October 27, 2025 • 34 mins
The monorail doors slide open and we step into a milestone: 200 episodes of Adventures and Mouscapades! What began as two Disney fans recording the conversations we were already having has become a tight-knit community, a growing library of trip reports and DVC reviews, and a surprising bridge to guests we once thought were out of reach. We pull back the curtain on how we make the show, what we’ve learned over the last 4 years, and why we still chase the spark that makes a park day, a cruise, or a cast member story unforgettable.
We revisit favorite conversations—from performers who changed how we view parades to fellow podcasters who sharpened our planning game—and share the episodes that resonated most. Aulani led our charts, Alaska cruise tales kept pace, and our D23 recap with Scott Gustin reminded us that clear, grounded news analysis always finds an audience. Along the way we talk honestly about the work behind each episode: the two-to-three hours of editing per hour of tape, the decision to keep YouTube simple for podcast listeners, and the reality that social media is still a work in progress.
Then we look forward. More DVC resort reviews, design-your-perfect-day games, and “golden ticket” constraints are coming. Our calendar is stacked with fresh fuel for the feed: a November cruise, a family sailing in February, a spring break stop in Anaheim, and a summer Florida trip topped off by a bucket-list Fourth of July fireworks view from a Polynesian bungalow. We’re also eyeing the Disney Destiny and a nostalgic return to St. Maarten. Through it all, the goal stays the same: practical planning tips, honest stories, and the kind of warmth that makes even a small show feel like home.
Want to be part of it? Pitch your trip, share your Disney wins and misses, or hop on the mic for a guest spot. Subscribe, leave a review to help others find us, and share this episode with a Disney friend who needs a smile. Your stories keep this train moving—where should we go next?
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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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea.
Nathan (00:25):
And I'm Nathan.
Alicea (00:26):
Welcome to episode 200 of Adventures and Mouscapades.
Oh my gosh.
Sorry.
Nathan (00:36):
Starting this one off with a bang.
Alicea (00:37):
Oh yeah.
Nathan (00:39):
Alicea did some co-pilot work here.
Um, this says, uh, welcome backto Adventures and Mascapades,
where every story is sprinkledwith pixie dust, and every
episode is a journey into theheart of Disney magic.
Wow.
Alicea (00:54):
Disney copy right there.
Nathan (00:56):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, Alicea, what are wetalking about today?
Alicea (01:00):
Well, today's episode is extra special because we are
celebrating 200 episodes.
Nathan (01:06):
Good grief.
Alicea (01:06):
That is 200 stories, 200 laughs, or maybe a little more.
Nathan (01:11):
A few more.
Alicea (01:11):
200 moments of magic shared with you, our incredible
listeners.
Whether you've been with ussince the beginning or just
hopped on board the monorailnow, we are so glad that you are
here.
Nathan (01:22):
So grab your Mickey ears, maybe uh a churro or a
dole whip, and let's take astroll down memory lane, peek
behind the curtain, and dreamabout what's next.
After all, this is Adventuresand Mouscapades episode 200.
Celebration of magic,milestones, and mouse capades,
(01:42):
and other things that begin withthe letter M.
Alicea (01:45):
Mmm.
Nathan (01:45):
Mmm.
Alicea (01:47):
Most definitely.
Nathan (01:48):
Most definitely.
Well, before we get too farinto this, I also want to take
just a half a second andacknowledge that this is the
first time that we have recordedan episode for like our
mainline feed, like in real timein like almost three months.
Because Alicea went off anddecided to go have uh open heart
(02:12):
surgery.
Alicea (02:12):
I decided to, yeah.
It was
okay.
Needed to have open heartsurgery.
There we go.
Nathan (02:18):
There we go.
Um back at the end of August.
And so we had banked a wholebunch of episodes leading up to
that.
And uh we are back.
We are live.
It is Friday, October 24th at6.20 p.m.
As I spout these words into amicrophone and they're captured
digitally and then recorded, andthen I'll edit it later, and
(02:38):
then it'll go up on Monday.
Anyway, welcome back, Alicea.
Alicea (02:43):
Thank you.
I didn't go very far.
Nathan (02:45):
Okay, fair enough.
Alicea (02:47):
I've been here the whole time.
Nathan (02:50):
I see what you did there, Sam Reich.
Anyway, it's good to be back inthe groove.
Um, I'm glad you are doing soincredibly well.
And uh let's do an episode,shall we?
Alicea (03:03):
All right.
Nathan (03:03):
All right, where do you want to start this?
Alicea (03:06):
Origin story.
The origin story.
Nathan (03:10):
Once upon a time.
Alicea (03:12):
Once upon a podcast.
Nathan (03:14):
Ah, I see what you did there.
Alicea (03:16):
It all started with a microphone, a dream, and a deep
love for Disney storytelling.
Nathan (03:20):
Oh God, you've got to get off the co-pilot crack.
Alicea (03:26):
How did this start?
Nathan (03:28):
Um, we kept having all of these conversations about
what was going on in thewonderful world of Disney.
And you and you said, we shouldjust record these and do a
podcast.
And I said, okay, and proceededto go buy some microphones and
a podcast recorder and talk tosome friends who are uh uh music
(03:52):
engineers and figure out howthe heck to do this.
And yeah, uh all almost fouryears later, here we are.
Alicea (04:00):
Yeah, it was it was all to um help with your tech
obsession.
Nathan (04:05):
That's right.
I needed more excuses to buymore gadgets.
So for that, I thank you.
Mission accomplished.
Have all the gadgets.
Alicea (04:17):
I think we weren't exactly sure entirely what we
would do.
Like we knew we'd do tripreports, like we'd go through a
back catalog and figure maybethat's it.
We'll just go through ourtrips.
Nathan (04:27):
Yeah.
Alicea (04:28):
We've done a lot of that.
Nathan (04:29):
We have.
Yeah.
Uh I remember thinking, oh no,we're gonna run out of uh trip
reports.
We better figure out somethingelse to do with this show.
And quickly that pivoted intowhen the heck are we gonna have
time to finish all of our oldtrip reports?
Yeah.
I think it took us like two anda half, almost three years to
(04:51):
get through all of our backcatalog of uh of travel.
So we we did we did pretty goodcoming up with some other ideas
and things to talk about.
Alicea (04:59):
Yeah.
I mean, we've navigated theever-changing Disney landscape
of terminology.
Yeah.
Fastpass to Genie Plus toLightning Lane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan (05:12):
We've talked about Bob and then we talked about Bob
replacing Bob.
And now we're talking about apost-Bob era that sh seems to be
coming soon.
Alicea (05:21):
It should be.
Nathan (05:22):
It's gonna come eventually.
Yeah.
By the way, we're we're talkingabout the CEO.
We went from Iger to Chapek toIger again, and now we're
looking at Josh question mark.
Alicea (05:34):
I don't know.
Nathan (05:35):
We'll see.
Alicea (05:35):
There's a couple different options.
Nathan (05:37):
Indeed, there are.
Alicea (05:38):
Obviously.
Nathan (05:38):
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Alicea (05:40):
One of the biggest lessons learned.
I can't keep my volumeconsistent.
That's the biggest lessonlearned.
Nathan (05:50):
Um
Alicea (05:51):
that is a point of contention for you, my dear.
Nathan (05:55):
I I love you.
Alicea (05:56):
I love you too.
Nathan (05:58):
Wait, can you say that a little louder?
Alicea (06:02):
No.
Nathan (06:03):
No, okay, great.
Um for me, I think it iscontinually how long it takes to
put an episode together afterwe've recorded it.
And that is simply a matter ofme being a wee little bit of a
perfectionist and not knowingwhen to say when.
(06:24):
And so I will start on an editand I will trim ums and pauses
and all sorts of things and tryto strike a balance between
making it seem conversationalversus just letting it naturally
flow, which is going to havesome ums and some weird pauses.
For every hour that we record,it is a good two to three of me
(06:49):
sitting with my computer andworking on it to get that
episode finalized and thenfiguring out what we're gonna do
for uh the episode picture,putting a YouTube video together
and all the rest of that stuff.
Like it just takes time.
I think the the best way Icould I could uh encapsulate all
(07:10):
this is you and I were talkinga little while ago.
I think this was right afteryour surgery, and we were all
back home.
And Sterling, uh, our son, forthose who are new, he's 14.
Uh, his computer uh and his uhthat he uses to do some
schoolwork and let's just behonest and play a couple games
here and there, was just runningdog slow.
And I thought to myself, and Ithink I said to you, like, maybe
(07:33):
I should just give him mydesktop because it's not like
I'm using that anymore, and it'sa pretty decent gaming machine.
Now it's you know almost sixyears old now, but it's still a
really good computer, should begreat for that stuff.
And you said, Well, what's thedownside?
I was like, Well, no realdownside.
Like, I don't play flightsimulator stuff anymore.
(07:54):
And you said, Well, why don'tyou do flight stuff anymore?
I was like, Well, because youhad a great idea of starting a
podcast, that's where all myfree time went.
Alicea (08:02):
As I see all your flight simulator stuff behind you
there.
Nathan (08:05):
Oh, I I haven't given it up.
It's just I I haven't playedit.
I still have all the hardware.
It looks great on the shelf.
Yes, it does.
Um thankfully I have dustcovers for everything.
But it takes more time.
But it's fine.
I it's a good thing.
I love I love all the storieswe get to tell.
(08:25):
I love the amazing people we'vemet.
Yeah.
It's yeah, it's prettyincredible.
Alicea (08:32):
I think the biggest lesson learned for me is I love
doing this very much.
And every once in a while Ithink about why don't we do like
video or something like that orvlogging?
And I'm like, well, we're goodat talking if we have a script
in front of us.
Nathan (08:51):
Yeah.
Alicea (08:52):
But all the vloggers are very much narrating their
lives, and we do not do that.
We do not.
Nathan (08:58):
We do not do that.
Alicea (08:59):
I am not a great conversationalist, and here we
are walking over toFrontierland.
No, I can't do that.
I'm just like, I'm just gonnawalk.
We'll just go there.
Nathan (09:11):
Yeah, I I don't want to necessarily uh talk about how
amazing this piece of chicken orsomething like that looks from
some food booth at Food and WineFestival and talk about all the
different flavors.
I just want to go like, oh,that's pretty.
Man, it tastes great too.
All right, next.
Yes, like that is not gonna becompelling on YouTube.
(09:33):
No, no.
Alicea (09:34):
And we've had our our um discussions on food before and
and talking about it.
And I'm my descriptions arecrap.
It's like it tastes reallygood.
It's it's um it's juicy, it'sit's tasty, it's I would get
this again.
That is my that is mydescriptions.
Nathan (09:54):
Yeah, so uh, you know, our our our podcast episodes,
they are on YouTube, but it'sjust a static image because
there's a lot of folks wholisten to podcasts on YouTube.
So we are trying to beavailable wherever uh your
podcasts are sold?
Sure, we'll go with that.
What have you kind ofdiscovered, Alicea?
(10:19):
Like what's one thing thatyou've, you know, you talked
about a like a lesson learned,but what's a a surprising thing
that you've learned about, youknow, this process or other
people or Disney Ana or maybeeven just yourself?
Like what's surprising you?
Alicea (10:35):
I'm crap at social media.
Nathan (10:39):
Wow.
You can try to be positive.
Alicea (10:42):
No, no, no, no, no.
I just I know I am.
Like I have all these granddesigns of what I want to do,
and I just cannot pull thetrigger on it, and just I'm I'm
not good at that portion of it.
I'm fine with talking withfolks and and speaking about
things, but the other parts ofit, I'm just I'm not.
And I wish I was.
(11:03):
I wish, I wish I could just goand do like a post a day or
something like that.
I'm just I don't know how to doit.
Nathan (11:12):
The number of times that we have started a social media
calendar, yeah, and then that'sgone out the window within a
couple, two, three weeks ishilarious.
Alicea (11:23):
Yeah.
Just getting all the contenttogether and figure figuring out
what to do.
Nathan (11:29):
Yeah.
Alicea (11:30):
Like we have all these wonderful little videos and
photos and stuff that we do.
And I don't know, I guess Icould just post pictures.
That's something at least.
But I feel like it needs to bemore.
Maybe it doesn't need to bemore.
I don't know.
Nathan (11:46):
I don't think it needs to be a lot more.
Alicea (11:49):
Yeah.
Nathan (11:49):
But I encourage you to keep trying.
Alicea (11:52):
I think the problem is I'm not good at it, like making
it look pretty, and that bothersthe heck out of me because I
can tell you if something looksgood or does not look good.
But getting myself to make itlook good, um I can't seem to do
that.
I do not have uh the creativeknowledge to do it, but I
(12:15):
definitely have opinions on ifit looks good or not.
Nathan (12:18):
You have a vision, but you don't know how to execute.
Alicea (12:20):
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nathan (12:21):
Keep trying.
You'll get there.
You'll get there.
But for me, I've discoveredthat reaching out to somebody
and saying, Hey, I have thispodcast.
Would you be interested intalking with us?
Opens so many doors and is sucha great crowbar to not just
(12:43):
open a conversation with astranger, but open a
conversation with a strangerfrom the position of us being
relative introverts.
It's really, really amazing.
I there are so many guests thatwe've had on that I am just
flabbergasted that we've had hadon.
Yeah.
And there's no way you couldn'tjust go broach and have a
(13:08):
conversation with some of thesefolks without having at least
something to rely on.
Yeah.
Because they're not gonna it'snot that they're mean or don't
care, it's just they're busy.
So it's been a really amazingframework.
I I yeah, I I've loved that.
And I've been very surprised athow I don't want to sound like
(13:31):
I'm tooting my own horn, butlike I actually like it.
Like I've really enjoyedgetting to know lots of
different people in all of theinterviews, and yeah, it's it's
uh I'm kind of proud of myself.
Alicea (13:44):
Yeah, we're yeah.
I mean, we've we've coldcontacted a couple of folks and
had people come on, and it'sjust amazing that we get to do
that.
Nathan (13:56):
Yeah.
Alicea (13:56):
And that and that they'll talk to us.
There's been some that haven'tpanned out, unfortunately, but
that's okay too.
Nathan (14:06):
Yeah.
We've still tried.
Alicea (14:08):
Oh yeah.
Nathan (14:08):
Yeah.
Joe Roadie, we're still readyand available if you ever get
the moment.
Alicea (14:14):
I haven't reached out directly to him.
Nathan (14:16):
We did talk to him in person.
Alicea (14:17):
We did.
We gave him our card, but butactually contacting him, I
haven't done that.
Nathan (14:22):
The time may have passed.
Alicea (14:24):
Because yes, I'm sure it has.
I don't know his stuff, his uhemail, sorry.
Nathan (14:28):
He's on Instagram.
Alicea (14:30):
Yes, he is.
Nathan (14:34):
Do you have any highlights from the past 199
episodes that stick out in yourbrain?
Alicea (14:42):
I really like talking with other podcasters.
I think that is really fun.
Uh just hearing their storiesand their trips and and how they
see things or or theirexperiences, I should say.
Nathan (14:57):
Yeah.
Alicea (14:57):
Um, and it it may sound weird, but they know how to
talk.
And sometimes it goes a littlemore smoothly that way.
Nathan (15:08):
It does make a little bit of a difference uh with some
people that they're just morecomfortable talking.
Alicea (15:16):
Not not to say that folks that don't do podcasts are
not good guests, because theydefinitely are.
But no, I think it's it's funjust talking with with folks
that are are doing the same typeof thing that we are, you know.
What about you?
Is there anything that standsout in in your mind?
Nathan (15:36):
Um I'm I'm scrolling back through kind of our episode
list here.
I think talking to Rob Lott wasamazing.
The um uh Disney performer,well, not just Disney, but like
he his take on life in generalis fantastic.
With you, like the the talkingwith all of the other podcasters
(16:00):
that we've gotten a chance totalk to has just been absolutely
fantastic.
It has given us a whole new uhjust a perspective on on what
we're doing when we're in theparks or when we're on a cruise.
We're paying more attention tothings.
Um I I I really love thatperspective, and it doesn't
(16:23):
really feel like a job.
It does sometimes if we've letour schedule get away from us,
and I'm yeah, you know, we'rehaving to record and then edit
and do everything on like aSunday afternoon to get
everything posted by uh bymidnight.
Uh that sometimes I questionour choices.
(16:43):
Um, you know, I I don't knowhow people who put multiple
episodes out a week do it uh andstill have other full-time
jobs.
That's insane to me.
Alicea (16:53):
I I can tell you.
Nathan (16:54):
Yeah, they hire out.
Alicea (16:55):
They hire out, they have a set schedule, and they don't
edit.
Nathan (17:00):
Yeah.
Um that's that's that's notgonna happen.
That's not gonna happen.
We don't we're still reallysmall.
Alicea (17:12):
Oh, yeah.
Nathan (17:13):
You know, we'll get a few hundred downloads a week.
There's a lot of folks who whojoin and then go through back
catalog and stuff like that.
So, you know, if I look at thelast few, you know, like couple
months of episodes, you know,we're a hundred to two hundred
range, somewhere in there uh ofdownloads per episode.
(17:34):
So it's not like a ton ofpeople.
And therefore, you know, it'snot that we need a revenue
stream, but if I'm gonna hireout, I need a revenue stream to
I don't think we need to hireout.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Um, no, you don't think we needto hire out.
I just need to do nothing elseother than podcast and work.
(17:54):
No, but I think the episodethat I'm perhaps most proud of
is the one that we did about aweek and a half after you had
surgery.
How you shared yourperspectives and your your
outlook on everything, and youshared what was going on from
(18:17):
the heart.
And I hope that that can reallyhelp other people who may be
going through similar things,you know, an aortic aneurysm or
really any kind of open heartsurgery or or major surgery of
any kind.
Like you have such a greatperspective on things, and I
(18:39):
loved that episode.
I think it was a great chanceto connect on special.
And I think my dad we we had mydad on too a couple summers
ago, and that was fantastic.
Yeah, um, but honestly, likeall of our guests have been
fantastic.
Alicea (18:55):
Yes.
We've had about 45 differentguests on the show.
Nathan (19:00):
Yeah.
Alicea (19:00):
And I think seven or eight of them have been repeat
guests.
But yeah, that's that's prettygood.
Yeah.
I love talking with folks abouttheir experiences, about their
trips, about um their thoughtsand dreams, and and anything
Disney in some epic universe,too.
Yeah.
You said you had some stats infront of you.
Nathan (19:23):
Yeah, I do.
Alicea (19:24):
What are our most downloaded episodes, most
listened to episodes?
Nathan (19:29):
We evidently are the source, and this is this goes
true on on our our directdownloads and on YouTube too.
By far our most popular episodeis 172, our DVC resort review
of Alani.
Oh, like we have over 300episodes or 300 downloads of
(19:50):
that, and I want to say it's Idon't know, there's it's like a
hundred download or a hundredviews or something like that on
YouTube.
Again, we're small potatoes,folks.
Yes.
Um our um our total cumulativedownloads is creeping up on
18,000.
Um, just for uh comparison, uh,I know DCL Duo is about a
(20:15):
year-ish older than us in termsof their podcast.
Um, they do multiple episodes aweek.
Yes.
And they have a sponsorshipfrom a travel agency.
So there's a lot of stuff goingthrough, but they're fantastic
and they get themselves outthere and they do a bunch of
stuff.
Yeah.
And Brian quipped, I don'tknow, I want to say it was a
month or so ago that they'reclosing in on a million total
(20:39):
downloads.
So, like, just perspective,everybody.
Like, we are small potatoes.
Um, uh, you know, I always wealways joked when we first
started.
It was like, hi, mom.
Um, yeah, you know, it's it'smoms and cousins at this point
and some friends, but you know,we're not huge, but that's okay.
(20:59):
That's that's not where whatwe're in here to do.
Alicea (21:02):
There's others.
It's not just it's not justfamily.
Nathan (21:05):
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Uh so Al Lani uh resort reviewis big.
The second spot is tied uh 186,the Disney Wonder of Alaska,
which was a fairly recentepisode with Amy, who's one of
our listeners.
Hi, Amy.
(21:25):
Hi, yeah, uh that is episode186, and it is it is tied for
second place with 195 downloads,and that one just came out um
what, a couple months ago.
So, like it's it's prettyrecent.
And then we also have our bigD23 recap show from last year,
(21:47):
uh last summer with Scott Gustinis is also there tied for
second place.
So uh, and then our uh episode59 about Plan Disney with Amy
Adams, uh not that Amy Adams,the other Amy Adams.
Uh the one we're yeah, PlanDisney is Amy Adams, not not the
Disney actress Amy Adams.
Although they're very similar,I've never seen the two of them
(22:08):
in the same room at the sametime.
So you never know.
Uh uh that one's up there.
And then our first episode onthe Disney treasure um is is up
there as well.
So I will say that over half,52% of all of our listeners are
listening on Apple Podcasts, andthen 14% is on Overcast, and
(22:29):
just eight percent is onSpotify, which is interesting.
I have heard Spotify was a muchbigger thing, but oh, it it it
is it well, at least for us,it's not as huge.
Uh Amazon music is up there,and then uh just listening on
our webpage is is up there too.
So um yeah, hello, fellowiPhone users.
(22:50):
I mean, because overcast isonly on iPhones.
So between Oh really?
Yeah.
So it's 52% on directly onApple Podcasts and 14% on
Overcast.
Uh so that's m Math 66% is isum yeah, is is on the the Apple
(23:10):
ecosystem.
So um uh welcome, blue bubblefamily.
Alicea (23:14):
There you go.
How do we plan episodes?
Kind of go go behind the mousecapades here.
Nathan (23:21):
Oh boy.
Uh we meeny miny mo.
Yeah, we spin the wheel.
Um we come up with ideas.
We have a big backlog of ofjust show ideas, of of people
we've talked to, folks that wewant to reach out to.
Uh we use a um kind of aproject planning tool called
(23:42):
Trello.
It has a bunch of cards on whatit calls boards.
Think of these as big columns,and we just throw all of our
ideas into the first column,which is aptly named ideas.
I know we're original.
And then once we kind of bubblethat out of the ideation phase,
yes, big PME word there, uh, itgoes into the coming soon
(24:06):
category, which basically meansit's uh going to be in fruition.
This is our plan of what we'regonna be doing.
Then we'll have in production,that is stuff that has been
recorded and needs me to go editit and and all sorts of stuff.
And then we have done.
And that that is fairlyself-descriptive, I think.
(24:27):
Yes.
But yeah, we have all sorts ofideas that we both come up with,
and lots of people that we wantto get interviews with or have
says said they're interested.
And um, yeah, we'll we'll getaround.
We have uh a couple folks whoare we are hot on their heels
and uh trying to get them on.
Some have had some someblocking issues uh with being
(24:51):
allowed to come on a podcast,but we're working through those.
And uh I don't know what youwanted me to say here.
We just we just plan, we comeup with ideas.
Alicea (25:00):
Come up with ideas.
We always talk about our tripsthat we're going on or that we
have recently gone on, and wealways like to talk to you all
too.
We like to hear about yourtrips.
Nathan (25:10):
Absolutely.
Alicea (25:10):
So if you have any recent, let us know.
We'd love to chat with you onhow it went.
Nathan (25:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
We occasionally it had beenquarterly.
I think we've missed one ortwo, but we'll do uh uh what we
call our our quarterly newsreviews, quarter or qdr's
quarterly Disney review, uh justkind of recapping what's been
going on in the the house ofmouse.
You know, we've we've lovedkeeping up with Scott Gustin,
(25:38):
especially around the D23s andtalking about what's going on
there.
Uh, if you don't follow Scott,uh he's primarily on Twitter,
although he does cross post overon threads every once in a
while, too.
Uh, just a fantastic, verywell-grounded, very well sourced
uh news source for what's goingon uh from Disney.
(25:59):
And we have lots of current andformer cast members that we
want to go talk to and showideas on, you know, not just our
own trips, but other people'strips.
We'll put pins into things likeuh a specific event is
happening, and so we'll put adate in there.
We know we want to talk aboutthat.
But yeah, we just kind of wingit to a certain degree.
Alicea (26:24):
We do a bit, we do a bit of everything.
We do some planning, there'sspontaneity, there's it's all
over the place.
It's like a regular Disneytrip.
Nathan (26:32):
Yeah.
And then when it comes down todoing interviews, um, we've
recently started to um to haveCopilot help us out a little bit
in terms of coming up withquestions.
And I will say they have beenvery well aligned to the stuff
that we have been asking anyway.
(26:52):
It and of course we add to it.
We kind of have a format wewant to take a template out.
Alicea (26:58):
Yeah, we could put a template, say here's what we
have.
Nathan (27:01):
Right.
Well, and we also will just addand and tweak as needed because
we know we want to start offwith what's your Disney
background and kind of givepeople context of what we're
talking about and then dive in.
If it's a trip report,oftentimes we'll go kind of
chronologically through thattrip.
If it's somebody's first timebeing on the podcast, uh Alicea
(27:24):
is going to grill them with heruh Disney faves and torture
test.
And you know, it's a little bittemplatized, but I think that
structure helps guide theconversation.
And one thing that we alwaystalk to whoever we're
interviewing is say, hey, thisis this is an informal
conversation.
Yes, we have some questionswritten out that we want to get
(27:47):
to, but the order that we get tothem in is kind of up to the
flow of the conversation.
It helps us not let theconversation die uh or or get
stagnant or or kind of go toofar off the rails.
But um, we're also uh veryhappy to go off those rails and
take tangents wherever uhwherever they fit in.
Alicea (28:09):
So what's next?
Nathan (28:12):
Um that's a great question.
Um, this is the last thing andcoming soon.
So I have no idea what we'redoing next week yet.
Alicea (28:21):
No, no, no, no, no.
I didn't mean I meant for thefuture.
Nathan (28:30):
The future.
More of the same.
I mean, in a good way.
I love that we're still doingour DVC resort reviews.
We have several of those thatwe still want to do.
We have some kind of formatsthat we have started to do.
Like, hey, let's design kind ofgames, if you will.
(28:50):
Like, what's our perfect day atthis park or that park?
Or uh we did the goldentickets.
We have another uh run throughthe golden tickets that we want
to do and kind of up the ante,if you will, and try to make
that much more difficult onourselves to figure out what we
would choose.
And hopefully you guys uh athome or in your car or wherever
(29:10):
you're listening to this, enjoythose kind of things.
And uh we have trip reports,we've got a cruise ourselves
coming up here in uh just a fewweeks in uh mid-November.
We've got another cruise uhthat we're taking Sterling on
this time in February over themidwinter break.
(29:31):
We have a trip to Anaheimcoming up in April for spring
break, and Sterling has uh anevent down there as well.
And then we've got a big familytrip once the kids are both out
of uh of school or be eighthgrade or college uh in June.
And uh we're going to Floridaand can't wait to see all of our
(29:52):
friends down there and do sometime in the parks.
We have just an incredibleopportunity to Have the Fourth
of July spent at the Polynesianin a bungalow.
Yep.
Um, and and that is that is the250th anniversary of the United
States.
Yep.
(30:12):
And uh that will be a fireworksshow for the ages.
Uh we will have lots of ourfriends over and and family as
well.
Uh, we are very excited aboutthat.
We're also squeezing a cruisein on the brand new Disney
Destiny that will be our goingout in just a couple of weeks
here.
(30:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, but that'll be our firsttime on the Destiny, and we're
we happened to snag the timeworked out for a uh a
seven-night itinerary on there.
The Destiny's primarily doing,I think, fours and fives or
fives and sixes or somethinglike that.
Alicea (30:46):
With a couple seven nights, yeah.
Nathan (30:48):
There's a couple sevens, and and that worked out, so
we're really excited about that.
Uh, it'll actually, it's anEastern Caribbean, but it's uh
uh uh that's actually going toSt.
Martin, which Disney hasn'tgone to in a long time.
Uh we did uh visit St.
Martin in I think our secondever cruise.
Alicea (31:07):
Was that where we did the regatta?
Nathan (31:09):
Yes, that's where we did the 12-meter America's Cup uh
sailing yacht regatta.
Uh you better believe I aminterested in doing that again.
Um yeah, I I'm I'm reallyexcited for for what's coming up
here in the next year.
And uh yeah, we have we haveall sorts of surprises planned,
and and if we told you aboutwhat those are, um they wouldn't
(31:32):
be a surprise anymore.
So I don't even know what we'retalking about here.
Alicea (31:36):
Oh my goodness.
Nathan (31:36):
Excellent.
Alicea (31:37):
Perfect.
Nathan (31:40):
Yeah, so that's kind of what's next, at least from my
perspective.
Did I miss anything that you'rethinking of?
Alicea (31:46):
No, I mean there's I mean, there's always stuff we
could talk about and figure outif there's stuff we want to do.
Listeners, if there's anythingyou want us to talk about or any
ideas you have, please let usknow.
Nathan (32:00):
Yeah.
Alicea, what's your do you havekind of a vision for what you
want the next hundred episodes,the next two years roughly to to
look like?
Alicea (32:09):
I want to talk with more people.
Nathan (32:11):
Yeah.
Alicea (32:12):
I want to visit the parks and go on cruises and talk
about those.
Nathan (32:15):
Okay.
Alicea (32:16):
There we go.
That's it.
Nathan (32:17):
Sounds like a plan.
I think we could do that.
Yes.
We can absolutely do that.
Well, that is your call toaction, everybody.
Uh, we really want to hear fromyou.
Please uh reach out.
Just like Amy, you could youcould dethrone Amy as as our
number two podcast ever.
Like, come on.
She she just reached out.
You know, we're always lookingfor people to come on.
(32:39):
Uh, you could be that nextcontestant here on the prices
right.
This is not the prices right.
No, but uh one dollar.
But no, uh seriously, come on.
We love hearing your stories,we love talking with you, we
love getting uh a chance to meetwith you.
And um, yeah, please reach outto us.
Podcast at our mousecapades.comis how to reach us or hit us up
(33:02):
on socials.
We will get back to you.
I I know Alicea's not good atsocial media, but I'll make sure
that we we don't let those uhDMs go unanswered.
Okay, fair enough.
Fair enough.
You do, you do, you do.
Alicea (33:15):
Instagram, Facebook, put a note on there, we'll respond.
Nathan (33:18):
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, don't forget toleave reviews.
Uh, please join our community.
We're we're thinking about somesome community things that we
may start doing.
We just have to have time tothink through all these things.
And yeah, this weekend isprobably not that uh weekend to
go do that because we have allsorts of stuff to do this
weekend.
Alicea (33:38):
We do.
Nathan (33:38):
Yeah, life, life, life gets busy.
Well, with all that, pleasejust remember that uh we are
here for you.
Please reach out to us.
Um, we'd love to hear from youon social media or an email,
podcast at our mousecapades.com.
You can follow us on socials.
We're at our mousecapadespretty much everywhere.
(34:00):
Again, we're on Instagram,Facebook, threads, and YouTube.
And of course, don't forget toleave a rating and a review in
your podcast app.
That really does help thealgorithm send people our way.
Alicea (34:13):
Thank you for listening.
We'll be in your ears nextweek.
Thank you for flying StarTours.
Bye bye.
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea.
Nathan (00:25):
And I'm Nathan.
Alicea (00:26):
Welcome to episode 200 of Adventures and Mouscapades.
Oh my gosh.
Sorry.
Nathan (00:36):
Starting this one off with a bang.
Alicea (00:37):
Oh yeah.
Nathan (00:39):
Alicea did some co-pilot work here.
Um, this says, uh, welcome backto Adventures and Mascapades,
where every story is sprinkledwith pixie dust, and every
episode is a journey into theheart of Disney magic.
Wow.
Alicea (00:54):
Disney copy right there.
Nathan (00:56):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, Alicea, what are wetalking about today?
Alicea (01:00):
Well, today's episode is extra special because we are
celebrating 200 episodes.
Nathan (01:06):
Good grief.
Alicea (01:06):
That is 200 stories, 200 laughs, or maybe a little more.
Nathan (01:11):
A few more.
Alicea (01:11):
200 moments of magic shared with you, our incredible
listeners.
Whether you've been with ussince the beginning or just
hopped on board the monorailnow, we are so glad that you are
here.
Nathan (01:22):
So grab your Mickey ears, maybe uh a churro or a
dole whip, and let's take astroll down memory lane, peek
behind the curtain, and dreamabout what's next.
After all, this is Adventuresand Mouscapades episode 200.
Celebration of magic,milestones, and mouse capades,
(01:42):
and other things that begin withthe letter M.
Alicea (01:45):
Mmm.
Nathan (01:45):
Mmm.
Alicea (01:47):
Most definitely.
Nathan (01:48):
Most definitely.
Well, before we get too farinto this, I also want to take
just a half a second andacknowledge that this is the
first time that we have recordedan episode for like our
mainline feed, like in real timein like almost three months.
Because Alicea went off anddecided to go have uh open heart
(02:12):
surgery.
Alicea (02:12):
I decided to, yeah.
It was
okay.
Needed to have open heartsurgery.
There we go.
Nathan (02:18):
There we go.
Um back at the end of August.
And so we had banked a wholebunch of episodes leading up to
that.
And uh we are back.
We are live.
It is Friday, October 24th at6.20 p.m.
As I spout these words into amicrophone and they're captured
digitally and then recorded, andthen I'll edit it later, and
(02:38):
then it'll go up on Monday.
Anyway, welcome back, Alicea.
Alicea (02:43):
Thank you.
I didn't go very far.
Nathan (02:45):
Okay, fair enough.
Alicea (02:47):
I've been here the whole time.
Nathan (02:50):
I see what you did there, Sam Reich.
Anyway, it's good to be back inthe groove.
Um, I'm glad you are doing soincredibly well.
And uh let's do an episode,shall we?
Alicea (03:03):
All right.
Nathan (03:03):
All right, where do you want to start this?
Alicea (03:06):
Origin story.
The origin story.
Nathan (03:10):
Once upon a time.
Alicea (03:12):
Once upon a podcast.
Nathan (03:14):
Ah, I see what you did there.
Alicea (03:16):
It all started with a microphone, a dream, and a deep
love for Disney storytelling.
Nathan (03:20):
Oh God, you've got to get off the co-pilot crack.
Alicea (03:26):
How did this start?
Nathan (03:28):
Um, we kept having all of these conversations about
what was going on in thewonderful world of Disney.
And you and you said, we shouldjust record these and do a
podcast.
And I said, okay, and proceededto go buy some microphones and
a podcast recorder and talk tosome friends who are uh uh music
(03:52):
engineers and figure out howthe heck to do this.
And yeah, uh all almost fouryears later, here we are.
Alicea (04:00):
Yeah, it was it was all to um help with your tech
obsession.
Nathan (04:05):
That's right.
I needed more excuses to buymore gadgets.
So for that, I thank you.
Mission accomplished.
Have all the gadgets.
Alicea (04:17):
I think we weren't exactly sure entirely what we
would do.
Like we knew we'd do tripreports, like we'd go through a
back catalog and figure maybethat's it.
We'll just go through ourtrips.
Nathan (04:27):
Yeah.
Alicea (04:28):
We've done a lot of that.
Nathan (04:29):
We have.
Yeah.
Uh I remember thinking, oh no,we're gonna run out of uh trip
reports.
We better figure out somethingelse to do with this show.
And quickly that pivoted intowhen the heck are we gonna have
time to finish all of our oldtrip reports?
Yeah.
I think it took us like two anda half, almost three years to
(04:51):
get through all of our backcatalog of uh of travel.
So we we did we did pretty goodcoming up with some other ideas
and things to talk about.
Alicea (04:59):
Yeah.
I mean, we've navigated theever-changing Disney landscape
of terminology.
Yeah.
Fastpass to Genie Plus toLightning Lane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan (05:12):
We've talked about Bob and then we talked about Bob
replacing Bob.
And now we're talking about apost-Bob era that sh seems to be
coming soon.
Alicea (05:21):
It should be.
Nathan (05:22):
It's gonna come eventually.
Yeah.
By the way, we're we're talkingabout the CEO.
We went from Iger to Chapek toIger again, and now we're
looking at Josh question mark.
Alicea (05:34):
I don't know.
Nathan (05:35):
We'll see.
Alicea (05:35):
There's a couple different options.
Nathan (05:37):
Indeed, there are.
Alicea (05:38):
Obviously.
Nathan (05:38):
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Alicea (05:40):
One of the biggest lessons learned.
I can't keep my volumeconsistent.
That's the biggest lessonlearned.
Nathan (05:50):
Um
Alicea (05:51):
that is a point of contention for you, my dear.
Nathan (05:55):
I I love you.
Alicea (05:56):
I love you too.
Nathan (05:58):
Wait, can you say that a little louder?
Alicea (06:02):
No.
Nathan (06:03):
No, okay, great.
Um for me, I think it iscontinually how long it takes to
put an episode together afterwe've recorded it.
And that is simply a matter ofme being a wee little bit of a
perfectionist and not knowingwhen to say when.
(06:24):
And so I will start on an editand I will trim ums and pauses
and all sorts of things and tryto strike a balance between
making it seem conversationalversus just letting it naturally
flow, which is going to havesome ums and some weird pauses.
For every hour that we record,it is a good two to three of me
(06:49):
sitting with my computer andworking on it to get that
episode finalized and thenfiguring out what we're gonna do
for uh the episode picture,putting a YouTube video together
and all the rest of that stuff.
Like it just takes time.
I think the the best way Icould I could uh encapsulate all
(07:10):
this is you and I were talkinga little while ago.
I think this was right afteryour surgery, and we were all
back home.
And Sterling, uh, our son, forthose who are new, he's 14.
Uh, his computer uh and his uhthat he uses to do some
schoolwork and let's just behonest and play a couple games
here and there, was just runningdog slow.
And I thought to myself, and Ithink I said to you, like, maybe
(07:33):
I should just give him mydesktop because it's not like
I'm using that anymore, and it'sa pretty decent gaming machine.
Now it's you know almost sixyears old now, but it's still a
really good computer, should begreat for that stuff.
And you said, Well, what's thedownside?
I was like, Well, no realdownside.
Like, I don't play flightsimulator stuff anymore.
(07:54):
And you said, Well, why don'tyou do flight stuff anymore?
I was like, Well, because youhad a great idea of starting a
podcast, that's where all myfree time went.
Alicea (08:02):
As I see all your flight simulator stuff behind you
there.
Nathan (08:05):
Oh, I I haven't given it up.
It's just I I haven't playedit.
I still have all the hardware.
It looks great on the shelf.
Yes, it does.
Um thankfully I have dustcovers for everything.
But it takes more time.
But it's fine.
I it's a good thing.
I love I love all the storieswe get to tell.
(08:25):
I love the amazing people we'vemet.
Yeah.
It's yeah, it's prettyincredible.
Alicea (08:32):
I think the biggest lesson learned for me is I love
doing this very much.
And every once in a while Ithink about why don't we do like
video or something like that orvlogging?
And I'm like, well, we're goodat talking if we have a script
in front of us.
Nathan (08:51):
Yeah.
Alicea (08:52):
But all the vloggers are very much narrating their
lives, and we do not do that.
We do not.
Nathan (08:58):
We do not do that.
Alicea (08:59):
I am not a great conversationalist, and here we
are walking over toFrontierland.
No, I can't do that.
I'm just like, I'm just gonnawalk.
We'll just go there.
Nathan (09:11):
Yeah, I I don't want to necessarily uh talk about how
amazing this piece of chicken orsomething like that looks from
some food booth at Food and WineFestival and talk about all the
different flavors.
I just want to go like, oh,that's pretty.
Man, it tastes great too.
All right, next.
Yes, like that is not gonna becompelling on YouTube.
(09:33):
No, no.
Alicea (09:34):
And we've had our our um discussions on food before and
and talking about it.
And I'm my descriptions arecrap.
It's like it tastes reallygood.
It's it's um it's juicy, it'sit's tasty, it's I would get
this again.
That is my that is mydescriptions.
Nathan (09:54):
Yeah, so uh, you know, our our our podcast episodes,
they are on YouTube, but it'sjust a static image because
there's a lot of folks wholisten to podcasts on YouTube.
So we are trying to beavailable wherever uh your
podcasts are sold?
Sure, we'll go with that.
What have you kind ofdiscovered, Alicea?
(10:19):
Like what's one thing thatyou've, you know, you talked
about a like a lesson learned,but what's a a surprising thing
that you've learned about, youknow, this process or other
people or Disney Ana or maybeeven just yourself?
Like what's surprising you?
Alicea (10:35):
I'm crap at social media.
Nathan (10:39):
Wow.
You can try to be positive.
Alicea (10:42):
No, no, no, no, no.
I just I know I am.
Like I have all these granddesigns of what I want to do,
and I just cannot pull thetrigger on it, and just I'm I'm
not good at that portion of it.
I'm fine with talking withfolks and and speaking about
things, but the other parts ofit, I'm just I'm not.
And I wish I was.
(11:03):
I wish, I wish I could just goand do like a post a day or
something like that.
I'm just I don't know how to doit.
Nathan (11:12):
The number of times that we have started a social media
calendar, yeah, and then that'sgone out the window within a
couple, two, three weeks ishilarious.
Alicea (11:23):
Yeah.
Just getting all the contenttogether and figure figuring out
what to do.
Nathan (11:29):
Yeah.
Alicea (11:30):
Like we have all these wonderful little videos and
photos and stuff that we do.
And I don't know, I guess Icould just post pictures.
That's something at least.
But I feel like it needs to bemore.
Maybe it doesn't need to bemore.
I don't know.
Nathan (11:46):
I don't think it needs to be a lot more.
Alicea (11:49):
Yeah.
Nathan (11:49):
But I encourage you to keep trying.
Alicea (11:52):
I think the problem is I'm not good at it, like making
it look pretty, and that bothersthe heck out of me because I
can tell you if something looksgood or does not look good.
But getting myself to make itlook good, um I can't seem to do
that.
I do not have uh the creativeknowledge to do it, but I
(12:15):
definitely have opinions on ifit looks good or not.
Nathan (12:18):
You have a vision, but you don't know how to execute.
Alicea (12:20):
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nathan (12:21):
Keep trying.
You'll get there.
You'll get there.
But for me, I've discoveredthat reaching out to somebody
and saying, Hey, I have thispodcast.
Would you be interested intalking with us?
Opens so many doors and is sucha great crowbar to not just
(12:43):
open a conversation with astranger, but open a
conversation with a strangerfrom the position of us being
relative introverts.
It's really, really amazing.
I there are so many guests thatwe've had on that I am just
flabbergasted that we've had hadon.
Yeah.
And there's no way you couldn'tjust go broach and have a
(13:08):
conversation with some of thesefolks without having at least
something to rely on.
Yeah.
Because they're not gonna it'snot that they're mean or don't
care, it's just they're busy.
So it's been a really amazingframework.
I I yeah, I I've loved that.
And I've been very surprised athow I don't want to sound like
(13:31):
I'm tooting my own horn, butlike I actually like it.
Like I've really enjoyedgetting to know lots of
different people in all of theinterviews, and yeah, it's it's
uh I'm kind of proud of myself.
Alicea (13:44):
Yeah, we're yeah.
I mean, we've we've coldcontacted a couple of folks and
had people come on, and it'sjust amazing that we get to do
that.
Nathan (13:56):
Yeah.
Alicea (13:56):
And that and that they'll talk to us.
There's been some that haven'tpanned out, unfortunately, but
that's okay too.
Nathan (14:06):
Yeah.
We've still tried.
Alicea (14:08):
Oh yeah.
Nathan (14:08):
Yeah.
Joe Roadie, we're still readyand available if you ever get
the moment.
Alicea (14:14):
I haven't reached out directly to him.
Nathan (14:16):
We did talk to him in person.
Alicea (14:17):
We did.
We gave him our card, but butactually contacting him, I
haven't done that.
Nathan (14:22):
The time may have passed.
Alicea (14:24):
Because yes, I'm sure it has.
I don't know his stuff, his uhemail, sorry.
Nathan (14:28):
He's on Instagram.
Alicea (14:30):
Yes, he is.
Nathan (14:34):
Do you have any highlights from the past 199
episodes that stick out in yourbrain?
Alicea (14:42):
I really like talking with other podcasters.
I think that is really fun.
Uh just hearing their storiesand their trips and and how they
see things or or theirexperiences, I should say.
Nathan (14:57):
Yeah.
Alicea (14:57):
Um, and it it may sound weird, but they know how to
talk.
And sometimes it goes a littlemore smoothly that way.
Nathan (15:08):
It does make a little bit of a difference uh with some
people that they're just morecomfortable talking.
Alicea (15:16):
Not not to say that folks that don't do podcasts are
not good guests, because theydefinitely are.
But no, I think it's it's funjust talking with with folks
that are are doing the same typeof thing that we are, you know.
What about you?
Is there anything that standsout in in your mind?
Nathan (15:36):
Um I'm I'm scrolling back through kind of our episode
list here.
I think talking to Rob Lott wasamazing.
The um uh Disney performer,well, not just Disney, but like
he his take on life in generalis fantastic.
With you, like the the talkingwith all of the other podcasters
(16:00):
that we've gotten a chance totalk to has just been absolutely
fantastic.
It has given us a whole new uhjust a perspective on on what
we're doing when we're in theparks or when we're on a cruise.
We're paying more attention tothings.
Um I I I really love thatperspective, and it doesn't
(16:23):
really feel like a job.
It does sometimes if we've letour schedule get away from us,
and I'm yeah, you know, we'rehaving to record and then edit
and do everything on like aSunday afternoon to get
everything posted by uh bymidnight.
Uh that sometimes I questionour choices.
(16:43):
Um, you know, I I don't knowhow people who put multiple
episodes out a week do it uh andstill have other full-time
jobs.
That's insane to me.
Alicea (16:53):
I I can tell you.
Nathan (16:54):
Yeah, they hire out.
Alicea (16:55):
They hire out, they have a set schedule, and they don't
edit.
Nathan (17:00):
Yeah.
Um that's that's that's notgonna happen.
That's not gonna happen.
We don't we're still reallysmall.
Alicea (17:12):
Oh, yeah.
Nathan (17:13):
You know, we'll get a few hundred downloads a week.
There's a lot of folks who whojoin and then go through back
catalog and stuff like that.
So, you know, if I look at thelast few, you know, like couple
months of episodes, you know,we're a hundred to two hundred
range, somewhere in there uh ofdownloads per episode.
(17:34):
So it's not like a ton ofpeople.
And therefore, you know, it'snot that we need a revenue
stream, but if I'm gonna hireout, I need a revenue stream to
I don't think we need to hireout.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Um, no, you don't think we needto hire out.
I just need to do nothing elseother than podcast and work.
(17:54):
No, but I think the episodethat I'm perhaps most proud of
is the one that we did about aweek and a half after you had
surgery.
How you shared yourperspectives and your your
outlook on everything, and youshared what was going on from
(18:17):
the heart.
And I hope that that can reallyhelp other people who may be
going through similar things,you know, an aortic aneurysm or
really any kind of open heartsurgery or or major surgery of
any kind.
Like you have such a greatperspective on things, and I
(18:39):
loved that episode.
I think it was a great chanceto connect on special.
And I think my dad we we had mydad on too a couple summers
ago, and that was fantastic.
Yeah, um, but honestly, likeall of our guests have been
fantastic.
Alicea (18:55):
Yes.
We've had about 45 differentguests on the show.
Nathan (19:00):
Yeah.
Alicea (19:00):
And I think seven or eight of them have been repeat
guests.
But yeah, that's that's prettygood.
Yeah.
I love talking with folks abouttheir experiences, about their
trips, about um their thoughtsand dreams, and and anything
Disney in some epic universe,too.
Yeah.
You said you had some stats infront of you.
Nathan (19:23):
Yeah, I do.
Alicea (19:24):
What are our most downloaded episodes, most
listened to episodes?
Nathan (19:29):
We evidently are the source, and this is this goes
true on on our our directdownloads and on YouTube too.
By far our most popular episodeis 172, our DVC resort review
of Alani.
Oh, like we have over 300episodes or 300 downloads of
(19:50):
that, and I want to say it's Idon't know, there's it's like a
hundred download or a hundredviews or something like that on
YouTube.
Again, we're small potatoes,folks.
Yes.
Um our um our total cumulativedownloads is creeping up on
18,000.
Um, just for uh comparison, uh,I know DCL Duo is about a
(20:15):
year-ish older than us in termsof their podcast.
Um, they do multiple episodes aweek.
Yes.
And they have a sponsorshipfrom a travel agency.
So there's a lot of stuff goingthrough, but they're fantastic
and they get themselves outthere and they do a bunch of
stuff.
Yeah.
And Brian quipped, I don'tknow, I want to say it was a
month or so ago that they'reclosing in on a million total
(20:39):
downloads.
So, like, just perspective,everybody.
Like, we are small potatoes.
Um, uh, you know, I always wealways joked when we first
started.
It was like, hi, mom.
Um, yeah, you know, it's it'smoms and cousins at this point
and some friends, but you know,we're not huge, but that's okay.
(20:59):
That's that's not where whatwe're in here to do.
Alicea (21:02):
There's others.
It's not just it's not justfamily.
Nathan (21:05):
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Uh so Al Lani uh resort reviewis big.
The second spot is tied uh 186,the Disney Wonder of Alaska,
which was a fairly recentepisode with Amy, who's one of
our listeners.
Hi, Amy.
(21:25):
Hi, yeah, uh that is episode186, and it is it is tied for
second place with 195 downloads,and that one just came out um
what, a couple months ago.
So, like it's it's prettyrecent.
And then we also have our bigD23 recap show from last year,
(21:47):
uh last summer with Scott Gustinis is also there tied for
second place.
So uh, and then our uh episode59 about Plan Disney with Amy
Adams, uh not that Amy Adams,the other Amy Adams.
Uh the one we're yeah, PlanDisney is Amy Adams, not not the
Disney actress Amy Adams.
Although they're very similar,I've never seen the two of them
(22:08):
in the same room at the sametime.
So you never know.
Uh uh that one's up there.
And then our first episode onthe Disney treasure um is is up
there as well.
So I will say that over half,52% of all of our listeners are
listening on Apple Podcasts, andthen 14% is on Overcast, and
(22:29):
just eight percent is onSpotify, which is interesting.
I have heard Spotify was a muchbigger thing, but oh, it it it
is it well, at least for us,it's not as huge.
Uh Amazon music is up there,and then uh just listening on
our webpage is is up there too.
So um yeah, hello, fellowiPhone users.
(22:50):
I mean, because overcast isonly on iPhones.
So between Oh really?
Yeah.
So it's 52% on directly onApple Podcasts and 14% on
Overcast.
Uh so that's m Math 66% is isum yeah, is is on the the Apple
(23:10):
ecosystem.
So um uh welcome, blue bubblefamily.
Alicea (23:14):
There you go.
How do we plan episodes?
Kind of go go behind the mousecapades here.
Nathan (23:21):
Oh boy.
Uh we meeny miny mo.
Yeah, we spin the wheel.
Um we come up with ideas.
We have a big backlog of ofjust show ideas, of of people
we've talked to, folks that wewant to reach out to.
Uh we use a um kind of aproject planning tool called
(23:42):
Trello.
It has a bunch of cards on whatit calls boards.
Think of these as big columns,and we just throw all of our
ideas into the first column,which is aptly named ideas.
I know we're original.
And then once we kind of bubblethat out of the ideation phase,
yes, big PME word there, uh, itgoes into the coming soon
(24:06):
category, which basically meansit's uh going to be in fruition.
This is our plan of what we'regonna be doing.
Then we'll have in production,that is stuff that has been
recorded and needs me to go editit and and all sorts of stuff.
And then we have done.
And that that is fairlyself-descriptive, I think.
(24:27):
Yes.
But yeah, we have all sorts ofideas that we both come up with,
and lots of people that we wantto get interviews with or have
says said they're interested.
And um, yeah, we'll we'll getaround.
We have uh a couple folks whoare we are hot on their heels
and uh trying to get them on.
Some have had some someblocking issues uh with being
(24:51):
allowed to come on a podcast,but we're working through those.
And uh I don't know what youwanted me to say here.
We just we just plan, we comeup with ideas.
Alicea (25:00):
Come up with ideas.
We always talk about our tripsthat we're going on or that we
have recently gone on, and wealways like to talk to you all
too.
We like to hear about yourtrips.
Nathan (25:10):
Absolutely.
Alicea (25:10):
So if you have any recent, let us know.
We'd love to chat with you onhow it went.
Nathan (25:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
We occasionally it had beenquarterly.
I think we've missed one ortwo, but we'll do uh uh what we
call our our quarterly newsreviews, quarter or qdr's
quarterly Disney review, uh justkind of recapping what's been
going on in the the house ofmouse.
You know, we've we've lovedkeeping up with Scott Gustin,
(25:38):
especially around the D23s andtalking about what's going on
there.
Uh, if you don't follow Scott,uh he's primarily on Twitter,
although he does cross post overon threads every once in a
while, too.
Uh, just a fantastic, verywell-grounded, very well sourced
uh news source for what's goingon uh from Disney.
(25:59):
And we have lots of current andformer cast members that we
want to go talk to and showideas on, you know, not just our
own trips, but other people'strips.
We'll put pins into things likeuh a specific event is
happening, and so we'll put adate in there.
We know we want to talk aboutthat.
But yeah, we just kind of wingit to a certain degree.
Alicea (26:24):
We do a bit, we do a bit of everything.
We do some planning, there'sspontaneity, there's it's all
over the place.
It's like a regular Disneytrip.
Nathan (26:32):
Yeah.
And then when it comes down todoing interviews, um, we've
recently started to um to haveCopilot help us out a little bit
in terms of coming up withquestions.
And I will say they have beenvery well aligned to the stuff
that we have been asking anyway.
(26:52):
It and of course we add to it.
We kind of have a format wewant to take a template out.
Alicea (26:58):
Yeah, we could put a template, say here's what we
have.
Nathan (27:01):
Right.
Well, and we also will just addand and tweak as needed because
we know we want to start offwith what's your Disney
background and kind of givepeople context of what we're
talking about and then dive in.
If it's a trip report,oftentimes we'll go kind of
chronologically through thattrip.
If it's somebody's first timebeing on the podcast, uh Alicea
(27:24):
is going to grill them with heruh Disney faves and torture
test.
And you know, it's a little bittemplatized, but I think that
structure helps guide theconversation.
And one thing that we alwaystalk to whoever we're
interviewing is say, hey, thisis this is an informal
conversation.
Yes, we have some questionswritten out that we want to get
(27:47):
to, but the order that we get tothem in is kind of up to the
flow of the conversation.
It helps us not let theconversation die uh or or get
stagnant or or kind of go toofar off the rails.
But um, we're also uh veryhappy to go off those rails and
take tangents wherever uhwherever they fit in.
Alicea (28:09):
So what's next?
Nathan (28:12):
Um that's a great question.
Um, this is the last thing andcoming soon.
So I have no idea what we'redoing next week yet.
Alicea (28:21):
No, no, no, no, no.
I didn't mean I meant for thefuture.
Nathan (28:30):
The future.
More of the same.
I mean, in a good way.
I love that we're still doingour DVC resort reviews.
We have several of those thatwe still want to do.
We have some kind of formatsthat we have started to do.
Like, hey, let's design kind ofgames, if you will.
(28:50):
Like, what's our perfect day atthis park or that park?
Or uh we did the goldentickets.
We have another uh run throughthe golden tickets that we want
to do and kind of up the ante,if you will, and try to make
that much more difficult onourselves to figure out what we
would choose.
And hopefully you guys uh athome or in your car or wherever
(29:10):
you're listening to this, enjoythose kind of things.
And uh we have trip reports,we've got a cruise ourselves
coming up here in uh just a fewweeks in uh mid-November.
We've got another cruise uhthat we're taking Sterling on
this time in February over themidwinter break.
(29:31):
We have a trip to Anaheimcoming up in April for spring
break, and Sterling has uh anevent down there as well.
And then we've got a big familytrip once the kids are both out
of uh of school or be eighthgrade or college uh in June.
And uh we're going to Floridaand can't wait to see all of our
(29:52):
friends down there and do sometime in the parks.
We have just an incredibleopportunity to Have the Fourth
of July spent at the Polynesianin a bungalow.
Yep.
Um, and and that is that is the250th anniversary of the United
States.
Yep.
(30:12):
And uh that will be a fireworksshow for the ages.
Uh we will have lots of ourfriends over and and family as
well.
Uh, we are very excited aboutthat.
We're also squeezing a cruisein on the brand new Disney
Destiny that will be our goingout in just a couple of weeks
here.
(30:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, but that'll be our firsttime on the Destiny, and we're
we happened to snag the timeworked out for a uh a
seven-night itinerary on there.
The Destiny's primarily doing,I think, fours and fives or
fives and sixes or somethinglike that.
Alicea (30:46):
With a couple seven nights, yeah.
Nathan (30:48):
There's a couple sevens, and and that worked out, so
we're really excited about that.
Uh, it'll actually, it's anEastern Caribbean, but it's uh
uh uh that's actually going toSt.
Martin, which Disney hasn'tgone to in a long time.
Uh we did uh visit St.
Martin in I think our secondever cruise.
Alicea (31:07):
Was that where we did the regatta?
Nathan (31:09):
Yes, that's where we did the 12-meter America's Cup uh
sailing yacht regatta.
Uh you better believe I aminterested in doing that again.
Um yeah, I I'm I'm reallyexcited for for what's coming up
here in the next year.
And uh yeah, we have we haveall sorts of surprises planned,
and and if we told you aboutwhat those are, um they wouldn't
(31:32):
be a surprise anymore.
So I don't even know what we'retalking about here.
Alicea (31:36):
Oh my goodness.
Nathan (31:36):
Excellent.
Alicea (31:37):
Perfect.
Nathan (31:40):
Yeah, so that's kind of what's next, at least from my
perspective.
Did I miss anything that you'rethinking of?
Alicea (31:46):
No, I mean there's I mean, there's always stuff we
could talk about and figure outif there's stuff we want to do.
Listeners, if there's anythingyou want us to talk about or any
ideas you have, please let usknow.
Nathan (32:00):
Yeah.
Alicea, what's your do you havekind of a vision for what you
want the next hundred episodes,the next two years roughly to to
look like?
Alicea (32:09):
I want to talk with more people.
Nathan (32:11):
Yeah.
Alicea (32:12):
I want to visit the parks and go on cruises and talk
about those.
Nathan (32:15):
Okay.
Alicea (32:16):
There we go.
That's it.
Nathan (32:17):
Sounds like a plan.
I think we could do that.
Yes.
We can absolutely do that.
Well, that is your call toaction, everybody.
Uh, we really want to hear fromyou.
Please uh reach out.
Just like Amy, you could youcould dethrone Amy as as our
number two podcast ever.
Like, come on.
She she just reached out.
You know, we're always lookingfor people to come on.
(32:39):
Uh, you could be that nextcontestant here on the prices
right.
This is not the prices right.
No, but uh one dollar.
But no, uh seriously, come on.
We love hearing your stories,we love talking with you, we
love getting uh a chance to meetwith you.
And um, yeah, please reach outto us.
Podcast at our mousecapades.comis how to reach us or hit us up
(33:02):
on socials.
We will get back to you.
I I know Alicea's not good atsocial media, but I'll make sure
that we we don't let those uhDMs go unanswered.
Okay, fair enough.
Fair enough.
You do, you do, you do.
Alicea (33:15):
Instagram, Facebook, put a note on there, we'll respond.
Nathan (33:18):
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, don't forget toleave reviews.
Uh, please join our community.
We're we're thinking about somesome community things that we
may start doing.
We just have to have time tothink through all these things.
And yeah, this weekend isprobably not that uh weekend to
go do that because we have allsorts of stuff to do this
weekend.
Alicea (33:38):
We do.
Nathan (33:38):
Yeah, life, life, life gets busy.
Well, with all that, pleasejust remember that uh we are
here for you.
Please reach out to us.
Um, we'd love to hear from youon social media or an email,
podcast at our mousecapades.com.
You can follow us on socials.
We're at our mousecapadespretty much everywhere.
(34:00):
Again, we're on Instagram,Facebook, threads, and YouTube.
And of course, don't forget toleave a rating and a review in
your podcast app.
That really does help thealgorithm send people our way.
Alicea (34:13):
Thank you for listening.
We'll be in your ears nextweek.
Thank you for flying StarTours.
Bye bye.
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