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Episode 284: Banshees, Disney Treasure & Disneyland Paris
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On This Episode
Bay Lake Tower is undergoing a refurbishment that may include pull-down sofa beds. With the Island Tower about to open, Disney talked about the history that inspired the new hotel. New interactive shoulder Banshees are coming to Pandora. The Disney Treasure cruise ship has reached its home port and Disney will livestream the christening of the ship. Disneyland Paris has announced details about their new nighttime spectacular with even more drones. Previously announced new stores at Downtown Disney will be opening soon. The guys discuss new holiday food at Disneyland and EPCOT.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Streaks
00:00:09
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall. The Voice of the Jungle. Broadcasting on the DVC. To all points unknown. Sure within the sound of my voice, does this mean to welcome home podcasts on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DVC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 284 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom here with Trevor and Damon. What's up, guys? How's it going? I made like two in a row. three Is it three in a row? Now it's two in a row. What's the streak? I mean.
00:00:48
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it it's two. Yeah. Yeah. The reason I think it's two and you got me to come on at like seven, which is like i yeah I don't go to bed this early anymore, but I like I start to like
Tennis Tales and Sportsmanship
00:01:00
Speaker
wind down. I feel like it with the darkness. It's because it gets dark at like five fifteen. Right. Oh, yeah. Like it's crazy. It's it's and then we had a full day of tennis at like probably the worst sportsmanship I've ever seen in tennis in my life.
00:01:17
Speaker
And it was just crazy. My my daughter's playing a girl there. And this is what's funny. My daughter played a girl this morning and the girl that she played this morning was like, hey, that girl that you're going to play later, she's a cheater. with the How do you try this?
00:01:33
Speaker
ah Dude, how do you not cheat in tennis? There's no line judges in tennis. There's no line judge. Not in D1, there's no line judges. So like all through college, there's- You're just self-refing? Yeah, you pretty much. So what happens is you know my daughter's warming up. you know Your warmup serves last, and they're warming up serves. And like you know courtesy is, if you're warming up a serve on your side and someone's back is turned to you, you don't serve that side. So I knew this was going to be a disaster right from the get-go.
00:02:02
Speaker
So they started to play. I don't know all these rules about tennis. I mean, this is courtesy. Like if your back is turned, you don't want to take a ball in the back of the head. And she almost did. So then they're playing and this girl is calling this the most atrocious calls. And so here's the thing. If you're calling balls on your own side out You're just a cheater and there's not much you can do. But if you're calling balls on the other side out, that's crazy. So usually what happens in tennis, there's this whole thing, like it's just so silly. But like if you don't agree with the call on the other side, you go, are you sure? and like that's that's the That's the challenge. That's kind of the challenge. And the thing is, at the end of the day, like my daughter said, like what are you even going to say back to that? But this girl, she does it
00:02:50
Speaker
five points in a row, all not on her side. My daughter's just so nice. She doesn't want to deal with this conflict. Like it's just turning into a disaster. And I'm just like, no, there's no replays. There's also no replays. Like if you call something out on your side, that's it. that that There is no replay. It it is what it is. It's your call, your side. Now you make a call from the other side of court. So the girl goes up to the net and my daughter's like,
00:03:16
Speaker
Okay, like, what is this about? And she goes, Well, are you sure? And my daughter goes, Yeah, I think it was out. And the girl goes, Do you think or do you know? Whoa. And, and then after that, I was just like, Okay, so I normally let my kids resolve their own stuff, because I think it's just a good thing for them to do. But I'm like, I guess I got to get the tournament director.
00:03:37
Speaker
What's interesting is the tournament director comes over, all of a sudden, these calls aren't being made anymore. And you could see the pain on her face to not call these things that she wanted. She wanted to say it, but she couldn't. and And the worst part about it was, is that before every single call, she would look at her dad on the sideline, her dad would give a little nod.
00:03:55
Speaker
And I'm like, dude, oh, that's your parents. You're just a poor parent. So this is what i was I was hoping you were going to say the tournament director was her parent, because that would have been great. Oh, no, no. But like our our our hope was that at some point she was going to make just an egregious call while the tournament director was there. But again, she didn't. She made zero calls when the tournament director was there. But the tournament director stayed for the whole match at that point, because I was just like,
Nostalgia TV and Modern Content Overload
00:04:20
Speaker
dude, you can't make that call five times in a row from the other side of the court. We were hoping and she was she was throwing her racket when she was slamming her record on the ground she did not throw we're hoping she was gonna throw her record. And then after every point that like she won she would go yes. So the courtesy rules again I don't know them in golf but I know them in tennis now like if you make a good shot yourself personally listen you can do that.
00:04:45
Speaker
That's still goofy, but whatever. But if your opponent makes a mistake, you don't do that. Like, it's just not the thing to do. It's not how tennis works. Like, that's like a general, I don't even think that's tennis. Like, that's just, you know, you don't do that in any sport. Like, if you make a good shot for yourself and you want to go, yes, whatever. Like, i it's it's ridiculous in tennis personally, but whatever, man. Like, but to do it when your opponent makes a mistake, like, oof.
00:05:14
Speaker
This girl was something else. I don't think that we've ever, like ever dealt with something like this. It was just bonkers. That was my day today. i I don't think I talked about this, but you know, my daughter's been playing soccer and you know, listen, they're, they're six years old. Yeah, that's a little around the ball at that point. But yes yeah, yeah, they're six. And some of the parents take it a little too seriously out of control. year And I mean, and and like there was man, I've been to a couple of these games where they're like been these parents that are like literally screaming so loud at at their kids that they're like ah going to be hoarse at the end of the day. And I'm like, what are you doing, dude? It's six years old. Six.
00:05:52
Speaker
i like jill I wanted to start and like a YouTube channel like about like all the craziness that I've witnessed in sports. yeah and i I couldn't do it because at that point, like I can't draw. so like I couldn't do any of the animation stuff and it was just too hard. But like if Gen AI gets me, like regular animation, like I'm there. So the worst thing I saw at six years old in tennis, and this is a friend of mine, so his son and my son were playing in my son's, you know, soccer was his sport, my oldest, so i he was pretty good. um He yelled at his son and threw a cup of ice at him.
00:06:24
Speaker
gee on the field That's crazy. um Okay. Yes. It still, it still doesn't top probably the best of all time is when my son swimming, beat another kid, you know, another kid in swimming by like, I mean, absolutely demolished him. And the official was the son, you know, with, I was his son and tried, tried to DQ my son or another time, same, same dad. Um, his son, my son was in a different heat, but his son got lapped in a,
00:06:56
Speaker
Gosh, was it a one? I am it might have been a one. I am or two. I am Stops the whole me cuz he was the head referee. My son wasn't even swimming at this point I'm in the stands come over to the stands to tell me that his son was sick stops the whole me and to To come and talk to you to come specifically you wait personally to tell me his son was sick. That's why he didn't do well now my son Wasn't even the same heat as him and and I was like, okay like I It doesn't really affect me too much, but sure. do need to kind i've witnessed I have actually have notebooks full of it, just in case I ever decide I want to do that idea. Like I had to have notebooks absolutely full of stuff, and which I probably have to add this nonsense to today to go on the notebook because you never know. I might. You know, when I retire, maybe that's what I do. That's what you do. You just make a YouTube channel and of ah yeah i mean people would eat that up. But I think it needs it needs animation. That's the problem. It needs like animation.
00:07:51
Speaker
like You can't do that without like having something else behind it. Just talking about it is only so much fun, right? like You need something going on. Or you need to do like YouTube shorts or TikTok or something like that. Yeah, yeah. I think that we're getting close to Gen AI being able to do good cartoon clips. I think we're almost there.
00:08:12
Speaker
So once we get there, then I think i'm I'm covered. But then again, who will ever need entertainment anymore when stuff's just done automatically? Oh, that's that's true. ah I did watch the new Disney. Did you guys watch the new Disney um Christmas show? The one with the owl, Little Moon? No, I didn't. I'm not in Christmas mode yet. Like I don't know my tree, but I'm not. yeah I'm not there yet. we're We're not really in Christmas mode either, but it seems to creep early and earlier every year.
00:08:40
Speaker
And we were just like, oh, we have a few things to watch. So there's that one, which we watched in Disney+, which my wife did not care for. I thought it was OK and my daughter liked. I don't know the name of it. It's some animated show. It's about this bird, this owl, that gets um stuck in the tree that they cut down for Rockefeller Center.
00:08:59
Speaker
It's by some award-winning producer. And the only reason I know that is because I was going to do an interview with them about it. But yeah, it's it's on Disney+. plus this is like It's a short, but it's still 25 minutes. um It's a short film. And this is, I think, the third one. But it's worth it's worth checking out. I'm kind of curious to what everyone else thinks. And then there's that one on Hulu. Have you seen that one? It's, I think, the night before Christmas in Wonderland. It's a combination of Alice in Wonderland and Christmas.
00:09:28
Speaker
That's on Hulu. I'm always looking for new Christmas sn stuff because I love the Christmas stuff. Like I said, yes, Virginia is probably my top at this point um as one of my favorites to watch every year, but we watch them all. But I'm always looking for something new, kind of seeing something goes in like the classic route.
00:09:44
Speaker
That new one that's that's about to be in theaters is getting horrific reviews. Oh, is it? Because it yeah looks so funny. What is it? like it's good something or i don't Is it The Rock in that though? The Rock is in it, I think. You can't watch it because The Rock is in it. No, I can't. But I just think that it's very difficult. You're going to put a holiday show out there. I don't know. put it like That should be free. like I hate to say. Put it on like Hulu or and Netflix. like they don't I'm not going to the theater.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, this is this is one of those ones that the critics hate, but the that the people that watch it actually like it. So, you know, then I could be down for that. I think that it has the rock in it, though. Yeah, I know. I just I don't know. I have to disclose my eyes during those parts. Yeah, i you just have to try to put it. I was thinking of you. Have you watched hysteria yet?
00:10:29
Speaker
No. What is that, Saria? What is that? I think it's the Peacock. I don't know. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. There's too much now. There is too much. I started to go back to Yellow Jackets because you just love it so much. I feel like I have to go back to it, but there is too much. I'm watching Outer Banks, which is the goofiest, it should just be Goonies remake, but goofy like it's even like more far far far fetch than the Goonies and then Cobra Kai's back like there's a lot there's a lot to watch Elspeth I watch which I kind of like I think that's funny
00:11:05
Speaker
i You know, that I've got like, my wife and I have like three shows we watch together and that's about it. Because i my wife is not a big TV person, so... Yeah, yeah i've been I've been watching stuff like when I just work out or something like that. um But other than that, like, yeah, we watch a few shows together and then I watch stuff on my own.
00:11:22
Speaker
Lincoln lawyer's good. alice bi good too though I don't know. I don't know any of those. like All right. Disney news, I guess. Here we go. Trevor, are you watching anything? Uh, is there anything canada that that's good? Like that's not us. Okay. No, um, there isn't, but the only thing that we've been watching on Disney plus lately is mash, which is so random. Wow.
00:11:48
Speaker
but Well, because, so strangely enough, um my son started watching it over the summer and he actually got hooked on it. Like he was like, Hey, this is a great show. Yeah. yeah Right. like And so then we were just like, okay, we can watch mash again. So we've just had like mash running in the house for, because you know, it's like 13. Do they have the entire series? Do they have the entire series on there? I think you do. Yeah. Wow.
00:12:13
Speaker
I mean, i we weren been live and crazy. I mean, i don't I didn't love it, to be honest with you, because I think the time it came out, I was probably like, was it the same time as like GI Joan Transformers? I feel like it might have been. I mean, I was like, I think six when mash was wrapping up. So I wasn't really Yeah, I feel like i like if it was on, like I would watch it now. I think I probably watched all of them, but like I never like sought it out. You get what I'm saying? So that's, yeah, I don't think I sought it out. Yeah, it's kind of a weird thing that, yeah, we' we've just kind of gone back. like i Sometimes, like your point about you know there's too much to watch is, you know. Oh, there definitely is. That kind of put us into a mode of, it's just easier to watch stuff that we're comfortable with, which is kind of backbiring on the whole idea of too much stuff, right? like But Trevor, my wife does that she's seen bones. i might I'm telling you, I don't think I'm even lying when I say I think she's seen it like through from start to finish 20 times.
00:13:08
Speaker
And she says she just leaves it on in the background. Well, yeah, that's a background. least Yeah. No, see, I talked about you're doing something else and you have it on in the background. Yeah. Yeah. I talk about this all the time with my wife. I have background shows that I watch. it's It's either, you know, it's something I've seen before that it don't have to pay attention to, but I can still watch every once in a while and be interested. See, I think if I was doing that, I'd rather just go the music route personally. I do that sometimes too. but I don't really do background shows. i'm I'm a big proponent of or books either, which has been my downfall sometimes like because he's like yeah people ask me about a book and I'm like, I don't know, man, I've read that 20 years ago. like I don't know if I can read again. like One of my favorite series and again, like probably not now, but in the past was Dragon Knights, loved it. right like It was great. and i was like I went to go read it again. I'm like, I can't do this. There's a million books I could be reading rather than rereading something again. I can't do that anymore.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, I get it. I get it. Anyway, yeah, it's weird, but maybe some mash though mash. Go watch everybody. my My next one after that is going. We're waiting for squid game coming up. Oh, yeah. too I feel like I got to rewatch the first season because it was so long ago. I think I can remember it pretty much. I'm actually listen, Allison Borderline is coming back to and I'm way more excited for that.
00:14:28
Speaker
than I am for Squid Game, to be honest with you. um That show is just amazing. We're watching Teacup, which has been okay. But I'm telling you, From, From is it. Like, that show is it. I've heard that, and and I keep meaning to watch it, but we've been watching Mash. We're too busy watching a show from the 70s. But there's there's no reason to not watch it, especially because like my my son's been discovering it, right? Like he's never seen it. So he's, you know, we're kind of like seeing it through his eyes because he's like discovering all these characters. And it's just so weird though, because like he's so like distanced from any sort of war, right? Knock on wood, hopefully. yeah And like,
00:15:07
Speaker
it just It's probably i like im curious to his thoughts on it because it's just so different. It's a different world. Yeah. well so so The thing he said to us, I said, you're really liking this. He's like, yeah, it's it's just better than anything else that he's found on TV recently. like Interesting.
00:15:25
Speaker
Like, I think he's just seeing it for like, it's just a well produced show. like And, you know, the fact that, yeah, it happens to be about, you know, war stuff, I think because it is so far removed from anything that he gets in his normal life. It is interesting. if entertaining Yeah.
00:15:40
Speaker
I felt like that there's a lot of shows that like, I like to talk television just in general, right? And at the end of the day, like there's certain shows that you just have to have watched. Otherwise, you really can't talk TV, right? And Sopranos was on that list for me, a show that I'd never seen. So how to watch it last year, this year, this year, because I was just like, I've never seen that, like, I feel like there's certain shows. I mean, Game of Thrones is on there. I don't wire. Yeah. Besides the doc season, which is just terrible. like that scene that season is terrible I like think a lot of people will agree with me that that no you're terrible no you're you're very right about that. But I like that. That is some of the best television ever. But you know what, Tom? It does not hold up as well as I thought. like it It doesn't. It really doesn't. yeah like and When you go through like this era, power is the wire.
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, but for this generation, um which I like power as well, um but it's not the wire. The wire was just so good. Yeah, that's a great. So anyway. Let's get back to what we're actually talking about. We should just have a television podcast. I mean, I listened. Well, you had one, remember? I did. It was too hard because you had to be like, if you want to talk about nostalgic shows, nobody cares because they've already seen them. You want to talk about new shows. You spend your whole weekend watching TV like that one night when we watched that, we watched some series and it was like, all right, we're going to run the podcast on Saturday and the show started Friday, 10 episodes. I'm literally burning 10 episodes in 10 episodes in a day.
00:17:10
Speaker
Like pretty much 24 hours. It was I couldn't do it and that's what happens like Because I couldn't give them my access like because dude you get like in real trouble like if you have early access to shows and you like let other people watch them like nowadays you can't even do it because the way it works with your phone and that and Stuff like that. But yeah, like you got to really get the shows earlier. You can't run a television podcast. Just can't do it. Yeah, well Anyway. Maybe when I retire. Yeah. When I'm sitting at Bay Lake refurbished towers, which i I guess maybe I would be. Well, so, you know, I own a Bay Lake. First of all, I appreciate this article just for the fact that somebody obviously took this with like from far away and just like creeping into so into one of the windows.
Disney's Bay Lake Tower Refurbishment
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah. These photos are amazing. yeah I don't think I saw them.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah. So basically, uh, contemporaries, I mean, I'm sorry, Bailey. That's crazy. Yeah. Bailey's going through a refurb, a hard goods refurb. And, uh, they, Disney really hasn't said our DVC hasn't really said much about it. Right. And so somebody just took over. you but But that's crazy. That's like a sample noise. It's a lot of noise in there. Yeah. You know that they didn't use like a real camera. Like this was, when this was a, this was a phone camera zoom.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, what favorite it's a Samsung super huge one that zooms like 100 with a telescope zoom. Like that's definitely what this was. That's not terrible, though. You can see it. a bit It's just no it's terrible as someone that takes photos. But yes, you definitely can still see what's going on. Where I mean, for obviously, what's the phone? ah What you know, what was done by phone. But um so so one of the things they mentioned in here, the creepy did they have that creepy Disney painting in general?
00:18:49
Speaker
All school Mickey Mouse standing next to Roy. That's creepy looking. That's 70s Mickey Mouse. is what yeah that is which Yeah, that's creepy though. just don't I don't want 70s Mickey Mouse in my 2024 room. It is the contemporary. you know it's i mean it's not i mean I know Bay Lake is not, but it is.
00:19:07
Speaker
you know yeah yeah But so the the the main headline here though was that they're they're putting the pull down Murphy beds in there, which is one of those things I think they just need to put everywhere. when rush it Somebody's fingers and then they all go away. It happened though. I think it happened. I think think one of them fell off the wall on somebody.
00:19:24
Speaker
um but we fall the walling is yeah with the Crushing fingers. Yeah. Yeah. Those things like people don't realize how dangerous a Murphy bed I know I wanted one until I started reading about them and I'm like, nah, I have one in, I actually installed one in my basement because we, we have a spare bedroom down there. And so we installed a Murphy bed for when people come to visit. Yeah. And when we were getting installed, they were like, yeah, don't do like, they were like, don't do these things with it because the spring is under so much tension that you could like, if you grab a store opener, it's like, it'll come flying out of the wall and hurt somebody, which I'm like,
00:20:00
Speaker
Okay. Like the, yeah. And I mean, obviously they, they, you know, make sure that they're safe when they install them. But yeah, to your point, there is also the, you know, Hey, this goes up and down. And then, you know, somebody's sibling puts their fingers where they shouldn't be. And yeah yeah, I mean, yeah, you're, I wonder the problem is I don't see them until there's like some crazy way for them to replace them with, I don't know, like a bed that comes up out of the floor or something.
00:20:30
Speaker
Like. Magically. Insane. Yeah. Magic bed. Yeah. Some magic bed. I don't see them getting rid of the Murphy beds any time soon. I but like the Murphy beds though. they're comfortable They're way more comfortable than the pull out couches were. Yeah. I mean, we we had our son stayed on the old couch fold out bed. And when we stayed on the new Murphy bed, he was like, this is a million times better. Like the yeah old the old beds were terrible. Yeah. They were not good. I feel bad for my daughter. She's always the one that has to sleep on those. Like I feel like that's just bad.
00:20:59
Speaker
But, you know, youngest always kind of gets that situation there, right? They do. Yeah, they do. We were talking about that today. They they get a lot of it. Yeah, you get to get the worst seat in the car. You get the worst. Yeah, we finally did book um the Grove. So I guess it is a Disney. What do they call those? Partnering, whatever. Blah, blah, blah. Hotels. Well, I'm not talking about this. Yeah, yeah, I think so. It's a good, yeah, yeah good neighborhood.
00:21:27
Speaker
So we're we've booked for like like almost a week before um our cruise. OK. Yeah. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah. Hmm. Anything. I mean, you know, is this. So do you guys i just to go back to Murphy bed thing? Is that like something you want to see everywhere? I mean, or no. No, I want to see Murphy beds and nowhere. Really? To be honest with. I'm I'm fine with them. I think it's I think it's a good compromise without having couch beds.
00:21:56
Speaker
Like I think the original thing is going to be this throwback green, blue tile on the, uh, on the, in the kitchen there. So that I was going to actually ask because I've never stayed at the Bay Lake. Is that tile new? Like, or like, like, I think so. Yeah. I it's been a while since I stayed there. I stayed there maybe 10 years ago, honestly. So it's been a long time. Cause that's some very 70s looking style. I mean, listen, it's a contemporary, right? So you got to, you know, you have that kind of vibe. OK, the irony of what you're saying there is. I know, I know. Like, I mean, but that's what I'm trying to say. It looks so dated, but it's the contemporary. The contemporary is stuck in the 70s. You know, it's really what it is. I don't. You're right, though. Yes, you're right. That is very funny to say. I agree with you. So we have the so I just put this in here just because I thought it was kind of cool.
00:22:49
Speaker
um yeah you know with with the With the Polynesian ah ah Tower about to open, ah they kind of put out an article about you know kind of the inspiration for the tower. and i just I love this like old Disney planning stuff you know of like all the concept art they did of things that never came to be. you know like The one picture here shows that the Asian style hotel that was going to sit in the water that they never built. ah like That was where Grand Floridian is, I think. It looks so cool. um But you know they also show though here what the Polynesian was originally supposed to be, which is is kind of like a tower, basically. Yeah, like like the contemporary, and another large tower is what it was supposed to be.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. They were trying to, and again, as we're talking about the 70s, the original design, as they said here, would be modern for the 70s and you know look like ah luxury hotels ah you know found in Hawaii. so you know I think it's interesting because you remember Trevor, like when they first put out the concept art for this, like people were like,
00:23:54
Speaker
like not into it. Right. People were not, or they were feeling that it was going to hurt the sight lines looking from the park, which I'm kind of like, why are you looking at the, at the hotels from the park? Shouldn't you be going into the park? But yeah, whatever. I mean, you can already see some of the hotels from the park. I mean, given, listen, and you can see that you can see the tower pretty, pretty well. It is pretty tall and and you can see it, but there's also multiple other buildings around. So I don't see why it's,
00:24:24
Speaker
that big of a deal. but No, for sure. I just think I get it. yeah You know, you know, yeah people were were upset about the sidelines. But yeah, I do. i I agree with you. I do like that. They're kind of showing like the history of it and the intent. The one thing that strikes me is this overhead diagram of how the um how the resorts were supposed to be situated, yeah which was very close around Magic Kingdom, like not not across the the water or anything. like they were theyre supposed to be It looks like, what, nine different hotels or different buildings? Sorry, I guess buildings. Different resorts. yeah No, actually, yeah. yeah that' Three, six,
00:25:05
Speaker
Well, and then there was the, they had a people mover built into this photo too here. They have the Wedway, uh, people mover, uh, route, which obviously didn't come to fruition. And the monorail only goes, I don't know where it's supposed to go, but it looked like it stopped at the, the park entrance. And then I'm guessing it was, that was supposed to be just the Epcot lines. There was just supposed to be a line to Epcot. And then, yeah, if you wanted to get around the other, um,
00:25:31
Speaker
The other hotels, like you said, it was using the people mover to which the fact that there was supposed to be seven hotels around the park. That's kind of crazy. Like like having three right now seems like a lot. I can't imagine there being seven. That'd be a lot. I'm still sad to say kind of sad they never did like the people mover thing, like actually using it to move people, because like I've always felt like that would be cool for them to and actually do it, you know, but yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
And I mean, you can see in the next picture, too, Trevor, just like you know some of like what the layout was going to look like, too. You like you can see where the contemporary is, and you can see where Magic Kingdom is. like There's another ah resort off in the distance there that looks, I don't know, it almost looks like a Taj Mahal kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, it's it's it's interesting how how things change and and how they evolve. And that's the only reason I really posted this, because I thought it was interesting that they were kind of digging into the archives um and showing off some of the concept art.
00:26:30
Speaker
You know, we got Tron instead of the Taj Mahal. Well, that's, yeah, that's because that's not where that setting is actually where. but we're Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. Uh, that's a, that's a good point. Uh, but yeah, so anyway, this is what the, and actually also has a picture here too, of what, what it looks like now, like given it's, it's different, right? It's not, it's not the same, but, um, you know, I, it is, it is similar. You can see where the inspiration comes from for sure. Yeah.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah. So if anybody, uh, well that's going to be opening soon, right? When is, when is this? Oh yeah. December 17th. I'm excited to see like actual reports from the resort, you know, just give me reflections at this point. Thanks. We give you a that's fine reflection. Okay. Yeah. my My wife has signed off on my nonsense of feeling like I have to own at reflections just because of river country.
00:27:22
Speaker
Oh, so like your whole thing is because you like the hallowed grounds of River Country must own there. I have no real reason to own there other than that. And I will own there just because of that. Just because of River Country. I think I'll probably only own like 50 points though. Like I don't need enough, but I just need something to be like, yep.
00:27:42
Speaker
yeah Yeah, you can you can stay there a night or whatever. Just so you could say I own part of River Country, is that? Well, let me say there no matter what, it's just a matter of I just feel like owning there is worthwhile.
00:27:53
Speaker
yeah just so I can say I own there. Well, we're also talking too, like we gotta go, like I gotta sit down and figure out like how all our contract, we have too many contracts and like kind of like how we're gonna divvy them up to the kids, right? So we're trying to figure that out, like, okay, three kids, if you give like one kid more points, but less years, like we gotta figure it out. Cause right now, one, two, three, three Saratoga, wait, no, two Saratoga contracts or three? I don't know, two Riviera's,
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah, wait, two Riviera's, two Saratoga's, and I have three kids, so you see my dilemma. That's a challenge. I know a lot of people, put that don't they put their stuff into trust? and like ah i mean but they Even then, you gotta split it up somehow. You have the same problem, yeah. Yeah, so we gotta figure that out.
00:28:42
Speaker
i got but I got to buy enough points to like even it out somewhat, too, because I think it's like 150. Now, I might have more points than that. Maybe I have 120, 50, 150, 100. I don't know. What about the one kid that said he doesn't like Disney? You could just, you know, do hit maybe get him out of it. like disney youre Right? Like, I can't I can't begrudge the grandkids. And I think every kid likes Disney. It's just a matter of when they stop, not necessarily liking it. And I think that's also cyclical. Like, I think that you go back to liking it again.
00:29:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, you can become too cool for it at some point, right? Yeah, of course, of course. It's like, oh, it's kind of lame. I'll buy whatever points I feel are necessary to like even out everything. And then that should be enough points. I mean, gosh, it'll be five something. like That's got to be enough points, I feel like.
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah. At that point. Yeah, I would think so. Just, you know. Reflections though. I'm in. Oh, you know what though? And then they'll open that Epcot one right outside of Epcot and I'll have to have that too. It happens. Yeah. Yeah. Someday. Someday. We still have, we still don't even know if reflection is happening, but I mean, there's, there's construction going on there. So it feels like it has to be. Yeah, exactly. I feel like the Epcot thing is going to be well into your retirement. Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. Yeah, probably, probably. So, Damon, I put a toy thing on here because I know you're into toys and I thought this would be a lot. I mean, I feel like I've seen this though. No, it's different. It's different. What's different about it? Okay, so there's a new interactive Banshee, shoulder Banshees coming to Pandora. These were very popular toys for a while. I don't know if they're still as popular, but they're very popular.
Interactive Disney Banshee Toys
00:30:25
Speaker
So, what's changing is they're going to have four different versions of it.
00:30:29
Speaker
Uh, it's gonna, they're gonna have a remote control so you can control like what it does. So like, you know, it's mouth movements and sounds and stuff. It was cool. It didn't have this. It didn't have this. Okay. But then it also, uh, does this when it sees, when it sees other banshees, like when you're walking around the parks, if it sees another banshee, it communicates and does stuff towards the other banshees, which I think is kind of cool.
00:30:54
Speaker
Yes, that's the same as the droids from the droid workshop. So yeah, yeah, yeah, where they interact on each other. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't want to like roll droids all over Disney. This at least is on your shoulder. So it's like kind of more out of the way ish. It's true. Yeah. So it's not something like someone's got to kick. No, I like the other ones. They were just so simplistic. How much do these bad boys cost? I feel like way too much money. That is not in the article. So I mean, is that telling me all I need to know? Probably, yeah. 79? 79? All they're saying is go visit Wind Traders in Pandora on November 21st is all they say. What did the other ones cost? I'm actually googling that. The dumb ones. They're $70 now. They're $70. Oh, so the dumb ones are $70. Not dumb as in they're stupid, but dumb as in they don't do. The non-interactive ones.
00:31:45
Speaker
so They're 70. I mean, what is this thing going to be? Like a buck 40? I don't know. It feels like it'll be a hundred plus for sure. Yes. The problem that right there is how this is going to fail because they're going to be too expensive. You're saying, yeah, it's too expensive. What are droids? How much are droids? Uh, what was the one something, right? Yeah. That's more though. Cause you build them though. Right. I want to say it was 80 or no.
00:32:16
Speaker
In your 90? I know it was not anywhere as expensive as the... I think that might have been like in 2002, Trevor. I mean, what did they cost now? $220. $120. Okay. Yeah. I think they're going to be the same. You think? Okay. But I mean... It doesn't even seem like it should be. like there It should be more, but hopefully not. But then here's the problem with that, is that you know part of the selling feature is it's interactive and you know all that.
00:32:44
Speaker
people are not dropping 120 bucks to have this thing on their shoulder, which, you know, sorry, but also having a thing on your shoulder. The second that it falls off and breaks, you know, there goes $120. So, so you're not going to see a bunch of people walking around with these, which means that the selling point of this that, you know, Oh, it'll interact with other ones. Well, you may, you may see another one in the park, but you're not going to see people just like,
00:33:10
Speaker
you know, rolling around and there's those crazy avatar people, man, like, yeah, they were all hard in the avatar part of the park. I don't know. Okay, fine. But but I guess I would so fine, maybe you'll you can hang around the the shop in Pandora and meet other people. But yeah, that's what I think you're gonna have to do.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's a steep price tag. To be fair though, Trevor, you're not allowed to drive the George you build around the parks either. Like you can all know that I'm in that little area, right? This is more of a benefit. I think they had a backpack though that I i guess it was a similar thing, but you had it in the backpack and it would actually like Like same thing is it would interact with other droids that people had in their backpacks you hear it chirping and moving and stuff like that. The thing is, is that I feel a backpack is a little easier because it's a backpack and yeah it's not getting in your way. Whereas the I've seen these I've seen too many of these shoulder things fall off. Yeah, that's one of them. So I don't know, like,
00:34:10
Speaker
can you well are they secure know How well are they secured to you? I don't even know how they secured to you. um i'm I'm fully predicting, you know, um I'm going to be there in May and I'm going to see some, you know, some kid is going to get one of these, you know, their parents will pay the money for it. And you'll see the kid sprinting and it will fall off and hit the ground. It's a banshee. It'll break into three pieces.
00:34:34
Speaker
And then the kid will be sad. it Like, ah I'm sorry, but that's what I see happening is that some kid's going to go sprinting with this thing on and it's going to fall off and that's it. Like, I mean, maybe it's terrible though. Maybe it's maybe may break more of what I see is, is that you're going to go on my favorite ride, Navi River ride. And there's going to be so many of them.
00:34:54
Speaker
Hopefully, there will be so many of them that they're going to be annoying. That is so zen for me. That ride is like total zen. I would love a flight. I could just ride that ride by myself. I just love it. This is going to make it just like a small world. I will say, too, though, they've got a luminescent, too. I was just going to say that, Trevor. They're bioluminescent as well. Yeah. I mean, which is kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think these are cool. By the way, if you want one of these, they're going to be available this week. So if you're listening to us right now, uh, what, November 21st, right? It'd be Thursday this week that you can get one for us and tell us how they like it. Not for us, but for them. And then just tell us how they like it. Yeah. I agree. I, I've never had one of these shoulder mounted things and it just, I haven't either. I mean, at one point,
00:35:44
Speaker
What was, what was, okay, this is, this is a good question. This is not off topic at all. Uh, when you were a kid, like what was the the Disney souvenir that you remember? Because when I was a kid, I had the, I had the dog leash with the, with the, um, the harness. mentioned Yeah. The haunted mansion one where you you can walk around with a fake dog. And when I was a kid, I definitely walked that around the entire park for like the whole day that we were there. You know what I mean? Cause I just thought it was so funny when I was, you know, yeah That is that is a tough question. Like I remember going and and again, even when I remember going, I remember River Country, the trip that like my aunt and uncle took me um because my parents just didn't really have the money to take us. So my aunt and uncle took me and then I remember going back with the family and we stayed like a off Disney condo. But I don't remember actually getting anything per se.
00:36:35
Speaker
Like, I just don't think we were in that position. So I don't really I don't really remember getting anything, to be honest with you. I would be sure. Maybe sure. Yeah, maybe. I have something very specific and in retrospect, very dumb that I bought. What is it? Oh, because the because the floating ah dog leash is not dumb. not but No, no, no, no. This was dumb because it it like I really should not have had it because it was not, it it was ah from the magic shop in, on main street in Disneyland. So because there was a, you know, football magic shop there back in the day. And, um, it was this, it was a trick. It was, um, making smoke from your fingers, fingertips, which was this gel that you rubbed all over. Yeah. That does not seem like something they should have sold for sure. Yeah. And so, so, you know, I was like seven or eight years old and I, and I was like, Hey, this is cool. And so I was doing it, but then of course you get all this, you know,
00:37:32
Speaker
gross gel over your fingers, which was just like messing up my clothes and everything. And it was, it was not a good idea, but I remembered it and it was cool at the time. In retrospect, I'm glad that it's not a thing that existed for my kid because I would have been horrified and I'm sure my parents were horrified that I had bought this thing and they were like, Oh, great. He just wrecked, you know, three of his shirts on this trip. i I also remember, too, do you remember the Pirates of the Caribbean? They used to have like the real the metal cap guns that you could get. Yeah, those are awesome, too. I have one of those. those yeah and That that thing was so cool because it was like real metal. It was like heavy and like, yeah. And yeah. And and you got the good caps that like were very loud. Yeah, they were. Oh, those are the best. Yeah. So things they don't sell anymore, unfortunately, i still not as good as the the disc shooting thing.
00:38:25
Speaker
That was still probably my favorite toy. The disc shooting gun was probably my favorite toy ever. but That was just the best. I mean, how many eyes could have been put out? Who knows? but i I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tank that shot like these thick plastic pizzas out. yeah And they were like super thick and heavy. And if you shot them at somebody and hit them, it would hurt. It like so probably could take an eye out. I'll even take you one further. Remember crossbows? Does anyone remember crossbows and catapults? Definitely after Tom probably made you Trevor though.
00:38:58
Speaker
It was a game, right? like Yeah, but you would build a castle, and then you have like these rubber band launchers that like there was a catapult and a crossbow. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. But like obviously, you know not just one rubber band, but 10 rubber bands on the thing. And I remember we used to play in the kitchen. That thing messed you up. like If you got hit with that, it was a wrap. You weren't supposed to put your face by the castle.
00:39:26
Speaker
No, you were not. no But then again, we had, you know, lawn darts too. So there's that. one Yes. Yeah. like we I had a set of lawn darts and I i think lawn darts are outlawed by Tom's age. I feel like though they were gone. Yeah. They did. allo so was it Was it the weighted ones? or yeah i know it was Yeah, the ones that were like that super hard plastic yellow and red and just it would come down with such a force because like it slid the metal part slid on it. So like when you threw them, it wasn't even like it was just coming down with regular force. It was like
00:39:58
Speaker
a dropping piston like in the air. Those things were crazy. But what I was talking about is that they they eventually changed it where the, ah instead of having the spear on the end, it was like a curved weight. No, we had the spear. Well, I was more asking this towards Tom. I had the spear ones. I i remember the spear ones. and i remember But here's the question. Did you have the ones that the metal piece on it moved to bring it down faster and harder or were they just one piece?
00:40:25
Speaker
It was just a one piece that I had the ones, like I said, where you threw them up and you hear clicks, it would hit the top and then on its way down, click, it would come down and nothing came down with the force. Who thought that was a good idea? Oh, I had so much fun with them. I'm not going to lie. Like I really did. Oh, my gosh. that I enjoy this conversation. I just do because it's like those old toys were crazy. okay let bow arrows like You can just get bow and arrows everywhere. remember i didn't know besne actually yeah yeah so I must have been like 11 and I'm just like going to my friend's house. It was like across like you know not on my street, but the next street over and like I'm walking in a cop is like, yo, what are you doing? And I'm like, what do you mean?
00:41:08
Speaker
going to my friend's house, go shoot bow and arrows. He's like, no, he can't just be taking bow and arrows all over the place. And I'm like, I don't understand. I'm 11, dude. I don't know. I just got this thing. You know, I want to shoot bow and arrows with my friend. I mean, I used to do archery when I was at Boy Scout camp, you know, and I was really bad at it. So I mean, I did that too. But again, that was at Scout's camp. It was at Scout's camp. Yeah. Yeah. Like it wasn't just, you know, shooting at your friends.
00:41:37
Speaker
These kids at nowadays with their bows and arrows. you know Yeah, I want to put this one out here to our listeners. I want to see in the group. like So specifically, you know, we just talked about some weird stuff that we encountered at Disney as kids. There's got to be other stuff that we missed. I want to hear what the weirdest souvenir you had or saw at Disney was like from yeah years ago, because there's got to be some good ones out there.
00:42:05
Speaker
Oh, there has to be, right? there there after ah There's definitely some good ones. um also you know There were still dangerous things around when I was younger, though too, because i I was remembering, too, there was a oh gosh it was called creepy crawlers where it was like the boy's version of the Easy Bake Oven and you put these metal things. They weren't dangerous, though. Yeah, they were. You burn yourself on those metal things really badly, which I did. It's like the old Easy Bake Ovens that were just like straight metal. rollers i like them yeah but Yeah, I mean, I don't know. that That's not a, that's not a lawn dart though, my friend. No, but you can burn yourself though. You definitely could burn yourself. Even though it was just a light bulb. You might get a little boo boo and a little bit of A and D on it, but it was no lawn dart. That's fair. I mean, you're not going to believe it's a whole different level. Yeah. No, you're right. You're right. Anyway, let's, let's do our ad and then we'll talk about some other stuff. Okay.
00:42:54
Speaker
Alright, so the sponsor of this episode is the DVC Rental Store. The DVC Rental Store, a world of DVC company, offers magical vacations at incredible value, save up to 60% off retail rates 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. And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points.
00:43:17
Speaker
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00:43:29
Speaker
All right, i I know I keep putting stuff about the Disney treasure on here, but I'm going on it, so I feel like I need to continue talking about it. That's fine. I still have to make, I told my wife, like, we got a call and book our 10%. Like, we got to do that. Like, we have 10% off, we got to book. The question that I have is before we even delve into this, can I just walk that? Like, can I book my reservation and then just change it to further in the future? I think I can, right? I don't know. That's a good question.
00:43:57
Speaker
I think so. It's funny you're saying this, ah Damon, because I was just saying to my wife today, we're like ah like six months out from our cruise, right?
Disney Cruise Planning Intricacies
00:44:07
Speaker
And I know nothing. like I know' so you know so much about parks and stuff, and the cruise is I am just completely clueless on, right? So I'm like, she's like, well, when do we have to book like our excursions? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know anything. like When are you going again? ah May. Okay.
00:44:24
Speaker
So, I mean, we still have a lot. I did look it up, obviously, but I... Yeah, we're going in July and we're already booking our excursions. Are you really? You got to get on that, man. Yeah. 50% off. Oh, I left it open. It said 75 days out. No? Am I wrong about that? We're going to Royal Caribbean, so that's the... Okay, well, yeah. Yeah. No, Disney said 75 days out for first record. Okay. That's what I saw anyway. I mean, but I don't have any status either, so... Yes. I have to wait. That's true. You're one of the plebes. Yes, I am. I know. We actually just got lucky. I was looking at our reservation and we had to waitlist the earlier dinner seating because our kids go to bed at seven o'clock. We had the later seating for dinner and I was like, my daughter's not waiting till eight o'clock to eat dinner. That's not happening.
00:45:06
Speaker
it does Yeah, I mean, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day because there's food at any second of the day, yeah especially for her. Yeah, like I agree. We do the early one as well because dude I'm not trying to like sit through a show and like load up on popcorn. like I at least got to get like some of my money's worth out of this. Well, well we we had to wait list it though and I just was happy that we got it because I was worried that we weren't going to get it. um but you know so the treasure I feel like most people want that.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I would think so. Right. for Because most, most kids, you know, younger kids are, are want the earlier ones. Older parents, for yeah older parents want the five 45, uh, early bird special. Uh, get it done quickly. Uh, so, so the treasure, ah but by the way, did you, as somebody posted this in the discord, did we talk about this, uh, how the treasure picked up some people that were yeah like, saw that, oh see it in the discord, but I saw it. Yeah. Yeah. The first.
00:46:02
Speaker
the first guests were a boat that was sinking. Treasure happened to be out. Yeah. Yeah. There was a boat that was sinking and they and they went and rescued the the people from it. and And those people got the first, I guess the first ride on the treasure, which is kind of crazy to think about actually. It would be weird to get picked up on a cruise ship that's like not in service yet. like Because It's not like there would be... They're not having a sit down dinner. you're just Yeah, exactly. like there's there's But there's there's like nobody, like, like there would not be anybody on it besides maybe some of the staff, right? Like that would just be... And they're also probably still building it, by the way, because like the last, the Wish, like you can watch that. There's a whole thing on building the Wish on the on ah on Disney Plus, and they were still building that thing all the way up until when they had the first guests on, and even then they were still doing stuff.
00:46:55
Speaker
So there was probably a lot of construction going on while those people came on board. It was probably pretty surreal, I would think. um yeah But the other thing, i' you know I know one of the things that that is exciting about the Disney ships is that is the ah the the horns, right? The ship horns do songs, and and this one actually all has unique songs, including Grim Grinning Ghosts, which I really want to hear a horned version of that. I i haven't heard it out there yet. I've heard a couple of the new ones, but like I heard, um ah gosh, i saw the whole New World's one I heard. I think I might have heard Coco because there was
00:47:28
Speaker
People have been taking videos of of them doing this and posting it on the internet, so it's it's out there. But I just, you know, i'm I'm so excited for this one just because of all the Disney Park stuff that's on there, you know? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. And you you know there will be a YouTube video somewhere shortly. Oh, sure. Yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
I'm sure. but um so yeah so this is ah i mean The big news I guess here is that the the treasure is now at its home port at Port Canaveral. um It's funny because my mom just got off a cruise, probably her seventh one for the year. They go on nonstop cruises. um and That's the dream, man. That's the retirement dream.
00:48:04
Speaker
That's all you gotta, you just get down to Florida, be like an hour and a half away from Port Canaveral or Tampa. I can't live in Florida, dude. It's like a different country there. I know. I know. And it's hot. North Carolina's hot. Florida is... Well, you know what it is too.
00:48:19
Speaker
that like there's been too many weather things that I'm not trying to deal with on the regs, you know, like they're just not like it's not like it's every 10 years, it's like every year, like, I'm not trying to go through that you want to build me a bunker? Sure, maybe and I can, you know, when all these storms come by, but that would be too stressful for me, I feel like i Yeah, I could see that I could understand that well, I mean we're not that far here But me so maybe you can you know start doing because like I did on Royal Caribbean You know we went to the casino a little bit and we gambled enough that they we have free cruises now And that's what my parents do they get free cruises all the time and so they just they just go on free cruises constantly and I mean yes, there are they are gambling, but they usually yeah I feel like it would still it would turn to the same thing as like I kind of feel about Disney you know like how many cruises can I go on before I'm just like I
00:49:06
Speaker
That's enough. Yeah. And, and, and Mike Tyson taught us, you know, a valuable lesson, like are we really doing this? No, but you're not doing as much. Yeah. And I feel like fair. Let's stop there for the No, I feel like I'm going to go on like these cruises, right? And like all these new ships like the Royal Caribbean and things like that have like, oh, they got a zip line, they got this, they got that, they got all these like adventurous things to do. And like, I'm not going to be doing that sort of craziness. And if you're not doing all the crazy new things that happen, like the slide that goes down the whole ship, you seen that on Royal Caribbean? Oh, yeah. i've it this Like that's awesome, right? Like I'm definitely doing that. But like,
00:49:46
Speaker
Am I doing it? I'm wondering how many muscles in my back are going to be out of whack when I come out the other end. That's what I'm saying. I just don't know the answer to that. I appreciate your parents cruising all the time, but I don't know if I would do that. Their whole thing is just relaxing and drinking and eating. That's their whole thing that they'd like to do. Yeah, but I can kind of do that at my house though.
00:50:08
Speaker
You can, but then you've got to make the food for yourself there. Or you can go out to a restaurant. It's not like there's not a million restaurants. I mean, listen, I like their thought process because I've often thought about this, but I feel like I could only do it for so long before I'm tapped out. And I don't think, I mean, how long have they been doing like cruises for?
00:50:26
Speaker
A long time. Honestly, they never invite us on cruises. They just go by themselves all the time. um i will but They go with their own friends, right? Yeah. Obviously. ah But no, they've been going on cruises for a long time here. ah But I mean, it's really ramped up. How many cruises do you think they've been on? Like 50? I can tell you this. They have the highest status level that Royal Caribbean has.
00:50:49
Speaker
Okay. That's what I'm saying, though, Rachel. They're going to go on the new ship that I'm going on, right? Yeah. now At some point. I mean, they're not hopping on the abyss. like they Those are the things that, again, like when I'm retired, I'm not playing basketball. like you know like What am I doing? like i'm The lame rider thing? Yeah. I don't know about that. I can see you doing that, Damon. Have you tried that? No. No. Certain things like I just can't do. right Now, I can't do the flow, right? And plus, my hip is still jacked up. Like, I think I'm on a short list to some issues. So, yeah, I don't think I could do that. That's a little, like, the embarrassment level of that is just a little too high for me. Oh, my wife and I sat and watched people just, like, wipe out on that thing for a good hour when we were on the ship. Yeah, I know. Like, we literally just sat there and watched people fall on their face. It was great.
00:51:40
Speaker
I think my kids will try, but like that's fine. Because now that they're in college, like if they you know break a wrist, it's the summer. like It's not affecting like sports, I feel like. but yeah yeah Yeah, I don't know. that's That's the only thing I worry about cruises, but we'll see. I think if we're going to go, we're going to go in the treasure too. I feel like I just have to book it and see if I can just walk it out after, but I need my 10%, man.
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah, I get it, I get it. I think that's, you know, it's it's nice that the the treasure has the longer itineraries, because I feel like some of those, like some of the new boats, they do very short itineraries. And this one, you know, mine cruises a seven night. I love the seven night, but my little son hates it. He just is like, I'm too long away from home. I don't like it. It gets boring. like no they just They just have the life and they just don't realize, yeah you know, what they haven't had a job yet.
00:52:30
Speaker
Because they've only done sports, right? So like, they've had sports has been the job. And listen, again, I know people don't agree with this. But I'm telling you, my kids couldn't have made in four years of high school, what they got to go play sports and academics, that you just you're not making it, you're not making that much money. So at the end of the day, I've been good with them, you know, hey, if you get good grades, and you're playing a sport, don't worry about a job. But it also then flips around, right? Where you're like, hey, we're gonna have seven days of just relaxing.
00:52:59
Speaker
Well, that's stupid. and what What do you mean that's stupid? The whole thing is we're going to the Grove for six days, right? Six days of and they're like, what are we doing? I go, nothing. What do you mean nothing? We're just we're just hanging out. like That's all we're doing. like We're just hanging out. Nothing is something. Yeah, exactly. What was that a water slide, man? Yeah, enjoy.
00:53:24
Speaker
exactly I have this, I mean, i I have a conversation sometimes with my six year old about this, but it doesn't ah necessarily compute in her brain. I'm like, sometimes it's good to just like do nothing and be bored and it's okay. Like we can do that. And she's just like, what do you mean? We always have to be doing a thing, you know? And it's... it's You should have time to change that, Tom.
00:53:45
Speaker
I'm trying cause for me i've tried I'm going to that with my son right now actually it's the same thing where he's like like he he's been used to like. While we're going somewhere we're doing something and it's like even the last couple of months we actually haven't had.
Managing Downtime and Retro Games
00:54:03
Speaker
we've had things going on, but there's been gaps in between. And usually those gaps would be filled with like, you know, Oh, we we got to run errands or whatever. And we're like, no, we're just not doing anything. And he's like, okay, but what are we doing? And I'm like, nothing. Like and just, we're actually just staying home. And he's like, Oh, um, okay what do I do? and he's and And then he's also, then yeah, the boredom sets in where he, he's had this issue where, um, you know, because he's a you know student and he doesn't have money,
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah, you know, he wants to, you know, his friends buy new video games and whatnot and he can't afford it because he doesn't have any money saved up. So, you know, then he's complaining because he's bored and I'm like, it's good that you're bored because then when it gets busy, you'll actually appreciate that, you know, you know, you you don't have to be entertained all the time.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, for sure. it's it's you know it's it's It's interesting, though, too, because, like, ah Damon, you can actually probably appreciate this. When I was in high school, if we were bored, we would just get in the car and go to the boardwalk and just walk the board. like You know like that's we would just go to the shore and walk the boardwalk. That's what all we would do.
00:55:10
Speaker
you know so for For me, like when we were bored, we would just go uptown. Well, first of all, I had a job. I had a job. i did i've yeah i mean That's the thing. I was a paper boy when I was so young. right I know it doesn't really exist anymore, but like that was like I get up every morning and all those papers, man. Just like the video game of your paper yeah off my Huffy bike. Yeah, I was rocking a Huffy and delivering papers. And then after that, like when I was 14, I was already working a job at a gift shop, like kind of like a Hallmark gift shop, but not you know Hallmark gift shop or like, you know, like an independent one or something. Yeah, but they sold fancier stuff. um yeah Royal Dalton stuff and things like that, right? That's you know what they kind of did, Waterford and things like that. And I worked there stock for like all through high school, man. And I swam. So I didn't really have too much free time. So I wasn't bored, but we would go uptown to hang out because you know we would that's where what we would do. We didn't have the boardwalk or anything. I was a half hour from the shore. so Yeah, we would also go to the mall. like Because remember, the mall was still a huge thing then.
00:56:15
Speaker
all round baby how yeah we hung out was the mall because it was caved yeah I mean, how many times did I play Gauntlet? I mean, playing playing Dragon's Lair was just like me throwing away money, I felt like. yeah And Gauntlet was truly the same thing when you think about it. Gauntlet was even worse because you could- Yeah, because youre and it didn't but your help your health was always ticking down. oh you never yeah Yeah, I mean, I've never went on one order. Saxon. Like, I mean, you want to go old school, right? Like, I mean, it's Pac-Man. I'd be playing Miss Pac-Man in Kmart. Like, that again, that's what we did. Spy Hunter. Spy Hunter was brilliant. What was the name of your arcade? I don't even remember. I quick tight i do remember that they're like, again, this is like just the mall was it, right? Like, and there was a McDonald's.
00:57:03
Speaker
Maybe it wasn't Kelly. I think it was Bradley's. I think it was Bradley's McDonald's, two computer stores. I wonder about Roy Rogers' damage. Did you ever read Roger's? Roy Rogers in that one. This was the small mall that you could like. Oh yeah. Today you were to tell your kids to go to this mall by themselves. It was like three main streets and nobody, no parent in their right mind would do that. But I would ride my bike there. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it was a different time.
00:57:26
Speaker
um I don't remember what the arcade was, but the coolest thing in the mall was they had this um fish store. And I've had i had fish for a long time until I realized there was just way too much work and effort, and I don't want to do that. But yeah it was made to look like a cave. So the outside of it was like you know all stuccoed up, and the inside was always dark. It was a literal cave. It was cold. It was like wet, because again, there's all these fish tanks.
00:57:49
Speaker
And that was probably the best part of them all. Um, but yeah, I don't remember the name of the arcade stuff. I remember mine because it was so, it was called laser illusions, which is like the most eighties name I can think of. i I don't think I've talked about this before, but when I was in high school for several years, I worked at a laser tag place slash arcade place called laser mania. Um, so. And that was my favorite job I ever had. Like, that was a good time, man. Like, working at an arcade and and also a laser tag place is awesome. Had so much fun doing that.
00:58:24
Speaker
I wish I thought that's the question. Of course it had skeeball. Yeah, that's good. Because most arcades did not have skeeball. Like in Trevor, of my time, mine did not. We probably had five or six. I didn't. Ours had skeeball. Yeah. oh no We didn't have skeeball. Ours was like this real skinny arcade, like jam packed. Oh, like like just the cabinets and cabinet games. Yeah. Cabinet games. And it was like, it was literally maybe like If you were playing on either side of it, it was just a straight rectangle, right? And a skinny rectangle. So, like, there would be just enough to play a game on each side, and, like, one person walked through the middle. That was it. That tight. Wow. Oh, it was tight. Yeah, and it was packed. Geez. It was fat. Yeah, I know. That's not helping. Oh, iKari Warriors. That was my jam. Really?
00:59:10
Speaker
Oh my goodness, that probably could be my favorite game like of that era. Yeah. Wow. I love that. Yeah, I never touched that one. That was. I loved it. You get the tank and you just think you're the man at that point. Like our game was real good. Now we're getting really.
00:59:26
Speaker
ah And you can't replicate that. That's the thing, like, that's one of those ones, like, so I have an arcade cabinet in my house, right? I've got like 8,000 billion games, right? But you can't replicate that because it had the turny things on. I mean, you could, but like, I would just be ridiculous amount of money for one game, right? Yeah, yeah you need a proper, like, deck that has all the different controller.
00:59:45
Speaker
types of those doesn't have that like I got a trackball I got everything else but those were just so unique that like dude you can't do it you know what I mean like you just can't do it it's like the Tron cabinet the Tron cabinet or Star Wars right Star Wars was fun I played that a lot ah was really good what really rails here before we go but what was the hule off the cruising into the what was that was a with battleships and you look through the viewfinder and it was like in that same vector graphics as star oh yeah yeah i know the one you're talking you know what i'm talking about right remember the name though but that was good too
01:00:20
Speaker
yeah anyway like let's talk about that Let's talk about Downtown Disney, because I'm not talking about anything else
Disney Treasure and Downtown Disney Excitement
01:00:27
Speaker
after that. okay Well, I also just want to mention, too, that they're going to be live streaming the christening of the Disney treasure, which I don't think they've done before. I'm actually going to watch it. I'm going to check it out. Because ah that's a because you're a nerd. You're a Disney nerd. That's ridiculous. I would never watch such a thing. I thought a christening didn't take very long, but I i don't know. I guess I've never seen a black person.
01:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, Disney likes to make a big deal out of everything. So, you know, that's fine. All right. You want to talk about this downtown Disney stuff? Might as well. I'm not talking about Disney Paris or food time garbage. So, yeah, let's let's.
01:01:00
Speaker
Oh, poor food. Well, that's fun sometimes got like five people that enjoy it. And that's it. No, that's not true at all. Maybe you can. The percentage is low though, in comparison. iling you We did a poll and the poll did not come back. 20 people like statistics are not applicable at 20 people out of the amount of people we have as listeners. I thought there were more, but you know.
01:01:21
Speaker
But that's listen, that's why we have the song. If you don't want to listen, then you cannot listen to the song. Exactly. It's actually perfect for me because it allows me to graciously leave and no one's like, where did Damon go? yeah no You know where the heck I went. Yeah, it's set it in the song. It's set it in the song, Stupid Food Time, I'm gone.
01:01:36
Speaker
Oh man. Okay. Well, so there's three new shops opening at, uh, Disneyland ah at a downtown Disney. So we talked about the Avengers reserve. So that one's opening on December 6th, which, uh, it looks pretty cool. Disneyland downtown. See, that sounds like why you want to talk about this Disneyland. Okay. Um, I think you forgot that downtown Disney is yeah no longer a thing in Florida.
01:02:06
Speaker
I also noticed, though, that it's is's talking about it has ah lighting effects, authentic film props and a media screen with a gaming demonstration station. Not entirely sure what that means, but probably where they can preview whatever the newest whatever because there's always Marvel games coming out of various types, right? So I'm sure that's going to be a place that they can do promos.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. And that D Lander shop is opening, which is like, you know, kind of looks, it kind of actually reminds me of, uh, what's the, what's the place, um, creation shop. It's just very like open, bright, like very, you know, newish looking kind of thing. I will say the sweet store looks pretty cool. the The sweet store is actually hitting a, it's hitting a nostalgic button for me of like how, like, okay. Yeah. D Lander, you're right. It it looks.
01:02:59
Speaker
I like creation shop, but there is also an aspect of it that you know people do say you know modern um modern shops are very plain now.
01:03:10
Speaker
like there's no There's like a coldness to it. Yeah. you know Yeah. Yeah. You know, somebody decided along the way, well, we're not going to spend money on, you know, investing in, you know, custom, whatever. It's going to be very, you know, straight lines and clean and whatever, which is fine. But, um, yeah, there's the sweet shop. There are Disney wonderful world of sweets looks.
01:03:30
Speaker
Um, yeah, it kind of looks like a, like a candy fever dream, which is what I want from a sweet shop when I walk into it. Yeah, I agree. So that's what you want. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like and and it reminds me of a lot of the, like the old shops, like, I mean, you know, back again, you know, talking about nostalgic stuff, you know, I remember it like in the nineties and early two thousands, like, you know, walking into some of these shops and like every shop was different and it they all had like.
01:03:57
Speaker
very unique feels to them, and this does have that feel. I hope that Disney does more of that, because I'm scrolling through the rest of these a lot. Oh, I'm like in the Parkside Market thing. I feel like the super retro look of that. It's kind of cool. Yeah. I mean, the outside looks nice, but I feel like it's kind of hitting that same note as Dlander that they're all almost looking the same.
01:04:25
Speaker
I don't know. This looks, this looks more unique to me because it's got that very retro kind of look to it. And I don't know. I guess it it does kind of look like a fifties bowling alley. It does. That's exactly what it looks like. It looks like a fifties bowling alley. Yeah. That's a, that's a good call out. Um, okay. All right. Yeah. You're right. I'll give that one a pass. You're right. It's, but you're right. The rest of them are not very inspired. I mean, they're very like, look, you know, yeah just new, new concept, you know,
01:04:51
Speaker
Just, yeah, it's just, it's, it's nothing exciting. I like, I like the Parkside Market though. I think it looks cool, but you're right though. The, the, the wonderful world of sweets is very cool. Yeah. And.
01:05:01
Speaker
um Yeah, so out outside of that... Oh, I wanted to talk about this Disneyland Paris ah nighttime show. Okay. Yeah, we can go into that. Because they got a new nighttime show debuting on January 10th, so not too far from now, called Disney Tales of Magic. ah This is, again, going to be another drone show that they have.
01:05:22
Speaker
it It kind of it's still it's starting to make me mad now that there's like they've had like five different drone shows at Disneyland Paris and it's just like, nah, we'll do it eventually at Disney World. I mean, I know they have the one at Disney Springs, but like, give me, you know, give me something in the parks.
01:05:39
Speaker
Um, and this also, there's going to be, uh, yeah, there's going to be drones. There's going to be, let's say, this a twenty this is, that by the way, this is like the castle show at the end of the night. This is a, this, they're kind of taking this the same way as like how the new happily ever after is where yeah there's the castle show, but then also the drones, but then the shops down main street as well are part of.
01:06:03
Speaker
the show as well. like ah it's It carries through the entire area, so it's not just <unk> not just look at the castle anymore. There's also these really cool fountains that are in front of ah at the castle at Disneyland Paris, and yeah they they also incorporate that stuff, um but they're also talking about they got lasers in there, they got super powerful lights, they got LED lighting packages, they got a new audio system, they got the drones.
01:06:27
Speaker
Like, I mean, this is a whole thing that they're doing. And like listen, we're going to get some of this kind of thing, you know, in the American parks, just feel like Disneyland Paris is doing a lot of cool stuff. Yeah, I can see where you you're getting that, you know, little bit of green eyed monster about it, because it's like,
01:06:45
Speaker
How come they get all the cool toys? i but But you know what? though like you You're a nighttime show guy, too, though. like you know you Yeah. Yeah. You guys are into this stuff, too. I know Damon doesn't care. But like my wife and I love them. And and I know you you and your wife like like the nighttime shows. So like i just for me, like I want the newest, coolest thing. And and no offense to happily ever after. like I'm not saying get rid of happily ever after. i you know It's a great show. And probably will last for a long time. But ah you know I want some drones. like Throw some drones in a happily ever after. You could do it.
01:07:15
Speaker
It wouldn't detract, you know? I mean, yeah, you know, they could start swapping out fireworks for drones, right? Oh, I don't go too far. I want fireworks. Oh, okay. there Yeah, there it is. I want in addition, my friend. and Got it. Okay. Yes. I want fireworks and drones. Yeah. I guess the thing is like, for me, it's, you know, you're right. i I would love to see all of these things as well, but I feel like I've,
01:07:41
Speaker
I've seen a lot more nighttime shows than you just because of the fact that I've been to East and West Coast, so I've gotten to experience a lot more different ones. And so like looking at this Paris one, I can see where it is definitely an amalgamation of a lot of different things, which is great that, you know, Disney is.
01:07:58
Speaker
You know that they're drawing on all of their their pool of tricks to make these nighttime shows and yeah i get. It's fair that you know it feels like well you know happy ever after was great but then when you see all the new stuff it's like.
01:08:12
Speaker
Well, what why don't they just do this again? It's like, well, I really actually don't want them to switch out happily ever after either because, because it's, yeah you know, I feel like these shows should have some runtime to them. Like it, cause if the, if the show is being interchanged every year, or every couple of years, they're never actually hits a point of, um, feeling nostalgia or feeling attachment to it. And, and it kind of,
01:08:41
Speaker
oddly it builds into like the, the memory building with your family, I feel like, yeah you know, when we found out that happily ever after was going away, like, you know, there was kind of a moment where where me and my wife and my son were like, we were sad because we're like, Oh, like,
01:08:56
Speaker
We really liked that show and we had good memories with that. And so I hope that, I hope Disney finds a place to fit these shows, but not at the price of uprooting all of their nighttime shows just because they've got drones. No, i'm I'm saying enhance it, make it better. That's all. Okay. Okay. Fair. I mean, but I, I, I know.
01:09:18
Speaker
I know what you're saying, but I also know that Disney sometimes takes the monkey pawish version, which is, yeah you you say, I want a better one. They go, okay, great. We don't, and they'll been, you know, the the current show and be like, yeah here's this new show. And you go, no, wait that no, that's not what I wanted. We liked it. We just wanted to cooler stuff too. You know, listen, I'm never going to get over the loss of illuminations. So let's be all honest here. Like I know, I know that that was like the longest running show ever, but at the same time I still thought it was great.
01:09:45
Speaker
OK, but the new one is really good. You have to. It is. i You know what? It is. I can't deny that. The new one is very good. I just there was you were talking about this, you know, it's like the memories you have with your family. Like there's memories my wife and I have of watching Illuminations together, that it's just something we will always remember. You know, and there's certain parts of Illuminations that, they you know, stick with you, too. But I know that wasn't everyone's favorite show. I know lots of people did not care for it. So.
01:10:13
Speaker
You know it yeah again i get it that you know you you had your moments with it but like. Luminous, I feel luminous it does improve on a lot of what a illumin illuminations was doing. And, and it also, they kind of, they finally got it right from harmonious to luminous, right? Like they, yeah, harmonious. but And you and I watched harmonious together and we liked it, but it just, the problem we don't, we talked about the problems here before where, you know, just the gigantic machinery sitting there all the time, the, the, the bad viewing angles. You don't have any of that with luminous luminous. You can watch it anywhere. Like it's, like it's supposed to be, you know,
01:10:50
Speaker
And the pacing of Luminous hits ah about like it feels good, right? Yeah. Which you know you know this new show in in Paris, I'm actually curious, you know they're as usual, they're they're selling it as, you know hey, this is all great and new and whatever. But I'm curious what people's actual reactions are going to be to it, because we don't actually hear a lot of like people talking about shows in the international parks.
01:11:16
Speaker
But I'll be curious to hear if this show is well received when it comes out, or if people are kind of like, eh, it's, you know, whatever, right? It's going to be amazing. But what if it's not? Like, that's what I'm wondering. What if it's like enchantment, where people are like, it's not that good? It's possible. Because I don't think drones by themselves don't make it good. Like, it's how they use it, right? No, it's true.
01:11:42
Speaker
Well, I think what we learned with enchantment was that the music is one of the most important things because I think people's main complaint about enchantment was that that that the the the music was not good, right? Yeah, it it didn't yeah it didn't hit. the like pace. I don't even know how to describe it like that. It's it's a pace. It's a rhythm or something of the show. Yeah. And it just felt weird because like we yeah we actually watched enchantment at and one of the after hours events.
01:12:14
Speaker
Oh, and yeah, actually, yeah, I don't I don't think I mentioned this one because yeah, we only went in February. They were showing enchantment as the because they had like happily ever after during regular time, but then they had the after hour show. And they're like during after hours, we're doing a special um screening of enchantment. And so we're like, cool. So we went and we were actually like pretty close to the castle. Like we were in the we were in the main hub and because there wasn't a lot of people around.
Disney Food Extravaganza
01:12:42
Speaker
And we watched it and we were like, ah Yeah, I can see why it didn't. It didn't get as much recognition as like the music needs to resonate, though, like that. Yeah, it just it didn't feel like anything like it was weird. It was it was almost like. um It was almost like watching like clips from. Do you remember when Wonderful World of Disney was on on Sundays or maybe maybe this was like and you know how like like certain weeks it was like they had like you know there's there's stuff that was big stuff that was going on but then like the in between weeks it was like they would just cobble together a bunch of you know shorts from yeah you know like hey this week we're like doing shorts about you know school or something it would be like a bunch of weird random stuff that you would never really see most of the time but
01:13:30
Speaker
The the actual show was not cohesive in any way. Like it just it was just like here's just a bunch of random stuff. And that's what enchantment felt like. Yeah, I get it. I get it. It was just a bunch of random stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I know you've got your button. No, no, no, I do. We just we just need to start wrapping up here. So I want to finish off with food time here. So let's do it. Fair enough. OK.
01:14:45
Speaker
You know, I mean, people need to tell us if they don't like it. if it Yeah, if you don't like it. I've not heard anybody say that they don't like food time. Yeah, and besides Damon, but it was i whatever. Anyway, so let's so let's let's talk some Disneyland. And I do want to move through through this fairly, of course, we could yeah so we can wrap this up. But um so we got the disney ah guide to the holidays at Disneyland Resort in 2024. And this is food that is going on from November 15th through January 6th. So you can go get this stuff now.
01:15:13
Speaker
So we'll talk about some new stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I guess we're going to be starting at alien pizza planet in Tomorrowland. Okay. Chicken al pastor pizza slice. Hmm. Seems, I mean, I guess it's kind of Christmasy, but it's just here's pizza, which, I mean, it's pizza planet. So fine. Yeah. I mean, it's pizza. It's like Christmasy colors. I guess it's like red and green, right? I mean, yeah. yeah All right. The alien reindeer macaroon.
01:15:43
Speaker
is pretty nice. i have That one's pretty cool. Yeah. It just you know looks nice. It's macaron filled with salted caramel buttercream, chocolate ganache, and brownie pieces. i mean that's That's good. it Sounds good. And it looks good. Like du it's that neon green. who yeah God knows what that's going to do to you. Lots of food color, but hey, that's all right. It's all good. Yeah. All right. Okay. And we're skipping past alcoholic drinks because it seems to be a lot, which is fine. What about this peppermint s'mores hot chocolate over at Cafe Daisy? Hot chocolate and peppermint syrup topped with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, crushed candy cane, and graham cracker dust.
01:16:23
Speaker
That's like all the Christmas in a that's just chocolate. Give me all of the Christmas. I mean, seriously, that but that that literally is like somebody went, well, what are all the things that you have at Christmas? And somebody started like listing off like I like, you know, marshmallows and graham crackers. yeah And they're like, good, you know, you know, throw them in the drink. I mean, it's probably good, you know.
01:16:49
Speaker
It just reminded me, last night I went out to like a dessert bar place and it was like a really cool like independent dessert. They make everything in-house and everything. and I had a cinnamon toast crunch milkshake. It was cinnamon toast crunch and cookie dough bits and also white chocolate syrup and they and and of course vanilla ice cream and they mix that. It was so good, dude. i have you know Listen, cinnamon toast crunch is like the best flavor ever for me. I love cinnamon toast crunch. Really? Yeah. No? Not not a fan?
01:17:18
Speaker
i Yeah, I've never really done Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It's not band my favorite. CT Crunch, it's the best. i was more I was more into Captain Crunch. Well, I like that. I can only eat so much of it because it destroys the roof of your mouth. It does destroy the roof of your mouth. That's true. Yeah. All right. Moving on. Yeah. Yeah. So, OK. Oh, yeah. This is an alcoholic drink over at Carnation. So let's let's yeah keep going past that. There is at Edelweiss snacks is a black forest bundt cake.
01:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, which is there even a picture of this? Oh yeah, it's okay. There's the bunk. Yeah. It's nice looking. It's, it's a chocolate sponge filled with cherries topped with chocolate ganache. Chantilly cream finished with a chocolate curls, cherries, and powdered sugar. It's a, it's a nice looking little cake.
01:18:03
Speaker
Right. It's a black forest cakes. I mean, it's got the cherries. I like black forest. I don't like black forest. Yeah. I just, I can't do the cherries. It's just really on my chocolate cake. I don't like, can we talk about over a galactic grill? Darth by peppermint just for the pain. Darth by peppermint. That is points for like creativity. Yeah. I don't even think there's a picture. Oh no, it is. It's there. Okay, I see it. It's layers of chocolate sponge, chocolate pudding, peppermint mousse finished with crunchy pearls, cookies and cream pieces, candy cane sprinkles, and Darth Vader and ah and darth fader and red lightsaber decorations. That's a whole lot. of Again, they dumped Christmas in ah in ah in a cup, but it yeah it sounds good. i love I love that they got the little chocolate Darth Vader helmet and it's kind of like staring out over the the edge.
01:18:57
Speaker
It's staring at us. Yeah. Just daring you to eat. Eat it. Oh boy. Okay. Moving on. Um, okay. Dude. Okay. Gibson girl has a peppermint cold brew float. Do I want cold brew in my float? Yeah. I don't know. I don't drink coffee. So I'm out. Yeah. It's so peppermint ice cream, Joffrey's cold brew, coffee, and whipped topping. I mean, that's, uh,
01:19:26
Speaker
Do we not call things whipped cream anymore? Is whipped topping just like is, do you have to, does that have to be a certain thing to call it whipped cream? I think it has to actually be made with cream. And I think a lot of whipped toppings now are not made with cream. So they have to call it whipped topping and not whipped cream. Okay. makes sense All right. yeah So yeah, that's okay. um Harbor galley has gingerbread cookies. ah They're just like, come get gingerbread cookies. And then also gingerbread whip topping for what though? just I just want a cup of the whip topping and I'm just going to dip my gingerbread cookies in it. You know what? That's that actually, i think i would do yeah, that sounds kind of great. Actually give me a cup and I'll just walk around with, you know, my gingerbread cookies and just, you know,
01:20:14
Speaker
Yeah, actually that does work. just This page is insanely long, my goodness. There's no way we can get through all these. okay look well let's ah so i you know let's Let's go to things that are just jumping out at you. all right that's is the they're okay I guess for anyone that is wanting to see what's on this list, you know well We'll make sure that there's or the link will be in the yeah the link will be in the show description. So yeah you can go look at these things yourself. But the one that jumps out to me right now is Jolly Holly, ba Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe, the chocolate, filled chocolate coffee loaf filled with chocolate cream and topped with crunch, chocolate shell and Mickey chocolate logo. Now, you know, I don't love coffee, but this kind of looks good to me, even though it just looks like a chocolate mound, you but it's chocolate. So I'm in.
01:21:05
Speaker
And then also cookies and cream cheesecake too. Yeah. Um, yeah, I was going to say the cookies and cream cheesecake looks good. The, the disappointment again is the, the Mickey shaped cookie, which, you know, shortbread cookie with white chalk and holiday sprinkles. And then they put the, uh, the Mickey mouse wafer printed head. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Just, I don't, I don't feel that I like, I i mean, yeah.
01:21:34
Speaker
Okay. um All right. We got to go down now to the Plaza Inn. Yeah. Okay. there' There's a couple of different cakes here. Which one is getting your attention? I'm not a big gingerbread fan, but I feel like the gingerbread one is the one that's jumping out. Gingerbread cake with cream cheese filling and gingerbread crunch finish with buttercream glaze and a chocolate gingerbread person on the top.
01:21:58
Speaker
I mean, sounds kind of good. There's a lot of gingerbread going on there, but yeah, I mean, the peppermint cake sounds good too, actually. So for me, yeah, the the peppermint cake is actually the one that I want. I like i do really like good peppermint your peppermint dessert kind of kind of things. And so this is yeah white cake soaked in peppermint simple syrup layered with chocolate ganache, peppermint mousse, peppermint crunch, and finish with buttercream holiday sprinkles and mint candy. like that is You're going to feel like you brushed your teeth. That's the problem. Yeah. But I like that. Like that's that sounds like some good peppermint. You know what? Like I don't i I never understood that. Like I I know if it gets too minty, it could taste like toothpaste. But like I like mint, you know, mint chocolate chip ice cream. Like, you know, I i like the minty. Yeah. It's not for everybody. And I get that. And but yeah, that this looks like a really good peppermint cake to me. Like that would be. Yeah. That would be my go to at Plaza Inn for sure.
01:22:56
Speaker
I'm skipping down to refreshment corner here just because to talk about the monstrosity that's on my screen right now. Santa's Vacation Sausage Potato. It's ah it's a full on baked potato with a sausage in it with pickled pineapple and teriyaki sauce topped with mac and egg salad on a baked potato. What is going on there? Like I don't want this, but I'm just looking at it and I'm A, what does this have anything to do with Christmas? And B,
01:23:27
Speaker
How do you even eat that? Well, OK. Here's here's some mental gymnastics for you because they're calling it Santa's vacation. Sausage potato is that they're they're talking about, you know, whenever you hear about Santa being on vacation, he's always traveling somewhere tropical. OK, so hence they threw in the the pineapple in the teriyaki. And I'm guessing because he's on vacation, he's not thinking about what he's eating. So he's just dumping everything on a baked potato.
01:23:56
Speaker
That's what I think. You got to give them an A plus for creativity here, right? I mean, because this is the nuttiest thing I think I've ever seen. I mean, that is a meal like like that. yeah That thing is a meal by itself. It's a full on baked potato with a sausage in it. And there's also like max. sal i They're calling it max salad. I'm guessing they mean macaroni salad. But like, yeah dude, like it's just not going to sell it and and pineapple and like Wow. Like I, yeah. Yeah. I just can't even figure out who would eat this. It's it's a lot, dude. It's it's a lot.
01:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, that's ah yeah. Who's, if someone buys that, let me know. Oh, there's another baked potato thing further down too. What is it? Did Disney just buy like a, you know, bulk potatoes and they're like, we gotta get rid of all these potatoes. Oh, is this the holiday beef dinner potato at Troubadour tavern? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. So, so hey, if a sausage on a potato is not your thing, you can get sliced tri-tip steak, spinach artichoke dip, demi-glaze, and crispy onions on your potato. Spinach artichoke dip on top of it? Like what is happening here?
01:25:09
Speaker
Oh my gosh. This is nuts. I love it. Yeah. i yeah yeah then Somebody said we're doing potatoes this year. Yeah. It's the year of the potato that we throw random stuff into. Oh man. Okay. That's crazy. Great.
01:25:26
Speaker
What else we got here? got We got churros, lots of... Oh, hey, there's there's peppermint chocolate... or Sorry, there there's churros with holiday peppermint chocolate dipping sauce. and Okay. Actually, I don't know because churros are kind of good on their own. I don't know that you need fancy dipping sauces with it. Yeah.
01:25:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they've been doing that though, right? Where they've been doing the dipping sauces a lot lately. um ah There's so many weird things going on. All right. like okay i think we kind of cut These are all at Disneyland proper and now i'm I'm moving down into California Adventure to see what's going on. Yeah, let's let's talk about some California Adventure here.
01:26:05
Speaker
I'm not, let's see, we gotta find something here. Christmas tree pull apart sourdough bread at Add to Cast Cafe. That looks good. That looks delicious. Yeah, I love sourdough. Here's a whole bunch of sourdough and you're just going to eat it. Just eat some sourdough. You want a big thing of sourdough? Here it is.
01:26:21
Speaker
And we, okay. You can also get candy cane sourdough bread. okay That's weird, but it's like, Hey, how can we ruin sourdough bread? Let's throw candy canes in them. so I don't know. Okay. And then that's weird. Okay. A little bit further down the corn dog castle. They're all advertising peppermint, hot chocolate and pumpkin spice, hot chocolate, which I'm like, but I guess, you know, you wouldn't expect that at the corn dog castle, but yeah.
01:26:49
Speaker
OK, I guess that's technically new.
01:26:53
Speaker
but so you can like Like you can get peppermint hot chocolate pretty much anywhere. That's true. That's true. All right. um What else is there? Maybe we should move on from Disneyland and hop over to Epcot. You think so? Yeah. Sorry, I just want to check out V8 or Flo's V8 cafe real quick, because usually they have good stuff. Hatch Chili Burger? No.
01:27:19
Speaker
and then Oh, a bunch of alcohol. Okay. Yep. All right. Let's move over to EPCOT. Let's go to EPCOT. And the good thing about EPCOT is, you know, there's, there's a lot of stuff coming back, so there's not as much new stuff to talk about. We did talk last week about the Spaceship Earth Tiled Gingerbread Triangle, which in this picture looks burnt to a crisp to me, but that's maybe not the case. Maybe it's just the, yeah.
01:27:40
Speaker
I think it's because it looks like there's chocolate on the bottom. It's a lot darker than it is. Yeah, that could be it. I mean, don't get me wrong. It looks good. You can get your triangles. You can get your gingerbread triangles. Eat yourself a piece of spaceship earth, you know, go do that. traditional gingerbread triangles.
01:27:59
Speaker
and ah Over at Mexico, they've got a empanada, chicken empanada, right? So fried tortilla filled with chipotle chicken and potatoes, topped with more potatoes again, ah except on the other coast, of course. So topped with chili roa salsa, crema mexicana, and queso fresco, looks pretty good, you know? Yeah, and then there's also, what is it, tamale? Yeah. Shredded pork and corn masa, okay.
01:28:28
Speaker
I see I always associate the holidays with sweet stuff, you know, like that's we mostly been talking about dessert stuff. So now we're talking about like actual savory stuff, you know. Yes. OK, this is OK. I'm not sure what to make of this one. Exo fried rice. Yeah, which ah so why this is this number one? Yeah. Yeah. This is, you know, Shanghai holiday kitchen.
01:28:55
Speaker
um Chinese sausage, onion, green onion, mushroom, egg, and house-made Hong Kong XO chili sauce. Okay? Okay. I'm not i'm confused, but curious.
01:29:07
Speaker
um Oh, hey, there's more potatoes at a refreshment outpost. I'm telling you, man, they Disney bought like many truckloads of potatoes and like, we got to do something with all these potatoes. so and Actually, so these are sweet potatoes. This OK, that's different here. OK, that's fine. There's not a lot of new stuff, actually. it's It's mostly stuff returning, which is interesting because, you know, Disneyland half the stuff was new, you know, and here once again getting a raw deal. I wonder if maybe they're feeling that, you know, there's there's a lot of
01:29:39
Speaker
established favorites at Epcot for the holiday menu stuff, so just not messing with it this year. I get it. that Why they maybe wouldn't want to change things because you know there there are some classic ah holiday things that people really like. So yeah, I could see that. <unk> just I just went all the way down to France here and I'm looking at this chocolate fudge Christmas log with a caramel cream center. That's a new thing and I want it.
01:30:01
Speaker
okay well So I, wait, do France, you skipped past the the Japan pavilion. Yeah, well, of course I did. Okay, but then there's a mochi donut wrap. Oh, okay. Mochi donut wrap. All right. So so it's a it served with strawberries, whipped cream, strawberry sauce, sweet red beans wrapped with, is that Yuhi's rice cake sheet? So it's- Good for you for trying to pronounce that because I was not going to try.
01:30:29
Speaker
But yeah, so so mochi is very like, yeah, it's like it would be like a chewy donut, which I don't think is a bad thing because I do like mochi. But I know you like much. Yeah. It's it's unfortunate that you skip past that because that sounds good.
01:30:45
Speaker
I'm okay with that. I feel good about it. All right. So I'm moving to France here with you now. I mean, you know, there's only one thing that I wanted to talk about there. That was the chocolate fudge Christmas. I'm not trying to pronounce any of these French words, by the way. That's not going to happen. Although you probably could, you know, as a Canadian. Bouch de Noel au chocolate et caramel. There you go. See? There you go.
01:31:09
Speaker
It's a Christmas log with Caramel Cream Center. It's and it's basic. but and And I have French-speaking friends that are probably going to yell at me for pronouncing it like that, but that's OK. Yeah, it's all good. now you know it's Nobody listens to Food Time according to Damon. All right, anything else? No, this hand and there's not a lot. i I'm disappointed Canada didn't put anything new on that. the menu. Come on. oh wait What are they doing Canada? Get it together here. You know, uh, although the American pavilion is exactly the same as it was last year too. So, um, not a whole lot of new things there. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty much it. It's pretty much all the same stuff, which, you know, is a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. Right. Like some people might be like, said I, I feel like, you know, you know, even just looking through this menu again, it's, you know, there's a lot of well-established good holiday food here.
01:32:02
Speaker
So you know it's not that every year they have to reinvent it. in I feel like the reason why you're seeing a lot of it in California is that personally, for me, I cannot think of a lot of memorable food that I've had in California. um And also, to be fair, it's been a few years since I've been there. but You know it feels like they're trying to establish the same thing or that you know they're trying to find some. Some things that people will you know decide is popular but also yeah you know it's a different demographic. um you know that I feel like you know in California they they definitely like trying new and different things a lot more whereas in Florida it's.
01:32:45
Speaker
people kind of expect the same. I mean, yeah because you you know what I'm saying, right? no because yeah they can try so it could Because mostly locals go to Disneyland, right? Like yeah they can be experimental with this stuff and it doesn't matter. Whereas like you could put out a whole menu of weird stuff at Disney World and this family's taking their one and only trip of their lifetime to Disney World and now they they they have to deal with this weird stuff that nobody wants to eat, right? like And it Disney does,
01:33:13
Speaker
Disney World does do some of it, but just not as much, I feel like, as Disneyland goes out you know and does just crazy stuff, so. Yeah, I mean, it's, like I said, if it works, don't mess with it. It's kind of, it's it's a good take, I feel, because um like I'm of the same opinion that you know when I go back to Disney, they're they're I'm there to try new things, but there's also, like if I'm tired at the end of the day or if I'm just not feeling it, it's nice knowing that Like, Oh, I can always go here and get this
Listener Engagement and Show Wrap-Up
01:33:43
Speaker
thing. And it's consistent, right? Yeah, exactly. So yeah. Yeah, I get it. But yeah, I guess I was expecting, I guess, you know, at least for the boost tap, like, you know, for them to maybe offer, you know, maybe one little new thing. But yeah, a lot of the boosts this year are just not like they're just, yeah, here's our menu. And, and that's it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, why don't we, why don't we wrap it up then? All right.
01:34:11
Speaker
Okay. Um, so yeah, I guess, you know, as usual, if you guys want to reach out to us, you can always find us at welcome on podcast at gmail.com. We do love getting your questions, you know, hearing your trip reports and, um, you know, just, you know, talking with you guys in general. So you can, you can always find us on through our email, uh, but you can also find us on social media as well. So you can find us on Facebook as welcome on podcast. You can find us on on YouTube as welcoming podcast. You can find us on Instagram as welcome home pics.
01:34:40
Speaker
Make sure if you're on Facebook, check out our group, Welcome Home Disney Waitlist, where we have lots of great conversations about stuff that we talked about on the show. People ask lots of good questions. You know, everyone's figuring out their Disney trips, figuring out, you know, what their next Thing is that they're gonna be doing it Disney and you know it's nice to have a group where you can go and you know talk with other people and share experiences and and all that kind of stuff so you know I said check out the group and hopefully it's it's somewhere that you want to hang out to and talk Disney stuff with us and
01:35:14
Speaker
um Also, if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.welcomeonpodcast.com. and You can check out our different merch for um you know your next trip or maybe if you got you know somebody who listens to the show, you want to get them a ah Christmas gift, you know hey, we we can we can help you out there. so um Yeah, absolutely. Please go have a look at the store. and Also, you can check out our Patreon, which is patreon dot.com slash welcome on pod. And we got ah all of our um different levels of Patreon listener support on there, which get exclusive merch that you can't get on the store. And also our Patreon listeners get access to the Discord, which is another place that we talk about stuff on the show and, you know, have these conversations, things like the, you know, the the you mentioned earlier about the ah the cruise ship, you know, picking up
01:36:03
Speaker
People that were in distress, that was actually a conversation on the discord. So if you want to get into those kinds of conversations, you know, check out the Patreon. Last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or you know any anywhere where you can actually leave us a review or leave us a number of stars or thumbs up or whatever, um you know leave us a review, um you know rate the show. It does help more people find the show and it does you know it it helps us be more visible and you know find more people that
01:36:37
Speaker
that might wanna listen to the show and also if you're on iTunes, leave it or write us a review because we do like hearing what you guys think about the show. you that That's good to know too and I guess, now hey, if if food time's not good, I would hope that people would be telling us in the... Yeah, I mean the last iTunes review we got was I need more food time in my life So and then it's not a Tom burner account. So It wasn't Tom burner 5301. It's Tom 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Yes this no
01:37:09
Speaker
um ah don't forget ah Besides leaving us a review, don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home podcast so you'll be reminded every time we release a new episode. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Citrus, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music. Just about any podcast app out there you can find us. and In fact, if there's one you want to listen to us on and you can't find us, let me know and I'll add us. like We want to be everywhere. so Let us know if there's ah some other place you want to hear us that you can't right now. So just a reminder to our listeners, welcome home podcast is for entertainment only. We are not played by the Walt Disney Company. As such, all opinions we expressed on the show are our own. So please consult a DVC representative or cast member for more information about anything we talked about today. Huge thank you to our sponsors over at a DVC rental store. And of course, world of DVC for continuing to support the show over the years. Please check them out for any of 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.
01:38:03
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.