The Case of the Dream Suites: Cinderella Castle Suite v Disneyland Dream Suite

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[00:00:22] Oh, ich beginne jetzt. Wir sind nicht an das. Willkommen zum Supreme Resort Land V World, ein Podcast über Disneyland und Walt Disney World und mit dem Supreme Resort? Oh, no. Now I have so much time to fill. Each episode, we will discuss and explore each resort, ride by ride, land by land, park by park. This feels so off.

[00:00:52] Dream by dream to answer this long, elusive question. Which is better, Disneyland or Walt Disney World? I'm Dan and thank you for joining me on this quest to help the greater good of humanity answer that very long, elusive question. Which one's better? Joining me as always from the live show that happened in our dreams, Jimmy. Hey, and in this case, Disneyland is better. And from the hit podcast, Bowie's Planning as well as every other podcast you listen to, it's Eric.

[00:01:21] Hey, yeah. And speaking as the role of editor here, I'm not going to move the music to where you should have started talking. No, don't. Yeah, if you are part of a podcast that has been around for long enough to have muscle memory with where everything goes. Six or seven years. And you really want to throw yourself off and feel like you're having a stroke. Do what I just did because it's weird.

[00:01:52] Jimmy, I highly recommend it. I will. It's very strange. Next time I host, I will absolutely start it wherever I damn well please. This episode, speaking of doing it wherever you damn well please, we're talking about dream suites. They're places where you can sleep. Maybe. In the parks if you are. Well, we'll talk about the qualifications. Other than the animation building and the benches.

[00:02:20] There are actual other places to sleep in the parks. Speaking of other things in the parks, I don't think it's been released yet. But we might have some people who are upset about some things that I said about the Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boutique in our last episode. Before you get upset with me, I want to clarify. It's Disney's fault for still having them. Parents who take your kids there, that's cool. You're just doing a thing. I'm saying the thing shouldn't exist.

[00:02:49] That's it. The end. And if you're still upset, email Jason at earsuphypodcast.com. Because Ears Up was already taken. Yes. Let's see. Yeah, don't email that one. Yeah. That guy won't listen to me. So yeah, this episode is a follow-up from that one. Oh, that's right. Yeah, we did talk about that. Real quick. Sorry. Yes. I was going to say, I watched. So there's an Imagineer called Jim Scholl.

[00:03:18] He's frequently with Jim and Len over there on the Disney dish. So he has his own little channel, which is incredibly awkward. He's not the greatest showman. No, not at all. The audio is all over the place. Yeah. And he's just a weird dude. And he pronounces stuff weird too. Like Star Tours. Oh. And VDO. No, that's different. But anyway, he did a special about what New Tomorrowland at Disneyland would be.

[00:03:48] If he were an Imagineer still, what he would do. All Star Wars. And so I think it might be fun for us to do an impromptu version of what Tomorrowland looks like. Oh, right now? Yeah. Okay. I've been thinking about it. Okay, so you start. I'm going to start. A couple of context clues. First of all, it's called Tomorrowland Days of Future Past or something like that.

[00:04:16] It's like the tomorrow's yesterday, today or something like that. And so my thing is you get rid of Buzz, you get rid of Star Tours. I don't think you go back to Circle Vision per se, but you put something else in there that is more Tomorrowland-y. But when he said, I forget his name now, the Chairman of Parks guy, Thomas Maslam. Yes. He said more wide open spaces.

[00:04:45] So when you think of Tomorrowland, you think it's congested because of the people mover. So when you hear wide open, more open spaces, you think, well, they're going to get rid of the people mover track, so it would be more open space, right? But then I think they get rid of the lagoon. They've proven that people don't really – oh, Dan's quitting. He's quitting the show. Oh, well. No, but like Rivers of America and Disney World nobody really cared about because it's not like –

[00:05:14] it's not – Walt touched it and all that stuff. But I don't think anybody cares about the lagoon. I mean, it's a nice feature, but it takes up so much space. And it's such a narrow path between that and Matterhorn, right? Once again, any comments, just send them to Jason at earsup-podcast.com. No, but seriously, if it weren't for draining the lagoon, Matterhorn would sink to the ground. Exactly. No, anyway, seriously, you could still have a water feature, right?

[00:05:42] But just get rid of the submarines, and then it's all big, wide-open land. I don't think you can get rid of Autopia, but they're electrifying it. That's going to be good. But it does take up a lot of space. I think you still keep the people mover. You redo it altogether. You just get rid of the center track, and you just do the load-unload somewhere else, and then bring back Carousel of Progress. I think it's awesome.

[00:06:13] You know? Eric, would you like to go next while I put my notes together, or shall I? Oh, that's what you're doing. You're working on your notes. Well, this is all. Oh, look at that. Such a teacher. Yes. Or I could just go. Do you have it? Because I put some thought into this. Here's my biggest take. Oh, I've put zero thought into this. My biggest take is they get rid of the lagoon, and they redo the people mover. Okay. I'm going to jump off from there.

[00:06:40] I think if they get rid of one, they're getting rid of the other. Yeah. That's right. I don't necessarily think that they're getting rid of either. I think you keep the lagoon, but you change the submarines to something else. What that something else is, I don't know. But I think it's probably going to use the same ride technology as the pirates in Shanghai. Is that where that is? Outside? Yeah. They're going to feature some.

[00:07:08] Have you been to sunny, beautiful Southern California? I guess, but how do you recreate? You can't recreate the pirates thing when you're just outside looking at a mountain. I'm not saying they're going to put Pirates of the Caribbean in tomorrow. No, I know that. But still, how do you? Anyway, go ahead. I don't know. Boats that turn. Just like with- Hold on. Before we get into this, just like when we talk about politics, which we never do on this podcast- Clearly, because there's nothing to talk about.

[00:07:35] I'm not here to come up with how or what. I'm not an imagineer. I don't have the blueprints. I'm just saying, I think conceptually, these are some moves that they might consider making. So, and I think if we get rid of the utopia or adapt it in some ways, then that frees up

[00:07:57] that show building area to become more of a exciting show for whatever boat ride that becomes. I think they're going to do everything in their power. Here's my reasoning. I think they want to keep the lagoon because they don't want to hear the nerds complain about getting rid of the lagoon. Ooh. Us. Me. Would they complain more than utopia? Or- Yeah, it would be louder.

[00:08:23] If they had a choice between the lagoon and utopia, they would all say, get rid of the lagoon. Utopia, though, isn't- I don't think they're getting rid of it. I don't think that- But I do think that if- Let me put this another way. I don't think anyone's looking at it and going, we really need to get rid of that thing. But I do think that if there's something to put on the chopping block, that's a trading piece, I think, for them.

[00:08:48] Um, and I think that Carousel Theater, I think we get Carousel of Progress again. And I think we get- With the new Walt statue, because they don't have to have the one in the theater because you got Lincoln. That's fair. That's okay. I actually like that. Um, and then I think PeopleMover, you're going to enter and exit from the top of that building. Yep. That tracks.

[00:09:16] Since they actually do have access built. Right. Like access to that deck. Right. It could build off of that. Okay. And it's a huge space to load and unload if you think about, like, what's in that building. And that- Indoor switchbacks. What a concept. Right? Um, and I think they might bring back the whole, like, take the speed ramp up at the end of the thing, so they're going to make you sit. Do you feel like you're coming out of a grave? Well, yeah. Or- Space grave.

[00:09:45] Coming out of the grave of the past and entering the future. Um- The future of yesterday. But I don't think that that's the only way you enter the PeopleMover. I think you can also do it from outside. Uh, I think Pizza Planet, Port Planet, Alien Pizza Planet, either becomes what it should have always been, which is Alien Encounter, or they Chuck E. Cheese-ify that place, which

[00:10:13] is what they should have done when they opened it in the first place. I think- Wasn't there supposed to be- is that where they were going to put in an animatronics show? Yeah, that's- Or was that at the stage? Alien Encounter. Oh, okay. That was the carousel theater. That was going to be the animatronic. Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, Magic Eye Theater, that could also become- I think- I think- basically, I think Alien Encounter is coming.

[00:10:41] Because- because it's- I think it's- California's the perfect place for it. And that's where it should have opened. People miss it. And I think that since they're going in this direction of, like, fixing up the things that they messed up, I think that's- that's clearly- But only if they bring back Jeffrey Jones. Right. Or any other- Give him another shot. Come on. Or any other celebrity accused of similar crimes. Kevin Spacey's coming back, I'm just saying.

[00:11:11] So- You might be right on that. He is. They could have the- they could have the Trump animatronic. Oh. That could be the alien. There, yeah. He's- Sorry. He's got wings. So, real quick- I think Starrcade is going to become the queue for Space Mountain. Yeah, 100%. That's guaranteed. And I think that the speed ramp in the Starrcade is coming back, and that's going to be how we deal with Fast Pass. Interesting. What were you going to say?

[00:11:40] I have three words for you that prove my point- Should we get ready to blame them? No. Prove my point about why they're getting rid of submarines. American with Disabilities Act. Okay, so I know you've been on a tirade against people with disabilities for years now. But- His one-man campaign.

[00:12:08] No, I'm saying the submarines, they're going. But the lagoon, I think, is staying. So, explain more open spaces to me. That's an open space. And I think- It's not more, it's the same. I think a big part of that is they're going to blow up the thing in the center, the mover track, because they're not going to need it anymore, because of where I think you're going to enter and exit.

[00:12:33] And again, consider how Disney, when they say wide open space, they usually mean like a park. I think that they're going to benefit from what they learned from Toontown. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's going to be some areas that are kid-friendly, but not kid-centric. Mm-hmm. Um, I think there will be something like a park, like a futuristic park-ish. Mm-hmm. Um.

[00:13:03] It'll have like robot dogs that pee. Definitely robot dogs that pee oil whimsically onto things and the flowers- Polographic trees and whatnot. Polographic trees, which is what we're going to have soon anyway. Um, Star Tours. It's got to go. Which is why they'll keep it. Adventures through inner space with new technology. Or, or- Or body wars. Hold on. I got something. Fly the Navigator. Ooh, that'd be fun.

[00:13:33] Yeah. But I think body wars, but like, as long as they bring back Jeffrey Jones, who wasn't in the original, but they need to bring Leonard Nimoy back to direct it. They're going to resurrect a ton of people. Maybe that's the biggest thing is they found resurrection technology and whole things like Pet Sematary. But yeah, you can also do Ant-Man or something, you know, I don't know. I, I don't know. Of course you already have Marvel across the street. Yeah, that's, yeah, I don't know that.

[00:14:01] I just mean keep Pixar with Pixar. Get rid of Buzz. Yeah. Keep Star Wars with Star Wars. Keep, you know, just, I know they're not going to do original. It's original IP outside of bringing Figmoot back, but that's not original IP anymore. It's just IP. Well, that's what I was about to ask. Does it count if it's old IP that the old timers remember? So Adventures Through Inner, Through, Through? Inner Space? But like, WALL-E is original IP, technically. Ooh. Yeah. You know. WALL-E.

[00:14:31] I, I, I wouldn't actually, I actually wouldn't be surprised if we get like a miniature version of journey into your imagination that replaces Buzz with no guns. Maybe. Anyway. I, I think now, I think now is a great time for them to start to epicodify Tomorrowland and that might be where they go. They bring some of the old tomorrow, future world stuff or ideas into Tomorrowland, Disneyland. Well, they tried the interventions. That didn't work.

[00:15:01] I don't know if that thing even spins anymore. I don't think there's anything to spin in it at this point. But I mean, that Tomorrowland version was atrocious. So. Right. Also put the Astro Orbiter back on top of Rocket Tower Plaza. Make it rocket jets. Or we put it up top where Space Mountain, empty space with Space Mountain.

[00:15:29] The big thing that looks like it's supposed to be a landing pad that's just painted on the ground and nobody can step on it. Yeah. But then you block the sightline of the, of the, the cone. Maybe. I don't know. I mean, where it is now is terrible. I think that middle structure is going. I think it just needs to go. Yeah. I think you're right. I think the whole, the, the people mover and Rocket, that there's your open space. Right. Anyway. So. Eric, your turn.

[00:15:56] What, what about the, so I've heard a little bit about pushing beyond the current boundaries of the park and taking up the Esplanade. So moving security across the street, across Harbor, you walk over or under or something. I think, I think most of it has been over. I don't know. I've heard a lot of different ideas about that, but maybe part of the Esplanade is shared

[00:16:24] by Disneyland and DCA. So it's not completely one or the other, uh, where it would give them more room for Avatar stuff someday in DCA. You couldn't extend Tomorrowland that way. But that's the question. Do you move? If that sort of thing were to happen, do you move the, um, do you move the railroad or do you go under the railroad?

[00:16:53] What happens to the, the diorama? Kaz, we're doing all this stuff around the area. I think diorama, we're going to get more projections. And I think that, uh, I don't think Avatar is ever going to happen at DCA. Well, they said flat out it's first Avengers and then Coco and then Tomorrowland in that order. So it's by 2030.

[00:17:21] So if they, you know, I have a lot of hopes with this tomorrow led Disney company. I think, you know, unless it's just a bunch of words, if they have the investment, which they've already had approved by the board, like through 2030, just, you know, you don't have to gut everything and start over and it could be in phases. Some things though do need to be gutted and started over. Well, yeah, they do, but I think Tomorrowland's war. I take it back. I'm basically saying everything gets gutted and started over and fill in that swamp. Yeah.

[00:17:51] It's, it's so the swamp. But yeah, we've been, both parks have been building over ancient, ancient stuff for decades and decades and what we're just supposed to keep trying to fit things into the old, the old spots. I mean, that's, that's what happened with it's happened at both parks where it's like, uh, I don't know what else to do in a circular room.

[00:18:19] Um, yeah, I think also that the, they need to final for me is they need to take the Tomorrowland side of Matterhorn and paint it to match Tomorrowland and the robot should be just the robot without the skin to make it look futuristic. Yeah. Just strip the fur off the Yeti. Yeah. Um, I do think that. Make it Jeffrey Jones. It needs to be Jeffrey Jones.

[00:18:49] Um, I, I think, I think they have to, I, I, I'm seeing a couple of things going on here. I think it's, I think it's gonna, it's, they, they need to make it a big, it needs to be a big change because it's been just sitting there and rotting for so long. And I just wonder, I wonder if they will, I wonder how cosmetic that will be. And I wonder if they will overshoot it.

[00:19:18] It sounds to me they've given up on the future of it all. And it's more, it's more back to the 1964, whatever version that was that the world on the move, there's going to be people mover the monorail. Yeah. Um, and that's why you could resurrect attractions as fresh IP. An alien encounter to your point or to my point, I'm not sure, but that's, you know, original IP technically. Right. Well, yeah.

[00:19:44] And I, and I think, yeah, I think they are kind of forecasting that like, Hey, we're kind of go, going to go back to how it was. Yeah. That's what it sounds like. Cause the future is too elusive. It has to be not discovery land per se, but something like that. The Disney version of discovery land, you know, the sixties future. Or the, the George Clooney movie of it all, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:10] And I think it'll be so, I think that, I think that's really the blueprint and it'll be sort of like, okay, well, what do we have now that we can kind of fudge around that idea and what the hell are we going to do with the submarines in the Autopia? Yeah. Get rid of them. Put in Tron. Yeah. No, I don't want Tron. And if, if I guess when it comes down to Autopia, my, my main thought is just because it doesn't necessarily mean they can't scrap the whole thing anyway. That's true.

[00:20:38] Aren't the cars being funded by Honda? Is it Honda that's still doing it? Okay. If that's the case, if they've got a sponsor, they probably have a contract for how long they can keep, they're supposed to keep it there. But I have another totally different idea here. Does, are we sure that Autopia, that the, the geography of Autopia and the lagoon will

[00:21:08] stay Tomorrowland? I guess. Yeah. I mean, otherwise, it's super small, but we've kind of identified that maybe it could be super small based on the problem of tomorrow. But then what about our open spaces again? We just built a giant lawn. Put a dome over it. There you go. No, I think, I think, I think maybe there's a, maybe that becomes a transitional space and maybe we get like a frozen ride. Where a girl becomes a boy?

[00:21:37] Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway. All right. Sorry. Let's, let's move on. I, I, I kind of, I was not planning to talk about this. We talked about before the show, do we have any business? I said no. And then it all just hit me and I just bombarded you. Hopefully that was in my comments for your listeners. I apologize. Castle Pirates. There we go. Castle Pirates. I'm ready. I'm ready to take, I'm ready to keep score. Keeping a speaking score. Castle Pirates. Speaking of keeping score.

[00:22:08] We're going to, we're going to do the show now. So get ready. Hold on to your butts as they said in Jurassic Park. Um, transition. Here we go. Ready? Ready? Let's go. Dream suites. Um, we're going to talk about Nick Fury, by the way. Uh, Eric clapping cheerleader part. That was Nick Fury.

[00:22:36] Eric's going to talk about the one in the castle at Magic Kingdom, which you heard a little bit about last in the last episode. That's how we got here. Um, now, unlike the Fast and the Furious movies, you can listen to this episode without listening to the previous one. There's, you're not, you won't get lost, but this isn't, this isn't like those complicated movies where you have to see everything in order.

[00:23:05] Um, tell that to our, our new fourth host. Gosh. Um, by the way, he's been in the bathroom a long time. Can you go knock on his door, Dan? Oh, who's the fourth host? I don't know. Okay. Somebody else would pick up on that. I thought you had, I thought we had some surprises. No, I, I, I just made that one up. So I, I don't know. Speaking of making things up, I'm making up this transition from, yes, Jimmy.

[00:23:34] Did you have a question? Just to get you there. Um, the Cinderella Castle Suite opened in January of 2007, where the Disneyland Dream Suite was January of 2008. Okay. So there we go. Uh, Eric, if that means you're first, you're going to talk about the Castle Dream Suite. And if you make a sound that I would like to point the fact for, some order of that words, uh, we're going to hear this fact.

[00:24:04] Sound. I have to have a bag of facts where I just pull a different one out each time. Great. I got to find. Did you know that the, the, the, the windows on Main Street actually represent people that did things? Mm-hmm. So there's a secret restaurant. Uh, you have to be a billionaire to get in. That's right. All right. Dan's putting down his water.

[00:24:33] He's ready for that, that sound. Yeah. That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. Mm. It was a little quiet. Yeah. I'll fix that for next time. And if you. Listener, stop thinking about the joke that I'm not making. Um, Jimmy, you're talking about the Dream Suite in Pirates, the Caribbean, not in the ride itself, but in the building. That is in New Orleans Square. Mm-hmm.

[00:25:00] And if you fax the sound that we make the points for, we hear this. Noise. Magic. I think I'll bust. I love it. Hey, that's grown-ass as a child. Grown-ass, really terrible as a child. Listen to the previous episode. You'll hear all the things. First, email Jason. If this is your first episode, if this is your first episode, welcome. Um, Disneyland is real. Here, age release. Never mind.

[00:25:30] Uh, okay. So when you start talking, can I pick? I'm going to spin the bottle of facts and sounds, and, uh, it's pointing at Eric. Go for it. All right. I need an opening statement. I have prepared an opening statement. Okay. Uh, you, you see, in our last case, I brought up an eternal question. A question that affects both the hardened Disney Parks fans and the new recruits. The question, what's inside of that thing?

[00:25:56] Um, in this case, we are still within the Cinderella Castle of the Magic Kingdom, but we are also looking at Disneyland's Dream Suite, another place inaccessible to the average guest. Um, I will demonstrate within the next few hours and days that the Cinderella Castle Suite is the supreme, uh, exclusive hotel room. Details, story, and location all combined to make one of the most sought-after locations in any Disney park. Boo.

[00:26:26] Oh, no, I'm being booed off the stage. That was Jimmy doing his introduction because his Dream Suite is very likely haunted by the ghost of Walt Disney. He was just being a ghost there saying, boo, cans of chili floating around. Cigarettes lighting themselves. Smoke getting inhaled into a weird lung shape that's floating in midair. Jimmy gives us your opening statement.

[00:26:57] Somewhere above the shores of the rivers of America, tucked behind a nondescript door on Royal Street, sits the single most storied private residence Walt Disney ever conceived. And he never got to sleep in it. 3,000 miles away inside a fiberglass fortress in Florida, there's another secret bedroom that gets all the Instagram hype, but almost none of the history. Today, on the Supreme Resort, we're setting this once and for all, settling this once and for all.

[00:27:27] The Dream Suite at Disneyland, also known as 21 Royal, is the single greatest overnight accommodation Disney has ever built, and it isn't even close. The Cinderella Castle Suite is a nice hotel room with a good backstory. The Dream Suite is a 60-year-old time capsule of Walt Disney's actual unfinished dream, sitting inside a working piece of park history. I'm glad you're carrying forth the tradition of the opening statement being melodramatic and needlessly combative.

[00:27:58] I learn from the best. I cut out the sentence. I was trying to be nice here, but I did cut out the sentence. And the Disneyland Dream Street totally smells, because there's a bathroom in it. True. Wait, there's no bathroom in it? There's no bathroom in the street? There is, but it's nicer. Okay. Mine's technically newer. If I understand correctly, we also have history and whatnot. Eric, would you like to continue with the whatnot or the history?

[00:28:29] I suppose the history. My history's a lot longer than my whatnot. Ah. Well. Okay. Dan? Grower, not a shower. All right. Well, similar to a statement that Jimmy made about the Disneyland suite, this suite was designed by Dorothea Redmond as an apartment for the Disney family.

[00:28:57] This was supposed to be a place for Roy and his family to hang out within the Magic Kingdom when it first opened. Unfortunately, the plans were not finished before the park opened, although the space was created. And after Roy died in 1971, shortly after the park opened, the plans were abandoned.

[00:29:21] The space there being someplace that they could use in the parks became an operations room for the resort's switchboard operators for many years. It was also so magical. Oh, I know.

[00:29:41] Once they expanded the ability to put people not in a giant castle and build an operations room somewhere else on property, it was used for, you guessed it, storage. Yes. And then it was used as a dressing room for show performers. So how apartment-like at this point was this thing? Or was it just space?

[00:30:10] It was pretty much just space. I don't know that anything really had been built into it. I can't find any real pictures of the area. No one has stepped forward to say, hey, interview me. I used to work the switchboard and I can tell you about what color the tile floor was or whatever. I would imagine bathroom probably was already happening since they had employees in there, but maybe not. Yeah.

[00:30:37] I mean, there's plumbing a little bit further downstairs for Cinderella's Royal Table or King Steffan's as it was at the time when the park opened. So there was plumbing in the area. It's a 660 square foot space now. Now, I suppose they could have decreased it when they finished the space. So it was at least that big when the castle opened.

[00:31:08] Okay. We'll get into the other things like access. Is there an elevator? I'm guessing there is. Do you have any more history that I distracted you from? Yes, I do. And it's certainly fine to ask questions and interrupt all the time as usual as we do on this show.

[00:31:25] What's funny about that, and just for the listener, what's funny about that is that I think all three of us appreciate when we are interrupted with actual useful things that continue the conversation. So we're not just like droning on. But what's funny, at least in my experience, is, you know, I'm reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, and then like a question will come up. And we might sound annoyed when that happens, but it's just shift.

[00:31:55] It's like, oh, wait, I have to think about something else. Right. And I even sometimes I feel like I have to apologize because, like, you do sound annoyed. Not both of you, actually. But then I stop and I'm like, no, I actually really appreciate it when they do that to me. So anyway, sorry. It's just a thought I had. Do I sound annoyed? No, I think it's just normal. Okay. Because you're in the groove, right?

[00:32:22] But then something happens that is actually totally welcome. And it's like, okay, let me shift back. Yes. Yes, I get it. Yeah. Well, let's see. I mean, and that's just speaking from the experience of other shows on this network that I am part of. The more you script, the harder it is to get interrupted. Yes.

[00:32:45] And there is a certain show on this network called Ears Interrupticus. And that's where I really solidified my thought of, I really just need to put bullet points in for everything. Yeah. And speak extemporaneously. I mean, maybe that's an episode we do is our show versus Ears Up. Oh.

[00:33:13] With one common host behind the magic who has to judge. Eric's the judge. Uh-oh. Actually, it might be more fun if he had to argue one or the other. That would be more fun. Oh, gosh. Well, hey, let's keep moving here. Let's see. 2005. Refurbishment started.

[00:33:41] Refurbishment and design started for finishing this room into a livable space to give... Sorry, my screen timed out here. To give to contest winners and massive celebrities. Imagineering show director Stephen Silvestri led the redesign team along with a few other notable folks.

[00:34:09] Kathy Carver was the principal interior designer. Katie Roser was the set decorator. And Kyle Miller was the graphic artist behind a lot of the design. Let's see here. I have thrown myself off. Maybe more scripted be all right. Thanks, Jim. But then I wouldn't know where I am. When... Let's see. So, first guests...

[00:34:36] This whole space was designed to be part of the Year of a Million Dreams promotion, which started in 2007 and ended in 2009, long after a year. The first guests started staying in the Castle Suite on January 25th, 2007. Now, I don't know really where else to put this, but it did happen in the past, so I'm going to keep it in the history section here.

[00:35:01] As part of registering the space, Disney chose the room rate of $587 per night. They had to pick something for tax purposes, so they must have had some reason for settling on this particular kind of cheap rate. Maybe there had to be some kind of monetary value for the winner. Right, right. Because that's a sweepstakes thing. You've got to have a monetary value declared. Why they settled on that as the monetary value is what I'm not sure of.

[00:35:30] By the way, any listeners who, like me, have been distracted this entire time by whether or not Stephen Silvestri and Alan Silvestri are related, they are not. But Dorothea Redmond and Dorothea Redmond are. Yes. Yeah. Just as closely. For later. Yeah.

[00:35:48] Well, for comparison, rack rates to similar kind of, definitely vastly less designed, but one-bedroom suites in the regular season of 2007. I say regular with quotes around it because there were four tiers that year, regular, holiday, summer, and value.

[00:36:13] But during the regular season, which is most of the year, rack rates for similar rooms at the Wilderness Lodge were $550 compared to $587. Boardwalk, Garden View Suite was $655. And the Grand Floridian Central Building, so that's the main big one, not any of the little outbuildings that they had back then before the DVC Tower was built, $740 a night. Interesting.

[00:36:41] One would argue that rack rates have a lot to do with amenity, and I think because the Castle Suite probably doesn't have any amenities, there's no pool, there's no on-site restaurant, that kind of thing. Maybe that's why. Yeah. That could be a portion of that. And rack rates are not always what you get charged anyway. There are often a lot of promotions that are out there. But just a comparison sort of thing.

[00:37:05] So it's interesting that they chose such a relatively cheap rate when a lot of other rooms were higher valued with a similar amount of space. Well, I think if it's really just for tax purposes to report a winning, it would be ridiculous for them to actually say like, well, actually, this is worth blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:37:31] But they also probably wouldn't, probably for their own tax purposes, want to undervalue it because that would raise some red flags. I think they probably wanted to pick something like, okay, well, it's at least this amount. So IRS, you can be happy in either direction. Right. Yeah. I bring it up just because it's a fact and it's interesting.

[00:37:59] And I would like, I really wish I knew, I'm sure they would never publish this, but what that thought process was. Basically what Dan's saying, but what was the calculation that got them there? What was more important? And that's the sort of weird thing I do because of my job where I do all of these financial analyses. It's like, hmm, I wonder how they arrived at that. How many executives had to be part of that decision?

[00:38:25] It can't be too low, but it also can't be so high that it's just like, yeah, I won this thing. Oh, I have to pay how much now? Right. Yeah, exactly. All right. If that is the end of your history segment, then we will move on to Jimmy's history segment. Okay. Non-personal history. We are going to get into the Pirates of the Caribbean. It has nothing to do with the Dream Suite, but that's where it's located. Great.

[00:38:54] Mine's a little bit more of a narrative. Forgive the non-bullet points, but feel free to interrupt anytime you want. Okay. The story starts in the early 1960s while New Orleans Square was still under construction. Walt had already had a private small apartment above the Main Street firehouse, but it wasn't big enough to host the VIPs, dignitaries, and business partners who came through the park. So he decided to build something bigger, and he wanted it tucked away from the crowds above Pirates of the Caribbean.

[00:39:24] Opening on Royal Street, he brought in Dorothea Redmond, also the set designer of Gone with the Wind, by the way. I hear that she's closely related to Dorothea Redmond. That's correct. Yeah. To lay out the space, and his wife Lillian and longtime Disney Studio set decorator Emile Curry, not the radiation lady, the same team behind Club 33 and the Main Street firehouse apartment, handle the furnishing.

[00:39:53] That's what they did. The project even had a name. The Royal Suite is a nod to its address on Royal Street. I think just to give some context space-wise, yes, he did have his apartment in Main Street. They gave tours of it for long enough that several listeners might have been in there. I went in there. It's tiny.

[00:40:22] I mean, it's as small as it looks from the ground, but of course, they make really, really, really good use of the space. But if you're entertaining guests in there, good luck. And yes, it does have that little patio area there on top, but the visibility would be a problem. I'm just trying to paint a picture of, like, why this might have been needed. By the way, lots of shower heads in that shower. Interesting.

[00:40:50] You really liked water pressure in several places. I'm not going to say words. I have to follow up on that. Okay. Sounds like the podcast is over. Thank you for joining us. I just, never mind. Okay, then, on December 15th, 1966, Walt died, sadly. Roy Disney, his brother, couldn't bring himself to finish an apartment built for a family that would never get to enjoy it with Walt gone.

[00:41:15] So the project was quietly shelved, even though it was reportedly close to done, with plumbing and infrastructure already in place. For the next two decades, the space had an odd, wandering second life. From 1967 to 1974, it served as a VIP reception space for Insurance Company of North America, a Disney business partner. And from 1974 to 1986, it became the office and planning space for Disneyland International.

[00:41:42] It was largely used for Imagineers who were designing Tokyo Disneyland. And then on July 11th, 1987, the space finally opened to the public, not as an apartment, but as the Disney Gallery. A rotating art exhibit space run by specially trained cast members who gave guests free docent tours. It stayed open for 20 years, closing on August 7th, 2007. Here's some fun facts from the Disney Gallery era.

[00:42:12] The 20 years this space spent as an art gallery are packed with genuinely interesting history. For example, the inaugural exhibit, The Art of Disneyland, featured a 1964 concept painting of New Orleans Square by legendary Disney artist Herb Ryman. And Herb Ryman isn't just any Imagineer. In 1953, you may know, Walt Disney personally asked him to sketch the entire concept of Disneyland over a single weekend

[00:42:39] so that Roy could take the drawings to New York bankers to secure the original $17 million construction loan. Without that weekend, there may not have been a Disneyland at all. And I don't think the construction loan was actually $17 million. I think that's how much it ended up costing. That same 1964 New Orleans Square painting Ryman created was significant enough that in 1988, the U.S. State Department selected it for display at the American Embassy in Paris.

[00:43:08] The gallery didn't just show Ryman's work. It exhibited pieces from an incredible roster of Disney legends like Mark Davis, John Hench, Blaine Gibson, Colin Campbell, Harper Goff, Ken Anderson, and Sam McKim. In 1994, the gallery commemorated Ryman with a limited release of three New Orleans Square lithographs, nicknamed Candy Shop, The Courtyard, and The Blue Bayou. And there was a limited edition sculpture, a bronze sculpture replicas by Imagineer and sculptor Blaine Gibson

[00:43:36] were sold through the gallery along with lithographs, posters, and an exhibition catalog. This is the part the Cinderella Suite simply cannot compete with. This room was a functioning museum of original Disney park history for two full decades before it ever became a bedroom. Interesting. Finally, Disney announced it would finally finish the space as originally intended.

[00:44:02] Imagineers went back to Dorothea Redmond's 1966 concept paintings and rebuilt the suite as closely to the original version as they could. It opened on January 31st, 2008 as the Disneyland Dream Suite, timed for the Year of a Million Dreams promotion, during which guests were selected at random throughout the resort to win a night stay. In later years, it was awarded through sweepstakes and special invitations before overnight stays quietly stopped around 2016. I don't know what the rack rate was. Oh, okay.

[00:44:32] The, uh, as I actually did see that when I was looking up the rate for Castle Suite, it's $7 more per night for Disneyland Dream Suite. It's a lot bigger. It's a lot bigger. It's a lot bigger. It's slightly newer. I, I'm, I'm actually kind of. $7 newer. I'm torn as of now.

[00:44:56] I mean, I know this isn't the decision making point, but, um, because where, what I'm landing on is I feel like Walt Disney would have probably appreciated it staying the Disney gallery. Probably. Probably. And Roy Disney probably would appreciate it staying the operating room. Mm-hmm. Well, there are a lot of, a lot of young ladies that need some place to sit and connect phones. Yeah. Speaking of transition places.

[00:45:27] Yeah. Uh, yeah. I, this isn't point worthy because it's not this anymore, but I do have to say that Disney gallery in that space was such a cool vibe spot. Um, it was shaded courtyard, air conditioning space. Like it had that really nice feeling of like, I'm out of the park, but I'm also in the park. I could look at the balcony. Um. Yeah.

[00:45:55] And the rooms that, the rooms that were framed for the apartment are still, were still there. You know, you had this room and that was, you know, presumably somebody's bedroom and the main living area and kitchen and all that stuff. That was one of the, when I start, first started learning about Disneyland as a, you know, then lifelong Walt Disney world visitor. When I heard about the, the dream suite, I'm like, Oh, that sounds cool. Is it in, is it in the castle? No, it's over above pirates.

[00:46:24] Oh, okay. Well, you know, did they just build it? No, it was there as a gallery. That sounds kind of cool. And at, at that time it was, you know, probably around 2010 when I first started learning more about Disneyland and there were people still complaining that it used to be a place where everybody could go. Right.

[00:46:45] Having said that, I do think regardless of my opinion about what Walt would want or what it should be or all of that, I think objectively, and I really mean objectively, I think Disneyland's dream suite has to be given a point because it was built for Walt Disney. Now Eric has to remember which point. I'm so proud. I think I'll miss. There we go. Oh, he is proud. He is proud. Yeah.

[00:47:13] I think that the lore there is just so much richer and deeper and it gets you back to, I'm just thinking like having a conversation with someone who is like new to this being like, Oh yeah, that was Walt Disney. That was going to be Walt Disney's apartment. What are you talking about? Well, the thing about the firehouse. Oh, I didn't know about that. It's just, it's, it's deep, deep lore where the other one is just like, well, I guess we're going to build Roy an apartment. Okay. What do we have next?

[00:47:43] The current state. Current state. Eric. Okay. Well, current state comes back to really a lot of the, it really hasn't changed much since it was, it was open. Appliances have been changed out and everything, but let's get into the design of this place and then I'll walk everybody through it. Let's see here.

[00:48:11] So the original design is that of a 17th century French chateau. It's trying to tie in with the themes of Cinderella castle. And as, as presented by Kathy Carver and Steven Silvestri, who, as I mentioned, were part of the design team. Yep. So, uh, the intent of this space is you are an invited guest of Cinderella.

[00:48:41] There is a backstory for this room, not a huge backstory, but this has been repeated. Oh, thank God there's a backstory. No. Yeah. It's not really a backstory backstory. It's just that you are staying in the home of Cinderella as an invited guest and everything here is something that Cinderella's, you know, people have placed here for a reason.

[00:49:06] So the story of Cinderella is told inside this, uh, this basically hotel room. Uh, and we'll get into some of those design decisions along the way. Uh, but yeah, this. Is there a suggested, uh, like website or resource that I, or a listener should be looking at as you do this or just Google images or. Yeah. Look up images.

[00:49:33] There are some, some of the best framed images are, uh, actually from Disney itself. This was, uh, when, when the room initially opened, Disney did a lot of publicity. Uh, they did, uh, there's an ABC news feature from, uh, 2018. So a little bit more recent.

[00:49:56] So if you look up ABC, um, inside the invitation only Cinderella castle suite, and maybe I should put some of these links in the, in the show notes, but, um, I just did a Google image. Yeah. Just do a regular Google image and you'll see a bunch of different, different ones, but Disney has some very good ones from early on. Uh, you can get them from newspapers at the time or just from the Disney site itself. Uh, let's see here.

[00:50:26] Uh, one of the ones that has more, uh, has better views is actually from an old blog called created works. Created. Um, and this person took some really well framed shots with better care for lighting and, and focus and stuff like that. Uh, they just did a tour.

[00:50:49] They didn't stay there overnight, but, um, you can see a lot of different views of the room and see all of the wood and, um, you know, antique style furniture. Some of which is actually antique as we'll get into. What, what I'm initially seeing, which is kind of unfortunate is they use a fisheye lens on a lot of these and it makes it look really cramped. That's I'm not saying that it is at all, but I'm just saying that that's, that's a weird effect that I'm seeing. Yeah.

[00:51:18] That's Disney tourist blog. Yeah. Uh, that was, um, yeah. What's his name? Um, Tom Bricker who did that one. Tom's have it out for us. Yes. Sorry. Sorry. Uh, but yeah, he took, he took a bunch of stuff. Um, and I think that, that all ended up on, was it on touring plans where he posted that or was it on Disney tourist blog itself? It's on Disney tourist blog. Okay.

[00:51:48] It was on his site. Okay. That makes more sense. But, uh, but yeah, they, yeah, there's those ones keep popping up, but they really do make it look weird and small and cramped. It's, it's around the same size as any of the, the studio places in a DV. DC resort, which is plenty comfortable for two people. There are two queen beds in there. There's another pullout bed. So it can comfortably sleep like five. And we still haven't found out if Donald Duck or any other character will tuck you in at night.

[00:52:17] They won't tuck you in at night, but Cinderella will meet you when you come in. Cause you're her guest. Yes, you are her guest. So she will meet you downstairs in the breezeway, which is behind the entrance for where you take the stairs or elevator up to Cinderella's Royal table. You go down a separate hallway and that's where you access the elevator that takes you upstairs.

[00:52:40] So the, the, uh, the mosaic, the mosaics that are designed by Dorothea Redmond and created by, um, uh, oh gosh, uh, Scherf. Um, great. Now I'm forgetting. Oh yeah. Hans-Joachim Scharf, not Scherf. Uh, the one who actually created the mosaic design based on Dorothea Redmond's drawings.

[00:53:06] Um, those, those images continue down the hallway, uh, where you meet Cinderella and then you head upstairs or head up the elevator to the fourth and a half floor. Um, now I say fourth and a half because as platform nine and three quarters. Yeah, kind of.

[00:53:25] Uh, as Jimmy mentioned, uh, this, this monstrosity of a fiberglass and, and, uh, composite castle doesn't have to necessarily meet the floor plans of, of any real place because it isn't a real place. Um, but you can create a room that's just kind of where it fits and that's what they ended up doing. So it's a little bit higher than the standard fourth floor.

[00:53:55] Uh, you can see the windows from the outside. If you're standing in front of the castle, it's easy to see the windows that are frosted over. They're more interesting on the inside than the outside, but you can actually see the. Can you give me a point of reference if I'm looking at like straight on it? You said frosted windows. Uh, yeah.

[00:54:15] So if you're looking to the right of, uh, so you're, you're standing, you're facing the castle on main street, look to the right. And one of the between two towers, you would think that the room is in a tower, but it's not, it's actually between them. And there is a boxy sort of area. Got it. With some crenellations above it and some tall windows. Got it. Yeah.

[00:54:43] And the, the Royal table is at the gray part, which is delicious. Royal table is on the backside facing the courtyard. Oh, okay. So it looks over fantasy land proper. So dream suite is the boxy part. And then Royal table is on the other side. Right. In what is it's below. Is that what I'm picturing? Right. It's, it's further down.

[00:55:12] It's kind of between like second and third floors. Got it. It's above Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. There's a staircase you can see out behind the building that kind of leads up to where that there's a bunch of stained glass windows. That's where Cinderella's Royal table is. Okay. Okay. Got it. Yeah. And the views from, uh, from the, the castle suite. They seem minimal. What's that? They seem minimal. They are. They are minimal. Yeah. They're designed to not show main street.

[00:55:42] You're looking at the wishing well and kind of the courtyard on one side and then the courtyard on the other side, basically supposed to keep you in more of a fantasy land sort of space and, and keep you within the design of a castle that would have smaller windows, you know, because of attacks or whatever. Okay. Point for Disneyland. Disneyland. You say? Yes. Yes. Because you can watch phantasmic from it or stand on a balcony. No. Okay. Hold on.

[00:56:12] I think somebody just dropped. Okay. I'm so proud. I think all of us. Okay. I just won a dream suite in the middle of the magic kingdom at Disneyland. Oh, cool. That means you get to like experience being in the middle of, of the magic kingdom. No, you just get to look at fancy land. I'm sorry. That's, that's, I understand. You are in her castle. Yeah. They don't want you looking out and seeing all this stuff that goes on at midnight when they're pressure washing.

[00:56:42] Right. People are walking around all night long with cherry pickers cleaning, cleaning stuff. That's the fun. That's, that's, that's, that's why you want, that's why a person might want to stay there. It's, it's, it's, it's, this is a solid theme from beginning to end. This is immersing you in a medieval world. Dan, what show do you think you're listening to? You're going to look here. But I want to look over there. No. How is that any different than the haunted mansion? I was going to say a mansion, Dan.

[00:57:10] Your car to look at one thing. But that's a ride. You're in a ride. This is a ride. This isn't a ride. Ride of your life. This isn't, this isn't. It's got a jacuzzi and everything. It's, it's not even a narrative experiment experience. They're trying to make it one, but they're really forcing it. Are you, are you telling me that you have no interest in what the hell goes on on on main street at the, in the wee hours of the night? You can see that if you go to dinner late enough and you're walking out of the park,

[00:57:38] you can see him cleaning up, hosing down the street. But there aren't any windows on that side of the castle anyway, are there? There could be. Are you aware that you can build a window? I guess. But then people from the street can look in and see you and you're unmentionables. You're hanging your, your bloomers in the window. Okay. Window technology, window technology has made it so that that's not even a thing. Window technology.

[00:58:05] That's I'm just saying that's, it's, it's, it's dumb to limit that experience to be like, okay, well, no, you forgot you. You're living this dream experience. Like, I want to see what the hell's going on over there. I want to look over at the Liberty square entrance. I want to look over at tomorrow land and go, Ooh, look at that. What if I wanted a midnight snack? If you want a midnight snack. Okay. We'll, we'll, we'll get there.

[00:58:32] When we get to the foyer, which is the first place you get to after you take the elevator. If we're. Okay. Okay. How about this? Cinderella's dream, Royal magic suite, which you will pay absolute attention to her dream, or you will not stay there. Gets a point for having a story. That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. That's, that's the real trouble begrudging points.

[00:59:02] People grow up and want to look out windows. They want, yeah, they want to like experience being where they are. I mean, I, am I crazy for this? It's like, I'm in the middle. I'm in this, having this experience. I will never have again. Oh, goody. I get to see, I get to actually experience being in the middle of this themed environment. And then brick wall. Nope. You don't get to experience that. You get to experience this very specific thing. They have two TVs. You can watch Stacy.

[00:59:33] Ooh, not anymore. Not anymore. So sad. In 2008, you could. I bet. You know what they could have done with where they put one of those TVs? Put a window. Put a window. Or they can have a camera mounted to that side of the park. Yeah. Okay. There you go. And you can show it on the video screen. Yes. Yes. I am now more comfortable with that point. The spite point that I gave. My goodness. I'm sorry.

[01:00:02] That's ridiculous. Why did I think I had a chance at winning this? You have a chance. You have a great chance. I'm just saying that that is a stupid design. Okay. It's a free room. Relax. There you go. So is yours. Kind of. Not really. Not anymore. Well, we'll get there. Yeah. Don't worry. Do you want to talk? Eric, don't worry. Don't worry.

[01:00:32] There's lots of places that you can pick it up. Okay. All right. Well, let's see here. The elevator. The elevator has a bunch. It's just an elevator, but it still is gilded. Does it feel like you're going underwater? It does not feel like you're going. Damn it. There are a bunch of bubbles. Everything's a hydrolator. It shakes a little bit. The lights get dim. Even though you're going up to the four and a half floor, it feels like you're going down. Yep.

[01:01:00] Then a few like wispy clouds float by and you're like, wait, are we going underwater? Are we flying? Pick one. Then a lady says she got the bends anyway. Mm-hmm. Says she went weightless. Wonderful Radiohead album. There we go. That's a good one. Yeah. That was good. That's what she claimed to be. And then she was institutionalized.

[01:01:24] Well, then, so inside the elevator, there are a bunch of design elements that look similar to Mary Blair. They are, in fact, a person or her designs. Her designs. Just a bunch of pictures of Mary Blair. Reminiscent of Mary Blair. People that look like Mary Blair. Hi. This makes a little more sense as you emerge from the elevator and you see a bunch of concept art for Cinderella made by Mary Blair.

[01:01:54] So framed concept art around the walls of the room. Now, I know what you're saying. Didn't Ivan Earl do most of the design work for Cinderella? And Jimmy, you would be correct. I'm sorry for interrupting you as you asked that important question. Well, Mary Blair got a crack at some of the designs early on and kind of helped a lot of the color palette directing, which is her forte anyway.

[01:02:21] It's good that they made it up to her after what they did to the small world. Yeah. Yeah. Nah, it's Rollie's now. He's like, I'm so sorry, but I need this. We're going to put your ride inside. We're going to put it in a strip mall. But you know what? You get to do the elevator. Oh, gosh. Well, yeah.

[01:02:47] Yeah, so there have been some bits of artwork that have been identified through pictures of people on tour and some of the official photos from Disney. They've been verified by the Walt Disney Family Museum as Mary's artwork for real, including one of Cinderella's coach and horses at night. One of the many designs of the coach before it became a pumpkin.

[01:03:15] Cinderella costume study to blue and white dress designs. And several other. What goes on? What goes down at midnight? Because if I'm not able to look at Main Street, they better have some shit happen at midnight. Well, this is this is the foyer. So you don't want to hang out in the foyer because there's a there's a cast member there 24 seven as a concierge. Can you hang out with them? You write them up.

[01:03:44] You like, yeah, the kids are driving me nuts. Does Donald Duck tuck them in? Well, they dress up as Donald Duck. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that is a good point, though, Dan. Something should happen at midnight. Like the room should change. Yeah, if they're if they're going to be so hyper focused on theming that I can't see anything else that they put like that they put blinders on me when you walk in and like, no, you're going to look over here. Stupid. Oh, something needs to happen at midnight.

[01:04:13] Dan, do you want to know why nothing happens at midnight? It turns into a motel sex. That's so awesome. They open up the vents and it's just cigarette smoke blowing out at you. Stale cigarette smoke from the 60s. OK, sorry, you're saying that nothing happens at midnight. But here's why nothing happens at midnight, Dan. Why? You're going to you're going to love this one, Dan. Oh, boy. I don't believe you.

[01:04:42] Because there is a grandfather clock in the foyer, an antique grandfather clock, and its hands are permanently stopped at one minute to midnight because the magic will never end. Never end. So it's like a damn casino. No, because there are windows. Fair enough. True. Better than a casino, Dan. Oh, gosh.

[01:05:10] Well, let's see some other design characteristics in this place. Growing up very poor and in a neglectful environment really does things to a person's like. Are you talking about Cinderella? Yeah. OK. I'm saying she had all the clocks fixed. Right. We're just not whining them anymore. Because she. I don't want any midnight. No midnight in my kingdom. Totally. Gosh. Let's see.

[01:05:39] So there are mosaics in more mosaics in the space here. 30,000 tiles make up a large one that is of the coach as a pumpkin. Many of these tiles, just like the ones downstairs, are backed with 24 karat gold and white gold. In the.

[01:06:03] In the mosaic itself, there's a tiny glass slipper that was specially made to fit into the mosaic. Tiny glass slipper. Can you try it on? What's that? Can you try it on? You could try, but you probably can't fit it on a foot because it's tiny. Because Cinderella's feet were tiny. Tiny. Well, and it's also part of a wall display that is tiny. Well, not tiny. It's big. But all the you know how big a mosaic tile is.

[01:06:33] Anyway. What you're saying is that it's very large, but we're calling it tiny the way someone. My goodness. So people refer to as a very large character in movies is tiny. Ironically and insultingly. Okay. Right. This is a around the room is furniture from around the world that should be around the same time period in the 17th century. The all of the furniture has pumpkin and wildlife themes because.

[01:07:04] That's that's the way we go with this stuff. But but yeah, the thinking is the royal family would have more than just French furniture from their travels. They would, you know, outfit this room for their guests with some of the things they've picked up from traveling around the world. The room is octagonal. The reason there is a foyer is to kind of create a space.

[01:07:29] So you step off the elevator and you're not inside a hotel room gives you a space to kind of decompress. And that's where the cast member can hang out and, you know, attend to some of your whims and give you the feeling that you're inside one of those big, you know, circular towers. So as I mentioned, 24 hour concierge. The 24 hour concierge can get you some limited food.

[01:07:57] It is encouraged for you to bring your own snacks and drinks. There is a refrigerator in the room that we'll get to. There is. What's that? Is there a microwave? Probably. All of the things are hidden. Just like Main Street. Yes. Just like Main Street. Thank you, Dan. But the concierge can get you things within reason.

[01:08:20] I read one post where somebody had a custom Cinderella cake made for them and it was brought to the room. So not insignificant amounts of money, but you can't have things that you shouldn't have in the park. So they're not going to go get you booze. They're not going to go get you a sniper rifle. Damn it. They can get you some food in the middle of the night. What use is there staying in a high up place if you're not going to get a sniper rifle?

[01:08:48] It's not even that high up, but yeah, that's true. I mean, you can't see Main Street anyway. True. But yeah, you can get food and everything. The concierge is also there to help enforce the rule that you have a curfew. Based on when the park closes, you are required to be in the room before the last guests leave the park. And you are not allowed to leave the room until the first guests the next day have been allowed into the park.

[01:09:18] What a magical prize. Yes. You're not basically they don't want you wandering around Main Street bothering all the people hosing the street down. Yeah, I know that that that would be the real Walt experience. They're just walking around in your robe. Hey, give me some orange juice. Okay. And there are I'm trying to look at the map and let's see sunsets in the okay, so you're not seeing any sweet.

[01:09:47] You can see sun rise. You can't see sunset. Okay, so that's kind of cool. Yeah, just based on where things happen. Right. All right. Anything else about this monstrosity before we move on to the other one? Do you want to move on to the do we want to split up rooms just so we let's split up rooms? I think I think if we don't get Jimmy talking, he might fall asleep.

[01:10:15] So somebody go poke Jimmy with a stick. Anyway. Oh, I just before I forget question for you, Eric. How do you find out that you have won this thing? Well, we'll get there. I guess we haven't talked about the X accessibility yet, but do we do? Do you want to save that? Because that it's up to you guys. I'm curious about that, though.

[01:10:41] I would presume it's based on how you were eligible for it. I mean, if you're if you're one of the few famous people that have stayed there, they probably just tell your agent. I don't know if you're Neil Patrick Harris. They probably just call you. So just a normal a normal guest can no longer just like win it. Normal guests can win it. They still have sweepstakes going on.

[01:11:08] Okay, so you have to enter a sweepstakes and then you would find out through that. Yeah, it's not just like, hey, guess what? You won this cool thing. Yeah, it's usually something that Disney has set up with one of their official partners for a sweepstakes. And we got it. Okay. Yeah. One of the prizes will be usually it seems to be four nights at the Poly or Grand Floridian or another deluxe resort and one night in the castle suite. So someone shows up to your house with like a giant check. So, okay.

[01:11:38] A giant magic band. Right. All right. Derek, are you done with your portion or just taking a break so I can say words? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Say words. Tell us about, I mean, you've got more rooms than I've got to talk about. So the reports on the exact square footage of the dream suite vary slightly between roughly 2,200 and 2,600 square feet.

[01:12:07] But either way, it is a genuinely large apartment, not a hotel room. The layout is as follows. So there's a living room and a balcony. There's a fireworks fireplace. The living room fireplace has a special effect that makes the logs look and sound like they're sparkling with mini fireworks. There are initials on the railing.

[01:12:32] The private outdoor balcony overlooks the rivers of America, not fantasy land. Mm-hmm. Gold letters on the railing. If you wanted to look other places, like if I wanted to look over into, say, Tiana's Bayou Adventure area. It just doesn't go all the way over there. Right. But if I wanted to turn my head in that direction, would a concierge slap my face or they would allow it? Get back inside. What about Frontierland? Can I see Frontierland from this themed environment? You can. Okay.

[01:13:00] Do I have to pretend that I am Walt Disney or a guest of Walt Disney's? And will he come greet me and hug me and kiss me? There are gold letters on the railing that spell out the initials of Walt and Roy. The Bayou Patio, in addition to the balcony, on the patio. Oh, by the way, if it please the court, I sent a link in the chat that shows pictures so you don't have to envision it.

[01:13:23] Are there sound machines going so that when the Mark Twain whistle goes, it is muffled so I don't hear the non-themed? And the thing that doesn't relate directly to the theme in which I'm staying? Something like that. On the patio, though, the open-air patio feels like a New Orleans bayou. Tiny lights move on wires at night to look like real fireflies. Hmm. Then there's a family crest fountain.

[01:13:51] It's hand-picked fountain in the courtyard that features the official Disney family crest. And then there's the Adventureland master bedroom. Mind you, there are two master bedrooms. There's the glowing mermaids. The Victorian-style room features an art piece above the bed that lights up to show hidden mermaids in the lagoon. And pressing a button in the master bathroom dims the lights, plays classical music, and lights up 1,800 stars on the ceiling above the whirlpool tub.

[01:14:19] That's a fancy poo that you could do in there. Then there's a Frontierland kids' room. I mean, if you wanted to, you could, I guess. I suppose. The Frontierland kids' room, there's a magic toy train. At night, a toy train runs on a track near the ceiling and brings the room's toys to life as it passes. There's a hidden TV mirror. It's a large mirror on the wall. Turns into a television screen when you turn it on. Can I watch Stacey on that? Let's watch Stacey. Black light art. Framed concept art on the wall.

[01:14:50] Changes appearance and shows park lit up at night when the lights go down. So, yeah. There's a lot of fun factoids. Curfew. Do I have a curfew? You must. Probably the same, right? Yeah, it's the same. Concierge. Concierge? Do I get, will they go and get any, like, candy and stuff? Well, see, here's the thing. I stopped looking because you can no longer stay here. Oh, that is important. This was the original.

[01:15:19] Do we want to move, do we want to get back to Cinderella where one person could feasibly stay? And then talk about why that? But before we do, just real quick. Today, there's two bathrooms, two masters, et cetera, et cetera. You can watch Fantasmic. Good. Good. From there, et cetera. The space today is publicly known as 21 Royal, and it functions primarily as an extraordinary, exclusive private dining experience rather than a bookable hotel room.

[01:15:50] Oh, so you couldn't even stay there as a hotel? Like, not even if I was Dick Van Dyke or somebody? You can if you're Dick Van Dyke. If you're a Disney legend. But this is not, like, you can't win it. You can't buy it. It's something that Disney gives to fancy guests. Could someone buy the dining experience? Yes, they could, and we will speak about it later. Okay. Literally anyone could do it. Uh-huh.

[01:16:16] Which means anyone could access the suite because it's part of the dining experience. Anyone, meaning anyone with a certain amount of money. Yes, that's correct. Although, you know. But in theory. In theory, anybody could get a credit card or, you know, whatever it is. Or it could, it's up to, well, we'll get to it if you want to wait till Eric does his thing. So, yeah, let's get to accessibility as our last part.

[01:16:42] Eric, what did, what have we missed with Cinderella's royal sweet table? Sweet table. Well, I'll accelerate, I suppose, since we are an hour in at this point. Plus. Yeah. All right, so now we go inside the space itself. The royal bedchamber is two queen-size beds with canopies.

[01:17:09] The headboards are eight feet, two inches tall and bear the crest of Cinderella. There is custom woodwork everywhere made out of mahogany and maple, including the ceiling that has very interesting decorative woodwork. There is an authentic 17th century Dutch secretary. That's the desk, not the person. You know, that style of desk that you fold out and, yeah. There are. Secretary.

[01:17:39] Right, right. That's where the secretary would go if you had a secretary. Right, yes. Inside the desk. That's where you go because it's named after you. Right. Okay. There are panels that hide all of the modern amenities. There's kind of a decorative box that's over the clock radio in the old days, and they probably have, you know, USB charging ports underneath it now. So not mice on treadmills? No, no. Okay.

[01:18:09] No, definitely not. Behind other panels, there's the room sound system, the refrigerator and microwave. And, yeah, that's, let's see, that's around the entire place. That's not all necessarily in the bedchamber.

[01:18:29] But, yeah, over the fireplace, which is a fiber optic lit fireplace, is a painting of Cinderella. However, when you press a button, it turns into a TV. It's just one of those painting TVs.

[01:18:50] So you can, like I said, you can turn on your Stacey if it's 2008 or turn on ESPN if it's not, if it's modern day. But, yeah, it's a nice touch. You don't have to always be staring at just a blank TV across the room. You could. You could, yes, yes.

[01:19:13] Then you can head into the sitting room, which has a high ceiling, high vaulted ceiling, hand-carved wooden furniture and paneling. The windows are stained glass and crystal and depict the Cinderella story. These are the windows, I believe, that you can see from the street that are frosted. A magical mirror, not the magic mirror from Snow White, is another TV. So it's a mirror that turns into a television when you operate it.

[01:19:41] But this is where the electronics and fridge are and everything. It's another nice room. There are a lot of little touches around old books of fairy tales and other things that Cinderella has put in there for you to look at and hopefully not destroy. The bathroom is a full bathroom. It is a grotto design. So there is a large 4x4 foot whirlpool tub that is the main feature in the bathroom.

[01:20:11] It has colored lights. It has a waterfall spout and many jets. So you can sit in there and relax. Surrounded by more mosaics. There is 30,000 more pieces of glass. The view of the castle itself is on the back wall with a little nice path walking up to it that does not have Main Street on it because you can't see Main Street. It doesn't exist. And there are woodland scenes on either side.

[01:20:37] They're hidden amongst the mosaics are a glass slipper, a crystal pumpkin, a mouse, and Walt's initials. I'm guessing the mouse is not a living mouse. No, no. It is a mouse cut out of glass. The grotto, I'm looking at the grotto whirlpool thing and it has a lighting package that is really creepy and I like that. Yeah, you could change it to like anything. Make the whole room kind of green. Yeah. But yeah, I suppose that's another thing.

[01:21:07] There is lighting throughout where you can change the standard room lighting to a dim candlelight for most of the fixtures. So there is a kind of a room package for lighting. Let's see here. The sinks are hand hammered copper with silver leaf. They're those kind of fancy looking sinks that look like they're kind of bowls perched on top of the counter. There's a canopy over the toilet.

[01:21:35] So it's very much like an actual throne, just a toilet with a little pocket door that slides shut. So you've got some privacy. And the shower room off to the side is curtained. There's a regular shower curtain on the inside to keep the water from going out. And then there are nice curtains on the outside that make it look fancy. And there's, you know, shower heads in there, like overhead. It's boxy. Yeah. It's a boxy toilet. It's an old-timey toilet.

[01:22:04] Yeah, it's definitely an older toilet. I haven't seen too many toilets that look like that. No, I mean, it looks like a medieval, like, toilet. Wasn't that just like a hole? Well, no, but I mean, like, it looks like they actually themed up. You know what? Point for the toilet. Oh, hey. That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. So, unique toilet situation. Yeah.

[01:22:33] I mean, they didn't have to do that. That's true. That is true. It could have just been a regular, like, Moen or Bear or whatever toilet brand. By the way, toilet brands, we are looking for a new sponsor. Now that Single Writers has no longer become a thing, reach out to us, Jason at airtoppy from podcast.com. Sounds good to me. Yeah. Well, that is the rest of the space.

[01:23:00] Like I said, this is more the size of a studio room at your average place. But, you know, the design really kind of drives it home. The place was made to, like I said earlier, make you feel like you're part of the Cinderella story. They don't want you to.

[01:23:24] So, there are four design criteria laid out by Kathy in a D23 event. Well, sorry. Incorrect. According to Gary Landrum, who is a show documentation specialist with Disney, who is involved in the design of this, he had an event in 2011 at a D23 thing called Magic and Merriment.

[01:23:53] Jimmy, do you remember seeing anything about Magic and Merriment? No, I did not. It was a hard ticket event for D23 people only. It would sell out within seconds each year. They only did it for a few years. And apparently, it was like a two or three day thing depending on the year. And there would be a lot of little sessions where, kind of breakout sessions where they, Imagineers would talk through design of places and rides and everything.

[01:24:21] And one of the culminating events of this would be on the last day, you could take a tour of the castle suite. Which only lasted, like, depending on the year, between like five and 15 minutes. But in this presentation, Gary Landrum says that the four design criteria for the room, they never wanted guests to lose sight that they're in the castle.

[01:24:48] They wanted to project opulence in the time period of around Louis XIV. So, tapestries, fabrics, bed canopies, all of that. Put in some of the modern amenities of a Disney resort without breaking the visual literacy of the story. And then tell the story of the Cinderella royal family through mosaics and paintings and stained glass windows and that sort of thing. So, Cinderella likes her guests to know where she came from. Okay, let's be fair.

[01:25:18] If we were really talking about where she came from, there'd be nasty sisters, like, insulting you the whole time. I guess they stick to the romantic parts, yeah. If your family has nasty sisters. Yeah. It's true. There you go. That's the place. Looking at this picture, and this is going to sound really dumb. It does look like you're staying in a castle. I mean, like, they've...

[01:25:47] Say what you will about the window situation and about... Say what you will. And you have. And... It also... So, my initial thought was, looking at these pictures, it kind of feels like... And I don't mean this as a negative. Feels like a cruise ship. Sort of... Hmm. Like that... Not... Like... A very well-themed cruise ship stateroom. You know? Where it's like... And I think it's that, like, lack of... Of... Uh...

[01:26:15] Windows where you can see outside at all. Again, I'm not saying anything of this as a negative. It's just sort of looking at this. Well, in the space. What's that? In kind of the space, I would imagine, too, is... Yeah, I think probably... We think now it should be huge, right? Yeah, ironically enough, this one is the small one. But I don't think that's... That's not really a point problem. Um... It's just... Finally, something in Disneyland is bigger. Right?

[01:26:46] Um... It is interesting, though, because that also feels like... Like chamber-ish. Because you're... You know, you're in a castle. I don't know. Everything I just said... Yeah. ...might have been very stupid. But I just... No, no. I agree. It's... It does seem more fitting to the theme. Mm-hmm. I mean, you're not... You're not the king and queen. You're... You're guests. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think... Right. I think that's where I...

[01:27:12] The piece that I wasn't landing on is... It's true. It's not you are king and queen. You're... You're guest of king and queen. And that is probably... Yeah. And that... Architecturally and design-wise, that is communicated. Um... Okay. Jimmy? Go for it. Uh... Oh, hey. What do you got? Well, I'm gonna have to repeat something because it's been so stinking long since I've talked about the...

[01:27:42] Today, the space is known publicly as 21 Royal. Right. And it functions primarily as an extraordinary exclusive private dining experience rather than a bookable hotel. Okay. Here's the catch. And it's what... It's... It's the part... Okay. And it's part of what makes this room so legendary. You can't just book a night in the dream suite. Overnight stays ended around 2016. Like I mentioned before.

[01:28:06] And today, they've reserved almost entirely for Disney legends, celebrities, and VIP invites. Uh-huh. Dick Van Dyke, for example, like you mentioned before, was reportedly given a night there on his birthday. What you can do is book 21 Royal, the private dinner experience now hosted inside the suite. Here's what that looks like. So, first of all, Dan, I put links in the chat.

[01:28:33] Maybe, Eric, you can share them in the show notes. How are you looking at it? Reservations are made by phone through Disney's concierge line. There's no online booking system. You have to call. And there's a website, 21royaldisneyland.com. Something like that. 21 Royal. I'm noticing no price. 21royaldisneyland.com. I'll get there. So, the experience accommodates up to 12 guests for a seven-course dinner prepared by

[01:29:01] a dedicated culinary team served on gold-plated dinnerware in the suite's dining room. Guests are picked up and valeted at the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, escorted into the park, greeted with cocktails from professional butlers, given a tour of the suite, and finished the night with dessert on the private balcony. The price has climbed over the years and now runs somewhere in the range of $15,000 to

[01:29:25] $18,000 for the table, which works out to roughly $1,250 to $1,500 a person for a party of 12. And that price includes park admission, valet, tax, and gratuity. So, to actually set foot in the dream suite today, you're not paying for a bed. You're paying for one of the rarest Disney dinner reservations on earth. So, what I was kind of intimating before, Dan, is that kind of anybody could do it.

[01:29:55] So, you think about $1,250, or let's say, worst case, $1,500 a person. That's your park ticket. That's the seven-course dinner, valet, cocktails, tax, gratuity, everything. So, we could... You're covered. Yeah. We could do it. You know, anybody could technically do it for... If you can get 12 people to spend $1,500. And then you can tour the suite. And it's open to, quote-unquote, anybody. Okay.

[01:30:22] Does that include lightning for the day? What's that? Does that include lightning for the day? It doesn't say anywhere, but it probably does. Yeah. Okay. So, let me continue. New Orleans Square opened to the public on July 24th, 1966, just over seven months after Walt's death. And it's often called the last land Walt personally worked on before he died. What makes the dream suite so powerful within the land... Sorry, I'm doing land impact now, by the way. That's fair enough.

[01:30:54] So, what makes the dream suite so powerful within the land is it's precisely that it's not obvious. Unlike a lot of Disneyland's greater set pieces, 21 Royal doesn't announce itself. It's tucked above Pirates of the Caribbean, marked only by a discreet plaque on Royal Street, easy to walk right past without even noticing it's there. That's the point. New Orleans Square was designed to feel like a real, lived-in French Quarter neighborhood with second-story balconies, wrought iron, shuttered windows, and doorways that suggest people actually live above the shops.

[01:31:25] The dream suite is one place in the entire park where that illusion is completely true. It isn't a facade with a plywood backing. It's real, furnished, functioning, resident sitting exactly where the architecture implies one should be. Every other apartment window in Disneyland is empty space behind a painted shutter. This one has a marble fireplace and a crystal chandelier. That single fact adds a layer of mystery and authenticity to New Orleans Square that no other

[01:31:54] land in the park can claim. Guests are, quite literally, walking underneath a piece of lived history, lived Disney history, every time they ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Okay, I'm going in a direction that I didn't expect to go in here. Um, so in a way, an air... He gave up. No, no. No, that's not what I want. I... Because I could be swayed. I can still be swayed. But where I'm going with this is...

[01:32:23] This is weirdly a return to the original intent. Because they are entertaining VIPs there. Mm-hmm. And you yourself could pay to be a VIP. You could be a Disney VIP. Um... He's back. I'm back. I... Because... What Dan is saying is that, you know, it's living up to its original intent. Where, you know, it was meant to be bigger to host VIPs and that thing.

[01:32:53] And that's what it's doing today. Okay. You could be one of those VIPs. I don't love that it's as expensive as it is. But I think it needs to be. Mm-hmm. Because otherwise, it's just going to be, you know... It's just going to be a... You're going to see a bunch of weird, like, balloons bobbing on that balcony all the time. Um... I think... The price point is... You could conceivably get enough people together.

[01:33:23] And it's not... It's a ridiculous price point. But not so ridiculous that it's, like, impossible. Yeah. Um... I mean, I realize I'm saying that as somebody with, you know, expendable income. But not a lot, but enough. Um... A person could conceivably make this, like, a bucket list experience of a lifetime thing. Mm-hmm.

[01:33:52] But, I mean, they could for the Dream Suite as well. But there's more chance involved. Um... Okay. Could Eric... Could you just spend money to stay in the Dream Suite? Sure. No, you couldn't. But it's all up to... A chance for the most part. Mm-hmm. Um... And I bet the food's damn good. Mm-hmm. Seven courses, baby. And from what I understand, they cater the courses to the, like, tastes and allergies of the people. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:34:21] It's kind of similar to, um, Victorian Alberts in that way. Got it. Um... Eric, talk me away from this... This wall that I'm... This precipice here. Walking towards. Yeah. All right. We'll start out with availability like Jimmy did. Like we've mentioned, this is mostly limited to sweepstakes these days. There have been reports of people that... I think you mean sweepstakes? Yeah.

[01:34:48] There have been reports of people that have approached Disney offering giant sums of money. Excuse me. Giant sums of money. And Disney has said no. Now, that's stated they have invited some celebrities to stay there. Uh... Neil Patrick Harris is one that always seems to come up, but he's one of there. And, of course, John Stamos, I'm sure. Oh, I'm sure. Yes. And Dick Van Dyke. Mm-hmm. Um... Oh, that was birthday. Yeah. Jeffrey Jones. Yep.

[01:35:18] Another... Another legend. Beat me to it. And, uh... Yeah. So they do invite some people to stay there. It's always only one night. And that's pretty much it. You know, you don't get a whole lot of time in this space. It's... And to be fair, you don't get a whole lot of time in the other Dream Suite. True. If you purchase that. Yeah. Yeah. It's several hours. You're going to go there for food. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, so the, you know, the most recent sweepstakes that...

[01:35:48] Sweepstakes. Thank you. If you look it up, it's Give Kids the World Village. And it's their Royal Dreams Come True sweepstakes. The prize is, as I mentioned before, one night in the suite for up to four people. Breakfast at the Royal Table. Two nights at a Disney Deluxe Resort. Okay, so a little less than some. Um... Uh, three-day park hopper tickets. A $500 Disney gift card.

[01:36:17] And round trip airfare. So that's fun. So it sounds like different charities could potentially... Mm-hmm. ...host, like, sweepstakes where you... Probably just Give Kids the World, though. So what if you live in Orlando? Did they make you fly somewhere so that you could fly back? No. No, it's round trip, so you have to drive to Boston and then fly down. And then fly back to Boston and then you have to drive home. Yeah. Wait, what? Are you serious?

[01:36:47] No. It said airfares included. I said, what if you live in Orlando? And that's where that... Oh, you gypped. Okay. Sorry. I'm looking at the... So Give Kids the World, is that a Disney charity? I don't believe so. It's not. Hold on. Yeah. It's another charity that partners with Disney. Yeah. Like the... What's the big famous one? Make-A-Wish. Oh, yeah.

[01:37:14] So what you're telling me is that if I don't give this one the win, then I'm being a terrible person. Not necessarily. Yeah. No. You're basically saying if you have money, you're better. Now, during the year of a million dreams, they were giving away one package a day, reportedly. That's what I was remembering. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So at that time when it was brand new, it was filled up constantly.

[01:37:39] And this was the package I mentioned where it was five total days. So five-day park hoppers, four days at Disney Deluxe, and then one day at the castle. So that has changed. I'm sure, like you said, Dan, it depends on what the charity is and how much Disney's looking to pony up for things. But there have been other opportunities for tours. So bigwigs can tour the suite but not necessarily stay there.

[01:38:07] So if you get a very special VIP tour, some, you know, not the VIP tour that I was on, but like higher up VIP tours, you can get access to the castle suite for a few minutes and wander around. As I mentioned, there have been other events where, in this case, D23 members could sign up and get a tour of the space.

[01:38:34] So they're, you know, kind of traipsing hundreds of people through the space 10 minutes at a time. And that's kind of cool that that three-day event in 2011 cost about $280 per person. So it's still a pretty, you know, you're paying for it. But they do let people go on it. And they still... I'm looking at some of the other sweepstakes. It's not always charity.

[01:39:03] We also have a DVC sweepstakes. Sorry, sweepstakes. Tourist blog. Okay. So it's not... Sorry. Go ahead, Jimmy. Do you have a land impact, Eric? I do. Yes. Okay. And we can wrap it up because Jimmy apparently wants to go. Yeah. Let's see where you go with this. All right. Land impact. From a certain point of view, there is no land impact. Thank you. Yeah, because you can't.

[01:39:33] Because you can't see it. Right. From the windows. Until you hear this place exists, one has to wonder what's inside a giant castle at the end of a turn-of-the-century Main Street. And it's almost reductive to say an expensive restaurant and a place to get your kids' hair done. Or I hear the dancers get dressed up there. But something just seems right when there's... When you learn there's an incredibly rare hotel room inside.

[01:39:59] If the story behind this space is that you're staying as a guest of the Cinderella's, I don't know their last name really, then this gigantic castle really is her home. So it stands to reason that she might invite guests over. Now, there's a... When it comes down to the physical space itself, this is a place that is a public space for most of the day, not the room. Hold on. I just had a thought. Okay. If they really wanted to...

[01:40:28] Because you're a guest in their home, presumably Cinderella and her prince are next door. They like piped in. Squeaky. Like those squeaky bed noises and stuff. Them shouting at each other. It's just the mice making squeaky sounds. That's Jimmy. Sorry. That's tricky. Sorry. Okay. Here's one thing I'm noticing, though.

[01:40:57] No real fairy godmother presents. Oh, my God. Would you like to have a fairy... There's a magic wand next door. I don't know. Have you seen the in-parks fairy godmother? Do you really want her to show up and... Yeah. Yeah. Maybe then she'll pitch. The person wearing the giant plastic mask. By the way, do you have any idea how it feels to be snubbed by the fairy godmother in Disneyland?

[01:41:28] Probably can't see you. I'm looking over at her. I'm just like, oh, surely the fairy godmother is going to say like, oh, hello. But nope. Oh, you had a face character? Yeah. Oh. Because, you know, I have a thing with the characters. They just think I'm a lost dad. Just like, yeah, he doesn't want interaction. Like, no. Like, give me some of that magic. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Here's where I'm landing on this.

[01:41:57] Haven't done a closing statement either. Yeah. Okay. Closing statement. Eric, that was your land impact? That was my land impact. Yes. Mine, Dan, was, as you know, that it is in the land and part of the land and doing what it's supposed to do. Right. All right. Eric, your closing argument. Should I take the less dramatic approach just to get Jimmy out of here? No, I'm going full drama. Oh, you're going full drama. Oh, okay. Oh, because you're going to do your closing argument after mine. Okay. I guess that's the other one. Yeah. All right.

[01:42:26] Well, then we'll, you know, strap in everybody. Okay. I really would love it if you played Golden Dreams while you did this. Okay. But you don't have to. I'm just saying. I think it's something that we should all embrace because it's really wonderful. Okay. I have. Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll see. Okay. We'll see how this goes. Okay. Where did you sleep last night? Here we go.

[01:42:52] Listeners, your honor, my esteemed fellow podcast hosts, where did you sleep last night? Walt Disney World has within its gargantuan weenie of, of the park, a magical location where so few among us. Gargantuan weenie? Yes. Nice. That's what I thought. That's a point. That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. Great. Now this unrehearsed thing has been totally thrown. That's even better.

[01:43:23] You can start it again if you want. Yeah. That's, that's okay. Walt Disney World has within its gargantuan weenie a magical location where so few among us have been allowed to enter. So few have been allowed to sleep in. We're children. My goodness. See? The Cinderella Castle Suite is, in a word, enticing. Once you know this room exists, you long to go there even if you just want to see it in person for a few moments.

[01:43:51] Yes, it has a somewhat similar origin to Disneyland's version. And yes, the Disneyland version might have a few more bits of, of, of glitz and glam, more special effects. But let me tell you. The Cinderella Castle Suite. The Cinderella Castle Suite.

[01:44:17] The Castle Suite accomplishes its new remission of allowing a select few to experience the park with its own magic. Gorgeous design elements. Create a movie, moody medieval space with plenty of nods for the big Disney nerds.

[01:44:39] For my part, an intimate atmosphere with well-thought-out design elements located in one of the most iconic locations in the world accomplishes its purpose in every way it intended. So where did you sleep last night? You better believe. I wish I could say it was inside Cinderella Castle. A gargantuan weenie. Sorry. Yeah, I had more of it. There we go.

[01:45:09] Jimmy, your turn. Okay, great. Tell me when I hit it. All right, go ahead. So let's lay the two side by side, shall we? The Cinderella Castle Suite is beautiful, no question. It's a 650 square foot royal bed chamber with a 30,000 tile mosaic floor finished in 2006, specifically to be a giveaway prize for the Year of a Million Dreams. It's a wonderful piece of theming. But that's largely what it is.

[01:45:36] A themed hotel room built for a marketing promotion, decorated to look like history rather than actually holding any. The Disneyland Dream Suite is the opposite. It was Walt's real personal architectural project, designed with the woman who built sets for Gone with the Wind, decorated by his own wife and left unfinished by his actual death rather than scheduling gap between a park that opened without him.

[01:46:04] It then spent two decades as a genuine museum of original Disneyland concept art from legends like Herb Ryman, the man who helped save Disneyland from never being built at all. It sits inside New Orleans Square, arguably Walt's last great contribution to the park. And it makes the illusion of the land, of that land, completely real in a way nothing else does. And even today, you can't simply pay to sleep there.

[01:46:31] You're paying five figures just to sit inside for an evening because Walt Disney still treats it as something closer to sacred ground than a hotel room. Cinderella Suite is a fully fairy tale built for food. I'm joking.

[01:47:03] Was the Castle Dream Suite actually built for the Million Dream thing? Yes. They both were. Yeah, that was the point was to take the space that was basically a dressing room at that point and to create this space as part of the Year of a Million Dreams project. Okay. So they just kind of had the space. Yeah.

[01:47:33] And they're like, okay, let's do this. Hey, it would be really cool if we took this place that was supposed to be an apartment and we made it a room and made a big deal out of it. And that's why they did all of these television appearances and newspapers and interviews and things like that to really push the idea. Hey, everybody has a chance to it's like some of the Disneyland sweepstakes that they used to do where everybody's got a shot to win something here. And wouldn't you know what? This is one of the rarest things you could possibly win. Okay.

[01:48:01] I might have missed that while I was looking up a connection between Stephen and Alan Silvestri or something. Because that actually makes this a lot easier for me. I was feeling bad. Like I really. Disney World needs more wins on this show to make it feel more.

[01:48:28] I mean, I feel like we are being even handed on the show. That's that's the crazy thing is that Disneyland keeps winning and I keep wanting to edge towards Disney World if it's fair and if it makes sense. And I. I realize the quote character that I play on this show, which isn't a real character, but you two know what I mean. The listener might not. They might actually think I'm playing a character here, which I am. Of course, the real Dan loves the Beatles.

[01:48:58] I. And I totally understand why someone would have that feeling because I can't. The Disneyland Dream Suite. It's a it's a thing that has existed that has always existed. That. That. Actually adds to the space. As a story. I think it's.

[01:49:28] It's better. And especially when given. That piece that it was just this unfinished thing. That they turned into a thing for sweepstakes. I. It makes it less less special, even though it is very special. And, you know, all of that. I think it has to go to Disneyland's Dream Suite. I think so, too. And I.

[01:49:58] I disagree. No. Well, share. Share your disagreement. Talk me out. Talk me out of this. I. Because if I could come up with a way to legitimately give the win to Magic Kingdom, I. I would. I'll even take away the spite point. Like. Like. You know, I would love for. I would love. Selfishly. I would love for the listener.

[01:50:27] Any listener that's just like, oh, yeah. Dan's, of course, going to edge towards Disneyland because that's just what he does and who he is. I would love to prove that person wrong. But I'm not going to do that just for like. For. For theater. You know. Right. Right. Well, I'm not sure. I. I really don't know how you necessarily feel about this. I mean, my. I. Like I said, I.

[01:50:53] When I started learning about the Disneyland Dream Suite, there was still a little bit of that ire of people saying, hey, I used to. I used to be able to go in here and now I hear they made it look even cooler. Right. And they did all this cool stuff in here and now nobody can go there. And. But now people. Not true. 15 years later. Well, then they, you know. Yeah. They're they're worth ways that you could get in there, but it's still a very limited way to get in.

[01:51:21] And 15 years later, you can now spend a bunch of money and eat dinner there and watch a fantastic from there. Free. But you also get a full experience. It's not just like, hey, here's here's some pans from Buka to Beppo down the street. Like it's, you know, like it's it's I get what you're saying, but it's not. I mean, fifteen hundred dollars. I. I'm just saying if I can afford it, a lot of people can afford it.

[01:51:51] Right. I mean, it wouldn't it wouldn't be nothing for me. It would be significant. But and listener, if you're listening to this and just be like you jackal. What do you know? Like I understand fifteen hundred dollars is. A significant amount of money. What I'm trying to point out is that it's doable.

[01:52:14] If you a person could save for like maybe three years or so to finally do this thing. And I feel like it probably pays off. True. And you do get to explore the space. Yeah. And you get to. I mean, you're entered. You're being entertained while you're there. Give you a cocktail when you walk in after your valet. Let's let's call it what it is. You get servants. That's awesome. Yeah.

[01:52:40] And I guess in some ways that is the point of the space is Walt wanted to entertain guests there, even though it's an apartment. It was like a bigger club. Thirty three. He still is. Oh, the ghost will follow you. But I mean, the Cinderella Castle suite is. Also fulfilling a mission. Yes. The original.

[01:53:07] I guess Roy should have an apartment here sort of thing went away pretty quickly. But after lying. Around for three years, it's still it's still being used for its new purpose of. This is a this is part of the story. This is part of the fabric of this castle. It adds to some of the realism of a cartoon, you know, an old fairy tale that a bunch of people know about.

[01:53:38] And here's your chance to be in it and see things. If you're a Disney nerd, you can look around and go, wow, original Mary Blair art. And if you're not a Disney nerd, you can go, wow, I got into one of the places that no one gets to sleep in. I actually get to stay here overnight. I get to spend hours here. I think where I go with it is. I'm trying on the idea of if they had made it more like the actual apartment that they were going to build for Roy.

[01:54:07] That would be more interesting to me. Especially because Roy doesn't really get enough recognition. True. I'm a huge Roy fan. Like in life, I'm, you know, you're you're a Walt or a Roy. I'm most I'm probably a Walt. But like, I think Roy's really underappreciated.

[01:54:28] And I honestly, I feel like that could be part of what's lingering in the background of my sort of attitude here is that I would have. I think it would be really cool and a completely different conversation if it was kept with that purpose. I mean, we're doing this like it's a freaking haunted mansion people. We are. It is.

[01:54:59] And I think that honestly, that makes me feel even better about giving it to Disneyland. As it stands now, it's just kind of an extra. It's a very cool thing. I'm not trying to diminish it. And if but it's just kind of this. Thing where they're like, oh, we have this extra space. What if we did this thing? And the thing they did is cool. But the lore is sort of like they didn't they didn't build on the lore when the lore was there to be built on.

[01:55:29] Instead, it was just like, let's do some overimagined garbage. I'm glad you said that, Dan, because I got a news for you. I got a surprise for you. Guess what? We're having dinner for your birthday. The dream. Benny Hanna's. Okay. Eric, you seem the look on your faces is you seem unpleased. I can see what you're getting at.

[01:55:57] More people can get to 21 Royal, I suppose. Is my Disney. So I'm asking you honestly, as as a friend and co-host, how much is my Disneyland bias showing up here? I don't know. I think you've been kind of going overboard to try to protect Disney World more than anything. Yeah. I mean, I think you're trying to over explain anything. It's it's you trying to distance yourself from your your Disneyland, your supposed Disneyland bias.

[01:56:25] I really thought by leaning into the themed aspect like it. The Disneyland Dream Suite doesn't necessarily have a theme. It's not really Walt's apartment. It sure does. It's got an Adventureland theme and a Frontierland theme. The living room has the theme is Disney. Hold on. Right. And it's at Disneyland. The theme is the lore of the place. The theme is it's another tribute to Walt. Yes. And we've got plenty of tributes to Walt. No. And that's that's a good point.

[01:56:55] We are nearing possible saturation. Walt touched it. Yeah. Yeah. But but this isn't a manufactured thing. This was a place that was actually built for him. Like the lore, the lore is still solid. It's still it was built for him. It was built for a purpose. It was another thing. And now they've kind of turned it into the most reasonable version of what that purpose was that they could.

[01:57:23] And I think that that's like picture windows that look out at Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle. Yeah. Anyway, is it time for my victory speech? Oh, you have a victory speech? I do. Yeah. Okay. It's very short. Cinderella Suite is a fairy tale built for a photo op. The dream suite is the last physical piece of dream that Walt Disney never got to finish living himself.

[01:57:51] That's not just a nicer room. That's the difference between theming and history. And that's why the Disneyland Dream Suite wins. I'm so proud. I think I'll bust. As you should. All right. Oh, yeah. I'm in responsible for closing this thing out. Okay. So, listener, thank you. I'm sorry. Kind of. But not really. We have other shows that you might want to listen to on the network.

[01:58:20] One of them is we talked about Ears Up. That exists. Eric's on there. Eric, what are you going to be talking about the next episode? Feel free to make it up. Next episode is a news episode. So, we will, of course, be, you know, I generally handle the historical segments. Is that news with a Z? Yes. It's news with a Z. So, I am doing a double feature on the Iran-Contra scandal. Nice.

[01:58:48] And a history of surfing in France. Perfect. Yes. And that episode will be out before this episode is out. So, there you go. You can listen to that. We don't post that show. So, if you didn't hear it, you missed it. You can also listen to old episodes of Ears Up In Depth to find out why that show doesn't exist anymore.

[01:59:10] We also have, if you want to give Jason money, you can listen to the Ears, sorry, Supreme Resort After Hours on the Patreon. There's also Puny Pod, where they talk about Marvel movies as well as very small things. They are currently, they're re-watching. I don't know what they're re-watching, but I imagine it stars Chris Hemsworth. It is produced by Kevin Feige, who also makes delicious yogurt.

[01:59:38] And there's also Bantha Milk podcast, Lemonade Around the Corner, Bantha Milk, Star Wars podcast, where they talk about, guess what? Star Wars. And different ways to deal with dairy. Their last episode on butter was delightful. Green butter.

[02:00:09] We also, if you want to hear Eric and I talk about David Bowie, which we need to record an episode sometime soon. You should encourage us to do more. That is Bowie's Planning. Yes. That is Bowie's Planning. And then Eric's on a thing called Hub Crawl. No, Hub Crawl. Yeah, Hub Crawl. I got that one right. And then Spokes. And you know what? Listen to Hollywood Handbook. It's a good podcast that we have nothing to do with. That's it. Next episode, Tiki Room.

[02:00:39] Next episode, possibly Tiki Room. Finally. Or if we come up with something else, then we're going to talk about that. But thank you for listening. We love you. And good, great hits. You get to each other. Good oldies and great hits. Quartes adjourned. Quartes adjourned. Fresh baked. Subscribe. Goodbye.

[02:01:32] I've got gigantic weenie written in my notes further down the page. I don't know how you edit around that. Sorry. Edit around it. What?