary Erickson

We’ll leave that in the locker. Okay. So my tips all seem to circle around Genie Plus. So when people are like, should I get Genie Plus? If you are going for five days, you have small kids, no, you probably don’t need it. But the way our family does it, we try and do less days because we have working kids, kids in school, whatever, and maximize our time there. So my biggest tip for people is to always be holding a Genie Plus at least one-ish hour after park opening. So once it starts to seem like it’s a little bit busy, you always have a Genie Plus, including as soon as you scan in, you know which one you’re getting next, and you’re getting it as you walk onto the ride. Absolutely.

[00:05:38.330] – Kim Fidler

I completely agree with that. I would even go as far as to say, with my kids, even though my kids are little, if you’re there during a busy time, I’m still getting Genie Plus, because for us, that means we can go and take a three, four hour break in the middle of the day when it’s super crowded. We can staff our lightning lane return times for later in the evening, afternoon, and then we’re still not waiting in line. So I’m a huge, huge fan of Genie Plus. A huge fan. Now, Mickey and Mini’s Runaway railway is included with Genie Plus, which it used to be an individual lightning lane. That’s great for the littles. Great for the littles. The other thing I would say with Genie Plus, if you are going, especially if you’re only doing, I mean, hopefully not one day, but two or three days, you can pre-purchase it, and that will lock in the price at $30. Right now, it’s $30. But if you wait, especially spring break time, it will likely be more than $30, and it can sell out. So be mindful of that if you’re going during a real peak season time.

[00:06:32.720] – Hilary Erickson

The only bummer with that is if you are coming for half a day, don’t want Genie Plus on that. Oh, my gosh. Let’s say you get in on the afternoon, you don’t want to pre-buy Genie Plus, and you get in the only thing that’s available is Winnie the Pooh.

[00:06:46.580] – Kim Fidler

Well, that’s normally… That’s what’s cool about Disneyland is that’s normally not the case. I have used it on half days. I’ve used it when I’ve gotten it at five o’clock in the afternoon. Walking in at five o’clock, I’ve been able to do Big Thunder. I’ve been able to do Space Mountain for I mean, obviously a later return time. But those are things that there’s no way I would be waiting an hour and a half, two hours, while I only have a four-hour time block in the park. So I even say… And I’m like, okay, so let’s say it’s 30 bucks. I’m like, oh, when I say, when I pay $15, I When I get to Disney, all of a sudden my time becomes real valuable. And I’m like, I will pay any amount of money not to- Wait, am I? So I’m like, Would I pay $15? Would I pay myself $15 an hour to not wait in that line for an hour? Yeah, I would. So if you can Do that. I say do it. The other thing is, let’s say you have a morning. It was the same thing I went with my daughter.

[00:07:37.440] – Kim Fidler

Now, this was December, so obviously different time of year, but peak season. We only had until noon in the park. We absolutely used Jeanie Plus, we were able to ride… How many things? Well, we went to California Venture first. We got a lot down in California Venture. And then we hopped over to Disneyland, and we were able to do Matterhorn, which is her favorite attraction, and Small World holiday. And both of those were really, really long lines. There’s absolutely a zero % chance we would have been able to ride with that limited amount of time. So I am still a fan of Jeanie Plus, even for the half days.

[00:08:08.040] – Hilary Erickson

That Kim, she just likes to throw money out the window. I think you just have to be mindful of it, because if that’s not something that you I think. And little kids makes Genie plus hard. So if you have little tiny people, I’m talking about.

[00:08:20.400] – Kim Fidler

Like ride or swap type people.

[00:08:22.570] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. Or just like infants, you got to reevaluate your life plans.

[00:08:28.370] – Kim Fidler

That is very true. And again, I’m coming at this from a point of taking somebody who does not go to the parks regularly. I think the second you get to the Disney park, if that is your one vacation that year, or maybe you go every other year, you’re spending a lot of money to be there anyway. So to spend that extra $30 per person to really get the most out of your time, I think is a really good investment, even if it’s just that half day, because, again, you’re not coming back. You and I are a little bit skewed because we tend to go regularly. But when I’m with my kids, it’s a completely different story.

[00:09:02.200] – Hilary Erickson

Also, I have kids who only want to ride fast-fired fates, right? My kids are like, Skipping fantasy land. We might go on one in fantasy land if we’re desperate to fill some time, but we pretty much only like Lightning Lane at this point with the. Yes, I get that. But we’re lightning laneers for the most part. I do think that if you are going to Lightning Lane, you’ve got to research it a little bit. So check out Getaway today. I have a couple of pumps on my site. I’ll put it in the show notes because so many people are like, I had Lightning Lane not used on four rides today.

[00:09:35.530] – Kim Fidler

And I’m like, no, you did it wrong. You’re not doing a ride if you only use it. Unless you only have three hours, then great. Use those four rides. But you’re right. Now, there’s a strategy to it, and it feels big and confusing. But once you get to the park, it is really intuitive. And Disney has made it very easy to change lightning lanes. If you are like, oh, our plans change. We want to switch this. One big change from if you haven’t been since COVID is that previously, you could book as many fast passes as you wanted per each attraction. It would just like, let’s say you love big vendor, you wanted to do it over and over and over again. With the new Genie plus lightning lane system, it’s only once per attraction. So that is something to keep in mind, too. So be a little bit strategic. And that’s one reason why I love that early. You can normally get your favorite rides done twice by going and doing.

[00:10:26.400] – Hilary Erickson

Yes, that’s what we totally do.

[00:10:28.110] – Kim Fidler

And then save your lightning lane.

[00:10:29.200] – Hilary Erickson

What do you want to ride more than once? Let’s rope drop that. Yeah, exactly. All right. What’s your next tip, Kim?

[00:10:36.000] – Kim Fidler

Okay. So mobile order is a great way to save time in line. Plus, it’s easy, and you can do it while you’re in line for something else. If you have really hot items, like the raspberry rose macarons that you want, order those earlier in the morning. Set a later return time. But I say mobile ordering is easy and it’s fast, and it’s great. Yes.

[00:11:00.780] – Hilary Erickson

And it fills your time in between your lightning lanes for our family because we do not want to go on Snow White. So we’re like, What are we going to eat between these two lightning lanes? And we get it booked in easily. And you don’t have to hem and hop. Kids could look at it on the phone. They can easily just tell you what you want. It’s a game changer. When I went to Universal, I was like, What is wrong with you?

[00:11:22.620] – Kim Fidler

Where is the mobile order? I agree. They have it down. Now I go anywhere and I expect to be able to I just order my food.

[00:11:31.730] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I hope other theme parks get on. I hope they license their software. I don’t know. It’s hard for other parks.

[00:11:40.730] – Kim Fidler

It is. Well, and verbal ordering has even become easier. You can go on, you can see what’s available right now. If you have a very specific thing you want to order, I’d say do that earlier and plan your day around that, which I know sounds a little bit silly, but those raspberry rose macarons, come on. But for anything else, you’re like, Oh, no, I’m hungry right now. You can just hop on and see, Oh, these are all restaurants right by me or, Oh, these are all the ones that have availability within the next half hour. I can pick up right now for half an hour out. It’s easy and it’s good.

[00:12:09.920] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And some of them you can mobile order just a Coke. Some of them you can just mobile order a Wetzel. You don’t have to do a whole meal. No. That’s the beauty of it.

[00:12:17.270] – Kim Fidler

Absolutely. And there’s ways to order it allergy-free. If you have a very severe allergy, I still recommend ordering in person because the chef can come out and talk to you, but you can make adjustments. And it will show you all the allergies. Like, Oh, this is egg-free. Oh, this is dairy free. Oh, this is gluten free. Whatever it is that you need. I’m a big fan.

[00:12:35.580] – Hilary Erickson

All right. That was my third tip. I was on the same.

[00:12:39.760] – Kim Fidler

Great. I love it.

[00:12:41.700] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. My second tip, though, is to be mindful of which stuff sells out lightning late, especially if you’re going spring break, you’re going at a busier time. You need to know that Space Mountain is going to sell out. It doesn’t really sell out, but it’s gone. It disappears earlier in the day.

[00:12:58.460] – Kim Fidler

Or it’s 11 o’clock at night. Yes. And you really want to stay till 11:00? My kids don’t. They can’t hang.

[00:13:04.480] – Hilary Erickson

So what you’re going to want to do, and I go over this in all of my things, but you’re going to want to book Space Mountain at two o’clock, then you’re going to wait your time period. It’s 2 hours, right, Kim? Yes. Is it two hour, 90 minutes between? It’s two hours. Then you’re going to wait your two hours, and then you’re going to book in Star Tours because that’s only going to be like a half hour from now because that ride’s horrendous. And then you’re going to… So you’ve gotten your Space Mountain, it’s walked in, and it’s not at 11:45 PM.

[00:13:30.430] – Kim Fidler

A hundred %. And when we talk about that two hour rule, you’re setting an alarm on your phone because two hours in Disney time, weird. It’s going to not feel… It never feels like two hours. It either feels like 15 minutes or four hours. So set an alarm for your phone. So with the lightning lanes, you can hold one at a time, which means that you can either, like Hillary was saying earlier, if you go through the line of Indiana Jones, the second you scan in, you can start making your lightning lane for the next thing. However, what do you do? If It’s 10:00 in the morning, and the return time for a Mickey and Minnies runaway railway is at three o’clock? Okay, well, does that mean you have to wait five hours to get your next lightning lane? No, it’s a two-hour window. That’s how you stack. That’s what I like to do with my kids. So we’re like, Okay, in two hours, I’ll make my next lightning lane. Oh, and Mickey and Minnies is around 5:00. Oh, okay. So at 2:00 or whenever that time expires, I’m going to look and see if I can get Roger Rabbit because that’s right by there.

[00:14:24.860] – Kim Fidler

But let’s be real, I’m really not riding Roger Rabbit.

[00:14:26.980] – Hilary Erickson

Why are you going to ride Roger Rabbit?

[00:14:28.550] – Kim Fidler

I’m not. I’m going to do Small World because that’s close. Yes. But my point is you can stack and you’re so right on. You’re going to do an attraction that’s right next to it that doesn’t have that long wait time.

[00:14:40.900] – Hilary Erickson

And I have a Disneyland day planner that just basically shows these are the top eight attractions that are going to sell early. So you’re going to want to put those earlier in your day if you can. But I’m weird. I love to ride Big Thunder at night. I love getting up in the dark. So I try and I just watch that one to see what I can get at 8:00 PM or whatever until the time the sun’s gone down, just because I like the magic of it. But if you don’t care, like when I go with my kids, we will just be going and going and going, but we are still going to want to get those premium ones in first because we know that we can always ride Star Tours.

[00:15:15.130] – Kim Fidler

Later in the day. Yeah. Or Roger Rabbit. Or Roger Rabbit.

[00:15:19.430] – Hilary Erickson

We want to make a mistake.

[00:15:22.400] – Kim Fidler

If we want to question every life decision we’ve ever made, we can ride Roger Rabbit. I still haven’t ridden it since it was redone. Have you?

[00:15:32.110] – Hilary Erickson

Yes, I have. She’s in a trench coat. I mean, that’s all I really noticed. She was out of her red dress, and she’s in a trench coat. So that was amazing. It was so gratifying that Disney supports women.

[00:15:41.570] – Kim Fidler

Great.

[00:15:43.370] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, what’s your tech? This is your last one, right, Kim? Yes.

[00:15:46.690] – Kim Fidler

And really, Genie Plus was one of mine, too. But I would say something that I think is really fun to do. If you’re there, especially over spring break, and you know it’s going to be busy, and you don’t want to be just going from ride, ride, ride, ride, ride because I do that in the morning. I really think it’s fun to book one or two special experiences. For example, last time we went, I took my daughter to the Princess Breakfast, just the two of us, and it was perfection and magical. At our leisure. Well, my husband took our sons over to the Droid Depot, and they got to custom build their Elf droids. That was something that our kids were really looking forward to, and it felt like a break from the hustle and bustle of the vacation, but we still had such a great experience. Experience. You could do the same thing with a special lunch at Blue Bayou or a roll the Color Dessert Party if your kids can stay up that late. Just something that feels special. The other thing that we did that I’m telling you It’s not a special experience per se, but I did the Art of Animation drawing classes with my kids and my middle child, especially.

[00:16:53.750] – Kim Fidler

We did three of those classes. That’s a good chunk of time of your spring break vacation. He loved the animation We spent a lot of time there, which felt way less chaotic. Then you get a free souvenir after, and it was fun. Take time to build in some stuff that doesn’t feel chaotic, that allows you to have a good experience at a relaxed.

[00:17:18.190] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So in my case, we try and get a late lunch, like a 2:00 PM lunch somewhere where they will bring me water. That’s all I want. I want to put my feet up and get hydrated so that I can run the marathon of the rest of the day with my family. And those don’t have to be expensive. There are some cheaper places. Blue Bayou is expensive, like she mentioned, but there are some cheaper. Sit down. I really like Riverbell Terrace, even though it’s the ugly stepsister of Disneyland Reservations. I feel like. I really like it there, and it’s not too expensive.

[00:17:48.720] – Hilary Erickson

The other thing is you can- Lamp House.

[00:17:50.310] – Kim Fidler

Yeah, Lamp White Lounge is great.

[00:17:52.130] – Hilary Erickson

Lamp Lounge. And you can easily split things there, too. So little kids, you can get a few appetizers, just enjoy them bringing you water.

[00:18:00.210] – Kim Fidler

Absolutely. And I even think you can go outside of the park. And downtown Disney has some really good choices. You can ride the monorail into downtown Disney, which feels like an adventure in and of itself. You’ve got tortilla Jails. You have… Oh, my gosh. The only one I’m going to think, right, you have tortilla Jails. Jazz Kitchen is over there. I can only think of Napoli, which is the quick service version of the rest. Naples is the full service. But there are sit down restaurants that you can go have a really good experience that are just a few minutes from the parks as well and maybe feel a little less chaotic, too. And yeah, keep bringing me with my feet at night. Great.

[00:18:36.140] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. I mean, that’s probably my number one tip is to take an Ibuprofen and hydrate at lunch.

[00:18:42.280] – Kim Fidler

And compression sogs. You’re like the queen Compression Sog.

[00:18:47.120] – Hilary Erickson

I’m the queen. It really helps my legs not ache when I’m standing in line. When you’re just standing there, it really helps. So I’m a big compression Sog fan. I think I have one other tip, though. I remember when we went to Disney World, I I was asking a cast member when we were waiting in a line, I was like, Would you go to Norway or would you go to Test Track? And he was like, Which one’s more important to your family? And I was like, That doesn’t make any sense at all. My values don’t play into this at all. But it really is true because if your kid really wants to ride Indiana Jones, you go to Indiana Jones because you don’t know if that ride could go down. It’s true. If it’s open, go on it. Even if your kid really wants to ride Casey Jr, if they really want to ride Roger Rabbit, I would talk them out of it. But if they wanted to ride, if there’s just something that they love, get it in early because you don’t know if it could close. Some of them close with weather. Let’s pretend like there’s an afternoon shower.

[00:19:42.650] – Hilary Erickson

It could be done. Casey’s just done. He can’t do the hill anymore.

[00:19:46.150] – Kim Fidler

It’s so true. That is so true. As parents, I think we get these ideas of what our kids are going to like and what they really want. But your kids have a better gage. I thought for sure my kids were going to love Indiana Jones. They were finally taller enough. We were so excited, and they were I’m like, That was way too scary. They’re like, Mom, we’re never going on that again. They would much prefer to be the Jungle Cruise. I’m like, Okay, I guess we’re a jungle cruise family, and that’s okay. I think, yes, talk to your kids, make sure you’re getting what they really want out of it, too. I heard something recently that I’m like, That is such a good point. As grownups, we get a little caught up in, Well, this is how much we paid for this vacation, so I’m going to get as much out of this as possible. I want to make sure we’re doing that. But your kids don’t see your vacation from that lens at all. They’re just happy to be there. My daughter has never been more excited than when she got a bubble wand for her birthday and was like, This is the best day of my life.

[00:20:41.960] – Kim Fidler

I just wanted to play with her bubble wand for a good portion of the day. I don’t. Like, okay, that’s why we’re here. It’s fine.

[00:20:49.470] – Hilary Erickson

You have to think that now the trip is costing what it cost at this point. I’m here for free. Now I’m here for free. I’m already done it.

[00:20:59.400] – Kim Fidler

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I love it. Yeah.

[00:21:01.780] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, my boys, because I had two little boys for a long time going to Disneyland, and they would have done Tom Sawyer’s Island for hours.

[00:21:08.190] – Kim Fidler

All day. And hours.

[00:21:09.510] – Hilary Erickson

They just loved it. Sadly, there are no benches on that island. I’m like, Where did all the old people sit, Tom? Tom. It’s not Tom Sawyer’s Island anymore. It’s Pirate Flair.

[00:21:22.660] – Kim Fidler

It’s Pirate Flair on Tom Sawyer’s Island.

[00:21:25.410] – Hilary Erickson

I think Tom Sawyer’s Island.

[00:21:26.890] – Kim Fidler

Anyway, my kids loved the Redwood The Redwood Creek Challenge.

[00:21:31.280] – Hilary Erickson

The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

[00:21:33.250] – Kim Fidler

It’s a glorified park.

[00:21:34.480] – Hilary Erickson

So magical. The cast members were so great. Yes. But I was like, Dude, we cannot spend all day here.

[00:21:40.980] – Kim Fidler

Can you? We should have.

[00:21:42.140] – Hilary Erickson

We should have.

[00:21:42.760] – Kim Fidler

Right. Those are the things that your kids do remember.

[00:21:47.240] – Hilary Erickson

What we could have done is if my husband really wanted to go on guardians, he should just go, We’re the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Absolutely.

[00:21:55.360] – Kim Fidler

He gets single-riding a lot. I mean, we have to still wait in the big line.

[00:21:58.630] – Hilary Erickson

We don’t have a single rider.

[00:21:59.860] – Kim Fidler

But What they will do is they’ll call out for single people. When you get to the front, they’re like, Hey, can we go on for a walk?

[00:22:05.110] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t know that it gets them through any faster, though. It really does. I don’t write guardians.

[00:22:08.430] – Kim Fidler

It might get him a cart or two faster. Maybe. I’ll take whatever I can get.

[00:22:12.750] – Hilary Erickson

Maybe they’ll go on it someday.

[00:22:13.240] – Kim Fidler

It’s true. I would love it.

[00:22:15.980] – Hilary Erickson

Let’s do it. Yeah. I think that’s the best. The key is today is free. That money is already gone. It is burned. So we’re just enjoying what is happening today because as I go to Disney more without kids, I see the moms just freaking at Disney. And I want to just be like, just take some breaths. I get it. It’s so hard. I’ve been the mom freaking out before. Yes, think we all have. It just feels overwhelming. So just take some breaths. Just sit down and eat a pretzel, cream cheese filled pretzel. Always. Always. And hydrate and take some ibuprofen.

[00:22:50.870] – Kim Fidler

Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I would say we always prep our kids before. I’m like, Oh, my God, they’re so good at rope dropping. It’s because we talk about it. We’re like, Okay, this is what’s going to go down. This is why. My kids are very receptive to that. I realize not everybody’s kids are going to always be like, Okay, Mom, I got you. But even letting them know what to expect. The other thing that we say all the time, there are no promises at the park because it’s exactly what you said, Hey, can we ride in credit coaster later? You know what? I’d really like to. But again, I’m not going to promise that because what if it goes down or what if something else happens? Or like, Oh, well, we ended up going here instead. Okay, we’ll really try. We’ll put that on our list. But my kids know that there’s just too much that you can’t control, and you have to roll with the punches and go with the flow. We’re like, Okay, it’s probably going to be really busy. Okay, it might be really hot. Okay, it might rain. Okay, it might do this.

[00:23:47.530] – Kim Fidler

What are we going to do? How can we still have an enjoyable experience? And then I just… If you go in, Michael, hopped up, Oh, this has to be the best day ever. And you have that pressure on yourself, it might not be the best day ever. But if you’re like, Oh, things might happen. Things might be a little tricky. We’re going to roll. Then at the end of the day, you’re like, Wow, that was the best day ever.

[00:24:08.780] – Hilary Erickson

Or it was fine. Or it was- I’m so glad my kids, we have that memory.

[00:24:12.270] – Kim Fidler

We’ll laugh about that Sunday. I just had a labor nurse on the podcast, and she was talking.

[00:24:18.400] – Hilary Erickson

She was like, Our trip, I mean, we have some memories from it, and I guess that’s what I wanted, was some memory. I was like, And everyone made it back alive as far as I could tell.

[00:24:27.070] – Kim Fidler

Here we are. Here we are.

[00:24:28.480] – Hilary Erickson

It’s true. It’s true. Of course, my number one trip is to book with Getaway Today because you could spend hours frazzled looking at all the 6,000 hotels in the Anaheim area that say they are walkable to Zizy Park and are lying to you unless you’re a pioneer. Some of those that are walkable to Disneyland Park, I’m like, or you can walk there.

[00:24:48.040] – Kim Fidler

You can walk there. You can be a marathon runner. But not bad. I can walk a mile there, but not after a day at Disney. Yeah. Not getting home. No.

[00:24:58.480] – Hilary Erickson

I always recommend people book with Getaway Today. I booked with them since 1998, you guys. We were baby. I called them. I had no money. I was graduating nursing school, and I really wanted to go to Disneyland, and they made all my dreams come true. Was it the nicest hotel? No. Well, but it worked. It was in our budget, and it was just me and my husband, we just didn’t even care. I don’t think I even thought about bed bugs or anything.

[00:25:21.300] – Kim Fidler

I don’t think there were bed bugs back then.

[00:25:24.440] – Hilary Erickson

. There probably weren’t. But Getaway Today, it makes it so easy. And I’m always shocked by how much cheaper it is with getaway Today versus looking at the hotel website because I’ll go and I’ll check. And I’m always like, I don’t get it. I don’t get the magic of Getaway Today, but somehow it works.

[00:25:42.950] – Kim Fidler

It’s over 30 years of business. And you know, Wade is our secret weapon. Wade has worked with these hotels, his personal relationships with them. And what’s pretty cool, as you may have heard, looking at your third parties can sometimes be trickier. When you come to Disneyland, when you book with a third party, and that third party is Getaway Today, You get white glove service.

[00:26:03.180] – Hilary Erickson

It’s so different than if you book with Travelocity. And I don’t think people understand that at Disneyland, because if I ever have an issue with my room, they directly call Getaway Today because they have so many people that are booking with Getaway Today, and it’s just fixed immediately. Versus Travelocity, they would be like, You call Travelocity. This is your problem. Right.

[00:26:21.100] – Kim Fidler

And let’s say you contact us because you’re like, Oh, this isn’t quite what I expected. We do all of that work on your behalf. And because we’re Getaway Today, we know the hotel contacts by name. We know who to get a hold of. We can do it quickly. Everybody wants you to have a good vacation. Nobody wants you to not have a good vacation. We really care.

[00:26:41.930] – Hilary Erickson

We treat everyone like- My favorite thing was I couldn’t sleep in a room where my kids could see me from the playpen. I would call getaway today, and I’d be like, I just need a half wall. Even in the bathroom, a half wall. And then the girl who would answer the thing would be like, Well, let me go through the ones because they have two of them. They know what’s in each room. And she would be Okay, well, here’s five that you could pick between. And then I would pick which one worked for me. Some had a door, some had a wall. And it made it so we could all sleep instead of just little eyes looking it up at the playpen going, I love that.

[00:27:12.580] – Kim Fidler

That was great.

[00:27:14.930] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So get away today. You can use code Curls10 to get $10 off your trip. And we love it when you guys mentioned that you heard about it from Pulling Curls, Hillary, pregnancy nurse, whoever you want to say. I’m in their system and all the brands.

[00:27:28.660] – Kim Fidler

All the way. Our I’m your favorite podcaster.

[00:27:31.480] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t think I’m your favorite podcaster. At the pregnancy podcast, you guys are like, Yeah, I love those.

[00:27:37.460] – Kim Fidler

Actually, we have a lot of moms and moms here, so you’re not wrong.

[00:27:41.060] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. There are people. I’ve trained so many getaway Today, people, it’s to have babies like that. I am the official OBE sponsor of Getaway Today. I’m pretty sure, right? Absolutely. Pretty sure.

[00:27:52.400] – Kim Fidler

Thanks for having me, bro. This was so fun.

[00:27:55.360] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. I think it is so important to just think the trip’s free. Once you’ve paid for it, hopefully you got a good deal with getaway today. But don’t put any pressure on yourself to have the most amazing trip of your life because it’s going to be a great day, but there’s going to be some goods and some gads, and just roll with it. So hopefully you guys have a good spring break and you enjoy your Disney trip coming up.

[00:28:18.950] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned, because next week I’m going to give some of my favorite facts about one of the most important parts of pregnancy, the placenta. And then after that, we’re going to be talking about some secret mom hacks. So stay tuned.

[00:28:30.260] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls podcast today. If you like today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

Keywords:

Disneyland, Genie plus, Lightning Lane, park, vacation, pre-purchasing, peak season, attractions, rides, strategic planning, special experiences, princess breakfast, Droid Depot, sit-down restaurants, Downtown Disney, children’s preferences, mobile ordering, allergy adjustments, lightning lane bookings, 2-hour window rule, Getaway Today, hotel rates, white glove service, personalized assistance, pregnancy, mom hacks, Tom Sawyer’s Island, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, memories, maximizing time, early arrival

The post Disneyland Untangled – Making the Most of Your Trip appeared first on Pulling Curls.

We’re headed into the holiday travel season. Whether it’s just over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house, or further — let’s talk about traveling with inflexible kids.

Today’s guest is Dawn Barclay. She is an award-winning author who has spent a career working in different aspects of the travel industry. After spending ten years working in sales and marketing for her parents’ two firms, Barclay Travel Ltd and Barclay International Group Short-Term Apartment Rentals, she branched out into travel trade reporting with senior or contributing editor positions at Travel Agent Magazine, Travel Life, Travel Market Report, and most recently, Insider Travel Report. She is a mother of two and resides in New York’s scenic Hudson Valley. A member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and the Family Travel Association (FTA), she also writes fiction as D.M. Barr and holds leadership roles in several writer organizations. Here book “Traveling Different” is here on Amazon. Find her at travelingdifferent.com

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — getting into a routine can really help all of you know what to expect, even during travel. Come join us!

In this episode

Ways you can prep your kid for what your trip will look like.

Organizations you can look to for special help

What to do if you have other children

Other things that might interest you

Getting over my fears of flying episode.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.160] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. We are talking about travelling with anxious or inflexible kids or adults. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:19.910] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast: pregnancy and parenting untangled. There’s no right answer for every family, but on this show, we hope to give you some ideas to make life simpler at your house. Life tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:40.240] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, guys, today’s guest is the owner of Travelingdifferent.com. She has worked in the travel industry all throughout her life and has written for many major travel article magazines. I want to introduce today’s guest, Dawn Barclay.

[00:01:00.040] – Hilary Erickson

Are you overwhelmed by all there is to do around your house? As a new mom, I felt overwhelmed at every turn. Fortunately, I turned to systems to make a change, whether it’s mornings, dinner time, or even just to climb out of a pile of kids clothes. My course family routines can save you. I hold your hand as we smooth out these rough patches, making every day easier so we can more easily handle when your preschooler tells you they can use their urine like a lifesaber. Parenting is always going to be a wild ride. Routines are just your seatbelt, and they can support you. Use coupon code UNTANGLED to save 15% of checkout link in the show notes.

[00:01:36.190] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Dawn. Welcome to the pulling curls Podcast.

[00:01:38.560] – Dawn Barclay

Thanks so much. I’m gonna pull my curls now.

[00:01:41.890] – Hilary Erickson

Dawn, your hair looks pretty straight.

[00:01:44.890] – Dawn Barclay

We can dream, can’t we?

[00:01:47.060] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. I think this is such a great topic because while your kid might be diagnosed with, like, autism, ADHD, all those types of things, you know, a lot of kids just are anxious when they travel. Right?

[00:01:58.440] – Dawn Barclay

Every child becomes anxious and inflexible when they travel because you’re pulling them out of their comfort zone. Children love routine, and they love predictability and travel as anything but.

[00:02:08.290] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I think some kids love travel.

[00:02:10.690] – Dawn Barclay

I think I think if they’re prepared for it and I think everything’s a little scary and it never hurts to prepare them correctly because what’s the harm?

[00:02:19.650] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I would guess those kids have traveled since they were born.

[00:02:23.020] – Dawn Barclay

That was me. That was me.

[00:02:25.470] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And these tips are probably great for me, too, because my readers know I have a huge fear of flying. I had an uncle who died in a plane crash when I was in college, and ever since then, not a great flyer. Getting so much better. I have a podcast episode on what I’ve done to get better at it. But what are your tips, though, for kids that are anxious or inflexible? Also by inflexible, what do you mean by inflexible? What kind of things would show they were inflexible?

[00:02:50.590] – Dawn Barclay

Not doing well with transitions. So the best example I can give you is one of my children who remain unnamed when we used to have to, like, we’re just doing chores and I might be coming back from the supermarket. And I said, oh, I think I’d like to stop at the dry cleaner. And you would not believe the tantrum could not deal with transitions at all. Okay, so that’s what I would call inflexible.

[00:03:17.350] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, so we know anxious, and that’s what inflexible is. So give us some tips on what we can do with our kids.

[00:03:22.870] – Dawn Barclay

Oh, wow, there’s so many. I mean, number one tip by my book, but of course, I’m going to.

[00:03:28.650] – Hilary Erickson

Say the name of the book.

[00:03:29.740] – Dawn Barclay

It’s called traveling different Vacation strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the inflexible and the Neurodiverse. So this is 344 pages of about 85% strategies on how to avoid sensory meltdowns that are interpreted as tantrums when you’re traveling and how to get the child excited about traveling and not so anxious. So number one tip, introduce the child to the concept of travel. Way before you’re going to travel, you don’t just sort of spring on Guess what, tomorrow we’re going to Disney. Wherever you choose to go. Ways that you can make the familiar or the unfamiliar familiar include showing your child videos of every aspect of the trip so when you get to the hotel, they know what the outside of the hotel looks like. Check in, which can be pretty chaotic, looks like the room. They have familiarity with what is going to be there. The videos can also be supplied by Travel, the actual travel vendor themselves. You might go to the hotel site or the theme park site so you can preview, say, rides at a theme park to see what you want to rule out in advance. Introducing a young child to the concept of travel might include going and finding picture books that have their favorite characters in different travel situations so that they can have a familiarity and comfort level with that.

[00:04:53.290] – Dawn Barclay

And your local librarian can recommend lots. I’ve got some in the book, but they’re your best resource. Also role play. Also, you might have what I consider mini experiences, which are perfect for people who are nervous about flying as well as children who have not flown before. There’s a program by the Arc Arc called Wings for Autism, which closed down during COVID They’re starting up again. And this lets you do a dress rehearsal of the entire airport experience from arrival up into boarding. And so when it’s not so supercharged because you’re getting on the flight here is more relaxed and you can actually see what it’s going to be like to get through security. If you have a child on the spectrum, you can also take advantage of a group called TSA Cares, which is offered in many airports where you actually have somebody assigned to you that can sort of shadow you and make sure that you get through security okay in some of the more difficult parts of the airport experience. So aside from airports.

[00:05:54.610] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, back to airports, though. I remember as a kid mr. Rogers went on a plane because we didn’t have YouTube back in the day. But he went on a plane and they talked about the food you would eat and how you would need to stay in your seat and how that was so important for safety. So there might be a YouTube of it out there because we all know Mr. Rogers explains everything the very best, right?

[00:06:13.000] – Dawn Barclay

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a great suggestion and this is all things that you should think about ahead of time. How are you going to handle if you’re stuck on tarmac for 5 hours because of the delay, which is happening more and more now. So one way is to have little first of all, you’re always going to go everywhere with your goto bag so that’s got your noise canceling headphones. It could have an IMAP. It could have electronics loaded with your favorite TV show, your child’s favorite TV shows and movies, digit toys, anything they like playing with. But it also can have little surprises that are wrapped, little gifts, don’t have to cost very much, can be like Silly Putty or something that’s not going to crumble and not make a lot of noise. And you know what, those are the things that you could say if there’s a delay, every hour that there’s a delay, I’m going to give you one of these special little gifts. And that doesn’t have to necessarily go for the plane. It could be anytime during the trip if you’ve got a long wait at a restaurant.

[00:07:06.160] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, we 100% did that in the car because when my kids were tiny, we drove long distances frequently and we would have 100 miles gifts. So every time the odometer would hit 100 miles, we would have a gift.

[00:07:18.540] – Dawn Barclay

You know, I got a funny story that my parents used to also do that on car rides. Every time we hit 100, we would say hip hippore, hip hip array. So when I met my husband and we were driving and we hit 100 miles and I went hip HIPA, he said, boy, your parents didn’t have much confidence in their cars, did they?

[00:07:38.440] – Hilary Erickson

It was the other drivers that they didn’t have. I wanted to circle back to the surprise trips thing because I think that’s like so cool now. But I remember I was like in fifth grade and my parents surprised us with a trip to Disney World. So I wasn’t tiny, but I also wasn’t old and I just burst into tears. I was so scared about being on the plane and what the plane was going to be like. You know, I think the surprise trip is fun, I think in our minds. But a lot of times it’s super overwhelming for kids and I think we need to take that. Maybe if your kids a great traveler, you’re great with a surprise, but if they haven’t gone before, maybe you need to like introduce it.

[00:08:17.860] – Dawn Barclay

You absolutely do. And you have to really think through every part of that vacation as well in terms of what your child can handle. So if your child doesn’t do well with crowds, you probably don’t want to take a bus between the airport and your arrival city and your hotel. Sure, it might be included, and it might be free. But you know what? You might want to rent a car or hire an Uber or whatever you do, because there’s just less of a trigger there if you don’t have to deal with the crowds. It’s just thinking about that all the way along. Because 91% of children on the spectrum have sensory sensibilities, but they predict that maybe one out of every six children do. So be aware that children might react to crowds, loud noises, unfamiliar smells, like cologne, things like that, and be willing to remove them from the situation if you can.

[00:09:09.640] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So what do you do when they have that meltdown that, you know, Disney is a great example because it’s unpredictable and you may get stuck in a situation you prefer not to be in.

[00:09:20.110] – Dawn Barclay

Yeah. That’s why so much of the book is set up, to avoid those situations by thinking ahead. I will tell you a story of somebody I interviewed with a special needs child who found out the hard way that Disney doesn’t serve ice cream before 10:00 a.m.. So his child arrives at 09:00 A.m. At Disney and starts screaming because there’s no ice cream. And what he ended up doing was calling his certified Autism Travel Professional, which is a group of people who are specially trained to help you with planning these trips. And she guided him to a quieter part of the park where the child could decompress until it was ten and he could get his ice cream. But more and more locations hotels, theme parks, museums, what have you, are becoming certified as Autism Certified Centers or autism friendly. And what that entails is a lot of signage. So you might go to SeaWorld and you’ll see a sign that says, this is what it’s going to smell like after this point. So you can make an educated decision if you want to feed the seals or if you want to avoid that because your child does not want to smell that smell, but also where the lower sensory areas in the park will be.

[00:10:33.970] – Dawn Barclay

So they have sensory maps, and there are also cards that will identify you. An IAC is put out by a group called IBCCES. I know that’s a lot of initials, but this group puts out the IAC card that will identify you as a special needs parent that might need special accommodations when you go to participating parks and venues.

[00:10:54.670] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Also, I think as the parent, if you know your kid wants ice cream and you’ve just paid $500 for them to go have ice cream at a park, you have to be okay in your brain with like, part of the reason that we’re going to be here is to give them new experiences.

[00:11:09.640] – Dawn Barclay

Right?

[00:11:09.940] – Hilary Erickson

So how do you think the mom who’s spending all this money deals with their own emotions during something like that?

[00:11:15.630] – Dawn Barclay

I really try to avoid all that by having it be a child centric vacation. So what I mean by that is that you’re going to have your child weigh in on the choices of where you’re going. So you’re going to maybe look at three vacation places that have been vetted, hopefully by your travel professional and also by you is acceptable, and then say to the child, where do you want to go? And, you know, there can’t be any wrong answers. And also do that for every day. What do you think you’re going to want to do during the trip? And it might not be what you think they’re going to want to do or what you want to do, but you know what? The whole point is a bonding experience and to have the child have a pleasant experience that they’re going to remember, and then you’re going to hopefully be able to carry out that schedule, but also build it around the child’s pacing. So you’re not going to cram in five different events in one day because one or two will be plenty and then decompressed by the pool or in front of the TV for the rest of the day.

[00:12:08.760] – Dawn Barclay

And you’re also going to build it around their special interests. So all children have special interests. Not just children on the spectrum, but especially children on the spectrum have very specific interests, whether they’re insects or dinosaurs or elevators or what have you. Trains are very popular. You’re going to maybe build in some trips to special museums that deal with that interest so that there’s something special for them, and that makes the more mundane parts of the vacation easier to deal with because they’ve got this great thing to either look forward to or to remember afterward.

[00:12:41.220] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Any trips when you have other kids.

[00:12:44.140] – Dawn Barclay

Though, too yeah, a good point. And a lot of people bring that up because plenty of people have maybe one child on the spectrum and one neurotypical child. And so places like large resorts that are autism certified, like beaches in Turks and Caicos and in Jamaica, have kids clubs that are specially trained to take care of both neurotypical and neurodiverse children. And also there’s so much to do that there’s a diversity of what you can do, but there’s also an opportunity for you and your partner to spend some quiet time together without the kids. Same thing on cruises. All the major cruise lines that have staff that are trained to work with people on the spectrum. And there is a core company called Autism on the Seas that will specifically design cruises either for you to go on your own or as a group but the beauty of having a kids club that is specially trained is, again, gives you some time alone. And there’s so much to do that the kid who’s not on the spectrum has a lot of choices. But I also recommend sports vacations. So everybody likes well, not everybody, but most people like one of these, whether it’s going to be a dude ranch with horseback riding or it will be golf, adaptive skiing, scuba diving.

[00:13:59.700] – Dawn Barclay

All those have a therapeutic component for a child because children on the spectrum really tend to avoid or prefer to avoid team sports where there’s a lot of interaction between people. And of course, that’s a generalization. There are probably some who do, but in general they don’t. And the beauty of something like golf is you’re there to perfect your swing and your game and you’re not really interacting with others as a team. And there’s something for everybody. I was personally surprised that scuba was so therapeutic, but the compression of the wetsuit is very helpful and also the quiet underneath the water is very therapeutic.

[00:14:35.410] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, interesting. What about people that can’t afford that? Because everything we’ve mentioned I’m like.

[00:14:41.770] – Dawn Barclay

Cruising, camping. You can absolutely go camping. And I have a chapter on camping and how to vet a campground. Road trips. I have a chapter on how to travel in your car and how to lay out that itinerary. Vacation rentals tend to be cheaper with larger families than hotel stays where you’re getting more than one room. And I also have a chapter on restaurant dining, which is an ongoing issue. At least it was for my family.

[00:15:10.650] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I think all these tips can help to every parent depending on what their kid is not great at when they’re on vacation. I mean, sometimes you don’t really know till you get in this situation, unfortunately. Right.

[00:15:22.990] – Dawn Barclay

Well, staycations are also a great way to try that out. So before you spend a lot of money on a hotel for a week, spend a night at a very great relative or friend, very empathetic person who will let you sample what it’s like to sleep in a home. The child gets to sleep away from home, a place that they’re not familiar with. It’s going to show you the triggers so you’ll be aware of them for when you do spend the money on a hotel. Before you go on a cruise, maybe take a ferry ride. Before you take a long train ride, maybe take a commuter ride. There’s ways to introduce this concept to the child where it’s inexpensive and short. And the beauty of cruises also is that they can be very short.

[00:16:06.510] – Hilary Erickson

That’s true. Yeah. There’s a lot of three day-ers out there where there’s a test drive. And I think what’s important for the moms out there is you might need your own vacation because a lot of this sounds kind of like stressful and you’re catering to your kids rather than to your needs and mommy need her own vacation after a vacation.

[00:16:26.560] – Dawn Barclay

Or get a sitter on location that is trained for working with people on the spectrum. Or if you have an anxious child, you can also I have profiles of various companies that do that or bring along a family member who might enjoy the vacation but knows that they might be on call.

[00:16:46.350] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, that’s awesome. Alright, any other last minute tips before we go?

[00:16:50.800] – Dawn Barclay

Yeah, I really advise people to follow my blog at Traveling Different.com, which updates the book but also supplements it. So there’s a lot of things that keep coming up. Like there’s a chapter on how to deal with the post vacation let down. I just did a piece on adaptive surfing around the country or actually around the world. So I’m updating the book constantly with new content on the blog and it’ll also tell you where to see me if you’re really desperate to see me, where I’ll be, and also just basic information about where to buy the book.

[00:17:27.280] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, and what’s your website?

[00:17:28.710] – Dawn Barclay

Travelingdifferent.com. And it’s traveling with one L. I’d also ask you if you buy the book. Right? Otherwise, please ask your local library to stock it because then people who can’t afford it will be able to read it.

[00:17:41.820] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, thank goodness for libraries. All right, thanks for coming on done. Sure. I appreciate it.

[00:17:45.940] – Dawn Barclay

Thanks so much.

[00:17:46.990] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed that episode. I think it’s really important to think about every kid’s needs before you go on vacation. And I just love I had no idea that there were so many ways for people on the spectrum to get help. But also if your kid isn’t diagnosed but they also have an issue with inflexibility or anxiousness while you travel, I think getting her book would be a great idea just so you can talk about those things in advance, because a lot of times talking about them and saying, I feel anxious on the plane too can really help.

[00:18:17.670] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. The Pulling Curls Podcast grows when you share us on social media or leave a review. If you do, please tag us so that we can share and send you a virtual hug, which frankly, is my favorite kind of hugging. Until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.

The post Traveling with Anxious or Inflexible Kids (or adults) with Dawn Barclay from Traveling Different – Episode 170 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Being optimistic isn’t one of my gifts… and it can bite me in parenting, so today I wanted to talk about optimism especially when it’s about travel.

Today’s guest is Melissa — she is a travel junkie and a Disney planning expert. She shares tips and helpful information for planning Disney vacations on social media and her website. She also has a weekly podcast where she shares Disney park strategies, helpful information and Disney history. In addition to all things Disney, she loves Diet Dr Pepper, cooking and cheap sunglasses. She’s a full time mother of four and is always planning her families next adventure. You can find her at: https://mixinsomemagic.com
Or on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/mixinsomemagic/

This episode was inspired by all my posts on family travel.

In this episode

The realization that there is no perfect family vacation.

Making a plan (no matter what that looks like)

How you’re going to have a good vacation, no matter what!

Letting them have some choice in the matter

Other things that might interest you

Best Disneyland Hotels for Families

Disneyland Cost Calculator

Knotts Berry Farms vs Disneyland

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.190] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 143, we are talking about being optimistic, and I am not good at this, so I brought on a friend. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:22.410] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home, and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life’s tangled, just like my hair.

[00:00:45.010] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest runs the podcast Mix in Some Magic and the Instagram and the website. She is all about being magical. She’s also one of my very best friends. And we went to Disneyland together in January and had such a good time. So I wanted to introduce today’s guest, Melissa Hamlin.

[00:01:02.570] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Melissa, welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:01:04.970] – Melissa Hamblin

How are you?

[00:01:06.610] – Hilary Erickson

So good. We’re both here with wet hair, recording podcasts. I love podcasting.

[00:01:11.730] – Melissa Hamblin

Me too. Thanks for having me on. I’m excited to be here.

[00:01:14.760] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So Melissa is one of my good friends, and she is always so optimistic. She’s like, it’ll just work out.

[00:01:21.490] – Melissa Hamblin

It will. It does, right?

[00:01:25.210] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, it really usually does, but I always think it’s going to go down like a flaming ball of Millennium Falcon.

[00:01:33.730] – Melissa Hamblin

That’s why we’re friends. I bring you up and then you bring me down a little bit in a good way. You help me be realistic sometimes because sometimes maybe I’m too optimistic.

[00:01:44.630] – Hilary Erickson

Right. We don’t need too optimistic.

[00:01:47.650] – Melissa Hamblin

That would just be silly.

[00:01:49.110] – Hilary Erickson

Well, I mean, I am definitely a believer that optimism is awesome, but I have a hard time doing it. And today we thought we would focus on optimism and family travel.

[00:01:57.990] – Melissa Hamblin

Right.

[00:01:58.700] – Hilary Erickson

Because I think everyone has such optimistic hopes to start with. Hopefully. Otherwise you probably wouldn’t plan it.

[00:02:04.460] – Melissa Hamblin

True.

[00:02:05.020] – Hilary Erickson

And then it falls apart. Right.

[00:02:10.270] – Melissa Hamblin

Well, I do have some tips I want to share with you about being optimistic in your family travel because there’s a lot of things that can go wrong. Right. That’s what you worry about.

[00:02:20.910] – Hilary Erickson

So many things can and will go wrong. I mean, you have to expect that a lot will go wrong with kids. Exactly.

[00:02:27.120] – Melissa Hamblin

There is no such thing as a perfect family vacation. So I think everyone needs to know that right off the bat and stop daydreaming about the perfect family vacation because it doesn’t exist. But you can still have an amazing family vacation that later in your memories will seem perfect. But in the moment, you’re never actually going to have a perfect family vacation.

[00:02:46.630] – Hilary Erickson

It’s true. I will say our last trip to Disneyland, like, there was a moment where I was sitting there, where I was like, this is perfect. And I was like, you need to remember this moment because ten minutes later, everything was going to pop.

[00:03:00.570] – Melissa Hamblin

Exactly. Well, the number one thing that I like to tell people is to make a plan for your vacation because I feel better. And I think most people do when they have a plan instead of just winging it, because winging it makes people stressed. And I know people get upset when I say make a plan because they say we’re on vacation, we’re supposed to relax. We don’t need a plan, but you do need a plan. And it can be as detailed or as vague as you want it to be, but have some sort of idea of what you’re going to do or how you’re going to get there, what you’re going to eat, these little things so that you don’t have to make those big decisions that can feel stressful when you’re on vacation in the moment.

[00:03:37.820] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I agree. Because sometimes your plan, especially like on a cruise, is today’s a sea day, so we’re just going to walk around the ship and see what fits our fancy.

[00:03:46.220] – Melissa Hamblin

Right. And that’s the perfect plan for the day. But sometimes your plan is you’re at Disneyland and you’re like, all these kids want to go on different rides and what time are we going to get there and where are we going to eat? And they have more things that you need to think of beforehand. So I just tell people make a plan, however that looks for you, however that looks for your family, but just have a general idea, at least of what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, because I think it makes a big difference.

[00:04:10.000] – Hilary Erickson

Do you think other people’s kids are always like, what are we doing next?

[00:04:12.590] – Melissa Hamblin

Yes.

[00:04:12.940] – Hilary Erickson

Or is that just me, the planner’s kids?

[00:04:15.910] – Melissa Hamblin

No, that’s just you. No, just kidding. Everybody does that. Their kids all do that in the past. I’ve printed off little schedules for my kids when they were little, and they loved it. They loved seeing what was coming up next. And then I didn’t have to tell them a hundred times.

[00:04:31.470] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah.

[00:04:31.780] – Melissa Hamblin

And that’s helpful. Okay.

[00:04:32.930] – Hilary Erickson

What happened if you deviate it, though, from the printed schedule.

[00:04:35.540] – Melissa Hamblin

And then we learned about being flexible because you always go off the printed schedule. It never goes like you think it’s going to go. Something always changes, so you got to be flexible and adaptable.

[00:04:46.300] – Hilary Erickson

Did you bring a printer with you to Disneyland so you could reprint them?

[00:04:49.190] – Melissa Hamblin

No. Just scribbled it out like throw it away kids, for going off script.

[00:04:56.170] – Hilary Erickson

It’s like riding the Matterhorn. We’re going to jerky around a little bit today.

[00:05:00.820] – Melissa Hamblin

It’s good for him. Right? You’re teaching them things. Yeah. Another thing I think is so important is deciding ahead of time that you’re going to have a good time no matter what. I always do this. I sit everybody down and we have a little family meeting before every vacation, every trip, I talk about what we’re going to do, what our plans are, and then I talk about what I expect from them, and I tell them, I expect you to have a good attitude. I expect you to be good while we’re traveling. Sometimes if we have a long plane ride, then I’ll say we’re going to be on a plane for this many hours, and it’s going to be hard sometimes, but we’re going to have snacks and we’re going to have games and we’re going to have toys. And this is how we’re going to get through it. It’s going to be okay. And I expect you to have a good attitude. And we talk about those different things. And I think it really helps them to know that there’s going to be tough times because it’s always hard if you’re in the car or driving or waiting in long lines.

[00:05:56.590] – Melissa Hamblin

But if they know talk about it ahead of time. This is what’s going to happen. But we’re still going to have fun if we’re waiting in line. Guess what? That’s okay. We knew we were going to have to wait in line, but we’re going to have a good time anyway, right?

[00:06:07.340] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, a lot of it is your attitude.

[00:06:09.030] – Hilary Erickson

Right?

[00:06:09.290] – Hilary Erickson

Because I was watching a video that back in the day when the Country Bear Jamboree used to be an E ticket, it had the longest lines ever. And thinking back, I mean, God bless the Country Bear Jamboree. I love it. But because people’s expectations were that it was going to be an amazing ride, people were in line for it. So why don’t we go to Mr. Lincoln like that?

[00:06:30.010] – Melissa Hamblin

I bet they were disappointed.

[00:06:33.610] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, Blood in the Sand, isn’t that the song.

[00:06:39.130] – Melissa Hamblin

I always tell them to? One thing that makes me crazy is when we stop to go to the bathroom, someone always is like, I don’t have to go to the bathroom, and I don’t want to hear about it. When we’re on vacation, I don’t want to hear that. So our rule is, and I tell them every time, when I say it’s time to go to the bathroom, everybody goes, I don’t care if you have to go. Don’t say that to me. Just go in and go to the bathroom so we can move on with our lives. We’re not going to argue about it. We’re all just going to do it. And that helps me feel better, too, when I don’t have arguing.

[00:07:06.700] – Hilary Erickson

Is there an age that you stop this?

[00:07:08.820] – Melissa Hamblin

No, my oldest is. We still do. We still do it. I’m like, I don’t want to hear it. Talk about it before. Just all going to go to the bathroom. We’re all on the same schedule with the bathrooms.

[00:07:17.450] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I mean, I got a lot of guff on my last trip about how many restrooms I visited at Disneyland, but I was like, I don’t need to hear it. Do you want me to wet my pants on that ride?

[00:07:27.970] – Melissa Hamblin

And they don’t. They don’t want you to wear your pants. Well, another thing that you need to remember is that the goal of a family vacation is to have fun and make memories right. And sometimes those memories end up being ones that you don’t think are going to be the good memories. Like sometimes those are the hard times on vacation, but they end up as you’re looking back, being some of your most favorite times. So we were traveling to South Africa last summer and we had a twelve hour plane ride to Germany and we had an eleven hour layover in Germany and then another twelve hour plane ride to South Africa. And those like 11 hours in Germany were kind of rough. Like, we had some rough moments. Everyone is exhausted and it was during COVID. And so the only place for food was this little convenience store type thing with chips and candy bars and soda. And we had some low moments. But looking back, those are some of my kids’favorites, they’re always like, remember when we were in the airport for 11 hours in Germany and they talk about all these stories about how my son, he was sleeping on the chairs and then he all of a sudden was up sleep talking and it was hilarious.

[00:08:37.010] – Melissa Hamblin

And how they spent an hour making up this silly song and adding harmonies and all these things to it. And that’s one of their most favorite parts about it. So sometimes you have to remember that the goal is to spend time together and create memories. And sometimes those memories aren’t the ones that you think they’re going to be when you start off on your vacation.

[00:08:53.910] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I love that. Well, and as a mom, I look back on those rough times. My dad’s swearing when we went fishing. My dad always swore when he was fishing. But this also reminded me that my parents were just like normal humans who got super as a mom. Then when I took my kids and started swearing about something else, not that would ever happen.

[00:09:14.080] – Melissa Hamblin

Not you.

[00:09:15.850] – Hilary Erickson

It reminds me. It’s the circle of life. It’s fine.

[00:09:18.950] – Melissa Hamblin

Exactly. It is the circle of life. I do think probably the most important thing you can do, though, is not waste time worrying about what you can’t control because you’ve made your plan. You’ve already decided that you’re going to have a really good time no matter what happens. And so don’t waste time worrying about the weather or worrying about flight delays or crowds, things like that. Things you can’t control. Just put them out of your mind and decide that you’re going to enjoy yourself no matter what happens. Maybe your flight gets canceled. That sucks. But teach your kids about being adaptable and have a good attitude. And it really all does work out. And those are the things that you forget, all those bad things. And when you’re looking back on your vacation, you just remember all the good moments.

[00:09:59.080] – Hilary Erickson

Do you?

[00:09:59.960] – Melissa Hamblin

You do. It’s like being pregnant.

[00:10:02.830] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. Now you ask me.

[00:10:06.970] – Melissa Hamblin

And you’re like, that wasn’t so bad. I could do that again. Then you get pregnant again, you’re like, uh oh.

[00:10:13.000] – Hilary Erickson

What have I done? And now you just go on family trips instead of getting pregnant.

[00:10:16.910] – Melissa Hamblin

It works out better. This is more fun.

[00:10:20.000] – Hilary Erickson

It’s probably cheaper in the long run, for sure. Emotionally cheaper, for sure.

[00:10:26.830] – Melissa Hamblin

Yes, for sure. So I think you just have to know something’s going to go wrong. You’re going to have a good attitude about it. And just don’t worry about those little things that you can’t control, because sometimes you can get so caught up in those, like, what if it’s going to rain on my Disney day? What are we going to do that will ruin the whole day? Well, sometimes the best days are in the rain. You just don’t know.

[00:10:46.890] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I mean, there’s a fine line between preparing because some people show up to Disneyland and they’re short and then it’s raining and they’re all miserable. And it is really hard to have a good attitude if you’re freezing cold. I will say that.

[00:10:58.740] – Melissa Hamblin

No, you have to be prepared.

[00:11:00.580] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So that, I guess, would be something you could prepare. Looking at the weather, having your galoshes being prepared. I loved what you said before, though, about what your real goal is, because I see so many people with Disneyland. We hit every ride in Tomorrowland, this morning. And I was like, I mean, is that your goal? Because that could be a goal.

[00:11:19.990] – Melissa Hamblin

Right.

[00:11:20.700] – Hilary Erickson

But it’s not my family’s goal anymore because we’ve been enough time.

[00:11:23.810] – Melissa Hamblin

Yeah, well, and with trips, especially as your kids get older, I think it’s kind of nice to ask them what they want to do. Tell them these are the options. These are the different things that we could do. What would you like to do? And kind of trying to fit in something that everybody thinks would be fun. We were on a cruise a few years ago, and my oldest son was so excited about all the teen activities, and he was running around doing all of those. And my middle son was 15 at the time, and he could have gone to all the activities, but he was just like, no, I’ll just stay with you. I’ll just sit in the chair by the pool. And I was worried that he wasn’t having a good time. And I kept saying, don’t you want to go and do those things? Go with your brother and go have fun and do those things. But that’s really not his personality. That’s not his scene. He doesn’t want to meet new people, especially on a cruise ship. It’s not that social. And so finally he looked at me and he’s like, mom, this is my vacation, too.

[00:12:18.370] – Melissa Hamblin

And I was like, oh, I guess you’re right. I mean, his idea of a vacation is not going and making new friends and doing all these social activities with strangers. That does not sound fun to him. His idea of a vacation was just to sit and enjoy not doing anything and not having any demands on his time. And so I’ve learned that for him, that’s what he enjoys doing. And so I try to work some of that into every single vacation, even if we have busy vacations, because I know that’s kind of what his vacation goals are. So if you kind of ask your kids, what are your expectations? What do you think would be fun and just kind of try to work in a little bit of something for everyone.

[00:12:55.910] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And do they desperately want to swim at the pool, even though Disneyland is across the street? You know, they do not my kids.

[00:13:04.270] – Melissa Hamblin

Even if it’s a terrible pool, I think it’s going to be amazing if they’re going to want to try it out.

[00:13:09.290] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, I have Arizona kids, so unless it’s 120 degrees, they’re like, “it is too cold.”

[00:13:15.610] – Melissa Hamblin

I agree with them. I think it’s probably always too cold.

[00:13:18.260] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I love the idea of asking them what their goal is, though, because I think it’s really easy because we’re used to hauling baby kids with us. We don’t ask our little kids. You don’t ask for 18 months old what the goal is because they’d be like, look at a bug and you’re like, no. Then the other thing is sometimes, like Disneyland, getting back to Disneyland. My kids never wanted to ride, ride. They all were scared of Big Thunder. They were scared of Matterhorn. So there is a thing where you’re like, one of my goals is to just try and get you on a roller coaster. That’s one of my goals. I don’t care what your goal is. Letting them pick which one they want to go on or when they go on. It things like that, which parent they get a ride with.

[00:13:56.900] – Melissa Hamblin

Right. That makes sense. And sometimes you do have to, like, they don’t know what they want to do because they don’t know all the options. Maybe they would love Space Mountain, but they don’t know because they’ve never been on it. So you kind of have to ease them into those things, make it their goal. To Gregory is a good idea.

[00:14:12.890] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Or you take them on Ghost Galaxy, that horrific Halloween overlay and ruin them. And sometimes that happens, too. And it’s a great memory.

[00:14:21.250] – Melissa Hamblin

It’s all about making memories is what it’s about, right?

[00:14:24.740] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Ultimately, that’s really what all of our life is about.

[00:14:28.570] – Melissa Hamblin

And I found that family vacations I found a long time ago. I just have to adjust my expectations because a family vacation for parents, it’s more like a business trip. It’s not a vacation. I don’t know why we say vacation when it’s a family. It’s just a trip. Yeah. I’m working all the time. Like, I’m up late getting things ready for the next day or packing lunches or we were in Hawaii a few months ago and we rented a house and I made dinner every single night and I was doing laundry. I’m washing swimming suits and towels and they’re all in the hot tub having their best vacation ever and it wasn’t a relaxing vacation but that wasn’t really the point. The point was to be together as a family and that’s just what comes with being with your family. And so I knew that going into it so it didn’t bother me. I had a good attitude about it, but I’m definitely going to go back to Hawaii without the kids and have my family my alone vacation.

[00:15:23.850] – Hilary Erickson

I’ll bring my husband probably someone to do your laundry.

[00:15:27.070] – Melissa Hamblin

Yeah, that’s why I’ll bring him along. He can be in charge of the laundry next time.

[00:15:32.470] – Hilary Erickson

All right. So many good ideas. I think optimism is so important and I am absolutely horrible at it but I’m working on it with good friends like Melissa.

[00:15:40.850] – Melissa Hamblin

I think you’re good at you’re doing good. I feel like you’re getting better.

[00:15:45.010] – Hilary Erickson

I guess you’re optimistic tone.

[00:15:46.670] – Melissa Hamblin

That’s my optimistic point of view. Exactly.

[00:15:49.810] – Hilary Erickson

All right. Thanks for coming on, Melissa.

[00:15:51.680] – Melissa Hamblin

Thanks so much. It was fun to chat with you.

[00:15:53.970] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I think these are so many good tips, especially as we are coming to a summer where there’s probably going to be a lot of people traveling. Fingers crossed. I hope, I hope I don’t did you know that the pulling curls podcast had an entire month planned of travel episodes for may 2020? So I’m hoping that by recording this episode I’m not like bringing back some sort of a virus. But either way, let’s be optimistic that it’s just going to be a good summer for family travel with us and our good attitudes.

[00:16:26.900] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned, next week we are talking about moving to the postpartum floor with one of my very favorite TikTok creators. And if you’re not looking in pregnancy the week after that, we are talking about decluttering your kitchen which I think is so important and so hard. So stay tuned.

[00:16:42.740] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly and until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.

The post Being Optimistic in Parenting & Travel with Melissa from Mix In Some Magic — Episode 143 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

It is easy to have your summer revolve around your kids, but what can we do to make summer more fun for us as moms?

Today’s guest is Lara Neves from Overstuffed Life. Lara is the mom to three girls. She writes about parenting tweens & teens (even though two of her children have now graduated to adulthood), homemaking for busy moms, and how to find joy and balance in the overstuffed life mothers have to juggle.

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — summer time is a GREAT time to get into a fun routine, so you get work out of the way and can enjoy time together as a family.

In this episode

How summers can go awry.

How to find the balance between structure and fun.

Good ideas for summer fun

Other things that might interest you

Lara’s other episode on kids and summer

Fun activities for teens and tweens in the summer

Teen summer reading bingo

Camping Tips from Hilary

Camping tips from Lara

Lara’s Post on Girls Getaways

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.130] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to The Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 140, we’re talking about girls who just want to have fun. How do you make your summer fun even though you have kids? Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:21.690] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast. We untangle pregnancy, parenting, home, and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:43.810] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, before we get started, could you just take a look and see how long it’s been since I got a review? Because it’s really hurting my feelings. That is all. Please leave one. Thank you.

[00:00:51.360] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is pretty much the reason why Pulling Curls Podcast what it is today. I mean, Besides all of my hard work, but I’ve known her since our kids started kindergarten. We were really good friends. I met her through online scrapbooking. She is the owner at Overstuff Life. I want to introduce my friend Laura Neves.

[00:01:13.550] – Hilary Erickson

Are you overwhelmed by all there is to do around your house? As a new mom, I felt overwhelmed at every turn. Fortunately, I turned to system to make a change. Whether it’s mornings, dinnertime, or even just to climb out of a pile of kids clothes, my course family routines can save you. I hold your hand as we smooth out these rough patches, making every day easier so we can more easily handle when your preschooler tells you they can use their urine like a lightsaber. Parenting is always going to be a wild ride. Routines are just your seatbelt and they can support you. Use coupon code UNTANGLED to save 15% of checkout link in the show notes.

[00:01:50.970] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Laura. Welcome back to The Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:01:53.650] – Laura Neves

Hi, Hilary.

[00:01:54.430] – Hilary Erickson

So we were just saying Laura’s a summer expert. She talked to us about summer reading before. And this time we’re going to talk about mom having fun during the summer, too. But I was like she was saying she has so much snow at her house right now, it’s recording early in the year.

[00:02:08.730] – Laura Neves

Yes, it’s a lot of snow we have. And it’s negative 15 degrees right here, right now. Today I think it’s going to be 72.

[00:02:16.380] – Hilary Erickson

I think we’re at your summer right now.

[00:02:19.260] – Laura Neves

Yeah. Basically, you are, which sounds wonderful.

[00:02:23.340] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I would take this all year round, too. Okay. So it’s so easy to be like, I’ve got a summer plan. My kids are going to have so much fun. But then sometimes mom gets left out of the equation. Right? Like, you’re like, let’s do crafts every day. And then you’re like, I hate crafts.

[00:02:40.410] – Laura Neves

Right. Well, I think that a lot of times as Moms and I did this and I’m like, we’re going to have this great summer. We’re going to structure it. And on my blog, I have a lot of these ideas for these structured summers have a library day and do these crabs and summer reading is big at my house and all of those things. But yeah, a lot of times it ends up being maybe too structured, and mom ends up feeling tired and annoyed by everything. And sometimes then we let it all go, and that doesn’t work either. So it’s really important that we make sure mom is enjoying herself during the summer as well.

[00:03:15.850] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, because they’re always like, you only get 18 summers with those kids, right? I hate that sprays.

[00:03:20.610] – Laura Neves

Yeah. But I think we get more because my College girls have been coming home for summer. Right.

[00:03:27.450] – Hilary Erickson

That’s true.

[00:03:28.040] – Laura Neves

Don’t listen to it. But it’s true. If you want to enjoy your summer, you have to as a mom, enjoy it, because then if we’re not enjoying it, why would we be enjoying our kids?

[00:03:37.140] – Hilary Erickson

Exactly. Because you won’t have fun. And I tend to start out really structured, and I know every year that it’s going to just entropy will take effect. And by the time school starts, it will look very different than it did at the beginning. And I’m okay with that. I know that that’s how it’s going to go, right. And my kids know that, too.

[00:03:58.060] – Laura Neves

Yeah, that’s okay, too. And maybe that’s good to try to have a plan. I think for me, the best thing that I’ve done in the summer is we sit down at the beginning of the summer as a family, and we make a big old bucket list. What does everybody want to do this summer? What would you like to do? We write it on a big poster. Somebody might want to go do a day trip to the town 2 hours away and go shopping there or whatever. Another person might want to make sure we go to the beach. Another person might just want to go to the local place where you paint the ceramics, things like that, or whatever it is. And we come up with, I don’t know, there’s usually like 40 or 50 things on that list. Do we do them all? No, but I think that’s good. And mom should put her stuff on that list, too. What does mom want to do this summer?

[00:04:42.640] – Hilary Erickson

What if you just want to sit in your room alone?

[00:04:45.150] – Laura Neves

Well, that was one thing I was going to say. I think that Moms need to regarding that you can have the family bucket list. What are you going to do as a family? But Moms need to write down what do I want to do this summer just for me, by myself, without kids, without husband, without anybody. And yeah, things on that list for me sleep in. I don’t get to sleep in during the school year, and I am not a morning person. I know, Hillary, that may be sleeping doesn’t matter to you, but I need to sleep in the summer. And so I’m not going to schedule things that are some bright and early thing every day that doesn’t happen for us in the summer. I want to sleep in. I want to read more books. I want to do whatever it is I want to do by myself. And then you can move into what do I want to do with just my husband? Because that’s important, too. And then what do I want to do with my friends? Because being with your friends is important as well. And as your kids get older, you can do more without them.

[00:05:41.500] – Laura Neves

I know when they’re really little at home on the summer, that’s a little tougher. But you could arrange playdates with your friends so that you can be doing something with your friends. And hopefully the kids are a little bit more occupied with their friends.

[00:05:53.120] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So Laura and I both have kids that are older at this point. Like, we could just leave our kids and they would assist. They’re fine on their own. So Laura and I both have kids that are older. All of our kids are older, but we were friends when our kids were little and we were in the trenches of the summer. So just to give you an idea where we’re coming from, this is all in our past. There is no summer plan for me this summer. I have one home.

[00:06:18.580] – Laura Neves

No, I only have one at home, too. And she’s like, she’ll be 16 this summer. She’s already lived Huckleberry Finn life in the summer, which is great. So it’s good.

[00:06:27.950] – Hilary Erickson

I think it’s important for moms to realize that so much of our lives if you have kids in school now, if you home school, then this is probably a different story. But so much of our lives revolves around the school activities and to give ourselves that break in the summer, right?

[00:06:40.900] – Laura Neves

Yes.

[00:06:41.510] – Hilary Erickson

Because not only is it kids just not having homework, it’s just so nice to not have a routine and to feel the joy of that. You don’t need to Marshal everyone into a routine, although I have been guilty of that before.

[00:06:53.320] – Laura Neves

Me, too. And then I started to realize and maybe it was more important when they were little to have something of a routine because they get a lot more bored when they’re younger. So maybe that is more important then, but it’s still important that you’re enjoying yourself and not feeling like, oh, my gosh, today is library day, and I really don’t want to go to the library. Well, then don’t go to the library if you don’t want to go as the mom, if that seems too overwhelming to you, do something else with your kids or just let them invite some friends over and let them go and you read your book at home instead of having to go to the library and worry about them or whatever it is.

[00:07:27.470] – Hilary Erickson

And I would say the things that you are going to schedule in should definitely be things that you’re either up to doing right? Maybe we do crafts once a week. I can do them once a week, but I definitely cannot tolerate paint daily. I’m not that mom or glitter.

[00:07:40.350] – Laura Neves

Right? No glitter.

[00:07:41.590] – Hilary Erickson

Glitter glue once a month.

[00:07:42.610] – Laura Neves

Glitter. Glitter. Never. I still find glitter in my house from the few times we’ve ever used it. It’s a mistake.

[00:07:51.410] – Hilary Erickson

Glitter is always a mistake. We went to the library every week because our library had a really fun thing where the moms got to kind of sit in the back and they had an activity for little kids, and then my older kids got to go out and pick books. So it made it a nice activity that everyone could really enjoy on their level.

[00:08:06.700] – Laura Neves

Yeah. And whatever it is, because sometimes the weather is going to impact your plans. If you plan to go hiking and is a thunderstorm. Well, you’re not going hiking, so just be flexible, be adaptable, and don’t get to put out when things don’t work. And I think that makes it better as a mom. And I really do think that the idea of making sure you have things that, you know, you want to do during the summer and you make this a top priority. It helps. The self care is important. I think as moms, we are constantly putting our basic needs very last. We don’t, especially when our kids are little. But even now I sometimes do that one kid at home and she’s pretty busy, but I don’t see her that often. But even now, like, if she needs something, I’m like, jump to it and do what she needs and sometimes put whatever I had on the docket second or third or on the back burner because my kid needs me. And I think we need to be aware that we’re doing that too much sometimes and take care of ourselves, whatever that looks like for you.

[00:09:08.360] – Laura Neves

Remembering that self care isn’t self comfort necessarily like binge watching Netflix while you’re eating all the ice cream in the freezer. That’s really not taking care of yourself. You might need it after a day with all your kids, but make sure you’re doing the basic self care thing. Getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise for you, eating right, which is not eating all the ice cream in the freezer as much as you want to. And I think then you’re in a better place mentally, physically, emotionally than to deal with your kids all day during the summer.

[00:09:39.410] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I think food can be a really big thing during the summer because sometimes we end up just eating crap. Right. Also because I’m out of my routine of like, going to the grocery store every Friday, because that’s not part of our summer routine, you know what I’m saying? So we just either my kids have eaten all the food that happens, or I’m buying more snacks or I’m eating more snacks. Are you buying you the healthy things that you like. I love Avocado. So am I keeping Avocado in the house where that’s a healthy option versus Ben and Jerry’s, right.

[00:10:11.070] – Laura Neves

So, yeah, just be aware of those things. And it’s true. Our routines totally flip in the summer, and sometimes it takes a little bit of, I don’t know, trial and error to get back into an equilibrium that really works where we’re not just completely digressing into lumps of lazyness because that’s easy for the kids, too. And that’s why we want to have our summer schedule. That’s why his moms were like, I can’t let my child play Xbox all day. They’ve got to get up and do something and be productive human. We have to have fun. We have to make the most of summer. But there’s a balance.

[00:10:45.000] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And it’s sometimes hard to find.

[00:10:46.620] – Laura Neves

I will say usually.

[00:10:47.510] – Hilary Erickson

Like the weekend before school started, I just was like, whatever, it’s for the flies at this house, you could complain. Whatever device. As long as we’ve gone along and done lots of reading and done lots of activities that last week before school, I’m just like, get out of kids.

[00:11:02.350] – Laura Neves

You just get in there.

[00:11:04.710] – Hilary Erickson

Which all day, right? Yeah. Do you have any good activities that you found enjoyable as a mom? Mine was definitely the library when my kids were little because we could all enjoy it. It was free. That was a budget was a serious issue, and it’s a serious issue for a lot of people. I think we all look at Instagram and we’re like everyone’s on a trip every single week. And that’s not true, especially when your kids are little.

[00:11:25.760] – Laura Neves

Right. And the library, definitely. We did the library a lot when they were younger. I think most libraries have really good summer programs, and so ours did, too. And we can walk to the library from our house. And so that was always nice. We would always walk and head to the library. That was always fun because then they find new books and they come home. And usually library days, they’re happy to read for a little bit after we get back. And that’s great. So library is a big one. Where I live, I live on Lake Superior, so we would always go to the Lake every week, at least once, if not more. So go to the beach. I know that’s not something that everybody can do in their summer, but finding local nature, things to do that are easy and accessible and free. Again, if budget is an issue, we would just go to the beach for a day or go hiking, go explore the waterfalls in the area, things like that. A lot of times it’s just easy to walk down to the beach that’s just right here. Or we would drive to one that’s nicer.

[00:12:24.750] – Laura Neves

And then as my kids got a little older, they could just walk down to the beach themselves with friends. And that’s nice. Too. But yeah, we go kayaking every summer, sometimes just going on a walk with your kids every day. And then the things that at home crafts. My kids never really wanted to do the craft day that much.

[00:12:41.780] – Hilary Erickson

I have one that loves to craft.

[00:12:44.050] – Laura Neves

God bless her. We would sometimes family movie night. And in the summer it’s nice because you don’t have to wait till Friday, like Wednesdays family movie night, make pizza and popcorn, and we choose a movie and watch that or just fun things like that that you can make into the routine. But I feel like at least where I live, it’s very nature. There’s so much to do outside that we try to do a lot of that during the summer. And I know where you live. That’s not Arizona because I used to live where you live. So it’s harder here.

[00:13:16.160] – Hilary Erickson

We definitely did pool days and you can’t really bring your switch to the pool. So that makes it nice to have screens because of the water. But usually every area and then also ask on Facebook because when we moved here, I had little kids and I was like, what are the day trips? Because you just don’t know. And a lot of times other moms know really simple ones that aren’t going to mom with three little kids does not want to go on a twelve mile hike for sure. No, she wants a nature walk.

[00:13:43.380] – Laura Neves

No, thanks. Right.

[00:13:45.320] – Hilary Erickson

Other moms are great options for what’s available in your area or look on the Internet. Yeah. You guys went camping, right?

[00:13:53.320] – Laura Neves

Oh, yeah. We go camping every summer. We try to go camping. We have a lot of good places for that. And camping.

[00:13:59.870] – Hilary Erickson

I will say that I was not up for camping, but there came a point in my life that was the budget option for doing something as a family. And I ended up having a really good time doing it. We definitely had to simplify. I think Laura and I have camping ones on our website. I’ll link to those about like.

[00:14:15.560] – Laura Neves

I feel like camping. Camping is one thing that I think it’s not my favorite thing. But you’re right. Every time I go, we have a lot of fun and depending on where you can again, there’s a lot to do and see. And so it’s just a nice way to get away. And you have to get away from screens because there’s no way, there’s no service there. And it’s nice.

[00:14:36.090] – Hilary Erickson

And we’ve gone with other families. We’ve gone alone. Both have been good. And we definitely load up on the trashy snack food before we go. But you’re moving your body so much, you’re walking everywhere. It’s not like Hostess will kill you because of your otherwise sedentary life, right? Yeah. I think it’s so easy to forget about yourself when you’re planning summer with little kids because you’re just like, what are we going to do? And I definitely had an educational routine in the mornings where we did worksheets or science experiments where we really tried to do learning things in the morning, at least for the first few weeks of the summer. And then, like I said, it would degrade as the summer went on. But I think my kids learned a lot together and we had a good time. And I’m that mom. I am the worksheet mom. I love doing flashcards with little kids sticker books and worksheets. That’s what I enjoy, which is probably why they were integral to our summers.

[00:15:24.940] – Laura Neves

Well, and if that’s what you love, then that’s great. If that idea just makes you want to kill yourself, then don’t do it. But your kids will be fine. When they were little, I had worksheets and workbooks and things like that. But as I got a little older, most of us, I would just have a little thing that was like, okay, you can be on your phone as much as you want as long as you have exercise, read a little bit, done your chores, and I give them minimal chores during the summer. It’s clean your room. And one other thing, maybe we’re home enough and it’s not that bad. They can do a little bit and then they can go do whatever they want. And sometimes that is playing Xbox all day. Okay, I don’t love that. But if they’ve done what I asked them to do, then it’s fine. And then I have my time, too.

[00:16:13.780] – Hilary Erickson

Xbox is when it’s your time.

[00:16:15.720] – Laura Neves

Yeah, exactly. Because then I can read my book or whatever.

[00:16:18.560] – Hilary Erickson

I think that’s a good idea, though, because if you’re doing a lot of family activities, you may need the kids, especially if they’re older, to kick up their housework game. And again, it’s not like, let’s spend 6 hours cleaning. It’s just like, hey, can you wipe down the tub?

[00:16:30.690] – Laura Neves

Right? Exactly. That’s what I would do. I would just ask them to do one or two things easy every day, and that’s enough to upkeep in the summer. Yeah, sure. Good idea.

[00:16:39.600] – Hilary Erickson

And you had a great reading plan. I know you were on talking about reading before, but I think reading is a great time to really explore that. Just read whatever you want, but just read.

[00:16:47.940] – Laura Neves

Yeah. So I give my kids a bin of books on the first day of summer. We have a huge library at home because reading is something I’m really passionate about. So I just go through and pick books out of what we already have that I think they would like that. I know they haven’t read yet. Plus I end up buying one or two more that I think they would like for the summer. And I give them just like a box of their books for the summer. If they want to read them those books, that’s great. If they don’t get to them all, it’s not something that I force them to do. Or anything. It’s just like here it’s the presence of books, and they love that. And they read them usually, maybe only on rainy days or things nowadays, but they’ll read them. But yeah, books reading. So that was kind of a thing. Like I said now I don’t do anything for them over the summer, but we’re just here now.

[00:17:36.190] – Hilary Erickson

Lord of the Flies.

[00:17:37.020] – Laura Neves

Every day you have to read for half an hour before you get your screen time. They were perfectly fine with that. And usually they read for more than a half an hour. So it’s fine. Great.

[00:17:47.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And I think I tried to show my kids it’s so different than what it is during the school year because during the school year you had to read whatever your teacher said. And it’s just the joy out of it.

[00:17:57.910] – Laura Neves

Takes the joy out of reading sometimes.

[00:18:00.750] – Hilary Erickson

And when you’re going to the library so often, a lot of times we would explore the old what is it, Dewey Decimal System, where we’d be like, okay, today we’re going to hit the 500 and just see what there is in the 500s.

[00:18:11.280] – Laura Neves

That’s fine.

[00:18:11.830] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Because a lot of times my kids would be like, oh, I want to learn about Korea. And I’d be like, I don’t.

[00:18:16.810] – Laura Neves

But okay, right. Yeah. I remember my daughter who has a terrible fear of spiders. She checked out every book that she could find on spiders one day in the summer, and she spent her summer reading about spiders. Like, why are you doing that? She’s like, so I can get over my fear. Like, okay, great.

[00:18:33.180] – Hilary Erickson

That’s like me following plane captains on TikTok.

[00:18:40.410] – Laura Neves

Somehow it helps face those stairs.

[00:18:43.420] – Hilary Erickson

Any tips for moms on vacation? Because I think, well, first off, I think you have to have the expectation that it’s the trip, especially if you’re taking small children. It is not a vacation. It is the time to make memories. And those often take effort by mom.

[00:18:56.360] – Laura Neves

I think the best thing for moms on vacation, and I think we all fall into this getting so stressed, trying to have everything prepared and ready and then going and trying to wrangle everybody to have fun and forcing fun. This is my get extra stressed about it. I’m like yelling at them that we have to go have fun. I feel like when I’m just more laid back and I follow their lead and remember to talk to them, what are we going to do today? I don’t know if we’re in Chicago, for instance. That’s where we go a lot just because it’s driving distance. And what are we going to do today? What do you guys want to do today? And make sure they know they’re part of the planning. So it’s not like mom saying this is what we’re doing and having complaining kids dragging their feet. If they say they don’t want to leave the hotel room until ten, then we’re not going to leave until ten. There’s no reason to push. We’ll all have more funds that way. And I think that’s the most important thing for mom. Stop stressing so much that everything has to be a certain way on vacation.

[00:19:52.270] – Laura Neves

And then also just make sure your kids and your husband know that you do get stressed. If you have to do all the things, remind your kids, hey, if you’re staying in a hotel room, make sure you’re picking up your stuff and putting it back in your area so that the hotel room doesn’t look like a bomb went off every morning when we leave. Or if you’re camping, same thing. Make sure you’re in charge of your own space. And that way everybody is more happy, especially mom’s not going to be yelling at you all the day to clean up or feeling resentful that she’s cleaning up everybody else’s stuff. I mean, these are the trucks that I fall into anyway. But I think that everybody needs to realize that we are all in charge of our own fun and mom can’t be in charge of everything. So if they want to do something, we need to talk about it as a family and they need to take care of their own selves a little bit. I know when they’re tiny, that’s a little harder sometimes that feels so long ago, I don’t know, I don’t remember.

[00:20:42.410] – Laura Neves

But still, the same thing if you teach them when they’re little, hey, keep your stuff in here. This is your space for your things in the hotel room or the tent or wherever we are. And I guess that’s the thing I get the most stressed about. But otherwise, just have fun. If stuff doesn’t. If you don’t end up going to see whatever Museum, that’s okay. Just roll with the punches a little bit better instead of getting stressed that you have to be on a schedule. And I think that’s the thing for summer, for vacations. Moms, we get all stressed about having to keep a schedule. Nobody says that you’re putting that stress on yourself. There is no person above you saying you must do all of these things. If you go to Chicago, if you don’t hit the science center, then you are a terrible person. You know, your kids have missed out. No, it’s okay. If that’s what you miss, that’s what you miss. It’s fine.

[00:21:31.420] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah.

[00:21:32.550] – Laura Neves

Focus on the fun and enjoying the moment.

[00:21:34.380] – Hilary Erickson

And the good news is someday you’ll be a whole grown up that can go to Chicago on your own and go to the art museums on your own.

[00:21:42.360] – Laura Neves

Exactly.

[00:21:43.160] – Hilary Erickson

Do things the way you want to do them because you’re only at home for so long. Laura and I can say this now because we’re out of the theme, but there is going to come a point in time where you will be able to visit these cities and do the things that you want to do, like you want to do them. And it’s just different than when you take your kids.

[00:21:59.030] – Laura Neves

So focus on your kids, I guess, on vacation if they want to stay for 10 hours at the American Girl Doll store, even though that sounds not so fun to you.

[00:22:07.960] – Hilary Erickson

Just enjoy it or make a compromise.

[00:22:09.960] – Laura Neves

Let’s just make it five, right? Yeah. We spend a lot of time at the American Girl also, I have three girls, all girls. So that was a big Chicago thing. They wanted to do that more than they ever wanted to go to any of the science museums.

[00:22:25.530] – Hilary Erickson

But that’s your memory, right?

[00:22:27.080] – Laura Neves

Yeah.

[00:22:27.470] – Hilary Erickson

And it’s probably a funeral memory than it would be if you drag them to the art Museum.

[00:22:31.250] – Laura Neves

It’s true. Well, they did love the art museums, the science Museum they never wanted to go to anyway. Yeah.

[00:22:38.600] – Hilary Erickson

I always say with Disneyland, I’m like you have to decide what your goal is before you go to Disneyland. Is it to ride all the rides? Because some people do go to Disneyland with that being their goal. But then they need to realize that it’s not going to be as fun because their goal wasn’t fun. It was literally just to ride the ride.

[00:22:53.540] – Laura Neves

That’s kind of stressful, actually, to try to ride all the rides. Yeah. And so I think that’s important. You ask your kids, what do you want to do on this trip? And then everybody feels like they got to do their thing. And as long as you include Mom, mom wants to go to whatever, even if it’s just I want to eat at this restaurant or I want to make sure I go to the sides Museum, then include yourself in those goals and try to hit everybody in the family. Yeah.

[00:23:18.290] – Hilary Erickson

And I think it’s important to remind kids because I think kids have a sense of fairness that they had their time at the American Girl Doll store. And this is Mom’s time. We’re going to this restaurant. And I think kids are like, okay, I need to just make it through Mom’s restaurant. I can do this if they’re older than five. If they’re under three, everything’s a crapshoot. And we wish you the best, but you’re not going to be in that stage forever, even if you feel like you are.

[00:23:40.700] – Laura Neves

No. Yeah.

[00:23:41.960] – Hilary Erickson

And I do have friends who have just left the toddler’s home.

[00:23:44.920] – Laura Neves

Yes. And that’s okay.

[00:23:46.160] – Hilary Erickson

They leave the toddlers with Grandma. And Grandma really enjoys having one on one time with the smallest one. And then they take the older on a trip where the older kids will remember. And if that sounds more appealing to you, maybe you can work that right.

[00:23:56.900] – Laura Neves

Because we’re talking about Mom’s fun. And I think if you want to go to Chicago, go to Chicago with your friends, your girlfriends instead, and find places to leave your kids for a weekend. It’s the summer. You can still do that if you want to do a little girl’s trip or just with your husband and overnight some weekend somewhere? Go ahead and do that. Don’t feel bad just because it’s the summer and you need to be spending every second with your kids or everything needs to be a family deal. Yeah.

[00:24:25.640] – Hilary Erickson

And it can be easier to swap those weekends with friends during the summer.

[00:24:28.770] – Laura Neves

Yeah, exactly.

[00:24:31.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I agree.

[00:24:32.270] – Laura Neves

And honestly, your kids will be perfectly happy to go play with their friends for a weekend. That usually seems fun to them. They don’t care.

[00:24:40.260] – Hilary Erickson

And a quick plug that girls trips are so much cheaper than a family vacation.

[00:24:44.410] – Laura Neves

Oh, yes.

[00:24:46.450] – Hilary Erickson

This is so cheap compared to taking my whole family.

[00:24:48.950] – Laura Neves

Yeah, that is a really good thing. I have a post about girls weekends or girls trips on a couple of posts I think on my blog too. But it is it’s a lot cheaper because you don’t have to be paying for the whole family to do everything. You’re just paying for yourself and you get to do a lot of the things you might want to do with your family but they don’t want to do or it would be harder with kids. Plus, it’s cheaper. You’re still eating at your favorite restaurant but you don’t have to pay for six people or four people. You’re paying for one. Yeah.

[00:25:14.480] – Hilary Erickson

And you split the hotel costs. A lot of times you split transportation costs with other people. So it can be really affordable if you do it right.

[00:25:21.500] – Laura Neves

Exactly. I agree.

[00:25:22.800] – Hilary Erickson

Well, a lot of times adult things are pretty darn cheap. Depends. Yeah, that’s true. All right. Thanks so much, Laura. I hope this gave mom some ideas to fit them into their summer. I think that’s something we can all work towards.

[00:25:36.950] – Laura Neves

Yes. Thanks for having me.

[00:25:38.800] – Hilary Erickson

Hopefully you guys enjoyed that episode. I think it’s so good to not forget yourself and all these planning things. I think we get so caught up in planning for our kids that it doesn’t do us any favors. So thanks for coming on, Lara and definitely check out the post in the show notes.

[00:25:53.410] – Hilary Erickson

I think there’s a lot of good ideas for summers if you guys are looking for them and don’t miss next week’s episode is on how to get your confidence birth with an online prenatal class graduate. And if you’re not interested in pregnancy the week after that, we’re actually talking about organizing your house to get ready for summer, so stay tuned.

[00:26:09.110] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly. And until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.

The post 5 Things to Make Summer Fun For Mom with Lara Neves from Overstuffed Life — Episode 140 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Getting organized for a family trip is often so overwhelming that parents can’t get over it and relax on that trip (btw, a get away with kids is a trip — not a vacation, am I right?).  I love the tips and tricks in this post to help you get ready quickly and easily for your next trip

Our guest is Kim Fidler from Get Away Today, where she is the Internet Marketing Director.  She’s also the writer behind my Pregnant at Disneyland post.  She’s also one of my VERY favorite people to hang out with.  Someday we’ll go to Disneyland together.  Until then this podcast will have to do.

This post is inspired by all of my family travel posts.  I give lots of tips and tricks for picking a spot, picking activities and saving money!

Big thanks to this week’s sponsor, Family Routines — if you’re looking to pack and make trips less stressful, I have a whole chapter on that.  Instead of being stressed out with forgetting something, I will help you streamline it and have your family help you get ready!  BTW, don’t miss the coupon code mentioned in the episode!

In this episode we’re going to talk about

• Choosing where to go
• How to organize packing
• Deciding on where to stay (you might be interested in ALL of my Disney hotel travel reviews that helps you know what I look for in a room).
• How to stay organized while “on the road”.

Other things you might be interested in:

• My 2nd episode of my podcast where I share my #1 tip for family travel.
• My love story with Get Away Today that runs back to 1998.
• Other things to do in Southern California (includes Legoland)

Some of my favorite trip info:

• Yellowstone for Families
• 20 essentials for Car Trips
• My Trip Calculator (it’s set for Disneyland, but you can use it for any trip!)
• Great things about camping (I know, you’re surprised, I was too)
• Family-Friendly Fun in Hollywood
• Flagstaff, AZ
• Tucson, AZ
• Cruising with Kids
• Passports for Kids
• Audible Alternatives on Road Trips
• Kanab, UT
• Grand Canyon in a Day

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out all of our travel episodes:

Check out all of our podcasts:

Show Transcript:

Hilary Erickson  0:00  
Hey guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast! Today, on Episode 26, we’re talking about planning trips. That’s right. We’re going to talk about like, how to decide where to go. And my guest has a really interesting way about how they decide where to go. We’re going to talk about staying organized, of course, and I love one of the golden tips that my friend Kim gives about keeping kids in the loop about what’s going on. So, let’s untangle it.

Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast, where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting, home routines, even some family travel because, heavens knows! Our lives are tangled. I’m your host, Hilary Erickson.

Hey guys, today’s guest is one of my favorite people. She is actually someone that I work with on the blog. She is the internet marketing director at Get Away Today, which you guys know I always plan my Disney trips through. We’ve actually just become really good friends because we’ve been at conferences and stuff together. And she’s just really fun. So I ended up really liking her. She, of course, is at Get Away Today and if you want to book with getaway today, I of course have a $10 coupon code and they are my favorite people to book with for Disneyland. I will have all the information about that in the show notes. You can find her at Get Away Today on Instagram and if they ever post about a raspberry macaroon, you can guarantee that it was inspired by my friend Kim Fiddler.

This episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by Family Routines, how to automate your housewife life. Ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids? Being able to spend less time with a mundane task and more time teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need. Family Routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy. Save 15% with the coupon code UNTANGLED. You can find it at pullingcurls.com and the menu under COURSES or in this episode’s show notes.

Hey, Kim! Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here today.

Kim Fiddler  1:51  
Thank you Hilary. I’m so excited to be here.

Hilary Erickson  1:53  
Yeah. So you guys know, like I said in the intro, that Kim works at Get Away Today. But we are not just talking Disney today. She has lots of little people at her house and I thought it would be fun to talk to someone who does travel all the time about taking those kids lots of different places, right?

Yeah. How do you decide where to go? Especially working at a travel agency, there must be so many good options.

Kim Fiddler  2:07  
Yes.

It’s a lot. And there are so many good options. So right now my kids are, in fact, my youngest just turned three yesterday. So my kids are three, four, and six. And we have been traveling since my first one was born. My kids are all really good roadtrippers and of course Disneyland’s super easy because of course, I work at Get Away Today and it’s either a car ride or a quick flight. So, Disneyland’s always a great option. But we decide where to go, really based on where we can drive, or where we can do a nonstop flight. I will not do any connecting flights with little kids. So those are my two requirements. Either have to drive it or nonstop. Mike will go somewhere maybe farther or whatever, when they’re a little bit older. But for now, that’s what we base all of our decisions on.

Hilary Erickson  2:54  
That makes sense. So have you ever had a flight canceled and you had to do a connecting flight… with littles?

Kim Fiddler  2:59  
Not with my kids, no.

Hilary Erickson  3:00  
Oh, living the dream.

Kim Fiddler  3:01  
Thank goodness. I would probably be the like nightmare passenger that throws a fit and demands nonstop and to be put up until you can handle that. So, luckily we haven’t been put in that position yet.

Hilary Erickson  3:11  
That is awesome. That’s a great way to decide because I think for families, they are so open. Where do you go. And, do you have any favorite places you have gone maybe in the US?

Kim Fiddler  3:21  
Yes. So in the US for our kids’ ages again, we- we live in Utah so we like the western states particularly. Of course Southern California is awesome. My kids, if they could pick anywhere in the world to go it really is Legoland California because it’s designed for little, little kids. And you can just play an explore. Of course you’re by the beach. It’s just awesome. We also love Arizona. Where you live, Hilary. We love going to Arizona it’s warm year round. There’s great children museums and the zoo is awesome. You have the aquarium, that fun little area in Scottsdale, there’s just all sorts of stuff there in Arizona.

Hilary Erickson  3:55  
Yeah, Arizona is great. Just not in July.

Kim Fiddler  3:57  
Yes, we try not to go on July, normally March. You can get in some spring training games. It’s good, good times.

Hilary Erickson  4:02  
Yeah, Arizona is a great place for families. There is a lot up in Scottsdale. So super fun. So how do you decide where to stay? Because, I know when I had little kids, my requirements of where to stay were different than they are now for sure.

Kim Fiddler  4:14  
Yes. So my kids, they have to have some place with a breakfast. We’ve occasionally done some like Airbnbs, if we’re going to be staying for a long time or if we need a kitchen, but a lot of times, any hotel will do. We try to base it on convenience versus effort. And it has to be nice. I won’t take my kids to a sketchy area. It needs to be safe, of course. And then we need a breakfast and we want to be close. And, when I’m doing that I like to stay close where I’m going to be early the next morning. For some reason, morning travel is like, no good with my little kids, I’m like if we’re going to be doing an attraction I want to stay right by that attraction the night before. If we’re going to be at a museum I want to be right by that museum the night before whatever it is that we’re doing, I want to be close the night before. It just makes the next morning run so much smoother.

Hilary Erickson  4:59  
Yeah, that makes sense. And that’s a good idea when parents are trying to pick. Because you know, when you pull it up on a website, there’s just all this option. So it’s nice to be able to narrow it in.

Kim Fiddler  5:09  
Yes, that’s that’s what I do anyway.

Hilary Erickson  5:11  
Yeah, your kids have any weird requirements. My kids couldn’t see me when they were asleep, or they would cry. So anything weird like that?

Kim Fiddler  5:18  
Oh, that’s funny. So as far as weird requirements, my kids are pretty chill. And I attribute that to us, kind of making them be chill, by traveling with them from a very young age. It’s not new to them. It doesn’t matter if we’re on a cruise ship. If we’re in a weird hotel, in a city they’ve never been, they, just are fine. As long as we’re all together. That’s really all they care about is making sure Mom and Dad are both there. So.

Hilary Erickson  5:18  
Oh, that’s cool. Have you traveled with your kids without your husband?

Kim Fiddler  5:42  
Ooh, I don’t think so. I’m not that brave.

Hilary Erickson  5:45  
Yeah, ugh. Little kids and travel.

Kim Fiddler  5:47  
I know. We have three, I don’t like to be outnumbered, now.

Hilary Erickson  5:51  
You’re already outnumbered. I don’t know what math you’re doing.

Kim Fiddler  5:53  
Well, that’s just really way too much. So yeah, I would not do that.

Hilary Erickson  5:57  
All right. So, what kind of tips do you have for packing for small kids? Because your kids are little enough that you’re pretty much doing it all. Right?

Kim Fiddler  6:03  
Okay, Yes. And now. And again, I attribute this all to just being consistent and always doing it. Ever since Liam was born, I learned this trick and I have used it with all of my kids and I pack everything. I do start packing a few days before we go some. If it’s a big long trip, I mean, we’re talking two weeks, I will start packing a week before. Because I’m not gonna miss a day or anything like that. Each child has their own Ziploc bag for each day of the week. I write the name of the day of the week on it. I don’t write the kids name. They know what clothes are theirs. And then it includes their shirt, shorts or pants, underwear, and socks for the day. And for Ruby, our baby girl, any accessories. It’s everything that they’re going to wear that very day, I let them help me pick it. And my four year old is now to the point where I’m like, okay, we need four shirts, four shorts, and four underpants. He comes, he knows exactly how to stack them up perfectly. And we just put those on the Ziploc bags and then we have everything. There’s no arguments over what you’re going to wear. You don’t lose socks, you don’t lose anything. And that is how I pack and then of course, I wait for toiletries until the night or the morning ah..for toothbrushes and everything else, but I have everything organized, we just put that in very last. But everything else is done, days ahead of time. And in a very orderly fashion. And I just spread it out all over my bedroom. Like, for the time being, it’s like 21 little bags of clothes, or whatever it needs to be. It’s nice because you can squish the air out of them. They fit really well. I just put them all in one suitcase. It’s really nice.

Hilary Erickson  7:20  
Yeah. So do you put the kids in a separate suitcase than you? Usually?

Kim Fiddler  7:23  
I do. Yeah, I do the kids separate.

Hilary Erickson  7:25  
So what we do, is all my kids, so I have kids 10 to 19. Although the 19 year old doesn’t come with as much with- I just give them their own suitcase now. I’ve given up and I figure if they wear the same pair of underpants all week. That’s their own problem.

Kim Fiddler  7:37  
That’s that. That’s on them. Absolutely. With these kids’ ages. This is what works for us when they’re older. And because they’ve learned how to pack for themselves, I myself probably be pretty okay.

Hilary Erickson  7:47  
Yeah, I think so. I think scouting also helped my boys definitely. Because they would get out there with zero clothes or… Like, life lessons. And yeah, yeah. Yeah. Any tips so it sounds like you’re pretty organized. Any other tips about staying organized while you’re gone?

Kim Fiddler  8:02  
That… I always try to do this. So, sometimes, like I mentioned, I like to stay close to the attraction that we’re going to, we will occasionally switch hotels during trips. If I do that, I will organize our backpacks or our suitcases or whatever we’re taking. Not into, all the kids clothes on this one and all the adult clothes on this one. I’ll do it based on where we’re staying. So I’ll be like, this is our monday, tuesday bag, this is our Wednesday through Friday bag and then I will chunk it out that way instead, I always try to keep dirty clothes I of course use the, like the laundry bags at the hotels. Get the plastic ones, I just put whatever dirty clothes in that from that time. And then I will put that. If we drive it’s a lot easier sometimes. And sometimes we’ll just drive because it’s easier because then you can put all the dirty clothes and stuff you’re not using just back in the car and you’re not hauling it in back and forth.

Hilary Erickson  8:45  
Yeah.

Kim Fiddler  8:46  
To your hotel room. Other tips for staying organized. I would say, before you go, just having a very you don’t want to over schedule that a very clear plan of what you’re going to do. Because in my experience when I haven’t known what we’re doing or we haven’t had somewhere to go or something in mind the kids get restless. They just like to know. and I don’t like keeping my kids trapped in a hotel room or or even an Airbnb, anything like that for an extended period of time. So yeah, I think anything you can do beforehand is just going to make your vacation go a lot more smoothly, particularly with young kids.

Hilary Erickson  9:17  
Yeah. And I love that about having a clear plan because my kids are always like, what are we doing? How long are we staying there? What hotel are we going to be at? Does that hotel have breakfast? Is there a pool? Is there?

Kim Fiddler  9:26  
Yes.

Hilary Erickson  9:26  
Is there a maitre d? Can I have a concierge? Can it.

Kim Fiddler  9:30  
Seriously, like it’s like, Where’s the sushi? For reals? Like?

Hilary Erickson  9:36  
How close is the nearest sushi? What? So if you’re going to switch hotels, is it just based on the attractions that you’re going to? So like Orlando Disneyland, maybe a switch, clearly.

Kim Fiddler  9:45  
Yes, exactly. We’ve done trips where we’ve done one or two nights at Universal Studios by Hollywood, and then we’ve gone and done a few nights and Disney and then we’ve gone and. We’ve even done, I’m not kidding, like when I say I like to be really close to the attraction when we do Knott’s Berry Farm. I don’t Stay by Disneyland, we stay in a park and we do Knott’s Berry Farm the next morning. And then, after that, then we’ll go down into Disneyland and stay there. But it just makes our days go a lot more smoothly. And I’m willing to pack up and do another hotel because of the pre-organization to make that go smoother. Yeah. Now some people that- that’s not going to work for and that’s totally fine. It’s just what we preferred it.

Hilary Erickson  10:20  
Yeah, that makes sense. And especially in LA. I think, if people aren’t used to LA and the traffic, and all that. They might think, oh, they’re only you know, 20 miles apart, but those 20 miles are like 100 miles.

Kim Fiddler  10:33  
Oh, they can take forever. There was one time we went from,yeah, Laguna Beach. We’ve been staying in Laguna Beach. And then we were like, oh, we’ll just go to Universal Studios for the afternoon. Because at that point in time, I had an annual pass and it took us three and a half hours in traffic. And I’m like, never again, like we’re just not going to do that. You just do need to understand when you travel someplace else, it’s likely not the traffic patterns that you’re used to at home and it is it can really throw a wrench in your plans if you don’t do that. So we just like to eliminate that. We never want to be late to a theme park, especially because you get your best time in the morning. And we just like the day to start off on a good foot and not battling traffic.

Hilary Erickson  11:09  
That makes total sense. I like that tip. All right, Kim, thanks so much for coming on. I’m sure we’ll have you on for more Disney tips. But I like this one on basic family trip ideas. Hopefully it helps everybody out.

Kim Fiddler  11:18  
Thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Hilary Erickson  11:21  
All right. Thanks, Kim. Talk to you later.

Kim Fiddler  11:22  
Bye.

Hilary Erickson  11:23  
Okay, guys, I hope you really enjoyed that episode. I loved how Kim talked about having a clear plan and how that can help your family vacation. I think that’s something that sometimes we just go to a destination thinking we’re just going to do whatever, but kids thrive on knowing what’s going to happen, knowing what to expect. And so I really like that idea. It’s very different than traveling if you just went with you and your husband, versus taking kids, especially little kids or kids who have anxieties or all those kinds of things. So, great tips.

If you want to learn more about the information that we shared with in here you can check out the show notes you can find that the pullingcurls.com/podcast. Today’s episode is number 26. Big thanks to our sponsor family routines. I have a whole packing section in there. So if you’re like I that is one of the worst parts of my trip is getting my family pack for a trip. Check it out, you can save 15% with coupon code UNTANGLED. Check it out in the show notes or on my site under COURSES. Big thanks to Kim for coming on today’s episode. She has so many good tips about traveling with little kids. I know I personally didn’t actually travel that much when I had little kids like her. Of course, I was a labor and delivery nurse, and she is a travel agent so different lifestyles, but hopefully she gave you some great ideas. If you liked today’s episode, I would love it if you leave a little review they mean so much we’d love it if you’d subscribe so that they can notify you every time we drop an episode which happens on Mondays for the Pulling Curls Podcast. Until then, I hope you have a tangle free day!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Organizing for Family Trips with Kim Fidler from Get Away Today— PCP 026 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Guys, today I am SO excited to do this Disneyland scavenger hunt with you! we’re gonna walk through the park listening to some of my favorite sounds.

Of course, we love going to Disneyland — we book with Get Away Today and we JUST returned from a trip at Christmas time. It was magical as all get out. I’m still swooning from all the fun we had. And yes, I have used them since 1998.

I am a HUGE fan of creating a Disneyland Budget and I actually have a trip calculator:

Mentioned in this post:

• Headphones for loud rides
• Christmas at Disneyland
• Things that might scare your kids at Disneyland
• Podcast 008 on Best Time to go to Disneyland
• Disneyland Maxpass Tips

Other things you might find helpful:

• Pregnant at Disneyland
• Best places to eat at Disneyland
• Knotts Berry Farms vs Disneyland
• Food I hate at Disneyland that everyone else loves!
• Plan your day at Disneyland or California Adventure

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check-out my travel podcasts:

No transcript this week because it’s a LOT of audio…. go listen!

The post Disneyland Audio Scavenger Hunt — PCP 017 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

This episode introduces one of my favorite Disneyland Experts — Jessica Sanders from Happiest Blog on Earth and @disneylandplan on Instagram. She can even help you plan your next visit! What you can find on her blog:

• Special needs at Disneyland Resort
• Picking the right time of year/date to visit
• Placing rides in the optimal order
• Navigating Disneyland Resort with young children

This episode was inspired by my post on the Best Time to Go to Disneyland {also written by Jessica — with a lot of commentary from the curly head herself}. Be sure to grab my Disneyland Plan:

Big thanks to this episode’s sponsor Family Routines. Because I KNOW you wish your family helped more when a vacation comes — check out my advice on encouraging kids to pack themselves!

In this episode we’re talking about:

• What happens at Disneyland throughout the year, what to expect during each season
• What to expect with the Halloween event
• What makes Christmas at Disneyland so jingle-bell exciting!
• What to expect during the Food & Wine festival
• More info on the “Super Hero Themed Land” (they just announced they are going to call it Disney Avengers Campus — Jessica has all the details in that post)
• When to find the lowest crowds (but, also what you’ll miss if you go at a low-crowd time)
• Why going at crowded times isn’t always a bad idea!
• Jessica shares her optimal time to go, her favorite ride (100% different than mine), and her favorite treat (which I have never tried) & her favorite age to take a kid to Disneyland.

It’s gonna make you ready to book a trip!

Items & posts mentioned in this episode:

• Halloween at Disneyland / Jessica has a great post with all the Oogie Boogie Bash updates!
• Christmas at Disneyland / Jessica has a great post on Snow at Disneyland!
• What to do when it’s busy at Disneyland
• Taking Care of Your Feet at Disneyland
• How much does it cost to go to Disneyland?

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check-out my other travel podcasts:

Transcript:

Hilary Erickson 0:00
Hey guys on episode eight of the pulling girls podcast we’re talking about DISNEYLAND!

It’s my favorite and I cannot wait to share. I’ve got my friend Jessica from the Happiest Hlog on Earth coming on. We’re going to talk about all the four seasons of the year and kind of what to expect during each of those areas. We’re going to talk about maybe some of the best times to go to Disneyland if you want to avoid crowds, but we’re also going to say some interesting stuff about crowds that maybe you hadn’t thought of and little known fact Jessica’s favorite ride is my least favorite ride. Find out which one it is. Let’s untangle it.

Welcome to the pulling girls podcast where we untangle everything from pregnancy parenting, home routines, even some family travel because heavnes knows our lives are tangled. I’m your host, Hilary Erickson.

Hey guys, today I want to introduce one of my very favorite people on this planet. She in fact is one of like three people who’s ever written a guest post on Pulling Curls that is in fact how much I like her. She is a Disneyland expert at the Happiest Blog on Earth. She helps you navigate special needs plan the best time of the year to visit make a ride plan and navigate Disneyland with small children because I know a lot of you guys have those issues. You can find her at @DisneylandPlan on Instagram I want to introduce you to one of my favorite people. Jessica Sanders.

Sponsor 1:15
This episode of The pulling girls podcast is sponsored by family routines how to automate your housewife life. ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids being able to spend less time at the mundane tasks and more time teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need family routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy. Save 15% with a coupon code untangled you can find it at PullingCurls.com in the menu under courses or in this episode show notes.

Hilary Erickson 1:47
Hey, Jessica, welcome to the boys and girls podcast. I think this is gonna be the happiest podcast on Earth. What do you think

Jessica Sanders 1:53
I’m hearing? That’s the vibe we’re throwing out today. So I’m super excited.

Hilary Erickson 1:57
Yeah, this is gonna be awesome. So I know I get the email all the time, as I’m sure you do, since you do all Disneyland all the time, when should I go to Disneyland? So we’re going to talk about all the Four Seasons kind of what to expect any special events of a particular times. Good. So let’s jump into it. What do you think we’re in fall? So let’s talk about fall first. What do you think Jessica, what happens in the fall at Disneyland

Jessica Sanders 2:19
Fall to me is the new summer because more and more schools have fall break? Yeah. So people go in the fall and they expect lower crowds. And that’s not typically what you’re going to get. But my main idea for talking to people about when to go to Disneyland is also to let them know that there’s something for every season so that’s why we’re talking about all the seasons. Don’t let the crowd scare you away. There’s a reason they’re there because there’s so much going on. So starting with fall, we have Halloween time. And the Halloween party that is new this year called the boogie bash.

Hilary Erickson 2:58
Oh my gosh, it looks like so much fun. So the Halloween parties moved from Disney Land to California Adventure. So that’s going to be exciting. I have always loved how California Adventure was decorated for Halloween last year. I thought it was so fun with the bats coming out of what is it? Carthy circle.

Jessica Sanders 3:13
Yeah, Carthy.

Hilary Erickson 3:14
I just think it’s so fun. Okay, so the Halloween Party, which is awesome. Now that’s an extra cost just so everybody knows it. It doesn’t it come with your ticket? Right? But and I’ve never been What’s it like?

Jessica Sanders 3:24
So there’s trick or treating. And this is for everyone, adults and kids. Everyone could dress up or you could decide not to, but you’ll really want to dress up if you’re going to be buggy bash. My husband was like, Oh, you guys go ahead and Trick or treat. And I was like, Oh, no, you are trick or treating. And by the first trick or treat, stop. If you have any reservations about it as an adult, you’re like, Oh, I’m totally in like When’s the last time you went trick or treating? It’s so fun.

Hilary Erickson 3:52
Oh, that’s awesome. That sounds like so much fun.

Jessica Sanders 3:54
Yeah, so that’s like the main part of the Ooggie boogie bash trick or treating dressing up. There’s exclusive entertainment, and you mentioned that it’s an extra cost because it is after hours but there’s so much going on during Halloween time at both Disneyland and California Adventure that you don’t need to feel left out if you decide not to purchase that extra ticket this year new in 2019 they are bringing the Halloween screams fireworks to Disneyland and before that was limited only to Halloween party guests so now this is for everyone. You don’t need a ticket to that special party just your regular Park ticket you can see those awesome Halloween screams fireworks

Hilary Erickson 4:38
Oh my gosh, I bet they are amazing. I love Disneyland fireworks they give me all the feels

Jessica Sanders 4:42
yes and the chills are Halloween time scary.

Hilary Erickson 4:45
All right. Are we ready to move into winter? Let’s do it. All right,

Jessica Sanders 4:49
So winter, you just have like pixie dust vomited all over Disneyland in the most magical jingle bell way we have sleeping beauties castle. That’s decked out with snow and lights and there’s snow throughout Disneyland Resort they have snow at California Adventure like snow falling fake snow falling enough to trick your kids. And if you like snow enough to trick yourself into thinking that the snow is falling new holiday parades, I mean not new this year, but they return at holiday season holiday fireworks and my favorite part is festival of holidays, which is that California Adventure they line the parade route with all kinds of food booths where you can try different foods and drinks they’re like smaller kind of light bite things not light and calories by any means. Um, last year alone, they introduced 75 seasonal desserts. Oh my gosh, desserts for the holidays. And I tried them all. No I didn’t. But I definitely made a dent.

Hilary Erickson 5:57
Oh that sounds we went we are going Christmas. Well, we’re going in November this year. So I’m super excited. But you walk down that thing and you’re just ever all the smells make you just so happy.

Jessica Sanders 6:07
Totally. There’s lots of things to make you happy, which is fantastic during winter months, especially if you live somewhere that’s not as warm as Arizona.

Hilary Erickson 6:16
I know.

Jessica Sanders 6:17
People love to come to Disneyland during the holidays because it really gets them out of that winter rut and just lifts your mood. Whether you come in November or like super early January, you’ll still get that holiday.

Hilary Erickson 6:29
That’s so awesome. I know for us in Arizona because we have a hard time kind of feeling the holiday spirit when it’s still 98 degrees outside. It’s super exciting. The kids love the snow. It was just so much fun. We’re super excited to go back this year.

Jessica Sanders 6:43
Yeah, that’s a good point too. If it doesn’t cool down enough to feel like it’s Christmas time. There’s no better way to make you in the holiday spirit then getting to Disneyland Resort during the holidays.

Hilary Erickson 6:54
Yes, gotta love winter. So January comes what happens well I mean, that’s still winter I guess. Yeah beautiful time of year as Arizona but it’s headed into spring. What do we I know this year we’ve got the new Star Wars ride launching but not every year. What happens in spring?

Jessica Sanders 7:12
Okay, so first, let’s say a little bit about like January February. Yeah, they do have Lunar New Year and January, February is kind of like a typical, slower season. But Lunar New Year celebrates prosperity and good fortune. And again, they line the parade route with food booths of Asian inspired cuisine. So if you’re going during that time, where typically the park hours are more limited, and a lot of things are under refurbishment, because — while they call it a slow season, I don’t say call it slow season because of the no one there. There’s always people there but there’s still something good to enjoy more food and more drinks and more rides. But in spring, I mean, are you sensing a theme here? We have food and wine festival food and wine Again, a lot like festival of holidays, but they have obviously a heavy focus on the wine and the drinks, but it is a family event. So this is not an extra cost. Food and Wine Festival is open to anyone that has a ticket to California Adventure Park. And you can choose whatever foods and drinks you want to try. They do have mocktails for kids, or those of us like me who don’t drink alcohol, and lots of things to try. And it’s usually California inspired cuisine. So these are things that are grown in California think avocados, strawberries, citrus, and they really celebrate the spirit of California. So you’re going to have some fresh, delicious things to eat and try during the spring.

Hilary Erickson 8:48
Oh man, that sounds delicious. I know we used to go the week after Presidents Day because we we get that off in California when we lived there. So that’s something to keep in mind that that week tends to be a little bit busier with winter break for California schools gap.

Jessica Sanders 9:02
There’s really school breaks all the time. People often ask me what are the school breaks in LA in Orange County. And really that’s not going to get you far because Disneyland pulls guests from all the neighboring states plus Canada, they have some different breaks there. So don’t necessarily plan based off of when as a school break, plan on what’s good for you and just have a good attitude about it and be excited about whatever is being offered because I guarantee something is going to be offered.

Hilary Erickson 9:33
Yeah, we went last fall break and it’s Arizona’s fall break and everyone at the park I swear is from Arizona, but it was so exciting. They had extra stuff open, and they’re still always so many fun things to do if you just keep a positive attitude, even though it’s crowded and busy.

Jessica Sanders 9:47
Absolutely.

Hilary Erickson 9:48
Alright, so beyond that, as we had more into the actual spring months, what do we see at Disneyland

Jessica Sanders 9:53
So if you’re getting closer to Easter, they have some special events for Easter. One that’s geared more towards younger kids. They have an extravaganza it’s kind of an egg hunt. But these are stationary eggs. They’re large and the kids buy a map, they find the eggs and they get a little prize at the end again with food and wine that’s going on. And we start to see sometimes some new things opening up. You mentioned on the second ride for galaxys edge that’s actually opening in January. So we kind of passed over that. But if they’re opening new entertainment or new rides, a lot of times they do that the end of May. It’s just a guess. But that happens a lot.

Hilary Erickson 10:34
Yeah. And I know going in the future we’re going to start to see Marvel land open up not next year, but the year after that, right.

Jessica Sanders 10:40
So right now we say 2020, but we have no other information. By the time the podcast airs, we might have some more information. I’m suspecting I’m going to get some more information real soon. Maybe not a date, but possibly a name because for now, it’s called superhero themed land. We don’t know what it’s going Because at this point,

Hilary Erickson 11:02
Well it’s like having a baby. They don’t name until they see it. Right, right. All right, headed into summer. What do we see at Disneyland

Jessica Sanders 11:10
Summer is your all access pass. So you’re going to see a majority of rides and attractions open. They typically don’t do refurbishment in the summer unless it’s like a really extensive one. Right now we’re seeing with the red trolley, and that’s because of the superhero themed land where that track is just getting some makeover things. But right now everything’s open, you’re going to see a full schedule. So that means the park opens at eight, sometimes seven closes at midnight, and that’s general with Disneyland during peak season. So even on the weekends and through the holidays and things like that California venture always closes earlier than Disneyland. But in the summer, it’s 10 or 11, just depending on the days but you just have that much more more time to explore a lot of people are scared by summer crowds. There’s some things they’ve done to combat the crowds, such as blocking out certain level of annual pass holders and things like that. So really in the summer, you’re seeing the typical tourist. And and because you have such a big part of the calendar that covers summer break, you’re not cramming everyone into Disneyland at one time. You know, over the holidays, everyone has basically those same two weeks off, or at least that week off between Christmas and New Year’s. So that’s really where you see more crowds because everyone can go at one time, but summer, it’s a lot more spread out. So don’t be afraid to go and summer and then use those Park hours to your advantage.

Hilary Erickson 12:46
So go early, stay late.

Jessica Sanders 12:47
Yeah, take a break. If you want to spread out your trip. Definitely if you’re getting three or more days, I always recommend at least three days but spread those out. You don’t need to use your ticket on consecutive days and you can take a break so many of the hotels around Disneyland are just upping their game with the pools and water slides. You want to use that so take a break go back to your hotel or hit the beach take a day off your feet will definitely thank you

Hilary Erickson 13:16
oh yeah feet. thats the worst at Disneyland, my feet hate me. Alright so Jessica which is your favorite season at Disneyland Which one do you love to be there at?

Jessica Sanders 13:25
That is such a hard question. And I’m trying to like make myself think of an answer by saying like if I could only go once a year but that’s kind of the typical guests experience. I’m not a typical guests because I’m there all the time. But if I could only go once a year, I probably would pick sometime during the winter because I always get a little seasonal winter blues and I need that sunshine and I need something to warm my soul and Disneyland definitely does that. So whether that be during the holidays, or maybe like January, February. I would hit Disneyland at one of those time.

Hilary Erickson 14:02
Yeah, that’s a great idea. Jessica lives in Utah. And so it gets just dark and dreary and sad during the winter months. I know I remember that growing up there. So that makes total sense. My favorite time is Christmas for sure. I probably because we live in Arizona, it’s hard to get real festive in the heat. But it’s just so magical. Just like you said, pixie dust vomited everywhere. And I just love it.

Jessica Sanders 14:23
Yes, we’ll just grab all that pixie dust and take it home with us.

Hilary Erickson 14:27
So if people are really looking to avoid crowds, which I know is difficult, are there two or three times that you would say to kind of look at your schedule and if you can fit it in if you want to go at a less crowded time?

Jessica Sanders 14:37
Yeah, so let’s start with the beginning of the year, typically right after the holidays. And so it’s pretty much the after the first week of January. They take all the holiday stuff down, things start closing for refurbishment, and the hours are definitely cut back. So people are like what am I going for? Well, you can go at that time for lower crowds and That’s going to be before Lunar New Year starts. So you’re going to get this little in between space. That’s good. Spring Break, again, is kind of spread out, like we talked about summer, not as much, but I wouldn’t completely avoid it or worry too much about it in the summer. We talked about that a little bit. But if you can go right before memorial day week, like not that week, but the week before, that typically is lower. This year was an extreme exception, because we had Star Wars Galaxys edge opening the next week. And so everyone went that sweet spot before and they had some great ticket deals this year is just different because of those and many other factors. So when you start planning and if you say I’m going to go, you know, before Memorial Day weekend, and people say oh, last year that was awful. take that with a grain of salt because 2019 was a different beast. In the fall. I would Say right the week after Labor Day, so I would give it like because labor days on a Monday either that week starting like Wednesday and Thursday kind of thing or the following week because that’s when we know for sure everyone’s back in school. Some schools start earlier and later but we know for sure lots of people go back to school that week. And if you want to take your kids out during all their orientations, you know I hold no judgment.

Hilary Erickson 16:26
That’s your right that’s your right.

Jessica Sanders 16:28
Then we just need to talk about winter time when to go I say the first week when they I guess not winter but toward the end of the year, the calendar year like right after they open holidays, not the first week but the following week. Holidays people come and they want to see everything that’s brand new right up in the food right then so just wait a teeny bit, then go and the closer you get to Thanksgiving and the closer you get to Christmas, the busier the crowds are going to be for holiday season.

Hilary Erickson 16:56
Yes, but I honestly feel like they make it extra magical with more people there at Christmas. It was pretty crowded when we let last time, but I was just so happy. I didn’t even care. And I was like, everyone’s so happy. I’m so happy to be around all these happy people.

Jessica Sanders 17:08
It’s interesting that you mentioned that because there is something about having people with you, who were also excited that create an atmosphere that they want at Disneyland. This summer when galaxies edge opened, and the crowds weren’t there. It was a little eerie. I have to be honest, and you miss that kind of camaraderie and we had it definitely in galaxies edge, no doubt, but the other areas of the park it was quite spooky and empty.

Hilary Erickson 17:35
That’s so weird. I’m sad. I wasn’t there to experience that.

Jessica Sanders 17:38
I think a lot of people were sad, especially the people that don’t care about Star Wars. were like, dang it. I missed. I could have gone on Peter Pan 10 times in a row without waiting.

Hilary Erickson 17:49
I know. Oh, well, life goes on. All right. Let me just ask you some basic Disneyland questions that I love to ask people. All right. So what’s your favorite ride at Disneyland This is like picking between your kids

Jessica Sanders 17:59
Guardians of the Galaxy mission breakout and I even have a favorite song because there’s six different songs that rotate my favorite song is hitting me with your best shot.

Hilary Erickson 18:08
That is so funny. I’ve actually never been on that ride. That is the only ride I have never been on.

Jessica Sanders 18:14
I’ve taken so many people on that for the first time.

Hilary Erickson 18:18
There’s no way no way.

All right, what’s your favorite Disneyland treat?

Jessica Sanders 18:24
Okay, you’ve asked me this before and you were like you’re so boring. But I’m sticking to it. I am boring and proud of it. It’s a Mickey premium ice cream bar. Yes. vanilla ice cream with chocolate but it’s shaped like ickey and its so cute.

Hilary Erickson 18:41
Well, and when you’re hot, everything tastes better. Right? Totally. Yeah. Also something I have not tried. I need to get on that next time. Okay, and what is your favorite? I get this question a lot. What’s your favorite age to take a kid to Disneyland?

Jessica Sanders 18:53
Oh my gosh, seriously, it gets better and better as they grow. But I did take my two year old nephew this summer just for a half day auntie and my nephew. So he’s two years old, he’s still free. And being that it was just one on one, I was able to let him run the show. If you have the luxury where you’re not pressured for time, or this is your only trip, I mean, even if it is your only trip, there’s ways to make it super magical. But we went in the morning, I took him on a couple of my favorite rides and fantasy land. And then I let him lead the way. He said, Where is Mickey Mouse? We haven’t seen him. He’s a big talker, that younger age of two. And I said, Yeah, let’s find him. We found him. And it turned out that my nephew loved meeting characters. So I let him lead the way and we went on a character hunt. And it was just magical.

Hilary Erickson 19:49
Yeah, that’s so exciting. Because I think in our heads, we’re like we need to ride rides. Whereas to really make it magical. You have to let them decide what they want to do because their value isn’t placed in dollar bills.

Jessica Sanders 20:00
Yeah, I was surprised. Some kids obviously are leery of characters. But that was what he likes. So I didn’t push what I wanted to do on to him. And at certain ages, you know, we need to give and take, we need to feel what it is that they want to do. Let them give you a little direction.

Hilary Erickson 20:17
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Jessica. This was really fun. And I hope everybody got some great information about their next Disneyland trip. I’m headed there in November. And this got me so excited. I’m going to go put on my minne ears and I’m going to have all the links down below where you can find Jessica on our blog and Instagram and she can even help you plan your next Disneyland trip if you want some help. So thanks for coming on.

Jessica Sanders 20:38
Yeah, for sure.

Hilary Erickson 20:39
Thank you so much for joining us on today’s episode. I think we just packed in tons of awesome information about planning your next trip to Disneyland. I hope you really enjoyed it. If you’d like to know more about planning your trip to Disneyland Be sure and check out the show notes. Now you can find that in three different ways. You can go to puling curls .comm and on any menu bar you can click on podcast and you can find this episode which is episode oh eight that will take you to all the information in the show notes which will be super helpful for your next Disneyland trip. You can also go to Pulling Curls.com backslash podcast or you can go to bowling girls com backslash podcast dash oh eight and that will take you directly to the show notes for this

I’m going to have information about Jessica how to plan your trip I even have a free Disneyland trip planner that you guys can totally take advantage of I think you will love it big thanks to our sponsor family routines, how to automate your housewife life if you’re interested on helping your kids pack themselves. I have a whole chapter on that I think you guys will love it. You can just google it or it’s even in the show notes. So check it out.

And again, Big thanks to Jessica for coming on. She is so helpful in planning Disneyland trips she is one of my favorite sources and knows all about taking families to Disneyland so do not miss checking her out as well. If you liked today’s episode, be sure to share subscribe and review because I surely appreciate it. I hope to have you with us next time. Until then I hope you have a tangle free day!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post When is the BEST time to go to Disneyland? with Jessica Sanders from The Happiest Blog on Earth — PCP Episode 008 appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Let’s talk about my BEST tip for family travel. Is it what to pack, or what kind of transportation? I’ll also share what goes on in my own head as I try to implement this rule. It’s harder than it sounds

Please visit this episode’s sponsor – Family Routines — let’s automate your housewife life!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Dad with the Umbrella Stroller

Disneyland Family Packages (includes my hotel reviews)

Family Travel Tips

Also if you’re headed to Disneyland, don’t miss my Disneyland Day Planner!

Show Producer: Drew Erickson

Check-out my other travel podcasts:

The post Best Tip for Family Travel – PCP Episode 002 appeared first on Pulling Curls.