Episode 371: Riviera Add-On Offer, Avatar Experience & New Patents

Transcript

Speaker: This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.

Speaker: Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 371 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom here Trevor. How's it going, Trevor? Hey, pretty good. How are you doing?

Speaker: Good, good. I, uh, you know, it's it's interesting interesting, Trevor. After the last episode, I was thinking to myself, and I don't know if this is just because... We've been doing this a long time or we avoid certain things. But like i was just thinking like all of like the the Disney news out there was all about the price increase stuff. Right. And we didn't talk about that at all.

Speaker: Right. Not even for a second. And I don't listen. I don't really want to talk about it because because it's it's a and not and it's not even because it's like a negative thing, right? It's, this happens every year and we act like it's something different. And, you know, just life is getting more expensive on a daily basis. So it's, you know, of course those things are going to get more expensive. It's, I i don't know, to me, it's a it's a it's a nothing story. It's, i do I like that prices, you know, are going up? Of course not.

Speaker: You know, nobody wants to pay more for things. But, you know, it's also the reality. You know, Disney's a for-profit, publicly traded company. That's what you're going to get. You know, it's they're going to raise prices. And it's not like, you know, nobody else is raising prices. You know, i just, I don't know.

Speaker: Yeah. I just, I just, it's like, why why talk about something whenever everybody else is talking about? Like, that's the only thing they have to talk about. I mean, yeah. like And I agree with you there because realistically, like you said, you know, if if a price increase is going to like deal break me going to Disney, like if it's if it's trending that close to like I can't afford this or like like them upping the price of something is I can't afford this, then I shouldn't be going in the first place. oh yeah like Like that.

Speaker: That's the thing for me is it's like, yeah, you know, the price increases, like you said, they happen all the time. And it's it's pretty consistent. It's been consistent for decades at this point with Disney. You know, you know they they do it and, you know, it's of no big surprise to any of us. And like you said, it's not that, that you know, either of us are happy about it. It's just kind of like, well, whatever. Like, you know, it's... Yeah, like, what what are we what are we going to say about it? You know, that's insightful. It doesn't need to be a talking point every six months, which... I know. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, i I agree with you there. Yeah. Listen, I get it. I mean, the last i said this the last time I was there, i you know, I felt like the prices are still more reasonable than a lot of places, you know, and for some things, you know, other things are a little crazy. Right. But like, you know, we got a lunch, you know, for like 12 bucks. Like I can't get a lunch for 12 bucks anywhere near where I live. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. You know, I actually i did see somebody did a YouTube video where they did like.

Speaker: the math breakdown on like the price per hour yeah of like Disney versus going to major sporting events. Oh gosh. yeah Those are crazy. Yeah. Well, but, but that's the funny thing is like, you know, when when you, when you put it in the scope of like, Hey, there is like all kinds of hobbies out there. There's all kinds of things that people are interested in and and that, you know, participate in.

Speaker: Nobody talks about, you know, going to your favorite sports team that yeah that, you know, the tickets to get in are expensive. For some people, it it is a trip. So, you know, you're traveling to another city to watch a team play.

Speaker: And it's like, you know, for for the cost of like a couple of hours of entertainment, because because the thing is is, you know, going to a sporting event, it's like you're, you know, most of them, you know, run, you know, three-ish hours.

Speaker: and then yeah yeah And then you're done. like Like, it's not like you can spend an entire day there. Whereas at Disney, it's like, hey, you know, if... You know, if I get in the door at, you know, at the beginning of the day, I have the entire day to be there and do all this stuff. Do all this stuff, yeah. You know, obviously understanding that it's like, yeah, there are extra things that cost money in the park. But the at the end of the day, the the cost per hour is still not, it's not unreasonable. It's just people balk at...

Speaker: you know, the up the upfront charge, I think is the thing. It's it's like, yeah you know, but but it's also weird too because like, you know, if if I'm paying for tickets to a to a hockey game or something, you know, I'm balking at that too. But but I guess the the thing about that is that you can, let or right the the common thing at least here is ah the the nosebleed section, which is, yeah or i I mean, i I stopped myself because I realized I don't know if that's a common term, but you know what, though? It is, though. But it that exists that you're so far in a different way. it exists at Disney in a different way. Right. Like there's all of these ah all the nosebleeds are compared to like, you know, the lower deck. It's it's like a class system within it. And it's the same thing with Disney. Right. You can just buy tickets and go.

Speaker: great. You can do the step up of that, which is buying lightning lanes, you know, like a lightning lane that passes. Right. And that's, that's the next year. Right. And then, then there's another higher tier, which is the getting the, getting a plaid and, you know, skipping all the lines, you know, after hours doing, yeah so it still exists in a way there, right. It's just in a different, I mean, even just, you know, how is staying on property, you get, you know, benefits over just somebody that does it, you know, it's all of those things all factor in and, ah you know,

Speaker: I don't know. sure It's funny. I said we weren't going to talk about it. Now we're talking about it. But well let's but think I think we're talking about from a different lens of, you you know, instead of going like, yes, you you know, Disney raised prices. Oh, my gosh. Like, it's so terrible. It's like, you know, let's be realistic about it. Yes, Disney raised prices. Is it are they unreasonable?

Speaker: No, I don't think they are yet. i I won't say that they'll ever not be unreasonable. You know, you know, there may hit a breaking point for even for me where it's like that's way too expensive for now. of course. Yeah. it's it is still very much reasonable, like, you know, comparatively to a lot of other things in this world that I could spend my money on as a hobby, which, and yeah and just to be clear, I'm not like, I'm not saying all of this to like bash on like, you know, you shouldn't go to, you know, hockey games or baseball games or whatever. It's like, hey, that's,

Speaker: That's your thing. You know, I think I'm more annoyed at people that like I and I think I know where you're coming from with this is that, you know, there's so many people that, you know, the as soon as the price increases come out, you get the army of people that are just constantly, you know, complaining about, you know, Disney's Disney's gouging. Disney's doing this. It's like, no, they're they're doing what they're to doing. like Yeah, it's yeah like. I mean, i that's the other thing i I, you know, as just general costs go up, right? Like, and actually, you know, and we, the other thing we didn't cover, by the way, at all, which again, I'm fine with is, is Chapek's book coming out. Right. And there was a lot of things he said in there.

Speaker: And, you know, but one of the things he said, though, he talked about this is, you know, raising prices is, you know, allows you to pay people more and allows you to build new things. And, you know, like and and understand, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, of course, Disney makes a huge profit. But again, they're probably traded company yeah as a business.

Speaker: Your goal as a business is to ah make more money and to make your shareholders happy and make your stock price go up. That's what you do. And, what she you know, Disney realizes that, they you know, that they have a product that people want. And, you know, even as ah you the attendance attendance figures for for, you know, recently came out and and Universal went down a little bit and and Disney actually still went up.

Speaker: They're still still going up now because the other part of this, too, is, yeah, they raise prices, but they also have massive discounts on stuff all the time. This whole summer they had free dining for for kids, you know, right? Like so they do those kinds of things while they always, you know, they raise the baseline. They control prices still through promotions and things like that.

Speaker: Right. Like so, you know, I don't know. it To your point, Trevor, like, because ah what I part of the reason why this came up is because I happened upon like, I don't know, there was like a video or something and I just made the mistake of like looking at a comment. And then, you know, course, all the comments on the price increase videos are like, like, well, stop going. And that'll, you know, then they they won't do it anymore. And it's like, no, they're going to keep doing it. That's as long as they can keep raising prices and people keep going. And, you know, it's it's.

Speaker: They're going to keep doing that. And and if people aren't going, then they're going to discount stuff. And that's what they do. That's that's how how it works. You know, i don't want to pay more for anything ever.

Speaker: Right. I don' i i don't. i'm I'm actually a pretty cheap person and I always look for the best deal for things. But I also understand that, you know, Disney is building new things and expanding. And, you know, all of those things cost money.

Speaker: You know, you have to you have to pay for all those things. It's just reality. You know, So, I mean, i it's they believe it or not, they don't have unlimited money. you know like they They obviously are you know doing just fine as a company, but you know they they they do still need to to to make money. So, listen, i I get it. I understand why people get...

Speaker: all up in arms about it but it's like if you looked at like every blog and every like everything was about the pricing it's like okay we get it like where what do you want what do you want to do about it like you know like i i think there i'm reminded of this was a cartoon that i saw when i was a kid i'm pretty sure it was a looney tunes cartoon that it talked about supply and demand but of course it was done through a lens of like like you you know you know What an educational cartoon. It was, yeah. It actually, it was. And it actually, like, it made, it made sense. And, and like, believe or not, there was a lot of cartoons back then that were like, you know, it wasn't just like slapstick humor. There was actually like, you know, sometimes serious topics that were like woven into them in a way that, you know, you know, to make sense. And it was, yeah, I remember it was, it was like, it was like two or, you know, you know again, take it with a grain of salt. It was under the lens of like,

Speaker: ah It was two mice, one mice coming from another country and, yeah and yeah you know, the other one explaining like capitalism, which and, you know, I know that like capitalism as a whole, like there's there's flaws to it and everything. But the one part that that stuck with me was the explanation of supply and demand, which was.

Speaker: you know as long as As long as people want something and they'll pay for it, you know you can raise your prices to a point where the demand goes down and then you you find that sweet spot where like your price and your demand are you know pretty much evened out and you can you know you you can just keep functioning under that.

Speaker: I think the thing people don't want to acknowledge is that the reason that that Disney keeps increasing the prices is because there is demand. Because they can. And it's not like it's not hurting them to increase the prices. And the flip side of that, which, ah you know, I get it's hard to wrap your head around, is that...

Speaker: them raising the prices, you know, they're they're still making as much money. even Even, you know, the people that come back with the wall don't go. It's like, yeah, you don't go. They're still making the money, but they're doing less work.

Speaker: So they're they're actually getting, like, you know, they're getting less people in the door, but they're making more money, which means they don't have to pay as much to to run the park, to, you know, pay for for employees and stuff.

Speaker: And so it is raising prices is actually, in a weird way, a sense of cost savings because because the demand there still justifies them raising the prices. well again People don't want to hear this because everyone wants – they want Disney to be – um They want it to be the magical unicorn of vacations, meaning that it is, you know, priced, you know, well enough that, you know, you can take a Disney vacation whenever you want. It's never busy. It's never. Yeah. Like, you know, that's the other side of it, too. Yeah. Like they want all the boxes ticked. And it's like, well, you can't have it all. Like if you want it to be not busy, you need less people in the park. You need a means to get less people in the park, which

Speaker: Raising prices is a way to do it. Either that or you turn it into, hey, we have a limited capacity on the park. Every day we're going to run a lottery where, you know, we pick who goes into the park and, you know, and then you're standing at the gate like it's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory hoping that you get in. i mean, it's basically what they did after the pandemic, right? Right. The reservations. Yeah, yeah exactly. like like but But the thing about that is was it wasn't a lottery. No, no, it was reservation. Yeah.

Speaker: But imagine if they use that as a means of controlling people coming in, then you would be like, this is ridiculous. yeah You know, yeah you could spend an entire week there hoping that you get in one day because every day you got to sign up for the lottery, which that also kind of goes back to how the fast pass system was before, where it was like, you know, it was like a lottery hoping that you get what you, what you want. Right. Yeah.

Speaker: And so I, I see why, ah you know, I don't agree with a lot of the stuff JPEC has said from his book. I've i've read enough snippets yeah of it. I don't want to actually read his book because he seems bitter. he's and there's there's a lot of um There's a lot of dirty laundry airing and a lot of, frankly, yeah there's a lot of whining from somebody who makes as much money as he does. um It's a little too much whining. I'm just very wealthy. man like Like, yeah, for for like, like, oh, boohoo. wipe Wipe your tears with your golden parachute. Like, come on. Oh, man. So but so but that aside. But to your point, though, Trevor, is like, this is the thing that I always laugh about. Right. And I've said this before on the show.

Speaker: Yeah. Everyone talks about, you know, oh, well, Disney cost this 40 years ago. Okay, cool. How about if we make it cost that today and then see how much you like going to the parks? Because people, you you can't complain about it being too expensive and also being too busy, right? Because if it's too cheap, then it's going to be even busier and you're going to hate it even more. It'll be at capacity by 10 a.m. m every day and you'll never get in. Yeah. And i i again, I hate it because I do think everybody should get the opportunity to go, right? Like I want everyone and I don't want it to be just a thing for rich people. That's bad to me as well. But it's also, you know, you have to you have to control it in some way, right? and But it's it's again, it's the other piece too where we always talk about the the the fifth gate thing, right?

Speaker: Do you really want a fifth gate? I don't think you do. You think you do. But if you get that fifth gate, then you're going to be spending longer at the at the parks every time and you're going to have more money that you need to spend and things are going to be more expensive. Like you said, everyone thinks the fifth gate is a great thing. But then if it actually happened in reality, it would be, you know, would really modify how you have to do things. So, i you know, it's and one of those things where we think about just the beginning and not the consequence. You know, yeah the the fifth gate thing overlooks the fact that, you know, anytime you create a vacuum in a business like that.

Speaker: Yeah. People will fill in that vacuum. Of course, yeah. Which is, you know, you say, oh, you know, if there was a fifth gate, everyone would spread out. Well, no, because you're assuming that the same amount of people are are going to continue coming.

Speaker: If they open a fifth gate, it justifies them drawing more people in. More people. And the resorts will be busier. All of the parks will be busier because you'll just have more people in that area.

Speaker: And unless you're like somehow figuring out exactly when people are going to be where, you're never going to... um yeah it's never going to work out in your favor. It's just it like, yeah it'll always just draw more people to it, which like it's actually the opposite of people, you know, saying like, I wish Disney was, you know, you know, priced reasonably and not busy. Well, then you don't ever want them to open a fifth gate. You really don't. Well, I mean, i always think of the example of and in Disneyland Paris was not a fifth gate. But if you remember what happened when Disneyland Paris happened, they and it did very poorly.

Speaker: It put a strain on the rest of the company. Right. And so they had to cancel. They had to like cut the budget of a lot of different things. And it's the same thing with the fifth gate. If you built the fifth gate and it's not successful, it impacts everything else. Right. like Because they been spent billions of dollars on that. And I don't know how we got talking about the the fifth gate, beat but it's it's.

Speaker: It's all examples of these things where... Yeah, you have the... you know the the and and this is also a reason why i think Trevor and I both really disdained the clickbait stuff. you know And even even though it gave us a lot of attention that you know from the Joe Rody thing, like that was great and all, but at the same time, it was like this really salacious clickbait. And we were really laughing at some of the blogs and some of the things that they were writing because it was like, that's not... Blatching onto... Yeah, and it's just...

Speaker: You know, that kind of stuff drives me crazy because it's it's, you know, yeah, the price increases are the price increases. That's, you know what? you know i I just realized something, you know, as we're talking about price increases in the fifth gate, like ah this is just some food for thought for anybody listening to this. If you're really curious about what...

Speaker: what a fifth gate going bad could look like, look at the original opening of California Adventure. Oh, yeah. There you go Yeah. Because that that is actually a great example of, you know, they opened, it was a second gate in Disneyland. It wasn't, you know, but it's the same thing. They opened up a whole new space. But initially, when that space opened up, it was bad. Like, yeah, like they made a lot of bad choices. Yeah.

Speaker: There's, you know, there's lots of YouTube videos talking about the rides and like just the general, the the general flow of California Adventure. It took them years to get it to a place where it was like, like it was even justifiable being there for like a half day. Like it was, it was not a good thing. There's interesting things about that, though, too, because I think it was in the Imagineering story. They mentioned that that there was like three of the most popular attractions at the park were in California Adventure, but the park itself was not popular, like which is so weird. But, you know, yeah, because yeah even at that, leap you know, hoping that like one or two rides carry the whole thing, it doesn't work. Like that's kind of been like my argument about Hollywood Studios for the longest time. And and I will admit that, you know, it been

Speaker: Hollywood Studios has turned itself around, but there was a ah point in time where it was, you know, it was emulating very much what California Adventure did, where it had like one or two heavy hitters and the rest of the park was like nothing.

Speaker: Right? Yeah. So, you know, these are all things like, yes, this all stemmed from, you know, discussion of price increases. But I think it all kind of plays back into the same conversation where it's like, you you know, you you need to be careful what you actually wish for because yeah a lot of these like, you know, people complaining about price increases, it's like...

Speaker: there's a monkey's paw wish here that you don't realize that if you, if you say, well, I want it to be affordable, but I also want it to be this. It's like, yeah, then like if nobody's at the parks and it's affordable, Disney is going to be just like any other, like, yeah. um Like roadside theme park, right? Like, like your local theme park, which, you know, when you go there and you go, oh, you know, they, they, they tried, but it's not quite good enough. Well, because they didn't have the money to do,

Speaker: the the big thing that you wish they would do well how do they get the money well they gotta charge more for people but then like like it's all this like loop of it's not to not to reference not to reference a non-family friendly thing on our family friendly show but we it's the episode of all it's the episode of south park where cartman buys buys the the theme park right yeah You ever see that one? So he lets nobody in and then he realizes he has to pay for a ride mechanic. Right. So then he starts letting people in and has a certain price. Then he has to let more people in to pay for the security guard. and the it's It's literally that. Yeah. That is a a current reference that like me talking about the cartoon that I watched from when I was a kid. That that is like a yeah a current version of like an economics lesson in a cartoon. Exactly. It's that's how things work. If you want them to keep building new things and employing more people and doing more stuff, then things are going to cost more. That's how life works. Yeah.

Speaker: So anyway. Yeah. So all that said, because, you know. Yeah, because we're not going to talk about price increases, certainly not for 20 minutes. Yeah. well Well, I. It's my fault. It's my fault. Yeah. I mean, but you knew that because you you said before we started the show, you're like, I want to talk about this. Or you didn't say what it was, but you said you were going talk about something. And we knew we know that's how this goes. like Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I again, I don't want to like I'm not trying to say that anybody's opinion on this is wrong. Right. Like, that's not what I'm saying here.

Speaker: ah If you are really upset about price increases, I understand. i get it because it's hard enough to afford that, you know, as it is for a lot of people. And I if that puts it out of your range, I do feel genuinely terrible that that that that's what that what happened, you know, that you can't afford it anymore. That's awful. That stinks. I hate it for you. I really, really do.

Speaker: And i it's it's i I'm not trying to say that anybody's opinion is wrong on this or that you don't have a right to be upset about it. have You absolutely do. But you also have to understand the other side of this and and just how the the the business of anything works. And that it's just unfortunately how it is. I just don't.

Speaker: the It's interesting to me that it just becomes this yearly event ah with the blogs and with social media. you know, about these things. I, and I, I also just find it interesting that Disney's the only one that gets heat on this stuff. Like, i because i mean, I, I looked at going a universal and I was shocked at how expensive universal was.

Speaker: i mean, it's a different, yeah, it's a different kind of expensive. It's crazy. I mean, it's, but they never that kind heat, though. It's Express Pass that you. Yeah. Yeah, but they never get that, they never get that kind of, you know, and maybe as they, you know, as they grow and stuff, they will, but it's always just focused on Disney and never on Universal, which is funny to me, but.

Speaker: Disney's a bigger target. And. I guess. I will say this, you know, you know, for anybody that, you know, you know, talking about planning vacations and price increases and everything, know, For me personally, I like anytime I'm planning a vacation, I always have like a buffer of like 10 to 15% on my entire vacation, not just on like, you know, oh, well, only the park tickets or whatever. It's like,

Speaker: through my entire vacation, I always have that buffer for unplanned things. And that includes like, you know, changes in park tickets and stuff, because, you know, exactly to your point is, you you know, if you're planning, if you're planning a trip and you're like budgeting down to the penny, um,

Speaker: But, you know, if if you're doing it like 10 months out and going like, as long as everything stays exactly the way it is, this will work. It's like you can't you can't do that. You you can't plan a vacation like that. It just like you always have to have a buffer for you know, you know, weird events that happen because there is always weird stuff that happens. For you, especially too, because you have the currency thing. So in currency, you know, exchange rates can change a lot. So that, that it yeah, that, that is a big part of it for me too, is, you know, we, we plan. So even when I'm planning, like I'm, I'm doing my planning in U.S. funds,

Speaker: But, you know, I have to be cognizant of, like, what is the dollar doing? Or, like, I've actually had trips where we've had to change, like, room bookings because the dollar shifted enough that, you know, we couldn't justify paying for the room we wanted to get initially. so Yeah, yeah. So, you know, stuff like that does happen.

Speaker: But, ah you know, I guess... Like I said, yeah you know, Disney raising prices, though, it's like you can plan for that. You can you can make that assumption as part of your planning.

Speaker: ah But it feels like a lot – people that that get overly upset about it, I feel like they're not they're not planning or they're not having enough foresight to be like, well, you know, this trip is is six months out. If I haven't bought my tickets six months ahead of time, you know, are – you're you're kind of setting yourself up for like, you know, you get to the gate or yeah I mean, well, one, don't ever like, don't ever be that person that like, but like, sorry, if you're planning like way far out and you're like, oh, I'm just going to roll up and buy my tickets when I get there. It's like, don't, don't do that. It's a bad idea. But people don't plan, man. They really don't. They just don't. Yeah, I i don't get that. But I guess, again, that that's me personally. I'm not, you know, I'm not saying, know,

Speaker: I'm saying for me, it breaks my brain that people plan that way, that like like last minute is a thing. when When it comes to like something like Disney, like when it's a big trip like that, I don't i don't get ah you couldn't plan ahead, ah at least a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker: that That's me. I'm not. If if you do that, I'm not saying you're wrong. Yeah. I'm not saying you're wrong that you're wrong and I'm right. I'm saying it just doesn't work for me is all I'm saying. He's saying you're wrong. I know. No, Tom, I'm not. I'm not saying that. But you are, though. No, not you. Anyway, we don't do that until somebody is actually wrong about something.

Speaker: That's much true. ah So anyway, talking about actual news. yes i mean Let's talk about something a little positive now. because Yeah, we do try to keep it positive here, right? And that actually doesn't pay off, by the way. All the algorithms out there pay for negative so like we you know to find we need to find the positive algorithm. I'm sure there's one out there there. There is people looking for positive stuff. We just need to figure out where that is. I will say this. Trevor and i very frequently do things to our own detriment because of our own our own view on things ah being unwillingness to to be unethical. Yeah. Clickbaitiness of the Internet. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah It's 100% true, though, right? Because we we really we really disdain that that kind of thing. And we really want to just be – I id think it's unethical to be to do clickbait, honestly, just generally. so we and And it's to our own detriment. But at the same time, we'd rather nobody listen to this and still do things the right way. so Yeah. the The way we want to do things.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. so anyway, ah so we were talking about this, i don't know, last week maybe? that are Yeah. Or couple weeks ago? I don't i don't know. It was last week we we talked about Riviera hitting 95% so old Well, Disney rear or DVC really wants to get rid of the rest of those points, don't they? it's ah They are sending Riviera members specifically an email to do an ad. They have an add on offer of four dollars off per point when you add between 75 and 99 points, which is interesting because they usually don't do that low. Usually the add on incentives are at 100 points.

Speaker: Yeah. ah So I also think it's interesting. They actually straight up acknowledge that they are at 95 percent sold. um I mean, it's it's one of those things where, you know, it's it's a smart move. But I mean, they know how to do promotions. They're not.

Speaker: I mean, you know, they know what they're due But basically, you get up to four dollars off per point when you add between 75 to 99 Riviera points, which is credit of between three hundred dollars to three hundred and ninety six dollars. um ah Listen, I it's not a ton, especially when you're buying that many points. ah It's you know, but it's you're talking about taking yourself from ah from what? Seven if you buy 75 points from ah is seventeen thousand nine hundred and twenty five dollars, you know, and so you're saving three hundred dollars.

Speaker: but Yeah, but it's something. It's something. It is. and and And I feel like so the logic, I think, behind this. So we did something like this with Polly. We bought 75 points resale after we bought our initial contract.

Speaker: And the reasoning behind it was that that extra 75 points let us go up to a slightly better room type. ah that So, yeah, so it was it was one of those things where, you know, we were kind of looking at it and then just the timing of it. We were like, yeah, let's you know, let's get another 75 points.

Speaker: And that got us into a place where where it was like, oh, yeah, we can we can comfortably always stay at the room type we want to stay at. It's never like, you know, pushing pushing the line of, you know, oh, well, I need to cut back, you know, a day or two because I don't have enough points.

Speaker: the ah The thing about this for Riviera specifically is I like the fact that they're doing this for people that, you know, you know, pre-existing owners. And I think it's the same kind of logic is that it can just like it can push up your your point flexibility just that little bit higher. And but because it's direct as well for for people who own Riviera, that is, you know, points that you can use not just at Riviera, but across, you know, all of the Disney resorts, which Like, I know you're saying it's not, you know, you know, 300 to $396. Yeah, it's not a lot. But if you're already kind of on the fence about it, you know, obviously Disney is like they're they're kind of they're trying to push people over the edge that, you know, hey, let's get those last, you know, those last points sold.

Speaker: But I like the fact that they're trying to like offer it up to Disney. existing Riviera owners as an incentive instead of, um you know, they they could have just done like a blanket discount to everybody for this. And, and you know, you and like you said, you know, start with like, you know, 150 points, you know, here's your discount.

Speaker: But they're trying to like, you know, give give Riviera owners, I guess, a little bit more potential value out of it is how I see this, which I don't think is a bad thing. Like, i you know you know, we just finished talking about, like, you know you know, price increases and stuff. This is Disney, you know, you know to your point, they don't always...

Speaker: you know It's not always like an amazing discount, but they do offer things. They do offer, you know, sometimes, you know, you just have to be in the right place at the right time to get the offer. And this is one of those things, right? If you happen to be a Riviera owner and you're in the situation where you just need, you know, you know a few more points to go from, you know, a studio to a one bedroom for your stay, this might be the offer that pushes you over the edge for that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's i I do have to laugh a little bit, though, because it's i'm i'm I'm looking at what they sent out to people.

Speaker: And it says, as a thank you for making Disney's river Riviera Resort your home resort, DVC is pleased to extend to you a special add-on offer just for you. i just read that as like, as a thank you for being for having this as your home resort, we're making we're giving you an offer to give us more money.

Speaker: and Like, it's just, you know. Yeah. i it's like Yeah. It's just like ah of as a thank you, where here's an offer to pay us more. it does try to sound altruistic, but not. It does. Yeah, just kind of it's just kind of funny.

Speaker: um But to your point, yeah, listen, discounts are always good if you're buying, your you know, especially when you're buying direct. So I'm not going to poo-poo that. and And, you know, reading this article, they're actually reinforcing what I was saying is, you know, the the the offering between the, you know, 99 75 to points,

Speaker: does matter because like I said, you know, I've been in that situation where you don't need an extra 100 points, like 100 points is too much, right? like you Because then you end up, you ah you also don't want to be in a situation where, you know, you constantly have like an extra 30 or 40 points that you're not using because like, yeah, you can rent those out, but that becomes a pain if you're constantly carrying a balance of points that you're not able to use.

Speaker: Yeah. Because of of, you know, how your trips get structured. Right. So, so it's nice that they're, they're, they're trying to find that sweet spot of, ah you know, you know, giving people, um giving Riviera owners specifically some options. Right. Yeah. so Yeah.

Speaker: ah So I like it. Yeah, that's the only DVC thing we have for this week. But um there there were some other news ah out there. We'll move on to to Disney Cruise Line because, you know, because a lot of our listeners are really into cruises. They really, our listeners are trying hard to get you on a cruise. I know they are. I did but i did see the comment about like, yes, i we are aware that there are meds that can be taken to alleviate motion sickness.

Speaker: i I know it's probably getting annoying for you guys. I'm sorry. if but Yeah. Well, no no, it's fine. And, you know, I'll just I'll just put it out there. You know, I I've had these similar conversations with my wife.

Speaker: the The concern, though, for both of us is we've tried various motion sickness meds and it's not everything works for everybody. Yeah, of course. And the hard part is is that there's no there's no way to test these things without actually getting on the ship. And actually doing it. yeah Yeah. If there was somewhere where like, hey, you know, we can test motion sickness, you know you know, try these meds, do something where I don't have to get on a ship for three days and spend money to be on a ship for three days. Yeah.

Speaker: Then, you know, we could try it. But the problem always is that there... there I've yet to find a boat simulator or anything where I could like, and and also have that. They need to have that somewhere that that needs to like exist. Yeah. But then also the other side of that is like convincing my wife that, you know, you know, Hey, you might get motion sick, but let's try this. Right. Let's try it anyway. Yeah. I understand.

Speaker: ah like her, her aversion to like jumping in on this stuff is i get it legitimate and I'm not going to, i've I understand for her what it is and, you know, that it it's not it's not something that is like, oh, you're fine an hour later. Yeah, yeah, it really messes you up. so I get it.

Speaker: And that's why I don't want to be like, come on, it'll be fine, let's just go, right? yeah so No, i I totally get it. But I hear you guys being encouraging on, you know, i i think it's just that they think you guys would really love it. And they here's the thing about Disney Cruise Line is it's a little addicting and you kind of want to, like, tell everyone. you know And I know that it's one of these things, too, where my my wife and i we've very much had this happen over the years where you You do something that you were kind of on the fence about and you're like, oh, you know, maybe it's not that good. Or, you know, I tell myself that it's like, you know, going um going to, you know, actually, i mean, you know, honestly, the Polynesian was that. is you know we Before we went to the Polynesian, we were staying at other resorts. You know, we've we've stayed at All Stars. We've stayed at Caribbean Beach, all that kind of stuff. And we were like, these are fine.

Speaker: And then we went to the Pauly and then it was like, okay, we can't go back to the other ones now. And I know that yeah same thing going on a cruise could be the same way where it's like you go on and it's like, okay, this is it. Right.

Speaker: But yeah. Yeah. i said that before we went on our first Disney cruise. I said, i know what's going to happen here. Like, i i remember what happened because we did the same thing as you, Trevor. Right. We stayed in all the all all stars and they were fine. Right. They were place to sleep.

Speaker: You know, a place to sleep, get dressed, take a shower. Right. They're fine. And. Then you stay at deluxe resort and you're like, okay, well, now I can't go back. Like, you just can't. yeah It's hard. Right? And it's the same kind of thing. It's like we did the the Disney cruise we're like, okay, well, this was amazing. Now we can't. and Now we're down with Disney cruise people. We can't make make that Because you did you did, what was it? It was it like a carnival or something before that? We did ah we did a Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean, right? A couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, you so you did the same thing where you got to like –

Speaker: you You tasted what a cruise looks like and then you did yeah the cruise. Yeah. It it is a pretty stark difference. I mean, not to say, you know, if you go on something new like royal Royal Caribbean ships, they're very, very, very nice. It's it's just a it's a different, Disney's doing a very different thing, I feel like, than everybody else is. It's just a very different feel. and yeah Yeah. But anyway. and It's hitting you at a right time in your life with your family and everything. but Yeah. if It very much is. ah But anyway, so we got the announcement today. This was announced a while ago, but we got more details. So Disney's doing something kind of interesting here where and it's not really that interesting, I guess, because it's it's the existing thing they're already doing with with with Tokyo, ah with Tokyo Disney.

Speaker: um Which is, and I don't know how many people know this. if If you listen this show, we've said this before, but Disney does not own Tokyo Disney Resort. they they ah There's a company called Oriental Land Company that owns and and operates Tokyo Disney Resort.

Speaker: And basically they pay Disney for the you know for a license to all of the characters and and also their expertise in Imagineering. So Imagineering still does all the stuff for them, but Disney doesn't own it.

Speaker: Obviously they get paid. Right. And they were doing that with Tokyo Disney Resort, but now they've extended that to cruise ships, which is a really interesting thing. This was before Disney started their own cruise line.

Speaker: They used to like license their characters to other cruise companies to, to do like a Disney cruise line, but it wasn't Disney, right? They were just a cruise with Disney characters on it. You know what i mean?

Speaker: And then Disney was like, well, why are we doing that? We can just do it ourselves. And that's, you know, kind of how Disney cruise line started. Right. So, What we found out, though, now is that the ah first Disney cruise ship that's going to sail from Japan, again, this is going to be owned by the Oriental Land Company, is going to be called the Disney Imagination.

Speaker: And this is going to ah go in spring of 2029. So you still got a couple of years to to I mean, they haven't even started building this yet um because usually it's like, ah you know, that that's not a three year process, a little less than that.

Speaker: um But it's going to sail from Tokyo. And from what I saw, it's going to be kind of like the adventure where it's just going to go out to sea and come back again, you know, is fine.

Speaker: Right. I mean, yeah ah you you don't always need to have stops yeah if the cruise ship is the destination. Listen, I go on the cruise ships. I go on a cruise ship because I like to disconnect, you know, from the world.

Speaker: And I like to just, you know, it's all just about eating and relaxing and and enjoying yourself. Like, that's what I go on a cruise for. I don't need to stop at, you know, ports for that. Now, given when I go to Alaska, I'm excited to stop at ports and check out Alaska. But, you know, like when we go down to the Caribbean, it's like, okay, everything is like a tourist trap. So I'd rather just stay on the ship and, you know, eat and drink and relax and, you know, go in the pool.

Speaker: But anyway, ah so the only other details, though, Trevor, that we have is that ah the the Little Mermaid is going to be on the stern alongside Sebastian. It's a Sebastian and friends.

Speaker: It looks just like a shell of some sort, though. Oh, I see what he's doing. Sebastian's holding a shell filled with paint and Ariel's painting the back of it. I see.

Speaker: I got this. Yeah. Yeah. That's what's happening here. Uh, yeah, but that's pretty much all the details we have, but yeah it just was worth noting. ah so that'll be interesting to see how that goes with, uh, cruises going out of Tokyo.

Speaker: Yeah, the and yeah, like you said, the the interesting thing for me about this is, like you said, the the fact that Oriental Land Company is running it, um i know the itinerary is going to be similar to an existing ship, but I'm curious how different this ship will be from other Disney Cruise Line ships in that, like, the from from everything I've been seeing, you know, as we've been covering, you know, cruise ships, I have been paying attention to, there is like,

Speaker: There's general like templated things that that Disney does on each of the each of the ships, right? yeah Yeah. But this, like you said, because this is not being operated by Disney, I'm wondering how many of those, and I'm using air quotes, rules that that Disney has followed with um with, you know, how these ships are are made could be broken because but like even going to Tokyo Disney,

Speaker: Yes, it is still, you know, it is Disneyland. They still have a lot of things that you would see in Disneyland, but there's also a lot of things that are very different in how they operate. And like, like even things down to, um, you know, if, if you're watching the parade, you don't stand, you sit, they actually, um the they'll go so far. my My brother told me this when he went, um,

Speaker: but Like people will bring like, like a blanket or something to sit on and they'll all sit along the parade route. um My brother and his family went to sit down and one of the, one of the cast members working there, they didn't want them to just sit on the concrete. They actually took a, they unfolded like paper maps and they're like, here, sit on this. Like, like as it's like just a cultural thing. Yeah. Yeah. Like, but.

Speaker: Like that's something that is very specific to that resort, which makes me wonder what things will be specific to this cruise ship because it is going out of Tokyo. Right. yeah So yeah I think that's ah that strikes me as interesting, even though, like you said, I'm not it's not that I'm going to be on it any, you know, maybe i will someday, maybe never. But um I'm curious to see what it'll look like as it gets closer to actually sailing.

Speaker: I'm going to guess just based on how Tokyo Disney is, i feel like the the ship that they're going to put out is going to be like a straight up duplicate of one of the other ships that they have.

Speaker: Like, that's just what my guess is. For simplicity's sake? Yeah. just because I mean, if you look at, like, what to I mean, Tokyo disney like at Disneyland was basically a copy of Disneyland. I mean, it it was just a copy.

Speaker: Right. Essentially. And I could see them doing kind of the same thing for this. Because Disney doesn't want to give them their absolute best, I don't think. They'll just want to, you know, and a the newest and greatest, I guess I should say. Not the best, but, like, the newest and greatest thing. You know what i mean? They're going to give them the thing that they already have, and that's going to be fine.

Speaker: I think. But i don't i I see your point with that I see it as, you know, you know, they they want to give them something that is maintainable, I guess. So yeah so like to your point, yeah you know, I guess, like I said, yeah, there is the cultural differences. But I also get like with Tokyo Disney, the reason that it was a ah like a copy paste of Disneyland was that they already had the know how on ho on how to maintain everything there.

Speaker: yeah Whereas it like they've done stuff in the parks like in in in Florida and California where it's like something didn't quite work, but then you have Imagineers who can like re yeah you know look at it, fix things, change things, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker: I can see where that's more difficult doing it overseas. And I feel like, yeah, for something like a cruise ship, if they go and do it like completely different and it doesn't work... um I mean, you know Oriental Land Company wants to make sure that it's something that they can run. They don't want to you know have it bomb on them, which means, yeah, you know you know playing it safe does make more sense because then they know that it's you know a cruise ship that they can run yeah without you know weird yeah you know so stuff malfunctioning or you know you know not working the way that they they think it should. So I...

Speaker: Yeah. But I get, you know, wanting to say like, oh, you know, they're not going to give them their best. i I disagree with that statement only because of the fact that it's not the best doesn't always mean newest.

Speaker: Sometimes I think it's, you know, did the stuff that Disney has done tried and true can be their best stuff, too. I shouldn't say best. I should say newest and greatest. Like, cause they're doing, this is the last wish class ship and that's, they're moving on from the wish class. Right. So it's, it's, you know, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. just There you go Yeah.

Speaker: So anyway, uh, what, but I will, I do want to say though, one of my, one of my favorite, I know I keep bringing up the imaginary story, but there's there's a there's a part in that where they're talking about Tokyo Disneyland and the and how it came about.

Speaker: And I love the story because it's really funny. It's basically the guy that wanted to build it ah kept bothering Disney about about wanting to do this, right? And they Disney had no desire to build a ah park in Tokyo. Yeah.

Speaker: And they kept bothering him and bothering him. And so eventually, I forget if it was the, I think it was either the CEO or whoever said, all right, well, to you know, tell him that we'll do it if they pay for everything and give us a cut.

Speaker: And like, he could just saying it to like, because he thinks it'll make him go away. yeah And then the guy comes back and says, all right, that sounds good. Let's do this is Okay, well, now we got to do it, I guess.

Speaker: So anyway, yeah I just thought that was I think it just shows like, oh, you you were serious. You really want to do this. Yeah. Yeah. i mean Because, what of course, like, why would you, you know, if you you're you're saying that to them, like, oh, you pay for everything. And on top of that, you're going to give me a cut of it.

Speaker: And of course, who's going to say yes to that? Right. And on this yeah then they did. So. Yeah. I mean, clearly clearly the person who was asking that knew they had a plan and they knew that, you know, even them paying for it, it was going to be profitable.

Speaker: So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway. um Yeah. So, you know, do this' been really since it's not even Halloween, we're going to talk about Christmas stuff. Is that? Yeah. Yeah. We've been talking about Christmas stuff. This is a quick one, though, because they've just been releasing like holiday merch and like little like little pieces, you know. And in fact, I think we've actually seen some of these, even though this is a post from um the October 12th, because there's there's some, you know, stuff I've seen on here and there's nothing like really all that exciting. There's like matching family pajamas. And yeah, I feel like I've seen these pajamas like. Yeah, they're it's.

Speaker: I get their pajamas, but they look just so samey to like every other pair of pajamas I've ever seen. The only thing that stands out to me on this page, by the way, is down in the ornaments. And the one I like the most is the stitch one that's all the way to the left because it's the Mickey. I was going to point that out. Yeah. So it's the standard Mickey bobble thing, right? You have the two smaller. Mickey yeah. Yeah, the Mickey ears. Yeah.

Speaker: But with the Stitch one, one of the ears is ripped off and Stitch is there instead holding up the other ball of the ear. And that to me is hilarious. I love that.

Speaker: Because it's just kind of like up it's like what Stitch would do. And it's also just like upending, you know, like the ah the the traditional ah Disney Mickey thing.

Speaker: Ornament, right? There's also another stitch ornament there too where he's Santa, but I prefer the one where he's ripped my feet off. we We have a Santa stitch ornament like that one, but yeah, the the the mickey or the the the Mickey ears with stitch on it. Yeah, I agree. that That's...

Speaker: I have to buy that one. I have to buy it. Yeah. I love that kind stuff. I even like, you know, there's a Tink one behind or, you know, the green one where, you know, Tinkerbell's sitting on the on the ear as well. like it Like, I know that those are like, they're they're kind of doing like a play on those those Mickey ears that, you know, we've all seen those forever. You know, it's just like a basic Mickey ear ornament.

Speaker: I like that they're doing creative stuff with it. i I wish that they would do more stuff with where like the characters are like interacting with the item like that, like how Stitch is. I agree. Because I feel like there's so many different ways you can play that, right? like Yeah. theres Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I like that. The other ones that are actually kind of throwing me for a loop are these duck ones. which Yeah, that's the whole duck thing. It's the whole duck thing. Well, well it's it's not even the rubber ducks. These are like little plush ducks.

Speaker: And the selection of characters is crazy. yeah like I didn't even clock what it was at first, but now that I'm looking at it it's like you have Sorcerer Mickey, you have Stitch Duck, you have Tinkerbell, which is all like pretty normal. And then, hey, why not throw in Powerline from a Goofy movie and Darkwing Duck?

Speaker: just Let's think about that for a minute. That's, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. i mean, i I didn't think I wanted Powerline duck ornament.

Speaker: And now that I'm saying it out loud, it kind of downs it sounds insane, but I kind of want it. ah Yeah. Because Goofy movie is cool. Like i I like a Goofy movie and it's.

Speaker: I feel like they've been leaning into that movie more lately. Yeah, they have been. Like it's been making a comeback for sure. I mean, yeah you know, it's it's, know, rightfully so a good movie. I like the fact that they're like leaning on the power line character, which is such like a he's really a minor character in the movie.

Speaker: But it's funny how much like everything is like leaning towards that. he's he's minor but like yeah kind of iconic right like yeah yeah i yeah i guess i mean the the songs he does stick right so i guess that's yeah that's why yeah oh now buying stitch ornaments my daughter will absolutely freak out over this by the way that stitch ornament lights up too Oh, it does. It does. Yeah. Year one does. Yeah. So the Mickey year one does. It has. So it has the little stitch paw prints on it and the the light. There's a light inside and those paw prints are actually clear. So it it lights up the paw prints. So wait. So all of these then have light up effects. I think so. Yeah, I think so.

Speaker: OK, that's you know, I'm going to say this again ah because, you know, I get that the doing animated GIFs is complicated and stuff, you know. yeah Yeah. Really, it's not. It's not that hard. I've like.

Speaker: I'm not even good at it and I've made animated gifs out of things before, but like Disney Parks blog, like show some animation of these things because it would sell like, like if you just showed that lighting up, I would be like, o that I want that. Like, yeah like, like, cause that's honestly the They're doing themselves a disservice because, you know, as we were talking about, yeah I look them like, oh, this is just like, you know, the Mickey ears ornament.

Speaker: Yeah. But seeing that it lights up or, you know, you know, finding out that it lights up, it's like, oh, wow, that's okay. You've got my attention. Right. Yeah. But looking at the static picture doesn't do that. And it's a website. You can animate stuff.

Speaker: We've been doing it since the 90s. Like. Angel fire. Yeah. you know Yeah, yeah. Geocities, Angel Fire. Come on, people. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, man. We just we just lost like half our audience there. No, no, no. I think some of our audience knows. If your kids are confused, you know you know you can regal them with tales of you know the old internet and then you know their eyes will glaze over and they'll stop listening to you. Okay, whatever, Dad. Yeah, but this is for you if if you. If you knew what Angel Fire and Geocities were, tell Disney to animate their stuff on their website. Yeah.

Speaker: I gave my daughter a hard time about something the other day with her tablet. And she goes, oh, yeah. She's like, how did you deal with your tablet when you write when you were a kid? And I was like, kid. like I'll tell you how I dealt with my tablet. I held it upside down and shook it because it was an Etch-A-Sketch. Yeah, that's exactly right. here That's how you reboot it That's funny. Yeah, that's how you restart it. um All right. We should do our ad. Yeah.

Speaker: That's crazy. Yeah, go ahead. All right. Hold on let me Let me clear my Etch-A-Sketch so I can... Get it together. Yeah. All right. This week, ah the episode is brought to you by DVC Rental Store, which is a keyholder vacations company that offers magical vacations at incredible value.

Speaker: Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% of the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation.

Speaker: And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points. Want to learn more? Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVC-RENT. That's 382-7368. And when you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you.

Speaker: All right. um So this is an interesting one. I'm not going to, you know, part of me wants to call it reckless speculation, Trevor, but I'm not going I'm not going to. I'm not going to subject you to that today. Okay. I mean, it's a permit.

Speaker: Yeah, so it's not, I mean, we're speculating on what the permit is, but. Yeah, that's fair. Here's the thing, Trevor. You're not going to hire a playground company, a company that builds playground equipment to do anything other than build the playground, right? I mean, what else are you going to hire them for? That's a good, I'm trying to figure out a reason why, but yeah, I mean, okay, but let's let's talk about what this this permit is and who's involved in it, first of all. Because I think that'll help. All right, yeah.

Speaker: So the permit is for the former location of the Stage 1 company store, which is the Muppets store that was demolished in Muppets Courtyard last year. um so So this is inside of mon so Monstropolis. So yeah the contractor that is on the permit is a company called Landscape Structures, Inc., which specializes in a variety of playground equipment.

Speaker: So to your point, why would you have a contractor that specializes in playground equipment if you weren't going to make a playground? That's what i'm saying.

Speaker: Yeah. Also, yeah in addition to that, not having a playground in Monstropolis would be insane. just yeah Just putting that out there. Like like of all the places in in the Hollywood Studios, like, i mean, us arguably, Toy Story Land needed a playground too, but not putting one in on Monstropolis would be insane.

Speaker: I think it would be great to have one. And I'm just looking at the concept art here, by the way. There's no playground in the concept art. However, the spot where that store was does have like some gardens and landscaping and what looks like maybe like a bus stop or something. i don't know what that's supposed to be.

Speaker: yeah But you see what I'm talking about? Yeah, I do. But I'm also wondering, too, because like how they did the... ah um What is that in the new building where Animation Courtyard is? um Oh, my gosh. I forget every time. Right? like I can't remember. the The old Star Wars launch, but you all know what I'm talking about. um it's I forgot this last episode, and then I looked it up, and I was like, oh, yeah, you're a moron. You were should remember that. And I still can't remember.

Speaker: ah Okay, I'm going to look it up here as talk. Well, because it's going to drive us crazy if we don't. yeah i i need to i need to i don't know why I keep forgetting, and it's really annoying me that I keep forgetting. a Magic of Disney Animation. Ah, there it is. Yes. It it feels like it should easy to remember that. but that's That doesn't roll off the tongue as well as part of it. its Okay, that's fair. That's fair. But okay, so so anyway, back back to Monstropolis.

Speaker: So they've they've done an indoor playground of sorts in Magic of Disney Animation. Hmm. I'm wondering, like because like you said, it's not in the concept art.

Speaker: It is viable for them to do an indoor playground. And I think and i've I've watched some stuff on this um or I've seen a couple of different YouTubers talking about like in Florida, you know, the feasibility of theme parks um in relation to bad weather. Right. like Like there are certain theme parks that, you know, if you're in, you know,

Speaker: if you're in Epic Universe, for example, the vast majority of the park is closed if if it's bad weather. Yeah, I've heard one of the big criticisms of Epic Universe is is that, exactly, is that they don't have indoor stuff. So, you know, in Florida, exactly it rains a lot, right? I mean... Yeah, and and and looking at Hollywood Studios, like, Hollywood Studios actually has quite a lot of indoor attractions. Mostly indoor stuff, I feel like. yeah I'm trying to think what even closes in bad weather. Yeah. Slinky Dog Dash. That's about it, right? I mean. um I wouldn't be surprised if they're looking at doing an indoor playground as part of Monstropolis because, yeah, it does offer that, um ah you know, it offers a place for kids to go.

Speaker: Also, yeah you know, whether it's, you know, bad weather or if it's really hot, it gives you a place to send your kids that is cool and, um you know,

Speaker: Or like, you know, you know, it's out of the heat, but also somewhere where kids can burn off steam. And I would think with somewhere like one straw place, you do need to have that. Like if there's going to be a lot of kids in the space, you need somewhere like even even for all the walking you do in a place like like Disney, your kids still need to burn off steam at a playground every once in a while.

Speaker: I have noticed this trend with with Disney, too, is they have one of the things they have listened to is that people want more open spaces in the parks where the kid where kids can just kind of run around and do whatever, right? And they did that with Animation Courtyard, right? Like, they not only put a playground on the inside, but they just created a lot of open space where people can just, like, sit on the grass and relax for a few minutes. You know what i mean? Like, it's... And they're doing more and more of those things. So it wouldn't shock me if they do that in Monstropolis. And because Monstropolis is supposed to be a city, you know, there could be a public park in the city that has a has a as a playground. But I mean, they've been doing this at Epcot at the food festivals now for a lot for a while where they have these playgrounds. My daughter loves it every time we go and they have those. She loves running around because they're usually pretty non-traditional playgrounds. They have different stuff, you know, and it's...

Speaker: it It is always a cool thing. and And to your point, there's a lot of cool stuff you could do with Monsters, Inc. and with the play with the playground, you know? Oh, yeah. like Like, I mean, just, you know, if you go and watch the movies, like, everything that you assume is, like, day-to-day will be, like, some kind of monster twist on it, right? Like, like and like you said, even even to the point of a playground, you know, things that...

Speaker: would normally look or, yeah you know, ah I'm thinking of like, you know, like the monkey bars instead of it was like, you know, like tentacles from like a a monster of some sort, right? Like, yeah I could see them doing all kinds of cool stuff with a, with a ah playground. And like I said, I think,

Speaker: Whether it's indoor outdoor, i think it needs to be there. I'm glad that, you know, Disney is clearly considering this. I'm putting, excuse me, I'm putting it on record. I think it's going to be an indoor playground. That's just kind the vibe that I'm getting from this. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker: right. Well, we'll have to see what happens with that. I like that. I like stuff like that. Well, because even like Tropical Americas, they're putting a playground there, too. i mean they're going to have a playground. And it's a thing that they're building into things, which I like. I mean, I know. I just think it's a cool thing, especially with as a parent of a young kid.

Speaker: So this next piece of news I find more interesting than anything. This is Yeah. Yeah. Where did you find this? So um Disney and Lightstorm are collaborating on an avatar walkthrough, which I don't know what that is actually going to be. So like walking through the queue, but.

Speaker: more stuff to look at. They're saying it's a multi-sensory experience. ah called And it's called Guardians of what, Iwa? I don't know the i don't know Avatar well, so if if that's wrong, you know. Iwa, or no, yeah, Iwa is the awa the spirit of the like the the tree of life that they're all connected to, is or like their deity of sorts, I guess. it's not It's not a person, but they they refer to it as Iwa.

Speaker: So it a it says it's an immersive walkthrough and promises a seamless blend of live performance art, captivating narrative, and state-of-the-art immersive technology. And so you walk through ah you walk through a rainforest and a coastal reef environment where, again, state-of-the-art interactive installations allow you to engage with pandoia Pandora and flora and fauna.

Speaker: As you travel deeper into the world of Pandora through these multi-sensory experience environments, the experience culminates in a live acrobatic show celebrating the power of connection and spirit of life itself.

Speaker: This looks very Cirque du Soleil-ish to me. yeah Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. And by the way, this is going at Niagara Falls, I think I saw is where it's going. Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. Niagara Falls. Yeah. on yeah yes Niagara Falls, Canada. So that's cool. Is it on the Canada side or is on the... Which... Do we do we know? I'm... So it's ah the production showcases creativity, andnov innovation innovation, and world-class talent that Canada has to offer. Yeah, it's being funded by the the Government of Canada's Creative Export Canada program. Okay, so yeah that is so yes. Okay, you're right. yeah I wasn't sure. I didn't see that part. I missed that.

Speaker: What I'm interested more in it about this, though, is... Is this are they doing this as a testing ground for other things?

Speaker: Meaning, ah you know, are is is this could this end up being what is at Disney Springs instead of Cirque du Soleil, where Disney owns it instead of, you know, having an out outside company do it or.

Speaker: an expansion to, you know, Pandora or whatever they're building it and in Disneyland for Avatar. Like, i they're licensing this out, so they still own it.

Speaker: They can, I assume, they'll probably be able to do this elsewhere if they want to. I'm just curious if this is more, if this is a way for them to test some new Avatar-related things for the next things that they're doing with with Avatar.

Speaker: So, I... I can see that line of thinking, but I actually don't see this going beyond what's in Niagara Falls. Um...

Speaker: the reason for that is it's two things. One, Niagara Falls, I like, they've been really pushing tourism and advertising. Yeah. it's like it's yeah It's not just a tourist trap. They're actually like, they're, they're building, they're trying to make it into like a, yeah yeah not, not ah quite on the same scale as Orlando, but like,

Speaker: I guess maybe closer to like um like Pigeon Forge, I guess. Like, like ah like you know, ah a tourist destination. But it's also, um you know, being in Ontario and being being where it is, um they they can do more year-round stuff than a lot of other places in Canada.

Speaker: And... um And yeah yeah, you know, obviously that they're trying to attract shows like this. um What I feel like this is reminding me of, like, i know you're saying like, oh, this could be a replacement for Cirque du Soleil.

Speaker: This actually is reminding me more of um in in Epic Universe, there was a show called Cirque du Arcanu, which is... um it's It's the same kind of thing where like like the end of it is you you watch a stage show, but there's like like there's a pre-show and there's there's stuff going on in the queue and everything. that This feels like the same kind of thing where like the the whole the whole thing front to back, like, you know you know, waiting for the show, but also um like everything going on in whatever the space is, is meant to be an attraction in and of itself. And that's why they're saying like,

Speaker: it's a walkthrough thing. and And like I'm seeing from the pictures and everything, it's like, they've got like some dangly ropes, which are meant to look like the, you know, some of the stuff that they see in the, in the, um, the bioluminescent caverns and everything in, in Avatar.

Speaker: So I see this as You don't think they could take pieces of this and bring it to the parks though? I mean, i They could, but ah what I could see this being a template for is just building out um larger shows and, you know, figuring out how to, like, it it won't necessarily be an Avatar thing. It'll just be more of interactive entertainment, right? Okay.

Speaker: Like, i I don't see them wanting to necessarily copy-paste this into somewhere in Disney Springs, but I could see them taking it as, like, oh, let's... You know, Cirque du Soleil, you know, we could take that and enhance Cirque du Soleil, but under something else, right? Like, like i don't see i don't see them picking the IP as an avatar going forward.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So that that's what I get from it. Like, I've noticed this because I've seen, like, you know, from Epic Universe, there has been a lot of, i think, takeaways from that. But, you know, Universal and Disney...

Speaker: They do overlap. They do sometimes share notes on things that work and don't work. I think that this is this is them trying to evolve the um the stage shows into, you know, productions that go just beyond the stage show. Right. Like where yeah where like you said, it's it's interactive entertainment on top of a stage show.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That's I'm just like I could see them. I'm just thinking of it. I think Disney a lot of times, even when they're doing stuff like this, they see things as like play tests, you know, where it's like, see how people react to it. And then maybe it's a thing that they could implement elsewhere.

Speaker: I don't know. Just I'm just guessing, though. we I know nothing. But to your point, yeah, that's it's it could just be a thing that they're doing there and doing nowhere else. And, you know, it's just the the hard the hard part, too, about that is um sourcing the talent for a show like this can be difficult. i mean, yeah, it's like the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Right. Exactly. Yeah, that's that's why you don't have it in multiple parks, right? Like, like feasibly, you know like you know, Lion King show is super popular and they could have put it into California and, and you know, overseas and stuff, but they haven't because...

Speaker: you know, that the tumble monkey specifically getting the cast together for something like that is difficult. And again, looking at the yeah um looking at the concept art for this, yeah you know, they clearly have some acrobatics going on. There's somebody doing um ah like a giant hoop acrobatics thing.

Speaker: I'm guessing, you know, again, to to the point that they're making it in the article that, um yeah you know, they partnered with the government of Canada. I'm sure, you know, these these are people that they sourced from somewhere in Ontario. You're not necessarily going to find, you know, people with these same talents in Canada.

Speaker: in other places or or like getting getting the same show stood up somewhere else is just as difficult as it is in Canada or you know in Niagara Falls because you know there's there's a limited pool of people that have these kinds of of ah you know acrobatic talents and whatnot so yeah I, I don't see them necessarily copy pasting this, but I see them using it as a, as, like I said, it this feels like a template for next level stage shows. Cause like I said, i' but I've already seen it. Uh, you know, me and my brother saw it firsthand in Epic Universe. We saw it like the stuff they were doing there was like, it was, it's still, this definitely feels like it's even beyond what we saw in Epic Universe.

Speaker: Um, But the like you said, these are all like iterations of that template is what I'm seeing. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right, Trevor. Enough of that. What else we got?

Speaker: yeah Yeah. Patents. We love patents. More patents. I love patent talk. yeah So this next one, I feel i have mixed feelings about this. so I do. I do. So what what are you laughing about? I just read the headline on it. yeah So Disney files patent to automatically detect and remove background crowds from photos.

Speaker: So I see that and I think to myself, OK, so you're taking a picture on Main Street and all that's in the background is the castle. All the people are erased. OK.

Speaker: Which you can do today. can that today. You take a photo and you can do that today. yeah you can do that today. My question is, do I want that? i I don't know if I do. i I feel like the people being in the background makes the picture more alive. it would feel weird, I feel like, almost, if I'm taking a picture and there's literally no one in the background. It would feel like a at Disney during a zombie apocalypse or something. I i don't know. i just, I think the other people being around makes pictures feel more alive to me.

Speaker: ah so I don't, I know that's a weird thing to say, but I, I'm just thinking to like, I'm imagining the picture in my head that I would have from this. And I'm like, yeah i don't know. That's kind of, it's kind of a picture. I feel like I don't want.

Speaker: So, okay. yeah i i can see where you're... Yeah. I have mixed feelings on this because i like i feel it's very um disingenuous to...

Speaker: Have a bunch of photos out there where it's like, you know, um this reminds me of like like stuff I've seen where like people do like Instagram photos somewhere in like, you know, somewhere tropical where it's like, oh, you know, look at this, you know, lagoon. It's amazing. But then you see like real life photos of it and it's very busy. And like, so so it feels...

Speaker: It feels a little bit like lying if you take a picture in front of the castle and there's nobody else there. in it And you it makes it look like you're you're standing there at noon and the park is empty. And it creates this, you know, you know you're showing it.

Speaker: like Like the problem is, is that, you know, you know you're showing these pictures to other people and going, look at this amazing photo. And it builds an idea in people's head where they go, Oh, my gosh, I could go there, too, and, you know, take a picture in the middle of the day and nobody will be around. But it's like, no, you're going to be there and it's going to be busy.

Speaker: And you're going to be very, like, you know, disillusioned by how busy it is because the photo didn't give you an accurate accurate representation of what it is. And like you said, to that point...

Speaker: There is also like there is a certain amount of like life that comes from like seeing people in the background and kind of, yeah you know, understanding that, you know, it is a very big, busy place.

Speaker: And so, you know, having having a photo with nobody in it is, you know, I don't like it. But then I'll I do actually have photos I've taken in Disney where there's nobody in the background, but that's because it was at an after hours party where there was literally nobody in the park. It's different. and Yeah. And yeah, and that that was different because it was like more so me showcasing like, hey, this was, you know, it's it's nighttime. There's nobody here.

Speaker: You know, it was a unique thing. The problem with this, I think, is that it makes it seem like everybody going to the park and taking pictures in front of the castle that are, you know, you know, and I'm using air quotes, Instagram perfect.

Speaker: and You know, it's going to make everybody think that you can, you know, go there and, you know, have the whole place to yourself. does Does Disney really want pictures of empty parks floating around the Internet?

Speaker: Like, I feel like they don't want that. Yeah. Well, like I said, it it does create a it creates um an in a an inadvertent negative effect where yeah it creates the perception that, oh, either nobody's there. Why would I want to go there? Or I want to go there because there's nobody there. But then you get a lot of people showing up going, but why are there all these people here? like it's On the flip side, though, too, yeah I also understand the utility of this, right? Because I have often found it very strange and kind of unsettling that I am in people's vacation photos for for all of time. You know what i mean? Like, and I, you know, unknowingly, i i mean, Which I always have found a little weird. And it's the same for, you know, obviously every picture that I have from vacation. There are people in the background of these these pictures that have no idea they're in the background of my picture and they're going to be there forever. And i i don't know. it It is a weird thing in that regard. But at the same time, I'm like,

Speaker: i I understand both sides of of the idea of this. I like the idea of it as a concept. It's just another one of those things where I'm like, do I want this? I don't think I do. I think I like my pictures with everyone in the background. I mean, to your point, Trevor, I have the capability to remove people from pictures now.

Speaker: Do I really use it? Should Disney be doing it for me on my behalf? Yeah. But it does seem like based on the patent that you would be able to decide that you want to do this. Right. So it's not like them doing it automatically.

Speaker: It's more of giving you the option to do so. Yeah. I think. Yeah. I think what it is is that, you know there's a lot of people that will do the like, like. post-editing of photos and I'm sure there is a great market of people out there that have done, you know you know, oh, I can take your Disney photos and, you know, remove all the people in the background. So it's just you and your family and then you can, you know, put it on your your Christmas card and send it out or whatever, right? Like it's...

Speaker: It feels like Disney's just cutting out the middleman where it's like, oh, you know, you can either have the photo with everybody in it or the photo with nobody in it. But I feel like putting that up front without, you know, like people who want that will look for that.

Speaker: But when you make it an option up front, a lot of people will take it not not thinking about what like. Like I said, the or like we just talked about, the implications of like, oh, yeah you know you know, you're creating an impression that this park is empty all the time and that everybody, you know, you know that there's there's a bunch of people getting photos in an empty park, which doesn't make sense.

Speaker: at the end of the day It's also not good for it's just not a good look for Disney either, because, I mean, how many times have you seen on blogs where they're like, oh, Disney's empty today? Like, and it's like a negative thing where it's like there's nobody here. Nobody's coming to the parks anymore. You know what mean? Like, yeah, people could use, know, PhotoPass photos to be like, look at how empty this place is. Yeah, so I just but I get it on merit because I mean, listen, we had a situation recently we were where we went to the zoo and we were taking a picture in one of those little cut out things, you know, where you put your face and, you know, there's your the animal. Right. And we're taking these pictures and this little kid just runs up and just, you know, gets in our pictures and the parents do nothing because, you know, why control your child? But that's a whole other thing. But anyway, they ruined our pictures, essentially. And so I just remove the kid later. You know, I just remove them because you can do that now.

Speaker: And that's ah that's a good use, you know, for that. But I don't know. I just don't feel the need to to remove all the people behind me. I don't know. i But again, like i said, i'm mixed on this. I don't.

Speaker: Yeah. and I get it, but I don't. to To your point about like, oh, you know, I'm in people's photos. Well, I mean, there's also security cameras everywhere. that's true that you're're you're everywhere. Yeah. you you You've been and you been on photos way longer than you realize. I agree. But I'm saying you don't find it like weird that like you're in someone's house. right A picture of you is in someone's house right now.

Speaker: like probably I try not to think about that. I think about these things all the time. It's all I think about. I'm a crazy person. I know. But like this is what I think about. I'm just like ah because I mean, you I mean, I have, you know, just like a a tablet that sits on a dock that just kind of has runs through all of our photos at all times. And I see people all the time in those photos. And i'm like, that's just a random person. That person does not know that I have them in my house and I see them all the time. Like, it's just weird.

Speaker: I don't know. I know that's a weird thing to think about, but I think about i mean, I guess the argument to that is, you know, why? Why did we do an interview on YouTube if you're that concerned about because you're people's houses?

Speaker: no, no. Here's the thing. But I find that weird, too. That's the thing. i it's It's not that I have a problem with it. It's more that I find it strange. That's all it is. I just find it to be a weird thing. But yes, I i mean, I've said this many times, Trevor.

Speaker: I find it weird that we do this. We talk into microphones in our houses. I, you know, put it. I edit it together on a computer and then it goes out into the world. And there are people all over the world that listen to us talk about this stuff. And that, to me, is super weird.

Speaker: I don't have a problem with it. It's just weird. I, i the concept of it is crazy to me. And it's the same thing with the YouTube videos. I, but you know, again, it doesn't mean I'm against it. It's just more of like, it's an odd thing, but you know, whatever. All all right. So, so you, you put another patent on here, which I think is more,

Speaker: Do you think this one's more interesting? I think this one's way worse than than removing people's photos. Yeah. I like that. Not not not way more interesting, just way worse. No, this this is worse, think. Okay.

Speaker: worse i think um so So the title is Disney proposes AI system for designing custom merchandise. Before you go into this, by the way, Disney files patents all the time because they just discover things they in their research arm of Imagineering and they don't always use them.

Speaker: They don't always use them. They just file patents constantly. Right. So the last one we talked about, they may never use this one. They may never use. yeah just so So the whole the whole premise of this is, yeah you know you know, Disney does do custom merchandise. They have for, for you know, as long as I can remember, yeah you know, going as far back as I remember getting, you know, Mickey ears with my name stitched on the back, right? Yeah. And so, you know, this this obviously seems like a next level thing, but they're using, they want to use AI to, know,

Speaker: to help with generating the merchandise. And it looks like part of it would also be, yeah you know, opting for. So, um, i don't know if you've ever seen like, um, there there's sites that have like, uh, it's not like a personal shopper, but it's like, you can like, you can upload a picture of yourself and then like trying on clothes. Right. Like, like it's, it's, this seems to be like what they're trying to do is that,

Speaker: um You know, you you you take a picture of yourself, you put it into this website, and then you can you can build custom merchandise, which, like, I guess, you know, maybe maybe the use case for this is, you know, you don't like the the Disney merch that they offer in the parks, which, you know, I legitimately do complain about from time to time that it's like, you know, sometimes it feels very uninspired and, you know, there's only like one design. Yeah.

Speaker: This would be an example of you can, you know, design a shirt and you can have like your, so you know, the characters you want on the shirt or you can have like you can you can basically make it the merch you want it to be, which the hard part about that, though, is it's like I know Disney is offering it, but why would I not just go and like make it myself?

Speaker: Well, yeah. Like, like like there's there's so many places I could order merch from and get custom things done on it. I don't understand what's unique about this. And it feels like Disney is just trying to muddy the waters with...

Speaker: There's more to it, though. Merch. There's more. What's part of my missing here? Because I. that Yeah, there's the next part of it where you can make your own customized stuff, but they can also use the information they know about us, which is a lot to automatically create, ah generate, customized products.

Speaker: So it says the information types ah here the information types may include known user preferences, user purchase viewing histories, the user's geographic location, criteria and or standards for the customized product designs or multimodal descriptive user input.

Speaker: If you think about this, right? Disney has a lot of data on us, right? They do. They know what you watch on Disney Plus. They know what rides you like based on, you know, you going on those rides, maybe using Lightning Lane. They know what parks you like. They know, you know, if you buy stuff on dis on a Disney Store, they know the characters that you like. They know all this stuff.

Speaker: Right. By the way, and it's not just Disney that does this. I was reading an article, Trevor, the other day about somebody requested that McDonald's send them ah like ah ah you can request McDonald's to send you everything, all of the data they have about you. Right. Right.

Speaker: And you I guess you can do this with most companies. And this person had like McDonald's sent them like 100 pages of what they had on them, which was like they they could predict the orders this person was going to make before they even made them based on the data they have. Disney's doing something similar in this patent, right? Now, again, we don't know if this is actually going to be used, um you know, but this is what it's saying is Disney can use the information it knows about you to design something it thinks you would like.

Speaker: So I guess for an example for me, maybe it would go, well, we know he likes Big Thunder a lot. So let's make a Big Thunder shirt for you. Right. it's i'm so yeah So what this is, the the the the part of me that i again, I have a very mixed view of these like AI things that they're trying to do. Like, yeah because we've talked about it in the past and it's like there there are good use cases for it. There are. Yeah.

Speaker: This though feels like the part of what I enjoy about going to Disney is, and I think this is what I've been lamenting for a while about like going to the parks and finding merch is that there's discovering something that I didn't even know yeah was there or that like, like something creative, something that, you know, you know, surprises me is part of the joy of going there.

Speaker: If they're basing it entirely off of my search history and like, Oh, here we're going to offer you up, you know, this merch because, you you know, you rode Haunted Mansion, you know, 25 times, right? Like, it's... The problem with that is it it gets to a point where it's like, it gets boring because, like, if if you're using something like this,

Speaker: it eventually gets itself into a loop where it just keeps offering you the same thing because that's the most um optimal thing that it can offer you, right? So i don't I don't like the fact that they're, again, like you said, I know that they're there is just a patent, it's just something that they're like exploring.

Speaker: I don't like the idea though of like going into like the the shop Disney app and just it all being the same thing tailored to me because I happened to like something one day and they just determined that, well, this is what you like, period. Like there's there's no, i there's no option for i get creativity. There's no option for like exploring things that maybe you didn't like. realize you wanted um the chaotic side of me wants to just go and like do nothing but search for like Winnie the Pooh bubble wants just to like mess up yeah just to mess up their algorithm like that's funny that's kind of where my head is with it is it's like yeah this doesn't feel to me like something that I want to

Speaker: engage with as part of the park and I get like Disney ah like you said they're trying different things they're trying to like you know you know do something that you know you know moving into you know the unfortunately you know AI is one of these things that is part of the next generation um again two two mixed opinions and you know Disney is it it They would be doing themselves a disservice by not trying these things.

Speaker: I just hope that they figure out. I hope they figure out a space for it where it's like, yeah, this is here as like a means of maybe like finding merch. It shouldn't be creating merch for me because that that's also the other side of that, too, is, you know, there's a lot of artists and there's a lot of people that Disney has employed over the years that.

Speaker: You know, you know, they bring their creativity to it and you can't you can't just throw all of that into an AI model because what it actually reminds me of. um So this this is going to be a deep cut.

Speaker: um Star Trek The Next Generation. There was an episode. Okay, hear me out. Okay. There was an episode where Data and Geordi, where they were doing like Sherlock Holmes stuff on the holodeck, right? Like they they were like solving mysteries and and Data was Sherlock Holmes. And...

Speaker: Geordi challenged Data to make like ah a unique mystery. Right. And so Data comes back and he does this whole thing. And Geordi points out, he's like, well, you just took like three different stories and mashed them together.

Speaker: and And that was the end result of this. like And like he basically called Data out. He's like, you didn't make anything unique. You just took a bunch of existing ideas And slapped them together and called it something new.

Speaker: And that's what this kind of feels like to me is that it's, it may look like it's unique, but I feel like any merch that's coming out of this is just taking preexisting stuff and slapping it together in different ways. And that doesn't mean that you're ever going to get anything actually new and interesting out of it.

Speaker: Right. Yeah. That's yeah just my two cents on it. and Yeah. Yeah. I remember very weird specific things about but it. shit as i watch like Because I haven't watched yeah Next Generation in like 20 years. so Or you could you could just go with the the short, the first reply on this article from ah Chad, which says, i hate living in the future. Yeah, I saw that too. I thought that was, that was funny. But yeah, like it it does feel to me like this could be interesting, but I feel like if it's just like, oh, the AI will tell you the best merch for you. No, you're not.

Speaker: like that's I will tell me what the best merch is. That's not, and if you try and convince me, I'm going to like, there's a part of my brain that says, no, you're not going to tell me how this is going to work. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: i I actually want to address something really quick around this this AI thing, right? So we we got a comment on the video on the Joe Rohde video about about yeah the use of AI in the video, right?

Speaker: We use AI for one. Yeah, for literally one thing in the video, which was a five-second video. Oh, he's the opening card. the opening title card. Right. yeah And I understand the comment about it. Right. Because I we you and I both have mixed feelings about AI. And even when we I created that image, your initial reaction was no to it. Right. Right.

Speaker: At the same time, i'm it's a five second piece of a video. i I'm going to be honest, it would be irresponsible for us financially as a podcast to pay an artist to create a title card for five seconds in a video that we're only going to use for that one video in that one piece of five seconds.

Speaker: yeah And I hate saying that, but it's, you know, we're not like a huge podcast making, you know, like we're not we're not ah the top of the chart here. If we had the money to employ someone to do that, we would. Yeah, we would. But we can't afford to do that. And yes, you you know, fair enough. Yeah, it is AI.

Speaker: And that's, you know, we used it for, you know, that particular purpose. Yeah. I yeah, you're right. yeah You know, my initial thoughts on it were, you know, I didn't like it, but I realized we needed something there. And like, you know, the the alternative is you're going to get a terrible MS Paint version of it because um we're not artists. Either one of us. Yeah. yeah neith Neither of us are capable of of drawing. And yeah. There is a breaking point where you can, like, I get It's hard because, you know, from a creativity standpoint, it's like, yeah, you should absolutely, you know, utilize people, people who have like, you know, honed to that craft over years should be able to continue utilizing that craft to, you know, for, you know,

Speaker: you know as a job or you know what not like i'm not i'm not going to go out to somebody be like hey you know i need a piece of artwork for my show do this for free for me but you know i also can't afford to pay them i understand that you know the ai version yeah it looks like ai because it was ai and i don't think there was any point where we said like you know this is us and look at you know look at the amazing thing that i did it was no it was a title card for an episode five seconds like Yeah. ah Listen, anytime we've ever done anything that we use frequently and, you know, like when we've made shirts, when we've done the logo, we have paid an artist to do that. Right. Yes, we have. But yeah and in this particular case, timeline wise, cost wise, use wise, it just doesn't make sense to do it that way. And I'm just being totally honest. Like that's.

Speaker: the the truth of it. it i mean It's like I said, it's if we were going to use it continuously, you know, sure, and we would get someone to do it. And we had, you know, we weren't on a, we wanted to get the interview out. It's because it's relevant right now. And, you know, to be totally honest, hiring an artist to do that would take, it you know, again, for five seconds, the amount of time it takes to go through those iterations and do those things is a lot. And which is like, it's unrealistic. Doing, you know, doing our logo took like, it was well over a month yeah of,

Speaker: Like back and back and forth because because we had to you know, we were working with the artists, we were giving them feedback, we were making changes and it's like it's not like the problem is, is AI is the.

Speaker: it's the cheap and easy way to the result. It is Right. And I shouldn't even even say it's cheap. It's not like it's, it's cheap to the end user, but there is a cost in the background. And, you know, we know that. And we, we try, like, you know, if, if we were going to lean in on it, I've, I've seen some channels where like, you know, you can do voices in AI, you can do all of your images. Like we, if You could use AI for everything, but, you know, we choose to pick and choose our battles because, you know, like you said, is, you know, we, we knew that there was, i'll you know, like you said, a five second image that was going to be displayed.

Speaker: We're not going to spend a ton of money on that. We're not going to spend a ton of time on it. AI, you know, filled that gap for us. You know, I, you know, people don't like it. Fine. Great. You know, move on. But if you're worried about finding on the internet, like you're about a year,

Speaker: Too late, I guess, is the thing. But like but it but please understand, we we respect artists. We do. And I mean, listen, are i so I said this in them my response to the of my my response the comment. Not only have we had artists design everything for the most part that we do, you know, we we also our theme song, we paid a band to do it. We didn't have to do that. Yes. Like we literally paid thousands of dollars for a band to do our theme song.

Speaker: Like we not only, you know, visual artists, but we we we absolutely respect artists. And and I know that's. Yeah. And I guess, again, too for people going, what what do you mean by that?

Speaker: So the original version of the theme song, and I think we talked about this before, but we'll just for anyone curious about it. The original version was a um ah public domain song that, you know, it's played in the queue for.

Speaker: for a Jungle Cruise, but it is an actual public domain song. We were using a version of it that has been public domain for years, but the reason that we chose to have a band redo it for us is um sometimes public domain stuff can get claimed still, which it yeah sucks. Like, it it you know, the just the way the internet works...

Speaker: You know, you can use that stuff until somebody decides to start playing games with it. And we didn't want it to be one of these things where suddenly a bunch of our episodes got pulled down because of a public domain song. So we had a cover of the song made that is our opening now, that has been our opening for a while, but we own all the rights to it. So, you know, if anybody tries to argue...

Speaker: that, you know, hey, this is, you know, public domain or whatever. We have the receipts to show that this is our song made, you know, this date, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah Right. So, so we're, and again, like, like to Tom's point, we paid someone to do that. We didn't just, you know, you know, we didn't just throw it into an AI generator and say, make us this song, but, you know, different. Not given the food time song is AI generated, as is the reckless speculation. Yes. But the words were written by me. So, yeah. And the thing about those is that they were done entirely like, like we're not monetizing those. now in Those are silly songs. yeah like They're meant to be. Again, we use them as means of like,

Speaker: expressing our own creativity because we're not talented enough to, yeah you know, have a band, have an artist. yeah yeah If I could sing and play instruments, I would i would absolutely rock the Food Time song. I cannot do either one of those. so You don't want to hear me sing. I can tell you that.

Speaker: Anyway, let's move on, though, because I just wanted to address that because it did come up. And, you know, listen, we don't use AI a lot on the show, but that is ah ah something that did come up, especially since we were getting attention from people that don't normally ah view our our content. So, um and you know, and again, you know, you know, the stance just for anybody wondering, we're not anti-AI. We're also not 100 percent pro-AI. You know, we're trying to we're very mixed. Yeah, we're we're trying to figure out right place, right time for it. And, you know, we're never going to get it perfect either because nobody's perfect.

Speaker: Yeah. Even the AI is not perfect. Don't don't let the AI tell you otherwise. I mean, it may not be perfect, but it does make things like this. Yeah. You like that transition, though, yeah. It's so reckless.

Speaker: It's so much speculation. It's speculation. We may be wrong. We may be right.

Speaker: But it doesn't matter because it's reckless speculation. Now, if I could find a barbershop quartet to record that, i you know, I would.

Speaker: Right. Yeah, totally. Where am I going to find a barbershop quartet to record a 30-second stupid song? but who i don't I don't work in circles where I could even, like... Yeah, like, where would I find such a group?

Speaker: Yeah. Like, like like ah I'm thinking of all the people that I know, and it's like, I don't even know anybody that would be, like, remotely close to a barbershop quartet. Yeah, and not only that, they'd be like, what what is this what is this stupid song? that do what What is this nonsense lyrics that's...

Speaker: i'm sure I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that do this stuff as like, like I think about like people that have done like commercials and stuff for yeah for years where it's like, you know you're paid to do ah like you know a commercial and it's like, you know do a voice for this. And it's like, I don't even know what I'm saying. I'm just, you know yeah they paid me and I'm doing it. right like I'm sure oh listen there's lots of that.

Speaker: I promise you the band that we hired to do our theme song was like, why where are they what what why are they wanting to do this song from the nineteen twenty s you know by a band that no one's ever heard of. I'm sure that that was the reaction to it, but no one said that. So anyway, the reason I played the music Trevor is because we do have a rumor and we do have some, some reckless speculat speculation. Now, man, Trevor, I really don't love the idea of reporting information based off of some poster from a message board, but yeah,

Speaker: You know, if it's somebody that's gotten things right in the past and it kind of makes sense. All right. Wait, you know, we can talk about it. um So this rumor is that Disney World is going to follow in Disneyland's footsteps and replace the entrance gates ah with the ah same ones that that Disneyland has, ah which are these, ah you know, tap style gates, essentially, that are like kind of automated entry. ah And they have like a photo validation slash facial recognition thing going on.

Speaker: Which, you know, a lot of people have feelings about as well. ah This is also something similar to what they do at Universal. I've used them, and they're fine.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah i I will say this. So, I don't think this would be the worst thing in the world. i Because the I've noticed this over the past. yeah i mean, I don't know. It's been every time I go to Disney, basically, is that they they need to do something at the entrances. The the lines get are getting way too long. And i've every time i you get in line, it's I feel like the amount of people that have a problem compared to the people like us that just scan and walk through is like there's far more people having a problem than there are not having a problem. Yeah. Now, i don't know if this really fixes that, but, you know, this, this, the idea here would be actually that you could, ah you know, scan each ticket and then every person in the group will, you know, use the screen to take their picture. And then you kind of, you can kind of all go in as a group, you know, together, which is, I kind of like in a way, um you know, I also understand.

Speaker: good and so So, sorry, just just to point out, like, what you're talking about, the the issues right now with magic bands are, you know, people not having their tickets properly attached to their account. And, you know, they scan their magic band and, it you know, nothing comes up.

Speaker: And so the idea of this is that it's replacing the magic band with the facial recognition, which... should in theory better attach people to their accounts, but it doesn't solve the problem of people who, you know, bought their tickets incorrectly or didn't assign them to people correctly because that's always a problem.

Speaker: Yeah. This is the same thing that happens at Universal. like And like we we ran into this a little bit Universal as well was, yeah you know, I didn't fully understand how their system worked. And it wasn't like a, you know, we didn't run into it at the,

Speaker: When we were trying to scan in for the tickets, it was actually because we went to pick up our tickets and we I didn't realize some steps that need to happen as part of that. But the problem is, is that there's lots of people that like think that that, you know, they bought the tickets and then that's enough and that they should just walk up to the to the door and Disney should just somehow know that they bought the tickets. Yeah. yeah And and this so this rumored thing with, you know, with replacing the the the the magic band scanners with facial recognition, it it does remove that step of, you know, you know, figuring out how to attach it to a magic band.

Speaker: But I don't know that this actually is going to make it any easier. you You do still have to scan your tickets or magic bands. Right. And then you have a photo piece. But like. ah I don't know.

Speaker: i I just they need to do something different. I don't know exactly what I also don't listen. I I've heard people for the longest time say that magic bands are going away. Right.

Speaker: I don't know if I necessarily believe it because I know that they are an operational issue for Disney. Right. But I also believe they make a lot of money off of selling them.

Speaker: Right. I, although, yeah, got I will point out that they like the amount of basically since COVID, the amount of like unique magic bands out there have dropped off significantly. Like yeah I remember there used to be a point where it was like every, every couple of months there was like, oh, that's a new magic band. Oh, that's cool. And it's like, they still have them, but they're not, they're they They really pulled back on making them. And I think, you know, the part of the the the rationale behind this proposed change is, you know, Disney's trying to um deal a little bit with their footprint for like, you know, plastics manufacturing. Yeah. Because, because you know, those, every magic band has, you know, parts and, you know, stuff in it that, like, it's...

Speaker: It is wasteful in that, you know, you know, you end up with too many magic bands and you end up or, or you know, they get thrown out, they get, yeah you know, improperly disposed of, which, you know, is not great. and And Disney has been making strides to try and eliminate some of that stuff.

Speaker: But to that end, you you know, there is still magic bands available in the park. People still buy them, just not at the level that they used to because Disney is already offering like like what they're talking about here with like the the facial recognition, everything.

Speaker: Um, Disney is kind of already, they're getting there with like, you know, letting you access things from the phone app. Yeah. So like you can, you can scan, you can scan your phone as your, your park ticket and all that kind of stuff. And to get to your room. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. that This feels like that, that next level of that. And the the whole argument of, you know, or I was reading this and the thing that made me laugh was, um They were like, they'll replace the magic bands with, um you know, scanning for your Apple wallet.

Speaker: It's the same thing. It's literally like the same technology. It's RFID chip scanning. It's the same thing, which means Disney doesn't need to actually replace anything from that level because they're giving you the option to do it. It's just the device you choose to do it with is the only thing that's changing. Yeah.

Speaker: So I will say this. ah One thing I noticed on our last trip is that the Magic Band, the Magic Band Plus, right?

Speaker: um The like the features of that where it changes different colors and vibrates into that stuff. i Honestly, I had not noticed that working in many places over the years.

Speaker: But this last trip, like stuff was happening constantly on that thing. Oh, yeah. Like way more than before. Yeah. like But ah before, like I remember when they first came out, I feel like it didn't really do anything with almost any. Like it was supposed to be happening everywhere. Right. And like you just it was like a couple select things. This time we're walking around and and it was constantly doing stuff like and I was it was cool. i mean, I'm not going lie. My daughter was like loved it.

Speaker: You know, because do they still have the statues from the the they do stuff? Some. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think that's a lot of it is the statues were tied to a lot of that. Yeah. But even just like a phantasmic and like and during fireworks, like during ah Starlight, you know, like there was there was all sorts of cool stuff going on. It was it was ah like they're still supporting it, I would say.

Speaker: You know? Right. Yeah. I, I think the, uh, the rumor of them replacing magic bands is not correct in this case. I think, I, I think it's augmenting stuff. Cause like said, I, I, yeah, I think, you know, you know, Disney is trying to be cognizant of, you know, not everybody wants a magic band.

Speaker: Um, And, you know you know, being like, you know, that's why they offer the phones and stuff like that. But they also don't want to be printing um cards for everybody either. Like, I get why they're they're trying to, you know, not not have like single use stuff either. Like like magic bands are a repeat use.

Speaker: the single use stuff is even worse. And, and you know, I can't even imagine or I've seen this where, you know, there there's a family where the mom has, yeah you know, pulls out all the cards her out of her wallet as she's scanning each of the cards through for for the kids. Right.

Speaker: How many how many guests do you think go through like that and then at the end of it you know they don't they don't keep the cards or along the way they get lost or whatever and replacing that with just facial recognition would save disney and guests a lot of time yeah like yeah like i can see that because and actually now now as i'm talking about i'm thinking about we even uh when we were at universal um So for our express passes, they were paper express passes with a QR code on them.

Speaker: And we were smart. or The person actually at the front um gate told us this when we got them. They said, you know, snap a photo of your your paper cards and um Because if something happens to your card, you can go to to guest services and get it replaced. What ended up happening was we we were, um full disclosure, this was us being dumb ourselves.

Speaker: We went on the water rides and I didn't have the, ah I just left the express pass in my pocket and it's paper and it got wet. And so it started falling apart, right?

Speaker: And so I didn't, you know, I didn't think about it at the time that I should have like had it in like a plastic case or something like that to to protect it. But thankfully, I went to um guest services and they printed me a new one because I had, you know, photo evidence of it was mine and all that.

Speaker: But That's again, you know, that's me doing that one time. Multiply that by thousands of people over, you know, you know, months and stuff like that. I see where Disney, you know, might be trying to just remove that entirely, which, again, that's what these that's what these facial recognition turnstiles are, is that, you know, it's just removing the need for.

Speaker: physical physical media in order to get into the park. I would assume, like, if if they're if they end up doing this at the turnstiles, it could actually extend to the magic or to the fast pass or, sorry, lightning lane system, right?

Speaker: Where, you know, eventually they could have all of these, all of the, you know, where you scan in for the lightning lanes instead of those being tap points is, you know, you just look at the screen and it lets you in, right? Yeah. So...

Speaker: I could see them eventually getting there, but this also isn't something that um it's not going to change overnight. Right. Like like this would be months slash years of time to replace all this. And then again, also to that end, I don't see I don't see them just dropping the RFID stuff because it is working. Like, why would you replace a working system?

Speaker: Right. Yeah. Like. Yeah. It's... All right. It's an interesting rumor, but I... the The way it's phrased makes it sound like, you know, you're going to go there tomorrow and it's going to be, like, totally different. I don't... I don't see that. I'd say it next year at the earliest, but then they... Even then, it would take them a while to roll it out. So, I wouldn't be surprised if you... Again, my my bet is on you'll probably see this at a park or it might be, like, a subsection of turnstiles that they tested on.

Speaker: And then... You probably won't see anything about it for like another six months. And then maybe you'll start seeing them roll it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. all right, my friend. was fun. We've been talking for almost two hours. So let's wrap this didn't realize how long this episode got. I was expecting this episode to be shorter. But as is as is always the case, we talked for longer. so Oh, yeah. Because we went down some rabbit holes. and As we do. I mean, you put speculation stuff on here. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: that That's what always happens. All right. Wrap us up. All right. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, for anything we talked about on the show, if you want to send us an email, you can, you can email us at welcome1podcast.gmail.com. You can also share your trip reports, you know, planning, anything else that you're, you're,

Speaker: you're talking about with Disney stuff, you know, please, you know, send it to us. We love hearing from you guys. um And you can also go through our website to get to us, which is welcomehomepodcast.co.

Speaker: And you can hit the, ah the contact us section to email us or, you know, just check out the website. um We are also on social media, so you can find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast. You can find us on Instagram as Welcome Home Picks.

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Speaker: ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon. This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.

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