The Podcast is BACK!

Rachel Badowski has always planned her Disney vacations around what she's going to eat, from EPCOT festival booths to menu items she's been eyeing for months. When she had bariatric surgery, she wondered if that part of her would have to change. What she found instead was a more intentional way to enjoy the parks: smaller bites throughout the day, a running list organized by park, and just as much excitement for the next new snack.

Aly Anderson grew up chasing summers—visiting an uncle stationed wherever the Army sent him, exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and spending afternoons with her grandmother at Walt Disney World. This week, we're featuring Aly, one of our advisors specializing in military-family travel and families who've served, and talking with her about the career change that brought her from the classroom to Goofy Getaways. Three years in, she's just as likely to be planning a grandchild's first Disney trip as she is untangling a tricky Universal itinerary.

Bourbon Street at night is loud, crowded, and full of surprises — mostly the $5 kind. New Orleans in the daylight is something else entirely, and Travel Advisor Aly Anderson is sharing everything she wishes she'd known before her first trip, from swamp tours with alligators up close to the best beignets in the French Quarter.

This week we're getting to know Noddea Skidmore, a Grand Rapids-based advisor marking five years with Goofy Getaways. She's one of our advisors specializing in LGBTQIA+ travelers, bestie getaways, couples, and festival-loving crews. In her Q&A, she shares the pandemic-era journaling workshop that first pointed her toward this career, the ticketing mistake she still remembers from her very first weeks on the job, and the $10 packing tool she now never travels without.