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Episode 333: DVC Updates, Avatar Experiences & Water Parks Season Pass
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On This Episode
The guys talk about some updates to the show. DVC is raising direct prices on multiple resorts. Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower will now take reservations for complimentary fireworks viewing. Disney+ and Hulu broke the record for the world’s largest gingerbread house with a replica of the house from Home Alone. With the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, Disney Parks are offering new merch, treats, and shows. Seasonal passes are now available for Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park with some added perks. Disney+ is now available on Meta Quest headsets. Disney is developing a live action Gaston movie.
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- DVC Resale Market - #1 DVC Reseller in the World
- DVC Rental Store - Largest and fastest-growing Disney Vacation Club rental service in the US
- Monera Financial - #1 in DVC Financing
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- Call or text the show with your DVC tips and trip reports at (833) WHP-TIPS and we may play them on the show!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:08
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown.
Episode Sponsorship and Milestone
00:00:18
Speaker
If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 333 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor? Hey, pretty good.
00:00:42
Speaker
i didn't realize it was episode 333. That's kind of a fun fun place to start for the year, right? Yeah, it is. I mean, it's, I don't know, something about when like all the numbers line up.
00:00:54
Speaker
Like it's yeah it's not like a round number, but it's just like 333. It's like that's kind of fun. Yeah, it it makes my brain happy. yeah just it feels It feels right. i yeah You know,
Popcorn Bucket Story
00:01:07
Speaker
it's funny, Trevor. i I didn't talk about this on the last episode when you were talking about sending the package because I sent a package to you.
00:01:14
Speaker
you did, yes. i Here's what's funny, though, right? And I don't think I told you this. I think I forgot to tell you this, actually. But... So we we had gotten you the popcorn bucket. You had asked me to get the popcorn bucket. Yeah, which my wife loves, by the way. She does say thank you. so Well, this is why it's funny, right? Because you had asked me to get the popcorn bucket, but I didn't know whether this was going to be a surprise for your wife or not.
00:01:38
Speaker
Right? Oh, and yeah. So like I didn't know. i wasn't sure. Right? and i So when we were at the park and we got it Karen, my wife, takes a picture of it and sends it to your wife and then realizes she goes, wait a second. Was this supposed to be a surprise for her? And I'm like, I don't know. Like, maybe it wasn't that I would have said something to be fair. I would have been up front. I would have been like, she doesn't know I'm doing this. so Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's good. I just, I just had to laugh because I, we didn't talk about it on the show last week because I still didn't know if it was meant to be a surprise for your wife or not. And it hadn't gotten to you yet. And so I was like, i want to talk about this, but I also am like, not sure if I'm ruining a surprise if I do so. Yeah.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah. No, it was like it it was great. she She loved it. She knew it was coming and she was excited when she got it. Because, I mean, it's, you know, when we got it out of the box, it's a cool popcorn bucket. I like It really is. It fits into that.
00:02:36
Speaker
There's some popcorn buckets that are, like, you know, kind of goofy. like or not Not goofy, like, in the character goofy. But, like, you know, they don't... that They are not...
00:02:47
Speaker
presentation worthy, I guess. But that one, like, yeah can you that it ass a christmas decoration it looks like a toy. Like it it looks like it looks like something I would have had as a kid as like a truck toy that I would have gotten, which I'm like, that's awesome. Like it's it. And like you said, yeah, it's it's very easily, you know, we we put it on our coffee table next to we have a bunch of other Disney Christmas decorations on our coffee table. So it just went right there with it. And we're like, great, you know, it can stay there. You know, it's added to the Christmas ornaments. So thank you for getting that for us. Because, yeah, of course, this, you know, the one year that we decided to skip because, you know, because we have our bigger trip going. It's like, you know, of course they do the nice decorations.
00:03:33
Speaker
popcorn bucket that year. So, yeah. um Yeah. You know, I feel like maybe like, you know, we we just kind of started off into conversation, but maybe we should talk about things we do though right so yeah but but but we should talk about the elephant in the room because I'm sure, you know, oh well, okay. People listening to this,
00:03:52
Speaker
Or lack of elephant in the room. and I'll explain that a minute. Well, yeah. Well, okay. so So if you're listening to this episode, the opening probably sounds a little bit different. Slightly. And yeah and you're probably wondering why.
00:04:05
Speaker
So, all right. So let me explain why I said the elephant in the room. Because some people probably thought I meant something different by that. And that I don't. So ah after, i mean, we've been doing the show for a long time, Trevor.
Creating a Custom Theme Song
00:04:17
Speaker
Right. And ah so I decided that heading into our Eighth year?
00:04:24
Speaker
Eighth year? Maybe? i don't know. We've had the same. eight years. yeah Whatever it is. Yeah. i get Because it was 20. Okay. when hey Whatever it is. we we've been to We've had the same theme song for a long time. And we're not changing the theme song, by the way. this The theme song stays the same.
00:04:39
Speaker
The difference now is I i hired i hired a band to and a singer to do a cover version of our theme song.
00:04:50
Speaker
which is a a song that is from the 1920s. So it's it's a it's a very, very old song. It is a song that shows up in the Jungle Cruise queue. I don't know i don't know if it still shows up in the Jungle Cruise queue today. i think it does.
00:05:04
Speaker
I'm pretty sure it does. pretty sure it does. yeah But yeah. because i know we've I know I've heard it in recent years. like i yeah've i've I know I've like i've been standing the queue and been like oh there's the theme song. like yeah So it's still the... As of like, I want to say like three years ago, it was still there. Yeah, no, and and we've had, I think we've had a listener to send us video of them in the queue with the song on. So, yeah, so it it's a song from there. And the the intent of it has always been, you know, to, you know, take you to the Jungle Cruise queue. Because, I i mean, i you know, I know it's one of my favorite attractions, the classic Disney attraction. and Yeah, and Adventureland is my vibe, too. So we kind of that's why we kind of agreed on it, is that, like, it was a very good, like...
00:05:43
Speaker
yeah symbol of like Disney for both of us, I think. Yeah. But we thought it was time to and change it up a little bit, but also just have the song be our own, right? Have the song be, ah you know, something that belongs to us that, you know, and, and because this song is so old, it's, it's, it is public domain as far as like the, the actual music goes and the lyrics and all that stuff. So it, it, it does, you know, it does that for us.
00:06:08
Speaker
Listen, for those that you don't know, music or any sort of media on podcasts is a very tricky proposition, right? Just generally, right? And the laws around it are extraordinarily difficult to navigate. So we cut out the middleman, all this, we now own this song. This belongs to us and it is our own version. And it's, it's what we're going to be heading into the future with. And, and i hope everybody likes it. ah The reason I was joking about the elephant in the room, Trevor, is that while I was redoing this and, ah you know, changing it, you changing things up, I, I,
00:06:38
Speaker
seriously considered adding more animal noises to the background. ah So oh so so ah so um besides, because we had talked about this and you were talking about adding like the boats and like, yeah, you're going to go full all in with like yeah i was full Jungle Cruise experience. Yeah. So i I had obtained a sound of the Jungle Cruise motors. Right. So everybody knows that when you're standing in the queue line of Jungle Cruise, you hear that. but but but but but but but You know, like it's it's not a quiet attraction. It's old. It has old motors in it. You know, like it's it's fairly loud and you hear that the rooming sound. Right. And so I had had a ah recording of that and I had initially kind of tucked it into the background
00:07:19
Speaker
of just the just the ah the talking part, just the part where the ah where where where um Albert A. Wall comes in, right? um And that's i I just decided it it sounded good, but I also was like, are people going to know what this is? Because it just kind of sounds like background interference. But I'd also experimented with putting some lions in there, some elephants, you know, just like... Because because when you go to the jungle, you hear all those things, right, in the background. yeah i was trying to evoke that same thing, but it... I kind of left it with the sounds we have now, which, you know, if you listen carefully, there are some different animals in the background there. And and most people probably don't notice because they probably skip over the beginning anyway, but um it's all there. But anyway, ah we, you know, this is a a new thing ah for us to do. and And we wanted to, to, to change it up a little bit. And it's also just kind of cool that I was able to like just hire a band and be like,
00:08:10
Speaker
hey, make this really old song. And they just nailed it. They like, I mean, they did. Yeah. Like when you sent it to me and it was like, you're like, you're like, listen to this. I listened to it like three or four times. Cause it's great. And I was like, it's, it's really good. Like they really, they really hit,
00:08:28
Speaker
That feel of the song, like which yeah when you think about it, like, you know, you know, being able to emulate different eras of music is actually a very tricky thing it is because because we all, you know, you know, you you don't have the the experience of like how music was recorded back then. But yeah, they did a really great job with it.
00:08:47
Speaker
They really did. And I was so excited. I loved the original. Now, given like, I mean, I mean, the new version, ah I say the original new version because the new version sounded like a modern song, right? It it had it it has it's the same song and it's the old instruments, but none of the ah patina, so to speak, on the audio. You know, you part of why we why the audio why we picked the song in the first place is the songs that you hear in the Jungle Cruise queue have that really old feeling to them. They have, it's worn, you know, you have the the record player that's been run so many times. Yeah, exactly. It's the records all scratched up and dusty and and you so you have static and you don't get the full range ofs of, yeah yeah, you don't get all that. So even though the the the one we got back before I made it sound old again,
00:09:35
Speaker
Uh, it, it, it just was so good. And I was just like, man, they really nailed it and knocked it out of the park. And I'm so glad we did this because it just, it came out so great. So that's a little project I've been working on. Uh, and I hope everybody enjoys it. And I'm, I'm glad, uh, I'm glad we can finally put it out there. Cause I,
00:09:54
Speaker
Here's my problem, Trevor. And I've talked about this before. With it with certain things, right? like So for the shows that i put out we put out on a weekly basis, I'm not a perfectionist about those things, right? like there are taught You hear Trevor and I saying, um you hear us saying, you know, using using filler words and and saying the wrong thing sometimes. And that's okay. We want this podcast to be real. But for production items like that, or like the Food Time songs, or like the graphics on the Food Time videos, I get a little crazy about. so like... um I save all of my super detail oriented craziness for that stuff. And so even for this, after yeah we just had like an a half hour long conversation before we started recording the show about how much we both like the song, I still am going to probably tweak it a little more.
00:10:39
Speaker
But just a little bit, a little a smidge, not a lot. The bass is there. i just, i you know, it's still probably gonna be a little bit tweaked. But if you're hearing this right now, you you probably noticed it is slightly different. But um I, like I said, I think the result actually sounds more like the Jungle Cruise.
Unique Theme Song Appreciation
00:10:54
Speaker
It somehow sounds like an older song. It just feels like it has that.
00:10:58
Speaker
That will and feel to it, you know? And more so to that, I really like... Like, you know, we used the song because, again, like, it was public domain and we were using somebody else's recording of it. I'm... yeah I'm happy now that, like like, besides all of the, like...
00:11:14
Speaker
it's sounding authentic. I really enjoy the fact now that it's unique to us. Like it is something that, that we can say like, you know, Hey, this is our version of it. It's not, it's not that, you know, I'm not taking any credit for like, you know, this, you know, we, we made the song what it is or anthony you know, it's Disney, you know, Disney was the one who picked that song in the first place, but I really enjoy the fact now that we have, know,
00:11:39
Speaker
we have our own little version of that, that is still familiar enough that people, you know, know what it is and and everything, but it's, it's also like our calling card, right? Like it's, yeah, it's, it's a very cool thing that we, yeah and you know, it's, it's honestly been long overdue. Like we've just, yeah yeah like so many things, you know, we've been busy. We, we,
00:12:01
Speaker
we We do this as a hobby. We don't do this as as a full-time job. So doing things like this, like, you know you know, Tom and I, I think we, this conversation started, I want to say back in October, I think, when yeah you first mentioned to me that you had found the band and everything and you were getting the yeah work done.
00:12:18
Speaker
And it was like... so So like this, like this took a while, like like for us, it takes a while because, you know, it's it it's done in between all of, you know, Tom and I both have our regular lives and our jobs and everything. Like, i I'll be honest, I wish you know if we could just do this full time.
00:12:39
Speaker
like It would be a great job, but um but it's it's a lot of energy. like It's a lot of work. It's so much energy to you know look at this stuff and produce it and and whatnot. And I'm not saying, you know you know i'm I'm not using that as an excuse. I'm just saying like we have to find a breaking point somewhere where it's...
00:12:59
Speaker
you know, we we have, to you know, doing these kinds of things. It's like, i wish we could just like turn it around in a week and be like, yeah, we got it. Let's go. Yeah. But it's like, you know, yeah, sometimes it's going to take us a couple of months. and then we've been talking about other things we want to do too.
00:13:13
Speaker
And those things are still coming. But again, it's also a matter of, you know, we're having to to fit it in between. like and And it's even harder to, because it's not just a matter of like, you know, you like to like to Tom's credit or to your credit, Tom, you know, you did the, you know, the vast majority of the work around this audio track because...
00:13:33
Speaker
You know, you set everything up. you Yeah. and And like, that's your wheelhouse. But, you know, we have other stuff around like designing, you know, T-shirts and hats and stuff that, you know, we want to do together.
00:13:45
Speaker
But it's like us finding time. like Like we have to kind of bounce it back and forth when we're when we both have time to do it. And outside of doing this podcast together, our time doesn't always align that's very, very easily. Especially because we have a time where there's a there's the ah time zone difference too, which doesn't make things easy either. So it's it's it's challenging. Listen, you know not we're not complaining about any this. This is the thing we do for fun. It's hard. it It takes a lot of time, but we don't have a lot of
Holiday Break and Upcoming Projects
00:14:14
Speaker
time. and that's But I will tell you, Trevor,
00:14:16
Speaker
ah This is our last show for the year. OK, so we're we're done for the year. ah We will be back on. What is it? The fifth Trevor is is yeah a reason the fifth will be the next episode. Yeah. Fifth will be the next episode. We're going to take a little little holiday break here. But during that time, i am going to spend a lot of time doing some of the things that we've been talking about, Trevor. I'm going to start working on some merch. We're going to start working on some, ah some other things. And I've got, got some free time coming my way. So yeah I'm going to use that time. So, so yeah, we're going to, we're going to do some back and forth and, and start. So,
00:14:51
Speaker
This is not guaranteed that we're going to have stuff ready for January either, but this will at least give us some time to get some things rolling. One of the things somebody requested, and I am more than happy to do this because I am thrilled with how these things come came out. ah Someone was asking if we were doing anything with the ah with the current Christmas logo that I have out there, the holidays logo. yeah And I hadn't thought about doing it. That might be my favorite one that I've made so far. Actually, no, I take that back. The waitlist one is still the best. But that one is good, too. And i someone asked if we were going put that any merch. And I was like, I hadn't thought about it, but why not? Let's do it. like Right? like Let's start out there. So you know I might put that out there. I might put the waitlist stuff out there. We might put food time out there. We have so many assets now, Trevor, of of just different logos. and different It's weird to think about how many how many of those things that I...
00:15:39
Speaker
that we've created, you know, that you and I have put together here and I, we just, we just need to get those things out there. So, uh, the funny thing about the Christmas stuff is that, you know, we, we've obviously missed the ball for this year, but, um, which yeah again, I mean, I, I guess, you know, you know, we could, we could do, you know, a late, uh, you know,
00:15:58
Speaker
ah or like a boxing day something. I don't know. Boxing day sale. Yeah. Well, we'll do something. We're going to we're goingnna revamp our store. Our store is um you know not has not has seen better days. So we're going to fix that. um And i like I said, i it was a free time and it's I have a list of things I want to do. So we're goingnna we're going to start seeing some more of that. But I hope everybody enjoys it. i you know This is ah like a labor of love for for us. And i I think this was...
00:16:25
Speaker
It is, we try at all times to own all the things that we do, ah you know, and and to have our own version of the theme song that belongs to us is, it just feels really good. And I i also, the idea of me bringing this old song, that old super obscure song that's 100 years old to a band and say, hey, can you continue you do a cover of that? Is an extraordinarily weird conversation that I had to have. But...
00:16:51
Speaker
They're like like, why do you want a cover of that song? like what what is What is that? that you know I was like, it's hard to explain. yeah I mean, yeah, it's funny, too, to think about that. that you know we're so like We're so used to like the Disney angle of stuff. it's like you know you You hear things that are specifically Disney. or you And you know Disney does reference like old songs and stuff like that.
00:17:16
Speaker
And we know we we know it from that lens. We're like, oh, yeah, you know you know we know this thing. But then, yeah, like you said, you go to somebody outside of it and you're like, hey, I want to look at this song. And and they look at the source material and they go...
00:17:26
Speaker
This is a song from the
Community Gratitude
00:17:28
Speaker
1920s. What are you doing? Why do you want us to cover this? But like I said, it came out great. I was really pumped about it. They were fantastic. They really did a great job. Yeah, I can't. I mean, I didn't even. They came back to me and they're like, well, is there anything you want change? I'm like, no, you guys just killed it. It's perfect. I can't even complain. But anyway, we just talked about our new song for like 20 minutes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's only been like 15 minutes, but I think it was a worthy conversation because we don't, you know, yes, we do talk about production and stuff, but I think it's good for us to, you know, sometimes toot our own horn about things that we're doing on the show. So, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
00:18:09
Speaker
For sure. So, all right, cool. all right Truthfully, Trevor, I'm going to preface this show right now. that You know, we do a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. There's a little bit of Vacation Club stuff this week, but there's almost no park stuff. But there's so some other things we're going to talk about that are not necessarily parks related. so I feel they're parks adjacent.
00:18:29
Speaker
Parks adjacent. Yeah. So so we're going to talk a little bit about movies and we're going to talk a little bit about that kind of stuff and TV shows and and that kind of stuff. But so if you're in for that, you know, hang with us here. um But, you know, listen, I ah just on another side note trev before we really get into it.
00:18:45
Speaker
I appreciate everybody from this year. I know we've done this, you know, the show of appreciation already before. Uh, we know this has been a year of change. It's been a year change for us. Um, it's been a, it's been very different for us. Um, although doesn't feel that different to us, but it, it, it, It almost feels like ah you know we're doing things just ah in a little bit of a different way than we were before. But I appreciate everybody that's hung with us through all this and been supportive and been very cool and continue to listen, continue to contribute. ah
00:19:16
Speaker
Thanks to ah your wife, to my wife, to Lee, listener Lee, for managing our social media accounts. because Yes. ah Two things there. ah One, we don't have the time to do it. And two, I you know i don't know how Instagram works. i they're They're honestly far better at it than we are. Because we are we are we try to do it ourselves and we're not. We're bad at it. Managing social media. So, yes.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah. So thank you to your wife, my wife, and to Lee ah for for helping us out with that because you guys do a great job. And also any of the listeners that have just contributed to the show in any way over the past year. i mean, you know, so many of you write in and share stuff with us and, you know, especially in places like our Discord and and our Patreon where people literally... directly contribute to the show with either their questions, their stories, or just helping us with production things like giving us feedback on things and, and, you know, telling us things that can be better. We, these things are invaluable and we, we really sincerely appreciate the community that's around this thing. And, and so thank you to everybody ah for, for a great year. It's like I said, it's been a year of change, but I think, I think ah we're coming out of the other side of it. So.
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah. And it's still an evolution, too. Like, it's yeah corn not to say that we're done changing. But, yeah I think we're in a good place with it. Yeah, exactly. So we're doing. So let's let's go from all this happy, fun, you know. Let's let's talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. yeah let let's Let's talk about how the you know, every year dues come out.
00:20:49
Speaker
And this is the dues. This is direct prices. oh this oh sorry this is true Oh, sorry. I thought this was the dues. Okay, sorry. No, I didn't put the dues one on here because i I mean, we can do dues if you want. No, that's fine. it's Yeah, we we can do dues some other time. We can do do talk. um No, I wanted to talk about the direct price increases. Right. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, direct prices. Okay. Direct pricing per point.
00:21:14
Speaker
is it's gone up from $235 to per point. Yeah. As of February Okay. me
DVC Pricing Discussion
00:21:29
Speaker
is very glad i bought my points when I did. this now because i know. I don't even remember what i paid when I bought my mine mine were I want to say was... I'll have to go back and check, but I know it it was somewhere in the realm of like 175 points for my Direct. Because I know when I bought my resale, it was like 155, which is still like pretty on par with what they are now. Like the... guess the... ah
00:21:58
Speaker
i guess the ah ah resale is up to 175 now. so So, yeah, the crazy thing is is that, yeah, Disney has, they have been jumping the price of direct stuff year over year for the last 10 years. Like, it's, so, you know, it's, it's,
00:22:16
Speaker
like a $75, almost a $75 increase from when I bought into the Polynesian. The fact that it's $243 now for Polynesian direct is crazy. Although I do understand, you know, the fact that there is the new tower and everything, you know, you know, they, they have reasons to up the price and, and, ah you know, that their, their justification behind it is that, you know,
00:22:41
Speaker
You do get perks for having direct, which, you know, the perks shouldn't be the reason that you're buying. um But i don't know. It's like, that's still a lot of like, it's hitting that point where I'm, you know, I've said for a long time that, you know, you know, if, if buying direct makes sense for you, you know, you know, do it, you know, if a lot of people like buying direct because, you know, they like just, you know, not having to deal with, you the the resale aspect of it. You know know, buying through Disney feels good because you're dealing directly with Disney and all that kind of stuff. But they're they're making the price point real steep.
00:23:20
Speaker
like but But I guess the the other side of it too is that, you know, I haven't done the math on this, but I guess, you know, for for the amount of points it would take to, you know, you know let's say like like, you know, I i initially bought a 100-point contract direct, right?
00:23:35
Speaker
um you know buying that same amount of points, but i even know now, like you have to buy a minimum 150 points. um The savings on it versus paying rack rate for rooms is still there because the cost of rack rate rooms has gone up over time as well. So so like it's it's not that...
00:23:55
Speaker
it's not that um I guess the conversation there is not necessarily that DVC is too expensive, but the cost of hotel rooms at Disney is getting overly expensive, yeah I guess, is the the observation there.
00:24:12
Speaker
Well, and so, you know, for context, right? Resale right now, the average price across the board is 121 per point. Now, this varies pretty greatly by resort, right? So like Poly Direct is going to be 243, where, you know, ah resale you can get the average price for resale was 163 November.
00:24:34
Speaker
I'm looking directly on Resale Markets website. So this this this other article we're reading has some numbers in there, but they're different from what I'm seeing right on their website. So, um yeah, I think again, that because yeah they're probably looking across multiple resale places. So. So, so yeah. so no and But Riviera is still selling for $243, but on resale market, you can get it for an average of $113. So, I mean, the even with this new $500 fee that's coming online next year, you're still talking about a huge amount of savings. Yeah. It's it's it's a really big amount of savings. The $500 is honestly like, yeah, it's it's not going to...
00:25:14
Speaker
It's not going to put it anywhere close in comparison to direct versus resale um costs. And yeah, like said, that the gap in direct. Like, again, I get why Disney's doing it. But the interesting thing is that the it the the perception from the outside. And I guess, you know, maybe maybe this is something where... um yeah you know When we come back in the new year, this might actually be a good conversation with somebody from a resale market is the outward perception is...
00:25:48
Speaker
for me at least, is that you know the direct prices keep going up, but I'm not seeing equal movement in the resale. like like yeah the the yeah The cost per point on resale is still not – it's not climbing as fast as as their their direct price increases. And and i'm I don't quite see – it feels like um resale costs should move up relationally, but there's another factor there that I'm not seeing because I'm not
00:26:20
Speaker
I'm not heavily invested in like figuring out all that math, I guess. yeah Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, like the biggest savings I think you can get is Alani, man. Cause Alani averages 92 bucks on, on a per point on, um on DVC resale market. And the direct cost is, is, is 243. I mean, dang, that's a huge save savings right there. which But you know, we, we know if you're fine with, yeah, if you're fine with only ever having the seven month window on,
00:26:50
Speaker
you know, anything in Florida, that's, you know, that's, that's really huge savings right there. It's, it's funny. My, my brother-in-law's parents say I've talked about this before who have, who were the ones that turned me on to DVC and they have a lot of points. Like, ah i don't mean like when I say a lot of points, I mean,
00:27:11
Speaker
I don't know, probably three times what I have at least, maybe four times. They have an insane amount of points. But um my brother-in-law's father used to go on rants all the time about saying how Aulani was by far the best ah value contract you could get from DVC. I think he's right, actually. i One of the best values anyway. But people sleep on it because of the yeah the seven to 11 month window.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah. Which is funny. like jews are The dues too, I think. are Yeah. ah Yeah. I guess. Yeah. don't I don't, I haven't looked at what the dues look like. Cause it, cause yeah, I guess that's the other side of it too, is that, you know, it's like the, the direct increases are one thing, but then, you know, we, we kind of talked about at the beginning is,
00:27:53
Speaker
You know, you do have to factor in your your yearly dues as well because, um you know, even though like, like sorry, but the the trap has always been like Vero Beach is. Vero Beach and Hilton Head always. Yeah. And I'm not. Contracts, high dues. Yeah. Anybody that owns them, I'm not I'm not slamming you for owning it, but it's, you know, sorry, it it does seem like a bit of a trap for people that are new to DVC.
00:28:17
Speaker
that Yeah, you know, they'll they'll look and go, oh, Vero Beach, it's, you know, it's kind of close to Disney and, you know, great, I can get it for cheap. But, you know, if you if you graph it out over, you know, 10 years, how much are you paying in dues versus getting something on property in in Florida, right? Like it's... yeah i listen I will say, though, that, you know, I just pulled it up just just to, you know, just to see. But um the dues at Aulani are only slightly higher than like Disneyland Hotel um and like slightly, ah slightly higher than Animal Kingdom Villas. I mean, it's not that much higher than. So they're so they're kind of middle of the pack. They're not. It's not the highest, but they're not the lowest either. Yeah.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they're not as high as like Hilton Head and Old Key West, who are are you know significantly higher than both of those. yeah I mean, not Old Key West. I'm i'm sorry. I meant Vera Beach. Vera Beach and um and Hilton Head. Vera Beach is the highest by a lot.
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that's because of the hurricane insurance and things like that. They they have a much greater risk of you know being hit by hurricanes and such. Yeah. I'll say I didn't have it on my bingo card of us secretly promoting Alani as an option for our year-end observations. I'm not saying we should. I mean, you're right, though. Interestingly enough, yeah, if you're less concerned about – because we are talking about direct versus resale here – You know, you know, Alani, you know, with with these price increases, you know, you know, the way that they've highlighted is, yeah, Alani is the best value. And also in terms of dues, it's, you know, it's good value.
00:29:53
Speaker
The only downside is that, you know, unless you're going to Alani on a regular basis, you're never going to have the 11 month window. So that's true. Kind of an interesting thought exercise there. Yeah, yeah, it is. It is for sure. Are you don't if you if if you're like me here, Trevor, but I actually actually read the the budgets that they put out for the dues. I'm not going lie. I do. I try to. I like I will. If I have time, I will sit down and read that stuff. But I'm not like religious about going through their their budget reports when they come out. Yeah, I just read them, you know, because I do find them interesting. You know, just I don't know. I just find it interesting. But I mean, if you want to talk to these really quickly here across the board, decent size increases this year, you know, between don't know, let's see, 5% as high 9%. The highest Bay Lake Tower.
00:30:48
Speaker
the highest is bay lake tower Uh, the lowest looks to be,
00:30:57
Speaker
uh, looks to be Fort Wilderness cabins probably cause they, yeah, that's like, yeah, cause they're new and that always happens. Right. So, ah but also, you know, there were, there were property tax increases this year. That's part of why what is being factored into this. Uh, but you know, in, in part of the re and why Bay Lake is so high is because they just had a refurbishment. So you're getting, you're getting the costs of that passed on.
00:31:19
Speaker
um But there's only, you know, <unk> they're all basically increasing. so yeah And I kind of expected like, you know, with the tower opening this year and everything, I was like, yeah, that's going to hurt my dues. I knew that specifically for the poly. But like you said, you know, we we talked about across the board, the property taxes and just.
00:31:39
Speaker
Maintenance and all that stuff is just, it's a reality of dealing with DVC. And, you know, you know that that I guess, you know, for anybody listening to this that is still looking at DVC and aren't sure about it is part of it is, you know, there's the initial cost, but, you know, make sure that, you know, dues fit into your budget as well, factoring in.
00:32:01
Speaker
increases over time. Yeah. Don't forget about the dues. Yeah. Cause, cause I will say this, like, like, you know, even, you know, we sometimes complain about, or I guess I complain about because like, I can't do the, uh, the monthly withdrawal things for my dues. I have to pay them yearly because I'm international.
00:32:20
Speaker
So every year it's about this time. I actually got the the email this week where it was like, your dues are ready. And it's like, Oh, great. You know, gotta pay for that. I got to pay, you know, a big chunk of money for this, which, you know, I know the thing is, is that I'm, I budget for it every year. It's still, it doesn't feel good no matter what. yeah But the thing that I do always look at though, is that, you know, when I look at paying my dues and like, it's in the ballpark of like a thousand ish dollars, like, yeah you know, that thousand dollar range.
00:32:49
Speaker
When I, I look at paying my dues, I do always go and I, I look at the rack rate of booking a poly room. Yeah. And I go, yeah, this is fine. This is fine. I've saved lots of money. is that Because I even, when when my brother and I, we because we had our trip back in May, and so so, you know, I just paid for that with points. And, and you know, I didn't, um I told my brother, so when when we were doing the planning for it, I told him that, you know, hey, you know, I'm going to use my points for this. And he was like, oh yeah, well, you know, I can help you pay for that. I'm like,
00:33:24
Speaker
It's already paid for. It's fine. I said, and, and I was like, not even going to like go and be like, well, you can pay half of my dues or whatever. It was like, I just told him, I'm like, I got the room, you know, don't, don't worry about it. But then he went and he looked and he was like, oh damn, like, yeah, good thing I'm going with you on the room because like, that would have been a big chunk of money. I was like, yeah, you know, you know, I'm happy paying that thousand dollars a year because,
00:33:51
Speaker
you know, being, you know, being able to do what we did this year is far more valuable to me than, you know, that those dues coming out every year. Like it, like it, and I know it's like, you know, you can say it's mental gymnastics for justifying it, but really like, you know,
00:34:08
Speaker
there There are places local to me that I cannot, like, stay more than three days without paying $1,000. Oh, yeah, yeah. like like Like, hotel prices in general are just crazy at this point. So I'm more than happy to keep paying my dues to DVC.
00:34:25
Speaker
For, you know, a cheap like when when Disney is my cheap vacation, like that's that's kind of a weird thing. Right. It's it's funny. During this conversation, I decided to pull up my dues because I hadn't looked at them. And I I should have remembered this from the last time I bought a contract. But if those who don't remember, i bought a new contract this year.
00:34:45
Speaker
And they, when you buy a new contract, they, I have the auto pay thing, and you know, enabled. So it just automatically take, you know, drafts the dues out of my account every month. Well, it doesn't automatically enroll your contract into auto pay. So it's a good thing I went checked because this happened to me last time I bought a contract where like they came to me and they were like,
00:35:05
Speaker
They're like, hey, you're locked out you're because you're back. You know, you owe dues. I'm like, what do you mean I owe dues? I was like, because i I don't know. I don't pay attention. You know, they just come out of my account every month. I don't like pay attention because there's different contracts. It's an auto pay thing. Yeah, exactly. yeah I get it. I don't really think about it. Right. It just kind of just kind of happens. Right. And so I was like, like what do you mean? I haven't been paying my debt. I mean, like i'm pretty sure i've been paying my dues. and And but sure enough, I had not been. so ah But yeah, so and I'm glad I got in here because now I know that I need to i needed to to sign this new one up for auto pay. So now I'm in good shape here. So that if you buy a new contracts, keep that in mind. Yeah, i I'm glad we talked about it because, yeah, saved you finding out the hard way. Yeah, yeah that that would not have been good. um Okay, so good. Anyway,
Fireworks Viewing Reservations
00:35:49
Speaker
what else are we talking about? Oh, yeah, top of the world, Trevor. Top of the world. Yes, top of the world. Top of the world lounge.
00:35:55
Speaker
Is reopened for DVC reservations, which. OK. ah So top of the world is a weird thing for me.
00:36:06
Speaker
ah let let me Because I thought it was open this entire time. It has been. OK. It's just now they're taking reservations. it used to just be first come first serve. Oh, okay. All right. that Okay. That was the part that was confusing me. I was like, but couldn't you just go up there anyway? like like yeah but Because ah the reason I say it confused me is because it seemed like like they were doing they were trying different things. like They have like the the villains thing the villains thing and all that. And so I was like...
00:36:35
Speaker
what are they doing now with it? Yeah. So here's the thing though. This is, you're making reservations to do the complimentary fireworks viewing. ah So to go inside, you have to pay for the event to pay for the the villains thing.
00:36:51
Speaker
But you can still go out on the balcony. so I mean, I'll be honest. I would only really be going there for the the fireworks anyways. so Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker
So that's fine. I mean, yeah. Like, you know, i i guess this is, you know, Disney is trying to, you know, you know we we do always talk about, you know, things with Disney and DVC, like, you know, for a long time, it's felt, it has felt very much like penny pinching and yeah taking stuff away.
00:37:21
Speaker
um I see this as, you know, that this is you know, I'm seeing things gradually swinging back the other way where they're kind of realizing that, you know, you can't, You can't keep taking away from the experience and expecting people to keep enjoying it, yeah I guess is the thing. And, you know, yes, it like, yes, you still got to pay for the ah for the the indoor lounge stuff. But again, there's a lot of people, and I'm sure they probably heard this feedback of, you know, we just want to go watch the fireworks. Like, I don't need to i don't need to have a whole, like, sit down or whatever.
00:37:53
Speaker
I just want to go up, enjoy fireworks, you know, the deck and done with you know on the ah on the deck and be done with it that seems perfectly fine to me. Like like this this seems like a good compromise that you can, you know, if if that's part of your plan. And I will say this is, you know, you know a lot of people seem to be under the impression that you can just walk up and do these things. And like, as we said, this is a reservation thing.
00:38:21
Speaker
If it's something you really want to do. Yeah. used to be able to But like everything though, if you want to do it, like, you know, at the very least, like, you know, get the reservation like a day ahead or whatever, like, you know, you know, doing the walk up thing. Like I get it. i get, you know, the, the spontaneity of it and whatever, but there's a lot of people that want to do this. So if you really want to do it, you know, don't be surprised if you walk up and they don't have space for you, I guess is the thing. yeah you got You got to do the reservation now. So it doesn't... I don't think it's saying that you have to... Let's say check-in.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, you have to have a reservation. So, like, you can't just show up. You used to just show up. I mean, that was it. And if they were full, they were full. And that was it. Like, and I... I feel like you could do the reservation like as you're standing there kind of thing if they had space. Like you just, you know. They just said no i mean they didn't even have reservation for You just showed up. There was no reservation there was no concept of reservations. Yeah, but I'm saying now like you could you could still like walk like as you're walking up do the reservation. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
00:39:22
Speaker
yeah yeah i' yeah okay Yeah, I, you know, it's it's interesting. um i I, when we were trying to figure out something to do before the party, i wanted to go up and hang in top of the world and realize that it doesn't open till six. Now, I remember when not we, I mean, I don't know, maybe when I first bought my DVC and we stayed at Bay Lake that first time, we went there at like noon Like we went there around lunch one time just to hang out. There was nobody there, but we were able to go like it used to have better hours. Like I think COVID like kind of killed the the the long hours there. um But, you know, it is what it is. it's ah It's a member benefit. These things change the blue card benefit. You know, it it is what it is. Yeah. Like I said, I don't think it's um I think it's a good thing. I think it's, you know, it's giving people what, you know, back. This was something that. um
00:40:18
Speaker
You know, before it feels a little bit more like before COVID, I guess is the best way. yeah we're getting back. like Yeah. yeah like You know, where where that was very much a thing where, you know, oh, you know, just go watch the fireworks from top of the world. You don't have to like have a thing booked or whatever. Right. So, you know, I'm I'm glad to see it. You know, yes, I know some people, you know, walk at reservations, but.
00:40:41
Speaker
You know, I'll deal with it. I do want to make a quick a quick correction. So there is walk up availability. They do have walk up availability. So it does say it says walk up availability top of the world lounge and the outdoor terer terrace area is open to eligible members without a reservation for the party or top of the world for the for the complimentary fireworks viewings. members can visit the top of the world lounge podium on the 16th floor in person starting at 6 p.m. for same day walk-up inquiries, which are limited in availability and not guaranteed. So they are still doing walk-ups, but if it gets booked up, then they're they're not going to let anybody do walk-ups. So it's, you know, it but it's actually kind of good to have a reservation availability now because that you can you can guarantee your access that rather than just, you know, taking a shot.
00:41:26
Speaker
you know if If I really want to make sure that I can do it, you know, reserve ah reserve your spot that you know you can do it. I don't... ah the The thing that baffles my mind is people that go like, I really want to watch the fireworks with my family. And then they roll up at the 11th hour and go, well, we couldn't watch this. And it's like,
00:41:49
Speaker
yeah when when has like reservations have been a thing forever? Like, yeah I don't know. It's yeah. And people, I mean, not not for the fires, but it's like, you know, if you really want to do something, find out if you can reserve it. I don't know. i plan a ahead That's just me. Yeah. Things do change. Like, listen, sometimes people have emergency situations. It's happened to me before, but, um, you know, I, yeah, fully, fully fair. And, and, you know, I'm, I'm all for like, I will admit I do things as well where, you know, I,
00:42:18
Speaker
I do things all the time where like we change plans on a dime, you know, at Disney and outside of Disney, you know, we we will change plans. But, the one thing that I don't have is expectations that my plan is going to execute just because I changed my mind at the last minute. Like, yeah i guess that that's the part that gets me is that when like, sorry, there is a subset of people, um you don't act like you're put out yeah when, when that happens, right. that's If I go off and I say, Hey, can we do this thing? And they go, nah, then I go, okay, you know, what else do we want to do? Like, it's, yeah yeah yeah it's not like, uh, you know, you ruined my family vacation. don't,
00:42:56
Speaker
I'm writing a letter to Bob Iger. Like, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I know I'm, I'm ranting a little bit about it, but it's cause I see it all the time. I see people like, you know, we, the entitlement that that my my brother and I saw it when we, like, I, I think I told the story when we were, um, we were getting my brother's magic band fixed because, um, uh, he didn't have his credit card set up on it or anything. So we were talking with somebody at the, uh, the entrance to the poly and this Karen walked up and was like,
00:43:24
Speaker
you ruined our vacation. And this guy, like the, the cast member was like, okay. Like, like, and so, so he kind of like stepped, like he looked at us and we were like, it's like, we we like were like, it's okay. And then he kind of stepped back and started talking to her. And she was just like, I'm so dissatisfied with everything. And yes, I'm doing the voice. I don't care. like the voice. That's great. This is great. And she was, she like, she was, she was so like, I can't believe that you did this to me. And i was like,
00:43:52
Speaker
And we like we were listening to her. My brother and I looked at each other like, is this for real? like Are you seriously like blaming some random cast member for something that it sounded like like as she was talking, we were hearing enough of the conversation. We're like, you clearly didn't plan what you were doing.
00:44:10
Speaker
And you're mad that you didn't get what you wanted. And so you're taking it out on somebody who just happens to be in proximity. Yeah, exactly. And yeah. the We're trying to get free stuff because you know Disney will sometimes do that. so I think that like she was pushing to like get comped on her rooms.
00:44:27
Speaker
Like that's why she was talking to him. And i was like, wow. She definitely got a have a magical day after that one. Right. Oh, yeah. I'm sure she did. The guy came back and he finished with us and then we and then they continued their conversation. So we were just like, you know, know, sorry, dude. Good luck to you. But yeah, it was. Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
it was It was awful. I'm sorry. Just thinking about like the reservation thing with with Top of the World, it just reminds me of like some poor cast member is going to catch the brunt of this at some point where it's like, yeah you know,
00:45:00
Speaker
I expected to watch the fireworks with my family and it's like, did you, did you really? Shout out to all the guests, guest services, cast members and all the ones that have to tell guests the thing, you know, to do things that they don't want to do, like move off the parade route. Cause I saw that and during the Christmas party. So yeah, they, they, they do really have a hard job and I, I really like,
00:45:22
Speaker
Just be nice to people. Just be nice. I do my best to try and like make their job as easy as possible because they do have a really tough job. And it's not, hard yeah it's not fair. Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:34
Speaker
yeah right, Trevor, let's go ahead and do our ad. Yeah, sorry. That was a weird little rant. My wife is going to give me such a hard time about this episode because I was like, yeah, there's not that much this week. And, you know, so I was probably going to be pretty sure. We'll speed it up here. Yeah, we got a few more things. So, yeah, we'll do the ad.
00:45:53
Speaker
Okay, so this week our sponsor is DVC Rental Store. DVC Rental Store is a world of DVC company that offers magical vacations at incredible value. save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts.
00:46:05
Speaker
DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% at the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. And as always, DVC Rental Store pays the most to members looking to rent their points.
00:46:16
Speaker
Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVC-RENT. That's 382-7368. When you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you.
00:46:28
Speaker
So, Trevor, I put this next item in here because just because I thought it was interesting. it's ah it's it's It's kind of parks adjacent, right? Because, you know, so Disney has been doing a thing for a long time now where they build these really cool, elaborate gingerbread houses in the resorts.
Record-Breaking Gingerbread House
00:46:43
Speaker
But Disney also decided to break the record for the largest gingerbread house by making a replica of the Home Alone house. So, okay. ah So this was the part that I wasn't clear on. where Were they specifically going for largest gingerbread house overall or was it specifically largest home alone gingerbread house? Largest gingerbread house overall and they just decided to do it with the gingerbread house. With with home alone as the theme of it. Yeah. Yeah. So the house is 25 and a half feet tall, 46 feet wide or 42 feet wide. Sorry. And 58 feet long. And has a total of 44,838 cubic feet of space in there. So I mean, i'm trying to visualize that in my head. That is insane.
00:47:33
Speaker
like I feel like there's houses on the market that are smaller. What's this house going for? yeah yeah I want to know what the i want know what the mortgage is on much space this thing have? it's you know But it was pounds of flour, gingerbread brook tiles and eighty eight hundred roof tiles ah held together with twenty gallons of edible glue and finished with twenty pounds of fondage so Wow.
00:48:04
Speaker
And so I guess ah apparently – so they they didn't do this on they didn't do this on property. They did this – It's at an art on gallery or something, right? or It's on Hollywood and Vine in LA. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah.
00:48:18
Speaker
So, and I guess actually as of this recording, um it's no longer, yeah, it's no longer set up. So by the way, um when it when I was reading the sizes, Trevor, I was like, it doesn't look that big in the picture. Did you open the video?
00:48:33
Speaker
Open the video. The video, you could see how big it is because there's people standing next to it and there's a truck next to it. And now you, you get an actual, when they said life size, I thought that they were exaggerating. They're not exaggerating. It's life size. Like,
00:48:47
Speaker
Okay, hold on. Let me. Yeah, you have to see. i will I will put this video in the in the notes, but yeah, they like it's an actual house. It's crazy. hu Yeah, that's. ah All right.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, I feel like you could take a mortgage out on this thing. do i I do feel like it's. i mean, listen, I. Home Alone is a classic movie and I really like Home Alone. Right. So don't get me wrong.
00:49:14
Speaker
But I, why Home Alone? I mean, it's an old movie at this point. Because this year was the 35th anniversary. Okay. Is that why we're doing this? Yeah. Okay. so Sorry, weird're weird aside.
00:49:29
Speaker
um So, okay. um Do you know what Smosh is? No. Okay, so so Smosh is an internet channel that's been around since the beginning of the internet. They've typically done comedy and stuff like that, but um I watch them because they're like it's i just usually have it on as background noise when I'm working or whatever. But um they recently did a video where they were attempting to break Guinness World Records and And the same person in this um video for the gingerbread house, it was, did.
00:50:00
Speaker
Oh, cause it's the person from Guinness. That's why apparently, apparently she's like the, the local, because Smosh is based out of LA as well. Um, ah Apparently, this is the but she's like the local local Guinness person, I guess. Validator. Validator. Just just ah what I saw, was like, huh, I saw her like the other week. That's weird. But it's kind of funny. Yeah. Yeah. No, I listen. This is cool. yeah I get it. They're doing it for the 30th, 35th anniversary. But it's just like, man, that movie's so old at this point. It's like, I'm surprised they didn't try to do it with something more recent. now And listen, it's still just as relevant as it was. I'm not trying to say like it's not.
00:50:36
Speaker
To be fair, the house is pretty iconic. Like, because, like like, the house has been kept intact this entire time from the movie. And, like, it's, the as far as houses, like, you know, if i was to do a gingerbread house, I, you know, it is a very recognizable gingerbread house right yeah and and again yeah you know disney disney is being smart and doing their cross promotion stuff it's they're very clearly this year you know you know they i feel like they've been looking at their lineup of shows and like every year it feels like they kind of pick something as like something to emphasize on disney plus and all that and yeah home alone seems to be the the one this year that they're uh that they're really pushing yeah so all right
00:51:22
Speaker
um Yeah. I mean, i'm i I don't hate it. I think it's awesome. We sit down and watch Home Alone. like i i I will watch Home Alone 1 and 2. The other ones don't exist for me they they because they really fell off after after the second one. Yeah, they really fell off after the second one. but But when it comes to like between 1 and 2, I find I go back and I watch 1 more than I watch 2.
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah. So I get that. yeah I get that. Yeah. I mean, I think the one, I mean, I've already watched Christmas vacation, like, i don't know, probably four times in the past month now. Cause it's on TV, like constantly. Yeah. ah Which is fine. I like it. And I mean, listen, I've seen, I mean, I've seen, we watch the Santa Claus every year and we watch it a lot of times. I mean, we've, we, we watch it many, many times. So, um you know, for us, it's a Muppet Christmas Carol. That's another great one. Like, yeah, I, I, I,
00:52:16
Speaker
I was doing something in my computer and then I heard the music from it and I like walked into the other room. My wife was watching it and I was just like, oh, okay, I'm doing this now. I tried to get my daughter to watch it actually. And, uh, she was liking it for a little while and then, and then kind of, uh, kind of bailed, but it wasn't, it's, it had nothing to do with that though. It's, you know, I, we talked about this for my daughter's in do movies. So like, if we can get her into a movie, then that's a miracle. Uh, you know, it doesn't matter what movie it is. She's not going to watch. I mean, it's, it's, it's such a weird thing now. Like the, uh, like
00:52:53
Speaker
I don't know. it Like it it feels maybe like, I think that this is a symptom of, you know you know, the internet and having devices on us at all times and everything is that just like the the concept of like, you're going to spend an hour and a half doing this one thing. It's like, but in that time I could also be like checking this site or I could be doing that. Like it's getting our minds to like, stop like,
00:53:20
Speaker
thinking about other things we could be doing and just focusing on the thing that's in front of us is what I feel like it is. Like it's, and I get it. Like my, my son's the same way. Like, you know, we sit down and watch movies and then he'll bring out his phone and I'm like, are you watching the movie? He's like, Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm i'm like, but you're looking at your phone. He's like, Oh, I was just checking my, my game. And I'm like, okay. All right. Okay. He's like, I know what's going on. And I guess the thing is I can't even be mad at him because like he, uh,
00:53:49
Speaker
So, you know, like I've commented on like, you know, you seem distracted by your phone, but then he like in his ah um I'm just OK, I'm just going to put this out there. He in his English class, I was concerned that, you know, he or he they were told to watch a movie. It was actually the Shawshank Redemption.
00:54:08
Speaker
And okay interesting. Yeah, i I don't know the ah why that that was chosen, but he said, yeah, we're watching it. ah And I'm like, that's a that's a pretty interesting movie.
00:54:19
Speaker
And he he like recited, like he was like, oh yeah, this happened and this. And I'm like, oh, so you do, like you are paying attention. You are paying attention, but it's like...
00:54:32
Speaker
ah Like, it's a like sometimes it doesn't seem like they're paying attention, but they actually are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So honestly, I have the same problem with my wife, but I didn't say this, but anytime we watch a movie, she's on her phone half the time. It drives me crazy. like and And again, i I get it. You know, i I do the same thing from time to time, too. I'm bad for it that, you know, my phone buzzes and it's like, you know, discord's going off yeah or whatever. and so, like, you we all do it. Like, it's not it's not fair for us to say, like, oh, you know, you know, everyone else is doing it and we're trying to watch the movie. It's like we all do it now. But it's like it's weird to just think about the fact that, you know, the premise of watching a movie for an hour and a half seems like too much now.
00:55:17
Speaker
well i I also, so if I ever look at my phone during a movie, it's because it's like, I recognize an actor and I'm like, what, what thing were they in? Right. And I know if I don't do it right then that I'm going to forget by the end of the movie, you know? So i like, i I want to look at me like, I recognize that person. Like, you know, we are watching, um,
00:55:35
Speaker
uh we're watching the the most recent uh knives out movie that came out we were were a big fan of that series of movies and there was a guy in it and i was like that guy was in game of thrones i know he was in game of thrones i just can't remember who he is like i recognize his voice in his face and i can't remember who exactly it was and i looked it up because it it was gonna drive me crazy otherwise but you know that kind of stuff i'll pop up my phone for but outside of that i try to pay full attention do Do you know what I do like on ah Prime, Amazon Prime does this with their movies, is that when you pause the movie at certain points, it tells you who's in that scene, which it makes it a lot easier to IMDb people or whatever. Or at the very least, you see their name and you're like, oh yeah, I remember who that is, right? Yeah, so yeah, yeah.
00:56:15
Speaker
Exactly. I wish Disney did that with some of their stuff too. But but but but then like Muppets Christmas Carol, I'd pause it and be like, you know, who's in the scene? Kermit, Gonzo. Yeah. Which, by the way, Trevor, if you haven't watched the Knives Out movies, they're fantastic. I keep meaning to. three are great. I've heard they are. i've heard I've heard that they're awesome movies. And I keep meaning to, but I have the same problem where finding finding time to sit down and watch a movie is stuff is a hard... or It's not that it's hard. It's just i have...
00:56:49
Speaker
I have other things that I want to do. So I get it. I get it. I get it. They're really good movies though. i all three of them are great and they're all really well done. And y all just but since I have time off here, you know, in between all the other things we have planned to do over vacation, um maybe I'll try and watch that after I'm done watching stranger things. And oh you got to catch up on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause we, we haven't, or yeah, we were going to catch up on that before I get spoiled on whatever's going on there.
00:57:19
Speaker
And I feel like I had some other shows that I needed to watch, but I'm forgetting about them. I really, there was a specific movie I wanted to go see. It's actually, cut it's ah under Disney, it's a Disney movie, but it's, it's under their searchlight banner. So searchlight is like independent movies. And, uh,
00:57:36
Speaker
It's coming out. It came out and I, but it's not playing anywhere. And I'm like, I never have time to see movies. And I have two weeks where my daughter will be at, you know, at at daycare. My wife will be working.
00:57:49
Speaker
i can go to the movie by myself and I can't go see this movie because it's it's not playing anywhere. And I'm like, ah, yeah. I never have time to, and there's not nothing I want to see in theaters. No offense to Avatar, which is a good segue into the next topic. Yeah, I was going to say, speaking of movies,
Avatar-themed Offerings
00:58:04
Speaker
we're going to go there. But yeah. And I didn't do that on purpose, but let's pretend like I did. We're there. Let's go.
00:58:10
Speaker
ah Yeah, but I, listen, i I have no problem with Avatar, right? Like there's no like Avatar is fine. It just it doesn't do anything for me. But clearly it's a huge movie franchise that lots of people love. And so I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to yuck anybody's yum. You know what I'm saying? Like it's not it's not my thing. I'm not I'm just not interested in going to see it. Now, that's a movie, though. If you want to see it, you probably should see it in theaters based on the the spectacle of it. You know,
00:58:41
Speaker
Yeah. and it's Especially in like IMAX. But yeah, i've I've seen some of the previews of like 4D stuff that they're doing. for I want to see the 4D so bad. Yeah. I was going to go see, I forget what Marvel movie it was. I was going to go see a Marvel movie in 4D and then it ended up I couldn't go and I was so disappointed.
00:58:58
Speaker
But anyway. um All right. So let's let's tie this back to there. So, OK, we've been talking about movies. Now we're talking about Avatar Fire and Ash coming out. Yeah. Disney Parks blog has said that they are obviously doing some things in the parks related to the release of Fire and Ash. And yeah.
00:59:19
Speaker
Okay, I will just say this. The the only thing on this list that actually interest interests me is the drink that they're doing at Pongo Pongo, the Night Wraith Blaze.
00:59:30
Speaker
Because it looks like it looks the same as the Night Blossom, but it's just it's blood orange... And lychee with, lee yeah dont yeah, yeah, yeah, blood orange lychee and wild berry slushy. So, so different flavor of slushy with the, ah the fruit juice pearls, which I love the night blossom. It's like, it's one of my favorite drinks that ah that I get when I'm in animal kingdom.
00:59:51
Speaker
So this is like the same thing, but red. So I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll, you know, I'm here for it. I mean, this mousse at Satouli looks pretty good, too. Cinnamon, milk, chocolate, mousse, caramelized banana cake, banana sesame caramel, and a chocolate sesame crumble. And it just looks cool.
01:00:06
Speaker
Yeah. i Yeah. Actually, yeah. that You're right. That one does look interesting. It's it's got very... um ah The little chocolate bits are kind of like making it look like a hand to me, which is kind of throwing me off a bit. Interesting. I hadn't seen that, but yeah. Okay. I don't know. it It looks like a weird alien hand. looks like a claw. It looks like a claw. like Yeah, exactly. Yeah. um but yeah But between the two of those things, I i would say that the Nightwraith Blaze would be my choice if i if I had to only pick one, I guess. right That's fair. yeah They're doing some, they got some merch too. There's ah there's a a different, ah what what is that thing?
01:00:47
Speaker
yeah um A Banshee. Yeah, Banshee. That's the word I was looking for. yeah ah i mean, i guess that's a new Banshee. I don't know. I haven't seen the most recent Banshees, but there's a Banshee there. I mean, there's the Banshees were typically blue, and this is a red one. Or no, the red, the red um there was a red. yeah Yeah, the the there was the big one, which in the first, I know you haven't watched the movies, but in the first movie,
01:01:11
Speaker
there There was the Banshees, which were the regular ones that they they um they flew, but then there was like an apex predator one that was like way bigger that the the main character tames.
01:01:24
Speaker
Okay. And I cannot remember the name of it, but it was like, there was something about like... if you saw it shadow, you were dead kind of thing. it was the but beside That's unfortunate. because Because it was high above, like it would it'd be above like everything else. And and so it looks like that thing. and I'm wondering if maybe they're like playing back into some of that, like, you know, tying the movies together. It looks like, it looks like that red Banshee from the first movie. And I'm totally blanking on and someone's going to correct me. I know it's, it's not called a Banshee. It's called something else, but, uh, I'm sure some, someone, uh, that, you know, knows these movies. yeah i will tell you, I, I, I'm terrible uh,
01:02:04
Speaker
I'm not terrible. Like if if I'm really interested in IP, I will like archive like all the terminology of like like animals and like like things in in the IP. If I'm interested in it, Avatar, I was like the first movie. I was like, yeah, this is cool. And then it just completely fell off for me. So I just do. I cannot remember anything about it. I have to say one of the cool things on here is ah they did a collection with this company. It was a displate where they yeah it's it's that company that prints art on ah metal plates that you hang up. And these two pieces of art are pretty cool. Actually, yeah if I were into Avatar, like these are cool.
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. These are really, really neat. I like those. There's some really interesting merch, a couple shirts here, some some socks. Yeah. And then, of course, Trevor, they're advertising the drone show.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah. The figurines. Yeah. yeah Sorry. yeah Yeah. The drone show. The other figurines. But yeah, the the drone show, which I know, i know you are upset. I'm just not i'm upset about it. It's just like, do it here.
01:03:10
Speaker
It's really cool, though. I don't know if you saw the video of it, but like they've got like smoke effects coming out of the drones and like it's I mean, they they've been doing this. This is nothing new as far as like effects go, but it's ah it just looks awesome.
01:03:24
Speaker
You know? Yeah. There's never a time where I see a drone show that I'm like, oh, that's stupid. Like every time I see one of the drone shows, I'm just like, wow, this is so cool. Like, you know, yeah, like even a bad drone show is probably good. Yeah.
01:03:40
Speaker
Okay, I thought, so further down, apparently the, ah okay, so the Banshees, the proper name for them are the Ikron. Oh, okay. Is what they are.
01:03:50
Speaker
Gotcha. Again, I'm going to forget that. but Yeah, that's fine. You don't need to remember these things, Trevor. It's okay. Yeah, I know. it's a no one's going to... There's a part of me that feels like I... like It goes back to the same thing like with just Disney IPs in general is that I try to like remember details about them.
01:04:09
Speaker
Avatar is really a blind spot for me. Yeah. It's... I don't know. still know more than I do, which is almost nothing. Yeah. So, I mean, like really anyone knows more than I do about this. This isn't even one of those things that I've really absorbed from pop culture. Everything I know about Avatar is completely related to Pandora at Disney World. That's all. The only things I know about Disney ah about a Avatar are from Disney World. Yeah. Which is funny because technically the the um the ride in Disney World actually shows more than they showed in the movie.
01:04:43
Speaker
Well, there you go, right? So maybe you're you're ahead. of Let's not get too crazy, Trevor. I'm on knowledge. I'm never ahead of knowledge. Yeah. Okay, so so i think I think that was, or is there any ah other stuff you want to talk about with movies? No. Okay, let let's let's transition. yeah you know lets Let's go to yet another, I feel a bit of a blind spot for some people at the parks, but it's one of my favorite things. Yeah.
01:05:11
Speaker
I do like Disney water parks, and they are returning the seasonal water park pass. Which they had last year, yeah but they're bringing it back again. Yeah, which I'm I'm happy for that because like if if I have enough trips planned in a year, I will justify getting a water park pass because i do enjoy spending like i will I will go spend a day at Blizzard Beach and a day at Typhoon Lagoon easily.
01:05:38
Speaker
Like they're they're fun. I you know, you know, and anybody who says that they don't like the water parks. Yeah. I'll just ask, are you okay? Like, is it?
01:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. Like, like you if you don't like the water parks, what are you doing? Is that directed at me? i feel like it's a... Well, no. Okay. No, you you're... I'm ambivalent towards the water parks. We don't dislike the water. We just... Yeah. like that Yeah. That's right. Like, I get like, you just don't... You just haven't like prioritized going to them. If you're like against the water parks, like, what are you doing? No, I'm not against. Yeah. No, no, no. Exactly. Listen, I mean. You will enjoy a water park. Like, if you if given the opportunity, you will enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk about, about I mean, 89 bucks for adults, $83 for kids. That's really good.
01:06:25
Speaker
Yeah. and you can go as much as you want for that. It's pretty great, right? I mean, i I feel like, you know, if you wanted to, like, you know, people talk about, like, you know, doing doing stays at DVC and it's like, but I don't want to go into the parks or I don't want to spend a bunch of money. Like,
01:06:40
Speaker
You know, I could justify this for a week where, like, you know, even if it if I hit up the water parks for two or three days throughout the week, like, that right there pays for it. Oh, yeah. And and the thing is, is that, um like, water parks are...
01:06:58
Speaker
There's such a slower pace than than the theme parks. like you like You can spend a lot of time running around and you can like drain your energy. Or you can get into the lazy river and float for five hours.
Water Park Perks
01:07:10
Speaker
It's a really good proposition, I think. By the way, what they did actually add a perk to this this year, too. they have ah they they're ah You get off ah the ah the Blizzard Beach Polar patio cabaass Ooh.
01:07:24
Speaker
If you have this membership. So you can get 20% off those, which are between $225 a day to $375 per day, depending on the timing. This is a little pricey, but if you get 20% off, it's not bad. yeah And, you know, I will say this. we So we did we didn't do a cabana, but um at ah when we were when we went to Volcano Bay, they have... um They have a a section for reserved um yeah lounge chairs.
01:07:54
Speaker
So we got a couple of lounge chairs reserved, which um I... yeah You know, the fact that they're offering this for the cabanas, if you can afford it, like I say, you know, go for it. Because having like, you know, the...
01:08:09
Speaker
Finding a place to like put your stuff in the water parks or is, it's a bit challenging because like you don't, because it's a water park, you don't want to walk around with everything all day. Like, like, you know, you don't like carry a backpack around because you're getting on slides and stuff.
01:08:24
Speaker
um But if you don't have, if you don't have somebody that, you know, you can leave stuff with you know, You know, or if you don't have a place where you can like really put your stuff down, you're having to like go back to the lockers and put stuff away and it becomes a bit of a hassle.
01:08:37
Speaker
I do like, like I said, you know, when we did it, they like we had the, the, and i hope, you know, I kind of hope Disney maybe takes a bit of a note from Typhoon Lagoon on this at some point that, know,
01:08:50
Speaker
having and Having the reserved lounge chairs, like they had a lock box in the lounge chairs. So, you know, we could lock up our stuff and then go in and, you know, do whatever and know that our stuff was where we left it is is a very nice thing.
01:09:04
Speaker
like So, you know, yeah you know i it makes the it makes the water park experience better and my in my opinion. So, you know, if you can get a cabana, like, yeah, go for it. 20% off. like Makes it affordable, i think. I would...
01:09:19
Speaker
You know, you know, if you're saving money on, you know, again, you know, if youre if you're planning a trip where, you know, you're not wanting to spend money in the parks, you know, I would say splurge a little bit more on the water parks if you're getting the yeah the season pass.
01:09:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. the other i The other thing, by the way, you get is a free round of mini golf, too. so Oh, sweet. Yeah. Perfect. get a free round of mini golf at either Winter Summerland or Fantasia Gardens.
01:09:47
Speaker
So, yeah. oh that's that's even better. I figured they'd only do Winter Summerland. I thought so, too, but they're doing both. Look that. So, huh all right. But you have to go before 4 p.m. P.S. Oh, okay.
01:10:00
Speaker
Well, oh, no, I have to play mini golf earlier in the day. That's unfortunate. Yeah. Yeah. Because we play mini golf so much. We really do. Well, virtually, but you know, yes, they do. I mean, yeah. And yeah, if we, if we could, we would go and play real rounds of mini golf together.
01:10:20
Speaker
That's actually a great segue, though, Trevor, into our next topic. Speaking of VR. Speaking of VR.
Disney Plus on VR
01:10:26
Speaker
ah So ah Disney announced ah that that ah Disney Plus is now available through the MetaQuest, which is the VR headset that I have. I know it's not the one you use, but ah it's you can now get Disney Plus through the MetaQuest. And I kind of want to try this.
01:10:42
Speaker
because only Well, here's the thing. I think anybody that has a VR headset knows a couple things about it. First of all, it's not fun to keep it on your head for two hours. like No. It's just not. it's it It doesn't feel great after a while. It gets heavy on your head, and it just, i don't know, it just doesn't feel great.
01:10:59
Speaker
Um, but you know, it's, I think it be kind of cool probably to check out like a Marvel movie or something. I mean, to watch like something like that in VR. Yeah. Cause I've watched other stuff in VR, you know, on the, on the headset. Like I've, I've, I've, you know, gone on like YouTube and, you know, watch some stuff like that. And that's pretty cool. Or, you know, like I watched the, like a space station thing. I did that. It was kind of creepy, but yeah.
01:11:27
Speaker
I don't know. i It would probably be pretty neat to to watch a movie through Disney Plus on there. I just don't know if I would do it, like, bother to get my headset out and do this. I mean, yeah. because Because it feels like the thing about doing the VR headset is that you can you can get a simulated movie theater experience, obviously. Like, like it's very easy to, like...
01:11:50
Speaker
position it that it's like you're sitting in a theater and you've got the big screen whatever. But like you said, the problem is, is that, you know, if, if your headset's not sitting comfortably, like ah you can, again, this is where it kind of delves into the, um,
01:12:05
Speaker
you know, you know, extreme VR hobbyist stuff is that if like, you know, you know, the default straps are not great. You can get aftermarket straps, you can get additional padding and stuff to like make it comfortable. And I also get it to like, if your home setup is like, you know, my, my home setup is decent. I don't have like a full theater room. I know you do like you, you've spent a bunch of time setting up a theater room. So it's like, there the The trade-off of like, you know, watch it in my home theater versus watching in VR is harder for you because you have you have that experience, right? Exactly. But if you, you know, a lot of people do have MetaQuest headsets that, you know, you don't necessarily have, you know, you know you know the full theater setup.
01:12:51
Speaker
This does give that opportunity where you can, you again, if you're willing to you know, put up with having the the goggles on for for a couple of hours. which yeah I mean, to be fair, we played mini golf for like two hours and it's fine. so um But once you take when you take that thing off, it's like yeah it's it's like, oh, Like where, where was I? There's a, there's a minute of like, like your body is like, Oh, like, thank you for getting that off of me. yeah I, I quit. I know this won't make sense to people that haven't been skiing, but it's the same thing. Like when you've had your ski boots on all day and you take them off and your feet just like scream at you for a minute because the, the, the boots are tight, right? Like they, they, they're there to, to keep your, your feet from moving.
01:13:37
Speaker
When you take ski boots off, it's like your body just like, immediately relaxes is like, ah, and the same thing kind of happens with a headset too. It's like, you take it off and your body goes like, what were you doing? Right. Yeah. well And to your point, why would I do this when I have a home theater? Like I have, I have a whole home theater set up.
01:13:57
Speaker
ah Where I can watch these movies on a large screen with surround sound and not have a thing on my head, you know, like, yeah, why would i do it? But I mean, i don't know. It is a little bit of a different experience, you know, to where the headset, as opposed to just watching at a screen, it just, you know,
01:14:13
Speaker
I don't know. It just probably is not worth it for me. But i listen, I appreciate that they're doing this. i would I'll tell you what, Trevor, if they put Vision 3D on there as an option, I'm there. I'm doing that. harp Yeah, yeah that that is one thing, is that there there are, like to your point, there are a lot of things...
01:14:29
Speaker
on Disney Plus that aren' aren't necessarily movies, but, you know, maybe like like like you said, Muppet Vision or like like park specific things that you may want to try watching them in VR because it does, you know, sometimes it does add to the experience. And, and you know, maybe and that may be something I wouldn't be I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they maybe did something with. um Muppet Vision and possibly ah Tough to Be a Bug because those have both transitioned out of the parks.
01:14:57
Speaker
It'd be interesting if they did them as a VR experience. Yeah, do Muppet Vision. I mean, don't waste your time on It's Tough to Be a Bug for now. I was trying to give more reason to it. Try to be inclusive. know. Yeah. Like, you know, if they do more than one thing, they can justify the effort put into it. But then the whole thing about Tough to Be a Bug is like, you know, because there's the effects going on theater. Obviously, you don't get like the physical, like,
01:15:21
Speaker
things going on like the stuff at your feet and whatnot but the whole idea of that is that then you've got like VR spiders coming down out of the roof which I don't know not ideal that actually it actually might be creepier than than the real physical spiders i I will say we did that one mini golf course, oh yeah the spiders and I felt very uncomfortable in that one. So that was, that was not a good, no, that was bad. it's, it's almost weird. Cause it's creepier in the VR space than it is in a real life space. Cause like in real life, you can look at and go, okay, that's not real. And you can like get away from it, but there's like a yeah certain vulnerability when you have a VR headset on, because you can't actually see your real life peripherals. You know what I mean?
01:16:03
Speaker
so like, I don't know. I get super paranoid sometimes. I'm like, if someone, someone, someone standing behind me, you know, cause especially my wife tried to scare me before, you know, she's like come up behind me and like, you know, like, you know, grab my shoulders or something and it freaks you out. Cause you've no way of knowing, you know, like you've no way knowing someone's coming up on you. So anyway, that's an aside, but, ah but listen, I, I'm all in favor of doing things like this. This is cool.
01:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, and also to the point of, you know, right now they're obviously partnering partnering with MetaQuest. You know, there there is, you know, for those of us that are enthusiasts of VR, um I wouldn't be surprised or I'm hoping that this is the case is... um I don't know if you paid attention to ah um Valve, the company that owns Steam, yeah um announced. so So they have a bunch of of new so new hardware coming next year. One of the things is the Steam frame, which looks like it's going to be a direct competitor to the MetaQuest. So it's going to be a very similar...
01:16:59
Speaker
headset I wouldn't be surprised in, again, not immediately, but, you know, maybe in the future if Disney Plus is also available on Steam Frame, if, ah you know, if Valve does things correctly. I do, I currently have, I have a Valve Index, which is like the older version of this headset that they have coming out. So, yeah.
01:17:20
Speaker
Yeah, i hope that this is maybe leading into, you know, maybe Disney doing more stuff with vr Because like you said, it's not it's not that I like want a bunch of VR stuff, but I definitely appreciate the option to, you know, sometimes I do want to watch something in VR. Like I can see the merits for it. So, yeah.
01:17:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, and and Disney, and we didn't talk about this because it happened, ah you know, during, well, no, this has been announced a couple times, but therere ah they they are partnering with with Disney ah to, if Meta is to to integrate their software into the smart glasses too, into the, you know, to their their glasses that they have now. I forget what they're called. I'm forgetting off head. So that when you're walking around the parks, instead of like breaking out the app, you can just do everything, you know, in your glasses.
01:18:09
Speaker
That's the idea. But I'm not buying those, so no thanks. yeah Yeah, I'm good on the glasses, thanks. Yeah, I know. i know Okay, um we have one last thing on here. So I think we can just touch on this quickly, and and then we can wrap it up today. can wrap it up? We can finish it up?
01:18:28
Speaker
Okay. So apparently, so the title says Live Action Gaston Movie, with new actor in development. So
Gaston Movie Development
01:18:38
Speaker
I guess... Was there going to be series? Yeah, there was a series, right? The original thing was the... So back from... know, the Beauty and Beast movie was done back in 2017.
01:18:47
Speaker
And I'm just looking at this article here that you put in. ah Luke Evans played Gaston in that one. And he's great in that role. He did a really nice job. um But it sounds like... So there there was a Disney Plus prequel series planned that you know they were going to have a lot of the actors from the movie in it, but then that got canceled. Apparently, they are they're looking at...
01:19:09
Speaker
um starting a new movie. so So, like, continuing that same, like, live-action thing, I'm assuming this would be, you know, obviously a prequel movie for Gaston. um but And it says, ah it says deadline so so Deadline, I guess, covered this. And they said, they state the movie will be completely new and original with a new actor and swashbuckling tones.
01:19:32
Speaker
Okay. Which, okay. um Let's... Let's think about that for a second. So so Gaston, you know, obviously he's got that, like, you know, adventurous air about him. Like, you know, like clearly he was a hunter and did all that stuff. I wouldn't call him swashbuckling. I mean, it that that makes it sound like you it would be a lighthearted thing. And I i can't imagine a Gaston movie where...
01:19:58
Speaker
I mean, i guess the hard part is like, you know, it sounds like they're trying to position this the same as like Maleficent, where it's like a retelling of the of a story like this, where um like Maleficent ended up the the premise of the movie was like.
01:20:15
Speaker
you know, she was misunderstood, right? Like, it was, you know, you know the the the Sleeping Beauty movies tell it from the angle of Sleeping Beauty and, you know, just make Maleficent out to be, and you know, she's just a flat-out villain. The Maleficent movies kind of twist around the other way where like, hey, you know, she did some bad things, but you kind of see where, you know, not everybody... it Like...
01:20:37
Speaker
It kind of leads into, like, everybody's the bad guy at the end of the day. Like, nobody was nice in those movies, if you really think about it. Yeah, yeah. So, a Gaston movie, I'm like, okay, like, he wasn't a nice guy to begin with.
01:20:52
Speaker
And I don't see how... I don't see how they can twist this into, like, making him, like, the the center of the movie without it just being, like... Yeah, Gaston's being a jerk just in more situations.
01:21:07
Speaker
I mean, if they don't make this a funny movie, this should be a comedy. Like, to me. Like, this should be a comedy. Like, I don't think you have to, like, highlight the womanizing part of Gaston. Like, there could be a lot of funny stuff with Gaston. He was kind of a i mean, listen, the whole character in the parks is funny.
01:21:26
Speaker
Right. Like that's true. That's his whole thing. And listen, this guy that's writing this ah also wrote Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse, which was a very good movie. Okay. Shang-Chi, which again, also really good movie.
01:21:41
Speaker
ah He did also write some, some stinkers like a Wonder Woman 1984, which was not, which I didn't like. And I believe bombed pretty hard. um And he did all the expendables movies.
01:21:52
Speaker
Which I didn't see, but if it keeps that kind of like ridiculousness. Lightheartedness to it. yeah like Yeah. I guess, yeah, that's fair. As long as the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. Yeah. I think it could be fun. You know, like if it takes itself seriously, it's not gonna be fun.
01:22:10
Speaker
Like, I think it needs to be. i think it i mean it's it's I think it'll be good if they don't take themselves seriously, like you're saying. Well, and and so I guess, like I said, that the the tone immediately where, you know, they're saying it's going to have a swashbuckling tone.
01:22:22
Speaker
I was imagining like, you know, Gaston, but like like taking on like an air of like Jack Sparrow. But then I was like, you know, yeah, Jack Sparrow is not he's not a nice person either. Like, if you really think about it he's not a nice person. But yeah, the his his bravado and whatnot makes it, you know, you know it makes it that you can like love him for all of his goofiness and ah a kind of ignore all the other stuff. But the hard part is that, yeah, it's a hero. the The hard part for me is that like Gaston has already like clearly established like, there is nothing nice about this guy whatsoever. yeah And I think the hard part for me is like, you know, Sleeping Beauty. I like, you know, I watched those movies as a kid and, you know, Maleficent was like,
01:23:12
Speaker
Or I didn't the the personality of Maleficent wasn't there. It was just very much like antagonistic beats at certain points. Yeah. Whereas Gaston, you really get to see his personality.
01:23:24
Speaker
And like for me, it's Beauty and the Beast. at Like that's that childhood memory of it still sticks for me that I'm like he was like he was a jerk, but like on a different level.
01:23:37
Speaker
And so I have an immediate aversion to like, I'm not going to like anything you have to say about this guy. so That's fair. like That's fair. But that's not like, yeah, you're right. You know, you know the hard part is, is, you know you know, they're telling a whole new story. And so you do have to kind of suspend your your previous ideas of what the character is and everything going into it, which is sometimes hard. Like, like you know, when when they're dealing with an established IP, but writing an entirely new narrative around it.
01:24:06
Speaker
It is hard to do that. So i'm I'm curious how this one will play out because, yeah, like you said, the the the person writing it, you know, could go either way. So, yeah, I mean, they they did. They've done several action movies and they've done, you know, but and and a a Marvel movie. And yeah, I mean, so there's there's, you know, there's there's some opportunity here. We'll see if it actually even it happens. You know you never know if these things are yeah the the prequel got canceled. So. Yeah, but Gaston keeps, he does keep resurfacing, though, as a character. Like like you said, people like him in the parks. You know, he does.
01:24:40
Speaker
He's an anti-hero. Yeah. he you shouldn't You shouldn't like him, but you kind of do. just Yeah, yeah. His charisma definitely has has a big pull on his character.
01:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that wraps this up for the year, Trevor. i what good Sorry, I just laughed. ah This article that you sent on the side, it there was an ad that said, Santa Gertie inflatable now available. Oh, I know. I almost bought it when I was writing this. That me laugh. um It's man. That's money. i don't want to buy that.
01:25:16
Speaker
And it's an inflatable I wouldn't i wouldn't buy. so I got lots of inflatable. I mean, I've got lots of inflatables around my house. So um I have no problem with the inflatable part. I also don't necessarily want to give money to this particular website, but that's neither here nor there. Yeah, that that's fair too.
01:25:33
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. yeah i just I just saw that and it was just funny that I was like... Oh, yeah Tom could get a Santa Gertie. yeah Yeah, i trust me I kind of want it. Don't get me wrong. I kind of do, but I'm not going to get Fair enough.
01:25:49
Speaker
All right. do Do we want to call it here for the year? Yeah, let's call it. Yeah, let's, let's, let's, let's be in 2025. Yeah. So, so yeah, thank, thanks everyone for joining us on the, the ride through 2025. It's been an interesting year.
01:26:03
Speaker
Um, that's for and yeah, and, and, you know, I i think, uh, I think, you know, we're, we're in a good place though, and looking forward to, you know, what happens in 2026. We don't know what's going to happen, but, uh, I'm, I'm very curious to see what happens next. So,
01:26:19
Speaker
um Love that.
Listener Engagement Details
01:26:21
Speaker
um But, you know, hey if you have your own things that you want to share about the show, you know, if you have stories, if you have questions, any of that kind of stuff, you can always find us at our email address, which is welcomehomepodcasts at gmail.com. So, you know you know, even though we're going to be gone here for a week um and going into the new year, you can still email us. We won't, you know, we won't just...
01:26:44
Speaker
we won't ignore your emails. so I mean, I might, I might accidentally ignore them, but you know, just still, I always respond eventually. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We, we will still, you know, we're, we're still here. We're, we're still doing stuff and we are still on Facebook as welcome on podcast. We are still on YouTube as welcome on podcast and we're still on Instagram as welcome on pics. So, you know,
01:27:06
Speaker
Check us out on any of those places for social media if you want to follow us or, um you know you know, just keep track on things that we're doing. We also have a Facebook group, Welcome Home Disney Waitlist, where we talk about all kinds of things from the show and there's There's great conversations and people sharing their own trip reports. So again, you know, if you you just want to share your own stuff, by all means, you know, we we love hearing other people's view on Disney. You know, everything we talked about on the show is just how we see things. We're not experts by any means. And, you know, we we love we love hearing what you guys think about it too. So, um you know you know, please check us out on any of our social media platforms.
01:27:42
Speaker
As Tom mentioned earlier, we do have a store and we do have merch in the store. So, you know, if you want to buy any of our current merch in the store, it's store.welcomehomepodcast.co. And, ah you know, we will be looking to add some more stuff to the store. So, you know, make sure you keep that in mind if, ah um you know, hopefully we can we can get some things up there like the ah the logo that that was done for the ah the Christmas show.
01:28:07
Speaker
uh episode food time all that kind of stuff so you know it is coming just you know keep an eye out the store is there uh similarly we also have a patreon so you know the patreon is just another means of us helping to support running the show so you can go to patreon.com welcome home pod and check out our different levels of patreon support which uh patreon supporters get an exclusive logo that we don't have on the main store so you can only get it on patreon and And all of our Patreon supporters get access to the Discord server, which as we talked about, you know, we sometimes preview stuff early. So, you know, for people that, um you know, hearing the new opening to the show, that's actually, um you know, Tom put that out on Discord because we wanted feedback on it. So...
01:28:50
Speaker
um So, yeah, you know, if if you're interested in, you know, catching, you know, sometimes catching early previews of things, but then also just more conversation about things from the show, yeah um you know, you know, have a look at Patreon and, know, see about getting access to the Discord server.
01:29:05
Speaker
And last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere where you can get the show, you know, leave us a five-star review. Um, just, just for the sake of us continuing to get the show out there to people going into 2026
01:29:21
Speaker
um Yeah, just just keeping that keeping the internet algorithm happy because it's like a little Tamagotchi and you got to feed it. Oh, my daughter's going to get a Tamagotchi for Christmas. I'm so excited for her to get that.
01:29:33
Speaker
It's going to be awesome. do Do you have a program so you can like put five stars in and it rates the podcast? I need to get the bots going for that. Yeah, I need to do that. We don't use bots. we just That's a joke. We don't use bots. Yeah. If we used bots, we'd probably be more popular, truthfully. That's true. Yeah, we would be a lot more popular. lot higher ranked than we are. There'd be a lot of bots telling us how amazing we are, but we don't want that. We don't want that. We actually enjoy the show. So, like I said, if you enjoy the show, leave us a five-star review. Just, again, it helps...
01:30:06
Speaker
It helps us get out there to more people. You can write us a review on iTunes and let us know what you think about the show well. We love hearing what you guys think about the show. So, yeah, you know, that's that's all the things, um you know you know, for wrapping up 2025 that, you know you know, that's all the things that I just needed to say right there. So... I think I'm done with the year. That's the end of your script. ah Yeah, don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release an episode. 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. Just look for the, you know, the Disney one, the DC one, the ones with the fun logos that we've been doing. You know, that's that's that's us. So, you know, if you want to listen on on any of those platforms, you can do so. And also, you know, any our video episodes are available on YouTube and Spotify and and and all those fun places. you Actually, on it's on and but but on Apple, too. You can watch the the video stuff. Yeah. Um, but huge thank you to our sponsors, uh, this year and and really pretty much every year since we've been around, uh, DVC rental store and, and world with DVC who are just the best. And, uh, you know, we will continue to, uh, to, to, to talk great things about them. Uh, join us, join us next time for more Disney parks discussion. And of course more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:31:25
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. We do a hug when we had a chair.
01:31:37
Speaker
How she can cuddle, she's no man's affair. I look around for a folder called, found her in her sugar bowl. He, look out, here comes my ball and chain.
01:31:48
Speaker
The End