Episode 45: Part-Time Cinderella

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. My name is Steven, And today we’ll be doing a this or that episode.

We haven’t done this in a little while.

We thought we wanted to bring this back, so I’m excited. I’m coming up with some questions to ask Paige. I’ve actually been like stewing over them myself because I, I, I.

Um,

I think they’re hard. I, I, they’re different than what we’ve normally done, but I think they’re gonna be good

and I have no idea what to expect.

So,

So, yeah. Uh, a little front matter, just before we get into anything or everything, I guess. Um, so we, as you guys know, last week we talked about the festival, of the arts, and we were fortunate enough to get in touch with a handful of artists who are there, um, and also some people who are just, you know, incredible and, and very, very talented, Disney.

artists. So we have a couple of them booked already for our next handful of shows. Uh, we’re gonna be doing like an interview style process where, you know, we’re gonna learn a little bit you know, how they got into art, um, you know, how they really specifically got into like Disney art and, and what it takes to, to do that.

Um, we’re really excited. I think it’s gonna be a fun little miniseries we’re gonna do. We’re hoping to get about three different, uh, artists on our show that we can talk to and, and just really get an idea of, What they’re what they’re doing and how it’s kind of impacted their lives and, and some of the benefits of of, of how that’s like, you know, been for them.

I’m really excited about that one because I think it’s awesome to be able to put a spotlight on people who are doing really, really awesome art, um, during the Festival of the Arts. And some of them are not affiliated with Festival of the Arts, but we wanted to be able to include some of those voices as well so that you guys can see and hear from people who are making art and awesome Disney things.

So I’m really excited to talk with them.

Right now we’re just kind of in the heat of like, scheduling, Um, which can be cumbersome, but, uh, I think we’re, we’re getting some, some dates finalized. So, uh, What are you, what’s going on in your life this week that’s exciting for you?

Um, mine actually, I wanted to share what we did on Friday night because I think it is so awesome.

Um, Steven and I had the chance to go to a black tie gala, which was our first time going to a black tie event together. It was so fun. We got to dress up to the nines. Went, got my hair done and my nails done. Steven went and got a fresh haircut and like got his beard trimmed. Yeah, like the morning of it was so fun.

was really

We had, we had somebody pick us up in like a fancy black car and take us to the event. It was so awesome. Um, so I really, really enjoyed that.

That was a lot of fun. Um, yeah, it was. Great. I’m not gonna say the thing that I’m excited about today specifically, I’m not gonna talk about

It’s your football boys, that’s why.

Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t matter. I mean, it doesn’t for everyone else.

it’s because you’re always excited about your football boys.

and by the ti I mean, there’s a 50 50 chance that when this gets released tomorrow morning, it could just be really upset. So I don’t want to talk about that necessarily.

But yeah, the 49ers are playing the Dallas Cowboys today. Um, and I think it should be really good. I hope, um, I. I’m excited that, okay. So I’m actually excited that right now, splash Mountain is finally, um, uh, closing. I’m not excited that it closed. I’m just excited that after years and years of anticipation, um, we’re finally underway for transformation of Splash Mountain into the new Princess and the Frog Attraction

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

And, um, I think that’s gonna be great. It’s, it’s a, well, it’s gonna be a well-deserved, uh,

change.

I think it’ll be very welcomed and I was, I was loving that like right before. Park closed, it Was still almost a 200 minute wait to get on the ride. And rope drop. It was about a 90 minute wait immediately. Mm-hmm. . Um, do you think you would’ve wait, waited in line for that just for one last goodbye?

I mean, I would’ve with you cuz I know that’s your, that was like your favorite ride. I actually don’t think I ever wrote it until I wrote it with you. Um, I’m not a big fan of

Yeah. We’ve rid, I think you’ve ridden both. You’ve ridden Disneyland and Disney World.

Yeah. I think I’ve only done Disneyland.

Mm-hmm.

and Disney World. I think we ever ridden twice at

this Yeah. Disneylands is so much better in my opinion. But, uh, either way, it’s a great, it’s a great

Well now we’ll be excited for the new attraction.

I Can’t wait. Okay. Are you ready to do some, would you, would you rather this or that?

that?

I’m ready.

you rather this or that? Okay. So you gotta pick one, right? That’s the rules. I’m gonna ask you a couple of two different options of like, would you rather do this? , which is why we, we, we named it that . um,

And then

answer and then I’ll answer as well from my vantage point. Okay.

You got it.

it. All right. The first one is, um, is it okay if I just say, would you rather, do you mind if I just say that

you do whatever you wanna do?

Would you rather, um, get a v I P experience in the parks or at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California? Oh,

I think. , I would rather. , get the v i P experience in the parks.

And I say that because I’m envisioning like backstage access and animal kingdom or something like that. Okay. Um, or getting to go down underneath of Magic Kingdom or something. I am less inclined to do behind the scenes stuff of. The actual studios, because that has never been as exciting to me. I know that that is probably where your brain goes, because when you were younger, you were like, I wanna work for Pixar and this is also

interesting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. Um,

feel like the v i p experience to me in the parks would be way more exciting for me

Would you rather do like Disneyland or Disney? World for the backstage thing?

I think Disney World, I think there would be more to do and more to see.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah.

I would say yeah, definitely backstage.

Okay. Yeah. V i p in Walt Disney

World. Okay. Um, I, I think while that would be fun, I think that the Walt Disney studios in Burbank would be more interesting and exciting. Um, you know, you get to see all of the Oscars, I think that they have like a replica of Walt’s office there. Um, there’s just, you know, so much to look at sound stages.

Um,

the audio, like the, the recording studios, the sound effects stations, where, You know, the income paint that’s still there, all that kind of stuff. Um, to me that would be a much more interesting and thrilling opportunity. And I also think it’d be, it’s less of a common opportunity like any old person can buy a V I P experience.

Right. Whereas I think you have to be invited to some degree. Um, so in 2000 and

2000 and I’m, I’m frantically Googling. , something, um, while I, while I look this up here. Okay. So in, in, in two in 2007. There we go. I made it 2007. I did get a,

um,

it was pretty close to a v i P tour of Pixar Animation Studios in Iberville. Um, it was very, very cool. I went with some people who I knew and some friends.

Um, and we got to just get an entire, you know, glimpse into what the, what the. Experience was like from like going into the rendering farm to like John Lasseter’s office, which was really interesting at the time, um, and all that kind of stuff. So I, I would, I would, I would lean toward the, uh, the studio.

I think another reason I would say v i P in the parks is we’ve had such glimpses of some of those things through either Disney plus shows or, yeah.

Visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum doing that Pixar experience at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Yeah. So we’ve been able to see so much content about that. Mm-hmm. , um, even like, Women in Disney animation book. Yeah, right. It’s not the same as actually getting to see the rooms and the processes

I was literally gonna say it’s totally different than seeing it firsthand. Right.

But I’ve never seen a lot of the backstage stuff in the parks. Yeah. Because a lot of that is not all out there for the public to see. Um, so that’s why I think just to add a little extra as to backing up my answer.

Great. Okay. Here’s the.

next. These are all over the place, by the way. So there’s not a theme at all.

I, yep, no problem.

you rather work at a churro stand or at the gate entrance?

What a random question.

They’re all over the map.

Okay. So if I worked at a churro stand, I would probably eat a lot of churros.

I think that they have like product stock management, so I don’t know if you could just do that.

like I would buy a lot of churros. I wouldn’t just like steal churros. I would make some and then I would use. and then I would use my monies to buy Morros. Okay. Um, I’ve never enjoyed working in the food industry. I’m gonna, I’m gonna be one of those greeters up at the front

gate. Yeah. I’m talking to people that have to explain to you that you have to put your magic band up against.

it And also put, um, scan your finger. I know what you mean. I’m with you on that. I think it would be, I think it’s exciting to. See people’s expressions and faces going into the park.

and imagine seeing all of the kids who are there for the very first time and they get to really excited, they get to like, stand up tall and put their magic band up against it, and it lights up with the mickey ears, and then you just see all of the joy.

Yep. that’s what I would do.

How, how wonderful,

uh, working at Truro stand I think wouldn’t be as fun. , for me. um,

depends where the churro stand is located. I think

worked at it in Fantasy Land, it would be fun.

Yeah. Do I get like a view of all the shows or am I working in Animal Kingdom?

Okay, so you could work at the churro stand that is sort of, I don’t know if this is correct or not.

In Disneyland per se. No. You know what? You could maybe work at the one in New Orleans Square and Disneyland. That’s right by Pirates and Tom, Sawyers Ireland, that’d be kind of cool.

Or. In animal kingdom, there are several churro stands and I would probably be happy with any of them.

I think it’d be way too hot to work at a Truro stand in an animal kingdom.

What if I’m working at the Nomad lounge? They have churros.

Oh, that wasn’t really the question. That’s not a stand, is it?

It’s not. Okay. Well, my answer was at the front gate anyway,

yeah. Okay, cool. Uh, would you rather play a costumed character or a face character?

Okay.

when I was.

in a

12th grade, I took a musical theater dance class, and my teacher was one of the people who used to audition folks for the princesses in Walt Disney World and Disneyland. And she told me that I had the exact eye structure and color to play a princess because they look for specific.

Features

that people have to play certain characters.

So she said that my eye structuring color was good for like, I think it was Cinderella and there was one other princess, I can’t remember. Mm-hmm. . Um, but so they’re looking for different categories of people with different features to fill the roles of various face characters. And I, from that moment, said, it is my dream to become a Disney princess.

Why didn’t you?

because I was going to do the Disney College program my second year of college.

Mm-hmm. ,

and then I met this dude at the library.

it was my fault. I would’ve done it. We could, have done it. I mean, if you wanted to go do it, we could have, but, um,

I met you.

Yeah. It’s not too late. I’m sorry. I, I’m sorry. I spoiled your dreams. .Um, before I answer my side of things similarly, I had a conversation with, uh, I met this, this Disney recruiter, um, in.

college. And I met with him like in, in an office afterwards to kind of talk to him about some things. And I said, listen, I’m from the Bay Area. I really wanna work for Pixar. It’s still not a dream that I’ve completely put by the wayside. I’m not an animator, but there’s, you know, possibilities for like other jobs in marketing and stuff.

and he looked at me like dead in the eyes and he’s like, do you work? Do you like working 80 hours a week? And I was like, no. And he goes, then that’s not for you. And I was like, thank you for your, , you know, um, for not giving me the Runaway runaround. Yeah. And Making it seem like it’s great and then all of a sudden I’m stuck.

Um, so yeah. Fantastic. Um, I would rather be a costume character because I’m not really good at like, interact, like when I’m having a bad day or something. I’m not very good at hiding my facial expressions. Um, and I just don’t think that I would have the mental stamina to um, be in character that long.

Whereas if you’re like, for instance, I don’t know who I could be cause I’m five. . nine, So I’m not, I’m too tall to be Mickey Mouse and I’m too short to be goofy .

Um, there are a lot of other costume characters nowadays.

Yeah. I mean, I could be like,

um,

Scrooge McDuck . Um,

you are Scrooge McDuck.

I think solely has Like platform shoes or something. But anyway, I, I just like the idea of being able to have a completely straight face and. Greet people. You know I could probably be Pluto. I betcha he’s not like, insanely tall.

Um,

anyway, I, I think that I would, I I, it’d be nice to be a costumed character and to just be able to like, have whatever facial expression you want.

Um, not really worry about having to like, come up with conversation. You can just point at kids and then, you know, turn your head and like do things with your hands to like, you know, uh, show off. Uh, To communicate in some kind of way. Uh, and I think that that would be good. The only thing I wouldn’t want to, wouldn’t like about being, especially a costume character, is all the adults that wanna come hug me.

I don’t think I would like that at all.

You just shut it down.

Yeah. You’re just like, no, thank you.

But I don’t think

Captain Marvel when we went to Disneyland.

My Gosh. She was on it.

I walked up to her and she put her arm around me. Mm-hmm. . And we put our other arm on our hips like we were standing like Captain Marvel. And then a guy came up and he tried to put his arm around her and she put her hand out, like stop.

And then she said back to back.

crossed her arms. Yeah. And they went back to back with their arms crossed. So she had totally put down boundaries like, do not touch me.

be fair, he looked like the kind of guy that was trying to hug

or a, or a. Superhero. woman. Um, and then I, she’s like, do you want a picture with me?

And I’m like, I’m good. I I don’t really need that. Um, but yeah, so that’s what I Who do you think I would, mean? Whom do you think I’d even play?

I’m trying to think what about, what about like, Um, one of the country bears.

Yeah. I could

could totally be a country bear because you know that those people are not actually as tall as those

Right. Either they’re like on stilts or there’s like,

they’re like average size people and then the head is probably extended well above them.

right. That’s pretty good actually. I, I think that’s,

you could totally be a country bear.

good. Big Al, I guess, Huh? .

You could be liver lips.

Liver lips.

That’d be

be rough. Um, okay. I’m into it. I’ll, we’ll, we’ll, uh, we’ll maybe we’ll move and, and you can be a, um, Cinderella and I can be a liver, liver lips.

I would have to wear a wig because I am not blonde. I

you have to wear a wig pretty much anyway.

most every single character, I think it was maybe Aeriel and Cinderella.

I don’t know which, I don’t know which princesses have blue eyes.

I don’t know.

know. I can’t remember. I have like blueish green

We, When we were at the Halloween party in October, there was a girl that was dressed up at Cinderella in Frontierland as we were leaving, um, a restaurant. And she, like, re she could tell, like her whole thing was cosplaying and she wanted to basically be a Disney princess.

Right. And there was a line of like, she was, I would say she was probably in her mid twenties actually. No way. You don’t, I think she was probably like one of those. girls that was like 22, 23. But looked

no way. She was like 16, 17.

I don’t, I I ages, you know, numbers

Steven is so bad at estimating ages.

was a line of like five kids waiting in line to meet her.

And I was like, guys, this isn’t, you

know,

whatever.

That’s not the real thing. Um,

one do you think is better Epcot in Epcot, Germany or Canada?

Ooh, I, I like Canada because I love the Canada far and. ,

wide. um,

attraction, I, what, what would you call that? Not an auditorium.

Uh, it’s like a 360 experience. Yes.

It’s a, It’s like a 360 Visual. Yes.

And I that was,

is Martin Short still doing it or was he retired?

I, well, the last two times we went it was food and wine. Right. So it was not even

seed orchard.

Right, right. Um, but I love the apples seed orchard. I just really like how you kind of walk down that ramp and around and go down into Canada.

You

of like, you can go into like Las Air and then there’s

Right. And there’s the beautiful waterfall area. I

then when you go so pretty on the other side of Canada, far wine and the. um, apple seed thing during food and wine, like you, you go up like stairs in the waterfall. Yeah, I like that too.

I just think it’s so beautiful.

I’m with you on that as well. Um, no disrespect to our, our German listeners, but I, I’ve never been like a, big fan of like, German culture just hasn’t really spoken to me. It’s not really in my heritage. Um, never something like I, you know, whatever. And, and Canada are like our upstairs neighbors, so it

our upstairs, our neighbors to the north, our

upstairs neighbors.

Um, so I like that one a little bit better. I. think

I do have German heritage for sure, on my mom’s side. However, I think it’s less to me about the culture of those pavilions and it’s more about, um, the feeling I get when I’m in those pavilions. Yeah. Like the German pavilion is very cool and I like

the

food and the drinks, but the Canada Pavilion is so beautiful.

I just think like in Germany, like the caramels, the, the, the. like Heaven. Wiser beers. and the pretzels just don’t really speak to me as much as, um, like,

um, maple

Maple

syrup. And steak. And

And What are the fries called?

Um,

what

sorry. Canadian friends.

the fries called? Um,

uh, oh my goodness, gracious.

Poutine. Yeah. I almost said,

it just popped into my head. I’m like, that’s not right. . I think you just made that up.

Yeah. Poutine. Yeah. So those things, I’m, I’m much more interested in. Um, I was gonna ask you, I was thinking about putting Mexico in there and I was like, no, no, no, no,

no, because that would win against all other

people? Yeah, I think this one’s a doozy. Okay.

Okay.

Would you rather get a free Disney cruise for like the duration of a cruise or a free week? re a free. Okay. would you rather get a free Disney cruise or a free week at the resort of your choice, but you cannot go to the parks.

the cruise, the Alaskan cruise? Doesn’t matter. Is it the one where you go to the private island? Am I running a 5k?

know. You know, you get on the thing and

you made up the question. I’m asking for clarification. It doesn’t matter.

The latest, the wish, the latest one you get to go on. Disney’s cast Castaway. Cave. And um, when I’m not sure about something, I always.

a little bit higher in my tone and then ask it in a question four .Um, yeah, it’s, so you’re going on the wish, you know, it’s free. You have to like, pay for like souvenirs and stuff. to

like, trapped

or you can get like dish. Or you can get like the best room at the Polynesian view of the castle, the whole thing. But you just don’t get park tickets for a week.

I’d rather be trapped at the Animal Kingdom

that Yeah. Any And yeah.

a week and not be allowed to go to the parks than be stuck on.

Yeah, I was thinking about that and I think I’m with you because, um, once again, like a Disney cruise is fairly attainable. Um, if you want to do it? Wait, yeah.

Clarifying question.

Can I resort hop for

You can go anywhere. You’re not like stuck at the resort.

is why I’m

You just stay at the

That’s why I’m picking that. Because if I’m on the cruise ship, then I’m stuck with cruise ship food, which I’m assuming on a Disney cruise ship is.

Yes. Yeah, the 5,000 hyperspace. . lounge. Uh,

Yeah, no thanks on that one.

But

from Star Wars, uh,

I would rather be able to say I’m staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge for a week. Yeah. I get to look out my window and the giraffes are just hanging out outside my patio, and I’m gonna go to Trader Sam’s, and then I’m gonna come back and I’m gonna go to Ohana, and then I’m gonna come back, and then I’m gonna go to

do you imagine like How. much ground you can cover in a week. if

I know. If I’m just resort hopping.

Mm-hmm. ,

that’d be awesome.

be all right. Yeah.

That’s my pick.

Um, let me switch it a little though, and just say you could stay in like the presidential suite at the cruise, like the good

one

Does that change anything?

spiral staircase

Yeah. Does that change anything or not so

much?

No, I’m not bougie.

Yeah. Well

we did, we did that episode. Um, several months ago about if money were no object, what would we do? Disney Wise and I, that kind of stuff. The super ritzy does not really appeal to me. Like the black tie gallery We went to on Friday was nice because we got to feel like we were fancy.

Yeah. But we knew a lot of the people there.

we’re just imposters.

Well, it was for a, like a nonprofit foundation. It wasn’t like this big fancy rich event where it was only just rich people. And it wasn’t like, I felt like I was a millionaire being there. So I feel like if I stayed in the presidential suite, I would be like, I, I can’t touch anything.

I, I’m gonna break something. I don’t deserve to be here. Let me stay in the nicest room in the animal Kingdom lodge for a week, because that’s really expensive. Yeah. But it’s really, really

fair.

Okay. Yeah, I think I’m with you. Um, I think that’d be fun. Uh, would you rather work, test, track, or Sorin?

Oh,

you have to work the rides.

I know.

Yeah.

Hmm. I’m trying to think of the outfits.

Um, yeah, so, and obviously, you know, you could either be the person that like operates the ride, let’s say. You could either be the person, that like operates the ride, helps people get into the, you know, into the right vehicles. Um, I don’t think it counts to be the person that stands by the gate and is like the lightning lanes this way, or you know, regulars this way.

You have to be kind of like near the entrance of the ride to some

degree.

Okay.

The test track outfits are kind of cool.

Yeah,

the Soren outfits are fine. I love both of those rides. Like they’re up there for me sort of next to each other. Epcot

that’s why I chose them

I know. I figured you did. Mm-hmm. . Um,

I don’t know. I feel like working. Sorin would be kind of annoying because you’d have to make sure that everybody doesn’t have, like, they’re not kicking off their flip flops, that they stuck everything under their seat. Right. That everyone fits in the seat that they’re in. You don’t have to like switch anybody to the end seat, be because they’re too small.

back. Mm-hmm.

Sit down, make sure your

seatbelt

pull on the yellow tab. Yeah.

Plus did you think about, one of the things I think about with this question is whenever I’m on sore, and I like to look down and see what’s going on like below.

And, um, the cast member who’s like operating the vehicle, if you look down they are, or the mechanism, you look down into your

left,

they look so. sad

Well, they’re just standing there watching the

the same thing over and

from a really weird perspective. So they can’t even like, enjoy it

So I don’t think I would want to do that. at all. I think test track would be kind of fun

if I worked Soren, I would have to be in that room. When you’re coming to the bottom of the ramp and you’re sorting people Yeah. Into the different, um, lines. Mm-hmm. , I think that would be, Better cuz then you’re just basically making sure there’s enough people in each thing.

Yeah. Whereas test track, like the music is cool in test track. Yeah. I love the room where you’re designing your car. I just, I know Steven always bypasses that part. I love that part. So I don’t know, I think it’d have to be test tracked for all of those reasons. Okay.

Yeah, I, I, I’m, I’m on test track too, just because, um, I don’t think so.

I think so would feel too claustrophobic in every aspect to me. And it’s not my favorite. ride. I think It’s overrated. Um, the interesting thing to me about thi like these, like would you rather work or do things, is that, you know, when you think about working in Disney World or Disneyland, it’s like, to me anyway, there’s um, it always sounds like the coolest thing ever and it does seem really cool.

But then you have to remember, there’s people work the cash registers at random stands and they are, you know, janitors and stuff, and that’s all great. But like not every job is gonna be the most exciting job.

Every job in Disney is the most exciting. The janitors draw Mickey faces with water,

after a while, it just becomes a job, you know?

So maybe I don’t, I could be

wrong. I don’t know. I can’t speak for someone who’s been a cast member or has been in the Disney College program or anything. I just feel like if I worked at Disney, I would never get tired. That’s how I feel. Yeah. That no matter how like small my job felt some days that I feel like I would never get tired.

Yeah. And I’m there. Please keep in mind, like I’m not, no job is small. Obviously they’re all important and stuff.

I was just more saying that after a while, a job just was a job.

No, I, I know what you’re saying. I don’t think you’re trying to diminish or demean anyone who is a cast member that sweeps up trash because those jobs are so

important. Job. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to work at Anne Animal Kingdom. That has been my dream since I was a little girl.

I could drive the Safari vehicle and have a fun little spiel that I talk about. The animals, I don’t know. I just think there’s so many fun things that every.

every

What every job that seems really small in Disney all adds to the magical experience. And so if you have a job like picking up trash or whatever it is, you can still make people’s trips really magical by just your interactions with people.

think we have talked about like our dream jobs before. I think Have we? or.

I don’t remember.

Well, you

just, I think it’s.

you just said yours would be like driving the safari. Well,

two jobs, two of my dream jobs have come up during this episode. One would be to be a Disney princess and one would be to drive the safari.

So could I do both?

Yeah, I’m, yeah. I mean, sure.

Like three days a week. Three days a week. Sure. I will be Cinderella three days a week and then go drive a Safari vehicle three days a

a week. My, uh, my dream job in Disney World or Disneyland, can be split up into two different. things. Uh, the first one will either be a bartender at Ocus Cantina or a bartender at Trader Sam’s.

Those would be great jobs

for you. Yeah, I think that either one of those would be so much fun. Um, being a bartender is actually my dream before I went to college. And not that, that’s, bad. I mean, great. If You, you can whatever,

I crushed your

No. Gosh, no, you didn’t. It was,

You made me not be able to be a Disney princess and I made you not be able to be a

You didn’t make me not be able to be. I just was like, well now I got a degree, so I gotta do something. I’ve still like had all these thoughts about like, opening up Some kind of like a really cool like boutique sort of cocktail bar. or Something like that. Um, I think that working at Ocos would be so much fun.

That would be really

cool.

That would be the best job ever.

They have cool outfits too.

Yeah. And just the whole vibe and the music and basically cosplaying Star Wars all day would just be such a fun job. But you’re actually really working and like serving people

you’d have to be in character.

Yeah. which I would love to do that in that situation.

I’d love to do.

Right. You’re usually good at that when we play games like that.

Yeah. Oh, Well, I’m incredible. at, are you. Okay.

humble.

Uh, would you rather get stuck on it’s a small world for 30 minutes. Obviously the song is playing. Or would you rather be stuck on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for 20 minutes during the Hell scene?

Um, yeah, I, The hell scene in Mr. Toad, for those of you who haven’t ridden it, cause it’s no longer in, in Magic Kingdom, it is hot in that scene.

it.

because you would sing.

Well, that hurt my feelings,

because you just literally said you would annoy people on purpose.

um,

I feel like Mr. To would be all right to be stuck on, but

I’m not trying to be stuck and sweaty.

But the thing with Mr Tota is like, because it’s one of those dark rides for kids, it would be so easy just to exit the vehicle and just walk off. So it’s really hyperbole that they’re asking you, which one would you rather be stuck because you’re not really technically stuck on either of them without an end show, exit of some kind.

But rude.

Disney, Disney props

My feelings are hurt.

they’re not. Are they really

hurt? No, they’re not actually hurt. I said I was gonna annoy people for 30 minutes.

Um, I think this one’s kind of an interesting take because it could, I don’t know, I think this one’s kind of weird, but I’m gonna ask it anyway.

Would

you rather only be able to eat in restaurants for breakfast or for dinner at Disney Parks.

Do I have to pack my food the rest of the time or do you like

you just, You just go hungry? I don’t know.

Just starve.

No. Uh, So,

me if I only want to

8:00 AM or at 5:00 PM

Yeah, I mean, I know that’s like, take like personal feelings aside of like, I know I’ll be hungry at this time or whatever.

I’m thinking more of like the quality of the food. So like reserving a restaurant for like an all you care to enjoy at, you know, ohana for breakfast or at like what else serves breakfast, any. other place in Disney, I guess. Um, oh, Tusker. Tusker, uh, house, whatever. like there’s a lot of places that have great breakfast.

So I guess what I’m asking

is,

which one would you rather

like do a reservation based sit down dining.

My answer is dinner and I’m sacrificing roto wraps and Tonga toast.

You can still have a roto wrap cause That’s. qsr.

Well, I know, but it’s breakfast.

No, you can still like eat breakfast. I’m talking like maybe this was a poorly written question.

This question gets a big old

Earned. This question is brought to you by,

um,

poor planning . Um, no, you

I knew what

I guess That was a bad question. but,

well, let’s just clarify the question. You are only allowed to eat in Disney parks for breakfast or for dinner, and you have to pack everything else.

let’s do.

it that way.

Because then it makes you actually have to choose. So I’m giving up my roto wraps and my Tonga

I see what you’re saying. Yeah.

and I’m going to eat dinner because there are so many different dinner options. I can get any kind of food I want within Walt Disney Z World’s property, especially if I wanna go to Epcot and eat in any country.

If I wanna go to a resort and eat any style of food. Dinner has a lot of variety, whereas breakfast, it’s like, what kind of eggs do you want? What kind of carbs do you want? What kind of potatoes do you want? That’s true. Those are pretty much your options. Do, would you like a side of fruit or a side of hash browns?

Like the, you’re limited so much more with going and now breakfast can be anything from like eating at your

moderate or,

um, value resort and getting like a Mickey Waff. Some scrambled eggs or it can be like super fancy sit down experience with characters. Right. I just feel like dinner has so much more variety that I would rather eat a, like a bowl of cereal or oatmeal or a snack bar.

Nutri bar. Right,

with you.

right. And then pack sandwiches for lunch and then splurge on dinner.

I’m with you on that. Only because I don’t like breakfast. I don’t, I don’t eat breakfast. So. rough. I haven’t eaten, I haven’t like consistently been a breakfast person in over a decade.

You get those, uh, those egg bites from Starbucks that we can’t pronounce.

The guer egg bites, Greer, the the bacon and Greer egg bites. please. And I always kinda like mumble it out so they don’t, know what I’m talking

about like how my mom says skewers, she just says screws

Gus,

she doesn’t know if it’s skewers or

and guer egg bites the, the employees at Starbucks. Never repeated back to me though.

So I don’t think they know how to pronounce it either.

Either that or they don’t want you to feel bad.

Oh, make me feel bad. I, I want to know. Um, yeah, I’m not a breakfast person at all, so I always get like, shamed for not eating breakfast. But I think, I think the most important meal of the day thing is kind of like a, um, conspiracy by like big by like, um, general Mills.

Yep. Definitely. Um,

No, it’s to start your metabolism. That’s a real thing.

I, I understand that, but I also think that it’s a little bit conspiratorial and it’s just so people can make money.

I’m not a dietician. Yeah. I’m just saying when I eat breakfast, my metabolism seems like it’s doing better.

Do commercials still say like a part of a balanced breakfast?

I, we don’t really watch commercials.

don’t think I’ve seen a cereal commercial in such a long time. You always see like the cereal with like, The toast and the veg and the fruits and the like orange juice and all that. And it’s like, you expect people to eat all of that for breakfast?

There are a lot of people that eat a full breakfast every

That’s crazy. Who has.

fine. If I did not have to get up so early for work, I would eat a full breakfast every day.

I always make our daughter a full breakfast in the morning. Um, and then I just am like, Dad wants coffee. So my, my. full breakfast Is typically

black is a stomach ache and black

Oh, I don’t have a stomach A, it

Really?

With no food. ,

gets me going for the day. ,

uh,

I’m sorry that, that question was kind of a failure, but, um, you know,

Okay. Onto the next

Would you rather get for free, I guess five new pairs of ears or two new.

lounge flies,

Five pairs of ears in addition to what I already have. Sounds excessive

or two lounge, fly backs.

I have.

What

lounge friess do I have? Five,

5, 6, I think Six maybe.

I think six. Halloween, Christmas, winter, Christmas blue.

Yeah.

Harry Potter.

Harry Potter one’s not technically a lounge. Fly and. I felt guilty When I bought it for you, but

I think I have five.

like a box lunch, um, branded bag. And I felt Like such a chump when it came in

It’s

It’s very nice. It is very nice.

And then ears, I have the uk, I have the Halloween ones. I have the plain old mini mouse. I have the 2020 ones. Uh,

I don’t know which ears. Oh, you bought someone Etsy, right?

Yeah. Those were not real ones. They were animal kingdom ones. Yeah, they’re cute. Okay. Um, so I have at least five of each, five ears, five lounge flies.

I feel like adding five additional ears is a lot. Yeah. But I do like matching my ears and my lounge flies with my outfits. Right, right. And I go in the park and I feel like I have enough ears that cover a lot of different color schemes in different park. Like I have ones for different holidays, but I also have multiple that are not holiday specific, whereas lounge flies, I really only have one lounge fly bag that’s not holiday

You have the blue one with all the kind of 2D characters

fantasy land rides on it. Right. So I feel like I should get two new lounge flies.

Okay. I’ve come super close to buying you lounge flies only cuz I like them and I would not probably carry a lounge fly. . But yeah, I’ve seen a couple of them that I’ve, I’ve come very dangerously close to buying you just cause I wanted you to have them.

How thoughtful.

it was, one of ’em was like a, um, star Wars one, which is crazy. I almost bought you two Star Wars ones. I almost bought you like the, the, um, cartoon R two D two and C3 PO from the droids eighties

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

then I almost bought you the one with, um, it was like a,

it was like, it had like Leia, padme and um, a soka on it altogether. And I came very close to buying you that one. Um,

you know what, I think I need what is like a solid color lounge fly? Yeah. Like that mint green one.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

just like pretty mint green. I know it has sequence and stuff on it, but

I think the sequences are fine. I know you’re kind of against them. the sequences.

is, I know you were kind of against them for a while, but I think they actually work.

not a sequence person. I’m not like glittery and Yeah, pink and sparkly. I’m usually pretty neutral with that. Shiny, I’m, I’m not shiny good Moana reference. Yeah. Um, I usually am just like blues and greens.

If I, if I’m wearing something girly in Disney, it’s usually red and white polka dots.

I know, um, the mint would clash with that.

Yeah. I don’t know what

you, maybe I need a red bag, a plain

do black ones? That

They have a, they have a mini mouse looking one that’s black and red.

Yeah. That.

I could get that

It’s crazy to me how some people, um, are able to just, and it’s fine, like collectors are gonna collect and that’s great. I just, I’ve seen some people who have like 50 to 60 lounge fly bags. I

I know. Or more, they just have like a whole room full of lounge

wise. I mean, that’s great. But I,

with all of them?

can’t personally justify making collections like that because I, um,

um,

I would only want to like, carry stuff to parks. It’s like I have some Roosevelt shirts that are specifically Star Wars and stuff. Um, and I’m not gonna go crazy on them cause I, when like, I’m only gonna wear these to parks, not typically in other places.

And if we are Disney once a year, people maybe every other year, how am I supposed to wear all of my lounge flies and ears if I

I had, Yeah, cuz then you have to like pack them and bring multiple for one trip. and

I know it’s a lot, which I usually do pack ears for every day and magic bands that match the ears and the lounge flies.

It’s a whole thing. Yeah. I coordinate all the pieces

back when Disney gave away Free magic bands. I just got the gray one and I was like, perfect, this is all I need is just one gray magic band. And then I kind of slowly started buying a couple of more. I have a small collection. I have four. Five. I have five.

Yeah. You have five? Yeah. Um, okay, so here’s the last question. I don’t think we’ve done this one before. I think we’ve done something similar, but I don’t think we’ve done this one before. Great. Would you rather go to Disneyland on opening day in 1955 or Disney World Opening day in 1971?

And I’m not gonna like give you parameters or anything like that.

I underst. Okay, so pros of going in 55. That’s the original Walt’s alive.

It’s

the fifties. Everyone’s dressed fancy.

Yeah. Cons. Cons. It kind of sucked. And the cement was wet.

The cement was wet. Not everything was open it. They weren’t quite ready.

Yeah. Mickey Mouse, the costumed. character was, was like, look A demon. Yeah.

And it was the fifties. It was the

It was The fifties,

you probably wouldn’t be

go. And I was a woman .

Yeah, right.

Uh, why Pros of the seventies opening. This is the second try. So things are better. The castle’s bigger,

but you have to see Roy.

But Walt’s, r i p

Yeah, sure.

Didn’t even make it to the opening. No.

Um, and you have to deal with. trying to do something nice, which is fine, but like

people probably still dressed kind of nice in the

No, no, no. Not about dressing. You have to deal with

like, no,

Disney, who,

like, I know what you’re saying.

I’m just

second, you know, he was like, he was like the B plot, sort

was moving on to the next Okay. Um, bullet point in my head. Yeah, no, I, I’m gonna say Walt Disney World in 71.

So the opening was interesting. I mean, it was very, Uh, I mean, if I’m looking at pictures of it online and stuff, like it looked cool. Um, I know Julians was there, Bob Hope was there, It was just kind of cute.

Uh, kind of fun. Um, I just

feel like they had it right for this one because they had been,

and

it was like 15 years of Disneyland that they had been able to tweak things and see, okay, what, what can we do better for this opening?

Yeah.

Um,

I, I think, I think that opening day in Disneyland would’ve been really special because, um, obviously yeah, the whole Walt thing, like that’s a given But the other thing is that we could have seen truly like what everything looked like when it was just a parking lot and groves around it before it was all built up, right? So I think that, for me anyway, if you, the, the thing that’s most impressive to me about seeing opening day pictures of Disneyland, , is that there’s like trees surrounding it and um, it’s, you know, there’s like no buildings all around, you know, all around it.

The, the lines are insane. Um, and, and one of the things that really sticks out to me is like how the parking lot is basically right up against the gate And so it’s almost like going to like a Six Flags, kind of, where it all parking lot. and just a gate, and that was it. Um, so I think for me that would be far more interesting to see.

Plus you get to talk to Walt. Probably Not, but it’d be fun to try to catch him, you know?

Yeah. I, I think the odds are fairly slim, but you never

know. Yeah. You never know. I mean, I don’t, so anyway. Yeah. But I think that going to both would be cool. I just think Disneyland would be, would’ve been more interesting.

Plus it’s all in black and white back then, so it’s like Totally. You know,

like everything you see is in black and white. Yeah. Like you look around and you can’t see color.

Right. It’s crazy how like that switched. when It’s crazy how like when color photography came out, people also started singing. color. I don’t

understand.

It’s pretty crazy.

Yeah. I think I actually when I was a little kid, I did think, I asked my mom if everything was in black and white. when She was , a kid, .um, which is super offensive because color photography was out and I did see like, colored photos of them, you know, or like videos and stuff. But I still wasn’t sure,

um,

or I thought like everything was in like a low contrast, CIA kind of kind of town.

Yeah. Like where it, everything just looks a little yellow.

Yeah. And then you see madman, you’re like, oh, I guess it was fine. and it did look like that. Um, those are all the questions I had. I don’t, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. There, there weren’t any repeats, right?

No, I don’t think so.

I think those were all unique questions. Nicely done.

Yeah. I think

these episodes because I have no idea what to expect. I just kind of show up to our podcast table and just, just

answer. Yeah. Um, they’re kind of more fun than planning, even though I have to do the planning forum. ’em, I think they’re, they’re.

fun. So, uh, that’s gonna do it for us. Um, remember again, next week we’re gonna kick off, uh, well hope fingers crossed. But next week we’re hopefully gonna have recordings, um, from our, our audience, get our artist guest, excuse me. Um, and we are, uh, we’re really looking forward to that. Um, please, you know, remember to just, um, check us out on social media rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcast.

We’d really appreciate it. And, um, thanks again so much for listening everyone, and we will catch you next time.

H ello 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. My name is Steven, and today we’ll be doing a this or that episode. We haven’t done this in a little while.

We thought we wanted to bring this back, so I’m excited. I’m coming up with some questions to ask Paige. I’ve actually been like stewing over them myself because I, I, I. Um, I think they’re hard. I, I, they’re different than what we’ve normally done, but I think they’re gonna be good and I have no idea what to expect.

So, yeah. Uh, a little front matter, just before we get into anything or everything, I guess. Um, so we, as you guys know, last week we talked about the festival, the arts, and we were fortunate enough to get in touch with a handful of artists who were there, um, and also some people who are just, you know, incredible and, and very, very talented, Disney.

So we have a couple of them booked already for our next handful of shows. Uh, we’re gonna be doing like an interview style process where, you know, we’re gonna learn a little bit about, you know, how they got into art, um, you know, how they really specifically got into like Disney art and, and what it takes to, to do that.

Um, we’re really excited. I think it’s gonna be a fun little mini series we’re gonna do. We’re hoping to get about three different, uh, artists on our show that we can talk to and, and just really get an idea of, What they’re doing and how it’s kinda impacted their lives and, and some of the benefits of of, of how that’s like, And for them.

So I’m really excited about that one because I think it’s awesome to be able to put a spotlight on people who are doing really, really awesome art, um, during the Festival of the Arts. And some of them are not affiliated with Festival of the Arts, but we wanted to be able to include some of those voices as well so that you guys can see and hear from people who are making art and awesome Disney things.

So I’m really excited to talk with them. Yeah. Right now we’re just kind of in the heat of like, Um, which can be cumbersome, but, uh, I think we’re, we’re getting some, some dates finalized. So, uh, What do you, what’s going on in your life this week that’s exciting for you? Um, mine actually, I wanted to share what we did on Friday night because I think it is so awesome.

It was really nice. We had, we had somebody pick us up in like a fancy black car and take us to the event. It was so awesome. Um, so I really, really enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. Um, yeah, it was. Great. I’m not gonna say the thing that I’m excited about today specifically, I’m not gonna talk about It’s your football boys, that’s why.

Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t matter. I mean, it doesn’t for everyone else. So it’s because you’re always excited about your football boys. Well, and by the ti I mean, there’s a 50 50 chance that when this gets released tomorrow morning, it could just be really upset. So I don’t want to talk about that necessarily.

Yes. And, um, I think that’s gonna be great. It’s, it’s a, well, it’s gonna be a well deserved, uh, change. I need to be very welcomed and I was, I was loving that like right before. Was still almost a 200 minute wait to be on the ride. I know. And rope drop. It was about a 90 minute wait immediately. Mm-hmm. . Um, do you think you would’ve wait, waited in line for that just for one last goodbye?

I mean, I would’ve with you cuz I know that’s your, that was like your favorite ride. I actually don’t think I ever wrote it until I wrote it with you. Um, I’m not a big fan of drops. We’ve written, I think you’ve written both. You’ve written Disneyland and Disney World. Yeah. I think I’ve only done Disneyland.

and Disney World. I think we ever ridden twice at this point. But no, Disneylands is so much better in my opinion. But, uh, either way, it’s a great, it’s a great experience. Well now we’ll be excited for the new attraction. Yeah. Can’t wait. Okay. Are you ready to do some, would you, would you rather this or that?

I’m ready. Would you rather this or that? Okay. So you gotta pick one, right? That’s the rules. I’m gonna ask you a couple of two different options of like, would you rather do this? , which is why we, we named it that . And then just answer and then I’ll answer it as well for my vantage point. Okay. You got it.

Alright. The first one is, um, is it okay if I just say, would you rather, do you mind if I just say that you do whatever you wanna do? Would you rather, uh, get a v I P experience in the parks or at the Walt Disney Studios in Burger, California? Oh, I think. , I would rather. , get the v i P experience in the parks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. But I feel like the v i p experience to me in the parks would be way more exciting for me personally. Would you’d rather do like Disneyland or Disney? The World for the backstage thing? I think Disney World, I think there would be more to do and more to see. So I would say yeah, definitely backstage.

Okay. Yeah. V i p in Walt Disney World. Okay. Um, I, I think while that would be fun, I think that the Walt Disney studios in Burbank would be more interesting and exciting. Um, you know, you get to see all of the Oscars, I think that they have like a replica of Walt’s office there. Um, there’s just, you know, so much to look at sound stages.

Um, the audio, like the, the recording studios, the sound effects stations, You know, the income paint that’s still there, all that kind of stuff. Um, to me that would be a much more interesting and thrilling opportunity. And I also think it’d be, it’s less of a common opportunity like any old person can buy a VIP experience.

Right. Whereas I think you have to be invited to some degree. Um, so in 2000 and

2000 and I’m, I’m frantically Googling. , um, while I, while I look this up here. Okay. So in, in, in two in 2007. There we go. I made it 2007. I did get a, um, it was pretty close to the IP tour of Pixar Animation Studios in Iberville. Mm-hmm. . Um, it was very, very cool. I went with some people who I knew and some friends.

Um, and we got to just get an entire, you know, glimpse into what the. Experience was like from like going into the rendering farm to like John Lasseter’s office, which was really interesting at the time, um, and all that kind of stuff. So I, I would, I would, I would lean toward the, uh, At the studio. I think another reason I would say v i P in the parks is we’ve had such glimpses of some of those things through either Disney plus shows or, yeah.

Sorry, say it’s totally different than seeing the first time. Right. But I’ve never seen a lot of the backstage stuff in the parks. Yeah. Because a lot of that is not all out there for the public to see. Um, so that’s why I think just to add a little extra as to backing up my answer. Great. Okay. Here’s the.

These are all over the place, by the way. So there’s not a thing at all. I, yep, no problem. Would you rather work at a churro stand or at the gate entrance? What a random question. They’re all over the map. Okay. So if I worked at a churro stand, I would probably eat a lot of churros. I think that they have like product stock management, so I don’t know if you could just do that.

Well, like I would buy a lot of churros. I wouldn’t just like steal churros. I would make some and then I would use. and then I would use my monies to buy Morros. Okay. Um, I’ve never enjoyed working in the food industry. I’m gonna, I’m gonna be one of those greeters up at the front gate. Yeah. I’m talking to people that have to explain to you that you have to put your magic band against.

I know. And also put, um, scan your finger. I know what you mean. I’m with you on that. I think it would be, I think it’s exciting to. See people’s expressions and faces going into the park. Well, and imagine seeing all of the kids who are there for the very first time and they get to really excited, they get to like, stand up tall and put their magic band up against it, and it lights up with the mickey ears, and then you just see all of the joy.

Oh, that’s what I would do. How, how wonderful, uh, working at Charles stand I think wouldn’t be as fun. , um, depends where the churro stand is located. I think if I worked at it in Fantasy Land, that’d be fun. Yeah. Do I get like a view of all the shows or am I working in Animal Kingdom? Because then maybe work at the churro stand that is sort of, I don’t know if this is correct or not.

In Disney Land per se. No. You know what? You can maybe work at the one in New Orleans Square and Disneyland. It’s right by Pirates and Tom, so Ireland, that’d be kinda cool. Or. In animal kingdom, there are several churro stands and I would probably be happy with any of them. I think it’d be way too hot to work at a churro stand in animal animal kingdom.

What if I’m working at the Nomad lounge? They have churros. No, that wasn’t really the question. It’s not a stand, is it? It’s not. Okay. Well, my answer was at the front gate anyway, so yeah. Okay, cool. Uh, would you rather play a costume character or a face character?

when I was. 12th grade, I took a musical theater dance class, and my teacher was one of the people who used to audition folks for the princesses in Walt Disney World and Disneyland. And she told me that I had the exact eye structure and color to play a princess because they look for specific. Features that people have to play certain characters.

Why didn’t you? because I was going to do the Disney College program my second year of college. Mm-hmm. , and then I met this dude at the library. So it was my fault. could, I mean, if you wanted to go do it, we could have, but, um, I met you. Yeah. It’s not too late. I’m sorry. And my life changed. . Um, before I answer my side of things similarly, I had a conversation with, uh, I met this, this Disney recruiter, um, in.

And I met with him like in, in an office afterward to kind of talked to him about some things. And I said, listen, I’m from the Bay Area. I really wanna work for Pixar. It’s still not a dream that I’ve completely put by the wayside. I’m not an animator, but there’s, you know, possibilities for like other jobs in marketing and stuff.

Um, and he looked at me like dead in the eyes and he’s like, do you work? Do you like working 80 hours a week? And I was like, no. And he goes, then that’s not for you. And I was like, thank you for your, , um, you’re brutal honesty. Runaway runaround. Yeah. Making it seem like it’s great and then all of a sudden I’m stuck.

Um, so yeah. Fantastic. Um, I would rather be a costume character cause I’m not really good at like, interact, like when I’m having a bad day or something. I’m not very good at hiding my facial expressions. Um, and I just don’t think that I would have the mental stamina to um, be in character that long.

Whereas if you’re like, for instance, I don’t know who I could be cause I’m five. . So I’m not, I’m too tall to be Mickey Mouse and I’m too short to be goofy . Um, there are a lot of other costume characters nowadays. Yeah. I mean, I could be like, um, Scrooge McDuck . Um, you are Scrooge McDuck. That would be perfect.

Like platform shoes or something. But anyway, I, I just like the idea of being able to have a completely straight face and. Greet people. You know what? I could probably be Pluto. I betcha he’s not like, insane at tall. Um, anyway, I, I think that I would, I I, it’d be nice to be a costume character and to just be able to like, have whatever facial expression you want.

Um, not really worry about having to like, come up with conversation. You could just point to kids and then, you know, turn your head and like do things with your hands to like, you know, show off. To communicate in some kind of way. Uh, and I think that that would be good. The only thing I wouldn’t want to, wouldn’t like about being, especially a costume character, is all the adults that wanna come hug me.

I don’t think I would like that at all. You just shut it down. Yeah. Think, I don’t think like Captain Marvel when we went to Disneyland. Yeah. Gosh. And. . I walked up to her and she put her arm around me. Mm-hmm. . And we put our other arm on our hips like we were standing like Captain Marvel. And then a guy came up and he tried to put his arm around her and she put her hand out, like stop.

And then she said back to back. And she crossed her arms. Yeah. And they went back to back with their arms crossed. So she had totally put down boundaries like, do not touch me. To be fair, he looked like the kind of guy that was trying to hug a princess or a. Superhero. Yeah. Awkward. Um, she could sniff it out, like, do you wanna pick with me?

And I’m like, I’m good. I don’t really need that. Um, but yeah, so that’s what I Who do you think I would, how do you think I’d even play? I’m trying to think what about, what about like, Um, one of the country bears. Yeah. You could totally be a country bear because you know that those people are not actually as tall as those costumes.

It’s like they’re like on stilts or there’s like, they’re like average size people and then the head is probably extended well above them. Right, right. That’s pretty good actually. I, I think that’s, you could totally be a country bear. Pretty good. Big ally gas. Huh? . You could be liver lips. Yeah. Liver lips.

That’d be rough. Um, okay. I’m into it. I’ll, we’ll, we’ll, uh, we’ll maybe we’ll move and, and you can be a, um, a princess and I can be a liver, liver lips. I would have to wear a wig because I am not blonde. I think you have to wear a wig pretty much anyway. For most every single character, I think it was maybe Aeriel and Cinderella.

I don’t know which, I don’t know which princesses have blue eyes. I don’t know. I can’t remember. I have like blueish green eyes. When we were at the Halloween party in October, there was a girl that was dressed up at Cinderella in Frontierland as we were leaving, um, a restaurant. And she, like, she could tell, like her whole thing was cosplaying and she wanted to basically be a Disney princess.

Right. She was a teenager line of like, she was, I would say she was probably in her mid twenties actually. No way. You know, I think she was probably one of those. 22, 23. But look, no way. She was like 16, 17. I don’t, I I age is, you know, number, Steven is so bad at estimating ages. There was a light of like five kids winning in line to meet her.

And I was like, guys, this isn’t, you know, whatever. That’s not the real thing. Um, which one do you think is better Epcot in Epcot, Germany or Canada? Ooh, I, I like Canada because I love the Canada far and. , um, attraction, I, what, what would you call that? Not an auditorium. Um, no, it’s like a 360 experience. Yes.

It’s like a three. Visual. Yes. And I that was, is Martin Short still doing it or did you see I, well, the last two times we went it was food and wine. Right. So it was not even there orchard. Right, right. Um, but I love the apples seed orchard. I just really like how you kind of walk down that ramp and around and go down into Canada.

You kind of like, you can go into like Las Air and then there’s Right. And there’s the beautiful waterfall area. I just think it’s so pretty on the other side of Canada, far and wide in the. See big food and morning, like you, you go up like stairs in the water. Yeah, I like that too. I just think it’s so beautiful.

I’m with you on that as well. Um, no disrespect to our, our German listeners, but I, I’ve never been like a big fan of like, German culture just hasn’t really spoken to me. It’s not really in my heritage. Um, never something like I, you know, whatever. And, and Canada are like our upstairs neighbors, so our upstairs, our neighbors to the north, our upstairs neighbors.

Um, so I like that one a little bit better. I. I do have German heritage for sure, on my mom’s side. However, I think it’s less to me about the culture of those pavilions and it’s more about, um, the feeling I get when I’m in those pavilions. Yeah. Like the German pavilion is very cool and I like the food and the drinks, but the Canada Pavilion is so beautiful.

Yeah. I just think like in Germany, like the caramels, the, the, the. Heaven. Wiser beers. Mm-hmm. and the pretzels just don’t really speak to me as much as, um, like, um, maple syrup. Maple syrup. And steak. And steak. And What are the fries called? Um, sorry. Canadian friends. What are the fries called? Um, uh, oh my goodness, gracious.

Poutine. Poutine. Yeah. I will say, it just popped into my head. I’m like, that’s not right. . I think you just made that up. Yeah. Poutine. Yeah. So those things, I’m, I’m much more in. Um, I was gonna ask you, I was thinking about putting Mexico in there and I was like, no, no, no, because that would win against all other pavilions.

I think this one’s a doozy. Okay. Okay. Would you rather get a free Disney cruise for like the duration of a cruise or a free We re a free. Okay. Words would you rather get a free Disney cruise or a free week at the resort of your choice, but you cannot go to the parks.

is the cruise, the Alaskan cruise? Doesn’t matter. Is it the one where you go to the private island? Am I running a 5k? Oh, no. You know, and you made up the question. I’m asking for clarification. It doesn’t matter. The latest, the wish, the latest one you get to go on. Disney’s cast Castaway. K. Mm-hmm . And um, when I’m not sure about something, I always.

up a little bit higher asking the question for . Um, yeah, it’s, so you’re going on the wish, you know, it’s free. You have to like, pay for like souvenirs and stuff. You have to be like, trapped on a Petri dish. Or you can get like the best room at the Polynesian view of the castle, the whole thing. But you just don’t get park tickets for a week.

I’d rather be trapped at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Yeah. And he for a week and not be allowed to go to the parks than be stuck on. Yeah, I was thinking about that and I think I’m with you because, um, once again, like a Disney cruise is fairly attainable. Um, and you want to do it? Wait, yeah. Clarifying question.

Can I resort hop for food? You can go anywhere. You’re not like stuck at the resort. That is why I’m picking, yes. That’s why I’m picking that. Because if I’m on the cruise ship, then I’m stuck with cruise ship food, which I’m assuming on a Disney cruise ship is. Yes. Yeah, the 5,000 color hyperspace. . Yeah, no thanks on that one.

But from Star Wars, I would rather be able to say I’m staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge for a week. Yeah. I get to look out my window and the giraffes are just hanging out outside my patio, and I’m gonna go to Trader Sam’s, and then I’m gonna come back and I’m gonna go to Ohana, and then I’m gonna come back, and then I’m gonna go to wherever.

How. Recover in a week. I know. If I’m just resort hopping. Mm-hmm. , that’d be awesome. It’d be all right. Yeah. That’s my pick. Um, let me switch it a little though, and just say you could stay in like the presidential suite of the cruise, like the good one, the one that has the spiral staircase or whatever. Two levels say same thing or not so much?

No, I’m not bougie. Yeah. Well we did, we did that episode. Um, several months ago about if money were no object, what would we do? Disney Wise and I, that kind of stuff. The super ritzy does not really appeal to me. Like the black tie gallery we went to on Friday was nice because we got to feel like we were fancy.

Yeah. But we knew a lot of the people there. Well, it was for a, like a nonprofit foundation. It wasn’t like this big fancy rich event where it was only just rich people. And it wasn’t like, I felt like I was a millionaire being there. So I feel like if I stayed in the presidential suite, I would be like, I, I can’t touch anything.

I, I’m gonna break something. I don’t deserve to be here. Let me stay in the nicest room in the animal Kingdom lodge for a week, because that’s really expensive. Yeah. But it’s really, really nice. . Yeah, I think I’m with you. Um, I think that’d be fun. Uh, would you rather work, test, track, or soaring? Oh, you have to work the rise.

I know. Hmm. I’m trying to think of the outfits. Um, yeah, so, and obviously, you know, you can either be the person that like operates the right, let’s say. You can either be the person, like operates the ride, helps people get into the, you know, into the right vehicles. I don’t think it counts to be the person that stands by the gate and is like the lightning lanes this way, or you know, regulars this way.

You have to be kind of like near the entrance of the ride to some degree. Okay. The test track outfits are kind of cool. Yeah, the Soren outfits are fine. I love both of those rides. Like they’re up there for me sort of next to each other. Epcot rides. I know. I figured you did. Mm-hmm. . Um,

You know what I mean? Like Yeah. I feel like because you’re trying to fit so many people into one ride mechanism, whereas test track is pretty straightforward. It’s like three in the front, three in the. Mm. Sit down, make sure your seatbelts pull on the yellow tab. Yeah. Good to go. If you think about, one of the things I think about with this question is whenever I’m on sore, I like to look down and see what’s going on like below.

And, um, the cast member who’s like operating the vehicle, if you look down they are, or the mechanism, you look down into your left, they look so. Well, they’re just standing there watching the same thing, the same thing over and over from a really weird perspective. So they can’t even like, enjoy it from down there.

So don’t think I would wanna do that. I know that’s what I mean. Truck would be kinda fun if I worked Soren, I would have to be in that room. When you’re coming to the bottom of the ramp and you’re sorting people Yeah. Into the different, um, lines. Mm-hmm. , I think that would be, Better cuz then you’re just basically making sure there’s enough people in each thing.

I think Sorn would feel too claustrophobic in every aspect to me. And it’s not my favorite. It’s overrated. Um, the interesting thing to me about think like these, like would you rather work or do things, is that, you know, when you think about working in Disney World or Disneyland, it’s like, to me anyway, there’s um, it always sounds like the coolest thing ever and it does seem really cool.

But you have to remember, there’s people like. We’ll work the cash registers at random stands and they are, you know, janitors and stuff, and that’s all great. But like not every job is gonna be the most exciting job. Every job in Disney is the most exciting. The janitors draw Mickey faces with water, but after a while, just becomes a job, you know?

So maybe I don’t, I could be wrong. I don’t know. I can’t speak for someone who’s been a cast member or has been in the Disney College program or anything. I just feel like if I worked at Disney, I would never get tired. That’s how I feel. Yeah. That no matter how like small my job felt some days that I feel like I would never get tired.

Like if I worked at the eight Spoon Cafe, I feel like I would just never get tired of, even if I did have to work at a Truro cart, I feel like I would still be like, I get to work in the best place ever. Yeah. And I’m there. Please keep in mind, like I’m not, no job is small. Obviously they’re all important and stuff.

I was just more saying that after a while, No, I, I know what you’re saying. I don’t think you’re trying to diminish or demean anyone who is a cast member that sweeps up trash because those jobs are so important. Job. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to work at Anne Animal Kingdom. That has been my dream since I was a little girl.

I could drive the Safari vehicle and have a fun little spiel that I talk about. The animals, I don’t know. I just think there’s so many fun things that every. What every job that seems really small in Disney all adds to the magical experience. And so if you have a job like picking up trash or whatever it is, you can still make people’s trips really magical by just your interactions with people.

I think we have talked about our dream jobs before. Have we? I don’t remember. Well, you just, I think it’s. A handful of times you just be like driving the safari. Well, two jobs, two of my dream jobs have come up during this episode. One would be to be a Disney princess and one would be to drive the safari.

So could I do both? Yeah, I, yeah. I mean, sure. Like three days a week. Three days a week. Sure. I will be Cinderella three days a week and then go drive a Safari vehicle three days a week. My, uh, my dream job in Disney World for Disneyland, can we split up into two different. Uh, the first one will either be a bartender at Ogas Cantina or a bartender at Trader Sam’s.

Those would be great jobs for you. Yeah, I think that either one of those would be so much fun. Um, being a bartender is actually my dream before I went to college. And not that, that’s, that. I mean, great. You, you can what? I, sorry. I crushed your dream. No. Gotcha. . You made me not be able to be a Disney princess and I made you not be able to be a bartender.

You made me not be able to be. The address was like, well now I got a degrees, I gotta do something. But I’ve still like had all these thoughts about like, Some kind of like a really cool boutique sort of cocktail bar. Yes. Something like that. Um, I think that working at Ogas would be so much fun. That would be really cool.

That would be the best job ever. They have cool outfits too. Yeah. And just the whole vibe in the music and mm-hmm. , basically cosplaying Star Wars all day and would just be such a fun job. Mm-hmm. . But you’re actually really working in like certain people and you’d have to be in character. Yeah. Which, which would be interesting in that situation.

I’m up to do. Right. You’re usually good at that when we play games like that. Yeah. Well, incredible. Also very humble. Uh, would you rather get stuck on it’s a small world for 30 minutes. Obviously the song is playing. Or would you rather be stuck on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for 20 minutes during the Hell scene?

I love, it’s a small world and I am the person on the boat that sings it obnoxiously to annoy everyone else in my boat. So let me stay on there for 30 minutes and keep all of the people in my boat annoyed. Um, yeah, I, uh, The hell scene in Mr. To, for those of you who haven’t ridden it, cause it’s no longer in, in Magic Kingdom, it is hot in that scene.

Um, it gets warm. It’s not like Overbearingly hot, but it just feels like there’s a heater on. Um, I think, I think this is gonna sound mean, but I’m just gonna say it. Um, I think I would be okay with being stuck on small world if you weren’t on it. because you would sing. Well, that hurt my feelings, because you just literally said you wouldn’t annoy people on purpose.

um, I feel like Mr. To would be all right to be stuck on, but I’m not trying to be stuck and sweaty. But the thing with Mr To is like, because it’s one of those dark rides for kids, it would be so easy just to exit the vehicle and just walk off. So it’s really hyperbole that they’re asking you, which one would you rather be stuck on because you’re not really typing with stuck on either of them without an initial exit of some kind.

But rude. Disney. Disney, Disney frogs. My feelings are hurt. No, they’re not. Are they really hurt? No, they’re not actually hurt. I said I was gonna annoy people for 30 minutes. Um, I think this one’s kind of an interesting take because it could, I don’t know, I think this one’s kind of weird, but I’m gonna ask it anyway.

Would you rather only be able to eat in restaurants for breakfast or for dinner at Disney Park? Do I have to pack my food the rest of the time or do you like qsr? You just get hungry? I dunno. Just starve. So, no, you’re asking me if I only want to eat at 8:00 AM or at 5:00 PM Yeah, I mean, I know that’s like, so take like personal feelings aside of like, I know I’ll be hungry at this time or whatever.

I’m thinking more of like the quality of the food. So like reserving a restaurant for like all you care to enjoy at, you know, ohana for breakfast or at like what else serves breakfast, any. And Disney, I guess. Um, oh, a lot of places. Tusker, uh, Tusker house, like there’s a lot of places that have great breakfast.

Mm-hmm. . So I guess what I’m asking is, which one would you rather So like to reservation based sit down dining. My answer is dinner and I’m sacrificing roto wraps and Tonga toast. You can still have roto wraps. That’s. Well, I know, but it’s breakfast. No, you can still like eat breakfast. I’m talking like maybe this was a poor meat question.

This question gets a big old ER especially is brought to you by, um, poor planning . Um, no, you I knew what you mean. That was bad question. So, well, let’s just clarify the question. You are only allowed to eat in Disney parks for breakfast or for dinner, and you have to pack everything else. Yeah, let’s do.

Because then it makes you actually have to choose. So I’m giving up my roto wraps and my Tonga toast, and I’m going to eat dinner because there are so many different dinner options. I can get any kind of food I want within Walt Disney Z World’s property, especially if I wanna go to Epcot and eat in any country.

Like the, you’re limited so much more with going and now breakfast can be anything from like eating at your moderate or, um, value resort and getting like a Mickey Waff. Some scrambled eggs or it can be like super fancy sit down experience with characters. Right. I just feel like dinner has so much more variety that I would rather eat a, like a bowl of cereal or oatmeal or a snack bar.

Nutri bar. Right, right. And then pack sandwiches for lunch and then splurge on dinner. I’m with you on that. Only cuz I don’t like breakfast. No, I don’t eat breakfast. So. Re I haven’t eaten, I haven’t like consistently been a breakfast person in over a decade. You get those, uh, those egg bites from Starbucks that we can’t pronounce.

The gray egg bites, Greer, the bacon and Greer egg bites. please. And I always kinda like mumble it out so they don’t, talking about like how my mom says skewers, she just says screws because she doesn’t know if it’s skewers or skewers. Air egg bites the, the employees at Starbucks. Never repeat it back to me though.

So I don’t think they know how to pronounce it either. Either that or they don’t want you to feel bad. Oh, make me feel bad. I, I want to know. Um, yeah, I’m not a breakfast person at all, so I always get like, shame for not even breakfast. But I think, I think the most important meal of the day thing is kind of like a, um, conspiracy by like big by like, um, general Mills.

Yep. Definitely. No, it’s to start your metabolism. That’s a real thing. I understand that, but I also think that it’s a little bit conspiratorial and it’s just so people can make money. I’m not a dietician. Yeah. I’m just saying when I eat breakfast, my metabolism seems like it’s doing better. Do commercials still say like a part of a balanced breakfast?

I, we don’t really watch commercials. I don’t think I’ve seen a cereal commercial in such a long time. You always see like the cereal with like, The toast and the veg and the fruits and the like orange juice and all that. And it’s like, do you expect people to eat all of that for breakfast? There are a lot of people that eat a full breakfast every day.

That’s crazy. That’s fine. If I did not have to get up so early for work, I would eat a full breakfast every day. I always make our daughter a full breakfast in the morning. Um, and then she loves it. Dad wants coffee. So my, my. Is typically black is a stomach ache and black coffee. Oh, stomach ache. Really?

With no food. , it’s me knowing for the day. , uh, I’m sorry that, that question was kind of a failure, but, um, you know, Okay. Onto the next Would you rather get for free, I guess five new pairs of ears are two new.

Five pairs of ears in addition to what I already have. Sounds excessive or two lounge, five bags I have.

How many lounge friess do I have? Five, six. Six maybe. I think six. Halloween, Christmas, winter, Christmas blue. Yeah. Harry Potter. The Harry Potter one’s not technically a lounge. Fly and. When I bought it for you, but I think I have five. It’s like a boxed lunch, um, branded bag. Yeah. Yeah. Like such a chunk.

It’s okay. It’s very nice. It is very nice. And then ears, I have the uk, I have the Halloween ones. I have the plain old mini mouse. I have the 2020 ones. Uh, I dunno, but you Oh, you bought some, right? Yeah. Those were not real ones. They were animal kingdom ones. Yeah, they’re cute. Okay. Um, so I have at least five of each, five ears, five lounge flies.

Right. You have one with all the kind of 2D character, like fantasy land rides on it. Right. So I feel like I should get two new lounge flies. Okay. I’ve come super close to buying new lounge flies only cause I like them and I would not probably carry a lounge fly. . But yeah, I’ve seen a couple of them that I’ve, I’ve come very dangerous and close to buying you just cause I won’t want you to have them.

How thoughtful. Yeah, it was, one of ’em was like a, um, star Wars one, which is crazy. I almost bought you two Star Wars ones. I almost bought you like the, the, um, cartoon R two D two and C3 PO from the droids eighties show. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I almost bought you the one with, um, it was like a, it was like, it had like Leia, padme and um, a Soca on it all.

And I came very falsifying you that one. Um, you know what, I think I need what is like a solid color lounge fly? Yeah. Like that mint green one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s just like pretty mint green. I know it has sequence and stuff on it, but I think the sequence, it’d be pretty fine. I know you the sequences.

The sequences is, I heard you were kinda against them for a while, but I think they actually work. I’m not a sequence person. I’m not like glittery and Yeah, pink and sparkly. I’m usually pretty neutral with that. Shiny, I’m, I’m not shiny good Moana reference. Yeah. Um, I usually am just like blues and greens.

If I, if I’m wearing something girly in Disney, it’s usually red and white polka dots. I know, um, the mint would clash with that. I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know what you, maybe I need a red bag, a plain Do they do blacking? They have a, they have a mini mouse looking one that’s black and red. That’s cool. I could get that one.

It’s crazy to me how some people, um, are able to just, and it’s fine, like collectors are gonna collect and that’s great. I just, I’ve seen some people who have like 50 feet to 60 lounge fly bags. I know. Or more, they just have like a whole room full of lounge flies. I mean, that’s great. I, what do you do with all of them?

I can’t personally justify making collections like that because I, um, um, I would only want to like, carry stuff to parks. Well, right. So I have some Roosevelt shirts that are specifically Star Wars and stuff. Um, and I’m not gonna go crazy on them cause I, when like, I’m only gonna wear these to parks, not typically enough places.

And if we are Disney once a year, people maybe every other year, how am I supposed to wear all of my lounge flies and ears if I have a plethora? Yeah, and you have to like pack them and bring ’em multiple for one trip. I know it’s a lot, which I usually do pack ears for every day and magic bands that match the ears and the lounge flies.

It’s a whole thing. Yeah. I coordinate all the pieces back when Disney gave away Free Match fans. I just got the great one and I was like, perfect, this is all I need is just one great magic band. And then I kind of saw, now you have a small handful. I have a small collection. I have four. Five. I have five.

Yeah. You have five? Yeah. Um, okay, so here’s the last question. I don’t think we’ve done this one before. I think we’ve done something similar, but I don’t think we’ve done this one before. Okay. Would you rather go to Disneyland on opening day in 1955 or Disney World Opening day in 1971?

And I’m not gonna like give you parameters or anything like that. I underst. Okay, so pros of going in 55. That’s the original Walt’s alive. It’s the fifties. Everyone’s dressed fancy. Yeah. Cons. Cons. Con sucked. And the cement was wet. The cement was wet. Not everything was open it. They weren’t quite ready.

Yeah. Mickey Mouse, they costumed. Characteristic was creepy. A demonn. Yeah. And it was the fifties. It was the fifties. . The fifties, so you probably wouldn’t go. And I was a woman . Uh, why Pros of the seventies opening. This is the second try. So things are better. The castle’s bigger, but you have to see Roy.

But Walt’s, r i p dead. Yeah, sure. Didn’t even make it to the opening. No. Um, in your feel. I’m trying to do something nice, which is fine, but like people probably still dressed kind of nice in the seventies. No, no, no. Not about dressing. If people look like, no, I’m Disney, who, like, I know what you’re saying.

I’m just second, you know, he’s like, he was like the B plot, so I was moving on to the next Okay. Um, bullet point in my head. Yeah, no, I, I’m gonna say Walt Disney World in 71. So the opening was interesting. I mean, it was very, I mean, if I’m looking at pictures of it online and stuff, like it looked cool. Um, I know Julie Ries was there, Bob Hope was there, which was just kind of cute.

Uh, kind of fun. Um, I just feel like they had it right for this one because they had been, I mean, it was like 15 years of Disneyland that they had been able to tweak things and see, okay, what, what can we do better for this opening? Yeah. Um, I, I think, I think that opening day Disneyland would’ve been really special because, um, obviously yeah, the whole Walt thing, like that’s a given end.

But the other thing is that we could have seen truly like what everything looked like when it was just a parking lot and groves around it before it was all built up, right? So I think that, for me anyway, if you, the, the thing that’s most impressive to me about seeing opening day pictures of Disneyland, , there’s like trees surrounding it and um, it’s, you know, there’s like no buildings all around, you know, all around it.

The, the lines are insane. Um, and, and one of the things that really sticks out to me is like how the parking lot is basically right up against the gate mm-hmm. . And so it’s almost like going to like a Six Flags, kind of, where it was just all parking lot. Mm-hmm. and just a gate, and that was it. Um, so I think for me that would be far more interesting to see.

Plus you get to talk to Walt. Not, but it’d be fun to try to catch ’em, you know? Yeah. I, I think the odds are fairly slim, but you never know. Yeah. You never know. I mean, I don’t, so anyway. Yeah. But I think that going to both would be cool. I just think Disney and then would be, would’ve been more interesting.

Plus it’s all black and white back then, so it’s like Totally. You know, like everything you see is in black and white. Yeah. Like you look around and you can’t see color. Yeah. Right. It’s crazy how that switched. It’s crazy how like when color photography came out, people also started singing. I don’t understand.

It’s pretty crazy. Yeah. I think I actually went out to look and I did think, I asked my mom if everything was in black and white. She was , um, which is super offensive because color photography was out and I did see like, colored photos of them, you know, or like videos and stuff. Bless. But I still wasn’t sure, um, or I thought like everything was in like a low contrast, sepia kind of kind of town.

Yeah. Like where it, everything just looks a little yellow. Yeah. I mean, you see Matt and you’re like, oh, I guess it was fine. Mm-hmm. and it didn’t look like that. Mm-hmm. . Sure. Um, those are all the questions I had. I don’t, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. There, there weren’t any repeats, right? No, I don’t think so.

I think those were all unique questions. Nicely done. Yeah. I like these episodes because I have no idea what to expect. I just kind of show up to our podcast table and just, just answer. Yeah. Um, they’re kind of more fun than planning, even though I actually do the planning forum. I think they’re, they’re.

So, uh, that’s gonna do it for us. Um, remember again, next week we’re gonna kick off, uh, well hope fingers crossed. But next week we’re hopefully gonna have recordings, um, from our, our audience, our artist guest, excuse me. Um, and we are, uh, we’re really looking forward to that. Um, please, you know, remember to just, um, uh, check us out on social media rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcast.

We really appreciate it. And, um, thanks again so much for listening everyone, and we’ll catch you next time.

Episode 45: Part-Time Cinderella

About the Author: The Parks Academy