EarzUp! | Erik Goes To Casa Bonita (and Universal Studios)

[00:00:02] It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. EarzUp! What's up everybody? EarzUp Podcast. We have a show tonight for you. I don't really fully understand what we're doing. I think this is just one of those things where after like 14 years of doing these shows, we decide to be like, you know what we're going to do?

[00:00:27] We're going to just do whatever we want to do. We're going to talk about whatever we want to talk about. Something that's cool for everybody involved on this side of the microphones anyway. Sure is a show. Yeah, it's a show. It has nothing to do with Disney at all. It has nothing to do with Disneyland. I mean, maybe you can make a comparison. We might get to that point at some point. But if you're looking for like Disney content, you know, that isn't really, we have Disney news and that's about it.

[00:00:55] But today on the show, we're doing a special segment of Eric's Eating Again, but it's a focused segment. And it's about Eric's trip. I can't believe we're doing this. It's about Eric's trip to Casa Bonita in Denver, Colorado, in Colorado territory. And as Eric said, you know, some people consider it the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.

[00:01:20] But I don't know who those people are. I think those people are Eric and RGH. And that's about it. Yeah, well, hey, that's that it's that's two of us. You go. That's right. I have never been to Casa Bonita people. And we've talked about it on the show several times and we've never gotten like a really in-depth, you know, breakdown. And so if you don't know about Casa Bonita, you can look it up. It was this old.

[00:01:48] Well, I'm sure Eric will talk about it. But basically, it was if you were a South Park fan, you've heard of Casa Bonita. Carmen. Yeah, there you go. And that's where I first heard of that's where most people in the world first heard about it. And it's it's overcome a transformation. And now apparently it's somewhat of a destination. So we're going to talk to Eric about that. I'm curious, super curious to know how Casa Bonita was. And then Eric is currently Eric, where are you right now? I am. Logic, please.

[00:02:18] Exact. I need exact GPS coordinate. Oh, crap. Hang on. Let me look it up. I'm at the Royal Pacific Lowe's Hotel at Universal right now. Hey, what room? I'm kidding. Yeah. Well, I guess by the time this gets published. So you're at Universal and you're you're going to Disney World soon. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be tomorrow. I move over to the Riviera Hotel at Walt Disney World.

[00:02:49] And yeah. But for tonight, I'm still at Universal. Nice, man. So we'll talk to you a little bit about that as well. Probably after the break. We got some Disney news. It's going to be a fun show, man. I'm excited about it. All right. As long as you're excited. Sure, man. Well, I know you were up late last night finishing this and then you had to go have fun today. Well, yeah, it was easy to stay up late because it's like two hours different time zone from

[00:03:20] where I woke up the other day. And yeah. Yeah. It's it. It time zones are weird. Yeah, they really are. It's 11 p.m. I'm like, well, I'm wide awake, but I've got to wait a few more hours to do this show. So yeah. Taryn's like, look, you can go and start without me because, you know, I know it's late where he is. And yeah, you're probably right. And then Eric's in the discord going.

[00:03:47] Now I have a whole different like outlook on Jeremy's struggles whenever he's on the show. Like, yeah. Jeremy lives in this time zone. Yep. But anyway, before we get to that, if you want to follow in Eric's footsteps and you want to travel all the way over to Florida, you can go to Universal or Disney, but whatever you want to do. Excuse me, Disney World. Oh, my God. I swore for a second. Get up Conceears. Go to Conceears.com.

[00:04:15] They will help you plan your Disney vacation. They are Disney planning experts. They can help you do other stuff, too. If you want to go to Universal, if you want to do a bunch of other stuff, they can help you with that as well. But Disney parks are where the bread and butter is at. So hit them up. Conceears.com. We are actually using them on our. I'm going to make sure Alice is actually in bed. Yeah, we're going to be we're going to be using them on our trip to Disneyland in like a week and a half. Oh, man. Yeah. I'm very excited about that. I'm not really very.

[00:04:43] I'm a little more excited than I was, I guess. Okay. Yeah. But yeah. Anyway, so we're using them. Jim, these are my Concee ear. And I'm going to I'm going to put him through his paces when we're there. I'm going to text that boy every hour asking him, hey, why are the ride weight? Why are the line wait times different in the app than they are on on the board? And, you know, hey, how many calories? Look up how many calories are in the Manhattan, the Matterhorn macaroon, please for me and tell me.

[00:05:13] And he'll do it because he has to. Yeah. Yeah. And then can you can you make it calories per dollar? Yeah. Break it out into that, please. And then divide that by ounces. Thank you. You'll have no choice. He will have zero choices to do it. And I will love that for me. He has to do it. Yeah. It's he took an oath. Yeah. The concierge oath, man. I love that for him. So anyway, check him out.

[00:05:40] Concierge dot com to help you plan your your next Disney vacation. They're good people. I'm really excited to use the service so far. It's been easy. Like I know I don't have to do a single thing. Leading up to it, I don't have to verify my hotel reservations. I don't have to make sure I got my booking number. I don't have to do any of that. All I had to do was make reservations. And Jimmy was like, look, I can do that for you if you give me your Disney, you know, your my Disney login or whatever. I mean, I'll just do it.

[00:06:08] It's probably good to get a little bit of practice at it, considering I have a podcast about the whole process, basically. But, you know, if I didn't have to, he would just do the whole thing for me. I'm like, oh, great. It's perfect. Not bad. I love having people do stuff for me. It's amazing. Pretty great. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited about it. So anyway, that's going to be fun, man. And, you know, Al still doesn't know. We're trying to figure out when to tell her.

[00:06:37] But so far, we've just been talking to her through the day at Disneyland. Yeah, like, hey, you know where we are? No, we've. So. You know, we've I think I said before, we've sort of blocked it out as a road trip to L.A. to see friends for her birthday, to see our friends and like do. OK, do stuff. Maybe I didn't talk about it. I was like, yeah, we're going to go see some friends.

[00:07:02] We're going to go see the Natural History Museum there in L.A. and we're going to see some dinosaur skeletons. And she's like, oh, yeah, that would be great. So she's pumped. We went and bought walking shoes for our walking trip, quote unquote, around L.A. I'm like, we're going to need walking shoes. And she's like, yeah. And she's like today. She's like, I'm so excited. I can't I can't even help it. I'm I'm already packing crafts and stuff. She's a big dude. This is cute.

[00:07:33] But yeah, we don't know when to tell her. It's like actually going to the parks park. So I don't know. Stay tuned for that, I guess. The next show. That sounds great. The next show we're going to be doing. It was scheduled for a while. We are on vacation. And. So we're going to be we're not going to be here. There's going to be one show next month, but the show that it's going to be is, I think, on the 20th.

[00:08:00] And it's going to be just a full recap, a full breakdown. You know, again, you guys know me. It's not like, oh, well, then we went on this ride and it took 45 minutes. Then we decided to go get a burger. And the burger wasn't too good. It was a little dry. But that's my fault for not getting cheese on it. But I went to go try to, you know, like playing heads up. And I had to. My clue was jackhammer. And it took me 15 minutes to figure it out. Yeah. And then people were looking at me.

[00:08:30] Yes, I'm not going to be doing that. But I'm very curious to see how the park has changed, how the flow has changed. The whole experience of going to the park, not only just me, but with my family and with a seven-year-old. Like, that's going to be wild. We've done a couple of shows on traveling to Disneyland with a kid Alice's age. We've never done it. That's our own child, right? So it'll be a good time. It'll be a good show. And I'm looking forward to, you know, to breaking that down. That'll be fun. Awesome.

[00:09:00] Yeah, absolutely. Also, she's seven. She's going to be seven. She'll be seven on the 11th of March, everybody. So mark your calendars. That's crazy. Yeah, we'll be back before her actual birthday. But yeah, she'll be seven. Oh, okay. Okay. But one thing I did, well, it wasn't really for the trip, but I got my first, let me make sure. Yeah, my first official Disney-themed tattoo the other day. Oh, man. Yeah. It hurt. It's on my thigh.

[00:09:30] I'll show you in a second. So I have three other tattoos, but they're all on my arms. And like, that hurts, you know, but it is more like a scraping where like you took up like a bunch of hot thorns and like just rubbed them real fast across your skin. Yeah. This hurt like wincing, sweating. I'm like, I was clammy and sweating. My heart rate was going like crazy. My leg was twitching.

[00:09:56] I was like, I was almost going to tell him I'm stop, please. Just no more. Wow. It hurt. Inside thigh or outside thigh? Top. Top of my leg. Here, I'll show you. Here. Here it is. Ready? You let me know if you know what this is from. I'm sure you do. Nice. There it is. Oh, that's pretty great. It's pretty good, right? Looks good. That is an excellent Haunted Mansion.

[00:10:26] Yeah, too. It's good, right? Yeah. So, yeah, it's one of the faces from the hallway of doors, which I've loved, you know, from the portraits, right? I've loved those things forever. Those things are so cool, man. Those faces. And so I'm like, you know, it was either this one or the one with the crown on. Okay. This is the, which, first of all, I didn't know it was a woman until my tattoo artist, Chummy, was like, oh, yeah, what do you want to do with these pearls?

[00:10:56] I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like the pearls of the neck. Like, it just kind of like ends in a frame. And I'm like, oh, dude, it does. Had no idea. Had zero idea. Like, okay, apparently this is a girl. So that they're a woman, some kind of woman. There you go. Yeah. And then so, you know, but that if you remember those, like the portraits are sort of like they're ghost pictures, right? For lack of a better term, right? Here, I got a, I'm looking for a picture right now.

[00:11:28] It was like Granny Ghoul maybe or something. It's hard to see. Oh, yeah. There you go. Yeah. It's hard to see. It's a little blown out. But I mean, you get the point where it's like black and white kind of thing or whatever. Um, and so he, you know, he put on a, he put on a little bit of a little bit of color there too. So it looks maybe kind of zombie like, which I think is fine. I mean, cause otherwise we have a white tattoo. It's going to fade in about a minute. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of shading. I get it.

[00:11:55] The, I've got a tattoo on my calf that had a lot of, a lot of line work, a lot of shading. And after a while, I'm like, just stop, stop digging at my leg. Stop stabbing my leg, please. Cause he's, yes. And you know, and he's like, he's like the, he goes, the, the outline, the line part, the outline will be the worst because it's a smaller needle and it's, it's pinchy. And I'm like, pinchy, I can handle, but it's not pinchy.

[00:12:25] Like on the surface of your skin, like, Oh, I'm pinching you. I'm going to get you. It's like deep tissue pinching. It's not okay. So then you do that. So then you're raw and you're bleeding and you're whatever. And then he like, you know, does the shading of, you know, the eye around the eye and the chin and, you know, do all the definition. Right. Then he goes and does everything else. Then he comes back across it with green. Then he kind of does like an overall yellow.

[00:12:50] So I had, I had my leg attacked in places four times and I'm just dying, dude. And at the end of it, he goes, Oh, you did. I put you through a lot, man. You did really good. And I'm laying there. I'm recording a video of myself, just absolutely wincing in pain and sending a tear. And I'm like, this is what I'm going through right now. I'll tell you how bad it was. When you guys know me and you know, my mask policy, like, you know, I'm like, I'm dead

[00:13:15] said I had to, I had to pull my mask down because I couldn't breathe because I was breathing so like hard that my mask wasn't clearing, you know? And so the air was still kind of warm and I'm breathing it in. So when you're breathing warm air and you're already sweaty and you're clammy and like your heart rates elevated, your, your, um, your adrenaline's going, I already thought I was going to, I kind of got a little woozy, like, Whoa, here we go. You know, it gets so claustrophobic. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:44] Um, and so I had to like lay down, it was on the table and I had to pull my mask down a bunch of times because I'm like, I, I'm not going to make it. I'm going to, I'm going to pass out just from the pain and the stress of whatever. But, um, uh, I lost what I was going to say. Anyway, it hurt. It hurt, man. The end. Oh, that's what I was going to say. So I'm like laying there in between like, you know, attacks on my body.

[00:14:08] And, uh, I, I made the comparison of, of getting a tattoo is kind of like having a kid where it sucks to go through. But once you're done, it looks cool. And then you forget all the pain you went through and you go, yeah, I'll get off another one. That's fine. I'll do that again. Oh yeah. I would totally do it. Cause already I'm like standing there and he's done. So, you know, what do you think? I'm looking in the mirror.

[00:14:33] I'm going, well, you know, my knee, you know, right there, you know, my other leg, you know, like driving home planning on, well, you know what? What's the next one? Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I don't know. And I might make like one leg, like a Disney leg. I don't know. Cause I got some ideas for some, some cool stuff, you know, but anyway, that's my Disney tattoo story. And I wanted to make sure I'm like, dude, please tell me that this will be healed and I can wear shorts to, to my, my trip.

[00:15:01] And he's like, yeah, it'll be close, but you should be, you should be fine. Okay. Yeah. We'll see. Well, that's, that's good. Yeah. I, I don't know. I don't know that most women would appreciate comparing a tattoo to a child, but well, I didn't mean child premise. I didn't mean child birth. I mean, raising a child, like, like couples having a child. Yeah. From the dad's perspective too. And because that's what you always hear about it. Well, that's why they make them cute.

[00:15:28] So you forget all the bull crap that you have to go through about, you know, the late nights, the not sleeping, the not feeding the shit, you know, the crying when you can't soothe them and all that stuff you have to go through, all that pain. They're cute at the end of the day and make you feel good. And you're like, Oh, I want another one. That's fine. That's something. Yeah. Anyway, it didn't work on me though. All right, Eric, let's talk Casa Bonita, baby. Let's go. Let's what's air.

[00:15:57] Oh, hold on a second. Hold on a second. Hey, what's up, Eric? Eric, are you eating again, brother? I sure am. All right. Talk to me, man. Where'd you go? All right. Oh, Casa Bonita. It's it's not in downtown Disney.

[00:16:24] It's not in Disney Springs or any of the other Disney places where you could eat things. But you know what? It sure is an interesting place to eat. But as as you said at the the top of the show, many people, if you if you haven't heard anything about what if you've heard anything. Sorry.

[00:16:47] If you have heard anything about Casa Bonita, it's because of a self park episode from 2003. Wow. Was that long ago? 2003. Yes, dude. And that's where I first heard about it, because when my wife and I first came to Colorado for a vacation. So this was a homecoming for her.

[00:17:14] This was a like scouting trip, basically, as I found out later. OK. When when we went to Colorado, we met up with her family. We we we went to Casa Bonita and she showed me that episode of South Park because I hadn't seen it. And yeah, everything in that episode is real. One hundred percent real. Really? Interesting. So. So. OK.

[00:17:41] So we remind everybody has like there was like cliff divers. And I forget I forget some of the other things. Look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it. Funny. Yeah. I mean, basically, the the the thrust of the episode is. Kyle has a Kyle wants to have his birthday party at Casa Bonita, which is I mean, that's

[00:18:04] a totally real thing that that Trey Parker is was super into when he was a kid. Mm hmm. And it's like the Chuck E. Cheese of Mexican restaurants. But like with real people instead of animatronics. Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there aren't animatronics there, but but yeah.

[00:18:29] So the the whole the episode is is funny because Cartman wasn't invited, but then he he manages to get himself invited by tricking Butters into thinking that the world is coming to an end. So Butters doesn't go and Cartman takes his place. Right. And at the end, the reason that you that you hear so many things about what's going on at Casa Bonita is because when the authorities come to arrest Cartman, he's running through

[00:19:00] Casa Bonita saying, oh, Black Burt's Cave, like he's trying to do all of the things. Those are all real things. Fire. Fire. Fire. Right. To get to get it all done. And those are all real things. It's crazy. It's it's crazy. This place. And it's been crazy for so long. This particular location opened up in 1974. Jeez.

[00:19:24] There are other locations that opened up earlier in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. Oh, as early as 1968. I didn't know that. I didn't know it was a chain. That's cool. Yeah, it was a chain created by a man named Bill Waugh. This is the crown jewel of of that chain. And it's the only one that still exists. Nice.

[00:19:51] All of the all of the others closed at some point. This location is fifty two thousand square feet. Oh, that's big. Huge. Yeah. At one point, it was the largest restaurant in the world. No way. Wow. Really? In the world. Yeah. It was a lot. Largest Mexican restaurant in the world. OK. All right. Well, I mean, you know what? That's less impressive, but still very impressive.

[00:20:21] Yeah, it's it's it's enormous. I mean, it was basically built in the ruins of a department store. So Jocelyn's department store was a was a department store chain in in the Denver area that had been around since the eighteen hundreds. This particular building is was built in 1957. So the restaurant came to be in 1974. So it's already an older building. Yeah.

[00:20:50] They turned an entire department store into a restaurant. That's so cool. I really I think that's really neat. I wonder how much that renovation cost. You know what I mean? Like you can't floor or whatever. We're going to just make that, you know, a kitchen. Right. Oh, gosh. But yeah. Speaking of kitchens, when the building was initially when the restaurant initially opened

[00:21:20] and for many years, that rest or that kitchen wasn't a very good kitchen. OK. Pretty much everything was steamed. Oh, God. Somehow that sounds very 70s, though. 60s, maybe. Oh, yeah. Very bland. Yeah. All of the food was steamed for many decades. Oh, I don't even know what steamed Mexican food.

[00:21:49] Yeah. Make this make sense. Yeah, dude. I can't. And it had a reputation for being of of poor quality. OK. Even when I first went. Yeah. Yeah. The first time that I went, it wasn't great, but then it got progressively worse over the years. It was something where like to get into the building, you had to order food. Hmm.

[00:22:20] OK. Like the line to get into the building took you past. The food area where you had to order something, you took your tray of food to your table and the drinks were OK, but like the whole point of getting in necessitated ordering this terrible food that you might not eat. OK, so you had to go through. It's like a food court, like maybe like Rancho, where you go up and you order your food and

[00:22:50] then you take it and you go find some place to eat and then you can kind of explore afterwards. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And and that was that's part of it is is the exploration after you eat or don't eat. Yeah, because your server would bring you drinks. Your server would bring you soap of P is OK. For those who don't know what a soap of P is consider consider a beignet, but instead of powdered sugar, granulated sugar and honey.

[00:23:18] OK, so it's it's like a it's just a chunk of fried dough, a square of fried dough. So and the that was one of those things that was kind of like universally accepted. Oh, yeah. The soap of P is are amazing. It's just dessert. But you could have unlimited soap of P as you had a little flag that you would raise on your table. God, dude, that's crazy. And they just bring you more. I guess it's hard. I mean, there's some food that you just can't screw up.

[00:23:44] And it sounds like fried dough with honey is just sort of like universally. No, you know, it's like it's a very Middle Eastern, very Greek, you know. So I'm sure every culture has a fried dough with honey somewhere somewhere. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And even if you look up soap of P is like there's so many different South American and

[00:24:05] Central American versions of like every region has this has this fried dough that they call soap of P is nice. And, you know, here they're they're they're perfect little pillows of of delightful sugar and flour. Yeah, it continued this way until until the pandemic started and the restaurant closed down.

[00:24:34] The company that current that owned it at the time. It essentially went bankrupt. And the future of the restaurant was in question. Enter Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who have just piles of cash. Sure. There's self park. You got it. Look, you got to put it somewhere. Indication, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And and and Trey Parker looked at this as a personal project.

[00:25:03] And if you want to hear more of like the story of how this place got turned around, there is a there's an excellent documentary called Casa Bonita Mi Amor on Max. It's it's it's excellent. And it's very touching. It's very touching. And you can kind of see that Trey's the one who's like, I've got to do this. And Matt's like, OK, I guess I can also do this.

[00:25:31] I feel like that's their relationship anyway, though, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's it's interesting. These two two guys that have been like doing stuff together for so long and now they've got just cash. Mm hmm. They took this building that that had this reputation. It's this massive, massive restaurant and it has this reputation for food that might not be good and for entertainment that is probably good.

[00:26:01] And they they took it on as a giant project. Yeah, because they wanted to turn it around because they right because they had a actually really loved it. It was a very nostalgic thing for them because they grew up in Colorado and right. Yeah, exactly. And and that was that was the the main idea. They they just wanted to resurrect this thing. I mean, in 2015, the building was named a state landmark.

[00:26:32] So it's I mean, if you look at pictures of it that like exterior. Sure, it's part of a giant strip mall. OK, it's it's a box. It's a department store. But in front, they can, you know, Bill Wall constructed this. This, you know, pink tower in the front. OK, and that's that's part of that. That's part of what makes it, you know, so striking.

[00:27:01] It's it's along Colfax Avenue in the middle of like nowhere. It's not a good neighborhood. It's not a bad neighborhood, but it's just. You know, it's it's there. And, you know, on top of the on top of the building is a statue of the last Aztec emperor. All right. You know, it it's it's crazy. It's absolutely a crazy thing to have in the middle of Lakewood.

[00:27:31] Technically, it's Lakewood, Colorado. OK, yeah. It does seem like like this person was just trying to throw. Culture points together to have a restaurant about it. Right. I mean, it's like, what is the what is the Aztec emperor have to do with? So papillas. Right. Right. And as it turns out, he created something that is so enduring and so.

[00:28:00] So beloved by the people of Colorado that they they made it a historical landmark. And. When it went bankrupt, when when they went bankrupt. Trey and Matt bought the place for three million dollars. OK, that's a chunk change, man. But also, I don't know. I feel like that's a heavier cultural responsibility. I think, you know, that you want to talk about heavy. Yeah.

[00:28:28] They put in 40 million dollars to renovate the floor. Zero. Or zero to a million dollars. Dude. Oh, those guys. You got to you got to watch the documentary to get the full details. But basically, they had to gut the entire place. I mean, this is this is a building that, like you mentioned, there are cliff divers there. There's water. There are waterfalls.

[00:28:57] There are water features in this place. So. So there's water damage. Yeah. Half the building is rotting because of water. All right. The ventilation system was practically destroyed by pigeon crap. And so I imagine it smelled very musty in there. Oh, it was super musty. That's gross. So the cliff divers diving off of a fake waterfall into into a pool.

[00:29:27] One of the ways they could leave the pool was a like underwater cavern where they would swim. They'd swim through a tunnel and emerge into a room that basically had exposed electrical elements. Yes. Awesome. I love this. It could have died.

[00:29:48] There's so much of this place that it like it's it's I mean, yes, it was massive and there are so many different rooms and each room is has a different theme. And it looks like a Mexican village on the inside of of the building. But it was all crumbling. Wow. This place was falling apart. And. To their credit, Parker and Stone. Real realized they're never going to make their money back. Hmm.

[00:30:18] On this. They just they knew it was a losing proposition, but they did it anyway. Damn. Yeah, they did it anyway. And they it was worth it to them to preserve this place. Like it's it's it's gorgeous now. Yeah. OK, so so they renovated it and reopened and you went recently the first time. It was your first time going. No, I've been I've been several times. OK, so it so they've turned it into like a destination, not a chore.

[00:30:48] Yeah. Yeah. And what was interesting during the like. Soft open for like a year, if you were on their mailing list, you could get offered a spot to to come in. And so for the first year, you basically had to wait. I think I waited about like nine months before I got an offer. Wow. To come in and make reservations. That was the early phase.

[00:31:15] Now that it's open, open, they they put out reservations about a month or two in advance. And you have to log in and get your reservations. If it's like it's got kind of calmed down since then. But sure. Since since it initially opened, like if it's a week weeknight, you could probably get a reservation anytime. But if you want to get a weekend, you've got to get a reservation months in advance.

[00:31:44] It's still it's still a highly sought after destination. And that's what they've made it good for them. Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's packed every night. They've changed the kind of the dynamic of the serving culture there. All of their servers are paid, I think, over 30 bucks an hour. Wow. Like they're they're not paid minimum wage like most servers. There's there's no tipping. Nice.

[00:32:12] The intent is to pay people a good living wage. And yeah. And and create a completely new culture in the area as far as a restaurant is concerned. That's cool. I like that. All right. Well, that's good. So so when you went, what did you get? What are you eating on when you go to Casa? Let's see. So I have had we've been there a couple of times.

[00:32:38] I think the last time I went, I had I'm generally a chili relleno guy. So that's the first meal that I had there. You're the one that eats chili relleno. OK, got it. Yeah. Yeah, that's me. Yeah. It's not a huge menu. Cheese and chicken enchiladas, burrito, taco salad, nachos, tacos. Sounds like a food truck. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:06] I mean, it's it's it's general Mexican food, but they don't they don't have that like they don't really put a ton of stuff out there. Yeah. For kids, they've got chicken tenders and burgers if you want. Well, yeah, with a menu like that, you're never going to make your 40 million back. You know, you know, you got to spice it up a little bit. How's the how's the renovation as far as like what they've done to the place? Is it is it? I imagine it looks a lot better. It looks it looks better.

[00:33:33] And ultimately, it's very similar to the way it was before. I think it has to be. They didn't they didn't change a whole lot like they recreated the waterfall. So there are still cliff divers. So every 15 minutes there's a cliff diving presentation. And this is a multi story building. So like if you are if you're eating near the cliff divers, you're upstairs. OK, so you can watch them.

[00:34:04] You know, it's it's like. People that, you know, they do a little bit of a show and they kind of like, you know, show off a little bit and do these fun, fun dives down. They'll climb back up. The the cliff and then dive again. OK, that's fun. Yeah, it's it's fun. They don't they don't do a huge show like they used to have like a Western show that they would do around there and they'd like. Yeah.

[00:34:33] Knock a cowboy off the cliff into the water and that sort of thing. But yeah, it's certainly primed for a stunt show. I feel like. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, these days they just do the cliff diving and it's you know, it's fun. They just do this whole thing and they climb back up and they dive off again. And there you go. That's cool.

[00:34:56] You can also go downstairs where the base of the waterfall is and you can watch them dive in from there. That that whole area is pretty much the way it was before. They just recreated it without the live wires. Yeah, you know, I guess you gotta be safe. That's fine. Man bear pig wanders around. No way. Really?

[00:35:26] Yes. Like in a suit and whatever. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Because they used to have a gorilla that would wander around and was sometimes part of the shows. You had a man bear. Because why not? But they replaced him with man bear pig. I love that. That's so good. Which is great. I high-fived man bear pig the last time we were there. Nice. Do they have cool merch? They've got amazing merch. No way. That's cool, dude. Yeah. Brandy and I got Christmas sweaters. Oh, really? This year for Christmas.

[00:35:57] All right. Well, whoever goes next, let me know and I'm going to go on their website and look at their merch and you're going to buy me something. All right. Yeah. I'll give you money for it. They've got. Oh, okay. Yeah. They've got a lot of shirts and stuff like we've. Yeah. They're big on the merch right now. Um, and, uh, yeah, they've got like hot saucy you can buy and candles and, and stuff. It's pretty great. The hell do the candles smell like? Yeah.

[00:36:25] That was not what I was expecting you to say. What the candle smell like soapapillas? They've got a, a cinnamon soapapilla candle and they've got a Mexican chocolate candle. This, it, well, see that now you're talking. Um, this sounds like a, like an aisle at a home goods, like pickled popcorn and, uh, you know, tumor extractors in the same area. Let's go. There you go. That's weird, man. Uh, but yeah, so let's, let's run down the, the entertainment there.

[00:36:55] So the cliff divers, it's a 30 foot, uh, leap into the water. Okay. Um, there are strolling mariachi bands. There's also a mariachi stage that, uh, you can catch people at, uh, there's a puppet theater. The, the puppet show is, um, is just team America world, please. It's reminiscent. I mean, every, every voice in the place is Trey.

[00:37:26] Oh man. So, so you hear things like, um, are you ready for the puppet show? You should be. I love that. Head down to the puppet theater and see our next show. Um, but yeah, the, the puppet show is led by a taco. Of course. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, there is a burrito that comes down on a swing. Very reminiscent of country bear chamber. No way. That's so cool.

[00:37:55] It's, it's totally country bear. Wow. Um, one of the characters is a plate of the old food. It just looks like. Oh, I do have your pictures for the show. I just checked my email and I got them finally. Oh, there you go. Okay. I did. I didn't send them. It's very South park. Like, you know, one of the characters is the thing, the way it used to be. Right. That's funny. Yeah. It's, it's amazing. The puppet show is great.

[00:38:24] You're not allowed to, to, to record it. I'm sure there are really people that have. That's too bad. Yeah. But those new meta glasses, you never know. Oh geez. All right. Yeah. Um, but yeah, the, the old food is very sad, but you know, it's a fun show. So I'm looking at the pictures. It is very, it looks a lot like the Mexico pavilion in Epcot. It is. That kind of thing. Yeah. Uh, it's lit really well.

[00:38:53] It's, it's almost like a tiki bar, um, Mexican pavilion. Just like in the way that it's lit. Like those kind of colors, like those almost neon purples and greens and stuff like that. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a Mexican village at night. Indoors, but outdoors that, that type of, that type of setup. Um, and each room is different.

[00:39:22] Um, it's super great. I'm looking at this now and I guess it looks like maybe the merch. I don't know what it is, but there's a bunch of tile. It looks kind of weird. And then you just have that acoustic tiling and for the, the ceiling. It's so chaotic. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's still the ceiling is going to be, but they've got, they've got fiber optics in the ceiling. So it looks like stars. Okay. I saw that. Oh, okay. I'm getting the vibe. I'm getting the vibe.

[00:39:52] Dude. Yeah. I would, yeah. We go. It's very, it's very much the Epcot Mexico pavilion. Nice dude. If, if you're familiar with that, but yeah, they've got caricature, caricature artists, face painters. They've got a full arcade. Oh man. With ski ball and a shooting gallery. How long? They have a root beer bar. What? Wow. A root beer bar.

[00:40:20] So like next to the shooting gallery, there's a saloon and they, it's a root beer bar and they've got multiple flavors of root beer. Um, that's cool. How long does somebody stay there for dinner? So it's not long enough or too long. Oh, you can spend hours there.

[00:40:43] And we, and we have like the, if you go there for a meal, they're turning you over quickly. Like they want you out of your table the moment you're done eating. But most people will stay there for a couple hours after their meal. Wow. Just to like poke wandering. Yeah. Wandering around, looking at stuff, going to the arcade, um, visiting, uh, there's a,

[00:41:11] there's a special table that was Cartman's table from the episode of self. No way. So there's a statue of Cartman. Nice. At a table. Oh God. Like a little photo op. Um, like I said, you can meet man, bear pig. There's a magic show, um, sorcero, the magician, which is, it's great. There's this little theater and sorcero does this show. That's like set to seventies music.

[00:41:40] There's no talking. It's just this person who dances around in like a, a body suit and has like a mask on and they, they do fun magic tricks. It's cool. That's awesome, man. Um, it's great. You can get your, your old West, uh, sepia toned pictures at the, the jail. Perfect. Of course. And then, um, so they, they still have soap of Pia's.

[00:42:08] You can still raise your flag for unlimited, um, fried dough. And, uh, then there's black parts cave, which is another thing that's referenced in the South park episode where it's, it's basically a walkthrough haunted cave. Ooh. Okay. So they've got, you know, ghost effects and, and sound effects.

[00:42:33] And when you get to the center, it's, you know, uh, a pirate's treasure trove, which includes, um, a, an evil Knievel lunchbox. All right. Um, well, it sounds fun. I mean, it, in the evenings, the last time we went, it was pretty late and there were a lot of, it was kind of a hipster crowd, um, which is still fun. Like there's a bunch of adults going to see like a kid's magic show.

[00:43:03] But it, it's great. Like we went with, with one of our friends who brought their, their kids and our young master Lucas, uh, said, you guys, you gotta come see the magic show. You get candy at the end of the show. Yeah. So it's so like kids are into it. Adults are into it. It's such a great thing to be there now. All right. Yeah. Well, that sounds fun. Yeah. Excellent.

[00:43:33] It's, it's super fun. It's still a giant restaurant. There are so many different rooms to wander around and see. They, they've got live music everywhere. Um, sounds highly recommended if you're, if you're in, if you're in the Denver area. Yeah. There you go. If you're missing a little bit of Disney magic, you can get some, uh, South park magic. There you go. There you go. It's almost the same. That's what Eric is eating today. Everybody.

[00:44:04] I love it. It sounds fun. I definitely want to go. I mean, look, I would have gone when it was crappy and I wish the few times I'd been to Denver. I wish I knew about this place before it. I didn't. All right, everybody. We are going to take a quick break. We're going to come back. I want to hear what Eric is doing in universal. I want to hear how universal is doing. I haven't been there in a bit and then we'll do some Disney news and we'll get out of here. So hang on everyone's ears up. We'll be right back.

[00:44:33] Back to ears up where the opinions never stop. Ever. All right, everybody. Thanks for hanging on. We are back. We're still talking to Eric, everybody. We've we've managed to wrangle him. Let him stay over. It's now midnight. We're holding him over to the next day. But he's going to tell us about his trip to universal because I'm curious. We haven't been universal in a long time. And as everybody knows, we're going to go to Disneyland a couple of weeks.

[00:45:01] So I'm curious to see as somebody who who travels the parks a lot. Eric, how is it going to universal? What does universal have that Disney doesn't have? And how can we get that magic? Something, you know, it's it's interesting. So staying at a hotel near universal, one of the one of the lowest hotels. Yeah, I'm at the Royal Pacific Lowe's. Um, it's got kind of a Disneyland flavor.

[00:45:31] The hotel. No. Well, just the resort, because you can. It's so walkable. I can walk to both universal parks. I can take a boat to the universal parks as well. There we go. Okay. That's pretty great. Yeah. But yeah, like it's also close. Like it's so different from, uh, from Walt Disney world where, uh, nothing is close to anything. Yeah. Right. Right.

[00:46:00] So it's a little more accessible. Easily accessible. Yeah. It's, it's super accessible. Like a short walk. And I'm at like city walk, which is their Disney Springs downtown Disney. Yeah. Um, and like, there's just a whole bunch of food. There's, you know, there are bars, there are places to go. Um, and during the day, like it's, it's just, you go through city walk and you're at the parks.

[00:46:31] Um, yeah, I remember thinking that city walk was a little more, a little better laid out than Disney Springs. Like the walkways were a little wider, but it didn't seem like it was too spacious. It was just kind of like the right amount of space in between, you know, the, the, between the, the places to go and whatever. You know what I mean? Like it just, it didn't seem too congested. Disney Springs to me, when we went, this is what, 2015 or whatever.

[00:46:59] It seemed really congested and you had to like walk, you go straight and you go 90 degrees and you go to 45. Then you have to, cause you have to go like around these planters to then continue on. Or it's like, what am I doing? What is this? Oh yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it, it kind of is, I mean, it, the main thoroughfare is designed for you leave the parking garage, you walk into the parks, you leave the parks, you walk back to the parking garage. You don't have to like really spend any time in city walk. Yeah.

[00:47:26] It's, it's still just a place you pass through, um, to get to buses or your car or whatever. But, uh, this is the first time I've ever really like spent time in the city walk, walking around, uh, like there's an upper level that I kind of saw before, but I never really explored. And like, oh wow, they're, they're cool places around here.

[00:47:52] As far as like transport is concerned, big walkways, it's designed to just like get you in and out. Yeah. But if you want to spend time here, um, universal at this time of year closes at like seven or eight o'clock. Oh wow. Early. Really? The parks so early. Yeah. One of the parks closes at seven. The other park closes at eight and it like alternates. Jeez. Um, and it's so weird.

[00:48:22] I don't like, well, what do, what do I do now? But like city walk is right there. Okay. And it seems weird that, uh, that, uh, that universal studios would close that early. Yeah. And I, I don't, I mean this time of year, I, it seems like there is, so I was talking with, um, the bartender at the hotel bar here, which is, um, a great little sushi place.

[00:48:49] And he was like, yeah, well, this time of year, a lot of like companies will rent out the park in the evenings or, um, like I think we should do that. We'll do it as ears up. There you go. Yeah. Get the ears up, chat. Take it out here. Yeah. Um, yeah, they're, they're like high school groups. Like it'll be, you know, like yesterday was the, there was some sort of like performing arts group.

[00:49:17] There was a bunch of high school, high schools doing something. And you could tell they like, they, they had islands of adventure locked down for the evening. So they kicked everybody out at like seven. Um, and you could tell it cause it was like crazy busy with teens everywhere. I'm like, okay, I gotta get out of here. I can't even get into the Harry Potter area.

[00:49:46] Um, classically teen free. Right. Yeah. But, but yeah, you know, and, um, city walk kind of leans into this sort of thing. Like right now it's, um, it's Mardi Gras season here and they've got that going through, um, through March. But I went to, I stumbled into a speakeasy last night. How fun. How, how through like the janitor's closet.

[00:50:15] And then you're like, Hey, wait a minute. This bottle of bleach is a lever. It opened a door. I had to flush myself down this toilet. I'm like exploring city walk last night. And I went to the bar that is, um, it's modeled after a bar, uh, that is in, uh, New Orleans. Okay.

[00:50:44] So like it's Mardi Gras time. And this is like a dueling piano bar. I'm like, Oh, let's go see the dueling piano bar. And I couldn't get into the dueling piano portion. Cause all the tables were full. Sure. So I went over to, there was a spot open at the bar, which is on the other side of the building. And I went up and I, I said, can I get a Sazerac? And they said, well, we, we don't make a Sazerac here, but, um, they do upstairs.

[00:51:13] Oh, okay. Kind of whispered to you. Right. And I said, what's upstairs? The restrooms are upstairs. Like they make a Sazerac in the restroom and the, the bartenders like here. And she gives me this wristband and she's like, wait, you know about this, right? And I said, no, I have no idea what you're talking about. And she's like, Oh, there's a speakeasy upstairs.

[00:51:43] Here's the password. And the password was Sazerac. And you just stumbled into it. No, the password is storms brewing. And, um, and she's like, just go upstairs, walk past the restrooms. And there'll be somebody there. Give her the password. And she'll let you into the, into the, the speakeasy. I like how she gave you the wristband before asking if you knew what it was about. She's like, yeah, you know about this, right? Here you go. What the hell?

[00:52:11] And, um, it was, it was amazing when I, when I got in there, there were six people in this room. Oh man. Oh wow. That's the best. And there was a woman in like flapper garb who was playing the piano. And there's just this little bar that's like fully stocked. And they made me a Sazerac and I could get like truffle popcorn and I could get Spanish almonds and, and olives. And God. How fun.

[00:52:39] And, uh, I was talking to the, the bartenders there. I'm like, what the heck is this? And they're like, oh, this is just something that we put together for, for Mardi Gras. This is the first time we've done it. It's been open for like two weeks. Oh wow. How cool. Is it always this, is it always this like selective? And he's like, well, yeah, like we're, um, on the weekends, it does tend to get a little more busy in here. Like there, there still weren't very many tables.

[00:53:07] Uh, by the time I left, I think there were like 15 people in the room. Um, geez. And he's like, yeah, our director stopped by, uh, to talk to the management of the, of the bar. And they're like, we really like this. You need to do this all the time. So this is something that they're going to like kind of blow up more. Um, but it was, it was super fun. Like just stumbling into this thing.

[00:53:34] Like I never, I had no idea that this was going on. Um, well, and it's like, that's, it's pretty interesting. Because, you know, when you're in that area, if you're in like a city walk or in some sort of theme park, you don't really expect to be surprised with something like that. Yeah, for sure. You know, because it's, it's controlled and it's, you know, everything as you would imagine is thought up and incorporated and tested and, you know, themed to whatever. And you know what I mean?

[00:54:03] There's like a, there's a sanitary layer over it. Like, okay, this is definitely dreamed up in a boardroom somewhere, but it sounds like you just found some organic. You know, event and, uh, people were just trying different stuff and that's, you don't really see that in spaces like that anymore. Right. Yeah, absolutely. It was so, it was so shocking to, to be in this place and go, like you said, you don't, you don't expect something surprising to happen there. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:54:32] Like I was looking forward to a dueling piano bar, which is all you want. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting in its own right. But then I had this relaxing experience where I'm just sitting on like a, a couch watching a woman play the piano. That's actually really cool. Like playing classic, classic show tunes.

[00:54:55] And, um, like it was just, it was this, like they'd open the doors, like the balcony. Cause it, like this, this place kind of looks like bourbon street where you've got like the upper level and you've got the, the balcony with little tables. And whenever they'd open up the door to the outside upstairs, you'd hear like, just the music from whatever's going on. Yeah. Right.

[00:55:23] The music that's playing upstairs at city walk, but like they close the door and it's just like this woman playing. Would you from, uh, from, uh, singing in the rain. And like, oh, this is, this is amazing. That's cool, man. Yeah. In general, um, universal is, is great. Um, they've got it.

[00:55:51] I mean, obviously they have, we'll, we'll talk about it on the, I'll, I'll, I'll shoehorn in a, a few episodes someday, but like the, the Harry Potter stuff is, is fantastic. Oh yeah. Yeah. I can't beat it. You can't beat it. Amazing. Yeah. Um, and they've got Diagon Alley, which isn't in Hollywood. Mm hmm. Um, it's even better than the original like Hogsmeade area. That's, that's at both parks. Agreed.

[00:56:20] They still have things like ET, the ET adventure here, which I wrote on today and I haven't, I haven't been on it since I was a kid. Like, oh, this is so great. It's just this nostalgic dark ride. Man. Um, and then they've got, uh, the VelociCoaster, which is a roller coaster that I like so much that I have literally dreamt about it. Really? Wow. That's so cool, man.

[00:56:47] I have had dreams about this roller coaster ever since I went on it six months ago. And you and I have been on it twice. Yeah. We have a different, I had a dream last night where I, I saw a bunch of rats in a movie and I rewound it and called in Taryn to show her. That was a dream. That was a dream I had last night. Yeah. Hey, Taryn, look at these rats. Yeah, basically. That's exactly what it was. That's just like what happens in real life though. Yeah. Dreams come true, man. What can I say?

[00:57:17] For Eric too, I guess. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. It's the real thing. This roller coaster, we got to do like, I want to do a whole thing on the roller coaster. Like there's, there's a portion where you've got a, they call it the top hat. Okay. Where, so the roller coaster has a whole bunch of inversions and like normal roller coaster stuff. But the top hat is like one of these, these newer things in roller coasters.

[00:57:47] And you kind of go way up. You can see the entire park and you drop 140 feet at an 80 degree angle. That's like, that's going in. Almost. It's. No, it feels like it. It's not quite that, that bad, but it's, it's incredible. This ride does things to your body where you're like, I don't know what just happened, but I love it. Oh man. There's a barrel roll over water.

[00:58:17] Oh man. You feel like you're going to get your head dunked in the lake. Sounds fun to me, man. Let's do it. I'm interested to see how Alice reacts to a roller coasters. I'm going to try to get her on a roller coaster when we're at the park, but, and you know, Disneyland has such a little roller coasters. Well, and cars, cars ride will be a good first one. I don't think she'll do it. I don't think she'll get on cars ride. Oh, I absolutely do. Thank you. Really? All right. All right.

[00:58:44] I mean, I don't mean, yeah, I, first of all, I don't want to wait for 12 hours to get on that ride though. Get ready to wait. We're going to be waiting for everything. Big thunder is a good, a good early roller coaster. I think, I think it's going to be shut down though. While we're there. Yeah. Oh, it's down. Yeah. It's down for a while. Well, Eric sounds fun, man. Sounds like universal still kicking. I like that for them. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I've, I'm staying two nights here at this hotel.

[00:59:13] This is night two. I spent all day at the parks today. Yeah. It's, it's fun. I, that's kind of enough. Sure. Like I've got, I have a ticket for tomorrow. I'm probably going to pop in in the morning, but then we're going to do like the concierge crew are here. Oh, nice. This is a concierge trip. So we're going to do some hotel tours and stuff, but I'll, I'll, I'll still hit the parks for a little bit. Cool. Uh, Brian's in town.

[00:59:40] Oh, he says he's in the same time zone as me. You're going to meet up with Brian. I'm going to meet up with Brian. I haven't met Brian before. Nice. In person. It's going to be awesome. Hell yeah. Give him a, give him a kiss on the forehead for me, please. Oh, I'll do that. Yeah. Get ready, Brian. Get ready, Brian. All right. Well, that's great, Eric. Good job. Thank you. That was it, right? Just, uh, yeah, sure. Okay, great.

[01:00:06] March in the past, present and future with all the news that's fit to cover. It's the years of Disney news. No, Brian, you don't have a say in that at all. Well, yes. I mean, I guess, I guess you should. Yeah. Consensual kiss on the forehead, please. Yeah. I suppose. Yeah. That is important. That is important. Um, I do have a lot of news, but I don't know if I want to go through it all because it's just, I don't know. It's already late. It's kind of weird.

[01:00:35] Um, real fast. Uh, there's a Mark Jacobs and Disney, uh, cross, you know, mashup or whatever. Oh, they do this sometimes. It looks cute. It's good. So check it out. That's all I got to say. Is it just Disney? Or is it like certain characters? Or, you know, Mickey Mouse. Okay. And there's like, you know, comics and stuff. It's, it's funky. It's cute. It's, you know, high fashion, man. What are you going to do? I love both of those things. Swimsuits, t-shirts, shorts, and more in a contemporary Mickey Mouse print. Interesting. So there you go.

[01:01:04] I guess it's focusing on Mickey Mouse. Yeah. Cause they did Alice in Wonderland before. That's the wallet I have. Oh yeah. But it did break. That broke. Unfixable. Yeah. It's very sad. Yeah. Okay. This I thought was interesting story. After nearly 60 years of being a Disneyland staple, the iconic, it's a small world ride is getting a new set of lyrics for a new generation of park visitors. And this is from Variety and Variety doesn't, they, they capitalize the I in it and it's

[01:01:32] and it's not, it's, it's literally lowercase, but that's okay. Yeah. That bugs me. Disney parks announced on its blog today that the updated lyrics will premiere at Disneyland in time for the park's 70th anniversary. The verse was written by late composer Richard M. Sherman before he died last May at age 95. The new lyrics were first unveiled in the short film, The Last Verse, last November with the verse reading, Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind, and the love we give makes us humankind.

[01:02:01] Through our vast, wondrous land, when we stand hand in hand, it's a small world after all. He could have done better. I'm just going to say that right now. It's fine. As part of Disneyland's anniversary, the short film, The Last Verse will play daily at the Main Street Cinema Theater. The park will also unveil a Walt Disney, yeah, a Walt Disney audio animatronic figure before it becomes a part of the great moments with Mr. Lincoln show rotation.

[01:02:28] Sherman and his brother wrote the original It's a Small World song in 1964. 2004. Yeah, anyway. So there you go. At some point, there's going to be new lyrics at the end of It's a Small World. And at first I read that and I was like, why are they doing this? This is, you know, I just, I don't know. It was weird. And then you read the story. It's like, okay, well, he wrote it. And it's like, you know, he wanted to do it. It's kind of sweet. Yeah. I'm like, okay, it's fine. It's fine.

[01:02:58] It's just, it's fine. I have, I have like, I'm neutral about it. I don't really care. Well, that song, like if you've ever gotten stuck on that ride for any amount of time, that song is terrible. It just, it's, it's not terrible in short, in short stints. But like if you get blocked up by the boats and you're waiting, like it just, it goes on and on. So, you know what? Adding another lyric, that's fine with me. At least it gives you something more to. There you go. Think about.

[01:03:28] Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It gives you something more to think about. Yeah. Which is all you can really listen to the words. Um, what? Yeah. I mean, they, because other than it's a small world. It kind of does, man. I could tell you every, every word to that song, but I'm not going to. Well, no, I'm going to sing it instead. Okay. This is interesting.

[01:03:53] This headline reads, Disney infuriates customers even more with controversial new surge pricing strategy. Have you heard about this, Eric? Do you know about this? I don't. I thought this was what they were already doing. Disney. I know, right? Disney theme parks ticket prices in the U S will jump as demand arises under controversial new dynamic pricing plan. The move, which experts say will be rolled out in the next few months, mirrors airline

[01:04:20] pricing where fares increase as more tickets sell. Currently, entry to Walt Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland near LA is priced based on preset peak and off peak dates. Under the expected plan already rolled out at Disneyland Paris, ticket prices at the U S parks will fluctuate in real time based on demand. Okay. So that's a, that's a change up. It's not just like we expect more people on a Saturday.

[01:04:50] So it costs more. But what's confusing about this is it doesn't seem to go hand in hand with the reservation process because in order to get tickets, you also have to get reservations. So like you have to plan ahead. So it just, there's something about it that feels off that, that feels like that would have made more sense before reservations. I think I know what you're saying because you have to pre-buy your tickets to get a reservation to even get into the park.

[01:05:17] So you're not, it's not like you're going to the park and then buying a ticket at the kiosk. So what is, what is this? What's the point of the real time thing? What's the point of it? I don't know. Unless they're really still trying to get local people out of the parks, but I don't really think they're trying to do that anymore. Yeah. That seems well, Ryan is saying in the chat that Disney World doesn't have reservations anymore. So it's just Disneyland.

[01:05:48] Yeah. I mean, well, Disney World doesn't have reservations for regular tickets. If you're an AP, you still have to reserve. Got it. So, um, let's see. Could be rolled out. This, this could be introduced by the end of March says, uh, you know, some researcher. I don't know. Disney fan Jasmine Guevara, who lives in LA and regularly visits Disneyland and nearby Anaheim says, does Disney have no shame?

[01:06:18] No. It has jacked at prices time and again in the past few years. This will just be another way to squeeze even more money out of me and my family. Well, guess what? Jasmine, you don't have to go. You don't have to pay there. Knott's Berry Farm is right there. You can do literally anything else in the world. Like you're not, you don't have to go. Greenfield, um, whatever. Knott's is pretty great. I like Knott's. I, I, I want to go. We'll, we'll be good on there.

[01:06:47] I don't know if we'll have time. Have you, have you never been to Knott's? I mean, once when I was like a little guy, that's about it, man. Okay. Yeah. Uh, okay. This is an interesting one. Elizabeth Warren asks Department of Justice to investigate Disney deal to buy Fubo, which is like a football streaming service. Yeah. And first of all, she needs to keep her nose at it. Like, stop it. Just don't you have anything better to do? Maybe she doesn't. I don't know.

[01:07:17] Go trade stocks or something. Elizabeth Warren is asking the Department of Justice to investigate and potentially block Disney's surprise deal to buy the streaming service Fubo. Arguing that it raises notable antitrust concerns. The Democrat Senator wrote a letter on February 19th to the acting assistant attorney general asking the agency to look into the January 6th deal that if it closes would have Disney

[01:07:42] merge its Hulu Plus live TV business with rival Fubo to create a new holding company of which Disney would own 70%. The merger ended deal. Uh, Fubo's legal fight against Disney, Fox Corp, and Warner Brothers Discovery over the company's now scrapped plans to create a Fubo rival titled Venue. That would, that would have been a streaming home for major league sports comprise, whatever, blah, blah, blah.

[01:08:08] Warner's letter argues that Disney looked to buy Fubo after facing legal roadblocks to creating its own joint venture support, uh, sports service. Quote, it's notable that as recently as the beginning of January, Disney and Fubo were litigation adversaries. With Fubo citing a characterization of Disney as quote, the final boss you must defeat after beating out all other media companies. Warren wrote by acquiring Fubo, Disney's dominance would be even stronger. Yeah.

[01:08:37] I mean, she's not wrong and that does sound very shady and it sounds like very businessy, um, transaction-y. Um, but also I agree with you that, um, there are bigger fish to fry right now. Yeah. Miss Warren. Yeah. She's great, but like, let's spend time somewhere else, please. The DOJ has kind of a lot on their plate. No, actually, no, they don't because they're being gutted, but. Yeah, exactly. You know. Great.

[01:09:04] Warren views the deal as an attempt by Disney to effectively corner the streaming sports marketplace. Quote, this proposed acquisition raises significant concerns under antitrust law would give Disney increased market power and incentives to increase cost for viewers. I urge DOJ not to be fooled by Disney's attempt to purchase its way around antitrust law. I mean, you know what? She is right, I suppose. They're just, but they're just going to be doing what they did with Hulu and Fox and everything anyway. Like, it's just, I don't know.

[01:09:34] I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. They found another way to get what they wanted, it sounds like. And it's just not, it's not the best way to do it, but they found a loophole, let's call it. Well, yeah. We'll see. I don't know. I think it'd be weird. I could see this administration blocking Disney just because. Well, Disney's billionaires. Why would they block them? I mean, because they're liberal, woke mind virus people. When they, when they need to be. Yeah.

[01:10:03] Not always. Not always. But this is relevant for our trip. You know, then we're going to, and then we'll, we'll go. We'll let, we'll let Eric go to sleep. But, you know, considering this is like not really a Disney show right now, we're not really focused on Disney things. Here are 14 places in LA that every Disney lover must visit at least once. So it's nothing to do with the parks necessarily. I don't know. We'll get all 14 because, you know, whatever. Okay.

[01:10:32] There's Walt's barn. We all know that at carolwood.com. You can go to the website and check that out. That's where Disney's trains are. Walk in Walt's footsteps at the original Disney brothers studio location. Which is a four, six, five, one Kingswell Avenue in Los Angeles. That could be, you know, interesting to go drive by. These pastries at the original Martino's bakery were once a Disney studio staple.

[01:11:01] Is it a chili based chili and scotch based? Yeah. Yeah. With this, with nice scotch icing. Apparently Burbank has this baker called the original Martino's bakery, which dates back to 1926. And that's at 335 North Victory Boulevard in Burbank. Maybe we should go visit that. Go to martinosbakery.com and you can check more about the thing right there.

[01:11:26] You can visit the real tree that inspired the lush Adventureland tree house. This is interesting. It's on 400 Northwest Street in Anaheim. It's a real Morton Bay fig tree located about two miles from Disneyland. Okay. And there's a picture of it that looks, I mean, it looks, you know, basically I buy it, you know. Big old tree. Yeah. Dine at Tam O'Shanter, one of Walt's favorite restaurants.

[01:11:56] That's in Los, Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles. I'd love to go there. Yeah. I know. Right. I really want, this is stupid because I know we're not going to, but I really want to go to, um, um, oh God, what's that steak place that Bosch eats at all the time? Oh, I forget what it's called, but I know what you're talking about. Musso Franks. Musso and Franks. Musso and Frank. Oh. Oh, okay. God, I pulled that one out. Man, the sinasses are going, baby. Let's go.

[01:12:26] Um, let's see, that one's dumb. That one's dumb. Revel in the Disneyland creation myth at the Griffith Park merry-go-round. Yeah. Okay. Whatever. Yeah. That, that hellscape where Walt wanted to, uh, said, I, I need a place where I can actually enjoy spending time with my family. Yeah. Right. Uh, yeah. Ooh. Marvel at a hidden mural by influential Disney artist, Mary Blair at, uh, 100 Stein Plaza in Los Angeles.

[01:12:55] Uh, apparently it's a UCLA health. I clicking the read all to like read about what they're talking about and it's like not working. So anyway, that was it. Just some, some stuff to go check out. That's cool. Actually, a few of those I was trying to like in real time, just like Disney, um, look these up and a lot of them are very close to where we're staying. Sounds good to me. All right. Let's get out of here, everybody. Hope you enjoyed this. Uh, what is Eric's eating special?

[01:13:25] Oh yeah. Very special reporting from Eric from live from Orlando, Florida. Hey, I've got things to say about, uh, different shows. Yes, please do. Tell me what's going on. Uh, let me turn this down. Tell me what's going on. Eric, why don't you go ahead and tell us what's going on, please. Nice. Uh, Buena Vista boys. Have you done anything since the Tiger walks? No, Tiger walks was our very last. Wait.

[01:13:57] Yeah, that was, that was the end of season. Was that our last episode? Was that our season finale? I think so. You did the Christmas one and then that. Yeah. Yeah. So Tiger walks was our very last one, but, uh, Matt and I have been planning. We have our list of 10 films that we're going to be watching or season two. There will definitely be a season two. Okay. Excellent. Well, looking forward to that. Uh, scraping. The Vault, um, is going to someday soon come out with Hot Frosty. Okay.

[01:14:28] Their, their review of the classic Netflix film Hot Frosty. Can't wait for that. Um, I don't know a whole lot about that, but we'll see how it goes. Uh, the Supreme Resort, uh, we just put out part two of, uh, Hall of Presidents versus Lincoln at Disneyland. All right. So, uh, see which, uh, which patriotic thing comes out on top.

[01:14:57] Um, if anything. Hell yeah. Um, the, uh, the Bantha boys over at Bantha Milk Podcast, um, they have a new episode around the Djeric table and the Puny Pod folks, um, they just put out their, uh, review of the entirety of phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wow. That's going to be a big one.

[01:15:23] Um, they always, uh, kind of come back and, and do a whole review of things. And they're probably, as I understand, going to spend some time doing silly things, uh, like, uh, reviewing, um, non, non-Marvel movies. Like, uh, Fast and the Furious 3, I think is what Ryan won in his bet with David. Okay. So, uh, sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, uh, the other shows on the network. I love it. Nice. I love it.

[01:15:54] All right. Well, uh, confirms Tokyo drift. Now we're going to get out of here. Thank you very much for tuning into this show. I do appreciate it. Like I said, I think we are skipping out on our first show for March, but then when we come back, we're going to be talking about our trip to Disneyland, which in case you don't know, we haven't been since 2019. I'm excited about, I'm excited to talk to you about it. And that's about the level of excitement I can get to, um, I'm excited to see friends

[01:16:22] of mine and stay at the Disneyland hotel. And that's, you know, everything else will just be a blur of waiting in line, staring at the back of someone else's head and, uh, crying internally while smiling at my child and eating a matter of a macaroon under your breath. Yes. Right. Well, that's the beauty about wearing masks is you can talk to yourself and you can mutter and you don't have to like worry about what other people might be thinking about you. I do it all the time in the store.

[01:16:48] Like I'm just walking around and I realize, Oh my God, I'm muttering. I go, yeah, it's fine. It's kind of like a tent where like people can still hear you. Yeah. Well, but you know, I do it quietly enough. It's fine. Yeah. I'm a mutter. I'm a good mutterer. You don't even know. All right, everyone. Thanks a lot for tuning in. I appreciate it. If you want to learn more about the shows and everything we do here, go to ears up hyphen podcast.com. Check it out. Uh, links to our merchandise, which I think I just put on all our t-shirts for sale on like Etsy or whatever. So check it out.

[01:17:17] Anyway, thanks a lot guys. And until next time we'll see you in the parks. Oh, also if you're going to be in Disneyland, what are we, when are we going? Fifth? Fifth. Fourth and fifth. Fourth and fifth. Yeah, look for us, man. Come say hi. But, you know, yeah, that's all. Bye. Hooray.