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Episode 341: Vacation Planning, DVC MagicBand Sliders & Disneyland Trading Cards
792 Plays7 days ago
On This Episode
The guys give an update on their vacation planning, discuss point swaps, and planning vacations with other families. The guys discuss the expansion of construction walls and new themed scrim arriving at the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom. DVC has sent a surprise gift for 2025 Membership Magic Beyond subscribers. Over at Disneyland, a new $5.99 kids meal is coming soon as part of a strategy to focus on younger families. Disneyland has enhanced guest experience by eliminating the 11 AM restriction on park hopping and boosted ride reliability, leading to 1.5 million additional rides in 2025. The guys look at the new Topps Disneyland 70th Anniversary trading cards.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
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.
Episode Sponsor and Episode Start
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 341 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast.
Hosts' Personal Updates
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm Tom, I'm here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor? Hey, doing all right. How are you?
00:00:42
Speaker
Oh, you know, busy, he is busy, busy, busy.
00:00:48
Speaker
it's It's that time at year, right? You know, it's it's more focused on getting stuff done than like... Trip planning and stuff like that, right? Well, yeah, trip planning. Well, yeah, you know, I think I talked about it on the last episode. Like, we don't have a vacation schedule for this year. And it's like, it's kind of, it's like a little bit killing me. Like, you know, I'm like, I'm dying inside from this. I need to, I need to do something, you know? like um But I don't know what that's going to be yet. And I think we talked about, we were just kind of,
00:01:11
Speaker
waiting around hoping there were going to be some cruise deals in the summer, you know, when they try to like fill some, fill some rooms and stuff. And that's what we were thinking we might do, but I don't know. We're just kind of, it's, we've just been so busy. We haven't even really been thinking about it, you know?
Vacation Planning and DVC Points
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, no i I get it. And, you know, similarly for us is, you know, we've, we're deciding to funnel all of our points into next year for a bigger trip. So yeah, it's, it's the same thing is it's like,
00:01:36
Speaker
you kind of, or like, it feels like something's missing, even though, even though, you know, you have something planned, it's still like, yeah, but I want to go now. Yeah, but I need a break right now. like I need time off. I will admit, I have been thinking about this. is you know we we agreed my My wife and I agreed. They were like, no, we want to have as many points available as possible for next year because we're going to be doing things way above and beyond what we would normally do, including like staying in a bungalow.
00:02:07
Speaker
So so you know I don't want to spend any extra points this year. But then in the back of my head, I'm like, could I, you know, we we could stay in like a ah Saratoga and it would only cost us like, you know, 30 points to, yeah and it's like, no, no, no, no no do be tempted do'ty tap yeah yeah yeah the problem is is that it like like when you're talking about like banking and borrowing points and everything like you know i guess this is something you know when we started all of this like like dvc stuff
00:02:40
Speaker
you know that That was talked about as a feature of DVC is that, you know hey, you can bank and borrow. And it and it's like, oh, that sounds you know that sounds amazing. But the part that they don't tell you about is that when you get used to a certain cadence of taking trips and then it's like, oh, yeah, if you want to like bank your points, it's like all of a sudden that that disrupts your business.
00:03:02
Speaker
yearly yearly trip and right it's like yeah it's like oh wait that that like it's good but it's also like wait what do you mean i have to wait for the next trip like yeah exactly i actually so it's it's i think i talked i don't know if i talked about this on the show or just to you i never know what we talk about and what like i forget you know we have conversations yeah Yeah. So like, um and this is not a plug for the sponsor at all, but and it just so happens that we're talking about this right now. But like DVC rental store does a thing where you can like you can book cruises with your points, but it's not like when you do it through Disney where it's like a really bad deal. Like basically they're, they're, you're giving them your points and then they're booking a cruise for you. And it's so like the exchange is much, uh, is much better. Like it makes a lot more sense to do it that way. Like, cause we could take like a, ah a week long cruise for less than our yearly allotment of points. I mean, like that's which, you know, if we were to do it through Disney, it would be much more and they don't charge you that fee. So yeah.
00:04:07
Speaker
yeah so it's So it's more like the equivalent of like renting your points out and then booking a cruise, but they're kind of doing it both in one step. Yeah, they're doing it like ah almost like a single transaction. it's It's pretty cool the way that it that it works. And i I would love to get somebody on here to talk about it at some point because i it is it is a really cool thing. And I i is i think it's through Rental Store. and i'm I'm on their website now. and I'm trying to find it, and I can't. This is fun. But no, there's... um I was looking into it and i was like, oh, it's a swap. Yeah. So it's swaps, right? So they do yeah Disney cruise swaps. And so an example is like you can do seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise for a family of four for 583 points where it would cost you 754 points with booking with Disney. So you end up saving like a lot of points doing it that way, right? And also... like
00:04:58
Speaker
I mean, that's for a family of four. ah For two adults, you know, if it was just me and my wife, we could we could do ah a veranda room for 241 points for five-night cruise. I mean, that's, like I said, that's that's that's we'd still have points left over after that. like Yeah, that's it's not bad.
00:05:15
Speaker
No, I mean, we do it would be we might actually end up doing that. I don't know. So we're going to see, though. But we don't have, i want to say we don't have another use for our points this year. i We may still love and end up going to Disney. My daughter was asking me, like, we were going to Disney this year. And I'm like, hu baby like you know I Okay, no, sorry. I'm going to stop you there.
00:05:36
Speaker
um you you're missing an opportunity. If your kid says go to Disney, you're going to Disney. like Why why are you arguing this? And I'm totally being an advocate right now. Okay. So I talked about this, I think, last episode. it The problem we're running into is when to go because summertime at Disney is
Disney Trip Planning Challenges
00:06:00
Speaker
miserable. It should it just is. It's it's so hot.
00:06:04
Speaker
And it's it's just it's really hard to to do that day in and day out and not just be kind of miserable in the heat. Now, given and my wife and I have done this a lot, we used to go in July, which is probably the worst of all. Right. So, you know, it's it doesn't bother me that much. It doesn't bother my wife that much, but it does bother my daughter.
00:06:22
Speaker
I, you know, I would, you know, obviously much, I'd much rather go during like an off time where it's cool and, you know, it's, it's not, you know, stiflingly hot. ah But it's, that's tough because those are the times that she's in school. So, you know, so listen, I'll give you, I'll give you my advice. And I, and I think I've said this before is Take advantage of those weeks when teachers convention is going on. Oh yeah, i know. Because, you know, the kids are, at least for us, the way teachers convention plays out. And there's, there's a couple of weeks in the year, at least for us that that we have it like twice a year where this happens, where, know, They will, the kids will be at a school Friday or Thursday, Friday.
00:07:02
Speaker
So then, you know, it's real, they really only have a three day week. we always plan for, we go during that, that week so that, you know, you know, my son would only miss three days of school, which is, you know, far easier to handle than him missing a full week.
00:07:16
Speaker
yeah And then you you kind of, you know, you get best of both worlds is that, you know, your, your kids not, they're not falling behind in school, but, and you're also, you know, able to go during the cooler time and, you know, kind of closer to when you actually want to go. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:33
Speaker
So that I would push you towards that or that that would be me being the the bad influence on you, i guess, that you should be looking at, um you know, looking at at when the the school schedule is in the fall and plan for a week when it's like a three day week that, you know, you can pull her out of school for a couple of days and just go. Yeah. I think we talked about this too. Like I, what I would like to do is do a, maybe a little bit of a shorter cruise, maybe like a five day cruise and then maybe do three or four days at Disney. Like that's, that would be the ideal situation. I just haven't sat down. I haven't had the time to sit down and plan it to be totally honest. It's just been, it's been a crazy year so far. I mean, it's only, it's already almost the end of February here. So it's, it's been a crazy year. i just, I don't know. I, but yeah, I agree with you, Trevor. I, do those are the good times to do it. Although we had a bunch of snow days and so they ate up a lot of the days off that ah the kids were going to have going forward. What?
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, because we don't have like built in snow days, Trevor, because we don't have snow days like ever. So, ah we well, we don't have we don't have like built in snow days either. I mean, sorry that the only time that we actually get snow days is when it's like minus 40 and the bus is too cold to actually start. um So that they don't like cancel school up here because of snow days. But When we've had those days where like school is canceled due to extreme weather, they don't like take it out of a...
00:08:56
Speaker
pool of... Wow. Okay. Yeah. Up here, they're just like, yeah, you missed a day ah anyway. Moving on. Well, it's only after you do a certain amount, right? so like Because we we missed a bunch, like they have like a little buffer there, but it's like that they if they took any more days, they were going to have to start taking away some of those like those days. so um Oh, interesting.
00:09:14
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. so you no i mean Listen, it's just a matter of me sitting down and and figuring out When we're going to do that the other part of the other complication is is, and I talked about this too, is that we we want to go with another family. And I don't think they want to do the the Disney leg part of this because of the, again, because of the heat. ah But, you know, I don't know. That's probably part of it too. It's it's always hard for me to to try to.
00:09:39
Speaker
book a vacation when other people are involved, you know? Right. You got to like coordinate all these schedules and, you know, and it's just, it's, yeah. And I, don't know. Is it fair? Like, oh I guess if they're asking you to plan it, I feel that's also giving you the ability to make authoritative decisions.
00:10:00
Speaker
Well, they're not really asking me to though. They're not really asking me to. Oh, they're just saying we would like to go with you, but they're not committing to like, it's it kind of ends up being me by default, right? Like, it's like, yeah, which I understand. Yeah. But but then i think I think you need to establish that, you know, you have veto power and you can say, you know, nope, this is what we're doing, right?
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't want to be my argument. I mean, I'm just, again, i'm I'm saying this as, you know, I don't know all the dynamics here. I'm just saying this outside is that I would be like, You know, if I'm planning it, this is what we're doing. Kind of yeah kind of similar, actually, like when when I went with my brother last year, um you know, and and he was very like, you know, he he knew up front. he's He's like, you do this all the time.
00:10:44
Speaker
You know, i'm I'm relinquishing control of the planning of this to you. And I basically said, OK, this is what we're doing. And he was like, all right, fine. let's But because it was only two of us. And yeah, he he knew that you know trying trying to argue planning with me wasn't going to go very far because I had far more information than he did at that point. Yeah. yeah No, I understand that. That's... Yeah. well that's it's yeah I just don't... i don't like I don't like being the person that's doing this. Yeah. Like being the person planning or the person yeah telling other people what to do.
00:11:20
Speaker
I feel like there's like a lot of pressure when you do that, you know, because it's people like I want to make sure that everybody has a good time. And like, it feels like it's and it's like it's on me if they don't. You know what I mean?
00:11:33
Speaker
True. um Sorry, true in the sense that – No, it's in my own head. Yes. Like it's – yeah, I get that. But this was something that I learned um both with my son and when I went with my brother because I had this conversation with my son the last time that we went was – You know, there's like you when you're planning it, you you have like all of the information and you're like, if this doesn't play out, you know that this thing didn't happen and you know that you missed out on X because you have yeah you have pre-established experience and everything that lets you you know that. Yeah. Yeah. The other people, if the people are not involved in the planning, they they're actually not disappointed because they don't know what they were missing out on because they were not involved in the planning.
00:12:25
Speaker
Right. Like, yeah, I had this conversation with my brother that, you know, like we were like we were in Epcot and it was raining and I was kind of lamenting about like, oh, you know, it's not the greatest day for this. And he was like.
00:12:36
Speaker
dude, like this is, this is is great. Like, I, I don't like, I don't see what the problem is here, but i and I was like looking it from the lens of like, oh, but I've been here when it was like, you know, it was nice out and we could go and do this and you didn't have to like, you know, run between buildings. And he's like, yeah, but we're still like, we're still getting stuff done. And it like, it's like, he, he didn't see the negative side of it because he didn't have a frame of reference for, you Yeah. What was, and and he, and like, he had been to Epcot before, but he was like, I haven't been here in like, like, you know, 15 years. So, so for me, like this might as well be new. And so for him, it was like, yeah, this is fine. Like, I don't, I don't see what the problem is. And and so it was more my own expectations that were not being met, not there. So like from, from the angle of planning, it's like, I think the only one that's actually really disappointed is the person who's doing the planning.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah. Right? yeah Yeah. So just something to keep in mind. It's you know it's a little bit of ah an interesting thought exercise when you are the one who's having to plan a vacation, right? so i just don't like being that person anymore. Yeah, know. because it Because you're the one who knows. But then when you when you realize that people are not actually like...
00:13:48
Speaker
upset or like they they don't know that it's like oh i had to like change this at the last minute or we didn't do this it's like they don't know they don't like yeah yeah like they they don't know what what all the planning that went into it they were just like when they're just along for the ride they're like you know yeah cool like yeah yeah yeah that's fair yeah that's okay well Well, sure I mean, i yeah, i so I will see what happens. Listen, I now that we're talking about this, i feel like I'm going to spend the rest of the day today today trying to like figure this out because I because I hadn't really been thinking about it. and now I'm thinking about it. So it's like I should actually actually go think about it and try to look for some stuff. I don't know.
00:14:24
Speaker
We'll see. So i'm I'm going to live vicariously through you, Tom. And I'm going to say, you know, at the very least, you know, figure out if it's feasible this year. And if it is, then make sure you share it with us so that I can live vicariously through you.
00:14:36
Speaker
it's It's certainly feasible. i just got I just got to figure out when. And I said, you know, when when my wife got her job situation, figure out what she did, we that we would plan a vacation. But we just haven't gotten to it yet. We've just been busy. you know it's just It's been a busy time. So yeah anyway, yeah. I mean, that's what's going on over here. trying to think of anything else, Trevor. I mean, I don't know. I you know haven't really done a whole lot of Disney-esque things. Although... my You know, I think that's okay right now as well. You know, the breaks are good. And honestly, that kind of plays into, you know, we have a rundown that is very light this week. It's very
Surprise DVC Membership
00:15:11
Speaker
light.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, because because there really hasn't been a lot of Disney stuff to talk about. No, not this week. There will be more. But this week has been a little quiet. So there are quiet weeks. Listen, you know, that's how it goes. But I will tell you one thing. I opened my mail the other day, Trevor, and it it had ah the little membership Magic Beyond ah the logo on it. And i was like, ooh, what's this? It was a padded envelope, too. And i so that got me excited, right? Because it's like, ooh, padded envelope. Oh, did you get the...
00:15:39
Speaker
the yeah You got the surprise gift. I did. This first item on the list you have on the rundown. So you got one. Okay. I did get one. So I was like, i when I felt that it was a a padded envelope and and it I saw that it said membership magic beyond, I was like, wait, is this a, is this a magic band slider? am Am I going to get a magic band slider? And sure enough, a nice little membership magic. It's funny to me though, that they're doing this the year at like, they're giving it to me now. And I had it in 2025.
00:16:09
Speaker
You know what mean? Like, I don't have it this year. Yeah. is So is this or yeah, I guess when they say 2025 membership magic beyond subscribers, I guess, yeah, that's people who had it the previous year. Yeah. Or is this still the 2025 year?
00:16:26
Speaker
No, because it actually says 2025 on it. So it's for the it's for the calendar year. It's not like when you sign up, you get it from a year from that date. like If you sign up on like November 1st, you only get it from November 1st to the end of December. like it's it's It's all dependent like on on ah on a calendar year. So yeah, like it's just...
00:16:44
Speaker
It's funny to me. Now, give it. I'm not going to complain. and And I also know what they're doing here. this is it It doesn't matter. right on the card. Yeah. yeah they're trying to get They're trying to get me to do it again, which is fine. yeah And listen, if I do end up going to Disney again, i will do this again because it i it was worth it. We you know we we got, ah as I've said many, many times on this on this show about this,
00:17:07
Speaker
it's You're getting a Memory Maker for $99. mean, you you can't go wrong alone. Yeah. yeah That alone is worth it. And then all the other perks as well.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. Because, listen, ah Memory Maker is like $200. I mean, it's you know it's not cheap. You're getting it for $99. You're getting a waiver of the $95 fee if you want to use that you know convert your points for other stuff. You get one-time use points. I mean, you can you can do two-for-one one-time use points.
00:17:36
Speaker
There's a you can use points for annual pass purchase. And then the lounge thing is awesome. Like, i told I told you my story about what happened at the lounge in Magic Kingdom, where a lady was yelling at the cast member.
00:17:48
Speaker
And, you know, as she walked away, says to me, like, don't even bother if you're not on the wait list. And I was like, okay. And I walked up and and the cast member's like, well, you know, wait list is full for today. was I was like, well, even if I'm a membership Magic Beyond, you know, a member?
00:18:03
Speaker
And she's like, well, you said the magic words. And I'll get you right in. And I'm just like, oh, okay. This feels very fancy and very... You know, considering I paid $100 for this, this feels very ah this feel very nice. That's a cheat code.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah. It was a cheat code. It was. felt like a cheat code because it was just like, just paid $100 for this thing. And, you know, I walk up and this lady's yelling. And, you know, 10 minutes later, I'm in the lounge. It's like...
00:18:27
Speaker
Score one for me. Like, this is awesome. You know? So, and then I, I mean, listen, I'm not going to say I use the memory maker to its fullest ah this past year. Cause I didn't, I mean, obviously the only time I actually had pictures was, was at the, ah at the party, i think was when we, when we had it. Um,
00:18:46
Speaker
Oh, you didn't stop and hit up but like photographers or anything. But I mean, you still you still get all the right photos, though. No, but we did we did some pictures at the party. We did some photo past prior to the party. Right. So like ah the the hours before the party, just because I knew we had that free entitlement. So was like, let's let's just take some pictures so that we can i can and we'll have them. you know and And that was worth it. But like I said, just for those two things, I was like, OK, I'll take it. That was pretty cool.
00:19:12
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, let us know if you got one of these. i mean, i don't know if any of our listeners have got, ahead did a membership magic beyond, but yeah, I haven't heard anything. So yeah, I guess, you know, people, ah you know, on Facebook or in the discord, if you've, you If you've gotten, you know, or if you've done membership magic beyond, let's hear about it. Cause you know, Tom, Tom's had his experience, but let's hear yours. Well, now that you're, now that you're eligible for it, Trevor, like ah when you go to the park, if you go to the parks next year, are you going to do it if you go? Well, yeah, definitely. Like I, yeah you know, even the funny thing is, is that, like you said, you know, there's like the two for one time points and all that, like,
00:19:50
Speaker
because of the trip that we're planning, we're going to be spending a lot more points than we normally would. And I'm, I'm already prepared that I may have to buy extra points when we hit, when we hit a certain, like our, our plans are going to use a lot of points. And a lot of it because of the fact that yes, we are, you know, you know, a couple of nights in a bungalow is a ton of points. So yeah, you know, I'm most likely, or I mean, yeah, you know, if um If this plays out the way that we want it to, yes, I will be buying a membership magic beyond um membership.
00:20:28
Speaker
And yeah, the the funny thing is, is that it's, you know, yeah, the the photo pass thing is, is, or the memory maker is obvious, but then it's like, you know, I am probably going to use the, the, the one-time use points.
00:20:40
Speaker
And I guess whatever else comes up with it. The only thing that I wonder, though. Yeah. yeah for the lounge The lounge, but also like, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they they change up perks and stuff with this over but yeah that time. im I'm not assuming that what they're going to offer for 2026 is going to be the same as what they offer for 2027. Yeah, it's a great. So yeah so that's that's part of it, too, is that I need to actually see what...
00:21:03
Speaker
what comes of it in
DVC Perks and Magic Bands
00:21:05
Speaker
2027. And that'll kind of I mean, right now it's like, it's, it's an obvious, like, yeah, you know, I'm, I don't see why I wouldn't get it at this point, but unless they suddenly like drastically change it and it's, it's, ah I don't know, like, you know, you can only, can only get like one day of memory maker and like, like it it would have to be ah pretty insane. Right. Like yeah the, the, the changes to it. So um yeah, I mean, it's,
00:21:31
Speaker
the It's funny that I will say, you know, the fact that they gave out a slider is an interesting choice because I can't recall seeing any sliders for like a couple of years now.
00:21:47
Speaker
Right. like Like specifically Magic Band stuff, because it like it seemed like for a long time they were like. not promoting the magic bands as much as I feel like they could have, but this is a like, and this is not like them, like obviously promoting it, but I remember like previous years, like, you know, annual pass holders and, and DVC and stuff like it was like, there was always like, Oh, you, you know, you can get a slider. If you do this, you can get a slide. If you do that, that,
00:22:13
Speaker
I haven't seen that a lot in the last year or so. So I'm kind of surprised that they, like, i I actually thought when I first opened this, I thought it was a pin. And then when I found out it was a slider, i was like, oh, that's, that's interesting.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, I got... I remember a couple of years ago, they gave out the ones that just said, like, DVC member. they were i think they were giving them out at the parks because I think I got one. i don't remember if they mailed it or not, though. They might have. But I seem to remember getting one.
00:22:41
Speaker
it might have been at the park. I don't i don't remember. But I also... you know i also know They noted in this article that they were giving them out on the cruise ship, too, that says, like, members at sea or whatever. ah Which, you know, that's that's cool, too, if you get them on the cruise ships. um But but yeah, you know, you're right. i they're they're not They haven't been as big of a thing because we we had ah we had ones for annual pass in the past. So I think we still have our pass holder ones. And i yeah, I have a couple of pass holder ones, too. So yeah. And we still have our our DVC member ones, too. So, you know, I like the sliders. I always think it's kind of kind of cool to do that. Although, you know, i don't know about you. i This is this is something that drives me crazy.
00:23:24
Speaker
I can never find our magic pants. They're always like scattered all over the house in different places. And we we have a lot of them, like a lot of them. I mean, we especially when when matt you remember when magic bands first started. And i I've told this on the podcast before, my wife and I were part of the beta test for that. Right. So like we were we were the early testers in the parks for that. They like we were selected for it and we we got to go and do it. you still have like version one magic band Yeah, very much early, early version. we We had those. And from then on for a while, you know, until pretty much until COVID, they were giving out free magic bands every time you booked a trip, period. Right. Like you were getting free magic bands every single trip. And so we would just always get new magic bands. Why not Right. Right.
00:24:06
Speaker
And so, and then of course we would just buy some too. Like I have a vacation club one, my wife's got a nice ones. so So there's the basic ones that you get you're like, yeah, you know, I got these. They're good to have as a, you know, if I lose a magic band or know, as a backup, but then you always want to buy a nice one for yourself. Right. Right. Yeah, you got to buy like one of those limited edition ones. you know like i got the And I got one on the Treasure, too. That was pretty cool. But like there's so many of them, and they're just scattered everywhere in my house. like I need a one-stop shop for my Magic Bands because like I don't know where all of them are. And then every time, like right before we go on vacation, I'd say to say to my wife, I'm like, where are the Magic Bands? She's like, I don't know.
00:24:45
Speaker
because well you know You know what happens is, Trevor, when we after we and you don't have this problem as much, right, because you fly in. But when we drive, when after we leave the park for the the last time, we take our magic bands off and we tend to just kind of put them in like the middle console of the car.
00:25:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And we we just forget that they're there They just end up sitting there for until the next time we go to Disney. And then we're like, we think I think they're in the middle console. And then we find them, you know, but yeah, yeah, we don't have that problem. So I, I know where all my magic bands are. And there there's three spots in the house that my magic bands exist.
00:25:22
Speaker
You are far more organized than I am, my friend. Well, but okay. So so just to to counter your point of you know losing magic bands everywhere. so i have the So our day travel pack for when we travel by by air to Orlando, I have three magic bands in a bag inside of inside of that day pack because that's always when we get there, making sure that you know when we get off the bus... Sorry, not when we get off the bus, but like...
00:25:51
Speaker
Even previously, when when it used to be the Magical Express, you know we made sure that we had a magic band so we could we could scan in on the Magical Express. But I still keep those... like It's those same magic bands. So when we get off the bus at the Polynesian, we could just immediately go to our room. um Same as you, though. We got a bunch of extra ones over the years because we were always getting them with every trip that we booked.
00:26:12
Speaker
um Those are all in a bag that... um There's, ah or actually, sorry, I guess, ah or yeah. So, so there, the majority of them are in a bag and then the ones that we actually want to take with us, like before a trip, I'll go through the bag and I'll be like, which ones do you want to take? Right. or And I'll say to my wife, like, you know, do you want, like, you know, you have this like specific red one that you got. There's like a one with Walt on it that you have. And so she'll pick out like three or four that she wants to take with her.
00:26:44
Speaker
And those get added to the ah to our our travel bag. um And then, yeah. So outside of that, the only other place that I know that there's a magic band in the house is that we... I think you remember years ago, we bought a... ah um It looks like the the scanner at the... Or the touch point when you go into the parks. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we have a magic band nearby to that because it's sitting on ah on a shelf.
00:27:12
Speaker
And occasionally, like... Every one of my family does this as we occasionally walk by and we just scan it for the sake of hearing the... would do that too. Yeah, I just do it randomly. yeah yeah Because usually the the funny thing about it is that most of the time it does like the the standard um notification, but every once a while you get the purple welcome home nice notification. So we're we're always like scanning it like who's going to get lucky to... to get the purple one right my my wife gets mad every time we go to the parks because for some reason only my magic bands do the welcome maybe i don't know if i'm like the primary member or something but like only mine does says welcome home and hers does it and was like i'm sorry i don't have to tell you like i
00:27:57
Speaker
That's to do with how they have your account configured because, me yeah because mine and my wife's, because we're, we're both on our, our deed and we're both listed as members. We both get the purple scan in.
00:28:10
Speaker
So, yeah. By the way, I just, i had to pull this up while you were talking. I have 11 active magic bands, which isn't that much. Some of them are, I have a bunch that are deactivated. So there are like, it's I think that's less than me at this point. Because yeah I'm pretty sure I have more than 11 just again because of how we acquired them.
00:28:30
Speaker
Well, like I said, I have a bunch of inactive ones, though, too, because I've got the really, really old ones. So ah but yeah, it's I thought I had more than that. I'm surprised I don't have one. Now, given most of these are probably just like missing or got thrown away or got lost or i don't know.
00:28:44
Speaker
Although it's funny, it still says Disney Passholder on here. i'm not a past I haven't been a passholder in years. It's funny it says affiliation Disney Passholder. It doesn't even say affiliation DVC, just passholder. All right. name Don't argue it.
00:28:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, okay. That's all for them to fix. Well, yeah, I actually think the last time we were there, they gave us the pass, like a pass holder discount. And I was, I looked at it because I was like, you know, like you have to pull up the thing now on your phone and they, and they look at the little, the little indicator.
00:29:12
Speaker
And for some reason, my indicator still says that I'm a pass holder. And I'm like, don't know. Mine does too, but but yeah it's it says DVC and pass holder. and but and And I've looked at, like I've actually tried to like grab a new card off of the site and put it in.
00:29:28
Speaker
Still says the same thing, but I don't think it matters. or Because i don't, honestly, I don't know how much different the DVC and the pass holder discount is at this point. I don't think there's any difference. It's the same. No, it's it usually the same. I don't know. i don't think it's any different. So yeah. Yeah. So anyway, the other thing I wanted to talk about, Trevor, only because it's funny, right?
Haunted Mansion Renovations
00:29:52
Speaker
We've been talking about like the where the mysterious work they're doing on the facade of the Haunted Mansion. And someone pointed this out on Discord. I think it was Chris, maybe. I'm sorry if I was... I thought it was Dan. Or Jason. Yeah. Hey, guys. What are you guys? Okay, one of guys alerted us to this, and it made me really laugh. So they have the whole of the Haunted Mansion. The whole facade now has got the scrim around it, right? And when they first started this work, it was just like that general green scrim that they put up sometimes. But now it's like a printout of the exterior of the Haunted Mansion, which, listen, I...
00:30:33
Speaker
I think the the the green part would be terrible, and this is only slightly less terrible. like Because I understand why they're doing it, but I also am just like, I don't know. Is it really that much better?
00:30:49
Speaker
You know, the the funny thing about it is that yeah it's better only because of the fact that It's certainly funnier. Yeah. It's funny because it like it's it's the equivalent of like or i quit I equate it to like, if I was quickly merging stuff together with MS Paint, where you like copy and paste images, like that's what it looks like, right? Is that it's like you put like an MS Paint image over the Haunted Mansion. But the the funny thing is, is that it at least gives an accurate representation of what's there.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Which I think, you you know, for for those of us that go all the time, it's like you very, it's very glaringly like, oh, this is you know, you know, this is under construction, whatever. Somebody who is...
00:31:40
Speaker
new to um Disney or maybe that like this hasn't, or they, you know, they don't go often or, or at all, if it was just a green scrim, there would be a lot of like, what am i what is this? What am I doing? and What am I, yeah what am I looking at? Right. Like it, you know, it, it's very off-putting honestly that, that, you know, if it's just like a generic green barrier in front of them, they go like, I came all this way to see a giant green block. Like what what are we doing here? Right. Yeah. At least if it's, you know, if it's the picture of it, it's like, oh, that's what it's supposed to be. But also it's under construction. So, okay. You know, fair. Right. I think it, I think it does contribute to perception that, you know, you know, having, having the picture on the outside for as goofy as it does look to us, I get why it does make it to spend the extra time to do that. Yeah. But also...
00:32:34
Speaker
you know Hey, I thought that they were just expanding the queue. Yeah, that is the other way that's on here. yeah Yeah. so So this is a lot more than just queue expansion that's going on right now.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah, it is. ah So by the way, I did go and check this out and it was Jason. Thank you, Jason. And Dan did comment on it. That's why, yeah. Yeah. Dan said the walls with the image of the building behind them on it always crack me up. It's like they're trying not to disappoint folks, but they but I don't know who looks at that and says, wow, the haunted look at the Haunted Mansion. ah like but it is And Ashley pointed out the kind of the same thing you did, which is can you imagine someone who had no clue and just took a picture in front of it, right? Yeah.
00:33:17
Speaker
I mean, yeah I can't imagine that that there there are people like that, right? That just walk up and that they think that this is how the Haunted Mansion just looks, right? You'd be surprised. yeah Like, again, we we you have to remind yourself that we have very intimate knowledge and intimate i know i relationship with Disney. and And so to us, this seems obvious. But there are people that would go there and be like, I guess this is it.
00:33:45
Speaker
And they would just like, like they would just go with it. And it's kind of hilarious. that Right. It is. Yeah. I like the fact that they put the, ah um the, what is that grave keep? what i care The graveyard guy. um Yeah. The graveyard guy. he has a name, the caretaker. that Thank you. The caretaker. Yeah. I missed up graveyard with Crypt Keeper and care yeah, I don't know where I was going with that. But I find it funny that they put him on the outside of the scrim like he would actually be standing there, except he's not.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah. like it doesn't That's an interesting choice that somebody chose to like slap that on the outside. Yeah. I, I, I, so to your point though, to go back though, to Trevor, it's like, so what else are they doing here? Like, are they just, are they just extending the the facade? And because of that, they need to make sure that the rest of the facade blends in with it is the whole outside getting a spruce up. Like,
00:34:44
Speaker
you know While they do this, may you know might as well give give the whole outside a whole new, I don't know, lighting package or something. I don't know. they They could be doing a lot of things, I guess. But it is interesting that they've got this whole thing scrimmed up and are, you know, it's kind of a mysterious thing. You know, we don't really exactly know what they're doing. i mean, we assume they're making changes to the facade, but...
00:35:06
Speaker
you know i I think you're probably right on a couple of points there. My my initial thought around this is, you know, we we talked about how the the surrounding area is going to drastically change and you're going to have, um like, sight lines are going be very different going to the Haunted Mansion. Because right now, it's honestly it's kind of like, right now it's kind of shoved into a corner because of where it is next to Rivers of America.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. I feel that you're right. they're They're probably looking at lighting. They're probably doing some touch-ups to it because they want to make sure that it... It it blends. it Well, not that it blends, but also that it pops. that Oh, yeah, other pops that it pops. That it looks the part for where it's going to be situated next to new pathing. And also um probably the fact that, you know, I don't know how visible it's going to be from...
00:36:00
Speaker
um I keep wanting to call it Radiator Springs Racers, but it Piston Peak is what the area is called. yeah um But you know there's a good chance that it'll be visible from Piston Peak. and there might And somebody might have been looking and going like, oh, we should probably like do some touch-up to this because...
00:36:19
Speaker
yeah you know We all do this. like you're looking at You're looking off into the distance from a ride. like Even like Splash Mountain or Tiana's Bayou Adventure is a great example of this. is like when you come When you come out over the top, like you can see the whole park. You... like you i I'm always like looking off into the distance to see what things I can see that maybe you can't see from a normal angle.
00:36:42
Speaker
I feel like this is part of it is that maybe with Piston Peak, there' there's going to be opportunities for people to see the haunted mansion and somebody may be looking at going like, Oh, we need to make sure that it looks right. Or that there's not like, there could be so a section of it that, you know, previously wasn't covered with a facade that nobody care or saw about, or nobody cared. Nobody saw or cared about before. yeah Um,
00:37:07
Speaker
that, uh, that, you know maybe they need to cover it up now. Like that's, that's my thinking is that, uh, you know, they're, they're planning for what this is going to look like when the whole area is done is, is what I think this is. But I'm honestly surprised that, you know, we started from like, oh yeah, they're, they're, they're just doing work to the queue, but it's like, I'm surprised that the whole thing is getting a touch up now. Yeah. It's way, it's way more than that for sure. Mm-hmm.
00:37:35
Speaker
All right, Trevor. That's interesting. Yeah, let's let's do our ad. I just thought it was hilarious. Honestly, when when Jason said that in the discord, I was like, that's amazing that they've done that. So that was funny. But I i appreciate it. I appreciate the fact that they like they could have just left it as the green blob and that would have been equally as funny. But, you know, doing that little bit extra, I think, you know, is it's funny to us, but I see where it's beneficial for. It's also a very Disney thing to do, too. Of course, it is. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. all right, let's go ahead and do the ad. And then we we got like some Disneyland stuff we'll talk about. well And we'll end the show with all Disneyland. Sounds good.
00:38:11
Speaker
ah So this week, our sponsor is DVC Rental Store. DVC Rental Store is a keyholder vacation company that offers magical vacations at incredible value. Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts.
00:38:24
Speaker
the DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% at the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points.
00:38:35
Speaker
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00:38:47
Speaker
All right. While you were doing that, I actually just submitted a request to to find out some options for my point swap. There you go. Yeah. I want to want to do a point swap. i got so I've got an absurd amount of points this year, Trevor, because I banked a lot from last year. And so now I got all these points to use and I got to i mean i gotta do something with them. So let's go on a cruise. Yeah. Yeah. There you go.
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah. So the rest of the show is going
Disneyland's Family Focus
00:39:10
Speaker
to be about Disneyland. So if you don't care about Disneyland, you can you can you can go if you want, or you can hang around and listen to us talk about Disneyland. But like we mentioned, this is a little bit of a light week of news, but there's some interesting stuff going on at Disneyland. Yeah.
00:39:23
Speaker
yeah and And one of the first things we have on here, that this's this is being it's being reported that ah that that Disneyland is has a new focus, essentially, that is to bring younger families into the parks. And and we all know that Disneyland...
00:39:39
Speaker
features more of a ah you know local guest population, right? And obviously, they're trying to cater a little bit more to younger kids, which is kind of funny to say about Disney in general because Disneyland and Disney in general caters to younger kids. I mean, yeah yes and no. I mean, yeah, there's... yeah But good.
00:40:02
Speaker
Sorry. and Continue. Sorry. Continue your thought. No, it's okay. So one of the first, one a couple of the things that they're doing, and this is, this is, ah you know, there's so a couple reports out of there about this, is they're going to be ah debuting a new kid's meal option for $5.99, which, you know, pretty cheap for these days. and And that's, you know, part of the, part of the things that a lot of people love issues with and at Disney in general is just prices. Although I have always felt that the, know,
00:40:27
Speaker
the food prices, especially like quick service, were kind of reasonable. i you know You can get a quick service meal for a decent a decent quick service meal for you know less than what I'm spending at like you know if I go to McDonald's nowadays. You know what I mean? It's not that bad. Especially, and I talked about this last summer when I was going to our local theme park,
00:40:47
Speaker
like how, you know, there was like a three chicken finger and fries with no drink was, you know, 1999 at my local amusement park. You, I mean, you can get much cheaper at at a Disney park than that, but this, this includes a hot dog, a drink and a, and a, and a mandarin orange, which is you know, it was pretty good, a meal for a kid. I, my, my big problem is my daughter won't eat hot dogs. Uh, that really throws me off. Yeah. I mean, yeah, fair. Like, yeah, not every kid likes hot dogs. Well, but I mean, you know, I get it, though, that like I think back to when my son was very young that it was like, you know, desperately figuring out where you could get chicken nuggets or something that your kid would eat. essentially everywhere at Disney, though, right? i mean i mean Yeah. yeah
00:41:34
Speaker
You're not going anywhere at Disney where they don't have some sort of chicken tenders or chicken nuggets. Yeah, but but Part of that too was, and also like we had the same challenge with our local amusement park as well, was that it's like, you know, not not overpaying for food for your kid. When it's like, when when your kid's very young, you know that it's like, you know, like, you you know, you spend...
00:41:56
Speaker
$12, $15 on a meal and they eat like five bites of it. And then they're like, I'm full. Right. and And you kind of look and you're looking at it and going, well, I guess I better finish this off, even though I just ate a whole meal myself so that it doesn't go to waste. Or at least that's what I was doing. i don't know about other parents. Well, then five minutes later, they're like, I'm hungry. I want some cotton candy. I want some ice cream. And it's like lunch. Yeah. but And but like I said, it's that whole thing about like trying to, you know, especially like when you have multiple kids, you're like, you know, I i was.
00:42:26
Speaker
you know I only had to deal with it from the lens of having a single child. But you know when you when you scale that up to you know you know two, three kids, you know that that number multiplies. And I can see where you know for a lot of families...
00:42:38
Speaker
It's very hard to justify, you know, I'm not going to the park and spending $30 on meals for my kids yeah that, you know, they hardly touch. And then, like you said, you know, then they're wanting.
00:42:51
Speaker
And yes, you know and you know, even as a kid, too, ah you know, I knew like I ate my meal, but then I was still eyeballing the candy in the candy store. And, you know, I still wanted this and that and everything else because, you know, priorities are different for, for kids.
00:43:05
Speaker
um But, you know, the fact that they're offering a, an, an affordable option, which like you said, you know, you know, it's not going to work for everybody, but you know, Hey, at the very least, you know, you know, getting, getting a basic hot dog and a drink and an orange, you know, fruit yeah yeah, that that's, you know, for a lot of kids, that's enough. And and it's enough that you can like, you know, get past, you know,
00:43:29
Speaker
Mealtime and, you know, honestly, save a lot of crash outs that that happened with kids when because, you know, we had this, too, where it was, you know, we were finding stuff for our kid and he would eat some of it. But then he also like, you know, even like the the like chicken strips, the the problem I had with the chicken strips was.
00:43:50
Speaker
they're seasoned and for a young kid, the, the seasoning is sometimes a little too much. Like even, even though it's not like lot, know all about that, my friend. Yeah, right. Yeah, like exactly. Like, you know, kids are, yeah you know, they're more sensitive to that kind of stuff. So it's like, you know, my, my kid was, there was ah a point where we were in Disneyland and he was, you know, he was eating, but he was like, he was unhappy because You know, we were trying to find stuff for him, but it was like, like the chicken strips weren't doing it.
00:44:22
Speaker
So, so, you know, if, if we just had a hot dog, like that would have been like, you know, great here, eat a hot dog. Like you're good. So, so i see where this is a good, uh, you know, yeah.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yeah, this is a good thing. And, you know, yes, like the whole comment about, you know, yeah, well, it's not, you hot dogs aren't the most healthy thing, you know. Yeah. I'm sorry. You know, whatever you're feeding your kid is what you're feeding your kid. And you're in a theme park. Like, don't be going for, like, if you're telling me that you're going to eat 100% healthy in a theme park, you're lying. Like, don't. Oh, no, no, no, no. We don't. We don't really. I was not trying to say that I would not feed it to her. My daughter would eat a hot dog. You know, we'd give her a hot dog, but she won't. Yeah, I'm saying this as a general thing that, you lot of people try and go like, oh, yes, you know, rightfully so. Yes, there should be healthy options. But it's like you're at a theme park with your kids. They're hungry. Just eat them. Like, yeah. Yeah, a little, a little. Trust me, this is a challenge for us all the time because we don't have any rules on vacation. It's like we normally wouldn't let her eat this, this, and this, but we're vacation. Have a pretzel. Have an ice cream. Oh, yeah, exactly. This is what vacation is for. Yeah. But so in addition to that, there are also, of course, the bluey thing that's going to be happening. And this is actually what prompted my daughter to say,
00:45:43
Speaker
so when are we going? Because, and this is at Disneyland, but you know, the Disney world one is also opening this summer. And I, after I told my daughter about it, she's like, so when are we going? Cause my daughter is obsessed with, she loves bluey. I mean, listen, we love, I mean, we don't get me wrong. We love bluey is great. So, um and it's just one of those things that has been you know lasting. But the other part too, is that they were, ah they, they also were going to close ah monsters, Inc. Mike and Sally to the rescue.
00:46:13
Speaker
ah this year, but they it were supposed to actually close soon here, but they just announced that they're going to push it to next year. um So, right. hate Hmm. Yeah. So I like the fact that they're, they're putting that under, or okay. So I'm going to break down this, you know, this article and what they're saying here, yeah you know, Disney is going, you know Hey, we're, we're making this more family accessible. We're, we're going to keep monsters Inc around because, you know, young kids like it, which is fair.
00:46:43
Speaker
However, there is an undertone to that that's, you know, the Avatar land that they that they were planning. Kid-friendly, yeah. i Well, yeah, one, it's not going to be kid-friendly. Two, i wouldn't be surprised if they're shifting gears on...
00:46:59
Speaker
Yeah. because this ah does also play back into i'm sure you you didn't put it on the rundown because i mean i guess it wasn't really news but um you know you know ah josh demaro now that he iss the the ceo has told imagineers to go back to the drawing board on villains land Now, given that's a rumor, right? We we can't. Yeah. yeah for Sorry. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, it's it's a rumor. But, but you know, you've been I've been seeing it a lot on on you know various sites and stuff talking about, you know, you know hey, there there has been a a push for more creativity and, and you know, kind of like it sounded like they had a plan for it, but...
00:47:44
Speaker
it it probably wasn't up to the level that, that Josh, I think is expecting. Cause, cause you know, being that Josh used to run the parks, he knows very intimately what kind of stuff should be there. And also the fact that, you know, I'm sure he, or I know he's been to Epic universe. So I know he's looked at like, you know, Hey, here's like the bar for, you know, what kind of stuff you can do in a park.
00:48:06
Speaker
And I have to wonder if, you know, yeah you know, it's, it's interesting that, know, You know, the rumors about Villain's Land and then them delaying closing down Monsters, Inc., thereby delaying the Avatar stuff. Yeah. You know, if that doesn't come back to, you know, hey, we got to step up our game a little bit with...
00:48:27
Speaker
how we're doing stuff in the parks. Right. Well, I also think the, the expectations for villains land are sky high, right?
00:48:37
Speaker
Like they are. yeah. you Don't never be met. Yeah. And they and they're never going to be met could but and And the, the, the funny thing about villain, and this has been talked about a bunch, the the whole villains land thing was like, it like a thing on the internet for a long time saying like, this was a canceled Disneyland. But it wasn't like it it was it was a piece of fan art that somebody made and it was it wasn't that now they they had planned to make a like a like a like a fantasy kind of kingdom in Animal Kingdom and that didn't happen. But like a whole villains land was was not really a thing until and it got all over the Internet and everyone talked about the canceled Disneyland, whatever.
00:49:12
Speaker
So people are like really pumped for it, right? And it's going to be hard to meet that expectation. But at the same time, if you're looking at the plans and you're thinking to yourself, this isn't big enough. this We need to be more ambitious, more bold, spend more money, make this bigger, bolder, because it's not going to... yeah You're going to try to get...
00:49:29
Speaker
to try to meet those expectations however you can, you know, as high you're going to try to, you don't want to ah be ah way below the expectations, but if you almost meet them, you know, even though they're super high, you're going to be okay.
00:49:42
Speaker
But yeah I mean, if it if it was going to be this kind of, you know, where they didn't spend a lot and I, you know, I i forget who shared it, but I kind of said this where, know, you know I don't i don't feel like i feel like Disney gets a little bit of a bad rap on this because they do spend a lot of money on some lands and then don't spend as much on others. Galaxy's Edge cost a billion dollars in both of the parks. i mean you know that That was a lot of money they spent on that. But then Toy Story Land was much cheaper. Galaxy's Edge didn't even quite meet the expectations either.
00:50:10
Speaker
That was impossible, though. They were never going to meet those expectations. Well, yes and no, hospital but but you know with with the with the most recent changes to it where they stopped trying to force the like the final trilogy narrative to it, where like they made some mistakes with how they they framed it, I think, is sure
Galaxy's Edge and Park Strategy
00:50:31
Speaker
is how that came about. And I think, again, you know this I know this started from talking about $5 hot dogs, but um You know, the data so the interesting thing, though, is that, you know, the like I said, the Avatar stuff in Disneyland and the villain stuff like and also Monsters, Inc. in Disney World is
00:50:52
Speaker
i I think, you know, for as much like just because they spent a bunch of money on Galaxy's Edge doesn't mean it was spent well. It doesn't mean it was spent like to your point about, you know making sure that it it it has that like wow factor to it.
00:51:08
Speaker
um I think Galaxy's Edge, I think they had a lot of good intent with it, but they there's this weird balancing act where it's not...
00:51:19
Speaker
um you know It's not just about throwing money at the problem. It's about making sure they actually have people looking at from an angle of... um I mean, imagineering or imagination, like like how how it's going to be perceived, how it's going to to look at the end of the day, because even if they spent like all this money on these new lands, if they're the most like basic, uninteresting things, like, sorry, but your your baseline for competing with Villain's Land is, you know, if you go to Epic Universe and you go to Dark Universe, there is a windmill that's on fire every day there.
00:52:00
Speaker
You're competing with a windmill that's on fire every day, Disney. like Sure. like that That's hard to compete with. I assume Villain's Land will have lots of fire. But but that's the thing. is maybe that like Maybe they're realizing that they are missing on like some some aspects of it, right? like It's...
00:52:20
Speaker
i I don't know. It's funny to me you're so down on Galaxy's Edge because I i understand the Galaxy's Edge, but i I think it's an incredibly well-themed land. i i Galaxy's Edge for me, you know what? The thing about Galaxy's Edge for me is it's a great set piece.
00:52:38
Speaker
It looks great just as a static set piece. There is zero kinetic energy there. yeah That's my issue with it. When you go look at the the new lands in in Epic Universe, and sorry, I am, yes, I am comparing everything to Epic Universe because that's where the bar has been set for me because I've experienced it. The kinetic energy is insane.
00:53:00
Speaker
in Like, there's always something moving. There's always something happening. like And it's not it's not like... um It doesn't have to be big stuff, but like just like thinking back about it, like in Burke, there's there's like little animated like like robotic dragons everywhere. There's the the roller coaster flying through the middle of the land.
00:53:23
Speaker
In the Harry Potter area, that like there's there's shops that have like magical things going on with them. There's street performers. There's all that kind of stuff. Galaxy's Edge, what do you have?
00:53:34
Speaker
See, if you go into like the shops and stuff, though, there's a lot there's a lot of that kinetic energy going on. but but when you're walking around but But hold on. When you're walking around, though, what do you have? Stormtroopers. I've been accosted by stormtroopers couple times. Chewbacca's walking around sometimes. But again, the the problem is is that those things, they haven't been enough. I don't think. like that Because because like the time the times that we've been to Galaxy's Edge...
00:54:01
Speaker
I've not seen the stormtroopers walking around. Like, it's kind of ah like you have to hang around there long enough for something to happen. But then even outside of that, like hanging out by the Millennium Falcon, there's like occasionally noises and stuff, but there's nothing happening. Like, it's very...
00:54:16
Speaker
it it's there's nothing to draw your eye to there's nothing to draw your attention to and that's the and and that's really i think what what i hate on the most with galaxy's edge is that yes that they put a lot of effort into it and it looks the part but they didn't quite go far enough with like making it feel like it's alive okay that That's my take on it. And yes, i I know what you're saying. I know that, yes, there there is, you know, everyone has their perspective on it.
00:54:47
Speaker
I just think that, you know, i think Disney has seen what, you know, other parks have done. And I think they're rethinking that, you know, hey, you can't just you can't just build the set and say, come stand on the set.
00:55:00
Speaker
Like it has to it has to have a certain amount of energy to it. And I have to wonder if they didn't account for having that energy. Yeah, I mean, i don't know. Every time I've gone into Galaxy's Edge, I've seen ah there's been characters all over the place and things going. Like, it's almost too much going on. But don't know. maybe Maybe I just have gotten gone in good times and seen that. Because I've always seen Stormtroopers. I've seen Rey. I saw archie d two floating around one time. ah you know Like I said, I've not seen any of that in person.
00:55:30
Speaker
That's crazy. You need to do another shot. The only time, actually, that we had a run-in with Stormtroopers was actually at Launch Bay. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So, so that like, I guess that's my personal experience. Right. I need to go again. Cause I, honestly, I, I see, I've seen tons of people like walk, I mean, the characters walking around there and things going on, especially if you like walk into like the droid building place, like there's all sorts of cool stuff going on in there. And, uh, you know, some of the shops and like the, there's the, that, uh, I forget what the, the animal is. That's by the water fountain. That's like, you know, when you go to drink from the water fountain, he's in the pipe, they're looking at you. It's like, there's, there's lot of that cool stuff. It's just,
00:56:09
Speaker
I get what you're saying, though. Maybe you just... yeah I guess... like or The hard part for me is after going to Super Nintendo World... Well, everything's moving there, right? Yeah, getting hit over the head with like Like you can't you can't turn your head without like seeing something flipping or moving or yeah whatever. Like it's – It doesn't feel – You wouldn't want Galaxy's Edge to have like everything. Like wouldn't have that much movement Galaxy's Edge. No, you're right. but But like I said, I think it's – Like I said, I think maybe maybe the the problem is is that, yeah, it does lean heavily on –
00:56:46
Speaker
The the the street performer aspect of it, which I do, you know, I appreciate that it's there and I appreciate that they have, you know, wandering characters. But the the problem with that is that it's a timing thing, too, that if you're not there at the right time, that like it's it's all or nothing.
00:57:02
Speaker
Right. Yeah. yeah so and And I know, sorry, that this went way down a rabbit hole about parks. We were talking about, you know, you know okay, back back to the point of, yeah yes, you know, they're doing things to attract younger kids to these parks. But also, I think i think that's also being veiled as a ah means of buying themselves some time to rethink some of the things they have planned for Disneyland as well.
00:57:28
Speaker
So that' that's what I take out of this article. And you can, I mean, I'll leave my tinfoil hat on um and that's fine. But I mean, that's that's what I think. i think it's a little I think it's a little more they're trying to pull more locals in because they're not getting as many international guests. there was I just read an article about that. that ah that Yeah, that is a challenge too right now is that that international travel is ah is a hard thing for people going to Disney at the moment.
00:57:57
Speaker
Or rather a lot of people are looking at the international Disney parks. So like Paris and Tokyo, because yeah. The other thing they're doing, and i don't want to get deep into this one, but they've been trying to, to ah make their attractions more reliable and have more people riding. What were you laughing about?
00:58:15
Speaker
the The way that this article, the the the way this is worded is incredibly That makes it sound like they added 1.5 million rides. and Can you read it verbatim just so that people can understand what we're looking at? 1.5 million more rides in 2025. Yeah.
00:58:31
Speaker
one point five million more rides and twenty twenty five Like, i don't even need to read the whole whole thing. Just the the idea of the 1.5 million more rides. When I first read that, I was like, that's a lot of rides to add to the park. You know, yeah that's not what they do. You better get busy. yeah that's Yeah, no, that's not what they're saying. um Obviously, they're...
00:58:50
Speaker
trying to, to, to put more money into maintenance and to reduce breakdowns and to, you know, put a, make the capacity ah better, you know, by, by having, yeah and I don't know if people actually know this and really only if you're like a nerd like me about these things, would you know about it? But like Disney operates in different capacities ah depending on the day. Right. So like,
00:59:15
Speaker
they can, when they're super busy, they will run more trains or more cars, you know, or and and will it will fill fill things more than other days when they're less busy. like And so that's, you know, something that they that they do. ah This, you know, there's things also too here, like ah Mickey, is so they're they're talking about there they, you know, are running four trains simultaneously at Disneyland Railroad, right? Which is, you know, yeah basically so you...
00:59:41
Speaker
pretty much never have to wait essentially and they're getting more people go good to go around. But one of the things they and they mentioned here too is that in credit coaster and Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway they they know like they don't actually have ah have phones because they mentioned it. ah The nerdy part of me makes it. I love this. 13% of of to all downtime is caused by guest behavior such as dropping phones or you know jumping out of ride vehicles and some of that. So i i you know, a lot of the time when you're, you know, you're stopped on a ride, it's because a guest did something that they shouldn't have done. And I've, I actually, we experienced this on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway specifically because somebody had dropped something on the ride path and that had caused a stoppage.
01:00:26
Speaker
Right. And yeah they actually, they actually yelled at that person over the, over the loudspeaker, like, you know, that to to to stop, to stop. to stop dropping things. And so, you know, that's something people don't realize, I think, is that those kinds of things happen. So, um but you know, the, the quote here is that we know being able to enjoy more attractions in a day plays a big role in how guests feel about their visit, work behind the scenes to care for our attractions. one of the most important ways we can invest in making the guest experience the best it can be. And, you know, ah listen, a lot of people have been complaining. I mean, like I'm sure people have been complaining about this for like 50 years that they feel like Disney is investing less in maintenance and that there's more, know,
01:01:03
Speaker
things breaking down and there's, you know, that rides are down far more often than they used to be. And, and, you know, that may or may not be true. I honestly don't know unless I had the statistics for that. I don't know, but I mean, I guess perception is reality for a lot of people, right? So the perception is that they're down a lot more. I mean, that could be true. And, and I, it's actually good to kind of see this kind of change.
01:01:27
Speaker
And you notice we're seeing these kinds of things, ah you know, as Josh is getting ready to take the chair. They're they're starting to to ah to to do some some other things operationally, you know, to try to make some seemingly make some different improvements. This is why I think he's going to be a huge positive for the parks, because I do think i think these kinds of things are are things that he's going to prioritize, especially at Disneyland and Disney World.
01:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, that this very much sounds like something that Josh had on his, like, I want to do this or I've wanted to do this for a while, but he didn't have the ability to yeah push it through. Whereas now as the CEO, it's it's not that he gets carte blanche to just do whatever he wants, but he can definitely, you know,
01:02:11
Speaker
course correct and and push things into directions that he wants to see far more now in that position. And yeah, part of it, like I i get the whole thing. Like I immediately went, you know, when I was reading this about like, about like ride availability and all that, the obvious one for me at Disneyland was, it has always been Indiana Jones because like I've, yeah I've seen like in the amount of times I've been to Disneyland, I've seen Indiana Jones break down so many times that that like it's and and and also like reading about like what it takes like and yeah like so the same problems you were talking about you know like somebody you know their hat flies off and you know lands on the track and it like you know it causes like a 30 minute delay because a cast member needs to go through take the thing off the track they have to run safety checks they have to do all this stuff and then also the the ride itself having just
01:03:03
Speaker
you know a bunch like there There was a bunch of things about it that um you know were maintained over the years, but just flaws in the ride that it's like, you know if they fix the flaw, they wouldn't have to keep taking it down for maintenance, right? yeah Yeah. I think that's what it sounds like they're trying to do here is that they're they're fixing they're fixing things that like you know they also talk about in this article, like you know you know adjusting like load times and stuff, is you know making sure that like people getting to the front of the line, that it's like, you know, you know what to do to get into the car. You're not like standing there with your family like...
01:03:39
Speaker
you know, figuring out positioning in the ride when it's like, you should be getting into the car kind of stuff. Like like yeah there's there's ways for them to help like, like, you know, get people,
01:03:51
Speaker
situated and ready to load, which again, that that all feeds into, you know, the right availability, right? Because, you know, if you're spending, you know, sorry, i've ah I've seen this too many times on Space Mountain and like Space Mountain in Disneyland is different than than Disney World because it's a side by side in Disneyland. So it's a lot easier. But, you know, these families where it's like,
01:04:10
Speaker
you know, the, the, it's like the mom and the kid are trying to figure out. And like the, the mom is like, Oh, you stand here. And then, but then like the kid's going to be behind the mom and the kid doesn't know how to like get the lap bar. Like it's, and it's like, you guys should like, you know, I, and sorry, again, this this is me as like, you know, a Disney person who's been doing this for years is it's like, you know, and really it doesn't just apply to Disney. Like for me, this, I guess is like anywhere I go is it's like,
01:04:40
Speaker
you know, instead of being on your phone or like, you know, you know, not paying attention, like when you're getting up to the point of loading a ride, like, they're shredding like yeah like people should be paying attention to like how did people Get
01:05:02
Speaker
for your family like hey okay we're all gonna you know you know these people go in front we you know you know we'll line up this way but and i get you know not everyone has that mindset to do so but think Disney's trying their best to help people prompt like, hey, get your party organized. Two people per cart, go. It's stuff like that that they're trying to improve. I've seen so many people though also just get mad when they tell them to move all the way down the row. People are like, oh, why are you making me do that? Or why you asking me to squeeze in here? And it's like,
01:05:40
Speaker
i I don't understand why people don't make the connection like, oh, they're having me squeeze in so that they the wait time is less for everyone. Like, you know, just like that's do it for for that reason. You know, it's not seeing the bigger picture of it. Right. Yes. And And I think that's that's what they're working on here is they're they're trying to improve the overall picture and they're trying to get it – some of it is a little bit of compromise. that you know yes just just Sorry, but yelling at people like move down is like you know you're not – I see where you know on the receiving end of that, that it's not always –
01:06:17
Speaker
You know, it's not the right way to handle it necessarily. But I also get that, you know, after they've told, you know, 30 people the same thing that you know you don't exactly have patience for that one person that's, you know, yeah staring off into the distance when they should be moving down. Yeah.
01:06:33
Speaker
yeah the other The other operational thing that they're improving, too, is they're they're getting rid of the park hopping rule where you you have to... The 11 a.m. park hopping rule. So where you to work for 11. Yeah.
01:06:45
Speaker
I'm surprised that was still in place. I didn't realize that that was still a thing at Disney, but... I guess ah initially i was like, okay, what are you doing that you need to park hop before 11 a.m.? But yeah i can see like yeah I can see people going and hitting up like a Haunted Mansion or you know going to Incredicoaster and then you know going over to the – actually even like Radiator Springs Racers. like i Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, maybe you just want to like rope drop something and then you want to hop over to the open. I would rope drop Radio Springs Racers and then go back over to Disneyland proper. Like that makes that makes sense to me. So, okay. i i yeah i Change your opinion on that. Yeah, because because you know, she was like, well, I could hang out in the park until 11 a.m. But it's like, no, i I see like because of the proximity of the parks and like they are so close together.
01:07:39
Speaker
i see where the 11 a.m. restriction is very. um restrict Very difficult. Yeah. It, it, it, like it does, it does actually cause you extra yeah pain that you don't need. Right. so Exactly. Exactly.
Disneyland's 70th Anniversary Cards
01:07:54
Speaker
ah the The only other thing I still had on here, Trevor, and I don't know how deeply you want to talk about this, but ah for the 70th anniversary, 70th anniversary of Disneyland, their tops is coming out with a a new set of trading cards. And listen, I was, I mean, I liked cards when I was a kid, right? But these are pretty cool. I'm not going to lie. um The, the new thing about them is they have some really cool, like ah old school stuff on here.
01:08:19
Speaker
Right. Like they have like the monorail. Like old concept art and stuff. Yeah. Old concept art. They have like ah like ah' the ah the space ah Space Mountain cast member ah costume like card. They have a Disney dollar one, which, you know, you don't. Yeah. Anybody still has Disney dollars laying around, let us know. ah But I really like these, like, ah like that, that famous painting of, you know, Disneyland, like that first one that they did. And then, ah you know, there's some really neat, like construction photo ones.
01:08:50
Speaker
I think the coolest one to me though, actually, uh, like especially for like kids is they have ones that are um unsigned autograph cards. So like, like they have Elsa, Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Ariel, and Stitch, and then some other ones. And it's, it's a card with the character on it. And then it has a blank on the bottom for the character to sign it, which I think is really cool. I mean, when I was a kid, I had the book, you know, like you'd had the autograph book and you take it around, but the card thing's pretty cool too. Like, cause you could like have these cool trading cards that are signed and that makes it, you know, I think it's a new idea.
01:09:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, I definitely like that a lot more than than the autograph book, because like from a from a display standpoint, like, you know, when I, you know.
01:09:35
Speaker
If I get a character's autograph, it's you know, the fact that's in the book, it's like like unless you're like yanking pages out of the book to like display them somewhere, it doesn't really work. Right. Like you you can put the book out as a display piece, but it doesn't like, you know, if there' there's a particular character you're a fan of.
01:09:51
Speaker
that you want to have as like part of a larger display Yeah. like i would totally makes sense to have it as something where yeah you know you get elilsa to sign the card and then you have it on a yeah you have it in with a bunch of other memorabilia at home like for us i guess it would be you know my my son when he was younger you know and he still has a lot of it like he has a bunch of stitch memorabilia getting a stitch trading card and having stitch sign, it would be like, that would be something he would want to do. And the funny thing about this is that, you know, initially, like, like you said, you know, you know, i was looking at these, uh,
01:10:25
Speaker
um at these trading cards. I was like, oh yeah, they're neat. But like, I, I'm not big into trading cards anymore. Like you, I, you know, I had cards when I was younger for various things. Yeah. Yeah. um But I was like, you know, that this doesn't seem very like something that I to be after, but you know, knowing like you know,
01:10:44
Speaker
If I had kids or grandkids of an age where, you know, they were like, oh, you know, I'm after a particular character, i would probably be buying some of these to get some of those.
01:10:55
Speaker
You know, if there was a but like that character's card, I would be hunting for that character's card. Oh, absolutely. two To get it, which is funny because then you end up like it does kind of make you feed until like you say you're buying something.
01:11:08
Speaker
you know, packs of trading cards, you're trading with people or whatever. end up with a bunch of duplicates and stuff, you know? Yeah. Which, yeah, I mean, that part's funny, but like it does add another layer to trading cards as well, which I like. do like when trading cards are more than just collecting the cards themselves, right?
01:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Also, i know you probably or you might have caught this, but you might have missed it. So on on the the cards that have the um like it's like the old like Disneyland um concept to art and the construction art and everything um in the top right hand corner, there is a half red, half white bulb, which is reference to a particular bulb on Main Street that they had to do that with because it was easier than
01:12:01
Speaker
redoing the entire yeah what like a great little easter again good on you for noticing that man that i did not notice that at all and i know about it but i that's funny the funny thing was like i was flipping through these and i saw the bulbs and i was like oh did they actually put and then i saw it i was like oh yeah they did put the bulb there it's really funny i didn't i didn't notice that good call out so so yeah you know lots lots of good detail in these cards if you're after some some memorabilia yeah yeah yeah all right well let's wrap this up driver Yeah, for sure. um
Listener Engagement and Support
01:12:31
Speaker
All right. So yeah, you know, as as usual, if you guys have any questions or you don't want to share your own stuff, um experiences about um Disney, um anything like that, you can always find us at welcome on podcast at gmail.com.
01:12:47
Speaker
ah You can also check out our website, which is welcome on podcast dot co. You can you can reach us through there as well. It has a link to to contact us through. So you can either use the Gmail address or you can go to the website. Either way works.
01:12:59
Speaker
Um, you know, we love hearing from you guys and hearing what you think about the show and all that. And you can also find us on Facebook as welcome on podcast. You can find us on YouTube as welcome on podcast. you You can find us on Instagram as welcome on picks.
01:13:12
Speaker
Make sure on Facebook, you check out our group, welcome home, Disney wait list, where we have conversations about, all the stuff in, uh, from the show. um I want actually make a quick shout out to my wife who has been helping us with a lot of our our social media posts on there.
01:13:27
Speaker
um i I saw she she made a post about um asking people how they got into DVC or where they found out about DVC. I've seen a bunch of your stories you know sharing you know that how you guys all...
01:13:42
Speaker
Found out about DVC or your first memories of it. Very interesting to see that. Love love seeing that kind of stuff because it you know it just really reminds me how you know it it is different for everybody.
01:13:53
Speaker
And it's it's kind of cool how, um even though we're all like looking at the same thing, how much different all of our experiences are with it So, yeah you know, yeah you know, stuff stuff like that is great to see. Love to see conversations like that and just people sharing, sharing their, their points of view on Disney and all that and DVC. um And so, you know, outside of all that, if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.walkuponpodcast.co. Check out our different merch. We got some cool stuff in there. We got hats now. We got water bottles, fanny packs,
01:14:25
Speaker
Somebody said they didn't like us calling them fanny packs. There was another name for it, like a waste we bag or something that. They're not called fanny packs? I thought i think i i can't remember who said It it might have been somebody on the Discord said that they didn't like the term fanny packs because it's like a 90s term. But I like it.
01:14:40
Speaker
It's fine. I like it because it is a 90s term. Exactly. So, so it's fine, but but we got all kinds of stuff in there. So you, you know, you can go and check that out. We are going to be adding more stuff as time goes on. um again, just as, as we have time to do it. Um, but you know, like I said, it is a new store. It's got, you know, you know, if you haven't been there in a while, maybe go 10% off.
01:15:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. 10% off till the end of February. Yep. 10% off on every item till the end of February. You got another week. So yeah, if you if you want to go get some merch, go, go grab something out of the store. Similarly, we also have a Patreon. So you can go to patreon.com slash welcome home pod. And you can check out our different levels of Patreon support, which have.
01:15:18
Speaker
ah exclusive merch that you can only get in the Patreon. So it's it's a logo that we only offer in the Patreon. You can't get it on the store. um Also, all of our Patreon supporters get access to the Discord server, which as we talked about, you know we have great conversations in Discord, similar to what we have on Facebook, but it's a little more intimate. And um yeah, just just ah Discord is a little bit of a different um vibe. kind of Kind of, I guess, back to like an old...
01:15:46
Speaker
and maybe I'm dating myself, you you know, like forum chats or forum posts. If you, if you remember those, um, yeah, it's kind of kind of that, but you know, again, great, great conversations on there. People bringing up, uh, um, you know, their own experiences with Disney and, you know, talking about planning and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, if, if that's of interest to you, please go check out the Patreon.
01:16:09
Speaker
So you can get into the Discord server. And last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify and where you can leave us a five-star review, do so. um not Not because... or well, yeah, you know what? Because I would like it to be five stars, but also, you know, if you leave us a five-star review, it just helps the algorithm ah put it out there to more people. and it's And that's really all we want out of it is, you know, get...
01:16:32
Speaker
You know, get it out to more people, you know, also share it with your friends as well. If if you, if you think there's somebody that would enjoy the show, you know, share it with them. You can also write us through you on iTunes as well. We love hearing what you guys think about the show is ah as well. So I, and I think, I think that's it for me. I, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I, sorry, I, I know I've been sick the last couple of weeks, so it's been very like, I forget how to do the, yeah, I, I, my brain forgets how to do the wrap up sometimes. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I do want to give a shout out, by the way, to, to listener Bill, ah who wrote us an email and, um, shared ah his his Disney account. And Bill bill ah is ah is an awesome listener and and and emails every once in while to share some of his Disney stuff and and i just shared that he's going on the Wonder before four days at the Villas at the Disneyland Villas. And he also said too, by the way, he said, being semi-retired has drawbacks. I no longer bike commute to and from work, so I have less opportunity to listen to your great show, which is very nice of Bill to say. So, and I actually, i actually, i met i i met Bill at the, at our, uh, at, at the, the one, the meetup that we did and he's very nice guy. So, so anyway, enjoy your vacation, Bill.
01:17:47
Speaker
All right. Yes. Enjoy that vacation. Enjoy Disneyland. Enjoy the wonder. Have fun. Um, The other thing you can do for the show is ah subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so can be reminded every time we release an episode, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, literally any podcast app that's out there. there's I think we're on iHeartRadio. There's a whole bunch I didn't list that we're on. there There's a million of them, honestly. So just go search. yeah well Sorry, you you broke my brain for a second there because you've been saying Stitcher for so long and I know you took it out because it doesn't exist. anymore but i was
Upcoming Guests and Closing Remarks
01:18:21
Speaker
i was waiting for it and then i was like i was like wait a minute but sorry no joke we've been doing this for so long trevor that even though it's not there anymore in my head i'm just like don't say yeah i i i almost i swear i almost heard you say it like i i because i because it's like it's it's like i don't even really need to read this anymore we've done it so many times i have it in my head but because it's in i like it it's yeah it's just in great and there was also like a nice little like
01:18:48
Speaker
like almost cadence to it, you know? Yeah. There's like a rhythm, of rhythm to it. Yeah. And so like without it there, it feels awkward and wrong. And I feel like I need to change like the, the, the order of things, but we we need to find another thing. Sorry. I know I completely derailed your, your close out, but yeah. Huge thank you to ah DVC Rental Store for sponsoring this episode and of course Key Holder Vacations for sponsoring the show. And by the way, we are going to have Danny from ah from from DVC Resale Market on the next week or two here. And and we are eventually hopefully going to have Dapper Danielle back on again too. So we've got some things coming up here.
01:19:25
Speaker
So, yeah, so we should probably touch on that real quick. We've been trying to get Dapper Danielle, but it's a matter of scheduling. It's just finding time. She's very busy. We're very busy. Exactly. Yeah, we're going make it happen, and we're going to do another video this time. that should be a lot more fun. We're going to do a video episode. We're trying to. We don't want to set anybody up that it's 100%. We're really trying our best to...
01:19:46
Speaker
get it yeah Because I know people, way we announced it previously and we people want to have her back on to talk about the Epcot book. And we want to too. we you know We said we were going to. so um Also, we got a food time we're going have coming up here sometime here soon too for ah the Flower and Garden Festival since that menu just came out. So keep an eye out for that.
01:20:04
Speaker
um But yeah, outside of that, again, thank you to Keyholder Vacations for sponsoring this episode. Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:20:15
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. We do a hug when we head to church.
01:20:27
Speaker
How she can cuddle, she's no man's affair. I look around from all the poles, found her in her sugar bowl. Hey, look out, here goes my ball and chain.
01:20:38
Speaker
The End