Disney World Winter Wonderland

Our impending winter Wonderland has me thinking about winter in the more has me thinking about winter in the more hospitable climate and Walt Disney world. More on that later first, let's get to the dues, starting with a, Disney's got some fancy new VR stuff without without helmets or goggles or do dads do.

That's a real succinct way to put it. Yeah. Yeah, Disney just filed a new patent, which was, is interesting. It's a, they file a ton of patents, but this one is for a virtual world simulator that enables multiple users to experience a 3d virtual world from multiple vantage points, without any glasses, goggles or digital devices.

So this is, it's basically just going to create 3d imagery using multiple projectors. And they call it a slam technique, which stands for simultaneous localization and mapping. So a lot like the projection mapping that they're using in the parks now, but what it sounds like to me is it's also being combined with what Heather and Jeff and I experienced during our adventures by Disney trip, which they use in imaginary is just a room and Imagineering where you go in and you put a hat on, and that hat tells the computer where you're looking and then basically projects onto an empty room.

A 3d environment so that wherever you turn your head, you're looking in the right advantage. But if you're not wearing that hat, everything looks distorted to you. And it looked weird without that looked weird without the hat. But then when I put that on and he made me fly over magic kingdom, I was, it made me feel very weird.

I felt like I was going to fall. So it just, it was really rudimentary at that point walk off though. And they had us go up to the top of the castle and have people just walk off the, I couldn't do it. Couldn't my brain wouldn't let me walk off the edge of the guest I could. Cause I realized I was on a concrete floor wearing a bowler hat with an antenna on it.

But yeah, I hope that we see this in the parks. Like I said, they do a lot of patents, but this would be something pretty, pretty interesting. And they said it could include animated characters, simulated objects, props, artwork. So they could do a lot. Yeah. It would be nice if they could make it work.

And unlike that last patent, we all got excited about the lightsaber that no one is allowed to touch because it doesn't work. Oh, it works no touchy, but it sounds like it sounds a lot too, like what they were doing, what the void does, except for they're projecting it onto the sets instead of into the helmet, this fits multi vantage point.

I wonder if they just have set pieces that are shaped like the thing and blank, and then they project everything on it. So you, yeah, that's what I'm thinking. It's just projection mapping, like they're doing on the castle, a ton of projectors, more hitting everything depth version of Mickey, Minnie runaway railroad.

Cause that's all projection mapped in those rooms, but you could do it in a lot of shapes and distances and whoever will see that sounds cool. Yeah. And they've already shown on that, right? They can transform shapes really quickly. You all kinds of stuff with it. So is this the VR tech that, oh no. That's something different.

They were talking about AR stuff that they're going to work into, like the cruise ships. Yes. And that's still going to use mobile devices, like your phone and your tablet. This is supposedly no device needed whatsoever. I don't know if it's still going to need some sort of glasses for it or something, but we'll see.

Yeah. I've never bought into that AR thing. Just doesn't do it for me. I can't erase the little stupid photos that I'm holding up in front. My face. I know it's the dresser I got did not look the same when it put it in as it did through my phone. So screw you try this in your home on Wayfair. I don't trust it anymore.

Yeah, no, it never works. It hurt like hell. When I tried to sit on it, I can tell you that

something else that hurts. Scan your flight canceled due to inclement weather. Thankfully, Heather has some tips on what to do. If you've been watching the news lately, you have probably heard that somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 and 1500 flights a day have been getting canceled since back before Christmas.

And it's not even, it's not slowing down. As of today, there were 1300 flights canceled. And today, January 4th, when we're recording this and they expect that because of staff shortages, because of all Macron and the nasty weather we've been having throughout the country for the last week, and that it's going to keep going for another few weeks.

So I thought maybe it'd be good to talk about some tips about what to do if you have your flight get canceled. And the first, my first two tips are really something to do before you even. Go anywhere. And the first one is buy travel insurance. Even if you're just going somewhere in the U S if you're spending three to $5,000 on a Disney trip and your flight gets canceled and you can't get down there, you're going to really wish that you had trip insurance.

So I think it's worth it on any trip that you invest a lot of money into get trip insurance than if your flight is canceled or your flight is delayed, or any of that stuff it's typically covered under your insurance policy. If they lose your luggage or whatever, it really is worth it. But the second thing is when you're booking your flight, a good thing to do, especially in the winter, and especially with the trend that's been happening the last couple of weeks is when you go to book it book around that your airport and your connecting airport have several of in a single day.

So if you're traveling to. Orlando I'm from grand rapids. I typically like to go through Atlanta because they have several flights a day from grand rapids to Atlanta and several flights a day from Atlanta to MCs. So yes, and really everywhere. Right less. I try, I love traveling through Detroit here in Michigan because I love the airport, but in the wintertime I avoid it.

They don't have as many flights to the places I'm going and they don't handle the snow as well. So I think about those things. Exactly. So I think about those two things where I'm booking, where if I can't get a direct flight where I'm connecting and what it would be like if a flight, if something along the way was canceled.

So try that when you're booking it, pay attention to that stuff. So what you're saying is, even though a tropical islands as really nice in the winter time, when there's only one flight per week to submit these tiny places, it might not exactly like getting down to Turks and cake. There's typically one flight a day screwed by that.

Yeah. If you can't get out, if your flight gets canceled, you're probably not getting there. And your trips getting cut short Prevencio Alistair there. Most airlines have one flight in and one flight out. So Delta's got one a day. Americans got one a day. It's places like that are tricky to get.

I forget which island it was. But last year there was a couple that they missed their flight got canceled and they told them we can get you there in Thursday, which was three days. That was the American airlines getting Jess home from Disneyland. I'm about to fly to Disneyland. We've got another flight for three days to, I'm fine.

Staying in Texas. So then if you are canceled, there's a few things you can do. First is you can, if you decide, you just are not going to go ahead with the trip because of what's going on. The airline has to give you a full refund. Even if they say, Hey, I, we can get you on a flight or hours from now, or we can get you on a flight tomorrow.

If you don't want that flight, they do have to give you your money back. And that's the U S law. So you can start there. Maybe you can, if you think, if you're not too far from where you're going, they think you would rather rent a car and drive. You can get your money back. Another thing you can try, if your airline is not giving you any decent options, you can ask to have your ticket transferred to another airlines flight.

And it is something that they have to do for you. The trick with this is it's possible that other airlines flight could cost more and you're going to end up having to pay more. It's not a, just because American has a seat and you don't want your Delta seat anymore. That it's going to be a one-to-one kind of exchange.

But it can be done. And so you can go to the desk or get on the phone with them and see if you can get transferred to another airline. That's interesting, because just about a year ago, I had an American agent tell me that they did not do that. Ah, that is fun. That does not shock me. If you get told that typically ask for a supervisor and push it because even if they don't specifically want to do the transaction, they have to give you a credit or a voucher that you can then use on a different airline.

And the truth is that they do all work together. They may act like they don't, but if they've got a flight crew that needs to get somewhere and they don't have a plane, they work together and they get each other's flight crews and they will help out each other's guests when stuff like this has happened.

But they don't like to do it. That is true. They're losing the revenue. If they put you on a different airline and they don't want to do that, we don't like to do it. They don't love that about it. We don't sleep very well at night when we do it. And then if you're delayed, here's something that a lot of people don't realize.

If you are going to be delayed for more than two hours, you are entitled to ask them for some kind of compensation. If it's more than two hours, the, they, each airline has their own guidelines about how much they have to offer you. But it's typically around $200 for every two to four hours that it's delayed.

And mostly, you don't know that. So most people don't go and ask for it. The other thing is if you're stuck in the airport, these kinds of things, if you're already boarded the plane and you're sitting there for two hours, because there's a mechanical issue, they boarded you onto the flight. So they don't have to do anything about it.

They just have to get you where you're going. Yes. And it happens quite often. We got you on the plane. Who cares if you sat there exactly. That yep. They boarded you and they're planning on finishing the flight so they don't have to give you anything. But if it's a delay where you're sitting in the airport, then you can definitely ask for some compensation, if it's over two hours.

The other thing that you can ask for is for the airline to cover your food. If you're stuck there. And if it's a significant delay, according to the department of transportation, they do have to pay it for you. They usually will not offer it. And it's a gray area as to whether it's a federally mandated thing.

It is a thing that the department of transportation would like them to do, but there's not really anything that says it's a law, but it's something you can ask for. And if you're willing to go and ask, most airlines are going to be willing to do something for you to make you happy. Oh, fancy.

Like Applebee's. Yeah. But the best thing to remember is to speak up for yourself and don't be rude about it. Screaming at the people working the desk, isn't really going to get you anywhere. But if you're a nice about it, especially if they've been screamed at, by 10 people before you, if you're polite about it and you're, you're just say I'm really just looking for some help here.

They're going to be a lot more likely to help you out, but definitely think about where you're booking your flight for through before you do it and get travel insurance, especially in the winter time, you never know when there's going to be an any international flight. Definitely. You never go.

You never know when you're going to have the whole middle of the country is going to have tornadoes on Tuesday and snow on Wednesday.

It's a fun place to live. It sure is. For NATO. Tuesdays is not as fun as taco Tuesday. I prefer the tacos, but what if it was a taco a tornado?

That's going to be a new movie soon.

We're workshopping this still we'll go off the tongue. I know. I just learned to be funny. Like Dan, you suck,

my self esteem was right about, about the zero level. So thank you for knocking me back down out of negative territory. Right where I needed to be. There were more facts down there who knew, look you down like a shack in a taco tornado, or NACO, I hit it tore that Conoco bell

better than flows forward. Isn't fair. So I have a list here. We've covered similar lists in the past of things like the strangest national or state related foods, the scariest places in every state in the union. I've got a quick list here of some of the weirdest tourist attractions in every state.

And these are mostly like the weird roadside ball of twine type tourist attraction. So I wanted to hit you guys with the highlights from your state. And then as I scroll through to get there, we'll look at some of the other weird things real quick. I'll throw a link up. This is a buzz feed list who doesn't love a good buzz feed list.

Hey Hey Jeff peach. I'm sorry. Hey George, down there in Scottsboro. Have you ever visited the unclaimed baggage center? Oh yes, I have. I lived in Huntsville before I moved to Birmingham and Scottsboro is 30 minutes or so from there that, that used to be an awesome place till the word got out about it.

Now it's hard to find good stuff. Oh, I bet. It's just it's just like all those crack heads storage units. I get actioned off now where to go to find the good stuff. Yeah. All right. So anyway, the unclaimed baggage center is just that it's a thrift store where unclaimed luggage from all the airports goes.

Fairly solid off it, phenomenal prices. Do they open it or are you buying door? It's used and mostly new stuff, but you can find crazy stuff. Electronics. And I used to go in the eighties and nineties, but I haven't been in a long time, but the word on the street is it's, there's not as much good stuff because the, I think the TSA people steal it all before it gets there.

Grab bag section where they don't open the luggage and it's 10 bucks a bag and you get what you get. I love that kind of stuff. I do that in the comic book shop all the time. Come on, do that. There was a lot, I told those, but then a lot of weird you'd be shocked at the amount of sets of golf clubs that when people just didn't get their luggage, they lost my luggage.

I'll get a whole new set. Like when did they realize that? Because when they're on the course, like dog, oh, wait a minute insurance. And they just got new stuff. That's totally. It sounds like a good racket. Some guy who did the tennis golf clubs. Oh. Club for tennis.

If you're in Alaska, you can visit the world's largest chocolate waterfall. This is a continuously running chocolate fountain that uses 3000 pounds of chocolate. It's just really hygienic. It's literally a waterfall. It looks like rocks. So there, so it's got to sign this as plead as to not eat the jury drink.

The fountain that happened after Augustus gloop, stop by

Dako bell. I had the chocolate waterfall in little rock Arkansas. You can visit. I say, I think you can visit. I can't guarantee that any of these businesses are still open Indeed's unprecedented times. But at the. At the flying fish restaurant in little rock Arkansas, you can visit the Billy Bass adoption center.

And if you've got a Billy big mouth, Billy Bass that you're tired of listening to sing to from your water. Yeah. Yeah. You're over those things. They will adopt your big mouth Billy Bass for you and give you a free basket of fried catfish and exchange and they hang it on the wall. Dozens of these animatronic for the younger listeners out there, big mouth, Billy Bass was a hilarious argument that you could get by for your wall.

It was mostly sold as seen on TV and he'd call in and you'd get this fish. And it had a motion detection. When you walk past, it would come to life and look at you and saying, take me to the river. There is still one at my mother-in-law's house. Our family has one of these going around the white elephant exchange every year.

So we haven't done it in many years, but it was good. It went around, I must have opened that thing two or three times myself and then brought it back the next year. Oh, they're great. It's saying, take me to the river and don't worry. Be happy. It would be awesome. We should dig that out and go down to Arkansas and get a free basket catfish.

Yeah. How much did David burn get paid for every Billy big mouth bass? No, it was Al green. Oh yeah, that's right. It was his son. I'm sure he made a fortune just a fortune. I enjoy, oh, I'm the list here in Idaho. We've talked about the dog bark park in the giant Eagle shaped BNB that you can rent with the didn't.

They have a bathroom was outside and shaped like a fire hydrant. Yeah, because if you visit dogs pee on no, these are two dueling attraction. Oh, now it makes sense. There's dueling attractions in Illinois in Indiana that I thought was great. In Illinois, there's a town called Casey that has 12 of the biggest things in the world.

It's got the, including the world's largest rocking chair, Pitchfork mailbox, and wind chimes.

Right next door in Indiana, you can visit the world's largest ball of paint, which is up to over 26,000 layers of paint. It started off as a baseball, and now it's it looks like it's about five feet in diameter. Almost 60% of those layers are led based, lead based paint. Delicious, deadly.

Yeah, that would put that on put do. Ooh. And man, you can visit wild blueberry land, a park dedicated to blueberries. Oh, blueberries. And I was wondering what it was going to be dedicated to. Yeah. Man, this is Chris Michigan. He skipped again. There's nothing interesting in Michigan. Nothing. Yeah.

Michigan's is laying there for Michigan. They put down Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, which is just like a giant mega mall of nothing by Christmas decorations, which, it's fine, but it's yeah. There's plenty of weird spots there. So what does Virginia have? Is it the largest amount of missing Confederate statues now?

Is that the meth labs? Let's see working my way down. North Carolina.

Sorry, Georgia. I'm from Georgia. I can say that. Yeah. It's okay. I can say that. Georgia and North Carolina that has a house made out of 25,000 coffee mugs. So does my mom,

your mom, and you can visit the last blockbuster in existence in bend Oregon. I do want to go to that. So I watched a documentary about that. It was fascinating. Is it rentals till you can re-instill yeah. Now obviously, but yeah, they still have with and and they have to keep they get nervous every year when they're waiting to find out whether they're licensed to the name is going to get renewed or not watch the, I think it's on Netflix.

It's called the last blockbuster and it's actually a really great like hour long documentary about. Yeah, that sounds interesting. I admit it sounds stupid, but

Yeah, no, I can't wait for the last Shoney's. Ooh, I remember Shoney's a Tennessee and Gatlinburg has a salt and pepper shaker museum with thousands of salt and pepper shakers in there. In Texas, you can visit a pecan pie vending machine that will serve you a complete, it looks like about an eight inch pecan pie.

Or $25 at the push of a button we talked to

$25. None of those things go together in Texas vending machines, $25 for an area that's pretty small. It wasn't a mad lib that your kid left. It does sound like it doesn't know it's located in Cedar Creek, Texas from the Berdahl pecan pie company. We talked about for months has the Ben and Jerry's flavor graveyard, which with all of the Ooh, Pastor flavor's memorialized before.

Right now you can't eat them. It's literally just tombstones with the names of the flavors that never made it.

They need to be dedicated at least five minutes. Okay. Virginia Lexington

is evil. Twin doesn't eat ice cream because it gets in his mustache like a warrior mustache. Jesse, you might be disappointed in Lexington, Virginia. They have listed the coffee pot house. It's a giant coffee, pot and cup that used to be a restaurant. And then it was an art gallery. And now it's vacant, but you can stop and take pictures with it.

Now you're in house. Exactly. Have you seen, have you visited the coffee pot house in Lexington? Lexington is not at all. Totally. It's in Virginia. It's a big state walk into MapQuest and get directions. Wisconsin has the national mustard museum. I think this place will start.

Yeah. West Virginia though. I think this one is really going to excite some of the members of this.

West Virginia in Anstead, you can visit the mystery hole. That was my nickname in high school.

I assume it's similar to the mystery spot in the UPF, Michigan. So the glory hole is in the mystery hole, just above it.

Some people find it difficult. And honestly, if you live your life every hole you come across as a mystery hole until you explore it, stay open. People don't lose the one. Stay cold pony boy.

Oh yeah. They lied. We have to go to Wyoming for the final one where you can visit the two-story outhouse. It says that in the olden days, the second story of the outhouse practical when the bottom toilet would get covered with snow, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense. Now are they CLI is one above the other.

That's a whole lot of people standing outside going I'll wait.

Yeah. Which state has the best tornado NACO truck with the two story out. They go hand in hand. I hate tornadoes. I've never gone. You're going to be talking about for Narcos forever. Now I'm going to feel like a big dumb, like Tori NACCHO reception at the next. Is true.

No, you can, you guys, you can go have a tornado for me when you're all in Disneyland. Go to cars, land and get one of those. One of the cones. Oh yeah.

chili cheese. A cozy cone is close enough to Karnak. Oh yeah. It is a tornado shape. Turn, not turn. Okay. That is it to turn it? Yes, you're right. They made a version. It's the tour not code

Bob JPEGs got dollar signs in his eyes were giving up this Disney thing from now on it's all tornadoes all the time, every week, or not going to Trek gold tore doco, key adventures, venture society, the thrilling story before grown ass

viral food sensation that they're me from this house total about this terrifying rides

flying from a huge Slingshot. No, then you're not going to like these two new attractions that open. Recently at icon park drive two more eyesores. The first one is the Orlando Slingshot. It's 300 feet high, and then it launches you 450 feet into the air in a matter of seconds.

Yes. It launches you like a shot out of a cannon. They say. Claiming that it is an incredible exhilarating experience. No, I'm not seeing those videos on YouTube of children passing out, slipping out of the seat point of view. Like when they put a GoPro or something on there, I love when they're screaming and then they pass completely out and they wake back up.

My favorite, one of that is you have to look up the one of DMX and his daughter mainly because she's very upset, but DMX is really trying to be a good dad, but there's nothing soothing about a man next to you while you're being shot through the sky going daddy's here,

just screams that had her the whole time. And it just makes things worse. It's with that DMX voice barking at her, I saw one where the kid faked to his parents that. Seatbelt wasn't actually wasn't fastened. It was in fact, but they pretended that it wasn't. And then the Slingshot goes and you just see this person absolutely lose their mind.

It was amazing. No thanks. I always like when it's the elderly people and I wonder how many of them are getting on there, hoping they don't get knocked off, hoping that they don't get off. I'm coming to join. This is a suicide might not be illegal, but this is the next pet stops to meet. Again.

I don't want to get shot like a Slingshot. You can do the 430 foot tall Orlando freefall, which is billed as the world's tallest freestanding drop tower. Once that pulls you to the top, you will fall at speeds up to 75 miles per hour, and you break just about 45 feet off the ground. Is this one of the I didn't look as it's like the pendulum one where you're like, hanging on your belly and you just swing or is it like dropping?

It's like a, it's like dropping straight down like that one. Yep. Gotcha. If you're not into that, they say they also have some calm attractions, like a selfie friendly observation wheel. It's the Orlando. I think basically they have an aquarium and a Madame Tussaud's so we should check it out. It's called icon park on I drive, we drive past it all the time.

I like hokey amusement park. Universal. Yeah. I will not be slingshotting. However, is that the one that you can see from Aventura? There's also one that has a really tall tower that they have those swings at the top of, I see that all the time. I would totally do that. No. Wait, do you mean swings?

Like what Jess was talking about?

funny swings at Disneyland, those that are, but maybe not if it's like a thousand feet in the air, I don't know, at a thousand feet in the air, as long as it's just a swing and I'm, seatbelted it. I'm going to put a GoPro on your face and send you up there because I hate them 40 peed off the I'm not down for that.

I just, I don't know. I need to like, maybe see the safety certification when time's times going around in a circle like that makes me feel wonky. Oh, I can't do anything like that. That it just makes me dizzy immediately. Like I didn't ask her orbiter with my son on the last trip. I had to look at my lap the whole time because I get dizzy place

kids. Yeah. Looking at my lap. And that's why you're banned from Disney world. That was my last ride on Astro. I stick around because after the commercial break, we're bundling up and taking a look at winter at the Disney theme, parks,

Florida, and its theme. Parks are a whole new place when winter time rolls around. For those of us living in the frozen north, it can seem almost like paradise compared to Sub-Zero temperatures and mountains of drifting. This week, I wanted to take a look at some of the best weirdest, most wonderful things about the Disney parks and winter.

It could be any old, weird thing you want to talk about from food to attractions, feelings, sights sounds, favorite store, window display, favorite piece of Garland, whatever it is let's dig in and talk about a little bit of everything this week. I guess I'll go first, excuse us into this and my list.

If they can't, we've been talking about, I needed a different phrase, something other than ease into a donut. Okay. Maybe just punch right in there. Yeah, I'll just, I'm going to start off. I just wanted to talk for a minute about the only thing on my list that is actually still exists that you can still actually see.

And I really liked. Yeah, I guess all of this, all the parks, I don't know, maybe not animal kingdom has like a, as a Christmas shop of some sort, but my favorite is it's a wonderful shop in a Hollywood studios, like how it's tucked away in the corner there. And it's permanently decorated outside. Like I liked the streets of New York.

I liked that fate aside. Yes. She's from New York streets of America. I think it's a loss that they lost those sets. But this one is tucked back beyond the Muppets store right next to pizza red. So I'm surprised that you don't recognize it since you probably spent a lot of time at pizza restaurant out there.

That's my favorite part that I don't even know where we're talking about. Okay. It's it's literally right next to it's a pizza Rizzo and a mama. I'm a Melrose. It's literally right back there in the corner and it's decorated for Christmas and it's got this drifted snow up against the front and there's little snowman built permanently there next to this light post that has a sad little garden.

It's a sad little reef. The bow is hanging on it, but it's just that old timey, old fashioned Christmas decorations. And I enjoy seeing it. And we complain about that place as they did. It's tiny. It's basically like you can walk in one door and walk out the other one. And if there's a lot of people wanting to go in, it is, it's hard to shop in there, but they crammed full of really tiny too.

I haven't been in the Muppets shop in 10 years. Probably it doesn't have any Muppet stuff anymore. The shop that's like right across the street from it that used to have the payment, but stuff still degraded from up. It's like it still has all the sort of fake. Studio doors above it. Like the Muppet show used to have, but they literally sell maybe two Muppets shirts now.

And then the rest is generic. The same steps that's in every store, but it's, I love that little story yet because it's so hidden. Like you really have to go looking for it. Cause if you're leaving muffins, you pass by it. But if you're in a big crowd, you're not paying attention. So unless you what's in the store, what is it?

Christmas? It's a Christmas shop. It's got Christmas ornaments. It's got whatever the yearly Christmas Merck is, stockings and stuff. It's called. It's called. It's a wonderful store. The name is painted in the font from the title cards. If it's a wonderful life, it's just a shame to say I was walk straight, like baseline on the right and go straight into star wars town.

And I never turned left anywhere. Like since, since they took the walls down and he did all that, I haven't set foot in that whole area. Yeah, take a look over there. And next week it's a cute little shop. It's also a nice little quiet place to go. Sometimes if you need a break from the crowds. Yes. Yeah.

That whole quarter. Yeah. Yeah. Especially because come up, it doesn't get the love it deserves. But that upcoming episode, I think it gives exactly the amount of love. It deserves your name. Erin, did she trade

That's unfortunate. Who wants to go next? My, one of my favorite things at Disney world during the winter is my favorite Epcot festival, which is festival of the arts. I love that festival. Or it did start yet. I don't know. I can't pay attention to that no, next week. So I don't think I'm going to be able to go this year, which makes me really sad because there's so many artists that I want to see that are going to be there this year.

But it's the shortest festival they have. But I think it's one of the best because if you're into Disney artists and that kind of stuff, it's, you can get amazing prints and you don't have to spend a ton of money. If you don't have the money for like a real print, you can get everything from a postcard.

I've got a million postcard versions of prints that I love that couldn't afford. And you can meet artists and get autographs. There's art seminars. Usually you can learn how to draw characters. Have you ever done any of the seminar. I have not done some foods cooking or art or any of those? No I did I did a few back in the nineties when they first started offering them at things and yeah, but it's not, I want to, but I never see seem to find the, want to build it into my time in the parks.

I don't know. It's usually a big chunk of your day just to get it. It feels like that's more of a, that's a local activity maybe, but that'd be nice to be able to enjoy what we talked about a couple of weeks ago to be able to enjoy the parks that way. Yeah. Say, oh, I'm shutting, I'm popping in for my art class with that lady who was the weird big guy dolls.

Ah, yeah, the one I made fun of right in front of her, the first rule of the arts was my number. One thing that I liked for winter two. I just it's, they're all the same, but I like that one just cause I don't care so much to watch people cook. All right, whatever, but I love all of the Disney art and I love talking to the people and seeing how they do this tough and watching the, I have seen, like they get the one guy that's he's usually over in a future world area.

I don't know where if he'll be there this year, but doing the splatter paint thing where you can't tell him what he's doing till he's done, when he turns it up and it's like Freddie mercury or Mickey mouse or something like that guy's awesome. He does it to music. And I love that, that guy opened for kiss on their farewell tour.

When it came to have an opening band, they had that guy that's fantastic. Nice. And he did a huge he does his swiping and splattering and all that, and it turned out it was like a kiss portrait, of course. And then they gave it away. Oh, that's cool. I heard a guy that did that, like the chalk artists.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, those are cool. I love this. I will say this. They need to freshen up there. They've got those fun photo ops where you get inside classical paintings. I love the same ones now for eight years. Come on. Good things that, that first of all, does not get the love. Like this. The snacks are basically all the same for the past few years now.

There's that pain and that kind of stuff in the pop tart. And so I, I w I wish they would shoot up a little bit, but yeah, but at least they are like creative and interesting. A lot of the food boosts that they do. Cause international food and wine is a lot of the same stuff year after year or the same food and wine as it was.

Whatever the other six are flower and garden or whatever. But yeah, it could use a refresh in areas like that, but, and I wish that it would last longer. Just keep it going until the beginning of flower and garden. And then it's just, they're really good at overnight changeovers. So just wheel out your slap, some new signage will be Aries and now they're leaving.

Those booths are fairly permanent. Now they used to be like little rollaway cards. Now they're sturdy, permanent looking things.

That's the top of my list was trying all the weird winter themed cocktails that pop up all over the place. And sometimes it's really bad. The worst one I had, I think we've talked about before was a martini that I tried. Jacqueline's PS at hanger bar. And it was so pretty. And it was so sad that it tasted gross was a bad idea.

What did we decide? Was it was gin and rum shot run shotgun from China. From China. Yeah. And then it had it was green with some kind of mint foam it was Christmas. Yeah. It was supposed to look like it had a green sugar rim and it was white, but like white and red at the same time, like it was layered.

I was going to say wasn't there some sort of Berry element that was really

bury and to have two just opposing flavors and my fears, the worst things that can be mixed toothpaste and cider. And I don't know, it's just wrong. We took a beautiful picture of it, but a few that I tried. This year at, on my Christmas trip trader Sam's grog grotto had a tropical snow storm and it was really tasty.

It was bourbon and coconut rum and cream of coconut. And at first I thought, I don't know if this is going to mix well, but it did. It was really good. It also had some cinnamon and I don't know. Did you just say

I tried

and I'm like, what? No. Christmas trip, Christmas break. And then it had a coconut on the rim and a candy cane and it was real tasty. I've had some good whiskey seasonal winter things. They'll do whiskey insiders and things like that. Those always are good. So Bellinos had a good one and can't remember what they called it.

It was not on their regular menu. It was a little piece of paper. They brought out. There was some bourbon, hot chocolate in Hollywood studios at Dockside diner. Yummy. It was really good, just black cherry bourbon and in a hot chocolate, so yummy.

And then Morimoto Asia is there was called the winter Wonderland and it was a vodka Godiva liqour and peppermint schnapps with tasty chocolate and minty together is my jam. Me too. I will go for mint chocolate, every single dime. Yep. Love it so much. But yeah, I love that. They all try, there's all kinds that are.

Instagram worthy, but it's nice when they're pretty and they taste good. Yes. Jess, you hate mint. You like, do you use bubblegum flavor too toothpaste or so? No. No. I like mint as a mouth freshening agent. So I only like in toothpaste and gum. But I do not like it as a food. It makes me want to gag as a food and mixing it with chocolate, which is my favorite thing of all time is an abomination little chocolate.

I admit the only way my wife and son know now to keep cookies for themselves in the house as they get like the notes or something like that, they'll get they'll specifically get like chocolate mint, chocolate chip ice cream so that I won't eat it. Oh chocolate ice cream. My son. Eat the whole thing at the place they used to be in Epcot where it then became a Starbucks and then became a bulldozer zone.

They had a homemade ice cream sandwich. There was peppermint mint, man, a bit peppermint. And that thing was good. It was so delicious made the cookies and they put the whole thing together. They also had a gingerbread one there, there was like two gingerbread cookies with eggnog ice cream and the men all

rest in peace for my winter Wonderland thing. I didn't go Christmas cause we're recording this past Christmas, but just not sweating while it Disney world is my favorite thing about being so great. It's not hot at AAF, so yeah. Yeah. Even if you're wearing shorts and t-shirt, you're just pleasant and you realize, Hey, I'm not a sweaty mess.

And I don't have diaper rash after a day in the park. It's pretty great. I like that. Yeah. Change clothes multiple times in the day. Just cause I'm sweating or something. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a sweater. Yeah. That's the only time of year. You don't have to bring this spare pair of underpants. Doesn't even have to carry a bag.

You don't have to wear underwear at all. I'm like Tom petty in the parks, free balling or dead, whatever. But you're going to say you were an American girl.

We're getting into the portion of my list that contains the crappy winter things that are past attractions. Do y'all remember back in the golden days of. Brian about 2014 when frozen was freshly introduced to the world and Hollywood studios didn't have any attractions worth mentioning in the park.

And so they decided that what the world needed was Ocwens frozen. Funland at Disney's Hollywood studios park went in there. Yeah. I never got to experience that. Sadly you can visit Ocwens trading post, which was just chock-full of frozen paraphernalia for your garbage, precious little princesses.

But then the highlight was, this was in one of those soundstage buildings that they have which we'll revisit for one of my other items coming up. And they had a skating rink where you could for $10 rent, skates, and socks, and a helmet and sign a waiver and spend half an hour skating in the middle of Florida.

Do you have to have special socks? I think they just wanted you to have socks because it's common for people to say, oh yeah, I like that you could rent the socks, make your return them at the end of the session or those just souvenirs. I don't know. The one detail that I did not remember about this was that you were allowed to bring your own skating equipment to use at the rink, which means that theoretically, there were guests wandering around Hollywood studios all day, carrying a pair of roller of ice skates with them. Weird and umbrella every damn time.

Like

I said, they have a blade sharpening machine for a quarter outside. Yeah. He's going to, Amelia was running it Emilia, and Joshua Jackson were out there sharpening your skate place for you, the literal actors, because that's what they do for work now. Yes. What is that? Was it Julia Stiles? Is there Julia Stiles?

Was that where the lightening McQueen's happy, fun time show is now. Okay. I think it was soundstage one. They called it. I think that's more over. I think that's behind might be, but I think it's behind there. I think it's more where Dave had they had one of the things I was going to bring.

We'll just go into my next item. They have had multiple movie things, like the star wars. I saw a narcissist star wars

and it's where they sometimes would have the shop for star wars. Weekends. Yeah. That's still back there. Yeah. It would become like an extended attraction. That was just a preview for whatever movie they had coming out. There was no weird cause we got like tour basically to see like costumes on racks and things.

And then all of a sudden, right at the end they had an actor dressed up. Like they were from Narnia, come out on this balcony and start like spouting lines from the movie to us. And I was just like, Is this part of this

Here's what it was. You would go through the wardrobe where you would see like a handful of fake pine trees with fake snow sprayed on them. And there was the light post for, okay. And you would stand there and watch this crappy shortened 10 minutes what do you call it when you do a shortened version of something?

Summary of the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. And this just giant movie screen that just looked like it was in somebody's basement. And then at the end and character dressed as the white, which would come out and she would recite a few lines from the movie. Maybe they funnel you off and on the way out, you could see a couple of costumes.

From the movie. And that was my next thing one time. And it cracked me up because you'd walk by, there'd be a line of people to go in there and you're like, oh, you're about to just be so disappointed. I remember I was like this will be something new and different than I've done in a Disney park.

And it was like, oh, this shitty one of, one of the pirates movies had this pirate movies, but that one was good. And they had like actors acting stuff out and they had cannons firing and stuff. And it was, it sounded, I've never seen it, but from videos and what I've read about it, that one was good. And then everybody was really disappointed when this crappy, we just never did it.

It was just past the mess, much of the Walt Disney history animation thing, just past there on the way to what's toy story now. Yeah. Turning into the toy story restaurant that is a bunch of sound stages back there. Yeah, that used to be working stages and who knows what they're going to do with them.

So am I allowed to pick something that's Disneyland and not Walt Disney world? So near and dear to my heart, it's a, it is haunted mansion holiday. Yes, because it's I am a haunted mansion, super fan, but I'm not a purist because I actually was very skeptical. The first time I ever got to experience the Disneyland haunted mansion was during Christmas.

And I was sad that I wasn't going to get to see the normal version. And I was, I like nightmare before Christmas and I love Christmas as a holiday, but I just didn't think it was going to be that good. And I it's so seamlessly done. It's so well done. It's like every inch has something added to it, but it doesn't feel like they just slapped things on top.

It feels like they've figured out a way to make it fit in every scene. So it's so well done and it feels permanent. It doesn't feel next on my list was the the small world holiday. I relayed Disneyland, but that one feels like an overlay. This one feels so permanent here. Sadly, all of the Walt Disney world overlays that I've experienced for the holidays for Halloween and for Christmas, they are literal slap ons.

It's like pirates of the Caribbean. They just put an actor on the bridge to yell at you. It's I have been very disappointed with that because I experienced Disneyland overlays before I had an experience Walt Disney world. And I get that they have their own sort of ethos with that where they can't.

Change too much in a ride because somebody who gets to come for once in a lifetime wants to experience that ride as it should be. And in Disneyland, they've got people that come so much that they can just mix it up just to keep them interested. But let's do something a little bit more, just a little bit.

I don't know that shingle cruise is pretty amazing in Disney world. Literally putting an eye over the year, putting some Santa hats on the monkeys. One of mine, one of the things on my list is I don't think it came back this year because California grill is right now doing their prefix 50th anniversary thing.

But every winter. There was a new pizza that they put on the menu only for the winter time. And it was a potato pizza. Many of you ever had this? It sounds okay. So it's it's a white garlic based sauce instead of a red sauce. And it has the cooked potatoes that have been like fried in duck fat on top of that.

And then for Shuto and then they, after they bake it and it comes out, they top it with homemade kettle chips. It is

delicious. And it was only available in from like November to mid January every year. I don't think it came back this year and it made me so sad. Yeah, haven't eaten there. And this winter, but cause I don't want to be disappointed that pizza just screams winter at Walt Disney world and California grill pizza is really good.

Very good. Is it a flatbread pizza as a flat bread pizza Paris though, if it does not contain tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, as it is a flat bread,

you can call it around flatbread if you want. But I called it delicious. I'll eat the shit out of it. I don't think there's any in it.

Even if it's a thin crust, there's something different between about a thin crust versus a flatbread pizza flatbread. Just make it not round.

This isn't the flat bird hours. That's my other podcast. Gold flatbread, adventurous to say, just stick to as much money in that show. No, but there's a whole lot of dough.

dammit.

Dang it. I didn't get my camera up. And back here he is

you back Jeff, say something to me

for a second. No, I was hearing anybody who's got something else. I have to say that along with the weather comes low crowds. So fully looked at my list.

I snuck into your house, but yeah, that's, there's, that's always good. That's a given low crowds, shorter lines. Easier to get reservations in theory once you're past Christmas. Yes. Yeah. And a pandemic know. Yeah. So historically that is for sure. True. My first trip that I took with my family, when my son was five, was in a.

Like first or maybe second week of February. And it was very dead back then. It's still lighter than normal. But back in the old days, man, February, it was like dead zone two. It was great. And so I fell in love with that. We kept going every year, January or February. And the thing I like about being there in the winter time, besides just the weather and all that, and the lowest crowds, the humidity isn't there, that's their dry season apparently runs.

I looked it up it's from November to may. So you don't get that every damn day rain kind of thing. And just the, and the rates even to this day are still a little bit cheaper in that because it's live your attendance. There is no low time anymore or uncrowded time, but the cost and the weather and the crowds and all that makes January and February are just great times to go.

Absolutely. And Christmas is definitely not a low time, but it's yeah, it is worth it. And I love all of the decorations at EV every single inch of the place is decorated, but my absolute favorite is Christmas at the wilderness lodge. There's just something about the Christmas decorations there that just get me.

I really love it. And sitting out Christmas, cause it feels like a log cabin and there should be snow outside. They have all their Vietnam, not just one. They have all the fireplaces going at this time of year and we saw we were there Christmas week. There's a up on the fourth floor is one of the main fireplaces.

That's easy to see. It's a smaller one and it set up, it looks like someone's living room. And the guests really took to the fact that it looked like someone's living room. We thought so many times that people had lugged all of their Christmas presents and just spread out there in front of that fireplace to open their presents.

So cute. And it was so cute. And then, they'd cleaned it up. And I thought so many one day, right? We were, yes. And I saw so many people sitting there in their PJ's drinking hot chocolate, and then you'd come back another time. And it was a different family and it was really cool and sitting out at Geyser point when it's nice out like this, every evening we would go out there and just.

I have some huckleberry punch that's right. It was so great. And actually got a little cold out there because they'd have the fans going and you got the breeze off the water and it got a little chili got down to 78. Yeah. And we go sit in the hot tub afterwards. Cause it was actually cool enough to sit.

You're sitting there all cozy, enjoying your hot chocolate outside on the waterfront and how peaceful and Christmasy it is. And then,

oh yeah. Thank you as a great place to see that out there at Geyser point. The best thing in the world is if you're in those copper Creek cabins and you're on the side, that the thing goes by, is it's 30 feet from where you're sitting in your own personal hot tub, wilderness sludge. It's my own personal house.

Awesome. I need to work on an upgrade for February. Put me into one of them special electrical water pageant is my absolute favorite one for Christmas decorations resort wise. Yeah. Can I just get that glitch? Cause all three of y'all froze, but I still see myself saying, there's this lodge is my favorite resort decorations.

My favorite part of destination, this place is a Hollywood studio. Please say Hollywood studios. Yes, those are fantastic. And they especially right around. Oh yeah. They have inspired me to want a funky mid-century colored Christmas tree, which I would love a silver Christmas tree with teal ornaments all over.

And the fact that they've put a Santa hat on Gerdy the dinosaurs and she's got an ornament hanging ornament or. It feels magical over there. And the mid-century vibe is by grandparents. I was born in 70, so visiting them at Christmas time, it was in the seventies, but they hadn't bought a new decoration since 1951.

So everything in their house was mid century. They had that cardboard fireplace thing that you'd put up the head, the little,

some kind of textured thing that was on a wheel. It was like Uber and it had a light and it was just a fake fire, but everything they had the rotating light on their silver tree. So it was just fully reminds me of all of that techie. Did they have the, my grandparents had the ornament lights that were like glass and had liquid in them and they would lay the bubblers, bubbles, all those on his tree.

They started remaking those again. He still has my grandparents original old. What's really cool about the Hollywood studios. Decorations is like, when you first go in the decorations are more sort of forties based, like when you're walking down the street and when you get to the echo lake area, it turns to fifties early sixties.

So it's cool. It's subtle, but if you're paying attention and it changes yeah. Over by brown Derby is like right in between forties and mid century stuff.

children like glass blown June.

Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't think of that precious moments. Yeah. Or even worse. But otherwise I hated at Christmas

walking into the grand Floridian, which is my least favorite resort, but walking in and smelling the gingerbread really says holiday. That I'm so happy. They have the gingerbread house back up. It's an actually this year I got to watch them putting it up from, they had the skin of it there, just the plain white whatever structure.

And we got to watch them slap in the army of bakers, descend on it, and they all have their tuques in there. They're in their coats and they're dumb clogs. They're just climbing all over it. Slapping the shingles on with icing, I assume is what they're putting it on there with mastic. And this year's was a little bit 50th themed.

It had some, it had iridescent flowers and it had the 50 and shimmer on the roof like that. Very cute. But I just love the smell. It's the whole resort smells like Christmas. When you walk in there, is it in and chanted rose and have a drink and smell the gingerbread? That's great. Sounds pretty good.

Last on my list. Favorite thing about Disney world in particular at winter time is that I'm happy to be in the warmth because it's cold at home. And I like being there where it's warm, not warm enough that I'm sweating, but warm enough that I'm not wearing a coat or whatever. And

it would definitely be nice to live in that for just a little, just for a little while about living in it, but it's nice to visit well, yeah, visit there, live in that world for a short time and then go back to Sub-Zero temperatures. Yeah, I couldn't either though. Now I can't do that. I can barely live where I live these days.

It's harder. Every year as I got more elderly skins paper thin these days, things cost more now

respect. I'm tired of the woke mob. I cannot keep my lawn mower

can be used to get my name wrong. I'm up in my membership card. I actually have a membership card for that gift card for AA RP, no matter what age, there's no age restriction. So well, I got it at pity. There you go. That explains that trend. All the kids are into.

The last thing I had on my list was doing some of the hokey stuff that we don't normally go in for the scavenger hunts and things like that. But for some reason, when I'm on my Christmas trip with my kids, I have two teenagers and they both love doing all the weird things like the cookie stroll at Epcot go along and do eat taste every single cookie.

And you get this year's prize was prize for your reward for buying five cookies this year, it was a sixth cookie, but also this delicious milkshake. Yeah, it was a peppermint Sunday in a cute little reusable plastic commemorative cookie stroll. Cut. And an ornament. It was great. Did you go home with that?

I did. I did. I have no idea. We just got a cookie and a little plastic jug of milk. They literally were like, look, we gave you milk for this cookie. It's great. Cause the cookies, most of the cookies are good. Usually don't have that flowerless chocolate cookie. That thing is yep. And then we did the a hunt for Olaf scavenger hunt and my kids were insistent on finishing every single one of those, even though they let me pick the prize when I bought the little scavenger hunt thing and I stuck it in the bag and they were like no.

We don't want to see it until we have found every single Olaf. I love that they're into that. Yeah, he would just be like,

My 15 year old looked forever, he found every single off and wouldn't look at the prize until it was funny. Cause he was calling you see, he kept saying, I hope it's a wooden nickel. So we, he was calling the prize, the wooden nickel. And just as I'm about to pull it out of the, when we finish, I'm about to pull it out of the bag and show them what it is.

He says it just hope it's not some stupid plate. And guess what? It was stupid plate with the frozen characters on the front, but they left, but he loves it and he calls the plate, the wooden nickel. So he'll like, be like, I gotta go get my wooden nickel to put some snacks on him. Cause he, no, it's so funny.

But we like to, it's, we're not really caring about doing any rides or anything. We're just doing all that sort of hokey stuff. It's a lot of fun. And that really says a winter, gimme shoving. Dick is when it's high. You just want to trudge to the next air conditioned. And who cares about eating five cookies or I always care about eating five cookies.

It's true. There are wonderful dessert. They really should have. So at food, I think it was food and wine. The thing they had that you had to collect was like a, it was a cheese stroll, wasn't that bad food and wine. And it just, it was so hot at that time of year. I love cheese in September in central Florida.

Last thing I want to do is prejudice. Five boosts to eat some kind of cheese dish.

Like a different ice creams or July. Oh, the gelato stroll. I would sign up for that on the cheese hunt. No, it was awesome. Weird or runny wet cheese thing. Yeah. I'll talk to you and Erin, there was some kind of pork rinds with pimento cheese, which should be delicious, but it was watery. It was so gross.

Gross packet. What would you call the gelato stroll lotto,

correct. Versus split second brain dead. The tar NACO stroke. Yes, I will do that.

I don't know, I got nothing. There's one thing we've learned this week is that I'm bad at naming things.

That's pretty sad. Since you have four kids

by now, after practice, at least you'd be good at it. Yeah. I wasn't fully responsible. That was not things. I had a responsible adult to make sure I didn't screw it. I told one of the names. She didn't pull a George Foreman. This is Dan. This is Dan. This is Dan Edital. Dan. This is Michael Jackson. Yeah, and prince Michael Jackson too.

And that poor kid is now calling Dan Leonard. That's what you should name the next kid.

Boy, my name, when I go on a Disney cruise next time

scheduled, we're we haven't booked it yet, but they it's looking like we're going to do the maritime cruise on the wish next year, hopefully wanting to do a Christmassy cruise. And that being on the new ship is very enticing. So it sounds dope.

Waves.

Yeah,

I got stuff to do, boy. Thanks for hanging out with us again this week. If you're excited to sample some, I forgot to rewrite this part again. I always you forget to,

yeah, I still have hot dogs stuff on there. I always forget to change it. If you're excited to, you're excited to check out some of the best that winter has to offer around the Disney parks or explore anywhere else around the world. Key to the world, travel as a. Tiny little lots of people,

their old travel as a Christmas tree trail, full of hundreds of expert travel planners, ready to make your vacation dreams a reality to the world. Travel has a skating rink in the middle of central Florida, full of hundreds of expert channel players. Ready to make your vacation dreams reality, head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com to get started with a no obligation quote.

Don't forget to catch up with our friend, the theme 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 trotting jackass, or you tell them what makes our show so great, And send them our way. You can find links to subscribe to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest updates at www.goldkeyadventures.com. We can't wait to hang out with you again next week. We'll see you real soon. Thanks for having, the best thing about this winter is that in a few weeks, I will be able to in-person tell flows once more, how much it sucks.