Your Most Memorable Moments At Disney

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We love the memorable moments that a Disney vacation can create. On the No-Guilt Disney Podcast, we shared a few of these moments recently, as submitted by the listeners. If you’d like to be featured, be sure to use the podcast submission form because we absolutely love these stories! 

Your Most Memorable Moments At Disney Episode 2

We absolutely loved these stories. 

Want to know how Sci-Fi Diner made one guest’s dream experience extra special? We’ve got the story behind this long-game experience that started with an observation and a tweet. 

You’ll want to check these tweets by Courtney out after reading her story!  And this one too. 

Ever been surprised by Elton John performing at Disneyland? Jane and I were there- but, ah, missed the Rocketman. What on earth were we thinking?!

How about a special stay in Cinderella Castle?

Yup, you can do that- if you are extremely lucky and Disney is feeling extremely magical. 

Be sure to check them out and let us know about your Memorable Moment for the next episode!

ps- you’ll also meet our favorite cast member, Francisco, in this episode (because that’s fun to say!)

Ballad of Thunder Mountain 

Transcript of the Memorable Moments Disney Podcast

Patty
To all who come to our happy place, welcome to the No-Guilt Disney Podcast, where we have no guilt about our love for all things Disney.

Jane 0:11
We are three Disney fan girls who probably know more about Disney Parks than most grown women should and we are perfectly okay with that.

Theresa 0:31
I’m Theresa, and you can find me blogging at InSightFullLife.com, on Instagram @in.sight.full.life and mostly on Twitter @GertieTheDino.

Jane 0:41
I am Jane and you can find me @RealMousewifeWDW on Instagram and Facebook.

Hey y’all, I’m Patty Holliday from NoGuiltDisney.com and the No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast. I also am the owner of No-Guilt Travel, a travel agency that specializes in Disney and Universal vacations. You can find me on all socials @NoGuiltLife. Now look, we know that you have a choice in your Disney podcasts and we are glad that you decided to listen to ours.

So click that subscribe button and make sure you do not miss any of our episodes

Theresa 1:19
And leave a five star review.

Jane 1:21
Super important here, especially for new podcasts. If you’re listening on Apple or really anywhere that allows a review, just throw up an awesome one so it can help other people find us.

Patty 1:32
Please, please please,

Theresa 1:33
if you’re not familiar with internet algorithms, the more you engage with a podcast with listens, subscribes, and especially the five star reviews, that signals No-Guilt Disney is a podcast that people are enjoying, and when people are searching for Disney podcasts we’ll rank higher and start being suggested to others as another podcast that they might enjoy.

Jane 1:51
Now speaking of positive reviews, we want to just take this moment and thank everyone who’s been so supportive of the podcast so far, the response Has has really blown us away.

Theresa 2:02
Yeah, it really has. I was not expecting it.

Patty 2:05
Not at all.

Jane 2:06
Not even a little bit.

Theresa 2:08
I think we’re all amazing but it took off a little faster.

Jane 2:13
I absolutely love reading the reviews every day when they come in. And this one that I really loved was from JPT1976 who says, “What a great podcast. I like the different views of the hosts. It’s kind of like ‘The View,’ but with all topics relating to Disney. Do yourself a favor, grab a Dole Whip or a churro, and enjoy listening to your new friends dish the Disney.”

Yes, we are The View of Disney I love it.

Amazing.

Theresa 2:45
I do need to shout out this one from JessIzAdorable. It’s “OMG, it’s like discussing Disney with my friends. I absolutely love this podcast and the hosts are so relatable. I love how they all bring different backgrounds and Disney preferences to the show. PS Anyone who doesn’t like Figment obviously never saw the original.” Yes, girl. Thank you, Jess. We truly appreciate all of your support.

Jane 3:10
Okay, I was doing the little sunset heart hands over Jess until she had to throw that in about Figment.

Theresa 3:17
And I’m doing rainbow hands.

Jane 3:23
Alright, well, we are back with more of those magical moments that you all seem to really love. This was one of the most popular episodes the first week that we launched So hey, you know what, we love them too. This totally works for us. The topic of today’s episode is Once in a Lifetime Magical Moments. Now. I’m just going to throw in a little side note here. So I got Jane hooked on the My Favorite Murder podcast, and if you’ve listened to that, you know that they do these minisodes were basically Georgia and Karen read your stories to you. And that’s kind of where we – I mean, that is not “Kinda,” that IS where I got this idea. And where this came from, except with less murder, obviously, and less creepy people and hopefully just love and positivity from Disney in it. So Jane sent me this message today that said, “Thanks. Thanks for getting me hooked on the show.” And then she also said she wanted to start using this tagline. What was your tagline which came up with?

Stay Disney and don’t do standby! <laughter>

Patty 4:30
I love it. I love it..

Theresa 4:32
It’s true.

Jane 4:33
It’s so true. It’s so perfect for this. So yeah, guys, always remember, “Stay Disney and Don’t Do Standby.”

Theresa 4:40
And don’t forget, if you want to have your story shared, make sure you submit on our form for inclusion in a future episode.

Jane 4:46
Because honestly, we live for these kinds of stories. Seeing our inbox fill up with the new ones. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

Yeah, the link is in show notes and you can use it for Magical Moments, Unpopular Disney Opinions, Cast Compliments. whatever else you want to tell us that we could possibly include on a show in the future. Go ahead and shout it out in that form, or send us an email at [email protected]. Alright, so let’s get to the stories. Who wants to start?

Theresa can start with this one, I started the last one.

Theresa 5:19
I have one to start with. And it’s a little long, so bear with me, but it’s a great story. So this comes from Courtney. And it’s, “Sci-Fi Dine in has always been my favorite Walt Disney World Restaurant. One of my earliest trip memories is dining there in the early days of MGM Studios as a toddler, and I’ve been captivated ever since. I love the unique atmosphere and clip show that plays to accompany the meal.

While dining there in 2017, something jumped out to me from one of them. Like many of the clips, it is a retro advertisement – this was specifically for a free trip to Mars in the future. The image featured a ticket with the date February 2, 2020. I realized ‘wow we’re only like 3 years away from that’ and jokingly tweeted ‘So who’s in for reservations at Sci-Fi Dine-In on 2/2/2020?’. Flash forward to January 2019 when my boyfriend and dined there again, and I realized we were obviously even closer to the date, so I similarly tweeted ‘PLEASE remind me to make a 1:00 PM reservation for Sci-Fi Dine-In 180 days out from Feb 2, 2020. We’re almost there!”
A follower was kind enough to let me know what that 180 day mark would be in August, so I actually set a reminder on my calendar. I was able to secure a reservation for lunch on 2/2/2020. I wasn’t expecting Disney to even acknowledge this smaller detail in a 45 minute clip reel, but I figured well it will be fun to be at my favorite Disney restaurant on a day that feels special to me. I was so pleasantly surprised when we checked into our reservation and the hostess walked us to our table. She explained that they were celebrating something special that day and handed us our own tickets to Mars modeled after the clip with the date printed on them. I let her and our waitresses know I actually planned to be here on purpose for this exact reason, and they were happy to celebrate along with us.”
This is where it gets even better.

Jane 7:06
Like, my mouth is hanging open. I’m just sitting there going, no way. Not only do I respect the commitment that she went to all these lengths to make it happen, but that Disney leaned into this too. I love Disney so much! I’m okay, go ahead. I’m sorry.

Theresa 7:21
No, you’re fine, I agree! It’s an amazing story. She ends with, “There was special Mars Bar dessert with a commemorative chocolate coin, which was also featured on the milkshakes that day. Whenever the clip appeared in the reel, guests cheered and applauded. I timed it right based on when we were seated to be there at 1:00 (the time specifically on the ticket), and the Carhop Cast Members all counted down from 10 and yelled Blast Off. It was more than I expected and a delightful memory I will continue to cherish at my favorite restaurant.”
I’m dancing and cheering in my chair.

Jane 7:55
Did she know that she found her people in that restaurant? Like that moment, everyone else who also knew this one little tidbit and celebrated with her?

Theresa 8:06
Or the people who didn’t know and just were there, like, “Do they do this every day? Do they change the date on the ticket every day??”

Jane 8:15
Okay, come on, guys, we have to give credit where credit is due. That had to come from a Cast Member or from the manager of that restaurant of Sci-Fi Dine-In. Somebody recognized what this was, and how and when to do it, and put in that request to execute it. And how amazing is that story? That’s one of my favorite stories I’ve ever heard. That’s awesome.

Theresa 8:38
It makes me really happy because, especially for the cast members who work there, who do see this video, day after day, every 45 minutes. I can’t imagine how many times some of them have seen this. And you know, in addition to the guests who are there dining that day, it just feels like a nice moment for them, especially the ones who have worked there for a while or that’s such a significant place for them. It’s nice that they have something that they can feel recognized and the work that they do is appreciated.

Jane 9:06
Listen, if there’s a Cast Member that happens to work at Sci-Fi Dine-In who is listening to this, or if you know somebody who does, we want to talk to them. We want to hear from them, they can email us if they need to keep it anonymous, because we totally get that. But we want to hear what it was like from a Cast Member point of view. So just throwing it out into the universe, if anybody happens to know somebody, send them our way. All right. All right, Jane, what do you got?

This story came from Maryanne, and Maryanne says, “Sir Elton John singing Circle of Life in front if the Tiny Castle. They were filming the 60th anniversary tv special. It was a cool crisp night, and the trees in the Hub were filled with twinkle lights and it was freaking magical.”

Jane. Jane. Where were you and I? When Elton John was singing with the red piano in front of the tiny castle, where were you and I?

I’m pretty sure that we were in bed and had ordered take-out from our favorite restaurant. <laughter>

Yes, ma’am. That is exactly where we were

In the hotel, at Disneyland.

Look, we take our racing very seriously. So we had turned in really early that night. This happened over the course of the, I believe it was the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. And yeah, Jane and I were laying in bed, finishing up our grub, getting ready to go to sleep, when we start seeing on social media, all of our runner friends talking about how there’s this red piano in the middle of the hub. What’s going on? And then they were like, “It’s Elton John. It’s Elton John! IT’S ELTON JOHN!!” And Jane and are looking each other. The bras are off, the make-up is gone, hair is in a bun, our homeless buns already rocking, and we’re just like, it ain’t happening. But wow, Elton John’s here, huh?

And I have personally seen Elton John more than 15 times in my life. I love him so much. But I was committed to the races and didn’t go.

And I want to say that they started recording fairly late, like 9 or 10. So anybody that did stay, they definitely were not as committed to the races as we were, obviously. Yeah, I’m gonna stick to that story cuz that’s so true. But anyway, yeah, that was the time that we missed Elton John because we were in bed.

Theresa 11:45
I would be in that other because group because I am committed to no races. No, there is no running. If something’s chasing me, sure. Otherwise, I’m going to Elton John.

Jane 11:56
Fair enough.

I’m certain there are some people that may argue that what we do is not running. But not in this circle.

No, no, not in this circle. That’s another podcast for another time. Anywho. That was a really busy weekend. That’s kind of funny that you pulled that one up. Alright, so mine is from Liana and I love this. This is her favorite and her most memorable moment. “For our first anniversary, my husband booked us into Paradise Pier in California and when we checked in we tried to move to a room with a King bed.” I mean, hey, anniversary, I get you, girl. I get you. “They couldn’t accommodate that but it also happened to be Friday the 13th so they moved our reservation to room 1313 and we became the final “Friday the 13th family” to ride Tower of Terror.” So I guess being in that room gives you special hoopla or whatever. But this was also right before they closed Tower of Terror to start turning it into Guardians.

I’m so surprised that room exists.

I have no idea why it exists or what’s up with that, but Liana, wasn’t it? Yeah, she says, “We became the final ‘Friday the 13th family’ to ride Tower of Terror. This included being treated by a private Red Car ride with Chip and Dale at Rope Drop and riding the ride by ourself as well as some ride related swag in our room.” And she sent me a really cute picture, which I’ll include in the blog post with this of them on the trolley. I think that’s so awesome. I love little things like that. I mean, like who knew right? How did that happen? But it happened and that’s, that’s cool. That’s super fun.

Theresa 13:50
And going back to the the Sci-Fi story, it’s just another one of those nice little touches that Disney is… Disney is paying attention to everything and they love finding these little details that they know means something to guess that, you know, most most other companies it wouldn’t occur to them to do anything like this.

Jane 14:07
Yeah, for sure for sure. All right, do we have time for one more round each? Let’s do it.

This one came from Kaylee and she says her once in a lifetime experience happened during Hurricane Wilma. She was at Old Key West where they brought characters to the Hospitality House. “My girls and our friend’s kids played Twister with Chip and Dale, and then Chip carried my youngest to couches to show her a picture book.”

Patty 14:34
Oh, that’s very sweet. I think that would be kind of a magical moment, just the fact that you are spending a hurricane at Walt Disney World. Not everybody

Jane 14:46
Not everybody gets to spend a hurricane there, so I’m certain it was once in a lifetime. I hope it’s once in a lifetime.

Theresa 14:53
Right. Hopefully you don’t have the repeat experience.

Jane 14:57
Alright, the one that I have here is from Tracy, and Tracy says that her best memory was “Sitting in a quiet corner on Main Street at Disneyland, spoon feeding my baby when Pinocchio and Gepetto sit down next to us and Pinocchio takes the spoon from my hand and continues to feed my daughter. My heart literally melted. And then I yelled at my husband for not taking a picture with the camera.” <laughter> One hundred percent Tracy Yes, girl.

Theresa 15:33
Priorities.

Jane 15:34
Absolutely. I’m all about being in the moment. But wouldn’t that have been the best picture ever?

Theresa 15:41
So I’m going to share one more and this one is from Francisco. <pause> That’s fun to say.

Patty 15:54
<laughing> I didn’t know this was coming from Francisco. You caught me off guard. All right. A little explanation as to why I find this hilarious because, well, Francisco is fun to say. But we had this discussion. We decided that if we have any Cast Members that send in anonymously and they want us to protect their identity, that we would call everyone Francisco. So if you’re ever listening to this podcast and we tell a story from Francisco because it’s fun to say.

Jane 16:27
So fun. <laughter>

Theresa 16:32
The story wasn’t specifically requested to be anonymous, but I just wanted I wanted to be the first one to say it. But it is a story from a cast member.

Jane 16:43
Well played, well played. All right. Tell us tell us what Francisco had to say.

Theresa 16:49
Okay. “I have so many incredible stories of the times I worked at Walt Disney World, but I will never forget the time that I was able to surprise a lucky family with a stay in Cinderella Castle during the Year of a Million Dreams. It was a hot summer day, and I was on Prize Patrol with my Cast Member role on the Dream Squad. When we opened the envelope for “big” prizes and saw what it was, we couldn’t contain our excitement! The prize was to be given out at Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, at a very specific time. Now, if you won any of those big prizes during the Year of a Million Dreams, you know how very specific the details of a prize “drop” would be – exact time, and exact seat in a numbered ride vehicle. Well, the time came, and we saw the family coming around down the line – mom, dad, and two sweet toddler-aged boys. As they exited their vehicle, we approached them, and introduced ourselves – we had some legal procedures to get through, but then the exclamation came: “YOU JUST WON A NIGHT IN CINDERELLA CASTLE!!” The family was speechless! Within minutes, we learned that they were visiting just for the day from Tampa, FL, and dad had just finished med school, and they were celebrating with a day at the park – something they scrimped and saved to do for a long time. They were extremely gracious and accepted the prize – and we were about to go into the next logistical details when one of the boys interrupted us, crying, “Mom, I am so excited for you because you’re OUR Disney princess.” OH MY GOSH. It was incredible.”

Patty 18:14
That’s the sweetest thing.

Theresa 18:17
I know, I can’t decide which part of the story is my favorite. And I feel like that would be – you know, it’s an amazing moment for the family, but also for Francisco because they got to have an Oprah moment. How often do you get to tell somebody, you know, reward them with something like that?

Patty 18:40
<laughing> I was about to say, I think my favorite part of the story is still Francisco. <laughing>

All right, y’all. We are gonna wrap this one up. But there is more to come. There’s absolutely more to come. We love these stories. If you have some that you want to share with us, please, please send it in. You’ve got the link in the show notes on how to find us and how to make sure this happens. And Jane, what do we want to remind the people about?

Jane 19:07
Stay Disney and don’t do standby!

Theresa 19:09
And join us each week on the No-Guilt Disney Podcast, because as Patty likes to say,

Patty 19:14
It’s no fun to fangirl Disney alone.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai
 

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