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Episode 319: D23 Announcements, Big Thunder Preview & Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets
771 Plays4 days ago
On This Episode
The guys give an update on the future state of the show. Tom details a recent trip to the Philadelphia Zoo and a Descendants/Zombies concert with his daughter. Disneyland will discontinue early entry in 2026 and replace it with a free Lightning Lane Pass for resort guests. At D23, Disney revealed that a Walt Disney animatronic will be added to the Carousel of Progress, along with other updates. Disney also announced a Tron: Ares overlay for the TRON attraction, new villain experiences coming to the Disney Destiny, and new concept art for the Napa Rose restaurant. An opening date for ‘Zootopia: Better Zoogether!’ was announced. Disney gave a first look at the new Buzz Lightyear ride vehicles. New concept art has been revealed for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad updates and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. Tokyo DisneySea announced 25th Anniversary dates and details.
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Episode Links
- Carousel of Progress Updates
- TRON Overlay
- Big Thunder Mountain Preview
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all voice unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:26
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 319 of welcome home a Disney parks and vacation club podcast.
Hosts' Weekly Catch-Up
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm Tom here with Trevor. How's it going Trevor? Hey, doing doing all right, Tom. How are you? been a weird week, man. It's been a week. Yes. Yeah. So off the top. all right. Like just to get started here.
00:00:52
Speaker
So I wanted to mention we didn't have a show last week and this is this was actually my fault. um I forgot to mention on the previous episode. So guess two weeks ago now that I was going to be away for the weekend. In fact, I forgot to tell you even ah until like midway.
00:01:06
Speaker
through the week. they choice you fight yeah Yeah, but i we didn't announce it to the podcast listeners that we weren't going to have a regular episode coming out that week. So ah but Trevor did do the that excellent wait list with Chris, which was ah was great. Unfortunately, we didn't get on time for ah for ah Monday, but we did have an episode last week. So it did happen.
00:01:23
Speaker
We just didn't have our regularly scheduled episode. Go ahead, Trevor. What were you say? I was just going to say, it I don't know if you, or I don't feel it was a good episode, but, or sorry. What?
00:01:34
Speaker
It was a great episode from Chris's standpoint. I really loved everything Chris brought to it. I didn't feel like I did a great job, but that's because I, that was actually the first time I've solo hosted an episode.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's, you did great. yeah You
Creative Changes and Audience Reactions
00:01:48
Speaker
did great. And I also, I listen, I, I don't like to do my own horn ever, but for some reason, when I was putting that episode together, I just had this weird moment of inspiration of a new logo for wait list and I made it and I like literally did it in 15 minutes and I'm like obsessed with it now. Like it's like my favorite thing that we I've done in forever.
00:02:06
Speaker
Like, so yeah, I'm like, I want to just do wait lists just so I could use it. Like, know, well, no way I think that's that's a, the know, the tip of the iceberg for. Yeah, I think we need to look at that stuff a little bit more than we have been.
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i I like having fun with the logos. So yeah but let's let's, go you know, let's talk about the elephants in the room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about or the elephant not in the room, I guess. um So listen, we and and a lot of you may know this already, ah because if you do follow us on Facebook or you're in our group or you're in our discord, this has been filtering around for the past week because it's it's been about a week now.
00:02:44
Speaker
um But, you know, it suffice to say, Trevor and I have decided to part ways with Damon. Yeah. ah There are a lot of reasons for this that we're really not going to get into on the show.
00:02:56
Speaker
um we We don't really want to go down to like, you know, this is why exactly why things happen the way they did. If you want any of that we did talk it through in our our Facebook group, you can go check out, you know, Disney waitlist. I'm sorry.
00:03:08
Speaker
what does it sorry Welcome home Disney waitlist. Yeah. Welcome home Disney waitlist. Sorry. We'll hit it again at the end of the show. Yeah. Don't worry. Yeah. So you can, I mean, listen, we, we talked a little bit more about what happened and why it happened the way it did.
00:03:20
Speaker
um You know, so we don't really want to relitigate that suffice to say, I think anybody that's listened to the show for the past couple of years probably has a good understanding of why this occurred. I don't think that it's, it was much of a secret of, you know, of, of how things were going here. And, and, you know, honestly, we don't have any ill will towards Damon. We, you know, hope that Damon moves, you know, it starts doing something that he wants to do, you know, and it starts, it starts enjoying, you know, doing something like this.
00:03:47
Speaker
um You know, he's at a different part point in his life. Right. And, and he maybe wants to talk about different things and that's great. But, ah you know, it's, it's a little bit different than what we're trying to do on this show. And I think, I think, ah yeah, I think ah people have seen that. And I, you know, I, I, I know there's a lot out there about it, but we don't really want to get too deep into it.
00:04:05
Speaker
Like I said, it's, it's out there. And I, but I, I go her. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like exactly that. You know, you know, everyone is entitled to feel how they want to feel about it. We're not here to tell you, you know, how you should or shouldn't feel about it. It's just, you know, it was the decision that we made and, um,
00:04:24
Speaker
So that's as far as it needs to go. Well, and listen, we we know full well that there are some of you listening to this will be like, well, I only listen for Damon. I only like to listen to the show for Damon. That's okay.
00:04:35
Speaker
we're not We don't take offense to that. we We understand. Like, you should make choices to listen to the things you want to listen to. And if you don't want to listen to Trevor and I do this show, that's okay.
Podcast Philosophy and Listener Appreciation
00:04:45
Speaker
Like we're fine with that. Like, and, and we, we really appreciate it. We listen, we appreciate every single person that has ever listened to the show, whether you hate Trevor and I and only love Damon or, you know, you hated Damon and love Trevor. And I, you know, whatever it is, not that we're grouped together, Trevor, they could hate us individually, I guess.
00:04:59
Speaker
Yes. like ah Or like it's individually. Let's hope it's like, um Yeah, I mean, i I assume, yeah, everyone has their favorite hosts on various shows and stuff. Yeah, sure. that's That is totally fine. and And like you said, you know, it's not, um you know, the fact that we're doing the show is just, it's...
00:05:19
Speaker
It's supposed to be a place of fun. And, you know, we we want to keep this, you know, something that that we all enjoy. So, um yeah, that that's I think, you know, as long as as long as we're still having fun with it, that is the biggest thing at the end of the day.
00:05:37
Speaker
I've said this and Trevor, you've said this from the very beginning of doing this, right? We've been doing this a long time now, really long time. I started this as a hobby. Okay. I started as something fun. i wanted to talk about Disney. I wanted to embrace a lot of the skills that I had over the years from, you know, working on television, working on, uh, you know, audio in various forms.
00:05:57
Speaker
And I, I also want to talk about Disney. And I also wanted my wife to stop being annoyed at me for constantly talking to her about Disney stuff. And so I decided to start a podcast and Trevor came along and Damon came along and we did the podcast for a long time. And, but we've always said that, and I've always said that the minute that this stops becoming fun for us, then the show's over because it's not supposed to be a business. It's not supposed to be,
00:06:22
Speaker
about listener counts or you know anything like that. This is to have fun. This is to, you know, I love hanging out with Trevor and doing this. I always have. I mean, I enjoyed doing it with Damon a lot too. i you know I'm not going to say I didn't.
00:06:35
Speaker
um But it's when it becomes not fun for us anymore, then there's no more show. you know And that's, and and i you know, I don't, listener counts, you know, over the years have changed. They they they fluctuate. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down.
00:06:48
Speaker
Doesn't really matter to us. Right. Yeah. And that's exactly it is, you know, you know, the the listeners I feel come from, you know, if if we're enjoying it, I feel like people will enjoy. Yes, exactly.
00:07:01
Speaker
And yeah and again, if and if people I guess I'll relate to my own thing is that, you know, I have various, you know, there's been YouTube channels that I would watch for like years and then I would just be like, yeah, you know, I've gotten enough with that and and I move on.
00:07:16
Speaker
Dude, i to I used to listen to Stuff You Should Know every week. and then i havet And now I haven't listened to it in years. yeah And that's okay. like Listen, your your your life changes everywhere. And I don't want anyone to take this as me saying, we don't appreciate you. We appreciate all of you insanely. like i It blows us away that anyone listens to this, let alone the numbers of people that listen to this.
00:07:38
Speaker
So, like... that please don't think you're not appreciated. You extra, we, we really do. And even if you leave us because you don't want to, you don't want to hear Trevor and I do this anymore. We still appreciate you. You've been, you you guys are amazing.
00:07:50
Speaker
Honestly. You know, we, we saw a lot of that in, um, we did in the group and the whatnot when, or like the group and the discord and everything, when we, when we said that this, thats this yeah that that we made this decision.
00:08:00
Speaker
And, you know, I, I was honestly surprised at the, uh, The support. The support. yeah Yeah. You know, all of you have just, you know, we're glad that you enjoy it is the thing. And, you know, unfortunately, yes, that this particular situation is not, it wasn't great for everybody, but, um you know, that's, that's part of it as well as, you know, it's not always going to work for everybody.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. And listen, this, this was not an easy thing for Trevor and I to determine, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't an easy thing for, you know, to, to to do. It wasn't, you know, not everything kind of went the way we had hoped it was going to go. And that's how these things happen. Sometimes I think when you work with anybody for a long time, there are certain things that happen behind the scenes or even in front of people that, you know, it can, it can build up but over time. and And that's just what happens. And You know, it is what it is.
00:08:54
Speaker
We it was very honestly, I know it doesn't seem like it, but it it's been very difficult for Trevor and I on this. This has been a very difficult ah thing for us to do. So but listen, we don't want to dwell on it. It's we don't want to have a negative thing to start. This is to start the show and have it bleed into the entire show, especially since we've been gone for two weeks. And yeah, insane amount of things happened.
00:09:14
Speaker
And before we even get into the insane amount of announcements that have happened, I got two things I want to talk about before that, Trevor. All right. So yeah let's let's get into your stuff because we have a long, long run down today. Yeah, yeah. I know we do because all the d twenty three stuff is happening and and all that. So listen, we're going to have fun on the show. even if Don't take it as like, oh, we're so happy that Damon's gone. It's not that.
00:09:32
Speaker
We still want to enjoy this show. We still want to have fun with it. And so we are going to have fun with it, even if that was a rough chapter for us.
Philadelphia Zoo Adventures
00:09:39
Speaker
So ah the reason I was gone last weekend, Trevor, is I took a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.
00:09:46
Speaker
Now, a lot of our listeners, I think, live in the Northeast there area. um The Philadelphia Zoo is the I don't know if it's the oldest zoo in the in the United States or the oldest zoo in i oh ever. I'm sure it's one of the oldest seas in the world. Right.
00:10:02
Speaker
Very old zoo. But it's very charming. It's very cool zoo. Very small zoo. Right. You know, it's only like 42 acres or something like that. Pretty small. I think probably the entire Kilimanjaro Safari ride is bigger than that.
00:10:14
Speaker
Right. Wow. right yeah Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. um Anyway, so we got to do like behind the scenes. We did. but The reason why we're doing it is for my sister's birthday. And she wanted to do behind the scenes things with animals. So i got to meet a rhino. I got to pet the rhino and brush the rhino. was pretty cool.
00:10:34
Speaker
ah You know, i've I've seen rhino. We did it behind the scenes at Disney one time with rhinos, too. But I didn't get to, like, you know, give the the rhino a belly rub. Like, that was pretty cool. You gave a rhino a belly rub?
00:10:46
Speaker
Well, you know, belly, like side, you know, like towards the... I assume it was like close to the to the to the fence or whatever. Well, we were actually in the exhibit with the rhino. Ooh.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, but they were bars. They were okay. So they were metal like those, ah you know, those concrete pylons they use like a lot for like to prevent cars from going places. They had those in between us and the Rhino.
00:11:07
Speaker
and So, yeah, but I mean, here we are in the exhibit. Like, so like people that are just checking out the Rhino, they see us doing this, you know which is cool. I mean, don't get me wrong. it was awesome.
00:11:19
Speaker
Um, They also... I didn't get to do this one. My wife did this one. My daughter. They also ah did hippos as well, ah behind the scenes with hippos. That one was more just feeding hippos, like which is cool. Don't get me wrong. you know There was a hippo that just standing there and they threw food in his mouth, but they didn't get to pet it or anything.
00:11:35
Speaker
um Still an interesting interaction. And then the Philly Zoo also has ah these large river otters, which are apparently... There's only like... 10 of them in captivity total, like in the entire world.
00:11:48
Speaker
And they had these three of them there. And so we got to feed them, ah which again, behind a cage, because I don't know, otters are adorable, but you know, they're not the nicest animals. Everyone thinks they're not.
00:11:59
Speaker
Otters are, they're deceptively cute, but yes, they are. They are hunters. Yeah. Yeah, dude, I mean, they I gave a whole fish to this otter and it ate the entire thing in front of me within five seconds.
00:12:13
Speaker
Like, you know, bones and all like it's not. It's that that. Yes, they are are hunters.
Disney's 'Descendants' and 'Zombies' Live Tour
00:12:19
Speaker
You're right. i'm But that was cool, too. i I just wanted to really quickly mention that it was a very cool trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.
00:12:25
Speaker
ah It was it was to really neat to they got it. There's a a lot of really cool old architecture there because there's some buildings that like are original, like hundreds of years old that are still within the in the grounds. and I'm looking at their site and they do say they are the first zoo in America.
00:12:42
Speaker
Okay. I just don't know if they're the first zoo in the world. it's probably not. But like the first zoo, zoo, I guess, but... Yeah. So then last night, Trevor, I did a Disney thing.
00:12:54
Speaker
but you Yes, I did a Disney. Yeah, I want to hear about how this went. Okay. Yeah. So I think i talked about this on the show before, right, that I was doing this. I don't know if I did.
00:13:04
Speaker
I probably did. So my daughter absolutely loves Descendants and also zombies, you know, Disney's Descendants and zombies. There is a tour going steamrolling across the country right now. It's a very short tour, by the way, started in July, ending in September. Very quick, like really fast.
00:13:21
Speaker
ah And it's it's zombies and descendants. And so they have cast members from both and they do both songs from both ah movies, um movie franchises. And, um okay, so yeah I got a lot of notes on this. um Number one, and it makes sense now that I think about it more, but the span of age ages that were at this concert was shocking to me.
00:13:48
Speaker
Right. My daughter, my daughter's seven. Right. And, you know, kind of going ah going towards eight. Right. It seems like the right demographic for like descendants. Yeah. Yeah. Ish. Right. And also, I feel like it goes from like maybe like seven to 12 is like the demographic I would think it is. Right. Yeah. But there were two girls sitting next to us at one point that I'm pretty sure drove themselves there.
00:14:11
Speaker
you know Like by themselves, you know, they have driver's licenses and which I'm fine with. Like, listen, I've said this many times. i am never going to, you know, yuck anybody's yum. OK, like you do what you want to do. Right. I think that's the the whole Disney adult argument. Right. To me, it's like anyone. It's like, why does anyone care if you're not doing it? Then why do you care?
00:14:33
Speaker
Just like let other people do it. You know, like have let people have their fun and do the things they want to do. So I'm not I'm not criticizing that. I was just surprised by it. But then I thought about it. And the first Descendants movie came out like 10 years ago.
00:14:45
Speaker
So these girls that were 17 were my daughter's age when it came out. So I get it now. I like I get it. And I was I was actually going to point that out, too, that, you know, my son was into Descendants back, you know, 10 years ago because it was exactly that. You know, he was in that that range of, you know, you know, it was a Disney movie. It had.
00:15:03
Speaker
you know, kind of like, you know, going as far back as like high school musical. Like there's people that are still like, yeah you know, you know, likes high school musical. I, I was kind of in that weird in between where like i high school musical came out after I was out of high school. So I was like, I was aware of it, but I wasn't like,
00:15:22
Speaker
you know, oh, this was the greatest was like, yeah you know, it had some fun music and and whatever. But yeah yeah, for Descendants, I get that. I get why, um you know, you will make sense you will have people that, you know, just resonate with it. And they're like, hey, this is great. I want to see a concert of it. And You know, yeah, this it spans. It spans many age groups now. And I guess I mean, that's probably why they keep making them right because they keep making new fans and engaging the current ones. And I mean, listen, I also saw plenty of adults rocking out to these.
00:15:52
Speaker
I will say there was there were a lot of costumes, lot of costumes going on. and Tons of people with costumes. Okay, I was going to say costumes as in on the stage or like people show up people showing up in costumes. Wow.
00:16:04
Speaker
Like that's yeah, that that is really done up, man. Like a lot that is some some fan dedication. I do also want to shout out, and I forget what listener it was now. let me I got to pull this up really quick so I give credit where credit is due because ah one of the listeners had gone and warned me that i needed bring it. This was on the Discord. It was Ashley. It was Ashley. Okay, so thank you to Ashley.
00:16:30
Speaker
She said, have a great time. Be prepared for screaming girls when that new guy from Zombies 4 comes on stage. And I was like, look, man, I've been going to concerts my whole life. I've been going to, you know, sporting events. I've been, in you know, 80,000 person filled stadiums, like whatever this, this is not going to bother me when I tell you, Trevor, that this was the loudest I have ever heard human beings make a sound.
00:16:55
Speaker
i insane like it was ah so loud i mean i could not believe it like i was shocked by and sustained through the entire show right like never stopped every time one of those yeah you know one of those good-looking guys comes on the stage just they all lost their minds like i mean you've seen seeing red right Yeah. Yeah. No, listen, it's that it's that I mean, it's Jonas Brothers level. I mean, it's that it's that's where we're at with this. Right.
00:17:28
Speaker
And I listen, I get it. I mean, it's fine. But I was like, I I honestly discounted what Ashley said and I should not have. I, you know, kind of wish I hit your books because I was like, man, this is because it's not just like cheering. It's like screaming, you know, it's so it's like screeching at a different level.
00:17:48
Speaker
um So, listen, I appreciate the enthusiasm, right? there was ah There was a fairly solid dad contingent there. ah You know, it wasn't, there were weren't a ton of dads, you know, it was it was more more than moms. But there were a lot lot of families there.
00:18:02
Speaker
i will say this, ah you know, even the most ah grizzled, miserable looking dad that was there, you know, that really didn't want to be there, but was there. was still, you know, bopping along to the music, right? Because it's hard not, like, I will say this about Descendants and Zombies.
00:18:19
Speaker
i It's not for me. However, those songs are catchy, man. They really are. They're really good songs, and they're very catchy. They're very well done. It's hard not to sing along, especially when me, because I've heard them a million times, know every single word. Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah, that that's exactly it it Like I was the same way with my son when he was younger, when he had certain shows that were on repeat in the house is it's like yeah music from those shows was like, oh, I know these songs front to back, not yeah because they're on my playlist, but they're playing in my house all the time. Constantly.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So listen, I was, I mean, listen, I was, I had no problem being into it and listen. Okay. It's, it's a Disney production. Okay. So it, the, the production quality extraordinary, right?
00:19:03
Speaker
They did an incredible effects. They had these kids all over the stage. They had a separate stage with a platform in the middle that like went up and down, like, you know, and very like Maleficent, you know, from phantasmic, uh, ask, uh,
00:19:16
Speaker
ah You know, there's lasers going on. There's smoke. There's, you know, it was I mean, there's projection mapping they're doing on the stage. I mean, it's considering that's a it's like a moving around show. That's pretty impressive but because like, yeah, I think about like the Disney shows that you see like in the parks or on the cruises, but those are like set up in a theater that's built.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's already got all that stuff together. Yeah. Well, and the more impressive part to me, Trevor, if you look at their schedule, they're literally doing a ah show like every day or every other day. Like there's only two weeks left in this tour and they've got like another 12 shows like so across the country.
00:19:55
Speaker
Like, you know, it's probably crazy is that they probably have like they probably have two sets equipment. That's what I was telling you to Karen. Yeah. and And they're literally like as they're performing one, they're setting up for the next one. And then they take down and move and set up like, yeah, that that's, ah that's exactly what I was saying to my wife last night. Cause she hates when I get into logistic logistics and stuff, but I i find it fascinating because I'm like, there is no way. First of all, it's a three hour show.
00:20:22
Speaker
It's three hours inclusive of 20 minute ah intermission. Right. So it started at seven and ended at 10. We bailed at 930 because we had an hour and a half drive home. It wasn't local to us. We had to drive to we had to drive somewhere to go.
00:20:35
Speaker
and you know it it was my And we were losing my daughter, too. she was She was falling fast at 930, right? so we But we bailed out at 930, Trevor, and I saw the tractor trailers lining up, right? So like there was, I think, eight tractor trailers that we counted.
00:20:51
Speaker
for the stage and everything. And i you know, I said the same thing to my wife. I was like, they have to have an advanced team that goes and set this up. but There's no way that they don't have two sets of stages because they cannot break all this stuff down in one night, get it in a truck, drive the required distance and have it set up the next night for the show.
00:21:10
Speaker
Zero chance that that's possible. Like, you know, i just, it's just not possible. There's not enough time unless they have an army of people doing which they might, or I don't know, but Or you, again, we don't know how like those sets may be designed that they can, you know, get break down real fast.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. Like 20 minutes down, 20 minutes up kind of thing. which I mean, they even have like, they have like a whole lot of stuff hanging from the ceiling though, too. Like they had a, I mean, it was, it was, it was, dude, it was really well done. I mean, i'm not going to say anything bad about that. Cause they, it was really, really well done.
00:21:39
Speaker
It was very impressive. Technically. i will say this awful lot of lip syncing. um But well, listen, you don't go to that show for the singing. It's fine. Right. The day they you could really. So there were times they sang and times that they didn't.
00:21:54
Speaker
And you could tell. Right. Yeah. Because i was laughing at one point because they have like the little, you know, they have little microphones that are on their head that, you know, just are around to their mouth so they can like talk to the crowd and everything. And then they use those for like any of the numbers that where they're like dancing really hard and stuff.
00:22:09
Speaker
Those are the ones that are lip syncing. Then then they'll they'll every once a while, they're holding a stick mic. And I'm like, now they're singing like, because why would you need two mics? but You already have the mic on your face still.
00:22:20
Speaker
Why do you need the extra stick mic all of a sudden? Like, OK, to be fair in the shows, you know, they're not singing live either. it Listen, it's fun. i Those dance numbers are intense. They're intense. They are. Yeah. Like, listen, the dancing is extraordinarily impressive. It is.
00:22:36
Speaker
Um, I can't, I can't say anything bad. I'm not complaining. Listen, you don't go to a show like that expecting to, to go for the art of the singing piece. You're going for the, the spectacle in the show and all that, right? Like it's not about the singing, right?
00:22:50
Speaker
Um, and all of them I'm sure are capable singers, right? Right. mean, the only other thing I will say about the show, um, besides the absurd amount of money that I spent on t-shirts and candy and popcorn is, uh, is that, uh, the thing that bothered me, it was three hours long, right? And you're thinking my daughter's age group, none of them are lasting three hours, not going to happen.
00:23:15
Speaker
And listen, I appreciate the fact that it's like they're giving me more for my ticket, right? They're giving me a longer show, but there was a lot of filler going on. Okay. Oh, really? Yeah. Like they were, it's very clear that they're trying to promote two of the the female artists.
00:23:32
Speaker
They're trying to promote their solo albums because they actually broke away for like two different segments of them just doing singles from their albums. Yeah. And I was like, with my daughter doesn't know these. Like, i we're here to listen to Descendants and zombie songs. not Yeah, but that's how, like, you know.
00:23:51
Speaker
get it. And i'm I'm dating myself by, you know, quoting Hannah Montana. Because, yes you know, that was a long time ago. But, you know, that was the same. Like, Hannah Montana, you know, was focused around Miley Cyrus.
00:24:03
Speaker
And, you know, there was the Hannah Montana stuff, but then she also had like, you know, her own singing that she was doing. Right. So it's the same kind of thing where they I'm sure it's, the you know, Disney had a plan for, you know, these and singers are going to be the next singer.
00:24:21
Speaker
And actually thinking back to it too, like even when, you know, I think it was like the first and second descendants movies, like there was a, who was it? It was Sophia Carpenter. I think it was. I don't know.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, there's dove. Dove Cameron was that Cameron. Yeah. character Yeah. Yeah. but But it was the same kind of thing with them. It's like they had their own careers outside of the show. And it was very clearly like... Yeah. You could see where they were like putting them forward at various points.
00:24:49
Speaker
Right? I'll say this, though. the It was a Kylie Cantrell and Freya Skye. Those the two girls. Neither one of them are Miley Cyrus or Olivia Rodrigo, who also came out of that kind of world, too. And she's gigantic.
00:25:05
Speaker
I mean, it's... yeah It's hard to break out of that. It is. It's hard to go and be like, I'm going to not be the Disney kid anymore and go and and do this, you know, on my own thing. That's hard to do. um And, you know, I don't know. Maybe maybe they're good or not. I don't know.
00:25:18
Speaker
But I just that kind of bothered me because I was like, come on, I'm not here. We're not here to watch your single. We're here to watch the the Descendants songs, you know? Yeah. But there is also there's that whole. probably how they got them to do it honestly yeah it's it's a whole competition thing there there's there's a lot of there's a lot of competitiveness between you know upcoming singers and all that kind of stuff so yeah it's it's it's fine it's fine i just my i i noticed my my daughter's eyes rolling into the back of her head as we those parts were happening that's all i'm saying and i'm not here for this i'm here for these songs that's exactly right like you we were losing engagement quickly like you know um
00:25:58
Speaker
So, yeah. So anyway, you know, listen, overall, it was a great experience. I will say the getting into the show was horrible, but that's not Disney's fault. That's the venue's fault. um ah You know, just the parking situation, the traffic situation, the just getting in situation, like getting through the doors was a nightmare.
00:26:16
Speaker
um But outside of that, it was fun. You know, we had a good time. My daughter really enjoyed it. She was sad that there weren't more people from the movies there. and But obviously, the more famous people are, you know, these are some of the newer ones and and not as famous as some of the others, right? So, yeah of course. Yeah, it's it's that weird, like...
00:26:35
Speaker
changing of the guard kind of thing that they're going through right now. Right. Yeah. All right. So that's enough of that. Unless you have any other questions about, no, I, I'm good on descendants. I just want to tell anybody, if you do plan to go to this, if you were at one of the dates after the date, I just went to, ah please heed the advice of Ashley and myself and put in some earplugs.
00:26:56
Speaker
Like just, yeah, there was, the screams are, are insane. This is the first time Trevor, I've ever done like a Like a show that's more targeted towards the tween audience like this. You know what i mean? So like it, it probably took me by surprise because of that. But I'm sure if I take my daughter to subsequent concerts for other things, it will be a similar experience.
00:27:17
Speaker
And I remember you telling me, sorry, you you all are going to get a little bit behind the scenes because Tom and I do. you know, have conversations is that, that, yeah. um I know you said like, you've been to a lot of concerts, but the type of music that you were going to was like, this yeah like bands and stuff where it's, yeah, it's a very different like vibe. I'm not going to like a Lady Gaga show or. Yeah. exactly Yeah. Or Britney Spears or anything like that. Yeah. That's, I mean, I would, don't get me wrong. i would go to those. I'm sure they I've, you know, they put on incredible shows. I would go to that.
00:27:48
Speaker
Uh, if it didn't cost a bajillion dollars to do so, like, I'm not going to go out of my way to do it, but I believe her problem is it's, it's not a, it's not a cheap hobby to, uh, to go to concerts all the time.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah. Listen, I, I'm going to sound like an old man, you know, yelling at a cloud with my, you know, with my fist raised in the air. But when I was a kid, you know, I could go to concerts all the time for like 20, 30 bucks. You know, there was the, it was, that's the way things were. Now you're, you can't get out for under a hundred if you try, you know?
00:28:14
Speaker
So anyway, Anyway. Right. So let's actually get to the Disney stuff. up Well, technically Descendants is Disney, right?
Disneyland Policy Changes and Speculations
00:28:22
Speaker
That's it. It is. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that, yeah, that was still, that was still, yeah um or so it, it was Disney, but not Disney parks or DC. So, but it's still adjacent.
00:28:33
Speaker
The very first thing you have on here, we're, we're going to go a little out of order this week. We're starting in Disneyland. We are um because I think this is DVC news. Yeah. Yeah. yeah This, this is valid.
00:28:43
Speaker
I think. Yeah, this is this is interesting news, and I have thoughts about this, Trevor. All right. So, okay, the headline is Disneyland is to discontinue early entry. So, you know, staying at a Disney hotel, you don't you won't get early entry anymore.
00:28:58
Speaker
But instead, they're adding a free lightning lane for hotel guests. Yeah. So, okay, let's – so – oh where where does Okay, let's start with the actual early entry part of this. So what's your take on this, Tom? My take on this is, and and the article actually says this, that it's not that... um and And by the way, this this applies to DVC Resorts too, right? So that's important. Yes. But according to Scott Gustin, who is just about the best theme park source that exists, right? And like...
00:29:29
Speaker
said that the change is is due to light guest use of the early entry perk. Early entry it will remain in place until January 4th. But this is you know just the 30-minute early entry thing that they have.
00:29:42
Speaker
I actually think this makes a lot of sense. That Disney was like, nobody's using this. So instead of continuing to do this... why don't we just split the difference and say, we'll throw you a free lightning lane pass as your benefit instead of early entry. Cause you probably were only going to get one ride in during a half hour anyway.
00:30:00
Speaker
Right. So I mean, maybe, maybe a couple, I can make it work more. I mean, trip listen, I did write, we did ride barnstormer nine times during early entry at Disney world. Right. Sure. Exactly.
00:30:10
Speaker
But you know, that's, that was, that was barnstormer. Like if we had tried to go to like seven dwarves, we're getting one ride. Right. yeah Like, So I think that this is a test for this to happen at Disney World as well.
00:30:24
Speaker
Because that is fair. Yeah, I think this is if this works out well, I fully expect this to happen at Disney World as well. Then this is ah based on nothing other than just a guess.
00:30:36
Speaker
And i liz I know that Disneyland and Disney World operate very differently. They have very different clientele. However, i think that this is it just feels like it would make sense to me.
00:30:47
Speaker
as a perk. you know you can i think people would be attracted to that if you start saying, yeah, we'll give you one free lightning lane per day of your visit if you stay at a Disney on you know on property with Disney. Yeah, I'll take that.
00:30:59
Speaker
Because a lot of days that I wouldn't buy... you know i mean maybe there Maybe there's some parks that I only want one... one lightning lightning lane for anyway right like you know and i but i gotta buy the whole thing for that one now i don't have to do that i can just get the one free for staying at the deluxe resort i i i think that that would be a ah pretty fair you know value proposition so i i don't know it's i'll be interested to see but i and and also interested to see what people think of this but let me hear your thoughts because you're the disneyland guy and i sure yeah so so the the thing uh okay i'm Yeah. The thing about Disneyland is that it is a much smaller park. It doesn't, you know the scale of it is not anywhere near what Disney World is.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah. um The fact that, you know, they were saying people weren't making use of this, this perk that. So I'm thinking back to, you know, when I was younger, we did make use of early entry. Like anytime we went to Disneyland, you know, when I was traveling with my parents and when my wife and I were were going, you know, just the two of us, and even when our son was was born.
00:32:02
Speaker
We were using early entry, but early entry was different back then. yeah it It gave you, ah you know, it was an hour or I think it was always it was always an hour. Yeah, I mean, because even at Disney World, when they had extra magic hours, they would do it. I mean, sometimes it was a couple hours. Sometimes it was, you know, it it could have been a lot longer than that half hour. Yeah. So, so the thing is, is that, you know, thinking about it from, you know, how it was is that, you know, they used to give more time, but then, you know, you know, looking at it from the, the logistical side of it means that you have to have that many more people on.
00:32:33
Speaker
Also, um, I will admit, you know, every time we did early entry, um, you know, we, we'd always get excited and be like, oh you know, we're going over here first or whatever. And then, um, you know, early entry, a lot of times would be like, well, tomorrow land is open.
00:32:46
Speaker
Like it, like they, they would never open like the full park for early entry. So you were never getting like to do exactly what you wanted. Like it was always like, Oh, you know, I can knock out a bunch of stuff. Like, you know, ah the obvious stuff like space mountain and stuff. It was, you know, that's what how we would always capitalize on early entry.
00:33:04
Speaker
But, um, the thing about that was that, um But in Disneyland, it was a lot easier to do because of the time zone change that you know for us getting up that extra hour early was – we were already up early as it was anyway because we yeah we were you know an hour ahead. So it it was it seemed like an obvious thing as long as they were giving us enough time to really make use of it.
00:33:29
Speaker
But then like I said, it's not – it's not um It honestly wasn't as effective as we thought it was because, you know, we got a lot of stuff done in that morning, but then we were still leaving and, you know, you know, avoiding like we we were doing it just so that we could avoid stuff later in the day. Right.
00:33:50
Speaker
yeah Really, really. Disney doesn't like they don't want you. Doing that but because because I guess, you know, i sorry, i'm I'm playing a little bit devil's advocate here is the the the way that I'm sure Disney is looking at it is, you know, opening the park early means, you know, you're paying somebody to run those rides. But then, you know, people aren't shopping. People aren't buying popcorn. People aren't like there's a lot of things you aren't doing during early entry sure that people could be doing if they come back later in the day.
00:34:18
Speaker
When I flip over to Disney World. um early entry was always the least attractive thing about it because but yeah again because of the time change it's different for you because of the time change though for yeah like like i don't want to get up at four o'clock in the morning and or where you know my head says it's four o'clock in the morning but it's actually you know six o'clock so that i can i can get there an hour earlier for me i'm already awake because my daughter waits up at six o'clock on the dot every day no matter what happens so yeah So, so, so, you know, so the fact that they, they looked at said, you know, instead of trading it off and, or or instead of saying, you know Hey, you can, you can get in a half hour early. It was basically, like you said, you know, the lightning lane is you, ah if you use it, yeah or I mean, I shouldn't say correctly, there is no correct way to use a lightning lane. It's to use it for whatever you want to use use it for. But you know, if that, if that saves you a half hour in line,
00:35:09
Speaker
that's the same thing, right? Like, it yeah but then, but then Disney gets to, you know, keep operating normally without, you know, disrupting other things for the sake of, I shouldn't say a handful of people, but, you know, a smaller amount of people that are there for early entry.
00:35:25
Speaker
um You know, because of the fact that it was only 30 minutes, I'm not too hurt about this because it's like, hey yeah, you know, at least they didn't just take it away with no replacement, you know? you know the The fact that they're offering lightning lanes is, like you said, you know, that's that to me, you know, changes the way that I'm planning my day where, um you know, I'm not...
00:35:45
Speaker
I'm not as beholden to rope drop. And I, and I think, you know, at Disneyland, you know, rope drop was deaf. Like I, I remember in the nineties, you know, people sprinting to splash mountain at rope drop because, you know, and we didn't understand walking at that point, but, um but, you know, it's, I, I feel like it's gotten to a point where, you know, maybe Disney's trying to get away from like,
00:36:11
Speaker
they're trying to highlight, you know, people should be there during the day, not like looking for the fringe, yeah yeah those those fringe scenarios. um So, yeah, I mean, it like it's, it sucks because it's something that I feel like, um you know, it early entry did feel like a perk, but I'll admit, you know, for the last couple of years, the perk hasn't been great. So, you know, and maybe this will, you know, you know, maybe it's something too that, you know, if people give the right feedback on it,
00:36:40
Speaker
that maybe it could potentially grow into more than one lightning lane. You know, you can say like, Hey, you know, yeah give me two or give me three. And, you know, that kind of gets us back to, you know, old fast pass days. You know, if you're staying on, on, on property, it's like, Hey, I get three fast passes a day. And then, you know, outside of that, I can, you know, get, I can get a multi-pass if I want to, to, you know, having those three a day seems like pretty good value. Right. Yeah.
00:37:06
Speaker
i Yeah, and I guess I just look at this change as like, it's having the same effect just without you having to wake up early, right? It's like, yeah you don't have to wake up early, but you still get that one ride in or, you know, it's not, you know maybe not as many as you would have gotten, but it's still, you get one ride in and you don't have to wait as long.
00:37:24
Speaker
I do wonder, i don't think... I don't think Disney's ever going to do the thing that universal does where you get it for free as part of a resort stay. That just, I don't know if it would, I think there's just too many hotels on Disney property to make that work properly. It's hard. And even at that, I, I was actually looking at hotels and so like, um, even, or I didn't see it for Helios, but or I, it looks like they don't offer express passes for staying at Helios for Epic universe.
00:37:54
Speaker
Really? Okay. It's not included with the hotel stay, but again, you know, Epic universe is still relatively new, but you know, to your point, you know, just because there was a precedent for it before, it doesn't mean that companies are going to continue to do this stuff either. Like, like, yeah.
00:38:09
Speaker
If I had to make a bet, I would say that universal starts moving away from that. Honestly. As they build more results, resorts, and as they get more attendance from things like Epic Universe, I i think they'll have to move away from it operationally. they It's going to be difficult for them to maintain that because you get to a certain point where if everybody has Express Pass, then nobody has Express Pass because then it just becomes the standby line.
00:38:30
Speaker
Right? Exactly. So yeah that's why Disney controls it the way they do. So, yeah, listen, I don't think that this is negative necessarily. i will be interested to see what what if this you know expands to Disney World. I think I think it means, you know, the next time I'm there, I can, you know, set my alarm for 10 o'clock and roll in and wander in and get in, ah get on a Haunted Mansion at 1130 and, you know. Yeah.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah. And then go have lunch. Yeah. That's the way to do it, man. ah So we also though have D23 going on, which. Yeah. I'm not going to lie. it was It's been a crazy week and I kind of forgot. Yeah. The CT 23 is going on. I actually, I, yeah, I totally blank that it was this weekend as well. And then I started seeing all the news coming out. I was like, Oh no, now I have to like extend the show even more.
00:39:18
Speaker
I, I am super pumped for this first piece of information here. Okay. Let's, let's preface this by saying, I think there's two things on this list that I feel are like the big things and the rest are kind of like nice to have.
00:39:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, ah For the longest time now, and I've talked about this before on the show, I love Carousel of Progress.
Disney Attraction Updates
00:39:41
Speaker
yeah i Carousel of Progress is something I've talked about. My mom went on the Carousel of Progress at the World's Fair in 1964. Whatever World's Fair was. I don't remember the top my head She actually went on it at the World's Fair.
00:39:57
Speaker
And so for me, it's got a weird like it's not a nostalgic thing for me, but my mom, it always was. And so she would always make a point to take us on the carousel of progress. And I probably didn't appreciate it until I was an adult, you know, but although my daughter likes it.
00:40:12
Speaker
um But, you know, she's a little bit of a, you know, cooler person than I am. Yeah. But the idea that they're going to make some investment in updating it, which update it, which has been rumored for a long time now, right? Like this has been rumored for a very long time.
00:40:29
Speaker
ah It actually feels like they are replacing some stuff. So, but I can't tell that completely. Right. So, the I mean, the first thing we're seeing here is that it looks like now Walt Disney is going to introduce the show in animatronic form.
00:40:40
Speaker
Right. Yeah. so So there's like a pre-scene now. or So they're adding to the show with, the you know, the pre-scene. But then yeah the the rest of the show is not going to fundamentally change. Like this is not.
00:40:51
Speaker
I guess the way. I don't know about that because they kind of say that there's going to be more announcements about this. Okay, well, it says I guess I'm going from a place of, you know, I'm not looking at this as the ride is going to change the same way that Splash Mountain changed to Tiana's by Avenger. It's still going to be Carousel of Progress. Yes. It's just...
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah. i do So I do wonder if this Walt Disney piece is going in that very first room where right now they just have like the medallion on the wall and the the curtain. and then ah And I don't know if there's anything behind that curtain. I don't know if it's it has enough space to do this. It kind of looks like it's that curtain from the concept art here, right? It looks like it's that opening curtain.
00:41:35
Speaker
And so this is what we're getting is a Walt Disney, uh, animatronic that is going to, uh, you know, introduce the, the ride, uh, you know, in, in Walt Disney's voice. which is awesome because if you know, if you know anything about the carousel of progress, Walt Disney designed this, like it was his idea, right? Like literally his idea.
00:41:54
Speaker
But what they said here, Trevor, is there are still plenty of additional details to be revealed, including what John, Sarah and the rest of the family are up to. Disney Imagineers love this attraction and the heart of it will stay the same while introducing the carousel of progress to an entirely new generation of fans, showing them that a great, big, beautiful tomorrow is just a dream way.
00:42:10
Speaker
To me, that says they're going to update stuff. Uh, like that's, and the last scene, I think we can all say needs an update, right? It's the last scene is stuck in the nineties.
00:42:22
Speaker
It's stuck in the nineties. And, you know, maybe they need to move the decades up a little bit. Like maybe the starting point needs to move up. Now, i listen, I don't want anything to go. Cause I, do, I do love the classicness of it, but you know, at some point you're going to end up with a really big jump from the last scene to like the, you know, but from the last scene to the one before it, you know?
00:42:40
Speaker
I mean, You know, funny enough, the technically you can say it was a big jump, but like they literally do span decades they do between the scenes anyway. So it's just that the decades that were picked to represent are, they were just arbitrarily decided on as, you know, the points that they're jumping in.
00:42:58
Speaker
So, so yeah, there there is, there is no rule saying that, you know, they have to keep, you know, stuff from know, the mid mid century or whatever. Like it's,
00:43:09
Speaker
They do have free reign to update it however they see fit. You're right, though, is that i hope I hope that they keep the original charm of it. agree. I hope that they... i hope that the they the, the future scene, it should be.
00:43:27
Speaker
and I don't know, uh, this is always the thing I struggle with, with, you know, you know, it should be an updated, like future, like, you know, presenting like the futuristic part of it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. yeah It should be updated, but it's also like, I hope that they don't, or I hope that they don't like try to use it as another, like,
00:43:45
Speaker
show like an interventions kind of thing, right? where yeah Oh, you know, here's like the current, like, you know, amazing thing, but it's like, yeah, but in five years, that's, that's all irrelevant. Yeah. Or even two years, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:56
Speaker
I, I like that we're getting, uh, we're getting, Mr. Rogers, uh, Walt Disney here with the, with sweater. Yeah. ah Yeah, the the the vibe is very, um reminds me of the the old like Disneyland Presents yeah things that he did. are like Or even when he yeah when he was talking about Epcot, that's actually what the scene is, is like when he was like... Yeah, which I love. Previewing Epcot, right? so Yeah, I love all of this. i Even if it's going to mean some updates. to show i I would love to see like the more the most updated ah animatronics going on in this ride. i mean, there's they could there's so much they could do to this ride. And I truly believe, Trevor, they are going to do the right thing here and not go... and not I believe that they love this ride and they understand that this ride is a symbol of of disney you know Walt Disney, but also Walt Disney World. And and they're going to be careful about it. So I believe that. I think they will.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah. So let's wait and see what comes of that. um So I would like to do an ad now and then we're going to talk about the rest. or what do we So actually, before we do the ad, can we just I want to touch on the Tron overlay. Yes, I was going to ask you about this, Trevor.
00:45:06
Speaker
Yeah. OK, so so so Tron is getting its first overlay ever. which is, is exciting. Um, so Tron Aries is, is the movie that's going to be coming out here and they're doing a, uh, they're doing a Tron Aries version of, uh, of light cycle run, which, uh, has music from nine inch nails.
00:45:30
Speaker
So the fact that they went with nine inch nails for this was a little surprising to me. But also, I like the fact that the canopy is getting that bright red. Like, that's... Well, this is a funny overlay to me, Trevor, because, like, really all they have to do is, like, flip a switch. And it's like, now it's red, you know? like Yeah. Which is fine. Like, i don't care. Like, it's it cool, but...
00:45:50
Speaker
I have to wonder though, like, you know obviously it sounds like they're going to do the music as well. So, so like Tron, like the music is part of, Tron light cycle run. So obviously you're going to get different music.
00:46:02
Speaker
I have to wonder if there might be like, there is opportunities for them to change like the queue and, and stuff because, because of how it's phrased or how the queue is framed, there is different like teams and stuff in there. And it's very easy to add in something from Ares into there, I feel. yeah,
00:46:20
Speaker
Um, but yeah, you know, just the fact that they're like, you know, doing something, doing, yeah. Yeah. Do it. Like I honestly, did, I never expected Tron to get an overlay even when, you new movies come out. But the fact that they're trying to, you know, do that is, you know, it's, it's not that it's always going to be amazing, but it's better than nothing.
00:46:38
Speaker
No, I listen. I, I actually have a more important question for you, Trevor. Sure. Is will the new Tron movie be the thing that gets you back to the movie theater? You know, I've always liked Tron. and i've yeah i thought I thought you were more than a Tron fan. I thought you were a huge ah Tron fan.
00:46:55
Speaker
I mean, i I always have been a Tron fan. Like, I played the games and watched movies and all that kind of stuff. um it's It really depends on the timing, honestly.
00:47:06
Speaker
Like, that there's...
00:47:10
Speaker
the best way i can explain it is um if if the release of this movie doesn't come on a weekend where there's nothing else going on for me you can go and you don't have to go opening weekend mean you know but but but it's this thing where it's like if if it goes far enough where i get distracted by other things i just forget and then i'm like that's fair Like, I'm just like, I don't have time for this. Like, I don't. or And it's not it's not that i don't have time for this, but also like I'll look at and go, well, I might, you know, if if it's been out in theaters for a couple of weeks, it's like it'll be out on Disney Plus at some point. I'll watch it then.
00:47:50
Speaker
Right. Like it's, I get it. And I know that's honestly not always the best way to look at this kind of stuff, but yeah, you know, Tron as a, as an IP, I've always, you know, you know me, I'm a big gamer and yeah it just, it really resonates to me for all of that. See, that's why i figured that would get you out to the theater. Cause I thought you were like, you know, you really liked Tron a lot. So yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i'll I'll probably convince my wife to go and and try and watch Tron. But like I said, it it depends on it depends on the timing of it. Honestly, it but depends on like like if if we don't have you know, if if we have a couple of days where there's nothing going on, I'll try and find time to go to a movie theater. But, um, and actually that, you know, to be fair, you know, my, you know, a lot of the reasons that we didn't do that was because of my son and you know, him, like, you know, we always had stuff going on with you to this girl, right? You could probably, yeah but, but it's, but it's also of, we're kind of hitting a point where, you know, he's, he's in high school now and he's kind of off doing his own thing. And,
00:48:46
Speaker
yeah Yeah. And actually a good example is, you know, last night my wife and I actually sat down and watched a movie together because our son was out with his friends and I've not sat down and watched movies in a while because, you know, we, there was, we're always doing stuff as a family, but now he's kind of doing his own thing. So my wife and I are starting to find things to do together again.
00:49:06
Speaker
So makes sense. Um, yeah So I don't want to say I won't watch this in theaters, but I'm also not going to commit to it either. because Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I don't want to say, yeah, for sure. I'll go like, I mean, I do like Tron. I will watch this. I just don't know in what format. that's Yeah. Okay. That's fair.
00:49:25
Speaker
That's fair. Why don't we do our ad? And then we got a bad we got a couple other D23 things. And then, and listen, there's not a ton of ah you know things from D23, but there are also other announcements that came out too.
00:49:35
Speaker
And some of these we will blow through. Some of them will will not. But we will see. yeah This week, our sponsor is DVC Rental Store. DVC Rental Store is a world of DVC company that offers magical vacations at incredible value.
00:49:48
Speaker
Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% of the time of booking and built-in cancellation policy for every reservation.
00:49:59
Speaker
As always, Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their coins. Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVCRENT. That's 382-7368.
00:50:11
Speaker
When you speak to them, be sure to let them know the Welcome Home sent you. All right. ah So this also, you know, there's also a lot of villains talk going on over at a d twenty three which, you know, because we have the villains theme land that's happening, even though we really haven't heard much about it.
Interactive Experiences and Events
00:50:28
Speaker
um But Disney seems to be in a villains kick lately, you know, for one reason or another, more than usual. ah But one of the things they revealed here is, you know, they were talking, we were talking about the Disney destiny and there's going to be a lot of villains going on in the destiny.
00:50:42
Speaker
um But they did announce a meet and play character encounter with Dr. Facilier. Which looks like he's doing like card tricks in this concept art, which I listened to, would be cool to do, but it seems like you can only do it for like four people at a time. But that's, you know, that's still a really cool way to do.
00:51:03
Speaker
i agree. Character meet because it's, because I assume you're, you know, you're going to have like a magician or somebody there doing like doing this. Yeah. Doing magic tricks. Right. Yeah. And, and I feel like that's far more interesting than just like a typical,
00:51:19
Speaker
you know, you know, like, hi, you know, wave, get a picture kind of thing, right? Like, that this... Yeah, I agree. It's an interaction. Yeah, it's like a... It's almost like, remember the Talking Mickey head where they used to, it used to like, you know, the Talking Mickey used to say your name, and, like, it was... That was, like, a different level of character being You know, like that was it was it was a whole different kind of thing. This is the same kind of thing.
00:51:40
Speaker
It also mentions this charming illusion is illusionist maybe lurking around the upper levels of the Grand Hall or in his own makeshift parlor inviting guests for a card trick or sleight of hand. so yeah, they're going to have a magician doing this, obviously.
00:51:52
Speaker
See, see, I love that. I love it too. I do. I love that because I've had i all of my all the experiences that I've had at Disney that like really stuck with me was always like when either you're not expecting like somebody walks up to you like, you know, i've talked about the story of, you know, my my brother getting.
00:52:12
Speaker
involved with, you know, a cow or, you know, or a sheriff and a robber, like in, in frontier land. Yeah. Yeah. Then also like, you know, when you walk into somewhere and it's like, you, you feel like you stumbled upon something that shouldn't be there. Like, i like how they're describing this as like, you know, it's his own, you know, yeah his makeshift parlor, right. Where it's like, I like that.
00:52:33
Speaker
Like, I feel like you're goingnna be walking into, you know, like a small, like they're showing the concept are, you know a small room and it feels very intimate and very like, that it's just being done for you.
00:52:44
Speaker
Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Even though I'm sure it's, you know, there's going to be like people moving through and all that kind of stuff, but yeah, that's, that's a very cool way to, uh, to bring in a character interaction like that.
00:52:56
Speaker
ah Agreed. ah They also have announced a new villains themed party, ah but not in the States. This is going to be a Hong Kong Disneyland on September 19th. It's called uninvited, a villains takeover party.
00:53:11
Speaker
It's going to, it says it'll include elements of a caval. What does that mean? Elements of a cavalcade. Okay. a Elements of a cavalcade, a street show and a musical spec. When I just say a cavalcade, And a musical spectacle showcasing various Disney villains, including Maleficent, The Mischiefs of Evil, because Maleficent has to be everywhere.
00:53:29
Speaker
um So, but yeah, listen, I, I am surprised they're taking this long to do this kind of stuff. I think that this is going to be, honestly, once I think that I think I'm going to make a prediction now when the villains land opens at Disney world, I think they're going to have a separate party. That's a villain's theme party. That is going to, uh, during the Halloween time, that is going to be maybe a little scarier. I'm just going to, I'm just going to say,
00:53:53
Speaker
yeah Right now. yeah You'll have Mickey's not so scary and you'll have the villains. Maleficent's scary. You know? Yeah. Not not like not universal level you know Hollywood. you know yeah Not Horror Nights. I don't know why I just said hollywood Hollywood. Halloween Horror Nights.
00:54:09
Speaker
But, you know, it's funny. I always want to call it Hollywood Horror Nights as well. for sure I don't know. I just said that. I know it's Halloween Horror Nights. I don't know. It just sounded it sounds better. um But yeah, I listen. I think this is it's not surprising. And they're going to they're doing Disney's doing what they do best, which is promoting something before it exists.
00:54:28
Speaker
Right. like they're they're They're building up this whole villain thing ah to get a anticipation going for what's going to be the the villain's land and that's going to be i mean as far as we know that's the only villain's land is going to be at disney world you know maybe they'll spread it to elsewhere at some point but yeah maybe maybe this is part of a plan that you know they may announce something for hong kong disneyland yeah yeah i the last thing on here trevor is about uh napa rose i don't really feel like i need to talk about this but if you want to talk about it we can no i'm good but they have new concept art for it if you want to see it go to disney parks blog you can see it
00:55:03
Speaker
Snapper Rose is nice, it's but yeah, it's ah it's just another sit-down. and I do also want to, and we can jump right over this because I don't think we need to talk about it long.
00:55:14
Speaker
Disney did announce an opening date for Zootopia Better you Zoo Gather, which is ah November 7th. i don't Is that the same date that the movie comes out? Because I think the movie comes out in November, does it not?
00:55:25
Speaker
Sounds close. and Yeah, that that kind of tracks with the... yeah let's see where is i can't find it quickly what the release date yeah no it's november 26th so they're they're pre they're gonna do it a little bit before i mean listen again disney's good at these things they understand they're gonna cross promote it's what they do so they're gonna start the ride before the movie comes out to pump up the movie even more and then the movie will pump up the ride it's sick like it goes around right It's not even a ride. It's a show. show. Sorry. Show.
00:55:58
Speaker
Apologies. But yeah, it's it's a show. And yeah. ily Hopefully no more spiders coming down from the ceiling. Oh, I hope not. Yeah. um um Unless it's spider monkeys. I mean, they could yeah it could do spider monkeys.
00:56:15
Speaker
But yeah, you know, you know, the, uh, was funny. i was actually talking with my wife about this because she, she, she kind of forgot that this show existed, that this was coming.
00:56:25
Speaker
Oh, okay. That the Zootopia one was coming. Yeah. Yeah. Or no, she, she thought that like better, suit better zo together. She, she, uh, she was like, oh, the, you know, they just announced like a Zootopia land opening. Like she was thinking like, you know, like Hong Kong or something. oh That's the one that animal kingdom. Yeah.
00:56:43
Speaker
yeah and And I said, and I was like, yeah, it's not the land. It's just the show. it And then she was like, where? And I'm like, you remember where tough to be a bug is? And she's like, oh yeah. Yeah. that gives now yeah it was It was just that like moment of like, oh yeah, I forgot about that show.
00:56:59
Speaker
But see yeah, hope hopefully though. Yeah. Exactly. To your point that this, this ends up being, know, like maybe it'll be a good precursor into uh, you know, the movie itself, but it sounds like they've also been, or there's a new character in it that is not, um, probably going to in the new movie though. Right.
00:57:22
Speaker
Well, well, no, cause there are, I, the way that I was understanding this is that, uh, so this Heidi howler, which is this, uh, it's like talking wolf. Yeah. Um, I think they're specific to the show.
00:57:35
Speaker
okay. Well, that's cool. Yeah. Or at least that's how I understood it. again have to go back and read the article again. but I mean, i feel like knowing Disney, even if that character isn't like a main character, the new movie that is going to show up somewhere, somewhere like in the background. Right. Yeah. They'll probably be like ah a cameo or something. And, but then it sounds like they're going to be more like front and center to better together. So yeah, it seems like they're hosting, they're hosting the show almost. Right. Like, yeah okay.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah. I want to jump to this, Trevor, but I also feel like this news is stale dated at this point because Beacon Barrel is now open. Right. So like we we we kind of miss this one. we like Well, to be fair, we kind of talked about the menu of Beacon Barrel. and But now we have actual pictures from inside it. And I i am extraordinarily impressed with the theming in this in this bar.
00:58:25
Speaker
i I think it looks incredible. I saw that the the bird kind of waddles around and talks you know on on the shelf. Yeah. Which is kind of great. I mean, we we hope that that was going to be the case. Yeah.
00:58:38
Speaker
the The sinking ships and the bottles and everything. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of detail. It's, you know, I remember you saying you were hoping that this is going to kind of play out like some of the, ah the um places you've been to on on the cruise ships. Yeah. It kind of seems like it.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah. um The one thing though, that is kind of, or it's ah just a little funny aside that, I remember in the the concept art, there there's this boat anchor chandelier.
00:59:05
Speaker
oh yeah, yeah. Not in there? Well, no, it's there. But I remember there was a particular concept art that may look like there was, like, fire coming out of it. well Yeah, yeah. There there is some camels on it, but they don't... They're not real. we know They look very, like, muted, right? like it does it does Like, it's more of a lighting effect, not, like, something impressive, I guess, but...
00:59:28
Speaker
Listen, I think this whole bar looks incredibly impressive, especially with how quickly I feel like they put this together. I think the theming is excellent. Like the the skull behind the bar, like the that that anchor looks pretty cool to me, too. I think it all looks awesome. I feel like they put a lot of time into the into this one and and did a nice job with it.
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. um ah Like said, yeah, even though I'm kind of like, you know, just lamenting on, you know, concept art never fully. No, no, it never turns out the same. But, you know, overall, it looks good.
00:59:57
Speaker
um The hard part for me in one of these pictures is there's there's a bunch of paintings on the wall and I spent way too much time in. the various Harry Potter areas in, in a universal.
01:00:12
Speaker
And I keep going like those look like they should be talking, but I'm assuming that they're not. I mean, listen, and not they might be, i though that like I said, I mentioned the haunted mansion bar on the boat. The, the paintings do a lot of crazy stuff.
01:00:26
Speaker
Yeah. um But I mean, I don't know. I haven't, it's not it's funny how, yeah it's funny how like you kind of look at now. like, Oh, that's a nice painting. I wonder if it's going to talk. Yeah. Well, listen, if when you're Haunted Mansion bar on the treasure, spoiler alert for everyone, like you just walk in and you think they're real paintings. And then as things get more and more perilous as you sit there. Right. And like it is kind of weird and, you know, you don't expect it, but it's it's extraordinarily cool.
01:00:53
Speaker
Like, you know, but yeah, no, I get what you're saying. It's that. Yeah, i I'm not going to be i'm not going to lie. And I, you know, I probably needed to be more up on this, but I've had a crazy week. and I have not had a chance to look at like actual videos of any of this stuff and like some of the things ah going around around this.
01:01:09
Speaker
I need to do so um because I do want to see, I want to see some video tours of what it looks like. I want to see the bird talking and all that stuff. I just unfortunately have not gotten to it yet, but now let me ask you this because so Do you feel that this is somewhere that you would stop on your next trip in Magic Kingdom?
01:01:26
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Okay. You would tell your family, no if this is where we're eating for lunch. No, I don't know about lunch. I would say to just go and hang out for a few and, you know, like have a fun drink and maybe a little app. I would do it for that. I'm not going to have lunch there for sure. Oh, you see so you you don't feel it's worth like ah a full sit down?
01:01:45
Speaker
No, because it's more like snacky. It's like the the menu was not that. I mean, it was smaller. It was not like, you know, lunch worthy, I think. that's i That's fair. Yeah, no, but I definitely want to check it out. I mean, I still haven't gotten to the Star Wars one and I've wanted to do that, too.
01:02:00
Speaker
um And listen, we've had other priorities over the past you know couple of years here with my daughter. But here's I do feel like this she would enjoy just because of how cool the pirate theme is.
01:02:11
Speaker
You know, like I think she would be she'd be into it, you know? Yeah. I mean, I feel i the weird thing about pirates is that, you know, everyone can say, well, oh, you know, it's pirates are not for everybody except that they are.
01:02:26
Speaker
They cut. Yeah, they are. Yeah. Like they're absolutely for everybody. Yeah. yeah like Like it always felt like, you know, that or well, I guess where the line always was, was like the pirate versus princess thing. But yeah it feels like the like the pirate stuff is far more like.
01:02:41
Speaker
you know, just, yeah. And, you know, you know, anybody can show up and get excited about it. Like, you know, my, my wife loves pirates and it's like, you know, that's, it's like, that's fine. Like everybody should be enjoying it, I guess. as yeah I, I totally agree. I, I think, i think everybody can enjoy this, even though there is alcohol served. Sure. But there's also not alcohol served. You can get mocktails, you can get, you know, there's lots of stuff you can do that isn't alcoholic. So, you know, it's, you can of think,
01:03:09
Speaker
good I think the more that I'm looking at this, that yeah, i'm I'm initially I was like in my head, I was like, oh, this would be like I would plan to like hit this up, you know, you know, for lunch, at you know, you know, eat here, then go ride pirates kind of thing. But now that I'm thinking about it a little bit more, I'm seeing where you're coming from with the, you know, drop in in the afternoon and actually yeah hitting the pop in the afternoon. Yeah. And, you know, you know, getting out of the sun for a bit, having a drink and just,
01:03:37
Speaker
you know, some snacks, taking it in the atmosphere. That's, that's how was it was at the Haunted Mansion where they didn't have snacks there. You just, you just kind of like went in, hung out and enjoyed the, the, the the theming and the atmosphere. Like you didn't really see what happens.
01:03:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. See all the things that happen. Absolutely.
Ride Vehicle Enhancements
01:03:54
Speaker
So, you know, we're going to stay in magic kingdom for a little while for anybody that's listening. We got a couple of different things here in magic kingdom. Um,
01:04:02
Speaker
The first one is the new ride vehicles for Buzz Lightyear, which, yes, we know that this is a couple or this might be a little bit older. Yeah, little older, but we didn't get to talk about it. Yeah. um What do you think about these ah these updated cars? I'm excited for a lot of reasons here.
01:04:18
Speaker
First of all, they kept the same style. We kind of talked about this. Like I was worried we were going to lose in the overhaul. The the very, you know, I mean, I didn't think we would. But like just looking at like the the the look of these, first of all, the structure is essentially the same.
01:04:33
Speaker
These look just like the ones that they've done overseas with other... I mean, it's it's it's not it's probably the exact same thing, right? But I love the fact that there's just like decals on it that look like decals that would be on the Buzz Lightyear toy. You know what i mean?
01:04:46
Speaker
Like... Yeah. Yeah. Like the the headlights. on Yeah. The headlight. Yeah. It looks like it should have headlights, but they're just like stickers. yeah Even the logo on the front. Right. it's It's like it looks like a decal that you would put on a a toy. Right.
01:04:58
Speaker
But, ah you know, and then we have obviously. And first of all, we've need to ride new ride vehicles. We talked about this before. Those ride vehicles were original to the original ride. Well, the second. Yeah. They were old.
01:05:09
Speaker
They were like 40, 50 years old. Right. These are brand new. yeah It says in the article that they were originally from 1972. Yeah. um Which is nuts.
01:05:19
Speaker
ah Which is nuts if you really want to. didn't realize how old those were, man. Yeah. Yeah. i But, you know, it's I didn't see this in... It's funny. I used this article, Trevor, but I didn't see this in ah this article, but I did see it in other articles. The screen is updated.
01:05:36
Speaker
So you can... It's, you know, it's a digital screen. It's not like the, you know, the... The old clock version. Yeah, yeah yeah like a clock face. yeah Yeah, the old digital clock version. It's like an actual like ah you know yeah real screen.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's you can see it in it in some of these different ones here. But yeah, it's it's much different. And it looks like they're going to keep the spinning part, right? So the spinning is not going away.
01:06:02
Speaker
so that's good news too. ah Because I know some people were worried about that. But again, these are... these ride vehicles are essentially the exact same ones that they have at other parks already. So, which I'm fine with, I don't care. read I mean, re it doesn't need to be anything special for magic kingdom. We just needed something that wasn't what was there.
01:06:19
Speaker
yeah like and And the guns, like you're, you're not like these guns are again, you know, we've, I've seen the other ones that they used in like Disneyland. Yeah.
01:06:30
Speaker
um these are going to be so much better. And they're auto-fire, too. There's no... i mean you know like You're going to come off of this with a a sore... oh no. you you You probably still will because people will just naturally want to like do this did do that. yeah Pulling the trigger. Yeah. and And yeah, but and and also even holding down a trigger for an extended period gets tiring, but the the guns themselves are, you know, they're smaller and it's not taking up the entire front of the ride.
01:07:01
Speaker
I guess believe these are trigger free, by the way, Trevor, I believe that you don't have to do anything. It literally just auto fires. Yeah. i Just shoot. Oh, okay. Which I actually kind of like too, because it actually levels the playing fields, right? It's not about how quickly you can move your finger. It's about your aim and and your, your strategy, right? It's, it's, it, it level, it makes it so that your daughter is on the same level as I Yeah. Somebody doing rapid fire can't, you know, yeah go crazy with it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:25
Speaker
yeah so Yeah, so the original ones were from 1972. So if I do the math really quickly on that, that's 53 years old that these ride vehicles were. So, yeah. I have no nostalgia for the 50-some-year-old.
01:07:38
Speaker
ah see For these particular Omni Mover ones. there are other there are There are other ones that are older. Yeah, there are
Big Thunder Mountain Enhancements
01:07:45
Speaker
others. But, yeah, get rid of them. Let's get new ones. I'm excited. Let's do it. Yeah. And, you know, color palette-wise, you know, i I feel, you know, it's it's closer to... um or the the old buzz light your stuff like was very it it was emulating the cartoon is the thing and it was a lot of i felt like there was a lot of like overbearing neon in it whereas the the new one is like there's still the green and the red and everything but it's not like hitting you in the face yeah exactly exactly uh let's move on to big thunder
01:08:21
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. This this one is, i actually really wanted to talk about this because I am super excited. am too. For like, I know we've been saying about, you know, getting like, like I I'm assuming that this is going to get the same love that the one in Disneyland got, which, you know, got the updated, you know, finale, but there there's a lot more to this too. Like they they've shown like the, the front, the opening cave looks like it's going to get some redos.
01:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, so we we we we have concept art of the opening opening cave. I also absolutely love the a portrait they have here of Barnabas T. Bullion, which is Tony Baxter. yeah Very clearly Tony Baxter, which if you don't know who Tony Baxter is, Tony Baxter is a legendary Imagineer and he's the one who designed Big Thunder.
01:09:12
Speaker
um I just like that they made a dastardly Tony Baxter with the mustache. It's fantastic. And yeah, it should should absolutely be there. Like if Tony Baxter didn't get this like painted out for him and put on his wall, I is like he has to.
01:09:26
Speaker
Right. um He is retired now, unfortunately. But ah but listen, he's the driving force between a lot of your of your a lot of your favorite rides at Disney is Tony Baxter. um but yeah barnabas t boolean and uh which you know i like them i one of the things i love about big thunder is the the backstory of it and the fact that they are even you know doing a little more with it too i i really like uh you know it just it's i just love that they're filling in the backstory even more because like you can pick up the backstory from like for the queue and everything but like they don't outline it overtly right
01:10:01
Speaker
yeah um But now, I mean, they're they're adding to this. And I really hope this portrait is somewhere in the queue. Like, has to be. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I mean, but there was so many, like, if... the The hard part is, is that if you look at the queue, there is a ton of, like, it it does tell a story. but It But walking through the queue, unless you've got time to really, like, stop and look at all these things, you're not you're not catching it. But having, you know, having a picture of Barnabas there is, like...
01:10:30
Speaker
you know, kind I feel like it's going to kind of bring people or you know, it it kind of brings in more of the, you know, not, Oh, this is just a train ride. Like it gives them a chance to kind of build it to like, like if you read the story and everything, laura like, yeah yeah, they're saying like, well, you know, this is, you know, this was a natural wonder whatever, but there's something going on behind the scenes. Right. Yeah. Like, like even from the, the article here, they say, you know, rainbow caverns are certainly beautiful. Yeah.
01:10:57
Speaker
But they ain't as friendly as they first appear. In fact, that menacing rumble deep from within the mountain may be a sign that we ain't welcome. Like, yeah okay. thank Yeah, I mean, i fully expect, Trevor, that it's it says one such moment comes with trains rattle their way underground to a spectacular natural cavern full of phosphorescent pools, shimmering and illuminating iridescent salagmites and salactites.
01:11:21
Speaker
ah And it it makes it seem like they're going to make it rumble, like actually shake in there. which is kind of cool. or Or, yeah, the car will do some kind of, or the, yeah, the train will do some sort of, i don't know what they're doing, but there's some sort of shaking is going to happen that make you like, you know, give you a foreboding kind of thing.
01:11:41
Speaker
I like that they called out stalagmites and stalactites. That they were specific about that. ones on the floor and the ones on the ceiling. Do you know how to tell the difference with or the easy way to tell if you're talking about a stalagmite or stalactite?
01:11:52
Speaker
I don't know. This is going to be a Trevor fun fact here. is This is a Trevor fun fact because I love this. No, it's no this is this is actually how I keep them straight is that stalagmites have G in them, which is for ground. Stalactites have C in them, which is for ceiling.
01:12:05
Speaker
That makes total sense. Yeah. i mean now That's a, that's a great little handy thing. I'm going to forget it, but it's like how I see a stalagmite, you'll be able to go, Oh, that's a stalagmite. It's like how I remember how to spell dessert versus a desert. Uh, there's an extra S because I want extra helpings of it.
01:12:21
Speaker
Exactly. That actually, I'll go back to that after we're done with the topic. Hold Just, just, I forgot one thing about my, about my nightla night last night. Um, So, ah yeah. So this is cool. I will say this is just a peek.
01:12:37
Speaker
And one of the blogs noticed. I'm not going to say which one because I don't want to. But one of the blogs noticed that they had originally updated the attraction page to include details about the end scene that sounded very similar to the one at Disneyland.
01:12:51
Speaker
And then they very quickly removed it. Now. Hmm. I don't think that means it's not happening. I think it could mean that it got announced before they wanted to, that maybe somebody updated that before they should have, and that there's more announcements to come here. Because again, they even say there's more magic for guests.
01:13:11
Speaker
Yeah. There's more new magic for guests. you know Maybe we'll finally get a ah photo, an on-ride photo for this. I mean, I don't know why it's taken them so long. They should do an on-ride photo. but you know It shouldn't be a photo.
01:13:24
Speaker
Yeah. It should be like, we should get like some seven doors mind train. Yeah. you remember And the video. Yeah. Do the video, do the whole thing. Exactly. But I, I do hope that the last room is like, it is at Disneyland because I, I mean, I hope they iterate on it and make it yeah even better than that. Like with the newest technology, you know, because listen, they are doing a full refurbishment of this. This is top to bottom. They put in brand new track. So it's, it's literally brand new. It's like a brand new ride. They,
01:13:51
Speaker
you know, that they start from scratch. Like this is a whole huge refurbishment here. I wonder if it's still going to have the trick track. I bet it wins. I bet it. I assume. Well, you mean, when, when you rock back and forth is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, yeah. The, the, the weird wobbly track. Yeah. I'm, I'm, it has to, right. There's no way they got rid of that. That's a key part of the ride.
01:14:12
Speaker
Um, but Yeah, I'm interested to see what else this is going to be. i would be sad if they didn't do anything with the last scene, especially since there's been so much hype around to them doing it. And like i said, I don't think them updating and then removing that from the description means really anything other than they didn't want to put it on there at this point.
01:14:30
Speaker
um I do think it could still happen. And, and you know, they do still, they they are saying there's going to be more new magic. It's not just this, right? So we're going to have more. Yeah, there's, there is actually so many opportunities for like,
01:14:44
Speaker
If you really think about it, um Big Thunder, like both versions of Big Thunder have unique things going on. But um there is a lot of animatronic and moving part pieces that you don't you don't really think about. Like they they feel very like almost naturally occurring within the ride. Yeah.
01:15:05
Speaker
But yeah, you're right. I feel like Disney is kind of holding back and going, you know, oh, you know, we're doing all these other things. And, you know, they they do want it to be. i feel like they want to be a bit of a surprise because. Yeah, they want to do phased announcements.
01:15:19
Speaker
That's what they like to do. And there's nothing saying that they have to, you know, you know, the fact that everyone's, you know, kind of waiting for the finale scene and it. Yeah, I think is exactly why they shouldn't, you know, show their hand on it, because we should agree, you know, you know, we should see it when it happens.
01:15:34
Speaker
Yeah. 100% agreed 100% agreed so uh i i got nothing else on big thunder i would love to move to the next thing but do you have anything else on big thunder no i'm i'm good and until we see more about it i'm yeah let's talk about this next thing trevor because all right i think this is extraordinarily exciting too i think i have said extraordinarily a lot this episode i don't mean to but there's a lot of extraordinary things going on There's a lot of very cool things coming that yeah we're still a ways out, but this is so.
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster's Muppets Theme
01:16:05
Speaker
how you
01:16:06
Speaker
Have you ridden rock and roller coaster? No. Will you ride rock and roller coaster if it's Muppets? in oh we'll see We'll see, maybe. But we've got an update on the on the overlay, which is great because we have not seen really anything other than the original poster.
01:16:25
Speaker
And now we've got some actual honest-to-God concept art. And the first piece I want to talk about is is the giant guitar outside the outside the attraction because I love what they're doing with this.
01:16:37
Speaker
Love it. Yeah, it's super... cut like I forgot how boring... yeah or that You think a giant, a giant guitar could not be boring, but yes. Yeah.
01:16:48
Speaker
Yeah. It, yeah, it looks great. Like, I mean, yeah. So they're making it like super psychedelic and like very, uh, you know, very, really fitting in with the electric mayhem, you know?
01:16:59
Speaker
Yeah. Although it's funny that they're doing rock and roller coasters starring the Muppets, not starring the electric mayhem. Right. But you know, it is starring all of them, a bunch of the Muppets, right. I feel like they have to say the Muppets because it like, so electric mayhem is definitely in there.
01:17:13
Speaker
But um as you see in the, in the, the concept art um you know, the penguins are in there. It looks like, you know, penguins are you know yeah you know, they're going to have Kermit and miss piggy and and all that. Like it's,
01:17:25
Speaker
yeah i know that it It wouldn't be fair if they said it was just starring Electric Mayhem. I feel like you know that they're not giving the rest of the Muppets credit for it. right i But I love the fact, Trevor, that we are now going to animatronics in this ride.
01:17:37
Speaker
right you're you're getting You're getting the Penguins, like you said. You're getting Scooter. Now, it seems clear to me the Electric Mayhem and Kermit Miss Piggy are screens, which...
01:17:50
Speaker
screens which Fine. yeah But at least we're getting the penguins because I love the penguins. I don't know about you. I've always enjoyed the penguins and like the fact they're always just doing the menial jobs for the Muppets. But and then Scooter makes sense, too, because, you know, Scooter's always doing all that stuff. So, yeah you know, ah but yeah, no, I think this looks awesome.
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, well, it's funny because all it's really shown us is just the the cue, right? Like, because yeah this this is the cue in the pre-show that that is the biggest part of it. But I'm now like I'm trying to think of how the rest of the ride is going to change because it's going to be interesting.
01:18:28
Speaker
Yeah. Because I guess it it is feasible that we'll still end up in the back alley behind the studio because that's that's how it played out in the original.
01:18:39
Speaker
Well, and that's kind of what it says here. The Electric Mayhem are headlining their biggest Hollywood concert ever. Anyone who's attendant you know and anyone who's anyone is in attendance to witness Animal, Dr. Teeth, and the rest of the group, Tessa Group, rock the house down. There's just one problem. The band is nowhere to be found.
01:18:53
Speaker
So there you go.
01:18:56
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, so i i like I said, I just think this looks cool. yeah um but Yeah. Like I said, I don't have any like... notes on it at this point besides you know i want to see how these animatronics are going to play in because it like the the the opening or the the the pre-show scene i'm thinking about like how it was done like where the penguins are sitting um i feel like you could or i thought i thought you could see like
01:19:27
Speaker
um maybe ah ah I don't think you can actually see the floor there. really? like like like it's a weird It's kind of weird how they did it. like that Because there's like glass and then there's like the the booth where the penguins would be. And then there's where the where Aerosmith was or where Electric Mayhem is going to be.
01:19:46
Speaker
But I'm trying to remember if you actually could like properly see the room or if it was just like a facade and there was like nothing... Nothing there. Right. Like a video. Cause it's been a while. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. I could go back and rewatch a video of it, but, uh, I, they do mention here, Trevor, by the way, it says the iconic scenery and landmarks of Tinseltown will feature a Muppet twist for the inside part.
01:20:10
Speaker
Okay. So, uh, yeah, cause the, uh, they're just going to retheme it to, to be yeah, it's cause it's very, it's very like Hollywood yeah themed in there, but, uh, yeah, I guess they, they don't have to completely redo it, but yeah, I'm, I'm assuming there'll be like little Muppet nods on all the signs and whatnot.
01:20:27
Speaker
I was trying to find it here. that So there is there is actually a this coaster that's used in rock and roller coaster is there isn't this elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah. There's another um or it's somewhere else. It's outdoor. So you could actually see how the coaster works, which I know you don't do crazy, crazy, i know but it's.
01:20:49
Speaker
yeah i've seen it before it's a good coaster like and yeah but but you know i guess you to be fair like yeah you know you you like my wife could always do the um uh she's done this before with us where you know we've she's waited in line we've gone through all the pre-shows and then she gets to the front and she opts out and we get on the ride yeah i could so yeah yeah you could do that and i assume karen will want to ride it. Oh, a thousand percent.
01:21:16
Speaker
yeah yeah this is Yeah. The ride's called ah Express and it's at ah Holland. It's in the Netherlands. um Yeah, so you can you can actually see it. It's the same ride.
01:21:27
Speaker
it except its It's actually only it's the initial launch that's the worst part. The rest of it is not all that bad. There's a lot of inversions in this, but yeah, I know shit. To start off, It does a... um it does like a half half loop, a corkscrew, and then another half loop.
01:21:48
Speaker
So yeah that, that makes for two inversions, which can be, could be a lot, but, uh, yeah, you're right. The rest is just kind of like going around. Yeah. But, uh, listen, we'll, we'll have to see what the inside of this is going to look like. It seems like they're just going to kind of, ah there's a corkscrew in there too, in the middle.
01:22:03
Speaker
Uh, but anyway, there I'm just watching a video right now as we're talking. Uh, uh, what was I going to say? yeah Yeah. Listen, I, I think the, the part of why,
01:22:13
Speaker
people love Muppet Vision 3D is that the queue in the pre-show, besides the show itself, were filled with so many funny references and so much you know humor that went along with the Muppets.
01:22:27
Speaker
If they can replicate that same thing in in Rock and Roller Coaster, I think there it's going to be a really popular choice. I also think that this thing is going to be a merch bonanza.
01:22:39
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. Easily. Like, yeah, this is going to kill in March. And, and, you know, it's funny because, um, every time that I've gone on rock and rollercoaster,
01:22:52
Speaker
I get off of it and they put you right into the, ah you know, the gift shop. And that's one of the few gift shops that I walk straight out of. Which is why you don't even look at anything. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're like, like, why would you? Yeah. I, it's nothing that I'm, because it's, yeah, it was a lot of like, you know, Aerosmith and, and like rock and rollercoaster merch. But it again, it was always like starring Aerosmith. And it was like, you could get like, I think they had like a laser printing machine there. You could get like,
01:23:19
Speaker
key tags done and stuff like that. And i was like, i was like, eh, no, but yeah, exactly. That is, you know, if I, if I get off this ride and it's like, Oh, you know, there's Muppet, like, like all the Muppet birch, you know, from, uh, from the, you know, from courtyard theme to like rock and roll and like psychedelic, and ah dude, it's going to, like, like there, there's so many opportunities for them to do fun stuff with this. And, and yeah, like you said, you know, you know, the, the stuff through the queue, all that kind of stuff is just, uh,
01:23:48
Speaker
I like this to me is far more appealing than, you know, I liked rocking roller coaster because it was a fun roller coaster. But the actual theming of it, you know, you know, they were showing off music and all that, which, you know, rightfully so. There's lots of people that appreciate that.
01:24:04
Speaker
For me, it was it was, you know, I was not at Disney to go and look at Aerosmith merch. Yeah. So it was it was like, yeah, like like this, this is exactly like, you know, hitting that, oh, you know, this, there's all this Muppet stuff there and a great roller coaster.
01:24:23
Speaker
Really, as much as people are are missing the show, I feel this is a good trade off. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's, it's, you know, it's revitalizing an existing ride that needed it.
01:24:36
Speaker
Needed it badly. And, and it's just, like you said, I feel it's going to open itself up to, you know, lots of fun stuff for them to do with it. Yeah, I don't know if I called this out back in when we touch when the announcement for the for the Monsters, Inc. coaster was made, but didn't I say like five years ago that they should turn Rock and Roller Coaster into a door coaster? And now they're just doing the door coaster standalone? yeah hi I mean, i mean, I'm sure I got that from somewhere, but I yeah where do you i think said many times that they need to turn that into a door coaster. Yeah, that that that's been yeah, it was one of those things that, you know, it was like, oh, you know, that whole scene would have made for a cool roller. Yeah, it's easy. Yeah.
01:25:17
Speaker
I'm not saying I'm a genius for coming up with it. I feel like it was the easy thing to do, you know, but and they did then now they're doing it. So, yeah, great. um Yeah. So, listen, I mean, I just imagine, you know that you know, the meme of the guy rubbing his hands together, you know, like looking at his lips behind, poking out from behind the tree. I just imagine someone in Disney merchandise and merchandising is doing this with some with this new Muppets ride. Like, just they're going to make so much cool stuff. There's going to, you're to see that all over the place.
01:25:44
Speaker
I can't wait to see like when it opens, like one, i'm I'll be curious to see how busy it is because I feel like rock and roller coaster kind of fell off a bit or it was, it wasn't, it wasn't doing well, but then yeah, exactly. Like,
01:25:59
Speaker
What kind of merch are we going to see coming out of there? You can even see some in the concept art they put up, by the way. There's a, there's like a jean cut off, like a jacket, like vest kind of thing that has the electric mayhem on the back.
01:26:11
Speaker
There's people wearing like glow sticks all over the place. the, the people in the, like taking the pictures. Oh yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at it, you can see, I mean, I don't know if that's what the merchant is going to be. They're just probably somebody just making some examples of what it could be, but I mean, you could see any of those. hackers Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, you see the mouth ah that's up there. You're like, I mean, it's there's there's lots of stuff they could do here. I mean, yeah, I just... This is going to be cool. It's going to be really cool. I actually totally blanked on the a the neon or the glow-in-the-dark armbands and stuff. I wonder if that, like...
01:26:44
Speaker
I mean, why wouldn't they thought about those in a minute? think about I mean, Disney loves their glow up stuff, man. If you're going to make something psychedelic and like, you know, crazy colored here, of course, they're going to sell that stuff around. rocke But those glow in the dark things from like, or the, you know, the, the bracelets and stuff from when you were a kid, like, yeah, they're just going to have those around. Like, dude, they're around my house all the time because my daughter gets them in like, you know, birthday party gift, you know, bag. Yeah. never Yeah. we We used to get them to. Yeah, it' yeah no, I mean, i'm why wouldn't they sell like some light up stuff or like, I mean, it doesn't you need to be like the little ones that you break the thing inside. It could. I think, I mean, like an LED light up. one yeah Yeah, really cool. I could see that happening more.
01:27:23
Speaker
Right. And just like this kind of psychede psychedelic thing. I mean, it does seem like whoever did this concept art an idea for this, that the mayhem thing, because. they also, there's also that same logo is in, uh, on somebody's shirt in the queue as well. Yeah. I see that. yeah Yeah. It's, it's a little obscured, but yeah, that there's, there's definitely going to be mayhem merch. Oh yeah.
01:27:46
Speaker
Yeah. This is going to, like I said, I think it's going to huge for merch. Uh, and so the last thing here and remind me to mention the other thing for, I'll just do now. Uh, I, I wanted to, so I, going back to my descendants night really quickly before we talk about Tokyo Disney sea and wrap things up.
01:28:02
Speaker
ah So we were, good you know, a like I mentioned, Trevor, we were traveling, right? We're traveling like an hour and a half away. And so I said to my wife, why don't we grab dinner ahead of time? Right. Because, you know, and let's go grab some dinner. And so I started looking for restaurants around this place because, you know, we i I used to work in this area a lot, but I haven't in a long time and I don't know what's around.
01:28:20
Speaker
And I found a restaurant called Pasta Bilities, which is a customized pasta place. And I was like, i I must go to this place just based on the name alone. I appreciate the possibilities. I mean, how could you say no to Pasta Bilities? There's so many Pasta Bilities that you can you know have. I mean, it's literally a cut you customize your own pasta, Trevor. You you know you pick out the the pasta type and the sauce and all that. and i was like, we must go here.
01:28:47
Speaker
So shout out to possibilities. Cause we went there just based on the name, but they were fantastic. They were such a good dinner, man. It was, it was great. Cool little family run place. So if you're ever in Greensboro, North Carolina, go to possibilities. Cause they were awesome.
01:29:01
Speaker
Fantastic service. Great ambiance. I loved it. We, we had a great time there. So anyway, I just, I figured you would enjoy the name possibilities as much as I did. Just so. It actually makes me think I want to go get some pasta for dinner. its yeah Right.
01:29:14
Speaker
Maybe I'll do that. to to see i saw that. I was like, oh man, that sounds great. like Before we get to dinner. Why why don't we, uh, yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about Tokyo Disney city, right?
Tokyo Disney Sea's 25th Anniversary
01:29:23
Speaker
Tokyo Disney city. So, so, you know, we just finished, you're talking about things you want to eat, but I'm sure that the, one of the first pictures on here is this shrimp filled Ukiwa bun. Okay. that Yeah. Yeah.
01:29:35
Speaker
but yeah This is for their 25th anniversary, right? Their 25th anniversary, the sparkling Jubilee is what they're saying here. Yes. so they have i like the I like the aesthetic of it, by the way. that the twenty like The color, it's like that Oh, yeah. It's a turquoise, yeah diamond-y kind of thing. But it's not it's not the dark purple that they did for Disneyland. No. It's got some of that, though. The iridescent kind of thing going on there. Yeah, but but like I said, it's more like that like turquoise green and yeah whatnot. which Yeah. it was really nice. But then, yeah, like said, that they immediately leaned in with these shrimp buns, which I'm you know i'm assuming are...
01:30:12
Speaker
we we should We should mention this starts April 15, 2026. So you still have quite a while before this starts. Yeah, if you're planning a trip to Tokyo. Yes. It's going to feature new entertainment, colorful park decor, food, beverage items, and of course, merchandise.
01:30:25
Speaker
so But like you said, there is this disgusting looking... ah sure okay up To be fair, if you just saw the bun itself, which looks like a it looks like a um like a life preserver. Yeah. and Because they got the picture of building a Donald jumping sticking out of it.
01:30:41
Speaker
If you didn't know that it was shrimp filled, like, like take away the one picture of the open one there. Would you the bun? I would eat it. I mean, it looks good. And then you open it up and it looks like there's, you know, some sort of, I don't know what it there. It looks, it looks just like crab meat or shrimp or anything. else surefield Yeah. I'm good. I'm good.
01:31:02
Speaker
Okay. well Well, I'll have one. but Okay. You, you do that. Uh, Moving on. um ah you You have that. um But, you know, listen, there's not a whole ah a lot else here, but they are just announcing the celebrations happening. They're showing some pictures of like what the outfits are going to look like and all that fun stuff. um The color, there's a name for the color, Trevor. It's Jubilee Blue.
01:31:24
Speaker
ah Jubilee Blue. All right. So the color is a sparkling Jubilee. Yeah. and so So I like that the one of like in bold, it says big question. Will Duffy and friends be there?
01:31:36
Speaker
Yes, of course. ah Please. Is that really a question? for Please. ah They're going to do like a sparkling Jubilee celebration. so Mickey Mouse and friends are going to sail into the harbor on a specially decorated barge.
01:31:52
Speaker
So, okay, that's cool. I guess there's going to be a limited time show called dance. The globe Mickey and gun. Yeah. it So yeah, dance. The globe has a bunch of bunch of different characters and what on here in the bottom right-hand corner. That looks like hero from big hero six.
01:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, that is here. Yeah, that is definitely here. yeah so that's that's interesting you you don't see a lot of uh or well again yeah you know over over here you don't see as much big hero sex stuff but obviously they they they do like it who's doing the flipping over here like those just people because i mean i there are just some generic people in here aren't there yeah yeah it looks like there's like some acrobatics and stuff but that but then yeah they they specifically call out uh um yeah a couple like yeah the the three caballeros are in there and yeah mirabelle from encanto yeah tippendale of course and yeah uh and refiki for some reason unclear why it's just there cool fiki's a vibe yeah i like he just shows up and he's just like cool
01:33:00
Speaker
It's just a weird group of people on this concept. yeah You got Mickey in the middle. You've got you've got Donald's. You've got Goofy. You've got Minnie. Great. You got Chip and Dale there. And then randomly Rafiki.
01:33:11
Speaker
like I don't know. Anyway, yeah you got the Dance the Globe thing, which is going to have Mickey and his friends Rapunzel, Hero. Okay, so there you go. is It actually does list Hero and Mirabelle.
01:33:23
Speaker
ah So you got that. And then there's going to be a the facade of the Tokyo Disney Sea Hotel Miracosta is going to have some projection mapping going on accompanied by the theme song of the anniversary. So it's also getting its own theme song to Trevor.
01:33:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. All right. All right. It's own theme song. ah There's going to be some special decor. You know, they're going to put stuff up all over the place. um It's going to be some new food and beverage items. Who knows? Maybe once we get closer travel, we'll do a we'll do a food time. Yeah, I'm sure we'll have to look into it. And, and you know, of course, yeah.
01:34:01
Speaker
be Be upset because they'll they'll do something cool with this oh yeah that that we'll never see because, you know, ever you know the there's lots of fun stuff that happens in the Asia parks. Disney doesn't have to pay for it.
01:34:16
Speaker
Yes, I know. But, you know, come on. like That's why they do these things. You could bring a couple of things over for us to see. Listen, so we can't complain that much when yeah there's... We just the now you talked about a mill ton of things going Yeah, you're you're right. You're right. I shouldn't be like that because we just... Yeah, we had a whole bunch of stuff announced and we're getting a whole bunch of stuff.
01:34:37
Speaker
And I think it's a matter of the grass is greener on the other side. Of course. Sometimes. of course Well, I guess maybe the grass is more Jubilee Blue on the other side yeah that's that's the good one that's good i like that grass is filled with shrimp filled uh stuff sh shrimp filled jubilee blue shrimp filled jubilee blue items all right so this is the point of the show where we've gotten punchy because we've talked for too long yeah that this has been this has been a long episode but again it was it's a little overdue and yeah. So I guess, ah I guess let's get to the wrap up. So, you know, we'll, we'll start with it again, mentioning that you can always find us welcome on podcast gmail.com.
01:35:15
Speaker
We love hearing from you guys and hearing what you think about the show and, you know, sharing your trip reports and all that kind of stuff. um You can also find us on social media. So we are on Facebook as welcome on podcast. YouTube is welcome on podcast and Instagram as pics on facebook make sure you check out our group welcome home disney wait list uh where you know we have all kinds of conversations about stuff uh from the show and just general general disney stuff and um yeah yeah you know all the if you're wanting a good you know disney group that's that's the one i say you know you know where where the disney group you should come hang out in
01:35:52
Speaker
And if you would like to help support the show, you can go to our Patreon, which is patreon.com slash welcomehomepod. You can check out our different levels of Patreon support there, um which have ah which you can get different merch from that. And all our Patreon supporters get access to the Discord server, um which is yet another place that we talk about all the stuff that we talk about on the show.
01:36:15
Speaker
It's, ah you know, again, and just another... Another place to connect with other people sharing things, you know, another, I'll actually just shout it out again to Chris who, you know, came on for our wait list last week. You know, you know, he was, he's in the discord server with us and put it to us that, you know, wanted to talk about adventures by Disney. So happy you did, Chris. It was, you know, was great to hear about your experience on there. So, and, you know, we're, and I should also say, you know we're going to try and do more of that kind of stuff in future as well so you know we we know some of you have trip reports or you know interesting things that you've done that uh um you want to you want to share and we're we're going to work to get that stuff out just you know be patient we're kind of uh we're we're in the middle of doing some housekeeping stuff at the moment so yeah we didn't talk about this in the in the beginning of the show we probably should trevor but
01:37:06
Speaker
Oh, yes. You know, there's changes going to be coming to the show, right? There are things that Trevor and I have wanted to do for a long time that we haven't done. And, ah you know, for various reasons. But now we are going to start, you know, doing some different things on the show than we've done
Future of the Podcast
01:37:21
Speaker
before.
01:37:21
Speaker
This might include things like more video. This could be, I mean, we may at some point kind of reboot the podcast with a new name. And, you know, we might get another host. I don't know.
01:37:32
Speaker
the the These are all conversations. None of this is fun. I'm just saying, you know, just know that this is a jumping off point for Trevor and I. It's almost like we're starting the podcast over again.
01:37:46
Speaker
And yeah so a lot of the things over the years that we've talked about and wanted to do that we haven't necessarily done. Maybe wait we might do it now. And, and that's exciting for us because there's a lot of, a lot of new kind of ideas and thoughts coming through here and, and, and we, we're going to start doing these things. So ah keep an eye out for that, you know? ah Yeah. yeah And, you know, last but not least, as we're wrapping it up here, you know, for, for anything we have talked about on the show, or, you know, if you want to, if you want to help support the show as usual, you can always leave us a five-star review on any platform that you're listening on. um You know, that does, know,
01:38:21
Speaker
it does help more people get to the show. It helped, you know, if if it's something that you like and you want to share, you know, put it out there, you know, you know, giving the five stars helps the algorithm also put it out there. You know, if if you've got, you know, if there's people that you think might enjoy the show, you know, you know, just point them our way because, you know, we, we would,
01:38:40
Speaker
We would like to, you know, get this to, you know, we, we do this because we enjoy it, but also, you know, we want to share it with people and, you know, if people want to listen to it, you know, please, please keep sharing it. Don't ever stop. And also, you know, on iTunes, if, uh, if you want to leave us a review on there, you can always do so because, you know, we love hearing what you guys think about the show. I should also mention we don't have a website at the moment.
01:39:04
Speaker
We will be creating a new web website. So if you so have come yeah yeah if you're someone that uses the web website regularly, apologies, but we will have a a website back again sometime soon here. yes But it just bear with us on that one. so um But on top of the reviews and all that fun stuff, don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release a new episode.
01:39:27
Speaker
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app that's out there. You can find our show. ah you know And a huge thank you, by the way, to our sponsors, DVC Rental Store, for sponsoring this episode.
01:39:44
Speaker
We plan to have them on more, too. DVC Resale Market and Rental Store. And you know now they're new venture selling tickets and stuff. And all that stuff. They they they are an integral part of our show and they will be joining us more and more and doing more fun things. so Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:40:04
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. When we hit a chair, how she can cuddle is no I looked around from pole to pole, found her in a sugar bowl.
01:40:25
Speaker
Look out, here comes my ball and change.