Revisiting our Disney Roots

By Adam | April 15, 2022

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!

Disney News catch up

By Adam | April 2, 2022

Episode 351: Today we catch up on the latest Disney news and one of us just booked their first Disney Cruise! We start with the news and even though we don’t talk about Bruno, we had to talk about the Oscars. Encanto won best animated feature but it lost for best song. Oh yeah, and there was a little incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock. We give our take on that. There’s more drama in Florida with Bob. Connections Café will have some cool new features. The queue for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind has been revealed and speculation is running wild about previews! Jon and I end this episode by having some fun Disney conversation.

Getting the Most out of Genie+

By Adam | February 12, 2022

Episode 345: Jason is back this week and we talk about maximizing Genie Plus! With the Q1 earnings call happening this past week, we know for sure that Genie is here to stay. We give our thoughts on how to improve it and how to best use it for your next trip. We also discuss more about the Q1 earnings call and what more we can expect Disney and CEO to do as a result. We also talk about some Genie Plus news. Jon and I have finished watching Book of Boba Fett and we try to talk about our feelings on season 1 without spoiling the ending for Jason. Another big Star Wars story in the news was the release date for the Obiwan Kenobi series on Disney Plus. I talk about how excited I am about it until I see who all is involved with the production and then I start getting nervous. How do you feel about the Obiwan Series?

Disney+ reviews and Park Strategy in 2022!

By Adam | January 14, 2022

Episode 341: This week we talk about some news and we give some reviews of some of the recent things we’ve watched on Disney+…We also go through some park strategy from a listener’s email. We get started with some news…We don’t talk about Chapek, no, no, no. (but we kinda do, a lot) The CEO recently talked about the 3 pillars for success in the Walt Disney Company and we go through each one. We cover some of the other recent news and then move into our Disney Plus reviews of Encanto and Book of Boba Fett. We wrap the show by going through a listener’s email about park strategy in 2022. We weigh in with our thoughts on a 2 day strategy for fitting in all 4 parks.

Jason’s Impromptu Disney Trip

By Adam | December 18, 2021

Episode 339: Jason just return from an impromptu trip to Walt Disney World. He is the first of us to try out Genie Plus and the individual lightning lane for a couple of attractions. Jason gives us his opinion on it and lets us know how he would improve it. Before we get to all of that we did cover some of the news. There was a new parade of emergency vehicles on Mainstreet recently but not the kind that we want to see every night. Bob isn’t happy about his reputation but will he do anything to reverse that? We also all weigh in on the galactic start cruiser and its questionable marketing strategy. Also, we acknowledge that we recorded this episode on December 15th…55 years since Walt left us.

Happy Disney Memories

By Adam | December 4, 2021

Episode 338: We are back after the Thanksgiving break and we decided that with all of the negative news lately that we should take a look back at some happy Disney memories that we have had over the years! But first we hit some of the latest headlines from the past couple of weeks. There was a lackluster Disney parks update from Josh D’Amaro. There are a more shakeups in the leadership of the company. (Hopefully for the better) and Disney World has stopped selling annual passes. We all saw different things on Disney+ over the break and we give our reviews. Then we get into the happy Disney memories segment. We start by talking about our favorite holiday memories at Disney and the conversation evolves from there. We hope that it will be more uplifting than what the current vibe is around the Disney community right now.

Jon’s Trip preview

By Adam | October 8, 2021

Episode 332: This week Jon previews his upcoming trip to Walt Disney World! We also revisit our thoughts on the new nighttime spectaculars and see if our thoughts have changed now that we have had a week to mull it over. We also discuss some news like the return of character meets. It will be a modified experience than it was pre-covid but at least the character meets are coming back! Also, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular is return in December. Cast compliments can now be done on the My Disney Experience app and passholders are soon going to have exclusive effects when entering the parks at the tap-styles. During Jon’s trip this week he plans to see the new nighttime shows in person and will also dine at Ohana and Steakhouse 71. We look forward to hearing all about it next week!

New Disney World Annual Passes are here

By Adam | September 3, 2021

Episode: 327. The hits just keep coming! This week we discuss the new and not at all confusing Disney World Annual Pass program. But first we discuss some of the other headlines of the week. Space 220 has an opening date of September 20th but we are still skeptical. The swan reserve is delayed yet again. Lightning lane “stickers” have been place on the old Fast Pass plus entrances at certain attractions. Living with the land was down for 2 weeks. The bright spot that we found in the news this week was that we are all looking forward to the Le Creperie de Paris opening. The menu sounds delicious! We wrap the show by going through the new naming convention for the annual pass program and what perks have been removed from the old program that will now be add-ons for an additional fee (Boo!).

Disney News & Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster deep dive

By Adam | August 6, 2021

Episode 323: Jon and I are holding down the fort while Jason is on vacation. We cover the flood of Disney Parks news that is coming out these days. We have major details on the Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser. We break down the sample itinerary and the pricing that was released. Spoiler alert, it aint cheap. DVC members and Passholders are getting a preview of Ratatouille before the October 1st opening (another spoiler, I got my preview booked). Disneyland announced their new passholder program which will be called the Magic Keys. We also discuss some of the news surrounding the Scarlett Johansson lawsuit against Disney. Could Chapek have avoided this? After, the news we do one of our attraction deep dives. This time we are talking about Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster! It recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary on July 29th. We go through the history of this attraction and give our thoughts on what we think the future will be.

Jason went to Florida

By Adam | August 14, 2020

Episode 280: In today’s episode we get an update on how Jon is doing with Covid-19 and Jason went to Florida! We also cover the Disney news of the week. We talk about the latest project at Walt Disney World to get the Axe. We also discus lightning striking near Rise of the Resistance which caused the ride to be down for an entire day. Epcot has something new that reminds of the Epcot of old. Someone tried to drive down the stair in their car at Wilderness Lodge and the People Mover is going to be down for quite a while for a much needed refurbishment. We also talked about what DVC resort we would pick as our home resort if all of the sudden we could pick from any of them.

One of us tested positive for Covid-19

By Adam | August 7, 2020

Episode:279. Today, we reveal that one of us has tested positive for Corona-virus. We also discuss the latest Disney News. The movie release of Mulan is coming to Disney+ for an additional fee. The Disney 3rd quarter earnings call happened this week and there’s some good and bad things that came out of it. Annual Passholders are continuing to see some extra love and attention these days with extended discounts and of course a new magnet! (one per household). The average wait times for 3 of the 4 Walt Disney world parks has gone up week by week since re-opening but one park has seen wait times go down. Could you guess which one? Splash mountain had a boat sink as well this week and had to close for a couple of days. Isn’t that the attraction to have a boat sink this year?

Disney During Covid-19: Trip Report

By Adam | July 24, 2020

Episode:277. I talk about my recent trip to Walt Disney World! I go through the safety measures that Disney has in place and if it made me feel safe. We also cover the recent news like the fact that Disney has officially announced the closure of three attractions. Could more closures be on the horizon? What other attractions could be at risk? We also talk about the annual pass options for cancelling or extending your pass. During my trip report I talk about the crowd levels on each day and my first ride experience on Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway. At Epcot I got to experience what I call the Flower, Food, Wine and Garden festival, I give my pick for best dish at the festival. I also had great dinning experiences at California Grill and Olivia’s. Overall if you are considering going to Disney in the near future I would say that you should use extreme caution and make sure that you are OK with the risk but also know that Disney has done a lot to make things as safe as they can.

Will WDW open or stay closed?

By Adam | June 26, 2020

Episode:273. That is the question. Will Disney World open on July 11th or will they push back the reopening date because of surging covid-19 cases in Florida? We know that Disneyland in California has had to postpone their opening date indefinitely. Will Walt Disney World follow? It doesn’t look like Florida is going to stand in the way of it so it will be up to Disney to decide how to proceed. We discuss this and the fact that I (Adam) made a reservation in July to go to the parks. I talk about my experience using the new park reservation system. Jason gives us and update on DVC pricing now that they have started selling again. Jon gives us an update on the status of his cruise and the new flexible options that he has to choose from. We also give our weekly construction/castle painting update. And we tease the topic of next week’s show. It will be all about Splash Mountain and the changes that were announced, so stay tuned!

Walt Disney World Re-opening!

By Adam | May 28, 2020

Episode: 269. Walt Disney World announced their re-opening dates and we go through all of the details. While it is good to finally know an opening date for the parks and resorts. It was a little surprising at first that they are going with July 11th & 15th. However, after we start going through the details it does start to makes sense. Also, DVC resorts are set to re-open on June 22nd and with likely soft openings of the parks. We break down what some new requirements will be in order for guests to visit the parks this summer. We also discuss some of the other news like what is going on a Disney springs now that they Disney operated stores are open for business…It’s pretty much how you would expect.

Disney News 5/21/2020

By Adam | May 21, 2020

Episode 268: Disney Springs is now open! We discuss this and the recent promotion of Josh D’Amaro to Chairman of Parks & Resorts! We will miss him as president of Walt Disney World but as Chairman of Parks and Resorts I have a feeling that we will still see him around. We discuss the positive impact that we think Josh will bring to the guest experience in the coming years. We also talk about the other cooperate shuffling that has gone on this week at Disney. We also noticed that things seem to be picking up over at the Star Wars galactic Starcruiser construction site. Also, we now have masks in our spreadshirt store! check them out.

Mother’s Day Special

By Adam | May 7, 2020

Episode 266:We start this week by covering some news…A Disney Park (Shanghai) will finally be open again starting May 11th! In our main topic, It is Mother’s Day this week and Jon and I interviewed our Moms about Walt Disney World. It turns out that our love of Disney is really and extension of their love of Disney. It started for them back in the 1950’s with the Mickey Mouse Club and the Wonderful world of Color on TV. Our Mom’s went to Walt Disney World several times in the 1970’s and we asked them what it was like back in the old days of Walt Disney World. We asked them about the early days of Epcot as well. We had a great time asking them all of these questions that we will certainly have to do this again. Maybe we can convince them to be on the show live next time?

The Electrical Water Pageant

By Adam | May 1, 2020

Episode 265: The Electrical Water Pageant has been operating since 1971 and has been a favorite of ours for many years. This week Jon and I take a fond look back at this “water show” that takes place nightly (weather permitting) along the shores of the 7 seas lagoon and Bay Lake in the Magic Kingdom resort Area. The show has seen 3 significant revisions over the years but the current version of the show has remained mostly unchanged for the last 24 years. We take you through each version of the show and sample some of the music that makes this show so memorable. The Electrical Water Pageant holds a special place in our hearts as we grew up with it and we talk about how we even brought some of the magic of it home with us as kids. Let us know what you think of this show in the comments.

Here is a link to a video I made from a room at the Polynesian.

The Sounds, Smells, and Music of Walt Disney World

By Adam | April 15, 2020

Episode: 263. Hey all you cool cats and kittens! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). There’s no new episode this week but I thought it would be a good opportunity to dig into the show archives and put together some parts of older episodes that some may not have heard before. If you are like me, this isolation has made me appreciate the Disney parks even more! One way that I like to connect to the parks during this time away is to reflect on the sounds, smells, and of course the music that I love from the parks. I took 2 very old episodes (back when it was just me and Jon) and put them together where we discussed this very topic. If I closed my eyes while listening back to this I could almost feel like I was there. I hope this episode will help bring the parks a little closer to you during this time of social distancing. Stay safe everyone!

Disney Moderate Resorts

By Adam | March 11, 2020

Episode 260: We discuss Disney Moderate resorts! On our recent poll the Disney Moderate resorts won hands down. We begin the show with a news discussion. We Talk about Haunted Mansion’s continued problems, The opening of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and we give our advice on how Disney can save money on construction projects during uncertain economic times. When then go into our main topic of the day, The Walt Disney World Moderate Resorts. We compare them by price, location, food & dining options, pools and amenities, and transportation. Which resort stands above the rest? It turns out the we all agreed on which 2 resorts stand out above the rest…Can you guess which ones? Tune in to find out!