Swifties, Assemble!; Lawyers Need Vacations; and “Travel Etiquette”

Episode Notes

Transcript

[Music]

Intro: It’s the Legal Toolkit with Jared Correia, with guests Jessica Foster Correia and Samantha Hedges of In Touch Vacations. We play travel etiquette and then to prove we’re not afraid of controversy, Jared chooses a side in one of the hottest debates of our time. But first, your host, Jared Correia.

Jared Correia: It’s time for the Legal Toolkit podcast which is coming at you right now like a freight train. And yes, it’s still called the Legal Toolkit podcast even though I left my tooth chisel on the sink. I’m your host, Jared Correia. You’re stuck with me because Morton Downey, Jr. was unavailable. He was busy not being Robert Downey, Jr.’s dad.

I’m the CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, a business management consulting service for attorneys and bar associations. Find us online at redcavelegal.com. I’m the COO of Gideon Software, Inc. We build chatbots so law firms can convert more leads and conversational document assembly tools so law firms can build documents faster and more accurately. You can find out more about Gideon at gideonlegal.com.

Now, before we get to our interview today which incidentally is with my wife, Jessica Correia, and her fellow travel agent, Samantha Hedges, both of In Touch Vacations. Jessica has some Taylor Swift talk for you. Release in conjunction with her upcoming concert tour. That’s right. For the first time ever, I’m seeding the monologue of this show to my dear wife, Jessica. Jessica, take it away with some kind of Swifty rant.

Jessica Foster Correia: Hi, it’s me. I’m Jess and I’m taking over this week’s monologue. The real challenge with this monologue is keeping it short. I could talk about Taylor Swift for hours. I’ll try to keep this short but if it’s too long, don’t blame me. Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in West Redding, Pennsylvania. And no, I did not have to look that up, I’m a super fan.

Taylor began pursuing her dream of becoming a musician at the age of 14. Three years earlier, she had taken a trip to Nashville with her mother and was rejected by record labels. Instead of becoming discouraged, it lit a fire. She was determined to stand out from the crowd of men and women trying to make it big in country music. Taylor was signed at the age of 14 and ultimately ended up with Big Machine as one of their first contracted artists.

In 2006, Taylor released her debut album titled “Taylor Swift” along with her first single titled “Tim McGraw.” Here’s where I have to make a confession. In 2006 was the year that I graduated college and I was not a big contemporary country fan. I was also busy trying to find a job and apartment and was planning my wedding. I didn’t start listening to Taylor Swift until April of 2007. I was in Rome, Georgia assisting my school’s debate team at their national tournament. My roommate, Nikki, who is now a lawyer, and I would put on music videos on CMT, the Country Music Television station, to watch and to listen to while we were getting ready for the day. And because of this, I heard Taylor Swift’s Teardrops On My Guitar for the first time. That was it for me.

This teenager, five years my junior, was singing to me. It was like she knew what I was thinking and feeling. I was instantly hooked. I had never, into this day have never, related to someone I’ve never met the way I relate to Taylor. There are lyrics in her album Folklore that I literally laughed out loud listening to the first time because they appear to be taken straight from moments in my life that even my closest friends don’t even know about.

I feel like the ghost of Taylor lived with me through some of my most pivotal developmental moments and then summarized them into musical poetry. I firmly believe that there is a Taylor Swift song for every person. I change Taylor albums based on my mood and what I’m feeling. As I grew up, so did Taylor. Her music morphed and matured. She explored different genres and is constantly reinventing herself while staying true to her core Taylorness.

Taylor uses her platform to implement change and advocate for the rights of people who are silenced. I highly recommend the documentary Miss Americana. It gives great insight into just how principal Taylor is. She is willing to trade in her fame and wealth to advocate for what is right even if she loses fans, money, awards or notoriety in the process.

To this date, Taylor had sold 50 million albums, won 11 Grammy Awards and over 100 other awards in the music and film industry in addition to being the most streamed female artist in Spotify’s history. Even if you are not a fan of Taylor Swift’s music, you have probably read about her master’s re-recordings.

(00:05:01)

Taylor Swift’s master recordings belonged to her former record label, Big Machine, and Scooter Braun who purchased Big Machine in 2019. Taylor relentlessly tried to purchase her masters from Big Machine in order to have the creative rights and licensing to her own intellectual property. Braun and Big Machine refused so Taylor signed with Republic Records and came up with a plan to eventually own all of her own music.

Taylor’s contract with Republic allows her to own her own masters of every new album she releases with them. Taylor is in the process of re-recording every album released by Big Machine. Braun ultimately sold her masters to a private equity firm. Taylor’s tenacity is paving the way for other artists to take more ownership and creative control over their work.

For this week’s playlist, I want to do something really unique. Taylor Swift’s music is ubiquitous. You’ll hear it in commercials, at restaurants, hotel lobbies, supermarkets, everywhere. But what about the songs that aren’t singles? Some of my favorite Taylor songs have never been played on the radio so I decided to create a playlist of the best Taylor songs that were never singles. I just want to note that I’ve used Taylor’s version a.k.a. the re-recorded versions of all songs when possible. When more re-recordings are released because she isn’t finished yet, this playlist will be updated so that eventually, only songs owned by Taylor are getting listens and downloads on Spotify.

I’m starting off the playlist with the most iconic non-single and that is All Too Well. All Too Well has always been one of my top five Taylor songs. When news broke that, not only were we getting a Red album re-recording, but we were going to get the full 10-minute explicit version of the cult favorite, All Too Well, I was ecstatic. Both the original and the 10-minute version are on this playlist. Treacherous is also from Red and on this playlist. It is my favorite Taylor song. It’s both light and deep at the same time and honestly, who can’t relate to these lyrics?

Mary song is a great example of how masterful Taylor is at storytelling. It paints a picture of childhood sweethearts growing up and getting married. Taylor has perfected the art of pinning daydreams to songs to the point where you are googling, “Who is Mary?” And for the record, Mary song is about her older neighbors who fell in love as children.

I’ve also included some alternate versions of songs, still non-singles, like the piano version of Forever and Always. There are also songs in this list that are bonus tracks and/or vault tracks. Taylor traditionally includes one or more songs as bonus songs on her albums. For the earlier albums, these extended albums were sold as CDs at Target. Now, of course, we get them streaming. Vault songs are bonus songs but for the re-recorded albums. These songs are written at the same time as the album songs but for whatever reason, did not make the cut.

The most famous vault song is of course All Too Well, the 10-minute version. Untouchable, Wonderland and You Are In Love are also bonus songs. There are several songs on here from 1989 and Reputation. I have a complicated relationship with these two albums. I am a big Fearless, Red, Speak Now, Folklore, Evermore era fan. These are more folksy, country, quiet and slower than the pop forward 1989 and Reputation.

Last year however, I revisited Reputation and I realized I was just not ready for my Reputation era in 2017. It was five years too early for me. Lover is the album released right before the pandemic started. Lover is the title track, a single, and my favorite song on the album so it’s not on the playlist but this is a very solid album. Folklore and Evermore are the sister albums released in 2020 when we were all living our own version of a dark fairytale. These albums capture my thoughts and feelings during the pandemic flawlessly.

Mastermind is the most recent album released in October of 2022. I think it rounds out the current collection perfectly. I hope we have many more years of Taylor Swift’s music ahead of us. I cannot wait for The Eras Tour this year. I’m also looking forward to the continued evolution of Taylor and her music. She’s still so young. Should she choose to marry or have children, I can’t wait to hear the song she writes while she is rocking her child to sleep in their nursery at night. Long Live Taylor. My children will definitely know your name.

Jared Correia: Let’s take a quick break.

[Music]

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Joshua Lenon: Here’s a fact about lawyers who switched jobs in the last 12 months. Thirty-seven percent of them move firms in pursuit of better work-life balance.

(00:10:01)

I’m Joshua Lenon, Lawyer in Residence at Clio, and this is just one finding from our recent Legal Trends Report. Given the irregular schedules and long hours that lawyers often dedicate to their client, it’s no surprise that many are willing to leave in pursuit of a more manageable work life. The unfortunate result is that staff turnover can be incredibly disruptive for both your firm and your client. For more information on what law firms can do to keep good people, download Clio’s Legal Trends Report for free at clio.com/trends. That’s clio spelled C-L-I-O.com/trends.

Jared Correia: Okay. Let’s get to the meat in the middle of this legal sandwich. Actually, there’s not much legal in the podcast today. Meat is more like lamb shank lustily enjoyed in the hot tub. All right, let’s get to it. It’s time to interview our guests. I’ve got some very special guests today. My first guest is Jessica Foster Correia who you will no doubt notice that she has the same last name as me. That’s my wife, Jessica.

Jessica Foster Correia: No relation.

Jared Correia: And then, Samantha Hedges. No relation. Both of In Touch Vacations. So, hello, ladies. How are you?

Samantha Hedges: Good. How are you doing?

Jessica Foster Correia: I’m doing great.

Jared Correia: Jessica’s having a tremendous day. In large part because she gets to live with me which is a true delight. So, you both work as travel agents. Jessica, talk to me about being a travel agent. What do you do?

Jessica Foster Correia: Well, basically, our job is to figure out what kind of vacation works for each person and what destination they want, which type of resort fits within their wands and budget, et cetera. And then we do the research, the planning, hold your hand, to help you out throughout the way. Sam, am I missing anything?

Samantha Hedges: No, I mean, you pretty much covered it.

Jared Correia: I like how you guys are like. I’m going to come on and ask you what a travel agent is and you’re going to be like, “Come on, move it along.” All right, so let’s move it along. What kinds of vacations do you book for people and like travel components? Do you book the airfare? Do you book the resort part of the trip, not other parts of the trip? Talk to me about that because that’s something that I don’t think a lot of people know. Do you handle literally everything or just most of the stuff? Sam, I’m going to start with you this time because Jessica was mean to me earlier.

Jessica Foster Correia: It’s my job.

Samantha Hedges: So, what I do personally like I will do your cruise. I will not book your airfare for your cruise because I will not book anything that’s not inside of a package just because sometimes it’s easier for the client to just go ahead and book their own airfare. If they have points or anything like that, I can’t book anything like that. But if you go to an all-inclusive resort or tour of Europe, anything like that, Hawaii, I can package your airfare, your travel insurance, your resort and even excursions all into one big fancy package. Pay your down payment, make payments and then a final payment date at the end.

Jared Correia: So a travel package could be like something that’s pre-built or something that you like construct for people.

Samantha Hedges: Yes. So Hawaii, I usually will add a few excursions in a package along with their airfare and their resort just –.

Jessica Foster Correia: And rental cars for Hawaii too.

Samantha Hedges: And rental cars, you’re right.

Jared Correia: Oh, you can do rental cars too? That’s cool.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah. It’s just easier to do it that way for the long haul vacations. If it’s something more domestic, I think it’s easier for clients just to book their own air fare. Now, if they’re uncomfortable doing that, I do walk them through it. I’m like, “Oh, well I can walk you through it but I’m not going to book it for you.”

Jared Correia: Oh, like they’re online booking their plane flights and you’re like, click this button.

Samantha Hedges: I will walk them through.

Jessica Foster Correia: I do that a lot too.

Jared Correia: Really?

Jessica Foster Correia: I’ll give flight suggestions to them. They’ll give me a preferred airline and then I’ll tell them based on my experience I would fly out at this time with this long of a connection, you know, or tell them that this airline is preferable, this airline gets delayed a lot and then they’ll go and book their own flights.

Jared Correia: All right. So the idea is basically like if I want to book a trip, the advantage of having a travel agent would be that I wouldn’t have to do any of this shit that I normally do to book the trip which sounds great to me frankly.

Samantha Hedges: We will do all the research for you basically.

Jared Correia: Yeah.

Jessica Foster Correia: I already do this for you and I don’t get paid.

Jared Correia: Yeah, don’t expect that to change. Anyway. All right, let me ask you a little bit about this. So, like, what’s the cost? Because I know sometimes you get paid by commission from whatever company you’re working at?

Jessica Foster Correia: All the times we get paid by commission.

Jared Correia: So there’s no actual fee to the customer, is that right?

(00:15:01)

Jessica Foster Correia: So every travel agent does things differently. Sam and I personally do not charge fees. Our agency does not charge fees.

Jared Correia: Some people do though. But you guys don’t?

Jessica Foster Correia: Some travel agents will charge a consulting fee, yeah.

Jared Correia: Okay.

Jessica Foster Correia: You are paying the same price with me that you would booking it on your own. Same with Sam. And the upside is, we can apply discounts if they come out, we sometimes have bulk trips and prices that are cheaper than what you would buy on your own if you go on the internet, we are your customer service representative when you let’s say you decide to book something through Expedia or Orbitz.

You’re going to wait on the phone for three hours if you want to make a change or cancel or any of that. We are your person waiting on line when you need to make a change for your trip or waiting on the phone. So, we will save our clients a lot of time and potentially money booking through us. And on top of that, we’ve traveled to the destinations that were selling. If we’re selling you something, we know the product, we’ve been there, we know what type of room category, what the rainy season looks like, what transfers looks like, all of that stuff.

Samantha Hedges: Plus, we monitor for promos, discounts and apply them without even telling you. So if like something comes out for Disney and it’s like 25% off a room, we will go in at 5:00 a.m., change everybody that is available and that qualifies and boom, you wake up to an email where we saved you money.

Jared Correia: And people are probably like don’t you know all this stuff Jared? You actually live with Jessica. And I would say two things about that. First is that I’m trying to build some exposition into the show. And secondly, I don’t pay attention to fucking anything.

Samantha Hedges: We don’t talk shop at home.

Jessica Foster Correia: This is we don’t sit around the dinner table and chairs like so Jessica tell me, how do you get paid? How do you get paid Jared? Let’s flip the tables.

Jared Correia: I don’t even fucking know.

Samantha Hedges: (00:16:59)?

Jared Correia: Yeah, I just keep getting money. So, what are the most popular travel destinations right now of January 2023, Jessica. Oh Europe. Sam instead. Sam.

(Voice Overlap)

Jessica Foster Correia: I was going to lead with Europe. Europe is huge right now because Europe was closed longer than we were. So like 2021 was the year of Disney Universal, domestic theme parks. 2022, we started seeing cruises really bounce back hard. Hawaii got really big. All Inclusives, Caribbean and now in 2023, we’re seeing everybody wanting to go back to Europe.

Jared Correia: Europe is so hot right now. Let’s go back in time to the COVID lockdowns of 2020.

Jessica Foster Correia: Oh gosh, do we have to? I have the shakes.

Samantha Hedges: I know.

Jared Correia: Ostensibly, this is supposed to be like a business management podcast even though I don’t know what the hell were going to talk to from week to week. So, like lawyers had a little bit of trouble with COVID because there’s about a month where business dried up but then it came back. But travel — yeah, you guys are laughing because travel agent like a month please.

Jessica Foster Correia: I had every single 2020 trip cancel on me. Every single one and no one’s fault obviously but the only people that I travel traveled in January or February and then that was it.

Jared Correia: So how did you guys like push through that and keep your businesses going? Because that’s like a hardcore.

Jessica Foster Correia: It was terrible.

Samantha Hedges: I’ve pushed Disney and Universal like it was going out of style. As I click at your last chance to travel, all you can do is go to Disney or Universal. That was the majority of my 2020 bookings.

Jessica Foster Correia: Yeah, flights were cheap, the crowds were very low and Disney and Universal did a really good job of keeping everybody safe. But yeah, I lost — Sam has been doing this longer than me. She was more established. I lost my entire business and had to start over from scratch. But having a second full-time job helps me stay afloat. There’s a lot of people who do not have a second job and struggled a lot. It was a very tough times.

Jared Correia: So Sam, you’ve niched down into Disney and Universal. And when did you start getting around to sell different stuff after that? Like, when did it come back a little bit for you?

Samantha Hedges: Last year. So I finally had more crew bookings last year. People were ready to go to the Caribbean, ready to go to Mexico. It was just that year in between COVID and the end of 2021. Everybody was like, “We don’t — there’s too many restrictions so we don’t want to do that.” So, last year was really the first year I had a lot of cruises on the books. This year, I have a lot of Europe and cruises and all inclusives. So not as much Disney which is kind of shocking but I’ll take it.

Jared Correia: So it sounds like there’s a lot less travel hesitancy than there was before. Do you still have people like asking about like COVID stuff or are they just like fuck it?

Samantha Hedges: A hundred percent.

(00:20:00)

Do we have to test? Do we — are there any restrictions? And I’m like, “Nope, no masks, no testing, you’re good to go.”

Jared Correia: That’s for Europe too?

Samantha Hedges: Yes.

Jared Correia: Wow, okay.

Jessica Foster Correia: You should always check what country you’re visiting but that, you know.

Samantha Hedges: We have a COVID waiver that we have everyone sign as well. Just acknowledging that COVID is still a thing whether you wanted to be or not and you could still get COVID, please do not sue us. It’s not our fault.

Jessica Foster Correia: Don’t sue the travel agent because you wouldn’t be able.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Let’s talk about something a little less depressing. Let’s talk about social media. I try to get law firms into social media all the time and they’re reluctant to do it. They don’t know how to act or what to say or what to post. So Sam, as the social media maven, maviness, I don’t know, how do you leverage social media to market your business? Because I think this would be helpful for attorneys.

Samantha Hedges: Well, I try to like make a post at least once a day and make it fun and exciting. It doesn’t have to be fun and exciting. I don’t know how you would do that for law but for me, I’m posting like destination photos with a little blurb about it. I look for deals to post, anything like that or just a funny saying something that will also engage a client. So putting a question out there like, “Oh where is your favorite place you’ve traveled to” or anything like that. But I get probably 95% of my business off social media. And that’s on Instagram and on Facebook.

Jessica Foster Correia: Sam is the queen of the interactive post. She always posts great interactive posts.

Jared Correia: Like polls or like just question?

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, I’ve done polls before or questions. Like when Disney during COVID when Disney was big was like, “What’s your favorite ride at Walt Disney World, in Epcot” or “What time did you see this post?” You would not think people would respond to that but it’s like they’re like, “Oh, it’s 12:30.” I’m seeing this post at 12:30. And people I will get like 50 comments and I’m like okay but it gets your posts out there.

Jessica Foster Correia: It helps with the algorithm.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah. The more likes you get, the more comments you get, the more hearts you get.

Jessica Foster Correia: And she’ll post like funny travel memes and some stuff like that too.

Samantha Hedges: The memes are the thing.

Jessica Foster Correia: People love memes. People love a good travel joke meme.

Jared Correia: Sam, are you a meme more? Would you say that that’s true?

Samantha Hedges: I mean I’m working on it. I have a friend that’s a meme lord so I sometimes swipe his but they’re pretty fabulous. I love memes. They make me laugh. Anything that can make me laugh and not be too serious, I’m down for.

Jared Correia: So you’re posting the stuff but then you’re also looking at how the algorithm treats specific posts which I think is really smart.

Samantha Hedges: Yes.

Jared Correia: So you’re on Instagram and Facebook mostly. Anything else?

Samantha Hedges: No. I have a website but I don’t really monitor that or see if it does it anything. I don’t feel like the website does much because I can’t really interact with that so I don’t have anything else in socials. Twitter scares me.

Jared Correia: Twitter is a frightening place for sure. I hate Twitter more and more every day. So let me ask you this as well because you both are involved in like a couple of different podcasts. So we’re on podcast right now. This is getting pretty better right now. But I also try to talk to the lawyers about like doing podcasts as a marketing tactic. How has that helped you sell more travels? Jessica, I’m going to turn it over to you first.

Jessica Foster Correia: Well, this is kind of a tough question. So our first podcast that we started, we work with two other fellow travel agents who are former co-workers of ours and we basically use the podcast as like one big marketing tool. So we talked about the destinations we’ve traveled to even if it’s something like small that we did with our families. Like maybe, you know, someone went to a small boutique hotel with their kids over the weekend. We’ll talk about that because while we might not make a lot of commissions or sell a lot of those trips, those hotels or resorts sometimes will pick up our episode and post it on their social media page.

Or we will post certain — you know, we just did an episode about Jamaica and one of our co-host posted it in a Jamaica fan group for this resort. And it got a ton of downloads because people who are on the fence thinking about booking, even if we don’t book them, they are downloading our episodes. So we’re getting downloads, we’re getting hits and we’re getting people subscribing which helps us in the long run, potentially get more listeners and more potential clients. So, that’s kind of how we use a podcast for marketing and booking.

Jared Correia: The Facebook groups are crazy popular though now, right?

Jessica Foster Correia: We have Facebook groups.

Jared Correia: Yeah.

Jessica Foster Correia: Yeah, we have Facebook groups for each of our two podcasts.

Jared Correia: So let me ask you this. Are you also posting into other Facebook groups as well in addition to your own? Do you get traction off of that?

(00:25:03)

Jessica Foster Correia: So we don’t market ourselves. You have to be really careful because a lot of these travel groups that look like they’re just been generic travel groups, a lot of times they’re run by an agency, secretly run by an agency or another podcast or a travel company or something. So if you are self-promoting in these groups, you might not realize that the owners are tied to travel in some way and do not want to do self-promoting. So we don’t really self-promote in a group unless it’s a direct verified official group of a resort or a company or something and they’ve given us the okay to post our podcast in the group.

Jared Correia: Last question for the two of you. I find this to be interesting. A lot of attorneys I talk to and a lot of like busy professionals, they have a hard time taking vacations. They have a hard time unplugging. So like, when people come to you, are they willing to go and are like, “Hey, I want to go on like a 20-day European vacation” or do you sometimes have to convince them like it’s cool to take time off? Sam, let’s come back to you for this one.

Samantha Hedges: I never have to talk people into taking time off.

Jared Correia: That was ready to go.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah. So I’m actually booking a trip for a lawyer as we speak and he’s like, “Yeah, I want to do all the things. I want to be off work. I want to do this, this and this — trips this year.” He’s like, “I need a break.” So it’s always good to take a break.

Jared Correia: Yes.

Jessica Foster Correia: I actually find that lawyers are some of the best people at disconnecting on vacation than the regular clients. My legal clients, they want to go, they want to live it up, they want to make the most of it, they put everything aside and they are super present for that week or two weeks or whatever. So I feel like lawyers especially our work hard play hard.

Samantha Hedges: But I will say this, all cruise lines, all tour companies, all resorts have Wi-Fi if needed.

Jared Correia: Right.

Jessica Foster Correia: Jared, you use Wi-Fi on our cruise. I think that’s a big misconception about cruising is that you’re floating in the middle of the ocean with no Wi-Fi but that’s not true. You did work on our cruise, right?

Jared Correia: Yeah. It was really good.

Jessica Foster Correia: You’re a busy professional lawyer and you were able to use Wi-Fi on the cruise.

Jared Correia: I was. I love cruising. I fucking love cruises so much. Okay, thank you both for being on segment 1. Will you come back for segment 2, the rump roast?

Jessica Foster Correia: Do I have a choice?

Jared Correia: No.

Samantha Hedges: The rump roast.

Jared Correia: All right, we’ll take one final sponsor break so you can hear more about what our sponsors can do for your law practice. Then stay tuned for the aforementioned rump roast. It’s even more supple than the roast beast.

[Music]

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Jared Correia: Welcome to the rear end of the Legal Toolkit. That’s right. It’s the rump roast. It’s a grab bag of short-form topics all of my choosing. Why do I get to pick? Because I’m the host. Today, I want to play a little game I like to call Travel. Etiquette. I want to talk to you both about potentially annoying things that travelers do. Let’s work to correct that behavior together. Are you ready to play?

Jessica Foster Correia: Sure.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, let’s do it.

Jared Correia: All right. Number one, shared armrests on airplanes. What is the appropriate etiquette? Because I never know what to do. Do I exceed the entire arm rest? Do I try to take command of it right away? What do I do?

Jessica Foster Correia: There actually is etiquette about this. There is a rule.

Jared Correia: Okay, I don’t know the rule.

Jessica Foster Correia: The rule is, if you are on the inside the metal window, you get the left arm rest. You have to give up the right arm rest. The person in the middle is supposed to be able to get both middle armrests. And then the person in the aisle gets the right arm rest. So the middle gets both, the window gets left and aisle gets right. That is the official armrest etiquette for airplanes.

Jared Correia: That’s crazy. Is that because the middle seat is shitty? Is that why?

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, 100%.

Jessica Foster Correia: Yes.

Jared Correia: Okay. That is wild. Okay, here’s another good one. Here’s another good one. Now, this was great during COVID in that like no one could be near you but current times, what is the appropriate distance between groups in a line? Because the one thing I hate is when I’m in line and somebody is like up my back. Sam, go ahead.

(00:29:58)

Samantha Hedges: I was going to say don’t be up someone’s ass.

Jared Correia: Yeah. Is there like — are we talking like a foot?

Samantha Hedges: I mean you should at least stay like I think three feet apart is good. Or six feet. I mean you can stay far away from me because I don’t need to smell you. Like I don’t want to smell your BO if you’re in a theme park or anything like that.

Jessica Foster Correia: Three feet is socially acceptable.

Samantha Hedges: It’s not going to affect how you get on the ride.

Jessica Foster Correia: However, I will add that at Disney, they are back to tell you to fill it all the available space so at Disney, they kind of force you to ride someone’s behind. So if you’re in a theme park and someone’s directing you to get closer, you kind of have no choice. But like in the grocery store, I shouldn’t be able to reach out and touch your carriage.

Jared Correia: Yeah, that’s true. I like that. Okay. Good line etiquette. Okay. And it does get hot in Florida in the summer so people do stink. Okay. Number three, drinking at the family pool. What is the appropriate level of drunkenness or not drunkenness?

Jessica Foster Correia: So, I am not a big drinker like I enjoy a good cocktail on vacation but I’m not the person who’s going to get drunk especially on a family vacation. I’m definitely not. I’m not anti-drinking in front of the kids. I’ll have one drink with the kids but I’m not getting like drunk on a family vacation. That’s just not me personally.

Jared Correia: What if you were an adult at the family pool without a family? What’s appropriate then or is that just weird? Do you not do that?

Jessica Foster Correia: No, we do that. Sam and I will have a drink or two because we’re hanging out by the pool as long as we’re not working. I think you just act the way you would at a barbecue like with your friends if you want to be a complete idiot in front of all your kids, friends, parents like that’s you bro. You do you.

Jared Correia: Next question. Is it ever appropriate to fart on a ride ever? Like, even if you’re like struggling and you can’t hold it in? Yeah.

Jessica Foster Correia: Dude, you just got to let that go sometimes.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, you do.

Jared Correia: That’s okay? You do it?

Samantha Hedges: Yeah. I mean if you’re on the ride, — that’s fine.

Jared Correia: The wind will carry it off.

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, I think it’s fine.

Jessica Foster Correia: Thirty second story, Jared just told our kids that if they didn’t fart, they would die.

Jared Correia: Did I say that?

Jessica Foster Correia: Yes. Last night, you told them if you don’t fart, you’ll die.

Jared Correia: Yeah, that’s probably true though. Don’t you think?

Jessica Foster Correia: No, you can burp.

Jared Correia: Yeah, that’s true. Okay, all right.

Jessica Foster Correia: So yes. Now our children think that if they don’t fart on a ride, they will die on the ride. So now yes, apparently we all have to.

Jared Correia: I’m recalling that I did say that. All right, everybody farts on the theme park ride so you don’t die. Public service announcement. All right. I’ve got another one for you. So there’s a family taking a really long time to do a photo or video and they’re in the way and blocking your path. What is the appropriate length of time to wait for that to finish before you cross through? Because this happens all the time at Disney. You get people standing in like the middle of an entrance and they’re recording like Citizen Kane.

Samantha Hedges: I mean, were you talking about like just busting through them and move in the way?

Jared Correia: At some point, you got to get to your ride, right? So yeah. Like, when do you just walk through and impede the camera angle?

Samantha Hedges: Well sometimes I would just be, like excuse me, excuse me. I don’t know. I feel like most people are pretty good about it.

Jessica Foster Correia: Personally, it all depends on the level of assholery. So if they have little kids and they look around and they’re kind of like, sorry, can we have 30 seconds? I will always wait. Always. If you are purposefully taking up the whole thing and you’re waiting for like little Susie to adjust the bow in her hair for 30 seconds, I’m walking right in front of her.

Jared Correia: Yeah. Hell yeah. I love it. All right. For the last one, I got a really good one for you because this happens all the time especially like it already had like a theme park. Somebody’s walking behind you and they smash you with the stroller in your ankle.

Samantha Hedges: You better look out because I’m going to be slapping. Just kidding.

Jared Correia: But that happens all the time, right? So like do you say something? Do you wait until it happens like five times before you say something? What are we doing for etiquette? Stroller ramped your –.

Jessica Foster Correia: I’m saying something but I’m not cursing. I would never get physical ever. I would not do anything that would get me kicked out or banned. Disney is very heavy-handed with a lifetime bans. So you do need to be on your best behavior because they will take you to the secret room and ban you for life.

Jared Correia: There’s really a secret room?

Jessica Foster Correia: Yep.

Jared Correia: Oh really, wow. That’s crazy. All right. Sam, any thoughts on strollers?

Samantha Hedges: Yeah, I was totally kidding. I really wouldn’t slap anyone but I would give them a dirty look.

Jared Correia: Yeah.

Jessica Foster Correia: She just told you that.

Jared Correia: One of my favorite things about strollers is like when people fall when they’re carrying their strollers.

(00:35:00)

I’m a terrible person. But I will have to say my favorite Disney memory was when this dude fell out of a bus with a stroller levers(ph) trying to unlock and he just ate it so hard. I was like laughing for days.

Jessica Foster Correia: Well he thought the bus was level with the ground so he went to walk off like there was no step down and literally face planted on top of the stroller.

Jared Correia: I still laugh looking back at it.

Jessica Foster Correia: People have been really hurt by stuff like that. People have broken their legs being run over by scooters. Scooters hit people more than strollers. Scooters are worse than strollers.

Jared Correia: That’s true. The scooters, okay.

Jessica Foster Correia: Well, we were with someone that had their foot run over weren’t we not long ago? One of our girlfriends?

Samantha Hedges: Yeah. I think Carrie got hit by a scooter one time, didn’t she? I think it hit her foot.

Jared Correia: So I think the message here is like theme parks, you’re going to watch out strollers, rascals. Make sure you know what the level is coming off the bus. Otherwise I’d be laughing at you for like a week.

Jessica Foster Correia: I don’t think they call them rascals like scooter.

Jared Correia: A rascal is a type of stroller. I call them rascals.

Jessica Foster Correia: No. No one calls them rascals. Don’t do that.

Jared Correia: I do. Okay. That’s all we got time for. This is a blast. Thank you Jessica, Sam. Thanks for coming on.

Jessica Foster Correia: Thanks for having us on Jared.

Samantha Hedges: Thanks for having us.

Jared Correia: If you want to find out more about Jessica Foster Correia and Samantha Hedges, check out the Escape Travel podcast and the Fab Five Travel podcast. Yes, they are on both. You can also visit Sam and Jessica’s Facebook pages for more information about travel planning. So that’s facebook.com/travelplanwithsam for Samantha Hedges and then for Jessica, it’s facebook.com/vacationswithjess. Take a vacation now everybody.

Now, for those of you listening in Beehunter, Indiana because fuck them bees, I’ve got a great Spotify playlist for you. It’s all the best Taylor Swift songs that were never singles brought to you by Jessica Correia. Yeah, I’m basically taking the week off. Now, we’ve run out of time today so I won’t be able to address the recent controversy surrounding butterscotch pudding. Just know that I still love it. This is Jared Correia reminding you not to pet any coyotes including the ones that used to live in my backyard. (00:37:30) is a real mean bastard let me tell you.

[Music]

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