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Episode 331: Tom’s Very Merry Trip Report, Olaf Robot & Bluey
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On This Episode
Tom gives all the details from his brief WDW vacation including a recap of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party, a review of the 3-bedroom Grand Villa at Bay Lake Tower, and his experience at 1900 Park Fare. DVC quietly added a new administrative fee for all resale contracts starting in 2026. Walt Disney Imagineering released a first look at an advanced next-generation robot Olaf coming to select parks. Disney provided a comprehensive review of what is coming to Walt Disney World next year including the recently announced Bluey & Bingo experiences.
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Transcript
Welcome Back to the Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. war the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all voice unknown. if you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:31
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 331 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom, here with Trevor. Hey, good. How are you?
00:00:42
Speaker
We're back back. We're back, but it feels... Or I guess, you know, for our listeners, we've kind of had... We've had stuff coming out for the last couple of weeks. But we've not actually talked... You and I haven't spoken to a microphone. Yeah.
00:00:56
Speaker
This part feels weird because... Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, we go through this like every time we take a break, right. Where it's like, you know, when we stopped doing this for a couple of weeks, we come back and it always takes a minute to like,
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah. Figure out this works. what's my My wife was like, you know, she always asked me like, oh, how long are you going go for it today? And I was like, well, you know, Trevor and I haven't talked in a couple of weeks. So there's probably going to be least like a half hour before the show that we just chat. Although we kept it short that we're both busy today. So, we yeah yeah, we kept it short today. But yeah. And I think we we have been talking on on and chat a bunch, too. So i think I think that helped is that, you know, we we weren't like yeah I guess, you know, for behind the scenes, it's not like we don't talk.
00:01:38
Speaker
ever in between stuff but it's like you know some some weeks we don't hardly chat at all on on uh on messenger and other weeks we we are going back and forth all the time so yeah we but we we kind of were able to i guess hammer out a lot of stuff ahead of time so yeah we didn't need to chat a bunch of this which is which is a little shot a little shocking for our show trevor because we yeah we We haven't always been the best in the past about planning ahead, but, you know. It's good, though, because i know we we've got a lot of stuff on the rundown today. we do. And, um you know, priority one, though, is you need to
Balancing Family and Content Creation
00:02:14
Speaker
talk about your trip. So, you know, this way we have lots of energy to get into all these things. So.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, I, it's, I'm excited. It's funny. Cause I, I, I apologize to the discord crowd and to everybody else's and to you really too. Cause I kind of disappeared for a couple weeks, right? Like I was gone and then I came back, you know, like when I was in Florida the whole time, I don't, I was like almost not on my phone at all. Right. Like I just kind of disconnected. And then when I got home, you know, I'd just been busy, you know, just, we were trying to get the Christmas set up. I was just telling you, we're trying to get Christmas set up this weekend. Cause we were gone last weekend. um And, you know, well, we weren't, we were back. limit yeah let Let me just stop you there for a second. It's okay for you to be disconnected from your phone, Tom, especially. No, it's
00:02:55
Speaker
if you're on as Yes. You know, it's it's it is good to but okay be and you don't owe me or anybody else any explanation on Well, I just i also know, though, like we talked up this, i you know, I talked up my whole mini trip here for a while. And, you know, and I'm sure people were, especially the discord, were interested of how things went. And I wasn't exactly sharing, which is, you know, yeah so I was talking to my wife about this, too, Trevor.
00:03:23
Speaker
I am possibly the worst person to be, to try to have like a podcast or anything with like media. Right. Because I don't ever think to capture things in the moment. Right. Like yeah I'm just, I just, I live in the moment. Like I was there and we're waiting online for jungle cruise, which I'll get into. And there's a guy with one of those, you know, little things and he's got two phones and he's recording himself in line and jungle cruise. And I'm like, I would never in a million years do that.
00:03:52
Speaker
I just wouldn't do it. That's such a fun vibe, right? Yeah. I get that. I try to do that at at certain points, but I know what you mean. I'm so bad at it. It's hard because like especially...
00:04:07
Speaker
I feel like it's a matter of, you know, a lot of the people who do vlogging and and that kind of stuff, they're most of the time they're there solo. like Like it's very rare that you see somebody there with a family who's got all the cameras and and everything. It's a lot easier to do solo because you can kind of focus on – yourself and, and, you know, what you're doing and what you want to capture. But when you're there with your family, like, ah you know, like you, I, I used to try and do the camera thing. I used to like try and get my phone out and like record every moment. and But then I realized after a while that it was like,
00:04:39
Speaker
i'm I'm spending more time looking at the screen than looking at what's going on around me. Exactly. And I just, ah the same as you, it's like, you know, when I go on trips, I feel bad sometimes too that it's like, hey, I should be trying to, you know, take photos and, you know, send this to the, you know, to the group and whatnot. And it's like, and I try, you know, my wife and I both try and do that. But it's like, we also don't want to miss what we're doing with our family. So,
00:05:05
Speaker
You know I get it. It's, you know, you know, it's it's a hard thing to capture that kind of media. Right. And especially, again, with with your family, like it's not fair to to, you know, the people that you're with. If you're like absorbed in your phone or, you know, talking talking to your followers or live streaming or whatever, like it's.
00:05:26
Speaker
that just That seems like such a crazy thing to me. And and I guess I you know i should say, you know this is my view. on I'm not saying anybody who does this, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm just saying to me that like if I'm with my family, it's a crazy idea to me that I'm like pulling out my phone and I'm engaging with an audience and other people when there's... like people in my life that, you know, are sorry, are higher priority than this that I would be like ignoring because, yeah, that's 100 percent.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, 100 percent. Yeah. So like I just like i don't know. I the whole and I did this trip and no offense the listeners. I love all of you. I really do. I did it for my family. i wanted to spend this time with my family and I'm not spending time with my family if I'm recording video or live streaming or, you know, messaging. yeah You're observing your family.
00:06:18
Speaker
You're not spending time with your family. Well, yeah, exactly. Then you're not you're not actually spending time together. so And that's to me. i Listen, and again, I don't want to be critical like you, Trevor. I don't want to be critical of what other people... like if you If that's something you do, great.
00:06:32
Speaker
good great for you It's just not me. it's It's just not it's not my style. And and you know part of me wishes sometimes it was me, right? Because... We do this show and we do things on social media and we do things on YouTube and and it sure would be a lot easier if I was, you know, just all about making content all the time. But I'm just not, you know, it's just not my personality, unfortunately. But It is what it is. and Anyway.
Surprise Disney Trip
00:06:57
Speaker
I think it's good for us to acknowledge that there is a balance to it, right? Like, you know, it's, it is very easy to forget. like And I'll admit, you know, when it comes to social media, I forget sometimes too, that, you know, you're watching it and you're just like expecting, you know, Well, when are they putting out the next content? When are they doing this? And it's like, you know, that, you know, somebody is putting a lot of energy into that and, you know, respectfully. So, you know, acknowledge that.
00:07:22
Speaker
But if it's at the sacrifice of other things, then yeah, you know, that's, I don't want people to like sacrifice themselves for the sake of my entertainment. And and and I think, i agree I think we're the same way about it. Right. He's, you know, you know, you,
00:07:35
Speaker
You want to you want to find that balance. So yeah and also also to that end, too, you know, this way, you know, people are kind of left wondering a little bit, which isn't a bad thing. And now you get to talk through everything that happened. Yeah. And and I would and I should preface this. I was like I was super excited for you for this trip. Like I was like, yeah, I was waiting to hear hear how it goes. And I knew that this was when we're going to talk about it.
00:08:01
Speaker
um But I wasn't like, i wasn't bugging you. like Like, so how did it go? and i do I do also have a bit of a, I have a bit of side access to you. I should admit. That's true. Because our wives were talking back and forth. So I knew, I knew what was going on. yeah Yeah. Well, it's funny because most of the time when my wife is talking to yours, she's not telling me that she's talking to yours. Right. yeah like I yeah know. Like, like I kind of know that it's happening, but I'm like,
00:08:26
Speaker
I like there will be like a whole bunch of conversation. Then she'll be like, wait, we talked about this. And but I'm like, whoa, OK. Like, yeah. all right. You guys have been doing this for a while. like Yeah. Well, and there's also I noticed my wife will will text your wife when I am like when she sends me off to get popcorn or something. Right. Like, she's like, you go get popcorn. And then they're sitting, you know, in the green over there waiting for like a show to start. And I'm off getting, you know, I'm in line waiting to get popcorn and pretzels. And then I come back and she's like, she's like oh, I sent all this, this, this, this. And it's like, oh, OK, cool. Great. I got popcorn. You know, I just stood I just stood in a really long line for popcorn. Yeah. So anyway, let's start let's talk about the trip. Let's get into it. Yeah.
00:09:08
Speaker
Yeah, let's let's do that. Okay, so I, for those that don't know, I think if you listen to the show, you've been hearing me talk about it. We decided we're going to surprise my daughter with ah doing Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, which we had never done before. This is a new thing. My wife and I had never even done it, just the two of us before we had been waiting to do this. Until my daughter was older.
00:09:29
Speaker
ah Because you know it's super expensive. And we didn't want to waste our time there. um So we did this trip though with my. With my mom and with my sister. And my brother-in-law. So there was six of us total. Which was ah which was great.
00:09:44
Speaker
ah But we decided, so and I think everybody knows here, i talked about this on an episode, unless you missed that episode, that I did something a little crazy and decided to book a grand villa at the at Bay Lake Tower for one night, ah specifically for the party, which, you know, listen, i We were showing pictures of the room to somebody and they were like looking at us like, who are you people? i you don't You don't dress like you can afford that room. Like you don't look like you can afford that room. you know And I was just like, no, we have DVC and here's the situation. I'd explain it you know because it's like... People don't get that either. No, no, no. They're like, oh, so you're just like still bougie, but... you kind of bougie It always has to come with a disclaimer of like, ah listen, we don't usually do this. It was a one-time thing. We would never do it again. You know what i mean? It's like, I just have to like make it clear that it's like, this is, this was a crazy thing for us to do.
00:10:37
Speaker
And we, but we did it anyway. So, We ah my mom lives about an hour and a half away, hour hour and a half, hour, 40 minutes, right from Disney. and And so we decided we were going to go to down at noon, right? We're going to leave at noon. First of all, we were a little bit concerned about traffic, right? If you look at the top five places that people travel during Thanksgiving, Orlando is in the top five. I don't know where it is in the top five, but Orlando is crazy during Thanksgiving more than you know most places. So I was a little concerned about traffic, you know, and of course it was a party day. So you don't really know what you're going to get. Um, but it only takes about an hour, 40 minutes. So the the idea though of leaving at noon was that we wanted to, we were, we were hoping that the room would be ready early and that we could go and just kind of, you know, get our stuff, put it, put our stuff down in the room, relax, you know, for a few and then go over to magic kingdom.
00:11:33
Speaker
Wasn't ready by the time we got there, like two o'clock, which is fine. Again, it was early, you know, check-ins not till four. So I can't complain about it not being ready early, especially that large of a room. I'm sure it takes a lot of time for somebody to clean that. So I am fully cognizant of that. So we got in though, we, you know, we parked it, parked at Bay Lake. Oh, first of all, we,
00:11:50
Speaker
We didn't tell, we kind of kept it secret from my daughter, although all of the older people in my family, and when I mean the older people, I mean my mom, I mean my stepdad, I mean my brother-in-law's parents who also live in the same neighborhood. We were over at their house because they have a pool and we were in their pool. And They were all having a very difficult time keeping this a secret, right? Like, like it kept slipping out and I was just like, guys, come on. Like, you know, cause my daughter's at a point and you can't really talk around her anymore. You know, she's hearing more than you realize she hears it all. yeah Right. Like there was, you know i think everybody that has kids knows that knows this. So when they're like six, know,
00:12:25
Speaker
You know, like you can talk around them and they're just oblivious to what you're talking about. Right. She's at the point now, though, she is listening to every single word we say. And so it's like we have to be careful about it. So finally, though, this was going to happen on Tuesday night. Thanksgiving's on Thursday. So we' we're going Tuesday night to the party. Monday night, I said, you know, to my wife, I was like, let's let's tell her. Let's just let's just let it out. Right. Let's just tell her what's going on here. And so we did. And she was really, really excited about it. She was thrilled about it. She didn't really know what it was. She just was so excited that we're going to do it. So.
00:12:57
Speaker
That was great. So like i said, we get down there around two o'clock. ah Room's not ready. We go and sort out our magic band situation because i mean, mine were fine. But my sister has like three Disney profiles because people my my sister ah would describe herself as a DVC. um i I don't even know how you describe this. She uses everybody else's DVC. She's at a DVC couch surfer. That's what it is. Yeah. And she's like, she jokes with me now. She's like, because she just, I think I talked about this in the show. She did grand villa at Aulani a couple months back with her in-laws who have DVC. They're the ones that actually turned me on to DVC.
00:13:34
Speaker
and ah And so they did. And so now my sister's like, well, I only stay at grand villas now. Yeah. I'm like, okay, whatever. but we had the three of us had this conversation when we were playing mini golf. yeah Yeah. She's just like, she's like ah super bougie now. She can't do anything, but Granville is a DVC. She's very DVC spoiled.
00:13:54
Speaker
So anyway, ah so so we're like, OK, well, we got, you know, a little bit of time to burn. Right. So we were the original plan was that we were going to kind of we we're going to hop on the monorail, just kind of ride the ride the loop for a little while. um But I don't know if you were following the news, Trevor, but one of the monorails caught on fire the day before we were going there.
00:14:13
Speaker
that Oh, yeah. Yeah. Silver did. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And so when we got there, we didn't see any monorails running at all. Like nothing. Right. We were driving in. We didn't see any monorails. And when we got to the contemporary, we didn't see any monorails. It was running. It just was running on like a reduced capacity. Right. So we just decided to forgo the monorail situation for the time being. Right. Right.
00:14:35
Speaker
Um, we just went over to the Contempo cafe over in contemporary there, you know, the little quick service right in the middle there, grab some food, which is actually really good. Um, you know, they, they had some good food and then we decided to head over to magic kingdom at three 15. I know you can't get into four o'clock. However, I, you know, one of the things I had read is that you kind of want to get there early cause it starts to back up pretty quickly.
00:14:57
Speaker
So that's what we did. We had, we walked over
Party Time at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas
00:15:00
Speaker
three 15. Uh, we got there decent lines already, you know, pretty decent, not out of control though. We were probably like, you're still early enough that the, the main rush wasn't coming yet for, for the party. Yeah. Yeah. We were like 20 people maybe from the gate.
00:15:15
Speaker
Right. Like, cause you know, they put it into like lines. We were like maybe 20 people from the the gate. Right. So, Um, for ah number one, they you know, very organized and to you know, usual dizzy, Disney fashion, very organized. and and, you know, the process, I love staying at Bay Lake Trevor though, by the way, cause you have your own individual security. When you walk over, you don't have to go through the main security. There's just like a little side security. It's love that.
00:15:38
Speaker
It's the same vibe as the Grand Californian. Like it's, yeah I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, it's great. It's great. I, I, and that was part of the allure of doing Bay Lake is just that, that walk, the ability to walk back, which listen, the walk on the way there, pretty short.
00:15:53
Speaker
The walk on the way back feels like it's 20 miles. You know, like that's, just that's how it goes. Right. um But anyway, so got through that, got got our, you know, got our, our wristbands, ah you know, are our, our, our,
00:16:06
Speaker
the little ribbon thing that they give you right which was cool uh we i i by the way it's a good thing i took notes trevor because i this was two weeks ago and it's like my brain is completely gone um so 3 45 they start checking us in right and we we were laughing because i was like how much you want to bet like as soon as we start get let in the i'm gonna get the text that the room is ready and sure enough like 3 45 room ready and know i was like ah ah Just missed it. But, you know, it's fine. We wanted to get in at 4 o'clock anyway. ah So let's see. What did we do here? oh Oh, so one of the things we saw in the Contemporary was the ah Gingerbread House, too. So we took a picture in front of the frozen Gingerbread House.
00:16:42
Speaker
And then we did a little bit ah little bit of shopping in there, too. um But, you know, we we really enjoyed after we got our wristbands. ah First of all, the way they kind of like...
00:16:54
Speaker
cattle herd you in there. It's, you know what mean? Cause you're like, you're all squished together and like, they're trying to like, let people go through. There's multiple people like trying to put on wristbands and it's, it's just, giving it's controlled chaos. It's controlled chaos, you know? And,
00:17:10
Speaker
you know so So we go through and then they have that whole little entrance experience right where you you walk through that little backstage area. They got a DJ there that's playing music and talking and making jokes. And you know they get they give you the marshmallow with the the peppermint marshmallow, Mickey, Mickey. Uh, you know, we got our ornaments, we got, um, you know, was snowing, there was a bunch of characters walking around. There were some gingerbread men, some, some, uh, I don't know, like snow angels, ah a whole bunch of different stuff going on, but it was, it was a very cool way to, to, to walk in, you know, it's, it's a very neat way to, to start the party, you know? Um, but so that was cool. We liked that.
00:17:50
Speaker
I'm going to, I'm going to say before I get into all this stuff, Trevor, That I think we kind of failed at the party. Okay. I think we, I think we failed a little bit and I, I'm going to blame myself for this. ah And I'm not going to say it's poor planning. I'm just going to say it's, I don't know. i Maybe it's just having six people and we just hadn't done it before. And we hadn't been to like Disney in a while. And we kind of got distracted by, you know, rides and stuff and didn't do a lot of the party things, but we're going to get into that. well we But I, I,
00:18:23
Speaker
Feel like we failed a little. I feel because because we did the wait list where we talked about it. I know. And I still fail. Yeah, because I recall that was something that we talked about was like, you can't just like go in and wander. You need to.
00:18:38
Speaker
you know, prioritize and all that, but it sounds like schmma it like, you know, but I get it too, to, to be fair. I, I, I understand because, you know, I think the first time we did a party, it was the same thing. We were just so overwhelmed by, you know, there's so much going on on top. Like there's the normal, like, like park stuff going on. And then there's the, the party stuff going on, which yeah is like, I get it. I get why you you felt like you didn't,
00:19:06
Speaker
handle it maybe as well as you could have but you're still there is the thing so it's true yeah it's true so i mean listen the decorations and everything you do you know it does disorient you you know because there's just there's so much going on and it's like even though i've been there you know so many times and i know where to go and everything is still was just kind of like in a good way though where i was kind of like almost like a kid you know just kind of like looking up and everything just excitement and yeah wonder and yeah yeah exactly yeah So we decided we're going to go to Country Bears first.
00:19:38
Speaker
Now, don't ask me why we ended up at Country Bears first. I'm not really sure why. I think I said to my daughter, what do you want to do first? And she randomly told me Country Bears. And I'm like, OK, nobody else has done Country Bears. So let's go do Country Bears. Like, why not? I mean, I thought the new version of Country Bears was great. And no one else in my group had seen it outside of my wife, daughter and I. So the other half of the group had not seen the new version. So, like, let's go do Country Bears. Right.
00:20:01
Speaker
We get to Country Bears and we go inside and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting we're waiting. And my daughter's chanting Country Bears because, you know, she wants Country Bears. And ah yeah it's never good when they do, you know, they say, oh the doors will be opening in one minute. And then the doors don't open. And a guy that looks like a manager is on a phone and walks out of from behind the doors. Yeah. yeah okay yeah so So Country Bears was closed. ah There was a technical difficulty. So that was a bummer.
00:20:29
Speaker
While we were waiting for Country Bears, though, there was something I'd never seen before. And I'm sure it probably has happened before and happens regularly. I don't know. I've just never seen it before. But they were doing like, know how to describe it. They were doing like a dance party in front of Country Bears.
00:20:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah. What is that called? yeah You've never seen that show. um I don't know how. i don't know how. is it called? um it Hold on. I will find it. Keep going, but I will find the name of They had like Cowboy Chip and Dale there. They had, you know, like there was like 30 cast members involved in this. And we were like, how have we never seen this before? Like we I mean, we're in Frontierland all the time when we're there. I've just never seen it.
00:21:07
Speaker
I don't know why. It's the Frontierland Hoedown is what that right? Yeah, that's Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. All the cast members and everything were joining in and all that. Yeah. They're dancing. And yeah. And I mean, the country bro showed up. Wait. Yeah. You've.
00:21:18
Speaker
Okay. Sorry. And all the times you've been, you've never happened upon that. I feel like I have, but not at the size that I saw it. I feel like I've seen it with like a couple people. There was like 30 cast members involved in this. It was huge. Oh, no. i Okay. Yeah. um All right. Yeah. that Sorry. That surprises me that you've never seen that. But, you know, hey, bonus that you got to i know how to see it. know. I don't know how it's possible I didn't see it. But...
00:21:42
Speaker
Because Country Bears was shut down, you know we were like, okay, well,
Ride Experiences and Festive Fun
00:21:46
Speaker
what are we going to do now? We're in Frontierland. And everyone everyone wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean except for my daughter because she doesn't like the drop in the dark thing. And so my whole group went to go to Pirates of the Caribbean. My daughter and I stayed behind and we went on all ledge on the ah magic carpets there. um Of course, there was zero wait for Pirates. It was literally zero. It was like five minute wait.
00:22:07
Speaker
And there was a five minute wait for a lot of magic carpets. Right. So we did magic carpets. Then we, my daughter wanted a dole whip and you know, so is she, we got her a dole whip. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you get him a dole whip.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah. We got a dole whip. Yeah. um So then we were like, well, let's see. Jingle cruise only has 40 minute wait. Let's go do jingle cruise. Right. And by the way, it's still before party time now. It's only like,
00:22:31
Speaker
Five o'clock. So it's not quite dark yet. So you're not doing like Jingle Cruise at night. Okay. Well, and that's part of the reason we decided to do it at that moment, because my daughter does not like Jingle Cruise.
00:22:43
Speaker
Right. big she She doesn't like the dark parts. Right. And so I thought, well, we thought that, well, let's do it while it's still light out and then she'll be okay with it.
00:22:54
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we get to Jingle Cruise, Trevor, and I think you're going to understand what I say when I say this, right? The line was backed up all the way out of the queue back to like where the little stand is. And I said to my wife, I said, that is not a 40 minute wait for Jingle Cruise.
00:23:09
Speaker
That's going to be an hour. Easy, right? Anytime I see the line backed up all the way out the back there and they have all the queue line open, that's going to take an hour. Right. yeah So but we did it anyway. And sure enough, it took an hour, which i have to say of all.
00:23:24
Speaker
Okay. I love Jungle Cruise and I like, I really love the queue. I love all the details of it. I especially love Jingle Cruise because of the haphazard nature of the way that they do the decorations in the queue and on the ride and how it's all just like thrown together on purpose.
00:23:41
Speaker
But I love it. Right. However, there was no greater soul crushing thing queue at Disney than the Jungle Cruise because that thing goes back and forth forever.
00:23:54
Speaker
You know what i'm talking about? When you go in that one room... It's it's the extended queue that's the problem. it's That's what I'm talking about. the queue itself is fine, but when you get into the extended queue, so you're in just giant empty rooms with switchbacks. it's yeah And it's just... it feels like it never ends and it just goes so slow and you're just like...
00:24:13
Speaker
ah be done with this already. You know, we love jungle cruise and we love jingle cruise, but by the time we got to the boat, we were all just kind of like over it, you know, which is like, we just waited an hour in line for this. And our, and our skipper was, our skipper was trying hard. Were they a learning skipper?
00:24:30
Speaker
No, they just, I don't know. I, you know, here's the, I think everybody knows this whenever they've done jungle cruise, right? That there's like, even if the, if the skipper tries really hard, there are just certain people that click a lot better that make you laugh a lot harder, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's, you're right there. There is a weird natural charisma thing about it where it's like, you can tell somebody that's forcing it versus somebody that's like in it.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah. Cause like you, like you can, you can bring the same energy, but It's it's in how. Yeah, you can tell how they deliver it. Right. It's it's a weird thing. Yeah. A hundred percent. And like it's it's almost like they rush through it.
00:25:14
Speaker
Right. You know, like where they just like talk really fast and they don't wait for punch lines. And they it's just I don't know. Nobody was laughing on the boat. I'll tell you that. Like it was it was it was kind of one of those just and I don't know if maybe it's because everybody just waited an hour long line.
00:25:26
Speaker
I don't know. While we were online, they said the they they started making announcements and and saying that the line was ah like 65, 70 minutes or something like that. And they were just letting people know. So they want to come on. And I was like, oh, boy. OK, so anyway, we did Jingle Cruise at this point. It's like 630, maybe. Right.
00:25:45
Speaker
maybe right So we've done a couple of things, right? We, you know, we, we did a few things. and but And so, and you're hitting that point where people are exiting the park and the actual Christmas party is going to be starting. Yes, exactly. People are starting to head for the head for the Hills. Right. um And we, ah after that though, we ah knew that there was going to be a show going on at the front of the castle, which was like the, the, ah whatever the, the, the holiday The little holiday stage show, which the holiday celebration something. Yeah. but but it's the It's the stage show for like for the party. Yeah. So we went to go check that out.
00:26:23
Speaker
um We watched it for 10 minutes. And my daughter was like, can we go do something? She just wasn't. The show was not clicking with her. It was not clicking. And I get it. And it's fine. But ah you could tell as the show was going on, people were heading for the hills. Like it was just, you know,
00:26:41
Speaker
it was like after the fireworks type migration to the front of the park. You know what I mean? Like it was, it was a crazy amount of people leaving, which is, you know, you, what you expect because the park's closing. Right. Um, so we went over to the haunted mansion, haunted mansion, had no weight at all. So we walked right into the haunted mansion, which was, you know, great.
00:26:58
Speaker
Right. Uh, and then we decided to go over to the barnstormer, which by the way, the Haunted Mansion was looking great. I have to say this, right? So like the, lot of the effects on the inside were looking really good. We saw the hatbox ghost, which we hadn't seen the hatbox ghost yet.
00:27:14
Speaker
Uh, because we didn't. Oh, right. Yeah. You didn't ride it in May. Did you? No, I don't think we did for one reason or another. I don't remember why, but we didn't. I was like, a minute. You're talking yeah because i was like, yeah, I saw all that. But yeah, right. I guess you didn't you didn't get to see it back then. okay But it was lit up so great at night. yeah The lighting at and night was so much better than I've ever seen it before.
00:27:32
Speaker
I also saw one of the cast members was holding the invisible dog leash, which I do. OK, do you remember this from? I had one of these when i was a kid. You can used to be able to buy them where it's ah it's a it's it's a it's a dog leash and they you know, they have like it make it and it like floats in the air and it makes it seem like it's a you know ghost dog, you know.
00:27:52
Speaker
So there was a guy holding one. I was like, no way. Like, where's that come from? Like, that was like from my 30 year old thing. um But anyway, so ah but so that was great, of course. And then we decided to go over to the barnstormer.
00:28:04
Speaker
And because my daughter lives a barnstormer. And at this point, the party is just starting, right? So it's about seven o'clock, just starting up. ah No way for the barnstormer, of course, right? But the party's just starting and we're over there and it just so happens that we're right by one of the snacky spots. So we decided to go get that snack and that particular snack happened to be The um gingerbread. ah no wait, what was that one?
00:28:26
Speaker
Was that ginger? It was it was ah it was the ginger. No, it was the ah pretzel snowman. It was a pretzel snowman. And it's fruit punch. OK, what were the combination there? um Not their best effort. i It was. probably the Listen, the pretzels were probably good.
00:28:41
Speaker
When they first were cooked. The problem was they put them in this little wax bag. And by the time you get it, it like, yeah itself soggy they're sitting for a while Yeah. they They make so many of them. Yeah. Yeah. The fruit punch was fine, but the pretzel was just a little bit. It was little meh. It was, you know, it was fine. Yeah. sorry Yeah. it was fine.
00:29:00
Speaker
um Daughter rode the barnstorm were twice. Right. So we were, were happy there. ah You know, we started to, we we were going to walk towards Ariel. Right. So we're going to walk behind seven dwarves over there.
00:29:11
Speaker
And my water my daughter wanted to do aerial. And of course, there's no wait for aerial at all. Right. It's a zero zero minute wait. we It took us longer to walk through the queue than what the wait time was. You see, that that's the great thing about parties is that like everything is walk on for for a lot a lot of rides or walk on. Yeah. For the most part. The one thing we did notice and I, you know, I heard this advice many times and this is true.
00:29:33
Speaker
You probably shouldn't do the party if you're just going for the short lines because not everything is a short line. Most things are short lines, but Tron and seven dwarves still and, and junk and jingle crews still had really long lines.
00:29:45
Speaker
Yeah. All three of those really long. um I mean, they were shorter than they usually are, but still they were really long. um So after Ariel, we go and get our, our second snack of the night, which was a, a salted caramel pretzel cookie, a chocolate chip pretzel cookie.
00:30:03
Speaker
with eggnog. I didn't do the eggnog because I'm not an eggnog fan, but I did do the cookie. The thing I noted about this, and I didn't necessarily know this, is that they just give you as many cookies as you want. You just take as many as you want. So I go up there, and I go, can I get two, one for my daughter? And then I look behind me, and my daughters had gotten three from the cast member behind me. So now we got like five cookies. And then as I'm walking out, one of the cast members goes my daughter. like, do want two more? And she's like, yeah. And I was just like, wait, what? It's like, we have like so many cookies now. We just like throwing cookies in our bag. Save them for later. Yeah.
00:30:40
Speaker
Yeah. No, you save them for later. they And they listen, they kept well because they're sealed and, you know, they're they're delicious. These were these particular ones were really good. So I can't complain about that. Right. we we So we did that. Um, then i think at this point we went over to see, uh, to frontier land to see the parade.
00:31:00
Speaker
I think, i think this is, yeah. Okay. So you found a spot in frontier land to watch the parade from. Well, listen, we were a little late to the party as far as the parade goes. Right. So we had to find a spot.
00:31:13
Speaker
Oh, I will say. Okay. okay So this was a little bit. Sorry. shouldn't. I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have like, oh, like, I'm sorry. yeah I get where this is going. Yeah, no. OK, so here's what here's what happened. OK, right. So so we we we found a spot, you know, the taped off areas. Right. And so we're in the taped off area. It's fine. Right. And they have a walk. We're right next to a walkway that they have open up. Right.
00:31:37
Speaker
Well, we didn't realize and I wasn't really thinking about is the fact that once the parade started coming, they were going to close that walkway off and then anybody could go to that to to where the walkway was. Right.
00:31:47
Speaker
So they weren't letting anybody stand in the walkway. Like I was like really aggressive about it. And then as soon as you close the walkway, like a hundred people flew up all of a sudden. to said Now my daughter's like behind everybody, even though we've been standing there for a while.
00:31:58
Speaker
I know really frustrating, but I also understand it's fine. it was okay. We ended up, we we ended up fine. She saw it. You know, we, it the parade is great, right? We've watched videos of the parade before, but seeing in a person was really cool. parade's off it's It's different. And did you, did you get the smells?
00:32:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. we got all that, yeah. Because that's part of it, I think, is that, like, when you start getting, like, the gingerbread house smell and everything, like, that's... It's kind of a... Like, it's hard... I know I'm describing it, but it's so much different in person, right? Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. ah So while we were watching the parade, my sister and my brother-in-law peeled off to go get some food at Pecosville. They were hungry. We we really hadn't eaten anything, but we decided to go after that to wade through all the crowds and go to Small World, which literally, when I say it had no line, I mean, there was not a single human being in line. like When we got there, there was no one. So we did that. And as we were sitting there, it's like 830. Well, no, it's like almost nine o'clock at this point. Right. And my daughter's like, I'm hungry. I'm like, OK, well, it's nine o'clock at night. um And we've been kind of snacking. But sure, let's get some food. You're right by Village House.
00:33:08
Speaker
We were right there. Right. So like literally as I'm on Small World, I'm doing a mobile order for Pinocchio Village House right there. And i I got so the only thing, Trevor, I got of all the stuff we talked about from the parties on Food Time was the those raviolis at ah Pinocchio Village. house OK, so like they were they were delicious. They were huge. It was a huge portion and they were really, really good. They came out. They came out super hot. They were really well filled. They just were very tasty. I really enjoyed them. ah My daughter had like chicken fingers. Right. So.
00:33:39
Speaker
So anyway, we at that point, we're sitting in Pinocchio Village House and we see that ah Peter Pan has a 20 minute wait, which is absurd. You know, Peter Pan never has a 20 minute wait. Peter Pan doesn't 20 minute wait when you rope drop it.
00:33:53
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah. it's it's Right. So then we were like, OK, well, why don't we go do that? ah But then, you know, we were kind of at that point it was getting ah close it was it was getting closer to the fireworks time. You know, we're getting closer to 10 o'clock.
00:34:07
Speaker
It was like 930. Right. And it was like, well, we could probably do Peter Pan. But then are we going to get out in time to do the fireworks? and you know we trying figure it out Because from there, it's like you got to get out and then try and get to the front of the castle before they close off the walkways. And yeah.
00:34:22
Speaker
And at this point, it was not like I said, it was like nine thirty and we're still like waiting to get our food. Right. So like our food, we our food hasn't even come yet. And then we got to eat it. And then, you know, we got to go on a wait in Peter Pan and then go to. so I was like, yeah, we're not going to make this happen. Right. So we were like, OK, it's either Peter Pan or the fireworks. And then we ended up doing neither of them.
00:34:42
Speaker
Oh, no. Yeah. So i we we ate our food and ah we was like 945. And I said, all right, well, why don't we head to the front of the castle so we can go watch the fireworks?
00:34:53
Speaker
And my daughter was like, i don't really want to watch fireworks. I want to go to Winnie the Pooh. And was like, all right, let's go to Winnie the Pooh then. I was like, you made it all the way until 10 o'clock and we're going on Winnie the Pooh instead of doing the fireworks. Okay. Okay. I just want to say, if if she had said Tomorrowland Speedway, I would have been like, yes.
00:35:14
Speaker
Winnie the Pooh, though. Like, I get it. Priority is friend. Priority my friend. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, but at least Tomorrowland Speedway, you would have gotten the fireworks while you on the ride. I'm not even kidding, Trevor. We didn't even step foot in Tomorrowland this entire time.
00:35:27
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. We did not even step foot in Tomorrowland. At all. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. So we go and do Winnie the Pooh as we're getting off Winnie the Pooh. The fireworks are going off. Well, as we're getting on, we did the pooof fireworks are going off. So, you know, listen, it's fine.
00:35:42
Speaker
I i'm there for my daughter, not for me. Right. yeah And i would I've liked to see the fireworks? Absolutely. Did I see the fireworks? I did not. So it's okay. It's fine, though.
00:35:53
Speaker
I'm cool. um So after that, it's 10 o'clock at night. Right. And this is the latest my daughter's ever stayed up in her entire life. She has never stayed up until 10 o'clock in her entire life. And so at this point, I'm kind of impressed. I'm like, all right, you made it pretty far here, kid.
00:36:07
Speaker
um But she was like, I want to go back. And was like, okay, we'll go back. Right. So note that Trevor, we only did two of the cookie. We never got hot cocoa. Even we did, we got a pretzel and punch and we got salted caramel cookie and that was it.
00:36:26
Speaker
so yeah And listen, it it is what it is, right? Which, okay And, and so, you know, back to your initial point of, did you fail at the holiday party?
00:36:39
Speaker
i don't think you I don't think you did because ah because the thing is, is that it was your first go around. You still got to experience some of the unique things of the party. You know, you got to do the parade. You got to, you know, you know do the treats and and, you know, see all the decorations and everything.
00:36:56
Speaker
But you kept saying throughout this that, you know, you did what your daughter wanted to do. And at the end of the day, This is going to be something that your daughter is going to look back on and be like, yeah, we went to this awesome party. And her perspective on it is going to be that it was wonderful and magical. She's not going to worry about the things that you missed out on.
00:37:17
Speaker
I agree. It's hard because we look at it from the lens of like, oh, we know all this stuff because we're talking about all the time. know. So we we know what we're missing out on. She's not going to look at it that way. So you didn't you didn't lose is that's true what I would say. yeah That's true. So there's more to this, obviously. So we were walking out as the fireworks were going off. right like So we're literally walking out as the fireworks going off. Now, I will say the nice thing about the party There wasn't like, and there's you know, there's of even though it's less people, there's still a lot
Grand Villa Stay and Dining Highlights
00:37:46
Speaker
of people there. Right. It's still I don't know how many tickets they sell, but it's still a lot.
00:37:50
Speaker
Right. But we didn't you know, we didn't have to deal with those like hordes of people like we normally have to. Right. And it wasn't so bad getting out of the park while the fireworks going off. And it was snowing and it was snowing and all that. and And my daughter was enjoying that. Right. Right.
00:38:04
Speaker
So, like I said, walk back is rough when your feet hurt. You know, we were just like, oh, let's get it back to the room All right. So we go back to the room and we have not seen the room at this point. So, you know, keep that in mind. So all of the grand villas are on the top two floors of Bay Lake Tower. So we're on, you know, the 15th floor.
00:38:21
Speaker
think it the 15th. 15th or 14th. Whatever. You can get in from either floor, right? Because there's there's ah there's a door on the top and there's two there's two entrances. Yeah. yeah Yeah. So we walk into the room and i'm I mean...
00:38:34
Speaker
I mean, you've seen pictures of it, Trevor. it's It's a pretty stunning room. It really is. I mean, it's two floors. There's a huge, great space in the middle. There's floor-to-ceiling windows.
00:38:46
Speaker
I had booked a ah a lake view, right? yeah However, and I was kind of hoping for this, but you know you never know what you're going to get i booked a lake view. We were actually situated on the very end of the tower, so we actually got a lake view and a park view.
00:39:05
Speaker
Oh, which was awesome. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. We literally so we could see pretty much all the way to the Christmas tree on Main Street. Anything that was like further. i don't know, for lack of a better term, like closer to adventure land. Yeah. Yeah. anything Anything that was left of that, we did not see. But we could see Tron. We could see everything between there and and basically almost like, you know, ah Tiana. And you could see all that.
00:39:29
Speaker
And then we also had an amazing view of the lake. So it was the best of both worlds. I actually was joking. Like, i was like, how does DVC not charge more for this particular room? Cause you're getting both views, you know, like you get both, like, it's almost like you should charge more points for that, for a combo view, but yeah we yeah really like you need to cut this part, Tom.
00:39:46
Speaker
I know. I, I, I'm not saying they should nobody from DVC. Don't listen to me. I'm just saying. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Don't, don't listen to what we just said, please. Yeah. ah But anyway, so yeah, the view was great. The room was incredible. So at this point, though, part of the reason I went back, my mom and I went back, you know, my mom was going to ah stay in the same room with my daughter. But my ah we yeah we didn't get our back, you know, with the bags are still with belt services. Right. So and my mom doesn't necessarily know my daughter's kind of, you know, nighttime routine or where everything is packed and everything. So. I went back so I could get my daughter settled.
00:40:20
Speaker
and And then I thought about going back to the park after that. By the time I got her settled, it was about 11 o'clock. she was She was still bouncing off the walls at 11 o'clock, by the way. I i don't know. like I felt like we could have stayed.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. I don't know. The cookies is what did it. Yeah, maybe. But she was still bouncing off the walls. I was like, kid, we could have stayed longer. We could have done more. And she's like, I wanted to come back. And I was like, all right, fine. So they settled down and it's like 11 o'clock and I'm like, is really worth it for me to walk all the way back to the park? My feet hurt. I'm tired. It's, you know, all that.
00:40:49
Speaker
And so I decided to just stay right. The rest of my crew, they went to Tron and they did front row of Tron, which they had, a which they loved. ah They loved my sister hadn't done it before. She loved it.
00:41:02
Speaker
um Especially front row. She loved the front row. Oh yeah. I'm i'm glad they did front row. at You know, at least yeah front front row is the best on Tron. I love it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then um right after they were done with that, they waited a long time for Tron. They said they waited almost an hour for Tron. And after they were done with that, it was like 1145 and there was a zero minute wait for Space Mountain. So they were like, well, we're going to go to Space Mountain. So they g went and jumped on Space Mountain.
00:41:27
Speaker
ah and you know and did that. And they had they so they flashed the night got blinded, i bet. yeah they They loved it, though. It was great. it It is awesome, but yeah, the the lights in there are just insane.
00:41:38
Speaker
but i also i just have to mention this just because it was weird. It was one of my weirdest Disney moments ever. i So the Bell Services guy comes up And, you know, with our bags, we only, ah mean it's you know, just a couple bags. And the only reason we left it with him, because we we didn't want to carry the car keys around and all that stuff. Like we just wanted to stay with Bell Services since we didn't have a room yet.
00:41:58
Speaker
And the guy comes up and I said, i said to him, you know, we have the wristbands on and they make those wristbands. So you can't undo them. You can only tighten them. You can't untighten them. Right. Yeah. And which they tell you up front. Right.
00:42:08
Speaker
And I realized when we get back to the room, was like, I don't have any means to cut this off. Right. There's no scissors in the room that I could find. I looked everywhere for scissors. No scissors. the bell services guy comes up I was like, Hey, do you happen to have scissors? And he's like, no. He's like, I got a pocket knife though. I'm like, all right. Like it's 11 o'clock at night. I want to get this off my wrist. And he just, dude just hands me his pocket knife. I'm like, what is happening here? And I just, I, you know, just, I use pocket knife to cut it off of my wrist and my daughter's wrist. And I was just like, what am I doing? This, this is random guy's pocket knife. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
I don't know. It's fine. They're Disney cast member. I'm sure that pocket knife is perfectly safe. yeah I mean, that the pocket knife had seen some things. um just That's all I'm going to say. it was It was an old pocket knife. Anyway, so we all go to sleep.
00:42:59
Speaker
Like I said, room's fantastic. Next morning, we don't have our reservation. And I really want to wrap this up because we got a lot of other stuff to talk about. So got to catch up. and don't want to take up too much of the time doing this. Oh, come on. We knew this was how this was going to go. It's fine. Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. I was hoping that I could keep it shorter, but you know, it is worse. Yeah, I know. laugh You laugh like our wives do at us when we say we're going to do a short episode. yeah Exactly.
00:43:21
Speaker
So next day we get up. We don't have a, our dining reservation isn't until 1045 at Park Fair. Right. And you know, my daughter wakes up at 6am every day. Right. So that's, ah it's a pretty decent gap between those two times. Right. So,
00:43:37
Speaker
So I get up and I go over to the Contempo Cafe, just buy a bunch of like pastries and stuff, you know, just to hold everybody over until food. Right. Uh, which were great. You know, listen, Disney always has great pastries and, you know, got my daughter some cereal and, you know, that kind of thing. Right. Uh, so ah about like, i don't know, I want to say like 10 30, we hop on the monorail, you know, we, we say goodbye to our incredible room, uh, you know, that we got to spend less than 24 hours in.
00:44:02
Speaker
It's like 12 hours at the most, ah which is fine. It was great. It's great for 12 hours. Um, you know, took the monorail over cause the monorails were, were, were doing all right at that point.
00:44:12
Speaker
Uh, and we get to 1900 Parker. First of all, the, uh, that new bird cage themed bar thing that that's, you know, cause they're doing all the renovations in the grand Floridian. And so that was opened and they had, I think they just put down new carpet too. It looks very nice. I mean, it listen, it's grand Floridian. It just, it looks nice. Right.
00:44:29
Speaker
The funny thing was, though, you know, I'm not a Grand Flow expert, right? Like, so I have no idea where 1900 Park Fair is in Grand Floridian. It's a huge place. You know, it's like, i don't know where this place is. yeah i am I kind of vaguely know where it is. i Yeah. I just, I don't know. I've never been there. So I've never really thought to know where it is. And I did the rare thing that I have ever done at Disney. And that's ask a cast member for directions. I must never do that. But I did it anyway.
00:44:56
Speaker
Right. All right. So we got a 1900 Park Fair. And... and we waited for kind of a long time, right? We're there ah right at 10 45 and it's getting to be like 11 15 and they still haven't called us yet. And i was like, Hmm, this is kind of a long time.
00:45:12
Speaker
And so the host, ah the manager the restaurant comes over and, you know, she, she, you know, gets my name and everything. She's like, she's like, listen, I'm really sorry. We're behind on, you know, six tops right now. Uh, and, and she's like, I'm sorry for the way, like, you know, it's, we just got kind of backed up and i was like, no, no, no problem. No, no problem at all. And she said, listen, we will, uh, we're going All your drinks are on the house for the the first round of any, any drinks you guys want. Anything you want is on the house for the first round.
00:45:37
Speaker
i was like, that's very nice. Oh, I was like, I didn't even complain. And you just start giving me free drinks. I was like, yeah, you don't you shouldn't complain. But you you you get more if you don't complain. but this is the thing yeah This is, you know, when you talk about Disney, the difference of Disney, right? Yeah.
00:45:56
Speaker
She proactively came to especially Grant Flaherty. And she proactively came up to me and offered that. I did not in any way show that I was like mad or frustrated or impatient. I literally, we were just literally sitting there waiting and she came up and offered that to me. And that was great. And listen, my, you know, listen, i ah a lot of people in my family like to have, you know, don't like to have a drinker here, here, you know, every, every once a while. Right. Some ah morning mimosas. yeah Right. So, and I mean, even my brother-in-law doesn't drink alcohol, but he'll have a mocktail. Like he likes a good mocktail. So, I mean, we probably spent, I mean,
00:46:30
Speaker
probably had to spend almost a hundred dollars on drinks and we, they did not charge us for them, but which was awesome. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. i'm not complain and and you Yeah. You can get all the fancy drinks with your meal. That's, that's awesome.
00:46:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It was great. um I really dug 1900 park fair and I'm really glad that we did it because I really liked it. I liked the atmosphere in it. The food was really good and I really like, I like a good breakfast buffet in general, but I've, I feel like Disney's breakfast buffets usually have pretty good food.
00:46:58
Speaker
And I really liked it. There was, and I've had this at other breakfast buffets at Disney, but they had, the they had a cheesy hash brown casserole, Trevor. that I think I could have eaten the entire pan of it. I might have eaten an entire pan. I could not stop eating it.
00:47:14
Speaker
I was like obsessed with it. I was so obsessed with it to the point when I got home, Trevor, I emailed guest services to see if they'd give me the recipe for it because you can actually ask. I don't think everybody knows this, but you can ask servers for recipes for certain things and sometimes they will give them to you.
00:47:28
Speaker
It depends, but sometimes they will give that. I don't think we maybe I talked about this. This was like a couple of years ago when we went to Space 220. um We actually we we so like my wife was said to the the server, you know, this meal was amazing, you you know, compliments to the chef and, you you know, tell them thank you. The chef actually came out and my wife actually got the recipe for the mashed potatoes from the chef. Yeah, that's and I, we ate it with Chellier one time and we were commenting on the soup and they gave me a card with the recipe for the soup on it. So, and I don't know where went, but I have it somewhere. But if you ask the waitress wait waitress or waiters, sometimes they will give it to you. It just depends on the recipe. Right. And I forgot to do that because our waitress was.
00:48:11
Speaker
overwhelmed She was she was working hard. She did a great job, but she was very overwhelmed and and having a very difficult time keeping up. And and I don't blame her at all. It was very busy in there. it was packed. You know, listen, it you're talking about the day before Thanksgiving. It's one of the busiest times at Disney. It it you know, she was really so I didn't ask her. But when I got back home, I emailed guest services to see if they'd send it to me. They said they would not. So which is fine.
00:48:36
Speaker
ah You know, certain things they will. Certain things they won't. It's totally fine. But I was obsessed with this. I ate so much of it. It was crazy. ah And, you know, of course, there was they like breakfast pizza. They had like, you know, sausage gravy biscuits. They had scrambled eggs and bacon. And and then, of course, they had the strawberry soup that they're known for.
00:48:55
Speaker
uh, at there, which I wanted to try really badly. And then forgot. I just ate too much like casserole. And I just was like, someone was like, you want to get some strawberry soup? I'm like, no, im going to die. ate so much casserole. I'm sensing a theme to this trip. why What? Just failing at things? Yeah. all time Getting overwhelmed and then forgetting why you were there. Yeah. I mean, that's that's that's true. That's true. Which is fine. It happens. Yeah.
Trip Reflections and Memorable Moments
00:49:21
Speaker
I have to say the the characters coming to the table were, as usual, top notch. They were fantastic. Yeah. Uh, I don't think I've ever seen a better Mirabelle than the person that came to our table. She was spot on. Uh, you know, and Tiana was fantastic too. ah I mean, they were all great. They really were. They were all, it was a little weird that Aladdin was there and it was like, then everybody else was like Cinderella, uh, so it wasn't like Aladdin and Jasmine. It was just Aladdin, Aladdin solo.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Which it was fine. He was great. He was nice. ah You know, they do this. She was busy that day. She was yeah she was touring Agrabah or something. out yes she Yeah, she's busy. She's on a magic carpet ride somewhere. um But yeah, you know, and then they did because all of those things, they always have some sort of thing, whether it be like a dance or some other thing. They were doing ah they they give you these little wish cards where the kids are supposed to write down their wishes. And then they do like a whole little ceremony around it. It was it was fun. We unfortunately came in right as it was happening. So we didn't really get to do it.
00:50:21
Speaker
But it was fine. My daughter didn't want to participate in that anyway. She wanted food at that point. She was up. She's over. and She wanted food. um That's cool, but I'm hungry. That's cool. Give me food. Yeah. ah So, yeah. So, me listen, 1900 Park Fair was great. We would 100% do that again. ah ah The only problem we had, other than having to wait a little bit longer...
00:50:44
Speaker
This is really funny, actually. So it took forever to get the bill. And I don't know why. Like, I just was waiting for the check and I'm just sitting there and and and I told the rest of the family because my daughter's getting antsy. I'm like, you guys go.
00:50:55
Speaker
I'll take care of the check and I'll come out and meet you. Right. Yeah. like Like 20 minutes go by and I don't see my waitress at all. Right. And they're cleaning up like they're starting to clean up for the for the next, you know, for it for dinner time, basically, because at this point they said they were the breakfast was done. They were cleaning up like they were cleaning up all the tables. And I'm just sitting there by myself at this table, like looking around like, ah do do you guys want me to pay for this or like, ah you know, what what's going on here?
00:51:24
Speaker
So the the waitress finally brings me the check. Right. And i realized I hadn't told her that we were DVC and needed a DVC discounts. So she takes the check away, disappears for another 15 minutes.
00:51:39
Speaker
And I'm like, what the heck is going on here? Then she comes back. She gives me the check. Everything's good. Everything's right. Well, Trevor, we had six people in our group. And when you have six people, they automatically add gratuity to the check.
00:51:51
Speaker
Did I pay attention to that? No, I did not. So you an extra tip on top? I i added the whole tip like what the whole tip would have been. So I realized my mistake, and now I have to get yet another check, Trevor. Yeah.
00:52:04
Speaker
Oh, no. This time I happened to see a manager cleaning up one of the tables and I was like, hey, can you help me out with this? Like, I i screwed this up. I need another one. I've been sitting here for like a half hour. Can you like help me out here?
00:52:17
Speaker
And so she went and got me another one. It was it was done. But I was just like, oh, this is just like a comedy of errors. Like it just keeps happening. Like and it's taking you forever. The funny, the most interesting thing I saw, though, Trevor, is while everyone's cleaning up.
00:52:29
Speaker
Tiana comes out, right? Everyone, ah there's, there's still some tables, right? And there's, you know, they're doing the rotation and Tiana just kind of standing there. And then she just starts cleaning up tables. She's over there pushing in chairs and cleaning plates off tables. And I'm like,
00:52:43
Speaker
what ah what ah What a cool thing for you to do. Like, that's not your job at all to do that, Tiana. And there's Tiana cleaning up tables. the The funny thing is, is that that absolutely tracks with Tiana's character. Yes. Like, it's still in character. Yeah. It's 100% in character. and That's why I thought it was so cool. I was like, no, it's like Tiana's restaurant. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:02
Speaker
yeah Okay. Yeah. Cool. yeah But yeah, listen, we had a great trip. It was a blast. It was really short. it was really fast. It was exhausting. And I think we probably could have done better. We didn't do any of the character meets.
00:53:15
Speaker
None of them. We did. We got two snacks. We just did some rides and enjoyed some shows. But, you know, we got to stay in a cool hotel. We got to have a really great breakfast. I think overall, it was a great time.
00:53:26
Speaker
You had an experience and and it wasn't it wasn't what you thought the experience was going to be, but most of the time it never is. um And i think, you know, for anybody listening to this, um there are some takeaways from it, you know. So, know, you know tom Tom, so I'm going to paraphrase this, you know, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Tom, but I think the things that I gathered from this is, you know, planning a like a very short window trip um for something like the party.
00:53:58
Speaker
yeah If you haven't done it before, it doesn't work in your favor because you do need time to figure it out. You do need time to kind of like get your bearings and everything. And, know,
00:54:10
Speaker
I feel like if you had if you had other like days in the park, you probably wouldn't have been like focused so much on getting... Oh, 100%. You have been more focused on the party and not on like doing rides and doing doing other things. so Absolutely. Absolutely. So there is that part of it, I feel. So, so you know you know, something to think about is, you know, if you're doing these kinds of things, trying to do it in a very quick window, if you if you aren't experienced, doesn't work out um the way you think it should.
00:54:42
Speaker
And But also, you know, the the other side of it, too, is, you know, I think the part where you won is that you didn't force anything. You didn't, you know, you know, you you in the back of your mind, you're like, we I wish we could have done this or we should have done that. And a lot of things that I see people make the mistake of is like, well, I dragged my kids here and they were like miserable. because you know i was i was like, we're going to watch the fireworks, right? and Well, yeah. and But you didn't do that, right? like you I was close to it, though. I was like, I'm going to watch the fireworks. And then I was like, oh, okay. But you caught yourself. That's the important part is that you realize that, you know, you it's not always about getting... Like, it it sucks because, you know, we're the ones...
00:55:23
Speaker
as the parents, we're were're paying for it, we're planning it. And, you know, you don't always get to do what you want. And, you know, it's not that you should be selfish and say, like, I, you know, I'm paying for this. We're going to do what I want.
00:55:34
Speaker
Like, you understand that there is compromises in these things. And even if you do all the planning, it doesn't matter sometimes that, you know, you know, sometimes your family decides to go a different direction and you got to roll with it. So, you know, that's that's the other takeaway I got from this as well is that, you know,
00:55:52
Speaker
Rolling with it makes for an overall better experience versus trying to do the trying to win. Right. like yeah Trying to trying to. Yeah.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah.
Mickey Popcorn Bucket Craze
00:56:05
Speaker
Yeah. It's not about winning. It's about having a good time. i I agree. And I think we had a really good time. And i yeah, it was it was great. The one one parting thing, though, Trevor, that I didn't talk about was the popcorn bucket.
00:56:18
Speaker
The Mickey popcorn bucket that we talked about on Food Time. Yes. So we we had a hard time finding it at first. And once we got it, first of all, the thing lights up, right?
00:56:29
Speaker
We're walking around with that thing. And I swear to you, I think I got stopped maybe 10 times by people asking me where we got it from. Like, People were going crazy over it. And i even when we were in but we were in the lobby of Bay Lake, a cast member came up and was like, where did you get that popcorn bucket? And I was like, from the park that you work next to? like ah What? like I was like, okay. and then And then the person he was talking to was like, wow, that's a really cool popcorn bucket. was like, yeah, it's you get a Magic Kingdom. like yeah But anyway, it's very popular option. People were very into it. Yeah.
00:57:00
Speaker
So that's why that's my trip, Trevor. I think we probably we have a couple other things to talk about. We really need to do our ad. Let's do the ad. And then, yeah, we'll we'll get into our other news bits because we are we are catching up on stuff because we have missed a couple of weeks. So, you know, some of these things may be, I guess, old news, but we'll still talk about them anyway. But for now, let's do our ad.
Disney Vacation Club Resale Fee Discussion
00:57:20
Speaker
So this week, our episode is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. DVC Rental Store is a world of DVC company that offers magical vacations at incredible value. Save up to 60% off retail rate at premium Disney resorts. DVC Rental Store now includes deposits as low as 25% at the time of booking and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation.
00:57:40
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. When you speak to them, be sure to let them know that Welcome Home sent you.
00:57:57
Speaker
All right. Okay. So where do we want to start? let's Okay. let's actually Let's start with the DVC news. Yeah. We need to start with this DVC news because it's not often that we have like real DVC news. And this is like real DVC news. Yeah. So, yeah. um So beginning and somebody and this was ah they haven't actually announced this. This is somebody found this in the contracts.
00:58:21
Speaker
ah That beginning in 2026 resale ah transfers of Disney Vacation Club contracts are going to be subject to a $500 fee. So they're going to start charging a $500 contract administration fee for all resale contracts.
00:58:38
Speaker
Huh. that's ah That's a pretty hefty fee. part this is this is This is going to make resale a little bit less attractive, and I think that's probably the point of it.
00:58:48
Speaker
um Especially small point contracts are, you're talking a $500 fee on a low point contract is is a lot. it's It's going to drive point values up across the board for resale, which... yeah Yeah, in in thinking about it, the the thing is is that retail – or not retail, sorry. Resale has been very – the answer for a lot of people is you know the the benefits of – re are of buying direct do not outweigh the savings on resale.
00:59:19
Speaker
So, you know, a lot of people will say just buy resale and accept that you're not going to, you know, get the blue card members as, you know, because it used to be a blue card that we ah we used to get.
00:59:29
Speaker
um So, you know you know, ignore that, ignore the blue card benefits and just get the resale because you're going to say more on your your room. And all that anyway. So Disney obviously has been probably hearing this and they probably looked at it and went, you know, the solution's not to lower the prices of their direct, because why would they do that?
00:59:50
Speaker
the The answer seems to be to drive up the prices of resale, which, you know, they can do that with this fee because... Yeah. i and And so I guess the the one thing that I'm not clear about on this, because like you said, it's it's in contracts, but I guess is this is this something on new contracts or is this – it beginning It's beginning January 1st.
01:00:14
Speaker
All resale contract closing. so this is So they're not actually adding it to the contracts. They're adding it to the process the clo yeah for moving. yeah so So if you're moving a contract from one person to another, they now have an administration fee that that they apply to everything. Which, you know, I guess maybe that their justification for it is that, you know, they have like the whole right of first refusal process and moving, you know, the the cost of moving yeah the contract from one person to another. That does, you know, there is there is time associated with, or, you know, they have to pay somebody to do that. Yeah. There are real costs associated with that for them, right? Like there's this real cost, but that's not a reason to do it necessarily, right? I mean, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, i'm i'm just i'm I'm just spitballing at, you know, potential reasons why, you know, they could look at this and say, hey, it's justified, but also, you know, this way,
01:01:06
Speaker
It keeps the the floor of, you know, low cheap as possible resale um point values from going too low. Because, I mean, the interesting thing is that, you know, yes, we have to pay that $500 fee.
01:01:23
Speaker
b you know if if we're And I guess this is the thing is that I guess – I don't know if it would be the buyer or the seller that's paying that – I guess it would be that closing. I'm going to guess it's the buyer.
01:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, because the buyer pays the closing costs, right? So it's – Yeah. Yeah, it's – I'm going to guess it's – I'm assuming it's the buyer. I doubt it would be the seller. i That would be kind of – I mean – But to your point, though, there there are real costs associated, real administrative costs that, you know, Disney has to pay for. But, you know, listen, they've been absorbing that up until now. um And and that just the cost of doing business.
01:01:57
Speaker
I do think that this is not necessarily to your point, though, Trevor, right? Like this is. yeah I mean, you could you could make that justification, right? But I think you you and I know, and I think pretty much everybody that knows DVC knows, they're doing this expressly to discourage so resale contracts, right? i mean they're trying to yeah They're trying to stop people from doing resale, which...
01:02:20
Speaker
Make it less attractive anyway, right? yeah Yeah, it's such a weird thing because, like, you know, we we bought our contracts so long ago at this point. yeah You know, you and you and I both, like, we've had our contracts for for, you know, a long time. I know you, like, moved your contracts around. I did buy and sell a new contract this yeah in January this past year, yeah. But, I mean, but even even at that, though, it's like...
01:02:43
Speaker
But it's such a weird thing to – or I guess for most people, this is not – like the extra $500 is not going to matter to you at the end of the day because if you've used your contract for years and years on end, yeah um you're already recouping – like the the cost or the value gotten out of it is there. Yeah.
01:03:05
Speaker
Somebody having to pay the $500 up front, you know, that that doesn't feel great. But again, if they use that contract for an extended period, they'll, um you know, that $500 isn't going to matter in the in the grand scheme of things. Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:21
Speaker
i I will say i feel like this may also be ah something where, you know, and and again, I don't i don't know how much of this is is a market of people. is You know, there's people who rent points, but I'm wondering if there are people that are maybe buying and selling small contracts as a means of like, yeah yeah I feel like i feel like there i feel like there there is a potential for like,
01:03:48
Speaker
like just playing the market that you could actually profit from buying and selling those contracts, right? Like it's not even a matter of using them. It's a matter of, you know, you buy a contract at a certain rate, you wait until, you know, they release a new resort or they do something and, you know, contract prices go up and then you sell and you make, you know, you make back us, you know, you know, past administration fees and everything you're you're profiting. Right.
01:04:12
Speaker
yeah I don't want to say that there's a bunch of people doing it, but I wouldn't doubt that there are people that do this because there's always somebody that that is you know playing markets like that. And it may be also way for Disney to combat that as well. Because like I said, for us, a $500 fee, I'm not...
01:04:30
Speaker
I'm not buying ah another resale contract anytime soon, but even if I did, it's like, okay, I'll just budget an extra $500 because i'm more you're already spending yeah thousands of dollars on it. like it's it doesn't I'm not saying it's a drop in the bucket, but it's not enough.
01:04:44
Speaker
yeah It's not enough for me to to say that it's going to break the bank on you know on buying resale, but I can see where you know if there was a bunch of 50-point contracts and you were like you know buying up 50-point contracts and slicing them up,
01:04:58
Speaker
this suddenly becomes very cost prohibitive to yeah those smaller contracts. Right. So and maybe part of it is discouraging the buying and selling of those, those smaller contracts. I mean, it's, it takes care, it takes care of a lot of things, but that could be one thing that they're trying to prevent even more of. But yeah I don't know. I don't know. I thought this was interesting. I mean, i why would they announce this necessarily? Like they don't necessarily want to, you know, hey, new fee announcement, you know, like yeah yeah even they're not going to outwardly announce it. But yeah, it's it's one of these things that they kind of slid in and people were like, hey, what?
01:05:31
Speaker
Like that's what now? Yeah. and They just added to the FAQs on the website, basically. And someone happened to catch it. And it's like, wow. Yeah. But again, i also don't expect them to just tell me that, right? Because it's not really relevant to most members unless you're buying new you know a new contract, right? or And you're buying a resale contract. So I don't know.
01:05:49
Speaker
It's not great. it's i don't love it. um I think it's you know it is what it is. If they want to charge a fee for that, they're going to charge a fee for it. I still think that the value in resale is there. And I still think you're you're still doing, even with the $500 fee, if you're buying a larger contract, like you said, it's almost like...
01:06:06
Speaker
it's It's a lot. It's a big fee. But at the same time, when you're spending as much money as you are on a larger contract, it's it's more it's it's not as big of a deal as when you're buying like a 25-point contract.
01:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, the the the long the long-term gains, or i I say gains in that, you know, the amount of value you get out of it after you've spent, you know, a couple of years without having to pay for, you know, hotel accommodations.
01:06:32
Speaker
Like, you know, $500 translates to maybe one night at the Polynesian. So, like, for me, it's like, okay, so that's one less night that I could spend at the Polynesian.
01:06:44
Speaker
Oh, no. yeah Anyway, moving on. It is what it is. And and and i again, i'm not I'm not downplaying that, you know you know, yes, it sucks. You know, anyone asking for more money always feels bad. I'm not like saying that, you know, hey, it's cool that Disney's doing this. I'm not...
01:07:02
Speaker
I'm not trying to pretend that, you know, it it definitely feels like a little bit of the, you know, you know, people talk about, you know, Disney kind of nickel and diming stuff. This falls into that same kind of place where it's like, did you really need to charge that admin fee?
01:07:18
Speaker
Maybe I don't think you did, but... See, I don't think this is for profit, right? yeah To me, this is more about discouraging, you know? Yeah, it's more them trying to keep their their product in a place where people are not manipulating it into um negative or or, you know, again, ah sorry, a lot of these things... And we talked about this... don't remember it was before we started the show or ah we We talked about how like rules are sometimes put in place because of a few people doing it.
01:07:53
Speaker
versus Like it's not it's not that that these things are there. You punish the majority with yeah to stop a few. Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah. yeah it's It's one of these scenarios where it's like I'm sure there was a couple of people that were abusing this and abusing, you know,
01:08:09
Speaker
buying and selling contracts in some way. And so Disney puts us there to stop them, but it, it hurts the vast majority of people just, just by the nature of it. But it's there mainly because somebody had an idea and they're trying to, you know, to take advantage of something. Like it's always, it sucks because, you know, the the majority of us just want to, you know, enjoy our contracts, enjoy Disney, but there's always some people that are like trying to find the angle.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah Exactly. All right. Let's talk about happier. a shower Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that was, that was the, uh, that was the bad section of the show. So now we can go on to the good stuff. I, and listen, I want to
Olaf Robot Excitement and Challenges
01:08:51
Speaker
acknowledge front. We are super late to the party on this. Cause this came out like right after we did our last show.
01:08:56
Speaker
Um, But we should still talk about it. yeah We have to talk about this because it's I don't know if this like went viral or anything, but it should have because, I mean, I had my my mom telling me about it. My wife telling me about it. We were getting messages about it.
01:09:11
Speaker
this This Olaf robot that they built seemingly to free roam in the park, not free roam, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, be somewhat interactive. Yeah, it is. Yes. It is incredibly, it's so hyper-realistic to the show.
01:09:29
Speaker
Like, yeah it's funny when i when I look at this and then I look at, like, they used to the character meets with Olaf. Yeah. And the character meets feel like feel like that they're being done at, like, a local theme park. Like, like like you look back and it's like, wow, that that version of it felt very budget. This is like,
01:09:49
Speaker
insane. Amazing. Yeah. I mean, his, he's got, the walk is perfect. He's got like the manner is like that. You could take his nose off and put it back on again. Like, and he reacts to it like like and if hes it it's like Like, like he, he kind of does that. Like they showed like, you know, the little reaction that he did. And it's like,
01:10:06
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. That's so cool. And he I mean, he's like straight up having conversations with people. And I i i mean, this is mind blowing to me. i It's it's incredible.
01:10:18
Speaker
ah The thing that makes me mad about this is that we won't be we don't have this in the States. Yeah. It's going to only be. in yeah Yeah. Once again, if it's going to be Disneyland Paris, which listen, they've World of Frozen there and they also have it at Hong Kong Disneyland. So, okay. It fits in, in World of Frozen and it fits at Hong in World of Frozen at ah Hong Kong Disneyland and at Disneyland Paris.
01:10:42
Speaker
I get it, but I want this. i I want to, if my daughter met Olaf like this, she would lose her mind. It would, her brain would explode. My brain might explode, man. I, this is just watching the video of it and watching him walk around and like they captured all the mannerisms perfectly.
01:11:01
Speaker
They capture all his little movements. I mean, it just looks like Olaf's really walking around And we're going to talk about this in ah in a couple of minutes here with ah with a different character greet that was just announced that is also very exciting.
01:11:16
Speaker
But what I like about this is that he's the right size. Okay. And so what I mean by that is so many times when you have not so many times at all times when you have the meet and greets with characters, you know, Mickey's five foot four, you know, like in real life, Mickey would be my the same same height as my daughter.
01:11:37
Speaker
But in the park, he's that tall because he has to be. Olaf is the right size. He's as tall as my daughter. She could walk up to him and give him a warm hug and he would be accurately sized. Like, that's...
01:11:51
Speaker
He's proportionately sized to from the show what exactly what you think he should be. 100%. And there's there's the that's a real... I know we've gotten used to characters bigger being bigger than they're supposed to be.
01:12:05
Speaker
But if the if characters start being the right size like this, I mean, it would be hard to go now because you can't go back to... like You can't go from Mickey Mouse being the size Mickey Mouse now to being you know actual Mickey Mouse size. like That would just be weird. Right? Like, you know what mean? We're just used to it now.
01:12:22
Speaker
You say that, but that isn't outside the realm of possibilities. It's not. No. Like, it it does – you're right. It does lend itself to – and honestly, this is getting into – Sorry, that Simpsons reference. This is getting into like Hitchy and Scratchy Land. Hitchy and Scratchy Land, yeah. Yeah. where Where, you know, everything is animatronic and do you, you know, is that a good idea? But, you know, I feel like if if they curate this properly, like like this Olaf thing is a great example of, you know, they they did this right. They did, you know, it has the level of detail. it has
01:12:59
Speaker
It has everything that it needs to be, you know, you know be received as, you know, the way it should be, yeah you know, not as like, oh yeah, they did it a a character and it's, you know, it's kind of weird, but it's, you know, it's okay. It's like, you know, i'm not saying they have to do every character like this, but I really hope that, you know,
01:13:19
Speaker
you know Maybe you'll see Olaf in in Florida. you know they They are redoing the faces of the ah the animatronics in ah Frozen Ever After. So yeah so you know there is there is the potential for this will probably come to the North America parks. But it seems weird that it's like there's so much stuff that's happening in the overseas parks that it some of it eventually gets to North America. But it's so slow. And it seems like they're just so like...
01:13:49
Speaker
You'd think they would want to jump on this stuff quicker, right? like i I do feel that they have a different problem at Disneyland and Disney World than elsewhere in that the free roaming characters are great.
01:14:01
Speaker
But if you had Olaf walking around Norway at Epcot, there would be a thousand people that would crowd around him in a second. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, there are just so many more people at the American parks. It has a controlled thing. Yeah. Cause it just would be too difficult to do otherwise. By the way, his arm also is, his arms are also removable too.
01:14:25
Speaker
Uh, even though they move, it says that in the article, they don't show it in the video. I just read that and was like, so you can take his arms off and put them back on and they can still move. That's crazy. that's that That's such a weird phrase to i say. but yeah But no, I mean, this thing is, if this is the direction they're heading with, and they're and they've started doing a lot more of this, right? they' They've got the BDX droids that did show up at Disney World and Disneyland.
01:14:50
Speaker
And then they had that that Herbie robot from ah Fantastic Four was that over in Marvel. And now we've got Olaf. They're... they said that they were going to start accelerating this stuff and it's happening and that's great.
01:15:03
Speaker
But like I said, I'd like to see it in the American parks more. And i want to see, i want to see some of these things in person because I, this brings, you know, Disney is trying to do these super immersive lands.
01:15:15
Speaker
If you just see Olaf walking around and world of frozen, then that place is Arendelle, right? I mean, it is right. It's just cool. It's just so cool. I just love it.
01:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, it's it's just one of those, like, I i hope that, you know the it's you know, this is the debut of it. yeah And it would be it would be awesome if in the next, like, three to six months, if you heard, like, oh, you know, Olaf is coming to, you know, there's going to be a meet and greet or something like that, right? Yeah, do a meet and greet.
01:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, that that would be awesome. But, you know, i I just hope Disney or, yeah, like, I know, like, they already have plans, but it's like, I don't know why they wouldn't have figured this into how into it. Right. like me but I understand why there may be starting here with it. Right. Because they do try to they do sometimes will try things out in the other parks and then later bring them. They do And to be fair, like, you know, what we look at as, you know, well, it should come to the North American parks because those are the ones that are most relevant to me. Right. Yeah, yeah sure. But the parks are international and, you know, it's it's not – I mean, it goes both ways because there's lots of stuff that has come to – you know, that we take for granted that has come to the North American parks that they'll never see in the ah in the international parks.
01:16:40
Speaker
Like that Grogu, the Grogu animatronic that yeah the Mandalorian walks around with. Right. Like that's that. would I mean, we can't complain that they there's that stuff. Right. The BDX droids like they they have done some of this stuff. And I mean, I even remember.
01:16:53
Speaker
Oh, gosh, I don't know how long ago this was. It was probably eight, nine years. ago Whenever the last Star Wars movie came out, they had a BB-8 meet and greet where you could meet and BB-8 would like move around remember that pretty well. It was i mean' was really good. It was really convincing. It wasn't he wasn't like out walking around, but he was in the meet and greet. Yeah, it was in a room controlled. and yeah but yeah, you could go go up and... How great would it be if they just did this in the Anna Elsa meet and greet in Norway, where they just had this Olaf robot in there, just kind of wandering around making jokes with them. Like, he doesn't even need to take pictures. He's just, like, wandering around talking to people and, like, just have it be, like, a really...
01:17:28
Speaker
you know, organic kind of interaction thing. I just think that would be so cool. And listen, that's might be what it is. It has to be a controlled environment at some point. Cause it's just like someone's going to pick up all off and run away with him. and a I'm sorry. I was going to say, it's not going to be, it's not going to be somebody picks up an all off and runs away with him. It's going to be,
01:17:49
Speaker
The fact that you said his arms are removable, somebody's going to take an arm and throw it in their backpack and try and get out of the park with Olaf's arm and try and sell it on eBay. Listen, I mean, we've seen some of the videos of people people behaving badly at Epcot. People are feral at Epcot, man. they it's yeah you know Yeah, a little bit of drinking around the world and somebody gets inspired to to take Olaf's arm. Take Olaf back home to their kid. Yeah, I listen. it's And I wish it wasn't like that, right? at least I wish we could just we could have Olaf walking around and then everybody could just you know behave like adults. and and and you know and But it's not even just the adults, too. Some kids would probably try to hug Olaf and end up tackling him and breaking him. you know i mean it's These things are are still probably fairly fragile in in a lot of ways where you can't just like you know take them down or whatever. Yeah. Um, it's, I, I fully expect, I do believe Trevor, this is going to show up in the American parks at some point. I just think they're trying this out in the frozen, the world of frozens as a new way to, you know, as a, as a, a new thing.
01:18:53
Speaker
And then that maybe they'll figure it out for, cause these things are coming. They just come a little so more slowly. Right. Cause like you said, the animatronics are coming. ah And, you know, like and and and we can't really complain about that. but Like I said, we've had the Grogu one, so which was an impressive. The Grogu one is really impressive. we We really didn't never talked about that one a lot. But the Grogu one that the Mandalorian just carries around a Galaxy's Edge is a really impressive figure. You know, the hard part about it was that because it was he was carrying it around.
01:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of felt like a puppet or it felt like. Yeah, yeah. Like you you couldn't appreciate it as a like like the thing. The difference is is, that this is free roaming. Right. Like which it is. Yeah. adds another level to it that, you know, a carryable animatronic is cool, but it still doesn't quite have the same level of impact.
01:19:39
Speaker
yeah but um I get it. I get it. But, yeah you know, you know you you mentioned about, you know, things coming to the parks, you know, maybe we should transition into that as our next topic. Because, you know you know, we were, you know, you know we're we're busy lamenting about the fact that we don't get Olaf, but there's a lot of stuff coming in 2026 that, you know, it's it's not just characters. there there's There's a lot. if you think about it. yeah It's funny when I read through it, I was like, wow, there really is a lot of stuff that they're doing. Like more than I i thought about, you know?
01:20:13
Speaker
Yeah. So let's kind of just – so I've got – I have the Parks blog open here. Let's just kind of step through it. So the first thing is, is, you know, they've said that, you know, the Frozen Ever After facelift. And yes, I'm making that joke. I don't You're doing pun here? You're doing a pun? Yeah. The facelift is happening on February 2026.
01:20:32
Speaker
Which is actually pretty – that's pretty yeah soon. i It's coming quick, yeah. i guess I guess it's not that difficult for them to swap out animatronics. Are are they swapping out all the animatronics or just the the face character ones? Like are they also you know switching up the trolls or – I mean that's a good question. I don't know that – I don't know that the other animatronics were – not performing well enough to justify switching them out. I think, I think that the, the glaring oversight faces, it does specify Anna, Elsa and Kristoff in this. So it seems like they're the only ones that are getting updates, which again, neat, like needs to happen. And you know, I'm looking forward to that because the weird projection faces were little too unsettling.
01:21:19
Speaker
It was even more fun when they glitched, you know, I the videos of them glitching and yeah. yeah yeah i Yeah, I don't know. it's It's kind of a whole other level of like just i just yeah just disturbing. I'm just impressed by the speed at which they're doing this. i Because they they didn't announce. It wasn't that long ago they announced this. And it's already happening in February. And it kind of feels like one of those things. that Because I don't even think they're closing it.
01:21:45
Speaker
Right? I mean, there's been. I don't think there's been repurpishment announced. They just said they're just coming. Like, yeah, there's no. Just going to do it overnight? Yeah, all they say is that these updated figures will be coming in February 2026. So the thing is, is that if it if it was if it was a major thing to swap them out, I wouldn't be surprised if they announced like maybe a couple of days closure or- Like a week or something.
01:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, or they might do it as like, like they they may just say like, hey, you know, this is going be down for maintenance yeah and not really announce what it is. But then, yeah, when it opens back up, they'll have the- ah characters So, yeah yeah. Yeah. So, so I'm, I'm actually, I'm happy that they're not, you know, they're not taking it as a, we have to do a whole bunch of stuff to the ride. It's, it sounds like they have a good plan to, you know, swap out the pieces that they need to without disrupting the ride too much. Yeah. Yeah.
01:22:37
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I agree. Uh, All right, so moving down the list. So Festival of the Arts, which is one of your favorite festivals. Which we're talking about, yes. Yeah. Just because of the arts, but Yeah, exactly. January 16th to February 23rd, which again, very, very quick.
01:22:53
Speaker
yeah but But we know that's coming. After Hours um events are coming back in 2026. So anybody that was wondering, this kind of goes back to what you were saying about the... yeah you know, the holiday party is that, you know, the holiday parties are there as the parties. But if you want a means of doing a bunch of rides, you know, with that short lines, after hour parties are great for that. But they also do have their own things, too. Like it's, you know, know, I do recommend I I very much recommend the after hours parties. enjoy them. Yeah. They are expensive, but, you know, you know from doing the holiday party, like, it is worth
Return of After Hours Events
01:23:36
Speaker
it. Like, it's a different vibe. So those are coming back.
01:23:40
Speaker
um And then moving – so this is all, like, like I guess winter. The whole year. yeah Yeah. But yeah, so just going down the list, you know, so so we kind of covered like so this is stuff starting like... Early 2026. Early 2026. Now getting to spring 2026, we got Flower and Garden Festival returning March 4th to June 1st, which... Which I've been to multiple times and is a great festival.
01:24:01
Speaker
I feel like that's not... Is that as long as it usually is? Like, ah that feels kind of short. March to June? don't know. I guess it's still a couple months, but... Yeah. just I always felt like it was longer than that. longer than Festival the Arts, that's for sure. Yeah, true.
01:24:18
Speaker
um And then, oh, Tom's favorite thing is also going to be happening. favorite. Yeah. um So they don't say exactly when, but reopening in spring is Big Thunder Mountain. so So, yeah, that that's going to be huge, actually, because right now that whole side of the park is very closed off with them doing all the work in.
01:24:41
Speaker
It's all construction walls. Yeah. So there's a ton of construction walls. And this this actually begs an interesting question. This opens in spring. There's a section of that ride that goes out over the the water or currently – or it used to go out over the the river. Like it was right on the edge, right? Yeah. So you you would have like a view of Rivers of America. Is there just going to be walls there or like what's that going to look like?
01:25:07
Speaker
That's a good question. Yeah. You know, there's going all those blogs. If you can see over there, you know, all ah blogs every day, there's going to be people on Big Thunder taking pictures. People are going to be at the very top of like the left hill holding up their camera trying to get video of the construction. Yeah. yeah so You know that's going to happen. Yeah. But so Big Thunder is going to open up.
01:25:26
Speaker
You know, new effects, they're they're redoing like Rainbow Caverns. All that stuff is going to be updated. So I'm i'm excited to see that as well. And Buzz Lightyear is also going to be opening in spring 2026 with all the updated fancy guns that are similar. New ride vehicles. Yeah.
01:25:46
Speaker
Yeah, similar to the ones in Disneyland. I assume they're going to be a better version because the ones in Disneyland were getting kind of old, too. Yeah, better version. This is net new. This is ah they this is even, i think, different than the ones that they did in the foreign parks um with the you know like the phasers and everything. I'm just excited for that thing to not be like creaking anymore and all the paint to be chipped off and and missing decals. You can't see the dot on – like, it's – Trying to figure out where where your laser is was like – like that was half the challenge was like making sure that you were actually hitting the right thing and because all you would just see little random dots everywhere. Yeah. so sometimes Sometimes the little joystick was messed up so the the thing would just jerk back and forth every once in a while.
01:26:29
Speaker
Yeah. Like – Okay. did i i I might be guilty of this, but when I ride this like – if If I'm in control, I will sometimes just move it for the sake of messing with the other person. Yeah, I know. I mess with every time we're on this. Yeah, I mess with my wife. I just like just grab it. And like if she's shooting at something, I'll just grab it all of a sudden. And then then she can't shoot it anymore. Yeah, it's great.
01:26:51
Speaker
I don't think you don't have the joysticks not going to be a thing anymore. Right. Because i think it's still there. I think it is. i did i I thought I read something that it wasn't because of the fact that you can actually pick up and move the guns now. they don't You don't need to use the joystick. So I feel like the ride's going to more like, like it'll be like Haunted Mansion where it'll just turn ah on its own, right? But it's still called Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, right? So I don't know. I mean, the the the cars are still spinning. I don't know. it's I guess they can't call it Space Ranger Lightly Turning. That doesn't work. Occasionally, a space ranger, occasional turns. yeah yeah
01:27:32
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just trying to, I'm trying to look here. I'm just looking at some of the vehicles. I don't, I don't feel like I see the stick. yeah I think you might be right, but I swear that I looked at this before. It doesn't really mention it in the article, to be to be honest. So I'm not sure. We'll have to see. but But again, you know, this is all new, exciting stuff. And we're only in spring of 2026. And then moving into summer is ah Cool Kids Summer is coming back, which is, ah you know, there was a lot of great events over the summer that were under.
01:28:04
Speaker
the Cool Kids Summer banner. So, you know, if you if you if you got to experience some of the stuff last year, um i honestly can't remember everything that was in there. I know there was a lot of stuff around, like, they were focusing on things from, like, Goofy Movie a lot. Yeah.
01:28:18
Speaker
Sounds like you're still going to get to some of those kinds of experiences going on, as well as, you know, you know they're pushing the water park admissions is... ah is going to be something still in 2026 where, you know, your first arrival day, you get a free water park admission. So, you know, that, that one, I wish my only thing about that is that, you know, we, we come into, or, you know, we usually don't arrive at our hotel until like six o'clock at night.
01:28:47
Speaker
I wish that that they would change that, that it's like, if you're, either like they could do like the next day or something like that. yeah or Yeah. Like you could push it to the next day, but you know, it's still fine. It's, you know, um, H2O glow is coming back again, you know, you know, great stuff.
01:29:05
Speaker
Um, this one's kind of cool. Banana ball is heading to ESPN wild, wide world of sports. They sell out everywhere, man. They sell out May 29th and 30th. I, and I, I assume you've watched banana ball.
01:29:19
Speaker
i I am very well aware of it. I don't think I've ever like watched it, watched it, but I know like some of the clips of it. Yeah, the clips and everything. are yeah it's it's It's very fun to see some of the stuff that they do. like it's you know it's it's It's baseball, but it's so much more entertainment. like like they're They're very much there doing entertainment, which is...
01:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cool that they're, they're getting to do that at a wide world of sports. I, I assume if you're planning to be there at the end of May, it's going to be a busy time or like at wide world of sports, which is, you know, I feel like hasn't gotten a lot of love outside of light. Like there is the usual, um, like cheer competitions and stuff, but yeah, This is going to be extra extra busy, I feel. Yeah. um And then, ah summer of 2026, Bluey and Bingo are coming to Animal Kingdom. So, you had this as a separate item, but I figured we could cover it as part of this. So...
01:30:18
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Let's talk about this. Yeah. Let's let this took a really long time to happen, but it was inevitable. Right. And we always knew this was going to happen. Now, this is amazing. Right. Because we love Bluey in our house. My daughter still loves Bluey. I was saying this in the discord.
01:30:36
Speaker
Bluey is one of those things that is not, it's a kid's show on the front, on the face of it, but there are so many adult jokes on that show and it is so funny. Like, it's just really, it's not just like kid funny. It's funny, funny, right? Like it's, yeah it's a great show just overall.
01:30:54
Speaker
And the fact that there are, yeah, good. There are some episodes that are targeted at the adults. And cause we have watched some of the episodes as well. And it's like, oh yeah, we, we see where the show is. Yeah.
01:31:05
Speaker
It's more than just a kid show for sure. So a hundred percent, now you know, character meets for this are going to be insane. They are. I mean, cause listen, you want to talk about this show. They haven't made a new episode now in a while, right? They're, they're done. They're actually done, done. They're making a movie, but outside of that, that's it. We're done right now. Given, let's not say they're not going pick it up. Somebody else is going to do it, but it's probably not going to be the same because the guy that created The original creator said he's not doing anymore, but yeah. Yeah. So we're done with episodes, but I just, I saw an article just about this the other day in 2025, again, for the second year in a row, blue is going to end up being the most streamed TV show of any TV show in the world.
01:31:46
Speaker
Still. Right.
Bluey and Bingo's Arrival
01:31:48
Speaker
So you're still talking. It's tremendously popular. And it only it feels like it's only getting more popular. Right. Like it's just getting bigger, even though it's done. Right. So they're going to have at Disneyland, at Disney World and on Disney Cruise Line. So at Disneyland on March 22nd. So this is soon. I mean, there's a couple of months here.
01:32:07
Speaker
They're going to have ah in the Disney at a Fantasyland Theater at Disneyland Park. They're going to have Bluey School and they're going it looks like a little show that they're going to be doing here. uh with uh they're going to be doing the grannies which everybody loves no seriously the grannies is like yeah the grannies is a it's greatest that's a weird phenomenon but i it is yeah it's hilarious yeah do do you know how many cars i see ah no joke on the way to florida we saw several different cars with uh bumper stickers of the grannies on them it's like a thing it's it's a huge thing yeah i see t-shirts of it and stuff too it's yeah yeah
01:32:43
Speaker
and then so they're And they're going to do like a dance thing and then um and more. And then they're also they're going to have as ah the stage show ah where they're going to do, like it looks like it says a troupe of come comedic actors and musicians to bring the best of the music and games. So it seems like this is going to be very interactive for kids.
01:33:01
Speaker
um yeah This feels like it's going to be like the Frozen sing-along kind of vibe where it's like... They're doing stuff from the show, but they're also going to have performers on the stage, like dewey like doing extra, right? Like, which is always fun. yeah like it It makes it more interactive and Yeah.
01:33:19
Speaker
Yeah, they're going to be doing keepy-uppy. I mean, like this is almost going to be like the... It kind of runs through the Disney Junior like ah dance party thing that they were doing they doing in Hollywood Studios before. But they're going to do it with Blooming Bingo, which is huge. but ah you know And then at ah at a Disney World, they're going to put them in Animal Kingdom, which I actually think I'm i'm good with. i like I like that they're doing this. And they're going to put them at Conservation Station, which I think is very interesting, but it also, i feel like, is a good spot for them.
01:33:46
Speaker
ah makes me... What? So that means you got to get on the train to go. got to get on the train. What's wrong with going on the train? I like going on the train. It's fun. I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with getting on the train, but that's like, that's extra steps to get there. is Well, listen, it's, I think people are going to take real busy. Yeah, it is. yeah Yeah. I mean, that's going to be nuts.
01:34:07
Speaker
It says you're going to be able to ah play, play your favorite games from blue episodes, ah like a butterfly, keepy uppy. They're going to do like an animal twist on these. And then there it looks like it's a meet and greet as well.
01:34:19
Speaker
ah And yeah, so and then there also it says step outside to discover an experience with animals native to Bluey's home country of Alshari. So that means I guess, I mean, I'm going to assume they're going to throw some kangaroos over a conservation station.
01:34:30
Speaker
Am I wrong about that? I mean, it feels like that's what they're doing, right? ah Hopefully they they touch on that and not any of the venomous animals that come from. Yes. Yeah. but Because apparently apparently there was an episode that actually um that there was some sort of interaction with a spider.
01:34:50
Speaker
And they they pulled it because they realized that they didn't want to send the message to kids that like. To mess with spiders. so yeah yeah Yeah, exactly. Because they have a lot of poisonous spiders in Australia, yeah. Yes. ah But you're right, they do touch on like, yeah. Actually, another thing about there's kangaroos, there's bats, there's. um Yeah, they could do a lot of things. Wallabies, yeah, it's, yeah.
01:35:09
Speaker
I'm just guessing kangaroos because that's like the the thing that everybody associates with Australia, but I i don't know. But you got to be careful with those too. They can mess you up Yeah, they can. ah So, but then they're also going to be on select domestic sailings and they're going to be doing greetings, dance parties, and more. Again, this is going to be the character meet and greet in all of the parks and the cruise line. It's going to be...
01:35:30
Speaker
Nuts. I mean, seriously seriously, it's going to be huge. I don't know if there's anybody else who could draw a crowd like these two are going to draw and they're going to be doing this, uh, family thing in the morning on the cruise line called wakey wakey, which is a lively morning celebration.
01:35:46
Speaker
ah it looks like they're doing a family game show that ends in a dance party on the ships. They're doing a freeze dancing, interactive games. And then of course, character experiences, scavenger hunts, crafts.
01:35:59
Speaker
They're doing a ton with them. And listen, I think this It's about the time that they got hit on this. We we were saying this like earlier this year. Bluey feels like... It's got that same energy as Frozen where it's like so hyped up and it's like...
01:36:15
Speaker
why is Disney not doing anything about this? Right. Yeah. Cause I mean, they kind of announced that they were going to do stuff and then like nothing really happened for a while. And it was like, how are you not capitalizing on this right now? It is the number one thing on Disney plus for the past two years.
01:36:30
Speaker
It is getting more popular by the day. Like get on this. Yeah. I feel like it's hard, though. Like, like to be fair, like, this is a lot of stuff that they put out. It is. you know, there there is, they have a certain, like, bare minimum level of quality. Like, to be fair, I understand why they didn't just throw something together and, like, get it out there. i agree. Because, you know you know, Disney is not in the habit of, you know, you know ironically, you know, we talked about, you know, nickel and diming, but they also don't want to make their product cheap either, right? Like, you know, you know they don't they don't want Bluey to come across as, like,
01:37:05
Speaker
um Or or they they don't want it to... Yeah, they they don't want to feel like budget option. like a budget Like it was thrown together last night. Yeah, exactly. Which is what they did. i mean, listen, I remember when Frozen first came out, Disney clearly did not expect Frozen to be a hit. And it was. And because I remember that a couple months later, maybe four or five months later, we went to the parks and there was a lot of thrown together frozen stuff, right? Like they had like this parade thing going on at Hollywood studios. They had like this, you know, they, they used to do that thing where they would make snow in that one, ah theater where there's now the other track for a toy story. Like, so they, they threw together a lot of stuff quickly and it took them longer to do the attraction, which I understand. It takes a long time to develop this stuff. It does, but it just was like,
01:37:53
Speaker
man, I was just like, they i knew that they were going to do this eventually. It's it's just too popular. I mean, that movie is probably going to make a billion dollars when it's in theaters next year. I mean, it's gone it's it's going to be an insane global phenomenon, right? Like it's it is. So the fact that they're doing this now, you know, we'll set them up for that, ah you know, later down the road as well. So i I told my daughter about this and she was like, so when are we going?
01:38:16
Speaker
Like literally that was her response. I was like, I don't know yet, kid, but we're going to figure it out. But, um but this kind of talks to, you know, it it is, it's funny, Trevor, because this is kind of where my thought about the right size characters came from. Right.
01:38:28
Speaker
Cause I feel like my daughter in her head is going to be like I'm meeting bluey bluey should be the same height as me. But clearly he's not louiss Blue is a kid, but these are going to be like large size characters. Yeah. So and i listen, i understand the reasoning, right? Logistically, it's a difficult thing to do. I'm just saying with these with these advanced robots, animatronics.
01:38:48
Speaker
That they're doing now. We could come to a place someday where she could meet a bluey that's the size of her, you know, and is not just, you know, a big, tall, you know person that doesn't make sense for as being bluey. But listen, we take what we get for now. And I'm happy with this. I think this is great. This is going to be insanely popular.
01:39:07
Speaker
And it's I'm glad they're doing it. Yeah. So, so yeah, Bluey was a big thing into the summer. we Let's continue down the list because there is still, again, you know there's there's a lot of stuff coming next year. So, um so ah you know. We're ending it after this. This is the last topic. We're going to stop with this. um so So, Disney Junior Mickey Mouse Clubhouse live will be... ah coming in the summer to Hollywood studios with the opening of the ah magic of Disney animation, i guess, is that a courtyard or I don't know, I guess that's what they're calling the area, but it's, it's, it's the old animation courtyard. So, you know, we've talked about, you know, they, they closed down that area. It's been under renovation for a while.
01:39:51
Speaker
That's all opening up in the summer in Hollywood studios. and There's going to be, it looks like character meet and greets, but do you see what they're doing with this Trevor? It's very cool.
01:40:02
Speaker
So which part? I mean, there there's like five different pictures I'm looking at here. for So what they're doing is they are are doing the character meet and greets are each theme to one of the departments from the animation studios. So okay so what they're doing is like their story layout, hand-drawn animation, computer animation, lighting and effects. And so each character is a different one of those.
01:40:26
Speaker
And so they, so like they say here, each space offers incredible photo opportunities. You can meet Mulan in the story department posing in front of an oversized storyboard panel or step into the layout department where Rapunzel awaits in a setting inspired by the classic multi-plane camera. And that's the picture you get here is that, is that layered multi-plane camera thing. It's, I like this because this feels like a really,
01:40:49
Speaker
accessible way to teach kids about how animation works or used to work. Yeah. And that was the original intent of that area was like, it was a working animation studio. So yeah, the fact that they're going back to that is fantastic that it's, you know, it's not, it's not that, I mean, it is educational. It's not like over the top, like Epcot, super educational, but the fact that it's not like there IP stuff in there, but like you said, it's also showing like,
01:41:18
Speaker
you know, giving people an idea of, you know, what goes into animation, all that. And may, you know, you know, this is how people get inspired to do this stuff as adults is that fully if they're, you know, if they're seeing this stuff, um, if they're seeing it from the, this kind of angle where, you know, they're, they're showing like classic techniques and stuff. I'm, I'm glad that they kind of figured out like that area was under such, um,
01:41:43
Speaker
such a like personality crisis for a long time. That whole park really. But yeah, that area that whole park is but but that area especially was like, like they just did not know what to do with it. I'm glad that they kind of figured out like putting it back to what it was, even though it's not, even though it's not like their main animation studio anymore.
01:42:03
Speaker
I'll actually, i don't even, if I don't even know if it ever was like their main animation studio, but the fact that it was like a working studio, but the fact that it's like, you know, it's becoming almost like a, you know, you know, a display piece or, yeah you know, a way to show off this stuff is great. So, you know, that, so that's great. That's coming in the summer. The other thing that's coming to Hollywood studios in the summer is rock and roller coaster starring the Muppets will be opening up. So,
01:42:31
Speaker
um I know that they've already closed down the pre-show for um the existing one or the or I saw some pictures of the ah where you you would normally go in and get your backstage passes.
01:42:45
Speaker
You probably never ridden the ride, so I don't think you know what I'm talking about. I do because I watch videos, but yeah yeah the yeah. So that's all closed down now. or it's it's it's like you can't So there's no like pre-show video anymore, um which obviously they're giving themselves time to do all of these updates to Rockin' Roller Coaster. I won't be surprised if you start seeing um different areas of the ride closing down more and more. Maybe they'll just you know shut the whole thing down for a little while, but they are yeah that's coming in the summer.
01:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, so they're the they're they're ah ah rock and roller coaster with Aerosmith going to close at some point in spring in 2026 and then reopen as rock and roller coaster with Muppets. OK, yeah, they're going to do a couple months refurb. It looks like, but it's see it's smart that they're doing it in a stages like that, doing the pre show like that. And I'm sure they'll spend those couple months doing the interior part of the ride that they can't do while it's still open. Right.
01:43:39
Speaker
So, yeah, but yeah.
Updates and Future Attractions at Disney Parks
01:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, and still still at Hollywood Studios, um mill Millennium Falcon Smuggler's run is getting an update for the Mandalorian Grogu.
01:43:52
Speaker
so Which is cool. um so And they specified this is on May twenty second So that it's weird that that's got a specific date, but everything else is kind of loose still. But so again, you know, this is all stuff like we're still just in like the, like, or, you know, up to summer of this next year.
01:44:11
Speaker
Um, when does the movie come out? When does the movie come out? Does it, does that correlate with when the movie comes out? Maybe I don't remember the date on the movie. Um, i mean, yeah, if if you can find that. It comes out on May 22nd. That's it. That's why. so All right. There you go. Okay. that problem or Mystery solved.
01:44:28
Speaker
um Then we also have Soarin' Across America coming next year, which, again, like like I forget how much stuff there is. It's a lot. like like So now we're over at Epcot.
01:44:41
Speaker
So Soarin' Across America. International Food and Wine Festival is coming back, you know, to to no one's surprise. Not so scary Halloween party is coming. you know You know, that's all going to be a thing again. Jollywood Nights.
01:44:56
Speaker
Very Merry Christmas Party, which, you know, you just already did. So if you want to go back next year and try again, you can do so. Yeah, we'll see. And um so, sorry, I'm just moving down through the rest of these things. last just because The last one is this level 99 place that we talked about opening in 2026. So, yeah. So this must be like, or they they're just saying opening in 2026. So it's interesting that they put this like kind of at the end of everything. So I feel like it's going to be until later in the year. Late 2026.
01:45:25
Speaker
the But yeah, so so level 99 is coming, which is um not quite Disney Quest, but um ah reasonable a reasonable facsimile, I guess. Okay, I like it. I like it. We'll put it there. I i don't want to say – okay, want to say – This can go one of two ways.
01:45:45
Speaker
Level 99 could be a very cool interactive experience, you know, kind of still playing to like the old Disney Quest, you know, gaming side of it. And, you know it's a bunch of interactive games and stuff like that.
01:45:58
Speaker
um Hopefully it's a, you know, it's a fun thing in and of its own. um If it turns out that it's not, I'm going to call it Timu Disney Quest. Yeah. And I hope that it doesn't turn out to be Team Disney Quest. see let's Let's hope not. Well, the good thing about level 99 is it already exists in a couple other places. So and it's successful there. So all they got to do is port it over there. but But I still miss the void. I wish the void would come back with some with the new technology we have with VR now. I mean.
01:46:30
Speaker
It could be so cool. I wish that they, like, The Void was definitely next level because it had a lot of interactive stuff on top of the VR. Yeah. But I i wish that there was somehow some way that some of the things from The Void could be released as, like, standalone VR experiences. that would i would be okay with that because, you know, I could still do, I could do a home experience and, you know, you're not quite getting like, you know, the heat from when you get off the shuttle in in the yeah the Star Wars experience. But it was like, yeah, you could, I agree with you, you know, it would be nice for them to like restart the void, but I'll i'll accept level 99, you know. I mean, listen, the Void Room, I'm pretty sure the Void Room bankrupt during the pandemic and never made a comeback. No, they still exist. I just don't think they have any, i don't think they have any locations left. They need to just get properly bought up by Disney and then Disney can just do whatever they do with it. I i know Disney has a ah significant investment in them, but I don't know. I don't know. wouldn't be surprised if if the investment is just them going into like R&D stuff for like digital. Yeah, probably.
01:47:40
Speaker
yeah probably part of their R&D budget, right? um But yeah, oh okay I'm finding an article now from ah early 2024 that says the void teases a 2024 comeback. But, you know, nope. Here we are almost in 2026. And nopers. Awkward. Yeah, um that's unfortunate. But yeah, they they had they did they did go bankrupt, though, and they they were trying to raise money. But...
01:48:06
Speaker
you know What are you going to do? but But hey, level 99 though, like i said, you know you know that's that's the last thing on this list. But you know you know we just we listed off just a ton of stuff that's coming in the new year, which you know that makes me excited that – I'm kind of glad that Disney posted this article because you know we've we've heard these things throughout the year. And I know a lot of these things are things that we've recapped that you know we have talked about in previous episodes. But when you really put it all together in this list, it's like – you know, you know we've we've said this before where it's like it it felt like um there was long periods where it was like, oh, you know, new lands are opening up. And, you know, we still have like those things in the background, like, like you know, the new Cars Land stuff in Frontierland and Monsters, Inc. But it's like,
01:48:54
Speaker
you forget all these other things that are happening at the, at the same time. And it's not just like, you know, they're not just like doing like festivals and stuff. It's like, there's like entire rides getting refurbishments. There's entire, you know, you know, new or new and redone things, which I think you Is, you know, it makes it so that it doesn't really matter what time of year you're going, there is going to be something to do.
01:49:22
Speaker
Right. Like even ah even if you've seen it all, like like this has always been the great thing about Disney is that even if you've seen it all, every time you go back, there is something new or there's something that you may not have seen. Right. And always something new. Yeah. Always.
01:49:35
Speaker
Yeah. And so, so yeah, I'm, I'm excited to see what some of these things actually pan out to when, when they release, like, you know, it's always, it's always interesting to see um the the reception around them and, know,
01:49:47
Speaker
Um, you know, certain, certain things that, you know, I, I will say this is, you know, there are certain things that I don't like spoiling myself on, but there are other things that I will be okay with. So like big thunder, I don't want to watch a ride through of it. I'll talk about it, but you know, I want to see the effects for myself. That's, that's just my thing. But, um, but yeah, I'm, I, I think, you know, we're kind of leaving things in a good place going out at 2025 from, uh, from a park standpoint.
01:50:15
Speaker
I agreed. I seeing it all listed like that is you it reminds you of how much that like when people go, like oh, Disney's not doing anything new. It's like, no, they're doing a ton of things new. You're just we they they do it. So, you know, you're cherry picking what you want to see is new. Yeah. the thing like just just Yeah. Yeah, just because, like, you know, sorry, but i'm I'm not going to be, you know, going to a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse dance party or see Bluey or whatever. um i mean, you know, I know there will be people lining up to see Bluey. That's fine. like Like, I know, you know, kids and adults, you know, you do you.
01:50:52
Speaker
That's a lot gone Yeah, there's going to blue hugs going. It's going to happen. yeah Oh, guaranteed. But, you know, you know, it's great that there is all these things as options, right? Like, like, that's my thing is that, you know, I don't necessarily um like i'm I'm not running to all of these things. But the fact that there is things for all all kinds of people and all kinds of interest in here, the way I look at is for everything that I don't.
01:51:19
Speaker
care about or that I don't care to go and see, there's a bunch of people going there which frees them up from the stuff that I want to go and see. that's yeah right so yeah let's Let's wrap this up. yeah yeah yeah let's this was we We knew this was going to be a long episode because it's been a minute and that's fine.
01:51:38
Speaker
um There's a bunch more stuff on our rundown too. that we just which like which we just we We knew that we were not going I think we did pretty good. i mean we We got through most of it. Yeah, I mean, there was one I didn't even put on the rundown, Trevor, and that was, i don't know if you saw the Hercules show, ah the the video of... Hydrus. Yeah. Dude. I did see that, yeah. i mean I mean, we've been watching little previews of that, but man, that looks cool. I really want to go see that. But anyway, and let's wrap it up. Let's wrap it up.
01:52:08
Speaker
Yeah. so So, yeah, you know, we we we talked about a lot on the show here today. So, you know, if you have... If you have any questions about stuff on the show or you have comments or, you know, want to share your own experiences or whatever around it, um you can always fire us an email at welcome1podcast.gmail.com. So, you know, we we love hearing from you guys and hearing what you think about um Disney stuff and things that we talk about on the show.
01:52:33
Speaker
um You can also 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. On Facebook, make sure you check out our group, Welcome Home Disney Waitlist, where we we do talk about a lot of the stuff from the show. There's you know you know people sharing their own ah Disney stuff, you know you know trip reports, all that kind of stuff.
01:52:55
Speaker
Love seeing it. Love seeing, you know, it's, you know, Disney, ah you know, we all have our own Disney adventures and perspectives on it. So, you know, we appreciate that, you know, people, people come and share their stuff with us and in the group. I think it's, you know, I think it's a great way for everyone to kind of get their Disney fix and, and, you know, have a good time with, the you know, beyond listening to the show.
01:53:17
Speaker
um If you want to help support the show, you go to store.welcomeonpodcast.co. You can check out some of our different merch there. um You know, i'll I will say this, you know, Tom and I have been talking about doing some new merch.
01:53:31
Speaker
Just, you know, as you heard at the beginning of the show, you know, we both been pretty busy. You know, Tom's been busy with trips. We've been, you know, kind of getting into holiday season. um You won't see anything new in the in the ah store immediately, but we do have it on our to-do list to start bringing some new stuff. so um But you know at the at the moment, though, we still have stuff available. And you know it's just ah you know it's it it all goes towards helping us just keep the show running.
01:53:57
Speaker
Similarly, we also have a Patreon for that. So you can go to patreon.com. slash welcome home pod and check out our different levels of Patreon support, which have exclusive, uh, exclusive merch that you can only get from the different, uh, Patreon levels that have a logo that is nowhere else except on Patreon. And all of our Patreon supporters get access to the discord server, which, uh, as we talked about is yet another place that we, uh, know, we, we post stuff about the show. Sometimes we do like, uh, preview stuff. If there's something that we're working on, you know, you know, Patreon will,
01:54:30
Speaker
or Discord will get it before um anybody else does usually because you know they're they're supporting the show. And and you know we have lots of great conversations about just Disney stuff and sometimes just other random stuff that people are doing as well, which is always fun to see.
01:54:47
Speaker
And last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere where you can leave us a five-star review, please, please leave us that five-star review. Um, just for the sake of helping us, uh, continue to get the show out and, you know, you know,
01:55:02
Speaker
Let more people find it because, you you know, if you leave those reviews, it does show up more for other people that are looking for similar content. And, you know, since it's the Christmas season, it's it's like, you know, yeah and we we need to get like a Christmas tree with like five little stars at the top. It's like our Christmas wish or whatever. Yeah.
01:55:20
Speaker
yeah You know, um you know it's ah it's our wish to to have a five-star Christmas tree this year. So, um yeah, leave us a five-star review. On iTunes, you can write us review as well and let us know what you think about the show because we love hearing what you guys think about the show as well. We we love seeing those reviews. So, you know write us review if you if you got a couple of minutes while you're baking cookies or, you know, you want to take a break from wrapping gifts or whatever, you know.
01:55:46
Speaker
and that's ah That's a good way to spend your time. And yeah, I think that that's it for the wrap up for me this week. yeah That's it for you. By the way, fun fact, the Void actually stood for the Vision of Infinite Dimensions was the was the acronym of the Void. That was an acronym? It was. I did not realize that. See, I had to give you that fun fact because I found it on Wikipedia. Today I learned.
01:56:11
Speaker
Don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release a new episode. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app that's out there. You can find us, so you know, just search for Welcome Home and DVC and all that fun stuff. where We're there. You can you can find us. ah Thank you so much to our sponsor, DVC Rental Store, for sponsoring this episode. You know, please check out, oh, and of course, you know, World DVC. They're just the the best people ever. So go check them out for any your DVC needs. Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:56:46
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. I looked around from pole to pole, found her in a sugar bowl.
01:56:59
Speaker
Look out, there comes my ball and chain.