Daily Archives: September 23, 2026

The Art of the Pivot

Kingdom and Cruise Travel

I’m writing this at the exit of Expedition Everest, waiting for my husband and son to come off it for the third time in a row. My post-baby body can no longer handle that ride, confirmed that today.

Last night, none of us would have guessed we’d be here.

THE PARTY WAS GOING GREAT

We went to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. We arrived at 3:45pm and were in the park by 4pm to take advantage of the extra hours before the party started.

Things were going great. We got our party bags and full candy bar, rode Space Mountain, measured my son for Tron (he’s almost tall enough), and hit Barnstormer, Little Mermaid, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, plus a snack, all within the first 2 hours.

We truly made the most of our first couple hours. We hit up rides that were priorities for us and tried snacks that were party exclusives, which opened up right around 6pm (special beignets from Golden Oak Outpost, loaded sweet potato fries at Pecos Bill’s).

THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED

My son started feeling sick. We took a break, decided to try getting in line for Big Thunder, but didn’t make it more than halfway through the line when he was done. We left the line, and he got sick right as we walked out.

The evening I’d planned for was over. No parade, no stage show, no ride overlays, no candy trails.

THE PIVOT

Here’s the thing about Disney: when your day falls apart, you have options. But you have to know what to ask for.

We walked to Guest Relations and explained what happened, and they thankfully refunded our party tickets. My son woke up the next day feeling better. We took that refund and bought Animal Kingdom tickets instead. I knew we could have a great day there without prebooked lightning lanes or dining reservations, and Everest is my son’s favorite ride. No brainer for us.

One night, two parks, a completely different trip.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Most people panic when things go sideways at Disney. They either eat the loss or they call customer service and hope for the best. That’s stressful.

When you work with me as your travel advisor, I’m the one who knows what Guest Relations can do. I’m the one who’s planned enough trips to know which pivot makes sense. I’m the one you call when your kid gets sick in a theme park, and I’m helping you figure out what comes next.

You don’t have to know all the answers. You don’t have to panic. You call me, and we make a move together.

Plans change on a Disney trip. Having the right person in your corner means you know exactly what to do when they do.

 

Just Book the Trip

Kingdom and Cruise Travel

I stood knee deep in the ocean at Castaway Cay, watching my husband and daughter swim out toward a sandbar. My son wanted to make it out there too, so I grabbed him a life jacket and we tried to follow.

We didn’t get more than a few feet. The second my foot hit the seaweed on the ocean floor, I was done. We turned back, my son a little disappointed, me completely unwilling to keep going.

Two years later, that’s still the story he tells. His mom, brought down by some seaweed.

I went through a health scare in December 2022, one I still don’t talk about much, and it changed the way I thought about time. In the months right after, we leaned on the trips I already knew by heart, our usual Disney park visits with the kids. But something had shifted, and I wanted more for my family than what we already knew. In May 2024, we tried Disney Cruise Line for the first time.

I didn’t book it with some grand plan in mind. I booked it because I needed to be somewhere with my husband, my kids, and my parents, away from real life, doing something we’d still be laughing about years later.

My son gets anxious about big things, so the water slides on Castaway Cay were never going to happen. The water cannons were a different story. He ran through those for an hour straight, completely in his element.

At dinner every night, our servers gave the kids puzzles to work through at the table. Watching my parents and my kids argue over the answer, three generations hunched over a napkin, is worth more to me than anything that was actually on the menu.

I plan trips for a living. I know the ship names, the sail dates, the deck plans, all of it. But that trip taught me something my job never had: you don’t know how much time you get with the people at your table. You just get the time you get.

So if you’ve been telling yourself you’ll plan that trip next year, or once things calm down, or when the timing is finally right, I’d push back on that a little. The timing is rarely perfect. Go make your own seaweed story instead.

If this is the year you’re ready to stop waiting, let me know. I’d love to help you plan it.