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Episode 398: This week we have a special guest and our first repeat guest to the show, Nathan Firesheets. You have probably heard by now that he just completed the Disney global ride challenge where he completed every operating ride at all 12 Disney parks across the globe in 12 days. The challenge itself is no small undertaking. Disney currently operates 12 parks across the globe, each with its own unique attractions and experiences. Nathan had to not only ride every operating ride at each park, but also navigate the logistics of travel between them. During the interview, Nathan shared some of the highlights of his journey. He talks about why he decided early on which route he was going to take and why this only recently became possible again. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Disney Global Ride Challenge is the sheer variety of experiences that Nathan had. Each park has its own unique flavor, and we asked Nathan what his favorite ride is at each Disney park in the world. If you’re interested in hearing about Nathan’s Disney Global Ride Challenge from the challenge running perspective be sure to listen to our supersize episode of Traveling with the Mouse. We dive deep into the details of his journey, and who knows? Maybe you’ll be inspired to take on a challenge of your own, whether it’s riding every ride at a single park or exploring all 12 Disney parks across the globe.

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Episode: 395. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the most relaxing attractions at each park, and we’ll be inviting our listeners to share their opinions on what rides they think are the most calming. In particular, which attractions do you think are the most relaxing at Hollywood Studios? We found that to be the most difficult park to find a truly relaxing attraction. In other news, there’s been some drama surrounding the Florida governor and the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which oversees Disney’s land in Florida. We won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that there are some concerns about the governor’s influence over the district. On a happier note, the Flower and Garden Festival is in full swing, and guests are raving about the new topiaries featuring beloved Disney characters. And speaking of beloved characters, Mando and Grogu from The Mandalorian have finally made their way to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios. Guests can now see the duo wandering around the land and posing for photos.

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Episode: 394 Welcome to another episode of “Traveling with the Mouse”! This week, we have some exciting Disney news to discuss, including the Tron preview for annual passholders, the start of the Flower and Garden Festival, and the construction of the new DVC tower at the Polynesian.

But first, let’s talk about a topic that’s near and dear to every Disney fan’s heart: rides that are worth saving. We’ve all experienced the heartache of seeing a beloved attraction disappear, only to be replaced by something new that doesn’t quite measure up. One of the most famous examples of this is Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which was replaced by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Now, don’t get us wrong – we love Winnie the Pooh. But there’s something about Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride that just can’t be replicated. It was a classic dark ride that took you on a wild journey through Toad Hall and beyond, complete with a trip to hell (yes, really). The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, on the other hand, is a cute and whimsical ride that’s perfect for younger children, but lacks the thrills and chills of its predecessor. So, what other rides do we think are worth saving?

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Episode 393: In this episode of Traveling with the Mouse we delve into the world of drinks at La Cava del Tequila in Epcot, We debate which beverage reigns supreme in a bracket-style competition. But the podcast doesn’t just stop at drinks. We also cover some exciting news stories happening around the Disney parks, including the annual passholder preview for the upcoming Tron attraction, the return of Sonny Eclipse to Magic Kingdom, and a hologram of Walt Disney himself to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company.

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Episode 387: In today’s episode, we’ll be discussing Adam’s recent trip to Walt Disney World over the Christmas holidays. One of the highlights of his trip was riding the Walt Disney World Railroad. It is so good to have it back in service. He noticed that one particular station had the shortest lines while he was there. Another highlight of Adam’s trip was a visit to La Cave del Tequila. One of our favorite spots in all of Walt Disney World and the staff there is just amazing. He also got to sample Jock Lindsey’s “Holiday” Bar at Disney Springs and really enjoyed it. We also cover the Disney news and rumors that we missed over the past couple of weeks.

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Episode 383: It finally happened. Somebody wished upon a star and now Bob Iger is back as Disney’s CEO. We had already recorded an episode for this week but we recorded a new segment just to cover this major story. At first is was hard to believe it was actually true. We try to be realistic about this news and not get too excited even though we agree that this is good news for Disney fans. Also, in other news we did previously record a discussion on Festival of the holidays starting soon. Fantasmic is getting 2 shows per night through early 2023. Mando has interrupted the timeline at Batuu in Disneyland but we don’t care. Disney is acquiring a new partially built cruise ship to add to its fleet. Walt’s dreamers statue has arrived in Florida. We also do a mini review of Andor; the Star Wars series on Disney Plus.

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Episode 378: Prices are on the rise once again at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. We discuss our disgust with the particularly egregious price hikes. Like genie plus and some of the food and drink increases. We sadly predicted the increases at places like Baseline Taphouse. We know that prices will enviably go up over time but this increases are substantial at a time when Disney is well above inflation on most prices. undenounced to him, Jason got to visit on the last weekend before these prices were increased. He did a split DVC stay starting at Rivera and ending at Animal Kingdom Lodge. He tested out Magic Band Plus and met up with some friends who are non regular guests. We get to hear what they thought of all of the new things to experience at Walt Disney World.

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Episode 377: We discuss our experiences with Epcot throughout the years up to the current day and then we talk about what we think the future will be at our favorite park. We both have a lot of fond memories from the 80’s and early 90’s from the original Epcot center days. We also have a lot from the current Epcot configuration. We do believe that Epcot got the bad luck of having such a big renovation to happen just as the pandemic started. So much has been severely scaled back or outright put on hold during this time that we are getting a fraction of what was planned. We also discuss some news.

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Episode 374: This week Jason joins us as he is about to go on a solo Walt Disney World trip. We get his take on the some of the news from D23 as well as some of the News stories of the week. There was a very intoxicated woman who was slowly escorted out of Epcot this week. Kite Tails is officially ending at Animal Kingdom. Mysteriously there was roof work going on at the Play pavilion sight even though there was no update on this project at D23. For the first time there will be cocktails served at the Magic Kingdom over at Skipper Canteen. In Jason’s trip preview we try to guess which song he will get at Guardians of the galaxy. He also discusses his initial plans to see both nighttime shows and see which lounges he can hit up along the way. We will see what all happens next week for his trip report. He will be staying that the Boardwalk in a DVC studio facing the boardwalk/Epcot.

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Episode 373: The D23 convention wrapped up yesterday and we have some thoughts! Jon and I go through each day of the conference and talk about the highlights and lowlights. The parks panel was a mixed bag of small updates and early concepts that are way out there. Our original predictions for Tron’s opening date are going to end up being pretty close. There are a few cool new updates coming and a lot of meet & greets. Let us know what was your favorite part of this D23? We all know that the pandemic effect is still a real thing and it showed in the parks panel. Josh tried his best to make it exciting and it still fell a little flat but there’s still some cool things on the horizon and there’s always hope that the next D23 will bring with it some more exciting news.

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Episode 372: Today we answer the age old question, What is the best lounge at Walt Disney World. The only problem is we can’t agree on which one is the best. We listed 11 of what we think are the best top bars/lounges at Walt Disney World and we discuss the pros and cons of each. We then narrowed down that list to our definitive top 5. We all agreed on which ones made the top 5 but we all had our own reasons for picking the order that these should go in. Truthfully, this like all other top 5 lists can change with our mood or over time. See if you agree with our list or if we excluded your favorite altogether. We also cover some of the latest news and oh yeah, Jason is back this week and hosted this episode.

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Episode 370: There is an ongoing debate in the Disney Community about which form of Disney transportation is best, Monorail or Skyliner. (sorry Bus) Well, in order to truly get to the bottom of that we must fully explore all of what makes them both great. There are truly some great restaurants that are on the monorail and if you include the boardwalk area there’s many more options on the skyliner. But which of these two forms of transportation has the best overall restaurants? We give our top 5 picks for each and then decide which one overall has the better restaurants. We do also cover some news stories. The Disneyland resort is finally allowing renewals of their Magic Key (annual pass) program. The prices are different though. We also talk a little about this year’s Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party!

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Episode 369: We catch up on the Disney news of the week. Disney had a big earnings call this week and the profits are back up to pre-pandemic levels. We talk about how the parks are a big reason for that and what it could mean for future developments. Disney remains silent about magic key renewals as they try to increase guest yields. We discuss how that could impact things in a negative way in the long term. Meanwhile a new update to Genie plus creates a problem with park hopping and securing lightning lanes. Also, what’s up with Chapek’s Beard?

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Episode 368: This episode marks the 5 year anniversary of Traveling with the Mouse! We go back to our first episode ever and revisit the content of that episode. It just so happened that our first episode was right after D23 in 2017. A lot of big announcements were made that year. We take a look back and see what we think about the current state of things 5 years later. We also try and preview this year’s D23 with what we think could be announced. We also really hope to be surprised by something because there is not a lot of hype surrounding the Parks panel this year. The only thing we feel will be announced is the opening date for Tron. We give our thoughts on what we hope will be talked about, like finishing Epcot, Play pavilion, and a Dinoland re-theme to name a few.

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Episode 367: We’re back with another stellar edition of Traveling with The Mouse! Today we have a special guest host. James’ daughter Emeline joins us for a discussion on the Magic Band plus and we play a game of Would you rather? Disney edition! We also break into ranking the Disney Parks. Spoiler Alert, we have a different order than we did the last time we ranked the parks. We also give our favorite rides at each park…Some of the answers were surprising but if you are a fan of the show then most of them will not shock you.

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Episode 366: We made it to our leap year episode! This week Jon and I go back in time and discuss the best attractions that Epcot has ever had. We go through every iteration of attractions in each location in Future World and some in World Showcase as well. It’s no surprise that we are fans of the original Epcot since we were kids of the 80’s and 90’s. We do agree on some but disagree on others. There are modern attractions that we love to like Guardians, Test Track and Soarin’ but we don’t always agree on which version is best. We may continue this discussion with the other parks in the coming episodes. Let us know if you enjoy this type of discussion and chime in with your picks for the best attractions at Epcot.

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Episode 365: We now have an episode for every day of the year! (except for leap year) Jon and I catch up on the latest Disney News. An Icon has been removed from World Drive which makes us nostalgic for the things of the past. Meanwhile we talk about the Food and Wine Festival and how it used to be a lot shorter. The play pavilion construction appears to be starting soon. We also talk about what an Indiana Jones land and Animal Kingdom might look like. Also in the news was rumor that Bob Iger isn’t happy that he selected Dr. Evil as his replacement as CEO. All that and more!

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Episode 358: Today we take a trip down memory lane and discuss our favorite things about Disney’s Polynesian Village resort. James joins us as we talk about the resort that where we have spent the most of our nights at Walt Disney World…especially during our childhood years. We do discuss some of the news as well like that today, May 27th is a big day. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind has officially opened to the public and the first two episode of the Obiwan series on Disney+ premiered. We all have Disney trips coming up over the next few weeks so there will be plenty of new content coming but for now we take a look back and we had a really fun time discussing our Disney roots. Most of them took place at the Polynesian resort.

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Episode 356: We have a full house in this episode as we have Jason and James join us this week! We discuss the latest news. Which includes Tron testing at full speed and Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic rewind is in passholder previews. Meanwhile the Disney CEO is touting the Q2 earnings for the company. He points to things like Genie Plus, Disney Plus and Galactic Starcruiser as the reasons for the increase in revenue. In order to help Bob out more, we pulled a list of every Disney movie made and we randomly selected some to come up with attraction ideas from the existing Disney IP database. We found some hidden gems that I think Bob would be proud to have made into new attractions or an overlay to existing attractions. It was a fun game for us to play.

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This week some of us are traveling…(Me) so we aren’t able to put a new episode out but we decided to republish our 300th episode where we discuss our Disney roots and what started our love for Disney. The last several months have been challenging for Disney fans so I think it is important to Get Back to our roots and see if that helps rekindle the flame a little. See you next week with a trip report!