Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 353: Smugglers Run Updates, Main St Lego Set & Trader Sam’s Mugs
1 Playsin 2 hours
On This Episode
A new Disney+ special will highlight the behind-the-scenes creation of the Island Tower at Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows. Disney gave a first look at the updated Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run which adds new missions featuring the Mandalorian and Grogu along with upgraded roles. A new Lego set has been officially announced that allows fans to build Disneyland's iconic Main Street U.S.A. right at home. Disney celebrated the new Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets at Disney's Hollywood Studios with a concert featuring John Stamos and the Electric Mayhem. Disney gave a first look inside Bluey's Wild World. A commemorative hyena mug is coming to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at Disneyland Resort to celebrate its 15th anniversary. Recent construction permits filed for "Project Fedora" spark reckless speculation about potential upgrades coming to the Indiana Jones area at Hollywood Studios.
Podcast Sponsors
- 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
- Welcome Home Patreon - Support the Show through Patreon and get exclusive perks!
Episode Links
- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run Updates
- Main Street U.S.A. Lego Set
- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets Easter Eggs
Contact the show
- Call or text the show with your DVC tips and trip reports at (833) WHP-TIPS and we may play them on the show!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor Mention
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 353 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation
Hosts' Personal Life Updates
00:00:38
Speaker
Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. How's it going, Trevor?
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, pretty good. know um I know you got a lot of stuff, you know, it's graduation season, right? And, and you know, you're you're kind of, you're having graduating student. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have, my son is graduating high school and, uh,
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's fun. um the the The funny thing is... Fixed emotions,
Family Trip Planning & COVID-19 Impact
00:01:02
Speaker
right? Yeah, yeah there's there's a lot of emotions around it. One thing that we did actually talk with him about is, and I have been talking about this for a bit now, is you know we we have a pretty big trip coming up next year for our anniversary, but...
00:01:16
Speaker
And we actually yeah were, we decided, or we talked with my son about, of course, and ah we're we're going to bring him with us because, you know, like doing our anniversary ourselves is is kind of, it's it's nice at all, but we're like, yeah, you know, we should, you know, we'd like to go as a family. And also it's like,
00:01:33
Speaker
It's kind of like, I mean, he's he's gotten a bunch of stuff for his graduation, but it's like, you know, a last thing of like, you know, hey, this is going to be, this is going to be the last trip where like we pay for everything kind of thing. Like, you know, I wouldn't like make him pay for a room or anything, but it's like, you know, as he becomes an adult, it's like, you know, hey, i'm not...
00:01:51
Speaker
I'm not going to, you know, figure out your park tickets or your transportation or anything. And also understanding that, you know, after this trip, he may not want to come with us or it's, or it may change. Like ah that this is actually something, uh, we've been talking about too, that, um,
00:02:08
Speaker
or i he's ah he's wanted to bring friends with him. And I mean, it'll be different, you know, when he's an adult is that, you know, he may have friends that, you know, ah one of his friends actually really wanted to go with us a couple of years ago. And ah because of COVID, we we couldn't do that. So um that might rear its head again that, you know, you know it's it's not just like our family. It'll be like us and friends. But then again, because there are, well, I guess the weird thing is, is that he's coming with us as,
00:02:39
Speaker
Where we live, he's an adult at this point, right? So it's it's kind of weird. Like, I keep talking about, like, oh, he's an adult so he can do his own thing. But I also forget that, like, going down to to Disney, he's not an adult until he's 21. Right.
00:02:55
Speaker
So yeah its it is a little different. Yeah. yeah so So, so even though like he's coming with us and he's technically an adult to us, he's still not, or yeah, the it's going to be weird.
00:03:09
Speaker
It's a little weird. It's you're an adult here, but not an adult elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, the drinking age here definitely is, um, it's it's an interesting thing because I know like um there have been plenty of cases where um like ah we've had people from Montana come up to Alberta because, you know, obviously Montana is 21, Alberta is 18. So people come across the border to, you know, you know, be legally able to drink earlier.
00:03:42
Speaker
But like i said, the flip side of that, though, is like when it comes to like Disney trips and stuff is like, hey, we were thinking of this as like, It's going to be like a Disney trip when we're all adults, but... Not.
Travel & Legal Age Considerations
00:03:52
Speaker
You're going to take around the world? ah Yeah, I don't know that that's going to happen. well but But it can't anyway. Like like this next trip, that's not going to be a thing anyway because he's not going to be 21. Got to wait a couple years for that. I can't imagine a trip around the world with my kid. That would feel really weird. i mean, I don't know. Like, ah ah ah I'll be honest. I would i would much rather do it with my kid than have them do it with their friends and then find out that they got kicked out of Disney World. Yeah, that's not a thing you really want to find out. Yeah. And not to say, like, my my son, honestly, he's he's pretty good. Like, we've we've had conversations about it and everything. And he understands, like, what, you know, he knows what drinking responsibly is and all that. Well, that's good. But, um but yeah, the the thing about drinking around the world is, like, you know, you see you see all the the videos of, like, you know, the worst case scenario. And it's like...
00:04:46
Speaker
My kid would never do that, but I also understand like group mentality plays into it. And sometimes it's like things that you wouldn't normally do when you're in a group with your friends, you kind of lose your better judgment and then alcohol in the mix further, further loses that. So, I mean, i I'll be honest, I would much rather like try and drink around the world with my son than, than just him going and randomly figuring out himself.
00:05:15
Speaker
yeah The other thing for me, too, is I'm not I'm not a big drinker. So, yeah, yeah that's I don't think I would get very far anyway. i I get that. I totally get that. I i mean, i don't think I could do it nowadays. You know, I did it years ago, but I i couldn't do it again.
00:05:32
Speaker
i just it's not going to happen. mean maybe Maybe if they had like. like, sip around the world. Like... Snack around the world. Snack around the world is how you get to it. Snack and sip. Like, like you know, I don don't need... i note I don't want to have, like, the full drink. It's like, can I get just, like, a flight of, like, little s sips of each of the drinks? That that would be better.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's... so Yeah, that makes sense. Because, then like because it like, I would... Like, I want to enjoy it, but I don't want to, like... I don't want to have a bunch of alcohol and then be in the Florida heat. And like, yeah, that's not fun. it's It's a lot. Like for for us Canadians that aren't used to the heat, the the alcohol makes it even worse. so There's no such thing as being used to that heat. That heat is oppressive. and Really?
Weather & Spring Cleaning Reflections
00:06:15
Speaker
That's awful.
00:06:16
Speaker
Okay. But but here, so so answer me this then. why Why is it that I can see cast members in Disney World that are in like, like long coats and pants.
00:06:29
Speaker
I don't know. And it's like, and it's like 25 degrees out. Like, it's like summer weather for, for me. and And, it's humid. And they're in like, a coat and pants and they, and they look fine. Like I would be dying. Like I don't, I don't just get it yeah Just a note to anybody out there that forgets that Trevor's from Canada. He means Celsius when he says 25. Sorry. Yeah. 20, yeah. 25 Celsius. So like mid eighties or eighties, 80 to 90 degrees. Right. It's,
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, like but like I don't. But so like I know you say like, oh, you know, nobody's used to it. Like there are people there that are used to it. Like the cast members clearly are. I don't get it myself. Like I couldn't. Yeah, I just I couldn't. I honestly I it baffles my mind that anybody can. I mean, like you said, when I see people like walking around in like like full on like pants, like jeans and stuff when it's like 95 degrees out, I'm just like, how? How are you doing this? I would die. There's no way. It's just... But whatever. It's fine. What were we even talking about? We started from graduation and went down a whole rabbit hole with That's, yeah. Okay. Adult children traveling to Disney with them and me realizing that I thought I was traveling with an adult to Disney, but I'm actually not.
00:07:48
Speaker
So that's... That makes sense. Okay. there there were We're back. I'm going to have to have that conversation, I realized. Yeah. i'm I'm going to have to break it to my son that... Because I think he was kind of thinking the same thing. It's like, oh, like, you hey, you can just go do your own. I mean, technically he can. Like, he's old enough that, like, he it's not like he has to, like, hang around with us. But yeah he still can't legally drink or anything in in Florida. So, no interesting. Yeah, that's that's ah that's an interesting thought.
00:08:15
Speaker
yeah um Yeah. We'll come back to that. stay Stay tuned for more on that was yeah as I figure that part out. Yeah. yeah Not to derail this, but so it's, you know, it's a long weekend here in the States. I think it probably is for you guys too. I think you usually have one, yeah.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yours is this weekend? Ours is last have last weekend? Yeah. Okay, yeah, we have this weekend. This is Memorial Day weekend. Right. um And so i i'm i'm my my office for like the where I do the podcast and where I work and everything, I think I've talked about this before, is the room where we just dump everything we don't know what to do with. Right. yeah The problem is when you do that, eventually it actually turns into a literal dump. You know, like there's just so much stuff in here that like it's it's gotten out of control. So I said this weekend we're clean we're cleaning, right? We're spring cleaning. You know, I played I played my daughter the this the spring cleaning song from Rocco's Modern Life. And that's a fun reference for anybody from the 90s. Anybody that might remember that. um And they also had the recycling song, too, on Rocco's Modern Life. um
00:09:17
Speaker
But. Yeah, that. Oh, man, that's been a minute. I forgot forgot. I was like, this has to be on YouTube. Right. So like I pulled it up and of course and of course it is. And I my wife remembered like all the words to her, which I was really impressed by. i was like, I do i just remembered spring cleaning, spring cleaning. Like I just that's the only part I remember. I don't remember the rest of it. She knew all the words.
00:09:39
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, so we're doing spring cleaning, but while we've been doing that, I've been finding random things, and one of the things I found don't know if remember this, Trevor, I ordered this while we were on the show, doing the show. It was a while ago. There was a limited edition Haunted Mansion attraction poster that was just so cool that I had to have it. It was like 1,500 prints, and I found it, and I finally opened the box. It had been sitting in the box now for like well over a year. don't even remember when I ordered it, to be totally honest. Yeah. Was it framed or was it just like? No, it's stretched canvas, so I need to get framed. Oh, okay. Yeah. Gosh, yeah. When did I order this? It was so long ago.
00:10:17
Speaker
um Yeah. Oh, God. Let's see. I got the date. Okay. it was It was only about a year ago. it was July 16, 2025. That's not too That's not bad. i my We have a small doom pile of stuff. I call them doom piles. Yeah, I like that. Where, you know, we we we ignore stuff. and And I have ah i have a U sitting in that doom pile, if you know what a Wii U is. Nice. That's...
00:10:43
Speaker
That's about how long that pile has been there. Oh my gosh. Although, funny enough, I just went on the website and this is limited edition. They only have 1,500 of them, but it's still for
Collecting Limited Edition Items
00:10:52
Speaker
sale. So they didn't sell all 1,500, I guess. this is so I mean, the limited edition is...
00:10:58
Speaker
that That actually can turn people off more than you think. yeah I can see that. Like it's paying an extra price for something that well you may not necessarily want to. Right. I don't even care that it's limited edition. Like that is not something that really appeals to me. Right. Like I just like it. I just think it's cool. Like and I like the you know, I think, you know, that I really like like the attraction posters. I have attraction posters all over my house.
00:11:23
Speaker
ah Literally, I've got three just in in the room I'm in right now. so I love attraction posters. it's It's just a thing I really like. And this one is just a very cool one. I don't think this was actually ever an attraction poster. It was more inspired by, but I i wish it had been because it's just very cool and very well done. But that's neither here nor there. It just kind of was a random blast from the past kind of thing. so
00:11:49
Speaker
Sorry, I'm looking it up too now as you're Yeah, you're looking at it up. I can send you a link to it. i Make it easier for you. It's the Haunted Mansion, Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion Gallery Wrapped Canvas by Eric Tan, T-A-N, limited edition.
00:12:04
Speaker
Okay, there we go. if You want to find it in the Disney store. But, yeah, that's that's the one. i Like I said, I ordered a long time It's just a really cool print, and I really want Like I said, I don't care about the the limited edition part, but I am surprised it is. I would think it would have sold out by now, but, yeah. Are you still looking?
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, I see it. I'm i'm just i'm looking all the little details on it. Yeah, there's a lot of, like, little details in it. It's very cool. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's... that Yeah, it's funny how, like, I've done that too, where I sometimes forget, like, I'll buy something entirely with the intent of like, oh, I'm going to get home and and I'm going to hang this up. And it's like, i say even same thing, like, I actually had i had a Living With The Land attraction poster that took me about eight months to hang it up because i like i just... bikeed down Yeah. I mean, I mean, yeah. Uh, my wife was kind enough to, to find one for me. So we have, we have it hanging up in our bonus room and, uh,
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's one of those things where it's like you keep walking by and it's like, I should really hang that up. And and and it's funny because you spend more energy thinking about doing the thing than it actually takes. like like Yeah. yeah like like you You walk by it so many times, you're like, oh, okay, well, I got to get the hammer and you know you know I have to level it and and all this stuff. And it's like...
00:13:27
Speaker
But the you the amount of time thinking about you could have already gone and gotten the tools. And just done it. but like And it's always like... I don't know if you do this thing as well. I, I will like tell myself that it's like, Oh, today I need to do like X, like need to hang up a photo and it's like, but my brain goes like, this is my entire afternoon.
00:13:52
Speaker
I need to make sure that nothing else is on my schedule so I can do this thing this afternoon and then I'll do the thing. And it's like, Oh, that took me 15 minutes.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah. Now what do I that what i do? yeah I literally got the the whole weekend planned out like that. I've like i got this i've got a whole to-do list of stuff I need to get done that I i really want to get done. now Am I going to get all of it done? No. Am I going to get even most of it done? Probably not.
00:14:17
Speaker
um But i I also found a lot of podcast stuff. A lot of pins, a lot of hats, a lot of... the the there's a ah I guess they're not fanny packs anywhere. I think it's a crossbody bag technically. It's not a fanny pack. so I just like found all this podcast stuff too and My wife was also like, why do you have a box of boxes? And I'm like, I have a box of boxes because i would send stuff out to people in the box of boxes. Oh, my my my wife gets mad at me because i've I've had a few. OK, to be fair, I have some collector's edition boxes. So like there's well there's occasionally like things that you buy that come in a collector's edition box and I will take them out of the box. But I'll keep the box because
00:14:57
Speaker
um One of them is i actually have a, I have a ah figurine that is so big that like, if I had to transport it, if I didn't have the box, guaranteed it would get wrecked. It would get damaged. Yeah. So, so it's like, it's like the box is kept for like, like transportation, everything, but also it's a very, like the box was like, you know, you know, made specifically for that, that figurine and all that.
00:15:19
Speaker
But I do the same thing with like, I'll get like a new keyboard and I'll be like, oh like, Oh, I'll do that too. The keyboard box needs to stay in case I need to return. It's like, and I don't ever return it. and And then it's like eight months later, my wife's like, why is that still there? And I'm like, well, ah you know, I kept it just in case. And it's like, in case of what? And then finally finally she's like, just throw it out. And it's like,
00:15:41
Speaker
Fine. i Fine. i mean, like, i keep every time I get a new cell phone, I keep the box because I know eventually i'm going to have to trade in the old cell phone. And when I do that, it's good to have the box that came in, you know? I've had to do a few RMAs with my Google as well, where it's like, you know, you know they they they send you they send you a package to send it off in. But it's like, I always put it in the box because it's like, I don't need it getting, like,
00:16:06
Speaker
crushed or whatever exactly exactly i don't know how we got on this but yeah i i've been doing spring cleaning but but but yeah boxes boxes is is definitely a thing too well and also i i have uh i i'm finding all these cables and i think uh you are you are like me where you just have a pile of cables and it's like i i have a bin of cables yeah have a bin yeah my my my wife again i'm an it guy and i have cables going back to the olden times that you know don't We don't have anything that uses that cable anymore, but I keep that cable just in case. Because because you know as soon as you get rid of it, you're going to need it for something. Yeah,
Disney Plus & New Disney Attractions
00:16:40
Speaker
yeah. the the One device will come into my house that uses like, like ah yeah or I need like an HDMI to DVI connector. And...
00:16:49
Speaker
It's, yeah, I know. That's really funny. I should stop talking about this. because My wife's going to listen to this episode and be like, oh my God, it's even going on about the bin. Anyway, let's talk about Disney stuff. We're rambling for a while here. Yeah, let's get into actual Disney stuff. So, ah first thing we have on the list, a bit of DVC news. yeah The Polynesian Island, there is a, sorry, there's a special plant for the Polynesian Island Tower on Disney+. plus which is kind of interesting. I don't recall them ever doing a Disney plus special for a resort to date.
00:17:30
Speaker
Have they? i don't think they have. Yeah. I'm trying to think of the, I mean, they do it. They've been doing it with like the cruise ships, uh, where they, you know, show how they like build the cruise ships, but specifically, because this is, this is a DVC, like, like this is a DVC exclusive,
00:17:48
Speaker
um resort, right? Or like the tower is is exclusively DVC. And yeah, and also to give some context, it says, um so on June 10th, 2026, Disney Plus debut the magic behind the island tower at Disney's Polynesian Villa and bungalows.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's described as behind the scenes look at the artists and imagineers who crafted and create and the creativity that shaped Disney's newest addition, in the island tower at Disney's Polynesian Resort.
00:18:13
Speaker
So, Yeah, I mean, I get it. Like, there definitely was a lot of work put into this particular tower. Like, you know, they they they spent a lot of time before the tower even opened up, like, talking about, like, you know, where they pulled inspiration from and everything.
00:18:28
Speaker
But, you know, all the other resorts have equally as... interesting stories and i think maybe maybe this is just the start of them doing stuff like this because i mean honestly it's kind of like best case scenario synergy if you really think about it yeah um that you know you know people who have disney plus this is how you this is how you get people hooked into dvc that may not have even looked at dvc before Synergy, right? it' it's Yeah. they're they're They're creating content for Disney Plus and also getting people ah tuned into DVC, right? i mean I mean, it kind of reminds me of, ah um you know, back when Walt Disney was doing those specials on Disneyland. Oh, yeah. Right? yeah Like, it it's kind of kind of feels like the same idea to me. That's how we built hype, you know?
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's really, uh, I think this is cool. I would, well I probably will watch this. I do wonder though, what I have seen before Trevor is they've, when I, every time they open one of these new resorts, they do like that contest where you can let, ah I forget they usually don't have it in Canada, but they have a thing where you watch a bunch of videos about the creation of the resort. And the more videos you watch, the more entries you get. And I'm like, do they just take the seven videos I have to watch and like stitch them together into like a 20, you know, 20, 30 minute episode of something. um like that's Yeah. That's basically what the videos were. it was it was like behind the scenes look at the the artists and all that stuff. And I mean, they they could have probably done that. And I mean, I don't know how many people actually watch those to enter the contest, but.
00:19:58
Speaker
It does. i mean, this one is, yeah. I would be honest if ah if if that if I was eligible for that, I would just put those on and like. That's what I did. Yeah. That's what I did. While I'm doing other stuff is just let them run and get my entries. Because, yeah, I mean, ah like, why would you turn down the opportunity to stay at ah at any DVC resort for free, right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So that's i always do it. I mean, I never win and I probably never will win, but it's a worth a shot. Right. I mean, it's it's worth trying. You don't win if you don't play.
00:20:29
Speaker
That's exactly right. You know, ah in and so i but I would watch this, though. i be we actually this one was on our radar for August, we were going to try to see if we could grab, you know, grab ah a reservation for this. But obviously it's, you know, we're only three months away, so we were going to get what we can get. And and this is still a pretty popular option for for, you know, for a lot of people. So, you know, it was totally booked up, which is, ah like I said, it's fine. I mean, we we we're fairly last minute as far as this trip goes. So...
00:20:58
Speaker
um But yeah, I listen. It's good. I'm going to say this just as as a, you know, Pauly being my home resort. I'm actually very happy to hear that the Island Tower is as popular as it is.
00:21:12
Speaker
um Pulling people away from your your beloved? Yeah. Yeah. So, so i mean I mean, sorry, I guess my, yeah you know, if if we're talking home resorts, my actual home resort is Morea. Like, it's specifically that building just and just yeah in in the Polynesia. We don't stay anywhere else. We we we always go to Morea. We always, we have specific rooms that we book that the majority of them are always in Morea. So it's never, or you know, because it's the ah the Waterview rooms that we're booking Um, that's where we stay. And like I said, I, I'm, I'm actually, I'm pretty happy that the the tower is getting as much attention as it is because yeah, it you know, it draws, it draws attention from the places that I want to go, you know,
00:21:59
Speaker
you You know, people don't always think about it that way. like Like you said, you know, it's it's like it is building hype and it's a good way, you know, for Disney to build hype. But um the interesting thing about that is, you know, the the the things that everyone hypes over and, are you know, the things that everyone focuses on, that means that, you know, if everyone's focused on that thing,
00:22:17
Speaker
there's always somewhere else that is not ah like, like there's there's always a ah less busy option that people don't think about. i I think that's where I kind of operate in Disney is that I'm always looking for like, you know, obviously I do sometimes like, you know, you know, things like guardians and stuff. It's like, yeah, you know, that's, you know, that's obviously worth the hype and worth chasing, but it's like, I'm more than happy though to, you know, if everyone wants to be excited over there, I'm happy to be over in the other corner where,
00:22:46
Speaker
People are not getting hyped up. Yeah, no, I get that.
Smugglers Run Ride Details & Enhancements
00:22:49
Speaker
I get that. That makes sense. ah Okay. All right. let's um let's move on to to other things we'll talk about. I want to talk about the new um Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.
00:23:03
Speaker
ah ride Because we're getting more details about this now. And and I think i don't want to say I cynically believed that they were just going to be throwing the Mandalorian and Grogu into it and not doing anything else.
00:23:14
Speaker
But that's totally wrong. i'm I'm very wrong on that ah because they did a lot. They changed this up quite a bit. I don't know if you've read through what they actually have done. But, you know, I think they took on a lot of the ah complaints that maybe people had and and really kind of tried to make this ride like even even better. i think I actually think this is a great ride, and I don't i don't know why it doesn't get any more love than it does. I don't i don't know. But it to me, it's it's a really cool ride. Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker
yeah But i think I think the hard part about it is that unless you have... explicitly a group of six or or even i mean even a group of four the problem is is that the problem is is that the the thing that takes away from it is having to fight for the better seats in the ride right because it's like yeah sorry if you get engineer engineer is like okay but yeah you gotta read this though because they know you're more important now exactly yeah yeah yeah so so
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, because I think that's one of the big changes that they made because, you know, everybody, nobody wanted to be the engineer because the job was kind of, you know, whatever. But yeah they've now reemphasized the engineer. and And, you know, so it's not a, ah you know, the the last thing that everybody wants. So, and I'm trying to find this path. is so So, okay, one one of the one of the parts here that they they highlighted is,
00:24:45
Speaker
ah Or just taking this out of of the article that you sent me, the the engineer has five seconds. Literally, there's a countdown to choose um between different destinations. So either the Cloud City, Andorra or Coruscant.
00:24:56
Speaker
So yeah the engineers ah like this is this is kind of putting it into Star Tours. um area where Yeah, except for the students. Yeah, so so on Star Tours, it's random, but now you now you have to make sure that, you know, if if you're a pilot and you want to go to a specific place, you got to make sure that your engineers are on board with that because they think it's true. Yeah. They decide your fate on where you go in the ride, which is... yeah ah Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's this article notes. It says, however, in the past, while people would fight to be the pilot, this time you're more likely to fight to be the engineer because the engineer holds all the power.
00:25:37
Speaker
So they actually like shifted this. That's smart. I mean, yeah. You know, the the fun thing is, is like the the thing I like about that is, you know, my experience with the ride is, you know, kids Usually, whatever kids are riding, they they're the pilots. Like, like you you don't take the pilot role away from the kids because that's – it's the same as, like, driving the car in the Utopia. Like, yeah you let the kids do it. But then, yeah, like you said, it's, you know, the kids – I've seen videos of, like, you know, you know kids –
00:26:11
Speaker
flying And, you know, you know, they don't, you know, obviously they they don't know how to fly the thing and it's just like crashing and banging all over the place, which is. That's okay. It's funny, but also it's like, you know, if if you're going for a more exciting, like Eric, it kind of takes away some of the excitement because it's like you're just playing bumper cars at that point. But the nice thing about this is like, you you know, you can let the kids have the fun and you you know, shoot stuff and do all that.
00:26:38
Speaker
um you know, and in the front seats. But and then, you know, as yeah like you said, as an adult, you can sit in the back and go, I want to go here. I want i want to see it go go to this place or that place. Right. And and the the interesting thing that comes out of this is, will there be favorites?
00:26:57
Speaker
I guess. Will there will it come to like, you know, will there will there be one place that is preferred over another? That is interesting. And it we should mention, too, within the individual levels, there are different levels depending on where you want to fly. So like there's like some of these have a upper like an upper level and a lower level. ah They also mentioned this article that there's different paths you can take.
00:27:24
Speaker
Right. So it's not just like that it's not just like you have to go to this one place. Like it's it mentions, ah you know, specifically that ah there's there's one area where you go where you can choose to go left or right. And depending on which way you go is a completely different location.
00:27:40
Speaker
different, like, part of the adventure. So, like, it's really... You can do... this It really pushes up the re-ride-ability, right? Number one. yeah But it also just makes it more fun because it's different every time. And, ah you know, i think I think it's interesting because they...
00:27:56
Speaker
i I know this is not like everybody's favorite ride, but i just from a technical perspective, they're literally like rendering like a video game in front of your eyes in real time. Like that's what's happening while you're doing this, which is pretty cool. But it's a full-size video game, you know? It's a very intensive simulator. or like yeah like that this reminds me of – did you ever – there There was a flight or a game called Afterburner. um Oh, yeah. I remember Afterburner. You remember Afterburner where yeah the arcade game of it, there was actually a um like you actually had to like strap into it because it would like tilt and it was tilt and bounce around and shake and stuff. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah.
00:28:38
Speaker
yeah um Yeah, this is like that, but definitely, that yeah, like you said, it's cranked up to 11. I realize the, ah like, you know you know, talking about the description here of like like the pathing and everything, um you know, Jon Favreau may not want to hear this, but it sounds like they they stole this from like Sonic the Hedgehog.
00:28:58
Speaker
ah well if What do you mean? So so in in Sonic the Hedgehog, the the levels are, they're wide open and there's different paths through the level. So like anyone playing through the level, you can go totally different places. Like it it doesn't like drastically change, but it's like yeah you can see elements in a level that you would never see going one particular path versus another.
00:29:19
Speaker
um and that's what they're saying. But the end result is you always end up at the same exit to the or the you know the end of the level no matter what. But it's all these different branching paths, which, like yeah, like you said, you know it makes it more like a game and more like something that ah you can you can you can get back on multiple times just for the sake of seeing what's different, right? Yeah. yeah it was The hard part is, like you said, is you you know that then then you have to... Then, yeah, then you're fighting for the ah the engineer seat. like Yeah. If you want to see all the different paths. If you want to do all the different paths, yeah. Or, you know, you get to go with a group and and agree upon that, ah you know, where where you're going to go. the So the other thing this does, too, ah you can um you can choose for the gunners, they can choose an automatic mode or they can choose a manual mode.
00:30:12
Speaker
So like automatic mode, they like, you just get to push the button and it like, you know, blows up the ships. But if you do manual, then you have to like actually aim and stuff, which I think is cool that they give you that option, you know, in case you don't want to like, you know.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's like having ah that's like having auto drive on in Super Mario Kart. Yeah, I mean, yeah. i say but You do you if you want to enjoy that. I'm i'm manual all the way. so yeah automat not I'm not shaming on it. yeah you know if you yeah you If you want to be auto, that's fine. But you know but listen, it for like a kid, for like my daughter, I'd probably put it in automatic mode and then she can just press the button over and over. You know what I mean That's more what I'm thinking. if it was my kid, I'd be like, you're going to learn.
00:30:53
Speaker
You're going to learn how to shoot to learn how to shoot these X-wings. All right. yeah we we We went through the same thing with Mario Kart. It's like, no, you you don't need the auto drive. youre You're going to learn to stay on the course, you know. So I'm but I'm I know I'm being. Yeah, you read I'm being a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk. But but the other thing that they mentioned, this is all great. yeah Sorry. This is all, this is all great improvements to, it was already like a good ride, but they're definitely like making, I feel like after, um, after rise opened, like smugglers run really got kind of shoved in the corner. it did. This is back out for sure.
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah. And well, the other part that they mentioned here, too, is that um they they made this a lot more like the original ride. It's they really, really emphasize getting the coaxium for for Hondo. Right. And but they ah and they like push it, push it, push it. Apparently now they don't put much of as much of an emphasis on it. So you can really kind of just play and not feel like you have to do this, you know, this task thing. Right. Like you can you can do the task, but you don't have to do the task.
00:32:03
Speaker
Essentially, which is, yeah, I think it's good. think, yeah, I think, yeah, hard hard locking people into like a a a clear pass or fail objective on a ride like that. When like, like you know, thinking about it from like, you know, there's there's people like us who talk about like, oh, you know, you can ride it multiple times for some people. It's like.
00:32:23
Speaker
this is the only time you'll ever ride it. Ever ride it, yeah. And if if it's a, like, oh, you didn't do the thing right, like, people will be like, well, I'm never doing that again. that would Like, it doesn't doesn't leave a good taste in people's mouth. through it yeah Like, like even if they're never even if they never had intention of doing it again, it also means that they're not, like, going to speak highly of it.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. Either, right? So... yeah And by the way, for everybody wondering, there was ah there's the Wookiee mode ah that existed on the original, ah you know, that turned all of ah the communications into Wookiee.
00:32:54
Speaker
Well, there's a Grogan mode, too. Of course there is. There's a lot of Easter eggs, according to this. there's yes ah um that There's other things like you you can find a a baby Rancor. Yeah. if you're I think they even reference the yeah the Halcyon. Yeah, they reference the Halcyon, which is cool. Which is is cool. It's funny. And it's also like, I mean, for not pretending like that didn't exist. You know what I mean? It's kind of like that. It's funny how the yeah the the the hotel, you know, because the Halcyon was the the Star Wars hotel for anyone that's wondering what we're talking about. Yes. It's funny how. Yeah, it's it's it it could have very easily been like a big part of the.
00:33:38
Speaker
the in-universe lore and it could have like just further built everything up but just how they did it it didn't it just didn't hit. yeah And, you know, it was too expensive, all all those issues with it and everything. But yeah, it's funny how that, you know, they can do callbacks to stuff like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if you see it pop up. Like, it's very easily something that they can like, like make it a joke throughout the like, like remaining or, you know, as they do other Star Wars stuff is like, oh, like there goes the Halcyon. It's like, okay. yeah
00:34:11
Speaker
So I should mention now I'm reading this and and it it doesn't tell you how to get into Grogu mode, but it does say that the Grogu mode makes Grogu more prominent in the ride.
00:34:25
Speaker
um So and it would and this article says, which might make it difficult for fans to focus on completing the job Hondo asked you to complete. ah apparently it's the gunners that have to activate this. You have to press certain buttons to activate it, but all members within the party have to agree to activating it, apparently.
00:34:43
Speaker
So and I wonder how that shakes out. um i You know, how, like, does it, like, a thing pop up and it asks them, you know, do you want to go to Grogu mode or
Interactive Ride Features & Future Speculations
00:34:51
Speaker
something? You know, like, what happens? I think that's good because, I mean, yeah, like like you said, I think it's,
00:35:00
Speaker
the The pop-up serves two purposes is one. Yeah. It gives people the ability to decide if they actually want to do it. But then also i remember with the Wookiee mode, I don't remember being clear if you got it or not, or it seemed like it was yeah like a little obtuse to, to get it. So this way it's like, you get a clear, like, oh yeah, we got it. Right. So, yeah which, which also like, you know, when they're, when they're starting the ride up, it's like, you know, you know, you're, you're trying to like,
00:35:23
Speaker
You know, they they they don't give you a lot of time to, like, get settled and, like, figure stuff out. So it's like, yeah you know, you know giving giving some kind of confirmation is definitely a good thing. Agreed.
00:35:34
Speaker
The other part that I see in here that, you know, just, again, talking about Easter eggs is that there's a little part here that says, depending on how ah you do, and I think maybe the path you take at the end of the attraction, you might actually hear Han yelling at Hondo.
00:35:47
Speaker
And it's so satisfying when you get it, which okay i that that piques my interest. I want to hear I want to hear what Han Solo has to say to to Hondo. because ah yeah yeah Yeah, that's pretty funny, actually. Yeah, i like they seem like they put a lot of work into this and it's it's it wasn't just a like I said, it wasn't just the the cynical, you know, thought that they're just throwing those those things in there, you know.
00:36:13
Speaker
yeah I was not honestly expecting that, like, because, sorry, when when they said like, oh, we're we're doing like, you know, we're adding Mandalorian Grogu. Like, I know, yes, I've been like, ah you know, you know, the Star Wars stuff, I'm kind of over it. But I was kind of in my head, I was thinking of this the same way as Star Tours, where it's like, yes, they've done updates to Star Tours and it's like it's always been better.
00:36:35
Speaker
But Star Tours has hit a point where they can very easily just copy-paste sections. Sorry, why am I saying copy-paste? It's like they can add sections in and it's all very programmatic now where it's like, oh, you know, we just pick a bunch of random scenes and plays through and done, right? Like it's not, there's no like higher level...
00:37:02
Speaker
thought process happening and it's literally just slotting scenes into the the overall um play out of the ride, right? Which, you know, is is still, it's impressive, but it like I said, it also hits a point where it it feels, it kind of starts to feel low effort. or You see where it's like, once the system's in place, it's like adding stuff is very low effort.
00:37:24
Speaker
This is not... that though like like yeah I was I was expecting that I was expecting like oh you know they just they changed the scenes and it's you know it's easy to just update this and done it's like no they like they changed the they changed the the ride itself it's more yeah it's more of a game now basically we changed the whole ride they basically changed the whole ride that's it's like a new ride essentially yeah Yeah, which I mean is like, yeah i mean, obviously you you still have the same like basic functions of the ride. But yeah, like you said, you know, the fact that that you do actually have some agency over like like deciding where it goes. like Like I think that's the big thing for me was I wasn't expecting them to actually give you the ability to decide.
00:38:05
Speaker
you know, between the engineer and the pilot. And that's actually the thing too, is like, you know, as we were talking through, it wass like yeah, the engineer holds a lot of power, but the pilot also decides pathing inside of the individual areas that you go to. So it's, you do actually have to, there is some coordination that has to happen there, which it again makes it, that that that almost turns it into um like escape room like elements, right? Yeah, it's even more of a game.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah. where Where, you know, you you actually have to like, you know, you know, talk with people. You have to talk with strangers. Yeah. I'm thinking back to, so so the first time I rode it with, it it was me and my son and my parents were riding it.
00:38:47
Speaker
um My wife didn't go on because she she can't do simulator types. enough school So we had two random people in the engineer seats and, I'm just thinking now about like, you know, it was me and my son in the pilot seats and, you know, we we were doing our thing or whatever. But if I had to be yelling back at the engineers, like, go to Cloud City. let's swim around view You'd better go to a Cloud City. i need Everyone wants go to Cloud City, right? I don't know. I kind of want to go to Coruscant.
00:39:20
Speaker
that The article says that's the coolest one. Coruscant's nice. Like, it's it's a very cool planet. But but but this is the thing. It's like all of them, it's like yeah you kind of want to see all of them, right? Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker
That's the rewritability, right? So that's great. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I really i like what they've done here. this is I'm going to try to get my daughter to do this, like, by not telling her what it is. um So oh I'm just to tell her we're going to play a big video game. She's going to in. yeah I mean, yeah, it is yeah, it's it is. it's It is a big video game. You're right. It's not a scary ride or anything. It's it's just just, you know, yeah, if you're motion, if you get motion sick, it's not she but like outside of that. She she gets to push buttons. Like, why not?
00:40:01
Speaker
Has she been on Star Tours? No, but that's when we're going to try this this year, too. Oh, okay. see So you you're just, you're going to put her in the deep end. I'm slow playing it, my friend. Okay. All right. i think I think she'll be fine, honestly. i because i know start i don't know. I think she'll be okay with Star Tours. I really do. So, okay. Let let let me ask you this. Which order are you planning to do this in? Are you going to start with Smuggler's Run are you going to start with Star Tours? because I had not thought about that. I see merits for going either way. Like like Smuggler's Run is lot.
00:40:33
Speaker
smuler iss run is a lot well Well, no, it's not. it's It's a lot of information. It's a lot of... i i' mean, the movement is tamer, I guess I would say. Right, but you're more involved in it. That's true. So it's a lot of information overload, whereas Star Tours is, yeah, is bumpy, but you're just, you're spectating, right? You're not actively involved in what's going on.
00:40:58
Speaker
So... i i say I think I'm just going to do like I just not going to tell her what they are. You know, that's like what it's going to be. We're just going to be like, oh, just this is cool ride. It's, you know, you put on 3D glasses.
00:41:09
Speaker
You know, I guess when my son, when we were doing all this stuff, like, yeah you know, introducing to rides, like i kind of i kind of hit a point with my son where I was like, have I taken you on a bad ride yet?
Introducing Kids to Disney Rides
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I get that. Yeah. That's what I agree with. Because there was points like, you know, when my son was like, you know, he was nervous about like, like, I think the first time he went on Tower Terry, was like a little bit nervous. But I was like, I was like, have we been on like, you know, you've been on roller coasters, you've been on all this other stuff. Do you think this is going to be any worse than those things? And he was like,
00:41:43
Speaker
Well, no. And it's like, OK, well, then, you know, trust me, it'll be fine. Right. Like it's and then he ended up you know loving it. I think the the one trip we ended up doing like eight times in a row in one day, which was that that was that was more of a challenge for me than it was for him. Than for him. Yeah, yeah. i But I did it. I i made it through. i was i was done by the end. But um I just I think she'll be fine because I mean, like i we we were talking about this, like with Big Thunder, right, where it's like there's a roller coaster at or local music park that she goes on that is far more intense than the Big Thunder is. Right. And like if she'll go on that, i she'll go on a lot of these other things. So I think we just it's a matter of just trying them. And I think she'll be OK.
00:42:20
Speaker
It's just we we need to get to the trying part. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I was thinking, or just ah just my outside opinion, you know, not not knowing your daughter as well as you do, is that i I would start with Star Tours just because of the fact that it's like Star Tours is pretty...
00:42:41
Speaker
pretty straightforward. Like, it has some parts to it, but, you know, it's, you're strapped in. You sit down and you're there for the show. you're strapped in and you just enjoy it, right? Yeah. And then, because then you can say like, hey,
00:42:56
Speaker
You liked that, right? You know, you know, because you know normally, you know, kids get on those rides and when you get off, they're like, wow, that was so cool. And it's like, yeah, if you liked that one, do you want to actually drive the ship next time? And then, yeah you know.
00:43:08
Speaker
That's good call. That's a good call. I think that makes sense, actually. Yeah. Because then of a sudden, wait, I can drive the ship? Yeah, it's this one over here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, i I'm going to try. I am going to try. Yeah.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. I know we have one more thing on the rundown here before the ad, but let's go ahead and do the ad and we'll we'll get we'll pick back up. I'll just close out the ah those the Smuggler's Run stuff with saying, like, I'll, I'm, you know, as I said, you know I'm pleasantly surprised at how much work they put into it.
00:43:36
Speaker
And I will admit that I am... i am I'm a little bit more intrigued about going back and revisiting these things and maybe not dismissing Star Wars stuff as much as I have been. Because I've been...
00:43:51
Speaker
Like said, I was just Star Wars out. I was just it got to be too much. And but this kind of stuff, like turning it into a game that that's how you speak to me is, you know, if it's a game, it's like, you know, I'm interested. So I'm I'm thinking that I might actually spend more time in Hollywood Studios on my next trip. And we still got to get you on Rise the Resistance, too. So, yeah, true. I know that. I do know that. It's just, ah you know, the stars aligned in certain ways that it just never happened. To be fair, like I said, you know you know, the next trip coming up, we're going to be there for a longer period of time. There's, it's far more likely that we will be actually like spending a good amount of time at Hollywood Studios. It's, Hollywood Studios for me for like a long time has been a half day park. And,
00:44:38
Speaker
I know a lot of people would say, no, you're wrong and, you know, fair. yeah But just for me and my family, it's been a half day park for a long time. I feel like that's coming back around, though.
00:44:49
Speaker
I feel like Hollywood's like with with this and, you know, other things we have coming up on the rundown that i' have happened in Hollywood Studios. I feel like maybe it's not a half day park anymore. OK, look at that.
00:45:04
Speaker
But we'll see. Apparently that Darth Maul show that's on ah Disney Plus is really good too. They got really good reviews. but I totally missed that. I didn't know there was a Darth Maul. Apparently, it's very, very good. I've heard from multiple people that it's really good. i maybe I need to go back and look at my Disney Plus settings because I think I i think i was actively like blocking Star Wars.
00:45:26
Speaker
Just blocking Star Wars? I wasn't blocking, i think but I think I ignored enough of it that I don't think I'm being served up new stuff anymore. So maybe i have to go have a look at that. Yeah, it's ah Darth Maul Shadowlord is the ah or its Star Wars. It's actually called Maul Shadowlord.
00:45:42
Speaker
Sorry. All right. Okay. I'll have a look for that because I do like i do like Darth Maul's like yeah he has a whole history beyond like the you know the the initial um ah Phantom Menace stuff. So yeah, and they've expanded his lore, I guess, over time. Like it's it's I like what they did with him as a character.
00:46:03
Speaker
but Yeah, I mean, it has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's, you know, it's it's people that are saying it's very good. and So, okay yeah. Okay. All right. I'll check that out. But for now, we need to do an ad. so Yeah, let's do that. um Yeah. So, okay. So, ah this week, our show is brought to you by DVC Rental Store, which is a keyholder vacation company that offers magical vacations at incredible value.
00:46:26
Speaker
Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points.
00:46:41
Speaker
Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVC-RENT. That's 382-7368. And when you speak to them, be sure to let them know the Welcome Home sent you.
00:46:51
Speaker
I actually just was on that site, Trevor, because I'm going, I've got, I have 106 points left over this year that I'm not going to use. And instead of banking them, I'm going to rent them out.
00:47:03
Speaker
um So, yeah, so I'm just going to, anyway I'm trying to, Find a find a well i I posted that you can do a do it a couple different ways when you go on there like if you already have a reservation you can just post that reservation on there or if you just have points you can post the points on there and then someone can you know you can kind of match it to a reservation kind of situation.
00:47:23
Speaker
um So yeah there's a lot of different things you can do. But anyway, I'm just sorry, just to add on to that. um we We don't talk about it, but they also do have their their point swap programs. We've had them on to talk about that before. um From my point of view, we're actually we've been tossing this back and forth is that we actually may want to stay a couple of days at the Helios um at Universal.
00:47:45
Speaker
And i may look at doing a point swap to make that happen. So, yeah, there you go. There you go. ah So I talked about this briefly last week, ah and it turns out this was a real thing.
00:47:58
Speaker
i This was kind of a rumor. ah So ah it's been announced officially now that there's a Disneyland Main Street USA Lego set. um Yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah, I need to have this. So this is all you, Tom. and and i Do you not like g Legos at all? I mean i mean i don't i like, okay, i i appreciate the finished product of Lego.
00:48:21
Speaker
I cannot sit there and build Lego. My wife and my son can do that. I can't do that. I just don't. I don't have that. even this one? This one's very cool, i will say. the the ah um you know there There is a bunch of figurines in it. The the Dapper Dans are there. the the Firehouse is there. Emporium. Crystal Arcade. Crystal Arcade. yeah it's Yeah, it is a nice set. yeah there's There's lots of, like I said, just just the amount of little...
00:48:53
Speaker
The little details in it. There's a lot of things here. Yeah. there there Is that a Gus Gus? Looks like there's there's a Gus Gus figurine. There's a Wally one for some reason.
00:49:04
Speaker
For some reason. i You look like Wally is not like part of Disney for some reason. like But why is Wally just chilling in the Emporium though? Like why not? not yeah Yeah. Okay.
00:49:17
Speaker
But just but what what's your problem with Wally, Tom? I have no problem. Why is he not allowed it on Main Street? I i want to hear. You need to write me a 500 word essay on why Wally is not allowed Main Street. I love Wally. Is Wally just being the. Is he just a toy in the Emporium or is he. mean It looks like he's standing on the counter.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, he's standing on the counter. That's wondering. like And I'm not even sure if he's in the Emporium or not. I can't tell. ah but it looks it it It looks like the Emporium. It does. It looks like one of the counters in the Emporium. yeah The other little detail that I like in this is that they they have the lamp in the yeah in the firehouse. or about in there's There's actually a little mini version of Walt's apartment. That's cool. and so So one of the pictures is... I don't think that that's not Walt, but it looks like a conductor sitting in ah in a chair and the the little ah the lamp is lit up next to him, which is. um
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah. You know, the the more that I'm looking at this, I realize as we're talking about this, my wife is going to be asking me. Yeah. Yeah. she She's going to want this. Yeah, I want this too. There's two problems with it. By the way, this is a $3,899 piece set. ah So it's it's it's a lot of pieces, which I prefer. I like those kinds of sets. This is coming on June 4th, so just couple weeks here.
00:50:43
Speaker
It is $400 US dollars, which is, you know, yeahs ah it's it's a pricier set. Not the priciest, but pricier. ah That is still a very expensive set. Yeah. It is. my I mean, listen, my most expensive set is is the is Cinderella Castle, which I believe was $600.
00:51:04
Speaker
um But $400 is a lot, and I i don't generally buy sets that are that expensive. but i kind of i see My biggest problem is actually not the cost, Trevor. It's where the heck to put this.
00:51:17
Speaker
I have run out of LEGO space. I've run out LEGO space. You put it in front of your Cinderella Castle, and you build a hub. Yeah. len And then you start, you can see what happens here, right? If I if i had a basement, i like I said, I'd make it like, you know, you just need a large table. and Where am I putting in that? Where? where so So you just have to commandeer your your kitchen table.
00:51:41
Speaker
That's the answer. Yeah, I'm sure Karen would love that. Yeah, this is the centerpiece of your kitchen table now is what's happened. Yeah. Yeah, and it would just be me with the fire truck going, like, what were you eating dinner? Yeah.
00:51:57
Speaker
Well, you guys want some popcorn from the popcorn cart? Because they have a popcorn cart. And then, you know, the dapper dance. Making the little dapper dance, singing dance. Yeah, exactly. Also, one of these minifigs has a snitch shirt on, and I think it's kind of hilarious. But anyway, just wanted to bring that up because I kind of teased it last week, and it was a rumor at the time, and now it's real, and I want it, and it's making me sad.
00:52:20
Speaker
ah I mean, I guess the hope is i don't see this selling out immediately. i mean, I could be very wrong, but I'm, you know, maybe this is something that could still be around by Christmas time.
00:52:34
Speaker
don't know. Yeah. I mean, I an know lego i feel like, I feel like I almost never get Legos on sale. Like, i like they're... Yeah. It's crazy. Lego does not... like Lego is like Nintendo. They never put their stuff on sale because they know they don't need to. They don't need to. I mean, they do sometimes. It's not... You know, they it's never that they... It's not that they don't ever, but...
00:52:57
Speaker
If they have like a discontinued set, sometimes they make them a little cheaper, but it's. But even at that, like the the discount, like you're you're not going to get it like 50% off. It's going to be like, you know, here's 10 bucks off or something. yeah exactly That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah yeah that's exactly... And the problem is because I like the larger sets, the larger sets are expensive. I mean, they just are. Mm-hmm. And, you know, which yeah it makes sense. So the more pieces you add, the more expensive things you're going to get. That's, you know, just how things work.
00:53:23
Speaker
So, ah you know, that's that's always a hard thing for me, and that's why I go kind of... um I go months in between Lego sets because i I tend not to buy a lot of them just, again, because they're expensive. so And I also just kind of wait to buy the ones I want to really want. you know It does cut into your like actual going to Disney money if you're buying Lego sets all the time. Yeah. That is true. So so you can you can have a Lego, like, you know, you can have Main Street Lego or you can go to actual Main Street and I see where that's a hard it's ah it's a hard choice. i mean, it's not really that hard of a decision. i mean, yeah you know, the answer is go to the actual place, but
00:54:02
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I still want to also buy the Back to the Future DeLorean. ah that's That's another one that's on my list. You can drive the DeLorean down Main Street. who I might get the DeLorean at one of these these times here. It's it's on my list. ah There's also the Home Alone house, too, which is also on my list. but Again, i don't have space or, you know, money for these things. so um anyway, let's move on.
00:54:27
Speaker
I know we've been talking a lot about Rock a Roller Coaster and i I don't want to talk about it that much more. ahead, Trevor. Yeah. Okay. I mean, yes, we've we've been talking about the lead up to it reopening. Obviously, because of the reopening, they they did, you know, they they had like basically an opening ceremony for it. And You know, understandably, I watched some of it. um They did include John Stamos in it, which um was funny, but I admit I turned it off partway through because it just...
00:55:01
Speaker
i don't know. It got a little cringy for me. Sorry, so I shouldn't. It's not fair. i shouldn't I shouldn't be like that. But it just like I started watching it and i was like, OK, this is like, you know, they they were, yeah you know, John came out and like they they started talking and I don't know. it It reminded me of like Full House, but not in a good way.
00:55:26
Speaker
that's i'll say I would say we were watching it and I would say to my wife, i'm like, it's like really Samos, like you're going to play the bongos of all things. Like, come on now. Yeah. wait wait when he As soon as they said he had his bongos on stage, I'm like, oh, really? Like, is that what we're doing?
00:55:43
Speaker
You couldn't even like get a guitar or anything like. You know, of course, Damos couldn't stay away from this. he had He had to be involved somehow. I mean... course. I mean, why why wouldn't he be, right? Yeah. Yeah. But listen, I will say that the the thing that they did, like the press event that they did, was awesome. They did like a full-on Electric Mayhem concert.
00:56:02
Speaker
And just watching it happen was... really cool because i mean, yeah listen, they're Muppets play. They're not actually playing the the instruments, but like, don't understand how, I mean, how, uh, animal plays the drums. Like he's actually playing the drums and I'm confused by it. It doesn't make sense to me. Like yeah the rest of them are not playing the instruments, but you can see that, you know, the the actual drums being, being, uh, you know, being hit. ah And I'm just like, how are they, how is this happening? Um,
00:56:30
Speaker
um So i I don't know. I'm sure there's an easy explanation for it. But I have to say I did when they played song two by Blur. It was that's pretty cool it it was exactly how I imagined it.
00:56:43
Speaker
With Animal doing the chorus. Yes. I was but like, yeah, like as soon as I heard that, I was like, yes, they they understood the assignment. Like it was. Honestly, it feels like they nailed everything and in this ride. and and And even just that opening ceremony was really, really cool. And they had... i mean, they had a whole state... They had the whole Electric Mayhem there. They had... I mean, Kermit was there. They they they did a whole bit with Rizzo. They had ah Pepe there. I mean, they...
00:57:07
Speaker
They had the whole thing there and it was really, really cool and well done. I mean, it was 25 minutes and my wife and I were sad that it was over. Like, you know, it was, but it was, you know, you can find it out there on YouTube. I don't think that they actually put it out on any official channels, but I did also watch like a little walkthrough and ah the other cool stuff is like all of the memorabilia that they have in the queue. ah Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:28
Speaker
it It really, i you know, I think we talked about this is that, you know, there there is, there's a lot of stuff that seems to have carried over from ah Muppet Vision. So, like, yeah yes, like it it feels very Muppet Vision. But then little things like I like, I appreciate that um that they brought to the the Muppet Mobile Lab is in there. Yeah. Which is that thing that was in... ah Epcot.
00:57:55
Speaker
was in Epcot, yeah. yeah it it was It was Beaker and Bunsen. Yeah, it was both of them in the... yeah It kind of makes me sad, though, because that means they're not going to do that one anymore, which, you know, they hadn't done it in a couple of years, but it was such a cool, like, street-masphere thing when that was, like, wandering around, you know?
00:58:14
Speaker
Yeah, but I also... I feel like it's one of those things that... there was probably some logistical reason why they can't keep doing it. Because it, while it was very impressive, it feels like Like that that the way that that thing was balancing and all that, it felt like there was like some kind of safety issue to it that we weren't seeing.
00:58:36
Speaker
um So, yeah, I get why they wouldn't do it But i also appreciate the fact that, you know, something like that is not it's not just like disappearing into a warehouse somewhere where it's never going to be seen again. Right. Like, you know, you can still you know where to find it now. Right. So. Well, I just, I mean, there's also just so much, they like you said, that they brought from Muppet Vision 3D, right? Like the canon is there. They have, ah you know, they have the um they have the straight up the animatronics of Stiler and Waldorf are there.
00:59:07
Speaker
uh you know you have the uh the the um the the well you also have the penguins first of all but the there's also the the pizza rizzo sign in which i know is not a muppet vision but it's from that that it's it's from the courtyard it's from the courtyard yeah yeah and i mean so i mean that's there i mean it's it's just really cool that they took all that stuff and even just stuff from the like the old movies too like they have like kermit's original banjo is in there like Yeah. Which is pretty cool. I mean, that they they have that kind of stuff. And then ah also, apparently, there's ah there's there's ah there's a Waldo reference in there, which is great.
00:59:43
Speaker
There is? oh Did I miss that? There's a Waldo hidden. ah It looks like while you're on the actual ride, i think. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:59:55
Speaker
I mean, you're going to, probably going to be hard to find, right? Because you're going to be moving so fast. But there's a, there's a Waldo crossing sign. And then there's also a sign that says obligatory Easter egg, which I also think is really funny. I mean, that's just great. ah So and then then there's also the um and I'm not gonna lie. I didn't recognize this and didn't know what it was until this.
01:00:18
Speaker
I saw it in one of the videos and i was like, who is that? And why is that there? oh the Jim Henson Muppet? Yeah, I don't remember ever seeing that before. The portrait of jim hen Jim Henson as a Muppet is over at the end of the ride, which I think is a neat tribute as well.
01:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And i it's weird. That's something i I feel like I saw that. Like, it looks familiar. I know I've seen somewhere. It does familiar. But I just, I can't place it. I don't know why. Yeah.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. So listen, I know we've talked about this a lot. We're done after this unless ah something else changes. But this is, ah it's, I love that how much stuff they took from the the Muppets courtyard area and and also just, I mean, even like the the Mona Lisa picture from Mama Melrose is in the ride. I mean,
01:01:04
Speaker
There's flyers, someone looking for a lost bunny because Bean Bunny you know bean bunny runs away in Muppet Vision 3D. It's just a lot of cool stuff there. And yeah like I said earlier, like this ah between this and Run and small voterss run and Like you can see where they're really starting to like, like it's not that, that ah Hollywood studios wasn't without stuff, but a lot of it was really becoming stale and it was starting to show its age. Like, yeah like Hollywood studios was becoming stagnant. I felt. And, you know, the, you know, with, with them, you
01:01:47
Speaker
you know, bringing this kind of stuff back up but or like, like, you know, even bringing back like the, the mobile, um sorry, what's it called again? night The, the mobile lab.
01:01:59
Speaker
I'm like, like just bring, bringing it, bringing back in stuff like that. Like, you know, we weren't even like really thinking about, but it's like, oh, Hey, these are all reasons to go back into those rides to like, keep working.
01:02:11
Speaker
Like, it the the problem with the old Rockin' Roller Coaster, and, you know, if if you liked Aerosmith, great, but there was no reason to, like, go back on and revisit the ride.
01:02:23
Speaker
Yeah. um Unless you were just, like, looking for a roller coaster. Yeah, looking for a roller coaster, yeah. Yeah, the the ride itself didn't have any details. and And the thing is, is that this is so much, like... These are the reasons why I go back and I revisit these rides is that like, you know, all these little details, all these things where it's like I can walk through here 50 times and miss something and then be like, oh, yeah, that, you know, you know, I never saw that picture before. Right. So I'm just I'm excited for this kind of stuff, because, again, it's a reason for me to actually like go to a park that I will admit for years we like.
01:02:57
Speaker
We've kind of passed by it because it didn't feel like it had the level of care and attention that the other parks get. And now it does. Yeah. and it It's getting there. I i won't say it's 100%, but I will say it's getting there.
01:03:12
Speaker
Okay. Well, that's good. That's good. Well, ah Disney put out a to move to over to Animal Kingdom and a thing that I will definitely be doing, of course, when I am there in August is Bluey's Wild World. We now have a first look at this. They put out a few pictures, which, you know, listen, you can't get a lot from the pictures here.
01:03:29
Speaker
what I mean, you know what I mean? it's It's the space that we expected it to be in over over at Conservation Station, right? because there's really only one like indoor space there. Although I will say from the pictures, and this is probably just deceiving, it looks like a very small amount of people can fit into this area. Now, it could just be where the person took the picture.
01:03:49
Speaker
i don't know. But there's like 15 kids in this picture. And I mean, I'm sure that's during like testing, you know, and so there's small group. They're very deliberately like crowding everybody around.
01:04:00
Speaker
Yeah. Bluey and Bingo. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, for sure. I mean, listen, this this is, this means we don't, good. Sorry, just just like thinking about that space. I haven't been in that space in a minute, but it's not that
Virtual Queue & Influencer Impact
01:04:15
Speaker
small. Like you're right. No, it's not. They're making it look smaller. And also like to be fair, like there is a bunch of stuff in the background there that um like they they they very much pulled everything into the foreground.
01:04:27
Speaker
It's I'm curious, though, how. how like you said how many people they're going to be able to get into this place at a time because yeah if it's only if it's only like 50 people at a time the lineup for this thing is going to be insane Well, and not only that, Trevor, the operating hours of this are 8.30 to 3.45 p.m. So you're talking there's seven hours a day that this will be operating? That's tough.
01:04:57
Speaker
I mean, that's, you know, it's not that it's that short, but I mean, for something that's going to be this popular, and and listen, I understand, like, i I get it, like, and they probably wouldn't draw that many people after that time anyway, right?
01:05:08
Speaker
yeah If the show is like 45 minutes long or a half hour long, a lot of those, you know, the kids that are going going to this are going to be wanting dinner soon after that. And you're probably not going to have a whole lot of kids that are wanting to do this at five o'clock. Right. So, but. And again, keep in mind that this also is at, this is under the virtual queue as well. Right. So, so like, get so, so getting to the area, you have to virtual queue anyway. So yeah, I guess there won't, or I guess the interesting thing will be,
01:05:38
Speaker
You'll have people that will be going there and like looking around and leaving. But for this show particularly, i wonder how many people are going to be going there and queuing for the show or how quickly that like how many people to be able to get through the show or if it's going to end up being that it becomes like a bottleneck where you've got a bunch of people waiting around for the next show, but they're not leaving the area.
01:06:03
Speaker
Right. Like it it could, it could still end like, even though they have the virtual queue, it could still end up backfiring on them. But, but I guess the interest, the interesting thing about the virtual queues is that that is their method for controlling how many people do or don't get into the,
01:06:19
Speaker
the area, right? because Because just because you get in a virtual queue, they don'tly they don't always call all the groups in a virtual queue, right? That's true. That's true. And I mean, there's a certain amount of control that they have just from the fact that they have, um you know, that it's over on conservation station, right? So, like, you you could just not send trains over if there's too many people over there or something. You know what i mean? Like, you can, there's other ways you can stop it. It's interesting how they're going to control this.
01:06:48
Speaker
You know, I'm the the only part that or I'm curious how much the the first days of this will be people just trying to do their like, sorry, i I know we're a podcast and we're talking about Disney, but there's like the amount of like influencers that go and like, like trying to get like the day one coverage of these things is, it's going to be crazy. Like I think honestly, that's part of the reason why they have to do these virtual queues is that it's not, it's like there's people that are hyped about it, but then there's like a subset of people that are like, they're just there trying to record it so that they can put it out on Instagram or whatever first. Right. yeah Which, yeah.
01:07:35
Speaker
I do find it funny, though, that like Disney is like I've noticed with like the newer attractions like this, Disney is putting out their own stuff, which is kind of undermining a lot of that. So, yeah you know, maybe that maybe that's their way of combating. Like, like, I guess what I'm hoping for is that, you know, maybe because it's bluey, it won't be people won't be chasing it.
01:07:55
Speaker
quite as much and kids will be able to actually enjoy it because like the thing is is like bluey yes bluey is something that all ages can enjoy but it is definitely targeted as kids and yeah I just don't want to see this turn into a thing where it's like Kids can't enjoy this. Like,
Bluey's Popularity vs. Disney Properties
01:08:13
Speaker
ah I don't want this to turn into what Pokemon cards have become.
01:08:16
Speaker
And you're probably going, what are you talking about? But like, so my son used to collect Pokemon cards and it eventually hit a point like like now Pokemon cards is like a whole industry of like people hunting,
01:08:30
Speaker
rare cards and everything. And it's, it's taken all the fun out of it. Right. And yeah my, my concern, like, and I see where like Disney is trying to control this, that it's like, you know, this is something that like should be specifically for kids. Like it's not, it shouldn't be like a bunch of people going in there trying to get their Instagram clicks or whatever. Like I, just I just, don't know. Sorry. I just feel like,
01:08:59
Speaker
the the I'm curious how the the initial days of this are going to play out. Yeah, I am very curious. you I'm sure we'll see it all on social media. yeah and And I mean, it's coming this week. So yeah you know the next in the next couple of days, you know, I'm hoping that, it you know, I will be pleasantly surprised and and there'll be like coverage of it, but it won't be.
01:09:19
Speaker
um It won't be like the big thunder opening where it was like my Facebook feed was like, yeah you know, all kinds of different people. Like, you know, I'm, you know, I'm in line for, but for first day on Big Thunder, blah, blah, blah. Right. Like, yeah yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, like after you've seen that video, like, you know, 20 times, it's like, okay, I get it. Like, you know, we get it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I know you're enjoying it. I know you're, you know, everyone's trying to do their thing, but it's like, not everybody needs to,
01:09:49
Speaker
it' It's not a matter of covering it. It's a matter of being first. Right. And the whole be first thing is what gets to me. And, and ah you know, I'll be honest. If somebody actually like what I would really appreciate more is somebody doing like the, yeah you know, there's there's like the the opening day coverage.
01:10:07
Speaker
I would like to see the so somebody that shows up like, OK, this has been open for a week. Let's see what it actually looks like. like Here's what here's what things look like now. Yeah, like like that's that's actually what I would be more interested in is seeing what this stuff looks like after the initial hype day because that's a far more real representation of what you're going to get versus the the hype that happens around these things, right? I don't think there's like a single thing that exists that's brand new in any industry or anything that, you know, that's brand new that always is perfect on the first day, you know? It just doesn't exist. Like things happen that you don't expect and
01:10:44
Speaker
you know, especially at theme parks. I mean, there's a reason why they do these previews and even then it's not enough, you know, to to really you get all the, you know, kinks out of it because life happens, right? So... Yeah, and and I mean, we we saw it, you know, we were at Epic Universe for, it you know, preview days and...
01:11:03
Speaker
what we saw and didn't see versus when it actually opened. Like I, I watched videos of it afterwards and i was like, Oh yeah, I see. Like they were trying something and it didn't work and it did land. They, they had to change gears and you know, there was, there was a few things where it was like,
01:11:19
Speaker
you saw where they had intent, but once the reality of like, like, you know people coming through these areas started happening, it was like, oh, they couldn't do that in it, like to scale.
01:11:31
Speaker
So, and, and this is the same thing, like, like Bluey is going, like, Bluey is a very interesting conversation because it's, it's got so much hype around it. It's got so much going on that, that, so it's so much like,
01:11:50
Speaker
everyone who Everyone may not be talking about it, but when anything comes up about it, everyone swarms to it, which tells you that it's like, it's kind of transcending just like the 15 minutes of fame kind of thing. And that yeah that's what that's what really interests me is that it seems to have, like it's hitting that longevity that some of the other um Disney IPs have landed over time, but it did it without being a Disney IP, which is really interesting to me. so Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree.
01:12:23
Speaker
Anyway. yeah and about Yeah. Yeah. it's ah Yeah. i Listen, I'm excited to check this out. So. yeah so Yeah. Yeah. So yeah you'll get to do the like two months out report on it. Yeah, exactly. I'll get to do that report. Yeah, yeah
Trader Sam's Anniversary & Speculations
01:12:39
Speaker
exactly. ah Literally, there's only there's one reason and one reason only that I put this on our rundown, Trevor, about Trader Sam's.
01:12:47
Speaker
Is just the new mug that they have for the 15th anniversary at Disneyland. Is it a hyena one? It is the hyena one. Yeah. okay i was I was trying to figure out because they've actually got a bunch of different mugs on here. And i actually haven't seen some of these mugs. I have not. There was the the first one I had not seen, but the rest I believe I had seen.
01:13:09
Speaker
I hadn't seen the Yeti or the Jose one. Yeah, I hadn't seen the Yeti one. You know what? You're right. I don't think I'd seen the Jose one either. But why does Trader Sam's always have such cool mugs over at Disneyland? I mean... That's a good question. And I wish we had an answer to that because we have a Trader Sam's in Pauly, the Polynesian. Yeah.
01:13:31
Speaker
I don't know that these things are ever like I don't recall ever seeing anything like this at the Polynesian. I know they have some stuff, right? Because like I got I got that cool one drink one time that was like a pearl and it was in a pearl, but it was like plastic. It wasn't like a cool.
01:13:46
Speaker
Well, you know, OK, but these mugs, I don't know that these mugs are not plastic. They look, see, they look ceramic to me, i you know. Maybe, but like I've i've had mugs that ah are like, I guess like getting stuff from like Pineapple and I have gotten like, I got like a Dole Whip cup from there and it was plastic. Like it was, it looks nice, but it's molded plastic at the end of the day. The hard part is, is yeah, like you said, if if these are like ceramic mugs, that's,
01:14:15
Speaker
That's one thing, but I don't know that any of these are actually... i mean, I could be pleasantly surprised and be wrong about this because this hyena one is... It's really detailed.
01:14:28
Speaker
It is. Yeah. I don't know how you... Or I guess, I mean, you would obviously do it with a mold if you're doing it ceramic, but... I mean, it there's a lot of detail going on in it. There is. And it's really cool. It's served with ah it serves with one of the drinks, right? And this is for the 15th anniversary, by the way. I think I said that. But yeah listen, I don't think it's plastic because it's $89 for the mug. So I'm going to say that that's an actual real mug. Yeah.
01:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, it better be for that price. For $89, it has to be, right? ah But yeah i'm I'm pretty sure that it's ceramic. So, yeah you know, listen, to your point, they really they are really cool all of these are very cool. I love Trader Sam's and I haven't been there in a while.
01:15:16
Speaker
And which makes me really sad because I do love it. And I mean, one of my favorite things I've ever seen at Disney happened at Trader Sam's. And I think I've told this before where we were sitting the one in the poly, Trevor, I, you haven't been to the one in the poly I'm assuming. I have, I've, I've been in there briefly. I, I've not actually been able to sit down have a drink in there because every time I go to think about it, everyone else's, and there's always a line way out the door. Yeah. Yeah. But the the funniest thing I've seen is we were, there's ah there's like a long table in there. that's like It's like a kind of a shared table, you know, and it's has like bar stools, right? And they're yeah they're, you know, bolted to the floor kind of thing.
01:15:54
Speaker
And as we were sitting there, one of the people that was with us, just started sinking slowly. listen And we're like, what's happening? Why? What's happening here? It was just so subtle and funny. And we asked the bartender and he's like, he said something that was like, you know, in character or something. as It like seems like he's, you know, made the Tiki gods angry or something, you know, like, but like just all the fun stuff they do. That bar is just pure fun and silliness and everything you love about, about the jungle cruise.
01:16:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And sorry, I'm just reading this now. or You know, back back to the beginning of the episode where we're talking about, you know, my son coming with us and being an adult. Of course, it's, you know, they're saying here, yeah, Trader Sam's is you can go or it's all ages until 8 p.m. And then after that, it's 21 years of age. I'm like, ah going to have to plan another trip with my son when he's 21 so he can go sit in Trader Sam's. Yeah. You should. i getting this gun And get these mugs. Like, yeah. Those mugs awesome. I mean, I think i feel like I do like i need to and need to make a trip back to Disneyland because ah
01:17:08
Speaker
maybe that's the challenge is seeing seeing what the difference is between the the mugs from Disneyland and Disney World. Because, like, i just... I don't get why they do this. Like, they they have they have the location in both resorts.
01:17:25
Speaker
Why do the mugs not come to both? Right? But but i get they I guess they also open at the same time. Like, this is a commemorative mug for yeah for the Disneyland Trader Sam's.
01:17:36
Speaker
But i don't know. Like, I just, I feel like we're ah we're missing out. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. i i don't even know if they have these at the Trader Sam's at Disney World. I've never seen them advertise it.
01:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. it Yeah, like like I said, it's it's such a weird thing, right? Like, it's like you kind of assume that they should have them, but yeah they just never do.
01:18:02
Speaker
Or I shouldn't say never, but like, like yeah, they they don't advertise them. They don't. Like, I feel like, we like, the because this article we're looking at, it's very specifically, like, to disney pointing at the the Disneyland one. It's like, they do mention the Disney World Trader Sam's in here, but they don't mention anything about the the mugs. No, they don't. Being over there as well. Like, yeah.
01:18:25
Speaker
Silly. It is. It is. i Yeah, I just, I need to, I need to go back there. It's bit too long. So, yeah. um What else we got? Oh, okay. Wait wait a second. Hold on. one Give me sec.
01:18:37
Speaker
Reckless speculation. Reckless speculation. Reckless speculation. Speculation. It's so reckless. It's so much speculation.
01:18:49
Speaker
It's speculation. We may be wrong. We may be right. But it doesn't matter because it's reckless speculation.
01:19:01
Speaker
hate the actual Dapper Dans to do that for us. Right. my God. That would be amazing. Wouldn't be great? They probably can't do that. So back to Hollywood Studios, there is a little area outside of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular that is being cleared that used to be a ah spot for – there used to be like a merchandise kiosk there long time ago.
01:19:26
Speaker
And they they took all the props from there and now they've they're they're they removed all the payment pavement and there's been a a permit filed called Project Fedora.
01:19:38
Speaker
Now. Okay. ah This name. All right. I know. It's it's only 202 square feet. So it's not like it's it's not like there's a huge space, right?
01:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. i have I do have a theory on what this is, though. Well, okay. So, so I guess, okay, the the first thing let's establish, if they're building something called Project Fedora outside of the Indiana Jones stunt spectacular, I, so ah ah not within our circles, but I've heard people talking, um, like on Reddit and stuff, you know, I go when I browse like subreddits and whatnot,
01:20:17
Speaker
yeah And I have occasionally seen people going like, oh, you know, Indiana Jones, you know, they need they need to take that out and put a ride in, right? Well, they are. Just not at this park, but at the other park. Well, no, no. The stunt spectacular has been its own thing from this Oh, no, no, but I'm saying they're putting in an Indiana Jones ride, you know, like that's what. Right, way yeah. But but the the the point here, though, is the fact that they're the fact that they're redoing this section means...
01:20:47
Speaker
this The first thing this tells me is nothing is happening to Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Oh, I don't think it is. Yeah, no. yeah So so i I just want to put that out there for anybody that's going like, oh my gosh, they're doing construction. They're Stunt Spectacular. Is this plan for something else?
01:21:02
Speaker
The fact that it's called Project Fedora, which, you know, they're obviously leaning into, you know, Indiana Jones hat is a fedora. yeah um So, you know, it's very clearly for that. Yep.
01:21:14
Speaker
But yeah, so so whatever this is, this is going to be an enhancement to the surrounding area, which again, you know, Hollywood Studios needs more of this. And yeah do do you think that like, I know that this is probably going to be like obviously another like like gift shop type area. i don't think that's what it's going to Okay. All right. What do you think it's going to be? I was leaning towards gift shop, but because I know that's what it was before.
01:21:41
Speaker
But I'm going Indiana Jones meet and greet. Meet and greet. Yeah. Let's do. Yeah. Let's do a character character. Character greet for Indiana Jones.
01:21:53
Speaker
Hmm. Okay. I can see it, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess because you you have the ah you have the the actors from the stunt spectacular there. I'm sure it'd be very easy to, you know, have somebody do... You don't need to have one of them to do it, though. Just get a face character doing But to be fair, i like I feel like, you know, people after the show do get photos with the... ah with the ah The stuntmen from the show. Yeah, exactly. So I feel like there is warranted amount of attention for the actors in that show. So it's not that you're doing a meet and greet with Indy, but you're doing a meet and greet with the stunt people. With the stunt people, yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah.
01:22:40
Speaker
ah The other thing that are, okay, this is crazy town um speculation. No, but that's what this is for. yeah Yeah. um So so my my head also went to, because I was like, okay, if it's not a merch um thing and it's not.
01:22:58
Speaker
or and It could be. it could be but so of So eliminating, you know you know, let's say it's not merch. Let's say it's not a meet and greet. The other thing that it could be is food. So yeah because there's not an Indiana Jones like food kiosk of any type or or you know themed like that. The interesting thing about that is that it does lend itself towards, you know, it's it's a if if they were to build a a food cart there of some sort or like ah like a food stand they could offer up all kinds of exotic things that you wouldn't normally get in the park. So so then it becomes a ah thing of like, you're getting obviously Indiana Jones theme stuff, for you you know, theme from the different areas that Indy goes to.
01:23:42
Speaker
um the The awful part of my head went to, um do you do you remember in Temple of Doom? did Did you watch Indiana Jones Temple of Doom? I have, yes, yes.
01:23:57
Speaker
Um, did you, do you remember the scene where they were, on that um, not like how they did in the movie, but you know, they like, no, explain, you know, it like oh man, you're going to make me explain it. So, so the, the, the, the monkey's brains was what they he did where they, they, yeah, it it was awful. I'm not going to do that.
01:24:26
Speaker
But if they did like ah like a cup that looks like a like a skull or something and it had, you know, you know a drink inside of it, you know you know, I could see them doing something like that.
01:24:37
Speaker
yeah You know, a very tongue-in-cheek nod to it, which yeah like the the the whole premise of that scene was awful. And it it was meant to be like it it was, you know, it was highlighting something that, you know, happens, unfortunately. but You could it could use a food stand over there, though. You could.
01:24:54
Speaker
Yeah. and And I know that the the hot take is, you know, doing something, doing the one scene from the movie that is like horrifying. Yes, of course. Which, I mean, I feel like there's a way to do it that is not like, like, like, super lately yeah, like like, like, I feel like there's a tongue in cheek way to to.
01:25:15
Speaker
do that but but then like I said there's other things too like I I'm also thinking like you know if if if I was to have a food stand in that area i I'm thinking of the and again I know you you don't have a frame of reference for this is in Disneyland there is Bengal barbecue and Adventureland which they've got like like And I haven't been there a long time, but I remember like it was it's all like meat on skewers. Right. And it's just good. Like it's yeah, it's like like kebabs and all that kind of stuff. And so like, you know, you know, somewhere in Hollywood Studios where it's like, hey, you know, you can get, you know, you know, various kebabs. And it just further adds to like if you so if you really start thinking about it
01:25:59
Speaker
I'm convincing myself now why this would be a food stand, because if if you, if you started thinking about it, you know, there there is the this selection of foods in Hollywood studios is greatly expanding, you know, since, since the opening of galaxy's edge and, um, you know, now with Muppets opening and we talked about, yeah you know, them offering like, you know, interesting food that you can get in these different places.
01:26:27
Speaker
Um, you know, ah having having indie themed food honestly is not a bad idea. Like it's because, because it's just like, it it kind of brings it strangely, it brings it kind of back in line with, um, with, um,
01:26:42
Speaker
I almost said Magic Kingdom, but actually closer to Epcot. like Because I was going to say like, the the interesting thing about Magic Kingdom is, like, in terms of theming, like, you can go from, like, you know, future, you know, Tomorrowland to Adventureland. So, you like, like you can you can traverse, like, you know, between Pecos Bills and yeah Cosmic Rays. Like, the theming is vastly different. Although, you know, food, actual food options are not great. I admit that. But that's where I was thinking, like, you know, but then you look at Epcot.
01:27:13
Speaker
And, you know, Epcot, it's like, you know, you can you can eat anything you want, pretty much. Like, you can find something. Like, there's there's no shortage of options at Epcot.
01:27:24
Speaker
I feel like this is something at Hollywood Studios that if they, you know, that area um by Indiana Jones is missing something.
01:27:36
Speaker
food options, if you really think about it. Because yeah the only the only other thing that's close to there is um Primetime 50s Diner, which if you're if you're going for a sit down, yeah, sure. That makes sense, right? Like, like you you know, you just go and you have to sit down. But if you're just going around the parks and you're wanting to do quick service, I think and think having a food booth right here makes a lot of sense.
01:28:00
Speaker
ah Yeah, I mean, listen, I could see that. i could definitely see it. Thank you listening to my TED Talk. that's that i've As I'm talking about, I've convinced myself that this is going to be a food booth. yeah right Yeah, that's what I think it is. I think an indie mean greet would be cool. I think it would be fun. And also, yeah, totally valid as well. I feel like, you know, either way, the you know, them up upgrading this area would, just is further going to improve the experience of going and seeing the stunt spectacular and whatever else they offer around there. Right. Yeah. um
01:28:34
Speaker
But yeah, i I, I hope, I hope in like a year we're talking about like some crazy, like like like like It'll be like a slush or something that they're offering in like a skull or something like that. I just, it would be, it would be, it would be both horrifying and funny and on the on brand for for that area. Right. Like, i agree. I agree. yeah I think this also single is so signals to me that they are definitely going to continue making Indiana Jones movies. like
01:29:11
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, well, again, yeah you know, as much as like Indiana Jones has had its cycles for sure. And and the interesting thing about it is that you know, the shows themselves are timeless, the the ones that are already out there. And, you know, it's very easy to rewatch them. And, you know, you know the stunt spectacular is just, you know, rehashing stuff from ah um Raiders of the Lost Ark. Right. So, yeah, it's, you know, and that's fine. Like, you know, it there's a reason that people still go and see it. Like it's it's it's still just a good story and, and you know, good stuff to watch.
01:29:50
Speaker
I feel like, you know, if – I feel like if Disney is smart about it, they can bring it forward again, but not in the way that they did with Star Wars.
01:30:04
Speaker
And – and you're i think You're probably going, yeah. Yeah. You're like, and what what do you mean by that? Yeah, what do you mean by that? So, so star wars Star Wars, they turned on the valve.
01:30:19
Speaker
They opened the valve all the way. Like, they they when when Disney got a hold of Star Wars, they were like, let's do everything. Like, like you know you know, it was, you know, the movies, it was the shows, it was the merchandise, it was, you know, the the lands. like It was too much, honestly. like And that's that's been my hang-up with it, is that they opened the fire hose, and it's way too much, and people... They're still... like Obviously, it's still extremely popular, and I understand that, but it has also burned a lot of people out on it as well. like you You can see that.
01:30:57
Speaker
the The thing is is, I feel like they... Indiana Jones is an IP where they can turn on the tap and they can start... flowing stuff out with it again, but they don't have to they don't have to crank the tap all the way open. Like, they they can pace themselves with it. And I don't think that's a bad thing. i think I think if they figured out a good pace for this kind of thing, it increases the longevity of the IP, and it also, you know, it gives people something to look forward to. It keeps it relevant. You know, like you said, they're making a ride in Animal Kingdom for it, which...
01:31:31
Speaker
if they were if they didn't have plans for it, they wouldn't be making a ride. That's true, right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. We could talk about this probably for a whole episode, but it's it to me... It's speculation. The big difference between those two franchises, though, I feel like the world of Star Wars is so much bigger than the world
Indiana Jones vs. Star Wars IP Potential
01:31:50
Speaker
of Indiana Jones. You know, like, you can tell so many different stories but under the Star Wars banner, whereas, like, Indiana Jones, just, you know, it's about one guy, pretty much. yeah like Well, I mean, I guess...
01:32:00
Speaker
So there the interesting thing about that is Indiana Jones kind of – or it it was a starting point for like other – people have spawned off things from it. or or So, like, i guess for me, you know, as as somebody who plays a lot of games, um I immediately go to, like, in the same vein as Indiana Jones, you have IPs like Tomb Raider and Uncharted, which Uncharted is, like, extremely Indiana Jones. Like, i'm I don't know if you've seen any of those games, but they're, like...
01:32:33
Speaker
Like, it's this guy, Nathan Drake, that um yeah he's a modern age Indiana Jones, right? Yeah, they tried to make it they tried to make a movie, but that didn't go so great. Yeah, yeah yeah that the movie didn't do wonderfully. But, ah but again, the the series is amazing. and And the interesting thing about it is, you know, and like you said, yes, that there is the the storytelling power of...
01:32:55
Speaker
um of Star Wars is much more expansive. You're right. You know, you have an entire universe, planets, all those kinds of places you can go towards. But the interesting thing about Inead Jones, and they've tried to do this and, you know, it's, it's had various hits and misses along the way, um is you can do a much more laser focused story.
01:33:18
Speaker
And there is still lots of opportunity for more storytelling in the sense of Like the the the formula at its base is, you know, person is on an adventure, they discover an ancient artifact, the artifact, the and, you know, the bad guys want the artifact to rule the world or something like that, right? Like, and, but it's fun. Like, like it doesn't always have to be, like, huge world building. Like, it can be just, like, a very nicely,
01:33:47
Speaker
self-contained story. like Like, you know, if you look at, like, the Indiana Jones movies, like, you know, going from Last Crusade to ah Temple of Doom to, or sorry, Raiders Lost Ark, Temple Doom, Last Crusade, right? Like, in chronological order.
01:34:01
Speaker
Like, yes, it is, there are certain characters that repeat, but the stories themselves are vastly different. They don't, it doesn't have to keep carrying over a, um,
01:34:14
Speaker
an ensemble of characters. It's like, yes, you know, Indiana Jones is like the main character. They can, they can obviously find ways to reboot it. And, and the nice thing about rebooting it is that,
01:34:26
Speaker
they can They can, you know, tell a whole slew of news stories and there can be overlap. There can be callbacks. There can be all that. Like, there's there's ways to tie the universe together without it being like, oh, you know, it has to be like a huge like opera kind of thing. Right. Like, I feel like. Yeah. yeah I feel like the difference between the two IPs is, you know, yes, Star Wars, Star Wars is space opera. That's what it was. Or, yeah like you know yeah or you know, soap opera sometimes.
01:34:56
Speaker
um But, you know, Indiana Jones has that ability to, if if done right, it can laser focus. It can be a very, um you know, front to back, just here's the story, take it as it is, and it doesn't have to overstay its welcome.
01:35:14
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So so I feel like there's space for both of those things in the the Disney larger. ah the The larger Disney universe, you know, you can have you can have both of those things coexist.
01:35:32
Speaker
I don't I don't disagree with that. is your're youre I don't disagree. Uh, yeah, let's, I, I think I can't wait for this, uh, food, food booth to open. slash character being greet Oh, Hey, if the characters are serving up your food, that's even better. Yeah. Indy's going to serve me. He's going to have a hairnet on and he's going serve me. to say Yeah. what Wait, why, why do they, why did the characters not serve you the food? that would Yeah. shit i Obviously.
01:36:03
Speaker
There's a whole implication of OSHA stuff around that. Well, listen, Chip and Dale gave me ah towels on the ah the island, ah one of the islands when I was on the cruise. So they you know they they were doing doing that kind of stuff. Right. I don't know that you want Chip and Dale handing you your food, though.
01:36:20
Speaker
No, definitely not. I don't know where they've been. Yeah, exactly. They're squirrels. They're chipmunks. They're chipmunks. All right, let's wrap this ups yeah We're Yeah.
01:36:34
Speaker
Well, that was fun. um Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, you know, as usual, for anything we talked about on the show, if you have questions, you want to share your own trip reports or anything like that, you can always find us at welcomehomepodcasts at gmail.com. You can also go through our website, welcomehomepodcast.co, and, you know, you can hit the contact us button to ah to get a hold of us.
01:36:59
Speaker
um We love hearing from you guys and, you know, hearing what you think about the show. um If you ah want to find us on social media, you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on Instagram as Welcome Home Picks.
01:37:12
Speaker
um Also, make sure you check out our group on Facebook, Welcome Home Disney Waitlist. You know, again, for more conversation about... ah stuff from the show and just, ah you know, generally good conversation. People also sharing their own trip reports and doing trip planning and all that kind of stuff. It's, you know, it's a good place to, a good, a good positive Disney place because, ah you know, we we all need that from time to time.
01:37:36
Speaker
Um, so, you know, please come check us out. And if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.walkonpodcast.co and you can check out our different merch there. Um, if there's, uh, if there's something that you would like to see in the store that we don't have, drop us a line and we can, we can, uh,
01:37:53
Speaker
add stuff to the store. I think we have a pretty good selection of stuff in there right now, but we're always open to hearing what you guys would would like to see. So, you know, please, please let us know. And ah if you would like to support us through Patreon, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash welcomehomepod.com and check out our different levels of Patreon support. All our Patreon supporters um get exclusive merch that is only available on Patreon, and you also get access to the Discord server, which is yet another place that we have more of those conversations that I talked about on Facebook. It's just, ah it's more of that. It's more, um you know, us talking about, you know, trips that we're planning, people talking about planning their cruises, figuring out...
01:38:37
Speaker
you know you know, figuring out their own, figuring out their own trips and, you know, you know, with the help of, you know, a good community of people that all are just as passionate about Disney. And sometimes you get a little behind the scenes things or, you know, if if we're working on something for an upcoming episode, we'll, ah you'll sometimes hear about it on, on discord before everyone else hears about it. So if you're interested in that, you know, please, ah please check us out through Patreon.
01:39:03
Speaker
Last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere you can leave us a five-star review, please do so. It just, ah it helps more people get to the podcast, you know, makes us more visible out there. And um if you're listening on iTunes, write us a review and let us know what you think about the show.
01:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, definitely do that. we we need We need more reviews. So give us the review. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, about any podcast app that's out there, you can find us.
01:39:34
Speaker
ah Just not Stitcher because that one doesn't exist anymore. So a big thank you to our sponsor, DVC Rental Store and Keyholder Vacations for sponsoring this episode and sponsoring this show for a very long time now. ah Please check them out like like I am for renting my points out. you know go Go check them out ah to to rent out your points or to rent points if you want to want to give DVC a try, you know, it's a great way to to try it out.
01:39:58
Speaker
ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion, of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon. This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
01:40:22
Speaker
oh
01:40:35
Speaker
Bye.