TRON Lightcycle Run and Disney World Trip Report

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[1:07] Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.
My name is Dan Leonard. Hi Dan.
And joining me this week in the studio is Heather Schight.
Hey y'all. And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me.
It sure is. 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 and to know obligation quote on the vacation of a lifetime. I will.
Good, you do that. You need some help. That's true. On so many things.
In more ways than just the one.
Sorry, Jeff. Hey, guys. Hey guys!
Feels like I haven't talked to you in so long. Yeah, it has been a while, a minute or two.
Actually, it has. And since we last spoke, Dan Leonard has gone to Walt Disney World.
That's true.

[2:07] I did. As did Heather. Yes. For some reason, Jeff wasn't there, though.
I wasn't invited. Lame. Yes, you were.
It's a standing invite, Jeff. Oh.
It's a public place. You're always welcome. So you get trespassed.
Yeah, so we recently spent an absolutely epic weekend at Walt Disney World where we got uploaded to the grid for a spin on Tron Light Cycle Run.
We saw the return of a beloved nighttime spectacular, Happily Ever After.
And we experienced some of the more of the thrills that Disney has in store for this spring and summer.
So we're going to spend a little time talking about our trip with a patented Gold Key Adventure Society trip report. Done. Hooray!
So, top of the list, most exciting topic that I can think of is Tron Light Cycle Run.
Who here has been on Tron Light Cycle Run? Show of hands.
Me! Me! Me! My hand is not up for anybody without video.
Aww. Which will be everybody. Someday, Jeff. I know.
You'll see why it's one of the most amazing rides in Walt Disney World.
I get to go on it next month.
Yeah. We can talk about it all over again. Hopefully I can fit on it.
You shouldn't have any problems. I think you won't have a problem.
I think that all of the hullabaloo that happened at the beginning was just people not really knowing how these restraints work because it's so different from any other ride.

[3:30] And it's just your calves. So unless you have some really beefy slabs of veal down there on your pins, then you should be good.
That's the one part of me that's thin. That or also very long legs.
So if the length from your knee to your foot is too long, then you're not gonna fit.
And that's gonna be a really small percentage of people, I think.
That's a really specific scenario.
It is a very specific scenario. And frankly, I know some folks who may have trouble, fitting on the light cycle. Yeah, I can think of one right now.
My old friend, Johnny Longshins is gonna have an issue. Yeah. Yeah.

[4:10] But that's, yeah, might as well talk about it right up front because there was a lot of press when they started cast testing. Lots and lots of people saying, oh, nobody fits if you're over a size 14.
That's really silly stuff that.
They've been saying that for like every ride though. They said that for Mario Kart as well.
And there's no problems there either.
So it's- You just jumped on the bike.

[4:36] And didn't, you know, really position yourself the way that you need to.
I guess I could see where you might, I don't know, freak out and step off thinking that you're not fitting. And also they had to get the cast trained.
The cast had to be trained to help you. That was it for me on the Pandora ride too, is I have to sit in a particular way. Not only my feet up, but my crotch, for lack of a better word, all the way up to the front so that I can sit more upright as the back thing.
There's all these things, but I can do it. And so the restraint, basically the only restraint that's holding you on to the light cycle is this little bar that comes up and sits kind of in the crook of your knee on the back of your calf. Doesn't that seem like an odd pinch point?
How do we restrain people? What about just behind their calf?
Just behind their leg. And there is a piece that comes down over your back, but it's mostly for show, really.
It locks a little. I see people leaning way back. Yeah, you can sit up on the bike and- It doesn't look tight.
There's a section of it that locks that's like right over the small of your back, but.

[5:43] Then most of that arm is hinged and it's just kind of- And because of that, it can lock further back for someone who has bigger belly, say.
So that's not the piece- Or a thick back.
Yeah, and that's kind of the piece that a lot of folks I know that have been worried about it were concerned that back piece, which is an issue on flight of passage, that it wasn't going to lock.
And I genuinely don't think that's going to be the problem. It's if you can get your legs, correctly positioned so that bar can slide up and lock, then you're fine.
I have long but not extra long legs and they're pretty thin. So I'm hopeful.
Put it this way, for all the concern that people have about fitting on their...
I didn't see, I stood and watched the trains go by for a good amount of time.
I didn't see anybody sitting in the special train, special car on the back of the trains.

[6:40] Some of the trains have a special car on the back, the very back row, which is just a traditional roller coaster seat for people who can't fit on the bike.
It's also a mobility issue, handicapped accessible. Right, exactly.
Because you do have to be able to walk up and get on it the way you would get on a bicycle or a motorcycle.
And what is that seat? Can you tell? Is it just a lap bar, bench seat type thing?
Yeah, I took some photos of it. It looks a lot like, say, Space Mountain out at Disneyland.
Just a seat with a lap bar.
And they have it still. It looks kind of like it's a light cycle.
It still has the wheels that light up.
But you are just sitting in it. It's pretty ableist.
A lap. Yeah. And it's a definitely a different feeling to this ride. You it feels like you're riding a crotch rocket motorcycle. That's definitely the position that you're in.
Though you can sit up. I sat up and rode it with my arms up a few times. It's fun too. I don't buy it. I'm sorry it didn't happen. I've got photos. But it feels very secure sitting on that bike style. It feels very secure but it is really exciting being in that low position. It really gave me the motorcycle feels when I rode it. I loved it so much. That launch and you go straight up into the hill.
A launch. Let's talk about the launch.

[8:10] Yeah, it's one of those linear induction launch things. So you pull up and you stop and they count you down and all of a sudden it's just whammo straight up this hill.
It's so good. And is it Daft Punk music blasting the whole time? It is Daft Punk music throughout the whole experience from when you're walking in which, there's not a lot of pre-show or backstory. If you have no idea what Tron is, you'll still have no idea when you come out. I've seen both movies multiple times. I still don't know.
Yeah, and it's not necessary. You don't need to know the story. No. But there's no, there's really no, There's a cool little tiny pre-show where they're digitizing you into the world of Tron, but if you don't really know what that means, you're still not going to know what it means.
But everything looks super cool.

[9:02] And this ride also uses the double-sided locker. And I guess the first Disney ride that has required lockers?
Yes. At least in the States. Yes, at least in the United States.
This is the first one that has the lockers and it's the double-sided locker system just like on VelociCoast.
Which is really cool and really easy to use.
Yes, as long as you remember your locker number and you don't get disoriented because they're in the opposite order when you exit because it's the back side of the lock.
But they do have a touch point if you forget your locker number.
Oh, that's smart. You'll have to scan your MagicBand or your ticket, which is what you used to open the locker and it'll remind you which one you were at.
Is there are cast members all over in there if you forget how to use it or can't figure it out.

[9:51] It's just a locker. It's easy. Yeah. And I was a little bit surprised by where the locker was in the boarding order because at like, for example, at Universal, you do the locker stuff first. On a lot of their rides, you go put your stuff in and then you get in line. And this is completely integrated into the ride. So you get in line and you're either in the lightning lane or right now the virtual queue lane and you actually go through the little pre-show first before you ever get to the lockers.
Which I think is smart. I think they know that they're going to get a whole lot of publicity from people sharing photos and videos, Yeah from the queue if they actually hold on to your camera a little bit longer And also you can you can take your phone on the ride with you if you choose They're what they're telling you as you get to the lockers as you can't have anything larger than a cell phone, because, Yeah, there's no seat or anywhere like any fridge. Yeah Yeah, there's no like on a traditional roller coaster, you can put a backpack by your feet or something.
You can't do that on this. There's a little compartment on the front of the bike.
And honestly, I could have fit my cell phone and my sunglasses both in that.
It's bigger than they say that it is. Do they tell you to take sunglasses off?
All they say is anything that's bigger than a cell phone, you need to take off and put in a locker.

[11:12] Yeah. And that compartment is a little bit hidden. We didn't even realize it was there until the ride was over and I was just fidgeting around while I was waiting to unload.
It's right in front of the handlebars and there's a little lid, spring loaded lid that opens up and there's just a little compartment that you can drop loose items into.
Yeah, the first time I rode it I was... Like something in the console of a car type of facility.
Right. The first time I rode I was a little nervous and just put everything in the locker so I, didn't have my phone with me.
And then once we found that compartment, several of the people in our group brought their phone and one, I rode one time with a guy next to me who had his phone out recording the whole time and I was a little afraid he was going to drop it and I was going to get hit in the face with it.
But it didn't happen. That would be scary, but I think I could hang on to it. You probably could.
They tell you to put it away when they come and they're checking your, to make sure you're locked in. They will tell you to put it away, but then you pull out of the station and he just grabbed it right back out. Yeah, right. I probably shouldn't be endorsing that. I've seen enough on-ride video to know everyone's doing that.
I wouldn't really endorse it because if you do drop it, it's gonna fly and hit somebody.

[12:23] That would not be good. Yeah, and please don't do that because then they'll put in metal detectors like in the universe. So it'll be really annoying. Yeah, and then you will not be able to have your phone in the queue, which if you were in a long queue, no one likes to be standing there having to talk to the people that they're with.

[12:39] What if you were to fling a partially-drinked bottle of water onto the track?
That would probably stop the ride as well. Probably.
So let's talk the ride experience real quick though. So we talked about you pull up, you get on this bike, and I thought it was really cool the way you engage the restraints yourself.
You pull the bike handlebars towards you, and that's how you lock in the leg and back restraints to hold you on.
Oh. It's just kind of a neat mechanism. That saves on workers having to do that for each person.
And then they just come around and ask you to push on the handlebars.
Because the light's not red or whatever. Yeah, pulls you up to the launch zone and launches you up that hill.
We've seen videos of this, right? You go and obviously it's way cooler at night when that canopy's lit up outside.
But it was still amazing at daytime. You go up and you zoom a little bit around outside of a big kind of banked turn up a hill and then you go into the show building where you're kind of immersed in the light cycle battle grid kind of game where there's screens, projections of the opposing team of light cycle riders zooming around you.

[13:54] And you know, it's a similar dark inside roller coaster experience to rock and roller coaster.
But you have not seen Tron. The idea is that you've been digitized and you are inside computer network, I guess is the best way to put it.

[14:08] The video game or the arcade game. Yes.
Grid and the light cycle battle is pretty spectacular segments of both the first and the second movie. It looks really cool. You're basically on a digital motorcycle flying around.
The idea of this ride is supposed to be that you've been sent to games and you are your team, the blue team, which is all of the user riders, are battling against the, yeah, that is orange, it looks orange to me. I don't know if it's supposed to be orange or red.
Yeah, the orange team. Orange team, those are the fully digital.
Computer riders. From what I understand, the one in Shanghai has a lot more explanation.

[14:56] Of what it is that you're doing, that you're battling against. You're riding against these famous light cycle circuit riders. If you end up in the queue, the virtual queue side, you'll get a little bit more of that explanation as you're walking after you've done the little tiny pre-show and you're waiting to board, there's a little bit more in there than if you're on the lightning lane slide, you really bypass all of that. We a couple of times were on the regular virtual queue side at the press event that I went to. And so I got to see a little bit more of that.

[15:36] Than when the, when I've gone through on the lightning lane side, you walk through so fast.
I mean, it, it loads pretty quickly. And we went and rode on opening day.
They're doing a very good job of keeping the virtual cube fairly short.
They're not allowing a lot of people in yet to get overwhelmed.
And that may just be because it's opening.
It had just opened and they were trying to keep it manageable.
We went and tried to ride after dark on opening day and got evacuated when a fire alarm went off.
So that was fun. I got to experience what it's like to be evacuated because of a fire alarm.
They had to take everyone had to get out of the building and then they had to evacuate everyone from anywhere around it and they Ended up evacuating Space Mountain because it's so close.

[16:26] It was not it was just Something got tripped, we saw the fire trucks pull up and they were there for, Ten minutes maybe and then they left.

[16:38] It's always fun seeing emergency vehicles inside in the Magic Kingdom.
You are the magic.
They actually, they pulled it up.

[16:47] Back around behind it. We had exited and were driving back and we saw it pull up and, so we kind of hung there at the Bay Lake Tower. Yeah, it took that long for them. We had to walk, we walked from the all the way in the back at Tron to- Out the gate?
Out the gate. And I don't know if that was the first emergency vehicle that pulled up, who knew, who knows what happened while we were walking out the gate, but.

[17:15] But they had to, like, they had the cast members formed kind of a human chain to force everyone down the Tron ramp and out because everybody who had just been pulled out of the line wanted to stay there and jump back in as soon as it opened.
And they had to clear the entire area.
Which makes sense if there's a fire to get out. If there's an actual fire, yeah.
But luckily it was not a fire. Anyhow.
Anyhow, when I was there, that was still the weekend before it opened.
So they were in soft opening, Jeff's favorite kind of opening.
So unfortunately the merch shop wasn't open, which I was bummed.
I was really hoping to be able to get some Tron gear to ride, to wear, to ride one time on the roller coaster.
But I did get to check out the food situation that they've got going on there.
Got one quick serve spot that's got, let's see, it's got like two savory options, two dessert type options, and a fancy drink.
I completely missed this. Where is this?
Is it at the lunching pad?

[18:20] No, it's inside Tron. It's right before. If you're looking. Oh, okay. It's to the left as you're facing the right. And it's just a little, it's a little stand. It's not like a sit down inside. You can grab and go type. You place an order. So it's not grab and go.
I can't remember, but they've got, I tried a quick service. Yes. It's a quick service.

[18:42] But it's not, it doesn't have attached seating at all. You just take it and find a a convenient piece of sidewalk to sit on or something.
They had, it's all kind of, you know, in the vein of Pandora or Galaxy's Edge where they've taken and they've fancied the stuff up to look kind of futuristic or alien.
Futury. Although it's got its own spin. There's a delicious watermelon refresher type drink that had pop rocks on top.
So that was fun. Who doesn't love a pop rocks drink? Exactly. It was great.
A strawberry ice cream type thing but it was like partially regular ice cream and partially that weird Japanese mochi, mochi ice cream.
Oh yeah, rice based. Yeah, whatever that stuff is. That was, it was tasty.
It didn't hold up well to the Florida sun so I didn't get a very good, the pictures of it were kind of sad and deflated looking.
Like you in most pictures. Oh yeah. Ouch.
I also have a couple of savory options which I did not try because I had just had my cheeseburger spring rolls.
Mmm, good for you. Cheeseburger spring rolls. Yeah, I was trying to find the name of that thing.
Tron, dag nabbit, what's it called?
Tron food. Yeah, that's probably it. Tron food. The Tron food booth.
It's probably Disney's something.

[20:09] Yeah, I can't find it on the app, which is unfortunate. I suppose I could look at the app.
It should be called Grid Grub if I was making it. Yes. That's what I would go for, yeah.
It is called, I want dining. Energy Bites. Energy Bites, there's where it is. Thank you, Heather.
And bites is spelled B-U-I-T-E-S, yep. Of course it is, because you're inside a computer.
Weird, it doesn't show up inside the Disney app.
Beef and broccoli digital dumplings and buffalo chicken digital dumplings.
I like the load up on broccoli before I get on a thrill ride.
Yeah. Oh, chocolate cake donut holes. No fancy name, just chocolate cake donut holes.
Yeah, and those weren't...
The strawberry ice... I forget what to call it. Isoform. Get it?
Yeah, the isoform. That's the one to go with. That's clever.
Because that's from the second movie that maybe not a lot of people have seen, which I think is visually even cooler than the first one, but the ISOs are a plot point in Tron.
There was a plot point? Yes, yes.

[21:19] I thought it was all just, just looked and cool visuals. But yeah, so I highly recommend the ISO form and the watermelon fancy drink.
Yeah, it looks good. It's got some yuzu soda and pop rocks in it, yum.
Yeah, oh yeah, it was tasty.
I enjoyed it. It was refreshing. Yeah, I would tolerate that.
Totally. The store there, they do have all kinds of fancy Tron gear, including some light up shirts.
And they also have an experience that you can do where you get digitized into your very own action figure.
This is kind of like the thing at Pandora.
Yeah, they'll scan you. They go through a thing where it looks like you're getting scammed by the computer and you get put into an action figure which has lights and sound and I believe you can buy additional sound module chips that you can install in your action figure.
Yes. It's 90 bucks for the experience. I will be owning that shortly.

[22:18] So I'm caring about the Pandora one, but that one for sure will be.

[22:23] It's really cool looking. Yeah, it's really cool.
You do need to make a reservation for that, which you can do.

[22:29] Within the Disney World app. Or a travel agent, travel advisor.
Yes, it's a really great addition to Tomorrowland and the Magic Kingdom.
It's just a ton of fun. Great ride.
So I can't exactly tell how you get there. So if you're like walking path between the lunch pad and that pocket refreshments thing and the Space Mountain was right ahead of you.
Yeah, it's just you go that same way and then you're like.
Oh, the Space Mountain building where there used to be just kind of like a walkway that you overlooked the the speedway.
Oh, yeah. Like going to the gift shop as you're walking up to Space Mountain all the way to the left is that gift shop.
It's just you walk right past that gift shop now and up a ramp.
Yeah, yeah. The gift shop had the gears on it. That's now like Flynn's arcade gift shop.
It's all Tron merch in there now. I assume maybe there might be a corner.
We went, we walked through it. I didn't see much of the old stuff that used to be in there.
It was all Tron.
It was shut down totally when I was there. So I didn't see it, but that gift shop had become like nothing.
It wasn't space mountain based, even. It was just like random techie things.
Yeah. They, it was like D tech, a lot of like phone cases and stuff.
So now it's more, it's all Tron specific stuff. and that walkway.

[23:55] Cuts through if you go past underneath the rideway. The walkway goes back behind to his barnstormer and takes you back into circus land USA.
So I said to town, I'm aging myself. Yes.
There's the new bathrooms back there.
Tron bathrooms now. And there's actually a pretty substantial area where you could sit and view people on the ride.
Oh, nice. You've got chickens that don't want to do a coaster.
Is that one called grid? It should be. It should be, yeah.
And I really thought that I neglected to look inside it.
Is it fancy and themed inside there? It is. Yeah, it's Tron-y.
It's Tron. And there's a photo pass photographer up there with a Tron-themed.
In the bathroom? Not in the bathroom. Up there, just outside the bathroom.
They have a, they have an identity disc that you can hold up and get fancy pictures.
Yeah. I saw a lot of people doing it. Jeff just got a little bit excited.

[24:57] Yeah. So that was good. That was Tron. Are there exciting things?
Great. Their last two rides that they opened, that was my, my, yes, that was what my 16 year old said after our first ride.
Yeah. The last two rides at Disney World was a total bangers. Yeah. Yeah.
He was willing to, he doesn't like to travel and he was willing to travel to go experience Toronto.
Now intensity wise, where do you put this? Like rock and roller coaster or less?
Under rock and roller coaster because it doesn't go upside down.
Yeah.
It's a different kind of intensity. The speed gets you. The speed takes you by surprise.

[25:39] Right at the beginning. But then when you get inside, it's more of kind of windy, twisty, up and down. But it's not super intense. But it's not, it's also not, not intense. Does that make sense? I learned a new phrase. The darkness in the screams probably adds to the, discombobulation factor. I learned a new term on this trip. The people I was traveling with said that they had heard the ride was nerfed. I had no idea what that meant. And they both confirmed that it was not nerfed. Which basically it means they're holding back a little of the intensity to make it softer, like a nerfed art. Apparently that's what that means. I had not heard this term before. I didn't want to get old for it.
A certain nerd claimed that they had slowed it down from the Japan version, but he just was misremembering his experience. That was retracted.
Yes, everything was more intense because he was in Japan and that made it cooler.
China. It's plenty fast, it feels fast, but it's not intense, it's thrilling.
There's a difference, right?
So you know, it's somewhere. Yeah, the launch is very fast and very intense and you shoot right up a hill and then you do slow down a little bit because you're accelerating up a hill and into the building and you slow down a little because of that hill and then you're shot right back down into the building.
I thought it was a ton of fun and loved it every time I wrote it.

[27:05] And the it's too short thing is bogus you say? I think so. I mean it's two minutes.
Two minutes long which Guardians feels like a very long coaster.
I think it is maybe a little longer than that. Just because I'm holding back throw up the whole time.
On Guardians? Mm-hmm.

[27:22] It does feel a little shorter than Guardians, but I don't know what the actual running time of either. Tron is about right at two minutes.
Yeah, yeah, it's right at or as long as it can accommodate a song. Yeah.

[27:38] For example, over at Universal, Hagrid's is longer because it's kind of a coaster slash, dark ride at the same time.
Yeah, show scenes. So there's a bunch of spots where you slow down.
But I think it's probably about the same as VelociCoaster in length.
Yeah. VelociCoaster is slightly longer, but not by much. Yeah.
I don't remember the first time.
But anyway, it's not too short. No, I didn't walk off going, ooh, this is too short. No, I didn't.
Right. totally satisfied with every part of the ride.
Yeah. It was great.
So I loved it. Two thumbs way, way up. We also got to see the return of Happily Ever After, the Night Time Spectacular at Magic Kingdom. Oh, finally.
Everyone was very happy about that.
I've only seen that 7,000 times from the previous six years it already ran.
Yeah, you would think from the size of the crowd that they had never seen a conference because holy crow, we got there, we pulled into the park at about 7 p.m.
So about two hours before the show started and people were sitting all the way back.
It wasn't, people, it was essentially full all the way back to Casey's Corner.
If you were really trying, you could squeeze in up there, but it was packed all the way from the castle to Casey's Corner. So it was a big crowd, it was exciting.

[29:01] You know, it was the same show. It's a good show. Yeah. It's a great show.
Yeah. I just think it's only Disney could make everyone have that much excitement for a 10 year old show or whatever. Right. And you know, I guess when you replace it with the crap that they replaced it with.
It's just, they couldn't come up with something amazing and new like Disneyland does. Yeah. Right.
All the time. They did. They did add the projections down Main Street USA.
But other than that, the show hasn't changed. the same show. It was good.

[29:34] Crowd loved it was screaming and very excited about it. So very, I don't know. I don't know what else to say about it. It's the show we've seen. We were there. So we can say we survived the crowd of squarely aimed at millennials and slightly above 90s. Great music, great visuals.
It's fun, it gets the crowd revved up every time it goes. Marshall Jones But is it woke?
Tess Terrible They also started removing the monstrosity from the middle of the World Showcase lake.
It is slowly being dismantled. So I've seen conflicting reports about whether maybe the Stargate piece, they called that big round star gate. There's some speculation from concept art that might be a part of the new thing, but those giant awful tacos, taco-shaped things, the barges, are history. They're being pulled. I think they've pulled, what, two of them out so far? One or two?
Yeah, as we're recording, they've finished one or two, so they've got a few left to go.
Yeah, it's hard to say. There's definitely going to be some sort of centerpiece based on the concept art, I don't know that they'll repurpose the Stargate concept art.

[30:54] It's something that folds down and then falls up. Like the World of Color stuff at California Adventure rises up out of the water and does its thing.
Had it ever worked as a lovely fountain during the day, maybe it wouldn't have been such a big deal.
But basically they just sat there like eyesores. They did put stuff up on the screens, but...

[31:19] Yeah, but you know what the problem with that giant fountain was?
If it had worked properly all the time?
Think about how loud that would have been. Yeah, that's fair.
All of that water from that gigantic fountain. Yes. Like, sure, it looks nice, but.
I only saw it in testing a couple of times and it was not a giant loud fountain.
It was a sad garden hose trickle. You know what you need in there is the Bellagio fountain, basically.
Yes.
Find a way to have a spectacular show without some giant thing that sits there all day long.
I didn't really, it didn't bother me all that much. I wasn't there to take photos of the.

[32:01] Lake, but still. It wasn't pretty. Yeah, everybody talked about how ugly and it ruined the view. I'm like, what view of the other crap across the lake? Come on.
When you're sitting in Sun Hell Inn, it did kind of ruin the view across to the American various pavilion. And it killed sight lines of the spaceship Earth with its beautiful new light show at night if you were on the other side of there. It didn't affect my view inside of La Cava del Tequila, I can tell you that. That's true. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I don't think, Heather, did you guys catch the return of, or the temporary return. Not from inside the park. We watched the fireworks from outside the park. I honestly don't remember that show that much. I remember liking it, but I couldn't really tell you exactly what happened. I like the idea of it. I don't think I ever saw it, so I don't know.
The music was all, you know, great nostalgic stuff. Yeah, but also, I really liked Harmonious.
I loved Harmonious. The actual show was amazing. I liked it a whole lot better than Enchanted.
Yeah, I would have been fine with them leaving that. As much as those barges were ugly, the show was spectacular.
Yeah, I agree.

[33:19] I agree. I agree.
So there's that. Oh, got to eat at the Roundup Rodeo Barbecue.
Ah, yes, tell us about that. I got to, I got a sneak peek of it before it opened and got to see it and see the food. Everybody's saying it's good. It sounds like less of a hot garbage fire than...
It's so cute in there too, I will say.
The inside is cute. It's a lot of fun. It's exactly what it's supposed to be. Andy made this play set out of cardboard and bits of toys and board games and stuff. It's cute and it's fun.
The food is really good. I enjoyed it. It's not like world-class competition grade barbecue, but it's not dried out nasty meat. It's good. Good, good, good. And it's family style.

[34:07] It's family style. It is a ton of food. And so you're greeted outside by your hostess.
If you have children in your party or if you have an adult who behaves like a child, you might get lucky and somebody will get to ride a hobby horse through the restaurant to your table.
I might have had some childlike energy going in because the hostess asked what we're supposed to do if we hear that Andy's coming?" And I very excitedly said, you're supposed to freeze.
And she said, what are you not supposed to do?
And I replied that you're not supposed to fall on the floor.
And she said, I was the first person who had gotten that answer right all day long.
And then I was given- Do not throw yourself onto the ground, just freeze.
Disney is tired of these lawsuits.
Right, exactly.
So, but anyway, so yeah, I got a hobby horse and hobby horse through the restaurant.
The food is great. You get to choose. They have first of all, they have several varieties of sweet tea or soft drinks, or you can order specialty cocktails from the grownups menu.

[35:20] Which they all looked tasty. I had a very difficult time choosing. I had the grownups PB and J, which is a screwball whiskey, peanut butter. Yes. Smoothie. Great jelly on the bottom of the glass.
So you get the jelly and the peanut butter as it was. No, it's more of like a smoothie. And I'm not sure how they did it. It's not quite slushy. It's a little bit creamy. I'd have to look at the full ingredient list to figure out what it was, but it wasn't like a cream pie in your mouth.

[35:52] Yes, it kind of was like a cream pie in my mouth. Gross. So from there, everybody gets the selection. You get you get cheddar cheese biscuits and that comes with a sweet red pepper jelly. Yeah, it was so good. And then everybody gets all three of the salads to start with.
There's a tomato salad that's actually more of like a cucumber and vinegar kind of salad with tomatoes in there. Just like made.

[36:25] There's a nice romaine and kale salad that comes with dried cranberries and green goddess dressing and a watermelon salad, which really is just cubed watermelon with mint leaves on it. Tomato salad. I like it. Yeah.
I got distracted here.
I searched for that cocktail. So anyway, sorry, I'll cut my distraction out. He loves cocktails.
So you get to choose. You have some choices for your family style meal.
You can choose either a meat platter or you can choose plant based barbecue platter.
Meat, please.
Yes, we just got the meat. It comes with smoked ribs, beef brisket.
There's a sausage in my boot. Hey, if you so if you go and there's like three of you and one of you is vegan, do you all have to eat vegan?
No they'll split it. Okay, that point. Yeah. So you can choose that the vegan is a trio of options for the vegan.
There's a barbecue cauliflower with harissa drizzle and walnut gremolata, a scrumptious plant based bratwurst and a fake rib chop.
It says, you know, all those things are actually pretty good.
I would never choose them.

[37:45] But no, it all looked delicious. And then you get to select four sides for your table from this list.
Mean old potato salad, loaded, loaded potato.
We have to call them potato barrels because they can't call them potato tots.
There's a veggie slaw. That's right.
Veggie slaw, fried pickles, roasted vegetables, mac and cheese, baked beans, and corn on the cob.
And you had a tip, Dan, about how to get all of it, right?

[38:16] That's right. So since it's family style, you can always ask for more. So if you're waiting, if you ask your waiter for more, you can say, Hey, can I switch out and get the other four options for my second round? So you can only order four at a time, but you can switch that selection when they bring more out to you. So that's a tip for you.
We had the, the mac and cheese was delicious. I never realized that I needed my mac and cheese to have crumbled up goldfish crackers on top of it, but Oh, that sounds good.
I like it when there's panko or some little crunchy bits sometimes.
Did you try the fried pickles? I love a fried pickle.
I did not. They sounded really good, though. We had the baked beans, which are pretty good.
The corn on the cob was the kind of like Mexican street corn style. Oh, yummy.

[39:00] Delish. Gave you food poisoning? No, fortunately it did not.
And the roasted vegetables were assorted and squash type things and a little, very little bit of broccoli.
And then you also, everybody gets to select one dessert for the end of their meal.
They have four different pies that come in a little glass jar.
You can either get a lemon blueberry cheesecake. I like that.
A chocolate silk pie. I love a dessert in a jar. Yeah, it was really good.
There's an apple pie and there's a peach strawberry pie. I had that one. It was delicious.
Yum. or for if you're a grown-up and you don't want the pie, you can get a cupcake, which, you know, isn't always the best option.
Yes, but it does have a.

[39:46] A sugar cookie forky sticking up in the middle of it, which is absolutely adorable and totally Instagrammable. So you might want to go with that option. That was good. I found your grown up peanut butter and jelly drink, Dan, and it looks like they just use a vanilla smoothie mix.

[40:02] Yeah, frozen screwball peanut butter, whiskey, vanilla smoothie mix, and some grape jelly in the bottom. I want that. Yeah, it was really good. It was really good. The Ratlin rum punch and the The Winnian whiskey lemonade also sounded good.
Jack Daniels with Aperol and strawberry puree plus some lemonade.
Yeah, it all looks good. It looks really good.
I remember when I was a kid and I would play with my toys and I would build them a barbecue restaurant for them to sit in and order family-style food.
It really blends in with the land really well. If you walked past it, you might not even notice it.
Just to your right when you enter the park from the non-Star Wars side.

[40:46] Yep. Yeah, it really does look just kind of like… Just past Woody, I guess.
Just past the giant Woody. Yeah.
This place is going to be a giant Woody. Yeah, it does look just like the theming.
There's a couple of fun little kind of interaction things.
Characters don't come in, but there's kind of hints. Some surprises.
Yeah, some surprises that happen that are a lot of fun, and the waitstaff gets involved in.
They have a really great allergy menu in there too. I get to see allergy options and it's really pretty much everything that everyone else gets to eat. They have an allergy version of it.
Yes. Which is always nice. That's true. That's very nice. And yeah, I highly recommend it. It was good. It was a lot better than I expected the quality on the barbecue to be. I loved it. It was great.
I'd like to try it. It is a ton of food, like I said. Give it a try.
Bring four people because if you only have two people you're gonna leave food on the table and I hated to do that I had another meal to go straight to.

[41:46] As one does Vacation so, You hear that? I really like the regal eagle when it first opened. I did a trial of it and everything was great I went one other time and it was good. And the last time I went everybody's food was terrible. Oh, that's sad Yeah, it seems like they've made some changes to the menu there that have kind of dumbed it down a little bit, which they tend to do over time at a lot of locations.
Speaking of the, we were talking a little bit ago about the plant-based options.
They've been doing some great stuff with the vegetarian and vegan menus.
While we were down there with flower and garden and there's one whole food booth, what's it's called travel and Trellis.
It's all vegetarian, vegan. And we went and we stopped by because we'd heard that it was great.
And so we stopped by and tried everything on the menu and it was delicious.
Yeah. The booth is sponsored by Impossible.
And wow, it was so good. They had they called them short ribs.
But really what it was like. Yeah.

[42:53] It felt it read just like eating meatloaf with spicy. Like a Korean Korean spicy Korean type stuff.
Yeah, it was like a Korean barbecue meatloaf.
I don't know how they do it because it looks feels tastes like meat, but it's not.
Yeah, it was good. The lumpia was really delicious too. Those are kind of like little crispy, crispy dough roll ups with fake meat.
Yeah, it's almost like a an egg roll.

[43:25] Yeah, meat filled. Those were delicious. favorite and it has a red pepper jelly on top. Yes, it was so good. It was delicious and they had the, oh it was a vegan chocolate cake. Vegan chocolate cake which was chocolate cake.
You know the vegan carrot cake at Space 220 is the best carrot cake I ever had.
The one thing on the that dessert was it the ice cream on top was rice milk ice cream and it did not stand up to the Florida heat. That was melted all over the place by the time you walked it from the booth to our table. Oh, that's funny. It was just done. We used to eat a lot of rice dream here at my house. That was, that's good stuff. It was really good. If it's cold. Yeah, it was good.
It just, you know, didn't stand up to 80 plus degrees, but yeah, everything at the booth was good. There's going to just still a couple of months when this releases of the flower and Garden Festival. There's a lot of good stuff on the menu. A lot of it's kind of, of stuff that we've seen before, you know, you bring the same things out, but.

[44:31] I know that taco went down real nice for Dave. It was called a vampire, vampire taco.
And I guess this is a thing.
It's it's an authentic thing. And it just means that it's kind of a cross between a taco and a.
It was really good. Yeah, I've been seeing that on TikTok lately on my cooking channels.
Tortilla filled with taco stuff but then there's the outside is coated with cheese and then they fry it. Yeah. It was very good. I always loved the Honey Bistro booth. Everything at that booth was delicious. They have a honey mascarpone cheesecake and chicken and waffles. That was really good.
We also got the flatbread which sounded bizarre but was delicious. It had blueberries and goat cheese and oh yeah that one cheddar I think on it it was really good sounded weird but it was very tasty yeah everything at that booth is always delicious it's always beautiful and it's in a really nice setting there with all the kind of pollinator friendly garden and everything there so I really like flower and garden, especially since they've added.

[45:48] The food and beverage component. That was what was missing from it back in the day.
It's beautiful at Epcot, but it, you know, I need a reason.
They need more and more and more food, which they've done. Yeah. Yeah.
Especially this year with all the construction walls kind of blocking some of the garden spaces.
But the gardens are still beautiful. I had never noticed there was a songbird garden that they had set up.
That was really nice. We enjoyed there's the gnome garden in Germany.
That was super cute. I love the little gnome garden in Germany.
With all their little houses are made out of all natural materials.
But then we spent a while watching the really cool new garden in Japan, the wind garden. Yes.
That's neat. Yeah, it was so cool. It's all bamboo set up with water fountains to fill up parts of the bamboo that tips over and when it tips, it pulls a string.
It's kind of like a, what do you call that? Rube Goldberg machine where one thing makes the other thing happen. That was fun to watch.
Yeah. It, you know, bangs a drum or shakes a tambourine or whatever it is. And I guess, it's apparently like a traditional thing that they would set up as to scare away the birds from the garden. But really, it was fun to watch. Right in front of Japan. In front of Takumite.

[47:06] Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's kind of in that little existing garden where it's usually just zen sand.
It's like rigged, right?
Yes, exactly. It's all right there. And then they had a display of bonsais all over Japan as well.
And that was really cool.
Each of them had a little plaque. They're so neat.
Each of them had a little plaque telling you how old it was and how long it had been in the training process.
And some of them were pretty old.
Yeah, the oldest one we saw was like 55 years old or something like that. That's crazy. Yeah.
So those were really neat to see and those were just kind of lined up all along kind of near the water.

[47:47] Where the The gate is and they had a dragon topiary there, Yeah, that's cool. That was a good festival. I like it Yes, it's a really good festival. Japan was definitely a highlight for the new gardens. That was cool I just feel like better the flowers or the gardens the food and the beverage That's always the highlight of an avocado festival. Heather, did you guys finish the food challenge after later in the week?
Yes, we did. The prize ice cream?

[48:18] The prize was matcha ice cream. I don't like that. This time of year too, we were there just before Easter, so we did the Easter egg hunt, which is always fun.
And it had a great prize. Very cute prize this year, yeah. It was a ton of fun.
And then they also have, you could pick, it was a cute little Easter egg and they had six of them, so you could pick whether you wanted characters painted on the egg.

[48:51] Like Genie and Robin Hood and the Cheshire Cat. Different characters on, it's like a little plastic Easter egg but with characters on them.
But substantial. like it's a salt and pepper shaker. I kind of wish that it was, but it's not super flimsy like one of the plastic eggs you can open.
You can buy sets of them so you could take a drill bit and turn it into your very own salt and pepper shaker set. That's true, I could do that.
But then they also have the, we did not do the Spike the Bee scavenger hunt, we just did the Easter egg hunt, but that's always fun. I love Spike the Bee. Me too.
Me too. in the in the Odyssey building they had a whole shop that was all Orange Bird figment and spike merch mostly orange orange bird but there was some spike in there. I've never been a fan of any of those three characters. You're a liar.
That's crazy. Those are like my three favorite things. Why is Orange Bird always at Epcot now?
He's not supposed to be there. He is, yeah. He's a flower and garden thing. Those Philistines in the Magic kingdom stopped carrying the citrus swirls so now he doesn't feel welcome there.
Can you not get it anywhere anymore?

[50:04] They have a fake... allegedly, according to one of our agents who is also a cast member, they occasionally, when they get the ingredients back, have the official citrus swirl. But right now they're selling a vanilla ice cream swirled with orange dole whip, which is not the same thing no matter what the cast member at the counter says.

[50:27] That was always inferior to the dull whip anyway. Yeah.
It's a great festival and it runs all the way through July 5th, I think this year, right?
March 1st through July 5th. So there's still plenty of time to catch it.
And it's, there's a ton of cool stuff. Great food. They have a free concert series, just like always.

[50:53] Yeah. Garden Rocks. There's some cool bands coming up. I know next week, Blue Oyster Cult's going to be there.
Hope they play their hit. Which one? Don't fear the Reaper.
Isn't there another one? No. No. Black of Seagulls is coming up.
I'm sad that I'm missing it. Oh. Isn't that cool? They play all the time at Epcot.
I would really like to see that. I saw them once many years ago at Six Flags Over Georgia. They were good.
The Hooligans, which several of their, it's a local cover band and they're really good.
You can see them as the hooligans and the M-80s.
They do 70s music, 80s music. And the spaz max. Yep.
Hooligans is coming up on April 25th and then M-80s will be there on May 23rd.

[51:41] Next Monday is Billy Joel's rhythm guitarist. Oh, that's the catch.
Billy had a flip that usually happens. I like that a few weeks ago they had the one guy who had replaced the journey singer before the guy that everyone liked.
Yeah. What? That's funny.
Plain White Teas is coming up. Oh, there's the guy from Starship who replaced the guy from Starship, but he's like the closest thing to- Yeah, he's like Mickey. Mickey Ferguson. Mickey Thomas.
Yeah, he's a jerk. He's the closest thing to like- And it's always like so and so of- Cool and the Gang will be there on April 30th. Oh yeah.
Herman's Hermits. Ooh. There's some good stuff.
I've seen them. I've seen, I watched, who was, did I watch, sings Make Love Out of Nothing at All?

[52:39] Naked love, out of nothing now. I watched that twice in a row because I just had a comfy seat and they played and I was still sitting on the fountain by the American Experience and watched them again.
You shared that story before when you were bathing your feet in the fountain. Yeah, that's right.
That's air supply, Jeff. Air supply, yeah.
That was great. Something that you would have refused to admit that you went to in high school, but I think, maybe you did with your mom. Oh yeah, well my mother went to see them.
She bought tickets for me and her. I was like, I'm not going to that.
So I made up something else. I think I was in middle school.
And then she bought me a T-shirt from there. I will never wear this. Just know this.
I'm not wearing an air... Because she knew I loved concert shirts.
I love concert shirts of bands I like.
Like I'm going to be rocking it, walking around the middle school with an air supply shirt, with the soft focus photo of those two goobs.
That is funny.
There's lots of great stuff. and you can either you can do a dining package so that you don't have to try to get a last-minute seat or you can sit on the fountain like Jeff likes to. The best availability for the dining of Candlelight Processional or any of those concerts, it's always the...

[53:56] The next one.
Whatever the German place is. Oh, Biergarten. Biergarten.
I was confusing it with the local place, Old Heidelberg. Yodelberg?
Yeah. The best way to make sure that you get into that dining package to see a concert or, you know, make sure you don't miss out on anything, make sure you know the best way to get into the virtual queue to ride Tron Lightcycle Run is by contacting your Key to the World travel planner.
So I'm going to say thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
If you're excited to experience the summer of Disney thrills or explore anywhere else around the world, Key to the World Travel has Flynn's Arcade full of expert travel planners, and a way to make your vacation dreams a reality.
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[55:15] A huge thanks to our sponsor, Key to the World Travel. For all your travel planning needs, visit www.keytotheworldtravel.com for a free quote and help planning the trip of a lifetime.
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[55:37] Music.

[55:42] Thanks to Outer Vibe for the use of their song Hoka Hey for the intro and outro of our show. on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour dates, music, merch, and more.

[55:55] Music.

[56:06] We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer's Society.
And until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide, so go have an adventure.