Hello everyone. This is the parks academy where we discuss and celebrate all things. Theme parks related. We focus mainly on Disney parks and resorts in both Anaheim and Orlando. My name is Paige.
name is Steven,
And today we will be talking about the latest in theme park news. There’s
much to talk about. Um, So, so, so much.
My list is humongous.
it’s Right before we started, we, We were like taking down some notes and going through things that we thought might be important. And it’s pretty long, So we’re gonna try to not rush through this. but We gotta, We gotta get through it. We gotta pause. I don’t think we’re gonna have enough time. Um, what is going on in your life this week that you were excited about before you say that? Um,
I just wanted to ask you, did you figure out what you were gonna buy with your Disney? Money yet.
Oh, yes. And we’ll
talk. about that Briefly why. I asked.
Okay. So I am definitely going to use part of my money to buy our daughter Moana bath toys.
Yes. Okay.
We have watched Moana 8,000 times. In the last three weeks.
I actually think it’s safe to say we’ve watched it every day for about a month. almost,
every day, I think we’ve watched it in its entirety at least. Three times.
Yeah.
Some days we’re like,
we usually get through, like
straight to your welcome. Mm-hmm. ,Watch that get through shiny and then go back to your welcome.
Yeah, I’ve actually grown to really love that movie. I think I’d seen it twice since it came out in theaters.
and I’m, I’m really growing fond of it. Um, the reason Paige has money. is bec Well, the reason she has money to spend at Disney is because for her birthday, I bought her a. Um, mini mouse, Christmas uh, sweater, sweatshirt.
Yeah. It’s like a pull.
over. And, um, we washed it and it was so small when it came out and I got her like a little bit of a bigger size, but this
was
super small when we washed it. And then all the reviews said it shrink, it’s
legitimately two whole sizes.
You have a handful of that size and Disney sweatshirt and apparel. So I was shocked. that
of my Disney pullovers are the same size.
So, um, I wrote to Disney and they were, I thought they were just gonna tell me too bad cause I washed it, but they actually gave me a full refund. So you’ve been, you’ve been, like toiling
for.
Over a month and a half, trying to figure out what to buy
Well, I was holding off with
Christmas. Yeah. Yeah,
So so I’m definitely gonna do those Moana bath toys. And then I’m thinking about either getting myself a t-shirt or I might get myself a. Nice new water bottle. A co sicle.
Yeah. Yeah, you. Um, talked about getting an avatar t-shirt on the way home. And I don’t know if you’re goofing or if you were really that. drawn
like a really cool, it’s sort of a cropped, um, tie dye.
Mm.
Avatar shirt. And I thought it looked
You, think you would wear an avatar shirt To animal kingdom,
for sure. I would. Yeah.
That’s cool. I don’t think I would ever buy Avatar apparel.
I like dressing for the parks. Yeah, that’s my style. So.
dress for park, you want? Um, yeah. the. .
I’m
excited about shopping on Disney, but I’m also excited that. You got me a Lego puzzle of sorts. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. yeah.
my birthday also. And it’s the reversible Mini and Mickey one that depending on how you put the puzzle together, you follow the instructions and you can either make the mini one or the Mickey one. I did the mini mouse puzzle and it looks awesome. It does.
look awesome. So I. You thought it was gonna take me like a week. I finished it today.
Realistically, I thought I was gonna take you like three days just on and off, but you ended up finishing
like.
An hour and a half, maybe. in total. That
it this afternoon and I finished it pretty quickly. Yeah. So that was really fun.
It was brainless work. That is something in that I enjoy. I love puzzles and I like building things.
Yeah. it was
enjoyable. Thank you for that.
Sure. Yeah, of course. That’s one of your gifts you didn’t have to return. Um, I dare I say it. Um, Dare. I say it. I’m I’m just, I’m just excited that the 49ers are in the playoffs.
Um, and that they made it through the first round against Seattle and they won. And uh, we’re either playing Dallas or Tampa next week. So.
That’s kind of what I’m
about right now. You’re
always excited for your sports
That’s cuz they’re usually doing well. And I’m you know, seeing the warriors tomorrow in DC. so There It’s Good.
you know, it’s all. good,
fun times.
Why don’t you crack open this list and get us started on. it
right. Let’s, there’s
talk about. Yeah,
let’s dive right in. So I’m gonna start with just a few things that are currently presently happening right now. This weekend. Um, there’s a handful of new stuff in Walt Disney world. We’re gonna start over in Florida. And so we have ep, Epcot festival of the arts.
Which kicked off this week. Um, lot of really things that come along with festival of the arts, but one of the things that was big notable news was
the
popcorn buckets are back. Yeah. And hopefully no one waited in line for hours and hours and hours because you could mobile order it this time. You could go on the app and there were times that you could go and get your popcorn bucket.
Mm-hmm. .So Disney well done.
The festival. of Art is something we have not done yet We’ve done All the others, except for this. and I really want to go. Um, Really badly. it’s. Um, I’m actually a little bit disappointed that we can’t go this year because there’s a lot. under the parks academy, Instagram page, one of the things that I do is I follow some of the artists and I’m gonna shout out two that I really like, and I’m gonna put their links in our, in our show notes. Um, So Ja, Jason Rattner is a, he’s actually a senior designer for a lounge fly, which I think is kind of cool. Um, but he is going to be there and he was posting some of his work. um, That’s gotta be featured at the. at the festival and he has like this Epcot.
fif, like, Was it. Epcot? Fif No, Epcot 30th. Is that the, what year is Epcot? 30th? The 40th. 40th. Okay. Anyways, he has a Really cool.
I think it’s 30th. I don’t, When was it?
Oh
No, movie? no it’s 40th. Okay. Because it was 83.
right. 83
Or 82. Yeah,
But anyway, all that
of the eighties.
It was 82. So all that to say he has really beautiful artwork and um, something really, really neat, that I, I. I think is, is, um, cool. That he did is he has a. Um, it is called Hawaiian holiday and it features, um, really beautiful.
Uh, almost like 3d, like. Prince of, of Donald Mickey, Minnie Pluto, and goofy. And he also has this incredible painting he did of, um, or digital art, I suppose, of, um, Wanda as Scarlet Witch envisioned called will Say hello again. It’s just super cool. The second guy I wanted to mention is name is
Will Gay. He’s an artist. Um, who’s also gonna be featured at the, uh, the, the festival, but all of his stuff is like super simple. Um, but it’s also. Um, it’s really like simple and it’s work. It’s very sketch and kind of rough and crude. Um, but he does a lot of like classic Disney characters and stuff. And, um, he has a lot of Orange bird stuff. and I just re In fact, I actually repost a lot of his stuff on our stories cause I really like it. So, um, I wish I was going it for nothing else.
Just to see these guys work. and, And maybe buy some stuff. So hopefully next. Hopefully next time we go to a festival. it’ll it’ll be that one.
Yeah. We were just talking about this earlier this week because we really enjoy food and wine. Of course, we’ve talked extensively about that and our experiences and some of the.
Foods that we’ve gotten to try, but the cool thing about festival of the arts that makes it different from like food and wine or, um, flower and garden, which we’ve been to both of those and love them so much. Is you sort of get an emphasis on visual performing arts and culinary arts. Yeah. So you’ve got really nice foods, but also really creative.
Um, I don’t know. There were, I saw some pictures that were like acrobats doing stuff Yeah. and a guy painting.
there’s like chalk art and stuff. It’s pretty Cool. I I really would love to do that. one. I want to go back to flower and garden for sure. Cuz I feel like I wasn’t in the right mindset being my first time. at Epcot seeing that Right. Um, and, I’m, I wanna see that one. I’m kind of food and winded out a little.
I’m ready to do something else.
not, but I would like to see. Um, the festival, the arts, I think also the Broadway spotlight would be really cool to go see that cuz they’ve got people from a bunch of different shows, like Tarzan lion king.
Yeah. All
things. So I
think that’d be awesome. Would. you get the figment popcorn bucket, you mentioned it.
And would you buy it?
I Yes, I’m I’m I would not be one of those people that would’ve waited hours and hours and hours for it, but I I can mobile order it. And if we could figure out a good system of cleaning it out, I,
So the reason I ask is cause we bought the Mickey mummy. Um,
Popcorn
bucket in October. And it’s still just sitting there with like, no hope, of, I don’t know where it’s gonna go, or what we’re gonna do with it. Um, and it’s, it was just like a buttery mess and a bag under in my office. And, um, I feel, I felt regret about buying it.
when I took it home. Cause I was like, it was fun the novel, but it was, a lot
cute though.
so I
I wish. We should have cleaned it out sooner, and then we should have put it with our Halloween
I operations. I know I
on display.
to it in like our Boxes and storage. and stuff with butter
Problems in the past. So we don’t wanna lure our little critters.
Anyway,
just think I’m kind of over. popcorn buckets,
get it. I get it. I, I would like to maybe buy a popcorn bucket, but like, please don’t put popcorn in my bucket. Just.
And we’ll just put
popcorn in a popcorn. think, think container. I prefer that too.
So. All right. I just wanted to ask
So next thing that also happened this week, um, And this weekend, as a matter of fact was Pete’s silly side show is reopened with character, meet and greets. So this is in the storybook circus area and you’ve got,
um,
Mini Daisy, Donald and goofy dressed up in their sort of circus characters. Um, so that’s a cute little meet and greet opportunity where you get to see the characters in different costumes. cuz that’s always, a fun thing is to take the kids, to see them sort of yeah. Dressed up for different occasions.
And so that’s a fun little area that we got to spend this last time. For the first time in a very long time. Um, I don’t, I can’t even remember the last time I went back to storybook circus. I think, I
that was my first time going back there. Um, I know we kind of hung out in that area, sort of our first trip, but we were also trying at that period of time, we were trying to check into our flight for Southwest. So I wasn’t, I was more focused on getting my.
my Good boarding group. but.
yeah, it was,
it was cool. I mean, You know, a good place for kids to meet characters and it’s in the back and out of the way. so I think that that is, is nice. If memory serves though, I think it was open to meet characters and do like a dance party at the Halloween party.
I think there was a VAM was back there.
was happening In there. But it’s Nice. that it’s opened up officially. cause they have that cool like water park little area, like the little water area. with The trains and Cabos And such. Yeah. That have Like the numbers of the years park opened and and All that
at school. Yep. It’s very sweet. Um, and then the other thing that was sort of, I mean, this is exciting news for me because I’m a neat freak.
Um, daily housekeeping is back at all deluxe resorts. So there was select. Resorts that had daily housekeeping already returned, but that started January 15th. That all deluxe resorts are now gonna have daily housekeeping. Um, just to clarify, even when we went both times during C O V I D. You could request that somebody comes and grabs your trash and gives you new towels, but they weren’t coming every day. It was either every other day or just when you requested it, depending on.
At what point in the middle of the pandemic you were there? Um, so this is sort of like, We’re finally seeing some things. Pre pandemic. um, returning to the Disney parks, which is hopeful. Um, that we’re able to see some of these things return that we took for granted before. So I’m excited about
that Yeah.
because I hate coming back to my room and the bed’s not made. And.
The floor’s got towels on it, and it just makes me feel like I wanna come back to the room it feels fresh. And so that’ll be really exciting. That’ll be a
change. I I agree. I think it’ll be nice.
All right. You have nothing else to say about housekeeping cuz you don’t care. Probably. yeah.
I mean, I like to have a bed made, but also like,
like we could make it ourselves.
Yeah, Like, you
what I end up doing.
up after me. It’s fine. I mean, if I need towels or something, I’ll tell you, but I I don’t. really need someone to come in and. and do. I I I feel bad.
So long as I’m not Sandy, which like most of the time in Malta zine world, we’re not going somewhere where we’re getting Sandy. Yeah. Then I would be like, I absolutely need housekeeping every day.
Yeah. I just hate sand, so Yeah. I’d prefer not to It’s coarse and rough and gets, you know, everywhere. It
does get everywhere. It’s impossible to clean it all up.
Yeah. So, I, I don’t really have a thought on that, but. it’s, You know, whatever, it’s fine. I guess more tips for the, um, housekeepers. which is always good. You know? Well, they
work hard and during the pandemic they worked so hard. It
tip your housekeepers like for
real. Get some cash. It’s not hard to just leave it on the dresser.
You don’t have to do it every day, but like, leave a big tip at the end. of the week.
At the end of your trip. Yeah. All right. The next chunk of news here is this was a big one. Yeah. I think This was a really big one. I think.
are pretty excited about this. So it seems,
it does seem so. Beginning of April, we’ve got two nighttime spectaculars returning. One of them would be happily ever after and one Epcot forever. And those are coming back April 3rd.
Which means we are getting rid of the harmonious barges.
Yeah. I, A lot of people had issues with those. I, They weren’t super attractive. So I’m, I’m, I’m on board with. moving those.
Well, we never got to see Epcot forever. No,
No. I mean, the barges.
I know, but I’m saying like the reason that I’m mainly excited for this, cuz we didn’t really get to see harmonious
Oh, I see what you’re
what you’re saying Is we missed out on Epcot forever. Yeah. So that’s why I’m excited for this. I, yeah, I was neither here nor there about the harmonious barges. Like, was it kind of an eye sort? Yeah. Yes.
more or less, yeah. Like
if the show was nice, then we just never got to see it in person. Um, we’ve only seen video footage, so I, I would like to see Upcott forever. Um, I hope it sticks around long enough for us to be able to see it. And then.
I’m curious Happily ever after. That’s that’s cool. Yeah. We’ve
that one. Yeah. Yeah. I’m curious about. You know, like the reception of Epco forever seemed a little bit salty. Be, You know, a lot. I I feel like a lot of people were just waiting for harmonious to come. And we’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, EPCO forever Is this filler. And, um, it’s fine, but it’s not really what we’re looking for.
We’re, and like now it’s coming back and I, I’m excited to see what it’s like. Cause I, I only saw.
illuminations. Yes. Yeah.
I only saw illuminations like one and a half times. And I remember liking it. But Sounds like one
in a quarter times. Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
in a, one in the fifth, we missed
it cause we were eating Japanese food. Um,
It was the, it was about to close. I was so sad. I
I’m sorry you missed it. That’s okay. Um, but Yeah. I mean harmonious. We can always watch it online. I’m not super devastated about it.
Um,
but again, I, know that a lot of people are gonna be happy to see the barges gone. And, um, I think like if you can’t get the walls down fast enough, you might as well just. move the barges.
There you go.
So, you know,
All right, next big piece of news also beginning of April, but this is April 4th. Um, Tron.
Light cycle run.
Did you
We finally have a date. We
you see like all the skepticism of the. because you saw the Instagram. video they posted, right. Yeah. Of Like, did You see how everyone was like trying to decode the numbers and the high scores. to
see what’s going on? I try not to read the comments in.
Yeah.
Someone was saying like, Oh, maybe in March because it has like there’s a three and then there’s a two, three somewhere.
Um, it was funny to see all the speculation. but I’m I’m excited for this. I think it’s gonna be great.
I’m very excited for this. I, I do like a good rollercoaster. I’ll I’ll have to see if it’s one of the ones that I can handle, but I loved the new, I think I can, I. I think because of the ride mechanism, I’ll be able to handle it.
Like
the only ones I really don’t do in Walt Disney world are presently rock and roller coaster.
Yeah, But that, that’ll change.
Is that the only one I don’t do.
And,
um, tower of
Yeah. Um, are the only
two rides in Wal Disney world that I
Yeah. And you don’t do Cali river rapids. but that’s an entirely Different reason, Cause you don’t wanna get Soaked.
Well, it’s not just that. I don’t wanna get soaked it’s that I don’t wanna get trapped underwater and have a panic attack.
Right. Um, Yeah. Tron, I’m, I’m excited about it. Um, I think it is going to be a very, very, very welcomed addition to everything that’s going on in uh, Tomorrowland.
Um, I was actually just recently listening to another Disney podcast. It’s not really a.
Disney podcast, but um, podcast, the ride, it’s like a super popular.
um,
Uh, Theme park podcast that I’m I’m a big fan of, and uh, the guys on it. were talking about. Tomorrow land specifically about like the people mover and stuff. Um, and they had commented on how, you know, Obviously tomorrow. Land, we talked about this last week, but how like tomorrow land?
and, And and magic kingdom is better than tomorrow land and Disneyland and adding in Tron to that it’s just gonna add an entirely new dimension to the, the area that um, I think is gonna elevate it.
Um,
so I’m, I’m, I’m looking really forward to it. Um, I actually do like the Tron movies, even though I know that they’re not like the most popular, I think they’re pretty good.
Right. especially Tron legacy was all right. I liked that one. Did we
that together?
Um, At any point, I saw,
if not, I don’t think I’ve
didn’t, I saw that movie three times in theaters.
Then I
Tron, legacy.
have seen those
know each other When when it came out. Yeah, I
just wondering if maybe we rewatched it together. Yeah, We
My
a different one.
we watched? Um, What’s that,
that? is it Harrison Ford? What is that
mean? No, you’re thinking, You’re thinking a Blade Runner.
You’re thinking a Blade Runner. Yeah.
No, I thought there was another, like a
Are you thinking of in, um, Ender’s
yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. Yeah.
That’s funny. No, No, no, no, Um, Harrison Ford is not Intron legacy. It’s uh, Jeff bridges is kind of the main guy. And you’ve got, Uh, Jared, um, Headland and Olivia Wilde Inexplicably.
Headland. Yeah.
Garrett
Headland is from several other movies, country strong.
Yeah.
Keep naming him. Let’s go. What else. I, uh, don’t look it up. What else? uh,
uh,
I’m
the spot
Four brothers. Pan triple frontier, Troy And Friday night lights. Okay. And country strong is what I Aragon and Georgia rule. And unbroken and all those. Yeah.
Um, Anyway. It’s. Yeah. you’re it’s it’s Ge Jeffrey Bridges.
But Jeffrey
you can understand how they’d be Confused. I
Well, I. It was less that I was confusing, the movies and more confusing which movie we watched together.
Yeah, no. we, We went to go see. Uh, well, we, we watched Ender’s Ender’s game cause I wanted you to see.
it.
Cause I thought it was good. And then I rewatched and I was like, was it good? Um, Tron legacy came out in 2010. Okay. And So that was a little bit a couple years Before we met and um, Yeah. So I
know that I’ve ever seen tra
My younger brother was obsessed with. it. I took him to go see it in Theaters and then he wanted to go see it again? So we saw it And if I’m not mistaken, I think my dad wanted to go see it. And then we saw it a third time together. So that movie really just, And it was like a two hour film, so yikes. Uh, yeah. I and whatever it doesn’t matter. I’m looking really forward to trauma. lifecycle run. there It’s gonna be good. I wanna, I, I want to ride it at night though. I don’t wanna wanna ride it during the day.
Yeah. I would like to see it when it is dark. Yeah.
same. I mean, I’ll write it whenever, but, I, I wanna do the
With all the light
up pieces. Mm-hmm. ,That’d be awesome. Yeah.
very excited for that. Um, let’s do it. The other attraction in Walt Disney world news. would, and we don’t have a date for this yet would be Moana’s journey of water.
We cannot forget. Moana.
cannot forget Moana. So this is supposed to be sometime at the end of this year.
Epcot is doing so many big things. And this is just one of the many things that we’ve been waiting so patiently for. So this is gonna be part of the world’s nature neighborhood. Remember, they’re switching up Epcot. Um, and they’ve sort of renamed some of the areas instead of having the old lands, it’s gonna be still showcase and then they’ll have world discovery over to the left. When you walk in world celebration’s gonna be the middle part with
Mm-hmm. earth,
and then world nature is gonna be off to the right.
So you’ll still have like the Nemo and friends and the Seas, And that’s where world nature will be. Um, so Moana’s journey of water will be part of world nature and that Tefi looks beautiful.
Yeah. Um, the
interview that we saw, I forget which morning was it
on,
Like CBS or. NBC.
it to me When I was doing the dishes.
So I was
Some morning show.
to do something Right. but um, Yeah.
Some interview on TV and the guy was talking about one of the Imagineers was talking about the construction of it. And he basically said like, no spoilers, but the water will. Is supposed to be able to like interact with you. So it’s going to feel like it is alive and like a character as it was in the film.
I’m really interested to see what they do with that because um, it’s so expressive and, um,
Engaging in
in the film. I just have so much Moana, on my mind. .
I know we’ve been, we could write an entire novel
I watched it. I watched it Today. Um, but still the scene when she puts the heart in Deka and then she turns and they like touch heads. I know, first of all, I’m like she was burning lava before.
and then you just placed your forehead on her head. So third degree burns, I guess, but also it wasn’t burning was she like cracks away and then.
Ah, so
tini. I know. I know I, I could take, I could take. An entire. Day and just break apart all of the different pieces. Yeah.
I tried to, so good. I tried to show our daughter Zootopia today. Because we were listening to. uh, Try everything. in the car, Um, and. She really liked it for a while. And then she got bored of it and she was kind of letting me know like, okay, dad,
like, what’s up. It’s time. for Moana. And I’m like, you sure. And She’s like, yeah dude. I’m like, let’s switch it. And
put Moana back on and then she sat patiently on
sat on my lap and sucked her thumb and was like, this is better. Thank you.
So it was good. we started at the beginning. and I’m. like, What a good, what a good movie, man.
I know it’s so good.
Geez. Okay.
Those are
the big attraction things in Walt Disney world. Some of the other pieces of the announcements from Walt Disney world. That were pretty big. were, Let me see here, I’m pulling up my list. Um, okay. Some of the other big announcements, free parking at resort. Free attraction photos with genie Plus purchase.
So Attraction photos, not like photo ops.
I I am under the impression that at Walt Disney world, it’s gonna be just your attraction photos that are
I don’t, yeah, I mean, you can
Like the digital downloads of. It’s The rides that you
Yeah. Like I don’t think you can,
You’re not just getting the a hundred dollars package. Right.
200, 200 now, dude.
Well, I know I’m, I’m thinking about the olden
days. Yeah.
still reminiscing, But you
what I mean?
Free
at resorts is huge. I think it’s such a rip off. That you have to pay for parking? Well, yeah,
yeah, that’s dumb. We never, we never use it because we don’t ever drive ourselves.
We live But it’s, I
But for the people that either have annual passes and live a couple states away and drive down regularly. same. We also have a handful of friends that do live in this area that end up driving down. And so what are you supposed to do with your car? If you try to save money by not flying with you and your kids, and then you have to pay for parking every single day.
Yeah.
That’s just crazy
I mean, Yeah. I mean the money. Coming in from parking alone, like. If if I was offered that. I would take it in a heartbeat. For just one day, but, um, I, I just don’t think it’s the best. So especially resorts, like I understand if you’re going to the parks and you have to pay that.
Like makes sense to me.
20 Bucks, whatever the heck. ,But at your resort, like, come on. Right.
It’s like any theme park you’re gonna have to pay for parking at the actual park, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, and then the other big announcement that came with this is that annual pass holders will no longer need a park reservation after two o’clock. So what was happening with people is.
Um, they, if they wanted to get into a park and they had a park reservation for say animal kingdom that day, but they actually wanted to go to magic kingdom. They would have to wait until two, o’clock go over to animal kingdom, check in an animal kingdom, and then they could park up. Now they don’t need that reservation so they can just go straight to magic kingdom. So the only exception with this.
is
you can’t do that on Saturdays and Sundays in magic kingdom
makes sense because dub busiest
day is busiest park. So they wanna just try to keep the crowds. Um, manageable and kind of know their numbers ahead of time. But I think for people that are annual pass holders, these people are either locals, right. Or the diehards that are there all the time. And I think they should have some extra perks.
Crazy. Crazy. Crazy people. in a good way. Um, have like uprooted their lives to. Live in Orlando. So the least you could do is not make them. have a reservation
Right, right. Um,
I think. I think the reservations were smart. When we were in like February, March, April. of 2020 and everything Everyone was pivoting.
but I don’t have proof of this. This is just a gut feeling from someone who’s in business and kind of understands like, you know, tracking and measuring data. I feel like it continued. on the path of like, You know, having reservations. Because I will. I would bet you. I would I would, I would really bet you almost anything that they kept it because they just wanted to have Seriously,
I’m sure that they did
because I mean, it doesn’t really do I mean whatever. Like, I I mean, yeah, you can, you can. like Have it sell out like it did you know, in some cases with us when we were trying to find places to stay and, and go, but I, I I have a feeling it was all about data. and like Just tracking information and having more and more and more, to, and
they can predict dates that they can make more expensive. Yes. Insane. It’s all about figuring out how to maximize their budget based on the consumer’s trends. It’s.
I,
when my first trip to Disneyland. Um, my My dad and I were going back to the park after like my mom and sister had uh, gone back to the hotel. the, to go to bed. He And I were gonna go back out later, right? Like after dinner and stuff. Um, And I remember. There was, he was talking to another dad about, you Like how expensive it is.
And he he made a comment about like, we were writing, like the tram or something in Disneyland and he made a comment because they were saying, you know, we just hope you have the best day at the most magical place on earth and or the happiest place on earth or whatever. Um, my dad’s like, yeah, you know, I’m taking my magical money.
outta my magical wallet and I’m like, come on, dude. It’s Not that bad. And now that I’m adult, I’m like, First of all, it’s worse for me than it was for you. And also. Yikes. Yeah, I hear ya.
Right. Um,
so I I just, I’m happy to see these changes. Um, that are kind of freeing
for people a
little bit financially, and also even if it is gonna be more expensive, like you don’t have to.
you know, make reservations and do all these things. and. jump through hoops to, to enjoy something that you are literally paying a ton of money for exactly. Because it’s it shouldn’t, I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s
have our money. Anyway, we’re in their parks. We’re spending money on their food, their souvenirs, Yeah. all the things we’re,
and like paying
all the dollars.
and like We do a podcast about them. So they also have our minds, which is, you know,
wow.
Yeah. Hmm.
This is stupid
dumb Podcast.
What are we doing? Yeah. Um, well, do you have any other things about, do you wanna talk about some Disneyland stuff?
The one big Disneyland thing that we found out this last week, and we got some concept art for is Tiana’s palace. Um, so that will be coming later in 2023, we did get confirmation of that. Yep. Um, it looks like. The min Juli. And the French market restaurant are gonna be closed. Starting February 17th. Yes. Right. And then later this year, Tiana’s palace is gonna open up. Um, alongside the Min Jule bar. Later this year, so we will
And there’s gonna be beignets, the whole thing, man.
And we’ll get more princess in the frog. In that area in Disneyland with new Orleans square, as we prepare for the remake of splash mountain.
Yeah. I, I’m, I’m. Yeah, I’m pretty thrilled about that actually. The, The remake coming up and it’s Splash Mountain’s closing really soon, right? Like soon. Soon. January. Yeah. I think it’s closing like really soon. Um, I had something I was gonna say about Disneyland. I, So, okay. So I’m actually looking forward to, um, world of color one coming out. We also got a couple of updates on that.
Um, I think what we saw, I don’t know if this was a fever dream or if I actually saw it, but. I thought that we saw some pictures of it. That weren’t just the concept art. Um, but regardless we, we got to see some, some concept art of it and stuff like that I’m
do you mean baby Yoda. Yeah. Guu
was in it. I
don’t yeah, yeah, yeah.
I see that.
I saw that somewhere too.
I looked. I just looked at Disneyland and Disney Park’s instant grand pages, and I don’t see them.
So well, they’ve also started working on the big hero, six construction for, um, San Fran Soo of
That’ll be super cool. Yeah I forgot They were doing that actually. until you just said it, that
my friends is an idea that I had.
Mm-hmm. On a very early episode of our show. When we were talking about what we would change or what IP we would add. And I said they could do San Franchi in the Pacific Wharf area. I just wasn’t sure how they would do it because the Pacific Wharf area is so small.
Yeah. But
alas imagine.
either
have telepathy or I am creative enough to be an Imagineer or they stole my idea.
Yeah. Um, I see that we have some more Disney stuff to talk about here on our list. But um, before we do that, do you want to talk super quickly about some of the universal stuff that happened this week or that we heard about.
Um, or
just finish up Disney, your your call. This is like, this is your show.
So This is my show. Let’s just finish up the Disney stuff Okay. and then we’ll do a little tag at the end.
Oh,
A little, little, Yeah. go
for it. Um, okay. The last thing. Big Disney thing that we got in the last few weeks was we got dates for the run Disney events that are coming up in 23, 24 is running season. And the biggest thing this time
is that.
we heard already. And I was so excited that they are bringing Ren Disney events back to Disneyland.
Yeah. amazing.
some dates for this. Um, but the wine and dine half marathon weekend is gonna be November 2nd through fifth. And that’s in Walt Disney world. Of course. Right. Um, the Walt Disney world marathon weekend. will be January 3rd, through seventh of 2024. The Disneyland half marathon weekend is gonna be January 11th through 14th of 24. The Disney princess half marathon weekend is Gonna be February 22nd through 25th.
And then the springtime surprise, which we don’t know the themes for. Again, that’s a new thing that they added in last year. Where it gives them a little bit of leeway instead of every year, having just the star wars rival run, they’ve been able to switch it up and each race is themed with a different thing.
Um, so I think that was pretty cool. I like how they did that. The two year. was that the last two years. That they’ve done that. I think so. Because yeah, I think so. Yeah. the one, they did different Pixar movies. Mm-hmm. And then they did different attractions. So they had like the tower of terror one. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. So they, I think it was the last two years.
Yeah. Um, so we’ll see what those themes are gonna be for the springtime surprise run. And that is April 18th through 24th. Of 2024.
Yeah, That’ll be cool. Um, I’m, I’m I’m interested in in how I need to look up an old map of like the Disneyland. route. cuz like, do you run down Harbor Boulevard Boulevard? Um, I mean, cause you can’t really do ’em. I mean, if you do a marathon in the parks, it’s just kind of like,
you’re just running in circles.
Yeah, Exactly So I’d
or are you running through neighborhoods? I don’t know.
I would have to imagine you go like through the parks. I would, I would venture to say, you probably are on south Harbor Boulevard a little bit.
Um,
And maybe Disneyland drive, I guess like over the bridge that crosses over like downtown Disney and stuff. I don’t know.
But it’ll um, Yeah, it’ll be cool. I, I’m not gonna do one probably, but it’ll be
Let’s just wrap up Disney things here. Mm-hmm. ,When is world of color? one starting? Is that the end of January?
Um, So I think, don’t quote me on this. I
the 20 something.
Yeah. So I know that in a couple of weeks, really Disneyland one happened January 15th, 2023. So I think it’s gonna
that’s today.
Oh, sorry. Whoops. That ,?It says no performances today, and we are in January. Holy cow.
January 15th would be the day we are recording this podcast. I think it’s the 20
I’m ridiculous. I’m Sorry. I I, I think that it coincides with the Disney 100 celebration. Which happens in 11 days, four hours, seven minutes, and 50 seconds on January 27th.
I will just have, you know, that Disney’s website is down right now,
Disneyland or Disney world.
Disney in general, everything is wonky. working.
It’s broken.
here. Let’s do this. Let’s go to something. Let’s do something. here. Oh, wait. Yeah. So it’s
all wonky. It’s like somebody’s working on it right now because they’re frantically, like our website is town.
I’m in, I’m in.
marketing As you guys know. And a big part of that too, is that I do. web development and design and stuff like that. And there’s a website. If you’re interested called down for everyone or just me dot. That’s literally the URL. It is and um, I’m looking it up right now and it says Disneyland dot Disney dot go is fine. I’m gonna check another site. I’m just gonna check disney.go.com and it’s fine. So I don’t know, maybe they are doing. like
think It’s just wonky because look at Look at all this
It’s all
on top of
like Some Bad Java JavaScript. Okay. Um, here’s another thing really quick.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is really important. I have, I have a couple more Disneyland, big news
thing. Yeah, but Can I just say what I was gonna say. It has to do with websites, it’s, really great.
everyone’s gonna be so excited to hear this go on.
paying attention at All you can see like Disney world. their URL is like Disney.
What is their url.
many periods in it. I
Well, the funny thing is it’s Disney world.disney.go.com If you like. Strip that down to like, It’s bare form. Disney owns go.com. and that’s, their URL For everything, which I think is insane. and I don’t know why they do that. But it feels like a hangover from the nineties. Like, you know web 0.0 era.
Um, boy are we a tech podcast or What, but if you put. in go.com on your browser. it Takes you to a non-secure HTTPS site that just has shop Disney. And it’s all I mean, you’re right. It’s wonky, but It’s so weird. I don’t understand why they just have go.com as their But if it ever goes up for sale. You gotta. buy it. We’ll be.
We’d have to be very rich and
know. famous. I know
Okay. Can I share the other Disneyland news? Yeah, go. Okay. A couple big things. So we have the lunar new Year’s celebration in Disneyland. I love those. And that is from January 20th to February 15th. Um, and then the DCA food and wine festival, which happens sort of.
On the opposite schedule of the Walt Disney world schedule. Um, that’s from March 3rd to April 20. The other big news things that came out about Disneyland is that you can start park hopping. At 11:00 AM Pacific time starting February 4th. So that’s huge because we’ve been having to wait until
the Yeah, that’s
and while Disney world. We have to wait until two o’clock.
Um, and so being able to park hop at that can totally change your day. If you wanna swap at lunchtime. Um, yeah. Another thing is that Disneyland is offering more dates throughout the year that are their cheapest. This is in air quotes pages, doing ginormous air quotes, cheapest day. Of $104 park tickets.
But they’re adding a ton more dates for that. So there’s like two months worth of $104 dates throughout the year. 2023. Um, world of color one. Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway.
are
opening January 27th. There’s the date I knew it was coming.
There
it is. Yeah. Yeah. yeah.
Um, and then complimentary PhotoPass attraction photos, just like we’re getting ’em all Disney world. Those are the big things. Um, and then just more things about the magic key program. So those are the big Disney land.
Mm-hmm.
Updates. And then I knew it was January 20 something for world of color, but I did not realize that the Tune town area is almost stunned That runaway railway. will also be opening the 27th.
Yeah, There’s A lot happening for sure. I gosh, They’re
for Disney
I wish So bad when we were going to Disneyland This year, I know, I just don’t see it happening in our future.
I don’t think so. Womp Womp.
Yeah. Rip City.
I look at the ginormous sad Mickey mouse in the corner.
Yeah,
he’s bummed out, man. We have a, like a,
a, It’s like four foot
tall. It’s not four feet,
It’s four foot tall.
like, hang on. Lemme see. .Steven
going to hold it up.
That
is.
At least three and a half feet. Yeah.
Almost
four feet tall.
maybe I, um, He’s
dinor.
Yeah. I I really wish we were going this year. I need to either a come up with a lot of money out of nowhere. Or b be sponsored by Disney to go for free and like report on it.
That’d be fun.
Okay. So. Really quickly. um, Are you done with Disney? like this?
done with Disney. I’m over it.
just, Yeah. I just kind of want to quickly. Just talk about some of the new stuff that, um, that’s coming out about Universal. Um, obviously first and foremost, uh, super Nintendo world is a guest open in Orlando.
Yeah. Doesn’t open until February 2023 in Hollywood.
I don’t know. We’ve got a friend who’s already gone, like
So, Yeah. Shirley,
Shirley. Um,
friend. our friend,
miss you, Shirley.
Yeah. Shirley, if
you’re listening, we miss you
I think she might be a listener. So we gotta be, we gotta be extra nice. Um,
We’ve actually only met Shirley one time in.
real, For real life
In two different
tastes. Well, the
So anyway, in in Frisco, Texas, which is like 30 minutes away from Dallas. I guess every
time I hear the word Frisco, Texas, it makes me feel like someone is shortening the name of another city,
like they don’t know how to say. I used, to know, someone who said Frisco and I’m like, I’m not gonna take you if you keep saying that. And I was like eight at the time. and I even then I
Frisco sounds like you’re shortening another city name anyway. Continue Frisco,
Texas. So supposedly in Frisco, Texas, Um, there’s gonna be like a little universal. Um, immersive themed land opening
up, and
gonna be very much sort of, uh, geared toward children. And, um, it’s on a 97. Uh, like acre plot. It’s not 30 minutes, 30 miles north of Dallas. Excuse me.
That’s about the same thing.
Yeah. something like that. Depending on how fast you’re going. Jinx. Anyway. Um, I don’t really know too much about it. Uh, it was just announced like a couple days ago. it. seems fine. I guess It is interesting though, to note that there’s gonna be a, a pretty decent, um, theme park that. is not going to be in California or Florida. Because all these big theme parks are in one of those two places. So it’ll be kind of neat to see it somewhere else. Right.
And this specifically is being advertised as for very young audiences too. Yeah. like it is. going to.
be
for Families even with young
I wonder, I
that’s a hard balance is you don’t want to have such a, young audience that your people get aged out, quickly. but you want to be able to provide an opportunity for families with really small kids, to be able to go, which I feel like Disney does really Well, yeah. But I’d be Interested to see how this one
goes over. Well, the concept. Art doesn’t really tell me a whole lot. It looks very floral And green, and
lush,
but I can’t, I honestly can’t really identify any IP off the bat, I don’t think. I mean, I, I can’t really tell. Um,
I wonder how much IP they’re gonna use
don’t know. But anyway? So over in Vegas, there are, Um, conversely opening up another park, it’s gonna be like 110,000 square feet. So it’s big, but it’s not like an enormous sort of, thing.
um,
I think it’s gonna be coupled up with some like area of 51 attraction or something. that’s already in Vegas. I’ve never been, so I don’t. know. .Um, but it’s gonna basically be like, essentially the, the the rumors and the word is that it’s gonna be like Halloween horror nights all year round, which sounds awful.
I
I think That’s. literally what it is. Yeah. Like, it’s gonna be called Horror Nights,
the, that’s gonna be The Yeah. No thanks. So I don’t want I don’t wanna do that.
I have never been more nervous at a Halloween related thing than when We went to Universal and did the walking Dead walkthrough.
Yeah. I wasn’t scared. I just, I don’t know. I I mean, it’s, it’s jump. I
I wasn’t scared.
was definitely jumpy.
We’re pretty scared. No, There’s a difference
There’s a difference between. getting caught
off guard and
being scared. I was not. , scared. I was scared. on, Um, Harry Potter’s,
uh,
freaking flight, of
forbidden Journey flight or sun
whatever. it was. Um, that was scary. No, no. I wasn’t afraid.
I was, I was just, You know,
were, you were terrified on the. forbidden journey. I’m Sorry, are you interested in
either one of those two things?
particularly. I
about Frisco, Texas to know what’s going on with it. Cause I I just don’t really care right now. Yeah. I don’t know. I,
Las Vegas is hot and dry
don’t want to
don’t wanna be sweating, miserable and scared.
I know. I don’t, I just don’t wanna go to Vegas at all. , none of it sounds appealing to me. Um, super Nintendo world Do you care at all.
Um,
I think it’d be
to go once.
Yeah. to. be like,
Yeah. I’ve been there.
Yeah. well, so obviously we can go because it’s gonna be connected with like, one of the, What? I don’t know, are it in Florida Islands of adventure. I don’t remember. I don’t know which one. It said. It doesn’t matter when we go to Florida. We’ll, we’ll hit it up. And obviously, you know, we want to go back to Universal in Hollywood cause we do really like it there and so we’ll see it there as well. I just, I’m not an Nintendo person. and I never really have been.
Um, truth be told, I’ve always preferred Sega over at Nintendo. , Um, but
you’re more of a sonic
Oh yeah. Big time. You kidding
Sonic the Hedgehog movies. You,
I love those I liked the first one was, okay, good. The second one I gave like a one and a half star rating on letterbox. cuz I thought it was just like,
I thought you didn’t like the first one and you really liked the second
one.
I did not like the second one at all.
But you definitely liked the first one. Yeah, it was
fine. I liked when, I liked when Sonic, um, did a line dance at a, um, at a restaurant that everyone, like when he, it was one. of those scenes when he walked through the door, every. like g Gristly Cowboy in the restaurant turned around and looked at him, and then he like gained their trust by square dancing, I guess, or line dancing.
It was super weird.
That’s
Uh, but Vince Schwartz, congrats on your good vocal talents.
Um,
super Nintendo world. I don’t care about it at all. I would walk through it, but I don’t think I would be interested in spending any time there. Um, I don’t really want any of the gifts from the gift shop, and I don’t, this is so unpopular, I guess, but I I don’t love like Super Mario Cart or Mario Kart either, you know,
so I just don’t,
I don’t think I’d wanna ride any of the rides or do any of the things. I used
enjoy the Nintendo games when I was younger.
Luigi
Luigi
his little haunted Mansion thing. His haunted Ghost house. Is that what you’re thinking of?
I liked that game. And then, um, I also really liked Yoshi’s Island.
I played that online. Yeah. Luigi’s Mansion. Was it the thing? I thought Yoshi was all right. You know who I did like in the Nindo Universe? was Kirby.
Oh yeah. Kirby, the little pink dude with the
yeah. And he like, what? Like ate. I guess he was a Nintendo, Huh? That’s
sound really good on the podcast, . I know.
Yeah, he was all right. Kirby was pretty okay, but I don’t think he was like, I don’t know if he was like in, so in Sonic in like Mario’s circle, you know? no.
idea.
I’m the last person to ask. Remember, this is mainly Disney parks and resorts in both Anaheim and Orlando. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t have all the Nintendo knowledge, man. Yoshi’s kind of cute,
huh? He’s so
I loved Yoshi’s Island.
him. I had a little Yoshi toy when I was a kid, It was like a plastic toy. And I, I liked it quite a bit.
Um, anyway, yeah, those are the things that are happening there. I guess it’s kind of fun. Alright, well that’s gonna do it for us. Paige literally gave me the wrap it up sign. so I’m gonna wrap it up.
Um, that’s gonna do it for us. Uh, thanks so much everyone for listening. We really appreciate it a lot. Um, you could always find us online at the parks academy, pod.com, the parks Academy, on Instagram. Um, if you would like to, we would really appreciate, um, you know, a good, a good review on, uh, on Apple Podcasts. Um, you know, and just again, thanks to everyone who listens, supports the show gives us good feedback.
Um, we, we really do appreciate you a lot and we will catch you next time.
