Episode 6 – The Perfect Park Day Draft (Oops, All Hosts!)

[00:00:16] Welcome to Fantasyland Draft League, where we take one corner of the Disney universe and draft it like it matters. Because it does. My name is Ryan, and today we are drafting The Perfect Park Day. This is going to be, just real quick, our first, like, positional draft. So, to this point, we've done all just kind of like, draft your five favorites something or others. This one has specific categories. We'll get into that a little bit later.

[00:00:44] If you're brand new here, here's the deal. Each episode, we pick a category. Anywhere under the Disney umbrella could be parks, movies, Marvel, corporate mergers. It could be everything. We draft it in serpentine order, which means the person who picks last in the first round goes first in the second round. And then we keep on going.

[00:01:05] To keep things interesting, we like to bring in typically some guests. But this is a very special episode. We, you know, we are half a year through. We are six monthly episodes in. And so, I have decided that this is going to be an oops, all hosts episode.

[00:01:29] So, these are some voices you have heard before. I'm going to just go on the order that's on my screen. We have our co-host, David, who you last heard, as of this release, you would have last heard, David, on the non-Skywalker Star Wars characters draft. David, go ahead and say hi. Hello. How's everyone doing tonight? We are doing not too shabby.

[00:01:59] I like the introduction because I could see in your mind, you're like, hey, he's on the episode. Oh, I had to edit it. It's not yet released. But it's going to come out by the time you hear this in the future. You will have heard his voices. Anyway. And you hear him on Puny Pod too. David, David hangs out with me over there too. He's just a nerd. Occasionally. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look, you did the Star Wars draft and you do a Marvel show.

[00:02:28] Come on. I mean, yeah. I mean, that's a nerd alert. Yeah, totally. Self-indicted. But yes, it's fine. Well, the other voice that you just heard there was Eric, who you have not heard on an episode as of this release. He will be on the next episode after this as well, which will be spoiler alert a little bit. It's a pretty exciting one. We're kind of excited for this one. It's draft a Disney album.

[00:02:58] But yeah. I was on the intro. You were on the intro. Thank you. Come on. You were on the intro and you were on the test. Yes. It was released over on Dirty Yellow Strap. Guys, we might have to invoke. I'll kick you off when you ask me to do another one. We might have to invoke the 25th Amendment here pretty soon on Ryan, if I'm being honest. Oh, boy. Oh, we are off to a rolling start.

[00:03:25] The giggles that you're hearing are coming from Olivia, who you last heard on, let's see, Attraction Music. Episode one. Yeah. Episode one, Attraction Music with Rob and Marie from her other show, Spokes. So, Olivia, go ahead and say hi. Hi. Happy to be here representing females who understand Disneyland and how a draft works at the same time. Wow. We all contain multitudes.

[00:03:55] Bring it. And the last, our silent keeper of the corner, keeper of the silent corner here, we have Brian, who you would have last heard on. Ride vehicles. You were on ride vehicles. Yes. How are we doing this evening, Brian? Great.

[00:04:24] Always excited to discuss Disney. Heck yes. Heck yes. Well, real quick, before we get into the episode, do not forget, over on the Ears Up Discord, we always do a poll for who did the best. And this episode is no different. There will be a who had the most perfect day poll up. So, make sure that you go over to the Ears Up Discord. You join there and you help us decide who has the best draft.

[00:04:54] There have been some good conversations around what counts or doesn't count from episodes over there. It's a really good time. So, go over there. And then, a real quick plug here at the top, just to get it out of the way. Out of the five of us on this show, four of us are involved with Concie Ears. Three of us are planners. Olivia, Brian, and myself are all planners for Concie Ears.

[00:05:22] We all would love to help you out if you are looking to make a Disney trip happen. Or any sort of trip. So, please reach out. We'll get you scheduled up. Please reach out to all of them. They will collaborate. Yes. All three of us. They'll all help you together. You will have the best. And I'll record you a special message. Ooh. Like a cameo? I was going to say, Eric, are you in a...

[00:05:52] I mean, people know you by your voice, Eric. Is cameo a missing opportunity for you? I'm the voice of concierge. So, you're the most famous concierge on this call, probably. Oh, well, I have to agree. Two different people approached you and said, Oh my gosh, are you Eric Johnson, the voice of concierge? So, I think you win. That was a whole year ago. Oh gosh. Yeah, keep embarrassing me. Oh me, oh my.

[00:06:22] Oh me, oh. I'm so embarrassed. I've only been podcasting for like six years. But if you multiply that by how many shows you're on, it acts like dog years. And I think you're at 62. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. I don't count. I thought the Supreme Resort was celebrating its like 85th year or something. That was a... I mean, you were on the 81st episode. Or the hub crawl. I don't know.

[00:06:51] I was going to say, you were on the 81st anniversary of the hub crawl, so... Right. Oh gosh. How many... What did we come up with during the retreat last year? I've done... I've done... I've done... Well over... I've done hundreds of D-180s. Mm. For... For Sweepspot and DL Weekly. Yeah. I mean, as long as you've done it for more than two years, which I know you have.

[00:07:22] Like... Each year is 50, right? Because those are weeklies. Right. But... Well, no, no. I do this every other week. Oh. Yeah. It's... Yeah. It's not going to help you here, Eric. It's not going to help you here. Oh my goodness. Not having a podcast. Okay. Well, I've got to step up my game. Because we've got some opinions here. And let me tell you, I've never been on a show where people give their opinions about Disney rides without any preparation.

[00:07:54] Well, you know, Eric, since you're a newbie here, let me quickly explain and get to where we need to get to. So like I said, we do this draft serpentine order, which does mean that we need a draft order. Now, typically I like to do this on something based on what the episode's about. But I'm not going to lie. This one kind of stumped me.

[00:08:21] So with that said, I am going to ask you, Eric, as the only person who has not showed up on a numbered episode that... Yeah. I'm going to ask you to set the order. So... Oh no. As a nerd, I feel like I should have a die nearby. A five-sided die. No, get the 20 out.

[00:08:48] I do, but my pound of dice is upstairs. I used to have a D100, which was a giant waste. Yeah, because they're also not random. Yeah. Yeah, it's really hard. Okay. How about this? I'm just going to go with the way I see you all on my screen. Ryan, David, Olivia, Brian, me.

[00:09:16] Ryan, David, Olivia... You said Brian or Ryan? Brian. Ball Ryan. Brian's first. RGH is first. RGH is first. Got it. Yeah. Eric gets to have... Eric gets to be the keeper of the corner. It's a good spot. It is. It is. So, like I mentioned a little bit in the intro, this is going to be the first episode where we have positions, right?

[00:09:45] In a traditional fantasy sports league, you're going to pick your catcher, your pitcher, your kicker, whatever league you're in, right? You kind of pick positions. So, for this specific draft, in order to pick your perfect park day, we are going to do a little play on that position idea. And what you are required to draft, you do not have to draft them in order, but you need

[00:10:14] to draft a snack, a ride, a show, a meal, and then you do have one wild card slot, right? So, that wild card slot could be a second show. It could be a second snack. It could also be just something that happens throughout the day, right? Something that doesn't necessarily fit neatly into these categories. Ooh, okay. Do these have to be current? Great question.

[00:10:43] I know we've discussed this in the text. We started texting about it, but I should save it for the show. So, here's my thought, right? I'm looking at these. I think ride, snack, meal are all pretty doable current, right? Like, there's pretty solid current things there. The show gets a little funky to me. Show or nighttime spectacular. Show or nighttime spectacular, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I agree.

[00:11:11] I think if you're saying that your ideal day includes something from the past that you can't visit anymore, that's a pretty sad day. That's not a perfect day. Like, that's like, wistfully like, ah, I remember the good old days of, you know, the people mover. Splash Mountain. Oh, RIP, man. Too soon, man. It's too soon. Talk about this. I want to go on Splash Mountain. Sorry, Dan. Dan doesn't listen to this show. It's fine. He doesn't.

[00:11:40] If you want to pick Splash Mountain, go for it. But I would, I don't know. Like, there's, I do think, I do think it would be really interesting to do like a draft of like, of retro things. Of like, earlier rides, early experiences, attractions. All have to be retro though. Like, they can't be great. Yes, exactly. Because otherwise, there's, because I know what I'm, I know what I'm drafting in terms of food and it's not going to be, it's not the little, that's not going to be great.

[00:12:09] But anyway, I would say probably current. All hot dogs. Consensus sounds like it is current. So I'm, I'm good with that. I have a question. Yeah. So if you draft, by way of example, if you draft Pirates of the Caribbean, do you have to specify a park? And does that take it off for all the other parks? Because I would. And that, that plays a little bit into the next thing I was going to ask you guys. And I, I hope listeners, listeners give us feedback.

[00:12:39] If you don't like the rule setting happening on the episode, I think it's really fun when I listen to other shows that do this kind of thing. So if you don't like it, let us know and we'll do it more offline. But I, I think this, this is fun content. So, so here's my thought is that you don't have to specify a park.

[00:13:03] But this plays into my second question, which is, do you need to be able to have this day? So what I mean by that is, could I draft something like a show that's in Disney World and a ride that's in Disneyland? That was my other question. Do, can I run like the Flash? Do I have time travel? What do you guys, everybody else, what do you think?

[00:13:28] I mean, if you start in Walt Disney World, you, you can conceivably, people have done it. True. And flown across and finished in Disneyland. So it is possible. Yep. Yep. What do we think? Thumbs up here. We'll do our thumbs up, thumbs down vote. And I know that that's a visual gag. And so I have to describe it. It's fine. So. It's not the Olympics. It's fine.

[00:13:54] Can you go cross, can you go cross coast, right? So draft. So you're, you're asking, is this a realistic, not, not even just, is this a time travel thing? Is this a realistic? Yes. I think we make Eric draft on the West Coast Park. Oh, that, that's entirely where I am. I second that. Except for maybe one thing. Okay. So, so you have to stay within a region.

[00:14:21] So it could be Disneyland, could be Disney World, but you have to stay within a region. Now, here's where you can do a little bit of strategery. Um, if you pick a ride that's bi-coastal, you can, you, since you're not determining what, what park it's in when you pick it. If you need to pick a snack or a show from that's on one coast or the other, you could, that'll lock you in essentially. Does that make sense? Okay.

[00:14:51] I see. Yeah. I see what you're doing. So we got to go regional. Okay. Math here, Ryan. I'm okay with, I'm okay with this. I can handle this. All right. I have no preparation. No prep. Let's go. Um, last question. Is it things that we've actually experienced? It can't be theoretical. Correct. It can be theoretical, but, but like be prepared to argue it. Great. This is, I guess what I would say.

[00:15:21] Okay. I mean, what if, what if, what if one of your things is like, I want to go to club 30. And I've never been to club 33. I've been to club 33. Well, that's, that's the, that was what popped to my mind. And I will also remind everyone, stop saying picks because it's less fun. Uh, if you say them before the draft, but let's get into it. We'll argue. We can argue. Nowhere near this list.

[00:15:48] Um, I, where do I open? It's gotta be snack, right? Snacks. Snack is really competitive, but I'm actually, have we said all the categories? I think snack. I think I did. I think I did. Show or no time spectacular in wild card. Okay. Okay. Can we trade picks? No, no trading pick. Damn. Okay.

[00:16:18] Maybe someday we'll do that, but today's not that day. Okay. Um, I, I am going to go with probably the most, what I think is these, the shallowest pool of, of options. I'm going to go with World of Color for my nighttime spectacular. Huh? Good call. That's a good pick. Yeah, sure. You hate nighttime spectacular, so you don't get to have a say. I don't hate them.

[00:16:48] Yeah. I mean, it's, it's maybe not one, one talent, but I think like, I think that it is the shallowest of the pools. Um, and so I want to make sure I got a good one and there's really only two good ones in my brain right now that I can think of. Um, for shows or nighttime spectaculars. Mm-hmm. Wow. There's so many. There's so many, but, but world of color was, was my second choice. Same thing.

[00:17:17] Like 1200 fountains, water shoots, 200 feet high. Like it makes me cry literally every single. Oh yeah. Of course. Like the emotional stuff. You get all the Disney pictures and animation and Pixar and star Wars and Marvel. It's great. Don't get me wrong. I know that I'm not, I don't have fireworks, right? World of color does not have fireworks. And so I am foregoing a pyrotechnic element.

[00:17:46] Well, not forgoing a pyrotechnic element because there is usually like flamethrowers and stuff. But, um, yeah, forgoing skybound pyrotechnics. But yeah, I, I had to go there. So David, what are you, uh, going to pick? What's your favorite version of world of color? Ooh, that's a good one. Um, the one that sticks out to me is world of color.

[00:18:14] One, um, world of color. One brought in, I think it was the first, if I remember right, the right first nighttime spectacular to feature Marvel. Um, it was not the first to feature star Wars because, um, remember dreams come true had the star tour segment. So, like, it had star Wars in it.

[00:18:42] Um, but it was like, it was this really cool, like the whole conglomeration were all there. I also have like this really like world of color. One was playing when I took my son for the first time. Oh, there you go. There's this like deep seated. Like I was standing there holding my kid watching world of color one. So that it's a special spot. And you held him up above your head so he could hold the iPad to record it. Exactly.

[00:19:10] But only the iPad max. So it's like the 15 inch screen. It's a good choice. You have pick number two. I, uh, that's a really good choice. I, this is one because I don't like Eric, like, oh, the nighttime stuff. Like, it's not my top choice. And so I was going through, I was like, what's going to be your first choice? And then I thought about it and I was reminded.

[00:19:38] So I went to the star Wars after hours experience in March, May, 2025, right? May one we go and I'm going to select shadows of memory, a Skywalker saga.

[00:19:54] And it's basically this very, again, nerdy, cool experience where they like project what's effectively the Skywalker saga on the, on the, um, the, uh, spires, which overlook kind of docking bay five in galaxy's edge. And it's like, it was really, really impressive.

[00:20:17] Like I remember at the time, like it's just people are so excited and like the lightsabering up and like, it was great. I had really good time. Like, so you've got like the visual, you have the John Williams music. It's great. As I watched that, you and I watched that when we were in the parks last year. Yeah. But as an addendum, so this is May 25, not, I'm walking around with my, uh, wife and son.

[00:20:43] Um, and they're playing music, um, that's being broadcast against the, the castle. And I come around through, uh, I think I come through fantasy land. I think that's the angle, the angle that your video, I, cause you sent me a video. I looked at my back and phone. Pixie hollow. I want to say, no, you were coming through like fantasy land fair.

[00:21:12] Like where the other side. Yep. And so I hear like some familiar music and there was like lighting. It's the castle. And I get a little closer. We're like, wait, is that rage against the machine? And they're playing killing in the name of, and I'm just like, what in the actual F is going on right here? Like, I am just like, okay. Star Wars nerd check.

[00:21:42] Disneyland nerd check. Rage against the machine. I am 300% in. And I record it and I sent it to Eric and Ryan. Right. Expressing my utmost joy that they've somehow combined my three favorite things. And I have no idea who green light greenlit the playlist because to me, like. I just, it doesn't make any sense. Like, yeah. If you all won't do what you tell me. No. Some of those workforces are the same.

[00:22:12] The burn crosses. Like, come on, man. I'm like, and then at the very end of the clip, they were going into disturbs down with the sickness. And I'm just like, ah, man. Kudos to the DJ who probably got immediately fired and walked out. But yeah, that would be mine. That'd be my number one draft choice. Shadows of Memory? Or are you drafting specifically protest songs playing while you? I'm going to draft Shadows of Mystery, but like, it's like an addendum. It's like a writer to it. So that's my choice. Fair enough.

[00:22:41] Yeah, Shadows of Memory is kind of slept on, I think, a little bit. It's really, really neat. The, like, they have the droid and the storyteller up there on kind of the up above areas, kind of up by the Millennium Falcon. And I think it's one of those really cool things. A lot of people know that they do like the Fire of the Rising Suns, I think is what they call it, which is where they rescore the fireworks to Star Wars music.

[00:23:10] And you just get the, like, fireworks going off over the spires. But this is a separate show. Separate show, yep. And it's really... It's so good. Like, the projection mapping around the Millennium Falcon. This show is fantastic.

[00:23:29] And the score to go along with it, the John Williams music that everybody's been asking for since 2019 when Galaxy's Edge opened, which we're about to get more of here in the next... I think tomorrow, as of the recording of the show. Yeah. But it is phenomenal. It's so good. For our show. Ready for that volume to get turned up? You know they're going to give it the Avengers Campus treatment. It's going to be blaring. Oh, gosh, yeah.

[00:23:59] You wanted it? Here you go. Butter-da-da-da-da-da. I do love, yeah, the, like, there's times where you think the spires are falling, like they're crumbling. They've done the projection mapping so good that it, like, legitimately looks like they're kind of, like, falling apart. And I'm, like, a nerd. I'm recording it. And I don't realize. Like, oh, I could just go to YouTube. You get a way better version of this. But everyone's there. Like, it's so good. Because you want to capture that moment.

[00:24:27] Because to, Brian, to your point, like, it is very well done. And I'm not, like, the biggest nighttime person. I usually use it as an opportunity. Like, oh, cool. Fireworks. Let me dip into, like, Fantasyland and ride a bunch of stuff. But it was really, really impressive. Yeah. I'm so bummed I haven't seen it. We were in Galaxy's Edge last trip. We went with, like, little kids. They went back. We went back to the parks. And we saw the first, like, 45 seconds. And then the whole thing froze and broke.

[00:24:57] So I got, like, a teeny tiny teaser. And now, like, it was never on my list. But now I'm dying to see it. Because the first 45 seconds were so good. And then it was just, like, everything paused. No music or words, whatever, projections. And then it was, like, ladies and gentlemen. It was, like, no. So that's on my list for next trip. Well, Olivia, what's going to make your day perfect? What's your pick number one for perfect park day? All right. I'm going to go big.

[00:25:26] I'm going to go wild card. I love it. I am mostly doing this because I want to do it. And I'm 25% doing it to spite other people. But I'm doing Trader Sam's. Oh. Oh, I had it on my list. I absolutely on my wild card list. Had it on my list. So we've sat outside a couple times at Trader Sam's and done drinks. But I've never been in there until last December. And now totally hooked. I think the reason I didn't go in because I knew I was going to be hooked on it. But it was phenomenal.

[00:25:56] Bartenders were fun. Scenery's fun. Drinks are fun. So I think to have a perfect Disney day, you've got to visit Trader Sam's on either coast. That's fair. Oh, you're taking both coasts. Oh. I will say I was in there last year and it was a slower night, which was actually really cool. So one weird thing that was happening was the guys from Tiki Land Trading Company were there. Oh. Oh, that's fun.

[00:26:25] They had the Trader Sam's folks making their drinks into the Tiki Land Trading Company cups, which was kind of fun. Except for, you know, one of the ones that they were using was the mermaid with nipples on it. With the nipples, yeah. Yeah. That seems opportunistic, by the way, to have them. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Disney would like that. Not just the nipples. Yeah.

[00:26:51] That was one of those moments where, and like, they were being even a little advertising with it. Like, this is not an indictment of Tiki Land Trading Company. Like, I love their, like, their Tiki mugs look great. It was a little bit like, like, they were sitting next to people and people would ask, oh, where'd you, like, that's a mug I haven't seen here. Is it on secret menu? And they'd be like, no, Tiki Land Trading Company. And it's kind of like, eh, that's a little icky. But the tenders seemed to know them. So I think they were like regulars.

[00:27:21] But it was cool because the whole bar, basically, other than me and the one guy next to me, were all regulars, which I had never thought of the concept of regulars at Trader Sam's. I have to say, though, most of the reason I've mostly avoided it is because everyone's like, the line is so long. The line is so long. You can't get a reservation. You're never going to get in. On our trip last December, given it was a Wednesday and a Thursday, we got in twice.

[00:27:48] And it was only two people, but we got in twice in under 15 minutes. Oh, yeah. So I feel like a little bit sometimes it's just like so hard to get a reservation. You're never going to get in. So it's like, why would I walk to the edge of the resort to do that? And I think that's scaring people away. And I'm OK with that because if I can get in 15 minutes, I'm pretty happy with that. Did you spend any time out on the patio? Just hanging out and waiting? No, I mean, like, just for seating and drinking and eating. We've done that before.

[00:28:18] I really wanted to go inside for this time around. So that's kind of what we were waiting on. But the nice thing is they text you. So we wanted to Palm Breeze Grill once. And I think we like sat, ordered, chugged and went back to Trader Sam's. And then we wanted to Broken Spell, too, because there's a lot of good. If you just want to eat and drink, that little Disneyland hotel area is prime, I think. Yeah. They really made the Disneyland hotel like a resort, a true resort. Yeah.

[00:28:48] So, yeah, definitely agree. Also, this guy won't be listening because it was the other guy who was sitting next to me that same night that it was slow. He's like, he like bumps me. He's like, dude, can you believe it? I'm about to pay 120 bucks for this. Like his check came. He's like, oh, I can't believe it. I just ordered some appetizers in a drink and it's 120 bucks. I was like, dude, you're Disneyland. Do you know where you're at? What are you talking about?

[00:29:18] I was like, okay, bud. No sympathy here. Yeah. I'm willingly paying that. Like I knew what I was doing. But two of my friends last time, they I don't know how this happened. Probably too many drinks at the Tiki bar accidentally told the bartenders somehow they wanted to purchase two Tiki mugs or it was unclear. They didn't want to purchase two Tiki mugs. So when they got their bill, it was like 200 something dollars. They didn't want to say anything. So they came home with two Tiki mugs. Yeah. There you go.

[00:29:47] $60 drink or whatever. It's like Midwest polite. Yep. If we draft another, there's another place that has Tiki mugs that might get drafted and I will tell my inebriated purchasing story there. I can't wait. Okay. I know what that place is. Shakey's. Yes. Brian, Brian, what are you drafting? All right.

[00:30:16] I was thinking about going wild card and Trader Sam's first. So well played, Olivia. Thank you. I think only because my next pick is probably safe until my next turn. I think we go snack. I'm going to go with the classic churro. Normally I'm a savory over sweet person, but the churro is absolutely number one for snack.

[00:30:44] So I'm going to take that. Do you have a preferred churro cart location? Ooh. No, actually. I will take them anywhere. Although I will say probably the most frequent one we stop at is the one in Fanny's Land. Right next to Casey Jr. That's a good one. There's usually a line. Yeah. And the abandoned steps of the Skyway station that you can spot.

[00:31:14] Anybody else favorite churro cart? I like Willie's in DCA. Right outside the Starbucks, the Fiddler, Pfeiffer, and Practical. Practical. Practical. There we go. I feel like that one gets. Go ahead. No. I think that one gets me the most because I feel like they pump for some reason the smell out. Like every time I pass that churro cart, I can smell churros and very specifically at that

[00:31:43] churro cart. It's perfect. Perfect. It's a perfect location for a churro cart. Yeah. For me, it's Town Square on that end of Main Street. Usually it's in the middle hubbish area of that. It's like in front of Walt and Abe, the theater. Yeah. It's usually over there. That's great for as you're heading out for the evening.

[00:32:13] You have one last churro to go. That's not bad. But or like I like to watch a line. Yes. Yeah. I like to watch a parade down there, too. And so like you can usually kind of cut it. They'll oftentimes I've seen it in the hub area. So like you have to cut across the street, get it and then cut back to your where you're sitting for the parade. But it's nice. You know, it's a it's a good little spot for David.

[00:32:41] The Costco and Gardenia has a really good churro. Oh, they do not have Costco with churros still. They discontinued it for cookies, sir. Sorry. I actually just watched a video on the economics of that decision. Oh, my. Wow. I wish I were kidding. I'm intrigued by that. I love Costco. Gosh. Churros have more overhead and the value proposition with a buck 50 hot dog gets challenging. So yeah, they got to keep that going.

[00:33:09] So yeah, they had to go for it. So the cookies are cheaper. To make. Then we have Baja Fresh around here, too. They also have the Disneyland churro. It's just cut in half, but it's the same churro. OK, good tip. Good. Duly noted. And for more tips like that, if you want to take a vacation with Olivia. I knew you were going to do that. I knew you were going to do that. Eric, you're up. Eric. OK. Two choices.

[00:33:39] It's my turn. He's rubbing his hands. He's got something good. Oh, well, you see, I've got it easy because I was challenged to stay on the West Coast and y'all aren't anywhere near there. So I'm going to take the snack. That's my my favorite snack, which is the Mickey Premium Bar. Ooh. The Mickey Premium Bar, which. It's it's just the ice cream bar.

[00:34:08] For those of you who don't know the official name. It is shaped like Mickey and it tastes absolutely amazing out in the Florida sun. You've got a good amount of chocolate around the ears. You know, it like it's it's more than just like a dove bar or something like that. You get a little extra chocolate, a little extra crunch.

[00:34:33] Make sure you've got a hand ready to catch the the hunks that are falling off as you bite into it. But but oh, gosh, a Mickey Premium Bar on a hot day, night, whatever is absolutely fantastic in Florida. I remember the night that we we went on our. There was a what did they call it?

[00:35:01] Oh, I can't remember now, but we we went on the ferry in the evening to watch the fireworks from the ferry. It was a dessert cruise. So it was like a dessert party, but it was on the ferry boat. And as we left the boat, we had already had a whole bunch of like a whole bunch of random desserts on there. But as we left, they said, we've got a lot of Mickey Premium Bars left. Who wants some?

[00:35:29] And Brandy and I took like six back to the hotel. That's awesome. And shoved them into our freezer. As you should have. Yeah. Yeah. It was fantastic. But yeah, it's always been my favorite, you know, trip on the on on the East Coast. Wait, did you challenge me to go to West Coast? Yeah, I was saying we should all stick on the West Coast. Yeah, screw that. But they serve them there, too.

[00:36:00] I mean, yeah. West Coast. And they serve them all. Wait a second. She said West Coast. We can't all do West Coast. I'm going to fight more on the show. I'm trying to get more fighting on the show. Well, you can fight me from across the dang country. You know what? I'm sorry, but this is where all of my answers are. Look, the Mickey Premium Bar is fantastic no matter where you're eating it.

[00:36:28] No matter if it's covered in sprinkles and served in a bowl like they do on the cruise. Or if it's on a hot Anaheim Day or a hot Florida Day, it is one of the few consistents. It's probably one of the only constants across everything that you can get everywhere now that I say that. I think it might be the only thing.

[00:36:56] I propose another frozen snack that might be. That's not on the cruise. I think I know what you're thinking, and it's not on the cruise. What's Brian going for here? I will probably say, oh, it's not his turn yet. So I'm going to. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, he's safe. Okay. Okay. What's your number two, Eric? Well, my number two is a ride, and it's Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Oh.

[00:37:23] Since nobody's hanging out on the East Coast with me, I get to pick one of the best rides ever. Gosh, you've got your music. You've got your Guardians flair. You've got your characters. You've got bizarre. I mean, we all know how it works, but still the effect of being transported in this attraction.

[00:37:48] And then you get onto a ride that just spins you around in circles while you're on a roller coaster. It feels amazing. It's the absolute best. It's my, unless we're talking about the VelociCoaster at Universal, it's my favorite ride of all time. I was just talking about VelociCoaster today. That is the best ride. Oh, my goodness.

[00:38:18] It's Eric's wild card. Is it the VelociCoaster? That's not fair. I want that if that's a wild card. You already picked a wild card. Oh, gosh. No, I know what my wild card is. Now that I'm on the East Coast, y'all ain't gonna guess it. Or get it. So, yeah, it's such a great ride. There we go. We're done. Next. That's fair. That's fair.

[00:38:43] I thought about going East Coast because I think snacks and meals and shows are all easier on the East Coast. To me, at least. Well, you could hop on a flight on over and see if you can steal one of my preferreds here. I would not have picked Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a great ride, but it's not. Uh-oh. I. Longtime listeners of this show know exactly what ride I would have picked.

[00:39:11] Longtime listeners of these five episodes? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. That's true. I locked myself out of mentioning the Carousel of Progress, which has become an every episode mention at this point. No, really? Oh, no. It's on, I think, every episode except for, maybe I even squirreled it into Star Wars. I don't know.

[00:39:38] I could make it my wild card, but it's been on every one that I've been on, that's for sure. I think I made it into missed opportunities even somewhere. Oh, gosh. But, yeah. Yeah. Brian, what is your next pick? Okay. Now that Cosmic Rewind is gone, which was probably the only thing that might have got me to go East Coast. Then you would have had to sacrifice the good churros, and you would have had to have crunchy churros.

[00:40:07] I was at least keeping the door open just in case. And granted, my second choice also does not necessarily lock me in one coast or another. But if we're going best churro and best Fantasmic, then it's, of course, the West Coast. So Fantasmic is my show or nighttime spectacular choice. That was my other choice.

[00:40:34] After World of Color, Fantasmic was definitely the other choice. It is more limited on the West Coast for shows and nighttime spectaculars, but I think there's some other good choices out there as well. I had some backups just in case. That's fair. Eric and I will be drinking at Trader Sam's while you guys enjoy Fantasmic. You can drink at Trader Sam's after the nighttime spectacular. No, you go before the spectacular. You can get a seat easier.

[00:41:04] Dude, you can drink there at like 11 in the morning. Let's be honest. In fact, it does open at 11 o'clock now. I mean, not from personal experience, but... Earlier if there's a race day. Oh, it's a great call. Yeah. Olivia, what's... Is it fun to run a ton and then drink a bunch of booze? It's the other way around. That's a genuine question. It's the best. I love it. Sounds horrible.

[00:41:32] I love to get some carbs from like... Drink a beer if we're doing like a beer 10K, right? No? Okay. I don't like beer or running. That whole event is my nightmare of a situation. Oh, gosh. Okay. I'm sticking with parades or nighttime spectaculars, though. And I am going Magic Happens, which is the best parade Disneyland has ever had. Probably second to World of Color in overall shows. I'm with you.

[00:42:01] I mean, the choreography, stunning costumes, incredible music. Great. It's a good mix of like newer content, older IP. I mean, I think it is a nearly perfect parade. It's very good. But number one? What would you top it for a parade? Whoa, whoa, whoa. You already picked a nighttime spectacular. Some other people haven't picked, though. Do you want some inspiration? Do you, do you, do you, do you?

[00:42:27] I mean, electrical, Main Street Electrical Parade. Yeah. Or Paint the Night. Oh. I'm out on Paint the Night. I would agree. Did you say out on Paint the Night? Yeah, it's too late. Like last time I went with little kids, the first show is at 8.30. It's too, there, I guess I'm not out on Paint the Night. I'm currently out on Paint the Night as the only parade happening. Because it's, it's not good timing for little kids who, who want to be in bed by 7.30 or 8.

[00:42:57] That's fair. I, I also wish Magic Happens happened later. That's fair. Yes, especially with some of the components like the Moana float and everything. Yeah. Would, would be better. You can tell it was kind of designed with being a nighttime parade in mind, but it just never has been. Yeah. So yeah, I would love to see Magic Happens be actually when it's dark. Even if they did the old kind of two showings, right?

[00:43:25] And the second showing was just, you know, right before fireworks or whatever. I think that would be great. Totally. I mean, they, there is another parade that does two showings and it is fun because there's a daytime showing and a nighttime showing. So I'm all for a earlier in the day, later in the day, go one way, go back out the other parade. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:47] Do, do the, do it from small world, get it out of the way for the fireworks and then do it even after the fireworks, a really late one. Yeah. After the fireworks back out through Main Street. Yeah. Yeah. All right. David, we know you're not, well, I mean, I guess you got wild cards still, but. I could draft a wild card. Yep.

[00:44:14] I'm going to go, actually, I will go wild card. And I will draft Oogie Boogie Bash. Ooh. Nice. Thanks. Have folks here done Oogie Boogie Bash? Yeah. Yeah. I have 15 years ago. It's great. I, uh, I strongly encourage people to do it. We did it.

[00:44:40] I want to say two years ago and we show up and we're all dressed up in like kind of Star Wars costumes. And it is 95 degrees. We're sweating so much. It's so up. But like you get there and it's well, so well themed. It's like adult trick or treating. I used like my favorite, one of my favorite, probably my second favorite holiday growing up was like Halloween. When you would, when I was a kid, you just trick or treat by yourself. There's no parents.

[00:45:05] You just stay out all night and just load up with like, you know, you know, 18,000 calories worth of candy. And you'd haul it back in like a, you know, like a, you know, in just like a, a pillowcase. Loved it. It's really, it's really great. And the costumes are amazing. I remember seeing someone in line at a couple of line and they were dressed up as slinky dog and just, you're just like, it's great. It's so good. Like, it's so great.

[00:45:35] I strongly recommend people do that. So that was nice. Nice. Nice. Well, that is a good pick. Um, oh boy. Oh boy. I probably, I should get some food out of the way here. Um, I have a, I have a back to back here cause I have one pick for round two and then round three.

[00:46:03] I, are you picking apples? Yes. The apple slices front. No. Uh, I am going to go ahead and I'm going to pick the other frozen treat that I suspect, uh, was being referred to earlier as my snack, which is the classic dole whip. Absolutely. Um, classic pineapple. I'm a classic pineapple, no float kind of guy.

[00:46:31] Uh, I am, I am strictly the classic. I don't do the swirl or any of that. Um, it is a little bit more accessible outside the parks these days. Uh, dole has started to, um, well, I know there's the frozen version in like a Costco that you can get for gardenia specifically. I recommend that one's awful. I'm not going to lie. The, the like store bought frozen version is it's so bad.

[00:47:00] It doesn't taste anything like a dole whip. I was so disappointed. It's horrible. Um, by the way, same with the Mickey premium bars. They are not Mickey premium bars cause you can buy Mickey. Yeah. They're itty bitty little guys. Um, but usually you can grab dole whip. Like I've seen it at county fairs or like at the zoo and it is pretty, pretty solidly dole whip. But we have a Hawaiian chain restaurant that opened here in town a few months ago and they, they have dole whip. Nice. Nice.

[00:47:31] Yeah. But, uh, I do love, I do love me a dole whip and it's also, it's paired with, it's paired with a very good way to cool down your day. Uh, cause oftentimes I will get, I, uh, very clearly, well, I have to pick the West coast cause I picked the world of color. Um, where the dole whip is, you go in there and it's a very good way to spend a little section of your day.

[00:47:59] When you said it, it's paired well, I almost asked you, are you just smuggling in rum to pour over? Like, I don't hate the idea, but that's a little, uh, you know, that's kind of a little off menu. They do sell that, but yeah, they, they sell that on the East coast, right? No, they sell it at, uh, the Disneyland hotel. If you go to the coffee shop in the afternoon, you can get a dole whip with rum on it.

[00:48:28] I did that after a race once. Nice. Nice. What is your, uh, Ryan, what is your second choice or back to back choice? I'm sorry. Yeah. My second choice on the back to back. This is, uh, this is getting, getting, uh, choosy here. So I'm going to have to go ride. Ride.

[00:48:56] I'm just making, I, so I, this, this draft, I actually came in with less of a draft, like a draft plan. I actually came in with no draft plan on this draft. So, um, I'm just like mentally making sure that I'm not missing something. Um, I am going to go with rise of the resistance for my ride. Um, sure. I, I love rise of the resistance.

[00:49:23] It, you know, the innovation mixed with still like using animatronics is so cool. Uh, just kind of the newest best thing that I just think it's, it's super rad. And yes, it might be down, but in the perfect day I get to ride it. So, you know, it has to be a perfect day. Cause if it's after like 8 PM or if it's down, like good luck, my man. Yeah.

[00:49:52] It's getting better with downtime. Yeah. Yep. That's good. That's good. And I, and I, I know that they did some work on it and hopefully that helps it. Um, the cannons are back. The cannons are back. They, they are back to cracking the foundation. Um, this is the Yeti. No, they haven't got that ballsy yet. Um, disco cannons.

[00:50:22] That would have been pretty good actually in that room. Yeah. Just flashing lights on that room. Actually it would have worked. Yeah. Um, I also just want to walk through that. That ride at some, this is an interesting thing that like, I feel like trackless rides do because you have to be moving through spaces that people could feasibly walk through. It's so much easier to imagine yourself walking through and go like, Oh, this would be so cool just to walk down these corridors.

[00:50:52] Um, and so like, yeah, it, yeah, it's so cool. The, the kind of triple blind that you get, right? Like you have your first, you know, pre-show and then you have the, the escape on the shuttle. Then you have your second pre-show, uh, with the, with the big reveal into the, the like garrison of stormtroopers in between and, um, toss in there, uh, two different ride systems

[00:51:22] for the actual ride itself. It's, you know, it's all really good without being it. And I think it runs like just shy of that edge of being a hat on a hat situation where it's not too much, but it's just almost, it's really good. Plus the best star Wars character ever is in that ride, which is the hot pilot. Poe? I don't know his name, but we call him the hot pilot.

[00:51:51] I love him. Come in. Oscar Isaac. I think he's a black bar. I was like, he's a good looking guy. I still don't know his name. I literally just call him the hot pilot. Ah, well, you're going to have to listen to the next episode of PewDiePod because we're going to be talking about that actor in, uh, Moon Knight. I'm going to have to learn his real or character name. Oh, Oscar. Yeah. Okay, great. I'll write that down. Poe Dameron is the character name.

[00:52:22] I have, I think I have his X-wing somewhere around here because it's definitely in my colors. That black and orange color way. That's a good one. You could also, we would also accept knockoff Diego Luna as the character name. Difference. Star Wars character. No, but I mean like the actor, like a, anyway. Uh, I'm all right. So, um, I have a show.

[00:52:52] I have my, uh, show and I have my wild card. So I'm going to go with, hmm. I'm going to go with meal. My favorite place right now to eat Disneyland, um, is Paseo just because it's like the food is really, really good. You've got this kind of, I, I'm a big sucker for, I think the food in downtown Disney is better than in the parks. Generally speaking. Um, there are a couple exceptions.

[00:53:21] I, um, and I like your kind of have this kind of elevated view. I also like the restaurant that's crossed the way where you just kind of sit outside or it's sort of like this sort of indoor outdoor. The food is really good. Um, and I, um, every one of my family would find something to eat, which sometimes can be a challenge in the park because sometimes we're just like, okay, cool. I'll grab a hot dog. I'm going to grab this. I'm going to grab that. And it's like the one place we're kind of all sit down to all the Mexican food. Cause it's fantastic. So that is my choice.

[00:53:51] Also the, the Tiendita, which is downstairs and Centrico same kitchen. The grab and go from the Tiendita I think it's called is really good. Um, you get a very solid like tacos and burrito there. So I was not impressed with Centrico's. Okay. What'd you have? Uh, I don't recall. It was bland. Okay.

[00:54:16] Um, Jimmy, Dan, Marie, and I were all there and we were all thoroughly unimpressed, but we were also very tired. And you guys went when it was like, I just opened too. Right. True. True. I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle. Like it was good. We ate there twice actually on our last trip. We did one, one snack and one lunch, but I mean, okay, this is not that exciting. I had a Caesar salad cause I love a Caesar salad, but three of the five of us had Caesar salads

[00:54:45] and loved them enough to go back a second time to get them. So I cannot speak to the Mexican specific food, but excellent Caesar salad. I do like a Caesar salad. Caesar salad. Well, it is technically. I was going to say. Yeah. I was going to say, Ryan, you got it. It was invented in, uh, Mexico city. Really? Mm-hmm. I didn't know that. Wow. Look at you two. I think. Yep. I think the chef's name was Caesar. If I remember right. I could be wrong there, but.

[00:55:14] I'm glad he invented that salad. No, his name was Ted. Oh. All right. Well, Olivia, where, where are you eating a meal? It might be a Caesar salad. Might not. All right. Well, I'm, I'm doing a snack and everyone's about to be shocked. Okay. Ready? I'm going to say a corn dog, which I will not eat, but I feel like is a classic Disney food. Are you picking it from corn dog castle despite Eric?

[00:55:44] No. I didn't think about that. I had that queued up. You say corn dog and I'm like, let's go. Reason it's my third pick wasn't my first pick, but the little red wagon. Everyone loves a corn dog. That line is super long. My best friend literally texted me today at 1030 in the morning and said, I'm creating a Disneyland corn dog. So if I'm going to take somebody to get a snack in Disneyland and they like corn dogs, I'm taking them to get a corn dog.

[00:56:14] It makes me want a corn dog real bad. We were at a, a street fair, uh, day before yesterday and, uh, we got corn dogs and that was all I could think about while I was eating is like, it's just not the same. It's not a Disneyland corn dog. It was fine. It was good. It was just not the same. Yeah. I do like red wagon. Yeah. Yeah. I will not go back to corn dog castle. Thank you very much. At least until they stop mobile ordering.

[00:56:44] Oh my goodness. What a terrible system. Jerks. Uh, Brian, what are you, what are you drafting? So, uh, somebody, uh, on this panel, uh, took one of my, my choices. So, uh, this next might return the favor for my meal. Uh, I am taking the chef's counter at Napa Rose. Excellent choice.

[00:57:12] I, I figured you would agree. Um, but yes, Olivia can attest to how delicious, uh, it is and the level of, uh, say personality or personalization, uh, to each individual person. Um, and if you're wanting to have one of those dining experiences that you're going to have a hard time finding somewhere else, that's, that's a place to go.

[00:57:40] That would have been one of my like theoretical picks, uh, cause I want to do it. I haven't. Um, I'm definitely a fan of like the fine dining type of thing. Um, that's something I do. Um, and so, yeah, it's, it's on the list for sure. Yeah. That would be great. Actually good too. You never know what those things like, cause part of it is the experience, right? You're either at the app counter, the dessert counter, or I think they just did it at the entree counter.

[00:58:08] So you're like, is it really just to the, like, I think of like Bucca de Beppo, like the kitchen table where you're like, Oh, it's just a little bit more for show than anything, you know? But the chef's counter food is delicious. I also love Bucca de Beppo. I love that chef's. David was thinking the Pope table. Also a great table. I, uh, like I, I've, I've not done the, I've not done the, the counter before. Um, that's on kind of the two, I've been there before. I thought the food was good. It did not like blow me away for the.

[00:58:38] At Aperos. At Aperos. Yeah. But, but I'm doing. Go ahead. The new menu too. They have jacked the prices up. Cause it's, uh, like three courses now. Like it's a menu. Yeah. And I think it's like $180 in the regular dining room. So I'm scared to call about the chef's counter because if that's what like the normal dining room is, I think they jacked the price way up on chef's counter. Yeah. Yeah. But you got to pay for the renovation, right?

[00:59:09] Apparently. Right. Yeah. Otherwise it's going to look like the nineties forever. It looks just fine. All right. Eric's up. What you got? I guess we're up to me. Um, I know for a fact, no one is going to guess my meal.

[00:59:29] So I am going to start with my wild card and then do a nighttime spectacular loosely defined. Um, uh, so wild card Disney Skyliner. Hmm. Good choice. Best, best, best mode of transportation in any of the parks.

[00:59:56] You know, I love my, my boats, love taking a boat or a ferry across the water, but the, the, the Disney Skyliner at Walt Disney world is just absolutely fantastic. And since, um, I realized, oh, I can do this entire thing at Epcot. Um, we're, we're taking the Skyliner home.

[01:00:22] Uh, well, first to Epcot and then home from Epcot down to my home resort at, uh, the, the Riviera resort, uh, which I absolutely love. It's, it's so relaxing. It's in, in the hottest days it, as long as it's moving that, that air just cools you off. It's almost like, like air conditioning. I love a gondola.

[01:00:51] You know, I'm a, I come from a ski background, so, you know, I'm used to this sort of thing. So some people are kind of like freaked out about this whole, you know, floating hundreds of feet above the ground, but you know, well, not hundreds, but a hundred feet off the ground. Uh, you know, this is normal to me. It's it, but it's, it's so great.

[01:01:13] It goes above the, the expressway or the highway and in an easy way, it takes you between the resorts. It's so convenient. It's constantly moving. The line is always going. It, it's just absolutely. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. That, that constant movement is something that a lot of people under credit.

[01:01:38] I think, um, just the, the ability, like even, even from like pop century or art of animation, the difference between, it could be the exact same amount of time, but the difference in feeling between strolling over, walking up and getting on a Skyliner bucket versus sitting at the bus stop and waiting at an all-star resort or something like that. It's night and day difference. And it just, it feels so nice to have that motion going.

[01:02:08] It changes, it changes the entire park. It's, it's the modern monorail. Um, you know, it, it's not that sophisticated. It's easy for them to produce. I can't wait until they finally decide to extend it down to Coronado Springs and animal kingdom lodge and animal kingdom. Um, the park, uh, you know, it's been over the savannas. What's that?

[01:02:37] I said, have it go over the savannas. Oh, no, I don't think they'll do that, but you know, it's been, it's been rumored for a while that they're going to head over that way. And why not? Because it's, it's not that, it's not that difficult. You know, it's a few pylons. It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of cable. It's a bunch more cars. And it, it does so well with the way it works right now. And people just seem to kind of get it.

[01:03:05] Um, you know, it's not complicated. Like the buses were like, which bus do I get on? And you know, of course people get the boats, but you can't have the boats. It's everywhere. We don't have waterways between everything. Um, I love staying at like Riverside where you can take the boat down to Disney Springs and everything, but you can't take that to the parks. And to take a boat to the parks, you got to stay at the most expensive places around

[01:03:33] or just, you know, park at the TTC and, you know, take a tram up and, you know, it, it's, it's majestic going to the parks that way. It's my favorite way to get to the parks, but you know, just, there's a whole chunk of my favorite places on this entire resort that are easily accessible by this gondola system. Absolutely love it. Well, great pick Eric.

[01:04:00] And with that, uh, we are going to take a quick commercial break and we will see you listeners with round four. I'm struggling. I realized I don't have a good game plan for meals, so I'm struggling on that. No, I know what my meal is. I think I know what it is. I know my snack is and I'm looking right at him. Am I right? Hey, how do you like that Brian?

[01:04:29] It's all the gains. Brings it back. I like it. That's a true circle. Yeah. All right. Let's get back into it and, uh, let's, let's finish this firecracker out. Uh, Eric on his second pick. Um, so fourth pick your second pick of this set. Oh, okay. Okay. That's what we're going for. All right. All right.

[01:04:56] This might be, wait, let me bring us back from, from, I did an ad break bump bumper. So let me just wait. Eric's making his fourth pick. Yeah. I haven't made my fourth pick. Correct. Yes. Correct. Yeah. He's on the turn back. So one, two, three, four. All right, y'all. Welcome back. Uh, I hope you purchase all the blue chew that was advertised there in the break.

[01:05:26] Um, already done, bro. And Eric, what are you drafting with round four? Round four. Oh my goodness. This might be a little bit of a loose definition of nighttime spectacular, but I am picking the figment and Muppets points of light show on spaceship earth at Epcot. I will second that motion.

[01:05:56] That is, that is a show. No, because the first time I saw it, I wept. I am not kidding. So for those, cause I, I feel like looking at our, our demographics, our download demographics, I'm guessing we skew heavily Disneyland. So. Oh, that's weird. Probably. Why would we skew that way? There's so much more at Walt Disney World.

[01:06:26] Call one of your favorite concierge to book a trip to Walt Disney World. Yeah. Don't explain it. That you need to book with concierge to go. And then you can experience it yourself. There you go. Yeah. This is. So a few years ago, if, if you've been long, long time fans of the ears up network, you probably remember when Jeremy on in depth was complaining about all of the pop lights.

[01:06:52] They were installing on spaceship earth and, uh, you know, God bless them, but it it's incredible. The things that they have done with projections and with these little stinking lights in between the corners of the giant golf ball. That is the entirety of, of Epcot.

[01:07:18] Uh, if you listen to certain people, um, it's, and they, they started doing this show and ever since they established world celebration, when they, they kind of re re-imagined the park, um, world celebration. There is a portion in the evening where they play this music. That's just so inspirational and so emotional already.

[01:07:48] But then once the sun sets before they do their nighttime celebration, whatever that's called now, I don't even remember right now. Harmonia. No, harmonious. No, harmonious is gone. Illumin. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Luminous. Luminous. The symphony of us. Oh, that's right.

[01:08:11] I have seen it a few times, but, um, uh, but as it, like there's a portion of the night where they light up spaceship earth with rainbow colors, LED colors that are like cascade across it and they play rainbow connection.

[01:08:32] And if you're at all, uh, sorry, Olivia, an older person, like all of the other people on all of the old white men on this call, then you have a very emotional connection to the song rainbow connection. And I don't know if you do. She's not allowed to. I just heard you say. Okay, good. Good. It's one of my favorite songs.

[01:09:01] Gwen Stefani sang it once. So maybe you know that you probably don't know who Gwen Stefani is. I, I, as I say it, I'm like, oh, wait, sorry, Olivia. I don't, I don't mean to throw you under the bus. It's just a runner with all of us. This is what I get for throwing Rob under the bus every week. So I know, I know. If I'm going to dish it, I can take it. That's good. I'm glad you can take it. Oh gosh. Yeah.

[01:09:29] Cause you're, you're, you're very much younger than us, but, but like all of those Muppet fans, the song rainbow connection. I think even aside from, from the Muppets is such an emotional song. And then to hear it being played sung by, by Kermit and, and Miss Piggy, they blast it. And they've got this show that goes across.

[01:09:55] Spaceship earth that adds colors to it that are beyond anything they've ever tried to do. I mean, there was a time that there was, there was a different time when at, at the end of illuminations, which was a great nighttime spectacular. Um, even though I generally tried to flee it so I could get to the bus and get back to my hotel before everybody else left the park.

[01:10:24] Um, there was a time where at the end of, of the, uh, the entire show, they would blast with lasers on the front of, of spaceship earth brought to you by Siemens. The telecom company people. Right. It's an, yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not vulgar. Come on.

[01:10:50] That's not a, it's not funny other than it's just in giant letters on spaceship earth. Uh, but then to see this thing where they've taken this icon from my childhood, from a lot of people's childhoods, it, this amazing giant thing, you know, think about all of the projection stuff that you've seen.

[01:11:16] That's pretty impressive on Cinderella castle and, uh, and sleeping beauty castle even and main street, all of this crazy stuff that, that Disney has been doing lately. But this is just lights. It's just lights and it's colors and it's phenomenal. And it's one of the best songs ever written.

[01:11:44] And it's, uh, it, you know, it just, it kills me. It kills me, um, to see this. It's so incredible. This is, this is, you know, uh, this is modern Epcot now. And yes, the, the mission may have changed a little bit, but they still bring beauty and joy.

[01:12:10] Joy to their visitors in a way that I, I can't even comprehend. So, uh, there we go. That's my nighttime spectacular. It's only a few minutes long, but it's incredible. On the record, Eric likes a nighttime spectacular. I also said I liked illuminations, even though I generally ran away from it. Yeah.

[01:12:40] Yeah. The on the record, the, like, I am glad that one stuck around those, those illuminations that they did for the 50th across all the icons were also really neat. Yeah. Those are pretty cool. Um, but yeah, all four, cause all four icons got projection shows that weren't on the schedule. Um, now, like you said, Epcot's isn't a projection. It's using the points of light as like basically a giant led screen. Yeah.

[01:13:10] But, um, but yeah, all, all four icons at Disney world got like this little surprise and delight show that would happen, which were great. Um, those were pretty cool. I, I didn't see all of them in person. I, you know, like the, the tree of life at, at animal kingdom. I, I just watched it on video and, you know, but, but they did, they did cool stuff. Um, Disney can do cool, interesting and emotional things.

[01:13:41] Um, but yeah, this one by, by combining one of the largest icons ever. With, with color and light and an amazing song. They, they knocked it out of the park and I'm glad they brought it back. Absolutely. All right, Brian, what's your, uh, round four pick?

[01:14:06] Uh, so, uh, I think just like Ryan is contractually obligated to mention carousel progress during every episode. Uh, I'm pretty sure that on all the episodes that I have joined for, I have discussed, uh, Indiana Jones and the temple of the forbidden eye. Uh, that is going to be my attraction.

[01:14:27] Now to be clear, it's not my favorite attraction, but if we're talking our perfect day, uh, if, if you're familiar with Indy at all, uh, in order to experience it, you have to kind of get lucky. Cause it breaks down a lot. So if we're talking perfect, that means things are going right. That means that Indy is up and running and I'm able to ride it. So that is my choice for ride. Good pick. Good pick.

[01:14:52] I was going to say it's, um, when it's not like super crowded, the queue is very cool. Uh, air conditioning there is fantastic. And so I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily hate like when it's like baking outside, like, you know, I'm just going to chill out in the queue and I'll look at like, you know, solid, like Indy, you know, there's a whole safety spiel about this stuff. So it's a good ride. It's a good, good call. Yeah. Break out your decoder card and start decoding some maraglyphics.

[01:15:21] Look, look over the shoulders, see the remnant to the old, um, parking way, if you will. So I've never seen that every time I go in that stupid queue, I look for it. I look for it as well. I've been yours. The yours hard to spot. Yes. He's not, he's not that easy anymore. I think it's. I think they moved him a bit. Agree. I think it's made up too. I will text you a picture that I have personally taken.

[01:15:50] Unfortunately, using flash before I, what's a little more, uh, grown and, um, please everybody do not use flash while you're in attractions. Um, but I do have, I do have a photo. I can prove it. It is there. All right. That would actually make me feel better. Thanks, Brian. Do they still look for it as well? I can't find the whole time. I'm like, Hey kids, let's look for the Eeyore. And then they're just like, what are you talking about? I don't see it. The line is backing up behind us, dad.

[01:16:21] Cause I know they had the cards in like 20, when did I go? 2019. I want to say I got one of the Myra, Myra, Myra, Glyphic, Gryphic, Glyph. I can't say this word. Drink your Ovaltine cards. Um, I think they still have it. I don't think they do. You have to ask for it? I still have my OG card from when it opened with the AT&T branding on it. Nice. We should do a draft.

[01:16:50] I think it's in the play app now. Overdancements. It's monsterships. I'm taking McDonald's. I'm taking Honda, man. Like all over Utopia. Anyway. All right, Olivia, what's your next pick? All right. I'm doing meal. And actually my life got a little easier when Brian picked me. The chef's counter. Cause it was going to be a toss up. You're welcome. I'm glad Brian took that. Actually, I'm going Dintai Fung for my meal because I am fully convinced.

[01:17:19] And I am sure everybody on the internet is so sick of me talking about it. But like perfect Disneyland day, full park day, 8 p.m. dinner, full spread. Like with like 10 people of Dintai Fung. Perfect. Heaven on earth. Nice. I think this says something. Cause so far all three meal picks for Disneyland have been outside the parks. Proper. 100%. The food, the food outside of the parks is a hundred times better than the food in the parks. And like, I stand by that so full heartedly. Yeah. And David's already picked his meal.

[01:17:49] So I will say I have two meals in mind. One is in the parks, but I'm, but it is probably not what I'm going to pick. Eric hasn't picked his. Yeah. I know. Oh, mine is in the east coast though. Yeah. Mine is in that. Fair point. Fair point. All right. No, good, good pick on Dintai Fung. A new addition and, and also not unique to Disney, but also part of a great Disney day. Yeah.

[01:18:17] I literally remember where I was when I read the article that Dintai Fung was opening up. So I feel very strongly about this being, but their food is great. It's always busy. There's as long as you like Asian cuisine, there's kind of something for everybody. It's so good. It's the best. It's so good. It's way it's, there are, um, there are not that many places to eat where it's like, Oh, hang around the line and wait. And it's worth the wait. It is. It's worth the wait. It's so good.

[01:18:47] Yeah. And it's consistent. Like it's consistently good across all their locations too. I mean, it's already elevated, but I haven't had, I mean, I think we've eaten at five or six different Dintai Fungs and I've never had a poor experience at one. You've been to five or six of them? Well, I think there's four in Seattle. Oh, okay. We've got one in port, one in Portland and then the one in Anaheim. Okay. So yeah. So four, yeah, three or four in Seattle.

[01:19:13] So, I mean, I've not gotten off the West coast in Typhung, but it is, it's so good. They woke me up one morning working on Dintai Fung. Now it's. That was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Now, now, Olivia, now, now I'm envisioning like eating around the Dintai Fung on there. We just go around to all the different restaurants and we're like. Oh, that'd be the best. It'd be so good. That's a great call. The food there is really good. And to your point, like the food outside the park is way better.

[01:19:43] Way better. There's a lot of really good meals. To explain, I was staying at Disneyland Hotel and one day at 4 a.m. They had started like, they were still constructing the building and there was a lot of sawing and hammering. And somehow, I don't know how, I could hear all of it from the hotel. But now there are delicious dumplings, so it's all worth it. And Eric, we appreciate your sacrifice for us.

[01:20:13] Oh, thank you. Thank you for your service, David. Have you eaten there, Eric? No. Really? It's pretty good. I would like, for me, it's the kind of, that kind of time between lunch and dinner. That kind of 2, 2.30 going in. It's a little bit slower. The line isn't as long. It's not as much of a nightmare. But like definitely, if you can get a reservation, definitely the way to go. Sounds like a good plan.

[01:20:39] I think Yelp, I don't know if, remember if it's four or six people on Yelp, but they have a virtual wait list too. So if you're in the parks and you've got a smaller group, you can put your name on the wait list and do it that way too, which is nice. They do take out, but it's not as good. No, it's not as good. Hot, out of the, like, that is, I would eat it to go, but that is one restaurant that is vastly different to go than hot. I could see us, Olivia, like eating it to go and like just run out to the lawn and just like start slurping noodles and like, Totally.

[01:21:09] It's not going far, right? It was, it was one of our COVID like disappointments. I mean, it's only like 15 minutes for my mom's in Seattle, so we would get it. But it's like you get home and it's all congealed and not the same. And we like, we're like, we really missed Dintai Fung. This is as good as it's going to get. But like the second we can go back out to eat, we are going to Dintai Fung. All right, David, what you got for us? Well, this episode has been brought by Dintai Fung, who is not our official sponsor, but I have ride and snack.

[01:21:38] Everyone else has picked us snacks. I will pick a ride. Two great choices off the board. I'm going to go old school. I'm going to go Pirates of the Caribbean or Pirates of the Caribbean if I want to annoy people. It's an OG classic. The thing I really like about it, and as much as Eric will admonish me for my daughter who said that she preferred the Disney World version. That was the best video ever. Has it on videotape when we went.

[01:22:10] When you understand the construction and the design and how it leaves the park and comes back. I'm not going to say that I don't think that it's an argument as to whether the version in Disneyland is the best version. The Paris version is really good. But it's such a classic ride. It is 15, 16 minutes of, again, fantastic air conditioning. It's my son's favorite ride.

[01:22:38] It's pretty much a staple for almost every trip. And depending on how you time it, the line isn't too bad. And I don't know. You get in. You smell the water. You're like, I know what this is going to be about, right? And then you can ride past all the suckers who bought their $40 plates at the restaurant. And then it's a great ride. So it's one of the favorites. And that's my choice. Nice. Yeah. Classic choice. It's definitely one I thought about.

[01:23:07] And probably of the classic rides, my favorite for sure. Brian, note you have picked ride. So you pick snack. You need a meal. I do need a meal. And I need a wild card. Okay. All right. So tell me if this works for the wild card. I want genuine, genuine feedback here. Okay.

[01:23:37] I don't know where this is going already. This could be something where like, I'm going to pick all of DCA. Sort of. No. What my pick is. And I will say, I do want to mention that right now is a little bit of an awkward time for this. I do think there was a better version available of this in the past. And there will be a better version available of this in the future.

[01:24:02] But I'm going to pick an afternoon in Avengers Campus. And what I mean by that is meeting characters, watching the Spider-Man stunt show, watching the Dora Milaje, watching the Avengers show. If it's running, it's not running right now. But kind of just vibing and hanging out in Avengers Campus and spending time there.

[01:24:33] Oftentimes, this will come with a snack or with a drink from Pym's from Pym Tasting Lab. But like, just kind of hanging out. Oh, a. Just a chunk of time hanging out in Avengers Campus. God, you're such a Marvel nerd. Good word. I thought it's one to know. Exactly. I thought for a second when you're at Future Ride, I was like, dude, if you trapped Avengers, Avatar, we are going to fight.

[01:25:03] Like, great virtual fight. It's so funny, Ryan. Like, I actually wrote down, when I was doing the wild card, that was my first wild card, which is like Marvel in the park. It's Pym. It's the, you know, the best thrill ride is Guardians. You've got, like, the best spot for adult beverages is Pym. The character appearances. You know, shout out to Rogers the Musical, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's not.

[01:25:31] Like, and I understand why people don't like it. I want to be very upfront and say that. That, like, if you are a Disney person who is a ride crusher, say, for example, probably not going to love Avengers Campus because there is one ride. Yeah, Olivia's raising her hand and I know these things. But, like, yeah, there's one ride. There's two rides. Soon to be three. Well, I guess that's true because they annexed the hotel.

[01:26:00] So, two rides. Soon to be four. They'll get some more here very soon. It's coming together really nicely. But I think, like, as much as people complain about, like, Galaxy's Edge not making good on its promise of being this land where you can interact with the whole story and everybody's there and, like, you see characters. There's, you're never going to be out of line of sight of a character, right?

[01:26:30] Like, that was, like, the idea of Avengers or of Galaxy's Edge and that didn't really come to fruition in the way that it was kind of promised. I think Avengers Campus, because it is more concentrated, it is small. I have spent a day looking and you can, there is definitely times in the day where you can look around and spot five, six characters around you. And that is really cool, really immersive.

[01:26:57] And, like, I took my son when he was very young, not even a year old yet. And, you know, he wasn't, at that point, wasn't fully cognizant or, like, aware of, like, who he was seeing. But I imagine now, I haven't taken him in a couple years, but I imagine now, like, we could spend a whole day just trying to find the characters. Because those are the people he loves.

[01:27:27] Who, like, who would you see? Oh, I mean, Spider-Man, Iron Man. I need to recreate the picture because there's a picture of me and my son meeting Iron Man and he's losing his ever-loving mind. He was terrified of Iron Man. Well, because you explained to him that Iron Man is dead and therefore you're seeing what is effectively a zombie that have resurrected. No? No? I don't know. You didn't explain that? You didn't have that talk?

[01:27:54] We spent half a day on our most recent cruise, like, getting our picture and then getting back in line to meet different Marvel characters. Like, that was literally a half a day of our cruise. And so I know that, like, the same thing would happen even better in Avengers Campus. And a little tip for all the parents out there who think that DCA doesn't have enough stuff for kids. Web Slingers does not have a height requirement.

[01:28:22] So your kiddos can also go on Web Slingers and they can get a little bit of energy out trying to thwip some webs. There you go. So. Thwip them. I don't. Well, okay. Just me. I'm not a Marvel fan, so I'm not a Marvel Avengers Campus fan. The group I went with in October, they loved Marvel. Really opened my eyes to, I think, the importance of having it in the park. So, like, I will give it that from a bigger picture standpoint. The issue that I have is that it took away Bugs Land. That's fair.

[01:28:52] It shrunk it down. And that part sucked. Ant-Man still has it. Yeah. Sure. You can have that. But, Olivia, it's a really good thing. Good point. Like, I remember when Take My Kids When They're Younger and they love the Flix Flyers, like the water stuff. Like, that was a really cool area. And it's too bad you don't really have that anymore in the park. So I think it's a really good call out. It's a number they couldn't. It's a number they couldn't think ahead and put it where, like, Hollywood back lot is.

[01:29:22] Because that area is so dead. And now they're putting in Avatar and whatever. Like, I wish it would have just been there and we could have kept Bugs Land. I think I would have had, like, less frustration towards them. Bugs Land took away Bountiful Farm. So it's all cyclical. Kids love those tractors. I miss those tractors. Touching tractors. Sorry. R.I.P.

[01:29:52] Highlands Choo Choo Train. The best. All right. Last pick, or last round. Let's kick off the fifth round here. And I have to pick it up, or I have to kick it off with a meal. I'll say the two things that I'm debating between, and then I'll make a pick. Both of these are people-watchy heavy with some good food.

[01:30:21] So what I am kind of debating between is the Carthay Circle Lounge. I have not eaten at Carthay Circle Restaurant, so I feel kind of dirty drafting that if I were to try and pick it. Really? I have not. They're two different restaurants. And the other one that I was debating is Jazz Kitchen Coastal Grill and Patio.

[01:30:52] I think just, you know, I'll just stick with the theme. I'll make my ultimate pick, Jazz Kitchen. Sitting up, I sat on the upstairs patio. Last trip I was there. That's great. You're watching everybody walk by down in downtown Disney, which is a really good time. Especially if you're eating dinner and it's getting a little bit later. You've got, you know, the kids who are there who aren't necessarily even going to the park. It's kind of fun to watch those groups interact.

[01:31:21] When I say kids, I mean like college age kids who, you know, they're in their groups. Oh, yes. You're so old. No, I meant to make myself not be creepy is what I was trying to say. Oh, okay. But, no, you know, you get to kind of watch over. Plus, it's got good food. The theming, we can all bemoan the de-theming that happened to take it from being a New Orleans

[01:31:50] themed bar to being essentially a bland, I guess, Palm Springs theme. Not even Palm Springs, but okay. Yeah. At least if you're on the balcony, you don't have to see all the neon. That's true. But. I have to say. Oh, go right. No, you're good. Go ahead. I wasn't going to do this on Spokes.

[01:32:17] I didn't want to roast Brandy because she wasn't on the hub crawl and I wasn't going to be mean to Brandy. Jazz Kitchen, by far the worst restaurant in downtown Disney. By far. Really? We eat there every time. That's crazy. I will never eat there again. That's crazy. Come on. Come on. That is by far the worst restaurant. Come on. They've had some of the same waitstaff and cooks for decades. The food is not good. I did. What I had wasn't bland.

[01:32:48] Like, it wasn't as spicy as I wanted it to be, but it was, like, I wouldn't say it was bland. I had the. I'm out on Jazz Kitchen. But it was also. Try their Caesar. I think it was also, it was a seasonal thing because I had the, I had the gumbo cheese fries. I refuse to call them anything else. Oh, oh, oh, they're not poutine. It's not gumbo poutine.

[01:33:18] They're not poutine. They're disqualified just for that. Let's be honest. Ryan, do they still have that? After the. No, they do not. Okay. That was the last thing that I had while it was still the original version. And I have not been back since, and I don't know if I will be. Yeah. I was just scrolling through the menu, and I do not see the gumbo cheese fries. Anyways, I, yeah, so I, I liked it.

[01:33:45] Um, I will say my best, my meal choice probably if I had my choice of meals was actually drafted as a wild card, which was Trader Sam's. Um, I really like eating at Trader Sam's, getting the poo-poo platter. Um, the fried green beans are fantastic. Oh, gosh. Yeah. I get a full order of those. Oh, yeah. You get a whole, you, like, I get that it's bar bites or whatever, but, like, it, it definitely

[01:34:13] can serve as a whole meal for sure. Ryan, I would literally change my wild card to Ogo's or Ogo's, however you say it, so you can have Trader Sam's, so we can get Ralph Lett and out of this draft. Oh, my goodness. Oh, no. I mean, and, and like I say, it, it's probably, like, definitely my choices were not, my, I did not have a lot of good food choices left, in my opinion, right?

[01:34:37] Um, because, like, I, I will say my, like, Disney, I guess, hot take, maybe, is, like, I haven't had a great experience at Bengal Barbecue. I know everybody loves Bengal Barbecue, but I have not had a great experience. Yeah. It does. That sounds very hit and miss. Yeah, it's not really a meal. Like, yeah, it's a snack. It's a snack. For sure. I had it on my snack list. The other, the other thing I thought about was Pim's Test Kitchen, but I, or Pim Test Kitchen.

[01:35:07] No apostrophe S. Um, but I, I basically got what I would want there in the, the vibes, like, hang out in Avengers Campus. I think there's one meal left to be picked, I think. No? Do I have that right? Who has a meal left? Eric. Eric has a meal. Eric. Eric's not picking on the West Coast. Okay. We could, we could talk about the, what we missed out on this. I'm not flying over there for a meal. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. Let's stay in the workforce.

[01:35:36] After, after the draft, let's talk about anything we missed or like honorable mentions. All right. Because I'm sure everybody had something. We could only pick one from every category, so. Okay. Is it me? Yep. It's you, David. For my snack. And if I'm using the definition of snack, which is a small portion of food or drink, often prepackaged or quick to prepare, I am going with a beer in DCA. Hot day, getting a beer.

[01:36:06] It could be Carl, might be the Carl Strauss truck. That's what we have. That's gone. It is gone. Well, the Carl Strauss, I'm sorry. It's the, whatever it is now, the, whatever the beer spot is next to the Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, but. All right. Do we let this stand? Okay. I can go with that. Yes. I can go with a brewery X Huckleberry seltzer. I've got a few, like a few drinks that I could like, like it's not that big. That's so good.

[01:36:35] Is there a boysenberry beer you want? I'll let it stand. I'll let it stand. What do you mean to let it stand? Like it's a snack. What do you mean? Snacks of food or beverage? We should have had a drink category. Cause I almost with, we'll get it. I almost put the black half cold brew and I was going to say it was a snack cause it has cereal on top. That's true. That's a good choice. We could have canned the ride and gone with the beverage for sure. Right? Or skipped the. Food only draft. Come on, Ryan. Let's get this together next time. Well, maybe we'll just do a drink.

[01:37:05] Drinks are almost their own draft. Truthfully. Signing up for that episode. Gauntlet thrown. I'm in. Brian's in. All right. So yeah. Liquid snack from David. I don't blame you and it doesn't have to be a beer. I will. I will say like one of like, I am definitely not a drink so much.

[01:37:31] You're falling over in the parks kind of guy, but a good adult beverage walking around DCA or Epcot, especially. It's great. Give me the yellow cup. Right? Listen, I have the best life hack ever and I've only done it once. So I don't know if it's consistent. GCH Craftsman Grill. They do to-go beverages. You have to stay within the GCH though, right? They do not have to-go cocktail glasses.

[01:37:59] So what they do is they give you the beer cup and they fill your cocktail to the top with booze. Like my mule had a minimum of four shots in it. $20. Great. We were set for like six hours. Other hack. Leave the GCH. Because I had the GCH Bar and Grill on my list. Walk down to the pool. Grab a spot. They don't care. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Great place. All right. All right, Olivia.

[01:38:27] You, what is your ride? Okay. I think I'm going to go the other Guardians attraction and go Guardians of the Galaxy colon mission breakout exclamation point. It is the only ride that I still get like a little bit of an adrenaline rush on. I think the new music is fun. I know they do an overlay on it. That's fun.

[01:38:51] I was very anti, very anti Tower of Terror to Guardians, but I think they did a good job with it. I think they've made it more fun, which has made it more like quote unquote accessible for people because it's not scary and thrilling. It's fun and thrilling. Do you have a go-to song that you like? No, I don't pay attention that much. Okay. All right. And I'm the only person that says that. Not that one. I know. I don't like that overlay, but I will give it credit for having an overlay.

[01:39:21] I can't believe it made it to you past David. I know how much David loves that ride. I would have picked the ride for sure. Like, I know I. Says the guy who's standing in line with me at Guardians of the Galaxy going, I hate this ride. Ryan, I don't. Like, here's the thing. Like, early in the morning, it's fine. Right? If I've had a few like Karl Strauss Hoppy House IPAs. That's the best time to go. You think so? Okay. All right.

[01:39:51] My best DCA evening was Chef's Counter Napa Rose. Three peppermint espresso martinis in and a glass of Blanton's right into DCA. Credit Coaster. Guardians. The best. All right. The best. For the next con, we'll do this for sure. Right? I'm in a thousand percent. Let's do this. October. There's another draft. Best rides to ride well inebriated.

[01:40:16] I've definitely done the Ogas to Millennium Falcon connection where. That's okay. Unfortunately, that family from Iowa. That was Lisa and I. So this didn't come up and I don't think it. I mean, maybe. I'll tell it after the draft because there is this story. Go for it. So my wife, Lisa, and I, we went. This was in Disney World. We went to Ogas.

[01:40:45] And so there's two stories built in here. One, we're sitting at the bar. It was great. It was a really good time. We both had our fill. I had the flight, the Rancor flight of beers. And I had bought the flight. We were buying drinks that had the glasses. We were splashing out like big time. Pre-teddy, right? Yeah. This was. Well, yeah. Yes. Pre-teddy.

[01:41:13] So then the bartender approaches us and he's like, do you guys, do you guys want the last glass? Because we had been, he could see that we were like debating it. And the last glass that we had not ordered, I think it was the Porg, which is a non-alcoholic drink. And we were looking at other alcoholic drinks.

[01:41:34] He goes, I'll charge you for one of the alcoholic drinks in a cup and just give you the non-alcoholic drinks cup. And he like sold it to us like it was a deal. He's like, you got to complete the set. And our drunk asses were like, sure, let's do it. We also walked out with like a trash bag full of coasters during that trip.

[01:42:03] He like loaded us up with coasters. But then, yeah, we went from there on to Smuggler's Run and we, we got up and we asked to be pilots. We were not sober in the slightest. And that, and there was a family of four that were our engineers and gunners. Struggling to keep the ship together.

[01:42:26] Well, were these two drunk, like 20 somethings, late 20 somethings, maybe early 30s. And just like flying the Millennium Falcon all crazy. It was, if you're that family of four and you're listening, I'm sorry. But yeah, that was, that was a time for sure. Brian with the FUI, right? Flying under the influence.

[01:42:54] How do you say Ogas or Ugas? How do you say this? Ogas. Ogas. I mean, those drinks will do that to you. The first time we were there, it was early. It was like just open. So it was early. I think we were in there at like 1030 in the morning or something. Seated. Two drinks. I stand up and I go, uh-oh, I'm less okay than I thought it was 90 seconds ago. So we walked, we got to Pirates somehow and like, I'm, I'm fine when I'm like this. I mean, I just walked to Pirates. I remember standing in the queue.

[01:43:23] The friend I was with is pushing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into my mouth and being like, it's 11 a.m. You got to get it together. I'm just standing being fed and I was fine like two hours later, but those, they will sneak up on you if you are not expecting it. I love you, girl. We've got to do a trip because this is, because you see the walk-up line, you want to get the Toronto Rose, you're like, do you want to get the walk-up line to Oga's? I'm like, I don't know, man. It's like 1040.

[01:43:49] I don't need a double IPA, but I'm in for it. Let's do it. I've also, I'm also working, working on a drinking around DCA game. So. Oh, I'm in for that. Okay. I'm kind of picky, but I'm in for it. Okay. All right, Brian. I'm out of my group. Usually everyone's like doing shots in our hotel room before we start today. I can't do that. I can't do that. All right, wait for 1030 at least. Well.

[01:44:18] She's got principles. Brian, pull us out of this no-star. What's your next pick? So my last pick is my wild card. We had a lot of wild cards in this group. But I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with exploring the Lunar New Year food booths. Good pick. We haven't had enough food.

[01:44:44] And going back to our previous conversation about the food in Disneyland, the sit-down food is not the best, I don't think. We've all agreed. But the quick service food at Disneyland, I think, is a step up. And of all the festivals that they have at DCA, the Lunar New Year has the best food offerings.

[01:45:09] So I will just go make my merry way through the booths and eat and drink until my heart's content. It's great call. Or until my wallet gives up. Excellent choice. It's a great call. I had like festival, like that similar thing noted as well. Yeah, the quick service at Disneyland is like, it's really where it's at.

[01:45:33] And I think that's kind of, it's so funny to me when I get somebody through concierge or something like that that is used to Disney World trips. And then they're like, okay, what are we going to sit down and eat in the afternoon? And I'm like, you're not. Go sit in the tiki room with a dole whip or something. But like, yeah, don't sit down to eat at Disneyland. And make sure you sing.

[01:46:02] Or sleep. Either way. Yeah. Sleeping is fine too, you know. Do you sing, Eric? Of course I sing. And whistle. I would probably sing now. I was definitely a sleeping dad. I won't lie. Tiki room is absolutely my nap. We have not spent time at the parks together. No, because you avoided me on our last trip. Yes, I sure did.

[01:46:32] Eric and I like accidentally passed each other like 15 times. Yeah, we never actually ran into each other. It's fine. She drove me to the hotel. I'm pretty sure David's in the background of a picture of mine. From before we ever knew each other. Because we kind of figured out that we were in the parks at the same time. And there's a guy who kind of looks like David in the background of one of my photos. It's pretty great. That's crazy. We were in the, I think it was like entrance queue on the Disneyland side. And both taking photos like, oh, holy cow.

[01:47:02] There's like a million people here. Yeah. Oh, wait. No, the only time we were in the park, it wasn't when we went to Mouse Meet. That was the last time I was there with Brandy and my friends. Yeah. Yeah. My other friends. You're all my friends. You have other friends, Eric? Yeah. Off the show. I've met all of you in person at some point. This is true. This is true. It's one of those weird things. Yeah. You do a good job of that. Good job.

[01:47:32] Yay. Eric, you have the Mr. Irrelevant pick. So the last pick of the draft. What you got? Mr. Irrelevant. You don't know irrelevant here. Okay. All right. This is your meal? This is my meal. This is the Takumi Tei experience.

[01:48:06] I will explain this experience and then I will have you guess at how much it costs these days. But I took this experience several years ago and it was literally the best meal I've ever had. Wow. All right. It changes constantly. So this isn't exactly what I had.

[01:48:28] So I'm going to tab over to the menu on the night that I had it. But currently... What's the restaurant? Takumi Tei. Okay. It is... So in the Japan Pavilion, there are multiple restaurants. There's the noodle place that's up on the hill.

[01:48:53] There is Tepan Edo, which is the Benihana style experience, which is always fun. There is now... Oh, I can't remember the name of it right now. There's an izakaya, isn't there? What's that? That's what's upstairs is the izakaya. Izakaya. Yeah, it's the izakaya restaurant. So it's sushi. Sushi. Family style sushi. That's great. Then you've got the department store downstairs.

[01:49:25] And then, tucked off in the corner, you've got a small restaurant called Takumi Tei. And it is an elevated dining experience. It is seven courses currently. Omikase style. Oh, my goodness. It's so good. Sounds so good. And let's start out here. So the first course, A Modern Beginning.

[01:49:56] Ichiju Sanjai, or Sansai. One Soup, Two Dishes. The Foundation of Japanese Cuisine. Basically, it's just a... It's an appetizer. You know, it's fine. When we were there, our initial course was compressed watermelon, tuna sashimi, grapefruit, daikon, and watermelon rind.

[01:50:26] Let's see. Yuzu dust over the whole thing. Watermelon vinaigrette. It was amazing. So just a little amuse bouche, if you will. Next, sashimi. Pure ingredients. Skilled hands. It's sashimi. You know what sashimi is, probably. Served salad style. This course highlights the balance between natural flavor and thoughtful presentation.

[01:50:55] Hasun. A taste of the season. The centerpiece of the meal. A vibrant arrangement of small seasonal bites. Let's see. We had black rice, mushrooms, daikon, carrot ginger puree, plum wine reduction, tofu. Fantastic. Chilled or warm dish, depending on the time of the year.

[01:51:25] A moment to pause. Here, we slow the pace with a gentle dish. Uh, it's a quiet, calming moment in your dining journey. Um, I guess they've changed the menu a bunch, so that was probably part of the rice and everything. Uh, main course, where east meets west.

[01:51:46] So when we had ours, it was, uh, A5 Japanese Wagyu tenderloin paired against American Wagyu. With, uh, with onions, potatoes, and mushrooms. And the entire point was to try to taste the two against each other and compare American Wagyu versus Japanese Wagyu.

[01:52:15] Really interesting experience. My, the, the, my friend James that I was there with, um, he is, he's a Wagyu fiend. And, uh, he. I want to live that life. I want to become known as a Wagyu fiend. I want that title. Right. And he's like, you've got to try these against each other.

[01:52:36] And it, it was a very educational experience because I, you know, I'd never had, had like that high grade of, of, of a beef against each other. And to have them both on the same plate was a really interesting experience. Um, now they have a rice dish, a gentle ending.

[01:52:59] Uh, a rice dish such as sushi, um, light aromatic balance to the end of your meal. Uh, we had, we had sushi. We had sea bass. We had toasted nori. That's, um, seaweed. Seaweed. Mushroom. There's mushrooms in almost everything. It was some nice broth. It was, oh, fantastic. And then you end with, um, a, uh, let's see.

[01:53:29] We at the time ended with edamame and squash and, um, duck egg yolk. Hmm. Um, and then dessert was a, like, gelatin bubble. Okay. Um, and yeah, so here you end with a matcha. Uh, they currently end with a matcha dish for dessert.

[01:53:57] Everything is, is centered around, um, the elements. They really present it in a way like here is, here is your water dish. Like that, that, that end dish with the gelatin that's, that was water. Um, and it, you know, everything is presented very carefully and timed perfectly. There are vegetarian options available for those of you who, uh, want vegetarian options.

[01:54:27] Um, at the time we had a, a drink flight with it. I don't see that they necessarily have that now because, um, they do have plenty of sake options, including a $500 bottle. Whoa. Oh, speaking of, speaking of crazy expensive drinks, you know what they had on the cruise line last time I was on there? What? Utopias. Utopias? Really? Yeah.

[01:54:57] They had a 2016 bottle of Utopias. Two bottles. 2016? What are Utopias? That's insane. It's, so for those who don't know what Utopias is, it's this crazy expensive beer. It's non, it's, it's very aged. It's non-carbonated. Um, you actually pour it more like a whiskey. Yeah. It's from Samuel Adams and it's like, what is it? 25%?

[01:55:27] Yeah. They let me smell it. I, I didn't ask what the, what a pour was. I should have like, I'm regretting not asking cause they were pouring like single pours rather than giving you like doing the whole bottle. And I'm, I'm regretting now that I didn't ask what a pour would have been. Yeah. You should have gone for it. I should have, but. Uh, oh well.

[01:55:48] Um, so anyway, uh, this is a seven course meal that is carefully curated, different every time. It's, it's an experience. It's in the middle of a theme park. How much do you think it is per adult? Who looked it up? Did anybody look it up?

[01:56:16] I actually know I had a client recently. Uh, I had a client recently who went rogue and booked, uh, dining reservations on their own. And I had to, I had to go back to them and be like, uh, just, just want to make sure that you're aware of what you booked. And they, they clearly did not. But, uh, I had, I looked up the price then. So I do know it. Okay. I know it just cause I've, I'm generally aware of Takumite and it's like on my list. So I do clock it. David was almost there. Olivia, any guess?

[01:56:45] I was going to say, what? David said 400? 240. Yeah. I was going to say 200. 250. 250. For the full. For the full course. There is a semi course that is 150. At times in the past, they used to have, you know, kind of a pre, not a prefix, a, uh, a la carte menu. Um, but my goodness. Um, I, I, I can't actually remember.

[01:57:13] I think I spent, this was years and years and years ago, but when they, when they first opened, I think I spent 200, um, and my friend spent 200 and I think I spent another hundred for the drink course. It's funny to me how many sneaky high dining options there are like fine dining options there are in Epcot. Yeah. Between like Le Cellier, Monsieur Paul, Takumite.

[01:57:39] Like there, there are several options there that are very elevated or, and then if you extend that to like elevated bars, right? You've got like La Cava. That's like a very, very extensive tequila and mezcal collection. Ooh, that, that brings to mind. If you have the opportunity, take one of the tequila courses at La Cava. Yeah.

[01:58:04] Um, Brandy and one of her friends, uh, I, I gifted it to them on one of their trips and, um, it's, it's not cheap. I can't remember how much it is right now, but, uh, they, uh, they, uh, they, uh, it ended up being the two of them and a master tequila maker. Nice. Wow. That's like just the three of them. And you know, it was 10 30 in the morning.

[01:58:31] They were getting served amazing tequilas and learning about how it's done. Like it's a very, it's the whole point is to be educational. It was during food and wine. Um, uh, but yeah, they said it was an amazing experience and. Yeah. You know, there, there are plenty of things you're right, Ryan. Like there's so much stuff at Epcot where it's kind of hidden off to the side.

[01:58:58] It's not easy to find to kumite because they don't want people. I'm sure they don't want people just wandering in and going, uh, yeah. Where's the, where's the sushi? Where's, where's the noodles? And it's like, uh, I'm sorry. This is a $250 experience. How long were you there for? Oh, it was like two and a half hours. Nice. Yeah.

[01:59:25] It, it, there were times where it felt slightly rushed, but it was, uh, I mean, it was after one of our, uh, one of, one of our half marathons where my friend James and I were there and we, we, yeah, it was, it was totally, it was only slightly rushed in the way that they just kept bringing stuff to us.

[01:59:52] I'm like, I just want to like an extra minute to enjoy this. But then when it was all over, I'm like, we've been here for all, all night. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It was fantastic. Absolutely. If you're, if you're celebrating something, if you've got something big going on, go for it. If you're a high roller, go for it. Eric, I really wish you had not brought this up this late in the evening. Cause now I'm really hungry. I'm hungry too.

[02:00:22] My goodness. I already ate. Well, let's do a quick, uh, let's do a quick honorable mentions. Anybody? We've discussed this, the official time zone. We've discussed this. Oh, sorry. It's, it's 930. Did anybody have to leave anything on the table that you were like, oh man, I really wish I could have drafted that or anything that was like a close second in any category? Let's sell. Yeah.

[02:00:49] I want to say the word Ronto wrap at one point and that was definitely my snack list. That's a good one. For sure. That's a meal right there. That is a meal. That's what I was like struggling with. I'm not going to lie a little bit, even though I set the rules right is like the line between meal and snack gets really blurry somewhere in there. Um, Ronto wraps. Uh, I think of like, um, it's not a big issue.

[02:01:16] I struggled with the, uh, the beardia tacos. Uh, so I, I said tacos and a beer to make it a meal. If I was going to pick that nice. Nice. I, um, I am for the draft. I was like, can I trade my snack for like a wild card? Cause I would have drafted like grand California hotel. I would have drafted holiday decorations. Like there was just a lot of different things, different ways. All your wild cards. Yeah.

[02:01:45] I just wouldn't drop wild cards by the end. There is a, there is another version of this where we do like the perfect vacation and you pick a resort and like that can be in there too. Um, but we have to call you and you have to book it. Yes. Eight, five, six our ears. That doesn't actually work. Uh, listeners that doesn't. But it's still the phone. No, we turned off the phone. Yep. Sorry. Eric's telephone number. Let me get this to you. It's Eric.

[02:02:14] No, I'm kidding. Um, not too bad. I know that we always like to do a little bit of like a worst pick. Is there any like, let's do one round and I'll go first of like, I don't want this to get too serious, but things that can ruin the trip. Right? Like, like the antithesis of the perfect day. Um, and for me, I'm going to say, uh, footwear, footwear malfunctions.

[02:02:44] Um, whether it is I've, I've had, I made the stupid decision of wearing like Converse high tops one time to the parks. Terrible call. Oh, destroyed my feet. No support. Completely destroyed my feet. Um, I've been going with my childhood best friend for like 25 years. That is her shoe of choice every time.

[02:03:12] Like she has switched shoes and gone back to the Converse. Like that is, she will die on that hill. Friend of the show, Sarah present always wearing Converse. That's true. That's true. She is a Converse kid. I, but I, I have to imagine she's wearing arch supports in there. I, I have to. I don't know. But I, cause I, I try now I wear Vans. I wear the Vans running shoes.

[02:03:36] The van, like Vans has running shoes and I wear those cause I'm a Vans kid, but that's weird. They, they also, there's no escape in the creepy. Oh, but I, like I've had shoes rubbed the back of my ankles, like completely raw and like, yeah.

[02:04:05] So footwear malfunctions, that'll ruin a trip. Yeah. I was going to say, don't try to break in the new pair of shoes. Oh gosh. I do plan. Yeah. Let's just hate your feet. Like then, then go for it. But now I'd recommend not getting a gout attack after doing a half marathon. Ooh, that sounds awful. It's pretty good. I've, I've only ever had an attack at home, but I cannot imagine it at the parks dragging my foot around the magic kingdom.

[02:04:36] I literally carry the two medicines that they prescribed me in my travel bag because of that fear. Cause yeah, no, thank you. I drink less beer now. It's fine. That's fair. Anybody else got a vacation ruiner? I have to say rain and I'm talking like heavy rain. I'm not talking like it's going to sprinkle for like an hour at 2 PM sort of thing when

[02:05:06] it rains in that park and there's like standing water. It is not fun. And I know we can make it fun. It's not fun. So many rides are closed. You're drenched. Like, again, it's more of a standing water. Like your feet are soaked. It's not. Somehow Peter Pan is still an hour long. It's funny. Ride that's open. It's funny because mist and like fog are great in the park. Like a foggy morning or a misty evening.

[02:05:35] Very good. But the minute it starts turning into droplets. No, thanks. So we were, um, this is a February. I can't remember which year it was like a few years ago. And we were when Anaheim was experiencing like almost hurricane type rains and it was the heaviest rain. Like it was really, really rough. And, um, Hey, my cats arrived. And, um, and we are so, and we're trying to like figure out like the best way to survive. And we kind of made do, we did some different things. Animation Academy.

[02:06:05] I mean, we did like the Mickey's Philharmonic, uh, Philharmonic magic and like kind of made do, but yes, there's a photo of my wife and daughter on Incredicoaster. And my daughter's like crying. Cause like the pelting of the rain when you're on it is just, yes, just the worst. And everything, a lot of things to close. You're just like, all right, what do we do? We may, may do with it, but it was like not ideal for sure.

[02:06:33] Anything, anybody else got a not perfect day? I was going to say weather unprepared. Yeah. Talk to a travel fan. You can't just base like, yeah. I mean, cause you can't just base it off of when you're going because I, I think David's probably talking about February of 2023, which we were there, uh, during that time. And yes, it was the same thing, but we were also there the previous February, 2022, and it was in the mid nineties in February. Yep.

[02:07:03] So you, you can't, you can't just sort of go off of, you know, what you expect it's going to be based on the time of year. Like you actually have to be watching the weather as you're preparing to pack and everything. So. All right. Well, let me wrap us up with a quick rundown of what everybody picked. So, um, I picked first and in my snack position, I had the dolt whip, my ride position. I had the rise of the resistance.

[02:07:29] I, in my show, show nighttime, spectacular, et cetera position. I had world of color in meal. I had, uh, not Ralph Brennan's. Um, and for my wild card, I had hanging out in Avengers campus, David, you were picking second and you had in your snack position, a beer in DCA in your ride position.

[02:07:58] More than one beer, but it was the category. Pirates of the Caribbean, Caribbean, um, the show you had shadows of memory, um, coupled with protest songs playing as things were pro were projected on the castle.

[02:08:19] Um, for your meal, you had Paseo and for your wild card, you chose the Halloween party known as Oogie Boogie Bash. Olivia, you had in your snack position, a corndog from, uh, corndog castle specifically. Um, for your ride, you had guardians of the galaxy mission break route. Um, volume one, part three layer two.

[02:08:49] Um, sorry, too many subtitles on that one. Um, for your show, you had magic happens for your meal. You had didn't tie fun. And for your wild card, you had drinks at Trader Sam's. Brian, um, you had the classic churro as your snack, specifically the classic churro. Um, sorry to people in the Uber of the show who think the best one is the chili cheese churro.

[02:09:18] This is specifically the classic churro. Um, for your ride, you had Indy. Um, you had Fantasmic as your show. Um, you had the chef's counter at Napa Rose as your meal and exploring the lunar new year booths as your wild card. And picking last and are the one guy who picked from the, uh, East coast.

[02:09:46] And, you know, he basically had the pick of four parks to choose from here. And I picked one. Exactly. It's very true. Um, he went with the Mickey premium bar as his snack. Although I would say if early on I had been like you and I had established Epcot was my plan. I don't know. There's a lot of good snacks in Epcot, although none of them are stationary enough.

[02:10:15] Cause like the, uh, the fondue during festival of the holidays from Germany. Killer. Oh, I prefer the, uh, the raclette from the Swiss. Yeah, that's fair. Pavilion. Um, yeah. Yeah. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind as your ride.

[02:10:43] Figment and Muppets Points of Light as your show. Takumi Tei as your meal. And Skyliner as your wild card. I will say one thing that the Skyliner doesn't get right is, is you go into the wrong part of Epcot. Um, you are sacrificing a good entrance to Epcot. You do sacrifice a good entrance. I will, I will admit that, but you do come in at a pretty.

[02:11:14] Oh yeah. If you're, if you're a world showcase person. Yeah. You're great. But right there. You don't get to come in and see the big golf ball. You can see the big golf ball. It's over there. You've seen it before. Go to Takumi Tei. All right, y'all. Have Brian book it for you. There we go. Well, let's go around real quick and let's do a quick, uh, if listeners are still listening, two and a half hours in, longest episode of this show. Hey, we did it. But we did it.

[02:11:45] Um, let's go around and do a quick, uh, round of plugs for our personal stuff that we want people to find us. Um, I will start off by saying, um, find me tomorrowlandtravelauthority on Instagram. Lots of stuff going on there. Um, basically the links to all my other stuff, whether it's my other podcast, my creative endeavors or my, um, travel planning. All of that's linked there. So go check it out.

[02:12:14] Um, there's, I got tons of stuff going on, but that's a central hub for it. So David, what you, what you want to plug? Um, we do a podcast together called say it, wait for it. Uh, and Marvel podcast. And then, uh, my upcoming book on jumping jellyfish. Like it's a in-depth kind of 12 part of in the history and the ride and so forth.

[02:12:43] So I've got to say that the 600 page version is much more concise than your original draft. You know, I, I appreciate that. Like I, for the, for the folks with a shorter attention span, I want something that's a little concise, a little tighter, but there's definitely the larger, um, you know, compendium that's going to appear and it's, yeah, it's like 1900.

[02:13:07] But the, when I do the, the voiceover, it's only like 34 hours. It's not that bad. Okay. So listen to 1.5 and get down to like 22. So, uh, Olivia, what, what would you like to plug? Come listen to spokes, which apparently is a show that Eric is also going to be on, even though it's a spinoff of an already Eric Johnson podcast.

[02:13:34] Um, we're on the hub crawl feed Marie Robyni, and then follow me on Instagram live L I V underscore the magic. I post about once a year, but come join the party there. Hey, you have a very strong story presence. So there's yes. Cause I make none of my own content. So it's really easy to reshare content on Instagram. Oh, Brian, what you got for us? Uh, I am on Instagram at enchanted tiki travel.

[02:14:04] Um, I post just about as often as Olivia does, um, but heavy in the story game as well. Um, and then you'll find me on some random podcasts every now and then when, uh, somebody needs to fill in, uh, hosts or, uh, are here on, on this, uh, podcast, you're listening to. So, um, other than that, just counting down the days till David's jumping jellyfish book drops. Yeah. I'll invite you to the book party. Like when we do the signature, it'd be great. Appreciate it. Yeah. You're welcome.

[02:14:33] Don't sell yourself short, Brian. I see you on all sorts of random bits on threads. You're responding to people constantly. Oh, it's true. So whenever anybody's like, who, who knows a Disney expert, who knows a Disney travel person? Somehow you're always there. Like, Hey, it's me. Ryan. Nice. Ryan's an expert. Nice. All right, Eric, your last, what you got?

[02:15:03] Uh, I do a little show called the Supreme resort. Uh, lately it's been monthly. We're, we're trying to reestablish a timeline now that our, um, we've all grown up and we've all gotten better jobs. Um, I also do ears up, uh, podcast as part of the ears up network, which we are currently on. And we do that every other week.

[02:15:32] We have the secret show with ears up network. If you're going to be a patron, uh, you can enjoy that. Um, and I, I, I implore you to enjoy that. Uh, uh, uh, off of this network, uh, we do a show, a little show called the hub crawl with my friend, who is of the show deal weekly. Um, it's similar to this where it's a bunch of people sitting around without any preparation talking about Disney crap.

[02:16:02] And, uh, I also do a show called body explaining where, uh, also with ridiculous amounts of prep, my friend, Dan and I talk about David Bowie and his discography and, uh, coming soon is our episode about labyrinth. Woo. Uh, which there, there we go. Um, yeah, yeah.

[02:16:30] Um, also I have, I, I do have a job. I have a real job. Um, I won't tell you about it, but I have a real job somehow and I never sleep. True. And if, if any vampires would like any day walkers, I need a day walker, um, sort of set, set up here. Uh, so I just don't have to sleep. Do you think you'd have less injuries if you slept more?

[02:17:01] Uh, yes. Last time he got injured, that was the problem. Fair. Excellent counterpoint to that. That, that is, that is part of the theory. Um, my therapist is, is convinced that maybe I should sleep more than three hours a night, but you know. Okay. Well, we'll keep having you do podcasts until late into the night. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. We'll see. I'll entertain. Oh gosh. It's Tuesday and it's 11 o'clock. Yeah.

[02:17:31] We're, we're. Sorry. 10 o'clock. It's not 51. Let's get to the top. We won't, we won't try and break our end game record. Um. Oh Jesus Christ. Okay. If you guys want a lot of content, there's six hours of end game content that Eric, David and I recorded in one sitting. Did you do that in one sitting? One sitting? Yeah. That was a Saturday to end all Saturdays. Yeah. It also included another dog incident, right? What happened with the dog?

[02:18:00] Didn't the dog? Oh, I think there was. Dog called up that one on your watch. Oh, that's right. Oh yeah. Oh, I forgot. That happened. The dog is on mute. The dog is on mute. To call 911. You went on mute. And like they're calling 911. You're like, I should take this. Oh gosh. It was the worst. That did happen. I forgot about that. Oh man. All right. Y'all. Let's do it. Check it out.

[02:18:30] Episode. Yep. 25 or something. Anyway. Well, thank you everyone. And thank you for listening. And thank you for drafting with us. We will see you next time. In fantasy land. Bye.