Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 311: Test Track 3.0, Dining App Updates & Stitch Merch
0 Playsin 2 hours
On This Episode
The guys discuss a listener email about the potential for a villain themed resort at Magic Kingdom. DVC sent new magnets with the latest issue of Disney Files Magazine featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The newest version of Test Track will be opening in a few weeks, but Cast Member previews have begun, giving a first look at the new attraction. Disney made recent updates to their parks apps to make finding and securing dining reservations easier. Disney celebrated 626 Day by announcing that a sequel to the live action Lilo & Stitch movie is in development and releasing new merchandise. Merch from the Japan and China parks is making its way into the Disney Store.
Podcast Sponsors
- DVC Resale Market - #1 DVC Reseller in the World
- DVC Rental Store - Largest and fastest-growing Disney Vacation Club rental service in the US
- Monera Financial - #1 in DVC Financing
- Welcome Home Patreon - Support the Show through Patreon and get exclusive perks!
Episode Links
Contact the show
- Call or text the show with your DVC tips and trip reports at (833) WHP-TIPS and we may play them on the show!
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome and Introductions
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all voice unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 311 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor?
00:00:41
Speaker
Pretty good. How are you?
Tom's Carowinds Adventure
00:00:44
Speaker
I'm good. I but spent another day at Carowinds yesterday in 93 degree heat. The saga continues. oh ok it's Okay. here's Okay. But here's the thing, though. right really Hold on. Do we need to start this section with...
00:01:00
Speaker
things that Things that I wish Carowinds had shit that I find at Disney. or no Okay. So part of the reason we did the the season pass, right? First of all, it was fairly cheap, right?
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah. But also, ah you know, we we live like a half hour away, right? So like we're thinking, okay, well, on the weekends, like if we just don't have anything to do in an afternoon, we'll just pop in for a couple hours, right? Totally. Yeah, just go for a couple hours, ride some stuff and leave.
00:01:25
Speaker
Right. And so that's what the plan was yesterday. So like we didn't like eat or anything. I take that. I take that back. We did eat some stuff. Right. Like we we had i was actually really pumped for a few minutes because we were like i was like, OK, we bought a couple of things, but we're under 20 bucks. Like we're we're we're running we're running under 20 bucks so far today.
00:01:41
Speaker
And then my wife's like, oh, I want some antian pretzels. And i'm like, OK, well, that's going to put me way over $20. But outside of that, like we didn't have any meals or anything. We just had like, you know, just snacking stuff. Snacks. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, just did a couple of things. We're so hot.
00:01:55
Speaker
But the thing I wanted to bring this up about this to two things. Okay. Two things about my recent trip to Carowinds. They have a ride that is um it's a flat ride.
00:02:06
Speaker
Right. And it's it's not it's not out of the box. You know, it's off, ah you know, it's off the shelf. Right. It's not like, you know, it's not like they create Right. It's but it's it's like Dumbo. Right. it So it's a it's a spinning flat ride. and And except the difference is that it's, it's in the aeronautical section of the park. And so they seemed it to a hang glider.
00:02:25
Speaker
Right. And so the way you make yourself go, you like, you sit in like a, you basically sit in like a hang glider and the way you make yourself go up and down is by pushing the bar of the hang glider. You know, it has the hang glider above your head.
00:02:37
Speaker
What struck me though, as I was writing this with my daughter was like straight up ripped off the sword music. Like, really yeah They just got like ah they got like a... It's almost like they put Soarin', the music from Soarin', into like an AI and just like, make a version of this that is not going to get us sued.
00:02:55
Speaker
And then even at the end, they had an automated message message that said, thank you for Soarin' with us. And I was like, get out of here. i like you just You're just going to just throw that out there like that.
00:03:06
Speaker
um Yeah, that that made me laugh. So, yeah. The other one also made me laugh too, because I... Trevor, you know, I think you're similar to me in this regard that I am a little bit of a nerd when it comes to just amusement. I love amusement parks. I just do. And I love the history behind amusement parks. And I i find the history behind amusement parks fascinating. So I went on a little Wikipedia rabbit hole the other day, right, of Carowinds, which has been owned by like 10 different companies over the years.
00:03:36
Speaker
Well, there there was a time there's that there's a roller coaster, Trevor, at Carowinds called The Hurler, right? I always thought it was a weird. Wait, they actually called a sorry the roller coaster is called The Hurler?
00:03:50
Speaker
Yes, it's a roller coaster called The Hurler. I'm surprised it wasn't a spinning ride, but okay. No. Okay. but that That sounds like something out of an 80s movie. Yeah. that Okay, that's where I'm going. Okay, sorry. Sorry, I got ahead you. Sorry. No, no, it's okay. So I find out, I'm just looking through, i'm just looking through all the different owners of Carowinds, and I find out that back in 1993, there was a Wayne's World themed section of Carowinds, which included this roller coaster called the Hurler.
00:04:18
Speaker
And I just was like, that's amazing, but also so weird. Like, why would there Not at the time. Not at the time, no. I mean, Wayne's World was a phenomenon. So, you know, you have to look at point in time as well. So...
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah. Just like a Wayne's World theme park. like I mean, i so it makes more sense why it's called the Hurler, right? Because ah those of you that don't haven't seen Wayne's World, you know, they always these use the term hurl a lot.
Amusement Parks in Hot Weather
00:04:43
Speaker
thought they used blow chunks more than hurl. They did both. But they did both. Okay, yeah.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, they they did both. but um But yeah, I just thought it was funny because I was like, a Wayne's World theme section of the park. And they at the time, they claimed it was the first movie-themed wooden roller coaster in the United States, which, you know, but probably checks out. Like, Disney doesn't do wooden roller coasters, so sure. Mm-hmm.
00:05:03
Speaker
you know But anyway, I just thought that was two interesting things. But also, you know some people might call it incredibly stupid to go to an amusement park when it's 93 degrees out and humid.
00:05:16
Speaker
But, you know. I mean, i i think we've all done that. And... To be fair, like the reason that we know not to do that is because we have experienced it. sure That's true.
00:05:26
Speaker
yeah we We've all done it at some point. That's the other thing, though. I said to my wife, I was like, listen, we used to do Disney in July, man. like This is nothing. like We can do this. you know But then again, we didn't do Disney in July with my daughter. right like that so that's a whole different... Yeah, yeah it does. though That does change it when you have little kids in tow.
00:05:43
Speaker
does. Yeah. Yeah, but listen,
Disney Influence on Theme Parks
00:05:45
Speaker
we had a good time. We had a lot of fun, and I just, you know, it's always a good time. have nothing to complain about this time.
00:05:52
Speaker
Nothing to complain about. I do want to do their water park, though, too, at some point. So, like, i I'll have a water park take at some point, but. you know we haven't done the water park yet okay i'm so i i'm trying on the side here to watch a video of the uh the ride is called the wind star i assume that you were talking about yes yes but so i'm i'm trying to hear the music but it's hard like yeah it's hard in the video it's not all the music though it was just one part of the music right so they played other stuff right like i'm trying to they played like rocket man by elton john at one point right okay but you know again yeah I guess that's the thing to to remember, too. You know, we we always look at like, you know, you know, Disney has like a lock on certain things and you assume like, oh, this is a Disney thing. But Disney things very much do get emulated at smaller parks where ah basically until they get um until they get like a copyright strike on them or something where, where you know, a cease and desist.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah. Smaller places will push it. they will They will try and emulate the bigger parks because it does draw people to it, right? You know, you know you know you get you get Disney at home because because you know yeah not everyone goes to Disney.
00:07:02
Speaker
but Funny, or and so a bit of an aside was, um so in in Alberta, we had, or we have this mall called West Edmonton Mall that um is similar to like Mall of America.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah. Where it's got like a theme park and water park and stuff in it. um Back in the 80s and 90s, the theme park there, the indoor theme park was named Fantasyland.
00:07:25
Speaker
ah And and so, yeah, you can imagine that, you know, that got a bunch of hype. People loved it. And, you know we want we ever want to go to Fantasyland. And then I was I think it was say it was either in the late mid to late 90s or early two thousand They had to change the name and rebrand the whole thing because Disney did finally come after them. And um and they changed it to Galaxyland.
00:07:47
Speaker
But the funny thing, though, is that they still have the Fantasyland Hotel. That's so So because Fantasyland Hotel is not a like a Disney trademarked thing.
00:07:59
Speaker
Fantasyland is. So it's... it's a weird thing. So I always laugh when I, like we see ads for it and they're like, you can stay at the fantasy land hotel. and they have like, they have like themed rooms and stuff too, which is, you know, it's, it's, it's all part of the, you know, know, it's, it's an attraction in and of itself. And, but I always found it funny. like like And like back in the nineties, I didn't understand either. I was like, wow, you know, you know,
00:08:21
Speaker
They call this place Fantasyland, just like Disney. is Is Disney okay with that? No, they weren't. No, they're not. they just They just don't get around to it right away. so It's not illegal unless you get caught, right? that's Yeah, and I feel like, yeah, Carowinds is like same kind of thing. as you know They're pushing the envelope. They know they can you know you know kind of...
00:08:40
Speaker
twist things to you know hey this is disney-esque without actually saying it's disney and yeah i'm sure like this one is far enough removed that uh you know disney wouldn't have anything to really say to them besides yeah this you know you have gliders and some music that kind of sounds like soren but it's not really enough right yeah I mean, if if you look if you look into the history, like kind of what you're talking about, if you like look in the history of just theme parks in general, right?
00:09:08
Speaker
Like after Disneyland was built and became popular, it got emulated everywhere, right? Like there were, I mean, places, there were places popping up all over the place that tried to do what Disney was doing, right? Like I i think the problem is, right? Like you can do that. Number one, and you can try to do that, right? But it's...
00:09:29
Speaker
It takes a lot of money and and experience and and you know people to do that. and And so while you can do it, it's not an easy thing to do. But also, if you don't have the IP, if you're just you just... The IP is part of it. I mean, it is a big part of of of Disney and Disney success. I mean, that's that's important stuff. So um it's funny. i there was i was One of those was called Freedomland USA, which Defunctland does in a really great video on where some of the people that worked on Disneyland...
00:09:56
Speaker
went to New York as in like, you know, New York, New York and, and, and tried to kind of basically build the Disneyland there. So like, I mean, it's that kind of stuff happened. And I mean, it still happens, right? I mean, like Disney and universal copy each other back and forth. Like it's stuff that they do. I mean, it's, it's, they're always trying to one up each other and they are, you know, they,
00:10:15
Speaker
they They take little things from each other here and there. Right. I mean, that's what you do. But um it's, you know, it it is funny to me, though. i I mean, even Carowinds, right? Carowinds had a monorail when it opened ah in the early 70s. Right. Because there was like, yeah that was the thing, man. Everyone everyone was common enough. yeah Yeah. And yeah.
Future Disney Resort Themes
00:10:34
Speaker
That's fair. right Actually, even like like for us too, we I mean, it's still there. as we so um the ah So the Skyliner, um like so in Magic Kingdom, how you had the Skyliner going like through Magic Kingdom, um we have something like that at the Calgary Stampede where they they have, it's ah it's it's just ah like a gondola ride. It's the same kind of thing, but it's funny because it's like,
00:10:58
Speaker
yeah you know you you You don't expect to see that, I guess, at like a... So the Stampede is very close to like... or it's like They bring in like carnival rides and stuff. So it's not like a proper theme park. It's only a carnival during the ah the Stampede event, which is actually coming up here in a couple of weeks.
00:11:16
Speaker
Um, so, so the funny thing is, is that like, you know, when I was a kid, it was the same kind of thing where i was like, oh, you know, i I saw this in Disneyland and then, you know, you go to something local and it's like, wow, they got the same thing. And you, and you don't, as a kid, you don't think about how, like, how, like one probably copied the other or like how these things all kind of come to be. Right. Like, yeah like you said, it's, it's a lot of interesting history. Um,
00:11:42
Speaker
And I'll leave this one out here for you. If you if you really want to to crazy rabbit hole of Disney emulating parks, there was so in Japan, there was a place called Nara Dreamland.
00:11:55
Speaker
and And it is the biggest. Yeah, it is like the most clearly ripped off Disneyland. It's closed now because they like, ah again, the history of it. I think it closed down like early 2000s or something.
00:12:08
Speaker
um But yeah, um if if you really want to go down a rabbit hole of like somebody just like ripping off Disney, ah Nara Dreamland, what was that? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think people forget sometimes, too, that Disneyland operated the very first monorail of daily operating monorail in the world. Like, they were they were way ahead of this, right? Like, they they there were other monorails out there, like in other countries. But, you know, in the United States, it basically just got introduced because of Disneyland, right? Like, and that's, you know...
00:12:41
Speaker
it's It is really... I mean, there's obviously, Walt Disney ah wal dissney himself saw it when he was in Germany, and that's where he you know kind of got the idea. But it um you know he they really popular popularized it here. So, I mean, and of course, so a bunch of people are going to steal it. Why not? you you know People try to do...
00:12:59
Speaker
you know, whatever's popular and, and try to capture that moment. But, I just, I just had to laugh. Cause I was like, why would they have a monorail there? Like there's no money for a monorail at carowinds. Like it just went around the park and at one station, it was a ride.
00:13:11
Speaker
but Yeah. I mean, I mean, that that's the thing is a lot of times that's exactly what it is. It's just a ride. It just, it just so happens. Like, like Disney was the weird one in that the monorail actually was functional was transportation and, and, and even the, uh, the train as well. Like, like, yeah,
00:13:28
Speaker
I can't think of a lot of places or I, there's one place I know of outside of Disney. And this isn't say I've been to a ton of places, but ah there's a historical park in, in Calgary where I live that um it's called heritage park. I know that the name is so original, but,
00:13:47
Speaker
But um but they have they have a functioning you know steam train like from the early 1900s. But it's ah it's a historical thing. But it actually does do like a route around the park. And it has multiple stops. So it you know the same way that it does at Disney, where it's like, hey, I can use this to get around the park quickly. Or what I shouldn't say quickly. It's not fast. It's not fast. But but you know I can get around you know you know relatively easy.
00:14:11
Speaker
um That's not... that's not as common as you think it should be. Like, it yeah, you're like, it it makes sense to do that. But you're right. You know, outside of Disney, a lot of places don't do that. And and they'll they'll put in a train or something. But it's usually just like you said, it's just a, you know, a ride. It's it's not yeah a functioning train, which, yeah.
00:14:32
Speaker
It's kind of weird. So I want to read this email from Claire. Yes. Claire sent us an email. Claire from Massachusetts sent us an email said, Hey guys, been listening to your podcast since becoming a DVC owner.
00:14:46
Speaker
Appreciate all your refreshing insights. I just caught up on the episodes and is a little late to the ah piston peak discussion, but here's my hot take. By the way, I don't think you're late Claire because like all the stuff is like starting to close soon here. Right. Yeah. yeah We're very much still in the early stages.
00:15:00
Speaker
phase you're You're not late. No, no, you're definitely not late. Not at all. um But her hot take is, I was a little sad with the news of Rivers of America going away after July 4th weekend, but the new cartoon rendering came out showing what will be reimagined in the spot, and the completionism he couldn't help ah feeling pepped for the future. agree that.
00:15:16
Speaker
Wow. his Here's the part that I thought was really interesting on our point, and i never I've never thought about this, ever. Respectively, Adventureland, Main Street USA, and Tomorrowland has each got a resort counterpart dot dotted around Seven Seas Lagoon.
00:15:30
Speaker
Now, I had to think about this for a few minutes, right? Because I was like... Okay. Well, I mean, is she right about this adventure? Yeah. Is, is Polynesian main street USA is I guess grand Floridian, right? It's it's the the same aesthetic for sure. Yeah. And tomorrow land would be contemporary, right? Yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
And so, and then she' she says here now, finally wilderness lodge will have its specific Northwest vibe showcased by piston peak national park. She said, I agree with, I agree with you. Yeah. I think she says, I agree with you. It's, uh, it's almost like bringing DCA's grizzly peak and the grand Californian to the East coast, which oh she, I think she, she's referring to what I was saying about, I see, i see how they're bringing that same vibe from that area of the park in California. yeah Yeah. into Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
Got it. Okay. Got it. But what she says next is now, if a villain's land is coming logic dictates and a villain themed resort should follow suit, which would be bonkers. Exciting. I mean, that's it. That would be amazing. like but Wait, wait a second.
00:16:31
Speaker
That's a whole wait list right there. Yeah. we do Yeah, Yeah. I, you know, is it, is it after? Okay. So okay after going to dark more an epic universe,
00:16:44
Speaker
There is so, so much they could do and it could be so cool. Yeah. For a villain's land. Like, cause I've seen like it's it's something like it exists now is the thing. And, and that's, I get where she's going with this is you know, that's a very, that's a very interesting thing to think about. and And, but yeah, not just the land, but Hey, could there be a resort that follows that?
00:17:10
Speaker
That is interesting. I mean, do you think it's coincidental that I've never associated the individual lands with the specific hotels around Seven Seas Lagoon? It just never has occurred to me. And I don't know. is it coincidental? Is it a purposeful? like i Because I've never heard anyone say that they did that on purpose, right?
00:17:28
Speaker
I don't know it's if it's that they did it on purpose, but it definitely... i mean, the... I can see where Disney or like the disney Disney as a company...
00:17:41
Speaker
would have been looking at it from potentially that angle, because it does go back to, you know, how Disney does synergize, um, on, different on different fronts of their, you know, movies, parks, all that kind of stuff is, it does kind of make sense that at the, at the, you know,
00:17:59
Speaker
um, initial design of Disney world that they would have been thinking of how to hook in those things because, because it becomes an easy overlap. Like the Polynesian, honestly, I noticed because I've spent way too much time listening and, and, and paying attention to these things.
00:18:15
Speaker
The music at the Polynesian does get overlapped In other parks in Adventureland and other places where like anywhere that they need a Hawaiian or Polynesian theme song, you hear the same stuff you hear at the Polynesian resort. So is it far fetched to say that, you know, the actual concept of the resort was they started from Adventureland and went, OK, well, what would an Adventureland resort look like?
00:18:40
Speaker
I mean, i don't think it's that far fetched to say that that they weren't thinking about it. that The problem is is, you know, we would have to go and talk to some Imagineers that were involved in in building this stuff back in, you know, the late 60s and whatnot. And I guess there may be some interviews out there, but I don't think anyone's ever asked that level of question. Yeah.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah. it's i mean it's it's a good point i i a villain's hotel that would be very cool I don't even know exactly what you would do like you know because I oh just gothic like just something like super gothic yeah yeah okay I said like said I said if you go to I know I'm i'm beating the dead horse here, but it's, it's dark war. It's dark universe. It makes sense. If you've been there.
00:19:31
Speaker
Um, it like, it's so the, the Gothic theme works so well as, um, like it's easy theming, honestly, at the end of the day, like, um Just creepy. Yeah, it's creepy, but but you can do it in different at different levels so that it doesn't, you know, obviously that, you know, they want to be mindful of not necessarily scaring the kids, but the problem right
Disney Files Magazine and New Attractions
00:19:58
Speaker
that's problem. But but you can still make like because the thing is, is that they do they do that throughout the park and it doesn't like people aren't as phased by it as you think they are.
00:20:08
Speaker
Right. yeah fine my daughter Yeah. But again, it depends on how, how they do it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does. So. I like that though. I really like that, that take on it. That that's a ah cool way to think of how, how the resorts tie into the potential lands.
00:20:27
Speaker
And she, she also says, anyway, thanks for the entertaining and informative podcast you guys put out for all of us and ah counting the days until the next welcome home visit. So yeah, you're welcome. Thanks claire for writing. And i appreciate it. Yeah, for sure.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah. So I realized after I put this on the rundown, Trevor, that you're going to be salty about this. About what? Yeah. Uh, the next one. Nope. Don't you, don't you not get Disney? You don't get the Disney files. don what i I do get Disney files. Oh, I they didn't send it to you guys anymore.
00:20:54
Speaker
Oh no, they, they do. that It wasn't coming for a little while and I think it may have been because of COVID, but I have been getting them for last year or so. So yes, my, my magnet is on my fridge. Thank you. Oh, you already got it See, I don't think... Maybe i just haven't checked my mail in a while. I don't know, but... Ha-ha, I got mine first. You did. You got yours in Canada before me. Well, see, I thought this was one of those things that you maybe weren't getting in Canada, but um essentially, there's a... you know So this is not that big of news, but it's always you know nice to talk about some DVC thing with the new Disney Files magazine that us DVC members get.
00:21:26
Speaker
We get a ah fun new magnet. I like that they do this stuff. I'm always a big fan of free stuff, but I also, I like, you know, I have a quite a collection of DVC magnets on my, my fridge. Oh, me too. Yeah. I've got all my annual pass holder magnets that I had yep from years past and DVC magnets and all that. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So this is, ah you know, it's just Mickey and Minnie hanging out on a beach. I actually like the way it's drawn, too. It's kind of a fun ah way that it's drawn.
00:21:51
Speaker
I always feel like it's ah like my daughter drew it, you know? but like Yeah, like like a sketch like a kid's sketch of Mickey and Minnie, right? Yeah, it's it's fun. I like it. I like it. That was a quick story because I just wanted to get into Test Track now.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. All right. So listen, if you spoiler averse and Trevor, I assume you watch the video, even though I know you were usually spoiler averse, but I did. And my, my logic for it. So i yes, you're right. Usually I would avoid spoilers.
00:22:17
Speaker
I gave this one a pass because I've written test track enough times that that's but there's, there's nothing. functionally surprising about the track. It's all changes to the aesthetic of it and whatnot.
00:22:29
Speaker
And correct. And you know, it' it's probably going to be another year or so before I'm back there. So it's like, I'll get to see it. Yeah. I'll get to see it when I see it, but I feel because this is the third iteration of the same ride and it's not like a redo of it yeah that I'm not breaking my rule too bad.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. Okay. Yeah. that's That makes sense. So listen, if you are spoiler verse though, getp skip, skip, skip, skip. Okay. I don't know how long we're to about this for, but just, you know, keep skipping it till you hear stop talking about test track. Cause we don't want to ruin anything for you.
00:22:59
Speaker
Test track 3.0 test track 3.0. So first of all, i want to start off here. I was very wrong about where the LIDAR scene. Yep, you were. It's so wrong. that like It's literally like the first scene. It is, yes. yeah but But even even before we get to that first scene, yeah do you know what the biggest thing was that stood out to me at the beginning of that video?
00:23:23
Speaker
What? The fact that there is the window open to viewing of the queue when you're on the ride. So i said it's funny you said that because I was watching the video and I said to my wife, because it's been a while since I've been on Test Track just because my daughter doesn't go on. So usually, you know, we'll swap.
00:23:39
Speaker
Right. But like if if we don't have time for it, you know, I don't I can take it or leave it. It's it's whatever. Right. So I haven't been on in a while. But i as as we were watching it, I'm like, has that window always been there? Like, was it there before? Like, and they had it covered or was it there and I just forgot about it? Like, I couldn't remember it being there.
00:23:57
Speaker
You know, that's actually a good point. I don't remember if it was there in version 1.0, but it was not there in 2.0. Okay. So maybe they just covered it? I don't know. Well, here, i'll I'll answer this question as we're sitting here because, you know, we could thanks to the magic of the Internet. of the internet I can I can check a historical video of 1.0 and i'd see. yeah Yeah. And actually, so I was I was telling you before we started the show here that I believe was Attractions Magazine did has a video out on YouTube. Just a plug for this of all three versions of Test Track synced up together. Side by side. Yeah, which was pretty cool to watch, actually.
00:24:35
Speaker
um How things you know have changed, but you know are different. but But I was also wrong completely about the storyline of this whole thing, which is fine. um you know i really don't care about being wrong about these things. It's fine.
00:24:47
Speaker
um but So you know just a couple interesting things. First of all, Trevor, I... I like what they did. i you know like Listen, it's test track. It's it's it's going to be you know high speed and fun and and whatever. But i i mean I think you could make the argument that they put the most amount of stuff in this one.
00:25:04
Speaker
You know what I mean? like I agree with you. yeah Right? Because like the the original was... Even though everyone loves the original, it was still kind of sparse, right? Like it, you know, they had like all the stuff around the testing facilities and stuff like that.
00:25:17
Speaker
This, they built like full on buildings in it. like oh I mean, i give the first one a pass because it was emulating a testing facility, which is they're usually very sparse and its nature. not yeah Yeah. So, so that gave it a pass. The second version didn't this one. Yeah, you're right there. There's a lot more going on in the ride for sure.
00:25:39
Speaker
I have to say that first scene we were talking about that they showed a preview was, I think it's pretty impressive scene. I it' i always judge these things. My daughter loves watching ride videos from Disney, right? And so we were watching it and she sees that so she sees the building, right?
00:25:55
Speaker
And if you watch a video of this, you can see the building and then it literally disappears from like in front of you and turns into a bunch of like little dots because the idea is that you're seeing what the car sees right you're seeing what the the sensor the lidar scanner yeah yeah and my daughter looks at me and she goes how did how did the building just disappear and i was like magic kid magic don't question in the disney magic exactly so but like that's that's a good indication to me like for like and for me it was cool too i mean like listen it's not the most advanced effect in the world but it's it's very effective it looks great um i like that they added in uh and i'm sure they're fake trees and stuff but the trees that they added in like where they kind of and the music where it's almost like chill like you're taking like a a ride through like the the mountains or something and you know you're you know there's trees all around you and stuff like that's
00:26:46
Speaker
really neat as well. ah But I think, you know, the coolest parts to me, although I think there's a missed opportunity here, Trevor, right I will say. So ah one of the parts that they go to, you're the car is going by windows and they overlay different car designs.
00:27:03
Speaker
onto to the car. Right. And I was looking at this and I was like, wait a second. Did they, did they keep the pre-show where you design the car and then they're doing, they're putting the car you designed on like as an overlay on the car.
00:27:18
Speaker
The answer is no. Cause they got rid of that whole build a car thing. Design a car thing. That's to me, that to me is a missed opportunity because one of the big complaints about 2.0 was that, okay, you can build this car, but then it means nothing afterwards.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah. It was just a picture on the screen and didn't. Yeah, it meant nothing. And yeah and like they did the the effect that they do here is pretty cool. It's like it's the same thing that you get from like ah the end of Haunted Mansion, you know, where the ghosts are doing stuff like it's that same. I'm sure for similar technology.
00:27:45
Speaker
they They did. they It's the same thing they actually use in Radiator Springs Racers as well for actually doing giving you the white wall tires or giving you a paint job. Yeah, yeah. they it's yeah Again, it's like you said, none none of this is new technology, but they're taking things that they know how to do and they're repurposing them and making it effective yeah in a ride like this. And and yeah, you're right. it is a missed opportunity.
00:28:09
Speaker
I didn't look too closely at the designs because they they show a couple of different designs of the of the cars. They kind of look like the designs you could make in the E-SIM. Yeah, i I feel like some of those were callbacks too and they to the 2.0, which is is fine. But I can also see why they didn't want to keep doing it. Because yeah to be fair, the the the thing about the 2.0 design was that...
00:28:32
Speaker
It slowed the the throughput of the ride down quite a lot, if you think about it, because they had to like you were you were queuing people through the ah the design thing.
00:28:44
Speaker
And it was just it was cumbersome at the end of the end of the day. Like we noticed it because we like whenever we did standby. um You know, standby took a while, but like just getting past that part where if you had a fast pass, they skip you pat like you don't do the design.
00:28:59
Speaker
You just or or maybe or no, I think you did, but it was like one per group kind of thing. like Like it was it was it was much quicker is what I found, like when they did the fast pass, because traditionally that's what happens in a fast pass queue.
00:29:12
Speaker
But overall, i i I know you're saying it's a missed opportunity. I actually think it was smart of them to remove it entirely because yeah it was unnecessary.
00:29:23
Speaker
I get what you're saying. I'm just thinking to myself how cool it would have been if you did design that ridiculous looking car. And then when you were on the ride, they actually overlaid it on the car you were in. like yeah That would have been really cool.
00:29:35
Speaker
You know, actually, what could be a way to to implement it ah is um I'm thinking about. So they they did this at DCA and I haven't I haven't seen anywhere else where they've like.
00:29:49
Speaker
readily done this is they had um at DCA before World of Color, there was um mini there' was like a bunch of trivia games you could play.
00:29:59
Speaker
And whenever whoever won the the rounds of the trivia games, they got control of the lighting on Mickey's Fun Wheel for a couple of minutes. Yeah, they're doing that for the current show where you can vote for whatever character from ah Inside Out you want to be featured in the show.
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. but but But before it was like actually like you were controlling the lights. like That's pretty cool. You were like actively flipping through be lighting and all that. Taking something like that and like as you're waiting in line, say like, you know giving a QR code and going, hey, go on your phone, design the car on your phone while you're waiting in line.
00:30:33
Speaker
and then have that get uploaded to i cool to it. I think that would be a great way to implement that without keeping all the kiosks and and the extra That's like the 3.0 version of it, right? Everybody's got a smartphone in their hand. Everybody's got the app in their hand. Make it make it a thing you can do in in your phone. And then your phone, I mean, your app is already hooked up to your MagicBand, right? Yeah, it could just be ah inside of Play Disney. And, yeah you know, as simple as that, right? that's Yeah, that's actually really a cool idea. That'd be cool if they did that. I doubt they will, but it would be cool if they did.
00:31:04
Speaker
Um, the other part of, uh, the, that I thought of this, what that was very cool. First of all, i and I said this to you when you and I were chatting about this, this feels very, i Disney has been making a concerted effort over the past couple of years to take Epcot back to kind of like its roots, you know, to, to go back to like the edutainment, like the, the, like what Epcot was when it opened, where it was like this really,
00:31:28
Speaker
you know, excited, like, you know, thing about the future and everything was about education, about, you know, about technology and the future and all that. And, you know, the last iteration of Test Track did not feel that way. Right.
00:31:40
Speaker
It felt like a promotion for Tron. yeah like i mean Like, that's what it felt like. This feels like it feels like old Epcot again. And I feel like they did that with with the Moana thing.
00:31:51
Speaker
They did it with this. And I mean, I i just feel like they' they're getting... They're really trying to refocus Epcot back to where it was at. Because the new Test Track feels so much more like focused on technology and the future and you know innovation. i mean, you know the the part that really got me, though, Trevor, that was like really...
00:32:10
Speaker
felt like epcot was the narrator the guy that was oh yeah that guy felt so epcot to me he i i felt like it was an extension of spaceship earth yeah when you like you know when you're at the end and you're doing the uh um the your future thing with the video yeah that that's what he reminded me of was it you know you know you know hi i'm bob and you're gonna learn something today like yeah and like just the way like this cadence and the way he talked and like even the music playing into it like the music was so chill it wasn't like it wasn't like you know ah i don't even remember what the music was from the uh the last test track iteration but it was it was just very like good yeah it was like relaxed you know what i mean like i was saying this music is like relaxed and it's very you know the futuristic feeling to it you know and i was taking a dig at 2.0 that it wasn't even it wasn't even memorable It was so not memorable. But yeah, like i you know, I just felt if, like you said, it felt like Spaceship Earth. It felt like, you know what else it felt like to me, Trevor? Actually, it reminded me of the People Mover.
00:33:11
Speaker
Like, it reminded me of the narrator from the People Mover. Like, and that's, that was kind of the vibe I got from it. So even though it's like a fast, like, you know, intense ride, it's still like, it It almost like, especially from the music, they just like made it more chill. I don't, I don't even know how to describe it, but that's what they did. and um You know, you know what the good thing about that is, is that, like you said, the the fact that they're leaning back into that, those, those things, you know, people mover, spaceship earth, you know, you know, classic Epcot, they're already established as timeless things.
00:33:46
Speaker
They are. They're already past the point of, you know, this yeah because, you know some rides get to a point where it's like this looks dated or whatever. A lot of those things have surpassed that, even though they are old and they they technically are dated.
00:33:58
Speaker
um They've hit that level of timeless. I feel like this current iteration of Test Track can hit that yeah place of being like, oh, this is just timeless. This is just timeless.
00:34:10
Speaker
here and it doesn't matter. Like, like it's, it's presenting everything in such a way that it's, um, it's not, uh, or they're not going to date itself quickly. Yeah. but But you know, they're talking about the future and everything, but everything that they're, that they showed in it, it's like, yeah, this is still relevant. It's still like in 10, 20 years, it's still going to be,
00:34:29
Speaker
Relevant and and still kind of that like edutainment kind of thing without it being like overly um obnoxious about futurism. Right. Like it it definitely has some futurism to it, but I feel they they did it in the right way this time.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah. i Like in that lead scene where that's, we talked about with, with the lighter thing, like that part was super educational, right? Because literally it's the, it's, you have two narrators on the car. You have the guy that's kind of bringing you through the ride, but also you have like the car itself is talking to you.
00:35:00
Speaker
And the car was like, well, let me show you what I see. And then they, then you go into all the dots and stuff. And it's like, Oh, okay. That's really cool. Now I would say that most people probably do not know that. that's yeah but That's how the car sees it. So like, it's, it's a cool educational thing, but,
00:35:14
Speaker
We haven't even gotten to the, I think, the best part of the new ride yet, which is the end. Yes. I mean, the famous break through the wall, go outside scene. I mean, i don't know what I was expecting here, but this is very cool.
00:35:28
Speaker
Right. I thought it was the right way to handle it is that they, yeah again, you know, you know, them utilizing technology and things that they already had on hand, you know, they they gave, you know, it's really just projection on, on, on screens, but they did it in such a way that it's,
00:35:46
Speaker
it definitely gave that like wow factor but because that was the whole thing about the last room is that the last room, like the initial thing about it was, it was that wow, but it was like that scary, you know, I'm going to hit the wall thing. We're going to run into a wall.
00:35:59
Speaker
The second iteration of it was, um, were like, we're going to do a speed test. So you were you were kind of like, okay, yeah, we're going to go fast. yeah But this this gave the you know that that impression of, like you know again, the leaning into the futurism and being like, hey, you know you know sky's the limit. and And so you get a minute of like that, and then you're off you know on the track going full speed.
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah, so like and yeah we should probably describe what it is. So you you you you make that last turn, and and that last turn right before you get there, there's like in a glass case, I think it's like a... It's like a flying car, right? I think is what they have as a prototype flying car there, I believe.
00:36:36
Speaker
And then when you turn the corner, they first of all, they've built like a tunnel, right? So like they've this is like i've that tunnel that they have there. i i looked at the other iterations of it and that was not there. So that's that's newer.
00:36:50
Speaker
um But they also just basically built an entire like movie dome, right? So there's a big screen that basically surrounds you in there. And it's showing scenes of like a future city with like flying cars. And it kind of looks like Xandar from Guardians of the Galaxy.
00:37:07
Speaker
It kind of does, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, they, like you said, they're like, you know, you speed into the future or whatever. And then that's when you take off and and break through the wall go outside. But yeah, i Man, i think I think they did a great job with this. I mean, there's only, again, there's only so many things you're going to do with the test track, right? It's not, I mean, you know, somebody was like... Without redoing, like, you're right. without Without completely gutting and redoing the whole ride, you can only do so much with an overlay.
00:37:33
Speaker
right? ah Well, I also saw somebody say like, oh, so no animatronics. I'm like, what animatronics would you have? Like, you know, just like a dude standing there like animatronic car. Well, that's just a car. Like, that's that's just kind of, that's just a ah radiator. What's this?
00:37:49
Speaker
What's the racer thing? Yeah. webo Yeah. Radio Springs racers. yeah Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I guess technically they do have animatronic cars in radio, racers, but yeah, it would not have worked here, but it would have been, it would have been weird. Yeah.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, listen, overall, I think they did a great job with this. i I'm excited to ride it myself. um it's It's definitely... I said to my wife that it's not just pitch black anymore. like They put things there. like there's There's something everywhere and you're going into full-size buildings at certain points. like You're going through you know trees at one point. like It just it feels different you know in a gri in a good way.
00:38:27
Speaker
So yeah, i but i was i'm I'm happy with this. i'm i'm glad but I'm happy with what they did. Yeah. And and so I did check. So for the first scene, version one point oh, there was glass there, but it was blurred.
00:38:41
Speaker
ah So you couldn't see out into the yeah into where the queue was or anything. But there was there was glass there, but they they had it. It's not even like frosted it like they did something. It's distorted. So you can't see anything. So now it's just wide open, which, again, i you know, I keep I keep talking about this as.
00:39:02
Speaker
yeah you know, ways to increase the like, um, feeling of wow and kinetic energy and all that. Like when you're standing in the queue and you see people like going by in the cars, like that's going to get people hyped up for the ride that you're getting on. Right. Like it's always, you know, when, when you, so when you actually kind of you know, you don't have to see like the whole ride, but when you see like, you know, you know, vehicles going by and stuff,
00:39:29
Speaker
it does pique people's interest and it it makes people like, Oh, like what's, what's going on there. Is that what we're doing? Like, you know, for people that have not written, you know, something like test track, I know, but I know for us, like, you know, test track has been around for, for an incredibly long time at this point, but it has, yeah but it's, you know, for anybody coming in new to it it, it does give that sense of, Oh, something cool is about to happen.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, I I'm glad that, you know, somebody made that decision. I know it's such a silly thing, like, because yeah like, and again, looking at it, it's cool that we can actually compare like different iterations of the ride now. Oh yeah. um I'm glad that, that we've gotten to do this because it does show you how, um, how things have evolved from, ah you know, an imagineering standpoint. And at certain points, like how, how they honestly make mistakes. Like, sure you know, you know, 1.0, it's like, Hey, you know, the glass was there, but it was, it was blurred, but you could still like through both sides, you could see movement. You could see like that there was something going on.
00:40:29
Speaker
And the second version was just a wall. Like, like they just cut it off completely. off yeah Yeah. And then, and then now they've opened it back up again. And it's like, Hey, that was the smart thing to do. You know I'm glad somebody paid attention to that.
00:40:40
Speaker
Well, Also, just too, if you've seen pictures of what the new entrance looks like, too, like they got rid of all that scaffolding and like all like that whole thing they had in the front that was covering basically the entire original entrance.
00:40:52
Speaker
That's all gone. It's all open now.
DVC Rental Store Sponsorship
00:40:54
Speaker
Thankfully, yeah. yeah it It really does... it It really looks like the original ride World of Motion, which is, a by the way, if you don't know World of Motion, it's an extraordinarily different ride than Test Track. It was not a thrill ride. It was an Omni Mover ride.
00:41:06
Speaker
Very slow. You know, not not what Test Track is now, but it does harken back to those days where you don't have, you know, all that stuff in front. It's much cleaner look, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
So anyway, I feel like we've talked about that enough, but do you have any other thoughts where we do our right here and then move on to other things? I think we we covered off everything. But again, yeah yes, I'm sorry. if If people are annoyed that we're spending a bunch of time focusing on this ride, um one, deal with it. It's our podcast. And two... but You think people look are going to be annoyed by this? I think people are interested. I don't know. i mean I mean, some people, you know, they they want us to talk about what they want to talk about, and that's fine. But I feel this is worth talking about because it is...
00:41:44
Speaker
it is an interesting evolution of the park and, and and it's, it's something that, uh, you know, we, we don't always, we don't always get to see this stuff happen live or you you kind of take it for granted or you forget how much things change. I think test track is a good example of how things can change for the better and for the worse. Like, you you know, it, it starts off good. It get, doesn't, it's not quite as good, but then it got better again. Right. Like it's, yeah.
00:42:11
Speaker
I think it's a good thing to talk about these, uh, these kinds of changes. Took them a long time, but they did it. yeah Well, listen, you know, the the other thing, and I don't want to like go on a whole thing about this cause we're, we're really, uh, going along on this, but you know, Disney, whatever they have these rides and and test track is, is a big part of this.
00:42:29
Speaker
They're a little beholden to the sponsor too. Right? Like, so, you know, because of the way that Disney does these things and because they have sponsors for these rides, it's, you know, the sponsor has a say in these things.
00:42:39
Speaker
you know And and you know it's possible that GM just didn't want to fund a refurb for this you know for a long time, right? And Disney you didn't want to fork out the money to do it either. So you know we just ended up with that you know version of it. And listen, it was still a popular ride, right? Because a lot of people are probably not even going for the theme. And they're going for the thrill of you know going 65 miles per hour outside on the track, right? But cargo zoom.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah, cargo. Exactly. Yeah. Cargo's new. It's fun. Right. Cool. Oh, by the way, the truck is still there, too. You know, truck didn't go away. They kept the truck. We all knew that they would. They can't get rid of the truck. it's It's always going to be there. um But yeah, so, i you know that's also part of this, too.
00:43:16
Speaker
All right. Let's let's ah let's see the ad, Trevor. This week, our show is brought to you by DVC Rental Store, which is a World of DVC company that offers magical vacations at incredible value. Save up to
Disney App Enhancements
00:43:27
Speaker
60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% of the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. As always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points.
00:43:40
Speaker
Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVCRENT. That's three eight two seven three six eight And when you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you.
00:43:53
Speaker
All right. So, ah first of all, i I wanted to say this at the at the front of the episode, but I forgot, so I'm going to say now. Trevor and I did a food time, so there's a food time that will be coming out on, ah what's the date?
00:44:07
Speaker
Wednesday. 7-2. Yeah, seven two So on on July 2nd, there will be a food time that's out. You can watch that or listen to it. Up to you. We have a video of it. Of course, that's going to be up on YouTube.
00:44:18
Speaker
You can actually watch the video on Spotify, too. ah So if you want to watch video podcasts on Spotify, you can watch right through the app. I didn't know that was a thing, but I guess that makes sense because Spotify does do podcasts. They do. Yeah, they have video podcasts on there now. So you can watch through YouTube. actually think watch on Apple, too. Or you can listen to the audio version, but that will be out July 2nd. So keep an eye out for that. We covered the Disney Springs Flavors of Florida kind of festival.
00:44:46
Speaker
Yes. It's not an official festival, but there was enough there for it to be. It's an experience. yeah but I mean, there was a ton there. Honestly, we talked for a long time. There was a lot of food there and way more than we thought.
00:44:58
Speaker
yeah Way more than we thought. Yeah. We did not think it was going to be as long of an episode as it was. But, you know, as my wife likes to say, you always say it's going to be short that it and it never is. So my wife, too. Yeah, they know. They know. They know the deal.
00:45:10
Speaker
I even I said to her, I said to her today, Trevor, I'm like, oh, this should be pretty short episode. You know, and she's like, OK, sure. All right. Anyway, so Disney has announced some updates to the app, to their apps ah for dining reservations. Now, they've been making a lot of updates to dining reservations, but they made even more.
00:45:31
Speaker
Right. and There was this one on here that they mentioned. So you can use an advanced availability calendar view all available reservations for a single location. Right. So essentially like, hey yeah.
00:45:43
Speaker
And also view all available reservations at all locations across the date range. So basically you could say, i'm going to be here from X date to X date, and it will show you all available reservations available during that week, which is like in, in hindsight being 2020. Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:01
Speaker
yeah it's it In my head, I'm like, well, yeah, of course they should show you that. Yeah, of course they should. yeah I get why they didn't. it's a very It was a complicated thing to do.
00:46:13
Speaker
But this this is a very big improvement to the dining reservations. And so so this piece alone, being able to view all available reservations across all locations, the thing about that is that you know or I don't know about you, Tom, but when I do my planning for for Disney, we like I ask the question of the family, like, okay, where do we want to eat, right? Yeah. yeahs And so we kind of we kind of get a short list of like, you know we we want to go to A, B, C, right? you know We'll get like you know three or four restaurants. And then and then I start hunting reservations based on that. But...
00:46:48
Speaker
The flip side of this is that, you know, if I'm not picky about where I stay or not where I stay, but where I'm eating, or if it's like, hey, I'm looking for something different, you know, being able to see that, you know, oh, you know, this this place has reservations the day that I'm there and I'm usually not going there.
00:47:04
Speaker
Like that, this is actually, I feel like Disney is trying better fill all the gaps that they do have in dining reservations that I think people don't realize. Like that makes sense. It's always been a challenge for them. I mean, just generally dining reservations have always been a difficult thing to nail down, you know?
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, because plans change, too. like It's hard. It's very hard to to do dining reservations. But the fact that they've updated the ah the app with like the the functionality of this is looking way better.
00:47:34
Speaker
Like I feel like they're they are listening to, you know, things that people have said over time about, you know, it's it it used to be very hard to like. nail down a reservation unless you were like, like laser focused on, you know, getting this one, this one reservation, right? Like, yeah. Yeah.
00:47:53
Speaker
They also too have, uh, they have improved, uh, they saying improve sorting and filtering. So like, so for the people that don't plan ahead, like if you're just walking around and you're hungry, like you can very easily now just like pull, it'll pull up and say, you can join the wait list now for the, like, it'll say how long the wait list.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You're not joining the waitlist. We have the waitlist. They don't get the waitlist. Walk-up houff list might But yeah yeah, it literally says like, so the example they have here is is Blue Bayou and it says hungry now, approximately 20 minute wait time, join the walk-up list.
00:48:27
Speaker
So like, instead of doing a reservation, you can just do the walk-up list and just do it right there. I could go for Blue Bayou in 20 minutes. The other thing they mentioned, too, that's a new feature, too, is that they they actually they they have a they've a media gallery now for each restaurant ah for for the menu. So they have pictures of the dishes now, which I feel like is a thing they've needed for like a long time now. Wait, that...
00:48:52
Speaker
or I couldn't... Or I guess... Okay, in quick service... Yeah, you're right. Because in the quick service menus, you do... Like, you can see everything that they have to order and in the quick service. just that i've pictures. but Yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
well Well, no, there there was, like, little... Like, you got pictures, but it wasn't, like... Like, it was... You know, if it was like a bag or a box of, you know, chicken nuggets or whatever, like you just saw like, you know, chicken nuggets and and a drink next to it. But yeah, now that think about it, yeah, you're right. For sit downs, they never like displayed the menu.
00:49:26
Speaker
But beyond like list, but beside like you could read what everything was, but you never saw like what it actually looks like. Huh. It also says here too that that's Disney World only though, by the way. So, um, no soup for you, Disneyland. Sorry.
00:49:40
Speaker
Uh, I mean, again, there's not nearly the amount of places that I'm doing sit downs at Disneyland. that's why I mean, honestly, outside of blue Bayou and think it's just blue Bayou that I've done sit downs at really. Yeah. All right. Try to think if there was, ah no, no, sorry. That's not true. We, we've done carnation cafe as well.
00:50:01
Speaker
So yeah. Okay. Well, listen, I think these are great improvements. i you know I'm a big plan ahead person. So you know the ability to do that is ah is is really helpful. And I love that idea because that that will really can really help kind of shape your itinerary. Yeah.
00:50:21
Speaker
Yeah. And, and also the the fact that they're, you know, they're, they're making it very easy. Like, like, you know, they're giving you all the options or saying like, Hey, you know, you can, you can come or you can come join you know, you know book a time.
00:50:35
Speaker
you know, if you know, you're going to be in this park at this time, or, you know, the walkup listing, I think is like that. That's a huge thing because I remember, yeah um you know, you know, years ago it was like, you know, trying to, trying to even get a walkup seemed incredibly difficult.
00:50:51
Speaker
oh hundred percent fact The fact that they're putting it in the app, means that, again, they've acknowledged that, you know, people want to do this. And instead of making it a whole process, which but it's also nice around the cast members, too, right? Because yes yeah this takes it out of their hands, which and I know, too, like, I felt bad for, um you know, cast members that like, like you know, we we would always try and not Make it difficult for them. But you could see where they were like, you know, you know, there's people coming for reservations and then, but then also there's people that are doing walk up and then there's, you know, somebody's like, I've been sitting here for 20 minutes. When is my table ready? Like, yeah. and So, you know, it's just one less thing for them to worry about because it's all handled in the app.
00:51:29
Speaker
Well, and they they've had the walk-up thing for a while, right? Like on the app, but now it's just like easier. They've made it pop up in an easier place. So like you don't to go searching for it,
Lilo and Stitch Updates
00:51:37
Speaker
you know? And yeah, that that's what I would say was one of the big things that I... Like even on my last trip there, i um you know we were we were comparing ah Universal and Disney's apps. And you know Universal's app is not great. you know they They have a lot of work to do to get...
00:51:54
Speaker
up or Sorry, I shouldn't say that they're not great. The mobile ordering was fantastic, but the rest of it was like not at the same level as Disney. But little little things like this is like like you said, you know trying to dig for you know how do I get on the... you know Even knowing that there is a such thing as the walk-up list is like, and yeah you know they should be advertising that. they should Yeah, they should. yeah So I want to talk, Trevor, about... Let's move on from the app. yeah I want to talk about, first of all... and So it was... Disney you know created a a new holiday. you know I think it's probably been for a while now, with which was 626 Day, right? Which is, you know, Stitch.
00:52:34
Speaker
It's all about Stitch, right? And to celebrate 626 Day, they they announced that they're that Lilo and Stitch live action 2 is in development, which means nothing, really, right?
00:52:47
Speaker
It just means that they're like, you know, want to make another one. but like you know Like, it doesn't... They still have to like... There's like no script. there's no I mean, here's the thing, though, and and it's it's easy to forget this.
00:52:59
Speaker
There was like a ton of Lilo and Stitch stuff after the original movie. Right. They were like the direct to video sequels. There was a TV series. there I mean, there was a ton of stuff.
00:53:12
Speaker
But so who knows what they're going to do here? Maybe they're going to do an original story. Maybe they're going to do one of those things in live action. I don't know. Yeah, but I mean, it's very easy to do an amalgamation of stuff from the yeah TV series and all that.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And and i I have to laugh, by the way, because I think I don't know if you watch the video, Trevor, but they so for those that haven't seen this, it's hilarious. for the red carpet and everything, they made an animatronic stitch yeah and put it in the pink ah the pink like electric truck.
00:53:47
Speaker
The kids' a like you know truck that they they had in the movie. The kids' Barbie truck they had in the movie. And the you know the stitch moves its head and and talks and and makes so sounds and everything.
00:53:57
Speaker
And they used that for like interviews and they used it for the red carpet and stuff. But they also used it here to make this announcement. And it's hilarious. i love the fact that they did this, that they made a animatronic stitch that drives around a car.
00:54:12
Speaker
It's hilarious. I want to see this in the parks. Drive this around the parks. I was going to say, I feel like this is something you could end up seeing in the parks. The problem is, though, you have tall, you know, stitch that you can meet.
00:54:26
Speaker
Right. Like this is a real size stitch. Yeah. Like, how do you do those two things? Well, they're just not in the same place at the same time. I guess. Yeah. But i I just feel like that's a that's a hard, you know, kind of issue for them because you have the the actual. already Yeah, they've already done the stitch meet and greet. So doing a doing the little stitch might be a little bit harder. that's That is fair.
00:54:51
Speaker
Which, by the way, my sister has been in Aulani. I talked to you about this, right? So yeah she's been in Aulani. And she told me that it is. that they have not been able to find Stitch anywhere. And I'm like, that is shocking. It's like, how have you not found Stitch? They did a meet and greet with ah Angel, who is Experiment 624, which is Stitch's love interest. And in I forget which one it was in. ah you know But it was in the third one. Yeah, it's the second or the third one. Right.
00:55:18
Speaker
But they they found her, but no Stitch. And I'm like, how is Stitch not just everywhere all the time at Alani? That's, yeah. I mean, nuts to me.
00:55:29
Speaker
that that's weird that they wouldn't lean into stitch at a Lonnie of all places. I know. I thought it was odd too. I think it's just my sister though. She doesn't know Disney stuff. And she, well, I don't, feel like it might be one of those things where she's like standing the lobby going, yeah, i don't see any stitch stuff. And like the camera pans by and there's like a whole gift shop oh that in the corner. And she's like, and she's got like her back. That's a hundred percent my sister. So it's certainly possible. Cause like when she was saying that, I'm like, that doesn't seem right. Like, you know, like that doesn't seem correct to me. Like, their Stitch has to be around. Like, there's no way Stitch's not around.
00:56:07
Speaker
So, but yeah, so listen, there there's another one coming out. um And Trevor, you you, well, because it's not out on streaming yet. So you still haven't seen the new one because it's still in theaters. So, and I know you don't do really theaters anymore. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we we are waiting for it on Disney Plus because, yeah, I don't really want to.
00:56:23
Speaker
Pay more money for something that I'm already paying money for. so I get it. um I will say I keep I keep getting like I keep seeing the director out there trying to defend the ending. And it's funny, though, because Trevor, remember when we talked about this, you asked me afterwards, like about the ending. Right. Because like, yeah, what's being put out there on the Internet is from people that didn't actually see the movie.
00:56:43
Speaker
I think. Yes. Or or or they got ah like, yeah, you you cleared up for me. You know, I understand what the ending is now. And I feel like, yeah, there's a lot of people that like either heard from somebody else or got so far into it and like stopped. Yeah.
00:57:01
Speaker
paying attention or just want to attack anything. I mean, they just want to like, be like, Oh, this is awful. And I mean, he actually explained it even more and I don't want to ruin the the ending, but like a lot of the ending is very much like based on Hawaiian culture and how Hawaiians treat each other as like family.
00:57:21
Speaker
um you know, even if you're not related. Right. And, and, you know, he, the director talked about it quite a bit and he, you know, he said, listen, what am I, he's like, my co-writer was, is Hawaiian. He really wanted to put this in here.
00:57:32
Speaker
And I think it's just people just not understanding that, you know, people just don't understand that like, this is, you know, it's not what you think it is, but yeah, I, I don't know. I, I've it's, I feel like the people that have been complaining about it, who've either not seen it or just, you know, want to criticize it.
00:57:47
Speaker
You know, you know, that it's actually funny you bring that up because so I equate it to, um you know, the the phrase blood is thicker than water. Of course.
00:57:58
Speaker
Yeah. Like you you think you know what that means, right? I think so. Yeah. what What do you think it means? i I think it means that like, ah you know, your your family is is is... Your family is more important than and anybody else, right? Like it so family bonds mean more than anybody other any other relationship, right?
00:58:17
Speaker
So the the funny thing is, is that it actually... the That saying means the opposite of what you think it means. Really? Because the the actual saying is Um, it's the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, interesting which translates to the connections you make with people.
00:58:37
Speaker
And those you you have connection with is far more important than where you were born, how you know you know, any any of the circumstantial stuff. yeah so It actually means the it means the opposite of what a lot of people think it means, which is funny because this actually does play into the same issue people are having with Lilo and Stitch is that they're they're misunderstanding that yes, blood blood is thicker than water, but blood means you know your connection with other people, not... and That's what he talks about. and i saw a recent interview with this director and he said, like listen, there's that there's there's a name for it. It's a Hawaiian concept of
00:59:13
Speaker
of you know we're all family you know like everybody is family and you know even if you're my neighbor you know it's like you're you're my family member so it's yeah i i know that was a that was a major tangent but we the reason i was gonna talk about it there was there's some some new stitch merch uh for six to six day although feel like i've seen a couple of these things already i don't i don't know if they're just talking about new things again but i I could have sworn we, we went over some of this cause yeah, but I feel like they've been doing like bursts of, um, of merch, of merch.
00:59:48
Speaker
All I can tell you is I hope my daughter doesn't see when we're, if I take her grocery shopping, she doesn't see these stitch, uh, um, uh, fruit snacks because she's going to make me buy them like immediately. just know my daughter, which fruit snacks are you talking about? There's stitch fruit snacks ah on the page.
01:00:05
Speaker
why is it it's not letting me next to the water bottle yeah and well no so okay i'm i'm oh those okay sorry i was i i was looking further down at the uh i was like the dog treats you're not talking about the dog treats no no no no i am not talking about the dog treats no it's funny that they have dog treats and toys though right yeah yeah the dog treats are are
Disney Merchandise and Global Influence
01:00:28
Speaker
again are hilarious i love that Like that's such a weird, it's a weird thing to throw in, but also like kind of makes sense because Stitch the dog and early, you know, he's treated like Lilo's dog. So why would they not do dog treats?
01:00:45
Speaker
like great Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. In other merch news though, and we're going to wrap up with this. Yeah. I, and I put this on here for you, Trevor. For me. Yeah. For you. Do you think I'm into kawaii chibi stuff? No, I know you're into Asian culture stuff, though. That's fair.
01:01:01
Speaker
So Disney Store ah Japan and China merchandise are coming to DisneyStore.com. which Here's the reason I bring this up. I think it's interesting because we've talked about this so many times about how the Asian parks get a lot of really cool stuff that never comes to the States. And now there it seems like they're They're trying.
01:01:19
Speaker
They're crossing that line a little bit, right? I've actually never seen these, but these are adorable. And I'm telling you right now, if my daughter sees one, she's going to want all of them. like They're like little stuffed animals. Yeah. yeah there're Apparently, they're called... or or Sorry, that the Stitch and Angel ones are called Urupocha-chan.
01:01:37
Speaker
Okay. Which, yeah, it's... Oh, no, that's the whole series of them. That's whole series, yeah. They're these little, like, super... Yeah, like, pom-pom fluffball um ah plushies.
01:01:52
Speaker
Which, yeah, like you said, that they're they're adorable. And, you know, something that, like, I think if When my son was younger, we would have been hunting for one of these stitch ones for sure.
01:02:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because, yeah, because yeah they they're super cute. They are. They're very cute. And I actually apparently they've been integrating a lot of this stuff from Japan and China before. I had not seen this, but they ah they have been adding plushes and and stuff you know for a while now, I guess, since the beginning of the year, which I don't remember us talking about this. I don't think we had.
01:02:22
Speaker
um No, i I don't remember ever talking about this stuff, but also some of the bags that they have that they're they're showing here are pretty interesting. Pretty cool. Yeah. Interesting or cool. Well, the the the Donald Duck butt one is is weird and I like it. Like, it it's weird, but I like it.
01:02:45
Speaker
I'm liking the stitch bucket hat. I'm not a bucket hat guy, but the stitch bucket has pretty cool. Yeah, that's true. it it yeah it is cool. and And same thing. There's like, is that a that looks like a stitch bag where he's like hanging off the side of you kind of thing. Like it looks like a, like a plushie.
01:03:01
Speaker
So yeah, that's pretty cool too. And they also have one of those little shoulder guys too. Um, which I think I told you, I bought my daughter, one of those shoulder pet things ah when we were on the cruise ship and um almost positive. We've already lost the magnet for it.
01:03:14
Speaker
Um, Like, I probably put it somewhere. I just don't know where. Like, she brought it to school, too, at one point. And I'm like, oh, boy, this thing's gonna... We're gonna lose that. So she might have lost it there.
01:03:25
Speaker
um But, yeah, look, there's some cool stuff here. I just wish they would do more of, like, the crazy food stuff. But I also feel like we're in the minority on that, maybe. Like, maybe if they did some of the crazy food stuff that people would be turned off by it. I don't know. No, I...
01:03:39
Speaker
ah Okay, Universal's done the crazy food stuff. There's no excuse why Disney can't do the crazy food stuff. yeah I mean, that's that's fair. That's fair. yeah But like I said, I just put it on here because I thought it was kind interesting.
01:03:50
Speaker
No, I appreciate that. And yeah, it's it's cool. like I get what you're saying about that a lot of these things are things I've seen from the ah the the Asian parks and it's, it's good that they're finally acknowledging that, Hey, you know, this stuff sells well in Asia, but you can also bring it over and, and, you know, it doesn't have to be everywhere, but you know, give people a mix of both, like, like give you, yeah give people the ability to go and pick, like, you know, there's a Donald duck bag here. It's not, it's not over the top or anything, but,
01:04:21
Speaker
you don't see Donald duck March like that. Yeah. So Donald duck is, is a lot bigger in the Asian parks too. I mean, Donald yeah is, yeah, it's basically Mickey over there. So, ah which is just wild, but it is wild. It is wild to think about, but yeah, there's actually a whole international section on, uh, on the Disney on Disney store now. So, Oh, great.
01:04:42
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, man. I feel like I need to buy some of these little things for my daughter. feel like she will like them. Although they're a little pricier than you'd expect considering considering how small they are. But, you know.
01:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, that that's one thing about some of these. Like... even though like the key chain ones that they've got these key chain plushies is they they're not cheap. Like you really, you really can't collect them all unless you have a ah good, a good bankroll.
01:05:14
Speaker
Get that Disney money.
Epcot and Disney Parks Updates
01:05:16
Speaker
So yeah, let's, why don't we wrap up and Trevor, unless there's anything else you want to talk about? No, I think that that was a good selection of stuff today. I think, I think we covered, covered a lot of interesting ground there.
01:05:27
Speaker
um I think my main takeaway is i mean I'm looking forward to Test Track. I think Test Track is going to be cool. so Yeah, it's ah it's going to... it's going to just further improve what's already become a very good Epcot.
01:05:41
Speaker
Like Epcot was, Epcot was in a bad place for a while there and it's, it's come out of it and it's definitely getting better. It's now we, now we just need, now we just need that the ah new figment and a spaceship earth overhaul.
01:05:57
Speaker
Those are the two main things I think we need now. No, we all we also need, um there was the Pixar play area that never happened. There's that whole building over there. Yeah, we need them to do something wonder with Wonders of Life.
01:06:09
Speaker
It's funny that you bring that up, actually, because I, ah again, i was i was going to is going down a YouTube rabbit hole after I watched the Test Track video. And then I was like, like oh, man. you know because i so what Okay, I'll tell you what happened really quickly here, because I do want to wrap up.
01:06:23
Speaker
I was watching the the three video one that I was talking about that 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, right? And I was just remarking about the how a lot of the background from 1.0 is pretty much the same, but there's also some different things.
01:06:36
Speaker
And one of the things I saw in the in the you know in the distance in one of the videos, I saw Wonders of Life. And I was like, I said to my wife, I was like, ah man. I really wish they would do something with wonders of life. And then I went to, man, remember body wars?
01:06:48
Speaker
Like I was like, I want to watch a video body wars. so Right. And I'd say, then I'm like, okay, let's, let's pull the video body wars. And sure enough, you know, of course there's, there's a couple of videos out there, body wars.
01:07:01
Speaker
Uh, and so I started watching that and my daughter's like, She looks at me and she goes, what is this? And I was like, it's a ride. And she goes, are you like moving? Because the camera the camera was stationary. So it didn't yeah it didn't look like you were actually moving, you know?
01:07:15
Speaker
I was like, yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, it's it's it's like a is ride. It's not around anymore. Like Star Tours, I guess. Yeah. Well, which I have not taken her on yet. So, cause I think, okay so she fire well, we're going to try We're going to try it probably one of these days soon here, but, ah but yeah, I just, it i remember so much that ride is it's crazy, but I forgot how many, like there's a fair amount of actors and that are in that, the ride and the, and the pre-show of that, that are well-known actors. I was watching them. was like, at the time they probably weren't, but here they were, but anyway,
01:07:49
Speaker
so i I don't have any history with body wars. So, yeah, I'll i'll have to go look at it. You never did body wars? Oh, because didn't start going until after that was gone, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was already closed by the time went, unfortunately. That makes sense. Okay.
Disney Parks Videos and Editing
01:08:03
Speaker
Sorry, I know we want to wrap up here, but just one more aside about Epcot. Okay. No, go ahead. um So we so I'm sure for anyone who's watched the the Disney Parks channel stuff, um because they've they've been putting out like they have like a monorail loop video and stuff like that.
01:08:22
Speaker
um Surprisingly, I'm I'm actually I have to go back. I'm 99 percent sure it was the Disney Parks channel because we we had the monorail loop on and then it flipped to it. And I think it was just like.
01:08:33
Speaker
YouTube was just going through like the next video from that channel. um They have the, it's like a nighttime video of the Moana journey of water. Yeah. i've watched that before actually. You have, you've seen that. i yeah So I didn't see it.
01:08:47
Speaker
I haven't seen it until like this weekend. I was like, wow, this this is really cool. yeah And it's actually the best case scenario because you get to go in like actually see all the the details of Journey of Water without all the people around.
01:09:01
Speaker
Because Journey of Water is usually very chaotic. so It's funny, when I first saw the monorail ambiance one that ah I said to my wife, I was like, how did somebody film this? Because I didn't realize Disney had done it themselves. like I thought it was just some person set up like a camera and was going around the monorail for like, you know, because it's a really long video and you don't see any people.
01:09:23
Speaker
And i i said to i that's I said to my wife, I was like, wait, but how did they get this this footage? And then you realize it was from Disney. It's like, oh, this is probably like three o'clock in the morning. You know what I mean? Well, not three o'clock. So it's probably like 5 a.m.
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was early. And actually, you know, um I believe so. OK, I'm going to ruin the magic a little bit for you. But here here we go Um, one, I'm pretty sure it's pretty close to rope drop because if you if you look at when you go pot or when it goes by spaceship earth, there are people lined up. It looks like, like, it it looks like it's like an early, early crowd kind of thing.
01:09:59
Speaker
So it's, it's early in the morning. The second thing is you said it's, it's a very long video. It actually only does one loop. And really there is there is a very smart spot where they edited it or they did the cut and it just loops that one go around.
01:10:17
Speaker
Oh. but But it was done very well. It took it took me a while to figure out where Because I haven't watched it that closely. I've just had it on the background and i just looked up and I'm like, oh there's no people there. you know Yeah. And that's like, I was like the same thing at first. I was like, okay, that like they they got a you know really early time with this, but I was like, wait a minute.
01:10:34
Speaker
And we started watching it and was okay, there is a cut in here. And so they did loop it, but how they did it, it's so subtle. Like it's very well done. And I'm not going to spoil that for you, but...
01:10:48
Speaker
You know anybody wants to go and figure it out, Disney did do like, I mean, it's it's Disney, right? It's a four hour video. I mean, it's long. It's actually about like, how long does it take to do ah a monorail loop? Like 20 minutes, I think. Yeah, probably something like that. Yeah. So, so yeah, it's, it's only actually 20 minutes, but that they looped it very well. That's, that's pretty funny. Actually, that's, I, like I said, I didn't watch the whole thing, so I, I assumed that it was different, but okay. That makes more sense.
01:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. all right. Well, let's wrap
Podcast Interaction and Subscriptions
01:11:14
Speaker
it up. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Let's wrap it up here. So as usual for us, um we're we're not looping these. So I'm going to do this live every time. So, you know, you can tell that that this is not a loop of our wrap up.
01:11:26
Speaker
So you can always reach us at welcomehomepodcast at gmail.com. If you have any questions for us or want to share your own trip reports, stuff like that. You know, we we love it. Keep keep it coming.
01:11:39
Speaker
um yeah you know Again, shout out to Claire for for sending us that email at the beginning of the episode. you know Love that kind of stuff. We do. yeah Similarly, you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome on Podcast and Instagram as Welcome Home Picks.
01:11:54
Speaker
Make sure on Facebook you check out our group as well. Welcome home Disney waitlist where we talk about all kinds of stuff from the show. You get all the great means that people make about the show. We we love the stuff you guys do you know after after we write an episode and we we put it out there. I never know what people are going to fixate on for for memes. it's always It's always fun to see what we get every week. Yeah.
01:12:18
Speaker
ah Keep that coming. And yeah, so so you know you can always come and join our group if you if you're looking for some some cool Disney people to hang out with. If you want to support the show, you can go to store.welcomehomepodcast.com and check out all of our different merch there. It's all the usual stuff. you can get all the the t-shirts and mugs and and all that kind of stuff. And like I said, you know it just it just helps us keep the show running.
01:12:42
Speaker
Similarly, we also have a Patreon. So you can go to patreon.com slash welcomehomepod and check out our the different levels of Patreon support, which have exclusive merch that you can only get from Patreon. And our Patreon listeners also get access to the Discord server, which is yet another place that we talk about stuff from the show and and just general Disney conversations. And we also publish ah things early there like food time. So, you know, if you want to if you want to get you know in early on some of the ah the stuff that we're kind of doing here outside of the regular episodes or or also behind the scenes stuff, too, we we do talk about...
01:13:18
Speaker
um you know, stuff from the shows that maybe went sideways that doesn't always make it to the final. We don't heavily edit the show, but sometimes like things happen and you know, it'll, we talk about that kind of stuff on discord. So if you want to see a little bit of that, you know, consider joining your Patreon.
01:13:34
Speaker
ah Last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere where you can leave us a five-star review, please do so. It's just another way that helps the show get to get out there and and be more visible to to people. And you know it also lets us know that you like the show. And you know you can also write us a review on iTunes and let us know what you do think about the show, which we also love hearing hearing that as well.
01:13:55
Speaker
yeah As long as they're nice reviews, like be nice to us. Like, no you know, okay. You, you, you don't have to be nice. No, but you do. You can, you can give us criticism, but make sure you do it in a polite way. I would much rather people be polite. Yeah. ah Give us the five stars still, but just be polite. You don't, you don't have to be mean about it. Just, you know, you can, you can still get your point across with five stars and mean comments. Like, you know what i mean? Like just give the five stars.
01:14:23
Speaker
That's all I care about is the stars. yeah so yeah and awesome Tom's like Mr. Krabs with those stars. Yeah, exactly. Tom, if you subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast, so you can be reminded every time we release a new episode, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Tunes, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music. Wow, that was really fast. I've i've read this so many times, I just...
01:14:41
Speaker
can do it really fast. Just about any podcast app out there, you can find us. Like I mentioned, if you want food time on video, YouTube, Spotify, any place you can find video podcasts, you'll find video food time or just audio. It's up to you.
01:14:53
Speaker
Just to remind you to our listeners, welcome home podcasts for entertainment only. We are not employed by the Walt Disney Company. And as such, all opinions, especially the show our own. So please consult a DVC representative or Disney cast member. For more information about anything we talked about today, huge thank you to our sponsor, DVC Rental Store, for sponsoring this episode. Please check them out for your rental needs, whether you want to rent out your points or rent points.
01:15:13
Speaker
Go to them. They're awesome. ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon. This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
01:15:30
Speaker
I looked around from pole to pole, found her in sugar bowl. Look out, here comes my ball and chain.