Transcript
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.
Speaker: Music
Speaker: Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by a DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 369 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor? Hey, pretty good. Feels like it's been forever since we've done that episode, but it's only been been two weeks, but we had a good reason, though.
Speaker: Yeah, well, so we took a little break um for I mean, not really for the reason that we're going to reveal, but it just kind of lined up, honestly. It is yeah because you're out of town anyway. We knew we weren't going to record an episode last week, but we ended up doing something else in the meantime. Yeah. So we we teased on the last episode that we had a well, I mean, yeah I don't remember really how we teased it. We had ah that we had a big, ah big interview. We something coming. Yeah. Yeah. That we had something big coming. And, ah you know, so we'll we'll announce now what that is.
Speaker: um But, you know, just keep in mind, this is not out yet. And we're not what we will tell. We can't tell you exactly when it's going to be out. soon um But OK. Sorry. Yeah. Announce it first. And then. Yeah.
Speaker: Calm down, Trevor. Okay. No, I'm just kidding. ah So we we got the opportunity to interview one of um what so is somebody that is, like i as we teased it, somebody that's like a you know huge kind of, ah I don't want to, a hero feels wrong, right? But like someone I really, really admire. He's somebody that you look up to. And and we we did actually, we already announced this on Facebook. So I feel like we can't.
Speaker: we joe Yeah, so we were able to, we we got to we got to interview Joe Rohde, who ah is, mean, in case you don't know, is a Disney legend, first of all. Not just a Disney legend. Like me saying he's a legend. He's an official, actual Disney legend.
Speaker: um yeah doesn't have Doesn't have a window on Main Street yet. Doesn't have that. but I mean, there's there's lots of legends that don't. but like That's a hard one. That's a hard one. Yeah. but But I feel, yeah. I mean, i mean as far as like...
Speaker: famous people within Disney, he's pretty high up there. And I know, like you said, he's, he's somebody that, you know, you know, we, we do look up to Imagineers for their, you know, you know, the creativity and everything that they brought to the parks. And, know,
Speaker: we were lucky that we got to spend an hour talking with Joe. An entire hour. go like Which is crazy. like like Like, I never thought I would have an hour to talk with any Imagineer, let alone Joe Rohde. Like, that the Imagineer. Yeah. After like all of the original Imagineers, like the, you know, the Marty Skler's and the, ah and the um Bob Gurr's. Yeah. Like he's, he was like part of that, like newer generation of Imagineers. And I mean, so to me, he's like the Imagineer that's, you know, still around.
Speaker: So to get the opportunity to talk to him. And like you said, when we first got that opportunity, anticipated because, you know, sometimes when you do these kinds of things, you know, just to pull back the curtain, they don't always give you a lot of time, especially if they're doing a lot of publicity for that, you know, like he's doing publicity for his book.
Speaker: they don't always give you a whole lot of time to talk to these, you know, to, to, to the authors and and such. And, you know, they, they offered an hour and I was like, what now? I thought I was going to have about 15 minutes and and have to cram every single thing I've ever wanted to ask him into 15 minutes. But the fact that we got an entire hour with him, uh, is kind of amazing. So, um, we,
Speaker: Honestly, we we had put this out on our Patreon. um and And actually, if you you can go on the Patreon now. um If you join the Patreon, actually, Trevor, I did put a ah preview about out this for even the free members, too. i gave it to the paid members first. And now the free members also can listen to it as well. So um you can just join our Patreon and and take a little listen to it. Now, the video, we had it is on video, which I do think brings a lot more to the table.
Speaker: ah Because Joe is um he talks a lot with his hands and he's very passionate. yeah He's very emotive. So he is. Yeah. Yeah. There's listening to somebody talk and then seeing all the gesturing and everything, too. Yeah. Yeah. Because he he is of the of all the people we've like interviewed or talked to you before. Like he is he's very passionate um and, you know, moves around a lot, like gets real close to the camera. Like he's he he's very, ah um you know, reactive to things, which is great.
Speaker: So honestly, I thought it was a great interview. I thought, you know, it went really, really well. And we got to ask some really interesting questions. um You know, we asked about the Yeti. So case you're wondering, we did. We did. Yep.
Speaker: We did not ask about the tiger um because he did talk about that in his book. So you can read his book for the tiger stuff. um But yeah, so we, but we, we talked to about a lot of stuff over an hour. So we probably could have talked to him for like four hours, honestly.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, honestly, i we we were like, I think you and I were both looking at the time when we realized we were coming up on the hour. And like, he would have continued the conversation with us. But we made like we we stopped it because like, we were like, oh, you know we've taken up enough of your time. But yeah, he he definitely would have continued the conversation with us, which would have been like...
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like it if it had been a four hour long interview, i still don't feel like that would have been enough time. you I mean, there was we I think we probably had, what, 40 questions written up that we maybe asked 10 of them. like Yeah, we yeah we we had we had to prioritize and pick our questions because it like.
Speaker: that There was so much we we could have continued to ask him. And he and he was very... i mean, you guys will see it. Like, like you know, i we shouldn't... I'm not going to explain the whole interview. No, no, no. We're going to spoil anything. He was super nice. He was super cool to talk to.
Speaker: And the the only thing that is... ah And okay I'm going to do behind the the curtain thing. Yeah, do it. Yeah. Tom tom is working hard to yeah we're not we're not doing this like super overproduced but tom wants to make sure it looks nice for you guys and yes he's putting in a bunch of work to do so um we hope you guys will like it certainly more work than a food time yes yeah yeah we we we usually do like we're pretty happy with leaving things pretty much raw but because this is a special thing wherere we're trying to make sure it looks nice and yeah you'll see what we mean when when
Speaker: video gets out but yeah yeah so i what i would say is expect it sometime in the next few weeks here uh we're getting closer to to getting it out so uh we'll have it out in audio and in video it will be a separate episode it's not going to be it's going be on standalone episode because it is an hour long so um just keep an eye out for that it it may or may it's probably not going to be on a monday like a regular time it's probably going to be like a thursday or something like that. so yeah um But we will, of course, put all of the information our social media. And, of course, the best way to know that the video is out and that the interview is out is to subscribe ah you know to the podcast, but also on YouTube because, it of course, we'll be on YouTube. ah So that's the best way to know because you'll see immediately that that's out there. so
Speaker: um But, yeah, we're we're very excited for it to get it to to get out because I think he – ah he He gave us some really interesting answers to to some things. i learned some things that I thought I had, you know, knew a lot of things and and I learned multiple things. So that was great. Yeah. It wasn't just learning like tidbits, but also like the perspective shift, I think, was very cool.
Speaker: but because Because that's really what a lot of what Joe, I feel, is trying to do is that he's trying to offer up. an alternative perspective to how a lot of us think about Disney. And I really appreciate that, honestly, because yeah like seeing it through the lens of the, the intent behind it, I think makes a lot like, it it doesn't just apply to things that Joe has done, but like, I feel like that gives me a new means of just looking at the parks overall.
Speaker: Right. Like I'm, i I really enjoyed it for that. Yeah, i honestly, I don't want to spend like all this time talking about the interview, so you guys can actually hear about We another interview just talking about the interview. I mean, honestly, because it was how as Trevor and I, i and we were we talked about this a lot in the Discord. We were freaking out about this whole thing. We we were nervous. We were very nervous because i I didn't know what to think. like like Because he's somebody that...
Speaker: You know, it's people who are famous. It's... and I mean, he's not like... He's Disney famous. Yeah, he's a celebrity, but not in the same way as like like a movie star or something like that. But you also don't know... Like, it's realizing that, you know, hey, these people have different personalities. And, you know, just because you're hyped about something doesn't mean that he's hyped about it. But...
Speaker: Yeah, it was like the best case scenario of how the interview could have gone, though, because like I was worried that we were going to ask him something and he was going to be like, I'm not I don't want to talk about that or or, yeah you know, none of that.
Speaker: Yeah. Like he was like none of that whatsoever. Like he was 100 percent engaged with everything we were asking. So I will say some of the things we asked, he first of all, you had to think about a lot because Trevor and I really took a lot of pains to we don't want to ask him.
Speaker: clickbaity kind of stuff. and You know, like that was not... We ask about the Yeti, but... But like only because that was just in the news, right? It was. And and we we did talk about from the lens of the book and yeah everything, right? so But we really wanted to ask him more philosophical questions about, you know, creativity and design and about Animal Kingdom and things like that and and really wanted to...
Speaker: um You know, that was really important to us to have like a real interview with him and not, you know, like this not like the silly interviews we have with like Dab or Danielle where we ask, you know, who would win in a breakdance fight that, you know, figment or the or the or the orange bird, you know, like that's not the kind of stuff asked him. I had a question like that on the list, but we nixed it.
Speaker: um But I still want to ask him if it's if he's more honored to be part of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers or ah the real ah the free version but the real the real Explorers Club. The Explorers Club. no it's um it's no Did I say Disney Legend? No, did I say Disney Legend? but i't Yeah, you said. Yeah, you're going to ask if it was if it was a bigger honor being named a Disney legend or part of being part SCA. Yeah. Yeah. which But anyway, I didn't. But because we did want to keep it like a fairly serious interview. But I will tell you, too, like he's so he can be he's, you know, he's so passionate about stuff. So sometimes you ask about something that is a little bit, you know, like I asked him about IP in the park, for example, as a preview. We we sorry, Tom, we are like rehashing the whole interview right now. No, I'm just sorry. Not to it a it's a preview. It's a preview. Right. You know, just talking about the things we talk about. yeah so But I will say it is a rare thing to meet a person who is exactly who you expect them to be.
Speaker: yeah Right? And that's a great thing. Yeah. So anyway, please check that out when it comes out. Don't know when yet. Should be sometime in the next few weeks. like i said Like Trevor said, we want to make sure that ah you know we we only get one opportunity in life to interview Joe Rohde. So want to make sure that it's ah it's done right. So keep an eye out for that.
Speaker: Anyway. Okay. Now, on to other things, because, you know, the week. There's other things? Yeah. you You know, things still keep happening, even though, like, we, i I wish we could have paused everything and just said, you know, no news this week because Joe Rode, like, like, told Disney, ah you know, we're in interviewing Joe Rode, so don't put out any news. Don't put out any news, yeah. Disney put out some news anyway. Yeah. And, I mean, this was, they announced this, I believe it was last week.
Speaker: But they yeah don't forget we're a week behind on everything. So, yeah. um But Moonlight Magic dates got there was some new ones added for the fall, which kind of surprised me there. And there's none at there's not a Magic Kingdom, which i guess doesn't surprise me.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. But what what does surprise me is that they are at Epcot and Animal Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom ones are actually in December. Yeah. Just crazy.
Speaker: Pull some people away from the from Magic Kingdom. Maybe. Yeah. i guess I guess Animal Kingdom is not a go-to destination for people right around Christmas. they yeah Yeah. They usually want to be at Magic Kingdom. But um so there's three new dates that were added. there There's one for Epcot on October 15th, which is, you know, cool.
Speaker: um And then there's two for Animal Kingdom, one on November 30th and one on December 22nd, which the the December 22nd one to me is like if you're there around Christmas. Yeah, that's a that's going to be a cool event.
Speaker: Yeah, like like you get all the usual like Christmas time stuff and then, hey, also, you know, you know, do a Moonlight Magic, which the Moonlight Magic events in and of themselves, you know, you have, you know, you know, there'll be people there that you wouldn't normally get to meet. You know, maybe Joe might but actually be at that one. You never know. um Yeah, could be.
Speaker: um and But yeah, I'm surprised that they did them so late. and But I also get... Especially the Epcot one is in a couple weeks. i mean, like, that's short notice.
Speaker: Yeah, that that that's the thing that gets me is usually they try and, like, get them way ahead of time. But I i feel like this was a... they were probably negotiating something and it was like a last minute.
Speaker: See, I would, I'm looking at this Trevor, like they had some extra budget, although their fiscal year ends a quarter earlier than everybody else's. So, but I don't know. It seemed like I was just like, maybe they had some extra budget floating around and they just were like, yeah, let's, you know, spend a couple more.
Speaker: I feel like it was ah like between DVC and the Disney parks. Cause they, you know, the separate entities thing. I feel like it was a, DVC went back and said like, hey, do you have any more dates? And Disney Parks like last minute kind of went, yeah, you can do this. Like, like you you know, gave gave out these dates. And then, yeah, yeah but which I guess the the thing to think about too is I make it sound like it's like a five minute conversation. The the reality is is that Moonlight Magic events do take a lot of planning too. So, yeah, I'm wondering if, yeah, you're right. might be that they also had the budget and they realized that they could actually get the stars to align.
Speaker: um on on these things or, you know, the the clocks to align. Preview of that there. I'll leave that there. um the yeah So, yeah, maybe maybe it was just one of those things that just, you know, right place, right time kind of came up. But yeah, yeah I know it's hard, though, for for planning that I guess ah we always talk about like, you know, if I could plan around a Moonlight Magic event, I would do so. But there's no way that like this is ah if you happen to already be traveling at these dates bonus, you get to do a Moonlight Magic event. You're not more like this late in the year.
Speaker: You're not getting last minute reservations for like the week of Christmas. Or if you are, I i can't imagine what those reservations look like. I don't feel like they this this feels like ah more of a gift to local DVC members than anything.
Speaker: Maybe. Yeah. but And like I said, it's it's also just right place, right time kind of thing where you happen to already have the trip booked. You also now get a Moonlight Magic event. Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker: So registration for all three of these dates opens on October 1st. So if you're one if you're wanting to ah go make sure you, ah you know, get on there and get in that virtual queue.
Speaker: So um anything else with that? Nope. So there's a second piece of news here around, ah you know, the boardwalk, which they seem to be. i don't want to say the boardwalk for a while was neglected. That feels like the wrong thing to say.
Speaker: It was in a transitional state. Oh, I like that. That's that's really, yeah, that's good. Transitional state. i like it. um But all of a sudden, there's like all sorts of stuff they're doing, right? So we got Hurley Burley opening, right? And then there's a new, ah you know, the new store that's being added.
Speaker: And now ah in Disney Files, they mentioned that there is a soon to be announced quick service dining ah location ah coming to the boardwalk. It looks like, where where's the spot here? Oh, the former home of Big River Grill and Brewing Works, which I'd never been to.
Speaker: um Which has been vacant for over two years, almost three years at this point. So that's great. um i I will say one of the downsides of staying at Boardwalk is the lack of a proper quick service.
Speaker: ah And that has always been because, you know, almost all of yeah should say well yeah almost all of the DVC resorts have some sort of quick service, you know, that you can go to grab some food, grab some you know quick bites. And Boardwalk was one of those ones that had...
Speaker: It had like a, you know, something, but it wasn't like it's never had like a formal quick service that I can remember. anyway Yeah. Like you said, it's it's not the same or. every resort always has the, you know, you're tired, you don't want to walk for 20 minutes to get food. It's, you know, you can pop down and grab something quick. Yeah. And listen, they got the little pizza there. They got the little deli there. But like, this is like a full on quick service. It's not the same. Yeah. I get what you mean is, yeah.
Speaker: It's been kind of weird. Like, Boardwalk has been weird in that sense. But I always let that slide because, like, in my head, I was like, well, it's close enough to, you know, International Gateway. Yeah. You can go into Epcot. But, I mean, that doesn't work for everybody. And get that... I need a place that I can walk to in flip-flops and gym shorts and get, like, you know, Gatorade. You know what mean? Like, that's what I need. The interesting thing about this is why is this set closed for two years? Because usually Disney's not one to take a long time to...
Speaker: flip around stuff like like if it's their own quick service they do sometimes though yeah but well I mean how long the Odyssey said is nothingness you know I mean but I guess ah or my point is those usually even if they take a little while to to flip something around there's usually an alternative like like they don't just leave it as like you have nothing here right well the fact that this has been closed for two years is odd to me because it like, I would get it if it was a space where, and actually I might be answering my own question here is like they they have, they have things like the, the cake bake shop, right. Where it's like ah you know, a third party comes in and it's, it's a dining location, but it's set up by somebody else. And I get with stuff like that where it's like, they need time to do contracts and everything, but for their own internal, um,
Speaker: places, I feel like they can do the turnaround a lot quicker. like like when they are Whenever they've redone like quick services and stuff like that, they're able to move a lot quicker because it's ah their own stuff in-house and it's really just rebranding and figuring out menus and stuff like that. But it's all done by Disney.
Speaker: I'm wondering if... from when, ah from when Big River closed, if maybe that they were, maybe they put it out that they were looking for somebody to take over the space and they just never got any um any takers on it and they, maybe they finally hit the point where they're like, okay, well, we need to do something with the space, right? Like, I feel like that might be what kind of happened here because for it to be closed for two years and for, for Boardwalk to be without a proper quick service, it feels like Disney was maybe holding out that they were going to get something there and it just never came to be, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, that's my, like, theory on this. I, I don't have any, um I don't have any hard evidence, but it feels like Boardwalk. They were trying to do that for a little bit where they were trying to just get like like Boardwalk to be like almost like Disney Springs. That makes sense. Like like have it like um it's still a resort, but it has like specialty stores in it and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah, I, I, I, all I'm going to say is that I still miss Ample Hills ah Creamery. i don't know if you ever got to Ample Hills, but that place is awesome. never did. Oh, so good. They had an ice cream flight. ah You know why I never went for it, right?
Speaker: What's that? You know why I went know why. They probably had some lactose-free, I don't know. I'm sure there was non-dairy options, but I'm, I'm not, I'm not sold on going to an ice cream shop in most cases, although salt and straw is amazing. I will say that. Salt straw is really good. Do we, you, when you and I were together there, we went to salt and straw and you got some sort of weird ice cream, if I remember correctly. I don't remember what it was though.
Speaker: It was mint chocolate chip, I think, but it was, I thought you got something weird. I thought you got one of the ones that had like, you know, I don't know. Don't they ones that like bugs in them or something? No. I didn't get anything like that. I'm pretty sure I just got mint chocolate chip, but had plant-based must be thinking of a different trip. Maybe. But yeah I just, I went for, that they had a couple of good plant-based options, so. Hmm. Okay. maybe i'm Maybe I'm making this up. i I swear that they had one that some. I think, know.
Speaker: The only thing I think that stuck out to you is you were horrified by me getting the, uh... The food in the Japan Pavilion was the one part remember you like really reacting to to something that I got. Yeah.
Speaker: um yeah but Anyway. Yeah. coway yeah What were we even talking about? I don't even know anymore. um like Service dining is coming to Boardwalk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah ah Long overdue. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. and And actually, I should point out, they they've said that they're building something, but we don't have We don't have an announcement yet. Yeah. the so So it's still in the planning phase, which, again, i feel like it doesn't take them two years to figure out a quick service location. I feel like they were holding out for something. mean, how long was Jelly Rolls closed for, though? Like, that was closed for a while, I feel like.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true, too. But yeah. Yeah, that closed on April 19, 2025. I just pulled that up. And that was empty until now. But yeah, there's a lot of things that they I mean, listen, I think the most famous one is probably Stitch. Stitch's greatest game, right? I mean, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. But but i would argue I would argue for again, for something like jelly rolls is like that was like a specialty dining experience. I see why, you know, hurly-burly, it took them a while to kind of figure out reinventing that.
Speaker: For quick services, I feel like quick services are just that. yeah You know, it's meant to be a quick service. They're kind of, and don't want to say they're copy-paste across the park, but they follow a template across yeah different resorts. So it feels to me like the fact that it took way longer for this quick service to to turn around makes me think that there was something else going on in the background. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's it could be. it could be. But like I said, it's all of a sudden the boardwalk's getting some love and I don't hate that. So that's good yeah news i've fired on as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, which will make it just just as hard to get reservations there as it always has been.
Speaker: yeah but Yeah, that resort has such good proximity. I mean, like, even with the lack of a traditional quick service, it was very popular. so Yeah, but because like I said, it it it had the the feature of being so close to Epcot. You could overlook a lot of things just because of the fact that it had such good proximity to to a lot of other things. it's not just like in internet. Like, you could you could go to Epcot. You could get over to Riviera relatively quick from there. Like, it's, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: it's it's also i mean It's also just incredibly unique. It's a unique area, you know especially at night with like the nighttime just kind of like random entertainment that's there. and it's It's got a lot going for it. it's just it's that quick so That lack of the quick service has always been. Like I said, they had a kind of quick service, but they really haven't had like that like a real quick service, like a traditional one that you would think of.
Speaker: When you think of a Disney resort. So, I mean, listen, I yeah also, I mean, one of my favorite resorts is that Kidani suffers from the same thing. There's no quick service there. The only quick service is at Jumbo, which is, you know, not close, not far, but also, you know, you either have to walk there or take the shuttle to get there. It's, it's, you know, it's not convenient, super convenient. So, yeah, I get that when you're tired at the end of the day and you just want food.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. i just want food. All right. Anyway, so ah leaving the DVC world, I wanted to talk about this because this is this is an interesting thing. And it's not all that unexpected. And I actually think this is kind of a good idea.
Speaker: um But I know not everybody feels that way. So we'll we'll see. So ah Disney is rolling out an AI guided website experience to simplify vacation planning and find the best available rates.
Speaker: So essentially what this is, though, is you can basically like if you have used any sort of AI, you know, ah chat, you know, type of thing. Chatty. Yeah. Chatty. Yeah. Chatbot, whatever. Basically, you go in and you you can just talk. You can type in like, you know, I want to go to Disney sometime in the fall. I have this, maybe you know, like you can talk to it in normal language and it will summarize things much like a regular kind of chatbot does, but just in a with the with Disney information.
Speaker: Which I don't, i I, you know, one of the things that is always a problem for a lot of people that are not like us, Trevor, that are DVC and savvy into these things, it's very hard. that Like, the barrier to entry for a Disney vacation is very, very high. Like, it's very hard to find all the information you need. And if you could, you know, say, you know, just say what you need and what you you want without having to search through everything, that's a good time saver. And it helps, you know? Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, I i agree as well for from the lens of, you know, it people love going at AI with like, oh, you know, you know, AI is doing all these bad things and it's very easy to point out the negative.
Speaker: The thing about AI agents is that if they're tuned to something very specific, like if like anything, is if it's if it's targeting the right thing and its objective is, you know, just planning vacations for Disney parks and, you know, give it, you know, taking all the information, like you said, you know, you know, we've, we've spent a long time learning this information. And if it condenses it down into a way that, you know, somebody who doesn't know can, you know, get in and, and,
Speaker: I don't want to say easily plan because I feel like this is a good way to get in the door, but you still do have to do a little bit of research. You can't or if if you let the AI tell you how to plan your trip, um i don't I don't trust that completely. Like yeah like like there's still there's still room for error and all that kind of stuff, but it's a good way to condense a lot of information, right? So for sure, I agree with you. I don't think this is a bad thing um because it's very it's very specific purpose.
Speaker: um the ah I like the way they phrase in the articles. It's like, you know, I want to stay at a resort with a nice pool. Like, well, that's that's a very subjective thing. Yeah. And, you know, it may take you a minute to kind of figure that out. But at least the AI will give you like, you know, here's, you know, 10 different options for for pools or something like that. Right. So. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's good for that kind of thing. You know.
Speaker: Yeah. So I don't think it's a bad thing. I know ai gets a bad rap sometimes, but I think as long as it's as long as it doesn't overtake everything about Disney, that that's my only yeah concern about these things. But this is definitely like the I feel like this is the right use case for it. Yeah, I i know that that you know there's and we I didn't have this as a topic because listen, we've been we've been gone for two weeks. So there were a lot of things to talk about. But, you know, there's there's a lot of chatter because Disney just hired a ah chief technology officer. Right. And which they haven't had before now, given they have had they have had CTOs, but they had them for individual lines of business. Right. Like parks had their own and all that kind of stuff. But they just had and didn't have one at the top. Right.
Speaker: um so And the person they hired is from an AI company. Okay. And I know there's also thoughts out there that, you know, there's rumors going around that Disney intends to replace travel agents with AI.
Speaker: I don't know if I believe that ah because people do – the whole point of the travel agent, the Disney travel agent, is to have that human interaction, right? Like if they didn't want that human interaction, they could just go on the website and book it themselves, right? Right.
Speaker: first yeah that's That's it. I mean, i just don't think that's... I think the they're going to use AI more in this kind of way. um You know, I don't know. i just I just think they have a hard time getting rid of the travel agents with AI, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, the the the AI thing is like... This is... This is good for like simple vacation planning, but I feel that the the whole point of the the travel agents is that a lot of people come into Disney planning with, there are complexities to it. There are, yeah you know, there's there's individual situations. There's sometimes like planning as part of not just a Disney thing, but like a larger trip or, you know, it overlaps with,
Speaker: with different things, which having somebody there will get you, you'll, you'll get a much better result than saying to, you know, an AI bot, you know, plan my vacation around x right? Because it it doesn't have context outside of, you know, this Disney park planning. If this is the only thing that you need to do, I feel like an AI tool is like,
Speaker: It's good if you if you know that your your plan is relatively simple or or just to get a starting point, right? But when you get into more details, i like you said, I don't think...
Speaker: Disney is planning to replace everything with this, but it does help them solve, honestly, a lot of, a lot of the, um, low hanging fruit questions and low hanging fruit, yeah um, situations that come up that you don't need somebody honestly sitting there, like just ah figuring out the same thing that, that has been done, you know, hundreds of times that isn't like, like it's,
Speaker: If you just want to know like which resorts have pools, like that's the kind of questions that this will answer. If if I was like planning a very detailed vacation, I wouldn't be looking at an AI tool for this either.
Speaker: Like I would be looking for an agent. Also, something I should point out is that they've made it clear that They're not this is not being forced like that. They have it there as an option, but you can still, you know, just go through the website and, you know, plan plan stuff how you would in the past. Like it's still they're they're not replacing the website with these AI tools.
Speaker: Right. So I think that's something to keep in mind. you They're they're making it an option. Yeah, which is good. you like You should have different options. I think this probably also helps customer service wait times too, right? Because how many people have a question, can't find it on the Disney website, but you know if they could just search it really quickly and hear them, they don't have to call somebody or chat with somebody. you know I mean, now this this even says you know stuff like, um this I thought this was interesting too because it says it'll allow guests to type questions like, can I walk from a Caribbean Beach to Epcot or which resort has more dining options? Yeah.
Speaker: So like, I mean, that, that why are you laughing? Caribbean beach? Caribbean beach to Epcot. Do you want the real answer or the snarky answer? Because yeah I mean, yeah, you can, but why would you want But why would you do such a thing? Yeah. It's when you have the the Skyliner right there. It's right there. It's just waiting for you.
Speaker: ah But that's the other way. Stop. Turn around. Go to the Skyliner. yeah It's just like, yes, you can walk there. You take the Skyliner. you know Yeah. You can walk to the Skyliner that the Skyliner will take you there. um So anyway.
Speaker: um ah yeah So listen, it's this is I think this is ah I like I like we said, you know, like there are good ah use cases for AI. And I think this is one of those. I don't. see this as taking like, you know, jobs away from people or anything like that. Any of those negative things. This is, I think just to help people that are, I mean, i think all of us probably, you know, many of us that listen to the show are, are probably the Disney friend, right?
Speaker: We all know what the Disney friend is because people know that you go to Disney all the time. So as soon as they go to play on a trip, who do they call first? You, right? So, and it's because it's hard to, I mean, Disney world is a gigantic place and it is very complicated and it's,
Speaker: you know, if you know nothing about it, it is a steep learning curve. It really, really is. So, and that's why, you know, you your friends your friends reach out to you because you're the expert. Now there's a different way to do it. And you still have the travel agents, which, you know, you should still have the travel agents as an option too. I think travel agents are great um to to option for some people.
Speaker: And then, you know, if you don't want to use this, you can just, you know, book it yourself and, and, uh, you know, like it like it says on here, open a whole bunch of different tabs and try to find the information on different tabs.
Speaker: As someone who always has like a hundred tabs opened, i can understand this, but. Yeah. i'm I'm curious now. i'm We can continue on, but I'm just going to go actually have a look at this while we're. you're just going to mess around with this while we're going here? Yeah. I want to see what the what happens with it.
Speaker: But yeah. But anyway, let's let's continue on with the other topics. If I see anything interesting, I'll i'll shout it out here. Well, before that, we need to do the ad. So guess this week, the episode is brought to you by DVC rental store, which is a key holder vacation company that offers magical vacations at incredible value.
Speaker: Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DVC rental store now includes deposits as low as 25% at the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. As always, DVC rental store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points.
Speaker: Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVCRENT. That's 382-7368. When you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you. All right, Trevor, well, you play with the ah the the new Disney AI. I wanted to bring up, so I got a really, really good email a couple days ago.
Speaker: but It was from DVC, not from DVC, it was from ah Disney Cruise Line. Now, normally the emails I get from Disney Cruise Line are, hey, we got 25% off this sailing, you know, kid free, you know, whatever promotion that they're running.
Speaker: And I typically won't even open it because I'm just like, please stop trying to tempt me with this. Like, please leave me alone. Like every time I read one of these, I want to do it. And I can't. I you i just cannot.
Speaker: So, but what this email was, Trevor, was that our rate had, our cost had changed for our Alaska cruise.
Speaker: And that we now are getting a larger discount because we used our placeholder. that I cannot say, by the way, how valuable the placeholder is.
Speaker: Okay. Everyone out there, if you go on a Disney cruise, do the placeholder because to i mean, no joke, this ended up saving $1,100 on our, on our Alaskan cruise because we have the place, we did the placeholder and they doubled our discount for the placeholder from 10% to 20%.
Speaker: So, I mean, that's, yeah, yeah. that That's pretty unheard of. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. And they added a lot of dates to the 25% off, 20 and 25% off ah sailing. So, um ah yeah, i don' i don't i'm just I don't know what else to say other than that. It was good it was great. Do the placeholder. to like Just do it. You know, it's totally worth it $1,100 off, though, Trevor. I mean, I can... That's a lot of things I can use that money for.
Speaker: you know? um That's, like, probably going to be what my... cruise What's that? Yeah. like Well, that's probably what go to what my airfare is probably going to cost. So it probably just pays for my airfare, basically. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, i I looked into it already, so it's right up. I guess... ah yeah because you you you have a flight... Yeah, I guess you're because you leave out of Vancouver for the Alaska yeah um cruise, don't you? Well, so we're flying to you first. So we technically have three flights, right? So we're goingnna be it's it's really not going to pay for my airfare, but it's you know it's not far off um because we're going to fly to you first in Calgary, and then we're going to fly fly from Calgary to Vancouver, which is actually super cheap to fly from Calgary to to Vancouver, by the way. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: dirt cheap. I mean, honestly, nothing. And then from Vancouver, well, you know, after the cruise, we'll, we'll fly back to, to, to where I live. So, um, yeah, I mean, you know, it's something like that, but yeah, go and check it out though. we get Like I said, the placeholder discount, man, is, is, ah is a, it's a, it's a great thing. And the fact that they bumped it up to 20% for a bunch of these is, is awesome. I'm sure a lot of people got those emails and we're very, very excited. So,
Speaker: right. Well, anyway, Trevor, I had to talk. are you messing around with the ai I am, but I'm finding it doesn't work in some browsers, so I'm not going to keep messing with it because it's not doesn't work loading properly in this browser that I'm using. so All right. Well, it is a beta technically, right? so Fair enough. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. So I see this next thing you put on here, which is not it's not a Disney parks thing, but it's an interesting discussion. It's a thing because it's our childhood though, right? like Yeah.
Speaker: And I have such mixed feelings about this. so Do you? So Disney Plus greenlights a Darkwing Duck series. But it will not star Jim Cummings, who was the original voice of Darkwing Duck and who still does voices for Disney.
Speaker: um Instead, they've gone with Mark Hamill for the lead. Who is a prolific voice actor. I mean, he's... I mean, i mean yeah i yeah Like, that's that that's the hard part about this, is that it's like... It's Luke Skywalker. I mean, you know. both jim Well, Jim and Mark are both powerhouses in terms of voice actors. So, you know, either way, it's going to be good. But it's like taking away the original voice actor versus... um Yeah, versus like like bringing somebody in like Mark, I'm guessing I saw something about this where, where you know, Jim said that they they chose another direction. Maybe it was just that they had differences of, you know, contracts and stuff like that, and they decide not to go with Jim for this.
Speaker: And yeah i don't I don't want to immediately dismiss it because it's not Jim Cummings doing the voice of dark Darkwing Duck. Because like you said, it's Mark Hamill. So like i I should be excited about it. But it's like it's that.
Speaker: Why are you changing it? Disney. like like I'm OK with the change, though. I'm OK with the change. Yeah, i I will reserve judgment. And actually, you know, to be fair, like the the voice acting is just one part of it.
Speaker: I mean, it it also depends on if the show is done to the level that Darkwing Duck needs to be done, right? Like it's, there's a high bar of expectation for Darkwing Duck. It's being produced by by Seth Rogen's ah production company, which if if the Muppets, the recent Muppets special is any indication, ah you know, which was great and won a bunch of awards, um I think he'll do justice to this. I mean, he also did that. um Didn't he do that Chip and Dale movie?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I think he did. Yeah, I think you're right. I think he did that as well. I was thinking he did a TMNT animated movie recently as well, too, that was. pretty good they're just doing really good quality stuff apparently uh apparently Seth Rogen's also gonna be uh voicing Launchpad which what that's what it says in the article oh I'm okay with it I I don't I don't hate it uh I mean yeah I guess he does he does like to do that because in the TMNT movie he voiced uh Bebop
Speaker: he's got a good voice for that kind of stuff, you know? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, okay. I guess it'll work for Launchpad. And I'm thinking about like like Launchpad and DuckTales.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it doesn't have to be doesn't have to be a certain way, I guess. The hard part is is that i like I look at these shows, like you said, it you know it's something from my childhood.
Speaker: And I'm like, I have a certain expectation, but it's like, yeah yeah, you know, the voice of Launchpad, I could see it as Seth Rogen. Yeah, i can see I can see it as Seth Rogen.
Speaker: yeah I'll be interested to see how they redo the theme song, right? Because I have to say, that like when they redid the DuckTales theme song for the new series, I really liked the rebooted one. like The original is still you know the best, but...
Speaker: The new one's pretty good, too. So I'll be interested because that's another... That era, man, of theme songs for... 90s flair. The best. shows well Well, specifically, like, Disney afternoon shows, like, they had a very specific flavor to them.
Speaker: Yes. it it It is extremely 90s, and it it was, like... They were catchy, though. so catchy. Like... like I feel like if there's not like a ah saxophone in there somewhere, I'm going to be mad.
Speaker: I think because, yeah, it it was funny because recently, i don't know why I got this idea, Trevor, but I wanted to expose my daughter to um to Bill Nye, the science guy.
Speaker: And and so I turn on, you know, I go on YouTube because it's not streaming anywhere, shockingly. And but it's on. And and ah one thing I've learned is if it's not on any streaming service, it's almost always on YouTube because that means no one cares about the IP enough and to to do anything. And people will just put it out on YouTube because they just want people to enjoy it Yeah. and and And no one will do anything because it's not like it's on a streaming service or anything. I just noticed that's the case. Like even major network TV series you can find on YouTube because they're not streaming anywhere else and no one seems to care. But anyway, I turn on Bill Nye and the theme start the theme song starts playing. and And my daughter just starts singing along with it. And I'm like, man, every show, I swear, in the 90s, like just had such great theme songs. Yeah.
Speaker: you know? Yeah. Like you say, as soon as you said, Bill, not the science guy, I, I heard it in my head. Bill, Bill, Bill. Yeah. I mean, it's great. Science guy. Like it was, I mean, and it was so good. Right. But like there was that, I mean, Darkwing Duck had a great one. you know, all of them. did i mean, all of those shows did, I mean, I rescue Rangers. it's just all of them were great.
Speaker: Listen, I I'm always, they've been talking about this by the way, since 2020. Right. And this is finally happening now. It's finally greenlit. So it is happening. um i'm I'm excited to check it out. I think Seth Rogen and and his production company have been doing great work. And and lately they've been, I mean, the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I hadn't seen it, but it got, I mean, I, people loved it. I know, I know God did really well.
Speaker: So, yeah, it it was good. um Yeah, I, I watched it just because i was, I was curious because i yeah, you know, TMNT stuff is again, one of those like, um you know, grew up,
Speaker: grew up watching it. And yeah, this is, I think part of it too, is, you know, these shows, they're very much just hitting the nostalgia buttons. And, you know, obviously somebody like Seth Rogen, you know, he is, he's nostalgic for this stuff too, which I think to that end, you're right. He'll, he will do right by it. I know Mark Hamill will do right by it, but,
Speaker: Yeah, and which and I don't... Yeah, I should also mention, too, Lizzie Kaplan's in this, too, which, you know, she's a great actress. Mm-hmm. You know, there's there's a there's some there's some interesting people in this in this reboot, so... Damn Stevens.
Speaker: Yeah, go ahead. Kind of like the DuckTales reboot is, yeah you know, the the the cast was pretty exceptional across the board. Like, it wasn't... Which... yeah I guess the one thing I will give them credit for, too, is, you know you know, I do sit sometimes see commentary. um Not, or, well, I haven't seen it specifically around Disney stuff, but I've seen it in, like, other um media things where, actually, I've seen it a lot in video games, as you know you know, when they do movies based on video games or series and whatnot, is that in a lot of times, they, you know, you know you'll have the voice actor in the game,
Speaker: But then when it goes to, you know, like an animated movie or something like that, they put in a famous person as a voice actor and and not not necessarily because they're a good voice actor, but because they're a famous person that has like weight behind their name that will help sell show. Yeah.
Speaker: I do appreciate the fact that, like, you know, obviously Mark Hamill has weight behind his name as, you know, you know, Star Wars and all that kind of stuff. But like you said, outside of that, though, he's also well established himself as a proper voice actor. So it's not. I don't know if everybody knows that, though. Right. Like, I don't know. Well, I mean, the first time I found that out, I was like, oh, really? He's doing he's a voice actor. Really?
Speaker: I mean, if if you watch Batman, any Batman animated show in the last year. 20 plus years, it's Mark Hamill doing the Joker, which, yeah, I mean, like but i guess to me it's obvious, but yeah, fair. and You know, not everybody is necessarily exposed to that. But like I said, the the point is he has a very longstanding career in voice acting.
Speaker: So, I mean, to that end, I don't think i don't think that will ruin it because... But I said they could have gone with somebody else that was just like, oh, yeah you know, this person is, you know,
Speaker: hu people are going to hate on me for this, but it's it's kind of like using like Chris Pratt in the Super Mario movies. Are people going hate on you for that? Because I feel like people hated him for that. yeah But yeah, like so i'm not I'm not hating on the Super Mario movies, like, and his performance in them was good, but it was clear that like he was brought on because... Because he's big fan.
Speaker: Yeah, right? like And because he didn't have any like... Actually, shouldn't say, like, because he did the Lego movie. He did do the Lego movie, yeah. Yeah, so so I guess, yeah, he he did. but But I guess for, like, the voice of Mario.
Speaker: But the Lego movie was a made-up character, right? Mario is an iconic character. So, you yeah like, it's different, you know? yeah Yeah, having him, like, doing just that voice with, like, no... No accent, no like, because like, I mean, Mario's voice in in the games is, um it was a guy by the name of Charles Martin that did for years, and who's since been replaced, but yeah like it had a very specific voice to it.
Speaker: And that's not there in the movie because it's Chris Pratt, right? So, yeah. Like that's, anyway that's my concern with all that. But like I said, I, yeah. Yeah. I should mention that the original creator of Darkwing Duck is consulting for the new show. So it's, they do have involvement from the original creator too, which is good, I think. And I mean, if they're making a new show, they should, you know, be referencing the old,
Speaker: chose to i would I would assume some if Mark Hamill came on and did the voice of Darkwing Duck and he's never Darkwing Duck, I would be like...
Speaker: ah like You should know the source material if you're doing a remake of something, I guess. Yeah. So they're saying it's not a reboot, that it's a sequel.
Speaker: So, and... A sequel. So, yeah, they're saying the synopsis is for the last 35 years, Darkwing Duck has been trapped in his worst nightmare, an alternate world that's never heard of his superhero exploits. Now a rebellious teen named Ducky, who knows all about his heroic past, shows up to pull his ego-fueled vigilante back into battle.
Speaker: So... It's a reboot. It's not a reboot. It's a sequel. So that's how they're getting around not having. ah Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe it's been that long.
Speaker: That's crazy. Because there's 91. so i mean? Huh. I'm wondering then if they'll have, ah okay, yeah, that's fair. if If they're doing that then, because I was also thinking like, well, how are they going to redo like some of the like some of the the villains and stuff in it? But I guess what they're doing is they're opening themselves up to like, they can bring back the villains, but if it's another, i mean, because there was a whole alternate universe thing going on in Darkwing Duck. If they're doing that, then yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah, they're giving it the Doctor Strange treatment, i guess. Yeah, that's fine. I feel like we haven't really talked about any park stuff like at all.
Speaker: have it Well, no, that's not true because we talked about Moonlight Magic and stuff. But this next bit, I, yeah, introduce it because I'm not sure what to think about this. I'm good with this, actually. I think this is i think this is good when they do stuff like this. And i actually have not seen the new Toy Story yet. It is on my to-do list.
Speaker: Once it gets into onto Disney+, plus i I am certainly going to watch it, which I think is soon or maybe already. Oh, yeah. ah Wait, did it already happen? I don't know. it's it's It's happening soon. I'm gonna i'm making a priority watching.
Speaker: yeah It's not been on our radars because we're not... I just haven't had time to watch a movie. Any movie. But but also, like toy Story is not like high on my list of...
Speaker: things to watch out I'll be honest, I need to watch the Resident Evil movie before I watch Toy Story 5, which I know has nothing to do with Disney, but that's where my head is.
Speaker: um i did watch the trailer and you know am aware of what this movie's about and ah So what ah they've they've announced, and actually I think it's it's starting what, this week, I think, right? Yes. Oh, no, wait.
Speaker: It's no, starting on September 25th. So it already started. If you're listening to this, was couple days ago. um it's They've added Lilypad. from Toy Story 5 to right outside Alien Swirling Saucers.
Speaker: And ah they've put a little thing under the yeah under the entrance that says the Leap Pad Jams. And she's basically just like being a DJ. So she's just playing music, um which, I mean, I feel like that livens up the land a little bit, you know? And especially with Alien Swirling Saucers, where there's, you know, that they they do play music and like fun music in there.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of interesting, too, because, yeah, it's a it's a digital character, yeah because that's like the whole thing about this is, you know, Lillipat is, you know, a new age toy of sorts.
Speaker: But this this gives them space where it can, you know, you know having her be a DJ, you they they can re They can do seasonal things with this. They can just have it be there. like yeah you know i'm I'm assuming it'll be because, you know like you said, Swirling Saucers has music going with it.
Speaker: I wouldn't be surprised if it's like doing takes on that music. And yeah, it says, so it's hopping across genres such as pop country, EDM and alt rock. And then it says that they've, um, the toy story films are known for the iconic songs that bring audiences and into journeys and stories of their favorite characters. We're excited to reimagine some of these most beloved tunes. Like you've got a friend in me, uh, we belong together and I can't let you, throw yourself away. So, uh, it seems like they've kind of like done maybe like re like remixes of these songs, essentially in different genres. Yeah.
Speaker: interesting Yeah. so So you'll have like a mini dance party going on outside of... alien swirling saucers potentially I guess I I feel like it might be one of these things where you know people see it for like it's interesting for the first few minutes and then maybe or I guess I have to see what it actually looks like because the I'm I'm not 100% convinced that it won't just be like a screen just sitting there playing stuff that nobody pays attention to well but the but the other part is too they're gonna it's gonna have like interactive games and stuff too
Speaker: Oh, OK. Yeah. So they're they're actually they are like trying to get some engagement now. Interactive, meaning I don't know what. Like, are they just going to have like, you know, this is just going to be doing like ah like little things that it's showing on the screen. It's I don't think it's going to be like, you know, Mr. Potato Head or anything where, you know, it's like talking to people like I don't think that's what this is.
Speaker: I wonder if maybe they are doing a bit of like, yeah, like Mr. Potato Head or like Turtle Talk kind of thing. No, it doesn't seem like it. That would be cool, though, if they could like. That would be. Work it in as like a Turtle Talk-esque kind of thing. Not not on on the same level, but like, yeah, yeah you know you know, shouting people out for like, yeah you know, hey, you with the blue backpack or stuff like that, right? Like that would be it wouldll be interesting if they were they were trying that. But I guess we'll see.
Speaker: Oh, and by the way, Toy Story is already streaming on Disney+. plus it It was September 23rd. I'm just behind the ball on these things. I knew it was coming soon. I mean, it just, okay, it it came out, like, just before we were recording this episode, so. Yeah.
Speaker: I was too busy being excited for the new season of Great British Bake Off, but that's just me. No, that's not true. You were too busy doing editing for video. Well, awesome, the first thing, though. this Listen, British Bake Off is a thing that happens in our house. so we we need to And that just came out on Friday. So anyway.
Speaker: ah Yeah, no, listen, i'm always I'm all for new things like this. Like you said, is it going to be something that's there forever and that people pay attention to? I don't know. But I think it's good to to at least have, you know, something fun like this going on in that area, which is a, you know, a fun area of the park. So, yeah, i I feel like I feel like people have been asking for more stuff like this in Toy Story Land specifically because.
Speaker: yeah There's lots of interesting stuff to look at in Toy Story Land, but there isn't a lot to do outside of the rides. yeah so Yeah, I agree. So we'll see how that shakes out, Trevor.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. All right. All right. Now now you put a rumor on here. So we're. Reckless speculation. Reckless speculation. How dare you. Reckless speculation.
Speaker: It's so reckless. It's so much speculation. We may be wrong. We may be right. But it doesn't matter because it's reckless speculation.
Speaker: Reckless speculation. hey so So to be fair, that this is not reckless speculation. This this is a crazy rumor. This rumor is nuts. And I don't believe this for one second. I just but I that's why I want to talk about it.
Speaker: Yeah. So, OK, let's start with the OK. This is a rumor. We're going to say this. Anybody who takes this out of context, you just were not listening to the show.
Speaker: um I don't believe this at all. No. So so the rumor is Matterhorn bobsleds to be torn down and rebuilt in new location as part of Tomorrowland Reimagining.
Speaker: no, full stop. like i When I saw this no joke, I was like, is there a new April Fool's Day that I'm unaware of? Like, is this so like, you know, because this is like a thing you would have as an April Fool's joke in a Disney block, right? Like, that's ah This is nuts. This is is not going to happen.
Speaker: So, okay. So, so looking at this rumor, the, the, the intent behind this is there has, it has, it was announced at d twenty three that they are going to be sort doing some reimagining of Tomorrowland.
Speaker: Which Matterhorn sits right on the the line between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. And, you know, when people talk about like the the two coasters in Matterhorn, you're either riding the Fantasyland side or the Tomorrowland side. So like that's people use that as like a line between the two las So the funny thing is, is saying that, um you know, they're doing all this reimagining of Tomorrowland, which no needs to happen. ah yeah they They acknowledge that, you know, there's some some things they need to fix up in there.
Speaker: But this article is implying that as part of that is that they're going to move the Matterhorn, which I don't see how that's even possible. Yeah.
Speaker: Now, OK, I'm trying to find specifically what they think is going to happen. OK, first of all, it seems like the source of this is some some person on Instagram that just said it right. Like, OK, that's not a source. That's just someone who's wildly speculating. Right.
Speaker: And secondly, to your point, Trevor, there's no moving it, right? There's destroying it and then rebuilding it. Like, thats you can't move it.
Speaker: It's not possible to move it. Like, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. and And the thing is, is that, okay, moving this, the the implications of moving this is...
Speaker: um People don't realize this about Tomorrowland, but Tomorrowland is like a giant slide puzzle in terms of how the attractions are overlapped on top of one another.
Speaker: So, so looking at it, so you have the lagoon for the the submarine voyage, you have Utopia, the monorail is there, and then you have Matterhorn and then you have Space Mountain and like, like Space Mountain is further,
Speaker: um further away than all these things, but just like those four attractions alone, they're all interwoven with one another. So like the monorail runs over top of everything.
Speaker: the um The utopia is sitting um at ground level. The um submarine voyage goes underneath the utopia and it all butts up against the Matterhorn saying that the Matterhorn is going to move.
Speaker: You can't just move it by itself and everything else in that area. would have to move in some way as well. Like it, ah and if, and if you're not moving on to the Tomorrowland side, you're moving on to Fantasyland, which again, you're buddying up against so many other attractions, including Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toads, you know, teacups, all that kind of stuff. It's like, where are you going to move this?
Speaker: yeah Right? Because you're not. I mean, you're not. Yeah. like and And, yeah. the The rationale behind this is that there's commentary around the fact that Matterhorn is the original steel tube coaster.
Speaker: It's been in operation for 70 years. It's had maintenance over time, but it's bumpy. It's it's an old coaster. And I think the reason for this rumor is because people are wanting it to get a track replacement. Right?
Speaker: is what I think it is. and And so somehow that logic is, well, if they're replacing the track, they might as well just move the mountain at the same time, which is like, yeah, no, you, you can't like those two things are not synonymous with one another. Yeah.
Speaker: there's There's also a ah ah rumor coin so coinciding with this that the that also finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Autopia and the Carousel Theater would close.
Speaker: as well It would be demolished. is which and then And then you're doing what? But it is that is more believable to me than moving a mountain. Like, that's nuts to say to moving a mountain.
Speaker: but And again, closing these things, like, they're they're major attractions that... And I know, like, the the Submarine Voyage got closed in Magic Kingdom and, you know, got redone. like Like, that whole area has been replaced and there's new attractions there and everything. There's few people nostalgic for outside of... For that. For 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Speaker: Outside of me and maybe, like, defunct land guy. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, I like the Nautilus too, I will say. like Yeah, I mean, I love it. like that versus the Submarine Voyage and Disneyland because i I don't like the Nemo thing they did to it. Yeah. it's just That's just me.
Speaker: But but like you're right that, yes, they they could close these attractions and redo them. But then again... saying, well, if they close these attractions, then there's room to move the Matterhorn. Again, where are you moving it?
Speaker: Why? Like, it it doesn't make sense so because like if if they're closing these attractions, they're not doing it with the premise of taking an existing attraction and sliding it 50 feet to the right or something like that. Like they're building entirely net new attractions around. it And like you said, yeah, if if there was any implications of closing the Matterhorn, it would be that it's being demolished and they're building something new, which again, I feel like closing the Matterhorn is it like, there's certain well-established rides at Disney that you don't touch.
Speaker: That one is untouchable. You can't. Yeah. You can replace the track and make it not yeah crazy rough anymore. That's fine. the The cars actually, I think were the bigger thing. that They replaced the seats with these hard plastic seats that would like,
Speaker: mess up your back really bad. I, yeah, I like, I, I can see where people are just trying to like get it modernized, but the solution is not to demolish it and move it somewhere else in the process. Like, yeah, By the way, the the part of the reason why people say are saying this, and this is something we haven't talked about on the show, by the way, is they've been putting it Disney has been putting out these clues. like There's been like this little, i don't even i don't even know what you would call it. It's been like they've been putting out these little clues that tie to the Society of Explorers and Adventures.
Speaker: And some people are taking these clues as... To to mean that this is what's going to happen, because essentially they're saying that ah the clues tie together Matterhorn bobsled and Big Thunder Mountain.
Speaker: It's so ah something about a thief using a time traveling device to move a stolen artifact. that There's ah references to caverns and a colorful glow, which to me is Big Thunder. But that's neither hand or there.
Speaker: um And then also apparently there's a newspaper clipping about a group heading to Switzerland where the Swiss Alps are located. Okay, but if they could, just it doesn't mean that they're moving the Matterhorn and they're doing, they're revealing that through this little SEA thing that they're doing.
Speaker: I don't know. This is just bananas to me. I mean, the the whole implications of of the little clue thing is, you know, talking about, um you know, the Swiss Alps and stuff like that.
Speaker: i I feel like it's one of these things where it's like the Matterhorn is such a crazy enough. People don't realize how much bigger the Matterhorn is than Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Speaker: And it like it is one of those things that actually breaks sight lines around the park because it is so big. the I feel like it might be one of these things that they're using it as a means of like, oh, yeah you know, we're going to do something over here and, you know, the Swiss Alps will be in the background kind of thing. Or like justifying that, you know, you'll see the Matterhorn in the background.
Speaker: But like you said, it could be anywhere. like Like it's not... You know, people trying to people trying to convince themselves that this is the play because they want to see, yeah or their wish list is, you know, I want to see the Matterhorn get redone because of X or whatever. It's like, well, fine, but I think this is more wishful thinking than actual i mean there's a difference between right is I mean, there's a difference between getting getting redone and getting moved.
Speaker: i mean, again, we we got to stop saying moved. It's torn down and rebuilt. That's, yeah you know, there's no moving. this is This is not a, you know you know, you can't take the whole thing and pick it up and slide at 50 feet. it's It's a whole rip and replace, which then is, you know, is it still the Matterhorn at that point, right? yeah Does Disney take the time to rebuild the Matterhorn?
Speaker: Yeah, that becomes the question. I don't think that I honestly do not think that that is one that they can touch. I just don't. I, you know, listen, at Disneyland, when they tried to do, you know, just add some Disney characters into, ah you know, small world, they had to put out like press releases to calm people down.
Speaker: now Now tell them that you're tearing down on the Matterhorn. Like, are you insane? i I feel like the the compromise to this is, yeah, you know, the track needs some love. yeah You know, they can spend some time fixing that.
Speaker: there's no reason that they can't implement more SCA stuff into the Matterhorn. Yeah. So it's not a matter of replacing it. It's, it's taking it and, you know, building out the story a little bit more because there, there is a story inside of the Matterhorn there. There's two things from the Skyliner, you know, the there's, there's,
Speaker: a Yeti or the Yeti, not the Everest Yeti, a different Yeti. um Different Yeti. Yeah, different Yeti. Smaller Yeti. Yeah, smaller Yeti. Still impressive. you Yeah, still large Yeti. Just not Expedition Everest Yeti is on a different level than everything else in the world. so Yeah, so so, you know, I feel like there's room for them to do storytelling in it but storytelling like storytelling using the ride as part of you know and you know the larger you know changes to the land and all that kind of stuff they can do it in a way that doesn't completely break everything and doesn't dismantle what's already there like I yeah I feel like and again yeah you know just look like looking at the map it's like
Speaker: if If they said that they were moving the Matterhorn, it's not... The implications are not just moving the Matterhorn. It's a complete gut and redo of Tomorrowland, which I know they said that they're going to fix up Tomorrowland. Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe I'm wrong. maybe maybe Maybe that is their plan is that they're going to gut and redo a lot of Tomorrowland. I feel like there's a lot more value to be had in improving the things that are there. And the focus is really not on the upper part. or or So looking at the map, I actually don't know Cardinal Directions, but it's north or south or whatever, but like on the upper part of Tomorrowland is where Matterhorn and Utopia and all those things are.
Speaker: Um, the lower part of, of Tomorrowland is Space Mountain and, um star tours and and all those kinds of things i feel the lower half of tomorrowland is the place where the focus needs to be made i don't think they're like other than doing fix-ups to rides i don't think the upper part needs as much work if that makes sense yeah yeah i guess what you're saying yeah so Yeah, who who whoever is convincing themselves that the Matterhorn is moving, like, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe in two years. That would be crazy if it actually ends up being right. And I just sound like idiots. like Well, but so so the ah the other piece of logic behind this is they're saying, you know, for the 75th anniversary of of Disneyland, like they're planning for a new Tomorrowland. So, so you know you know, this kind of stuff.
Speaker: um Because the 75th will be what? 2030? Sorry. sort um Math. I can't do the math on this. Yeah. ah Yeah. But like for the 75th anniversary, there's they're going to tear down one of the park's icons. so That makes total sense. like Yeah. But well, but but again, if if this kind of stuff is going to happen like or anything for the 75th anniversary is going to start in the next year to two years.
Speaker: kind of Yeah. Right. So, so, you know, maybe in a year we will hear something about, know, I'll be honest, I feel like if anything's going to change, it's going to be the submarine voyage first.
Speaker: like Like that to me feels like the the one that will get targeted before anything else. But again, i don't know that... Like they they removed it in Magic Kingdom. I don't know that Disney wants to go and do the same thing in in Disneyland. But, yeah I mean, the other side of that, too, is that it does, you know, if they removed the submarine voyage, then and by implication also Utopia gets, you know, pulled out in some way, um that's a ton of space right there. They don't need to do anything with Matterhorn at that point because, know,
Speaker: the the amount of space that they're recouping on just those other two attractions is like five times as much as the Matterhorn. So then it's like, why do you need to move the Matterhorn? Because it's not... That makes so much more sense to just... Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. It's... This is Yeah. Yeah. This is a crazy rumor and it's very clearly, it feels very clearly.
Speaker: Yeah, very clearly clickbait. But it's still the one thing I will give it credit for is it's making me look at Tomorrowland and making me think about how all these things fit together.
Speaker: And I just don't think that this is something that. yeah I think there's a lot of other things that need to move first before the Matterhorn moves.
Speaker: So. Makes sense. But I guess we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. it's It's just a crazy, crazy, crazy rumor. Yeah. You know, I maybe I'm going to try and remember this, you know, in a year or whatever, when they start announcing doing stuff for Tomorrowland.
Speaker: I'm really curious what this Tomorrowland redo is going to look like in Disneyland. Because the the other thing, too, that I've been keeping an eye on is the ah the Tokyo Disneyland we do of um what's it called earth earth rise i believe is the new space mountain there yeah i i saw a light test video of that did you see that i did i did not see that but i've just been looking at concept art for like yeah the area surrounding space mountain and how good it looks and yeah i'm trying to translate what that would look like in disneyland tomorrow land
Speaker: But yeah, like I said, the the bigger implications of that are if if they're doing something like that, how much of Tomorrowland is changing. But I don't think it's going as far as the Matterhorn.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think so either. I don't think so either. But yeah, look that up, Trevor. Google Earthrise lighting test. Yeah, I'll do that after this. Yeah. After we after we wrap up the show here. right Yeah, well, let's let's let's do that. Actually, let's let's wrap her up.
Speaker: So, ah yeah. So as usual, if you guys have any um questions about stuff from the show, if you just want to reach out, if you want to share trip reports, stuff like that, you can always email at us at welcomehomepodcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from you guys. And you can also check us out through our website, welcomehomepodcast.co. You can hit contact us on there. It'll get you to the email as well.
Speaker: um you know, yeah, you know, send send us send us anything you got. um I, you know, we we didn't really talk about this, Tom, but, you know, weve we've had some listeners on the Discord talk about, you know, wanting us to do more trip reports and stuff like that. I think, I think it's a good idea and I'm not saying that, you know, we're going to do anything next week, but, you know, if, you know,
Speaker: I think we should get more into doing more trip reports because we haven't done one in a while since, or we haven't done one since your trip, which, you know, was not too long ago, but I think we could do more of them.
Speaker: So I'm just putting that out there. Yeah. yeah And then, ah so yeah, you know, you know, can reach out to us there. If you want to find us on social media, you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on Instagram as Welcome Picks.
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Speaker: Yeah. I don't know. Okay. that's That's one way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I was thinking of, I saw there was an old, it was an old Wayne Gretzky cereal that was star shaped. That's what I was thinking of.
Speaker: Ah, okay. That's a Canadian reference. know. Anyway.
Speaker: I think I'm done. Did I cover everything? i don't, I don't even know anymore. I'm lost. Uh, sure. We'll just pretend like you Uh, the other thing you can do is, uh, subscribe to welcome home podcast. So you can remind it every time release an episode, including the, the, the Joe Rohde interview. Uh, you can find us on Apple podcast, Amazon music, uh, tune in Spotify, YouTube, YouTube music,
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Speaker: ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
Speaker: ah look around for all the homes mal
