While I have always loved Disney movies and watching the Disney Channel growing up, my love and appreciation took a new level when we took my niece to Disney World when she was 4. Watching her face light up when she saw Cinderella’s Castle for the first time nearly brought me to tears. I knew I couldn’t wait to take my own kids someday. Disney is full of so much wonder and happiness, how can you n
ot smile walking down Main Street with people from every corner of the world, singing and dancing in the street. It is the one place I go where I “feel like a kid” again. It is my true joy to share that magic with as many people as I can. Originally from Central Illinois, our family moved to North East Texas in the middle of 2020. Due to the move, I quit my day job as an accountant, to be home for my family and help us all adjust to this new crazy life in Texas. When travel started to pick up again, I started helping friends plan their Disney vacations. After planning dozens of amazing vacations, my friends insisted that I should make this a business! So in the summer of 2022, I did just that. I offered my services to several clients and they provided beaming reviews. Before I knew it I had clients booked through the end of 2022. In 2019, when I came across an article about the “Parkeology Challenge” (a ride challenge to ride all the rides at either Walt Disney World or Disneyland), I joked with a friend (another Disney lover) that we should attempt this challenge. We both laughed it off at first but as both our strategic minds began to process this, we were drawn to the idea and were totally in. We immersed ourselves into the Disney Ride Challenge Community. From podcasts to Twitter and studying data from Disney and other sources, I became fluent in all things Disney Attractions. In September, we not only completed the Parkeology Challenge at WDW once, but twice!! After that we were hooked and in January 2020, we completed the Parkeology Challenge at Disneyland. How does this make me an amazing Disney Planner? Well, while I thought I knew everything and was organized before (I mean, I used spreadsheets and had all the reservations and Fast Passes on point!), I was rocked when I started planning for the Parkeology Challenge. Doing these challenges caused me to look at the parks in a totally different way: how to navigate them efficiently. I was able to take my planning to a whole new level. There is so much strategy behind touring the parks successfully that can only be gained by experience and lots and lots of research. I get so much excitement from being able to secure a Lightning Lane for a “sold out” ride, which I can do on almost every trip! What do I do for my clients? I know that Disney vacations are not cheap and for most families they are a once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime destination. That means that families deserve to have their trip be as magical as humanly possible. Disney vacations are also extremely stressful for those not on top of the daily changes occurring in the parks minute-to-minute as attractions are added or shut down. A stress-free and smooth trip requires many hours of studying and planning. Disney provides many tools, including Genie+, but learning all the rules and how to navigate that technology is just a start. Feeling the anxiety of getting it right while trying to be present with your family and trying not to stare at your phone–these are the top complaints I get from many of my clients. They find it difficult to keep track of all of the moving pieces in the parks (ride times, ride closures, magic hours, reservations, etc) and in those moments they can feel more stress than they feel joy.
