December 11, 2024 • 42 mins
We're back! After a one week hiatus, Dack and Ryan get together to chat a little bit of everything. We're not calling it a trip recap, honestly not sure what to call it, but we hope you enjoy it!!
Links:
Follow us on:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094053018516
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapetothemagicpodcast/
Get 15% off your total order when you use the promo code ESCAPE at the Magic Candle Company. Click on the link below!
https://magiccandlecompany.com?sca_ref=4533910.xyWxobINVx
*****
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or drop us a comment on Spotify! It helps others find the show and lets us know what you love (or what you want more of). Thanks for listening!
Randy, Dack, and Ryan
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Dude, it's like when the microphone is turned on we become complete idiots.
(00:04):
Yes.
Hey guys, welcome back to Escape to the Magic podcast.
We are your hosts for this evening.
My name is Ryan.
And I am Dak.
And we're back.
We're back.
We missed a week.
We did.
So, I want to apologize to our weekly listeners if you're just catching us for the first
(00:29):
time.
You probably didn't notice that we missed a week.
That was our first time we have ever, we have tried so hard to not miss a week.
And sure enough the holidays came and it's like, Randy's off in Utah, you're in California,
and I'm at home, family in town, just doing my thing.
(00:51):
Yeah, it's a rough week to try and get together and so we just couldn't make it happen.
But we are back.
We are back.
We are back.
I am freshly back from a California slash Disneyland slash Universal trip.
And that's what we're talking about this week.
We wanted to kind of pick your brain.
(01:13):
We don't really do a lot of trip recaps on this show.
As often as the three of us go, we don't sit back and just, let's talk about our trip.
Yeah, I don't like doing the play-by-play of an entire trip, but I do like talking about
when we go, what we enjoyed doing, what was fun, maybe some lessons learned even on some
(01:34):
of these trips.
And so, yeah, I'd love to jump into it and get going here, but I think we had a review.
We did get a review in.
We want to give a shout out to, listen, sometimes these names on these reviews, you know, we
do the best we can.
So Sam Gels, whoever you are out there, we appreciate it.
(01:57):
One of his review was Disney's new WDW Today.
Awesome.
All right.
You guys did an awesome job.
It's one of the best podcasts I've ever heard.
Short, but to the point.
Yeah.
Love it, Sam.
Sam, we appreciate you.
We appreciate it.
Yeah.
So whoever you are, we appreciate it.
So, hey, share the podcast with your friends.
This is a great time to, hey, share your podcast with your friends.
(02:22):
We appreciate it.
Go on, give us a five-star rating.
Give us a review.
We'll get them all on air.
So on air, like we're on the air.
We're not on the air.
We're recording 8.30 at night, just you and me back.
So for sure.
But it'll be live tomorrow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This has got to be one of the worst openings we've ever done.
It's all right.
(02:42):
It's been a while.
We're going to power through it.
Yeah.
We're a little rusty, but we're going to power through it tonight and make this happen.
You would think after, what episode is this?
69, 68?
Something like that.
What are we at?
Anyway, you think by now that we would have some sort of standard rhythm.
A rhythm?
Yeah.
We don't.
No.
But that's okay.
All right.
Well, you want to get into it.
So episode number 70.
(03:03):
70.
Here we go.
Big seven zero.
Big seven zero.
Wow.
Okay.
All right, man.
So you just got back from Disneyland.
Yeah.
So we decided to go out there.
We left Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
So it's been a little bit a hot minute since then, but went out on Friday.
(03:24):
Friday we just kind of hung out and didn't do a whole lot.
Went to downtown Disney.
Girls hung out by the pool.
Of course, the weather was awesome.
As it usually is in Southern California.
Yeah.
High of a 70, low of a 58 or 60 or something like that.
It was just absolutely perfect.
Just perfect.
And so anyway, I'll kind of cut to the chase.
(03:47):
Friday and Saturday were more of our hangout, just relaxed days.
And then Sunday we went to Universal Studios Hollywood and we were kind of gearing up for
super high crowds.
It's the weekend after Thanksgiving.
We just thought we were going to get bombed and it was not bad at all.
(04:09):
We, well, so first of all, we paid for what they have, what's called early entry.
I think it was like 30 extra bucks a person and it allowed you to get into the park half
an hour before everybody else.
Okay.
And so we went straight to Mario World, which is, which they have out there in California.
See, I don't know much about the Universal in California.
(04:30):
Yeah.
I've been, obviously we've been annual pass holders at the one in Florida and we've been
kind of following Epic Universe and you know, that project, but yeah, California, I know
nothing about.
Yeah.
It's smaller.
It's significantly smaller.
Is it just one park?
It's just one park.
And then it, what's strange about it is it's on, it's basically on a hillside.
(04:53):
So there are levels and you take like four escalators down to a level, which is where
Mario World was.
We tried out the new Mario Kart.
That was a lot of fun.
So explain what that is.
So Mario Kart is a, well, we know what Mario Kart is, but what's, what's the attraction?
Yeah.
The attraction itself is you are on a ride vehicle.
(05:16):
They have these helmets that are really cool.
You put a little like it's like a visor on your head and you can screw tighten the back
so that it fits to your head.
So it's not a one size, I guess it's a one size fits all, but it's adjustable if that
makes sense.
Right?
So like if you've ever worn a hard hat, I don't know if you have, they have a little
(05:37):
screw in there and it tightens the band so that it's snug against your head.
And then, and then what's really cool is once you get into the ride vehicle, they have these,
they're not glasses, but it's like a magnetic little connection that magnetizes onto your
visor and there's a screen right in front of your eyes and where you look, sorry, I
(06:01):
turned as I was looking to show you what I was talking about.
So you probably lost audio, but everywhere you look, there's digital images of characters,
Mario, Peach.
So it's virtual reality?
Kind of.
Yeah.
It's kind of like a virtual reality, but not the goggles that you would normally wear.
Like if you bought a home version of it.
(06:22):
So is it, you remember the augmented reality?
Is that what it is?
I don't know.
I don't know what that is.
Okay.
That sounds really cool.
Where like augmented is like you put the glasses on.
Like it was, I think it was Pokemon that a few years ago came out, right?
Where you put, you will look through your phone.
You would hold your phone up and you would see characters in the live environment.
(06:46):
What was crazy is you're still seeing with your eyes all the ride and everything like
that that you're going through.
So augmented reality.
So it's, yeah, it's an augmented reality and you're going around and you're collecting
turtles, shells and coins and everything that you do normally on Mario Kart.
It was, it was phenomenal.
(07:07):
It was great technology.
It was a fun ride.
We had ages, my wife and I down to an 11 year old and everything in between and all of us
loved it.
We wrote it probably two or three times back to back to back.
Like again, we were there for early entry so there was no one else in the, well there
was other people there, but no actual, you know, regular park attendance people.
(07:31):
Okay.
Did it make you sick?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Really cool version of kind of an experience that you would get on Toy Story Mania, right?
Where you're interacting with a game.
You're pushing the buttons on the paddles and it's shooting the turtle shells and stuff
like that.
So it was really, really, really awesome.
(07:56):
Any other questions on Mario World?
No.
Okay.
I'll move on.
So then, then you go back up to the upper levels and that's where they have like City
Walk.
You're probably familiar with that.
They have a Harry Potter world with Hogwarts and the castle and all that there.
Only two rides there, but still all the decor looked very, very similar, if not identical
(08:19):
to what you experience in Orlando.
Okay.
So real fast, before we move on, the listeners need to know something about UDAC.
I've never seen Harry Potter.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm just going to admit that right now.
So we just lost half our listening base.
As much as I've tried to get Dac to watch Harry Potter, he has yet to do it.
Yeah.
(08:40):
But your family has watched Harry Potter.
My family loves it.
They were, they were totally engulfed in the story.
We brought our niece with us.
She was the 11 year old.
She was in heaven in, in Harry Potter world and all of that.
We got to get you to watch the movies.
I got to watch the movies.
They're so good.
Yeah.
Maybe that's what I'll do over Christmas break.
Yeah.
It's just like power through the roof.
Just one a night.
(09:01):
Yeah.
And you know, they had all the, all, all the other things, Simpson's land or world.
I'm not sure what all of these lands are called.
Um, was the, did you do the Simpson ride?
No.
Okay.
So the last time I did the Simpson's ride in Orlando, it was like, it's a hot mess.
Yes.
It was, it was, it was the one time I did it.
It wasn't air conditioned.
It was, it seemed like it was an air conditioned and I got so sick because it's that 4d simulator.
(09:26):
Yeah.
It just, it was a whole experience.
Yeah.
It was rough, but transformers, the mummy, they had all those rides.
There are a lot of the similar rides that you get in Orlando.
Um, there's a minions land or world.
That was a lot of fun.
Um, cause I don't know how much they have of that there in Orlando.
I know they have some, but they really went all out in, in Hollywood.
(09:48):
Uh, but our favorite experience across the board, everyone was, I don't know if you know
this or not, but in a universal Hollywood, you are actually on universal studios production
lot.
And so we did a back lot tour.
Oh, very cool.
Of universal studios and you get on this bus and you go, you drive around and they show
(10:10):
you different movie scenes and different, um, sets and sound sets and all kinds of stuff.
It was phenomenal.
I wish they had something like that in Orlando.
I wish you could do that at Disney, at Disney studios, but it's, it's very private.
Yeah.
We have a special, special tickets to get onto Disney's actual studio set or a studio
(10:36):
lots, but it was, it was just phenomenal.
Everybody that got off the ride loved it.
Okay.
People all around us did, uh, is, is there a, the, the, what is it?
The Jason Bourne experience?
So they did not have the Jason Bourne experience there.
Um, but they did have a water world, uh, experience there, which is probably pretty similar where
(10:56):
it's that live action stunt show type of environment.
Um, we did not actually end up going to water world.
We got to about one or two o'clock in the afternoon.
We had rode everything that we wanted to do multiple times if we wanted to.
And we were just kind of, because we were there for early entry, we came all the way
(11:18):
across to LA up to Hollywood.
Oh, wow.
And so we were basically up at five thirties to get there and then by two o'clock, everybody
was like, all right, I'm done.
Like we had gotten our fill.
Really?
Yeah.
I thought we were going to power through and in six hours you guys were done and we did
everything we wanted to do.
(11:39):
And then some, that's insane.
Well, I guess when you have, when you have little crowds, you can, it made it a little
easier.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We were just, I'm telling you, it was just even some of the, um, I don't know what they
call them, staff, not cast members, staff, staff.
They were like shocked at how slow it was that particular day.
(12:01):
So that would have been the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
Can you believe that?
Maybe that was a travel day for a lot of people.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
But it got me thinking.
So I wanted to ask you this question as I'm sitting there, I'm like going through this
and I'm like, this is, this is pretty entertaining.
This is pretty fun.
Like we were having a very enjoyable time.
And so I wanted to ask you the question.
(12:22):
It got me thinking while we were out there, what kind of impact do you think Epic Universe
and everything that it's going to bring to Orlando is going to have on Disney world and
the Disney, you know, right now Disney's big brother out there in Orlando, I think.
But do you think the tides are turning and Universal is going to overthrow Disney world
(12:50):
as the premier place to visit in Orlando when people go to visit?
That's a question that we have been discussing off.
Offline.
Offline.
Off air for a long time.
Yeah.
Because Epic Universe has been announced a couple of years ago.
They have built it fairly quickly compared to how slow Disney builds things.
(13:12):
Although I think Disney with the recent announcements of some of their park enhancements, it's
sounds like they're going to pick up the pace a little bit.
It took it took five years to build Tron.
So I've heard some conspiracy theories on that.
I don't know how much I believe them.
But basically what I've heard is the delays are to help with the budget.
(13:37):
So what I mean by that is if if I have a crew and I only have to pay that crew X amount
of dollars because they're only going to do X amount of work, then it only hits my line
item budget for that amount.
But if I power through and I get every crew out there from the concrete guys to the Erector
(13:59):
Set guys that are building the actual tracks to the electronic guys that are bringing in
all the digital stuff, you're just pumping money into this.
Again, who knows how true that is.
They basically hold off on getting the permits for the next phase of work to keep their numbers
(14:19):
and their costs low.
I can imagine if you were building a house and you said, OK, we're just going to hold
off on having the electricians come out till next month because we don't want to pay for
them this month.
Well, that's true.
That's garbage.
I think so.
That's I mean, that's that I'm not sure how much I believe.
Yeah.
And conspiracy theory.
Welcome to the podcast.
Yeah, we've we've really shied away from conspiracy theories.
(14:42):
But, you know, with Disney, they're a big company.
You know, like I was saying, they it seems like these projects that are coming up in
Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios with Monsters Land, Monsters Inc.
Land, it looks like they're going to be getting those going fairly soon and completing them
within the next two to five years.
(15:05):
So here's my thought on your on your original question with Epic Universe.
So I think from an outsider's point of view, it may appear and it may look like Epic Universe
is going to make a dent into Disney's market share in that area.
And I think, you know, I think we could do an entire episode on sure on this particular
(15:29):
topic, but I think we're not that smart.
I don't want to say we're not that smart, but I think there's a lot of there's a lot
of details that go that go into that.
But I will say this, I think, you know, Disney recently released their their full year or
their fiscal year earnings in their Q4 earnings.
And there was a lot of information that came out of that that really kind of shed some
(15:54):
light on what Disney thinks about Universal.
And one thing that's so their CFO was his name, Hugh Johnston, I believe.
I think it's Hugh Johnston.
He was asked this question.
What is really what is what do you guys think about Universal's Epic Universe and is it
going to make an impact?
(16:14):
So that was part of the invention.
This is how dorky I am.
I listen to the investors call, which I don't even own a Disney stock.
But I want to hear because this is where they really kind of get into some of those nitty
gritty details, right.
And one of the investors that ask that question, hey, Mr. Johnson, what do you think of Epic
Universe?
What does it mean to have an impact to Disney?
(16:37):
And his response was and I think his response was very it was very short, like, oh, yeah,
you know, we recognize that, you know, they're expanding their parks.
But what we have seen in the past is that when a park opens up around one of our properties,
we actually see an increase in capacity.
We see an increase in attendance with our park because they're already coming to the
(17:00):
area.
Right.
And listen, I think people, some people want to see Disney fall.
Sure.
They want to see Disney fail, you know, and we don't get into that.
We don't get into the politics of all of that.
We're here because we're happy.
We love Disney for what it is, for all of their mistakes and failures and for what the
(17:20):
joy they bring to all of us.
We just love Disney.
So I think you can get into them to kind of the nitty gritty of that.
But you know what he was saying?
It was like, no, yeah, we're going to see, you know, they're going to open up this park
next year, I think May 22nd, I think we're going to see an influx of people because they're
going to be coming to the central Florida area to visit this new park.
(17:43):
And we still have the market share.
Like we're still the big brother on campus.
They released their earnings.
They're doing just fine.
Like attendance, attendance was a little flat, especially overseas.
Actually, they lost attendance with some of the Asian resorts domestically.
(18:04):
They were up about one percent.
Spending was up, though, domestically.
They made a ton of money.
Finally, the movie side of the business made a ton of money last year.
And we've talked about the parks carrying the entire Disney Corporation for years.
They're starting to see a dent that Disney Plus actually made made money.
(18:28):
They're putting a dent into that initial investment.
Inside Out 2, Wolverine and Deadpool, both billion dollar movies.
Like Disney's doing just fine.
So when Epic Universe opens up, they're going to say, hey, we're here too.
And they're going to get all those same people that are going to Epic Universe.
(18:49):
That's what I think there's a saying out there that a rising tide lifts all boats.
And so you like that philosophy.
Welcome to the podcast.
And I think that that's true.
I think that you are going to see an initial that initial bump of attendance.
(19:12):
Absolutely.
Everybody's going to want to go see and experience Epic Universe.
There's no question about it.
Some of the things that they've released are very exciting.
But I think you'll see that same lift when Disney starts like you alluded to, when Disney
starts dropping some of their D23 announcements and those things start coming online, you'll
(19:33):
see a bump in Disney's attendance.
So I just think there's always going to be this back and forth between Disney and Universal.
It's inevitable.
They're the two big kids on the block and they want to outdo each other.
And the great thing about that is that we come out the winners, right?
So we get to experience all that and be the winners.
(19:53):
I have a conspiracy theory for you.
Here we go.
Since we opened up that Pandora's box already, I was thinking the other day, I'm like, you
know, what if what if the Disney executives, what if this was a calculated move on their
part to not announce these projects until Epic Universe got close to opening because
(20:13):
of what they said in their earnings call that, hey, we know we're going to get attendance
from Epic Universe.
So why do we need to start investing all of the because they announced a couple of years
ago they're going to invest 60 billion dollars into the parks.
And that's another thing that came out of the investors calls that we're starting to
(20:34):
see a lot of that investment.
But what if they said, hey, let's like let's let Epic Universe spend the money right now
and we're going to get the benefit of that for about a year, maybe a year and a half.
And then we open up our new projects so we don't lose any of that that possible attendance
by opening up a new land or a new a new attraction during the same time that Epic Universe is
(21:02):
opening up.
Now, I could be way off on that.
That could be a dumb conspiracy, but I don't know.
I mean, you brought it up.
Conspiracy.
Well, I mean, listen, Disney, if you've ever been to Disney, you know that they really
try to get into the mind of the consumer.
They send you surveys.
They try to talk to you at the park.
(21:23):
There's cast members walking around with little iPads.
Hey, do you have five minutes to take a survey?
Every time you get back from a trip, you'll probably get an email.
Hey, Mr. Mr. Dac, Mr. Ryan, how was your trip?
Do you have 10 minutes for a survey?
You know, and every now and then I get a survey in my email, you know, just because, like
I'm on their mailing list or what?
(21:44):
So, you know, they're trying to they're always trying to figure out what do our what do our
consumers want?
Well, I'll be curious.
And this will kind of bring us back to my trip discussion and what we experienced there.
I will be curious to see to what level Epic Universe is as far as quality and entertainment
(22:09):
and immersiveness and the story and everything that Disney does so well.
The reason why I'm saying that right now is because as wonderful as it was, the low crowds,
the different experience of going to Universal Studios Hollywood, there was still.
It still felt like the B team.
(22:31):
And what I mean by that is like the food quality was just a little bit less than what you experience
at Disney.
Well than what we experienced at Disneyland the very next day.
Right.
So we had a day to day comparison.
We started at Universal then the very next day.
So on Monday, we go to Disneyland, get to experience all the food options there and
(22:54):
everything that they have to offer.
You get to experience the rides and the immersion of the story and the and everything we had
felt or experienced before.
We've been to Disneyland a couple of different times now, but it still felt more better.
I don't know how else to say it.
It just felt a little bit better than or the experience was a little bit better than what
(23:19):
the universal experience was.
The technology, everything like it just felt.
I don't know.
It just seemed more and that goes back.
It's a cultural thing.
It's been that way since Walt started Disneyland.
And what did he tell his wife?
Oh, Walt, who's going to want to come?
Nobody's going to want to come to your parks.
I mean, because when he came up with the idea of Disneyland, you know, all that was around
(23:41):
were those traveling fairs that were dirty and scummy and, you know, people.
And that's what his wife was concerned about.
Walt, aren't you concerned about your park becoming one of those?
And what did he say?
No, my park is going to be the cleanest.
It's going to be the nicest.
It's going to be the friendliest.
That's been the culture ever since.
And if you've gone to Six Flags, if you've gone to SeaWorld, if you've gone to Universal,
(24:04):
there is something just missing.
Disney has the IP to they've got the intellectual property.
They've got the movies and the characters from 70, 80, 90 years ago that play a huge
role in creating that atmosphere.
Not to take away what Universal's done, because I think Universal, they have Harry Potter,
which again, that's a big that's a huge IP.
(24:25):
Yeah.
But could you name five IP at Universal off the top of your head?
I mean, not long term ones, but they're all recent ones.
So you have like Dominions, you have Harry Potter.
OK, you have three more.
Jurassic Park was big there.
Yeah.
Trying to think what else?
(24:47):
I mean, the Simpsons, but now the Simpsons are owned by Disney.
I think there's just some licensing.
Yeah, that's just a licensing issue.
Yeah.
But I get what you're saying.
And I think that that's the argument that someone would make against me, which I'm open
to to, you know, listening to and having that discussion is like, well, yeah, of course,
there's a nostalgic factor that Disney has that Universal just can't replace.
(25:09):
Right.
But it just overall, everything you just mentioned before, the culture, the cleanliness, the
food quality, the, you know, the experience itself of actually filling the magic.
Right.
I just think that Disney brought that it was just a tier or two higher than the Universal
experience was the day before.
(25:31):
Now, what I haven't gotten into yet is that Disneyland was incredibly busy.
I was very encouraged on Sunday experiencing what we experienced at Universal only to have
my world shattered when we got to Disneyland on Monday, because it was much busier than
(25:52):
what I expected.
And I will also say that and this will bring up another maybe question to throw out at
you is like I was this is now the second or third trip in a row where I felt some serious
spending fatigue when it came to Disney.
(26:14):
So my wife and I were kind of just looking at each other one, one and one of the hours
during our trip or days during our trip.
And we're just like, I'm tired of spending money right now.
Like I'm going nuts.
Well, if you just stopped buying churros and Mickey ice cream, that's what it was.
So we had so there was six of us.
Right.
And our family of five plus our niece that made six.
(26:35):
We did that on purpose so that we could have writers with them for sure.
Yeah.
And but I mean, by the time we stayed on site, so that obviously has a cost.
Now, we could have chosen to stay at a VRBO when dealt with all that.
But I'm just saying for for the argument of what how much Disney costs stayed on site.
(26:55):
I'm not going to tell you the number of per night costs, but it was significant.
Right.
Because you stayed at the Disneyland State at the Disneyland Hotel.
Look it up.
It's not cheap.
It is not cheap.
You know, when you stay on site, you're almost forced to eat at the parks or in the surrounding
(27:15):
area.
I mean, we were easily spending I will share this number, we were easily spending anywhere
between three and five hundred dollars a day on food, which when you say it sounds outrageous.
To me, even just saying it right now, I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth.
(27:36):
But it's true.
Right.
By the time you get breakfast for six individuals, breakfasts were averaging fifteen to twenty
dollars per person.
Right.
You get a few snacks throughout the day.
Everybody wants their own snack.
We try to we try to say, no, we're going to get two snacks and everybody's going to get
a little taste.
Well, that never works.
(27:57):
It never works.
It never works.
Then you have lunch.
That's another 20 bucks a person.
You have dinner, more snacks.
So it just it just ended up adding up so significantly that after our two days at Disney, we were
completely fatigued financially.
(28:18):
Right.
Like we just we didn't want to spend money on anything.
Poor girls on the way home are like, can we get some snacks for the plane?
We're like, no, we have peanuts.
Yeah.
It's just overwhelming.
And and and so that's my question is.
And I'll share one more example just to kind of deepen my point is we had a buddy of ours
(28:42):
texting us and he's thinking about taking his family.
It's him, his wife, two children.
I think they're all under the age of four or five.
Right.
And he was like, is this right?
One day at Disney World for my son is two hundred and fifty dollars.
And you and I both were like, no way.
(29:03):
Like, no, that's not impossible.
That's impossible.
But then we started to look up the ticket costs.
And sure enough, right.
Like the the tier pricing that they have set up at Disney World ended up being like a hundred.
It was for one day, though.
So it helps to add more.
It was a one day with the park hopper.
One day with a park hopper was two hundred and fifty dollars for his five year old son
(29:29):
to go the week of spring break, which again, there's some factors there as far as you're
going one of the busiest times.
Disney World does the tier pricing.
So you're going to pay extra for some of those things.
Their tier pricing is not that tiered.
No.
And I'll let you finish with that.
So my final point is, is Disney World getting to the point where it's pricing out people
(29:54):
from being able to go?
OK, so.
Sorry.
So here's my deal.
So going back to will Epic Universe affect Disney?
So I will tell I'll share this.
So we've been kicking around the idea of getting our universal passes back.
(30:16):
The cough deck deck's got a cough.
We don't have a cough button on this.
So we've been thinking about getting our universal passes back.
And when you start doing the math.
So for our family of five to get is pretty much it's not universal's basic pass.
It's like their second or third tier, which gives you the free parking.
(30:39):
It was about twenty two to twenty three hundred bucks a year for my family of five.
For all of you.
All of us.
OK.
And what's great about about about universal is they let you pay as you go.
You put a down payment down and then you pay a monthly monthly fee.
Right.
Which again, it helps maybe psychologically.
(31:01):
Yeah.
You know, you're not throwing down twenty four hundred bucks all at once.
You're putting down maybe twelve hundred bucks and then you're paying a hundred bucks a month
going forward.
So then we started kicking.
OK.
So kids, what do you what do you want for Christmas?
We want to go to.
We want to go to Disney, you know.
Well, what about, you know, we universal to I mean, maybe universal annual passes or let's
(31:27):
look at what Disney is going to cost.
Obviously, annual passes at Disney for our family of five is about sixty five hundred
bucks.
Yeah.
No payment plan.
It's straight fifty hundred bucks per person for the year.
So that's out of the question.
Well, all right.
So how about a week at Disney?
Spring break for our family of five.
(31:51):
Spring break.
No lodging on site.
No airfare.
Nothing.
Just the tickets is about twenty four hundred bucks.
Wow.
So for the same price as an entire year at Universal, we can go four days at Disney.
Yeah.
(32:11):
So you start looking at that.
You start looking at those numbers and kind of factoring in, hey, three to four trips
to Universal over the next year or four to five days over spring break.
Not park hopping.
You kind of start to see, OK, this is where Universal really does have the upper hand.
(32:33):
Yeah.
So I think going forward, I think this is where Disney may lose some customers if they're
trying to decide between a Universal trip or a Disney trip or Universal annual passes.
And I've seen the blog post, a lot of posting on social media.
Yeah.
I mean, with the Epic Universe opening up, I'm going to drop my Disney World annual pass
(32:58):
and I'm going to get the Universal annual pass because it's half as expensive.
Yeah.
And it's tough because again, you have this deep.
Well, I'll just speak for myself.
I have this deep rooted love of going to Disney and enjoying the parks.
But it's really gotten again, this last trip really hit home again.
(33:18):
It's like, wow, I don't know how many more times we can afford to go as an entire family
to Disney.
And so it may just have to be one off trips with one of my daughters, two of my daughters,
my wife and some daughters.
So anyways, I just.
And don't forget your guys trips.
(33:39):
And guys trips, right?
Yeah.
Very important.
That's right.
So again, I don't know.
It just felt overwhelming.
And don't ask me this question in June because I'll probably be like hungry, dying to go.
I feel like you have these thoughts every time you get back from Disney is that, man,
that was freaking expensive.
I'm not going to go back for a long time.
Then it's like, hey, I'm thinking about going to Disney.
(34:02):
Right.
Yeah.
It's like it's a drug, right?
It's like you got to have it, but you understand that there's a cost that comes with it.
And you know, I don't want to throw.
I'm just coming up with all kinds of little sayings.
I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water here.
Right.
And what I mean by that is Disney is, in my opinion, a higher quality product.
(34:25):
Right.
And I'm willing to pay in other areas of my life for nicer things if I feel like those
things warrant the cost.
Right.
I think everybody feels that way to some certain extent.
Right.
Like you're just you're willing to pay a little bit more for a higher quality item, whatever
it is, food, vehicle, whatever.
(34:46):
Right.
And so I think Disney is definitely in that bucket for me.
And it checks a lot of my emotional and fun and magic and all those boxes.
But man, it's getting tough.
It's getting tougher and tougher to justify, especially when you start looking at what
we could go to an all inclusive, you know, Cancun trip or island trip.
(35:12):
And again, to your point, one week at Disney or half that much for a week in an all inclusive
resort somewhere.
So anyways, I know a few episodes ago, well, several episodes ago, we did a five lies you
don't want to know that aren't true about Disney.
(35:32):
Yeah, five lies you should not believe about Disney.
Yeah.
And one of them was that it's too expensive.
So we don't want to go against that.
But it's it's teetering.
Right.
And again, I think but I think everybody does this.
Right.
They go and you're there and you're like, yeah, let's get it.
You know, you just get into that mode.
And I think when we did that episode, I the lie is, is that it is too expensive.
(35:57):
It is expensive, but you can make it cheap.
Sure.
You can't just stay in offsite by by bringing in your own snacks.
You don't have to eat at the park.
Right.
Obviously, you can't do anything about the ticket price or how you get there.
That's going to be a fixed cost.
Yeah.
But everything once you're there, the food, the lodging, you can make it cheap.
But and you can use some discretion, right?
(36:18):
Like we were going hog wild, like clearly, clearly, because we're spending that much
on food today, which is absurd.
Right.
A weekly grocery bill in a day.
Right.
And so, you know, you just have to have a little bit of self discipline, like you said,
maybe maybe bring in or Amazon in some some snacks or stuff like that.
(36:40):
So there's a way to get around it.
But boy, it just felt like a big, big gut punch a couple of times on that trip.
Well, hey, we got a few minutes.
OK, give us the highlights of Disneyland.
Highlights of Disneyland was just again.
Dude, you were sending me text messages and pictures and I was like, I wanted to.
(37:03):
So we were there.
So we were there, obviously, during the Christmas season.
Some of our highlights at Disneyland were, you know, the lighting of Small World.
That is just absolutely magical.
I would one thousand percent, you know, suggest experiencing that.
Haunted Mansion was still with the overlay of Jack Skellington and all of that.
(37:27):
That was wonderful and fun.
And they've got the new queue that's open.
They got the new queue that's open.
It's a lot really awesome.
Yeah, you sent me a picture of your Monte Cristo.
Yeah, the Monte Cristo is still just as good as ever.
So it was just it was just a lot of fun.
And again, I just I can't tell you how much of the magic and the experience and everything
(37:55):
that you get at Disney that just doesn't seem to be.
I can't replicate it anywhere else.
And so that's at the end of the day, we're talking about costs.
At the end of the day, that's how I justify the cost is that just it's so fun.
Like it's just so magical.
You're right, dude.
I would let you go to Universal and walk out with your family feeling the same way that
(38:18):
you do after you had just seen, you know, happily ever after fireworks, right?
Walking out with your family and everybody's you know, everybody's got that Disney tired
look on them, but they're like, oh, this was the best show.
This was a perfect day.
Like Universal, it's a theme park, you know, and they do it really well.
Universal above everybody else except Disney.
(38:40):
They do it really well.
They've got great attraction.
They've got great shows.
It's a you know, it's a fairly it's a clean park.
I think the food is even a little pricier than you.
Oh, it is.
And it's I don't think it's as good.
No, actually a little disappointed with the three three broomsticks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So well, I'll give you my perfect example is I have a co-worker.
(39:01):
She's texting me tonight and she's texting me because her daughter is doing a solo trip
at Disney World right now.
And she's sending me pictures of like Tron and the castle all lit up and happily ever
after going on and I'm thinking, man, I wish I was there.
So that that's it.
Right.
It's like to your point, here I am complaining about it and the cost and this and that.
(39:23):
But the minute I get a text from someone that's there, I'm like, wait, man, I wish I was there.
Like I don't feel that way about anything else.
Right.
There's nothing else that makes me be like, yeah, it's so this or that.
Well, yeah, I'll go.
And what does Randy always say?
You got to manage expectations.
If you go in knowing that you're going to throw down six grand for your for your Disney
(39:44):
trip, then that's what you're just going to do.
Yeah.
And just expect it's going to happen.
And if it rains every day, well, that's part of the managing.
You go to the rainy day parade.
Yep.
You just get wet.
So that's right.
You know, I'm jealous that you went to.
I mean, it's not funny.
(40:04):
Like no matter how many times you go, whenever you hear about someone else going, there's
a little tinge of jealousy.
Like, man, I wish I was there.
You know, and to all the people out there that have not gone to Disneyland, like I was
one of the skeptics, you know, obviously you walk down Main Street and you see the castle
and you're like, where's the rest of it?
But I mean, the magic is every bit the same that you find at Disney World, even at some
(40:30):
times it's probably a little bit more because this is where Walt walked.
Yeah.
Like this was Walt's Park.
So I'm full on hooked on Disneyland.
Yeah, it was great.
It was great.
I the weather until you've been to Disneyland and feel like comparing it to Disney World,
(40:50):
like you have to go to Disney World like in February for three weeks or November and December
to get that same weather that you can get in California, 365.
Yeah.
So anyway, it's great.
Yeah.
Well, man, this was fun.
Yeah, it was fun.
(41:10):
Yeah.
Thanks for taking me back down, down the trip lane there.
It was great trip.
I loved it.
And well, so can't wait to go again.
So our next trip will probably be our guys trip.
Yeah.
You know, we've done two already this year.
I'm not sure when we're going to go back.
No.
Yeah.
I think that's the warning of you better take me somewhere before you go with your buddies.
(41:34):
I'm kind of in that same boat like two trips to Disney in a year.
It'll probably be.
I don't want to say I turn 50 late next year.
Let's do that.
You just say that on air, dude.
Oh, my gosh.
You're old.
Yeah, I'm sold.
Yeah, we'll do that.
(41:55):
Well, hey, guys, appreciate you being with us today.
Hey, if you social media, go on, find us on Facebook, find us on TikTok.
TikTok may not be around for a few months, but we try to post things on Instagram, Facebook
and TikTok every now and then.
Give us a follow, like some of our posts.
We try to put some plenty of things out there.
(42:16):
But again, more importantly, share this with your friends, share with your families.
Give us a rating.
It helps the podcast grow.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks everyone.
We'll see you next time.
Dude, it's like when the microphone is turned on we become complete idiots.
(00:04):
Yes.
Hey guys, welcome back to Escape to the Magic podcast.
We are your hosts for this evening.
My name is Ryan.
And I am Dak.
And we're back.
We're back.
We missed a week.
We did.
So, I want to apologize to our weekly listeners if you're just catching us for the first
(00:29):
time.
You probably didn't notice that we missed a week.
That was our first time we have ever, we have tried so hard to not miss a week.
And sure enough the holidays came and it's like, Randy's off in Utah, you're in California,
and I'm at home, family in town, just doing my thing.
(00:51):
Yeah, it's a rough week to try and get together and so we just couldn't make it happen.
But we are back.
We are back.
We are back.
I am freshly back from a California slash Disneyland slash Universal trip.
And that's what we're talking about this week.
We wanted to kind of pick your brain.
(01:13):
We don't really do a lot of trip recaps on this show.
As often as the three of us go, we don't sit back and just, let's talk about our trip.
Yeah, I don't like doing the play-by-play of an entire trip, but I do like talking about
when we go, what we enjoyed doing, what was fun, maybe some lessons learned even on some
(01:34):
of these trips.
And so, yeah, I'd love to jump into it and get going here, but I think we had a review.
We did get a review in.
We want to give a shout out to, listen, sometimes these names on these reviews, you know, we
do the best we can.
So Sam Gels, whoever you are out there, we appreciate it.
(01:57):
One of his review was Disney's new WDW Today.
Awesome.
All right.
You guys did an awesome job.
It's one of the best podcasts I've ever heard.
Short, but to the point.
Yeah.
Love it, Sam.
Sam, we appreciate you.
We appreciate it.
Yeah.
So whoever you are, we appreciate it.
So, hey, share the podcast with your friends.
This is a great time to, hey, share your podcast with your friends.
(02:22):
We appreciate it.
Go on, give us a five-star rating.
Give us a review.
We'll get them all on air.
So on air, like we're on the air.
We're not on the air.
We're recording 8.30 at night, just you and me back.
So for sure.
But it'll be live tomorrow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This has got to be one of the worst openings we've ever done.
It's all right.
(02:42):
It's been a while.
We're going to power through it.
Yeah.
We're a little rusty, but we're going to power through it tonight and make this happen.
You would think after, what episode is this?
69, 68?
Something like that.
What are we at?
Anyway, you think by now that we would have some sort of standard rhythm.
A rhythm?
Yeah.
We don't.
No.
But that's okay.
All right.
Well, you want to get into it.
So episode number 70.
(03:03):
70.
Here we go.
Big seven zero.
Big seven zero.
Wow.
Okay.
All right, man.
So you just got back from Disneyland.
Yeah.
So we decided to go out there.
We left Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
So it's been a little bit a hot minute since then, but went out on Friday.
(03:24):
Friday we just kind of hung out and didn't do a whole lot.
Went to downtown Disney.
Girls hung out by the pool.
Of course, the weather was awesome.
As it usually is in Southern California.
Yeah.
High of a 70, low of a 58 or 60 or something like that.
It was just absolutely perfect.
Just perfect.
And so anyway, I'll kind of cut to the chase.
(03:47):
Friday and Saturday were more of our hangout, just relaxed days.
And then Sunday we went to Universal Studios Hollywood and we were kind of gearing up for
super high crowds.
It's the weekend after Thanksgiving.
We just thought we were going to get bombed and it was not bad at all.
(04:09):
We, well, so first of all, we paid for what they have, what's called early entry.
I think it was like 30 extra bucks a person and it allowed you to get into the park half
an hour before everybody else.
Okay.
And so we went straight to Mario World, which is, which they have out there in California.
See, I don't know much about the Universal in California.
(04:30):
Yeah.
I've been, obviously we've been annual pass holders at the one in Florida and we've been
kind of following Epic Universe and you know, that project, but yeah, California, I know
nothing about.
Yeah.
It's smaller.
It's significantly smaller.
Is it just one park?
It's just one park.
And then it, what's strange about it is it's on, it's basically on a hillside.
(04:53):
So there are levels and you take like four escalators down to a level, which is where
Mario World was.
We tried out the new Mario Kart.
That was a lot of fun.
So explain what that is.
So Mario Kart is a, well, we know what Mario Kart is, but what's, what's the attraction?
Yeah.
The attraction itself is you are on a ride vehicle.
(05:16):
They have these helmets that are really cool.
You put a little like it's like a visor on your head and you can screw tighten the back
so that it fits to your head.
So it's not a one size, I guess it's a one size fits all, but it's adjustable if that
makes sense.
Right?
So like if you've ever worn a hard hat, I don't know if you have, they have a little
(05:37):
screw in there and it tightens the band so that it's snug against your head.
And then, and then what's really cool is once you get into the ride vehicle, they have these,
they're not glasses, but it's like a magnetic little connection that magnetizes onto your
visor and there's a screen right in front of your eyes and where you look, sorry, I
(06:01):
turned as I was looking to show you what I was talking about.
So you probably lost audio, but everywhere you look, there's digital images of characters,
Mario, Peach.
So it's virtual reality?
Kind of.
Yeah.
It's kind of like a virtual reality, but not the goggles that you would normally wear.
Like if you bought a home version of it.
(06:22):
So is it, you remember the augmented reality?
Is that what it is?
I don't know.
I don't know what that is.
Okay.
That sounds really cool.
Where like augmented is like you put the glasses on.
Like it was, I think it was Pokemon that a few years ago came out, right?
Where you put, you will look through your phone.
You would hold your phone up and you would see characters in the live environment.
(06:46):
What was crazy is you're still seeing with your eyes all the ride and everything like
that that you're going through.
So augmented reality.
So it's, yeah, it's an augmented reality and you're going around and you're collecting
turtles, shells and coins and everything that you do normally on Mario Kart.
It was, it was phenomenal.
(07:07):
It was great technology.
It was a fun ride.
We had ages, my wife and I down to an 11 year old and everything in between and all of us
loved it.
We wrote it probably two or three times back to back to back.
Like again, we were there for early entry so there was no one else in the, well there
was other people there, but no actual, you know, regular park attendance people.
(07:31):
Okay.
Did it make you sick?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Really cool version of kind of an experience that you would get on Toy Story Mania, right?
Where you're interacting with a game.
You're pushing the buttons on the paddles and it's shooting the turtle shells and stuff
like that.
So it was really, really, really awesome.
(07:56):
Any other questions on Mario World?
No.
Okay.
I'll move on.
So then, then you go back up to the upper levels and that's where they have like City
Walk.
You're probably familiar with that.
They have a Harry Potter world with Hogwarts and the castle and all that there.
Only two rides there, but still all the decor looked very, very similar, if not identical
(08:19):
to what you experience in Orlando.
Okay.
So real fast, before we move on, the listeners need to know something about UDAC.
I've never seen Harry Potter.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm just going to admit that right now.
So we just lost half our listening base.
As much as I've tried to get Dac to watch Harry Potter, he has yet to do it.
Yeah.
(08:40):
But your family has watched Harry Potter.
My family loves it.
They were, they were totally engulfed in the story.
We brought our niece with us.
She was the 11 year old.
She was in heaven in, in Harry Potter world and all of that.
We got to get you to watch the movies.
I got to watch the movies.
They're so good.
Yeah.
Maybe that's what I'll do over Christmas break.
Yeah.
It's just like power through the roof.
Just one a night.
(09:01):
Yeah.
And you know, they had all the, all, all the other things, Simpson's land or world.
I'm not sure what all of these lands are called.
Um, was the, did you do the Simpson ride?
No.
Okay.
So the last time I did the Simpson's ride in Orlando, it was like, it's a hot mess.
Yes.
It was, it was, it was the one time I did it.
It wasn't air conditioned.
It was, it seemed like it was an air conditioned and I got so sick because it's that 4d simulator.
(09:26):
Yeah.
It just, it was a whole experience.
Yeah.
It was rough, but transformers, the mummy, they had all those rides.
There are a lot of the similar rides that you get in Orlando.
Um, there's a minions land or world.
That was a lot of fun.
Um, cause I don't know how much they have of that there in Orlando.
I know they have some, but they really went all out in, in Hollywood.
(09:48):
Uh, but our favorite experience across the board, everyone was, I don't know if you know
this or not, but in a universal Hollywood, you are actually on universal studios production
lot.
And so we did a back lot tour.
Oh, very cool.
Of universal studios and you get on this bus and you go, you drive around and they show
(10:10):
you different movie scenes and different, um, sets and sound sets and all kinds of stuff.
It was phenomenal.
I wish they had something like that in Orlando.
I wish you could do that at Disney, at Disney studios, but it's, it's very private.
Yeah.
We have a special, special tickets to get onto Disney's actual studio set or a studio
(10:36):
lots, but it was, it was just phenomenal.
Everybody that got off the ride loved it.
Okay.
People all around us did, uh, is, is there a, the, the, what is it?
The Jason Bourne experience?
So they did not have the Jason Bourne experience there.
Um, but they did have a water world, uh, experience there, which is probably pretty similar where
(10:56):
it's that live action stunt show type of environment.
Um, we did not actually end up going to water world.
We got to about one or two o'clock in the afternoon.
We had rode everything that we wanted to do multiple times if we wanted to.
And we were just kind of, because we were there for early entry, we came all the way
(11:18):
across to LA up to Hollywood.
Oh, wow.
And so we were basically up at five thirties to get there and then by two o'clock, everybody
was like, all right, I'm done.
Like we had gotten our fill.
Really?
Yeah.
I thought we were going to power through and in six hours you guys were done and we did
everything we wanted to do.
(11:39):
And then some, that's insane.
Well, I guess when you have, when you have little crowds, you can, it made it a little
easier.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We were just, I'm telling you, it was just even some of the, um, I don't know what they
call them, staff, not cast members, staff, staff.
They were like shocked at how slow it was that particular day.
(12:01):
So that would have been the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
Can you believe that?
Maybe that was a travel day for a lot of people.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
But it got me thinking.
So I wanted to ask you this question as I'm sitting there, I'm like going through this
and I'm like, this is, this is pretty entertaining.
This is pretty fun.
Like we were having a very enjoyable time.
And so I wanted to ask you the question.
(12:22):
It got me thinking while we were out there, what kind of impact do you think Epic Universe
and everything that it's going to bring to Orlando is going to have on Disney world and
the Disney, you know, right now Disney's big brother out there in Orlando, I think.
But do you think the tides are turning and Universal is going to overthrow Disney world
(12:50):
as the premier place to visit in Orlando when people go to visit?
That's a question that we have been discussing off.
Offline.
Offline.
Off air for a long time.
Yeah.
Because Epic Universe has been announced a couple of years ago.
They have built it fairly quickly compared to how slow Disney builds things.
(13:12):
Although I think Disney with the recent announcements of some of their park enhancements, it's
sounds like they're going to pick up the pace a little bit.
It took it took five years to build Tron.
So I've heard some conspiracy theories on that.
I don't know how much I believe them.
But basically what I've heard is the delays are to help with the budget.
(13:37):
So what I mean by that is if if I have a crew and I only have to pay that crew X amount
of dollars because they're only going to do X amount of work, then it only hits my line
item budget for that amount.
But if I power through and I get every crew out there from the concrete guys to the Erector
(13:59):
Set guys that are building the actual tracks to the electronic guys that are bringing in
all the digital stuff, you're just pumping money into this.
Again, who knows how true that is.
They basically hold off on getting the permits for the next phase of work to keep their numbers
(14:19):
and their costs low.
I can imagine if you were building a house and you said, OK, we're just going to hold
off on having the electricians come out till next month because we don't want to pay for
them this month.
Well, that's true.
That's garbage.
I think so.
That's I mean, that's that I'm not sure how much I believe.
Yeah.
And conspiracy theory.
Welcome to the podcast.
Yeah, we've we've really shied away from conspiracy theories.
(14:42):
But, you know, with Disney, they're a big company.
You know, like I was saying, they it seems like these projects that are coming up in
Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios with Monsters Land, Monsters Inc.
Land, it looks like they're going to be getting those going fairly soon and completing them
within the next two to five years.
(15:05):
So here's my thought on your on your original question with Epic Universe.
So I think from an outsider's point of view, it may appear and it may look like Epic Universe
is going to make a dent into Disney's market share in that area.
And I think, you know, I think we could do an entire episode on sure on this particular
(15:29):
topic, but I think we're not that smart.
I don't want to say we're not that smart, but I think there's a lot of there's a lot
of details that go that go into that.
But I will say this, I think, you know, Disney recently released their their full year or
their fiscal year earnings in their Q4 earnings.
And there was a lot of information that came out of that that really kind of shed some
(15:54):
light on what Disney thinks about Universal.
And one thing that's so their CFO was his name, Hugh Johnston, I believe.
I think it's Hugh Johnston.
He was asked this question.
What is really what is what do you guys think about Universal's Epic Universe and is it
going to make an impact?
(16:14):
So that was part of the invention.
This is how dorky I am.
I listen to the investors call, which I don't even own a Disney stock.
But I want to hear because this is where they really kind of get into some of those nitty
gritty details, right.
And one of the investors that ask that question, hey, Mr. Johnson, what do you think of Epic
Universe?
What does it mean to have an impact to Disney?
(16:37):
And his response was and I think his response was very it was very short, like, oh, yeah,
you know, we recognize that, you know, they're expanding their parks.
But what we have seen in the past is that when a park opens up around one of our properties,
we actually see an increase in capacity.
We see an increase in attendance with our park because they're already coming to the
(17:00):
area.
Right.
And listen, I think people, some people want to see Disney fall.
Sure.
They want to see Disney fail, you know, and we don't get into that.
We don't get into the politics of all of that.
We're here because we're happy.
We love Disney for what it is, for all of their mistakes and failures and for what the
(17:20):
joy they bring to all of us.
We just love Disney.
So I think you can get into them to kind of the nitty gritty of that.
But you know what he was saying?
It was like, no, yeah, we're going to see, you know, they're going to open up this park
next year, I think May 22nd, I think we're going to see an influx of people because they're
going to be coming to the central Florida area to visit this new park.
(17:43):
And we still have the market share.
Like we're still the big brother on campus.
They released their earnings.
They're doing just fine.
Like attendance, attendance was a little flat, especially overseas.
Actually, they lost attendance with some of the Asian resorts domestically.
(18:04):
They were up about one percent.
Spending was up, though, domestically.
They made a ton of money.
Finally, the movie side of the business made a ton of money last year.
And we've talked about the parks carrying the entire Disney Corporation for years.
They're starting to see a dent that Disney Plus actually made made money.
(18:28):
They're putting a dent into that initial investment.
Inside Out 2, Wolverine and Deadpool, both billion dollar movies.
Like Disney's doing just fine.
So when Epic Universe opens up, they're going to say, hey, we're here too.
And they're going to get all those same people that are going to Epic Universe.
(18:49):
That's what I think there's a saying out there that a rising tide lifts all boats.
And so you like that philosophy.
Welcome to the podcast.
And I think that that's true.
I think that you are going to see an initial that initial bump of attendance.
(19:12):
Absolutely.
Everybody's going to want to go see and experience Epic Universe.
There's no question about it.
Some of the things that they've released are very exciting.
But I think you'll see that same lift when Disney starts like you alluded to, when Disney
starts dropping some of their D23 announcements and those things start coming online, you'll
(19:33):
see a bump in Disney's attendance.
So I just think there's always going to be this back and forth between Disney and Universal.
It's inevitable.
They're the two big kids on the block and they want to outdo each other.
And the great thing about that is that we come out the winners, right?
So we get to experience all that and be the winners.
(19:53):
I have a conspiracy theory for you.
Here we go.
Since we opened up that Pandora's box already, I was thinking the other day, I'm like, you
know, what if what if the Disney executives, what if this was a calculated move on their
part to not announce these projects until Epic Universe got close to opening because
(20:13):
of what they said in their earnings call that, hey, we know we're going to get attendance
from Epic Universe.
So why do we need to start investing all of the because they announced a couple of years
ago they're going to invest 60 billion dollars into the parks.
And that's another thing that came out of the investors calls that we're starting to
(20:34):
see a lot of that investment.
But what if they said, hey, let's like let's let Epic Universe spend the money right now
and we're going to get the benefit of that for about a year, maybe a year and a half.
And then we open up our new projects so we don't lose any of that that possible attendance
by opening up a new land or a new a new attraction during the same time that Epic Universe is
(21:02):
opening up.
Now, I could be way off on that.
That could be a dumb conspiracy, but I don't know.
I mean, you brought it up.
Conspiracy.
Well, I mean, listen, Disney, if you've ever been to Disney, you know that they really
try to get into the mind of the consumer.
They send you surveys.
They try to talk to you at the park.
(21:23):
There's cast members walking around with little iPads.
Hey, do you have five minutes to take a survey?
Every time you get back from a trip, you'll probably get an email.
Hey, Mr. Mr. Dac, Mr. Ryan, how was your trip?
Do you have 10 minutes for a survey?
You know, and every now and then I get a survey in my email, you know, just because, like
I'm on their mailing list or what?
(21:44):
So, you know, they're trying to they're always trying to figure out what do our what do our
consumers want?
Well, I'll be curious.
And this will kind of bring us back to my trip discussion and what we experienced there.
I will be curious to see to what level Epic Universe is as far as quality and entertainment
(22:09):
and immersiveness and the story and everything that Disney does so well.
The reason why I'm saying that right now is because as wonderful as it was, the low crowds,
the different experience of going to Universal Studios Hollywood, there was still.
It still felt like the B team.
(22:31):
And what I mean by that is like the food quality was just a little bit less than what you experience
at Disney.
Well than what we experienced at Disneyland the very next day.
Right.
So we had a day to day comparison.
We started at Universal then the very next day.
So on Monday, we go to Disneyland, get to experience all the food options there and
(22:54):
everything that they have to offer.
You get to experience the rides and the immersion of the story and the and everything we had
felt or experienced before.
We've been to Disneyland a couple of different times now, but it still felt more better.
I don't know how else to say it.
It just felt a little bit better than or the experience was a little bit better than what
(23:19):
the universal experience was.
The technology, everything like it just felt.
I don't know.
It just seemed more and that goes back.
It's a cultural thing.
It's been that way since Walt started Disneyland.
And what did he tell his wife?
Oh, Walt, who's going to want to come?
Nobody's going to want to come to your parks.
I mean, because when he came up with the idea of Disneyland, you know, all that was around
(23:41):
were those traveling fairs that were dirty and scummy and, you know, people.
And that's what his wife was concerned about.
Walt, aren't you concerned about your park becoming one of those?
And what did he say?
No, my park is going to be the cleanest.
It's going to be the nicest.
It's going to be the friendliest.
That's been the culture ever since.
And if you've gone to Six Flags, if you've gone to SeaWorld, if you've gone to Universal,
(24:04):
there is something just missing.
Disney has the IP to they've got the intellectual property.
They've got the movies and the characters from 70, 80, 90 years ago that play a huge
role in creating that atmosphere.
Not to take away what Universal's done, because I think Universal, they have Harry Potter,
which again, that's a big that's a huge IP.
(24:25):
Yeah.
But could you name five IP at Universal off the top of your head?
I mean, not long term ones, but they're all recent ones.
So you have like Dominions, you have Harry Potter.
OK, you have three more.
Jurassic Park was big there.
Yeah.
Trying to think what else?
(24:47):
I mean, the Simpsons, but now the Simpsons are owned by Disney.
I think there's just some licensing.
Yeah, that's just a licensing issue.
Yeah.
But I get what you're saying.
And I think that that's the argument that someone would make against me, which I'm open
to to, you know, listening to and having that discussion is like, well, yeah, of course,
there's a nostalgic factor that Disney has that Universal just can't replace.
(25:09):
Right.
But it just overall, everything you just mentioned before, the culture, the cleanliness, the
food quality, the, you know, the experience itself of actually filling the magic.
Right.
I just think that Disney brought that it was just a tier or two higher than the Universal
experience was the day before.
(25:31):
Now, what I haven't gotten into yet is that Disneyland was incredibly busy.
I was very encouraged on Sunday experiencing what we experienced at Universal only to have
my world shattered when we got to Disneyland on Monday, because it was much busier than
(25:52):
what I expected.
And I will also say that and this will bring up another maybe question to throw out at
you is like I was this is now the second or third trip in a row where I felt some serious
spending fatigue when it came to Disney.
(26:14):
So my wife and I were kind of just looking at each other one, one and one of the hours
during our trip or days during our trip.
And we're just like, I'm tired of spending money right now.
Like I'm going nuts.
Well, if you just stopped buying churros and Mickey ice cream, that's what it was.
So we had so there was six of us.
Right.
And our family of five plus our niece that made six.
(26:35):
We did that on purpose so that we could have writers with them for sure.
Yeah.
And but I mean, by the time we stayed on site, so that obviously has a cost.
Now, we could have chosen to stay at a VRBO when dealt with all that.
But I'm just saying for for the argument of what how much Disney costs stayed on site.
(26:55):
I'm not going to tell you the number of per night costs, but it was significant.
Right.
Because you stayed at the Disneyland State at the Disneyland Hotel.
Look it up.
It's not cheap.
It is not cheap.
You know, when you stay on site, you're almost forced to eat at the parks or in the surrounding
(27:15):
area.
I mean, we were easily spending I will share this number, we were easily spending anywhere
between three and five hundred dollars a day on food, which when you say it sounds outrageous.
To me, even just saying it right now, I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth.
(27:36):
But it's true.
Right.
By the time you get breakfast for six individuals, breakfasts were averaging fifteen to twenty
dollars per person.
Right.
You get a few snacks throughout the day.
Everybody wants their own snack.
We try to we try to say, no, we're going to get two snacks and everybody's going to get
a little taste.
Well, that never works.
(27:57):
It never works.
It never works.
Then you have lunch.
That's another 20 bucks a person.
You have dinner, more snacks.
So it just it just ended up adding up so significantly that after our two days at Disney, we were
completely fatigued financially.
(28:18):
Right.
Like we just we didn't want to spend money on anything.
Poor girls on the way home are like, can we get some snacks for the plane?
We're like, no, we have peanuts.
Yeah.
It's just overwhelming.
And and and so that's my question is.
And I'll share one more example just to kind of deepen my point is we had a buddy of ours
(28:42):
texting us and he's thinking about taking his family.
It's him, his wife, two children.
I think they're all under the age of four or five.
Right.
And he was like, is this right?
One day at Disney World for my son is two hundred and fifty dollars.
And you and I both were like, no way.
(29:03):
Like, no, that's not impossible.
That's impossible.
But then we started to look up the ticket costs.
And sure enough, right.
Like the the tier pricing that they have set up at Disney World ended up being like a hundred.
It was for one day, though.
So it helps to add more.
It was a one day with the park hopper.
One day with a park hopper was two hundred and fifty dollars for his five year old son
(29:29):
to go the week of spring break, which again, there's some factors there as far as you're
going one of the busiest times.
Disney World does the tier pricing.
So you're going to pay extra for some of those things.
Their tier pricing is not that tiered.
No.
And I'll let you finish with that.
So my final point is, is Disney World getting to the point where it's pricing out people
(29:54):
from being able to go?
OK, so.
Sorry.
So here's my deal.
So going back to will Epic Universe affect Disney?
So I will tell I'll share this.
So we've been kicking around the idea of getting our universal passes back.
(30:16):
The cough deck deck's got a cough.
We don't have a cough button on this.
So we've been thinking about getting our universal passes back.
And when you start doing the math.
So for our family of five to get is pretty much it's not universal's basic pass.
It's like their second or third tier, which gives you the free parking.
(30:39):
It was about twenty two to twenty three hundred bucks a year for my family of five.
For all of you.
All of us.
OK.
And what's great about about about universal is they let you pay as you go.
You put a down payment down and then you pay a monthly monthly fee.
Right.
Which again, it helps maybe psychologically.
(31:01):
Yeah.
You know, you're not throwing down twenty four hundred bucks all at once.
You're putting down maybe twelve hundred bucks and then you're paying a hundred bucks a month
going forward.
So then we started kicking.
OK.
So kids, what do you what do you want for Christmas?
We want to go to.
We want to go to Disney, you know.
Well, what about, you know, we universal to I mean, maybe universal annual passes or let's
(31:27):
look at what Disney is going to cost.
Obviously, annual passes at Disney for our family of five is about sixty five hundred
bucks.
Yeah.
No payment plan.
It's straight fifty hundred bucks per person for the year.
So that's out of the question.
Well, all right.
So how about a week at Disney?
Spring break for our family of five.
(31:51):
Spring break.
No lodging on site.
No airfare.
Nothing.
Just the tickets is about twenty four hundred bucks.
Wow.
So for the same price as an entire year at Universal, we can go four days at Disney.
Yeah.
(32:11):
So you start looking at that.
You start looking at those numbers and kind of factoring in, hey, three to four trips
to Universal over the next year or four to five days over spring break.
Not park hopping.
You kind of start to see, OK, this is where Universal really does have the upper hand.
(32:33):
Yeah.
So I think going forward, I think this is where Disney may lose some customers if they're
trying to decide between a Universal trip or a Disney trip or Universal annual passes.
And I've seen the blog post, a lot of posting on social media.
Yeah.
I mean, with the Epic Universe opening up, I'm going to drop my Disney World annual pass
(32:58):
and I'm going to get the Universal annual pass because it's half as expensive.
Yeah.
And it's tough because again, you have this deep.
Well, I'll just speak for myself.
I have this deep rooted love of going to Disney and enjoying the parks.
But it's really gotten again, this last trip really hit home again.
(33:18):
It's like, wow, I don't know how many more times we can afford to go as an entire family
to Disney.
And so it may just have to be one off trips with one of my daughters, two of my daughters,
my wife and some daughters.
So anyways, I just.
And don't forget your guys trips.
(33:39):
And guys trips, right?
Yeah.
Very important.
That's right.
So again, I don't know.
It just felt overwhelming.
And don't ask me this question in June because I'll probably be like hungry, dying to go.
I feel like you have these thoughts every time you get back from Disney is that, man,
that was freaking expensive.
I'm not going to go back for a long time.
Then it's like, hey, I'm thinking about going to Disney.
(34:02):
Right.
Yeah.
It's like it's a drug, right?
It's like you got to have it, but you understand that there's a cost that comes with it.
And you know, I don't want to throw.
I'm just coming up with all kinds of little sayings.
I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water here.
Right.
And what I mean by that is Disney is, in my opinion, a higher quality product.
(34:25):
Right.
And I'm willing to pay in other areas of my life for nicer things if I feel like those
things warrant the cost.
Right.
I think everybody feels that way to some certain extent.
Right.
Like you're just you're willing to pay a little bit more for a higher quality item, whatever
it is, food, vehicle, whatever.
(34:46):
Right.
And so I think Disney is definitely in that bucket for me.
And it checks a lot of my emotional and fun and magic and all those boxes.
But man, it's getting tough.
It's getting tougher and tougher to justify, especially when you start looking at what
we could go to an all inclusive, you know, Cancun trip or island trip.
(35:12):
And again, to your point, one week at Disney or half that much for a week in an all inclusive
resort somewhere.
So anyways, I know a few episodes ago, well, several episodes ago, we did a five lies you
don't want to know that aren't true about Disney.
(35:32):
Yeah, five lies you should not believe about Disney.
Yeah.
And one of them was that it's too expensive.
So we don't want to go against that.
But it's it's teetering.
Right.
And again, I think but I think everybody does this.
Right.
They go and you're there and you're like, yeah, let's get it.
You know, you just get into that mode.
And I think when we did that episode, I the lie is, is that it is too expensive.
(35:57):
It is expensive, but you can make it cheap.
Sure.
You can't just stay in offsite by by bringing in your own snacks.
You don't have to eat at the park.
Right.
Obviously, you can't do anything about the ticket price or how you get there.
That's going to be a fixed cost.
Yeah.
But everything once you're there, the food, the lodging, you can make it cheap.
But and you can use some discretion, right?
(36:18):
Like we were going hog wild, like clearly, clearly, because we're spending that much
on food today, which is absurd.
Right.
A weekly grocery bill in a day.
Right.
And so, you know, you just have to have a little bit of self discipline, like you said,
maybe maybe bring in or Amazon in some some snacks or stuff like that.
(36:40):
So there's a way to get around it.
But boy, it just felt like a big, big gut punch a couple of times on that trip.
Well, hey, we got a few minutes.
OK, give us the highlights of Disneyland.
Highlights of Disneyland was just again.
Dude, you were sending me text messages and pictures and I was like, I wanted to.
(37:03):
So we were there.
So we were there, obviously, during the Christmas season.
Some of our highlights at Disneyland were, you know, the lighting of Small World.
That is just absolutely magical.
I would one thousand percent, you know, suggest experiencing that.
Haunted Mansion was still with the overlay of Jack Skellington and all of that.
(37:27):
That was wonderful and fun.
And they've got the new queue that's open.
They got the new queue that's open.
It's a lot really awesome.
Yeah, you sent me a picture of your Monte Cristo.
Yeah, the Monte Cristo is still just as good as ever.
So it was just it was just a lot of fun.
And again, I just I can't tell you how much of the magic and the experience and everything
(37:55):
that you get at Disney that just doesn't seem to be.
I can't replicate it anywhere else.
And so that's at the end of the day, we're talking about costs.
At the end of the day, that's how I justify the cost is that just it's so fun.
Like it's just so magical.
You're right, dude.
I would let you go to Universal and walk out with your family feeling the same way that
(38:18):
you do after you had just seen, you know, happily ever after fireworks, right?
Walking out with your family and everybody's you know, everybody's got that Disney tired
look on them, but they're like, oh, this was the best show.
This was a perfect day.
Like Universal, it's a theme park, you know, and they do it really well.
Universal above everybody else except Disney.
(38:40):
They do it really well.
They've got great attraction.
They've got great shows.
It's a you know, it's a fairly it's a clean park.
I think the food is even a little pricier than you.
Oh, it is.
And it's I don't think it's as good.
No, actually a little disappointed with the three three broomsticks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So well, I'll give you my perfect example is I have a co-worker.
(39:01):
She's texting me tonight and she's texting me because her daughter is doing a solo trip
at Disney World right now.
And she's sending me pictures of like Tron and the castle all lit up and happily ever
after going on and I'm thinking, man, I wish I was there.
So that that's it.
Right.
It's like to your point, here I am complaining about it and the cost and this and that.
(39:23):
But the minute I get a text from someone that's there, I'm like, wait, man, I wish I was there.
Like I don't feel that way about anything else.
Right.
There's nothing else that makes me be like, yeah, it's so this or that.
Well, yeah, I'll go.
And what does Randy always say?
You got to manage expectations.
If you go in knowing that you're going to throw down six grand for your for your Disney
(39:44):
trip, then that's what you're just going to do.
Yeah.
And just expect it's going to happen.
And if it rains every day, well, that's part of the managing.
You go to the rainy day parade.
Yep.
You just get wet.
So that's right.
You know, I'm jealous that you went to.
I mean, it's not funny.
(40:04):
Like no matter how many times you go, whenever you hear about someone else going, there's
a little tinge of jealousy.
Like, man, I wish I was there.
You know, and to all the people out there that have not gone to Disneyland, like I was
one of the skeptics, you know, obviously you walk down Main Street and you see the castle
and you're like, where's the rest of it?
But I mean, the magic is every bit the same that you find at Disney World, even at some
(40:30):
times it's probably a little bit more because this is where Walt walked.
Yeah.
Like this was Walt's Park.
So I'm full on hooked on Disneyland.
Yeah, it was great.
It was great.
I the weather until you've been to Disneyland and feel like comparing it to Disney World,
(40:50):
like you have to go to Disney World like in February for three weeks or November and December
to get that same weather that you can get in California, 365.
Yeah.
So anyway, it's great.
Yeah.
Well, man, this was fun.
Yeah, it was fun.
(41:10):
Yeah.
Thanks for taking me back down, down the trip lane there.
It was great trip.
I loved it.
And well, so can't wait to go again.
So our next trip will probably be our guys trip.
Yeah.
You know, we've done two already this year.
I'm not sure when we're going to go back.
No.
Yeah.
I think that's the warning of you better take me somewhere before you go with your buddies.
(41:34):
I'm kind of in that same boat like two trips to Disney in a year.
It'll probably be.
I don't want to say I turn 50 late next year.
Let's do that.
You just say that on air, dude.
Oh, my gosh.
You're old.
Yeah, I'm sold.
Yeah, we'll do that.
(41:55):
Well, hey, guys, appreciate you being with us today.
Hey, if you social media, go on, find us on Facebook, find us on TikTok.
TikTok may not be around for a few months, but we try to post things on Instagram, Facebook
and TikTok every now and then.
Give us a follow, like some of our posts.
We try to put some plenty of things out there.
(42:16):
But again, more importantly, share this with your friends, share with your families.
Give us a rating.
It helps the podcast grow.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks everyone.
We'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.