August 11, 2025 • 39 mins
When a soccer camp brings you to Orlando in July, what's a Disney enthusiast to do? For our returning guest Ryan and his daughter, the answer was clear – make the most of their proximity to Walt Disney World with strategic park visits before and after soccer. What started as a modest Disney side-trip transformed into something extraordinary when he realized they'd be in town for the premiere night of Disney Starlight, Magic Kingdom's breathtaking new nighttime parade. It just proves that Disney magic finds a way to fit into life's schedule – even when soccer takes center stage.
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Adventures & Mousecapades is a passion project from Alicea & Nathan Novak - two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse. We are not affiliated with Disney, nor are we travel agents. Opinions are our own.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alicea (00:20):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea,
Nathan (00:23):
I'm Nathan.
Ryan (00:26):
and I'm Ryan.
Alicea (00:27):
Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and
Mousecapades.
This week, we've got Ryan backwith us.
He was down in Orlando recentlywith his kiddo attending a
National College Soccer ID camp.
And what happens when Disneypeople end up near Orlando?
They go to Disney parks parks,because that's what you do.
Not only did they get to spendsome quality time in one of the
(00:48):
best Disney parks, in thebusiness Epcot, they also just
happened to be in town for thepremiere of the brand new Magic
Kingdom Night Time Parade,disney Starlight.
Of course, we could not letthis opportunity to chat pass us
by.
So welcome again, ryan.
Ryan (01:02):
Thank you for having me?
Nathan (01:03):
Yeah, it's good to have you back.
Can you remind our gloriouslisteners I'm just laying into
our listeners all the time.
They're just the best the verybest people on the earth.
Could you remind our listenersa little bit of your kind of
Disney background?
And we've cruised with you.
Ryan (01:20):
Yes, yeah for sure.
Yeah, so been a big Disney nerdall my life, grew up going to
Disney World.
Disneyland is nice, but myfamily always wanted to go to
Disney World.
Joined DVC in 2012 and beenhitting the parks at least two
times a year since then.
Also got the cruise bug in,like 2017.
(01:44):
I've been cruising every yearsince and got to enjoy the
treasure with you guys earlierthis year that was a lot of fun
that was a great trip.
Nathan (01:51):
That was fantastic.
Okay, so you were in town foran id soccer camp.
What is an id camp?
Ryan (01:59):
yeah.
So, for those who areinterested in playing college
soccer, ID camps are anopportunity for your kids to
kind of show off to collegecoaches, so you'll see
individual colleges offeringthem.
A lot of times they'll alsohave them kind of regionally
based.
So last year my daughter didone in Bellevue at Bellevue
(02:22):
College and there were about sixkind of West Coast colleges
that were there, includingUniversity of Oregon.
Then coming out of that shereceived an invitation to this
national camp which basicallypulls kids from the different
regional camps, if they want to,to this national camp, and so
there were about 10 collegecoaches there, including, like
(02:42):
Stanford and University ofColorado, so it was a lot of fun
.
It was a great opportunity forher to be seen 10 college
coaches there, includingStanford and University of
Colorado, so it was a lot of funit was a great opportunity for
her to be seen by collegecoaches also to play with girls
from all across the country,which was really awesome.
She got to meet people from onthe West Coast side because she
was on the West teams.
They kind of split the groupinto four different teams based
on geographical locations.
(03:02):
So she had girls from Oregonand New Mexico and Utah on and
her team, so it's a lot of fun.
Alicea (03:07):
That's awesome, but in july in orlando, oh my gosh.
Ryan (03:11):
Yes, we did reflect on that a bit after the first
morning by about 10 am, when itwas 90 degrees, with humidity,
we were very thankful StetsonUniversity, where the camp was
at, though they had a grassfield.
So, okay, that was really nice.
Turf fields would have been,you know, 10 degrees or plus
(03:32):
hotter for sure, yeah, that wasgood.
Nathan (03:36):
I mean it's a great opportunity, but oh my gosh,
like, you thought being in theparks and just walking around
and, you know, standing in lineswere bad.
Try playing soccer in that kindof heat.
Ryan (03:47):
Yeah, the joke we got from some of the.
.
.
There were two coaches fromuniversities in Florida.
They kind of joked with us.
It's like, yeah, you get usedto it and we're like, how long
does it take to get used to?
Alicea (04:01):
I'm sure you acclimate after a couple of months.
.
.
I don't know how long it takesto acclimate
Nathan (04:06):
I don't know too long yeah, too long.
Alicea (04:09):
You guys got a chance to visit Ep cot the first evening
that you were in town and therewere four parks to choose from.
Why did you pick epcot?
Ryan (04:17):
So, the reason we chose epcot is we stayed at Boardwalk.
So you know one of the.
.
.
well, and so you know, one ofthe things I think is great
about doing a short trip todisney is that, if you have the
benefit of being DVC, you canoftentimes get into one of the
parks that are one of theresorts that's near a park and
not need to necessarily take thebus transportation.
Nathan (04:39):
yes
Ryan (04:40):
So that was super nice.
So we.
.
.
umSimilar to what we do when we
cruise we try to get intoBoardwalk or Beach Club or
Polynesian so that you're atleast near a park.
Or if you're lucky to get intoBoardwalk or Beach Club, you can
walk in distance to two parks.
So that was the primary reason.
Also, my kids' favorite ridehands down is Guardians.
(05:01):
Ok, fair, so if you can uhquickly get to guardians as soon
as you get on ground and in inproperty, yeah, that is.
That is key.
Nathan (05:12):
absolutely so Okay, you flew out, and then
went right to the parks, or atleast went right to epcot, like
what rides did you hit, uh?
Ryan (05:23):
So we actually I had decided that because we wanted
to get guardians for sure, andyou know there's no more virtual
queue.
I did, I did purchase theindividual lightning lane.
It was.
.
.
It was only 16, so I felt likethat was a good steal.
Nathan (05:37):
You know, it's less than the 20 it sometimes can be true
.
It's weird the math that Disneyfans start doing to justify our
life choices.
Alicea (05:45):
We do it all the time too.
Nathan (05:46):
Yes.
.
.
Ryan (05:47):
It's like oh, this is today's a good day, it's only 16
, yeah, so, um, so yeah, we.
.
.
We stopped at um boardwalk,literally just threw our bags in
our room um hit the boardwalkpizza window for you know a
slice of pizza, and then wentstraight to our individual
lightning line for for guardians.
So it was, it was great that'sa, that's a good plan.
Yeah, so you know it worked out.
(06:08):
Well, I was.
.
.
You know you always get alittle nervous flying into
orlando in the summer in theafternoon I was like, okay, how,
how late can I book thislightning lane and you know,
guarantee that I'm gonna get itright.
So that was that was reallygood.
Nathan (06:20):
Were you able to book the lightning lane while you
were, like, on the plane?
Ryan (06:24):
So because you're staying on property now, you can book
individual lightning seven daysout.
Nathan (06:29):
Oh, that's right, I forgot.
Ryan (06:30):
Yeah.
So we do have a disadvantage onthe West Coast, though, because
that opens at 4 am our time.
Yeah, so I booked an individuallightning lane for the the
thursday night.
We arrived at Epcot, right, andthen I went to get, a lightning
(06:51):
lane for Tron on Friday, yeah,magic kingdom.
And I was like, oh, I'll comeback, I'll get back and I'll,
maybe we'll do another lightninglane for Guardians on Friday as
well.
By that time I had tried tobook like the third you know,
like everything was sold out.
Alicea (07:05):
Oh wow
Ryan (07:06):
yeah, so
Nathan (07:07):
wow
Ryan (07:07):
yeah.
So you have to if you're on theWest coast here's your reminder
.
Early early alarm.
This is super early.
I did it at six, 30 in themorning too.
So yeah, details.
Nathan (07:17):
It's okay, we've done.
Yeah, details it's okay, we'vedone that.
You tried.
Alicea (07:23):
We've done that before.
More for what have we done?
Nathan (07:26):
We've done super early stuff, dining reservations yeah,
dining reservations that openedat like 8 o'clock or 7, or
maybe it was 6 o'clock in themorning, east Coast time.
.
.
it was in the middle of thenight,
Alicea (07:38):
yes
Nathan (07:38):
And I remember we were like, no, we're going back to
sleep after this, because itwasn't like you know, if it was
a five o'clock thing, I'd belike, yeah, I'm up.
Yeah, yeah, not this, not thatone.
Okay, so Epcot's also, you know,a good foodie park did you guys
(07:59):
.
.
.
?
you gotyou had a slice of pizza
beforehand, but.
.
.
?
Ryan (08:00):
Yeah, so, um, to be honest , we were, uh, we were a bit
melancholy this trip because,we're, it's in between festival
time so Flower and Garden hadjust ended, I think last the
week before, and Food and Winethey've like pushed that back
now to mid August I think,
Nathan (08:15):
It's back where it used to be.
Ryan (08:16):
Yeah, so like we walked in the parks and you see the like,
all the beautiful um, you knowlittle shops that they have
they're all boarded up andyou're like sad day we but we
did, you know, we, we, you knowwe would not be deterred.
And we did go to france and goto the get some patisserie nice
in the back, which is andhonestly I think that is like
(08:37):
the hidden gem of the FrenchPavilion
Nathan (08:40):
oh yeah, 100%
Ryan (08:41):
nobody.
.
.
I mean it's, there's always aline, but I feel like if people
actually knew how good thepastries and the sandwiches were
back there like it would belike down, like all the way out
to Chefs de France or somethinglike that.
Alicea (08:53):
It is very good.
We've done breakfast there acouple of times and are
surprised that they don't open.
It may change, though whenwe've gone.
It doesn't open when the parkopens it may change, though, um
when we've gone.
It doesn't open when the parkopens.
It's like it's like an hourlater or half hour later or
something.
But we're like, nope, we needour croissant!
Nathan (09:11):
Yeah yes, well, or in your case, Ryan, you just drown
your sorrows in a baguette.
Ryan (09:15):
Yes, yeah, so we had the napoleon and like the French um,
like fruit custard tart it wasso good.
Nathan (09:27):
I should have had lunch before we recorded, oops.
Alicea (09:33):
Did you guys stay around for the fireworks and
projection show that evening?
Ryan (09:37):
So we saw part of it.
It was actually pretty crowdedat the park that day, so by the
time we had gotten our food andwe were kind of walking out of
the French Pavilion, therewasn't a lot of space to see it,
so we caught about half of iton the, the bridge that goes
between France and the UKPavilion yes um, I definitely.
It's funny.
We were actually talking abouthow um divisive, you know,
(09:58):
harmonious was yeah, howeverybody seems to love um the
new show.
Nathan (10:02):
yes, it is uh, Luminous.
.
.
Luminous, the Symphony of Us.
.
.
tm.
What do you think of the show?
Ryan (10:11):
So we actually we liked Harmonious and we like Luminous
I think, um, I think the musicmight be just a bit better with
Luminous, but it's not likedistinctly different it, just it
feels like everyone just hatedthe barges.
Nathan (10:25):
Right, I was just about to say that I liked Harmonious.
I hated the barges, yeah.
Alicea (10:31):
No, I loved Harmonious because it took songs that
everybody knew, but they were indifferent languages for the
different cultures.
And I absolutely loved thatDisney did that yeah.
Nathan (10:44):
Yeah, so yeah, I don't want to dog on Harmonious.
Alicea (10:49):
No, I like that.
Nathan (10:49):
It was a great show, Except during the day.
You could see those stupidblack eyesores all over.
.
.
Alicea (10:55):
the floating tacos.
Nathan (10:57):
Yes, the floating tacos.
Ryan (10:58):
Yes, exactly, it's so funny because we were my
daughter and I were jokingbecause it's like you know, the
Luminous has barges, yeah rightit's just, they're just a low
profile old school barges thatthey had before, Harmonious,
Alicea (11:13):
And there used to be a big freaking globe in the middle
of the place too.
I forget what that was for shameon me.
Ryan (11:22):
Yes, for illumination.
Alicea (11:22):
Shame on me, it wasn't there the all day, though right.
Ryan (11:24):
So like they, yeah, they floated it out, like the other
ones, yeah, shame on me.
Illuminations, yes forIlluminations.
Shame on me, not knowing thename.
Nathan (11:27):
It wasn't there all day, though, right, so, like they,
they rolled it out.
Ryan (11:28):
Floated it out like the other ones, yeah
Nathan (11:30):
And they take the barges away for luminous right?
Ryan (11:33):
No, they stay there all day.
Nathan (11:34):
do they?
Alicea (11:34):
yeah, there's parts of it that come in and go away but
there's, there's parts of it,but they're all low profile.
Ryan (11:41):
Yeah, they're low, similar to the old school ones that
they had for.
.
.
Nathan (11:46):
Illuminations?
Ryan (11:46):
Yeah, you don't necessarily see them as much,
and I think everyone's just like, oh, it's such an eyesore, yeah
.
Nathan (11:52):
Well, anything's better than what.
The what was it?
The tacos?
Alicea (11:56):
Floating tacos.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Ryan (12:06):
I mean really, but how many pictures did you guys take
going across the World worldshowcase?
Nathan (12:09):
I mean, we definitely took some my favorite pictures
from the uh, from the, the gatesthere over in uh, Japan, yeah,
yeah, that's true, and that wasnot a good look,
Ryan (12:12):
true with the tacos behind floating tacos did not work
very well.
No, no okay.
Nathan (12:17):
So you made a quick stop the next day at both Epcot and
Magic Kingdom before you went tosoccer camp.
Ryan (12:24):
We did yeah, oh, and we got breakfast too.
Alicea (12:27):
I mean that's a busy morning, yeah.
Ryan (12:31):
And then Brynn went to go play soccer, so thankfully there
wasn't any games on Friday, sowe got up at Boardwalk.
And it's so funny because, likeI said earlier, it's great to
be in such a close hotel or avilla.
But you know you wake up andyou're you realize you're
(12:52):
checking out.
you've only been in the room forlike 12 hours and you're like,
oh, this is such a nice room, Icould have spent like more time
here, oh well.
Oh well, I guess we'll we'llcome back.
And then, uh, we hit uptrattoria for breakfast at um
boardwalk excellent, you know,it's one of it's been one of our
favorite, uh, restaurants forbreakfast.
(13:12):
Yeah, um been hit or miss, likeprobably the last two or three
times we've been there, honestly, but still, um, still a great
option, especially if you wantto do breakfast before you rope
drop because you have becauseyou can.
You don't even need to bestaying at Boardwalk.
Think about it.
You can like get a seven amreservation there and just Uber
over from wherever you're at.
(13:33):
And then you have breakfast andthen go rope, drop Epcot in the
back and hit up Ratatouille,that's a good plan.
Nathan (13:38):
Yeah, that's a good plan .
Speaking like a true disney prothere.
Ryan (13:46):
Yeah, not that I not that I've ever done that.
No, no, no, Yeah, so hit, hitepcot and then, uh, took the
monorail over to Magic Kingdomand you know, uh got to go on
Tron, which is always a blast.
Um, you know, I think peoplethink people talk bad about it
for some reason yeah and, butyou know, it's our probably
second favorite ride afterGuardians.
Nathan (14:07):
I I really like Tron.
I would love Tron if the ridewas 30 to 45 seconds longer or
so.
Ryan (14:14):
So you want to hear my hot take on this?
Nathan (14:16):
Yeah
Ryan (14:16):
Okay.
So I rode Tron in Shanghai so Iguess, the OG Tron right, which
is it's a clone so it's exactlythe same between Shanghai and
Magic Kingdom.
Yeah, if Disney had flipped theorder and opened Tron first,
like they originally intended,at Magic Kingdom and Guardians
second, I don't think anyonewould say anything about Tron
(14:38):
because, Guardians is.
.
.
Guardians is so long, yeah,from, uh, from a ride standpoint
, I think it's almost twominutes.
Alicea (14:44):
Yeah, yeah.
Ryan (14:45):
Um and Tron is is much more of a traditional launch
coaster, just like Rock andRoller coaster.
So everyone I think in theirminds everyone is comparing Tron
to Guardians, and so they'rethinking, oh my gosh, this is.
I've waited so long and this issuch a short ride yeah whereas
if they had opened Tron firstand then Guardians second, I
(15:06):
think Tron would get less kindof um, you know.
Alicea (15:10):
Derogatory comments about oh, this is so short.
Yeah, that makes sense, becauseyou're talking about Rock and
Roller Coaster.
Yeah, Rock and Roller Coasteris really short as well.
I mean just remembering goingon that ride.
I don't know how much longer orhow much shorter it is than
Tron, though I'm guessingthey're pretty close.
Ryan (15:26):
I'm guessing they're pretty close.
I mean, if you think about it,right it's,
Nathan (15:30):
I don't know we could look it up on the Rectangle of
Knowledge, but I'm notinterested.
Ryan (15:34):
But yeah, I mean it's because they're both launch
coasters right
Nathan (15:36):
Yeah, hmm.
You hit Tron.
.
.
Anything else over in MagicKingdom.
Ryan (15:42):
We also hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates.
Nathan (15:46):
Perfect.
Ryan (15:47):
May I recommend anyone who goes to the parks in July
definitely sprinkle in someindoor rides with AC.
Pirates was like the mostglorious experience I think I've
ever had on that ride.
It's like you, just want youknow, because Pirates is always
great because it's cool.
But like transitioning fromlike what feels like probably a
hundred degrees into Pirates isalways great because it's cool,
but transitioning from whatfeels like probably 100 degrees
into Pirates, it's like oh, thisfeels so good.
Alicea (16:10):
That has a nice indoor queue too.
Ryan (16:12):
Yes, super long indoor queue.
Alicea (16:13):
Under the entrance area.
It's nice and cool.
Ryan (16:16):
Yes, I was hoping I could see a peek of the new bar that's
going to be opening up overthere, but all the walls were
still open Okay Soon open Soon.
I did try to.
We did have a little bit oftime before our Tron lightning
links.
I did pop for that as well,sheepishly as I say that.
(16:38):
I did try to go to the DVClounge at Magic.
Kingdom because I've heardthat's pretty cool as well.
Yeah, there were like 20families on the wait list ahead
of us at noon.
So like hmm, probably not goingto get into that one.
Nathan (16:52):
I've heard it's like that.
Alicea (16:52):
I'm sure eventually it'll die down, but it's still
the bright and shiny right now,right, yeah.
Nathan (16:59):
Yeah, we talked about that when they were first
designing it and saying where itwas going and how you know we
saw, I think, some of theartists rendering is like that's
really small, like it's notlike what they have over at
Epcot, where that lounge, thatDVC lounge, is really big and
you can get a ton of people overthere.
Uh this is the opposite.
Alicea (17:19):
Yes, yeah.
Nathan (17:20):
That's small.
Alicea (17:22):
Well, you'll just have to go back and try again.
Ryan (17:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, we're going back in November, so
I can keep my fingers crossed.
Yeah, and I would say, maybejust a pro tip I just need to
give myself is to rope drop theDVC lounge as well.
Alicea (17:34):
Yeah, that's actually what I've heard for that one is
get your name on there or beprepared to wait.
Wow, now the wait lists do comethrough, because people don't
stick around, right?
Nathan (17:49):
yeah, well, at least hopefully.
Well, they're paying a lot ofmoney to be in that park.
Hopefully they didn't drop $150or $200 just to sit in a lounge
all day.
Alicea (18:00):
It's an annual pass or something True.
Nathan (18:03):
Okay, so $1,400.
There you go, yep.
Alicea (18:07):
Just sit and wait.
I mean, hey, we've done that,but that's okay.
Nathan (18:11):
All right, we've buried the lead long enough.
After the weekend camp atsoccer camp, you came back to
Disney World and got to see thepremiere of the Magic Kingdom's
new nighttime parade calledDisney Star starlight dream the
night away.
Was that just sheer dumb luckor did you know about that first
(18:32):
night happening?
Ryan (18:33):
uh, a hundred percent sheer dumb luck, I would I would
love to say that we it.
We knew about it really inadvance, but I think I realized
it about a week before we left.
I think they had announced theofficial premiere a couple weeks
ago.
Nathan (18:48):
And then I was like wait what?
Ryan (18:51):
I saw it in some TikTok or something.
I was like wait, we're going tobe there.
That's going to be the daywe're coming back to Disney.
This is going to be epic.
Alicea (19:01):
That's awesome.
It runs twice a night at 9 pmand 11 pm.
Which one did you see?
Ryan (19:06):
so we did the 11 pm, okay, um, so we, um, and it actually
worked out really well for usbecause we we came back, um, we
were staying at Yacht Club thistime, um which was awesome, you
know got to do Storm Along Bayin the the afternoon.
Uh, this is the first time I'vedone a pool in a long time but,
you know you got to jump in thepool if you're at Storm Along
Bay for sure of course um, andthen we did dinner at Tempanito
(19:31):
oh nice yeah, so that was a lotof fun.
And hit Guardians again, andthen, um, you know, we knew that
.
I knew that the 9 pm parade wasgonna be insane yeah for sure.
And so we decided, hey, um you,um you know, assuming weather
was going to be good, we'regoing to hit the 11 PM parade.
Nathan (19:47):
Yeah.
Ryan (19:48):
And so, um, you know, we left um Epcot, right as Luminous
was, kind of you know, startingup and hop the monorail and
then ended up over at Magicabout 9:40.
And so, by that point theparade for the 9 pm parade it
starts in Frontierland and runsto Main Street, ok, and they had
(20:08):
just wrapped up as we were kindof pulling in from the monorail
, from TTC OK, so you could seeall the people kind of streaming
out of the parks and everything.
Nathan (20:15):
Yeah.
Ryan (20:16):
So, and then the 11 pm parade starts at Main Street and
then goes to Frontierland.
So, for those who haven't beenat Disney Park for a parade that
runs twice, which we haven'tbeen since the last time the
night parade was in there, whichI think we looked up was like
2017, 2018.
Nathan (20:37):
It's been a while.
Alicea (20:37):
It's been a long time.
Ryan (20:39):
So we weren't sure which way it was going to go when we
got there.
But a cast member, the firstcast member we said it's like,
oh, I think it goes from MainStreet to Frontierland.
It was like, oh, that wasn'tvery confident.
Nathan (20:48):
Yeah.
Ryan (20:51):
So we asked the second cast member.
Yeah, and they confirmed thatit does start in Main Street at
the 11 pm parade, but I mean at9.40,.
When we walked into the parkthere there were people sitting
down on Main Street.
So these were people thatdidn't that had.
Well, maybe they'd watched the9 pm parade too.
They were definitely going tosit on Main.
Street for a good hour plus tocatch the parade.
Nathan (21:13):
Well, fireworks are at 10?
Ryan (21:15):
They were at 10, yeah
Nathan (21:15):
Okay, so you're getting more than just yeah, there's
more going on there.
So Disney describes this newparade as a shimmering
processional inspired by theclassic Main Street Electrical
Parade and says it's a starkestconstellation of Disney dreams,
brought to life by the magic ofthe Blue Fairy.
(21:37):
That's a lot of words.
Ryan (21:39):
I was going to say I didn't realize that was a
description that Disney gave it.
Oh yeah, truthfully, the paradelooks incredible.
I was going to say that's Ididn't realize that was a
description that Disney gave it.
Nathan (21:44):
Oh yeah um, truthfully, the parade looks incredible from
what we've seen online.
What were your firstimpressions?
Ryan (21:53):
So I I would say I didn't really know what to to expect
going into it.
I had not seen anything aboutthe parade, I didn't.
I think I maybe saw one pieceof concept art, okay, um, and I
think that was for the um, thewish float yeah with um, the new
, uh, princess from wish, yep,um.
So I really I really didn'tknow what to think.
I had vague memories of likespectro magic and the electric
(22:17):
light parade yeah um, the.
So the first thing.
So we we decided to view it inFrontierland, and so we were
kind of near where the oldshooting gallery was, yep, and
one of the intersections thatyou can cut between Frontierland
and Adventureland, so you couldsee the parade was going to
come like through Liberty Squareand then basically turn down to
(22:40):
go through Frontierland, and sowe could see where that turn
was going to happen.
And the very first float thatcomes down is the Blue Fairy
float, and when we saw it, I kidyou, not my jaw dropped, my
daughter's jaw dropped.
She turned to me with her jawstill open and we were just both
like whoa, I mean, because thisfloat is massive.
(23:04):
I mean I think a lot of timeswhen you think of Disney parades
, you think of really big, longfloats.
This is tall.
I mean easily 20 plus feet tall.
Wow, and the Blue Fairy is atthe top of that.
Nathan (23:18):
Yeah.
Ryan (23:19):
So it was definitely an amazing way to kick off a parade
, definitely set the tone, Ithink, for, with all those you
know, put putting all thosewords into action yes, for sure,
yeah, um, and so that was.
It was definitely a like, a verylike cool opening sequence that
they did for that
Nathan (23:38):
yeah
Alicea (23:39):
I'm gonna take a minute and just list all the floats,
because there's a fair amount ofthem.
It starts off, like you said,with the blue fairy uh, looking
like she's flying through thenight, spreading magic all
around.
The next float is the wishfloat with Asha and Valentino,
the little goat dude.
After that is the encanto float, has Mirabelle, Isabella and
(24:01):
Bruno.
Then we have a frozen floatwhich is Elsa on it.
Just Elsa, right?
Ryan (24:06):
Yes, just Elsa.
Alicea (24:08):
Then we have a Royal Princesses float.
It has Aurora, Sleeping Beauty,Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and
Friends, so the princes that goalong with all the princesses,
followed by the Coco float,which has Miguel Dante and a
giant Pepita, which is that?
What does I call them?
(24:29):
The Abrejos or the spiritanimals?
Ryan (24:32):
Yes, it's the giant cat.
Alicea (24:34):
The giant cat with the wings?
Ryan (24:35):
Yes, it looks like a multicolored panther or
something with wings.
Alicea (24:39):
Next float is the Moana float.
It has Moana and Pua and Heihei, followed by the Peter Pan
float with Peter and Wendy, andTinkerbell is leading the way
and the grand finale train floatis Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy,
Snow White and Dopey, Rapunzeland Flynn, Aladdin and Jasmine,
and Mickey and Minnie.
That's a lot of floats.
Ryan (24:59):
That's a lot of floats, it was.
Alicea (25:00):
Did you have a favorite?
Ryan (25:02):
Oh man, lot of floats it was.
Oh man, um.
So I think honestly, like Iwould say the ones that that
really stood out, um was themoana float.
Um was probably one of thefirst ones that kind of popped
out my head, because, um, thethe front of the float has um,
the grandmother, um,
Nathan (25:23):
Grandma Tala
Ryan (25:24):
Yeah, Grandma Tala's in the.
.
.
in her manta ray form and sothat was that was really cool.
Um, and then the wish float wasreally neat too, because they,
um, you know well, the bluefairy float, I think, kind of
sets the, the tone for theparade.
I think that the wish, float umwith asha and they have like
some cool led synchronizationhappening.
I think kind of brings to light, you know, the whole like idea
(25:45):
of starlight and wishing onstars and everything like that.
So that was.
That was really neat.
But I mean, every, every floatin the parade is so well done,
yeah, um, and everyone has kindof little details in it that I
think are really cool.
Um, like the last float, whichis all the characters, um,
including like a couple of theprincesses, um, you know, Flynn
(26:06):
Rider and and Rapunzel are on itand they have the lantern like
one of the lit up lanterns.
Um, so that was really cool tokind of see them like have for
sure yeah,
Nathan (26:17):
what did you think of the music?
Ryan (26:19):
So I thought the music was really good.
Um they, they sprinkle in alittle bit of the old school
electric light parade music inthere.
It was so funny when it washappening.
I kept hearing the riffs of itthrough the show and I was like
why do I know that?
Why do I know that music?
And so when I got back to ourhotel I was like, oh okay, yeah,
(26:41):
they did sprinkle some of the.
They worked it in really well,and so if you've seen spectra
magic or you've seen theelectrical light parade, you'll
kind of hear the jinglethroughout, and that's pretty
cool yeah great.
Alicea (26:53):
Did you happen to get the new special popcorn inspired
by the disney starlight parade?
Ryan (26:58):
we did not um.
There was apparently specialpopcorn and special pins.
Oh that we missed out on.
And so I was a bit bummed bythat, but we did get a pretty
cool photo.
The PhotoPass people were out inforce.
I'm not sure if they could dothis at every parade, but I saw
more PhotoPass people kind ofalong a single area that I've
(27:20):
never seen, and they had one ofthose sign boards with the name
of the parade on it that youcould hold and take a picture
and it had a little bit ofDisney magic in the picture.
When you got it your picture waskind of outlined with the blue
fairy and stuff.
So that was really cute Neat.
So yeah, it's like probablylike 30 PhotoPass people along
(27:42):
the Frontierland part of theroute, just back there.
Nathan (27:45):
Yeah, holy cow, yeah, that's a lot.
Alicea (27:47):
That is a lot.
Nathan (27:49):
There's no way they're committing to that kind of
staffing for every night.
Alicea (27:52):
No, I'm guessing it was for opening night.
Nathan (27:53):
That was for opening, yeah
Alicea (27:54):
Because you know there had to be a crap ton of content
creators there.
Ryan (27:58):
Oh yeah, I saw it was so funny because when we, when we
were looking for our initialspot, um, you know, it was still
probably because the paradestarts on main street so it
doesn't get to Frontierlanduntil like 10, and it was like
probably like 11, 20 by the timeit turned that corner, yeah.
But there were already peoplelined up in Frontierland and
(28:19):
like pretty much they were allcontent creators.
They had, you know, their boommics.
They had.
I don't know.
I mean, they weren't selfiesticks, so I guess that you can
bring in like a full tripod andeverything.
But, they were all lined up toget their perfect shot for
whatever content they wereplanning to make or create.
Nathan (28:36):
I want to circle back to the popcorn just for a second
Alicea (28:39):
yeah, I figured you were going to
Nathan (28:40):
yeah.
Okay.
So, in true Disney fashion,they describe this as a star
kissed mix.
Sure, whateverY'all, it's, it's bubble gum and
blue raspberry candied popcornwith chocolate, m&ms mini
marshmallows and a whitechocolate drizzle.
Like what?
Alicea (29:01):
it's pink and blue.
Ryan (29:04):
Okay, but have you been to the confectionary's?
Make your own popcorn thing atMagic Kingdom.
Alicea (29:09):
I have.
I haven't made my own, but I'veseen it.
Ryan (29:11):
Have you ever seen it?
We've done that.
Nathan (29:14):
It's amazing I'm just the old guy sitting on my porch,
but popcorn's supposed to beyellow and slightly buttery and
salty.
Alicea (29:23):
Oh, no, no no no, you are.
Ryan (29:25):
You are missing out, Nathan.
Nathan (29:27):
Okay, I'm missing out.
Like I don't like kettle corneither, so I will mix M&Ms with
my popcorn occasionally.
Alicea (29:33):
I like the salty and sweet mix, yeah.
Nathan (29:36):
Sorry, it's just not, it's just that's just not me.
Ryan (29:41):
I mean, If they can mass produce that popcorn in the way
that you can make your ownpopcorn at the confectionery,
it's got potential.
Nathan (29:48):
Okay, I'll take your word for it.
Alicea (29:50):
Tell you what next time we go, we'll go to the
confectionery.
Kaitlyn has to be with us,though, because she likes sweet
popcorn too.
Nathan (29:56):
Okay.
Alicea (29:57):
And we'll do a mix.
You can watch the mix.
You probably won't partake init.
Nathan (30:02):
I was going to say I can't wait, but I can wait, I
can absolutely wait for that
Alicea (30:07):
All right.
Lastly, you swung by HollywoodStudios the next day before
heading to the airport.
What was on your hit list there?
Ryan (30:17):
So we really didn't have anything planned out.
We ended up sleeping in a bit,as you can imagine after my
daughter had a soccer match onthat Sunday and then we drove
back to the parks and everything.
So we didn't actually roll outof Yacht Club until like almost
11.
So we did not accomplish ourroad-dropping goals that day.
(30:38):
So we just went over to kind ofsee what was going on.
So we initially tried to hitTower of Terror.
It was only a 30-minute wait,which sounded great, but then
half the elevators went down andit went to 100 minutes and we
were standing in that outdoorqueuing area in the sun.
You just feel all the heat sinkinto you and it's like, ok,
let's go find something else.
(30:58):
So hit Star Tours
Nathan (31:00):
classic
Ryan (31:00):
10-minute wait.
Lots of great AC once again Gotto hit that AC.
Hit star tours, you knowclassic, yeah, 10 minute wait,
lots of great ac once again.
Alicea (31:03):
Yeah, gotta hit that ac.
Ryan (31:06):
Um, and then we uh decided to.
We saw that Toy Story Mania wasdown.
Yeah, we're like let's, let'sgo like hang out by Toy Story
Mania and see if if it comesback up after about waiting for
about five minutes outside ToyStory Mania.
We we got we opened it back up,so walk on at like 1230 in the
afternoon.
Only happens if you're smartand you kind of wait it out.
Nathan (31:30):
I think that was our play the last time we were in
parks with you guys.
Alicea (31:34):
Webslingers.
Nathan (31:34):
It was Webslingers we had seen you and you guys were
trying to get on and it keptgoing down and we're like, well,
we'll just head that way, and Ithink you all had given up, and
then we waited for maybe 10minutes and then yeah well it's
the games we play,
Ryan (31:48):
yeah and then, and then we realized that the new village
stage show had opened.
Yeah, because we had totallyforgotten about that um, and so
we, we walked over to um thevillain stage show and caught
that, which is it's a bit out ofthe way.
So if you don't know where itis, you're probably never, you
probably wouldn't find it onyour own yeah because all the
way tucked behind, basicallyalmost behind, rock and roller
(32:08):
coaster and tower of terror.
Nathan (32:09):
But yep, so this is disney villains unfairly ever
after.
It includes cruella deville,captain hook and maleficent uh.
They evicted lightning mcqueenand took over the theater there
next to Rock and Roller Coaster.
What'd you think of the show?
Ryan (32:27):
I thought it was great.
I really had no concept of whatit was going to be coming in.
All I had seen was you knowthey were doing this new show.
It runs every 30 minutes whichis actually a pretty.
That's a lot for a live stageshow, but um, but it was great.
Um, the uh.
(32:48):
It's basically like emceed bythe magic mirror from the evil
queen and nice.
They have, um, all of the allthe villains kind of behind
mirrors and then maleficentcaptain hook and cruella break
through the mirrors becausethey're all trying to convince
the audience who was mostunjustly, unfairly talked about
(33:10):
and misunderstood.
Nathan (33:12):
Sure, they're all misunderstood.
Alicea (33:14):
Maleficent, definitely
Nathan (33:17):
Yean, her name doesn't mean a nything.
Ryan (33:19):
Yeah.
Nathan (33:21):
Anyway, how long was the show then?
Ryan (33:24):
It was 20 minutes
Nathan (33:25):
wow
Alicea (33:25):
That was a very fast turnaround
Ryan (33:27):
Yeah so we were actually.
.
.
I was actually super surprisedbecause I saw that it was um
every 30 minutes, which wasgreat, because I was like, oh,
this is probably gonna, weprobably can't get into the
first show we go to right soit's like awesome, so we don't
have to wait too long.
But we we walked in at like itwas like 1:20, and the show was
just getting out.
And I was like oh wow, and I'mlike how are we going to?
(33:48):
But yeah, they have it down tolike a science.
I mean it's Disney, so Ishouldn't have been surprised.
But yeah, they got everybody outof the theater, Everybody sat
and the show started maybe 10seconds late.
Nathan (33:58):
Wow, yeah, that's incredible yeah.
Did they keep the bench seatingfrom when it was um?
Ryan (34:05):
No, it's.
It's now individual seats.
Nathan (34:07):
Okay, okay okay, wow, so you've got individual seats and
they're able to turn that wholeplace around in 10 minutes.
That's, that's impressive.
I mean, that is the kind ofefficiency of Disney of how to
do crowd control and move peoplearound.
Ryan (34:21):
That's impressive yeah, I was.
I was super impressed with howquickly we went from being in
the outdoor queue to being inthe building in in our seats,
and it's a pretty big theater.
If you haven't been there, it'snot small.
Nathan (34:36):
We've been there when it was still Lightning.
We haven't been there forUnfairly Ever After yet.
Alicea (34:44):
No, no, it wasn't open last time we were there so next
year, next time we're there,when are we?
Nathan (34:49):
june
Alicea (34:49):
yeah, june
Nathan (34:51):
oh no, we're not gonna see it
Alicea (34:53):
at some point we'll see, at some point we will see it
yeah
Ryan (34:56):
well, hopefully, hopefully it's still there, because you
never know a stage show yeah,it's
Nathan (35:00):
very true
Ryan (35:00):
yeah, but yeah, I think that, um, I don't know if it's
the new and the novelty orwhatever, but it was, it was a
full house, nice, yeah, so, anddefinitely, you know, um, the
pacing was great again, you know, and and yeah we.
We walked out of there sayinglike, hey, can't wait to to come
back in november and see withthe family that's awesome family
.
Nathan (35:17):
So, yeah, fantastic uh.
Any other highlights from thetrip we haven't talked about.
Ryan (35:23):
No, I think we pretty much covered everything.
You know, I think the you knowif you're going to do just kind
of one or two days in the parksbookending, you know it's.
Obviously having an annual passor being DVC is a huge benefit
because, you can get those perksIf you're going to do it, you
know, by with like a hard ticket.
you know, definitely put a plantogether would be the only thing
(35:43):
I say, because yeah well, thecrowds weren't as bad as I
thought, because I think kind ofdisney's kind of you know kind
of level loaded their crowds.
Now, pretty much um.
You know it's still.
.
.
Rides were still anywhere from30 to 60 minutes in most of the
parks so you have to kind ofhave a plan to get done
Nathan (35:58):
yep, you guys did so much yeah on top of like you
didn't have a lot of shouldertime in before and after the
soccer tournament or theirsoccer camp plus the whole
soccer camp, like I'm imaginingyour daughter just collapsed and
slept like ever since you'vebeen back, and probably on the
plane ride too.
Ryan (36:18):
like yeah, yeah, we definitely uh we.
I basically told her like youknow, this is your, you know
your bonus part of the tripbecause of you, know what you,
you know what you did and howhard you worked.
So you know we'll go for aslittle or as long as you want,
and you know, I think thatDisney kids find a way to rally
(36:41):
you know Because you know, Iasked her several times okay,
you sure you want to stay uptill 11 and go to the parade?
And she's like, oh yeah, no,we're going.
I'm like okay, and so you know.
But yeah, I think she is fullyback in teenager mode now.
You, know, I think she slepttill noon today.
Nathan (36:58):
So definitely still recovering, probably Excellent.
Well, we were going to haveBrynn here, but she's a little
under the weather.
She's lost her voice thismorning when she woke up, so it
doesn't.
Unfortunately, doesn't workwell with the podcast.
Ryan (37:12):
Nope, hard to mime
Nathan (37:13):
yeah, exactly exactly, so we'll have Brynn on again,
for sure.
So what's next?
Ryan (37:27):
So next is we do our annual November trip, yeah, to
Disney World.
So we always do Thanksgivingdown at Disney with um, friends
and and my mom, and then we uh,we're coming up on our final
payment for the Christmas cruiseon the Treasure which is going
to be exciting.
We've never done any kind ofspecial cruise on disney cruise
lines.
Alicea (37:41):
Um, wow,
Ryan (37:42):
yeah, so super excited.
We generally cruise in February, but realized that we had some
conflicts with soccer and otherstuff in 2026.
So it's like, okay, well, howare we gonna make this work?
It's like kids are old enoughto be away from the house for
Christmas.
How?
about a Christmas cruise.
So excited for that.
Alicea (38:00):
Oh, that's gonna be amazing.
We love the christmas cruisesand we'll be very interested to
hear how, how the Treasure doesa christmas cruise yeah, yeah
like is there?
Is there gonna be a gingerbreadhouse or what's the christmas
tree gonna look like?
Yeah, well, we will have tohave you all back on afterwards
for sure.
Nathan (38:18):
What kind of mischief to Coriander and Sage get up to I
know it's gonna's going to begood.
Ryan (38:22):
It's going to be exciting.
Nathan (38:24):
Okay, now I'm jealous.
Hey, can we?
No, no, we can't, never mind.
Alicea (38:29):
No, we've got something in November.
Sorry, that's true.
Ryan (38:33):
There might still be space .
Nathan (38:35):
Our dance card is full.
Alicea (38:36):
We've got so many things planned right now.
Nathan (38:38):
Yeah, we do.
We do, we do.
Well, Ryan, thanks again forcoming on.
We'll have you back.
Ryan (38:44):
Yeah, thank you for having me Appreciate it
Nathan (38:46):
Excellent.
Well, remember we're notaffiliated with Disney or their
subsidiaries.
These are personal opinions andsuggestions based on our own
experiences.
We recommend working with atravel agent or contacting
Disney directly to plan yourperfect vacation.
Alicea (39:00):
If you have any questions or suggestions or
would like to be interviewed onour show to share your own
Disney experiences, please sendan email to podcast at
ourmousecapades.
com.
Nathan (39:09):
Go ahead and follow us on social media.
We're at Our Mousecapades.
You can find us on Instagram,Facebook Threads and YouTube.
Alicea (39:16):
Please give us a rating and review in your podcast app.
It really helps people to findus.
Nathan (39:21):
And, of course, don't hesitate to share us with your
friends and fellow Disney loversof all ages.
Alicea (39:26):
Thank you for listening.
We'll be in your ears next week.
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea,
Nathan (00:23):
I'm Nathan.
Ryan (00:26):
and I'm Ryan.
Alicea (00:27):
Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and
Mousecapades.
This week, we've got Ryan backwith us.
He was down in Orlando recentlywith his kiddo attending a
National College Soccer ID camp.
And what happens when Disneypeople end up near Orlando?
They go to Disney parks parks,because that's what you do.
Not only did they get to spendsome quality time in one of the
(00:48):
best Disney parks, in thebusiness Epcot, they also just
happened to be in town for thepremiere of the brand new Magic
Kingdom Night Time Parade,disney Starlight.
Of course, we could not letthis opportunity to chat pass us
by.
So welcome again, ryan.
Ryan (01:02):
Thank you for having me?
Nathan (01:03):
Yeah, it's good to have you back.
Can you remind our gloriouslisteners I'm just laying into
our listeners all the time.
They're just the best the verybest people on the earth.
Could you remind our listenersa little bit of your kind of
Disney background?
And we've cruised with you.
Ryan (01:20):
Yes, yeah for sure.
Yeah, so been a big Disney nerdall my life, grew up going to
Disney World.
Disneyland is nice, but myfamily always wanted to go to
Disney World.
Joined DVC in 2012 and beenhitting the parks at least two
times a year since then.
Also got the cruise bug in,like 2017.
(01:44):
I've been cruising every yearsince and got to enjoy the
treasure with you guys earlierthis year that was a lot of fun
that was a great trip.
Nathan (01:51):
That was fantastic.
Okay, so you were in town foran id soccer camp.
What is an id camp?
Ryan (01:59):
yeah.
So, for those who areinterested in playing college
soccer, ID camps are anopportunity for your kids to
kind of show off to collegecoaches, so you'll see
individual colleges offeringthem.
A lot of times they'll alsohave them kind of regionally
based.
So last year my daughter didone in Bellevue at Bellevue
(02:22):
College and there were about sixkind of West Coast colleges
that were there, includingUniversity of Oregon.
Then coming out of that shereceived an invitation to this
national camp which basicallypulls kids from the different
regional camps, if they want to,to this national camp, and so
there were about 10 collegecoaches there, including, like
(02:42):
Stanford and University ofColorado, so it was a lot of fun
.
It was a great opportunity forher to be seen 10 college
coaches there, includingStanford and University of
Colorado, so it was a lot of funit was a great opportunity for
her to be seen by collegecoaches also to play with girls
from all across the country,which was really awesome.
She got to meet people from onthe West Coast side because she
was on the West teams.
They kind of split the groupinto four different teams based
on geographical locations.
(03:02):
So she had girls from Oregonand New Mexico and Utah on and
her team, so it's a lot of fun.
Alicea (03:07):
That's awesome, but in july in orlando, oh my gosh.
Ryan (03:11):
Yes, we did reflect on that a bit after the first
morning by about 10 am, when itwas 90 degrees, with humidity,
we were very thankful StetsonUniversity, where the camp was
at, though they had a grassfield.
So, okay, that was really nice.
Turf fields would have been,you know, 10 degrees or plus
(03:32):
hotter for sure, yeah, that wasgood.
Nathan (03:36):
I mean it's a great opportunity, but oh my gosh,
like, you thought being in theparks and just walking around
and, you know, standing in lineswere bad.
Try playing soccer in that kindof heat.
Ryan (03:47):
Yeah, the joke we got from some of the.
.
.
There were two coaches fromuniversities in Florida.
They kind of joked with us.
It's like, yeah, you get usedto it and we're like, how long
does it take to get used to?
Alicea (04:01):
I'm sure you acclimate after a couple of months.
.
.
I don't know how long it takesto acclimate
Nathan (04:06):
I don't know too long yeah, too long.
Alicea (04:09):
You guys got a chance to visit Ep cot the first evening
that you were in town and therewere four parks to choose from.
Why did you pick epcot?
Ryan (04:17):
So, the reason we chose epcot is we stayed at Boardwalk.
So you know one of the.
.
.
well, and so you know, one ofthe things I think is great
about doing a short trip todisney is that, if you have the
benefit of being DVC, you canoftentimes get into one of the
parks that are one of theresorts that's near a park and
not need to necessarily take thebus transportation.
Nathan (04:39):
yes
Ryan (04:40):
So that was super nice.
So we.
.
.
umSimilar to what we do when we
cruise we try to get intoBoardwalk or Beach Club or
Polynesian so that you're atleast near a park.
Or if you're lucky to get intoBoardwalk or Beach Club, you can
walk in distance to two parks.
So that was the primary reason.
Also, my kids' favorite ridehands down is Guardians.
(05:01):
Ok, fair, so if you can uhquickly get to guardians as soon
as you get on ground and in inproperty, yeah, that is.
That is key.
Nathan (05:12):
absolutely so Okay, you flew out, and then
went right to the parks, or atleast went right to epcot, like
what rides did you hit, uh?
Ryan (05:23):
So we actually I had decided that because we wanted
to get guardians for sure, andyou know there's no more virtual
queue.
I did, I did purchase theindividual lightning lane.
It was.
.
.
It was only 16, so I felt likethat was a good steal.
Nathan (05:37):
You know, it's less than the 20 it sometimes can be true
.
It's weird the math that Disneyfans start doing to justify our
life choices.
Alicea (05:45):
We do it all the time too.
Nathan (05:46):
Yes.
.
.
Ryan (05:47):
It's like oh, this is today's a good day, it's only 16
, yeah, so, um, so yeah, we.
.
.
We stopped at um boardwalk,literally just threw our bags in
our room um hit the boardwalkpizza window for you know a
slice of pizza, and then wentstraight to our individual
lightning line for for guardians.
So it was, it was great that'sa, that's a good plan.
Yeah, so you know it worked out.
(06:08):
Well, I was.
.
.
You know you always get alittle nervous flying into
orlando in the summer in theafternoon I was like, okay, how,
how late can I book thislightning lane and you know,
guarantee that I'm gonna get itright.
So that was that was reallygood.
Nathan (06:20):
Were you able to book the lightning lane while you
were, like, on the plane?
Ryan (06:24):
So because you're staying on property now, you can book
individual lightning seven daysout.
Nathan (06:29):
Oh, that's right, I forgot.
Ryan (06:30):
Yeah.
So we do have a disadvantage onthe West Coast, though, because
that opens at 4 am our time.
Yeah, so I booked an individuallightning lane for the the
thursday night.
We arrived at Epcot, right, andthen I went to get, a lightning
(06:51):
lane for Tron on Friday, yeah,magic kingdom.
And I was like, oh, I'll comeback, I'll get back and I'll,
maybe we'll do another lightninglane for Guardians on Friday as
well.
By that time I had tried tobook like the third you know,
like everything was sold out.
Alicea (07:05):
Oh wow
Ryan (07:06):
yeah, so
Nathan (07:07):
wow
Ryan (07:07):
yeah.
So you have to if you're on theWest coast here's your reminder
.
Early early alarm.
This is super early.
I did it at six, 30 in themorning too.
So yeah, details.
Nathan (07:17):
It's okay, we've done.
Yeah, details it's okay, we'vedone that.
You tried.
Alicea (07:23):
We've done that before.
More for what have we done?
Nathan (07:26):
We've done super early stuff, dining reservations yeah,
dining reservations that openedat like 8 o'clock or 7, or
maybe it was 6 o'clock in themorning, east Coast time.
.
.
it was in the middle of thenight,
Alicea (07:38):
yes
Nathan (07:38):
And I remember we were like, no, we're going back to
sleep after this, because itwasn't like you know, if it was
a five o'clock thing, I'd belike, yeah, I'm up.
Yeah, yeah, not this, not thatone.
Okay, so Epcot's also, you know,a good foodie park did you guys
(07:59):
.
.
.
?
you gotyou had a slice of pizza
beforehand, but.
.
.
?
Ryan (08:00):
Yeah, so, um, to be honest , we were, uh, we were a bit
melancholy this trip because,we're, it's in between festival
time so Flower and Garden hadjust ended, I think last the
week before, and Food and Winethey've like pushed that back
now to mid August I think,
Nathan (08:15):
It's back where it used to be.
Ryan (08:16):
Yeah, so like we walked in the parks and you see the like,
all the beautiful um, you knowlittle shops that they have
they're all boarded up andyou're like sad day we but we
did, you know, we, we, you knowwe would not be deterred.
And we did go to france and goto the get some patisserie nice
in the back, which is andhonestly I think that is like
(08:37):
the hidden gem of the FrenchPavilion
Nathan (08:40):
oh yeah, 100%
Ryan (08:41):
nobody.
.
.
I mean it's, there's always aline, but I feel like if people
actually knew how good thepastries and the sandwiches were
back there like it would belike down, like all the way out
to Chefs de France or somethinglike that.
Alicea (08:53):
It is very good.
We've done breakfast there acouple of times and are
surprised that they don't open.
It may change, though whenwe've gone.
It doesn't open when the parkopens it may change, though, um
when we've gone.
It doesn't open when the parkopens.
It's like it's like an hourlater or half hour later or
something.
But we're like, nope, we needour croissant!
Nathan (09:11):
Yeah yes, well, or in your case, Ryan, you just drown
your sorrows in a baguette.
Ryan (09:15):
Yes, yeah, so we had the napoleon and like the French um,
like fruit custard tart it wasso good.
Nathan (09:27):
I should have had lunch before we recorded, oops.
Alicea (09:33):
Did you guys stay around for the fireworks and
projection show that evening?
Ryan (09:37):
So we saw part of it.
It was actually pretty crowdedat the park that day, so by the
time we had gotten our food andwe were kind of walking out of
the French Pavilion, therewasn't a lot of space to see it,
so we caught about half of iton the, the bridge that goes
between France and the UKPavilion yes um, I definitely.
It's funny.
We were actually talking abouthow um divisive, you know,
(09:58):
harmonious was yeah, howeverybody seems to love um the
new show.
Nathan (10:02):
yes, it is uh, Luminous.
.
.
Luminous, the Symphony of Us.
.
.
tm.
What do you think of the show?
Ryan (10:11):
So we actually we liked Harmonious and we like Luminous
I think, um, I think the musicmight be just a bit better with
Luminous, but it's not likedistinctly different it, just it
feels like everyone just hatedthe barges.
Nathan (10:25):
Right, I was just about to say that I liked Harmonious.
I hated the barges, yeah.
Alicea (10:31):
No, I loved Harmonious because it took songs that
everybody knew, but they were indifferent languages for the
different cultures.
And I absolutely loved thatDisney did that yeah.
Nathan (10:44):
Yeah, so yeah, I don't want to dog on Harmonious.
Alicea (10:49):
No, I like that.
Nathan (10:49):
It was a great show, Except during the day.
You could see those stupidblack eyesores all over.
.
.
Alicea (10:55):
the floating tacos.
Nathan (10:57):
Yes, the floating tacos.
Ryan (10:58):
Yes, exactly, it's so funny because we were my
daughter and I were jokingbecause it's like you know, the
Luminous has barges, yeah rightit's just, they're just a low
profile old school barges thatthey had before, Harmonious,
Alicea (11:13):
And there used to be a big freaking globe in the middle
of the place too.
I forget what that was for shameon me.
Ryan (11:22):
Yes, for illumination.
Alicea (11:22):
Shame on me, it wasn't there the all day, though right.
Ryan (11:24):
So like they, yeah, they floated it out, like the other
ones, yeah, shame on me.
Illuminations, yes forIlluminations.
Shame on me, not knowing thename.
Nathan (11:27):
It wasn't there all day, though, right, so, like they,
they rolled it out.
Ryan (11:28):
Floated it out like the other ones, yeah
Nathan (11:30):
And they take the barges away for luminous right?
Ryan (11:33):
No, they stay there all day.
Nathan (11:34):
do they?
Alicea (11:34):
yeah, there's parts of it that come in and go away but
there's, there's parts of it,but they're all low profile.
Ryan (11:41):
Yeah, they're low, similar to the old school ones that
they had for.
.
.
Nathan (11:46):
Illuminations?
Ryan (11:46):
Yeah, you don't necessarily see them as much,
and I think everyone's just like, oh, it's such an eyesore, yeah
.
Nathan (11:52):
Well, anything's better than what.
The what was it?
The tacos?
Alicea (11:56):
Floating tacos.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Ryan (12:06):
I mean really, but how many pictures did you guys take
going across the World worldshowcase?
Nathan (12:09):
I mean, we definitely took some my favorite pictures
from the uh, from the, the gatesthere over in uh, Japan, yeah,
yeah, that's true, and that wasnot a good look,
Ryan (12:12):
true with the tacos behind floating tacos did not work
very well.
No, no okay.
Nathan (12:17):
So you made a quick stop the next day at both Epcot and
Magic Kingdom before you went tosoccer camp.
Ryan (12:24):
We did yeah, oh, and we got breakfast too.
Alicea (12:27):
I mean that's a busy morning, yeah.
Ryan (12:31):
And then Brynn went to go play soccer, so thankfully there
wasn't any games on Friday, sowe got up at Boardwalk.
And it's so funny because, likeI said earlier, it's great to
be in such a close hotel or avilla.
But you know you wake up andyou're you realize you're
(12:52):
checking out.
you've only been in the room forlike 12 hours and you're like,
oh, this is such a nice room, Icould have spent like more time
here, oh well.
Oh well, I guess we'll we'llcome back.
And then, uh, we hit uptrattoria for breakfast at um
boardwalk excellent, you know,it's one of it's been one of our
favorite, uh, restaurants forbreakfast.
(13:12):
Yeah, um been hit or miss, likeprobably the last two or three
times we've been there, honestly, but still, um, still a great
option, especially if you wantto do breakfast before you rope
drop because you have becauseyou can.
You don't even need to bestaying at Boardwalk.
Think about it.
You can like get a seven amreservation there and just Uber
over from wherever you're at.
(13:33):
And then you have breakfast andthen go rope, drop Epcot in the
back and hit up Ratatouille,that's a good plan.
Nathan (13:38):
Yeah, that's a good plan .
Speaking like a true disney prothere.
Ryan (13:46):
Yeah, not that I not that I've ever done that.
No, no, no, Yeah, so hit, hitepcot and then, uh, took the
monorail over to Magic Kingdomand you know, uh got to go on
Tron, which is always a blast.
Um, you know, I think peoplethink people talk bad about it
for some reason yeah and, butyou know, it's our probably
second favorite ride afterGuardians.
Nathan (14:07):
I I really like Tron.
I would love Tron if the ridewas 30 to 45 seconds longer or
so.
Ryan (14:14):
So you want to hear my hot take on this?
Nathan (14:16):
Yeah
Ryan (14:16):
Okay.
So I rode Tron in Shanghai so Iguess, the OG Tron right, which
is it's a clone so it's exactlythe same between Shanghai and
Magic Kingdom.
Yeah, if Disney had flipped theorder and opened Tron first,
like they originally intended,at Magic Kingdom and Guardians
second, I don't think anyonewould say anything about Tron
(14:38):
because, Guardians is.
.
.
Guardians is so long, yeah,from, uh, from a ride standpoint
, I think it's almost twominutes.
Alicea (14:44):
Yeah, yeah.
Ryan (14:45):
Um and Tron is is much more of a traditional launch
coaster, just like Rock andRoller coaster.
So everyone I think in theirminds everyone is comparing Tron
to Guardians, and so they'rethinking, oh my gosh, this is.
I've waited so long and this issuch a short ride yeah whereas
if they had opened Tron firstand then Guardians second, I
(15:06):
think Tron would get less kindof um, you know.
Alicea (15:10):
Derogatory comments about oh, this is so short.
Yeah, that makes sense, becauseyou're talking about Rock and
Roller Coaster.
Yeah, Rock and Roller Coasteris really short as well.
I mean just remembering goingon that ride.
I don't know how much longer orhow much shorter it is than
Tron, though I'm guessingthey're pretty close.
Ryan (15:26):
I'm guessing they're pretty close.
I mean, if you think about it,right it's,
Nathan (15:30):
I don't know we could look it up on the Rectangle of
Knowledge, but I'm notinterested.
Ryan (15:34):
But yeah, I mean it's because they're both launch
coasters right
Nathan (15:36):
Yeah, hmm.
You hit Tron.
.
.
Anything else over in MagicKingdom.
Ryan (15:42):
We also hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates.
Nathan (15:46):
Perfect.
Ryan (15:47):
May I recommend anyone who goes to the parks in July
definitely sprinkle in someindoor rides with AC.
Pirates was like the mostglorious experience I think I've
ever had on that ride.
It's like you, just want youknow, because Pirates is always
great because it's cool.
But like transitioning fromlike what feels like probably a
hundred degrees into Pirates isalways great because it's cool,
but transitioning from whatfeels like probably 100 degrees
into Pirates, it's like oh, thisfeels so good.
Alicea (16:10):
That has a nice indoor queue too.
Ryan (16:12):
Yes, super long indoor queue.
Alicea (16:13):
Under the entrance area.
It's nice and cool.
Ryan (16:16):
Yes, I was hoping I could see a peek of the new bar that's
going to be opening up overthere, but all the walls were
still open Okay Soon open Soon.
I did try to.
We did have a little bit oftime before our Tron lightning
links.
I did pop for that as well,sheepishly as I say that.
(16:38):
I did try to go to the DVClounge at Magic.
Kingdom because I've heardthat's pretty cool as well.
Yeah, there were like 20families on the wait list ahead
of us at noon.
So like hmm, probably not goingto get into that one.
Nathan (16:52):
I've heard it's like that.
Alicea (16:52):
I'm sure eventually it'll die down, but it's still
the bright and shiny right now,right, yeah.
Nathan (16:59):
Yeah, we talked about that when they were first
designing it and saying where itwas going and how you know we
saw, I think, some of theartists rendering is like that's
really small, like it's notlike what they have over at
Epcot, where that lounge, thatDVC lounge, is really big and
you can get a ton of people overthere.
Uh this is the opposite.
Alicea (17:19):
Yes, yeah.
Nathan (17:20):
That's small.
Alicea (17:22):
Well, you'll just have to go back and try again.
Ryan (17:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, we're going back in November, so
I can keep my fingers crossed.
Yeah, and I would say, maybejust a pro tip I just need to
give myself is to rope drop theDVC lounge as well.
Alicea (17:34):
Yeah, that's actually what I've heard for that one is
get your name on there or beprepared to wait.
Wow, now the wait lists do comethrough, because people don't
stick around, right?
Nathan (17:49):
yeah, well, at least hopefully.
Well, they're paying a lot ofmoney to be in that park.
Hopefully they didn't drop $150or $200 just to sit in a lounge
all day.
Alicea (18:00):
It's an annual pass or something True.
Nathan (18:03):
Okay, so $1,400.
There you go, yep.
Alicea (18:07):
Just sit and wait.
I mean, hey, we've done that,but that's okay.
Nathan (18:11):
All right, we've buried the lead long enough.
After the weekend camp atsoccer camp, you came back to
Disney World and got to see thepremiere of the Magic Kingdom's
new nighttime parade calledDisney Star starlight dream the
night away.
Was that just sheer dumb luckor did you know about that first
(18:32):
night happening?
Ryan (18:33):
uh, a hundred percent sheer dumb luck, I would I would
love to say that we it.
We knew about it really inadvance, but I think I realized
it about a week before we left.
I think they had announced theofficial premiere a couple weeks
ago.
Nathan (18:48):
And then I was like wait what?
Ryan (18:51):
I saw it in some TikTok or something.
I was like wait, we're going tobe there.
That's going to be the daywe're coming back to Disney.
This is going to be epic.
Alicea (19:01):
That's awesome.
It runs twice a night at 9 pmand 11 pm.
Which one did you see?
Ryan (19:06):
so we did the 11 pm, okay, um, so we, um, and it actually
worked out really well for usbecause we we came back, um, we
were staying at Yacht Club thistime, um which was awesome, you
know got to do Storm Along Bayin the the afternoon.
Uh, this is the first time I'vedone a pool in a long time but,
you know you got to jump in thepool if you're at Storm Along
Bay for sure of course um, andthen we did dinner at Tempanito
(19:31):
oh nice yeah, so that was a lotof fun.
And hit Guardians again, andthen, um, you know, we knew that
.
I knew that the 9 pm parade wasgonna be insane yeah for sure.
And so we decided, hey, um you,um you know, assuming weather
was going to be good, we'regoing to hit the 11 PM parade.
Nathan (19:47):
Yeah.
Ryan (19:48):
And so, um, you know, we left um Epcot, right as Luminous
was, kind of you know, startingup and hop the monorail and
then ended up over at Magicabout 9:40.
And so, by that point theparade for the 9 pm parade it
starts in Frontierland and runsto Main Street, ok, and they had
(20:08):
just wrapped up as we were kindof pulling in from the monorail
, from TTC OK, so you could seeall the people kind of streaming
out of the parks and everything.
Nathan (20:15):
Yeah.
Ryan (20:16):
So, and then the 11 pm parade starts at Main Street and
then goes to Frontierland.
So, for those who haven't beenat Disney Park for a parade that
runs twice, which we haven'tbeen since the last time the
night parade was in there, whichI think we looked up was like
2017, 2018.
Nathan (20:37):
It's been a while.
Alicea (20:37):
It's been a long time.
Ryan (20:39):
So we weren't sure which way it was going to go when we
got there.
But a cast member, the firstcast member we said it's like,
oh, I think it goes from MainStreet to Frontierland.
It was like, oh, that wasn'tvery confident.
Nathan (20:48):
Yeah.
Ryan (20:51):
So we asked the second cast member.
Yeah, and they confirmed thatit does start in Main Street at
the 11 pm parade, but I mean at9.40,.
When we walked into the parkthere there were people sitting
down on Main Street.
So these were people thatdidn't that had.
Well, maybe they'd watched the9 pm parade too.
They were definitely going tosit on Main.
Street for a good hour plus tocatch the parade.
Nathan (21:13):
Well, fireworks are at 10?
Ryan (21:15):
They were at 10, yeah
Nathan (21:15):
Okay, so you're getting more than just yeah, there's
more going on there.
So Disney describes this newparade as a shimmering
processional inspired by theclassic Main Street Electrical
Parade and says it's a starkestconstellation of Disney dreams,
brought to life by the magic ofthe Blue Fairy.
(21:37):
That's a lot of words.
Ryan (21:39):
I was going to say I didn't realize that was a
description that Disney gave it.
Oh yeah, truthfully, the paradelooks incredible.
I was going to say that's Ididn't realize that was a
description that Disney gave it.
Nathan (21:44):
Oh yeah um, truthfully, the parade looks incredible from
what we've seen online.
What were your firstimpressions?
Ryan (21:53):
So I I would say I didn't really know what to to expect
going into it.
I had not seen anything aboutthe parade, I didn't.
I think I maybe saw one pieceof concept art, okay, um, and I
think that was for the um, thewish float yeah with um, the new
, uh, princess from wish, yep,um.
So I really I really didn'tknow what to think.
I had vague memories of likespectro magic and the electric
(22:17):
light parade yeah um, the.
So the first thing.
So we we decided to view it inFrontierland, and so we were
kind of near where the oldshooting gallery was, yep, and
one of the intersections thatyou can cut between Frontierland
and Adventureland, so you couldsee the parade was going to
come like through Liberty Squareand then basically turn down to
(22:40):
go through Frontierland, and sowe could see where that turn
was going to happen.
And the very first float thatcomes down is the Blue Fairy
float, and when we saw it, I kidyou, not my jaw dropped, my
daughter's jaw dropped.
She turned to me with her jawstill open and we were just both
like whoa, I mean, because thisfloat is massive.
(23:04):
I mean I think a lot of timeswhen you think of Disney parades
, you think of really big, longfloats.
This is tall.
I mean easily 20 plus feet tall.
Wow, and the Blue Fairy is atthe top of that.
Nathan (23:18):
Yeah.
Ryan (23:19):
So it was definitely an amazing way to kick off a parade
, definitely set the tone, Ithink, for, with all those you
know, put putting all thosewords into action yes, for sure,
yeah, um, and so that was.
It was definitely a like, a verylike cool opening sequence that
they did for that
Nathan (23:38):
yeah
Alicea (23:39):
I'm gonna take a minute and just list all the floats,
because there's a fair amount ofthem.
It starts off, like you said,with the blue fairy uh, looking
like she's flying through thenight, spreading magic all
around.
The next float is the wishfloat with Asha and Valentino,
the little goat dude.
After that is the encanto float, has Mirabelle, Isabella and
(24:01):
Bruno.
Then we have a frozen floatwhich is Elsa on it.
Just Elsa, right?
Ryan (24:06):
Yes, just Elsa.
Alicea (24:08):
Then we have a Royal Princesses float.
It has Aurora, Sleeping Beauty,Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and
Friends, so the princes that goalong with all the princesses,
followed by the Coco float,which has Miguel Dante and a
giant Pepita, which is that?
What does I call them?
(24:29):
The Abrejos or the spiritanimals?
Ryan (24:32):
Yes, it's the giant cat.
Alicea (24:34):
The giant cat with the wings?
Ryan (24:35):
Yes, it looks like a multicolored panther or
something with wings.
Alicea (24:39):
Next float is the Moana float.
It has Moana and Pua and Heihei, followed by the Peter Pan
float with Peter and Wendy, andTinkerbell is leading the way
and the grand finale train floatis Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy,
Snow White and Dopey, Rapunzeland Flynn, Aladdin and Jasmine,
and Mickey and Minnie.
That's a lot of floats.
Ryan (24:59):
That's a lot of floats, it was.
Alicea (25:00):
Did you have a favorite?
Ryan (25:02):
Oh man, lot of floats it was.
Oh man, um.
So I think honestly, like Iwould say the ones that that
really stood out, um was themoana float.
Um was probably one of thefirst ones that kind of popped
out my head, because, um, thethe front of the float has um,
the grandmother, um,
Nathan (25:23):
Grandma Tala
Ryan (25:24):
Yeah, Grandma Tala's in the.
.
.
in her manta ray form and sothat was that was really cool.
Um, and then the wish float wasreally neat too, because they,
um, you know well, the bluefairy float, I think, kind of
sets the, the tone for theparade.
I think that the wish, float umwith asha and they have like
some cool led synchronizationhappening.
I think kind of brings to light, you know, the whole like idea
(25:45):
of starlight and wishing onstars and everything like that.
So that was.
That was really neat.
But I mean, every, every floatin the parade is so well done,
yeah, um, and everyone has kindof little details in it that I
think are really cool.
Um, like the last float, whichis all the characters, um,
including like a couple of theprincesses, um, you know, Flynn
(26:06):
Rider and and Rapunzel are on itand they have the lantern like
one of the lit up lanterns.
Um, so that was really cool tokind of see them like have for
sure yeah,
Nathan (26:17):
what did you think of the music?
Ryan (26:19):
So I thought the music was really good.
Um they, they sprinkle in alittle bit of the old school
electric light parade music inthere.
It was so funny when it washappening.
I kept hearing the riffs of itthrough the show and I was like
why do I know that?
Why do I know that music?
And so when I got back to ourhotel I was like, oh okay, yeah,
(26:41):
they did sprinkle some of the.
They worked it in really well,and so if you've seen spectra
magic or you've seen theelectrical light parade, you'll
kind of hear the jinglethroughout, and that's pretty
cool yeah great.
Alicea (26:53):
Did you happen to get the new special popcorn inspired
by the disney starlight parade?
Ryan (26:58):
we did not um.
There was apparently specialpopcorn and special pins.
Oh that we missed out on.
And so I was a bit bummed bythat, but we did get a pretty
cool photo.
The PhotoPass people were out inforce.
I'm not sure if they could dothis at every parade, but I saw
more PhotoPass people kind ofalong a single area that I've
(27:20):
never seen, and they had one ofthose sign boards with the name
of the parade on it that youcould hold and take a picture
and it had a little bit ofDisney magic in the picture.
When you got it your picture waskind of outlined with the blue
fairy and stuff.
So that was really cute Neat.
So yeah, it's like probablylike 30 PhotoPass people along
(27:42):
the Frontierland part of theroute, just back there.
Nathan (27:45):
Yeah, holy cow, yeah, that's a lot.
Alicea (27:47):
That is a lot.
Nathan (27:49):
There's no way they're committing to that kind of
staffing for every night.
Alicea (27:52):
No, I'm guessing it was for opening night.
Nathan (27:53):
That was for opening, yeah
Alicea (27:54):
Because you know there had to be a crap ton of content
creators there.
Ryan (27:58):
Oh yeah, I saw it was so funny because when we, when we
were looking for our initialspot, um, you know, it was still
probably because the paradestarts on main street so it
doesn't get to Frontierlanduntil like 10, and it was like
probably like 11, 20 by the timeit turned that corner, yeah.
But there were already peoplelined up in Frontierland and
(28:19):
like pretty much they were allcontent creators.
They had, you know, their boommics.
They had.
I don't know.
I mean, they weren't selfiesticks, so I guess that you can
bring in like a full tripod andeverything.
But, they were all lined up toget their perfect shot for
whatever content they wereplanning to make or create.
Nathan (28:36):
I want to circle back to the popcorn just for a second
Alicea (28:39):
yeah, I figured you were going to
Nathan (28:40):
yeah.
Okay.
So, in true Disney fashion,they describe this as a star
kissed mix.
Sure, whateverY'all, it's, it's bubble gum and
blue raspberry candied popcornwith chocolate, m&ms mini
marshmallows and a whitechocolate drizzle.
Like what?
Alicea (29:01):
it's pink and blue.
Ryan (29:04):
Okay, but have you been to the confectionary's?
Make your own popcorn thing atMagic Kingdom.
Alicea (29:09):
I have.
I haven't made my own, but I'veseen it.
Ryan (29:11):
Have you ever seen it?
We've done that.
Nathan (29:14):
It's amazing I'm just the old guy sitting on my porch,
but popcorn's supposed to beyellow and slightly buttery and
salty.
Alicea (29:23):
Oh, no, no no no, you are.
Ryan (29:25):
You are missing out, Nathan.
Nathan (29:27):
Okay, I'm missing out.
Like I don't like kettle corneither, so I will mix M&Ms with
my popcorn occasionally.
Alicea (29:33):
I like the salty and sweet mix, yeah.
Nathan (29:36):
Sorry, it's just not, it's just that's just not me.
Ryan (29:41):
I mean, If they can mass produce that popcorn in the way
that you can make your ownpopcorn at the confectionery,
it's got potential.
Nathan (29:48):
Okay, I'll take your word for it.
Alicea (29:50):
Tell you what next time we go, we'll go to the
confectionery.
Kaitlyn has to be with us,though, because she likes sweet
popcorn too.
Nathan (29:56):
Okay.
Alicea (29:57):
And we'll do a mix.
You can watch the mix.
You probably won't partake init.
Nathan (30:02):
I was going to say I can't wait, but I can wait, I
can absolutely wait for that
Alicea (30:07):
All right.
Lastly, you swung by HollywoodStudios the next day before
heading to the airport.
What was on your hit list there?
Ryan (30:17):
So we really didn't have anything planned out.
We ended up sleeping in a bit,as you can imagine after my
daughter had a soccer match onthat Sunday and then we drove
back to the parks and everything.
So we didn't actually roll outof Yacht Club until like almost
11.
So we did not accomplish ourroad-dropping goals that day.
(30:38):
So we just went over to kind ofsee what was going on.
So we initially tried to hitTower of Terror.
It was only a 30-minute wait,which sounded great, but then
half the elevators went down andit went to 100 minutes and we
were standing in that outdoorqueuing area in the sun.
You just feel all the heat sinkinto you and it's like, ok,
let's go find something else.
(30:58):
So hit Star Tours
Nathan (31:00):
classic
Ryan (31:00):
10-minute wait.
Lots of great AC once again Gotto hit that AC.
Hit star tours, you knowclassic, yeah, 10 minute wait,
lots of great ac once again.
Alicea (31:03):
Yeah, gotta hit that ac.
Ryan (31:06):
Um, and then we uh decided to.
We saw that Toy Story Mania wasdown.
Yeah, we're like let's, let'sgo like hang out by Toy Story
Mania and see if if it comesback up after about waiting for
about five minutes outside ToyStory Mania.
We we got we opened it back up,so walk on at like 1230 in the
afternoon.
Only happens if you're smartand you kind of wait it out.
Nathan (31:30):
I think that was our play the last time we were in
parks with you guys.
Alicea (31:34):
Webslingers.
Nathan (31:34):
It was Webslingers we had seen you and you guys were
trying to get on and it keptgoing down and we're like, well,
we'll just head that way, and Ithink you all had given up, and
then we waited for maybe 10minutes and then yeah well it's
the games we play,
Ryan (31:48):
yeah and then, and then we realized that the new village
stage show had opened.
Yeah, because we had totallyforgotten about that um, and so
we, we walked over to um thevillain stage show and caught
that, which is it's a bit out ofthe way.
So if you don't know where itis, you're probably never, you
probably wouldn't find it onyour own yeah because all the
way tucked behind, basicallyalmost behind, rock and roller
(32:08):
coaster and tower of terror.
Nathan (32:09):
But yep, so this is disney villains unfairly ever
after.
It includes cruella deville,captain hook and maleficent uh.
They evicted lightning mcqueenand took over the theater there
next to Rock and Roller Coaster.
What'd you think of the show?
Ryan (32:27):
I thought it was great.
I really had no concept of whatit was going to be coming in.
All I had seen was you knowthey were doing this new show.
It runs every 30 minutes whichis actually a pretty.
That's a lot for a live stageshow, but um, but it was great.
Um, the uh.
(32:48):
It's basically like emceed bythe magic mirror from the evil
queen and nice.
They have, um, all of the allthe villains kind of behind
mirrors and then maleficentcaptain hook and cruella break
through the mirrors becausethey're all trying to convince
the audience who was mostunjustly, unfairly talked about
(33:10):
and misunderstood.
Nathan (33:12):
Sure, they're all misunderstood.
Alicea (33:14):
Maleficent, definitely
Nathan (33:17):
Yean, her name doesn't mean a nything.
Ryan (33:19):
Yeah.
Nathan (33:21):
Anyway, how long was the show then?
Ryan (33:24):
It was 20 minutes
Nathan (33:25):
wow
Alicea (33:25):
That was a very fast turnaround
Ryan (33:27):
Yeah so we were actually.
.
.
I was actually super surprisedbecause I saw that it was um
every 30 minutes, which wasgreat, because I was like, oh,
this is probably gonna, weprobably can't get into the
first show we go to right soit's like awesome, so we don't
have to wait too long.
But we we walked in at like itwas like 1:20, and the show was
just getting out.
And I was like oh wow, and I'mlike how are we going to?
(33:48):
But yeah, they have it down tolike a science.
I mean it's Disney, so Ishouldn't have been surprised.
But yeah, they got everybody outof the theater, Everybody sat
and the show started maybe 10seconds late.
Nathan (33:58):
Wow, yeah, that's incredible yeah.
Did they keep the bench seatingfrom when it was um?
Ryan (34:05):
No, it's.
It's now individual seats.
Nathan (34:07):
Okay, okay okay, wow, so you've got individual seats and
they're able to turn that wholeplace around in 10 minutes.
That's, that's impressive.
I mean, that is the kind ofefficiency of Disney of how to
do crowd control and move peoplearound.
Ryan (34:21):
That's impressive yeah, I was.
I was super impressed with howquickly we went from being in
the outdoor queue to being inthe building in in our seats,
and it's a pretty big theater.
If you haven't been there, it'snot small.
Nathan (34:36):
We've been there when it was still Lightning.
We haven't been there forUnfairly Ever After yet.
Alicea (34:44):
No, no, it wasn't open last time we were there so next
year, next time we're there,when are we?
Nathan (34:49):
june
Alicea (34:49):
yeah, june
Nathan (34:51):
oh no, we're not gonna see it
Alicea (34:53):
at some point we'll see, at some point we will see it
yeah
Ryan (34:56):
well, hopefully, hopefully it's still there, because you
never know a stage show yeah,it's
Nathan (35:00):
very true
Ryan (35:00):
yeah, but yeah, I think that, um, I don't know if it's
the new and the novelty orwhatever, but it was, it was a
full house, nice, yeah, so, anddefinitely, you know, um, the
pacing was great again, you know, and and yeah we.
We walked out of there sayinglike, hey, can't wait to to come
back in november and see withthe family that's awesome family
.
Nathan (35:17):
So, yeah, fantastic uh.
Any other highlights from thetrip we haven't talked about.
Ryan (35:23):
No, I think we pretty much covered everything.
You know, I think the you knowif you're going to do just kind
of one or two days in the parksbookending, you know it's.
Obviously having an annual passor being DVC is a huge benefit
because, you can get those perksIf you're going to do it, you
know, by with like a hard ticket.
you know, definitely put a plantogether would be the only thing
(35:43):
I say, because yeah well, thecrowds weren't as bad as I
thought, because I think kind ofdisney's kind of you know kind
of level loaded their crowds.
Now, pretty much um.
You know it's still.
.
.
Rides were still anywhere from30 to 60 minutes in most of the
parks so you have to kind ofhave a plan to get done
Nathan (35:58):
yep, you guys did so much yeah on top of like you
didn't have a lot of shouldertime in before and after the
soccer tournament or theirsoccer camp plus the whole
soccer camp, like I'm imaginingyour daughter just collapsed and
slept like ever since you'vebeen back, and probably on the
plane ride too.
Ryan (36:18):
like yeah, yeah, we definitely uh we.
I basically told her like youknow, this is your, you know
your bonus part of the tripbecause of you, know what you,
you know what you did and howhard you worked.
So you know we'll go for aslittle or as long as you want,
and you know, I think thatDisney kids find a way to rally
(36:41):
you know Because you know, Iasked her several times okay,
you sure you want to stay uptill 11 and go to the parade?
And she's like, oh yeah, no,we're going.
I'm like okay, and so you know.
But yeah, I think she is fullyback in teenager mode now.
You, know, I think she slepttill noon today.
Nathan (36:58):
So definitely still recovering, probably Excellent.
Well, we were going to haveBrynn here, but she's a little
under the weather.
She's lost her voice thismorning when she woke up, so it
doesn't.
Unfortunately, doesn't workwell with the podcast.
Ryan (37:12):
Nope, hard to mime
Nathan (37:13):
yeah, exactly exactly, so we'll have Brynn on again,
for sure.
So what's next?
Ryan (37:27):
So next is we do our annual November trip, yeah, to
Disney World.
So we always do Thanksgivingdown at Disney with um, friends
and and my mom, and then we uh,we're coming up on our final
payment for the Christmas cruiseon the Treasure which is going
to be exciting.
We've never done any kind ofspecial cruise on disney cruise
lines.
Alicea (37:41):
Um, wow,
Ryan (37:42):
yeah, so super excited.
We generally cruise in February, but realized that we had some
conflicts with soccer and otherstuff in 2026.
So it's like, okay, well, howare we gonna make this work?
It's like kids are old enoughto be away from the house for
Christmas.
How?
about a Christmas cruise.
So excited for that.
Alicea (38:00):
Oh, that's gonna be amazing.
We love the christmas cruisesand we'll be very interested to
hear how, how the Treasure doesa christmas cruise yeah, yeah
like is there?
Is there gonna be a gingerbreadhouse or what's the christmas
tree gonna look like?
Yeah, well, we will have tohave you all back on afterwards
for sure.
Nathan (38:18):
What kind of mischief to Coriander and Sage get up to I
know it's gonna's going to begood.
Ryan (38:22):
It's going to be exciting.
Nathan (38:24):
Okay, now I'm jealous.
Hey, can we?
No, no, we can't, never mind.
Alicea (38:29):
No, we've got something in November.
Sorry, that's true.
Ryan (38:33):
There might still be space .
Nathan (38:35):
Our dance card is full.
Alicea (38:36):
We've got so many things planned right now.
Nathan (38:38):
Yeah, we do.
We do, we do.
Well, Ryan, thanks again forcoming on.
We'll have you back.
Ryan (38:44):
Yeah, thank you for having me Appreciate it
Nathan (38:46):
Excellent.
Well, remember we're notaffiliated with Disney or their
subsidiaries.
These are personal opinions andsuggestions based on our own
experiences.
We recommend working with atravel agent or contacting
Disney directly to plan yourperfect vacation.
Alicea (39:00):
If you have any questions or suggestions or
would like to be interviewed onour show to share your own
Disney experiences, please sendan email to podcast at
ourmousecapades.
com.
Nathan (39:09):
Go ahead and follow us on social media.
We're at Our Mousecapades.
You can find us on Instagram,Facebook Threads and YouTube.
Alicea (39:16):
Please give us a rating and review in your podcast app.
It really helps people to findus.
Nathan (39:21):
And, of course, don't hesitate to share us with your
friends and fellow Disney loversof all ages.
Alicea (39:26):
Thank you for listening.
We'll be in your ears next week.
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