EarzUp! | We Armchair Imagineer Disneyland Forward!

[00:00:00] It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. EarzUp! Hey, what's up everybody? EarzUp Podcast and boy do we have a show for you. I've been thinking about doing this show for a while. I love it. I can't wait to do this for you.

[00:00:22] We are going to sit in Armchair Imagineer Disneyland Forward. The whole project. Soup to nuts. Not really. But we're going to give our thoughts on exactly what's going on at Disneyland Forward. What we want to see, what we don't want to see all that kind of fun stuff.

[00:00:36] So it's gonna be a good show. It's gonna be one of those cool little armchair Imagineering sessions, little personality show. Take a break from all the history. You know what I mean? Terran's like, I really wanted to do the history of concrete. I'm like, no, dude, you can't.

[00:00:51] It's too much history. She's like, please. I'm like, no. So I'm sleeping on the couch tonight and we're doing the show instead. Concrete's next week. Concrete's next week. That's right. Yeah. All right. So I got in trouble and I didn't even get my way. So there we go.

[00:01:07] Now it's gonna be a good show. I'm excited. Taryn is putting Alice to bed. She'll be right here. But in the meantime, we got Eric still everybody. Hey, if you're not watching the debate, we are recording this during the debate and like I'm don't care.

[00:01:22] I bet it's thrilling. I can't care. I can't care about it. You know, just. I've never really been a debate watcher, presidential debate watcher, because I just inherently don't like watching people argue.

[00:01:37] But I also don't like if at this point you need these two individuals to stand up and tell you what they believe in to vote for them. Then I think I don't know. You're a bit late. You're too far. It feels a bit late. Yeah.

[00:01:54] It's like, oh, I didn't know that he thought this way or whatever. Especially these two. And even, you know, and I'm I'm I'm purposefully not saying like one side or the other because it's both right.

[00:02:06] But like it's it's at this day and age where everything is so like hyper focused and pushed out on social, everybody knows, like, you just need to know. And if you don't know, you're purposely not paying attention. So it's just I don't know. It's kind of weird.

[00:02:22] Like you're saying, like, is this going to sway anybody's vote? No, probably not. You want to watch one old guy get trounced or you want to watch the other old guy get trounced. That's all it is. It's just it's rage bait. So I'm like, you know what?

[00:02:36] This one of them all. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Sitting out. I'm going to watch the Copa America Cup. And I did watch Uruguay win. And it was a far better time because I felt joy instead of just callous blackness of my heart.

[00:02:53] Well, that's good. That said, I would like to meet. If I met somebody who is on the fence and is waiting for this debate to make a decision, I would love to talk to them in a dark alley. No, no, no.

[00:03:06] The irony is I'm curious if anybody really is on the fence. I'd like to know what the reasoning is and what they're looking forward to in the debate and whether it met their expectations and made them decide anything other than to go to bed. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:03:22] Yeah. Anyway, so Taryn's going to join us here in a second. But Eric, let's get into our version of what we think Disneyland forward should be. You want to and then we're going to do a little news afterwards.

[00:03:34] OK, should we start with news and then wait for Taryn? We could do that, too, because I'm sure she has opinions on the on the forwards. You know what she does. And I would like to hear her opinion on mine and how great mine is.

[00:03:48] So why don't we why don't we pull an audible? And here's what I say. And we'll do a little bit of. March in the past, present and future with all the news that's fit to cover. It's the ears up Disney News. I like this.

[00:04:08] I think this is fun. All right. You know, a little bit in depth by or something like that. I don't know. We do have a lot of news. And you know what? Maybe we'll just do this until Taryn comes. We'll split the news segment.

[00:04:20] I don't know who cares. Even better. Doesn't matter. All the news. Yeah. All the news that's fit to cover. Well, this is a little bit of a depressing news story, but, you know, sometimes bad things happen, you know, I mean, I'm sure you've heard about this.

[00:04:35] The Disneyland employee that was killed in a golf cart accident backstage at Disneyland. People are remembering her for her volunteer work. Tributes pour in for Bonnie Lear, who is an active volunteer in Fullerton and Yorba Linda, which are two little neighboring neighboring communities, I suppose, in Anaheim.

[00:04:56] And the picture that the Los Angeles Daily News uses for this because she was a manager at Club 33. And so they use a place setting. The image of a place setting at Club 33. Number one, it's the old logo, the good logo. Oh, OK. You know what I mean?

[00:05:14] But this is my problem. The plate's crooked. Oh, no. It's slightly off center. It's slightly tilted. I would guess like three degrees to the left. And I can't. That's the only file folder they had. It's a photo by some dude at the Orange County Resort. Yeah.

[00:05:30] And it's like, I don't know, my boss, like when I was years ago, I had a job and I was like doing catalog work and putting together catalogs and, you know, doing whatever. And I would be critical of the pictures. And he's like, dude, nobody will ever notice.

[00:05:42] And I'm like, I notice people like me are the ones who will notice this, that it's off center slightly and can't look away and can't think about what the article is about, because I'm going, how could how could somebody do this?

[00:05:55] You can't just Photoshop it and tilt a little bit like fix it. Make it make it better because everything else is lined up. The settings are lined up, the forks and the knives and the spoons. Everything is perfect except the plate just off a bit. And that's it.

[00:06:08] They just made a Knott's fan instead of a Disneyland fan. There you go. Yeah. Club 33 manager Bonnie Lear had volunteered for years in her hometown of Fullerton and had just begun docenting at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda in preparation for retirement

[00:06:21] when she died in a tragic accident at Disneyland. Lear, 60 of Fullerton, was seriously injured on Wednesday, June 5th, when she fell from a golf cart in backstage area behind Critter Country. She died from her injuries on Friday, June 7th.

[00:06:36] Tributes have been pouring in for Lear, who volunteered at the Fullerton Museum Center and the Nixon Presidential Library Museum. You know, all that kind of stuff. Bonnie was so passionate about our community and it showed through her years of volunteerism

[00:06:49] as both a leader at our Discover Fullerton on Foot program, docent at the Fullerton Museum Center and more. This is from Fullerton Mayor Dick Dunlap. Yeah, it's very sad. And so a lot of people are like, here's an example of someone on Twitter.

[00:07:04] They say I used to work with Bonnie and she was quite literally the kindest human who worked at the Disneyland Resort. Hmm. That's really sad. Yeah. It's all just about how she was going to work at the at the museum.

[00:07:16] But yeah, basically she was in a golf cart and she was trying to with that a railing and she was trying to hold on to the railing and the railing broke. She fell on her head like on a curb or something. And yeah, tragic. Huh?

[00:07:31] And yeah, so people are. People are actually there's a GoFundMe to like raise money for her family, which I feel like. The Disney company needs to do that. They need to step in and donate all the money and like, you know what I mean?

[00:07:49] Guests, it should not be helping the the family of a cast member who died tragically at the resort while on the job because of some form of negligence. Well, yeah, I mean, and I mean, negligence, it may be maybe that's going on. But regardless, something something failed. Yeah.

[00:08:08] And who knows if it's something that could have been prevented. But yeah, Disney should kick in. And yeah, if if family members and coworkers want to contribute, if that makes them feel like they're they're part of this, that's that's fine. I don't think it's something like that.

[00:08:22] Yeah, I don't mind. I think it's fine. I'm not saying no one should do it, but I'm saying Disney should step in and be like, hey, we got everything sorted. That's what I that's that's what I think. But you know, what do I know?

[00:08:33] Anyway, that was a little bit of tragic news. I forgot that was in there. I apologize if that bummed you out. But, you know, things happen, man. Life's short and I don't know. Yeah, that's what happens. But here's on to some happier news.

[00:08:45] Eric, Disneyland finally announces the opening, the reopening of a beloved ride. Can you guess what beloved ride? I don't know why people do this. It's like a it's like at like Disney. Disney company has like buzzwords that they use in their marketing, you know, like wish

[00:09:02] and magic and whatever. Many people who cover Disney news like blogs and stuff have their own vocabulary. Beloved I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but this is definitely one like of a beloved ride or a beloved attraction or whatever. And it's like.

[00:09:22] Isn't it isn't everything beloved in the parks? Can you think of one person who doesn't like there's not one thing that across the board nobody loves? Yeah, but you've got to you've got to read the article to figure out if it's the thing that you belove.

[00:09:35] Well, I mean, apparently it doesn't matter. It's the Haunted Mansion will be reopening after its long closure for renovations. Today, the Disney Park blog announced the Haunted Mansion will be reopening during the Halloween season as its annual Nightmare Before Christmas themed holiday mansion overlay.

[00:09:52] The ride closed in January for a massive makeover of its outdoor queue and the addition of a gift shop, which I'm excited for. I do. I really like that Memento Mori shop at Disney World. I think it was a neat thing.

[00:10:04] They had this cool thing where you can take a picture and then they'll like ghoul it up. They'll make you look like a ghoul. And then they put it on those. I guess the hologram or like the 3D.

[00:10:15] The lenticular where you like look from different angles and it's what's it called? What it is or what's it called? Lenticular lenticular. Yeah, I think that's the term. Sounds like a disease. But yeah, it's that right.

[00:10:25] So you look at it, you move it and then your face changes from like normal person to ghoul and it was really neat. We never got what we should have got when they were really expensive, but they were like 50 bucks.

[00:10:34] I'm like, dude, we're on a budget, but that'd be cool if that was there. I'm excited about that. I love a gift shop. I love a gift shop. I love a thing. It's great for such a beloved ride.

[00:10:45] They've just had a kiosk sitting outside the exit for so long. Yeah, we just crap. Well, that's what the Le Baton Rouge is, I guess. Or no, was it? No, that was the dress shop. I forget now.

[00:10:56] Yeah, that thing with that combines mansion stuff with pirates crap, basically. So who knows what's going to go there? I guess. I don't know. Well, that's a that's a Tiana's shop now. That's yeah, that's a little bad on roof.

[00:11:09] But like the other one, like basically is the you pass it as you exit pirates. Oh, the pieces of was that pieces of it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's mostly mansion stuff. You're right. That is mostly mansion stuff. I generally don't go into that one.

[00:11:22] But but yeah, it'll be nice to see. I mean, it's a big space, so it'll be good to have have a more interesting queue. It'd be great to have a gift shop there. And I like that they're opening up the ride. I mean, virtual queues are, huh?

[00:11:36] But at least it's a way to get into the attraction without they know they're not going to get the the queue done in time. I mean, we were there a few weeks ago and when we went by on on the train, you could

[00:11:48] see the area and it's just packed dirt at this point. There's nothing done. You don't think they're going to finish by October? No. And that's why they're going to do this with this virtual queue is they're giving people

[00:12:00] a way to get into the attraction during during the, you know, the nightmare before Christmas season, the overlay season so that people aren't missing that when they're there for Oogie Boogie and all the other spooky season and Christmas season and all that stuff.

[00:12:15] Yeah, I want to make sure that they get in. I guess I forgot that. And the article reminds me that their Halloween celebration, the Halloween season starts August 23rd. Yeah, I forgot about that. I'm like, oh, dude, that queue will be ready by October. It should be.

[00:12:30] But no, in August 23rd, it's like two months away. I do. Yeah, it seems it seems like they they kind of paused and worked on other stuff for a while. I don't I don't really know that for sure, but they they were supposed to be done there.

[00:12:43] They're clearly not. They probably shifted resources to work on Tiana's or something. I don't know. So this is the queue for for Hanna Mansion. Hanna Mansion. Yeah, we decided to do a little bit of news. Wait for you. That makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. That was it.

[00:12:58] So it'll be reopened. The ride will be reopened for Halloween. Uncertain about the queue or uncertain if it'll be open on August 23rd or maybe later in the holiday Halloween season. But that's it will be open this year. Yeah, yeah. Mm hmm. Here's another one.

[00:13:13] VIP tour guide at Disneyland. Here are five things. Five. Wow. I saw people regret when they visit the parks. I could give you 20, but yeah, going in number one through five. No, yeah.

[00:13:32] She says I worked as a VIP tour guide at Disneyland and have seen guests regret how they spend their time. Many people missed out on less busy park days because of light rain. Who who are these people? Oh, the rain. Go. Yeah. Go back to Arizona.

[00:13:48] We better stay in the hotel. It's going to be raining all day. Not a few guests didn't dress for function and one man I saw even had shoes delivered to the park. Oh, geez. I mean, I guess like shipped or something like my my loafers are hurting.

[00:14:06] Let me get some some, you know. Sketchers delivered Snoop Dogg's Skechers. We're just going to Disney like this. All right. All right. My feet are broken. I can't even move. All right, here we go.

[00:14:22] Here are five of the most common regrets this person saw overdressing for a long day at the park. Seeing people dressed in Disney themed attire is one of my favorite things. In fact, I love coordinating my outfits and taking photos in the parks.

[00:14:36] However, I've noticed that many park guests fail to remember that their outfits should also be functional. People often regret wearing heels, flip flops and brand new shoes to Disneyland. Don't you love a flip flop at Disneyland? I used to.

[00:14:51] I used to be a flip flop at Disneyland gal. But yeah, I regretted it one time and never went back. See and OK, here's the thing. I once heard a man who was wearing dress shoes say he wanted to go home halfway through the

[00:15:05] day to help his aching feet. He had tennis shoes delivered to him via Uber. I mean, but also who wears dress shoes to Disneyland? I mean, it's not 1958 anymore. Yeah, it had to have been an old guy is my thought. Yeah.

[00:15:19] Can you imagine some like 18 year old kid? I don't know. It just felt good to look nice. Spending too much time at sit down dinners. Many guests like to have breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the yummy Disneyland snacks when they visit.

[00:15:32] However, I recommend remaining mindful of how much time and money this may cost. I've seen the look of disappointment on people's faces when they finish an expensive dinner and they no longer have time to ride the number one attraction on their list. I don't believe that ever happened.

[00:15:46] Yeah, I mean, I look forward to that sit down meal. I've already written on the number one attraction. Right. If it's your number one attraction and then now you don't have time to ride it because you had dinner, what have you been doing for the last 10 hours?

[00:16:01] I think well, I mean, these are also people who are getting VIP, right? So that's true. I keep forgetting. I think that these people are not us. These are not regular people. They're not like us. They know which ride they want to go on.

[00:16:17] I have a feeling if I had a theory, it's that these people are going and they're like, yeah, I want to do rise of the resistance. But oh, let's go eat at Carthay first and then we'll go back over to Disneyland later.

[00:16:29] But also as their VIP tour guide, wouldn't you be like, hey, you're not going to have time? Isn't that what you're there for? I don't think they're saying this stuff out loud. I think they're eating and then going, OK, let's go to rise of the resistance.

[00:16:40] And then the VIP guy's like, oh, yeah, that's closed. Canceling a trip because of light rain, you know, whatever. Who cares? And then, yeah, that's what is that when they regret canceling a trip because of light rain? Yeah, well, yeah, it's not.

[00:16:57] Well, maybe they're from Florida because, yeah, it's going to rain for 30 seconds. I think if they're from Florida, they would know that. That's fine. If you're from like daily rain. Yeah, Utah or North Dakota or Kentucky, then it's like, well, that's it. We don't get real rain.

[00:17:13] You know, those Floridians are like, it's it's too dry here. I know it's raining, but it's still too dry. Jollywood Nights is coming back. Returning entertainment will include the Disney Holidays in Hollywood stage show. The Nightmare Before Christmas sing along live music in the courtyard of Hollywood Tower

[00:17:31] Hotel. This is a Disney World. This is an after hours event. So if you're planning going to Disney World later this year, go check that out. It sounds really cool. It sounds like there's a lot of fun stuff to do. There's a dance party with Edna Mode.

[00:17:43] I don't know who that is. That's from Incredibles. Oh, OK, great. The Jingle Bell Jingle Bam Nighttime Spectacular, which is still a great name. It starts November 9th and it runs, you know, a bunch of dates through September or excuse me, December.

[00:17:59] And it starts ends December 21st and it starts at seven thirty runs to twelve thirty and tickets range from one fifty nine to one seventy nine and they go on sale July 10th. All right, check that out.

[00:18:13] Yeah, it seemed like last year it got off to a rocky start in the first few, but from everything I heard, Disney took feedback and said, all right, let's fix this. Like midstream said, let's make this better. And by the end of the season, everybody really liked it.

[00:18:29] Well, that's good. Yeah, got it. Since we just mentioned Christmas, it made me just I just want to say out loud again, I really missed the jingle cruise. I thought that was one of the better overlays that they've ever done. I agree.

[00:18:42] I don't know why they just did it like in two years or something and then they're like, yeah, we're done now. See, left woke more on Christmas. Oh, geez. Disney employees who relocated for work asked to return after project cancellation and now they are suing.

[00:18:59] So you remember when Chapec was like, hey, we're going to shift Imagineering over to Florida and people were like, well, time to sell my house in California that I can never buy back into. Yeah, that's a one time thing. Yeah.

[00:19:12] And like by over there at the Lake Nona project. And then Iger was like, yeah, remember that whole thing that we already said that we're going to do and we already announced it and a bunch of people have already done this. Let's not do that.

[00:19:23] Let's pull everybody back. So a lot of people in the Imagineering lost their shirts, I guess, you know, I mean, they kind of got soaked. They sold their house in California. And for those of you outside of the economy who don't know, housing here sucks.

[00:19:40] It's terrible from just the overpopulation to a lot of big major corporations buying homes to then just rent to people at exorbitant prices. It's just crazy out here. So you're you know, you have a house for seven, eight hundred thousand dollars in the L.A. area.

[00:19:56] You sell that you can buy a house in Florida for five hundred thousand dollars cash, provided that you own your house in the first place. But you can't ever get back in. No, that's the thing. You're just you're going to be you can't. It's impossible. One way.

[00:20:08] It's one way road. Yeah, exactly. And I know one person apparently who is who's involved with filing the suit. His house was a house he inherited from his family. It's a family home that he left. So it's more than just the monetary value. Wow.

[00:20:24] Well, and what's interesting about this is I wonder they are they were California employees, right? Like that's so I would guess that they're suing as a California employee and they are going to win because. Oh, yeah. Employees win every lawsuit in California.

[00:20:42] You want to make a quick buck after you leave your job, just sue them because you're going to win. You're going to get some sort of settlement always. Maria de la Cruz and George Fong, who work in the product design division of the company,

[00:20:54] say they were forced to relocate twice, which hurt them financially and emotionally, of course. Any time there's a lawsuit, emotional damage, emotional damage. Sure. The lawsuit filed in Superior Court of California claims that there are 250 other employees in the same situation.

[00:21:12] And we know we know a guy who almost had this problem is I'm not doing that. I'm not moving to Florida. I can't I can't do it. And there's a lot of people who are like, yeah, I'd rather quit. I would rather quit than have to do this.

[00:21:24] I think wasn't he like, I'd rather just have a demotion. Probably. Yeah. The duo who are seeking unspecified damages from their employer hope other plaintiffs join them. This is not a class action, John. That's crazy, dude. In 2021, Disney's former CEO Bob Chaypek announced they were moving about 2000 rolls

[00:21:41] from California to Florida. The workers were supposed to move to the Lake Nona office complex, which was estimated to be built at the cost of one billion dollars. The complaint alleges that at the time the company made it clear that employees who declined

[00:21:53] to relocation would lose their jobs. I remember this. That was part of the report. However, in May 2023, CEO Bob Iger returned after the dismissal of Chaypek and the company's plans changed. Upon his return, Disney canceled the Lake Nona office complex, citing new leadership and changing business conditions.

[00:22:11] The employees were informed about the cancellation amid the company's legal and political battle with the DeSantis blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. However, in the complaint, the staff say they had relied on Disney's claims and incurred major moving expenses.

[00:22:25] The complainants even sold their family homes, like Eric was saying, to buy new homes in Florida. The complaint also alleges that Disney misrepresented and concealed its true plans for the project, hurting the employees financially and otherwise. I wonder what that means. I don't know.

[00:22:41] I don't know how they can prove that it was like with malicious intent, which is what I'm hearing from that. Like, it was on purpose. Malicious is tough. That's weird. I don't feel like I feel like this was a Chaypek slash Iger thing that just went.

[00:22:55] Per the complaint in 2022, Fong sold his beloved childhood home in Los Angeles to move to Florida. He claims that he slept in a hotel until his home in Orlando was ready. However, less than six months later, Fong was informed that the Lake Nona project had

[00:23:08] been canceled and he would need to move back to California if he wanted to keep his role. He suffered the loss of his family home and was left with a seemingly unsellable home in Florida.

[00:23:19] He listed the property twice and failed to make a sale due to the lack of offers. Oh, that's a bad situation to be in. Dude has such a good case. Yeah. The other plaintiff, Dela Cruz, shares a similar story.

[00:23:33] In May 2022, she sold her home in Althedena and relocated to Florida with her family. She's also in the process of moving back to California to continue with her role at the company's Glendale offices. The allegations include concealment, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misreputation and solicitation of employees by misrepresentation.

[00:23:53] Yeah, I don't know. I mean, good luck proving most of those. But like, yeah, that sounds to me like legal bait and switch. Yeah. I thought that I read somewhere that Disney was going to just reap all the costs and help everybody move and whatever.

[00:24:08] But it sounds like if they were, this lawsuit wouldn't be a thing. So they absolutely should have done that. I feel like I remember that, too. But yeah, bad. OK, we're going to do a couple more and then we're gonna take a break and we'll come back

[00:24:21] and we're gonna do what our main segment, a little bit of reversal. So here we go. Let's do a fun one. OK. The Great Pickleocalypse. Pickle. Oh, Jesus Christ. The Great Pickleocalypse. The Great Pickleocalypse or how social media is absolutely ruining fun events at Disneyland.

[00:24:41] I already love the headline of this. I agree. Huh? I dislike how many streamers and YouTubers are doing Disneyland content. TikTokers now it's like, bro, it's all the same content. Like I was I was going to do a stream, my news stream on Twitch Tuesday.

[00:24:58] I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I got so bummed out because I'm looking through TikTok and YouTube and it's everybody has the same content. It's all the same content here. All the foods I had, which is, you know, I'll watch a food stream. It's fine.

[00:25:14] I'll do a food thing. You know, food is different. Everyone has a different opinion on food. But it's like here are five secrets that you didn't know. And it's literally like, you know, there's a bathroom at the Tiki room.

[00:25:27] What it's like if it's on a map or if there's a sign for it, it's not a secret. Right. You just don't know about it. Knucklehead. Yeah, for sure. Anyway. And I just I get bummed out about this because it's it's nobody's original. It's all the same.

[00:25:43] All the same stuff is all the same hook. It's all the same, you know, gotcha thing, the same thumbnail. It's just it's boring. It's boring. So I love this social media, live streamers and YouTubers have largely taken over theme parks.

[00:25:58] And while Disneyland has tried to reduce problems caused by live streamers, it seems that some of the other fun stuff in the parks is being curtailed specifically because of the problem caused by social media.

[00:26:09] While Disneyland is one of the most well-known and written about locations on planet Earth, there are still a handful of secrets that not everybody in the world knows about. Everybody knows to keep a lookout for hidden Mickey's in the park.

[00:26:21] I've made more people aware of the delicious Disneyland breakfast chimichangas, which has only made it harder for me to get one. Hold on. Wait, but what? What? I didn't know about chimichangas. Neither did I. Maybe they're actually a little familiar. Yeah.

[00:26:35] And so many people have become aware of the first pickle award that it seems there is no longer a guaranteed first pickle award. I just heard about this, too. Me too. When I think of the best food at Disneyland, I think of delicious meals. Yeah, whatever.

[00:26:49] You can get pickles and corn dogs at Disneyland and pickle milkshakes have been thing at Epcot. They are available by themselves. Yada, yada, yada. And while I don't know how many people buy them on a given day, the first person to do

[00:26:59] so has actually received a special prize. In recent years, news stories and social media posts have confirmed that the first person to buy a pickle at the cart on Main Street would receive a special pin that announced

[00:27:11] their status as the first person to buy a pickle on that day. It's perhaps a weird flex, but if you've done everything else at Disneyland, why not go home with a pin that a few others have? I think that's awesome. That is a rad thing to do.

[00:27:24] The parks need to be doing more of that kind of stuff. That's very fun and organic. And it's it's that's a cool thing. I like it. The moment it hits a streamer, though, you've got to switch it up to something else. Yes. And I think that they should.

[00:27:36] It sounds like they it sounds like they have a recent post on the Disneyland subreddit came from someone who attempted to and I read this post actually was a couple weeks ago, I think, who attempted to obtain the covered the coveted pickle pin.

[00:27:47] But upon trying to do so, was told by the Main Street USA card that the pin was no longer being given out to the first person to buy a pickle, but rather being given as a random surprise throughout the day.

[00:27:59] Based on the responses, including from current and former customers, it seems that the social media boost given to the pin has resulted in a lot more people essentially competing to get to the pin, which has largely destroyed the magic of the prize, since the idea was

[00:28:12] simply to surprise random guests with an extra bit of magic. Which is funny because I remember that post and the person literally was like, I raced to the pickle cart because I wanted to be the first person. So the whole reason and then they were disappointed.

[00:28:28] But the whole reason it was gone was because people were doing what you just did. Right. So you sort of right. It's a cycle. Leopards ate my face kind of thing. Anyway, I do not understand that reference. You just sound crazy.

[00:28:39] That's like the second time I've heard that this week. Where did that come from? I figured out from a subreddit, but it's like some mean thing where it's like, oh, I didn't really know the leopard would eat my face, but he did.

[00:28:49] Who knew the consequences of my actions? All right. Okay, here's something real fast for the comic book heads in the world. The predator lands in Wakanda in new Predator versus Black Panther series. What is predator? The predator, the predator. I've never heard of the predator. You what?

[00:29:08] He had an island. He flew a plane. No, no, no. I'm kidding. Way over. No, that's a joke. The predator is like the alien. Eric, help me. Alien versus predators. Yes. That was a comic book. No, but the predator, just the character, the predator. I can't visualize it.

[00:29:21] I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I can't visualize it because I've never seen those movies, but I've heard of that name. The predator. I just didn't. Okay. Look it up on the phone. Jeez Louise, get to the chopper. Get to the chopper.

[00:29:38] It's actually pretty rad. How do you spell predator? There we go. The pre-dater. I didn't know if it was a D or a T. The pre-dater. Is it predator? The post-it-er. I don't know. The post-it-er. Oh, that looks stupid. Okay. No, that's the mirror app, Taryn. Okay. Okay.

[00:29:54] Okay. So, oh, it's got like long dreads? Yeah. Yeah. After the savage intergalactic hunter fought the adamantium-clawed X-Man last fall in Predator vs Wolverine, it's time to take a ringside set, this is an error, to another heavyweight

[00:30:09] matchup for the ages in the footsteps of next month's Alien vs Avengers title. That's cool. The latest crossover to emerge from Disney's intellectual property merger is a showcase pairing that appears to be a match made in sci-fi fantasy heaven. Predator vs Black Panther, four issue miniseries.

[00:30:29] Looks like the premiere issue arrives August 21st. Here's the official synopsis. Wakanda is prey? You saw the Marvel Universe's most tenacious mutant go up against one of the greatest killing machines in history in Predator vs Wolverine and survive. Predator beat Wolverine? Wow.

[00:30:51] Well, the planet Earth lives on Predator lore, a planet full of the most exhilarating prey they could imagine. And the strongest weapons in the multiverse are in their sights. When a young predator with something to prove come for Wakanda's vibranium, the Black Panther

[00:31:04] faces an enemy whose resources rival those of his great nation. Who will prove stronger? Yeah. Sounds cool. There you go. Cool. Yeah. Um, God, I just... Not really a good thing, but... There is a ton. Uh, this is real fast. This is a fast one.

[00:31:21] This is from Universal. Apparently, Universal's taking shots at the Galactic Star Cruiser and how it's like no longer. As they should. Yeah, I know, right? As should everyone. Why don't you make an immersive detail Universal? It's called an awful failure.

[00:31:33] Yeah, well, they didn't because they knew it was a bad idea. Before you reach the ride vehicles, this is in Men in Black, Alien Attack Ride, which is that shooting dark ride that we did. Remember that ride, Taryn? It was not very good.

[00:31:49] It was cool, but it was hard to like do. Yeah, that's all right. Before you reach the ride vehicles, which is based on the Men in Black film franchise, guests are taken through their themed queue to the MIB secret headquarters.

[00:32:02] Will Smith on a screen among other call outs to the story. Twitter user whatever, oh Katrina, posted a photo of one of the employee bulletin boards in the queue area, which had a direct call out to Disney's Star Wars themed hotel and its tragic downfall.

[00:32:17] The flyer reads, for sale, Galactic Star Cruiser Halcyon, low miles, sea agent B. Oh, that's very funny to me. That's all. All right. Hilarious, hilarious stuff, man. I love it. I do. I do like that they took that opportunity to. Yeah, you got to.

[00:32:41] Yeah, you got to give a little bit. Yeah, you got to. It was a colossal failure. OK, two more stories. We got a sad story and then another sad story, maybe potentially depending on your outlook on life.

[00:32:56] Documents filed by Disney have revealed that its latest Star Wars spinoff series, The Acolyte, isn't a force for equality despite famously featuring a female centric cast. According to the filings in early April of last year, when production of the streaming

[00:33:10] series was still in full swing, just 30 percent of the six hundred and ninety five employees were women and women's average hourly pay. Was nineteen point four percent lower than the men. Wow. That's a big percentage in 2023. Still we're still doing this. Yeah, we're still doing that.

[00:33:31] The Hunger Games is Amanda Steinberg has dual roles as the ex student OSHA. Yada, yada, yada. So there's a lot of women who play the thing and it's very women's empowerment. Yeah, that's all. So now they're just talking about the low review scores and the review bombing and,

[00:33:45] you know, whatever. Because like not to get too deep into this like really big topic, but like how does it change? Like women have been very vocal about it. People are being more open about their salaries now.

[00:33:58] And yet it's still happening because the only way for it to change is for those women to not take that job. But if they don't take that job, they're just going to hire a man or a woman who will

[00:34:11] take like there's no way to change it like that. I can see. And that's what's so frustrating because you're right. Nineteen percent. And it's 2024. And also, you know, you have Kathleen Kennedy, who's the head of all this kind of stuff.

[00:34:25] You think she would be aware of this and would know this kind of stuff. And the director was a woman, for God's sakes. I think the writer was a woman, too. How does how do we not? You're right. How do we fix it?

[00:34:35] But it's just like, how do we it's the the the topic of conversation a lot of times on this show is is paying cast members living wages. How do we do that? Well, we do that by boycotting the company until they do it.

[00:34:49] Yeah, but we don't we go. Well, and I don't because we can't afford it. But like, you know, and people who can't afford it. It's yeah. People in the subreddit all the time are like, oh, I really wish cast members would make more also.

[00:34:59] Oh, I can't wait to go back in two days. And what should I do? Yeah, well, and it just made me think like the thing that needs to happen and it just won't because it's such a big thing to have happen.

[00:35:11] But one thing that's amazing about Friends and the reason I think that it went so well for so long for them to show the show for. OK, I thought you meant like Friends in real life because for their I think it was their second season or third.

[00:35:25] They had become such good friends in real life. And then they were like, they were starting to go like, OK, you're the star. So you're going to get more money. You're going to get more money.

[00:35:34] And I believe it was David Schwimmer that was like, no, we're like an ensemble. We're all going to make the same amount of money or we're not going to do it. Is that OK with everybody? And they were all like, yeah, absolutely.

[00:35:45] That doesn't make any sense any other way. Yeah, that's how it was the whole time. And it's like, that's the only way that this can happen is if everybody's like, no, I'm going to not do this unless I make the same as her spending on the show.

[00:35:57] See, pre-production cost of the acolyte is forty eight point five million dollars. Spending isn't the only disclosure the UK government acquires from studios that film in the country. So this was shot in the UK.

[00:36:07] Any employer with a headcount of two hundred and fifty people or more is also forced to disclose the difference in pay between men and women on their payroll. Well, England is way more progressive.

[00:36:18] Not only does this show that the average hourly pay of the women who worked on the acolyte was nineteen point four percent less than men, but it was also thirteen point five percent lower when taking the middle number if hourly pay is ranked from highest to lowest.

[00:36:33] So I guess there's a wider gap between high and low. What's more, although men outnumber women in the bottom and the two middle hourly pay bands, 53 percent of the employees in the highest hourly pay band were also male. So there you go.

[00:36:51] That got a little jumbly in my brain. It did. I'm terrible at math. I'm terrible at it, but I guess I guess it's like that's when I would need to look at the pay bands.

[00:37:00] Men are at the top and there's there's a higher disparity between top earners and bottomers. I would imagine that's what that means. Anyway, last news. I don't know why I keep saying that. I keep like making like excuses about I'm so sorry. I'm apologizing.

[00:37:16] I'm so sorry we're doing a show. I apologize. We're giving information. I apologize. Lightning Lane is now going away. Genie Plus, I think, is going away. I forget exactly what's going on with it, but let's read this. Genie Plus, not the lightnings. Well, yeah, the days lead.

[00:37:31] This is from Eric Scott, senior manager of communications from the Disney Parks blog, which got a new logo, which is terrible. The days leading up to a Walt Disney World vacation are always so exciting for many.

[00:37:44] It's a time when families and friends get the chance to reunite and talk about their must do's while they're here, including their favorite rides and experiences. We enjoy hearing from guests about all the things they love as well as how we can make

[00:38:00] their experience even better the next time. Blah, blah, blah, bro. Jesus crummy. So this summer we will make changes to our Disney Genie Plus service and individual Lightning Lane entry, including new ways to plan ahead.

[00:38:15] On July 24th, Walt Disney World will introduce new simpler names to provide more clarity for everyone. This was a thing even before the program was rolled out. The internet was aflame with people going, what does this mean? I still don't know what it means.

[00:38:30] What does any of this nonsense mean? And they now just changing it. Anyways, Disney Genie Plus service will become Lightning Lane Multipass. While individual Lightning Lane will now be known as Lightning Lane Single Pass.

[00:38:46] Okay, well at least it tells me in the name what it is and that's more helpful. I agree. It's not an attractive name. No, it's ugly. But it's a name that is, it's a utility name. Yes, it's not magic. Right? Yeah.

[00:39:02] We will also be updating Lightning Lane passes to help you make Lightning Lane plans before you're here for added confidence. Okay, great dude. You're not selling me suspenders brother. Use your experiences in times prior to purchasing so you know what you're getting.

[00:39:15] Okay, I wonder if that has to do with like, yeah, I wonder if that has to do with like the lawsuits, the class action lawsuits about like, I thought I could do this.

[00:39:23] I'm going to pay for this and then I can't even go on the ride I want to go on. Okay, I like that. Yeah, book Lightning Lane passes for multiple vacation days all in a single day. Here's how Lightning Passes will work beginning July 24th. Multi-pass.

[00:39:38] When you purchase Lightning Lane multi-pass, you may make up to three Lightning Lane selections in a theme park in advance of your visit. I think that's how like it was with FastPass with the magic band. And we got that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[00:39:50] You'll also be able to choose available times as you make your selections. Okay, so that's nothing new. They're going back to what they had. That's great. On the day of your visit, once you use the selection, check the My Disney Experience

[00:40:00] app for availability to make an additional selection. Lightning Lane single pass will work much like it does today where you can secure a time to ride on one of our most highly demanded attractions, but you'll now be able to make your purchase and plan in advance.

[00:40:16] So there you go. Paid FastPass, but one at a time. Yeah. So like FastPass. Right. Okay. Yeah. So look. This all makes honestly like I haven't understood this system until today. Yeah.

[00:40:28] I think to make things, I don't know, it feels like if you're going to do something like this, it needs to go across both parks. It doesn't? No, it's only Disney World. Right. Disneyland is basically sticking with what it has now. Are you serious right now? Yeah.

[00:40:45] They're just changing the name. Imagine if you're going to both parks in a year and you have to, it's just learning a new language. We need to get Duolingo in here to figure out.

[00:40:52] I actually thought that this was for Disneyland because they were trying to be more like Florida and I was like, this is great. Now everybody's getting, this is so infuriating. Like now I hate it. This is awful. This is stupid. I hate it. I, it's weird, right?

[00:41:06] I mean, you know, of course it's probably going to come to Disneyland at some point, but enough for the rollout. It's just, you're just, I don't know about of course, you're just changing the name. You don't think so? I don't know.

[00:41:18] I mean, the, the thing that's worked out really well for Disneyland was MaxPass. That's the one that, that as I understand was the highest rated, the system that people liked the best. So that's basically what you're getting back, except we're going to stick with the current

[00:41:34] method where you only get to ride each ride, each attraction once. So it's kind of just sticking with what you have now, but so it's a little bit of the MaxPass, but not quite as Max. Wait, does Disneyland have lightning lanes? Yes. Yes.

[00:41:51] But they're not called that, but it's under a MaxPass. No, they're called lightning lanes. Yeah. What is MaxPass? MaxPass was the old pass that was back when you were still going. Oh, okay. Who likes that? Yeah, everybody likes that.

[00:42:04] It had nothing to do with FastPass because they had FastPasses. That was when they, when everybody said, well, if it's like this, yeah, sure. I'll pay 10 bucks for it. Yeah. Now it's 25 or whatever. Well, like, okay. Back when we could afford to go to Disneyland. Um, yeah.

[00:42:18] So there you go. That's the news. So we're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back and we're going to armchair imagineer what we want to see in Disneyland forward. Stay tuned. Everybody will be right back.

[00:42:32] And now back to the show that ignites your dream wish of imaginations and magical color wonderment of forever. Ears up. All right. Thanks for sticking around, everybody. We're going to dig into the Disneyland forward project here and what we want to see.

[00:42:49] So I'm going to give a little intro and then, uh, you know, we'll have someone go first. The entire project is Disneyland getting the city of Anaheim to change the zoning laws in the resort area from strict guidelines on where restaurants can be versus hotels

[00:43:03] and rides to a more mixed use kind of a deal in a nutshell. That's that's Disneyland forward in a nutshell, right? Now that the city has approved the move, the parks are free to stretch their proverbial

[00:43:13] legs breaking new ground around the current resort property and bringing new experiences to us. Lowly host bodies in this culturally enforced parasitic relationship from the website, Disneyland forward.com. We can glean only small amounts of information providing less of a roadmap and more of a

[00:43:31] psychic reading of where the parks are headed with this whole thing. Disney is being vague about what their plans are as they should be, but their website lists a few bits of inspiration stating with our updated approvals, Disneyland resort could

[00:43:45] be home to some of Disney's most technologically advanced, immersive and cutting edge entertainment taking cues from these exciting lands and attractions around the globe for inspiration. And the lands that they list on the website are the frozen land in Hong Kong, Zootopia

[00:44:01] land in Shanghai, Toy Story land in Disney World, which only opened like seven years ago and the Tron ride in Shanghai. Overall, not very exciting. I mean the Tron ride, of course, everybody wants that.

[00:44:14] In our bid to help Iger advance the front, today's show is going to be an armchair imaginary session, manifesting what we would like to see in the decades to come. And more importantly, what we would not like to see.

[00:44:27] So I gave everyone the choice of either coming up with one land or attraction or a few smaller things, a showstopper or three small little guys, you know, throwing an eating establishment

[00:44:37] in and what we don't want to see because what's an opinion show without a point to winge on a bit about. And that's the show. So Taryn, why don't you start us off? Let me know what you want to see with Disneyland four.

[00:44:48] What's going on in your brain? I was feeling really uninspired and I couldn't figure this out. But I was looking at the map and it got me thinking about how all of the parks are sort

[00:45:05] of positioned, and we've talked about this on the histories, in a way where there's a central part and then the lands kind of veer off of that. And so I came up with Walt's animated Wonderland, the W.A.W. W.A.W. All right.

[00:45:25] So Walt's animated Wonderland is located kitty corner to DCA on the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Cotella. So that's where I chose that section because on their map they have two different sections for a potential theme park, which was very interesting.

[00:45:41] Yeah, I guess I guess we should clarify. So they basically are like, they want to scoop downtown Disney and make it like a whole thing. And then kitty corner sort of southeast. There's basically like a giant parking garage sized land that they list a new kind of Disney

[00:45:58] entertainment could include theme park, hotel, retail, dining, entertainment. So that's where you're talking about. Yes. They're off campus. Yeah. The Harbor Boulevard Cotella one. So it's just right kitty corner to the backside of DCA.

[00:46:11] And this land or this I'm sorry, Park Walt's animated Wonderland is focused on and devoted to Disney animated films only. You're not going to find any live action here. No Pirates of the Caribbean, nothing like that. OK, so in order to get inspired, I had to draw.

[00:46:29] So I actually drew a map. It's in pencil, so probably only Jason can see it. But yeah, let me see that thing when you're done. So I drew a map of this land. And is there an up? Oh, you have words on the bottom. OK, got it.

[00:46:43] OK, that was the original name. I changed it. OK, so it's situated in a typical Disney park layout. The wiener right in the center of this four land park is none other than Mother Nature herself. Now, this is Mother Nature from Disney's film Fantasia.

[00:47:03] This is a larger than life celestial figure with kind of these wide, caring eyes. And she's wrapped in blue, kind of almost looks like an angel or like, I don't know, some sort of celestial figure.

[00:47:19] And she is perched atop a really full and blossoming tree of life, which is a part of Fantasia. Mother Nature has divided this park into four elemental lands, water, earth, fire and air. My favorite band from the 70s.

[00:47:40] So in air land, air land, I love going to air land. This is an air land, which is our when you walk into the park, this is going to be your first land to the right. Yeah.

[00:47:52] So you're going to be met at the entrance of this land with an extreme amount of bubbles and air land. There is always a draft in air land. Of course, it is not windy unless, of course, the real Mother Nature decides that it will be.

[00:48:07] But guests are always going to feel a breeze, a lot of fans going on here. And this land has a focus on the films Up, Pocahontas and Aladdin. And I'm not going to go into a lot of details on what goes on in that land.

[00:48:23] I'm going to focus on one of the lands today. I want to take you through the other ones anyway. So then you have fire land, which is located. It's just California. Oh yeah. That's located as you're walking into the park to the left.

[00:48:38] So we have air on the right. Fire on the left. Fire land's main attraction is Bald Mountain, another thing from Fantasia. Bald Mountain, this stands just short of Matterhorn because there's no need for competition here.

[00:48:54] The guests get transported to this area by walking through a tunnel actually in the mountain. So that's kind of fun. And then this land, once you get there, it's going to be a little bit more immersive and

[00:49:05] it is the focus in here is on Turning Red and Big Hero 6. So then up in the as you walk into the park, you've got air on your on your right and then you have Mother Nature in the middle.

[00:49:18] And then in the upper right corner, you have Earthland. And this land is really exciting and vibrant. The entrance is marked with a colorful flower canopy. And this land is sort of divided among itself into kind of sand and dirt like real earth

[00:49:36] features that you might see in WALL-E or Lion King or dinosaurs. Then the other portion are these brightly colored and happy plant life that you might see in Encanto or Alice in Wonderland. That's the vibe of Earthland.

[00:49:55] And finally, the land that I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into is Waterland. And this one's a little bit different than the others as it's only going to be focused on a single movie. I think that's the only way to really do it justice.

[00:50:08] So this land's focus is just on Moana. Now, regardless of if you come into Waterland through Earthland or through Fireland or from Mother Nature's Tree of Life, you can only maneuver through this through what through

[00:50:23] that I changed something through this area by walking over a series of connected bridges. And this is because the entirety of this land is built atop three is built atop three small islands on the ocean. So basically, this whole land is water.

[00:50:43] And then there's these three little islands within this land where you can do things. So when you first walk on the bridge into this, what did I call it? Sorry, Waterland. On your right is Montinui Village.

[00:51:01] Now Montinui Village has several souvenir shops whose outside facades look like the village huts in the movie Moana. Nice. Yeah. So this is kind of like Galaxy's Edge's marketplace. The kind of open stores, open marketplace, but Moana-fied, right?

[00:51:21] This is a shopping thoroughfare that also then connects Waterland to Earthland. So it can also take you all the way to Earthland, which is kind of cool. Also in Montinui Village, this is the only sit down fine dining experience in WAW, which

[00:51:42] is going to end up being called Wow. Wow. Which again is Walt's Animation World. Oh wow. Wow. Oh wow. I really, I love it here. It's so, you know, you think you'd come to Anaheim and you feel like it's gonna, I don't know.

[00:51:59] I can't do it for too long because it just sounds like a weird Joker effect. But that is what people are going to say. I don't know how we got these scars. So this restaurant is called Tefiti's and Tefiti's is a Polynesian style restaurant serving-

[00:52:13] To feed these, and it's my kids. Sorry. A Polynesian style restaurant serving Michelin grade island inspired food and drinks. Like tires and stuff? This place is very posh, but laid back. Oh yeah, sure. You just left that there on the table. I don't know.

[00:52:30] And it's going to cost you both your arms and your legs. Let me tell ya. This place is not going to be cheap. If you simply can't or just refuse to pay for this level of food and experience, there's another less expensive option. There's the Kakamora Lounge.

[00:52:48] And that is a- The cockadoody lounge. No. The Kakamora Lounge. But this is a small outdoor lounge that's connected to Tefiti's, which also acts as the holding space for Tefiti diners. Now if this sounds familiar to you, it's because the Kakamora Lounge is to Tefiti's.

[00:53:04] What Carthay Lounge is to Carthay Circle. You get me? Oh sure. So once you're finished shopping and spending all of your cash on delicious food, you might head over, again over this kind of really large bridge, over to Grandma Tala's Cave.

[00:53:22] Which this is across from the shopping area. And this is another island that contains a large misty splash pad. So this is a playground. A splashy playground. And not like full on water. Just kind of mist. Just for basically for the kids, right? Sure man. For kids.

[00:53:41] You know. And this is to help beat the Anaheim summer heat. This area is casual, right? It's got benches and sprays. And this is going to give the adults a second to rest and the kids a moment to run around and cool off.

[00:53:53] And if you get hungry while you're hanging out in Grandma Tala's Cave, you can head to one of the two kiosks there. Hey Hey's Snack Cart. Which is where you can get prepackaged chips, nuts, fruit, that kind of thing. Or to Pua's Porkless Pita.

[00:54:06] Which is where you can get a porkless pita sandwich. Because of course. Okay. All right. That's funny, Taryn. Thank you. And finally, once you've given your feet a short rest and the kids have cooled off, you can all finally head over to Waterland's E-Ticket Attraction.

[00:54:23] Which is Moana's Wayfaring Adventure. Now here's the funny part about Moana's. No one's going to really know if it's Moana's or if it's Maui's. Because on the sign, Moana's name is going to be crossed out and Maui's going to have written his name. Now isn't that silly?

[00:54:37] That's goofy. I know. Sounds like it's Maui's then. If their name is crossed out. Well, you never know. I guess not. So anyone over 40 inches can ride this 3D attraction. Now 40 inches is not very tall. I measured Alice to make sure.

[00:54:51] That only goes up to her shoulder and she's kind of tall, but solid. This is a ride system in the same vein as Star Tours, but with Moana sequences, right? Moana in her free time now takes tourists of Monta Nui on daily ocean excursions.

[00:55:09] And here she shows them how to fish and how to navigate the open ocean. And these expeditions are supposed to be informative, carefree and relaxing. But each one of them inevitably is interrupted by either Maui or Taumatoa or Kakamora.

[00:55:24] And Moana has to use her wayfaring skills to help herself and her guests get back to Monta Nui safely. Now the cool and unique part about this ride is that it's not just a screen in front of you like at Star Tours.

[00:55:36] Instead, this is a full 360 degree screen with strategic 4D effects, think mist, that help fully immerse the guests into this wayfaring experience. Now of course there will be a series of adventures that the guests will experience with Moana.

[00:55:52] And each time you ride the ride, you may have a different experience. And this is also going to allow for additional new scenes to be added after Moana 2 comes out. So it's ever changing. And that's pretty much it.

[00:56:05] But kind of the point of this whole park was to be dedicated to only animation. And also, for some reason, I really wanted it grounded in like Earth's elements because it made sense on paper, which is why I also drew Moana's. Drew Moana.

[00:56:26] OK, so there's a little mountain or could be a shark tooth. I don't know. That's the other side of this mountain. OK, here is Heihei's snack cart. And yeah, I mean, basically it's just what you said. But harder to figure out. Well, I had to draw.

[00:56:45] I drew it all first and then I went and wrote about it. That's how I got here. Sounds great. Yeah. All right. Love the process. Yeah, that's good, man. I love it. Thanks. So it's only animation. Only animation.

[00:56:59] So what are you going to do when the live action Moana comes out? She doesn't have any place here. OK, fair enough. Eric, why don't you go ahead? All right. Well, I was told we're not going to design an entire park, so I didn't. Well, I didn't really.

[00:57:07] I mean, I just had to mention it. Oh, OK. Yeah. Well, I'm looking much further down the line here because there's a lot of speculation about what's going to happen with the parking lots that are right next to basically across Disneyland Drive from DCA and from Disney World.

[00:57:27] Great. Go for it. There's a lot of things that could happen. Most people that I've seen talking about it or heard talking about it or seen writing about it, look at Fantasy Springs coming from Tokyo Disney. And that that seems pretty.

[00:57:33] I mean, that seems like kind of a lot like Iger has made it clear. We're going to we're going to do IP from here on out. So, you know, the fact that that's a thing that's happening now is a good thing. Yeah. And that's a thing that's happening.

[00:57:38] I think I was going to say. I think that's a good thing. Yes. Yeah. And I think that's a good thing. And I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. And I think that's a good thing. at Fantasy Springs coming from Tokyo Disney.

[00:57:49] And that that seems pretty I mean, that seems like kind of a lot like Iger has made it clear we're going to we're going to do IP from here on out. So great. Let's go for it.

[00:57:58] Let's let's put something like that in there as far as a I'll just skip ahead to the restaurant. I think the restaurant that I that needs to be here not necessarily restaurant I want to go to but in Tokyo they have a new restaurant as part of Fantasy

[00:58:14] Springs. That's part of Arendelle, which is the Royal Banquet of Arendelle. I think what one of the things Disneyland needs is a true princess character meal. I think it would rake in the cash. It's a very good point.

[00:58:29] This is pragmatic more than anything, but it would fit in well with a frozen area or any sort of like additional Fantasyland any sort of new animation sort of area. Yeah, I think it's it's it's perfect for that.

[00:58:43] I mean, we've got one at Epcot in Walt Disney World. We've got the the Cinder Cinderella's Royal Table and Magic Kingdom. Disneyland needs something like that. They need more places to sit down and plunk a whole lot of cash out and

[00:58:57] get a mediocre meal and meet a ton of princesses all in one place. And it's basically been since since Ariel's Grotto closed, right? Like that was a princess meal, wasn't it? I don't know. Ariel's Grotto. I never went there because that was Lamplight Lounge. That's Lamplight Lounge now.

[00:59:14] Yeah, it was. Oh, but there were princesses that walked around. Yeah, I think it was sort of like a character dining experience. I don't know with maybe a proper meet and greet. I don't actually know like when we were going, we were not interested in

[00:59:26] it. It closed down by the time we cared. Yeah, the only time I ever almost went there, we my wife and I walked up and they said, oh, this is a character dining experience and we've already started. We said, oh, thank you.

[00:59:36] No, and then have had a report on it once. That's where she talked about the hot dog that was where they cut it to look like tentacles. But yeah, so that's that's the restaurant that I think really they need to do something like that.

[00:59:54] So I'm going to look further into the future here. Let's let's set up more infrastructure. So Taryn has this whole park over in the Toy Story parking lot, which is like you said, kitty corner to DCA across Harbor and Cotella.

[01:00:09] This is a giant lot that's almost as big as DCA itself and it's ripe for the next gate sort of area, but it's kind of a walk, you know, it's it's if you've ever stayed in that area.

[01:00:23] I mean, it's not it's not as far as some other areas. There's certainly further hotels you can walk to but walking all the way from the East Gate all the way down there. That's a long way to go. And what if you're staying at the Disneyland Hotel?

[01:00:36] You're staying in one of the flagship hotels at the Disneyland Resort and you want to go all the way to the new park over in the Toy Story lot, whatever that park shall be. So I'm looking at the future of transit. The future is now, man.

[01:00:53] The future is now and by now, I mean like eight years from now because I don't think they're going to. That's right. I don't think they're going to get there for a while. They know they're going to need to build more parking.

[01:01:02] They've already talked about a new parking structure. That's going to be one of the biggest in the in the world. We've already got. Now be now. That's all I want to know. Right. Well, there you go.

[01:01:13] Well, what I would like to what I think they're going to do and what I would really like to see is I mean, ultimately, I'd love to see a people mover. That's what I really want. Oh, sure. I want a people mover. Yeah. Okay.

[01:01:26] But I don't think they're going to do a people mover. I think they're going to copy the Skyliner from Walt Disney World. So imagine a network of gondolas that stretches all the way from the Disneyland Hotel all the way through the Esplanade over the Esplanade.

[01:01:44] There's a there's a station in the in the center where you can depart and go into Disneyland or DCA. You can continue out the Eastern Gate and then you make a little you make a little turn and you head straight down Harbor Boulevard to the new park

[01:02:01] area in the Toy Story lot. I think that's the it's the future of transportation, which is only the future because it's it's still mass transit, but it's fairly efficient. It's fairly cheap to run fairly cheap to put together. You don't need a big track. You've got a cable.

[01:02:20] You got a bunch of gondolas. These are these are prop. These are things that exist in the world. Now. We're not reinventing something. Ski resorts have been using the same technology for decades and that's literally what they put in in Walt Disney World. Yeah.

[01:02:34] And despite the, you know, early hiccups where they stopped and people were overheating in in small glass boxes over a lake, I think it's even easier to do in Anaheim where the weather is more temperate. It's moving.

[01:02:49] You've got air flowing through if it breaks down, you just pull a ladder up there. You can get everybody down pretty easy. It's easy. Yeah, you're not suspended over anything. I think that's that's the big thing that I would like to see and until

[01:03:02] they have something like that. I don't think a third gate is even feasible because you don't want to make people walk all the way down the street. You don't want them to get to Catella and then go, ah, but we're staying at the Hilton right over there.

[01:03:14] How about we go to our room? Oh, yeah, you don't want that. Yeah, right. You got to keep them in the bubble. That's right. You got to keep them in in the middle of everything and make sure that they don't get when they're flying overhead.

[01:03:27] They say look at that best Western. I bet we could stay there. You don't want that. They'll probably blackout windows on one side of the gondolas. I should honestly, but I mean it's it. That's the thing that I can't quite wrap my head.

[01:03:41] There's no way where you can't see what's happening on the outside world, but I guess you can't on the monorail right now either depending on where you're sitting. You still see outside the berm. You still see what's happening outside, but you don't care.

[01:03:53] You're in this cool cool-ass train and yeah, you're you're flying around and when you're in a gondola, you're going to do the same thing. You're just going to ride in comfort and say I'm just going to go into

[01:04:04] this new park and I'm going to visit that that that Moana restaurant that Taryn was talking about. That's what everybody's going to want to do. Yeah, I feel like honestly, you know, you're in the gondola. You're not thinking about what other hotel you can stay at because

[01:04:19] you're just looking at the park. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so you're fine. Yeah, right. You're still pretty captive. Drop you off right in the middle. You can't escape. They've got armed guards at the corner. That's right.

[01:04:30] Yeah, what I don't want that what I don't want Disney to do is continue to build giant e-ticket attractions for millions of dollars into a thing where they're going to have a virtual queue and a lightning lane and

[01:04:44] it's going to be a two minute long experience with a whole lot of the placemaking is in all the YouTube videos you watched trying to, you know, while you're waiting in line. What I I think that continuing to pour money into stuff like that, like that's great.

[01:04:59] That brings people back. But what else brings people back is doing something for children. They need to invest in rides for children. Yes, attractions for children's shows for children restaurants for children. Yes, without Bugs Land. We don't have that.

[01:05:16] We've got a very loud, a very loud place with cool, you know, I sure they're cutting back on live entertainment right now, but that's not going to be forever. The Avengers campus is cool. And if you're a slightly older kid, you might be really into that, but

[01:05:30] they just need something for little kids. You need your Heimlich's to train. You need your flicks flyers. Yeah, I agree. Yes, you need something simple that's cheap and easy to do a little bit of theming. The kids will love it.

[01:05:41] And some of the trolls online will be really upset that it's not as well themed as they wanted it to be. And I'm not a troll. But you also you need to get those families away from some of the rides

[01:05:53] to at some point in the day, like you need to pull like that was honestly that that's what went into my head with the with Grandma Tala's area. That's just a playground. It's like you just got to get people away from other things for a little while.

[01:06:06] Yeah, and that's what's great about the new Toontown where they've just got this grassy area. There's there's places where kids can play again. Yeah, and that that seems pretty pretty great. If you haven't really like looked into those videos yet, I think I think

[01:06:20] we've talked about this before here. But yeah, it's just nice to have a place where it's fun and kids can enjoy things and not stand in line and be bored for hours just to go on a ride that they're too scared to go on. Right? Yeah, that's me.

[01:06:36] So that's that's my vision of the future. It's a it's more long-term goal. It's a little little less a little more vague definitely more vague than Terrence, but I think it's sure some of the practical elements that need

[01:06:48] to happen to make this keep instilling new new new nostalgia in children so that a few decades down the line they want to bring their kids back and look at the thing that they loved when they were kids. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's excellent idea. All right.

[01:07:05] Well you guys what bothers me about the way Disney is building out their parks is that they seem to be moving on IP that is profitable but not interesting as a theme park attraction Frozen Land looks cool, but seems very dull to visit more than once.

[01:07:20] I mean look at Harry Potter land in Universal in LA specifically you go there once and there's no real reason to go back a second time aside from the ride. The theming is cool. But once you've experienced it and you go, oh, yeah, that looks neat.

[01:07:32] This is cool. Whatever you're not going to go back a second or a third to maybe go back a second time, but the third time a fourth time. I don't really think that the demand is there necessarily for repeat visits.

[01:07:46] So my view on this project is that the stuff in downtown Disney should be smaller whatever they put in it should be kind of these smaller little attractions will have themed dining of character interactions, maybe a

[01:07:58] smaller world of color type of a deal, you know what I mean? And we're saving the big stuff for the site that's off Cotella and Hayster, which is what Taron was talking about the second little site just one block south of the parks currently.

[01:08:12] Now my prediction for the downtown Disney section is that it's going to remain mostly retail and dining because that's what makes money. That's what all this theme park stuff is for right to funnel you into

[01:08:23] the shops to buy the thing of the thing that you just saw while you were doing the thing. That's just what it is. There will most likely be smaller things to look at here experiences and such maybe with one larger cornerstone attraction, but for the

[01:08:35] most part, I feel like it's various stages of dining in retail. I think that this area would be a perfect place for a museum a display of artifacts from archives celebration of animatronics stuff the parks have pulled out to we can showcase.

[01:08:52] I really feel that they that needs to be an interventions, but they're whole Star Wars launch Bay there. I guess so still so whatever but I would love a place where you don't need a park ticket to go into you know, and that kind of thing where

[01:09:07] you can still experience. They still experiencing maybe partner with the Walt Disney Family Museum to bring some artifacts over there and you just kind of like have it so people can walk through and have a true walk Walt walk through, you know

[01:09:19] attraction of the history of the company, but technology based on the technology that they have. In other section, you can have a stem workshop for kids to learn about robotics featuring the cool new robots. They have in Star Wars land kind of maybe like the build a lightsaber

[01:09:36] thing only a little bit longer and actually relevant to a skill that children can use, you know, whether it's a sit down thing or an interactive thing, you know, whatever something like that like a teachable

[01:09:47] thing sort of pulling from the Epcot vibe of let's let's educate a little bit. Let's have a little fun. Let's learn something. I want to bring the blue sky shack back. I don't know what it was called.

[01:10:02] I forget what it's called, but blue sky shack seems pretty cool. It was sellers. Blue Sky cell. Yeah, maybe. Jack sounds better though. I agree. It does this would be this is a blue sky shack, but it's for future ideas.

[01:10:13] Now, this would be a polling place if you will for what things the guests want to see for us to get sneak peeks at what Disney is thinking of doing and what what the possible feedback of those things would be

[01:10:26] slides of concept art are shown with guests interacting with them by entering their thoughts on a keypad like they used to do when the audience voted on America's funniest videos. Let the guests shape what we want to see.

[01:10:37] They don't have to publish the results or even abide by them in any way, but this would serve two purposes. One, it would give us the fans a way to feel connected to the parks in

[01:10:47] a new way and it would increase the amount of Disney blog articles being produced, which maybe is a reason against doing it. I don't know, but I think that would be really neat.

[01:10:55] What do you guys want to see and it could be a really easy like I said, like the sketches you can even just make a video five-minute video. You can leave them up. Does this interest you beep?

[01:11:04] Yes or no, you can walk through like a whole thing, right? I think it'd be a lot of fun. Here's some brief ideas for dining options. Okay, dinner theater. I don't like medieval times. Ooh, right in and so you can pick any sort and this can be rotating,

[01:11:22] it could be any sort of maybe hero and villain fight or something like that. You know what I mean? You can have you can do a Star Wars night and you can have lightsabers. You can have Darth Vader and Luke or whatever, right?

[01:11:34] You can have you know tangled where you have Mother Gothel and whatever you just all this kind of things where you can recreate, you know battles. I think it might be kind of fun haunted mansion ballroom dining.

[01:11:46] Oh, yeah, where it's just maybe it's like a hall and I'm just coming up with these right now by the names I have but the details I'm just coming up with that. Maybe it's like a like a German dining hall like a family-style table,

[01:11:58] but it's haunted mansion theme. Yeah, that would be sick. Really fun. Yeah, a skipper the skipper canteen they have in like Disney World or whatever, you know, it's a fun place. The Jungle Cruise theme thing sidekicks lounge.

[01:12:10] Now the name would change but the the vibe is totally stolen from the hit cartoon series the tick which was a superhero cartoon where they would have a superheroes lounge or whatever superheroes bar forget what it was called the I bar.

[01:12:24] I think I forget but then they would have a sidekicks like section to the sidekicks weren't allowed where the main superheroes were that it was like a little broom closet or something. It was just all run down. It was so sad. Yeah, it's really cool.

[01:12:35] So it's like something like that or like you can get the secondary characters that we rarely see in the parks. You could have him there. It wouldn't be called sidekicks on but it's something like that where you wouldn't have Mickey there. Okay, you know what I mean?

[01:12:47] A permanent style food and wine festival with the booths and all that kind of stuff and the booths could rotate content and menus. I think that'd be fun. I like that idea would that take away from them the actual food and wine

[01:13:01] or would they just not do that is what do you see there? You know what? So I guess it depends on what this is. Do you have to pay to get into the new section? If so, then yeah, it might take away from it.

[01:13:13] But if you don't then it could be just, you know, little pieces of what is at the food and wine and I think leading up to that. I think you could maybe sell more tickets because people know what it's about.

[01:13:22] Okay, but also you could you know, bring classics back or you can try new stuff like these restaurants that operate those booths can try new things and then bring them to the festival. So I could be another survey thing.

[01:13:34] Yeah, what I would imagine a lot of this is just a lot of testing ground stuff for what goes in the park. What's permanent like it's more fun. I guess that way but you have to have at least one ride here. So enter my modular show building idea.

[01:13:46] I've been shoveling this idea of everybody for a while now and I'm not stopping you have one large building containing a trackless ride say theme to Bob Iger's mansion. Once that ride has lost its initial draw, maybe six months, maybe eight

[01:14:01] you shut the ride down and swap all the internals out the animatronics can either be reskinned or replaced entirely the set, you know, just and not even like broken down but just removed and put into storage.

[01:14:12] The sets can be removed and replaced and some of that refresh can even be done with like projection mapping and projections and stuff like that as well screen projections since the ride is trackless you can just

[01:14:23] reprogram it to follow a new route and within probably one month you can have a whole new ride so you can have a catalog of eight or ten rides that are planned and you swap them out every now and then love it. I think we're great.

[01:14:35] I think we really cool because you don't have to do anything different. It can just refresh it. We're sort of going that route anyway, and they be fun. How would how would one pay for this ride? I don't know. I haven't thought of that. Okay.

[01:14:50] Ticket book ticket book. Now for the second wave of the future for the second campus. This is where Taryn and I meet in the middle here. I think the obvious choice here is a resort type situation. This would eliminate the need for solving the constant flow of people

[01:15:08] running between the two campuses and give guests even more of that immersive feeling that we all kind of look for when we go to Disneyland. What I think we go over very very well is a Moana themed park but not

[01:15:21] because of the movie and the theming should be way more subdued and subtle than overt in here, but that thing but build that thing out like a Polynesian resort and you have an awesome destination. The climate is right for a Hawaiian-esque simulation palm trees already grow.

[01:15:36] Well here our water situation is screwed due to big agriculture. So what's a few extra millions of gallons of water for some kind of feature, right? The centerpiece of this new resort would be a hotel that is reminiscent of the Polynesian in Disney World.

[01:15:50] We'd have the classic tropical setting that you think about when you think about the Polynesian Islands tall palm trees swaying in the breeze a nice beach to lay down on smaller attractions and exhibits scattered around the resort showcasing various crafts associated with not only

[01:16:05] the film Moana, but the cultures that it represents basket weaving fish net making how the old world used to star use the stars to navigate the underlying theme would be one of conservation and environmental protection with a small amount of proceeds donated to different cultural charities

[01:16:21] and environmental outreach programs. Your stay here is three days and two nights, which gives you plenty of time to suck up the Sun relax in the Disney ambiance and learn a thing or two. Of course, you would have the characters from Moana there probably

[01:16:34] even Lilo and Stitch since they seem to be, you know cut from the same cloth. The area is large enough for this whole thing and really this is what the Star Wars Hotel should have been but you know, whatever rip what

[01:16:45] I don't want to see is stuff that's already done in other parks. The Disneyland Resort is and forever will be the flagship resort and therefore should always have the latest and greatest technology innovations shows rides Etc. It should be the testing ground for new stuff.

[01:17:03] I'm still bummed that Shanghai got those new modern style of animatronics for pirates and hopefully that doesn't really come across too well in this but you sure you don't want them to test it in Paris and then make it better at Disneyland.

[01:17:13] No, I mean, no the tested imaginary. All right. Yeah, but to put a finer point on this segment, I don't want to see any more frozen stuff. I don't want to see any more Toy Story stuff. I think those franchises while still producing content are on their

[01:17:29] last legs and if the company is going to invest time and money into new expanses, I want to see fresh stuff. The end that's it. I I loved your thank you. I loved your idea of stop. Let me thank you.

[01:17:47] I know but you're you don't know what you're thanking me for yet said you loved a thing. I did not makes me happy. I loved your your area that doesn't cost money and that is an experience

[01:17:59] and the first thing I thought is it's like, oh, I can go to Disneyland for three days but only pay for the two days to go into the park and another day. I actually have enough to do. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

[01:18:10] It's like hanging at Disney Springs for a day. Yeah, exactly. Or more. Yeah, sort of like sort of downtown Disney where it's part of more like we would park we would we would work downtown Disney into our day like okay six o'clock seven o'clock.

[01:18:24] Let's go walk around downtown Disney go to the shops or whatever. So maybe half of that is paid. Half of that's part of the park and half of it is just sort of community outreach or something like that.

[01:18:34] But yeah, I think you had a lot of really good ideas there that things that they have taken away that I think we're space fillers for them like the blue sky cellar. I think that was a space they had space.

[01:18:47] So let's just throw this in there but it's like I think a lot of people didn't know about it, but it's so cool. Yeah, it was neat and it's been so long. I sort of forget what was there but it's all like sketches and I don't

[01:18:56] think it was things that are coming to the parks, but just concept art was blue sky. So it was but I think it was like showcasing the concept art for how they develop the rides. I forget. I honestly forget it was future stuff.

[01:19:08] Okay, I think there was both but there was some models some things that were a little bit further into production some things that were just like ideas that were never going to happen like there was it

[01:19:16] was different levels of ideas in there, but either way like it was really cool to see yeah keep something like that up. That's right. People want that people do and you know and so this for a while as fans.

[01:19:31] We want to know what goes on behind the scenes. We want to know how everything works and understand the company can't tell us right everything but let us in that there's a reason why these blog sites are so popular and there's a reason why these youtubers,

[01:19:46] you know, stick their stinky hands up to the camera and say five things that you need to there's a reason because we want to know this stuff. So I want the parks to give it to me.

[01:19:56] I don't want to find out from someone else who like may or may not be correct. Yeah, who has bad editing or whatever? I want a parks produced thing. I won't give me give me what you guys are talking about. Give me these experiences.

[01:20:09] I want to feel included in that. Yeah. No, that was there's some really good ideas in there. Cool, right? I think we all did great. Thank you for us. I think so too. Yeah, good good for us. You know, what else is good for us?

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[01:21:21] watermelon wheat find it wherever great craft beer is sold and make this summer one to remember. Yes, do that, please. Also, okay, if you're going to the park if you want to take advantage of

[01:21:34] the some of the stuff we talked about in the news segment go to concierge the rumor is they have a new concierge. Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you who it is because he got mad at that be I don't know.

[01:21:43] He got mad at Eric for spilling the beans early in the show, but he can spill his own beans. I'm not a bean spiller. What am I supposed to do? What am I your mom go to concierge.com?

[01:21:53] I direct all my friends and family to go there who are planning for the park and I'm directing you as well because you're my family now everybody who's listening to this everyone within your shot. We're family now.

[01:22:03] So can I borrow to yeah concierge.com they will help you plan your vacation. They will do everything for you. They will make all these reservations and if you're confused about the Lightning Lane thing like if going to Disney World and you don't really

[01:22:16] know what it means even though they've clarified some of the language or when that starts give them a call. They have all the deeds they get it before it hits the press so they are well aware and well trained on how to handle it.

[01:22:29] So we've already had a webinar about these things. I bet yeah, I bet you have to you know what I mean to job. Well, and honestly, I think that's why I until today didn't know anything

[01:22:40] about Lightning Lane and I now I feel like I still don't because now it's in Florida, but because I didn't I don't need to know about it. Yeah. I mean there's something about rain. Yeah, there's something about that where it was like when it first came out.

[01:22:58] It was like when the parks opened when they reopen they were like announced all this stuff. I remember correctly and it was like number one. We're not going but number two, I'm so confused. I'm going to wait for somebody to explain it to me better and that never

[01:23:12] happened. No, and then I lost interest by the time I figured it out and then I just it moved out of my brain. Oh, well, my point was like I just don't need to remember that because I'll just ask concierge to handle it for me. Yes.

[01:23:24] There you go. You go. That's it. I don't I don't need that in my life. Absolutely. All right, everybody. We are going to get out of here. That was fun. It's been a long time coming since we did an armchair Imagineering sesh. That's fun.

[01:23:38] You know, I do like it stretch your brain out a little bit. It did. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it out and then once you start it kind of just then it starts going. Yeah, you can't stop. You can't stop.

[01:23:50] Isn't that a Pringle? Wasn't that the Pringles theme for a while? Once you pop you can't stop. Yeah pop the top. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, definitely. All right, everybody. Thank you very much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it.

[01:24:02] We got some good things coming for you this year potentially another show. That's all I'm going to say about that. Yeah, so stay tuned tomorrow. If you're listening live and if you're hanging around I'm going to be on Twitch playing a game.

[01:24:15] I don't know what it's going to be but start at nine o'clock and I'll have the euros on the computer right next to me. Watch a little soccer talk a little soccer and play some games. It'll be a good time. Anyway, thanks a lot everybody.

[01:24:26] I appreciate it and until next time we'll see you in the parks.