The Fandom of the Most Magical Place on Earth

A theme park shouldn’t make you cry, but sometimes it does for all the right reasons. We invited LB—annual pass holder and unabashed Disney adult—to unpack what makes Walt Disney World irresistible and how to plan a trip that feels effortless instead of overwhelming.

LB breaks down where to stay (hello Skyliner access), why park hopping adds freedom, and how to approach Lightning Lane, while also breaking down what makes it the Most Magical Place: Epcot festivals, Ronto Wraps, Figment’s surprising grip on hearts, and pin boards. 

Join us as we dive into the fandom of Walt Disney World and why people keep going back!

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Transcript

Banter, New Year Catch-Up

SPEAKER_03 0:00

All right, gentlemen and lady, we are back for take number two of this episode. Don't tell everybody that. No, they like they like to know the behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Peep behind the curtain, as it were. We gotta, you know, this is I I never make mistakes and never do anything embarrassing or anything like that, or misname guests. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Um You better not misnames to misname today. That'd be embarrassing for me.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

I'll probably call her by her nickname because that's what my family knows. We'll we'll let's jump in and just kind of talk a little bit. What do you guys, I mean, what have you guys been up to for the last couple weeks?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Yeah, so um honestly not too much. With the New Year's holiday, I had some time off from work a couple days, and so we just did some random little house decor projects and hung out, and uh the baby's starting to laugh now. So like we're just doing everything we can to get her to laugh all the time, and it's so much fun. It's yeah, it's been amazing. But um, yeah, no, nothing else besides that. Ben, what about you? Much the same.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Yeah, just enjoying New Year and uh just getting to chill for a little bit. Yeah, that's been about it. Nothing not exciting here. But we do have volleyball starting again, which I'm excited for. Yes, I'm also very excited.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Oh man, how's the is the team put together? Yeah, the dream team?

SPEAKER_03 1:09

I don't know. I think we're the dream team, honestly. I we've got a solid crew and I'm feeling good about the season. We've never done well before, but I think this season works in the tournaments.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

We just don't do well in the tournaments. We do five besides.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

We're in beer league A. Not like yeah, competitive. Yeah. So anyway, Nick, what have you been up to?

Introducing LB And The Disney Focus

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Um, you know, not a lot. We this is my first day back to work after having a couple weeks off. So um, yeah, it was just kind of getting back into the swing of things a little bit and trying to make sure I the the kids are ready to start and got a fresh start for the the new year. So fresh start for me, fresh start for them. That's what I kind of was was going off of today for the energy in class. Nice um trying to clean up some of the things that um you know maybe haven't been going so well in class. And we want to just all right, let's cut those things off right now. Just cut the crap. Yeah, pretty much. That's that's the best way to put it. Um, anyways, I'll I'll go ahead and I'll introduce. We've already mentioned we've got a guest today. Uh I've got my sister-in-law LB, or Alisa, here today. And she's gonna be talking to us about Disney World. But with that being said, why don't we just go ahead and jump into the the theme music? Yeah, sounds good. Changing it up a little bit since we're Disney. Let's get some Disney music, right? Yeah. Hello and welcome to Fandom of Fandoms, the show where every single episode we talk about the world that fans love the most. And today, as I said, we're gonna be focusing on Disney World, and we are so thankful to our guest LB for being here today. Thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Wonderful. So, this is a new thing. I've been wanting to ask our guests this more often, but just tell us a little bit about yourself and just the the fandom that you're a part of, or just whatever you wanna whatever you want to tell us.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Sure. Uh, my name is Alexa. I am Nick's sister-in-law, and about six or seven years ago, I don't know if you remember, Nick, we were at an olive garden and you said you were gonna take me to Disney. So here we are, making dreams come true.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Finally, it's incredible. It took a long time. It did.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

We really did.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

We had uh we had COVID stick uh just stick a night in our plans. We were gonna go, what was it? It was that same like literal weeks before.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

It was like two weeks before our trip.

Disney Background And Trip Histories

SPEAKER_03 3:21

I almost hit the trombone sound effect, but it's actually legitimately sad that your trip got canceled. So it's it's not tongue in cheek right now. This is sad.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It was very sad.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah, it took a while for it to get to to get back on the the radar to back on the calendar.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

About three kids later.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

Goodness. Uh all right. Well, uh obviously you guys know a little bit about Disney World.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Uh Michael, what about you? Yeah, so I have never been to Disney World. I've never been to any of the Disney parks. Um, the closest thing I came to was in Los Angeles. I went to uh oh my gosh, I just totally blanked on the name. There's like a there's like a uh Disney Light area that you think about downtown Disney. That's what it's called. Yes, downtown Disney. So that's the closest thing I've ever come. Um so never been. My wife and I, we've been talking about uh taking the baby, you know, maybe in a year or two and just what you know, having the whole doing the whole thing. So, you know, hopefully we'll get to go soon. But um, I'm excited to learn more. Nice. Yeah, what about you, Ben?

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I have probably been about seven or eight times over the course of my life. Um growing up, yeah, my family used to love to go, especially taking my grandparents there. They really loved it. Um, so I probably like yeah, as a kid, I've been, I went like four or five times, then two or three times as an adult. Um, yeah, I will say I do enjoy it more as an adult. Really?

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Well then yeah, I mean, just between the rides and like the food now, like getting to really enjoy the food. Yeah. Um, yeah, Nick, so how many times have you been?

What Walt Built And The Four Parks

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Uh well, I guess it depends. So I've only been to Disney World. Coming up here when we take our trip just in a couple of weeks, uh, that'll be my third trip to Disney World. Okay. Um, and then I went a couple of times to Disneyland out in California, but I lived that that childhood. I don't know if you guys had this experience or not, but where your parents always, you know, promised that one day you'd go to Disney World. So here's a story from my childhood. We had this giant jug, like a water jug, um, that would be, you know, that we'd throw the coins and the dollars in every once in a while. And um, that was the the idea was oh, we gotta fill up the jug and get it pretty far up there before we could take it and go to the stream across. So I sat in my parents' um bathroom for oh man, I don't even know how long a long time. Um a lot of years, and it never got fully filled up.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Um you ever do worry that they started to empty it when it used to be close, like we we were never even close. It was so close to the bottom.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

They they threw there was a few times like they threw in like some bigger bills, so it wasn't just like change, so there was some stuff laying in there. And when we did eventually go for the first time, um I was 21, so I was in college. Oh nice. Um, and uh that was my my first ever ever trip to Disney, but they did take that money from the the jug, I believe. Right. Uh part of that, I think the the money that we got from that that did not cover very much of the trip, but um it's symbolic exactly yeah, it's symbolic, exactly. Went towards the trip at least. So that's kind of the the memory that I've got from just early on and how um I don't know, just my experience with Disney was. We always my sister and I wanted to go as kids and uh didn't make it there until we were young adults. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

That makes sense. Very cool. Well, Alexa or LB, what'd you prefer?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

I'm fine with either. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Uh Alexa, what you tell us a little bit how many times have you been and when did you start going?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

I was trying to count in my head while you guys were talking, and I think somewhere between 12 and 15 times. Pretty good. The first time I went was in, I think, 2010 with my high school. The choir and the band were singing. So that was our first experience. I did the magic music days. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

I did that in in high school too.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah, I remember singing at Epcot. I couldn't tell you where in Epcot, but I remember singing there and seeing the band walk in the nighttime parade. Nice. Um that was the only time I went as a child, and then we've gone I think eight times this year. And we've got one more trip coming up.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Yeah, so you're and you're an annual pass holder, like as you mentioned. So like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

This year in March, we um went ahead and bought annual passes. Nice. So we knew we were coming in January, like we had this big family trip planned. And honestly, as an out of state goer, you can only get the top tier pass. Um but if you go eight park days with park hoppers, yeah, you break even.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Yeah, that's like two visits, period. Because it goes into every park. Yeah.

Why Disney Hooks You As A Parent

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yep, we're gonna go four days in January, so then I only had to go four more days. So really made sense. Really, it was cheaper away, and we get discounts on everything and discounts on the hotel stays for everybody else. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Looking forward to using those discounts.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

That's how I enticed Nick to go.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You say that when we look over at Nick and all the pins he's currently wearing. I feel like he does it.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

He could sell those and probably buy his own annual packs. Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

So those actually have some value then. I mean, they look sweet. I don't know the the value of pins these days, probably. Who knows? Well, those are old pins.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I mean, it's been a while since you guys went, so I feel like they're probably pretty valuable.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Yeah, and we will get more into pin collecting and trading later. But uh Nick, why don't you hit us with a little bit of an overview on Disney World in general?

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Sure, absolutely. So um I'm gonna tell you that the main reason that Disney World exists is because Walt Disney made a mistake in Disneyland and he did not want to repeat that mistake. So um when he opened Disneyland in 1955, quite a few years before Disney World opened, uh, he didn't like the the he didn't have control of the land around it, right? He he there was cheap motels, billboards, strip malls, all that stuff. They popped up. He ran out of space and couldn't go bigger. So when the 1960s rolled around, Disney secretly bought more than 27,000 acres in Central Florida. Wow. Um he used a fake company name to keep his prices low. And Florida won because it has great weather, obviously, tourism potential, uh, a government willing to let Disney build like its own city. It's basically a city, yeah. You're right. Um so he he didn't have uh, you know, his his vision wasn't just like the next theme park. Um, I'm sure you guys are aware too. That it was centered around Epcot, right? That was the big thing this futuristic community that he had this idea of not just to build this theme park. Um but when he died in 1966, that dream didn't become a reality, and that was when Walt Disney World eventually opened in 1971 and launched the Magic Kingdom, and then from there on Roy, his brother took over and kind of opened up more uh staying out front and center of the company and kind of building it into what it is today. So that was just kind of some of the overview that I got. I was trying to keep it short, but that was really fast.

Starter Pack: Stay, Skyliner, Hopping

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, it's a collection of four parks, actually. So there's Magic Kingdom, which is the most iconic one with the castle and a lot of the traditional Disney stuff. Uh, then there's Hollywood Studios, formerly MGM Studios, uh, where there's a lot more, there's Star Wars stuff there now, there's Pixar stuff, there's yeah, uh an Indian Jones show. There's so it branches out a little bit more. Then there's Epcot, which is, as Nick said, it was modeled out to be the world of tomorrow. Like so his idea of uh like commu connecting around the globe. So there there's a collection of uh all the different countries you can visit. What, like the eight?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

I think there's eleven.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

Eleven. Wow, yeah. Eleven different countries that are represented that you can go visit a little area of each one. And then there's Animal Kingdom, which is the newest one, and um as you you can imagine, centers a lot around nature. And uh yeah, there's Pandora there as well from Avatar. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Um, yeah, a lot going on there, and there's new stuff coming in there, which we were just talking about before we started recording, but we will dive into that a little bit. So yeah, um anything else that you guys want to add to that?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah, I don't think so. No, I'm already learning.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

I'm glad you asked. I was gonna interrupt, but didn't want to. So when Walt Disney was buying the company, like the land, he was using multiple different company names. So when you walk down Main Street, if you look on the second story, all the windows are the names of the companies that he used. Oh they're all like puns and like silly. And it's just like looking at it now, you're like, how didn't nobody realize that this was a big company name?

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Because they were like, Oh, someone wants to buy our property. Well, don't care too much.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

That was one thing I didn't bring up in that little summary. I mean, this was all swampland. Yeah, absolutely. Nobody really wanted it anyway. Yeah. So that was why he was able to buy up so much property in that area because nobody wanted it.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yep, and he bought all I think it's like 42 miles or whatever, and then there's the 12 hotels that are all connected with um the Disney transportation and then Disney Springs. Oh, yeah, we didn't even get it.

Lightning Lane, Genie, And Costs

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Disney Springs is massive too. There's basically a giant Easton. Oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah, it's it's beautiful, it's fun.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Yeah, and there's a giant Lego store there that you would love to see with a giant um the maleficent dragon.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I forgot about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Hey Nick, uh, when you go, do you want to send me some hook pictures? Oh no. You can find pictures online. I mean, I'll find you something. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, and Michael, you can go to Disney Springs for free. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, you don't require a park ticket. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Well, honey, if you're listening to this, it sounds like we're going. It used to be, well, you didn't have to pay to park. I think now you do, but no. I don't know. I'd always take the bus. Yeah. That's true. They stay on property, these guys.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

In the Disney bubble, as we call it.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

In the Disney Bubble.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

In the Disney bubble, that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

It is truly a resort, like, I mean, where you can do everything on property without having to leave. So yeah. Um well, LB, why don't you like let's dive in a little bit more. What about Disney World like kind of drew you in, especially over the past year? But like, yeah, what what keeps you coming back to it?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

So last year in November of 24, uh, well, I guess two years ago now, um, we went on our first like family trip, the three of us, and our daughter was 18 months old. And seeing Disney through her eyes for the first time was it changed the game. Like going as a kid and then going as an adult um with no kids, super fun. Like, don't get me wrong, you should always you should absolutely do it. But going with your kids is just so magical. And getting to see her react to all the characters and pointing out the castle, and every night before bed, she's like, Can we talk about Disney? And it's just so sweet. She knows all the characters and she loves the hugs. She likes to boop them all on the nose. That's really what did it for us was how special she made it.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Nice. Oh, that's very cool. Who's her favorite character to see?

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Probably Goofy because that's my favorite, but recently it's been Judy Hopps. That's why Judy Hopps came.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

Yeah. Uh so good glad that it's a classic for sure. Like you get to see Goofy a decent amount, I can imagine. Um that's an interesting fact that like I don't know if you guys know, but there's only one Mickey out around the world at a time. Like in any of the parks. Really? There's only one Mickey, like that's very interesting. Except for like I think the shows. But like, you know, like to go do the meet and greets, there's only ever one Mickey. Like they time it out so that like at a time?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:33

There's not like one in Tokyo at the same time, there's one in California.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Like what is that is that even true? Like with the ones that are just there, they've got their constant spots, so they they don't pull them, right? You're just talking about like around the I don't know.

Park Rankings And Festival Talk

SPEAKER_04 14:44

No, like the meet and greets, like because it's they cycle through. Like, even if Mickey's got his one spot, like it'll be Minnie sometimes, or Donald, or yeah. Yeah. So that is interesting. And they may not have done that anymore, but I know they used to. Like because they have added, you know, Paris and Tokyo since then. But like, I mean, yeah, like I know growing up like as a kid, that was a big thing. So that they would like plan it out around that to keep that magic of like, oh, Mickey's only in one place at one time. The equivalent of Santa.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

But yeah, exactly. Well, when you kind of coming back to you know, just what keeps on pulling you back, um, you know, how I mean, outside of I guess you kind of answered this question already, so I'm gonna ask it anyways, but you you probably don't have much more to add to it. Did you have any kind of realization that like this wasn't just an occasional spot that you wanted to travel to?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So if we're being honest, I absolutely needed convinced to buy the annual passes. I was like, no, it's too much, we shouldn't do it. And I was very um influenced by everybody else in my life, and they all said we should do it, and it has it has been the most magical year. Like there, we're gonna look back on these memories for the rest of our life and just there's no regrets. No, like only regret is not going more often, if we're being honest.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Might as well have just like moved to Florida. You could have a year temporarily.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

A travel nurse. Uh nurse job, yeah. Nikki's nurse. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

There's gotta be plenty of nursing jobs in central Florida. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

I'm sure there is. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Yeah, yeah, very cool. No, that's awesome. Well, yeah, we've kind of gone, you know, talked a little bit about why it means so much to you. So let's transition to, you know, kind of a Disney World starter pack. So it's appropriate for Mike. I'm the perfect example. I've never been, obviously, I've heard good things, but I guess, you know, if if you could uh give someone some advice, LB, you know, where where would you start in terms of getting into Disney World?

Batuu Food: The Ronto Wrap Ritual

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Well, I feel like the first decision is if you're staying on property or off property. And prior to our 2024 trip, we were strictly off-property people. I thought the the Disney resort was totally out of the question. Like I didn't really realize how affordable that the Disney resorts could be. They have these value-level resorts and then the moderates and the deluxe. And what is included with all of these? You know, all of the transportation, all of your parking fees, everything is included in that. So I feel like I always recommend staying at Pop Century on the Skyliner because that's my favorite mode of transportation. So picking a hotel is first up, and then picking where you want to go, in what order, and picking out which parks you want to go to. And I'm always gonna recommend a park hopper so you're not stuck in one place. And I'm always gonna recommend Lightning Lane's Nick.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Um, wait, well, wait, well, what's what's this all about? There's a backstory. Um I okay, so I I should preface this. The first time that I went to Disney, you know, almost 15 years ago now, was back when the Fast Passes existed. And at this time, Michael, um, fast passes, uh, you you didn't so you didn't have to pay anything extra. It was just a part that was a part of like what made Disney kind of special and different from other parks.

SPEAKER_04 18:03

Um you would go up to a ride and like say, I want to come to this ride, and they would have a time slot, and you basically sign up for a time slot and say, like, oh, I'm gonna come back in 90 minutes. Yeah, and you get to go through a shorter line. Oh. So they can meter out how many people are coming through that area. So like you don't have to wait for an hour for you wait for like five minutes, and so it was it was magical.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And you got three passes per day. Like everybody who walked in the park got three free passes. Okay, got it.

Research Vs. Wandering And Rope Drop

SPEAKER_02 18:28

See, I never realized it as being because I didn't even remember it being limited. It probably was, I just didn't remember that. Um then the over the course of time, you know, things have changed. Uh they've they've changed the the pass system structure a few times. Yeah, um, the last time that I went was prior to the lightning lanes. The lightning lanes, uh, what was it before? That was Genie Plus, right? Or was it? Yeah, is that what it was called? Um for a short time. That one, I don't I don't recall there being a limit to that because it was essentially like you pay for the di the genie plus and you can only have one of them at a time, but once you had used the one that you had, you could go and get another one. Um and so now they've changed it and have kind of severely limited it. It's it's now you pay for it. So it's been a a battle, I guess, is the way I would put it. I was kind of the anti-I was very frustrated with uh the way that Disney has gone with that. I I get it, everything gets more expensive, it's the way of the world and everything, but um, I don't know. It's just like for me, it kind of ruins. I'm like, man, now you're already paying a lot of money to go to this part. Right. And you're adding on these additional uh costs of the of the lightning lanes. But LB has been a constant, like, you gotta go and get the lightning lanes, as she says. So you have to. I mean I so just so you're aware, I did not actually, I said I'm not gonna do it. Um my mouth, so to go even a little step further, I'm sure LB could go into this too. But the biggest and best rides and stuff like that, they're not even a part of the regular lightning lanes. You have to pay, yeah, the multipass. You have to pay an additional fee on top of that. Per ride, if you're gonna go to one of these bigger rides, and it's all the ones that are the most popular ones, obviously. Right, or the newest or the newest ones. And so I was like, I'm not doing like I'm I'm good. I don't need to ride everything. But my mom, shout out mom, thank you, was gracious enough. And for for Christmas, she bought me the fast passes. So I'm gonna go do I remember she got me Rise of the Resistance, um trying to remember what else. Uh Guardians Guardians of the Galaxy. Uh I thought there was one more, but maybe not. But those two for sure. So yeah, Tronco. What's that? Tron.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Tron is a good one. But we had to pull some teeth to get these two. So take what we could get. Yeah, take it.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

Absolutely. All right. Well, LB, why don't you talk us like about which of the parks would you like? How would you rank them if you could only go for like two days? Which would you start with?

Memorabilia Show-And-Tell

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Which part of the thing is that you're not going to personally, or what I would recommend for everybody else? Personally, do personally. So personally, my top park is Epcot. I love Epcot. I love all of the different countries and the different there's like World Celebration where you walk around the countries, and then there's the other oh, sorry, World Showcases where you walk around the countries, and world celebration is the front of the park. And there's just so many different things to do there. Guardians, best ride on properties there. Um Figment. Um I will not stand for any Figment slander. So Figment is top tier. And then getting to um like sample all the different cuisine, and then they always have a festival going on. So Epcot is just it's top tier. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Coming up, it's an arts festival for you guys when you're down there, right? And then like my favorite I've been to is the food and wine festival. Yes, food and wine is very little, yeah, little pavilions like everywhere, like just small bites that you can just go get, and like you don't worry about a meal for that day. You just every like half an hour you're just stopping somewhere else and getting a different food.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

That was the stipulation when we bought the passes this year was that we had to go to every single festival. And Festival of the Arts is our last one to hit. So we have successfully completed that goal. Really? And how many festivals are there? There's four. There's um flower and garden, oops, sorry, in the spring, and then food and wine in the fall, festival of the holidays for Christmas, and then Festival of the Arts or Farts, as I like to call it. Farts that we're going to in January. That's a good one. And then my second favorite park is gonna shock you, Nick, Hollywood Studios. Oh I have no um this this podcast is about the limit of my Star Wars knowledge. Okay, um, but I love the Star Wars rides, they're so cool, and Batuu is such a immersive experience. And Toy Storyland is super cool. Um, and they they just have a lot of fun things there that's not in your face, Disney, but just fun Disney.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

It's the magic of Disney without being in your face, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

I forgot to mention that in your introduction, actually. You were you've been the biggest fan of this podcast and have listened to so many of our episodes.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

I wanted to shout that out. We we appreciate you for listening to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

My next appearance will be to uh my fandom will be the fandom of fandoms.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Amazing. Yeah, wow, that that's very meta. Yeah, so very meta. Michael, if you have to go, you have to go to Hollywood Studios to see Batu because it's like a literal planet that they created around Star Wars property. Wow, that's really sweet.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

You absolutely have to get a Ronto wrap because it's top tier, but they only offer it specific times. Like you have to get it before 3 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

So it is so good. What is a Ronto wrap? What is a Ronto wrap?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Well, Nicholas. So it's a pita, and then in the pita is like this delicious coleslaw, I guess, is what us humans here on earth would call it. Um, and then it's like a pe a slice of pork and then um like a long sausage. And it's so good. And it's got like a like a peppercorny ranch sauce. Oh, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Is this available at a specific spot in Epcot?

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Is that the um it's Hollywood Studios? Oh, Hollywood, sorry. Um and number two, uh, you're gonna you're never gonna guess where it's sold. Um, Ronto Roasters is where it's sold. Ronto Roasters. The Ronto wrap at Ronto Roasters. Okay. They also have a morning one that I am very interested in trying to get around. Oh, like a breakfast one version. Yes. Oh, that's cool.

Pin Trading Culture Evolved

SPEAKER_02 24:09

I mean, it sounds delicious. It's like that sounds amazing. Are you taking us by?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Oh, 100%. I'll go even if you nobody else wants to go. I'll be sliding on over there.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Or to keep to keep our like starter pack thing kind of going. Do you think that someone, if they're going for the first time, do they do should they do a bunch of research or go in cold and experience it as they they go?

SPEAKER_00 24:31

You should definitely do some research. Okay, but not too much research. Okay. Because there's a lot of life hacks, little like little tiny Disney things. But if you're just doing like a one, a once-in-a-lifetime trip as we called it in 2024, um, you you can't pack too much into it. You gotta, you know, hit the highlights and do the big things, get your lightning lights out of the way, meet your characters, and then when you go again and you buy your annual pass a couple months later, then you can go back and you can do the little things. Yeah, that makes sense. No, that's that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

Are you guys rope droppers?

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Rope drop to park clothes, baby. We're not going back.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Yep, there you go. So rope drops, Michael. Please tell me what this means. When you stay in a Disney property, you can get in early. It's like a half an hour early usually. Yeah. Yeah. So I they call it rope dropping because you get early entry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Well, early entry is for Disney resort guests, and then rope dropping is for non like non people staying on property. Okay. Because you have to actually wait for the rope to drop. But when you stay on property, you get to go back in there.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

I thought is it not you don't get a sp that's not part of the benefit of the the past two? You guys didn't get to get in early from that? No, I wish we did. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

It's it's enough that they have they stagger two entry times as opposed to a third one would be.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

I didn't realize that, so I didn't know that we were gonna be able to get in a little bit early after staying on property. Well, you're more excited now now. I mean, it's it's cool, you know.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

And it's like well, I think if remember if I'm wrong, but like you don't get to go on the rides earlier, but you're in the park earlier. Some of the rides you do, some of the rides. Okay.

Lorcana, Autographs, And Subcultures

SPEAKER_00 25:58

And um, I think a Magic Kingdom and Fantasyland, um, like I know the carousel is open because we went over the summer and they were doing Cool Kids Summer. Um, and Mickey was riding the carousel with some people. Wow. Okay. I think over in Storybook Circus you can see some of those characters on Dumbo. So it's really it's really a cool time. You know, vibes are excellent.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Yeah. I've been there for at least once for like the Magic Kingdom opening, which they have kind of like an opening ceremony, like with all the characters that come and meet you at like the train station that's right by the entry gates and they wave at you and stuff like that. And it's a it's a cool time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yes, it's very fun. Um also if you stay deluxe, um, some of the nights the different parks offer deluxe after hours, so you get to stay for a couple extra hours.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Nice. Wow. Well no, you go ahead. Uh no, I was just gonna say we always like to end off our our starter pack with our impassioned plea. So I'm gonna you can use that camera right over there.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Formally formally called elevator pitch. Now it's impassioned. I guess I can update it on our call show.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

I I just like it because then you can make an a plea to the camera, like yeah, exactly to go and visit.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

I feel like I need to look at you when I hit this.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

I'll look at it later when I'm editing the clips. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Do you love magic? Do you want to feel like a kid again at heart? If you do, you should meander on over to Disney World in uh beautiful Orlando, Florida, where you can meet all of your favorite characters, including Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and so many more. Here you will have the best time of your life. You'll leave with no regrets, maybe some blisters, but that's about it. And you'll look back on these memories for the rest of the time you have in pure awe and amazement.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

That was very good.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

That was so well done. That was amazing. Thank you for being sure.

Owning Disney Adult And Hot Takes

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Music really did it for me. Some tissues.

SPEAKER_04 27:55

Well, thank you so much for that. That was great. Like one of our better ones for sure. Absolutely. Uh well, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll come back and jump into like some more specific stuff. Like, we can start talking about pen trading. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

Sounds good. Someone's gotta explain this in such an ominous way. It's a shorter one. I was like, what happened to it? It was a quick clip. LB.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

So this is from the haunted mansion ride in Magic Kingdom. Uh it's just the creepy little organ that plays.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

Yeah, sweet. That's fun. It's one of the most classic rides in in all Disney ID, I would say. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Like it's quite the experience. I do, I I enjoy the fun one.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

Yeah. And it's like it's like cartoony. It's not like really creepy. Yeah. The scariest part is the entryway, like getting into it. Like there's you know, lots of gravestones and like the cast.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

They're very solemn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

The part that stands out the most to me, I I can't remember most of the stuff from the ride, but I remember just the what is it? This is the very beginning, right? Where you're standing there and then the room, the stretching room. The stretching room. That's the the most iconic part that we're doing. Step into the dead center of the room.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Yep. Nice. Well, hey, before we jump into the pins, I would love to hear about the memorabilia that you brought, LB.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

This is for our YouTube watchers. If you're just listening on other podcasts, jump onto YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

So this is um a partial representation of the collection of stuffies that we've bought for our daughter with our annual pass discount. Um we've got Minnie and Goofy and 2025 Mickey and Judy Hops, personally signed by Judy Hops herself. Oh wow. Yes, beautiful. Um, I've got my actual literal annual pass right here.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Um, my art of animation ornament. This was the first resort we stayed at. And it is it is the most Disney of the resorts. It's all it's cars and Funny Nemo and Little Mermaid themed. Beautiful. And then the Polly, which was our stay for our daughter's birthday. This is a deluxe resort with the monorail like attached to the resort right next to Magic Kingdom. Um this was that's the top tier then? Is that the call? Yes, it is. Um we stayed. Um this is like super niche using vacation club points that we rented from somebody else, so it was pretty cheap.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Vacation club is the equivalent of timeshare.

Would You Rather: Strategy And Snacks

SPEAKER_00 30:15

But you can like buy the points from other people, and so it's pretty cheap. Um got my annual pass magnets here. Um if you know, you know the annual pass magnets are like super um limited edition. You have to be there at certain times. You can't get repeats, they don't send them to you. You have to be in person, you have to scan your magic band, show your ID. It's like a whole thing. You have to give your left kidney. Um, and then I brought just two of my ears. I had to bring the balloons to match the shirt because it's quite a massive thing. Um, and then the skyliner, my favorite mode of transportation we talked about um earlier, where you can go from the different parks and from your hotel and everything. These were um a hunt. We they've been having them like all year, but only like at certain times in the year, and we have not been there. So I had to go to like three resorts to find these. Um it was worth it.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah. Wow, very cool. I I'm most interested in the Lego sets, to be honest with you. Those are mine. Oh, yeah, those are the hard. Those are mine. I'm sorry. Sorry to be.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

I bought uh it's one of the one of the it was a giveaway recently. We were like when you buy stuff online, just hit the spending threshold. Yes, that's right. And I was waiting to buy the Neuschwinstein castle until I saw something I wanted, and these were very cool.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

So I love how Lego comes up in every single one of them.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

I okay, I'm not joking with you. I'm I if we go back, listen to every episode, all the listeners right now, LB. I'm pretty sure LB you too. I'm pretty sure it's come up in every single episode. I think.

SPEAKER_04 31:37

John Williams is our second most mentioned. That's true. And he has nothing to do with Disney, but we'll mention him right now.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Well, Mike, you brought something interesting too. I know it's laying up there. Do you want to do you wanna say anything about it or no?

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Speaking of subcultures, yes. I think I'm looking at the at the screen right now. I don't think you can okay. Ben's gonna lift it up a little bit there. Yeah, so back in, I think it was either 21 or 22, I got this email from Disney, from Disney Plus, and they said it was like, you know, you're an early subscriber, you're one of the first, or whatever that means. You know, sign up for this free. It was called a Disney Dropbox, and it's just a ton of like random memorabilia. Mine is the Toy Story theme, I believe. Oh, it's had a theme to it. Okay, I think it's just a woody in here. Yeah, they were themed. It's 150 bucks worth of just exclusive merchandise, and so it was really cool, but it's been sitting in my basement/slash attic. Uh it's gone back and forth. Basement. Oh yeah, first the basement, then the attic. Um for a second there, I had questions. I was really curious. Upside down. I live in the upside down, and uh yeah, so I I thought it'd be appropriate time to bring it, uh show some stuff off. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

It's probably worth something.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

I've never opened any of this stuff. It's all sealed in in package. So yeah. It's down there with all of his collectible Legos too.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

That's the the uh inheritance for his daughter one day. That's the only thing she's getting. So there's nothing else. That's that's all she has. That's all I have.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

So anyway, I want to hear about these pins. Let's let's talk pins.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yeah, so uh fandom subculture is uh pin trading, which I okay. So I brought my my lanyard with me. I'm not like deep into it, um, but when we went for the first time that I ever went, um, that was kind of a fun thing that I got into. I knew that pin trading was a thing, um, you know, got a lanyard and got a starter set of pins and just started kind of picking up ones that were um specific to the trip that uh you know that we were on. So I got one from Epcot. We also uh that same trip we went to Universal, so I do have one Universal pin on there because they had to had to copy off of Disney to do their own pins thing too. Um but it's it's there. And then my personal favorite, I just love this one. I got uh Nala on top of Simba and it says Pendia again.

SPEAKER_04 33:52

Ah, pendya. I thought it was good. So it's a good one.

Hidden Gems And Overrated Rides

SPEAKER_02 33:55

And I love uh you know, Lion King's my favorite Disney movie, so that was that was it's down there at the front and center because it's my favorite one. But uh yeah, I'm I'm excited. Um actually LB picked up a lanyard and a and a um a pin for my kids to get started. Um that's really sweet. Yeah, I'm excited to take them and just I don't know. So since you're not familiar, basically inside of the parks, there's all kinds of um when you go into different shops and stuff like that, they just have a pin wall and you can just trade your pins. So like you've got pins, you can you know, you see one that you like.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

I hate to burst your bubble, it's not quite like that anymore. It's a little board, like a Mickey shaped board. What? Or um some of the cast members have lanyards and like little like square things that you trade off of now.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

It's not like a hooded wall. Do they not have them on top? So they don't have them in the shops as much anymore?

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Uh they're on the boards, like uh behind the cashier. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Yeah, some of them have them out, but um but yeah, that's the that's the big thing. Yeah, that's very cool.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

Um it's especially a cool thing because you can like again, like they were saying, the cast members, the all the the workers there, like a lot of them will be into it as well. And so you can trade with them, you can like it's just a cool thing to interact with them, yeah. Find some really exclusive ones from you know, like 20 years ago or whatever, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

And they do a lot of the mystery packs, so you're just like opening, trying to find these ones that you really want, and you can trade for a lot of them. Yeah, some of the cast members do like trivia and stuff, so that's that's like for the super special kids.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

That makes sense, yeah. Well, that brings me into another uh subculture thing that I just thought of recently, and this one we've brought up on the show once or twice before, but Lorcana, Disney Lorcana, they are bringing that into more parks now. And actually, when we're gonna be in uh at the the farts um festival. The farts festival. I'm sorry. That was good. Um but they're having a specific event for some uh some collection of Lorcana. So I'm excited to see what that's all about. Somebody's gonna get me some cards, right? Yes, that's the oh, we'll find somebody. Thank you. I'll I'll try to, I mean, because I know not everybody's gonna be interested in getting their cards, so I'll somebody will complete the set and I'll bring it bring them back to you. Bring Joel with you. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Oh, that's well, that's another interesting thing that you talked about, I think, and I've seen before, but like having characters sign um Lorcana cards instead of oh yeah, that's yeah, that Michael, that's another big thing, is like getting autographs in general. That's kind of like a subculture that we can talk about. Yeah, like it's a big thing. I know when I was a kid, you go buy little autograph books, and every time you meet a character, they have markers and they will sign your book. So you have a collection of all these autographs, and like yeah, all these cast members they go to school for months just like to learn mannerisms, to learn lines and stuff like that. And one of the things they learn too is specific autographs.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

I've learned Mickey's and Disney and Walt Disney themselves. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Ellie has quite the career as a calligrapher. My mom employs her for Christmas time. Oh, that's pretty cool. Gift box tags and such. Yeah, heck yeah. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

That's my next fandom also add there to the list. Yeah.

Moments That Still Give Chills

SPEAKER_02 36:54

I was gonna say when you move on from nursing, you can always got a gifted career as a as a calligrapher one day. Wedding screenage. Yeah, yeah. Oh, seriously. I think people pay money for that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

They really do.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

So much money.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Yeah. Wow, very cool.

SPEAKER_04 37:08

Uh okay. Well, why don't we this is a good transition between subcultures and hot takes.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

How do you feel about you called yourself a Disney adult, and there's a lot of stigma around that word. What are you what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Why wouldn't you want to be a Disney adult? What what is the problem with being in touch with your inner kid and experiencing magic like it's your first time here? There's just there's nothing like being in the parks. Watching a Disney movie, wiping your tears, watching the firewalls. Wiping your tears. I'm a crier. Hi, I'm a crier. It can be an emotional place, Michael. Every park.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

You'll you'll understand. Okay, you guys, you guys don't know what a kind of a crier am. I cried at Dark Knight Rises on Sunday. We're watching it Sunday afternoon before church. I'm crying at the end. Sorry, keep going. It's a good movie. I mean, I I don't know if I've cried at it, but I love the movie.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Yeah, no, I mean, I'm a broad Disney adult. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. Some people are into scary movies, not my thing. I'm into happily ever after. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

That can be. I know one of LB's hot takes because she told me the other day um that she's not a fan of Toy Story. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

That's like a that's a boiling hot take.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah. Um, sorry. I'm just, I don't know. It just doesn't do it for me. There it goes.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

I was sending her pictures because I was watching Toy Story 3, and I I don't know about you guys, but Toy Story 3 rips my heart out. And uh that's because I was I mean, I that's what I was talking to LB about is that I was literally in my freshman year of college, yeah, the year that it came out, and so it felt like it was like geared to me.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

It's all about the end of an era, like literally the passing of the torch and like all this other stuff. So like, yeah. And then they had to bring it up.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

And then a fifth one. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's what I feel about it. It's just there's just too much. There's too much. There's too much. I don't know.

If We Ran The Park For A Year

SPEAKER_02 39:05

I was so that was my big thing when it came to four when that came out. I was like, there's they can't top three. Like, three was so perfect, just stop. You're good. Like, yeah, I can't imagine it being any better. And then I did go and I watched four. I I really enjoyed it. It's good. It was very good. It wasn't as good as three.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

I don't want to get too off topic. It's definitely my least favorite of them, but it was good. Least favorite? I would say four is my least favorite. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. See, that we're gonna have to rank these now like we rank the Star Wars movies. Let's do this. Here's what we're gonna do. Oh my gosh. We're gonna have a fandom episode on Toy Story. Uh LB, you're gonna come back. That way you can be the antagonist, kind of like the what's the word I'm looking for? Um double's advocate.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Yeah, you mean double advocate. Keep it Disney Disney coded. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Uh is that does that uh uh go into like are you not a big fan of like Frontier Land as well? Do you avoid that when you go into um well I mean

SPEAKER_00 40:00

I mean Woody's um Toy Story is really only in Hollywood studios now. They just announced that he will be coming back to Magic Kingdom. Um, but yeah, I just my daughter's favorite ride is Slinky Dog, so I feel like I have to be at least a Slinky Dog stan.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Um but I don't know, just that sound, that sound uh tells all.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Okay, that was just one that I was aware of. Not that's not a good one. If you don't have any other hot takes that that come to mind, even if they're not yours, other ones that you know of.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Um I don't know that they're hot takes. I feel like I align with a lot of people. Um Animal Kingdom's a skip for me. Um just it's it's not very good. Um sorry, Disney. Um also Mission Space is a skip. Oh the G Force space simulator, not it.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Yeah, I don't know if I've done that one or not. Where's that one at? Um I don't know if I did that one or not.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

You don't have to. Yeah. We we shan't be.

What’s Next At Disney World

SPEAKER_04 40:58

It's literally like a centrifuge that you just sit in and it spins you around like as fast as possible. Like it's rough. Rides don't normally make me like motion sick, and that one I got motion sick on. Like, yeah. Yeah. Not a fun time.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Also, Figment. You have to do Figment. I um I don't get the Figment hate. Uh he's the best.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Is there Figment hate?

SPEAKER_02 41:19

Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Okay, so so let's pause.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

What is Figment for the So it's a ride at Epcot, it's called Journey into Imagination with Figment. And some of the callbacks, um, like when you're walking through the queue, is like to Flubber, the guy who invented Flubber. So it's like on that like theme. And so you're going through his lab where he does like the senses, and then you have this like mischievous little dragon figment who is um just poking and prodding everything, and he's got a good song, it's really good. We sing it all the time, the imagination song. Yep. And then you get to meet him at the end, usually.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

If you go during like a character meet time, yeah, and there's you there's like a big scientific area outside of it too, that like where you can like experiment on things. Yeah, very co sci. That's cool. Um, and like one of the guys from Monty Python is the scientist. I can't remember his name, but he's he's one of the original Monty Python cast members. It plays the scientist that's working with Figment.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

I guess I didn't even realize that there was a whole like ride and stuff that went with Figment. I just knew of him as being just uh, I don't know, one of the mascots of the park. Of the farts. The farts. Is he really?

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Because he's a figment of your imagination, so it's about exploring your imagination, and there's a lot of artistic stuff there. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

So he'll be heavily featured then?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Is that the why do you think I wanted to come so bad?

SPEAKER_02 42:41

I saw uh maybe I'll sh I'll see if I can find it again so I can show it to you or the the fans out there in the world, but I saw somebody who had collected every single one of the Figment pins that had ever existed. He had this giant seemed like, oh my gosh, that's crazy. So many of them.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Yeah, figments the best. Um I don't know. I don't know other hot takes. No, I just I love it there.

Closing, Plugs, And Next Episode

SPEAKER_04 43:04

They're they're all out there though. We know what they are, but everybody's got them. Everyone's got them. That's funny. All right. Well, why don't we dive into Nick our your favorite segment, the Would You Rathers?

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Yeah, I do enjoy the Would You Rathers. Um, I'm I'm excited for these because I'm sure maybe it might lead to the the hot takes as well. I don't know. Um Would you rather? We'll start out with would you rather only be able to visit Disney World during peak crowds or only during the hottest summer months?

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Um after this year, getting to experience both. I'm going to say the hottest summer months. Ah, our best trip this um year was probably in August. And it was super hot and super rainy, but super great.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

I'm sure once you know it, you know all the cool spots, you know when to take a break and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

That was my one, that was my one time I took a break. Usually I'm in the park all day, not that day.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Would you rather skip every ride but enjoy unlimited food and shows or ride everything with no snacks at all?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

So actually, my first trip, um, we didn't eat a single thing while we were there. And then we hit up the world's largest McDonald's in Orlando. So highly recommend riding everything eating later.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Okay. Whoa, you would skip the food at the Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

It's just okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

I don't know. That's probably a hot take right there.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

Honestly, the other night, Nick, you were talking about the food to a great extent. You were really excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

So I I am still. That is one of my top things that I'm looking forward to.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

I'm gonna need a list so we can.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

I don't know. I mean, that's just it. I don't even know exactly what I want to hit up. I'm excited to have the the meal pass, um, which is something that uh I don't know. That's so there's been a lot of debate. Actually, maybe you could speak to this. There's a lot of debate among uh people that are going to vacation there as to whether or not it's worth it to buy a meal plan. So that was one thing that we um my mom had always heard like oh it's not worth it to buy the meal plan, whatever. Well, we as a part of I think I think they extended it too.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

The it's for all of 2026.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

All oh all of 2026. So kids, you don't have to pay for kids on the meal plasma. So I was like, well, this there's no way that this couldn't possibly be worth it if we're paying. I remember what it broke down to, but I was doing the math in my head and I'm like, even if we were going and like trying to eat three meals, like with all four of us eating, there's no way we would spend less than this. Yeah, that would be worth it. So I'm really excited for that.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

I hear that you uh you can beat it, but you usually just break even. Like, unless you do a lot of research about what the best snacks are.

SPEAKER_04 45:36

Yeah, but if you get alcohol, the best thing about it is the convenience of just like you just use your magic band, like you've already paid for it, so you just like it doesn't matter. Like, I'll just scan it and use my snack token for this.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Yeah, no, I'm I'm excited for the snack tokens. I'll be getting things for sure. I'm sure I'll spend money on food too. Let's be real, but you know, it's the way it goes. Um, let's see. Would you rather have front row seats to the fireworks every night or walk on to your favorite ride once per trip?

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Well, um, while I do think the fireworks are a must-do, not an every time thing, so I am going to say ride my favorite ride, although um the way that we plan out our lightning lanes, we get to do that anyway. So we can have both. We're doing both.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Is Guardians your favorite or yes, okay?

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Hands down. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

I guess I don't even understand how so we're gonna get front row seats to the fireworks and ride your favorite ride. Is that the if you know the spots?

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Well, yes, if you know the spots, might not be front row, but it'll those still be good seats.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Uh Magic Kingdom, there's no bad seats to the city.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

You can still see the projections. Yeah. And Phantasmic too, I would say. Oh, there's good seats. We're not seeing Epcots, though. That's a hot take. What? Luminous, the Symphony OS. There we go. Probably actually two thumbs downs.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Why?

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Wait, there's like one firework and then it's just talking.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Are we not? I mean, I'm sure we're gonna be there in the evening, but we're just gonna leave before that happens. Oh or that's when you get on rides.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Well, that's when you get on the Skyliner, so the line is low.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Oh, yeah, okay, okay. Um, I've got a feeling I know your answer to this one, but I'll ask it anyways. Would you rather stay at a deluxe resort once every few years or take multiple trips staying off property?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Well, I've done both. Yes. I do really love deluxe resorts per um, preferably the beach or yacht club. They have the best pool on property. Um, and we and it's walking distance to Epcot. So um I think the Beach Club or the Yacht Club is probably my pick.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Sure, sure. Um would you rather ride Space Mountain with the lights on or Tower of Terror with all the drops double?

SPEAKER_00 47:47

This is a no-brainer. Tower of terror.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

I think I did. I I want to say when we when we were there my first time, we did ride uh Space Mountain with like the lights were on. I seem to recall it. Like I don't know if we made it back there twice or what, but I do seem to have a memory of that happening. It's a fairly common occurrence, I think.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

So I feel like people people get really excited when rides break down. They get to like do the the exit walk of getting out. But I just I don't get the hype.

SPEAKER_04 48:14

See behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

I think it would spoil the illusion, you know. Um here's a here's a double negative for you. Would you rather ne never watch a Disney parade again or never watch fireworks again?

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Well, Ellie is just such a big fan of the parades. She loves seeing the characters and waving to them, and it just warms my heart, makes me cry. Um but happily ever after always gets me too. I don't know. This is hard. Um I'm probably gonna say never see a parade.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

Oh hurts my heart to say it.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

Ellie, don't listen. Cover your ears. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Well, that's all I've got for Would You Rather. Let's uh let's open it up to some larger questions here. So I know some of these we've we've hit on already, but I'll I'll open us up with one that uh um I think I I I'm interested to get your take on. What is a hidden gym that you think uh most first-time visitors are are missing? Like the they're skipping or whatever, it's just not talked about, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

Um, well, I didn't know what the Skyliner was um until we stayed at Art of Animation that has Skyliner access. So I would say the Skyliner. I love the Skyliner. Um also Figment.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

But but isn't the attraction that's not even at the at the park, actually, right?

SPEAKER_04 49:28

It's just part of the experience of being there.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Yeah, okay. So it's a tra an attraction in that way.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

It is it is great.

SPEAKER_04 49:34

When I was a kid, I loved the monorails. So like that was the fun experience, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

Um also character dining.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

I feel like you have to do character dining. She's about ready to write her essay on why characters.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

You mean a PowerPoint? Yes, PowerPoint. I've created um several for Disney.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

Nice. She did. She showed them to us before this voyage that we're about ready to take, and it was uh very extensive. So she definitely could be one of those vacation planners for sure. So there we go. Um if she's looking for she's got multiple potential career options if a nursing thing just you know doesn't work out or whatever. Doesn't work out like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

I could move to Florida just like that.

SPEAKER_04 50:14

Nice. Uh what attraction do you think is the most overrated? And which one is the most underrated?

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Um overrated? Hot take, Peter Pan. Yes. Don't get the hype.

SPEAKER_04 50:23

I don't understand why it's always like the most crowded one. It's always like a two-hour wait. And I'm like, Well, is it just that because it's the IP, like the IP itself?

SPEAKER_00 50:31

Well, I mean, like Ariel, Little Mermaid. There's so many other minute wait.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Yeah. Well I'll say this too. It's at Magic Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom isn't known for its right. So it's Ariel. I know, that's what I'm saying. They both are like they're they're all there. And to me, there's not even like if you're looking for you're not going to Magic Kingdom as a thrill seeker, but for whatever reason, as you said, uh that one I I do remember it having massive lines, but I also remember like it's a small world also having a massive line for one.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Small world usually is a walk-on, which is funny because it's directly across from Peter Pan. And if I was walking up and I saw 75 minutes over here or five minutes over here, we're getting on it's a small world.

SPEAKER_04 51:10

Yeah, so Peter Pan is basically just like a little flight, you get in a little pirate ship and you fly over the story of Peter Pan. And like you get to see some cool little scenes and stuff like that, but it's like a five-minute ride and it's dark open.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Um it's very old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:24

Oh, it's probably like besides being like maintained, it's probably unchanged since it opened. Wow, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

It's a cool ride. There's there's little effects and stuff that are that are part of it that I thought were like especially, I mean I'm sure some of them have been added over time, but I remember being impressed with like, oh, this is one of the, you know, one of the more original rides in the park, and just the way that the I don't know, that it was designed is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 51:48

Yeah. Very cool. Okay, so going back, what's your most underrated attraction?

SPEAKER_00 51:54

I don't know. I I love them all. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

Um Okay, here's here's what's your take on the tiki room?

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Oh it's not it. Okay. It's just it's also me. Okay. Um I'm glad we did it once, but I would not do it again.

SPEAKER_04 52:11

No.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

Is it's not a ride, is it? No, it's a show. Oh, it's a show with birds. Animatronic birds, nothing. Maybe that's why I like it.

SPEAKER_00 52:18

I thought it was real birds. Also, hot take, not jungle cruise. I don't like jungle cruise. I don't get the hype on that one either.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

That's another classic one.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

What's the there's so there I know there's a few rides that are only at Disneyland. I always get confused which ones they are. So it's the Indiana Jones ride, right? Because they're currently coming. And then what is it, the Matterhorn? I think that was a that's that's a fun one. I didn't know. I've never been to Disneyland, but I would love to go. That was a good one. You get a Yeti chasing you the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Well, they have the Yeti in um Expedition Everest, yeah. Expedition Everest. Betty the Yeti, she comes to get you.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Betty the Yeti. So is that their maybe that's their version of the Matterhorn? Kinda, yeah. A little bit. Have you have you been you haven't been to California either, have you? Nope.

unknown 53:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

So man, all right, I do have an experience not every way at the table stuff. That's fun. It was from my time living out west. So it didn't make sense. That was a dark time for all of us. You living out west. I I appreciate that, Michael. Thanks for saying that.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

Yeah. All right, I'll jump in here with a question. What's the biggest misconception people have about frequent Disney visitors?

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Um, probably that we live in Florida. Obviously, don't live there, but we go, we went almost once a month this year. Skipped a couple. Um but I don't know. Probably that we do everything all the time. We have taken this year to like make sure that we hit everything. We've pretty much done every show. There's like a couple that shows that we haven't done, but I think we have ridden every ride except for Big Thunder because it's been closed for for restaurant. I think we've hit every single ride.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

That's amazing. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

I guess it's my turn, isn't it? I didn't even check out the the questions here. Uh what has been, I I think you hinted at this earlier. What has been one of your favorite Disney moments with Ellie so far?

SPEAKER_00 54:08

Every moment.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Um there's not one that stands out in your mind as being like the most impactful.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

So our very first trip in 2024, pre-um annual pass, we rope dropped the princesses, like where you get to meet the princess, and we were the first person in line. And so Cinderella led Ellie by the hand back to meet her, and that was like the first character she met, and her first princess experience and our first time at Magic Kingdom. So it was just really, really special. And also just like when she sees the castle and she gets excited when you're coming around on the lawn of rail and she gets to see it. She always points it's the castle, Mickey's house. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

I'm excited to have that experience with Kyla here. So she hasn't been yet, but Joel went. He uh that was right before we had Kyla, so he wasn't quite two yet.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

Yeah, wasn't Tori pregnant when you guys went? Very pregnant, yes. Okay. And it was like the middle of summer, too. It was. Yes, I remember this. Poor Tori.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

We told him we were crazy.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Yeah, it was a nice trip, but it was definitely um it was there were rough moments. Uh but it was we did have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 55:12

Yeah. All right. What do you think that Disney World does better than any other theme park in the world, including the other Disney properties?

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Um, well, I don't really have a lot of theme park experience. Dollywood maybe is my other theme park. Um it's just how they they suck you in. They you get there, and I don't care how much this bucket of popcorn costs, I'll drop 15 bucks on that. All this Mickey that's gonna cost me my left leg, sold. Like you just when you get there, everything nothing matters. Everything's perfect, it's magical, it's wonderful. You're having like the minorest of inconveniences, and somebody will make some magic for you. They'll pixie dust you. Here's a free slushy, here's a free sticker. Like it's just it's just great.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Have you had a lot of those types of experiences where where people in the like the cast members have gone out of their way to make your trip there special?

SPEAKER_00 56:03

I know that they do that sometimes, like stuff is um we've gotten pix pixie dusted, like where they give you something for free a couple times. Uh nothing crazy, free slushy when it's super hot the one day and a free pin the one day. Um but all just like little experiences, you know, they're they love kids. So anytime that you know your kids like not having the greatest time or there's like a line for anything, they're super interactive and super great.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

That's really cool. Um, well, I think we have time for a couple more questions here. I'll I'll do one more. Is there a moment in the parks that still gives you chills no matter how many times you see it?

SPEAKER_00 56:37

I would have to say happily ever after always gets me the fireworks show on Magic Kingdom. It's just the song is just such a it's a good one. It's a good song. Um, and it's it's just it's a crier. I would probably say that with everything though. Um like Dark Knight Rises. Yeah, sure. If I would have watched it, probably. Um also the first time in Forever the Frozen Sing-Along show. Oh my goodness. I was bawling like a baby. I remember being in college when that movie came out and watching it on repeat while I studied for finals, and then I get to experience it now with my baby.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Nothing like it. Yeah. I was gonna say, I can remember. So when I did go for the first time, it was we went uh what is supposedly the the least busy time of the year, which is so you've got the week between Christmas and New Year's, which is the busiest. Well, yeah, prior to that, you have a couple of weeks of the least busy times, allegedly, is what they said. Um, and um that was kind of our experience, like it wasn't that busy, but we it was in December, so you got to kind of experience a little bit of Christmas at Disney, and um, I can remember the the ending where the fireworks are going off, the show's going on on the on the castle and everything, and then they start making it snow. And I was like, dude, this is cool.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

That's such an immersive experience. It's just you can't even like explain it to somebody unless you've been there and walked through those gates.

SPEAKER_04 58:02

Yeah, the amount of detail they put into everything is part of what like this. If I were to answer that question, they put so much detail into the trash cans, the brick patterns that they laid down. Like every single thing has been like carefully designed and themed, and like, yeah, it's it's a work of art.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

I'm glad you mentioned the trash cans. Walt Disney himself paced and through through the park and tried to figure out you know, in a kind of scientific method, quote unquote, how often people would litter, like how far they would go before they'd litter. He found it was about 30 feet. So the trash cans are each 30 feet apart, like exactly. Good to know.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

He dropped the first piece himself to show everybody else it was fine, and then they all followed suit.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Yeah, exactly. Well, on that same note, I guess I'll use this as our final question. If you were in charge of Disney World for a year, what's the first change that you would make?

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Um, no paper straws. We're getting rid of those. And we're also getting rid of these um tags. They're like eight and a half feet long.

SPEAKER_04 59:04

Yeah, that's a little unnecessary.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

Yeah, unnecessary. That's those are my two changes.

SPEAKER_03 59:10

You would change the fast passes or no.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

Not even for me. Not even. Sorry, Nick.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

If everyone can buy if everyone gets a fast pass, it takes away from it.

SPEAKER_00 59:22

I mean, I would add more annual pass folder perks. I think we should get a discount or at least like one free fast pass.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

I'm telling you, that was that was a part of one of the things that I really enjoyed when I first went the first time. That was I and I think that's why it bothers me so much. The theory. So Disney, if you're listening, I'm bringing it back. Yeah. No, no. Yeah, well, that's you said you wouldn't make that change, but I I love I thought that was what made it special was the these, you know, fast passes the way that they worked. I was like, that's incredible that just everybody that comes in, you can have this kind of experience, and they're doing that to try to spread it out so that you're not having to wait as long. And we had, I mean, we had a great Great time. It was we did get to do most of the things in the we only went to two of the parks. Um but you know we got to do most of the things and that was really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:09

I mean I honestly think it's just been the uptick in amount of people in Disney World since COVID has been tremendous. So they can't do that as much anymore. So that's a big part of it. And it's a dis it's disappointing. But uh if more people want to experience it, this is what they gotta do. So all right. Well, uh we usually end it with talking about what's the next big thing for or whatever our fandom is. So, like what's coming to Disney World that you're the most excited for?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

There's so much coming. Um Magic Kingdom is getting a refurb, like the entirety of it. They're getting a car's land and a villains land. Um I've slowly become more of a villains person. Um so I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

Isn't there already a villains show that just opened recently?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Yeah, Hollywood Studios, very good, highly recommend.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

I'm excited for the the uh the villains thing for sure, but the cars is also at at Disney, at Disneyland.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:01

Um and also um over at Animal Kingdom in Canto is coming, which is one of my favorite movies. Um I'm really excited for that. And Monsters Inc. is coming to Hollywood Studios, so yeah, I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

That's cool. It's gonna be like the Doors ride, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:14

Yeah, I'm really excited. And I think they're doing Harry Hausen's, the rest of the sushi restaurant, yeah, where they go.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

Dang, that's fine. What is it? You know, in the right. Remember the sushi the sushi restaurant that Mike and Sully are in?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

Yeah, Mike and Celia go on their date, and there's the octopus, and he's making sushi rolls.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

Now that you say that, I remember it, but it wasn't like it's a very brief scene. I mean, but yeah, like that's not really a very iconic moment within the boo.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:42

Boo shows up there and the whole restaurant like screams and runs.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

I guess I need to go back and rewatch it. That was it didn't stand out in my mind until you said the octopus making sushi, and I'm like, okay, I do remember the octopus thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

Yeah, that'll be a cool experience. They're all they're always adding something else there.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

So yeah, so I'm super excited to go back when it's once it's all finished.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:00

Nice. Well, we will definitely hear from Nick about the update, but I hope you guys have a great trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

It's gonna be magical.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

Introduce Nick to as many things as possible. Take me.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

It's gonna get stuck in your head. You're welcome. Yeah, get ready.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

The only park that I haven't been to is the one that she said we should skip anyways. I haven't been to Animal Kingdom.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

So I am Until they add Indiana Jones and Encanto, it's probably the but there's Festival of the Lion King. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

Well that's my big thing, is Lion King's my favorite, and that's only the only place that you can see anything Lion King created.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:36

So it's um I mean uh the Avatar stuff's pretty decent. Like uh Fly Passage is a great ride. I'm excited to go check it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

I have not uh I'm not a huge Avatar fan, but I I'm excited to see the world and what I love Avatar.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:50

Yeah. Oh that's the only movie I'll sit through.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

So did you watch what would they have? That number three?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

I'm not the newest one yet. We don't have time to go see.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

Did you see the second one? Oh yeah. I still need to do it. It's on it. Did you watch it? No, not yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

I was very pregnant and Ellie loved the movie. She was flipping the whole movie. That's what I remember the most from that movie, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

It's gonna be a great trip, I'm sure. So we're gonna have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

Yes, LB, thank you so much for joining us. Dream come true. I know we could sit here and keep talking about it for a long time, but we we thank you for what you've given to us.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:24

Yes, absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you for being here. Will anybody want to talk about what's what's coming next on the podcast?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:30

Yeah, we're having uh my friend Keith come on. Nick, you know Keith too, but he's gonna talk to us about F1 racing, which is a big growing fandom from what I know, and I don't know a ton about it. So I'm excited to learn. This is another one that I think none of us know like anything about. No, so it'll be great.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:47

I do. I do know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:49

I'm gonna bring it for show and stuff. There we go. We have a tie it already. We already know it's gonna come up.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:55

Awesome. We're wondering if that's a drinking game or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:59

Oh my god. Guys, that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:02

Is that a criteria for your future episode? Is there a Lego tie?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:07

Stargate didn't have one.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:09

Did you all more girls?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:10

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

I guess I'll talk to you guys about it off the end. There's a thing on on uh Lego that I was interested in your guys' take. Okay, we'll talk about it right now. Sorry, listeners.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:21

We gotta jump off. We we'll be going for a while. So thank you guys for listening, and uh I hope you guys have a great week.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Fandom of Fandoms. If you had fun, be sure to follow us at FOF.pod on Instagram and threads and at fandomoffandoms on YouTube. Make sure to leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcast. It really helps new fans find the show. Lastly, if you've got a fandom you want us to cover, shoot us an email at fandomof podcast at gmail.com. Until next time, keep being passionate, keep being curious, and keep being a fan.