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Episode 270: Listener Questions, Country Bears & Trevor’s Trip
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On This Episode
The guys answer listener questions on topics including baby’s first Disney trip, multipass availability, park maintenance, and the Country Bear Jamboree set list. Disney also announced that the Hungry Bear Restaurant at Disneyland will be reimagined with a Country Bear theme. Trevor discusses his travel plans for next year.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:09
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of welcome home is brought to you by DVC resale market. Thank you for joining us on episode 270 of welcome home and Disney parks and vacation club podcast.
Guest Absence and Musical Experience
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm Tom here. Trevor Damon was going to join us, but his internet broke. So it's not the issue that happened on Friday, just so everyone's yeah. It's it's funny. Cause I, my wife's like, well, maybe he just doesn't want to do it this week. Cause you guys don't have a lot to talk about. I'm like, no, Damon would just say he doesn't want to do it. but yeah It's true. Yeah. if Yeah, Damon doesn't want to do something. He'll say just don't do it. Yeah, he just tells you yeah, I I Trevor I this and on Friday this past week I saw ah back to the future the musical Oh how was Yeah
00:01:13
Speaker
well so you know i it's It's interesting, i maybe I've talked about it on the show or not, but i my the first date I had with with my wife, we had a weird shared love of the Back to the Future movies and we watched all three of them in a row like on it like after our first date. and so like it's it's kind of The Back to the Future movies have like a weird kind of spot in our hearts. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they listen, they're classics, right? I mean, you know, I mean, I think my enjoyment of them is, you know, I think I go one, two, three, just like in order of best to worst. But, you know, the third one's got its charms, I'll say. Probably the weakest of the three. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like the the first is probably the best. The second, you know, I feel like the second one is pretty good. It's a pretty good sequel. um But the third is a little out there, but i like I don't I don't dislike it anyway.
00:02:10
Speaker
So the is this is the musical, right? And I had heard it was pretty good. um It was funny to just kind of see like the crowd that was there, you know, um because it was I just assumed it was going to be all people in like our age range, you know, like because that's where Back to the Future hits, you know, and um good. Sorry. yeah Yeah, I don't I disagree with that, but continue. yeah Oh, really? OK, you think that's OK. I feel it's a little more timeless than Is it so culturally relevant? I mean, like, does your son know back to the future?
00:02:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah, he he's I know he's watched it once. And I mean, it gets referenced all the times. all It does. Ultra. So that's that's true. That's true. OK, well, that's true. And so so, you know, so we went to the show and, um you know, my wife loves musicals. And so anytime she can get me out to one that I'm actually interested in, it's a win for her. You know, there's only if there's only a few she can get me to. Like we did Beetlejuice last year. We did, ah um you know, a couple other ones. you know like cant I can't wait for the Goonies musical for you. I mean, anything's possible, will Trevor. I know. I'm i'm not saying, I know I'm joking, but I'm also kind of not joking.
00:03:27
Speaker
um So, you know, so, so, you know, we went to the show and um it was really, really good.
Musical Special Effects and Comparisons
00:03:33
Speaker
um They changed the story quite a bit, which given there are a fair amount of things in the first movie that are not as culturally acceptable anymore. Yeah. Right. So they did. They did change a lot of stuff ah about the story, which is fine because the way they did it was it worked. you know it was It wasn't anything where it was like it felt forced or anything. um and you know they did it's It's completely different from the movie. right I will say though that it has the coolest effects I've ever seen in ah and a stage show before. because and i don't want to you know I don't know if anybody is listening to us is going to go see Back to the Future of the Musical, but
00:04:12
Speaker
like it's a spoiler alert you know um but like when the DeLorean first comes on stage it's like it's kind of magical it reminded me at disney of a Disney show I was actually saying to my wife I was joking because in the beginning of it they were they were doing like these projection things on a screen and like the sounds that it was making and like like the little, like the the animations they were doing, I was like, does this remind you of like a Disney pre-show, like a Disney ride pre-show? And she goes, like Oh, mad projections and stuff and yeah, it's just like a map prediction. And it's just like little digital sounds happening. boop You know, like, you know, it just kind of felt like they were about to, you know, we were about to walk into another room and go on a ride. um But
00:04:55
Speaker
But the way they do like the stuff with the DeLorean and like, ah you know, they they I mean, it flies at the end, like it comes out like over the crowd. Like I still don't even understand in my mind how that happened. nice Yeah, it was it was, you know, and of course, you know, at the end, of the you know, because they ended where they end the movie, you know, the where we're going, we don't get over roads. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. And so and so, you know, then they it lifts up in the air and it flies away and all that stuff. But no, it was great. i You know, honestly, if anybody has a chance to see it in in my Though the show i was at was like maybe three quarters of the way full which i was really disappointed in some like this is a really good show like ah the fact that. It's not a sold out theaters kind of a bummer there were more people when i saw beatlejuice and i would think back to the future is a bigger property than beatlejuice but maybe i'm wrong i don't know well but i feel beatlejuice has had a weird resurgence also because of the sequel.
00:05:48
Speaker
and everything. i like I think there's something to be said for timing. I agree. Yeah, I agree. It's not like they're doing a remake of Back to the Future. And as long as like the the guy that wrote that movie is alive, he said he's not going to do it. So I'm sure as soon as she's gone, they're just going to do it. You know you know they're going to remake it eventually. There's no way they don't reboot that movie. I mean, i I don't think it needs it. Oh, I don't think it does either. That doesn't matter if it needs it or not, though. They don't care if it needs it. ah That's that's fair. Yeah, it's not always a matter of needs. Just somebody wants to somebody wants to capitalize on the original property. But so it's funny how you're saying like the the story was different. And so so.
00:06:27
Speaker
the nerdy part of my head wanted to argue, well, you know, they did change the timeline, so you could actually be watching an alternate timeline version of it's back to the future. Like, for example, like Doc Brown doesn't die by getting shot by terrorists. He dies from radiation poisoning. Right. Like, so like, they you know, so they kind of just like little things they tween in there. Yeah. yeah I mean, you know, I guess, yeah you know, gunshots on a stage show are not faux pas, but yeah, I can see where they might not. They might not necessarily want to do it in a show. Yeah, they didn't want to go the terrorist angle, I think either. So, I mean, you know, and yeah, they obviously cut a lot of stuff out, too. You know, like it doesn't have the everything in it. I mean, it has all the skateboarding scene is just totally not there. Not really. No, I mean, they they did some skateboard stuff, but not like the full, you know, the scene where he's chasing and or where he's being chased through the town square and all that. They did not do that whole thing. They did they did something different. I am so disappointed. I was going to be disappointed. The only thing I cared about, and I said this to my wife going in because I didn't know really anything about the show going in. I was like, you know, I just need there to be like the song, The Power of Love. I need that one. It has to be right. Like it has to be. Was it like a stage? like a
00:07:49
Speaker
Like a stage show performed version of it. So not just like, okay, good. Yeah. No, no, they did it. they They did it. So they did power of love. They also did, um, they did, um, uh, so the whole ending sequence, they did all the songs you expect them to do, right? Like they did like earth angel and they did Johnny be good and they did. Yeah. Yeah. Power of love and all that. So, um, yeah, I can't believe everyone was talked for 10 minutes about back to fusion the musical. It's not Disney related at all, but guys welcome to the show. This is what we do. It was great. I was actually really bummed too though, because they had a shirt that said, ah where we're going, we don't need roads. And it had the DeLorean on it and everything. And I was like, Oh man, I want that shirt, but it was long sleeve and I hate long sleeve shirts. So yeah. So I was like, ah, why don't you have some clothes? Yeah. So close.
00:08:34
Speaker
Um, and there were a couple of people also, you know, there was a guy dressed up as Doc Brown that I saw walking around. There were a couple, some, some Marty, uh, you know, where do we fly? Uh, yeah, you know, really just, you know, just wearing like, uh, jeans and like, uh, you know, the red, the red vest basically. But yeah. But seriously though, if if it's coming near you and you like that movie, it's totally worth it. It was really, really good. It was well done. It made you know it really hit the nostalgia parts for me. and And like I said, I have never seen special effects like this on a stage show ever. like it was i mean All of the special effects were absolutely incredible. The set design was incredible. You could go just for that.
00:09:12
Speaker
But outside of that, like the performers are really good too. And it's, uh, it's just, it's really well done. it It was a lot of fun. We, we had a good time. Uh, but you know, that was kinda kind of our, our thing, you know, going out thing. We hadn't, we hadn't done something out like that in a while.
Weather Woes and Musical Recommendation
00:09:27
Speaker
And then of course, afterwards we, uh, it, there was an absolute like torrential downpour. So, and we had to walk to our car, you know, it was like in the city. So our car was like a couple blocks away and I just got completely and totally drenched. It reminded me, that reminded me of Disney. Like, you know, when those storms just pop up out of nowhere and then you just, you end up, you can't get your poncho on in time. You just get soaked, but which feels good sometimes in the heat, but you know. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of wish we had that right now. We've not had rain in a couple of weeks. Yeah.
00:09:59
Speaker
yeah so Yeah. So anyway, back to the future of the musical. Go see it. Awesome. Yeah. i right ah Why don't we... ah So let's actually get on to the rundown of the show. Well, we should
Disney Announcements and Family Trips
00:10:13
Speaker
warn everybody. there' This is a weird time of year, right? Because like there's a lot of people on vacation and Disney's not really putting out a lot of news. It's the It's the lead up to D23. Yeah. So Disney's not really announcing anything because they're saving everything for D23. So there's really not that much news to talk about. Well, we'll ramble on for a few. And, you know, yeah I think we got a few things we can talk about, but yeah why don't we start with, uh, we got the review of the week here. Um, so it's titled five stars for Tom, Trevor, and Damon. okay yeah Um, if ah they say, if I could give more stars, I would. That's very sweet. Thank you for that. Uh,
00:10:52
Speaker
Thank you for chatting about all the new and relevant Disney topics. Can't wait to hear what new food is coming, even if that means that it mysteriously disappears ah from Whistle while I work. I wonder if people realize that we don't even know that Dave is gone. like I mean, I assume he's gone when we start talking food, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, he he does kind of duck out. But yeah, we like we we kind of know when he's leaving. But yes, he did i I feel like it would be weird if he announced it every time, to be honest, because we are like in the middle of conversations and stuff. So yeah, you know, he just politely ducks out when he's done, which is fine. Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
say Hey, there's a there's another team food person right there, so. yeah Hashtag team food, right? We will keep talking about it, so yeah don't worry about that. There's no new food to talk about, though. I was really bummed about that, too. I mean, yeah, we'll we'll get there. I mean, the don't the the f food and wine and Halloween stuff will be coming here soon. I mean, but Halloween starts like what, next week or something? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Did we get a food and wine preview? did We didn't get the foods yet for that, did we? No, not yet, actually. So yeah, that, that should be coming soon here. Yeah. Cause I mean, usually I feel like that's, I mean, is that out usually, out by well, I guess food and wine is usually starting pretty soon here. So, and it's a little bit later this year, so that could be why. Yeah. And again, you know, timing with D 23 and all that, they, you know, it's probably a priorities thing that they're not focusing as much on food and wine this year, which is fine.
00:12:23
Speaker
Well, Disney's also just, and they actually, you know, Iger straight up said this, they are very good about releasing things at a certain pace. Like, you know what I mean? though They, they like to release things at at certain times and at certain ways. And, you know, they're just, they're good at that. I don't know. They just, it's something they do. So, I mean, like you said, right now there's no reason, uh, you know, for, for them to put anything out, they got D 23 coming up in just a couple of weeks. And so that's where most of the big announcements will come from. So. Um, somebody actually asked this, the question in the discord, I saw like, do you want to like make some reckless predictions about D 23? And I was like, I felt like we did last week or two weeks ago, whenever that was. Yeah. I mean, well, we kind of talked about like the, the preview thing and you know what that could mean. So yeah, I feel we we've already done that. Yeah. We've covered that ground, right? yeah Um, maybe we could do like a wish list of what we want to see. You know what I mean? I kind of, I could do that. We can do that. All right. So let's do these listener questions first though. Right. All right. Yeah.
00:13:23
Speaker
All right. So Jeff asks, what is a good age for baby's first Disney world trip? Are there certain DVC resort amenities that are great for baby's toddlers? I mean, listen, I've seen people, I saw newborn twins one time, like literally like a week old at Disney and I don't know if they were local, but that's nuts to me. I don't know if I'd do that. I think my daughter's first trip, she was maybe, oh gosh, maybe a year old. Um, but you know, I don't know. I feel like it depends on how your family operates, you know, it does. Yeah. Like, you know, the first time we took our son, he was four to to Disney. So, um, and I guess, you know, I'm just of the opinion. Um, you know, when when they're, when they're very young and I know, I know that there's the argument about, um, if they're, you know, you know, why take them when they're, or
00:14:22
Speaker
When they're not going to remember, you're not going to remember it. And I'm I kind of think that way because like I guess for me, you know, coming as an international traveler, you know, definitely I would enjoy it or I would have enjoyed it, but I wanted it to be something that like one of my son's earliest memories kind of thing like like I kind of I was kind of thinking of the timing of, you know, him remembering that we were going to Disney. And you know not to say that you know people taking their their newborns is wrong. you know that Like you said, that's entirely how your family chooses to operate. For me, I would i would never take them younger than four. But again, that's just me and how you've done stuff. Yeah.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's much more difficult for you to do it than for me to throw my kid in the in the car and drive seven hours. you know yeah Yeah, I mean, that's the difference too, right? Like you said, you know if if you're local or you or it's more accessible, you know I don't see why you wouldn't do stuff like that. you know The same way that you know we were we were taking our son to the to the zoo when he was you know still it like You know in the in the stroller and all that so yeah i mean it's it's it's kind of a that's kind of a you know however you want to do it i don't think there's any like. There's no hard and fast rule on this like like you know disney's disney and i guess it's how much do you want to.
00:15:44
Speaker
Do you know Disney with with your baby, right? Like yeah, you know and you know And I guess I guess that's the other side of it for me is you know You know the selfish side of it it is you know, my wife and I both agreed. We didn't want to have like the full stroller gambit of stuff going on when we took our son. like If we took him when he was like you know you know one or two years old, the amount of stuff he got to pack, especially traveling internationally, doesn't work. like like We wanted to make sure that he was old enough. you know We had like a small stroller that we took the first time, but
00:16:18
Speaker
it's It's, or no, actually, did we, we didn't take a stroller. the No, actually, I didn't take a stroller the first time. Sorry. No, I'm thinking it's been a while. um Like if I were you, I would, I would rent a stroller every day. I would not. I hate dealing with bringing a stroller on trips with me. Yeah, we, yeah, we, we didn't bring a stroller. And I think, yeah, that's what we decided on is that we were going to rent a stroller. But then I think. we actually ended up not even renting the stroller because my son was, he was at that age where I could carry him pretty easily. And so I didn't, so we were never in a position where I felt like I need to like put him in a stroller. Cause he was also old enough too, that like he, you know, there was definitely naps and stuff, but it was, it was manageable, right? Like it wasn't like I needed the stroller for that.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, like I mean it's etc yeah lay said, just it's hard to say like you know yeah however you want to do it is really the answer to this. well and Listen, i i like you said, the kids don't remember, right? But I remember. right so like and it's It's funny, as we were talking about this, I have a i have like a digital photo frame on my on my desk where you know where i'm I'm doing the podcast and it just rolls through my entire photo album. and As we're talking about this, a picture of my daughter's first Disney trip popped up on there. and you know I don't know if it's Google listening to us or what, but regardless, um you know we've got all these great pictures of her interacting with characters and and you know doing all sorts of different things. And and she doesn't she doesn't remember it, but we do. And that's that's for me.
00:17:54
Speaker
ah That's worth it for me. Now, would that be worth it for you to fly as far as you have to fly to to do it? and Probably not. That's a bit much bigger hassle. For me, it was easy and part of the reason we were doing it, I think, is that we had annual passes at the time and it was you know essentially free to go on the trip you know because we had DVC and then we had the annual passes and and my daughter was free at the time. so I think that's why we did it at the time. But you know, ah by the way, and and as far as DVC resort amen amenities, I don't know about resort, but I mean, I would say the lounge is is really helpful. ah The lounge is for taking a break, ah you know, because
00:18:34
Speaker
the one thing with little kids like that is, you know, they're taking two naps a day. So, you know, you need to need to be able to find a spot to to hang and you know, we we tried to do the stroller naps, you know, which happened sometimes, but it's hot out and, you know, not always easy to do the the stroller naps. So, um yeah, I don't think I can't think of any DVC specific amenities though that were great for babies and toddlers, just the lounges. Yeah, I mean, i mean realistically, like I think every resort is equipped. yeah you know that They're fully equipped to handle kids of all ages. And you know i'm I'm thinking to like you know you know even things like you know splash pads and stuff. like Every resort has a splash pad of some sort. So there's really no wrong choice there. The other thing to not underestimate either is the
00:19:22
Speaker
there is the first aid centers in every park, which are set up for like childcare as well. So, or not certain, I don't mean chuck like, the chuckker yeah, like, yeah, you can go in and like, you like, you know, exactly what you're talking about, you know, if you need to, you know, there's change tables. And, you know, if you just need a quiet place with your kid that, you know, don't underestimate that kind of stuff either. yeah um yeah you know There's nothing saying you have to explicitly use a DVC lounge, but those definitely help too because you know the lounges are also um far far less busy than anywhere else in the park as well. Yeah, that's true.
00:19:59
Speaker
that's true Yeah, so yeah, there's no like real DVC stuff, but I think it's just in general, you know, dis Disney's pretty equipped to handle, you know, kids. um And I think the biggest thing is, you know, or the only thing I would say for me is like, even when my when it was my son's first trip, is I made sure I was aware of all where all those things were because it's they're not obvious. There's <unk> not um like billboards telling you where the childcare center is. It's like yeah yeah you you have to you know yeah you got you got to pay attention on the map. And the same thing at the the resorts is you know you just ah you know you know talk to cast members too. like like I think that's probably the biggest thing is you know if you if you're looking for something
00:20:47
Speaker
for your kids. you know Cast members will be great to help you with like pointing you in the right direction you know if you need a ah quiet spot or you know something. right like and Don't be afraid to ask people. it's It's funny though like these said because it's like before you have kids, like you don't even realize that the baby centers exist. right like It's almost like it's invisible to you until you have a child and then all of a sudden it just appears. you know like There it is. Look at that. Didn't know that was ever there before. The whole section of the map uncovers. Knowing games where like the map is all fuzzy and then yeah you discover it, it clears up. yeah Exactly. Exactly what happens. Exactly what happens. So hopefully that's helpful, Jeff. But yeah um i'm I'm interested in Daniel's question
Disney Systems: FastPass vs Genie+
00:21:32
Speaker
here. After booking the initial three rides with multi pass, how likely do you think there will be able, you will be able to book another ride. Just got used to stacking rides with genie plus and concerned that after the first ride in the am, nothing else will be available. Got into Disney when my kids were born. So I don't have much to compare against. Uh, never use the old fast pass or fast pass plus systems.
00:21:53
Speaker
So okay interestingly, the iteration fast pass plus, you know, before this, I used to get eight or nine a day. like Oh yeah. Yeah. like easy So like I, that's kind of why I was pumped for this because, you know, part of the genie plus thing I hated was like that two hour rule thing. And, you know, like you had to do a ride per day. And it's so annoying, right? Like, I loved the way the FastPass Plus was because you could really you could book a lot of rides if you were, you know, if you were on top of things. And listen, are the good like the big rides going to be available? Probably not. But, you know, I mean, I had some magic happen, too. I had a I had a um we were on our way to magic or not. met We were on our way to Animal Kingdom.
00:22:41
Speaker
one day. or So it was our trip in 2016 when we moved it because of the hurricane. And i so I canceled like all my fast passes. And I was sad about that because we had flight of passage. And you know and so I was like, oh, you know we're probably not going to get on this. But literally, in the morning as we're going to Animal Kingdom, I'm looking on the app. And I got a flight of passage in the morning, which was like insane. But yeah, you like like you said, the the thing is is that I feel the way that this system is like is going to be closer to how it was with FastPass. I hope it doesn't get as stressful as FastPass did where it felt like you had to you had to be on it like seven days ahead of time or you you don't get what you want. but then
00:23:29
Speaker
I also forget too, the example I just put is with the old FastPass system, even when you weren't scheduling stuff months out, things just popped up all the time. You just had to refresh. Yeah, there was always opportunities to find stuff. And yeah, like you, Tom, I remember there was days where You know we we got to fast passes for haunted mansion like three or four times in a day because it was like you know you just keep checking the app and it was like. What do you want to go to haunted mansion again okay let's go and you just keep yeah you know you keep using them and every time I I got one I you know I think the biggest trick was you know as soon as you use up your your passes.
00:24:09
Speaker
You know, don't hesitate to start booking other stuff. Oh, the second I scan my magic and I'm on that app, right? Yeah. Like literally the second my magic bank gets scanned, I'm on the app while we're waiting in line looking for the next thing, you know? Yeah. So, so yeah, I, I feel like, you know, yes, the, the three rides thing and, you know, here's something to think about too. So, so this is coming into effect like five days from now. or sorry four days from now because you're gonna be listening to this the day after we record it. ah yeah yeah exactly so So this is going to be coming into a effect um and it's coming into effect during the summertime which is the busiest season so you know anybody who's looking at the system at this point
00:24:55
Speaker
there's There's going to be two problems. is One, it's new, so people are going to be taking a minute to figure it out. And two, it's overly busy. So during the busiest times of the year, it is always hard to get stuff with FastPass. Even with the old FastPass system, you just had to accept that it's busy, right? so you know don't What I would say is you know whatever you hear about it in the first couple of weeks, take it with a grain of salt. Don't don't assume that you know the system is bust or whatever because there's going to be lots of people saying that you know this doesn't work or you know this is way worse or whatever. But again, timing is a matter is a factor here.
00:25:34
Speaker
And I'm more interested in how it's going to look come like September, October, because really in September, when things calm down, you'll start seeing the flip side of it where people are like, you know, I booked, you know, 12 fast passes in a day or multi-passes or whatever, you know, so I'm going to keep calling them fast passes. Listen, we'll just call them fast passes forever. It's like how long it takes you to use this MGM. Okay. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just accept it. Um, so, so, you know, don't, Um, you know, I, I get Daniel's concern here that, you know, it you know, it feels like it might be a bust where, you know, you, you pay extra money to book three rides and then that's it. I don't think it's going to be that restrictive, but like I said, you know, really, you're not going to get a feel for how this system is actually working until about two months into it in operation. Well, and and good. sir Yeah.
00:26:26
Speaker
And then yeah, sorry, the last thing is they may change things too again. Like, you know, there might be tweaks to it as we go. So keep that in mind. Well, and theoretically, right, there should be more availability than there was with FastPass Plus because FastPass Plus was free. Right? Genie plus is not free. I mean, ah you know, multi-pass is not free, right? So it's it you part part of making it not free is that you make the user base smaller, right? Like yeah significantly, right? And I mean, I forget what the numbers were, but I feel like I remember them saying at one point that there was like 50 to 60% of guests are paying or and maybe it was like 60 to 70, something like that.
00:27:06
Speaker
So that's less people than had it before, right? Like that's a lot less people than had access to it. So I mean, you know theoretically you should have more access, but they also might have brought down the amount of available slots along with that. I don't know, right? Who knows how they did that on the backend. But if if we assume that they this the same amount of available capacity is is there that was there for FastPass Plus, plus then, you know, you should be able to get more things. But I don't know. Well, we'll have to see. Like you said, Trevor, it's we we really don't know how this is going to work until it starts.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's a fair point. And back to the thing about free too, something that, you know, I think a lot of people didn't know or forgot about with the the free FastPass system was the downside of being free was there was also people that were exploiting it. And there was people, because I remember, you know, we found out after a while that there was people that figured out like you could book FastPass reservations. even if you weren't, or like it didn't have to be tied to a park ticket. So people were just booking fast pass reservations. And I remember you know finding out that there was like these third party sites that were they were selling fast you know free fast passes, but ah you know under the guise of, well, you know we're getting you the premium fast passes and that's what you're paying for. So so the thing is, is you know even with the way that system was structured, you know you know Tom and I both
00:28:26
Speaker
Anecdotally, we're still able to book, you know, way more than the initial three. That's even dealing with people who were manipulating the system. Oh, yeah. I think the thing about genie plus slash, you know, multi pass coming in is that, yeah, because it's a paid system and and they have locked it down a lot more is you are not dealing with that breadth of people that you had to fight with before. So yeah, Tom's right that, you know, you may find that it's even easier to get what you want with the system when it comes online. um But yeah, you know, I wouldn't assume day one that that's going to be the case because July is July and it's going to be crazy.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah. And i'll i'll I'll recommend this again because I recommend it all the time. If you really want to know like the deep ah parts of FastPass and how it works and the history behind it, go watch that thing. Was it defunct land? Did a whole thing on it fun on YouTube. Yeah, it's it's like an hour and a half long, but it's I think it's a if you're a nerd like I am about this stuff, like I found it fascinating and I enjoyed every moment of it. so um and they do They do a really, really good job of explaining everything and making it really easy to digest why they made some of the decisions that they did and why the system you know was a problem and you know all that stuff. so Yeah, yeah it's it's really it's very well done, so check that out.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yes. We want to do our ad Trevor. Okay, this week our ad is brought to us by DVC Resale Market. DVC Resale Market is a world of DVC company and is the leader in the DVC resale industry with 13 former Disney Vacation Club guides and three former Disney Vacation Club quality assurance managers. Thinking of buying DVC brows the largest selection of DVC resale listings anywhere, with DVC experts on hand seven days a week to answer your questions. If you're thinking of selling, turns to turn to the friendly professionals at DVC Resale Market, where over 98% of listings sell within 30 days. In 2023, DVC Resale Market helped over 4,400 families join or add on to their memberships.
00:30:29
Speaker
go to dvcreesomemarket.com slash welcome home or call 1-844-DVC-PROS. That's 3827767. And when you speak to them, be sure to let them know the welcome home sent you. All right. So i are they wait are they is I forget, are they changing the lane name to multi pass or is it just going to still be called lightning lane and you're going to I forget if that the name was going away or not. So lightning lane is the ah the umbrella name for that's what I thought. OK, the passes in the park. There is there's the multi pass and the single pass. So the single pass is like Guardians, Tron, all those kinds of rides. And then the multi pass is everything else.
00:31:11
Speaker
which i was just I was just trying to remember if they were renaming the lanes to the pass, but they're keeping it as lightning lane. It's all lightning lane, which yeah which I think is better because you know everything like all in the park, all the ah all the naming conventions said like lightning lane return time and stuff. and so yeah People were getting confused about, you know you know am i using disney plus am i using gini plus am i using lightning like right it right is. I'll still never understand what's funny like like he didn't think that true but i'll still never understand why they got rid of the fast fast pass name like you can just make changes to it and cat fast pass cuz like.
00:31:55
Speaker
FastPass Premium, FastPass Ultra. Seriously, yeah call it something. like Everybody knows it by FastPass. I think we talked about this before. it's like you know When you say you're going to search for something on the internet, you Google it you know or the the you Xerox something. right like and and it's Those are brand names that became part of you know what you do in FastPass is a term I've heard you know outside of Disney and in other industries. like People have adopted that that term as you know skipping the line. it's just so It's so odd to me that they decided to abandon that name when they could have just you know modified the end of it. but yeah i don't know you know they They could have done like ah like Street Fighter you know where the where the names became like Ultra Hyper EX Street Fighter Alpha 2. You know, super FastPass Alpha Hyper 2. Yeah, clearly this is the one I want. FastPass Premium Plus, FastPass Gold. Yeah, FastPass Gold Platinum Hyper, I don't know. yeah
00:33:01
Speaker
There's I mean, it's just surprising to me, they decided to go that route. I mean, I'm sure there's a good reason for it. But I, you know, I mean, I don't know what it could be, but ah whatever. But yeah, that's the side. Yeah, I'm sure. I feel part of it is, you know, the the changing everything to Lightning Lane. so Somebody somewhere had an idea, I feel like, and they, you know, they just kind of had to they have to commit to
Disney Naming Confusions
00:33:28
Speaker
it now. Right? Like, I remember when they announced it though, I was like...
00:33:33
Speaker
This is confusing because you're calling it genie plus and then you're calling it lightning lanes and there's an individual lightning lane and there's the one that beal belongs to genie plus and like, like while I get it, the regular Disney guest is going to be like, I don't understand this at all. well And like fast pass was so easy before the lane was called fast pass. You bought your fast pass, you know, or you're not bought, but you got it for, you know, got it for free. It's part of it. So, you know, it's, it was easy. It was, everything was named the same thing. And now they just you know decided to, I mean, I guess they had to figure something out because then they were doing the individual purchase rides and they weren't doing that before, so you have to give that some sort of name, I guess, to differentiate it, but then they called it the same thing. you know yeah got They called them both Lightning Lane. It just was one was individual Lightning Lane and one was just Lightning Lane. I don't know. I just was like, who who made these decisions? Somebody needs to understand guests better than that.
00:34:24
Speaker
to To quote my brother, because we we were talking about this stuff, um he he said, you know, I feel like you know he's He's not a Disney guy, so he's exactly what you're talking about. He's like, you know I feel like I need a PhD to understand how you know Disney operates at this point because yeah they they've made it very convoluted for for some reason. I think the multi-pass thing does make it a lot easier. It makes a lot more sense. It's more straightforward. um I also think people tend to complicate it more than it needs to be. right like it's it You can go to Disney and not have to deal with all that stuff. You know, true. But yeah, I think I think the problem is, is when somebody walks up on like Tron and they're like, but I want to go in the short line. no You can't. Well, why? I mean, I can't go and try. Well, you had to book this thing, you know, seven days out. Well, how was I supposed to know that? Well, you got to read.
00:35:18
Speaker
They did email you, yes. They probably emailed you several times, in fact. Yes. Yeah. yeah yeah dis Disney is good about that. so Yes, they do communicate quite a bit. so i mean I was shocked by this, Trevor. i My Disney cruise is not until May of next year, and I recently got an email talking about my cruise. like Yeah. Like no joke, like saying, uh, Oh gosh, what did it say? It was like something, you know, one of the, like, we can't wait to welcome you on your cruise or whatever. And it's like, are thinking about your excursions and stuff like, yeah, yeah, no, like that's, that's it. Yeah. I literally, yeah. So I got an email a week ago.
00:35:57
Speaker
that was like, see where the Disney treasure will take you. And it has my its itinerary and then it has a checklist of things that I need, you know, like documents and stuff and my, the reservation number and all that. And it's like, that's not until May next year, man. Like I don't feel like I need that 10 months away. Like that feels really early to be communicating with me, but you know, I'm sure everybody that's been on Disney cruise is like, yeah, well, that's what they do. So yeah. But anyway, uh, I like Phil's question. yeah so So Philip phil says, when do they mow the grass in the parks? I never ever see them doing that. So do they mow at night? I mean, yes, I would assume so. like But you know, that there's a lot of stuff that they do at night that I think people don't.
00:36:44
Speaker
quite realize. like They like sanit they like power wash the streets and stuff. and yeah there's i mean but There's power washing, there's maintenance, there's you know yeah you know fixing up plants. although Although interestingly, I know specifically when around flower and garden, like when we've gone during flower and garden, um You know that so we saw like the the day and night transformation you know along when you're coming in on the monorail how you can see it like there's like the flower beds along the but the water right there yeah along the water.
00:37:20
Speaker
And it went from, you know, it was all dirt and you could kind of see like they had like a stencil of where they were planting stuff. And then we came back the next day and it was. Flowers everywhere, right? Like it was, you you know, we were like, whoa, like that, that's impressive. But, but, um, they, you know, we did actually see some gardeners too while we were there because, you know, even outside of all that there, you know, there is sometimes people during the day planting stuff and whatnot. So, um, Yeah. I mean, it's, but, you know, obviously things like mowing the lawn, I can understand, you know, you know, lawn mowing is, is a loud, disruptive thing. And I can see why they wouldn't want to do it while there is guests in the park, because there is also the safety factor of it too, because, you know, people, people won't understand that you actually should not be anywhere near a lawn mower when it's operating, because yeah, you know, things fly out of it and all that. It's also just not a good look like Disney doesn't like to show you like how they maintain things right like the gardeners coming and doing stuff like that's one thing because it's it doesn't like mowing the lawn is so it's different right like but I would bet that they do it a lot of times early in the morning to like you know 5am they're there at the park before it opens doing that kind of stuff
00:38:34
Speaker
Um, I've certainly seen them, like you said, I've seen them at the resorts and in the common spaces, like, you know, do, yeah, that's true. Actually going just during the day, you know, I mean, yeah, at the poly. Yeah. We see it during the day or, you know, if if you're back at your room and really, I think in any resort during the day, you'll see like lawnmowers and stuff running. Exactly, yeah. Just not at the parks. The parks, they do it in off times. They do a lot at night though, like you said. i mean As soon as the park closes, like you know people are going in and cleaning and restocking. and you know there's There's a ton of stuff that happens overnight.
00:39:09
Speaker
so yeah yeah yeah it's It's an interesting question. I like i like that kind of thing. so so so In short, fill up magic. Magic. That's the answer to everything. yeah yeah i remember I remember the pre-fast past days when ah when when the Beauty and the Beast restaurant first opened and they used to have like a little like rose thing that they put on your table and then they would bring your food to your table from that rose. right And I, yeah you know, just I asked the I asked the person bringing the food because it wasn't really waitress. It was like a quick serve, but it was it it was kind of a weird thing. You ordered ahead of time. They gave you the rose. You put it on your table. They brought you the food. um And I remember saying something to the waitress at the time, because this is a pretty fast pass. I was i mean, I'm a free ah magic band. I was like, ah so how does that work? Like, you know like how did how did you find me? How did you find me? And she just went magic.
00:40:01
Speaker
I was like, okay, that's what you're going to do. All right. That's, I mean, I should have expected that, I guess, but like, I don't know what I i didn't expect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like there's an r actually what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cause I was trying, listen, I mean, I was assuming it had something to do with like an RF transmitter, but at the same time I was like looking at the cart that she had and I was like, I don't see any screens on here or like, you know, I was, yeah you would think there'd be like some sort of screen that would show them where they have to go or I don't know, maybe before they bring you the food they know. I i don't know. But anyway. Yeah. Anyway. Imagine. It's magic. yeah just just Just chalk it all up to magic.
00:40:43
Speaker
All right. um So Dan ah Dan's asked us. I don't know which Dan it is, actually. I didn't record which Dan it was. but Sorry. Sorry, Dan. The Dan's have to fight it out.
Country Bear Jamboree Updates
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah. and Yeah. Just the so the set list for the country where Jamboree came out. What are our thoughts on the selection? So. OK, it's a lot. It's a lot of Disney songs, which I i feel Yes. They, they, you know, we knew they were going to do that, but, um, here's the, I got the set list. Okay. It's, uh, all right. Hold on one. Sorry. Where is it? I had the set list. I lost it.
00:41:28
Speaker
so Where did it go? Um, okay. Here we go. So, um, try everything from Zetopia kiss the girl from a little mermaid supercalifragilist, XBL, a dosh as well. I can't believe I got that out. Uh, a whole new world fixer upper. remember me, ah you've got a friend in me, the bear necessities. ah So that's that's really the list. you know ah Part of the reason I put this on here is because my brother-in-law texted me, and because he texted me about Disney stuff sometimes, because he's he's his parents are DVC members, he he grew up going to the parks. And he was like, you know have you seen the new Country Bears? Seems like they just threw a bunch of Disney songs in there, kind of lame corporate synergy. And I was like i thought about it for a moment, and I was like,
00:42:13
Speaker
I would have thought that before I had my daughter. But yeah with a young kid, I can see how putting songs like this into Country Bear makes it relevant for younger kids. Because I'm telling you right now, I brought my daughter to Country Bear before and she has hated it. She did not enjoy it. But I'm telling you, if I brought her now, she would like it because she knows the songs. You know, so like I understand the the thought of like, Oh, the corporate synergy thing. And yeah, that's probably the main reason why. Right. But at the same time, I do also think they try to make these things more relevant to kids using their IP and, uh, you know, trying to give them a a better.
00:42:58
Speaker
a better, you know, just something that's familiar to them, you know, like something that they know already as opposed to original songs. Now, I don't love the death of originality of originality in the parks. You know, i I like the original stuff that they've they've done and and Country Bears is one of those things, you know, that was, um you know, fairly original and that's great. um i But i at the same time, I also am OK with this. We knew they were going to do this and I wasn't bothered by it. in the beginning, but I know some people will be. So I'm going to politely disagree with you about the part about young kids needing something familiar for them to enjoy it. I'm saying my daughter, but... Okay, fair. Fair, yeah. um because So my experience is when I was a kid and I saw the Country Bear Jamboree
00:43:49
Speaker
I enjoyed it because it was so different and you know and like it it fit the theme of frontier land but it was still its own thing and i didn't realize until i was much older. That all of the songs were like all like they weren't disney songs they were yeah you know old country songs which. Yeah, like you, I'm a little sad for the fact that instead of them, you know, pursuing something original with this, that they they they took the easy route. I guess that's the the only way to say it is that the easy route is, you know, they look at their existing you know music catalog and they fit in things from that catalog into the show, which I will say, you know, some of the songs
00:44:39
Speaker
feel like they should click or or feel like they click. um But others seem like a stretch, right? Yeah. yeah so Some of them don't. I feel like whoever was doing this, like looked like they did like a Google search of like, you know, Disney shows in the last 10 years or something like that. And like got, you know, or like threw it into an AI engine and said, give me 10 Disney songs. And this is what they got. Like it doesn't, I see I, I haven't listened. I'm not going to lie. I haven't listened to the soundtrack yet. I just haven't had a chance, but I am interested to see how they turn some of these songs into like country songs that the bears. So right. Because like fixer upper is not that kind of vibe, you know. Correct. Yeah. and and And so to be fair, I haven't listened to the whole thing either. I actually so I started off listening to Try Everything from Zootopia. Yeah, it's the same song with like a banjo put in it. Like there there was like no effort to make it into a country song. And that's my thing. You know, it's not I guess it's not so much
00:45:42
Speaker
you know, the song selection, but how they're rearranging the songs. And it feels like just from that initial experience, I'm like, if that's the bar that we're going by here, you know, they they took the easy path on this, which, yeah, I mean, you know, Disney, it's that's not to say they know every attraction should be, you know, knocking it out of the park, but You know, sometimes playing it too safe is not a good thing either, I feel. And while you know wall said, like, this stuff is, you know, all these songs are going to be, you know, things the kids recognize and things that people recognize, you know, coming to the park. Because that's part of it, too, is, you know, you know you want it to be something that, you know, the guests know and whatnot.
00:46:28
Speaker
But I feel like the current set list, like this is kind of, it's not nearly as bad as the the Tiki room redo, the under new management, because I did see that and that was bad. um this is not This doesn't seem quite on that level, but this feels like it's going to be replaceable sooner than later. which I don't think that's a good look, but maybe that's maybe that's part of the intent is, you know, maybe they're trying to structure this in a way where in the future, you know, you know instead of this being the way it was for, you know, 30, 40 years, yeah um you know, maybe they're going to rotate out songs as they go and
00:47:14
Speaker
I don't know. like yeah yeah I'm going to reserve judgment on this until I actually see it. you know what i mean even That's fair. Even just listening to the soundtrack, I feel like doesn't give you the the vibe of actually seeing it. and you know they do still you know They have the Country Bear Jamboree like song. right like so it's like They still have like an original song in there, right? Yeah, i listen, i I think also though too, i've I've taken people to the Country Bear Jamboree in its old form, and that had never seen it before. And we're like, what in the world did I just watch?
00:47:52
Speaker
but You know what I mean? Like just did it didn't click with them. And so I wonder if we're in our Disney fan bubble here and and feeling that way. And if like the regular person off the street that gets to go to Disney once or twice in their life is going to feel differently. I don't know. Maybe they're just not appealing to us on this one. But yeah, I guess I agree with you there, but I also feel like there's going to be, you know, you know, as much as, you know, the, you know, non, you know, in the Disney bubble person coming there. I yeah i feel like, you know, the song selection, everything is going to be like, well, they're just like peddling their other shows through this show. yeah That's my brother. That's my brother-in-law said. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't feel like um
00:48:37
Speaker
I feel like they could have put more thought into it. And you know it's not necessarily that you know the these song selections need to change, but like I said, from just you know listening to it, it's it sounded like you know they went to somebody and said, make a cover of, you know it I'm specifically picking on the the Try Everything song. which you know Make a cover of Try Everything, but make it country. And the person went, well, I got a banjo here. Is that good enough? like it it I mean, I did watch some of the behind the scenes stuff and it seemed like they did put a lot of work into it. But I, you know, I don't know. Which which is unfortunate because on the surface, it doesn't doesn't feel that it doesn't hit that way. Right. Like, like, I think that's the sad things. You know, I, you know, I guess it's not fair of me to to downplay people's work on this, but.
00:49:27
Speaker
you know people are going You know, people are going to forget about that in you know six months, a year or whatever. And if the show doesn't have legs to stand on by itself, um it's going to get replaced sooner than later. That's that's my take on it. So I got it. And I guess we'll, we'll guess we'll find out. Right. I mean, if, if it ends up being a long lasting thing, or like you said, if it starts, uh, you know, it ends up being different. I don't know if you saw, I saw a video and I don't know if it was real or not of one of the bears smoking like the second day after, like it was.
00:49:58
Speaker
i' I don't want to say it was on fire. Yeah, I don't want to say it was on fire because anything fire was just smoke and it could have just been smoke. It's possible that it wasn't fire, you know. um But yeah, I saw something about that. Listen, its you know, these things happen. It's that animatronics fail. that That's nothing to do with the show design. Yeah. And who knows if they even updated the animatronics. They might be the same old, really old animatronics that they had before. so No, because they they did a thing on it ah a couple of months ago where they were talking about how it is all new animatronics. Oh, did show did they? had I don't remember seeing that.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah because because they were talking about that they they were getting new clothes. and I remember the clothes. I didn't remember them talking about the new animatronics. They didn't mention it was going to be new animatronics. Oh, OK. So I think it was like there was like one line in that that video where they they said that. Yeah, unless they just missed that. Yeah. Makes sense. but um so so my I'm going to throw this out there and you know maybe I'll be wrong, but I don't see this show staying in its current state longer than five years. and I think even five years is a stretch. like I feel like
00:51:06
Speaker
they're some they're going to look at this and in like two to three years, it's not going to be pulling in people but because because that was part of the thing is, you know, it got to a point where there was nobody in country bears. Yeah, there's never a lot of country bear. Yeah. And and I can see I could see them, you know, looking to redo this again and hopefully not replace this. But, you know, I can see them doing another redo of the show, similar to how like it would be actually funny if they kind of took the same route as the Tiki room where you know, put it back to its original. I mean, they could do that. I mean, why not, right? They yeah could. um ah You know, Trevor, before we talk about your news, since the other piece of news item I have is Country Bear related, why don't we just continue talking about Country Bears and then we'll end with your thing.
00:51:52
Speaker
Sure, let's do that. So another thing, though, interestingly enough, so the Hungry Bear restaurant at Disneyland is going to be turning into well, not really turning into, they're just going to reimagine it into the Country Bear Jamboree, which is kind of funny because they don't have the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland anymore. But the idea of making it like a theme to the Country Bears is is kind of cool. Yeah. And and where the the location of Country Bear Jamboree is actually right next to or where it was is right next to where Hungry Bear is. So it feels like a good continuation of the ah the Country Bear um legacy, even though it doesn't exist in Disneyland. And yeah, again, you know, hey, corporate synergy and all that. Well, if but you know, what is why shouldn't Hungry Bear be a Country Bear themed?
00:52:47
Speaker
To be fair, though, it's it's not like the, you know, and this is no offense to country bears. It's not like a premiere IP, right? Like they made a movie, but it wasn't good. Right. Like so it's it's I think I always have considered country bears more of a hardcore Disney fan thing as opposed to a casual Disney fan thing. Right? Like, I don't know, that's just kind of how I felt about it. So I do think it's interesting that they're going to theme it to that. And and from what I read, and I haven't been there, obviously, but ah the I guess Hungry Bear was not really, it was just kind of themed generically to bears, I guess. It was. It was very, um like, I mean, it's just part of Frontierland, right? Like, yeah, I'd like like like a wilderness lodge kind of vibe to it. Yeah.
00:53:32
Speaker
and And I'm sure that you know the Disneyland crowd is different than the Disney World crowd, and you know nobody's going to have an issue with Country Rares being in there. The funny thing about this article that that I... you know that And thank you, by the way, to Becky for sending this episode this ah this article in the um Discord. um she She noticed that this article is speculating at the end that This this writer thinks that because they're doing this at Disneyland, that means they're also going to do this at Disney World and they're going to replace Pecos Bill with a a country bear themed restaurant. I think that's kind of a ridiculous thought, because I still think it's going to be a Tiana thing. I feel like it doesn't make sense to re-theme it to Country Bear right there. Hmm. I don't know. But it's kind of a weird idea that it is. That's why I want us to talk about it, because it's a weird idea.
00:54:25
Speaker
Because technically, it I mean, it is connected to Country Bear because Country Bear is he's right out into Pecos Bills. It does. Yeah, it's right there. So you could feasibly continue that theming all the way through into Pecos Bills. But then, yeah, it's fighting with Tiana's. So to that end, you know, just don't change Pecos Bills. Just leave it the way it is. I think you're a big Pecos bill fan. Yeah, we we we like Pecos bills. It's a nice it's a nice spot that we yeah we like to relax in when we can. I have heard, though, that the Tiana restaurant they put at Disneyland has been is is rated pretty highly. I've heard that people said the food is not there. Okay, but but that area, like like that New Orleans area, yeah I mean, it was good before. like like Yeah, that's fair, yeah.
00:55:11
Speaker
i mean it's not It's not like it went from nothing to like Tiana's. It was like, you know, they were building on existing things there. I just heard the food was good. The food specifically. So yeah if they bring the same menu and make it, you know, but it's, they would really have to do a lot of work to that building though. Cause that building is not themed. Like you said, it makes it a challenge because of the way the building is themed. Yeah. It's a redo of that entire area, which I don't know that Disney, you know, is wanting to do that right now. But yeah, you know, back back to talking in Disneyland, like this, this, um, the hungry bear restaurant, you know, you know, making it country bears is like, that's not hard. It's very, yeah it's very easy to replace stuff in there. And then yeah, also where it is, you know, theming wise, there's not a lot of work they need to do to it because it does already fit, um, or it's part of critter country, but you know, it does fit that whole,
00:56:11
Speaker
You know frontier land country theme that they have going on which yeah yeah i'm i'm not opposed to. To them doing that in like it makes sense because of the fact that there is no country bears and in disneyland it gives. it like I know what you're saying about you know you feel like Country Bears is like a hardcore Disney thing. I feel like it's it's just it's a park IP the same way that like figments a park IP. I don't think that you know every park IP necessarily needs to be a movie or you know anything else. like It can just exist exclusively in the park and be a thing just for
00:56:50
Speaker
people that go to the park. So yeah, I'm i'm not against that. i this This seems to me like it's going to be very much like a ah like a regal eagle situation, where it's like Muppet's theme, but just barely. You know what I mean? Yeah, kind of. Yeah. We'll throw a touch we'll we'll throw touches in there, but it's not really Muppet themed. It's it's kind of Muppet themed, but kind of not. like That feels kind of like what they're doing here. But I could be wrong. I mean, maybe they're going a lot more all out than but I know. Yeah, I guess we'll see. I mean, it like like because there is actually, um so there is a lot of like sculptures and stuff there, like like woodwork and whatnot. So yeah, you know there is there is room for them to replace things. And and you know if they just hang a picture on the wall and call it Country Bears, like that's Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately for you, man, I still don't think Panko's Bill is going to survive. I think they're still going to do something with it. I tend to believe that they're going to go the Tiana route. i That's just my feeling about it, but i I really don't know. I mean, but it makes the most sense. It's it's right now. I accept that, you know, we've said this before, you know, things at Disney change all the time. And, you know, even when it's something that we like,
00:58:02
Speaker
yeah You know, it does change and that, you know, and maybe it'll be better when it's done or maybe it, you know, maybe I won't go there anymore after they change it. but It'll be better. Yeah, maybe it'll be better. You know, like I do tend to believe, Trevor, this is one of those things we're going to hear about a T-23. I think we'll find out. Yeah, I think we'll find out what they're doing. So you think because they're talking, or so, I mean, you know, we, this article is originally talking about the hungry bear reimagining. You think, so they're announcing this just in a, you know, on, you know, and on the side kind of announcement thing, you think they would save something like Pecos bills for D 23.
00:58:42
Speaker
Well, because it's, it's Tiana themed and Tiana's the thing right now, right? So that's, say yeah, that's, that is fair. yeah Like if they were going to do a country bear, I don't know if they would save that for D 23, because ah you know, even this article mentions that Disney views the country bears as maybe an outdated IP, right? Which. Like we said, it's not it's not the one that everybody knows. and the The movie they tried to make, I think, was what, early 2000s? Yeah, wasn't was yeah and it wasn't good, right? ah and And so you know it's not like an IP that... That's why I'm saying I feel like it's a hardcore fan IP as opposed to a you know casual fan IP. So like yeah, you can put you know highlights of it in a place, but to make a whole restaurant theme to it, it's... I don't know, feels like too much. But
00:59:30
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I still think, I think if they're going to make Pecos bill into a Tiana restaurant that we're going to hear about it at D 23. That's what my prediction is. Okay. but Yeah, that's fair. I, I hope you're wrong, but it's that is me being selfish because I like, you know, we, we, we found that, you know, there, there's a couple of spots, you know, in the back of Pecos bills where it, you know, if you go there at the right time of day, it's quiet, you know, you don't go to there, you don't go there at lunchtime, but you know, it's a, No talking you know previously about finding a quiet places in the park because bills was definitely one of our you know we could go and sit and you know out of the sun in a quiet space and you know. No have a late lunch or whatever and.
01:00:12
Speaker
It was nice, but you know if they they take that away, we'll find somewhere else and it'll be fine. Well, because you know, if they turn that into Tiana restaurant, it's going to be busy for the next you know five years. It's just going to be yeah always busy for the next five years. Yeah, we'll we'll have to go upstairs to the Tortuga Tavern side if that's going to be the case, which yeah that's okay. It's just not you know it's not as quiet up there. Yeah, I mean, but like if they're going to do it, if they're going to make that Tiana, that's a whole complete inside and out redo, right? at it Yeah, that that's that whole building. Everything is going to be shut down for a while, which that the funny thing about that is that, you know, for all the work they've been doing on Tiana's, you know, that it's kind of created.
01:01:00
Speaker
some congestion in that area. And if they shut down Pecos bills, it's going to create the same kind of problem where, you know, there's, you know, because because restaurants are people eaters, too, to a certain degree. Shutting that down means you're going to have a displacement of people, you know, especially like lunchtime at lunchtime is going to be a nightmare. Well, that's like probably the largest quick service they have in terms of area. Well, one of the largest, uh, yeah, it was probably is bigger. Yeah. Cosmic raises bigger. I, as soon as I said it, I was like, Oh, customer. I mean, you could even, yeah, I, you could say even, uh, that the, that other one too, that's always closed, uh, is, is maybe bigger too, but it's, it's one of the bigger ones, you know, which one that's always closed.
01:01:44
Speaker
Uh, why am I forgetting the name of it? The one where they do the dessert parties all the time. Tomorrowland Terrace. Yeah. Tomorrowland Terrace. They only open that when it's like super busy at the parks. Oh, I was going to say, is that, is that, eat I don't know if I've ever seen that open other than oh I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. Yeah. Okay. I've seen it open for food. Um, but only when it was like crazy busy. So yeah. Yeah, I guess, yeah, like, ah like, like I said, you know, the the thing is, is if they shut that down, like that displaces people to all, all the other quick services in the park, which I like. Yeah. Pecos bills does take a lot of traffic on that level.
01:02:25
Speaker
I see. I think if they close down Pecos build, then they open up tomorrow in terrace, right? To try to eat some of that up. So the only problem is, is that it's on the other side of the park. Or maybe they update the menu at Tortuga Tavern because Tortuga is not great. Like there's like two things on the menu, like they need to, or maybe that would be the answer is, you know, maybe they move the stuff from Pecos builds up to Tortuga and do whatever they're going to do at Pecos builds. Yeah. I guess we'll have to see. Mm-hmm. ah So the last thing we had today, you, uh, you told me that you, uh, have something coming up and you
Exploring Non-Disney Activities
01:02:58
Speaker
want to talk about it. So, yeah. So, um, so I'm, I, I didn't initially have it planned that I was going to take another trip, um, before next fall. So, so my wife and I, I, and I think I mentioned this previously that we were going to, um, go to Disneyland next fall. Um, but you know that that's, that's over a year out. So, you know, you know,
01:03:22
Speaker
I didn't think we we're going to do anything else but i'm just through. um ah Set of circumstances my my brother and i started talking and because of the fact that um i have some dbc points that you know i was i was gonna bang them right and you know i was thinking about maybe renting them out but i wasn't sure. But we ended up ah deciding that um the two of us are actually going to take a trip in May. So we're actually going to be in Florida in May and we're staying at DVC. But um we are actually the the point of this trip is that so so both of us have
01:04:04
Speaker
Um, you know, we, we have our families, but you know, our, our kids, you know, we, we do certain things with our kids and then, um, our wives don't do, our wives don't like roller coasters or fast rides or stuff like that, but we do. So, you know, kind of like, I guess like your, your wife, you know, you know, she has all the fast rides with your, your kid, like me and my brother are the same way, um, in, in our families. Um, but what we decide is that, you know, my brother and I really enjoy, uh, or, you know, we've talked about in the past, like, you know, there, we, we, we like water parks, we like roller coasters and we like mini golf. And we, we decided on a, we're going to take a trip to Florida.
01:04:48
Speaker
But it's not going to be a disney centric trip so obviously this is this is still early plan because we're we're looking at like we have decided on a week in next may that we're gonna go but. um But we're looking at all the non-Disney things to do in the area that kind of fit that criteria. So so you know we are we're talking about you know we want to go check out Volcano Bay because you know that that looks like an amazing water park. We're looking at different mini golf courses outside of Disney mini golf courses because there are a lot of mini golf courses in Florida.
01:05:25
Speaker
And and so so we're going to do that. And then we're also looking at um some of the different places that have roller coasters because so, again, not just going on like the best of the best roller coasters, you know, being universal and stuff like that, but we're looking at there there is some other smaller theme parks that have some interesting coasters, particularly Seaworth as well. Yeah, SeaWorld, and there there is actually, I know this is people are going to go what to this, but whatever. um We're actually looking at Orlando Fun Spot. Oh no, I've heard that's good too, yeah. Yeah, be because specifically because they have a wooden coaster, and me and my brother have never ridden a wooden coaster before, and that you know that's something we want to try. so So the whole point of this trip is
01:06:14
Speaker
you know We're doing all the stuff that we would normally not do with our families because you know you know one you know it's prohibitively expensive to you know you know with a family of you know four or whatever to be like, hey, you know let's go to this theme park that you know you know we're we're already traveling a long way, but let's go to this theme park that we really only want to go there for like one or two rides. And you know and you just you don't drag your family around like that, right? like it's Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:44
Speaker
Like, you know, i I would never go to my family and be like, you know, you know, I understand you guys are bored, but I'm going here. Right. Deal with your boredom. I'm going. So so so like I said, you know you know, the whole point of this trip is that we're looking at, you know you know, my brother and I obviously have, you know, we have similar tastes in the things we enjoy doing. And so we we've decided to make this trip just, um you know, it's just the two of us and we're doing all the the coasters and You know all the all the fun stuff that we wouldn't do with our families normally so um obviously it's in it's in the early planning phases but you know i'll let people know as we get further along um but i guess the thing that i would also put out too is you like i said you know we're we're looking. um
01:07:29
Speaker
we We found that there there's a couple of very interesting looking mini golf courses that we want to check out. But, you know, for people that have done stuff in the Orlando area that, you know, maybe maybe things that, you know, are not, you know, you know, kind of those I don't want to say like, you know, hole in the wall kind of things, but like, you know, yeah that the not the super popular stuff or, you know, maybe it's like a hidden gem that people don't realize is there, you know, path. Yeah. Exactly yeah so so you know i'd love to hear about it because um you know we're looking at that stuff right now and and just kind of exploring um what all there is to do in the area because again the other the other advantage too is you know you know the reason that i are that we decide to do this was we the conversation really started as we just wanted to go.
01:08:20
Speaker
somewhere and do stuff that we wouldn't normally do. And and the original conversation actually started with um you know looking at like Europe. but But even going to Europe, like you know the the reasons that that him and I both would like to go to Europe is there's places in like Germany and stuff that have like again amazing water parks and there's like you know roller coasters and stuff that You don't see here or you or you know are not or at least for us you know we don't have a lot of theme parks around us so it was like you know hey let's go somewhere where're where we can experience that but then i said hey. I've got dbc points that i'm not using why don't we go to florida and then you know the money that we're saving on. Do you know because we're not paying for accommodations yeah i'm using my dbc points.
01:09:09
Speaker
we can use that to do all of these things in the area that we wouldn't normally pay for with our families because you know it does it gets too expensive, right? yeah so So yeah, that that's the the premise of the trip. is it's a you know it's It's a DVC state trip. but we're not focusing specifically on Disney stuff. There will definitely, um ah since, you know, my brother hasn't been to Disney in a while, you know, I think we might do one day. I told him I i kind of want to get him on Guardians um because, you know, I mean, or well I know you haven't been on Guardians, but for everyone who's been on Guardians, you know, you know why.
01:09:49
Speaker
um So you know we might do that, but ah you know we're we're very much exploring all the options available to us in the area. So um I know this is something that I think we've talked about in the past is you you know you know using DVC, but not you know using it explicitly for Disney. um So we're going to try that. And we're going to see what to we're goingnna see what kind of stuff we find in the area, which I'm i'm kind of excited about because ah Yeah, like I said, you know, I feel, you know, you know, going with our families is great. And, you know, you know, don't get me wrong, you know, we both very much, we both have the same sentiment about, you know, oh, you know, we're going to Florida, but you know, we're going without our kids. and And, you know, I talked to my son about it. And he's like, I don't care, you know, what you do, dad, you know, if you want to do it, have fun. it And, and, you know, you know, my brother, you know, his his kids are the same way, you know, where they're, they're like, you know, yeah, you know, you and
01:10:47
Speaker
you know you and Uncle Trevor go and have fun. like you know that's so it's like you know we're It's hard to detach ourselves from you know doing the family thing, but like you know that you know we've both been doing it for a long time, so it's gonna be interesting for us to do a trip just for us, but it's also going to be you know and it's going to be us doing all the the stuff that we've wanted to do for years, but never did do. Yeah, I feel like SeaWorld is a good option, man. like because i I feel like they add a coaster every year. and like I'm always seeing things about SeaWorld adding new coasters. Yeah, they are on our list. Like I said, we're we're kind of we're kind of batting around SeaWorld, Universal, and Disney all have coasters. and Also, like Universal, we we definitely want to go to Universal because
01:11:40
Speaker
You know, there's things like Velocicoaster and stuff that that we want to check out as well. Yeah. So, you know, that's on the list. But, you know, like I said, you know, we're we're pretty far out on it, but we're just kind of figuring out, like, we want to get a to do list of, you know, and not just coasters, like, you know, just just like cool rides and experiences and stuff that that are in the area. Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So, so yeah, we, uh, you know, wasn't on my plan originally, but, uh, I'm planning another trip down to Florida and, uh, and I'm excited about it. Potentially around the same time that I'm there. So, right. Yeah. So yeah, we'll, we'll have to talk about that too, because, you know, we're, we're going to be, uh,
01:12:21
Speaker
we've We've already, I think, found like four different mini golf courses that we're looking at. so so okay i'm I'm going to do a little bit of behind the curtain for people that maybe don't know this about us. so so Tom and I, and my brother actually, um we have multiple times played mini golf virtually. so so There is a VR game called Walkabout Mini Golf. And we do ah the the three of us do get together and play mini golf, and it's a fun time. But you know if if we're both in Florida at the same time and we could actually play mini golf together, I think that would be very cool. So you know if we can make that happen, you know we'll definitely try. But you know well as we solidify this more, I'll let you know you know what days we're going to be wearing and all that. And if the stars align, yes, we're going to we gonna play mini golf.
01:13:11
Speaker
Yeah,
Travel Logistics and Tips
01:13:12
Speaker
that's going to happen. I love mini golf. You know this. I love mini golf, yeah real life or virtual. It's one of my favorite things to do. and And you're right. The area around Disney has a ton of really cool and weird mini golf courses. I always like a mini golf course that's not only challenging, but has weird stuff I've never seen before. You know, yeah That's like the kind of stuff I want to do. Like I went to a mini golf course one time. I think it was in the outer banks where you had to take a train. There was like a little mini train that took you up to the top of the, of the golf course. And then you made your way down and I was like, that's the kind of stuff I want. Like weird stuff like that, you know, like i I want weird things where I have to hit the ball into, uh, into the water and you know, it it will end up, you know, going down down a creek and yeah.
01:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah the the weirder and more creative, the better. Yes, exactly. So and that's what's around that area. So yeah, if we can make that happen, that'd be awesome. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I'm, I said, I'm excited about it. um You know, my, my, my brother and I, we, we were, we started talking about it. Obviously, you you know, the the thing to point out is that, you know, I mentioned this earlier, you know, we, we started talking about this and, you know, the the whole thing about Disney came up. And so the interesting thing is, is you know, he's he's not been to Disney or been to like, you know, even like the Florida area. um I think the last time he went was he was still living with my parents. So he would have been like 18 or 19 years old. So like, you know, you know, many, many years ago kind of thing or actually, oh, no, wait, we went. Sorry. Yeah, something. like Yeah. Over 20 years ago, I think at this point, close to 20 years ago.
01:14:53
Speaker
um So yeah for him you know that you know things have changed a lot and so you know he's trying to wrap his head around air everything that's there where you know i have the advantage of you know i already know i know generally how universal and disney operate so for me it's like oh yeah you know this is this is easier or whatever but um Yeah, there there is definitely a bit of a challenge there of you know figuring out figuring out how to do stuff in the area. and yeah so So I think that's the other part that's going to be um interesting for me on this is that you know i get to um you know I get to help my brother with you know learning some of this stuff, but also remembering you know you know ah very much you know for us in the Disney bubble, we do forget that
01:15:41
Speaker
you know, people who don't look at this stuff every day. um It's a lot of information. It's very overwhelming. And it's good to kind of ground myself in, you know, not everybody knows how to operate in Disney or in in Florida, effectively, right? Like, like, you know, we're gonna have our own challenges, I'm sure, yeah you know, we're not, but we've decided, um we're gonna try and do everything by like, Uber or Lyft, because I don't really want to worry about renting a car when i'm down there and people may disagree with that but i like. Driving i come from a smaller city and driving in florida is very overwhelming so fair enough yeah um it's a lot like and and so you know people may disagree with it but you know we're gonna we're gonna try things and.
01:16:29
Speaker
Yeah. you know Like I said, you know it's going to be fun because we're going to be trying new things, but also you know I'm going to be kind of showing my brother the ropes on on you know how things you know work in Florida as well. And so and and you know obviously he's going to gain benefit from it because he does you know he wants to go there with his family at some point. So him getting familiarized with you know how you know, even just staying at a Disney resort, like they're, you know, I was telling them like, you know, hey, you know, you got to, you got to get the app and and all this kind of stuff. And he's like, Oh, okay. Like, like, you know, they they do everything by the app now. So yeah, makes sense.
01:17:09
Speaker
yeah so yeah that's Yeah, so stay tuned for more of that. And yeah, like I said, the only thing I would ask for listeners is you know if you if you know of something interesting, um the the stipulations I have is you know water parks, um you knowre we're definitely interested in water parks, um roller coasters and mini golf are the big things we're after. But you know if if there's something that you know about in that area that you think or you think it's really cool, you know you know please send it our way. I'd love to you know at least explore the stuff and see you know what kind of ah kind of trouble we can get into while we're down there. That's funny. Yeah.
01:17:49
Speaker
All right, let's wrap it up. Listen, we talked for a while, considering there's no news this week. So, all right, let's wrap it up. I mean, we could also just bring up the guy that was swimming in the rivers of America, too. Did you not see that one? I heard about it, but... What is wrong with people, man? I don't... Yeah, and of that water of all things too, like like that's not even like, like, that's just like pumped in river water, right?
01:18:20
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I assume it's just local well and I think they diet. too There's like all sorts of chemicals in there, too. And and also snakes and, you know, like gators, possibly, and you know, gators do get in there. I've seen gators in there. I've seen one. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I i don't know why you would do that. that's I don't know either. Hopefully they caught that person in trespass. Oh, but yeah. When I read about it, it was yeah he got removed from the park. I would. Yeah, I'm sure they had to shut down the boat and everything. That was probably a mess. there's There's pools, people. You don't need to get in yeah know to get in the rivers, just use the pool. Yeah, i agree I agree. Go to the water park. you know you know we just Water parks are better. I think Danny said this last week. I don't remember if she said it on the podcast or off the podcast, but she's like, the heat makes people crazy.
01:19:09
Speaker
that you know yeah I can see that. that That's true. Yeah, when it gets really hot, I can see where it compromises people's thinking. But I i guess I've never been to the point where I felt felt compelled to jump into a large body of water. But I can't see the bottom. the water yeah and but Yeah, that's the other thing, too. You you can't see you can't see more than like a couple of inches into the water. like That's a huge no for me. Like, yeah, I mean, there might be like electrical wires in there. I mean, like I've seen it drained before. I don't think there is, but I mean, there could be. I've watched enough scary movies to know that there's like, there there's some kind of.
01:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, there's either a gator or an octopus or something in the water, like a kraken, you know, like 20,000 weeks. There'll be some people that'll be like, well, you used to be able to swim in Bay Lake. I mean, you know, it's probably the same water, but you know, you don't anymore. Yeah. Yeah. That's all blocked off for a reason. So yeah. Yeah. yeah All right,
Audience Engagement and Support
01:20:09
Speaker
let's wrap it up. later yeah all right um so yeah As usual, you know for for anything you guys have heard about on the show, you know if you've got you know your own stuff you want to share, you want to ask us questions, you can always find us at welcomehomepodcast.com. We do love hearing from you guys. and Similarly, you can find us on Facebook as welcomehomepodcast. You can find us on YouTube as welcomehomepodcast. You can find us on Instagram as welcomehomepix.
01:20:35
Speaker
Make sure on Facebook that you check out our group, Welcome Home Dizzy Waitlist, where we have lots of listeners that talk, you know, share their own ah adventures, ask us questions and post great memes. I should shout out to Jeremy, you know, his his adventures with ah monkeys and karaoke, um you know, little jealous. It looks like you had a great time. So, you know, Funny enough, Trevor, I'm on that same exact boat and on that same exact itinerary in in a few weeks. like I didn't realize he was on that boat. I'm on i'm ah literally on that boat, same itinerary, and I've done that monkey thing before too, that exact same monkey thing when I was in Punta Cana years ago, seven years ago or so. I did that same monkey thing that he did. so It was just kind of funny to me because I'm like, not only is he on the boat that I'm on, but he did the monkey thing that I did years ago.
01:21:26
Speaker
but But Jeremy posted about it in the group and you didn't. He did, and I didn't, that's true. A picture didn't happen, I know. yeah Exactly, yeah. so But yeah, so, it picks i you know yeah you know, stuff like that, you know you know, comes up in the Facebook group and if you want a great group where, you know, people do talk about stuff like that, it's just generally good um Disney related stuff, um you know, please please check out the group. Uh, and if you want to support the show, uh, you can go to store.welcomehomepodcast.com and check out our merch. We got t-shirts and, uh, mugs and stuff, you know, you know, love seeing pics of people, you know, wearing their shirts out and about, it you know, it's just, it's cool that people, people wear our stuff, you know, still, still blows me away from time to time. You know, I, I do see pics of it in the, in the group and it makes me happy, you know,
01:22:13
Speaker
so So keep it coming. um And also, in that same vein, we do have ah we do have a Patreon. You can go to patreon dot.com slash welcome home pod, and you can check out our our Patreon merch, which has an exclusive logo that you can only get on Patreon. and all of our patreon supporters also get our access to the discord server which as we talked about you know we have other conversations on discord you know similar to the group you know it's just another great place to to talk about disney and you know sometimes non-related disney stuff too so um you know if that's of interest to you please have a look at our patreon
01:22:49
Speaker
And last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify, leave us that five-star review because it does help with the number going up to 4.7. Tom has a dream and you know someday it'll be ah a 4.7 review podcast. um But also you know write us a review on on iTunes because we do we do read those on the show and we just you know we love hearing what you guys think about the show, so keep it coming. Yeah, and ah you know of course, don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you can be reminded every time we release a new episode. and You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, just about any podcast app out there. You can find our show. And just a reminder to our listeners, Welcome Home Podcasts is for entertainment only. We are not employed by the Walt Disney Company. That's such all the opinions we express on the show or our own. So please contact a ah DVC cast member or Disney cast member for more information about anything we talked about today.
01:23:43
Speaker
Huge thank you to our sponsor, DVC Resale Market, for sponsoring this episode. And of course, World of DVC for continuing to be a partner of this show. Please check them out for 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. This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. When we hit a chair, how she can cuddle is no man's affair. I looked around from pole to pole, found her in a sugar bowl. Look out, it's my ball and chain.