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Episode 324: Dream Trips, Membership Magic Beyond & Streetmosphere
897 Plays17 days ago
On This Episode
Listener Jill provides some interesting information about Soaring Over the Horizon in a follow up from the last episode. Listener Jason shares his dream Disney trip and the guys discuss what their dream trips would be. 2025 property assessments have been released for DVC resorts and one resort has exceeded one billion dollars in valuation for the first time. DVC announced that Membership Magic Beyond is returning in 2026 with a new character meet and greet. Hollywood Studios debuts some new streetmosphere acts including a jazz band and juggler. Josh Gad continues his quest to be a full time cast member, this time working at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. Disney unveiled some new hotel discounts for 2026. New, exclusive entertainment options have been announced for the upcoming Disney Destiny.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all voice unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:25
Speaker
Music Music Music
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Resale Market. Thank you for joining us on episode 324 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor?
00:00:41
Speaker
Pretty good. How how are things going with you this October weekend? Getting into spooky season.
Weather and Age Reflections
00:00:48
Speaker
It's starting to get chilly. starting to get chilly. I know you you've probably been chilly for a while here, but... No, actually, it's been abnormally hot here. So it's been like a ah weird delayed summer kind of thing.
00:01:00
Speaker
And it's actually just been like the last two days that it's... started to cool off and it's not even like like this time of year we it can be still like 25 degree summer weather or it can be snow so god we're actually not anywhere near snow yet yeah like we could go back and forth between air conditioning during the day and heat at night which is a pain and i hate that it's like such a pain to toggle between the two you know but that's have the app on my phone and i just switch Well, I do that, too. I just, you know, if I forget or something, know, I don't know. But right I also just like I'm realizing today, right? Like and and maybe it's just maybe just getting older, Trevor. I don't know.
00:01:37
Speaker
But when I was younger and, you know, growing up in New Jersey, I was the shorts and winter kid, right? Like I was like, you know, cold didn't bother me. I i don't want to say i don't want to be like, you know, cold didn't never bother me anyway. Like Elsa thing. Yeah.
00:01:49
Speaker
I almost followed you up with the saying anyway, but i did i I was wondering, I figured somebody and I didn't mean to make that reference, but it's true. But it's true. It never really bothered me. And so I was always kind of like that kid that was just, you know, in shorts all the time or whatever. And then this morning I woke up and it's like, it's like 58 degrees out, which i don't know. Let me do the conversion on that one real quick. 58 Fahrenheit to Celsius is 14 degrees Celsius, Trevor. Yeah, it's about the same temperatures we've got right now.
00:02:19
Speaker
But I woke up this morning and it's and it's and it's that temperature and I'm like, oh man, I'm cold. I need to like put on like like ah jeans and like a sweatshirt. Jacket. Yeah. like I was going out to get some bagels and I was like, man, I need to...
00:02:32
Speaker
I need to like bundle up here. And I'm like, who am I? Like, this is when people in Florida complain that it's cold and it's like 72 out. Like, you know, like this is not a, this is not who I am. So I don't know. Maybe it's just getting older. I don't I don't know. But yeah,
00:02:47
Speaker
ah But anyway, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I get you on that, too, is, you know, over over the years, I've been the same way where, you know, when I was younger and actually it's funny. i So I have a teenager, ah you know, as we've talked about is, you know, you know, i I'm going through that with him where, you know, in going into fall and winter, there's always the discussion like he's like, OK, I'm going to go catch the bus and he throws on a hoodie and it's like and I'm like, OK, it's like below zero outside. He's like, I'll be fine. and i'm like,
00:03:17
Speaker
and No, but I guess, yeah, maybe, and maybe it is something with getting older, you know, you know, he's like, you know, he toughs it out and whatever, but yeah, as you get older, like, I'm like, no, I need like, like you is, you know, yeah, I need to, I need to put a jacket on. I need to, you know, dress appropriately for the weather, I guess is the thing you know,
00:03:35
Speaker
As you become a responsible adult, you you want to dress for the weather for whatever reason. I don't know what the the logic is behind it, but I i know what you're saying. and yeah And I'm the same way where I'm like, you know, why why would I go outside and voluntarily be cold?
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Why would I do that? with when When I can put on enough clothes that I'm comfortable and, you know, and this is actually why this is actually why I like winter better than summer, because summertime, it's like if it's hot out, all you can really do is take more clothes off. And of course, there's a certain part point where that gets not socially acceptable anymore. Whereas winter, you know, you can but you could just keep putting layers on layers on layers and eventually you get warm. You know, it's like it's it's it's just a whole different, you know, it's so much easier.
00:04:23
Speaker
So I don't know. Yeah, that that does work to a point as well. Yeah, there there are there are extremes on both sides. I guess you where you live, though, you don't see the extreme of the other side, which is it can get cold enough that it doesn't matter.
00:04:35
Speaker
um oh yeah That's true. That's fair. yeah Yeah, that's that's true. That's that's that's
Listener Engagement and Emails
00:04:39
Speaker
fair. That's fair. Yeah. um So we we've been getting a couple of emails lately, and which I'm always happy about, Trevor. I i really love when people email us. i don't i don't i mean you know i I like anytime anybody contacts us, to be totally honest.
00:04:51
Speaker
And i i Jill has... has We've we spoken to Jill before. joe Jill wants to say, just right... this is in reference to last week, by the way, when we were talking about... the Soarin' ride over in Shanghai, right?
00:05:04
Speaker
So Jill said, just writing in with a funny observation for you on the Shanghai Soarin' ride, I was an AP there for a few years and loved this iteration of Soarin', though Tokyo is still the best one. Interesting take. um I'm curious about that, but we can come back to that later. We'll come back to that.
00:05:18
Speaker
She said, if you watch The Grand Mystic closely, you can totally tell she's lip syncing in bad Mandarin. The word on the street, very unofficial. So we'll treat this as a Disney bus driver level of... ah of Of verification news, right?
00:05:32
Speaker
Is that the actor couldn't get the Mandarin strong enough to be understood. So she's dubbed by someone who is actually a man Mandarin speaker. It's very funny if you watch it for that detail. I, you know, it always reminds me of this is ah like Power Rangers.
00:05:46
Speaker
yeah like Yeah. Yeah. The dubs that they did in Power Rangers. Yeah. they like when you go watch power rangers and uh what's your name the uh rita yeah and like it's the dub that's i mean the dub is like they're not even like trying to match anything there though because they're it's they're doing it from english to i mean from uh i don't know what yeah what was the leg original very so so the original show is in japanese it was japanese okay yeah yeah it's a japanese show and yeah so so her yeah that's a little different because it's clearly like a japanese to english Yeah, it's totally off. Yeah, yeah this is this is an interesting thing because, I guess, yeah, to anyone who's a native Mandarin speaker, yeah, I bet it's like it's I feel like it's probably on the same level as like um ah the pre-show and Flight of Passage.
00:06:32
Speaker
Okay. yeah So, so even though the guy in flight of passage is not dubbed, it's just like, it's weird. It's just, it's off enough that it's like uncanny Valley kind of thing where you're like, what are you like? What are they doing here? Right. Why, why, why, why why is this so awkward? This should not be this awkward. Yeah.
00:06:48
Speaker
But she goes on to mention the queue is great. It's inside a huge temple and there's a trivia projector on the walls and it's interactive just like Florida. The ending was originally supposed to reflect the partnership of the city of Shanghai And you soar through the, is that the Bunz?
00:07:01
Speaker
What is Bunz? Bunz Iconic Buildings. yeah Okay. um I'm looking forward to its update, but we'll definitely miss the ending. and Also, I've been looking for those two gears for ah years with no luck, and I'm convinced you should make one as part of your Welcome Home Podcast. That seems like it's a hard item, though. like that's That's like a really custom item, you know?
00:07:21
Speaker
Cause that hat was really cool. Yeah. I mean, that yeah, that, that's like a knitted something like, yeah yeah, that would be, that would be challenging to, to, to get done for us. But listen, I appreciate you writing it. If we, if we could also, I don't know that because of the fact that that's something that has been made by Disney, I feel like.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah. If we tried to make it, it would, it would immediately get like called out by them. But yeah. Yeah. yeah ah Yeah, i listen, I think um it's it's interesting. i See, like i just I just Googled it and I found some, but not one as cool as that one.
00:07:58
Speaker
That particular one that guy has on and that in the in the pre-show is is is way cooler than all of these. cause you can buy some of these off of like, uh, you know, there's a bunch of different ones actually. There's, you know, some more manufactured kind type ones. And looks like I see some like handmade knitted ones. Maybe my wife will knit me when I can, you know, ask for that. Yeah. um I just did a quick Google there.
00:08:18
Speaker
There's like a bunch of like, yeah, and I know what you're saying is there's a bunch of standard, like, like two ones, but that, yeah, there's nothing like that one that I'm seeing. Yeah.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I realized I, sorry. I said, so yeah. T. Uh, so yeah I realized the spelling of toque. Maybe I've been spelling wrong all these years. T-O-U-T.
00:08:41
Speaker
Don't you guys throw different... like you guys yeah We add extra U's in a lot of places. You do the U differently. T-O-Q-U-E. That is correct.
00:08:53
Speaker
and We don't really call them toques either. that's you know Beanies usually probably more use more. or like ah Some people call them toboggans. that but That's not a toboggan though. I'm with you. I only heard that. toboggan is a very different thing. It's a sled to ride down a hill on i I am with you, Trevor. That actually became a thing for me when I moved to the south. Somebody said, ah oh, like let me go get my toboggan. I'm like, why you go going to get a sled? Because like up north where I'm from, a toboggan is a sled.
00:09:18
Speaker
yeah That's what I've always known as a toboggan as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. I don't get how to a to a to a to a weird thing. Yeah, you're right. it Like, and I get, yeah, it's, you know, different places have different names for it. But it's hard for me because, yeah, I've always grown up with, you know, you know, don't forget your to, you know, back to the conversation when it's cold is, you know, you know, you always make sure you have a to with you in the winter. But is that what a chef's hat is called? I or am I?
00:09:46
Speaker
misremembered. I mean, if if you Google to like you get you get beanies like I don't know that. Yeah, it's to. Yeah. OK, I was right.
00:09:57
Speaker
A chef's hat is called a toque or that's also called a toque. Yeah, I guess maybe it's just a big old term for a hat. Yeah, it is. That's what it exactly what it is. It's French for a hat. Yeah.
00:10:08
Speaker
Which explains why. But we yeah, but we associated that to specifically a winter hat because we don't call it funny. We don't call like a baseball cap a toque. We don't like toque is very specifically and a winter, a winter hat. Like it's not it's not reserved for anything else in Canada, at least.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of people in the South to call sneakers, uh, tennis shoes. That's a thing. Um, which I always thought was weird, but you know, and down here in Charlotte, every, everywhere every soda is called Coke. You just, you just always order a Coke. There's no, there's no other soda that exists outside of Coke. You just, that's just weird.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. It's not like, it's like, not, can I, can I have a soda? Can I have, it's just like, Oh, let me get a Coke. like well You know what we call soda, right? Yeah. Pop? you guys doing pop up there? Yeah, yeah we're we're pop. yeah I didn't know you did pop.
00:10:58
Speaker
This is a huge debate. You get orange pop, you get... you know orange pop you get uh or well yeah coke we still just call coke we don't call it yeah yeah but but it's like hey do you want to pop like you know you know yeah lots of people down here call it pop though too like you you'll get you'll get that especially uh like midwest area i feel like i don't know why we're talking about this or how we i know that that was a that was a bit of that's because two came up in the in the conversation that started a rabbit hole yeah Yeah, that makes sense.
00:11:28
Speaker
We also got, so we got ah an email. So by the way, thank you, Joe, for emailing that. I thought that was really funny and interesting. yeah i love a little little details like that that. That's great to know.
00:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And it's cool that you were an AP at Shanghai for couple of years.
Disney Cruise Excitement and Plans
00:11:43
Speaker
That's really neat. but for And another overseas listener, Trevor, and i ah this is a really interesting one because Jason, all the way from Singapore, ah Jason actually emailed us two years ago.
00:11:55
Speaker
And I have to tell you, Jason, I am sorry because I don't think I ever responded to your original email. I must have somehow missed it. So... Many apologies to Jason because yeah he did email us two years ago. And when we first started talking about the cruise ship that ah Disney was going to put in Singapore yeah and and he was so excited that we were talking about it because no one else cared about it except for the for the guy that's in Singapore.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah. which you know It's great, but I just feel so bad because I never responded. but So Jason wrote in and said, two years ago, I sent you this email. Thank you for mentioning the Singapore cruise. Well, just wanted to let you know that my family and I will be on the maiden voyage in March, and this will be our first Disney cruise as well as the first cruise for my two teenage daughters.
00:12:37
Speaker
So is we've come full circle now, Trevor. this yeah That is super exciting, and you know we're so happy for you that awesome you're you're finally getting to to get onto that cruise ship. So yeah, can't wait to see how that goes. Oh, yeah, for sure. And he said, we're very excited about it. Maybe they'll help me do a trip report for the show. We would love to have you on to talk about that. I would be really. Yeah, for sure. so that That's a very unique thing that, you know, I don't think a lot of people will we'll have perspective on. So, yeah.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah. and then And then, you know, he also goes on to say, Trevor, I hope you and your family take that cruise out of Vancouver, because I think that would be fun to sail and stop at Disneyland. yeah we're We're still looking at it. like you're still I hope so, too. But yeah, it's still in planning phases. So.
00:13:15
Speaker
It's funny because I was i was saying to my you know my wife and I were kind of talking about doing Hawaii next year. Right. And i was like, don't really want to do that long of a plane ride. Like, I don't like I don't really like flying that much and flying. that I don't know. I just don't want to do it.
00:13:30
Speaker
And so I said, I wonder if Disney has any like one way cruises from, you know, the West Coast to to Hawaii, because I would do that. Like, I'll do a cruise. like Right.
00:13:41
Speaker
Like, i I have no problem doing that. um And sure enough, they well they don't actually, but they they have one that's from Hawaii back to the West Coast. That's a one way cruise, but it's 10. It's 10 days. it's ah It's pretty long cruise. Yeah, because that that is quite a stretch too yeah to get from Hawaii back to the West Coast. Yeah, it's Yeah, it it is. It is. But I was like, oh, man, that would be the way to go right there. you know Just do like ah take a cruise ship there and then go go to the resort. and yeah I also want to give a shout out, by the way, in the middle of this email from from Jason because we're talking about Hawaii for a second here.
00:14:13
Speaker
ah Bill, ah who is a frequent emailer. Bill, thank you. He emailed me a picture from Aulani. I guess he just finished up at Aulani. And i it just looks so awesome. i just like i was I mean, the photo we sent us didn't even look real. like If you go look at it in our mailbox, Trevor, it doesn't even look like a real picture because it just like looks too picturesque.
00:14:32
Speaker
But um man, that just kind of made me think about it again. It's like, ah. I really want to do this, you know, but anyway, so back to Jason. Sorry. Yeah. Continuing on. Yeah. Sorry. um My other reason for writing is that my daughter and I were talking about dream Disney vacations, like the worldwide one that adventures by Disney did last year at all the Disney parks. I remember talking about that. That was a crazy thing.
00:14:52
Speaker
We started dreaming about how we could go about visiting all of the parks in a single trip. That's crazy. Like, that's a lot. I mean, people have done it. Yeah. So our trip would start with a Caribbean Disney cruise, followed by five nights at Magic Kingdom ah doing a split stay at BLT. look This is all planned out, man. Look at this. It's a BLT and an Animal Kingdom Lodge, maybe one night at Copper Creek. Well, funny enough, BLT and a Bay Lake Tower, I should say, and um Animal Kingdom Lodge are...
00:15:21
Speaker
My two home resorts. So that's, that is kind of funny, but then fly to Disneyland, spend three nights at the grand California and fly to Hawaii for three nights at the, at the Alani. So you're even doing, you're doing Alani too in there.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. and And this isn't just like one day stops. This is no like multiple day stops. Yeah. Multiple days. Fly to Tokyo Disney and spend three nights at the Miracosta. Fly to Shanghai Disney and spend two nights at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. Then Hong Kong Disney and three nights at the Disney Explorer's Lodge.
00:15:50
Speaker
Stop in Singapore for a three day Disney cruise. so you're bookending it with Disney cruises. That's crazy. Oh, no, you're not. Disneyland Paris. Sorry. I forgot Disneyland Paris. That's my bad.
00:16:01
Speaker
um But finish the trip at Disneyland Paris with a four night stay at the Disneyland hotel. And then since Abu Dhabi is not built yet, we will we do not include that resort in our plan. That makes sense. ah since ah so So the question that Jason has for us. So if Jeannie said he would grant you your ultimate Disney vacation wish, what would it be?
Ultimate Disney Vacation Wishes
00:16:21
Speaker
Would you do the worldwide visit or would you do something else like sail on every Disney cruise ship? Would you bounce between different resorts at each location or stay in one? It's nice to dream about the possibilities. Thanks for doing the show. I really enjoy it.
00:16:33
Speaker
Thank you, Jason. First of all, amazing email. Thank you. yeah um and And I appreciate you listening to us all the way from Singapore. I don't know if you're still in Singapore because you didn't say if you were, but two years ago you were. And I assume because you're going on the food, you still are. Yeah, considering that he is, I assume so. Yeah.
00:16:47
Speaker
Yeah. So thank you. Thank you. You might be one of our furthest away list. Although we have listeners in Australia too. So I don't know. Either way, well it's, it's cool having people internationally that, that enjoy the show. we Absolutely. So this is a really hard question though, Trevor, right? Because your, your ultimate, your ultimate Disney vacation wish.
00:17:07
Speaker
I do. I mean, i mean do you want me to try and talk? Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Um, right. So so this is I feel my personal wish for Disney vacations is, this is hard for me because really ah my only experience is with the North American parks because, sure sure you you know, saying like, you know, oh I'd like to hit all the parks around the world.
00:17:34
Speaker
I don't know that I actually would want to do that. And the reason I say that is that, Like I'm the kind of person that when I go somewhere, I really want to get immersed in it. I really want to spend time exploring it. And the problem is, is that if I was to say, Oh, I'm, you know, traveling around the world, hitting all these places, um, not, not saying that anybody does this is wrong, but for me, it feels too fast.
00:17:58
Speaker
Like, I feel like two or three days in each of these parks is not enough time for me. Like, I feel like I would need to be like, you you know ah like like especially like i do Tokyo Disney is on my bucket list. like i want to get there at some point. and i don't like I know that feasibly like you can do that those parks in or three days. kind of thing But...
00:18:21
Speaker
i I would want to be there for, you know, a bit longer, like, like yeah, like a week or, you know, and and I mean, in that case, it's also not just exploring Tokyo Disney. Like, I'm also very just interested in Japan and like Tokyo and all that as well. So.
00:18:36
Speaker
so I mean, but this is your dream trip, though. You yeah could go to every single park and spend a week there, right? like Because this is just, you know, there's no no i guess budgetary limits. There's no time limits. You can do whatever you want, right?
00:18:47
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, I guess it's yeah if if I was to do it, I i feel like, you and honestly, it wouldn't even be a back-to-back thing. Like, what what my version would be is that over a year, i would want to, I would want to have multiple trips planned over a year where it's like, you know, in, uh, you know, in January, I'm going to, you know, California and then, or not January, let's start in like March. March is great in California for those who know.
00:19:16
Speaker
Um, so yeah you know, we'll start like March in California and then, and then, you know, I'm going to Florida for a week in like May and then I'm going to, um, Tokyo in, you know, August or September at like, and, and just like, so like you said, yeah, like, like a week in each resort, uh, spread it out over an entire year so that I could really like, like take my time and enjoy each of those places. And then, I mean, hotel wise, like, yes, like totally agree with you on the grand Californian. Like that's, yeah I would, I will always,
00:19:49
Speaker
If there's an opportunity for me to stay at the Grand Californian, I will take it because I've stayed there before and I know and know what's up with that. i'm Not to say the other resorts aren't great in in Disneyland either, but the Grand Cali is, yeah. I mean, it's it's like like it's like Wilderness Lodge, but having the walkout to to the park is is another level.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah. and But then, yeah, like like I mean, like the the specific resorts. um i mean I'm impressed at the granular level in which they play on the set. Yeah, like i'm'm i'm trying to I'm trying to think. like Again, like I'll be honest. i I haven't looked into like like the international resorts. I haven't looked into... like I haven't thought that far down as to where I would stay is the thing. Like I, I would, I guess it would be, you know, you know, whatever, whatever the nicest one is, but I'm, you know, I'm using air quotes for the nicest one because i feel like they're like, if,
00:20:44
Speaker
you know like In Tokyo Disney, you know i don't know exactly the layouts of the resort, but there's one that's like the the Grand Floridian. That's just not my my vibe necessarily. So I may take a different resort just because you know whatever whatever closely fits you know the kind of stuff I enjoy, which I know i know a lot of people listening to this are like, well, you just stay at the Poly all the time. True.
00:21:06
Speaker
But... um you But I do. I am very much interested. Like Wilderness Lodge is a vibe for me. um i very much haven't stayed there yet, actually, because because we've stayed at the Grand Cali. So we don't need to like you don't need your fill of that kind of Yeah. and And it's honestly that the the biggest detractor from it is that when, ah you know, ah you know, when we brought up and i said, hey, you know, we could just stay there just to be there. And it's like, yeah, but the Polly so much closer to Magic Kingdom.
00:21:35
Speaker
but It's not that much closer. Well, yeah no, you that walk off of the ferry boat at night is... It's quick boat ride, though. It is, yeah. It's a little different, but... um Again, you know but like i do my i do like the resorts. Animal Kingdom Lodge is another one that you know i very much like the aesthetics of those resorts. it's just when we're like we've gone and you know We've explored some of these different resorts and like you know without staying at them. like i ice would...
00:22:05
Speaker
if the poly wasn't my home resort, I would be staying at these other resorts for sure. yeah yeah sure Um, but yeah, so like internationally it's like, you know, I, I don't even know where I would stay, but I feel like it would be, like I said, my, I guess the, the, the short answer is, you know, my, my pick would be, you know, not just one trip, but have like an entire year booked of like, you know, you're doing all of these trips and, and I've only talked about it from the angle of the, uh, the theme parks.
00:22:33
Speaker
Um, That may change when and if we do decide to get on a cruise. Like, I know we've been talking about it. We're still kind of figuring out if it makes sense logistically for us because, it you know, you know, my wife's been exploring, like, you know, you know, with her health issues and everything, you know, we, we,
00:22:49
Speaker
We're going to try it and we may find that if if it doesn't work, it just doesn't work and it's not something we do. But, you know, we're we're still kind of looking into that. And and it may be, yeah, you know, if we if we suddenly find out that, you know, cruise ships ah have opened up a whole new avenue for us of things to do, then I may add to my list of, you know, you know peppering in between...
00:23:08
Speaker
the The Disney trips is, you know you know, you know, to fill my time when I'm bored is, you know, going on different. Yeah. Just to fill your time. Yeah. Yeah. yeah So there you go. So so that's my take on it.
00:23:20
Speaker
okay So so what's yours? Well, so listen, I mean, my wife and I have always said that like in retirement that like we want to like, you know, to do this to go to every every you know resort and every every park.
00:23:34
Speaker
And so, you know, yeah I mean, I think that's definitely up there. But I mean, i want to go a little bit further with this wish here. Okay. i Because I think the first thing I would do you know as part of this wish, you know, Jeannie, okay?
00:23:48
Speaker
ah First, Jeannie is going to get me a nice little house over at Golden Oaks. ah That's number one, right? ah Yeah. Which Golden Oaks keeps emailing me and I want to email them back. I'm like, do you guys know who you're emailing? Like, i you know, I can't afford that. How'd you get on a mailing list for Golden Oaks?
00:24:05
Speaker
I don't know. i I'm like, do they just assume because I'm a DVC member that I can afford golden? Like, that's nuts. Like, there's a there's a big gap between those two things. is yeah I mean, I don't know what the the current base ah at Golden Oaks is, but I mean, it's it's in the millions. It's not. Yeah, I was going to say it's like like four or five million or something like that.
00:24:24
Speaker
It's crazy. Golden Oaks is crazy. I mean, but that would be where I would start. I'd also, you know, and I'm surprised. I'm surprised Jason or you didn't go here, but um forget staying in any of the DVC resorts or any of those resorts. I'm staying in the Cinderella suite for a week, my friend.
00:24:38
Speaker
Like, why wouldn't I stay in the castle? The genie's giving out wishes. Let me stay at the castle for a week. Right. Fair. As long as there's a quick service or something open that you can hit up at like 2 a.m. m Because I'm assuming if I'm staying in the castle, Trevor, that I have some sort of butler that I can, you know, bring a bell or push a button and they're going to go just say, i yeah I want I want this thing. Bring it to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah if i'm I mean, as that's that's that's got to be part of the experience. How can it not be?
00:25:08
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Because I mean, like, what if you needed to do something in the middle of the night, right? And the parks closed, like they can't let you just wander around Magic Kingdom, right? I mean, are you locked in up there? i always wondered. Maybe they just have a cast member escorting you and you can wander around.
00:25:23
Speaker
That would be weird. that would be that'd be pretty cool, actually. Right. yeah um But yeah, no. So I would definitely do that, Trevor, for sure. i would I would also... um No, that's a terrible idea. Why was it why would I even say that? um ah I'm trying to think of like the most exclusive places I could possibly stay in all these places because you're talking about... gene It's a genie witch, right?
00:25:44
Speaker
So it's like, you know, I want to go sleep at Walt's old apartment at Disneyland for a week. Yeah. I'm joking, though. I wouldn't do that that. You mean the one above the firehouse? yes Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:55
Speaker
yeah Cool. Right. No one's allowed to stay there, though. So we can't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah that That's a no touch place now. That's unfortunate. ah No. So, I mean, I would I would, you know, I don't have a specific place for Disneyland, I'd say, but I mean, i would definitely try to hit up all these parks. kind I actually like this plan. I kind of want to steal Jason's plan.
00:26:12
Speaker
the you know The bouncing around and doing cruises to to bookend it. Yeah, absolutely. I would love to do all the Disney cruise ships, especially if I could get like, you know, suites.
00:26:24
Speaker
And we're going to like stay at the really cool suite. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah. If you're if you're doing Disney cruises, it's assumed you're staying in the the yeah those crazy nice rooms that we've talked about in the past that look like.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah. Like I want to stay in the one of the treasure that's Epcot themed. Trevor, have you seen the inside? Yes. Yeah. we We did talk about that. I remember that. Yeah, you're right. That one would be nice to stay in. Yeah, I mean, that i just would I would love that. So yeah, if I'm going to do all the ships, for sure.
00:26:53
Speaker
i would love to do all that. Yeah, I mean, this is I think if I was going to do it, I kind of want to do it like you, Trevor. I feel like I would get really tired if I was going like from thing to thing to thing to thing. You know what i mean? And I kind of do want to relax a little bit in there. So like I feel like I would need to have like a week at each place, you know at least Yeah. and And and that's that's my thing, too, is it like like, you know, at the start of a vacation, it's always like you're very um like gung ho, obviously, and and whatnot. But you have a like vacation or Disney vacation specifically take a lot of energy and if you're not prepared for it, you know, by like if you don't have breaks in there.
00:27:31
Speaker
you are going to burn out. And and again, it it just takes away from being able to enjoy the places you're you're staying at. So yeah, I like that. That was why i was like, you know, you don't break it up because then it's like you, you get time in between to kind of,
00:27:45
Speaker
come down from each vacation and recharge and then, you know, do the next one. So, yeah. Yeah, no, exactly. And Jason, you missed a couple of things in here though, because you, you know, you got to stay at the Vera beach resort. You also got to do Hilton head, you know, you got to do all the DVC resorts, right? I mean, you got to go to the ones that aren't, aren't even, you know, aren't, aren't part of the park. See, if you're going to do a Lonnie, like just to, you know, keep it fair here.
00:28:09
Speaker
That's what that is true. Yeah. feel like flying all the way to Hawaii just for three nights is not long enough, by the way. I mean, but I guess if it's like... If it's one of those things, because like you could go to Hawaii and then go from Hawaii to Tokyo.
00:28:25
Speaker
That's true. It feels like part of larger... It's almost a stop in between. Yeah, it's part of a larger trip, right? That's a fair point. Yeah, it does make sense to me. Again, spending a couple of days in each place does make sense. It's just...
00:28:39
Speaker
I feel like like if I was to do this, you know by the time I got to like Tokyo or Shanghai, I would be exhausted. And I would be wanting to... like you know, just spend a few days just locked in a room and not, not like going to any resorts or anything like that.
00:28:57
Speaker
So it is really convenient travel wise though. The way that Jason has mapped this out though, yeah because like, you know, you go from place to place to place and it makes sense geographically, you know, the only one that I was a little confused about, and but again, I guess, I don't know what this looks like coming from like, uh, Singapore is, uh,
00:29:16
Speaker
um Going from Singapore to Disneyland Paris. Because I feel like that's a longer trip. But also, to be fair, coming from North America to Paris is not... It's not a short trip either. so i get I guess it's really one of those... like there's no There's no nice way to do that particular one. It's it's kind of...
00:29:33
Speaker
Paris is kind of separated from everything else, right? Because there's like... Yeah. Because if you think about it, like the the other... was Like, you know, the the Asian resorts are all kind of, you know, not not grouped together, but, you know, they're they're all close enough proximity. And then same thing in North America is like...
00:29:49
Speaker
You know, you can you can travel in those areas relatively easy where it feels like getting over to Paris is very like it's always a long trip. But I mean, I guess it's also the same thing going like from from Disneyland to Alani or whatever. So.
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the thing is, you know, I'm, I'm yes. I know this is like a genie wish, but I'm also thinking if somehow genie could like, Oh, just like zap you there. Yeah. The travel time because, because yeah, like some of these, uh, some of these flights, like I've, I've done like, you know, the 10 hour flights or to, to England and stuff like those are, they're long flights.
00:30:26
Speaker
Well, I just, I just Googled this Singapore to Paris is 13 and a half hours. Okay. So so that's, it's so that's a long one. ah blog So maybe that's also the intent is to kind of finish with that because it's, it's the longer leg of the trip. And I mean, really, you know, if you've got a 13 hour flight, you're, you're just sleeping on that flight anyway. So yeah, I would hope so. I would hope so.
00:30:48
Speaker
So yeah, Jason, this is a, this is Epic. I hope you do this. If you do this, we will dedicate multiple episodes to to you talking about this. Like, Yeah. Like, yeah that would be amazing if you were to do this. ah This is this is a ah very cool trip that you've kind of planned out here. And I mean, I know this is like a dream trip, but like ah this is this would be cool if you actually accomplish accomplish this at some point. So, yeah. And and like Tom said, we'd we'd love to hear about it because, you know, obviously this is this is something that I think a lot of Disney people would love to do.
00:31:21
Speaker
so I would love to know if you price this out, Trevor, Trevor, Jason, I feel like this costs like a hundred thousand dollars. like Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's insanely expensive. Yeah. that This would be a crazy expensive.
00:31:33
Speaker
I mean, just, just the travel alone. but But anyway, I just love that email. So thanks again, Jason. That was, that was a lot of fun to kind of think about, but I just want to steal your itinerary. That's what I want to do.
00:31:45
Speaker
I'm just going to do this, but over like a five year period, probably. I mean, yeah, that's part of it, too, is, you know, that there's nothing saying you have to do it all, like, you know, even within a year.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we have some DVC news we should probably talk about.
DVC Property Taxes Discussion
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah. So the only reason I put this this ah DVC, the property tax thing on here, Trevor.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah. Because, like, nobody wants to talk about property taxes. stupid and boring. I just found one thing interesting was that for the first time ever, a DVC resort is now valued at over a billion dollars.
00:32:21
Speaker
Which resort do you think it is, Trevor? ah Well, being that I'm looking at the table right now. Don't. You're cheating. and You're cheating. maybe Maybe you should have told me not to look at the table before you asked that question.
00:32:35
Speaker
but But I mean, to be fair, i don't. So I'm looking at this table and I don't fully understand that there's four different columns here. Or sort of 2024, 2025. But then it says assessed value schools and then assessed value non-schools. I don't know what that means.
00:32:53
Speaker
it's It's just schools versus non-schools. Yeah. So it's yeah. Yeah. I'm not a tax guy. Florida uses a two tiered method for taxable value.
00:33:04
Speaker
And so there's school-related taxing authorities ah at state and local that they assess the property mark the market value of the property. Okay. and then the And then there's the the one that's just non-school, right? So that's really just all it is. um But it's... Yeah, so the the school value assessment... And we didn't say which one it is yet.
00:33:27
Speaker
I mean, I guess I'm not surprised by this, you know? So, okay. Let's just let the out of the bag. It's Saratoga. Yeah, which I mean, I thought about it for a second. I'm like, it's old, but... it's It's also a... Yeah, it's a huge amount of property. Like, like you know, yeah in terms of... Because where is... Oki West? Yeah, Oki West is not anywhere near... It's like half the value. Almost half.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. so Which is surprising to me, too, actually. but But again, I think it speaks to the fact that you know part of the reason that Saratoga's points and everything are cheap is that it is a massive resort. And it is a um it is the value resort of deluxe resorts.
00:34:13
Speaker
you may You may not like me saying that. But if you look at the way it's laid out and the way that it's presented is it is similar to like a moderate or a value resort.
00:34:24
Speaker
And also just the sheer size of it means that, you know, the amount of people they can get in there, it it has the same kind of layout as ah as Caribbean beach, where there's like five bus stops just inside the resort, you know, to give you a sense of scale.
00:34:41
Speaker
So yeah, i can I can see why it's being valued at a billion dollars. Well, and according to according to Wikipedia here, which, you know, I'm sure is accurate on this, that it it's um is the Saratoga Springs actually sits on 65 acres.
00:34:55
Speaker
All right. So it's a pretty, I mean, it's a large resort. Yeah. ah that's like a that's ah That's a small town inside of a city. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know how ah whats what's the total acreage of Disneyland?
00:35:09
Speaker
I mean, you you're the one that has Google open. You can probably. I thought maybe you would just know off the top of your head is a fun fact, Trevor. I'm sorry. I just assumed. Yeah. So so the so Walt Disney World covers approximately twenty five thousand to twenty seven thousand acres, according to a quick Google search.
00:35:28
Speaker
So it's about the same size as the city of San Francisco. So looking at, i mean, Saratoga inside of that, like you said, it's like a small town.
00:35:40
Speaker
Yeah, it is. I mean, it's I mean, so it really makes sense that it's it it's that, you know, highly valued. But it's just kind of amazing to see ah a DVC property listed at a billion dollars, you know.
00:35:52
Speaker
Now, I guess the, the, you know, you know, that that's an interesting fact and all that, but you know, the property value assessments that also can translate into, fees and all that.
00:36:03
Speaker
Correct. Well, yeah, cause we, that's yeah, we pay with the the property taxes for our dues and these values are greater than what they estimated they were going to be for this year, which means there's no shortage, which means our dues are going to have to make up for that. So, and so so specifically for folks at Saratoga, um,
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah, I expect that there will be a Really, all of these But yeah, I guess, yeah, Saratoga was, you know, kind kind of the the standout one, but I guess it's...
00:36:33
Speaker
Wait, what is this one CFW? what is You know, it's funny. I wondered that for at first, too. And then as I think it's the ah it's the cabins at Fort Wilderness. That makes sense. That's why it went from $2 million dollars to $222 million. dollars from yeah guess because they then yeah Yeah, because immediately I was looking at the the percentage value change. And it's like, oh, there's a 10,000% change. What?
00:36:55
Speaker
Yeah, bit that's it's a bit. yeah but But yeah, that's good because cabins at Fort Wilderness came online. And they've been yeah over the last year, they've grown in the the the allotted space assigned to them, which obviously means that the the assessed value goes way up.
00:37:13
Speaker
So, yeah, it's so that's not even like anywhere close to to most of the other resorts either. I guess it did pass Copper or no, it hasn't passed Copper Creek. And BRV is Boulder Ridge, Boulder Ridge.
00:37:27
Speaker
OK, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, Boulder Ridge is another smaller one. it's ah It's a pretty small resort. I mean, it's a decently small resort piece of the resort. so yeah Boardwalk, Copper Creek, Polynesian Villas. yeah Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. i'm i I'm getting it now. um' Yeah. it's It's hard to... like They just labeled them all by acronyms, and you're like trying to figure everything out by a Well, yeah. CMW threw me off, too, because I don't think I had seen the acronym for the Cabin to Fort Wilderness yet, because you know it's still so new, but...
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, thought that was interesting. um But yeah, so our estimated taxes were actually quite a bit lower than this. So it looks like we're all going to have a little bit of an increase, but that's okay. Happens.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah. and And actually, I guess, you know, across the board now now that I'm looking at it. So Animal Kingdom was... only or So looking at the non-school percentage change, just just as a point of reference, you know they went up 8.9%.
00:38:23
Speaker
Most of the other resorts were a flat 10% increase. Yeah, but because that's the the cap. They can only do it up ten ah up to 10%. Except for the Polynesian, and and this is because of the tower. So the Polynesian actually went up 24%.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So, um but so yeah, Copper or or sorry, Copper Creek, um Caverns of Fort Wilderness and Polynesian because they're two ones that come online with new, new buildings and all that.
00:38:52
Speaker
They have a ah slightly higher increase, which now that's going to be great for paying my dues this year. Or well, I guess we'll see how that goes. But yep, yep. Yeah. And then, and then, yeah, Saratoga was, yeah. So, so even though it's at worth over a billion dollars, it still just had a 10% increase.
00:39:10
Speaker
So it's, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's still crazy though, to think about how huge that, uh, that property is. I mean, i i hadn't really... i don't remember looking at this in the past, but I'm sure it's obviously been more valued than the rest. It had a higher valuation than all the rest just because of its size by itself.
00:39:32
Speaker
um But you know the fact that it's eclipsed a billion dollars is... yeah Kind of crazy. And also, like keep in mind that you know you know these are property tax increases, which, you know yes, these are going up like 10%.
00:39:44
Speaker
This is not going to translate to like your dues going up 10%. This will be like, you know you may pay a couple more dollars per not even per point. Like it, it'll, this is worked in with a bunch of other like maintenance fees and stuff like that. So, yeah I mean, it's not the only factor, but again, it's like, yeah, you know, it's still interesting that you brought it up that, you know, you know, Hey, you can kind of see like the lay of across different things.
00:40:10
Speaker
resorts and kind of get a feel for like, oh, you know, certain resorts are seeing, you know, you know, different increases. Right. So, well, it also just speaks to the value of DVC, though, too. Right. Is that these properties are appreciating in value continually. Right.
00:40:25
Speaker
So it's which is a good thing. Right. Yeah. Which yeah I mean, that that means that, yeah, you're you know, your points are. Your points are still valuable at the end of the day. I mean, my but my points, exactly to that point, you I have no intention of selling um mine.
00:40:42
Speaker
But you know from when I bought my points till now, i could i could easily make a profit on on mind like Like it's crazy to actually think about the fact that, you know, I bought them like coming coming on 10 years ago and they they've just done nothing but increasing value, but even though I've been using them.
00:41:04
Speaker
Right? Well, that's... member and when Remember, I did my contract swap earlier this year. And I mean, I sold my one contract that I bought seven or eight years ago for the same amount that I bought it for.
00:41:15
Speaker
Which I might say, okay, well, you didn't make any money on that. But I did because I've been using it for seven years. Yeah. like like that's That's exactly what I mean is that it's like yeah you... you know, you know, I've, I've been using this like like actively using it to book hotel rooms that I've not had to pay for, like, and the, and they're not cheap hotel rooms. So, you know, you've got the value of those hotel rooms, but then I can still sell the contract for, in my case, it's actually higher than what I bought my contracts for, because when I bought my contracts, it was like, it was kind of right before
00:41:49
Speaker
right before like contract prices started climbing. Like I, uh, there was a point where Disney, like, like everything went over like $200 a point. Right. Like, and I bought mine under $200 a point, but now it's like selling my contracts. Like, you know, they, they can, they can get up or, or sorry, that that's direct, you know, they're over 200 a point, but you know, selling them the, you know, that's kept the prices high on them. Right. Which is, again, it's just a, it's a crazy thing that, uh,
00:42:18
Speaker
that they've done that. And that they continue to... I actually think sold mine for little bit more than I bought it for, too. I think it was little more. But you kind of had a bit of a lateral move there because you immediately bought another contract. Yeah, it was. I was swapping U.C. Israeli is what I was doing. Exactly. So, yeah. So, I mean, I actually ended up with 10 more points because the contract I did find had 10 more points. Oh, boo-hoo.
00:42:37
Speaker
um You know, I got 10 more. No. But funny enough, I actually, i haven't used really any, well, used some my points this year, but not nearly all of them. And my banking deadline, I mean, my banking deadline's coming up.
00:42:50
Speaker
And I, you know, i'm I'm trying to get a reservation for November for the, you know, the week of Christmas. And I, you know, i'm having, I mean, I'm sorry, the week of Thanksgiving. And, you know, I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting one, which is understandable.
00:43:02
Speaker
Like, listen, busy time a year. I'm not, and I'm doing it last minute. I get it. but I'm also just like, man, I got to bank these points by at the end of the month. And also I'm going to have an absurd amount of points next year that I have no idea what I'm going to do with, but we'll see.
00:43:14
Speaker
I might try if I can get like a really sweet. I mean, I think I posted in the discord that there was a, uh, grand villa available over at jumbo house. And I was like, for that night that I'm going to be there. And I was like, yeah, this is tempting.
00:43:27
Speaker
This is tempting. I mean, you know, I felt like I wasn't going to enjoy it. I'm only there for one night, you know, and we're going to be at the thing all night. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're really just coming back there to sleep. but Exactly. So I don't want my grand... And then my wife was like, well, what if it's like one of the Copper Creek cabins comes up or one of the Polybungalers? I'm like, hmm. Again, want to really enjoy my time doing that and not... Because I just need a place to sleep, you know?
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah. yeah the The thing is, is you like you're you're dropping your your luggage off there and then you're going to a party and then you're not coming back until like midnight or whatever. So you're not like going to spend time... like you know, staring at the room at one o'clock in the morning, you're going to sleep and then you're getting up the next morning and, know,
00:44:10
Speaker
yeah continuing on so yeah yeah it's i don't know i'm just at this point i just want to get a room let alone you know just and yeah that because that's what i kind of said to you you know before is you know you know you just need somewhere to to crash for the night that you know so you're not having to get in the car and drive after the party that's really all you need you don't need like a super fancy room when i tell you there's nothing available trevor there's not a single roommate dvc room available for that night at this that is so crazy Yeah, not a single room. And I am the person that has like the browser up during the day, and I just click like you know refresh every five minutes, and yeah nothing.
00:44:47
Speaker
Just not a thing. Did you at least waitlist something? Sorry, I know we're going down. Yes, of course. Yes, of course I did. I did. um Moving on really quickly here because we're we're getting halfway through the show and I would love to do the the ad.
00:44:59
Speaker
um do Why don't we just do the ad right now and then we'll talk about the other DVC item. No, I think what why don't we just – this isn't going to be a very long conversation. We'll just do this. We'll talk forever. No, no I – so, okay.
00:45:11
Speaker
Let's just get into it because so membership magic beyond is returning in 2026. So this is the, um, you know, you pay them $99 a year and it gets you a bunch of extra perks as a DBC member, which include, you know, two for one, one-time use points, uh, priority access to member lounges, uh, exclusive evening access to the imagine,
00:45:33
Speaker
imaginary atrium. Sorry. It's such a bad one. Imagine, imagine atrium lounge at Epcot, a complimentary magic maker entitlement discounted worth the cost. Yeah. Yeah. um And also, by the way just to tell everybody, this is how I got into McKim's mile house over at a magic kingdom. I would not have gotten in without magic but beyond. So, and I would have gotten in there too, if it wasn't for you. No, um if I was doing a Scooby-Doo references. You met like kids? that what you're going to say? Yeah, exactly. But no, I would have gotten in there too, but it's not open to to Canadian residents still. So okay so that that's the only thing that they don't specify here is, you know, maybe they will open this up to...
00:46:17
Speaker
canadians in the future brought you as my as my guest like i don't know why you know i should i should have texted you and be like hey you want to come over and come to mckim's with me i mean we we probably would have except we were i think at that point we were having a solo ride on pirates of the caribbean oh that's right yeah but you were close by though then we were yeah that's true but but i i wouldn't have interrupted that solo ride for uh going to mccams because that' threatening that's right you saw the picture from that it was pretty epic um Yeah, really, the only change with the program next year appears to be that they're replacing Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps meet and greet that's happening at the Imaginatrium in the evening with Mickey and Minnie, which, you know, listen, with a placement a unique costumed Mickey and Minnie. So they have like a DVC costumed.
00:47:00
Speaker
yeah Yes. Yeah, that they they are exclusive to that meet and greet, which, again, is kind of cool that they're doing that. I actually really like the costumes. They're very DVC-esque. I like it.
00:47:12
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, like, yeah, like you said, you know, it's, ah you know, this is just, you know, highlights that it's coming back. And the only part that, you know, we'll we'll see as it comes online, you know, maybe they'll change the the eligibility for it.
00:47:26
Speaker
I hope they do. I hope so for you. Yeah. Cause listen, I said this before, it's a great value. I mean, I look at this as I would have absolutely used this even for my trip in May, if I could have.
00:47:37
Speaker
And like for us, you know, we've been talking about, uh, in 2027, we have our, um we have our 25th wedding anniversary coming up and like the two for one, one time use points would be of value to me because, you know, we're, we're planning to get some extra points to do some stuff we don't normally do.
00:47:56
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, memory maker is usually $185 plus yeah You're paying $99 for memory maker and then a whole bunch of other stuff. Exactly. Yeah.
00:48:06
Speaker
Like that memory maker thing makes it worth it by itself. Personally. That's what I think. ah yeah Yeah, as as long as you're doing like one trip to the parks, really. and Yeah, I think I'm actually just going to use it for the for the party, to be totally honest. like Because we didn't use the entitlement last time.
00:48:21
Speaker
I'm just to use it for the party. ah like There you go. yeah Yeah, done. All right, let's go ahead and do our ad trip. Yeah, we can do the ad now. um i said I didn't think that would be very long. All right. The sponsor of this episode is DVC Resale Market. DVC Resale Market, a world of DVC company, is the leader in the DVC resale industry with 13 former Disney Vacation Club guides and three former Disney Vacation Club quality assurance managers.
00:48:45
Speaker
If you're thinking of buying DVC, browse the largest selection of DVC resale listings anywhere with DVC experts on hand seven days a week to answer your questions. If you're thinking of selling, turn to the friendly professionals at DVC Resale Market, where over 98% of listings sell within 30 days.
00:48:59
Speaker
In 2024, DVC Resale Market helped over 4,400 families join or add on to their membership. Go to DVCResaleMarket.com slash welcome home or call 1-844-DVC-PROS. That's speak to them, sure to let them know Welcome Home sent you.
00:49:12
Speaker
seven seven six seven and when you speak to them be sure to let them know they welcome home sent you So, yeah, i listen, i i'm I'm actually going to be part of that statistic next next year, Trevor. In the 2025, they helped over 4,400 families. I'm going to be one of those 4,400 families.
00:49:27
Speaker
ah All right. You know, but anyway. you You can add that to the ah to the ad if you want. Including me. That's what I was going to say. Me. Plus me. um I wanted to put this in here because I feel like people have been bemoaning the removal of Streetmosphere, especially at
New Attractions and Performances
00:49:47
Speaker
Hollywood Studios. Yes. Rightfully so. The people Hollywood Boulevard was a super fun thing that has been gone for a while now.
00:49:56
Speaker
but funny they yeah it was a super fun thing that has been gone for a while now But I'm glad you put this in here because it is highlighting that it looks like there's a couple of new acts that have come to Hollywood Studios specifically.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yeah. And so one is called Holly Groove Swinging Band. And the other one's called That's a Record Juggling. So which, you know, this is kind of fun, I feel like, for Hollywood Studios. But ah basically, holly it's the vibe for sure. Yeah.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, so Holly Groove is just like, you know, jazz music. um And then the juggling is, you know, it's juggling. so ah Right? but um But the jazz band is what? Trumpet, trombone, drums, and a tuba. and they And they just kind of walk around, it seems like, playing jazz music. so Yeah, I mean, that's actually very similar to in... Again, you you wouldn't know this, but in New Orleans, there is... In New Orleans Square, there's a jazz band in Disneyland. Yeah.
00:50:49
Speaker
So, you know, you know, kind of the same vibe is, you know, just having people playing jazz in the parks is is entertaining. It's also the same as like, you know, in Magic Kingdom, how you have the yeah the band that plays in the hub.
00:51:03
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So or when you're just walking around to Magic Kingdom, and there's randomly marching band that goes by for one reason or another. Yeah. Yeah. the Yeah. the The school marching bands as well. Yeah. So, yeah, this is this is a great thing to see that they're – I feel like maybe they they heard some feedback that, you know, Hollywood Studios has been a very – um I'm going to say stale. You all can come for me if you want, but Hollywood Studios has felt very stale for a while.
00:51:31
Speaker
Like it it it felt very um like there you you walk in there and like unless you were going to Galaxy's Edge or Toy Story Land, the rest of the park was just kind of in limbo.
00:51:44
Speaker
And this, yeah the funny thing is, is that giving, giving some street atmosphere to it, yeah you know, having, having some bands playing, having, having acts, you know, doing their thing does improve yeah without having to like make major changes to the park. It does improve just the general enjoyment at the park.
00:52:05
Speaker
And I feel like, I feel like Disney, it's a weird thing for them. I feel because yes, they're, you know, they they have these performers and yes, they have to, you you know, you know, pay for these performers to be there, but it does make people want to be in the park, which does make people want to, you know, spend more money to be at the park.
00:52:25
Speaker
So, yeah, yes, it's, it's, you know, stream of spheres, it's a, it's a weird, like intangible thing that, know, Like just, just reading this, I'll be honest, is that, you know, knowing, knowing that there is stuff at least happening at Hollywood studios makes me actually want to go back there.
00:52:45
Speaker
Whereas I'll admit for the last couple of years, like like, you know, I know, and know people have gotten on us that, you know, we were supposed to go do rise and you know, there was a couple of trips where, you know, when it was, you know, we had family members that got sick, there was a hurricane that interrupted us again in the middle of our trip.
00:53:00
Speaker
Yeah. It happens. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there, you know we, we haven't put a lot of emphasis on going to Hollywood studios, but seeing these kinds of things are like this combined with, you know, they're redoing, um, they're redoing, uh, uh,
00:53:18
Speaker
The animation roller coaster. yeah So rock and roller coaster, the animation corner, um you know, the monsters ink stuff is coming. Like all that stuff is making me go like, Oh, Hey, I actually do.
00:53:29
Speaker
I want to go over and check out Hollywood studios. Right. Like it's that that that's, that's where this is kind of going for me is that, you know, you know, seeing, seeing that they're putting emphasis into some street misphere there again, makes me hopeful for where the park is going.
00:53:45
Speaker
like I mean, like you said, it that stuff makes the the parks feel alive. you know like It makes it feel... It's it's the the the big difference you get between there and your local park. You know what i mean? like and And even the local parks. I mean, like at my local park, they had a little bit of stuff going on, right? like They had people dressed up like ah you know like Boy Scouts going around ah you know in in the Peanuts area you know doing little things with with the kids, right?
00:54:08
Speaker
Great. Yeah. But like this it's this kind of stuff that like sets them apart. like I was trying to think to myself, Trevor, who has the best streetmosphere of all the parks? And it's tough because Magic Kingdom, you obviously have the very classic Dapper Dans, and it's hard to beat the Dapper Dans.
00:54:23
Speaker
I don't know, but I enjoy the Jaminators in Epcot. i was I was just going to say, so that listen, the Epcot is hard to beat because you have the jammeters, you have ah other random stuff happening there all the time, but then also all the stuff in the countries, right? I mean, the drummers, man. I mean, there's never a time where those drummers are are performing where if I'm walking by or within distance of hearing it, that we don't go over and watch them because it's incredible to watch. Yeah.
00:54:50
Speaker
um And i love I love them. I mean, the mariachi band over at Mexico is amazing. um There's always... The Humbling Act in China. there Yeah. Like you said, yeah. it's Honestly, yeah, the volume of Streetmosphere stuff that happens in Epcot is is very hard to beat.
00:55:07
Speaker
It's just hard to go against Apperdanza because that's probably the most classic of all. But I do love the Jammeters. The Jammeters are one of our tops. We love the Jammeters. Yeah. But but this the the thing is, is this is putting Hollywood studios in, yeah you know, that they have stuff now, too, which the the interesting thing about this is that, you know, the these acts, like like it is a weird thing that, you know, they they are competing for our attention now.
00:55:33
Speaker
Of course. And, and it really is up to these, you know, the P the performers who are doing these things, like, like you said, you know, the, know, the thing about like the, uh, you know, the the people of Hollywood Boulevard, you know, you know, they, there was a point where, you know, nobody really knew who they were whatever, but they became very endearing. They became very, uh, you know, you know, recognizable and like, you know, it became a ah feature of the park.
00:55:59
Speaker
Very interactive. Yeah. and And that's where this, That's where I feel like they're trying to get back to with these, these acts that they're adding is, you know, this is, you know, you know, as much as yes, you're going to magic kingdom for a whole bunch of things.
00:56:15
Speaker
I'm like you said, you know, you know, the dapper dance are as much an attraction as anything else at this point. And that's true. That's the reason, you know, the reason why people stop on main street and watch the dapper dance whenever they get a chance to.
00:56:28
Speaker
So Yeah. I also like to this article notes that ah one when they were watching them, that Chip and Dale stopped by the jazz band and started dancing in music. That kind of stuff makes it even cooler.
00:56:40
Speaker
Yeah, and totally. Also, the juggling act. Apparently, Donald walked by as well and was Donald was encouraging the juggler ah and stuff. So like it just like i don't know, that kind of stuff is what makes Disney Disney and why I love it. So I i love seeing more of this for sure.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah. and And again, it brings the same vibes where i've I've said this many times in the past is you don't you don't see that organic interaction as much in. ah in Florida as you do in California where, yeah. Cause in California you get that all the time where like, you know, the evil queen is walking by and, you know, is making remarks at snow white who's doing meet and greets and stuff, or like Peter Pan is there or the mad hat. Like it's, there's, there's just characters out and about doing stuff. Right. And this, even though it's not exactly the same thing, but like you say, you know, that point where, you know, you know, there are characters still walking through the park for various reasons.
00:57:36
Speaker
you know, having them interact with these acts as well. Just again, it's such a weird intangible thing, but it just like, it makes you happy in the moment. Right.
00:57:47
Speaker
It does. yeah like Like that, because the whole thing is you're there, you know, you're at the parks and you're, you know, you're having a good time as it is, but then it's like when something happens, that's like, you don't see that every day or you see like a weird interaction you know, that's what makes those, those magic moments or what makes you like, remember like, Oh, you know, we, we had a great day, but then also remember what Donald did with that juggler. Like, yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. I, you know, I've noticed some really big increase over the past, I want to say two years
00:58:19
Speaker
of the characters just wandering around more. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like they really have gotten back to that at Disney world. And you really think they're trying to, they're, they're really trying to, to get that to be a thing again.
00:58:31
Speaker
I mean, cause you, I, I saw that a ton. And I mean, even on the cruise ship, Trevor, like when I was on, when we were on the, on the cruise, Peter Pan at one point just running around the ship, like just literally running around the ship, like doing mischievous things, randomly like photo bombing people, like jumping in pictures. It was hilarious. And it was just like, that's the kind of stuff you love, right? Like it's just when Peter Pan just running around being, being silly, you know?
00:58:56
Speaker
hmm. Because there are there are nonstop meet and greets, Trevor. and I mean, like the the amount of meet and greets on the Disney Cruise Line is nuts. Oh, I believe you. But, yeah you know, sorry, I know you're saying like like you're you're blown away by your pet doing that.
00:59:09
Speaker
We need to get you to Disneyland, Tom, because that happens there, too. No, i it happened to Disney World, too. It just was in the confinedness of the cruise ship. It just was it felt a little different, I guess. Yeah.
00:59:22
Speaker
You wouldn't expect it, I guess. is Yeah. More structured, you know, because it's you when you're on the you know, you're on the ship. it's It's very it's you know, your space is limited. You know, you're not you're trapped on a big on a boat, but it's you know, you're it's only so big. Right. So it's it's just different. But no, i've I mean, I've seen that at Disney World, too. It just was I didn't expect it on the ship, you know.
00:59:44
Speaker
It's fair. Yeah. So but back back to Hollywood studios. Oh, no, no, but it's not Hollywood. The next thing's on Hollywood studios. What are you talking about? Oh, okay. Sorry. I was going to ask you, was there anything else we wanted to mention about Hollywood studios?
00:59:58
Speaker
No, I'm good. I want to check this out though. I mean, I definitely want to see this. I, you know, I always enjoy this kind of stuff. So I will definitely check it out the next time we're there. If we, you next time we're at Hollywood studios, I don't know what our next Disney trip is going to be yet, but yeah,
01:00:13
Speaker
um you know probably sometime next year. I don't know what going to look like yet, though. Anyway. Well, I mean, you have to get past your current Disney trip. so Well, there's also that. Yes, there's also that. But I want to talk about... ah So I almost didn't put this on the on the rundown, Trevor. However, i but I don't know if you watched this video.
01:00:32
Speaker
Oh, I did. Okay. but I love Josh Gad. i really do And I'm extraordinarily jealous of the life that he gets to live. and I just say that... So for for everyone who has...
01:00:44
Speaker
yeah Okay, my my my kid would say this if if I was to explain to him. Josh Gad is doing side quests right now. Yeah, he is.
Josh Gad's Haunted Mansion Experience
01:00:53
Speaker
ah But I mean, like he so if if you if he... And I think we talked about every time he does this, but he keeps doing this thing where he gets to be a Parks cast member, right? So like he did... He got to be a Jungle Cruise skipper. he got to be a Kilimanjaro safari guide. He got to, ah you know, ah drive ah engineer train on the Disneyland Railroad.
01:01:13
Speaker
This latest video, though, he is a ah he's he's a Haunted Mansion cast member over at Disneyland, ah and a character taker. And this video is hilarious. The first half of it, he's very dad joking it up, which is fine with me because that's my sense of humor. So I was finding it very funny, but also just marveling at how he's just basically walking on the ride.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's just wandering through the ride. yeah wandering through the ride whatever he's you know in the in this in the uh in the ballroom scene he's you know he's he's in the the the graveyard party like he's he's everywhere i mean but the second half of the video where he's actually being the cast member is was the funniest part to me just because he's not like being like hi i'm josh gad he's like really playing doing it yeah yes he's doing the he's doing like the uh not the ghost host but the The caretaker. Yeah. He's the Haunted Mansion cast member. which
01:02:08
Speaker
and But one of my favorite parts of that video, Trevor, is when a bunch of people just walk by and they kind of like do a double take. And then one guy's just like, are we just are we just not going to say anything about this? just yeah And then like you know that people kept going, oh, that's the voice of Olaf. And he keeps going, no one will believe you. but yeah yeah yeah a Yeah. You can tell people, but no one will believe you.
01:02:31
Speaker
so funny. I mean, honestly, I really loved this video and it's funny because I right before we started the show, my wife often asked me. She goes like, so what are you guys talking about today? I'm like, you know, this, this and this and and I forgot to mention this to her. And so I i as I was, you know, before we started the show, I messaged her, you know, I sent her a text with the um with the youtube link and she goes oh please this is how she responds to me she goes please already watched this and posted it to the social media ah so for for welcome home and i was like oh okay my bad never mind yeah yeah so it's apparently you should know better that yeah it it is yes our our our wives are very much on top of our social media posts right they are we we're bad it for anyone that doesn't know yes we have our wives helping us because they are much better at social media than we are
01:03:17
Speaker
So yeah, they are. And, and yeah, so this is on our social media if you haven't watched it, but honestly, i it's ah hilarious. I, I, I think I've said before, if I want to be a cast member anywhere, it probably be Hunter mansion.
01:03:29
Speaker
It just seems like it'd be fun. You know, if you're having a bad day, you can just continue being in your bad mood and and it's, it's okay. It's totally, totally. All right. ah You know, it's such a weird thing. If you think about it, like,
01:03:42
Speaker
you know Trying to deliberately be in a bad mood actually makes you not be in a bad mood. like like I feel like being at the Haunted Mansion because you have to be very somber whatnot, even if I was like came in and was having a bad day, I feel like that that would not stick because...
01:03:59
Speaker
you're like actively trying to to do it. Like like you you couldn't continue to be unhappy if you were like, like, yeah, exactly. You know, being in that situation.
01:04:10
Speaker
um yeah I agree. Like, yeah, you know, you can, you can be the, you know, the, the, the somber person there, but it would still have just be a ton of fun. So it just, it would, it would be, I, I would have a blast doing it. I, but yeah, I, I really enjoyed, there was the other part too, as the doors were closing to the stretching room where he, when he yells, he goes, I love cold hugs.
01:04:32
Speaker
And then the door was like, listen, I, like I said, it it's very dad jokish, but I, if you like Josh Gad, then he, he does a great job with the, with this whole thing. So.
01:04:43
Speaker
Yeah. And, and yeah, the, the fact that, you know, he, I appreciate that he you know he's doing these things and he's he's actually like trying to like do the cast member role. like He's not just like...
01:04:55
Speaker
yeah Oh, hey, i you know I did a video. I'm here as a cast member kind of thing. He is paying attention to like you know trying to hit like the the beats that they they make. like yeah you know Even the saying, like and drag your bodies into the center of the room. Into the center of the room, yeah. like he he he He does take it seriously for for as much as he's dead, joking it up. like You can tell he yeah you know he he sees that you know it is a serious role that has to be played at the parks too, which I think that's what makes it better is that you know he he doesn't just like,
01:05:25
Speaker
Thank you. I mean, he jokes through it, but he also acknowledges that you know these you know cast members are doing something you know special, right? Absolutely. Yeah. yeah no i Listen, it's it's one of those things where if a Condimentation cast member is not into it, it doesn't ruin the ride.
01:05:44
Speaker
But if they are into it makes it better. you know the The hard part is is you honestly don't know. that That's true. That's the funny thing. is that like i Because I've had like i've had Haunted Mansion cast members where they're like,
01:05:56
Speaker
they're very like, like, um, direct, like, like, yeah you know, please move into the middle. Like, but, but you can't tell if they're just being like part of the role or if they're just, yeah. The hard part is, is that like, like they're doing the bit, but you can also tell like they're trying to like get people to move and stuff like that. So it's like, they have like that weird space where like, they don't have to be like,
01:06:18
Speaker
overly nice but yeah it still works because it's also like cut like they they kind of like jump scare the people into like moving as well so it's like yeah yeah it's like i told you man like rise of resistance is similar after the uh first pre-show yeah i guess tech i mean i guess you could technically say it's the second pre-show but we're like when when they the officers like start yelling at you and stuff like they are committed to the bit Although I will say the last time I went on it, the person that was doing it ah with clearly did not have an actual British accent and was trying to do one, and it was not great.
01:06:53
Speaker
It was okay. Was it Dick Van Dyke British accent? Yeah, I mean, it was it was passable, okay? But like I feel like we didn't need to do that, right? Like, you can be... I mean, i listen, I know a lot of the Star Wars... you know it's it's got They got the accents. I get it.
01:07:07
Speaker
But yeah you don't have... The Empire has the... If you work for the Empire, you must have the British accent. Is that that what it is? You have to? Is it necessary? i guess. I don't know. But no, I mean, I don't feel like you have to. I feel like you can still be mean. And I mean, it is a it sounds a little meaner in the accent, though. It does. I would agree with that. But, you know, so anyway, I just wanted to bring that up because i I, like I said, I watched the video and I was like, how can I not mention this? Because it's it's so funny and fun. And I just, like I said, am very jealous of Josh Gad's life.
01:07:37
Speaker
And again, another reason that you need to get over to Disneyland because then you could actually run into him in i mean It's more likely to happen in Disneyland than it is Disney World. that's that's a That is a fact. I'm so bad at like... see like i I've definitely been near celebrities before and not noticed them at all. like I'm just really bad at that. I'm bad at faces. like I can't... yeah You know what i mean?
01:08:02
Speaker
i joke my wife all the time that I'm face blind and I think I actually am because like I am so bad. I mean, in a crowd, it is hard to like process... Because you're processing a lot of information. It is hard to like zero in on...
01:08:14
Speaker
you know Oh, that's this person, right? Yeah. yeah i will say this and i think i've said this before on the show but i i'll reiterate it because you know the next time i do go to disneyland um The one person that I hope to run into because I've learned over time that he he is in the parks on a regular basis is ah one of the creators of Phineas and Ferb, which I know you haven't really watched Phineas and Ferb, but ah Dan Pavanmayer does go into the parks on a fairly regular basis. And I think like he seems like just such a cool guy to to meet. like like And he's not like...
01:08:51
Speaker
Like, it's not like a, you know, a Josh Gad level celebrity or anything. But, you know, he he at this point, he has, you know, some some, you know, weight with Disney. You know, he's done he's done a pretty big show for them and all that. And I think he would just be somebody cool to to meet in the park, which, again, you know, same kind of problems, you know, you know, as I'm walking around the park, I'm not like.
01:09:12
Speaker
I'm not like intently staring at people like trying to identify. I mean, that that would probably get you kicked out if you were like staring people down enough that you don't make them uncomfortable. But you're but you know taking the time to try and like like recognize all the you know hundreds of people that are going by you at any given moment. Yeah. That's the other thing. if i Even if I saw a celebrity that I really liked, I'm not like going up to them.
01:09:35
Speaker
You know what I mean? like I'm not going to take a selfie. like it I guess it depends on who it is, but like I don't want to ruin anyone else. to Even a celebrity you know has you know is is doing their own thing there. like Leave them alone. Let them do their thing. I mean... i mean Yeah. If I was inclined or, you know, if it seemed like, you know, they were willing to like, because i guess the thing is, you you know, some, it depends on the person and, you know, you kind of have to like read the vibe if they're, they're interested in seeing people or not. It's, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go at it from an angle of, you know, Hey, can I get a selfie or whatever? It's more so that I'd just be like,
01:10:09
Speaker
you know, Hey, I love your work. Like, and that's, that's as much as I would say to a celebrity is like, you know, I don't, you know, you don't owe me anything. and And you really, I just want to, you know, take the opportunity to say, I love what you're doing and leave it at that. Right. So.
01:10:23
Speaker
Except for shot that. I saw Stamos across the park. I just yell Stamos. Nothing else. Just yell from across the park. Yeah. There's actually like three different like two different articles on the Disney Parks blog this year of all the celebrities that have been visiting parks and and going on cruises. So I don't know why they they decided to do that as articles. But yeah, there's there's been a bunch. you know anyway Anyway, Trevor, don't want to talk about this Disney World package
Disney World Deals and Family Trips
01:10:49
Speaker
thing. Listen, you can... yeah I was going to say, I had a look at this and I'm trying to figure out what is interesting about this because wouldn't...
01:10:58
Speaker
Hey, if you want to go to Disney World in 26 and you're not DVC, you can save up to $250 per night on certain dates. There you go. I mean, yeah I get it. So I feel like this is not the podcast to talk about that.
01:11:11
Speaker
But I feel like I just wanted to bring it up. Because I'm not paying to stay at Disney World. Well, there's also that. Yeah. But then we listen. We have lots of listeners that are not DVC members that are. Yeah, you're right. i'm I apologize. that That's not fair of me to to be like that. Because, yes, you know, everybody has their own situations. For us, it doesn't apply. But I guess it is good to let people know that, yeah, there is Disney World packages going on right now.
01:11:33
Speaker
obviously we're not staying there, but, or sorry, we're not staying like, you know, using these packages for, um, for staying at Disney world. But, you know, I, I thought about it for a second and I realized, you know, but, and actually I did look this up is, uh, you know, staying at a value resort is, you know, anywhere between $130 and $200 a night. So, yeah you know, the, these promos saving up to I'm assuming that this is not for a,
01:12:02
Speaker
um it's It's not for a value resort room, obviously. like It's probably a moderate or higher. But then it's it's ah it's a four-night stay with... also purchasing a four day or longer theme park ticket. So, I mean, you know, I guess, yeah, that, that is still, that is a pretty good deal.
01:12:19
Speaker
If you think about it, like, you know, yeah I guess the way I look at it is, uh, you know, this may be the difference between, yeah, like I said, you know, versus, you know, if you're budgeting and, you know, you're staying at an all-stars resort, um, this may be a reason to justify moving up to like a, you know, a moderate, like, you know, like a Port Orleans or a Caribbean beach or something like that.
01:12:39
Speaker
And I've always wanted to stay at Port Orleans, man. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it seems like an interesting resort. But after and I mean, to be fair, i you know, we did stay at Caribbean Beach and it was under construction.
01:12:51
Speaker
But we figured out that, you know, Caribbean Beach suffers from the same problem as Saratoga, that it's a very large spread out resort. Yeah. And yeah.
01:13:02
Speaker
and And that's not to say that like like, yeah, I feel like Port Orleans would probably be easier to get around. um It's just, you know, when the resort gets too big, like that in and of itself becomes a challenge, especially like after you've been doing, you know, days at the park.
01:13:18
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I, you know, no, I don't want to, you know, walk in. Excuse me. I don't want to walk another like five kilometers to get back to my hotel room.
01:13:28
Speaker
and I get which sorry I i ah shouldn't. miles and kilometers it's fine you can do kilometers yeah um all the americans listening will just assume there 3.1 miles i don't want to walk another miles back to my room but ah you point one mile It's interesting, though. This article doesn't actually give a level of resort.
01:13:54
Speaker
it And I mean, I'm sure it the discount probably varies by like it says up to 250, right? So yeah you probably guess that probably it yeah yeah, you can get up to 250 probably off. a delu Yeah, here it is. Actually, if you go to the website, it's ah up to 250 off of deluxe resorts.
01:14:10
Speaker
ah Yeah, so that's that's all the deluxe research can get $250 night off of, and then the modern, you can get $150, and then $75 for all the all-stars. so Oh, actually, so even that's still pretty good for the all-stars, because that makes them...
01:14:23
Speaker
Yeah. That makes them pretty cheap. Like, you know, you you could get, you know, $75 off, you know, that's like sub $100 a night to stay at Disney resort. Like that that that's, I think, where, you know, people balk at, you know, staying on property. And yeah, I mean, i would argue like, you know, there' there's places off property, which, you know, don't get me wrong. there are There are nice hotels off property as well. But, you know, being able to stay on property for less than $100 a night I mean, yeah that seems like a good opportunity to me.
01:14:58
Speaker
But and yeah, and it says, sorry, I'm just looking at this now. Yeah, it says, yeah, the the for most nights from February 22nd to July 25th. So it's like. kind First half of the year, basically. Yeah. First half of the year, which I mean, I feel like there's some good there's some good dates in there or dates that I would stay. I guess, you know, again, everyone's travel plans are different. But and between February and July, there definitely be a couple of times that I would I would try and make use of a plan like this.
01:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I mean, if I were still if I were not DVC, then I would, you know. Yeah, i get yeah yeah that's that's the problem is it's like this doesn't really work for me as a DVC member because I'm not like I'll pay full price for my park tickets because it's still cheaper than this.
01:15:41
Speaker
Well, I also think of my friend that just went and I was talking to her about her trip and she's like, listen, we have an amazing time and we'll do it again. She's like, but probably not anytime soon because it's super expensive. wass like yeah I was like, you did it cheap, first of all. like Because I know what she... like i got I figured out a cheaper thing for her.
01:15:57
Speaker
And I was like, you went really cheap, actually. And, you know, for for what you were able to do, you did it in a really good budget. But like, yeah, I mean, I understand it's expensive. That's that's why we see. Right.
01:16:09
Speaker
And I mean, yeah, from from that perspective, too, is yes. You you know, even though you did it cheap, it is still, you know, it's so expensive. Yeah. yeah These these trips are still definitely a lot of money if you're not, of course, budgeting for them. Which, again, like i i'm not you know I'm not saying that you know anybody's way of doing Disney is wrong because we all but i'll do it differently. And it's you know we're just fortunate enough, you know you and I think you know we we are in that...
01:16:38
Speaker
space of, you know, as DVC owners and whatnot, we can we can do a lot more at Disney that, you know, people outside perceive it as, oh my gosh, like you're you're spending a ton of money. And it's like, actually, it's like...
01:16:54
Speaker
In terms of a yearly vacation, I'm not spending any more than what my parents would have spent on vacations for us when we were kids. Except, you know, our vacations when we were kids was us going on camping trips and whatnot. And, you know, there was, you know, my family or you know, but it's me and my wife and my son, which is only three versus, you know, my parents who were a family of five.
01:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. You know, cost, yeah area you know, or, you know, my parents, like have three siblings. So, you know, we were, they were spending a lot more money. for, for trips and stuff like that, which was obviously why, you know, going to Disney didn't make sense because, you know, it was, you know, that was a lot more expensive, but of course you know, in terms of, of my yearly budgeting, I'm not like, I'm not spending $10,000 a year to go to Disney. Like that would be insane. Yeah. Listen, I mean, when I was a kid, I think we only went twice, maybe total. We, we, we did, uh, our, our trajectory was once every five years. So like we went, yeah,
01:17:54
Speaker
We went when I was four and then when I was nine. Yeah. So like it was, yeah. Every five years I was growing up, we we did a Disney trip, which... um, yeah, that was yeah again, you know, for a family of five, it, that's crazy often we could do it. So no, it's still pricey, but I mean, every five years it's, it's a lot easier to save up, especially when they do deals like this. So, yeah. And that was exactly my, my parents intent with it was, uh, you know, they, they, they intentionally knew, like, it wasn't like just a one year they decided, Oh, we're going to Disney. It was, they were saving up money over time and said,
01:18:28
Speaker
you know, you know, at, at a certain point, they're like, yeah, we're, we're planning a trip to Disney. And sorry, I'm, I'm going to give a bit of a weird aside here, but we, we, we went to Disney in 1989 because of the 1988 Olympics.
01:18:45
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. So, so my, and I know you're like, how does that work? um So 1988 Olympics were in Calgary and, and,
01:18:56
Speaker
We actually rented out our house at that time. So so before Airbnb was a thing, people actually still did stuff like this back in in the 80s.
01:19:07
Speaker
So what we did was for a week, we went and stayed with my grandparents and we rented out our house to people to because they came and stayed for the Olympics because there were so many people coming for the Olympics.
01:19:19
Speaker
Probably saved me money. Yeah. So the money that we... made on renting out our house for that week, paid for a trip to Disney the following year. Yeah. smart i I went you can't pay on the Olympics.
01:19:31
Speaker
I went with my family in 1999 when they had the big Mickey one hand next to spaceship earth with the 2000 over the top of it. Oh yeah. I had that ornament.
01:19:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I mean, i am we one am one of the the pictures that is always at my mom's you know my mom's house still is a picture of all of of the family in front of that. ah you know, from 1999. So that's always, you know, that was a cool thing though, when they did that, when they put the 2000 over top of it and they, a giant Mickey hand and everything. It's, it's, it's a very cool look. I actually just pulled it up again, just to remind myself of what it looked like. Cause I, it, it's been a while, but I mean, that's a huge thing that they just kind of stuck on the side of their,
01:20:13
Speaker
Yeah, it was. And like I said, that they made an ornament set that had that. And we that was we bought one of those when it was our honeymoon because they still had them at that point. So, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. but But I think, you know, bringing up like, you know, things we used to do for Disney as a kid and stuff, I think.
01:20:33
Speaker
you know I realized as I was initially looking at this this piece on the rundown, it's like, you know save 250 nights to stay at Disney. I'm like, I don't care about that. But when I think back on it, it's like, you know I think it's good to give some perspective on you know you know not not everybody necessarily is going to get to do Disney trips all the time. And this may be an opportunity for somebody maybe listening to the podcast that, you know, you may be able to book a trip into 2026 that you wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, or maybe get, you know, you know, you know, yeah get, get slightly, you know, higher priced room than you would have gotten because you're able to take advantage of this discount. So. Yeah.
01:21:14
Speaker
I, I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't ignore these things or or I shouldn't downplay these things in my head as much as how dare you. I know. I fully admit to being disconnected from, you in the DVC bubble. Yeah. Yeah. Not non DVC. I forget it. And even honestly, you know, even traveling with my brother this last year, I,
01:21:35
Speaker
i I was kind of reminded of, you know, he I was looking at a lot of things through his eyes as he was like, he was just taking it all in because he he had zero idea. like Like from the Disney side of it, like like we were both very new on the Universal side, but on the Disney side, I was like, oh, we're doing this. Isn't this great? And he was like, i don't know what's going on. I'm just, you know, I'm just going with it because. Along for the ride.
01:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was a lot. and Like a lot of it was like he had been to Disney World before, but a lot of it was new for him because it had been so long. Right. And I kind of forgotten that. And it was, you know, you know, these kinds of these little things are good to kind of ah ground ourselves from time to time that, yeah, Disney is still expensive, but it doesn't have to be expensive.
01:22:18
Speaker
So, man, that wand stayed next to Spaceship Earth all the way till 2007. That's longer than I remember it staying. around That's why we were able to get ornaments of it in 2002. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they took down the 2000 part and replaced it with Epcot after the year 2000. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think that's, yeah, we we have the ornament with the, it says Epcot on it. Where it says Epcot, yeah. I, for some reason, thought it didn't last that long, but, well, all right, cool. It's just like the Sorcerer's Hat in Hollywood Studios. It was around for lot longer than you think.
01:22:48
Speaker
Yeah, what was the years on that? like so i was gone like 2015 or something like that. Was that 2015? No, I feel like... God, I feel like that lasted longer. i don't know.
01:22:59
Speaker
All right, well, no okay. Yeah, we we we can go back to that later. um But yeah the last thing you had on the rundown here was a Disney Destiny update.
01:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, I know not everybody loves when we talk about... Wow, 2015, you were dead on, Trevor, right? I i i Googled that and it was 2015. Wow. Okay. Good job. The reason I know that is because we took our son in 2016 and I was a little annoyed that it was going, like, <unk>s going I was excited to show him these things, but we never got to show him some of the the older things because they were all being taken down.
01:23:34
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause January 7, 2015, it closed. So they were taking it, started taking it down then. But anyway. Yeah. We're getting close to the end of our show here, Tom. I know, I know, I know, I know. um So, yeah. So listen, there's a Disney destiny thing on here. If you don't want to talk cruises, you know, you can go ahead and get out of here. That's
Disney Destiny Entertainment
01:23:52
Speaker
cool. We're not offended.
01:23:53
Speaker
ah But, you know, so they, ah you know, there's a lot of people. I noticed this in the discord. A lot of our listeners are checking out the Disney destiny sometime next year and are the more announcements they make, the more excited they get because they are announcing lots of cool stuff.
01:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But one of the all new things they're doing is something called Sounds of Wakanda, which is a musical celebration featuring a group of traveling percussionists whose rousing rhythms are inspired by the stories, legends, and culture of Wakanda. So that should actually be pretty cool. It's kind of like, it's treatment sphere for the boat, Trevor. It's, that's what it is. It's, it's the Jaminators, but.
01:24:27
Speaker
Wakanda. Yeah. yeah Then they also have, yeah, it's great. Yeah. We just finished talking about this. Yeah. this yeah yeah That was great. Yeah. And, and this is another feature that they have of, of, I don't know if it's all the ships or just some of the ships, but they have these that like storytellers that go around and do things. And ah this one, they're also going have two traveling storytellers that are going to be different. There was a Zion gamble whose enchanted trunks react to the powerful energy of, of, and magic of classic Disney villains. Sorry, go ahead.
01:24:57
Speaker
I was to say that these two sound like they should be in a video game. ah Right. Yeah. But like, like, they look like too. These costumes look like they do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The concept art and everything is very, it's very much giving me like, like final fantasy vibes, especially the names, like the names are so final fantasy.
01:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, and so Zaya is a fortune teller, and they'll make predictions and weave tales with the help of a mysterious book, while Gamble will conjure adventures with his collection of mystifying potions and elixirs.
01:25:25
Speaker
Man, the Destiny just sounds like a good time. Yeah, i' not I'm there for that. like like i know I know it's like, a you know, these these are... or I guess, you know these are meant to be for for everybody, but like yeah I'm just... This stuff is just so...
01:25:39
Speaker
intriguing to me like I want to see how this plays out when uh I'm sure we can watch videos right yeah for sure yeah then the Then the last thing they announce here, too, is they also have something called With Great Power, a Marvel comedy show, ah which is an adult-only sketch comedy show, which, you know, new sketch comedy shows can be, you know, okay or not good. But this says ah it goes through some of the most iconic moments of Marvel Cinematic Universe using a comically low-budget props, homemade sound effects, and ps sight gags to bring the story to life. Now, oh that could be funny.
01:26:12
Speaker
That could be funny. Yeah. that Again, that that's right up my alley. you know yeah I do love good sketch comedy. um I do too. engage a Good sketch comedy. though that's the yeah Yeah, you're right. that that there there is it's It can be hit and miss. but It doesn't seem like it's improv either. It's just sketch comedy, which is fine.
01:26:29
Speaker
you know but that's But I feel like it's going to leave itself open to... like like It sounds... you know, like you say you know, you know, low budget props and stuff. Yeah. This feels like it's going to have a similar vibe to the, uh, um, the Aladdin show in the Hyperion in Disneyland where, um, Jeannie was like, Jeannie went off script all the time. and and And the same thing happens in the, in the Broadway show too, where, you know, like the Jeannie is able to like break the fourth wall and all that.
01:26:55
Speaker
I'm hoping it's that kind of like, you know, there, there's obviously the sketches and stuff, but, you know it it feels like like the way they're kind of framing this, it it feels like it's going to be ah you know every every show is different, which I think is a great way to to run something like this on a cruise. is that you know people are coming back, you never know what you're going to get the show. Yeah.
01:27:21
Speaker
And I will say I'm a little worried. The the the know the title of it, With Great Power. um you know The second part of that is with great power comes ah great responsibility, yeah which is you know you know quoting Uncle Ben from a Spider-Man.
01:27:36
Speaker
um i feel like that that to like if they're touching on that because you know, you know, uncle Ben meets a very untimely end.
01:27:49
Speaker
That's true. I'm wondering, I'm wondering how dark this could potentially get in terms of the, uh, the jokes and whatnot. I mean, I know it's still Disney and they're not going to do anything like super crazy with it, but it's still kind of funny that they're, uh,
01:28:02
Speaker
They're citing that as the title of the show. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that'll that'll be that'll be interesting. Yeah, okay. um I mean, listen, I think I could... I'll be interested to see from like some of my cruise ship friends and from so from the listeners ah what they think of the Destiny because this could be my next one. I'm not sure, though. Well, we'll have to see.
01:28:25
Speaker
but And it is worth noting they're going out of Fort Lauderdale or they're, theyre it's it's going to be out of Port Everglades, which um I mean, it's not a problem for me to go to, you know, I always look at it from where where my mom is in relation to where it is, you know, because that's where i got to travel from.
01:28:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I, and it's not that much. I don't think that's much further from her. So, um you know, I don't know. We'll have to see. i got to see yeah what everybody thinks of this. and And I also don't know how much my daughter would dig the ship because she's not super into like Marvel or even really like villains. So I don't know.
01:29:03
Speaker
I don't know. We'll still have to see. Yeah. I feel like, yeah, you're right. You know, you know, the, the themes of the ship does, kind of matter or Yeah. it's i guess it's interesting that that it does feel a lot more like i mean i guess you know you know marvel and villains doesn't necessarily lean towards um you know targeted at boys versus girls or whatever i guess the problem is is that you know princess stuff kind of automatically defaults to like ah this is targeted for the girls right
01:29:34
Speaker
Yeah. But, you know, I feel like there probably could be stuff on here. But yeah, like you said, if your kids aren't interested in Marvel as an IP, you're interested in villains and stuff like that.
01:29:46
Speaker
It might be a hard sell to could be yeah to to be on the ship. I mean, but for me, you you know, i'm I'm definitely curious about this as well. You know, just seeing how some of the entertainment stuff plays out.
01:29:59
Speaker
if we do actually start doing cruises, you know, getting there for me is, you know, it's a, it's a plane ride either way. So, know, I have a zero frame of reference of where Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale is. So yeah i don't know if that's good or bad. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.
01:30:13
Speaker
ah Yeah. So I listen to it. Well, ah yeah, I will, we'll have to see. um I'm interested to see ah how it goes, but you know, we'll, we'll find, it just looks awesome. It like it looks awesome.
01:30:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like said, I just just even, you know, I keep going back to this picture. Make make sure that this picture of these these storytellers is on the the episode. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely definitely. Yeah. Because because I said that they just it's very intriguing to me, like how because they they don't seem to fit with like anything else um in the in like Disney kind of stuff. But they they almost give a. ah a vibe of the, uh, society of explorers and adventurers.
01:30:56
Speaker
A hundred percent. Absolutely. Right. like Like that. That's what's interesting to me is that it feels like they could almost be like in that world kind of bridging that gap. I don't know. Yeah, no, totally agree.
01:31:08
Speaker
Yeah. Totally agree. All right. Anyway, I think that's, a hang it's yeah I think I think we covered, yeah, we, we covered, covered lots of ground today. Lots lots of interesting stuff today. So,
01:31:19
Speaker
Yeah, i'm I'm tired. I want to take a nap after this. this but Yeah. You also had to move furniture in the middle of the episode. You don't have to tell anybody about that. but I'm going to do that because I can do that and it's funny.
01:31:34
Speaker
Yeah, right. ah Tom had somebody show up to pick up some furniture. So we had to pause earlier than anticipated. So yeah yeah, we had to pause in the middle of the show. See if you can figure out where the pause is.
01:31:44
Speaker
Yeah. yeah so Let's test the editing skills. Yeah. I hope you do like a very terrible cut. No, I'm not. I'm going to try to make this guy so good that no one will know. I, if you can figure out when this cut happened, I will, I don't know. I'll give you something, but probably not. I don't have anything to give you, but well, we'll give you a prize. so It's a fun, it's a fun little thing to try and figure out. Yeah. Yeah.
01:32:09
Speaker
yeah I'm very good, Trevor. at edit I've edited things that I've not said before into the show. so so i know you I know you have the capabilities. We'll never know. Everybody listening to the show is going to be like, wait.
01:32:24
Speaker
Wait, what? Because we're at the end of the show, and yes, there was there was a cut in middle of it. show. Ah, yeah. See? If they didn't notice, though. See, if they didn't notice, and then you didn't say anything. They would have never known.
01:32:35
Speaker
ah But that's not fun. i know. I know. I want to have fun, Tom. Let me have my fun. Not allowed. Not allowed. No fun allowed. All right. Okay, well, if you don't want to have fun, um you can always email us at welcomehomepodcast.com. If you don't want to have fun, you can email us there. You might not respond. I mean, they who knows? Yeah, you said no fun allowed. So if you don't want to have fun, you can always find us at welcomehomepodcast.com.
01:33:02
Speaker
um No, seriously, we we love hearing from you guys. We love seeing your trip reports and, you know, getting the questions and all that kind of stuff. It's just great to to to get that kind of stuff. So keep it coming.
01:33:14
Speaker
And, you know, you can also find us on social media. So you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast. ah you can find us on Instagram as Welcome Home Picks. ah Make sure on Facebook, you check out our group, Welcome Home Disney Waitlist, where we talk about all kinds of stuff from the show and you'll get memes. And again, more, more conversation about the show, more people asking questions, sharing trip reports, all that kind of stuff. So make sure you check that out.
01:33:38
Speaker
It's always a good time. And if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.welcomehomepodcast.co. can check out our different merch there, which again, just, you know, it it just goes towards helping us continue to run the show.
01:33:51
Speaker
And you also get some cool merch out of it. You know, we are... Again, I'll keep saying this because it is still something that's happening in the background. It just, you know, it takes us a while because Tom and I have jobs and lives outside of the show, but we are working on getting, you know, some new merch out there. We are going to get hats up there at some point.
01:34:11
Speaker
So, you know, stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, the store is still there. If you just, if you're looking for some new shirts or whatever, um you know, please check it out. And similarly, we also have a Patreon. so you can go to patreon.com slash welcome home pod. You can check out different levels of Patreon support, which have their own ah logo. So our Patreon supporters get an exclusive logo on the merch from there that you can only get on page Patreon.
01:34:34
Speaker
And all of our Patreon supporters get access to the Discord server, which is, again, you know, yeah another place that we have conversations about. ah stuff from the show and, and other random stuff or, you know, people talking about cruises and trip planning and all that kind of stuff too. So, um, you know if that's of interest to you, please check it out as well.
01:34:52
Speaker
We've been getting a lot of new patrons lately, man. We have been, I'm, I'm, I'm excited. you know, I love seeing the new people coming into the group and getting in on the conversations. And, uh, it's always, it's always nice to, to see that kind of stuff. And actually I should, uh, I should just do a quick shout out to, to Allie. You know, she, she put ah a post in there that, uh, um, it was actually, it it was the same morning that we were recording this episode.
01:35:17
Speaker
but she, she was asking for a Disney economics minds to chip in and she's trying to figure out. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I pronounced that wrong, but yeah. it's So she, she, she's trying to figure out, ah you know, you know, planning days for lightning lanes and stuff like that. Like, you know, planning around like, yeah. So, so, you know, you know, that, that kind of, I do enjoy seeing those kinds of conversations and, you know, you know, Hey, thanks for bringing that kind of stuff up because, know,
01:35:44
Speaker
you know, it gets, it gets good conversation going. And, and again, you know, you know, you get different perspectives on how people do their Disney planning stuff, which I always love seeing. So, or if you want to find out how I got kicked out of a Toys R Us, you know, that's another place. Another thing you can find out.
01:36:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah tom Tom did divulge his his adventures in Toys R Us, and he's probably the reason why you guys aren't allowed to have Toys R Us in the States. Clearly. ah Clearly. i i always i started the demise of Toys R Us. You can only find that out in our Discord, though. so Yeah.
01:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. so So last but not least, and if you are listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere, you can leave a review, you know, leave us leave us five stars just just for the sake of, you know, hopefully you like the show and, you know, you want...
01:36:33
Speaker
You want more people to be able to enjoy the show. That's how you you you get it out there is, you know, you know the the way the algorithms work, you know, the five stars just helps more people find it.
01:36:44
Speaker
But also, you know, you can rise to review on iTunes and let us know what you think about the show as well, because we love hearing what you guys do think about the show. So I've been loving the new reviews too. I have to say I, all this, all this stuff that's been coming our way, Trevor has been really great. It's, it's been a lot of awesome. So yeah. keep Listen, if you've reviewed us before and maybe you didn't give us four, five stars, you know, maybe give us a four star for one reason or another, come on back and give us a five star.
01:37:08
Speaker
We'd love that. um You know, you can, you can do that now. It's, it's all good. ah the The other thing on top of all this, right, is don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release an episode.
01:37:21
Speaker
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app that's out there. You can find us real easy. Just look for, you know, the the the one that says ah DVC and Disney, despite, you know, I don't know why there's so many Disney, I mean, DVC, not DVC, Welcome Home Podcasts. Wow.
01:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. ok I mean, it's a common phrase outside of Disney, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess so But, you know, the one that says Disney, that one's us. yeah A huge thank you, by the way, to our sponsor, DVC Resale Market, for sponsoring this episode. Of course, the world of DVC for just being the coolest people ever and being so nice to us and continue to sponsor the show.
01:37:59
Speaker
Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon. This is Skipper Albert Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
01:38:23
Speaker
I looked around from pole to pole, found her in a sugar bowl. Look out, here comes my ball and chain.