Episode 316: Theme Parks as Self Care with Carlye Wisel
Buckle up, because Doree and Elise speak to award-winning theme park journalist and travel expert Carlye Wisel about the best way to have the ultimate theme park experience (spoiler: it’s by yourself!), how to do amusement parks on the cheap, how her bachelorette party became her new career, and what notes she has for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
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Transcript
Doree: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise: And I'm Elise Hugh. And we are two friends who like to talk a lot about serums and other things
Doree: And other things like packing for a trip.
Elise: Yes. Welcome back. Doree was traveling last week with her son and you went to the East coast Here. I am waving my hand because I don't know the geography.
Doree: It's over there. Yeah, so my initial goal per the Elise Hugh packing challenge was to pack Henry and Henry and my things in one bag and then we would each have a backpack, but that was just not happening.
Elise: Well, we should mention a hurricane turned tropical storm, moved into the east coast,
Doree: A hurricane turned tropical storm moved in and Henry is very attuned to weather and so was like, I must bring my rain boots. I must bring my rain jacket. I also had to then bring a rain jacket. There was just sort of extra stuff. He also, he requires us to travel with his hatch noise machine, which is just sort of bulky. And then also his clock, we have to travel with
Elise: His clock. Oh, his clock too?
Doree: Yeah, his clock as well. I have to travel with my teddy bear, so there's just a few things that need to go into bags that are bulky.
Elise: They take up space,
Doree: But I was like, you know what? Maybe my goal will be to not have to push two suitcases through the airport. So I decided to do one of the away bigger carry-on suitcases and one cow pack Luca duffel the regular size, not the large size. And I did pretty well. I used packing cubes. I also knew that we would be able to do laundry. We were going to spend a couple nights at my sister's place in the Berkshires and then the rest of the time at my parents, both of which have laundry. So I was like, okay, I don't need to pack 10 pairs of underwear. We can just be Also, Henry wears a different pair of pajamas every night and that's also something that he's very committed to. But for him, I packed, I think I packed either four or five of everything. So four pairs of pajamas, four pairs of underwear, four pairs socks, four leggings.
He pretty much exclusively wears leggings. I did pack a pair of shorts because I was like, it's going to be hot, but he didn't wear them. And then four T-shirts and then I brought a hoodie for him because I was like, maybe he'll be cold on the plane and then if he needs a hoodie, he'll wear it. He did not wear the hoodie, so I could have left that out as well. His rain jacket, I packed his rain boots. He has a pair of Sketchers slip in shoes that are sneaky shoes. I was like, he should probably wear these on the plane. And then he has these really ugly kind of, they're not water shoes. They're like Keens kind of. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Elise: Yeah, I know what you're talking about,
Doree: But he only wants to wear those shoes, so I packed those as well. I didn't need the sketcher slip ins because he didn't wear them.
Elise: However, it still sounds like you edited down substantially.
Doree: I did. I did. And I edited my stuff down as well, so I wore the tank dress that I was so committed to finding.
Elise: Yes,
Doree: I wore that on the plane with a cotton gauze button down, long sleeve shirt.
Elise: Was it warm enough? I get freezing when they blast the air conditioning when they get up to 30,000 feet. You're really hot when you get on the plane and then you're freezing.
Doree: And then they blasted it and then they kind of turned it down. I don't know. But I also had a long cardigan, kind of like a thin cotton long cardigan that I brought as well. And then I wore my sneakers, my pair of skecher slip ins. I think I told this on this podcast, but I had gotten, just to recap why we both have skecher slip ins. There's a commercial that plays on MLB. Every time Matt watched the Red Sox,
Elise: There
Doree: Was a commercial with Mr T and then there was also one with Snoop Dogg about sketcher slip ins and it became this sort of running joke, but then he was like, I actually do kind of want them. The advertising worked on him because also he's a bigger guy and the thought of not having to lean over and tie his shoes was very appealing. And so for his birthday I got him a pair of Skecher Slippin and we talked about it on excellent adventure. And was it for Father's Day? No, it was for Father's Day. It was for Father's Day, it was in June.
Elise: And
Doree: Then Skecher, somehow someone at Skechers heard our podcast and he was like, yeah, reached. That's great data and reached gathering. I was like, can we send you some sketcher slip ins? And I was like, sure. So Henry picked out a couple pairs. I picked out a couple pairs and I got to say I was skeptical and I'm now a convert. I love the slip.
Elise: Now's slip in family.
Doree: We're a sketcher slip in family.
Elise: Their influencer marketing worked.
Doree: Their influencer marketing fully worked. Who
Elise: Doesn't love Snoop Dogg too? So if Snoop Dogg likes him?
Doree: Exactly. But that was also an editing thing because I typically typically travel with a pair of sneakers, sneakers plus another pair of shoes plus sandals plus plus plus. And I was like, no. And then I brought a pair of those fake plastic Birkenstocks from Target because I knew we were going to go to a waterpark and I was like, I need these. And then I brought a pair of slip in sandals that I didn't really wear. So that was another thing. I got a lot of learnings out of this. Elise, I have to say,
Elise: I have a friend who after she comes home, makes lists of everything that she used and actually put to use on her trips and then everything that didn't get worn at all so that then she can review the list for next time when she's packing
Doree: To
Elise: Get down.
Doree: That is so smart. I love that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that.
Elise: Yeah, it seems like you would really enjoy these kinds of this kind of organization.
Doree: Yes. I love that so much. It's so smart. Then you actually have the recap. I'm just hanging out with my kid and my parents. I didn't need a wide variety of clothing.
Elise: You also don't need a lot of makeup or anything, and that often weighs down your bag.
Doree: Yes, exactly.
Elise: So one of my travel tips is always try to reduce liquids in addition to the pre-departure edit of your bag.
Doree: Yes.
Elise: Reduce liquids and makeup.
Doree: So this was another thing. I have the cow pack cosmetics case, I guess is what it is. It was very popular on, gee, thanks. Just bought it a few years ago and I do love it, but it is quite bulky and I had just a small quartz size toiletry bag that came with little travel bottles that I got once and I was like, you know what? I'm going to put everything in here. I brought one pair of shorts, I brought a pair of jeans, I brought a pair of jogger pants like sweatpant jogger panty kind of things. One set of workout clothes just like leggings and a bra top, essentially four pairs of underwear, a few pairs of socks, oh, and two casual short sleeve button down shirts.
Elise: Did you even need the soft pants? The hard pants if you will, the jeans?
Doree: I honestly didn't. I think I wore them once and it was like I didn't need to wear them. You know what I mean? I totally could have worn something else, but I think I was saying to you the soft pants were a last minute edition. I was like, oh, they're kind of bulky. But I ended up being so glad I had brought them and I know you're a big soft pan prop. I
Elise: Love my soft pants. I basically live in soft pants, so I'm always like, do you really need hard pants? Some things don't need to be hard. Now that I'm on the right mic, I just want to say do, I'm so glad that you got to literally lighten your load.
Doree: Thank you so
Elise: Much. You can make notes to keep lightening your load for next time. You can do your lists. You should jot it down now while it's still fresh in your head or you're going to have to replay this episode of the podcast.
Doree: Totally. You're right.
Elise: You did just jot it down. It's just going to be an audio form.
Doree: Yes, yes, exactly. I can just return to this. So anyway, the point is thank you for being inspiring and for giving me the confidence that I could really do this.
Elise: You got it,
Doree: I got this. You
Elise: Got it. And you're going to keep getting better at it. I know. Crazy. You're going to end up being one of those people who raw dogs on the plane. So there's this trend, I could not wait to talk to you about this. There's this trend of people who do nothing on the plane and it's called raw dogging, which is to say they don't watch any films or television. They don't check their phones, and the whole challenge is just to go on the plane and stare straight ahead. I'm not really sure if it's about stoicism or it's just caught on among a certain set of bros that travel a lot. I have no idea what the backstory is, but this week Rob discovered there's a plain raw dogging simulator where you can try it, try doing nothing for an extended period of time. I know it's such like a crude term for just doing nothing too, but it's a thing. I don't know if it includes traveling lighter too. Do people, are they like air marshals where they don't have anything and they're just like going on planes to try to do nothing.
Doree: The origin of this is in, it's the same type of people who do the 75 hard challenge. It's these guys who just like to set up these very difficult physical and mental challenges for themselves just to say that they did them.
Elise: Some subreddit must be super into all of this, and I just, I'm curious where, oh, for sure there's a sub Reddit it came from. Oh man. So that is not the topic of today's episode. It was just one of my Hugh Digressions, Hugh Gress,
Doree: Hugh Gress.
Elise: We have a really exciting guest that we are going to get to, but just real quick housekeeping for any of our new listeners, these full episodes where we start with a catch up and then go into an interview with a guest are on Mondays, and then we have our listener questions and feedback on Wednesdays. Those are our many apps that are going to come out every Wednesday or do come out every Wednesday. And then we have casual chats where it's just dorry and me catching up for the full episode on Fridays, which is available on our Patreon. So Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Doree: Thank you, Elise. Let me introduce our guest. Our guest today is Carly Wezel. She is a writer and host who visited Walt Disney World on a whim and basically never left. And now she is a theme park journalist and travel expert who specializes in translating interesting and unexpected Disney stories to superfans and as she puts it, stunned bystanders alike. She has a podcast called Very Amusing about theme parks, and she has also written for a bunch of publications like Travel and Leisure, vanity Fair, gq, and she earned an American Society of Magazine Editors Award for her food reporting at Eater. We got to talk to her about theme parks. Theme parks is self-care Disney. We got to talk to her about why people feel weird about Disney adults. I mean, we just really got into it with her. She's so interesting and funny and charming, and I think even if you are a Disney skeptic, you will enjoy this conversation.
So before we take a break and get to Carly, I just want to remind everyone, our website Forever35 podcast.com has links to everything we mentioned on the show. We're on Instagram at Forever35 podcast. Our Patreon is at patreon.com/forever three five. We also have our newsletter at Forever35 podcast.com/newsletter. And please call or text us at seven eight one five nine one zero three nine or email us at Forever five podcast@gmail.com. Your calls, texts, and emails all go into our mini apps, so please keep them coming. They make the mini up. Great. And yeah, we're going to take a short break and then we'll get to Carly.
Elise: Alright, we'll be right back.
Doree: Brb. Carly, welcome to Forever35. We're so happy to have you on the show.
Carlye: I'm so thrilled to be here. You have no idea. I am dying to gab with both of you. I cannot wait. Oh my
Doree: God, yes. Yay. Well, as you know, we like to start off by asking our guests about a self-care practice that they have. So we would love to hear what yours is.
Carlye: I think my actual answer is, and I can't believe I'm at this point, for me, self-care is now exercise. Carving out time in the day to actually physically move is the thing I'm mostly the only thing I'm doing for myself lately.
Elise: And what kind of exercise are you doing?
Carlye: Yeah,
Doree: Let's get specific
Carlye: Here. So I used to be someone who dreaded to work out. It was just on my schedule. I didn't like it. I would have to sign up for group fitness classes to lock myself in a room because I would never leave. So once I was there, it was guaranteed I would do it,
But now I'm trying to do the stuff that I don't like to do. So I'm trying to do a Pilates every week, which I don't like because I prefer to jump around. There's this class based in New York that I used to do all the time when I lived there and I still do it. They have a streaming service that's really great that I do called Dance Body and it's basically like what if you jumped up and down for a half an hour and then did a half an hour of sculpt after? It is so hard but fun. It is fun. I don't really think Tracy Anderson is fun. This is fun. This is my ideal type of dance cardio and I just think I need to, at this point, I just need to jump around for at least 35 minutes and then I feel sane again.
Elise: But do you have to know how to follow combos and
Carlye: A little bit classes? You see, this is why I can't, yeah, I can't take dance classes.
Elise: No,
Carlye: They have some classes where you do. Some are just kind of follow the leader. Some are advanced, which I have been doing this workout for years. I still can't. I put on the advanced video the other day and was like, Nope, we're not doing this. But I think they've, there's so much science that goes into what they do, but then when you get there, it's just like you just do the workout. They lay out in front of you. I think they're the best world class that exists, but lately doing that, making time for that is really, that's my one thing.
Elise: Very cool. Very cool. And we wanted to talk with you because we wanted to talk about theme parks as self-care or as a form of self-care. Why do you think theme parks and going them going to them could be categorized as self-care for people?
Carlye: Well, I'm going to preemptively say I think theme parks are self-care. If you don't bring your kids, I would say listen, love going. Having done this job for it's almost 10 years at this point, reporting on theme parks, and I have a one and a half year old, so I've seen both sides of it and going with her is just, they are the priority instead of what you're doing. But going has made me appreciate the time that I spend at theme parks alone or at theme parks with friends or family. It just makes me appreciate it more because something I love about going to a theme park is that if you go, especially if you go alone, which a lot of people are like, I would never, but if you go alone, you get to do whatever you want. It kind of the highest tier of existence, the little thrill you get when you're like, I have all afternoon. I can go to Target. I can go do this. I can go get my silly little treat. It is that on high because you go to a theme park and you're like, I could sit on a bench and watch people. I could wait in line for a ride. I could just go get a snack in the middle of the day. I can get more ice cream than I could finish inside my body. It's just a really nice way to follow whatever desire you have within a beautifully themed space.
Elise: Yeah.
Doree: Okay. So walk us through a Carly day by yourself at a theme park. What is your dream theme park day?
Carlye: Oh my God. Okay. My dream theme park day would be at Walt Disney World. I live in California. I go to Disneyland a lot, but to me, everyone has their favorite resort. There's California and there's Florida when it comes to Disney and I just love the Florida one is just always so special to me. I don't know why. I think, honestly, I think 20% of all of our addiction to Walt Disney World is based on the full house episode that took there. I think it planted a seed in many people's brains. Oh, that's so
Doree: Interesting. Oh my gosh. You're right. A certain millennial demographic. Yes, yes,
Carlye: Yes. I think something about Uncle Jesse at the Grand Floridian really has locked itself in our psyche. But my ideal day would be at the Magic Kingdom. I would arrive hopefully by boat or monorail. I like taking a fun vehicle and then I would walk in the Magic Kingdom. In a dream world, there's a star, so there's a Starbucks on Main Street. You walk into Magic Kingdom, boom, there's a Starbucks. So I would get a fun little Starbucks drink. I would get a popcorn, I would hang out. And then once I finished my drink, I would sneak my popcorn into my purse and I would go on the people mover, which is not like, that's not the draw here, but it's basically a little tram. It's a little tram, it's a little people mover that you sit on and you get to see the castle, you get to go inside rides. It's magical. It's fun. And it's even better when you secretly sneak food inside of it. And then I would just see where the day took me. I'd see where ride lines were short. I would definitely get some plastic cheese sauce, which is my favorite, just like that disgusting cheese, love and dunk, whatever I can find in at fries, pretzels, et cetera, and just walk around and enjoy the day.
Doree: Love that. It's funny because my husband loves Disney as well. I think I've talked to you about this, Carly, and he also talks about the people mover as one of his favorite rides. And I have always been like, huh, the people mover.
Carlye: I know when you pay this much money to be like, I just want to move real slow and sea rides, but not go on them. It makes no sense when you say it aloud, but there's something about it that I think it just retains a little bit of that nostalgic old theme park
Doree: Vibe. I have not done this survey, but if I had to guess, I would say half of our listeners probably like Disney, maybe 25% of them love it. And I think 25% of them probably either hate it or are like, I'm never going to Disney. Disney's weird. And I feel like there's also been a lot of conversation lately in the culture about Disney adults and people kind of mocking them. And I'd love for you to speak to that. What is your take on the Disney adult and why people feel so almost threatened by them?
Carlye: Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely. Threatened by it. It's really interesting because I began my career not as a Disney fan. I went to these parks as a lot of people do when they're two and four and six, and then I just never went back. And so I fell into this career path. So I have a full outside and inside perspective now. And what I really think it is, is that I think public displays of joy by an adult make people really uncomfortable. And I think that it is considered safe to do that if you are cheering for a sports team or if you're doing that kind of in the confines that we've deemed acceptable, but something about an adult enjoying something that we have ascribed to children, which again, that's a separate conversation. These theme parks are for children. If they were for children, why do they make so much money off alcohol?
So it's so wild that people are not cool with it, and I get it. It is proudly loudly. Proclaiming your love for something, for anything is a little cringe. It just is no matter what the thing is. If you love something, it's a little like, oh, they are into this. But what I've learned is that Disney fans are such a community, and I am so grateful to be a part of it because basically I interact with people who know what they love and they go after it each and every day. They schedule their vacations around things that make them happy, not things that they think will look cute on Instagram, not going somewhere. Everyone says it's the coolest city to go to. These are people who know what they love and they get to openly love it. And I just think there's something really special there that a lot of people from the outside are missing out on.
Elise: One of the issues, of course, with any experience at a theme park, whether it's Disney or any of the others, is just how prohibitively expensive they can be. And so let's talk a little bit about how this experience could be more accessible for everyone, or is it just not possible because of the profit motives of theme park owning conglomerates?
Carlye: Right. So I will say there are ways to visit theme parks for less money. Part of that is seeking out special deal tickets that they often have promotions on. If you're a southern California resident, Disneyland usually does this really great three day ticket where you can buy three separate admissions. They don't have to be consecutive. So you can buy in and be like, we'll go in March and then June, and then whatever the threshold of dates is, and that is a great way to save money. They have similar tickets in Florida. You have to seek these things out though. But depending on when that scheduling is kind of the first thing I recommend when people are trying to save a little money going to theme parks. The second thing I recommend is pack snacks. Pack snacks. Listen, I do this for a living. I'm not out here spending money on a theme park breakfast.
You will not see me doing it unless I really want to make you waffle because you are on the go, you're running around. You don't want to just spend money that you could be spending on other things on just a little bag of chips, like a little something to keep you going when you can easily pack that with you. Same with water bottles. It hurts me to buy a water bottle to theme park. It's just a waste of money. You wouldn't believe how much that adds up. But really it is. A lot of it is scheduling and planning and just being on top of it because we are seeing coming out of the pandemic, these theme parks are in boom times. They are so popular. We're seeing things kind of level out a bit. But demand is still high. And unfortunately, when demand is high, things are going to cost more because they keep increasing prices for things as every company does of course. But as they continue to increase prices, people keep coming. So really the pricing reflects what the market is willing to pay for it.
Doree: Carly, you just mentioned you've been doing this for 10 years, which then made me realize how long I've known you because I knew you. I know before you did this.
Carlye: I know,
Doree: Yeah. So I was like, oh my gosh,
Carlye: It's been a
Doree: Minute.
Carlye: I know. I realized that it was 10 years next year, and I was like, oh my God. Oh my God. I know. I keep being like, I used to do publishing regular stuff. I used to write about lifestyle and now I just fell into this. Now it's like, no, this is the job. This is what I do now. That was the
Doree: Blip. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So I'd love to talk about that. I mean, I feel like I met you when you were maybe doing music journalism.
Carlye: Oh my God,
Doree: Yes. When I was working at a record label. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. You were somehow in the music industry was wild. I think it was when I was working at Rolling Stone, which was
Carlye: Like 2010 was Yes. We went to a SU dinner and I expensed it and I was really excited about
Doree: It. So yeah. So we go way back. Yes. So I'd love for you to talk about that, how you made this transition when you realized, oh, this is what I do now. This isn't just sort of some side project and if you have any advice for people who might want to make a similar sort of shift.
Carlye: Absolutely. Really, it was never something I intended at all. I just got to emphasize that straight out of the gate, I was getting married and the wedding was in April, so my bachelor party was in February. I don't have a high alcohol tolerance, so Mexico, Vegas off the table wasn't going to do it. I don't like sitting around. I like to do stuff. And it was actually my now husband who was like, why don't you go to Disney World? And it seemed like such a cuckoo bananas idea. I don't go to Disney. I dunno what Disney World is. I don't know. And it ended up being the best choice. And so we went for it. It was like a group of girls from around the country. I was living in New York, there were a few other New Yorkers. We went to Disney World. And I knew nothing before planning this trip. Truly nothing since I was a child.
Doree: Did you go into it with sort of an ironic like, oh, this is just, this is funny to do this? Or were you really all in at the time?
Carlye: I wasn't all in, but I was kind of like, this is a fun thing to do. Because any other typical bachelorette idea didn't suit me. I definitely didn't go with a, this is silly. What a silly idea. We all went, we all showed up a little like, all right, we'll see how it is. And by the end of the trip, we had clear factions of people who were now obsessed forever, and people who were like, I never need to come back. So that trip, there was something about it where I showed up there, and it must be, I think part of it was journalist brain where I went to this place and was like, what is going on here? I need to know everything. I need to know everything about these places, the people, the history, what is this, what culture that I am not exposed to living in a city?
Did not know this was a thing. This did not know what this looked like. So I went on this trip really just dumbfounded by all of it. Also how difficult it was to plan. So I came home and I started writing for Travel and Leisure because they were kind of upping their website and kind of doing a lot more content there. And I wrote a few stories every month, and then I wrote, and then I kept writing. I kept writing. I kept being interested. And then after about two years, I looked back and realized, oh my God, this is what I do now. I guess I just write about theme parks. And I think the only advice I can really glean from that is that sometimes following your passion doesn't mean seeing a job listing on LinkedIn, applying and getting it, and that's your new life.
I think it is really finding something that it tickles your brain, something that you're thinking about, you're more interested in, you're consuming more content from accounts that focus on this, what your TikTok feed might be. Just chase that. Chase whatever just keeps coming up in your life, keeps floating into your brain when you're aimlessly doing other things for sure. And you never know where that could lead. Again, I did not think I would be hosting a theme park podcast as my job. I, as Doree said, I used to work in music. I was working at a record label, and then after a few years, basically when I moved to New York after college, I was a journalism major. I had worked at so in college, and I was like, whatever. Job shows up first and music showed up first. So I worked in the biz for a few years and then I missed writing and I started freelancing about literally anyone who would pay me to write a word I would do. And from there, I now have this very strange, very fun job that I'm absolutely obsessed with. So really the advice I have is just follow your passion, even if it's not in a work context at first, just keep pushing and you never know what doors might open.
Elise: Well, also in this day and age for journalism, the collapse of journalism, whatever still exists in the dredges of journalism, I think the industry tends to reward specialization. So it's great that you are specialized in this area and you have such expertise and what is essentially a subculture, an ecosystem of its own.
Carlye: Yeah, if I was smart, I would've planned it, but I'm not. So it was a happy accident, me being a niche that the whole country is interested in like, oops, full accident. But yeah, it has worked out nicely. So we're just going to take a short break
Doree: And we will be right back.
Elise: In terms of the past 10 years, you talked a little bit about with FastPass, more of the haves and have nots getting programmed or designed into theme park experiences. But what other sort of larger changes have you seen over this arc of time in terms of theme parks and the way they're run or the experience that they're selling to those of us who go there?
Carlye: I think in general, and again, we've seen this with all businesses at theme parks, Disney, universal. This is not unique to anyone. I think before, and I feel like I'm just an old crotchety man saying this, but it seems like you used to get a lot more for your dollar. They are building more big attractions than I think they ever have before. I would have to do the math on that. I'm sure someone will be like, well, when this opened and had more rides. Anyway, they are back and forth, back and forth, universal and Disney, specifically opening gigantic attractions, new lands, new parks to try to, they won't say they're doing it, but to compete for guest attention because
If Universal has a brand new theme park coming out next year in Florida called Epic Universe, it looks so good. Now, Disney, this past weekend just announced at D 23. I'm not sure when people are listening to this. Disney announced a bunch of new rides that are coming in the years after that. So it's this back and forth. So we are really getting this Goliath level amount of incredible theme park attractions, but the little things have gone away, the little touches, the little freebies, things that used to be included that now are monetized, which again is standard for a lot of companies. Please don't blacklist me from the parks, but basically it's a lot of things that now that I've been doing this for a while, I remember when you would book a Disney hotel at Disney World and you would get a little magic band, which would open your door and you would have a bus pick you up at the airport and whisk you to your hotel.
So you were in the Disney bubble the entire time. You would check your luggage at your home airport and it would show up in your hotel room. It was just all of these magical touches that they have been pulled away. Now that bus service is still offered, but it's a third party company and you have to pay for it. The luggage doesn't exist anymore, which I am personally still irate about. Magic bands, they're an optional thing you can buy. It's just those little freebies are kind of going away, which I know that is how companies work. They see things that they don't really have to be paying for. It's not like I'm not going to go to Disney World because of the bus, but they just kind of add up and over time leaves you with a little bit of an icky feeling when you look back upon it.
Elise: You mentioned all of the rides to come. Do you have a favorite existing ride?
Carlye: Oh my God.
Elise: Besides the people mover, of course.
Carlye: Yes. And listen, this is not the best ride by any means. I will be judged for it, but I have a thing where if I go to Magic Kingdom and I don't go on Space Mountain, it doesn't really count for me. I have to, I got to go on Space Mountain. That one's my favorite. Nobody else's favorite. Everyone thinks of Disneyland. What is superior? That's just a me thing. It's fine. I really like, I mean, Epcot, spaceship, earth classic, classic attraction. It's just personal favorites that really stick with me living with the land, which is embarrassing to even say to someone who doesn't already love it if you don't already love it. It is a slow boat ride through a greenhouse that you pay a lot of money in mission to go on. But it is a cult favorite among Disney fans. And when you reach this level of fandom where you're like very in the know on stuff and you go, often, you end up liking the quirkier attractions partially because they're fun that they even exist there. And partially because you're like, I got to go on this just in in case, because they're going to keep a rollercoaster. And speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy at Epcot, at Walt Disney World, this is maybe the best rollercoaster I've ever been on. Wow.
They built this around a similar time as Veloso Coaster at Universal of Orlando, which is just down the road. Both are incredible rollercoasters, and I think a lot of people think of theme parks as like, oh, it's a kid's trip. These coasters are so technologically advanced. They are so fun. I can't even tell you. I would pay so much money for a one hour unlimited pass to go on Guardians The Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at Epcot. I love it so much, and it's just one of the most amazing rides in the world. It's indoors and it's dark and it's a spinning coaster, so you're like, but it's not just aimlessly spinning. You're on the vehicle and it rotates. You can see different show scenes. It's so well designed, Velossa coaster, oh my God, so scary, so good. It's just good. My perfect day is actually okay.
If you're a first timer, you want to do stuff, you want to plan advance, you want to make sure your priorities are met. But lately, I like showing up and just doing whatever, and that is personally me. I like to just be like, I'm not planning. I'm not booking. I just want to see how the day is going day goes. But if you are booking stuff, I would, and again, I know seeking out, having to read, having to take a college course basically to go on vacation is a lot. But the more you know about visiting Walt Disney World specifically, the more you will get out of your money and out of your time. Because if you are selecting these rides, there are certain ones that go more quickly, certain ones that have longer standby lines and knowing what the right quote unquote right thing to book is to maximize your trip can really get you on more rides and get you to do things.
But my advice for anyone going adults, kids, solo, first time hundredth time is that it always helps to identify your priorities before you go. I like to make a list in my phone no matter where I am in Notes app. That is just everything I really want to do. And then a little list of things where if I have time, I'd love to do them, and this includes finding a weird snack that they just debuted, going to see an area I've never seen before that I realized, oh, I want to see that before they maybe change it. I've never spent time in this quiet little corner. Just really no matter what it is, having everything written out handy, knowing what you want to do is so helpful before and during your trip because if you have, let's say you book all your stuff, you booked it correctly, you're riding high, you're going on all the rides, and then you have 30 minutes between stuff and you're like, what should I do? You're able to squeeze more out of your trip if you know offhand exactly the things you're looking forward to. So a little bit of research, a little bit of planning and a little bit of scheduling really does yield the best possible trip for you.
Elise: And are there folks, you mentioned how warm and humongous the theme park and specifically Disney community is. Are there folks who can kind of do that for you? Essentially be a concierge and say like, Hey, these are the things that you should do and this is the point at which you should reserve?
Carlye: So there's people like me all over the internet at different layers. I mostly report stuff. There's a lot of people who specifically report all of these granular details about how to plan your trip. But the interesting thing about Disney, which I didn't know before, this is how travel agents really reign Supreme. If you are planning a trip to Disney World, use a travel agent. They are an unbelievable resource. They know all of this stuff. They are experts when it comes to visiting, and I know that I know myself, my peers, we don't use travel agents for the most part. It's not something we do. Yeah,
Elise: You would think they're obsolete, but
Carlye: Yes, it's something our parents kind of did. But for theme parks, and of course these travel agents can book other places. Of course, they're really good at knowing traveling anywhere, but specifically for theme parks, they have such a vast knowledge that booking with a travel agent who specializes specifically in Disney and whether that's Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise line, also, sometimes you get money back from booking with them through the Disney cruise line, which is fun. But they work so hard. I cannot even explain to you how hard these people work. They will try to, even if prices change, they will try to track it and save you money after the fact. Sometimes without even telling you, they'll be like, by the way, I saved you a hundred, few hundred bucks. No big deal. They work so hard. They know everything, and they are a great resource. So anyone planning a trip, you just might log onto the Disney website and book it. Definitely reach out to a travel agent. They will do this work for you, and sometimes they will help to a varying degree. There's different people who have different setups for how sometimes they'll give you a document. Sometimes they'll give you advice or go even more into it, but use a travel agent if you are not used to this, and they will absolutely help guide you along the way.
Elise: Okay, great tip. All right. We've talked about how things have changed over the past decade, but I'd love for you to kind of project forward and share with us maybe your vision for improving the experience of theme parks for the future. Is there one thing or are there a few things on your wishlist that theme parks could do to make the experience better for all of us?
Carlye: Oh my gosh, that is an incredible question. So you're catching me at an interesting time because if this interview was literally five days ago, I would've been going off on everything they need to do. But at D 23, which is the big Disney fan conference that happened in August, they announced so many new rides and they really, in my opinion, stuck the landing on what they needed to do for the next five to seven years at Disney Theme parks. Then now I'm like, I got nothing. I'm chilling. They're giving me all this new stuff. Because for a while we didn't, and I'm talking specifically Disney Universal in Orlando was opening a gigantic theme park. It's coming out next year. It's called Epic Universe Theme Park fans have never had so many things to look forward to. It's so exciting. But Disney didn't really have much lined up, and so a lot of us were just like, they got to do something.
They got to do something big. They got to do something big, and they did. They announced a bunch of stuff and announced that construction is actually happening. They'll sometimes announce stuff and you'll be like, sure, we'll see it when we see it. But this stuff is actually in the works. They're opening eventually a cocoa ride at Disney, California Adventure, the sister park to Disneyland, they're going to be open an avatar themed area at Disney, California Adventure. They are building a Monsters Inc. Land at Disney World. They're building a cars area at Disney World. They're building so many new things that they just announced that now I'm pretty satiated. I am pretty happy about it. But I do think that if they introduced back one of the few things that they stripped away, a lot of the hotel perks that they used to have are gone. The ones I mentioned about the bus, the luggage, the magic band, stuff like that.
I do think those little things go a long way just in terms of the way people feel towards the parks, because things have been going well for a while. But something I talk about often is that they can't make the parks more expensive and more complicated to visit. I think if they just put in one or two things that we're just free, just like a free little surprise that might not make sense financially, but in terms of Goodwill would do a big job, I think that would be helpful. But I am pretty pleased with all of the rides they announced and all of the things that they have in the work. So at this moment in time, I'm pretty happy with what Disney is doing. I just wish that they would reconfigure the Lightning Lane FastPass Genie Plus system to make that less complicated, even though they did change it for the better, it's still complicated.
Elise: Okay, we'll leave that for your wishlist then.
Carlye: Yeah.
Elise: Rethinking FastPass. Yes. Got it. Alright. Carly, where can people find you? You mentioned your
Carlye: Podcast. Oh, my podcast is very amusing with, I think my name's in the title, I don't even know. Very amusing. It's a theme park podcast. You can find me at all the places that you listen to things at. You can find me online at Carly Wiel. I post a lot of theme park guidance and tips and cool stuff. Mostly on Instagram, somewhat on Twitter, a little on TikTok. But yeah, honestly, nobody has my name, so if you just google some sort of smelling of it, it'll all pop up.
Doree: Carly, thanks again. This was super fun, and maybe I'll see you in the park sometime.
Carlye: Thanks so much for listening. Thanks for having me. This was so nice.
Elise: Thanks again to Carly.
Doree: Thanks again to Carly.
Elise: She's hilarious.
Doree: I just want to note that my son is at Disneyland today. Oh,
Elise: He is. He is. Oh, now you have all the tips. You're armed.
Doree: I am armed with all the tips. Yes. Thank you so much to Carly. Let's get into the intention zone and talk about some intentions.
Elise: Yeah, and I feel as though we kind of got an update on your last intention, which was to stay sane while traveling.
Doree: Yes.
Elise: Were you able to stay sane?
Doree: I think I was actually Nice. Yeah. I felt pretty sane and yeah.
Elise: Good.
Doree: Yeah, I felt good up to the
Elise: Intention.
Doree: Yeah, there's always going to be some hiccups when you're staying with your son in your parents' thousand square foot apartment, but it was mostly fine.
Elise: And as we talked about in the casual chat last week, it sounds like Henry had just a delightful time.
Doree: You know what he really did, and yeah, he really enjoyed himself. I was so glad he got to spend time with my parents and his cousins. It was really nice, and he was such a champ traveling too. I remember my sister a couple years ago, being like traveling gets so much easier, trust me, because her kids, her youngest is a year older than Henry, but is a girl. So I feel like it's a little bit more mature. And then she has another daughter who is three years older than Henry. So I remember she posted a picture once of them on a plane, and they were just sort of sitting quietly with their iPads and enjoying life. And I was like, what? She was like, it'll come and I feel like it has come. Fantastic. He is good to go. He can control the iPad on his own.
Everything was working. There was no wifi on the flight there, but I downloaded everything. So he was fine and his headphones were working, everything was working amazing, and he was just content. Our flight was delayed. He didn't really care. I was like, oh, I've made it to another level of childhood or something. So that was really nice. Anyway, this week he's going through his kindergarten transition right now, and it's going to be a big emotional week for him. So I am just going to try to support him and be there for him and do all the things.
Elise: So excited. I'm so excited to hear your reflections on it. So my intention last week was just to walk every day because Instagram sold me some app to make me walk every day, and I am proud to report. I did it six out of seven days, at least according to the app. I also walk the kids to school sometimes, so it's not as if I just don't walk at all or I use this app, but I actually followed the app to do their little walking workouts most days of the week, six
Out of seven. Not bad. Pretty good odds. Pretty good odds. So I feel good about that. I might continue. I'm trying. Anyway, and then this week I haven't actually had a lot of time to reflect because I'm in my first week of school. So I'm having a hard time actually, because my eldest is now in middle school and she has something called zero period, which is awful. They tack on more like an extra class period, but not at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day. So she has to be at school. The bell rings at seven 20 and I sometimes don't wake up by seven 20, and so I'm just adjusting. So I think that my intention for this weekend on will be set an earlier bedtime, go to bed earlier, stop doom or hope scrolling at night. So I'm going to try and go to bed at least an hour earlier. I usually don't go to bed until 11 because I like my time after everybody's asleep and with an almost 12-year-old, she's often not asleep until nine 30 or 10. And so then I need to stay up even later to have my me time and I'm going to have to change. I'm just going to have to go to bed when Ava does. So I'm going to try and move my bedtime up. That will be my intention.
Doree: I love that.
Elise: Good luck.
Doree: Yeah.
Elise: Okay. You call me out when I'm sending you memes at 11:30 PM though the next morning when you wake up and get it, you're going to be like you're not.
Doree: I mean, I have also been guilty of this when I've been like, I'm going to sleep and then I'm texting someone at 10 30 and they're like, wait a second. So I am not throwing stones for my glass house or whatever it is. But if you are saying that you would like to be held accountable, I will try to hold you accountable. But no judgment is what I'm saying. Alright everyone. Thanks for listening Forever. 35 is hosted and produced by me, Doree Shafrir and Elise Hugh, and produced and edited by Sam Junio. Sami Reed is our project manager and our network partneris Acast. Thanks again.
Elise: Thanks everybody.
Doree: Bye.
*Transcripts are AI Generated.