[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Today's episode is kind of fun because I have a Disney World trip announcement, which, which is obviously always exciting to have a trip officially in the calendar, even more so for me because it's been a while since we've been to Disney World, since our last trip. We just honestly have not been. I've been prioritizing as much as I can, just feeling better, getting my health a little bit better, and other things in our family that have just taken a bit more of a spotlight than our Disney World trip.

[00:00:50] Dana Stanley: So I am really, really ready to be back and I'm really excited to be going back to Disney World this summer. And not just that we are staying at the Grand Floridian, which is one of those resorts that I have been wanting to stay at for many years and even more exciting is that this day is in partnership with DVC Rental store who is hosting us.

[00:01:12] Dana Stanley: And if you've listened to the show for a while, you know that renting DVC points is my favorite way to stay. Deluxe and Disney World for a lot less money. Yeah, but the funny part I think about this whole trip is that I ended up choosing a room that on paper, or I should say like on Instagram, is not the one that people typically want or obsess over.

[00:01:41] Dana Stanley: I picked like the less pretty room. The room that like doesn't get a lot of love. People don't like post about it as much of being like, look at this room. It's gorgeous. It doesn't have the blue velvet headboards and the pretty lighting. But in this episode, you're going to learn that I did this very intentionally and I wanna walk you through.

[00:02:09] Dana Stanley: My thinking behind that and why I chose this room in particular, like what the difference actually is between certain room types at the Grand Floridian and why the layout of a room really matters way more than whether it's the prettiest one or not.

[00:02:32] Dana Stanley: And you're gonna wanna keep listening to see how much. To hear how much less this room actually is versus if you book through Disney.

[00:02:47] Dana Stanley: Okay, let's get into it.

[00:03:00] Dana Stanley: Let me explain just briefly a little bit about where we're staying if you're not familiar with it already.

[00:03:09] Dana Stanley: The Grand Floridian was one of the first resorts at Disney World to be built, actually, fun fact, the Grand Floridian and I are the same age. She's actually two months older than me. Which puts it right next to Magic Kingdom, and it makes it on the monorail, which everyone loves because you don't have to take a bus to Magic Kingdom, and it's fairly dependable and fast most of the time.

[00:03:34] Dana Stanley: I personally hate the way that the monorail smells, but that's another conversation for another day. Another plus of the Grand Floridian is that there's also a boat that you can take to Magic Kingdom, and technically you can walk as well. There's a walking path, and while I love my boardwalk so, so much, we are there a lot and we've been there a lot.

[00:03:57] Dana Stanley: So I've been wanting to spread my resort wings, so to speak, and stay at Grand Floridian. Honestly, ever since I filmed a wedding there, which I wanna say. I mean, we're going on I think eight years, seven or eight years, which is insane to me. So in my memory it feels like I've been, you know, every square inch of the place just from shooting the wedding that day.

[00:04:25] Dana Stanley: But I haven't actually slept there and like had my three kids there, and it's just something that we've been really wanting to do. Another thing in the pro list is. Grand Floridian has one of my favorite restaurants in all of Disney World, Citrico, and I have not been there in a beat, so I'm really excited to hopefully sneak in there during our summer trip.

[00:04:49] Dana Stanley: But I want to talk about how I chose the room that we ended up going with. And when I was originally looking at the Grand Floridian for the summer, I knew that I wanted a studio room. We have a family of five and there are two different studio room types that both sleep five people, and they can look really similar when you're booking them, if you don't see them, if you just kind of see the amenities and a little bit about them.

[00:05:24] Dana Stanley: Very close to the same price, but they're really like very different rooms. So the one that I feel like everyone kind of swoons over right now is called the Resort Studio. And this can get really confusing and it has taken me, I wanna say like two years to actually get this straight in my brain. And the way that I think about it is the resort studios

[00:05:52] Dana Stanley: are the really pretty ones. They have a very pretty design. They have. These beautiful big blue velvet headboards, um, like fancier lighting, just like a, just a more like updated, kind of like luxury aesthetic. And they photograph beautifully too. If you wanna Google resort studio at the Grand Floridian, they're really pretty.

[00:06:17] Dana Stanley: But the room that we're staying in instead is called the Deluxe Studio, or Deluxe Studio Villa. So location wise, the resort studio, IE blue velvet, headboard room, those are in the Big Pine key building, which if you're not familiar with the property, they're, that's the closest to the main building at Grand Floridian, which is where citrus would be and the lobby and, and to catch them on a rail.

[00:06:51] Dana Stanley: Versus the deluxe studio. IE like the plain Jane type of room. These are in the regular Disney Vacation Club building,

[00:07:08] Dana Stanley: which I'm familiar with. 'cause it's kind of like on the side over by the chapel where people get married. And these rooms are nice and clean and they've been updated, but they're definitely not as pretty, like, they're not as fun. They're more like neutral, classic like DVC room. And they're also a little bit smaller than the resort studios with the velvet headboards.

[00:07:36] Dana Stanley: So on paper it looks like I chose the worst room. But once you actually look at the floor plans, which we're gonna do together and nerd out a little bit, the decision can get a little interesting on what is important when you are choosing your resort. Maybe it, it might be the location of the actual resort, it could be the view, it could be the size.

[00:08:03] Dana Stanley: There's so many different factors that I want you to think about before you book anything.

[00:08:14] Dana Stanley: So the first reason why I wanted this uglier room is because the pretty resort studios do not have a kitchenette, and this was a big one for me. They have what I would call like a coffee station that has what Disney calls a beverage cooler. It's technically not a mini fridge. I have heard that the beverage coolers keep drinks cold, but you shouldn't store like milk and cheese in there.

[00:08:47] Dana Stanley: They could potentially go sour. I don't think they would for like a short trip. I think you'd probably be fine, but it is not as cold or not as like robust as a true mini fridge. But what it's also missing is a microwave. A toaster, a little sink, but my ugly room has like the full DVC kitchenette set up, which is what I'm used to.

[00:09:16] Dana Stanley: And I love so having like the microwave and the toaster just for like little breakfast things, we can maybe like reheat some leftovers. Like I have a 2-year-old who kind of just eats whenever he wants and gets hungry whenever he wants. I. I'm on the struggle bus with my hormones and blood sugar, so I have to eat some type of protein in the morning, and I need a way to be able to heat it up.

[00:09:47] Dana Stanley: It's going to make my mornings so much easier.

[00:10:00] Dana Stanley: Another reason was the bathroom situation. So the room that I picked, the deluxe studio actually has a split bathroom, and when Disney says a split bathroom, it means that the toilet is like in its own room and you have a shower or another shower. In a separate section, and I'm gonna link photos of these layouts in the show notes so you can see what I'm talking about.

[00:10:30] Dana Stanley: But because I have a 2-year-old who is in a crib, I really want to look at the bathroom situation very closely. And if you have a toddler who is sleeping in a pack and play and or crib, you definitely need to be looking at this as well, because instead of having that crib. Next to my bed or too close to my two older girls, I am going to tuck that crib in the bathroom essentially.

[00:10:59] Dana Stanley: And what happens over the years of doing studios is I have learned it is so nice when you have a toilet in its own room because everyone can. For the most part, use the potty without making a ton of noise and waking up the baby and waking up the baby if he's napping or usually you put him to bed first while the girls wind down, so it kind of turns like a studio into kind of like a one bedroom setup.

[00:11:28] Dana Stanley: To be honest, and especially during nap times, it's really nice that he can just be kind of tucked away in this sink shower area. With a white noise machine while I or my husband is in the main room. We've honestly been able to have the TV on at night. I have a lot of friends that love the slumber pod and they will bring it to Disney.

[00:11:55] Dana Stanley: This is like a blackout shade that goes over a crib. I actually bought a slumber pod, used it one time at home. Hated it. Thought it was a huge pain in the butt to set up. Um, and my kids screamed when I put them in it. I am not saying that that would be the case for you. I have, again, lots of friends that love the Slumber Pod, but to bring that to Disney World and set that all up and then it is even bigger than the crib, it's just not worth it.

[00:12:27] Dana Stanley: Like I much rather just work with what I have and keep it super minimal. Bring as. Least stuff is possible. Less chance of things going wrong or things to deal with and things to break. So I can't stress enough how much I love a baby in the bathroom. If you know, you know.

[00:12:50] Dana Stanley: And that's another big difference is that the deluxe studio, AKA, the ugly room has both a bathtub and a large walk-in shower, whereas the resort studio only has a one tub like shower combo. And when you have five people that half take showers and half take baths, having two that you can run at the same time and have people getting ready.

[00:13:19] Dana Stanley: At the same time really is such a game changer, especially in the afternoon, like maybe after we do the pool or after a nap and we're getting ready to go to knock on wood citrico, me or Colton can be taking a shower while the kids are in the bathtub.

[00:13:44] Dana Stanley: And while both rooms do sleep, five, there's a big difference with the bed situation.

[00:14:00] Dana Stanley: My deluxe studio has one queen bed and then one Queen Murphy. That gets tucked into the wall when you're not using it and you pull it down to sleep as well as a like a little day bed. They call it a fifth sleeper that pulls down under the tv, so you have 2, 2, 1.

[00:14:26] Dana Stanley: Whereas the resort studio has two queen beds that just stay down all the time. There's no Murphy bed.

[00:14:36] Dana Stanley: And even though I'm technically in a smaller room, being able to tuck that one bed up into the wall with the Murphy bed, the room actually feels a lot more open unless you have it pulled down. So because of that Murphy bed, we're actually getting a lot more usable floor space, which is a big deal for us because we just have.

[00:15:01] Dana Stanley: More room for like our kids to just exist because there's so many of us.

[00:15:11] Dana Stanley: And even though it's the smaller room, if you really look at the floor plan, there's actually more of like a little nook for the stroller when you first walk in. And there's also a table and chairs. So like if we're eating breakfast, if we need somewhere to have a snack, but the resort studio has like a.

[00:15:30] Dana Stanley: Pretty, the resort studio has like a beautiful desk and I don't, that's lovely. I mean, I would love to be in the blue velvet headboard room with my laptop opened and you know, writing my first novel or something. That sounds so nice, but that is not a reality right now. I do not need a desk. I need. A table and chairs and somewhere like, where are my kids supposed to eat?

[00:16:00] Dana Stanley: That was like one of the first things I thought of,

[00:16:12] Dana Stanley: and something to keep in mind. If you also have little kids who you know will be eating and snacking in the room is, does your resort room have a space for that?

[00:16:26] Dana Stanley: And now one of the downsides, which at first I thought was an upside. And I honestly just think I need to really be there and stay there and be going through the motions before I decide if this is good or bad. But the deluxe studios are farther from the main Grand Floridian building, so that would be like where you grab the buses to the other parks, get on the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom.

[00:16:58] Dana Stanley: The lobby, the restaurants, all of the things. But the building that we'll be in is actually closer to the new Polynesian Tower, closer to the Polynesian Walkway. Um, it's still walkable to the boat launch. If we wanna go take the boat to Magic Kingdom. But why I think it might be a plus side is we really like the Polynesian and like the vibes of the Polynesian.

[00:17:23] Dana Stanley: So it might be nice to be close there and be able to pop in and out. Maybe we can get dinner at wa, Lulu Grill. I have to wait and see how our plans all end up being sketched out. But that's one of the fun things is figuring out what things we love, what things we don't like. But I can tell you what we are excited about besides the room and the setup.

[00:17:47] Dana Stanley: I will definitely like having an easy way to get to Magic Kingdom. I am excited to have dinner at Citrico again. I am excited to be able to watch the fireworks at night from the resort

[00:18:07] Dana Stanley: and just being at the Grand Floridian and having. The sand and the palm trees, and I know it'll be summer and it'll be hot, but I'm recording this right now and I wanna just tell you the feels like outside

[00:18:25] Dana Stanley: is 25 degrees. So don't let me complain about any type of heat or being sunburned or any of those things, please and thank you. But the big takeaway that I want you to get out of this episode and the whole point of this episode is yes, we nerded out a little bit on the details. Specifically if you are torn between these two studio types at Grand Floridian, I'm sure this would be very helpful, but it is very niche if that is not you, I just really want you to think about.

[00:19:05] Dana Stanley: The logistics and kind of the function of where you're staying more than like the theming or even like the building you're in or the view or the decor and how like Disney it feels if you're traveling with kids, how the room is set up and how well you guys are sleeping, maybe how well the baby slash toddler is napping can really make your trip so much easier.

[00:19:36] Dana Stanley: And I want you to know that the floor plans are very easy to find online, so it's definitely worth looking at them and spending truly like under five minutes just before you book a room, look at the floor plan and put yourself there. You know, brushing your teeth or putting on your makeup or heating up a snack or putting the baby down for a nap, whatever it may be.

[00:19:59] Dana Stanley: What will this room actually feel like for us?

[00:20:06] Dana Stanley: And I am obviously going to report back after our trip in the summer, but in the meantime, I am curious if you would want me to do another episode while I'm there, like I did last summer when it was like a live from the resort. I did a live from the Riviera. I would love to hear if you think I should do that again on this trip.

[00:20:30] Dana Stanley: For now, I am going to keep you posted, but for now I will definitely keep you posted on how I sketch my trip, what I'm thinking about for the summer, and I'm actually going to link in the show notes to episode 14. That was all about just surviving Disney World in the heat of the summer because we are doing it again.

[00:21:00] Dana Stanley: And if you're curious about renting DBC points, which is how this room ended up being a 55% less than the price on Disney World's website, yes. Literally 55% less. Remember to click the link in the show notes to learn more about DVC rental store. Alright, I'll see you next week.