Dan’s Disney World Trip Report: February 2022

Transcript

Dan TR Hosts

[00:00:00] Dan: Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurers Society. My name is Dan Leonard in joining me this week in the studio is Heather

Straight and Mr. Jeff

[00:00:09] Jeff: That is my name.

[00:00:10] Dan: it sure is. I'm glad you remembered our show as always is brought to you by key to the world. Travel key to the world.

Travel is a full service travel agency, specializing in

theme parks, cruising, and destinations around the world. Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com for more details into no obligation quote on the vacation of a lifetime.

[00:00:31] Jeff: Your mom's a travel agent.

[00:00:33] Dan: Actually, she's not,

well, guys, this has got to come as a shock, but it's actually my turn for a trip report this week.

[00:00:39] Heather: Where did you go,

[00:00:40] Jeff: You guys.

[00:00:42] Dan: I went all the way down to Walt Disney world land,

[00:00:45] Heather: campus.

[00:00:46] Dan: the Florida campus. My favorite Eastern Disney destination, decided to

Mississippi. We'll talk about that. Plus give you a report

on the state of the parks for 2022 in a little bit, but first we've got some news to get out of the way, starting with if you got

quite a large stack of money, apparently you can be the proud owner of a vacation home on a cruise

ship.

[00:01:06] Heather: on a cruise ship? Yeah, it's a company called storylines.

Launching a line of residential cruise ships starting

in 2024, and each ship will have four or 547 for fully furnished residences available for purchase. Or you can also lease them. Most of them are one to four bedroom homes and they go all the way up to 2000 square feet.

So a really sizable residents.

If you want to buy them, they start at the low price of $1 million

and go all the way. $8 million, but you can lease a home for 12 to 24

months starting at only 400,000, but the rest of the ship will be, typical cruise ship. It's going to have 20 dining options, bars, a microbrewery. They

are going to have a soil list garden that will supply all of their fresh ingredients, a zero waste farmer's market. And there's going to be a library, a movie theater, a

bowling alley. It looks really nice. And

the homes.

[00:02:19] Jeff: seem like a retirement home at sea?

[00:02:21] Heather: It seems like it.

But it's also, they're also

saying that

because you can, a lot of people can

work from wherever they want.

Now, why not

work on it from your home on a cruise ship while it's sailing

the

world.

So each voyage will be three years and it will go to

six continent.

[00:02:41] Jeff: Wow. What have you, you're living on this thing and it had the same wifi that the DL ships

[00:02:49] Heather: no. Let's hope that it will go with the Royal Caribbean version of the wifi. That's actually really

good.

[00:02:56] Dan: If you're working from home on a cruise ship, do you get to write off part of

that cost for your office space?

[00:03:04] Heather: This

genius.

[00:03:05] Dan: sounds like a lot. I know it is. I'm a genius. I've been telling you guys this for two years, two and a half

[00:03:12] Jeff: some reason we don't believe you still

[00:03:14] Heather: Yeah.

[00:03:14] Dan: I know. You think about it too. Like the purchase price sounds pretty steep, but you're not paying like you've got This mobile home that you never have to pay for fuel

on the fuel costs alone

[00:03:24] Jeff: is that

your meals. Isn't everything. It's like a normal couple crews.

[00:03:28] Heather: And you can also bring your pets. They have a pet exercise area.

That's a little suspect, but hopefully it's someone's job to clean up after the dogs. I don't

[00:03:38] Jeff: Of course it is.

[00:03:40] Dan: got four kids, two cats, two Guinea, pigs. If meals are all inclusive, then that pays for itself in

what like eight months for me, approximately with all those children to feed.

[00:03:51] Heather: It looks like they also have their, it's a house, so

they also have kitchens and really nice bathrooms. Ooh. Wow. It

looks really

great.

[00:04:02] Jeff: I'll do

[00:04:02] Heather: Yeah. They have pools And

A gym, a yoga studio, golf

simulators.

[00:04:09] Jeff: I wonder how that goes. Can you go to your bank and get, can get a mortgage for This

[00:04:13] Heather: a very good question.

I, most people don't have a million dollars laying

around just to buy it.

[00:04:19] Jeff: I would get, I have to find it.

I named that. And if that's a typical same in as financing a condo and are the other fees like neighborhood, so association is.

What sort of things I need to know more

[00:04:32] Heather: Yeah, but

[00:04:32] Dan: you imagine how insufferable the

HOA on a

[00:04:35] Heather: oh,

no,

[00:04:36] Jeff: ship. Yep. Yeah.

[00:04:37] Heather: but think about it. Your vacation is built into your lifestyle, right? You don't have to fly to go on vacation

anymore. Your ship's just going to pull up and it

says every port of call, they will spend a few days in so that the residents

can spend time in the

places that the ship steps. Yeah. It's really cool. I'm sold. Sign me up.

[00:04:58] Jeff: Yeah, Next time I've got four mil. I'm

[00:05:00] Heather: Yeah. See, here's the problem. Now I need a million dollars to go

into

space and to buy a house on a cruise

ship.

[00:05:07] Jeff: I would just before I

[00:05:08] Heather: This is getting expensive.

[00:05:10] Dan: Can you buy the home on the cruise ship, and then rent that out to earn your ticket

into

[00:05:17] Heather: again, with the

[00:05:19] Jeff: What are the legalities? Lee's a Sibelius thing. Kim. Kenny, we do an area in B.

[00:05:24] Heather: Yes.

[00:05:25] Dan: all these layers of legalities that they probably never even dreamed of.

[00:05:29] Jeff: I bet they have.

[00:05:30] Dan: Can I open, can I buy this and

then operate it as an Airbnb?

[00:05:34] Heather: Then he got to figure out

how you're going to get

your

guests onto the ship, I guess they just fly and meet the ship

somewhere.

[00:05:41] Jeff: yeah, meet me in Portugal and board, jury and B, but you have to get off somewhere else.

[00:05:48] Heather: Yeah.

Work out the

details After we pool our money and buy a house on this cruise ship

[00:05:53] Dan: It sounds totally

reasonable.

it's

a feasible plan. Yeah,

[00:05:57] Jeff: Yeah, do it. If they allow that

coning, like I read popular now that with the millennials, because they can't afford a whole home.

[00:06:05] Heather: Oh, I have not heard

about this. they

[00:06:08] Jeff: Yeah. Like people are buying homes, they're buying homes and

[00:06:11] Heather: oh, this is

[00:06:13] Dan: Yeah. There's like a, there's some company. I can't remember. It was called

that

Comes into neighborhoods

[00:06:19] Heather: I

read about

this. Yeah. And then you could you buy into it like a timeshare and you can pop around the world

living in different

places.

[00:06:28] Dan: yeah, they're making it impossible to live in like silicone valley and

[00:06:31] Heather: Not that it was easy

before.

[00:06:33] Jeff: that's silicone valley. Silicone valley is Dolly Parton. Boobs.

[00:06:37] Heather: Between them.

[00:06:38] Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:39] Dan: Boy, I think that means we're done with this conversation.

If you want to get to that a security line quicker overseas pre-check is now available at an international

[00:06:50] Heather: Yes. And I hope that this is going to be a trend. The TSA just opened their first ever pre-check location outside of the United States at the Linden pinballing international airport in Nassau Bahamas.

I, this I've waiting for this to

happen everywhere because it's the one bummer to traveling internationally

is when you're coming home, you got to go

through regular security and it depends on what country you're coming from.

Whether you're going to have

to take off your shoes, how much you have to take out of your

bag. It's irritating. I realized these are first world problems, but

[00:07:29] Jeff: leaving a second world.

[00:07:31] Heather: yeah like when I come home from Mexico, you can leave your shoes on,

but you do have to take your electronics out of, your bag. If you're coming back from Jamaica,

you

have to take off your shoes and you have to take your toiletries out of your bag, but you can leave your electronics in your bag. It makes no

sense.

[00:07:48] Jeff: Really

[00:07:49] Heather: Yes. It's bizarre and stupid.

[00:07:51] Jeff: when you're leaving, when you coming into the same airport port, how do they know where you came from? From a bunch

[00:07:57] Heather: No, when, if you go to Jamaica, when you come back to the U S you're going through Jamaican security and their rules are different than Mexico,

[00:08:06] Jeff: thought you got packed to enter

[00:08:08] Heather: Oh no. I just mean when you're at the airport in Jamaica, that's their rules are. Yeah. And then when you get back to Atlanta, which is

the world's worst airport to come into from internationally in my experience, I hate Atlanta.

You there's

no TSA pre-check anymore. So once you're, once you've cleared customs, you

got to go back through the old fashioned. Although they do sometimes let you

leave your shoes on. If you scan your boarding pass and show them that you have pre-check, but everything else is

still

[00:08:37] Jeff: But not until you've already gotten past the part where you would have had to lay your crap up there?

already. know, You just go ahead.

[00:08:44] Heather: Yeah.

[00:08:45] Dan: I'd be happy if they came up with a standard set of rules for airports in the U S

[00:08:51] Heather: This is true.

[00:08:52] Dan: international ones,

like how come at my home airport? I don't have to take my electronics out in Orlando. I do. And all this

[00:09:00] Heather: They don't make you at grr. Take your

electronics out when you go through

standard.

[00:09:04] Dan: grr says, don't take anything out of your bag. Leave it all in. Yeah.

[00:09:08] Jeff: Same. Am I airport?

[00:09:11] Heather: I, that is the case for TSA pre-check I haven't used standard there in a while. I wonder if it depends on the type of scanning

equipment that they have. I bet

it's.

[00:09:19] Dan: I think it does.

[00:09:21] Heather: How did our little piddly airport get better

equipment than

Orlando?

[00:09:25] Jeff: one of them.

[00:09:26] Heather: That's fair. Yeah.

[00:09:27] Dan: I think we have four

[00:09:29] Heather: Yeah, we do. It's gotten we look

like a real genuine

[00:09:33] Dan: regional

[00:09:34] Heather: Yes. Regional is the key term. Yes,

that is true.

[00:09:38] Jeff: But does it still smell like burnt toast? They closed that place. Just didn't

[00:09:42] Heather: They did that place is not even in that, that it's gone, but I don't fly Southwest. So there may still be a burn toast place on the, in

[00:09:50] Jeff: Yeah, it was over there,

[00:09:51] Dan: There's a bagel place

[00:09:53] Jeff: had always of burnt bagel in there.

[00:09:56] Heather: Yeah. There used to be one on the ACE side where I

fly out of, but that's gone now and they replaced it with a waiting area and there's nothing to eat on that side of the

airport anymore, but I

[00:10:08] Dan: That's what we're best at.

[00:10:10] Jeff: That's when we shine

[00:10:11] Dan: Yes.

it is. More crews, news crews news. I like

that. Disney cruise line made a big announcement. Just

what

[00:10:18] Heather: a few hours ago today.

[00:10:19] Dan: Yeah, this is hot off the presses

[00:10:21] Heather: No more masks. Yeah,

no more masks.

[00:10:26] Jeff: Before everyone or for vacated humans.

[00:10:30] Heather: DCL is still requiring vaccinations for all

guests. So

Yes, it is a moot point,

[00:10:37] Dan: moot.

[00:10:38] Heather: but the other cruise lines now that I'm saying this, I can't

remember if Royal has updated their mask policy, but NCL had did, and they've done away with masks, but they are

also still requiring vaccines. Royal requires vaccines of anyone 12 and

older.

I'd say, and I'm not quite sure actually, if they've lifted their mass, but I, it seems like everyone is starting to do that.

Disneyland, Disney world. Yeah. COVID is done. We're finished.

A lot of what, a lot of what everyone has been using as the deciders, the CDC has now said that because the,

in addition to

vaccines being plentiful the treatment, the pill that Pfizer developed is also now plentiful.

There's no stock problem with that. So now it's, now they've

gone to you choose your own risk

tolerance

and they're not recommending masks anymore. So

[00:11:29] Jeff: Now they need to ramp up testing things. Still easy to get

[00:11:33] Heather: that's true. It's tricky for us around

here. Some friends of mine have no

problem scheduling a test. Same day within a few days, it's still very

difficult here to schedule

[00:11:44] Jeff: like last summer I get it at a CVS or so or right. Drive through very easily. Now those tear pair, I can never confined find one.

[00:11:53] Heather: I don't have trouble lately

finding at home tests so that at least has eased up a bit.

[00:12:00] Dan: the pandemics

[00:12:01] Heather: That's right. Nobody's buying them.

[00:12:03] Jeff: Thank you, mother Russia.

[00:12:05] Heather: That's all we needed. Was something else

to talk about?

[00:12:08] Dan: Yeah. Fortunately, I wasn't planning on booking too many trips to

Eastern

[00:12:13] Heather: Yeah, not really a place to go right

now.

[00:12:17] Dan: Oh, and that's

enough

[00:12:18] Heather: Yes. Let's talk about something else. We don't talk about Bruno or Vladimir.

[00:12:26] Dan: Do you have any other exciting

pressing news to cover?

I don't

[00:12:29] Heather: No, it's been a bit of a light Newsweek. Hasn't it.

[00:12:32] Dan: well on.

the

[00:12:33] Heather: The travel

front. Yeah.

[00:12:34] Dan: Yeah. All right. Then I'm going to say stick around because after the commercial break, I'll be sharing some insights from my recent trip to Walt Disney world. And we'll have a look at the state of the Disney theme parks

in 2022.

And we're back. It's not too often that I get to report on a trip to a

theme park that y'all, weren't a part off also. So

this

[00:12:55] Heather: It's very rare.

It's

[00:12:57] Jeff: We're a small part of it though.

[00:12:59] Dan: Yeah, but you weren't present with me

[00:13:02] Heather: We, we were living vicariously through all the photos.

[00:13:05] Dan: Yeah.

Yeah. So that was fun. So for starters, Delta's dead to me much like

for

[00:13:11] Heather: Yeah. They did to you what they did to me. Didn't they? Dan?

[00:13:15] Dan: they sure did. As

we've, as we discussed a

couple of weeks ago, they just don't care if you're in Atlanta, because presumably you're on their home turf. They're the big dogs. So

they're just like, eh, why

bother

[00:13:28] Heather: it seriously is what it feels like,

[00:13:30] Dan: So I don't want to get too much into it.

[00:13:33] Heather: but they suck.

[00:13:34] Dan: nearly miss my

connection and

would've missed half of a day on my actual wedding anniversary because this ship was for my

[00:13:41] Heather: The, you got there before they had even closed the, door. They just flat wouldn't let you on,

[00:13:46] Dan: Oh yeah. They literally closed the gate into

[00:13:47] Heather: that's bad.

[00:13:48] Dan: There wasn't a single gate agent that wanted to help me. They all had

bad attitudes. Fortunately, the people at Southwest are, oh, so

[00:13:55] Heather: Yes. And save the

[00:13:57] Dan: while yeah, they were

boarding the plane, they weren't just boarding the plane, they were boarding group B of this plane and he sold me the last seat of the

[00:14:06] Heather: Yay. That's

[00:14:08] Dan: so yeah, they really saved my trip for me. One exciting thing, I got to try both of the new shuttle services that are going from MCO to,

[00:14:17] Heather: oh, you

did one on the way there and one on the way back.

[00:14:21] Dan: Yeah. Because I forgot to book the sunshine flyer for my flight down until the day before. And you have to book that pro tip

four days in advance and also they run limited hours right now.

They only

run 7:00 AM to

[00:14:34] Heather: And I think they don't have as many vehicles is the thing. Cause they're a new operation.

[00:14:40] Jeff: well,

[00:14:41] Dan: they're working on.

[00:14:42] Jeff: too.

[00:14:42] Heather: Yes.

[00:14:43] Dan: They're working on expanding their fleet and actually not all of their buses are wrapped with the cool train design either. I saw several lined up for them,

[00:14:50] Heather: Oh, come

[00:14:51] Dan: have their apps, but they are working as fast as they can on getting them wrapped. I signed an article, but so anyway Mears' express operates all

[00:15:00] Heather: Pretty 24 hours as far as I know. Yeah.

[00:15:02] Dan: And the really nice thing about them is on their website. You can just go in and modify

your arrival time and your flight info. And it immediately updates in their system because I had to

[00:15:15] Heather: Oh, excellent.

[00:15:16] Dan: four changes when I was

unsure of when and how I was getting

[00:15:20] Jeff: And indeed,

[00:15:21] Heather: Yeah.

[00:15:22] Dan: And this was like two hours before I got there and it didn't matter.

[00:15:25] Jeff: is it still all in the spot where it, wherever It was magical express.

[00:15:29] Dan: Yes. Yup. Yeah. That's where Mears

expresses. I

[00:15:33] Heather: and they had a little bit of a rough. Turnover from when magical express ended and the Mears

started, it was, they had a rough few days and unfortunately it coincided with the Walt Disney world marathon weekend, which shuts down a lot of the roads around Walt Disney world. So there were at the, when at their launched, I was reading a lot of people complaining about not getting picked up or getting picked up late.

And it was really all had to do with the marathon and just that it was

their opening weekend. And the kink seemed to have been worked out because it was may, it was Mears' running magical express the whole time. So it's should have been seamless, but the timing was a little

[00:16:18] Jeff: Did it feel the same when you get the, to the port and

Your luggage now, right?

[00:16:22] Dan: you have to pick up your luggage

and then you go and you you have a QR code in the

email that you scan on a machine and you sign in and then you go in you, the machine tells you, they barely even need a person there. The machine tells you what line to get

[00:16:36] Heather: Oh, nice.

[00:16:36] Dan: and here's the interesting thing for me was since I was getting in so late, and this is a plus of Mears running this because they're like all of the transportation for us,

[00:16:47] Heather: Oh really?

[00:16:48] Dan: taxis and shuttles and everything, right?

So they have you can get the regular bus service, which is cheaper. And then you can also pay for

that express service, which

as far

as I can tell it's either a van or a taxi. I was there and there's only one other person going to a

deluxe resort. They were going

to a Saratoga Springs and we were sitting there for a while.

And all of a

sudden someone calls the two of us we're in different lines because those are different resort

areas. I was at wilderness lodge and they had the two of us go and they put us in a taxi a Mears' taxi came up and parked that came up and parked on the express

area. So it was like, they can be flexible

and get you out where you need to

go.

And I'm at, I don't know if this is normal during the

daytime, but at least at night, he said that he frequently picks up one or two people because

when it's not worth having a

[00:17:41] Heather: They just don't have a whole

[00:17:42] Jeff: was it the two of you in the same cab going to two different areas?

[00:17:46] Heather: Yeah.

[00:17:47] Dan: And now they didn't ask, if we minded sharing a cab,

but that was fine. I wasn't worried about it. So that was fine, but yeah, so that was interesting. So it was like getting upgraded to the express service for free.

[00:17:58] Heather: And

[00:17:59] Dan: so yeah, that was.

[00:18:00] Heather: flyer on the way back,

[00:18:02] Dan: Yes. Yeah. Way back we took sunshine flyer which was great.

That felt more like the old magical express bus. Except obviously

no cartoons playing or anything. I will say that

the buses, the wrap on the bus is really cool. For some reason the driver

has there's the driver and then there's a guy who's just

[00:18:21] Jeff: the

greeter.

[00:18:22] Dan: guy. Yeah.

There's a greeter

for your bus and he's dressed up like the train engineer.

[00:18:27] Heather: the driver's not,

[00:18:28] Dan: No, the drivers, not the train engineer, loads your

[00:18:31] Heather: Not even a little cap. Come on.

[00:18:33] Dan: The greeter guy is full on the overalls and the engineers had and all of that, he is totally engineered out, but that's pretty much the extent if you're thinking that you're gonna get some kind of cool, like orient express train experience on the inside, it's just a plain

old

[00:18:48] Heather: just a

bus.

[00:18:49] Dan: one nice one nice thing is that they were very attentive. They sent,

they called me

and

sent me the Semiotext to double-check that I was going to be out there that I still needed picked up. And then they called me to tell me that they were on their way and left me a voicemail

saying, Hey, we're almost there.

And then they sent me a text saying, oh, we're like two minutes out.

So they're like, they were like really on top of things.

[00:19:13] Heather: I've heard really great things about the sunshine flyer so, far.

Everybody seems to really like it.

[00:19:18] Dan: yeah, it's comparably. I think it's like a dollar more than Mears' express for.

I don't remember what I don't know.

Round trip is one way I know Mears' express was I think 16 and I think such our flyer was like 17, 18, something like that. So they were pretty close. They were comparable.

[00:19:34] Jeff: cheaper than Uber by.

[00:19:35] Heather: Oh yeah.

[00:19:36] Dan: yeah, for sure. The Uber was going to be like $45,

[00:19:40] Heather: Especially during if you're there, when a lot of planes come in, you're that.

surge pricing is, I've seen the reports recently of 60 to $80. One way Uber from MCO.

[00:19:52] Dan: I paid 60

at, in November for key con I paid

[00:19:55] Heather: Yeah.

That point

[00:19:56] Jeff: It's typically

50, 60 bucks. Like anytime

[00:20:00] Dan: Yeah. So that was, yeah, it's a good, it's a good deal. It's a good price is a great experience. I liked them both. Like I said, I didn't get to, I didn't get the bus experience on Mears,

whatever

[00:20:11] Heather: yeah.

[00:20:12] Dan: Mears connect. Connect is what it's called, I think.

[00:20:15] Jeff: I think. it's the same name, buzzy man. I just took the wraps off of

[00:20:19] Heather: Oh yeah. Cause those buses all belonged to Mears. They just had the fun wrap on them.

[00:20:24] Dan: Yup. So that went great. We stayed at wilderness lodge, which

[00:20:26] Jeff: isn't it

[00:20:27] Dan: amazing.

[00:20:27] Heather: my favorite.

[00:20:28] Dan: I just wanted to stay. I, would. I would stay there without going to the parks,

[00:20:32] Heather: Yes. I knew you would like that resort. That is a Dan Leonard resort.

[00:20:37] Dan: Yeah. I loved it. I would have loved to stay longer. We

[00:20:41] Heather: Did you have some huckleberry punch out at Geyser Point?

[00:20:44] Dan: we absolutely did. We we sat and watched the Electrical Water Pageant out there. And we had

some huckleberry punches. We had

some Huckleberry Punches immediately before being picked up by the Sunshine. Flyer on our way home.

Yeah, it

[00:20:59] Heather: Good news is I have all the ingredients to make

Huckleberry Punch right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[00:21:05] Jeff: But the bad news is you're in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[00:21:08] Heather: I don't have a lovely Yellowstone lodge themed place for you to drink it. Sorry.

[00:21:15] Dan: Yeah.

[00:21:15] Heather: We can play some Copeland.

[00:21:17] Dan: Yes.

[00:21:18] Heather: Appalachian spring. Yes.

[00:21:20] Dan: Tell OD to get its fluid

[00:21:21] Heather: Yes. There you go.

[00:21:23] Dan: on it yeah the lodge was large. It was wonderful. I loved it. It was beautiful. So first day we did,

We went to magic kingdom and we did the early morning, half hour

[00:21:32] Heather: I do not understand why it is only a, half

an hour.

[00:21:36] Jeff: just trimming. Pointly I would've called it morning, minutes.

[00:21:40] Heather: Yes.

[00:21:42] Dan: yeah. And that's literally what it is.

So it was pointless for us, at least for the first day, what we wanted to do, because we didn't get any, we can talk about

Jeannie plus enlightening lane

a little bit more in a little bit, but we didn't get any in fantasy land or tomorrow land, which is the only two lands that are open for that early half

[00:22:04] Heather: 30 minutes. What's the.

[00:22:05] Dan: And then here's the thing. So even like the advantage of

being back in fantasy land already, if you were hoping to get into

frontier land

real quick, when the rope

drops, it's not happening because

everybody's headed that way, they corral you right in front of the tangled toilets. And then you end up

in the giant mob as when they let all of the

masses in.

So it was

[00:22:30] Jeff: Yeah. The tangled toilets is such a pinch point. Anyway,

[00:22:34] Heather: yeah,

It's a

bottleneck

[00:22:35] Jeff: always pinching one off in there.

[00:22:37] Heather: I did not need to know that.

[00:22:38] Dan: yeah. We did make the mistake

And we got into the flow of the going through the tangled area,

into the haunted mansion. Don't go there. Make sure you stay to the left. Down the traditional

[00:22:52] Jeff: down. Adventure landed.

[00:22:53] Heather: Yeah.

[00:22:54] Dan: Otherwise you get choked off a little

bit there, but so yeah, the half hour is silly. There's no reason why they couldn't,

[00:23:02] Heather: Make it an hour.

I think it's

[00:23:04] Dan: I don't get it. We

did

get right into the

busiest

Starbucks in the world super quick and got served. But one thing that I did notice that I didn't even think about that I really miss about having

the train station show

is not having all of the mainstream USA cast members waving to

[00:23:23] Heather: Oh yeah, they don't do that. Do they

[00:23:28] Dan: no, because you're all just going into, they need to be on in the Emporium

[00:23:32] Heather: Your prevent fights from happening over plastic

tumblers?

[00:23:37] Dan: Yeah. see. Oh, so that day we also, we did the capture, the

moment

photo session which

[00:23:43] Heather: just went up on that a

[00:23:44] Dan: very recently brought the price up from 50 bucks to

79 bucks. And there was a

[00:23:49] Heather: That's a steep increase.

[00:23:51] Dan: but

[00:23:52] Jeff: 52 79.

[00:23:54] Heather: Yeah.

[00:23:54] Dan: well, but here's the thing. 79. It is still a great value is a steal, because think about it.

There's all these, if you wanna get family pictures taken, there's all of these local photographers who do these mini sessions that are a 20 minute session.

You get, usually they'll edit and give you

anywhere from eight to a dozen images. And it's about a 20 minute session

[00:24:21] Heather: That's not

[00:24:22] Dan: capture.

The moment capture the moment was a 20 minute session and, okay, sorry. So they generally charge a hundred to 150 for those 20 minute sessions. These local

ladies capture the moment at 79 minutes. You're

in sorry. $79

is still 20 minutes, but you're inside the theme park. We got 64

pictures and they

[00:24:44] Heather: That's a

[00:24:45] Dan: gorgeous. They're phenomenal

pictures.

[00:24:48] Jeff: You must have gotten different ones in the ones that you shared.

[00:24:50] Dan: that is brutal. We got some really good pictures.

[00:24:54] Heather: Rough. Jeff Williams.

[00:24:55] Dan: yeah.

And we didn't manage

to get Magic kingdom, but I'm actually

glad after seeing what

we got, that we did Epcot. From what I've heard, Magic Kingdom

has a limited number of different

[00:25:06] Heather: And it's probably a lot more crowded.

[00:25:08] Dan: Exactly. Cause it's

mostly around the castle Epcot, you can choose to go.

So you

go and the

station is in the,

American adventure pavilion and you can go

either

to Italy in Germany, or you can go to Japan and Morocco.

So we went with Italy and Germany. We actually stayed just in Italy. So we spent 20 minutes and they took us to eight different

locations

[00:25:32] Heather: That's a beautiful pavilion with some really cool backdrops to

[00:25:36] Dan: yeah. Is gorgeous. They got some with

spaceship earth in the background, across the lake, they

got all these different, interesting spots and they do a really good job

of erasing the other people,

finding angles and stuff so that

[00:25:48] Heather: Yeah. You know what, now that you say that I realizing that there weren't, that it was just the two of you and most of those photos.

[00:25:55] Dan: they did a great job. There's a photographer and one to two assistants that are with you. And actually we had a whole bunch of suits,

tailing us since it's relatively new, they were

[00:26:05] Heather: Oh, interesting.

[00:26:08] Dan: our photographer, They were all phenomenal. They were like, walking around,

like strategizing, like where are we

going to take pictures? And where are we going to

do? And they did a really great job.

So I would say

that even at the

increased price of $79, I wouldn't do it if it's just a normal trip,

but we were celebrating our 10th anniversary. If you're celebrating something, if you're getting engaged, if it's an anniversary, if it's your

[00:26:32] Jeff: graduation for those

[00:26:33] Heather: Oh, yeah. Good

[00:26:34] Dan: senior pictures.

Holy crap. Senior pictures

[00:26:38] Heather: pictures for 80 bucks, right?

Yeah.

That's cheap.

[00:26:41] Jeff: big boys

[00:26:42] Dan: now here's

the thing.

That 79 does not include downloads of

those

pictures. You do have to purchase memory

maker on top

of that, but you can do the

[00:26:52] Heather: if you're friends with someone who already has memory maker?

[00:26:56] Dan: It yeah, you can do that. Or you can do what we did and purchase the

one day memory maker for $69.

[00:27:03] Jeff: would you get it on your friend's

[00:27:05] Heather: I can see all of their photos in my Disney experience account because they share their photos

with me. I could have downloaded all of

those for, you

[00:27:12] Dan: But don't, I thought they

changed that day. I thought they cut that off so that you

[00:27:16] Heather: know, they're all in there. I was just looking at them today when I was looking for something.

[00:27:20] Dan: You kidding me.

[00:27:21] Heather: Sorry.

[00:27:22] Dan: Cause they had locked that down. I thought that they had locked that down a year ago where you had to actually be on the reservation to,

[00:27:28] Heather: I could see all of them.

[00:27:30] Dan: you can see them, but do they have the photo pass watermark on

them?

[00:27:33] Heather: No,

these are all

[00:27:35] Jeff: I think it's certain private club members that have that

[00:27:39] Heather: see all of them

[00:27:40] Dan: Now I feel

[00:27:41] Heather: there.

[00:27:42] Dan: now I feel really stupid

for,

[00:27:44] Jeff: just now.

[00:27:45] Dan: yeah. Frequently,

but this is a whole new

[00:27:48] Heather: Yeah. There's just all of them in there. No photo fast.

[00:27:52] Dan: that's good to know. Yeah. I thought they had locked that down. So anyway, so yeah, it's captured, the moment gets two giant thumbs up for me.

That was an amazing experience. It was totally

worth it. And we were super cute and we

Disney bounded as

[00:28:05] Heather: making in many.

[00:28:07] Dan: and we were

really

cute and They liked that we were bounding

for that. They don't see that very often. They said,

[00:28:14] Heather: Oh, that's interesting. I would think that would be more common with people doing the capture the moment.

[00:28:18] Dan: This, they said, and actually the

whole day long cast members appreciated our

costumes. I think they get a lot of princess bounding

[00:28:25] Heather: Oh, for sure.

[00:28:26] Dan: They

[00:28:27] Jeff: Oh princess, this bondage. I like it.

[00:28:29] Heather: I think that's something different.

[00:28:32] Dan: that's totally different. Yeah. so we, we felt pretty special and a little bit like celebrities that day. That's

[00:28:37] Heather: Important question. Where did you get the red pants, Dan?

[00:28:41] Jeff: And

[00:28:41] Dan: Amazon, and here's the best cause I was Mickey

[00:28:44] Jeff: had shorts.

[00:28:45] Dan: I did earlier in the day I had shorts

on, but then I wanted it to look nicer for

the pictures. and because we were eating dinner at steakhouse 71, but I didn't want to be all hot and sweaty. So I had a golf tech polo, white polo and shorts. And then I changed into nicer clothes for our

photo shoot because.

I'm

[00:29:03] Heather: wow. Dan,

[00:29:05] Dan: I even followed

Leah's as

advice and changed my underpants.

[00:29:07] Heather: it's good to

[00:29:08] Jeff: yeah. That girl

[00:29:10] Dan: Although I did not bring them,

[00:29:11] Jeff: than anyone I, know.

[00:29:12] Dan: I did not bring them into the park with me, but, so

[00:29:15] Jeff: And Andrew I'm in the middle to the barbecue place. The American pavilion.

[00:29:19] Dan: I shut off, I have

regrets.

We have to do this trip all over again. Now. So genie plus was hit or miss for us. It was a ma I was WellMed.

It worked but for most of the guests that we saw,

it is a huge miss and everybody

[00:29:34] Heather: causing an uproar.

People just hate it.

[00:29:38] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:29:39] Dan: they were so stressed out and so upset. They're so used to, they've got beaten in their heads. The only way

that you can ride anything is if you have these passes and they're hard to get,

[00:29:49] Heather: they are.

It's going. Yeah,

[00:29:51] Jeff: can't get anything.

[00:29:52] Dan: Exactly

[00:29:53] Heather: going so badly at Walt Disney world. not Disneyland. it works there. It's going so

badly at Walt Disney world that Disney has noticed. And I genuinely

think that there may be changes. I think I definitely think

they're looking at it and they're workshopping it to use a

[00:30:12] Dan: They need to limit

[00:30:13] Heather: term.

Yes. It just doesn't work. it does not

work

[00:30:17] Jeff: that? That's my Susan. Geo-fence geo-fence you can't start picking anything too. You're going to park

[00:30:22] Heather: Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I also think going back to the old method of having to get

your pass at the ride, even if it is still the same model where you buy genie plus, and

you can have all of the rides, I if having to actually physically go to the ride and scan your barcode or whatever

[00:30:45] Jeff: Something to a physics down the rush on these

[00:30:49] Heather: Yeah. because

[00:30:50] Jeff: one, everything's

[00:30:51] Heather: Yeah. Even before 7 0

1, Dan tried to

get on rise of the resistance and 7:00 AM and 10 seconds and they were gone.

[00:30:59] Dan: well, and it's not just rise. It's any of the individual lighting lanes, they just sell out immediately. We got incredibly lucky Saturday morning,

there was nothing available. And then on the boat ride over to magic kingdom,

somebody dropped seven doors, mind train for

like first thing in the morning and Kendra managed to snap it up right away.

So that was the only

individual lighting lane that we were able to purchase

[00:31:27] Jeff: What, what cost 10 team

[00:31:29] Dan: I think it was 10 or 12.

[00:31:31] Jeff: they're fluctuating, but it's like they can't,

figure out price to charge each. They seem to be all of y'all are up with those. And I don't know if that's a

database or crowd east or popular populate.

[00:31:43] Heather: Yeah. What did we pay at? Let's see at Disneyland. there's only two.

[00:31:47] Jeff: that rise? That's something we were,

did, went to

checked into our hotel and then just, oh, let's go a couple hours. Or is it Disney and park walked over there? It was like two o'clock in

the afternoon. Boom. We got out and rise

[00:32:03] Heather: Immediately there was not only one to buy, but

[00:32:06] Jeff: It was. infinity

or something. So we got it when we got it in the park, I'll try it up

right back to the back of the park and

got out. And I think was,

[00:32:14] Heather: Yeah.

[00:32:15] Jeff: yeah, it

might've been 18 or

[00:32:16] Heather: And then

[00:32:16] Jeff: but I've written that thing two times before. So I was like,

[00:32:19] Heather: Yeah. and web slingers. I think web slingers was

last. I think it was 12, But those are the only two at Disneyland. And I, I wonder if the individual lightning lane thing. was a mistake, maybe it needs to just all the rides be in genie plus

and the

[00:32:36] Dan: this

[00:32:37] Jeff: And

then to tear them, they did with the old fold pass system, you can have one or the other,

you can't get both or one of fear to have three, three something.

[00:32:45] Heather: As annoying as fast pass plus was. And as much as we all hated it, I think this is worse. I say that as travel planners, we as travel advisors hated it because we were getting up early to book our guests FastPasses we didn't love

[00:33:01] Dan: And nobody was

[00:33:01] Jeff: Yeah. And that's Dan said, people think you can't write something unless you have I'm never going to ride a ride and go get your button line.

[00:33:08] Dan: Here's the thing. Here's when genie plus works, we. We went ahead and bought it every day, just because we wanted to try it,

out. And we went in just snag was available if we wanted it, but it wasn't going to ruin our day. If we didn't get something, the problem is you're paying

for an, in an advance.

And especially if you've

got a family of more than

two people, that's just not economically sustainable. So it's nobody wants to spend all that money and then

not use it. We did get,

[00:33:35] Jeff: yeah. 75 bucks, six a day for a family of five to maybe something you don't even tell you do it, but.

[00:33:41] Dan: So we were able to get

on quite a few

rides with it. They weren't, we got our first day at magic kingdom, we got, big thunder,

We weren't able to get space mountain was down. Most of the time we got, a few rides on there, we got up

pirates and we got a a space

ranger spin. So we used it, but it wasn't like, you can't use that as a central, like

one way

to get on

your rides, which is what most people are doing. They're thinking of it like the universal express pass. So maybe they need to

just do

Universal's

express

[00:34:13] Heather: Yeah. If you want to make

money on

it that's maybe how you have to do it, sell it to fewer people for more.

[00:34:18] Dan: So it was, it helped us with our

trip and we, but

[00:34:22] Jeff: I bet they'll ease into that. They'll have this floundering awful thing for a while. And then they'll just charge you 20 bucks

[00:34:28] Heather: yeah, there's some, they have to

do something because Jeff and I were talking about this earlier, that the fact that you have paid for it now means that you expect it to be the access that you're promised when it was fast past floss. and it was free. If you didn't

get

the ones you wanted, you didn't get him, but now you've paid for it and you can't get anything until four o'clock or you can't get the premier rides.

And now their people are pissed because

They paid to be able to get those premier

[00:34:59] Jeff: Which is why Dunning plan. It isn't backed the biggest people. People are going to prepare meals that they may not be able to get

[00:35:05] Heather: and I, Yeah.

and honestly,

That it looks like a more intelligent decision right now that.

we see what's going on with

genie plus It's it is a, is not working

at Walt Disney world and something has to be done about it there. They've got to

change It or they're really going to start losing people.

And it's sent it's a shame. I

think there are

better ways

[00:35:27] Jeff: you can, any groups or comprehends on any story or whatever, it's like 80, 20 people that like it versus the pavement

[00:35:35] Heather: And I always take the social

media feedback with a grain of salt in a lot of

cases. But in this case, it's matching what people are hearing on the ground at onsite. It's what we're all hearing in lines. Those experience. Stations

throughout the parks, the blue umbrellas are apparently, always just flooded with

[00:35:57] Jeff: Full of screaming, mad people.

just, Yeah.

That's you nailed it. Nailed It If you prepaid, paid for the new thinking and kids making blend titled

They should be told if they paid for it

[00:36:10] Heather: they don't have the

capacity for just deciding that you're going to sell. As many of those people will buy it, not putting a cap on it. They said That right away. It does that. Just not going to work at Disney world because everybody's willing to pay it.

[00:36:23] Jeff: And

[00:36:24] Dan: that

[00:36:24] Jeff: then it made people mad when Edwin they're in the regular line and literally 75, 5 PO to every one or two, they believe, oh, in the regular lines. That's disheartening too.

[00:36:34] Heather: I guess we need to stay tuned. I'm hoping some chain they changed a

few things just this past week. They removed

some from individual.

[00:36:43] Dan: I think that's a floating thing.

But they had done that before, when crowds were

heavier right around the marathon and this past week was the hat, the princess

[00:36:51] Heather: Oh,

[00:36:52] Dan: assumed that was just a crowd

[00:36:53] Heather: And it'll go back. Yeah, maybe, But,

we're coming up on a very, we're coming up on

spring break. It's just going to continue to get busier. It's

[00:37:02] Dan: Yeah, it might stay that way

for a while. Who knows? It's I don't know, but

it's,

[00:37:06] Jeff: I'm going during spring fever and it's cause it's, like all the park reservations have sold up for day. I'm glad I got them when I did or none of it available. It's the capacity.

[00:37:16] Dan: Yeah. Yeah, it

was going to be, that'll be fun. So that night we ate

at steakhouse 71,

[00:37:21] Heather: what'd you

[00:37:22] Dan: that was,

[00:37:22] Heather: Oh yeah.

Oh,

[00:37:25] Dan: I

liked it. There were things I liked. There were things I didn't like.

It was

[00:37:29] Jeff: It's

[00:37:30] Dan: it's hit. And miss here's the thing, the food was great.

[00:37:32] Heather: Did you eat the bacon and eggs?

[00:37:35] Dan: the bacon and eggs was freaking amazing

[00:37:38] Heather: Okay. Now you can say whatever you want.

[00:37:40] Jeff: did you what meal did you?

[00:37:42] Dan: dinner. We went for dinner, we went to

celebrate our anniversary. one thing

I know it's not a signature.

I don't

[00:37:48] Heather: it's not a signature.

[00:37:49] Dan: It's not, but even still the way they position it as like a finer dining spot, it looks like a cafeteria and it is very

[00:37:59] Heather: it is loud in there.

[00:38:00] Jeff: it is very

loud

[00:38:01] Dan: surprising number of small children for the kind of food that they have there.

[00:38:05] Jeff: Welcome to

[00:38:06] Heather: It's not a California grill or ya yachtsman. It's not, it's definitely not that expensive.

[00:38:12] Dan: I know. So the ambience, but it's weird because it's like there, I dunno,

our service sucked. The dude forgot

about us for 45

[00:38:21] Heather: oh,

[00:38:22] Dan: after we had our meals, we never got asked. If we wanted more drinks,

we never got a water refill.

He never asked if we wanted to order dessert. He never asked if

we could have the

check. I

[00:38:32] Heather: Okay. That is not an experience I've had there. That's no bueno.

[00:38:36] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:38:37] Dan: Also.

[00:38:38] Jeff: I have heard that a good bit though.

[00:38:40] Dan: And it wasn't that they were short-staffed and they were overbusy. Cause I was watching, there was lots of waiters

and he was very attentive to other tables. He just

[00:38:49] Heather: He just decided he didn't want to help the dude in the red pants.

[00:38:53] Dan: It could have been the

pants that's entirely possible.

[00:38:56] Jeff: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I would have made him remember me.

[00:39:00] Dan: also I don't want to brag, but like I got the au poivre

sauce for my filet. I

make a better

au poivre sauce at home than what they make at steak house. 71 there, it was just,

[00:39:12] Jeff: like the flight

[00:39:13] Heather: That's

Did he offer you the

sauce flight?

Oh Yeah.

[00:39:16] Dan: no, I was not offered that.

It was just way too salty

and not is like all salt and pepper and nothing else.

[00:39:23] Heather: That's unfortunate.

[00:39:25] Dan: Kendrick got the Bearnaise and that was delicious.

[00:39:28] Heather: Yeah. Pro tip, you can order a fish sauce flight for only two or three bucks more and they bring you all of them.

[00:39:33] Dan: that's good to know.

[00:39:35] Jeff: Another prototype. If you cook a good

[00:39:36] Heather: I do agree with that statement and I think I thought their stakes were very good. I would need

[00:39:42] Dan: The steak was good. I, yeah, the steak was good. The sides were good. The appetizer was

[00:39:48] Heather: bacon and eggs is The

greatest

thing.

[00:39:49] Jeff: I like breakfast there I've been to every meal multiple times lunch. Only one lunch was my least favorite breakfast is my favorite.

[00:39:57] Dan: Yeah.

The drinks were good. Although I was looking at the menu and I

realized that like the drink menu is really heavy on stuff that features like

pretty hardcore,

like bitter elements, like digestives and aperitifs so it's if you're not into that level

of. That kind of

[00:40:15] Jeff: They also just, you can, it's a full bar. You can

[00:40:18] Dan: I know.

But I always like to get the fancy things

[00:40:20] Heather: same

[00:40:21] Jeff: yeah. I do notice that it's a lot of like bourbon, bitters

[00:40:25] Dan: yeah, it's a lot of like stuff with a Mauro

And Negroni type,

[00:40:29] Jeff: It's an interesting sort of Cindy's throwback vibe, which is why they have those kind

[00:40:34] Heather: Yeah. You can

[00:40:35] Dan: Which I liked.

[00:40:36] Jeff: dress. It is

[00:40:37] Dan: Yeah. For two to four people, it's a big ball.

[00:40:40] Jeff: I got to say that I've never had that, but I don't think anyone likes see, every time we go there's most

of it left on the

[00:40:47] Heather: sweet is going to be by guests

[00:40:49] Dan: There was some, the,

[00:40:50] Heather: Yeah.

[00:40:52] Jeff: not

[00:40:52] Dan: the most popular drink we saw was

they have this pink champagne that comes with a little pink chocolate Micky, IR hat,

like cap on top of the champagne flute.

[00:41:02] Heather: I haven't seen that one

[00:41:05] Dan: Yeah. Oh, it was, yeah. It's every single time we saw a drink tray coming

[00:41:08] Heather: Okay. Yeah. I would've gone for that

It must be new. I don't remember that,

on the

[00:41:12] Jeff: have missed that.

[00:41:14] Dan: yeah. I don't know. I don't even remember seeing it on the menu but I must've missed it. So

I, it was good. it was, a little bad. It was, I want to go back again,

try something different on the dinner menu. I also

would love to

[00:41:26] Heather: Yeah. I've tried breakfast. The breakfast is fantastic.

[00:41:28] Jeff: I will we'll sit, having been there many, multiple times. It is inconsistent both the food quality and the service level.

That

[00:41:36] Dan: that was, that, that was day one

at magic kingdom. Next day, we

went to Hollywood

studios and we spent most of the morning in star wars, town, USA, early entry at Hollywood studios.

[00:41:48] Jeff: Was that your first time in,

[00:41:50] Dan: no, it wasn't. However, I still haven't re written

rise to

the

resistance. Let's not talk

[00:41:54] Heather: don't want,

[00:41:55] Dan: Early entry

is slightly less silly at

Hollywood studios. They let you all the way back into Galaxy's

edge. They'd let you all the way back into toy story

[00:42:02] Heather: oh, that's

[00:42:03] Dan: At eight o'clock nothing starts running until eight

[00:42:06] Heather: go straight to slinky

dog because that ride sells

out at 7:00 AM and 60 seconds.

[00:42:13] Dan: yeah. We did manage to rope trap,

Midway mania because

rise wasn't open and we had a very early reservation at

Olga's, so we didn't really

[00:42:23] Heather: Drinking in the morning.

[00:42:25] Dan: yeah, that was

[00:42:26] Heather: Little best been fizz at

9:00 AM.

[00:42:28] Dan: Yeah.

Ooh, those the the breakfast tots bowl at Woody's lunch Andy's punch box. Holy crap. With the trees, the sausage and the eggs on the tater has a little hall

[00:42:40] Heather: I love their taught bowls. The

[00:42:42] Jeff: I have that

[00:42:43] Heather: Todd

tachos

[00:42:45] Jeff: and

[00:42:45] Dan: Yeah, they have a breakfast ball, disgust sausage

gravy, but instead of regular breakfast, sausage has got chorizo in it and it's got scrambled.

[00:42:53] Jeff: I was just saying today how much I love his trees

[00:42:56] Heather: well now you can get it at Woody's

lunchbox.

[00:42:59] Dan: There you go. Go all the way to Florida for

[00:43:01] Heather: Yeah.

[00:43:01] Dan: so then we we spent most of the rest of the morning and,

Actually, pretty much all we did at Hollywood studios, other than

we did see Indiana Jones, we

went to we just spent it doing

star wars stuff. We did Olga's. That was Kendra's first time and Olga's,

Which was great.

We had a

[00:43:15] Heather: have a fuzzy tauntaun

[00:43:16] Dan: I did. I wish that there was more of the foam on top that yeah, because yeah, like that went away very quick.

[00:43:24] Jeff: I think they've scaled that back because everybody I'm hitting the headwind for the

[00:43:28] Heather: Oh yeah.

The

[00:43:29] Jeff: I barely noticed anything gold. I had

it, it was like crazy.

[00:43:33] Dan: Yeah. I wanted to ask him to like top off the Tingley

stuff, but Kendra got the best been fizz, which that is a

[00:43:39] Heather: that's my favorite drink there?

[00:43:41] Jeff: That's what I

[00:43:41] Dan: delicious and is beautiful with the way that the glitter just floats around to the clouds there.

That was great.

[00:43:47] Heather: I heard you. I heard you might have shed some tears

[00:43:50] Jeff: stuff in,

your

[00:43:51] Heather: Galaxy's edge. Dan,

[00:43:53] Dan: I

did shed some tears. I finally

got to build a light saber at Savvis

and

[00:43:57] Jeff: Dan's a cry crier.

[00:43:59] Heather: That

[00:43:59] Dan: did, I went to elemental nature

and I just really wanted the rain core tooth and the leather wrapped it. It looks really cool. I liked it a lot. It was, it really is a very, especially if you're a really big fan

[00:44:13] Heather: That experience

Is great.

[00:44:16] Jeff: I was poo-pooing it. I'm not

[00:44:19] Heather: I have video of Jeff the look on your face. So many of the

moments

[00:44:24] Jeff: Yeah, it's pretty good. The whole

[00:44:26] Heather: every, person that I have gone in there with for for their first time doing it all of my, of the boys in my house, all of

them just, it's a fantastic experience and they,

You get chills.

[00:44:37] Dan: the performance of the lead builder. And I'm sure there's probably ones that aren't quite as, but it's just really great.

[00:44:44] Jeff: I've done it twice and been both very Debby

[00:44:47] Dan: Yeah. It just, they just make it really special and really make it feel

like as silly as

adults screwing together. Die-cast metal parts for a toy light sword is like they really make it feel meaningful. Like there's

some deeper meaning to the,

what you choose and your

[00:45:05] Heather: Yeah. And it really leaning into the experience and the story behind it. And I think that's, what's going to be the key for people with the

star cruiser. Everybody that I've heard that of has done it, that, and that just, got into the story. Cannot stop saying how it's the greatest thing they've ever done.

That's

[00:45:24] Jeff: Yeah. I was way off on starker. I still think it looks plastic kitty,

[00:45:28] Heather: Yeah.

[00:45:29] Jeff: think the

[00:45:29] Dan: I have a thought on,

[00:45:30] Heather: seen, I haven't heard a bad review of star cruiser.

[00:45:33] Dan: I have a thought on what you just said about the look and then I'll get back to the other

thing. It's not a warship. It's not a broken down old Hulk. It is a crew it's supposed to be like a brand new, like a cruise ship. So it's it's not going to be dingy and dirty. It's going to be shiny. And

[00:45:50] Heather: Yeah.

[00:45:50] Jeff: Yeah.

What make

[00:45:51] Dan: So I get the complaints because you're used to seeing the one look, but it's I can see why

cruise ship in this galaxy. Isn't going to

[00:45:59] Heather: And the complaints are coming from people who are looking at it and photos on

haven't experienced it. The people who've experienced it.

Can't stop raving about it.

[00:46:09] Jeff: And I've noticed since they took the, they had that kid from the, whatever, the Goldberg's that toured it on that one video months ago. And he, when he was walking the hallways anyways near, it was like crappy like sheet rock ceilings is that since they went back and everything's like capsulated and

[00:46:29] Heather: Or if they just weren't

[00:46:30] Jeff: I don't know if they've

[00:46:31] Dan: I bet you,

[00:46:32] Jeff: or if they weren't quite

done when the

[00:46:33] Dan: but yeah, and the same thing for the whole land itself, the more you lean into the actual story, and it is hard because there's guests.

[00:46:42] Heather: yeah.

[00:46:42] Dan: we said to each other

multiple times over the weekend, the problem with theme parks is all of the

[00:46:49] Jeff: story no one asked

[00:46:50] Heather: Yeah. That's true.

[00:46:52] Dan: It's and I

finally got the data pad to work

[00:46:55] Heather: That

[00:46:55] Dan: played

[00:46:56] Heather: working a little

better now. And I think they need that. because that's really integral. yeah. That's really integral

[00:47:03] Jeff: never even really knew

[00:47:04] Heather: You're you are given one, actually. It's not even your own phone. they give you an iPhone that's preloaded just for this experience so that it has

none of the other stuff that

can distract you It doesn't have your email and Facebook and all that

Yeah.

And it's you, they, you, they encourage you to use that as much as possible when you're in B2. And so they have to, it has to work

if it doesn't work. Yeah.

[00:47:30] Jeff: can hear all the Cairns Memorial calf to

[00:47:32] Dan: You know what and I didn't spend that much time with the data pad, but what I did, it's like there's storylines going on in galaxy such that nobody ever sees, because nobody

uses

[00:47:43] Heather: are using it yet.

[00:47:43] Dan: it is great. And I can't.

[00:47:46] Heather: my husband liked to use the wrap that app when they're in bed too. and they find all they scan

[00:47:51] Jeff: Never,

[00:47:52] Heather: every time you

[00:47:53] Jeff: ever even.

[00:47:53] Dan: Yup,

[00:47:54] Heather: flashing light or whatever you have to, but you have to be in the play Disney parks app

to do that.

[00:47:59] Dan: yep. yeah,

and yeah, so that, that, really adds to the experience of the

land. But other than that, we.

[00:48:04] Jeff: And the live don't shut off and all of the things that are, oh, wait, they got rid of it.

[00:48:09] Dan: So yeah,

so we, that, that was great. It was really fun sharing that with Kendra. Also, she, not a huge star

[00:48:14] Jeff: Is she a star wars nerd,

[00:48:15] Dan: like I started showing her things and we talked

about things and

explain things and she

thought it. was really cool and we had some fun in Deland, right?

Yeah. She put up with me, she humored me because I took her to Walt Disney world for anniversary.

[00:48:28] Jeff: be real.

[00:48:28] Dan: so she's

a Saint

like that. So yeah. Oh, so then we hopped over to Epcot and I realized that when, as much as we joke and make fun of Epcot for having so

many festivals have cut socks when

[00:48:41] Heather: Yes.

I agree. I love the festivals.

[00:48:45] Dan: it needs to be a festival.

We.

[00:48:47] Jeff: I also thought a also think it, the

[00:48:50] Dan: Yeah, but see, here's the thing, there's

a lot more places to buy food and drinks at when it's festival time. When it's

not a festival, a lot

more of the food is you need to go into a

restaurant or

[00:49:02] Heather: that's true.

[00:49:02] Jeff: Actually I love Epcot. I like, if you just want to chill and walk around, grab drinks, and if you're with someone, you just want to walk her in

and

[00:49:11] Heather: yeah.

And we're coming up on actually just started my favorite Epcot festivals, flower and garden.

[00:49:17] Dan: Yeah. Sadly, we got there three days after the

[00:49:20] Heather: that is that's there's

just these tiny windows when there's no festival right now.

[00:49:25] Dan: the festival boots are still there and they've changed the signs over, but they're not

opening it. It was just, oh, but it was still really.

[00:49:32] Jeff: Sorry.

[00:49:33] Dan: Yeah.

it was still nice. I've been wanting for 10 years to do date night at, around the world

showcase.

And we finally did that, so that was really nice. I took Kendra

to club. Cool. Specifically, just so that she could

try the sour plum tea.

[00:49:47] Heather: I hear that you have the wrong opinion

about it.

[00:49:50] Dan: Yeah, we both agreed that it tastes, it's got this weird smoky kind of

barbecue sauce kind of taste Kendra. Kendra wants nothing to do with it ever again.

I thought this is good. Actually. I could drink more of this. I could drink a whole big cup

[00:50:03] Heather: Dan

[00:50:04] Jeff: going to have to try it.

[00:50:05] Dan: yeah. We also did try the,

[00:50:07] Heather: It's that's fair. I don't mind Beverly. I like, I

think it's fine,

[00:50:11] Dan: Yeah.

[00:50:12] Heather: I don't want to drink water down. Barbecue sauce.

[00:50:15] Dan: No, I enjoyed it. Kendra hated it. She

[00:50:17] Heather: What what about the cucumber Sprite?

[00:50:19] Dan: That was good. I was expecting a stronger cucumber. I left. It was just mostly the scent of the cucumber. It was

nice.

[00:50:25] Heather: I

want to pour some gin into that.

[00:50:27] Dan: Yeah. That'll probably work

nicely.

[00:50:29] Jeff: you should have it

[00:50:30] Dan: I don't understand why they

[00:50:31] Jeff: in Ben

[00:50:31] Dan: I was, and like at the Coke store in Disney Springs also, when you go upstairs and you can try all of those international Coke

products and you can't buy them, what's the point? It's stupid. stupid. Anyway. We we had a reservation for the lounge at space, two

20.

[00:50:48] Heather: Nice. What did you think?

[00:50:49] Dan: I love, I mostly loved it. I loved it slightly. I loved it slightly more than steakhouse 71. And I liked steakhouse 71, a lot

going in there's a sign before you turn that corner to that check-in desk that says, please wait for cast member assistance and no cast member ever showed up. So we didn't even think to look around the

corner to see where that desk is, where you check

in.

So we were just like, what are we supposed to do?

[00:51:13] Heather: Yeah.

[00:51:14] Jeff: this is weird. It's like back in a little

[00:51:16] Dan: elevator ride is amazing. The whole thing is cool.

If you're going to have two top tables in a

lounge

area, and if one of your big if the big central element of this restaurant is this giant screen in space, don't situate the two TA tables.

So that one of the seats has its back to the screen, turn it sideways so that both people can see it. Yes.

[00:51:38] Jeff: shouldn't all be turned

[00:51:40] Dan: And I'm I am a devoted, loving husband. So I sat with my back to the screen. I could see some of the screen in the bar mirror, but

[00:51:48] Jeff: There's a mirror here. Yeah.

[00:51:49] Dan: the food was great. The drinks were great. I wish that they,

wish that had went a little bit harder into the

[00:51:57] Heather: Yeah.

[00:51:57] Dan: It's

[00:51:58] Heather: Yeah.

[00:51:58] Jeff: That's what

[00:51:58] Dan: is just, it's good food, but it's

not like

outer

[00:52:02] Heather: It's not like blue shrimp that you can get the star cruiser.

[00:52:05] Dan: And

[00:52:06] Heather: It really

[00:52:06] Dan: yeah.

That

[00:52:08] Jeff: on there. It looks crazy, but Yeah.

They should've done more of that. I agree. It is. It's all good.

[00:52:14] Dan: that was my only thing. I just

wish they went more into the theme. But other than

that place was phenomenal.

[00:52:19] Jeff: But I will say, I think the idea is that

it's an American space station thing. It's not like you're on another plant, so they didn't go to weird. I guess

[00:52:29] Dan: know.

[00:52:29] Jeff: it's like earth people,

food.

[00:52:30] Heather: Yeah. I hadn't thought of it that way. It is just a space station. It's not bad to

[00:52:35] Jeff: It's not alien

food.

[00:52:36] Dan: it's not even particularly futuristic, I guess it doesn't have to be alien. Just make it a little bit more Spacey and futuristic. I don't know. We did a lounge and we planned on snacking around

the world. So

we just got appetizers, Kendra got the deviled eggs, which were delicious. And I got the spare rib sliders, which were also pretty good.

And I had some kind of drink

with bourbon and then Kendra had the one where

they pour the Manhattan over cotton candy.

[00:53:05] Heather: Oh, yes.

I think you

tried that one. Didn't you? Yeah.

[00:53:09] Jeff: Oh,

[00:53:10] Dan: I

[00:53:11] Jeff: it was.

[00:53:11] Heather: Yeah.

[00:53:12] Jeff: when it all melted, it was like,

[00:53:13] Dan: But they, they were good drinks. The food was great. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[00:53:17] Heather: They

[00:53:17] Jeff: drinks were like the spiciest part. I had the California. It was excellent.

[00:53:21] Heather: It was vegan carrot cake and I laughed at it and then it turned out to be delicious.

[00:53:26] Jeff: shifted

[00:53:27] Heather: sticky

[00:53:27] Dan: even wanted

[00:53:28] Heather: that wasn't even

that good

[00:53:29] Jeff: Yeah. I would go there again. I enjoyed It it was good. We had a server who was offended. This was on, I think he even be opening that night It was either at

[00:53:39] Heather: it was pre

[00:53:40] Jeff: but he opening this guy was.

already just on it. Good. Good for his left

[00:53:44] Dan: yeah. So yeah, we love to experience it was really cool. We would definitely go back to again, to I've cut was

[00:53:48] Jeff: What'd you think about the price, the pricing thing? Has he met landing land there's more than any other did isn't the

[00:53:54] Dan: I didn't know that there was a

discussion about it. It was

[00:53:58] Heather: If you don't do the lounge, if you do just the regular dining, it is prefix,

but

[00:54:04] Dan: Oh,

[00:54:04] Heather: I made it still reasonable.

[00:54:05] Dan: Yeah, I

didn't.

[00:54:06] Heather: The lounge, you can do all a

[00:54:08] Jeff: yeah, I did. I didn't, it was not like that in the

[00:54:11] Dan: yeah. The lounge, It was like 14

to $16 for our drinks

and

[00:54:16] Heather: Typical Disney

[00:54:17] Dan: the appetizer, 12 to $14, even, I was surprised that sliders weren't more,

to be honest, you got a big cup of fries and the Two. sliders. that were pretty

decent sized sliders. So yeah, it was good.

We liked it. Epcot was busy. We did manage to ride

Soren. We got a pass for that and

[00:54:38] Heather: Where are you able to ride Remi?

Yeah.

[00:54:41] Dan: no that's sold out. Like we w we

were, we could have bought a lightening lane, but it was

overlapping with our dinner. So we thought that space two 20

trumped was more important than the rat

ride.

[00:54:54] Heather: That's fair,

[00:54:54] Dan: because, next time we go, we'll have children with us and we don't want to go to space 20 with children, but we can take children on the Ratatouille ride.

[00:55:02] Jeff: Yeah, they'll love it.

[00:55:03] Dan: yeah,

[00:55:03] Jeff: I like red. It's adorable. Horrible. I wouldn't put forth a lot of effort to write it,

[00:55:08] Dan: we did

try to

grab crepes at the crepe window, but

the line

[00:55:13] Heather: that line is always insane.

[00:55:15] Dan: Yeah, it was insane.

[00:55:16] Heather: I do highly

[00:55:17] Jeff: they're really good

[00:55:19] Heather: you can

[00:55:19] Jeff: That's why the line

[00:55:20] Heather: reservation to the sit-down crepe and it, at least the last time I

went, it was very easy to get, use it for lunch and it they're delicious.

[00:55:28] Dan: Yeah. so

we will try to get those next time. But so yeah, we just wanted to up cut for awhile

then.

[00:55:34] Heather: Yes.

[00:55:35] Jeff: cute in there with good air conditioning.

[00:55:37] Dan: Air conditioning

is important. We ended up bailing before

the,

Nighttime spectacular because

[00:55:42] Heather: harmonious is

[00:55:44] Jeff: you son of a bitch

[00:55:45] Dan: her legs were so tired. After two days of walking, I ran multiple miles all

around

the Atlanta airport in vans, holding my carry on suitcase in

front of me. I was not

up to walking anymore that.

day. So

[00:55:59] Jeff: Do you hear tiny by lazy?

[00:56:01] Heather: Strange, but I do. Yes.

[00:56:04] Dan: everywhere I go. Then we did a half day at magic kingdom. Last day. We got lucky genie

plus was really good to.

us that day.

Like I said, we managed to.

catch catch a mind

train, right? For opening. We actually, within the. 15 minutes of the rides running, we got on

teacups,

mermaid and mind

[00:56:22] Heather: That's pretty good. That's a decent

[00:56:23] Dan: and then we waited another less than 10 minutes to get on Winnie the Pooh.

And then we went straight.

[00:56:32] Jeff: So weird way the is like harder there. If you go to California, always get up, get down. It didn't fight. It's

[00:56:38] Dan: the least awesome of the, I

eh, it's a

little bit

[00:56:42] Jeff: right.

[00:56:43] Dan: It's slightly smaller.

Eh, the Disney world one is slightly better.

[00:56:48] Heather: Wow. You're quite the Winnie the Pooh efficient auto there,

[00:56:51] Dan: my children made me ride both of them many times in a row while Kendra was

writing big thunder with the oldest child.

[00:57:00] Heather: she got the better deal.

[00:57:02] Dan: Yeah, Yeah,

[00:57:04] Heather: Yup.

[00:57:04] Dan: I'm a really

[00:57:05] Jeff: You hear the same thing?

[00:57:06] Dan: I hope,

She

knows

[00:57:08] Heather: She does

[00:57:09] Dan: Yeah.

[00:57:10] Jeff: She didn't listen to the show.

[00:57:12] Dan: Yeah. That was pretty much a trip. We just enjoyed. We

we celebrated the end of our trip with with one last round of cheese cheeseburger

[00:57:19] Heather: spring rolls.

[00:57:20] Dan: spring rolls on our way out

of the park. And

[00:57:23] Jeff: How was the life for that?

How was the line for

[00:57:26] Dan: time we waited behind 10 people, other than that,

actually it breezed right through. So

[00:57:31] Jeff: times? For that thing? It's like longer than lions for

[00:57:35] Dan: we ended up

[00:57:36] Jeff: it's crazy.

[00:57:37] Dan: they're delicious and we ended up eating. We stopped

at that

cart maybe four times over

[00:57:42] Heather: Did you really,

[00:57:43] Dan: that we were

[00:57:43] Heather: did you

stick with the cheeseburger ones and not the stupid pastrami one?

[00:57:48] Dan: I got the pastrami one once I had it back in November. I like it, but it's not. Yeah. It's a little too

[00:57:53] Heather: that's what I was going to say. I like it. It's just too salty.

The cheeseburger one is better.

[00:57:58] Dan: Yeah.

[00:57:58] Jeff: That's all I buy cheeseburgers. Excellent. And a lot of people taste, they get things like throw up. So I don't know.

[00:58:04] Dan: yeah. It's good. And in fact, I home and attempted making them like Monday night. So my feeling turned out good.

[00:58:13] Jeff: Isn't the recipe in the books we

got.

[00:58:16] Heather: anniversary

That's

where I got the

[00:58:18] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:58:19] Heather: punch recipe.

[00:58:19] Dan: I just made it

up. it was, I just cooked up some ground

Turkey actually, and then

[00:58:25] Jeff: He just went to these and got a

[00:58:27] Heather: Put it in the food

[00:58:28] Jeff: pounder with cheese, shredded

[00:58:29] Dan: my brain didn't think I knew that it was egg roll wrappers,

but since the cart caused them spring rolls that my brain just found

spring, roll wrappers at

the store and bought those. And those don't cook up the same way.

[00:58:40] Jeff: oh, that's like

[00:58:41] Dan: Yeah.

[00:58:41] Jeff: C3 ones,

[00:58:42] Dan: They didn't

cook up quite the same, so

[00:58:44] Jeff: Yeah.

need an egg roll

[00:58:46] Heather: good in the air fryer.

[00:58:48] Dan: probably I actually baked them in the oven instead

frying them.

I think that's part of the problem. If I had

fried them, they might come out better. But anyway, so yeah, so that was our magic

kingdom trip. We we rode

the

sunshine flyer back to the airport.

Some archery Taylor green, right after she hung out with a bunch of flight supremacists watched her boot two people off of a Delta flight.

[00:59:09] Heather: that's fun. What a great way to end a trip.

[00:59:12] Dan: Yeah. She's

[00:59:13] Jeff: She's in the neatly. Does she, was she wearing,

[00:59:16] Heather: Just Barely

[00:59:18] Dan: just barely, although her male companion did have a actual surgical mascot. So I was surprised. So yeah, that was that trip. It was a really good trip. It was a very fast trip. I

was exhausted

[00:59:32] Jeff: was it two days? Two days.

[00:59:34] Dan: now.

[00:59:34] Jeff: Two. Oh

[00:59:35] Heather: I'm noticing is that crowd levels are back to pre pandemic levels. And a lot of people have forgotten that was what was normal before the pandemic and people aren't happy. And now they're dealing with genie plus instead of

[00:59:50] Jeff: And the back then they were like, we've got to do something to figure out. Oh that's the park reservation.

[00:59:56] Dan: the thing too though. It's and I think I mentioned this even back in November.

It's not just that they're busy and they're not used to, it is people have either forgotten how to theme park or you've got all these people who've been cooped up for two years and they're like, we're finally doing it.

We're taking our big trip to

Walt Disney world and they don't know how to do it.

So it's just like a lot of

[01:00:18] Heather: frustrated.

[01:00:19] Dan: who yeah. It's like the culture is not there. It's

[01:00:22] Jeff: And they've been seeing on the net for two, two years that crowded, but

[01:00:26] Dan: Yeah. So it's like a lot of,

it's just, it feels different.

[01:00:30] Jeff: I find the net true airports to either first touch times or hadn't done it in a while and no one knows what they're doing and everyone's, there's also just an

awful.

[01:00:39] Heather: Board. People are

just so rude, so much more rude than before.

[01:00:43] Jeff: we all came out of the house and no one can drive anymore.

[01:00:47] Heather: It's

[01:00:47] Jeff: Everyone's just aggressive

and have been

[01:00:49] Heather: get along with other people. Maybe, By themselves and just thinking about themselves and not having to interact with other humans.

And they've either forgotten

how to interact with other humans or just don't care anymore. I don't know that just the rudeness is yeah.

[01:01:05] Jeff: There's

the

[01:01:06] Heather: rudeness is frustrating

And I'm

hopeful that it maybe that'll go away.

[01:01:10] Jeff: I think the numbers are rightfully frustrated with

[01:01:13] Dan: yeah, although I will say the cast

members were, there was a little bit of

an improvement over the last two

times.

[01:01:21] Heather: know. Cause there were

S it was. Yeah.

[01:01:25] Jeff: Oh, they're getting more of

[01:01:26] Dan: and

there's still some of them that you can tell, they just DJF and some of them are just over it and some of them are just, but for the most part, it was, it's not quite back to the way it used

[01:01:37] Heather: And hopefully now that they don't have to be the mask police anymore I think a lot of them are. because they were allowing them to be so forceful about mask enforcement. It was spilling over into

other parts of their job and they were forgetting the Disney customer service. So maybe now That part is gone, we can get back to

[01:01:57] Jeff: And you get all those people that were just out there looking for a conference licked she's walking around with no math book. Dare you to

[01:02:04] Dan: No, we had some people like that around that even though masks were required, it was just, you just feel that attitude off of

some people. And we had people like that. I thought for sure, our flight home was going to get turned around. There was this gigantic family who was just, they were just a hot mess and they could not, and they would not wear their masks.

And

[01:02:27] Heather: Oh, no.

[01:02:28] Dan: It was stressing me out, just seeing them

In the terminal, on the plane. All over the place. They were using kids as excuses. They

bought gigantic bags of burger king to bring onto the plane so that

they could eat the entire time.

[01:02:42] Jeff: They could always smell

[01:02:43] Dan: Just and oh man, it was just one thing after another with them.

It was

[01:02:47] Heather: I am curious. We're coming up on March 18th is when the current mask mandate on planes and other federal federally mandated transport is set to expire. I'm super curious. What's going to happen.

[01:03:01] Jeff: They'll renew it. There's no way they're

[01:03:04] Dan: Oh, and we did a couple of episodes ago.

There was like when we mentioned the masks last time and we were wondering about our different forms of transportation. Boats or open air. So you don't have to wear them on the boats, even if you're inside the boat because they have windows that open.

So it's really just

buses and monorail that you have to wear them. and the Skyliner, even though they're still not mixing parties on the sky lighter, they specifically told us, keep your

mask

[01:03:30] Heather: And doesn't it feel like the Skyliner wouldn't be a form of federally mandated transportation.

[01:03:36] Dan: It feels like an attraction. Yeah. So that was weird. But yeah,

That was that

[01:03:43] Heather: Curious.

[01:03:43] Dan: I think that's all I can think about.

[01:03:45] Jeff: Yeah, I can't figure out the transportation thing and let us it's different union negotiated a bit, then that would preclude the,

Cause there's no operator monorail. There's no oper except in his own cabinet in the

front.

[01:03:58] Heather: here. And I think this is in most places my kids in our districts don't have to wear masks on school buses anymore because they

[01:04:06] Dan: Yeah, that just went away.

[01:04:07] Heather: Yeah.

I think we got that email just a couple of days ago. My kids walk. So don't worry about that.

[01:04:13] Dan: Both ways

[01:04:14] Heather: Yes. Through the

[01:04:15] Dan: the snow.

[01:04:16] Heather: Yes.

[01:04:17] Jeff: In the snow barefoot, but,

[01:04:19] Dan: Yeah. So that's that? That's the magic kingdom.

[01:04:22] Jeff: sounds like a good trip. I'm glad you got to go.

[01:04:25] Dan: It was really nice. So

there's,

and

they'll probably be another 10 years before we're able to go anywhere without children ever again. So

[01:04:32] Jeff: He has had so many, what's hard. Someone debate a babe, those

[01:04:36] Dan: I figured, like my mom, I have three brothers she's used to having four kids in the house.

[01:04:40] Heather: she should be,

[01:04:41] Dan: oh, it was like, that was like

[01:04:43] Heather: it was a while ago.

[01:04:45] Dan: That's quite a few years ago. Not 30 years ago. Quite a few years ago.

[01:04:49] Jeff: Did she come to your house or they go her

house. Yeah.

[01:04:52] Dan: Yeah. but,

yes. So that's that?

[01:04:55] Jeff: If you'd like to have it,

have a trip, I

[01:04:57] Dan: Thanks for hanging out with us again this week. If you're excited to be part of the ongoing celebration of Walt Disney world's 50th anniversary, key to the world. Travel has a

space elevator headed to Centauri space

station full of hundreds of expert travel planners who are ready to make your vacation dreams a reality head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com To get started with a no obligation quote. Don't forget to catch up with our friend, the tTheme Park Professor for all the latest theme park

news and tips at www.themeparkprofessor.com. Word of mouth is the best way to help us grow our show. If you have a friend or two who you think would appreciate our special brand of globe

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You can find links to subscribe to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest updates at www.goldkeyadventurers.com. We can't wait to hang out with you again next week. We'll see a real soon.

Dan’s Disney World Trip Report: February 2022

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