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In this week's episode of A Dryer Dose

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of Disney, Jared shares tips and tricks

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for working remotely from the parks. Intro Music

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Welcome to this week's episode

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of a Dryer Dose of Disney.

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I'm your host, Jared dryer. And today we have an

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exciting episode for you.

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As I've said on some of my previous

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episodes, we're going to be a

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little bit more sporadic in the

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episodes that we release onto our

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podcast and out there on YouTube. And a lot of that's because we've covered

0:36

so many awesome topics that are out there.

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There's already 80 plus episodes out there

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on our YouTube page or on our podcasts

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or wherever you're listening to us. And we've covered a lot of the cool ideas

0:46

that are already out there and we wanted.

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To make sure you guys have

0:49

up-to-date information.

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So we will update some of those

0:51

episodes as we're going forward.

0:55

But we're always looking for

0:55

new ideas and topics to cover.

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And from the series that we've

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started a few weeks ago, We're going

1:02

to keep talking about traveling

1:02

internationally to different Disney parks.

1:05

And in fact, in a couple months here, our

1:05

family's going to be going to Disneyland

1:08

Paris, and we're so excited about that.

1:11

And we've already done some

1:11

episodes on planning for that.

1:14

But what we'll do is as soon as that trip

1:14

is completed and we're back home, we will

1:17

give you updates on the foods that we ate.

1:19

The rides that we rode there. And we'll talk all the exciting things

1:22

about Disneyland Paris, and then the

1:25

next place we're going to start planning. Like I said, on some of those

1:27

episodes, we're going to be planning

1:30

some episodes more sporadically. In between, and we're always

1:32

looking for new topics to cover.

1:36

By all means, if any of you are listening

1:36

to this podcast regularly and you've

1:39

got some topics we haven't covered

1:39

yet, please reach out to us over on

1:43

Facebook at a Dryer Dose of Disney.

1:45

We'd love to hear those ideas

1:45

and some different topics that we

1:47

can include on future podcasts. And we would love to cover those for you.

1:51

But in the meantime, One of my friends

1:51

came up to me and said, Hey, Jared, what

1:56

you should really cover is talking about

1:56

what it's like to work from the parks.

2:00

And this is something I've done a few

2:00

different times with our condo in Orlando,

2:04

mostly because I can work remotely and I

2:04

work remotely even here at home in Denver.

2:09

So what we've done is there's been

2:09

a couple times that we've been out

2:12

there in Orlando and we've gone

2:12

to the parks early in the day.

2:15

Obviously we're a couple hours

2:15

ahead of Denver and we've

2:18

been able to knock out some. Cool rides, maybe grab lunch and then

2:19

we'll head back to our condo so that I

2:22

can spend the rest of the day working. But there's been a few times where an

2:24

either I didn't have a meeting first thing

2:27

in the morning, or maybe I had a really

2:27

short meeting first thing in the morning,

2:30

and then I had a couple hour break that I

2:30

could then spend in the parks and we would

2:35

take advantage of that time and do that. And I would be working remotely just

2:36

for a couple hours, first thing in the

2:39

morning, just due to the time difference. They're in Orlando.

2:42

So I've had the chance to do this. And a lot of people that I know

2:44

are curious how does it work?

2:47

What's the best way to do this? And what are some tips and tricks that

2:49

you have for working in the parks?

2:53

So I figured why not put

2:53

together an episode on this?

2:55

And talk to those parents that may

2:55

be taking their kids on vacation.

2:59

And whether you're self-employed,

2:59

or maybe you have a job that allows

3:02

you to work remotely, or even in

3:02

the cases where you're on vacation,

3:06

you've taken the time off, but you

3:06

want to stay plugged into the office.

3:09

What are the best ways to work

3:09

remotely while you're at the parks?

3:13

Now we're going to cover all the parks for you. So we're going to be covering

3:15

all the parks, both in Orlando

3:18

and over in California. But we want to provide you with the

3:20

places that you're going to find privacy.

3:24

A little bit of a quieter atmosphere

3:24

and maybe chance to sit down

3:26

and plug in if you ever need to. So this is going to be a

3:28

perfect episode for you. If you're in that situation.

3:31

Now, before I dive into it, I

3:31

do want to ask wherever you're

3:34

listening to this podcast, or if

3:34

you're watching it on YouTube.

3:37

Click, pause and find that subscribe button. So that way, as we do our episodes,

3:39

since they're not happening every

3:42

single week, right now, you're going to be alerted to that. And you're going to get those updates into

3:44

your inbox each and every single time.

3:47

And if you like the show or this show

3:47

has given you some tips or tricks

3:50

that have saved you money, we would

3:50

love your support over at Patreon.

3:53

You can find that down in the links

3:53

to below in the podcast description

3:57

or on the YouTube description. And you can throw a couple

3:58

bucks our way to say thank you.

4:01

And if you want our biggest tip or

4:01

trick ever that we've ever released for

4:04

Disney, that is only available on our

4:04

top tier, this is something we didn't

4:08

want getting out to the general public. So we did put it at the

4:09

highest tier level out there.

4:12

But definitely a great opportunity

4:12

to learn some more tips and

4:14

tricks through our Patreon site. So working from the

4:17

parks, let's dive into it.

4:19

Let's talk about what works

4:19

and what doesn't work and what

4:22

I have found in my experience. Obviously when you're listening to this

4:24

episode, if you don't work remotely.

4:27

So for example, my wife is a teacher. She doesn't have to work remotely.

4:31

Obviously she can't. She's so tied into her class when

4:32

she's here in Denver and very engaged

4:36

with those students that when she's

4:36

on vacation or away from school,

4:39

that's when we go to the park. So she's never going to have

4:40

that opportunity to work remote.

4:43

You may be thinking, Hey, The

4:43

people try to work remotely.

4:47

Yeah, there's a lot of jobs out there

4:47

that actually you can do remotely,

4:50

especially if you're self-employed maybe

4:50

you're a broker of some sorts of whether

4:54

you're an insurance broker or a stock

4:54

broker, or you're a mortgage broker.

4:59

You may not have the confines of having to

4:59

work from a set office every single day.

5:03

You may be doing orders by the phone or

5:03

taking your computer or smartphone with

5:08

you where you can execute those orders

5:08

or take care of your customers that way.

5:11

And you may be working from the

5:11

parks while you're out there

5:14

with your family on vacation. So there are a lot of people that take

5:15

that opportunity to take care of a

5:19

couple of things at the same time. With their family and doing work.

5:23

But often a lot of people like

5:23

myself, I usually take PTO.

5:26

When I'm going to be headed into the

5:26

parks and spend some time over there.

5:29

But like I said, because we

5:29

have our condo in Orlando.

5:32

There are a lot of times that

5:32

we go in early in the day, just

5:34

because we're a couple hours ahead. We can knock out a couple of the big

5:36

rides, maybe grab some food and then

5:39

we'll leave because we have annual

5:39

passes and we're able to do that.

5:43

So it really depends on if your job

5:43

allows you to do that, or if you have

5:46

the opportunity to, and if you're

5:46

able to work more mobile than others.

5:50

So for example, if you work

5:50

in landscaping, you probably

5:53

can't work from the parks. But if you're able to work from a

5:54

smartphone or your own device, or even if

5:57

you have a laptop, I've done that a couple

5:57

of times where I've taken laptops with

6:01

me to the parks there's ways to do it.

6:03

There's ways to accomplish this. And there's ways to meet those deadlines

6:05

and meet those expectations of your job.

6:09

And that's what I'm here to help you with today. Now I'm going to take you through later

6:12

in the episode, we're going to go park

6:15

by park, and I'm going to tell you the

6:15

best places that I have found to work.

6:18

Because I have done it at each and every

6:18

single park, but I also want to give you

6:22

some tips before we get to that point. And the tips that I want to give

6:24

you are starting out with wifi.

6:28

So both Disney and universal have

6:28

their onsite wifi that you can use in

6:32

the parks as well as at the resorts,

6:32

they are a little bit different

6:35

because we have stayed at the

6:35

resorts as well as been in the parks.

6:38

And what I mean by that is if you're

6:38

in the hotels, they're a little

6:42

less restrictive in the hotels

6:42

because it's for their guests, they

6:45

understand that guests may need to

6:45

work or may need to do some things.

6:48

While they're there onsite. And so the hotels are going to be

6:50

a little bit easier to work from.

6:52

So if you have a jam packed day, and

6:52

what I mean is you have back-to-back

6:56

meetings all day that you just

6:56

can't do the parks that day.

6:59

I'm gonna encourage you stay in

6:59

the hotel, find a spot there.

7:02

You can even talk to the concierge desk. They usually have a working space that

7:04

you can borrow and use while you're there.

7:08

But you're gonna want to stay there

7:08

just because it's easier to have access.

7:11

The wifi works a lot better. You're going to have an.

7:13

Ability to plug in your

7:13

computer if you need to.

7:16

But the hotel's probably going to be easier. Once you get into the parks, the wifi

7:18

becomes a little bit more restrictive.

7:22

And what I mean by that is not

7:22

every site or every app works.

7:25

I can't tell you which ones do

7:25

and which ones don't because

7:28

I don't have a list of them. You may be able to Google

7:29

it and find it out there.

7:32

On the internet. But I don't have access to one right now.

7:35

I can tell you from my own experience. That sites like using my mail app and

7:38

that's going to pull all of my personal

7:42

email accounts, but I do have outlook

7:42

for work and that works in the parks.

7:46

I do have WebEx that works in the parks. I've used Microsoft teams.

7:49

In the parks on their wifi that all works.

7:52

Now, if you have an app or some

7:52

software that you need to use that

7:55

is proprietary or may not work in

7:55

the parks do know that the cell

7:59

signals at the parks are pretty good. And so , if you're able to do it

8:01

from your smartphone, or if you

8:03

can use your smartphone as your

8:03

hotspot then it will probably still

8:08

work for you when you're out there. But do know that the wifi can be a

8:09

little bit more restrictive in the

8:12

parks and that's because they're

8:12

limiting that bandwidth and capacity

8:15

due to the thousands and thousands of

8:15

people in the park, all sharing the

8:19

same wifi, all sharing that bandwidth. So they do try to restrict

8:21

it down so that no one is.

8:24

Hogging it and using a large

8:24

piece of that bandwidth out there.

8:28

It is a little bit more difficult

8:28

to be on the wifi in some cases,

8:32

depending on the software. And like I said, I gave you

8:33

some softwares that have worked. I've had a couple of things

8:35

that haven't worked but they

8:38

weren't necessarily needed. At the end of the day, just know

8:40

that you may need to go test it out.

8:43

So I do want to caution you. You have a backup plan.

8:46

Don't ever go into the parks thinking,

8:46

oh, I'm going to be able to just log in

8:49

on their wifi and it's going to work. That's why I said, use your

8:51

cell phone as a hotspot. That may enable you to get past

8:53

what the wifi may limit you on.

8:57

So always have a backup plan when you're going. Like I said, the cell phone coverage

8:59

is pretty good, so you shouldn't

9:02

have any problem with that. So tips and tricks when you're in the

9:03

parks, here's the way that I like to work

9:06

from the parks is starting with email.

9:09

Okay. So a lot of jobs obviously use email

9:09

and electronic communication, maybe

9:13

chat as a feature at their company

9:13

where they're communicating with one

9:16

another through different departments. You can do email and chat

9:18

in those kinds of things. And I really like to do it when I'm

9:20

in line waiting in queue for a ride.

9:24

So for example, when we go to any of

9:24

the parks, we're going to rope drop our

9:28

most important ride or the ride that

9:28

we think will save us the most time.

9:32

And we're going to tackle that as soon as we get there and we're not going to be waiting in line.

9:36

After that though chances are as we're

9:36

going to be waiting in line, even if

9:39

it's as short as five or 10 minutes

9:39

early in the day, or at the end of the

9:42

day or throughout the middle of the

9:42

day, maybe it's 45 minutes or longer.

9:46

Waiting in line is something you're going

9:46

to be doing throughout your entire day.

9:49

And that is a great time to stop

9:49

and check your email, especially

9:52

if you're doing it frequently. Don't think about it as taking

9:54

yourself away from your family.

9:56

Especially if you're doing it really

9:56

frequently, because what I found is I

10:00

wait in the line and I'll check my email

10:00

real quick and I mainly have one or two.

10:03

Sometimes I don't even have to respond. Sometimes it's just somebody letting

10:05

me know something and I'm able to just

10:08

delete it and keep going on with my day. And it may only take me two minutes and

10:10

then maybe 20 minutes later, I'll check

10:14

it again to make sure I've got my finger

10:14

on the pulse of what's going on at work.

10:17

Just to make sure that I'm engaged with

10:17

my staff and with my team and that I'm

10:21

not missing anything, but usually I don't

10:21

have any emails and then we'll go ride.

10:24

Our ride. And then we'll go to our next one. And we may wait again another 20

10:26

minutes and then I'll pull it up again.

10:30

And maybe I've got one email. So emails are best tackled when

10:31

you're waiting in queue for the rides.

10:35

That's what I have found is the

10:35

easiest time to do it because you're

10:37

usually not doing anything else. And it's usually quick and easy to

10:39

do, and the more frequently you do it,

10:42

you're not going to get stacked up. So I really love that.

10:45

It's enabled us to keep

10:45

moving throughout our day.

10:47

As on some of our other episodes, we've

10:47

talked about waiting in line and doing

10:51

your mobile order and stuff like that. I really find being in queue is a

10:52

great time to knock out things on

10:56

my device and make sure that I'm

10:56

taking care of what needs to be done.

10:59

For the rest of my day or at work back home. So email's super easy to do.

11:04

But maybe have a meeting or you

11:04

have a call or you have some kind

11:07

of deadline you need to work on. Then you may need to find a place

11:09

that you can be isolated for a little

11:12

bit, maybe in a quieter environment. And that's where we want to

11:14

give you the tips and tricks for

11:16

where to go in each of the parks.

11:19

So I have gone to each and every one of

11:19

these locations at one time or another.

11:23

I can tell you, these are

11:23

all tested, tried, and true.

11:26

I absolutely love each

11:26

and every one of them.

11:28

And in fact, I'm going to give you

11:28

a place, not to go on one of them.

11:32

That I've heard a lot of people

11:32

recommend because I tried it

11:36

and it was absolutely awful. Without any further ado, let's dive

11:38

into the parks and where to go.

11:41

So I'm going to start with everyone's

11:41

number one park and that's magic

11:44

kingdom in Orlando, and we'll

11:44

do all the Orlando parks all for

11:48

Disney and then the two universal. And then we'll hop over to Anaheim

11:49

and I'll tell you about those.

11:52

But magic kingdom in Orlando is actually

11:52

one of my favorite parks to do this from.

11:57

And it's because you do have multiple

11:57

places you can go to, depending

12:00

on where you're at in the park. That have AC and that they're covered.

12:05

And that's something that's really

12:05

important in Orlando is it can rain

12:08

sporadically, especially in the

12:08

summer months in the afternoons.

12:11

And if you are outdoors, say sitting

12:11

on a park bench and all of a sudden

12:14

it starts to pour a, you may be

12:14

scrambling trying to find cover.

12:17

And if you've got a computer

12:17

out that could be disaster.

12:20

So I'm going to recommend, you're

12:20

always going to want to go indoors.

12:23

You're always going to want to find AC. And a place that's going

12:24

to be really quiet. So at magic kingdom, I have

12:26

found two great locations and

12:29

the first is Pecos Bill's. Restaurant.

12:31

Now this is over towards a splash mountain

12:31

and where now Tiana's is going to be.

12:36

But Pecos Bills is a great restaurant.

12:39

It's indoors. There's a ton of seating. And if you didn't know this,

12:41

they actually have an upstairs.

12:44

Usually the upstairs is marked off

12:44

and roped off so that you can't get up

12:48

there because they don't really need it. Because the parks are never at a capacity

12:50

level where they need to open that up.

12:53

But there is a ramp. You can start going up. But there is some seating throughout

12:56

this entire restaurant and it's

12:59

always easy to find a seat in there

12:59

unless it's lunchtime and it's cool.

13:03

It's quiet. And it's really relaxed in there.

13:05

So even if it's pretty full, you can

13:05

usually find a corner that it's going

13:08

to be a little bit quieter in a that

13:08

you can sit down and do your work.

13:12

My second recommendation is

13:12

going to be the Harbor house.

13:16

There at magic kingdom. Now this is over by the haunted

13:17

mansion and the colonial America area.

13:21

And the reason I love the

13:21

Harbor house is this one.

13:23

Does usually have the

13:23

second story open for you?

13:26

Not many people ever go

13:26

up to the second floor.

13:28

In fact when you walk in there, It's

13:28

not intuitive to find the second floor.

13:33

A lot of people are going to be

13:33

walking around the first floor,

13:35

looking for places to sit. And there's a whole outdoor

13:36

seating area as well.

13:38

So if they don't find seating on the

13:38

first floor, they're usually going

13:41

to walk outside and go find seating

13:41

out there and they don't turn and

13:45

look that there are actually stairs

13:45

that go upstairs and there's a

13:47

whole other seating area up there. So when you're up there,

13:49

it's usually really quiet.

13:51

There's very few people up there. It's air conditioned, you're indoors.

13:55

And this is a great place to go as well. So those are my two recommendations

13:56

and magic kingdom is Pecos bill

14:00

and Harbor house, both in doors. You're going to love them.

14:02

And they're easy to do work from. Second, let's go to Epcot.

14:06

And this is where I'm going to tell you where not to go. So when I started looking for

14:08

places everyone was recommending

14:12

the connections cafe. Which is in the center of

14:14

the front side of the park.

14:17

So between all of the different pavilions,

14:17

the land guardians of the galaxy.

14:22

Mission space, test track, and that center

14:22

areas where the connections cafe is.

14:26

And everybody said to go there because

14:26

there's so many different booths

14:29

and seating areas, and that's true. There's a lot of places to sit.

14:32

But what I have found is every

14:32

time I've gotten to the connections

14:34

cafe, it is completely swamped.

14:37

It is super busy. It is the only place within the

14:38

park that has a genuine Starbucks.

14:42

And because of that, it is

14:42

just crazy busy all the time.

14:45

And I've not liked working from there.

14:48

In fact last time that we were there.

14:50

We had our flight canceled

14:50

from Orlando back to Denver

14:54

due to a snow storm in Denver. And that was the quickest place we

14:56

could run into because it was starting

14:59

to rain and call our airline, which was

14:59

Southwest and get that all figured out.

15:04

So we ended up working from

15:04

connections cafe to call Southwest,

15:07

to get our planes changed. And it was loud.

15:10

It's very difficult to hear the agent. It wasn't a lot of fun to have

15:12

that conversation in there.

15:14

So I can tell you don't read

15:14

what they say online connections.

15:17

Cafe is not the place to go. In fact, I'm going to give

15:19

you three different places.

15:22

You can go to. At Epcot that are all better

15:23

than connections cafe.

15:25

So if you're in the front of the

15:25

park, I'm going to tell you it

15:27

head over to the land pavilion. And in the land pavilion go

15:30

downstairs right in the center

15:33

is the sunshine seasons cafe.

15:35

And there is a ton of seating down there. Now this is between living

15:37

with the land and Soarin.

15:40

It can be a little bit loud in there

15:40

because you're indoors and there's a lot

15:43

of people walking through, but there's

15:43

not a lot of people stopping and sitting.

15:48

Which definitely helps with the noise levels. Again, this is in doors.

15:51

It's air conditioned. That's going to help you a ton.

15:54

And it's a pretty easy place to

15:54

find a seat and to work from.

15:58

The second place is going to be in Canada. If you are out in the world showcase.

16:02

Now . I'll tell you to head over to Canada. Go into the back.

16:05

And there's two ways to get into the back of Canada. You can either take the pathway over

16:07

by Le Cellier, or you can walk up the

16:12

stairs into the shops and then there's

16:12

stairs that go down the backside of that

16:15

towards the, where the waterfall is. And down in the bottom

16:17

back there, there's a show.

16:20

That tells you all about Canada. Now, the cool thing is you

16:21

can walk into the lobby.

16:24

And the lobby is very long and extensive

16:24

and not many people go to the show.

16:28

Not many people are interested

16:28

to go see the show for Canada.

16:31

So because of that throughout let's

16:31

say you're down there for an hour.

16:34

Throughout that hour, the show

16:34

runs about every 20 minutes.

16:37

You may see a dozen people walk in.

16:39

But usually it's very calm down there. It's super quiet.

16:43

It is dark. So I will warn you about that.

16:45

If you're going to be on a video

16:45

call, it is dark down there.

16:48

So they may not be able to see very well. But it's cool.

16:51

It's indoors. It's relaxing. Nobody's going to bother you.

16:55

I've taken a handful of calls down there

16:55

and it's all worked out very, well.

16:58

So I really like. The backside of Canada.

17:01

The third and final place is

17:01

going to be back in Morocco.

17:04

So let's say now you've

17:04

passed the France pavilion.

17:07

You're moving on through the world. Showcase in Morocco.

17:09

You can go all the way into

17:09

the back, wind back there.

17:12

Nobody ever goes back there. There's only a couple of seats.

17:15

So that is one problem is it is

17:15

a little bit limiting and seats.

17:18

But you can sit back there. I've taken a call back there as well.

17:21

It's super quiet. No, one's going to bother you at all.

17:23

The downside is you are not indoors.

17:25

It is outdoors. So it's going to be hot and if it

17:26

ever starts to rain on you, you're

17:29

going to be subject to the weather. But that is a quick, last ditch

17:31

effort place that I like to go

17:33

to if, I need it and we're for

17:33

winding around the world showcase.

17:38

Epcot, there's three great

17:38

locations for you there.

17:41

And in fact, I'll even say it. I've got, there's probably even more.

17:44

Those are just my three

17:44

go-to that I look for.

17:47

Now Hollywood studios. Hollywood studios is actually I think a

17:48

little bit of a challenge because I have

17:52

only found one really good place to set

17:52

up shop and to work for just a little bit.

17:56

And that is over at pizza

17:56

Rizzo over in the Muppets area.

18:00

So this is between star tours. And when you're going back to the

18:02

black Spire outpost at Galaxy's edge.

18:07

There's that little outcropping there

18:07

that looks like a little New York city.

18:10

And that is where the Muppets. 4d is, and that's where pizza

18:11

Rizzo is and mama Melrose.

18:15

So I encourage you to

18:15

go into a pizza Rizzo.

18:18

There is a here also a second floor.

18:20

And nobody goes up there at all. So if you go up to the second floor,

18:21

you're indoors, you're in AC it

18:25

is a counter service restaurants? So you can come and go as you like.

18:29

But it's going to be pretty quiet in there. It's going to be relaxing and

18:30

go sit in a booth up there.

18:33

And get some work done without

18:33

anyone ever bothering you.

18:36

Now throughout the rest of

18:36

the park at Hollywood studios.

18:38

There's not a lot of

18:38

good places you could.

18:41

If you wanted to take a call out on

18:41

the backside of the tower of terror

18:46

that's a pretty desolate place. Meaning not a lot of people go back

18:47

there, but pretty much the rest of

18:50

the park throughout the entire area

18:50

is going to be jam packed with people.

18:54

It's going to be busy. There's not a lot of great places to go

18:55

that are going to be really quiet for you.

18:58

So I'm definitely gonna recommend pizza. Rizzo is my go-to place

19:00

over at Hollywood studios.

19:04

Wrapping up Disney Orlando at Disney world

19:04

is going to be over at animal kingdom.

19:10

And the animal kingdom is by far, I think

19:10

the toughest place to find a place to sit.

19:16

And it's because there's

19:16

no good indoor space.

19:18

So as you saw, as we went through magic

19:18

kingdom, they had two great indoor places.

19:22

Epcot. I gave you two good indoor Hollywood

19:22

studio only had one animal kingdom.

19:26

Doesn't have really any good indoor space.

19:29

You can go to the Cantina

19:29

over in the Pandora area.

19:34

That's not a bad place. There are a few seats in there,

19:35

but it gets so busy over in

19:38

Pandora that it's not worth it.

19:40

So I would definitely say stay away

19:40

from the Cantina, but if you need

19:43

it too early or late in the day, and

19:43

you weren't around mealtime, that's

19:46

not a bad place to do it indoors. And back in the back of the park,

19:49

if you took the train to planet,

19:53

watch, you may find a spot back there.

19:55

That's easy to get some peace and

19:55

quiet and do some work indoors.

19:59

But for the most part that

19:59

this park is very outdoors.

20:02

It's very animal centric. So they want you out in the elements.

20:05

They want you walking around. All of the restaurants,

20:06

other than the Cantina.

20:09

And then you've got a couple

20:09

over in Dino land today.

20:12

All the other restaurants

20:12

are table service.

20:14

So they don't want you walking in

20:14

there and just sitting down and

20:17

taking over a table and working. The Cantina is going to probably be your

20:19

best bet if you need to get indoors.

20:23

But what I have found to be

20:23

the best place to work from

20:26

is behind the bangle barbecue.

20:28

So this is on the discovery island, it's

20:28

in the center of the park, which is nice.

20:32

So regardless of where you're

20:32

at during your day, if you

20:34

need to go find someplace. Heading to discovery islands, always

20:36

going to be really easy to find but

20:39

you can go to the bangle barbecue. And then behind that, if you've not

20:41

been back there is just a huge grouping

20:45

of different areas where you can sit

20:45

and all of these areas are covered.

20:49

So that's good. It'll keep you out of the rain.

20:52

And I have had a call where it was

20:52

absolutely pouring, and this is the

20:56

day that I brought my laptop with me. I had multiple calls, so I sat there

20:57

and I did my multiple calls and it was

21:01

absolutely pouring the entire time I did.

21:04

So I was thrilled that I was under a

21:04

covered space and able to take my calls,

21:08

interact with all the teams and do what I

21:08

needed to do while our friends and family

21:12

were in the park because we had guests. Guests with us. And they were doing all the rides

21:14

and experiencing all the stuff.

21:17

And then a few hours later, I was able

21:17

to shut it all down and go meet up

21:21

with them and then do dinner because

21:21

it was towards the end of the day.

21:24

That was a great place to go. Now, when you do go walk

21:25

through there, know that there

21:28

are multiple places to sit. So you don't have to sit at the first one.

21:31

You find a, there are places this thing

21:31

winds around for a little bit, and there's

21:34

places up above there's places down below.

21:37

Most of which I'll have covers. So I encourage you walk

21:39

around, find a quiet place.

21:42

And then. Once you find a quiet place.

21:44

What I like is I will go

21:44

sit like towards the corner.

21:47

So I'm out of the way. So if a family does come to eat they're

21:48

usually going to sit in the middle

21:52

or towards the front of that section. They're not going to come back and

21:54

pull up the table right next to me

21:56

and being in the corner then I've got

21:56

a background of, trees or something

22:01

behind me, or maybe they can see

22:01

the rain if it starts to rain.

22:03

And they're not going to see the

22:03

people walking around behind me.

22:05

So that's a quick little tip. Is I like going into the corner

22:07

of one of those areas back there?

22:10

But the bagel barbecue is

22:10

going to be the best place.

22:12

And that's my go-to. Anytime I need to do something from

22:13

animal kingdom, I go to the Bangle BBQ.

22:18

So let's talk to universal

22:18

because universal honestly is a

22:21

lot more difficult than, Disney. So Disney at least has places

22:22

you can go to universal.

22:26

It's a lot more difficult. So the two parks at universal,

22:27

as are islands of adventure

22:30

and universal studios. So starting at islands of adventure,

22:32

this is most people's go to park.

22:36

This is their favorite park of the two. There are really only two

22:38

great places that I found.

22:41

So if you want quiet. The best quiet place that I can

22:42

tell you is go over into Dr.

22:46

Seuss land. And when you get in there, right?

22:48

When you walk in is a green

22:48

eggs and ham, which is a stand.

22:52

But if you walk to the left side

22:52

of that, there's a little walkway.

22:55

That's actually shortcut through that land. But it winds around and not many

22:57

people go down that walkway and there

23:00

are some tables hidden back there. So I encourage you to go sit over there.

23:04

You're not going to see a lot of people. And if you do sit, you can sit

23:05

with your back to the lake.

23:08

So that way, if you need to

23:08

set up a computer or do a call.

23:11

They can see the lake behind you. You're not going to see people walking

23:12

by you, but you are going to be outside.

23:15

So your are going to be exposed

23:15

to the elements you are going

23:18

to be exposed to the sun. It can get very hot out there.

23:21

So it's not something that I

23:21

would encourage you to do a lot.

23:25

But it's great for that quick phone call. If you need to take it.

23:28

My go-to place at islands of adventure

23:28

is going to be the fantastic four pizza.

23:33

That is obviously over in the

23:33

superhero island part of the park.

23:37

So right over by the Hulk rollercoaster. And in fact it's right underneath it.

23:41

And if you go underneath the

23:41

Hulk rollercoaster, you can

23:43

find fantastic for pizza. The reason I like this as there's a lot

23:45

of seating in there and a lot of people

23:49

go, counter-clockwise to do this park.

23:52

So they usually start over in Seuss land

23:52

and they run through it to get to Harry

23:55

Potter world and they work their way. Counter-clockwise.

23:58

And the reason that's important is the

23:58

last land that they get to superhero

24:01

land, meaning that if they're eating

24:01

throughout the day, chances are as

24:05

they're already full and they don't need

24:05

a full meal over there in superhero land.

24:09

So because of that fantastic

24:09

four pizza's not ever too busy

24:12

unless it's raining outside. Then a lot of people will run in there.

24:15

Because there's good shelter and

24:15

there's lots of tables set, but you

24:18

can go into fantastic for pizza. It's going to be air conditioned.

24:21

It's going to probably be

24:21

quiet unless it's mealtime.

24:24

And that's a great place to work from over there. Now, also at islands of adventure

24:26

as if you're an annual pass holder.

24:30

They do have their annual

24:30

pass holder lounge.

24:32

And I've talked to the people in there and

24:32

they said, Hey, if you're an annual pass

24:36

holder and you need to take a phone call

24:36

or do a quick WebEx or something, by all

24:40

means, you're welcome to come in here. And there are a few tables in the back

24:42

there, and they said, you can use those

24:45

at your leisure whenever you need to. And we'll make sure that

24:47

nobody's bothering you. So that's another option, but

24:49

again, only for annual pass holder.

24:52

So just a quick call out there. Now let's go back over to

24:55

the universal studio side.

24:57

This one, I think is a

24:57

little bit more difficult.

25:00

So really you've got two places to go. They're both going to

25:02

be a little bit busier. They're both going to

25:04

be a little bit louder. The first one is between men and

25:06

black and then the Harry Potter land.

25:09

So as you go over to Harry Potter

25:09

land, they've got London and then

25:12

Diagon alley, but right between those

25:12

is a, there's a restroom over there.

25:16

We always frequent that restroom. We think that's a really clean one.

25:19

That's a good one to go to. But back behind that restroom is

25:20

a walkway between those two lands.

25:25

There's a little amplifier back there. They usually have the

25:27

amphitheater roped off. So you can't get back in there.

25:30

But there are some park benches over there. So we like to go sit over there.

25:33

My wife does not like the men in black. Cause it does spend.

25:36

And so she's going to usually get a

25:36

butterbeer and she's going to sit on

25:39

those benches and wait for us over there. And it's a great quiet place that

25:41

then she can update her Facebook

25:45

and post some pictures and stuff. But I found it to also great place to take

25:46

a phone call because it's not loud at all.

25:50

So you're not going to have anyone screaming behind you. No, one's going to walk around behind you.

25:53

So that's my go-to there

25:53

honestly, even more.

25:56

Then my second choice. Though it is outside and it

25:58

is exposed to the elements.

26:01

The only inside place and it's going

26:01

to be loud, it's going to be chaotic.

26:04

Is over in Simpson's land. You do have Cletus's chicken

26:06

shack, as well as some of

26:09

the other fast food places. The crusty burger, you can go in

26:10

there and it's like a food court,

26:14

but there's a ton of seating

26:14

and you can usually find a seat.

26:17

I'm going to caution you though. When you go in there, it's loud.

26:19

There's cartoons playing everywhere. It looks very funny in there.

26:22

So if you're on a video call,

26:22

people are going to notice

26:24

that they're going to see it. They're going to hear it. But if you do need to get out of

26:27

the elements, this is a place you

26:29

can go find a table pretty easily.

26:31

If you need to. I don't love it. It's not my number one recommendation.

26:34

There were better places, but now that

26:34

they're doing all the construction

26:37

over by ET and they're going to

26:37

be building stuff out, hopefully

26:40

they reopened some of that up. And there's some great places over there.

26:43

But as of today, those

26:43

aren't available for you.

26:46

Now let's hop over to California

26:46

real quick, and I'm going to

26:49

walk you through it over there. The good news is in California

26:51

is it doesn't get as hot and

26:53

it doesn't rain as often. So being indoors isn't as crucial

26:55

in California as it is in Orlando.

26:59

And that actually plays out

26:59

because a lot of the places I'm

27:02

going to recommend aren't indoors. There's just not as much availability to

27:04

get indoors in California as there is in

27:08

Orlando, but let's start at Disney land.

27:11

And my favorite place is

27:11

the fantasy land theater.

27:14

And this is actually between

27:14

it's a small world in Toontown.

27:17

So as you're walking towards

27:17

Toontown, you're going to

27:20

go underneath the railroad. Tracks over there.

27:22

It's immediately to your left. If you're walking into Toontown.

27:25

And there's some restrooms over there,

27:25

but over that little hill by the restrooms

27:28

is actually a big amphitheater and they

27:28

do have a tent covering if you need it.

27:33

And if nothing is going on that

27:33

day, they'll have a sign out front.

27:35

That's going to tell you showtimes. I have nothings going on.

27:38

That's a great place to sit because

27:38

no one's ever in there and it's

27:41

super quiet back there and you

27:41

do get that tent covering now.

27:45

Throughout the year they're gonna have

27:45

different like high school bands or

27:48

maybe a choir or singing group come to

27:48

Disneyland and they're going to perform

27:53

in a parade or some different event. A lot of times they'll perform at

27:55

the Fantasyland theater as well.

27:58

So you may see between two to four

27:58

is going to be these two different

28:02

choirs that are going to sing, but

28:02

the rest of the day's wide open.

28:04

So do check that out. We do love Fantasyland theater.

28:07

That's a great place to go. And they don't mind if you

28:08

go back there and just sit.

28:11

If you're taking a phone call or

28:11

something like that's an awesome place.

28:15

My second recommendation. And the one that I like to use

28:16

is the hungry bear restaurant.

28:19

So this is over by splash mountain going

28:19

towards Galaxy's edge over by Pooh corner.

28:24

Is the hungry bear restaurant. So it's on that side of the

28:25

park and they also have a second

28:28

story up on the balcony up there.

28:30

It's an outdoor deck and

28:30

you can go set up there.

28:34

Plenty of tables, tons of tables, you are

28:34

going to be exposed to the elements, but

28:38

by being up on that deck, you're never

28:38

going to see people walking behind you,

28:41

especially if you get off to the side. You can set up with a scenic

28:42

background if you need to.

28:45

And it's usually going to be a little bit quieter over there. So we love that one as well.

28:49

Over across the street, over

28:49

at California adventure.

28:52

This one is really tough. But we have found at the

28:54

back of the pier area.

28:56

So you have Pixar pier where

28:56

you've got the Incredicoaster.

28:59

You've got the toy story, midway mania.

29:02

If you keep going a little bit

29:02

further back, you're going to

29:04

find two different restaurants. The paradise garden grill and

29:06

boardwalk pizza, and they have

29:09

a whole bunch of outdoor tables. Now before noon, this place is dead quiet.

29:14

So if it's in the morning, that is

29:14

a great place to go and work because

29:17

no one's going to be over there. It's super quiet.

29:19

No, one's found their way to

29:19

the backside of the pier yet.

29:21

And you're going to find a table to sit out. Most of the tables have an umbrella.

29:25

That's going to help you get out of the sun. If you can find a one in the

29:26

shade, that's going to be great.

29:30

But it is all outdoors. Now we'll come lunchtime. It's going to get a little bit busier

29:32

and you may need to find another place.

29:35

The second area is very similar and this

29:35

is going to be over in the big hero.

29:38

Six area. They have a kind of a food court.

29:41

Out over there by the Wharf where they've

29:41

got all these tables in the center.

29:45

Tons of seating. So that's great. You can always find a seat there.

29:48

But the challenge is going to be is it's

29:48

going to be very, loud and very, busy,

29:52

and you're not going to find a great place

29:52

that you're not gonna have people walking

29:55

behind you if you need to do a video call. So that's a little bit of

29:57

a challenge over there. You could go into, they have the

29:59

animation studio at California adventure.

30:04

Where you can learn to draw

30:04

the different characters.

30:06

There are a couple of nooks and

30:06

crannies in that building over there

30:10

that you may find a place to just go

30:10

sit on the ground and take a call.

30:13

If you need to be indoors in an AC. But there's so many people

30:15

walking through there. So it didn't quite make my

30:17

list as a top place to go.

30:20

Now over at universal studios,

30:20

Hollywood this one's even worse.

30:24

This is a very small park. If you've ever been there, this park

30:26

can be done very easily in half a day.

30:30

But it's very small. It's very tight. There's not a lot of great

30:31

indoor spaces or restaurants.

30:34

So what I have found to be

30:34

the best place is over in the

30:37

illumination part of the park. So this is where your minions.

30:40

Mini mayhem, right? Is this a secret life of pets?

30:43

They do have the whole outdoor

30:43

carnival area for all the little kids.

30:47

If you can get over onto that side

30:47

of the park, this is on the upper

30:50

lot and get into that back corner.

30:53

And even if you go towards where

30:53

the secret life of pets is,

30:56

and then keep going down that

30:56

little back street over there.

30:59

You may find a place that's going to

30:59

be really quiet and away from others.

31:02

But do you know, there's going to be a

31:02

lot of kids in this area that are going

31:05

to be loud running around before they

31:05

built the secret life of pets, this

31:08

is where they used to have a little

31:08

amphitheater and they would do the

31:11

blues brothers shows and beetle juice. It was perfect.

31:14

Back then. But since they built secret life at pets

31:15

and built that out just a little bit more,

31:19

it's a little bit of a tighter space. But if you can get down that little

31:21

back street over there, it may

31:23

be pretty quiet for you and you

31:23

might find a great place to work.

31:27

Outside of that, I encourage you. You can leave and go into city walk.

31:30

There's quite a few restaurants and quick

31:30

service places and city walk that you

31:34

could get indoors and maybe find a seat,

31:34

especially if it's early in the day.

31:38

But outside of that, it's going to be

31:38

really difficult at universal Hollywood.

31:42

So that now leads us to our, I can

31:42

do this all day tip of the day, which

31:45

is on my water bottle back here. We've got some really cool merch.

31:48

At our Etsy store, if you want to go check that out. But we like to give you the tip.

31:51

That's going to help you get

31:51

through your day and help

31:53

make it the best day possible. And our tip of the day is get some

31:55

really good noise canceling headphones.

31:59

So whether those are Bose are

31:59

maybe your apple AirPods are

32:02

noise canceling, or you found some

32:02

off-brand ones or some beats by Dre.

32:07

There's a lot of different noise

32:07

canceling headphones that are out there.

32:10

We encourage you get a really good pair of them. And take those with you to the park.

32:14

Now, obviously earbuds are easier

32:14

to carry around in your pocket.

32:17

But they may not be as good at the noise

32:17

canceling as the bigger canned headphones.

32:22

Like the ones that I'm wearing right now. So I do keep that in mind, but if

32:23

you can bring some headphones with

32:27

you that will make taking calls.

32:29

10 times easier because you can cancel

32:29

out all the background noise and you can

32:33

actually hear what the other, person's

32:33

trying to tell you where if you're just

32:36

holding your phone or holding it up

32:36

to your ear you're not going to hear

32:39

very well because the parks are loud. There's a lot of commotion going on.

32:44

Those headphones are going to save you a ton. I like to take my headphones in with me.

32:48

Just in case every single time. And that way, if somebody from work

32:50

ever calls me, even if I'm off for the

32:53

day, if someone from work calls me or

32:53

a family member needs to get ahold of

32:56

me and they need to talk, I can just

32:56

pull out my earbuds, throw those in real

33:00

quick and I can pick up the call and then

33:00

it will help eliminate the background

33:03

noise and I can hear them really well. And so that's going to be our tip of the

33:05

day is that's going to help you engage

33:08

on those calls just a little bit better. But with that, we wish you a magical week

33:10

as you're planning your next vacation.

33:14

Like I said, we're always looking for topics

33:14

that you'd like to hear us cover.

33:17

So please find us over on Facebook. If you have any other questions

33:19

or have topics that you'd like to

33:21

hear about, and we will make sure

33:21

to get an episode out for those.

33:25

But we will talk to you next time. Bye. Bye.