The EarzUp! Disney News Show | Pirate Problems, Autopia Utopia, and more!

[00:00:01] Chibo Oh, fühlt sich das nach Sommer an. Die neue Sommerwäsche von Chibo begeistert mit leuchtenden Farben und fröhlichen Trints. Feine Spitze, leichte Mikrofaser und sommerliche Schnitte sorgen für pures Wohlgefühl, selbst an heißen Tagen. Entdecke jetzt die neue Wäschekollektion von Chibo und finde deine Lieblingsstücke für den Sommer.

[00:00:30] Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen, nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total. Steuer? Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung? Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1000 Euro zurückbekommen. Hast du geheime Connections? Nö, nur die Visu-Steuer-App. Wow, und das ist einfach? Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch. Plötzlich fühl ich mich so entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Tiefenentspannt mit Visu-Steuer.

[00:00:56] It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. EarzUp! Hey everybody, welcome back. It's another news episode, folks. And even though I didn't like that intro, I'm going to keep it because I don't really care. Actually, I need to wrap the show up early because England plays Panama at 2 o'clock. Oh boy.

[00:01:27] 50 minutes. Oh boy. And then Ghana plays, I forget who Ghana plays, but I'm kind of a Ghana fan now. I'm kind of a Black Stars guy right now. You told me earlier today who they play. It was like Norway or something. No, Croatia. Croatia, that's right. Yeah. So I don't know, man. That's, uh, I kind of, I don't know. I want to, I want to, I can't see both. So it's always good to watch England lose. So that'll be fun. And then hopefully Ghana wins. That'd be sick, dude. Why do you want England to lose?

[00:01:56] I don't know. Cause English are stupid. English are suck. You know what I mean? So you're like a quarter English. No, I'm not. How do you know this? What are you talking about? You told me when, because your, your mom is like English. Your dad is Greek, full Greek. And then your mom was like half something and half English. That's what you told me at one point. I don't know. I don't remember that. I don't think that's correct.

[00:02:23] Uh, but anyway, welcome to the genealogy podcast. We're rebranding. So, uh, we're going to go through everybody's genealogies right now on, uh, on ancestry.org, which is like, which is like.com, but it's different. It's open sourced. So anybody can add to it. It's like Wikipedia of genealogy. See who you're related to. Did you hear that the, uh, the, the original co-founder of Wikipedia got kicked off permanently

[00:02:51] from the page for like putting like misinformation and stuff. Nice. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Hey, we were talking about Wikipedia. What do you want? This is an internet podcast. Now folks, we're just talking about the internet. We be pivot. You got to pivot all the time. Always be pivoting. I don't know. Anyway. Uh, what's up everybody? We got some news to cover and we have some breaking news. Oh, as a matter of fact, like there's like stuff that happened yesterday that we're actually going to talk about today. It's exciting.

[00:03:21] I am excited about that. It's an exciting time in, in, in our lives. Uh, but we haven't done is figured out who's going first. Who wants to go? Eric, what you want to go first in this news ceremony or it sure does. Sure. Nope. It doesn't matter. All right. I was going to volunteer, but. Oh, shoot. Well for tribute. Oh man, man. You got to do it. It's fine. Okay. Well, I was nominated. You were nominated. It's true. Okay. I got this weird headache behind, behind my eye now.

[00:03:51] I don't like it. It sounds like a migraine, but it's not, it's just like in one spot, you know? Yeah. That sounds like a migraine. But why? I don't get a migraine. Who gets a migraine? Migraines don't always have to be like terrible. I don't know. Sometimes they're, but they are often behind your eye. I never thought I was weak like that. Oh my God. Shut up. I was weak and. Oh God. No, like I think I was, cause I was like moving like these big heavy plants that we bought. And then I feel like I strained myself and now I'm going to have an aneurysm.

[00:04:21] That's what I feel like. I don't really think that's how that works. I don't think that's how that works either, but that's what I'm afraid. That's what I feel like. Anyway, I don't know. Whatever dude. So if I keel over, know that I'm went out doing the thing that I sort of enjoyed doing. All right, Eric, let's go, man. Let's do some news today, brother. We're, we're digging into it early. Okay. Well, uh, let's see which one do we want to start with level 99.

[00:04:51] Let's do it. Walt Disney's restored private airplane. So you, you sent these, these phrases in our text chat or group chat. I couldn't tell you a single one. I mean, I, I, I recognized Walt and airplane. And so I vaguely have an idea about what that is, but level 99 just sounds like a, a BSDM club. Let's, let's start with level 99. Whatever it is. Let's start there. Okay.

[00:05:21] Let's, let's start there. All right. Level 99 officially opens June 29th, 2026 at Disney Springs, taking over the massive former NBA experience, which used to be the Disney quest building. That was Disney quest being the, uh, endeavor. That was all virtual game sort of Disney stuff.

[00:05:46] Uh, which is probably worth, worth a full episode on its own. This is the company, uh, the company, uh, level, level 99's fourth location. It's its largest to date. It covers approximately 46,800 square feet across two floors. And it's a, it's designed primarily for adults and teens, not young children. So what is level 99?

[00:06:14] Um, this is a, a company, a, a destination that's part escape room and part video game in a way. Okay. Uh, it's, uh, so it was founded by, uh, Matt Du Plessis.

[00:06:32] Um, he's a veteran of location based entertainment before, before he, he's, he's done several like interactive entertainment destinations and large scale physical gaming experiences. So his goal was to answer a question. What comes after escape rooms? We're getting over escape rooms at this point. What's, what's next?

[00:06:58] What's next is, is actually the cut, the consumer locks the employees in. That's, that's the switch, right? And we, we wait to see what happens. Yeah. Um, when the blood comes like slowly seeping out under the door. That's right. Uh, so rather than designing one hour experiences that end once they're completed, he envisioned a venue where guests could spend an entire evening replaying dozens of short games with friends.

[00:07:26] So it's part escape room, part American Ninja Warrior, part arcade, part team building games, puzzle rooms, bars, and restaurants. And he calls it real world gaming. Real? Real world gaming. Okay.

[00:07:45] So if you look up some of the pictures of this, the one that you'll probably see the first is a dude running on a plank while a bunch of foam axes are swinging back and forth. Okay. And the point is to make it all the way across without getting knocked off. And this is in real life. This is. Yes. Like an obstacle course. So what it looks like also is a lot of the floor is lava kind of things.

[00:08:15] So like you said, like Ninja Warrior, if you just go to the website, level99.com, they have like a little video that plays, you know, like a little stinger or whatever teaser. And, uh, yeah, so it's interesting. It's like, it's like if you had, um, um, come on, I'm blanking on the name of that movie, that TV show, the Korean TV show. Where would he dies? Spoiler alert. Oh, uh, most extreme. No, it's my aneurysm kicking. I'm telling you guys. Oh, oh. The new one.

[00:08:45] Sophie's Choice or whatever it is. Why can't I remember the name of the show that I've watched? Thank you, P. There we go. It's like Squid Games and the Floor is Lava and Ninja Warrior and, you know, whatever. But, uh, I don't know. You know, it smells crazy in there. Right. But yeah, it, so it's, it's, uh, 60 and more escape room style mini games that can be replayed. You just, you can just go back in line and replay them again once you finish to try to improve your time.

[00:09:15] But you get a, you know, a wristband that tracks your progress through everything. And there's a giant leaderboard that tells everybody how everybody's doing that day. Hmm. Um, Orlando is now the flagship location. The first being in, uh, Massachusetts. It's got the company's largest game count and biggest art installations.

[00:09:37] It was created specifically to fill that gap of like nightlife and escape room and stuff that, that Disney didn't really have. Yeah. Um, and you, you basically pay for like one and a half to two and a half hours, uh, to go in. You don't pay per game. You just pay for the time to be there. Okay.

[00:10:02] And the time that you're paying for, you kind of scan your band and you, you run the gauntlet and do the thing. And there you go. So some of it's physical, some of it's mental challenges, some of it's puzzles. It's not all one thing. So it's not all running through axes. It's not all American gladiator. Each challenge only lasts one to four minutes. So it encourages you to keep moving through the venue. So there's some that require teamwork.

[00:10:31] Some is agility. Some is puzzle solving memory, balance, speed. Um, you can go head to head with what, with your friends on certain challenges. So it's not all teamwork. Uh, and then they have a two story central bar that serves Detroit style pizza. Hell yeah, dude. I love Detroit style pizza, man. I've never had it outside my own house, but, uh, it's great.

[00:11:01] It's great fun. Wagyu beef burgers, craft cocktails, and local beers. So it starts out at, uh, about $30 for a 90 minute session. There are longer sessions available. And, uh, that's kind of it. It's, it's designed to give you something to do in the evening and, and play around a little bit outside the parks. And, uh, yeah, that's, that's level 99. It sounds cool. I love it.

[00:11:31] It's opening up in a couple of days here. All right. We got to get someone out there and check it out and report in. Uh, Brian's in the chat and he's saying like Disney would be a great escape room, uh, company. And I'm kind of surprised that I'm of two minds. Number one, I'm kind of surprised that level 99 didn't use some of the Disney IP for stuff like that. You know, that's a good, be a perfect licensing thing too. Right. For Disney to license out. But then also maybe I'm glad that they're not because sometimes you want a break from seeing Disney stuff everywhere.

[00:11:59] Even when you're on campus, you know, it's, it's okay to take a break when you're in downtown Disney. You don't need to see a $50 Donald Duck sweater. You know what I mean? Yeah. And most of downtown Disney, just most of Disney Springs is like downtown Disney where it's not IP everywhere. Yeah. Which is good. I, I, I, I like that. They, yes, they could do great with it, but I kind of liked that they, um, they didn't do it. Yeah.

[00:12:26] I've seen some complaints that people are like, well, why, why not do Disney stuff? It's like, well, they have Disney quest there for years. It's way down, um, in Disney Springs. Did you go to Disney Springs when you were out? Yeah. Yeah. Last time. Yeah. It's down where, uh, where Cirque du Soleil is. It's way down there. Yeah. It's like the exact opposite of where the rainforest cafe and everything is where most of the restaurants are.

[00:12:53] It's where shops are and it's down by the theaters and everything. So it's, it's not the most accessible, but it is, I mean, if you, if you're parking there, you can park close by. They've got a garage near there. It's, it, it seems like more of a destination than Disney quest was. And it seems like more of a bit like no one seemed to care about NBA experience. Well, no, that's true. You know what they need to do?

[00:13:20] Like Disney should do some of this escape room stuff or partner with level 99 and then do Disney themed experiences, but in different countries or different, excuse me, different, uh, cities that don't have a Disney park. They don't have a presence. Oh yeah. Maybe, maybe it's like a pop-up or maybe it's like a, you go there for six months. It's like the Halloween superstar. You just rent out these old places that don't exist anymore. You know, these giant malls or whatever. You fill the thing in there for six months and then you move it to another place.

[00:13:50] That was the idea behind Disney quest because we had one in Chicago. Oh, that was poorly attended. Uh, my friend's dad helped build it. It sounds like you need to do a show on that. Cause I don't really know what it is. Yeah. We could do a Disney quest show. I'd love to do a deeper dive into Disney quest. Um, but, but yeah, it, it really, it may be, maybe these days that sort of thing would work

[00:14:15] out better because with Disney quest, it sounds like a lot of the tech was outdated the moment it opened. Well, yeah. And that's tech, I guess too, because if you go, I would imagine it takes a couple of years to plan something like that to go, okay, we're going to use this. And then we build the show around this technology, but something new came out that we didn't even know about before. And then now the technology sucks. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. That's that. All right. Well, someone go and then let us know how it is. Yeah. I'll be there next month.

[00:14:44] I could, I could probably give it a shot. I could convince my family or at least my spouse to go over there. Absolutely. All right. Do it. Please do. Okay. All right, Taryn. Okay. Well, I have, I think this is sort of like breaking news. I think this is something that you were sort of talking about, but pirates of the Caribbean has made some changes. That's correct. Correct. So fans meandering through the bayous of Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland

[00:15:11] may now notice one of the attraction's most iconic scenes looks a little different. After a two month refurbishment, the classic attraction has reopened with a brand new audio animatronic pirate whose face literally transforms before guests eyes. As your boat floats past the treasure room, the pirate lifts a cursed piece of gold, laughs triumphantly, and slowly withers into a skeleton. Moments later, after dropping the coin, he magically returns to his living form.

[00:15:41] Disney says this new effect finally tells a story behind the familiar skeleton that has been sitting atop a mountain of treasure for generations. According to Imagineering, it is not meant to be a new character at all. It is the same pirate guests have seen for decades, but now they're showing what happened when he gave in to the curse of the treasure. The effect is made possible through a combination of advanced audio animatronics and new projection technology,

[00:16:06] creating one of the most lifelike transformations Disney has ever attempted inside one of its classic attractions. Now for many Disney fans, though, changing such an iconic scene is kind of a big deal. Pirates of the Caribbean isn't just another Disneyland ride. When it opened on March 18th, 1967, it was unlike anything theme parks had ever seen. It was also the last attraction Walt Disney personally worked on before his death in December 1966.

[00:16:35] And although he never got to experience the finished ride himself, his fingerprints are all over the attraction. From its cinematic storytelling to the groundbreaking audio animatronics that completely changed the theme park industry. Now the attraction originally featured more than 100 audio animatronic figures, making it one of the most ambitious rides ever created. Guests had never seen anything like it, and nearly 60 years later, it's still considered one of Disney's greatest masterpieces.

[00:17:05] Ironically, Pirates of the Caribbean became so popular that it eventually inspired the blockbuster movie franchise starring Johnny Depp. Since the first film debuted in 2003, Disney has gradually added Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbossa, Davy Jones, and other movie characters throughout the attraction, and each one of these updates has sparked debate among Disney fans. This latest addition is no exception. Social media blew up almost immediately after Disneyland shared a video of the new pirate.

[00:17:36] Some fans were blown away by the technology, calling it one of the most impressive audio animatronic Disney has ever built. Many said the transformation fits perfectly with the curse established in the films and adds another layer of storytelling to the attraction. Others weren't nearly as enthusiastic. Several longtime Disneyland fans felt the original skeleton was already perfect, saying its mystery was part of what made that scene so memorable.

[00:18:02] Others questioned Disney's growing use of projection efforts, arguing that classic practical effects have always been part of the attraction's charm. Still, plenty of fans pointed out that change has always been part of Pirates of the Caribbean. Over the decades, Disney has updated dialogue, refreshed special effects, replaced scenes, introduced entirely new characters, and even reimagined the famous auction sequence.

[00:18:28] What feels controversial today often becomes just another part of the attraction's history a few years later. And frankly, that may be exactly what Walt Disney would have wanted. After all, he famously believed that Disneyland would never be completed and would continue to grow and change. So love it or hate it, Disneyland is always changing, and sometimes the classics just become a distant memory. Have you seen this video? I have. Eric, have you seen it? Yeah, I've seen a few videos of it.

[00:18:57] Yeah, from different perspectives and from different distances. The close-up ones? Not great. I thought we were going away from the projection faces. Yeah. No, we're moving to them. Well, yeah, because they put practical heads on the Frozen characters in Epcot. Yeah. But we're back to...

[00:19:24] I mean, I get that you can't just do this with a regular face, but up close, it doesn't look great. From further away, it looks great. And that's where you're supposed to see it. Right, right. You're supposed to see it from 20 feet away, moving at a slow pace. Yeah. From the boat, I think it'll look awesome. But I think from people who are zooming in, it gets a little pasty. But I do like the effect. See, yeah. And so I like the effect, too.

[00:19:53] I'm a hater, you know, in general. But I don't mind this. I really don't. Because for me, the point of that scene with the skeleton on the frigging mound of gold is it's cursed, right? He got it and he died getting the thing. Mm-hmm. So you're seeing that happen. It's... I think it kind of backs up the story more than anything.

[00:20:21] I mean, didn't they kind of change with the movie? Didn't they kind of change the overall storyline of Pirates anyway to make it like cursed treasure? Yeah. I mean... That was never original, was it? I think that they created it. Because like, it didn't really have a storyline. Like before the movies, there wasn't really a story. There was just scenes. It was just a general thing, but I think in the movie, it's a cursed treasure, something like that. So then after the movie came out, when they added Jack Sparrow and the new voice lines,

[00:20:51] didn't they add the idea of the treasure being cursed anyways? So it's a new addition, and I think this, it just illustrates the point of the story. And of course on Reddit, everyone's just pissy, man. Oh my goodness. You would think that they replaced it with a Lilo and Stitch car wash theme. Like it just, it's wild how crazy people are getting about it. Yeah.

[00:21:16] Like one dude post, I wrote on a comment, one dude posted like an extreme closeup of like the three different transformations of the face. And then he went so far as to label the percentages of different colors and like how the colors are off. And the black of the face is not as black as the hat and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, okay, that's really great. And so my comment, which got downvoted to hell, I didn't say, but my comment, which got downvoted

[00:21:44] to hell was basically like the first part of the ride with all the skeletons doing stuff denies the, the actual like literal, what happens when you die, your body decomposes and your bones can't hold onto one another, right? Cause there's no tendons or whatever. So the bones fall apart. Skeletons wouldn't be in this, in this pose in the first place. True. You wouldn't have a real skeleton holding a, holding a coin dot, you know, dead on the thing and just in a boat.

[00:22:13] So it doesn't, like at that point you're asked to suspend your disbelief anyways. They're, they're supposed to be haunted. I mean, the last skeleton you see, well, the second to last, oh no, not, well, there are a few more, but one of the last skeletons you see is, is piloting a ship in a storm. Then you see a skeleton that's drinking a never ending supply of wine. Well, so, but here's the thing on those, if they're not moving, I don't think they're haunted.

[00:22:42] They're just skeletons. That's, that's the way I interpret it. Like when you go down the second drop and the guy on the Island on the right hand side, which is where this should have been probably in the first place where he's like, you know, stabbed and he's pinned against the rock. Oh yeah. I just think he's just a, I just think he's a skeleton. Yeah. You know what I mean? Then you get the, the guy driving the thing. That's a haunted skeleton. Then the guy drinking sort of, but nobody else in that scene is moving. And, and then you got the guy on the bed holding the magnifying glass.

[00:23:11] You're not going to stay like that forever. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I don't know. I guess, I guess I just don't have a problem with it. Now I, it, it, it definitely, I think the technology betrays the, uh, the vibe of the ride. Personally, I don't think that technology of that advanced status should be in this ride to begin with. It, it's not, you, we don't need, we don't need technology in pirates.

[00:23:39] We just, we don't, you know, like remember the, the, the blowback that, that Disney got when they put Constance in there, like the bride, the ghostly bride. And it was, it's a projection on the thing. And it's like, it looks, it's like the bright led with, with the, the normal old school sort of gels over the lenses and stuff like that. Lighting contrast doesn't work. It, yeah. That, so that pride was always a little like, yeah, I don't know.

[00:24:08] So I think it's the same thing here. You don't, it looks fine. I think it should have been somewhere else in the park. It doesn't, it doesn't need to be like why pirates to invade pirates with brand new technology like that in, in a iconic scene in a ride that most people hands down adore doesn't make any sense. It definitely feels like someone's like, all right, we have this new tech. We have to use it. Let's just put it here.

[00:24:36] And then other people are, I would imagine are going like, if it was me, I'd be like, Hey, I don't know, man. And like, Nope, we're doing it here. Let's add it in. Just install it. Cause that's the way it feels. It just feels slapped together. It feels shoved in. And I don't like it. I mean, you know, you got Marvel land coming up. Why not use it for that? You got other stuff happening. Just save the tech. What are you doing? That's my thought about it. But I also don't mind it at the same time. I just wish it was better. That's all.

[00:25:05] I've been really going back and forth on it. When I very first saw it, I was like, ew, was my first. Yeah. But then like when I saw it turned back to the skeleton, I was like, okay, well, I guess like I get it. And it does match the movie more. And I thought back to the other changes they made because of the movie that I hated. And then you just get used to them. And now I'm kind of, I think I just don't care. If it were my choice, I would have left it as it is.

[00:25:34] But it doesn't like hurt my soul that they changed it. Right. And you know, if I'm honest, once you ride that section of the ride a few times, nothing changes. And you're kind of like, okay, like nothing's even happening. Like it's just all static. Yeah. That is true. All your kinetic motion happens basically after the guy driving the head of the boat or whatever, right? The wheel.

[00:26:02] Nevermind the guy drinking the wine or whatever. That is what it is. It's not really anything. That's still pretty static. It's still pretty static. And then it's just, then you got the guy in the bed, you got the piano playing, I guess, you know, that's cool. But then nothing happens and you're just like, come on, you know, but some people are, you know, think that's someone called it a meditative part of the, of the ride. I'm like, brother, you need to touch some frigging grass, dude. Come on.

[00:26:31] It's a frigging ride that opened in 1966 or whatever. Get over it. Yeah. But also if you're going to make a change, it should fit. The technology should fit. I don't mind the story, right? I don't mind making this guy alive and then make him in the, he, he dies because he touches the cursed coin. I don't mind that. I think that's cool, but the way they did it, I don't, that's not cool, but it might look better from far away. And then, you know, in six months, no one's going to remember that any different.

[00:27:00] Walt wanted kinetic energy in all parts of the park. Like that was his, his idea for Tomorrowland. And so having the people movie mover going overhead and the monorail moving around and rivers of America and all this other stuff, like things moving constantly to draw your attention. Yeah. I don't think he would have minded something like this. And he was a big fan of technology. So why not? Yeah.

[00:27:26] I don't, if we're going to go with the Walt, Walt didn't want this sort of thing. He didn't, he didn't give final approval on this, this attraction. He was dead. And like the guy loved new stuff. Like he loved intervention. He loved all of that stuff. Like I actually, if, if I think about like what the parks would be like, if he just could,

[00:27:54] could live to 150, like it's kind of scary. I feel like he, he sort of his personality would have maybe destroyed it. Half the park would have been gone. The parks that we, the parts that we really love yet, they would be gone. Absolutely. There's no nostalgia. There's something new. Like not to put words in a dead man's mouth, but like, I do think that he would love technologies too much.

[00:28:21] I mean, that is a good point because look at how many rides he removed, you know, you got the, the rainbow caverns or whatever. You got the mine train, the pack mule, the Indian village, the, you know, the skull rock. You had stuff that the man pulled out. Yeah. And so who knows what would, ah, this isn't eating the crowd. Let's change it or whatever. It might be really cool. Do you really think like that the new fantasy land would have survived the, the revamp in the eighties or whatever? No, I don't think so.

[00:28:51] If Walt was still around, he'd be like, dude, this is, this is not good. This is not good. We need to, let's put something else here. Let's do this. Why is snow white? So, you know, who knows? It might've been even way cooler. So yeah. Hard to say. All right. I got a story and then we'll take a break. Okay. Sounds like a plan. Speaking of things at the park. This past Sunday, Disneyland got a little bit more interesting as a new unscripted TV show began shooting in the park called.

[00:29:18] How did I get just so unbelievably mind alteringly just dumb? The star, a 13 year old boy kicked things off when he climbed out of his ride vehicle on Tiana's Bayou Adventure right before the big drop and proceeded to ragdoll his way down the 50 foot waterfall following his party who wisely stayed inside the log. The video first posted online by TMZ showed the boy possibly trying to exit out of fear.

[00:29:49] Maybe I don't really know because he's well past the crest of the thing, right? The waterfall. It almost looks like he took that little pause there at the top. You know, when you go and you go and you look over right before it drops. It's almost like he's rethinking his life choices and decided to bail out at the last second, but he couldn't clear the boat in time. So the boat sort of drug him from the bank and he wasn't fully out of the ride car yet

[00:30:15] when the boat, then the kinetic energy, speaking of kinetic energy, pulled him back into what would have been the boat, but it was unfortunately the water. That downward force spun him out and into the water where he went down the slide backward. Ping pong a couple of times before disappearing from view. Eric, have you seen this video? I have. It's it's difficult. There was a clear footage somewhere. It's it's like longer.

[00:30:45] It's it's still funny. I mean, it was difficult at first, but I'm like, oh, this is actually really hilarious to me. The child was taken to the hospital out of abundance of caution where he was examined and released with no injuries, which is why I think it's funny if he was hurt. Can I just say I haven't heard an abundance of caution since the beginning of COVID? Well, there you go, man. True. But that's why I think it's funny. That's why I can laugh at this child because he's OK. He doesn't have brain damage. He didn't get hurt. Nothing broke. Everything's fine.

[00:31:14] He's just freaked out. And hopefully he's learned a life lesson, a valuable life lesson. The ride itself stopped and California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health Inspectors checked the ride out, as is the case when accidents involving rides happen. And they found no evidence of faulty safety equipment such as it is on that, such as it exists on that ride or anything like that. Tiana's was back up and running the very next day. No harness or lap bars exist on the ride in case the log boats tip over, apparently.

[00:31:43] That's the reason why these don't happen. Yeah, which sounds insane because there's no room for those things to even happen in the first place. But I don't make the rules, Taryn, so don't yell at me. Well. This kid was lucky he wasn't hit by another boat, which apparently happened. I think in like 2000 or 2006, like some 37-year-old climbed out of the boat, I want to say in Florida, and another boat smacked into him and killed him. Yeah. So there you go. Or had his neck broken as he's falling down.

[00:32:13] Or at least been knocked unconscious and drowning. There's so many different things that could have happened to this kid. There's no word on how much the individual lightning lane will be to ride down the waterfall drop without a boat, something that I'm sure guests are asking for, since it's clear that it's a totally safe thing to do. I guarantee you some little broccoli-headed TikTok kid's going to try this, you know, with a GoPro strapped to his head because apparently it's safe. It's fine. Obviously, it's a joke. They're not going to let people slide down it, but it does beg the question, if it's

[00:32:42] safe, let me do it. I would do it. Would you do it? Eric, would you slide down Tiana's waterfall drop? Heck no. I'm a good boy. I sit in my seat. I have my... If they allowed you to. If this was like Pineapples in the chat and he says, $39.95 for the free fall package. If you could buy the free fall package upgrade to after the boat goes down, then you can go down sliding like a waterfall. Would you do that? Like a water slide?

[00:33:11] No, there's a water park for that. Yeah, but it's not Tiana's. Imagine a water park that's Tiana's where you're... Oh my God. Check this out. Here's the next thing for Disney water park, maybe. A lazy river with a 50 foot drop at the bottom and then you go back around. Ooh. See, I love that. See, actually, I would... Wouldn't that be great? Just Tiana's with no boats. Yeah. Just lazy river and then you go rush down the waterfall. Yeah. To be honest... That's the way it's designed.

[00:33:41] I would prefer that to the ride. I haven't even been on the ride. Well, yeah, but like to Splash Mountain. Like I would just prefer that. Well, you don't like that drop. No, but like I think I could... I would like it more sliding down. Okay. Because I have more control. No, you don't. Yeah. You're at the whim of gravity. Yeah, but I know when I'm going. I'm not... Ugh. Yeah. No. I would definitely prefer. I would take that. I would do that. All right, man. Okay. I would do that. I would do it too. I think that'd be great. Imagine that. Just... I don't know, man. You're just cruising around.

[00:34:10] You listen to the story or whatever happens in that dumb ride. Then you get absolutely careened down. All right, let's take a quick break, everybody. We're going to come right back. We're going to do some more stories and we're going to get out of here and go watch England hopefully lose to Panama and then watch Ghana win at the same time. Well, there you go. Against Croatia for some reason. So hang on, everyone. It's ears up. We'll be right back. Iconic vibes zum besten Preis. Wow geht mit Euphoria in die dritte Staffel.

[00:34:40] Ein paar Jahre nach der High School. Wusste ich nicht, ob das Leben so war, wie ich es wollte. Stream ab dem 13. April parallel zum US-Start. Wöchentlich eine neue Folge. Das Problem ist, wenn du einen Puck mit dem Teufel schließt, gibt es kein Zurück mehr. Freu dich außerdem auf weitere Highlights wie House of the Dragon und Wicked. Alles ab nur 2,98 Euro im Monat. Streaming war noch nie so wow. Ein perfekter Frühlingstag. Alluf! Sonne. Alluf! Park. Alluf!

[00:35:09] Picknick. Und so viele Pollen. Shop Apotheke sagt Tschüss Allergie und Hallo Frühling. Hier findest du alles, um unbeschwert durch die Allergiezeit zu kommen. Als Neukunde sparst du sogar 10% ab 35 Euro Bestellwert. Mit dem Code NEU10. Du hast ein E-Rezept? Einfach Shop Apotheke App runterladen und direkt einlösen. Gutscheinbedingungen auf shop-apotheke.com slash gutscheine.

[00:35:37] Back to ears up, where the opinions never stop. Ever. Thanks for sticking around, everybody. Alright Eric, what do you got? You got Walt's plane. I've got Walt's plane. Let's go on a journey, brother. Let's take a look at the Mickey Mouse One. The Mickey Mouse One. The Mickey Mouse One. Love it.

[00:36:02] The Mickey Mouse One has completed a major milestone in its restoration and is now on display at the Palm Springs Air Museum. The restoration recreates the aircraft exactly as it appeared during Walt's lifetime in the mid-60s. The aircraft is a Grumman Gulfstream One, purchased by Walt Disney Productions in 1963 as the company rapidly was expanding around California.

[00:36:31] Every detail has been restored, including historical photographs, original blueprints, and documentation from the Disney archives. The airplane now looks pretty much like it did when Walt personally traveled aboard it in the final years of his life. That's pretty cool. So the plane seats 15 passengers.

[00:36:57] Features inside include a galley kitchen, two restrooms. One was reserved exclusively for Walt. Oh God, yes. Absolutely, brother. I'm sorry, I own this plane. I'm going to put heat wherever I want. Yeah, this is for me. Don't put heat in my bathroom, please. Our heat should not combine. Right.

[00:37:22] Leather seating, couches, meeting tables, a fold-down executive desk, and Mickey Mouse-beamed design touches throughout the cabin. Walt and Lillian personally helped select the aircraft's interior. Decorative elements even included plant materials inspired by landscaping from the Disney family home. God, dude.

[00:37:50] Get over it. There was a partition between first class and Walt class. Okay. That included actual flowers from their house. Bro. High maintenance is all I... It was like at the older Walt got. I was like, this princess, dude. Come on. You need plants from your house in your private plane? Yeah.

[00:38:19] Come on, dude. Get over yourself. Oh, it was inside... It was inside plastic, too. Oh, jeez. They were like preserved. Wow. That's odd. In a... Like that partition thing. New money, baby. Yeah. So this was Walt's... It's been described as Walt's flying executive office.

[00:38:46] So Walt held meetings in this plane, reviewed artwork, discussed attraction concepts, and planned future projects. It became one of the places where many important Disney's decisions were made. This is basically Air Force One. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's...

[00:39:09] It was very important, despite being a little bit smaller than a certain plane that we've gotten donated from a foreign nation. Well, you say we. He purchased it himself. Right. So one of its most important distinctions is its connection to the secret Florida project. Ooh.

[00:39:33] So this is the plane that Walt flew in over central Florida while he was looking for the perfect location for what would become Walt Disney World. We talked about this in the episode... In an episode, what was that, like two years ago? Yeah. Yeah. From his favorite seat behind the window, or beside the window, he would look out evaluating highways, lakes, wetlands, and available land.

[00:40:01] And this helped establish the master plan for what Walt Disney World would become. How? It... The aircraft accumulated nearly 20,000 flight hours over 28 years of service. It carried an estimated 83,000 passengers, which sounds crazy. By transporting executives back and forth across the country. Hmm.

[00:40:32] That seems like too much. That seems like excessive executive. Yeah. The Orlando Sentinel. Are you double counting executives? Yeah. There and back. I mean, it does count. I suppose. If I had an aircraft, a luxury jet, you know, airline, I would call it... What did I say? Excessive executive. Excessive executive. Oh, there we go. Yeah. I like that. Thank you. Yeah.

[00:41:00] But it generally traveled between California, New York, and Florida when it was most active. The registration number for this airplane was N234MM, which was a tribute to Mickey Mouse.

[00:41:22] Instead of the usual marker for aircraft, the pilots would call in and say... They would actually say Mickey Mouse instead of whatever the M usually stands for. I'm blanking on that right now. I should have written that down. Marine. I don't know. That's cool. Yeah. That's funny. Cute.

[00:41:46] But yeah, they always kept a Mickey Mouse matchbook besides Walt's ashtray. Oh. Okay. You sure you want to do that, pal? Guests would get a Mickey-themed flight bag of treats. Lovely. And there was a Mickey Mouse clock that we've all seen before with Mickey's arms rotating around. Oh, yes. That's very cute.

[00:42:15] Uh, that was a little Disney touch in there. Cool. Um, after Walt's passing in 1966, the plane was eventually retired and it became part of the backlot tour at Disney MGM Studios, which is now Disney's Hollywood Studios. And guests could view it for many years. I remember seeing this plane many times on the backlot tour. Nice.

[00:42:41] Um, and after that attraction closed, it basically sat there. Mothballed and rotting. Yeah. I tried to get my buddy who works there to break into it, but he's like, no, he investigated. He tried. Like, he was like, look, and he's like, no, there's like, there's actually like, there's some locks that I don't have the keys for. I'm like, damn. Nice. But, uh, definitely. I think he made it to the plane, but I don't think he like get into it. I think you could get up to it.

[00:43:08] I'm sure if you, if you were working there, but in 2022, it was, uh, brought to the D23 expo for a special exhibit. For viewing. And then, um, it was moved to the Palm Springs Air Museum where painstaking restoration has continued for the last few years. So it's, it's been finally completed.

[00:43:32] I can't find the dollar amount that was involved in restoring this plane, but it's gotta be huge. Yeah, dude. Uh, the pictures really do look like they've restored it to the vintage status. Um, it's a preserved piece of Disney history and, and rightfully so because inside this

[00:43:56] cabin, Walt planned attractions, reviewed creative ideas, flew, flew to the world's fair in 64 and surveyed Florida property. Like so many amazing things have happened in this plane. And of course we, we, you know, have idolized Walt for all of these different things. Why not? Why not make this plane part of that, that story?

[00:44:24] Uh, because, um, corny as hell it's where some of Walt Disney's biggest dreams quite literally turned to flight. That's so nice. Yeah. Well, that means Roly Crump was in there too. If you took that to a, uh, you know, that's pretty important for me. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's massively important to the history of the company and we've all heard these stories before.

[00:44:51] And why let this plane rot in a field behind Hollywood studios? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Very good. Eric. Thank you. Cool. All right, Taryn. Good. Good. Okie dokie. So the holidays are many people's favorite time of the year, especially at Disney parks, but the 2026 holiday season at Walt Disney world may not feel quite the same.

[00:45:16] Um, Disney has confirmed that the life-sized gingerbread house inside Disney's grand Floridian, uh, resort and spa will not return for the 2026 holiday season or in future years. Why? Wow. Imagine you'll tell me. Well, not really. No. Um, after nearly three decades, one of Walt Disney world's most beloved holiday traditions has officially come to an end.

[00:45:46] The announcement wasn't entirely unexpected. The gingerbread house was also absent during the 2025 holiday season while the grand Floridian lobby underwent major renovations. Oh yeah. But fans assumed and hoped that the display would make a triumphant return once construction was completed. Triumphant. Of course. But Disney has confirmed that rather than rebuilding the massive gingerbread house, the resort's pastry team will create several smaller gingerbread displays throughout the hotel.

[00:46:16] Hmm. Great. Yeah. The grand Floridian gingerbread house first debuted in 1999 and quickly became one of Walt Disney world's signature Christmas experiences. Every November guests would flock to the resort just to watch the culinary team assemble the enormous Victorian-style house in the lobby standing more than 14 feet tall. It wasn't just for show. It was, of course, edible and smelled delicious. Creating the display was a massive undertaking.

[00:46:45] Disney bakers used hundreds of pounds of honey, chocolate, flour, and icing along with more than 10,000 pieces of gingerbread. See, they say it was edible, but I think it was edible in the same way dog food is edible. Well, you can, but- That's all gingerbread. No. All gingerbread to be made to build structural gingerbread? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's what I mean. It's technically- Technically edible, yeah. It's made out of- You got Alpo or you got structural gingerbread, which are you going to pick? I don't know yet. We'll see.

[00:47:14] I've seen this thing in person and, yeah, I wouldn't want to take a bite out of it. No, no. Yeah, dude. Even a small gingerbread house you make at your house, you don't really want to eat, but you technically could. Right. The project required well over 500 hours of baking and decorating each year and even featured an 88-pound white chocolate Santa Claus. One of the most popular traditions was the small shop built into the side of the house where guests could purchase freshly baked gingerbread and other holiday treats.

[00:47:43] Now, during its 25th anniversary celebration in 2024, Disney even hid 25 hidden Mickeys throughout the display and released commemorative merchandise to celebrate the milestone. While the Grand Floridians' gingerbread house became the most famous, it eventually inspired an entire collection of edible holiday displays across Walt Disney World. Disney's Beach Club Resort features a gingerbread carousel that changes theme each year.

[00:48:08] Disney's Boardwalk Inn has an elaborate gingerbread version of the resort itself. And Disney's Contemporary Resort is known for its impressive Cinderella Castle display. While Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge has created edible African-inspired villages and wildlife scenes. Now, despite the retirement of the Grand Floridian giant display, these other resort displays are expected to continue.

[00:48:33] Celebrate your colonizing ways and eat an African village this Christmas. Still, for many longtime Disney fans, saying goodbye to the Grand Floridian gingerbread house feels like the end of an era. For 27 holiday seasons, it was more than just a beautiful display. It was a symbol that Christmas had officially arrived. Now, going forward, fans will need to find that holiday magic elsewhere. Somewhere else. Somewhere else.

[00:49:01] But they don't say why. And I can't help but think... Money. No, money, yes. But the 500 hours it takes them to do it, they're like, no, we can't pay people to do that. Yeah, money. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. The man hours. The man hours. They're like, no, absolutely not. But you guys can make little ones and put them around the place. I'm surprised they just don't have a chat GPT do it for them. I mean, yeah. It's very... It feels...

[00:49:31] Reductive in a way. Yeah. Like, they haven't given a good reason, which makes it feel just bad. I mean, even though... On the one hand, they're not removing them entirely. They still have the little ones. And on some level, I can kind of get behind that because you can do more, I suppose, depending on how little they are, right? Yeah. Who knows how... What little... Yeah. Considering the grand scope of this thing. Right. It might come out to be the same amount of man hours. It could be.

[00:50:01] But maybe spread around the hotel, maybe you don't have a bunch of people just coming in to see that and kind of disturbing everybody. Yeah. Maybe it's that, too. I don't know. But it'd be interesting to see the theming of them all and kind of like, maybe smaller is better. This is what I keep trying to say. Yeah. I'd look forward to it because a lot of the hotels, a lot of the resorts have a gingerbread installation during the holidays.

[00:50:29] But only the Grand Floridian had a room that people could sell things out of. That's crazy. See, I like that. That's cool. Hopefully that doesn't go away. Well, it has to, I think, because they don't have the place. But you can still have the room. Well, I'm sure the room was made out of more than just gingerbread. Yeah. To make it a room. I guess.

[00:50:55] But yeah, it's definitely worth a look-see around the holidays. You want to go around to all of the resorts and look at all of their gingerbread houses, kind of like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. And you want to go to Disney Springs and see the Christmas tree lane that they have. And every resort has a Christmas tree, of course. And also, you know, I just thought of this just now.

[00:51:22] But like also, it was in the lobby, right, of the Grand Floridian? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if they just spent a whole ton of money redoing the lobby, the last thing they want to do is cover the whole thing in a gingerbread house. I suppose so. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. It's tradition. It is. But it's also... They made it fancier. They're trying to fancy the place up. Yeah. And...

[00:51:52] Kind of weird. Can you blame them? I don't know. All right. Here we go. Here's my last one, folks. I'm going to get out of here. If I ask you to sit back, close your eyes. I'm asking you guys to do this. Sit back, close your eyes, and picture in your mind a day at Disneyland. If I asked you to do that, would you crash? Don't crash. But journey a bit with me back into your memories of that last park experience that you had. Riding the rides. Smelling the people.

[00:52:22] Eating the things. Now, if I give you $100 to go and ride the worst ride in the Disneyland park, what ride are you going on? And why is that ride so awful? Taryn, what ride would you be going on? Worst ride in the park. $100. Autopia. Eric? Just for the sake of disagreement, I'll go. No, no. Your literal, actual worst ride.

[00:52:52] Gadget's go coaster because it's so cramped and small and it lasts 12 seconds and you have to wait in line for too long. Well, that's fair. And Taryn, why is the Autopia so awful? The smell and it hurts my leg pushing the pedal is too hard. Well, you need to be an athlete to drive that car. Well, soon, Taryn specifically, you won't have any excuse to avoid one of Disneyland's most maligned rides.

[00:53:20] Because the Autopia is getting its long requested electric motor revamp. Oh. Debuting on Disneyland's opening day in 1955 with rows of the Bob Gurr designed cars drove their way down Main Street in a parade akin to a Shriners convention and into the hearts and lungs of children worldwide.

[00:53:39] Since then, the ride has faced some changes like the center rail to prevent kids from flying off the course to the entire thing being sponsored by Honda and their weird robot child prototype Osimo. But on February 1st, 2027, the biggest change that ride has ever seen will happen with all of the gas powered engines being replaced with clean and renewable electric power.

[00:54:03] But don't think this is due to some altruistic gesture by Disney to showcase the future of technology in their area of the park that was built around the way our lives will be impacted by future technology. That would be crazy. No, that would be weird.

[00:54:16] No, the change was dictated within a 2024 settlement between Disney and the California Air Resources Board, giving the theme park the February 1st deadline, as well as handing them a $56,000 fine for violating certain emission controls on the Autopia cars.

[00:54:34] However, Disney does get some credit, I suppose, because in September of 2023, Honda realized that due to a, quote, administrative error, they had failed to properly certify the engines of the Autopia cars.

[00:54:59] So, apparently, Honda is the manufacturer, but they certify the car or the engines. Disney does not. So, Honda's like, oh, yeah, hey, we didn't do this. And Disney's like, well, that's cool because we actually changed some stuff. So, it wouldn't. Anyway, five months later. So, this is in 2024.

[00:55:26] Disney received a letter from the state outlining the violations committed. Disney's model year 2015 go-karts with 270cc small off-road engines are subject to the evaporative emission requirements for off-road equipment. Disney disclosed that the go-karts were manufactured with engines that were not in all material respects the same as those for which the certification was granted.

[00:55:52] So, consequently, Disney created a new evaporative emission control system that was not certified. Oh. So, I don't know what evaporative emission control, some exhaust kind of thing or something like that. I also read in some document that they altered the gas tanks a little bit. I don't know. It's not a jargon that I'm used to, like, reading. So, we used to alter a gas tank. I think to make it bigger, I would imagine. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. After manufacturing the go-karts, oh, excuse me.

[00:56:22] After manufacturing the go-karts, Disney delivered and or imported the go-karts for introduction into commerce in California via its amusement park. So, these were all direct quotes from the documentation themselves. I don't necessarily speak with words like, consequently. Sure. Or evaporative emission control system. So, just so you know. Okay. The fine that was levied by the state was $500 per vehicle found to be in violation.

[00:56:51] So, $500 divided by $56,000, and I guess that's the, you know, the fleet of Autopia cars. In April of 2024, two months after the letter, Disneyland had announced that their shift to electric engines would happen by 2027 and began planning and testing the upgrades ever since. Now, it's unclear who did the modifications on the engines. It sounds like Disney modded out, like I said, the gas tanks or some sort of emissions thing.

[00:57:21] The parks claim no damage was done to the environment while the engines were out of spec. The state, when asked by climate reporter Sammy Roth over from the blog Climate Colored Goggles, which where all of this broke originally, said that they were bound by the terms of the settlement not to disclose any details. So, you know, the parks are, it's fine. Nothing happened. And the state's like, we can't really tell you. Tee hee hee. There you go. I don't know, man.

[00:57:50] I would imagine that not everything was fine. But whatever. You can't prove anything. Since 2022, a group of climate activists have began putting pressure on the Disney company to remove the gas-powered go-kart engines in favor of more climate-friendly modes of conveyance. Likely, the end result is due to a combination of bad press, small fines, state oversight, and something to spin for the company.

[00:58:13] Either way, Tomorrowland will soon actually feel more like five years from now when EVs are more affordable and charging networks are more prevalent rather than 50 years ago, choking down fumes while sitting in your car waiting to exit the road and move on with your life. So that's happening. Autopia, they committed. Finally, they gave him a date. Not necessarily a date, but, you know, they got a time frame again. It's coming up soon.

[00:58:44] There you go. That's what's happening. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So, you know, they get fined. Like, ah, you know what? We gotta get out of here anyway. Right. Apparently, the state board, I don't know if it was the state board, was like saying, hey, you should really, maybe the state board was giving them credit because they were like, yeah, we didn't tell them to, like, stop with gas cars. They could have done some hybrid thing or some other, like, mode of, you know, combustion engine. But they're like, oh, we're going to move, you know, electric.

[00:59:13] But over at that Climate Color Goggles blog, that guy was basically outlining a couple of times how a bunch of climate activists have been putting a lot of pressure on Disney, like holding protests outside of the company and stuff like that to change the way Autopia is run. There's no need to have gas-powered engines running 10, 15 hours a day in that weird loop, you know, over and over and over again, just spewing out nonsense. Yeah. In Tomorrowland.

[00:59:42] And that's something we've talked about on the show. That's something people want to talk about forever. And I feel like we've even reported on that when there was, like, a big protest in front of Burbank in 2022. I think it sounds really familiar. Yeah. So that's what's happening, folks. That's the Disney, the Disney news breakdown. All right. Dang. Yeah. We did it. Lots of things. Yeah. Lots of things, everybody. That's what we did.

[01:00:10] And you want to hang out with me tomorrow at 430, the Buena Vista Boys. My friend Matt and I are going to be back on talking about No Deposit, No Return with the great Darren McGavin and Don Knotts. And, you know, that whole kind of movie, man, which is a very weird movie. We're going to be checking out. It'll be a good time. And if you are looking for other podcasts, don't forget to check our website, earsup-podcast.com, where all of our podcasts live.

[01:00:38] And then, of course, please go over to patreon.com slash earsup and support the show for as little as five bucks a month. Not even just the show, the entire network of, like, six or eight shows or whatever we have going on. Plus the back catalog of all the other extra shows and secret shows and kind of one-off series that we do over there. You can get all of that for five bucks. Wow. Which is a good deal, no matter how you shake it. Oh, yeah. All right, everyone. Thank you very much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. And until next time, we'll see you in the parks.