Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 350: More Lakeshore Lodge, Halfway to Halloween & Disney Super App
786 Plays12 days ago
On This Episode
Tom makes a correction from the last episode and discusses a recent experience with drones. New concept art for the upcoming Lakeshore Lodge reveals details about the resort's pool, boat dock, and waterfront restaurant. Disney Vacation Club announces new spring incentives for 2026, including free park tickets for Disneyland Hotel purchases. Walt Disney World will add a fourth vessel named the Meg Gilbert Crofton to its historic ferry boat fleet. Imagineers provide updates on the Tropical Americas expansion at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, including details for the new Encanto-themed boat ride. The guys celebrate the halfway mark to Halloween with a reveal of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates and a first look at new seasonal merchandise. A final wave of Star Wars Day products arrives at the Disney Store and theme parks. The guys recklessly speculate on reports of a Disney "super app" digital hub, technical details for the new Space Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland, and rumors surrounding the availability of MagicBand+ at the Disneyland Resort.
Podcast Sponsors
- DVC Resale Market - #1 DVC Reseller in the World
- DVC Rental Store - Largest and fastest-growing Disney Vacation Club rental service in the US
- Monera Financial - #1 in DVC Financing
- Welcome Home Patreon - Support the Show through Patreon and get exclusive perks!
Episode Links
- New WDW Ferry
- Tropical Americas Update
- Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party Details
- Halloween Merch
- More Star Wars Merch
Contact the show
- Call or text the show with your DVC tips and trip reports at (833) WHP-TIPS and we may play them on the show!
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Host Greetings
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of welcome home is brought to you by DVC Resale Market. Thank you for joining us on episode 350 of welcome home a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast. I'm Tom here with Trevor. How's going Trevor?
00:00:41
Speaker
Pretty good. How are you? Oh, man, it's been a week.
Weather Anecdotes and Discussion
00:00:45
Speaker
So I'm going to start off here, Trevor, with a... I mean, how are you doing? to Maybe I should say ask... me i'm a I'm good. we We actually have spring. And you know I i forgot to... ah I should have put this in the Discord, but yeah um i was I was walking out to my mailbox and one of the neighbor's kids was drawing on the... ah on their they're using sidewalk chalk sidewalk chalk on the driveway right and they they wrote very nicely happy spring ah and then then underneath they put a maybe and they started drawing snowflakes and i'm like i i should put it in the discord later maybe because it's like that's where i'm at right now is that i'm feeling good but in the back of my head i'm like
00:01:29
Speaker
we'll We'll see if I'm drawn back into fifth winter or not. Fifth winter? Yeah. Yeah, we call it we we call it ah we we call this time of year fall spring around here because we get we'll get like 85-degree days, and then it'll be like 40 the next day. Like last night, it was like 40 degrees. So like it's all over the place. But yeah. um But yeah all in all, I mean, I'm feeling pretty good. And and I will say this. ah I think one thing that helps is that there there's been a lot of Disney news this week, which is and yeah like I know we have a lot to talk about on the show. so
Streaming Services and Media Preferences
00:02:01
Speaker
yeah. Yeah, well, before we do that, though, I need to go back to last week because I made a mistake. And I actually so I listen, I know I we talk about this a lot where I don't I don't edit a lot out of the show.
00:02:13
Speaker
The one thing I do edit out of the show is when we make mistakes or give out like incorrect information. i'm I'm never trying to give out incorrect information. So there are times that I are things are said on the show. And then later I'm like, you know, I like like make a note of a certain thing, like check later, you know, and then I check and then I'm like, oh, yeah, that was wrong.
00:02:30
Speaker
This was not one of those things. This was the thing that I realized afterwards ah because I had said on the show last week that Hoppers was coming to Disney Plus on the 28th. So this was my mistake because Hoppers was not on Disney Plus. It was on streaming where you could rent it or buy it.
00:02:46
Speaker
Not on Disney Plus. Yeah. It was on everything else but Disney+. I know. I know. And so what happened, and just to take it, you know, I, and I do this a lot. I'm sure a lot of people do this lot where, especially for like non-important news like this, you just sometimes read the headline, right? Like I don't need to go read an article about Hopper's Company streaming. It says Hopper's Company streaming on April 20th. And I'm like, oh, okay, streaming. And I forgot that we have, there's a progression to this, you know? Yeah. But to be fair, just just by that statement of Hopper coming to streaming, the fact that it's a Disney show immediately assume, oh, that means Disney Plus. Yeah. Like, I get that. Right. Yeah. And I just didn't I didn't make that connection. And then funny enough, I, you know, turn my TV on and there was, you know, like a little advertisement saying, oh, Hopper's on streaming now. So was like, oh, maybe watch it. And then I pop it on and it brings me over to rent it. And I was like, wait a second. And then I went to Disney Plus. like, wait, why are they not promoting hoppers anywhere? And was like, oh, no. So I actually went back and removed it from the episode. But most people have the show on automatic downloads. So they heard the original version that I put out where I gave out the incorrect information. So I just want to acknowledge that it was wrong information.
00:03:53
Speaker
I'm sure it will be on Disney Plus in the next couple months here. um But you know for now, you can pay a whole bunch of money to either buy it on digital or rent it. so Yeah. Which... It's kind of an interesting thing that like that. that Yeah.
00:04:06
Speaker
I get what Disney is doing because it actually it actually makes the most sense if you think about it. that they They do it with everything. It's like common, right? So it's it's it's honestly the same progression as what happened back when cable TV was more prevalent is that, you know, things would come out in theaters and then it would come to DVD and then and then eventually it would end up on TV. And i and but I think what's happening now is they're doing theaters to digital rental and and then And then Disney Plus is last because that's like, you're paying a flat rate just to, you know, watch whatever you want. So, I mean, yeah, it makes sense that it's the last thing that it'll come to. My only thing with the the whole digital DVD rental thing is, is that one, it's not Blockbuster. I mean, Sorry, I'm I'm a 90s kid, you know, you know, saying to me like, oh, you can digitally rent this. It's like, but I can just watch it like, you know, the the whole you can rent this for 48 hours thing on a digital platform. It feels very like, yeah, yeah to me, I don't like it. You can just wait a month or two and yeah be available with something you already pay for. and But but I think the difference is for me is that, you know, and not to say like we we have rented digital movies before. I'm not to say that I'm fully against it. It's just yeah I don't like it. It doesn't feel good. The difference for me is ah like, you know, when I go to Blockbuster, it's like, hey, I rented this thing. I physically had it and then I took it back. I don't have it anymore. The taking away of stuff on a digital platform feels very like...
00:05:38
Speaker
yeah You don't have to do that, right? But then also, like, buying it digitally is like, I want the physical media like and sorry, I'm probably showing my age here, but I and more, realized that like I still do this with games and stuff, too, is like if I can find a physical version of it I will go for the physical version because there is something to be said for having something physical for for your money and also like not having to chase it down later across streaming platforms and stuff like it's yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker
yeah I don't know. it's it's an It's an interesting thing. The Hoppers thing actually kind of it it flagged me on that, that I was like, huh, I guess they are still trying to emulate that old model, but I mean, it's like you said, you know, I can wait another month or two or whatever before it comes out. um But because i like I'm not going to go rent it. But yeah, yeah it's it's a it's kind of a ah weird for me. It's a weird thing because I know what it was like before, I guess, for people that didn't, you know, yeah yeah if you never did that stuff, you don't understand what I'm talking about. and
Drone Delivery Experience
00:06:45
Speaker
So you can ignore me. But. yeah yeah I kind of make it a rule not to pay for something that is going to be available to me later on something i already paid for. You know mean? Like, I've rented things that I can't get anywhere else, you know? Yeah. And that's what we've done with rentals, too, is it's like if there's a movie that's like, I'm never going to get, like, Paramount Plus, it's like, yeah, I'll rent the movie because... Yeah. I'm like, I'm not going to pay for that service. But yeah, it's even then I'm, I'm a very cheap person in general and I will, I will go and see if I can get like a free trial to like, you know, the streamings, if it's on a streaming service, there's a lot of stuff that's not on streaming services, believe it or not though. Like it's it even like things that were popular that were acclaimed, like if they're a little bit older, they just might not be on streaming at all, which kind of boggles my mind a little bit. Cause it's like,
00:07:32
Speaker
you know, these companies are all starving for content. And I understand it, right? Because it's like you have to, you know, you have to distribute that content and that's, you know, it's not cost-free to just have it on there. But it's just, it's it's interesting to me that there are so many things out there that are just not on streaming at all.
00:07:48
Speaker
I mean, it's also, it's it's part of like, that but also like licensing these things sometimes it's yeah i've seen this as as well in in games as well as as movies and stuff is that sometimes the person who owns the license either it's very difficult to get a hold of them or the the entity just doesn't exist anymore so it's like yeah yeah like it kind of falls into a weird limbo thing um That's why sometimes if I'm like, I can't get this on streaming, but I bet it's on YouTube and no one cares it's on YouTube because if it's not on streaming anywhere, then no one cares about it. And and like nine times out of 10, it's just streaming on YouTube and no one seems to care. Like no one's going after the copyright for it. It's just there. So, yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of funny, but I don't want to talk. I don't want to get into a whole streaming thing. um Yeah. but Yeah. So I made a mistake.
00:08:38
Speaker
You know, wait for hoppers or rent it. Do whatever you can do. So the other thing I wanted to remember, Trevor, everyone listens to the show and knows I'm a little so obsessed with drones. Even though, I mean, I don't have a drone and I really don't see a purpose for having a drone. Like, personally. That's just me, though.
00:08:54
Speaker
I feel like your obsession with drones is very specific to the... ability for artistry in drone shows is what I feel you're, yeah. Well, that's partly that. I'm also just fascinated by it as a concept, and I'm a big tech guy. I'm a gadget guy. I like that kind of stuff. So anyway, to make a long story short, the other night my wife was out, she was at a concert for her birthday with her friends. It like a Wednesday night. She was seeing Bruno Mars, so I was not there because I have no interest in seeing Bruno Mars. But His new single is really good, just saying. I don't have anything against Bruno Mars. I enjoy his music, but I'm not going to go out of my way to go to a Bruno Mars concert. But anyway, so I'm on, and I never do this, by the way. I never order DoorDash, right? Because DoorDash to me is always too expensive. Like, you know, they jack up the prices, you got service fees. Like, I, you know, want to order, you know, like a sandwich from Sandwich Place and it's $25 because between that and the fees and the whatever, right? Yeah. So,
00:09:54
Speaker
ah But i'm messing around on DoorDash because there's nothing in the house I really want to eat. My daughter's home and she's asleep, so it's not like I can go anywhere, you know. And so I see, though, there's a little tab on the top of my DoorDash that says drone.
00:10:05
Speaker
And so, of course, this piques my interest, Trevor. Why does it say drone on my DoorDash app? So I do say a little bit of Googling around and I find out that DoorDash is testing drone deliveries ah in my area.
00:10:19
Speaker
And I was like, all right well, I have to do that now. Like, I have to do that. Like, that's i would be crazy not to. Right. um so but So I tried to do it right then. And they were like, it was nighttime. it was like eight o'clock at night. and And they were like, oh, after drone hours, I'm like, boo. So now I got to wait a day to do this. i just got to do a regular DoorDash. The drones are scared to fly in the dark, I'm guessing. hair Apparently, I guess. I don't know. Maybe it's a safety thing, whatever. They may run into bats or something. You don't know. Yeah. So anyway, next day I say to my wife, I go, Hey, uh, do you know about this DoorDash thing? deliver stuff by drones? And she's like, Oh yeah. She's like, you know, but I haven't seen anything with it. i was like, Oh, we can, we should do this. We need to do this, you know, right now. So I said, okay. So we, we ordered, uh, some weird subs from, uh,
00:11:05
Speaker
Jersey Mike's, right? yeah and and And sure enough, it got delivered by drone, and it was incredibly cool. I posted a video of it in the Discord. um Because, I mean, listen, it's I know it's becoming more prevalent, but not really. I mean, it's still not a thing you see. They they are not a thing up here, because they can only operate like...
00:11:24
Speaker
or i guess they could operate year-round, but it's... Yeah. Yeah. I feel it's more challenging in Canada for drones. Honestly, i was surprised i haven't seen any of these flying through the sky. Like, because I... Yeah. They're testing in this area, and I have not seen a single one in the sky, right? And I mean, it was cool. It came to my backyard and it it lowered down the box on like a little string and there was my sandwiches. And it was cheaper than doing it the regular way because there was no tip and there was no there was no service fee. it was It was like a dollar service fee or something. So it ended up being what I would normally pay to go and pick it up. And it was much faster, too. It was like 20 minutes, you know, door to door. Because they don't have to, be you know. No traffic, you know. yeah Yeah. It's not issue that you're just paying for the energy to power the drone. Yeah. Dude, it was so cool.
00:12:09
Speaker
I want to do it again. um you know, and I'm going to do it again. i just haven't had a chance to. But it was just so neat. And we my my wife and I, you know, we obviously took a video of it because we just got we all got a kick out of it. My daughter got a kick out of it. And my wife, like, posted it, like, on Facebook. And everybody was like, whoa, what? This is happening around here? Like, what? Like, everyone was freaking out about it. and I mean, look, it was really cool. As somebody who loves gadgets and stuff like that, and I also understand why other people find it creepy, too.
00:12:33
Speaker
Get that. I don't find it particularly creepy. I, you know, I understand that there's lots of creepy uses of drones and I it's ah don't love their... Yeah. Drones are a tool. They're not, like, they're not the enemy. They are a tool and it's how people choose to use them. i so Yeah, exactly. And just to deliver me food, like, it's it's um it's funny because it almost feels like an extravagance, you know, and it feels, like, silly. like it so But it's not because it was, like, cheaper. It was so weird. Yeah. It's almost very Jetsons, if you think about it.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah. yeah well And I actually said to i said that to my wife. I said, you know, this is like so cool to us right now, but like this could be just commonplace 10 years from now, like where this is not a thing that, you know, anybody is thinking is super cool. It's just a thing.
00:13:14
Speaker
You know, it's just how we get stuff now. You know, don't know. It was really neat. It was really convenient. I just thought it was cool. And I had to share because I couldn't believe that they were just testing this in my little suburb over here. don't know why they're testing it here. I mean, I guess because it's small and easy to do. And, you know, I had a nice big spot in my backyard to lower it down. But it was cool. I just had to share that. Yeah. Because I know I'm obsessed with drones. Yeah. I get it. It's a very interesting concept. And yeah, like you said, thinking about it like in urban landscapes, like drone delivery is, it's more complex than you realize. Like you said, fact that it came straight to you, know, is one thing. But when you start like doing a larger network of them, I see where, you know, yeah, it becomes very complicated. The other thing too is, you know, now that you have this power in your hands, right? I mean, how many orders do you have to do and then give them special instructions to like turn on their LEDs so that you can like get your own little drone show at home, right? Like, you know, like 10 deliveries to all show up at the same time and then you can turn on the phantasmic music and... Yeah, that'd be interesting. don't think that would work. don't think it would work the way I think it would, yeah. No, but you know, I'm still hoping for a drone show at Disney, but for now I'll take them delivering food to my backyard.
00:14:40
Speaker
You have drone shows at home, like I said on the Discord. yeah Just with no lights, just with no lights, just bringing me Jimmy John's, no, jet not Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's. Yeah. sister yeah i mean It's funny, though, because like there's an Italian restaurant that participates in this. And I was like, I don't know if I want to like get some pasta like delivered. I don't know if that's going to survive a trip over here. I mean, it might. I don't know. I mean i would hope so. As long as the containers. Yeah. I mean, i mean i'll I'll say this, like, you know, i I do DoorDash stuff around here because it is, honestly, it's easier sometimes than going out and um and all that. And the, I mean, the packaging that they use when they DoorDash stuff, like, i bought I've ordered drinks a couple of times and I'm like, sometimes I'm like, oh, is this going to be a mistake? Like, ah you know, you know yeah drinks drinks are always like the questionable thing, but they always, like,
00:15:33
Speaker
you know as i guess as long as the company that's doing it thinks about what it what needs to happen in the the packaging, like yeah i mean yeah it shouldn't shouldn't be an issue to like get past it. And DoorDash is doing it through through Wing, who is owned by Google. And so like they have like a special... It's like double-containered, right? So like they have...
00:15:54
Speaker
whatever container the the restaurant puts it in. And i mean, sometimes triple, right? Because it might be like in the the food container, the bag, and then there's another box that holds it to the drone that helps it like lower down. So it's, I mean, I feel like it'd probably be fine. But I mean, listen, I don't think I've ever gotten a hot food DoorDash delivered that was actually hot when it arrived. Like by the time it arrived, it's usually like lukewarm. So if you can get it to my door in 20 minutes, there's a better chance that it might actually be hot when it gets here. yeah yeah but That's true. I mean, yeah, you're you're right. never Whenever I've ordered it, it's like, i mean, honestly, it's no different than going and picking up anything from um from a store anyways. It's like, you know you know, even if you go, you know, do a drive-through, by the time you get it back home, it's, you know, warm at best. Right.
00:16:38
Speaker
the The place that they're launching these drones from is directly next to our favorite Chinese food slash poke bowl place. And they just fade in it. And i was I told my wife that she's like, oh, we're doing that. yeah She was like, yeah, that's that sounds good because i don't want to drive out there anyway. So it pulls from the sky it's like literally right next door. Right. So it's yeah. Pokeballs from the sky. I like that. anyway Yeah. All right. All right. Anyway, let's get into some. Yeah. No, we have. OK. OK. This was. This was a rabbit hole, but it was about drones and it's still Disney adjacent. So it's. Yeah. So I we have an insane amount of stuff to talk
New Disney Resort Features
00:17:15
Speaker
about today. This is probably the most I've had on the on the run. Yeah. Quite a long time, man. This is a long rundown. It is. So we're going to we're going have to like try really govern ourselves here. But we talked a little bit about Lakeshore Lodge last week because Disney shared some more information. And then right after that, a couple days later, they shared even more information. They gave us a new piece of concept art.
00:17:34
Speaker
um First of all, I know it's concept art, but this is like a really beautiful piece of concept art. Oh, it looks amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It looks incredible. I mean, it looks like an amazing resort, and I think it will be, but I just thought this was, ah I just wanted to talk about this really quick. We don't have to about it for long, but it's kind of given us our first look at the other side of the resort. We saw the front of the zort resort, and now we're seeing the back of the resort.
00:17:57
Speaker
where we're seeing the lazy river, ah which, you know, is, is one of the key features here. Although funny enough, when I look at this concept art, I I'm, i'm having a hard time understanding how this lazy river goes in a circle, but I think it goes in a circle.
00:18:12
Speaker
I think it has to, though. No, I think it's um I think it's running like ah like a cylinder, like an oval.
00:18:24
Speaker
So, OK, so like a thin. So so right I think I'm seeing just like a hard. U-turn comes back the other way. So it's not it's not looping the pool. Like I think you and I were thinking of like, oh, it's looping the pool like how... That's what I thought it would. Like Typhoon Lagoon and stuff does that, right? But um not all not all lazy rivers circle the entire property and this one doesn't. So it's its its own...
00:18:48
Speaker
It's sectioned off, which honestly I think is a good thing because that means that that it's accessible or or it's there for people that want to use it, but it's not cutting off the ability to get to other things that people want to use. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. What we what we're also seeing in here, we see so we see a water slide, we see the main pool, which looks to be a pretty nice size. It's pretty big. Yeah.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, it looks pretty nice. There's a cool water slide there, which has got a really neat theme to it. ah There's it looks like a little splash pad up in the top there. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. That looks like a splash pad. no It does. Right. OK. And I don't think this article mentioned. Did it mention a splash pad on a lazy river? no it it doesn't say anything about a splash pad, but it it kind of looks like one up top there.
00:19:32
Speaker
um I could be wrong, though. I don't know. It just looks like it. And then ah there is along the waterfront, there's the restaurant restaurants or restaurant. yeah And i mean, it's pretty large, but it looks like it's going to be amazing. Like that that view is going to be fantastic of the lake. You're just going to have.
00:19:50
Speaker
this really beautiful view there because it's like in the trees and like just a bunch of windows. They deliberately left some of the trees in the water. Again, for I assume this is, they'll they'll have trees planted there if they don't right now. Yeah. that yeah it's So you're like looking out through the trees across the lake, which is, yeah, it's...
00:20:11
Speaker
it's going to be some very nice ambience. And I can imagine what this will be like at dusk. Oh, yeah. and you know the and And you'll also get the the parade going by. The the electrical water patch is going to come right by there. So you get a really cool view there. And just based on you know what I've seen elsewhere, I'm assuming they're probably going to lower the lights a little bit and play the music in the restaurant. Because unless it's like a super fancy restaurant, in which case they might not. But that being said, you know California grill you know, lowers the lights and plays the music for the fireworks show. And that's, uh, you know, one of the top end restaurants at Disney. So, you know, i they probably will.
00:20:47
Speaker
Uh, but you also, so the, you know, if you go back to the, they, and this article hopefully includes original concept art from reflections, uh, of, of what the restaurant was going to be. And, uh, you know, it looks pretty much the same. So, yeah, looks pretty much like the same concept. I have to wonder, like, I'm still struggling a little bit with where the sightline going to be from here going towards Magic Kingdom. If, I mean, i feel like you'll have, like, kind of a, like...
00:21:17
Speaker
maybe a bit of a view of the fireworks, but probably not anything. Like, I i feel like you're going to see, like, the contemporary with the fireworks going off over the contemporary is what would expect the view will be. That is, yeah, that is pretty much what you're going to see ah because I actually, when the last time when we were down there, we you know, you could really see the construction, but it's it's almost like direct like where the resort is facing is kind of, um it's it's, how do I how do i describe where it's facing? it's ah It's like literally it kind of faces directly at Bay Lake, kind of like what you're talking about. I mean, at bay lake I'm sorry, at Contemporary, right? So so so it's like yeah it's like the south bank of the yeah of the lake looking north towards the Contemporary. Yeah, I mean, it's on the site of River Country. So, I mean, i know I know at this point where River Country has been gone for a long time. But yeah, it it kind of looks diagonally right to like...
00:22:10
Speaker
Space Mountain. Like if you're going to draw a space a straight line, it goes right to Space Mountain basically. So you'll get some views, I think. I think you'll get some of the fireworks for sure.
00:22:21
Speaker
i i also noted note to hear that the the new boat dock that they're building, which is all the way on the upper right, which means ah to me, I want the left hand side of the resort to be the DVC rooms because it's right where the boat dock is.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah. So facing it from the front. I mean, if you're facing from the front, the left hand side. Yes. So so looking at the at this concept art, actually, I was going to point that out to that. um So so this concept art that we got that shows like the pool and the lazy river and everything, it very much looks like a like a that's like the courtyard of the ah the resort. But then you can see on the right hand side of the the ah the picture.
00:22:58
Speaker
where the the rest of the building stretches out and there's, so there's like another side area, which we I believe we know that there's going to be like a leisure pool or something over there. I'm inclined to believe that that's going to be the DVC area. that Yeah. It'll be, yeah, it'll be, you know, not, you won't have like front and center view to the to the the pool and everything, which honestly, I don't know that I would ever want that anyway, but, you know, it's still a very quick walk over to all of the amenities that, know,
00:23:27
Speaker
that this place is going to have the fact that we're finally getting another resort that has like beach club level of yeah things going on in it. um It's cool.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. But this place is going to be like a prime ticket for oh quite some time, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's, you're taking, you're taking the some of the coolness of beach club and putting it at the most popular you know, of amusement park in the world. So yeah, yeah, it's, i agree.
00:23:59
Speaker
I totally believe that that side is going to be the DVC side because generally when you have these resorts where they split between DVC and regular, the feature pool is usually on the cash side and then there's a DVC only pool on the other side, right? And it's very clear from this imaging that the the main part here, this is the feature pool. And that's, you know, where the main part of the buildings surround. And then there's this other part over there. So I i assume that that's what it's going to be like. But, um you know, we still don't really know. so
00:24:30
Speaker
Now, one thing that just crossed my mind to talking about all this is i know in... i know in Over the years, pool hopping for ah for DVC resorts has... It's pretty much gone away, but Because, you know, they've they've had to restrict it over time, like, understandably, because, you know, people will, people, unfortunately, will always try and do the thing where it's like, hey, i'll I'll stay at the cheaper place and just, you know, take a bus over to this resort and use the nice pool, right? So yeah I wouldn't be surprised if this is very heavily locked off. And, but I also can see, i i hate to say it i there's going to be people trying to figure out an angle where they can use the lazy river without...
00:25:17
Speaker
actually staying at the resort, which... Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Which, yeah it sucks, right? or or That part sucks just because of the fact that it's like, you know, it's a new nice thing that people, you know, people will just try and abuse it. And...
00:25:34
Speaker
My answer to that is Disney needs to build more resorts with lazy rivers is the answer. i mean, clearly, clearly. um Because I really like this. And and i think I think if they don't, if they want to not be a problem, then, you know, give everybody a lazy river then nobody can complain that they don't have a lazy river. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. yeah So, agree. It's easy, right? You know, you know the it's so simple. just Just build more lazy rivers. Yeah.
00:26:02
Speaker
yeah and i want I really want a lazy river of my resort because tell clearly the thing about this is that it it honestly does turn the resort into like, yes, you are in Disney, but I could very easily just like, I could spend a day here. Right.
00:26:20
Speaker
And good. Yeah. Yeah. And not have to like, like, I mean, I, I, I can enjoy my time at, um, at the Polynesian as well, but I don't hang out at the pool as much because it's a smaller pool and it's not. It is.
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, like this is, yeah, that this is ah this is something that I wish, like said, I just wish that they had more of this kind of stuff and I'm really excited for it.
00:26:46
Speaker
Me too. i I just sent you some pictures. So BioReconstruct, I don't know if you've ever looked at BioReconstruct's photos, but BioReconstruct regularly goes up into a helicopter and takes pictures of Disney and Universal And just a couple of days ago, posted a picture of what I think is going to be the DVC side. And I think it's confirmed to me by the pool that's on the DVC side, which is just a regular pool. yeah It's and that's on the left hand side of the resort if you're looking at it.
00:27:11
Speaker
ah So, you know, that's to me like you can see the other pool there in the in the pictures that he posted, which is fine. It's going to be a fine pool, but it's not the feature pool. Right. And that's typically how that works.
00:27:22
Speaker
There's a pool and it looks like there's going a hot tub there as well. Yeah, it's interesting that it looks like the pool has steps. Yeah, which is interesting because they've only been doing zero entry really lately. Yeah. um Yeah, which, yeah, kind of odd that has steps. I thought that would too.
00:27:38
Speaker
But, you know, listen, i'm i'm so I'm pumped for this resort. I think this very popular resort. i You know, i the more every time they put out more concept art about this, I'm like, I want to stay at this place now.
00:27:50
Speaker
but yeah and And, yeah, you can also see in the in the photos too that exactly what i was talking about, the Lazy River, is it's that um oval shape. Yeah. Yeah. I also think this kind of confirms my belief that this is going to be like a 60, 40, 40% DVC, 60% cash, by the way, because yeah the the other side of the resort is much bigger.
00:28:10
Speaker
I think I not much bigger, but like, slate I guess I would say slightly bigger because it's, it's not, um you know, it's got a couple more buildings there and the DVC side, what I think is going to be the DVC side is a little bit smaller, I think, but we're we're going to find out.
00:28:21
Speaker
We don't know. I have to wonder, like, so like that whole, the whole section on the DVC or what we think is the DVC side. I wonder if all of that will be DVC, like the whole u shape, or if it'll just be like...
00:28:35
Speaker
part of it because the interesting thing too is that like if if you're if you're on the side that's closest to the main um courtyard area the or the where the feature pool is like you're I mean again you're all you're still within walking distance but it's like you if you're if you're on that side you're literally just across the hall yeah from from the main pool which i mean you you know from the like it's not like you get the view or anything but it's like it's a very quick walk downstairs to the pool whereas people staying on the far side it's you know yeah and i'm i'm i'm trying to imagine what the scale is like for getting around this i i know it's like a matter of like you're spending like two minutes walking versus yeah seven minutes walking or something but there's a weird perception thing too when you're staying on property whether you're like
00:29:22
Speaker
close or far away from things, right? Yeah. would agree with that. Yeah, agree with Yeah, I'm just, I'm curious how much will be DVC, but yeah, let's, I'm curious too. Let's move on though because we got a lot of things to talk about. Yeah, let's, so what's next? Spring promos.
00:29:37
Speaker
yeah I just wanted to talk about how, ah you know, if you're buying Disneyland Hotel, DVC is doing ah free park tickets, which, you know, we don't see that often, I don't feel like. ah You know, and so the new offer, the new incentives are as high as $28 off for a first-time purchase of 150 points. $28 off per point, by the way. i'm sorry. I mean, per, ah yeah, per point. So ah not $28 total because that would be, you know, nothing incentive. um But... Uh, it's a new offer includes four two day park hopper tickets with a purchase or add on. So I just, I, that's the only reason i I wanted to talk about this because I thought it was interesting. They were giving away free tickets, which they just don't do that often anymore. i feel like. Yeah. And by the way, for that, it has to be 150 points or more at the Disneyland hotel for those park hopper tickets. And it's only, yeah, so yeah, I mean, it makes sense at Disneyland that they can get away with that a little bit more. um
00:30:33
Speaker
just because of um the proximity to the parks and everything. And I also, maybe this is also a bit of a tell of... ah Unfortunately, at the Disneyland Hotel does have the downside of you have to pay the yeah let's the transient tax when when you stay there, which is probably driving some people away from it. So they do have to sweeten the pot a little bit. And i mean, you like I mean, for for the cost of the transient tax, because we we have looked into it. We haven't stayed at the hotel yet, but it's like it's not.
00:31:05
Speaker
It's not crazy expensive, but you know, it, you know, for like a week, you can, it, yeah. Like every time you stay at it adds up to like an extra like $150 or something like that. Yeah. Or depending, but, um but yeah I guess the rationale with this is, you know, hey, if you get some park hopper tickets, like, you know, the savings on that justifies like years of, of the transient tax. Right. So. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, that that i I totally agree. So this is, by the way, so they're doing these incentives for Alani, ah Polynesian, Riviera, a Disneyland Hotel, and Fort Wilderness Cabin. So, ah you know, the the the ones that are are currently available. Alani is going to be on sale forever. Yeah. I'm surprised they haven't sold out Riviera yet, to be totally honest. um But, you know, it's that one's still going.
00:31:58
Speaker
And then, I mean, the I'm also kind of surprised the Polytower is not more sold out than it is two. but Looking at this chart, too, just the the the spread of discounts, because they have there' there's a nice little chart here that shows, like, depending on the amount of points you're getting, you you get different amounts of discounts. So just going at the base level of, like, 100 124 points, You know, like you said, Alani, they're giving, was it $10 off per point? Yeah.
00:32:26
Speaker
But, and then, yeah, Polynesians. Up to 42 if you buy $250 to $299. But just staying at the base level, so Alani's $10, Polynesian's only $4, Riviera's $7, Disneyland Hotel's $9. So that's all kind of in the same bracket, I guess. And then you've got Fort Wilderness Cabins, where it's $25. Woof. They want to get that inventory going, huh? That's telling me something. Yeah, that resort's not selling well. I think that's pretty well. for Yeah, it's just not selling well. I don't know why. i mean, you know, technically, I don't know. We could probably do a whole episode on that because it's it's the first, my I mean, it's the first moderate
00:33:09
Speaker
resort that they've had for DVC, but they didn't price it any differently than everything else. Right. So, and the amenities weren't necessarily there yet. And yeah I don't know. It's just, I don't know. There's some people don't love the way the cabins are set up either. I mean, they're nice. They're very nice. They just, they're a little bit of a odd setup, I think, but I don't know. I think it goes honestly beyond the cabins. Like, the like, like, like you said, the cabins being set up themselves is fantastic.
00:33:35
Speaker
fine, but it's the the larger issue of the resort location and the amenities of the resort, I think, are what really hurts it. Because yeah because even like looking at Riviera and stuff, it's like, yeah, you know you know Riviera has limitations, but Riviera is a fantastic resort. it has like It's central to a lot of areas. like you know You can get to Hollywood Studios and and Epcot very easily from there. it has It has a lot of things that would be attractive to people on vacation. Fort Wilderness is...
00:34:05
Speaker
I don't know what you're doing there. Like it, it, it feels, and, and again, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not bashing on Fort wilderness, but it's like, you know, you're either staying in the cabin or you're having to go offsite or go like, you're just having to go so much farther to get to stuff.
00:34:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Like, yeah. All right. I think that's what hurts. it that That's my opinion. But yeah, we can, it makes sense. We we can dive into that further. Um,
00:34:35
Speaker
All right, let's let's go change gears
Disney Transportation and Attractions Updates
00:34:38
Speaker
from DVC. that this This still is very much, this affects me and my DVC world because I make use of the ferry boats all the time.
00:34:47
Speaker
But this is this is a bigger thing than than DVC. don't know. yeah Yeah. In case you're worried about Disney not preparing for all the expansions that they're doing ah for the influx of people that are coming, they are preparing by adding a new ferry boat, Trevor.
00:35:01
Speaker
Yes. So they're going from three to four. So there was previously three ferry boats that go between um the TTC and Magic Kingdom. And they're adding a fourth one into the yeah into the mix.
00:35:14
Speaker
And it's their first one since 1976. They have not added another one. They've been this is they this is kind of so it's kind of a big deal. Yeah. So, and and honestly, it's it's kind of interesting because, yeah, it does show, like, the ferry boats are incredibly high volume when like for for transportation. um And over the last, i want to say over the last, like, five years, I've seen where, like, they they've done a lot of extra stuff, like, to the docks. Like, like you know, being able to, like, have, like like, two boats come in on the docks and they have, like, an upper...
00:35:46
Speaker
upper level departure and stuff like that. Like they've been doing a lot of stuff to like make the boats as efficient as possible, but they're clearly hitting that critical mass of for the three boats that they have, it, they just can't move people fast enough when it's busy. And I, I've been subjected to this where, um,
00:36:08
Speaker
I'm trying remember, I think it was in 2022, we were leaving from, ah i think we were actually, no, it wasn't ah it wasn't from a Christmas party, because the christmas when leaving the Christmas parties was always very calm. But it it was a regular night, and I think we left like right after fireworks, and we basically got we got herded into...
00:36:27
Speaker
um it like it's It was like cattle herding was the best way i could describe it. He's good at that. Yeah. Yeah. Because that like they they were basically sectioning off groups of people so that they could quickly load people onto the boats. So like they they had it Like I saw where they were doing it with it. Like they they cut off at a certain point. It was like they got everyone into like a loading air into the the one loading area, got them on the boat, you know, and then they were filling up the next loading area. But the problem was, is that there was always like we would move forward a bit and then we were waiting because you could see like, you know, the boats were kind of showing up.
00:37:08
Speaker
um like they were showing up as quickly as possible, but there was always a gap because they, you know, that they just couldn't get back and forth across the the lake fast, and fast enough. So it's a lot of traffic. and like Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:20
Speaker
adding this fourth boat, like it's, it's going to make for a lot of people being able to, to get in and out of magic kingdom, which, um, yeah, to your point with, you know, everything that they're doing, you know, it's not just the fireworks. It's just going to be general traffic. Um, the boats will be busier is yeah the thing. So, ah you know, unless you're using them in the middle of the day, um which by the way, is very nice. Like if, you know, if you want an empty boat to yourself, um, you know, you know, go in the middle of the day, you know, sleep in, but,
00:37:49
Speaker
you know, during those busy times, this is absolutely needed. And yeah um it's also, it's interesting. so So all the boats are named. um i don I don't know, or, you know, maybe maybe people don't pay attention to these, but they're all named after prominent people that had a very, ah very large impact on on various parts of Disney. And you can read the placards for them on the different boats. So so there's the Admiral Joe Fowler,
00:38:16
Speaker
the General Joe Potter, the Richard F. Irvine, and they're adding the Meg Gilbert Crofton is the name of the new boat, which, um so Meg was, or I'm just looking at the ah the description here.
00:38:30
Speaker
She was the president of a of Magic Kingdom. Sorry. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So yeah, she, ah so yeah, she was, she was a big part of running Magic Kingdom for, for a long time. So, you know, it's kind of nice that she's getting a whole boat to herself. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty and that's got to be a pretty big honor right there. to I mean, that would be a huge honor i to have that named after you. I mean, that'd be really cool. People see that every single day. i mean ah The interesting thing about this is that it's I actually had been kind of paying attention to... they they had I don't know if it's finished yet or not, but they've been building a fairy dock expansion at Magic Kingdom.
00:39:07
Speaker
And I think some people, i think, you know, a lot of lot of people just thought it was, well, maybe they're just, you know, doing it to have more capacity. But clearly they were doing that to get ready for a fourth boat. Yeah. Right. I mean, that makes sense to me. So. oh Yeah. Like, yeah. Like I said, it totally makes sense that, um you know, they that that's the smart way to do it is, you know, build the actual infrastructure to support it first before you add the new thing in. Because if they had four boats and it was like, oh, you know, sorry, we have ah we have a boat full of people and um but there's no docks available. So they're floating out in the water
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah. Because we can't offload people fast enough. Like, yeah, i I see where they had to kind of do this in steps. um Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say, by the way, is so, you know, you're talking about the capacities. They each carry 600 people and it takes about 10 minutes to get across the ah across the lake. It takes like 10 to 15 minutes to load. So, you know, generously, you can say each one of these boats transports 1,200 people.
00:40:11
Speaker
ah I mean, you could, it's actually 20. Yeah. It's yeah. Basically. Yeah. I mean, each, each boat, you know, so you're saying every, every, I i mean, I was going to say every hour, 1200 every hour. Cause if you're doing 600 and it takes a half hour to load them and get them across and then 600 back against like 1200 people back and forth per hour.
00:40:29
Speaker
Right. So you're adding another 1200 people of capacity per hour. So it's, it's a lot. I mean, it's a lot of people. So yeah. Yeah. yeah And, you know, like I said, that that does play into, you know, you may not notice it on on any given day, but if you happen to be there when it's, you know, at a very busy time, you know when there's a lot of people leaving the park or even, you know, you know, i don't I don't generally rope drop anymore, but I can imagine, you know, it's the same problem coming from the TTC rope dropping that... yeah
00:41:00
Speaker
you know, it, uh, yeah, you know, it makes it, it makes it easier for everybody. The other side effect of this that, um, I I've heard, or so this is a rumor. I don't, I don't have anything confirming this, but I've been hearing talks about them, uh, looking at doing some, doing some larger maintenance on the monorails and possibly, um i don't know if that means like, like, like doing work on pieces of the track or whatnot, but, um,
00:41:29
Speaker
at least from the Magic Kingdom point of view, ah if the ferry boats increasing capacity, it does put them in a position where if they need to take the monorails down, they can do so.
00:41:42
Speaker
Maybe we'll finally get some new trains. Yeah. Yeah. That might be part of it. Maybe maybe they're looking at at some upgrades to the Marvel. Like i said, i I've been hearing rumors about it. but And this might just be like, you know, people wishlisting stuff because these boats are are coming into play. But, I mean, you never know. it's like It is one of those things where...
00:42:04
Speaker
They, you know, they they probably have a list of things they want to do, but until these until these pieces come into play, they they can't functionally take down the ah the monorail either. Because, like, although the monorail is not as high capacity as the ferry boats, it's still another major um aspect of getting people to and from the Magic Kingdom. Yeah. They need all of the above. right There's so many thousands that they need. This is why Disney has ships and buses. i mean like they The amount of stuff ah that they really need to transport, the amount of people that are around, i mean they need all the above. and it and Like you said, it also is helpful that ah you know you have options. you know when i was When I was there last time, the monorail was down because it I believe it caught on fire, if I remember correctly. you know As it does sometimes. you know has It has a couple times here. But it it you know it was down, and so it didn't matter to us because we were walking anyway, but it's it's good to have to have options for you know for for everybody else and and be able to pick up that capacity. So, i mean, listen, Disney's smart about this stuff. They they they understand how to...
00:43:09
Speaker
how to how to make sure that they're transporting millions of people. They do it effectively. And I know not everybody loves the buses, but, you know, that's ah that's one of the ways they do it too. So anyway.
00:43:20
Speaker
So I wouldn't be surprised, or I guess we didn't touch on, this boat is coming in 2027, by the way, so you're not going to see it this year. So it'll be next year. I wouldn't be surprised if once the boat is in play in 2027 that you hear in like beginning of 2028 would be when they would do monorail maintenance, I think.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. That's my prediction is that this boat will come online and then you'll hear like, you know, January time or January timeframe that they're taking the monorail down for maintenance. Yeah. but We'll see.
00:43:51
Speaker
yeah We'll see. um But yeah, I listened. This is good. I also did find interesting too, that they are ah building this and they're building the pieces to it. And then they're going to ship all the pieces to, to Disney world and they're going to build it there and then, and do all the things they're going to do with it there. So, you know, it, it's interesting that they're, they're doing it that way. I mean, I, I,
00:44:12
Speaker
guess I don't know how else you would do it to transport something that large unless you could float it over. i don't know, but, you know, whatever. Anyway, but i just thought that was kind of cool. But yeah last but not least, really quickly here before I add, and I don't think there's a ton here, Trevor. This is ah just a couple things, but we did get a little bit of an update about the Tropical Americas over at Animal Kingdom.
00:44:33
Speaker
ah Not much. You know, they didn't give us a little bit. They were just kind of were talking a little bit about like the, ah you know, the the ah background of of of what they're doing, like the research and all that. We did get a description of the new ride though, where they said, and this was, I guess the imaginary that is leading this guests will be invited to celebrate Antonio's new gift to the ability to talk to animals. And along the way, will, we will learn that no matter what our special gifts or abilities are, we're all part of the familia of all living things.
00:45:03
Speaker
I don't know what that means, but sounds like it's going to be interesting for sure. Yeah, that what that says to me is so I think we were kind of speculating on what the new ride was going to be. ah This this or I remember we talked about the um the house being like a walkthrough attraction something like that. It's a boat ride now. It's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But so it sounds like we're going to be going in. Sorry. Whose room was it again? Or who's Antonio's room? He's Antonio's. channel Yeah. So it's going to be very animal focused, which is ah probably how they're trying to do the animal kingdom connection there.
00:45:42
Speaker
You know? Yeah. and And the neat thing is, is the the way that like, you know, from the movie, like Antonio's room is like this massive jungle. Right. So it kind of lends itself to. Yeah. You know, you know, there. Yeah. yeah I mean, a bull ride through that would.
00:45:56
Speaker
ah I'll accept it. I'll accept it. Yes. so it It seems fine. Yeah, it seems fine. It's going to be about right. I mean, we'll see what it's going to be like. i assume there's going to be a lot of animals involved and a lot of hopefully animal animatronics and things like that. So I guess we'll find out. Oh, this is going to be my hot take. Maybe it'll be like Navi River Journey, but better.
00:46:16
Speaker
Oh, wow. that That hurts. Yeah, maybe. I'm just going to sit in that for a moment. i think to be more. I feel like it's going be more than that. I just feel like it's going to be more than that. It's important to them.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, it it'll be different for sure. But I'm just imagining like, you know, yeah just replace Navi River Journey with Encanto stuff. but yeah And actually, wait. Oh, wait. No, I just made a monkey's paw wish there. No, don't. Don't make it Navi River Journey because I want the ride to be more than 30 seconds.
00:46:46
Speaker
Wow, man, you're really just torching ah That ride is not 30 seconds long. Okay, it's it's like a minute 30 seconds. Like, sorry. It's...
00:46:58
Speaker
Okay, if you had to ride, um ah why am I blanking on this? um What is the ride in the Mexico Pavilion? according According to Wikipedia, the duration of the ride is five minutes and 48 seconds. Really? it five minutes? Yes, that's what it's yes that says yeah it It's include loading and unloading?
00:47:16
Speaker
yeah No, it doesn't. It doesn't include that, no. Okay. Yeah. i mean Yeah. Like, OK, like in terms like i guess, yeah, you're you're right there. I guess they're not any longer than one other. But like Grand Fiesta Tour versus Navi River Journey.
00:47:33
Speaker
Different experiences, though. Yeah, I don't I would still take Grand Fiesta Tour. All right. Well, in it also says I'm making enemies now. I'm sorry, but now it it says Pueblo as Esperanza will, will, ah will welcome visit visitors in 2027.
00:47:49
Speaker
um I don't know if they're just trying to say that area where like the little so like town is, is 2027. Cause mean, i i don't I don't think the entire thing is supposed to open in 2027, right? Is that like... is Maybe. i i wonder if they're going to do this like they did um Galaxy's Edge.
00:48:09
Speaker
Like pieces? where Yeah, where we where we get bits and pieces of it. I thought it all opened at once, though, didn't it? Galaxy's Edge? No. Oh, well, we no, we were missing. Yeah, yeah I know what you're saying. Rise was not open. yeah Yeah. But that was because of the Resistance was not ready. I think, you know, yeah, that's going to be my take on this, too, is that they're they're going to get the main area opened up, but the attractions won't be ready right away. Okay. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Yeah, okay, I could see that. I guess we'll i guess we'll find out.
00:48:39
Speaker
But, I mean, i you know, listen, where there's they're deep into work on on the Encanto, right? And they've really kind of just started the work on on Dinosaur, because Dinosaur pretty recently closed. mean, you know.
00:48:51
Speaker
Yes. I mean, Indy. Yes. New Indy. New Indy ride. Yes. ah So, and then and there's also a playground and a carousel too. So let's not forget that. But, um but yeah, so, you know, we got a little update on that. It's nice to get little updates and not just be in the dark like we were with Lakeshore Lodge for, you know, ever.
00:49:06
Speaker
So, all right, look at that. We kept it to like almost like 45 minutes for that. We're still on track. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Well, these other things i think are going to take us longer, but but let's, let's do our ad and then we'll, we'll get into some other things.
00:49:19
Speaker
DVC Resale Market, a key holder vacations company, is the leader in the DVC resale industry with 13 former Disney Vacation Club guides and three former Disney Vacation Club quality assurance managers.
00:49:31
Speaker
If you're thinking of buying DVC, browse the largest selection of DVC resale listings anywhere with DVC experts on hand seven days a week to answer your questions. If you're thinking of selling, turn to the friendly professionals at DVC Resale Market, where over 98% of listings sell within 30 In 2025, DVC Resale Market helped over 4,400 families join or add on to their memberships.
00:49:51
Speaker
Go to DVCResaleMarket.com slash welcomehome or call 1-844-DVCPROS. That's And when you speak to them be sure to let them know that Home sent you.
00:50:04
Speaker
So, Trevor, it's ah it's May. Hold on. Yeah. You know what? ah Yeah. let me Let me just say, you know, I just at the beginning of this episode talked about getting out of winter and, yeah you know, just starting to enjoy spring. Do you know what I really want to think about when I'm getting into spring?
00:50:20
Speaker
Halloween. Halloween. ah Yeah, let let's talk about Halloween. Yeah, because this is what they like to do. They like to start teasing Halloween. Now, listen, I, okay, and I don't, I don't want to shock you when I say this, Trevor, but Disney Halloween starts in three months. Okay. No, i know.
00:50:39
Speaker
right, like that's, yeah. so So they, they teased it and and then the next day they they did the formal announcement. The first Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party this year is August 7th.
00:50:50
Speaker
It's been in August, though. This is not new, right? But but it's usually like, like, it's been like August, like 31st in the past. So like end of August, like, you know, you know, September, like, I feel like, you know, September going into like August into September is like, okay, it's starting, you know, it's still summer, but, you know, it's going to start to hit fall and and whatnot.
00:51:11
Speaker
They're just like, nah, you know, You've got three months of not so scary Halloween party, which I guess, you know, is justified. Obviously, you know, if if they've got enough demand for it, I can't be mad at them for that. But it's starting like, like the first week of August. Like I'm, I'm still so much in summer mode. Like if I was planning a trip to Disney in August, I would not be thinking about what I'm wearing to the Halloween party. Like, yeah, I, I understand that. i See, I thought it was early August last year. i'll have to look. i i I thought it was end of August. Maybe it was mid-August. I feel like it's they've been creeping up on these dates over the last couple of years. That's true. it's just full on. like It's three months. like like
00:51:59
Speaker
The Not So Scary Halloween Party is running for three months. Yeah, essentially, yeah.
00:52:04
Speaker
Essentially, yes, it is. So essentially, literally look at the dates. It's three months. Yeah, it's three full months. Yeah, it's three, three full months. That's where we're at now.
00:52:15
Speaker
I mean, like the demand is there. i don't blame them for doing it. It's you know, it's it's there. They people want to want to do it. So I get it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like i I can't hate on it because i do like these after hours, these these ticketed events, like they're a lot of fun. They're they're there's something outside of the normal Disney experience. And I know like they're not for everybody, but, you know, we have great experiences doing. We've done these parties. We've done this and the Christmas party and we very much enjoyed them. I know you did the Christmas party last year and, you know, saw how overwhelming it can be. Yeah. and But like, yeah, I get it. It's just it's crazy that.
00:53:00
Speaker
Like, I don't want to be thinking about how much I dislike candy corn in August because. looked this up, Trevor. It was August 15th was the first date
Halloween Events and Merchandise
00:53:11
Speaker
in 2021. Okay. So they that see they moved up a week. yeah Okay. But they they've been, it's been creeping up. like Like, if you look over the last couple years, like it used to be like it started the end of August. They're just, they've fully taken over August now. Yeah, they have. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:24
Speaker
so ah So we got a couple ah new things this year that they're previewing, and and there's going to be a Stitch Dance Party. ah So that, and also with Lilo and Angel.
00:53:38
Speaker
i have to tell you, my daughter knows nothing about Angel other than what she's like, you know, kind of seen. Like, we've never watched ah the movie with Angel in it, but she's like all about Angel. She loves Angel. Well, I mean, i think Angel is also in the... um ah in the series, I believe.
00:53:56
Speaker
So I feel like it's it's, yeah, it's one of those things that like if you weren't like Like the series and the the the fall, because there was a second animated movie, if I recall. it was it was that It was that one, right? yeah Yeah. And yeah, like if you, like, unless you were like really hard up into it, I get how you could miss that. But yeah, it's still, honestly, it's kind of weird that Angel, and and maybe it just speaks to, you know, how much I'm not connected to it anymore, is that like,
00:54:25
Speaker
I didn't think Angel was a big enough character to highlight like that, but maybe I'm wrong. don't know. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. My daughter loves her. But I, you know, so just a couple of things, though, here. So tickets are going start being available.
00:54:40
Speaker
um So we'll be available for purchase starting on May 5th for guest staying at resorts during the the parties. Right. So starting May 5th for guest staying at any resort. And then tickets will be available starting May 12th for all other guests. There is a DVC discount again this year, as well as an annual pass holder discount.
00:54:58
Speaker
So you do you do get both those. I think that's really all. they They really only mentioned the Stitch Dance Party. I'm sure there's going to be more new stuff, but there's not a lot yet, obviously. Even recurring stuff is fine. Like, it's... It's a good party, right? So...
00:55:14
Speaker
yeah Yeah, but they're going to obviously going to come back with more stuff with merch. and Well, actually, we have a little bit of merch already because they want to yeah do they want to share some merch early. So I actually really like this merch. um I have to say there's some really cool things here.
00:55:30
Speaker
i mean, the first thing we see is like ah it's like a vintage shirt, Trevor. It's kind of cool. the The Disneyland one, right? Yeah, it's cool, right? It's like ah like a vintage-y one.
00:55:41
Speaker
Yeah, i like the I like that they chose, like, a neon orange for it. Like, I feel like past years they haven't, like, leaned into... Yeah, well, yeah they haven't leaned into, like, the... Like, i guess I always think about Halloween as, like...
00:55:59
Speaker
yeah Like, yeah, there's the orange and black and I know people go like purple and green and stuff like that. But it's like the orange really is for me like the highlighting color. And they they really leaned into it. Although the more that I'm staring at it, I realize that the castle does look like candy corn.
00:56:17
Speaker
It does. And I don't like that now because it's funny. I like i like that. I like the aesthetic of Halloween, but candy corn's gross. I just don't.
00:56:29
Speaker
I can't. I don't don't. Yeah, I don't get it. I just can't. Does that inform how you feel about the Disney World shirt? Because I like this Disney World shirt. It's got Cinderella Castle and it looks... And it's the candy corn. It looks kind of like candy corn, and but it has like a scary face where the the ah the the gate is and it says Happy Halloween. I like this. I think it's really cool looking. at It looks embroidered too. It's cute, yeah.
00:56:54
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, it looks nice. And yeah, I agree. It looks the the ah the shirt looks nice. I like the hoodie as well. the The hoodie is a nice look. What about the Disneyland hoodie? This neck, this headless horseman, man. Holy, that is so good.
00:57:11
Speaker
Yeah. So on the front, it just has the flaming pumpkin and it says Disneyland, like on like the chest. And then on the back, it has the full headless horseman and a Disneyland resort. It's really cool. Yeah. ah That's the one I'm buying.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yeah. sure That's the one you're going with. Yeah. I also have a gut. Sorry. ah the Yeah. The next one's ah it's a hockey Jersey. I feel like they're like, they're going to the jerseys lately. Yeah. We've seen a couple of jerseys or I guess they're not just, sorry. I, as a Canadian, I assume they're hockey jerseys. They're not exclusive.
00:57:40
Speaker
No, they look like hockey jerseys. they Hockey jerseys have specific a specific look. These look like hockey jerseys. Yeah. I i guess maybe it says hockey jersey on the list. It says hockey jersey. Okay. All right. okay, then ok that I'm vindicated. You are. You are. Yeah. All right. um yeah it's Yeah. It's a good selection of merch this year. like And like I said, the color palette and everything is good. i Like, you know, the the orange, I can see where it's a bit of a, can be a bit of a turnoff. But it's like, you know, the orange and black is nice. Yeah. you know, the Headless Horseman one, even though it's, or it's purple, like it, that's actually the big standout one. it is. It doesn't really fit anything else, but it's like, that's cool. It's very cool. It is really cool. I'm definitely putting a picture up of that one. They, they do also, so they gave us ah a preview of some ears too. So there's some cool ears here. There's like a, um,
00:58:25
Speaker
ah You know, pumpkin one with Mickey and Minnie pumpkins. There's a bat one, which is pretty cool. There's the ones that like are where you can like a Velcro on different pieces ah that have the pumpkins.
00:58:38
Speaker
I kind of I'm kind of digging this ah this these these hats at the end. though That's are nice. Yeah. Yeah, there's like – both Disney World and Disneyland have the same hat essentially just with you know Disney World or or you know Disneyland on them and some spider webs and a spider coming coming down from one of the the holes in the hat. Yeah. I like it. It's cool. That's a very creative way to do it. And and yeah, they look embroidered, right? They do. Yeah, it looks – Yeah, look, look nice. i don't know that I, or I mean, if I'm buying this in August at the Halloween party, I'm not buying a black hat. So that's my only comment on it. I wouldn't wear this around in August to the, yeah to the Halloween party.
00:59:19
Speaker
um they They put out so much and there's so much merch in this already. This is crazy. Because I was just showing up. Okay, this Stitch doll, though, this Vampire Stitch must have that. is that a there It's a bat Stitch. It's not a vampire. No, it's Vampire Stitch. That's what says in the description. Vampire Stitch.
00:59:36
Speaker
But that's a bat. It says vampire. It's got a little cake. says it's a vampire bat. Okay, fine. Vampires can turn it into bats. yeah this is it's a cute little bat it's okay yeah yeah yeah not sure what are you guard sorry what about this uh this plushie of the uh one of the stretching room pictures that's pretty cool i i like i like stitch bat as stitch uh vampire better but this one's cool too i like it yeah i i like it because i don't think i've seen so yeah that's pretty close random
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, you see you see, like, the the the stretching room stuff, know, it's on, like, shirts and mugs and stuff like that. don't think I've seen a plush of, or, like, yeah like a doll of the the stretching room figurines. I feel like this could be a whole set, right? It could be, yeah. Maybe they're testing the waters with ah just the ah the tightrope walker. Maybe they could do the rest as characters, like a whole set, like you said, yeah. Yeah.
01:00:34
Speaker
like it. This Oogie Boogie stretch is really cool, too. Have you looked at the Oogie Boogie one? The Oogie Boogie sweater? Yeah. a It's cool. I like it I like it. Yeah.
01:00:45
Speaker
I think you need Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah, I just, like, it's it's a cool design. I just, you know, I can't get past the IP. But but I guess, like, the problem is of the the entire, like, Disneyland show, is Oogie Boogie Bash is, you know, Oogie Boogie. So, of course, they're doing Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah, yeah.
01:01:04
Speaker
yeah Also, we've got ah we've got not so scary Halloween party shirts, just T-shirts, too. These also are great, too. I also really like these this design, too. It's got a not so scary Halloween party on the ah it has one that has like a pocket on it.
01:01:19
Speaker
And then it has like a spooky version of the castle above the pocket. And then on the back, it has the the castle and then Mickey Minnie. I like it. They're really cool. Yeah, I like the ah the minimalist art on it. Like it's very, it's kind of giving a little bit of Mary Blair kind of design, but, and and they're they're covering all the characters too, right? Like you got like the Haunted Mansion Ghost, the Headless Horseman, the yeah Sanderson sisters are on there, which is, you know, you I always like that they bring, thatre they they've kind of become, like even though Hocus Pocus is its own thing, they're still very much like,
01:01:50
Speaker
a part of it too, or a part of not so scary Halloween parties. So, yeah, I, I, I need to bring something
Alien and Predator at Disney: Surprise and Speculation
01:01:56
Speaker
up to you, Trevor. I scrolled down a little bit and I'm seeing something that is shocking to me.
01:02:01
Speaker
So, so they have, they have Funko pops on here. It's like a Disney villain like thing, right? It's like they they've got these like villain things.
01:02:13
Speaker
And it's part of the villains. No, hold on. It's part of the villains. Oh, whoa. You see what I'm talking about now, right? Whoa. Yeah. They've got they've got the Xenomorph as a Disney villain here. Wait, so it's true the Xenomorph's a Disney princess?
01:02:28
Speaker
I think the Xenomorph's a Disney princess villain? Is it like... I mean, technically it's a, it's a, it's a, okay. So technically it's a, it's one of the, uh, chestburster ones, right? That's it. But in the specimen too, but it's the, a baby xenomorph. Yeah, exactly. it's And they, and they also have Ripley here too, which is cool.
01:02:46
Speaker
But I just, I don't, I haven't seen them include alien stuff. And that's so random. I know. And then if you scroll down a little bit more, Trevor, we also get predator stuff too.
01:02:57
Speaker
What? I know. What is this? What's happening? I know. This is so cool. Wait, does that mean that Alien Encounter can come I mean, they originally wanted it to be the Xenomorph from Aliens. They just didn't own the IP at the time, right? Oh, man. Oh, man. That's a fine line.
01:03:20
Speaker
Do an Alien vs. Predator movie. I mean, not movie, a ride. an Alien vs. Predator dark ride? How great would that be? Man, that's... They're never going to do it, ever. But if they were to do it... That is... i can't believe that there is Alien and Predator stuff on Disney website. Yes. Like, that's so crazy. i know. I mean, it's... Yeah. It makes sense. Like, like like if they have the IP and and it's it's this hard thing. Like, obviously, yeah, it's not something that you are pushing in the parks, but there's definitely people that want this stuff. And... Yeah.
01:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm nerd man about it. I mean, I love Alien, both the Alien and Predator franchises, man. i This is the fact that this is intersecting with my Disney love, too, is weird and cool.
01:04:08
Speaker
I'm going to give you a hot take that you might get mad at me for, but i ah of the two, um Alien is definitely more... i agree. um The Predator movies were okay. I think actually, was it Predator 2 where they were in New York? The last two, though, were excellent.
01:04:26
Speaker
but do Fair. i To be fair, I haven't watched the newer ones. Yeah, it was really good. Because what was it? Prey was the ones you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:37
Speaker
ah Yeah. like Like, to be fair, I haven't watched the newer ones, but just for like the the general like IPs, I tended to gravitate more towards Alien. And I know that like yeah Alien's not like it's it hasn't carried on as much as Predator, but don't know. I still like Alien more.
01:04:56
Speaker
I know I'm with you. I like predator. I like alien, but I, I, the, uh, the last, um, the last predator movie, uh, was really, really good.
01:05:07
Speaker
it It really was. Prey was great. fair Yeah. Fair. you You should watch it. It was really, really good. I think you would like it cause it's a very different kind of movie and it's really, really good. Um, but the past couple have been very good too. I mean, it's all been done by the same director and they've been really good movies. I mean, they've, they've, they're like critically acclaimed movies even, you know, So, um yeah. But it's just... It is wild, though, to see that. Can you imagine if they made an Alien vs. Predator ride Dark Ride? yeah.
01:05:34
Speaker
I mean... Yeah, that's such a weird thing to think about, especially with like Villain's Land coming and everything. It's like... There's definitely somebody in Imagineering that has designed Alien vs. Predator Dark Ride and is just trying to get it sold. It's just there. It's just sitting there. not going to happen. It's never going to happen. Because you know there's somebody... There's definitely fans over at Imagineering. And when they got the access to the IP, they were probably Oh, this would be so cool. Okay. I have to admit, I was not thinking this is where we were going to go talking about Halloween merchandise. I was either because
Disney Villains and Star Wars Merchandise
01:06:08
Speaker
I did not read this one ahead of time. So, yeah, I was shocked. That is a very interesting surprise. We should finish it off here, though. There's a couple more things that there is a Disney Villains coloring book, which looks to be one of these very
01:06:23
Speaker
complicated coloring books. They're not, or i don't know if you've seen those or not where it's like, I don't want to call them adult coloring books, but it's like, like they're, it's not like, yeah. mean, people do adult coloring books to relax. Exactly. But yeah my wife does them all the time.
01:06:37
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. I don't like delineating between like this is a kid's coloring book or an adult coloring book. It's like they're, they're coloring book. People enjoy coloring books. but yeah But these are very like, very intricate ones, which is cool. And there's a couple of ah books that they're advertising here, which is, uh, going all out for Halloween this year. Yeah, kind of neat. and so So we have a Shadow of the Pumpkin Queen, which looks to be a story following Sally.
01:07:01
Speaker
Um, and I guess this is part of ah a larger pumpkin queen series. I didn't realize that was actually a thing. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's, it's following Sally and, you know, her kind of going beyond Halloween town, all that. And then there is a Agatha Harkness fall of the coven book, which piques my interest. Cause I do very much like the, uh, um,
01:07:24
Speaker
like Agatha and like that kind of little yeah universe that they built around her in the Marvel universe so um yeah it's cool they're doing more with Agatha too yeah I like that too so yeah this is this is great this is great You know, that that's actually one thing now that I'm thinking about it is I i know I know there's the whole like no Marvel IP in the park or I shouldn't say no Marvel IP like that. There's certain Marvel things that i that can't be in there.
01:07:51
Speaker
I wouldn't be mad if um Agatha started making appearances at Not So Scary Halloween Party. Oh, OK. Just like that out there. Yeah. I like it.
01:08:02
Speaker
Yeah. they I mean, they did announce some of them. I don't know if they said anything about Agatha, though. I i don't. I don't. Let me say she. I don't know where she falls under. I mean, I assume that they have full ownership of of her for the. It's it's a Marvel IP and just like Guardians. Right. Like Guardians is fine in the parks because it it is Marvel. But it's it's separate from those like X-Men and Spider-Man, all that kind of stuff that Universal still has control over.
01:08:28
Speaker
Agatha, Agatha slash like, like or i guess like it falls in with Avengers and all that. But Agatha, I think, is far enough removed. And it also, like I said, that like Agatha just very much fits in with like the Halloween theme, right? Like it's, yeah, it could that could go in like alongside the Sanderson sisters and all that. So, yeah, I think that would be interesting.
01:08:51
Speaker
I agree. Let's, I'm going to, the last thing in here is just talking about fall at Disney Resort. It looks all the same. I don't see anything else. I want to move on because there's other stuff I want to talk about. Yeah. We've talked about Halloween enough. We can move on. I mean, it's only three months away, but still, it's good preview and interesting. So I said last week was the last of the Star Wars March. I was wrong. They had, they've had Star Wars, they've had releases now every, like literally every day up until, until May the 4th. So there's a couple more things and I wanted to talk about a few of them, Trevor.
01:09:21
Speaker
We can start at the top here, though, and even though this was the most recent one. so Actually, I hadn't even seen this one. This one is actually new out today. So this is one with, ah there's some like, ah what are these, sweaters?
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, this looks like a sweater. yeah as Sweaters with ah Chewbacca. And i like the, um who else we got here? Jabba, Wicket, R2, C-3PO.
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, it looks like Palpatine's on there too, on the sleeve. Oh, where? Okay. and Right, right. Oh, yeah, yeah, I see that one. On the front the sleeve, yeah. Yeah, i see it. Okay, yeah, okay. I got i see. Yeah. that's Those are cool. I don't know if I would wear it, but I could see why somebody might. Mm-hmm. Right? um Then there's also these beanies, these plush beanies of ah Baby Yoda over here. And I'm sorry, Grogu, I know people get mad. Yeah. And then, like you said, Wicket too. Yeah.
01:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, i I would call these toques more than beanies. It looks like a toque, but I mean, I guess I just want to see you wearing around this this Ewok one, you know, i would totally wear a wicked toque that like absolutely. see Yeah, yeah. i can underwear that yeah And we got some button downs, too, that are let's see what these look like here. They're kind of they're a little busy. I can't even really tell what's on them. No, they don't. And you can't really zoom into them. They have just like, they're just from far away. I guess they just have a bunch of different characters on them. So yeah.
01:10:45
Speaker
All right. Whatever with that one. Okay. All right. Now this is where I thought you wanted to go. Yeah, of course it is. ah This is, this has been out for a while. This is not new, but it's the Star Tours Star Speeder 1000 vehicle play set. It's a replica of the Star Speeder from the Star Tours attraction.
01:11:04
Speaker
Mm hmm. It has a remote control to it. It's nice. Yeah. It's very cool. It's very cool. But it's like um it has an LCD screen on the inside even. Like, you know, so it's pretty cool. It says an LCD screen with authentic attraction content straight from the Disney park. So it's actually like running. It's actually running the ride. Of Star Tours. Wow.
01:11:26
Speaker
Which is cool. That's impressive. yeah Now, but seeing this, though, made me want a Lego version of this because I, you know, I'm not that into Star Wars, but I love Star Tours. It's a great ride. it's one of I think it's probably one of my favorites at Hollywood Studios, believe it or not. I just, i it's such a fun.
01:11:42
Speaker
Like, the theming in that ride is incredible because they like they really go into it, right? Like, it's... It gets more hate than it should just because it's been around for so long, I think. Star Tours is a very, it's a legitimately good ride. I agree. But I would love to make this out of Legos if they would do it, if they would do that. So make it out of Legos. I don't need the toy.
01:12:00
Speaker
Give me the Legos. um There's also, too, the they're returning, and these things are returning, so they're not new, but they're back. But it's ah this board game thing. I don't know how to say that correctly. How do you say that? Jarek, I think is what it's called. Yeah. Yeah, little chess game thing that they play. Yeah. ah the The little hologram chess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:20
Speaker
And then there's ah there's a Darth Vader, like, ah figurine thing. Whoa. Sitting on his throne. This is... And he's lightning bolts. Yeah. Okay. that This is an interesting take on Darth Vader.
01:12:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. This one iss this is one's coming back too. This is an old one. So. Yeah. I've never seen that before. That's. That's pretty cool. That's a little more dark than what you normally see. so Yeah. It lights up too. it Looks pretty heavy metal. Yeah. It does. Yeah, it does. It lights up. We also have some comic books.
01:12:51
Speaker
Some limited edition comic books are coming out. ah So that's kind of neat. ah They're also doing the create your own headband things for Star Wars, too. It's interesting that we went from like really specific kind of like.
01:13:04
Speaker
different kind of merge to now they're just like here's the stuff where we just here's the generic theme yes this is the the for the mass population stuff right like this is what that stuff is um and uh yeah there's there's some other stuff here let me see what else what else is catching there's this padme amidala lakeside collection which yeah which i have to admit it like very colorful Very colorful, um kind of surprising that they they did ah a Padme specific thing. And there's even like earrings and stuff here.
01:13:36
Speaker
um i would say that like the bag is even something like my wife would go for something like this. It's an interesting looking bag. Yeah, very colorful. I like it. Kind of neat that they're they're approaching that.
01:13:47
Speaker
Then we're doing some Darth Maul stuff here. Yeah. got ah Got an ear headband and ah a shirt. That's a pretty cool shirt. I'm going to lie. Yeah. Yeah. the The design on the shirt is is pretty neat. i kind of like it.
01:13:59
Speaker
Yeah. And jacket, it looks like. That's pretty cool, actually. And it says join the dark side on the back of it with Darth Vader on either side. It's kind of like a little like, uh, what's like a little poster, you know? Yeah. I don't know what, i mean, yeah, just, so it looks like a, like like a leather jacket or like, uh, I assume, or I, I guess it's probably not leather.
01:14:22
Speaker
doesn't, does it say? Yeah. Yeah. it It doesn't actually, no. But yeah, so that's that's that's what they got. So i listen, I know I
Disney Super App Rumors
01:14:30
Speaker
promised that we weren't going any more, but they put out a lot of other stuff and kind of cool stuff. Kind kind of weird that they were like highlighting all those other like themed things. And then it was like, oh, and we have a bunch of other stuff that like, i don't know. it's It's weird that they didn't. More for the masses. Yeah. I'm surprised that they the the Padme stuff didn't get its own stuff.
01:14:50
Speaker
um highlighting. and Yeah. Well, it kind of did. It was April 30th and that was, yeah, April 30th was her own little article there. So, okay. All right. Fair fair enough. yeah So, all right. So there we go. You know, if I, I, my, my wife has a friend that's at the parks right now and she was like, she was like, I'm staying away from Hollywood studios on the fourth. We're going elsewhere. And I'm like, yeah, that's probably a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. a Good idea. that's It's a good idea. Let's they just stay away from there.
01:15:15
Speaker
So, yeah, Trevor, I don't know. all right. You know, we should. This this is our. Just do it. Just do it. you know i mean What? Do what? Do this. Reckless speculation.
01:15:27
Speaker
Reckless speculation. Reckless speculation. Speculation. It's so reckless. It's so much speculation. Speculation.
01:15:38
Speaker
We may be wrong. We may be right. But it doesn't matter because it. It's reckless speculation. ice so The song makes me the song makes laugh because I wrote that just like, and it it was like, this is these are dumb lyrics. like this and i was And then I just made the song and it came out so good. i was like, all right, we'll stick with the dumb lyrics. It's perfectly fine. It encapsulates what's going to happen here. Yeah. is It's silly and none of this is serious. And this is us just spitballing on what these things could mean. so we We have some rumors. Rumors. Yeah.
01:16:16
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. um Let's start with the first one here. This is honestly kind of a big one. It is. um yeah Disney is reportedly exploring a super app combining parks, cruise, shopping and streaming apps.
01:16:30
Speaker
So the Disney app is what would it be called? Yeah. right which The Disney app. Which is, yeah I can see that only because of the fact that my, like, so my Disney account is already connected across all of these things.
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. So it's not too far removed to have like a one-stop shop for an app. My only thing, and I've seen people comment on this before and I agree with it because i am in IT and I have to deal with security on ah on a regular basis, is the the Disney app, they've been getting better about security and like two-factor authentication, all that. Yeah. I feel like it's not quite there yet. And the only, my only concern about them going into a super app or something bigger is that it's a bigger attack surface to get people potentially compromised. Right. So, so, I mean, I feel like if Disney is going to do this, I would expect to see some tightening up of security and all that. But what, what,
01:17:29
Speaker
the The idea of putting everything into a one-stop shop for like, you know, so so think like My Disney Experience and Disney Plus and, you know, the the cruise app and Shop Disney. Yeah.
01:17:43
Speaker
and yeah shop disney like I mean, it's it's a lot. Yeah. Like, how do you do that elegantly? That's, I guess, my question. yeah See, that's that's exactly what my take on this, Trevor, was.
01:17:57
Speaker
I like this idea just for the very fact that I hate that I have to have so many different apps to do all the same Disney stuff, right? Like, literally on my phone right now, I have three different Disney apps, right? Yeah. Because I have Disney World, I have Disney Cruise, i have Disney Plus.
01:18:12
Speaker
There may even be another one that I can't even. There is a there is a Disneyland app too. so yeah So Disney World and Disneyland app are different. So yeah. Exactly. So I like this idea in theory, right? Because i to have one app that does everything makes sense to me. In fact, I like the idea that they're, you know, cause, and you don't really have to deal with this Trevor because in Canada you don't have a separate streaming service for like all the non Disney kind of stuff. You, it's all kind of in one app and and they're just Hulu is folded into Disney Plus. Exactly. And they're doing that here. But right now, it's they still exist separately. And you can you can access the Hulu content in Disney Plus, but there's still there's still two apps. And it's just like, okay, why? you know like and it' So like the idea of a singular Disney app where I only have to log in once you know and authenticate once, Trevor, you know because because to do the two-factor, right?
01:19:06
Speaker
It's great to me. I love the idea. But how do you do it? You're talking about, i mean, on their own, these apps are very ah detailed and and very big and very, you know, there's a lot to them. So yeah putting all those those things together is I don't know. i don't know how you do it. I wouldn't want the job of trying to figure that out. That seems impossible to me, you know? Yeah. i So so my my take and my vibe on this is i agree with you that, like, how do you do that? the The biggest issue that I see is that when I look at across the different apps, so, like, Disney Plus is honestly pretty – it's pretty straightforward. Like, it's set up in such a way that, like, I can i can quickly search for what I want.
01:19:54
Speaker
I can, you know, it offers up similar shows, like like getting to what I want to see is relatively easy. um When I look at the My Disney Experience app, that's a maze.
01:20:08
Speaker
Like, yeah i I remember, like, when when they started making changes to Disney+, plus like, before I go on my trip, like, i would spend...
01:20:19
Speaker
hours before, like, you know, like a month or so before a trip coming up, I would spend hours just in the app, like clicking through things to make sure that I knew how to get to what I needed to get to. So that when I was in the moment in the middle of a park that I wasn't panicking because I didn't know how to find mobile ordering or I didn't know how to get to the bus schedule stuff because they weren't like, it's not,
01:20:45
Speaker
It's not easily presented. and And that's just like Disney Park apps have a lot of information just on their own. Then you fold in like the the Disney store stuff is like, okay, I could see like that's that's still just like really...
01:21:01
Speaker
it's a section of it, but also like, like, because like in the Disney park app, you can like, you know, scan and pay for stuff. Yeah. The app too. So it's like, I do a lot. is yeah So I see where like those connect together, but then like the, the streaming stuff is like, how do you fold that in?
01:21:16
Speaker
Right? Like i actually, yeah, I was going to say, I think it's more about folding the other things into streaming. I think the app to end all apps will be Disney plus. Like, I think I mean, yeah, I mean, that's the branding of it. But like I said, my my Disney experience, though, in its current state is it's very cumbersome. and and And but understandably, it has to have a lot of information. yeah And, you know, maybe maybe that is a call to them to realize that, like, maybe there's too much information or maybe like they like it sucks because.
01:21:51
Speaker
You know, saying everything going into super app is like, oh, my God, you know, they can they can do everything. But that might mean that they have to actually concede that there's certain things that just won't happen anymore.
01:22:03
Speaker
yeah Like, i have to wonder if maybe they'll take things out that, you know, if it's like an obscure thing that not a lot of people are using. But but I guess the annoyance is it's like, hey, i I took time to like learn the app and learn how to navigate it.
01:22:15
Speaker
And if all of a sudden features disappear, that annoys me to a point where I'm like, I don't want to do any of this anymore. Like, if you're just going to give me something and then take it away, it's like, well, then we're done. Like, I don't want to.
01:22:29
Speaker
I'm not going to mess with it if it's going to be like adding and taking stuff away. So that's kind of the danger of them saying like, let's put everything into one app is that i feel like it sounds, it sounds like very daunting and it sounds very crazy, but I wonder like, I wonder how feasible it actually is.
01:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with you. I it is. And, you know, you're just talking from a tech perspective, Trevor, you know, because you talk from. i'm but I'm a heavy tech person. So, like, for me that kind of stuff is familiar enough for you. know I can navigate But for people that don't like my parents have said this, they're like, if we didn't if we weren't with you, we would would have been screwed going to Disney. So. I also mean, though, from how this would be difficult for them to execute because, ah you know, probably each one of these, you know, businesses or lines of business or whatever is on their own system and infrastructure. And those things may or may not be compatible with what you're trying to bring to Disney. but You know, like you're trying to marry all these things that are...
01:23:32
Speaker
Different, probably. Right. I would assume. and And that's that's a challenge. But like if you look at it right now, like I just Googled this really quickly. Right. So Disney has Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN, Disney Now, My Disney Experience, Disneyland ah app, Play Disney Parks, Disney Cruise Line Navigator. And then Aulani has its own app.
01:23:52
Speaker
as well oh my goodness. and then you have the disney store app n ah n d twenty three so it's you're talking about a lot of stuff it's a lot of apps you know and and i totally think they should try to consolidate them now what that actually ends up looking like i don't know but ah ah justiama ah dmaro said this in in the ah in the shareholder called the year where he said that disney plus was going to kind of become like a centerpiece of you know of of experiences and things like that. So he kind of called yeah he called it a digital centerpiece for the future. So i listen, I like the idea. Like I said, i wouldn't want to be the one that has to execute it. And truthfully, if i would bet if Disney is going to do this, that they're going to hire like an outside consulting company to do it for them and not do it themselves.
01:24:35
Speaker
ah Because they they do that a lot. People don't realize that, ah right? Yeah. People think that Disney just develops everything in-house. They don't. they they They will also hire companies you know out there, consulting companies, that will do a lot of these things for them. Like, for example, Magic Bands. they That was ah an effort between them and and a consulting company. And you know that's the kind of stuff that they do. So, well I mean, I don't know if that's what they're going to do. But to make this work is tremendously difficult. I like the idea of it. It just has to be done in a way. And Trevor, you also know the other reason why they want to do this too, right?
01:25:08
Speaker
is because think about the cross-selling they can do, right? oh yeah. If you have the Disney Store app while you're on a cruise ship and you're standing you know next you, looking up ah you know the Daisy meet and greet, then you know they know that you like Daisy and we start can start you know sending you alerts for for Daisy you know merch or something that. They can do that kind of stuff. you know They can probably do it now, but it's a lot more you know broken up.
01:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, also, it it works the other way, too, with like like, now that you bring that up, I just thought about like, you know, the the movie Elio, where... it it wasn't really marketed well or it was it didn't hit like like the the regular channels, I guess, that would make people aware of this stuff. Whereas, yeah, like you said, if there's if there's like a one-stop Disney app, you know you know, like they do with Disney Plus, is you know you know they can put it on the front page that even though you're going there like, oh, I'm i'm going into like Disney Park stuff, before you even get to the Disney Park stuff,
01:26:06
Speaker
Elio is playing in theaters, right? And so like they can... Yeah, you're right. Like they they can cross promote stuff a lot easier if it's all in one app because they can make like...
01:26:16
Speaker
Basically, whatever they want to push forward, but not not just like based on your your search criteria and stuff, but like, you know, new movies, new shows and everything, they can connect it across everything. Like whether you're looking for merch, whether you're looking for a movie, whether you're planning a park trip or you're on a cruise, like it's I get it But.
01:26:38
Speaker
it it Like I said, it's it seems like a very dangerous thing. And if they don't do it properly, yeah did it could blow up fantastically. Right. I'm not going to lie, though, Trevor. One of the things I'm thinking in my head of how nice would it be if I could, ah you know, just be sitting in my living room watching Disney Plus and then just, you know, pop into some wait times, you know. I think all of us do this sometimes where you just pop into the Disney app and you look at wait times for one reason or another.
01:27:05
Speaker
i did it today because Big Thunder reopened and I wanted to see what the wait time was. But like I would do that all the time. Forget all that. Put on Disney Plus. Put on the old resort TV loop. You know, I want that i want the resort TV loop on Disney Plus just live at all times.
01:27:21
Speaker
Yeah. you You know, it's funny. There's YouTube channels that do that. There are, but yeah. and And they're pretty close. They're pretty Yeah. And I guess the hard thing is, is that like they, there's like the old ones and then there's a newer one that they're doing. I do like the newer one, actually, but. Yeah, I'm still partial to the old one. I like both. So, yeah, I mean, you know, maybe that's a thing where, again, you know, they can have it or, you know, you can connect those things together and you can say that, you know, you, you know, you want to have, know,
01:27:50
Speaker
you know, just even your your room your room TV set up a certain way, but, you know, you can control that through the app. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, it it does.
01:28:01
Speaker
There are cool synergies here, though, too, Trevor, like to point, right? So, like, you know, if the app knows that I'm staying at Disney World and knows what room that I'm in and is of it is part of Disney+, plus then when I walk into my room, I expect to be able to access my Disney Plus account on the TV there, right? Like, why not, right? Like, it's all connected, right?
01:28:19
Speaker
Like there should be like, there's there's so many spaces for like that to that kind of stuff to happen and make things easier for people. I think it's a great idea. And I'm all for less apps. Like I i love it. I just don't know how they're going to execute it.
01:28:32
Speaker
And, you know, maybe it's just like that you open the app and it's got like a bunch of tiles on it of different things that you can do. And maybe you can choose what those tiles are based on what you want. You know, you can say, you know, I want.
01:28:43
Speaker
the Disney World one, I won't want one shop Disney, I want, you know, this, and then it'll be just different tiles and it leads you to different parts of the app. I don't know. That's probably how I would do it. But, you know, yeah the the the hard part about that is, like you said, you know, if you if you know what you want, it's fine. My concern is, again, I always try to think about this stuff outside of, you know, me as as a you know, heavy technical person is like, yeah, I can find whatever I need to find in the moment. But yeah for, you know, the general user, like to your point, it's like you can set up whatever you want. What if you don't know what you want? Or ah like even like said, sorry, i keep going back to the like the My Disney Experience. And, but you know, they kept adding stuff over time. but And then they kept moving things, right? Like loaded yeah like that's the problem that it's like they set things up a certain way. And that's like, oh, but we need to add stuff. this thing to it or this thing changed and we want to add, you know, you know, you know, like bus wait times or, you know, mobile orderings, like they were all things that evolved into it over time, but the app wasn't necessarily set up to handle scaling like that.
01:29:49
Speaker
And that's the part I think that hurts like the general users that when, you know, they they set it up like, you know, oh, you know, as of like this date, it's set up perfectly. It's like yeah, but in six months,
01:30:02
Speaker
things have changed enough that yeah it just doesn't make sense anymore. Right. And yeah that's my only worry with these is that I see this all the time with with apps and just like companies in general is that they keep like there's this compulsion to even when they get it set up to a place where it's working, somebody has to come along and change it.
01:30:26
Speaker
And when it's all in it, when it's all in a single app, the the danger of that is that it doesn't just affect like, you know, if Disney plus, if they change it, it's fine, that's Disney plus, or, you know, my Disney experience is like, fine, I, I can work with that. But when I have to like, when like the entire app or everything is connected and I have to like,
01:30:45
Speaker
relearn that whole or all those aspects of the app because, you know, like, cause they would be changing things, you know, you know, at scale, it it kind of becomes, it becomes its own job basically. Right. Like I, like, and I get maybe that's what they're trying to allude to here is, you know, you know, maybe consolidating things, they can take away some of that stuff or they can make it easier where it doesn't feel like a part-time job to,
01:31:11
Speaker
manage your apps for and I shouldn't say ah sorry not everybody sees it that way but I know for people that I've talked to that are not like heavily looking at it it's very overwhelming so maybe maybe part of the consolidation is they figure out how to take away that overwhelming feeling of it. But it could also go the other way where it's like, oh, to do anything with Disney, you have to, you know, if you haven't done the 56 step process to set up Disney Plus, you're not going to get anywhere, right? Like it's, I don't know. I'm i'm very split about this. Like, again, I know this is just a rumor, but
01:31:52
Speaker
i'm I'm curious, like you said, you know, maybe maybe the somebody will have the right vision on how to do it or maybe it'll just become another app on my phone that I don't want to look at.
01:32:04
Speaker
yeah i get it. I get it. I get it. yeah yeah let's let's ah Let's move on. now
Space Mountain Redesign and Technology
01:32:09
Speaker
yeah We could probably do a whole episode on that. yeah I want to talk about, so Space Mountain that is being built at Tokyo Disneyland, which I don't know anybody... Looks good. Looks so cool. I don't know if anybody's been following this out there. Like if you haven't seen what this looks like, find the concept art for this because I mean, just looks awesome.
01:32:30
Speaker
ah And, and it just looks, it's going to be called space, but space mountain earth rise. And it's, they essentially closed the old space mountain at Tokyo and tore it down. Just like, just like, yeah, we're done with this. We're starting over. Right. Like,
01:32:45
Speaker
And what this rumor is really about, though, is there is a video out there on the Internet that is ah claiming is showing some behind the scenes of one of the ride vehicles ah being loaded into the attraction.
01:32:56
Speaker
And if you look at the ride vehicle closely, it looks like it is a ah the the same ah ride vehicle used by Guardians of the Galaxy. ah which is you know called the Omnicoaster, which was developed developed by Disney and ah by Venkma.
01:33:12
Speaker
ah to you know You guys all know, I think at this point, what Guardians of the Galaxy does, where the cars rotate 360 degrees. It's controlled rotation. It's not the same as like some where they just spin freely. This is more like Haunted Mansion, but fast. Let's go with that. Yes. Yeah, yeah that is correct. Yes. Audubon mansion, but fast. ah But this, this video is speculating that also that there's going to be tilting track effects here.
01:33:40
Speaker
In common track effects. So pieces of track that tilt. So meaning the, they can tilt like back and forth ah kind of thing. It's, there's different things you can do with tilting tracks.
01:33:51
Speaker
um It's, which would add a whole new, you know, level to this. Hmm. Yeah, that's that's really interesting. And then it, it I mean, i guess to...
01:34:07
Speaker
it's fair to i I keep it's breaking my brain that, you know, we're talking about Space Mountain and I keep like looking at it going like, but Space Mountain was, you know, it's just it's a classic coaster. Why are you messing with it? But I also see the the benefit of them doing this.
01:34:27
Speaker
Yeah. Where, you know, you know, it's an updated ride. It obviously becomes, you know, a new centerpiece of the Tomorrowland in Tokyo. Yeah. And, you know, why would they not make use of this new track technology? The the other thing, too, is... So this... The Omnicoaster is not exclusive to Guardians of the Galaxy. I don't know if you've been paying attention to Universal at all, but the yeah the new Fast and Furious... Yeah. So they're using the same ride ah ah bri technology as well. So, I mean... i assume Disney developed it with with ah with them that it was...
01:35:02
Speaker
maybe Maybe it wasn't like an exclusivity thing, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, you know, even though they have ah they may have patents on certain things, that doesn't mean that, ah you know people other people can use patents. Like, it's just a matter of licensing and all that. So, um yeah, it's ah it's an interesting thing to think about, like, Space Mountain in the same sense as Guardians. Like,
01:35:29
Speaker
It's, yeah, it's, I'm want sorry, I'm just watching the video now. And yeah, that that's definitely the same ride vehicle. um Yeah, that's, and then the tilting track. I don't know.
01:35:43
Speaker
i don't know if it makes it cross into a place where, like Space Mountain was was always to me like a kiddie, not a kiddie, or I guess like kiddie. a A low to mid-grade coaster. like like some injury level and Entry level. level.
01:35:59
Speaker
Yeah. Like, it you know, not, you know, it's it's fast, but it's not overbearing kind of thing. But Guardians is definitely a step up from that. So I have to wonder if if this is the path that they're taking. Like, New Space Mountain could end up being...
01:36:16
Speaker
something that is not family friendly, which is weird to say. like like I have to wonder how extreme they're going to go with like the track tilting and everything, right? And also the speed. We don't know what the speed's going to be. we don't i mean It's worth noting, by the way, the new Fast and Furious ride at ah at ah the different Universal Studios is being manufactured by Intamin. So I don't know if they have...
01:36:36
Speaker
and it's which is a rival to the other company I mentioned before. I don't know if they've created their own technology around this or whatever, but so it could just yeah, that they're not slightly different enough. Exactly. They were able to do it. Yeah. That's probably what it is, honestly. But it's, it's interesting how, how they do that. But yeah, I don't know, Trevor, because I, listen,
01:36:59
Speaker
There's absolutely no way that they change either Space Mountain in Disneyland or Disney World to do to do this kind of thing. They're just not going to do it You don't see a Tomorrowland refurb on the horizon? Really? People would flip out if they did if they like changed you know Space Mountain like that.
01:37:20
Speaker
but But if you said that Space Mountain was becoming like Guardians, I think a lot of people would be like, yeah, okay. Yeah. i like I get what you're saying. Again, I get, like like I said, they're theyre like Space Mountain is reserved in a certain certain space in my head as like a certain level of coaster. And i mean, not to say, like Guardians honestly is very approachable. Like it is a very family-friendly coaster.
01:37:46
Speaker
But Space Mountain is, it's just, it's a little bit slower and, you know, not quite as intense. And i mean... Yeah, it's it's a weird idea to think about, like, yeah you know, this is because this is being developed in Tokyo Disney, obviously it's not, or, you know, they have their own ah investors and stuff that are helping build this. So it's not Disney proper that's that's building this.
01:38:13
Speaker
um But that's not to say that, or there have been lots of rides that have been brought over from the international parks into the North American parks.
01:38:24
Speaker
um That, I mean, could could they redo Space Mountain? could Like, there could when when Villain's Land is done, could they announce Tomorrowland being redone?
01:38:39
Speaker
just don't see it. it i'm I'm going to land on the side of maybe. yeah All right. that's so i there like I know you're saying i don't think so. I could see this maybe being a thing in the next five years.
01:38:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I know it's crazy to talk about ripping out Space Mountain. Um, cause I like, I like Space Mountain. I, I think it's, you know, it's a great classic coaster, but if you told me we were getting more guardians, I mean, oh, that's man, that that's actually very hard to, uh, say no to. It's hard to choose. Honestly, like it's, it's hard to say which, like,
01:39:20
Speaker
would would I miss Space Mountain if I was given more Guardians-type coasters?
01:39:28
Speaker
Again, like, by way the way, none of this is, like, i there's no indication of this happening, but I think once this park, or once they finish this Tomorrowland redo, I wouldn't be surprised. maybe Maybe not the entire, like, redo of Space Mountain, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some some pieces from this that are pulled over into Florida.
01:39:50
Speaker
But it's worth noting, by the way, this is going to be but it's even though Disney's not really paying for this, it's going to be Disney's most expensive ride that they've ever built, which is four hundred and sixty million dollars is the current estimate.
01:40:03
Speaker
That's insane. It really is insane. It's four hundred sixty million dollars. But I mean, you look at the thing, it's I just the visuals alone are incredible. ah yeah And wait, the so looking at the picture, that so there's like a big building there that this... There's a show building, yeah.
01:40:21
Speaker
Yeah, so, but in the concept art, you don't see it. right and It's a hidden show building, yeah. Yeah, i' I'm wondering if maybe that's like kind of back behind, like because there's like this like sweeping walkway. I wonder if it's like...
01:40:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's back there. The walkway kind of hides it, maybe. Yeah, they rise it up enough that you can't see the top of the building, maybe. I don't know. they Obviously, they they they cared about the sight lines here. so Yeah, it's interesting.
01:40:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's certainly interesting. We don't really know what it's be, but that's that's kind of a a really kind of cool thing. So we'll have to see. All right. Last bit on here is kind of we're ending on a bit of a sad note, but kind of understand it, too. I mean, is it sad? I mean, is it sad, though? I don't know.
01:41:03
Speaker
I mean, I guess it just never got. OK, so so
Magic Band Plus: Future and Functionality
01:41:07
Speaker
the the the um headline is or the rumor is Magic Band Plus is being phased out in the Disneyland Resort.
01:41:14
Speaker
So they introduced Magic Band Plus back in October of 2022 to the Disneyland Resort specifically. um Obviously, Magic Bands have been at Disney World for, you know, a long time now and and in various iterations. Yeah. it was It was specifically the Magic Band Plus, but it sounds like they're starting to pull back on selling them. They're not as they're not pushing them as much in Disneyland. Yeah.
01:41:39
Speaker
I mean, it kind of makes sense because from what I understand in Disneyland, the magic bands are not as heavily integrated into everything. Yeah. um Like in terms of like using them as your room key, as your purchasing, as, you know, lightning lanes at park entry. Like they they do work for park entry and all that, but they're not, they don't have, they're not as equipped to use them. And, know,
01:42:02
Speaker
i I know this this is categorized under rumor, but... And it's based entirely on the availability. So so there there could be two things with this. One, they're phasing it out because they realize that, like, MagicBand Plus, the big killer of it, I think, is the fact that ah you have to charge them, right? Like, it's...
01:42:24
Speaker
It's an extra piece of or it's like a, you know, you don't have Right. Well, but if you want to use the expanded like yeah for the price point, it's assumed that you're buying them and you're using them for the expanded features to them, which means you have to be perpetually charging these things, which, you know, can be a turnoff. Whereas, you know,
01:42:43
Speaker
You know, the older Magic Bands were you just use them and they were cheap, right? Like, you know, it was very it was a lot easier to go and buy multiple Magic Bands. I feel like, you know, maybe maybe this is. free you're just gonna yeah free Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The basic ones you get for free. I'm wondering if this could be one of two things. It's either like they said in this article or this is um this is a ah rumor that we're we're talking about from an article that was indicating that the availability is dwindling.
01:43:11
Speaker
It could be that they're they're pulling back on it, or it could be that there's just a lull where i wouldn't be surprised if Disney is going to push, you know, yet another new version of Magic Band. Maybe they're doing some revisions to it. We're going to get like a Magic Band 2.0.
01:43:25
Speaker
And so they're they're pulling back on the current ones because they don't want to keep selling the old stock if there's something new on the horizon. Yeah, I mean, and and yeah even this even in this article, they quote a cast member as saying they were taken out of stores because they were getting updated so you could use them to pay.
01:43:41
Speaker
So that's one of the places at Disneyland that it's, you know, I don't know about you, Trevor. When I'm at Disney World, I use my magic plan to pay for everything, right? Oh, yeah, it's something you can do Disneyland. And that's probably part of the reason why they haven't been you know as as you know, as ubiquitous, I guess, you know, like at Disney. They're are far less attractive if you, like, it's it's the same thing as like the old, like, Disney dollars, right?
01:44:04
Speaker
Where, like... I don't know if I'd go that far, but... Well, no, no. Okay, hear me out. Is, yeah like, Disney dollars were like, hey, you you know, you you you buy into this Disney money and the assumption is you should be able to use it everywhere. But there was always, like...
01:44:17
Speaker
places that you couldn't use it And i mean, magic bands are the same way, but it's the same kind of thing where it's like, why would I buy into this if I can't use it? Right. Like that's, that's the sentiment. I don't know. that that makes sense. Yeah. I tend to believe this isn't true because I feel like the death of magic bands has been predicted many times now. And I just don't,
01:44:38
Speaker
Because even at Disney World, people were speculating this like a year or two ago. And I just I've never believed it because I think that they like selling all these things. They keep making special edition ones. i think that ah I know that they have a lot of problems with Magic Bands and it makes things a little bit more difficult. But I mean, i don't know. I think guests really like them.
01:44:56
Speaker
Okay, let's let's tie this back to the whole super app thing. yes Because, so so here's the thing is that, you know you know, in addition to talking about, you know, having a one-stop shop for everything in a super app, there also has been the the sentiment of trying to get people less attached to their phones, right? Oh, yeah, that. When they're in they're in the park specifically.
01:45:18
Speaker
Magic bands are a way to solve that because it does take you off your phone, It means that you're not having to spend time, you know, logging into an app or you know, you know, doing all those extra steps. Like you said, I'm the same way, you know I set up my, my magic band so that I can pay for it. When I was there with my brother, he did the same thing. Like he, you know, we had, he had never been there before, but I said like, Hey, I set up my, my, my band so that, you know, any purchases that I make, like, you know, I could quick order stuff, but also, you know, if I'm buying merch, I just scan it. I just, you know, you know, everything is just,
01:45:52
Speaker
use the magic band. I'm not carrying my wallet. Like, it makes sense that, you know, Disneyland should be pushing for the same thing if they want people to use it because that's the whole point of it is, you know, it become it replaces all those other pieces including your phone to a certain point and if they want people off their phones more, why would they take out the tool that is getting people off their phones?
01:46:15
Speaker
Yeah. I agree. I agree. And they just put in all those, they just put in like a bunch of tap styles there too. I mean, that's, Yeah, they're all I mean, i I'm more inclined. Like I said, I i think that this is wrong. the The idea that they're phasing them out is wrong. I think it's I think we're in an in-between phase right now. I think that there's going to be a revision to Magic Bands. I don't know.
01:46:38
Speaker
I mean, maybe maybe they're going to make them more efficient. Maybe they're going to do something like, you know, improve battery life or whatever, or, yeah you know you know, do some fixes to how they functionally work in like the RFID or something. I don't know.
01:46:51
Speaker
And maybe that's why they're just not pushing current stock as much. Yeah. I can see it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I think there was something you wanted to, i think that's enough of that. I think there's something you wanted to mention about the group before we, before we go. I mean, well, yeah, I was, I was going to mention it actually, or, you know, I'll i'll just, I'll just start it now because we're we're going to start wrapping it up here. But, um ah you know, just, just actually wanted to shout out, um,
01:47:15
Speaker
i ah So ah Erica in our Facebook group put up a post asking for other people's help with, um you know, finding a travel agent for booking specifically celebrity cruises or non-Disney cruises in general. Yeah.
01:47:31
Speaker
i I, you know, we we talk about the the Facebook group, some, you know, I try to bring it up every week that it's like, hey, you know, it's a great place for people to talk about Disney and and just generally like, you know, you know, travel and stuff like that or like like they vacation planning and all that. Yeah. yeah um Really appreciate that, you know, you know, Erica posted this and that, you know, people are responding and trying to help her and point her towards, you what they need to do. That was the reason that we made the group. And I just wanted to highlight it that, um, I just happened to see that here that, uh, it was, um, it, or I haven't seen a lot of stuff specific like that in the group. Like it's, you know, people have talked about Disney stuff, but just general like vacation planning talk,
01:48:18
Speaker
ah Happy to see that and we'd like to see more of it. So, you know, you know, thank you, Erica, for putting that out there and hope to see more people, you know, getting involved like that in the group.
01:48:30
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Let's so let's wrap it up. kiss Yeah, I guess with that, I'll just i'll just continue along with the wrap-up. So, you know, if you guys have any questions for us um that you, you know, if you want to if you want to send us questions about trip planning or, you know, you know anything Disney related, um you can always email us at welcomehomepodcasts at gmail.com.
01:48:53
Speaker
Or you can also contact us through our website, which is welcomehomepodcast.co. And, you know, just hit the about or the the contact us there. and And, you know, you can send us an email. Like I said, ask us questions or, you know, if there's something you want us to talk about on the show, anything like that. We love hearing it. um You know, as I mentioned, we have a Facebook group, but you can also find us on Facebook as Welcome Home Podcast.
01:49:16
Speaker
um You can also find us on YouTube as Welcome Home Podcast and Instagram as Welcome Home Picks. And if you want to help support the show, you can go to store.welcomepodcast.co and check out our different merch. um You know, maybe you're you're needing some shirts for your next trip or a hat or something like that. We we
Podcast Conclusion and Community Engagement
01:49:32
Speaker
got all that for you. We got you covered.
01:49:34
Speaker
And if there's something that you don't see in the store that you you think you would like to see, you know, again, just send us an email and, ah and you know, we can we can add stuff to the store. So if if you're looking for for a particular type of merch, we'll we'll see what we can do to help you out.
01:49:50
Speaker
um Also in that same vein, we do have a Patreon. So you can, if again, you know, just helping to support the show, you can go to patreon.com slash welcome on pod. We do have exclusive ah merch in Patreon that only our Patreon supporters get. It's a logo that is not available anywhere else. And our Patreon supporters also get access to the Discord server, which as we mentioned, we have lots of conversations that go beyond the podcast. So, so you know, we we do some behind the scenes stuff there. that you know you you may not see on the podcast. Sometimes when we have ideas, we'll we'll put it out to our our Discord listeners to to help help us you know figure stuff out or just give feedback. And ah yeah, we just ah we just really enjoy that we have a ah great community that has been building up around this. And we've got a couple of different platforms for it. So...
01:50:42
Speaker
um Yeah, like said, if you're interested in in that, like i said, check out our Patreon if you want to get access to the Discord server. ah Last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify, leave us a five-star review. um It just helps more people find the show. And on iTunes, you can write us a review and just let us know what you think about the show. And we we love getting that feedback as well.
01:51:05
Speaker
Yeah, you can also see my video of the ah of my journey delivery in there too. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeahre the the yeah. Tom's private drone show is on Discord. it's very yeah Yeah. The other thing you do besides, ah you know, order things by drone is ah don't forget to subscribe to Welcome Home Podcast so you be reminded every time we release an episode.
01:51:22
Speaker
You can find our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, and just about any other podcast app that's out there. You can find us. Just search for, you know, obviously Welcome Home and, you know, look for the one that has the the castle and our names on it. ah they give A huge thank you to our sponsors, DVC Resale Market and, of course, Key Holder Vacations for sponsoring this episode and all of our episodes for a long time now.
01:51:44
Speaker
They are a really great company. Go talk to them about your DVC stuff or about non-DVC stuff. Just buy tickets there. Whatever. They do everything. ah Join us next time for more Disney Parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:51:58
Speaker
The Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the TV. We do a hug when we had a chair.
01:52:10
Speaker
How she can cuddle, she's no man's affair. I look around for all the folks, found her in her sugar bowl. Hey, look out, there goes my ball and chain.