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Episode 342: Tom’s Vacation Update, Olaf Draws! & Villains Land Rumors image

Episode 342: Tom’s Vacation Update, Olaf Draws! & Villains Land Rumors

Welcome Home: A Disney Parks & DVC Podcast
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On This Episode

Tom gives an update on his vacation plans for 2026. MuppetVision 3D will be coming to VR in the future. The Magic of Disney Animation, coming to Hollywood Studios in late summer, will include a drawing experience taught by an animatronic Olaf. Joe Rohde is releasing a new book called ‘Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible. The guys discuss all the rumors about developments in the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom including changes to the size of the project and the tone.

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Introduction and Sponsorship

00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:24
Speaker
Music
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Resale Market. Thank you for joining us on episode 342 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast.

Impulsive Disney Cruise Decision

00:00:39
Speaker
I'm Tom. here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor? Hey, pretty good. um So, actually, you know what I realized we were talking a bunch before the show and you have some Disney...
00:00:51
Speaker
ah information that you you did something impulsive that I feel we should talk talk about. yeah i Hold on a second. Okay, first of all, first of all, number one, this is your fault.
00:01:05
Speaker
Oh, whoa. Just wait. just Let's back this bus up for a second. all right I want to hear this. After the last episode. So I was talking about how we were trying to figure out when we were going to do a cruise, right? Yeah. i'm trying to figure And you're like, oh, you know what do you need to do, Tom? You need to find the the times in your daughter's schedule where they're off and where they have you know teacher days or whatever, right? So what happened? after the podcast, I go and I'm like, all right, let me look at my actually it might have happened while we were still on the podcast. I might have like pulled up our schedule and I'm looking at it and see, okay, spring break is, you know, April 3rd to, ah you know, whatever the whole next week is. Right. So it's the to the 10th. Right. Yeah. then I was like, well, you know what, just for, you know, be what,
00:01:50
Speaker
might might as well just take a look and see if there's any cruises during that time that are open or and are decent. Right. So I'm just looking around, looking around and I see this cruise is a five day cruise on the Disney fantasy to the, uh, to the Bahamas, well to a Nassau, Bahama, uh, and, uh, then to the, the, the two private islands for, for Disney. And, and it was surprisingly considering it spring break, it was heavily discounted. I mean, it was really heavily discounted again. All right. probably Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
Probably because we're like a month out, right? It's probably five months out. They're filling rooms. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what they're doing. yeah So it was heavily discounted. and so i I, you know, and this all kind of happened quickly. Right. So I had just, I had just messaged, you know, my my wife about it and show and sent it to her. And she was like, okay, well, and then she had sent it to her friend, you know, the one that we want to go with want to go on vacation with.
00:02:41
Speaker
And so her friend starts like following it. Right. And then sees that it went down even more. Right. And like the next day or a day or two later. And so then then my wife's just like, can we just can we can we book this? And I'm like, and I'm at work, by the way, when this is happening. And I'm so I was super busy. right like I am so busy. She's like, like can can you book this like right now? And I'm like, um what?
00:03:05
Speaker
like are Are they booking this? like What's happening? you know and it's Of course, it's last minute. It's late. you know it's We're a month away.

Surprising the Daughter

00:03:11
Speaker
So ah next thing I know, I'm i'm booking cruise. And ah you know we're going on a cruise during my daughter's spring break. so Okay.
00:03:20
Speaker
Which is a month from now. you know so Which brings with it its own challenges. Because, ah you know, you, ah we, well, the biggest problem, really, what are you laughing at? I'm sorry. I'm just, it's just funny how like this started from you and i having a conversation and and yeah like this entire chain of events is And is he spending too much money? My fault. yes so I mean, no it' it's not really your fault, but it kind of is. It's a funny a funny premise. I like it. Well, the the funny, I was also, I was going to try to do a DVC swap, which by the way, we're also going to have somebody from DVC rental store to talk about swaps. coming on ah the next show. fantastic. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Because I really want to learn more about it. But one of the things I learned about swaps is you can't do them last minute. They're very much like a two month ahead of time kind of thing. So, oh, OK. Yeah, because all they're really doing is renting out your points and then using that money to to pay for the cruise. like That's all they're really doing. It's not anything fancy, you know?
00:04:28
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I mean, they're just saving you the middle man. Because, yeah, you could just rent out your points and do the cruise. They're letting you do it all in one shot, right? Yeah, basically. Yeah, that's essentially what's happening. So, you know, which is fine, because I think I'm probably still going rent out some of my points to offset the cost of the cruise anyway. Right. Right. So like I'm probably going to try to rent out some of those, but it would have been nice to do it all at once. But again, this is the last minute cruise. But the biggest problem. And so, you know, listen, we're excited. We're going to do this with her with her friends, with my daughter's best friend. You know, so my daughter's thrilled. She doesn't know about it yet. It's a secret. We have it. We have, I think, my wife and you're still doing the surprise trip. Yes, that's exactly right. So there's some sort of way to surprise her. And I keep saying to my wife, I was like, you got to do

Cruise Dining Challenges

00:05:21
Speaker
that. If you're going to do this, you need to do it quickly because the cats almost come out of the bag like four or five times now. Like, you know, we it's hard to keep this, you know, to keep this down. So, you know, it's.
00:05:34
Speaker
So hopefully I'm hoping within the next week or so here that that gets done. But so my daughter going very excited about I'm excited for it too. We're not big port people. Like we don't. I've talked about this on the show. I don't. I feel like the ports are many of the ports are very tourist trappy.
00:05:49
Speaker
And that's not kind of my jam. You know, like I don't really want to go to a place where they're just trying to sell me things every two seconds. Like I would like to just enjoy places. So the fact that we're going to both of the private islands, i i really like that because it's those are ports I want to go to and where I'm not going to be. i mean, you know, i'm not going to just like walk off and have somebody trying to sell me the same you know necklace with my daughter's name on it 40 times as I walk around looking at you, Cozumel. But anyway, yeah. But yeah, so i listen, we're pumped for it. it's going to It's going to be fun. The only problem is because we did this so late and I posted this in the discord ah because we did this so late. We

Disney Cruise Ship Rankings

00:06:27
Speaker
are, you know, there's two dinner seating times and we have the later one, which is 815.
00:06:33
Speaker
ah My daughter is asleep by 730 on most days. So 815 is going to be a rough one. So we're going to try really hard to switch that. They have like a wait list that you can go on, which we're on. But also, apparently, we we can ah we can try to do it while we're on the ship, too. So that was a whole other thing, Trevor, where I, you know, and I think probably a lot of people that do this will stay up to midnight, the night of check in so that they can get an earlier time. This is like the the same methodology as like booking FastPasses first thing in the morning. Okay. Yeah, so you can get an early so you can get the earliest arrival time. so which you know Listen, I got 12.15 arrival time, ah and which is which is pretty decent

Booking Strategies for Disney Trips

00:07:17
Speaker
considering my you know i have the smallest amount of Disney Cruise status, which is one cruise, so I'm a silver person, which means I get to do it a couple days ahead of the people that are just doing it for the first time. Mm-hmm. But, you know, but listen, i I am hopeful that we will get it because i it's going to be I really want to we really want to do the dining experiences on the ship. And i would be disappointed if we couldn't because it's too late. But, you know, listen, it's kind of our fault for booking this last minute.
00:07:47
Speaker
You know, it is what it is, I guess. Yeah, fair. And, you know, this, sorry, to to continue the conversation we were having about planning trips and planning stuff is that, you know, you as the planner, you know what you're missing out on. But at the end of the day, you know,
00:08:04
Speaker
Being on a cruise is still better than not being on a cruise. yeah right yeah like and and you know Yes, Even if you don't get those dining experiences, youre you know you're your is still going to have a good time. and you know it's not like you're going to be You're not going to be standing outside of the dining hall like sighing. Yeah, I know.
00:08:25
Speaker
i wish yeah I wish we could eat. There's plenty of food around and everything. i just you know i It just would bes going to be hard. I get it though. yeah yeah last Last minute, I get. but and yeah Sorry, i'm still I'm still very much laughing at just how like well and but how you went from like, i don't know what I'm doing this year and all of a sudden, we're going. like listen I tell you.
00:08:51
Speaker
I said to like look in the fall, by the way, yeah just so we're clear. I said, like look at look at your fall times. I did not say, like Tom, I want you on a boat in three weeks. like okay No one has whiplash on this one more than I do. so You know, the fall is a little harder, though, because it's yeah that's like hurricane season. So you got to be careful, you know, if you go and fall. That that is true. Yes, I have been submitted to a few hurricanes. And yes, you're right. yeah That's that is not great. I can't imagine doing it on a boat like I wouldn't.
00:09:23
Speaker
I've done hurricanes at Disney World. i don't want to think about how a hurricane on a boat would. Yeah. i I don't want to do that either. ah So and listen, I also the other part of it too, is that, you know, going in April, it's, it's not going to be as hot, which is nice.
00:09:41
Speaker
I mean, it's still probably going to be hot, let's be honest, but it's it's probably not going to be as hot. So I'm excited to get to check out the fantasy, too, because i and I said this in the discord, too. I've noticed that especially our our listeners in the discord that that are DCL people that if they list out their favorite ships, it seems like the fantasy is always one of their top ships. So, OK, yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen a couple people say that. Everyone hates The Wish for some reason, and you can write in and tell us why you hate The Wish. Or maybe

VR Muppet Vision 3D Experience

00:10:13
Speaker
just what your view is on them. We don't need a dissertation on why The Wish is awful. Yeah. I've just noticed that why people, the people like seem to rank the wish really low, which is funny. Cause then I, all the people that I've seen that have gone on the treasure say it's their favorite ship. And that's the first ship that I went on was the treasure. And now I'm doing the fantasy, which a lot of them are saying is like their second to third favorite ship. And I'm like, okay, well I'm picking well here, you know, like we're doing these. So yeah, I'm, I'm excited. and you know, I think I've said on here before too, that I prefer to do week long cruises and five days,
00:10:50
Speaker
It's fine. I would prefer to do longer, honestly. five It's five nights, six days, right? So I would prefer to do longer, but it is what it is. I'll take it. So while you were saying that, i just you piqued my interest about the ranking of Disney cruise ships.
00:11:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I did a quick Google search. And so I have this website up called Disney Cruise Planning dot com. okay' see we go It's funny because they have they have and and I searched for like like Disney cruise ship ranking and they have this Disney cruise ships ranked. And it's funny how they did this because they ranked them in terms of like worst to best.
00:11:29
Speaker
But it's number one is number five. Okay. The worst. weird was never like like it's It's funny how they did it But then, but funny thing is, is yeah, they they said the Disney wish is the worst. I'm not, I'm not going through this in detail, but you know, that they seem to, they seem to not like the theming and whatnot.
00:11:50
Speaker
Dreams a little better. ah Wonder is number three. Magic is number two. And then the fantasy is the best. according Wow. Okay. So I guess the treasure launch. Cause I know a lot of people must be. Yeah. Cause cause well, treasure is not even on this list. They just, cause I was going to like, I thought there was more than five cruise ships at this point, but I don't know when this, uh, this was done January, 2025. The treasure, I guess launched last year, didn't it?
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was May of... Well, no, I'm sorry, not May. I but i went on it in May of 2025. So, yeah, you think it should be on there. Maybe they just hadn't gone on it yet. Yeah, maybe. But still, just yeah I find it funny that, yeah, apparently, like, just doing a quick Google search, the that Wish seems to be...
00:12:35
Speaker
i not great but I've just seen it. i just seen it out there. And I don't, I think I asked Brian and Sam from a DCL duo about this and, and they, you know, they it's, it's, ah it's a thing where, you know, people don't like the wish, but it's, they still, it's just, it's not that they hate it They just, it's, you know low on their list. You know what i mean? Like it's just not their favorite. It seems to lack whatever oomph the other ones have that. Yeah.
00:13:00
Speaker
that make them make them resonate. like And I get it. Like, like to be fair, you know you know, obviously, you know, I've not been on a cruise ship, but I can understand how the different theming and how the they're presented leaves a certain impression, right? And I can see how, you know, people would...
00:13:17
Speaker
you know, kind of rank, you know, you know, worst and best in that. Like, and the, and the you know, the thing is this is not objective in any way. Like, if you know, if somebody likes the wish, you know, that's fine. We're just having a conversation about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. no I mean, listen, I, I am also, so ah when I go to Alaska next year, that one is on the wonder. So we're we're doing the wonder next year. So that, that also seems to be one that people like. So anyway, you're going to be well, well,
00:13:44
Speaker
experienced in your your various Disney cruise ships. Yes. Yes, I am. i Yeah, I just... this is It's so weird, though, because I was you know was just talking to my wife about it this morning. I'm like, oh, that's like we're going on a cruise in a month here. like That's really soon. like That's really quick. you know ah So it's fine, though. it's it's it's all It's all good. I'm not really worried about it. I'm really just worried about the the dining time. So if anybody knows any way that I can like pay somebody off or... I'll slip somebody a couple 20. I don't know. Whatever I got to do to get that dining time up. you know If anybody's got tips and tricks, please let me know. Email. I i recall you know but people have said at various points that, yeah, that you know getting trying to get it when you get on board seems to be a viable option.
00:14:31
Speaker
Which is why i stayed up late last night, Trevor, to try to get the earliest boarding time possible so that I can go right to that place. Yeah, increase your chances. Yeah, that's that's that's the hope. And and i do I mean, listen, I have a pretty early time. So it's, you know, hopefully we'll see. We'll we'll see. I'm going to try.
00:14:48
Speaker
All right. Well, I look forward to seeing how this all unfolds. it's I will live vicariously for through you on this one. I'm i'm glad you're going to. now i'm aware I'm looking forward to i'm looking to forward to checking out the new island, too. guess you were at this point because we we already did Castaway, so we're we're looking forward to to doing the new one. so Yeah, for sure.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah.

Learning to Draw with Olaf

00:15:10
Speaker
So anyway. right. Do we want to actually get to the rundown now? Yeah. Things that are not Trevor's fault. um Which is the rest of the rundown, by the way. Yeah. that is I didn't have any stake in any of these things.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah. okay Although, I mean, i i wouldn't I wouldn't take credit for this first one anyway because. I feel like we predicted this. i won yeah We did, right? We said this was going to happen, right? And I mean, I think there was a rumor about it, but now it's confirmed. So Muppet Vision 3D is going to be available. This says Apple Vision Pro VR headsets, but it also says other headsets as well. Yeah, I don't like the selling it on Apple Vision Pro headsets. You know why they're doing that, though.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's it's a whole partnership thing. And, yeah you know, you know somebody somebody wants to, they want to promote it as we have it first. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah Disney tends to favor Apple stuff, yeah partially because... Like I said, it's it's that it's that agreement between them that, you know, you know they... yeah Apple is selling this. So, so the thing is, is that, you know, the, the great thing about it is like they said, it's, you know, you're going to be able to experience Muppet vision 3d in a proper or in a proper VR environment, which yeah while is not like VR is never like one-to-one the same as actually experiencing something. There are still some very fantastic VR experiences out there.
00:16:35
Speaker
And I feel like, you know, Disney will take the time to make this feel like you're sitting in the theater in, yeah you know, the Muppet Vision 3D theater. um The only thing you'll be missing, of course, is some of the 4D effects that happened throughout the show. Right. like and And I mean, and to be fair, Muppet Vision didn't have like it wasn't quite as over the top as like.
00:16:56
Speaker
um ah Tough to be a Bug or... Oh my gosh. Mickey's Fill Her Magic. Fill Her Magic or or I was even going to say um Honey, I Shrunk the Audience as well. was like very... Yeah, I had like a lot of stuff going on. So you're not going to get any of that, but you can still enjoy the show if it's still something that you know you want to just you know sit and vibe with.
00:17:16
Speaker
Muppet Vision 3D, I'm very much appreciative of the fact that this is an option, right? And that it's done through proper channels. like you know i know I'm sure somebody did 360-degree recording of Muppet Vision 3D or something, which those are cool and all, but I like having it through an official...
00:17:39
Speaker
channel if possible right so yeah and i think before it closed i'm pretty sure we talked about this because there was a report that they had a vr camera uh in in the in the theater to record this for one last time and and that's that was kind of how this became a uh Not a rumor, but it's it now it's ah now it's actually happening. I mean, it's it's ah official. so Yeah. And and then i say ti now yeah the nice thing, too, because of the fact that they, like, I feel like they did it, like, after the final showing of it, like, they just ran it through and, like, yeah did it again with the VR camera. You get the experience of, like, an empty theater for it, right? Like, because, because you know, other people trying to do it as, like, ah oh I recorded this and put it on YouTube or something like that.
00:18:23
Speaker
you get other people in the, in the theater, right? Like it does. It's never, it's never a pure experience unless it's done through the proper channels. So I think it's going to look great in VR. Honestly, I feel like it's going to be really cool. And, and I'm, I'm pretty, pretty pumped about it. I think it's, i'm I'm definitely going to check this out. Once it, once it happens, hey I will, know I will spend 15 minutes watching this. Cause that's about how long the show is. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, listen, there's no there's no timeline on this, right? So we don't actually know ah when it's going to happen.
00:19:00
Speaker
so But yeah, it's going to be... It also says that ah Brian Henson is saying that you'll be able to watch the show from any seat in the theater. Which seems, oh, yeah, that's see, that's where that's where this gets interesting. And that's where I like the um like I said, the, you know, you know, getting through official channels is, you know, they're they're trying to give they're trying to give an extra that you wouldn't get just through watching a YouTube video. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. yeah Being able to move around the theater is actually kind of a neat like.
00:19:31
Speaker
You would never do that during a regular showing of it, but like the idea of being able to like position yourself like underneath, you yeah underneath the the side balconies or towards the back, like it's, it's kind of a neat little, uh, little thing to, to play with. Right.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, you know, i think I think this is an exciting thing, and I think this is the right thing to do. And listen, at the time, they had said that they were going to find some

Joe Rohde's New Book

00:19:57
Speaker
way to keep it alive. And and this is, I don't know if it this is the way or just one of the ways they're going to keep it alive, but this is ah this is certainly what we assumed it would be, which is VR.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's a pretty good way. And i wouldn't be surprised if the ah the release of it does coincide with the ah um uh what's it called rock and roller coaster redo yeah because i could see them kind of doing it as like hey you know we got rock and roller coaster but then also like you can check out muppet vision 3d if you want like yeah you think they would have done it when they put the new show out but i guess maybe it wasn't ready yet yeah i but i i think it's also like from a planning standpoint it's like you know when they're redoing an attraction it's like you kind of give
00:20:44
Speaker
giving like an extra like promotion thing with the attraction is kind of a good way to hype hype it up right so yeah i i think uh i i'm i'm predicting that it'll come out like alongside when rock and roller coaster opens up that would be that would be nice that would be a a good idea to do that so yeah yeah but again we don't really know so we'll have to wait and find out but So I guess today's theme is Hollywood Studios, and you didn't realize it when you were doing this.
00:21:16
Speaker
It really wasn't purposeful. But but yeah we're still talking about stuff in Hollywood Studios. so yeah I mean, listen, we're trying to make things better here. you know and know they're they're improving Hollywood Studios. Now, listen, this isn't new news, but the one piece of information within this is new news, right? And that's ah that's this this thing that they just announced with Olaf.
00:21:38
Speaker
So yeah they're going to they're going to do this this whole thing where you can learn to draw with Olaf. And basically, it's a show you know where where you sit in there, and you got a little drawing table, and there's an animatronic Olaf sitting at the animator's table there ah teaching you how to ani animate characters, or teaching you how to draw, I guess. So, which is, listen, I'm all for more animatronics. I saw that there was a little bit of noise about this because people were mad that they weren't going to have a live animator there. And I understand that. Okay. yeah i Sure.
00:22:14
Speaker
Whatever. Does my daughter care that there's going to be a live animator there or Olaf there? She's going to care that Olaf is there. I'm just i'm just saying, you know? Yeah. So, so I mean, okay. let Let's... I get the ah Okay. I get the rage around, you know, the perception of you're taking somebody's job because there it used to be the job of somebody that, you know, they were paying an animator to sit there and do this every day. Right? Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
Now, the thing about that is that you're, you know... I mean, as an animator, i feel like, or okay, I'm going to relate this from my field of work. And I'm not speaking for all animators and whatnot. But if I, at various points in my job, i get tasks put in front me where it's like, do this thing 50 times, right? yeah yeah and yeah And after about the 10th time, I'm like, this is boring. I don't like this. I want to do something else.
00:23:17
Speaker
yeah I feel like um having ah an animator sitting there, go you know, you know here's a here's a bank of like 10 or 15 drawings.
00:23:28
Speaker
Show these people how to draw this thing every day, you know, 10 times a day for you know for however long you do this. That's a very monotonous job for, especially for, for a something like, you know, doing like drawing and animation stuff. I feel like, you know, anybody in that job would be like, you know, yeah, it's, it's great to mentor people. It's great to show people these things, but then you're also you know,
00:23:54
Speaker
doing anything new and creative and, you know, maybe getting involved in like, you know, I, I'm, I'm hopeful that, you know, I, I've been seeing outside of Disney more and more people exploring 2d animation again.

Speculation on Villains Land

00:24:07
Speaker
yeah And I wouldn't, you know, I'm hoping that, you know, maybe Disney comes back around with more 2d animation in the future.
00:24:13
Speaker
So, you know, I wouldn't want to be that person that's like sitting in the animation studio you know, just doing this thing in and out when, and and again, I'm not saying that it, you know, replacing it with an animatronic is, you know, just de facto better, but I'm saying, yes, you could do that job for maybe, you know, um you know, a couple months or a year or whatever, but it would eventually hit a point where I don't, I'll be honest. I don't think they have a lot of people that are like eagerly signing up to be like, yeah, I want to be the animator sitting at the desk for, you know, doing this 10 times a day.
00:24:47
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I mean, like but i mean so that's my argument. I'm not, you know, anybody that says they would want to do it, you know, you know, fair. I personally would not want to be in that position and having. And the thing is, is that these these drawings are not like they're they're relatively simple, repeatable things. Having an animatronic show people how to do it.
00:25:06
Speaker
I mean, why not, right? Yeah. To be fair, though, Olaf isn't actually showing anybody how to do it. They're going to have recordings of Disney animators show you how to do it. Yeah, and he's kind of talking. Yeah, he's talking through it, right? Exactly. And again, but it's all like...
00:25:24
Speaker
It's all pre-recorded pre like it's a tutorial, but, you know, you're getting you're getting a bit of a show with it with Olaf, you know, and I'm sure he'll have like some some banter and stuff that he does through it and everything. So, um yeah, I don't I don't see it as a bad thing. And honestly, I see it as far more sustainable than what the ah um what the other.
00:25:48
Speaker
animation studio was doing too, or the old animation studio, because, yeah because the, ah the other thing about it too, is um I've, I've done that a couple of times and I've, I've actually like watched YouTube videos of people doing like the, you know, you know, cause people will do like vlogs of, you know, them doing, going into um you know, you know, the animation studio and stuff. and um the other side of it too, is that you're the person who is, know,
00:26:17
Speaker
giving this tutorial can be hit or miss the same way that ah your jungle skipper can be hit or miss. That's true. Yeah. Right. And again, I'm not hating on people and saying like, you know, you know that, you know, people are bad at their job or whatever, but not everybody is equipped to entertain and engage a crowd, which yeah yeah I feel like this will actually make it more sustainable because the experience will be more consistent over time.
00:26:44
Speaker
Right. yeah ah the the thing i thought that was cool about this uh trevor is that they they're basing this whole area on that once upon a studio ah short if you haven't seen that you know uh go check that out but the one that makes you cry about halfway through with the curveball yeah yeah it gets you good so um i watched it i don't want to watch it again not because it's bad it's like it's for it's it's really good yeah But the the funny part about it is the whole thing with Olaf teaching this class is there is a scene in that where Olaf is sitting at an animator's desk and drawing. And they basically have just replicated that scene from the short in real life for this, which is pretty cool.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, again, great, great detail. and And I feel like it's I feel like it's something they could build upon. Right. Because, it you know, it feeds it may feed back into like you said, you know they have that short that's become, you know, a live action thing. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, kind of like Star Tours, that this becomes a thing where you want to go back and do it multiple times because you start getting different things.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah. Like, like the one there's that like the different drawings that you may end up doing. Cause you know, there's nothing saying that they can't, you know, you know, change up what they're offering as the tutorials, but then, you know, you may get different,
00:28:01
Speaker
um different little bits out of Olaf as well, right? Yeah, so absolutely. so i Like I said, I think the the real thing that matters here is the the audience of my daughter's age, which is she's going to want to see Olaf. She doesn't want to see some random person that she doesn't know teaching her how to draw. The fact that Olaf's going to be up there talking to her, that will make her very excited. So, I mean, I think that's really what it comes down to, right? And and i I... Like I said, i'm not so I'm not unsympathetic to the idea of you know not having a live person up there and instead having an animatronic. I just think this is going to be very cool. I'm um um always for more animatronics.
00:28:41
Speaker
yeah i I feel like like you said, you know it's not i'm I'm not saying like you know they shouldn't have a live action person, but I feel like you could better utilize animators elsewhere and leave this as its own thing. Like just because there was a precedent of it used to be somebody that did it as their job.
00:28:59
Speaker
Doesn't mean that, Like there's no reason why it has to keep being that way. And like I said, i feel like, you know, it gives them more ammo to say, you know, Hey, we have animators doing like, you know, working on actual projects, not just sitting in a room, you know, showing people how to draw Mickey mouse for the 580 second time. Like, yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. By the way, this is a, now we have a, an opening time for this, which is late summer, 2026. So that this is happening this year, late summer. I'm going to guess means August. Yeah.
00:29:31
Speaker
I don't know. August. I guess it could be September. Maybe it's. It could. Yeah. I'm going to think. I feel like it would be like start of a ah start of September kind of thing. Like as as like summer traffic is winding down, you know, they would kind put in something like this.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I could see that. That that that feels that feels like the right time for this. So, yeah. let Let's revisit this episode. I'm going to totally forget about things that we're talking about and predicting. i always forget about it. I wish I wrote the... i like I need to write these things down because I you know i always forget the predictions that we make. so But it's okay.
00:30:07
Speaker
It's all good.

Sponsorship Highlight: DVC Resale Market

00:30:08
Speaker
ah So why don't we go ahead, Trevor, and do our ad. So the sponsor of this episode is DVC Resale Market. ah DVC Resale Market, a key holder vacation company, is the leader in the DVC Resale industry with 13 former Disney Vacation Club guides and three former Disney Vacation Club quality assurance managers. If you're thinking you of buying DVC, browse the largest selection of DVC Resale listings anywhere with DVC experts on the hand seven days a week to answer your questions.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:30:59
Speaker
Okay. All right. um Okay. So this next thing you have on here is interesting pick. um i I get... um So, okay. We're going to talk about ah Joe Rohde, who was a former Imagineer who's released a new book. So this is... Well, releasing a new book, not so late in year. Yeah, you're right. And I guess the funny thing about this is that, you know, he is...
00:31:28
Speaker
he's no or He's a contractor, I guess. Now he's not employed through Disney. technical sorry yeah yeah yeah So he's a consultant. But I guess this is Disney adjacent because it's a book about him. I guess he's talking about lessons learned from building Pandora. yeah so So the title of the book is Floating Mountains, the Art of Imagining the Impossible. So I'm curious about this, but i don't i mean i guess I wonder...
00:31:58
Speaker
I wonder about these kinds of things. if or I guess he's working with Disney to do this, or is he releasing this on his own would be my question.
00:32:09
Speaker
Well, I mean, the book cover says Disney Imagineer. yeah i guess it does have the Disney logo on it. yeah it just It doesn't necessarily mean that it's through Disney, but I would assume if he's doing this, it's probably Disney stamp of approval on it, I would think.
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, because, you know, the the interesting thing is yeah he's in a position where, you know, because he doesn't, you know, obviously he still wants to work with Disney. He doesn't want to burn bridges. But, you know, he can give more beside behind the scenes insight than maybe Disney wants.
00:32:45
Speaker
people to see. so i So I have to wonder what lens this is being presented through. Is it is it the lens of somebody who worked on things and saw like you know how things maybe should or shouldn't have worked? Or is it like the more Disney's lens of like, you know hey, this is this is how our Imagineers work and kind of like giving it that like Yeah. You know, sorry. the The, you know, Imagineers are wonderful kind of flavor to it. Right. Yeah. You know what, though? I don't think that that's going to be the case because if you I'm just basing it off his social media posts, he's been pretty honest about a lot of things. I mean, you know, not like he's not like outright saying, you know, some stuff and he's more hinting at some things, but I do. It it does feel like he's being, know,
00:33:30
Speaker
you know, pretty candid about a lot of things recently on social media. And also, i will also point to the Imagineering story where if you watch the Imagineering story, it is not always a super flattering ah view of Disney or Imagineering. It's they are pretty critical at a lot of times in there. So I don't know. it I'm not sure. It'll be interesting to see. I mean, you know, I'm sure there's going to be some situations where maybe he writes something and they're like, well, don't put that in there.
00:33:58
Speaker
You know what i mean? But I don't know. i'm I'm very interested in this. I mean, he's a legendary Imagineer. I really like these Imagineering books that come out. I've read a couple of them and I and i do ah find them really interesting. So so it's i'm I'm looking forward to this book. I will definitely read it when it comes out. And, you know, you also we'll, you know, maybe try to get him on the show. Who knows? will Yeah. I mean, yeah, you never know. Yeah, never know. I mean, I would love to i love to talk to him about about stuff like this. and It's probably going to be difficult, but I would love to.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, the interesting thing, or part of why I was thinking about this, too, like, you know, whether not this would be critical or not, is I know, like you said, you know, Joe has been about things that he...
00:34:41
Speaker
things that he you know, could or couldn't do it.

Future of Villains Land

00:34:45
Speaker
And he, he actually, i don't know if you saw this post as well, but you know he had been talking about years ago that he wanted to look at redoing Dinoland USA into a, yeah, be tough to on the trial remember yeah right. Yeah. I can't remember but what we talk about. We tweak sometimes, but it's, you know it's kind of in that same vein, right? That it's like, you know, it's kind of like I said, that's where i kind of wonder about these books is like, you know, he, he does kind of point out, it's like, Hey, you know, we,
00:35:13
Speaker
we would love to do a lot more than they let us do. And it's kind of and that's what I'm kind of interested in, I guess, from these kinds of books is like, you know, we know the things that you were able to do. What about the things that you couldn't do or you weren't able to do for, for multiple reasons? Like, you know, sometimes there is like, you know, it's, it's a timing thing. It's budget. It's, you know,
00:35:35
Speaker
you know, sorry, sometimes it's the guy in charge just says, no, I don't like that. And it gets squashed. So, you know, it's it's a curious thing to see, though, right? Like it's I do like I do like seeing ah that part of behind the curtain, right? Like, you know, you don't always want to see everything behind the curtain, but it's very interesting to see some of that stuff.
00:35:57
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, i just I just had to mark that on there. But the other thing I want to talk about, and this is, ah it's it's interesting. The past couple of weeks has... I like that you left this as the last thing, first of all, before you get too far into this. And I know why you left it as the last thing. because course. Because this is a conversation. Yeah, it is a conversation because I, you know, there's been a lot of things coming out over the past couple weeks about Villain's Land, right? At at Magic Kingdom. And, you know, so a couple weeks ago, we saw that they had scrapped the plans and that they were doing something bigger and bolder, right?
00:36:33
Speaker
And I've seen some articles now that are claiming that that's not true, that the plans were always big and bold, that there was no change for this. and And so, I mean, I don't know. I mean, what's but everything is a rumor, right?
00:36:45
Speaker
Well, yeah we don't know. I mean, we really don't know. We can't take everything as as fact. But this, the you know, one of the things that's being reported now by by, you know, actual legitimate news organizations, because the other thing was not, that was that was floating around the blogs, right? Was that yeah the bigger, bolder thing? Like, I don't think that actually got picked up by actual, you know, legit news organizations. But, yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
You know, the other thing that we have coming out now is that ah this is according Wrap, which ah put out a a ah big report about this. And that according to sources is that that Disney is looking to tone down villains land a little bit.
00:37:26
Speaker
Right. So originally going to be it was going to be ah and and and not tone down the. like the grandness of it, but to to make it more family friendly. Approachable. Yes. Yes. Which, listen, i when they announced Villains Land and they showed the the concept art of it, there's never been a time where I thought that they were going to go full on hardcore villains. like I never thought that they were going to go with what like ah what the Dark Universe section and at Epic Universe it's like i just is. This is not Disney. Disney's not going to do that. you know It seemed for a minute like like concept art and stuff, and because of what we were seeing about Dark Universe, i feel i feel that there was an impression that they were leaning that way.
00:38:09
Speaker
So, sorry, continue your thought. but yeah i just I just never believed they were ever going to do it, but... Because it's just not in there. I mean, listen, they can still make something dark and make it family friendly. Like you don't have to make it dark and also scary. You can make it dark and creepy and still be okay for kids. You know, like there's there's ways to do these things, right?
00:38:31
Speaker
So what what they're saying now, and again, this is all rumor, complete and total rumor. So don't we can't take any of this for... for fact right until disney says otherwise we this is rumor because we really do i mean these are reports and sure it's coming from the rap which is basically one step up from a blog mean yeah you know i mean let's be honest right their their sources are not being that they're

Speculating Future Disney Developments

00:38:59
Speaker
claiming sources but i'm yeah i don't see anywhere in it where it's like
00:39:05
Speaker
this person is on record as saying this. Like they're saying that they had some conversations, you know, behind doors and stuff like that. So yeah, again, because of that, we do have to take all of this with a grain of salt. so yeah So what the reporting is that according, according to the sources in this report, that the main ride was supposed to be a, you know, intense roller coaster theme to Maleficent, which you do see in the concept art, which i mean, we, you only see a little bit of it. though you see You see one piece of it. So we really don't know what that was actually going to look like. You really only see like,
00:39:35
Speaker
In the bottom left-hand corner of the concept art, there's like well, I guess just the bottom. You can see a a roller coaster going by very quickly and like a crater of some sort, right? Like that's all we can really see there.
00:39:47
Speaker
I'm imagining Velocicoaster boat with dragons instead of raptors. so Yeah. like yeah let's say It was that. let's say okay let's say that Yeah. and and And now they're saying that that is not the case and the main attraction will be Maleficent themed, but instead it'll be an indoor water ride similar to Pirates of the Caribbean at Shanghai, which uses, yeah if you haven't watched videos of it, it is very cool. ah it's It's kind of like a, um it's almost like the trackless version of a water ride. it's It's, you don't, you know, the boat can spin, it can do, you know, go sideways. They can, you don't really know where it's going. It's pretty cool.
00:40:22
Speaker
It's something unseen in Florida so far, i guess. we're sure Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And it's, and what they're saying is the scale would be a rival to the cars themed radiator Springs racers at at California venture or rise of resistance.
00:40:36
Speaker
ah And, and this is also claiming to that ah this is, has something to do with, with, you know, being able to charge for lightning lane and, you know, being, being able to get more revenue from lightning lane when it, when it rains. Yeah.
00:40:48
Speaker
I don't know. that That feels flimsy to me. but Yeah, I don't think that is the the hinging decision on these things, but okay. yeah what I mean, whatever. If we want to do that, fine. right And then it says there will still be a roller coaster. It'll just now be themed to Emperor's New Groove and will be less intense. This doesn't make any sense to me.
00:41:08
Speaker
i Why? yeah Because it's it's ah the villain's land does not give off Emperor's New Groove to me. Like, I understand that people want to do like the whole, you know, ah the whole scene from from there. Hold the lever crunk. Yeah, that. yeah I understand people want to do that, but I don't know. This doesn't feel like the right place for it. And i i would be kind of surprised to think if this were to be true.
00:41:30
Speaker
I mean, Yzma is a she is a creepy villain and has that like mad scientist thing going on. Which I know i get what you're saying, because like the the the overarching story doesn't lend itself to like it's not, you know, it's a pretty light story. Right. But yeah, he's my in a bubble. He's my cronk and like the stuff they're doing in the lab and whatever.
00:41:57
Speaker
I see how that could be leveraged into a, you know, a a coaster that it like, and again, you know, back to what the article is talking about is, you know, you know, the focus ah or basically what they were, they were implying is that, you know, it seemed like when they first announced villains land, that, that the focus was like looking at how can we compete with dark universe, right? Not, not copy it, but yet you know, make something on the same level as dark universe.
00:42:25
Speaker
Now it sounds like they've kind of changed gears and they're looking more at Burke because, burke or you know how to train your dragon in in epic universe is i think it's the most well-received land it like you know not to say that like epic universe is bad it like it like or that hey the other lands are bad but it has gotten the most like acclaim and you know you know yeah yeah you know acknowledgement of like hey you know it feels alive it feels very um
00:42:58
Speaker
like you are stepping into that land. Right. And I i feel like, you know, with a toning down the roller coaster, not making it the centerpiece and, you know, making another ride, the centerpiece, it kind of puts it in the same lane as what Burke did because Burke does have, it has that roller coaster. It has, it has hiccups, wing gliders, at which is a centerpiece, but it's actually not like there's,
00:43:28
Speaker
there's a lot more going on in the land, right? Like it's, it's not, yeah it's not intimidating, I guess is is the best way to put it. And so i see why, you know, if if they were looking at plans and going, you know, we're, we're shooting for, you know, villains is going to be scary, but then, yeah, like to your point, all of a sudden it's like, Oh, you know, you've got, you've got a line of kids that are like, like, the sorry, the the funny visual of this is like, you have fantasy land moving over towards haunted mansion and then up towards villains land.
00:44:00
Speaker
And there's like a hard line where like kids stop, right? Because they're like, no, no, no, I'm not going like, like going in there yeah I'm going to go anywhere near that. Or or like, like like it it becomes the inverse of fantasy land. Right. And I don't think, I don't think Disney wants that as as much as we all look at and go like, Oh, you know, you know, a villain's land would be great because, you know, it's for, you It's for adults. It's for, you you you know, you know, the little kids can be scared, but I can go and enjoy it. And, yeah and the reality is, is that no, Disney's not going to do that. You have like dark universe does that to a certain degree, like, but dark universe is able to do that because there's no precedent you know,
00:44:43
Speaker
it being of Epic universe being a family park, right? Like yeah that's, that's not its demographic. So I get why Disney, had you know, maybe sat down and looked at this and went, Hey, you know, we need to make this, you know, that, you know, kids can still be freaked out and, and, you know, it's okay for kids to be uneasy. And, you to that point is like, I've seen kids get scared on pirates of the Caribbean. We all, you know, you know, go like, you know, Hey, it's pirates. What are you talking about? But, you know, skeletons are freaky. Like, you know, you know, the cave at the beginning is freaky. Like, it's fair for them to be scared, but not to the point where kids are, like, having a full-on meltdown all day in the park, right? Yeah. and So, yeah. To me, like, Dark Universe is like is like when Disney did Alien Encounter in Magic Kingdom. Yes. right Yeah, that's exactly it yeah It's like they put it there and it was very like, listen, would Alien Encounter work at Hollywood Studios? Yeah, it would way would. You could probably do it at Hollywood Studios. At Magic Kingdom, though, probably not. Right. And that was the curveball of it was that people had no clue what they were walking into. And it was it was intense. Right. So I think that's the problem with doing a full on scary land in Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is. you know It's the crown jewel. You can't... I don't know. It yeah has a precedent, right? yeah It has an expectation. so
00:46:11
Speaker
yeah No, and that's not to say they can't make this creepy. and i ah Honestly, i i'm I'm going to say this right now. I'm betting thats everything that this is still going to be Maleficent-themed because Maleficent is one of the more popular Disney villains. And I still think it these things are going to be Maleficent-themed. And I... I mean, i don't know what the roller coaster is going to be. Who knows? But the other part of, i you know, part about this is if they are doing this, I think part of it is. And I said this in the discord. And I think this is true.
00:46:40
Speaker
ah A lot of the criticisms, you know, a lot of people really love Epic Universe. But think some of the criticisms I've seen are are that it's not great for little kids because everything has a height requirement basically there.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah. and and And basically you're either sitting in Super Mario World or I mean, maybe Burke. But like like you said, you're like little, little kids can't do yeah most of the stuff there. and And the other problem I've heard is that too many things are outside. And so when it rains, which it does often in Florida, you you end up with you know a lot of stuff closed. and And that's a legit thing, too. So, I mean, a part of if they are shifting this, it could be in response to those two criticisms of, you know, listen, Disney probably realizes, know, yeah, going intense is great, but also, you know, if if people are going to Disney for just ah a day or two, you know, a quick thing with their young kids, they're they're going to want a place where they can take their kids on pretty much everything, right? Like, yeah you're you're not going to want to take your kids to the Magic Kingdom and then be like, oh, you can't write anything in Villain's Land. You know what i mean? Like, that's
00:47:41
Speaker
That's not great. And I'm not saying that that's how it is at Epic Universe, but it is, you know, even the Isle of Berk one, that one roller coaster has a decently high height requirement. And I've read from some people, it's not super intense, but it's also not tame either. It's fast enough. Yeah. It's not Goofy's or sorry, what?
00:48:06
Speaker
What is the one called in... Barnstormer. Barnstormer, thank you. I almost called a Goofy Sky School, but that's a totally different coaster, and I should know better. I like almost almost lost my Disneyland cred for that. I'm sorry, everyone. It's okay. No, it's okay.
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. It's not the Barnstormer. It's a step up. it's It's probably closer to Slinky Dog, which... yeah Like Slinky Dog is another one that that is deceptive because, you know, it's it's Slinky Dog. But, you know, when you're actually on that coaster, it's faster than you think. It goes, its you know, it doesn't look that high up. And, you know, in terms of the hard part is everyone loves going like to scale like, you know, oh, you know, it's not Velocicoaster. Yeah. But to an eight-year-old, it is Velocicoaster. Yeah. Yeah, when I went on Slinky and we got to the top of that first hill, was like, wow, this is higher than I thought it was. Like, this is, you know, it's it's I mean, it wasn't like super intense, but it was just like, wow, this is this is higher. and And that's what they're saying. This is going to be more like Slinky Dog. Uh, but listen, I don't think any of us really know what these plans are. And obviously Disney's being quiet about it because probably because they're actually going to talk about this in D23 in August. But it's, it is interesting to see all these rumors about it. Cause like I said, the, you know, I'm also seeing other rumors saying that, I mean, ah other reports saying that the plans have not changed at all and that these are false. And so you listen, I don't know what's true. You don't you know what the funny thing is? Yeah. Yeah. they've not officially committed to anything. So both stories are true. Yeah. Well, that's true. Yeah. did
00:49:38
Speaker
This this is show. Villains land. Yeah. that' That's where we're at right now. Yeah. um Like, and and you know, like when you're talking about like, you know, the, the appeal of dark rides and stuff, like,
00:49:53
Speaker
Honestly, i i don't I'm not opposed to the idea of them moving to a dark ride for for the reasons that you talked about is that, you know know, dark rides are fantastic experiences. It does let them do things far more creative than you can do with an outdoor ride. Like outdoor rides do have limitations, like you said, because of weather, because of like you can't you can only do so much in an outside setting.
00:50:19
Speaker
But dark rides lets them have far more creativity. And then also, um i actually think back to, um you know, again, when my brother and there when my brother and I were there last is, you know, we had a day in Magic Kingdom, which was great and we enjoyed it. But we went to Epcot. It was raining all day.
00:50:36
Speaker
But the nice thing about Epcot was it was raining all day and the only thing that was closed was Test Track. Test Track, yeah. Because everything else is indoors, right? So it's like, you know, indoors does have its advantages. And, yeah you know, even, but even if you say like, oh, but I wanted the, you know, the extreme coaster. Like, yeah, unfortunately the the truth is you're never like Tron is, Tron is definitely a great um extreme coaster, but you're not going to get, know,
00:51:05
Speaker
Disney does not want to get into the space of Velocicoaster and Hulk you know, you know and and and the new one, I can't remember what the new one is that they're building. That's replacing them that's the Furious one.
00:51:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The one that's replacing Rip Ride Rocket. it fascinating than one actually looks like ah It looks kind of like a Guardians type coaster. Yeah. So, but like, you're not going to get,
00:51:30
Speaker
and But I guess she, yeah, I guess we did get Guardians. But like, you know, Disney still has a ah high bar on they don't want to push to the point of... um like And I will say this too, like from a guest experience, um you know, Velocicoaster, because I had done so many Disney roller coasters over the years, I didn't even think about this. But when we got into line for Velocicoaster, you're going through metal detectors and they're like...
00:51:57
Speaker
There, I actually had, I had, ah sorry, this is such a Canadian thing, but you know, I'll tell you anyway, I i was wearing shorts that I, they had um cargo pockets on them and I didn't think, and I emptied my pockets and I thought I had everything out, went through the metal detector, went off and I was like, what the heck? The guy, the guy checked me with the metal detector.
00:52:18
Speaker
I had a loony in my pocket which, and you're going, what's a loony? It's, it's a dollar. I know. I actually know. and all It's a $1 coin.
00:52:29
Speaker
yeah society and and had a loony in my pocket that should not have been there. It just was in my pocket for like, like I, I didn't even realize it was there, but then, you know, I was like, Oh, it's just a Louis. And they were like, no, go back and put it in the locker. And I was like, Oh, okay. Like they don't mess around with that. Yeah. And and this is the thing is, you know if you put that into a Disney,
00:52:51
Speaker
Um, since that's very jarring to like, so it's not just like the scariness of the rides, but also like when you get into like, you know, the, the, the high speed coasters that have height requirements that have like, no, you cannot have anything on this coaster because it's, it's a safety risk. It's not just, uh, you know, this is too scary, but like safety stuff.
00:53:11
Speaker
i Disney doesn't want to do that. And I understand why they don't want to do that. like it so but yeah i think I talked about this before on the show. My sister, who has never met a roller coaster she didn't like, told me that when she went on Velocicoaster, her thought was, towards the end of it, was, why isn't this over yet? Can this please be over? Yeah. It's not that she wasn't enjoying it, but she just, it was like, and I've heard this from a bunch of people that it's, it's like just so intense that it's like, it is when you, when you're not ready for it, it it is very much like I, it threw me like same thing as your sister, you know, I'm all for a roller coaster. Those inversions,
00:53:51
Speaker
threw me like i I was like oh this is not what I thought it was going to be right and and I still enjoy it like I will ride Velocicoaster again but I was just not prepared for what it was right yeah no absolutely yeah and I mean listen the other point that somebody brought up here that one of the articles brought up here Trevor is that They're already doing land clearing and permitting and starting to work on this stuff. So the idea that there would be a shift at this point doesn't really make sense because they they do these things really far out.
00:54:27
Speaker
You know, like right like these these things take a long time and they're already doing permits. They're already got all the plans out there, ah you know, for the permitting. So it's like, i don't know. I just I kind of agree with that idea. It just seems like it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that they're changing something. But.
00:54:42
Speaker
yeah I mean, ah but ah even with permits, they're like they can refile things and they can repurpose buildings. as nothing yeah So it's not it's not. and And yeah, like it's I guess the thing is, is, you know, the the statement of they're rethinking it is like they're not scrapping the entire blueprint and starting over, but they do have space to adjust. And and the thing is and, you know, you know, back to the point of, you know, like.
00:55:11
Speaker
like Joe Rohde's book is I'm sure this has happened with every single land and we're just not privy to it is that along the way, even when they're like building and designing and stuff, it's not that they have it a hundred percent figured out.
00:55:24
Speaker
when they start building it, there are changes that happen along the way. So yeah that's, that's definitely true. That's definitely true. I listen, they might be reevaluating some plans, but I guess I'm referring to just like the rumor a couple of weeks ago that they like blew up the whole plans and now they're going big. Oh yeah. i like that's I don't know.
00:55:41
Speaker
That just feels There is one other thing, though, that in the in this article that I'm I'm really hopeful that this is ah thing because they they didn't really talk about this or they talked about there would be like a dining experience.
00:55:55
Speaker
But the rumor talks about the dining experience being a dinner show with Hades. Oh, yeah, I did see that. Yeah, we didn we didn't talk about that. That would be pretty cool.
00:56:05
Speaker
Yeah, like like i think I think of all the things to speculate about, i feel like if it turns out that, you know, the the their version of, you know, like be our guest or whatever is like, you know, Hades dinner show like that, that would be.
00:56:26
Speaker
incredibly popular. and And the funny thing about it is that it's like, that is so like for Hades being a villain, it is like the most all ages villain.
00:56:38
Speaker
If you think about it. Sure. like i can do that because like, like Hades himself is like, he's not, or in this, in the scope of Hercules, yeah the the you know the animated movie. And sorry, I say this because I've i've played games. There's actually a game called Hades, which like it is, it flips the, the context of, you know, Hades and mythology, like all that, like Greek mythology on its head. So it's like, I'm thinking like, I'm, it's hard because that's like coming into my head as I'm talking about this. It's like, Hades is family friendly. No, like hades really not family friendly, but you know, the Disney Hades is very much family friendly. And, and I feel like it's like, it it has that potential to, um,
00:57:30
Speaker
you know, be beyond the same level as like the, um, uh, the Aladdin stage show. Right. Yeah. Where it's like, like just something very, like, like it, it feels like if they did go down that path that it like, you know, you, you end up with something where, um, you know, it's a unique experience every time, but also like it has,
00:57:53
Speaker
It has just, I don't even know what that energy is, but it's like that same energy that you get when there's like a really cool character interaction. Oh yeah. if There's gotta be a Hades character interaction in Villain's Land, right? I mean like, that's like the Gaston of like, you know.
00:58:10
Speaker
Cause don't know if you saw, like they've they've been, they've been doing Hades in, so he's one of the character meets in Disneyland at um what is it? At the Halloween parties. Yeah. Yeah. At the Halloween parties. And they're like, there's a bunch of them, but like I've, like Hades has been there and it's like,
00:58:27
Speaker
Like, Hey, that's, I have to wonder if, and again, yeah, you know, this is all speculation, of course, but, um, you know, I have to wonder if maybe that's like, you know, a, a testing ground for, you know, what could evolve into, into like a dinner show of some sort. Right.
00:58:44
Speaker
That would be cool. Yeah. By the way, this article, of this rumor also mentions that there will be, while they initially had planned for two rides, they're saying now there's going to be a third one, which would be like a Dumbo-type flat ride, but themed to Earth's little. Another spinner. And I really hope they don't do that, because we don't need any more spinners in Magic Kingdom. We got we got yeah three of them, four of them, technically. I also heard it could potentially, so not not a traditional spinner, but um something more akin to Alien Swirling Saucers or...
00:59:13
Speaker
Mater's Junkyard Jamboree could be a possibility as well, which are those are not like those are a little bit different from your normal spinners. They're more like I guess they're like the whip, right?
00:59:24
Speaker
Yeah, I just I just feel like it's it would take me a little bit out of things if that's just sitting in the middle of the land somewhere, you know, and I don't even know what that would be. Right. Like like what kind of what kind of ah but but this is the other interesting thing, too, is that, you know, like those kind of spinner rides, they don't have to necessarily be out in the open.
00:59:42
Speaker
No, they you could put them inside. I mean, there there was they were going to put that. a Remember that? ah It would so there was a Mary Poppins like teacup kind of thing. Yeah, they were going to put it. That was going to be indoors. If I remember correctly, that that never ended up happening. So I don't know.
00:59:58
Speaker
I guess it's possible you could put it indoors. I just, i don't want to like, we talked about this before you walking through adventure land and you see the, you know, see the magic carpets and it's just kind of like in the way in the middle, a little bit of an eyesore, like, and especially when you're doing something highly themed, like villains land, like to just see like a flat ride, just chilling in the middle of it. It's like, can we not do that?
01:00:18
Speaker
You know? Yeah, but it's, yes, I get what you're saying, but it also goes back to, and I keep making this point of, you know, kinetic energy in the lands. Sure. And and a spinning ride does offer, it offers movement, even if it's not like the most amazing thing.
01:00:38
Speaker
And you're like, even if you're not going to ride it, just having that there is still, it's still better than nothing. Right. Yeah. yeah Yeah. The other one that, sorry, I forgot about this too. I was trying to remember the name of it. I had to look it up here was, cause it used to be called something else, but Luigi's Rollick and Roadsters is another, like, it's not a spinning ride. It's actually yeah it's a, track's it's a trackless, ride but it's like the cars dance around. Dance around each other. yeah yeah I mean, i I feel like there's lots of potential for them to do different things and not have it be just a, like you said, another, Like, I know the rumor says another spinner ride.
01:01:18
Speaker
i kind of hope at the very least it's like closer to Alien Swirling Saucers and not Dumbo would be my preference. but Yeah. yeah And I also see where, you know, there is...
01:01:32
Speaker
As much as we say, like, you know you know, I don't want another spinner ride, they do have a certain amount of people eating, and they do they do appeal to a certain demographic of people in the parks. so Give me an Omnimover, man. Just give me an Omnimover and, you know, like... Omnimovers everywhere. that just yeah It's all Omnimovers. Yeah. yeah that You want to talk about People Eater?
01:01:57
Speaker
No better people. either there Yeah. and And I wish you're right. I wish we would. What was the last? I guess the last Omni mover was. um ah Technically, it's supposed to be Buzz Lightyear.
01:02:09
Speaker
ah I mean, I guess, well, Buzz Lightyear has been recently redone, but i but I thought the Nemo and Friends in. Epcot or no, actually, I guess Little Mermaid would have been more recent than that. Yeah. Little Mermaid was more recent. Yeah, I guess. Wow. Yeah, I guess. But that's still a long time ago. Yeah, true it's true.
01:02:28
Speaker
and they need They need to do more Omni movers. Yeah, I agree. I agree. right. All right, friend. Maybe we'll... ah Maybe as we're saying this, maybe, you know, Disney will look and go, oh yeah, they're right. They should do another. wrong Clearly. no wrong We all know that. You know that they're listening to this podcast. The new CEO of Disney listens to this podcast. That's a fact. Yeah. ah So. In our minds and in our dreams. in ah In our minds. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Josh, Josh, email me, buddy.
01:02:56
Speaker
Email me. I know you're busy, but email me. Just say what's up. Yeah, just just to reach out just reach out. We got to you know we can we can yeah put them together. yeah and so Okay, so I guess we'll wrap this up so Josh knows where to contact us. Yeah, clearly. Yeah, we need to say that. Okay, so so yeah. you know If anyone wants to let Josh know, um you can find our email address. It's welcome home.
01:03:16
Speaker
First thing, is yes yeah yeah, exactly. um Yeah. You can find us at welcome on podcast at gmail.com. We, we, we love hearing from everybody, all the Josh's and everybody else. So, um, so yeah, you know, you you can always find us there, but you can also go to our website, welcome on podcast.co and you can contact us through there as well.
01:03:38
Speaker
um We are also on social media, so you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast, YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast, and Instagram as Welcome Home Picks. um We also do have a store if you want to help support the show. So it's store.welcomehomepodcast.co. You can also get to the store from the website. So if you if you go to the website, there's a link to the store there as well. um You can check it out. I believe we are we are past the 10% promo that you know Tom talked about a couple weeks ago. but But we're going to look to do more fun things to to promo in the future. So you know keep out for that. But in the meantime...
01:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, if you if you need a what did Katie call it on the Discord? a hip bag or something like that? I don't know what you I'm confused still. It's still a fanny pack. Sorry. I mean, they're fanny packs to us. Yeah.
01:04:27
Speaker
Yeah. um just just Just accept it. um agree And then, yeah, you know yeah we we got all kinds of stuff in there. And we also, um we do have a Patreon. So if you if you like to help support us through Patreon, can go to patreon.com slash welcomeandpod, check out our different levels of Patreon support, which um all of our Patreon supporters get. ah There's exclusive rewards there that have an exclusive logo that you can only get on Patreon.
01:04:52
Speaker
And also all of our Patreon supporters get access to the Discord server. As we've mentioned on the show, it's just yet another place that we ah we have conversations from stuff on the show and yeah you know have um have have our own little reckless speculations, but also you know everybody sharing their um you know cool things that they're doing, like renoing bathrooms in disney and Disney version. I saw that. That was very cool. That was cool.
01:05:20
Speaker
Yep. Also, you know, talking about, you know, their trip planning, talking about their favorite cruise ships, all that kind of stuff. So if you want to come join in, you know, you know, like i said, check out us on Patreon and get access to the Discord server.
01:05:33
Speaker
ah Last but not least, though, if you are listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere, you can leave us five stars. Please do so. just helps. Yeah. helps the algorithm, helps us get out to more people. we We do like seeing new followers and stuff. It makes us feel good.
01:05:49
Speaker
um You can also write us review on iTunes and let us know what you think about the show because we do like to hear what you guys think about what we're doing here. Yeah. and So do that, please. like i We need reviews. I want a review. Someone give me a review.
01:06:03
Speaker
Just do it now. It's like report card. just yeah Just give me a report card. Yeah. And then ah the other thing, by the way, you know we do have a new Food Time episode out, so you can go watch that on YouTube right now for the International Flower and Garden Festival. We had a lot of fun with that one. We even got to talk about Trevor's nemesis, conch fritter. So go check that out. Yeah. Yeah. Go check out the conch fritters that Trevor doesn't doesn't want to eat. ah But yeah, so please check that out. Also, give us a review. And the other thing you can do is not for you know not forget, but remember to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release a new episode. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, podcast Amazon Music, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast episodes out there. You can find us.
01:06:48
Speaker
course, just search for Welcome Home. Look for the one that you know looks like a Disney one and says Disney in it. ah Huge thank you to our sponsor of this episode, DVC Resale Market. We're going to have them on next week to to talk a little bit about some DVC stuff.
01:07:00
Speaker
And, ah you know of course, Keyholder Vacations for just being a great friend and sponsor to the show for a very long time now. Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:07:22
Speaker
We do a hug when we head to church. How she can cuddle, she's no man's affair. I look around for all the folks, found her in her sugar bowl.
01:07:34
Speaker
Hey, look out, here goes my ball and chain. The End