Latest / The Worst: Beyond the Magic / Disney Luxury & Lightning Lanes: We Spend Money So You Don’t Have To

Transcript

Disney Luxury & Lightning Lanes: We Spend Money So You Don’t Have To · The Worst: Beyond the Magic

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the worst.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: We were hoping to record this live from Disney's Riviera Resort.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: But apparently Disney forgot to install a podcast studio at Bar Riva.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're home now, slightly poorer, a little sunburnt, and carrying some opinions.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: How's your vacation, Pete?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it was an actual vacation.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: You were at Disney for a week.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was conducting research.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, yeah.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: For your what?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Your doctoral thesis in Morocco?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I take this podcast very seriously.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know you do.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: You went on vacation, you came home with a spreadsheet.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's color-coded.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have no doubt.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: After all that research, we're gonna separate Disney hype from Disney reality.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, so today we're spending everyone else's money.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome back, everybody.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna give you a quick recap of our graduation tip.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I took uh several teenage girls down to uh Florida for Disney World, and we stayed at the Riviera.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go over some of that.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're gonna, it's not a park review, um, but it's we're gonna talk about things that stood out over several days.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um the theme is not everything Disney fans rave about is incredible, and some things deserve a lot more credit than they get.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And before you write uh angry emails to us, we're happy you're wrong.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Jamie, let me talk about the Riviera to get us started off.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I know you've been to the Riviera.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Let me get your opinion.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: We have.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: We first of all, welcome back, and I can't believe you survived the week with three uh what pre-college teenage girls, one being your daughter.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're here to tell the story, you're survived, you got you're you have less money now, but you know what?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was probably worth it, wasn't it?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it it it's always worth it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was a really great time.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We hit those pitfalls that we always hit, and I think we're gonna talk about a couple of those, but it was really good.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I I really want to get into it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't know how to say this.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I know I know if we get more fan mail, we're it's we're probably gonna hurt some feelings on this one, like you mentioned earlier.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um but like I said, we're happy they're wrong.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's no problem.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is America.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is America.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's talk about the Riviera.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Riviera, you know, as you know, the story behind it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's inspired by Walt and Lillian's Disney trip to the French Riviera.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Lillian wanted Walt to relax, and Walt worked anyway.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's kind of what he did.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the story is all over that hotel.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can feel it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's elegant, it's relaxed, it's sophisticated, it's not loud Disney.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I can tell you what I loved, and you can share too, because I know you've been there, but what we loved was the artwork.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the artwork is honestly some of the best on Disney property.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're into artwork, it's amazing.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: The tangled mosaics out in the courtyard um are fantastic.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're beautiful.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they really are.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everything feels expensive without trying too hard.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The rooms are beautiful and very comfortable.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the skyliner is the biggest reason to stay here.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you love Epcot, Hollywood Studios, this changes your vacation.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of treating your room like somewhere you sleep, you actually use it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: You need a break, back in 10, need to change for dinner, easy, need to escape Florida heat.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Done.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Transportation changes things more than people realize.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's completely worth it just to the transportation alone.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And to bring up your point about the artwork itself, if there's something at the rib area that you like, not just in the gift shop, but if on the walls, walking down the hallway in your room, a painting, a mosaic, or whatever it is, whatever type of artwork you can find on the wall, it's for sale, folks.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Mickey's happy to take your money on it.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you can tell a cast member, hey, we really like this painting.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have a smaller version of it uh for sale?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they can find it for you.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So all that artwork is for sale.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking at uh every time you turn a corner there, and all the floors are the same.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So no matter what floor you stay on, you're gonna see the same artwork.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: But everywhere you turn, there's a really great one of Alice.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um they've got the princesses there.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite pieces was the uh aerial um coming out of the water and the mermaid one there.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Super good, super good.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the quick service there surprised me.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everyone raves about Riviera's quick service, and it's good.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not life-changing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I'd rather eat at Polynesian, Caribbean Beach, or contemporary.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't walk in expecting a culinary perfection.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Problem is, is that, and we'll talk about this later in the segment, sec in the segments too, is uh the internet, the damn internet, um, you know, bless his heart.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last episode.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we're gonna end up talking about it all the time because it's giving us a job here in what everybody went out there and said, hey, um this uh this quick service at uh Riviera is really good.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: You should all go there.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of you from pop and art of animation and the Caribbean resorts, you should all go over there on the Skyliner and eat breakfast um or lunch or dinner.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And but breakfast, man, like you know, I I mobile ordered, you know, I took advice from the mighty Jamie McMahon and I mobile ordered.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are learning something, my friend.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I am, but I'm gonna tell you that mobile order took forever, and the place was packed.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was zero seating.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and so that's where I think some of the internet it gets into it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But when I did get it, I did not eat the best breakfast sandwich in in Walt Disney World.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was good.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I ate it, I had to do it, you know, research, like I said, for my spreadsheet.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, research.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was good, but it was not life-changing.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so don't like again, don't expect everything.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we'll talk about you know, access to these places, but um a lot of what you see on the internet is going to either bog down that place, or if it if you see it as a trend on something, or you're gonna find out that the expectation doesn't quite read reality.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So moving on, uh, just a couple other things with the hotel.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the pool, it was nice, it was clean, it was perfectly fine, but really nothing memorable.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would recommend the Riviera to anyone looking to call us as Travel Nation's worst travel agents.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you want luxury, if you want quiet, if you want subtle Disney, you'll love the Riviera.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you want giant Disney icons and over-the-top theming and childlike feeling, you'll leave wanting a little bit more.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's almost a little too sophisticated.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a normal hotel that's trying to be a Disney hotel versus Disney Hotel trying to like class up or you know be moderate.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, that's the the hotel.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um from your stay, what do you do do you believe me?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, let me ask you about this.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Did you go up to um Tapolino's on the top floor?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Did you want us watching new fireworks up from up there?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have an old fashioned up there?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Did you enjoy brunch, the character brunch up there?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do any of that?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's our favorite restaurant, my favorite restaurant up the top of the top of the Riviera.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so that may be a hole in my in my plot line because we did not do that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Every night we're like, hey, first we didn't because it was it's it's a little bit pricey.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when we did the quick service uh dining, so we didn't plan a meal there, but we did say and something, you know, hey, we're we're guilty of the viral trends too.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: We did see where you should go up there for sunset and have a drink at the lounge and really just enjoy the scenery.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so we did have that on our list of things to do, but our uh relaxing vacation turned into just uh you know being you know delightfully busy the whole time.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we would get back and um and we did afternoons uh while we were there in June, most of the afternoons were pretty cloudy and we had to deal with some rain.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Weather was pretty good, but you know, typical Florida stuff around that time we would have gone up there was uh it was rainy.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it would it's it's Florida in summertime.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna rain for one hour a day.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh pick your time anywhere between noon and 5 p.m.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna downpour for at least an hour and then it goes away.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's just that's just Florida in in summertime.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know you talked about the pools a second, just so people know there are two different pools at the Riviera Resort.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's one for adults, right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And there's one for kids.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, there's not one for adults?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it may be booked as that.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the whole place, most of the kids were at the bigger pool, but there were kids at the adult pool.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know how strict there wasn't anybody there like slapping wrists for kids, but there were kids there.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So just managing expectations.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was quieter though.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: But the difference is one pool has a large um, I don't know, like Greek style or French-inspired style like uh tower and a water slide, and the other one doesn't.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the only person I saw go down the water slide was my wife and none of the kids.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Good for her.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Good for her.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she did she done did good.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I know you talked, you touched on it just a second ago.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned who should stay here.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you think adults, this is more of an adult-related uh trip.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you shouldn't, you're not taking three teenage girls, obviously, who are basically adults, but uh, you think basic your basic uh family of four with two little kids, this is not for them?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I definitely think it, you know, if you're coming to me as a big family or you're coming to me with a lot of littles and some and some kids that are you know awestruck by the magic, um, this is not the place I'm gonna send you.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is a um DVC hotel.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was built to be a DVC hotel.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, most of the res reservations, I think, are DVC.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think like if you're the older crowd um and you want uh some some luxury and some quiet and not as many kids, I think I would definitely recommend it to you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The DVC tend to be a little bit older in age, a little bit more money.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um so not me, by the way.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also young and poor.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still DVC, but young and poor.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh young, but uh but I would recommend it if you're looking for quiet and luxury.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it is just nice.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's pretty.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is a beautiful resort.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I would also 100% recommend it for the Skyliner.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Skyliner is a game changer.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I hated the Riviera, I would say the Skyliner rocked it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I could easily go over to Caribbean Beach or Art of Animation and still use that Skyliner.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it was the easiest stop, the closest to Epcot, but I could ride it a little bit longer.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it never ever took that long to get anywhere we wanted to go.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was I mean, I don't know why we're not all staying on the Skyliner now.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the I love the monorail too, my man, but uh it it just it was a thrill.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Skyliner is way more fun.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Way more fun.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And just for a free, I mean, you're staying at Disney, so it's not free, right?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: But just as a free uh attraction or free something in the afternoon to do, if you all are dead tired and sick of the parks for the day, like you know, most people get around two or three o'clock in the afternoon, especially the kids, just get your butt on the Skyliner, go for a ride.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't cost anything.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Go up and down the Skyliner, go to those three different resorts.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you could bar hop between those three different resorts on the Skyliner if you wanted to.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: If it's an adult-only trip, you can um just get out and walk around the three different resorts that are there.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's it's just a cool thing that to have.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and like Pete's saying, if you're staying at the Riv, Apcot, boom, Hollywood Studios, boom.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Both my two favorite resorts uh right there.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, I mean, you can't ask for anything more than that.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's saying, you're back in 10 minutes.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: You leave the park, you're back to your hotel in 10 minutes.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get that anywhere else unless you're staying on the monorail.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And even on the monorail, it could be take a much longer, depending on what direction you're going.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So is this Disney enough?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would not send every family here.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think it's Disney enough.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the first thing you notice is it's it's it's not overwhelmingly Disney.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you if you have people that aren't huge Disney fans and just want more of a luxury, then yes.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but most of our families that'll call us and say they want to go on a trip, I would I I would probably avoid sending them to the Riviera.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, unless we specifically ask for it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you would stay at the Polynesian over this place again, right?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a tough one.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I love the Polynesian.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I love Trader Sam's.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I probably would stay at the Polynesian over this one.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you get the monorail, which is also good, um, but I would definitely miss the Skyliner.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not gonna get that over at Polly, but you get Trader Sam's.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean that's a pretty good trade-off.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good trade-off.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is pretty good trade.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Let's fast forward to the parks, Pete.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to Epcot, man.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me all about your Epcot day.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, gosh, I'm so excited about this.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was probably one of my best park days.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh we're gonna talk about the premiere pass with this.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll admit something.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to not like this.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Disney is trying to rake me over again, they're trying to take my money, and they absolutely are, but I loved it.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is the this is the poor man's VIP tour, is what this is.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is a hundred percent the poor man's VIP tour.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, what it is is I looked and I wanted to do the research, you know.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm here for the people.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here for you guys out there.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to do this for you.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is hard work.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, um, all right, what's the cheapest park?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like grateful it was Epcot because I'm like, all right, cool, I love Epcot.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably gonna go there a few times.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I it's for two people, right?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So Brianna and I um only, not the whole family.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The girls were on their own doing their own thing.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we entered the park and we came in through France and uh we decided to work counterclockwise through the whole park.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So go around the world, pop out at Mexico, go around the um the interior sections, back in and close it out with Canada and uh the UK and back on the Skyliner.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was amazing.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: We did that every ride.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: We just walked right on.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we started out in France, we got a slushie and a champagne, we went on, walked on to Ratatouille's, popped on out, continued around the world.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we made it to Norway comes next.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we were right on to the um frozen ride, easy peasy, miss it Malstrom, but yo, go frozen.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we Charlie Miked down to uh Nor uh to Mexico hitting everything else.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we had your favorite Avogado Margarita.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't understand why they have to put teen on every glass, but whatever.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm here for it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another pro tip.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: We brought our own metal straws.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Worked out great, by the way.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good idea.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Disney still has paper straws.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't need the lightning lane for this, but since we were in Mexico, we jumped right on to um you know three cabaleros and saw your drunk uh half-naked chickens, which was amazing, one of my favorite rides.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Had a great time, spent too much money on merch in Mexico.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: You and the chickens are both drunk.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, I definitely had a good little tipsy on.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so what was next?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think we popped out and hit uh walked right on to Guardians, like I've not not awaited at all with the lightning lane.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we weren't jumping around, you know, we didn't have to start at Ratatouille, head all the way over to Test Track, which was broken down for most of the day, by the way.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was probably it was thunderstorming, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was bad weather.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's why, yeah.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: If only they could put a cover on the open section of the ride, huh?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, then it would be open.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Disney is if you're listening, because I know you are, uh, because we're 10 episodes in now, we're basically international celebrities.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um put a cover on the outside section of Tress Test Track.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: You can run it the entire day if there's rain or no rain.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm off my soapbox.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Go.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: We we hit Soren, and I'm gonna put a tack in Soren because I need to come back to that in a minute.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: But we did that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we went to finally do the last one on our trip test track again, broken down or closed.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's broken down, but it was closed.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that time was definitely rain.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we're like, all right, that's too easy.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go back um on the Skyliner um and go change clothes, check on the girls.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we did that, and then we came on back.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: But because we had that damn premiere pass, when we got back, we walked right on to test track.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna come back to test track again, too, because I've got more to say about that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you walk on, um, you don't have to refresh the app.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can still plan, like we planned our route, so we knew uh our waypoints along the way.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't need a compass.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was it was fantastic.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: For families of six, five, probably not, but uh for couples, a hundred percent if your budget allows.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna tell you straight out uh for the two of us, for that day, which was a Sunday, we paid$300.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's not awful.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's not that bad.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not awful.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: $300 for that peace of mind and and not walking seven miles and a quarter mile because we had to bounce around whatever time those lightning lanes were available.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you can afford this and if your vacation time is limited, this is 100% what I would do.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to stack two parks, uh maybe you just premiere past the first park and get through all the rides and then go to another one for the evening, I think that would be great.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you just like want a relaxing day, not have to do 20,000 steps and just cut it down to 10,000 steps.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this was I would I I'll rave about this and tell people about this.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So jealous that you got you got to experience it.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like you're saying, you didn't have to ping pong across the park, go from here to here to here to here, all the way across the park because you had a lightning lane available for whatever ride was available at that time.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you just leisurely walked along the park and hopped on a ride when you wanted to.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't have to have your phone out the entire time refreshing like a madman trying to get the next lightning lane, you know, whatever whatever time, whatever time it's available.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: So think about, yeah, you paid 300 bucks.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you did.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's 300 bucks you don't have anymore, but you had a great time.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you had a way more relaxing, stress-free time rather than having to be on your phone every every 10 seconds and trying to refresh your app and try to get the next ride.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's what you're giving up.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna pay the upfront fee, but you're also getting on the back end of that a way less stressful experience.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think it's again, if it's in your budget, it's it's something that you should definitely think about.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know I think it's something I would definitely do in the future.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now that you've done it, I think it's uh I think I have to do it.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a competition.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, not at all.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like I I'm jealous because I want to experience it like you experienced it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because so often are the times that we like I like you you're saying, you just get so bogged down in the app, you get so bogged down with refreshing your screen and trying to go from lightning lane to landing lane, you're you're crisscrossing the park just because one ride, and especially Epcot, because nothing is close to each other.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: You you go from you know the World Showcase to all the way over to Nemo, from Nemo all the way over to Test Track, and then to Guardians.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a long way.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a long way.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um doing it this way is man, this is a preferred way.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And let me add, you know, as soon as we were done, um well, we would do Living on the Land and then did Soren.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I I just want to talk real quick about both of those.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think um what I'm trying to say is like sometimes the expectation that Instagram is gonna give you is way different than what you'll actually get.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, what was it?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about um the the restaurant, uh the quick service.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not great, but what was great was Test Track.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I loved the upgrades.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um it reminds me of classic Epcot.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is definitely, hey, here's the future of tomorrow.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was blown away by the graphics and what they had in there.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give it away.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um the ride itself is the same exact ride it was, um, and which was fine.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was nice.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh but the the storytelling and the way that they're trying to do keep keep the experimental prototype community of tomorrow um alive in there, I think that was a good one.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a good counter for stuff like Guardians, which is just simply a thrill ride.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um they give you some educational stuff with Test Track, which I really love.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then um I'm gonna move over to um Soarin.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's Soren America now to celebrate uh Freedom 250 and America's birthday, and it was awesome.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was awesome.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm used to the old one, and I think maybe just because it was new, um, but the smells were great.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um it starts off with, and again, I don't want to give too much away, but I'm a Mainer.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from Maine, and uh it starts off with a lighthouse in Maine that I've been to probably a hundred times.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean they set it up just for me.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, and another thing, Jamie, what do you think the best seat in the house at Soren is?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Probably front and center uh either top row or front row because you had to do it with people's dangling feet in your face.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a this was a an argument that we had.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm like, we got center, center, center.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we had the center row of the center aisle.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what else was the other center?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um so middle, middle row of the three cars.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was the argument.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I think center, center, center is perfect, but she thought center center top would be fine because then we wouldn't see the feet.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but either way, I mean it was a win.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: We got exactly those that seat.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, center, center, center.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we did see the feet, but we, you know, I had my hat, so blocked it out a little bit.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly, how's Patrick Warburton?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's amazing.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, putty really knows his stuff and I felt safe.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I stored my stuff, you know, I made sure little ones around me had uh were were good.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You pulled on your yellow strap?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh aggressively too, I might add.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was excited.
• 22:00
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know me.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I got my little clap when I'm excited.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help myself.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Did they fly you through the Midwest?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a Midwest kid.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Did they fly it through the Midwest?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: They did.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: They did uh all kinds of stuff.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna really smell like cow manure, did it?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's that's what it smells like.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was one.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they sent you yeah, I'm not gonna give it away for you.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there are smells, and some don't line up with where you are, but it's okay.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's talk about where you ate at Epcot.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where'd you go?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: We did a I'll go backwards.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: We you know, we tried all the things, but the the highlight I want to give you is space 220.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I did a lot of research on this.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I wanted to pick something different to do.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we made a reservation for the lounge.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was expecting the lounge to be separate from everything else, but the lounge is not.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: The lounge is on the same exact floor of the restaurant.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: So there's just bigger tables over here, and then there's a bar and smaller tables over here, um, which is fine because if you've never been to space 220, um what you do is you check in down in the lobby, and then you they give you a ticket and you wait for them to call you, and you you get in an elevator.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what that elevator does is it um simulates you going up into a space station.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they have like an elevator somehow that is from right in Disney right there, and all the way up into this space station.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it is so cool.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you get in there and there's a you there's a round thing in the middle, and down at the bottom you see a screen, a big round screen, and then there's a screen up top, and then you can see your departure away from the earth, and you look up and you can see your part depart your um arrival going up into the space station.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it literally feels like you're going up into space, and then after this really cool ride, it opens up the elevator doors, and you go out, and it you are um, you know, I think 180 screens of space.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, you see the you see Earth down below, and then occasionally there's some characters that float by.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's an astronaut that goes by.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he's tethered to, maybe he's been out there forever.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not really sure.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of weird.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Poor guy forgot about somebody forgot about.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some spaceships go by.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I did ask if any TIE fighters or X-Wing fighters were gonna go by, and dude said no.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sam, Sam, our waiter, who was pretty awesome, he said no.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he did say that one of the astronauts that float by does occasionally have a lightsaber.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's like, okay.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you probably need it in space.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You do need it in space.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had an old fashion that was fantastic, and um the um in the internet was a hundred percent accurate.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: The short ribs, the brace short ribs were sliders, were fantastic.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were really, really, really, really fantastic.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds really good.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Really good.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, they were great.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I was gonna ask you about the food because initially when this restaurant first opened, the reviews were awful where they were really bad.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we as advisors were like, do I tell people to go here?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want them to think I'm bad at my job because I sent them to a bad restaurant.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: But sounds like to me you had a fantastic experience.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is it food over experience or experience over food?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I went just for the experience because everybody, I read all those reviews and everybody was saying, ah, it's a one and done for me.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh we loved it.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: The experience was on par.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the food was on par.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those uh I forget the other thing that we had, but I know it was really good, but it just wasn't as good as the as the sliders.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the the the cocktails were great.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were really good.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I'm given anything negative on this, it's just that it's not a lounge, it's just a smaller table at the restaurant.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a little noisy, uh, I mean, but you're you're at Disney.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it is what it is.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh, and then the price was reasonable.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I would go back here and I would recommend it to people.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh cool.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if they fixed it or if we just had a really good night or Sam was good to us.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're out there, man.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sam, you're the you're the you're the bro.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: All the above.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: I know you mentioned lounge a second, and uh I think people will confuse this one with Geo82.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Are you familiar with Geo82?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: It just I am, and I it's on my list, and I know it's fantastic.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: You want to tell them about it?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's located in it's not at Space 220, it is located at Spaceship Earth.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what you need to do here, and I'm gonna ruin it for everybody, and it's gonna be crowded and but whatever.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: You want to go in the evening time, and it's only for adults only.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: At all all the entire time it's open, it's 21 plus only, and no children allowed.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you want to go in the evening and just before reflections start, or I'm sorry, whatever the Epcot fireworks show is called nowadays.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you want to sit there and you can look out from Spaceship Earth from the golf ball and watch the fireworks from GO 82.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen the videos.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's it's definitely high on my list of things to check out.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we should go there in January.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think that's that's on our our list, our to-do list for sure.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make that a reservation.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: Since we're on food, talk to me about the dining plan you had.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we did we did a quick service.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh I came away um liking it more than I expected.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been like, oh, we're not gonna we're not gonna get our money's worth.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's gonna be a pain in the butt.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, it really simplified everything.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um no mental bath.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: We just enjoyed the meals and we just enjoyed um showing up at a quick service, not worrying about it, being able to mobile order.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and the kids, when I sent them, or the the young ladies, I should say, when we sent them off, we knew that they had um they had it covered.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think it was really good.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um one tip is if if you're drinkers, order the alcohol with it and then buy the soda because you're getting like drinks are like$20, you know,$17 to$20.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can get that with your meal, you're really maximizing your plan.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we had it out to be about$400 per person.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so and that was over a six-night span.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we had uh 12 meals, you get two meals a day.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if you are spending more than$400, roughly$430 on that six-day plan, then you've made your money back, right?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we easily did that.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there were some meals um that we added drinks, um, and we even added drinks to the kids' meals that we they weren't kids' meals, the teens' meals that we took and then just bought them, you know, whatever they wanted, soda or water.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we really maximized that.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was really good.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the one thing I'll tell you is is a little bit of a frustration is um plant-based options.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um we had a vegetarian with us and we had a um dairy restriction with us.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Disney has them, you know.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know they have them and they they are prepared for that kind of thing, but it sometimes they felt hidden.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like you had to have the password to the secret menu.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you're vegetarian or vegan, you have to do a little menu searching.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't think they have enough options because I mean they've got burgers.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't see a reason why they can't have like a black bean burger substitute right there with it.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean it's minor.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um overall, I would give it a I would give it a big thumbs up.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: So just as a wrap-up, I know we've talked about this before.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: You get two, if you're doing the quick service, you get two quick service meals a day.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um you get them all front-loaded.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you get two quick service meals a day per person, and then you get one snack a day per person.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get that handy little mug that you can fill at the resorts only with your little RFI chip.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you can't bring them into the park, I mean you can bring them into the park, but you're not going to be able to use them anywhere in the park.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: See, I thought you could use them at any quick service location.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of the quick services, um, they didn't work.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe some of them did.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't bring mine in, the girls did, but they had a hard time getting them to work inside the park.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe a little more research from us, we'll let you know.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get back to you.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're you're heading there in September.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: So buy a cup, try it out in the park.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: For us, it just didn't work.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I like, I like your uh that's a key play.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you're gonna drink beer, if you're gonna drink uh whatever it is, right?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like a like a um a hard seltzer or something.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you're going down in the Riviera and you're going to the French-inspired, lovely quick service area.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: What's Pete's saying is go ahead and get yourself that uh go ahead and get yourself that high noon, get yourself that Corona with your breakfast.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't drink it at breakfast time.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, unless you want to get the party started right away at 9 a.m., whatever.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's your vacation.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to judge.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's cheaper to go ahead and buy and ask for water and or buy a soda or juice, and then keep that the that can of uh beer for later in the day, right?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: So when you or when you come back from a breakfast in the park, you got something in your in your refrigerator upstairs in your room.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a great play.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to know there's still I remember when I figured that out years ago when our kids were a little at Art of Animation.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is amazing.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're not stopping me.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it's still around.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Here we are, 2026, however many years later, 10 years later, probably, and we're still doing it.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that's good to know that that's still around.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great play.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna you're definitely gonna make more in your return um by doing that if you if you want to drink alcohol.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we drove.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I actually still have uh cider, a beer, and a wine um in my fridge from um from that meal plan.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we did we we did get what we needed out of it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's that's a great play.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great play.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's move on.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Where around um the Riviera did you what did you eat?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh any other restaurants that you ate around um off the Skyliner or off the um the resorts nearby the the uh Apcot area?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Gee, Jamie, I'm glad that you asked.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, see, I'm getting better at this podcast thing, P, and uh that's that's what's called uh in the podcast world.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's I don't even know what it's called.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: What is it called?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's called setup.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: There you go, sure.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh transition, maybe I don't know.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: A segue?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Segway, bingo.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: See, that's the word I was looking for.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a segue and a setup because we um, you know, we the theme of this is expectation management, right?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of things that are popular shouldn't be, and things that aren't popular should be.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so for me, we went to investigate.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: For you people, of course, research.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: We went to investigate beaches and cream.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as you know, beaches and cream, or you may not know, is famous for having the kitchen sink.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the kitchen sink is like five scoops of ice cream.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: They recommend you bring four people to eat it, and they have every topping that you can have on top of it.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, um, you need to plan this way out because you cannot get a reservation very easily.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you certainly can't get it for uh five or six people uh in the afternoon.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we did is we did a walk-up list, um, talked to the cast member.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: We were nice to the cast members, um, and we only waited about 10 minutes before we got a seat at the counter two.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got a seat at the counter.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I mean, this one hurt for me.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I wanted to love it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I like the nostalgia of things, and I like old uh classic, you know, I love um Hollywood for the old classic Hollywood style that it brings.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So to fountain style restaurant.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um that kitchen sink is iconic, um, and and you've got the opportunity to have this old school, um, really like you know, old school Mickey vibe.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, it was so average.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like the decor was average, the the hard ice cream was good.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not a lot of places still do hard ice cream or whatever, but the hard ice cream was great.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh everything else, it was crowded, it was loud, um, the food was average.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like I just I was not blown away.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've always dreamed about eating here, it's part of Disney history.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was the internet told me it was a must-do, but um, I won't go again.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did get one Sunday which we split, and I hate to say this, my friends at Disney, but they they gave a dirty spoon.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like, you know, we're not um big on, you know, I'm in the military, I've eaten with a dirty spoon before.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, they want to charge us, you know, a lot of money for this, and um, they have this really iconic restaurant.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think they need to pay a little bit better of attention to that.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, it's it's I don't know if it's gone downhill or it's I would just I would avoid peaches and cream if I were you, um dirty spoons or not.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: You made a whole lot of enemies just now.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com, folks.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to go ahead and let Pete know how you feel about things, um you can yell at me.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, no, please.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he no, he's not gonna cry.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe he will.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um we ate at Peaches and Cream a long time ago.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: That trip I told you I ruined my uh ruined Disney for my wife back when we first married.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um we ate there.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: We did not get this march of happiness.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um we did not get the the kitchen sink.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: I saw people getting it.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: You get lots of attention.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: People are yelling and screaming at you, they're excited for you, like a siren goes off, a red light's flashing, right?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it looks like a great time.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like whipped cream, so I don't want the whole thing of whipped cream out for me.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's sure that's not what I want.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: But um I'm I'm surprised about the experience you do.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry you got a dirty spoon.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: That sucks.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, and that's not it.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not the thing's not ruined from a dirty spoon, but it's just one more little tiny thing on top of it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just one more thing.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, eh.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Any where else did you where else did you go?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know as well as I do, and I gotta give them another big shout out is back in the America Pavilion, uh, the barbecue, um, especially on the quick service.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Regal Eagle.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, we went there for lunch, just amazing.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you like barbecue at all, this is the place to go.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the mac and cheese was good, the meat was good, the brisket was good, which is just unheard of for me.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: But they make so much of it and it's still so good.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then the drinks were fantastic.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: We got the lemonade.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to walk out with the moonshine, but I was trying to be good.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: We had a long day ahead of us, but um, you know, that was good.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I wanted to give you something good before I go back to another the worst.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jamie, have you ever done um the um the tea um experience at the Grand Floridian?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, I thought um I thought your afternoon tea was gonna be at the uh cake bake shop with the new restaurant there, uh, where everybody's paying 22 to 25, 28, sometimes$30 a piece of cake.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, I I didn't, I've never had the afternoon tea at uh I love the grand flow.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like I said, I'm a pop century kind of guy, uh, or art of animation kind of guy.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'll walk into the grand like I own the joint and uh and nobody asks any questions, man.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just a regular uh fancy guest like all the rest of them.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I've never had the afternoon tea there.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: We do like 1900 Park Fair, the character dining there.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but tell me about the afternoon tea.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you derailed me a little bit because I'm gonna have to circle back.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll forget.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I gotta tell you about the cake, the bakery.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you went to the cake bake shop.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, because we're on the Skyliner and it's right there, the boardwalk.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: My first experience at the boardwalk.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, love it.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it in the daytime, I loved it in the nighttime.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the bakery, however, uh, save your$45 on the piece of cake.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we split one for like four million dollars.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we ate the whole thing because it was expensive, but right uh it was it was average.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: There was some dry spots to it.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember it was like that.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it was some kind of fruit vanilla um type one.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it was completely average, you know, four million dollars for a piece of cake.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: An average piece of cake.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it tasted a little bit like sheet cake.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but hey, you know, I'm not gonna tell anybody not to do it.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: We waited in line for it, we got it.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um it just wasn't my favorite, and I'm a big cake fan, so maybe uh I had high expectations again.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: So lower your expectations when you're going in there, and maybe you'll enjoy it, but it isn't very expensive.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Either in our fat kid.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I love y'all out there, and y'all know I love Disney, but this is the worst, so I'm dragging it down a little bit more.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about this afternoon tea.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: We we Disney bounded as um Mary Poppins and um Bert, who's the street sweeper, and you know, it wasn't crazy.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had the jacket with the stripes on it, and I think you saw the pictures.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh Brianna had just a white dress with a red, kind of like a corset around her.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was, you know, very simple Disney bounding, you know.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people noticed and they said, Yeah, that's great.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were in the mood, you know, we're ready, we're walking into the Grand Florida.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: You pack these outfits?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: We drove down.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Disney adult.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disney adult at our finest here.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: I see, I thought they like they bought, like gave you that when I saw the picture.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well that's fun.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: They gave you the outfits.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: You went out of your way to pack those and you dressed up for the day.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, go.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all right.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: I got it.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all right.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: I did it for the people.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: More research.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Disney bounding.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we gotta we gotta find out about it, man.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so we Disney bound, and uh, I started off on the wrong foot because um we drove over there because we had a reservation, and uh we're a little tiny bit early, so I dropped her off and uh I drove around for 15, 20 minutes trying to find a spot because it was packed.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't clear where to park.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Valet took up a whole section that had plenty of spots, but the two places, the convention center and the regular parking, they were jammed full.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and there was nobody moving.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to go.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was uh, I think you could walk across the street and or drive across the street and then and then walk over.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm in my like suit, and you know, I'm all I'm like, I didn't want to do that.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I waited for the spot, so I got off on the wrong foot.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we got in there, and you know, the Grand Floridian is a gorgeous hotel.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is amazing.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's on my bucket list to stay there, and I want to do that.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the atmosphere is perfect, but the experience not so not so much.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the scone, where they started off off with the scone, oh, it was fantastic, it was beautiful.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: It tasted really good.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know scones could be so moist, they were delicious.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everything else was average at best.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, he came out, showed me the teas, but you know, you're paying um like cents, like pennies for tea, right?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this this experience cost us over a hundred dollars each.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we had tea, and then um the the food was not great.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like the the cakes were dry, the the sandwiches were dry, the the the salmon um uh card that they made um didn't taste great, didn't have much for flaving.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was very underwhelming for uh a hundred plus dollars.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I mean if you want an elegant tea and that's your thing, you want to get dressed up and you're having like a bachelorette party or you're going with your mom on Mother's Day, like the experience is great.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, go for the experience, but I just want you to know the food's not good and the tea is you know, the tea is tea.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's tea.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely, and the words of Ted Lasso, absolute garbage water.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't you know, I don't know why I don't know why people drink that stuff, to be honest.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: So let me get this right.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: You paid$100 a person for tiny dry sandwiches.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: And tea.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then you you left hungry.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: I did, I did.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Brianna definitely did.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: We did I she I took her to eat after that, yeah, for sure.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the uh, I mean, if I'm giving it, if I'm giving it props, um the experience is you get dressed up and you're you're in your like Sunday best, and you can go and you can sip tea and have a conversation, and you could look at the treats because they are made beautifully.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was one that was made out of a card, um, you know, because it's all Alice in Wonderland themed.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's one made out of a card.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't know that.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was cool.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: One made out of the flamingo, there was the um the uh the Mad Hatter's hat.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just beautifully made desserts and sandwiches.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: However, they tasted terrible.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Man.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Again, folks, the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Send your hate mail to Mr.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Pete Morrison, but we'll be looking for it.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: Just disappointment after disappointment after disappointment.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're not really selling Disney on this episode, are we?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Are we, Pete?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm really, I'm really not.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I feel bad, but I mean Sorin, amazing.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Test track, amazing.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but and I'll tell you what else.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I well, I'm gonna give you a mid-range.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I've given you the worst, I've given you the best, I'm gonna give you a mid-range.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um the rock and roller coaster with the Muppets, I loved it.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorite rides.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is the best roller coaster.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ruin it.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: At Walt Disney World.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it feels like the Muppets snuck into the building overnight, painted over every sign that Aerosmith had.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: They changed the soundtrap, they soundtrack, um, and they switched some signs and they called it good.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's mostly it is it's the same ride.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as you're going upside down and around, you they had the road signs, they're the same road signs, they just have like Muppet theming on them now.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, but it makes sense to me.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like Aerosmith is, you know, in 1999 it was great, you know.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was fun, it was funny.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And now the the the Muppets, they they add some whimsy to it, they reconnect.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Muppets aren't going away.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you and I were watching Muppet Babies, our kids are gonna watch the Muppets, they're great.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh it's fun and it's funny, like I said.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it's it's uh it it was really cute.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that they did the upgrade, but don't expect a lot of different stuff.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Muppets just hijacked it.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Literally went in there with paint and hijacked it.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, rather than Aerosmith, it's the great Gonzo with the fake mustache.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Completely, completely.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but the you know, the Food Fight, I love the Food Fighters, I'm old, I can connect with them.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: They played in the courtyard, so I was already in the mood.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: The the uh the electric band inside playing um Roll Lo Costa was uh fantastic.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was uh it was great.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: For all those listeners out there, that's Dr.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: Teeth and the electric mayhem, by the way.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Teeth is the lead singer.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it was really it was really enjoyable.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had a great time.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the best part, and the absolute best part, and I I am definitely going to m invite them to be hosts here at the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com is uh Statler and Waldorf.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely steal the show.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: They're at the end of the ride, and you hear them heckling the ride, and you get to see them up in their little balcony booth.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the best improvement that they made to the ride, and they would make great guests or hosts for the worst, beyond the magic.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that definitely definitely would be better hosts than you and I for sure.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're we're the worst.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: For the worst.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: Although our podcast numbers are slowly trending upwards, and thank you folks for doing that.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: We we are paying attention to that.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I made a joke earlier about how we're internationally known now, like it's kind of a big deal.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta pull it up to look at it, Pete.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: How many countries now do we have listeners in?
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: Five.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: The best five countries and the USA, or not counting the USA, right?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: We have five other countries.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, the most recent one being Australia.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: Australia.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: We have listener in Australia.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for listening to Worst Beyond the Magic.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: G'day, friends.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, have yourself a Veggie Mide sandwich.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: We probably shouldn't do that.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: Which are also not good, by the way.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I just upset all the Australians.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: But Veggie Mind is not good.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: The one Australian.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think we have Brazil, Canada, who else?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Great Britain.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um the we got the UK and um I think Spain.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that was the other one.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: For two guys just talking about Disney.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: We're international celebrities now.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna like this episode, though.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're not.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: We made fun of Benji Might, which is a national treasure.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, right.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you made fun of the dry cake at the cake bake shop.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, you lost all our listeners just now, just then for that.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my friends, I'm here to do the research for you.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I got in there, I got fat.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: I gained nine pounds for you people.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you're happy.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: But just so you know, Pete, what did you do with your first day back after you came back from Disney?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Tell everybody what you did because you're crazy.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, they don't want to hear about that.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you we did a we did a triathlon because we hate ourselves.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had to burn off the uh the churros.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we did uh we did go to a a party um for DBC, Moonlight Magic.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's got to be a separate episode because there's a lot to unpack there.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Pete Morrison did eat um two Mickey bars, two ice cream sandwiches, a churro's, and a box of popcorn because you know what?
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were free.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you came back in the same pants, right?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: You'd have to buy different pants, different sizes.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: They're just tighter.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're just tighter.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then your first day back, you did a triathlon.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: I burned off one of the churros.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Nuts.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna wrap it up here.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna hit uh quick and fast with a bunch of uh questions here.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: Are you ready to play?
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: I am indeed.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest surprise of this trip overall.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: What's your biggest surprise?
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Biggest surprise is the premiere pass.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: I really didn't want to like it.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want Disney to get their hand in my pocket one more time, but I'm giving the mouse that money with uh one or two people, and uh we'll probably have to do this when we go in January, Jamie.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: With a smile on your face.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: Please take my money, Mickey.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Please take it.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happily do this again.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: There it is.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um most overrated out of your trip.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh overrated.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh overrated the restaurants.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think overrated is the tea um and the beaches and cream.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tea first because of the price of it, and then beaches and cream.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Best value that you had.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give the dining plan on this one.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that was great.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think we got a lot out of it.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think we we were really struggling at the end, but uh one more one more little plug.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're down at Disney Springs, the Polite Pig, which is another great barbecue place, um, they do great barbecue and you can get alcohol and they do a really super uh job there of getting you in, getting you seated, and getting you great food.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: So Polite Pig, Disney Springs takes quick service.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite, yeah.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And another tip if you're driving and you're and you're going home and you have any um quick service left, march over to the Earl of Sandwich, and you can get a sandwich and a drink, pack that in your car and take that on the road so you're on the way home, and then you're not wasting any of those sandwiches or any of those meals.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we definitely do pretty well on that on that meal plan.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like it.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: You did well.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um best transportation.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know the answer to this.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Skyliner.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Skyliner.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I I can't say it enough.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you're if you're talking to us um as two of TravelMation's worst travel agents, we're gonna square you away.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to talk a lot about Caribbean Beach um and those resorts right there, the uh beautiful walkthrough there, um, art of animation, or um, what else is on that Skyliner, Jamie?
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh highly recommend.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: So give us a call if you need any Disney um recommendations for that.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll definitely hook you up because the Skyliner is um the MVP of uh transportation.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_01: Did you um did you experience?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's it's been in the news lately uh with the Disney news that uh they are started to check magic bands at Disney Springs for the buses and the and the boats going to Sassagula Springs, any of the resorts on the river there.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they want to check your magic band to make sure either you have a reservation to eat there and or you're a guest at one of the Disney's uh resorts.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm super glad you brought that up too, because I was actually gonna scroll over it for this one because I've given so many other things, but I think this is a really good thing that Disney's doing.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't start it until we left, so they started it today.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, actually.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you're going around to places, um, what you're gonna notice is it's just they're mobbed.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I'm paying all that money for the Grand Floridian and there's so many people there, or if I'm paying to stay at um then New Orleans and I want to go get beignets and I can't because the line is six days long because everybody came over on the boat from Disney Springs to go get beignets, like I feel like you're missing something of value for what you paid for at the hotel.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for your vacation.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's not saying that nobody can go, right?
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it just you cannot go from Disney Springs and you can't take the boat.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have a reservation, if you have a park reservation, I'm not sorry, not a park reservation, a hotel reservation, you can go to other hotels and you um they're just saying you can't take the bus from Disney Springs to the hotels.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you can go on properties still.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to cut it back a little bit, and I think that that's important because a lot of these places are mobbed.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said about the quick service at um uh the the Riviera, like it just was so busy that it I was like, man, this is an expensive restaurant, and I feel like it's um all-star sports now with the amount of people here, and they don't have the staff to support it.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you also did go in June, right?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: You went in June, so it's school, school's out, right?
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's when people travel.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's when the they're not hampered down by the school system anymore for their with the school calendar.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's unfortunately that's a busy time of year to go.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's any time when the school calendar allows it.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you that's something you have to plan into your um into your your park planning or into your your vacation planning, because like Pete's saying, it it it may be summertime and it may be mild, like you're saying.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I think um I think in general, what they did with the bus system at Disney Springs and the boats, uh, there at Disney Springs going to um Oakie West and um the other resorts um on the Saskatool Saskagoula River, excuse me, um, is a good thing because you you are paying more to stay in that Disney bubble, like he's saying, and it it all he's mentioned pretty much this whole time on uh was money.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um you are paying a lot more to stay there.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you should have that priority.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: You you as a guest of Disney, Disney's resorts in the bubble should have that priority over somebody who isn't.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think it's I think it's a good move.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's uh you know, obviously it's gonna take a little used to um for people that aren't uh used to that and uh uh guests trying to visit Springs and go other places while they're on Disney property that aren't staying on Disney property, it's gonna take some time, uh a little bit of um growing pains, I think.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I think it's it was a good move.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was a good move.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get back on track.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're pushing extra an hour, so let's uh let's wrap this up for the people.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh in closing, like I think Disney is funny, you know, I love it, um, but it's funny because sometimes the thing that everyone says is amazing is also um just okay.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the thing that you skip ends up being your favorite.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why Pete does the research, folks, so the rest of us don't have to.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: You're welcome.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's episode, leave us a review, send us your own hype versus reality Disney takes.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: We might read them in the next episode.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: Especially if you think Pete is wrong, which he said a lot of mean things this episode.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like we've been easy.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we build this as the worst and um expectation management, but I feel like we've just been raving about dining plans and uh um mobile mobile ordering in Morocco.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to get into the nitty gritty.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you're welcome.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you're you're you're welcome, people.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: You did you did the hard research, you made the spreadsheet, you ate the dry cake.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Pete, you're the worst.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: Jamie, you're the worst.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: This has been the worst beyond the magic.