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Episode 349: Lakeshore Lodge Updates, Living with the Land Ambience & Bluey Merch
619 Plays1 day ago
On This Episode
New details are revealed for Lakeshore Lodge, the nature-inspired resort at Walt Disney World scheduled to open in summer 2027. Walt Disney Imagineering shares a behind-the-scenes look at Lakeshore Lodge construction, the new Muppets-themed loading area for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Big Thunder Mountain. A new one-hour ambience video featuring the sights and sounds of Living with the Land is now available. Disney Cruise Line extends its agreement with the Port of San Diego through 2031 with plans to increase sailings. A new promotion offers 50% off kids' fares on select Disney Cruise Line itineraries departing through early 2027. The classic Little Red elephant animatronic from the original Kilimanjaro Safaris storyline is reportedly visible on select tours at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. New Bluey merchandise, including customizable headbands and jewelry, is arriving at Disney Parks and the Disney Store. The latest Star Wars Day collection features pod racing-inspired apparel.
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Episode Links
- Lakeshore Lodge Updates
- Pardon Our Pixie Dust
- Living with the Land Ambience
- Disney Cruise Line Offer
- Bluey Merch
- Podracer Merch
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- Call or text the show with your DVC tips and trip reports at (833) WHP-TIPS and we may play them on the show!
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Transcript
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.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode Welcome Home is brought to you by
Episode 349: Disney Parks Focus
00:00:33
Speaker
DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 349 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. Hello, Trevor.
00:00:41
Speaker
Pretty good. And yeah, how how has your week been? i' ah Busy, you know.
Tom and Trevor's Week
00:00:48
Speaker
I just got, we you know, we always have we have soccer on Saturday mornings now for the time being until it gets to be summer. And then, you know, there's no more soccer because it's unbearably hot. So ah so we just had some had a little bit of brunch.
00:01:00
Speaker
And ah because of that, I showed up a little bit late to our two our thing here. but Yeah, that's all good. and Yeah, how are you doing? So I used to do soccer when my son was younger, and I'm kind of glad that I don't. And actually, the funny thing is, is right now, even if my son was in soccer, it wouldn't matter anyway, because it snowed here again last night.
00:01:21
Speaker
like and know I know you're all probably sick of hearing about this, but it's this is much snow this is highly unusual. is it really? Yeah. yeah it does It usually doesn't snow this much into April. Yeah, yeah. I'm sick of it because I really am like itching for summer. And, and I guess the the funny thing is, is like, like you were saying, like, you know, you know, you're doing soccer now because it's way too hot in the summer. Yeah.
00:01:50
Speaker
You're, or my summer is like your spring. So I'm like, I'm like waiting for that. Yeah. Yeah. that I get that. It's not coming soon enough. Cause Yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker
You need to come sooner. Yeah, I get it. I get it. It's rough. I just need some warm weather, I think, is the only thing. understand that. Yeah. I understand that. ah You know i yeah, it's just been it's been busy, you know? There's been lot going on. It's ah <unk>s been ah been ah been a busy ah couple weeks here. so but we I mean, we can get right into it unless you got anything else random you want to talk about. Yeah.
00:02:27
Speaker
I don't... Hoppers is coming in couple days here, Trevor, so you're going to to that Okay.
Impact of Memes on Media
00:02:31
Speaker
All right. yeah i Yeah. Actually, I was mentioning that to my wife because i think... I'm I'll admit when it comes to movies that are in theaters, like there's, there's definitely a thing now where it's like when Android, any something, something new comes out, there's the whole meme culture that yeah i guess that yeah like, you know, like stuff comes out and it's like, like people start referring to movies and stuff like that.
00:02:57
Speaker
And I'm seeing stuff on like my Facebook feed that I'm sure I I'm fairly confident it's stuff that's coming from that movie, but I'm not a hundred percent sure because I don't, I don't have any frame of reference and and they're not like just showing like, like video of the, of the, of the movie. It's like people are like quoting lines and stuff that I'm like, this is coming from somewhere, but I don't know if it's that show or not, but I feel like it is. I feel like, cause I do get a lot of like,
00:03:29
Speaker
disney adjacent stuff coming on my feet obviously and i feel like i feel like i'm seeing memes about it but because i've not seen the movie i don't get what people are referring to so it's really funny when you like have seen like a meme of something for a while and then you finally watch the thing that that meme is from and you're like oh that's where it comes from okay i get it yeah yeah Yeah. Like, I mean, there's been so many movies because my, I mean, like my, my wife doesn't like this, you know, like she definitely, she usually doesn't like like the really like dumb kind of comedy things, you know? And and that was all like, I really liked when I was like a teenager in my young twenties. Right. You know, like any, you like super, we were talking about super troopers, you know, and stuff like that. Right. And so,
00:04:13
Speaker
You know, I made her watch Super Troopers recently, and then there's a scene of Super Troopers where he's like licking the wall and he says, the Snozzberries, he's like, Snozzberries. And she was like she was like, wait, that's where this that comes from? And I was like, yes, but also, well you know, also from Willy Wonka, but the the you know the meme around it. you know yeah um so like but there's a bunch of that kind of stuff you know and then when you first watch it you're like oh okay now i get it like that's that's it came from there i mean i always got the meme before but it's funny to see the context so yeah it's and and i i guess to that point too like you you know you're talking about like stuff from super troopers also realized too that like i i feel like
00:04:55
Speaker
If you and I like watched our Facebook feeds side by side. Yeah. We would get very different. Oh, probably like in terms of references and stuff. Cause I, I feel like my stuff, like,
00:05:08
Speaker
i I want to believe that it's like, oh, yeah, you know, you know, everybody like gets like, like weird never ending story references or. that or thats And then I realized, wait a minute, actually, you know, maybe most people don't get that. Maybe it's because it's like.
00:05:27
Speaker
I mean, obviously, like I fit into that demographic where it's like, you know, like 80s movies, eighty eighty shows do like i think it's I tend to stop on them a lot more than other things because it's like, oh, like here there's like a Back to the Future reference or, you know, whatever. And it's like, but so so there's that.
00:05:45
Speaker
But um yeah, it's also interesting, too, that I feel like it's also driven partially from like. Maybe the the amount of movies that you watch or like, like specifically like, yeah, you know, stuff on Disney plus or prime or whatever that you're, you're clicking on.
00:06:04
Speaker
i feel like just the way things are interconnected now is that that has some way that it's feeding back to like what you're seeing on Facebook and whatnot, because it's all coming from the same location,
Social Media and Content Suggestions
00:06:15
Speaker
right? Like it's yeah yeah like like, they're using location information to like go, Oh, like, you know, somebody in this area is, you know, looking at this stuff, which actually to that end, i just, I don't,
00:06:26
Speaker
real or I remember this as like when I'm at work, the the um so like you know on my lunch break or whatever, I'll go and like you know flip on Facebook if I'm bored.
00:06:38
Speaker
yeah And i get very different stuff when I'm on the Wi-Fi at work. which actually is probably outing a lot of the people that I work with more than anything. because yeah ah Because it's like, hey, I don't normally get this, but when I'm like, when I'm working at the office and I'm on the Wi-Fi, like I'll see this kind of stuff. And it's like, huh, why am I getting that?
00:07:02
Speaker
And it's like, yeah. I'm always questioning. I'm like, why would why would that recommend that to me, of all things? It's always very confusing. Yeah, sometimes it's a matter of where you are at the time.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. But also, yeah. and And yeah, like I said, most of my stuff, though, was generally pretty... Disney centric. Like I, I do get a lot of stuff from content creators that, uh, like, like, you know, people like Dapper Danielle and stuff like that, that, you know, you know, it's like, oh yeah, you know, I see that kind of stuff, but every once in a while get something like kind of weird or, and I guess it's also like, maybe that's trying to like, you know, see if I like stuff, but, but every once in while it's like, I'm like, did I get this because I'm standing in the wrong place or,
00:07:46
Speaker
but You know, when I get weird, the tell I get weird stuff all the time where like, you know, the recommended news on my phone will be for like some small town in like Michigan or something like new restaurant opening in insert podunk town here. And I'm like, why do I care about why? Why would you think I care about that? Like, you know. Yeah, mine does this thing where it sends me stuff for the greater Vancouver metropolitan area, which which you enough you but which yeah which which um like if if you look at the map, like like Vancouver's by Seattle, I'm near Montana. like if you Like just to give the the sense of how far apart those areas are. But yeah, it's funny because like, yeah, same thing for me is like, I'll get something. It's like, oh, there's like, you know, you know a new like... movie theater opening or something and it's like and then i look and it's like oh it's in like prince george bc i'm like oh never mind thanks facebook yeah yeah exactly well this is you know it's just crazy uh i i i've always i always wanted these things so yeah but anyway just side side observations and yeah i i will check out hoppers when it uh when it comes out
00:08:58
Speaker
Maybe i'll ah
Family Movie Nights
00:08:59
Speaker
I'll propose that. we my My family's actually been... We've been more so getting into the habit of... we We've been trying to sit down as a family and watch more movies together because... That's nice. because ah Because my son's getting older. And and like even he said, it's like, you know, we we don't...
00:09:15
Speaker
We don't do stuff together and because he's becoming an adult, right? Like he's, you know, he's kind doing his own thing, but he's like, yeah, you know, I'd like to sit down, watch a movie with you guys. So we actually, the last movie we watched was the the first John Wick because um my my wife had never seen it. And my son, ah my son had watched them as a vibe, but you know, I was more than happy to go back and watch it again. And, you know, get back into that series. and I know it's not Disney, but um but yeah, we watched that. But I and then actually, yeah, before that, we watched Zootopia as well. So like we we we do go in, we do go in and out of
00:09:51
Speaker
of Disney movies, but I'll, ah I'll put hoppers on the proposal list. I think your son, I think your son will like hoppers. I, it's definitely not um super kid centric. It's, it's like, pix you know, it's kind of like most Pixar movies where there's a lot of adultness going on. um and that goes over kids heads but at the same time it's you know got some of those elements but honestly this movie they had a couple like scary parts to it almost ah but you know that they really weren't scary but like it's a hilarious movie i i just think you you guys would enjoy it because it's really good um and and to that point too like you you know i i realize this is also something that i'm
00:10:34
Speaker
I like, you know you know, we talk about our kids growing up and like, yeah you know, from a Disney lens of like, oh, you know, your trips with them change and stuff. But even like watching movies is like, you know, yeah, something like, like, ah like a Pixar movie, you know, he has memories of that, like, you know,
00:10:50
Speaker
stuff like even cars like like cars was a movie that we we watched a lot like because he he just enjoyed it when he was a kid and um there was a lot of jokes in there that he never got at the time which I'm sure if we watched it now he'd be like oh that's what they meant so it's Yeah, I do that all the time, though, too. Like now, like I'll watch something I watched as a kid and now I'm watching it now and I'm just like, oh, that definitely went over my head when I was a kid. But I get that joke now, you know? like Yeah, but but it's cool, too, because it's like as as my child's parent, I get to like.
00:11:25
Speaker
I feel like I kind of get to let him in on the joke now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it's because it's Because before it was like, you know, there would be like those parts in the movie and like i would kind of glass my wife and go like, oh, did they just say that kind of thing? Like we wouldn't like say anything, but now we can like, like if there is a joke that it's like clearly like more directed at the adults than the kids, it's like we can all enjoy it together. So that's that's kind of a that's kind of a good thing too about like...
00:11:53
Speaker
You know, your kids getting older and and, you know, sharing in movies, even if it's not like, like, I hate the whole premise of, oh, you know, you know, if you're if your kids are adults or I don't know if this is like a thing that people are saying out loud, but I feel like there's like an unspoken thing of like, you shouldn't watch like a family movie with your adult children. It's like. Really? Why not?
00:12:16
Speaker
i maybe Maybe it's where I come from. there's There's very much stigmas around like... Really? Interesting. Yeah, like like the the whole thing about... um Or I guess maybe just in the circles that I happen to be in that it's like Disney movies and stuff show like, well, that's like that's if you're watching with your family, but family is like...
00:12:36
Speaker
you're there with your kids kind of thing. It's like, well, no, I can watch it with my family happens to be, you know, me and my adult children. Right. Like it's, it's a weird, and maybe for me, it also goes back to like, I have had issues with people in my family being like, I I'm a, I've said many times I'm a gamer and,
00:12:56
Speaker
people look at it and go, well, why are you still playing video games as an adult? And it's like the same reason that you read books or watch movies or, you know, you still get that? Because I mean, like, I feel like it's so much more mainstream. all yeah there There are older, there are older people in my family that that like, yeah, you're right. It's younger, younger people don't,
00:13:19
Speaker
do that as much but I have like like I have family like in the like you know 60s 70s kind of thing like like aunts and uncles and stuff and that that unfortunately is a bit of a a bit of their impression which I'm like yeah it's it's unfortunate because I don't get to i don't get to talk about like even Disney stuff with them because don't get it yeah listen I I've always I've always said this I I don't I don't listen. Everybody has a thing that they're into that someone else probably thinks is weird. Right. mean, they just do. Everybody does. Right. And so I'm not going to like judge anybody else's, you know, like why would I like judge you for liking video games or liking? I've never understood like the Disney hate stuff. It's like, you know, I had this conversation with my sister one
Embracing Individual Interests
00:14:08
Speaker
time, actually, because, you know, before she went to Disney a million times with us and with her in-laws, you know, she would she was kind of like give me a hard time about it. And I was like,
00:14:16
Speaker
I, ah you know, she's really into soccer. And I was like, well, why do you like soccer? She's like, i don't know. I just like it. and I'm like, well, that's weird. Nobody likes soccer. Like, you know, like mean I mean, from from the lens of like in North America, soccer is not huge. And I'm like, you see, I'm like, I'm like, why is your thing normal and mine not? Like, why can't they both be? Yeah. You know, and that's that's where it's like everybody's got their thing. You know, i you know, I don't understand why people collect stamps, but they do. And they have a great time with it. You know, I don't know. i why do I care if someone else likes doing something and I don't.
00:14:50
Speaker
i I guess, you know, talking about my Facebook feeds, I see a lot of stuff about Pokemon card collecting, which I. I don't even know why, because I don't, I don't like collecting Pokemon cards. The the the closest to Jason thing was like, my kid used to be into Pokemon cards, but he hasn't been for years, but it's like, I'll see like people like at these trade shows, like dealing in like thousands of dollars of Pokemon cards because you know, rarity and all that, which is like, it's fascinating. And i'm like, Oh, you know, good for you. But it's like,
00:15:21
Speaker
you know i'm I'm not going to hate on somebody for it, but it's like it's not my thing. Yeah, exactly. But for some reason, I get... i just Sorry, just you talking about just remember like, why do I get all those Pokemon card reels? That's funny. I need to like i mean like i think the moral of the story is be you, enjoy the things you like, and don't judge other people for liking the things they like. you know Everybody can like the the things they want to like. who Why does it matter?
00:15:49
Speaker
so That is true. But yeah, we kind went down a rabbit hole right off the bat here. That's what we do. But especially since we have some fairly... I mean, I don't want to call it big news because it's like, you know, we knew about this. It's a big news, but kind of a light week too. Because I don't know how much we're going to get into these topics. No, this one I want to get into though, which we got into a lot in the Discord.
Disney's Lakeshore Lodge Announcement
00:16:15
Speaker
So we, after being like...
00:16:18
Speaker
Not so secretly under construction for a long time now. And, you know, originally announced in what, 2019 now? i feel like we've been talking about this resort forever. um We finally have some more information, slightly more information about Lakeshore Lodge, which, as I've said, will be forever called Reflections to me. Yeah. Even though it never opened, it was never built as Reflections. it's And they changed the name before they even started construction. Now it's Lakeshore Lodge, which, you know, I just like the the sound of Reflections because it sounds like a wellness retreat or something. yeah
00:16:52
Speaker
we So we've got ah now ah it's opening in so summer 2027. And we got a few more details about it. And I mean, some of this was reported ish before. Right.
00:17:05
Speaker
But there's some, I have some interesting thoughts in here, but first of all, let's, let's just go here. Theme to Bambi and Pocahontas and even brother bear, which way for, way for them to throw in a not loved IP or a a not as loved IP. Right. I mean, yeah. Okay, i I would argue the Brother Bear stuff is more prevalent in Disneyland. So okay yeah maybe, like, I wouldn't say it's unloved. There is definitely not saying unloved. I'm just saying less loved. right but But I mean, Brother Bear is very much in the Grand Californian and um and there's there's parts of it in California Adventure as well, like near Grizzly River Rapids and all that. So I i get like the like it's a weird throwback because Brother Bear, like you said, it's a lesser known IP, but...
00:17:57
Speaker
My take on that is they have it in Disneyland but and you know they tied it to Grand Californian. They couldn't just copy it over to Wilderness Lodge. I feel like this is their way of like...
00:18:11
Speaker
trying to bring, trying trying to bring that IP over to the East coast as well. Like yeah that this was their, their opportunity to do that because yeah, this, but like you said, the theming is very like, it's we're in the we're in the woods is, is the theme. Yeah. It is interesting too though, because it does, it does feel like wilderness lodge,
00:18:33
Speaker
if it were a more modern upscale hotel, right? It's like, yeah, it's a more modern version of wilderness lodge. Like wilderness lodges. It's, it's not that it's not modern, but it gives you like that kind of rustic feel. This gives you modern kind of nature feel to it. Right. And that's kind of what they've been going for for a while here. Now, it's, so there's some interesting things here. There's 967 rooms in this resort.
00:18:58
Speaker
um which is a lot of rooms. I mean, it's huge. It's a big resort. um And the thing I found interesting about the Trevor is that I noticed a couple of things in this article, but the biggest one was, with it says here, I'm just going to quote this with, with 967 thoughtfully designed rooms.
00:19:16
Speaker
This new addition to the Disney resorts collection will offer a variety of ways to stay from cozy studios to spacious suites. The part that stands out to me there is that it says Disney resorts collection and does not in any way in this article, say DVC anywhere, which I mean, I'm not trying to say it's not going to be DVC. Like I still think so. I just find it odd that there's no mention of DVC in this entire article.
00:19:42
Speaker
And this was originally announced as a DVC resort. Right. So, okay. So here's, here's my thoughts on that. The, um, It's weird though, right? Yeah, it is weird. But also I feel like this is, i think Disney, like I said, we you know when we first saw this, Disney took a stance on that. They're like, oh, this is going to be a DVC resort. But yeah i feel like with with the redesigning of it as Lakeshore Lodge,
00:20:13
Speaker
they realized that there was, there was an opportunity there for not just a DVC resort, but a, or I think that they realized that they were potentially leaving money on the table by not making it a split resort. So like, like wilderness lodge or, you know, poly or um contemporary where you have, you have a section of DVC rooms, but then, but then the majority of it is still available to other people because, because the funny thing is, is that,
00:20:43
Speaker
If they made it an exclusively DVC resort and it's that close to Magic Kingdom, people would be losing their minds over it. Or sorry, non-DVC people would be losing their minds over it. They would. because Because they would see this huge thing and be like, hey, you know why can't we stay there? Right? like and and And with some cash. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the thing is that, you know, Disney is – I think Disney is looking and going, well, you know, we don't necessarily want to put all of our eggs in one basket. And the interesting thing, too, is kind of like the Grand ah Floridian where they they reassigned some rooms that are, you know, basically DVC expanded, right?
00:21:24
Speaker
That's not – wouldn't be surprised if Disney takes a stance with this of they open it as a, you know, a larger – you know hey, that this resort's you open to everybody. you know You can book a cash. There's there's some DVC.
00:21:38
Speaker
And then maybe you know as the hype of it kind of dies down or when they're moving on to the next resort, they can you know that's where the opportunity comes that they go, oh, well, we're we're expanding the DVC membership here and you know you know shrinking the the rest of the ah you know and all the cash bookings because, you know sorry, there there is always, people are always looking for like the newest,
00:22:02
Speaker
the newest, biggest thing, right? So it's like, maybe it's an opportunity where they can get the cash upfront. yeah You're know getting people staying cash stays, but then later on, offer it up as a DVC option and you know kind of scale it out that way. So that might be why, or that would be my thinking, why you know upfront they're not being like, this is a DVC resort, it's just a new resort.
00:22:25
Speaker
And I would also bet that We're getting the announcement on the resort here. I'm suspecting because it's not opening to 2027. We're probably not going to see anything from DVC about it until like the fall, like October, yeah yeah November, because then because then they'll start like you pushing listings and stuff. Yeah, they'll start selling like, you know, like late, late this year, early next year.
00:22:48
Speaker
um it's it It is interesting, right? Because i do think this is going to be very much a ah like Animal Kingdom, ah Yacht and Beach Club situation. where Because even if you look at the pictures, Trevor, it is very clearly divided into two separate resorts like two separate buildings, right?
00:23:08
Speaker
ah My assumption is that one building is three buildings there. It could be. Yeah. I, I, the concept art has that. I, I, I've seen other concept art that shows it from above. ah Yeah.
00:23:21
Speaker
But ah yeah. So like, I'm just thinking that maybe like it's, It's um here. I found I actually found an aerial picture of the construction. um Where'd to go? Oh, yeah. So it it is kind of um two buildings, but it's they branch out. So it's almost like they um I'll show you what I'm talking about. Is this? Is this like, um sorry, I'll admit I've not actually been to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but is this going to be like a Kidani kind of deal? that's what i was let's See, that's kind of what I was thinking, Trevor, because it splits off like that. like And Kidani is like, they're not connected, though though. They're two separate buildings, right? But this is connected. This almost feels more like Yacht and Beach Club to me, right? Where it's like one side of it is the DVC side. The other side is the regular side.
00:24:10
Speaker
And that's kind of what I'm thinking now. I'm looking at the some of just like the aerial shots of just the construction, right? It almost makes like a like a there's W shape, you know?
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah. There's actually like technically, like even though it's all looks like majority one building, there's like five different wings to it is almost what it looks like. So it branches out in a couple different places. yeah So, so, so that's interesting too, if it's all a single connected.
00:24:37
Speaker
So actually, yeah, that it doesn't even, I thought it was multiple split buildings from the, from that concept art, but yeah, if it's all just a single building, Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, like you said, it's it's most likely that you'll just have...
00:24:52
Speaker
you'll just you'll just have um Yeah, you'll you'll just have like a DVC wing somewhere, which I mean, I guess the only question will be is it will be the closest thing to the boat dock or the furthest thing from the boat dock? Because, well, if you look at the concept art they have here, the ah the buses are a little bit detached. The bus stop is is on the right hand side towards the right hand building. So, you know, that makes me hope that the the right hand side is the DVC one, just so it's a little closer. But Yeah, you know, at 967 rooms, there's no way that this would be just a DVC resort because that is a massive amount of rooms. Just for, like, you know, comparison's sake, right? If I, like, pull up DVC info here, and I don't know if you've ever looked at DVC info, but they have they have resorts ranked by size, right? Yeah. And so if you look at, ah like... um Saratoga. Saratoga has a maximum amount of rooms available of 1,320 rooms.
00:25:49
Speaker
But that's with, they have total units that are 888 rooms. So they have the lock off so they can break those out into separate into separate rooms, right? But for all intents and purposes, they have 1,320 rooms. The next biggest one is Old Key West at 761. So you're talking like this would be the second largest DVC resort if it were possible. If it was exclusively If it was exclusive DVC. I tend to believe it's going to be more towards... I'm almost wondering if it's going to be more like a 60-40 split between like DVC is going to be maybe 40% of it and then 60% is going to be regular hotel and maybe it's going to be more in like the 400 room kind of area, which would still make it a pretty large resort. But here's Disney wants to add as many rooms as they can, especially for DVC or around Magic Kingdom, right? I mean, like that's... yeah
00:26:37
Speaker
prime real estate right and this is a magic kingdom area resort it's not a monorail resort but it is still a magic kingdom area resort uh and you know you you have a really nice little boat right over and i you listen i'm a big fan of wilderness lodge and i i guarantee you we will be staying here like for sure once once we once this place opens like because this is right up our alley But, um but yeah, I don't know, Trevor. It's interesting because I was also looking at it too from they, one of the other things they have here is lake houses, which we knew they going You could see them being built there. They're very much like frame style, ah which is, is very cool.
00:27:14
Speaker
But what they mentioned here, these are all along the waterfront. ah They say that it's ah they're going to be debuting new one and two bedroom lake houses across the waterfront. So they're going to have a new category of like the cabins, right? Where where they have a smaller cabin.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, which is interesting. And when I say cabin, I mean the i mean the like the cabins that they have at ah Copper Creek, not the cabins that are Fort Wilderness. Right. I mean, and also like the um bungalows over at a Polly. Right. that That's a category but that they have that's just on the water there. And but most of them sleep a lot more people. Right. They they're usually two bedrooms and they will, you know, they can they can sleep people living room. So can sleep like a whole bunch of people in there. This is they're going to have one that's just a one bedroom.
00:27:57
Speaker
I guess some that are just one bedroom. So that'll be really interesting to see how those are priced out point wise. If this is, I mean, again, I'm going to assume this is the, the, at least the, ah the, the, um that these cabins or whatever are, what are they calling them? Why why am I forgetting the name? They're calling them ah lake houses. Sorry.
00:28:17
Speaker
Okay. ah what else you play lake house Yeah, no, I'm assuming the lake houses will be DVC, right? Cause that's, I wouldn't think that they would have those as, as cash. cash rentals but i i don't know i could be wrong so you know this is going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out how the points shake out for that um you know just based on though trevor the uh concept art here not the concept art i'm sorry the the article that i sent you of like the overhead pictures yeah from uh bio reconstruct it looks like the building on the right the buildings on the right are much closer to the boat dock than the buildings on the left
00:28:51
Speaker
Unless they're going to build an additional boat dock for the left, which I don't know. Maybe they will. but I mean, ah I'll be honest. like it I don't know like you know. It's one of those things that if you're using the boat dock or the buses, like either way you're walking across the resort. like like i mean If you're going to Magic Kingdom, you're you're using the boat dock, obviously, because it's it's closer. But then you know going anywhere else, you're using the buses.
00:29:18
Speaker
And... I mean, this resort, it's... I like that one of these overhead photos that that you got, I actually like that you can see Wilderness Lodge in the background. Yeah, so you get a... You know where it is. You get a sense of scale of how big this is actually going to be. And it's like, it is it is definitely way bigger than Wilderness Lodge. But I don't know that... Or I guess...
00:29:43
Speaker
It's still not going to be, um you know, for for anyone wondering, like, yes, this is going to be a massive resort, but I don't think it's going to feel as overwhelming as... um or My point of reference is when we stayed at Caribbean Beach years ago. Yeah, it's not a... Walking... Yeah, yeah um but but like Caribbean Beach is kind of set up similar to Saratoga, like that there's a bunch of like...
00:30:09
Speaker
Like everything's very big and spread out and like, and you know, the resort has multiple bus stops because it's so big. Um, I actually don't think, you know, you know, we're talking about like, you know, whether you're closer to the boats or to the bus, I actually don't think it's going to be that bad either way. yeah Um,
00:30:27
Speaker
Cause like even looking at the, like it is really big, but because this looks like was what, like six floors that they're they're going for. Yeah. So according to this article and they, they actually compare a lot of things here. So Lakeshore Lodge will be 10 stories 10 stories, rooms. by contrast, Wilderness Lodge is seven stories with rooms in total So this resort is significantly larger than Wilderness Lodge. And it's the largest resort in Magic Kingdom area is currently Grand Floridian. If you count both its DVC expansion and its main resort, it's just over a thousand rooms. So this is pretty close to the size of Grand Floridian.
00:31:08
Speaker
um and And so, and it's I mean, it's one of the biggest. And ah they also mentioned here, too, that Riviera, you know, still one of the newer DVC resorts, is nine stories with 300 rooms. That's how much bigger this is than Riviera. It's massive.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's crazy. Yeah. So but but again, to that point, though, yes, it it is massive, like it it's going to be very tall buildings and whatnot, but it's still relatively compact it compared to other resorts. So, yeah.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm I'm curious what what the actual splits going to be. But yeah, I i agree with you. Like, it seems like a 60 40 split kind of makes sense for this, because why would Disney why would Disney make another resort so close to Magic Kingdom?
00:31:57
Speaker
That's only DVC. Yeah. Like, that doesn't make sense to me that they would do that. I i agree. I yeah i just say I just thought it was interesting. They just don't mention DVC at all.
00:32:09
Speaker
i I think this goes back to, you know, as we've talked about that, you know, DVC is its own entity with inside of Disney. And I feel like, you know, the, the because they're not the ones building Lakeshore Lodge that, you know, it's Disney that's announcing stuff, but then you will eventually get, you know, DVC will be like, oh, you know, we have, we're going to have Lakeshore Lodge rooms available, you know, this date, right? Like it's,
00:32:37
Speaker
Like I said, it feels to me like the the DVC stuff is always trailing behind the the actual resort announcement. so Yeah. yeah yeah I do have to say that I did a little bit of investigative work here. um i i actually contacted DVC to find out ah if... i just to you know just ah There's no...
00:33:00
Speaker
world in which I don't think that there's going to be DVC here, right? Like, I don't think that the omission from the article means that, okay, well, now there's no DVC rooms that are going to be here. I didn't think that, but I just wanted to be a confirmation of that. and So i I reached out to DVC and they did confirm to me that, yes, that there will be DVC rooms here, but they didn't know how many or when or any of that. So, okay yeah. that That saves me a phone call because... I didn't mention this, but actually, so this week I actually did get a phone call from DVC, um, because my previous DVC guide had retired. Oh, and, and so, yeah. So yeah, yeah. Good for him. You know, he was, he was a nice guy. He helped us get, he helped get us set up with the poly way back in the day. So, you know, you know, thanks to Don deal of anybody that ever dealt with him. Um,
00:33:47
Speaker
But so I got it. I got a new guide and he was um or so he actually called my wife and, you know, was and my wife said he was like, or we we were saying, like, no, we're not we're not looking for any new points or anything right now. Thank you, though. He's like, well, but I'm here to support you if there's anything you need. Like like he was being like very like.
00:34:07
Speaker
pushy or not pushy, but like, like he was being eager. Yeah. He was being eager about it. And, and, and so I kind of made note that I was like, Oh, like he's, he's like trying to get our business obviously. But, but then that, like, as we're talking Lake Shore Lodge, I'm like, maybe I'll give him a call and just like see what his take is on it. Because, you know, he seemed like really excited to talk to us and,
00:34:31
Speaker
you know, Hey, I have a new DVC guide and maybe I can, you know, get some information out of him. But like you said, if their, if their statement is just, yes, it's coming and we don't know when, um i know i'm getting yeah, I won't get much else out of him than that. I would say, I mean, I also, you know, you know, I have a friend that is a, that is a manager, uh, one of the, uh, you know, upper managers over at DVC. I i could ask her too, I guess, but, um, yeah, I listened. I, we also don't want to get people in trouble either. Of course. Of course. I mean, are you interested in, so I know you say it probably pretty much exclusively, but does this interest you at all? Cause I mean, it, it definitely interests me. We, I, we talked about this before. I love we wilderness lodge and ah this resort just looks really, really nice. It almost looks too nice. It almost looks how I feel when I walk through Riviera where I go, Ooh, gosh, I'm not classy enough for this place. Like this feels like that kind of place. Yeah.
00:35:25
Speaker
yeah this This definitely is giving to me closer to um Wilderness Lodge slash Grand Californian vibes. like is Yeah, it's it's upscale, but not not um top hat and monocle level. that that is yeah yeah like sorry i I feel like Riviera and um Grand Floridian are in that zone where it's like...
00:35:49
Speaker
yeah like they They are still DVC resorts. They're still just, you know, you know, vacation resorts and, you know, anybody like it's not there's not a dress code or anything, but it still feels like.
00:36:00
Speaker
a little too bougie. And this does not feel like Lakeshore Lodge does not feel like that to me. Like everything I've seen about it, it feels very welcoming. It feels very, um like you said, it's, it's, it's Wilderness Lodge 2.0, which is not to say that Wilderness Lodge needs to be retired or anything like Wilderness Lodge still stands on its own. And I do, I very much like Wilderness Lodge, even though i don't stay there. I like,
00:36:27
Speaker
You know, we we've we've been over there. You respect the game. you were yeah Yeah, exactly. it's it's It's a nice resort. And um i mean, for Lakeshore Lodge, I don't... I would be curious to check out what they offer there. And i think the the one thing that might make me want to at least try getting... or I don't want to say get points there, but maybe just like trying to a stay there is, you know, we talked about like the... yeah the pool situation, right? Which, which we haven't talked about early, you know, they're not really covering it in, in this, uh, in this article, but, you know we, we had talked about this before where the, you know, the concept art was showing, like it's, it has the potential to have something close to a, um, uh, beach club type pool situation. Right. Which that to me is very appealing. You know, having, having a lazy river yeah at your resort is yeah. like that,
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, i like like I said, I don't know that I'm like sold on I need to get points here, but I'm definitely curious about this resort. You might you might might try a night there. yeah The article I was looking at, by the way, Trevor, ah does mention does say that there is they are building a new dock for Lakeshore Lodge. And the one you can see actually in the overhead picture is actually the Fort Wilderness dock. It's that close to Fort Wilderness. You could like...
00:37:51
Speaker
yeah this is an interesting thing actually because we have always wanted to do hoop to do review and it's kind of a pain to get the hoop to do review right but like if you stay here you can literally just walk there it's right there like you know looking at the overhead picture you don't realize how close it is to fort i mean it's really close to fort i don't sense but or okay i guess so i'm looking at at wilderness lodge yeah i guess yeah um fort wilderness is further or yeah you're right it is closer to lakeshore lodge
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah. Like it's, it's literally right there. No, I mean, it's, it's really close. It's, it's right there. I'm actually, so I'm trusting exactly. It's hard. Cause it's all wooded there. I can't see exactly where Fort wilderness is from. Yeah. So if you, I just, I just sent you another picture. Um, that you can actually see where the construction is from, uh, from, uh, from right there. It's,
00:38:45
Speaker
it's ah It's really close. It really, really. it's I mean, listen, it's on the site of River Country. And River Country was obviously right at Fort Wilderness there. so But I'm telling you, Trevor, when i the last time I was at Disney, which was in November for the party, we ah we were on the boat at one point.
00:39:05
Speaker
And we The, this resort chart is massive. It's the pictures do not do this justice. Like I, we looked across the water and we're like, Whoa, that resort is big. Like, and it's, you can, cause you can just see it from so far away too. It's, it's a huge resort.
00:39:21
Speaker
ah So yeah, I listen, this is, I'm excited for this. I want to check this out. I want to stay here. I'm i'm all in on this place. Yeah. What? Yeah. no Sorry. It's just I I'm picturing you like standing at the door or like, and like, let me in. Just well, listen, it by the time this opens, it will have been eight years in the making.
00:39:43
Speaker
Right. I mean, well, OK. I mean, yes and no. i like it had a redesign, I guess. So really, though, it looks exactly the same as the concept art that they put out for reflections. It looks the same. yeah Yeah, but I mean, i feel i know that they went back to the drawing board on this stuff after the pandemic and all that. I don't. I mean.
Lakeshore Lodge Design and Speculation
00:40:07
Speaker
yeah I guess it has been technically eight years, but I i don't see it as. I don't know. I'm just looking at the pictures. The original concept art from Reflections and it looks it looks like it's exactly the same. It looks like all they did was change the name.
00:40:22
Speaker
Which I know, I remember when the concept art came out for this, were lot of people saying it looked like a dorm or like, you know, which I don't agree with. I think it looks pretty cool. I really, I like the look of it, but, you know.
00:40:34
Speaker
But yeah, anyway. Yeah, I mean, but it's just, it's it's just been going on for a long time. it's It just feels like the culmination of like so many years of of waiting for it. So, yeah, I don't know.
00:40:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'll i'll just... I just want to see when they actually do the DVC announcement stuff. Like I said, I'm i'm betting on October, November timeframe. Yeah, that makes sense. That's that's my ah and And that's, I think, when I'll be more interested because like right now it's still very like, yes, they they are giving us more information, but it's like, I want to know details on point values, like how it will compare to other stuff in the area. Room categories. Yeah. like I'm betting like it'll be in the same level as you know Wilderness Lodge or or Contemporary. like Yeah.
00:41:22
Speaker
I mean, any of those resorts where you you know you're like 15 to 18 points a night at least for for a studio. and then and But then also, yeah, like you said, you know seeing those one-bedroom cabins, like where will those sit?
00:41:36
Speaker
right so I'm going to be very interested to see where those sit because... In general, from a DVC perspective, and a lot of people feel this way about one bedrooms is that they're not worth it because the price, the point premium that you pay on them, you might as well just get a two bedroom at that point, right? Because it's it's not all that different. from a It sleeps the same amount of people as a studio most of the time.
00:41:56
Speaker
And the the point premium you're paying on it is just not worth it. You could, you could you know, and and given like the jump from a one bedroom to a two bedroom is a pretty good amount of points, but it just because it sleeps the same amount of studio as a studio, you basically just should get a studio. you know i mean i Unless you want that cut off. Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
It's a door. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's the, the cutoff room, but also, um, you know, the difference between a studio in a one bedroom is the kitchen as well. yeah Like that's like, that's really also what you're getting from it too. So it's true. it's true I mean, yeah yeah like I, I get that, but I guess the way I'm looking at this is like, um, yeah you know, for, for other cabins, like, like,
00:42:37
Speaker
points for cabins are really high and, and understandably like they're yeah like, you know you know, we're, we're looking at cabins that like, it's they're like using points for a cabin would be the same as us using points for a week at a studio. Right. Like it's like, like the scale is or or a cabin for one night, I should say. So like, like the difference in scale is huge, but if the one bedroom is like,
00:43:05
Speaker
in that sweet spot in between where it's like, like, obviously they'll, I expect they will be more expensive than a, and than, than regular one bedroom. But if it's enough that you could justify like, you know, Hey, you're staying at a cabin. It's, you know, it's on a lake, which also the fact that, I mean, it's still going to be, it's still going a busy resort because it's near magic kingdom. But I feel like,
00:43:28
Speaker
those cabins are the furthest removed from yeah like Disney as a whole. Like it it kind of, i see where the potential, like the points could be justified in that, like you get, you get your own little like secluded pocket in the middle of Disney world, which is kind of a, sprinkle kind of, kind of an interesting, interesting appeal, I think. So yeah, I'm, I'm curious to see what the actual DVC announcement looks like for this. Yeah.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'll be interested to, uh, yeah, it's, it's, uh, cause it's, it is going to be interesting how they price those. I mean, the thing is there's, there's going to be so few of them, you know, that anytime you have a few of anything, they end up being pretty expensive. You know, it's going to be a lot of points because it's, it's just, it's, you know, the amount of supply is so low, it's you're the, the points are higher and I, it almost feels like they're going to have less of these than they have at,
00:44:23
Speaker
Copper Creek, but I don't know. They haven't, I said the final number yet, but I'm just like looking at like ah overhead pictures and trying to count them. ah you know But I mean, it's, it's, let me see. I don't know. Maybe like 15 or 20. It's hard to really tell, but it's, it's going to be a tough get for sure. Right. Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
so So are they correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like there's going to be some on. or So if like if you're facing the resort, is there going to be cabins on the left and the right sides? Which I thought was interesting because I was looking for that to be like, which side is the DVC side? Maybe the cabins are only on that side, but no, they're on both sides.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i did I did just do some Googling and I found someone stating that at some point ah that it it was not announced, but I guess rumored that it was going to be a 60-40 or 50-50 split between DVC and cash room. So I don't know. But that was just my guess. I hadn't seen that yet until just now. So yeah, I mean, we're goingnna I'm sure we'll find out soon here more information. They've really just started giving us information about it, right? I mean, it's they've literally been working on it for almost a year and a half now.
00:45:34
Speaker
And have said nothing, you know, which i think is fair. Like, that I think if they keep like drip feeding those updates, it doesn't hit quite as hard as ah when they just announced something big. Right. So I agree. I agree. agree All right. um I don't have anything else on this. I'm sure we're going to have more soon. ah you know but but until then, we that's that's really it. but i you know we're we're going to find out more. ah But Trevor, why don't we go ahead and do our ad? Because we talked about this for longer than I thought we would. Oh, yeah. And then we'll and then we can ah go and talk about a couple other things.
00:46:10
Speaker
Sure. All right. This week, our sponsor is DVC Rental Store. a DVC Rental Store is a keyholder vacation company that offers magical vacations at incredible value.
00:46:20
Speaker
Save up to 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.
00:46:31
Speaker
And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points. Want to learn more? Go to DVCRentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVCRENT. That's 382-7368. And you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you.
00:46:47
Speaker
All right. So a couple other things, Trevor, here. ah One of the things, and I don't know if you watch this video, I did, ah but the Imagineering, Walt Disney Imagineering has like a new video series they're calling Pardon Our Pixie Dust, where they like take you behind the scenes of like, you know, behind the walls, right?
00:47:07
Speaker
where are The construction walls, I should say. Yep. And one of the things they did in this first, well, they did a couple of things in this first video.
Muppet-themed Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
00:47:15
Speaker
First of all, they showed us some construction of Lakeshore Lodge ah where basically the guy's taking us through the hallways of you know the lodge that are obviously not completed. um you know not Not really much in there. It's more just like you know very construction-y. There's not much we get to see actually there. Yeah, that's boring. I don't like that part because just it just looks like any other office building. but yeah Yeah, yeah. You care more about the about the rock and roller coaster, what I'm assuming. Yes, Yeah. Yes. So ah the ah the set decorator for the, it looks like it was the loading area, right? I think he said it was a loading area. Is they're decorating the set now for, you know, for Muppets. And he talked like he talked he was showing all these props and like so many of these props are coming from the Muppet movie in 1960 from 1979. Like the actual props from that, from that time, which is pretty cool.
00:48:08
Speaker
I mean, that that's, I'll admit, I didn't even think about this. Because, like, what this looks like, or this area that they're showing off, um it's the, like you said, it's the loading area, like, as you come out from the pre-show into the the back alley that that, you know, old rock and roller coaster, it it just, it it was meant to look like a back alley. And honestly, it was very boring, right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:33
Speaker
And the the thing that that I didn't really think about when... Because like I was thinking about this from the lens of like, oh, you know, all the stuff leading up to the pre-show. It's like, oh, they're going to put all the stuff into those rooms. Because you you pass through a couple of rooms before you hit the pre-show.
00:48:50
Speaker
But the like you said, this is the loading area. Yeah. We're doing something with Gonzo here. and and But but the the thing that the thing that gets me is I didn't realize how boring that loading area was. had nothing in there. yeah and And this is so cool. Like like you said, yeah, it's very very clearly like emphasizing Gonzo here, or or at least the stuff they're showing. But this is going to become one of those things where like going through the ride multiple times,
00:49:21
Speaker
um You're going to find all kinds of cool little details. And like you said, like the fact that they're actual props that they're using from from the movies and all that is like... Yeah, I like I mean, I shouldn't be surprised that Disney does that anymore, but it's always nice when they they take something like that and they're like, hey, we're going to like, you know, put this in a queue where it's clearly visible, right? Where it's like, like you know, they're not just like keeping it in a vault somewhere. It's like that they're trying to incorporate it back into um into the rides and into like the the. um
00:49:56
Speaker
the atmosphere of Disney. Right. So, yeah yeah, it's, I also think, well, there was, there's also uh, a hat that Gonzo wore during Christmas, the Muppet Christmas Carol. Yeah. There's, um, there's some rubber chickens, of course. Yeah.
00:50:13
Speaker
But I do also think this informs a little bit on the ride, too, right? Because I'm assuming they're going to do something with the great Gonzo as you're taking off, right? Like Gonzo, the great Gonzo is known for, you know, doing yeah feats of of, you know, I don't know. daring.
00:50:29
Speaker
Yes. Right. so like, maybe it's a thing where like, so if you, I don't know if you ever got around to, I think you said you did, you watched the the most recent Muppet show thing that they put out where he had like the, ah the skates on that were like, had like ah rockets in them and or wherever it was. um Yeah. And, and so, and and I'm like, Oh, you could kind of use that for this, right? Like you could have it where Gonzo is like, you know, unless they're just going to put up stuff about Gonzo and we're just going to have to fill in the blanks, which, you you know, might be the case, but.
00:50:59
Speaker
But I guess I could see them possibly tying this together with, because, you know, as they said, you know, the, the, the car itself has been renamed to the limo, which are the, the. imo Yeah. I can't remember what the the acronym is anymore. It's large immediately moving object or something like something'm like that. Yeah.
00:51:21
Speaker
And it, but I'm wondering maybe there, there's like some back and forth banter between Gonzo and, and Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, like, like maybe as it's taking off kind of thing, like, you know, Gonzo's like, oh, Hey, I modified it. Wait, what? And then. Yeah, exactly. yeah That's kind of what I'm thinking it'll be. If there, if, if this isn't just like display pieces that they're, they're putting into the queue, right? Like.
00:51:47
Speaker
It might just be display pieces, but I think it would be really funny if they did somehow integrate that of like, you know, Gonzo doing a stunt, the great Gonzo, I should say, doing a stunt ah while you're taking off. He's helping, right? you You know, Gonzo's version of helping you get to where you need to go quicker, right? Which, yeah. i i totally on grand Yeah, I love that there's just a box that says the great Gonzo weird stuff on it. It's really funny.
00:52:15
Speaker
um But yeah, we get a nice little sneak peek at what they're doing in the queue here. And like you said before, I mean, I've seen video of many times because they used to play that one video incessantly in the room of the loading area you know where you take off. ah You can see it's just like nothingness in there. Yeah, it was just, it was the most boring back alley ever. And it was funny because like it they had all like the the chain link fence, like like you can see it. yeah Like it's, you know, the chain link fence that that, you know, it it was just like like nothing. it It was so, I i forgot how how barren it was, but I think part of that i'll actually...
00:52:53
Speaker
it It drew into the anticipation of the ride because of the fact that it was like there was nothing else to look at than people launching launching on the coaster, right? Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. so but But this will be like, you know, there will be the coaster there, but there will be plenty of other stuff to be...
00:53:13
Speaker
looking at in the ride or in the queue, which is, I mean, honestly that, you know, without, without turning it into a fully interactive queue, this is actually the best case scenario that, you know, it's um like I said, it's no different than Haunted Mansion and the other like classic rides where it's like rewriting it or or redoing it multiple times gives you opportunity to find details. it And that, and that's what the, you know, they're saying here in the, in this video is that, you know, there's, there's going to be lots of stuff in here. Which, yeah, yeah.
00:53:44
Speaker
You know, whole hopefully it's not just this one part with Gonzo stuff. Like, i'm I'm kind of assuming that, like, like there there should be more stuff in here. but They're muppeting out the whole thing, not just one area. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
So I guess we'll see when it actually opens up. i The coolest thing would be is if they somehow had like a like a Gonzo, like, I don't want i don't want to say animatronic, but, you know, something like that, like next to the vehicle and you guys take off at the same time and he comes with you, you know? ah Oh, man.
00:54:15
Speaker
I don't I don't know. Or I guess that they they could make that work. because Yeah, they could make that I was thinking about like the, the current way it was set up, but really the only thing that was there is there's a wall that stops you from seeing the larger um yeah structure of the coaster.
00:54:33
Speaker
But there's nothing saying that they couldn't move stuff around so that, yeah, you could have something launching alongside the coaster. Yeah, but he doesn't make it with you, obviously, because, you know, he he would fail. So, yeah, um smash into a wall or something, you know.
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, ah the other one they did in here, and i this is this ah shouldn't be as fascinating to me as it is. And I have no idea how what you thought about this one, but I thought it was fascinating.
Disney's Detailed Craftsmanship
00:54:57
Speaker
they they showed ah one of the sculptors ah doing the the the walking path for a Big Thunder Mountain, like redoing it. And the way that they like make it look like the, that you know, like it's been worn in and that there's a wagon that went through it and like the donkey footprints and all that stuff that the the whole process, I just, I thought it was fascinating, especially for something that like nobody's even looking at, you know, like no one's looking at that. Yeah.
00:55:26
Speaker
Except you are. like I don't. Maybe it's... You're not looking down, though, and going, oh, look, there's the the wagon wheels there and ah the donkey thing. and there must have been a donkey with it. You know what i mean? like i I would bet you the majority people don't look at that stuff and think about it that way.
00:55:41
Speaker
but Okay, fair. The majority of people don't. But I was going to say, i I am absolutely looking at that stuff when like yeah anywhere I am in the park. I'm always like, oh, like, like actually, it's it's funny that, like like you said, you're pointing that out that, you know, that yeah they're they're taking a bunch of time to, um you know, really, really make it feel like it's worn in all that.
00:56:06
Speaker
It's so... It's it feels like an unnecessary detail, except it is very necessary. Right. Like, yeah. And yeah, like to your point, like I am always like, oh, you know, there's there's horseshoes there. There's like bird feet it like, you know, yeah yeah in certain places or like, um yeah, like like I'm just trying to think of like all the different places like you, you kind of overlook that.
00:56:30
Speaker
You see that stuff all the time in Disney. Yeah. like yeah you're you're not like You're not like blown away by but it's always like, oh, yeah, you know, oh, there's something in the concrete. Like, you know, but and I guess you don't always think about the fact, that you know, hey, somebody had to like actively sit there with a mold and do that. It wasn't just like a it's not just a like.
00:56:51
Speaker
spur of the moment thing that they're doing, right? Like it's, it's very, very planned. Yeah. And I mean, even just them, like the the, the cuts that they put into it and then like they threw down these rocks and then they're like tamp them down to give it like texture. And then they like, you know, put the prints in and they put the wheels in. It's just,
00:57:09
Speaker
and that's the kind of that's, you know, the things that Disney does, you know, that are, are details that that people may not notice, but they're going to do it anyway, because it's part of the storytelling of the ride, you know? Yeah. Also the, the fact that they're doing that, I think also is as much function as it is style too, because um when that happens,
00:57:32
Speaker
when those areas get wet, they don't turn into a giant slide because it's, because, you know, if they just poured smooth concrete, it would be like, you know, you know, don't know if you've ever slipped on concrete before, but it sucks. I have. Yes. Yeah. So, so I can see where them, you know, texturing it is also a matter of, it does give it a bit of grip too, that it just happens to look nice, but also, you You know, serves the function of, you know, yeah. So I've i've been in the big thunder queue when it's rained before. And although part of it is covered, um like the hill leading up to um to the ride, like it i I couldn't imagine that not being textured concrete. Yeah.
00:58:16
Speaker
Yeah. I wrote it in the rain one time. Oh, man, that was fun. I mean, we were soaked afterwards, but it was fun. Like we were all laughing afterwards because of how soaked we were, but it was a lot of fun. Yeah. You know, um but OK, well, that's I think that's it for that. But I love that when they're doing this kind of stuff, because I love the behind the scenes stuff. I love seeing how the how the sausage is made, so to speak. So, yeah. and And it's taken for granted, I think, like you said. Yeah.
00:58:41
Speaker
I almost feel like they're doing it to be like, hey, look the stuff that we're doing. Like, you know what mean? Like, this is this is all intentional and it takes a lot of hard work to make this work. So appreciate it more, you know? Yeah. I mean, yeah, that that is fair. It's good to highlight that stuff because like you said, it's, you know, how many times have we all, you know, stood in places in the park and you're not, yeah you know, it's not that there's like anything going on, but even even like the the walkways, know,
00:59:08
Speaker
there is there is deliberate intention to what they're doing, right? Like even if you don't notice it, somebody deliberately put work into making it look a certain way. And and I think that's what they're yeah yeah yeah that's they're trying to show off. yeah Agreed.
00:59:25
Speaker
Another thing, yeah, yeah go ahead. So you wanted to, or you you you put this next item on here, and I'm guessing, or it seems random, except it's not, because I believe i believe that the the tie into this is because of Earth Day.
Disney Ambiance and Cruise Plans
00:59:40
Speaker
um yeah But ah Disney released one-hour ambience living with the land. yeah and nice Yeah, which I love. Go ahead. So, um, or I guess we should start from, you know, that this is this is just like, right. Or I guess they just filmed riding through the ride and then looped it kind of like they did with the, um, yeah.
01:00:07
Speaker
Um, with the monorail and I'm not mad about it. I'll be honest. Like it's yeah the ambience videos that are on, they have some in Disney plus and then there's some on YouTube. Um, are awesome like i have put that stuff on in the background before like the monorail one like you were talking about right they just loop a video but like you just you kind of hear the monorail in the background you hear the announcements you kind of get that little sound like this is the same thing the video just goes through the the scenes of living with the land with the with the music and with the narration like yeah i would put this on in the background if i was just doing stuff to like trying to chill and you know yeah i love the ambiance stuff
01:00:44
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like the only danger of this one is that like I could very easily fall asleep to this. Totally. But not in a bad way, though. Not like in a boarding way. It's just so chill, you know? Yeah, exactly. like like If living with the land was longer, I could definitely take a nap on it. Yeah. Not from a place of like, this is boring or anything, but like you said, it's such a relaxing ride.
01:01:09
Speaker
and yeah And you don't realize how much the music actually plays into it. like they actually did like when you're When you're hearing just the music, um yeah I don't know, it's it's such a...
01:01:24
Speaker
It's a 90s vibe, but it's... It's an old Epcot vibe almost, yeah. Yeah, but it's it's good. like it I don't know how to describe it. It like it it kind of just hits like a a perfect time of when like the... when or i guess i equate it to... like you know i or i I think back to in our city, like the science center in the 90s had a very similar vibe to like living with the land. right like it's ah like It feels like you're hanging out in a science center.
01:01:59
Speaker
which is i mean i mean Nowadays, like you know they're they're fun and yeah you know I don't know about... or ah I'm assuming like you know we we have one here, but you know they've they've they've updated it to... you know there's There's a lot more like kids' playgrounds and and stuff like that. like it it didn't It didn't feel quite as kid-friendly back in the 90s, but it still had um it still had a particular vibe to it that you wanted to be there. Yeah.
01:02:28
Speaker
That's kind of what this is giving. Like, I'm i'm actually like listening to this mute to the music here as we're talking and I'm like, you know yeah, yeah i was trying to but I was trying to figure out if I could play it, play it on the show without, ah you know, having copyright issues. But, you know, probably wouldn't. ah But yeah, seems dangerous.
01:02:47
Speaker
It does. it's It's just so chill, though. It's like so relaxing. And it just kind of gives you that nostalgia vibe, though, too. it' just yeah I'm a big fan of this. i would definitely I'm definitely going to watch this at some point in the background. I have it just relaxing while I you know do something stupid on my phone. Who knows? Yeah. I just had to bring it up, Trevor, because I know you love living with the land and I love living with the land. And also we, we both like the ambiance things. We like the park music stuff and the, you know, like to put on the background when we're trying to concentrate or something like that. So this just kind of hit all those, all those spots, you know? Yeah. i think I'm going to just leave this on in the background for the rest of the episode here we're recording. Yeah.
01:03:27
Speaker
If you hear Trevor snoring, you know why. um if If I pass out, that is that is why. actually no that that that won't happen because we're actually doing something. But I might... to I mean, this might be, I might see how easily I can fall asleep to this tonight. That's a good idea. Just put it on phone. Yeah, just have it going, right? Yeah. So we've been talking more Disney Cruise lately, and I'm good with it. Listen, this is our show. We do whatever we want.
01:03:57
Speaker
I you know have gotten more into cruising with Disney, and um i I like talking about this stuff, and I think a lot of our audience does too. I know a couple of our listeners have gone on cruises because we've been talking about it, which is cool. I love the fact that we talk about these things and then get somebody to do something. I feel like Disney should give us little kickback on that, but it's either here or there. We're not vacation planning for people, I guess would be the thing. We'd have to set all that up. Yeah. But yes, you know, I sorry, I'll just I'll just point it out that, you know, yes, you're right. We've been talking with people on the discord and people are setting up Disney cruises.
01:04:40
Speaker
I am not the one pushing people right my fault. Yeah, no, it's my fault. Yeah. Just so we're clear is that I'm not being the bad influence, even though I have done it in the past. um Yeah, but you didn't do anything to make me. I just did it. i you know, i you you just gave me an idea and and made me you know think about a little bit more. But a couple of things came out here. One of them is that Disney has ah extended. Disney Cruise Line has extended a a contract with the ah Port of San Diego and is planning. I believe I saw somewhere to double the amount of cruises there. Is that what I read?
01:05:17
Speaker
ah Something. Yeah. yeah the the The sailings out of this port will from Disney will almost double ah so over the next couple of years. so And the Disney Wonder is going to make ah San Diego its home port starting at the end of this year for for at least over a year there. So...
01:05:33
Speaker
ah and This is great for our West Coast friends and our West Coast listeners. ah This is you know really, really good for them. ah But also, I kind of really want to take one out of San Diego. I would love to do that. And so it's you know this is a good opportunity now. There's going to be more itineraries as Disney gets more ships here. you know we we have the Believe coming out next year. And then there's ships coming out every year. So ah you know youd never know.
01:05:59
Speaker
But what we have to we have to see. yeah But i I will definitely get myself out there. I feel like this is... you know we've We've been saying we need to get you to Disneyland. This feels like...
01:06:10
Speaker
The, you know, do a couple of days at Disneyland and then go get on a cruise in San Diego might be the play. because what Somebody in the Discord mentioned you can take the train between those two places very easily. And it's like a really nice train ride. And I'm like, that sounds amazing to me. Go on a cruise, take a train ride up the coast to disney to Disneyland. Like, that sounds awesome.
01:06:32
Speaker
Like, I want to do that. is Because even driving, like, it's... I I'll admit I haven't, I think the last time we drove from San Diego to LA was in 2014, but it was only like, like, I want to say it was like an hour to get between them. Like they're not, it's not that far.
01:06:49
Speaker
So, and that's, it's driving. I mean, and that's also like, we like, we weren't exactly going fast because you know, we're we like, I hadn't been to the area a lot. So we were kind of figuring our way down, down the highway, so to speak.
01:07:04
Speaker
Um, but, Yeah, so, yeah, that that's definitely... And actually, I didn't even realize that there was a train between LA and San Diego at this point. because I think that's what somebody said in the ah in the Discord, right? i Maybe I'm making that up. I swear that that that was... Somebody said it was, like, really easy to go to go in between the two.
01:07:24
Speaker
um and I'm forgetting who it is a Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara. Yeah. It seems like there's a, Oh, it's about two hour trip. Okay. Yeah.
01:07:41
Speaker
It's not bad. Oh, so yeah. I mean, yeah, that makes sense. Like I said, if it's about, or, you know, highway obviously would be quicker because you're not having to, you know, or highways are more direct, I guess usually, but yeah. You know, if if you just take a train ride and you, you know, you don't even have to rent a car or anything,
01:08:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm trying to find, I'm trying to find that post in the discord. It it was, uh, where, where it was really interesting. there I'm reading on Reddit and people are just saying like, yeah, you just, you do a ride share from Disneyland to to, the train and then you can,
01:08:16
Speaker
Oh, there goes. Yeah. So is Dan is as Dan K said ah they added Disneyland trip on as well. Highly recommend the Amtrak as it picks up directly across from the port and drops you very close to Disneyland Resort.
01:08:27
Speaker
And it's also a beautiful trip across the coast. Like that's I'm trying to talk about that. That's a really good tip right there. That's that's an excellent tip from Dan. Thank you, Dan. So, yeah, that's cool. I would do that in a heartbeat. Honestly.
01:08:42
Speaker
Now you're Googling. Yeah. You got me looking at this stuff. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. did Yeah. It is actually, so yeah. Amtrak, the Pacific surf liner train is okay what you're looking for. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. The other thing that just came out too, and this isn't really relevant to you more to me. And I got this email and then it started a whole thing.
01:09:01
Speaker
ah because i i was like, I literally, I was like, ah I got the email and i was like, darn you, Disney cruise line. Why are you doing this to me? Yeah. Like why you said no. It's like, don't send me these things. that They know what they're doing. I know. So now through June 14th, guests can book ah on ah itineraries departing between October 2026 and March 2027 and can enjoy 50% off kids' fairs is a new deal that they're doing here. It's on select sailings and none of them really worked out for us. But
01:09:34
Speaker
As soon as we saw that, my wife was like, huh? yeah You want to check it out and see if there's anything you know that works out for us? I was like, I do want to check it out, but I also don't. like because I think you just need to make it work.
01:09:47
Speaker
yeah but like You say none of it works for you. I think you're not making it work. it's more just it's a school schedule is what is what doesn't come on no yeah i don't want to get in more trouble here yeah yeah i guess you you could end up in the principal's office having conversation yeah yeah but anyways so that's our cruise segment for for this episode but um you know I'm sure it gives you a little more because I know you've been thinking about it and you're still thinking about it. So if there's more out of San Diego, that would be a good route for you guys. I mean, it's not close, but it's not as far as you going all the way to Port Canaveral.
01:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's like like I've said, you know, you know the the big difference is is, you know, getting to Port Canaveral is, you know, before we even get there, it's a five-hour flight. And yeah getting to California is only about an hour and a half flights. That's not bad. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, it's it's definitely something to think about. Yeah.
01:10:45
Speaker
I don't want to say that we're like, we are going to go on a cruise. It's still, it's still very much up in the air at this point. Yeah, of course. Yeah. course yeah I had to add this next topic on here, Trevor, because... It's a weird little call-out, but it's very interesting. Okay, so you you don't think it's weird that I added this? No, no, I get it. And and I was honestly a little bit surprised. um that the The way the headline reads made it sound like it was being put back in the ride, but it's not. so So, okay, what we're talking about is...
Animal Kingdom Safari Changes
01:11:19
Speaker
Back in the day on Kilimanjaro Safari, there was actually an animatronic on Kilimanjaro. It was a a baby elephant called Little Red. So that there was a whole story in Kilimanjaro. And it was talking about poaching. have to say the storyline on the original ride was kind of dark. it was Yeah, absolutely. It's really dark. Yeah. Yeah. um But so apparently Little Red is back, um but he's specifically or you can only see him in the um if you do the caring for giants tour so that they have that. Yeah.
01:11:58
Speaker
Yeah. But so I guess you'll have to do it again. um Yeah. Well, you know, my daughter would probably love that. That I have to tell you, if you're going to do a tour at Disney, Animal Kingdom has some of the coolest stores. If you like animals, if you don't like animals, then whatever. But there there's some really animals. Why are you here? you know that that Don't go there. but But there are some amazing tours that you can take in Animal Kingdom and get really close to the animals. And, you know, even when when we did the Caring for Giants tour, I mean, it had to have been 10 years ago.
01:12:29
Speaker
You know, it was we actually got to go in the building where they they house the elephants, you know, like at night and, you know, during other times. And um it was really it was really cool. I mean, it was it was very, very neat. So there's a lot of that cool stuff. I mean, given you do have to obviously keep your distance, right? There is, ah you know, ah even though there's like barriers, there's like gaps in the barriers. And so they have like a line that you can only go up to because otherwise, i mean, theoretically, the elephant could reach out and grab you with their trunk with their trunks. But yeah um it is a very cool, very cool thing. ah But it is funny that they brought back Little Red and
01:13:05
Speaker
ah I actually part of why I put this on here, Trevor, is because i was at the first year of of Animal Kingdom. Like we we went there the first year that it was open.
01:13:16
Speaker
And so I went on the original version of the ride. And I like remember it very, very vividly. There was... for those that don't know, know, go, I'm sure there's videos on the internet, but like the guide would like interact with like a prerecorded thing. Like they were like, they would pretend like they were talking back and forth.
01:13:33
Speaker
There was a whole thing where we were chasing poachers and, and, you know, then the whole thing with little, little red and, you know, you're, you're basically trying to hunt down these, uh, these poachers.
01:13:44
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it It was like I said, it was a it was very dark um because the I think the very original version before it even the park even open, the big red was ah no longer alive when you got to the end of it, which was not great. ah Yeah. um I don't think that that part ever.
01:14:05
Speaker
I don't know if that actually ever launched or not, but I don't remember. I don't see how it could have. I mean, that I feel like there would have been blowback if if it was. I mean, but also this was also the same era where Aepliator Encounter thing. You got too far with dead elephants, though, man. Dead baby elephants. That's a little little harsh. Yeah. I mean, i mean yeah, the the fact that at the end, yeah they you know they they made it. So I remember this, too. Like, i I got to ride the original version of it as well. um I think it was actually, like, very close to the end of, you know, before they changed. I didn't realize how or, like, you know, the first time I went, it was like.
01:14:46
Speaker
I think we caught a lot of that stuff, like like even like the Yeti in, uh, in Everest and all that, like we caught all that stuff before it all changed. And, you know, I think we, I was lucky that I like, when I go back and I read about it was like, I was there like six months before all these things actually were taken apart and, and changed into other things. So, so like for Kilimanjaro, I remember that, that, you know, you know, I, the funny thing was, I remember thinking like,
01:15:16
Speaker
you know They had the animatronic at the end, and it was like they were putting them into like ah like a cage. like you know they're They're like, oh, we're going to take them to you know a reserve or something like that. Yeah, yeah. and And I remember thinking at the time, I was like, that seems kind of... It seemed a little corny and a little unnecessary for for what it was, but...
01:15:39
Speaker
you know I also get, like yeah like you say, they were trying to you know put some messaging forward around like poaching and stuff. and and you know Because it's it's a real legitimate issue in in areas in Africa that you know they they're trying to combat.
01:15:53
Speaker
And so you know that they you know I get them putting awareness around it, but it was like... I guess without knowing the the the the pretext of the ride, you know it kind of blindsided me.
01:16:04
Speaker
like i I was like, oh, i I didn't come here for this. I you know i was i was coming for you know a vacation, not for you know you know to be told about these things, which is not to say that you know you know the you should be aware of these things. the you know It's good that they were they were educating people on it, but I was more so like,
01:16:23
Speaker
Like, oh, this this isn't what I thought this was going to be, right? So I i kind of understand why why they did maybe go back and change it. But like I said, you know you know knowing that the animatronic is still around and and you know you know they have it on display, which is you know it's very nice. It's obviously not it's not actually like doing anything, but you know they have a little ah placard there for it and everything is you know kind of a ah cool nod back to what the ride used to be, right? so this is ah This is when it's good that ah that a Disney or are hoarders and they never throw anything away. Now they are, yeah. They learned their lesson finally.
01:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, they they never get rid of stuff. and Even if they do, they reuse it. um But yeah, it's so funny. The only thing I wish with Kilimanjaro Safari, like I don't miss this storyline. I do miss the the rickety bridge ah that we used to shake. like I don't know if that just broke and they never fixed it or if they just decided to take it out, but that was always so cool.
01:17:23
Speaker
i don't know. I was just, yeah wouldn because that's right by the, ah by the crocodiles, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, right ah yeah is there's there's a bridge where they stop and it used to shake back and forth and like, you know, they would do a whole thing and, and were yeah they they were telling, I remember they were telling us all to lean to one side. Yeah. Yeah. it was like Yeah. i yeah it's it's It's just a bummer because I don't know the last time that they even did it. I feel like it hasn't... Maybe they just turned it off because maybe it was like slowing down capacity. I don't know.
01:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like maybe yeah it was one of those things that like didn't didn't really make sense because there wasn't any... or Like I said, the you know the the previous version of the ride was very... um like it was trying to create an air of danger and, and like you were going into something dangerous. Whereas now it's very much just like a tour. i feel like having the you know, the, the rickety bridge thing is like yeah completely unnecessary at this point.
01:18:24
Speaker
So, yeah yeah, it depends on who you, where you look on the internet, but some people, uh, some people are saying that they completely removed it. And some people saying that they, that it's still there. They just don't use it anymore. So I don't know. Hmm.
01:18:37
Speaker
But I don't know. it' just It's just disappointing because that was always a fun part of the ride. they It made it feel like, you know, you were really on a safari driving, you know, driving around on these rickety bridges. And, you know, mean, I don't know. i I feel like, you know, the ride in and of itself is is good enough. i don't think you need i think, honestly, like there is a time and a place for effects like that. I i don't think that Kilimanjaro needs it.
01:19:03
Speaker
I understand. I just thought it was cool. But anyway. Anyway. You had a couple of merch things out here that we should probably get into.
Excitement Over New Merchandise
01:19:14
Speaker
The first one I see is Bluey merchandise coming to Disney Parks and Disney Store.
01:19:21
Speaker
I need to see if this is available right now because those bracelets, I kind of feel like I need to buy from my daughter. Like right now. What does it say? Best mates on it? Yeah. She would, she loves, my daughter loves her jewelry. She loves making jewelry. She loves bluey.
01:19:40
Speaker
This little blue ear hat too. ah the It's not the in ear hat. It's one of those customizable headbands. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like they're going to sell an insane amount of this stuff. That show is still drawing huge crowds. It's crazy. so the The interesting thing is I i don't see anything about, or no, wait, sorry.
01:20:01
Speaker
Okay. it's I don't like how they did this article because it says right at the beginning, bluey merchandise at the Disneyland resort. And i was like, Oh, they're only selling it at Disneyland. But then when you go further down,
01:20:13
Speaker
there there it is going to be available at Disney World but I don't or we just don't have the show yet at Disney World so that's but waiting for that but um yeah it says that it says that the merch will be hitting Animal Kingdom yeah um ahead of the conservation station updates at May 26th so exactly so I guess to that end you know Maybe you need to get down to Animal Kingdom sooner than you realize. why you trying Why are you trying to do this to me, Trevor?
01:20:44
Speaker
i mean I mean, I guess the next part is is it is available on the Disney Store, too. I guess you can get it from the Disney Store if you want, but it's more fun to go to Animal Kingdom and get it. Not yet. I just went and looked and it's not there. Um, and that, which is very disappointing, but it says starting this summer, select items from blue merchandise collection will be available at Disney stores. So not everything will be available. All right. Well, I just got a wait, I guess. No, it's funny you say that though, Trevor, because my my we were my wife and I were talking about something associated with going, like we were about some Disney news, right?
01:21:18
Speaker
And my wife kind of looked at me with like the sad eyes and she was like, I want to go. and I'm like, I looked at her, I turned around said, we can go anytime you want. We can go next week if you want. I don't care. Let's go. If you really want to go, let's go. Like, I didn't think you wanted to go. Let's go. So stop making it seem like I'm the one holding this back. I'm not holding this up. I want to go. Let's go. Let's do it. We haven't gone in a while. We haven't done a week trip in two years now. And we've done little trips, but like, I want to do the full thing again, you know? Yep. um but yeah I'm right there with you.
01:21:50
Speaker
we We got into cruising and then we got distracted, you know, by cruising. And, you know, it's also the school thing is also hard to we've talked about this. The school, you know, go working around school is difficult. And I really when my wife and I were younger and it was just the two of us, we would go to Disney in July like crazy people, um you know, because it's insanely hot there. on July. Like, I don't think my daughter could deal with July. So, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't want to bring my even my son at his current age. I wouldn't want to take him there in July because it would just be. Yeah, it would be a miserable, miserable time for everybody involved.
01:22:27
Speaker
Yeah. So anyway. Yeah. So I don't know. Who knows? Maybe I'm going to take a trip later this year. Yeah. So, I mean, at the very least, like I said, you know, you know, some of the stuff will be available on Disney store.com, but if you're hunting for a particular item, you know, you may have to just figure out how to get down to animal kingdom. I mean, you, animal kingdom lodges your home resort. and I love animal kingdom. It's my favorite park. So, yeah. So i don't know. I'm just, all right. Just putting that out there.
01:22:56
Speaker
Let's move on from this before I end up booking a Disney trip. Before you before you convince yourself. Oh, no, I'm convinced. i want to go. i Listen, I tried to get us to go after the cruise, and I was i was met with yeah you know with the big no. so But anyway, so last but no. I feel like a bracelet would be a very hard sell. prefer to go all the down there for it. Yeah, I mean, listen, they got bracelets. My daughter also loves keychains, so that's another thing I would be getting for her these keychains. There's some cool shirts. There's a little jacket, a couple headbands, a bucket hat.
01:23:27
Speaker
i like I actually really like the the headband with Bluey and Bingo on it. Although, there should also be Muffin on there, too. i There just needs to be Muffin. But ah that's neither here nor there. need more Muffin. you like um yeah I feel like they're not going to do the supporting characters quite yet. I mean, you'll you'll get it'll just be Bluey and Bingo for the first little while. And then... I don't need all the supporting characters. I just need muffin.
01:23:54
Speaker
just muffin Just muffin. I don't care about anybody else. i don't care about socks. You know, forget that. line ah you know i don't care about that. You know, forget socks. Or any her friends. Don't care about the friends. Just want muffin.
01:24:08
Speaker
that's all all i care about because muffin is the greatest character ever and that's all all right yeah all right now that we've gotten that out of the way um okay but so we're going to circle back on this star wars merch stuff i think this is this is probably last release yeah last release yeah yeah um i think you were particularly excited about this one i think if i remember i was but now i'm disappointed Yeah. I was a little bummed by two, but you go through it. you start so Okay. So, so they have, they have a couple of jackets and shirts and everything and it's, it's pod racing, obviously. So, so the, you know, the stuff is the referencing the, the Boonta Eve classic and Mos Espa and, um and they're they're meant to look like racing jackets and it's,
01:25:01
Speaker
It doesn't feel right. I get what they're going for. It's just that I agree. It doesn't feel right. Yeah. Like it, like the, the, and, and I'm sorry, but whoever they got to do these photo shoots, like they're not, this, this is not how you show off merch.
01:25:18
Speaker
Like they made this like a little too high, like, and right Yeah, they're all like hunched over and you know trying to be all edgy. And it's like, you know oh, look at the look at my my my jacket that says Mos Espa Grand Prix and Skywalker on the back. But it's like, that's not...
01:25:36
Speaker
Like it does not, air no, yeah it doesn't fit with the, like, that's not what pod racing was. It wasn't, I mean, I, it was a racing league, but they're trying to make this look like it's like F1 or NASCAR or something. And it just doesn't, it doesn't fit to me. Like it's, yeah.
01:25:55
Speaker
Yeah. and And yeah, like I said, just just the way that they've got them posing on these things where it's like you can't even like properly see what's on the shirt because they're all like hunched over and bent in weird positions and stuff. And it's like, I don't know what they're doing. who who Whoever, whoever picks this part of it, like.
01:26:19
Speaker
ah but Come on guys. like like like yeah Of this entire merch line, like you know you know yeah and and like they have the rest of it here. like you know Going back through it, it's like you know the rest of it looks clean. It looks well-presented for what it is.
01:26:37
Speaker
And you know the Endor stuff is still my favorite. Out of all these things, I didn't think that... like Endor would be the thing that I take out of this this merch line, but that's the only ones that are actually good. The the pod racing stuff just,
01:26:53
Speaker
it it it feels, you know when Star Wars Phantom Menace came out and it like it was very polarizing.
01:27:04
Speaker
Like it, like there was people that liked it. There was people that did not like star Wars. And and it was because like, it was a combination of things in the movie that, uh, that, you know, you know, people were, were not happy with. And, and it felt there were, there were points of the movie that felt like,
01:27:22
Speaker
out of touch with the rest of the star Wars universe. This is, that's what this merch line is giving to me. Like yeah i thought, I thought the pod racing sequence was great. I, you know, I very much enjoyed it. I would go back and watch it and be like, you know, that was, you know, it was a cool race. It was cool how they, you know, they're winding through the canyons and everything.
01:27:44
Speaker
And it, um, it, that part felt good. But then, but this merch feels like the rest of the movie where like, it's like they took like the bad parts and And tried to emphasize it and it just doesn't. I get it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:28:03
Speaker
That's funny. and And like the the lettering is not even like, sorry, I just keep looking at this. Like it doesn't, it doesn't look like anything out of Star Wars. It just looks like a generic racing jacket with a bunch of logos on it. Like, yeah, yeah i mean I'm not a fan of these.
01:28:19
Speaker
Yeah. What are they doing? I don't know. The X-Wing shirt's not bad. Yeah, the X-Wing shirt is is okay. It's the only thing that is decent out of this thing. But yeah, like that this part of it, like, that you know, especially the fact that they highlight, like, you know, pod racing was going to be the theme of this. And it's like, no, it's not. yeah Like, you you you could have made the, like, you've you're selling like a NASCAR jacket that just has like pod racing references on it, but it's not...
01:28:53
Speaker
that's not what I was envisioning this merch was going to be, I guess. Yeah, I get that. By the way, can I, can I go back to one of the ones we talked about previously? Cause we got some stuff around about the mystery box set.
01:29:05
Speaker
Okay. So the mystery with the six shirts. Yeah. Yeah. do you remember we talked about the mystery box set? So I thought when we read it and they didn't really give this detail, so it it's not really our fault, ah but it's not, you don't get one shirt with that. You actually get a six shirts,
01:29:22
Speaker
And there are seven possible designs. So you could get where the mystery comes in is you could get the six known designs or it could be five of the known designs and a rare mystery chaser design that they don't advertise.
01:29:37
Speaker
So that's where we, you know, you were talking about how mad you'd be if you got like the, like a shirt for one that you don't like, but here you would get all of the shirts and maybe the mystery shirt. So that's how they get people, right? Is that you want to get that mystery shirt.
01:29:52
Speaker
Sorry, hold on. You said you do get all six shirts or you, or you said you get five plus of mystery one particular. So you get six shirts and out of out of seven possible, it could be the six known designs, which are the ones that we looked at, Trevor. So the ones that all of those, you get one of each of those, or it could be five of the known designs and then one of this mystery one.
01:30:12
Speaker
Okay. So the mystery one would have to be amazing if I didn't get the episode six shirt. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Because because that's the other side of that is, that you you know, great that, you know, most of the time you would just get those six shirts. And, you know, I guess that's cool. You you know, you get a pack of six spirit jerseys. But if I, you know, getting the rare one, I guess, you know, that's exciting. But if it's at the like...
01:30:36
Speaker
If it's at the sacrifice of one of the shirts that I actually wanted, i don't know that, like, that shirt better be good. So it says here the mystery chaser item is one in 36. So every one out of every 36. Now, I also want to mention, though, too, Trevor. Still not buying it.
01:30:55
Speaker
it's Well, it's sold out, number one. It's sold out already. yeah But how much would you guess that this mystery box set of six shirts costs? uh for six shirts i mean i i gotta to say like i feel like it's 200 plus dollars it is 599.99 whoa yeah that was not what i was limited edition right there no no no no but it's sold out it's sold out That's insane. That that is... When I saw that price, I was yeah. That's $100 per shirt. Yeah. This is why I had to bring this back up again, because I pulled up Disney Store and I happened to see it. I saw that was sold out. And I also saw that we were wrong about it. But the fact that it was $600, we did not see that last time. There is no universe where I'm buying... Especially not the Star Wars universe. $100 shirt, let alone six. That's it's so that's a lot. that is ah That's definitely for somebody who wants to like collect or... Yeah, yeah. Adley needs that mystery shirt, you know?
01:32:02
Speaker
Yeah, that that's entirely collector realm stuff. Like, that's... Like I could never even wear, like if I bought a shirt and it cost me a hundred dollars, I would not be able to wear the shirt because I'd be like, i spent too much money on this and I don't want to wreck it. Like, yeah, that's, I agree. I that's, that's insane. Yeah.
01:32:21
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Anyway, I just had to bring that back up again. Cause yeah. Cause I saw that and I was like $600 and it's sold out. I mean, I don't know how many of them they sold, but considering is one in 36, I mean, they probably have thousands of these that they sold. I would think.
01:32:38
Speaker
Yeah. like but Between this and the Mos Espa classic jacket, like oh did Disney, i don't know. i don't know what they're doing here.
01:32:51
Speaker
Wait, now I pulled up another listing and it says $100, but that can't be right. Maybe it's for one shirt. Maybe this one's one shirt. Yeah. Magic. Oh, yeah. You could do one shirt for $100 them for Yeah, no, that like, I'm, yeah, I'm, I'm not like, I, like I said, I guess I'm sure there's somebody out there that really wants to collect stuff like this, but $600 is steep. Like even, but sorry, even by Disney standards, like that's, that's crazy. Here's the thing, though, Trevor. They're sold out and backordered.
Disney's Merchandise Strategy and Humor
01:33:31
Speaker
But again, that that is clear. that there There's two types of people that are buying that. One is the hardcore collectors, which, you know, respect. i'm not I'm not saying it's wrong, but, you you know, there's people that want to collect that stuff and all the more power to you. Then there's a subsection of people that are trying to resell this stuff, which that's
01:33:53
Speaker
That is the the part about this. What I mean by that, though, the fact that both of them are sold out, ah well, one is sold out and the other one's backward, it tells me that they probably could have charged even more. Like, they probably could have charged more. Or they could have just made more of them up front and, you know, because, ah sorry, it's it's a shirt with some silk screening on it. How hard is that?
01:34:14
Speaker
Special edition, Trevor. Limited edition. Okay. I mean. I don't get it either. so i For scarcity. Okay. Yeah, that's what it is. yeah it's But i listen, that's Disney's been doing that for a long time. i mean, yeah yeah it was the Disney vault, man. you was for scarcity, right?
01:34:32
Speaker
Yeah, i thought I thought they had, I don't know. That was a thing, by the way, too. Yeah, you know, I i thought they had learned their lesson on this stuff, but I guess, you know, to be fair, maybe maybe it's, you know, you keep that one thing that people chase, which, you know, is fine. Like you said, you know, people chasing a rare shirt or whatever, but then then that means, I guess, the rest of this merch is...
01:34:55
Speaker
more readily available because people aren't hunting for it yeah so this is this is like the main collector thing i think in this yeah in this in this line right so like it's that all this made the forest stuff this is like the collector thing to me so that's probably why because everything else is available like you can get all the other stuff yeah i i would just be going for the indoor stuff that would that would be that would be be my collectible out of this is the indoor stuff The Commander ah Pyre voice ah changing helmet for adults is $130.
01:35:27
Speaker
yeah It's cool, but when am I, or I guess, am I wearing that while I'm making dinner? like I would really, well, listen, first of all, it changes your voice, right? So like, which is kind of cool.
01:35:40
Speaker
I would pay you dollars to go to the grocery store with that on your head, just with no content. You just, know there's no explanation. You just walk around with that on your head. I mean, yeah I mean, yeah, you could do that.
01:35:55
Speaker
I feel like, i mean, the thing is, is you're not really interacting with anybody at a grocery store. So, yeah, you know, yeah I mean, no one's going to say anything to you either. Right. Like, yeah, I see people walk around the grocery store in their pajamas. So I don't know that this would be that out of place necessarily. But I mean, yeah, I guess it would still be a little weird.
01:36:21
Speaker
yeah i think I'm just thinking because it has the voice changers, you know, if I'm making dinner and it's like, can you pass the salt, please? like Walk around asking your wife for her her identification or whatever. You're not authorized to handle the chicken. ah see this there's endless uses here yeah well because certainly can't wear this around the park for more reasons than one right like they can't i mean maybe you can but well what's to stop you from just wearing the helmet like what it like yeah i guess that's not really a costume right it's just a helmet yeah so yeah but but i'm actually it might violate i i recall there being something about not having anything covering your face either so that it might well might be on that that's not fun then You know, because like that, that would be fun to walk around. i' that No, it wouldn't be fun because it'd be hot as can be. That that helmet would... yeah you would feel You'd be sweating in like two minutes and you would be like, I need this thing off me. I need to take this off of me immediately or I'm going to die. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. There's not a lot of practical up applications for this, Trevor. You're correct. But listen, these are not practical things. i you know she but i'
01:37:32
Speaker
I'm still disappointed about this pod racing stuff. Like I was... I was all excited that it was going to be cool. And they, they like, they did the opposite of cool. They were trying, I mean, they tried something, right. They were trying to like tie it to modern time. I get it, but they, yeah, it doesn't, felt but it should like, sorry, like, ah I'm not, I'm not hating on like, you know, F1 and NASCAR stuff like that's fine for F1 and NASCAR stuff.
01:37:59
Speaker
This is trying to be something that it's not. Yeah. Like that. What's my issue with it is like they, they took, they took that format and they just overlaid it on this. and it's like, they could have put any words on here and it it like, it doesn't like, it doesn't make sense. Like, uh,
01:38:20
Speaker
Because, you know, where in what world are you wearing a jacket that says like Mos Espa Grand Prix that, you know, it looks like ah like a racing jacket, but who's going to know what the Mos Espa Grand Prix is unless you're a Star Wars fan?
01:38:34
Speaker
Like, it doesn't... It doesn't... Yeah, it it just doesn't make sense to me. Like, I'm not... I wouldn't ever be wearing that. You wouldn't? Oh, man. Yeah.
01:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, all right. let's On that note, let's wrap this up. yeah I do want this helmet just so I can walk around pretending to be stormtrooper and just annoy my wife incessantly. Yeah, I i mean, batteries would suddenly go missing. Yeah, no. My wife would eventually crack and just go, take off that helmet!
01:39:09
Speaker
and Like, you know, there'd curses in there, too. like it good Yeah, yeah. Anyway. yeah yeah Yeah, let's leave it there. Hopefully there's some better merch coming down the line that's not... there I mean, I shouldn't say like all the merch was bad. like there There was some good pieces in there.
01:39:27
Speaker
Yeah, i I feel like you know they they can't always be batting a thousand and not everything's meant for me either. I know that. like I'm sure there's somebody that will want that. But i I'll be honest, of all the merch, I feel like the one thing that will not sell out will be the pod racing stuff. That's...
01:39:44
Speaker
That's my take. Yeah. I could be wrong, though. like i'm I'm not saying that I'm an expert on it. I'm just saying that of all the stuff that we reviewed, that is the least appealing. So I get it there. again Yeah.
01:39:57
Speaker
All right. So, yeah I guess, you know, considering we we talked to actually about a lot of different things today. So, you know, if yeah, random stuff. But I think I think it was a good spread of stuff. So, yeah you know, if if you're listening to the show and you have questions for us, you want to share share your own takes on it Yeah.
01:40:18
Speaker
um you know, share your trip reports, all that kind of stuff. You can always email us at welcomehomepodcast.gmail.com or you can find us through our website, which is welcomehomepodcast.co. You can go to the the contact contact us section on there, which will, you know, fire us off an email the same way, but, you know, you can go to the website if you want to.
01:40:37
Speaker
uh, come, come ask us stuff or or send us stuff. Um, you can also follow us on, uh, social media. So we're, we're on Facebook as welcome home podcast. We're on YouTube as welcome home podcast. We're on Instagram as welcome home picks.
01:40:51
Speaker
Uh, you know, we also have our Facebook group, welcome home, Disney wait list. You can join and, uh, um you know, get in on the the conversation, you know, you know, share trip reports again, love, love seeing people just talking about Disney stuff and talking about their own take on it. Cause you know, obviously everything on the show here is, you know, that's our take on it, but you know, we love to hear what you guys think about it too, because you know, we all, we all do Disney differently. So um you know, if you, like I said, if you want to follow us on social media, we, we are, we are out there.
01:41:22
Speaker
Also, if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.walkuphomepodcast.co and check out our different merch. We we got a lot of good stuff on there. if If there's something that you would like to see added to the store, just you know drop us an email. and you know we can We have options to add different merch. So if if there's something that you would like to see there, we can look at adding it to the store. Just let us know.
01:41:47
Speaker
um And also, if you want to help support us through Patreon, um you can find us on Patreon. or I'm going to say Patreon too many times here. Patreon.com slash welcome home pod is, is our Patreon and you can support us through Patreon and I'm going to stop saying it before it stops. saying Patreon. is Feeling like a, feeling like a a word. Yeah. But yeah, for, for everyone who supports us through, through Patreon, you get an exclusive logo that you can only get there. And ah it also gets you access to the discord server, which like we said, you know, we, we have lots of great conversations on discord as well. Um, you know, you know, people, people planning cruises and, and stuff like that. um but also just, uh, you know, talking about, a lot of the stuff we talk about on the show. Sometimes we do sneak peeks on, on there on discord as well. So, um, you know, please come check us out there if you're interested.
01:42:38
Speaker
And last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere, you can leave us a five-star review. Please do so. It just helps more people find the show. ah you know You know, just how the internet works. it's It helps your friends helps your friends realize that we're out there too. And you know I guess outside of the the five stars, if there's anybody you know that um you think might like the show, send it to them as well. Because you know we we'd love for for more people to enjoy the show.
01:43:07
Speaker
Best way to find new podcasts, right? Yeah. Hear what your friends you know have to say. So the other thing you can do is ah 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, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app that's out there, you can find us.
01:43:26
Speaker
ah You know, huge thank you, first of all, ah to DVC Rental Store for sponsoring this episode, being great friends and, you know, just being awesome. So anything DVC related, go check them out. And, you know, of course, Keyholder Vacations, which is the umbrella corporation, the umbrella mega corporation that ah that Nick has built over the past 10 years here ah that can do everything for you ah when it comes to Disney or just vacations in general.
01:43:51
Speaker
Sorry, i'm I'm going to interrupt you there for a second because you said an Umbrella and I've been playing Resident Evil 9 lot lately. And i don't know if you know Resident Evil lore, but Umbrella is like the bad corporation in there. So you're you're kind of... Sorry. I know I interrupted your spiel, but but you said you said Umbrella and i was like, no, wait, no, they're they're not they're not like that. no, no they're not evil. Not that Umbrella. yeah. yeah They're yeah good. do nothing but good. So, yeah.
01:44:17
Speaker
Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:44:41
Speaker
run for over the home